So what the heck have we been doing?
It's a little strange, because the time passes so quickly. It's hard to believe that we've been here for almost 2 weeks.
Brent is easy, he just practices for hours and hours on end. I've been reading a lot, helping my folks out around the house, cooking, writing, and we try to take an exercise break together every weekday in the early afternoon. I've also been helping my friend Shilpa plan her wedding. She's in Portland, so we've been emailing and talking on the phone a lot. It turns out that my entire family is planning on going out to Oregon to be at the wedding! So exciting! Even though I know that Mom only wants to go because Korin said they'd bring Charli up, and it's now been almost 3 weeks since Mom's seen Charli. She goes into pretty heavy withdrawl.
This coming Sunday we'll leave for our first WWOOFing assignment, in southern Colorado. I'm pretty excited! The people seem really nice (from the emails we've exchanged) and they're excited about us coming out. I'm also really excited about the Washington WWOOFing. I'm a little sad that we're spending so little time out there, and that out Portland time will be so busy. We may be able to visit some trail friends while we're there, and that'd be great, but the thing that I'm really looking forward to is taking my family to the Original Pancake House in Portland. I want to watch Mom's face when she gets her corned beef hash. Someone better get an apple pancake. This will be a breakfast for the ages!
kim
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Cleaning up PCT loose ends...
I'm going to post this in 2 places, because it really straddles our 2 blogs.
I was going through my email a today, and I found something that I had emailed to myself months ago. It's the list of people we met on the trail, with links to the blogs that some of them kept. I meant to post this on Postholer when we finished the hike but, um, I didn't because I forgot. Sorry guys.
So there are 2 main websites to check for PCT (and other long distance hiker's) journals. The one we used is Postholer.com, and there's a link there on the sidebar. You can index the journals (in the upper right hand corner) by trail and year, so ours is PCT 2008. Of the hits on that search, here are some of the people we met: Vegematic & McTall, Treebeard, Circle, Alabama Jammer, Rolf, Jellybean, Chief Chi-Hua-Hua, Photon & Nargles.
The other website is Trailjournals.com (again, link on the sidebar). This search is a little clunkier than Postholer; glad I didn't put my journal here. In the "Journals" box near the center of the page, click "2008." It will automatically drop you into the Appalachian Trail, select the Pacific Crest Trail from the dropdown, and it will bring up all 2008 PCT Hikers. Here's the list of hikers we met with journals here: Warner Springs Monty, Tailwinds, Mssnglnk & Kombuddha, Detour, Mark & Jean, Canyonman, Chuck Norris & Tigger, Gazelle, Glo-Worm, Grampa Kilt, Headnout, Jellybean (she kept journals both places, they're the same), Lil Wrangler, Minnesota John, Razor, Rockstar, Rubiks, Smooth Criminal, Tex (Ron) and Karen, Trooper, Turbo & WindBreaker.
Of course, there are also those who kept their blogs on sites like this one or have their own website. Here are links to as many of those as I could find:
Moonshine & Tigerlily - www.rosieben.blogspot.com
Gerry & Michelle - http://michellegerrypcthike.blogspot.com
Six & Spiff - http://gaytrees.blogspot.com/
Jima & Pauline - http://thepctthree.blogspot.com/
Don't Panic - http://jacobdown.com/pct2008/
Wingit - http://blackcathiker.blogspot.com/
Forager - http://hemmingwayadventure.blogspot.com
Squatch - http://www.walkpct.com/
Wheeew - www.wheeew.com
I highly recommend Gerry and Michelle's blog, they're really sharp and funny, and Gerry is a huge ham. They have more (better!) pictures than ours, and just kept up a really entertaining and insightful blog. Also, remember the shoes that Brent found in the hiker box in Shelter Cove? The ones that he cut holes in so his toes could poke through? Those were Michelle's shoes!
With hiking season fast approaching, if you enjoyed following us last year, you might try someone else out this summer. Retro (on Postholer) is someone we never managed to meet on the trail (she was hiking southbound, and we must have missed her), but we kept track of her blog. She's trying to do the Continental Divide Trail this summer, and already has her blog started. Also on Postholer are Ron and Julie from Eugene, OR. We met them briefly on the trail last year as they were walking a practice hike. They're doing the PCT this year.
Enjoy the links and blogs!
kim
I was going through my email a today, and I found something that I had emailed to myself months ago. It's the list of people we met on the trail, with links to the blogs that some of them kept. I meant to post this on Postholer when we finished the hike but, um, I didn't because I forgot. Sorry guys.
So there are 2 main websites to check for PCT (and other long distance hiker's) journals. The one we used is Postholer.com, and there's a link there on the sidebar. You can index the journals (in the upper right hand corner) by trail and year, so ours is PCT 2008. Of the hits on that search, here are some of the people we met: Vegematic & McTall, Treebeard, Circle, Alabama Jammer, Rolf, Jellybean, Chief Chi-Hua-Hua, Photon & Nargles.
The other website is Trailjournals.com (again, link on the sidebar). This search is a little clunkier than Postholer; glad I didn't put my journal here. In the "Journals" box near the center of the page, click "2008." It will automatically drop you into the Appalachian Trail, select the Pacific Crest Trail from the dropdown, and it will bring up all 2008 PCT Hikers. Here's the list of hikers we met with journals here: Warner Springs Monty, Tailwinds, Mssnglnk & Kombuddha, Detour, Mark & Jean, Canyonman, Chuck Norris & Tigger, Gazelle, Glo-Worm, Grampa Kilt, Headnout, Jellybean (she kept journals both places, they're the same), Lil Wrangler, Minnesota John, Razor, Rockstar, Rubiks, Smooth Criminal, Tex (Ron) and Karen, Trooper, Turbo & WindBreaker.
Of course, there are also those who kept their blogs on sites like this one or have their own website. Here are links to as many of those as I could find:
Moonshine & Tigerlily - www.rosieben.blogspot.com
Gerry & Michelle - http://michellegerrypcthike.blogspot.com
Six & Spiff - http://gaytrees.blogspot.com/
Jima & Pauline - http://thepctthree.blogspot.com/
Don't Panic - http://jacobdown.com/pct2008/
Wingit - http://blackcathiker.blogspot.com/
Forager - http://hemmingwayadventure.blogspot.com
Squatch - http://www.walkpct.com/
Wheeew - www.wheeew.com
I highly recommend Gerry and Michelle's blog, they're really sharp and funny, and Gerry is a huge ham. They have more (better!) pictures than ours, and just kept up a really entertaining and insightful blog. Also, remember the shoes that Brent found in the hiker box in Shelter Cove? The ones that he cut holes in so his toes could poke through? Those were Michelle's shoes!
With hiking season fast approaching, if you enjoyed following us last year, you might try someone else out this summer. Retro (on Postholer) is someone we never managed to meet on the trail (she was hiking southbound, and we must have missed her), but we kept track of her blog. She's trying to do the Continental Divide Trail this summer, and already has her blog started. Also on Postholer are Ron and Julie from Eugene, OR. We met them briefly on the trail last year as they were walking a practice hike. They're doing the PCT this year.
Enjoy the links and blogs!
kim
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
What the future holds...
So, a new blog entry. In this one I'll tell you what are future plans are. Please note that by "future," I really only mean the next couple of months. We aren't into planning too much ahead now, it just stresses us out.
I've mentioned before that Brent's symphony commitments bring us back to Fort Collins periodically. We'll be in Fort Collins until the 1st of February, then back again from the 15th through the 24th. Our current planning takes us through March 8th, and that's as far as we've gotten at this point.
As for the time in between, there's some different stuff happening. Some of you know my friend Shilpa, who lives in Portland, OR now. She's getting married on Feb 14th (Valentines day!), and as a member of the wedding party, I need to be there. So we'll be in Portland from about the 12th until we come back to Ft C on the 15th. I've never been a bridesmaid before. It's really exciting, and I'm having such fun trying to keep Shilpa from pulling all of her lovely hair out!
Really the main thing we'll be doing in between in this thing called WWOOFing. WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (website here). Currently we have 3 WWOOF gigs lined up. The first is from February 1st through 7th, it's in southern Colorado in a town called Weston (across the highway from Trinidad). The next is in Long Beach, Washington, and we'll be doing that one in the few days before Shilpa's wedding. We'll probably be there from the 8th until the 11th or 12th. The last one is in Southern AZ (Amado), and it takes us from about February 25th until March 7th.
Now that I've got the schedule stuff out of the way, let me just explain a little about WWOOFing. Basically, there is this organization of organic farms, and nomads (like Brent and I, and some other hikers [Hi Six!] and people we've met) can volunteer to work there for a certain number of hours per week. In exchange, the farm typically feeds you and puts you up for however long you're there. Here's sort of a FAQ about WWOOFing, based on the questions we've been asked.
1. What are the accommodations like? This varies based on the season and the farm. Some places will put you up in the extra room in their house, or a trailer on the property. In summer months, when there's the most work, and the most need for volunteers, many farms ask you to bring a tent and camp on the property, thus allowing them to host more people at a lower cost. Since we're early season, I think that we'll probably be sleeping indoors at most places. And if we're not, it's not much more than a week, and we'll cope.
2. How much do you need to work? This varies by farm. Mostly it seems to be about 20-35 hours per week, or 4-6 hours per day.
3. What do you do for the rest of the time? That's the cool thing! You can do whatever you want! Many of these farms are in beautiful areas. Weston is right at the base of the Culebra and Sangre de Cristo Mountain Ranges; Long Beach is on a peninsula bounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side, and the Willapa bay on the other. The area is covered with State Parks, Wildlife Refuges and a 28 mile sand beach! I think that we'll be able to fill our free time. I should also mention that if you choose to work more than the minimum time that the farm asks for room and board, many of them will pay you for that additional time.
4. What kind of work will you be doing? So far, except in AZ, we're still pretty early in the season. I think that in most of these places we'll be preparing beds for planting, building coops and cages, perhaps working in greenhouses. There may be some animal work, maybe some food prep, who knows?
5. How many of these places/farms are there? Are you going international? The answer is tons, lots, but I don't know exactly how many, and not yet. We're just members of the USA portion, and we received a directory with about 800 or so farms listed. There are different WWOOF organizations all over the world, and you register with them separately.
6. Why do they do things this way? Don't they have laborers to do this kind of work? Sure they do! They have us, and themselves. Most of these places are very small, family run farms. This is how they increase the number of hands they have (which they don't really "pay," remember) without increasing their costs. Most of these places can't afford to hire an army of migrant laborers (since they're not mega-farms), and, since they're supposed to be organic (or trying to be) their crop might be small enough that it isn't necessary anyway. You need more hands to farm organically anyway, since you can't use pesticides or herbicides.
7. Why the heck are you doing this? Why don't you just go out and get a real job? Who the heck wants to do that? Eew! This gives us the opportunity to travel, while still giving us some structure and responsibility. This will also make us more familiar with where our food comes from, and how exactly it is produced. It gives Brent the freedom to practice as much as he needs to, and I can continue to work, write, or go for a hike, as I see fit. Besides, doesn't it just sound like fun?
If you have any other questions, please let me know, and I'll answer them as best I can.
Hope everyone's having a great week! The weather is clear and beautiful here in the Fort!
kim
I've mentioned before that Brent's symphony commitments bring us back to Fort Collins periodically. We'll be in Fort Collins until the 1st of February, then back again from the 15th through the 24th. Our current planning takes us through March 8th, and that's as far as we've gotten at this point.
As for the time in between, there's some different stuff happening. Some of you know my friend Shilpa, who lives in Portland, OR now. She's getting married on Feb 14th (Valentines day!), and as a member of the wedding party, I need to be there. So we'll be in Portland from about the 12th until we come back to Ft C on the 15th. I've never been a bridesmaid before. It's really exciting, and I'm having such fun trying to keep Shilpa from pulling all of her lovely hair out!
Really the main thing we'll be doing in between in this thing called WWOOFing. WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (website here). Currently we have 3 WWOOF gigs lined up. The first is from February 1st through 7th, it's in southern Colorado in a town called Weston (across the highway from Trinidad). The next is in Long Beach, Washington, and we'll be doing that one in the few days before Shilpa's wedding. We'll probably be there from the 8th until the 11th or 12th. The last one is in Southern AZ (Amado), and it takes us from about February 25th until March 7th.
Now that I've got the schedule stuff out of the way, let me just explain a little about WWOOFing. Basically, there is this organization of organic farms, and nomads (like Brent and I, and some other hikers [Hi Six!] and people we've met) can volunteer to work there for a certain number of hours per week. In exchange, the farm typically feeds you and puts you up for however long you're there. Here's sort of a FAQ about WWOOFing, based on the questions we've been asked.
1. What are the accommodations like? This varies based on the season and the farm. Some places will put you up in the extra room in their house, or a trailer on the property. In summer months, when there's the most work, and the most need for volunteers, many farms ask you to bring a tent and camp on the property, thus allowing them to host more people at a lower cost. Since we're early season, I think that we'll probably be sleeping indoors at most places. And if we're not, it's not much more than a week, and we'll cope.
2. How much do you need to work? This varies by farm. Mostly it seems to be about 20-35 hours per week, or 4-6 hours per day.
3. What do you do for the rest of the time? That's the cool thing! You can do whatever you want! Many of these farms are in beautiful areas. Weston is right at the base of the Culebra and Sangre de Cristo Mountain Ranges; Long Beach is on a peninsula bounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side, and the Willapa bay on the other. The area is covered with State Parks, Wildlife Refuges and a 28 mile sand beach! I think that we'll be able to fill our free time. I should also mention that if you choose to work more than the minimum time that the farm asks for room and board, many of them will pay you for that additional time.
4. What kind of work will you be doing? So far, except in AZ, we're still pretty early in the season. I think that in most of these places we'll be preparing beds for planting, building coops and cages, perhaps working in greenhouses. There may be some animal work, maybe some food prep, who knows?
5. How many of these places/farms are there? Are you going international? The answer is tons, lots, but I don't know exactly how many, and not yet. We're just members of the USA portion, and we received a directory with about 800 or so farms listed. There are different WWOOF organizations all over the world, and you register with them separately.
6. Why do they do things this way? Don't they have laborers to do this kind of work? Sure they do! They have us, and themselves. Most of these places are very small, family run farms. This is how they increase the number of hands they have (which they don't really "pay," remember) without increasing their costs. Most of these places can't afford to hire an army of migrant laborers (since they're not mega-farms), and, since they're supposed to be organic (or trying to be) their crop might be small enough that it isn't necessary anyway. You need more hands to farm organically anyway, since you can't use pesticides or herbicides.
7. Why the heck are you doing this? Why don't you just go out and get a real job? Who the heck wants to do that? Eew! This gives us the opportunity to travel, while still giving us some structure and responsibility. This will also make us more familiar with where our food comes from, and how exactly it is produced. It gives Brent the freedom to practice as much as he needs to, and I can continue to work, write, or go for a hike, as I see fit. Besides, doesn't it just sound like fun?
If you have any other questions, please let me know, and I'll answer them as best I can.
Hope everyone's having a great week! The weather is clear and beautiful here in the Fort!
kim
Friday, January 16, 2009
Look! it's our first new blog entry!
So it's come to my attention that we're kind of hard to keep track of. Sorry about that. It's just this whole "being unemployed" and "at loose ends" thing. I have trouble keeping track of us. So here's our new blog that will hopefully help to rectify this situation.
Some of you may be familiar with us through our Postholer blog, where we kept track of our hike along the Pacific Crest Trail. This took place between 5-14-2008 and 9-29-2008 (link here). Since then we've been hopping from city to city, squatting at various generous family member's homes.
Our schedule is still going to be pretty crazy. Brent's orchestra commitments bring us back to Ft. Collins pretty regularly, but we have more and more people that we don't see as often asking what we're up to. For some reason, y'all are interested in what we're doing. Who'd have thunk?
So in a nutshell, here's what we've been up to recently (since the end of the hike...)
1. We spent several months in San Francisco at my sister's place (link to her blog here). She and Brian and Charli (my niece, see how unreasonably cute she is here) were very tolerant of us and we enjoyed our time out there immensely. The several months included Christmas, when the entire Yang family crowded into Korin and Brian's place for a week or so. It was a little close, but tons of fun. Presents were wrapped and opened, puzzles were put together, vast and copious amounts of food were prepared and consumed, and a good time was had by all!
2. Brent and I left SF shortly after Christmas to spend New Years with his family in Albuquerque. Once again, lots of good food was eaten, presents were opened, and a day was even spent watching Sandhill cranes and snow geese at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Another good time was had by all!
3. After a brief stop in Fort Collins, Brent and I embarked on a short roadtrip, which we have only recently (read yesterday) returned from. We began our trip by driving down to Montgomery, AL, where Brent's dad, cousin, aunt, uncle and grandma were. We stayed a couple of days down there, touring Martin Luther King Jr's church, and stuff like that. Ted and Barbara kept us well fed, and even provisioned us for the rest of the roadtrip! Ted has even offered to take us caving! The real kind with ropes, and harnesses and all that other cool gear. We really need to take him up on that sometime.
4. The next major stop was New Orleans, LA, where we had the most perfect New Orleans breakfast (beignets and coffee, aw yeah!) immediately before having the most perfect New Orleans lunch (a cooking demonstration at the New Orleans School of Cooking - yum!). We toodled around the city some, surveying hurricane damage, driving across the very impressive causeway across Lake Ponchartrain, wandering the French Quarter and Garden Discrict. We also managed to spend a short day hiking and seeing more nature-y and swampy stuff; there were more fish than we could possibly count, 1 unidentified water snake, 1 garter snake, and lots of coots and duckies.
5. We drove along the Louisiana coast into Texas, then inland to Austin. I'd always heard that Austin was a pretty cool town, and now I believe it. Dinner was had at Rudy's (a BBQ place that had been highly recommended by friends), and it was great. Since you're supposed to see live music in Austin, we did, taking in the Seth Walker Band at Momo's. They were really good. Bluesy and gritty, Seth walker is a great guitarist and vocalist. I may just have to buy an album.
6. Next was Big Bend National Park, which is the very southernmost tip of Texas. I had no idea we had canyons like this on the border - they are VAST. No wonder illegal immigration isn't so much of a problem at this particular section of river. Brent saw a ringtail and a bobcat, which means that he is stomping me soundly at our ongoing, informal wildlife viewing competition (though no one saw a javelina).
7. We spent a day at McDonald's Observatory in Fort Davis, TX. We had a solar viewing and discussion, then went on a tour that included watching our guide (Mark) move the ginormous telescopes and open, close and turn the roof domes - very impressive. We came back later in the evening for a Star Party, where we learned lots of constellations, and the stories behind them. Later we got to look through some of the smaller telescopes at things like star clusters, the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy and Venus. Brent went all astronomy geek. It was really cool.
8. Close to there is Balmorhea State park, a sort of natural, spring-fed swimming pool. It's pretty neat because the bottom is natural stone, and there are fishies and sometimes turtles and snakes swimming around in it. It was still a little cold for swimming, but the water is 76 degrees, so we swam around for an hour or so, watching the fishies and ducks. Getting out of the pool into the 50 degree world was the hard part.
9. The last stop was Carlsbad National Park. I think that we wandered around in the caves for about 2 and a half hours. There were all kinds of neat formations, and everything was big Big BIG. We should go back there to see the bat migration in the summer. Apparently millions of Mexican free-tailed bats hang out there, and they all come out of the caves in one big swarm. Sounds pretty cool to me!
After that we high-tailed it back to Fort Collins so that Brent could get some practicing in. We'll be out here for a couple of weeks before leaving for the next adventure. We've got some plans so far, but I think that's another entry...
kim
Some of you may be familiar with us through our Postholer blog, where we kept track of our hike along the Pacific Crest Trail. This took place between 5-14-2008 and 9-29-2008 (link here). Since then we've been hopping from city to city, squatting at various generous family member's homes.
Our schedule is still going to be pretty crazy. Brent's orchestra commitments bring us back to Ft. Collins pretty regularly, but we have more and more people that we don't see as often asking what we're up to. For some reason, y'all are interested in what we're doing. Who'd have thunk?
So in a nutshell, here's what we've been up to recently (since the end of the hike...)
1. We spent several months in San Francisco at my sister's place (link to her blog here). She and Brian and Charli (my niece, see how unreasonably cute she is here) were very tolerant of us and we enjoyed our time out there immensely. The several months included Christmas, when the entire Yang family crowded into Korin and Brian's place for a week or so. It was a little close, but tons of fun. Presents were wrapped and opened, puzzles were put together, vast and copious amounts of food were prepared and consumed, and a good time was had by all!
2. Brent and I left SF shortly after Christmas to spend New Years with his family in Albuquerque. Once again, lots of good food was eaten, presents were opened, and a day was even spent watching Sandhill cranes and snow geese at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Another good time was had by all!
3. After a brief stop in Fort Collins, Brent and I embarked on a short roadtrip, which we have only recently (read yesterday) returned from. We began our trip by driving down to Montgomery, AL, where Brent's dad, cousin, aunt, uncle and grandma were. We stayed a couple of days down there, touring Martin Luther King Jr's church, and stuff like that. Ted and Barbara kept us well fed, and even provisioned us for the rest of the roadtrip! Ted has even offered to take us caving! The real kind with ropes, and harnesses and all that other cool gear. We really need to take him up on that sometime.
4. The next major stop was New Orleans, LA, where we had the most perfect New Orleans breakfast (beignets and coffee, aw yeah!) immediately before having the most perfect New Orleans lunch (a cooking demonstration at the New Orleans School of Cooking - yum!). We toodled around the city some, surveying hurricane damage, driving across the very impressive causeway across Lake Ponchartrain, wandering the French Quarter and Garden Discrict. We also managed to spend a short day hiking and seeing more nature-y and swampy stuff; there were more fish than we could possibly count, 1 unidentified water snake, 1 garter snake, and lots of coots and duckies.
5. We drove along the Louisiana coast into Texas, then inland to Austin. I'd always heard that Austin was a pretty cool town, and now I believe it. Dinner was had at Rudy's (a BBQ place that had been highly recommended by friends), and it was great. Since you're supposed to see live music in Austin, we did, taking in the Seth Walker Band at Momo's. They were really good. Bluesy and gritty, Seth walker is a great guitarist and vocalist. I may just have to buy an album.
6. Next was Big Bend National Park, which is the very southernmost tip of Texas. I had no idea we had canyons like this on the border - they are VAST. No wonder illegal immigration isn't so much of a problem at this particular section of river. Brent saw a ringtail and a bobcat, which means that he is stomping me soundly at our ongoing, informal wildlife viewing competition (though no one saw a javelina).
7. We spent a day at McDonald's Observatory in Fort Davis, TX. We had a solar viewing and discussion, then went on a tour that included watching our guide (Mark) move the ginormous telescopes and open, close and turn the roof domes - very impressive. We came back later in the evening for a Star Party, where we learned lots of constellations, and the stories behind them. Later we got to look through some of the smaller telescopes at things like star clusters, the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy and Venus. Brent went all astronomy geek. It was really cool.8. Close to there is Balmorhea State park, a sort of natural, spring-fed swimming pool. It's pretty neat because the bottom is natural stone, and there are fishies and sometimes turtles and snakes swimming around in it. It was still a little cold for swimming, but the water is 76 degrees, so we swam around for an hour or so, watching the fishies and ducks. Getting out of the pool into the 50 degree world was the hard part.
9. The last stop was Carlsbad National Park. I think that we wandered around in the caves for about 2 and a half hours. There were all kinds of neat formations, and everything was big Big BIG. We should go back there to see the bat migration in the summer. Apparently millions of Mexican free-tailed bats hang out there, and they all come out of the caves in one big swarm. Sounds pretty cool to me!
After that we high-tailed it back to Fort Collins so that Brent could get some practicing in. We'll be out here for a couple of weeks before leaving for the next adventure. We've got some plans so far, but I think that's another entry...
kim
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