Aslan Brewing Company (before and after)

The Brewhouse

Before

After

The Front House

Before

After

The Front House (kitchen Side)

Before

After

We received the keys to this building September 15, 2013. Gutted and retrofitted the building reusing as many materials as possible and opened our very own brewery and restaurant May 19, 2014. Visit us at 1330 N. Forest St. in Bellingham, WA! All of our beer is certified USDA organic and the food is unbelievable. Check us out online at aslanbrewing.com or at /aslanbrewing

Preparing for trench drains

CEO Jack Lamb finishing concrete

Jackhammering sandstone bedrock for the grease interceptor. Without this there would be no kitchen

Jackhammering concrete, making way for the underground plumbing and electrical

The front house view from the kitchen side

Watching the World Cup!

Ecuador Sessions: Work & Surf

After a solid two months in Colombia, (I only planned on spending a couple of weeks there originally) the last month spent almost entirely climbing, we were ready to thaw out a bit and stop the hemmoraging of the bank accounts. We got an email back confirming a work/trade option from one of the owners of a little restaurant in Canoa, Ecuador and decided to send it. 45 hours by bus and three days later we made it to the Pacific. We basically fell into another job working as horseback riding guides and Danny was able to line up a free bed and meal at the horse owner’s hostel in exchange for daily horse maintenance. Work at the Surf Shak was much more like hanging out at night and serving people food and drinks. I was also able to make a little extra cash helping out with the surf lessons during the day. I’ll let the photos explain the rest, they tend to do a better job.

Trosset & Maul Beach horseback guiding service… the horses are definitely stolen… we are far from certified.. all payments in beer please!

Full moon in Canoa

Beach and Boardwalk

Black and white version

Bonfire jam session

Bustling streets of Canoa

One of the many Ceviche stands, open when they feel like it.

Home. The Coco Loco

The Surf Shak (with the landcruiser parked out front); one of our places of employment

Howdy neighbor

Dano cruising the streets

Hammock life

Sleeping quarters

The Coco Loco

Surf Shak; Alex is stoked

Inside. Quite tranquilo in the mornings

You talkin’ to me dweeb?

After a couple weeks living and working in Canoa I decided to head South. I would have stayed for months but the surf was a little too inconsistent for my unhoned abilities. I wanted to get to a place called Ayampe that is just North of the famous surfer party town Montanita. Danny and I had talked to a couple restaurant/hostel places there on a surfboard buying mission around the 1st of the month and the waves had been pretty good. I wasn’t able to line up the original job I wanted but got hooked up in the next town North called Las Tunas. The waves have been much better and the owner is a real gent. It’s going to be very hard when it comes time to leave La Viejamar.

The Ceibo tree.

Waiting for surf in Ayampe

Downtown Ayampe… much more rustic, even than Canoa

More local architechture

Home at Viejamar

Rodrigo’s quiver

There might be some waves over that dune..

Beach in front of Viejamar

Rodrigo (owner of Viejamar) shredding

La piscina

Our beach cabana catching some evening rays

Typical evening at our break

The neighbor bros

Brotempole Ecuador style

Viejamar

The living room (down to the right) Rodrigo’s pad upstairs

Checking the waves from the balcony

Climbing in Colombia: Some Highlights

Here are some photo highlights from the climbing in December. The first week we spent in Suesca, just north of Bogota:

Danny & Freddy at the 3rd belay ledge

Danny on Cada Cada 5.10+

Scoping the scene

Catching some airtime

Freddy on Cada Cada

Clipping on some overhung traverse

Crux of Betty Blue 5.10+

Danny working on his iron cross

Trango: The lion dog, one of our adopted pets in Suesca

Doña Maria. Our favorite Colombian restaurant.

After Suesca we made a hainus 7 bus 2 day connect to Mesa De Los Santos. We spent a week climbing the canyon crag and exploring the surrounding area called La Mojarra:

Desert climbing

Danny going for the clip and scoping the impeding roof

Sebastian on the crux of La Vaca Loca 5.11a

Sebastian cruising

Danny with the clip. La Vaca Loca 5.11a

Roof to crimpers. Stoked.

Cruising

Tabacco drying hut in the bottom of the canyon

The cascada

Agriculture in the bottom of the canyon

From Mesa De Los Santos we took quite possibly the worst bus ride I have ever had. 9 hours on a dirt road winding up a mountain towards the Venezuelan border. Got stranded at 4am in a grimy town with no idea what was happening.. ended up catching another bus at 5am further south and then finally another at 7am direct to El Cocuy. One of the most scenic places I have ever been. Most definitely worth all of the effort, freezing cold temps, uncooked rice and lentils, lack of gear, semi frost bitten toes, thrashed hands and general lack of oxygen. There is plenty of video footage to edit but photos will have to do for now:

Alejandro and Jenny. First basecamp was pitched at their farm

Danny aclimitizing and making friends with the locals

Native cactus. The leaves can be used for cleaning purposes as well as brewing stoke tea.

Taking in the landscape

Geology at its finest

Approach to second basecamp

Morning light

Pack horses

Paso Conejo aprox. 14,500ft

Gloving out. Making stoke tea

Basecamp 2 in the bottom left of the frame. Pulpito Diablo, the rock monolith on the left and Pan de Azucar the snowcapped peak on the right. Our two objectives.

At the base of the Normal Route of Pulpito Diablo. 2 pitches 5.9

Pulpito in its glory

On the Summit. 16,500ft

Staring into the abyss

Nice weather for the descent

On the glacier looking up towards Pan De Azucar

Topped out. Stoked is an understatement. 16,700ft

Descending to the Laguna for a “rest” day

Danny for the cover of Backpacker magazine

Taking in the sights on the glacial morraine

The lago and cascada

Miguel. Alejandro´s brother. Quite the gent.

Laguna La Plaza. El Cocuy Colombia. 800 total visitors to this park last year.

Colombiaaaahh

Bogota–> Suesca–> Bogota–> El Peñol–> Mesa De Los Santos–> San Gil–> Santa Marta–> Taganga–> Costeño Beach–> Santa Marta–> Palomino–> Santa Marta–> Cartagena then a flight back to Bogota, and a month gone to the road in the blink of an eye, feels more like two weeks since we landed in this wild country. The translation of money and language and understanding. The continual destruction of the stereotype, this country is dangerous. Until you get here and meet the people that call this “mi pais”. The people that have been so betrayed by the drugs and the violence and the rest of the world´s view and belief  that every Colombian is Pablo Escobar reincarnate. Instead it´s as if each citizen has taken it upon themself to fix their bad reputation. And they do it in a way that is no more self serving than your Grandma giving you cereal in the morning, with sugar and juice and love. And that´s it. The friendliest strangers I have ever met. Doesn´t matter that you butcher their language sounding more like Yoda than Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Sure it´s dangerous, but how safe is the South side of Chicago, or Flint, MI or Oakland? Common sense, a resurrection is a revelation.

The pure size and diversity of this country, the outdoor urnials, the buses; the fastest, coldest, bumpiest experience ever. The bigger the bus the more the driver seems to believe he is on a motorcycle. The lightening, every single night. Seriously. Hammock life. Empanadas, street meat and the fresh Aji salsa that deserves to be applied by the gallon. Almuerzo corriente, set lunches. Juice boxes – the best kind. The aguardiente, a “firey water” derived from sugar cane with a taste of anise. Makes me laugh until I cry. Literally. The night life. The music that grabs a hold and makes you dance with no other choice.

The mountains. The climbing. Monkey Barbie, tu puedes. More crack? Hornets nests on the crux (los santos). Overhung (everywhere). Run out. Loose bolts. Sandbagged. Gripped. But it´s facil. Big Jugs. Don´t think. Tranquilo. Eso es.

But most of all, the people.

Los Colombianos la gente me encanta.

Suesca

Suesca rocks

El Peñol

Guatape

Mesa De Los Santos – Hammock Life

Monkey Barbie aka Dana

The refuge

La Refugia Roca Hostel

Paragliding

Taganga

Pescadito

Taganga sunset

Beach huts

Costeño Beach

Santa Marta

Bahia Concha

Pelicanos

Pescador

Helados

Bahia Concha

Pescadores

Palomino

Bike Gang

Cartagena

Muse Del Oro

Bossman

Cartagena

Media Luna Hostel

La Candalaria – Bogota

La Candelaria

Setting Sail – Project Kaisei

STS Kaisei

I am heading back to Canada this weekend to meet up with the STS Kaisei (meaning Ocean Planet in Japanese). A 150ft square rigged brigantine sailboat owned by Ocean Voyages of Sausalito, CA. The boat is currently operated by the non-profit organization Project Kaisei. Their mission is to; “increase awareness of the scale of marine debris, its impact on our environment, and the solutions for both prevention and clean-up.” They have made several trips to the Pacific gyre and have been on  their mission since 2008. The upcoming expedition is going to focus on the tsunami debris that has been washing ashore the West coast of the US for several months now. We will be sailing about 200 to 300 miles offshore in an effort to take water samples and conduct research on the effects the debris is having on the ocean environment. I will be working as a deck hand, climbing the rig and setting sails (all the sails are set by hand on this boat!). Our port of call is going to be San Francisco and if everything goes according to plan I should be there in a couple weeks. I am looking forward to building some more sailing experience and working towards cleaning up our oceans, it ought to be quite the adventure!

Sailing under the Golden Gate bridge

 

Squamish Climbing Trip

Over the labor day weekend I jumped in with my buddies Logan and Danny for a trip up to Squamish, BC. It’s a little over 2 hours North of Bellingham and sits right on the waters of Howe Sound. There is endless amounts of outdoor adventuring in the Squamish area but the climbing is truly world-class. The rock is predominantly granite and the main attraction, for us, is called the chief (pictured below, as seen from the town marina.)

We arrived on Friday evening and climbed a few routes on smaller cliffs that sit right across the highway from the marina called the Smoke Bluffs. After the warm-up we set up camp off of a gravel road closer to the Chief. We got a decent start in the morning and made it to the base of the Angel’s Crest route behind one other party. In the Squamish rock climbing guide Angel’s Crest is graded at 5.10c and has 14 pitches, so we were looking at about 2,000 feet of climbing, give or take.

     Logan led a majority of the pitches (all trad climbing) and Danny took a few as well, while I climbed in the middle all day. Pretty grateful to have friends that climb a lot harder than I do! Here’s Logan on Angel’s crack, the first tough pitch of climbing.

     It was a solid 12 hour day, we had a few breaks for food and scenery as well as a few nature hikes in the wrong direction, but all in all we were successful. Nobody fell and we were able to hike off  the back of the cliff on a well maintained trail. It has been a goal to climb the chief ever since I started climbing and getting up on it was worth the wait. Here’s a few more photos from the climb. 

Master Bathroom Remodel

For the past couple months my Dad, brother and I have been working together on several construction projects. The most recent project that we completed was a bathroom/master bedroom remodel for our friend Blake in Mt. Vernon, WA. He wanted to utilize the space he had more efficiently and upgrade his bathroom in a modern style. Frank put together several designs with Blake’s goals in mind. (There are photos of the blueprints below.) With the new design to work from we went in for the demolition phase of the project. We took the old bathroom out entirely, moved several walls and cleaned the room out to prepare for the new design. New walls were framed, plumbing and electrical was re-routed, new drywall and paint were installed and the new bathroom space was created.

We built new pine shelving in his closet and matched the stain with the rest of the wood doors and trim in the house. His old vanity got modified to fit the new location and a poured a concrete counter on top. New sink basins and a nice stone back splash finished the sink area quite nicely. The next upgrade was radiant heating (on a programmable thermostat) throughout the entire bathroom and black granite tile on the floor, baseboard and tub deck. Black brushed slate tile was used on the floor to ceiling shower walls, granite for the shower bench and local river pebbles for the floor. The Schluter drain was also a nice upgrade, a long slot like drain that sits up against the bench to make the illusion of the drain water flowing under the bench. More pine was used for a towel rack and trim around the exterior of the shower. Finally, the rest of the fixtures, mirrors and glass were installed to complete the project.

The bedroom and bathroom layout before demolition.

New design for remodel

Master bedroom before demolition.

Old bathroom

Old shower

Closet demolition

Bathroom demolition

Layout for new bathroom walls

New bathroom and closet layout

New closet drywall

New tub area

Recycled vanity

Looking into the new shower area

Vanity ready for concrete

Radiant heating installed and shower ready for tile

Counter top poured, sinks, fixtures and back splash installed.

Radiant heating covered in thinset

Tile installation

Ready for the jacuzzi tub

Shower ready for the granite bench

Mirrors and fixtures installed

Shower finished

Big Island

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

More Photos

I have been back on the mainland for almost a month now. Coming out of Hawaii I stopped in Bellingham for a week before heading to Arizona for another week and a half. Then to Florida for my cousin Danny’s wedding over the Halloween weekend. Then a quick stop through the midwest (Detroit, Kalamazoo, Chicago & Grand Rapids) on my way back to AZ. Needless to say life has been moving at a much faster rate since leaving the islands. I feel fortunate enough now to recount the experiences from my visit to the Big Island.

I took a little puddle jumper flight from Maui to Kona on the 16th of September. The plane could probably hold 10 people max. The pilot checked us in and loaded our bags, no co-pilot, kinda crazy. After landing in Kona I took a bus to Hilo to catch up with Oren, one of my best friends from high school. At the time Oren was working at an outdoor school for troubled youth. He was working shifts 8 days on followed by 6 days off. Once he had finished his shift for the week we went spearfishing and beach cruised Hilo. The next day we took a trip to Volcanoes national park and hiked down into Kilauea crater. The rest of the week included a reggae concert, plenty of hang time, a few workouts and some yardwork to keep me honest. When Oren was getting ready to head back to work I contacted a handful of wwoof farms with the idea of volunteering for 8 days. Colleenah Lawrence accepted my request and invited me to her Aloha Rejuvenation Farm in Kukuihaele (If you click on kukuihaele it will take you to google maps).

Colleenah is a world-renowned massage therapist and yoga instructor that has an amazing wealth of knowledge concerning just about everything. Her farm is about an acre of property with two houses (her residence and a vacation rental), a yoga/massage studio, many fruit and avocado trees, and a small-sized permaculture garden. I was able to learn quite a bit about maintaining a small sized garden using all organic principals. Colleenah moved to the big island from Nebraska 25 years ago. She lived in Waipi’o valley foraging for food and healing herself on a raw food diet. She has lived on the big island ever since and never too far from Waipi’o. While I was there we focused on mulching her trees and garden and creating imo’s to help her plants grow. After working we would take excursions around the island to go to sustainability classes, hit up costco for Ukeleles, cruise the beach or camp on the South Kohala coast. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to hike or kayak into Waimanu valley, next time. I am extremely grateful for everything I learned and experienced at Colleenah’s farm and will definitely visit again.

Once OG had finished with his shift work and I had finished volunteering we loaded his truck with the essentials (spear fishing gear & beer) and headed to the North Kohala coast to find a beach to camp on for the weekend. We spent Friday and Saturday boozing and hunting fish and booze hunting for lobster at night, with one dive light, pretty eerie. After getting Oren’s truck stuck on the beach and having to cowboy it out of there we headed to the southern most part of the island, and the United States. After taking the sights in for a couple minutes we jumped back in the truck and headed for Mauna Kea. Usually you spend at least an hour at 9,000ft to acclimate. We didn’t have that kind of time to spare so we hossed straight to the top to meet up with one of Oren’s buddies/coworkers that has worked at the telescopes for around 5 years now. We got a sweet tour of the Keck observatory and caught the sunset from 14,000ft. Unreal times on an unreal island. Mahalo plenty to Oren and all the locals from all the islands that made the 4 month trip so much more than I could have imagined. Until next time Aloha nui loa (very much love).

Chris Schup’s blog (An amazing blog by an amazing volunteer worker at the Kahumana Farm and Cafe on Oahu)

*stay tuned for the video, it’s in production.

Aloha Maui

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

For the last week on Kauai we got completely spoiled by our Kauaian friends Noah and Sarah. The spoils included surfing or stand up paddling everyday at Hanalei bay (nice swell by the end of the week), romps through the jungle, swims through lava tubes, cliff jumps and solid jams. In summary I am once again lacking in words for proper explanation, gratitude and gloriousness towards Hawaii and especially Kauai. Muchos Mahalos!

On Friday evening (9/9/11) my German travel buddy and I jumped on different flights to different islands ending our trip and exploration of Kauai. Ben headed back to Oahu in order to prep for his probable return to Germany. I caught a flight to Maui, Kahului, and stayed at a classic hostel called the Banana Bungalow. In the world of hostels this place is all time. Free tours every day of the week, all of the forms of entertainment you can ask for, a hot tub, hammocks, and free beer on Friday nights! If you are looking for a job they will be hiring about 5-7 new people in the next couple weeks, you will not be disappointed! I got to stay for a week, took several of the tours (the volcano hike and the little beach drum circle). Then I found another tour company, The Dutchtours. The Dutchtours was actually two gents from Holland (Ronald & Pepijn) that had rented a jeep and were down to do just about anything. So I jumped in with the goons for the backroads to Hana tour and then to the north shore for some of the best snorkling I’ve ever seen. We also were able to go surfing and wind surfing. All in all real solid times on Maui, unbelievable sunsets, a reunion with Nicky G from Kahumana, and a new dutch vocabulary that consists almost entirely of swear words… jonguh(boyee)!! ALOHA MAUI! Headed to the big island now to meet up with Oren in Hilo, who knows what that will entail! Shoots! Thanks for reading my blog (mom), I feel loved 🙂

Hunting Dinosaurs

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

With great success we’ve been living in a tent since the 13th of August. After hitch hiking from the Lihue airport to the end of the road on the north shore of Kauai and stumbling upon a full moon dance party complete with lasers, fog machine and three different DJs. We hiked out the Na Pali coast to Kalalau beach. Camped in a cave for the week; hiking up the valley to crystal clear fresh water pools, swimming around the point at the end of the beach to the natural arch, water falls and deserted beach at Honapu and lounging with some valley legends. It was pretty easy to see why people had been living in and out of Kalalau for 25+ years. It looked like Jurassic Park and felt like The Beach without the drama. Easily one the most unreal landscapes I have ever seen. In fact the entire Kauai vibe has been other-worldly. I now understand what is meant by the spirit of aloha. .
 
After we had to leave Kalalau beach, due to a goat hunt, we met up with Mackenzie, another volunteer traveler that had worked at the Kahumana farm on Oahu. She was a gracious host and let us crash at the house she was taking care of for the week on the East shore. From there we headed to the South shore and rented a car for four days of easy mobility. With the car we drove to the far end of the island and up to Waimea canyon and Koke’e state park. 

There may be 60,000 total people living on this island; the largest town probably has about 10,000 inhabitants. Needless to say this is not the island if you’re looking for city lifestyle, however, the hospitality has been unmatchable. It’s great when a ride picks you up and gives you some plugs on the local scene and then takes you to exactly where you want to go. When almost every ride turns out that way, you start to get spoiled, and then when they start offering you money, it gets a little ridiculous. People have continually gone out of their way to make sure life is good and that has extended beyond rides. Park ranger’s birthday parties, family camping parties and an uncommon friendliness have been common place. 

At the moment we’re trying to muster up some kayaks so that we can head back out the Na Pali coast. If they don’t manifest then I could be headed to a farm for another wwoofing experience or I could be headed to the big island. Taking it all one day at a time.