Looking outward

Although I have lived with other people before, I have never lived in a community like Earlwood. It's been a very enlightening experience and as I sit here now, holding down the fort alone while everyone is off traveling, I'm realizing that it's much more than someone to welcome you when you come home. Living in a community that shares and exchanges skills and knowledge helps me focus on the things I know and can teach to others. I'm not asking myself "what don't I have" but rather "what do I have?" I find this is a fundamentally more fulfilling and happy mindset to have and I've found that I have quite a lot to share. I think people are inherently hungry for knowledge and being able to work and live in a community allows for that hunger to be satisfied everyday. Whether it's simply seeing a task done in a different way or having a deep and enlightening conversation about our life purpose, the community allows those things to happen in a very natural way. It's about being compassionate and caring. Compassion for my community has brought happiness to myself. Compassion for the people around me, for my friends, for my family, for the environment and for the world has also brought happiness. It's something that is easy to write but much harder to live.

Radical Mycology Convergence

The RMC is a gathering of people to share knowledge. As the organizers out it, "we envision this unique event to be a volunteer-run gathering of mycologists, fungal enthusiasts, and Earth stewards coming together to share skills and information related to the numerous benefits of the fungal kingdom for humans as well as the planet." Last year Earlwood decided to be the hosts of this year's RMC. It was a lot of work preparing for it but it was totally worth it. We learned an incredible amount about mushrooms including medicinal uses, dyes, cooking, cultivating, growing, spawning and everything else you could want to know about the mycological world. Here are some pictures of Earlwood's transformation into a mycology education space for 200 people

Capitalism Paradox

Through-out my ponderings in life and the especially stimulated thoughts while on the farm, I've realized that everything that really makes me happy in life has little to do with money. The bonding with friends and the deep conversations, the satisfaction of a hard days work, nature, laughter, everything that I find that makes me smile is not centered around money. This is a big reason why I'm not concerned about how much I make or a salary. I'm focused on learning some life skills and some farm skills too. But alas, we live in a capitalist society where money means everything and this where I find myself in the paradox. Money provides a sense of security. Sometimes this is just a number in a checking account that makes someone feel safe or secure and sometimes it's having enough physical stuff to feel safe and secure. There is some merit to having something put away for that rainy day or retirement and I have to quarrel there. But that "something" put away isn't enough of a reason for me to work at something that isn't inspiring just because it pays well. Hopefully I'll find the perfect job someday that pays well and gives me some meaning and I got all my life to find it. This is especially relevant this week since I'll be starting my new job as shop manager at the ReCyclery in Port Townsend. It's a non-profit bike shop similar to Community Cycles in Boulder. I'm very excited to be involved with the ReCyclery and I can relate to their philosophy on a very fundamental level. They're dedicated to education especially for the youth, they don't turn away anyone because of their financial situation, they aren't focused on making a profit bigger than the last quarter, they focus on community outreach, they keep things out of the landfill, and they give people a healthy way to leave their car at home. All of these things don't necessarily have to be about bikes, they're just good principles to run a business by. Now you add bikes into that mix and it's a perfect job for me. To bring it full circle, no I won't be making a killing, but I'll be making a living and that sounds pretty good to me.

Working Like Dogs to Eat Like Kings

I've decided to start into some smaller blogs about why I'm up here at the farm and what motivates me to do what I do. This has been a long time coming but most recently inspired by a gathering we held at Earlwood talking about these sorts of things. Most people farming or homestead style farming like we do, don't make a lot of money and work long hours and they are outside all day and my next few entries will be dedicated to digging into why this is so.

Work Days in China

Well it was September since I was in China and I was without the mighty blog but I'm back at it now. The trip was an enlightening experience and I encountered many sights, smells, thoughts and emotions that I've never had before. It was a lot of work hours and few play days but overall I wouldn't have done it any differently. Conor and I first traveled to Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan province, to finish an installation of a soil dynamics testing shake table at Chengdu University. The installation had mostly been done and most of our time was spent tweaking software and training. Here's Conor giving a run down of the system to some professors, some students and our reps.

A little background on Chinese earthquakes: In May of 2008 the Sichuan province felt an 8.0 magnitude earthquake that killed 70,000 people and left around 5 million people homeless. It also collapsed every bridge, both railways and roadways in/out of the affected areas stranding millions. The majority of these collapses was because of soil erosion and typical Chinese short-cut construction. The government pledged to spend $150 billion US to rebuild the area and they don't want to make the same mistakes twice. That is why many of the Universities in the area are doing extensive testing on soil and buying earthquake simulators. After some long work days we were glad to have brought a little Boulder brew with us.

Then I flew to Wenzhou to start an installation while Conor flew East for 2 days to complete a training. He then met me in Wenzhou to finish and train. Here are some pictures of the system itself.