[anything_slider title=”Give us a shout if you want any of these goods:” column=”full-width” autoslide=”3000″ slider_id=”1510″/] The garage is starting to look bare…for now. We’ll be building a wall to divide it in half next month, so that we can put all our stuff in “storage” downstairs before we go. […]
It’s 2013 today. Christmas came and went, and so did the Winter Solstice. The days are already getting longer and lighter, pulling Montana toward spring. But the icicles on our back patio are still growing longer every day. This juxtaposition of more light alongside more ice complements how I feel […]
We did it! We found a boat to hop on for the long sail across the Pacific Ocean. Rob and I officially signed on as crew for Llyr, a 53-foot steel ketch sailboat making the crossing from Panama to the Marquesa Islands this April. Turns out that the McCutchen […]
I emailed the following letter to the owners of Llyr. In April, this family will embark on an ocean expedition to research bio-cultural diversity from their 53′ steel sailboat. We’ve been communicating about crewing on their boat from Panama to the Marquesas — a 30+ day crossing of the Pacific Ocean. Read more […]
The following is a letter I emailed to the owners of Llyr. In April, this family will embark on an ocean expedition to research bio-cultural diversity from their 53′ steel sailboat. Llyr responded to our post in Cruisers Forum, and we’ve been communicating about potentially crewing on their boat from Panama to the […]
About a month ago, we had over friends-of-friends for dinner. Andy and Sandy spent 2.5 years cruising the Pacific a few years ago with their daughter. They sailed from Seattle to Mexico to New Zealand, stopping at all those awesome South Pacific islands along the way. We wanted their advice […]
Last night, while eating deer burritos, Rob and I had a spirited discussion (argument, some might say) about budgets while we’re sailing and traveling. Right after I loudly announced there was no way I was “spending my whole savings, period!” I suddenly teared up. I left my burrito, and fled […]
Four days. Four lakes. Three bachelors. Two pack-rafts. One climbing rope. A lot of hiking. This is the story of an epic off-trail traverse in the Mission Mountains Wilderness with my friends, Kipp and Josh. Watch our adventure below.
On this post-Thanksgiving Sunday, I am grateful for my sister, my parents, and my husband who are my best friends. I am grateful for the loving and close-knit circle of Missoula and Portland-based friends who are my family. I am grateful for rainy walks by cold creeks, hot turkey soup, long soaks […]
As the days get shorter and temperatures start dropping in Montana, my thoughts often turn to more tropical locations. This year, I already know where we are going, kind of. We’ll leave in April and head for somewhere between Hawaii and Australia. If you have the same inclinations and you’re […]
A man spoke tonight about darkness. He spoke of ancient creatures that chew on trees. He spoke of crystalline-fragile ecosystems, and the waters that move and change. He spoke of people who damage these waters and change the crystalline ecosystems. He spoke of being a rancher’s son, a transient’s best […]
Two things I’ll miss when we sail into the sunset — girlfriends and walking. Two things I won’t miss a bit — grey winters and biting-cold Montana wind. This weekend I was lucky enough to soak in the good stuff and get outta the bad. On Friday afternoon, I hopped on a […]
I was in rare cleaning form this Sunday morning. The grey Montana sky inspired me to make a sparkling house. And then, putting the vacuum away, I started looking deeper into the dark recessed storage area under our stairs. Whoooaa, Nelly, do we have a LOT of random stuff. Rob […]
This weekend Bri and I help our good friends Jana and Pedro build the Missoula Mandala, Brazilian-themed outdoor community art project that coincides with the Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos. Here’s a video I made of the piles of colored sawdust being transformed into a large, […]
One of the best parts about living in Missoula is that you get the best of the “urban” and the “rural” worlds. It’s Montana’s second largest city–and the biggest city for several hours driving in any direction–so we get our share of culture and music, as well as a hip […]
As a perfect follow-up to the “typical office day” video I shared earlier this week, here’s the front-page article in the Missoulian newspaper this morning. It’s all about the job we finished, which reconnects two creeks. It’ll be my last on-the-ground project before we take off to sail and explore […]
Everyone always asks what I do for work, and it’s always a little tricky to try and explain it in words. So, I took our new Go Pro to work this week to make a video of a typical day in the field, where I get to rebuild streams as […]
Dancing is definitely up there with my top 3 favorite things in life. Especially when I get to pair it with one of my other top 3 favorites: spending quality time with my best friends and family (which, luckily for me, happen to be the same people). Check out this […]
Fall in Montana is pure magic…probably because it comes and goes faster than you can say “abracadabra.” But while it’s here, it frames everything in pure golden hues and pink-cheeked smiles. Here are just a few of the many reasons I love this mountain-studded, river-dappled state in October. Will you […]
We hauled the boat out of Flathead Lake, and winterized her for her stay “on the hard” over the next 7+ months. It’s always a bittersweet (mostly bitter) moment to see Spindrift swaying like a stranded fish above the lake, knowing that we’re saying goodbye to sailing the blue-green waters […]
As you might notice, Rob and I don’t really like routines. We avoid them, actually. But there’s one thing we don’t mind scheduling: our favorite athletic hobbies. For Bob-ito, that means volleyball, basketball, and martial arts. For me, that means dance classes of any kind, usually at the Downtown Dance […]
A couple of weeks ago, Rob bought us a red, wide-ruled notebook (picture what you get for an 8-year-old as back-to-school gear). It’s replaced my 3-page “Wedding To-Do List” in a place of honor, right next to the Field Guide to North American Birds and the big pile of bills. […]
After several backpacking trips this summer, car camping feels like staying at a 5-Star Sheraton Hotel. After work on Friday, we loaded up the Honda with our thick, cushy Thermarests, big, comfy down sleeping bags, the roomy tent, real pillows, musical instruments, chairs…and beer!…and headed east toward the Smith River. […]
Tom Roy is the reason I moved to Missoula, Montana. When I visited in 2002, he was the Director of the University of Montana’s Environmental Studies program, which I was considering attending. It was a big stretch for a California girl to even consider moving to winter-laced Montana, and I figured I better […]
I clip in on my red Kona, and fly down our steep driveway, pedaling toward the fading sunlight blanketing Mount Jumbo across the creek. The days are getting shorter. I can’t leave for a mountain bike ride at 7pm anymore, unless it’s a short loop or I don’t mind […]