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

chickens

Coq Au Vin

This weekend I headed back to Walla Walla for my Whitman College reunion, catching a ride with my dear friends Sarah and Corey. We enjoyed catching up with old classmates and it was nice for me to be back in Walla Walla again.

But for the sake of the Little Life, what you really need to know is that Corey and Sarah agreed to chauffeur two hens from Walla Walla to Portland. We transported them in wine boxes punched full of holes, so this was a whole new spin on Coq au Vin - instead of "rooster in wine" it was "hens in wine boxes." My host had a chicken coop built in her yard before she and I ever started talking about me parking a tiny house in her garden. She hadn't gotten chickens yet, but was eager to learn about them from me since I'd had chickens in Walla Walla. Finally it occurred to me that it might make sense for me to bring two of my four hens here to Portland. Corey and Sarah have chickens of their own so they were miraculously keen on the idea of schlepping mine across state lines.
On our way out of town I grabbed a backpack full of winter clothes I'd stored at a friends' house and she handed us two wine boxes that we could use as chicken crates. We poked holes in them and went to my Walla Walla house where we loaded the chickens into their boxes and then hit the road. We stopped to give them water along the way and one of them (Ella, the clever one, of course) nearly escaped. (Why did the chicken cross the interstate?) But otherwise it was an entirely uneventful move and I was grateful they were so quiet.
My host had picked up a feeder and waterer as well as food and pine shavings so everything was ready for the chickens when we arrived. They seem to have settled in really well and I'm excited to have my two favorite hens just steps from my front door again! Hopefully they'll start laying again soon...