Grass to Veggies

I Made an App!

2026-02-10T09:04:00.003-07:00

An app? What? What's going on here? You're not the only one who's confused, I ask myself that all the time.

With everything going on in the world recently I've found myself reaching out to my elected officials in Congress quite a lot to voice what I would like them to be doing. Which is a foundational part of our democracy. That led to the realization that there really isn't an easy and efficient way of doing this and it does not have to be that way.

Just finding out who represents you in Congress (or any level of office) can be a royal pain in the butt let alone figuring out how to get in touch with them and what to say. It can be an intimidating process which seems like it leads to a lot of people ignoring it and remaining silent.

So I built an app, it's called HeyRep and it gives you one place to easily find out who your reps are on both the national and state level, how to get in touch with them, you can call their office from the app and it'll even help you draft a letter. Just enter in a few words or a sentence or two of what you want the letter to be about and with the help of AI, it drafts a letter for you, which you can then edit and it gets you to the right place to send that letter.

Flying and Fire

2026-01-25T11:30:00.004-07:00

"You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck." - Pilot Folklore

Somewhere Over Montana - Pardon the Crappy Photo - Was Busy Flying an Airplane

Cruise checklist complete. Music is playing. Montana, here I come!

A few thousand feet below me the world scrolls by at a few hundred miles an hour, as if you're on a high speed treadmill watching the landscape ahead twist and turn as you inch closer to your destination.

Beyond the left wing, the snow-capped Rocky Mountains soar into the sky. Beyond the right wing, the eastern plains of Colorado stretch into the distance. Through my noise cancelling headset I have some tunes piped in from a pre-made playlist that I made specifically for this flight.

Great weather. Rocking tunes playing. Smooth air. Everything's looking great.

The Chicken and the Farmer

2026-01-18T12:00:00.005-07:00

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."

- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Eagle Flying Away - Dall·e AI

Below is a story that I heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu tell almost 20 years ago. I don't think the story is original to him but this is the version of it that he told and exactly as I heard it from him many, many moons ago. This impactful and thought provoking story deserves to live on so here it is:

Sustainable(ish) Shaving

2026-01-11T11:00:00.004-07:00

"We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world." - Howard Zinn

Shaving Setup

Disposable razors used to be a very economical option. Buy a cheap razor, cheap blades, you're all set. Those same, not so great razors and blades which used to cost $1 a month have since morphed into a steep $8 to $25 a month recurring cost for a not so great shave that feels like you're hacking your skin off. There is another way with a much better shave!

Enter the Double Edge Safety Razor Blade (queue the heavenly, majestic music)

The razor has weight, feels solid, contains a sharp blade with two edges that lasts for a handful of shaves that actually cuts smoothly! When the blade inevitably starts getting dull after about five shaves, you simply pop the metal blade out and pop in a fresh one.

New Years Blessing

2026-01-01T08:00:00.006-07:00

Hummingbird visiting the flowers on the urban farm ~ 2025

New Years Blessing:

May your new year be filled with joy
May your new year be filled with happiness
May all your prayers and dreams be answered

Times will get tough
There will be twists and turns
Ups and downs
Ebbs and flows

Expect the unexpected
Ask questions
Listen more than you speak
Help others, help others, help others

Alchemize the pain into beauty
Lean into community
Turn sand into glass
Compost into soil
Just as caterpillars turn into butterflies
Learn to learn
What can you learn?

Writing: What is It?

2025-12-28T17:00:00.006-07:00

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realized, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life."

- Gregory David Roberts in Shantaram

Shantaram is still my current all-time favorite book. How I heard about it and obtained this copy in the photo is quite the tale. Synchronicity is a very interesting thing.

Growing up I was a voracious reader. I loved how books transported you to far off worlds you never even imagined. As I got older I marveled at my favorite authors and couldn't fathom how they had all these crazy ideas and storylines worked out before they wrote a book about it.

I've always written but not necessarily by choice. In school you rarely get the opportunity to write about something that you are interested in. Write a 3 page paper about the intricacies of Shakespeare and whether the iambic pentameter helps or hurts the storyline. Who cares about that? Certainly not me. Regardless, I'd go home that day, bust out a 3 page paper on the assigned topic within 20 minutes, print it out, throw it in my backpack and turn it in a week later.

Writing with ease comes easy to me. Words love to flow out of my hands to give meaning to my never ending thoughts. I never realized that's not necessarily normal. Writing with brevity is much harder.

The House

2025-12-07T18:00:00.011-07:00

The universe hides nothing; its truths emerge the moment you stop asking others how to see. In the quiet that follows, you realize the path beneath you was never lit by another’s lantern and that your own way of looking was enough all along. No one can guard what is infinite. Step past the noise of gatekeepers, trust the compass within you and the horizon reshapes itself into a way forward, where truth begins exactly where you stand and the gatekeepers fade back into the shadows.

The House - Dall·e AI

I step to the edge of the treeline, look towards the valley clearing ahead with the sun rising behind me, behind the trees, the orange glow is starting to illuminate nature, the stars above have faded, the dark night sky is slowly transforming into the dark turquoise blue of morning. The clearing is mostly wildflowers with a gentle stream running through it and mountains jutting towards the sky in the distance. Next to the stream, there it is... just as I was told I would find it, a house way out in the middle of nowhere.

I can't believe it actually exists, I mumble to myself. The old man was right. I've been wandering through the forest for three days. I was told if I followed the path I would find it. It was not mentioned that the path is not a well worn path, very few people ever take it, it's overgrown, hard to follow and it's mostly just markers on trees every now and then so you know you're headed in roughly the right direction.

I approach with caution, not knowing what to expect. From a distance I see somebody in the top window of the house watching me closely. It's a very peculiar house, there isn't a single door that's an obvious entrance but many doors, 10 to be exact. Each door has a guardian out front determining who can enter their door and who cannot. They each seem nice enough and they all either ignore me or don't know I'm there as I make a loose circle around the house from a distance attempting to survey what I may be getting myself into. The eyes in the top windows keep watching me intently, they can see me no matter where I am, they have a good bead on me. As the morning sun hits the house a ray illuminates the window turning the shadow eyes into a face, they're smiling at me, as if I'm expected company.

Fry Bread

2025-11-24T18:00:00.005-07:00

Every fry bread carries the story of its maker. Shaped by instinct, timing, and the quiet confidence that comes only after a few beautifully imperfect tries.

Fry Bread being Fried

Fluffy, airy, light, crispy, soft on the inside... what more could you want.

If you're looking for a tortilla chip replacement or taco shell replacement or a medium to spread peanut butter and jelly onto or something you can just eat plain then fry bread has you covered!

Fry bread is about as versatile as it comes in the food world. Eat it plain, use it for any of the above and much more. It's delicious. Just be aware that once you make it, you'll want to eat every last one before you get a chance to use them for the intended purpose.

The ULTIMATE Pumpkin Spice Latte

2025-11-09T16:00:00.007-07:00

When the world doesn’t serve you the flavor you’re craving, it is an invitation to light your own fire and stir your own pot. Creation begins the moment you stop searching and start shaping.

Pumpkin Spice Latte - Dall·e AI

Fall is here which means that pumpkin is softly wafting through the air.

For pumpkin lovers, this is the perfect time of year, pumpkin spice worms its way into anything and everything that can be sold. Most of those items though tend to not be very pumpkiny nor spicy and more often than not, way too sweet. After searching high and low for the best pumpkin spice latte's, and after lots of disappointment, I decided to make my own, which I have deemed to be the ULTIMATE pumpkin spice latte. Sure I'm a little bit biased in that but I think the result below stands apart and lives up to the name.

Veggie Seaweed Wrap

2025-10-19T18:45:00.002-06:00

"In food there is excellent medicine; in food there is bad medicine. Good and bad are determined in relation to the nature of the person."

- Hippocratic Corpus, On Food (De Alimento), §4

Veggie Seaweed Wrap Ready to be Rolled

If you find yourself looking for a quick, easy and nutritious meal that'll leave you feeling full, then this is the recipe for you.

What You Need:

-Seaweed Sheet

-Diced Zucchini

-Sprouts (learn how to grow your own here)

-Diced Cucumbers

-Diced Tomatoes

-Avocado Slice

-Olive Oil

-Lemon Wedge

-Herb Sprinkle (Salt, Garlic, Tellicherry Black Pepper, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, and Majoram)

What You Do:

1) Heat up a pan with oil over medium heat, lightly sauté the diced zucchini and diced tomatoes together until the zucchini is slightly soft (still want a little bit of crunch to it for this one)

Live Now

2025-10-12T19:00:00.004-06:00

"Let go of the past, let go of the future, let go of the present, and cross over to the farther shore of existence." - Buddha

Archaeologists 2,000 years from now exploring the remains of the CERN Large Hadron Collider, pondering what it was, what it was used for and what our rituals were. Perhaps aliens built it? One of them muses - Dall·e AI

Step foot in the Coliseum in Rome, gawk at how old it is and what it must have been like in its glory days filled with spectators and gladiators battling each other. Back home, go to the Sunday Football (or fútbol) game, walk into a stadium filled with 60,000 screaming spectators and players vying to win.

Stand at the base of the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, immense blocks stacked on top of each other as you ponder, how in the world did they do this? Back home, you can connect with anyone across the world in seconds, have access to limitless information in the palm of your hand, and live in sprawling cities from sea to shining sea.

Walk amongst Stonehenge wondering about ancient astronomy and asking how much did they really know? Back home, 500 feet below the surface sits a 17 mile tunnel called the CERN Large Hadron Collider where particles are accelerated to near the speed of light and smashed together.

Egypt: More than the Pyramids

2025-10-05T16:54:00.000-06:00

A cinematic, documentary-style journey through Cairo, Saqqara, Alexandria, Siwa, and Luxor. Told in a raw, poetic, and gritty travel style. This film explores not just ancient ruins, but the food, the people, the desert silence, and the living culture that makes Egypt timeless and gives it a heartbeat today.

For many, Egypt is just the pyramids. But travel here reveals a country layered with stories: shawarma, koshari, seafood, the Nile carving life through the desert, sugarcane juice in Alexandria, floating like a cloud in the surreal saltwater pools of Siwa, drifting above Luxor & the Temple of Hatshepsut in a hot air balloon, the vast columns of Karnak that rise like a forest of stone, the call to prayer threading through Cairo’s chaos and standing in the hushed brilliance of the Valley of the Kings where eternity still feels close.

This is a film about life, death, food, faith and the stories carved into stone. Egypt remembers its afterlife in vivid detail… history and present blur together in the streets… but it’s the living people today, their kindness and generosity, who remind you what really matters.

Watch this not as a tour guide but as a traveler’s invitation: to go deeper, to taste, to listen, to wonder, and to see Egypt for what it truly is… alive.

One Step at a Time

2025-09-28T21:00:00.004-06:00

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” - Lao Tzu

Defeated Climber - Dall·e AI

I fall to my knees, tears stream down my face, I look up at the last 100 feet to go and cannot fathom making it to the top. It might as well be 100 miles away. I can't do this. I shouldn't be here. I'm at 20,495 feet - the highest I've ever been - climbing on the mountain Salkantay in Peru, the summit is right there.

It's day two on this mountain, we've been climbing since midnight, it's currently 11 a.m. I didn't sleep at all in the tent, I'm beyond exhausted, I'm cold, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, my head hurts, I'm definitely hypoxic, I cannot feel my big toe on my right foot and I cannot deal with another false summit. I've already pushed myself beyond my limits, there's nothing left. If this ends up being another false summit, it will break me. I know it's not a false summit but that's where my mind jumps. We're off ropes, each free climbing this last bit, there is no danger here, that's all behind us - awaiting our return for the descent. The mountain has been showing us the entire climb why this mountain was revered by the Incas, why many people have perished on it and that we'll be very lucky to even be allowed to have the opportunity for a summit.

Practice: How to Get Better at Anything

2025-09-14T21:00:00.017-06:00

"The trees on the mountain can be used to build and so are cut down. When fat is added to the fire it consumes itself. Cinnamon can be eaten and so is harvested. The lacquer tree can be used and so is slashed. Everyone knows the usefulness of the useful. But no one knows the usefulness of the useless!" - Chuang Tzu

19 Year Old Pilot James - Feeling Pretty Cool - Somewhere Over the US

A great thought experiment to run your mind through to help you on goals you are currently working towards is to analyze your prior successes, take what has previously worked for you and apply it to your present situation.

For myself, the best example of this is becoming a pilot. The reason I was able to become a great pilot at a very young age is quite simply because: nobody told me it wasn't possible. My mindset was, "I will do this, no matter what."

State of Mind

2025-04-20T17:00:00.003-06:00

"If one is true to one's self and follows its teachings, who need be without a teacher?" - Chuang Tzu

How do you respond to chaos? - Dall·e AI

Your internal state is just as important as the external inputs into your body. You can eat all the healthy food you want but if your internal state is chaos, you will not be healthy. Conversely, you can do all of the meditation, yoga, etc. you want but if you're only putting junk food into your body, you will also not be healthy. The type of food that is eaten is important to the health of your body. Taking care of your mind and spirit is equally important. They go hand in hand with each other, yin and yang.

The world we live in is chaos, it always has been and always will be. You cannot control the chaos that happens in the world. All you can do is control how you react to it. The chaos is necessary. Light cannot exist without the dark, that contrast is needed. Our world is full of contrast, always has been and always will be. Trying to control that external chaos is a recipe for misery. Noticing how that chaos affects you and alchemizing it into something good and something beautiful is something you can control.

Berry Preserves

2025-03-15T17:00:00.004-06:00

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." - Maya Angelou

Freshly made berry preserves

Have you ever gone to the store or farmers market and attempted to track down either a no or low sugar berry jam of some sorts? They don't exist anywhere. Even at the farmers markets, bounce around to the different fruit stands and ask if they make any no or low sugar berry concoctions and you'll always get the same answer of, "We make that for ourselves and that's what we eat at home but we don't sell it, the sugar preserves it."

Alas, now you can stop hunting and just make it yourself. Spoiler alert: It's super easy to make. Literally anyone can make this in a very short amount of time. Without further ado, here's how you go about this:

What You Need:

-Edible Berries

-Water

-Saucepan

-Honey or Maple Syrup (optional)

The Desert Teaches

2025-02-02T16:30:00.003-07:00

"On your journey to your dream, be ready to face oasis and deserts. In both cases, don't stop." - Paulo Coelho

First time in 20 years this lake has existed - Merzouga, Morocco - November 2024

The poem below was written amongst the Sahara desert of both Egypt and Morocco in November of 2024. The desert is a very intriguing place and is a lot different from what one envisions. The majority of it looks like you were flung off Earth and landed on Mars. The landscape is not endless sand dunes. The dunes certainly exist but they are in patches, not swathing swarms. It's mostly, flat, hard, dry, cracked ground just like what is found in parts of Arizona and New Mexico with random herds of wild camels sauntering about. The desert has its own sound to it, a wispy crack of the wind blowing sand around complete with a low reverberating hum that can only be heard when one really listens.

The perception of the desert is that life cannot exist here, no way, no how. However, all of the building blocks of life are there, just sitting, waiting for the conditions to be right. All that is needed is for water to be added and suddenly life springs forth every which way, butterflies emerge, flamingos suddenly appear, birds swoop in, grass grows immensely fast which the camels then devour. Once the water dries up then poof, the landscape chameleons back into appearing to not be capable of hosting life. In reality, it's just resting, waiting for the next rains that will once again create the perfect conditions for life.

Squash Soup

2025-01-15T18:00:00.006-07:00

"You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together."

- Anthony Bourdain

Squash Soup Topped with Roasted Squash Seeds

Squash soup is easy to make and very delicious. A five star soup at home can be accomplished with minimal hands-on time and supplies. All you need is a winter squash of some kind an oven, a blender and some spices.

What You Need:

-1 Winter Squash (Acorn, Butternut, Pumpkin, etc.)

-Garlic

-Salt

-Pepper

-Olive Oil

-Coconut Milk (optional)

Nature: The Only Perfect Church

2025-01-08T18:00:00.005-07:00

"If I am not doing the works of my father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

- John 10:37-38 (Bible)

"And when it is said to them, 'Follow what Allah has revealed,' they say, 'Rather, we will follow that which we found our fathers doing.' Even though their fathers understood nothing, nor were they guided?"

- Surah Al-Baqarah 2:170 (Quran)

"Do not believe in something just because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in something because it is rumored by many. Do not believe in the written scriptures alone. Do not believe in conjecture or logic alone. Do not believe in something because it appears acceptable. Do not believe in something because it aligns with your preconceived notions. Do not believe in something out of respect for a teacher. But when you know for yourselves that these things are wholesome, blameless, praised by the wise, and lead to benefit and happiness, then you should practice and abide in them."

- Anguttara Nikaya 3.65 (Kalama Sutta)

Ruins in Nature - Dall·e AI

All churches and religious institutions around the world have one big flaw in common: Humans.

Each one, despite their best of intentions, has a very human interpretation and along with that comes pushing very specific agendas and deliberate misinterpretations that uphold a specific status quo.

The Universe

2025-01-01T13:30:00.005-07:00

"We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us." - Albert Einstein

Earth as an Atom in a Pumpkin Vine - Dall·e AI

The universe is willing to teach you anything you want to know about it - all you have to do is listen. This is my current understanding of the universe as learned through the garden. As with anything in life, it is subject to change upon new (and constant) learning. A mind should be like sand - constantly shifting and morphing as the tides roll in and out, always dynamic, never static.

Acts of Goodness

2024-10-20T22:00:00.003-06:00

"If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody."

- Chinese Proverb

Smile thru storms

If you find yourself getting frustrated with the mundanity of life, try focusing on how you can serve others. This can have an immense impact on your own life.

Cook a neighbor some cookies, buy a meal for someone experiencing homelessness, help someone who is stranded on the side of the road, buy someone's groceries, volunteer at a homeless shelter, donate some of your homegrown vegetables, volunteer at an organization helping refugees, volunteer at an orphanage, those are just a few ideas of how you can help others - if you so desire. There are probably millions if not billions of ways you can help others. Get creative with it!

Think about how if a neighbor were to bring you some cookies, how much that would make your day. Even if you don't like cookies, or if they're terrible or if you don't eat sugar, just the act of them bringing you cookies will still brighten your day. If it would make your day better, go brighten somebody else's day with it.

The Joys of Life

2024-09-29T22:00:00.003-06:00

"The sage calmly stopped pouring tea and looked at him: Your mind, sir, is much like this teacup. I'm afraid it is already too full for me to be able to fit anything else into. Else it will surely run over and spill everywhere."

- Traditional Adage

Playing with an elephant in a river in Nepal

As you go thru life it's way too easy to focus on the negative and what's going wrong in both your life and the world. This isn't the full story though. There is always good to be found, no matter your circumstance. Even if it is simply: I am alive today.

The news focuses on what sells and what gets clicks, which is usually negative. You will never see a news headline that says, "Person Lost Car Keys, Neighbor Picks Person Up and Gives Them a Ride Home." Nobody would read that article or watch that segment, even though it's uplifting.

The truth of the matter is that is exactly the type of headline that fills the majority of our lives and world, but you'll never see it since it doesn't sell. The negativity that you do see is such a small portion of what actually exists, miniscule in fact.

If you find yourself focusing on the negative of your life or the world then I challenge you to find the joy amongst the negativity. Don't ignore the negativity but rather acknowledge it, let it move along and find the joy that exists amongst it. Such as a flower growing through a crack in the sidewalk.

The Way I Am

2024-09-08T22:00:00.007-06:00

People often ask why am I the way I am, why am I so strange. To which I answer, why are you the way you are? The answer is this...

Representation of Trauma - Dall·e AI

Memento Mori

2024-08-25T19:00:00.003-06:00

"I cannot tell if what the world considers 'happiness' is happiness or not. All I know is that when I consider the way they go about attaining it, I see them carried away, headlong, grim, and obsessive, in the general onrush of the human herd, unable to stop themselves or to change their direction. All the while they claim to be just on the point of attaining happiness. My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it."

- Chuang Tzu

Imagine the text being all lowercase and in cursive. Attempted recreation with Dall·e AI that went awry.

I open the drivers side door and step out of my car onto the newly frozen ice that stretches across the vast parking lot like the frozen tundra of the Arctic. The air is crisp. Dripping snot instantly freezes on your upper lip. Deep breath in - the cold air burns your lungs. Above this modern tundra there's a highway overpass that is slowly roaring to life with cars starting to zoom by as the sun rises in the distance to greet us and warm the frigid landscape - much like lions roaring to the sunrise in the African savanna.

A mustard yellow 1972 Chevy LUV parks next to me and out steps a gentleman with matching yellow socks, a yellow trench coat, and a yellow Dick Tracy style hat. Feeling like I've suddenly been teleported into a cartoon parallel universe I ask him if he knows if we have to pay for parking here? He doesn't answer my question and responds with a question of his own:

First time here, eh?

Yes it is, I reply.

Well you're in for a wild ride then!

I think so as I nod my head in agreement while staring at the comic book character.

Yeah, you have to pay for parking by the entrance.

So we walk all the way to the entrance, pay for parking, then walk back to our cars to put the ticket in the car, then walk back to the entrance?

Yup, you got it!

Alrighty then I mutter as I accidentally slam the car door shut - spooking some icicles off the overpass.

It's too early for these types of annoying shenanigans that society imposes on us that really don't make any sense at all when you think about them. After paying for parking, putting the ticket in my car, then walking the marathon distance back to the entrance of the building I get in line amongst many notable characters. I ponder if we're supposed to dress up as I appear to be the only one wearing normal clothes. Perhaps I missed the memo on their website. I make a mental note that maybe I should pick up a flannel shirt for this type of occasion so I can appear dressed up in this type of setting but still blend in amongst more normal spots.

The line moves quickly and their prohibited items sign very specifically calls out "No Mushrooms" which is intriguing. Good thing I don't need to worry about that. It is the first time I've ever seen mushrooms specifically called out on a not allowed sign. What would happen if someone showed up with a lunchbox full of portabellas for a tasty lunch? I'm pretty sure I'm in for a very interesting day. I'm glad I decided to have coffee this morning flashes through my mind.

People Change

2024-07-28T20:00:00.005-06:00

“One does not need to have any formal knowledge of music - nor, indeed, to be particularly ‘musical’ - to enjoy music and to respond to it at the deepest levels. Music is part of being human, and there is no human culture in which it is not highly developed and esteemed.”

- Oliver Sacks

James and Mike Posner - Red Rocks - April 2023

Hey Mike, can I ask you a question? I ask as I walk down the steps of Red Rocks amphitheater.

Mike turns, looks at me, laughs, smiles and says - Sure man, what's up?

What is the one thing you wish everybody knew about you that nobody knows?

Without missing a beat he responds - That I'm better in person.

What do you mean?