Wes Temby Tumbles

So this is me taking time to make time. I’ll start with RDNA. RDNA was awesome, and it was an amazing 9 month journey. For those of you that are unaware, RDNA is a program put forth by the Regenerative Design Institute, and is an acronym for what we studied: Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness. Think permaculture and wilderness studies in one program. I began that journey in September of 2010, a full year ago. I graduated in May, which already seems like a lifetime. In the months between I ended up doing and learning quite a bit. We made musical instruments, we planted food, we discussed governance, we tracked animals, and that’s not even half of it! Along the way I made some awesome friends, learned a lot about others and myself, and managed to sleep outside under the stars more or less three times a week. Most of my time was spent near Bolinas, but I also managed to travel up to Occidental, and down to the Santa Cruz mountains. Not a bad deal.

During RDNA I managed to land an internship at a great organization that promotes local organic agriculture, Marin Organic. Marin Organic was founded in 2001, as an association of local farmers, food artisans, consumers, and concerned individuals. Our mission is to get locally produced organic food to tables in Marin County. I started out in the business development side of the operation, crafting grants and soliciting support from our local business community. Along the way I also dabbled in some marketing efforts, and really got to know the entire operation in and out (more or less). As fate would have it, one of the employees at Marin Organic was having to leave his position (and the area). Having been in the office so much I knew a little of what he did, and I was interested in picking up where he was leaving off. So, I applied for his job, had to wade through a few weeks of not knowing if I got it, and now I’m a paid employee of Marin Organic! My job is building bridges between our farmers in Marin, and the people that they feed. What this comes down to is driving out to the local farms, picking up food and delivering that food to schools, businesses, community centers, etc. all over Marin. All the while I am interacting with both sides of the food cycle: producers and consumers. On some level I am the face of Marin Organic, at least as far as some of our clients are concerned. The guy who had the job before me was outstanding in his duties, and I have some big shoes to fill. I am confident, however, and so far I think I’ve done OK (I’ve been on the job for a week now!). Going forward, check out my adventures here: http://marinorganic.blogspot.com/

As the Marin Organic gig was getting worked out I also began farming at a nearby farm, Tara Firma Farms. Tara Firma is, as Star Route Farms’ Warren Weber puts it, a new outfit, and one that has a noble mission. They want to become a training center (of sorts) for would-be farmers. In the mean time they are running a community supported agriculture (CSA) program, and hosting community events on the property. I primarily work with the turkeys and chickens, but as it is a working farm I often times have the opportunity to get my hands dirty with other tasks as they arise (and they always arise). So basically, now I find myself working at a local organic farm, and also working at a local non-profit that supports organic agriculture in my county. Talk about full-circle! Needless to say, I no longer have weekends, nor late nights. I keep farmer hours, which means I’m typically in bed by 9:30, and up by 5ish in the morning. This coming from the guy that used to fill his time with late night horror movies and cooking binges! I still cook and watch bad horror movies, but now it’s during the daylight hours.

So that’s basically where I’m at: I farm, I work for a non-profit that supports farms, and I try to get my school work for Gaia University done in the mean time (I feel like I am failing in that last one). Today is Saturday, the one day a week that I have allocated to myself for rest (very biblical, I know). It happens to coincide with the Montana Griz football game schedule, which was no accident. So I’m signing off now, but I’ll try to make a point of blogging here on Saturdays, and possibly at the Marin Organic blog during the week.

I say this because we’re getting into the baseball season full-on now, and I’ve been experiencing black-outs regularly. Not alcohol-induced black-outs, mind you, but coverage black-outs imposed by MLB and local television stations. Now, I get it: broadcasters have to make money, so sometimes every game won’t be available on local outlets. But why doesn’t MLB offer these games online??!! Even if I were to purchase MLB.TV I would still get black-outs, depending on my IP location. Are you kidding me?! What’s the point of plopping down $80 for games I can’t see on local stations OR online?

Wow, it felt funny just using that as a blog post entry, I can’t imagine what it would feel like to say it in front of a crowd! Anyway, it’s June now, and I’m due for an update to this here readin’ Internet online web log site.

It has been almost a month since RDNA concluded and I was sent back out to the wilds of civilization. In that time, I have travelled back to the East coast for a friend’s wedding and had a good opportunity to see a different slice of life. It was my first extended trip to New England, and my first time ever to Maine. Firstly, let me say, Maine is beautiful. It’s a rugged country carved by glaciers. Pine trees and islands, cold surf and lobster. There’s a lot of American history there, and I really enjoyed seeing how people live out there.

How people live is important to me, since as a permaculturist I’m extremely curious about the living arrangements we as a species engage in. Maine, for example, was at one time a heavily extraction-based economy. They had lumber, and they had ports. They cut down trees and shipped that stuff out. Trees and pelts, if I’m not mistaken. As that slowed down with competition from other regions, they transitioned into a tourist economy and have been known affectionately as “Vacationland” ever since. And it’s a good place for a vacation, I must say. It’s pretty, fairly sparsely populated, and not that hard to get to. But can people live there like that, given the current arrangement?

As we drove around Maine (and you have to drive, since there is virtually no passenger rail to speak of), I realized how the car is an integral part of life there. The weather was not too cold, but I couldn’t help by also think about how harsh the winters are and how much energy it takes to maintain a household. For instance, I was in Pownhal, Maine a lot and this little burg is about 30 minutes by car to Portland, Maine. Now, Pownhal at one point was largely an agricultural community. I know this by having read a local history book, and also just by driving about and seeing what used to be fields turned into huge lawn tracts, or second-growth forest.

Gas prices currently hover around $4/gallon in the U.S., while our British counterparts on the other side of the Atlantic (not too far from Maine) pay almost 4X that much for petrol. All around Portland, the biggest city in the region, I noticed a lot of commercial empty space. I saw a similar arrangement in Connecticut, where we also visited some family. Lots of ticky-tacky plastic siding homes spaced a few miles out of what would otherwise be town center. It’s my assertion that if prices in America where to become what they are in the UK, a radical shift would inevitably have to occur in this country. A radical shift in how we live, how we view our communities, and in how we think of ourselves as a nation.

The America I was brought up to believe in, to think of myself as a citizen of, is no more. All the theories that our republic is based on are bankrupt, and never applied in governance. Corporate lobbies control government with far more power than the electorate. How this will play into what will be an inevitable shift in living arrangement is anyone’s guess. For my part, I try not to be too curmudgeonly about things. It’s all too easy to point fingers at one demographic and lay blame, or to lambaste others for this or that, but I don’t think that’s a productive or useful posture. What I’ve learned in the last year is to be show up, be helpful, and be kind in the process. See ya in the field!