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Entries made in June, 2016

June 2016, in Photos

Thursday, June 30th, 2016

Powered Paragliding Parts Arrive!

Monday, June 27th, 2016

Ever since boxes from BlackHawk Paramotor began arriving a week ago, we've been spending our evenings putting together our pair of crazy flying machines (at our neighbor's place). We're still waiting on a few more parts, but soon enough, we'll be u...

Skylight Window Trimming

Sunday, June 26th, 2016

For the past ten days, we've been in a self-inflicted exile from our home as our earthen floor slowly dries. During this time, we've gotten pretty good at breaking into our house. We usually enter through the kitchen window and tiptoe along the cou...

Orchard Update, Summer 2016

Friday, June 24th, 2016

It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. Miracle Max All of our fruit trees sailed through winter unscathed, with the excepti...

Workshop Interior Finish Plaster

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016

Now that the cottage plaster is done and the floor is drying, Chad and his crew have moved on to the finish plaster in our wonky, wonky workshop. Good luck team, you're going to need it! ...

Straw Bale Cottage Exterior Finish Lime Plaster Coat Complete

Tuesday, June 21st, 2016

Well before Tyler and I could have ever dreamed of completing the exterior plaster of our little cottage on our own, Chad and his crew have finished it. Looks great! ...

Straw Bale Cottage Exterior Finish Lime Plaster Coat

Monday, June 20th, 2016

Next on the docket, Chad and his crew tackle the finish plaster on the outside of our little straw bale cottage. Go, plasterers, go! By the end of day one, most of the house is plastered! ...

Earthen Floor Installation, Part Three

Friday, June 17th, 2016

With just a day's drying time for the first layer of basecoat, it's time to reinforce the earthen floor with burlap, and put on another layer of mix. We peek in from the doorway to check out the progress: By the end of the day, the ...

Our Cistern Shed Gets Plastered

Friday, June 17th, 2016

Today is a whirlwind of activity on the homestead as Chad and Liz prep their crew for plastering. First in line: our cistern shed. Carly tapes off the trim, while Liz and Camille sift sand and mix plaster. I pitch in to collect buckets, make a wash...

Earthen Floor Installation, Part Two

Thursday, June 16th, 2016

Layer one of our earthen floor basecoat has begun! ...

Earthen Floor Installation, Part One

Thursday, June 16th, 2016

This morning, the crew of Vermont Natural Homes arrived, raring to get started. After tackling a few unforeseen challenges, Chad and plastering whiz, Liz Johndrow, whipped up the floor mix using a lot of sand and a little clay. When our mortar mixe...

Earthen Floor Begins

Wednesday, June 15th, 2016

Though we just came back from California, it's already time to leave again. This time, we'll be vacating our little cottage for about six weeks as Vermont Natural Homes installs an earthen floor. Despite what we had originally hoped, we will not be...

Missing Felix & Nadine

Thursday, June 9th, 2016

About a month ago, I was sifting through old journal entries and found myself sucked into Tyler's and my German adventure. As I read through each day, from our arrival in Munich to our departure from Berlin, I was filled with emotion about our frie...

Visiting Lian in Oakland, Part Three

Thursday, June 9th, 2016

We've been eating ridiculously good food here in Oakland. Our visit has sincerely contained two of the best meals I have ever had in my life! One was a noodle dish at an Indonesian restaurant and another was at place called "Casserole House," where...

Visiting Lian in Oakland, Part Two

Thursday, June 9th, 2016

This week with Lian has been a wonderfully productive one as we've worked hard to make his place feel like home. First, we taped off and painted his bedroom, changing it from a somber blue into a cheery yellow. We also washed his windows (during wh...

Visting Lian in Oakland, Part One

Sunday, June 5th, 2016

It's been HALF A DECADE since we flew home from our bike trip and spent two weeks chillin' with my brother in California. To amend this shameful situation, Tyler and I have been trying to organize a time to see Lian for the past year or so. Finally...

Learning to Fly: Day Five at BlackHawk Paramotors

Friday, June 3rd, 2016

I think it says a lot about our personalities that I marked my morning flights on my hand with a pen, while Tyler emailed them to himself so he could make a database of them that will eventually show markers on a google map. Either way, we got a to...

Learning to Fly: Day Four at Blackhawk Paramotors (Tyler)

Thursday, June 2nd, 2016

After my engine failure yesterday, both of the student 125cc paramotors were out of commission. I assumed they'd fix them before morning, but when we arrived for class around 6AM, neither had been repaired. While this made for a pretty frustrating ...

Learning to Fly: Day Four at Blackhawk Paramotors (Tara)

Thursday, June 2nd, 2016

This morning, I resolved to have a better day than yesterday. I began by sleeping an hour later (until 5:30AM instead of 4:30AM), getting a huge, delicious coffee (I rarely drink coffee), and talking through pre-flying-school jitters with Tyler on ...

Learning to Fly: Day Three at Blackhawk Paramotors (Tyler)

Wednesday, June 1st, 2016

It gets ridiculously hot on the field here at BlackHawk Ranch. I haven't worked this hard in the heat since Tara and I laid the rebar for the foundation of our workshop. Several times today I thanked my lucky stars I'm not a farmhand, roofing contr...

Learning to Fly: Day Three at BlackHawk Paramotors (Tara)

Wednesday, June 1st, 2016

Today was rough. It began with not nearly enough sleep (4 hours to be exact), and being so sore and battered from the previous two days of training that it felt like I'd been run over. The only good part about the morning was getting towed a few mo...