And the band plays on...

Sometimes humor is the best medicine, especially when voiced by a small cartoon dog.

Developing Gradually

Well, here I am. Having survived my intensive two week journey down the rabbit hole of regenerative whole systems design theory and come out unscathed with something to show for it all, I feel pretty good overall. Having said that, it sure felt good to get outside this weekend, strap on the skis, stretch the legs, work on my beardcicle despite the biting chill and revel in the fact that, even though Myers-Briggs says I am an INTP "Architect", I don't think I have it in me to be confined to chairs and drafting tables for periods of intense duration. Design surely has its merits and is essential and as far as I am concerned, is more a way of seeing what is real and working in harmony with said reality rather than imprinting our own meager understandings and desires on it, which by its very nature is far more effective by design, whether intentional or not, than anything we will ever come up with.
The entire concept of whole systems thinking , really boils down to a series of metaphysical questions that are subjective to the one designing and therefore asking the questions. That seemed to me to be the hardest part of the whole class, asking the right questions. A difficulty that culminated at two in the morning with me designing of a tower that was created entirely out of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans which had a life cycle of about two minutes. A form of mental massage and cerebral release from the constraints of big picture thinking to say the least.
When thinking holistically about parts and wholes, the line that divides gets blurry. In a certain respect though, that is the end goal of whole systems thinking, the breaking apart of dualistic thought that has so plagued humanity and gotten us into this collective cluster of juggernaut proportions we are now in. One can only wonder how different the world would be if everyone perceived themselves as intrinsically linked and essentially no different than any other aspect of the created world, especially biological. One is left to wonder, mostly in awe.
And just to add inquisitiveness to imagination, I couldn't bring myself to separate the reality of my life and how it ,being a part in a whole, also encompassed the class and what I produced within it. I wasn't about to spend two weeks of my life filling my brain with valuable knowledge for the purpose of designing some fantasy homestead ungrounded from the realm of potential being when I could be focussing on a design that could in fact bear fruit. A much harder task than imagined considering that it really comes down to phases of implementation.
I in essence designed a concept aside from the specifics of a house and rough permaculture plan. A concept that I believe will be applicable to any situation and any environment due mostly to the fact that the inherent foundation of the design is a set of tools for seeing and hearing what the situation calls for. I realized, once again, the inherent life force in any process.

"what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials arealike. No two sites on earth are alike. No two buildings have the same purpose. The purpose, the site, the material determine the shape. Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless its made by one central idea, and the idea sets every detail. A building is alive, like a man"- Howard Roark

Seeking Harmony

An owl followed me around today
I, making footprints in snow
She, one with the silence
becoming one with the air
I labored to breath
All the while seeking harmony

Left Brain or Right Brain?

An interesting item that was brought up by one of the teachers of the class I'm in to demonstrate our perspectives of reality. Is the woman spinning clockwise or counter clockwise? Which way she spins is determined by which side of the brain you use. Counter clockwise is left brained and clock wise is right brained.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

Approaching

Well, the first week is done. Seems like I've been here forever so far and its really only been one week to almost the hour. Ahh, the perception of passing time, what a wonderful illusion. There has been so much input as far as information goes and its only bound to increase considering that tonight I begin 14 straight days of intensive design in a class that strives to unify many disciplines of thought and action along the lines of whole systems integration in the realm of regenerative ecosystems. The class is, Raising the Bar on Sustainable Design, and I'm really looking forward to it. Then that is immediately followed by a two day drafting course where I can hopefully fine tune some of the concepts that I will develop in Raising the Bar.
While on the Yestermorrow sight it could be interesting to see who my fellow interns are here. Quite the bunch. All really quality people and unique in their own right. I imagine that they will produce good things in their time here.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so here goes for the week.


This is Dave Sellers latest work in progress that has been slowly evolving for the last eight years of so. Appropriately titled "the bunker", it is one intense behemoth of a house. The living room wall which measures about 12' x 14' slides on a track so the whole room opens up to an outside pool that overlooks Seller's custom golf course.

Below is a close up of the cantilevered stairs up to the second floor. Being inside this house had a strange feeling similar to that which one would have while being in a cave when the realization strikes that there is a lot of weight above one's head. Not a house I would want to live in but interesting nonetheless for creative inspiration.

The next photo is an outside photo of Seller's shop which has been slowly evolving for the last fifteen years or so.
One of the more modest designs upon Prickly Mountain below is the summer home of Steve Badanes

The Dimetrodon is another of the Prickly Mountain houses that some refer to as the "mothership". A multi family unit that is composed of imagination and a whole lot of sweat equity. The premise of the whole concept when it was birthed was for the multi family structure that would be independent of the grid with solar panels and wind turbines and all that jazz. Not much of that mentality remains considering only half of the whole structure was built but its still quite impressive.
Below are some sweet doors. The first one is one of the doors in the Dimetredon. The second one is in the basement of the Pitcher Inn in downtown Warren.Till next time....

Little Accumulation

I wish someone donated these planes to me...oh well....

Watching

There is an extremely satisfying humility in doing simple things. The elegant routine of doing something again and again as if ritual were all that mattered, regardless of the fact that the routine in question could be something so mind blowing like sweeping floors or washing windows. The essence of work needs to be something that is understood and appreciated for the simple fact that without it; what would we be? Working for the hard goods of life: food, shelter, companionship has so far been a much more rewarding experience than working for money. Add to that the fact that I haven't really spent much money since Sunday except the eight bucks for a six pack of beer; and I realize that time and labor are much more valuable means of exchange for the necessities of life than money.

Anyways..........................................this is my windowless sleeping nook. Technically not a "room" for various reasons but it still serves an essential service of allowing me a place to lay my weary head from time to time and also store the various material possessions that I happened to drag along with me. Not too shabby I have to say and also a good source of inspiration for how to transform something that is not all that exciting into something that can be a source of pride.


Below, one will find "the cube", a sort of mock timberframe house that is used to teach various earthen building classes how to assemble their strawbales and whatnot into various configurations of house framing. Putting it together was much more confusing than imagined considering the four of us who happened to be working on it had never assembled the thing before and the various sheets of paper that came with it that were supposedly the "manual" weren't a whole lot of help. Basically it turned itself into a giant three dimensional puzzle that eventually took shape after much rearranging and head scratching.


The other half of the shop in which this monstrosity resides was filled with the other half of the intern group who were building boxes while getting the intro to shop tools and listening to Dave's seemingly endless tangent stories (more of Dave later). Here is a portion of the other half of the shop...

Replenishing

Well, here I am, at Yestermorrow. Having safely completed the long and arduous journey from Richmond to Warren, it feels good to be sitting down and just suddenly immersed in a new reality, one that I am especially looking forward to exploring. More updates to come...

Fulfillment

tomorrow's never told way the same way twice

Q.C. Mystery

Its always a bit saddening and yet at the same time liberating when one begins the process of stashing one's life into a series of plastic rubbermaid containers. That's a good portion of the story of my day; along with various other nefarious tasks such as going to the bank, dealing with my inside source at the IRS, going to the liquor store at 9:30 in the morning (to gather an assortment of cardboard),and all the while remembering to breath.

"Woke up at sunrise, my eyes were glazed"-M.A. Morelli

The particular motives for moving into a combination of chain-link fence storage facility/truck/rubbermaid containers(soon to evolve into custom pine shelving) and former ski-chalet are the fact that on Sunday, sometime after coffee and breakfast at On the Rise, I shall proceed to transfer my existence to the fine institution known as Yestermorrow. For those in the dark, check this , a fine place indeed. In fact, the very place where the custom pine shelving I previously spoke of will be born, along with numerous other devices of varying purpose such as; the 27" saw blade dinner gong, the I Ching table, the one piece stump rocking chair, and God only knows what else.

I guess there is some benefits to pushing oneself closer and ever closer to a radically simplistic way of taking the next step. Unfortunately there is always some sort of flip side, this time being the unraveling of a plot forged in the fires of history. Ancient Chinese philosophers and Indian monsoons have witnessed this story play itself out over the winds of yesterday and the imagined tomorrows. Two nights left. It is strange and wonderful when one is dialed into the mystery of a queen . She is surely awesome and worth every second of love and hopefully believes that goodbyes are illusions.

"A butterfly floats in the breeze of a sunlit day, as I feel this reality gently fade away"- The Beastie Boys

The First Day....

I'm sitting here, coffee in hand, clothed in an ancient Batman t-shirt and an extremely comfy bathrobe that is blue. The six degrees outside tells me that I should probably stay here and listen to some more music, drink some more coffee and perform other various tasks of an undefined nature.
Yesterday was the last day of 2008 and also the last day of working for money, at least for the time being which happens to be about four months. It would be nice to not have to make money for a whole year. That would be an essential story for when I someday become the crotchety old gramps on the front porch with whiskey and pipe.

The pallets are gone and the nails remain
outside in the pit of yesterdays fire.

I don't know how to accurately predict wind speed but I would imagine that the wind last night was somewhere in the 30knot range. All in all quite a frosty evening. I did happen to survive the onslaught thanks in large part to a nice pair of wool pants. The green kind with cargo pockets. I also just discovered that they come equipped with buttons on the inside of the waist band for the purpose of installing suspenders. Seems as if I'm going to have to go get some suspenders at some point.

Its funny how even though I know what is changing, I have yet to fully actualize the reality of the situation. Change. So many hardly understand what it really is. I hated seeing it dragged into the mud of hollow political slogans when in reality Change should be revered like other Gods. Rational logistics aside, the deeper always changing parts of me are bursting at the seams ready to roll towards what tomorrow tells. I realize that it is sometimes necessary to toss oneself into the universal merry go round and see where you end up when the ride is over. In my case, I know the ride, Yestermorrow, and I know how long it lasts, but where it drops me off is quite a mystery. I like that unknowing. Makes me think that I'm at least headed in the right philosophical direction. Why do we fool ourselves into believing that knowing, like a good pair of wool pants, is somehow going to buttress our fragile little legs of existence against the cold winds of Change?