Creative Sustenance

Taking some time today to reformat the blogsite. As you can see by the new banner, we are changing course a bit, moving from a purely Stumpjack Coffee Company-focused agenda to one that heralds the values and lifestyle we've supported and lived as both individuals and concerned members of the larger community (local, national, global). Stumpjack has always been about community, creativity, mutual support, and positive growth. Concepts such as sustainability; artisan farming, food and craft production; fair trade practices; independent music and art; concern for the environment along with a high regard for capitalism...this is the stuff we've embraced.

To that we'll be adding, with this blogsite, much more content on things like gardening and foraging; preparing, cooking and preserving foods; making more and/or better use of the resources and items we have available to us; living a little more self-reliant lifestyle (perhaps a little further off the grid) and saving money in the process; and an appreciation for the so-called "simpler things" in life. This site is something of a work in progress, and we hope you'll join in it with us by not only reading the posts, but also by participating and sharing your own experiences and adventures in pursuing a simpler, fuller and more satisfying life. Grow some of your own food, bake some bread, go hunting or fishing, engage in some creative recycling, make some art, buy some local artisan cheese, frequent the farmers market, ride your bike, check out some live music (and drop some dollars into that artist's tip jar), get involved in some community club or organization...and so on and so on... Hopefully, we'll be able to share some useful and entertaining information here at stumpjack.com, and we hope you'll feel encouraged to share some of your own ideas and tips through the comments section.

morels for breakfast

The title: "Creative Sustenance" comes from one of my facebook photo albums. That album, "Vittles as Creative Sustenance," is just a visual record of some of the food I've prepared at home, hopefully in somewhat creative and visually appealing ways. But I think "creative sustenance" applies to more than just food. In the context of its use here I think it encompasses a lot of the things we "need" to sustain us, physically, mentally and spiritually. Hiking the woods, for example, and finding a handful of morel mushrooms is certainly good physically (you get some exercise and some tasty nutrients) but I think it also stimulates one's mind (just how are you going to prepare those delicious little mushrooms, and what else did you see while you were looking for them?); and certainly a hike through nature is good for the spirit and ought to deepen our appreciation for what the earth has to offer.

Finally, while Stumpjack Coffee Company in Two Rivers is now a joyful memory there are still a few things I'll be sharing from that experience. For example, I recently re-discovered a small cache of photographs of the old Stumpjack space before it became the cool Stumpjack space you knew it as. I'll share those images in the next couple weeks. And as we move gradually toward re-opening another incarnation of Stumpjack we'll share that news with you as well.

The latest Stumpjack tidbits

I haven't been blogging lately for a few reasons. Since the closing of the coffee house in Two Rivers we have been engaged in countless discussions, between ourselves and with other interested parties, on what we're going to do next and how we're going to do it. We're very good at what we do and we want to do it again, although with some significant modifications and a revised vision. That conversation has been ongoing, creatively stimulating and enjoyable. I have also mentioned on facebook that I'd be giving an update about the whole story of our closing the Two Rivers location, including all of the stupidness we've been dealing with from the place that's there now. Frankly, I just haven't felt like dredging all of that up again and am hopeful that eventually those people will just lose interest in continuing to poison the waters. If it continues I've decided that I may just post in PDF form all of the weird and nutty messages that I've received from them and let it go at that. In any event, I'll cover the story of the closing sometime down the road here.

We've also been working like beavers with getting our house squared away, cleaning and organizing years worth of stuff we've accumulated in an effort to streamline and minimalize our lives. Like many folks who are lightening their lives these days, we wonder, "Where did all this stuff come from?" It's been an all summer project.

I've also been working on writing and developing stories and characters for an animation project with my uber-talented friend Carson Kugler, who is out in California right now working with Nickelodeon. That's been my primary passion these days and I'm very juiced up about the chance to flex my art muscles again.

And finally, this blogsite has been on my on-again-off-again project list. It needs a total remake and I work on that in the admin background when time and inclination coincide.

But what may be of immediate impact to you, dear reader and Stumpjack friend, is the Stumpjack "Music Without Boundaries" Summer Series that friends Brian Powell, Marty Suettinger and I have created. Great music was a huge part of what made Stumpjack special (the place got voted "Best of..." in live entertainment and live music venue pollings a couple of times). We want to keep that part of the Stumpjack experience going and we're doing so with a fantastic series of outdoor music events. You can get the lowdown on who's performing when, as well as any and all other news about upcoming shows, via the facebook group page "Music Without Boundaries."

Here's is the current schdule of upcoming shows:

Friday, July 22: West of East

Saturday, August 6: Matt Davies & Band

Friday, August 19: Lea Holz

Saturday, August 27: Becky Markvart

Friday, September 2: The Hollands!

Saturday, September 10: Chris Darby & Julius Otto

Also hoping/planning to get shows scheduled with Mark Hubing and The Brothers Burn Mountain. The shows are out-of-doors in a park and picnic ground-like setting. There is also no admission fee and it's all BYOB&G (Beverage & Grub); it's just something we wanted to do because it's fun and helps us all stay connected. Check it out on facebook and let us know if you'll be able to join us at any of the shows.

Tomorrow night is West of East, 2011 WAMI Award Winners for Americana Artist of the Year. Click here for more info.

That's all for now. Talk to you again, sooner than the last blogpost!

Stumpjack Music

Well, I am having one of those "I am going to smash this laptop on the floor" moments. I just finished an hour of writing a glowing dialogue about the music that we, Stumpjack, had booked with Brothers Burn Mountain and Chris Darby, and where those shows will be held now that we are closed in Two Rivers...and as I was going to save and publish the laptop decided that that was the best time to freeze up and close all of my tabs.

SO (breathing deeply and deliberately, counting to 100, serenity now, serentiy now)...until I attempt a rewrite of what I had written earlier, for now I will simply say that we have great performances planned in different venues for Brothers Burn Mountain on June 23rd and Chris Darby on July 1st. The owner of the coffee shop that now occupies the space that Stumpjack once did assured us that these bookings would go on as Stumpjack gigs but things with them have deteriorated to the point that we cannot hold these shows that we booked there. So, we have secured other, better locations for them. I'll follow up on this in detail later...after I finish giving this particular laptop a time-out for misbehaving.