Summer Shakedown 2011

Here is an event we are holding this weekend. Should be fun!

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Special Event: Summer Shakedown 2011 When: July, 5pm-midnight
Where: Boundary Bay Brewery

Sustainable Bellingham and the Center for Local Self Reliance, two local non-profits focused on environmental education, will be hosting the Summer Shakedown Fundraising event on July 16 at 5 p.m. at Boundary Bay Brewery on Railroad Avenue. There is a cover charge of $8 for a full evening of entertainment. Food and drinks will be sold by Boundary Bay; burgers (including veggie and salmon) will be served in the beer garden until sundown. Boundary Bay beverages will be available for purchase all night in the bar.

Confirmed musical acts include Misty Flowers, Kit Nelson, Keaton Collective and The Endorfins. A fifth act will be added, but is not yet confirmed. The concert will be an all-ages show until 10 p.m., and 21+ thereafter. A Kona WorldBike will be raffled off around 10pm. You need not be present to win, just buy a ticket for a buck. Or five for five bucks. Or twenty for twenty bucks.

Schedule
5:00pm - Kit Nelson
6:30pm - Misty Flowers
7:45pm - Announcements
8:15pm - Keaton Collective
10:00pm - Raffle
10:15pm - The Endorfins

A portion of the proceeds will go towards the ongoing restoration of the Caretaker’s House in Fairhaven - a project led by the CLSR – into a community permaculture site. The CLSR has overcome many hurdles in transforming this once abandoned building into a facility that focuses on teaching sustainable agriculture and living practices and half the proceeds from the fundraiser will support this CLSR project. The other half of the proceeds will go towards funding various projects sponsored by Sustainable Bellingham, which concentrates on community building, living ecologically-sensitive lifestyles, urban gardening, permaculture, and alternative transportation.

About Sustainable Bellingham: Sustainable Bellingham is a 501(c)3 organization with a history of over six years in Bellingham. Its loose organizational hierarchy concentrates every effort into maximizing participation in action-oriented events in the community. It is 100% volunteer. Projects center around community building and low-impact lifestyles, including re-localization, urban gardening, permaculture, alternative transportation, social justice, etc.

About the Center for Local Self Reliance: The CLSR has undertaken the project of saving and restoring the Caretaker’s House in Fairhaven for transformation into an educational facility. So far, it has shown steady improvement, although many projects lie ahead. The Boundary Bay benefit will assist funding of its many capital improvements required for both aesthetics and to bring the building up to code. These include: building a retaining wall; an ADA accessible garden for harvesting of herbs, healing and scented plants; irrigation; a front gate for the main entrance; painting the house; remodeling the kitchen; and an ADA ramp for kitchen entry.

Sustainable Bellingham and CLSR thank our SPONSORS:

Whole Energy Fuels Corp. - Whole Energy has developed one of only economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable approaches to biofuel production and distribution. Whole Energy provides BIODIESEL and alternative fuels to a growing list of satisfied customers and partners on the Pacific Coast. Declining oil reserves, global warming, national security and the health of our local industry are issues of serious concern. Our company addresses these issues and contributes toward the goal of a more secure future. We are currently partnering to work towards an Alternative Fueling Station on Cornwall St. in Bellingham.

Kona USA - Headquartered in Ferndale, Kona is all about the freedom and empowerment of the bicycle. We're dedicated to sustainable practices and are avid recyclers. We're populated by a staff of keen, active, impassioned cyclists. We're not big, nor are we that small. Just a dedicated group of cyclists making bicycles for people who love bikes-no matter if that love is new or long established. We happily help promote bicycle ridership, infrastructure and policies.

The Markets LLC - The Markets, including The Market at Lakeway, Fairhaven, Birch Bay and Anacortes, are committed to great food for everyone! We feature Really Local foods that come from no more than 35 miles away, and also support our state's artisans and growers in our Taste Washington program. We have hundreds of fresh choices for your meals, including a big variety of vegetarian, wheat- and gluten-free and vegan choices every day. Our new store at Lakeway (open now!) is a store like no other! Come see for yourself!

Another Weekend...

We were lucky to have some nice June weekends. Another trip I took on my touring bike. I was lucky to scor a pair of lightly-used Schawlbe tire for a song. These proved to invaluable on my trips near and far. And I have access to a bike stand, so I regularly clean and tune this bike.

Here is a video of my next weekend trip up Mt. Baker Highway. It was wonderful trip and probably the lightest traffic and generally the most pleasant riding I've done all summer. Climbing and climbing and climbing up a forest road just past Glacier after forty or fifty miles of biking turned into a n effort in futility as I climbed three thousand feet and probably descended back down fifteen hundred to find a sloped campsite for the night.

Waking up freezing the next morning allowed a descent into Glacier (before the Wake-n-Bakery even opened) and then on to the Harvest Moon in Maple Falls. A great trip.

Return

I miss writing, but someone suggested that I post events up here. Go here for that information. I write more later.

But first, I want to tell you about the wonderful adventures over the past months. I took a straight job, and bought some toys. I splurged and picked up a vintage (c.1990) Schwinn Sierra along with a B.O.B. Trailer for four hundred bucks. So this rig took me far and wide across Whatcom and Skagit Counties.

My shakedown trip was to Birch Bay State Park. Camp for the night return the following day. It's funny when you don't need to spend money on fuel, you can eat a pretty nice meal in lieu of buying gas.

Holidays

It is wonderful to have warm friends in the chilly moist winter here in Bellingham when your nearest family member is a couple thousand miles away. But Christmas day was spent with the dog reading a Faulkner novel. Holy days of rest and are wondrous, although the rest of the evenings were filled with parties, camaraderie...and rest - something I woefully lack during most holidays, or life in Bellingham in general.

Not much more excitement. Other than jacking up on Vitamin D and realizing how much that can impact me, just another day in Bellingham. Glad to turn off the computer at five or six, come home, and enjoy the free time that the office job affords. So consequently, I'll probably be writing less and less and enjoying my free time more and more. I am fortunately right where I need to be in my life in Bellingham.

Life

So my eyes stayed glued to a computer screen most of the day. When I get home at night, I try to do other things, such as read, sew, play guitar, cook, or many other things. Tonight, we went to see a movie at the Pickford. I've been building a pile of free passes from volunteering there, so tonight we saw 127 Hours and then to Mallards to use a gift certificate. It's nice to spend $3.25 for a night on the town.

Although I finally have a reugular job and hours, I still have retained my frugal ways developed over my economically challenged days. Last night I did buy an Edith Piaf CD at the music store. And saw a friend working there that I met a few weeks earlier. It's amazing to see the dynamic people of Bellingham just doing their jobs and loving life. It's rare I hear anyone complain about Bellingham, and few inhabitants want to "get out," unlike all other cities or towns in which I've lived. Every place had had its element of people yearning for greener pastures.

But not Bellingham. (Well other than the weather that can deteriorate your demeanor and drive you stone mad) smiles abound.

The picture above is from my bike commute to wok. Fortunately, it's only five minutes or so, and one stop light. This is the route past city hall and the library.

Pete

One of my housemates back in the spring turned out to be a great friend also. Unfortunately, Pete is moving back east after his (and his wife's) efforts to earn a sustainable living in Bellingham proved futile. And this is too bad, as he is a great guy and had many, many stories to tell, including his living off the grid in Alaska and through hiking both the Continental Divide Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail. Bellingham seems to attract the nicest and most interesting people. You'll probaly never see this post, Pete, but I wish you Godspeed on your life's journey. You are a good man.

Oh well, off to a Christmas party tonight. Sort of. It's been going on for years and this is my third time atending. Fun, fun, fun.

Writing

Yes, the job has over the past week or two evolved from a "Holy crap, I'm stupid and I'll never learn anything" to "wow, it's all coming together and I really can add some value to this organization." Afer hearing the horror stories in the media, and living in a town where decent paying jobs are more scarce than sunshine, I am indeed a lucky person. And the CPA Exam that I arduously studied for years ago (and passed) many someday evolve into a valid license in this state.

I haven't been writing, as my evenings are spent doing other things like reading, playing music, and generally things that I find more appealing than the tie suckage of a computer. But tonight I need to get some pivot tables done, and that means sitting at the Public Market eating a piece of pizza being content.

The picture above is one I came across of an abandoned gas station we wanted to turn into a biodiesel facility. All indications were a "go," but to deal with getting this property rezoned to a retail facility from a residential mixed-use, even though it always was a gas station. I don't understand why the City of Bellingham so diligently discourages conducting business in their city. Personally, I like the abandoned buildings lining Cornwall Avenue anyway with derelict VWs parked in front. (There's another run-down property a block up the street with a '69 Beetle in front.) At any rate, we walked away from the deal for this year, as the permitting process in this town and county makes you want to consider a place like Anacortes.

And back to my personal situation, I am quite content to be back in the stable office world. As much as I lambasted the lifestyle in my past, a regular paycheck, benefits and not working horrible hours is quite welcome too, which is why I really haven't had much desire to be on this computer any more than I need to when in the sanctity of my peaceful home.

Back to the spreadsheet.

Thanksgiving

It turned out to be a wonderful Thanksgiving, with friends coming over and plenty of food to be had. And this year I embraced the notion of being thankful for the many things and people that I have in my life. It has been a tumultuous year regarding my livlihood, but I think good things lie ahead.

And the weekend was spent reading fiction - something that I find to be an indication that I am relaxed and can truly enjoy my down time.

Another interesting thing I began was reteaching myself how to sew. Just the sound of hearing a sewing machine I find to be very soothing and remenicent of simpler times when my mother would be sewing and mending while I conducted my youthful activities void of deadlines and stress.

At any rate, a good weekend of doing nothing. I was tempted to write earlier, but I find the time suckage spent in front of computer is pervasive when my weekend's free time is increasingly more valuable. But today, I needed to commit to getting caught up on work and installing software, so many of my daylight hours will be spent in front of this screen listening to WWOZ. At least I have a wonderful dog keeping me company, who unfortunately is feeling a bit under the weather with a stomach flu. Poor little pooch.

Snow

On Friday it snowed. And when you live in a city with few, if any, plows, it turns into a challenge when the recurring freeze thaw cycle makes for treacherous conditions. And a few days each year, the temperature dips into the twenties or teens - this seems to be one such time. So today the storm windows went up, as well as the heat tape plugged in and those little pieces of wood that cover the crawl space under the house.

This picture was taken by a friend that lives up near the arboretum and has a great view of Bellingham, the bay, and the Canadian Coast Range in the background. I don't know why thirty degrees seems so much more cold here than ten or zero degrees back east. Maybe the perpetual dampness in the air has something to do with it - even on days like today when the wind kicks down from the north versus off the water.

It is days like this that I am grateful I have a warm home and a dry bed.

Wednesday we will probably see a melting and life returning to normal. I will take forty and drizzle any day over this. Brrr.

Mice

The weirdest thing happened yesterday:
I went out to leave for work - opening the garage and feeding the chickens before I board my bike for the arduous five minute commute to work. When I opened the door, mice were in the chicken feed container and I caught them off guard. Two fell to the bottom of the bucket as I picked the bag of feed up and stranded them there so they could just maybe think about their actions. Two were nimble and spry.

The third (I'll call it The American) had so engorged himself on chicken feed that he could barely move across the bottom of the bucket. He looked like Augustus Gloop.

So I went to work, left the three of them there, and upon my return home found the spry one standing his fat, dead partner in crime - the little one reaching for the sky. I let the two go and threw the third gluttonous one in the brush pile. Life is fragile.

Tweed Ride

Sunday was a fabulous bike ride around Bellingham dressed in British attire, riding old classic cruisers. Here is a picture taken at the gazebo in Elizabeth Park in the Columbia neighborhood. This was last Sunday, and a hundred or so cyclists so up at one point or another. I look forward to the next Tweed Ride.

But right now I need to get to bed, after I finish a business plan for someone far away in a warmer climate as I sit here sniffling decompressing from by semi-annual sojourn to the Bellis Fair Mall to realize why I come up there as little as possible (especially Roth, or Ross?, which was like a war zone - a Canadian free-for-all orgy of commerce).

Okay, since I am writing little, I will post two pictures.

Sick

I think I get sick more than normal in this climate. Or maybe people are getting sicker due to the over-prescription of all the drugs in the world, or the innumerable other reasons. And biking in the rain doesn't really help too much either.

But Bellinghamsters just seem to be sick, and the sniffles through the winter is normal. This latest spell (I was told, as well as am experiencing) lasts about two weeks. Biking home sniffling in the rain I am so grateful that I have a home to come to that is warm and dry with a happy dog awaiting my return. I also empathize with those experience terminal illness that will never get better, versus my temporary discomfort.

And the notion of a health care plan is so foreign to me that I have not yet been able to fully grasp its enormity. I have worked as a consultant for many years, and your health care provider was usually the internet, as a $5,000 deductible was a bit foreboding, and seeing a doctor for things like the flu was deemed silly and not a consideration.

So being a creature of habit, I sit here with zinc tablets, some tea made with dried lemon balm (from the garden), turmeric, ginger (plenty of it) and fennel. I have a disdain and distrust for western medicine, so until I can find a naturopathic doctor I will be treating myself. Fortunately, the worst is behind me.

Poems

When you (and all your friends) don't watch television, you have a tendency to spend your nights doing other things. So I end up in odd and eclectic places.

Tonight I went to a a house high up on Garden Street and sat around a table writing poems. You pick a subject out of a hat, and begin by writing a few line, and then pass it on to the next person.

The following was what was written, based upon these two subjects written on scraps of paper:
1) The Spartans traded rods of metal and used no real form of currency, and
2) The start of the agricultural culture.

And here's what came of it:
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The abundance of wheat and grain,
The Fertile Crescent
Across the sea.
Willing to trade metal rods like the moon exchanges light with the sea,
Mohawk shadows marching towards villages with groves of olive trees fringing the corridor of traveled passageways.
Do the roots grow deep enough to rabble
the skeletons from their rooked graves?

What am I saying?
Roots depend entirely on what grows, above and seeps down...which I cannot begin to quantify.
Well, I can begin.
And time too soon. We're passing through cycles, like orbits. Is all that we're troubled by today are different than the experiencing of pirates and...who were the others? Other pirates?

Pirates traded spice, slave salve of the coconut palm.
There were ships, were floating farms
Spread from the soil to the foam
Bulging pillaged land floating at sea.

And the seeping grain is a hole in the plastic sack.

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A fun night.

Artichokes

Yesterday's gardening entailed transplanting some Jerusalem Artichokes -not really artichokes, and not from Jerusalem either; they are native here in North America. So I transplanted a bunch of them, giave two of my neighbors a clump each, and still had a huge bag to put in the 'fridge.

So for breakfast (my housemate had hers with eggs from our chickens) and dinner we had Jerusalem Artichokes. I consider these to be my sustenance if "the sh*t hits the fan" as all these post-carbon people claim, or some other form of societal collapse - I am not really of the peak oil school.

Some consider this plant a weed, I consider it something I look forward to cooking for Thanksgiving. (There is a second patch near the fence.) Why we consider something edible, healthy and pretty tasty that grows prolific in this country a weed, when we engorge ourselves with all the synthesized agribusiness crap that.... oh never mind - I had a good day.

But tonight I baked them in oil and sprinkled them with dill on one half, and rosemary on the other. Yummy.

Tyrannus melancholicus

Today was the second day that I saw a group of people with expensive field glasses and field guides on the bridge over Whatcom Creek by the bike path. They were obviously birders. Last week I was looking at the same bird they saw and thought it was a Yellow Breasted Chat. I found out today that I was woefully mistaken.

It was actually a Tropical Kingbird, a species way off course from its normal wintering grounds of New Mexico and Arizona. Odd indeed. So I hung out for a bit and watched its antics and talked with some fellow birders and then headed home to a productive day of gardening and doing house things. I do need to get out more, hence my trip down to the coffee shop this evening to play on my computer and add a few items to a business plan.

A warm sunny day, a great night and a good life in the City of Subdued Excitement.

Coffee Shops

OK, so I couldn't stay away long from writing. I left work and came to the coffee shop for tea and relaxation. Now that I am working a desk job, and can concentrate at for eight hours a day, I no longer need to dawdle on the computer for hours on end to meet endless deadlines of uncertainties. There is something to be said about for the regimented mindset and vision in a more structured environment. It is not an unwelcome notion to reacclimate to the organizaed structure of an office environment, getting up at 6:50am, and doing the same routine day after day.

Although the picture above is blurry, it evoked the sensation of boarding th ferries in the dusk and its beauty. I will always romanticize about riding the ferries back from the islands or peninsula in the fall twilight. My friend took the picture and I took it off her Facebook page. Thanks Donna!!

Time to go home and finally - for one of the first times I've lived in Bellingham - relax.

Finis?

I have grown weary of writing and do not know that the frequency of my posts here will equal what I've produced in the past. I am working an 8-5 job right now, which is a pleasant change to the chaos and irregularities of working a a consultant. Freedom of consulting comes at a very high price.

So when I get home from the office, I once again cherish the freedoms of simple things like reading, walking the dog, playing guitar, writing, visiting friends (like I spent today doing) or anything except more work on a computer. So maybe I will again pick up the proverbial pencil once my schedule becomes more regimented and I grow into this cycle of regularity. Right now, I enjoy the comfort of an anticipated regular paycheck, a higher stature of professionalism, and health care with a $25 co-pay versus a $5,000 deductible (I am lucky - most freelancers have no health care coverage, at least in the U.S.) I breath a sigh of relief.

A late night at the Wild Buffalo last night (well until the drunken fools were unleashed on the streets after the bars closed - alcohol makes people really ugly, which is why I am glad my drinking days are long behind me), a great day with a morning of attending the BUF, and a day on Chuckanut Bay with a wonderful friend. Time to read and shortly sleep thereafter.

US2

Here's another picture coming across US2 on our way back fro Cle Elum a few weeks back. Such a beautiful journey over the Cascades, and much has happened in the short while since my trip back. Most importantly, I think that I may take a steady full-time job and cast my freedom to the wind. Back to the comfort of an office, benefits and a regular paycheck. Although I had the opportunity of working with some wonderful people in my consulting days, I also had the misfortune of working with my share of shady characters - more times than not.

So yes, I am burned out. And extremely refreshed (and grateful) to get back into a normal regimen of working with a local company employing my skills and being compensated for a fair wage. It also means getting up with - or actually before - the chickens and starting my day with a refreshing thirteen minute walk to the office downtown.

and some god friends from Cincinnati are moving out to Yakima, so there may be a trip or two out there in the next year. But now it's now ten o'clock and time to get ready for sleep.

Produce

Today was a day of winding down a few items in my life. I do not know what I did, but it did involve buying a pumpkin, visiting friends, moving furniture, cooking, visiting the myriad grocers in Bellingham. Although I only shop there occasionally, my favorite produce stand is Youngstocks just a stones throw away from my house. Unfortunately, it closes in a few weeks. I remember buying a full week's worth of produce there for under fifteem bucks. Cross the street to Trader Joe's and you are inundated with excessively packaged food that seems much less fresh.

But for what it's worth, Trader Joes does give a lot to the food bank. At least on the produce side. And come to think of it, on the canned and other packaged stuff too.

That's about it tonight. Running over to see a friend on the Lettered Streets.

I wish I had more to say, but my thoughts are limited.

Opportunity

"In the field opportunity, it's plowing time again."
-Neil Young

I have been working as a freelance consultant for a long time. I have worked with stellar companies that have been models of how businesses in my idyllic world view should function; and I have worked with nont-so-stellar clients.

Some days, in the midst of a quasi-meltdown, I peruse the job listings online ans occasionally submit a resume. Not really because I like the job prospect, but because I dislike the the increasing frustration of consulting. This week was different - in the midst of my mental strife, I was reading the listings and I swear at the bottom of the page it said "This job is specifically for you, Jeff." And the fact that the company is local (yay!) and located in town (a ten minute walk) versus some generic office park in the outskirts of town is also quite palatable. I submitted my resume and today I interview.

So I hope the rota fortunae turns favorably and that an opportunity in line with my evolving career path can truly put me exactly where I want and need to be - in Bellingham, Washington.

A chilly morning here in Bellingham with the sun still present and winter on the run.