Table of contents for Act Now

1. It’s not about fear, it’s simple economics!

I was talking with a friend this morning about the changes that are occurring in our world – such as the scarcity of food, rising fuel costs, farmland losses due to topsoil erosion, freshwater availability – and I was asking him how he was planning for the future – how was he going to mitigate any major changes that could cause “modern society” to come to a grinding halt.

I was speaking of course about becoming more self-sufficient, how did he plan to (as Farmer John says) “disentangle” himself from being only a tiny cog in the huge economic and agricultural machine that is todays world.  Did he have a garden?  What about a few chickens for his eggs?  How about planting some fruit trees so he could at least have fresh fruit for a few weeks a year?  Was he off the grid?  Did he have compact florescent as his light bulbs?  How about keeping his tires inflated or oil topped off so he used less gasoline?

These are all relatively harmless things that are becoming mainstream.  Not a huge leap.  It’s still allows a comfortable way of living.  However, he’s still in the middle of a big city, still buys 95% of his own food, 100% of his own fuel (car and electricity).  In a word, he’s still “dependent” on that giant machine called the global market!

I asked him to think back to this summer and how dangerously close we, as a country, came to loosing our food security.  We were down to less than a month of grain reserves.  That was the lowest we came as a nation in over 20 years to not meeting our own food needs!  That doesn’t count the additional cost we as a nation have to pay to transport and ship that food since we aren’t a local food producing economy.

If oil goes up, if food supplies go down, if costs of production rise (since fertilizer comes from natural gas, it will) what happens then?  What happens when supplies get slim and demand keeps up or raises (if the population goes up)?  You have runs on things.  Remember the articles about Costco and Sam’s clubs rationing wheat and rice sales to one bag per customer?

Well to be blunt, people begin to get desperate and buying up stuff which makes things MUCH more expensive!  If you believe in Peak Oil, if you believe that a higher demand coupled with a decreased supply equals worldwide problems, if you believe that honey bees are in trouble and having a harder and harder time doing their job, if you believe this is a throw-away society, then it’s not about fear!

It’s about being prepared for when things happen that are out of our control.  Buy seeds today – not in two years when they’re skyrocketing costs are prohibitive.  Buy those garden tools today – not when your worried about cutbacks at work and how you’re going to put food on the table.  Buy (or help to buy) land today – not when you’re 200 miles away sitting at a desk pushing papers – those papers will be there in two years, but the fertile land that has been worked for two years and produces beautifully will only be a dream.

Things take time to develop and grow.  Gardens take time to become fertile, water systems need time and several seasons to be prooven, housing takes time to construct, people need time to adjust to new ways of living.

If you’re not prepared today to move from the city and become a farmer, I understand!  There are those of us who are further along that path than you.  Let us pave that road for you.  You don’t have to do it now, but someone does!  If things aren’t prepared NOW, when things shift and change, they’ll be too expensive, or worse, simply NOT AVAILABLE!

As I said in the title, it’s not about fear – it’s about economics…what you put in today is an investment in the future.  Buy low today so that higher prices tomorrow won’t limit your choices.

Table of contents for Act Now

1. Your Future Well Being Depends on Your Actions Now

I get so frustrated with people I know and love who bury their heads in the sand of unconsciousness.  We all have our gifts, something we do better than others.  Mine has been feeling the pulse of humanity years before things would actually happen.  For years I’ve tried to find the courage to tell people what I felt was on the horizon for humanity and the United States in general.  Like others, I felt it was past time for a radical change in how we live our lives.  Most people listened politely, but thought I was nuts despite the fact I was not alone in my thoughts. Now as things come to pass (like our failing economy, global warming, etc…) those same people I wish I could say were realizing what is happening in the world and acting, but they are not.  They have simply taken a look outside their shells long enough to realize what they are “aware” of scares the hell out of them and they feel power less to do anything.  Most believe it is out of their hands anyway and the new president will fix everything.  The troubles our world faces is beyond the scope of one newly elected president no matter how well intentioned.

What should you do then? Disentangle yourself from non essential affairs that are not enhancing your chances of survival. Yes, I said survival!  This includes emotional, physical and financial attachments. Your new vehicle is not going to ’save’ you, it’s usefulness is limited and it’s future is already determined, it has a very short lifespan. That home you love is the same, if it’s not sustainable (for example: Do you control your water supply?  Where does your food come from…can you grow it?) and is located in an area that is not sustainable or safe, then this emotional and financial attachment will wind up killing you. Sell it while you still can before the bank takes it from you or it becomes worthless and you can’t even give it away.

The global economic crash that is happening now will affect everyone.  Can you really afford to wait for housing prices to continue to fall before you make your relocation move? Use any monetary assets you have now to invest with others that have the same goals.  Find land or communities to buy into.  The “AMERO” (our new currency to be representing US, Canada and Mexico) will be hitting the market as soon as the U.S. cannot afford to pay the interest on it’s debt any longer.  Which is projected by some to happen as early as February 2009!  At that point your dollar will be worth whatever the government decides it will be.  Some say the buy back could be as low as two pennies on the “AMERO”.  I know, almost does not sound real, but google it and see for yourself.  Educate yourself!

Wake up to the present situation and circumstances. Stop kidding yourself. Assess your own dependency upon the entire system – it’s what’s keeping you alive right now. Without it, you would die. Learn to live without it’s support if you can. Disentangle yourself more and more, working on it constantly so that you become self-reliant and self-sufficient and capable of dealing with a world in chaos. Dependency is also a one way street and has created a world full of incapable humans who really cannot take care of themselves. They lack even the basic skills to survive. The future won’t permit that, so do something about it.

Get educated, get trained, put real skills into daily experience and learn how to take care of your own needs.  Learn practical skills in self-sufficiency, gardening, animal husbandry, mechanical repair, including bicycles,  seed saving and alternative construction. Raising food is going to be essential for localized citizens and how to do it. Food storage, preservation and preparation will be essential skills. Start learning how to do this now while mistakes are easy and survivable. Seasonal crops are an easy way to try out your green thumb. Learning to grow things isn’t hard, but it does take time to learn from your mistakes, so get started now.

This is what we have done and why we have joined FOSL.  We have liquidated everything of value and invested in supplies, heirloom seeds, farm animals, fruit trees, tools, sustainable technologies and information.  We have allied ourselves with people that have the necessary skills and know how for our continued existence.  We attend workshops with the folks to continue our knowledge and most importantly we are laying the foundation of community.  FOSL currently has one property that when finished may sustain 15 people.  This property has been slated for retirees desiring to be close to health care facilities.

However, there is a larger group of us who are searching for the right piece of land to build another community on.  One that would sustain many more people and would be much more rural in its location.  FOSL is a non-profit land trust.  FOSL needs land for communities. One of its many missions is to protect farmland and help create community based agriculture.  Community farms not only produce food, but involve as many people as possible in that production and distribution.  Since FOSL is a land trust, a not for profit organization, part of FOSL’s mission is to educate.  FOSL seeks to involve communities in social issues associated with agriculture and care of the land.

Our future survival and well being depends on agricultural land.  It depends on community.  Community is people coming together for a common good or cause.  Your future depends on your ability to act now.  Please, bring your knowledge, will to create a brighter future, physical resources, monetary resources, whatever you have and join us now.  Time is running out.  If you are reading this article you all ready know this on some level or you wouldn’t be here.  Trust your feelings.  This is not about fear, I see it as an opportunity to enrich our lives with community. A type of community that our grandparents knew, but with a new awareness.  It is a challenge and we will have to change the way we live on this earth if we are going to survive.  If our children are to survive and prosper.  I’m not asking you to change the world, but start with something you can change…yourself.  Open your mind and heart to an awareness of what is happening around you in the world.  Decide that you do want to change and join us in making that change.  We need you and we need your help.   Will you help us?  Will you help yourself?  The choice is ultimately yours…

If you have land you would like to discuss placing in a land trust please contact us.  If you are interested in joining FOSL or have questions contact us immediatly.

In my community, whether a village or neighborhood, I would like to be able to help my neighbors work together toward sustainability. If I can chose or help make a community it would, I hope, be a community that sees its duty to change the way we live and work together, to build the courage to make the changes required so that our children have a safe comfortable future.

In community, I would work with my neighbors to be as self-sufficient as localizing production of our basic needs can make us.  I would like to help to shorten the distribution web for what our community needs and produces, and trade with other locals for as much as possible. In my community we would make a unified effort would be directed to help all of us live and work together to break free of working for the unfriendly Corporations and Governments so we can be with our children, our neighbors, fellow sustainable workers, and friends more.

In the place I would like live, those with experience would mentor those without particular knowledge, older folks passing on to younger folks what they know, those with knowledge and skills teaching those who want too know. I think the best community, for me, would teach the children in place and make children part of each person’s day as they help by working in the community part of each day.

I would like to learn what I don’t know from those who do, until I pass.  In my community I would like to see respect for, and study of, the genius and work from those who went before us, employment of the best of today’s knowledge and skills, and discernment of the best of what is coming – all bent to an intelligent creativity for truly living sustainably.

In my neighborhood would I like to see those with a more “wealth” share what they can and choose to by sponsoring those with energy and skills for living sustainably.  While I want time and space for privacy, I would like to see my community more closely involved with one another – less divided in time and space to their “own” private estates.  My preference for my neighborhood would be to work to create community space; more shared space and facilities and less private redundancy – common assets directed toward common need to shift to living sustainably.

In my neighborhood I would like to see retirees helping to build a community with facilities and jobs for those who would help them to live useful, productive, dignified lives. In community I would hope that those with energy and skills will help those who may not need help now, but will.

It seems to me that there should be ways to make a smaller footprint, less impact on nature by a community sharing many things based on a shared commons: large gardens, orchards, small animal husbandry, water systems, local power production, a motor pool, and repair and/or mini-production shops and facilities.  I want my community, by working together, to teach the young what they will need for tomorrow, leave an improved bio-diversity, a cleaner environment, and larger productive commons to those coming after us.

I would like to live in a community where folks are glad to see me and one another, happy to help one another and help with common work and needs so all can become agents of, and participants in sustainability. The world is changing, and it seems to me that we will all have to live with less things material, so, why not work together to be richer in non-material things, and in our relationships, in our communities?

FOSL is purchasing a parcel of land that can be our first suburban campus with a central commons area in the unincorporated area of Cleone just North of Fort Bragg, CA.  There are other properties available in the neighborhood.

If you are looking for a place to retire, co-house, live more slowly/satisfactorily, raise your children, design and form community, to learn, and to share the coming time of transition with like-minded folks, please contact us.  We need people, teachers, farmers, gardeners, skills, craft persons, old knowledge, young energy, sustainable businesses, more aligned neighbors, and financial support to expand the start we have made – come and help us, yourselves, and those coming after us.  To learn more watch this video clip.

We are ready to move on and continue growing.  The community land seems to be trying to manifest in a few places with land owners, lawyers and community members doing their best.  However, there is not a place to call home yet and we need a place to live where we can be more self-sustaining…more sustainable!  We need to continue growing Open Pollinated vegetables and grafting heirloom fruit trees, but on a bit large scale than the 1/4 acre we currently have.  The need to continue breeding the perfect dual purpose chicken who lays well, but makes a tasty meal. More land so that we may grow our own chicken food and not have to buy GMO contaminated feed from the feed store.

We need an old barn to hang seed to dry, corn for the winter and a place for the new dairy goat we having been dying to get.  We want to try our hands at goat cheese and share the bounty with our friends.  Our heritage turkeys need a place for new babies (sure to come next spring) to graze on green pastures.  Our honey bees need fields of wildflowers to gather nectar in for that liquid gold they make. Land is needed for us to raise enough fresh food for us and our neighbors in the challenging times ahead.

We are asking everyone we know!  Maybe you know of someone who has old farm land sitting fallow.  Some great sunny space populated with old barns that are crying out for new life.  A farmer ready to retire or someone who just inherited such a place and doesn’t know what to do with it, but knows we don’t need anymore track housing.   I just read a book of such a retiring organic grower in Maine.  He was complaining about no new blood to take over in his footsteps and what he wouldn’t give to see his life’s work not go fallow.  I would love to partner with someone like this, but I don’t want to move to Maine!  No, I would like to stay here in California if ya don’t mind!

So I’m putting it out here!  I learned long ago I can’t get what I want if I don’t ask for it.  So I’m asking.  If ya don’t mind the crow of a rooster waking you in the morning, the taste of fresh eggs for breakfast or the taste of homegrown honey on your bisquits let us know!  We don’t mind sharing in the hard work or the good times.  In fact some of the best times I remember were making sure my grandparents had enough wood to last them for the winter.  Yeah, it was hard work, but it was from my grandfather that I learned how to use an axe.  At a young age I was instilled with love, knowledge and the confidence that I could take care of not only myself, but others.  We have trying times ahead and during these times I know with a lot of hard work, love and paitients we will be just fine.  However, in order to take care of all the above mentioned we need land.  So, if ya know of a little old farmstead for lease let us know!  You’ll be glad ya did!

A search for Comptche on Google reveals little or nothing. I couldn’t find any of its history on-line after searching for over an hour. All I could find were these few pictures here on this page and a listing for the community center, grocery, doctor, dentist, church and saw mill. SOUNDS LIKE MY KIND OF PLACE! From what I can tell by the driving we did and the aerial maps it would appear to be a series of small valleys surrounded by redwood forest. There seems to be ample creeks and the Albion River headwaters start here I believe.

Quite honestly it is near nothing, but seems to be the perfect little hamlet. When Theo and I drove it to it after driving through many other small towns, we both looked at each other and said “this feels like home”. What we are looking for is a place near enough to the coast (16 miles away) to provide cool breezes and easy access to coastal resources like seaweed, fish, mussels, salt, etc… Based on our criterion this seems like an ideal spot. It has gently sloping or flat southern facing valleys, ample water, lots of timber and is uniquely isolated. Of course this is just a preliminary drive through, so we have to start doing are research now. We need to discover the folks that make up this place and what land may be available. We have a few leads on properties and we will start digging to learn more of this promising area!