Gene's headed to Haiti as part of Mercy Corps response to the earthquake on Tuesday. He has no idea how long he'll be there - probably 2-3-4 weeks. He was the first person from Mercy Corps to get on a plane (he left with 4 hours notice), so he got lots of news coverage:

Portland-area groups scramble to get help to Haiti | Oregon Local News - OregonLive.com
Interview on KPTV
Interview on KOIN

and of course:
Meet our Haiti response team | Mercy Corps
Twitter

Bonne mission.

We got a dog. His name is Saha, and he's a boxer/lab mix. We got him from the pound, and they knew nothing about him except that he'd been wandering the streets of Klamath Falls.

I know, you are thinking "they can't get a dog! they are completely irresponsible!" and that is true. We're lying when we say we got a dog, we actually only got 2/3rds of a dog, and our friend Tina ended up with a 1/3rd of a dog. She gets to be responsible and take care of him when we run off.

We're completely in love with him. He's cuter and smarter than any other dog ever.

and he gets along with the cat.




(oh yeah, did we mention we got a cat? He's a terror. Want him?)

Gene misplaced his (french) cell phone. Send us an email (mail@chaikana.org) with your number and we'll give you a call...

Gene a perdu son téléphone. Envoyez-nous un email (mail@chaikana.org) et nous vous téléphone.

Christi's new cell number in Paris is 06.14.75.82.11, Gene's number remains 06.19.54.02.89. Gene will be in China from August 11th through August 24th. Christi will stay in Paris.

We're taking advantage of Christi's three months off during the public comment period, and we'll be in Paris from August 4 to Oct 1. Mostly. Gene's actually running off to China for 10 days or so of that, and we'll probably make some some trips out of town. Cell phone numbers unknown, but 09 70 40 80 43 and 01 43 29 51 00 should work. Or if you are in the US, you can reach us on our home phone - 503 289 4813, 'cause it forwards there.

Did we mention that we bought a lighthouse? Funny story... we had guests over for dinner one night, and something came up - living off the grid, perhaps, or chicken farming, or something, and the computer came out, rmls.com was pulled up, a search was done, and a lighthouse popped up.

The lighthouse is called Warrior Rock lighthouse. It's on Sauvie Island, (about 10 miles north of downtown Portland), and it's Oregon's smallest lighthouse. It sits close to the northern point of the island. Sauvie Island divides the Columbia from Multnomah Channel, and the lighthouse is on the Columbia River side, on an apparently especially treacherous point. It's still in use; there have even been a few recent (and not so recent) shipwrecks out there.

Now here's what we've really ended up with: It's 1.65 acres, on the Columbia River, with a US Coast Guard-maintained lighthouse sitting on it. It's a popular hiking destination. The lighthouse is surrounded by 12,000 acres of the Sauvie Island Wildlife Reserve, which means that it's a 3 mile hike in from the trail head on the island, or a half mile boat trip from downtown St Helens. There's a beautiful beach with public access for hikers, kayakers, fisherman, whatever.

The area never became part of the reserve because it had the lighthouse keeper's house on it. And a barn, and a dock, and all that. But it all burned down in the 80's and we're left with a chimney and a couple of posts in the water. It even had power poles out to it from St Helens. But no more; now we've got a chimney, a foundation, and a couple of unknown structures.

it's entirely off the grid from water and power (don't panic, your cell phone works fine), and it's in a flood way, which is similar to a flood plain, except that they assume, for engineering purposes, that the water won't just be high, it will be moving. Very rapidly. So the US Army Corps of Engineers gets to be involved in any building permits. The land is zoned both recreational and historical, Oh, and it's in a riparian zone.

What this all means is that it's essentially unbuildable (don't worry, we knew this when we bought it), and what we have is a really cool camping spot. With our own bay, a shipping channel in front of our noses, our own sea lion (his name is Monty), and a lighthouse.

We have random plans for the site - gene wants to build a picnic table, christi wants to build a dragon. The biggest issue right now is that everything that is not the beach or the lighthouse is covered in blackberries. We've been making progress with clippers, machetes, and beer. You can get a grant from the state to control noxious weeds in riparian areas, and we're considering going after that. We want to know everything about the place - the history (lighthouse and pre-lighthouse), the plants, the soil types, and we've been looking into that (and to that end, we got warriorrock.com, to post our findings).

So it's an adventure.
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And sorry to those who have been looking for us as of late. We've both been a bit out of touch - both of us have just crawled out from under huge work projects, and we're looking forward to rejoining the human race.

Gene will be in Chengdu for the first half of December, and back in Portland for Christmas. Then we both plan to be in Paris from about Dec 26 - Jan 26th, and then Christi returns to Portland, and Gene gets to spend a few weeks in Mongolia before returning to Portland.

Our french phone number has changed to 09 70 40 80 43. It still reaches us in the US. Or wherever.

Christi's back in Portland, following 7 weeks in Chengdu and two weeks in Paris. Gene's returned to Chengdu, but should be back to Portland on Sept 26th.

We'll be in Chengdu, China for one month? two months? starting July 7th. Gene ended up as the Program Director for the Sichuan Program for Mercy Corps.

You should still be able to reach us via our home phone number - 503 298 4813 or 08 70 40 80 43 (time change is +15 hours from Portland or -7 hours from France. I think) or email (although gene doesn't check his..)

We need a housesitter in Portland... or our plants will die.

New pictures up! The Pacific Northwest