sad news day

our hearts are heavy today. our beautiful charlie passed away peacefully in his sleep this morning. we are so grateful for all of you who loved on him during his twelve and a half years. hug your babies tight and enjoy a slice of your favorite pizza in charlie’s memory.

barklife on the road: adventurecast parts 1 and 2

we did an experiment this week with the recording—and it was largely successful-ish!

some background: way back in december i (jahnna) won a contest at school by knitting my own ugly holiday sweater, and the prize was a day off from school. it’s not been a good year for being able to get a sub and take a day off from school, nor was there anywhere to go until recently. with jefferson county finally making it to the green for covid levels, the weather finally accepting that it’s probably going to stay spring, and happening to have lunch with one of our regular subs one day and asking her availability for april, we settled on taking a day out in barren county, ky.

why barren county? because i went on a field trip to mammoth cave when i was in fifth grade (thanks again, dad, for chaperoning), and it was really interesting, and josh had never been but also because DINOSAUR WORLD is in barren county. if you’ve ever driven on the stretch of i-65 down around cave city and bowling green, ky, you have seen photosaurus out by the highway. we have been driving this stretch of highway to visit my dad since we moved to chicago, and after 10 years, it was time to take the plunge. 

what does all of this have to do with the podcast? we have some of our most wide-ranging conversations in the car, and we recorded this one for you. we’ll release it as four special edition adventure episodes in the coming weeks. 

the first 2 episodes were from the drive to mammoth cave. we talk about (among other things): 

  • why train travel is great and there should be a train between louisville and nashville
  • our trip to montreal in 2019 and how clean their public transit was
  • wren’s recent surgery and why the surgi-snuggli is great
  • herb alpert & the tijuana brass
  • that our house is a mess, we may need to check in with our mental health professionals about it, and we definitely need the skilled labor of a housekeeper
  • the value in faking it until you make it, saying i’m sorry, and admitting you don’t know things (and also the downside to faking it well)
  • how i’m taxing all of my fifth graders for paper, but they’re actually learning something about american history as well as the value of service to their community in time rather than in treasure
  • how the pandemic killed the development of empathy which was already on its last legs for the age group i teach because of the anonymity of the internet

some links:

josh mentions mammothcaveblueberries.com which, unfortunately, is no longer a valid url, but you can find wild blueberries and blackberries in barren county, and blueberries will grow in kentucky (see this article from the UK extension office on growing highbush blueberries)

stay tuned for adventure episodes 3 & 4 where you can find out how our tour of mammoth cave went and what we thought about dinosaur world as well as listen to us eat crunchy things from sonic.