"Keep hugging those trees, somebody needs to!"

Thanks, Dennis! You're right - someone needs to... someone... somebody... anyone... Well, how about everyone? Not just tree-huggin' dirt-worshippers but everyone.

So I informed my boss last week that I'm leaving Alpha at the end of March. It's not quite what he wanted to hear coming back from a much needed 3 week vacation. He took it pretty well though. We had a good long chat about my and Christy's plans and his thoughts on work. He told me he had put me in for a promotion. In a tight economy that's a humbling thing to hear. I'm like "Just kidding, I'm not going anywhere." But the forest beckons and being a farmer is much more enticing.

So many books and so little time. Here's what's in the queue:

• Hot, Flat, and Crowded
• Cabins - A Guide to building your own nature retreat
• Photovoltaics - Design and Installation Manual (for PV class in Arizona next month)
• The Straw Bale House
• Serious Straw Bale
• The God Delusion - Which I had to return to the library because it was requested by someone else. What a great book. It gives one reason to pause and question - if you don't already.
• And sundry periodicals

Some thoughts and observations:

Life in Charlotte is good but Christy and I are anxious to leave.

I'm looking forward to our trip to NH at the end of April. Lindsey's birthday is the 25th so it'll be nice to share the day with her.

A mom, three daughters, a granddaughter, a wife, a sister-in-law, and a mother-in-law - so many women in my life! Oh and let's not forget my other two sister-in-laws (my brothers' wives) and three nieces. Phew! It's a good thing I grew up in house with 3 brothers and a strict, overbearing, military father to balance things out.

My sister-in-law just showed off a vest one of her Montagnard families gave her. It's supposed to be for a man so she promised to give it to her future husband.

This past weekend I recommended to Fred First (a blogger and author from Floyd) that the theme for this year's Floyd Earth Day be Radical Simplicity. What better way to make a change than starting at the bottom. He said they would consider it in an upcoming planning meeting.

Expedited Expedition

The cat's out of the bag and so we can finally make public the latest news. Christy and I have decided to move onto the property sooner than we had originally planned. We're leaving Charlotte at the end of March/beginning of April. We made this decision in November after being motivated by a Durham couple, Rebekah & Stephen, living sustainably in an urban setting. They had replaced their lawn with an edible garden, installed a PV system and a solar hot water system, and got rid of their cars. The two of them have authored a book - "The Carbon Free-Home". Rebekah is also an electrician and installs solar panels.

Christy has already informed her employer and I will do the same after the holidays. I think a 90 day notice will be sufficient, yes? I hope my employer will be as accepting as Christy's was. We'll see. But who knows, perhaps because of the down-turn in the economy one may get laid-off. I could only be so lucky.

Working in an industry that is so intimately tied to consumerism has been difficult for me. How to justify being against a consumptive, throw-away society and at the same time working for a company that relies exclusively on that principle? Do you simply say, "Hey, I'm doing the best I can. I have to pay the bills somehow."? It works for awhile but that dichotomy doesn't fade with time. It is this reason and more that I've decided to change careers and work in the renewable energy field by installing PV (photo voltaic) systems. In February I'll be attending a week-long PV Design and Installation class in Tucson. Afterwards, I'll do an advanced class which entails 60 hours of classwork which I can do online. The plan is to be come a certified PV installer. Where would I work? Well, as luck would have it, our neighbor, David, in Floyd owns a PV installation business. We've already discussed my working for him. Also, another neighbor told us he has a friend that also owns a PV installation business who needs help. So I don't think there will be a lack of work. In the long term, I do not plan on working full-time. The idea is to earn enough to pay for the things we can't provide ourselves - insurance (home, car, & health), gasoline, cell phone service, and staples such as TP, soy milk, and most importantly - coffee. We hope to provide the rest.

When we move onto the property we'll initially be living in our tent - how primitive! We'll use this time to build a smaller structure - a cabin/cottage. We're thinking an approximately 200sq foot structure. This will be our home while we're continuing to save for the straw bale house. At the same time we'll start farming as well. We'll be clearing some of the trees in either January or February in preparation for planting and the well.

It's all very exciting but at the same time quite daunting. Christy and I aren't approaching this with the romantic notion that it'll be easy and idyllic. There's going to be a LOT of hard work and many frustrations. But we're motivated, determined, and patient. We work well together and are always supportive of each other. This will be a good test of how well we cope under duress. I am just so lucky to be with someone who is as excited and willing to do this as I am.

ye reap what ye sow. So true - literally and figuratively.

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

"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!

YES!!!

3rd Anniversary

Today was Christy's and my 3 year anniversary. We started the day with yummy scrambled eggs, grits and coffee that Christy prepared. For dinner we had salmon and couscous followed by a showing of Bill Maher's "Religulous" at the local Manor Theater and then for dessert - chocolate raspberry tart from Amelie's French Bakery. It was a happy day.

This weekend we'll head to the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina. It'll be nice to spend some alone time on the coast and explore the city.

Ain't it the truth

Thought for the week:

The other day Christy and I were talking about our jobs and I expressed my desire to work for a company whose principles are in line with mine and Christy said, "You're working for a company that prevents the theft of products made in China that'll be in a landfill in two years." And I was like, "Wow! How messed up is that?"

Think I'll go install solar panels somewhere.

No duh, we're in NoDa!

So, Christy and I have been living in a part of Charlotte called NoDa (short for North Davidson St.) since June. It's the cool and funky part of Charlotte. When we first visited NoDa I told Christy that this is where I'd want to live if we were to live in the city. There are great music venues, art galleries, cafe, french bakery, fun stores, and more, see here.

Christy is still at Carolina Raptor Center as their Controller and I'm at Alpha - High Theft Solutions as an electrical engineer.

We spend most of our free time hanging out at home, riding our bikes, playing music and visiting with family and friends. Usually we'll spend some time camping on our property once a month. Madchen is enjoying the south, too.

Next month we'll be quite busy. On our 3 year anniversary we'll be spending the weekend in Wilmington, NC (on the coast); Christy's 15 year high school reunion; and ending the month with a Habitat for Humanity trip to El Salvador. We're looking forward to October!

Our First Structure!

Alas, we've completed our first building project. Christy and I were ready for more comfortable accommodations when camping so we decided to build a tent platform. This serves several purposes - level sleeping off the ground and a better vantage for viewing our surroundings. It's a 10' x 10' structure situated on the side of a hill. We used locust wood from our property for the posts. Our neighbors tell us this is a very hard, strong and durable wood good for fence and support posts. It's also a great alternative to pressure treated wood. The platform itself was made from nearby milled spruce.

I'm glad we started with a small project. It's a great way to learn techniques that we'll use later on when building the house. I have to say that building the platform wasn't easy. A lot of sweat went into erecting it. Mostly from digging the holes. Christy honed her skills with the digging bar and post-hole digger. Using the chain saw was quite fun, too. I felt like such a woodsman.

My dad use to call me "nature boy" and it's a nickname that I've always enjoyed. This past weekend finishing up the platform on my own was very cathartic. It's just you and nature... well, and perhaps a tent and a sleeping bag, and a camp stove, matches, food, etc. but you get the point. It's just such an awesome feeling to be out there by yourself with the trees with minimal comforts (go ahead and laugh Lindsey, Jamie and Lauren). My daughters like to make fun of their dad and his penchant for the woods.

(Click on image to view video)

SheRox Triathlon

Sunday my sister Nancy and I (Christy speaking) participated in the SheRox triathlon at Latta Nature Preserve just north of Charlotte. It consisted of an 800 meter swim, 27k bike ride and a 5k run. These events are so much fun, and a great reason to get in shape and improve your overall fitness. We both did well, coming in under our goal of 2 hours. The race started in the lake just as the sun was coming up. As I was about 5 minutes away from the finishing the swim, and wishing that part were over, I noticed that every time I turned my head to the right to breathe I could see the sun peeking up over the trees at the edge of the lake. It was beautiful, and it gave me some scenery to enjoy to take my mind off the struggle to get to shore.

The bike portion went fast, 17 miles in one hour, and I worked harder than normal because the spirit of competition got into me. Not being a particularly competitive person, I secretly relish the feeling of flying past someone on a long downhill! Take that!

It's hard to start running after the bike ride, because your legs are full of blood from using your quads so much on the bike. So the first few minutes of the run were a struggle! But running on the trails in the woods is refreshing, and I finished in 30 minutes. In this case knowing you are almost there makes you able to tolerate the exertion.

I recommend doing a race to anyone who needs extra motivation and a deadline to get in shape. Just sign up, put it on your calendar, and then get busy exercizing!

rick:
The triathlon coincided with a visit from my mom. She took the train from Durham to Charlotte. We had a great time. On Saturday we had lunch at Carrabba's (Italian) and then took a ride on the Charlotte light rail. She was a good sport by getting up before 6 AM on Sunday to attend the triathlon. Afterwards we all went to Boudreaux's Loisiana Kitchen for brunch. We're really glad she came.