learning to live a more sustainable self-sufficient life: portland to washington to portland to bainbridge

Michelle and I were in Portland for a few days staying with India and Julian, then we went to Pendarvis farm were I made my last entry. After pendarvis we went to Washougal Washington and stayed with Paul. Paul is a yoga teacher and a health researcher, he also has an acre homestead. He is really into health and was on a 5 day cleanse while we were there. He eats very simple foods and is very cautious of what he puts into his body. Paul hates packaging and tries not to buy anything that can't be reused or recycled. He says he goes to the dump every couple of months to bring a small bag of trash. A lot of people I know fill up many barrels every week that goes straight to the dump, not Pauly!! There was a mother and son woofing at Paul's place, Heather and Damian. Damian was the smartest most observant ten year old I ever met. Damian and Heather gave us a ride back down to Portland and dropped us off at a cooperative living house that we got in touch with through couch-surfing. We stayed with them for 3 nights in their backyard in my tent. Most of the yards in Portland don't have manicured lawns but instead they chose to create edible landscapes. On some of our walks we would pick fruit from the bushes and eat plums that had just fallen from the trees. as your walking along the side walk you will see benches made out of natural materials at the ends of people yards for people to sit at, and at a few of them there our books tucked away. Portland was great, for a city. We met a lot of really cool people. one of the people we met told us we should stop in Olympia on our way north. she had a friend in the city who she got us in touch with and we stayed with her for 2 nights. when we left Portland we were waiting on the side of the road for the bus with a sign we made which said Olympia. We were waiting for the bus because our plan was to get dropped off downtown closer to the free way. This lady named Leah literally came through the bushes behind us and said, hey do you need a ride. So we hitched a ride with her. I sat in the bed of her truck with her dog Bob. We stopped by her house for a few minutes so she could get a few things. She had a really beautiful small scale intensive garden.

I thought Olympia was kind of quiet. I liked walking through the woods there, and the co op food markets were nice. Shelly and I went to a fancy restaurant and split a plate of salmon. It was the first time we have had fish since we left home.

Then we hitched a ride out of Olympia but it wasn't as easy as most of our hitching. We waited over an hour for a ride but eventually got picked up by Andy. We could have taken the city bus from Olympia to Seattle but we didn't . Andy brought us into Seattle where the ferries were. Michelle and I payed 6.50 to take the ferry over to Bainbridge Island Washington, a perfect day to be on a boat. what an adventurous day. We were on a boat!!!! So the ferry landed and Jessie, an intern at the farm we are staying at now picked us up and brought us back to the place. Chuck owns the land. he has a real nice house and an acre of land. The farm is called The Old Mill Permaculture Center. It is in the beginning stages but they are moving quickly. We made a few raised key hole beds and have done a lot of transplanting in them. Michelle and I built a compost bin with a few old pallets.

Chuck doesn't live here on the land right now. He has property a couple miles down the road. He bought this land on foreclosure for cheap and is fixing it up real nice. he has big plans for this place.

tonight i was sitting in my room and chuck knocked on the door and asked me to help him with some bees. he had just gotten some bees from a friend and needed our help to carry the boxes to the other side of the property and set them up. Every day here there is a noticeable difference from the day before.

Also, big news, big big news. I haven't eaten any meat in at least 4 years except for fish, and my my reason for not eating meat was mainly because the horrible way animals are treated in slaugher houses and what not. i wouldn't get into that though. but i have been thinking about eating some meat but only if i know where it comes from and know that it was raised in a good manner. also, if you eat meat, you should be able to have the nerve to kill it and pluck its feathers and slice it open and take out its organs. so chuck has a friend who has a rooster. chuck got the rooster at night while it was sleeping. he quickly grabbed its neck and whipped it around to break the neck and give it a quick death and then he chopped off his head. blood poured out and he hung the body on a tree. after some of the blood drained out he put the rooster into a thing of hot water for a minute so the feathers would come out easy. we all took part in removing the feathers. i watched carefully as chuck sliced open the rooster and gently removed the organs. then he took the bird inside and watched it to get all the blood and poop off. now the rooster is in the fridge waiting to be cooked for tomorrow nights party. i might try some.

it is almost time for michelle and i to go back home to the east coast. we are both excited to go back, see our families, and do some gardening and biking, cooking, and nothing at all. where going to miss the west coast but will be back soon.

here are pics. there not in order. some of them are from portland, some are from washington

the seguls flying along side the ferry to bainbride island, washington

i sat in the back of the pickup truck with bob the dog. leah picked michelle and i up in portland and gave us a ride to olympia, washington

while in olympia, we were craving fish so we went to a really over priced restaurant and split a fish dish.

here is the artesian well in olympia. that is where everyone goes to get there drinking water. the writing on the wall says it's been flowing since 1914

me in front of the capital building

this is an average yard in portland. not much grass but lots and lots of vegetation. food not lawns :)

more segul pick from the ferry

a passion flower growing in portland

michelle picking blackberries while out for a walk in downtown portland

chocolate. sorry mom

the 2 of us have been flossing every day now.lately

this is paul. he is awsome! we stayed at his place for a week. we were both sad to leave, especially michelle.

michelle the bread maker

this is pauls house. he built most of it by himself

michelle and i went to visit my friend brooke in portland at pendarvis farm. shelly and i played some ping pong and i beat her. but only once out of 20 or so.

this is julian and india. we stayed at there place for a couple nights in portland. they are friend of stephanie who we visited in corvallis. julian and india have a parking lot for a back yard so they made this planter boxes