Bizarre World

It has been just over a month since the lumberjack world championships, and life has been nothing short of Bizarre and Fantastic.

With Andrew Zimmern at our most recent filming.

I recently filmed another episode with Andrew Zimmern for his new show “Bizarre World”. Apparently lumberjack sports are considered Bizarre, but I’m finally able to come to terms with this. Our lumberjack episode will air on the Travel Channel in late October… STAY TUNED! My experiences with Mr. Zimmern and his exploits have given me a few minutes of fame to stand on my soapbox and tell the world about Lumberjack Sports and, more importantly, Huntington’s Disease. So again, I cannot thank you enough Andrew and crew for all of the great publicity and fun experiences.

Based on the above, this blog will be what it is usually about… Lumberjack Sports and Huntington’s Disease.

I am currently blessed to have met my dream man: a lumberjack who can put up with all of my life craziness. It’s a fantastic change to have somebody in my life so understanding. I mean really, how many people are out there who would enjoy a day of log rolling, running, fart jokes, and community service? Honestly… I think there is only one at my level, especially who shares my love of log rolling and lack of maturity.

And for a wonderful change, I was able to join Nate at one of his lumberjack shows and sit back, relax (okay not really), and be a lumberjack fan in the crowd for a change. The Steele County fair was my first real experience with a county fair. 4H, pig races, and tractor pull are all foreign to me. After experiencing much of the above, along with many fun lumberjack shows starring this hot guy named Nate, I got restless and entered the Army push-up contest. They made us do push-ups with a 40lb pack on our backs and I was able to crank out 68! Thus winning an iPod and admiration of rednecks all over Minnesota. Apparently I had issues with Nate getting all of the attention over the weekend. :) For more information about the Lumberjack Shows Nate works for, visit: http://www.lumberjackenterprises.com/

My next lumberjack show experience occurred up at the Minnesota State Fair, rooting on my dear friend Taylor as she preformed with the scary burly men of Rob Scheer’s Lumberjack Show. Along with Nate, Taylor, and Gino we had yet another fair experience full of eating fried snickers on a stick, a bucket full of chocolate chip cookies, world famous cheese curds, and plenty of taffy. Burp.

Show falls at the Walworth County Fair

My third lumberjack show adventure happened over Labor Day weekend in Elkhorn, Wisconsin at the Walworth County Fair with Carson Bosworth and JR Salzman. We preformed 13 goofy lumberjack shows complete with commentary on the pink “Lady Shaver” chainsaw with a co-driver, and ordering “Snow Storms” from Dairy Queen. It’s always a comic adventure when a group of lumberjacks from around the world are brought together. It was also nice to have Nate around for the entire week… he was such a big help!

We also ended the Madison Log Rolling season with the “End of Summer Moustache Mania Log Rolling Potluck”. Not much of a description is needed here… the pictures tell the whole story. Only at Madison log rolling…

At the HDSA Celebration of Hope Gala in Chicago

As previously mentioned, I’ve been able to get a lot of awareness out about Huntington’s Disease. HDSA has been the main focus of my past month. I’ve been vigriously preparing for our HDSA Team Hope 5K run/walk for a Cure here in Madison on September 26th. I also participated in planning for the HDSA Great Lakes Region Gala in Milwaukee, and was reelected president of the Wisconsin Chapter. Nate and I were guests at the wonderful HDSA Chicago Celebration of Hope Gala a few weeks ago, and we both volunteered and danced the night away at the hugely successful Wisconsin Gala on Friday night.

I recently won a scholarship to the World Congress on Huntington’s Disease in Vancouver, where I am sitting right now. I’m sure you can guess that I’m not in the most interesting of sessions at the moment, but I am overwhelmed by all of the brilliance at this conference. So far it has been fun to watch my dear HD friend BJ Viau give a great talk about fundraising and living at risk to the entire conference, and I have had the honor of meeting young people affected by HD from all over the world. And, following the theme of HD and Lumberjack life, I also had a chance to hang out on Grouse Mountain with my dear friends Darren, Stirling, Jodi, and new friend Eric Holmquist- the logrolling Elvis. Needless to say I’ve had quite the random and exciting experience so far in Vancouver?

So how long and random was this post?! It’s a Bizarre World…. stay tuned!