Honey, I'm Home!

After 50 straight hours of driving - I'm HOME! The astute among us may realize that the photo above is of our departure, not of our arrival, but I'm sure none of you would be interested in seeing my haggard, tear-streaked face crowded by a tangle of limp, oily hair that hadn't been washed since Sacramento, California. And yes, I said tear-streaked, because even the most intrepid travelers are entitled an emotional breakdown every now and then, especially when that breakdown coincides with a very intense daybreak dash through snow, ice, and windshield wiper fluid that froze solid. And, of course, the overwhelming relief of finally being off the road!

Looking at my recent post history, you might be remonstrating me from my lack of posts about my trip - the posts I promised you would cover my journey on a live basis - but I guess that just wasn't in the cards this time around. I blame technology failures and horrible time management. Had I a lesser constitution for remoteness, I may have lapsed into catatonic schizophrenia with the amount of time I spent in areas with no service at all. Have no fear, I will recap the adventures like a champ in the weeks to come.

Some adventures to whet your taste buds:

• Completed my life goal of visiting all 50 states!
• Hung out at a nudist colony in Colorado
• Attended a PhD level astrophysics course at UC Riverside
• Saw a wild sea otter up close and personal
• Cross-country skied to a back country yurt for the night

I can't wait to tell you all about it. Expect an abundance of sunset photos. What have you all been up to?

Photo-an-Hour: A December DIY

9am: Good morning! I'm kind of an "early to bed, late to rise" kind of girl, so my day usually starts around nine with a good Aeropress full of espresso. With AGP out of the house for a couple of days, I have to remember how to do everything for one!

 10am: My cats' animosity towards each other has been thawing lately and I have been delightfully obsessed with seeing them relaxing in the same room together. It warms the cockles of my heart to get an eyeful of two happy cats at once.

11am: Chores in the country include bringing my own trash to the dump. We ain't got no trash collection. Although this is actually a pretty fun chore because they have a cool recycling transfer station including a "take it or leave it" section with lots of free goodies.

12pm:  Just showing off some of the awesome stuff I snagged at the dump. Not pictured is a sweet bench and a few other kitchen essentials. Don't you LOVE that bedspread and tiny frying pan?! Obviously taking free trash is not weird, right? Right!

1pm: I took a walk on the look out for some winter textures. I always forget how nice it is to tromp around in the snow, even on a cold, icy day. I made this quick and dirty mandala out of branches from a downed birch limb. I'm trying to get better at identifying trees, especially in winter, and this book I snagged is great: A Guide To Nature in Winter.

2pm: Potted plant appreciation time! This begonia is one of my favorites. It is prospering fantastically from some clippings I got from a girlfriend in late fall. It doesn't mind the winter at all.

3pm: A little exercise and a little X-Files. This pose looks provocative. Scully looks incredulous. Get it, girl.

4pm: Phyllis thinks exercise is for chumps. She'd much rather turn into a great big pile of fluff for 18 hours a day. Can't say I blame her.

5pm: Project time. A before shot of our little bedroom shows it to be a bit... lacking. I have been gearing up to try this statement wall DIY from A Beautiful Mess behind the bed for about a month now and it's finally time! Okay, take a deep breath and jump in!

 6pm: This is my stencil. A bit of a different take on ABM's design, but a bit more my style. I call it The Aztec Urn Pattern. I perfected the stencil the night before, then carefully carved it onto a fresh piece of cardboard I got from the dump today. I'm about halfway through the wall at this point. 30 Rock is my friend.

7pm: Yes! I LOVE it! I will share a better "after" photo once we install our nightstands and spruce up the space a bit more, but this statement wall project was the first step in our total bedroom rejuvenation. The pattern and overall effect make me smile, even with all the slight imperfections. Thanks for the idea, ABM!

8pm: Dinner in bed is totally reasonable when you just want to stare at your new pretty wall, right? This is some absolute bachelorette food: roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, chicken, brie, and apples on french bread. A DIY dinner to end the day.

Karl Comes to Cupertino: A Thanksgiving Visitor

Happy belated Thanksgiving, Zy! Our holiday in San Francisco was festive, full of food and friends. We had an SND-worthy potluck (I made green bean casserole à la Daring Gourmet) and we even got a special guest for the weekend. Brittany Whitaker just moved to California and has been staying with us the last few days.

That's us, all warm in our fuzzies because Karl the Fog also decided this is a great time to visit Cupertino. It finally rained (here and pretty much everywhere in California). Not enough to ease the drought, but enough to finally provide some relief to the parched earth. What a nice change of pace from our usual mild and sunny environs. 

Indoor activities are more suitable at the moment. These days are perfect for mulled wine, board games and puzzles -- all things I know you enjoy. I suppose you indulged in those things yourself at the Friendsgiving gathering last weekend. Wish we could've been there with all of you but at least we'll see you soon. Will you pick up a new puzzle? We can do it together when you get here.

Trail Cam No. 4

 

It's too bad that my coveted game trail position proved fruitless. My zeal for mysterious animal captures was a bit too much, I guess, because I probably should have left it in the woods for longer than one week! Oh well, better luck next time.

So the trail cam sat around the house for a bit before finding a home in the yard, ripe to capture all the comings and goings of a closing of a season. Good timing too, because right now I'm looking out at a foot of fresh powder - screaming, no more yard work for months!

 

The fox has been back lately, but it is undecided if he is the culprit behind the tussle Tina got into a few weeks ago. She's okay though, and I have my money on an owl attack.

Do you like our goose head puppet? It's part of a much larger costume, a sort of mascot for our group of friends and our beloved band, The Goosepimp Orchestra. We are the keepers of the sacred costume these days.

And of course there is the ever present Miss Phyllis, whose supple coat keeps her frolicking deep into the colder weather. She's the softest cat ever, you know. Such a cutie.

Check out the whole Trail Cam Series here!

Foto Friday No. 2

I know I'm not the only one in the country dealing with snow right now, but damn - doesn't November seem a bit to early to be chipping ice off your car every morning?? Oh well, here's to a beautifully snowy weekend! Happy Friday!

Trail Cam No. 3

Well, I think we can say with confidence who was responsible for the deaths of our chickens! We had heard rumors of this little fox living in the neighborhood, but had yet to see him ourselves. Does catching him on the trail camera count?

I love this picture because if you look closely at the right side of the photo, you can see two glowing eyes staring back. Who could that be? Cat? Coon?

Okay, it's not fair to put all the chicken death blame on the fox. We have a smattering of racoons in the neighborhood as well, including one who once stole our trash and another who I caught peeping in the big picture window the other night. I suppose he could be responsible too.

I stuck the trail cam a little lower to the ground than last time and was rewarded with captures of the less exotic animals that frequent our yard as well the creatures of the dark. Though I was bummed that a lot of the night pictures came out blurry and a little washed out this time. Oh well. 

This is our rooster, Steve French.

We call this one Pat because we can't tell if he is a boy or a girl yet.

I wonder where I will put the trail cam next!

Take a look at the last trail cam collections here:

Trail Cam No. 1

Trail Cam No. 2

Trail Cam Goes on a Trip

One Year in Vermont!

And it's been a great one! As I mentioned earlier, it's been just over a full year since AGP and I made the move from our nomadic urban homelessness to the permanent bliss of these four stone walls. Now here I sit, with a cat on my lap, looking out over a rag-tag team of chickens and our bucolic babbling brook while counting my proverbial blessings.

Here are a few of the things I am thankful for this year in Vermont:

1. Chickens in the yard

It's been a whirlwind of adventure with these chicks in our lives, that's for sure. But what you may not know is that when I received them in the mail (yes, that's right) I got SEVENTY!!! And no, not all of them met that same brutal fate. Sixty of them were raised for a friend of mine since I had the patience, passion, and space to do it. Actually, the patience and passion wore out pretty fast once I realized what poultry husbandry really entailed (read: shit and dandruff EVERYWHERE). But now that the leftover crew has grown up a bit, we are starting to get the hang of it and are really looking forward to that wondrous day they start laying eggs. Yum!

2. A garden... kind of

Growing things is my jam. And, yea, even though my garden beds didn't exactly pass with flying colors this year, I still learned enough to make it worthwhile and have a blast doing it. I started planning and scheming in the dead of winter, growing all my plants carefully from seed in late March and you better believe that watching those crisp green sprouts grow while the winter tempest wailed outside helped me make it through to spring. So what if I'm not knee deep in zucchini and beets like I had imagined? The chard is doing great and every few days we get a handful of cherry tomatoes. And better yet, we eagerly look forward to next year so we can try again! If only winter wasn't in our way, damn!

3. Love = cats

My two insanely precious cats have lived perpendicular lives, intersecting here in the woods of Vermont. Sweet Phyllis was a city cat who lived the first years of her life inside yearning to be outside and Tina was a prairie cat who lived the first years of her life outdoors yearning to be indoors. Now they both get to go wherever they want, whenever they want. And to me there is no better feeling than watching Phyllis frolic outside as dirty as can be or watching Tina sleep the day away in a nest of blankets knowing that warmth and safety are her present and future. There is nothing like a happy animal, amiright?

4. A tiny house or two!

Another thing you may not know about us forest dwellers is that we are in the business of building tiny houses! These miraculously tidy houses are built on wheels so you can pull them anywhere your heart desires. It's amazing that we are able to sustain ourselves with these projects while at the same time providing affordable and alternative housing for others. And, dudes, there is nothing quite as nice as walking out of your front door and being at work! We are currently working on our fourth model. Feel free to ask questions! I will post more pics soon.

5. Friends for the duration

And of course, I am grateful for my friends, who reassure me time and time again that I may be gone, but I am definitely not forgotten!

I won't lie, living in Vermont is definitely a bit lonelier and a bit more hostile than living in the city. Winter seems to last forever and there aren't a lot of opportunities to meet people our age. But as I walk barefoot down the dirt driveway or hike into the state forest behind my house to catch the view of Magic Mountain at sunset, overwhelming feelings of pure delight override any niggling feelings of isolation. As we slip into a countrified routine, I feel more natural here than ever and that's a feeling, I think, that will last a lifetime.