The Fuel that Heats Three Times...

It has been said that heating by wood is the fuel that heats you twice... In reference to the work necessary to split and stack the fuel... but when wood fuel is gathered by bike it is the fuel that heats you thrice... is that a word?  Heat from a good wood stove cannot be beat, especially here in the perpetually damp pacific north west... There are many wonderful and advantageous reasons for living in Humboldt, County, but fuel prices are not one of them... Gasoline prices here are the highest in California, if not the country... And unfortunately to a wood stove junky, wood for the stove seems to be no cheaper... While i scour the local sources for wood not to get "burned" seems more unlikely every year...if i find a reasonably priced cord the delivery fee or the distance i have to go eliminates the savings... Fortunately, thanks to a well made bike trailer i can supplement our winter stock of wood just fine... as i weigh the options, hoping to find at least one good reasonably priced  cord of hard wood, i'm chipmunking smaller loads of wood with the Blue Sky trailer, hoping not to get caught in the cold when the real cold weather gets here... 

As With the Work of a Honeybee...

… The modern age was made possible by the freeing and concurrently the cheapening of, energy. It can be said, of course, that the modern age was made possible by technologies that CONTROL energy and thus make it usable at an unprecedented rate. But such control is at best extremely limited: the devices by which industrial and military energies are used control them only momentarily; their moment of usefulness sets them loose into the world as social, ecological and geological FORCES. WE can use these energies only as explosives; we control ends with the small amount of released energy that we are able to harness. Past that, the effects are on there own, to compound themselves as they will. In modern times we have never been able to subject our use of energy to a sense of responsibility anywhere near complex enough to equal its effects… , pg 116 “The Art of the Commonplace” “The Body And The Earth” Wendell Berry…

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.  Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man.  And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became.  Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others.  Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.  ~Elizabeth West, Hovel in the Hills


I can only liken the use of the bicycle to that of the work of honeybee… the only creature, I know of, that improves the environment around it as it goes about its business, As it makes its it’s “living”, with the utmost efficiency and beneficence...

Non-Consumptive Recreation...

Ive never been one for "sports", or what most people think of sports... but when i was 18, i was introduced to white water kayaking and took to that like a duck to water... it is an unparalleled experience... but one thing that disturbed me about the sport was that it always began with 2 tanks of gas, two drivers and many miles between put in and take out... even though i was born before the gas crisis of 71, and was only 4 when our great president Carter implored Americans to question their habits of energy consumption... i came into "consciousness" during the reign of Reagan and seriously subsidized "cheap" fuel. I could never really come to terms with the required consumption of kayaking... it is a great irony in my life that the most liberating and natural activity such as river running had such a draw back as dependence on fossil fuel... I don't kayak anymore: i just cant justify it. Though there is a hole in my heart that has not been filled quite yet. I cannot participate, in good conscience, in any recreation that takes more enrgy to get there than to do the activity... Thus i am a surfing newbie. i don't use a car to get to the ocean... i tow the board with a bike. This does limit me to nearby locales and even more by limited conditions... but it just feels better....

North Coast Community...

Art Meets Pedal Power

New Pony in the Stable

1989 lugged Trek 420

A dream realized; I have long wanted an old steel framed Trek.  This weekend the longing ends... After much internal debate about the Rivendell that i found locally for sale, the debate ends with a frame every bit as good as the Riv, maybe even better... At a tenth of the cost this Trek is probably better suited to me... The Riv was slightly too big, cost way too much and the guy selling it was a bit on the manipulative side. i still could not get the bike out of my mind and checked CL daily to see if it had sold... Good things do come to those who wait... This Trek will replace my garage sale Univega. I liked the Vega but the steel it was made from had very little ride character... The first two feet of the Trek test ride was far more lively than the vega and it brought joy to my heart... i bought it and immediately on my arrival home began to harvest the components ive been lovingly bestowing on this Univega for that past year and a half... These components i love and respect so much have found a permanent home...

America's Food Fight...

this is a good article... given sustainable transport goes hand in hand with sustainable food...


opinion-commentary-food

"snackified beverages."

Don't miss Colbert's brilliant piece on Pepsi's new "snackified beverages."

Thought for Food - Fruit Pouch, Doritos Ad & Super Big Gulp - The Colbert Report - 1/13/11 - Video Clip | Comedy Central

Corporate Shilling...