may!

the arrival of spring, and warm weather, has hastened a flurry of activity and busi-ness in our lives. not a lot of computer time to really go into all of the amazing things that have been unfolding, but i wanted to at least run through some of the biggies:

downtown culpeper

bj and i have been chillin in culpeper, virginia, excited to be getting to know the area, meeting new folks, finding out about local projects, farms, and other groovy things.

happy hay baby

in early march, we went to a strawbale wall workshop in maryland and learned how to build with bales. it was a lot of fun and we met some really interesting people.

the hoods and the marets

on the way back from the workshop, we took a little tour of my hometown, dayton, maryland, and visited some dear friends of mine, the hoods. it was really nice to share with everyone the place that i grew up. and it was great to see the place where i grew up. it turned out that the family that is now living in the house i grew up in, invited us in to look around, so we really got an intimate view into my history.

red cabin demolition

we started the process of renovating the "red cabin" on the high field (aka the 90 acres, aka the land). we pretty much gutted the interior, removing all the walls to make space for a redesign of the floor plan. we're now in the process of putting it all back together, nice and tidy. it's turned out to be a bigger project than i think we had anticipated. but the end result, a clean, insulated, well-organized communal kitchen and living space, seems exciting enough to keep us plugging along.

first down

as a part of moving onto the land and fixing up the cabin, we cleared an area of trees from around the cabin. lots of oak trees, some pine, poplar, hickory, beech and birch.

this is what it looks like now

me beth and becky

i flew out to california to gather up the rest of our things from sonoma to bring back to virginia. mostly the woodshop tools, materials and wood. i coordinated the trip to coincide with becky visiting the bay area, and we both stayed at beth's house and it was really nice.

it was very nice to be back in the bay area. it was also a little sad. i still have a pretty strong love for california.

the truck all packed up

becky and i in utah

then becky and i drove back across country together. it was nice to have a lot of time alone to talk and share and spend time.

back in culpeper

it was really nice to get back to virginia and be with the crew again.

friendly

our first timber

we hired on a local sawyer to help us cut all the trees we felled into lumber for our building projects. we cut large timbers to build a small timber frame structure later this year. we also cut a lot of boards for flooring, paneling, siding and for making furniture.

timbers

fix up crew

plugging along on the red cabin...

hello world

other than that, we've been tromping around, getting to know the area, the land, each other, enjoying the springing forth of spring.

today, bj, asher and i are off to tennessee to visit bradly, nada and logan. then on to mississippi for more visiting to and help bj's grandmother, mimi, in her move/return home. then i'll go to new york for a stone foundation workshop. and bj and asher will head back to california with bj's mama for a little visiting. bj and asher will hook up with karin, who is on an adventure of her own right now hitchhiking out to california. then they'll travel back home together sometime around the end of the month.

whew!