Today I am assembling the away kit and cleaning the house. I thought I’d update along the way…
In it’s function as a staging area and way station, the Artist house needs regular maintenance. Today I replenished the grain and legume cache.
Some supplies in the cache are over 10 years old, which is the beauty of whole grains and legumes – they keep indefinitely. In the process of cleaning the buckets I encountered some 1998 labels written by my then wife. Our 11 year anniversary is this month. Don’t know where you are Terri, but sending you love today.
After a bit of tai chi and yoga, I vacuumed the main room and set up the tent that I had loaned to the perky Melanie Chopko. She had taken it on two adventures, South America and upstate New York. Upon inspection I found a pile of leaves and dirt, bug guts smeared on the netting and the rain fly damp and musty. She might have set it up near a campfire as there’s an ash hole in the net. Shucks. Now I don’t feel so bad about the pasta sauce I spilled in her NVC book.
The tents in the wash and I am working on traveling clothes. The standard ensemble – black cargo pants, merino wool tops and bottoms, wind shell. I might not need the merino in Hawaii unless I climb Mauna Loa, but there’s still the getting there – across the continental US with it’s high plains and rockies. The camping kits is minimal, just enough to be comfortable outside overnight. It’s all about the weight, I’d like to have no more than 50lbs to carry, if that. Camera kits is already weighing in at ~22lbs and the rest of the gear is ~ 25lbs. That’s before water and food.
Further tweaking is required.