Trillium Farm autumn activities

There's a lot to do to put a homestead ready for winter. Trillium has lots of fruit trees that were planted years ago so they are mostly heirloom varieties. Here we are picking apples. We've been enjoying applesauce and apple pies, yummy!

Trillium Farm is located in a valley and unlike most valleys with steep walls and a mischevious river at the bottom, Trillium valley has broad, open meadows. This makes it an attractive site for outdoor get-togethers. Every summer groups rent the place to hold conferences.

But in the autumn the leaves take over and they must be raked up for compost. See that little speck of color to the right? That's Janet raking away. Go Janet! When we're finished I'll post a picture of the huge pile we are creating.


We have done a little hiking here. It's not uncommon to see huge bear poops on the trails which tends to knock oneself out of one's reverie and become very present in the here and now! (But I'll spare you the picture.)

This was a scene Connor captured at the top of a "knob" above us, looking down the Little Applegate Valley. I asked my friend Chant to explain the word, "knob", which is an intermediate high spot on a ridge on the way to a still higher one. Chant is fascinating to listen to because he has such a vast and precise vocabulary. He says things like "knob", and "draw", and "fine-fuel", and "underburn" and I'm always slowing him down to explain them to me.

I'll leave you with a picture of the sunset that Alexis insisted I take. I told her it probably wouldn't come out well but took it anyway. Having children that are smarter than you can be humbling. Oh, and you should see the stars at night!

Global warming is a ruse

We've encountered a few sacred cows on this journey and one of them is global warming. We've found when it is apparent to our ecologically-minded friends that we don't believe in global warming we are greeted with a response of incredulity and even indignation.

We are not certain that the globe isn't warming up, maybe it is, but the questions we have are 1) is the warming (if it exists) abnormal, and 2) is it human-caused? To claim with certainty that the globe is warming and that humans are causing it is unscientific, more like a religious position than anything else, and we remain wary of any and all religions. Consider this quote from Al Gore:
"The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."
You should be very skeptical when a politician starts talking like a baptist preacher. Lift consciousness to a higher level? Seriously, what kind of gibberish is this?

We see a conspiracy behind all this global warming news that most are missing and it starts with the premier think tank, The Club of Rome, to which Al Gore is a member. Best known for their book, "The Limits to Growth", The Club of Rome made the case that industrial civilization is on a collision course with disaster (with which we concur). In a lesser known book, "The First Global Revolution", written by two Club of Rome founders in 1991, one finds this extraordinary statement:
"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill ... All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself."

Read that again and picture world leaders and their minions searching for a "new enemy to unite" (control) the world's masses and deciding on environmental issues as the key! Doesn't that put the media hyperblitz on global warming in a new light?

And then there are quotes like these from our so-called world leaders:
"No matter if the science of global warming is all phony...climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world." -Christine Stewart, then Canadian Minister of the Environment

"...we need to get some broad based support, to capture the public's imagination... So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts... Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest." -Stephen Schneider, Stanford Professor of Climatology

"If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels." -Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh

"A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal." -Ted Turner, major UN donor

"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis..."
-David Rockefeller, Club of Rome executive member

"...current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class - involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work-place air-conditioning, and suburban housing - are not sustainable. A shift is necessary which will require a vast strengthening of the multilateral system, including the United Nations..." -Maurice Strong, former Secretary General of UNEP, opening speech of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit

That last quote is important because it reveals the global warming agenda, namely one-world government.

To us the global warming hype looks like a psychological operation, as it offers an apparent solution to a world incredibly frustrated with the corporate damage being done everywhere. And like any psy op it is effective because it plays upon the deepest desires of most people, to live in harmony with nature. But in reality it is a misdirection, designed to throw people off the real cause of the environmental devastation and that is our money system itself. We refer here to the monetary system where the amount of "money in circulation" and the "growth of the economy" is based on how much debt can be absorbed by individuals, businesses, and governments. See the video Money as Debt to learn more.

This may sound weird because most of us are so embedded in this system and its pathological logic that we have trouble distancing ourselves enough from it to see it clearly, but just think about it. We hear things like "the economy grew only 3% this year" and that's 3% on top of last year's 3%, so we have an economy growing exponentially! Of course, the raw materials for this economy ultimately come from the earth itself, so it's not hard to see why an exponentially growing economy is completely unsustainable.

We also think humanity is not the problem because they themselves are enslaved by the system just as everything else is. To prove this to yourself, just try to live completely independent of the dominant economy for any period of time, if you can do it at all. Then think how the dominant system relies on just about everyone being in debt, and ask yourself to whom is all this debt owed? Now, you are asking the right question that will point you to the real culprits behind environmental destruction, wars, and most human misery.

No, people, don't be fooled by the hype, the problem is the corporate money system that nearly has the whole world in its clutches and is hell-bent on an agenda of complete and total control. Did you know the Islamic world considers usury immoral and rejects central banking? They are the last outpost of cultures to do so. This may put the invasion of the middle east in a new perspective for you. Once the Islamic societies are dominated the whole world will be taken over by the corporate monetary system we've all come to love so much.

Global warming is a corporate agenda, a psychological op to seduce good people into giving up their rights and freedoms, just like 9-11 and all the other ones going on all the time. Wake up.

Trillium Farm in Southern Oregon

We've been staying a Trillium Farm for two weeks now. To say this is beautiful country barely scratches the surface. Located out in the woods near Jacksonville, Oregon, Trillium is a wilderness wildlife sanctuary, so the landscape here is not so screwed up as most places.

Trillium has a long history and used to be a thriving community, but the combination of people issues (folks not paying dues and keeping up the farm) and a couple of floods knocked the community back to just Chant and Susanna Thomas, whose goal is to rebuild the membership with the right folk.

We've hit it off really well with Chant and Susanna, who are very educated and cultured and generous. We've been learning ten new things a day hanging out with them.

We are living in our trailer, pulled onto their property, of course. It's been getting cold at night and fortunately, they're giving us electricity without which we probably wouldn't be able to stay in this part of the country at this time of year.

There are a million things to do around here, so they are grateful for our energy to help get things ready for winter.

Yamhill Co-op

We made a short trip up to Portland to visit Yamhill Co-op. Here is their description:
Forest Agriculture Co-op Forming in Yamhill County, Oregon. Couple looking to share 30 idyllic acres of trees, meadows, pond and seasonal creek in wine country 30 miles southwest of Porland. Live in main house or build own yurt. Many skills needed; flexible arrangements. We are literary, artistic, secular humanists connected to the natural world through reason and experience. We are looking for like-minded people who are industrious, community-minded, tree-huggers. Contact Pam & John.

Sounds good, eh? I had to look up what a "secular humanist" is, just so I wouldn't appear illiterate when I called them up.

Yamhill is a nice piece of land (30 acres) owned by a middle-aged couple who want to preserve the land, and also want to make it more productive by applying permaculture principles. They just don't know how nor do they have the time and energy required. Another great feature of this situation is their neighbor, Jim, who owns 60 acres further up the hill and who is in accordance Yamhill's plans.

There is a lot of great potential here for a small livelihood selling to the city of Portland, only 30 minutes away. We could envision U-pick berries, a goat farm, a bed and breakfast, etc.

We only stayed for a couple of days, unfortunately. We've had the same experience every place we've visited where our hosts establish the duration of our stay before we arrive. This is wise from their perspective because what if we turn out to be insufferable jerks? But when they realize we're cool the deadline disappears. Unfortunately in this case, we took it seriously and had made other plans!

So, we hope to visit Pam and John again soon.

House Alive

House Alive is not a community, but the private homestead of Coenraad and Khaliqa Rogman (pronounced Con-rad and Kah-lee-kah). We first met these good people on the web and they invited us to stay with them when in Oregon. Well, we made it to Oregon, didn't we?

What the Rogmans have done is a fine object lesson for anyone. They have a lovely property in the country and have built a very nice business teaching workshops on how to build with natural materials, "cob" and "bale" being their specialties. People come from all over the world to learn from them. This kind of entrepreneurism takes a lot of initiative and attention to detail and is quite admirable. Any community would benefit by taking similar steps.

The Rogmans built their home with conventional sticks and plywood, but on the interior they used straw bale so their walls are two feet thick and very well insulated. "Cob", a mixture of clay, sand, and sometimes straw is used to cover the straw bails.

Their home has a cozy, inviting feeling and the vaulted ceiling makes it seem larger than it is. The place is charming and just plain livable.





Their front porch has a very high ceiling and they have strung silks from the rafters for their children to learn on. You may have seen performers working the silks in a circus perhaps. Cirque du Soleil often features silk performances.

We got to learn a little about cobbing while we were there. We had just missed a workshop, but there was still some finish work to do on a couple of the structures. Here some windows needed to be added after the cob had dried, so Coenraad cut an outline with a rotary saw, and Janet dug two inches of cob out. Then, the window is mudded in.




Cob produces some of the most beautiful, compelling, and sweet buildings I can think of. This is the stuff that Tolkien's "hearth and home" is made from! Below is an example of a nearly finished cob house that we saw at Cobville, near Mountain Home.

I particularly admired Coenraad's teaching style. He understands that a person learns by doing and so he gives just enough direction to get you past a rut and lets you experiment to find your own style. Khaliqa made some wonderful meals and we really enjoyed sharing meals and good times with these wonderful people.

If you are interested in learning more about cob, take a House Alive workshop.

Mountain Homestead in Oregon

After a month-long journey across the continent we arrived at Mountain Homestead in Coquille, Oregon. This was a community that Janet had picked out of the Communities Directory and they were nice enough to host us. We've found communities need a fair amount of advance warning before your arrival so they can “be ready”. What they need to be ready for is less clear, however. Every place we've been we just show up with work clothes on and ask where we can help, an approach that has been pretty well-received.

Mountain Home is in a valley on the Pacific side of Oregon's coastal mountains, so it stays pretty dry in the summer but gets a ton of rain in the winter.

The valley is steep so there is a great deal of slope on the land, which the community is dealing with by building a series of terraces that add topography and serve to keep water on the property. It is a lot of hard work to do this, and while they could do it by hand they use a tractor instead. This is the work I did during the two weeks we stayed there.

Because the land is heavily wooded trees must be pushed over where the terraces are to be. A cable is wrapped around the tree, the other end tied to a tractor and the tree comes crashing down. But it's rarely that easy. Often roots need to be chopped, or the tractor may not have room to pull, or the tree must fall in a different direction than the tractor is pulling. In these cases, the cable is routed through a pulley attached to another tree which causes the tree to fall in the right direction. (Without a tractor a “block and tackle” would be used.)

Doing this kind of “ecoforestry” I got to drive the tractor (thanks, Eli) operate a chain saw, and swing a machete, so I am even more of a man now than I was before. I also got a horrendous case of poison oak so the trees had their revenge!

Janet got to do a lot of gardening and helped prepare the lunch meal one day. She dug up potatoes, preserved kale seeds, and helped build cold frames.

Children!
There were some wonderful children at Mountain Home roughly the same ages as Connor and Alexis. A boy named River was Connor's bud, as was seven year old Julius. Imani and Nia, Julius' sisters, made wonderful companions for Alexis. There have usually been children where we stay, but at Mountain Home we hit the jackpot. Unfortunately, the families with children appear to be moving away soon, so bummer!

Vegans vs. meateaters
A conflict was in its end-game when we arrived. Apparently, the vegans in the community opposed the raising of animals for food, and those who wanted to raise goats for milk and meat apparently lost out and were preparing to leave (perhaps for other reasons too). Unfortunately, these were the families with children.

Throughout this journey we've encountered vegetarianism (may eat eggs and dairy, but no meat) and veganism (eats plant sources only). The main justification we've heard for these diets is a sort of spiritualism that translates to “I don't want to kill anything for a meal.” We don't want to kill an animal either, but we think meat is part of a healthy diet so we'll do what we must. We are open to a biological or anthropological justification for vegetarianism/veganism, but haven't heard it yet. Instead we see a lot of dietary practices that are obviously unhealthy like the consumption of soy. Becoming malnourished has never been an interest of ours, even if it feels good spiritually, and an omnivorous community remains one of our criteria.

Winter comes on
We arrived in Oregon in September, just when it started getting cold. Unlike the flat places in the country, here in the mountains there are what are known as “micro-climates”, which may be warmer or colder for various reasons. In a valley bottom, like Mountain Home's, the air rises during the day as it is heated by the sun. At night, however, the cool air goes back down the valley and causes people living in trailers to shiver uncontrollably. Also, because we were in a valley, the sun shown on our solar panel only a few hours a day, and since we rely on the battery for lights and most especially the refrigerator (electronic ignition lights the propane) we had a very hard time keeping the battery charged. We're still working out this solar thing!

So, in a quest for warmth, we moved on from Mountain Home, but we'll go back there and help them out. They are doing a lot of interesting things and are laying the groundwork for a fantastic food forest.

Thank you Mountain Home!

Spectacular vacation!

When we got to South Dakota we slowed down and took in the fantastic natural phenomena in the area. Janet had vacationed in this area as a child and knew it was special.

Crystal Cave

There are numerous caves in the limestone formations of the Black Hills. This one, Crystal Cave is basically still unexplored.



Panning for gold in the Black Hills
Connor and Alexis each walked away with a small vial with gold flakes in it! Woo hoo!

My impression is that gold miners worked pretty hard for their money.


Custer State Park in the Black Hills
Connor hangs out with this gang of mules that shakes down passenger vehicles.





Mato Tipila
The Sioux call this Mato Tipila which means "bear lodge". It is known among tourists as "Devil's Tower", but this name was invented by some white devil and it unfortunately stuck. Too bad there are no bear anywhere near this area any longer. White men love cows better.

Wyoming's Yellowstone!
Before you die--and before it goes super-volcano again so hurry up--you must see Yellowstone National Park. This place is a magic landscape of spewing geysers, flowing waters, and big mammals. I will go there again.


Black-tailed prairie dogs inhabit only 2% of their original range.








Deer munching








Elk munching









Fox hunting







Moose munching









Bear hunting munching moose. We didn't see a bear until we left the park and just outside on our way out we saw this one lumbering beside the road. It scared the moose off.



Buffalo crossing the road. A buffalo can run faster than a horse, can jump over a 6 foot fence, and are more dangerous than bear in Yellowstone.




After a couple weeks of visiting these natural wonders, Janet and I looked at each other and said, "That was fun, but let's get on with our mission", so it's on to Oregon!

Go West

Corn Nightmare
From Vermont we headed west, and you know what we saw?

CORN!! Mile after bloody mile of CORN!! From New York to Pennsylvania to Ohio to Indiana to Illinois to Iowa to South Dakota is a vast sea of corn. Throw in a few million hectares of soy beans and you have described the entire grain belt.

When you walk into a grocery store they often have you start in the produce section. This is a psychological ploy, since the mind interprets stacked fruits and vegetables as bounty. The mind becomes confused by all the other aisles of cans and jars. Is this bounty?

It turns out that CORN (and increasingly soy) makes the modern grocery store possible as it is a part of nearly every box, can, and jar you find there. It feeds every animal, it is used as an ingredient in almost everything, even in drinks. And now, through our rigged political process we are being forced to put ethanol into our cars in order to benefit the corn industry, a singularly stupid idea. (But just add it to the list of stupid things we are forced to do to make even more profits for big business.)

This explains why every possible square inch is now planted in corn, a dreary, dead landscape of unsightly monoculture far into the dim misty horizon. The last fourteen remaining trees in the midwest are shaking to their roots and trying to look invisible.

These signs are found all along the corn belt. They are evidence of a massive, parallel experiment going on in the arena of man-messing-with-nature. Resistance to the herbicide “Round Up” has been spliced into the corn genes so that when they spray Round Up on the corn field all but the corn will die. These signs tell the business men which of their franken-strains are performing better. Does this make you a little uncomfortable about consuming this sludge?

Family visit!
Janet's brother Duane lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, so we dropped in for a visit. Fortunately, Janet's mother and father had driven up too! It was a nice time.

Badlands
On the western end of South Dakota we stayed for a few days. First we did the Badlands. Isn't that a great name? The BADlands!

While Connor and I were hiking we came upon a solitary elk. He was way off in the distance, but he let us get surprisingly close before bounding away. Here is a moment just before he bolted.

Next post: more South Dakota cool stuff!

Vermont Summer Culture

Bread and Puppets

One Sunday in Vermont we went to a Bread and Puppets performance, which is very hard to describe—it needs to be experienced! It is a circus of sorts, and reminded me of Cirque du Soleil without the gymnastics, but with the European mood, and outlandish costumery. B and P was started by an Austrian that everyone knows as “Peter”, who is supposedly 70ish but is as buff as a 20 year old. At the end of the performance, bread is served from a big, outdoor oven, hence the name (and the people line up in the most polite and civil fashion, taking only one piece of bread and moving on...it's the little things that say so much, you know?)

Some of Bread and Puppets is inexplicable. For instance, the event began with a giant set of ears roaming through the gathering crowd. But B and P is mostly social commentary in the form of wicked satire. Mocking the growing surveillance society, “security cameras” moved among the crowd, taking pictures of us to be shown at our torture sessions, of course. The B and P performance consisted mostly a series of vignettes that pointed out the criminality of our so-called leaders.

My children definitely noticed these figures , as if showing a penis crosses an extra special line of taboo. But what's the reason for that, anyway? I recall the big whooping deal made in Dallas over a group of children taken to the Dallas Museum of Art where they happened to see NAKED male statues! What kind of uptight culture would get so worked up over the human body?

The B and P experience is part of the larger culture here in Vermont of rebellion to authority. Coming from Texas—and a white collar oh-so-politically-correct-corporate-culture to boot—I was quite surprised to see such open contempt for government. But the best part is the reaction among the locals to all this. They just shrug and say “that's the North East Kingdom!”, as if there is no other way things could be. And you know what? There IS no other way things should be.

North East Kingdom Music Festival

My friend Hickory got me a job working as a volunteer at a local music festival, The North East Kingdom Music Festival. This is probably the largest summer festival in this part of Vermont and still everybody seems to know everybody else.

So many locals work the show—and so pay no admission—that the show is lucky to break even. The festival happens on “Bill's land” and so everybody driving up claims to know Bill and describes how far they go back together, but we were instructed to show no mercy on such claims. I worked parking, which didn't entail too much, so I helped them with clean up the day after.

And what an awesome festival! The stage was built by "The Old School Builders", and I wish I had more photographs of it since this one does it no justice. This wooden stage could hold a battleship, and the sound quality was marvelous. There were also performances on a small stage and these I enjoyed the most. What made them special was the audience reaction as some of the bands were well-known and the locals sang and danced and brought the bands to a higher level. Plus, blue grass is naturally pleasing to me as the style demands extreme proficiency of the players. There were times I became so lost in the performances I swear I had out of body experiences. This was so incredibly fun! I'll never forget it.

One of the really cool and interesting things about our journey is to watch how our children are blossoming into maturity. Both Connor and Alexis pursued their own interests at the festival. They befriended a vendor of crystals, named Shawn, who turned out to be pretty cool and soon they were helping him sell his wares (for a cut of the action, of course). They learned how to wrap a crystal in silver wire and have since worked on their own original pieces. The social interactions they place themselves in are absolutely priceless. At times Janet and I just had to stand back and watch. We are so proud of them.

The festival capped our stay in Vermont and we had such a fun time there. Thank you again Earthdancer and Hickory. We miss you, Vermont! Here is one of Alexis' cloud pictures.

Vermont! ...... VERMONT!

I never thought much about Vermont, some back-woodsey place with lots of trees. Having now experienced Vermont, I know that it is one of the most special places in the country.

We stayed in Vermont's “Northeast Kingdom”, a province full of fiercely independent, rugged folk who despise authority and know the US government for the despot it is. (A common bumper sticker: US OUT OF VT!) We were invited to Vermont by Earthdancer of the Lettuce Bee Farm, who had seen our posting on Reachbook, and though it was farther northeast than we had planned to go, we decided to check it out.

We parked our trailer near their blueberry patch and lived there for about three weeks, carrying delicious water in buckets from a nearby spring.

With Earthdancer are Hickory and their little boy, Ari, and their farm is about 40 minutes from the capital of Montpelier. They are growing vegetables, blueberries, maple syrup, and flowers. They moved to the farm about a year ago and so are still learning how to cultivate in this unique climate. Janet and I mostly helped weed their blueberries, and Connor and Alexis played with Ari and helped with the chickens.

Vermont is a special place. The people are fit and strong. One does not see Walmarts or Targets and Montpelier has fought off having a MacDonald's built there. There are many more food co-ops here than any other part of the country. Prices are high, but this is deliberate as people are avoiding the race to the bottom that cheap prices bring. Instead of Home Depot one goes to the local hardware store and talks with the proprietor. Describing the problem to be solved and even haggling over the appropriate solution are part of the experience.

Community
One major thing we learned at the Lettuce Bee Farm is the importance of extended community, that is to be surrounded by good folk who each contribute something unique to the effort and who can be there when help is needed. Neighbors drop by all the time with goodies from their farms and barter is a preferred means of exchange. People in Vermont like their part of the world, they consider it special, and they will band together to protect it from any threat. This is worth a great deal, I think. If the just-in-time American food system stopped delivering how smart is it to be a permaculture oasis in a sea of hungry rednecks?

Culture
Another thing we learned is the importance of culture. The Northeast Kingdom comes alive in the warm months with festivals and performances. But these efforts are not lollapalooza box office; they are human scale, they are sensual, and they touch one's spirit and bring magic to life. Imagine being around a summer campfire when instruments appear and a spontaneous jam session erupts. This is the way in Vermont, where humans are still raw and unprocessed.

The buzz of summer
Of course, we haven't experienced the infamous Vermont winter. One measure of how tough it must be is to observe how frenetic creatures (including the humans) are during the summer. Warm months are spent feasting, gathering, preparing because when winter comes the time is over. Vermont mosquitoes raise the violence to a new level: whoever heard of mosquitoes biting through thick sweats!?

One positive about a long winter is that it provides an opportunity to pick up an instrument, or finally read The Brothers Karamazov, or learn to program. I spoke to one fellow, Nathan, who says he absolutely loves the winter and is counting the days until he can strap on his nordic skis.

Traffic
Vermont society is civil, even on the roads. Unlike big cities where anonymity gives rise to outrageous acts of incivility, Vermonters drive as if they might have to talk with you later, because they probably will! We really noticed this when we drove out of Vermont. As soon as we reached New York state, the behavior of other drivers had become openly hostile.

Bears!
One day we were walking into the woods when we saw this bear track. (Black bears are not uncommon in the Vermont forests.) It was right about then when Alexis and Janet heard in the bushes near us a couple of grunts from something that possessed a very large diaphragm. We decided to back out of there right away. Who knows? Black bears tend to shy away from humans, but if it's a mama with a cub she might get protective and kill us and feed our warm dead corpses to her baby. Or maybe just sniff us and walk away.

It's hard to describe the fear and electric awareness that one gets from encountering a big animal in the wild. Too bad such experiences have become so uncommon in our hyper-pasteurized society. This moose was standing far away in someone's field.

Ich bin ein Vermonter!
Though we have concerns about the winters and the short growing season, we really like Vermont. When we met Earthdancer and Hickory it was like saying hello again to old friends, and we learned a lot from them in a short time. We are certain we'll cross paths with them again.
There is much more to say about Vermont, so stay tuned.

The Grose's visit Green Trust

Steve Spence, of Green Trust in upstate New York, was kind enough to allow us to drop in on short notice. We were attracted to the hands-on, technical nature of the Green Trust operation which specializes in alternative power.

We parked on their land and stayed for almost two weeks. Steve's house is off-grid, and uses mostly solar panels for power. They are getting a motor set up to generate supplemental electricity and which will run on vegetable oil, but presently they run a gasoline generator when their solar battery bank gets low. It was here that I decided to fit a solar panel on my trailer as its limitations for dry camping had become obvious. Let me explain.

"Dry camping" is the term for parking a trailer somewhere that has no electrical or water utilities. An RV is designed to run on its 12 volt battery by default, but only certain things work in 12 volt mode. Big appliances, like the air conditioner, simply don't work. When we pulled into Green Trust, nothing worked in 12 volt mode, and Steve helped us troubleshoot. First, we replaced the old coach battery with a marine battery. Then, two blown fuses later we had lights. For several days we had been trying to function inside with flashlights. What an uplifting psychological effect simple lights at night can make!

But there is no way to charge the coach battery other than by plugging the trailer into a 120 volt outlet, so one can't dry camp for long before the battery dies. Enter the solar panel, which should be standard on any RV, in my opinion. A solar panel keeps the battery charged anytime the sun hits the panel, including when one is driving down the road.

The solution I opted for was the simplest possible design, a solar panel, and a charge controller, hooked to the battery (plus the wire, some attaching hardware, and a used tube of sikaflex.) The whole setup cost $504. I actually waited until I got to Vermont to purchase this stuff as there is a local store one can walk into and talk to someone, a rare commodity as most solar panels are being purchased over the internet. I'll spare you the details of running the wiring through the inside of a tiny trailer which was a pain in the behind--the charge controller is inside a cabinet--but now it's done.

Woodhenge
One afternoon we drove down to a nearby community called "Woodhenge" and got a tour by a nice fellow named Phil. The main house at Woodhenge is heated by a blast furnace that heats a huge column of sand that runs through the center of the round, 2 story house. Feed the furnace in the morning to heat the sand, and coast on the residuals for the rest of the day. Here is a picture of the top of the house where the column and the roof meet. But the house stays cool in the summer too. When we walked in it felt like the place was air conditioned. Thanks for the tour, Phil.


Mennonite Neighbors
Green Trust is active in the local community and will advise local folk on alternative power in exchange for barter items, like a baby pig or two. One evening a couple of the local Mennonite farmers came by and gave me a tour of their diesel VW jetta which runs on vegetable oil. These Mennonite and Amish farmers are way ahead of most of us when it comes to living independently, as they've been doing it for centuries. Growing crops, animal husbandry, welding, mechanics, governance, they know it all.

I had a very interesting conversation with one of these fellows, Melvin, on religion. Turns out his family is former Mennonite as his father had developed doctrinal differences with the church. Specifically, this man thought growing and using tobacco was not Christian. Also, he felt the Bible teaches that to take Jesus into one's heart is the path to heaven and it bothered him at funerals when they would say "we hope Brother Jeb goes to heaven". The picture that emerges is that Melvin's father is a man of deep, thoughtful morality and a brave leader, but for his outspoken nature he was asked to leave the Mennonite church.

"Just as well", said Melvin. When I asked why, he said "Why should I have to wear a black coat and hat to church? Why should anyone tell me what to wear? Is it anyone's business what I wear?" And I agree with you on that, Brother Melvin. Sounds like you are cut from the same cloth as your father.

We cross the Canadian border
On Saturday, July 21 we went with the Spence family to Upper Canada Village, a 19th century town featuring traditional solutions to life's demands before electricity and gasoline. Here are Linda and Matthew in front of the old grain mill. What a fun trip that was.








Just for fun I've included a picture of this snake I caught one day. And here is a picture of Rascal, who constantly hung out by our trailer begging us to play catch.

Thanks for having us, Green Trust!