Midpines, CA: Yosemite Bug Rustic Mountain Resort (The Bug)

The view from our daily hike!

So, after all that hullabaloo with the Zinger, it ended up making it the 12 hour stretch from Valley Center to where we are now in Midpines which is basically right near Yosemite!!! We're staying at a rustic mountain resort and have been introduced to many as their "organic farmers"(really? maybe, it's just weird when we're called something we've never really thought we were...haha). We arrived on a Saturday and were welcomed by Douglas, the co-owner of Yosemite Bug Rustic Mountain Resort who took us around and gave us an initial tour and then got us aquatinted with where we would be getting paid (in food) ...THE CAFE!

The Cafe

The Cafe at the Bug is really a big hang out area where locals, as well as guests who are staying at "The Bug", as well as The Bug's employees come to UNWIND and/or RECHARGE. Douglas introduced us to almost everyone he knew and we ate amazing food. Because it was our first night and "The Clangers", a local band was playing, Douglas kept the pitchers of local beer comin'! We really enjoyed our introduction (some might have called it an initiation) and couldn't wait to start working on the Garden.

Behind us is a steep uphill back to our tent cabin and ahead of us is a steep uphill to the Cafe. Really energizes the metabolism before and after eating!!

Where we are staying: Tent Cabin A, is a close walking distance away from the gardens, but a 10 minute hike both ways to the CAFE (each way uphill). We also have to climb 50 ft of stairs to the bathroom (yes, even in the middle of the night). So, if we don't get a bagged lunch at breakfast time, we hike 60 minutes everyday. It's actually been really great because eating the amazing cafe food all the time...we never ever have leftovers (and we have an excuse!).

Our tent cabin and the stairs to the bathroom...haha

There are two gardens here: the north and the south. We spent a few hours on Sunday mapping out both of them and Curt is currently putting our map into a photoshop document (rough draft below)

so that we can easily organize where to plant and put all the drip lines (soooo professional!) We might blow it up and laminate it too so that we can use dry erase markers for planning. There are 38 beds in all,  each are 16' by 2.5'. There are scattered tire planters, about 15 total, rose bushes, apricot trees, and a couple random herb plots. We definitely have our work cut out for us and the last couple days we have surely put our feet into high gear! Each of the beds have to be cleared of last years roots as well as completely cleared of all weeds WOAH....and there are a LOT of weeds, it took us 9 hours to clear out the South Garden beds and we are just about finished now with the North Garden. We then need to add onto the original beds to make them higher and then fill them with 4-6 wheel barrel loads of manure and mushroom compost (that's about 200 wheel barrel loads). 

South Garden

North Garden: before and after weeding

Curt's rough draft of the garden map for the North Garden!

The next project will be to get the compost area in working condition. We were really happy to find a pile of old compost that was basically a worm breeding pile! We made a sifter and sifted out the amazing compost and used it in our seed starting mix (4 parts sifted compost, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part perlite, and 2 parts peat moss). We are waiting for the seeds to come in the mail so we can start tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in the greenhouse! 

Compost sifter from recycled materials and WORMS!

Well that's all for now! We've got to go eat some food and talk garden talk. We're excited for the upcoming weekend as there is another band coming friday (every weekend there is a band actually) and saturday there is a mycology event that Douglas invited us to join (YAY, we love mushrooms). Sunday we have scheduled a NOT DOING ANYTHING CAVE DAY! It might be a while until we make another post but we'd love to hear from all of you who have been following us. Let us know you're out there by telling us about your favorite things happening this spring!  

Venice Beach/ Jalama Beach, California

Back on the road

Thursday 3/21/13: Boy what a long day on the road it's been, it seems like we've forgotten how tiring life on the road can be!  As of the writing of this post it's 9PM and we're 'caving it' inside the van listening to the wind whip around us outside, having just recently completed an exhausting drive to a remote campground at Jalama Beach (rated highly among the top 10 places to camp around the Las Angeles County area).  Our day began at 6AM back in Valley Center, as we prepared to leave Joel and Prima and the Casa Bella Farm.  Not even an hour after we had woken up we were confronted with what we thought was going to be a vehicular disaster.  A 'trip ruiner' if you will.  The day before we were going through our van with Joel, who used to own one himself (an '85 Westy just like ours in fact!) and we decided to check the oil, tire pressure, and transmission fluid.  Well good thing we did because the transmission fluid turned out to be low, real low.  We knew we had a slight leak but hadn't checked it since getting it replaced in Sarasota.  Now this wasn't the disaster.  We ended up getting it back up to the proper level (it actually turned out to be not that low after all) but figured we'd check it once more the next day before we departed.  So this morning after getting our last load of laundry going we take the van for a quick drive around the block and check the fluid.  All's good.  But then we noticed a puddle of gas accumulating under the motor- oh no! a long fix/disaster... we thought!  There's a saying that 'when one door closes another opens,' and it seems the same can be said about Volkswagen van maintenance-  when one issue is resolved another one presents itself.  Just when we thought we had everything running smoothly!  As we started to panic, contemplate worst case scenarios, and get upset, Joel talked us into attempting to fix the problem ourselves.  The leak (which stopped not long after the motor was turned off) appeared to be coming from the same spot as when we had broken down in the desert- a hard to reach fuel line which had been replaced by the old man at the Shell station not much more than 3 weeks ago.  With Joel's guiding expertise and expansive set of tools (he always has the right tool for everything!) we were able to fix the line (it pretty much just wasn't pushed in far enough- thanks a lot Shell station guy).  Joel even gave us a few extra tools and some zip ties to take on the road with us, what a guy!  Apparently he's the Mr. Miyagi of pretty much everything not just irrigation systems...  Without being caused much of a delay by the vehicular disaster-averted we said our goodbyes (sadly) and hit the road.  It's always hard to say goodbye and this time was no exception.  We had really become fond of Joel and Prima, we enjoyed their cooking and their company and were grateful to have learned so much from them in such a short time.  Hopefully someday we will return, we know we are always welcome and that warms our hearts!

Venice Beach

Now that we were back on track it was time to gas up and head north to LA!  A side note about gas: We learned from Joel that we should be using mid-grade or premium gas in the van (we confirmed this online and with Gordon, the van's previous owner) and although this came as quite the surprise to us (at least we had made it this far we thought) we are now committed to filling the van up with mid-grade fuel (as if California gas wasn't expensive enough!)  Anything to keep our Zinger happy and healthy!  We had debated visiting the LA area altogether and had almost decided against it mainly due to the traffic jam horror stories we had heard about but luckily we were talked back into it by a California native named Nancy, one of Prima's friends.  Based on their recommendations, our plan was to head up the coast to Venice Beach and then cruise down Sunset Blvd.  Kim had looked up and found the campground at Jamala Beach which was near Santa Barbara, a few hours up the road from Venice.  LA being such a big place we were happy to have figured out a plan that didn't actually take us into the city with all the traffic and chaos.  Venice Beach turned out to be a very cool place indeed.  Since it was the middle of the day on a Thursday it wasn't totally packed but there were no shortage of interesting people

Muscle Beach...the gym right on the beach!

We ended up having to skip Sunset Blvd due to lack of time (blame that one on early morning van troubles but maybe someday we'll check it out).  The drive up the coast was very enjoyable however.  The Malibu coastline was straight out of a movie!  But as the sun started to set things got a little hectic.  Around the time we were driving past Ventura Beach we were dealing with extreme winds, the sun in our eyes, and a dirty windshield.  Anytime you've got a lot of driving to do there's always going to be that one portion where it just kind of sucks for a little while.  It usually comes at the end of the day when you're a little tired and/or hungry and you just want to be at your destination.  We eventually made it through that section of highway and entered the hills of Santa Barbara.  The sun went down enough where it wasn't a problem and we cleaned the windshield (no thanks to our wipers and fluid).  We got a burst of energy driving through the VERY rural farmland valleys that looked like they could have been from the Lord of the Ring movies (why'd they have to go all the way to New Zealand to make those movies!?)  The contrast between these views and the scenes of Venice Beach and Highway 1 was amazing.  We couldn't believe we were in the same state!  The winding roads up and down steep valley cliffs did get a little tiresome as it was starting to get dark but we made it to our beachfront campsite just in time.  We'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what this place actually looks like, but it's definitely in the middle of nowhere which is pretty rare for the California Coast.  Hopefully the wind dies down because right now it's literally shaking the van and we think the van has been through enough for one day...  Welcome back to life on the road!

WINDY!!!

Friday 3/22/13: After a day at Jalama Beach in Lompoc CA, where we are in a 10 mile radius of NO phone or internet service...life has been relaxing! Just what we needed to rest the day before we hit the road again to our next destination where we will be for two months in Midpines CA near Yosemite (a place called Yosemite Bug Rustic Mountain Resort). We woke up and took a leisurely beach walk after breakfast. We made a stir fry lunch of zucchini, cabbage, mushrooms, garlic, onion and tofu! mmm.  While we rested up and watched kite surfers do their thing, we were grateful of the day of rest we aquired before we leave tomorrow! Can't wait for dinner too...we are marinading some Salmon with a maple habanero onion rub! Oh ya, and the SUNSET...WHAT WHAT?!?! Who said camping has to be rustic? haha. That's all for now, we'll try to update you once we get settled into our new spot.

Enjoying a nice glass of wine for sunset on the beach!

Pics of Valley Center and our 2nd trip to San Diego up on the FB...

Valley Center, CA: Casa Bella Farm

Back to work!

Here we are, settled again after a long journey driving from coast to coast! After putting on nearly 2,500 miles since Florida and traveling for four weeks, we were really ready to put the van in park for a few weeks (the Zinger let out a long sighhhhh). Once we left San Diego, we drove an hour north to the beautiful town of Valley Center, former home of John Wayne, Fred Astaire, and many other olden tyme Hollywood celebrities. We are staying with a wonderful couple, Joel and Prima Zarza and are helping them continue their plans of creating a farm on their 14 acre property. 

Casa Bella Farm is a land and home within a gated community. The houses are large, the views incredible, and the pools vanishing (literally, they have a vanishing edge saltwater pool with a slide and hot tub)! 

In the last 10 years, the Zarza's have landscaped and added to their property in small increments. For example, there is a guava grove with 150 guava trees, the beginnings ("model") of a vineyard with six grape vines, 5 raised beds for vegetables, banana trees, blackberry bushes, blueberry bushes, dragonfruit, and and all sorts of other exotic fruits we've never heard of before. They hope to be able to become a "farm stay" in the future. The only hurdle that presents itself currently is the zoning of a large part of the property. If they are able to change the zoning of that parcel, they are looking into implementing a large vineyard which would allow them to truly become a "farm" and start hosting "farm stays."  It's really exciting stuff!

Lucky the dog, Prima and Kim, and the garden beds.

We have been here for pretty much 2 weeks and find there are just not enough hours in the day to do all the things we want/need (like keep up with the blog). The first couple of days it was raining and in the upper 40's but it has warmed up to VT summer temps (or hotter); today was 89 and sunny! Here's a list of some of the things we have been doing:

1. Constructed 2 barn owl boxes- hopefully they'll entice some barn owls to move in and hunt down all the troublesome gophers on the property.

2. Visited Mountain Meadow Mushrooms, a local mushroom farm that gives the community access to free compost.  It's AMAZING compost as the mushrooms are grown in manure and sawdust and the compost is a mixture of that and some mushrooms that didn't make the cut. We've been twice and each time loaded up 6 garbage bins full of the compost to bring back to Casa Bella!  It stinks like the dickens but helps make great soil!

3. Planted blueberry bushes and 10 fruit trees (bing cherry, apricot, pear, orange and a few 'mystery' trees that lost their tags).  Also planted 5 raised beds with vegetables (tomatoes, basil, beans, peas, peppers, eggplant, cumbers, lettuce, zucchini, strawberries, and radishes). One of the raised beds needed to be filled with topsoil and compost and lined with chicken wire to keep the gophers out so we helped with that too!

4. Harvested rocks (straight out of the ground!) for landscaping around trees and for rock walls.  Prima and Joel's hilly property has no shortage of rocks which is a blessing and a curse.  It's hard digging but all those rocks come in handy for decorating!

5. Cleaned up the grape vine area- we weeded around the base of the plants, added compost, and then mulched the walkways.  It's looking fancy!

6. Learned A TON about drip irrigation. We call Joel the irrigation master because he is basically the Mr. Miyagi of irrigation systems! He's taught us how to install new lines, connect PVC lines, and put the system on an automatic timer.

7. Tried our hand at pruning trees: apricot, guava, and a few other types.  They have so many fruit trees!

It's not ALL work though. We do get to enjoy ourselves (doing work is actually fun for us if you can imagine) and enjoy the company of Joel and Prima! Prima is an amazing cook and with her Philippino heritage comes some delicious foods. At first, they warned us of the tastes and then soon realized we will try and eat almost anything!  We even had fish served the traditional way, heads and all!  After learning we have never had Vietnamese food or fish tacos, they brought us out to try both... we are spoiled WWOOF'ers, that's for sure! Also, don't forget about the vanishing edge saltwater pool: It reached 72 degrees while we were here. They even brought us to their friend Doug's farm and he had a couple of French WWOOF'ers. It was fun to walk around his property and see all of the projects he had going on. 

Casa Bella is also only a 20 minute drive from some awesome hiking! We made it to Hellhole Canyon Preserve (it's a lot nicer than it sounds) and did a scenic 4 mile hike.

On the way to the preserve we got lost (well WE didn't, our GPS did) and ended up at a property where we found another start-up farm. We spent about an hour and a half talking with Jane at that farm (currently in the process of naming it- thinking of 'Heavenly Hills' as that would go well near Hellhole Canyon) about the WWOOF program and touring her farm and happily holding baby goats! Jane, if you're reading this, keep up the good work! 

This past weekend we headed back to San Diego for some St. Patty's day fun but that'll be for another blog post.  Hopefully soon, keep those fingers crossed Internet!

San Diego, CA: Pacific Beach

Getting to San Diego was somewhat challenging.  We had been delayed 6 hours by a breakdown but were determined to make it.  95 South was a fun drive, lot's of straight roads with 'dips' that made us feel like we were in the video game road rash!  Blasting through the desert listening to the Ventures (surf music) was pretty sweet.  We ended up doing more nighttime driving than we would have liked but eventually made our way over to the Pacific Beach section of San Diego to meet up with some Vermont transplants that we hadn't seen in what felt like forever.  Our friends Ellie, Amanda, and Melissa (all of whom Kim grew up with) had moved to San Diego and mutual friend Maria was in town on a visit.  They had margaritas waiting for us and it was just like we were back in VT except with nicer weather for early March.  Our friends Jacob, Noble, and Johnny were also in town and the Vermont reunion party we threw that first night was just what we needed after a long, long day of van repair and desert driving.

The next day we (eventually) awoke to some bad news.  Our bikes had been stolen.  We had taken them down from the van and locked them up inside the courtyard of the apartment complex we were staying at which we assumed would be a safe spot.  Apparently not, the chain was cut and the bikes were gone.  Luckily that was probably the worst thing that has happened to us this whole trip and the rest of our stay in San Diego was happy and fun.  We'll miss you fold-up bikes, you fit so nicely on top of our van!  Our plan for the day was to go to the beach.  We lucked out with some unseasonably warm 80˚ weather and the beach we were headed for was unlike any we had ever seen...

Sunset Cliffs is not a place for the elderly or faint of heart.  The parking lot sits atop 100 ft rock cliffs and the entrance to the beach is a steep, winding dirt path that ends with a 10 ft rope that you must rappel down.  We've never seen ANYTHING like this on the East Coast.  This was a real 'welcome to California' moment.  Lights, camera, action- we're in the movies now.  This beach was unreal.

The water was pretty cold but not cold enough to stop us from going for a swim.  We met some locals and had a grand time.  Although that beach day was probably the highlight of San Diego, we had a bunch of fun during our short visit.  We spent our time having (probably too much) fun at night and then usually paying for it the next day.  We went out to a few bars and watched a lot of movies on the couch.  We ate some good local food and also indulged in some West Coast fast food.  The In and Out Burger is the real deal!  We went for a bike/skate over to the pier which was pretty cool and caught an awesome Grateful Dead cover band at a great dive bar.

We ended up extending our stay an extra day (mostly to recuperate) but eventually it was time to move on.  Our next destination is Valley Center, CA, an hour northeast of San Diego county where we will be spending 2 weeks WWOOFing at a home/orchard/garden called Casa Bella Tranquilla.  Let the adventure continue!  (More pics on Facebook)

Mojave Desert, CA

California!  We made it at last!  After freezing our butts off in the Grand Canyon we were now in the California desert and it was WARM!  Finally!  Instead of wearing layers and layers and layers of clothing we were wearing t-shirts.  We had been waiting for this moment for what seemed like forever.  What a difference a day of driving makes.  We were so close to the West Coast we could feel the energy.  No offense to the other states we've been to so far but for some reason California literally felt special.  Maybe it's because this state is featured in so many movies and maybe that's because most movies are made here but whatever the reason we felt good to have finally made it this far in our journey.  We were destined for a night in the Mojave Desert and we were so excited!

Cool campsite and it's free! (no bathrooms...)

Getting to the Mojave National Preserve was a little nerve racking.  People had warned us about making sure not to run out of gas but they were talking about Texas.  This was the place they should have warned us about.  At no other point in our travels have we felt so alone, so in the middle of absolutely NOWHERE.  We were headed towards an official campground within the Preserve but the map we looked up listed several designated 'off-the-road' camping sites that we were going to try and find.  The map gave clues like 'past the wash several miles near a pile of rocks'- it was like a treasure map!  First of all, there were rocks everywhere- we were in the desert.  Second of all, what's a wash??  Somehow we found the spot (or a spot) and did a little off-roading to get the van situated for the night.  We were parked next to some rocks in the middle of the desert, at least 20 miles from the nearest sign of civilization.  It was kind of creepy at first but when we realized we literally would not see a single person all day or night it was amazing.  Having been born and raised on the East Coast where there are humans EVERYWHERE, this new feeling of isolation and freedom got us super pumped.  We were going to be camping in the Mojave Desert!

Little tiny Kimberly, alone in the desert...

We hopped out of the van and started exploring our surroundings.  Scraggy little mountains rose up from the lunar landscape and we scaled those mountains to survey the scene.  More nothingness.  We screamed as loud as we could and laughed.  The sun was starting to set but it wasn't going to be nearly as cold as it was in the Grand Canyon, mid 40's was the predicted low temp.  We cooked a meal of eggplant and quinoa in the van and drank some Grand Canyon beers we picked up (at the Grand Canyon).  We got to bed early but not after doing some spectacular desert star-gazing.

We woke up to the sunrise and decided to get an early start.  Our next destination was San Diego to see our friends and the Pacific Ocean and if left early we'd be there just after lunch.  We were a little worried about when the next gas station was going to be, but after the amazing night we had just experienced, nothing was going to derail us!  And then the van broke down...

Just after we had updated our friend Ellie with our ETA Kim began smelling gasoline (why does she always have to do that!?)  When we noticed the gas tank meter dropping at an alarming rate we pulled off the side of the highway and hopped out.  Now the last time something like this happened, Curt whipped off his shirt, crawled under the van and reconnected a dangling fuel line.  We were back on the road in pretty much no time.  This time around, the problem was not as obvious and Curt kept his shirt on.  Always take the shirt off!  At this point even if we could have fixed whatever was broken we had dumped enough gas onto the highway that there was no way we were going to make it to the next gas station.  Time to call a tow truck.  AAA covered the first 7 miles but since we were in the Mojave Desert the nearest repair center was about 50 miles back in the wrong direction.  Oh well, at least the tow truck driver was cool.  At a Shell station in Needles, CA we were dropped off and left at the mercy of our mechanics.

Even though we ended up spending a lot of money that day, it could have been worse.  Our mechanic was a weathered old man who knew his stuff and gave us a fair deal.  He fixed a broken fuel line cheap enough and talked us into buying a new set of tires.  Based on our records, the current tires were about 6 years old and definitely worn thin so we knew it was time.  There was a quick scare when the mechanic almost crushed our roof box (thereby endangering our whole roof) but everything turned out to be fine.  After bumming around in the desert for about 6 hours we were back on our way driving through more California desert en route to San Diego!  Check out some pics of the desert on Facebook and there's also some video clips on our Vimeo page.