Monday, March 9, 2009

Moving to Portland!

Hi all - many changes are afoot. Last time we posted, we were tucked away in the Santa Cruz hinterlands... but since then we've decided to change scenery and move to Portland!!

Staying in Santa Cruz was wonderful and I think it was exactly what we needed to get re-oriented and figure out which direction we wanted to go in. We were blessed to be staying with a group of wonderful folks in Bonny Doon who gave an unexpected and grand send-off with much love, farm-fresh eggs, flowers and pastries. Thanks guys, you're wonderful!

Erin and I are super excited to be moving to Portland - it just seems like it will be a hub of the kind of activities we want to get involved with. DIY and crafting, sustainability and community organizing, etc.

Anyway, we drove our bus up the 101 a few days ago. We took about three days to come up and got to revisit some of our favorite spots that we discovered on our last trip some months ago. It was interested to see how the landscape has changed from peak summer to winter.


We re-visited our favorite free campsite called Madrona along the Smith River and Hwy. 199. This is where we had our magical encounter with our house-bus inspiration Michael.


The river was about 3 times as full as last time and it was roaring!



Oh! Another exciting bus modification happened. While at our stop-over in Santa Rosa, I think we fixed our leaking window issues once and for all. The answer...


Gutters!

Here's a pic of Erin's latest temporary interior decorating masterpiece. We've been doing a lot of insulating with that foil covered bubble wrap insulation called reflectix so there's been a lot of silver to cover up.

Anyway, we're now in Eugene and we're planning on moving our bus up to Portland any day now. We found a couple of really awesome houses to park at up there and we're just trying to decide which one to go for.

We're excited for our move and will update again soon when we get settled. Love to everyone!

7 Comments:

Unknown said...

You figure out a way to keep that water from the gutters? (Not keeping it to leak into your walls, but in a tank for washing, etc :-)

Jack said...

Sweet. Good luck in Portland. I may head your way before long.

Take care,

Jack

beadbabe49 said...

Hope your trip to portland goes well! It's a beautiful city when spring actually arrives, lol!

Laura said...

I'm excited for you two, hope you have fun moving to Portland. I'm going to be singing that Dead Milkmen song now...they call me the walrus!:)

Julia said...

Thanks for all your sweet thoughts for this transition! We've already felt like we've been blessed with much good fortune so far - a good sign we're on the right path?

Yes! Diverting the water from the rain gutters is something we've definitely thrown around. I think some kind of water catchment system is definitely in our future. I've heard there are special paints you can coat your roof with to make sure any nasties that might be in your roof won't get in your water? Or maybe a simple water filter would do the trick?

Unknown said...

"I've heard there are special paints you can coat your roof with to make sure any nasties that might be in your roof won't get in your water? Or maybe a simple water filter would do the trick? "

It depends what you end up using the water for. A screen or filter would keep the leaves and such out, if you're only using it for washing up or watering indoor plants or something. If you want to drink it, other than boiling it for coffee/tea, there may be some sort of paint, but I would look into filtration more than a chemical paint solution. Then again, my S/O is a bit of a germophobe and she would likely make me run at least 3 kinds of filters :-)

Lizz said...

Portland is good, so very good!

Rock it, Mamas~