It appears that our society has rejected the neo-con agenda in massive numbers and agreed to tax themselves for what the majority considers to be worthwhile investments into our societal and cultural landscape like parks, the Pike Market and the transit inititiative.  While few have read the fine print enough to realize that supporting the Pike Market also removes the property tax cap, what is happening is that a significant portion of our society want to move energy and resources from military adventurism to infrastructure developments that are likely to make the larger community somewhat more resilient.  We need to understand this and work with the tides.  Right now, many people are extremely optimistic, I myself am expecting that Obama's economic stimulus program may include a massive job program related to renewable energy build-out and a retrofitting of building stocks for energy conservation and efficiency.  My beliefs are based upon who is consulting the Obama group, some of the best minds in renewable energy are being given a chance to weigh in, guys like Dan Kanmen and Van Jones. 

So if this political and economic debate can be kept minimized and subordinate to the general discussion, it would be probably necessary to address the changed social environment.  Concerning tonight themes, they are good and it will be useful to see what people want SPOA to become and do.   The focus on food transportation and production should only grow, as we need to develop gardening and food preparation skill sets, tools and supply options.  Some type of expanded event calendar and informal education network related to practical crafts, renewable energy, transportation issues and food production would be empowering.  Finally the STN is getting its start by having a small group of people joining together in a buying group.   This can be expanded beyond produce to maybe joint purchases of silver coins, rechargeable batteries and solar PV panels and solar water heater components. See you tonight. -Joe

We are excited to learn something about food preservation, and so we’re hosting a Canning Party on Saturday, October 18, at our home in Kirkland! We hope you can come! We’re going to use organic produce brought by Dave Reid via sailboat (as part of his Sail Transport Network project), supplemented if necessary with store-bought or market-bought produce. We plan to choose a fairly simple canning project, for a start—possibly making applesauce this time—but this will partly depend on what produce is available. Expect to take away what you preserve!

Our kitchen is not enormous, so we ask that if you plan on attending (and we hope you do!), please contact me (Edmund) via email as early as possible so we have an idea of the number of attendees. In your email, too, please let me know if you have any canning skills or equipment you’d like to share/bring. We plan on having most or all of the necessary supplies, but if you have some to bring, great!

If a great many people want to come, we may have to turn people away as the kitchen would be just too small—so it’s in everyone’s interest to respond early!

When you contact me via email, I’ll send out our address (I don’t want to post it on the SPOA website).

Details of event--

Date: Saturday October 18

Time: 11:00 AM start. Lunch/snacks will be provided

Location: Kirkland (address/directions will be provided via email)

Event: Canning of produce (applesauce or other, depending on produce availability)

RSVP: Please contact Edmund via email (preferred) or phone if you’d like to attend:

ejwinder1 at comcast.net (replace “at” with “@”) or 425-242-1220

Hosts: Kathleen and Edmund

13826 97th Avenue N.E., Kirkland, 98034

- Todd

With my fingers crossed and no small measure of satisfaction, I'd like to announce that we appear to have sold our house. We're past the mutual agreement phase, the inspection phase, the appraisal phase, earnest money is down, and buyer's financing looks solid. 

We have a list of things to take care of before closing, and hence the idea for a small work party. The work is pretty light - installing a bunch of GFCIs, a couple of smoke alarms, and a carbon monoxide alarm.

I'd be delighted to get one person that has installed a GFCI before to stop by and help out, but any number of folks would be welcome.  Any time after noon tomorrow would work, as would Monday early in the day. If I get any takers I'll repost with a firmer time schedule.

I've got a copy of John Michael Greer's new book The Long Descent to give away, and would also provide lunch and beverages.

Interested? Give me a call or email. 425-503-2937 or toddsahl at yahoo dot com

Thanks,

Todd

perplexd said:

Shoot. I missed this. Did it happen?

Yes it did!  Sorry you misssed it.  However, because it was so hot out and quite a bit of work, we ended up only killing two roosters and one hen, out of ten birds.  Since I have seven left, if anyone is interested in trying their hand at this, let me know.  You can come up on a weekend that suits you!

I think a good analogy is being at a swim meet. The start gun just sounded and we're wondering if we should go practice a breaststroke for this event instead of competing with the stroke we already know. Sure, you might be “more competitive” after you learned the breast stroke, but the race will have been over for weeks by the time you learn it. The only guaranteed outcome is that you placed last in today's race.

The main lesson I've learned from the last three years is that most people have lots of great reasons for doing nothing today. Better to actually come in third place than fail to complete the race, even though you did a wonderful study on the person who came in first.

Date:          Sunday, June 29th

Time:          11:00 a.m. - ?

Place:          125 E. Haller Avenue, Arlington, WA

It is really easy to get here; either MapQuest or call me.  206-852-8933 or 360-435-7267

If you are comfortable bringing your kids, please do.  My 6-year-old granddaughter is participating.  We have plenty of toys and fun things for the little ones as well.

Let me know if you think you can make it so I can plan beverages and food.

- Francesca

Michael said:

One of my concerns has to do with geography.  We are mostly spread out around the city, and some of us live outside of Seattle.

I think the geography would become less of a problem if we had more than 100-150 people involved. If you are less than a mile away from 1-2 other participants, then communication is possible, even if done on foot.

Michael said:

My other major concern regards how much each of us can commit to this project. 

---

Commitment is a larger problem, however, there are several ways to look at this.

One of the ways is to realize that things we do for rewards today may not produce rewards tomorrow, so perhaps it is worthwhile to stop doing them now and get good at earning the rewards that will soon be available for your new activity, knowing that you'll outcompete everyone if you practice now before the rewards are available.

Another way is to notice all the idiotic things we do that already don't make sense. I average 20 mph on my bike and encounter less stop lights and almost zero traffic jams. It sounds hard, but it is actually fun, cheaper than gas, and chepaer than a $300 gym membership. Plus I get my workout in the time it takes most people to sit through rush hour and THEN do a workout.

Another way to look at it is to notice all the things we do for meaningless amusement and time-wasting. Watching TV, watching professional sports games, pretending that you need to make a real decision in national political races, shopping for cheap airfares, etc. These things all eat up valuable time, and mostly we can devote that time to them because we don't need it for anything constructive. In a few years, we may wish we had used the time differently. Learning gardening, bike repair, solar hot-water principles, clothing repair, or camping with the bare minumums — these may all be really important later, and they are just as fun and amusing for wasting that time today.

I'd even argue that we should convert some of our book and website reading time into this effort, and I'm afraid to say that many people in this group waste a LOT of time on that, me included.

Despite the above, I think there are two more important things holding people back. The first is that they think they have to convert their lives instead of having one foot in each world (the pre and post peak), and the other is the feeling they have to do it all in one fell swoop.

I'd suggest picking a small change to make towards becoming valuable in the scenario we worked out. Focus on that change until it just makes more sense than the way you used to do it and you no longer remember why it made sense to do it the old way. No need to give up your old life, just change one thing. Then pick the next thing, rinse, repeat. In time, you may have changed your whole life, but it will start to feel like an accident (except you don't mind so much).

The commitment in actual time is not that much because you replace old activities with new ones that just happen to be cheap and productive instead of expensive and useless (but easy and amusing). The hard part is deciding that you are more amused by the fruits of your labor than you are by the cleverness of more fashionable amusements.

Finally, I think another big stumbling block is how to get started. One way to get started is to get involved in the group. You don't have to commit your whole life, but what I see is that Dave and Chad and Roy and I are doing almost everything and when we ask for help on a general level, almost nobody volunteers, and when we ask for it for a small, simple, specific task, almost nobody volunteers.

The way to get involved is to get to KNOW people in the Small Town, and the only way to do that is to get involved. You don't know people unless you spend time with them. Volunteer for a project, effort or regular task. This makes you useful to the group and gives us all reasons to get together and work together.

What IS required is that people in the Small Town would have to commit to the other people in the group. This is about people being able to really rely on one another, so that part is a big deal, but it is a rewarding big deal, not a bunch of work for no tangible reward.

That's what I think. Cheers,

Robert

It seems to me that we can potentially get a lot done and make a lot of progress toward developing a network that is well prepared for whatever disruptions might lie ahead.  Clearly no individual can do this by him or herself, so we'll need to be able to exchange good and skills.

One of my concerns has to do with geography.  We are mostly spread out around the city, and some of us live outside of Seattle.  Especially in an era where communication might get dicey, it will be difficult for an interdependent community to thrive if its members are several miles from each other.  It would be too much to ask for most of us to move any time soon, so we are going to have to think about how the network deals with distance.  For the time being, we can rely on our own cars, Internet, city busses, etc. to cooperate.

My other major concern regards how much each of us can commit to this project.  For what follows, I can only speak for myself.  I am still very much embedded in the current economy, and getting out is not easy.  This is the "double life" problem; what are the resources required to remain functional in the current economy while working to build a new, small-scale economy that will be viable as the larger economy becomes dysfunctional?  I'm not willing to disengage from my academic work or my political work yet, and this puts a limitation on how much I can do to build a new economy.  I feel that in order for this project to be successful, we need to put a lot of effort into it; a half-assed effort would probably be a waste of time.