Just this last week – as part of Bike Commute Challenge – we installed a new bike rack in the front yard of Organic Haus. We are also beginning to set up a rain water catchment system with four 55 gallon barrels. And we are beginning planning to convert more of our front yard into more of a berry patch or herb garden or both. We may even plan a stone patio as a place to sit our and enjoy the gardens. The bike rack is set-up just in time for the Car Free party coming up on September 19th. We hope to see you here for that.

On Father’s Day 2009 we rode out of the house around 10am. We rode on two bikes – the Bike Friday Triple with Burley Piccolo attached to the back and the Seven Xtracycle with Burley D’Lite attached for kid back-up options. We ended up taking the trailer/stroller all the way to the top of Spencer Butte. We had a TV crew stop us on the climb and interview us about what we were doing for DAD. They got some good video of us climbing up the mountain. http://www.kval.com/news/local/48734472.html

We had a great ride and the whole day was perfect. I couldn’t have hoped for anything better that this!

We are slow to write, but things are going well for us. We have been very busy with things like the Chicken Pox, BMX racing, potty training, birthday dinner, Valentines festivities, the Eugene Bike Summit, lots of freelance work, pizza dinners with company, painting inside, fence rework, tree trimming, work and school. Paul has been doing a lot of GEARs volunteer work and Monica has had a few school policy meetings a couple of focus groups relating to children w/ disabilities.

The weather the last two months has really been easy to bike in too. We are already planning our garden for this Spring – we’ve ordered the seeds from Territorial Seed Co. through Rainy’s school fund raiser.

Our Chickens are back to laying full time, five eggs a day, and the bees have been flying a couple of the warmer days.

We are looking forward to this summer already. We are closing in on a full year of being car free. Check out some of our recent photos at the Gallery. I think I may be reworking this blog over to WorkPress in the next few months.

We got these license plates for our bikes for Christmas. We will be installing them on our bikes this week. Car free living is working out good. We certainly aren’t getting out as much, but we aren’t wasting time and money at gas stations and fast food places either. I think going carfree has helped us keep our priorities closer to where we want them to be.