The Year 2023
Another year come and gone,,, and we have been many millions of miles in a circle around the sun over the past year.
So its time for a review of 2023.
Its amazing to think I have lived at 212 Benjamin for over 23 years. My place is a great enjoyment. I grow nearly all my own fruit and veggies here. Storage comes in many ways. A lot of freezing, also ambient temperature, drying, many veggies keep live in the ground over the winter tho now and then I need to cover the tops if the temp goes below 25 which it does but not often. I love the apples. I made 8 gallons of grape juice this summer, its in the freezer and so nice have over the year. I finally have a method for managing English Walnuts. My wonderful neighbors encourage me to take the chestnuts that come off their trees. It was an amazing year for figs. I planted a mid summer garden with lots of bush beans and greens that has turned out well.
Another 3 months in Europe. I have slide shows on youtube describing the trip. I started out in Stockholm and met Arkansas pal Cindy's brother, wife, son and daughter in law. What a nice way to start the trip. Bought a bike in Copenhagen. This was a trip with a bike rather than a bike trip. Check the map and fotos below. The fotos have captions to explain a bit more. I combined days touring with the bike with train, bus, staying with friends and renting an apartment for 3 weeks in my favorite town, Alghero on the northwest coast of Sardegna. See the maps below. I just love the town and surrounding country side. The sea, the hills, beaches, history, lungo mare. I now have a number of permaculture minded friends who live north of Alghero, a modest bike ride from town. My return home was also from Stockholm so leaving Sardegna, I visited Ostia Antica,,, the port city of ancient Rome. Wow!
I went north and east to Venice, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and across the Baltic to Sweden. Big thanks to pal Teresa who sent/lent me money after my bike and a lot of stuff was stolen in Italy. Teresa was a major life saver bcuz i had no plastic card for the ubiquitous ATM. So check the fotos for more about trip to Europe. I think about Europe every day. One foto shows the map of Europe on my wall above my computer. I made color overlays on that map with my computer that shows where I went on which trip to Europe That map is one of my life's most important archives. I can thank another great pal, Victor for my early love of Europe and Italy.
So I planted my garden in late July after returning from Europe and it has been a very successful garden, tho well past its prime at this writing just before xmas tho I am still picking celery, cabbage, carrots, lettuce and more. Returning from Europe, it was quick immersion with helping organize a big neighborhood event in the public greenway along the river. See the fotos and captions below. This was such a wonderful event with community groups, story telling, bike tune ups, garden advice. The apple press was really popular, the song circle was very popular, both nestled in the filbert grove I look after in partnership with the city. There were 3 sites for the event. One was ecstatic dance and yoga, another was kid nature education, a produce exchange, tours of Becky's habitat restoration project a low development park that was saved from development over 20 years ago.
I stopped my radio program after several years. It was a great experience but taking a lot of time that prevented me from doing other projects. So I am now writing a lot more and have a series articles, "A Primer For Paradigm Shift." in an on line magazine named "Resilience," which is a project of a group called The Post Carbon Institute." PSI advocates movement away from fossil fuels towards the ideal of sustainability and to my thinking, far more realistic in its assessments of the human and planetary condition than and other source of info I know.
Along with writing, I offer free presentations on Zoom about "paradigm shift." All those presentations go to you tube. So eco/social advocacy is what I do with a lot of my time. I have been eco minded since high school. Calling for alternatives to the consumer culture is an ongoing primary task in my life and having made all these projects on my property has been a huge part of my own efforts to create a healthy lifestyle and share what I have learned and continue to learn, with others.
But still time for frisbee. One of my favorite enjoyments is bike to the University of Oregon on nice days, even in the winter now and then, and throwing the frizz. UO is a frisbee hotspot and most of the time, I find really good people to throw with. For a few years, I have made many arrangements to throw with my UO student friend Zach. He is really good. I just love the throw the frisbee and can toss it better than ever. I will miss Zach after this spring as he is graduating. But visits to UO will continue and new opportunities will present themselves. I have thrown with many members of UO club sports frisbee teams, both men and women.
Life at home goes well. I appreciate housemates. I am the maintenance guy here. Thats my job and looking after the property. My detached space which I built and where I spend much of my time, has been simply one one of the best investments of my life along with moving to Eugene and buying this property. There are an appreciable number of other friends with permaculture properties nearby including two over the fence neighbors.
I also now have a cat. His name Alghero. He's very personable, smart and sometimes goes a bit too wild. He's still not full grown.
What of the future? We will either make the huge changes we need to make given the trends or wish we had. I am an optimist but also a realist. The more people downsizing and learning to live with less, producing more of their own basic needs with friends, family and neighbors, allies and assets, the better. We do have many tools, assets and opportunities to make good use of during this increasingly uncertain time in history.
I wish everyone the best!
For the maps and fotos below, put the cursor over the image and clik for a larger image and caption.
Fotos from before the trip to Europe, fotos from Europe and then return to Eugene.
So its time for a review of 2023.
Its amazing to think I have lived at 212 Benjamin for over 23 years. My place is a great enjoyment. I grow nearly all my own fruit and veggies here. Storage comes in many ways. A lot of freezing, also ambient temperature, drying, many veggies keep live in the ground over the winter tho now and then I need to cover the tops if the temp goes below 25 which it does but not often. I love the apples. I made 8 gallons of grape juice this summer, its in the freezer and so nice have over the year. I finally have a method for managing English Walnuts. My wonderful neighbors encourage me to take the chestnuts that come off their trees. It was an amazing year for figs. I planted a mid summer garden with lots of bush beans and greens that has turned out well.
Another 3 months in Europe. I have slide shows on youtube describing the trip. I started out in Stockholm and met Arkansas pal Cindy's brother, wife, son and daughter in law. What a nice way to start the trip. Bought a bike in Copenhagen. This was a trip with a bike rather than a bike trip. Check the map and fotos below. The fotos have captions to explain a bit more. I combined days touring with the bike with train, bus, staying with friends and renting an apartment for 3 weeks in my favorite town, Alghero on the northwest coast of Sardegna. See the maps below. I just love the town and surrounding country side. The sea, the hills, beaches, history, lungo mare. I now have a number of permaculture minded friends who live north of Alghero, a modest bike ride from town. My return home was also from Stockholm so leaving Sardegna, I visited Ostia Antica,,, the port city of ancient Rome. Wow!
I went north and east to Venice, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and across the Baltic to Sweden. Big thanks to pal Teresa who sent/lent me money after my bike and a lot of stuff was stolen in Italy. Teresa was a major life saver bcuz i had no plastic card for the ubiquitous ATM. So check the fotos for more about trip to Europe. I think about Europe every day. One foto shows the map of Europe on my wall above my computer. I made color overlays on that map with my computer that shows where I went on which trip to Europe That map is one of my life's most important archives. I can thank another great pal, Victor for my early love of Europe and Italy.
So I planted my garden in late July after returning from Europe and it has been a very successful garden, tho well past its prime at this writing just before xmas tho I am still picking celery, cabbage, carrots, lettuce and more. Returning from Europe, it was quick immersion with helping organize a big neighborhood event in the public greenway along the river. See the fotos and captions below. This was such a wonderful event with community groups, story telling, bike tune ups, garden advice. The apple press was really popular, the song circle was very popular, both nestled in the filbert grove I look after in partnership with the city. There were 3 sites for the event. One was ecstatic dance and yoga, another was kid nature education, a produce exchange, tours of Becky's habitat restoration project a low development park that was saved from development over 20 years ago.
I stopped my radio program after several years. It was a great experience but taking a lot of time that prevented me from doing other projects. So I am now writing a lot more and have a series articles, "A Primer For Paradigm Shift." in an on line magazine named "Resilience," which is a project of a group called The Post Carbon Institute." PSI advocates movement away from fossil fuels towards the ideal of sustainability and to my thinking, far more realistic in its assessments of the human and planetary condition than and other source of info I know.
Along with writing, I offer free presentations on Zoom about "paradigm shift." All those presentations go to you tube. So eco/social advocacy is what I do with a lot of my time. I have been eco minded since high school. Calling for alternatives to the consumer culture is an ongoing primary task in my life and having made all these projects on my property has been a huge part of my own efforts to create a healthy lifestyle and share what I have learned and continue to learn, with others.
But still time for frisbee. One of my favorite enjoyments is bike to the University of Oregon on nice days, even in the winter now and then, and throwing the frizz. UO is a frisbee hotspot and most of the time, I find really good people to throw with. For a few years, I have made many arrangements to throw with my UO student friend Zach. He is really good. I just love the throw the frisbee and can toss it better than ever. I will miss Zach after this spring as he is graduating. But visits to UO will continue and new opportunities will present themselves. I have thrown with many members of UO club sports frisbee teams, both men and women.
Life at home goes well. I appreciate housemates. I am the maintenance guy here. Thats my job and looking after the property. My detached space which I built and where I spend much of my time, has been simply one one of the best investments of my life along with moving to Eugene and buying this property. There are an appreciable number of other friends with permaculture properties nearby including two over the fence neighbors.
I also now have a cat. His name Alghero. He's very personable, smart and sometimes goes a bit too wild. He's still not full grown.
What of the future? We will either make the huge changes we need to make given the trends or wish we had. I am an optimist but also a realist. The more people downsizing and learning to live with less, producing more of their own basic needs with friends, family and neighbors, allies and assets, the better. We do have many tools, assets and opportunities to make good use of during this increasingly uncertain time in history.
I wish everyone the best!
For the maps and fotos below, put the cursor over the image and clik for a larger image and caption.
Fotos from before the trip to Europe, fotos from Europe and then return to Eugene.
Fotos below. Around Eugene and then to Europe.
Below is one of my life's most highly valued archives. The black lines show where I have traveled in Europe with some lines going off the map to the Canary Islands, from Spain and to Israel from Greece. This is the accumulation of 5 trips to Europe. the first two during the cold war and iron curtain. I visited East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and took a bus across Bulgaria over night but didn't see much. I love the map, its on the wall above and behind my computer screen. The actual map is dates back to the 1980's. Trips to Europe - 1982 into 1983, then I went to Africa for 15 months, returned to Europe something like 1985 and 86. Another visit 1999 and then 2022 and this past summer 2023. Time added up over 4 years in Europe.
The map below, using the above map as a base, has color to identify which trip of five. You can zoom in closer.
These fotos after returning from Europe.
