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I must remember the beans. I must remember the beans.

Submitted entry: Dinner’s cooking already - I love it when I have it together enough to make dinner really early. Okay, so really it’s lunch cooking extra late. The pressure cooker was running for nearly the full hour it was meant to go before I realized that I hadn’t put the beans in. I’m not too crazy though - I put in lots of veggies and water.

Today’s been a strange day - I can’t actually place why. Perhaps because we’re out of our routine. I worked a little in the morning before Paul woke up and did a little after he did while Sage was around. Then for much of the day Sage was doing web work. I’m pretty inspired about what I’m working on right now - I’m writing a sort of travel article based upon our recent vacation. I’m tired of reading travel writers leaving their families behind for no apparent reason and so I am writing my own family-inclusive piece. Okay, so it won’t be read by as many people as Paul Theroux or have an accompanying TV show like Michael Palin and hasn’t really got an exotic destination (Florida is about as exotic as it gets). But my piece will have something that many books by the likes of Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, Peter Jenkins and Pico Iyer do not have in theirs: a full family complete with toddler (enjoying himself no less). I’ll be offering tips as to how we made it not just bearable but fun. I really think that most people in this country at least, view travelling with children as a chore at worst and something to be avoided at best.

Of course the other reason it feels like a strange day is that we’ve completely rearranged the yurt yesterday. Every piece of furniture has been moved, including the sink and stove. And we’ve added a really wonderful shelving unit to the kitchen counter that effectively doubles and organizes my kitchen space. On top of that we’ve brought in a really comfy couch (I can’t believe all this fits either). I was really overwhelmed about moving the kitchen but it was surprisingly easy as it’s in three modules. I just disconnected the drain on the sink and the propane and slid it across the room then fished the drain and gas line out the side of the yurt wall (between the yurt wall and deck drip edge for those of you (I think there are about 4-5 now) who actually live in or are considering living in a yurt.

Yesterday I also had my first coaching session with Julie Jordan Scott of 5passions.com. She focuses on helping people define one’s life purpose more clearly and thereby have a better idea of how to live their lives in a more passionate and fulfilling way. I highly recommend her if you’re the least bit unclear about what you’re here to do or are feeling like what you’re doing is not for you but you don’t know what is. She’s a perfect fit for the job and does it well. Thanks to Amanda for putting me in touch with her!

I also got another acupuncture/chiropractic treatment recently. That, too, really helped emotionally. All the sleeping in strange beds on the trip seems to have put my neck and back out as I had about 5 different vertebra out of alignment and a few other problems all adding up to poor blood flow and cerebrospinal fluid flow to my brain (you’d think that it was still the problem considering how I forgot to put the beans in the pressure cooker!).

The second battery for the computer, meanwhile, continues to be a blessing and something we have no idea how we did without. Sage and I have literally been able to work as much as we wanted whenever we wanted without having to be concerned about power. Several times we had both batteries ready to go leaving us about 5 hours or more that we could work if we felt like it all without recharging.

In other happenings, Sunday Sage was feeling really exhausted (Paul was nursing a ton the night before) and so she wanted to nap. Paul and I got in the car and drove about 20 minutes away to a national forest where there’s a pretty big cave. He and I went in and took a flashlight along. We’d been once before when he was young without a flashlight and thought it was about 6-7 feet high by about 12 feet wide by maybe 50 feet back. This time, though we discovered I’d been totally wrong. We walked to the back and saw that what I thought was a wall was actually a hill and at the bottom of the next there was another hill into a similar chamber. At the back of this chamber the tunnel appeared to continue further. We walked in about 100 feet or so and then Paul had enough and wanted to go out so we turned around and went out. When we sat outside he confided that he was scared of fire. I think he remembered a book he has where there’s a dragon (that doesn’t breathe fire but lives in a cave) and another book where there’s a dragon that breathes fire but lives in the open and figured that this one could also have a dragon in it and that dragons could potentially breathe fire. So we walked back to the car and as soon as we got there he was ready to turn around and go in the cave again. He was disappointed that we went home instead but I promised to go back someday. I like exploring there with him as this cave is all clay on the bottom with gentle slopes and not many rocks so it’s a great place for him to explore without our worrying about his falling down a hole or on a rock. I’d like to go back too as I’m curious as to just how far back it does go. Kitey and I have talked several times about what a great place to live it’d be. It has a great feel to it - homey in a strange way. And as I said it has the clay floor which would be easy on the feet. Sadly this is a national forest and so while I may try it out some night it really isn’t a place with any real long term potential. Still, the idea of living in the earth is attractive - naturally climate controlled, cool in the summer, warm in the winter.

Speaking of climate control, that’s our next project. The stove needs to be readied for winter, holes patched with stove cement, gasketing put on, hooked up to the chimney again (and cleaning the chimney). The nights are really lovely now but the mornings are quite cool. The high today was supposed to be about 90 (I doubt it actually got there) but it is meant to be in the high 40’s tonight. I’ve certainly changed my idea about how cold it has to be outside before heat is necessary. It has to be a night below 40 before I worry about starting a fire and if the day is sunny and above 40 the yurt warms up nicely in the sun and doesn’t need a fire until the evening. In Bethlehem, we’d keep the thermostat set to whatever allowed us to sleep in our shorts and t-shirts - a wasteful practice in retrospect as we’d be having the heat on when it was 55 out! Last winter we were overwhelmed about putting up the chimney and weren’t really in a financial position to do it until mid November and even that wasn’t bad. Again it was just the mornings after you got out of bed that was hard. How do you think nomads in Tibet handle living in their tents after the fire goes out? It’s not about having good heat it’s about knowing how to take care of yourself and dress (yourself and your bed) appropriately. Which is not to say that when it is in the 30’s I won’t be thrilled to have a crackling fire in the stove.

And it looks like finally the pressure cooker is done - beans and all this time. If Sage brings back the catfish from the freezer we should have quite a feast tonight.

A couple of pigmy rattlesnakes.

Black Coffee in the Shower