Wednesday, November 19, 2008

First Snow!

Verbosity Mode Enabled

Christy and I spent another fun weekend in Floyd. We started on a couple of "hot" compost piles on Saturday. We're hoping to have some finished compost by the time we start planting in the spring. That night, our neighbors David and Annie had us over for dinner. We discussed, among other things, the possibility of me working for David installing PV systems (photo voltaic). David is a master electrician that runs a PV installation business. This would be my dream job. Working on something that I'm passionate about and that actually does something for the environment is too cool.

I opened our tent door on Sunday morning to discover it had snowed. Although it was a brisk 28° F, we were comfortable in our sleeping bags. But that comfort only lasts until you unzip and need to get dressed.

We took a drive to Roanoke for some coffee and breakfast at our newly discovered cafe - Mojo Cafe. Organic, Fair-trade coffee, and good, healthy food and I'm there. Good coffee, good food and good atmosphere. Afterwards we took a ride to find the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op. Unfortunately the Co-op didn't open for another two hours so we checked out the surrounding and area and went back to Floyd.
Christy and I did a little more work on the platform - mostly putting the remainder of the screws in. We had originally planned on sealing the platform but because of the recent rains and snow we decided to hold off.
Before heading back home we stopped at Ed and Randye's for some more of their delicious goat cheese. We shared a cup of gotu kola tea and homemade blueberry cobbler.We've never had gotu kola before but it was quite good. So we chatted a bit or rather Ed chatted a lot. But it's all good. He is such a wealth of information. He encouraged us to rethink buying a used camper to live in while waiting to build the house and instead we should build a small structure/cottage for the same price (~$2000). That way we wouldn't have to mess with selling the camper once we're done and we'd already have something for storage or guests to sleep in. Not to mention an increase in the value of the property. So I think that's our direction. We also discussed the logistics of getting a well dug and clearing trees. So much work to be done and yet so much excitement.
Oh, and what kind of goat cheese? Red pepper! And yes, it really is good.
We also stopped at Green's Garage for a few staples. It's a self-service (honor system & no store personnel) store that sells mostly local food. What a great concept and such a low overhead to operate. They pretty much have everything you need - from fresh produce to dairy to bread to TP.
That's all kids!


A light dusting

Mojo Cafe

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

"Charity Starts at Home..."

...however, extreme poverty trumps that notion. Two weeks ago Christy and I went to El Salvador as part of a Habitat for Humanity trip to help build a community center for a newly built community in Santa Ana, El Salvador. This was our second trip in two years. This trip was truly amazing. We were able to interact with the local families and masons a lot more this time. My Spanish has also improved so that was a big help. It's such a moving experience to get to know these people who are so genuine and humble.

It's an honor to be able to leave the comfort of our lives here in the States and have the opportunity to help those in need. It's actually a pleasure to do manual labor for this cause. It feels good to work outdoors building something with your hands.

Our group was a lot of fun, too. As was the case last time, there were only four men and the rest women. At least we weren't honored with aprons this time. The local Habitat affiliate has some really top notch folks working there. They treated us as family as they always do.

If you've ever thought about doing something like this I would strongly encourage you to just do it. It doesn't have to be El Salvador, it doesn't even have to be out of the country. There's such a need for basic housing everywhere. Serving others doesn't necessarily have to entail building houses. There are soup kitchens, homeless shelters or other organizations that are worthy causes, also.

When not working during the week we did some fun touristy things on the weekend. Things like swimming in a lake formed from a collapsed volcano; lunch on a volcano; checking out the local markets; visiting Bishop Oscar Romero's house (Bishop Romero was champion of human rights in El Salvador who was assasinated in 1980); and swimming in the Pacific Ocean. Oh and I can't forget the monkey that stole and broke my glasses. What a riot!




Our group minus 2 lads ..............View of Coatepeque Lake



One of the new houses.................. A typical meal


Day one .............................................Day five



Some of the local children............ Our masons


My flower - Florecita....................... Santa Ana



View of Santa Ana from our room


Celebration night!





Wednesday, November 5, 2008