Land + Water + Ups and Downs

October 2, 2018 Jillian Rash

Taken in GSMNP, partially funded by the LWCF

As with all things US politics lately, the Land and Water Conservation Fund and its renewal have been no different. As of Sunday, the program expired. I was pretty bummed, wildly confused, and, as OIA (Outdoor Industry Association) put it, I felt LWCF'ed. I tried to put something together yesterday, but I was still too angry and didn't want to bring a mess load of politics into this space.

If you still don't know what LWCF is, it's a program that takes non-taxpayer money from drilling royalties and helps to fund our wild places and give us clean water. If you live in the US, you've most likely benefited from this program, it's active in almost every county in the country. So, losing it was a pretty big deal.

Finding Color In a Sea of Khaki

September 25, 2018 Jillian Rash

Khaki is my most popular rod bag color. Light khaki, dark khaki, lightweight khaki, lightweight light khaki… You get the point. In fact, I have an entire fabric bin dedicated to khaki. All the other colors and flannel fit in another, much small bin. What can I say, people like their muted tones?

But, every once in a while my little sewing world gets rocked with a bit of color. Okay, maybe more than a little.

The Best Years

September 24, 2018 Jillian Rash

The best years any angler will ever have are their first. It's not that during this time you're particularly good at it, far from it, you're pretty horrible. Most of your time is spent tying on a fly or untangling a knot. Your technique is poor, but you can't quite figure out how to fix it. Everyone else around you catch plenty of fish with seemingly no effort, but you only manage to catch trees and sticks, despite trying your hardest. But make no mistake, these are your best years.

Happy Fall!

September 23, 2018 Jillian Rash

For the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to spend my first day of fall in Colorado amongst the changing aspen trees. This year is different, I'm at home in North Carolina, and I'll admit that I'm pretty bummed about it.

So, I'll share with you this photo from last year, of my favorite trees, in my favorite place, during my favorite time of year.

I pulled out a flannel this morning (it's a frigid 76 degrees here) put on Back To Autumn by Tall Heights and reminded myself that this is the first day of a new season and a new week, the possibilities are endless!

Happy Fall and Happy Flannel Weather!

Over The Ridge

September 21, 2018 Jillian Rash

Some days hiking over the ridge pays off.

Rushed Hours

September 14, 2018 Jillian Rash

Fishing trips. Oh, how I miss a good fishing trip. Since returning home from Colorado, it's been a whirlwind of work. Yup, that four letter word has crept back into our lives. Between a backlog of rod bags (thank you all!!!), rod building and guiding Jacob and I have only managed to hit the water once. But, I guess that's what you get when you go on a month long vacation.

Last week we decided to put our "to-dos" on the back burner for a couple of hours and run up to the Davidson. It's close to the house, it holds fish, and our favorite brewery is on the way home. Win-win-win.