Dancing Deer Farm

The Cure For Living in Darkness: Let There Be Light!

2011-10-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

It is sometimes too easy to feel that all the news is bad news and that our path to a greener more sustainable future is unbelievably convoluted and too filled with obstacles to properly progress.

And then you hit a story like this one: a simple answer to a complicated question, one that has deeper meaning than that easy solution would imply.

In San Pedro, a small town near Manilla in the Phillippines, the residents struggle with poverty and all that goes with it. Because the homes they’ve been able to build lack proper windows, they also struggle against darkness, even during the day. Adapting an MIT development, the Isang Litrong Liwanag (which means liter of light) Project helps residents create bright indoor light out of easily accessible products. Here’s an incredibly lucid explanation from FM World:

They are made from an ordinary plastic bottle, filled with water and a capful or two of bleach.

A malleable metal sheet, about a foot square, has a whole cut in the centre where the plastic water bottle is tightly fitted. A little grouting goes around the contact area of the bottle and sheeting to keep out rain.

The unit is then inserted into a hole cut into the metal roofs of the breeze-block houses and the metal sheet is moulded to the roof shape for a good fit, aided by a little more grouting.

The bottle hangs about two-thirds into the room below. Sunlight filters through the externally exposed part of the bottle and is diffused through the water, making for a bright light in the room.

According to the Isang Litrong Liwanag website, as of 2009, “3 million households still remain powerless outside Metro Manila. And even in the metro, families still continue to live in darkness,” so this deceptively simple initiative is having an incredible impact on the quality of life for an increasing number of people. From the website:

Isang Litrong Liwanag, is a sustainable lighting project which aims to bring the eco-friendly solar bottle bulb to low-income communities nationwide. Designed and developed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Solar Bottle Bulb is a device based on the principles of Appropriate Technologies – a concept that provides simple and easily replicable technologies that address basic needs in developing communities.

The video embedded below shows this simple but powerful technology in action. It’s difficult not to be moved when you think about the difference this will make in people’s lives. It also gets me thinking, as these things sometimes do, about the simple answers we can find in our own lives to make things better and about how we tend to complicate things for ourselves: making things hard when -- sometimes -- they can be easy.

For me it’s also about moving forward in a conscious way: watching where we place our feet and thinking about how we can live more lightly on the land and with the people we love.

In any case, it’s all good news, and I’m always in favor of that!

If you’re looking for more information on Isang Litrong Liwanag, it’s here.

Eating Local, Eating Raw: Easy Steps to a Conscious Diet

2011-04-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

I’ve been interested in raw and organic foods for a very long time. Though I’m not currently a vegetarian, it wouldn’t be much of a leap to call me a flexitarian: I’m mindful about what I eat for both moral and health reasons.

Long story short: my interest in real food is part of my personal history. In some ways, it’s been one of the touchstones of my adult life. So when we were planning our retreat program here at Dancing Deer and someone suggested we do a raw foods component, I threw my support in right away. I understand the personal power that new knowledge can bring and, in many ways, that’s what our retreat program is all about.

Even if you’re not interested in making the complete lifestyle change to total raw food diet, we’re teaching some skills that many people will find life-changing. It’s about not only coming to terms with the fact that you can eat in a more healthful and earth-friendly way, but that sourcing and preparing the foods you require needn’t be as daunting as it might at first appear.

And even if health were not an issue, the level of consciousness required to making and eating even a partially raw diet can change your outlook entirely. Take, for instance, this New York Times piece from a few days ago.

For the second time in three years, food prices began to soar in late 2010. Some food experts thought the increases could have been a factor in the unrest that swept the Arab world in early 2011.

In 2008, food riots broke out in developing countries around the world, as the prices of staples, particularly rice, jumped sharply. Good harvests and a drop in demand due to the worldwide recession eased those shortages in 2009.

Prices began rising steadily again in the summer of 2010.

These are frightening facts. Articles like that can make you feel despair. Perhaps they even should. But they can also make you reconsider the way you’re eating right now. It seems to me that there has never been a louder call to a local diet that consists of whole foods: and all of that is entirely in keeping with a raw food lifestyle.

We are so lucky in this region: everything we really need for a healthy diet is grown pretty much within a 100 mile radius. That is to say that, if it isn’t grown locally, you probably don’t really need it. Think about that the next time you reach imported strawberries in your local market. Think about all the fuel it took to get them to you and, in some cases, the political repercussions on local economies that send all of their food away.

Eating locally is not a radical thought. It’s a sensible one and, in some ways, it’s the very easiest.

You can get more information on the Dancing Deer raw food retreat here.

Perfecting the Sustainable Swim

2011-02-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

You don’t live in my neck of the woods without giving at least the occasional thought to building the perfect pool. Now don’t get me wrong: we have a very nice solar heated pool at Dancing Deer and most of the time I’m happy enough with that one. But when I saw this disappearing hydrofloor swimming pool in Inhabit, I knew that I was A. Unlikely to build it and B. Equally as unlikely to stop myself from wanting to. Here’s the skinny from Inhabitat:

The design is basically a custom ceramic floor that is set on a metal grid. As the grid lowers water seeps in from slots on the sides. The pool can be set at various levels for wading, laps or even diving. Setting it at a shallow level is great for kids. When a party erupts, the pool disappears to make room for a dance floor.

So imagine: now you see it; now you don’t. And when you don’t, the water is protected and insulated out of sight, but ready to be used again at the touch of a button.

Hydrofloors, the British company responsible for the disappearing swimming pool, appear to specialize in pools so high tech, James Bond would feel right at home. And like so many bits of really cutting edge technology, when you look at this product line, you can’t help but think you’re looking at the future… and that -- just maybe -- the future is now.

Nourishment in All Its Forms

2011-02-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

These days, we spend a lot of time musing on the idea of nourishment. To me, part of living consciously is personally addressing as many aspects of our lives as we can and thinking about the things we need -- and the things we need to do -- in order to live richly and in best service to ourselves and others.

And so what is nourishment? It is the food we eat, sure. But, along with our bodies, we can nourish our hearts with relationships and friendships. We can nourish our spirit with meditation or relaxation or art: depending on our own preferences and how we’re geared. We can nourish our minds with thoughtful reflection or introspection or literature.

I know that, with this post, I’m once again skating very close to philosophical ideas and what will be one person’s answer will likely not be another’s. Still, the questions are largely the same: how do we nourish and nurture the very best parts of ourselves? How do we preserve the things that the pressures of our careers and lives can demand?

These are complicated questions. Not easily answered. And at the same time, they are among the most basic things we can ask ourselves:

What do I need to be the very best me I can be?

How do I step back from my life in order to look at it more clearly, in either a conscious or passive way?

In a lifetime of searching, I’ve found that, for me, some of the best answers to those questions can be discovered in retreat. This is why, over the past couple of years, I’ve been helping to shape what are now our farm-stay style retreat programs here at Dancing Deer Farm.

We’ve crafted retreats in several disciplines and areas of interest, but they all share a common foundation: to give those attending the physical and emotional space they need to nourish themselves in a way that is meaningful to them.

If you’d like to look over the programs we currently have available, you’ll find that information on our website here.

A New Year: Time For New Ideas

2011-01-05T19:04:00.000-08:00

Even if you never make a resolution for the New Year, it’s impossible not to spend at least a little time thinking about the possibilities of a brand new year, unscarred by the mistakes and missteps of the past. After all, in a very real way, a new year is a time for new ideas.

I think that is why I was so charged when I came across this amazing use for old plastic bottles. You know the ones: filled with fizzy drinks and about as much of a challenge to the environment as almost anything. England’s Deen City Farm -- a community project in south west London -- had all of their volunteers collect plastic pop bottles for a year. At the end of that year, they had 7000 bottles, which they then flattened into colorful, see-through shingles, a process that volunteers of all ages could take part in. From Inhabitat: Green Design Will Save the World:

What do you get when you put 7000 plastic bottles, 60 old sign posts, 350 metres of plastic water piping, 5 sheets of old building site boarding, 2 old scaffold planks and the sweat of over 180 volunteers together? This awesome Fizzy Bottle Hut! At first glance, the recycled structure might look like it has a colorful, shingled roof but upon closer inspection, you can see that it's actually made up of thousands of flattened soda and water bottles.

There are so many things to love about this idea. The thought of many volunteers making a conscious, year-long effort to collect that which we usually avoid. The concept of making something useful out of something discarded. In some ways, though, the thing that I like best of all is illustrated in the photos at left, and it’s a simple thing. I love the way the light shines through that roof. It seems symbolic to me, somehow. All of these hands coming together to create something that will both protect them and bathe them in this beautiful diffused light. That is, together the volunteers at Deen City Farm have created something that is practical, lovely and completely recycled by their own hands. They’ve created something entirely new.

The Inhabit piece is here, along with a lot of terrific pictures of the project both under construction and completed. The story is an inspiration in so many ways but, most of all in the lessons we can take away from creating something new and very special out of something old and discarded. A good lesson, I think, for 2011.

Happy New Year!

Holiday Walks and Dreams

2010-12-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite walks at Dancing Deer Farm is the one that takes me all around the property. Never leaving the well worn track, you go up hills and into wooded dales. You can go over high plateaus -- where you always feel like you can see forever -- and through ancient oak forest. The sweet, brooding silence of those trees always humbles me: fate has made me one of their caretakers.

On a day when I’m alone with my dogs, just walking and thinking, it’s a walk of a good three quarters of an hour. Perhaps a bit more. That’s my morning exercise, plus it gives me an overview of what’s going on all over Dancing Deer.

Other days, when I’m walking with guests or friends or with my daughter or other members of my family, the walk can stretch into a much longer event, chatting and examining or maybe stopping for a bit and perching on a hillside or under a tree, enjoying a canopy of sky and the feeling of complete freedom I’ve never felt so exquisitely any other way or any other place.

This morning, as I did my usual circuit, dogs bounding ahead or falling behind, as is their wont, it occurred to me, as it sometimes does, that I am luckier than most. I’d just gotten back after being out of town on a family vacation, so I perhaps appreciated Dancing Deer even more keenly than usual. I’m lucky to have all of this natural beauty and wildlife at my doorstep. Lucky to be able to share this wonderful property with others and to learn, through that process, about their dreams and visions. And, by extension, I’m lucky to have all of you in my life.

May the joys of the season touch you and your family. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and dreams with us through 2010 and may your journey into the new decade be a sweet one.

Happy Holidays!

A (Not So Hasty) Retreat

2010-12-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

I read recently that the Dalai Lama has said that “The ultimate factor determining whether we have a healthy mind and a healthy body lies within.”

Though there are several ways to take this, here’s what I get: our health and well-being are in our own hands, at least to a certain degree. In a world where so much is out of our control, this is one thing we can have some control over. We can get out and do the things for ourselves we’ve been wanting to. We can feed our spirits, our hearts and our souls. Feed them and nourish them by making choices that our both good for us and that make us happy.

To a large degree, that’s what the recent and ongoing creation of the programs at Dancing Deer have been about. I mean, here we are with this fantastic property that has so much to offer and we’re connected with a large number of deeply and diversely talented people. It did not seem like a leap to us to take the next step and think about what programs we could create that would make use of our wonderful resources to enrich our own lives and the lives of others.

For a while now, we’ve been contemplating just how to to do this, because all the elements were already there. It was just, then, a matter of arranging them in the sequence that would benefit the largest number of people.

And so here we are.

Though there are still some programs in the planning stage, the ones that are already being offered are terrific and fill several very specific needs. Here is a brief description of each of our current programs. Follow the links to get more information on all or any of them:

Yoga Retreat
Dancing Deer’s yoga retreats focus on sustainable and natural branches of wellness and attunement with the body. We offer weekend and week-long yoga retreats that include sessions with our resident yogis as well as time for self-exploration and retreat.

Hot Springs Retreat
Many people believe that natural hot springs have therapeutic effects that can relieve or restore health. At the Hearts Journey Hot Springs retreat, visits to nearby Franklin Hot Springs will a core part of your week with us, but not all of it: the emphasis is on healing and rejuvenation with ample time for self-directed reflection and learning

Personal Retreat
Combining elements of private retreat and farm stay in a completely natural and self-directed environment, your personal retreat gives you the opportunity for relaxation and reflection that we seldom allow ourselves in this fast-paced world.

Raw Food Retreat
Offering participants the opportunity to learn more about incorporating raw foods into their diet for detoxification and health while learning how to gain the maximum life force from your food, all in our beautiful farm stay environment.

For an overview, visit our Programs page. Interest has been high and spots are filling up incredibly quickly. If you’d like more information on any of the retreats, e-mail me here or call 805-769-6664.

Greening the World: From the Grassroots Up

2010-11-30T07:45:00.000-08:00

One of the things that truly delights me is to see how deeply the grassroots of the green movement has taken hold. Amazing things are happening in all segments of what I think of as the greening of our world. That is, a more conscious approach to living by an ever broader number of people from so many walks and so many countries.

Here’s an example: an international Green Roof conference kicked off in Vancouver, Canada today. Over a thousand delegates are expected from as far away as New Zealand, Denmark and South America. The eighth annual CitiesAlive green roof and wall conference runs until December 3rd. Unofficially, though, it’s been an important focus for 20 Vancouver grade six and seven children for the last week. The class has been building their own green roofs at a local college campus, getting a real grassroots feel for what this all means in real world terms. From The Vancouver Sun:

The kids used real green roof building materials and a few varieties of drought-resistant hardy sedum plants to create their mini-roofs inside quarter-litre milk cartoons.

Next, they tested their constructions to see if they retained water. Most worked well.

As important as that, however, is the fact that those kids will retain what they learned all their lives. Not just the pieces of technology they’ve no doubt picked up, but also the idea that we are all part of something larger than ourselves and that our attention is needed in very intimate ways in order to make a difference. And that alone will make a difference.

The conference sounds amazing, too. I wish I were closer and able to attend. It seems like it’s going to be part think tank, part trade show, part brainstorming session. Again, The Sun:

There will a wide range of experts, include urban planners, architects, environmentalists and landscape designers, who want to share information and learn more about green roof and green wall technology.

Green roofs are seen as a way to cut energy costs, recycle rain water and reduce the heat-island effect buildings have on their immediate surroundings, considered a significant contributing factor to global warming.

The Vancouver Sun piece is here. The conference web site is here.

Yoga Retreat at Dancing Deer

2010-11-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

I’m excited about an upcoming series of yoga retreats that will be held at Dancing Deer Farm over the coming months. This will be an incredible opportunity for those who are interested in learning more about yoga as well as those who already have incorporated aspects of yoga into their lifestyles to learn more while experiencing the beauty and bounty at and near Dancing Deer Farm. Participants will enjoy the opportunity to connect with nature and themselves, interacting with the animals and wildlife here, walking our beautiful trails and enjoying our oak forest and our wonderful setting. (So close to everything... yet it often seems a million miles away!)

Interest in the retreats has been high and available space is filling up quickly.

You can learn more about the retreats -- including accommodation information, pricing and who to contact -- on the Dancing Deer web site.

Also, stay tuned for more updates. We have a whole slate of restorative retreats on the boards. All of them connected to healthful and conscious living.

All This Excitement! Time For A Snooze?

2010-11-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

If you’ve been paying any attention at all lately, there’s been a lot of excitement going on: culminating with you getting out and voting yesterday.

Now I’m not going to comment either way on the outcomes here. Anyone who knows me at all knows that politics is just not how I roll. But all of this talk along with the resounding cries for action have gotten me thinking about one thing: no matter how you feel about the results of the vote, the energy we created in discussing and debating our desires is not for naught. That’s the thing about living consciously: when we begin something -- a project, a cycle, even a thought -- we start something in motion. If that’s been done in a conscious way, it’s seldom a bad thing.

There is so much wrong in the world just now. And there are so, so many good things happening and so much that is right. If you are feeling disappointed today, don’t lose heart. The energy you expended is good energy. And nothing that brings motion is wasted.

Dancing Deer on the Web

2010-09-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Want to learn more about Dancing Deer Farm? Come visit our brand new website for a close-up glimpse.

Biomimicry & the Organic Farm

2010-01-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a year unlike others. A year, in many ways, when it finally begins to come together.

We’re at a wonderful nexus of ideas and deeds and developments. After what feels like generations of stagnation -- and worse -- it feels as though we’ve finally come to a place a eco renaissance. Ideas like these, reported here on Newsvine, can make your brain sweat; can make the hair on your arms stand up in excitement. Imagine:

Biomimicry is the utilization of designs, systems, materials, or processes originating in nature and applying these to human use. The application of such is often more sustainable and more efficient than similar human attempts.

There’s much to be excited about here. Much to be cautious about, as well. As a species, we’ve done a tremendous job sometimes of rushing into things without taking a good look around. Still, some of this is tremendously exciting. Imagine, using organically farmed materials to replace some things necessary for modern life that are currently made out of some truly nasty materials.

Imagine being able to use spider web in place of Kevlar, or in place of the cables of a suspension bridge. Or using a sealant based off of the lotus plant on your shower walls, and never having to clean your shower again. These are only a few of the exciting innovations biomimicry makes possible.

If you’d like to read more about biomimicry, there’s interesting information here, here and here. Meanwhile, 2010 is going to be an exciting year. I can feel that already, from where I’m standing. I’m looking forward to embracing it with you.

Silent (Green!) Running

2009-12-14T12:30:00.000-08:00

For a number of years I’ve been saying that, as far as new, green automobile technologies have come, there’s still so much farther we can go. I drive a Prius, after all, so talking to me is preaching to the choir. I love that car. And as much as it’s impossible not to love the way it can coast along in silence or hum like a kitten when going all out, I know that, just a round the corner? There’s a car that will be so silent and so green, it will knock my socks off. Seriously, let’s call it what it is: I’m ready to be impressed.

It’s possible that being super impressed will begin later this week when Tesla takes their roadster on a cross-country trip intended to show us all just what an electric car can do when everything is lined up correctly. (Just for starters, for example, when no conventional manufacturer of Detroit steel is involved. We all know how that ended.)

Tesla’s 2700-plus mile road trip will begin on December 17th in Palm Springs and end in Detroit on January 8th. From the Tesla Web site:

We’re driving Roadster #750 from Los Angeles to Detroit for this year’s North American International Auto Show to prove that the Roadster is tough, durable and range anxiety is for the weak.

Our electric sports car goes from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds and can travel 244 miles on a single charge. The Roadster is ready to take on any and all weather conditions – it looks just as good with mud on the tires as it does on the showroom floor.

Realistically, I won’t be able to get to Palm Springs or any of the other cities on the calendar to see for myself. I’ll be listening, though. I have a hunch this pass of the running of the silent green car will make some headlines. I’m looking forward to it!

Fast Forward to Farming

2009-10-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

One of the things I’ve been finding incredibly encouraging over the last few years is the strength of a growing movement for... well, for better.

A decade ago -- and certainly two -- it was sometimes difficult not to despair. Not to think about hell and hand baskets and wonder where it was all going to end up.

Think of it: global warming, melting icecaps, shrinking glaciers, landfills, factory farming... there seemed to be an endless list of things to be concerned about. And for those of us who were concerned, it was sometimes easy to feel like a Pariah; to feel really alone. So many things wrong in the world. And so few people who seemed to care.

Fast forward to 2009. Inroads are being made in almost all areas. Sure: we have a long, long way to go and we can’t back down from our caring and concern and hard work, but it’s truly amazing, sometimes, to relax a teensy bit. To sit back and see how far we’ve come; how much we’ve accomplished in a relatively short time of wide awareness. I guess I mean, it seems possible -- finally -- to self-congratulate a little bit. We are moving, after all this time, in the right direction.

There are many examples of this but, for today, let me share just one. Farm Forward was incorporated in 2007, though core members of the organization have been active with the work they do much longer. It’s a non-profit advocacy group “at the forefront of pragmatic efforts to transform the way our nation eats and farms.”

In real world terms, Farm Forward works in the field on behalf of farm animals and sustainable farm practices. It works to help educate people about what goes on in contemporary farmer’s fields and barns and it works to help both farmers and laypeople think about the way things could be done and how they really should not be. From the Farm Forward Web site:

From years of innovative efforts to improve conditions on farms and in slaughterhouses worldwide, we have built a unique network of strong relationships with animal welfare experts, food retailers, nonprofit animal advocacy organizations, religious leaders, scholars, small farmers, and writers concerned about farmed animal welfare. This unprecedented network and our tight focus on rolling back factory farming allows us to enhance the effectiveness of existing organizations and implement comprehensive new strategies that are unavailable to other groups.

I’m encouraged by what Farm Forward is accomplishing in part because, as they point out, the descent into factory farming happened very quickly:

Largely out of public view, factory farming began on America's poultry farms in the 1920s and quickly spread to every sector of the meat, dairy, and egg industries. Factory fishing, including fish farming, quickly followed. The use of new technologies could have been a positive development, but instead it has ushered in an era of factory farming and fishing that has brought with it systematic abuse of animals, pollution of the environment, and destruction of rural life. Today, more than 99 percent of our nation’s meat, dairy, and eggs are produced on factory farms, and nearly all seafood comes to us from factory fishing.

As I said, it all happened very quickly. Does it not stand to reason, then, that with our own passion and new knowledge forcing us to activity, we can help roll things like factory farming back even more quickly than they took hold and took root?

Farm Forward is just one example, but it’s a good one. If you’d like to know more about the terrific work the organization is doing, their Web site is here.

Edible SLO: Time For A Change

2009-05-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

They say you can never go back. I think, in some ways, that’s true. For instance, once you realize that a lot of little changes add up to gentle revolution. Or, on the other side, once you see how a pile of small things can add up to big damage to the environment. And, maybe most importantly, how powerful one confident voice can be when combined with others to make a chorus for real change.

I should offer you specifics. Look, for instance, at one little container of strawberries grown in Mexico and offered for sale at your local market. How did those strawberries come to be there? What path did they take to show up in your neighborhood? They were grown far away: do you know what pesticides are allowed or disallowed in the region in which they were grown? (Or is their growing region even something the vendor has shared?) They’re out of season: how were they grown? When were they harvested? How were they stored and handled so that they were able to come so far looking so perfect? How much fuel was used to get this tiny basket of berries into your hands? And when, finally, you bite into one, how much flavor is left to enjoy?

There are a lot of reasons to eat locally grown and raised foods. And, joyously, in this region of real bounty, there’s just no reason not to. That’s why I’m especially glad that my friend, HopeDance publisher Bob Banner, will be publishing Edible San Luis Obispo beginning summer 2009. As Bob tells us:
By eating locally, we help to sustain the small family farms which produce healthy foods with fullness of taste and provide for a safer food supply. The publication will follow our seasonal schedule: four times each year, you’ll be enticed with stories about farmers, chefs, and the local food industry. Gorgeous color photography featuring food and landscape will put life on pages full of culinary interest and events.
I’m very much looking forward to the insights and wisdom Bob has been sharing for so many years in HopeDance, now applied to a very specific area of interest. In many ways, Edible San Luis Obispo seems like a natural progression of Bob’s work. We wish him luck in this new part of his journey and anticipate with delight the things he will share with us on the pages of his new publication.

Building A Green Dream

2009-05-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

There are some very real challenges to creating a truly sustainable lifestyle. One of the big ones is our home. Your dwelling represents thousands of design decisions. Many of those have a very real impact on the environment. This isn’t something we could give much thought to even a few years ago. That is, you might have thought “there must be a better way!” but few green alternatives were available. When they were available, there were prohibitively expensive.

And now? While we still have a long way to go, things in this regard are much better. Many designers and problem solvers are applying themselves to coming up with green alternatives for home building and refitting.

If these are questions that concern you and you happen to be in the Los Angeles area this coming weekend, you might want to look in at Alt:Build 09. Admission is free on Friday May 8th and Saturday May 9th at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. And I love that, on their Web site, they say they’re going to have free valet bicycle parking available. That’s really walking the walk. More to the point, over 150 exhibitors will be on hand showing off the very latest in green alternatives for your home. Everything from straw bale home design, green alternatives to drywall, installations of living roofs, different types of solar systems, non-toxic paints and furniture, water conservation systems, environmental plumbing, sustainable landscaping... you get the idea: everything.

If these dates don’t work for you (and I’m already afraid they don’t work for me) keep October 2nd and 3rd in mind. Same location, same general thrust, but this time with a focus on the road for the 4th annual AltCar Expo and Conference.

Meanwhile, the Alt:Build 09 Web site is here.

Earth Day is for Everyone

2009-04-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

One of the things that’s become very apparent to me on this, the 40th anniversary of the celebration of Earth Day, is just how much towards the mainstream these ideas have moved. When I think about how long I’ve been concerned about the “ozone layer” (remember the ‘70s?), wholesome and organic foods, the fates of endangered species, reducing and reusing and recycling... well, it’s been a long time. Long enough, I almost don’t want to admit to all those years!

When I consider, I really began making some of the choices that now guide my life -- then considered avant garde or worse -- in the 1960s and certainly into the 1970s. Like many others, I was part of shift or groundswell for change that would, in many ways, end up permeating every aspect of my life by the time I got to... well, here and now. As I set out on this journey, some of the choices I made raised the eyebrows of those closest to me. Simple things.

I remember, for instance, the faces of my family when I first talked about eating in a way that was more healthy and considered the way things were raised and grown. It was shocking to talk that way about food then. And maybe, from the viewpoint of my elders, somewhat disrespectful. These were not choices you made then: you ate what your culture handed you and never mind where or how it was grown or killed.

And now? Now there is power even in decisions about that very simple thing: how we eat. Or, more importantly, the consideration and decisions we make before we prepare the foods we consume. And even beyond that: how we deal with the necessary waste associated with consumption. If a lot of people make responsible choices in that regard, we change the world. Simple things. A step at a time. Together.

We change the world.

Happy 40th Earth Day!

Rejoice because while there’s still a long way to go, we’ve come so very, very far.

On the Road with A Long Way to Go

2009-03-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

I’m proud to live in a place that makes an effort. There’s a duality to that, though. Because it’s not enough, is it? But it’s better than nothing. It’s a start. From a recent piece on Public Radio International called “California’s Low-Carbon Diet”:

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions isn’t just a good idea -- in California, it’s the law. The state is the first in the nation to go on a low carb diet. Three years ago it passed legislation restricting the release of climate change gases across its economy.

Do you see what I’m saying? On the one hand, it’s great that we’re on that road; we’ve made a start. So many places in the world haven’t even come to terms with the fact that there’s a problem. On the other… well, sometimes I just think about all the wind and sun and waves out there -- all those lovely clean alternatives -- and I shake my head. Well, sometimes I shake my head and get on my soapbox. I’ll get off it now.

There’s just such a long way yet to go.

The link leads to a transcript of the original broadcast. You can listen to it there, as well. It’s an installment of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Curwood’s excellent Living on the Earth program. The show has been running continuously since 1991.

May You Live in Interesting Times

2009-03-07T14:30:00.000-08:00

We live in exciting times. I feel very lucky that life has placed me in a position to be able to see this.

One of the things not everyone knows about me is that my undergraduate degree is in engineering. Yes, yes, it’s true: beneath the smooth façade of the Masters in business and the doctorate -- which makes me very philosophical, indeed -- beats the heart of an engineer. And though you can take the boy away from his slide rule, you can’t always…

Here’s the thing: all these years later, I’m finding this geekish background to be a useful thing. It prepared me to not only accept change, but in some cases to run toward it and to embrace the most useful of it. I’ll tell you what I mean.

I have a sense, sometimes, of the world spinning very quickly right now. For various reasons -- multiple reasons, really -- technology has never moved quite so quickly. Some of this is good news. One of the things I’m most excited about are the new technologies that touch the way we make our individual footprints. There are political, financial and ethical reasons for big, green change and a lot of it is right around the corner. One of the things I’ve come to think of when I hear the word “stimulus” is how we’re rapidly moving toward a time when green, sustainable change is a big part of what is being stimulated. Exciting times, indeed.

We’re starting to see signs of this already. In this regard, everything is changing. From very small and seemingly simple things -- the way we clean our homes. The way we shop for food. The way we bring said food home from the market -- to the things that touch our lives most profoundly -- the way we build our homes. The way we grow our food. The way we fuel our cars and truck our goods across the country and the world. So many thing that we took for granted even a decade or two ago are now being rethought, reimagined. It makes me happy -- and even proud -- to be a part of this change. To do my part in all the ways I can.

Peak Oil with a Smile

2008-11-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we laugh to keep from crying. I came across this today and it seemed like a good way to do it. I hope you enjoy it as well. That is, I guess, I hope it makes you think. And smile.

Rising to Our Challenges

2008-05-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

It’s easy right now to look around and see negatives. Issues of economy and ecology that may touch every aspect of our lives. I could list the challenges we’re facing, but I’ll spare you. Turn on the television, open a newspaper, read a magazine, talk to your friends: you know what the issues are. Doom and gloom is everywhere. You don’t have to look very far to find it. Push a little further, though -- beyond the surface stuff -- and the positives become apparent.

In an era of ease, we tend to get fat. Intellectually and emotionally, if not physically. But in an era filled with challenges we amaze ourselves: we rise. Sometimes it takes my breath away.

I find myself tremendously excited by the innovation that’s emerging from this era of greening and global concern. It seems to me that, as a culture, we are rising to our challenges. We’re looking out new windows to see answers to questions we hadn’t even considered half a decade ago.

For instance, I’ve been deeply impressed at the emergence of the r ocket stove. This is a very new approach to one of mankind’s oldest challenges: how to heat a home and cook food with the least amount of fuss and -- our more recent concern -- with the lowest impact on the environment. It seems to me that the rocket stove is perfect. It’s easy and inexpensive to build; it is efficient and it was born of a human desire to do something in an entirely new way. A better way.

I’m not going to go into the details of building one here -- this Web page at Humboldt State does a terrific job of that -- but I just wanted to share with you one example of the type of technology I’m finding exciting right now: the type that illustrates how well, as a culture, we’re stepping up to our new challenges. There’s something beautiful in that.

The Meaning of the Holidays in A Liquid Amber Gaze

2007-12-21T00:30:00.000-08:00

As 2007 draws to a close, I find myself almost weirdly optimistic about the coming year.

Sure, the past 12 months brought some bad news (including the current administration’s decision to deny California the right to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles). But, for what seemed to me like the first time ever, for every hit the environment took, there were a dozen strong voices poised for action. And so everywhere you turned, there were stories about companies going green and the 100 Mile Diet and even the very mainstream Time asked this week: “How Green is Your Neighborhood?” While the article doesn’t necessarily offer up viable answers, it’s really asking a lot of the right questions. That isn’t enough, but it feels like a real start.

So I’m optimistic. And -- I’ll tell the truth -- I’m happy. This morning when I got up, I saw a cluster of deer outside the house. I’m quite sure they didn’t see me, but I felt as though they did.

One doe, in particular, lifted her head while I watched. She looked towards my window with her liquid, amber gaze and it was as though she watched and weighed. In the end, she put her head back down to graze and I felt oddly proud. As though I’d been judged and found not wanting. A ridiculous feeling, I know. Not logical. And yet, there it is.

Here’s wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season. May your experiences be rich and your footprint small and may all your dreams come true.

Thoughts on Thanks

2007-11-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

I always feel I have so much to give thanks for: family, friends, health. And I feel beyond lucky -- blessed -- every year on this day to cast my eyes around a table surrounded by people I care about. And people who, for the most part care about the same things that move me.

And, honestly? I’m thankful even for that table. And the things we bring to it. Good food, beautifully and lovingly prepared. And good humor. Companionship. Caring. And laughter. Laughter as important, I think, as just about anything else.

I’m thankful, too, for this year gone by. For the fact that I’m striving -- honestly striving -- to leave a less visible footprint than I’ve left in the past. I know more now, and I’m thankful for that as well.

And I’m thankful for Dancing Deer. Of course I’m thankful for that. To have found the place where footprints can be weighed and measured. And where systems can be put in place -- through thoughtful permaculture, through traditional things like composting, through serious consideration, honest thought -- where my footprint will be smaller still. And, with care, perhaps yours will too.

So every year I feel thankful. But this year? I’m more thankful still. Thank you for being part of that.

HopeDance 10 Year Celebration

2007-11-19T01:00:00.000-08:00

It was a delight recently to host HopeDance magazine’s 10th anniversary party here at Dancing Deer. It was the first sizeable gathering that we’ve held here and -- aside from a little bit of interference from the weather -- everything went off without a hitch.

We love Bob and company from HopeDance, so it was super to play such an integral part in the festivities. Ten years is an amazing accomplishment and we wish them many more! It was also great to see Dancing Deer gussied up for her first shindig and coming through with such flying colors.

On paper we knew that a gathering should be no problem, but it was ultra good to discover that we were right and that we had ample room for all activities planned, even when the skies broke and the rain came and we were forced to retreat indoors. It wasn’t even a hardship to spend most of the evening inside, with groups gathered in the kitchen (don’t the best parties always have clumps of people in the kitchen?), while others danced in the great hall or chatted at various locations throughout the main house.

It’s gratifying to know we can easily accommodate a gathering. As things stand now, Dancing Deer will from time to time happily host your small non-profit group for daytime activities.

The Sharing of Knowledge

2007-11-18T22:15:00.000-08:00

With the One Laptop Per Child Foundation’s computer, the XO, shipping now to children in developing countries, a dream many years in the making has become reality.

I’ve been following this story closely for a couple of reasons: in the first place, a good chunk of my personal background is in high tech. I can’t help but be excited at the prospect of all these great minds getting together in order to -- ultimately -- help little minds to grow. There’s something beautiful in that.

The machine itself is beautiful, as well. In a rugged and practical way. The XO laptop is green in all ways, right down to the handcrank that lets kids power it up when they’re in low or no electricity situations. The computer is tough and durable, meant to operate in the worst possible conditions and, together, even exclusive of a connection to the Internet, XOs in proximity to each other together create their own network.

On a more personal level, it’s been exciting watching the emergence of success after a struggle; of taking what was an almost impossibly huge dream and preserving until the dream became reality. It encourages all of us working towards a sustainable and conscious life to keep our heads down and our hearts open.

On a totally practical level, until November 26th if you donate $399, “one XO laptop will be sent to empower a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to the child in your life in recognition of your contribution.” To sweeten things still further, $200 of your donation is tax-deductible. More information on the program -- and the XO laptop -- is here.

Instrument of Change

2007-11-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

The November/December issue of HopeDance magazine is now available. It’s their usual wonderful eclectic editorial mix. Though there’s much to love about the issue, Hilary Grant’s article, “The Go Green Initiative: Teaching Recycling One Child at a Time” resonated with me especially. I think it must be because she’s talking here about a very grassroots approach to a huge problem. And it underlines the very real difference each one of us can make.

The article is about Jill Buck, “daughter of an Illinois coal miner, commissioned United States Naval officer and California State Assembly challenger,” whose Go Green Initiative program has a single goal: “to educate one child, one classroom, one school at a time about the necessity of recycling” and has become, in just five years, the fastest growing environmental education program in the United States.

What I love here is that it really brings home something those of us who are strong supporters for environmental change have believed for a long time. Something that in the day-to-day grind of our everyday lives it can be easy to forget: each and every one of us has the power to make a difference. That each of these acts -- these random and sometimes not so random acts -- can contribute, ultimately, to a perfect whole.

Location, Location, Location

2007-11-05T01:30:00.000-08:00

Today I’ve been thinking about location in general and how lucky I feel that we found this one in particular.

When viewed from above -- say from Google Maps -- you can see how splendidly isolated we are here at Dancing Deer. The property combines to nearly 100 acres which in itself can provide a sort of splendid isolation. But, as you can see, the protection of these ancient oaks provides the feeling of being really, really far away from everything.

The reality, however, is that this simply isn’t so. We’re in the heart of the central coast wine country and situated just half an hour away from the coastal communities of Cambria, Cayucos and Morro Bay. Hearst Castle is an enthusiastic stone’s throw away. We are 15 minutes from the university town of San Luis Obispo and only three minutes outside the pleasant rural community of Templeton.

San Luis Obispo county is itself about midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. That means we’re only two or three hours by car from most of California’s 35 million people. And yet... I look out the window, see an undulating hill and a line of rare and beautiful oaks so lovely it hurts my eyes. If I’m lucky, I’ll catch a glimpse of a kestrel or a red-tailed hawk winging its way into the trees. And the deer. Of course the deer. Dancing Deer is not far from anything. Dancing Deer is a lifetime away.

Spring in October

2007-10-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Right now, it feels a lot like spring at Dancing Deer. It hasn’t been the weather, it’s all about renewal and new beginnings and the excitement that can come when you stand in a doorway.

There’s something almost intoxicating about coming off this cleaning and repainting of the house and starting in earnest on the landscaping and knowing that, with every clump of earth that is turned and every bush that is planted or replanted, we’re nearer to the place we want to go.

And even though it doesn’t look quite as pretty as it will look when we’re done, it’s already gorgeous here. Sometimes I laugh to myself about that. Landscaping! When you look out the window and see those rolling fields, see the stands of oaks and -- yes -- catch a glimpse of a deer grazing in one of the meadows, you know that, no matter what beautification we get up to around here, there are some things we’ll never try to improve on. We never could.

With the cleaning and repainting of the main house complete, we’ve been pleased to have been able to share Dancing Deer with a small number of other non-profit organizations.

The Fire in Our Hearts

2007-10-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

There are so many wonderful things happening here at Dancing Deer. The cleaning and painting of the main house; the landscaping that is ongoing and the permaculture that has been delighting us with possibilities for a beautiful, sustainable future.

All of these great things are in motion and we’re poised to tell you about them but, to be honest, it’s difficult to pull our minds from the fires currently still raging throughout California. It’s not because we have interests and loved ones in some of the affected areas... but that’s certainly not making things any easier!

And so, like so many others, we sweat it out. We do whatever we can and, no matter what it is, when we’re done, we realize it’s not enough.

I was heartened to hear more and more positive reports throughout the day yesterday. And Thursday night, FOX 6 in San Diego had some good news, as well as much that was bittersweet:
Shelters are emptying and thousands of evacuees are being allowed to return home in the fire ravaged areas of Southern California.

But the full extent of destruction is still being tallied and several new areas are being evacuated, including an area south of San Diego where rural communities on the Mexican border are under threat.

The same article shares all of the numbers currently in hand: it’s a heartbreaking tally that indicates acres burned, houses destroyed, lives lost. You want to turn your head, but there’s just no place else to look. As the San Diego Union-Tribune reported a few days ago, “Regardless of ZIP code, we’re all in this together.”

For the most up-to-the-minute information available, check the state of California’s Cal Fire Mission Web site. The site includes updates on the status of all of California’s fires as well as preparedness information and what you can do to help.

California Fire Continues

2007-10-24T07:45:00.001-07:00

Those of us here at Deer Dance share in the shock and dismay that has gripped so many of us over the last four days at the fires that have been ripping through Southern Californian communities.

The news this morning has been no better. This from Firefighting News:
The dozen wildfires raging across Southern California continued to overwhelm fire-fighters on Tuesday as the greatest wildfire evacuation in California history continued. As more than 500,000 people fled their homes, the fires burned across 600 square miles from San Diego to north of Malibu, destroying more than 1,800 homes.
While fire-fighters from surrounding states and even the Federal government have joined the battle, things have yet to turn around:
“The fire has control right now,” said Rochelle Jenkins, spokeswoman for the [California Office of Emergency Services].

Forecasters at the National Weather Service said fire conditions in much of Southern California will remain “critical” today with near-record temperatures, sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph.

As though the loss of homes and property weren’t enough, the impact of this fire on the environment will be impossible to fully calculate for a long time. From The New York Times:
A survey conducted by the California Farm Bureau Federation found that avocado and citrus groves, nurseries, vineyards, rangeland, and other farm and ranch operations were possibly damaged, with thousands of horses evacuated to shelters and livestock also possibly caught in the fires’ paths.
It’s difficult today to think of anything besides this almost overwhelming disaster. A family -- a single mom and her three children -- who has lost their home in San Diego is currently on their way to Deer Dance now. Helping her has made us realize that, with this amazing facility, there are other ways we can help. We are currently organizing The Center for Reuniting Families’ relief efforts. Meanwhile, if there is some grassroots way in which you think we can help, please let me know personally. You can e-mail me here, or call 805-434-3200 and ask for Dr. Peter Huber.

If you’ve come to us through a search engine and are looking for information on the fire, the California Fire News Blog is a good place to get up-to-date information on the fires as well as connect with other related services, emergency and other.

Between the Forest and the Deep, Green Grass

2007-10-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

All the good stories -- the important stories, the one’s we’ve been telling for generations since time out of mind -- all those good stories begin with a garden, things growing, renewal and touching the earth. The knowledge of this was the single most important thought that steadied our hands and bolstered our hearts as we searched for the piece of land that has become Dancing Deer.

Searched and searched.

It took a long time.

During that search we didn’t know exactly what we were looking for -- we didn’t know precisely what the finished picture would be -- but we always understood that a rich and beautiful piece of land would be central. The land would become the basket that would hold the thoughts and desires and good wishes that would then grow to be the foundation of the dream that we were even then beginning to see.

As I write this, the dream has a shape -- Dancing Deer. And it has a foundation -- this wonderful property in San Luis Obispo, edged by an oak forest that surrounds the many undulating acres where the deer do, indeed, dance. And all of it is more -- so much more -- than what we anticipated as we searched; as we began to form the dream.

From the beginning, we knew we wanted -- needed, required -- a beautiful natural environment that would inspire choices for living a sustainable and conscious life. A place that would play a part in fostering community while supporting practices to help restore and enhance the Earth’s own systems.

What we desired was to be able to offer resources, support and examples of harmonious living in a sustainable way in order to inspire people to make positive choices with regards to their own health, their relationships, their skills as parents and partners and their overall practices for living.

These are the things we wanted the Center for ReUniting Families to be able to do. And these are the things that Dancing Deer -- together with our own various passions and energies -- will help make possible.

It’s early days yet. The journey has just begun. We invite you to travel with us, to add your voice to the chorus. And we invite you to visit us at Dancing Deer: to take a tour, a workshop or even just to spend a quiet half hour in the nurturing environment the property provides.

Between visits, check back here frequently. We anticipate that this blog will provide not only a conduit for information between CRF’s board members, but also a public sounding board for our ideas and thoughts on the direction Dancing Deer will take. We plan, also, to use this space to let you know about upcoming events and activities as well as sharing our thoughts on some of the technologies and techniques that we’ll be showcasing at Dancing Deer over the coming months and years.

And so it begins.