It's been cold and I've been waking up to frost on the windows.. but once the sun comes up the days have been filled with warmth and beauty. I'm grateful for the sun on these cold winter mornings. These pics are from my most recent sleep spot on public lands outside Espaniola, New Mexico. peace,d

Friday, January 30, 2009
Location: Espaniola, New Mexico

It seems waiting for my tripod parts delivery had a deeper purpose after all. In spending that little extra amount of time in Taos things lined up nicely for me in Espaniola. I finally got a hold of Santa Cruz Farm and Greenhouses owner and farmer Don Bustos. The energy that came through the phone was nothing but pure positivity which is always nice when I'm reaching out to someone new.

Upon arriving at Santa Cruz Farm I wandered down to the greenhouses that make up most of the winter produce production. Don's greenhouses are nice and big in some cases 90ft long and 30ft wide. He has installed radiant soil heating via piping throughout the entire complex of greenhouses and these are fueled by solar energy. He tells me this enables him to produce year-round. In the winter when it gets cold the frost on the outer frame keeps the heat in, there is also another ground level cover that keeps the plants warm in addition to storing the heat that is rises from the radiate heat tubing buried beneath the root systems. Although Don told me that he has scientists from local universities coming to examine his system, it was immeidatly clear to me from the abundant growth that the system is clearly working.

I spent the morning talking with Don's interns George and Seraphina about their various backgrounds and the importance of continuing to shape and spread the revolution in local sustainable agriculture. These young people that track down Don are definitely revolutionary thinkers in their own right and it gives me great hope in knowing that there are other young people out there trying to manifest change instead of continuing with the status quo.

After helping to clip some salad greens for the Santa Fe Market I finally had an opportunity to have a nice on-camera dialog with Don. Our conversation traveled back in time to ancestral farming methods to the present need to return to traditional ways of doing things while incorporating technology when it's simple and sensical. Don spoke to the idea that it's really important to develop markets as a farmer and constantly adapt to a changing market reality. And most importantly we need to rethink our system of agriculture to enable small local and sustainable farmers to reclaim greenbelts throughout the nation and develop green sustainable technology and then vertically integrate that technology and build a broader base of support for those methods and ideas. He spoke to the fact that he uses greenhouses and there could easily be someone who makes a living manufacturing and designing those smaller scale greenhouses so that more people can farm effectively and extend their grownign season. The potential for job creation in rebuilding/rethinking agriculture is tremendous. It seems to me basic math that smaller cluster-based local food producers would tend to involve a broader base of workers and therefore have a broader economic benefit to large industrial monoculture systems of farming.

After speakign with people like Don my gears begin to turn with visions of my own farm back in Canada. My grandfather left my family a nice place with a tremendous amount of untapped potential and one day I'm going to build an extraordinary place of food, community, and creative solutions. But until then my job is to gather knowledge and voices to help disseminate ideas about where we have been and where we are headed.

An elder I spent a lot of time with when I was younger used to always say, "Don't settle down, GROW UP!" Together with people like Don Bustos, George, and Seraphina I think we're all continuing to learn what it means not to settle for less than we deserve, healthy food is a human right not a privilage, and as we foster this ideal we find ourselves destined to GROW UP just fine.

peace,d

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Location: Espaniola, New Mexico

As I was driving down to Espaniola, I passed a house on the side of the road that was littered with old gas station memorabilia. I hurtled past consuming my own hydrocarbons in a rush to an interview. That night alone in the desert I decided I had to go back the next day to see what it was all about.

It turns out that it's not just a home, it's a museum.

I was amazed by the full oil cans dating back to the sixties in mint condition, having been preserved over the years by oil that leaked out of the cans above them. There were also signs, photographs, old pumps and anything else you can think of that relates to the fossil fuel industry. I shot a few rolls of film as nostalgia overtook me.

It's amazing to think that the fossil fuel boom has been so short lived and that only one generation ago the first mainstream filling stations were popping up throughout North America.

As one of my recent interviews phrased it, "The industrial revolution of the last hundred and fifty years has largely been comprised of a tangent of human innovation." It's true with all that cheap energy we definitely innovated and while many of the innovations in terms of medicine and technology have been beneficial, it seems we have also gotten strangely off course. We have also strayed away from fundamental human values and replaced a lot of traditional ways of seeing and being with a consumptive and out of control energy gluttony unmatched by any other time in human history.

"Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility."
E.F. Schumacher

Sure we have used our energy to build the American Dream... but exactly whose dream was it?

It wasn't the dream of the people it was the dream of politicians and economists...

"Our enormously productive economy ... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption.... we need things consumed, burned up, replaced, and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate." - Victor Lebow

I truly hope that in the time remaining, or rather, with the energy remaining, we will be able to shift gears and move back towards things that make sense rather than things that make money. This is a big challenge since so much of our framework is built upon this idea of making money at all costs. And when we tie this fact of our infrastructure with the present reality of gross national debt, it seems like we are destined to never break free. The impetus these days seems to be upon restabilizing the economy rather than shifting away from gluttonous and destructive patterns and processes.

The key is to do both. The key is to look towards ideas that are sustainable and ideas that makes sense in the long term for countless generations to come. And then to grab a hold of these ideas and pump large amounts of money into them so that they can be vertically integrated into our paradigm. Build infrastructure and jobs around these ideas so that we can all move freely into an abundant future.

peace,
d

This is sent to me via email.. I don't know where it comes from but it seems to hold true. peace,d

"The Creator gathered all of creation and said, 'I want to hide something from humans until they have fully prepared themselves for it. It is the realization that their essence is unity with Me.'

The eagle said, 'Give it to me; I'll take it to the moon and hide it there.' But the Creator said, 'No, one day they will go there and find it.' Then the salmon said, 'Give it to me; I'll hide it in the bottom of the sea.' 'No,' said the Creator, 'they'll get there too.' Well, the buffalo said, 'Give it to me; I'll bury it in the plains.' The Creator said, 'No, they will get there. They will cut into the skin of the earth, and they will find it even there.'

Then Grandmother Mole spoke, she who has no physical eyes to see the outer world but has spiritual eyes to see the inner world, and she said, 'Put it inside them; they'll never find it there until they have prepared.'

And the Creator said, 'It is done.'"

So.. I'm sitting here in an internet cafe tracking my FedEx package on it's way to Taos. I finally get another undeliverable message from FedEx saying the address is still incorrect and it's going back to Santa Fe. Grrrr!!! So I call FedEx and talk to someone in India or somewhere and I tell them I will just pick it up in Santa Fe.. then as I'm getting off the phone a FedEx truck pulls up to the cafe and the delivery man comes in for a bagel. I ask him if he has my package and YES HE DOES... and YES he can give it to me.. as soon as he finishes his lunch.

I guess if you want something bad enough the universe will truly conspire to find a way to give it to you... one way or another.

peace,
d

January 28, 2009
Location: Taos, New Mexico

So I'm waiting on a package from hell. Not actually from hell just a package that I'm having a hell of a hard time receiving. A month and a half ago a small but important lever broke on one of my lighter tripods. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find a replacement part in Denver but finally had to call the distributor out in California. The crew out in Cali was great and had my pieces in hand and ready for delivery within moments of my call and for the low low price of 8$ plus shipping. At the time I was on my way out of Denver so I asked them to overnight it to the Taos US Post Office. The only problem was that the address I found online was incorrect and with all good intentions the shipper sent the package FedEx overnight. And so it began...

I've been waiting on the package for over a week now. Since the address was incorrect FedEx has been holding it in Santa Fe(where ironically I was on my way except to wait for the package), now here in Taos all 'General Delivery' packages go to a main sorting building before going to the main post office. In all my attempts to find the package I've been driving the people at the main post office Postal ;-) They've been sending me to the main sorting office who have been sneding me back to the main office.. and FedEx has been just trying to do their job but are dealing with conflicts between the USPS and FedEx information and delivery systems. And now finally when I've figured it all out.. the package is on a truck from Santa Fe to Taos.. I can't go get it until tomorrow because once it gets to Taos it needs to be sorted and then routed to the main office by USPS.. Lol!!! And even better the woman at the main post office informed me today that I will be charged USPS shipping on any package delivered to them by FedEx. Anyways.. maybe all this is just designed to keep me here in Taos so that I can get another interview with Brian Shields of Amigos Bravos.. or maybe there's a bigger plan I can't see.. in any case I'm trying to approach it all with laughter in my heart since sometimes it takes longer then expected for things to get where they are going.

Yesterday I bought one of those fridge magnet poetry kits.. and stuck all the words to my van.. let's just say it's an art experiment in honour of the upcoming death of my brother's famous furry blue car. I thought about plastering my van exterior with art of all kinds.. but sometimes drawing too much attention to yourself can be a bad idea. In any case this is a nice idea and perhaps people will leave me poems.

peace,
d

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Location: Taos, New Mexico

Last night I headed down to Espaniola for an interview session with Kathy Sanchez of Tewa Women United and her husband Gilbert. It was great talking to them on and off camera and I feel I came away with some beautiful insightful content and richer as the pilgrim that I am. Gilbert had much to say on uranium and the Los Almos labratories that are fomous for their development of nuclear technology. There is definitely enough content floating around down here for a whole seperate documentary. Kathy contributed by providing insights into the Tewa traditional way of seeing and being in the world and how this all ties into todays global challenges.

I drove back to Taos under falling snow to arrive somewhere around 9:30pm. The temperature outside was dropping fiercely and I had an interview with Eric Schlenker-Goodrich of Western Environmental Law Center at 9am the following morning. How does the temperature outside relate to a morning interview, it's simple, when it's really cold I have to set my alarm every three hours throughout the night to start the van so she starts in the a.m. So sufficed to say I didn't sleep like an angel and I'm a little tired. The interview with Eric was excellent and covered a wide range of issues from personal to politics to hope and visions of an optimistic future. This session together with my other three interviews from the Taos area has left me feeling it's all been worth the wait.

peace,
d

Our morning cuddles with Liz have been replaced by waking up in a cold van somewhere in Carson National Forest. But once up and out of bed Moses and I are on a strict regime of morning hikes! I feel I'm doing a cleanse on so many different levels.. it's all good for my body and soul. It's interesting that although each night I'm surrounded by complete silence my dreams still seem to be filled with images from mainstream media and situations from urban fast-paced society.

Here are some pics of the view on our morning hiking route. Notice the new hairdo sans mohawk ;-)

peace,d

Watch these free videos/online course created by Chris Martenson. It's called Crash Course and it's well worth taking a look at if you're interested in opinions on our world and where it's headed.

I got this link from my co-blogger Grant in Spain. Thanks for the heads up Grant! I'm working hard to spread the word.

www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse

peace,
d

Saturday, January 24, 2009
Location: Taos, New Mexico

Have you seen the new cell phones Google just put out? They’re called the Android. Pretty amazing they sync up with your online web identity, and they do everything you could possibly imagine! Most importantly they have built in GPS and mapping systems. You can pinpoint your location on maps and have friends locate you. You can leave notes in places you’ve been on these maps (ie. The pizza here at 32nd & Blake St is tasty). You can have your phone notify you when you drive into a dangerous neighborhood (hmm must be tied into crime reports and police information systems). You can scan barcodes off items in a store and have your Android tell you how many of the same items are for sale within a ten-block radius and for how much (Walmart usually has the lowest prices by the way). You can check all your emails, do your online banking, all from the palm of your hand!

It’s AMAZING!!! But at the same time I can’t help but think about a conversation I had a while back. Someone was telling me that the government didn’t need to physically microchip people, because people, through technology, have already willingly begun to hand over their privacy. “Sure you can have this fancy super-extraordinary piece of slick smooth techonogadgetry, it would be our pleasure to tie you into OUR network ;-) !”

The Android is a clear step in this direction.

In time everyone will carry a phone like the Android. In time all of us will be traceable by government agencies 100% of the time. Our location available via real-time GPS, our financial transactions via credit cards (who uses cash anymore), our conversations, our social networks, whatever you can think of… All tied into Google’s massive expanding Artificially Intelligent Mindseye. It’s a damn good thing Google is our friend.

And this is only the beginning. To live outside of this technologically sophisticated hyper-connected reality is to live on the fringes.

If you think I’m crazy then re-read this article by Naomi Klein, it’s a good one.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chinas_allseeing_eye

peace,
d

Friday, January 23, 2009
Location: Carson National Forest, Taos, New Mexico

It’s 7:55pm and I’m curled up in the van by candlelight with Moses at my feet. Today was a good day simply because I said so. Sometimes out here on the road I battle with the waiting game. I tend to spend quite a bit of time making contact and then waiting on interview subjects to be available. This is really the hardest part of the journey; allowing oneself to slow down and exercise patience. As I’ve said so many times before, it comes down to faith. Faith that everything is exactly where it needs to be, and that in time everything will be provided as needed.

However, walking the line between faith and action is still a balancing act. There are times like this one that I find myself waiting for interviews, without really knowing the content that is to be captured. Is it worth waiting for or should I cut loose and move onto the next location. Stay or go.

I guess a lot of it depends on the place. How well does a place fit combined with a willingness to let go of a western notion of time. I recently received a package from a good friend of mine up in Canada and within it her included a note that read, “Remember, time IS money.” That’s certainly true for me out here on the road, although I live frugally; it still takes money to drift from now/here to now/here.

Aside from money there is really no problem… except ego and its attachments to notions of ‘progress’. Today I was feeling down because I felt things weren’t happening quickly enough. I was sliding into a frustrated and depressed state so I decided to take the dog out to the park. It was there that I encountered a tree teaming with small birds chirping away merrily. I sat there in the sun on a bench watching Moses sniff and explore under the auditory extravaganza!

Animals don’t seem to worry about time, they don’t seem to be overly concerned with the past or the future. For them the sun is shining or it’s not, and all that exists is NOW.

That was a good book, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. You should read it!

peace,
d

Here's a link to some fellow wanderers of a similar mindset. Tyson and Cloe are working to travel over 45,000Km on used vegetable oil. The project is pretty interesting and worth checking out. I think it demonstrates how so many of us are eager to support change and educate people about the alternatives that exist just beyond the paradigm of our hydrocarbon economy.

http://www.driventosustain.ca/site/Blog/Blog.html

peace,
d

January 22, 2009
Location: Taos, New Mexico

So I've been at it all day lining up interview contacts throughout New Mexico and I'm feeling good. Sometimes you just have to drink large amounts of caffeine and put your nose to the grindstone and be disciplined. Tomorrow is a new day and I'll be calling all my contacts and scheduling some spectacular interviews. There are some people I've tracked down that I'm really excited to visit with, regardless of the outcome.

I have some more blogs I'll be getting to as well.

peace,
d

January 22, 2009
Location: Taos, New Mexico

So I'm back in Taos after the usual long goodbye. The drive down here was difficult as I slipped back into my loneliness. It's much colder down here then in Denver which is a big surprise, and I'm glad I took Jeff's advice not to shave Moses. Spring has NOT arrived... yet.

On the way down I stopped a few times to film some steel mills and an old abandoned building. I actually got kicked off the steel mills private property by some truckers. That's what happens when you wander off the beaten track. I didn't see any signs and Moses provided a good cover. When they approached I told them I was just looking for a place to walk my dog. I captured some footage of the mill in any case from a little further away. It was a beautiful drive down through the San Luis Valley and Veronica seems to be running smooth as ever.

This morning I awoke and took Moses for a hike up a mountain.. a good sweat process for us both. He seems happy to be back out on the road although he also seems to be missing Denver. For me the hiking is great as a detox process after the holidays. It's nice to get the body back online, although Liz and I kept pretty active throughout the holidays so I'm not in too rough of shape.

The transition process is always weird for me, but for the most part I feel good. I'm waiting in Taos for the delivery of a tripod part from California then I'll be back on my way. I'm keeping busy touching base with interviews (who all seem to be out of town until Monday), organizing the van, and blogging. It always takes a few days to regain my stride.

I'm off now to buy some yogurt for my morning granola, make some phone calls, and walk Mojangles.

peace,
d

January 5, 2009
Location: Denver, Colorado

Mid-December I decided to head up to Denver to spend the holidays with Liz and my large group of dear friends whom I now consider family. It seems I'm either on or off with regards to these updates, and given the eating, drinking, sleeping throughout the holidays it's been far too lax.

But I'm trying to catch up here and bring you all up to date. The holidays were pretty uneventful for the most part. Mostly just hung out with Liz trying to enjoy every moment of our time together. Sleeping late, watching movies, and spending time with the Denver homies. It's amazing how quickly we can become entrenched in a place. I love my Denver crew and everything that comes with them... The good, the bad, and the ugly... although they are rarely ugly ;-) So yeah, you fall in love with people and you fall in love with a place and while this is beautiful it makes the road that much more difficult. It's that same feeling from the Piikani Reservation.. that feeling of never wanting to leave, that feeling of being home. But all the while my heart still remains restless and searching. There were a few times when I told Liz o how torn I felt between the road and Denver, of how I often feel as though I'm living two lives, or rather how my heart is in two places at once. This is a very difficult place to be both for me and for the people that love me.. but we all choose to trudge on and enjoy what IS for all that it has to offer us. We don't have any clue where any of this is going all we know is that we are enjoying every minute of it.

I also think it's a matter of perspective. We can dwell on the hardships of life or buck up and perceive the cup as truly half-full. And once we get a handle on the half-full cup, in my opinion it's only a matter of time before it begins to overflow with joy.

What was I going to add...? I forget... I'll end with gratitude. I'm so grateful for Liz and everything she's teaching me. And I'm grateful to Jeff and Kat for their friendship and seemingly endless patience and acceptance of everyone around them, I think they truly realize what it is to be human in an imperfect world. I'm grateful to Sergio for his ability to walk his own truth despite all the forces that test his strength. I'm grateful to Francisco for always smiling and being there for his friends and family, be it day or night. I'm grateful to Frank for being Frank and honoring the child within in a world that insists we grow up. I'm grateful to Steve and Karen for their wisdom and ability to listen and provide guidance to those willing to listen, and the balance they demonstrate as a couple. I'm grateful to Mishawaka for being another brother from another mother. I'm grateful to Julia and all the other new people I continue to meet for adding a little more zest to the Denver soup.

peace,d

I know I haven't written in awhile, I have some blogs on the back burner that I'll try to get to this afternoon, but in the meantime here's a series of videos about Tar Sands and Tankers and their effects on the Canadian West Coast. This series was sent to me by the folks at the Dogwood Initiative, I encourage you to check them out and donate if possible. These people are doing good work to protect our future.








peace,d