Monday, June 27, 2011

Other Columbia Paper Photos


Sheep shearing extraordinaire at the Chancellor's Sheep and Wool Festival at Clermont State Historic Site. A man who is from Plymouth, VT, where I lived in AmeriCorps. Turns out it's the same guy who taught me how to drive horses at the cheese festival at the Coolidge State Historic Site when we volunteered for an ISP! Very cool dude. His horses were the best.



Boarder Collie demonstration at the Chancellor's Sheep and Wool Festival at Clermont State Park.



Hudson's Rampfest 2011.




Jazzish jug band from Brooklyn. Don't remember what they were called... hmm.



Hudson's Rampfest 2011.



Germantown Clippers Vs. Hudson Bluehawks non-league game. In a situation such as this I'm not sure who to root for, but the Bluehawks ended up dominating this game.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Columbia County Lovin'

Photos from my day (read below... technology confuses and frustrates me):




I can't exactly put my finger on it, but I've this itch to write lately. I've had an itch to do many things, but so far March has been devoid of any excitement, work, driving, money, etc. And unfortunately, it's hard to scratch most itches without the $$$. Sleeping late, sitting around watching Netflix, and drinking coffee until my stomach rots outs are activities that I want nothing to do with for at least, well, a couple weeks anyway. Today marks a revolution in the world of Kristen though. Or perhaps it's an evolution? Today I go from having zero jobs to speak of, to having THREE. Landscaping full-time, Sunday brunch at Red Dot, and doing freelance photo for the Columbia Paper. I suggest you check it out. After the corporation that published the Independent went bankrupt in 2009 (upon my entrance to a year of hard work and harder drinking that was AmeriCorps) my ex-coworkers decided to fight the good fight and start up their own local paper. They've worked their way up from the bottom, and now have an office in Chatham, where I'm sure my editor consumes many gummi treats. Who can blame her? I recently read a quote on someone's FaceBook profile (I forget who exactly it was I was stalking) which said "If I could marry a Sour Patch Kid, I would". I couldn't agree more.

So anyway, my gummi-loving editor sent me out to take pictures of people doing "Spring-like activities" this weekend. Yesterday I opted to watch back-to-back-to-back-to-back episodes of Californication rather than go outside and enjoy the unusual 65 degree weather with everyone else in NY State. I decided I would go out today instead. Well, as it turns out I should have checked weather.com because it's currently 45 and there are no people outside doing ANYTHING. I did see this, however:

On my way to Palatine Park in Germantown (where I again, found no one besides one kid in what appeared to be Jnco jeans playing basketball and two hooded figures watching him fail at life) I put my social anxiety on the back burner and decided to stop at Fog and Thistle Farm, a CSA on 9G. Can I tell you how much respect I have for farmers? Granted, I'm not sure how "local" these farmers are considering a saw a couple out-of-state plates in their driveway, but they're out there doing their thing. It's a blustery 45 degrees on a Saturday and they're the only ones, out of an hour-long round trip, who are out there getting their hands dirty. I worked on a CSA farm outside of Baltimore for a month and a half while I was in AmeriCorps and I can honestly say it was my least favorite month and a half out of my entire life. Yes, there were some good things that happened. Some great, unspeakable things, even... but living in the sweltering Anne Frank attic with four other females and waking up at 5 a.m. every day to dig up potatoes and squish bugs between my fingers is not my idea of fun. Also, we only had access to our kitchen (which was in a separate building) certain hours out of the day (hello starvation) and sometimes had to shower in that building as well because our tub never drained quite right. I think it was overwhelmed with potato dirt.

Did I mention I brought Lucy along with me today? I love her about just as much as I respect farmers... which is to say, as much as Charlie Sheen loves being a raving lunatic. Anyway, I would love to ramble on some more, but I must be getting to a very important spaghetti dinner. Actually, it's not important at all, but Ms. Gummi thinks it will make for great photos. This will certainly be interesting since it's in a church and #1 I hate being in churches in general and #2 I hate taking photographs in churches because of the extremely poor lighting and #3 I hate taking pictures of people eating, especially when I have to talk to them while they are eating too. At least it's spaghetti and not sloppy joes? After the spaghetti mess I plan on meeting up with my friend in need and consuming much alcohol at a house party with blinding lasers so that I can carry on the tradition of serving the fine people of Hudson Sunday brunch while I am still slightly impaired... or at least hungover to the point where the smell of coffee makes me want to vomit.

Monday, June 14, 2010

NEW ORLEANS, May-November 2009 CONT'D!

Goodbye NOLA, I heart you.

Me!

Casey installing a CFL.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

NEW ORLEANS, May-November 2009

Anna playing with the doggie of a family who recieved free CFLs!

No trespassing.

Roses.


Old turquoise house.

Mother Mary.

Another CFL recipient. Very nice man who acquired the car he was leaning on after Katrina. Apparently someone heard that he needed a car and donated it to him. He was very proud of it and was cleaning it when we arrived.

R.I.P daddy.

Train.

One of our light bulb recipients. She was very happy to have us. She also had an interesting Katrina story. All i can remember about it is that she was born in the house she was still living in, even after Katrina completely ruined it.

Nate installing an energy efficient light bulb (CFL) in the home of a Green Light New Orleans patron. We worked with them on our final NCCC round.

Big "K". Chalmette, perhaps? Somewhere in St. Bernard Parish, anyway.

Whitney at our Halloween party on Napoleon.

Thanks for the memories.

Angelo and Molly. New York friends in the Big Easy on Halloween weekend. Pretty awesome.

Anna and Nick at the parade.

Sunset before going out to the Mardi Gras-style Halloween parade.

I think this was taken out of the window of the van. Don't recall where it is, exactly.

Just an idea of the architectural genius Make It Right has going on in the Lower Ninth.

The landscape designer is sharing his agricultural vision with these Katrina victims, who are about to become proud homeowners.

The FEMA trailer of a man in the Lower Ninth Ward who lost his grand daughter and mother in Katrina's waters. There were shrines and grave stones set out for both of them on grass in front of the trailer. All that remains of their home is the foundation, which is located to the right of the trailer. The man had been living in the trailer for the past four years, and had just recently been hooked up with a beautiful brand new home through the Make It Right Foundation, which is fronted by Brad Pitt. We volunteered with them for the day and did a bunch of landscaping at the man's home and at many of his neighbors' homes too. The man's name is Robert Lynn Green Sr., and you can read his full story HERE! Watch the video- it's very moving..

Round 3: Towson, MD and Plymouth, VT

Coolidge Park staff helped us out a lot. Tammy made us hot, fresh pancakes and cookies on chilly VT mornings :)

The fruit of our labor. I carved the notches into the logs with a chain saw so that they would fit together nice and snug. Kind of like Lincoln Logs, really.

Vivian.

This was in the gift shop at the Calvin Coolidge Historic Site.


View from one of the campsites at Calvin Coolidge State Park in Plymouth, VT. We built a log cabin at this park, which will serve as their future Nature Center.

Casey and Anna.

Swimming hole we found outside of Baltimore. We worked (toiled) on an organic CSA farm while in Towson.

A couple more from Louisiana, and a couple from Summer break

Kate, July 2009, Woodstock, NY.

Camden, ME.
After our second spike in Thibodaux, LA, we had a couple weeks off for Summer break. During Summer break I took a solo road trip up to Maine for a couple days and got to see my best friend Kate while I was in NY!

Sweaty Matt.


Alligators love marshmellows. True story.

Grand Isle State Park and the bayou

Bayou gator tour.

The bayou got the best of this truck.

Everyone and then some.


Tina and Nate.

Dead crabbie.