(no subject)
Been a while...
First, there have been a significant change that had really effected both my current focuses and my longrange goals.
To give a little background - Brittany and I went to Windward last weekend and had a wonderful time. Sounds wierd to say that I had a great time cutting firewood but I did. For those that don't know, Windward is an intentional community near Klickitat, Washington. (Intentional community does NOT mean cult so leave the cult jokes at home..) This was the site where PacWar was held last year and where it will be held this coming year.
Anyway, both Brittany and I had a great time and they have asked if we would like to join them. After a lot of talking, and some very serious soul searching, we have decided to move there. We will be moving after Brittany gets out of school in June.
This means a lot to both Brittany and I. Windward is based on the concept of the "group" working together to meet the basic needs - Food, water, shelter, etc - so that it frees up more time for the individual to meet thier wants. This is an important concept. By everyone working together and pooling resources, they are able to meet the normal needs of the group cheaper, more efficently and with less work than the average person spends normally. This means more time (and money) to spend working toward our individual goals.
Another Windward concept is the idea of sustainable living. For example - raising food. In today's commercial environment, the average meat animal is given three pounds of human consumable food (grains etc) for every pound of meat produced. This is NOT a sustainable system. In fact, it would be better to use the three pounds of grains ect to feed us than it would to eat the animal. The idea is to use food for the animals that is NOT human consumable to produce the meat. It is actually simple to do, but it takes thought and planning.
Most of what they do at Windward is done with the idea of sustainability. This is a concept that I used to write about in the early 80's. It is really cool to see it in practice at Windward.
They are also very concerned with what they call "Sheparding the land". What this means is that they use thier land in a manner that does not exhaust the value or resources of the land. For example - they have a gravity feed, solar powered water system. This system is built in such a way that even if they lose power, the water system is unaffected. Other projects they are working on are things like a methanol fuel production system to fuel thier vehicles (methanol is produced by using the natural waste of the land - wood chips made from fallen branches and tree waste), a bio reactor to produce methane to be used in lue of propane for cooking, and active/passive solar systems.
Anyway, the ideas behind Windward (as well as the people that are there) are really appealing to both Brittany and I. We will be doing work there off and on till June, and then we will be permanent residents. We are both looking forward to it.
This decision to join Windward means some significant changes in our lives. While I am personally looking forward to living at such a remote site, it will also mean that we will be farther away from our friends. It will mean that our participation in Amtgard will probably drop to events only. It will mean that we will have to get rid of a lot of our stuff (room constraints) and work on picking up some stuff that we will need.
The up side is that I will be able to focus more on my crafting. Living at Windward will give me access to a lot of tools that I don't have access to now - both a propane and a coal forge, a refratory furnace, a treadle hammer, both a finger metal brake and a set of shears, multiple welders, the list goes on. In fact they have most of the tools for lapidary, woodworking, and metal working as well as large shop to use them in. They even have thier own sawmill so that I can cut dimentional lumber for special projects (can anyone say oak bows....).
If you can't tell, I am pretty excited. I will miss regularly playing Amtgard but I will still try to make the major events. I am also going to continue merchanting to Amtgard - in fact, I will have more time to explore other items that people want/need.
Brittany and I have a lot of work to do between now and June but we are already working out a timeline to get things done. We want to be moved and settled into out new home by mid July. Seven months isn't all that long considering how much we have to do.
Later...
First, there have been a significant change that had really effected both my current focuses and my longrange goals.
To give a little background - Brittany and I went to Windward last weekend and had a wonderful time. Sounds wierd to say that I had a great time cutting firewood but I did. For those that don't know, Windward is an intentional community near Klickitat, Washington. (Intentional community does NOT mean cult so leave the cult jokes at home..) This was the site where PacWar was held last year and where it will be held this coming year.
Anyway, both Brittany and I had a great time and they have asked if we would like to join them. After a lot of talking, and some very serious soul searching, we have decided to move there. We will be moving after Brittany gets out of school in June.
This means a lot to both Brittany and I. Windward is based on the concept of the "group" working together to meet the basic needs - Food, water, shelter, etc - so that it frees up more time for the individual to meet thier wants. This is an important concept. By everyone working together and pooling resources, they are able to meet the normal needs of the group cheaper, more efficently and with less work than the average person spends normally. This means more time (and money) to spend working toward our individual goals.
Another Windward concept is the idea of sustainable living. For example - raising food. In today's commercial environment, the average meat animal is given three pounds of human consumable food (grains etc) for every pound of meat produced. This is NOT a sustainable system. In fact, it would be better to use the three pounds of grains ect to feed us than it would to eat the animal. The idea is to use food for the animals that is NOT human consumable to produce the meat. It is actually simple to do, but it takes thought and planning.
Most of what they do at Windward is done with the idea of sustainability. This is a concept that I used to write about in the early 80's. It is really cool to see it in practice at Windward.
They are also very concerned with what they call "Sheparding the land". What this means is that they use thier land in a manner that does not exhaust the value or resources of the land. For example - they have a gravity feed, solar powered water system. This system is built in such a way that even if they lose power, the water system is unaffected. Other projects they are working on are things like a methanol fuel production system to fuel thier vehicles (methanol is produced by using the natural waste of the land - wood chips made from fallen branches and tree waste), a bio reactor to produce methane to be used in lue of propane for cooking, and active/passive solar systems.
Anyway, the ideas behind Windward (as well as the people that are there) are really appealing to both Brittany and I. We will be doing work there off and on till June, and then we will be permanent residents. We are both looking forward to it.
This decision to join Windward means some significant changes in our lives. While I am personally looking forward to living at such a remote site, it will also mean that we will be farther away from our friends. It will mean that our participation in Amtgard will probably drop to events only. It will mean that we will have to get rid of a lot of our stuff (room constraints) and work on picking up some stuff that we will need.
The up side is that I will be able to focus more on my crafting. Living at Windward will give me access to a lot of tools that I don't have access to now - both a propane and a coal forge, a refratory furnace, a treadle hammer, both a finger metal brake and a set of shears, multiple welders, the list goes on. In fact they have most of the tools for lapidary, woodworking, and metal working as well as large shop to use them in. They even have thier own sawmill so that I can cut dimentional lumber for special projects (can anyone say oak bows....).
If you can't tell, I am pretty excited. I will miss regularly playing Amtgard but I will still try to make the major events. I am also going to continue merchanting to Amtgard - in fact, I will have more time to explore other items that people want/need.
Brittany and I have a lot of work to do between now and June but we are already working out a timeline to get things done. We want to be moved and settled into out new home by mid July. Seven months isn't all that long considering how much we have to do.
Later...