I land soon

My nomadic winter is coming to an end.  In short time I will be back on my tent platform, waking up with the birds, working with the plants, playing with my heroes and sleeping with the stars. 

 

It happened again.  That same deal, where I voice a masterplan of mine and find myself deep in the experiences I outlined some months down the road.  This time it was regarding a educational opportunities.  After 6 workshops and 3 college presentations I realised that I am teaching sustainable design and that I love it.  

Now that this "talk & walk" phenomonon is so well documented I think it is time I began to test its potential.  So...

When I go back to the farm I will focus on learning how to run a landscape design/build company.  By studying all aspects of the business I should be able to start my own small potato practice or team up with an all star team of superfolks and unleash the unimaginable powers of conscious redesign, actualised potential, place making, community development and collective genius. 

Big or small, its gonna be a lot fun.  After reading my previous posts I have noticed that many of them end with an invitation to either write a comment, send me an email, take a course or just touch base.  This post will follow suit as well as put out the invite to any and all who are interested in working with me come fall.  I will HQ in Bellingham but I range far and wide.  Collaboration is my new favorite hobby so let me know what your up to and I bet we could kick some ass together.   Until then...

Mercenary

Yesterday I remembered another aspect of my developing career. I want to be a Mercenary and I think I am well on my way. After hitching a ride from Olympia to Bellingham I offered my services for a tree planting operation. Thursday morning I showed up ate my rationed breakfast and then hit the front lines. 30 Fruit trees later, they gave me my lunch, and 25 berry bushes after that I got a ride back home. A fair trade. While I was deep in the trenches, I plotted my course... Hired mercenary to special forces to commandante to community leader to local politics to mayor of the city at which point I pass a proposal by which the city hires a sheperd to graze sheep across the parks and lawns and keep the city well trimmed. I nominate myself and assume the position where I live out the rest of my days, tending a flock.

Rite of Spring

I can't wait for spring time.

The first little buds are poking out and I am getting really excited. My masterplan is being pruned for a new season of growth and change. The three G's popped up for a week as nice options for growth but they have been chopped back to a lone G: Grassroots.

This little branch is already showing promise. My partner and I have nailed down five Permaculture Design 101 courses. We will also be presenting to a few college courses and participating in panel discussions all of which have been coordinated from the bottom up. This all sounds pretty official and will provide great content for my growing resume'.

However, after an exciting design charrette and some philsophical discussion with certified career academics, I feel blessed with a great sense of "Agency". This free will makes me wonder if I will ever even use my resume' again. I kind of hope that I won't have to. Instead, this "do it yourselfness" could provide project after project after job after opportunity for long enough to get me into my long planned early retirement at the ripe old age of 30. Plus or minus 2 years. I will let you know how it goes... and if you want to, I could even bring you along for the ride. Just write me...

There and Back Again...

Life is silly.

A year ago in January I was sitting at the very same desk in the same Seattle Public Library posting the same silly work to my silly little weblog.  This little microcosm clearly reflects a similarly unremarkable difference in the macrocosm of my yearly doings.  

I still wander from home to home with a low profile and high spirits, trying to keep my footprints small.  Three seperate masterplans are all coming together and the prospect of executing the three G's in complete accordance with the three P's is pretty exciting.  

In terms of actual production, I am pulling together a series of educational workshops to keep me busy throughout the winter. Permaculture 101 is a one day introduction to regenerative systems design (Green).  There are currently 3 presentations already nailed down in Bellingham and Olympia and three more are lining up in Seattle,  Spokane and Redmond.  For more info check out This Link.  Let me know what you think.

*****

Sometimes other people can better say exactly what you mean...

Ethics

In the evolution of political economies 

Of the late 20th Century 

There is an emerging pattern 

In which yesterday's vitrues 

Become today's vices 

And vice versa 

Vices virtues.

We hope this signals the demise

Of either dollar or gun manipulated

Political puppetry's

Overwhelmment of humanity.

Throughout the past state

Of innate ignorance of the many,

The informed few

Told the uninformed many

What to do

So that the many's coordinated efforts

could produce most effectively

The objectives of the few.

An omniwell-informed humanity

Does not need to be told

What needs to be done

Nor how to cooperate synergetically;

It does so spontaneously.

History demonstrates without exception

That successful soveriegn power seizers

And successfully self-perpetuating,

Supreme physical power holders in general

Will always attempt to divide the opposition

In order to conquer them

And thereafter keep the conquered divided 

To keep them conquered.

Controlling the sources

Of production and distribution

The self-advantaging power systems

Keep the  conquered divided

By their uncontestable fiat

That the individual's right to live

Must be earned

To the power structure's satisfaction

By performing one of the ruling system's

Myriad of specialized functions.

The top-gun, self-serving power structure

Also claims outright ownership

Of the lives of all those born

Within their soveriegnly claimed

Geographical bounds

And can forfeit their citizens' lives

In their official warfaring,

Wich of psychological necessity

Is always waged in terms

Of moral rectitude

While covertly protecting and fostering

Their special self-interests.

To keep the conquered

Controllably disintegrated

And fearfully dependent

"They" also foster perpetuation or increase

Of religious, ethnic, linguistic,

And skin-color differentiations

As obvious conditioned-reflex exploitabilities.

Special-interest sovereignity will always 

Attempt to monopolize and control

All strategic information (intelligence),

Thus to keep the divided specializing world

Innocently controlled by its propoganda

And dependent exclusively upon its dictum.

Youth has discovered all this

And is countering with comprehensivity and synergy.

Youth will win overwhelmingly

For truth

Is eternally regenrative

In youth.

Youth's love

Embracingly integrates,

Successfully frustrates

And holds together,

Often unwittingly,

All that hate, fear and selfishness

Attempt to disintegrate.

-R, Buckminster Fuller

Cabin Fever...

Last Saturday, The Daver and I were the honored hosts of Permaculture 101.  After a bit of networking, we were provided with the finest conference room in the Greenest building on this side of the Mason-Dixon.  We had 26 students and 4 hours of class time which consisted of a basic intro to Permaculture, a virtual tour of PC in the PNW and interactive design scenarios so everyone could get involved.  The final assessment was a job well done and we made a grip of friends who hope to help us with the whole East meets West ordeal.

After finishing up this and a few other fun projects, life here at home is proving to be a little short on adventure.  It's a fine change of pace though and as you may know I rarely get bored.  My time has been well spent making and wrapping presents, sending out postcards, chatting with friends and family and reading up on the world these days.  I'm also helping my mom get ready for the influx of holiday visitors... wraping gifts, baby proofing, decorating and right now, I gotta go peel some potatoes.

HybriDesign

Culture shock cuts deep.  Metaphysical deep, like a snake eating its own tail.  Nevertheless, there are lessons to be learned from all of this and learn them I will.

With that in mind, I am revisiting my native homeland but with a new pair of eyes.  Old habits, old friends and old haunts are all offering new ideas and new opportunities.  But I am also bearing witness to the bigger picture and it hurts to look at...

I've just spent 9+ months in a microculture of self relience, holistic perspectives and regenerative relationships.  I've just been dropped into the reality of America where the aforementioned qualities are scarce at best.  It has come to my attention just how much my thinking has evolved, and how critical it is to remember where I started and the path I took. 

As fun as it is to preach to the choir, it is my intent to help those who need it the most.  To do so,  I must fluidly move between these two worlds.  I must develop a hybrid dialect to communicate the values and needs of each to the other.  What this sounds like... I have no idea.  Write me, call me, talk to me and we can work on it together. Until then, Namaste'.

Starting Up...

I figure, if your planning on a seriously transformative collection of resolutions for the year 2009, you had better get a running start.  As of right now, I have been Sober Grover for about 2 1/2 months of a total 365 days.  I am simultaneously working on 3 different design projects and organizing a half dozen teaching opportunities throughout the winter months. 

In the 2009 I will be designing the foundation of my multifaceted career. The facets will be Landscaper (design & build),  Educator (workshops & guest-lecturing),  Artist (illustation & design) and all around producer for myself and for all those who may need it.

Island Life...

Since we last spoke, I have been enjoying more than my fair share of good times. Hence the absence of computer scanning, digitizing, internetting and blogging.   

In brief, my life as of late has been filled with incredible experiences.  Each new piece is fitted into the grand picture like a masterpiece Lego replica of the Methuselah tree.

  

I have been learning, educating, working, playing and traveling, all under the assumed identity of a permaculture designer known as Saul Malone.  I taught a workshop in Olympia, attended a fruit tasting in Portland, took a work trade tour of PC sites in coastal BC, harvested my heirloom peppers,  ate a 4 deer and 2 squirrels,  pressed 40+ gallons of apple cider, found my favorite plum (the Green Gage)  and started work on a potentially life changing project.  On the whole, it has been a grand introduction to the possibilities that life holds.  I am really starting to see how I want to live out the rest of my corporeal existence so that I may project myself into the spectrum of multiple future dimensions as an ambassador of good times, good food and good feelings.  This is a prime incentive for me to really start operating at full potential... whatever that may look like.

Design, Design, Design

I love design. This is becoming very clear to me.

Just two nights ago I attended my very first and only Loris 2028 concept album release party. The books were hot off the press and sold like trippytronic, sci-fi, dub, concept album, artbooks at a really killer concert. They are all indiviually numbered and come complete with a 13 track CD and a 15 page illustrated guide to future world. They will be for sale in Bellingham, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and online just as soon as we can so if your interested in plants, animals and/or machines just let me know. In the meantime you can check out the artwork at Loris2028.blogspot.com. Once your there you might take a moment to contribute your interpretation of the story untold. It is our intention to have our audience provide us with their own literary creations and you can do this by posting on the website. Write a poem, a fable, a haiku or a whole novel, just write and we would love to hear from you.

The secondesign was recently executed off farm. A fellow intern and myself completed our first landscape design installation, working entirely independently. It was a learning experience, a lot of fun and a success all at the same time. As I move on into this crazy world, I should hope to carry this practice with me. Perhaps on my new free bicycle which I scored while in Bellingham. It is gunmetal, and I traded a copy of my CD Artbook for it, which is a pretty sweetdeal and integrates perfectly with my summer goal of Publication, Publication, Education and Transportation. Upon completion of these tasks I will level up into a fully mobile sustainable design studio.

The thirdesign is the most fresh. Just this afternoon, i attended the opening ceremony of our brand new (*mostly reused materials) chicken coup. Complete with Beer, Compsting produce and Cockfighting, a good time was had by all, except guillermo, who lost his position as top cock to the new heavyweight champion Subcommandante Marcos. They are now my new neighbors, and seeing as they wake up so early, I ought to head to bed.

But before I go... I am the happiest, luckiest most priveleged and greatful young man to be surrounded by such an amazing community and environment. I have never felt so great in my entire life. To anyone and everyone, may the best days of your past be the worst days of your future.

PS- I will get a picture up soon

Projections

It took a while for me to realize that the the things I tell people are often quite true. That, or I say it so much that it eventually becomes the truth. Either way, I am currently working on various independent design projects and I have more in sight. As I knock one down it leads to two more, like some sort of herculean hydra. The fear of spreading myself to thin has recently enetered my considerations, which I have taken as a good sign that I am learning from past mistakes. I guess that all I can do is holdfast and keep steering towards the ultimate goal... A dirigible, a nurselog, a hobbit hole with gardens on the roof, and a passive solar design that regulates its own temperature all year round maintaining optimal conditions for the growth of various bonsai fruit trees which produce the most delicious specimens in the entire community, nay, on the entire island, and a capable woman who likes to read out loud and a well trainded dog, a flock of animals to shepard in a pasture, a reputation as some sort of wizard, a pet corvid, a removable seasonal wall in my kitchen, a chinampa to call my own, ents in the woods around my home, a bike that can carry 4 people, a library and studio, my friends, my family and pen pals... lots of penpals.