Native Ideals, Arlee, MT

Native Ideals, Arlee, MT

Friday, February 6, 2015

Ferel Farm Agroforestry

Picking up Jordan's sister at the Seattle airport was a journey in itself. Seattle if no one knows is like a Mini New York City there is so much concrete, people, and buildings. Add super steep 10% incline hills to the equation in Teddy equals lots of  "Oh shit" moments. Being we had an addition to our crew for the next three weeks an wanted her to some what enjoy her stay we decided on exploring Seattle seeing all the great things people talk about an slowly preparing Mckenzie for what it is that we actually do. So after a long day in Seattle we hit up the food bank to prepare for our trip up towards the northern cascade mountains.  Not only did she get to see the magic in free food an amazing people but she knew now that we had food to eat on for a while an how big of a help it was to us being we have no permanent job to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on over priced gmo filled foods. We knew Thursday would be a long day on the road so we found a safe league place to park Teddy for the night  so we could prepare food an get some good sleep. Thursday back on the road head up towards our new farm we made it up to Arlington which was about an hour from our farm an decide to sleep there for the next couple of days  relaxing an redoing the seal on Teddy's roof for we were going in to a rainforest an wanted Teddy to stay dry. While we did manage to do the entire roof in a park there was also this awesome beach area off of it that we enjoyed for those couple of days. Saturday came so fast but we were ready for the new farm an the new people..

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Tripod Transformation.

During our incredible West Coast/Best Coast experience we have grown and learned so much about ourselves, each other, and so much more. Together we have traveled over 5,000 miles through 7 states in 9 months for under $1800 a piece (that does magically include our gas expense for our very thirsty 1983 mountain climbing Coachmen). We've done it leisurely and pretty efficiently, I'd say. What we have experienced though cannot simply be given a price tag, that was just a fun fact to blow your mind. What we have done is something unique and beautiful just like us as individuals. We have lived life to the fullest, conquered our fears, and most importantly we never gave up. What we do every day is exactly what you daydream about while you sit in your not so comfortable computer chair Googling cute kitten photos. We live your dreams and ours. You're welcome for that. ;) 

We started this journey with hopes of interpersonal growth, understanding, education, and adventure. Let the record show that we have accomplished our goals! As someone who's never been terribly good at following through, this is undeniably monumental. When we first decided this was what we were doing I was probably the most skeptical (go figure, right?) about how we would really manage. I was like you. Thinking, man, that sounds fun, but completely unrealistic. I mean, how would we get money and food? Oh, god, what about the pets!? We figured out the food and pets situation when we found out WWOOFing feeds you and bought Teddy for the animals. (Yes, it is true we bought our RV to double as Animal Daycare. Call us crazy, it has definitely been said before! Haha!) As for the dollar dilemma we kind of just closed our eyes and hoped for the best, which worked out obviously.

Let's jump ahead to the more recent stuff, shall we?

In December we shared the hardest day of them all - the day we separated. Dun dun dunnnnnn. It was that dramatic, guys. We had literally spent every day, all day together for NINE months. Holy cow. You could say we are close. Lol. So that morning was quiet; I think Logan avoided eye contact and I'm sure B and I are guilty of the same. When it came time to leave once Teddy was ready for take off, B and I took our last walk up that hill too slowly -
to say bye to all of the people we had grown so close to. I went around and talked to everyone, stopping to cry to Emma, the most wonderful pit bull lady dog ever, about how sad it was to leave and how much I loved her. All that was left was to say farewell to my third leg, my fixie chick sister, my dreadheadboobuttpookiedoo, (please try not to choke on my dramatics, hehe). We totally had a tripod movie moment that involved a tearful group hug/singing circle and ended in a unanimous "this is stupid." We gathered the pups and headed toward our next adventure.

Leaving is always so bittersweet.
We love you, Lo.

The Hitchhiker's Call To Paradise

Almost out of Oregon and Bee spots 3 guys looking for a ride. She hits the breaks busts a U and the next thing you know we have 3 hitchhikers in Teddy. Andrew and Joe from Colorado - I believe they were just hitching around to travel and see the West coast when they stumbled upon Brandon from either the Carolina's or Wisconsin. Brandon was hiking the Pacific Coast Trail, his time came to branch off from there and found Andrew and Joe. As we ride we keep seeing a billboard for a giant Paul Bunyan advertising the Trees of Mystery and eventually stumble upon the actual giant Paul Bunyan and Andrew falls climbing down from his foot and hurts himself, luckily we had a first aid kit. That night we make it to the beautiful Redwoods and find a decent campground. We drive a few circles - it is dark and the campground is kind of confusing without much light. The boys set up camp outside of Teddy and we call it a night pretty quick. The next morning we sleep in a bit have breakfast and pack up camp to go hiking through The Giants. The hardest part is deciding where you want to start. There are trail heads everywhere, but of course I choose one that does not have a map at the entrance, and later we find out that it was not even really a trail head. This small "trail" leads us  to a larger one. We find splits and take note of trails and such. We hike for miles enjoying the trees looking for the biggest ones - walking through hallowed out trunks and climbing anything we found. Eventually we come to a spot we think we have been to, but it is not. Then we find the highway; now we just have to find out where we are on the highway. We walk hoping we are headed toward Teddy and eventually reach a trail head with a map and they trust me to read it. I figure; after a while of going over the map and trying to decipher the path we took to lead us where we are, that we are indeed walking in the correct direction down the highway. I also find we hiked the most difficult trail in the forest!!! (Fun Fact) We finally reach the small entrance we used - we look up and there he is our trusty steed right where we left him. We load up and hit the road. It is around lunch time and we are starved - especially the boys! We find a little gypsy looking shack that acts as a deli for the boys to grab grub and while they do that we are cooking our goods we retrieved from the FOOD BANK!! Then it is back on the road and the boys would like if we could at least get them to Arcata and we don't see why not. We pull into Arcata it is a nice little college town in its' center sits a nice park. Like Lafayette but with more hills and larger buildings. We park on a corner adjacent to the park and unload to hug and tell the boys goodbye and good luck on their travels. Then we load up to find a place to sleep for the night. On The North end of Arcata there is a Casino we park in for the night. The next morning we find a Food Bank and we are running super low on money and gas, so low we are not sure if we can make it east to our next farm. I attempt at gas jugging, which is holding a gas can and asking people to fill it up, then the  casino security guard comes and fusses at us. We put in our last 40$ and take off to the food bank - if we run out of gas at least we will have food. After we finish at the food bank we get a call from the boys they would like to buy us a drink as a thank you- we have to pass back through there anyway. I know what you are thinking why not ask them for gas money, but some people you just do things for without wanting anything in return plus their friendships were enough. We park on our same corner; we are meeting them at the park, low and behold while we are standing on the corner waiting to cross the street, Bee just so happens to look down the street to see a familiar face. They are her friend Regina from the East coast all the way out here, she runs into the post office and meets us in the park. We sit with the boys in the grass and learn Andrew has fractured/sprained his elbow and will be flying back to Colorado leaving Joe and Brandon to finish the trip alone. Joe is going to Colorado and Brandon ultimately had to return to what I know was the Carolina's for school. Regina eventually joins us and we learn that she is working on a CSA farm very near to where we are now. We call the farm that is expecting us; to say the wind is calling and we are answering, so the tripod plus Regina load up in Teddy and head to the farm without getting drinks with the boys.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

From Washington to California!!!!!

WASHINGTON !!!!! Zigzagging the coast from the top working down was the best decision ever.  Not only were we going opposite of all the "global warming" weather every one hates but contributes to, but also going the direction in which the culture was set on this beautiful pacific west coast. Our universe was putting things in place for us to enjoy the coastal ride only some dream of! We met amazing, loving, open hearted people. But after all of that we knew the road was calling us back and we had more people to see, meet , greet,  and simply coexist with.  Cruising again 101 bound places to go things to see wind in my hair  back on the roller coaster of mountains and ocean breeze  circulating thru teddy putting grins on all even the friendly furry friends who chose us not knowing they would some day be on the ride of their life. Back to the 101 making a few stops but zooming through not taking long.  Finally making it to Oregon we decide we need to find a place to sleep so we can see it in the blazing sun. Spent the night behind the church right on rock away beach best spot ever but funny thing is the sign we slept on the side of a sign that said "Jesus loves you but you can't sleep here". That's definitely a 20th century Jesus saying. But my universe gave me the thumbs up like the dude ya know. Waking up with a grin feeling fully accomplished, crashing waves on an empty shore roaring for us and our furry friends to come play. After Eleanor almost purring a lung out because they were in the largest box of sand to Bray and Copper drinking all the salt water they could to Babykitty adventuring in all nooks and crannies we were ready to explore more. Next thing you know we are hanging with caravan of glam and giving our buddy Harley a ride to as far as we could get him dropping him off and wishing him luck. Just before getting out of Oregon we see three guys hitching and I instantly pulled over to flip Teddy into a U. Now it's our tripod, their tripod, and the cast of homeward bound +1. The guys were all beautiful souls, two from Colorado and one from Wisconsin, all on the road for the same reason - to live, to FEEL what exactly that is. "Time is living" not what your going to do next at what time. So us, the new age Brady bunch, headed to the Redwoods in Cali to camp out for a night or few at the perfect campsite where we just soaked up this historical national park and to go on a few amazing hikes. Later Andrew sprained his elbow after a Paul Bunyan show down! All the while not knowing that the universe was about to put us right were we needed to be......Stay tuned for more!!!