{"id":4615,"date":"2013-02-24T18:29:45","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T02:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/blog\/?p=4615"},"modified":"2013-02-24T19:26:28","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T03:26:28","slug":"im-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/2013\/02\/im-back\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m BACK!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey everybody! I’m BAAA-AAACK! Thawed out and alive. I know, it’s been a while since I’ve posted as I’ve been up in the frozen awesomeness of Alaska. You can view a slideshow of a few shots here<\/a>, or check out the gallery here<\/a>. It was my first time travelling without my fam, but their constant calls\/photos\/facetimin’ kept me warm through it all. Just wanted to say thank you to my wife, Dahlia, for watering and taking care of the plants while I was away. She would send me photos from the garden and keep me updated on all the plants. Thanks baby!<\/p>\n

I have a new revelation of what “cold” is… I’ve been accustomed to wearing SPF 50 sunblock and working in 80F temperatures on the regular. I went from that and into consistent -20’s and with lows dipping to -36F. And yes. For me, it was AWESOME. I was doing some night photography in -30F temperatures and the Gatorade in my bag froze solid within minutes.<\/p>\n

In the middle of this frozen phenomenal-ness, there’s an oasis of botanical beauty. And guess what?! It was filled with carnivorous plants!! Well, kinda… TOMATOES! According to studies done a few years ago, scientists have found that tomatoes, as well as a few other plants, have the ability to “eat insects.”<\/a> Before I start posting about our regularly featured carnivores, I wanted to share a few photos from the geothermal powered (yes, geothermal powered<\/em>!) greenhouses at Chena Hot Springs<\/a> located in the North Star Borough of Pleasant Valley, Fairbanks, Alaska.<\/p>\n

This green oasis was a refreshing change of climate. Dude, this makes me wish I was on some geothermal power back at my place! Special thanks to Vanessa for showing us around the place!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\"AlaskaKiller tomatoes grown on a pulley system! Once the tomatoes reach a certain height, the pulleys lower the vines down so that they can continue to climb, vine, and grow. So fresh.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"AlaskaTomato cutting\/grafting action.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"AlaskaBeware of the killer tomatoes.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"AlaskaPointsettias grown under LEDs.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Alaska<\/span>Being so remote, they’re using geothermal power here to grow their own food and be self sustaining. Fresh veggies in the winter while everything else outside is frozen. Love it!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"AlaskaLt. Benton II, Vanessa, and me.<\/span><\/em>
\nThanks Vanessa for showing us around the place! And Jameson, nice meeting you too – it’s always great to run into other horticultural minded folks!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"AlaskaMeanwhile, outside – a frigid yet beautiful scene…<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Another thing I might as well share on this post are a few photos from the road trip back to Mark’s place. After leaving Chena and driving for a little bit, I noticed something lighting up the sky along the horizon. Lo and behold it was the Aurora! It was my final evening in Alaska and I am so glad to have been able to witness the amazing phenomenon. Mark quickly veered off the highway; we ended going down a random street and finally ending up in a driveway. Sandy, the owner of the property asked us if we were lost, in which Mark replied “Oh no, just wanting to see the Aurora.” Dude, I was sitting there all freakin’ like a little kid itching to see the lights. Sandy was so awesome and kind enough to let us shoot a few frames from her driveway. They told me this was a rather mild occurrence. (WHAT?!) Sandy also mentioned that if I thought this<\/em> was cool, then I should see it when it’s intense and blazin’ overhead. Man, I gotta come back for that! Thanks again Sandy for letting us shoot from your driveway!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\"Alaska<\/p>\n

\"Alaska<\/p>\n

\"Alaska<\/p>\n

\"Alaska<\/p>\n

Last but not least, I wanted to express my gratitude to 1Lt. Andrew Chung and my bro 1Lt. Mark Benton II for their hospitality and boundless generosity. It was truly a blessing to catch up and experience all I did up there. Mark, dude — thank you for everything bro! Mos’ def’ I will be back!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"AlaskaMe, Mark, and Andrew – on the road in Denali National Park, Alaska.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey everybody! I’m BAAA-AAACK! Thawed out and alive. I know, it’s been a while since I’ve posted as I’ve been up in the frozen awesomeness of Alaska. You can view a slideshow of a few shots here, or check out … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[971,973,16,980,22,972,974,976,975,979,977,978],"class_list":["post-4615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-alaska","tag-aurora","tag-awesome","tag-benton","tag-carnivorous","tag-chena-hot-springs","tag-fairbanks","tag-geothermal","tag-north-star-borough","tag-sandy","tag-tomatoes","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepitcherplantproject.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}