ADU, Travel, Community
Lina Menard
Maui, Hawaii

After A Week Long Send Off, My Round the World Trip kicked off with eight days in Maui visiting my sister Sarah who has split her time between Hawaii and Alaska for many years. What an epic way to start this adventure! There was mist falling when my sister greeted me at the Kahului airport on Maui a week ago, so she teased me about bringing the rain from the mainland. We headed straight for Paia where she presented me with a young coconut and a lei, accompanied by the chant for the gifting-of-a-lei.

Maui, Hawaii
Tiny House, Travel, Planning
Lina Menard
Lucky Penny Moves to Walla Walla

A number of circumstances collided recently to compel me to move the Lucky Penny to my property in Walla Walla where I have a ground bound small house called Valencia Cottage. So on Tuesday trusted tiny house movers Linh and Stephanie Pham helped me move the Lucky Penny safely from Portland to my place in Walla Walla.

Lucky Penny Moves to Walla Walla
Minimalism, Workshop
Lina Menard
Downsizing Tune Up

As I packed up recently in preparation to travel cross country in my Honda Fit, I did some downsizing… It was harder than it had been during my last couple of moves because this time I had more stuff. I’d been living in a bigger space…My apartment was a studio, but it was still about 6 times bigger than the Lucky Penny! I talked with several people about the experience and a handful of them said “oh my goodness, I need to do more of that!” So I’ve decided to offer a 6-week Downsizing Tune Up…

Downsizing Tune Up

rain gear

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Here Comes the Rain Again

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Portland has been experiencing an unusually long, warm, and dry autumn, but on Friday, after nearly two months of rain-free days, the dry spell was broken. For the first rainstorm of the season it was pretty impressive. All day long it poured buckets and people scrambled from building to building. As the ground became saturated and the leaves clogged up the gutters the puddles in the potholes became little lakes in the streets. I hadn’t brought my rain pants to school with me, so I was drenched by the time my bike and I made it home again. But once I was there I was delighted by the experience of rain on my Home, Sweet Yurt. The drumming of raindrops on the skylight is really a magical sound.

My dear friend Sarah arrived in town just as I got home and it was nice to share the rainy evening with her. We cooked up delicious burritos and then enjoyed tea and chocolate as we listened to the rain. Sarah is a hardy soul and she’s lived on a farm in a tent with an outdoor kitchen so I knew she would like my new abode. But she has a lower body fat ratio than I do so when she started shivering I decided it was time to get my Envi heater set up.

I hauled it out of the box and remembered that the Envi Heat doesn’t work unless it’s hung on a flat wall, 8 inches from the floor. I glanced around, remembering that in the yurt I don’t have any flat walls! So I decided to attach it to my dresser. With the help of a screwdriver and the included template it was installed, plugged in, and heating the house within 10 minutes. I’ve kept it on the lowest setting ever since plugging it in and it’s been very cozy.

On Saturday I spent a couple hours helping Derin build the walls of the gable ends of his UrbaNest tiny house. Then Sarah and I had a great time exploring Portland, including breakfast at Pine State Biscuits, wandering along Belmont, a pot of chai tea at Tao of Tea, a couple hours in the kids’ section at Powell’s, bacon maple Voodoo donuts, and a stroll along the waterfront. It was a lovely way to spend the first rainy weekend of the season!

Biking Rain or Shine

biking rain or shine It's a unfortunate that we had such downpours today since we're kicking off the Bike to PSU Challenge. They have an awesome interactive website that's shiny and easy to use. I'm on a team of 10 and we're competing with other teams on total mileage and commute rate throughout the month of May. Our team challenge this week is to ride every day, at least one way. Day 1: so far, so good. I rode to campus in the morning and stopped into the Bike Hub to get my bike tuned up. The folks there are super friendly and helpful. I like that I can work on my bike myself there with assistance since it's educational and empowering. It was a good lunch break activity before getting back to my studies. When I finished up with a project in the computer lab at 8pm I put my bike on the bus and then rode it home instead of transferring to the second bus.

I'm a fair weather biker so I usually just take transit on the rainy days, but this challenge will help hold me accountable to cycling even in the rain. (That and the fact that I decided not to buy a transit pass this term!) I have a great pair of rain pants, but I really should put fenders on my bike, too. I've been told they're mandatory here and I can see why. I haven't gotten any yet because I plan to swap out my wheels for new ones which will probably need different fenders. My spokes are pretty rusted and the rims are steel instead of aluminum so the brakes don't always catch right away in the rain. I've been meaning to get around to it, but my wheels are an unusual size so I've been putting off doing the research. It may be that riding this month for the Bike to PSU Challenge will convince me the time is now!