Underaged RVers

I've found a book I can't put down, except that it is a blog written in '04-'05 by a young couple who ditched their house and jobs to 'retire' early into rv life. It is lovingly well-written and photographed. I highly, highly recommend it for some fantastic inspiration and vicarious living.

http://underagedrvers.blogspot.com/

I came upon it while doing some research for a dream of our own. Back in the summer, Deb and I discovered that we have a mutual love for compact, mobile living spaces. So naturally we went to an RV show, because that is what 26 year olds do. At the time we did not know how an RV would fit into our lives, but we did know that while we felt proud of ourselves for landing great jobs, adopting two dogs and buying our first house, we aren't really ready to make the long-term investment into a stable lifestyle. Kids are definitley going to happen some day, and before that we've got some touring to do.

But the dogs... how do we travel with dogs? This question thwarted us. So we thought maybe we just needed to move somewhere wild and new. But we've already lived a lot of places and the idea of starting over again had lost its appeal. We have a lot of great friends in NYC and have always entertained the idea of doing a stint there. Plusses include a million adventures, a much larger diversity of job opportunities, cheaper airfare, and living near our friends, but the downside is that NYC is downright dirty and stupid expensive. Then, on a margarita-hazed post Thanksgiving walk in Everglades City, Deb and I realized that the RV life would liberate us and our dogs, too.

So we went to Virginia's largest RV lot last weekend, and the February show is on our calendars. If anyone comes across any nuggets pertaining to a life working and living on the road, let us know. Yes, working. We're basing our budget on PT minimum wage jobs. I'll finally get to be a baker! We'll work some music festivals! Maybe Sundance! Community Gardens! Bike couriers! And you know what? We'll have bunk space to spare if anybody wants to spend a few days on vacation with us in, say, the Redwood Forest? New Mexico? Kayaking through the Everglades? Climb onboard.

You thought we wouldn't notice...

A design watchdog blog, duly exposing ripoffs. I found it very interesting, especially since I am trolling around the 'net getting inspired. Are there any new ideas? I kinda feel we are all influencing each other.

Found Photography

I was loafing through the ReadyMade blog again, which lead to more blogs, and more blogs... so many treasures to behold... this photography blog is a creative's dream, full of thoughts and process and passion and zestful DIY ambitions.

Electric Riding

Here I am on my electric bike! It is an awesome machine, although one that is better if you can avoid busy streets. The "Strive to Drive Less" t-shirt I designed at Printfection.com an easy way to design your own tees; to note, the jersey styles seem to be better quality than the regular t-shirts. I advocate little changes rather than extreme moves (although both are effective), so am attempting 60 miles or less a week of car driving, which is a large decrease for the subburbs--I'll have to revise the goal once we move downtown where a car is less crucial. Walking is also an extremely enjoyable mode of transportation. I think the U.S. would be happier if they spent less time in their car.

Vicarious Cross Country Bike Trek

Good friends Hope and Dan are making the trek from Oregon to Virginia by bike. Get some inspiration here at their blog! 2bigwheels

Holiday Shopping Around the Corner

Check out the products at Global Girlfriend.  My mom brought this site to my attention (go mom!) after having attended a function where they had a number of sample products.  She purcahsed one of the recycled plastic handbags and not only did it look cool, it was a very good quality!  Women would scavenge the trash to find plastic grocery bags, and then iron them flat, layering them and finally ironing against newprint (or another colored material) to pick up the color.  The site supports women's products, paying them so that they can form their own businesses, offering business loans, etc. allowing them to support themselves and improve their situation.

Treadmill Dance!

Oh, this is so going to be my new routine. I want to pull it out at a party someday. A party where there is a room full of treadmills. A party at the YMCA...

finally an opportunity to view lauren's flowers...

okay, so i have been missing out on the delightful insights that Lauren shares with you all about gardening, the environment, and everything in between. I am here now and excited to participate in this thing called BLOGGING. wish me luck...lauren, i love you. thank you for sharing the love!

The Kitchen Garden, Part II

As promised, a photo of the field of winter squash. There is also watermelon winding around in there.

This is actually not my backyard. We cat/apartment sat for some friends in the spring and one day I brought over a handful of seeds. See what happens when you leave me alone at your house?

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Cloud Cult covers Tambourine Man

Kudos to Laura for spreading the work about this lovely song today:

"if you want to have an amazing friday you HAVE to go here and listen to cloud cult cover tambourine man - i just heard it on my internet radio station (www.kexp.org) and it's amazing...seriously amazing

http://kexp.org/aspnet_client/KEXPViewMediaGroup.aspx?rID=2735&pID=528&fID=1105&date=1105
then click "MrTambourineMan"

you can also supposedly download it at the link below, but i haven't had any luck (sadness...):
http://noyetidance.blogspot.com/2005/09/cloud-cult-mr-tambourine-man-mp3.html "

And if you haven't yet heard Dar Williams cover "Comfortably Numb" then you are missing out.

These Shoes Cost $300

Talking about Joey's blog reminded me of this priceless music video he found on YouTube. It's profane. It's marvelous. I am so inspired.

B-links

My buddy Joey just started a marvelous blog where contributors post about their latest wacky/awesome/chilling find on the internet. I've been spending a lot of time there lately. Check it out.

Eco design

I have a house that still looks like a dorm room threw up in it. So this weekend I focused my energy on dividing the clutter into "leave as is" and "repurpose into uber cool DIY design project." So far I have large pile of AOL cds, but hey. Cool mobile? A mosaic?

Anyway, a-inspiration hunting I went on the internet, and found this neat-o blog: http://www.inhabitat.com/. Inhabitat is all about sustainable design, and I discovered that the first Cradle to Cradle house is being built in none other than good ol' Roanoke, VA. Roanoke must be the hippest little town that doesn't look hip. Maybe it was built on a magic node.

(The philosophy behind cradle to cradle design, set forth by architect and author William McDonough, is to produce materials that can be used, recycled, and used again without losing any material quality. Sounds simple, until you read that most of our current products cannot be recycled without loss in quality. Basically, we're downcycling, a mere hesitation before the item ends up in the trash anyway.)

Another awesome find on the blog is Ian Goshner's box table. I definitely have boxes in my dorm house. I will make furniture out of them and protect their surfaces with AOL coasters...

Read Recommendation

I highly recommend this book. But only if you have the time to devote to it, as it will grab you and it won't let go until the end. Luckily I had a 26 hour road trip to Massachusetts and back. I even resorted to depending on the headlights behind me to illuminate the page. Do not fear - I was not doing the driving at the time. But there was a guy in front of me at a toll booth that I know for sure was driving and reading... worse than cell phone drivers, them reading sorts...

Southern Literature

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail the other day. A package of goodies from a recent trip my parents took to Charleston, SC. Now I've never been to Charleston, but within the first two chapters of the book, "Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden," it is now an official destination on my list.

I didn't realize how much I love southern literature until this book. In William Baldwin's introduction, he describes Emily as a "grand Southern matron" with "an opinion on everything." And that in her tales he would find the same elements that are in her garden: "a seemingly leisurely delivery would lull me into a complacent enjoyment and then suddenly I'd be faced with a moral. Emily is not just a poet and a gardener. I suspect she would have made a good trial lawyer." I just love sassy storytellers, and tales dripping in families and histories and the seemingly mundane attaining mythical proportions.

That is why I was so ecstatic to find a copy of the Ya Ya Sisterhood (for a quarter!) at a little book sale. Another sassy southern sally.

The funny thing is, I went to one of the great writing schools of the south, and I have never read Lee Smith. Nor have I read Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek." Though it is quite probable that I have copies of both somewhere... They will be there for one of those great days when you approach your library and look for nothing in particular, just a rainy day date with a book you forgot you had.

Cold Turkey

I was catching up on some morning news and read about a woman in Normal, IL who has chosen to go car-free for a month and blog about it. Others have posted attesting to how they too are experimenting an automobile-less life. I think this is fascinating and I commend them, but I must ask, does it really help to go to the extreme? My gut instinct is that getting hundreds of people to drive less (say just walking to lunch if they normally drive, or to the store when its only a backpack of groceries they need) gets us a lot further than two people who don't drive at all. I suppose I could sit down and work out the math of it. But in my experience people burn out.


Did you see An Inconvenient Truth?

The Kitchen Garden

Egad, I will have to post a photo of the mammoth winter squash that is taking over my yard. I saw the first baby fruit this morning... someday soon it will be a 20 pound pumpkin. I look forward to storing them and using them in recipes all winter long, when my garden has gone to sleep.

For you other avid garden cooks out there, I wanted to share one of my favorite resources for recipes: Mariquita Farm, a CSA out in California. They have a wonderful newsletter chock full of stories, info and recipes in addition to the comprehensive listing (sorted by produce! yay!) on their website.

Ham Radio is Back

I've taken on a new guilty pleasure: reading freebie, cast-off business mags at the gym. Oh, what a lovely addiction. First it was Inc., then Business Week, and this morning - Fast Company. They had a fabulous article called "Revenge of the Nerds" on how the nexus of cheap, high quality consumer goods and the boundless viral marketing potential of the internet let the no-name hack give a shout-out to the world.

It is occasions like these that make me very happy. And I can't help but give a smug mental smile to the folks that believe advertising is just Big Brother brainwashing us. Because we are advertising. It is a reflection of us. Because we wanted cheaper, better digital camcorders, we got them. Because we would trip over ourselves at the chance to network socially on a large scale, we got Friendster. And MySpace. And YouTube. And now even major corporations are trolling blogs in order to find out what we think about it all, so that they can be the first to provide it.

But back to the happiness part. Ham radio is back. You want your own station? Make a podcast. And the framework is there that millions may listen to it. And, like in this article, if you want to make and promote your own movie, your own band, your own art, your own business, you can do it. And do it without breaking the bank. All you need is a computer and an idea. Then tell a few people about it online and watch the message spread.

Where would you live?

Today I got an ad in my inbox about a magazine called "The Progressive Farmer." Since Deb and I have talked at length about how happy we would be living on a farm, I jumped on the chance to check out their article on their picks for the Top 10 Places to Live. And the awesome part is that a county in VA made the list!

The article is a short read, but I really wanted to point out the link mid-article called "We Got Nailed By the Cops." It's a great read in comparison to a chilling conversation I had with friends last night about local crime!

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