I’m back in Portland for just a few days after a full week in San Jose.  This week has included a lot of working and planning for many things, mostly which reminded me of what my manager used to say- “when the scene changes- you work the plan, don’t let the plan work you.”

I love to work, and helping my brother with his house was no different.  We gardened:

The median strip definitely needs improvement with native plants.

My brother finally makes an appearance on the blog (in an admittedly terrible photo)!

and we mended the fence (that I had built 5 years ago) after the neighbor backed into one of the posts.

Your pressure treated fence posts aren't supposed to look, or wiggle, like this one.

Putting the finishing "touches" on the split... with the sledge (and yes, the pipe and rope come off later).

As always, we ate a lot of great food, shared many great conversations, and generally took it easy while planning my next move.

I came back from Ecuador with a clear sense of my goals, and what I thought might be a clear path to work towards them, but as is often the case, sometimes the plans change.  I had hoped to join a close friend in starting a business together in Alaska which would pursue some of those goals, but upon my return we agreed that the timing wasn’t right, and that the idea should remain for another opportunity later in our lives.  Suddenly, what I thought was a clear path to execute became a lot broader.  The goal remains the same- participate as a leader in a locally oriented business that affects resource consumption towards sustainable levels.  I have a lot of questions to ask, so Thursday afternoon I’m headed to Montana to ask some people who might have more insight on what needs to be done next.  Local renewable energy and local organic food?  Making it happen requires organization, dedication, and business acumen- which happen to be right up my alley.  Down the rabbit hole we go.