well,
hi grandma, i'm sorry i haven't been here in a while! hope you're doing well and you received my card a short while ago.

i admit i seem to have vacated this website and left it for better times, but certainly it's not because nothing has been happening.
that last few months have been extraordinary as time would have to admit. many excellent meals have been cooked, written down, redone, revamped. a little scotch drank, a few walls have literally (and figuratively) been scaled. very few items have been found and reclaimed few stories made up about the lives of strangers, a country has been traversed and a new coast explored and i admit i'm a little tired. but i can't say it hasn't been the time of my life :)

oh johnny, where are you is very nearly finished. kelly may be putting it on her website soon, this web page will be notified of that happening. thanks to george and kelly for all your time and efforts and friendships.

we've started working on getting a legit (i.e. not dinky) recipe book made. the san francisco contingent being a bit helper on that end. the kevateria will continue it's examination of vegetarian food mixed with spices and herbs, the flavor experiment perhaps it should be called, let's throw some ideas around here peoples...

heather and i have since you and i last talked completed two WWOOF experiences. we both had a lot of fun and learned a great deal. i've become a fan of WWOOF as i've heard other peoples' stories and true to their words it was a wonderful experience. we had the pleasure of sharing in peoples' lives and lifestyles as they opened their homesteads to us. both were in oregon, which we discovered (or rather found out) runs the gamut of ecosystems and habitats. we stayed for two weeks at a ranch in the high desert of lake county in the south central valley region, 4600' elevation, just east of the cascades and close to so much forest service land we became spoiled with vistas and forests, cloudless nights and old time movie theaters (somehow that's related, i swear). we experienced the little town of Lakeview oregon there in the desert and then made our way to just northwest of corvallis oregon, in a rural town called Kings Valley. much lusher and more farmable than our previous stead. we stayed on a self-sustainable farm, where the crops grown were for the benefit of the farmers (us) and the 'cash crop' was jams and jellies. certainly we learned a vast amount there and though the lifestyle was maybe something a little too inaccessible for us, we value that experience nonetheless. we there had the opportunity to harvest seaweed straight from the pacific at low tide on a blisteringly chill morning while the fog reeled in from the coast and the sun struggled to make headway against that same gray billow. we camped after our stay on the farm, along the coast and on our way to portland, with which i fell in love.

in portland, kelly and i had a chance to quickly reunite the powers and joke like a couple of lost long forgotten friendos..... to which i shall return later this year

we then journeyed to san francisco, taking in the oregon dunes and the silent monstrous guards of the pacific the redwood trees of northern california. we hit san francisco and stayed out two weeks there, seeing my cousin marry and joining the culinary forces of matt and myself to incredible achievement... kati helped me start rock climbing and soon we were joined by the youngest of the family, my sister leah, stopping by on her way to cuenca ecuador, saraguro, then peru and chile before she begins a masters in spanish....

recipes, pictures, thoughts to follow.......