my life

It's 2010. Woah.

Well, once again it's been ages since my last update. And once again, a lot has happened. 2009 was good to us. We had some amazing adventures and we're really enjoying life on the coast.

Our biggest project this year has been our big organic garden. We put up a hoop house in our garden which allowed us to get seedlings started early. We grew SO much yummy food! We had several kinds of tomatoes, lettuces, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, potatoes, green beans, peas, asparagus, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, eggplant, herbs, cabbage, kale, chard, radishes, carrots, beets, garbanzo beans, zucchini, spaghetti squash, butternut squash... and plenty of flowers and companion plants as well. It was a lot of work, and we're always behind on weeding, but we continually harvested lots of great organic stuff and fed lots of our friends. Pictured on the left is Juneau and Niko being lazy while we work in the garden.

I went to Moscow for Moscow Hempfest in April. I design the t-shirts and posters for the event every year, and am rewarded with a vending booth spot at the event, so it's a great opportunity to sell the jewelry, herbal bath products, and artistic t-shirts that we sell at various festivals and barter faires. In May I went up to Portland to see my little sister graduate from the University of Portland. She was the valedictorian of her class and got degrees in Spanish and Life Sciences. Wow. I'm awfully proud of my little sis! Also in May, we adopted a new pooch, Niko, a 2-year-old rottweiller. He's a big sweetie, and Juneau is very excited to have a buddy to play with.

In June, we went on a camping trip with 6 close friends at Usal Beach on the Lost Coast. Boy was it beautiful! Usal is a very magical place, and we had an amazing time with our local friends who feel more like family. The photo on the right shows us sitting in one of the most unique trees we've ever seen. There is a grove of redwoods at Usal aptly named the Enchanted Forest, where the redwoods grow all gnarly with swirling, tentacle-like branches growing haphazardly from enormous trunks. We went on hikes, watched the sunset on the beach, and cooked over a campfire with friends. What a beautiful way to start off our awesome summer!

In August I went up to McCall, Idaho, for the Prusynski family reunion and got to spend time with my parents, sister, grandparents, cousins, aunts & uncles. It was a fun but short trip. At the end of August, we caravanned with our friends over to Nevada for our first ever Burning Man! There is just no way to describe this amazing event. It's 50,000 or so people living in a temporary community called Black Rock City that rises out of a desolate dry lake bed in the Nevada desert. The playa, as the lake bed is called, is a blank canvas for some of the most amazing interactive art projects we've ever seen. From the teeter totter of death to the cube-a-tron to a huge stage for fire dancers to hundreds of art cars... it's a trip. Near the end, they burn the enormous man and surrounding structure in a giant bonfire, and then they burn the beautiful temple that serves as a memorial to all kinds of lost loved ones. It was a little over a week of extreme heat, crazy dust storms, not much sleep, overstimulation, and lots of fun workshops, activities, art to see, and people to meet. We already have tickets for this year's Burning Man. The temple, just after a beautiful sunrise, is pictured on the left.

After Burning Man, we went to Earthdance, a music festival that's only about an hour away. We got to see Sound Tribe Sector 9, Ganga Giri, and many more musicians, attended belly dancing and yoga workshops, did some shopping for eco-friendly handmade clothes, and enjoyed the heat and sunshine with friends. Seneca got a new didgeridoo and I hooped my butt off at Earthdance! Shortly after that, we headed up north for the Okanogan Family Faire that we go to every year. This year was colder than any one we've ever been to - we spent a lot of time huddled around the camp fire! We got a great vending spot and saved spaces for all our friends, so we had one huge camp. My friend Kelsie got a fire hula hoop, which I got to try! It was so great seeing all our friends from Moscow, familiar faces from the barter faire, and of course, our Mendo family, too. The barter faire really brings us all together! The photo on the right shows Kelsie, Ottie, Seneca, and Pal in front of our camp. We really went to a lot of festivals in a couple months' time this summer & fall. By the time we got back from barter faire, we were pooped and ready to be home for a while!

I went up to Portland for Thanksgiving and got to stay in my aunt & uncle's beautiful new home there. It was the first time in quite a while that almost the entire Pru Crew was together in one place. For Christmas, Seneca, Juneau, Niko, and I made a long trek up to Boise to spend time with family and see old friends. We were spoiled rotten by our families, caught up with friends, and even got in a day of snowboarding. For New Year's we went to stay with friends in the Bay Area, who had a costume party.

So far 2010 has been a very busy but stressful year. On January 9, there was an earthquake about 150 miles from us that shook the whole house. It was the first one we've felt since moving to California. Then, just 3 days later, a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, where my sister Rachel was visiting her friend Molly and volunteering in the orphanage she worked at. Rachel and Molly were in a 7-story dorm & office building that completely collapsed. Rachel miraculously was pulled out of the rubble and taken to the embassy by three Haitian angels within a few hours. After receiving medical care for a gash on her face and a broken arm in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she met my mom in Miami and flew to Boise for a couple days before heading back to Tacoma to go back to school. A few days after she was rescued, her friend Molly's body was found in the rubble. Even though I never met Molly, I knew from Rachel and from Molly's blog that she was an amazing and kind person who had really given her life to help Haiti's most vulnerable little orphans. The earthquake in Haiti is a huge tragedy that leaves me with a heavy heart. I encourage anyone reading this to donate to Friends of the Orphans, the orphanage Rachel & Molly were working at, in honor of Molly. The people of Haiti (who are the poorest country in the western hemisphere) really need our help and prayers right now.

We're hoping this year starts getting much better. I am working on turning my freelance design practice into an official business - Ahimsa Creative Studio. We're also starting the process of looking for some land. We'd like to have our own little piece of earth to build a susainable home on, start a big organic garden and orchard to feed us (and have enough to sell at farmer's markets), and grow our dreams! This will most likely be a long process, but it is a good time to buy right now, so we're hoping to manifest our little piece of heaven as soon as we can. We'd like to stay in the area, but we're most likely going to be further inland, where land is a little cheaper and the weather is a little better for gardening. We're dreaming big! 2010 will be a great year after its rocky start, I'm sure.

Seneca's 29th birthday is on Sunday. Tomorrow we are throwing a party for him at our place. It's pretty hard to believe that our 20s are almost over. I'll be 27 in April. It's time to make the most of our youthful energy and start manifesting our dreams! Here's to a beautiful 2010 and beyond! :)

Labels: barter faire, family, life, update

posted by Megan @ 11:21 PM 0 comments

Holy Moly, it's Been Awhile...

It's official, I have too many blogs. I can't keep up. So... since my last update a lot has changed! We moved from Fort Bragg to Mendocino Village (9 miles south), first living in a little cottage on the hill with an ocean view, and we finally moved into our "dream house" just a bit further up the road in Mendocino. We love the house, it has a HUGE organic garden and five acres of redwoods. Of course, we have big plans for the garden! There are already blueberries, strawberries, and asparagus in it, and tons of room for whatever else we want to grow. We started a compost pile and hope to put up a hoop house, plant some plum trees, and get the garden cleared so we can plant all kinds of veggies. We may even be able to grow enough food to start a farmer's market booth!

posted by Megan @ 9:23 PM 2 comments

Life is Good. Busy but Good.

It's been a busy spring! We are settling into our new home and getting involved in the community here. Spring has been beautiful here on the coast, so we're trying to enjoy all the new beaches and hiking trails that we can.

One of our most exciting developments is our involvement with a local non-profit, Noyo Food Forest. They're an organization that promotes local and sustainable food to build community. Seneca has been taking a class from them since we moved here at their Learning Garden (which is at the high school - they provide fresh produce for school lunches and teach workshops and classes there). Shortly after he started the class, I contacted them about possibly doing some design work. They were really excited about it and they've since become my first local client! I am working on a logo design and web site for them, and there will probably be lots more work to come. We've also gotten involved in one of their new projects: starting a community garden in Fort Bragg. Seneca is now the co-coordinator for the community garden, which we've worked on all spring to prepare for planting. We now have a plot full of organic veggies going as we work on getting the garden up and running. Eventually, we'll have communal garden beds that feed the hungry, compost piles and worm bins, rainwater collection, and several beds for local families to rent. It's been a great experience helping bring this vision to life, and our veggies are already growing!

We are meeting more and more people and really starting to feel at home here. Every Friday we attend a drum circle on the beach, where we can play as loud as we want. We've been hiking and visiting beaches and state parks, and having BBQs and dinner parties with the handful of friends that we knew before moving here. We're even brewing our own organic beer! This seems like it will be a great place to launch my sustainable design studio, since there is a high level of eco-consciousness here, and California is at the forefront of green living.

Speaking of business, I am slowly planning an "official" business for my freelance design work called Ahimsa Creative. Ahimsa is Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and doing no harm. It perfectly embodies the work I hope to do. Now I'm working on a business plan and getting the paperwork in order, which is coming along quite slowly since I've been so busy!

Busy with what? Well, I went back to work for the PETA Foundation part-time. I am doing web design while saving the animals, and it's good to be back. I've also had plenty of freelance projects to keep me busy. Recent highlights include completing a web site for Moscow CommUNITY Walk, an event in Moscow that I helped plan and start last year, and that we visited to attend this year. I also designed logos, flyers, posters, t-shirts, and other graphics for the event, which were all updated this year. I recently finished business cards, promotional post cards, and gift certificates for a non-toxic and green nail spa in Scottsdale, AZ called Organicures. I've been writing for Green Options each week, mostly about starting a green business on their Ecopreneurist blog. I will soon be starting on a collection of essays on a sustainable future for the Palouse region with a professor at my alma matter, University of Idaho. A couple other projects are in the works as well, so I'm definitely keeping busy!

Please visit my photo blog, which I'm trying to keep updated despite the fact that my camera screen is broken, to see pictures of our new home. I write new articles for Green Options every Friday, and you can see my archive here. I'm also trying to keep the unplug blog up to date. And of course, watch for more news on Ahimsa Creative, and its own web site, in the future. Ciao for now!

Labels: green living, life, update

posted by Megan @ 5:58 PM 0 comments

A Change of Scenery

There's nothing quite like a change of scenery to inspire you. Traveling in the volksvegan for the last half of 2007 has given me with a change of scenery every few days or weeks. I grew very fond of life on the road, despite not knowing where we would camp each night or how long the ol' bus would hold up... and I learned a lot from the experience. I am so grateful for having the opportunity and for everyone who made our trip possible.

After the epic journey in our volksvegan, we finally parked the bus and settled into a new home. A house is quite an upgrade from a small van, let me tell ya! Of all the places we visited, we felt especially drawn to the coast, especially in Northern California. Seneca and I went on our first epic journey together in Redwood National Park, where we fell in love with the giant trees and lush landscape. So it's no wonder that we were compelled to return. We now live in Fort Bragg, California, a small town on the beautiful Mendocino county coastline. There are redwood trees right outside my back door and so far we have made some great connections with the community. We feel at home here, and I'm loving life on the coast - being landlocked all my life got to me I guess.

You can see photos of our journey in this photo collection and be sure to visit our new home, too! I am keeping busy but hope to keep updating this site. You can read more on my unplug magazine blog, or read my green-tinged articles on the Green Options network. I've got a pretty good mix of projects going, so stay tuned!

What can I say, I like variety. Change is good, too. :)

posted by Megan @ 12:01 AM 0 comments

Change is Good

Well, the volksvegan adventure of 2007 has come to a close as we settle into our new place in Fort Bragg, CA. After traveling the western US and Canada, we decided to make Mendocino county our home. There are many reasons we're already falling in love with the area...

1. We've never lived by the ocean before. It's amazing to be able to watch sunsets at the coast, find shells at the beach, and run barefoot in the sand (even in January!).
2. Mendocino county recently made it illegal to produce Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). We hate Monsanto, too, so we think that rocks. Organic, locally grown food abounds here.
3. We live among redwood trees - my favorite ancient giants to hug!
4. California is the epicenter of all things green living. Sustainability is big here, and we like that.
5. There are plenty of great breweries nearby, and even a raw/vegan cafe and culinary arts school in our new town.

We're hoping to get our business going in the near future, which means this site will evolve into more of my personal site, and I'll be starting a new design-centered one for the biz. Stay tuned!

posted by Megan @ 5:03 PM 0 comments

It's Official: We're Hittin' the Road

Seneca and I have a dream. It involves a VW bus that runs on bio-fuels, a happy pooch, and the two of us. And we're officially making our dream a reality.

We have been trying to decide where to move since we graduated two years ago. We love Moscow, but we've both grown up in Idaho and want to expand our horizons a bit. Speicifcally, we're looking for a small, sustainable co-housing community where we can own our own home while being part of a thriving group of like-minded people. Many of the communities we're looking at feature sustainable buildings, off-grid energy systems, organic gardens and community classes. We have to visit the ones we're considering (many offer workshops so we'll try to go to some) and find a place that feels like home before we can make a decision. We're also interested in visiting cities we'd like to live in like Eugene, Mendocino, Portland, Bend, Arcata, or Willits... there's a lot of possibilities and a lot to see, so we're going to see as much as possible this summer!

The decision has been made and now we're quitting jobs (which was very hard for me, but I hope to go back), getting the bus ready to go, and planning the trip. A new engine is going in the bus this week, it's a Turbo Diesel with low miles that will actually be powerful enough for the bus (no more crawling up hills in second gear going 30!). Seneca and a couple of knowledgeable friends will be installing it, and then we'll finish up the interior - it needs a good cleaning and new upholstery. Sen is working on installing a second battery so we can have back-up power for things like the fan, fridge, and my laptop. I'll be taking a couple freelance projects on the way, and we hope to check in semi-regularly and document our trip on Our Volksvegan Adventure.

So now comes more crunch time: selling most of what we own and figuring out where to store the rest, packing, planning the trip, finding grease and bio-diesel fill-up spots, figuring out our budget, finding someone to move into our place, etc. etc... One great thing about this trip is that it will truly get me to simplify. I have always been a pack rat and it's time to de-clutter, find out what I truly need to be happy, and live more simply.

Along the journey (which is the most important - especially since we don't know the destination) we will be visiting friends who have moved away, doing some backpacking and hiking, promoting sustainable travel, and maybe even leafleting at KFCs in strange towns... we're leaving a lot of it open-ended. We're planning for a concert or two, my cousin's wedding in Portland, visiting our friends in Glacier National Park and Bozeman Montana, checking out Eugene and the surrounding area, and visiting the Redwoods and communities in Oregon and Northern California. Then, depending on how we like living on the road (and how much money we have), we'd love to go Southwest and visit friends, see the string of beautiful National Parks, and just experience the desert. This will probably have to wait until fall though, something tells me a husky doesn't belong in the Southwest in the summer!

The more I think about it and start planning the trip, the more it feels like the right decision. It's probably the craziest thing I've ever done, but I'm young and I might as well do it now! We are soooo excited and will keep you updated about the trip. We are hoping to be on the road by mid-June, experiencing the ultimate road trip. :)

Labels: change, green living, vacation/trips, volksvegan grease bus

posted by Megan @ 9:35 PM 1 comments

Reflections on Spain...

I'm in the midst of post-vacation catch-up and can't believe I returned from Spain almost a week ago! The trip went splendidly, and despite the rain that kept following us around, we managed to have a great time and see some amazing things. We went to Barcelona, Madrid, Granada, Sevilla, and Cordoba. All were beautiful cities, but my favorite was Barcelona. It is on the Mediterranean coast and like a lot of coastal cities, it seemed to have a very laid-back vibe and LOTS of organic & vegetarian restaurants. I got my fill of great art and architecture on this trip: the Picasso museum and Gaudi's unique architecture in Barcelona, the Reina Sofia Modern Art Gallery and the Prado in Madrid, and even some intricate Muslim designs in Granada and Cordoba.

Rachel was a great tour guide and translator, she had planned the entire trip and somehow managed to navigate the busy metro stations, bus stations, train stations, and other places that would have confused the hell out of me. And I am happy to report that Spain DOES have vegetarian food! I had some great food over there—falafel kebap, veggie paella, potato croquettes, gazpacho—but my favorite thing was sangria! :)

I have all my photos up on Flickr in my Semana Santa in Spain set, but I still have some organizing, labeling, and weeding out to do. So give me a week or two if you want to know where all the pictures were taken. I am worse than a Japanese tourist and took a picture of darn near everything!

In this post are pictures of the Cathedral in Cordoba seen through a narrow "kissing lane" (above), and a view of La Alhambra in Granada (left), as seen from a very steep hill that we climbed in the rain. La Alhambra was beautiful inside, it is an old Muslim palace with a great view of Granada. Rachel has been studying there this semester, and it was great to see her and the country she's been calling home for the past few months. She even has a blog about her studying abroad experience, although she's not quite as much of a blog addict as her older sis...

Labels: family, vacation/trips

posted by Megan @ 4:13 PM 0 comments