Harmony Festival

June 12th

One weekend in June the freaks come out to test out their costumes for Burning Man. They call Harmony Fest in Santa Rosa the "Pre-Burn" event. Everyone is getting their crews together and figuring out which costume works. Roby and I along with Sarah and her friend Amy rounded out the normal crowd.

The event had a "medical marijuana" tent for any patrons who could not last all day without taking their pain medication!! Only in Mendo. We enjoyed a bit of hula hooping out on the great lawn and jumped into an impromptu game of hackey sack.





We listened to some great music and ventured through the eco-village and saw our friend Max and his aquaponics booth. It is incredible what he has designed to encompass the virtues of permaculture. All structures should have a "stacking" feature which means don't build anything that has only one purpose. His project incorporates hydroponics with a fish aquarium which provides the nutrients to the plants and the water cycles to the plants via a pump which is powered by a solar panel and then the plants clean the water and send it back to the fish to clean its tank. Also the fish waste is displaced to a tank which then can produce methane gas for power. We are going to build a simple version here at the SLI as demonstration. We are going to use a wind turbine to pump the water for us. It is amazing how well plants grow while suspended in water.

Part of Harmony Fest is to be sustainable and eat healthy. No deep fried twinkies here. We had a great organic veggie curry and a thai tea. They even rent you regular utensils so you don't use plasticware.

After 6 hours and the Lauryn Hill concert we headed back to reality.

Be Love

We headed to the BE LOVE Farm in Vacaville which is east of San Francisco. The Farm is an organic farm owned by the family which owns all the Cafe Gratitudes in SF, Santa Rosa and a few other locations. We went to help them out on the farm, get a tour of how they operate and learn about their communal environment on how they run their farm and restaurants. They are an amazing couple and the story of how the restaurants got started is incredible. If interested you should Google Cafe Gratitude and check it out. They have a unique management style and everything is based on the community. They also hold seminars on many different topics related to relationship building and life lessons. Part of the year they spend on their farm in Maui called Laulima. It is a well known organic farm near Hana.

Although they are extremely successful they live on their farm in a yurt, have an outdoor kitchen and a compost toilet. They do have a swimming pool and outdoor sauna. But they live simply! I love their outdoor kitchen. She cooks every meal and all the farm workers eat with the family. We got to spend the day with them and enjoy a deliciously prepared vegetarian meal consisting of bean and vegetable burritos with a mulberry infused salad. For dessert we had almond and mandarin ice cream. In exchange we gave them six hours of work thinning their peach trees and cleaning out their chicken coop.

We learned all about their grey water system using worms and their grafting methods to help propagate chestnut trees. He is setting up his farm with these trees not only to harvest the nuts but to use them for shading of his garden crops in anticipation of increased temperatures in the coming years.

Their farm is located several miles out of town under the base of some spectacular hillsides but not too far from civilization. They have a perfect distance to drive to get their crops to their restaurants in the City. The house and 26 acres next door to them is for sale. A perfect spot to start your own organic farm. Anyone want to go in on it with us?????

Memorial Day Weekend

Although we have to work weekends we got Monday off as a holiday. We met up with Sarah and two of her friends, Amy and CJ, and went camping near Calistoga/Napa. Sarah had been in the area before and found a great rock climbing spot in the Robert Louis Stevenson's National Park. It was a perfect day for climbing. A bit overcast and cool. We had the Wall all to ourselves. Roby and CJ set up the top rope and the rest of us headed down to climb. We had some good hand holds at the start but halfway up you had to use some perfectly placed cracks for arm bar and fist jams. Once you got to a certain location, you either had to be at least 5'7" to reach the next grab or try and smear your climbing shoes and scamper up the wall. CJ and Sarah went first but both were denied. Amy went next and took a bit of a different route and also had a bit of height on her side. She was the first to reach the top. Roby went next and he was not going to be topped by a girl. He scampered up the first section with ease. After some route analysis he got his feet positioned correctly and reached up grabbing the final hand hold to successfully summit.
I was the final climber and had a great climb until I reached the point of no return. I got my feet perfectly jammed in the crevice and stretched with all my might. My hand reached the hold but just did not have enough to firmly lock myself in to pull myself up to the final pitch. I tried several times but my back and triceps gave out. I guess I need to do some more yoga to lengthen my upper torso. I will conquer the mountain before the summer is over.


The sun was about to set so we packed up the gear and headed back to the campsite, cooked up some dinner and called it a night. It was so great being back in our tent. I did not realize how much I missed it.

Solar Cooking

Now that the sun has finally peeked its little head out from all the rain clouds we have been spending more time outdoors. Finally we get to put our parabolic solar cookers to use. They were designed in Spain initially to help out third world countries which do not have any means of energy to boil their water to make it suitable for consumption. They work on the same principal as the concentrated solar panels used in Granada Spain for electrical power. They are stainless steel and shaped cylindrical forcing the energy from the sun to concentrate on the burner in the center. It gets up over 400 degrees. Everyone should have one of these, not only are they great because it is free energy but you don't heat up your kitchen!


In the mornings we gather up some fresh eggs from the chickens and scramble them up on the solar cooker and sit out at the picnic table and have breakfast.We have roasted sweet potatoes, beets and cooked our rice and beans on it for dinner. One of the interns even made a cherry pie on it.It is only limited by your imagination. Our goal is to be "net zero" this summer.

Goat Anyone

Grass Eaters

The interns were not satisfied with just having chickens to raise for eggs. They wanted the true permaculture experience and learn how to raise animals for their food. Our friend Jini has a farm in Redwood Valley where she raises goats. She had a few spare male kid goats to let us have down at the SLI. After class one weekend Roby, Chris, Cuatro and I drove to Jini's house to pick them up. The boys sat in the backseat of our truck with the goats sleeping on their laps. Thankfully no accidents on the way home. We spent the next day finishing up the pen and strawbale structure for them to hang out in under the solar panel array. Goats are notorious for getting in trouble and sneaking out of their pens. Hopefully they will not chew through our fence. The chickens are becoming jealous because they are not getting the attention they are used to from the interns. I think they will be happy when the goats are gone. After a few weeks the goats were wrangled up and taken to Gini's to meet their maker. We all headed up and had a ceremony for the goats and did a bit of yoga to relax and get in the right frame of mind to experience our first slaughter. Despite being warned not to get too attached the interns decided to name their goats. As a compromise they would not give them names of endearment. Instead they named them after how they are going to eat them-Shishkabob and Vindaloo. The guys call them Bob and Louie and the girls call then Shish and Vin. Past interns who have watched the processing turned into vegetarians!

The first goat was taken to a separate area away from its brother and the other goats. A very eery feeling came over the farm. It was almost like a death row walk. The other goats knew what was about to happen. Everyone got a bit emotional especially when the two brothers started crying out for one another. I won't go into details about the slaughter just to say I don't need to watch another one.

I think I am going to stick to vegetables!

Permaculture At Its Best

The Edible Garden

Our hard work of double digging our gardens and following the planting regimen of biodynamic gardening are starting to pay off. The rain has stopped and the warm sunshine is blessing our plants. We have even been able to put on shorts. It is so strange to have gone almost a year without wearing shorts everyday. I felt strange when my white legs were exposed. Oh do I miss the warm weather of Hawaii. With the warmer days we are spending more time in the garden. We have about 1/2 an acre with over 50% of it planted so we have watering, fertilizing and harvesting to do on a regular basis. Each of us also have our own individual beds we can plant anything we want in them. We have decided to make ours the experimental bed. We have direct seeded many different things instead of using transplants. We have carrots, goldencup squash, tomatoes, red aztec spinach, eggplant, strawberries, and cucumbers so far. Excitingly things are starting to pop up for us. One of our intern's stepdad is a mushroom expert and he sent us some mycilia powder to sow with our plants. It is supposed to make them healthier and more resilient to pest and disease. I think it is working. I have been reading about mushrooms and fascinated at their powers. His dad has patented many different formulas, one which is a natural pest control especially for termites, one that helped clean up an oil spill, and is working with the gov't to ward against biological weapons. They also have incredible medicinal benefits against cancer, cholesterol, diabetes. I suggest everyone eat more mushrooms. We have been fortunate because we have inoculated strawbales with mycilia and have been eating fresh elm oyster mushrooms for the past two months. Paul our intern also propogated shitake mushrooms. Beside our supply of mushrooms, our red and green leaf lettuce have reached harvesting size. What delicious salads we have been having for the past two weeks. The kale, mustard, and artichokes have been for the eating. Many have been grazing on the strawberries and we have just begun eating the cherries and raspberries and mulberries.

We have so many cherries so everyone is pulling out different recipes for smoothies, pies, and jellies. In a few weeks we will have blueberries. It is great that our shopping expenses have gone down dramatically and once the vegetables start coming in we may not even have to go the co-op for anything. We should be able to supply tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, asian greens, kale, chard, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, carrots celery, garlic, onions, basil, mint, rosemary, dill, spinach, beets, turnips, brussel sprouts, several different kinds of squash, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, musk melon, and wheat, oat, corn and quinoa. We also have cherry, apple, pear, peach, quince, raspberry and blueberry bushes throughout the site along with a nut orchard. We definitely have been spoiled living in Mendo eating fresh organic fruits, vegetables, meat and wines. What a difference it makes. I highly recommend going organic. Watch the documentary Food Inc. and you will become a convert too!!

Shall We All Walk A Bit Lighter

Happy Earth Day

The kitchen yurt has a whiteboard in it for writing inspirational sayings. We have declared it Earth Day everyday on site to instill in us that everything we do has an impact. To celebrate we decided to throw our first party on site. We have a Cobb Earth Oven in our community village. Cobb is a natural building method using straw, clay, fine aggregrate and water. Many of our buildings on site are made from it. They promote using resources readily available on your land and are natural insolators. The Cobb Oven is a wood stove and great for making pizzas. Our new friends the Magruders who own a free range organic cattle ranch were going to provide the sausage for the pizzas.
We supplied fresh chard, onions, and garlic from our garden.
A true farm to table meal. Gini brought the kambucha tea punch. (we are learning all about these healthy foods). To finish off the evening we had organic hemp cookies. As the sun went down, we built a fire and the musical instruments came out. Ben pulled out his guitar and his fiance Grace started singing. They should have a traveling act. We have quite a few accomplished singers in our group who have been or are members in bands. The impromptu concert went into the wee hours of the morning. We celebrated Earth Day in style and hope to keep the mission going.