Well, it certainly has been a while. We’ve been keeping very busy with our new organic garden (the volksvegan has been quite handy in hauling straw for mulch and bags of soil and amendments) and have been doing lots of traveling in Loretta the Jetta lately. Summer is finally just around the corner, so we’ll be celebrating the summer solstice by taking the volksvegan out for our first camping trip of the year. I just got ‘er all vaccuumed out today (boy, there was a lot of straw in there) and we’ll be doing a check up, finishing the spring cleaning, filling up the propane and water tanks, and packing her up for our trip.
We’re taking the volksvegan just a bit over an hour north on Highway One to the Lost Coast. The lost coast is named as such because Highway One turns inland and connects with the 101, leaving a long stretch of coastline in Mendocino and Humboldt counties free of highways and major roads. It’s also blanketed in fog a lot of the time, and disappearing into the mist can tend to make a place “lost.” We’ll be staying at Usal campground with some friends for hopefully 4 or 5 days. We have never been to the lost coast, and have heard great things about Usal, so we’re pretty excited! There will be plenty of hula hooping and yoga on the beach, playing music around the fire, hiking along the coast and in the redwoods, and much needed relaxation!
It’s been a busy spring and we’ve been working, gardening, and especially traveling a lot (though never together, since one of us has to stick around with the dogs and water the garden), so we’re ready for a much-needed break together. We’ll be taking Juneau and our new dog, Niko, who is a two-year-old rotweiller we recently adopted. Usal campground is right on the beach, 5 or 6 miles from the highway down a windy dirt road. It should be the perfect place to set up our little home away from home and relax for a few days! I will of course be taking lots of pictures!
In biofuel news, we have decided for now to use biodiesel in the volksvegans rather than wvo. Seneca and our friend Pal are taking courses from the Solar Living Institute in Hopland next month on how to make biodiesel, build a processor, and start a biodiesel business. Hopefully from then on out we’ll be making our own fuel from the waste veggie oil rather than running on the oil itself. Biodiesel is a bit of an involved process, but is much more refined and reliable than straight veggie oil. Though it is not yet regulated like gasoline and diesel, biodiesel has been used for thousands of miles successfully and is often commercially available blended with diesel (we found quite a bit of B20 and even up to B99 on our volksvegan adventure). Any diesel engine can run on it without modification, though in older engines eventually the rubber seals will need to be replaced (which we’ve already done in the van). There are several businesses in California and Oregon that make and sell it, but the closest one – Yokayo Biofuels – is Ukiah, which is over an hour away. So we figured the coast needed a biodiesel business, and we’ll be our own best customers! Sen and Pal will be working on starting the business (small steps at first) over the next few months, so stay tuned!
Other than greening our transportation, we’ve also been working on making our diet more sustainable by working on our own little piece of eden. We moved into a new place in January that is simply perfect for us: situated on about 5 acres of redwoods with a huge fenced organic garden and plenty of space, we truly feel at home. We have been busy turning the overgrown and neglected garden space into a thriving eden bursting with food. We put up a hoop house, tilled and dug beds, started a compost pile, and planted seeds. It’s been a lot of work (there were, and still are, SO many weeds!) but we’re starting to reap the benefits in the form of strawberries, asparagus, greens, and broccoli. Several perennials were already in the garden (blueberries, raspberries, asparagus, strawberries, and herbs) and we’ve planted nearly all the available space with as many veggies as we can fit, as well as some more unusual plants like quinoa, amaranth, artichokes, and even a goji berry bush! It’s a constant work in progress, but we hope to feed ourselves, our friends, and maybe have enough left over to sell at the farmer’s market or the co-op. So far we’ve had more salad than we know what to do with, and we’ve already noticed a big decrease in the grocery bills. There’s nothing better than fresh-picked organic produce! I’ve started writing about gardening regularly on EatDrinkBetter.com. You can see an archive of my articles here.
We plan to take the volksvegan on several more trips this summer, hopefully to a few local festivals like Earthdance in September, and our big trip this year will be to Burning Man! We’ve never been to this annual festival in the Black Rock desert in Nevada, but we’re definitely looking forward to finding out what it’s all about. There will be lots of art, so I’m sure I’ll love it. The volksvegan will make a perfect retreat from the heat and the dust storms. So, stay tuned for pictures from our first camping trip of the summer, gettin’ greasy with a biodiesel business, and many more adventures to come!