The year started with me moving back to Mountain View, where Burrowing Owl Billows is, and deciding that #vanlife isn't for me. Not solo, anyway. I still have these dreams to run multiple burrowing owl habitat enhancement projects across California in it, with Jim Carrey riding shotgun.

But, alas, I was jumping the gun. We all were.

News of COVID-19 had already begun to spread in January, and only continued throughout the rest of the year, bringing intermittent lockdowns, causing cancelled events, including one where I would've been in the same room as Jim Carrey for his book tour.

To continue my search for freedom, I started learning music production.

Then I got this Certificate of Appreciation from Mountain View's Mayor, which is just confirmation that I should leave my nonprofit name and goal as is.

From talking to other small nonprofit runners, I learned that, by far, the worst part of managing a nonprofit is figuring out and tracking where all your donations are coming from and then sending/creating recognition for donators. From my experience with donating, by far the worst part about donating is how the nonprofit will continue to spam you, harder than if you never donated. Not only did I want to find a way to avoid these experiences in managing my nonprofit's donations, but I also don't understand why these are experiences anyone is receiving or giving to others in the nonprofit sector at all! When one gives a donation, it should be A DONATION. There should be no expectation of receiving anything in return, not even recognition by name.

On March 18th, 2020, we scattered the remaining California native wildflower seeds I had from trying to make biodegradable donation gifts. Later that day the Governor of California announced the first stay-at-home order beginning the very next day: to protect the health and well-being of all Californians and slow the spread of COVID-19.

Therefore, this was the only work I did at Burrowing Owl Billows that spring, but I still continued to save the burrowing owls nonetheless.

I spent almost every day in the spring and the beginning of the summer carefully watching the San Diego burrowing owls on their livestream (while I did my vocal workouts as part of my self-taught music production course). I made this compilation of the pieces I recorded above, along with an original musical piece I produced.

I got to watch them lay their eggs, watch the eggs hatch, and then watch the chicks grow up! It was a truly remarkable experience.

Because I did get permission to gain access to the city's burrowing owl footage, I managed to get these photos of our chicks. Perhaps when this site is even more established and supported, we can get a livestream here, but, until then, the San Diego Burrowing Owl Livestream is perfect.

The chicks at the San Diego Zoo were hatched and raised at about the same time and same rate as the chicks at Burrowing Owl Billows, despite their different geographical locations and conditions! Both clutches came out of their burrows around 5/17-5/20! Synchronicity or Mother Nature?

These are the juveniles at Burrowing Owl Billows near the end of the summer... appreciating a ground squirrel, maybe because it dug their home. 🤷🏽

We got a little further, but we didn't finish, so they returned again and this time allowed me to film the whole tutorial with them!

We spent all afternoon painting and recording the video tutorial. In the end, I'm very proud of their work. They're rocks came out ADORABLE!

Here's how the owls and Burrowing Owl Billows did in the late summer/early fall.

LOOK AT CUTE THEY ARE. LOOK AT 'EM! LOOK AT 'EM!

Since I'd sold the van, more on that later, my mom and her Tesla helped pick up and transport the plants for The Sixth Planting from the local nurseries, Summerwinds Nursery, to our home, so Phil could pick up the orders together. I bought all their milkweeds and they weren't going to receive more anytime soon! Milkweeds are the only plants monarch butterflies lay their eggs on and their larvae eat. They're becoming endangered so we have to use less pesticides and plant more milkweeds!

Due to COVID restrictions, we were limited to 6 volunteers, including me, but the reason we couldn't get all 121 plants in is because the water main broke, so not all of the ground had been soaked: it was not soft enough for us to dig holes for all the plants. Phil's team finished the rest of the planting later in the week.

Not only did we finish planting just in time for the rain, but also right before our governor announced our county would become too restricted to allow for any more volunteering this season, so the second planting I was scheduling for December was cancelled!