the neighborhood solidarity campaign is underway.
Friday, January 29, 2010
banana pups... arf! arf! arf!
rachel from the ventura urban homestead (our bitchin' sister compound 'round the way) passed on a gorgeous lil' banana pup her bananas produced. at 7 am on a rainy-ass day, our sister was out there digging and sweating and comforting the pup away from its parents...
the neighborhood solidarity campaign is underway.
the neighborhood solidarity campaign is underway.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
...hijo'e gran puta... la lluvia sigue...
hijo'e graaaaaan puta. 5 dias de lluvia sin respite. but we been makin' the best of it. K and S have been here WWOOFing from Iowa for the past few days. Smart... no, brilliant kids with great hearts and huge minds. They and Monica from Florida spent an entire afternoon digging up urban refuse (trash can lids, little kids' birthday banners) from the depths of our soil, adding compost and designing what undoubtedly will be fabulous new beds.
the surf has been f'n terrible with double overhead sets, huge onshore winds and a gnarly shitplume stretching from C St to Hobos and as far as the eye can see towards Oxnard... but we've been making the best of it with hot whiskeys, cold tecates and a whole bunch of laughing around the fireplace.... and a bunch of plotting for new tropical and sub-tropical species that destroy concrete...
the surf has been f'n terrible with double overhead sets, huge onshore winds and a gnarly shitplume stretching from C St to Hobos and as far as the eye can see towards Oxnard... but we've been making the best of it with hot whiskeys, cold tecates and a whole bunch of laughing around the fireplace.... and a bunch of plotting for new tropical and sub-tropical species that destroy concrete...
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Noticias para Enero/January News
January has been a really good month. T and T and Burrito re-did the back cottage into a living art space complete with their amazing art. The nasty remnants of 40 years of renters has largely been scraped, hauled or painted away and it is looking good.
The front house went through the last of its termite restoration work with the last layer of varnish making the floors look decent. T ripped up another one of our concrete walkways and planted herself a bunch of brassica magic!
We got a couple new orange and lemon trees in and are hoping like mad they survive the occasional frosty morning we have!
Some projects we have on tap for the next couple weeks:
• Rip the rest of the North concrete walkway out and install a chicken tractor over it.
• Design and build some sort of storage shed out of all the materials we salvaged from the houses
• Transform cottage #3 "The Cell" into a more liveable space... possibly with living roof! (or a chayote/passion fruit equivalent!)... and windows installed. And a solar panel or three?
The front house went through the last of its termite restoration work with the last layer of varnish making the floors look decent. T ripped up another one of our concrete walkways and planted herself a bunch of brassica magic!
We got a couple new orange and lemon trees in and are hoping like mad they survive the occasional frosty morning we have!
Some projects we have on tap for the next couple weeks:
• Rip the rest of the North concrete walkway out and install a chicken tractor over it.
• Design and build some sort of storage shed out of all the materials we salvaged from the houses
• Transform cottage #3 "The Cell" into a more liveable space... possibly with living roof! (or a chayote/passion fruit equivalent!)... and windows installed. And a solar panel or three?
Sunday, January 10, 2010
bienvenidos a la ancla, ventura
hello. we have a very new, very fun urban sustainability project going on in ventura, california and wanted to share it with those of you who care about such things or who are travelling/wwoofing your way around this part of alta california.
after numerous attempts at "going back to the land" our hearts and minds realized two things: one, for most people seeking an alternative to corporate death culture, moving into rural or wild areas proves, in the long run, to be isolating, alienating and lacking many of the economic and social resources those of us without blood families and trust funds need to survive. secondly, as more and more of us try and get off the train of planetary destruction, the last thing the earth needs is more well-intentioned people colonizing her last wildlands.
so instead of getting 4x4s and preparing to live alone in the woods, we went the opposite direction. we commandeered a 1/5 acre multi-family residential property in the barrio by the beach in ventura, california and are in the process of turning america's urban blight into an urban oasis with plentiful food, re-used infrastructure and materials, and a thriving community of youngish people who can live well on very little.
although we haven't been here very long, several garden beds and a small orchard of fruit trees have gone in. the concrete has vanished (50% down!!) or been transformed into more useful forms. the broken glass and bottle caps and lost plastic toys have been recycled or regifted. the moldy paint has been removed and old motor oil and leaking batteries recycled. the kale and chard and avocados and passion fruit are thriving, the peas are shooting up and already, as we sit around and drink a hot whiskey and laugh together, we can feel a subtle but palpable shift in the land beneath us. where once was broken glass and compacted, dusty soil, the 10,000 year old riverbed soil has already regained its moisture and the dark shades of decomposition. where once rusty machines stood, arugla and pomegranate scramble skyward.
as i look at L and T and M, and we talk about skateboarding and joy division and broccoli in the same sentence, i know we are onto something good: something old and thrifty where we reuse what has been presented before us in an effort to reshape the future in a more healthy, positive direction.
if any of this sounds interesting to you, click on the wwoof link to your right...
in the meantime, be good family, be good.
after numerous attempts at "going back to the land" our hearts and minds realized two things: one, for most people seeking an alternative to corporate death culture, moving into rural or wild areas proves, in the long run, to be isolating, alienating and lacking many of the economic and social resources those of us without blood families and trust funds need to survive. secondly, as more and more of us try and get off the train of planetary destruction, the last thing the earth needs is more well-intentioned people colonizing her last wildlands.
so instead of getting 4x4s and preparing to live alone in the woods, we went the opposite direction. we commandeered a 1/5 acre multi-family residential property in the barrio by the beach in ventura, california and are in the process of turning america's urban blight into an urban oasis with plentiful food, re-used infrastructure and materials, and a thriving community of youngish people who can live well on very little.
although we haven't been here very long, several garden beds and a small orchard of fruit trees have gone in. the concrete has vanished (50% down!!) or been transformed into more useful forms. the broken glass and bottle caps and lost plastic toys have been recycled or regifted. the moldy paint has been removed and old motor oil and leaking batteries recycled. the kale and chard and avocados and passion fruit are thriving, the peas are shooting up and already, as we sit around and drink a hot whiskey and laugh together, we can feel a subtle but palpable shift in the land beneath us. where once was broken glass and compacted, dusty soil, the 10,000 year old riverbed soil has already regained its moisture and the dark shades of decomposition. where once rusty machines stood, arugla and pomegranate scramble skyward.
as i look at L and T and M, and we talk about skateboarding and joy division and broccoli in the same sentence, i know we are onto something good: something old and thrifty where we reuse what has been presented before us in an effort to reshape the future in a more healthy, positive direction.
if any of this sounds interesting to you, click on the wwoof link to your right...
in the meantime, be good family, be good.
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