Here we are, ready for a backpacking adventure last summer. Here’s to lots more adventures in the year to come!
Happy New Year! It’s amazing to me to realize that it was 2 years ago that Isha set up our blow up mattress in T42 so we could wake up in our new house in the new year! It’s been a cozy little abode for us for the past couple years, but even more, our community has been a great highlight in our lives.
The past year I fell off the blogging bandwagon completely. Perhaps you noticed. Perhaps you were busy Doing Life. In either case, I’ve decided that rather than worrying that I can’t blog because I haven’t been blogging, I’ll do it as the mood strikes and figure perhaps others will enjoy being along for the journey when our virtual paths cross.
Yesterday, as has become our tradition, Isha and I went for a hike (this one urban) and recapped 2018 (what was good, what was hard, what we learned). We also shared what we’re excited about and nervous about for 2019. Since I haven’t been sharing with the greater world recently, I figured I’d share a few of the highlights at this point of transition and some excitement about the year to come.
In January of last year I took A New Job in the New Year with an awesome sustainable Design-Build company called Green Hammer. While it was certainly a transition from being self-employed and working from home to working an 8-5 gig in an office, it’s an incredible team of people working on exciting projects and I’m so pleased to be part of it!
In February our tiny house community, Going Places, celebrated it’s one year anniversary with a community retreat to Astoria. I taught Tiny House & ADU Design Classes at PCC, followed by kicking off a new ADU project for an AARP publication. We were Collecting ADU Stories from Across America, which I had the opportunity to capture as case studies. I learned the hard way that I can’t take on as many side gigs as I’d like now that I’m working full-time, but I’m glad I picked this one. I’d forgotten how much fun it is to help people tell their stories of small spaces. This project is STILL in the works, but we’re getting oh-so-close, so if ADUs are your thing, stay tuned for more on that!
On our community retreat to Astoria we ventured to Coffee Girls at the old cannery on the wharf. If our community was a band, this would be our band shot.
March was a cozy month with a focus on my day job and some T42 projects. We finally installed a shade for our roof window and we supplemented the lighting in our kitchen. As I share more about life in T42 I’ll try to share these sorts of snippets.
In April I headed to Yestermorrow to teach the first-ever round of the month-long Tiny House Design-Build Certificate. We had a great bunch of enthusiastic students and it was hard to leave after just two weeks of designing and building, knowing that they’d continue on for another two weeks with systems and finishes. Fortunately, one of my co-instructors continued the whole way through and was able to share updates. Meanwhile, promptly after I returned home from Vermont, Isha and I hopped on a plane to Bali for our two-week honeymoon! It doesn’t have much to do with any of the stuff I usually talk about on my blog, but Bali was phenomenal and I look forward to returning there again someday. (Considering my spouse is a surfer, this is a likely proposition!)
Honeymooning in Bali was magical! And our stay at this cooking school was a gift from my fairy godfamily!
In May Green Hammer had its annual company retreat, which included sessions on the enneagram and visioning and goal setting for the next 5 years. Our company has gone through a growth spurt recently, so it was awesome to have so much good energy focused towards an incredible future together! I even got to lead an open space session (those of you who have been to Tiny House Conference know how much fun that is!). And, of course, Opal Creek is a glorious place for retreat. (Think trail runs followed by jumping in the river, qi gong in the meadow, and sunsets on the bluff.)
By June I had claimed the unofficial role of Onboarding Champion at Green Hammer and I got to onboard four new awesome people. Our community mates were in the midst of international adventures so Isha and I claimed the Req Room and took over The Commons to host our niece and nephew and Isha’s mom and her friend for several days. It’s always such fun to see our city through someone else’s eyes - especially if those eyes are seven and seventy!
Happy birthday to me! My coworkers helped me celebrate with popcicles on the rooftop of the Ecotrust Building where we work.
In July Isha and I joined some neighbors for a backpacking trip in the Three Sisters Wilderness. It had been years since I’d been backpacking, but in those years I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, practicing, and teaching minimalism, so it was refreshing to carry with me just the things I needed for the weekend. Besides, our fellow backpackers are masters of the art, so we learned some fun tricks from them (yukon jack snow cones, anyone?) as we soaked up the incredible scenery. That month I also celebrated my 35th bday, spent just one precious day on My Annual Pilgrimage to Oregon Country Fair (but for a good cause since one of my dear friends was marrying his best friend!), and headed back to Yestermorrow to teach the two-week Tiny House Design-Build course.
I got to teach both the 2-week Tiny House Design-Build course at Yestermorrow AND the first two weeks of the month-long Tiny House Design-Build Certification. This photo was halfway through the certification. It’s a house!
August and September were blessedly quiet in comparison to the rest of the summer. Plenty of grilling, bike riding, and serendipity. Isha and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary at Breitenbush Hot Springs… with 8 of our closest friends. Turns out our former tiny house community, Simply Home Community, had also selected the same time and place for their annual retreat!
In October I got to visit with family: a trip to Sacramento to see my cousins, a trip to the Olympic Peninsula to celebrate my niece’s bday. I also helped my sister downsize and move, which was an adventure in flashbacks, nostalgia, and practicing what I preach.
In November Isha took a different position with the same company which enables him to work from home, so we worked on setting up our wee office to work better for him and his work style. He also travels to the Bay Area every month or two now and in November I had the opportunity to work remotely on one of those trips. I also got to teach another round of ADU Design at Portland Community College.
Isha had a trip to the Bay Area for work and I got to work remotely from the Presidio for a couple days!
In December I was able to attend a project management training through Catalysis Group, which was phenomenal. I learned so many amazing strategies that I have no doubt will serve me well in life as well as work. Isha and I also had the opportunity to visit with my family on the Olympic Peninsula.
As we look ahead to 2019, we’re especially looking forward to rooting down into our community and our neighborhood. But we’re also excited about some adventure that will take us further afield as well. We have some dear friends getting married in Juneau, AK in May and Isha has never been to Alaska. We’ll be headed to Hawaii in July (over my birthday) with some cousins. I might return to a couple of the festivals I skipped last year. Additionally, I’ll be teaching Tiny House Design and the Tiny House Design-Build Certificate through Yestermorrow, Tiny House Design and ADU Design through Portland Community College, and ADU Design through Clark College. Here’s to another year of adventure and some quiet evenings in the hammock. To travels and reflection. To rooting down and growing stronger.
Wishing you all the best for the new year!