Pruning!

Candy sent in this photo of a peach (?) tree we pruned during a January Food Not Lawns workshop.

Even the tree thrives with you let go of the random stuff. Guess they are our model.

free stuff

Update: All the stuff that is left is now back inside the gate. . . Let me know if you'd like any of it. cleath at j9k dot org, 619 582 7583 10am-6pm.

I'm downsizing to keep only what I can carry--that is the goal at any rate--and I'm getting rid of the following. When things are gone, I'll put an '[X]' at the beginning of each item. The address here is 4602 Seminole Dr, 92115 (follow link for a page of directions).

I thought of donating stuff to the free skool, but they have yet to make it by. I seem only capable of doing one thing at a time so I don't really want to hold on to anything for any special purpose.

In spite of the old Craigslist listings I put up, these things are all free. You are doing me a favor by taking them away so I don't need to think about what's best to do with them anymore. I appreciate your help.

Originally I wanted to help out the culture in a particular way by helping first carfree, second foodnotlawns / permaculture / Ishmael / activistsandiego / cityheightsfreeskool / bike kitchen, third SDSU music department & library, fourth Rolando book sale / library. But I don't know how to manage that.

I will first announce this to the carfreesd list, then to SDFNL/sdpg/sdishmael, then, if anything's left, to freecycle & craigslist free.

• [X] Carfree library and organizing materials
• Autogeddon (book-length poem+photo essay)
• CARtoons by Andy Singer
• Most back issues of Carbusters Magazine
• City Repair's "Placemaking Guidebook" (an old edition)
  
• A poster on transitioning to carfree
• A poster/display of a bunch of carfree stickers
• 'One Less Car' and carfree cities stickers
• Carfree cities brochures & flyers
  
• [X] Communities Magazine + related
• Best of Communities Mag reprint collection
  
• Creating a Life Together
  
• Three issues of The Mindfulness Bell
• Some issues of Orion
• Old back issues of Hopedance
• [X] Books with some $ value
• Three of the textbooks could be sold for over $20 used on Amazon
• There is a box of Spanish-language learning & literature books.
• Many of these books could be sold at the SDSU Aztec Shops / KB books semester book buyback (beginning May 5), if you take them over there.
  
• [X] Christopher Alexander's Nature of Order, all 4 volumes
• Added up, these sell for $200 used. You might want to look at them and then donate them to SDSU or another library.
• [X] An Electric Violin
• You might print out the description here. And take it to the iSoldIt San Diego store. You'd probably eventually get a check for $200. You can specify that the proceeds go to an organization.
  
• [X] A Yamaha Keyboard
• [X] A 15" flat panel LCD display w/ DVin + some old speakers
• A Wheeled Walker
• Some old wool sweaters that could be composted (or used for felting?)
• [X] A lowrider recumbent for a tall person (a Reynolds Weld Labs Wishbone Round Tube). (This is in the garage, not by the bushes. Contact me if you're interested: 619 582 7583 or cleath at j9k dot org.) It will need some care (and perhaps some aluminum welding ability for the seat, but not necessary). You'll want a helmet mirror if you ride it. And probably a bike trail or empty roads to ride it on. This has a granny gear for San Diego hills; with patience, you should be able to climb anything. You may need two weeks of practice before you feel comfortable on it. I broke one handlebar when I was learning (by falling on it and bending it). I'm not sure if George Reynolds has any more replacements. I wear gloves so I can put my hand on the ground when I stop.
• Sizing: From the bottom of my pelvis/crotch to the ball of my foot is 38". The seat is at its maximum extension. It can go about 5.5" shorter. It may be a challenge to adjust.
• What needs fixing: It is rideable as it is, if you pump up the tires. The front rim needs to be replaced (the rim is bent so the brake hits it). That is the only major thing. There is a crack in one of the seat joints, I believe. George said he'd fix this if I sent it out to him, but I never have.
  

A mention on StartupSD

Chuck Longanecker of Digital Telepathy posted about a Technomad Forest Gathering at StartupSD.

Origin skills and technomad forest gathering in SD County: Fri May 9 - Mon May 12 and beyond

The current plan is that Jasmine (she was at the first day of the origin skills gathering in March) and I will be leaving from Escondido Friday morning in her truck. We're headed to an area probably not more than an hour away where there is water and at least some large trees (Jasmine seeks a forest!).

I've got the guide for the southern section of the PCT, and will look for trailheads along that trail.

She's got the Afoot and Afield book and will check that. And we welcome other suggestions for location.

Among other things, we may work on the following:

• net making & net bag making
• cordage
• mat weaving
• friction fire
• edible plants
• enjoying being out there

We hope to have more company. And if you can't head out with us Friday morning, we'd like to be able to arrange a way for you to meet up with us once we're out there.

On the technomad end of things, I can share what I've learned about solar chargers, pre-paid cell phones, mobile email and Internet access, pdas, ebooks.

I'll plan on staying out there after Jasmine heads back, and I may actually stay. Especially if others want to stay out there longer as well.

If you prefer not to use cars, I know plenty of ways to get to the forest and back without them, and would love to organize a trip leaving from the city via public transit (help me plan the next one!).

About

I'm getting rid of possessions I cannot carry and heading out to the forest with a PDA for reading books, a solar charger, and a cell phone.

My goals are to be able to blog about what I'm doing, to provide an example others can learn from, to stay in contact with urban dwellers so they can come out and visit, and to encourage and help them to be comfortable and to live simply in the outdoors.

Not everyone can follow this example. And I am sort of giving up on directly helping to green the cities, but I am inspired by the following:

Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.—Howard Thurman

I cannot stay where I am in San Diego indefinitely, and I am not as excited about remaining in SD longer-term as I am about finding a way to make the forest my home. I've never really enjoyed moving myself longer distances around this city, nor have I ever gotten around to organizing many events in my neighborhood. And I know it is wonderful to spend time with people away from their cars in great unpaved places.

This project continues the exploration behind my earlier proposal for a walking sangha.

I've asked what has kept me from staying in the forest.

• Food,
• connection with others,
• and mental engagement

were the main reasons that came up. I still don't know what to do about food. I'll miss visiting all the fruit trees I know. But with my PDA loaded with ebooks and a cell phone which can check email & Internet (if there's reception--from the mountaintops maybe?), maybe the other two issues will no longer be reasons for leaving.

Responding to FC's essay

This is an initial response to an essay by someone I've learned a lot from--the essay "The Dilemma of Global Starvation as Intellectual Abstraction" by Frank Cook.

I appreciate this perspective. I would like to hear (wonder if Shumacher College is bringing in any representatives of) the integral perspective on environmental issues.

I think the most helpful visions of the future will be some kind of synthesis of the indigenous and the modern.

Well--I don't mean to start a debate. In practice most of the people who would be reading your essay are creating some sort of synthesis of the indigenous and modern--using products of corporations in the process.


Should we recognize that, embrace it, and consider how corporations, the products they create, and the institutions and bureacracy and government that are all a part of modernity can be more life affirming?

What would that look like?

You might consider the Habermasian view and the Integral perspectives in developing this future vision.

For me--my vision of synthesis I'm experimenting with: to be out in the forest with my solar-powered internet connection to the pfaf.org database. . .

able to publish, to be an example to others. To network, to help others get out there too. To be an example of how little is needed to have wonderful experience.

Basically, I, and integral philosophy, and Habermas, all claim that the modern era has opened certain wonderful possibilities. Critiques of modernity might be more compelling if they recognized these aspects and incorporated them into their visions of the future.

The anarchoprimitivists are fairly united in saying 'there are no benefits worth the costs'. That their use of modern tech is only pre-fall, and waiting for the fall of civ.

A newer critique, that many may find more helpful--that I hope to offer with my life: I will live simply (in an 'origin skills' way) but with [X] benefits of modern technology, and encourage the diversity of lifeways that make the tech possible to move in [Y] direction.

(Y probably equals what Mollison describes in Permaculture: A Designers' Manual. What X is, I'll be finding out.)

Frank--you have stated the same about your use of airplanes-- modernity and corporations have given you wings. Our lives integrate modernity and indigenous wisdom whether or not our thoughts about our lives do.

Test message from phone.

Now is the time .

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Multimedia message

2nd photo

Test will there be no tag?

Test will there be no tag?

First post

This is written on a nokia 2610 using predictive text input.
Location: 4602 Seminole.

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