cultural vagabonds in the Ozarks

We are traveling again after several month's sojourn in Vermont. We have left the Winooski river, the goats at Long Field Farm, the land of luscious green sheltering forests and cool, clear still waters of the Green Mountain state. The rivers we are encountering now have BIG names - the Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio. We spent a night in a cornfield near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Lewis and Clark spent 5 days in 1803 encamped here. Along with their "Corps of Discovery" team they spent their time here "teaching each other astronomy and surveying skills" that would become very useful in their exploration work to come.


Further up the Mississippi, the Republican National Convention will start today. Many, many dedicated people have taken time out of their lives to show up in that city along with the delegates to be a visible dissent to the current policies of this government. Not unlike Lewis and Clark, they have also been gathering to teach each other the critical skills to create a true democracy of the people to resist the forces of a government that consistently acts with disregard for the basic values and rights of life on this planet. They have been tackling the questions we are all grappeling with daily - how to voice our individual and collective horror at the disregard for the life of planet Earth and how do we take ethical action together to resist the destruction of our only home. The gathering place was raided on Friday and the people held for hours before being released. Anyone who has helped the people gather (organizing meetings and trainings, providing food or places to sleep) are being detained. This kind of police action in response to visible dissent has become the norm and the effect is surely making people think twice about saying "NO"...

We saw Obama's acceptance speech at a "watch party" in Asheville, NC. We were reminded that this was also the anniversary of the 1963 March On Washington and, also on August 26, in 1920 women got - finally - the right to vote, 72 years after the Seneca Falls Convention. A speaker offered a welcome balance to the Obama-as-savior frenzy by telling us that "change won't come FROM Washington, it will come TO Washington."

Our few days passing through North Carolina we discovered two delicious food ideas that might come in handy at this point in your garden harvesting: add chard and beet greens to your pesto for an out of this world taste and glorious color; and substitute slightly steamed zucchinis for beans next time you make humus (with tahini, garlic and lemon).

We will spend several weeks here in Missouri at a place called Diana's Grove where our friend Charles lives and works. It is a beautiful open landscape of undulating hills and open meadows. This is also a dog rescue facility (http://www.dianasgrove.com/dogs/index.html) taking in unwanted dogs and finding homes for them. At any given time there are 50 - 100 dogs here, many of them running free. Fitting in here is not unlike learning how to be in a dog pack!

We plan to convert Magnolia to run on waste vegetable oil in preparation for driving - again, though this time in Magnolia!- across this huge landscape of the United States to spend the winter in California. We're gathering storage barrels, filters, hoses, 3 port valves, switches etc. and discussing ideas to create a second fuel line with filtering and storage setup. We'll be sure to document the process as it unfolds!

There is a 1,000 acre clear cut going on in the forest adjoining this place. We took a walk up into it this morning. I am spoiled by the land use laws that I take for granted that would prevent such a huge clear cut in Vermont. Here in Missouri, there are no "best practice" requirements for loggers. The folks here are working on buying and protecting a small piece of that land. You can find out more about this work here:http://www.dianasgrove.com/landproposal.html. We walked up in the clear cut yesterday, but I didn't bring the camera, but next time I'll include a picture looking out across the denuded hills to the far beyond...

Lev will leave for 3 weeks in Egypt and Morocco from St. Louis, Missouri in the middle of September. I will make my way to New Mexico in Magnolia and meet him there. I'll be caretaking a friends house in Santa Fe. Maybe we are cultural vagabonds... We'll keep you posted.