Going Mobile

Test: I've spent the morning trying to get full iPhoto and mobile
blogging in gear.

We Closed on the House, the Shackhaus, It's all ours now.

One for Jasper

One for Me

And one for Ralph's Place. 

Here's our waterview - btw, behind the trees is the mighty Bagaduce.

Guest Quarters or Bonfire? Guest Quarters.

Jasper found a lady love on the property. She's not likely to set sail ever again, but still - he has a crush.

But the 1963 Duracraft aluminum racing boat shall be rehabbed immediately. Immediately. Her name will reflect her 007 Bond-like sexiness.

Reintroduction: The Milking Cow and the Shot Gun

I fielded a few questions about the blog yesterday and saw the need to restate an official statement of purpose, or introduction to this blog. Please forgive any repetition in advance.

March 2008

It's been nearly a year since I returned to Maine form Los Angeles in order to help care for my father. In that year everything has changed. The economy collapsed, the political climate shifted radically and so did my ideas of how I want live and how to go about making that manifest.

It seems to me that instead of pursuing some of my more lofty dreams as I was in the big smoke, it would be wiser to move more intentionally to a self-sustaining lifestyle, one more impervious to the ups and downs of the market, one more invested in living well, living responsibly, living independently and advancing my economical situation by reducing my dependence on an infrastructure run by a bunch of usurious crooks!

So I've made the move to Maine permanent, decided to get a milking cow and a shotgun, I'm going to hunker down and sit out the apocalypse!

Teamed up with my partner Jasper (a sustainable-living-DIY pro and a carpenter/) and presented with an opportunity to buy a piece of land with some buildings on it in the area we love for a price where the mortgage is less than a modest monthly electric bill or cell-phone bill, I find myself leaping blindly into my own new world order. We are, with nearly no financial means, aiming to be both productive in the world at large and significantly self-sustaining at home within a year. Maybe 18 months. Because we don't have much money to invest in expensive eco-technologies we are both fluid and relaxed about this goal, we will do what we can, and we are presented with the exciting challenge of being exceptionally resourceful.

We're making this blog because we think it's necessary to show the difficulties of living well and living responsibly on an extremely limited budget with limited time and limited resources. Jasper has a full-time job which he will be keeping and he likes to sail and travel and make art and fix up old cars. I make art full-time and carry many freelance jobs and then I write fiction on the side. We do not want this project to consume our lives. It will consume our lives but we will fight against that while still trying to achieve the seemingly impossible.

Nervous and Waiting

We are still waiting to hear back about this property. We have gathered the necessary money. The title search is being performed by the lawyer. We want this property. We need this property. We love this property. We have big plans.  We can think of nothing else. We are a people obsessed. We draw houses and barns all day long. We research building and renovating techniques both ancient and modern. We argue about imaginary heating systems. We worry about trees not even on our property. We are already planting the gardens.

We wait for Lawyers and good luck. 

Imagining Little Studio

Yes, we added pontoons and an outboard motor to the imagined little studio. 

And yes, that's Pushkin pulling the studio  from the front. 

It's a studio ready for the apocalypse. 

It's Final, I Moved to Maine: the STUFF arrived

Unloading the STUFF at Penobscot storage.

The Uhaul was packed up at the shipping transfer station in southern Maine by Jasper's father, Evans. Thank you Evans.

And was unpacked in Downeast Maine by Jasper, inheritor of what these two men refer to as "the packing gene." Thank you, Jasper.

Now my stuff rests a while longer in storage waiting for me to find it a resting place. I can't wait to dig into that box I labeled, "SORT or DIE." Also, I'm anxious to crack open that box labeled "Broken Hard Drives," which is not to be confused with the box labeled "Well-Loved and Savable Hard Drives."

I should mention that I packed my stuff into storage in a one-week panic last March. I will not be held responsible for the contents of these boxes.

I've found a little house on 3.8 acres

I'm going to try to get it.




I've begun renovations in my mind.

I've started the garden.

I've retrofitted the whole thing to be autonomous.



I've harvested a year's worth of food.

I've built a studio and guest quarters.



I love I love I love this little spot.

Final Decisions Made: A New Life

Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown, Los Angeles. Happy Year of the Ox!

As I write this all of my belongings are being driven across the country, from Los Angeles where they have been in storage since April 2007 to join me in Maine. It's nerve-wracking and thrilling, I finally committed to staying and trying to make a go of things here, perched on the edge of Penobscot Bay.

The purpose of this blog is to document what will have to be a radical reinvention of my life, how I live, how I make a living, whom I love, what I make and what I do. Around the world this seems to be a time of re-invention, innovation and reconsideration of things we once took for granted.

Happy New Year, happy Year of the Ox, welcome Barak Obama, welcome to the Age of Aquarius, welcome to a new life.

Welcome to Vagabond Hotel, a blog detailing the quest for a better life, perhaps even self-subsistence within 18 months (my semi-secret goal).

Exhibtion Achieved, Storage Next

On the Eve of Decisions

The view out my window today, this is an urchin boat unoading

This is my last day in Maine, tomorrow I leave for Los Angeles where I will put up an exhibition of my artwork and then deal with all of my belongings there.

I decide this week whether to return to Los Angeles where making a living is possible or to relocate my belongings to join me indefinitely on the remote coast of Maine.