Local
Moving temporarily to a place where I would need a car turned out to be very stressful. I have not owned a car in over ten years (well I’ve never really owned a car until now, but lets just say I haven’t consistenly needed to drive a car since I was in high school). It was a good run that has now come to a close. This past week was an eye opener to how the other half lives. Cars are expensive, unreliable, dangerous and make a lot of pollution. I used to think they sucked, maybe I still do… but today I bought a car and I love my car… so far.
Moving temporarily to a place where I would need a car turned out to be very stressful. I have not owned a car in over ten years (well I’ve never really owned a car until now, but lets just say I haven’t consistenly needed to drive a car since I was in high school). It was a good run that has now come to a close. This past week was an eye opener to how the other half lives. Cars are expensive, unreliable, dangerous and make a lot of pollution. I used to think they sucked, maybe I still do… but today I bought a car and I love my car… so far.
What made the day my partner and I purchased our first car really cool aside from owning a piece of fancy expensive metal was a circumstance that made me realize something about my hometown where we made the purchase and this idea that local is good. Up until now we had been relying on my mothers car as my mode of transportation except the day we needed to officially get my insurance coverage and register the car that we then needed to pick up. That morning my mother’s car broke down and this only mode of transportation was out the window. But alas! We have bikes. Because we chose to buy a car at at a local used car dealer and also insure the car with a local insurance agency we were able to bike to both locations and turn in all the paperwork needed in order to have the car on the road for Monday, our first week of work.
I loved riding my bike to pick up my car. It’s a good reminder that even though I have the conveniences of a car now my bike will also serve me well for many local trips. My new hatchback also fits two bikes in it so I expect a lot of getting places via the wheel as well as the cycle.
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St. Croix
After a brief interval between road setting and island jetting Jon and I headed off for the Virgin Island Sustainable Farm Institute (VISFI) on St. Croix. There Jon took part in the Farm’s first permaculture design certification course (PDC) and I bartered my stay by cooking for thirty people daily (with some help!) St. Croix is a beautiful island and the farm was/is a special experience. As I mentioned before we are now back here to take part in their Ridge to Reef program, a beneficial farmer training, over the course of the next two months. We decided to participate in the program because we feel it will help us gain more hands-on knowledge and experience in creating the nurturing, sustainable lifestyle we wish to lead. Also, it will help us become more experienced farmers and give us the skills to start our own small farm one day, which we really want to do.
VISFI is a great place to make new friends, meet the locals, and experience farm and permaculture living. I would highly recommend a visit and a stay if this is something you are interested in while living in paradise. While I take the R2R program I will be updating you on our daily adventures. Please keep yourself posted.
TODAY was the official first day of the course. We started off with a circle at sunrise to state each participants intentions for the next two months and then we planted some bean seeds to “plant the seed” for our intention and watch it grow as the course goes on. There are about twelve people coming from all over the country as well as Jamaica taking the course and I am excited to get to know each of them.
Including introductions and a tour of the farm we had a chance to define just exactly what the Ridge to Reef (R2R) course is all about, which I’ll explain below:
There are eight shields or focus areas of the course that compliment each other and together benefit the student and the student’s student and beyond.
Permaculture Design
Sustainable Building
Renewable Systems
Organic Croping
Agroforestry
Slow Down Culinary
Marketing and Business
Farm Based Eduction
We will explore each one of these focus areas throughout the next two months and follow them intentionally in the order listed as this is the way a farmer would naturally encounter them.
The insturctors for R2R sound amazing and the people living on the farm are also really great knowledge carriers. I am extremly excited and greatful to be here among them and look forward to everything I take away with me (wherever I go).
I am also thinking about the peopl of Haiti tonight who suffered a horrific earthquake yesterday and hope that the work I do here can help people in challenged nations such as theirs in the future.
Hiatus Part 3
I feel like this is taking me a long time to write and wishing I hadn’t put it off to the last minute because in a few days I will be off to St. Croix again (haven’t got there yet, but we spent two weeks on the island so Jon could obtain his certification in permaculture design and I could cook for 30 people daily). So, I’m going to describe my adventures a little speedier now. Here goes:
Starting in Port Townsend we decide to travel around all of the Olympic National Forest, or that big bulge in the land at the northern, western most point of the county to see at least four rainbows a day among other things.
We hit up all the hot spots, Cedarbrook Lavender Farm, Hurricane Ridge, the Port Angeles Fine Art Center (awesome sculpture park!), the Hoh Rainforest (ridiculous fantasy land full of elk), Kalaloch Beach and our resting spot later in Olympia, the capital. Olympia was cute, good vibe, good coffee and surprisingly good Thai food and hotdogs with cream cheese (a Washington specialty). Then off to visit my cousin and her family in Renton, a suburb of Seattle, and the birthplace of Jimi Hendrix. Of course we visited his grave, took a trip to the big city and went to a gag store called Archie McPhee, then to the Olympic Sculpture Park and the famous Fremont Troll.
Then we left for another night in Seattle with our friends. Got some really good Vietnamese at our new favorite place, Cyclo Café, went out for drinks and toured the city some more. Ate amazing donuts at Top Pot (I’m addicted). Then back to the Olympic Peninsula to see Jon’s cousin again. We moved around with everyone’s schedules and ended up visiting people multiple times in two weeks- a little crazy but good. Went to Whidbey Island and ate really good fried salmon at Toby’s Tavern (highly recommend), explored Port Townsend and visited the Red Dog Farm (great organic produce!!), and headed back to Renton one last time. Went pumpkin picking with the kids, carved pumpkins and watched all three Pirates of the Caribbean (a perfect introduction for our nearing first trip to the Caribbean) all while staying in the kid’s tree house (not such a bad way to live). Said our good byes and headed back east. Took that same 90 but saw everything different. Visited the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT and saw the largest t-Rex skull ever found.
