meganpru posted a photo:

Hiking on the Pygmy Forest Trail in Jug Handle State Park.

meganpru posted a photo:

Hiking on the Pygmy Forest Trail in Jug Handle State Park.

meganpru posted a photo:

Hiking on the Pygmy Forest Trail in Jug Handle State Park.

meganpru posted a photo:

Hiking on the Pygmy Forest Trail in Jug Handle State Park.

meganpru posted a photo:

Hiking on the Pygmy Forest Trail in Jug Handle State Park.

It's been a while since I've posted, a lot has changed in the last month or so. I moved to the beautiful Mendocino Coast in Northern California and we're just settling in. So far I've been really impressed with the level of green consciousness here. There are quite a few organic and vegetarian restaurants, we actually get paid to recycle bottles (and we don't have to sort the recycling for curb-side pickup), and I've gotten involved with a great local non-profit group called Noyo Food Forest. My partner is taking a class on organic gardening from them, I am hoping to help them with some graphic design work, and they're starting a community garden near us that we are going to be a part of. We are really excited to be a part of the organization and get some organic veggies planted in the community garden. This area is certainly inspiring!



Being involved with Noyo Food Forest has been a great experience so far. They are an organization that began a learning garden next to the local high school where they teach classes on organic gardening, grow organic food for the high school cafeteria, and sell organic produce at farmer's markets in the summer. Their goal is to turn unused, empty fields in the area into thriving organic gardens that bring the community together.



Yesterday I volunteered with a group from Noyo to prepare a vacant lot for the community garden, where we hope to have a small plot of organic veggies and herbs. We cleared the land, shoveled poop (not a glamorous job but a big part of organic gardening and it really wasn't that bad), and started sheet composting over the garden site. The spot is beautiful and gets plenty of sun, and the workday went well. I met new people involved with the organization and learned a lot about organic gardening and what it takes to start a community garden.



Noyo Food Forest got me very excited about organic gardening and eating locally. Community gardens are a wonderful thing. Not only do they allow people to grow their own food (especially people who can't a garden at home), they're a great way to meet new people, get outside to commune with nature, and reduce your carbon footprint. Since eating locally helps reduce fuel needed for food transportation, it's a win-win situation. Many towns have community gardens and/or CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs, so even if you can't garden in your backyard, there are still lots of options for getting locally-grown organic food. CSAs are a great way to support local farmers. They usually entail subscribing to the program, and local farmers will provide a box of seasonal produce each week during the season.



In a world where even our food choices are political and every choice we make has enormous consequences, it makes sense to simplify our eating habits. Going back to agriculture's roots by gardening at home or in a community garden, buying locally-grown produce, and eating organic are all ways to simplify your food consumption all while reducing pollution and emissions. Green living has never tasted so good!



If you've ever had a garden, you know that not only is gardening a great stress-reliever and a way to connect with your natural environment, but garden-fresh produce tastes simply amazing. In your own garden (or a community garden that you're involved in), you know what is put into the soil and the plants. You have more control over what you grow, so you can grow organically to be sure there aren't any nasty chemicals getting into your body. There are so many benefits to being involved in a community garden or having your own. Stay tuned for more updates on our involvement with Noyo Food Forest and our forays into organic gardening. I hope that community gardens continue to increase in popularity and spark a true food revolution!

In my travels this summer, I visited many delicious restaurants and sampled all kinds of yummy vegetarian grub. But my favorite restaurant experience was Cafe Gratitude in Berkeley. This cafe serves mostly raw, vegan, organic food prepared with love. I first heard of it when my friend Crystal traveled to the Bay Area for a summer and got a job there. When she got back, I could tell she was a changed person. And she brought with her the recipes for some of the most amazing live food desserts I've ever tasted. I had to check this place out.



We visited Cafe Gratitude with our friend Jake when we were visiting the Bay Area. It is a unique restaurant in that it is based more on attitudes and beliefs than food itself. According to their site:

Cafe Gratitude is our expression of a world of plenty. Our food and people are a celebration of our aliveness. We select the finest organic ingredients to honor the earth and ourselves, as we are one and the same. We support local farmers, sustainable agriculture and environmentally friendly products. Our food is prepared with love. We invite you to step inside and enjoy being someone that chooses: loving your life, adoring yourself, accepting the world, being generous and grateful every day, and experiencing being provided for. Have fun and enjoy being nourished.

The restaurant is based on a board game called The Abounding River that the owners invented to teach others about their view of "being abundance." This view is based on the concept that you create your own reality and that your perception of the world shapes it. The game encourages people to think differently about what they have and what they want - to adopt a view that we live in a world of abundance, not scarcity. Most important to this viewpoint is gratitude (hence the name of the cafe). Giving thanks and being grateful for what you already have is key to getting what you want in life.



Not only is the food at the cafe extremely delicious and interesting, the entire experience puts a smile on your face. All items on the menu are affirmations such as "I am Beautiful," "I am Rejuvenated," or "I am Abundant." When you place your order, you say these affirmations out loud, sending positive energy into the universe. The atmosphere is welcoming and warm, the food is nourishing and healthful, and the philosophy behind the restaurant is a unique perspective that is very much needed in today's world.



During the busy Holiday season, I find this message of abundance and gratitude especially poignant. With all the stress, wanting what we don't have, overspending, and consumerism, it's refreshing to take a step back from it all and count your blessings. There are so many things in life to be grateful for, and it's important to take time to acknowledge the wonderful things you already have before complaining or wishing for things that you don't. There will always be someone with less (and someone with more) but the only way to break the cycle of desire that leads to unhappiness is to be truly content with where you're at.



I'd like to take this opportunity to share some of the things I am grateful for this holiday season: time with family, the sound of my lover's voice on the phone, old friends I haven't seen forever, the warmth of my pets when they cuddle on my bed, the big fat snowflakes falling as I walk, an over-abundance of my favorite Christmas goodies, all-weather tires that keep me safe, the many wonderful memories I have of our travels this year, the fact that we were able to find a new place to live in a little over a week, the excitement of change, getting my old job back with ease, the understanding and patience of others, free time, hot organic vegetable soup on a cold day, warm clothes, the new snowboard I have yet to ride, new books I'm excited to read, and people who read my blogs!



May you find much to be thankful for this holiday season.

Our current way of life is completely dependent on cheap oil. Despite knowing that it is a finite resource, we continue to use it in large quantities for just about every aspect of our lives, especially in America. Petroleum does not just fuel our cars, it fuels our entire agricultural system (fertilizers and pesticides are made with oil and natural gas, not to mention the fuel needed to harvest and ship food around the world) and is our main source of energy. It is even a major ingredient in many of the products we use every day - such as plastics, pharmaceuticals, beauty products, and cleaning supplies. It's not money that makes the world go round, it's oil.



Our petroleum addiction comes at a high cost: not only in the increasing costs of finding and extracting oil, but in the long term environmental effects of its use as well as the political and social harm that comes from fighting over a dwindling resource. Even though we may not run out of oil completely for hundreds of years, it is becoming more and more difficult and expensive to find and produce. If you've been to a gas station lately, you've obviously noticed the rising cost of oil. It's certainly not getting any cheaper. But what happens when oil is more expensive to produce than it is worth on the market?



That's where peak oil comes in. Simply put, peak oil is the point at which, on a global scale, we extract the most oil from the earth that we ever have or ever will. It represents a halfway point in the earth's oil supply, not an end. The problem is that the second half of the oil that we have not yet extracted is more difficult to get to and more expensive as well. According to wikipedia:

Peak oil is the point or timeframe at which the maximum global petroleum production rate is reached, after which the rate of production enters its terminal decline. If global consumption is not mitigated before the peak, the availability of oil will drop and prices will rise, perhaps dramatically. M. King Hubbert first used the theory in 1956 to accurately predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970. His model, now called Hubbert peak theory, has since been used to predict the peak petroleum production of many other countries, and has also proved useful in other limited-resource production-domains. According to the Hubbert model, the production rate of a limited resource will follow a roughly symmetrical bell-shaped curve based on the limits of exploitability and market pressures.

Since our current lifestyles are so dependent on oil, a decline in its availability (and a rise in the cost of getting the last half of it) will have dramatic effects on society. America got a glimpse of peak oil in the early 1970s during the oil crisis, when there were long lines at the gas pump and President Carter began urging Americans to curb their energy usage. But when that crisis blew over, it seemed as if Americans forgot it ever happened. Instead SUVs surged in popularity and oil and energy use rose even more. It's as if we're ignoring our impending doom, and doing nothing to prepare for the drastic changes that peak oil will bring.



Of course, society does not have to be doomed by peak oil, which many scientists say is coming soon, if it's not already here. Some major changes will need to be made, most notably in the way we think and the way we live. But we can survive if we focus on alternatives for our energy, transportation, and agricultural needs. One group dedicating their time and resources to finding a solution to peak oil and climate change is The Community Solution. This organization advocates "culture change, conservation and curtailment" to survive this crisis. The Community Solution states:

Through reductions in resource consumption, dramatic conservation and curtailment of energy use coupled with an increase in local community living we can survive peak oil and create a sustainable world in its wake.

And they offer an example of a society that has had to face severe shortages in oil and lived to tell about it: Cuba. In 1991, the Soviet Union fell, and since the US placed a trade embargo on Cuba, a Soviet ally, their supply of petroleum was abruptly halted. Energy shortages and famine spread, but luckily Cubans have since figured out a way to get by on less energy and less petroleum. They returned to organic farming, creating small-scale local farms all over the island and in every empty plot of land in urban areas. They turned to bikes and public transit for transportation and alternative and more sustainable forms of energy production. Food production, education, and industry became much more localized. Cuban communities began to thrive, taking care of each other and supporting themselves. What happened in Cuba offers a glimpse of what a post-peak oil society might look like, if we learn to consume less, help each other, and return to more traditional and ecological ways of farming and living.



You can watch The Community Solution's documentary "How to Survive Peak Oil: The Cuba Model" as a six part series on YouTube. It shouldn't be surprising to anyone that reducing our energy consumption and finding alternatives to our petroleum addiction lead to a more sustainable way of life. This is what Cuba has done, and although their journey is still evolving, the rest of the world may soon be adjusting to peak oil's effects.



Let's hope that we can learn to live as sustainable, efficient, localized communities as the peak oil crisis approaches. The days of cheap oil will soon be over, but that doesn't mean that society will end. I believe we will learn from the "oil age" that we can't rely on finite resources or short-term solutions. If we're going to be in it for the long haul, we're going to have to work together, with each other and with the earth. We will have to learn to work with nature and not against it, and this learning process begins with a new way of thinking and seeing the world. Let's start now!

As the holiday season approaches, it's obvious the corporate consumerist machine is hard at work distilling desire in young and old alike. Christmas decorations and ads begin popping up before Halloween has passed, and each year they seem to come earlier and earlier. Their message: buy, buy, buy. As a result, many Americans end up deeper and deeper in debt, especially this time of year.



This is why time of year gives me a headache. Christmas means a lot to my family, and my mom always asks for a wish list, which I reluctantly put together although each year I feel more and more like the last thing I need is more stuff. Gift giving is part of our family tradition, and I do think gifts during the holidays are a great way to show friends and family how much you love and appreciate them. So it's always a dilemma at holiday time: to buy (supporting a system I don't agree with) or not to buy (possibly making myself look like scrooge).



Luckily, there are alternatives to buying into the corporate consumer holiday game. Instead of buying gifts from big box stores or corporations that get rich at the expense of people and the environment, the discerning holiday shopper can buy gifts from locally owned stores, local artisans, shops that focus on sustainability, or co-ops carrying fair trade and organic products. There are more and more choices for conscious consumers every day.



Other options include homemade gifts (although these take some time and preparation), home baked organic goodies, or "coupons" for services you can give to loved ones (such as a massage or yard work). I have given my homemade hemp soap, massage oil, or gemstone jewelry as gifts on several occasions, and food is always a good choice for someone that seems to have everything. I have also donated money to non-profit organizations in my gift recipient's name, a gift that can be very meaningful especially if the cause is something they are passionate about.



As "Black Friday" approaches and millions of people flock to the malls and the big box stores, I hope to stay at home and think up alternative gift ideas for everyone on my list. Black Friday has come to mean "Buy Nothing Day" (one of my favorite Adbusters campaigns) to me. It's certainly a perfect day to boycott consumerism. I hope you can resist the sales this Friday and start creating a more meaningful and less wasteful holiday season for you and yours.



On a related note, I must recommend a very delicious and completely cruelty-free centerpiece to your Thansgiving meal: TOFURKY! It has been my holiday staple for several years, and is entirely vegan despite its very convincing turkey taste. Give the turkeys something to be thankful for this year and try leaving them off your plate. (A hint from my kitchen: Tofurky is very easy to make if you follow the directions, but I recommend basting liberally and often with olive oil, soy sauce, and herbs for a juicy, delicious Tofurky even your meat-eating relatives will enjoy).

If you're anything like me, you are counting down the days until Bush leaves office (well, hopefully at least, although I fear he has something up his sleeve). However, I'm still a little undecided about which candidate I support. I tend to be pretty jaded with politicians in general these days. I do like what I hear from Obama, and I've always thought Kucinich was a badass who seems to think like I do. But who knows which of these will end up making it through the gauntlet that is the American election process.



If you're also having trouble figuring out this mess, try visiting Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 or taking an Internet Straw Poll to get an idea of how the candidates measure up.



Or, even easier, you may just want to wait and see who gets the party nominations. The two party system sucks, but it's all we've got, so get out there and educate yourself on the issues!

We made it to Fort Bragg in two days, and luckily we had beautiful clear weather and clear roads, even over Donner Pass. (There was 4 feet of snow on each side of the road, but the roads were clear and no chains were required). The volksvegan made the trip just fine with me at [...]

After holidays and visiting friends one last time in Moscow and Boise, we are ready at last to embark on our greatest adventure yet: the big move. We are leaving in just a couple of days to move to Fort Bragg, California. While we’re very excited to finally settle somewhere we love, the journey there will [...]

Here’s wishing everyone who has been following our adventures a Happy Holiday season! I procrastinated on my annual Holiday e-card, as usual, but of course I had to use a photo from our trip. The tree is a giant sequoia called General Grant, which was named “The Nation’s Christmas Tree” by President Coolidge. General Grant [...]

We spent a wonderful week or so in the gorgeous Mendocino and Anderson Valley areas. It rained on our way in, but every day after that was mild and sunny. In addition to looking for rentals in the newspaper and at rental agencies, we got to watch sunsets on the Mendocino Headlands and drive along [...]

We finally arrived in California after way too many days traveling. We made the mistake of going the long way, through Portland, and on our first day we were stuck in LaGrande, Oregon, due to a blizzard that closed the freeway. We left for Portland the next day and arrived at my cousin’s house in [...]

I'm leaving tomorrow for Okanogan Family Faire near Tonasket, Washington. As any barter fair veteran knows, this event is probably the biggest barter fair of the fall, as well as the last of the fall season. I've gone for the past 4 years or so, and it just keeps getting better every year. I've also had the opportunity to get more involved in the faire. This year I'm volunteering as a dog patrol coordinator. Dogs have been an increasing problem as the Okanogan Family Faire gets bigger every year. Last year a child was bitten and one dog killed another. OFF organizers are taking the dog issue very seriously and so dog patrol was created. As someone who loves animals and taking her dog to the barterfair, when I was asked if I would be interested in helping out I jumped at the chance. If we're successful we can prevent dogs from being banned altogether in the next few years. If you're interested in helping check dogs in, remind owners to keep them on a leash and clean up after them, etc., dog patrol would love volunteers! Just sign up at the volunteer bus, it will be to the left right before the gate. The doggies and dog patrollers need you!



I've been getting ready for the fair for a while, but still it seems like I procrastinated on a lot of stuff (as usual, it sneaks up pretty quickly). All my tradables are ready though - soap, massage oil, gemstone & hemp jewelry. Now we're packing up and doing last-minute repairs on the bus to get her ready for the fair. Speaking of which, I better go finish packing! See y'all at the fair, be safe & have a blast! :)

Just wanted to share some amazing and beautifully done videos called "Warriors of the Rainbow" filmed at the 2004 CA gathering (my first one! yay!):

• Warriors of the Rainbow, Part 1
• Warriors of the Rainbow, Part 2
• Warriors of the Rainbow, Part 3

And here's an example of democracy in action at Rainbow in CO this year. Nonviolence works!

• Rainbow Family Peaceably Schools Police, Dissolves Roadblock

peace! :)

I can't believe it's August already! And the fall barter fairs are just around the corner. As you can see I added all the dates I know about so far to the front page, as well as a bunch of concerts, festivals, and other fun stuff. Cuz it's summer & you never can have too much fun! I'm hoping to go to a few, just haven't finalized plans yet. I'm definitely going to be at Santa though. For those that haven't been, it is a wonderful little faire that is FREE and only about an hour from Moscow (yay!) and quite a lovely drive. It's very family-friendly and there's a potluck, so don't forget to bring something to share. See ya'll there, and possibly at String Summit & Seattle Hempfest as well.



Now go post on that forum, dammit, it's dead in there! :)

I'm getting ready to head to the Rainbow Gathering near Steamboat Springs, CO. This will be my second Gathering (first was in CA, 2004) and I'm so excited that it's hard to concentrate on all the work I need to get done before I leave! I was looking through my travel journal from the 2004 Gathering and came upon a couple of lists I made that I thought would be fun to share. So here goes...



Rainbow Lingo

The Rainbow Gathering has its own language, so here's what I learned at my first Gathering:

• Everyone = Brothers & Sisters
• Candy = ZuZus
• Cops are coming! = 6-UP!
• Toilet = Shitter
• I agree = Ho!
• Peace-keeper = Shanti Sena
• First Aid = CALM (Center for Alternative Living Medicine)
• Greeting = Welcome Home!
• Donations = Green Energy (in the Magic Hat)
• Asking for a smoke-out = Fishing or Needing a Plumber
• Dishes = Blissware
• Babylon = regular society outside of Rainbow

What to Bring

There are a few things I wish I had at the first Gathering, and a few things I was really glad I brought, so I made a list of stuff to bring next time:

• Tarp & rope (to make a shelter from the hot sun)
• Poncho for the cold nights
• Beanie (my head got cold, luckily I traded for one)
• Lots of tea
• Magnifying Glass
• Cart to haul stuff into camp
• Head lamp
• Drums
• Food to donate to kitchens
• A camelback to keep water handy
• Biodegradable soap
• Garbage bags to sort out recycleables & trash
• SUNSCREEN
• First Aid kit with Ace bandages (would've come in handy when we were the first ones to show up to help a kid who broke his leg on the mountain!)
• A smile and an open mind

Lessons Learned

Finally, I thought I'd share some of the things the Rainbow Gathering taught me. It really changed my life!

• Vegan & Vegetarian food is DAMN GOOD, even when eaten out of a dusty bowl and served out of a 10 gallon bucket. Actually the Rainbow Gathering is what convinced me to finally go vegetarian, and I haven't eaten meat since. It was way easier than I thought and Rainbow showed me how good veggie food could be.
• People are inherently good.
• Home is where the family is, where your heart is, and you may not know where it is until you're there.
• We don't need money, an alternative way of living is possible and the barter system works.
• Volunteering is one of the most rewarding experiences you could have.
• Love is everywhere, we've just forgotten how to express it and seek it.
• When people work together, anything is possible.
• The power of collective focus & prayer is palpable.
• Dogs off-leash are bad news! (My pooch was attacked by 2 unleashed pitbulls at once, not pretty.)
• We need to respect the land and each other, it's something we've forgotten how to do in Babylon.
• Collective consciousness and action is our only hope for changing the world.
• If everyone smells, you don't notice how badly you need a shower.
• Everyone needs to get back in touch with nature, and with each other.

Hope to see you at the Colorado Gathering! :)