THings that are going on around here.

I said I was going to post more often and use the letters I write to people that cover the 'business of Woodhenge'. The following is a letter I just sent to my friend Steve Spence. He lives in his own intentional community near Canton, NY. We visit each other regularly and help each other out on a wide variety of topics. He built the Woodhenge website for us, fixes our computer problems and likes to drink our hard apple cider. He is trying to fufill the same kind of destiny as we are at Woodhenge. Look his site up at www.green-trust.org.

Hi Steve; I was sorry about your migraine at the NCPOSAG (North Country Peak Oil Study and Action Group) meeting at Patricia's place. I think a lot of my present and your present health problems is because we're both going through the same kind of angst over working conventionally in places when we'd rather be developing our own sustainable communities/businesses.

WOW! What a great meeting though! This is more of what I'd imagined going on at an action group meeting. To be handed a hot bowl of delicious squash soup and mingle with a crowd that is activly doing things about a danger filled future was cathartic! To further have these people active in a group that was beyond their own families is amazing. I'm glad they allow me to participate from Jefferson County. I'm ordering a copy of the film we watched "The Community Solution" so I can continue to corrupt our youth in the public school system. Do you know where it came from? I'll check with Patricia if you don't know.

There were some major topics and minor topics discussed that you might have missed out on. Major ones included the fact that there are other groups that are overlapping some of our efforts and it would be good to combine forces to reinforce and take advantage of our mutual interests. Cooperative extension was one example, the historical societies and hands on museums were another. Minor ones included a sign up sheet at Richard and Aimee's Arc neighborhood party later this month. The list would include topics people would feel comfortable teaching to small groups and topics that you wanted to learn about. Patricia also wanted to get a women's skill study group started that would cover topics such as woodworking, home repair, home wiring, plumbing and welding. I offered to teach them with her.

I mentioned the fact that I have a new acquaintence that has his "Curio and Relic" license and regularly buys servicable firearms and ammunition that come under this category. Mostly rifles from the former USSR. Many of them are available for under $100. A mix of bolt action and semi-automatics are available. If anyone else is interested drop me a note. Maybe we can do a group purchase and later a group lesson on their safe use, and maintenance.

I'm looking forward to the trip to pick up your Listeroid Diesel power plant. If the timing is right I can come up to your place, pick you up, go to Canada for the engine and lesson on how to use it, come back to your place, help you unload and set it up, pick up my Todd wood fired cook stove in Potsdam and get home....it sounds like a busy weekend.

The rental house we have in Watertown still hasn't sold. Krista and I have pretty much decided to spend the next few months fixing it up so it looks really good and market it in the Spring. We'll be putting on a steel roof, redoing the bathroom, sheetrocking the second floor rooms, new supply plumbing, new floors in the kitchen, bathroom and living room, removing the rotting entryway addition and installing a small deck in its place. Phil has agreed to do between ten and fifteen hours a week on the place. I think that adding about $10,000 worth of improvments will gain us about $30,000 more in resale price from the low offers we've been tentativly been given. My kid workers had all of the old flooring in the kitchen and living room out (including moving appliances) in under an hour. That gave me some hope for the future work. I'm going to try to deliver the sheetrock to the place today and get some of the painting done next week.

Phil, maybe Shane and I are attending a Jefferson County Cooperative Extension workshop this Tuesday evening on home and farmstead production of cheese. It could be a future Woodhenge 'cottage industry'.

All for now. -Jim-