time to move on

We have been at the Cric house for 2 weeks now and we are both ready to head north. We liked being here for the most part. We'll be taking route 1 to get to Eureka where we will stay with a family friends niece named Denise. Route 1 is said to be one of the most beautiful main roads in California. It goes all along the coast. We will stay Denise and her family for a night and then continue up to Gasquet (pronounced Gasky) where we will do a work exchange for a couple weeks at a retreat center in the making called Maitreya.
tonight Michelle and I are cooking dinner, chickpeas with rosemary and some other stuff.

6 bells means naked dinner

Yesterday morning a few of us went to milk goats. I had never milked a goat before. Gill showed me how. It took me a little while to get the hang of it but i did soon enough. The goats seem to want to get milked. In their pen there is a little table that they jump on 1 at a time to get milked. There is a bucket of feed there to get them to stay, they really don't seem to mind it much. Gill was milking and accidentally squirted me. After they were all milked we opened the gate and let them roam. The goats roam around all day and at night come back to their pen on their own. The 5 goats give about 2 or 3 gallons a milk each milking and they are milked twice a day.
For each meal, the person who is cooking rings the bell 3 separate times. the first time they ring they ring it once which means it shouldn't be to much longer till we eat, the second bell they hit twice and means the food is almost ready and the 3rd time they hit it 3 times meaning it's ready. One of the other passers through here was cooking and rang the bell 3 times and someone said it wasn't loud enough, so he hit it 3 more times and then everyone started taking off their close because 6 bells means naked time. I didn't feel awkward that almost everyone was naked but I did feel strange taking off my clothes, so I didn't and neither did Shelly. I like that all the people who live her feel very comfortable with their nakedness and it is completely non sexual.
That same night I was also cooking and I decided to make latkies. I shredded some potato, onions and Shelly chopped garlic, then I added some egg and fried it all up. I didn't realize how long they would take to cook so dinner was later then I thought it would be. They came out good. I remember my grandma making them whenever the family would get together.

Today I worked on a different project then usual. across the street there is a oak orchard in the beginning stages called Oaktopia. I went over their with a few people and mulched around the small oaks and made sure the drip line irrigation was lined up right. The idea is to one day sell sell the oak trees and make some money off that. also, the oak trees they are growing our somewhat drought resistant and will be in high demand. While i was doing that Michelle was planting things back on the farm here.
i just heard 3 bells

volunteer day at OAEF

Occidental farm also teaches various classes. this
is one of the classrooms and today we we went to occidental arts and ecology farm and spent some time planting broccoli and lettuce. In this picture I am sifting manure with Natalie. She is an intern there. We had to sift it to make sure no lumps got in. If there are lumps when they put it in the soil, organisms that break things down will come to do their job, and they might damage the plants.















































This here is the Hippy bus at the Cric house parking lot.













Occidental Arts and Ecology farm is a organic farm that teaches permaculture and other things like that. every Wednesday they have a volunteer day. we worked for a few hours and had a delicious lunch. after a few hours we started walking back to CRIC which was about 7 miles. it was nice walking. half way there or a little more someone from the CRIC house happened to by driving by and gave us a ride the rest of the way.
when we got back we had some carrot cake and then someone came by to give a Spanish class. I like how almost every day someone is coming by to teach something. and for free.

Michelle at peoples park in Berkeley California after eating a delicious meal provided by food not bombs we were regulars there. food not bombs give anyone who wants it a free hot meal 5 days a week. FNB originally started in Boston about 30 years agoThis is a llama that lives in the field. There are 2 of them. I was told to blow in its mouth, so I did. I blew into its mouth
This picture is Michelle sleeping at David and Annes house in San Francisco. they are the couple that let us stay at there house for a night . They said we could sleep on the floor. At that time we didn't know we would be sleeping on the floor of there 24 year old son who would have to crawl over us when he got home from a party, a wee bit awkward
This here looks like a tree, a tree that is being sat on by Michelle. We ate our breakfast around the location of this tree.
I hate those pictures of people pretending like there holding something up or whatever. We saw lots of that while sitting on a bench after we walked all the way across and back.
We made these 2 raised beds with the help of Roland. We put the wood together, then put a layer of manure, then dirt, peas live in there now.
that apple cider tasted funny
10 second timer the Golden Gate Bridge is behind us.
We went into Berkeley unsure of where we would sleep. we were told to go to a place called fort awesome. so we got there and they had no room so they told us to go to Lothlorean which is a student co op of 60 people. they let us sleep in this room here known as the bubble room. its called that because the window is like a big bubble.
This is Katie. When in San Francisco wondering where we would sleep we met Katie. We were walking down the street and she asked us for a pen, and we asked her for a place to sleep. good trade. an excellent cook. she made corn pudding and rice pudding. Michelle and her traded dread beads

we have pics!!!

dave and ann outside their house in san francisco. this was taken when we were leavingthis is part of the breakfast they had for us when we woke up in the morning. that jar of jam is ollaberry that they hand picked
michelle and i at the chinese restaurant dave and ann treated us too the night we slept at their place
anne , dave, michelle, delicous food
if you look closely you can see michelle. this was when we volunteered at hayes valley farm in san francisco. we are building up the dirt to plant fava beans. under all this dirt and whatnot is cardboard. the cardboard is keeping the weeds from popping up and will break down and become part of the soil shortly
when michelle and i were at the green fest in san francisco we had to try out these back supporter belt things. awkward looking but comfy.
stopped for a picture on the way to the golden gate bridge
the very curvy lombard street
michelle and i laying down at emmanuels. this was our first couch-surfing experience together. it was interesting waking up to 2 couch-surfers in the morning that we didn't know.
fresh off the plane and ready to go

looks like rain hmm

dumpster diving is illegal. so when people here go dumpster diving it is usually done at night when the store is closed. last night someone went diving and brought back a whole lot of food. so this morning a bunch of us went through it and separated what could be eaten by us, what should go to the chickens, what should go to the compost and what was trash. in the mix was chard, onions, cucumber, many different types of fruits likes oranges and apples and more. the apples might have a bruise and other things might look a little funny and what not but most of the food is fine. it all gets cleaned thoroughly by us. most grocery stores have a policy that if something falls on the floor it must be thrown out.ya know when your at the bulk food section and you see a bag of beans or rice or whatever that someone decided they didn't want, that gets thrown out. if you think dumpster diving for food is gross then you should think about all the pesticides and crap that go into most of our food nowadays. the fruits and veggies that you see in the store might look perfect but a lot of unnecessary work went into it. i read somewhere i forget where that the average american eats 2 pounds of pesticides throughout a year. gross.
a lot of the food that they get here is from whole foods and is organic.
this morning michelle and i planted 1 and a half beds of peas. the other half was planted yesterday. the planting was probably my most favorite part of the day. after that i broke a hammer trying to get a nail out of a piece of wood and then i did some maintenance on a crappy set of stairs. maybe I'll get a picture on sometime. michelle cleaned the trailer we're staying in and did a great job. there were dead bugs and other gunk in the sink. now i feel like i can hang out in here and not feel like i shouldn't touch anything. right now as i write this michelle is sowing my pants. what a great piece of woman.
also today eli ( one of the members of cric ) and I did some work on the roof of the shed. now it should be water proofed and ready for the tin or whatever they will put on. i missed dinner because i was working but i had cold leftover polenta which tasted really great. i've never had it cold but i like it alot.
michelle and i are probably going to stay here for a little bit more than a week before we go to another place to do a work exchange. so far we got in touch with a place in Boonville, CA called emerald earth. there is a good possibility we will go there. there is another place in northwestern Ca called Maitreya that we hope to go to but we would like to do a work exchange somewhere between here and there before we go.
the two of us have been together night and day for the past 2 weeks. we haven't been making each other crazy at all. nope not one bit. she has a high tolerance for my snoring and weird noises.
the rain just started. i wonder what the llamas are doing.

michelle is still sowing

the cric house

welcome to my blog barbara and bruce!!!


michelle and i decided we wanted to start woofing ( www.wwoof.org)at the cric house the following day so we called emmanuel in san francisco and ended up being able to stay at his place. we took the train from berkley to san francisco although we went the wrong way for about 40 minutes. we dropped our things off at emmanuels and went down to the bay where we had a great view of the golden gate bridge and alcatraz and we ate more hummus in the moonlight. so romantic mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
the next morning we got on the bus to santa rosa where we would have to get on another bus that would take us to sebastopol. some young kid that was wearing a sports jersey and a way to big hat sat next to us.he seemed nice. he gave me pokemon cards to look through and warned me not to scratch them. i do not care about pokemon at all.
we had arrived in santa rosa and started walking around because the next bus wouldn't be leaving for another 2 hours. while we were walking this realy nice lady sitting in her car at a traffic light gave us some very delicous pizza and told us about how she used to backpack all around when she was younger. then we walked into a store called kindred which sold only fair trade products. the lady who worked there noticed our bags and asked where we were headed. michelle bought a really beautifull and colorfull skirt. then some lady who was talking to the cashier said , hey if your going to sebastopol i can give you a ride. so she ended up giving us a ride all the way to the cric house. we got to the cric and were given a tour by a youngin named ben o. the cric house dumpster dives 80 percent of there food. its sounds gross getting food from a dumpster but in most cases it is in some type of bag. dumpster diving saves money, saves perfeclty good food from going to waste and its fun. they have a grey water system which converts the water from the sink and shower and filters it through a system of different plants which is outside. by doing so they are bypassing the process of the city using chemicals and such to clean the water. and all the energy that goes into that. also they have compost toilets. the compost toilet is set up just like a regular toilet but it stead of a bowl that you poop into and then flush and goes to a water treatment center and al that, there is a bucket. you make your deposit into the bucket and then add carbon material like straw or woodchips to absorb moisture and control odor, and there is none. with there system they empty the 5 gallon bucket into a bigger bucket and when that is full it gets put in a pile with cow manure and other things to undergo composting.

today michelle used a chop saw for the first time!!! we were cutting wood with a guy named roland to make raised beds. raised beds are easier to work with because you dont have to bend down as much, the soil doesnt get taken away by the rain and everything stays tidy. here the ground is very hard and the roots would have trouble getting through the soil.after the building of the structure was done we put in a layer of cow manure, then dirt that we had to sift to get out all the rocks out , then a wee bit more manure, then top soil for the top layer. after all that we planted some peas. michelle now has a very awkward tanline on her back.

a new wwoofer just arrived. its funny because when we were couchsurfing at emmanuels in san francisco, she was there. the weather has been great so far. good good good.

also, i have no phone reception here.

we are in berkeley now

after our stay with david we spent some time at the library trying to research hostels in the san francisco area to stay at. after a hour or we decided to take a break and go for a walk. on our walk we would ask random people if they might like to take us in for a night. after not to long we walked by a girl with real long dreads at an atm. we walke past her thinking we should have talked to her. 30 seconds later she came up to us and asked us for a pen, and we asked her for a place to stay. she said she would have to ask her roomates, so we went over for tea. we ended up staying with katy and her friends and going to see live music with them later that night. her and michelle traded dread beads.
while in SF we got a lot of recomndations to go to berkeley. we went online and found some communities there and called a few. one guy told me to go to a place in berkeley called fort awsome. we took the train over and then walked for a while to the adress we were given. when we got there the guy told us they had no more room but they suggested we go to a place called lothlorean. he pointed it out on our map and we walkd for about 40 minutes or so. on our walk we stoppe for a sit at a park called people park. and it just so happens that at that park at that time Food Not Bombs was there. food not bombs is a 40 year old organization that started duing the war. it originated in boston. here in berkeley at peoples park they give away free, hot, delicous food 5 days a week. in boston they do it twice a week .
lothlorean is a huge housing coop made up of 2 houses next to eachother and 60 residents altogether. when we showed up we told them our story and they said we could stay for atleast 2 nights in the bubble room.
yesturday michelle and i wen for a long steep hike up through the woods. the view was amazing. you could see the bay and the golden gate bridge. the weather was perfect. after the hike we went back to people park and ate lunch with food not bombs. after that we went to the college and posted a note on a billboard because we are trying to find a ride north. while we were there we ended up watching some live music because there was a battle of the bands going on. also, there was this homeless guy with a laptop pwered by a solar panel blasting awfull pop music. after that we went to a restaurant called smart alecs. really inexpensive and tasty food.
not sure yet what will do today. we might stay here or go back to SF or try to hitch hike up to sebastopol.
the people here at lothlorean are really great.

david

yesterday michelle and i walked from emmanuels house to the golden gate bridge. it took about 2 hours just to walk to the beginning of it. we walked along the water the whole way. very romantic!!! from far away the bridge looks small, but when we got there i was really amazed. michelle and i walked all the way across then back. i looked over the bridge down to the water and got real dizzy. after we crossed the bridge and came back we walked down the path a while and got on the bus that took us to haight street. we spent a few hours there walking around but we were sooooo worn out from all the walking we had already done. we sat at the golden gate park for a while. while we were sitting i noticed this cute little mole or something keep popping its head out of the ground. i've never seen that before. we gave some dirty looking guy some almonds, then we walked some more. we ate dinner at the Red Vic. michelle had spring rolls and rice and i had a crepe with blueberrys, banana, nutella and whipped cream. and also we saw the gratefull dead house. on haight street we were offered pot about 3 times.
the whole day we did not know where we were going to sleep. we were just hoping something would work out. nothing seemed to be happening so i decided to call around to a few hostels and i found one that sounded good so i booked a room. we got the bus back to emmanuels where we had left our bags for the day, said goodbye to him and walked to the bus stop. while at the bus stop we were just sitting there waiting and waiting and this guy comes up to us. he was so friendly and laughed alot. we talked to him for a few minutes and then he offered us a ride to whereever we needed. we didnt have and bad feelings about the situation so we took the ride. David was so happy to be able to help us. he told us that if we need a place to stay we could stay with him, so maybe tonight that is what we will do. he brought all the way to the green tortoise hostel, which is in china town where all the strip clubs and what not are. michelle and i were so gratefull for his kindness. we were saying goodbye to him and he forced us to take money from him. after all he had already done he gave us money too!!! i told him we didnt need it and all that but he just laughed and stuffed it in my hand.
when michelle and i walked in the hostel i looked at the money and he had given us 45 dollars!!! he pretty much paid for our stay. michelle and i were in a triple room and for a while we had the room all to ourselves, but at 3 in the morning some one else showed up. argh. didnt sleep so well cause of all the drunk english guys stomping up the stairs and being real loud, but it was still an interesting experience.
we are still at the hostel now but we will soon make our way down to the green festival that is going on today. another wonderfull day of being in san francisco. i love it.we are really having a great time. :)

hi from san francisco

michelle and i have been in san francisco for almost 2 days. we like it here so far. the first day we found our way to emmanuels apartment and dropped off our stuff. we met emmanuel on couchsurfing.com he said we coul stay at his place for a couple nights. michelle and i were talking of walking a couple miles down the road to cafe gratitude. emmanuels friend said it was on her way and she could drop us off. the staff there was so so nice. the food was great too. michelle got a side of veggies and a side of brown rice. my meal had brown rice, sprouts, avacodo , mushrooms and a bunch of other stuff. cafe gratitude is a raw vegan restaurant.
after we ate we walked to the rainbow grocery which is the biggest co op i have ever been too. and all the food is local, grown in california! delicous oranges.
we have been walking alot. yesturday we got out of bed real late and then headed downtown to the hayes valley farm. a small organic farm in the midde of the city! the guy that gave us a tour said that in 1989 there was a major earthquake the destroyed alot of the highways and hayes valey was were the on and off ramps were. and after years of the area being deserted a few people got permission to turn it into a farm. they managed to truck in a bunch of dirt and compost from local places near the city and build up the soil. they also used sheet mulching which is cardboard, manuer and mulch. it only started 4 months ago and it is looking amazing. they have about 50 fruit trees, many terraces which are growing fava beans to fix nitrogen into the soil, they have lettuce and lots more. michelle and i volunteered there for 2 hours. after hayes valley we went back to the rainbow grocery and got some dinner and headed to duboce park were they were playing back to the future on a projector outdoors. hundreds of people out there. it was fun and smelled great. we stayed at the park for a little while and then went to this club that emmanuel told us he was at. there was music and art.. i liked the art but the music we didnt like much. we left shotly after getting there. we hopped on the bus and called it a night. today we will walk across the golden gate bridge then go check out haight ashbury. and no, we dont know where we will sleep tonight, but that will work out just fine i'm sure.