All,

This Thursday, October 1st, will be our last “regularly scheduled” meeting at the Phinney Center. We’re sad to close up shop, but the interest in peak oil has waned with last year’s supposed end to the commodity “bubble”, and few people have been coming to our meetings.

On top of that, few viable, useful projects have come out of our work here, so there is little need for a large room and a constant schedule. Despite our efforts to become something else, somehow we’re still mostly an esoteric study group — for now.

So, onward we’ll go: toward free-form meetings at local coffee shops and other smaller spaces, until we see the sort of groundswell of interest and real projects that demand a larger meeting location again.

As before, people who are contributing members of this blog can make a meeting post and fill out the “events” section to set it up as an “upcoming event” on the upper right side of the screen. So, if y’all are interested in organizing your own meetings, you may do so. I hope to see that happening.

Meanwhile, this site will be maintained indefinitely. I’d imagine that the products of an esoteric study group could be shared here online much more frequently than we’ve chosen to share in the past. If anyone would like to increase their contributions to the blog, please let me know and I’ll get you started. So long as what you want to write fits our context and most basic outlook, we’d be happy to host your material here.

I’ll see your Thursday and we’ll have a few beers after.

Cheers,
-Robert

Free screening of this award-winning movie about living more sustainably in our own part of the world.

Pizza will be served! Location: Edmonds Christian Church, 23010 84th Ave W, Edmonds, WA 98020.

From the movie’s website:

“Something remarkable is happening in the fields and orchards of the Pacific Northwest. Small family farmers are making a comeback. They’re growing much healthier food, and lots more food per acre, while using less energy and water than factory farms.

For decades Northwest agriculture was focused on a few big crops for export. But to respond to climate change and the end of cheap energy, each region needs to produce more of its own food and to grow food more sustainably.

Good Food visits producers, farmers’ markets, distributors, stores, restaurants and public officials who are developing a more sustainable food system for all. Something remarkable is happening in the fields and orchards of the Pacific Northwest. Small family farmers are making a comeback. They’re growing much healthier food, and lots more food per acre, while using less energy and water than factory farms.”

Due to low attendance, interest and participation, Seattle Peak Oil Awareness will only meet bi-monthly, on even-numbered months. We’ll keep the same room and time slot, but meet in June (6), August (8), October (10), and so on, skipping July, September, November, etc.

Perhaps this lack of interest is due to low oil prices for the first half of 2009, and perhaps people have simply reached a dead-end with how this group can be relevant to their lives. Still others have taken the information shared here and are off changing their lives for the better. These last folks might be counted as our greatest successes, even if they don’t come to this group any more. It is not about the longevity of the group, after all, but the future security of ourselves and our neighbors.

It is certainly clear that my own level of interest and innovation for this group has waned greatly. While I realize that few have been around to hear it all, I nevertheless feel that we have said nearly all that needs to be said. We’ve looked high and low for solutions, we’ve debunked a lot of celebrated (but false) “solutions”, and we’ve achieved a lot of clarity about how our economy works and why it was destined to fail in a way very much like the way it is failing right now (and we don’t expect much improvement from here).

Yet, despite all that, I don’t quite see how this group plays a direct role in anyone’s salvation, save for those of us who have made meaningful bonds beyond the scope of our public meetings. That’s not to say the group is entirely useless or should be abandoned — peak oil is still a fascinating study for some of us.

Speaking of meaningful bonds, I still feel that one great thing I have gotten from this group is some meaningful bonds with some really neat people. Just because we’re not meeting in public every month does NOT mean that you folks can’t organize yourselves to meet privately instead. By all means, post your coffee shop meetings here or organize them privately, inviting only your favorite folks from the group.

Hope to see you June 4th!

-Robert

Sorry folks for being quite late getting this posted up here. As discussed at the last meeting, we’ll be hosting a soup night this Friday evening at Mary Hecox’s house in Renton Highlands.

Address:

2923 N.E. 5th Place, Renton, WA 98056

Phone: 425.503.2937

Time: 7:00 p.m.

As always, please just bring yourself, and the hosts will take care of the rest.

Contact:

Dave Reid
Sail Transport Network, SPOA, Sustainable Ballard
206-605-3628
sailtransportcompany@gmail.com

Produce pricing and selections

• Full tote ($40 for 20 lbs.)
• Half-tote ($20 for 10 lbs.)
• Jars of honey ($15 for 3 lbs.)

How to order

• Send email to sailtransportcompany@gmail.com
• Call 206-605-3628

How to pick up

• Home delivery
  If you live within Ballard, test our new e-trike delivery service by signing up; we will deliver to your home.

Partner farms

• Nash’s Organics (Sequim) http://www.nashsorganicproduce.com/
  Potatoes, beets, green cabbage, carrots, some brassicas, kale, and (maybe) parsley
• Rainbow Farm (Sequim) http://www.rainbowfarm.net/
  Potatoes and grains
• Buck Hollow Farm (Kitsap Peninsula)
  Organic honey

Entertainment

Alex on fiddle

Trip details

The boat, Soliton, and its crew (Fulvio Casali, Alex Tokar, and Dave Reid) will sail to Sequim, visiting for the first time three organic farms that are interested in sail-transporting organic produce. The entire trip will be sailed engineless, so absolutely no fossil fuel will be used (besides the embedded energy in the boats and other materials.)

We will donate any unclaimed produce to The Ballard Food Bank.

Other Coverage

Lately I’ve been wrestling with the idea of buying farmland.  Several of my friends have already made the leap and are busy making the preparations I can only dream about.

Currently my wife and I live in an apartment in Capitol Hill and I feel like I’ve done pretty much all I can do in this situation.  If I buy land now I will surely overpay for it.  If I wait for land to become cheap, I might not have developed the skills needed in time.

After speaking with several friends of mine who’ve done this, it’s obvious that it takes years to learn the kinds of things required to become even somewhat self sufficient.

(more…)