Doing Our Part to Advance PO…

A multitude of events, both for work and home, have kept us unreasonably busy the past couple months. Of course, it was all fun -- among other things, we met face-to-face with Jade herself (keeper of Jaded Vegetarian) and her husband, in Seattle and at their house. The raging waters atop Mount Rainier (above) also captured our attention.

In July, we (our family of three) traveled first to Seattle so I could attend a 10-day training course for work, with a few extra vacation days thrown in. We visited Mt Rainier and stayed at the Paradise Inn halfway up the mountain, which was a fantastic (if short) adventure. We weren’t able to take the trails we wanted as they were still buried under 10 feet of snow, the lingering remains of an above-average snowfall year.

We spent most of our time in downtown Seattle, and managed to use the bus system for our entire stay (except for the Rainier trip). We visited the space needle, the Pike Place Market, the aquarium, the University of Washington, various other places of interest -- oh, and I might have attended class once or twice. The most valuable visit by far, however, was meeting up with Jade and her husband.

It’s always going to be a little strange to meet a person you’ve known only through electrons, but any awkwardness disappeared pretty quickly when we all realized with relief that none of us were cyber-psychos. We met for lunch downtown and spent the better part of two hours discussing how we came upon Peak Oil and exchanging thoughts on sustainability, then spent more time walking through downtown.

They invited us to see their homestead the following weekend, which was very impressive. Jade and her husband have only lived there a year, but have already made an astounding amount of progress in establishing a sustainable farmscape. They have a wood-frame greenhouse, duck pond, various gardens, and plenty of land to play with.

So, we enjoyed a fantastic lunch, tour, and conversation at their house. It was very encouraging to meet folks who have a similar understanding of the world and are working to make it better. I recommend everyone here make an effort to meet with others from this online community in your travels.

Downtown Seattle and Mt Rainier as seen from the Space Needle

July brought me more travels, including to Iowa, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C. By the time we returned home, it was astonishing to see that our garden had actually survived and, in fact, was thriving. I’ll post more on that later.

For now, we’re just glad to be home and I’m enjoying my break between business trips (3 weeks until the next one...). I’m also happy to (finally) resume a normal work schedule after 3 weeks of performing inspections and battling it out in all-day meetings. Look for more to show up here soon.