We found a cow lying in the mud. She couldnβt move. We couldnβt move her. Erik and I werenβt qualified to assess the situation. Weβd only been cowhands for a week. This was our third farm sit in New Zealand (basically housesitting on a farm) and our first time caring for cows. The owner was in a charity horse race across the Gobi dessert in southern Mongolia. She was off-grid for at least 10 days. We needed back up.
Read Moreby EMILY ORTON
Sometimes I feel like Iβm in this Netflix series called Drama World. Itβs a spoof on K-drama (i.e. Korean dramas) where the main character keeps waking up in a new show. The settings and situations are different but the cast is always the same. In real life, my family is always together, but we keep waking up in different countries and different seasons. Usually, itβs no big deal, but sometimes itβs trippy. (Thatβs a travel pun).
Read Moreby ERIK ORTON
Weβve had some pretty epic experiences lately as weβve transitioned from house sitting in Hawaii to farm sitting in New Zealand (pictures below). But the thing thatβs been on my mind a lot is pocket lint.
When traveling internationally, little things can matter a lot. Some examples include: having cash in the native currency, having cell/data service, knowing the right word (βtogsβ = βswimsuitβ in NZ). I suppose it should come as no small surprise that I was really struggling when my phone wouldnβt charge. I rely on it a lot. I use it for maps, finding a grocery store, buying bus tickets, and communicating in real time, just to name a few. So when my phone stopped taking a charge, I was distressed.
Read Moreby EMILY ORTON
Itβs road trip season. After house sitting in Hawaii for two months, I thought we would fly to Utah, visit our daughter, Karina, and road trip home to New York City. That was Plan A. Erik and I were content with Plan A.We were also open to an alternative route. Plan B was New Zealand. The kids picked plan B.
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Iβve learned that I like spending time with people who make me feel like things are possible. This is especially true for things that feel complicated, intimidating or beyond my reach.
Last week we went to Maui to see the island but mostly to spend time with new friends. Theyβd invited us over after a video chat a few weeks prior. They made complicated things sound simple.
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I held our first baby for the first time knowing nothing about her except that she was ours, she had soft brown hair, and she was healthy. Then the nurses whisked her away for a bath. Erik sat at my bedside, elbows resting on his knees, hands together. He looked me in the eyes.
βYou want to follow her and see her first bath?β I said.
βWhat if she doesnβt like any of the things that we like?β He asked.
βWeβll love her anyway,β I said.
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I love it when I meet someone who challenges my assumptions.
A friend of mine invented the computer code that makes online stock trading possible. He thought broker-based trading was unfair so he did something about it. You can do that?!
A friend of mine bought a vintage barn and moved it across town to his backyard so he could cover his fixer upper sailboat (which heβd trucked 740 miles inland from San Diego to where he lived) while he refurbished the sailboat. You can do that!?
Read Moreby EMILY ORTON
Taxes have generated grief for millennia. Jesus was born in a stable instead of at home with friends and family to help out because of tax season. In a 1789 letter, Benjamin Franklin wrote, βOur new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.β
Read Moreby ERIK ORTON
Iβm thinking a lot about how to make things happen. Iβm reading The Happiness Paradigm by Richard Eyre. He contrasts the Western way of pursuing focused goals with the Easter philosophies of being present and aware in the now. Iβm very Western, but Iβm drifting East.
Read MoreIf you got an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii and you had to leave tomorrow morning, could you be ready?
What would you have to put in order, postpone or prepare? What would you have to give up? This is a question Zig Ziglar (similar story here in his own words) asks in his book, See You at the Top. My parents played his cassette tape over and over again on our cross-country trips from our home on the east coast to our relatives in the Rocky Mountains. It was Zig or a 1950βs mix tape we picked up at a gas station. Ear buds were not an option for us in the 1980s, so we listened.
Read MoreWe live in NYC. We have five kids. We bought a sail boat. We called it Fezywig.
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