Hi.Wow, it was a whirlwind summer, and we have not taken enough time to share it with you, our friends and families. I've sat down numerous times to write some of the highlights, but have struggled to complete it. It was the end of the growing season when I first started this entry; now, everything that was growing is under snow. Why does it always seem more difficult to do this when it's just your "life" you're writing about rather than some travel adventure? We all know life is no less adventurous... Farming This summer was our first season at the [View Full Entry]

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This is long overdue, but I'd like to take this opportunity to let you, our scattered friends, know that we have indeed settled into a beautiful farmhouse in southeast Leelanau County, just 8 miles from Traverse City. We actually moved in at the beginning of February, but you know how moving goes. This past weekend we had a wonderful housewarming party and it was indeed very warming to have so many amazing people (and lots of great potluck food!) show up to welcome us to the community - Bioneers, farmers th [View Full Entry]

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yes, it's true, we're still on the road, but today marks the last leg of our bicycle tour. We will be riding from the Wagbo Peace Center and Providence Farm in East Jordan to Blackbird Gardens in Petoskey - our final stop! We have managed to slip rides into sunny days in what has otherwise been a wet October in Northern Michigan, and it looks like today will also be sunny and pleasant, but there is snow in the forecast for later in the week, so we're wrapping up just in time. It looks like we're going to be just shy [View Full Entry]

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howdy friends - we wanted to let our people (that's you!) know that our bike tour is going well...we're about half way through and still enjoying the riding, farming, and meeting new and interesting people. We've been keeping a running blog going at www.glbconference.org/csatour2006/ and I know many of you have been following us there, but we thought a little "howdy" through these convenient means wouldn't hurt. We're currently on a detour from the tour - back in the Ann Arbor area for a series of weddings - but we will return to our [View Full Entry]

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hey friends - it's been nearly a month and a half that we've been back in the good ole "estamos unidos" (a little pun I shared with a nuez vendor in Oaxaca). While being back has it's pluses and minuses, we've really enjoyed re-connecting with friends and family and preparing for our next adventure. If you haven't already heard, Michelle and I are spending our summer and fall on a bicycle tour of Michigan CSA farms, volunteering a few days at as many as 35 farms as we make our way north across our beautiful state. I'd like to invite all [View Full Entry]

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happy easter from Oaxaca. This will be a short one -- no photos, but we will be back in Michigan the night of the 19th, so there will be plenty of pictures and stories to share in person. Chiapas: We took an overnight bus from Puerto Escondido to San Cristobal de las Casas, site of the 1994 Zapatista uprising and takeover of the city. San Cristobal is a beautiful, beautiful city -- reminiscent of Oaxaca in its colors and architecture, but with a more Mexican (less European-touristy) feel, though it has its share of tourists and tourism, much more than we [View Full Entry]

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Well, howdy all! Mucho perdons for falling so far behind on sharing our travels...We're currently in Palenque, Chiapas. I will try to quickly outline a bit of where we've been and what we've seen and leave the detailed stories for when we return...in t-minus 9 days! A friend comes for a visit Many of you know Solomon Townsend. Those of you who don't should. We were going to visit Solomon at his land in Costa Rica, but that didn't work out. So he came to visit us! A few email exchanges gave us an idea that he was thinking about it, [View Full Entry]

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Our last days at Tashirat were spent largely at a computer, believe it or not! As our final contributions to the garden and greenhouse, we put together a rough crop plan for the community. Marty did a cost-benefit analysis of the major crops they wanted to grow, and determined that lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and celery made economic sense to grow for themselves. Michelle wrote up info sheets for the cultivation of each of those four crops, to be used by the Tashirat staff or future volunteers, and we left a crop planning spreadsheet for the community. (Thanks to MTC and [View Full Entry]

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Greetings everyone. The days and weeks have gone by sooo quickly here. It's hard to imagine how to share the events of our routine at Tashirat - our yoga is certainly improving and becoming more comfortable every day, the vivero (greenhouse) is getting greener as the many seeds we put in the ground weeks ago are stretching into the diffuse sunlight and beginning their magical dance. We're putting a cropping plan in place for Tashirat, drawing on the many resources and talents that Michelle developed while at MSU. We continue to learn more of the intricacies of this special community as [View Full Entry]

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Since Marty and I are such food heads, I thought this topic deserved an entry of its own. The food is So Much Fun here, not to mention tasty, fresh, beautiful, weird, you name it, we've probably experienced it, or are about to. Three categories: 1. Plain and Raw-- Here's the thing: the yoga center where we're living is very health and nutrition-focused. So we all think and talk about food all the time. They consider raw foodists to be spiritually advanced beings. For those of you who aren't familiar with the raw culture, it means one who does not cook [View Full Entry]

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