We're moving to Maine!

We're Moving to Maine!

Maine's Natural Beauty. All photos from July 2012.

Thats right, folks! Me and my man and our adorable puppy are packin' up and headin' east next month. We've felt the east coast tugging at our heartstrings for far too long and I'm ready to head home.
In fact, you may have noticed sporadic posting over the past few weeks and for that, I apologize. But packing and organizing is time consuming and stressful, and I get distracted easily. I went through all my pictures of home and picked and edited my favorites for this post, as penance.

Head Beach at Hermit Island. Phippsburg, Maine.

The move comes as sort of a crossroads for us; after living in Fullerton, CA for almost four years together, we've really grown to love it here. But we're ready for new adventures, our lease is up, and the seasons they are-a-changin'. 
Our plan is to drive back east in our Honda, and build a very small, very eco-friendly house on some of the land bequeathed to me in Maine. By tiny, I mean probably less than 120 square feet. This would (hopefully) allow us to skirt around a lot of the building codes generally associated with a house. We're gonna have to get really creative to make this work, but we plan on using all recycled materials from torn-down barns and buildings and the muscle and generosity of our friends and neighbors.
We're hoping to be able to harness some sort of the solar and/or water energy from the area to help reduce costs and keep the electric to a minimum, if we use any at all. Obviously we'll be living pretty rustically, but thats sort of the point. Living in Orange County is wonderful and warm, don't get me wrong- but its also very, very draining. There is no privacy, no escape from the rest of the population. I can hear my neighbor coughing and flushing his toilet very vividly every morning through my bedroom window- and I've had enough.

Back Bay at Hermit Island Cove. Phippsburg, Maine.

Growing up in Maine was idyllic, though I didn't realize it until I moved out state and compared childhood memories with friends. I quickly realized that I had total freedom as a child- I was aloud to ride my bike up and down the unlined roads all day, travel into the fields with a picnic by myself, or just hang out climbing a tree somewhere in the woods. I was always home before it got dark, and my parents didn't have to worry about me- all of our close neighbors were family members, and the ones who weren't technically related treated us like family all the same. 
My favorite activites consisted of hiking into the woods with my Dad, or picking fresh, plump blackberries from behind my house with my Mom. Maine is such a great place for a kid with an appreciation of the outdoors to grow up, and my family nurtured that from early on. 

Caterpillars & Hiking Trails. Bath, Maine.

We're leaving on our cross country drive sometime in the first week of April. We're heading up to Yosemite to camp for our first night and driving through Mammoth Mountain (over the mountain?) on our second morning. Past that, our tentative drive looks like this: California, Nevada, Utah, Colo., Kansas, Missiouri...and then pretty much just North East 7 or 8 more states until we hit home! It should take us 56 hours of drive time..so we're thinking about a week and a half of travel. It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of vegan eats we can find on the road...which is the main reason we chose our route actually: we didn't think states like Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi would have much in the way of vegan options. We're also planing on bringing lots of homemade granola bars, plenty of PB&J rations, and bottled water, just in case.

Rocky Cliffs of the Coast. Maine.

We're preparing here by getting all of the proper pre-road trip adjustments to our cars, organizing all of our belongings into either a 'keep', 'toss', or 'sell' pile, and eating as many dinners at restaurants we'll miss as possible. 
We're going to try and keep the trip as cheap as possible so we can try and essentially pay cash only for the entire house building process. That means no extra stops and especially no trinkets and keychains from every state. Bummer. Luckily, I'll have my camera and will be constantly updating the blog so you can follow our adventures and mishaps with what will be the best summer ever.
We'll be blogging about building the house, DIY home projects, and of course plenty of vegan recipes. It'll be a fun challenge cooking in a place with such a different palette than where I live now. So stay tuned! 
We'll be adding a logo to the sidebar so you can get straight to house updates, or you can follow along via email when you sign up for our newsletter. 

Spring woods, fall woods. Whitefield, Maine.

Want more info on what we're going for? Check out some of our favorite tiny house inspiration websites:
Tumbleweed Tiny Houses
Tiny House Blog
Cabin Porn
Dwell
Simple Solar Homesteading
Pinterest

My Dad's last seasons piglets. Cutest!