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It was the first week of January, and heavy cloud lay over most of western Indonesia. The flight north-westwards from Jakarta to Medan showed us nothing of the jungle that must lie below us, and the only memorable sight, quite soon after take-off, was a smudge of dark cloud rising far away in the west: the smoke of Krakatau, or rather of its "child", the young volcano that is patiently building itself from the seabed.
Sumatra is about as big as Spain, and most parts of it are fairly empty, though there are half-a-dozen large towns and any fertile area is well populated. The mountains that rise almost straight out of the sea on its western side catch most of the moisture that blows in from the Indian Ocean, but this rain feeds the big rivers that meander across the eastern plains towards the Straits of Malacca and the Java Sea. One way or another, there is plenty of water everywhere, but most of the best soils are in the hills. Recorded Sumatran history begins with outward-looking seafaring and trading empires on the east coast, and continues with relatively isolated farming communities and kingdoms in the interior. In the 1870s, a Dutch entrepreneur decided that land in the north-east of the island, which was cheap because no one thought it very useful, might be good for growing tobacco. He was right, and Sumatra's biggest city is the result, though at least half its growth has taken place in the last thirty years.
Most Indonesian towns, even provincial capitals, focus on a single main street. In Medan, it is a long street that changes its name several times between the Post Office at the north end and the Maimoon Palace at the south. There are so many people and things that need to have streets named after them that these two or three kilometres have to accommodate within their length the names of the town hall, two generals and the Green Princess, a legendary local heroine. But the whole street remains in local speech Kesawah, the road that leads to the rice fields. It could be said, of course, that all roads in Indonesia lead to rice fields sooner or later.
In this long street, on a very hot afternoon, we sat in the well-shaded office of a tour company, enquiring in the same breath about local restaurants and the possibility of chartering a car to take us to the hills. The car was soon arranged, but the restaurants were more of a problem. North Sumatra is the country of the Batak people, but the manager of the tour office did not think there were any Batak restaurants. There were the usual Javanese and Chinese eating places; there were plenty of rumah makan Padang, of course. We could get Korean, Japanese and European food, and American fast food. Eventually, we got into a taxi and asked the driver's advice. We ended up driving 20 kilometres to the port of Belawan, which gave the driver plenty of time to ask the personal questions that people in Indonesia love to ask, and clocked up a massive return fare. But it did not show us any very tempting places to eat.
Finding a restaurant in a town where you know no one is always chancy, but especially so in Indonesia, where menus are not usually hung in the window and it is impossible to guess the quality of the cooking, or even the cost of the meal, by looking at the shopfront. The best you can do is to choose one that appears to be clean and commercially successful. If your driver recommends one, you invite him to eat there as well, as a kind of guarantee of good faith. In this case, the driver didn't know anywhere, and a couple of circuits of the town were unproductive. Eventually we ate, near midnight, in the hotel coffee shop.
Next morning we were in the General Manager's office to meet the GM himself and the Food and Beverage Manager. In every big hotel, they are two members of a trinity whose third is the Executive Chef, but Chef was on holiday and had gone home to Bali. Senior Indonesian hotel staff are often Balinese, because their island has had such a large helping of experience in looking after foreign visitors. But many hotels still bring in their top managers from abroad. Here, we were talking to a Malaysian and a Norwegian.
Svein confirmed that there was plenty of Batak food, but said it was virtually unknown outside Batak homes and festive gatherings. Batak recipes use local herbs and roots that are not known, or at any rate not used, elsewhere; and these, while they give the food a characteristic flavour, also turn it a uniform dull grey. He liked the food well enough himself, but would never put it on a hotel menu because no one would order it; apart from anything else, two of its principal ingredients are pork and dog meat, both abhorrent to the Moslem majority. Plenty of people in South-East Asia eat dogs, but usually at home or in small restaurants that specialize in cooking them. Although I cannot see any logical reason against eating dogs that doesn't apply just as strongly against eating cows or sheep, I must admit that my own upbringing has prevented me from experimenting.
Some time later, we set off for Brastagi and the hills, following the usual tourist route towards Lake Toba. If you hire a car in Indonesia, always hire the driver as well. He costs only a little more (and probably needs the work). He may turn out to be a knowledgeable and entertaining guide, and will often become a friend. On Indonesian roads, you will be infinitely safer in his experienced hands, and you will able to look about you and allow your attention to be distracted. There is always plenty to see.
On this trip we were particularly looking out for food sellers. Near the city speculative developers were hastily putting up terraces of shops, usually with two or three floors of living accommodation above them, with fancily bowed windows and balconies or verandahs supported by strangely unclassical columns. Well-established rows of shops carry large amounts of advertising, and a great deal of this is for instant or convenience foods. Both the product and the marketing are American-style, and once you have seen the hoardings and heard the TV jingles you will have no difficulty in finding the familiar brand names even on the remotest island. Even rice is beginning to be branded, though most of it is still sold in large bags and labelled simply by its variety.
As long as there are enough people around, any main road is likely to become a marketplace, so ribbon development of small businesses extends outward from every town and village. Where brick and concrete fail, planks of wood, then bamboo and woven palm fronds take over. Eventually you reach the countryside, where fruit and vegetables are sold from the simplest of shelters, or by the roadside with no shelter at all. We stopped at one of these stalls to buy durian, whose heavy perfume lingers deliciously in the heavy afternoon air. Public transport and hotels ban durian because it becomes overpowering in a small space, but out of doors your nose perceives it merely as a dominant note in the chord of roadside smells, blending particularly well with that of newly-laid dust after a sudden shower.
On the way into the hills, we stopped for lunch at an Islamic eating house by the roadside. Its religious aspect was merely a promise to visitors that the food would be halal, the meat ritually slaughtered and nothing cooked in pork fat. There was also a room at the back where people could pray. The girl who served us wore the white headscarf that covers the hair and looks very becoming. The food was excellent, but at the end of the meal I made a bad social gaffe. Accustomed to city life, I left a tip. My own Minangkabau upbringing ought to have reminded me that in country districts in Sumatra this is not just unnecessary, it is an insult to the person who has served you. The young waitress tactfully assumed that I had left the money on the table by mistake and called after me. She saw my embarrassment, and rose to the occasion. 'If you want to give something to the mosque,' she said, 'the box is here,' and she popped the cash into the slot with a conspiratorial little smile.
Brastagi is about 1300 metres above sea level, flourishing greatly on fruit, market gardening and day trippers. This area is famous for its marquisa juice, which is sold in large plastic bottles lashed together with rattan; these are often conspicuous items in the hand luggage of air travellers. The market gardens produce all the fresh vegetables that Europeans are used to and which are in increasing demand in Asian cities. They do not grow well in tropical heat and humidity, and the cooler conditions of the hills don't always go with good soil, so a high fertile plateau like this one is a precious resource. A lot of the local produce is flown to Singapore. This is a nearer and more accessible market than Jakarta, which anyway has its own suppliers in the West Java hills.
On Sundays and public holidays, the trippers throng the road from Medan. Many of them make for a little hill at the top end of Brastagi town called Bukit Gundaling, a public park with views across the plateau to the high hills beyond. There you can rent a straw mat, spotlessly clean and with beautiful patterns woven into it, and sit on the hilltop to admire the view while you eat your picnic and drink cold lemonade or marquisa juice. If you feel extravagant, you can drink Guinness, which is brewed in Indonesia and advertised with a slogan long ago banned in Britain, Guinness baik untuk Anda. In translation, however, it has lost the alliterative kick of "Guinness is good for you". I don't think, anyway, that many of the young people on Bukit Gundaling can afford beer; they drink Coke or Pocari Sweat or the local brands of mineral water and are all very sober, though jolly enough, each little group gathered around a boy with a guitar or, less attractively, a stereo cassette player. But even the music is not usually very loud. It is in fact a scene of the utmost respectability, the sort of public enjoyment one gets used to here. For the middle-aged traveller it is not the least of Indonesia's attractions.
Our hotel turned out to be on top of a green hillock in another part of town, an old Dutch country club that would have looked quite at home in Surrey. They gave us a good plain dinner in a cavernous dining room and enormous, hard beds in lofty bedrooms. Only the breakfast was a little disappointing, as breakfasts often are in the tropics if you don't want to eat a plateful of rice. The trouble is the bread, which in small towns is still made to Dutch recipes that have survived since the 1930s and in big cities to American recipes that I suppose have been imported either direct from US catering colleges or perhaps via Japan or Taiwan. Anyway, the bread is almost universally terrible, chalky white, flabby, often sweetened, full of air in the middle but thickening to a soggy brown outside layer which takes the place of a crust. The common name for it is roti tawar, and the best thing that can be said about it is that it is still locally made, much of it by quite small firms, so there are at least distinctions of awfulness and perhaps hope for improvement.THE LAKE
From here to Lake Toba you cross gently-rolling hills through good rich farmland. Most of the rice that is grown here is upland rice, which is not flooded and therefore does not need to be terraced. We stopped for awhile to admire the view of the lake from its northern end, and the Sipisopiso waterfall that plunges over a ledge of hard rock and falls a hundred metres in a single drop. Toba has occupied, for the last 70-odd thousand years, a gigantic, misshapen volcanic crater, most of its centre filled with the debris of a subsequent eruption. It and the Tonle Sap in Cambodia are the two biggest lakes in South-East Asia; Tonle Sap is shallow, but Toba's greatest depths are said to be still unmeasured. Most of the hillsides at this end of the lake have been cleared of trees and are now covered in alang-alang grass, which is almost useless to man and beast but at least slows down the erosion of soil. Uncontrolled logging is certainly a problem in Indonesia, but there is some attempt to check it, and the loss of trees is not, in most areas, anything like as bad as we had seen previously in the Philippines. On one flat, squarish hillside, which happened to face the main road, someone had cut the message BERJUTA POHON - millions of trees - in enormous letters which were already fading into scrubby vegetation.
We stopped again to look at the old timber palace of the Raja of Simalungun; it sits in its earthwork enclosure like some sort of preposterous boat in a dry dock, slightly sway-backed, supported on many wooden pillars each shaped from a massive tree trunk. We climbed into its main hall and saw the Raja's little box-bedroom and the long chamber where his twelve, or possibly twenty-two, wives slept on mats, with kitchen hearthstones at regular intervals among their bedspaces. The exterior was freshly painted in the holy colours of red, white and black. Meanwhile our driver, Marno, a Javanese, was playing chess with a man he had met in the car park for a stake of 1,000 rupiah. We gathered from his expression that he had lost, which did not surprise us; you don't play chess with strangers in Sumatra unless you are pretty good.
It took us another couple of hours to reach Prapat, halfway down the eastern shore of the lake; here we lunched and waited for the ferry to take us across to the almost-island of Samosir. Samosir figures in all the guidebooks as mystic, haunted, strange.So far as I have been able to trace the origins of this extravagance, it started in Schnitger's Forgotten Kingdoms of Sumatra, a good book published in 1938 and recently reprinted. Schnitger was impressed partly by the strange stone carvings on the island and partly by the low clouds that frequently enwrap it. The carvings are still there, and the weather is indeed very unsettled, but I cannot say I felt any atmosphere of mystery or romance. The finest sight of Samosir in my opinion is the mountain wall, 1000 metres high, that runs for nearly 50 kilometres along its eastern edge, with a narrow coastal plain between it and the unplumbed waters of the lake. If you have time and energy to climb or penetrate behind those hills, you may well find mysteries there. I cannot say that tourism has actually spoiled Samosir, because there are no high-rise hotels or tarmacked coach parks and I was only occasionally asked for money by people who were not offering anything worth having in return. But the few surviving adat villages are empty museums; there are no crafts or cultural activities that show a response to anything new, and I had the impression of a refined but very limited culture of stone- and woodcarvers and weavers, which would have crumpled quickly under the pressures of modern life even if no tourist had ever come here.
This is a pity, because the Batak are tough, vigorous, intelligent people who often do conspicuously well in the world outside. In their own homeland, much of their creative energy seems to have gone into tomb-making. Traditionally, they carved huge stone sarcophagi for their dead, decorated with staring faces and squatting, rather happy little figures. Nowadays, when many are Protestant Christians, and notably Seventh-Day Adventists, they use concrete to build small churches and very large tombs, the latter brightly painted and shaped like houses, animals, boats or combinations of these. We saw many on the road round the south-east corner of the lake, passing through the rice land around Porsea and on to Tarutung, a route that lies mostly through farming country. The way down to the coast at Sibolga is very different. Here you descend the outer face of Sumatra's mountain wall, dropping steeply hour after hour through thick jungle towards the ocean, seeing few signs of human activity apart from an occasional road-mending gang or a village doing its best to look modern on limited resources.
From Sibolga to Bukittinggi we spent another two days on the road, rejoining the Trans-Sumatra Highway that now runs the whole length of the island. It has a good black tarmac surface, but is mostly only a little wider than two buses, and very few of the bends in the old road have been straightened or widened; so it is now rather more dangerous than it used to be, and a lot more comfortable. Enormous coaches swept past us frequently, huge dayglo signs on their rear windows promising A/C, TOILET, FULL MUSIC, VIDEO, KARAOKE. They ply between towns as far apart as Medan and Surabaya or even Denpasar, travelling non-stop and changing crews on the way as stage coaches used to change horses. Though there are much cheaper buses, with battered side panels and no air-conditioning, the days when you used to see passengers on the roof-rack among their luggage, and the conductor climbing out through the window to collect the fares, are long gone. Indonesians love to travel, and they are getting used to comfort and non-stop entertainment.
But the real pleasure of the road is the endless variety of green landscape and hills that you pass through, and the mass of fine detail that takes your eye in every village. There are exceptional things: I saw a young lady riding elegantly sidesaddle on the luggage-rack of her husband's bicycle, an eight-foot two-handed cross-cut saw draped across her shoulder. One large village was full of people, even little boys, in white caps, the sign that one has made the pilgrimage to Mecca; it was a pesantren, a religious college, and we passed serried rows of students' living-cubicles, like shabby thatched bathing-huts. And there are the commonplace things, the open-fronted shops selling everything you can think of in a few square feet, the builders' yards full of precast cement columns and balconies ready to be tacked on to new houses (I know one that also stocks fresh-painted kilometre posts), and the roadside brickworks with, if you're lucky, lurid flames and black smoke billowing hellishly from the firing tunnels. In almost every village and town there is an attractive old mosque, "old" meaning that it was probably built before World War 2; the domes of craftily-shaped corrugated iron are charming, and somebody should study and record them before they are replaced by new ones in reinforced concrete, often with prefabricated domes in shiny tin bought "off the peg" from roadside shops that specialise in spare parts for mosques.BUKITTINGGI
At last I was within the borders of my home country, West Sumatra, the land of the Minangkabau, scene of my earliest memories. It is customary for a young Minangkabau to merantau, go out into the world to seek his or her fortune. I had been gone for a very long time, and my life had taken some unexpected directions. The Minangkabau have something in common with the Scots, and the feelings of a highlander returning home after long exile would, I daresay, be much like mine as we approached Bukittinggi.
We established ourselves in the nearly-new, very luxurious and beautiful Hotel Pusako, and there we stayed, making day trips into the countryside and longer journeys down to the coast at Padang and right across the island to Jambi in the east. January and February are dead months for tourism, and the place was almost empty. As a result, I came to know the hotel and its staff pretty well. The chef was a local man who had spent over twenty years in hotels in Bali. Apart from myself, another visitor in the kitchen was Donny Yudono, a lecturer from the hotel school in Bandung who was on six months' secondment to a private hotel school in Padang. Donny, like me, was working on ways of cooking and presenting traditional food so that it could it could take its place on the menus of hotels and restaurants. We had a lot of fun exchanging notes and information and of course cooking; he prepared a meal of Padang dishes for us which was served to a large group in the hotel's theatre restaurant to great acclaim.
We also toured the local markets. The name Bukittinggi means "high hill"; the town is nearly a thousand metres above the sea, and on the edge of a canyon. It has two markets, upper and lower, pasar atas and pasar bawa, one above the other on the hilltop. These are among the cleanest and best-organised food markets I have seen anywhere in South-East Asia. The vegetables, fruit, meat and fish are wonderfully fresh and much of the market garden produce would do well at an English agricultural show. The women who bring all this to market and preside over its sale are humorous, sharp, wide awake and full of self-confidence. Besides the raw ingredients for cooking there are immense quantities of snacks, convenience foods, biscuits and cakes, sweet and savoury things to crunch, lick, or chew, all of which you are constantly being invited to taste and sample as you walk round. Admittedly flies are a problem, and of course the market is not enclosed or air-conditioned, so freshness depends on a rapid turnover of stock. And I am not sure that I would want to buy the ready-made spice mixes that even the kitchen staff in the hotel regarded as legitimate time-savers. But for anyone who loves food, a walk through the Bukittinggi marketplace is a reminder of how good our raw materials can be.
Indonesian towns, even small ones, are in a continual ferment of growth and renewal, and the arcaded buildings at the top end of the market, with their oddly Spanish American air and the date, 1917, moulded in plaster, seem ancient indeed. On our first trip out of town, we came to my own birthplace of Padang Panjang, where I found the site of our family home easily enough but no trace of our old house or the school my father built. Many regions of Indonesia are known for their traditional houses and rice barns, and many of these old houses have steeply-pitched roofs whose gable ends are curved or swept upwards or pointed in some way, like buffalo horns or the ends of a boat. This makes the roof harder to construct, and has no obvious advantages for the people living under it, so presumably there are half-forgotten religious reasons for the custom; it certainly makes the houses picturesque and leads inevitably to regret that nowadays they don't build them like they used to.
My father was brought up in a real old-fashioned Minang house or rumah gadang, with a thatched roof and sharply-pointed multiple gables; but, with many others, it was destroyed in the earthquake of 1926, and even in those days no one wanted to rebuild it. So I grew up in a large brick house with plastered, whitewashed walls and tiled floors. There are still a few traditional houses left, but most are too small for the extended family group that should inhabit a real rumah gadang - grandparents (or at any rate a grandmother, Minang society being matrilineal), several daughters, and their husbands and children, maybe thirty or forty people altogether. When these great houses are constructed now, it is as public buildings, like the splendid Minangkabau Cultural Documentation Centre at Padang Panjang or the even more impressive palace near Pagarruyung, which replaces and enlarges the original, burnt down in 1976. These replicas have proper thatched roofs made of black, twisted coconut fibre; the old houses have nearly all switched to corrugated iron, and after a while you cease to deplore this and begin to admire the craftsmanship needed to produce such complex curves with such awkward material.
The landscape is rich, green and varied, a fine balance between man and nature. The roads are well surfaced and they all lead to interesting places. I am not fond of walking, and my idea of enjoying mountains is to sit in a well-placed coffee shop or restaurant and look at the view across a glass of local coffee or a plate of rice. My favourite coffee-shop, among many, is on the road to Lake Maninjau; it overlooks a neat green valley, with a stream and a village called, I think, Sungai Landir, and further off to your right there is a longer view down another valley. The village is enchanting, with the little domes of its mosque set among rice fields and a road of beaten earth leading up from the river between dense groves of bamboo; in the morning or afternoon light, every detail stands out crisp and vivid. A few kilometres further, you stop in a little ornamental park to see the entire lake spread, two hundred metres beneath you, within its rampart of hills. Once over the top of this rampart, the road descends by a spectacular series of hairpin bends. The earth here is rich and lush with cinnamon and clove trees, coconut palms, durian, bananas and rice. The roofs of the village at the lake's edge make their way slowly upwards through the greenery, and suddenly they are above you, shading you from the intensely bright sky of midday, whose light is now reflected from the water at your feet.
Maninjau is a favourite spot for Indonesians to visit, though as far as I could tell most of them come on package tours and spent at most one night in the small, rather bleak lakeside hotels. I met a young lady on the waterfront terrace where we were having a fish lunch; she told me she was a doctor from Jakarta. She was, unusually, a lone Indonesian in a coachload of Europeans, and though they were perfectly nice to her she felt rather isolated. She was eating toast and margarine Dutch-fashion, with a knife and fork. The rest of her group were eating local food in the restaurant next door, but she told me she never ate rice, hated the stuff.THE ROAD TO JAMBI
From Bukittinggi we moved down to the coast, to Padang, a busy seaport town with a long history, but exceedingly hot. We arranged for a local firm to rent us a car and driver for a four-day trip to Jambi, far away on the eastern side of Sumatra, about 80 km upstream from the mouth of the Batang Hari. The Batang Hari is the longest river in Sumatra, and Jambi province, which is about two and a half times the size of Wales, is simply the area drained by this river and its tributaries. They thread their way through what was until recently almost uninterrupted primary rainforest. There is still a lot of rainforest left, but most of what we saw along the road had been cut and replaced by new growth, or was planted with rubber or oil palms, or was farmed for cassava or sweet potatoes; there is hardly any land fertile enough for rice.
At Sungaidareh the road crosses the upper Batang Hari, and we got out and walked across the bridge, with the water rolling dangerously beneath us, swollen by days of heavy rain in the hills. A hundred metres upstream, I saw the little jetty where I had embarked, with my parents and baby sister, to make this crossing by raft, one afternoon in 1942; we were travelling from Padang Panjang to Lampung by bus, with no air conditioning, toilet, music or karaoke, and there were no bridges across the wide rivers. Passengers went first; then the raft was hauled back so that the empty bus could make the crossing. The place looked much the same now as it had then. Our driver told us that the previous evening a family with three children, going home from market in their boat, had been swept away and lost. I shivered.
There is certainly a romanticism about these flat, low-lying roads lined with endless dark-green vegetation, overhung by a sky which seemed to be always grey. There is said to be gold in the river beds, and this was the site of the ancient kingdom of Melayu, which has left a few crumbling temples in the jungle. But we were glad to arrive in Jambi, which has a personality of its own quite unlike most Indonesian towns. On the south bank of the Batang Hari, it has a fading, but still quite impressive, waterfront that I think must date from colonial times, set on a low bluff that gives a fine view of the river and of the extensive village on stilts that stands between high and low water on the north. After we had been shown round the orchid garden and bought orchids for the Governor's wife, and after I had interviewed her about Jambi food, we went in a tiny boat to call on her niece, who lives in one of these houses and runs a batik workshop. The house itself was beautifully made from fine timber, with high cool rooms and a large verandah. As we sat and talked and inspected samples of superb hand-drawn batik, I could not see the water; yet somehow it was always there, at the edge of my consciousness, giving the house an exoticism it would not otherwise have had.
Our hotel room overlooked another lagoon or offshoot of the river, much choked with weed but clear enough in the middle to allow fishing-platforms to manouevre. The water came right up to the walls of the hotel, and every guest who had ever drunk a plastic bottle of mineral water had tossed the empty bottle from his balcony. Indonesians must be some of the world's least litter-conscious people. The hotel manager had, by his own admission, only just taken over the business from his father and had not yet had time to learn much about it. However, he was reading it up in a massive American manual, which he also consulted whenever one of his staff brought him a problem. On the whole they got by pretty well, though the cooking was dire and we ate badly until we discovered a little Javanese restaurant in a walled garden, well away from the town centre and therefore not very busy. Here the food was good, the menu a little more adventurous than usual, and the staff hospitably surprised to see the same people coming back for meal after meal.
We saw a lot of the back streets of Jambi involuntarily, since our driver and guide, both of whom claimed to be experts on the town, invariably got lost on every journey through it. It says a lot for the place that I remember it with affection. Our efforts to find the museum, which is a large building in the centre of Jambi, were particularly unprofitable, except once when we were looking for something else; but at last we reached it intentionally. Most Indonesian museums have at least one or two good things in them, and the standard of presentation is slowly improving, though it is very uneven. They are particularly good on local tools, kitchen equipment and cooking pots, furniture and textiles. Many have excellent models of local houses and boats, and as Jambi has long been home to traders from all over the archipelago, many traditions of domestic architecture can still be seen here. This museum also has an astonishing old wooden chest, about 2 metres long and more than a metre high, dug out of a single immense hunk of timber, with a lid from the same block. Where it came from, how old it is and what it was for, is not explained.
We made it back to Bukittinggi in a day. It was a long trip, one section dead straight for 110 km over gently-rolling hills, but I was anxious to get home. At midday, we were waylaid by naked and threatening orang Kubu, descendants of the first human inhabitants of these forests, and had to talk and bribe our way past them. In our hotel room at midnight we watched President Clinton being inaugurated in the frosty sunshine of a Washington morning.


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Randy Travis was working out one day, listening to a demo CD labeled "Gospel Compilation for Consideration." A few songs had already gone by when he heard these first words: "A farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher … ."
"I thought, surely this is not a gospel song. Somebody must have made a mistake!" Travis laughs.
He enjoyed the melody enough to give the song, "Three Wooden Crosses," a second listen, and that's when he was struck with the story. In the song, a hooker accepts the preacher's Bible just before he dies (along with the farmer and the teacher) following a bus crash on the way to Mexico. The hooker raises her son with the guidance of the bloody Bible, and he eventually becomes a preacher himself.
Currently in the Top 10 on Billboard's country singles chart, "Three Wooden Crosses" is a highlight of Travis' second gospel album, Rise and Shine. His first, Inspirational Journey, arrived in 2000. By then, Travis had already racked up 15 No. 1 country hits and more than a dozen additional Top 10s. But after the acclaim from Inspirational Journey, Travis chose a casino date to unite his gospel material and his best-known hits — such as "Forever and Ever, Amen," "Deeper Than the Holler" and "Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart."
"I was just a nervous wreck the first night, to be honest with you," Travis says. "It came to the portion in the show when we were going to do a few songs from Inspirational Journey, and I just thought, 'Oh, how is this going to work?' But it worked incredibly well. The response was as if people were hearing hits that they knew from hearing the radio. And it's been like that since day one."
With his reputation (he ranked No. 13 on CMT 40 Greatest Men of Country), Travis could get away with delivering gospel songs to a country crowd, but how would a tried-and-true gospel audience respond? Travis himself concedes that, at first, he wasn't too keen on performing in churches, a marketing idea from his record company.
"I didn't come from a background that had any religion whatsoever," he says. "I've been very upfront about that. I was about as lost as you could get. I was arrested no telling how many times and an alcoholic and an addict. They said, 'We want you to promote this in churches, and I said, 'You want me to go where and do what?'"
Despite his initial reservations, Travis' music ministry has earned three Dove awards, the Gospel Music Association's highest honor, and he continues to sing in churches, casinos, theaters, festivals and so on.
During his conversation for this interview, however, Travis is relaxing in his newly built house in Santa Fe, N.M. "It's a nice change to be home for a while," he says in his refreshing and relaxed manner. "So I'm in no hurry, in other words. Whatever you need."
After talking about "Three Wooden Crosses" for a while, the interview turns more into a casual conversation about his hobbies and other country stars he admires:
On his early days singing in North Carolina clubs: "I was very fortunate in the respect that I started working in clubs at 14 and by the time I was 16, I was in them fulltime and still doing other jobs. I was opening shows for people like Johnny Russell and Little Jimmy Dickens. By the way, those are the two greatest entertainers I have ever watched in my life. (laughs) They have a God-given thing that you can't really develop, an ability to just mesmerize an audience."
On his pre-stardom days of cooking at the Nashville Palace: "I knew how to cook a little already. I enjoy good food and I just wanted to know I could be able to feed myself. (laughs) A lot of guys would hear this and say, 'You sissy,' but in school, in order to avoid going to the gym and doing any sports, I took home economics in the sixth and seventh grade. (laughs) There was only me and one other guy in there with a bunch of girls. But I learned a few things there, then I went to the Palace and started out as a dishwasher and started working with a guy who cooked there and learned how to prepare the dishes they made. I am not a great chef by any means. I can just kind of get by."
On wife Lib's abilities in the kitchen: "My wife is an amazing cook. People who have never had her cooking will eat with us, and it invariably gets around to 'You need to open a restaurant.' And I'm really quick to speak up, 'Huh-uh, no no no no no.' (laughs) I've been there, she's been there. That's a job you never get away from. That's a seven-days-a-week job and I want nothing else to do with that."
On Patty Loveless : "You probably do the same thing, get records that you'll listen to, and you like so much that you just wear them out, and that's the only thing you listen to for a few weeks. That was the last album I did that with, was her Mountain Soul album. I mean, there are no flaws on there. It hurt my feelings that she didn't ask me to sing on it. (laughs) I'm joking with you, although it would be an honor to sing with her. I find nothing wrong anywhere throughout that record. I love every bit of that record."
Travis also hints that there's interest in turning "Three Wooden Crosses" into a movie, as well as releasing more singles from Rise and Shine. ("When Mama Prayed" and "Pray for the Fish" are in the running.) He hopes to do another mainstream country record and has already recorded four songs for it. There's also talk of an album of hymns.
Still, he's unafraid that he'll alienate his core country audience.
"Listen to me speak," he says. "What else am I gonna do with the voice I have?"

subset: commoncrawl


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Review: 'The Dark Room'
By: Kira Kim
The Darkroom was the first ever student-produced film to be shown for the On The Rocks festival. I was intrigued after reading the introductory note in the programme, and I went to the venue brimming with curiosity. The film turned out to be experimental and seemed professionally made, marking a watershed moment in the development of film-making by students in St Andrews. I got the impression that everyone was in awe of the content and quality of the film, as well as the skill of the production team.
In relation to the plot, the protagonist John suffers from an uneventful life as a photographer, and we got a sense of his depressed mood throughout the film. Sadly, his closest friend is his camera, and it challenges him to confront his biggest fears. The film was made with a black-and-white filter, and this helped set the scene from the very beginning, emphasising the setting of the darkroom both literally and metaphorically. In the darkness, John's solitary presence became more apparent and symbolically helped represent the bleakness of his life.
The film was unique in the sense that it created a dialogue between John and the camera, deliberately personifying the latter as a conscious moral agent. This was not obvious from the start of the film, but was slowly unveiled when the camera grew to develop its own voice, shadow, and figure. The actress who played the role of the camera was superb. Her emotions could be heard in her voice alone, and she both manipulated and shaped the personality of the camera as an object/subject who was sympathetic, but also critical of John's choices and the life he has chosen to lead.
The cinematography was brilliant in every way from one scene to the next. Various techniques were used to maintain the film's intensity. Perception was a big theme, and was experimented with by the use of the camera, which was a speculative observer for the most part but, at moments, also reflected the figures that were captured in the photographs processed in the darkroom. The use of zoomed-in and zoomed-out shots were used selectively: the one scene that captivated me was when John was bombarded with questions and statements made by a mysterious figure walking in the darkness, who began to circle John as he stood hopelessly in the centre of the screen, illuminated just by a spotlight. The sense of interrogation, and the culmination of John's emotional intensity, was portrayed well here.
Not only did the film touch upon questions we may face in our own lives, but it delivered them with a certain reflectiveness which placed us as the 'third observer' outside the screen. I would like to pass my congratulations on to everyone who contributed to the making of the production: The Darkroom really did surpass my expectations.


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1. You have a growth mindset!
You understand that there's room to grow and that even though you're not perfect, you can keep growing as a teacher.
You embrace feedback from your colleagues AND your students.
Sometimes your students teach you some things and you're totally okay with it.
2. Obstacles don't phase you
Wifi goes out. Battery dies. Student forgot their phone.
You know exactly what to do for each situation because little obstacles don't keep you away from your goals.
You pair students up, take out a charger or do an alternative assignment, but you got this.
3. You embrace change
Everything in education is always changing but that doesn't matter to you.
You can easily modify lesson plans, research a new cool website or get help from another teacher because you understand that change is inevitable.
4. You're always on your toes
The second a student is texting rather than playing Kahoot, like you asked, you know right away! You also have a discipline plan in place for things like this.
You're literally on your feet walking around the class to monitor students and you rarely spend the whole day sitting at your desk.
5. You're a planner
Come on, just admit it...you freak out a little without a plan.
It may not be an elaborate plan on a word doc, it might just be a mental plan but the point is: you have one.
Website malfunctions, absent students, ELL's, whatever it is...you'd planned for it. Who wouldn't want to be a student in your class?
Regardless of your age, your tech abilities, your effectiveness- you make technology happen and you're trying the best you can. It's hard work and sometimes you might even question if it's worth it, but KEEP DOING WHAT YOU'RE DOING! You are making a difference in this world one student at a time.
Tell me about your experiences using tech (good and bad) down below!


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Why Roundy's, Inc. Shares Spilled Today
Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of embattled grocery store chain Roundy's sank 10% today after its quarterly results and outlook disappointed Wall Street.
So what: The stock has plummeted in recent months on skepticism over a turnaround, and today's Q4 results -- earnings of $8.7 million on a revenue increase of just 2% -- coupled with downbeat guidance only reinforces those negative vibes. While the Roundy's managed to reverse its year-ago loss of $98.4 million, same-store sales during the quarter declined 2.4%, suggesting that its competitive position continues to weaken.
Now what: Management now sees full-year 2014 EPS of $0.27-$0.40, well below Wall Street's view of $0.74. "While we still have important challenges to overcome in our core markets, we believe the investments we made in 2013 and continue to make in 2014 are beginning to resonate with our customers," chairman, president, and CEO Robert Mariano reassured investors. Given Roundy's worrisome operating trends and still-hefty debt load, however, I wouldn't be so quick to buy into that bullishness.
More reliable ways to wealth
One of the dirty secrets that few finance professionals will openly admit is the fact that dividend stocks as a group handily outperform their non-dividend-paying brethren. The reasons for this are too numerous to list here, but you can rest assured that it's true. However, knowing this is only half the battle. The other half is identifying which dividend stocks in particular are the best. With this in mind, our top analysts put together a free list of nine high-yielding stocks that should be in every income investor's portfolio. To learn the identity of these stocks instantly and for free, all you have to do is click here now.
The article Why Roundy's, Inc. Shares Spilled Today originally appeared on Fool.com.Brian Pacampara has no position in any stocks mentioned, and neither does The Motley Fool. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright © 1995 - 2014 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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Bedari has been running a program 'Girls' Post Primary Level Education' since 2009 with financial support from Girls Education International in district Chakwal of Pakistan. During this second phase, Bedari conducted second exposure trip for the girls benefitted through this program.
Following the first, second exposure visit is arranged on the demand of the girls in September 2016. The girls were taken to Taxila*. In this visit, members of Child Protection Committee also participated. In this informative visit 113 people participated including the girls and enjoyed it. The details of the participants is mentioned below:
- 89 GEI Students (80 Current Students and 9 Old Students)
- 5 Bedari Staff Members
- 11 CPC members (7 males and 4 Females)
- 8 Volunteers (2 Females and 6 Males)
The girls were happy and now quite confident as this was their second trip. It seemed their excitement would be less as compared to the first time but, they were even happier as the place they went was chosen by them. The CPC members were happy and shared their views with Bedari. They extended their full support whenever Bedari will need.
Khadija said:
At home, we are not allowed to speak loud let alone laugh out loud. There are too many restrictions. Today, there were no such restrictions. We screamed out loud, and then as if we could not believe we could scream, we would scream out loud again. It gave us strength. We can do anything.we could scream, we would scream out loud again. It gave us strength. We can do anything.
Masooma Bibi said:
I am both sad and happy at the same time. I am happy because I could come out so far from my home. I could see such wonderful places. I am sad for my mother who never had such opportunity. I wish Bedari would arrange such a trip for our mothers as well.
It was great pleasure to take these girls out and show them the ancient remains of Gandhara civilization. Looking at their happy face and confidence, Bedari is proud to give them this opportunity.
Impressions of the CPC Members
The members of Child Protection Committees also shared their feelings.
CPC Member:
I have enjoyed the most today. It was the best day of my life. I hope to get a chance to see girls happy like this again. Thank you Bedari!
*Taxila is an ancient city that flourished between 6th century BC and 5th Century AD. It has lots of remains of that era. It has a good museum, and is some 32 kilometers to the north of Islamabad.


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Lyrebirds can imitate nearly any sound; in captivity, they have mimicked car alarms, crying babies, and chainsaws. more...
August 18 , 2005 : The BTK killer was sentenced to 175 years in prison. more...
Learn something new every day
More Info... by email
A sector gear is a flat spur type device that only has teeth along a short section of its circumference; the remaining portion of the gear is smooth. These gears are used to drive other elements or are driven themselves in mechanisms which only travel through a short arc and not a complete revolution. They are typically found in mechanisms which feature short, repetitive, or reciprocating movements such as clocks, actuators, and steering units. Sector gears may have only one short section of toothed surface or two opposing sections depending on the particular application. Depending on whether the output is radial or linear, this gear type typically drives another sector gear or a rack gear.
When short throw, gear transferred motion is required in a mechanism, it is unnecessary to use a full range gear to initiate the operation as a large part of it will never work. Examples of these short cycle, reciprocating operations include clock mechanisms, linear and radial actuators, and the steering units on certain vehicles. Often the range of motion in these applications may be close to a full 360° turn, but more often far less. The extent of the motion will, along with space constraints, transfer rates and torque requirements, dictate how many teeth are included in the sector gear, and what its total radius will be.
The elements driven by sector gears may be round, spur type gears, or flat rack type linear gears, or may even themselves be sector gears. Again, torque and transfer speed requirements play a role in determining the eventual design, size, and tooth pitch of these driven gears. The sector gear is also frequently the driven gear as is the case with low speed and torque sluice gates. A large semi-circular sector gear is attached to the gate and driven to lift or lower it by a smaller, full range spur gear. Where large amounts of input torque or higher operating speeds are required, the configuration would be reversed.
One of the benefits of sector gear designs is their ability to have dual outputs, often with different pitch values. These gears typically have two, or sometimes more, sets of toothed sectors along their edges which drive different parts of a reciprocating mechanism. Unlike a full range gear, the individual tooth sets may be cut at different pitches if speed differentials are needed. Sector gears may be made of a variety of materials including ferrous metals, brass, and high impact plastics.
Post 2
Thanks for your query. To be quite honest, the design of sector gears is not something I am familiar with. You may want to try one of the engineering knowledge bases for some answers. Sorry I couldn't help out more. Regards.
Post 1
good information about sector gear. Please add how to design sector gear.
One of our editors will review your suggestion and make changes if warranted. Note that depending on the number of suggestions we receive, this can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Thank you for helping to improve wiseGEEK!


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This item below has been sold, but another example (left) is available. To view the available item, click "Details."
1851 Black Map of Germany
1851 (undated) $100.00
1840 Black Map of GermanyGermany-black-1840
1840 Black Map of GermanyGermany-black-1840
Germany, Part I. Germany, Part II.
1840 (undated) 21 x 16 in (53.34 x 40.64 cm)
1840 (undated) 21 x 16 in (53.34 x 40.64 cm)
A fine example of Adam and Charles Black's 1840 map of Germany, in two parts. Black's map covers all of Germany and depicts individual German states. During this time in Germany, The German Confederation, created in 1814, acted as a buffer zone between Austria and Prussia, the two largest and most powerful member states. The development of industrialization and global trade in the region spurred German solidarity movements. In 1848, the March Revolution rose from popular discontent with the archaic autocratic political structure imposed by the Congress of Vienna in 1814. This map was engraved by S. Hall for issue in the 1840 edition of Black's General Atlas.
Charles and Adam Black (fl. 1807 - present) were map and book publishers based in Edinburgh. Charles and his uncle, Adam, both of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded their publishing firm in 1807. They published a series of maps and atlases throughout the 19th century. In addition to an array of atlases, the Black firm is known for their editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1817 - 1826) and the first publishing of Sir Walter Scott's novels in 1854. In 1889 the A. & C. Black publishing house moved to London where it remains in operation to this day.
Hall, Sydney, Black's General Atlas: A series of Fifty-Four Maps from the Latest and Most Authentic Sources, Engraved on Steel, In the First Style of the Art, (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black) 1840.
Very good. Blank on verso. Original platemark visible. Original centerfold.
Rumsey 2305.028 (1854 edition). Philips (atlases) 4334.


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NYT. U.S. and Iraqi Forces Seek Abducted Britons in Raid.
Virtually all the U.S. officials with whom I spoke feel that American strategy now boils down to a single goal: strategic disengagement. That is, the U.S. wants to strengthen the Iraqi government to the point that it is self-sustaining enough that the country will not collapse into chaos as U.S. troops are brought back home. . . .
U.S. strategy is not just military in nature. Rather, it is designed to eliminate some of the underlying conditions that sap the average Iraqi's faith in the country's civil society.
Right now our country is embroiled in a critical debate about setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Unfortunately, this is one of the most intellectually impoverished political debates that I have ever witnessed, with both sides often resorting to sloganeering and demagoguery rather than substantive argumentation. One thing that my time in Iraq underscored to me is that, in looking at the country, many people see what they want to see. I would often think about the stories that journalists might write if they went where I went and saw what I saw. For example, after my first night on patrol—when the civilians we saw were clearly happy to see U.S. troops and felt comfortable around them—a conservative journalist might write a piece countering the stories about Iraqis hating us and wanting us to leave. Fine—but what about polls indicating that a shockingly high percentage of Iraqis think it's okay to kill American troops? What about neighborhoods where U.S. troops would encounter a very different reception? On the other hand, a liberal journalist could write a very funny piece about the Iraqi army's sloth and trigger-happy approach to the world, and conclude that we need to leave immediately because the Iraqi security forces are hopeless and at least a withdrawal will put some fire in their belly. Fine—but what about Iraqi soldiers' improvements? What about the likelihood that pulling out would guarantee the Iraqi army's failure?
There is some truth to both the right-wing and left-wing narratives above. But policymakers and analysts need to do better than having some truth to their positions. The Iraq debate is so important that politicians and opinion-leaders shouldn't simply latch onto evidence that supports their pre-existing view. My intention in this report is to provide an objective assessment of a number of critical strategic trends in Iraq—and in that way help to advance public debate beyond where it currently sits.


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Expecting! Gina & Brooks + Baby at Ecola State Park
Gina & Brooks were married last May at the Lake Crescent Lodge in the Olympic National Park. It was magical--misty clouds hung over the deep blue lake, the forest glowed green, and everything looked like a true Pacific Northwest fairytale.
A year later, they're expecting a little baby girl. We visited Ecola State Park on the Oregon Coast for their maternity photos, taking advantage of a glorious sunset and crashing waves. It was such a beautiful evening.
I can't wait to meet baby Serena Lynn soon!


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Seems my days as desktop support are not over – I still have to troubleshoot problems on my own machines. I discovered this week that my Windows Vista Business (SP1) laptop would no longer connect to my wireless network at home. All other machines in my home network (XP, Vista, and 7) would connect, and I was able to connect to the wireless network at the training course I was at this week. The standard reboot or disable/enable of the network card was not working. The WLAN AutoConfig service is started. The behavior is the same in safe mode with networking.
Upon further investigation, I found that when I ran ipconfig at the command prompt, there were several entries for "Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection X" – X being a number. A google search revealed instructions for getting rid of these entries by removing the hidden ISATAP adapters from Device Manager. Apparently these are created because of caused by IPv4 and IPv6 tunneling issues.
This did not work. My search then led me to this post, suggesting that I disable IPv6 on the wireless network adapter. This, too, did not work.
I tried resetting the Winsock entries and TCP/IP stacks (by the way you have to run this as administrator).
Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog
Reset IPv4 TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log
Reset IPv6 TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ipv6 reset reset.log
I ran Microsoft's Internet Connectivity Evaluation tool against my router and did not encounter any problems.
I tried editing the registry so that Vista would disable the DHCP broadcast flag. No dice – it just hangs on "Identifying" when trying to connect to a network.
I tried a bunch of things after that, but when it comes down to it, it looks like I'm going to have to start from scratch to get it working. 😦


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Buy $18M Mansion, Get Royal Treatment for Free
Known as the Oriole House, the property belonged to nightclub impresario and mega financier Sam Nazarian, CEO of the high-end hospitality company SBE. To help pique interest in the princely estate, Nazarian offered the buyer full access to his hospitality company's exclusive range of hotel-quality amenities. Among the services included: a cadre of personal assistants to fulfill your every request, fully catered house parties for the owner, guest-only privileges at Nazarian's ultra-posh hotels, even a star renovation consultant who can be brought in to redesign any room in the home, reports Forbes.
Suddenly, $18 million sounds like a steal. (See photos after the jump.)
See Gallery
You might recognize the posh estate as the home of Vincent Chase from HBO's stargazing hit series "Entourage." Watch carefully and you'll even notice Nazarian ushering the boys into his celebrity-packed L.A. nightclub, Hyde Lounge.
The Oriole Drive home was first listed back in 2009 for $18.95 million, according to the RealEstalker. The spread includes three bedrooms, 5.5 baths, panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and a resort-style exterior with infinity pool and spa.
This time around, though, the listing was made available only to a select pool of privileged buyers. Each prescreened buyer was sent a personal access card with secret passcodes to the listing's details. According to Forbes, Stan Bharti, the owner of a Toronto, Ontario-based merchant bank, just closed on the property. He already has plans to make full use of the SBE hospitality package by hosting what will no doubt be a massive house-warming party.
To top it all off, the home has also reportedly broken a local sales record for price per square foot. While the total square footage was not immediately available, one account places the property at 5,976 square feet. At $17.995 million, that's $3,011 per square foot. And while "most expensive" can be a tricky measure to quantify in the game of ultra-posh posturing (like this London complex selling at $225 million a pop, or the 641-square-foot California cottage selling for $5.3 million), an $18 million mansion is nothing to sneeze at. Especially when it doubles as your own private hotel and resort.
See more celebrity real estate.
More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
Get property tax help from our experts.


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Tin City Cider Company/
A Pleasant Challenge to the Palate: Tin City Cider Company
Our long-time readers know we are acutely interested in all things fermented—be it wine (our favorite) or other spirits. So when we tripped over Tin City Cider Company, we were intrigued.
Everything Tin City Cider makes is based on hard apple cider. The main difference between non-alcohol apple cider and hard cider is the presence of yeast for fermentation. There are many varieties of apples that can be used to make hard cider, and choice of apple is the very first choice the cider-maker must make.
The founders of Tin City Cider all have a background in winemaking. The trio, Curt Schalchlin, Mikey Giugni and Andrew Jones use apples, hops, strawberries, cherries, lemons, passionfruit and oranges grown in California. There are seasonal blends that are produced only when certain fruits are available to the cider makers, so the menu can change slightly. Caveat: some of these special ciders are produced in very limited quantities, so the only way you can get them is to join their cider club.
Honestly, our palates had no idea what to expect when we visited the tasting room on a cold January day. Our tasting attendant, Melissa, also works as the event planner, and yes, there are fun events at Tin City Cider several evenings every week, was friendly and informative. Tasting fees are $12 a person, with a generous 3 ounce pour.
Warning: this stuff is NOT for kids and although several of the ciders don't taste of alcohol at all, the alcohol content is higher than the average beer. It's very lightly carbonated, a residual effect of the yeast used to get the fermentation process going. There is no sugar left in these ciders, so they are lower in calories than some adult beverages, and are also gluten-free. Due to the absence of sugar, the likelihood of hangover is diminished (not that we are suggesting you every drink to excess!). You could easily mistake any of these ciders for a fluid that can reduce dehydration after a very hot day. We recommend you don't use them solely for that reason.
The very first cider we tried was the Original. It is created by the dry hop process, which means that unlike beer, which is usually made with hops that have been boiled before being added to the mixture, the hops are tossed into the already fermented apple cider, and allowed to share their flavors with the cider. It's fermented in barrels, just like wine. Made with tart green apples and served cold, it's very refreshing, goes down easily and has an alcohol content of 7.5%. We are going to give this one a try in a braised chicken recipe.
Next up was Strawberry Fields. It is one of those seasonally-produced ciders, with fresh strawberries grown in Oxnard. We couldn't help think this cider would be so awesome used as a turkey brine, or better yet, alongside an apple strudel or summery strawberry cake. It goes down deceptively easy (alcohol content 7.5%) and immediately makes you wish for a warm summer night. Keep out of reach of children. This one goes down very easily, and we characterized it as being a "party in your mouth." We reserve that term for something truly fun, but we found ourselves using this phrase a lot during our visit!
"Goldie" is a cider that's aged in new French oak, and combined with a Santa Ynez-sourced chardonnay. With 10% alcohol, it's the highest content cider. There's a touch of vanilla on the palate, no doubt thanks to the chardonnay wine. Even if you don't like chardonnay, you will like this.
Another seasonal offering is Liliko'i, the Hawaiian word for passionfruit. It's cider with passionfruit that's been sourced from nearby Cambria. This is another that goes down deceptively easily, and contains 8.5% alcohol.
Probably the most popular cider is Templetucky. Aged in barrels that were previously used to age bourbon, Templetucky is made with Mandarin hops and blood orange rind from oranges grown in Cambria. A leftover flavor profile from the barrels is of course the bourbonn flavor as well as a bit of caramel. At 9.5%, this is definitely an adult beverage and does taste like one, but still goes down easily.
Weissland has the same basic flavor profile as Templetucky, but is actually made with a blonde wort for a stronger beer-like flavor profile. Wort is what's produced after a barley and hops have been combined and boiled in a temperature-specific process, but prior to the addition of yeast for fermentation to begin. Its alcohol content is identical to Templetucky at 9.5%.
Main Squeeze is another of those goes down deceptively easily ciders. At 7% alcohol, it's a bit more forgiving if you slam it down quickly, which you will do because of its fun, citrusy flavor. Made with lemonade that's made from Cambria-sourced lemons, it's a fun thirst-quencher—and yes, another party on the palate.
Another thirst-quencher is Bocce Club Saison, made with cherries sourced from Lodi. This goes down as easily as Strawberry Fields, Liliko'i or Main Squeeze. We immediately thought, "What a fun sangria this would make, put into a pretty punch bowl, decorated with orange slices and fresh halved, pitted cherries!" Like Main Squeeze, it is 7% alcohol content, and yes, a party on the palate.
We did not get to taste Cadus, which is cider made with Huell melon hops. It's currently in barrels, and will be ready for release in the next month.
Tin City ciders are available on tap in kegs, pitchers or by the glass (to be enjoyed onsite), cans or refillable 750 milliliter Growler bottles. After you initial purchase, you can come back to Tin City Cider and refill your bottle—$10 for a refill of Original, $15 for any other variety.
There's an active slate of events at Tin City Cider. Art & Soul Painting Workshops are scheduled for selected Tuesdays. There's Trivia Thursdays, complete with single-dish food cooked onsite. Recent offerings have included comforting grilled cheese sandwiches, bread bowl stew or pulled pork sandwiches. On Fridays there's live music.
One of the upcoming special events is a "Puppy Adoption Day," with Woods Humane Society in San Luis Obispo onsite from 1 to 4 p.m. with cuddly adoptable puppies (you can't go home with your puppy, but applications will be taken and you'll be instructed to go to Woods Humane to pick up your new family member in a few days!).
The best way to keep up with what's new is to check out their Facebook or Instagram pages.
Cider Club membership brings you the benefits of three releases per year consisting of four packs of limited production specialty ciders, 20% off retail prices and invitations to release parties and special sales.
Tin City Cider is very easily accessible, just off of Highway 101 south of Paso Robles. If you are looking for something unexpected and refreshing, with zero hint of having to use the right language in describing what you are tasting, definitely visit Tin City Cider! Open six days a week (closed on Mondays), you will have a fun tasting room experience and definitely expand your horizons in regard to what can be made with different varieties of fermented apples!
Are you going to check out Tin City Cider next time you find yourself on 101?
A special thank you to Tin City Cider for providing photos for this post.


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If you have visited here since last Friday you will know that I was making a board book from some old cardboard packaging but unfortunately the cover didn't work out. If you would like you can read about it here.
However I have been working on the loose pages and have been practicing some abstracts. This is my latest one.
You can see the other pages here and here.
I intend to continue with abstracts on the loose pages and when they are completed then I will make a cover and bind them together.
If you haven't already done so why not pop over and take a look at what the other party goers are doing over at PAINT PARTY FRIDAY.


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Injection of Oil
Heavy fuel oil or waste oil can also be injected into the blast furnace. As oil also contains hydrogen, benefits associated with the natural gas injection will also be applicable to oil injection. With the oxy-oil technology the amount of injected oil can be increased to 0.13 t-oil/t-HM (Worrell, et al., 2010. p. 84).
Cost of retrofit, cost of oxygen supply and continuous availability of cost competitive oil supply or waste oil supply need to be taken into consideration, and can severely limit the applicability of this measure.
|Development Status
Injection of OilCosts & Benefits
|Parent Process: Blast Furnace System
|Energy Savings Potential
Every ton of oil used can reduce the coke demand by 1.2 tons (Worrell, et al., 2010. p. 84).
|CO2 Emission Reduction Potential
CO2 reductions will vary depending on the composition of oil, and in particular Carbon and Hydrogen contents.
Injection of Oil Publications
Energy Efficiency Improvement and Cost Saving Opportunities for the U.S. Iron and Steel Industry
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) energy guide, Energy Efficiency Improvement and Cost Saving Opportunities for the U.S. Iron and Steel Industry, discusses energy efficiency practices and technologies that can be implemented in iron and steel manufacturing plants. This guide provides current real world examples of iron and steel plants saving energy and reducing cost and carbon dioxide emissions.
Page Number:
Injection of Oil Resources
Combustion of Waste Oils Simulating their Injection in Blast Furnace Tuyeres
A study has been made of the combustion of different waste oils produced in an iron and steel works. Combustion is achieved by injecting the waste oil at flows of 10-20 kg/h in a combustion chamber that simulates the conditions of the blast furnace tuyere zone. The waste oil is preheated to 65-90 °C in order to achieve conditions of fluidity and is injected by spraying into the combustion chamber. During combustion the temperatures and the CO2, O2, CO N2 and H2 contents of the gases in the combustion chamber are constantly recorded.


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Like any business, independent contractors need insurance to protect themselves financially. What type of insurance you need depends on the type of work you do. Some types of independent contractors include the following:
Unfortunately for every business owner, the chances of getting sued have dramatically increased in the last decade. General Liability insurance can prevent a legal suit from turning into a financial disaster by providing financial protection in case your business is ever sued or held legally responsible for some injury or damage.
Read more
Contractors are like any business. You need property and general liability insurance to minimize the basic financial risks of running a business. Additionally, contractor insurance includes coverage designed for specific industry risks. Our agency can find a customized policy that includes coverage most suitable to you.
If you are hiring contractors, you want them to have contractor insurance. Insurance you carry as a business or homeowner may not protect you from liability for a contract worker. This can expose you to lawsuits if a worker gets injured at your business or home.
What types of contractors insurance are available?
There is a wide variety of contractor insurance options. Here are common coverages for independent contractors.
Get started today!


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Goweder, Abduelbaset; Poesio, Massimo; De Roeck, Anne and Reynolds, Jeff
|Google Scholar:
|Look up in Google Scholar
Irregular (so-called broken) plural identification in modern standard Arabic is a problematic issue for information retrieval (IR) and language engineering applications, but their effect on the performance of IR has never been examined. Broken plurals (BPs) are formed by altering the singular (as in English: tooth teeth) through an application of interdigitating patterns on stems, and singular words cannot be recovered by standard affix stripping stemming techniques. We developed several methods for BP detection, and evaluated them using an unseen test set. We incorporated the BP detection component into a new light-stemming algorithm that conflates both regular and broken plurals with their singular forms. We also evaluated the new light-stemming algorithm within the context of information retrieval, comparing its performance with other stemming algorithms.
|Item Type:
|Conference or Workshop Item
|Extra Information:
|pp 246-253
|Arabic information retrieval; broken plural
|Academic Unit/School:
|Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) > Computing and Communications
Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
|Research Group:
|Centre for Research in Computing (CRC)
|Item ID:
|Depositing User:
|Anne De Roeck
|Date Deposited:
|26 Sep 2006
|Last Modified:
|07 Dec 2018 08:57
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The fundamentals of starting a brand new enterprise are the identical irrespective of whether you have a 'brick and mortar' enterprise or a enterprise that is online. Staff is dear to keep, price time to handle and are in most methods the biggest expense any business can have on the books. If you are planning to make your new enterprise your full-time job, it's clever to wait till you have a minimum of some money put away for startup prices and for sustaining yourself at first earlier than you start making a profit.
Some businesses may additionally require federal or state licenses and permits as a way to function. However, you can get an thought of tsomrhe expertise wanted online from the television persona and dog whisperer, Cesar Milan. Your state department of taxation's web site has full details, forms, and so forth., when you resolve to apply online, but most localities have kinds you may complete whilst you're at their administrative places of work.
Most of the emblem designers there keep it really easy for a primary sale (add a company identify to a template), however offer extra companies that may add $one hundred or more to an order. When you earn a few commissions, you may pay the $forty nine.95 price to begin a vendor account Then, create a PDF e-e book on any topic you know nicely (or can analysis), and you can begin selling immediately.
ClickBank takes $1 plus 7.5 percent of each sale, however you set the price and decide how a lot you wish to share with the 1000's of associates who can even sell your product (50 p.c is frequent). Otherwise, you will just need to register your online business identify, which could be your authorized title, a fictitious "Doing Enterprise As" name (if you are the sole proprietor), or the identify you've give you in your company.
For advice on these matters you'll be able to meet with volunteers at RATING , and there are even locations to get cheap authorized assist In the meantime, why not pull out a $one hundred invoice and check out what you can do with it. There is no uniform startup" payment for building a business, so different companies may have different needs.


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Ask, Seek, Knock
Jordan Crouthamel
Today's Reading - Luke 11-12
On Thursday, I sat in a service and was challenged by a single idea that was repeated over and over again. God isn't a tease, He doesn't just ask for us to tell him about what we need so that He can know and do nothing about it. This passage tells us that if we ask for a fish He won't give us a snake! I can already hear the sighs of relief from those of you who are not too friendly with our slimy, slithering friends.
The passage includes three commandments in our interaction with the Father. Ask, seek, and knock. He tells us that if we are faithful to do these things that the doors will be opened, the one being sought will be found, and that what is asked for will be given. It's not some magic formula and God is no genie. He is simply stating that He knows you in the deepest sense and cares about your needs and desires even more than you can. He wants us to ask of Him. He wants us to seek to find Him. He wants us to knock on His front door.
He wants us to do these things because He knows that these are the things He created us for! You are made to be answered, found, and invited in by God Himself. Relish in that fact today and see how it changes your approach to prayer and your relationship with Him! You are a child of God and he desires to know you better today! I challenge you today to do as the passage says and ask, seek, and knock!
What do I need to ask God for today?
Where or in what situation do I need to seek to find God in today?
What doors has God put in front of me today that, if I knock, will be thrown open?
Ok, put down the Bible and go do it!
by Jordan Crouthamel


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Thursday, November 3, 2011
Quote Of The Week 5
Mr. Bennet: How happy for you, Mr. Collins, to possess a talent for flattering with such... delicacy.
Elizabeth Bennet: Do these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?
Mr. Collins: They arise chiefly from what is passing of the time. And though I do sometimes amuse myself with arranging such little elegant compliments, I always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible.
Elizabeth Bennet: Oh, believe me, no one would suspect your manners to be rehearsed.
~Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Penned by Miss Dashwood at 3:27 PM
Labels: Pride and Prejudice, quotes
3 comments:
- Ella said...
Ha ha:)
Love that quote!
- November 3, 2011 at 5:48 PM
- Miss Dashwood said...
Me too. :)
- November 4, 2011 at 9:18 AM
- Miss Laurie of Old-Fashioned Charm said...
Fun quote!
I do wish that Mr. Bennet's quotes weren't given so frequently to Lizzy in the 2005 adaptation. Still funny. :)
- November 4, 2011 at 5:01 PM
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8 Hp Mercury Outboard Water Pump Notes outboard motors can be big bolt in place monsters that produce more power than a sports car or like this 57 pound mercury marine 6hp model cylinder to let fuel in and exhaust out 3 To answer the department s fire suppression needs the 7 8 features a forward positioned portable fire pump that is hard plumbed but can be easily removed when additional deck space is needed powered Not all of us can afford a new boat outboard 3 years ago i bought a bass tracker 175 txw with a 50 hp merc 2 stroke on the and in my experience mercury has failed that test mercury marine.
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A center rod locker holds 10 rods up to 8 feet 6 inches and port and starboard lockers in all its leading consumer brands including mercury and mariner outboard engines mercury mercruiser To answer the department s fire suppression needs the 7 8 features a forward positioned portable fire pump that is hard plumbed but can be easily removed when additional deck space is needed powered What a surprise both fuel pumps mercury and yamaha i have had some very good outboards and some that left me on the water i have owned mostly 2 stroke engines however i m on my second 4 stroke.
It's possible to get or download caterpillar-wiring diagram from several websites. If you take a close look at the diagram you will observe the circuit includes the battery, relay, temperature sensor, wire, and a control, normally the engine control module. With an extensive collection of electronic symbols and components, it's been used among the most completed, easy and useful wiring diagram drawing program. 8 Hp Mercury Outboard Water Pump. The wiring diagram on the opposite hand is particularly beneficial to an outside electrician. Sometimes wiring diagram may also refer to the architectural wiring program. The simplest approach to read a home wiring diagram is to begin at the source, or the major power supply. Basically, the home wiring diagram is simply utilized to reveal the DIYer where the wires are.
If you can't locate the information, get in touch with the manufacturer. The info in the diagram doesn't indicate a power or ground supply. The intention of the fuse is to safeguard the wiring and electrical components on its circuit. A typical watch's basic objective is to tell you the good time of day. When selecting the best type of computer cable to fulfill your requirements, it is very important to consider your upcoming technology plans.
Installing a tachometer on your Vehicles can assist in preventing critical repair problems, however. You might have a weak ground issue. The way the brain learns is a subject that still requires a good deal of study. How it learns can be associated by how it is able to create memories.
In a parallel circuit, each unit is directly linked to the power supply, so each system gets the exact voltage. There are 3 basic sorts of standard light switches. The circuit needs to be checked with a volt tester whatsoever points. 8 Hp Mercury Outboard Water Pump. Each circuit displays a distinctive voltage condition. You are able to easily step up the voltage to the necessary level utilizing an inexpensive buck-boost transformer and steer clear of such issues. The voltage is the sum of electrical power produced by the battery. Be sure that the new fuse isn't blown, and carries the very same amperage.
Each fuse is going to have a suitable amp rating for those devices it's protecting. The wiring is merely a bit complicated. Our automotive wiring diagrams permit you to relish your new mobile electronics in place of spend countless hours attempting to work out which wires goes to which Ford part or component. Overall the wiring is really straight forward. There's a lot wiring that you've got to tie into your truck's wiring harness, but it's much easier to do than it seems. A ground wire offers short circuit protection and there's no neutral wire used. There's one particular wire leading from the distributor which may be used for the tachometer.
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The bulb has to be in its socket. Your light can be wired to the receiver and don't require supply additional capacity to light as it can get power from receiver. In the event the brake lights aren't working, a police officer may block the vehicle and issue a warning to create the repair within a particular time limit. Even though you would still must power the relay with a power source or battery. Verify the power is off before trying to attach wires. In case it needs full capacity to begin, it won't operate in any way.
Replacing thermostat on your own without a Denver HVAC technician can be quite harrowing if you don't hook up the wiring correctly. After the plumbing was cut out, now you can get rid of the old pool pump. It's highly recommended to use a volt meter to make sure there is no voltage visiting the motor, sometimes breakers do not get the job done properly, also you might have turned off the incorrect breaker. Remote distance is left up to 500m. You may use a superior engine ground. The second, that's the most frequently encountered problem, is a weak ground in the computer system. Diagnosing an electrical short can be extremely tough and costly.


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The String Cheese Incident will perform at Denver's new Mission Ballroom as part of the band's home state Thanksgiving Run 2019.
Watch Bob Weir appear onstage – on a couch – during Joe Russo's Almost Dead's performance at the Lockn' festival Thursday night.
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The JamBase Podcast Episode 44 features 'Tour Stories' with The New Mastersounds drummer Simon Allen and 'The Rundown' of recent news items.
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Saturday, June 13, 2009
· A raccoon sighting (spotted by Sydney) and the first of more I hope. He was caught in the act of burglaring along the top of breakwall rocks, no doubt looking for bugs or whatever else edible that might be stirring at dusk. I say caught in the act not only because of the masked face, but also because of the body posture: hunched, but still poised to amble off. And that's exactly what he did a moment later. Come back and dance on my roof again sometime, I said.
· An aerial battle between a male Northern oriole and a male Red-winged blackbird. What a spinning kaleidoscope of colors as they tumbled in and out of the sun! I would have added a Bluejay, but - would that have been de trop?
· The cowbird with the weird bump on her head has reappeared. The bump looked even bigger than the last time, it's a real ratty pouf under her feathers. I've decided to name her Amy after Amy Winehouse, that British R&B singer who looks kind of like a feral Ronnette.
· A muskrat was nibbling something at the edge of the road. There are no sidewalks on my road, so he was taking an awful chance. I had my camera with me, but before I could turn around, snap his picture and urge him to a safer place, a big tree-trimming truck with a cherry-picker on top came roaring by. Fortunately the little 'rat scurried back among the irises growing in the ditch.
· The baby mallards have not been back after the two appearances earlier this week. Actually, I'm glad, because I hated to think of them crossing the road, even with SLOW signs. Both the drake and the hen have stopped by for some seed, but not together. I don't know what the division of daycare is between mallards pairs, but I imagine her saying to him, "Look, you try laying eleven eggs, sitting on them for weeks, and then having them follow you a round going Cheep cheep cheep non-stop, everywhere. I'm about to pull my feathers out! I have to get a few minutes to myself! You take them for a while!!"
Gallery: "My" ducklings, a similar raccoon, the real Ronettes, Amy the bird, Amy the singer
10 comments:
- Dee said...
Wonderful post! I love taking a break with your blog!
- June 13, 2009 at 12:18 PM
- Sylvia K said...
Fun, wonderful post! I can just hear Mama duck saying exactly that! I, too, have started putting on some tanning lotion as I look like a bleached sheet!
Hope you have a great weekend, Deborah!
- June 13, 2009 at 1:51 PM
- Betsy from Tennessee said...
Deb, Interesting post. I wonder about that Cowbird with the bump... Maybe he does look a little like Amy Winehouse... Yipes!!!
- June 13, 2009 at 2:39 PM
- Cloudia said...
"feral Ronnette."
You have a great eye,
great words,
a great soul
white legs ;-)
the pale goddess!!!!!
Aloha my poetic friend
- June 13, 2009 at 2:40 PM
- Lin said...
how funny and true. had to laugh at mother hen talking to her partner. you certainly have a busy place a wildlife zoo.
- June 13, 2009 at 3:10 PM
- bobbie said...
Love the conversation between ducks! You've had quite a lot of sightings, haven't you?
- June 13, 2009 at 4:07 PM
- Rose said...
I still love those ducklings!
Hey, I have white legs all the time...there is more to the story than this...but part of it is when I worked at the orchard, arms, and face and neck would be really dark and tanned long before it was time for shorts...by the time it was time to wear shorts, I sure looked odd so never wore shorts....now my legs just don't get tan at all.
- June 13, 2009 at 7:12 PM
- Anonymous said...
I would have loved to see that bird battle.
And you know who else is bringing back the pouffy hair? Sarah Palin.
- June 14, 2009 at 8:16 AM
- Sue said...
your yard has been a very busy gathering place!
- June 16, 2009 at 1:11 PM
- Indrani said...
Lovely, Lovely!
You have a way with words. No need of pics, I could visualize them :)
(Last few days have been so hectic, sorry couldn't be a regular here. )
- June 18, 2009 at 10:45 PM


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a lighthouse message for everyone... especially if you don't have a biz
5 years ago i started a "little blog on the side" to share what i was learning about building a biz. starting that little blog was a big step on a pretty amazing journey that has led me to where i am today - encouraging you to build a lighthouse and shine your light - and i am proud to be celebrating my 5th biz birthday!
but today's post is not about business. this is for everyone who has been inspired by the message of the lighthouse revolution, even if you do not have a business.
yes, i believe that those of us who have felt called to start a business do so because this is the way that we will find and fulfill our purpose… this is how we will shine our light.
but every single one of us has a light to shine.
YOU have something you are here to do.
it does not have to be as an entrepreneur. perhaps it is as a mother, a partner, a friend, an employee, a volunteer, a leader, a worker-bee, a career, a calling, or simply for yourself.
no matter what you are here to do, no matter who you are, the message is the same. this is what i wish for you to remember…
you are on a journey.
you are here to evolve. to learn. to explore. to overcome challenges & obstacles. this, i believe, is why our souls are here in this lifetime. i see our journey as a spiral – with each step we take the next appears, and each step takes us closer to who we are and what we are here to do. and it's not actually about the destination! it truly is about the journey - you are exactly where you are meant to be, right now.
you get to choose.
if where you are right now feels stuck, or stagnant, or lost, or like you are on a downward spiral, you can make the choice today to take one single step to get unstuck, to find a piece of yourself again, or to elevate your thoughts, feelings, or actions in some way. you can choose, every single day, to take one step closer to your light. but only you can decide, no one can do it for you.
you are here to be you.
you must be you. you can't hide who you are or live a life for someone else or stay in a stagnant place. your life is a reflection of who you are, and if you can't BE YOU (or if you don't know who you are anymore) you will always feel a bit lost or stuck… or worse. you must find ways to express what is in your heart and explore what it means to be you. that's your job here, that's your purpose.
you are being called.
what is calling to your soul right now. what is tapping on your shoulder or niggling there in the back of your mind. there is something… we all have something that our soul is longing to do. write, create, talk, express, lead, teach, learn, play, move, try, explore, experiment, build, imagine, dream. take one little step today to honour what is calling you. take one little step today, even if it feels vulnerable or is out of your comfort zone… that is where the magic happens.
you are here to shine your light.
when you shine your light you give others permission to do the same. you touch people with your stories, your journey, your gifts, your ideas, your evolution… your life. you help others & inspire others, just by living an authentic life – your kids, your family, your friends, your co-workers, your organization. when you shine your light it creates ripples that go far beyond yourself.
this journey is different for each of us. yours may be about...
- creative expression through writing, art, photography, music,
- self-care, self-love, healing, or mindfulness
- slaying a personal dragon or overcoming an obstacle
- a cause you are passionate about
- a quest you are on
- finding, learning, or teaching a better way
- the world we are creating for our children
- helping and serving others
- simply growing and being a better human
- or something else i haven't thought of here!
there are no rules. there is no formula. it's up to you what you do with this one precious life.
your life is a reflection of your soul.
your lighthouse is what you build with your life.
it is the legacy you create and leave behind. it is the way that you live your life's purpose and shine your light. it's what you are here to do.
what will your lighthouse be?
please click here to tweet & help me share this message
ps - i've got a bit of a tradition to hold a biz birthday sale on all of my workbooks. so i have pulled them out of retirement for 5 days only, and you can grab them here for just 5 bucks each. if you don't have a biz i highly recommend the workbook *find your spark* - it is the first seeds of the lighthouse revolution and is inspiring to anyone!


text: While Alice was out having dinner with the girls, I was home alone with Chef, our dog. Usually, when I get to eat alone, I would get my seven piece wings dinner from none other than Harold's Fried Chicken Shack. But with the snow outside, I decided to eat whatever was in the fridge. The only thing that was defrosted was a pack of chicken breasts. So I decided to do a simple roasted chicken breast. The trick to getting juicy chicken is to first brine the chicken in a salt solution (about 3 teaspoons of salt to 1 quart of cold water), then to dry the skin prior to roasting. I paired the chicken breast with a beurre blanc sauce and a side salad with a sesame dressing. It was no Harold's but this came really close.


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Tag Archives: Spokane
The Steampunk Recycling Artist
Steampunk Recycling Artist Born and raised in the Spokane Valley, I now live in Spirit Lake and I spend my time roaming around Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho gathering up OTHER PEOPLE'S JUNK and recycling it into useful and sometimes tasteful pieces … Continue reading →
How To Make Lighted Steampunk Goggles
So, as any good steampunk devote, I started out by purchasing some goggles. I got a pair I love (thanks eBay!), but something occurred to me: being basically blind without my glasses, I could never wear them on my eyes. … Continue reading →
The People of the Steampunk World
Not long ago, I timidly stepped into the alternate world of Victorian Steam. My only thought was to become a mechanic; a primocoggler to be exact. However, what I have discovered has been superbly exhilarating beyond my wildest fantasies: THE … Continue reading →
How To Make A Steampunk Heart Necklace Pendant
Eight steps to create this nice steampunk necklace and pendant. I am going to try it. Continue ….
Truth Coffee Shop Designed by Haldane Martin
Truly amazing steampunk work, for those of you that have not seen this yet, it is a must see! Continue …
How To Paint A Faux Copper Patina
I will show you how to turn something like this: Into something like this! Continue …
How To Make A Steampunk Folding Brass Fan
I was asked by my wife to make a credible steampunk fan. We decided to make it out of brass sheet with a gear train pattern etched onto the front side. Now, I must admit, these gears are purely decorative, … Continue reading →


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She gave kids tools for success
Catherine Campbell has dedicated most of her life to pursuing her passion: helping students.
Working as executive director of Communities in Schools of Cabarrus County, she thought of her work as an opportunity, not just a job.
On Jan. 30, she retired after 19 years of service.
Communities in Schools, a United Way agency, is a nonprofit organization committed to providing students with the support they need to graduate from high school and succeed in life.
Campbell was hired as the initial director when the Cabarrus organization was founded in 1992. She was amazed, she said, at how well her years teaching in public school, and then teaching at-risk adults at a business college, prepared her for the job.
In her position, Campbell oversaw the organization's various programs, coordinated the School Tools collection drive and focused on fundraising. Over the course of her career, she wrote more than 100 grant requests, many of which were funded.
One grant she is particularly passionate about helped fund the Cabarrus Performance Learning Center, which opened in August 2007.
The PLC, based on a model developed by Bill and Melinda Gates, is a Cabarrus County public school designed for students who do not perform well in traditional school settings. The school provides mentors, online studies and career awareness.
"They don't just get a diploma," Campbell said. "They have a path in life that they want to pursue."
"I think the most rewarding thing is to sit at the Performance Learning Center graduation and see those students walk across the stage," Campbell said, "to see their families cheer, and just knowing that without the Performance Learning Center, they would not be graduating."
So far, the PLC has seen more than 100 of its students graduate.
Campbell, who was also on the founding board of Smart Start in Cabarrus County and served on the board of the Association for the Education of Young Children, said she will continue to be involved with kids who are at risk.
"I'll always be rooting for these kids," she said, "because they need somebody to root for them."
Campbell's husband, Fred, retired a year and a half ago from UNC Charlotte, where he was a professor of marketing. As they focus on this next season of life, Catherine Campbell said, they plan to travel to each county in North Carolina and explore.
She laughed and added, "We just wanted to retire while we could still feel good and were able to go."
When she looks back on her time with Communities in Schools, Campbell said, every day was an adventure.
"It was an amazing journey," she said. "I loved it. I really did."