I'm On My Way Home Through Chicago...

A little photo recap.

A lil photo of me and Antler encouraging one another to build better lives.

Uncle & Aunt in Midland on a fancy bridge

the fancy bridge

The next photos are from Ohio, where Dove lives. We visited her family's land and dreamed & planned how she could utilize the land.  It's a beautiful place and has tons of potential to be a productive landbase to live off of.  

The girls created a hide out, which was awesome.  I love childlike spirit & creativity.
Wake up! View the world like a child!

Sweet sweet Moony, the older trail dog.

The land is part plains and part forest, with 2 springs.  2 SPRINGS! That's awesome.

Tappa tappa tappa, little woodpecker.

Dustin & Sunny

Dustin & Erin are Dove's housemates and they are so wonderful.
I was pumped to get to know them more and see how they are gardening, keeping chickens, and making decisions.

Shoot. I forget what these mushrooms are called, but we found them on the property and geeked out over mushroom identification when we got back to their house.

Found this fox skull next to a tree stump.  Yeah we took it home.

beautifully odd skunk cabbage.

The spring house.

This is no doubt the coolest truck I've run into. It's run off of veggie oil and has been built out in the back with a bed and lots of storage space.  The best roadtripping vehicle ever.

This is from inside, on the way home.

From Ohio, I made the trek over to NYC to stay with Lark for a few days.  I have to say, it was a bit jarring to drive into the big city.  So familiar, but so different from the open country I have been relishing in for the past few months.  Lark & I had solid catch-up time and watched "Guns, Germs, and Steel" (its on Netflix and you should totally watch it if you haven't already).  I started reading the book by Jared Diamond when I was in Albuquerque because of my conversation with my Uncle about why the Europeans had the ability to conquer so many places around the world.  What made them different from the other humans and other civilizations?  I don't totally agree with the conclusion that Diamond pulls, mostly because it ends up making modern Western civilization seem like it's the best way that all humans should exist, but I really appreciated the research that goes into this book & documentary.  

We took a day trip to Bear Mountain National Park, which was beautiful. New York state is glorious.

sisters forever.

This rock formation is so classic of NY. It is stunning at all times of year and I'm glad for land preserves like this one.

This sweet carousel was inside the below building.  I never though carousels were particularly "fun" to ride, but they sure are intricately decorated and fun to look at!

Classic.  Her dad would be so proud. We drove to a tiny town near Bear Mtn and ate at Andy's, a tiny restaurant that supposedly had been there since 1903.  Food was delicious and hot chocolate was a must.

This is a shot of the hawks above Bear Mtn. 

We were delighted to use a gift certificate Lark had been given to a sweet spot on the West Side.  The food was great. Dell Anime, I believe was the name.  A lovely romantic dinner for 2 lovely ladies. Afterwards, we met up with some friends for drinks around the corner. A perfect evening.

Resolve to...

What do you do around a fire at the end of a roadtrip with a dear friend but to recap your experience, build each other up, and write some goals that came out of your time together.  I didn't get to do my 2013 new years resolutions and this list is a bit extensive for resolutions, but they are some goals that I've been meditating on and want/need to follow through with over the next year.  

Mind-
- read "Cost of Discipleship" by Bonhoeffer
- apply to 5 jobs per day (work day) (if possible) in horticulture, gardening, non-profits, design firms...
- our prayer is for us to have faith that God already has a plan and that we submit to it
- get together with Tiffany about jobs
- learn from others instead re-inventing the wheel

Body-
- daily exercise
- redefine relationship with meat
- see if Cambria can join a CSA
- garden (with Jess?)

Soul-
- pray for Lindsey regularly as she will also be praying for me
- catch up with one another about all this stuff
- come to a place of peace with a few specific relationships
- move into new life with the church
- build more fires

Art-
- break down the tower of intimidation between art and lifestyle
- keep creating visually
- dance dance dance

Lifestyle-
- less talk, more action
- build shelving unit for window
- braid that rug!
- help with the bees
- find learning spaces/groups geared towards alternative living, homesteading, etc.

M A P L E T R E E spells Maple Tree...

This is a french fry that we got, admittedly, at Wendy's one day.  I told Dove about how French Fries have so many preservatives in them that they never mold or deteriorate.  She was afixed.  HOW could this BE?  And so she put one in plastic and has been carrying it around with her in her pocket for a week now.  No mold, still golden brown, and somehow still makes me want to eat french fries.  How do they do that???

Dove, Antler and I walked around Evanston for a day and this is the view of Chicago from the water.

Dove & Antler.

This is the drive up to Petoskey. It was finishing up a beautiful snow storm up there and it was like driving through a winter wonderland.

We actually got into town an hour early, so had some $3 margaritas.  "Tart" doesn't begin to describe that taste.

When Dove & I walked around the state park in Petoskey, we were delighted by the freshly fallen snow.

These next pics are from my other Aunt & Uncle's visit. She used to work at the nature center, which is now just starting their annual tapping of their sugar maple trees.  So we headed down after our zumba class (amazing) to see the process of boiling down the maple into syrup.  Real fast about zumba, though.  It was a class full of ladies (and one man) who want a less-impact form of zumba, so there's a lot of older ladies in there.  I was introduced to an 80 and 85 yr old.  And they totally were awesome at it!  My favorite part was looking in the mirror and realizing that these 80 and 85 yr olds were better at doing gangnam style than I was, and had been doing it longer.  Like I said... amazing.

So this is the building where they boil down the maple sap into syrup.

The brown section is the only place IN THE WORLD where maple syrup is harvested. We so special...

Aunt EllaMarie demonstrating the use of the yoke for carrying sap back to the boiling center.

Sugar Maples being tapped.

We have more pics of this adventure, but these are what I had on my camera.  It was wonderful to see my Aunt & Uncle and I'm glad we stopped there for a bit.  I'm spoiled that I get to see them every couple of years, but it was nice to spend some one-on-one time with them, as we don't often get that.  

As a parting gift, they gave me a CD with songs about Michigan on it. Perfect for my themed music in the car, which I'm still enjoying from Old Dog.  The CD is kid's music, but it's really great- talking about maple trees, identifying different kinds of poop in the woods, how animals get ready for winter, and songs about different state parks.  It's adorable. We listened to it twice and chuckled the whole time.  I look forward to sharing it with some families I know.

Yesterday, Dove & I made it down to her home in Ohio, where she lives with a family (the two girls pictured below).  Today we walked through the woods over to the library and a little pug ran up to us with a leash on it.  We knocked on a few houses and no one knew the dog.  So we went down to the park office, where this man (TERRIBLY photographed below) just fell in love with her and said he could find a home or keep her himself.  Seriously, this is an awful picture of him. He seemed perfectly sane and just melted when he met Stormy (that's what the girls named the dog within the 17 minutes they knew her).  I hope she has found a good home.

So I'm here for a bit, then hitting NYC to hang with old friends there before making that final 2 hour drive home.  I have no idea what that will be like.  I guess I'll find out.