Thankful

I am thankful for my family. For my close family, my extended family, my in-laws, my brother and his soon to be in-laws, all my friends who might as well be family. Especially my wife. I am thankful for music. For the expression of any and all emotions through a song. I am very thankful for my instruments. My still kind of new fiddle, my electric guitar "Jenny" and my banjo uke. Thankful for all those people who love and support me where ever I go. Who put us up in their homes, feed us, drive us around in their cars and stay up late dancing :-) Thank you for these little windows into your lives. I am thankful to have a job, and even more thankful that I can make a living doing what I love. I pray I never take that for granted. I am so thankful for birds because watching and studying them gives me a glimpse into an infinitely diverse and beautiful natural world that far too few people get to experience. I am thankful for turtles too, just cause. I am thankful for good food, fresh air, hot water and ice cubes. For forgiveness and a fresh start to every day. I am thankful for a God who "sees the depths of my heart and loves me the same." Have a very Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

California Cranes

On the final day of our recent California visit Jim and Susan Stratton took me out to watch the Sandhill Cranes come in to roost near Lodi. It was an incredible evening, watching these beautiful birds flying over Mount Diablo. Another California birding highlight: this Ferruginous Hawk south of Sacramento was my 450th bird this year! My entire North American life list was only at 450 before 2009. I doubt I'll ever see such a high percentage of my life list in a single year again and I want to say a special thanks to Jim Stratton for chasing this bird down with us.

Tidings of Cactus & Canyon

Hi folks. Sorry this is such a late post. Noah and I have been hard at work on the new album ever since we got back from our Arizona / California trip. All the basic tracks are done and we've just got a few final overdubs and edits before we move on to mixing. Anyway, things have been good here. Last night Sarah and I made a really tasty veggie pizza. Eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, onion and mushrooms! Seems like a nice day today. It looked cool outside this morning with all the frost. I'm in a pretty good mood overall. GBT plays in Colorado this weekend but it's just a short out-n-back kinda trip. Oh, and I think I'm having dinner with dad tonight. Okay... now let me see if I can pick out some pics from AZ.

This was my first visit to a "real" desert and I absolutely loved it
That's Vulture Peak in the backgroundWhile staying in the Flagstaff area we visited the ancient cliff dwellings at Walnut CanyonPassing through Sedona we made a stop at Ye Olde UFO StoreA beautiful hike in Oak Creek CanyonOn our last day in Arizona we woke up early and drove up to see the sunrise at THE canyon... what an amazing experience!