AndrePope.com

What a great weekend. I have been planning a little outing for my father, my and I for about two months now. The whole time I wanted to keep it a secret. To kick start everything I sent an cryptic email to both my brother and father to meet me at exit 447 off of I40 in Tenn. I didn't give them any other directions other than that and the time. Noticing that them may require some special gear for the trip I sent them other email stating to bring a bunch of random stuff to try and throw them off of the what we were actually going to be doing. So when my brother and I arrived at Exit 447 at the alloted time to meet my father they were pleasantly surprised to find out that we were going on a whitewater trip.

None of us have ever been on a white water adventure before so It was a great family experience. I booked everything online at . It turned out perfect. They were a smaller outfitter and it ended up being just us three plus the guide on on own raft. We tackled 3 class four rapids and a few class three as well along the Pigeon River. It really was a great time for the Pope boys to get together and have a little fun.

After returning home on Sunday , I decided to call up Mikey and see if he wanted to take the canoe out for a little bit. After a short stop at the inlet where we experienced our first low tide canoe trip (we were stupid) we headed over to the Intercoastal/Waccamaw. I have always heard of Sandy Island but never knew exactly where/what it was. To sun it up, it is a an island located in the Waccamaw River system that has a little community on it. There is a public school boat that takes kids back and froth from the island to the bus stop as well as waterway taxis that do the same for the islanders. It was a fun trip and we even got to see Brookgreen Gardens back door.

Below is a map of our route.

View Larger Map

After the half day on the water we went back to the house and had a little cook-out of hot dogs and baked beans. It was a great little break form the norm and I look forward to doing more on the rivers.

Posted by Andre at 02:00 PM | Permalink

Mr. Octopus passed today.

It was a great adventure for both him and the rest of the Pope family. I have gained must respect for these creatures. Smart, intelligent, playful and curious all wrapped into one. For those of you who had the opportunity to observe Mr. Octopus you know exactly what I mean. (Seeing an octopus in a large aquariums like Ripley's give you no real basis of understanding the uniqueness that these creatures truly possesses.)

Mr. Octopus was a part of the Pope family for over 9 months, a little longer than what expected. Rescued from sea nets off the coast of SC, Mr. Octopus gave us a great adventure in aquatic world. We have learned a lot from the experience and look forward to passing our knowledge onto others in the form of conservation.

Mr. Octopus – You will truly be missed.

Posted by Andre at 07:22 PM | Permalink

Thanks to the love of my work I have be able to start to explore the world of Google Maps. In doing so I have got to apply for a Google Maps API, nd start a little on programing. I am very new to this but have found a joy in experimenting with all of the features of it. From a very basic point of view I have learned how to plot instances on a map, change marker icons, add info text and photos, I have even started to learn how to plot tracks from my GPS.

This last feature is very exciting. I can now combine a few of my new hobbies together and share them with others thanks to Google Maps. The other day I recently tracked one of my new adventures. My friend Mikey (RedLine13) and I plotted our first canoe trip along the Waccamaw into Kingston Lake. By combining my track that I set-up on my Garmin 60CSx and a communicator (GPSBabel), I was able to export a KML file that I uploaded to Google Earth. Now I can view my journey through Google Earth (if I was thinking I would have taken photos along the journey and geoTagged them as well) as well as create a My Maps section and share with you here.

View Larger Map

I have always been into maps and now this gives me a reason to learn even more. I know there is a lot that you can do with them and have a few little projects that I want to get up and running. But for now I have to learn more info than I think I can (JavaScript). However if I can get the basics down I can port that knowledge over to future projects.

Check out the work in progress that I have going on for one of my clients.

Posted by Andre at 02:10 PM | Permalink

I am very interested in the cost of food. Not only from the point of view that I am a consumer of said goods but also form the point of new ways of generating the same amount of food for less. Most say that food cost comes from the shipping from far off destinations coupled with environmental concerns. Food shipping also has a huge impact on the carbon footprint.

There has been a lot of press about grow/eat local. This concept is very appealing to me. While there are tons and tons of ways to do this, urbanites have started to buy small plots of larger land tracks to grow and maintain there own food supply. This is also accruing in large city's on rooftop gardens and city parks. Would this idea be appealing to fellow Horry County citizines? I don't really think so but it may.

I have at my disposal about 8 acres of land located off 701 S right outside of Conway. What if I made a urban farming location where people could rent out smaller plots and plat there own crops? Have it where all tools, water, fertilizer are all supplied. Also have on a hand a "real farmer" who could coach folks the ways of growing crops properly. You could charge for the service and make it as easy as possible for people to become "Weekend Farmers." As long as you make the place nice, free of backbreaking work and give growing advice you could make it work. I think people are scared off from the up front cost of equipment, the thought of loosing their crops due to inexperience and actually doing back breaking work. If you supply the knowledge, the equipment and a helping hand people would be more inclined to join up. {You could possibly create it like a co-op where all crops are put into the overall pool of crops and each family gets there own share. (But I haven't thought this idea out fully so I will hold off for now. Too many negative thoughts as far as "Share Cropping" is concerned.)}

Taking it one step further you could also have live stock where each" Weekend Farmer" has his/her own cow, hog and chicken. You would then get the eggs from the chickens and each season get the beef from the cattle and the pork from the pig.

The idea is not that far of a stretch. You already have people renting out horse stables and while this is for recreation the same principals apply except now the recreation is "gardening." You are making it fun, enjoyable, family time and eco-friendly.

What do you think? Would you become a "weekend farmer?"

Posted by Andre at 02:59 PM | Permalink

IRON MAN! (Inset song track here)

Last night Heidi and I went to go see Iron Man. One of the local theaters had a showing at 11:00 o'clock and knowing this weekends schedule we thought that this would be the best time to check it out. The theater wasn't crowed at all which is just fine by me.

My Review:
It's good. Go see it. Get some popcorn. Great casting. Stick around till after the credits. Enjoy, you shouldn't be disappointed.

Posted by Andre at 09:28 AM | Permalink