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Barn's Burnt Down, Now I Can See the Moon

Tuesday, August 27th, 2019

I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to write about this in any sort of succinct way. Every single time, words fall short. Perhaps one day I will succeed in telling this story, but for now, here goes attempt number 856069: You know whe...

Misty Morning

Tuesday, September 20th, 2016

Every once and awhile, our homestead is visited by a churning, swirling blanket of fog. Sometimes I can see it rolling in over the mountains to the West; other times, it seems to emanate from our land itself. The mist moves quickly, settling into l...

Home Improvements

Friday, August 12th, 2016

About a week ago, Chad let us know that our earthen floor was officially dry and complete. Without wasting a single moment after the all-clear, Tyler and I collected our disparate belongings from the camper, workshop, car, truck, and neighbors' hou...

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...

Preparing the Workshop for a Plastering Crew, Part One

Thursday, May 26th, 2016

With Chad and Carly's mid-June arrival looming, we've been working like crazy to ready our homestead. We're going to be on vacation in California for two weeks prior to their arrival, so everything needs to be finished before we leave! First off, w...

Learning to Fly

Saturday, May 21st, 2016

A few months ago we realized that we needed a break from building our homestead. After years of single-mindedly pouring nearly all of our time, energy and finances into the project, it took a bit for that decision to really sink in. When it dawned ...

Orchard Update, Spring 2016

Tuesday, May 10th, 2016

I thought for sure a two-week trip to the midwest would mean we'd miss an event on the homestead I'd been eagerly anticipating: the blossoming of our fruit trees! Fortunately, I was wrong. Just a few days after our return, our trees are leafing out...

Sunshine & Barbecue with the Hartmans

Sunday, April 24th, 2016

It's one of those rare weekends during which nothing has to be accomplished. We're far away from our thousand-headed hydra of a homestead, in Illinois with our dear friends, the Hartmans. The springtime sun shines with warmth, prompting flowers to ...

Sally Brillon's Hearth Cooking Class

Monday, April 4th, 2016

For my (32nd!) birthday this year, my parents signed me up for a hearth cooking class. They know me well—I've loved everything to do with old-timey foodways since I was a little girl. After a couple months of waiting, my class was held at last on t...

Bringing in Help

Monday, April 4th, 2016

Building your own home is an amazing adventure, but one that should probably end at some point. Carly, Vermont Natural Homes Since Tyler and I held our Life Summit, I've been busy getting quotes from different companies to tackle vari...

Life Summit 2016

Friday, April 1st, 2016

We recently held a “life summit,” a semi-regular event where we sit down to review our life plan. We've canonized our hopes and dreams in a document that starts in 2008 and currently runs to 2026. Most of the time, reading our plan is a life-affirm...

Winter Water Setbacks

Sunday, February 14th, 2016

When I first started writing this post a few days ago, I was going to talk about how wonderfully forgiving and resilient our house is. How even when it gets really cold, our cottage is cozy, snug, and easy to heat. How our straw bale walls and R40 ...

Visiting The New England Slate Company

Thursday, January 14th, 2016

On this snowy winter's morning, Tyler is taking a few hours off work for the express purpose of going on a homestead-related field trip. He and I take to the road, picking up our friend and neighbor, Charlie, on the way out of town. Together, the t...

Thunderous & Wild

Monday, January 11th, 2016

I was walking through our woods today, on my way to meet our neighbor Hercilia for our daily walk. I had my head down, being careful not to trip over rocks and fallen logs, when I heard a thunderous noise that sent tremors through my body. When I l...

Dichotomy

Sunday, January 10th, 2016

Our life tends to be very polar. Today was a good example: this morning, we left our homestead-in-the-woods and drove with Ian and Melissa to Manchester, a perfectly quaint town where New Yorkers come to ski and outlet shop. Vermonters joke that Ma...

Building a Woodshed

Saturday, November 14th, 2015

I am pleased to report that Tyler and I have just set a new homesteading record. We designed and built a pretty sizable structure—a three-sided shed to protect our newly-sawn lumber—in three measly days. This was by far our least difficult build ev...

Preventing Our Cistern from Freezing in Winter: Part Three

Saturday, October 10th, 2015

This weekend, Tara and I experimented with two types of insulation we'd never used before. The first was blown cellulose, which we dense packed into the cavities between the wall studs of our cistern shed. In order to do this, we had to rent a blow...

Cleaning, Clearing, Merging, Purging our Stuff

Sunday, October 4th, 2015

Tyler and I spent most of the weekend on an autumn cleaning mission. We started by organizing the ever-growing collection of remnants from completed projects that were scattered about our land. Pieces of plywood, rigid foam insulation and all manne...

Common Ground Country Fair

Saturday, September 26th, 2015

For the past few years, Tyler and I have tried to coordinate a visit to the annual Common Ground Country Fair with our friends, Mike and Eliza. Last year at this time, I was mourning the loss of my beloved grandmother, and the year before that, we ...

Wild Grape Jelly

Thursday, September 24th, 2015

When Tyler and I felled a small sapling to make room in our orchard for a pear tree, we discovered a whole mess of wild grapes tangled in its branches. I was thrilled about the unexpected bounty and felt no remorse about removing them. Grape vines ...

This is Martin

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015

During our strawbale workshop, we were fortunate enough to meet Martin, a sweet man from New York City who came to participate. Over the course of the week, we were delighted by Martin's humor, down-to-earth kindness, and musical enthusiasm. What ...

Starting an Orchard in Vermont, Part Two: Clearing a Hillside

Saturday, September 19th, 2015

Today, Tyler felled the last three trees we've been talking about removing for our hillside orchard. They were perfectly healthy, but they would shade our site more than we wanted. It was hard for me to let go of them, but if we didn't do the work ...

Autumn Approaches

Thursday, August 27th, 2015

There was a peaceful lull in activity after our workshop. I could exhale, long and slow, and sit a spell on a proverbial porch (someday we'll have a real porch). It was only July, and I felt like a schoolchild with the freedom of seemingly endless ...

Starting an Orchard in Vermont, Part One: Buying Fruit Trees at Elmore Roots Nursery

Sunday, August 16th, 2015

We officially started homesteading in January of 2013. Ever since, the topic of planting fruit trees has come up at least once or twice every season. Each time, overwhelmed by the projects before us, we've pushed the undertaking into an unknown fut...

A Weekend in the Northeast Kingdom, Part One: On Our Way

Friday, August 14th, 2015

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, we did not spend our weekend building anything together. This was a big deal. Instead, Tyler took off on Friday, and he and I drove up to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont for a three-day vacation. I...

Despair

Saturday, July 25th, 2015

I recently unearthed this gem from our stack of filed journal entries. I wrote it a little over a year ago, in May of 2014, but we never published it, instead posting a very abridged version. I think it was, as my brother would say, "too real" for...

Strawbale Workshop, Day Seven

Sunday, July 19th, 2015

Quite suddenly, the end of the workshop is upon us. There's a lot of hustle and bustle as everyone kicks into high gear this morning, recognizing that we have just one workday to get as much plastering done as possible. Tyler and I hope with all ou...

Strawbale Workshop: Day Two

Tuesday, July 14th, 2015

At supper this evening, as I forced myself to sit down and actually eat some of the delicious chili and cornbread Becky and I made (instead of hovering and letting my mind race ahead to the forthcoming dishwashing extravaganza and the next meal to ...

Strawbale Workshop: Day Zero, Morning

Sunday, July 12th, 2015

Our strawbale workshop begins today! Or rather, folks start arriving today. It's 7:40AM on Sunday as I write this. I'm laying in bed with Tara, preparing to head out and tackle the last remaining tasks before Andrew and the students arrive. Our to-...

Sibling Camping Trip, Day One: Driving to Acadia National Park

Tuesday, June 16th, 2015

Every time my family comes to Vermont, my brother Lian tries to convince everyone to visit Acadia National Park in Maine. The sixteen hour car drive such an adventure would necessitate never gets much traction. A few weeks ago, when Lian told me he...

Pascale Visits

Sunday, May 31st, 2015

While we were building our house, we were desperate to find some trustworthy soul to whom we could pose questions like: How did you pour your foundation? Are you happy with it? How did you pick windows? Do you like them? How did you get a clean lin...

The Alternate Reality of Roatan

Tuesday, April 28th, 2015

While we were in Roatan it felt like we were living in an alternate reality. I could see with uncanny clarity what it would be like to let our homesteading-in-Vermont adventure pass us by, exchanged for a life of ease in the Caribbean. It was like ...

Staying for a Month

Monday, March 30th, 2015

I believe when you’re stuck in one spot for too long it’s best to throw a grenade where you stand, and jump... "Tracks" After much deliberation about finances and scheduling, after much checking of the (still winter) weather forecast in ...

On Needing to Travel

Wednesday, March 25th, 2015

Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. Mary Ritter Beard I realized shortly after writing my entry about needing a vacation that this trip is fulfillin...

On Needing a Vacation

Monday, March 23rd, 2015

I knew we needed a vacation, but I didn't realize how badly we needed it until this week. It's only now, after unwinding for a few days in paradise, that I'm able to see the forest for the trees, so to speak. The last several months (years?) have b...

To Roatan!

Saturday, March 14th, 2015

Last fall, Pete & Natasha (the best travel buddies of all time) enthusiastically suggested that we take a break from homesteading and meet them in Roatan, Honduras for a two-week vacation to learn to scuba dive. Even though we knew absolutely n...

Nesting

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014

Though it's a bit premature, I cannot curb my unstoppable desire to nest, nest, nest. For the past few weeks, I've been going to our storage unit and bringing home (I have a home!) boxes of the things that remained after our numerous Great Purges, ...

Straw Bale Workshop in Vermont: July 2015!

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014

We are thrilled to announce that we'll be hosting a straw bale building workshop on our homestead this summer from July 13th to 19th! We invite you to join us in learning and building with our friend and teacher, Andrew Morrison of strawbale.com. T...

On Being Warm

PG13

Sunday, November 2nd, 2014

...and mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap. There was a time when I didn't know why on earth the people in "The Night Before Christmas" were wearing hats to bed. After living in a ...

Life is Horrible

PG13

Monday, October 20th, 2014

We are exhausted. Bone-achingly, depressingly exhausted. It feels impossible to have a full time job and build a house in time for winter, as Tyler is trying to do. It feels impossible to have a full time job building a house, as I am trying to do,...

This is Carl & Anaïs

Wednesday, September 10th, 2014

A few months ago, Tara was contacted by Carl, an avid reader and cyclist. He and his partner Anais would be in our area for the Green Mountain Stage Races, and were wondering if they come visit, and leave their truck at our place while they went on...

It's Getting Better all the Time

Saturday, September 6th, 2014

With an actual house-looking object up there on our ridge, and a beautiful wood-fired hot tub to compliment it, life is getting better. With each bit of progress we make, our daily existence gets a little bit easier, a little more comfortable, and ...

New Chapters & Random Thoughts from the Airport

Monday, September 1st, 2014

Right now, I'm sitting in the Albany airport, waiting for a flight back to the midwest to see my family. My dear, sweet grandma Jeanne had a heart attack and is in the hospital, and every ounce of my being is ringing with impatient need to be there...

We Have a Wood-Fired Hot Tub!

Wednesday, August 20th, 2014

When we were living with Tyler's mom, Jodi, both before and after our big bicycle tour, we took full advantage of the fact that she had a hot tub. In winter, Tyler would shovel a tunnel through the feet of snow on the deck to get to it, and we'd ru...

Exterior Scratch Coat Completed! And Karina & Ivica Visit!

Monday, August 18th, 2014

High atop our scaffolding, Tyler and I stood with hawks and trowels in hand, applying a scratch coat of plaster to the last section of the last exterior wall. We had about an hour’s worth of work left when two of our favorite people rolled up the d...

This is Kevin & Joy: Part Two

Sunday, August 10th, 2014

Sunday morning started with coffee and plaster in equal measures... Kevin Joy: Sunday, we spent the morning and afternoon plastering. Once we got the plaster mixed, it was time to smash it into the wall. It's not like spreading fr...

This is Kevin & Joy: Part One

Saturday, August 9th, 2014

Kevin and I spent the weekend at Tyler and Tara's homestead ostensibly to help plaster (which we did do), but mostly to ask approximately a million questions. Joy Kevin: Visiting Tara and Tyler on their land is something Joy and I ...

Dad Visits

Friday, August 8th, 2014

When I was a teenager, my Dad restored/rebuilt a dilapidated farmhouse in rural Minnesota. Like Tara and I, he'd never done anything of the sort when he started. I remember coming along to lend a hand a few times, but mostly, I was too busy being a...

We're Doing It

Saturday, July 19th, 2014

A few years ago, when we were dreaming of our homesteading adventure, I happened to read a blog post that completely floored me. It was about a young Vermont couple that was in the process of building their own home. And it wasn't just any house—it...

Trenching Power from Solar Shed to Cottage

Friday, July 18th, 2014

For at least a year I've been telling myself that getting electricity from our solar shed to the cottage would be a piece of cake. "All we need is a beefy extension cord—we'll just plug that in somehow and voilà, we'll have power!" Each time I ment...

Grand Central Station

Sunday, July 6th, 2014

For the past month or so, we've had a non-stop train of people passing through our homestead. Besides Dan, Julia, Pete, and Natasha, all of whom stayed for a few days, we've had a whole slew of other folks and friends come for short visits. A few w...

This is Natasha & Pete

Saturday, June 28th, 2014

After our first meeting in Southeast Asia, Tara and Tyler have made yearly trips to Tennessee to visit. When they bought their land, we were super excited for them, partly because it was the beginning of their homesteading dreams, but mostly becaus...

Baling Begins at Last

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

So, after three years of dreaming and planning, we've finally reached the baling portion of building a straw bale house. I have to take a minute to register my shock at how long we've been working on this project. Where on earth has the time gone...

Getting There

Friday, May 16th, 2014

When we first embarked upon this homesteading project, we were naively dreaming of an idyllic lifestyle in the woods. It's safe to say that after two and a half years of focused effort, barring the blessing that is our friends and neighbors, we hav...

Tar Paper on Workshop Roof Decking

Sunday, April 20th, 2014

This evening, Bocoup is flying me to Santa Monica to kick off a project with a new client. While planning for this, I asked our office manager to book the flight as late as possible this Sunday—I wanted to take full advantage of the sunny weekend....

Finish Work on the Solar Shed

Saturday, April 19th, 2014

It's amazing what we can get done when there isn't a foot of snow on the ground! This weekend was full-on spring, with glorious warm weather and sunny skies. To celebrate and make the most of it, we spent every single hour of daylight tying up the ...

Straw Bale Workshop

Tuesday, April 15th, 2014

For the past week, we've had the privilege of attending a straw bale workshop run by Andrew Morrison at The Healing Co-op in Middletown, Rhode Island. We've come away from the experience feeling changed and blessed. The hands-on lessons Andrew ga...

Building the Solar Shed, Part Three: Siding

Sunday, March 9th, 2014

We haven't done much of anything outside since our shed building blitz this January. For the last two months, we've been hunkered down in our camper, keeping warm as feet of snow accumulate on our land. This morning, a crack appeared in winter's ...

Cold Antler Farm Book

Friday, March 7th, 2014

Our dear friend Jenna is releasing a new book, all about her homestead and the rhythm of seasons and celebrations that accompany it. If you're at all interested in farming, or learning what it's like to quit your job and follow your heart, read Jen...

On Starting a Homestead from Scratch: Lessons from our First Year, Part One

Sunday, February 16th, 2014

Over the course of the past year, we've chatted with many folks who are hoping to start a homestead. Like us, they've been dreaming of going "back to the land," of living a simple, self-sufficient life in the country. Quite often, they've sought o...

Building the Solar Shed, Part Two: More Framing

Thursday, January 16th, 2014

We awoke this morning to find a half an inch of snow on the ground, and more soft, white flakes tumbling from grey skies overhead. Crap. The forecast had called for sun and unseasonable warmth! Despite the fact that our springlike weather disappea...

Building the Solar Shed, Part One: Framing

Wednesday, January 15th, 2014

When Tyler came back from Becky and Charlie's place a few days ago, casually informing me that we'd be building our solar shed this week (during a brief window when the forecast called for warmth and sun), I could not have been more surprised or mo...

Woo Hoo, I Work At Bocoup!

Monday, January 6th, 2014

I just landed my dream job—as of today, I am an engineer at Bocoup! After eight years running a one-man software consultancy, I am ready for something new. I'm not usually much of a group joiner, but the Bocoup team has totally won me over. ...

Good Company

Wednesday, November 13th, 2013

We're feeling a bit better this week, and a big part of it has to do with the fact that we've had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with two different couples who are also hopeful homesteaders. Chatting about shared dreams with like-minded...

Fear is the Mind-Killer

Monday, November 4th, 2013

Over the past few weeks, we've been lucky to last more than two or three days without one of us having some kind of emotional breakdown/explosion. With night falling sooner and sooner each afternoon, it feels like darkness is descending upon us. M...

Fall Family Visits

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

October has been a month of family visits. First, Tyler's mom, Jodi, arrived. Charlie and Becky were kind enough to let her stay at their place while they were gone, so the three of us spent our days in a real house with a lovely kitchen and a wall...

The Love Sprockets

Wednesday, September 18th, 2013

This morning, we wake our guests with bacon and cheesy scrambled eggs, rich apple-cheddar scones and mugs of recently pressed apple cider. "Is this real? Jahnavi asks, her bleary eyes coming into focus, finding a feast of epic proportions set befor...

Peeling Bark with Friends

Saturday, August 10th, 2013

When I was little, one of my favorite books was A New Coat for Anna, in which a young girl and her mother spent an entire year getting all of the components ready for her new winter coat. First they visited the shepherd and his flock, bartering for...

Ready to Pour

Thursday, July 25th, 2013

With concrete trucks due to arrive at 7AM tomorrow, we spent the day putting finishing touches on our workshop form. Somehow, the final details always seem to stretch on forever! The first job of the day was to snip all the ends off the zip ties ...

If I Start Screaming, Don't Mind Me

PG13

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013

Tyler wraps me in his mud-smeared arms, and I bury my face into his sweaty, grimy neck, whispering, "We can do this, right?" He's trying to keep it together as much as I am—we're both outwardly calm and inwardly teetering on the brink of total melt...

The Dump

Monday, July 22nd, 2013

We recently visited the local dump to get rid of some construction debris from our workshop. When we pulled in, they weighed our truck, told us to hurl our crap into a nearby pole barn, and informed us that they'd measure us again on the way out—w...

In-Floor Outlets

Monday, July 15th, 2013

Every morning, around 7AM, my brain starts yelling at me to get something "productive" done. I swear this nagging voice has carved a literal groove (or fifty) in my cerebrum over the years. Generally speaking, I acquiesce. I know that if I haven...

Last Day in Maine

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

With Mike and Eliza in the midst of restoring an 1800s farmhouse, and Tyler and I busy hacking a homestead out of ten acres of land, we're trying to cram as much summer fun into one weekend as we can. It's our last day in Maine, and we've decide th...

Road Building

Monday, July 8th, 2013

Our alarm sounds at 7AM, ringing in another day of construction here on our homestead. Eyes barely open, I fumble around for the phone, ready to get started. Half asleep, I ring our truck driver, Richard, confirming that he is still available to ...

Indexing

Monday, July 8th, 2013

While Tyler and Rick worked on our road today, progressing ever closer to the finish line, I spent a productive day in our camper poring over my bicycle touring cookbook. With so much going on since we moved to Vermont, I've had trouble focusing mu...

Weekend Road Trip, Part One: Buying Slate

Saturday, June 1st, 2013

Last night, we stayed up into the wee hours, re-living some of our travels and travails in Vietnam. It's not often that we read our own journal entries—we're usually focused on the present, busily writing new stories. But, I'm having my second an...

Buying Herbs at Shaftbury's Clear Brook Farm

Monday, May 27th, 2013

I've been aching to pursue the gardening aspect of our new homesteading life, but alas, it's far too early in the game for that sort of nesting. With large machinery passing through our future garden space at least once a week, and several vehicles...

Struck by Lightning

Sunday, May 26th, 2013

During one of the storms last week, a particularly close lightning strike took out our cheap, walmart-purchased inverter. With a resounding POP, it pushed its final electrons into a low-voltage alarm squeal that warbled for a moment, then dropped ...

Timber Framing at Going Slowly HQ

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

Last summer, Tara and I fell in love with timber framing, thanks to a fantastic course offered by North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. There, in an idyllic workshop on the shore of Lake Superior, under the instruction of Peter Henri...

What We're Up To

Sunday, March 17th, 2013

We're in Minnesota again! Our last days in Vermont this winter were busy, a whirlwind of cleaning and packing and readying our camper for two months without human inhabitants. The day before we left, we were treated with a snowstorm which deposit...

Maple Hill Maple

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

A few days ago, we received an email through our website from Greer and Rick, a local couple who happen to be our neighbors—they live just a few minutes down the road from our land. They kindly invited to watch their maple sugaring operation, "Map...

Farmwomen's Apprentice

Monday, March 4th, 2013

Today, Tyler and I went back to Cold Antler Farm once more. I wanted to be there in case Bonita and Francis decided to have their babies, and I was eager to help welcome two twelve-week-old pigs that Jenna had purchased. So, while Tyler programme...

Winter Visitors

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

A little over a week ago, my parents flew into Hartford, Connecticut, for a seven day workshop in macrobiotic cooking at the Kushi Institute. We met them at the airport hotel, and spent a wonderful day and a half together before strapping their su...

Weathering the Storm

Friday, February 8th, 2013

All morning long, we've received text messages, phone calls, and emails of concern about the blizzard headed our way. While I'm sure there is dramatic, worrisome news all over the TV and radio announcing the impending "snowpocalypse," here in our ...

Cleaning Our Woods: Part Three

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

This morning, as I chat with Rick about what we want to accomplish with his excavator, I'm feeling overwhelmed by the scale of what Tara and I have set out to do with this homesteading project. When I look closely at our land, the work to be done ...

An Evening at Cold Antler Farm

Friday, February 1st, 2013

For the past few years, I have been following Jenna over at Cold Antler Farm, occasionally checking in on her animal-filled adventures. Her posts always kept me inspired when we were hunting for land and dreaming of starting our homestead. Now t...

Dinner in the Camper

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

While Tyler, Jeremy and Hercilia wrap up the last of our Simple Pump installation, I'm inside our camper, cooking supper for everyone. With two frozen pizzas, and some frozen chocolate chip cookie dough I made earlier, there will be plenty for eve...

Meeting the Neighbors

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

This afternoon, Tyler and I hiked down our driveway and walked the four hundred and eighty feet separating us from our closest neighbor. Holding another loaf of homemade, ribbon-bedecked banana bread as a friendship offering, we rang the doorbell,...

We Have a Mailbox!

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

While we were in Vermont with my family this past October, we managed to complete one of our first goals in the creation of our homestead: obtaining an address. This turned out to be a simple matter of measuring the distance from the center of our...

Adventure Mode

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

On our bicycle tour, Tyler and I were living in what we've now dubbed "Adventure Mode." That is to say, every day was an epic journey unto itself, containing within it the highest highs I've ever felt, along with the lowest lows (and enough cramme...

Our Side of the Mountain

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

Tyler: Last night, as we pulled into our drive after a day of running errands, the snowpack was too slippery for us to make it in. Half-way up the steepest portion of our driveway, we lost traction and began drifting slowly backwards. Unable to...

Border Crossing from Hell: Part Two

PG13

Monday, January 14th, 2013

Several hours later, we've made it through Canada, to the USA border. Half hoping for a warm welcome from our fellow countrymen, we receive anything but. We're greeted with a huge array of creepy, over-the-top surveillance cameras, followed by a ...

Unpassable

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

Last October, during a vacation in Vermont with Tara's family, we all stayed at a beautiful house in rural Bennington. When it came time to leave, we serendipitously crossed paths with its caretaker and builder, Rick Carroll. We hit it off immed...

Thinking about Thatch

Saturday, December 15th, 2012

This past October, on the way to our family vacation in Vermont, Tyler and I stopped at Deanne Bednar's Strawbale Studio. While we were there, we discovered an important detail about thatched roofing: reeds need to be harvested in the wintertime. ...

Off Grid Power: Tim Sefton's Stirling Engine

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

One of our homesteading goals is to generate all the electricity we need right on our own property. During spring, summer and fall, it looks like we'll be able to accomplish that with solar panels and a battery array. For winter, however, when th...

Switching to Strawbale, Part Two

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012

When we arrived at Hap and Lin's cob cottage in Fairfield, Iowa, we were greeted by a barefoot woman happily pottering around her outdoor kitchen. After shaking our hands in warm greeting, Lin told us she was putting the finishing touches on suppe...

Designing Our House: Things I Know

Monday, August 13th, 2012

I have been designing my ideal home for literally as long as I can remember. As a young girl, I daydreamed about living in a rustic log cabin, deep in the woods, or in an old farmhouse, complete with wrap-around porches and rocking chairs. As a t...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day Nine

Sunday, July 22nd, 2012

Today was our last day in the shop, and we spent most of it adding flourishes to our wall plates and rafters. Since they were too long for Tara (our designated bandsaw baller) to cut on her own, I played a supporting role in the effort. First, we...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day Five

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

It is so rewarding to be making something tangible for our homesteading project. For the past eight months, the only thing we've done to pursue our goal of moving to Vermont is continually drain our bank account in an effort to pay off our land. ...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day Four

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

It feels so good to be building a home for ourselves, and to know that our future life as homesteaders is just around the corner. Today's woodworking session was another round of lakeside, house-building paradise. We spent most of the day working...

To North House Folk School

Friday, July 13th, 2012

I was poking around on the internet about a week ago when I randomly discovered the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. As I was paging through their tempting list of classes (stuff like birch bark weaving, black ash basketry and k...

Starting a Homestead: Our List

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

With a twinge of nervousness akin to the moment we purchased our tickets to Scotland, we've declared a moving date. On April 1st, 2013 (exactly four years after we began our round-the-world bicycle tour), we'll bid our friends and families in the ...

Working & The War of Art

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

These days, we spend nearly every waking moment working towards paying off our land. Tyler programs diligently away as he re-writes his database management software in Ruby and Javascript. He'd really rather be in the woods clearing brush and lig...

New Project for a New Year

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

After most of my college pals dispersed from our New Years gathering, we headed with Jess and Nick to Natasha's family cabin. There, we whiled away a quiet afternoon driking our friend Tremain's wine and learning how to play a board game called Se...

Homebuilding Inspiration

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

I'm getting used to it. Chronically being on the receiving end of dubious looks, that is. Almost everyone we talk with these days seems to find our aspirations rather odd (building a house of mud, clay and straw, living in a canvas tent while we ...

Making Friends in Vermont

Friday, September 16th, 2011

With light hearts, we're heading north towards the Middlebury area to meet our kayaking friend, Sue. The drive is a pleasure; the sun is out, the landscape is verdant and hilly pastureland, and the views are unmarred by billboards and advertisemen...

Land Hunting, Part Thirteen: Our Final Offer

Friday, September 16th, 2011

We've decided to go for it! We just made another offer on the Maple Hill Road property, and this one is five thousand dollars less than the last. We're hoping the difference will be enough to cover the septic permitting process. Bonnie (the real...

Land Hunting, Part Nine: Empty-Landed

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

I'm having second thoughts about our spur-of-the-moment road trip this morning; it's clear that dropping everything to drive out here again was not a sensible decision. The thirty acre property which inspired our impromptu departure was a let-down...

Thoughts on Returning: Part Three

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Tyler: We're back in Minnesota, now, and our time in New England is rapidly becoming a distant, fuzzy memory; some days, it feels as though we only imagined it. Our return has brought the pain of an ongoing family disagreement to the forefront o...

Land Hunting, Part Two: Much to Learn

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

It was in Ray's office that our romanticized, starry-eyed plan began it's transformation to concrete, complicated reality. In spite of all our reading and research, the list of things we didn't know about how to purchase a piece of land was still ...

Getting Out the Map Again

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

If a self-sufficient lifestyle was the only goal for our next project, we could probably make do on a quarter acre of land just about anywhere. What we're really yearning for, however, is a quiet spot in the woods—a place where we can be intimatel...

Dreaming of Our New Life

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to lead a self-sufficient life. As a child, I was inspired by children's book author and illustrator Tasha Tudor. I wanted to follow in her footsteps, living off the land, growing lush gardens and caring...

The Good Life

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Today, we were on a mission to do two things. First, check out the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, and second, visit Helen and Scott Nearing's homestead in Harborside, Maine. But before we did any of that, we rescued a very slow little turtle ...

Sailing in Maine

Saturday, July 16th, 2011

Back in February of 2009, while Tara and I were preparing to leave the country, our friend Kit was seriously considering quitting her job to enroll in a boat-building apprenticeship. While we were off pursuing our own "crazy" dreams, she abandoned...

Farm Hopping

Friday, July 15th, 2011

So far, the highlight of house-sitting in Maine has undoubtedly been our daily excursions into the surrounding countryside to buy food. There are literally a dozen (maybe more) small farms and homesteads selling fresh groceries within a few miles ...

Prairie Fruits Farm

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

It is unseasonably cool today, breaking a string of typically-sweltering Midwest summer afternoons. We've decided to take advantage of the inviting weather with a short bike ride. Cycling out of town, we are overcome by a familiar, contented peac...

Music for Airports

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

As I sit here in the florescent, mechanized, automized hub of all things coming and going, Tyler sleeps on a cold metal bench, the tips of his toes brushing against my legs. Waiting for the check-in desk to open, I plug in my headphones, put my mp...

Eccentric Writers

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

We're starting to learn where the stereotype for the eccentric writer comes from. After typing non-stop every day for nearly a month, we have begun to develop a very idiosyncratic schedule in order to keep the words flowing. Everything must be "j...

A Thousand Villages

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

The longer we spend in the cool, verdant mountains of northern Laos, the more deeply in love with them I fall. I relish the twists of the curvy mountain roads, and I savor the feel of my body hugged against Tyler's back as we lean in sync, in harm...

Life & Death

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Yesterday, just as we arrived off the boat from Nong Kiaw, we watched wide-eyed as three little piglets were being slaughtered. They lay on the ground, their throats slit, warm blood pooling rapidly into the dirt. It was hard to watch the little ...

Happy New Year

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

I love ringing in the New Year. Not so much for the booze and parties, but more as a set time to reflect on my life, and make sure I'm heading in a direction that is meaningful to me. Tyler, on the other hand, is pretty irreverent about holidays ...

Slowing Down

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Early in our adventure, a break for more than a day or two gave us cabin fever. We traveled slowly but consistently, with a momentum to "get there" to keep us going. But these days, we're feeling like we "got there", we've arrived, and if we like...

Heaven on Earth

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

After a day of working, our hosts Jurgita and Tomas pack their car with food, bottled water and picnic supplies. Then, we all ride together, fourteen kilometers down the road to Tomas' parents' weekend cabin. As we step out of the car, we enter a...

Star Wars @ Sidi Driss Hotel

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

My younger brother Gabe is obsessed with Star Wars. George Lucas visited Tunisia before filming the original series and much of the culture and architecture found in the movies was inspired by what he saw. In fact, many parts of the epic series, ...

Bee Museum

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

While breaking camp we decided today was a good day for music. At home hardly an hour went by that music wasn't playing unless we were asleep. Out here we rarely listen to anything but the endless symphony of nature sounds going on around us. As...

Reflection

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Before planning this journey a year seemed like a long time. It isn't. As the days and months fly by I have really come to realize what a short time we have here (on earth). There is so much that I want to do, so much I want to learn and so much...

Alcohol Stove Making: Part 2

Monday, December 15th, 2008

I've really enjoyed tinkering with our penny alcohol stove over the past few weeks so I've decided to try some other designs. Up for today was the "Cat" a super low tech unpressurized stove. It has a leg up on the penny stove in that it will burn...