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9/29/10

Gili Islands!

We're on the Gili Islands right now. They're super tropical and awesome. The island we are on right now is the "party" island i guess and there are bunch people always trying to sell you weed or magic mushrooms, which gets kind of annoying but is pretty funny. I cant upload any pictures right now, because I can't find any free WiFi but I hope to soon!

9/28/10

Monkey Forest

Monkeys!

Ubud

Here is the pool just outside our room in Ubud. This place is awesome and all the people here are super friendly. We're going to the Gili Islands tomorrow for a couple days of beach time!

9/26/10

Bintang's

Selamat! Its Marshall, hanging out in Ubud, Bali with Jeff and Raine. Everything here is cheap, the people are absolutely wonderful and the sights are amazing! I love Bintang rigs!

9/25/10

Hitting Hong Kong

Good Morning Asia!

Chillin in Hong kong. We have 11ish hours to burn...

Vancouver Airport

Raine and I are chillin in van for a few hours, awaiting our 13 plane ride to hong kong.

Fun fact - we won't see the sun until we land on Sunday morning because we're flying with the sun and are crossing the international date line.

9/21/10

Trundle Vid

Here's some trundle footage from a mountain expedition a couple weeks ago.

2 Trundles from Jeff Amantea on Vimeo.

9/16/10

Vote For Me in the MEC Sweetspots Competition

Hey comrades! I have a huge favour to ask.


I've just entered Mountain Equipement Co-op's sweetspot contest and it would be awesome if you could vote for me. It's super easy, you just have to go to http://www.mec.ca/Apps/sweetSpots/video_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302888272&mvs_id=591&activity_cd=snow and click "vote", then confirm your vote in your email.  MEC takes the top 5 voted videos from each category and then judges them for the top 3 overall.  I would be super stoked to make it to the finals and hopefully win some money from MEC because they're sick as hell + the video that's in the lead right now is a snowshoeing video? Give freeskiing some exposure! Hopefully you can enjoy my edit aswell.
 
Check out Marshall's video also! it's killer.
 
Danke!

9/14/10

Hemp Homes!

Anyone who knows me well, will know that I love this!

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/09/hemp-houses-built-asheville/1

Hemp is turning a new leaf. The plant fiber, used to make the sails that took Christopher Columbus' ships to the New World, is now a building material. 


In Asheville, N.C., a home built with thick hemp walls was completed this summer and two more are in the works.

Dozens of hemp homes have been built in Europe in the past two decades, but they're new to the United States, says David Madera, co-founder of Hemp Technologies, a company that supplied the mixture of ground-up hemp stalks, lime and water.

The industrial hemp is imported because it cannot be grown legally in this country — it comes from the same plant as marijuana.

It's new use reflects an increasing effort to make U.S. homes not only energy-efficient but also healthier. Madera and other proponents say hemp-filled walls are non-toxic, mildew-resistant, pest-free and flame-resistant.

"There is a growing interest in less toxic building materials", says Peter Ashley, director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control.

"The potential health benefits are significant," he says, citing a recent study of a Seattle public housing complex that saw residents' health improve after their homes got a green makeover.

The U.S. government has not taken a "systemic approach" to studying chemicals in homes and instead addresses problems such as asbestos, lead, arsenic and formaldehyde only after people get sick, says Rebecca Morley, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing, a private research group.


She says green building so far has focused mostly on the environment, not the health of the people inside.

Ashley agrees that federal attention has been "sporadic," but says an interagency group began meeting last year to tackle the issue more broadly. He says HUD is funding more research on the health and environmental benefits of eco-friendly homes.


Some green-rating programs, such as the one run by the private U.S. Green Building Council, give points for indoor air quality.

"We are taking the next step in green building," says Anthony Brenner, a home designer with Push Design who created Asheville's first hemp home. "We're trying to develop a system that's more health-based."

Brenner says he's been searching for non-toxic materials because he wants to build a home for his 9-year-old daughter, Bailey, who has a rare genetic disorder that makes her extremely sensitive to chemicals. "We have to keep her away from anything synthetic," he says, or she'll have seizures.

He says a hemp home can be affordable, even though importing hemp makes it more expensive than other building materials, because skilled labor is unnecessary and hemp is so strong that less lumber is needed.

The hemp mixture — typically four parts ground-up hemp to one part lime and one part water — is placed inside 2-foot-by-4-foot wall forms. Once it sets, the forms are removed. Although it hardens to a concrete-like form, wood framing is used for structural support.

"This is like a living, breathing wall," Madera says. Hemp absorbs carbon dioxide and puts nitrogen into the soil, so it's good for the environment, he says.

Alex Wilson, executive editor of Environmental Building News, says hemp can be grown with minimal use of chemicals and water. He says it has a midlevel insulating value (R-2 per inch) but is usually installed in a thick enough wall system to make it appropriate for all but the most severe climates.

The mixture, "Tradical Hemcrete," has not previously been used in U.S. homes, but in 2008 it went into a community center on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Badlands, S.D., as well as a small chapel and pottery studio near Houston, says Mario Machnicki, managing director of American Lime Technology, a Chicago company that imports hemp from the United Kingdom.

Asheville's second hemp home will be finished in about six weeks, says builder Clarke Snell of the Nauhaus Institute, a non-profit group of designers, engineers, developers and others interested in sustainable urban living.

Snell says the home, which has 16-inch-thick walls, is airtight and energy-efficient. He expects it to meet rigorous Passive House Institute standards, which call for homes to use up to 90% less energy than regular ones.

"On the coldest day in winter, the body heat of 10 people should heat the home," he says. "We're basically building a European home."

Snell says his group will own the 1,750-square-foot house, and its engineer will live there for a couple of years to monitor energy use.

He doesn't know how much it will cost because, as a prototype, it was built with donations and volunteer labor.

The owners of the first hemp home say it cost $133 a square foot to build, not including land and excavation.

"That's pretty remarkable" for a custom home in Asheville, which is a pricey area, says Karon Korp, a writer who moved into the house in July.

Korp says she and her husband, Russ Martin wanted primarily an energy-efficient home. They're not particularly sensitive to chemicals, but they were drawn to Brenner because of his modern aesthetic and green building enthusiasm. She says they're thrilled their house is made of a renewable, toxic-free material and hope it sets an example for the nation.

"Hemp could replace tobacco if it were legalized," says Martin, Asheville's GOP mayor from 1993 to 1997. He says some area tobacco farms have gone bust.

Martin says they have spent less than $100 a month so far to cool the home, which has 3,000 square feet plus a garage. It has 12" thick walls, Energy Star appliances, dual-flush toilets, high-performance windows and LED lights. Korp says they might add a windmill, because the house sits atop a mountain.

They say they have fantastic views. "We seen the sun rise," he says. She adds, "and the sun set."



We need more of this!

9/13/10

VISA!

Guess what I got today?


I'm officially allowed to stay in Indonesia for 60 days!

9/8/10

Mine Photos



Sketch

Entrance to Jumbo mine

gang

Casual rock climbing

Exit and upward view.


Thanks for Ryan for being a great photographer and vibe enhancer.

9/7/10

Back to School!

Happy back to school to all my friends attending an educational institute this year!

9/2/10

Mine Exploration/Trundles

Did some heavy duty mine exploration today with Marsh, Ryan, Campbell, Jarrett, and Mitch. We went pretty deep into Jumbo mine, where we haven't been before, requiring some sketch rock climbing but it was fully worth it.

After we hit up some casual trundles with some couple hundred pound rocks.
Ryan took some photos so I'll put them up on here later.

9/1/10

Life Cycles Teaser!

The boys finally got their act together and released the teaser for Life Cycles. This movie will be like Planet Earth + Biking, born and bred in Rossland! I don't even mountain bike anymore but I'm so stoked for the finished product!