Taking Flight

   Yesterday the air felt different. I took a break from the power tools and saw dust that have been consuming my waking life (and many of my dreams) for the past few weeks to take Ryder-Dog for a quick jaunt across the field. The steady warm breeze had eroded the remaining snow drifts into the elongated shapes of a white sandstone desert. Though the the brown grass that is beginning to emerge remains fixed in lumpy frozen ground, it wont be long now until the land begins to wake. The sun hangs around a bit longer everyday. Birds are impatiently and excitedly caroling at the slightest break in the late winter weather. It feels like it's time to move forward.

    After two years of living-in and working on this project that we call home, our school bus conversion is finally nearing its completion. This week we are putting the final coats of paint on our new cabinets and trim work. The interior will be completely finished! While we have already traveled through several western states and logged thousands of miles on highways and back-roads alike, we are now planning our greatest bus excursion yet.

Click map for larger size.

         Leaving in early June, our intended route will take us from Montana to meander across the country and finally land in Vermont sometime in the early fall. The route on the map above shows our general intentions. We want to leave our plan fairly open to pursue whatever opportunities arise in the coming months and during our journey.  Ideally we would like to spend some of our time volunteering at farms/places of interest along the way, while also embracing the freedom of the open road and enjoying all of the spectacular country we will be cruising through. Some of the highlights of our proposed route include:

• Portland, Oregon, to visit friends and family (especially our new niece due June 10th!)
• Crater Lake NP, we lived in Oregon four years and never made it there. Pathetic, I know.
• Ashland, OR, we have heard many great things about this area.
• The Oregon Coast, we hope to stop at some farms along the way.
• The Washington Coast, all the way to the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic NP.
• Mt Rainer NP
• The Northern Cascades and the Leavenworth WA area, because we love mountains :)
• Missoula, Mt. and the Bitterroot Valley, hoping for a farm stay here.
• Yellowstone NP, because you can't see it too many times.
• Southwestern Colorado, our least explored part of the state. Anyone want to show us around?
• Santa Fe, NM, yum chile peppers.
• Northern Texas and Oklahoma, any suggestions?
• Fayetteville, AR, to visit family especially our nephew Xander!
• Nashville, TN, the birthplace of bluegrass music. Enough said.
• Great Smokey Mtns NP
• Ashville, NC, looking for a farm-stay
• NYC, not so sure about navigating that beast with this beast, but I've done crazier things (I think).
• Boston and Massachusetts, to visit family, Noah and Seth our nephews-in-love.
• Vermont, for friends, family and the beautiful colors of fall in the Green Mountains.

        We are making a list of potential places to stay and volunteer. We would love to explore anything related to the interests that we have mentioned on this blog. Our interests include (but are not limited to) organic farming, permaculture, biodynamic practices, homesteading, green building, small-scale renewable energy (solar, micro-hydro, wind), beer and wine making, small space design and living, intentional communities, any related journalism and writing, cheese making, animal husbandry, and all things related to food and cooking, especially Slow Food. If you or anyone you know might be interested in hosting us, please send us an email ( just click the "Email Me" button in the side bar) or leave us a comment on this post. We are open to anything. Although we cant offer any monetary compensation, we are very happy to trade labor, knowledge and some good conversation for a place to park our bus. We will be documenting the experiences, people and places of our travels on this blog. Thanks for checking in!

Promises of spring in the greenhouse at Full Circle Farm