The Hip Quaker

Yeah, Guy (that’s his name) has a great brain. His resume includes past destinations like: “Industrial Light and Magic” and “Star Wars.” Somewhere around 2000 (you’ll have to check his website for the exact number), he and his artist wife Rebekah packed all their belongs and escaped California for rural Maine. I’m highlighting them because we urban folks tend to dismiss everyone who lives in the sticks as “potentially dangerous ignorant hicks.”

But regardless if you want a home in the country or not, you still need to have a look at Guy’s website. He’s got everything on there from thermal window insulation solutions and solar differential temperature controllers, to wireless surveillance equipment, and robotic equipment.

Arttec.net is intentionally folksy and down-to-earth.  One trip to the site and I guarantee you’ll … feel smarter. It’s like a mini Smithsonian for geeks, homesteaders, and art lovers. You quickly discover there are no high or low-tech problems that can’t be solved. Some solutions are expensive and others … relatively cheap. (After all, he was one of the Visual Effects engineers for Star Trek…)

Guy and his wife Becky are wonderful examples of “Back-to-the-Landers.” I doubt if they’d classify themselves as such, but this team of art and science lowered their overhead, escaped the rat-race, and now live healthy and extremely creative lives. They have time and space to create far more than they would had they remained in an urban space where problems like … well … everyone knows the problems.

Oh yeah, any woman curious about fashion, click on the Chicago Native’s link to her  textile art … and while there, explore her latest photos that came out of a recent MFA program. These are folks. Smart folks … but folks… aware … GOOD folks. People who enrich the “neighborhood” they move into—if allowed. They do their homework before picking a spot in paradise, and then they become “neighbors.” Neighbors are important in the less alienated rural countryside. You have to be. One wet spring morning you might need one to pull your car out of a ditch. Isn’t that part of the allure?

Becky continues to travel the U.S. and Asia to market her textile art and Guy builds canoes.

Visit the hip Quaker at: http://www.arttec.net/

Becky’s newest art site: http://www.rebekahyounger.com/default4.asp

Her older mainstay website is: “Younger Knits”: http://www.youngerknits.com

Van Jones: The Green Movement’s Black Hero

“When people think about climate change, often the first thought that comes to mind has to do with all the solar panels, wind farms, and green rooftops we need, and how quickly it needs to be done. But the question that rarely follows is, “how much manual labor will this take and who’s going to do it?” It’s also becoming clear that more and more people in underserved communities, especially young people, are getting left behind while the rest of us struggle to climb closer and closer to the American dream. Can we think of these people not as a burden, but as an underused resource? The man who isn’t afraid to ask these questions, and who has an answer, is Van Jones, President and co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBC) based in Oakland, California.” (Exerpt from, “community Heros” by Rosemary Prizker. Click on this link to read entire article.)

Greatfully, there is a development occuring that makes us ask, “Is the Overwhelmingly White, Green Movement finally reaching out to blacks and other people of color … or are people like Van Jones inserting the reality that black people can and will play an integral part of this “New Green Movement“?

“What’s a nice black guy like me doing in a movement like this?” asks Van Jones. The tall, 39 year old cuts a striking silhouette in a black turtleneck and blazer as he strides the stage at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. A  charismatic lawyer who grew up in rural Tennessee, Jones graduated from Yale Law, and founded the Ella Baker Center for jobs and justice in Oakland.

“The Prius people, the polar-bear crowd are great,” Jones says. “We’re not mad at them. We like them! At the same time, if the only people who can participate are the kind who can afford to put solar panels on their second home, the green movement is going to be too small to fix the problem. If we want to beat global warming, there’s no way to do it without helping a lot of poor people. If you design a solution that does not do that, it’s a solution that’s too timid.”

In Jones’ eyes, the first wave of environmentalism, led by Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir, focused on preserving the nation’s natural beauty in parks. The second wave, led by Rachel Carson of “Silent Spring,” concentrated on federal regulation of toxics. The third wave, he says, is about investment. Initially, that meant individual consumer choice: hybrid cars, organic food, energy-efficient light bulbs. Now, it’s evolved into major public spending and community-wide action.

Jones’ grand vision? Think New Deal and civil-rights movement combined with a clean-green industrial revolution. The nation needs to train masses of “green-collar” workers to conduct energy audits, weatherize and retrofit buildings, install solar panels and maintain hybrid vehicles, wind farms and bio-fuel factories. The icing? Wiring buildings and installing solar panels can’t be outsourced.

“Brother,” Jones says, “put down that hand gun and pick up this caulk gun.”

[Partially re-written from article written by Paula Bock. Click this link to read the entire article.]

Quit The Road: God MUST Love Me Because …

“Thank you for all you’ve done … and for allowing me to eat this past year … but ‘yall can have these keys back.”

That’s right … on Wednesday I handed the man back the keys to his truck.  No more Flatbed Fred wrestles with filthy tarps, heavy chains, and dusty straps. No more unloading in frozen ice and snow. Gone are work days spent in southern Arkansas … where you can pass out before your load is secure and tarped.

Now … I’ve returned to the INSANE, arrogant California Bay Area and on the first day, I’m amazed at how well things are going. This is the same place where economic racism forced me to become a truck driver. This is the same place where I left 14 months ago and traveled to OKLAHOMA to get a job! Now, on my first day back, I already have:

• A new job … one that allows me to go home every night
• A new van - the owner has a body shop and someone failed to pay, so he has to get rid of it…
• A new apartment - he’s throwing in the small apartment over the shop

This allows me to take a Greenhouse Production class out at City College. Amazing. God is good. I don’t think it’s ever been this easy. After the semester, it most likely will be the right time to pack “my stuff” into my new van and drive to South Carolina … which will become … “My New Home.”

Alternative Building: Papercrete

Okay, so you’ve got your eye on a piece of property that has a 3 bdrm/1.5 bath house on it, 17 acres of land, a barn, an all season creek (fresh water is going to be increasingly more important), and is divided between 5 acres of cleared pasture/farmland and the rest in timber that you can mill or sell.

We’ve already learned that one of the best small farm practices is to start off using no more than one-to-three acres for crops and flowers. So what else can you do with all that land?

When you have land, you have SooOOooo many options. Every structure you add to your land increases its value. Building Green and “Alternative” allows you to creative wonderful, mortgage-free buildings at pennies to what traditional buildings cost. The building can be wood burning Sauna cordwood building or a Strawbale “Adobe” home that keeps you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer while decreasing your dependence on both energy and energy companies.

The latest … and the building style that has recently caught my eye is Papercrete …. a substance that creates lightweight “concrete-ish” mix or “adobe-ish” blocks to build with.

Like cordwood homes, you don’t have to be a builder to build a house. There are books and videos at your local public library. You can begin your search by clicking on the links and by googling some keywords like: alternative building, papercrete, cordwood building, strawbale houses, and building with cob.

Financing My Urban Escape

Okay, so in the process of concluding that I want a greater quality of life than I can create in urban America … and then deciding that I can best create such a life on a small farm (8 or more acres) … I’ve learned a great deal even before leaving Oakland, California.

But perhaps the greatest thing I’ve learned is how to make my fantasy a reality. In other words, how to finance the move. Life in the country requires a lower amount of money to live on. The reason why all that beautiful property is so cheap is there is a lack of jobs out thar. Hence, I decided to learn to become a truck driver.

I drove a cab in San Francisco back in the late 80’s for a few years to finance my return to college, but I never dreamed I’d ever yearn to drive an 18 wheeler. But it’s such a great choice because not only can I drive through various parts of the country and get a feel about potential areas where advertised cheap property is located, but I can live anywhere and be a trucker. (Not to mention that truckers can potentially earn up to $200, 000 a year!)

FREE Truck Driving School
This journey is teaching me faith … and more… the power of following your dreams. I actually found a FREE truck driving school. When I graduate, I won’t have any contracts nor will I owe anyone any money. More, the school is located in San Francisco’s City College Bay View Campus off Evans Street. It was started by Tania Alexander and her father, Rev. Alexander of True Hope Baptist Church in the Hunter’s Point area. Class is located in the Evan’s Street Campus of San Francisco City College. (The program is so new that I see it isn’t even listed on the SFCC Webstite .) The program is sponsored in partnership with Goodwill Industries and here’s a link to press releases about the program:

Goodwill Truck Driving Academy

Bayview True Hope Truck Driving Academy

Phone Number: 415-550-4421

NOTE: If you look at the picture above, you can see me standing in the backgrown just between Rita’s eyes (the person in the simulator’s driver’s seat) and the screen.) Da kid ain’t playin’ … I’m going to have my Class A in about two weeks. Um … perhaps you folks should decide to stay off the streets for the next two months … )

14 Steps To Begin Your Black Farm Dream

Dreams of moving to the country continue as I walk constantly into the reality of making it happen. Only a few more steps before I enter truck school. It’s a free program sponsored by a church in Hunter’s Point, Goodwill Industries, and San Francisco City College. Attending an independent truck school rather than a truck company’s school means I won’t be under a $5,000 contract when I leave. It also means I will most likely earn more money starting off.

Why truck driving? I dunno … I like to drive and it’s a long way from listening to crack addicts tell me lies all day. Homes and land are cheap in rural America … but it’s that way because there often is a lack of jobs. This means I’ll have to:

1. Take a few Horticulture and/or Permaculture courses
2. Take a welding class (FREE too at several locations here in urban America)
3. Make sure I’m getting enough exercise so that I’ll be fit when I get there
4. Research the appropriate farm equipment, farming practices, local truck actions, and other means of paying less than full price for much of what I’ll need
5. Read up on rural life … like a book I ran across the other day that illustrates why country neighbors really are better than city neighbors … because they need you more … but … research will still have to be done …
6. Visit http://www.city-data.com and gather as many candid remarks about the towns, states and cities I’m curious about
7. Visit http://www.unitedcountry.com and check out the tip of the iceberg of what’s available (I’ve noticed they’ve stopped posting the really cheap places … hey … Real Estate Agents want to make money too… they also have a huge book that comes out twice a year that’s far better … only $9.00 a year for a subscription.)
8. I also like to open http://www.wikipedia.com and pull up the demographics of an area … won’t paint the whole picture … but it can fill in a few blanks
9. And if you visit the http://realestate.msn.com ’s Real Estate link, you’ll see where you can request hard copy books for areas you’re curious about. These books are found in free sidewalk newspaper bins all over the U.S. … but if you request one online, Real Estate agents from those areas will send you emails, listings, and letters inviting you to build a relationship with them
   [Click on http://realestate.msn.com ... and check out the second one down that has a house and two barns with acreage and timber for $160,000]
10. Start dreaming into all the things you’d do if you only had land … and a bit of time to pursue them. Then start searching the web for examples of what those projects look for other people. You’ll really be surprised if you let yourself go
11. If you’re single, start posting your ad on dating sites for country and farm people
12. Remember … there are fears about a looming global recession in 2012 … so people with small farms WITH WATER under or on it will do better than those sisters and brothers still complaining in the hoods … did I mention the fears around a global water shortage starting in 2015?
13. But above all … I have to remember that it really isn’t all about me. That if God gives folks gifts and talents, He wants them to funnel them into our bringing something to the table … assisting with the greater good …
14. Look around for friends and family to bring along. Asian and Mexican immigrants are showing us some excellent examples of how to create successful social models that create both economic success and individual / group safety. It’s FAR better to bring some trusted comrades to watch your back as you build your fences … and more importantly … your bridges … in the new rural community you select

But if it’s one thing that all that non-profit, social service trench work taught me … when I want to save someone… I’m usually projecting onto someone else a part of ME that needs “saving.” Hence … pause, SAVE MYSELF FIRST, then do some … wise … charity work.

Green Movement Can Help Blacks

I rode the 38 Geary out to the San Francisco Ft. Miley Veteran’s Hospital this morning. A group of pre-teens were headed to school. Several of the boys were black … the scene they put on wasn’t nothing nice.

 I always write that if it ain’t broke ~ don’t fix it. We all know this buggy ain’t just broke, the wheels done come off and the bottom done dropped out. Time to re-boot the system and get back to baseline. That’s why I always assert that getting out of Urban America and rejecting its values are key to our survival, our healing, and our future economic growth.

Land has always been the major path to wealth in this country. The fact that so few blacks currently own land is a corner stone to our problem. Forget racism. Forget what the white man done done or might do. Look at what we’re currently doing to ourselves….

• Our rate of divorce far exceeds our rate of marriage.
• The Civil Rights Movement was won on moral grounds … and that’s exactly where we’re losing it.
• HIV/AIDS continues to be the Number One killer of black men 16 - 25 and the senior citizens are now following suit. That looks like deep despair around love to me. When so many are desperately jumping for lust instead having the faith and character to create love … well folks … don’t look good. You cannot point a finger in any direction of the African American Community and not see, hear, or feel pain … yet we want to keep doing the same things and believing in the same fantasies?

First black men were demoralized, then black youth. Next they got to women and now they’ve hit mothers. Ain’t nothing left. Grandmothers are struggling to raise their children’s children. We make up the vast majority of Foster Children numbers even in places where we are a fraction of the population. Are many of these systemic problems? Yes. But that has little or nothing to do with our responsibility to grow through them.

“Every problem is an opportunity in work clothes.” ~Henry J. Kaiser (I love that one…)

This is why the Green Movement holds out great promise to blacks. At present, whites and others have been holding down the fort at Ecology Centers all across America. Middle class despair and “Liberal” blindness abounds. But give them credit … they have and are doing their work and they are holding out the door for us. That means there is already tons of information available on Permaculture (a system of planting, housing, and living the incorporates everything in a  person’s environment.

The Green Movement touches every aspect of a person’s life and in the future, this will be of even greater importance. Global warming and the very, very real threat of a future WORLD economic “downturn” means that those who live on land with a watershed beneath it will feel no pain and in fact be in a great economic position.  [NOTE: It's forecasted that the shortage of fresh water alone will cause a world crisis by as soon as 2015. Read Guardian Report ]

 Canadians fear Avian Flu could help ignite economic crisis. I don’t know about you, but when white people keep warning each other about something, after a while, it’s time to look up.

The list of reasons why it makes sense for us to move out of urban America, create some sweat equity, rebuild our family structure, and prepare of any one of the many future threats that loom is large.  Just the fact that it’s black men’s  responsibility to create families AND make them safe should ignite some desire to look into moving onto 5 or more acres in rural America. You don’t even have to farm it!

1. You can lease some or all of it out to others who want to farm (and there will most certainly be many)
2. You can put some cabins or trailers on it and become a “Home Developer.”
3. You can adopt some of those many black children currently in Foster Care and orphanages and discover the spiritual truth that it really isn’t all about you … but more, it’s about what do you bring to the table!

Here … just glance at some of the post I quickly pulled up about a LIKELY, world economic disaster:

 Australia on: “The Future Collapse Of The World’s Economy”

Mainstream, respected European economist Stefan Karlsson on: The Future of The World Economy” (read the last two paragraphs)

 The World Conservative Union on Why It’s Not Business As Usual … or bust: (Meaning OPPORTUNITY FOR US!!

And last, here’s a “funny” one that raises your eyebrows: Samizdatdata.net

Lawyer’s Website Helps Blacks With Ideas

Came across this site dated 2005. I haven’t researched it much (give a hollar if you find out more info on it) but the website states that it helps black entrepreneurs start businesses. Patent and trademark attorney Darcell Walker post information about the processes for protecting ideas, using patents, copyrights, trademarks along with trade secrets issues.

Check the brother out and see if he has any information you can use. One thing I agree strongly with is his assertion that ingenuity and creativity abound within the hearts and minds of African Americans. I’ve posted a new article on the window we are currently looking at concerning monetary incentives for new farmers that the Department of Agriculture has recently initiated. [SEE: Black Solutions ]

Baby Boomers are getting old. The age of the average black farmer is 60. Only 1% of the American population even farms. I don’t know what that sounds like to you, but to me that sounds like a “window of opportunity” for a whole lot of quick thinking brothers and sisters to climb into. Check out the link$.

Racism or Engineering Your Life?

Recently I’ve been receiving comments about racism. This blog really isn’t about racism. It’s about walking away from the addictive pull of contiual reaction to racism. I say “addiction” because anything that traumatizes the psyches of MOST human beings, the mind repeats looking for resolution.

I write at a black audience right now because:

• I am black
• Black people as a culture are on fire
• White, Asian, and Mexican/Hispanic youth who feel disenfranchised look to what has become a bastardization of blackness to take their cues on “reacting” to feeling outside of mainstream or dis-empowered.

Are they making horrible choices? Yes! Do you have to? No.

Rather than continuing to be silly by looking at “Da White Man” and pointing fingers to justify our lives and our bad behavior, at the ripe old age of 53, I’ve concluded that it’s a FAR better choice to simply engineer a good life for myself. That means:

1. It doesn’t matter how much anyone else has … the issue is–
2. What do YOU bring to the table?
3. Taking stock (and responsibility) for everything that has happened in my life. Discarding the crazy-making people I’ve allowed to enter it, and owning everything else. Only through such a process can I get on the other side of “being a victim” and move into being a mature “full grown man.”

I yearn for the day we stop reacting to “racism.” It’s become a such a cop-out. YES, racism is alive and well … but if I find myself in a field that I cannot win in … WHY keep failing around, crying about how unfair it all is, instead of picking up my ball and building a field wherein I can win? We don’t have to be against anybody. In fact, the object is to increasingly love as many people as you can… because when you can’t love yourself… that’s when you find yourself hating others (projecting your self hate outwards) and being jealous of what others have. Thank God no one is giving me nothing. I was born with a keen mind … keen enough to see opportunity instead of self destruction when it is ripe. Get some land my brothers and sisters. If you can’t afford to in the city, move out of it and build up your cheap little home, and with the equity you build, you can later buy a dream place anywhere on the planet.

Luke 6:42 “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out that is in your own eye, then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” (The Beatitudes)

(By that time… after removing drugs, alcohol, helplessness, criminality, and sex as a mood altering, demoralizing experience, whatever is in his eye probably won’t matter.)

Join Black Farms Forum

I really appreciate some of the comments being posted. I encourage anyone who desires a closer link with Black Farms to join [click link->] Yahoo Black Farms Forum .