More Successes

I deactivated my facebook. I think it was negatively contributing to my mental sanity. I'm a naturally curious person, and I came to dislike being able to see everyone's interactions that I wasn't a part of. It felt weird. I like not having it. I want more of my interpersonal relations to be face-to-face or at least over the phone. Faces and Voices.

My battlebabies notched a huge victory over Elon on Friday night. Going winless against them for the last three years built up a great desire to put them to the sword, and down 14-5 after the half I didn't think it was going to happen. The game was played almost underwater. It was that wet out. But in the last twenty minutes our team's hard work paid off and the kids' fitness carried them at a pace Elon couldn't match. I am their strength and conditioning coach, and to watch the smallest team in the division demolish a bigger pack in the scrums and lineouts, and take the ball over the gain line with a tenacity that never let up really put a smile on my face. The picture is of a scrum where you can see how much harder we hit them. Our forwards are blurry, and they're just receiving the hit. Final score: 18-14

Something more sour, however, is my shoulder. My AC joint has decided not to heal the bridge between the A and the C... and my shoulder and collarbone aren't coordinating movements very well. I'll see my trainer Calvin tomorrow and work on it.

Farms and Rugby

I am e-mailing farms to make sure there is work available deep into the fall/winter. I'm thinking about how transportation might work as far as getting around the Christchurch area, or getting out of the Christchurch area and back. I'm debating roadbike versus scooter versus bus pass. There might be some opportunity for paid work outside of the farm as well, which would help the trip immensely from a we-have-no-money standpoint.

My kids recorded a 17-14 win over the Triad Dogs on Saturday. I had to play at loosehead prop for the full 80 minutes because our front row was pretty much gone. We started without 6 of our best forwards (a pack is composed of 8 total,) and the second half was played by 5 very new second-side backs. Despite that, the GRFC boys came out on top versus the 2008 USA Rugby South's D3 Men's Finalists (#2 team in the D3 South.) Perhaps the biggest win in our club's history as far as the level of competition goes, so I'm psyched. Their next game is versus Elon University, who won our collegiate matrix bracket in the spring.

eggfarmrocketship portal

This is the blog for Nick, Colin, and Rania's adventure in sustainable/organic agriculture work in New Zealand. I hope Colin and Rania will eventually post here, too, but I will definitely be writing as much about the trip as I can since this will be my main form of communication with Americans during those 5(?) months. I've gone rather sour on facebook and plan on deactivating it before I leave. I will also try to make sure this site has as many photos as possible. New Zealand is beautiful by all accounts.

We will most likely be on the south island near Christchurch. Colin and I will also hopefully be practicing and playing with the Linwood Bulls (a strong and well established rugby club in the area) as well as doing everything we can to maintain and improve the health and strength of our bodies. To these ends, there will likely be write-ups and pictures of odd or makeshift strength training activities and anything we do related to the unofficial national Kiwi sport of eggballwar.

New Zealand is also noted for being very environmentally conscious and conservationist (at very least when compared to the competition) so we'll probably want to write about neat little things we learn there that might change our approach when back home. If you'd like me to check out anything specific let me know.

Right now we're grinding trying to save as much money as possible for the tickets and trip. Blah.

-Nick