I started writing this in February, and just dug it up to finish it before I get into writing my big May travel post. Enjoy! As the 1-year anniversary of quitting my old battery engineering job rolls by, I’d like to share some reflections about my time at Form Energy. How I ended up there… Continue reading That Battery Job I Quit
Category: Personal
Year Three of No Flying
My last flight was in the fall of 2021, so it’s really been about three and a half years, but this has become an annual holiday post and I like that (see Year Two and Year One for some throwbacks and more context). Speaking of holidays, I’m on vacation right now. Staycation. I finally decided… Continue reading Year Three of No Flying
Save America’s Ecovillage
This time last year, I was biking through Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, regions that have now been devastated by Hurricane Helene. It’s shocking to see pictures of charming mountain towns I recall riding through, now torn-up and buried by the flooding. One of those places is Earthaven Ecovillage, one of America’s longest-running (30… Continue reading Save America’s Ecovillage
Biking 1000 Miles Through Michigan
This June I completed my longest bike trip yet—one thousand and seven miles over thirteen days, starting near Detroit, looping around Michigan’s lower peninsula and ending in Cleveland, Ohio. The idea began way back in early spring when some new friends (also Community Rebuilds alumni) invited me to their straw-clay work party in Boyne City,… Continue reading Biking 1000 Miles Through Michigan
My Time In Moab with Community Rebuilds
I spent March and April as a volunteer/intern/work-trader at Community Rebuilds, a small nonprofit Moab, Utah, that builds energy-efficient houses to alleviate the housing crisis there. Some background: last year, as I prepared to embark, full-steam, on my journey into natural building, I came across Community Rebuilds (CR) online. They started in the early 2000s… Continue reading My Time In Moab with Community Rebuilds
Some Thoughts on Meditation
This morning I biked to Grandstaff Canyon to hike. At the soaring natural sandstone bridge that marked the end of the trail, I found myself alone for a short while, and sat on a flat rock to meditate. It makes for an idyllic picture, but the truth is that meditating under “America’s sixth longest natural… Continue reading Some Thoughts on Meditation
Boston to Utah by Train and Bike
Storytime! As some of you know, I recently (mid February) quit my job in battery engineering (which I had worked since I graduated college, for 1.75 years) to do natural building related work as both a profession and passion. As I keep on saying to everybody, I’ll be sharing more about this in writing soon.… Continue reading Boston to Utah by Train and Bike
Year Two of No Flying
Emily here, reporting on my second straight calendar year of no flying (first year post). At first, I couldn’t think of much to say about the absence of an experience, the same way I have nothing to say about not riding a camel and not driving a tractor. I just haven’t done it; it’s not a… Continue reading Year Two of No Flying
Sleeping on a Dog Bed for a Year
From October 2022 to July 2023, I slept on a bed that I made myself by hand. It’s basically a giant rectangular pillow, made of a length of velvety, navy blue synthetic fabric and filled with synthetic pillow stuffing. I jokingly call it a dog bed in the title of this post because while it’s… Continue reading Sleeping on a Dog Bed for a Year
Biking to a Cob Workshop
In the middle of October I spent two weeks embarking on an adventure I’d been planning for a while: this is the whole story of that adventure. Earlier in 2023, I was thinking about how important it is to have some idea of not only what I am trying to reduce (ecological disaster, suffering, injustice,… Continue reading Biking to a Cob Workshop
evoiding 