Happy New Year!

The last 2 months have been a crazy blur - we went to the SEMA convention in Las Vegas for Subietech (our first business trip ever!), made some wonderful new friends to spend the holidays with, took a little vacation to Palm Springs and Los Angeles, and then I got sicker than sick with Stevens Johnson Syndrome (don't google it, it's disgusting). I was laid up for weeks, and I'll be recovering well into 2016. On the bright side, it has given me a new zest for life, and a lot of time to reflect on things we would like to do in the new year!

SEMA is pretty boring if you don't like cars...

Red Rocks National Park - a.k.a. what I did while Mike was at SEMA.

When we first moved to Bend and changed our lifestyle, we imagined we'd have lots of land and be starting a homestead where we worked to feed ourselves. A year and a half later, we realize that our idyllic daydreams were A: unrealistically ambitious for an urban couple, and B: not what we really wanted. What we really wanted was to live lightly on the earth (as much as possible in the modern world) and to know exactly where our food comes from (grow/raise *some* of it), while living reasonably close to culture/fine dining, an airport, and a hospital. We still want to travel, play with our pets, have afternoon tea, and take naps (that last part is all me). If you own a true homestead, there is no time for any of that. 

And, we actually cannot afford a farm. Farmers are secretly rich. Seriously. Farm equipment and buildings are crazy expensive.

Homesteading: the dream

Homesteading: our reality - pets, camping, foraging, and the pear tree.

We accomplished a lot in 2015 towards our goals - we remodeled our fixer upper with all eco-friendly appliances, got the compost bins built (reducing our trash), tidied up the yard, put up a fence, and started keeping chickens. I also found all sorts of local sources for produce, honey, bread, and meat. Of course there are lots more things we can do better, and we will definitely keep trying to do so. For one thing, I'm going to can and preserve a bunch more food for winter 2016, and figure out a place to store it.

Our new bunnies - just pets, not meat.

We also added 6 new family members! Introducing LDP, short for Lou Diamond Phillips, the big dark bunny on the right, and Momo (which means "peach" in Japanese, or "dumpling" in other languages, either of which is appropriate!), our little gray bun on the left. They are in a temporary pen on some very temporary linoleum in our living room, until we can build them proper, modern living quarters. LDP is part Flemish Giant, and is larger than the kitties, which amuses us to no end.

The other 4 family members are of course, the chickens, who live in a very expensive coop in the side yard. In retrospect, however, the expense was well worth it. They've been snug, safe, and warm all winter, and while we watch those who built cheaper coops and runs struggle with snow, predators, collapses and fires, we are grateful we splurged and built something extremely sturdy and insulated. 

One major goal for 2016 - clear this demolished deck and make a patio!

What does 2016 have in store? Well, I finally got my sewing machine unpacked, so there's a world of curtains, quilting, and other things to get started on. We are having the yard excavated and spring will bring us a blank slate to begin building on. We'll be planting a new fruit tree, a variety of berries, and building raised beds from our demolished deck pieces...and then there's a patio to learn (i.e. Google how to) to pave. Not to mention gardening, round two - I hope to redeem myself from 2015's failures. While we do have trips planned, I think 2016 will be a year where we concentrate on staying home and feathering our nest. We're starting to get more involved with things in Bend, and we're meeting people with the same ideas and values that we have. There's definitely something to be said for creating a little home to be happy in, and building a community to be happy with. Wishing everyone happiness and fulfillment in 2016!

Rejoining the Race, at Our Own Pace - One Year Looking Back

It's been exactly one year since Mike and I made the decision to sell our loft in LA and bail on the whole rat race. Since then, we've traveled, moved to Oregon, spent time on our hobbies, and explored. It's been amazing, fun, relaxing, and eye opening. I spent quite a few days in my PJs, and I think I've read more books this year than any other year of my life.

we also take a lot of naps with the kitties!

Over the last few months in particular, we've realized how much we value our free time. It's worth more than anything in the world, to be able to decide what you want to do with each and every day. Even though we dearly miss our friends and family in Los Angeles, Chicago, and around the world, we wouldn't be able to have this life if we moved back to a big city. The beautiful scenery in Bend, and the cost of living in Oregon in general, is what allows us to live this super free, super fun, super easy lifestyle. Only here can we afford to work less and live more - travel, have a home with space for a garden, chickens, etc, and spend more than half our week on hiking, camping, snowboarding, cooking, and relaxing with each other and the pets. 

For the foreseeable future, Bend is our base of operations.

a shot from one of our walks around town, along the Deschutes River.

So to that end, we decided to nest a bit here, and get a little more entrenched in our new hometown. I recently got a part time job, working two days a week, doing office work. The day I got the job, I actually cried, because I thought it meant I was going back to the grind, the daily commute, the mornings standing in my closet trying to figure out office appropriate attire, and the dreaded customer service. But reality happily reminded me that I live in Bend...I can go in whenever I want, wear whatever I want, the commute is only 5 minutes, and the boss fully expects me to not show on powder days. Can I say I love this town? I love this town!

Just like our camping and traveling makes us appreciate our home, going to work makes me appreciate my free time even more. I'm a little more careful of my time, and I plan my days a little better, and I'm a little more serious about my hobbies and projects. I think this mini-job was just what I needed, to add a little motivation and structure to my days. There really is such a thing as too much time on your hands.

It's time to get back to the grind, when even relaxing gets boring.

Mike is still running Subietech, his Subaru repair shop and conversion business. As we meet more people in town, word is slowly getting out, and we're having customers trickle in. Since Subietech is literally right around the corner from my new job, we can carpool easily, and our flexible schedules make mornings easy.

We never could have imagined, one year ago, that life could be this way for us. I'm so glad we had the courage to make the change, to ignore other people's doubts, and to do what we thought would be right for us. Everyone has their own vision of what their life could be like, and I think that sometimes we let other people's perceptions, ideas, or concerns cloud our own judgement. But you know what's right for you, so stay your course! 

The Marvels of Mycology

This weekend, we joined the North American Truffle Society on a mushroom foray. It was held at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, on the other side of the Cascade mountain range (the rainy side). It's less than 2 hours from Bend. 

part of the Blue River, which is very low this time of year.

Even though it's been raining up here, this is less rain than they normally get, and the Blue River Reservoir was dry, and the river was running super low. The drought's not just in California, unfortunately.

Big Willy! He's available for rental, just contact us.

We took Big Willy to camp in, instead of staying in the provided housing. He's just so comfortable, that we'd rather sleep in him and have the privacy - plus, it was only $5/night to camp, versus $50/night for a room with a shared bathroom. Major deal - a weekend away for $10!

We arrived Friday and met some of the other participants; everyone was super nice and mostly normal, with a shared love for 'shroomies. Us and one other couple were the only newbies, but it turns out, even the experienced people needed help from the 4 experts on identifying mushrooms. There are just so many types of mushrooms that it's impossible to know them all. Tons of mushrooms aren't even named or identified yet.

All day Saturday was spent hiking and foraging, and getting drenched.

Mike on the trail with our fellow mushroom hunters.

Me on the bridge.

the hike alone was worth it - it is beautiful here.

We were not well prepared for the rain (being from LA), but live and learn! Next time, we will bring rain gear and lots of extra clothes. Also, we had to borrow some neon tape to mark ourselves (you can see it tied around our arms in the above pictures). We were deep in the forest and it's hunting season (and Mike's wearing a hat with horns)...

a perfect example of Angel Wings (Pleurocybella porrigens).

The people on the foray were obsessive about mushrooms. Total mushroom geeks. In fact, some of them have PhDs in mycology and have written books. So, we learned more than we ever thought we would about mushrooms, including the latin names, and how they grow and reproduce. It was fun, being around people who are so passionate about something. That's what I'm searching for, for my life - one singular thing that I'm obsessively passionate about.

Shelf mushrooms, also known as conks. Beautiful, but you can't eat them.

Mike was a bit like Bigfoot with his Yeti hat on...

By the end of Saturday, Mike and I were able to positively identify 4 kinds of edible mushrooms - white and yellow chanterelles, winter chanterelles, and hedgehogs! I can't explain the feeling of accomplishment you get from foraging, and this type of learning. It just feels so useful. We can't wait to do this again.

Our haul - winter chanterelles in the basket, white and yellow chanterelles on the table.

After the foray, everyone gathered to clean and sort the mushrooms, and identify the weird ones. We cooked them up and had a potluck - mushrooms sautéed in wine, in butter, in bacon, over pasta, with pesto, with kale, in soup, with cream - and just plain with salt and pepper, so we could try every single type and taste the differences. Mike and I tried lobster mushrooms (they actually taste and look like lobster! see the red blob in the picture below), fried chicken mushrooms (which smell like fried chicken while they're cooking, but taste like nothing), all the various chanterelles, honey mushrooms (bleh, despite the name), angel wings, and oyster mushrooms. All those mushrooms were found on the foray, by various members of the group, and fed FIFTEEN people with tons of leftover mushrooms.

Random mushrooms everyone collected and identified.

It is amazing how much free food is out there, for the picking. And you get to hike in a gorgeous forest, too. I think I'm falling in love with Oregon!

Sayōnara, Tokyo, until next time!

As our Tokyo trip wound down, we packed as much as we could into each day, making carefully plotted and planned itineraries, and packing our backpacks with band-aids and bottles of water. We were on a mission. 

We made a special effort to get to a Tokyo skatepark. We were totally impressed by the little kids shredding it up here! I think it made Mike and Josh feel old.

The larger skate park, with its gnarly ramps. BMX bikers used it as well.

Josh and Mike on one of the ramps they had in the back!

Another long trek took us to the Tokyo National Museum. This is where many of the most special Japanese artifacts and historical treasures are housed. It is comprised of 7 main buildings, 6 outlying buildings, and parks and gardens. Basically, it's too big to see everything all at once, so we did the best we could and tackled a couple of the main exhibits.

A whole room full of samurai swords. Wish they had more info in English!

One of the most interesting things I saw was the Buddha, in stone and sculptural pieces from early AD, from three Asian countries - China, India, and Japan. I loved seeing the similarities and differences between each country's take on their deity.

The Buddha as represented by India (almost always sitting, usually in Lotus).

Buddha carvings (statue and the reliefs in the back) in limestone from China.

Japan's take on the Buddha - with guardians.

My favorite piece was this contemporary (1881) piece by Miyagawa Kozan. Those two crabs looked so real in person, that it seemed like they were taxidermied and attached to the bowl, but they're porcelain.

This bowl is representative of Satsuma-style pottery.

I will say that America has something to learn from Asia, in terms of museums and public availability. Every museum Mike and I visited on our trip, from the Hong Kong History Museum to the Macau Museum, cost less than $6.00 to enter. In comparison, the LA Natural History Museum cost $12-$20, and the Art Institute of Chicago cost $27.00. Shouldn't we, as a society, want people to be educated and exposed to history and art? I think if our entrance fees were a little more affordable, maybe we'd have a few less ignorant people. 

One place Mike was determined to see, was the Lucky Cat Shrine, otherwise known as the Gotokuji Temple. I'm sure you've seen Lucky Cats in random Asian restaurants and stores. The original Lucky Cat's name was Tama, and he helped this particular temple flourish, and with it, his legend. Although it's a little bit outside of Tokyo, in the suburb of Setagaya, it was worth the trek.

The Lucky Cat Shrine, and many people's offerings.

The grounds of the temple are beautiful and include a cemetery and several other temples and shrines. You can purchase porcelain lucky cat statues here, to leave at the shrine as an offering (which we did), or to bring home and give yourself some luck (which we also did). Mike wanted one for Subietech HQ, so we got the largest one! He hand-carried that sucker back to the US.

Ringing the bell and leaving an offering at the temple.

Leaving another offering (can't have too many prayers!) of a little cat.

You can also purchase prayer boards, on which you write a wish/hope/prayer and leave, with an offering, at the temple. I got one and wrote a little hope for our future. I think we covered our wishing and praying for the day.

So many prayers, and ours just one of the bunch.

We continued our cat theme with a stop for drinks at a cat café! This was one of Bernice's must-dos for Tokyo, and as all of us are cat lovers, we were happy to oblige. I must say, with all the rules they have at this place (wear their provided slippers, wash your hands, don't bring in your bags, etc), these are some of the luckiest and cleanest cats alive. The room looked like a crazy cat girl exploded.

everything in this entire room is for the kitties and scratchable!

Of course the cat café was right near the Harujuku District, so that was our next stop. There are no words for the insanity here.

A shot of Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street), stuffed with fashion stores.

We stopped in at a Daiso, one of my favorite Japanese stores, on their main street, and bought a package of 20 masks for less than $1.00! We randomly wore them around town for the rest of the trip, and amusingly, no one even took notice. I wonder what kind of looks I'd get if I did this in Bend.

Josh and Bernice going incognito on Takeshita Dori.

Next, we walked up the street to the Meiji Shrine, which was built in the early 1900's to honor the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and the Empress Shoken. It is surrounded by over 100,000 trees, donated from all over Japan. It is a natural oasis in the middle of Tokyo.

The forested path to the Shrine.

Many sake brewers make offers each year to the Emperor and Empress.

The 40 ft tall Torii gate, made from 1,500 year old Cypress trees from Taiwan.

Cleansing our hands and mouths in the traditional way, prior to entering the shrine.

You can purchase prayer boards here, or simply write a prayer on a piece of paper, and drop it in the box with a little donation. Since we'd already spent the whole morning praying at the Gotokuji Temple, we just prayed on paper here. 

Mike, deep in thought, before the rows and rows of prayer boards.

the courtyard of the main shrine

Our final pilgrimage of the trip was to the Mecca for all Subaru lovers, the STI Gallery. This is a museum dedicated solely to Subaru STIs. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, this is a car that is famous for excelling in rally racing (motor races along actual roads, rather than a track). If you'd like to see all the pictures from this museum, you can go to the Subietech HQ website, or "like" them on Facebook. 

To the untrained eye, this is a museum full of blue cars.

The museum is in Mitaka, which is about an hour on public transit from Tokyo. So understandably, they don't get a lot of visitors - only a few a week. The museum manager, Ken, spoke perfect English and was happy to answer questions and let Mike and Josh peek under the hoods.

Mike and Josh geeking out with the museum manager.

We had the whole museum to ourselves.

The treatment we received at the museum exemplified what we'd been experiencing all week in Japan. Everyone thanked us for liking Subarus, and acted really grateful that we had come to visit them. As a whole, the Japanese people were very polite and gracious to visitors, and we really came to appreciate and love Tokyo, despite all the communication difficulties. Next year, we will be sure to learn a lot more Japanese before we go!

It is worth mentioning that we were in these countries while some major events went down - the protests in Hong Kong, and the eruption of Mt. Ontake. While we were not physically affected, it does affect us emotionally, and I have been thinking about those whose lives were lost or changed. Life is precious and unpredictable. Be sure you are living it, enjoying it, fulfilling your purpose and experiencing everything you can - none of us know how much time we are given.

A photo of Izumi Noguchi, right before the eruption.

Admiralty protests - Photo by Bill Kwan

Admiralty protests - Photo by Bill Kwan

Local Living

We've settled into a little bit of a routine finally, and that involves daily operations at SubieTech HQ, and spending time in town and at home. 

We discovered Humm, a local kombucha brewery. Have you ever tried kombucha? I was skeptical, but Humm has a kombucha tasting room, so I got to try it, risk free. Humm combines organic fruit juices and a little CO2 into their kombucha to reduce the alcohol level and tone down the vinegary taste. It's tangy and sort of effervescent. I just love it and I'm on my second growler refill. 

My newly purchased mini-growler and "Hawaii 5-0" flavored kombucha.

Growlers are these glass jugs that you can get filled almost anywhere with craft beers, ciders, and kombucha! Everyone in town has one (or several). 

Mike and I have gone to 3 concerts already at the Les Schwab Amphitheater, and since it's general admission, you can get as close as you want, which is pretty awesome.

Hi, Dave!

The amphitheater is awesome and the grass is cushy and comfy. But next summer, Mike and I are going to make like the locals, float the river, and listen for free! 

The river crowd during the Jack Johnson concert.

We got to cuddle baby bunnies - the lady we buy hay from breeds bunnies. For meat. Eek. But she gives them a good life and lots of love, and even hand picks clover grasses for them to eat. I don't know how she kills and skins them after playing with them. 

A 3 week old meat bunny.

On one of our evening walks, we discovered this local "Little Free Library." It was really well made and I am totally into it. It's up on the top of a pretty big hill, so it's good exercise getting there to drop my books off!

And we've found tons of time to do things like make treats for the bunny, and snuggle with the kitties.

Prepping papaya, bananas, pineapple and mango for the dehydrator.

Prepped heirloom carrots!

This is what the carrots looked like after dehydrating. SJP loves them!

It feels good to spend some down time. As much as we love being outside and exploring, it's so nice to cuddle with our furry children and start to get into a routine. It's now been 6 months since we left Los Angeles and we are finally starting to feel like this is now our hometown.

Mike napping with Grindle.

It's the constant change and opposites - spending time outside, spending time inside, traveling, staying in Bend, camping without conveniences and then enjoying a few luxuries - that makes us appreciate everything we have in our life. We're constantly grateful for what we have. If we ever feel like we're getting stuck in a rut, we up and change our environment.

That being said, since we've been staying home these last couple weeks...it'll be time to travel again soon!