The pups and I walked down to Piano Acres this afternoon for exercise and to snap some photos. Piano Acres is a defunct hippy commune up the road from my cabin. Since all the old newspapers I found around the property are dated 1985, I assume this is the approximate time that the hippy folks departed. The land is now owned by a fellow from CT, and it’s falling into ruin slowly. I’ve been going out there for about 10 years now for walks. The main cabin was built using slip forms, which Helen & Scott Nearing talked about in The Good Life. I made a slideshow of the afternoon photos, which you can see by clicking on the picture below. Enjoy!

Well, I finally landed a job. I’ll be heading out to San Francisco around the 24th of this month in my new truck camper.

You can see that this is a popup style camper, designed to be light and more aerodynamic than standard slide-ins. It has that cheasy, camper feel to it, but it will work out well for what I need. There is a 3-burner stove, sink, refrigerator, toilet, and plenty of storage spaces.

My new job is “Senior Air Quality Instrument Specialist” for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD). I’m anxious to do some more travelling, and the area surrounding San Fran looks inviting to the weekend camper/hiker.

Here it is. I finally, after 10 years, have all the siding and trim on my cabin, and it’s stained! This is an amazing feat for me. Something finished. It has made a big difference not having a job to go to.

you can never go back… I think that old saying must be about painting your shed. Hmm. It would definately be hard to cover this color!

I decided to come out to San Francisco for a job interview. I really like the city so far. I’m bedding down at the Holiday Inn near the Golden Gate.

Actually, it’s Avery’s pee, on mom’s rug! Pretty nice spray pattern, eh?

Well, I made it to Maine finally. After several weeks of selling, selling, selling, I’ve reduced my wordly possessions by a very small amount. It’s hard to get rid of (let go of) all the crap that I’ve been accumulating all my life. Here’s a picture of my yard sale, which everyone was calling my refuge camp:

The trip up in the BlueBird of Happiness went really well. I left Florida at 9am on Monday, and arrived in Fayette at 9am on Wednesday. I burned a combination of used peanut oil and diesel along the way, and got an average 9mpg. Not bad for driving your entire house and towing a truck. I’ll be spending some time at my cabin in Fayette, while looking for work.

I finally put together the pictures from my trip to the Philippines in June. I’ll probably get around to doing this with my Alaska photos soon as well. Find the new slideshow here

I spent this afternoon at Rum Island Springs with Raphael, Stephanie, Noah, and some friends of theirs.
It was really hot and sunny, and the cold springs felt really nice. We grilled chicken, drank some beer, and lounged around.
Noah really enjoyed the watermelon!