Our Story
We met in 2006 and moved in together shortly after. As Jesse proclaimed to be a mountain man, moving in with me in town wasn't an option. I moved in with him to his off-grid, and kinda rough (there were motorcycle engines in the cupboards ok, that's rough) mountain home. Jesse had lived there since 1998 after finding an add in The Nickel stating, "Mountain cabin for rent. Four wheel drive a must." Through the years we replaced engines for pots and pans and we now have a beautiful home, albeit still a cabin in the mountains. Neither of us would have it any other way.
Our home is off-grid, meaning we do not have any conventional power, and no...we can't just have a powerline run to us. Our power comes primarily from solar power and a battery bank. We do use a generator in the winter when our panels are covered with snow.
We are surrounded by mostly public lands with a scattering of privately owned timber land. Our road is not maintained in winter, so travel can get rough, but we manage (think Chevy Thunder).
We began working together in 2008 and have done countless projects together ranging from reclamation jobs to running our own mining operation. How do we make it work? We work at it. Working and living with the same person is not for the faint of heart, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Over the years, we've figured out that if I'm the boss, he must be the cook. Think about it, you don't want to piss either one of those people off!
When we're not working, we find time to head over to the coast to fish, crab or clam. We love spending time at the sand dunes with our friends and family. We are also both licensed ham radio operators (Jesse: W7FZO, Joell: KJ7GFN). We often monitor 146.520 and use ham radio for communication as phone and internet are unreliable at our house.
One of our biggest passions is rockhounding. Jesse has a serious knack for finding deposits and I love the sparklies! We have spent countless hours panning on creeks along the west coast and into Alaska. Our mining operation was along the Forty Mile River in Alaska. We met some amazing individuals and we both miss it still to this day.
Our most recent adventure is a new mining property in Nevada. While this property has been in the family for several years, it is new to us.
The property is actually an entire mining district! It is there that we are mining the beautiful stones you see used in Jesse's jewelry.
As our time together goes on, who knows what adventure we'll find ourselves on next. Only guarantee is that is will be an adventure!
