Hello and welcome to Monthly Fuel, a newsletter for the day to day happenings, routines, inspirations, to - dos, good listens & reads that keep me going. Expect an update of what I’ve been up to, thinking on and an occasional vision board, accompanied by favorites from my monthly roll of film.
Published once a month.
The day to day
When January rolls around I try to avoid succumbing to resolution culture, setting rules I know I won’t follow and forcing goals onto paper that only exist because it’s a “New Year.” But- I do buy a new planner. This is my fourth year getting a customizable one from Papier. It’s cute and makes me feel organized and sometimes in the back blank, pages I’ll scratch down goals or to-dos that come to me through the year. Working goals, we’ll call them. So far the list includes; shooting more film using my Olympus OM- 10, reading to sleep (no scrolling), creating daily time to write and saving for my dream beat up old truck.
We spent the middle half of the month in Japan, a trip I’ll make an entire post for soon. We were primarily there to ski, which we did plenty of and feel lucky to have gotten on some snow. The weather in Missoula turned unseasonably warm right around the time we left, extending the shoulder season even further. Fingers crossed winter will catch up with the rest of us, but until then, I’ll be fantasizing of the dreamiest, driest pow of Hokkaido. Arigato!
Getting away to travel is exciting, but there’s always part of me who yearns for the routines of being home. Running the dog, drinking my own coffee, making my own meals and pushing early morning weights around. Things I don’t realize play such a role in my day to day until I’m without them. Settling back into work is always an adjustment, especially when jet lagged, but we pushed through.
Vision Board
Read
The Revelry Collection; Volume 2 is out now and I feel so very lucky to have shared a piece in it. It makes for the perfect coffee table mag and is more book-like than magazine material. Volume 2 came in a much larger size making it (somehow) more luxurious than before. Grab yourself a copy here!
Listen
Not a lot to report here; most of the music I listened to was played while driving around Hokkaido in our little Daihatsu Hijet Cargo and the obvious soundtrack for driving a silly car on your way to rip some pow is obviously some dad-rock from the 60s.
Find
Nanga; a Japanese brand I heard about in a Togs post, makes tough and good looking down goods. I’m not sure if you can find their stuff here in the states, but they do ship. Sizing is definitely Japanese; Ajax is typically a men’s medium, but was a Nanga Large in a mid-layer down jacket he came home with. It’s the dreamisest brown and hoodless - an ideal mid layer for skiing. If there’s one thing I’m rich in it’s jackets, so I unfortunately came home without one.
Working on
Writing; I’m hoping to publish a 10 day Hokkaido Road trip piece sometime next month... It’ll feature everything we did, what we should’ve done and some hot Japan travel tips, since it seems like everyone and their brother is there or going there. Japanuary!
Moving; while we were frolicking through Japan, our renter moved out and the people we caretake for found our replacement couple. We’ll start the process now and will be moved out entirely by the end of March. Along with moving comes furnishing the place. We’ve (somehow) shimmied our way through our 20s without buying more than a coffee table and some vintage speakers. The cabin at the ranch in Potomac was fully furnished as is the home we live in now. Anything we had before that didn’t make the move out west, or was something cheap or thrifted that was gifted back to the secondhand world or tossed out. I’ve never really curated a space to make it feel like (our) home and I’m so ready for it.
Farming; Since winter hardly came and there seems to be no sign of her coming our way - the proximity to spring is unreal. There’s so much planning and learning to be done before getting seeds in the ground and veggies in hand. It’s fun and exciting, but stressful, especially alongside everything else in my life that’s happening simultaneously. I’m lucky to have 2 friends (business partners) who are just as stressed and stoked. Without them, it wouldn’t be happening.
Talk soon, S.