Liberty and Lunch is a platform for sharing the wonderful things in life: food, adventure, challenge, exploration, and stories greatly told.

Freedom Canoe by Scott Gordon

Austin photographer Scott David Gordon, of the 365 day panorama project and the most beautiful vegetables in Texas, stopped by our shop to take a few snaps of our progress.


Click on the image to see it bigger!

I’m kind of shy when it comes to having my picture taken but when Scott came in and we began discussing plans for future projects, his current subject matter and his visions for his works, I instantly got in the mood to show how Ryan and I are building this boat together.

This panorama expresses our days in the shop so truly, so simply and thoroughly, I love every aspect of it. Thanks for stopping by Scott! I can’t wait to explore the world this here canoe opens up through your lens.

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Snowshoeing picnic in Breckenridge

Flashback to February! Ryan and I were in Colorado and had the most excellent afternoon snowshoeing and picnicking just outside of Breckenridge.

It was an overcast day that was promising snow, but it was our last day in the Rockies and I wanted to check out a new place. I bought an excellent book, Snowshoeing Colorado, that is packed full of trail information, maps and tips that helped me decide on a perfect trail for us – something moderately easy with great views and a bit of history. We drove from Frisco to Breckenridge and through town up French Gulch Road until our rental car almost couldn’t take the snow-packed roads anymore.

We strapped on our gaiters and snowshoes and trekked almost two miles up an old mining road to see Sallie Barber Mine, perched atop a Barney Ford Hill. Sallie Barber is a mystery woman. Why anyone would name a mine after an unidentified woman? There are other mines with maudlin names like Romance and Purgatory – an ode to the possibilities that lie beneath? Great hopes for a better future or dreams of times past? The Sallie Barber mine is a ruin of a small zinc and silver mine that began production back in 1880 and ran steadily, although always losing money, up until the first world war.

I got right up to her and peered down into the 360 foot main shaft, unobstructed as far as the eye could see.

Along with an incredibly intact mine structure we discovered not one but two (two!) car wrecks below the mine tailings. We bounded down the steep snow-covered tallus and found a way in to the first car. I was impressed by how complete and untouched the frame was, and how beautiful the rust and paint had created a mosslike patina over the years. It was eerie and exciting at the same time, and the clouds began to roll in thickly.

We tromped back up to the top of the hill for a chilly picnic before heading down the trail. I’d packed the new Backpacker’s Pantry Cold Couscous Salad and Creme Brulée for lunch and, starving from our big uphill trek, I was ready to prep them on that blustery ridge for the first time.

Because we were at 10,000 feet, I added water to the couscous pack before we got on the trail, to give it enough time to rehydrate. The instructions were very clear that with every 5000 foot elevation gain, the meal would require more rehydration time. I felt extra-prepared and confident that this lunch would be sufficient fuel (and fun) for our outing. Let me just say that this couscous is some of the best I’ve ever had, and I can’t make it taste this good. There’s a packet of olive oil that you add to the salad at the end, and whole garbanzos, and bell peppers and broccoli! This salad is mega-fresh and really satisfying to eat. It was actually easier to add water and mix before getting on the trail, and just enjoy it when we were ready. And after this trip Ryan made it again for camping dinner and we used the leftovers for breakfast, heated on the stove with fried eggs. DELISH.

The Creme Brulée wasn’t short of amazing. Imagine a creamy cheesecake topped with toasted sugar crystals sticking to your cold spoon as you try to scrape the last bits out of the resealable bag and not being able to get enough…This stuff is pure heaven. The pack serves two but was almost too much for the two of us after couscous and some fruit, but I was happy to have something deliciously sweet to finish our picnic. Creme Brulée is becoming a permanent staple on my list for backpacking supplies. And did I mention it only took a few minutes of whisking to make? Can’t beat that.

Totally stuffed, I strapped my snowshoes back on as the wind picked up and the snow began to drift heavily onto us.

On our way back into town we spotted another abandoned mine and couldn’t resist taking a closer look. The construction of the ore slue(?) was beautiful and super strong, even after so many years. I’m always delighted by the brilliant colors of the earth and rocks around mines as well, although dismayed too, because it’s often a sign of heavy metals that have been unearthed and are leeching into the creeks and rivers, possibly disrupting entire ecosystems. I love visiting Colorado mines – they’re always a reminder of how we have a lasting impact on the earth around us, and make great teaching tools.

I miss the snow! It’s already nearly summer here in Austin and I can’t wait to plan my next snowshoeing adventure. I’d love to strap on a big backpack next year and do a multi-day snowshoeing trek through the backcountry in Summit County, sleeping in cabins or making ice caves along the way. And I’ll definitely pack some more Creme Bruleé to fuel me up along the way!


Many thanks to Backpackers Pantry for sending Liberty+Lunch samples of their new dishes, Cold Couscous Salad, Cuban Coconut Black Beans & Rice and Creme Brulée! We weren’t paid to share these opinions – they are 100% our own. We had a great time sampling and recommend these BP dishes to anyone who’s interested in mixing up their trail and camp cuisine.

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Notes from the road

Hi! It’s been too long. The last two months has just been crazy with travel, new projects and finishing the canoe, and I realized I couldn’t do everything I wanted to do, so I let Liberty+Lunch fall by the wayside. I don’t like describing my time away from writing as something that was “wayside” on the side of the road of my consciousness, because I thought about it just about every day. And it has been killing me to feel like I haven’t had the time to write! To do justice to all the things I want to share by giving them each the care and attention that I think they deserve.

So what’s changed? Nothing really.

Work is still crazy, with projects that are taking up more of my brain and my time than I expect. I was recently promoted to Senior, which I’ve been actively working on for the last year, and it feels really really good. I have more responsibilities, more people looking at me for guidance and great design work, and (as I like to see it) the title behind me to raise hell like I’ve always wanted to.

I spent March travelling around the world for work. I spent a week in London, a week in Mumbai and flew through Seoul for a week in Los Angeles. It was quite the cultural rollercoaster. I’ve been so slammed I haven’t had an opportunity to sit down with my photos and process anything, but I’m hoping I can do that and share some of my favorite bits very, very soon.

The canoe is still being built, slowly, although after a year and a half, we’re finally nearing the end of production. Ryan has been posting lots of pictures of our process on Instagram. I can’t wait to share where we are and what are plans are for launch and our first ride in her!

The biggest struggle I face in writing these days is actually just the sheer amount of time I’ve been spending in front of the computer. My eyes and back are aching and the last thing I want to do at night is sit on the couch with my laptop. Figuring out another option, another way of doing this, might be in order. There are many other little bits in the works that I wish I could write about all at once, and get everything in my head out, but alas it will have to wait. Soon! I promise.

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My two favorite places to ski.

In February Ryan and I took a few days off work to head up to Colorado for some late season skiing. This was our first ski-centered adventure together and we hit up my two favorite Rocky Mountain ski resorts: Loveland and Copper Mountain. The snow was nicely packed powder and almost all of the lifts, runs and bowls were open for us to explore.

Loveland is unique in its vast sheer open spaces above tree-line. Riding up the highest lift in the states, I always feel full of awe and anticipation for imminent skiing. This is my favorite place. There’s just so much room to shred. When I’m here I feel so present as my self. I’ve been coming here for years and each return trip is like a visit to an old friend’s house. I feel at ease, comfortable, elated even. Sharing this place and the elation I experience being here is important – in coming here with friends and family I feel I’m sharing a piece of myself, a core piece of who I am and what I value. At the risk of everyone finding out about this special place I have to share it! Skiing at Loveland is like no other place – there aren’t crowds like you see at other, bigger resorts. There’s not a huge infrastructure that supports too-expensive lift tickets. There aren’t massive lines for everything. It’s just good, simple, high altitude snow jams.

After a great day at Loveland Ryan and I met up with my Dad, his wife Shawn and her daughter Lucy, for a beer and a drive up to Loveland Pass to the Continental Divide. We watched the sun set over the place that determines which on which coast our rivers drain.

We ventured out to Copper Mountain to explore the back bowls that were closed most of the season. It was unexpected to see members of the ski patrol high up testing for avalanches in advance of a coming storm, and hear the blasts from their preventative cannons as we scooted down double black diamond runs. Ryan caught tons of air like a total pro while I attempted to catch it in photograph. It was a beautiful, perfect day.

The best secret picnic spot is hidden deep on the bowl side of Copper. We unpacked our backpacks and had lunch with the camp robbers – fluffy grey birds that live in the big pines even in the dead of winter.

Short though it was, this trip up to Colorado was much-needed for me. The feelings I get when I get close to home are enriching beyond explanation. I didn’t feel that way when I was younger, but as I continue dictating for myself how I spend time and money I see I’m drawn to these places like I never was before. Nourishment for my body is found in the physicality of skiing while my heart fills with joy being in and around the mountains. When I’m up high I’m inspired with new ideas. I have a sense of clarity and purpose. I know exactly what I have to do. This is happiness.

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Time for an adventure

I think I can finally announce that it’s official: On Saturday I’m travelling to London for eight days then to Mumbai for another eight or so days. I got a bunch of vaccinations this morning – Hepatitis A & B, Typhoid and Tetanus – I leave on Saturday!

I’m travelling with frog, my company, on a design research trip in which we’re going to be talking to a lot of people and following them around and I can’t say much about it except that I am SO FREAKING STOKED. I’m most excited to experience west Indian city culture for the first time, and share pictures of the things I see and experience along the way!

Have you spent much time in London or Mumbai? Have any incredible places you’d recommend I eat, see, or explore? I’d love to get your advice!

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Building the Freedom Canoe: Progress Update 3

Well! It’s been three months since I shared our canoe-building process when we had finished planking the hull. A lot of progress has been made and there have been some big changes over at Muddy Water Shop. And we’re finally able to glimpse the end of this huge undertaking.

The big news we have to share is Muddy Water Shop’s new location! At the end of December we moved out of Hackberry House, where building began, and relocated to a Co-Op at Delta Millworks in east Austin.

I’m so excited to share my favorite photos of our work and our move! I can never remember to take pictures with my “real” camera so here’s a mashup of both things I’ve shared on instagram and never before seen photos! In other social media news, Muddy Water Shop is now on Twitter!

Follow our adventures on Twitter and Instagram.

Let’s see, where did we leave off? We finished planking the hull in October, which was a huge accomplishment and we both let out a big sigh of relief. The hull was such an intensive process that I hadn’t paid much attention to what came after planking, so it was a bit of a shock to realize that even after all that work we were only a third to halfway done with the boat.

The hull is made up of many flat strips of cedar, glued together and bent over a mold. So even though it appears round from a distance, the hull is actually a bunch of flat wooden faces that need to be shaped down into a smooth, hydrodynamic hull. We spent a few weekends shaping the hull with a block plane and spokeshave before sanding it with 80 and 120 grit sandpaper. Finally, after hours and hours, the outside hull would be ready to fiberglass.

Fiberglassing is an intense process that, once begun, must be completed in one eight to fifteen hour session. After a few weeks of procrastinating and schedule conflicts we finally set a date. Fiberglassing with epoxy-resin is complex for several reasons – the temperature must be a steady 70° and humidity must be low. Three coats of epoxy-resin are applied to the fiberglass cloth and must be done in timed succession to ensure even curing and a strong, chemical bond between the fiberglass, wood, and epoxy-resin.

After two coats of epoxy-resin the weave of the fiberglass begins to disappear and the hull becomes brilliantly shiny.

For the first time since beginning the project in February 2012, we were finally ready to turn the canoe right-side-up and see its form the way it will float through the water.

Work on the outside of the hull was finished for the time being so we shifted our focus to shaping the inside of the canoe. Beginning with a scraper we slowly rounded out the inside faces of the cedar planks to make a super-smooth curve along the 17 foot length of the canoe. The scraper was the hardest tool to learn for me – it required lots of force and had a close angled blade to pull the long ribbons of cedar from the planks. Ryan did an incredible job scraping the inside of the hull and most of the progress here was thanks to him. We glued strips of sandpaper to round soda bottles and sanded the bilge smooth with 80 and 120 grit paper (again) then used blocks to smooth the flatter areas of the ill along the keel and sheer lines. Near the end of December the shaping of the inside hull was complete.

Our goal was to get as far as possible in our progress by the end of December because we knew that we would need to find a new shop. With just a few days to spare on the end of our lease I spotted a Craigslist ad for an east Austin wood co-op and we realized we’d really have to move. We packed up the original Muddy Water Shop and on December 31st we said goodbye.

So January began in a completely new space, now that we’d share with lots of tools and a few new people. It was an emotional transition – I didn’t expect to feel so displaced and vulnerable – but once we unpacked and settled in I began to feel that the new shop could have a lot of potential.

New Year, New Muddy Water Shop…!

We got right back into build mode, prepping the inside of the hull for fiberglassing. We took a whole weekend this time, starting at a leisurely noon time and finishing around eight in the evening. The inside of the hull only required two coats of epoxy-resin to lend a less slippery texture to where we will sit and stand. Repeating the process a second time was less stressful than the first and was even fun. The biggest challenge with fiberglassing the inside of the hull are the bubbles that form under the cloth and the pools of excess epoxy that float down into the hard-to-reach places near the stems.

We got right back into build mode, prepping the inside of the hull for fiberglassing. We took a whole weekend this time, starting at a leisurely noon time and finishing around eight in the evening. The inside of the hull only required two coats of epoxy-resin to lend a less slippery texture to where we will sit and stand. Repeating the process a second time was less stressful than the first and was even fun. The biggest challenge with fiberglassing the inside of the hull are the bubbles that form under the cloth and the pools of excess epoxy that float down into the hard-to-reach places near the stems.

Turning the canoe back over, I spent a morning scraping runs in the epoxy out with a cabinet scraper. A thin block of stamped steel, cabinet scrapers are one of the cheapest but most valuable tools in the box. With a sharpened edge you can scrape away the smallest bits of excess without difficulty.

The last step in finishing the hull before adding trim was to sand the epoxy down to a perfectly smooth and uniform finish. The shiny epoxy instantly tuned opaque and bright white, so we temporarily named her the Ghost Boat. The Freedom Canoe is now ready for the final touches: gunnels, decks, seats, and several healthy coats of varnish.

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