das loft

Hi everyone... I'm doing great after the first week of my internship here at Everdale. I really like the interns, and we managed to accomplish a lot the first week, despite the fact that there are only five of us right now. (The sixth should be coming today.) Originally there were going to be eight, but a couple of them dropped out at the last minute. But you never know when another one will join the crew.

We seeded lots of chard, peas, and green onions in the greenhouse (though we suspect rats are attacking the peas now), washed out possibly hundreds of plastic bins, learned how to drive the tractor with the disc plow, cleaned up the old chicken run, prepared the coop for new chickens (i.e., shoveled lots of chicken shit), spread clover and other seeds over one of the fields, and generally just enjoyed lots of good, hard work. It's only going to get crazier from here, I think.

Four of us celebrated Earth Day in the strawbale cabin last night with guitar playing and margueritas around the wood stove.

Tomorrow I'm planning to make a surprisingly full-featured lunch that will involve last year's squash, pork, baked beans, and surprises.

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(WTF is a horso?)

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"If we accept the notion that the global industrial system will probably collapse in one way or another within the next few decades, several questions follow. Some inevitably center on personal survival and the welfare of family and friends. Others are more generally humanitarian in spirit: How can we minimize human suffering as the party winds down? How can we preserve as much as possible of nature and culture? Further, how can we find a way down the Hubbert curve that offers incentives and satisfactions so that the human spirit will still have worthy goals (other than continued economic growth and material affluence) toward which to strive?"
- RH

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"Because they have no solution, politicians on both sides will probably go to absurd lengths to obscure or mystify the real causes of the changes engulfing society. The public will likely not hear or read much about peaks in the extraction rates of oil or natual gas. They will see prices for basic commodities increase sharply (in inflation- or deflation-adjusted terms), but the ensuing economic turmoil will be held to be the fault of this or that social, political, ethnic, national, or religious group, rather than being identified as the unavoidable result of industrialism itself. The Left will blame selfish rich people and corporations; the Right will blame foreigners, "terrorists," and leftists."
- Richard Heinberg, The Party's Over

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Last year I was sketching ideas for a product logo for Fidalia Networks (the company Jon's friend Shaun manages). I thought a few of them were pretty bizarre, so I'm refining them on the computer and posting them here for your pleasure:

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Hey, look everybody! A summary of my stay at the Happy Brigade's aspiring ecovillage is an item on the Happy Brigade's news page! And look, there's a picture of me and Mike!

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Poem from 1996:

When the wind blows,
  when it snows,
My earlobe flows
  through the windows.

I was in a car, an auto-
  bus of a black tar,
As though the grasshopper
  leaped far.

Grass-hopper R-E-P-P-O-H
  Park flies in my Rache,
  her sky is Racheal.

Now you know why I never became a poet.

I wonder if Victor is still lurking out there...

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Pics more:


A sunset at Alpha Farm


TLC Farm's adjacent park in Portland


TLC Farm's beautiful cob sauna


TLC Farm's "tea whale"


Some moss along the gravel pit trail in Parksville (Vancouver Island)


Karalien and Paulie bicycling to Qualicum Beach


Walking with dear aunt Anne and Oma in Qualicum Beach

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Greetings, my children. I am back and safe at home in Cobourg, now. I leave for Everdale on Tuesday. Today I helped my dad dig some beds for summer veggies. We have so much sunny space in the front yard. I think one could easily grow enough food for a family of four on that land, especially if they were all vegan.

I came back from Vancouver yesterday. The flight was uneventful (save the humourous, though likely scripted, announcements made by the friendly WestJet crew). I had taken the schoolbus from Parksville to Vancouver Airport with Kara and her classmates destined for Japan. It was just a coincidence that we were both due at the airport that day, so it worked out quite well.

Days prior were spent mostly at my wonderful aunt Anna's farm on Vancouver Island. My oma came to visit for a few days as well. It was so nice to be able to spend time with them, Brian, Mya, Robin, Mischa, Gerald and last but certainly not least, Kara. Kara and I baked marzipan-chocolate-filled croissants and cheese-filled croissants over the course of a couple days. Kara was even spontaneous enough to call up John and Rosemary (John is Brian's brother) in Qualicum, who hence invited us for lunch at their house. I guess I managed to pack quite a bit in during my short stay on the island.

Just before then I was in Portland staying at TLC Farm, or Tryon Life Community Farm. I only stayed there for two and a half days, but it was well worth it. My activities there included repositioning a goat pen, hauling wheelbarrows full of mulch, filling a cabin's walls with clay-covered straw for insulation, digging a grave, washing many dozens of cups and forks, and preparing a stew. And again I met some awesome people, including one guy named Brush who's a Linux geek like me (it's always refreshing to meet someone who speaks exactly my language).

And before then I met Meta and her friend Chris in Portland who gave me a brief tour, and we sat at cafes, and they looked quite content. And before that Troy and I climbed a hill and looked across the cityscape while he told me the geological history of the land. He had driven me and Caroline from Alpha Farm to Portland because he's such a nice guy.

And before that I was at Alpha Farm, which was really quite fun and I'm definitely going to miss it. I'm sure I'll return someday, but I know the farm will have undergone many changes by then. I siuncerely hope Mary and J and their kids will still be there, if anyone. I didn't manage to say goodbye to them personally.

And now I'm in Ontario and still really looking forward to an Everdalian summer.

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"The implementation of the most intelligent strategies for dealing with the petroleum extraction peak - such as diverting remaining energy resources toward conservation and transition efforts - will require political will. But politicians are seldom inclined to deal with problems proactively, and will be unlikely to act decisively until crisis has arrived full-blown. Moreover, due to their perennial need for large campaign contributions, politicians (particularly in the US) are much more likely to respond to the advice of wealthy corporate leaders than that of scientists or citizens; and corporate leaders in turn customarily take their cues primarily from economists - who tend to discount even the possibility of resource shortages in their confidence that the all-knowing market will magically provide substitutes for whatever commodities become scarce."
- Richard Heinberg, The Party's Over

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More pics, finally! We begin in San Francisco, the day Meta and I parted and pursued our separate destinies...


A random robot walking down the street


The mountains getting snowier as I approach Yosemite


A cliff in Yosemite (tilt your head); not that impressive, but snow made everything invisible


Many rolling hills covered in windmills on my way to Santa Cruz


The beach at Santa Cruz


The Happy Brigade: riding to the 60 acres with Nershi


Happy Brigade: View from the ridge


HB: Merlin & me


HB: Mike & me


View of Mount Shasta on my way to Eugene, Oregon


Alpha Farm: brick oven


Alpha's meditation hut


Troy & Mary working at the Bit


View of Alpha on a rare sunny day


Shelby holding a slippery frog


Ed holding Samus, Gwen, Troy, Shelby holding Kaya, and Yoshi

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