jaxa, japans equivalent of nasa, recently had a spacecraft return to earth after being in space for 7 years. the hayabusa travelled on an asteroid during its space exploration to research and retrieve samples for further studying. landing a spacecraft on an asteroid and returning it to earth sounds so sci-fi to me.

below is a really cool video of the hayabusa re-entering earths atmosphere as it lit up the australian sky. most of the spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry.

– ryan

i visited barnsley gardens over the weekend while doing a film project with the yacht rock revue. it’s located about an hour and a half north of atlanta in adairsville, ga at the base of the blue ridge mountains. these days, barnsley gardens functions as a resort where you can stay, play golf, quail hunt, or have your wedding. there is also a historic district on the grounds where godfrey barnsley originally built his mansion and gardens featuring flowers from around the world. here you can visit the beautiful 160-year-old heirloom gardens, a museum, and the mansion ruins.

the ruins were really amazing! it felt like you were walking around in what’s left of an old european castle. there were these great vines growing all over the walls, adding to its mystique. i was envious of the event going on while i took photos, having a party in the ruins of an 1840s mansion seemed like the best thing ever. the museum had photos of the estate before it fell to ruins and if you are lucky enough to catch the curator, an oral history of the barnsley family and gardens as well.

barnsley gardens is very beautiful and has a rich history. even if you’re not looking to stay at the resort, the heirloom gardens, ruins, and museum are open to the public and definitely worth the drive for a short getaway from atlanta.

– ryan

barnsley gardens

597 barnsley gardens road
adairsville, ga 30103
770-773-7480

i’ve never been shy about my affection for three’s company or john ritter. in fact, losing both john ritter and johnny cash on the same day was a huge loss for me. my brother, who is also a big fan of ‘the rit,’ has a copy of the life magazine poster seen hanging in jack’s apartment. i’ve always been envious of his poster and on the lookout for one of my own.

well much to my surprise, i recently found the poster for sale here! i am very excited! now i’m off to the regal beagle for celebratory drinks.

ryan

with the kentucky derby on the television and a mint julep in hand, i found myself wondering what exactly defines a bourbon? in general, american whiskeys are classified by the type of grain being distilled. rye whiskey is distilled from rye grain, while bourbon whiskey is distilled from corn. woodford, wild turkey, maker’s mark, bulleit, and jim beam are some of the more popular bourbons.

a common misnomer is that bourbon has to come from bourbon county, kentucky. although most bourbons do come from kentucky, it is not a requirement for classification. if you feel like going on a bourbon adventure, there is a kentucky bourbon festival held every year in bardstown, ky and the kentucky bourbon trail where you can tour 6 distilleries.

tennessee whiskey, aka jack daniels and george dickel, have the distinction of being filtered through a thick layer of maple charcoal before aging.

canadian whisky, aka crown royal, as well as scotch whisky and irish whiskey are generally blended whiskeys. this means they use multiple grains in distilling, often with a large percentage of rye, resulting in a lighter, smoother flavor.

another interesting fact is that whiskey gets its color and flavor from being aged in charred oak barrels. without this, the liquor is clear and known as moonshine.

– ryan

what exactly is sea foam? we all know the shade of green, but what exactly is that stuff sitting on the beach as waves pull back to the sea?

basically, sea foam is impurities in the ocean such as salt, chemicals, dead plants or other material that are churned up by the currents and carried to the shore by waves. the bubbles stick together and create the foam you see on the beach.

– ryan

we set up a youtube page with various video projects. the videos are higher quality and larger than the ones we host on our site, so check it out!

– ryan

an item on my things i should know list has come up numerous times while we plant our garden; what is the difference between an herb and a spice?

the answer boils down to herbs come from the leaves of plants while spices come from the seeds, roots, bark, flowers or fruits of plants.

examples of herbs are basil, rosemary, mint, chives, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, etc. examples of spices are black pepper (seed), ginger (root), cinnamon (bark), cloves (flowers), mustard (seed), nutmeg (fruit), etc.

on a side note, salt is actually a mineral and not a spice.

– ryan

we noticed our horseshoe pits were looking rough recently, so we decided to give them a face-lift. we started by getting rid of the weeds and adding more sand. that alone made a huge difference. then we spray painted the poles bright colors, we went with blue and red, and topped it all off by adding our bottle cap collection.

we’ve been saving bottle caps for years, although we never really found the right use for them. gub has fond memories of her grandparents general store where they threw caps from soda bottles out front for gravel. the rusty gravel must have made an impression on her, we’ve been saving bottle caps since i’ve known her.

we’re excited to find a new use for our bottle caps! it’s gratifying to reuse something that could easily be thrown away. we plan on filling our pits a good bit more, our collection seemed a lot bigger inside the house. we are going to ask our local bartender to save bottle caps for us to help the cause.

– ryan

gub set up a facebook page for our blog. you can find the link over on the right side bar. i think we now have our social networking covered.

– ryan

i recently found some time-lapse projects i thought were lost in one of our robberies. here is the hand.craft.it festival that i curated with gub and our friend kristen. i filmed the event from start to finish to try and portray the amount of work involved in a one-day craft festival.

– ryan

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