154

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searching for winter

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Pulley System Drying Rack

Sunday, April 3rd, 2016

We've had tons of improvements to our quality of life recently: first the movie theater, then the ladder and railing, and now, a drying rack. For ages, we didn't have a good way of hanging wet clothing and towels indoors. After collecting photos a...

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...

Spring is Coming

Wednesday, March 9th, 2016

As much as I dearly love winter, there is nothing like a bit of warmth and sunshine to make me feel like a brand new person. Knowing it was going to get up to 65 degrees today, I awoke early, raring to tackle a few painting projects best done in mi...

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...

On Learning and Skiing

Saturday, January 9th, 2016

This weekend, my friend Ian and his girlfriend Melissa drove up from New York City for the weekend. Ever since Tara and I moved to New England, Ian has been saying we should go downhill skiing together. After three winters, I finally felt like I ha...

Preventing Our Cistern from Freezing in Winter, Part Five: Small Victories

Monday, December 28th, 2015

As I was washing dishes today, our water pump kicked on, drawing from the cistern outside to fill a pressure tank under our counter. For the first time this winter, instead of making the usual buzzing noise, it began vibrating with a deeper, stutte...

Christmastime is Here

Sunday, December 20th, 2015

As I sit in our warm, cozy cottage, my thoughts wander to what life was like a year ago. This time last December, I was learning how to build kitchen cabinets, and the house was a total disaster area. We'd recently moved in (despite the house's unf...

Finishing the Outhouse

Sunday, November 15th, 2015

For the past couple of weeks, I've been working on the outhouse, finishing tasks that remained after we bade farewell to our friends Shlomy, Britney, and Nehemiah. While it seems that winter should really be on its way by now, we've recently been t...

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...

Shlomy Builds an Outhouse, Part Three: Dutch Doors

Thursday, October 29th, 2015

Shlomy and I have been working on a dutch door for the outhouse this week. We started by spending a lot of time puzzling over the instructions that came with our plans. But, after much head-scratching, we decided to forego the designs and just make...

Shlomy Builds an Outhouse, Part One: Framing & Siding

Monday, October 19th, 2015

Ever since Tyler and I met Shlomy by rooming together at a strawbale building workshop in Rhode Island, I've been impressed and inspired by his drive to become a competent builder. So far he has apprenticed with Christina Ott to learn about cob bui...

Setting Solar Panels to Their Winter Angle

Sunday, October 18th, 2015

In April of 2014, Tara and I installed six solar panels on the roof of our solar shed. The process of affixing them was a comedy of errors. After measuring wrong several times, drilling more than a few unnecessary holes, and swearing a lot, we mana...

Preventing Our Cistern from Freezing in Winter: Part Four

Saturday, October 17th, 2015

The final major part of our cistern shed (besides the plastering, which we'll do next year) was the doors. I spent a few days this week making these massive things, consisting of a simple frame and a double layer of rigid foam insulation. Other tha...

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...

Preventing Our Cistern from Freezing in Winter: Part Two

Monday, October 5th, 2015

In the previous entry, I mentioned one of the main issues with our above-ground cistern: the short pipe between our house and the water supply freezing. I believe I have found a solution to the problem: heatline. It's like heat tape (electric wire ...

Preventing Our Cistern from Freezing in Winter: Part One

Monday, October 5th, 2015

Last fall, I wrote about the water situation for our cottage, documenting why we have an above-ground cistern next to the house rather than a water line from our well. When I wrote the entry, I was building an insulated shed for our water storage, ...

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...

Starting an Orchard in Vermont, Part Four: Planting Complete

Saturday, October 3rd, 2015

I am pleased and relieved to report: all eighteen fruit trees are safely tucked into their new homes! I've brushed their bark with white milk paint to prevent sun scald, wrapped the base of their trunks with mesh to prevent boring insects, pinned o...

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 ...

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...

Insulating the Workshop

Monday, July 6th, 2015

There are several parts of our workshop where strawbales don't make sense for insulation—mainly places where we have 2x4 framed walls (e.g. the pony wall and the west wall). So, we hired the same company that insulated our cottage's pony wall to sp...

Shallow Frost Protected Water Line

Saturday, July 4th, 2015

A few weeks ago, our neighbor Justin dug a pair of trenches to our workshop: one from our solar shed (for electricity), and another from our well (for water). The depth of the trenches varies from about three to five feet thanks to all the ledge on...

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 ...

Building our First House

Thursday, January 1st, 2015

Throughout the construction of our house, we often jokingly wished that our lives could be a movie montage…. because building is so much easier in montages. Hell, a trio of goofy teenagers can carry building materials to a remote location and const...

Alan Family Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 27th, 2014

Back in September, Charlie, and Becky let us know they'd be heading to California for Thanksgiving, kindly offering up their house to our family, should we like to celebrate here in Vermont. To our delight, my parents and brother happily agreed to ...

Three Cheers for Charlie

Sunday, November 16th, 2014

There have been so many times during this house-building process where we would have loved to have had more help. The trouble with this was, we didn't have the wherewithal to organize said helping, nor necessarily the skills needed to show said hel...

On Being Warm

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

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,...

Strawbale Cottage SIP Panel Cold Roof

Sunday, October 5th, 2014

It wasn't until our roof panels were installed that I learned we would need to build an additional "cold roof" on top of them. A few months ago, I had no idea what a cold roof even was. The physics of it make perfect sense, though. When warm air in...

Off Grid Above Ground Water Storage

Saturday, October 4th, 2014

Tyler: There is a drilled well on our land, and a large clearing next to it. This area is obviously where the previous owners had planned to build a home—it is also one of the few places on our property that gets a good deal of sun. Rather than b...

Plaster Faster: Finishing the First Coat of Lime Plaster Indoors

Wednesday, September 17th, 2014

For the past few days, Tyler and I have been applying the first coat of plaster inside the house. Each swipe of the trowel is hurried along by a growing sense of urgency. Winter is fast approaching, and I'm anxious about our upcoming trip to Illino...

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...

A Tale for a Dark, Cold Night: Jenna's "The Legend of Birchthorn"

Friday, August 15th, 2014

Last winter, Tyler and I developed a weekly tradition to while away the long, dark evenings with our good friend, Jenna. We'd lounge in front of her computer with a few ciders, and watch a horror movie—not the bloody kind, but the creepy, paranorma...

Manic Monday, Part One: Solo Plastering

Monday, August 11th, 2014

This morning, Tyler starts a couple batches of plaster going in the mixer, then heads down to the camper to program for the day, leaving me to tackle plastering by myself. I'm reeling from the sudden change of pace: Tyler took the last couple days ...

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 ...

Winter is Coming

Wednesday, August 6th, 2014

With each passing day, our cottage is looking more and more like an actual home. It is with a bit of trepidation that I can finally say: if we were to plaster tomorrow, I wouldn't freak out about all the things that aren't good enough yet. It's not...

Off-Grid Power Update: Solar Panels Arrive

Tuesday, July 15th, 2014

Last April, we received the initial charging equipment for our off-grid power system! We're starting with six 245 watt REC photovoltaic panels, whose output to our battery bank will be regulated by an Outback FM80 charge controller. The week they ...

No-Risk Garden

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

Last fall, Tyler and I surrounded our camper with hay bales from our friend Patty's farm in order to prevent cold winter winds from rushing underneath our camper. Months later, the bales had served their purpose and were decomposing into wet, rotty...

Designing Our House: The Roof

Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

For the past few weeks, I've been doing loads of research about roofing. Our main goal for the cottage is to have something with substantial r-value. Living in a trailer for two winters has made the importance of insulation abundantly clear. Our se...

Timber Frame Cottage Raising: The Big Day, Part One

Sunday, April 27th, 2014

As I arrange bananas, a water jug, and several containers of snacks on a makeshift plywood table this morning, I do so with a feeling of peace. With the stress of non-stop preparation and the uncertainty of assembling the first bent of our home be...

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....

Planning with Charlie

Monday, March 10th, 2014

With Tyler working full-time at Bocoup, I've taken on the role of contractor for our house-construction project. We're still going to work together on the building process, but I'm doing the vast majority of the scheduling, calculating, ordering, a...

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 ...

Designing Our House: The Windows

Thursday, March 6th, 2014

Over the past few months, I've been researching, planning, and gathering materials for the construction of our little cottage. My first area of focus has been the windows. Initially, I went through a phase where I was dead-set on having wavy glass ...

Today

Sunday, February 9th, 2014

When Tyler and I were journaling every day, we had the process down to a science. While it was far from easy, at least it felt routine. Lately, our journalling efforts have been sporadic, and my writing muscles are weak from lack of consistent prac...

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...

It's Good to Be Back

Saturday, January 4th, 2014

The camper is a toasty 60 degrees this morning, and it feels much more like home. Today, we'll get back in the groove of life in Vermont. We'll pick up our winter CSA shares from Becky and Charlie, and we'll no doubt catch up over a glass of wine,...

Winter Arrival on Our Land

Saturday, January 4th, 2014

We're headed home to Vermont after a month-long trip to the Midwest. For the past twenty-five hours, Tyler and I have been taking turns—one of us behind the wheel, and one of us sleeping in a moderately comfortable position in the back seat of our...

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...

Stacking Wood

Monday, October 28th, 2013

For the last few days, Tara and I have spent an hour or two each morning stacking wood. It'll be a year or more before we start burning these logs to heat our little cottage, but the work fills me with an immediate sense of joy. It just feels rig...

Late October Horsecart Ride

Sunday, October 20th, 2013

This morning, while Tyler worked with Charlie splitting wood, I headed over to West Arlington for another horsecart ride with the Washington County Draft Animal Association. It was colder than last time, and most of the leaves had fallen from the t...

Laying Roof Decking

Monday, September 23rd, 2013

This morning, I climbed onto the roof of our workshop and I didn't come down until dusk. I was busy loping around on our rafters with a mallet, drill, and saw in hand, laying courses of tongue and groove roof decking. It feels so good to have rea...

Aftermath

Monday, August 19th, 2013

It's 4:00AM when our alarm sounds, and we miraculously manage to rouse ourselves to stumble out of bed. Trent is up, packing, making coffee for the last time in the kitchen tent. Soon after, Peter and Amy join him for their morning brew. Together ...

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...

Wild Raspberries

Sunday, July 21st, 2013

This winter, as we hacked our way through brown, thorny canes that snagged our pants as we walked through the woods, we figured they would eventually prove to be berry bushes. Sure enough, those canes have grown into a brambly green jungle, produci...

Katherine & Michael Visit

Sunday, June 23rd, 2013

In 2010, while we were in Tunisia riding our moped Habib across salt flats and Star Wars sets, we recieved an email from an Australian couple who were following our journal. In the message, Katherine and Michael introduced themselves, and told us ...

Switching to Slate

Saturday, June 1st, 2013

Over the past few months, we have come to the realization that a thatched roof for our cottage just isn't in the cards. We're both in love with the idea, but making it a reality would be a massive undertaking, and right now, neither of us can must...

This is David & Andrée

Friday, May 24th, 2013

We are David and Andrée, a French-Canadian couple from Québec City, and longtime readers of Going Slowly. Passionate readers should we say! In fact, we both read Tara and Tyler's story "from cover to cover", and still follow it with assiduity, lik...

Getting Our Poop In a Group, Part Three: Finishing the Compost Bins

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

With Spring officially here, we were able to spend a day finishing the compost bins we started last winter. We decided to put them against the east side of our clearing, next to where the gardens will be. This is the first real structure we've bui...

Building Sites

Saturday, May 11th, 2013

So, I've been meaning to write an exhaustive journal outlining all the pros and cons of various foundation styles, why we've chosen to build frost-protected slabs for both our workshop and cottage, what they are, how they work, why we chose EPS foa...

This is Ivica

Friday, May 10th, 2013

…continued from the March 21st 2013 entry, "This is Karina". Sometimes we are all witnesses of how life can be weird and magical… On one fine spring day in 2010, my brother Sladjan came in my room asking me go outside and help him with his ...

Getting Our Poop In a Group, Part One: Our Composting Toilet

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

Last year, Tyler and I read The Humanure Handbook, a fantastically eye-opening book about how to safely compost your own waste and return it to the soil as fertilizer. The simple system this book describes uses sawdust toilets (a receptacle with a ...

Off Grid Cable Internet Access w/ Power Over Ethernet

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

I am thrilled to say that I am posting this journal entry from a high speed cable internet connection, on our land, nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont! Today was a triumphant day, and at the moment, I couldn't be happier. It feels as thoug...

Back to Vermont for Keeps: Part One

Friday, April 19th, 2013

Last week, I finished the massive task of sanding and staining all of the wood for our timber frame cottage. Meanwhile, Tyler completed a major work project that will hopefully pay for the cost of the gravel driveway we'll be putting on our land. ...

Truck Upgrades

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

With just a week before Tara and I move to Vermont officially, my brother-in-law Paul helped me install several important upgrades for our work truck. Among them were a snow plow mount with quick releases for the hydraulics, some handy auxiliary fl...

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...

This is Karina

Thursday, March 21st, 2013

Tara is one of my best and oldest friends, so it should come as no surprise that, for years now, I've been following her and Tyler’s worldly adventures with a ravenous appetite. The story I'm about to share is an improbable, synchronicity-filled ta...

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...

Waiting for Kids

Saturday, March 2nd, 2013

Around 8:30PM, just as we were finishing our supper, we received news we'd been hoping to hear for the past few days: Jenna's pregnant goat, Francis, was showing her first signs of labor! We threw on our warmest work clothes, grabbed the camera, a...

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...

Winter Wonderland

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013

Last night, our hill was pelted with a storm of icy sleet and snow. This morning, we awoke to find ourselves in this magical, wintery wonderland! ...

Sunrise

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

This morning, as Tyler and I tend to our woodland by a smoky fire, I look up towards the eastern sky in reverence and expectation of the rising sun. I wait in silence, watching the skies grow pale, and then lo! It arrives! Just a warm glow at fir...

Character Building

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

It's January in Vermont, and we're smack dab in the middle of a major learning curve. Once again, we're settling into a more rustic lifestyle, and once again, the transition is more intense than we anticipated. Emotions run high, silly little thi...

Home at Last

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

After last night's drama, we drove non-stop, straight into this morning. We're exhausted, but we have an appointment to make: Tim Schmalz of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture is coming to inspect our land, to make sure it won't be susceptible to ...

Checking In

Sunday, January 13th, 2013

After a fantastic night's sleep in our cozy little camper, we're our way to Michigan for a yet-again-postponed reed-collecting workshop. With a grey sky ahead of us, and a sour mood beginning to foul the journey, I declare that "everything is grum...

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...

Heading East

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

After our amazing-race-style marathon to leave for a winter of reed collecting in Vermont, we've finally hit the road. Armed with a gigantic ice-cream bucket of taco salad from Tyler's dad, an episode of Radiolab queued up for entertainment, and a...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Nine

Friday, January 11th, 2013

This morning, still awake from the day prior, just as we were depositing the very last box of our belongings into the camper, Tara turned to me, her face crumpled like a deflated balloon. I was confused until I saw what she was pointing at: a pie-...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part Two

Sunday, January 6th, 2013

It's 8AM and the camper is freezing. As we get up, shivering, I am filled with doubt. The reality that I don't know anything about travel trailers is rapidly sinking in. There is no way we're going to be able to live here if this thing can't make ...

The Trailer & Truck Saga: Part One

Saturday, January 5th, 2013

With winter upon us, we're feeling pressed for time—if we want to thatch the roof on our timber frame cottage this summer, we'll have to collect reeds for it soon. The harvest needs to happen sometime between December and Feburary, and we've made...

The Year in Review

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

With the new year upon us, I've been revisiting our journal, trying to remind myself of what we've been up to for the past three hundred and sixty five days. When I began writing this, I felt like most of our year had been filled with mundane rout...

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...

1/12th Scale Timber Frame Model House

Monday, October 1st, 2012

Awhile back, I found Tyler crouched on the floor, with a determined look on his face, scissors, tape, and cardboard strewn about him. Much to my delight, he was painstakingly constructing a scale model of our timberframe cottage! Using Peter's bl...

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...

Switching to Strawbale: Part One

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012

A few years ago, when we learned about cob houses (see the comments section), we were enamored by the idea of building one. Reading The Hand-Sculpted House was truly a revelation—it's no wonder the book is practically scripture in the natural bui...

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...

Snow & Wine

Saturday, May 5th, 2012

The sloped topography of our tent placement last night had us constantly seeping downwards, like a puddle of molasses. Frequently, after we found ourselves crumpled in the fetal position at the foot of our sleeping bag, we'd press our feet against...

Springtime Wanderlust

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

Not long after we slept in our igloo, Minnesota gave up its half-hearted attempt at winter, moving right into springtime. Practically overnight, birds began chirping, and our icy abode was nothing more than a patch of muddy grass. In Illinois, sp...

Winter Wonderland

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

We crawled out of our (chilly) igloo around 7am this morning, reluctant like crinkly-faced moles emerging from their dark, underground tunnels. Rubbing the sleep out of our eyes, we were utterly delighted to find that, while we were hibernating in...

Sleeping in an Igloo

Sunday, March 4th, 2012

We're feeling giddy as we get ready for bed, like a pair of kids about to spend the night inside a brand new couch-cushion fort. We're headed outside, so Tyler and I bundle up in our coziest clothes, layering on our merino wool, hoodies and scarve...

Building an Igloo

Saturday, March 3rd, 2012

All winter long, we'd been pining away for a snowstorm, waiting expectantly in semi-patient disbelief as the season flew by. With February behind us and March beginning, it was finally starting to sink in that a traditional midwest winter-wonderla...

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 ...

Where is the Snow?

Friday, January 13th, 2012

Tara and I were both looking forward to our first real winter after two years avoiding it abroad. So far, it has only snowed twice, and neither storm deposited enough to do anything fun in, except take a few photos. By this time last year, our fr...

Sleeping Under the Stars

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

We've been sleeping outside every night for over a week now, and we have no intention of stopping anytime soon. Usually, around 10PM, we bundle up, grab our books and headlamps, and say goodnight to Tyler's mom, Jodi. Invariably she'll exclaim so...

Sleeping Outside

Sunday, October 30th, 2011

It started about a week ago—an unsettling restlessness around bedtime, a silent tossing and turning, a nagging sensation that something wasn't right. It was taking forever to fall asleep in our big, warm, comfortable bed. At first, neither of us ...

Cycling Seasons

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

All summer and autumn, we’ve been riding our home-built road bikes several times a week. These excursions have usually taken the form of early morning rides—a refreshingly familiar way to start the day, and a good excuse to pick up our little-used...

Land Hunting, Part Five: The One?

Saturday, July 30th, 2011

Today is our last round of land-hunting; it is another hours-long marathon of calling realtors for information, punching distant addresses into our GPS, driving up and down winding dirt roads, and ultimately, finding disappointment. We've been to ...

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...

Satellite Internet: BGAN Explorer 110 Review

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

Background Before we left on this adventure, I made a commitment to my clients that their level of support wouldn't change while I was abroad. I bought our BGAN Explorer 110 from Globalcom in October of 2009, just before we went to Tunisia, thin...

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 ...

Day One Without Coffee

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

Before this trip, neither of us liked coffee all that much. Actually, we had a mild disdain for the stuff, mostly centered around the fear of becoming dependent on a substance for something as basic as waking up in the morning. In spite of oursel...

Riding in Rice Paddies

Saturday, December 18th, 2010

Tyler: Along the highways in the Mekong Delta, often less than a hundred meters from the road, there are peaceful dirt and gravel paths carving through the quiet villages of Southern Vietnam. Winding through tranquil palm forests, striking rice ...

Making Calendars

Friday, November 19th, 2010

I've been busy making our 2011 Photo Calendars this afternoon. In the process of looking at the thousands of photographs we've taken, I find myself pleasantly side-tracked, suddenly steeped in our stories, awash in the rich memories evoked by each...

Into the Jungle: Part Two

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Tyler: At the entrance of Khao Yai Park, we fork over a whopping 400 baht ($13 US) each. Normally, there is fee for bicycles too, but the guards waive it for us with a wink, a friendly smile, and a bemused look about our choice of transport. It...

Beginning of the End: Part Two

Friday, September 24th, 2010

We just want a quiet night to ourselves, maybe at a nice Italian restaurant with a glass of wine or two? But, as we get dressed, we're bit sad about the prospect of missing out on the festivities. We decide to head to Marco Polo, just to say hell...

Mongolian Hospitality

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

Light is fading fast as we drive off-road, over green fields towards our host's ger. Pulling up next to the round white homes, we are welcomed enthusiastically by a man we've never seen before. Perhaps he is the brother of our host? He has two a...

Morning at the Border

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

My nose feels like an ice-cube this morning. The rest of my cramped body is, thankfully, much more inhabitable – safely wrapped in numerous layers of clothing and sleeping bags. It was a group effort last night, staying warm and comfortable. If ...

To the Cabin

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Back when we were planning our trip, Russia was this mammoth lumbering place I wasn't excited about visiting. Tyler always wanted to go, but I saw the vast landmass as something to "get through" in order to travel from my comfort zone of the roman...

Backtracking

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

This morning, we continued our drive through the Altay Mountains, enjoying the scenery of Chuisky Trakt for a second time. After passing the spot where we turned around yesterday, we felt a bit better. Even though we've been behind the wheel for ...

The Way to Mongolia

Friday, August 27th, 2010

As Tyler journaled this morning, I began doing some research about the next phase of our road trip: the Altay region of Siberia. As I did so, I noticed that Chuisky Trakt, billed as one of the most beautiful roads in Russia, winds through the stun...

Things We Don't Know

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Two years ago, the sheer number of unknowns regarding this adventure were mind blowing. We had no first-hand knowledge, no experience, and honestly, for all of our preparation, no idea what we were doing. Instead of letting this get in the way of...

Into Saint Petersburg

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

Tyler: We've just crossed the Russian border, and are now driving towards St Petersburg. As we cruise through the familiar scenery of birch and pine forests, I flip on the radio. A crackly voice comes in through the speakers as cars speed by us...

Christmas in July

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Santa's Village in Roveniemi, Finland was our big attraction for the day. Apparently, it rests right on the line where the Arctic circle begins. At first we were pretty disappointed, it was mostly shops selling cheap souvenirs and jewelery. ...

Coastal Drive to Norway

Friday, July 16th, 2010

In an effort to duplicate Swedish Pancakes from one of my favorite breakfast places in Champaign, I made crepes this morning, served with Lingonberries. My results were much smaller than the restaurant's due to the size of our saucepan. They were...

Saami Museum

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

We stayed at our hotel late into the morning, sleeping restfully in the novel darkness afforded by closed curtains. When we finally roused ourselves around 10AM, our overpriced, stingy hotel redeemed itself somewhat by providing a multi-buffet fea...

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...

Why Are You in a Car?

Monday, June 21st, 2010

The shortest answer to this question is: to drive across Russia! Here is the long answer: In the broadest terms, our plan for this adventure was to travel from Scotland to Malaysia by land and sea. As we plotted our route (originally intended...

Dachau Concentration Camp

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

I'm not sure what I was expecting when we decided to visit Dachau Concentration Camp. I can, however, say one thing for certain: I was in no way prepared for the enormity of the memorial. We spent over six hours reading the exhibits before we wer...

Mud

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

I spent the bulk of the morning giving our bikes a rare and thorough cleaning. The muddy excuse for a bicycle path we'd pushed and ridden along yesterday had left them several pounds heavier, comprehensively caked with gloopy dirt which had dried ...

One

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Wow. I cannot believe we have been gone a year! This time last year we were just arriving in Scotland, and I remember thinking to myself as we put our bicycles together in the airport, "what the hell have I gotten myself into?!" A little lat...

Pushing Through Paradise

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

We were thankful for the shelter of our tiki hut this morning when we discovered it had rained in the night. We really and truly no longer take having a roof over our heads for granted! Since the area was rather deserted, and we rarely concern ou...

Exploring Acrocorinth

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Unlike yesterday, when grey clouds and drizzle made us focus solely on giant potholes in the road and the muddy water that filled them, today the sun shone brightly and we were able to appreciate the beautiful landscape around us. Always excite...

Exploring Again

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Panniers full of food from a shopping spree yesterday, we cycled away from Patras under bright blue skies, lazily spinning our legs as we watched the coming and goings of everyday life in Greece. About 8km into our ride, Tara realized we'd left he...

Καλημέρα!

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

After a relatively decent sleep on the thinly carpeted floor of our ferry's reception lounge, I woke up in the early morning hours to the blaring of Greek TV. I needed to stretch my legs so I took a walk around the outside decks. Cold winds blew ...

Coasting

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

According to our database, after ten months on the road we've ascended 108,469 meters and descended 108,215 more. Imperially speaking, that is nearly 70 miles in each direction. We have officially cycled up enough hills to take us into space. Co...

Wet and Cold

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

A sickly drizzle of freezing rain patiently waited to receive us this morning. As we stuffed ourselves during our last continental breakfast at the Grand Hotel in Potenza, we were blissfully unaware of this fact. Another detail pleasantly among t...

What's Next

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

For some reason we can't quite put our fingers on, we've found stealth camping in Italy to be incredibly easy and rewarding. Last night's location and the views it provided this morning were no exception. We love Italy! After lazily pa...

Salerno

Monday, January 18th, 2010

After a refreshingly hassle-free boarding process last night, we made ourselves at home on the ferry to Salerno. By making a mat on the floor out of the removable seat cushions, we were able to easily fall asleep snuggled together, unimpeded by un...

In Summary

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

One month after Velocity sent our replacement rims, their convoluted journey has ended here on our desert island of Kerkennah. The first two weeks featured an information blackout during which they sat, apparently forgotten, in New Jersey. Go US ...

Stranded on a Desert Island

Monday, December 21st, 2009

We just found out our wheels have been sitting in New Jersey for the last twelve days. Nice work US Postal Service. We've now been on Kerkannah for more than two weeks. The first week was very enjoyable; we did lots of sightseeing, and I had a s...

Mixed Feelings

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

I've been thinking a lot lately about accepting the culture of the areas we travel through, both to better understand them, and at times, simply to stay sane. I was in high spirits as we rode this morning, happy we're adapting well to a myriad of ...

Eid al-Adh: Festival of Sacrifice

Friday, November 27th, 2009

The first thing we noticed about Monastir when we rolled in this morning were the numerous soccer games being played by all the local boys. As Tyler found out when he joined in on one of them, they are all on vacation from school because of the up...

Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

Tara Sometimes it seems odd that we should be out in the world going ever onwards, when my instincts tell me it is time to hole up for the season and hibernate. The coming winter and approaching holidays make me a little nostalgic and homesick. ...

South for Winter

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

We've been contemplating several different routing possibilities to wrap up our tour of Italy for several days now. Today, as we approached the point where the roads diverged and decision-making became imperative, we realized we hadn't fully discu...

Ghost Towns

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Apparently tourist season is over! Just yesterday, each town we passed was bustling with people. Crowds of tourists spent their sunny afternoons eating gelato and milling about little surf shops, purchasing brightly colored beach accessories and ...

A Hero's Welcome

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Tara and I were a little overwhelmed last night as we looked at our maps, trying to decide where to go next. Until today we've had a fairly clear plan that defined where we were going, when we would arrive and where we were headed after we got the...

More Free Camping

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

With each passing day we fall in love with Italy a little more. Maybe it is the cheap, delicious food clouding our judgment but we're almost certain that we'll pass through again on our way to Moscow (we're looping back through Europe after a Nort...

Logistics

Monday, May 18th, 2009

This morning was really, really trying. The sky looked promsing as we hauled everything out of our wooded free-camp into the field we had sneaked into last night. Things quickly took a turn for the worse as we packed, when a front of dark clouds ...

Glasgow, Scotland

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

It was a relief to step off of the plane in Glasgow knowing that we would not have to fly again for a very long time. It was so nice to have that part of the journey over with, and now concern ourselves with getting on the road. We settled in "Ba...

How We Did It

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

I wanted to sit down with Tara and document how we got where we are today before it became a distant memory. As it turns out this was a great idea; it was incredibly difficult to remember accurately all of major events leading up to our departure....

Making a Fire in a -3°F Snowstorm

Monday, December 15th, 2008

…is ridiculously difficult, apparently. Tyler and I bundled up for another fire-making adventure- this time, on a snowy, -3 degree ("feels like -27") evening. Despite our best efforts, we were largely unsuccessful. I got a little tinder lit usin...

Winter Camping

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

If someone were to ask me, say six months ago, if I would go camping in 20 degree weather, four days in a row, the answer would be a resounding "absolutely not." That is, though, exactly what we have been doing, and I think it was actually my idea...

Summer Biking

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

We had a goal of riding at least 10 miles a day every day this summer. Although we didn't get out every single day we did have a lot of great weekend / weeknight rides. Late night grocery shopping with our panniers and weekend picnics were wo...

What's the Skinny?

Friday, March 28th, 2008

A couple weeks ago, after a little bit of bike drama, my hand-crafted wheel set arrived from Peter White Cycles. I'll let Tyler write about the Peter White drama if he wants to. I'm just excited to have two beautiful wheels! I drove to Minneso...