New

I've been planning on doing this for a few months. I'm going to now start regular updates about life at Twin Oaks and post my random mutterings about (what in my view) is a growing stew of cultural disconnection and societal disillusionment. There are many I've met who share these views.

Life Going in Cycles, or Cycling, or Somthing

At about the same that I toured on Blue Ridge Parkway last year, I decided to ride skyline drive this year. Skyline starts in Shenandoah National Forest and runs a little over 100 miles through the blue ridge mountains. The two roads meet up outside of Afton, VA. The entire ride ended up being about 250 miles from Twin Oaks and back. The ride on skyline was pretty similar to the parkway, but not quite as painful (still painful though).

Camp on the first night after 110 miles including 6 miles at the end that included about 3 miles with a 1000 ft altitude gain.

Typical scene on the drive.

Typical view on the drive.

I end where you begin. The bike at this year's end point and last year's start point.

Ok, so people are probably more interested in Twin Oaks.

Ok, so I'm taking pictures today of the community and will post in the next few days.

updates about twin oaks life are forthcoming with the next few days. I recently moved rooms and once I get everything in place I'll start posting

Twin Oaks

We moved to Twin Oaks about a month ago. So there's that.

Or maybe not. This might require some further explanation.

The short story is that out of all the places we visited on our trip, all of the various lifestyles we encountered, and all of the options that surfaced during the last year of travel, Twin Oaks was the closest to our ideal. Yes there are elements that aren't super fantastic. But there are fewer issues than living in a city working mainstream jobs, doing americorps, or being graduate students.

So what is this place? Stereotypes aside- Twin Oaks is a group of people that decide to share things, own and operate several businesses, work to be as self-sufficient as possible, and try to build a society which is more inclusive/less wasteful/and less destructive. This means different things to different members.

To me it means following through on my beliefs. I have respect for all folks engaged in making the world a better place. For me, making the world a better place means a real lifestyle change. Members of Twin Oaks use something like 60-80% fewer resources, support all kinds of lifestyle orientations, and are willing to accept discomfort to make it all work.

If you ever read this blog please make a note if you would like me to update about living on a commune, what it means, and how it goes. Otherwise, this might be the last post as adventurequest has come to an end (for the time being).

And for you White Buffalo... we leave

Oh the mixed feelings we have about the wwoof program.

We made the decision to leave White Buffalo yesterday amidst a farm drama, that in all honesty, did get blown out of proportion BUT served to hammer in two points:

1. The farm needs a lot of work. The cause is worthwhile (being one of the originators of the organics movement in Colorado) but the wwoof program needs to be restructured so that all voices are heard and all individuals given equal respect and consideration. The potential is certainly there- it's just not something with which Maggie and I wish to be involved. It's someone's community to build, but not ours.

2. Leading to the second point: we want a community to build. We are going back to Twin Oaks. More on this later.

Mark II

We've started again- it's true.

On April 2nd we started our drive out to rural Colorado. Our first stop was memphis where we stayed with lauren and clifton. thanks to them.

2nd day was a drive through the Ozarks and camping. I got to ride a fantastic mtn bike trail called Woomble. Next we drove through texas and oklahoma. Look, I'm sorry to those states but I'm simply not a fan. Everytime we drive through something:

1. happens to our bicycles (last time it was a bike flying off, this time a migrating roof rack)

2. happens with where we are supposed to stay and we end up at a motel 6 unexpectedly (last time an ice storm in southern texas, this time a campground not existing and being nowhere near a place to camp)

3. happens to my self-esteem. I recognize that I don't have an "average Texan" vibe, but are all evil looks really necessary?

Following our adventures in deja vu we drove through New Mexico (awesome) and camped in the Rio Grande gorge on BLM land for 2 nights (awesomer). Stunning- what else can I say? More cycling was had and two cold nights were bundled through (we think the second night was in the teens). It was well worth it.

The closest town was Taos. Lots of arts and one of the best food co-ops we've seen in awhile. More interesting is this . An earthship community not far outside of town. It's the only one I've ever seen- many many alternative buildings all in one community. It's encouraging to see so many people making such a drastic change in context and lifestyle.

We drove from Taos to Paonia the following day. I must say it was one of the best drives I've ever experienced. We drove over two passes that were both 10,000 (plus!) feet. They just don't make it like that on the west coast.

We've been on the farm for three days and are trying to figure out the schedule and get adjusted to the altitude. 5500 feet doesnt seem that high until you start doing farm work all day long. I've been learning to prune fruit trees and maggie has done everything from massive plant burning to stick pick up.

It's a good experience thus far, but we still aren't completely sold on WWOOFing just yet. Learning experience or exploitation of idealistic young folks? Jury's still out.

Pictures to follow.

Maggie fixing all of my typos to (almost surely) follow.

tranistions

This is the view from the kitchen. In the course of 12 hours we went from this...

To this. Atypical georgia snow.

But got to be there for our niece's first birthday.

We received news of a death in the family and decided to come back to Atlanta early. About three months early. It's one of those tough decisions, but one point of adventurequest is to foster a more peaceful existence and attempting to do so in times of familial trouble doesn't fit. One the plus side we got to be present for our niece's first birthday. One the downside, I think I might have a botfly larva currently growing in my back.

ETS sets (money making) deadlines for the GRE- scores expire after a few years. So for the next few weeks I'm studying to retake the test. I'm not entirely sure if I'll even use the scores.

Towards the end of march/early april we are going to wwoof in western colorado.

More fotos

Creek crossing by the house. Getting across this spot is apparently really tricky in the rainy season.

Maggie riding Silky. Piglet is the small dog to the left- Rhombus is the boxer.

View from front yard.

One of a nesting pair of Toucans that lived in the backyard.

These huge frogs only came out a night. My sandal next to it is a size 11. So yeah, big frog.

Costa Rica Pictures

The house. Much nicer than we had expected- running water, (hot) shower, and a refrigerator.

Trying to get coconuts down in the front yard.

We took this picture on the front porch on afternoon. The wasp killed the tarantula and then (we think) placed eggs on or in the carcass. Then buried it.

Banana tree in the front yard.

Damn goats. They're pushy, smell bad, and had many bot flys that I had to squeeze out. So male goats pee on themselves to attract ladyfriends. This is something I have learned.

Two of the five horses that we took care of- oh and ponies are sneaky buckets o trouble.

Side of the house.

Tarantula in the bedroom.

two weeks in...

So, we have been at Barking Horse Farm for just over two weeks. We are in town for the day at the internet cafe so we can finally give a detailed account of our current lives. Unfortunately, we forgot the usb cord for the camera so there will not be pictures today but we have been taking them.

We are really enjoying ourselves. We get up pretty early each morning, around 7 or 7:30. We have three horses, always the pony Silky but the others change, who until yesterday were in a field behind our house, to feed. They are now in a pasture down the hill just a little bit. Sometimes feeding them is difficult, they fight a bit, we have to tie Silky so she doesn´t take everyone´s food.

Then we have goats, Mr Darcy and Isabella. Isabella is on the tail end of and Mr Darcy is just starting, an infestation of BOT FLIES, or torsolos as they are perhaps more scientifically called. So in the morning we take the goats out of the their house and tie them somewhere around the house so they can eat. They are currently up the hill a little bit with lots of grass. In the evenings before we put them back in we have to squeeze the bot flies out and then check for abcesses and maybe squeeze all the pus out of those. Elizabeth (the woman who we´re working for) is a nurse and is very adept at field lancing and things like that. We are not so adept. We are doing our best. Mostly that means David is doing his best. I help hold the goats but I have not gotten to the point where i can squeeze out a bot fly larva. Interesting tidbit of information - dogs like bot fly larva. a lot. they fight for them when they pop out.

That is the grossest thing we have to do. Maybe I shouldn´t have talked about it so soon, it might color the telling of our experiences. I´m hoping to take some pictures of it, though.

Our house has everything we need. It´s pretty big, actually. Definitely bigger than our apartment in Oregon. The back half is an open kitchen area with a toilet and a shower (indoor plumbing and hot water) where we spend a lot of our time. We have a lot of shade over the house so it doesn´t get too hot. There is a bedroom where we have most of our stuff and a second enclosed room that currently has the refrigerator and horse food. We took the second bed down and David has a spot for meditation (under a mosquito net - that´s how a wwoofer got bot flies, meditating without a net) and yoga. We have a delightful front porch with two hammocks. We sit a read a lot.

There are awesome birds everywhere. There are Keel Billed Toucans all the time and Fiery Billed Aracaris, a Violaceous Trogon, Kiskadees everywhere. And we are in the middle of a haven for Montezuma Orapendolas. Ticos do not like them because they eat bananas so our property is one place they are not molested. They are in the process of building their colony of haning nests around where the goats eat. I´m trying hard to keep track of everything as I see it.

About once a week or every two weeks we come in to town for grocery shopping. On Wednesday evening a produce man comes to Elizabeth´s house, we have gotten delicious bananas, pineapples, and avacados from him. We´ve also gotten great mangos and melons in town. We had an avacado with our black beans and rice the other night, delicious.

The kitchen accomodations are pretty spartan but we´re still managing pretty well. We breakfasts alternate between scrambled eggs and a corn meal mush. It´s finer than grits, so I can´t call it that. Oatmeal and cereal are all very expensive, so this has worked well. We bought a huge bottle of honey from a kid in a restaurant for $5 so we put honey and cinnamon and raisins and whatever other fruit we have. The eggs from the grocery store are very good as well. David is working on rebuilding the chicken coop at our house so we can bring chickens up from Elizabeths so hopefully we will have our own eggs at some point.

We also have a cat and two dogs. Salomon the cat is a skilled jungle hunter but also likes to spend the whole day sleeping on our bed and is very affectionate. The dogs are Osa, a big black lab, and Piglet, a small white and tan maybe terrier mix. They are both very fun, always up for a hike, and are in a stiff competition to see who can eat the most cicadas at night. The cicadas are everywhere and at times are deafening. You know how they get really really loud at night sometimes? It´s like that all day, except louder.

As I said earlier, we are really enjoying this experience. We are in a beautiful place and having our own little Walden set up, sitting around contemplating nature and doing our laundry at Elizabeth´s once a week.

Pictures will be on the next post, in maybe 2 weeks!

we have arrived in costa rica

We are at our voluteen position at Barking Horse Farm in Costa Rica. We flew on Wednesday, which was our 3rd anniversary, and spent a night in a hostel in San Jose. On Thursday we took a couple of buses and walked a little while to get to the farm. The house that we are staying in is about a 15 minute hike across the river and up a huge hill. We used a horse to take our stuff up to the house. We are in charge of three horses, two goats, a rooster, two ducks, a cat, and a dog. A more informative blogpost will come in the next week or so, complete with pictures!

and we're back

After our break in Atlanta/Harrisonburg Adventurequest phase 2 is underway.

We left Harrisonburg around 9am this morning and arrived in San Jose around 10:30pm (central US time). After some confusion with our ride (as in not really showing up) someone "representing" the hostel arranged another ride. legit or not we got here just fine.

tomorrow we are going to try our best and navagative the two taxi rides and two bus rides that will take us to Barking Horse farm.

my spanish is really rusty, but apparently that hasn't mattered so far. I imagine the rural areas will be a bit less english-oriented.

we'll see.

David