Reflections

Good afternoon!!! Life has brought about quite a few amazing experiences lately. Little things, small occurences, minute details. People and information coming into view, sharing time, opening my eyes. I have an overwhelming sense of calm like I haven't felt in a very long time.

Sonny is still in Europe, until mid July. Being away from him for this long has been hard, but has also been, and continues to be, a pleasant walk down a path of self discovery and reflection for me. It's been years since I've been away from the person I love for any amount of time close to this, and this is the first time we've been without communication on a regular basis. Every few days or so he'll get to write me a few lines in an email...and wow, how I look forward to even that! I think it sort of forces you to really consider everything typed out to be important, and positive, and full of as much love as can be jammed into those tiny black letters on the screen. His words, his encouragement, and even his ramblings about how much fun they're all having, is total motivation for me. Why can't I live every day of my life to the absolute fullest? Why can't I chase my dreams, big and small? Why can't I be absolutely true to myself and openly cherish the people and things around me that make life worth living?

The answer is I CAN! And so should everyone else! I'm taking this mindset and running with it!!

Some of the people and things that mean so much to me right now:

Jenn and Scotty. These are two of my closest friends. They live an absolutely magical life that is full of love, laughter, and utter simplicity, in the smallest apartment I've ever been in. The size of their wonderful abode however, is no match for Jenn's fierce desire to have it be constantly filled with amazing friends, fresh homecooked meals, and thundering motion and dancing! The very definition of heart on your sleeve, they'd both drop everything in an instant if a friend was ever in need.


My lovely Katie...oh what I owe this lady! The first to welcome me with open arms to Oakland, and to take the time to tuck me under her wing and make sure I met all the amazing people that now fill my life. Another golden soul, I can count on Katie for anything...and I mean literally anything. She's also with a dude that is in a pretty successful touring band, and has been invaluable in teaching me how to hold on to the spirit of who I am during the tough times alone. Love her.


I've only just started this book, and already I can tell it will be one that makes a lasting impression on me. The author's struggles with ending relationships, depression, spirituality, and self image are already resonating deeply with me. Not to mention her writing style is incredibly fun and engaging! More thoughts on life's many quests of self discovery as I get deeper into this story...

I recently took part in a day-long training course written by The Arbinger Institute, which is entirely focused on helping individuals and groups to resolve conflicts within themselves and within interactions between individuals. They believe that conflict arises from a person's inability to view those around them as people, rather, they are viewing anyone that causes distress or disagreement as an object to be removed or broken, as a means to a selfish end, or as completely irrelevant to their life. The day was long and intense and brought up a lot of very strong emotions for me, as I applied the concepts to areas of my life where I'd consistently been blocking people out and deceiving my better intentions as a means of self-preservation. I took a lot from what I learned, and can literally already see small differences in the way I'm viewing those around me....all totally positive.

As well as getting rid of a lot of figurative baggage lately, I've also been trying to keep busy by parting with a lot of literal baggage. Life is so, so not about the accumulations of things, and I was beginning to get really bogged down walking past the same "stuff" piles everyday. Long put-off plans of living lighter are now coming much easier...and are actually pretty enjoyable...more to come on that a bit later.

For now, tell someone you love them today, and take a minute to thoroughly enjoy something simple :)

Dreams of reading in the mountains...

A few books read lately. Seems as if I've swung back over into a fiction mode for a while. I know, "Alive" is a true story, but it reads like fiction.


Our friend Jimi come over the other night with a full bag, a smile, and a wonderful gift. "Want some books?" he said...."Of course!!!" I beamed! Those combined with 2 I'd gotten from work for free makes the total 7! Excuse me while I nerd-out for a bit...
They're sort of all over the place subject-wise...but then again thats what we like to read....everything!

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I experimented with a really old pair of Barrett's thread-bare socks the other day. I wanted to see if I could make a quick (albeit ugly) mend by completing the weave, and see how they stood up to actual wear.

Looks terrible, but is almost back to wearable! Will update when level of comfort/warmth/durability is assessed.
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These places are filling my thoughts lately.




oh I miss the mountains..

DIY

So, I've been immersed in this book lately "Making Stuff and Doing Things", from Microcosm Publishing, out of Portland. p.s. thats NOT my wrinkly hand.
I hesitate to call myself or my actions "punk rock" anymore...because 1) I'm not into labels, and 2)I'm probably not worthy of one anyway! Haha, but nonetheless, this is an awesome book. There are so many different DIY recipes in here that I don't even know where to begin! I think I'm going to attempt to build my own books...by reusing cardboard, paper, and cloth I have around here. If you know me well, expect a notebook in your mailbox soon!

Happy reading!

The journey home

Leaving Portland today. I'm exhausted, but excited at the prospective new opportunities this trip has opened my eyes to.
The past two weeks have been hectic, so it was quite nice to get out of town for a bit. Full details and photo accompaniment to follow once we get back into San Jose.

For now... I will be finishing my coffee, settling into the passenger's seat, and drowning myself in this

one of the many books I picked up this trip.

We'll be home soon

Bikes, bugs, books!

Here are our "new" bikes!

Barrett's


Mine


They're probably like decades old, but the folks who owned them before rarely took them out of the garage! The only thing that needs work is probably the brakes on both, they're fairly old school. Barrett has rode his about 20 miles already around town, and its held up just fine. I've been trying to research mine, and have found that the company went south some time ago...and that they were sort of on the more "budget-minded" end of things for consumers in the 60s-70s, which is probably how old the bike is. It may be pretty hard to find parts for, but it will be fun to cruise around on! Thanks Bert!

We took Pickle on his first long road trip with us, down to Temecula to pick the bikes up. He had SO much fun getting to roam around in the yard and meeting Barrett's mom Heather, who's officially dubbed him her "Granddoggie"




We found a grasshopper that had only one jumping leg.



We got to see a lot of people we hadn't seen in months...which turned out to be pretty fun...good times were had by all.
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I've started these:



Barretts almost through this


again...good times had by all!

Rain! Rain!

Woke up this morning to find it had rained...yay!

That can only mean the beginning of Fall..and this pale kid loves the sound of that.

We also found spinach sprouts!!


And a quirkey little red club chair that mysteriously appeared in front of our door.


Barrett and I have both been sick these past few days with a flu bug thats going around up here, lame I know! But Its given me a chance to do more reading than a hectic day would normally allow.
I finished this:


And have finally gotten a good chunk of time to tear through this!

Its funny how reading about making homemade cleaning products, keeping ducks, and culturing wild yeasts can be more exciting than a true crime novel, HA!
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Until next time, know that Big Brother is watching you!

Our worms eat better than we do

I'm a woman who likes to see results. Don't get me wrong I'm also infinitely patient, but if I can finagle a way to get good, quality rewards from a process in less time...why not, right? Don't get me wrong (pt. 2), I'm pretty darn frugal so I don't jump at every convenience item or gadget I see either...probably because I get this gut-wrenching pain every time I have to buy something "new"...so I try to avoid that too. What I'm trying to say is who doesn't appreciate a good shortcut every once in a while when you're living a life (by choice) mostly in the slow (yet scenic) lane?!?!
Case in point: Our friendly little Casa de Wormies

These guys are voracious, let me tell ya...but by no fault of their own, it does take a while for them to get through an apple core, carrot head, or any of a number of other veggie material. I figured the most logical answer would be to make the food smaller..a LOT smaller. The Handy blender to the rescue!

Step 1: Gather past-prime and trimmings from fridge. In this case our menu consists of some slightly stinky rice and beans, loose and limp rainbow chard, somewhat soggy mache lettuce, and usually unusable corn husks and silks.


Step 2: Chop all your ingredients to blender size pieces. Throw about handful size amounts in blender at a time w/ enough water to make ingredients actually blend.


Step 3: Pour your soup into freezable container, drain off extra water (which I throw right onto outdoor compost heap), and marvel at the quickness you've just made some delicious veggie pate for your wormies!


My first batch from this method had SUCH awesome results that I think I'll definitely stick with it. The key is, when placing a dollop of our goo into the bin, make a little taco pocket for it out of damp newspaper. That way, the excess moisture in the mix doesn't drown any baby worms, adults can eat the mix from the outside in, creating little safe pockets for more baby worms!

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Yesterday was kind of a rough one for me at the ole' HSSV, so I treated myself to some new reading material after work. Its RARE that I splurge on new stuff (see above) but it made me feel much better after a day of seeing one terribly taken care of animal after another...
I got..

and..

and...finally...


I almost finished the compost one last night....and I'm full of ideas!!

Down on the corner

So I realized that I've never shared what the outside of our little urban compound looks like. Here we are, hidden in plain sight, at the end of that drive, sharing space in what used to be dry storage for Dole.

Oh the possibilities I wake up with on a daily basis! There are literally 10,000 things we could be doing with the amount of space we have...
The building is situated right between the rapid high-density development of Japan town (which can be seen in the right background) and the older, somewhat decaying neighborhoods of East San Jose. Living in this area is quite a trip..
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I finally finished this book..


The author lives in Berkeley, (not far from us), so I gained a new perspective on the availability of local food sources in our area. The winding stories of the way each of the four meals come together is well-written and easily digestable..not to mention funny, sad, and eye-opening at the same time! I've been reading about food, food chains, and everything related pretty consistently for the past 6 years (thank you Fast Food Nation), and found this book to be one of the better selections. I'd recommend it to a first-time American food-system detective anyday!

Where?house remodel molasses

Some updates on the slooow progress we're making! I realize its been since March that this blog has seen heads of tails of us, but between the dog, the house, and work, I can't even contemplate how I had the time to relax at all!

So, during the pull-up-everything and start from scratch period, we had to do a bit of makeshift room assembing so we could do things like...cook...sit...you know, luxuries.
Here's the livin room furni set up in the big space. That huge pile of junk in the background is what I've turned into my work space.


We had to make due with setting up a temp kitchen in the big space too. The drawers are the island we pulled out of there so that we could tear out the spraypainted carpet (!) paint over the spraypainted walls, reposition it, and lay new flooring. You can see in the windows behind the island that lovely neon orange artwork on the walls. We were also treated to an image of the Incredible Hulk in golfing gear on the opposite wall.


Once the carpets were pulled we had the daunting task of getting the decades old glue up off the concrete. We bought push-strippers, chisels, hammers, everything short of chemicals. Then decided we might as well give in and rent an electric floor stripper for a day.

A couple of passes with that and we were in a much better place. We were able to prime the walls, and bolt the island back down to the floor about 2 more feet from where it was.
Hmmm...the team decides on our next move.




Since the kitchen is such a gigantic space, I wanted to paint the walls with a color that was going to make things feel a big cozier. We decided on a chocolate brown, with red as our accents.




We also found some pretty cheap relatively nice laminate flooring that you pretty much just snap together. Its coming along, here's the start.

Since these pictures, We've put of floating red shelves over the island and space between it and the sink, painted the underside of the island red, knocked out and framed a window between kitchen and front room, and gotten about half the flooring down. However, my phone (my meager camara) has decided it doesn't want to charge anymore so I've got to see if I can get it fixed or get another one tomorrow :(

As for the other rooms in the place.. MUCH has been done to make them more liveable as well! Our bedrooms and the bathroom have all gotten complete makeovers. When those pictures resurface..I'll be sure to post before and afters!
Dan needs a break.


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As most everyone knows, there are currently hundreds of fires burning in California. Last count I had heard was reaching 1,000. The Santa Cruz mountains have definitely been hit hard. A few weeks ago, we were called out to help with the evacuation of residents and their animals in Watsonville, south of Santa Cruz. I went with a team of about ten other HSSV employees, to help construct temporary kennels at the animal services shelter, transport their adoptable dogs to our shelter so they could be free to house evacuated dogs, and assist in keeping the huge number of evactuated horses in order and fed.






The ever-present danger.


On a good note, we were able to get a few of the dogs adopted into forever homes before SC was ready to take them back!
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One of my recent fill-ups....bad.


Having access to fabulous farmer's markets...good! What could be better than local, organic, farmer-sold food?!?!

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I picked-up this awesome book at a used (and some new) bookstore in Santa Cruz

It's pretty much the guide to living sustainably and supporting and feeding yourself while living in an urban environment. More to come on our efforts to move in that direction...
The blog of the authors is at