Gwynnie is Amazing

Mom painted the inside of our house. The front three rooms hadn't been updated in some time. Gwynnie said it had to be done. And she did. The color "woodsmoke" is sort of a grey/brown/tan that she picked out and put on the walls of all three rooms. The trim has a fresh coat of a complementary white, but the windowsills and some trim got a "truffle" color. We love it and are super thankful to mom/gi-gi. Here is a pic of her in action in her "painting outfit."

Above: finally the lime green paint is out of the kitchen. One day I'll even get new cabinets...

Below: Gwynn came up with the strip on the ceiling idea all on her own, and executed it nicely. Yeah, she painted all the ceilings! And, she even patched where some old light fixtures had been removed.

The little landing shelf above is actually a brown now instead of white. fyi

Updated Fence Pics

We all worked on the backyard this weekend. The fence is officially finished. But, we had some clean up from construction and rain. Also, Scott painfully relocated one of our palm trees to make better use of space (look closely and you can see him behind the palm). Scout went ahead and got into the pool even though the water is getting cool. She's got a suit with floats built in, and she swims all over the pool without fear.

These pics aren't the best because they are from my phone, but they give you an idea.

Prayer Warriors Wanted

I've added a link on my sidebar to one of my sweetest college teammates Brandi who has been diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer; unbelievable since she is only in her 30's. Her blog's goal is to promote prayer for her and her family as well as keep people updated on her health and fight. Please add her to your prayer list!

Don't Fence Me In

I think it's time. We are getting a new fence. I mean, we've had the city give us about 4 or 5 "warnings" or whatever they are regarding fencery over the past few years. We've had a few sections of fence fall down after a big storm - I think that was like 2 years ago. I've called our insurance company twice to try to get them to pony up the money for a fence. They are always giving me some crap story about a deductible and they'd only replace what actually fell down...blah, blah.

Scott finally had enough of the patched and wobbly fence and had about 37 companies come out and give us estimates. I tried to stop him after 12, but I think #22 actually was the best figure. So, who's the dum-dum?

Anyway, here is a pic of our fence from a couple of years ago. You may not be able to see it, but it is leaning in toward us. And, I don't have pictures, but Scott had to replace several of these pickets (so there we many "brightly" colored wood pieces intermittently) because Waylon was wreaking havoc on them to get to the neighbor's dog and to get out of the back yard period. Yes, Waylon has yet to be neutered. Tell me about it. Construction / Demolition begins: In the picture below you can see our neighbor to the west still has the fence that we'd be sharing for the last like 7 years. You can see through it and over it. We no likey it. You can see where the new fence will run right along side of it since the 8' posts are set at the time of this pic which was last week.

Another picture below of the posts set in cement. Also, you can see the pile of destruction. This pile actually is still in our back yard as of right now.

Below: Scott and Scout checking out the newly grounded stump. Also, notice that from our backyard we see our neighbor's detached garage-side. Yes, this was a portion of our "fence." I guess whenever the old fence was built (our neighbor tells us that it was like in the 60's or 70's!) that they just connected it to the garage. So, our house has always just looked at that. I'm excited to not have that anymore.

In the picture above, you see a guy with a big stump grinder trying to hide behind that palm tree. We've had some nasty crape myrtle tree stumps that would not go away. They were roughly 18" in diameter. And, they kept sprouting wildly like a bush. Scott chainsawed them down like 3 years ago and finally got a guy out (since the fence was down) to grind them up once and for all. Craigslist is the bomb. Once the new fence is up, you won't see that white shed, or the alley, or any stumps, or anything but red ceder planks and a couple of palm trees. I'll post the after picks when it's done. It is about 3/4 done right now but it has been raining so much over the past 2 days that progresses has ceased. Rain delay. I'm not concerned. We've waited a long time for this fence. We can wait a few more days.

I Just Can't Stop

Admittingly, I've always thought the VW van/bus was intriging. I remember back in the early 80's I rode in one of my friend's parent's 70's-era VW, and none of us knew if it would make it to it's destination. Of course, G$ has her 198? Vanagon Westfalia model that is pretty stellar. But, I've been a fan of the way-back 50's or 60's models. When navigating the VW buses, it gets confusing because there were official German names like T1 and T2, but even those had several variants. Many people use common nicknames like Microbus-Splitty-or-Kombi . The main thing is that I like the passenger van with the three rows. I'm not wanting the camper because I already have a pop-up camper. I just want to roll around Big D in a pimped out ride.

I found this one website: http://www.catchthebus26.com/ that is ironically in Alamogordo, NM and appears to custom build/restore these awesome vintage VW buses.

Pretty much, I think I need one. What do you think? I can make it happen.

10 Years Later

We've lived in our house for over 10 years. It took me about 4 years to hang curtains up. It took 7 years to switch out the 80's microwave. Now, it took us all 10 1/2 years to put up lighting. That's right, we never had lights in our living room. Like, we barely even had a lamp. Once the sun went down, we used the light of the TV, the adjacent kitchen ghetto light fixture or even the entry crapola light. This weekend Scott had an electrician come out and put up 15 "can-lights" or recessed lighting in our ceilings. Thank goodness! We can see! They are spread out among our two living areas and our kitchen. The electrician took down our old 70's era light fixtures that I'd been meaning to get around too. Now, we need to patch the remaining holes and probably paint, but let's just enjoy the moment right? This photos stinks but you get the idea...

The lighting was for me Scott said, and to balance marriage there must be a "his" addition. He finally got the Bose speakers he's wanted for yes, 10 years! I mean we'll wait on some stuff. Earlier this year we got a new air conditioner. I mean we are just living it up people. I guess after you hit your thirties and have kids you get excited about wattage, appliances, and upgrades. And, maybe the electrician (who is deaf by the way) kept bringing us half burnt pieces of wire insulation, wire caps, etc, etc. Yeah, the house was built in '57 and apparently the electric system isn't up with the times. Nothing is grounded. We need like 3 more breaker boxes so we can push the apps that our "modern" home requires. When I showed him how in Scott's man cave the ceiling light turns off when you unplug an extension cord from the wall, you should have seen his face. He told me to turn everything off. Whoops, we have another fire waiting to happen...electric circuits running two directions! How exciting. Sorry our circuits don't just run one way like they should. He's coming back out tomorrow to try to bring our house out of fire danger. Whoa.

Beaches, Mountains, Deserts, Rainbows, and Monsoons? All Prepares The Soul.

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July 2009: Dallas to Northern California - 3500 miles, five states, and eighteen days.

The overview of our big summer trip is that Scott's family reunion had been planned for over a year for this summer in Lake Tahoe, CA. Of course, I can't go to Lake Tahoe and not involve my sister since she lives just hours away, and we don't see her and hers very often.

Then, once we crunched the numbers, with airfair, car rental and accomodations (you can't really fly directly to Tahoe and condos/rentals are pricey, so it get expensive quickly), we decided to go ahead and drive out with the whole fam and pull the camper. Well, once we decided to drive, the trip expanded further to include time with Scott's mom in AZ, and extra time in Northern California (NorCal), not to mention extra friends who ended up flying in for all the fun (Natalie and Kamie). So, I figured I'd detail the biggest road trip of my life so far here on the old blog. It brings Living the Dream into reality:

Day 1-Scott, Scout, Brooke and I left Friday 7/10 at about 6pm. We drove all night into the Pacific Time Zone and arrived at 9am in Flagstaff, AZ. The kids did great. Here is a pic of our camper set up in Flagstaff:

Day 2 (Our 13th Wedding Anniversary)- Thank goodness Scott's mom was there (and her dog Ginger in pic below) because we quickly learned that setting up the camper is pretty much a two person job, and then you need another person to watch the kids. I'm not sure if it was the dry climate, the change in elevation (7,000 ft), the different plants, or a combination of both; but I do know that entire day was a struggle for me to do anything. My sinuses were in emergency shut-down mode. All of which made Sally even more of a God-send for me. However, Flagstaff is just great and we loved the KOA there. We roasted weenies and made smores:
Scout and Brooke both just loved their grandma or "MiMi" and we really enjoyed our visit.

Day 3- We enjoyed the am in Flag. We "hiked" up to the beginning of the mountain trail at the back of the campground, and we looked at the cool cabin and even TeePee's they have available for rentals (I took the pic above with my phone) Then,we packed up camp around noon and I was exhausted. I was still sick and worried I was getting an infection. We left the campground
and visited a great indoor water park where the kids had a blast. We set out for CA at about 2pm and on a whim think, "maybe we could go to Vegas." So, we did. I booked our tickets
from I-40 on hotels.com and we headed north towards Las Vegas instead of continuing west into California like we had planned. For the first time in our lives we crossed the Hoover Dam at about 5 or 6 pm. Very amazing and these phone pictures don't do it justice:

Then, we pulled into our Vegas hotel room at about 8 or 9. We had a little trouble parking the camper at Circus Circus, not because of lack of space but because we still can't back it up which would pretty much haunt us the entire trip. Still, we managed to finally get it right outside our window.

Day 4- Slept great: entire fam. Yet, after showering I concluded my sinus problems had worsened and I self diagnose a sinus infection. I was concerned because we had the big part of our trip ahead, so I called my doctor right away requesting some antibiotics. At this point it is 9am and alread 100 degrees and had to get something out of the truck. I got down there and discover the battery is totally dead. Seriously??!! I decided the camper drained it overnight. We didn't unhook the power supply cord, so this is a HUGE lesson to us. I asked the first guy I saw for a jump, and he was telling me it probably wouldn't work because it was so dead, but I was praying over those jumper cables baby! The jump did work. Man, I made sure to disconnect that cord each time after that night (except one...ahhh). We spent the rest of the day doing the usual: Caesars Palace mall, talking statues, and big aquarium. At Caesars I also discovered gellato
is delicious and expensive (large is $36!!!). Got some pool time in the afteroon, then buffet'd it at night along with the Circus Circus trapeze artist show. Scout loved that.

Pic from Caesars Palace:

Day 5- We left Las Vegas and drove north towards Reno, NV. Now, I've driven across some barren land, but this US-95 was BARREN. Here are pics from that day in a random town on the edge of NV and CA once we'd gotten off the Us-95 and gotten on a smaller one:
Then, after 5 hours of seeing nothing but desert, you just hit the Sierra Nevada Mountains which we had to drive up and eventually, over to get to Lake Tahoe:Anyway, we drove ALL DAY and arrived in Lake Tahoe right before sundown, about 8pm. Now, this is where the WHEELS LITERALLY CAME OFF the opereation:

We got assigned a "back-in" spot. That was mistake #1. Scott and I wanted to get the camper in a level spot. We were going to be here for 5 days, so we wanted it to be good. Yet, we were sort of rushed because the kids were antsy and it would be dark soon. Man, we needed a third hand. To make a long story short, we mucked it up good. Scott and I tried to just manually push it into position (mistake #2), and we heard a loud crack: the front "caster" or wheel totally broke and the camper was nosing into the soft black dirt. We used super human powers (or God interceded again) to get the Tahoe back under it and "lift" the thing back onto the ball hitch. It is hard to explain but the Tahoe was in a PRECARIOUS POSITION and I mean, Scott and I were like freaking out and sweating (just think lots of trees, water spouts, and electrical boxes). I had to load the dirty and merely-diapered Brooke onto my hip and go searching for help from campers unwinding for the night. As God would have it like he did many times on this trip, help was provided; this time in the form of a few older guys who scratched their heads and got behind the wheel of our truck, and coached each other through saving our butts.

Darkness fell just as we completed the "pop-up" of the camper. I was trying to get the kids settled and prepared for bed inside while Scott finished up the outside stuff. Then, would you believe it....the ELECTRIC CORD WAS 2 INCHES TOO SHORT. Seriously. Now, we had an extension cord, but no "adapter" for it on one end. Um, FRUSTRATING NIGHT. So, now it is dark and we have two flashlights. We are so hungry and we are trying to get some fire or something rolling. It was a cluster to say the least. Ironically, Shay and her friend, Carrie showed up about that time. They spent two nights with us at our campsite. It was nice to have a friendly face at that point. They were helpful and cheerful which we needed both! ha.

Day 6-I'll just say the morning started off as rocky at the night prior had been (imagine 6am-1/2 gallon of whole milk and a large coffee being spilled all over the console of the truck). I just thought to myself, this has got to get better, and it did. When everyone woke, we all walked down to the coffee shop and then to the Camp Richardson general store where Scott bought the adapter we needed for electricity to pour through our little home away from home. Then, for a good part of the afternoon, I took Brooke and we ran some errands around town, like laundry:

Scott took Scout to the beach that was about a 5 minute walk from our campsite:

Here is a shot of Scott hanging out at our campsite. During the day the tempurature was like 90 degrees, but at night it would drop to like 43 degrees. We had to quickly learn to use the propane heater (that had an electric ignition) after the first night where I had to put Brooke into my sleeping bag to keep her from freezing.

The feast with our friends (Scout was in heaven setting the table, "making fire" and hanging with Shay and Carrie):

Day 7- Our campmates, Shay and Carrie, left us to fend the nightly bear visits all by ourselves (yes, bears roamed closely around us each night!). But, today my sister and her fam arrived in the afternoon, Scott's brother joined us at the campsite, and it marked the first night of Everett activities.

Day 8- July 17th- Brooke's 1st Birthday party was our first event. Then, we had our big night with the Everett's including dinner on the beach, Scott's dad's memorial service and family pictures: David and Scott:

Day 9- Scott drove his brother back to Reno, NV to fly home. I spent the day at the beach with Scout and the Thayers and Natalie. We finished up the Everett family reunion that night with a last barbeque dinner. Then, Scott and I stayed up after the kids fell asleep and packed for two hours to prepare for packing it down the next morning. Man, we were as tired as ever as this huge segment of our adventure was coming to a close.

Lake Tahoe is gorgeous. Below is Natalie, Scott and Brooke:

Day 10-Thanks be to Charlie who came and picked up our kids at 6:30am AND brought Starbucks! She drove around with them for like an hour or so while Scott and I took the camper down and packed it all up. Then, we headed for Sacramento (about 2 hours west). We dropped Scott and Brooke off at the airport at 10am. I was glad Scott was taking Brooke home because she was worn out. But, after we dropped them off, the car seemed VERY empty. We had been a tight family for 10 days in the car, camper, & hotel. It was weird to be down 50% just like that. I was a little sad. Scout must have sensed it too because she started whimpering in the back about 5 minutes after we left the airport, "I waaaannnnt mmmy Brooookkkkke. Wheeeerreee's Daaaadddyyyy?" But, I promised a McDonald's hamburger, and she shook it off. We drove on to Santa Clara/Sunnyvale, CA and made it in time for Scout to take a nap. Then, we slept solid that Sunday night at my aunt's house happy to have access to all the amenities of home.

Day 11- Kamie flew into town at 8am. Scout and I literally picked her up, hitched the trailer back on the Tahoe at my sister's house, packed in the "girls" (me, charlie, cricket, scout, kamie and natalie) and headed to the Santa Cruz Campsite . Here is a picture taken around 1pm that same day right after we put the camper up. Our Blaylock aunts just happened to be vacationing in the area so, they came over and visited our super fun "girls only" camping spot. We had fun just visiting and such. From left: (back)RoRo, Aunt Sandi, Aunt Dianne, Charlie (front) Natalie, Kamie and Aunt Norma.

After we yucked it up around the campsite, we headed to the beach in Capitola. Kamie was dying for some beach time, and we were all dying for some pizza, so we got both. And, we did some shopping.

After a long day of camping, beaching, and shenanigans it was time to enjoy the campfire. It gets chilly at night there, but did I pack warm clothes for Scout and I? Um, no. We borrowed and toughed it and sat close to the fire. By this time I was a pro at working the heater in the pop-up, so we cranked that up too. The campsite was super convenient and nice. We enjoyed "girl talk" by the fire along with hot dogs and smores and cocktails.

Day 12- "The Aunts" hosted us all at their adorable condo in Santa Cruz for brunch. It was so nice to take a good shower and eat a delicious meal with best friends and family. It was a fantastic day since we followed that up with beach time (and I snuck in a nap on the sand before Scout melted down) and more camp goodness. We even hit the Santa Cruz Boardwalk that night for food and fun with the kids.

Day 13- July 22nd was actually my birthday. I enjoyed doing one of my favorite activities: making campfire egg burritos. We lounged a little bit around camp and then we "got to packing." We had to get back to San Jose for Natalie to fly back to Dallas, and we needed to get ready for our night out "in the city." San Francisco that is, for you that aren't in the loop. We ate at a fantastic sushi restaurant that Sam selected for us since she is a major supporter of sustainable fishing. It was as tasty as it was responsible. Kamie's cousin, Jennifer, joined us for dinner too. Again, we had a great group of friends and family together for food, fun and asian-ness. Here are some photos of our "fun:"
Below: "I love my sister."
Below: "I love 35."

Below from left: Jennifer, Sam, Kamie, RoRo, & Charlie

Day 14 - We chilled around Charlie's house.

Day 15 - Kamie, Scout & I and Charlie and her kiddos packed up the tahoe (minus the camper) and headed south to the gorgeous town of Carmel.
After the kids played and picnic'd at the beach, we drove around just amazed at the cottage-style homes with fabulous views of the ocean. Oh Clint Eastwood knew what he was doing when he settled there. That evening, Kamie and I drove back into San Francisco and joined her cousin Jennifer for dinner, but this time with her husband and friends. The Thai restaurant in the Castro district was good, but the night life energy we felt just driving through there was totally fun times. It was our last night in California, and we lived it up.

Day 16 - After Charlie made us all breakfast, Scout and I loaded up in the Tahoe, dropped Kamie off at the airport around 10am in San Jose, and headed south towards L.A. After we navigated through the central California valley past Bakersfield, then headed east on I-40 across the Mojave Desert, I listened to the CD's Charlie made me and reflected on the landscape, our adventure travels, and plotted where we'd sleep for the night. I was surprised to encounter cloudy skies and mild temperatures outside of Barstow, CA which is normally well over 100 degrees.

Later as the sun neared the horizon and Scout slept soundly, there was monsoon weather welcoming me to Arizona complete with heavy lightening, light rain and a huge rainbow across the highway and desert landscape. Finally, twelve hours after dropping Kamie off at the airport we exited California, crossed the Colorado river and cruised into Arizona. We got a funky motel room in Kingman, AZ where we slept for 8 hours.

Day 17 - On the road by 7am, I kept the needle on 65mph and we rolled back over the same route Scott and Brooke had joined us on two weeks prior: across Arizona, New Mexico, and into the Texas Panhandle, where we spent the night in Amarillo.

Day 18 - Amarillo morning. Would you belive that the battery was dead that morning? Yeah, I forgot to unplug the power cord which attaches the camper/trailer to the truck. I was so bummed. Yet again, I found a guy to give us a jump. He was reluctant, but Scout and I can't be resisted when we are standing there with jumper cables. We got the hell out of dodge, as they say, arrived HOME that afternoon.

During my drive home there were so many amazing landscapes and views I thought: Beaches, mountains, deserts, rainbows, lightening and monsoons? All prepares the soul.

Road Trip is Nearing End

I am here in Northern California for one more day. I've been "on the road" for two weeks now. In two weeks, I've had more crazy things happen than 6 months at home. We left on July 11th and drove all night to Flagstaff, AZ (about 900miles). Then, once we left there we headed to Las Vegas. Then, we drove to Lake Tahoe, CA. After dropping Scott and Brooke off at the airport in Sacramento, CA, I drove on to Dublin, CA to pick up a friend, and then landed in the San Jose area for a night where we've base camped for our journeys to Santa Cruz and San Francisco. It has been awesome, yet obviously tiring. I will post a detailed version of my travel log when I return next week, but I wanted to put out some nibbles here until then.

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Livng Off The Grid

I'm inspired by this dude's off grid move. i have added john's blog to my blog roll. keep up. i will.

PREVIEW THIS STORY FROM THE JULY 2009 ISSUE...

Living Off The Grid

John Wells
Photograph by James Evans

Interview by Jordan Breal

NAME: John Wells | AGE: 50 |HOMETOWN: Outside Terlingua |QUALIFICATIONS: Runs the Southwest Texas Alternative Energy and Sustainable Living Field Laboratory, a personal experiment in green living / Chronicles his experiences online atthefieldlab.blogspot.com

• After working in fashion photography and set design in New York City for twenty years, I moved upstate to work as a building contractor. I had a huge, beautiful house on 32 acres, but the mortgage and property taxes were killing me—I was paying $1,000 a month in taxes. I decided I would try a debt-free lifestyle. I knew a couple, Abe and Josie Connally, who were practicing sustainable living in West Texas, so in October 2007 I packed up and moved. Now I own 40 acres in the desert, and my property taxes are $100 a year.

• I had experimented with sustainable living in New York. In the summer I ...

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