hand works and the amana colonies

in early may, pete spent three weeks on a ship in the middle of the atlantic collecting sediment from the bottom of the ocean. when he finished his work, we rendezvoused in des moines, iowa. my sister steph and brother-in-law david are in des moines, but the impetus for our visit was an event happening in amana, iowa. as a scientist, i attend plenty of conferences/workshops/other nerd gatherings and pete occasionally travels with me...usually when they are someplace cool (e.g., scotland last summer). this was the first time i accompanied him for his version of a nerd gathering - hand works. this was the second hand works event drawing the hand tool woodworking community to amana, iowa. 

pete started working with hand tools in earnest a few years ago after taking a class from one of his childhood favorites, roy underhill. as a result, our hodgepodge of craigslist furniture is being replaced with pete's beautiful creations. there isn't much of a hand tool community around santa cruz so the gathering in amana was a chance for pete to talk to the people he reads and watches videos from online, try out new tools, and purchase some of the ones he has been eyeing for months. while pete ogled tools, i explored amana - a german colony established in the 1800s. 

 collection of hand planes

pete trying a travisher (a tool used 

to form the scooped seat in a wooden chair)

 a happy pete

 roy underhill delivering a thoroughly entertaining keynote address

 collection of molding planes

 may poles in amana

 woolen mill - still in operation

 old windmill

waiting area at one of the german restaurants in amana

the other bonus of hand works this year was the display of the studley tool cabinet in nearby cedar rapids. for those of you like me who have never heard of this thing, it is a tool cabinet of beauty, created by h.o. studley in the late 1800s. the tool cabinet has been in a private collection since studley died and has only been seen by the public for a very short time in the 1980s when it was displayed at the smithsonian museum. the current owner agreed to let a former curator at the smithsonian photograph the chest, write a book about it, and display the chest for the weekend. every tool has a very defined space, it opens like a transformer, and is a work of art. studley was a piano maker and these are the tools he used in his trade. the photos do not really do it justice...

 some of the compartments opened

don williams, the man who arranged all of this, 

telling us about the tool cabinet and studley

in addition to the show, we spent some time with family in des moines. my mom and i were left to our own devices for the better part of a day so we explored some sites around des moines, including the always lovely botanic garden, the salisbury house (a house modeled after a 15th century manor in england that is now part museum, art gallery, concert venue, and botanic garden), and the sculpture park. 

 spectacular bronze horse at the sculpture park

(i cannot believe it is not drift wood!)

 the thinker, hare style

 steinway grand piano at the salisbury house - 

one of the few with intricate carving on the box

they don't make doors like they used to...

adelaide, australia

i was invited to participate in a workshop in adelaide, australia, based on some work i did at the center for ocean solutions a few years ago. after much agonizing over the trip, i decided to go. as expected for a seven day trip, i spent more time on planes and in airports (~55 hours) than i did in the actual workshop (~25 hours). but i got to meet some great people, felt like i contributed to the process, and learned a lot, so in the end i was happy i went. 

i did manage to see a few other things than the inside of a conference room...the botanic garden when i arrived (to stave off jet lag), the beach every morning, and a couple of wineries in mclaren vale to round out the trip. and kangaroos. hopping around. marsupials are crazy cool. and definitely not on my radar of commonly thought of things. for example, one night at dinner we were talking about roos and their populations and such. one guy told a story about accidentally hitting one with his car (they essentially take the place of deer in the ecosystem so run-ins with cars happen pretty frequently). he got out of the car to check on the roo, which unfortunately was dead. the next part totally caught me off guard - he checked her pouch to make sure there were no babies in there. right. marsupial. babies on board. crazy. 

 adelaide botanic garden

rainbow lorikeets playing in the fountain

random field surrounded by scarecrows at the gardens

giant water lily with some serious spikes!

ferris wheel in glenelg, the seaside suburb we stayed in

 the pier in glenelg...and the start of my run every morning

chapel hill winery in mclaren vale - yum!

 eucalyptus trees where they are meant to be...

diving for fun?!

at the beginning of february, our friend, and my former field assistant "the rock," wanted to know if we wanted to go diving...for fun. the last couple of years my diving has consisted primarily of diving in the strait of juan de fuca in washington for work, monitoring the effects of millions of tonnes of sediment on salty critters. as a result of that sediment, it is not the most interesting diving. i usually finish my algae transects in about three minutes and write a giant zero across the datasheet. sometimes i don't see anything at all because all the light has been absorbed by the incredibly turbid river plume. pete's diving has been more limited in recent years, so we jumped on the opportunity to get in the water in the lovely monterey bay. to be clear, we could go diving on our own any weekend, but sometimes you need a little push to get out the door.

we met kate and her mom at lover's point in monterey, a favorite dive site for algae lovers (me and kate). we only did one dive, but it was a long and lovely one. the highlights were baby seastars (good to see after the sea star wasting disease swept through the area) nudibranchs (including the hopkins rose, which is usually found much further south but warm water has brought them north), and my beloved giant kelp.

 abalone tucked in tight

 anemone

 a pretty little hopkins rose nudibranch

 a sea lemon nudibranch

and a healthy sea star 

january extremes

january found us moving from one extreme to another. we left sunny and 70 degree california early in the month to arrive in minnesota on the coldest day of the year (at that point; -30 degree F windchill). i spent very little time outside of my mom's house because i was curled up in a ball on the floor with a nasty, nasty cold-flu bug. miraculously no one else in the house caught whatever i had (perhaps thanks to the liter of hand sanitizer?). i was able to make it out of bed for "christmas" dinner and a bit of time with the family. 

only three tries this year to get everyone looking

and smiling (mostly) at the camera...

mischief x 4

from minnesota we flew to puerta vallarta, mexico, for another 100 degree temperature change. we met friends in sayulita, a little village about an hour north of pv. pete's counterpart at work turned 40 at the end of 2014 and wanted to celebrate in style. we rented a house near the beach, played in the ocean every day, and warmed up after MN. my aunt was in the same area for vacation, so we got to meet up, which was great. we love our family, but mexico is a way better place to hang out in january than minnesota!! 

 the beach at san francisco, mexico

 instant farmers market

sayulita town