and Godiva:

And 4 chickens that delivered me a fresh breakfast each morning:

I had hoped to do a bit of exploring, but the rain didn’t make that too conductive. We only got out for one short walk the entire time I was there. Instead, I spent a lot of hours in front of the computer trying to catch up on all the work that I needed to do. I did put a dent into some of it, but I also took on another short term project — like I really need any other work these days…

As I headed off on my futile venture, I first came to a large oak tree that was filled with hundreds of birds chirping away. It was a bit strange because the other trees around really didn’t have many birds, but when you came upon this one, it was like there was a major convention going on with the noise that they were making.

Despite all the birds in the tree, not a single feather was to be found below the tree. I should have seen that as a hint of how the rest of the search would go. When I reached the pond, there were plenty of geese, plenty of goose crap (geese crap a lot more than you think they would and it’s not small). I took a couple photos of the geese and thought I’d spare you photos of the goose crap.

In the end, I came away with some of the fluffy down type feathers, but not the large feathers that I thought I would find. Anyone have hints on the best way to find feathers?

Although the days were long, it was also a lot of fun because I really enjoyed what I was doing (I had to be since I was spending all those hours not making a cent with no prospect at that time of how I would ever make money from it). When I started Penny Experiment about a month ago, I unwittingly put myself in the same position of basically working two full time jobs.

With all that time in front of the computer, it was great to get a call from Dana Hughes to get together and go for a hike at a park in Almaden that she had heard about and wanted to check out. So we headed to Quicksilver Park:

The trails reminded me a lot of San Antonio Ranch Park, but a lot steeper. Once we walked up a ways, there were some great views:

We also took some time to briefly rest at a bench along the trail – Dana didn’t want to be in the photo

We were going to try and get to the remains of an old mining town that is supposed to be in the hills, but ended up turning back when the trail we thought we could use to get there was under construction. That means we’ll definitely have to make another trip up there when we have a bit more time since I would really like to see it.

On the way down, the trail was covered with fallen oak leaves that looked like the path was covered in brown hands (the photo doesn’t do it justice)

I definitely need to make more opportunities to get out like this. It’s always refreshing to go on walks / hikes like this and just makes me that more productive when I get back to the writing.

While I don’t mind working where ever I may be staying, I find that I end up being most productive when I get can get out somewhere like a local Internet cafe. The change of scenery always seems to help me focus more, especially in the afternoon. So I spend a good amount of time with a view, if not exactly like this, very similar to this:

Welcome to the other 75% of being a digital nomad…

I think that I will begin putting word out for the times that I’m back in the US and not traveling to to places I haven’t visited yet that I’m free to house sit. It’s a win-win situation for all. If the person has pets (the situation with the current house sitting situation), they don’t have to place them in pet hotel while they are gone saving them the money it would cost to board the pets. Plus it’s a lot less stress on the pet since they don’t have to go to a new environment. So even if they pay me, they still come out financially ahead.

I have been thinking for awhile about beginning a non profit website (which has nothing to do with the Penny Experiment blog that I recently launched), and I think I will use any money I earn from house sitting in 2010 to go toward getting that launched (a good New Year’s Resolution). What would be wonderful is to work out a way to house sit in all those wonderful countries I want to visit – I will definitely have to look more into that. I heard rumors that there were house sitting opportunities in Los Barriles when I stayed there, so it definitely is a possibility and something I should definitely look into.

The other thing I find when I house sit is that I’m much more productive than at other times. After the time in Hawaii where I basically did the minimum amount of online work I needed to do, this is a good opportunity to catch up a bit on those things I have been wanting to do. It’s always good when it works out well for everyone involved…

When the path met the ocean, it was a shoreline scene that combined of lave and sand.

The water spout was a hole in the lava shoreline that shot out plumes of surf when the waves came in. Even though it was a calm day with only small swells coming into shore, the spout was still pretty impressive. I’m sure that it is magnificent right before a storm and during rough seas.

As can be seen, I was still feeling the effects of the plane ride over:

But the sunset didn’t disappoint…

Let’s hear it for exhausting days.

We then hopped into the car again and made out way to the very end of Waimea Canyon Road. Here, again was a beautiful lookout for those that don’t want to hike, but there is also a trail head leading to the ridge. There are some pretty steep areas from the beginning and it can be a bit tricky when the trail is wet:

If you are willing to forge ahead, though, you are greeted with numerous spectacular views of Kalalau Valley:

We made it about 1.5 miles down the trail when it became muddy and steep enough that we contemplated whether or not we should continue:

It was at this moment that we ran into what we will forever refer to as the Kalalau trail slasher. I managed to escape its razor edge end, but dad wasn’t quite so lucky:

The Kalalau trail slasher turned out to be a branch protruding into the trail. Luckily, the injury looked worse than it turned out to be (still glad it didn’t happen to me) although it will likely leave a nice scar — and allowing dad to tell tails of the hiking slasher for years to come…