Baron Michael Mojohito John Richerson von Tchudi

After looking at land in Lake County and talking and considering and weighing and discussing, the Family has decided to make an offer. Mom & Dad have hired a handyman to fix up the Reno house in order to have it on the market in two weeks – a job I though I would be doing over the winter, but things are moving along more rapidly than expected.
I’m not exactly invited back to my parent’s house, since most of the work that I would be doing to earn my keep will already be completed by the time I finish my current obligation, and the fewer the people, the easier the place is to keep clean for prospective buyers. So Heather and I are looking to go back to Heartwood to work. True, the pay isn’t great, but as a place to maintain the lifestyle we so enjoy, getting paid at all seems worth it to me.
Provided that the offer is accepted and the house sells, we could be on the new land by year’s end. All of the questions are certainly not answered, and my job lately involves staying calm and focused, and helping others to do the same (with moderate success).
There is a substantial “wow” factor involved in the thought of being on our own land so soon, setting up some yurts for the winter, being settled enough to look for bodywork/nutrition jobs, and watching the land, listening to it, asking when and where to build.
Peace, peace, peace…

Dang, over a month since adding something to this page. Little point, I think, in reviewing the last five weeks, but let’s see…
The apprenticeship has ended, a smashing success, and now I am living at Emerald Earth in a work-trade capacity; still building, but also gardening and doing a lot more cooking for the community. My kombucha is thriving, and I’m brewing near six gallons a week. Probably more than I can drink, but I’m hoping to produce some to share – or sell – also working with sauerkraut and have a batch of beer in the works!
Heather is here too, and we are very fortunate to be living an a beautiful natural building that would otherwise be unoccupied. Our own little home, with kitchen and bookshelf and desk and most certainly a bed in a bedroom. Stompin’ our feet on the wooden porch, never got to worry about locking the doors.
But we’re not here that much this month. Three three-day weekends in a row, plus. My sister Emily got married in Oakland, and we were happy to see Cheetah and my folks, as well as Tim. It was a partyin’ weekend, see photo. I read at the ceremony as well as prepared a vegetarian entree for dinner.
Back at EE, Heather and I are going to the Solar Living Institute tomorrow, to volunteer for SolFest.
On Monday, we’ll be seeing Cheetah and his partner Jen again, along with my Mom, who is flying them down to look at a promising piece of land in Middletown, California. This is particularly exciting, because we are very close to making a dramatic step forward on this homestead project, manifesting dreams.
The list of events goes on.
I’m trying to balance the excitement in my life. There is anxiety about fulfilling my obligations to EE as a work trader, what with being away so much. We barely feel arrived before we turn around and go again. Too much pot smoking and ejaculation leaves me feeling drained and grouchy, so replacing addictive behavior with positive things is something I’m putting a lot of focus into. In the meantime, people mostly irritate me, and I prefer being alone with Heather, or in the kitchen, or working hard. Social stuff around the community not so much.
I return to the concept or process, being gentle with myself, taking my time, appreciating the hard parts, savoring the fun parts, laughing at my dumb attitude, and learning to thrive on what my life entails.
I am surrounded by beauty and abundance, and the trick is to remember that always.

I can happily report that I’ve had no evidence of poison oak for three weeks. I can safely say that I’m in the clear from that particular struggle.
I’m working now on creating a business for doing Nutritional Consultations, with the intent of having the kombucha tie-in, as well as getting a wholesale licence or account so I can begin to carry high-end supplements.
It’s chilly today and my kidneys are feeling it.

I have been living at Emerald Earth for three weeks now, and I am quite satisfied with the quality of life here. The Natural Building apprenticeship is going very well; I am learning many valuable skills and rapidly.
I’m writing now not to elaborate on the virtues of country living, but instead to illustrate my damage due to poison oak exposure. I’m not sure when I was first exposed to the resin, or if I have been continuously re-exposed, but the first disparate patches appeared fourteen days ago. They weren’t patches so much as individual raised blisters on different tender parts of my body, such as inner elbows and knees. The individuals mostly went away smoothly, but some patches began to spread. It was unusual, and not until five days had passed that the patches were recognizable as a poison oak reaction. At that point there was a lot of itching, but it was mostly just annoying, so I dealt with it. However, it continued to get a little bit worse each day. By Friday, after working on stomping and laying cob in 102 degree weather for a few days, the whole lower portion of my right leg began to swell. Today, Saturday, it looks like a lobe of rotting baloney. It is painful to walk on. Apparently, the whole distal limb has gone into a systemic allergic reaction. It oozes and I leave little puddles where I go, leg propped up, dripping on the floor.
Up until this point, I was letting the body self-regulate. When the rash become more of an open wound (around Thursday) I started using healing clay.
Today, I think I’ll start taking steroids. I have the drugs (yay for community living – someone has some leftover), but I can’t seem to figure out what the proper dosage is, and since it’s such a powerful drug, I’m reluctant to take it at all, let alone some random dosage. I think I’ll go with a starting dosage of 1 mg/Kg body weight/day and ease off from there.
But through this, I’m working on understanding what it is I have to learn from the plant and this reaction. Is it some metal element boundaries thing? Is it about paying closer attention to my surroundings? Am I to learn to be more attentive to my healing, and take better care of myself when I start to get sick? Hm. Maybe it’s about getting over a resistance to Western meds.

After a whirlwind few days of travel and stuff (oh so much STUFF!), I have abruptly stopped at Emerald Earth Sanctuary near Boonville California, where I will reside for approximately the next eight weeks. I am overjoyed to be back away from the urban paved-ness, and for the first time in a while, I felt compelled to do my Practice this morning. Too-cold night and janky rib (freak massage embracing accident, no time for x-rays, gonna be fine) be damned, I set up my little urban oasis in the country (put it this way – some people carry their camping gear in a large backpack; I carry my camping gear in a large motor vehicle). Today is a day of something like rest, and tomorrow begins the Natural Building in Community internship.

It has sure been a day. A number of days, in fact. I am back in Reno, preparing to enjoy a bowl kicked down by Brother Cheetah and watch Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce (Go!), but first I am to make a report for my loyal readers…
I enjoyed Wenatchee quite a lot, which I didn’t expect. Frankly, I thought it would be something of a poe-dunk (hm, never tried to spell that before) town; kinda run down and sad. Actually, it’s quite clean and nice, with several parks equiped with swings and/or riverfront access, polite police (in my single experience), and a mid-level “mongolian barbecure”-style restaurant where one can get an oil-free vegan meal w/ brown rice cooked fresh. The fancy bakery on the edge of town even has a mostly whole-grain sourdough, and the “health food”-style store has quite a good selection, except for produce, but I guess, er, Safeway is pretty good. Hrm. Yeah, so I got along well enough with the Folks – Heather’s parents and sister, Pennie – and Dad says I’ll make a good man, so that means I’m accepted by the clan. Also means that moving there August through December is a, something of a possibility… provided I can find work there, etc.
We spent some time in Oly after that, at Fido’s with Cheetah and Jen. The beautiful weather followed us, so we had time for frisbee, walking in the woods, and a bonfire. Ate the damn finest lamb and chicken around, fresh oyster mushrooms and kale from the garden.
We would have liked to visit friends and colleagues in Bellingham and Lopez Island, but it just wasn’t in the cards (so to say). Sorry, peeps, hopefully next time.
Today, woke up in Oly, visited Alexis in Renton, then to Sea-Tac by 3:30, farewell to Heather, then in Reno, at the pub with old family friends by a quarter to eight. Tomorrow is finishing Heartwood coursework, and packing and preparing to head to ‘Frisco on Friday, CPR/First Aid cert. on Saturday, and that evening meet two of my fellow interns and drive to Emerald Earth. Official beginning of the program is on Monday.

Hoka hey.

BTW, isn’t Terminator II just a great action movie? I haven’t seen it in many years, mind you, but I think about it relatively often. That scene when the kid figures out that the super-robot has to do whatever he says is classic.

Yesterday was eight hundred miles of driving. Sixteen hours. Coffee and pie that no doubt had hydrogenated oils in it. Loud music and a fair amount of herb. I was primarily navigator, passenger, and disc jockey. Nice ride, up all night.
Today I find myself in Wenatchee Washington, staying at the family home of partner Heather. Meeting the folks is a good time to be nervous, and so I am, but as long as I don’t seem stupid, I don’t mind seeming quiet. Of interest is that part of this trip is to gauge Wenatchee as a suitable place for me to settle for a while after the NBiC internship this summer, so I am observing and considering the scene from that perspective as well. With an urban population pressing fifty five thousand residents, Wenatchee is technically considered a “metropolis”, but is perhaps a small market to work the miraculous attempts at employment I am building the spleen for.
It’s this or Reno.
‘Nuff said.