My knuckles are totally bruised on my right hand, from knocking on things during yesterday's shows. My evening show at Salty's Beachouse every night has me in this tight little tiki shack like nook of the room, and I can't help but transform the 3 walls that surround my little stomp stage into a drum kit when the night gets really rockin. And my left hand is mangled from playing so much guitar (nearly 8 hours!). The technical end of the summer heralded in a whole new batch of opportunities, and things don't really slow down in this town until October. We Penticton locals gotta dig deep inside to find the reserves we need coast out the end of the season, and prepare ourselves for the scarcity of winter. Most of us end up leaving in search of a more bountiful harvest… we're struggling brilliantly to keep ourselves rooted here, and our mortgage payments met. It's been a summer of diversity. Busking (performing unplugged in the street, with an open guitar case) in the local artisan market is a very vital aspect of our weekly income (who would have thought that after all of these years, it would mark the most profitable of my endeavors as an artist?!). Four weddings this summer, in different capacities (reception, ceremony). Coffee shops. Bars. Birthday parties. High school grad. Churches. Barbecues. The new mobile sound system has provided me with a ream of new opportunities. And my new found love: the folk festival. Arts Wells was my first experience, and it was absolutely life-changing. Folk festivals are entirely about community and encouragement… audiences that want to LISTEN and participate and begging to sing along. This weekend I get to fly out to Winnipeg to be a part of Karla's Farm Fest outside of Winnipeg. The kids have grown so much in the heat of the summer, flourishing with their new discoveries. Matti, having just turned two is talking up a storm, learning to balance and climb, and is crazy about helicopters and soup. He requests "hecot" (helicopter) clips on YouTube whenever he sees us sit down to the computer, and soup for every single meal of his day. Reese is gorgeous and precocious and very opinionated about her world, choosing her heroes very carefully, and making me work with all my might to win her affections. And my beautiful bride is even more incredible than ever before, as our love gets more quiet and intimate and interested in the pleasures of understanding wanting to provide the best compliments to one another strengths. A lot of musical authorities cautioned me at the onset that raising a family is an incredibly arduous struggle for an artist that intends to tour. We are finding that – contrary to that way of thinking – it's been a delight to figure out how we can all get there together. And I am more often than not tremendously inspired by the obvious, positive changes that are happening in my own heart and vision. My setback is not lack of inspiration. It's the lack of time because I have to bust my can these days playing enough shows to keep everything floating. Pushing me to think of creative ways to increase our income. One recent inspiration provided a beautiful new song called Tree of Life that has been affecting our small (but growing) group of musical appreciators. We are presently trying to sell the song to Network Marketing giant Monavie and applying for a video grant to film said song's music video in the heart of the Amazon. If the grant and "jingle" (I call it) are properly backed, it could mark the turn of a multitude of exciting events. Travel, missions, the endless summer. In the meantime, we make the most of our time. I burn wood. I would like to be working with guitar-burning commissions for the fall, as they are larger projects that can keep me focused and keep the debt-collectors off my back. And Sundays at Salty's. Special events at Lakebreeze Wineries and Downtown Penticton Association. And new opportunities at nearly every new acquaintance. With promises of management, larger audiences, travel, video, audio production. I've been designing tattoos for my buddies (Scotty got a bamboo tattoo of one of my drawings when he was in Bangkok, and it's fucking beautiful). Jordan and I would like to start to regularly host special evenings of food, music and drink so Jen and I are slowly renovating a house down on the Mainland (Jen's dad's house), which keeps us learning and busy meeting our extra ends meet. When it's ready, we'll be able to cook gourmet theme dinners, and have living room concerts with an open bar!! When I contemplate how being self-employed requires so many of my faculties, little accidents are painfully upsetting. Like nearly ripping my ear off with a thornbush while gardening last week. Like a compounded lower spinal disc that nearly had me bed-ridden for 2 weeks. Like the new popping sounds in my knees. Like cuts on my fingers from all the cooking (cooking is STILL my daily, most constant, form of creative expression). Like the sore throat after 8 shows in a given week. Like the fatigue from driving the 3 Crowsnest Hwy six times in one week. We actually will have a new project ready to go as soon as I'm out of debt enough to put myself back in debt. If I had $5 for every time someone's asked me when the new album's coming, we'd be totally out of debt and probably on our way to great riches! Thank you everyone for being so supportive at this point in my career. And for getting the music into so many people's hands. I am totally locked into this time in my life. And SO EXCITED about this coming year!!! Europe in the spring time is what we want to do!! Please help us make it happen. We are still working on the details, but when we got them, we're going to need all the help we can get to make it sensational!! Folk Festivals all summer long, that's the plan for 2009.