"Instead of seeing the rug being pulled out from under us, we can learn to dance on a shifting carpet" -Thomas F. Crum

"Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse
while all the others were making ships." -Charles Simic

It's a mean country,
but it's your's and mine
I know it's rugged, but I'm set to see it shine
-East Texas Red


It's a long and rugged road
and we don't know where we're heading
but we know it's gonna get us where we're going

When we find what we're looking for
we'll drop these bags and search no more
It's gonna feel like heaven when we're home.
-The Wailing Jenny's

Davis, CA
Planned residential "suburb" community, that is planned according to the sun. People park on the outsides, and walk around. There is an edible landscape, and homes are oriented for passive solar gain, and active instalations on the roof.

Headed north from Berkeley, visited the Shasta Dam, got a very interesting tour and heard how they have a proposal in the Senate to increase the height of the dam 18 feet, because demand continues to grow on this precious resource. 75% of California's water falls in the northern part of the state. It then gets pumped down to southern California where 75% of the people live. A strange concept that seems unlikely to continue forever.





Visited the Redwood National Park along the coast. Beautiful trees that towered above me. It is very difficult to view the redwoods in a drizzle, because you always want to be looking up and up at them, but then you get raindrops in your eye. It cleared up a bit, and the sun even came out for the end of my day. An epic bike ride took me on an abandoned road through a huge grove, then over the ridge to the costal trail, biking through flooded trails, then around an elk herd, and back up over the ridge. A peaceful off season experience only running into a few other visitors. I couldn't camp in the redwoods because they were so huge and overbearing that I felt small and vulnerable without anyone with me. So I headed north and camped in Smith Wilderness area, the trees are normal sized there.


Into Oregon!
Visited a couple of farms in Grants Pass area, organic and one supplied food to a restaurant on site (Summer Jo's). The traveled to Cottage Grove, OR and Aprovecho, a research and education center. www.aprovecho.net The are working on gardening, forestry, but also appropriate technology, specifically wood burning stoves. These ideas are then shared at stove conferences and throughout the developing world where wood fuel is becoming an important topic. The vision to expand knowledge and promote sustainable living (heading towards regenerative living) is an extremely important and momentum building approach.