Take a look at that last news post! Do you see it? Do you see the date??? October 2, 2016. Dang. That’s a long time. But I haven’t just been sitting around. I’d like to introduce you to a few projects that I’ve had my hands in for the last few months and give you an opportunity to check them out:

#Beautyinthecommon Lent Challenge on Instagram. Go ahead. Take a look at my Insta-feed an look at all of the videos from April and May. All new songs. Nearly every day. Following a challenge word announced by @Beautyinthecommon for every day of Lent 2017. Over the course of those forty days, I wrote 20+ song sketches, many of which I hope to complete and release this year. It will be my first solo record in six years.

TheDadLift.com, Life Hacks for Dads. A friend of mine began TheDadLift (TDL) about a year ago, and a few months ago, he finally sat me down and explained his whole concept and vision to me. I fell in love with it, and officially began writing for TDL about two months ago. Simply put, TheDadLift is about encouraging fathers—physically, mentally, and spiritually—to be the best we can be for our spouses, children, and families. My friend, Efren, is a certified personal trainer, so he handles most of the fitness posts while I write more about the “everyman” and spiritual/emotional stuff. Here’s a link to my most recent post.

Brothers McCutchin Brewing. The name started as kind of a gimmick, and I’m still not 100% on it, but here it is nonetheless. A clear play on the pronunciation of my last name, it’s a bit too Irish for me, maybe. I’ve been brewing beer in my home for a little over a year, and in recent months, I’ve started to get pretty serious about it with a small group of friends. Serious enough that I’ve been plumbing the depths of EPA water sample data for my area. Slowly, the idea has taken shape from a simple brew club to a committed core of dudes willing to throw several hundred dollars each at a dream to open a hometown brewery and tasting room. (There’s a lot more to this plan, but that’s at least half of it.) We’re still exploring a lot—designing recipes, business planning, thinking about financing, and, of course, tasting and sampling the local competition. Ask me about purchasing a bomber of the latest brew, a tart West-Coast IPA.

Tunes For a Minute. Check ’em out on Instagram. Tunes for a Minute is the brainchild of a good friend of mine, Jason Perez, a local musician and drummer and all-around cool dude. I record 80% of the audio for this collaborative project with local musicians. Literally, a one-minute jam posted on Instagram and YouTube.

Beautiful Mucks. A little over a month ago, my wife asked me “How would you feel about selling our house, buying an RV and traveling the country for the next year?” I replied with a calculated and tempered “Sure.” Since that time, we’ve been hardcore planning to see if a trip like this is possible for us, starting in August. The three big question marks are: can we find an RV in our price range, can we find someone to rent our home (we revised our original plan and now think we can simply rent instead of sell), and can we sell our sedan for a fair price—all within the next five weeks. Basically, if it happens, it would be kind of a miracle.

Climb 13 in 12. Many of you know that I am an avid rock climber. I love it. For me, climbing is pretty close to Nirvana. Few things bring me the same level of joy. I love the challenge, the movement, the locations, and the people. I’ve long had climbing goals—to improve my abilities overall, but this is entirely different. This time, I’ve quantified the goal: I want to climb as hard as endorsed, pro climbers.