brewing update

The specific gravity on my clone Saison Dupont finally dropped to 1.010 - so it's ready to bottle! Now I have to forget about it for another few months while it carbonates & matures. yummm

no funny stuff

Okay, I'm a huge fan of the Big Lebowski - if you haven’t noticed our voodoo crown logo was inspired by the bowling alley scenes from the movie. Occasionally I’ll blurt out lines, or a funny scene pops into my head... it makes me laugh, other people laugh??? - not so much. Anyway, my plan to be super productive this past weekend was crushed. Not by a Big Lebowski movie marathon (though I did spend one evening watching Magnolia for the umpteenth time) - but I got sidetracked by the amazing temps in Flagstaff on Sunday. What's a girl to do? Well Rox & I had a great idea - let's rent snowshoes and hike out to the Priest Draw for some limestone bouldering! Heck, why not buy a sled and teach Rox’s dog Champ to pull my little dog Sue along (Sue has powerful little legs but tires easily on the long distance adventures, in the cycling world she‘s the green jersey). Cabin fever will force you into such plans - what a fun day. The gang at Peace Surplus hooked us up with snow shoes & a snow sled! This was my first attempt at snowshoeing & now I really want the Kahtoola flight deck - snowshoeing is soooooo muuuuuch fuuuuun! Before we were able to get our party started at the Draw we had to dig ourselves out of the snow. Yup we got stuck in the muck. While driving along and chatting, the first thought in my head as we hit the Priest Draw turnoff was - “Ryan drove his VW van out here last weekend, surely my 4wd jeep cherokee can make it“… then reality hit, …. it snowed yesterday…. aaaahhhh! Rox had similar thoughts and we both chimed at about the same time - “we should turn around… yes, turn around!” We couldn’t - we were stuck! Rox & I figured we could get out with some effort & luck - so we went to work. Rox was pulling out rocks, branches, car mats, you name it, it was under the wheels. Sometimes it looked like it was going to work then another wheel would spin - the wheels kept on spinning - we tried more rocks from the muddy puddles down the road - I thought we should call AAA but Rox was not ready to surrender - so I decided to go looking around the neighborhood for a shovel. A really nice guy (Michael) let me borrow his. He added I should come back if we couldn’t get the car out. We shoveled our little hearts out (ask Rox, I’m really good at shoveling - I don‘t know why, but I really like it) We finally got the Jeep to move… not very far - and just as we got the car moving Michael drives up - he was worried because it had been a while since I borrowed his shovel. He was great - he used his truck to pull us out the rest of the way - thank goodness we had an old climbing rope in the jeep! I promised Michael homemade chocolate chip cookies & beer ;-) After our mini epic we were soooooo tired, but decided we had to go out & play - after all that work you can‘t just go home. We tried to get the dogs to sled - but Rox & I ended up doing most of the sledding. Once we got to the triangle boulder we ditched our crash pads and decided we only had energy for snow shoeing & sledding… here are some pics from our Sunday adventure. Lots of laughs… No funny stuff…

Sue takes off ahead, she's not liking the idea of riding behind Champ

Rox & the pups

Rox on the sled

Rox trying to get into position

Rox & the pups sledding

me cracking up ;-)

snow, printing & new stuff

It's snowing again here in Flagstaff - it's beautiful... but no outdoor climbing for me - looks like a plastic weekend & I don't mean playing with Barbies. Frank is in Tucson for the Old Pueblo 24 hour mountain bike ride, he entered the solo single speed category - his idea of fun. I bailed on being his support crew at the last minute & decided to stay home, print some tees, list some new chalk bags, chalk buckets, totes & shovel the driveway. I listed the new tees at $5 each - a screaming deal on really nice tee shirts! Take a look at my handy work New VooDoo Tees also check out our new Chalk Buckets , Chalk Bags & over 12 new fabrics for our super cute Tote Bags
Keep checking in over the next few days - my goal is to have everything posted, printed etc... by Tuesday. The VooDoo Crown Logo tees will be listed soon!

everybody needs an orange skull chalk bucket, well - maybe only one person since that's all I have in stock ;-) The other is headed to the Ozark Bouldering Gym for their upcoming competition.

sooooo cute & cozy, I'm wearing one right now!

highball

I’ve been asking around for feedback & photos of our crash pads in action for a new “voodoo user” page I’m working on. I was talking to Kevin Daniels of Fixe Hardware in Bishop CA & begged him to let me blog about him. He told me he used 6 pads for this ascent (three of them were voodoo highball 5000s) He got his own 5000 after he fell from 30 feet and walked away!
Check out Kevin on the second ascent of Flight of The Bumble Bee.

climbing at jack's

A few shots of what Flagstaff's been looking like for the past couple of weeks. Tough to think about climbing outdoors with the chilly temps & our Tues / Thurs "RyKwondo" workouts leave us all feeling pretty beat. This weekend we rallied and headed to Jack’s Canyon for a fun day of outdoor gym climbing & sunshine!

Frank shoveling out the shop

our driveway

Red loving the ice

Jack's approach

Marguerite sending

Yoga

I went to my first Bikram Yoga Class with Rox on Friday. She's been loving the class & the awesome instructor - so I finally committed. I've been scared to try it because everyone calls it "hot yoga" & I don't do well in the heat (that's why I live at 7000ft) - but in between making faces at each other and giggling, I made it through the 90 minutes. I was sure this was my first and my last class. Then a miraculous thing happened: I was tired, relaxed, loose and at peace. Both my brain and my body were calm - Fabulous!... not crunchy!