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

oregon country fair

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Doing Life

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I’ve been doing life. And I haven’t been making the time to post about it.

This summer, Life involved a five-week break from building The Lucky Penny. First I took a long weekend to make My Annual Pilgrimage to the Oregon Country Fair. Next I headed to Vermont to teach a 2-week Tiny House Design-Build class at Yestermorrow. Then I headed to Seattle, my hometown, to catch up with one of my sisters, my best friend from high school, and several other old friends.

This is the little life.

And it’s a good one. So I won’t apologize for a moment for living my life instead of talking about it. But considering how many of you have asked me for an update in the past week, I suppose I probably should have said something.

The quick version is this:

  • I’ve moved into The Big House in tiny house community where I’ll be bringing The Lucky Penny once it’s complete

  • I’ve helped my friend Ben who is finishing up his tiny house (and will also be moving it to this great little tiny house community!)
  • I’ve built My Front Porch (which is already much better than a Shrinky-Dink Porch and solves the problem of Tiny Houses Turn Their Backs on the Street)
  • I’ve been working on Fancy Shingles
  • I’m planning Tiny House Work Parties all through September to get as much done on the Lucky Penny as I can before the rains return
  • I’ll be hosting a Tiny Open House in early October to thank My Tiny House Helpers and show off The Lucky Penny (in whatever state of completeness she is at that point!)

In retrospect, I realize it probably would have been a good idea to officially take the month of August off from blogging. After all, I knew that things would get busy once I resumed construction of The Lucky Penny while simultaneously ramping up to full-time work as the Living Building Coordinator for the Breathe Building. I might have imagined that blogging would be a good thing to set aside for a few weeks. But, alas, hindsight is 20-20.

Chances are, you were out there having fun and didn’t miss me anyhow. You were Doing Life, too, right? (If not, get out there and have some fun in the sun!)

On the other hand, those of you who have been following along for a while probably know that me not posting doesn’t necessarily mean I’m not writing. After all, writing is one of the best ways I know to process my experiences. So stay tuned for some backlogged blog posts to appear in the coming weeks! Meanwhile, Happy Summer!

My Annual Pilgrimage to the Oregon Country Fair

My first day of college freshman year our resident assistant asked us to pick a possession that has a special significance for us and bring it out to the courtyard to meet our section mates. Sarah and I both walked out of our dorm rooms wearing fairy wings and we’ve been friends ever since. After we wrapped up our first year of college Sarah insisted that I come stay with her and her family in Corvallis, OR for a weekend in July and go to the Oregon Country Fair.

It was a fabulous weekend in a magical place: dancing to a jug band along a dusty path, joining a dragon parade meandering through the woods, attempting to juggle under the Yes You Canopy, marveling at Tom Noddy’s bubble cube, swirling a secret elixir in a pretty old fashioned bottle, checking out the clever wares at the craft booths, listening to the trees, and sharing coconut ice cream over sticky rice in the beaming sunshine at the main stage. The fair gave me a hearty dose of faith in humanity and our collective pull towards a better future. I decided immediately upon arrival that I wanted to go to the fair every year forever.

So far, so good. This past weekend I made my twelfth annual pilgrimage to the Oregon Country Fair and it was splendid as always. Sarah picked me up in Portland and we headed down together, chatting about our future plans as she drove us through beautiful countryside. We arrived just in time for Shabbat and we were greeted with big hugs, catching-up-questions, a giant pan of homemade spanakopita, and a beautiful key lime tart covered in fresh cherries. My window seat bed was made up for me and I snuggled into it Friday night feeling utterly content.

On Saturday morning we drank our tea, donned our costumes, and headed down to Veneta play at the fair. I’ve been so on-the-go this summer that one day at the fair seemed just right and it was nice to take everything as it unfolded. Making no plans, I still managing to sprinkle four families in the parking lot with pixie dust, dance to great folk music, snag a heaping plate of pad thai without waiting in the typical snaking line, eat a Coconut Island before it melted, protect my glitter-covered henna tattoo until it could leave its mark, and run into several friends (shout outs to tiny house heros Abel Zimmerman of Zyl Vardos and Deb and Kol of Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel!)

I am so grateful that the Oregon Country Fair is a part of my life and I’m already looking forward to next year. See you there!