About Us

This is Tris. Most people call her T. We met on Christmas Day in 2008. She hails from Northern Minnesota, so we have a lot of fun with her accent, which I have picked up and use quite often now. She has 2 sisters and 3 brothers. T is a smart kid. She has degrees in Criminal Justice and Forensic Psychology and a certification for motorcycle mechanics. As you can see, she rides her Harley Davidson everywhere and when I am lucky, I get to ride on the back. Although I am learning to ride it alone! She is my home, my lighthouse and my secret-keeper.

This is me. This picture was taken at the Seattle Public Works building in July of 2009. I love Seattle. I have many friends there, but I don't know If I could live there because it is rainy most months. I love my sunshine! I was born in Tucson and aside from extended vacations and an exchange trip in 1994 to Germany, I have never lived out of Arizona. I am not sure I ever will. I happen to love this state's weather, but I loathe most of it's inhabitants. AZ is a Republican's wet dream. I plan to keep on changing that! I have 2 sisters that live in northern AZ with and close to my parents. When I am not studying to keep my straight A's, I knit, blog, sew, dream and play. For money, I sell my knitting and sewing and I work with kids with autism. I love my job, I love those kids.

This is us on New Years Eve 2009 at our small house party that we call Family Dinner. We have Family Dinners quite often when I am on break from school; at least once a week, oftentimes two or three times a week. Family means just that. Our blood family, our friends, gay, queer, transgender, lesbian, straight, you name it, all are invited. Together we manage our garden, camp, plan our life, sing, smile, raise our babies, write, read, Facebook, host Family Dinners, laugh, cry, watch movies and dream.

Tris and I raise our (they came from my vagina) three boys with love, patience and much tolerance and honesty. Number One is 11, Number Two will be 10 soon and Number Three is 6. They make us smile, laugh, shake our heads, question why, fume and think about everything. They love us unconditionally and we give that right back to them. They are the hope for the future, so we try to be careful with their souls. Tris couldn't love them more if they were originally hers. They still see their dad half time and that relationship is good. I am grateful for that. They all go to Waldorf School where they learn regular academics, in addition to, gardening, woodworking, handwork (knitting, sewing, crocheting and such), cooking (especially food they have grown themselves), Spanish, beeswax modeling and painting. They learn to find the beauty within and without, something that is reinforced at home.

I am writing this blog to hopefully show our journey to simplicity. I did a little test to see what my carbon footprint on this earth is and it showed 4.5. At that rate, we would still need almost two earths to fulfill my wants. My real want is to reduce that to almost nothing. By further reducing, we hope to cut our expenses down so far that we only have to work part-time and still be able to afford to save enough money to buy ourselves a piece of land to live off of. Our garden is just the beginning of this. We are (very) slowly converting our garage into a sustainable living structure of cob and straw bale. We would like the small amount of energy we need to be generated by the sun, which AZ has an abundance of. I will write a whole blog on the plans for the dwelling later.

This process may be slow, but I know we will accomplish this, even while I am in school. I graduate in May with my AA, then off to ASU for a Bachelors of Ummmmm? Ok, so I haven't quite figured that out yet. Maybe math, environmental science, special ed, I don't know, but what I do know is that Tris will support whatever I want to do now and later. I also know I will do that for her! Love really is what this world needs. Love, understanding and to have his cloud of consumerism lifted.