We were selected to participate in the 2014 Tour D'Coop in Raleigh on May 17th.   Here is a recent article I wrote for our Neighborhood News Letter...and thought I would post here.   For any of my Raleigh friends...this tour is a fun way to check out a bunch of different gardens and backyards across Raleigh.   Fun Times.  

2014 Tour D’Coop Coming to Fairfax Hills   

Dan Smith, Board Member and Resident: 5417 Springfield Drive

The backyard chicken movement is spreading throughout Raleigh and has quite a few happy hen loving owners, right here in Fairfax Hills.  Backyard chicken farming has been around for, well, for as long as there have been backyards and chickens.  The popularity of this great endeavor is spreading to more and more places across America.   If you are taking a stroll through the newly divided and recently cleared Fairfax Hills Park, you may come upon some of Fairfax Hills greatest girls.  Well, not girls, but hens if you will, they are our pets, tools of education, entertainers, provider of great compost, and giver of fantastic and healthy breakfast for our family of six.  We affectionately call them ‘the girls’.   So hello…we are the Smith’s and started chicken farming about three years ago and now maintain a healthy flock of ten hens.  

As a way of sharing our knowledge on the benefits of these great pets we are going to be a part of the 2014 TourD’Coop.  A Raleigh-based Backyard Chicken Coop and Garden Tour Extravaganza-   http://www.tourdcoop.com/  Here is an excerpt from their webpage:

"Started in 2005 as a way for a few neighbors to show off their hens and coops, the Henside the Beltline Tour D'Coop has grown to a one-day garden tour that encompasses 20 coops and thousands of visitors. The event raises non-perishable food and money for Urban Ministries, a Raleigh-based non-profit that provides essential services to close to 20,000 Triangle residents each year. Coop owners and the tour organizers volunteer their time to promote back yard poultry and urban farming. - See more at: www.tourdcoop.com"

We are excited to have been selected for the tour and wanted to give a heads up to Fairfax Hills residents that the TourD’Coop is coming to the Hills.  The tour will be on Saturday, May 17, 2014 rain or shine.  You can sign up on the website for tickets.   There is a recommended donation of $10.00 per individual/$20.00 per family. All proceeds go to Urban Ministries.   This is also a good heads up for our neighborhood that will have a bit more traffic than normal that weekend, so be alert. 

If you are interested in our coop design, we purchased plans from John, a small business owner in Oregon, who sells his plans on the internet at TheGardenCoop.com.   Our coop was featured on his site as he liked the cantilevered roof and some of design changes we came up with.  His plans have ended up all over the world and you can see how this one design gets creatively built and modified by amateur builders around the globe on his website.   These plans should definitely be considered if you are interested in building a coop yourself.

If we happen to see you on the day of the tour, make sure you introduce yourself and let us know you are in the neighborhood, or if you are ever walking through the park and we are out and about, you can always give a shout over the fence and one of our crew can give you a quick tour of the ‘girls’.   Morning Glory, Thumper, Matilda, Hunter, Pecky, Tulip, Puddles, Fireball, Opal, and Daphne will be glad to say a warm hello as well.

We know of a few other wonderful Fairfax Hills residents who have the chicken fever and are benefiting from the joys of this wonderful hobby…but I will save room for future newsletters for these champions of chickens to tell their own love for the bird.   Until then happy egg laying.   Cluck Cluck.  Dan and Jessica Smith with our chicken farming crew- Ethan, Olivia, Adam, and Aaron.   

After about 8 years of doing adventure-based workouts during my lunch break, I am so grateful that I can finally add my true passion of rock climbing into the mix.  A huge shout out to the the guys at Triangle Rock Club who had the vision and insight to open another gym location in North Raleigh.   It is 10 minutes from my office and I have been hitting it about three days a week since they opened a few short months ago.  

This place is extremely visual with great colors, lines, and some of the best indoor climbing routes on the east coast.   What a great escape for an hour to climb hard, move the body, and even worship the Lord.   Worship the Lord?   Yep.  Worship the Lord.   We are told "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'.  Luke 10:27    For me doing simple things like climbing and moving my body while being focused on the Lord adds an entire new level and element to these adventure workouts. 

And as always, when I am done, I go back to work with a pep in my step, a smile on my face, and ready to go make it happen. Neat.   

I hope in some way this encourages you to do more than you think possible, to think outside the box, and to push yourself in a positive direction.    Here is a quick 5 minute video I put together on the adventure.  .  

Last Friday I went to Lake Lynn in Raleigh, which is about 5 minutes from where I work, and flew my modified dual stunt kite and did some juggling.   It was about 27 degrees with a 12-14 mph nnw wind...kind of bitter, but it was sunny and I was dressed for the occasion.  I really needed to get out of the office and I knew there wouldn't be a lot of people at the park.  What a great time.    

I have a HQ Symphony 1.8 kite and just love it.   I took off the lines and attached two shoelaces I had in my car and came up with this really weird hybrid short line system that made a short kite that was really fun to fly.   Add in some juggling and some filming with my GoPro, a little editing over the weekend,  and I came up with the below video to document the occasion.   I have to go real fast in order to set up, fly, juggle, film, and drive back to the office so I can make it in about an hour time frame...it's kind of a weird Mission Impossible kind of rush...but when I get back to work to deal with the real world I have such a renewed sense of making it happen and getting it done.    

Heck I just spent and hour looking up at the sky, feeling a wind across my face that awakens the whole body, looking out over a beautiful lake and having an entire city park practically to myself.    Not a bad way to spend a lunch break in my opinion.   It fills me up and recharges my soul.  Neat. 

As I continue down the path of my professional career I am getting more and more glimpses into the connection between my drive for adventure and my drive for business.   I am confident I am not alone.   It's as if seeing the best horizon line from the stern of the boat, the next summit in the distance, or that magical moment during a whiteout where the skies open up enough to see the distant peaks and next destination. It's that type of view.    

With that rosy little introduction I now want to cut to the chase.   I have a professional background in adventure recreation. I worked in the industry for about 10 years.  Now I am in the tech training industry in Raleigh, NC.   I am 40 years old and I still like to shred.   Over the past seven years I have shifted my adventures to 1 hour blocks during my lunch break.  These have included mini adventures and workouts that I can do within 15 minutes from work. 

These activities have included trail running, climbing/bouldering, slack-lining, down-hill skateboarding, hacky-sacking, juggling, stunt-kite flying, bowl/pool skateboarding, mountain biking, and kayaking. 

These activities pushed me in ways I never thought possible.  Not only did my individual skills in each of these  areas improve,  I also became much more aware and proficient in the areas of logistics, equipment, time management, and planning.   This transfers out to all other areas in my life (Especially being a dad of 4 kids!)

After one of my 'push it hard, get it done' adventure sessions I came back to the office with the following:  confidence, clearer thinking, and the drive to 'make it happen'.   What a better way to spend your lunch break than throwing down hard, moving your body, and having fun.

So some of you have got to this point and are saying this guy is out there and have checked out.  That's ok.  There are a few more that could care less about outdoors or adventure but the drive to push yourself in something and doing this during your lunch break sounds appealing.   A few more of you are reading this and may be in business, but you too had times of paddling down rivers, climbing up peaks, backpacking into the wilderness and those adventure sensors are sparking up.  

The character and drive that has made many of us successful in our work lives is also what fueled us to be good skiers, boarders, kayakers, climbers, hikers, and skaters.  As careers, family, and life creep in, we end up spending more and more time in small offices, cozy cubes, and tight conference rooms…yet there is that love and longing to be back outdoors.   This adventure workout routine has allowed me to have the best of both worlds and balance my time in business.  I am hopeful that a few of you out there may get a little inspiration and encouragement from these adventures.