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[Bunjov AT aol.com]

Just catching up on posts - every time I go into the hospital the inbox  gets 
full and all I can think of - lying in that horrible adjustable bed is -  
what am I missing!!!
 
Anyway - 
 
Hard at work on the Newberry Springs Property Owners newsletter. It now  
includes news from Yermo and Daggett. We are the "Silver Valley", in the  
triangle, coming east out of Barstow - between the 15 and the 40. Don knows  
exactly 
where we are.
 
Here, where I'm renting a bungalow on part of twenty acres (can see my own  5 
acres up the road but can't afford to build on it - Grrr!) - the neighbor on  
the other side of the lake took me up on my idea of buying a communal 
freezer.  Said and done. He is going to convert what was once a garden area - 
fenced 
and  roofed in chain link - into an area for chickens. An area behind his 
trailer  will be devoted to vegetables...he's done this before, and is good 
at it.
 
My little side yard, originally constructed for Blackjack Joe Daggett (my  
late and beloved German Shepherd) would be ideal for goats. Landlord Jon  
approved the goat idea in December of '07 when I moved in. He's in Hawaii 
until  
April, but when he comes home we're going to investigate how to make cheese - 
 
yum!
 
I have a friend to the east, and neighbors across the road, and the  
management at the nudist colony next door to the west who have assured me  
that they 
are there for me should I need emergency medical treatment, or  
transportation, 
or food and shelter.
 
All of this is great comfort to a 66-year-old single woman of the  
homesteader / survivalist mentality who has great aspirations but no hands-on 
 
experience. I don't care if my goals are surreally fuzzy on the horizpn, or 
that  they 
don't appear to be getting any closer...every step toward that horizon  makes 
my heart glad. My SO, who will be 83 on our mutual birthday in July,  left on 
Monday - having spent a week here.
 
His mindset has always been that 'roughing it' is when room service is  late. 
And when I convinced him in '05 to sell his house and head north to San  
Carlos to help care for his mother (who will be 107 next month) it hurt me to 
my  
heart, but I had to come here. And let him go.
 
This trip, however, he said he was 'relaxed', and he listened to my ideas,  
and I explained to him what a 'ramada' is, and we drove around both the lakes 
 
and I showed him the smaller upper lake where I'd like to put a mobile 
home...I  can pirate in the electricity, and water's not a problem. I figure 
that 
would  free up the bungalow so that Landlord Jon could get another tenant, 
and 
more  income. Jon might be a bit bizarre, but he's beautiful, and he deserves 
 
every good thing he can get out of this life.
 
He left me - yet again - to care for his cat. The cat was here when he got  
here - 10 years ago - and wasn't 'cuddly', so, for a long time, he didn't 
know  
about its gender...hence the cat's name is "Butch" - works either way!
 
We share here. We are geeky Bohemian.
 
Sandy
 
 
 
In a message dated 2/4/2009 8:02:33 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
genegerue AT ruralize.com writes:

Regarding the fate of the future, The NYT has a pertinent piece,   
titled Saving the Suburbs, by Allison Arieff. The second segment is  at:
http://arieff.blogs.nytimes.com/

Here are the last two  graphs:

In keeping with this apparent new era of personal  responsibility, the  
only-slightly-tongue-in-cheek collective  Wannastartacommune.com  
started by Stephanie Smith, Buckminster  Fuller-acolyte and founder of  
the green design lab, Ecoshack, gives  a new attitude to an old idea,  
urging residents of cul de sacs or  condos to come together with their  
neighbors to share resources.  Suggestions for collaboration include a  
shared compost pile, weekly  potlucks, neighborhood recycling programs,  
barter services and  shared childcare. Their pilot project,Cul-de-Sac  
communes, is  already underway.
This tendency — let’s call it extreme neighborliness — is  so old- 
fashioned as to seem innovative. Startlingly basic and  wholly  
actionable, it’s a bright spot in a dark time.

Gene  GeRue
www.RURALIZE.com




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