Goodbye, Los Angeles!

Remember when I posted about Life Changes Pending? It was partly inspired by this story I read on NPR. This guy, Winston Chen, heard a Ted talk about taking 5 years of your retirement and spreading them out throughout your working life. It inspired him to move his family to a little island in Norway, where they got to experience 24 hour daylight, 24 hour night, and the Aurora Borealis. You cannot put a price on that type of experience - and wouldn't it be so much better to experience it while you're young, with energy and physical stamina/strength?

So we made a decision! We're going to do the same thing (not the Norway part, but the retire-for-awhile part), and we'll be using this time to have new experiences and also to do a little soul searching about our own life paths and careers. 

To give you some background, here were the numerous options we considered:

1. Taking off in the van. Where? Anywhere! But first, the US and Canada, visiting Nova Scotia, Banff, New Orleans, Key West, and everywhere and everything in between...with the amount of money we want to spend, we could only afford about 6 months.

2. Going to Greece/Italy.Starting off in Athens and backpacking through the islands, taking the ferry across to Italy and touring up the coast, ending in Milan and crossing over eventually, into Germany (to visit a friend in Munich and then head home). This option? We'd run out of money in about 3 months.

3. Staying in L.A. so Mike can continue working (I'd be just writing) and we'd still be enjoying time with our friends and his family. We could do this for about 8 months before hitting our budget.

4. Moving to Chicago. Moving to Seattle. Moving to Joshua Tree. Moving to Grants Pass, San Luis Obispo, Medford, San Diego, Eugene, Salem.....options are endless! Obviously, depending on the location, the budget stretches further for some cities.

After extensive discussion and detailed spreadsheets, in which I calculated every single expense we could have (including haircuts, kitty litter and a winter wardrobe, if needed), the most cost effective option was to move - FOR A FULL YEAR OR MORE! - to....

....wait for it....

The most awesome place we could find, that would offer opportunities for fun, outdoor recreation, gorgeous breath-taking scenery and new adventures in our van with access to Canada and Alaska...and still have everything I needed (Target, REI, Trader Joe's, organic eateries, a local bakery):

By Matthew Johnson Studios

By Amanda Green Bottoms

by Mike Putnam Photo

This place looks pretty ridiculous, right? It's sort of an isolated medium-sized town, with 80,000 people, surrounded by state and national parks, snowboarding 20-30 minutes away, a nice dry climate (no bugs!) and a Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. 

Haven't guessed yet? It's Bend, Oregon. The only downside is I hear they hate people from Los Angeles (and California in general). They call us "equity immigrants." Which, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, is exactly what Mike and I will be. But whatever. I'm actually from Chicago. And we are going to have the most amazing year ever, starting in a few months.

I can't wait!!!

Happy New Year! 2014 - the year the Vanagon was completed.

One of our goals for the new year is, of course, to get the damn Vanagon finished! To be fair, I have not actually contributed much to this project in the way of physical labor. I'm more of a money manager. Mike, on the other hand, has literally bled over this machine. And now, I have too!

On new year's day we decided to get a move on and start installing the sound mat and insulation into the van. The sound mat is a bitch to work with because you have to cut it to fit exactly, then press it into every nook and cranny on the panels (inside the door, sides, and back panels).

You're basically peeling off a giant, very expensive sticker, and then trying not to touch the sticky side to anything, while maneuvering it into a tiny crevice. Then you have to roll all the air bubbles out. Your arms are at weird angles, you're holding awkward tools you've never used before, your hands get cut on the metal door frame, things are all dirty, and overall, it's not super fun!

 

 

The best thing that came out of all our labor was that I have a newfound appreciation for Mike's job and what he does all day. I was so pooped that we went home at 2pm and I passed out for 3 hours. Manual labor is exhausting! Who knew?!

 

In the end, we only managed to get the back door and the motor cover completed, but at least we know what we're dealing with, now. We'll be back at it again tomorrow.

 

 



Vanagon Update: Bumpers!

Apparently you have to have bumpers on your car for it to be street legal. Did you know that? I didn't know that. I've seen plenty of bumpers along the highway shoulders, which leads me to believe there are lots of non-street legal cars out there...

So being mostly law-abiding citizens, Mike and I bought bumpers for the VW Vanagon. He wanted super manly bumpers so we got these really heavy metal matte black bumpers, and they look quite nice installed! Here is the front (you can also get a nice view of the newly installed headliner):

 

And here's the rear:

 

 

Hm, I just noticed the color of our van looks completely different in the daylight! It's a deep marsala red with a slightly off white top. We did realize in hindsight that it kind of looks like an ambulance, but hey, nothing we can do about it now. LOL.

 

We are SO CLOSE to having this thing completed. The last few weeks have been painful waiting for me. We have a trip planned in March to go up to Seattle and back. While I definitely think the Vanagon will be running by then, the interior might not be completed, but it won't be for lack of trying!

 

 



Canning Applesauce

Yesterday my lovely and talented friend S. taught me how to properly can fruit. We started with the simplest fruit to preserve: apples! The reason apples are a good starter fruit is because they contain a lot of pectin, which is what people add to jams, etc to get them to be thicker and properly gel. 

The ingredient list in our applesauce was extensive (sarcasm): Apples, Cinnamon, Cloves. And I guess a touch of water, if you count that. 

I started with apples. The best part is, you can get "seconds" from the farmer's market for $1.00/pound, which is crazy cheap, and they were organic! They don't even look that bad; they were just smaller, and a few had a bruise here and there. We checked with a few different vendors but Ha's apples were the best:

Wash them, cut them into eight pieces each, and toss them in a pot. You don't have to core them, peel them, or anything. In fact, you should leave all the peel and cores ON, because that's where the pectin is. The only thing you cut out is any really bruised part or wormholes or whatever. 

Then you cook them down with just a bit of water at the bottom of the pot to start (also we threw in 3 cinnamon sticks and 5 cloves per 10 pounds of apples), so they don't burn. Cooking time takes approximately 1.5-2 hours, and you must stir occasionally. No sugar needed!! Apples plus steam below:

Once they were soft, we cooled them and then ran them through a food mill, which is a machine that pushes it through a sieve. It would be an excellent way to make baby food. Anyways, all the stuff like cores, skins, and the spices get caught in the mill and don't go through, so all you get is the meat of the apple, with very little waste. I forgot to take a picture of S.'s which is a totally awesome old school antique Kitchen Aid attachment, but here's a pic of one so you can get the idea. Basically you crank the handle and it spins the food around and around over the sieve, where all the soft parts fall through. The bonus with the Kitchen Aid is that it does all the cranking. When you're dealing with tons of apples, that is a plus.  

Leftovers end up in the mill, which you can just pull out and compost, give to your chickens, or if you live in a loft like I do, just throw down the garbage disposal and make a resolution to get yourself a compost pile or chickens in the future. 

The picture above is from this blog, where the author makes her applesauce much the same way, except she cores her apples, which is an unnecessary step.

Then you reheat the applesauce to get it ready to jar - when preserving food it is extremely important that the stuff going in the jar is hot, the jar itself is hot and clean, and that the lids for the jar are hot. The reason is that the lid and the jar need to form a tight seal to lock out bacteria, and the contents need to be hot to help form that vacuum seal. So don't skip any steps on this one!

We stuck the jars in the oven (after cleaning them) on low (180 degrees), the lids in a pot of almost boiling water (you don't want it to boil and ruin the rubber seal), and brought the applesauce to boiling temp on the stove. Then we quickly pulled out 3-4 jars at a time, put the applesauce in carefully (don't let the outsides/top get dirty or it will mold later - ick!) to within 1/4 inch of the top, and put on the lids and rings. 

Once they were all filled, the jars got placed into a pot of boiling water (put the on a rack, not directly on the bottom of the pot, or they will crack), and boiled for 7-10 minutes. The water has to cover the jars entirely.

That's it! Once they cooled I used these super cute print-it-yourself labels and we will gift them next week! Mike couldn't believe how DELICIOUS the applesauce was with no sugar. Sweet and yummy (we love cinnamon, but you could totally fiddle with the spices). And the best part is, you know exactly what's in it and it's organic. We are totally planting an apple tree in our future yard!

Cost of the organic applesauce making endeavor:

$1.00/pound for apples. I bought 12 pounds. I have read other blogs where people got theirs for way cheaper by going to the orchard or the Amish! So shop around your neighborhood.

$11.50 for 12 jars, including lids/rings. If you had jars already, you could just buy the lids/rings, or just the lids. It's like $2.25 for 12 lids.

Spices were donated by S.! But they cost less than $1.00.

We had enough applesauce for about 18 eight ounce jars, with some left over for eating. So that makes it around $0.80-$1.31/jar, depending on how many supplies you needed. And if you got your apples cheaper, you could really cut down the price. Either way, awesomely cheaper than purchasing it from the grocery store (well, at least MY grocery stores here in SoCal!).

Life Changes Pending!

Mike and I have decided to make a huge change next year and I will be quitting my job! We'll be selling the loft and using that money to fund a few adventures, and a career change for me. I can't wait, I'm so excited!

In the meantime, we have plans for a camping trip on New Year's Day and a HUGE yard sale in March to get rid of everything and anything we have that is beyond the basics. We want to be light and mobile, just in case.

Happy Holidays and stay tuned for camping pics and a Vanagon update!

Update on the Vanagon!

It's month 22 of owning our Vanagon and we are SO close to finishing it! Little things keep popping up that are super frustrating, though, like....the windshield. We found out it was cracked - I think it was a itty bitty crack at first, but after being removed and then set aside for awhile during the paint job, and moved around some more, the itty bitty crack turned into a big ol' crack.

Since it was Mike's birthday recently, I told him I was buying him (us) a new windshield as his bday present. He was super stoked and got a guy to come out ASAP and install the new one (sorry about the quality of the pic, it's from his phone):

Woohoo! One more piece of the puzzle is in and we are one step closer to completion.

Life Is Short

We were stunned and saddened this weekend when we found out about Paul Walker's death. Mike is very involved in the racing community with Subarus, and obviously the Fast and the Furious movies are a mainstay with car enthusiasts worldwide. Paul Walker was also an extremely likeable and humble person, and it was devastating to hear about his accident. It happened on Mike's birthday, and really reinforced the ideas we have for our life, and drove home the fact that we should do them immediately.

Lots of people have future plans, grandiose vacations they want to take, and dreams about what they should do with their life. But too often, they can't see a way to make them happen, and then they find excuses as to why they should just keep going as they're going - money, time, whatever. Excuses pile up and they start to feel like valid reasons. It becomes super easy to say "No" to change, when the daily routine provides security.

But Mike and I never want to wake up and feel regret that we didn't "try something when we were younger," or "do it when I had the chance." It's not easy to leave your old life behind and not know how you're going to make ends meet, or what you'll be doing next year. But once you do it, it's like learning any new thing - the new and scary becomes familiar and friendly, and before you know it, you're living a new life.

If Paul Walker's death has reminded us of anything, it's that life is short. You don't know what might happen tomorrow, so you need to do what you wanted to do today. Don't wait.