Dancing Doula

On The Road Again….

lostvegan — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:14:11 +0000

Circumstances in my life have led me to a need to get away from stresses in my life, relax and decompress, see the country, meet people, make new friends and learn and grow within my own life. I left Las Vegas over a month ago and I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I have met a multitude of interesting people, seen many new places, gained new interests and made plans for many travels in the future. I’ve been through Boulder, Colorado; Tallahassee, Ocala, Tampa and Seminole, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia and Anderson, South Carolina so far, greatly enjoying the diversity or people, architecture, sights and things to do. I’m staying in the Southeast for the next few months and heading North when the weather turns beautiful up there.

Other than traveling through the states my plans include attending festivals where I can meet people and learn new ideas. I plan to attend PorcFest, Porcupine Freedom Festival in June in New Hampshire. If you are thinking about coming, please register with this code which helps benefit a child who lost it’s mother last year via trust fund: PF2011ETHAN

If you read my blog and would like to meet me, show me around your neck of the woods or just help fund my travels, please feel free to contact me or paypal me via email at nicoledoula (at) gmail (dot) com. I look forward to meeting all of you wonderful people out there.

Much Love!!

Agorism

lostvegan — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:05:42 +0000

I recently had a chance to chat, in person, with one of the bloggers from www.LibertyOnTour.com, Ethan Lee Vita. Ethan is currently hitch-hiking across the US in search of agorist businesses, community-led problem solving and otherwise non-government funded counter economic activity. He started out in New Hampshire which is home of the Free State Project and of Free Keene. Ethan is currently traveling through Texas, toward Florida and up the East coast back toward New Hampshire.

Let me explain a bit about Agorism. Agorism is a political philosophy that holds as its ultimate goal bringing about a society in which all “relations between people are voluntary exchanges – a truly free market.” The term comes from the Greek word agora, referring to an open place for assembly and market in ancient Greek city-states.

Agorists hold that the evils attributed to capitalism are not caused by laissez-faire but by government working together with private industry. By preferring the term “free market,” Agorists feel they are not bound by the implications of the current use of the term “capitalism”.

Generally, self-identified “Agorists” oppose voting for political candidates and oppose political reform. Instead, Agorists stress the importance of alternative strategies rather than politics to achieve a free society. Agorists claim that we can achieve a free society more easily and sooner by employing such alternative methods. Alternative strategies consist of a mixture of education, direct action — and especially entrepreneurship and counter-economics.

Agorists especially focus on counter-economics, in which they seek to build and establish business structures without complying with regulations, government licenses, or paying taxes.

There are many examples of counter economics you may already be familiar with. Food Not Bombs groups will collect donations of food that is still good but about to be thrown out from grocery stores. They then take this food and cook it into free vegetarian meals to distribute to the homeless and needy, usually in public parks. A well-known source of counter economy is simple yard sales, Craigslist transactions and Ebay/Etsy stores. People all over the world are selling things and making money without government permission through these channels. The Last Biscuit is an agorist home-cooked meal delivery service, which up until recently was delivering hot, wholesome, home-cooked food straight to its customers, 24/7. Lastly, all over the country groups of health conscious people form food buying groups to procure healthy items that many stores do not carry, such as grass-fed beef or raw milk. Many food buying clubs are run by a member who makes a small profit for their time and efforts. Ethan has already covered a small portion of the raw milk story as seen here.

Please check out all the links above and contact Ethan about agorist and counter economic activity in your area.

Road trip!

lostvegan — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:59:41 +0000

I just returned from a month long road trip from Nevada to Wisconsin and back. I went for a wedding and for my sons’ annual family reunion camping. I won’t bore you with too many details, but I will say that Boulder and Denver were awesomely entertaining and well worth checking out. The Coors brewery tour was interesting and informative. The Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds, WI is amazingly beautiful. Nebraska is a lot more fun to drive through if you stop and check out the cities instead of a whole day of boring flat driving.
Also, I saved a ton in gas money by picking up what I like to call Professional Hitchhikers, people who post on rideshare under the community section on Craigslist. And I met some very interesting people who used Couchsurfing.org to travel cheaply and, of course, I joined and couchsurfed a bit myself. I took about 400 photos, but most of them were of the kids. Here is some of our trip:

Downtown Denver

Golden, Co

Washington County, WI

Lake Monona, Madison, WI

Iowa sunset

In the Rocky Mountains

Colorado River rest stop

Utah

May is International Doula Month

lostvegan — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:32:28 +0000

Hug a local Doula to celebrate.

Then enter to win one of the many giveaways on this wonderful blog:
Bellies and Babies

In honor of International Doula Month I will be seeing an advance screening of Babies on Thursday. Can’t wait!

Compost Happens.

lostvegan — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:38:03 +0000

I was sitting in my garden this afternoon thinking about a bumper sticker I had seen recently. It proclaimed simply, Compost Happens. I can not think of this without that scene from Forrest Gump creeping into my mind. You know, the one where Forrest gives the idea for the ubiquitous hippie saying, Shit Happens.

Well, they do both just happen. And often they are the same thing!! Many manures make excellent compost, cow, horse, poultry, even human! Rabbit is a lucky one that needs no composting. Just add directly to your garden.

Generally though, compost simply refers to the act of decomposing carbon based matter into soil. Just about everything can be composted; some just take a lot longer. Manure, food scraps, yard waste, leaves, newspaper, coffee grounds, wood shavings, even animal bones and bodies. Usually, in a home environment composting bones and meat would attract pests and encourage funky smells. Animal foods and wastes should be composted carefully and thoroughly.

Starting a compost pile is simple. There is no need for a bin, unless you choose. We started with an open pile, eventually enclosing it with cinder blocks, when it go too large to stay in one spot, as shown below.

This is a three stage compost pile. The brown on the right is finished compost. The green in the middle is a working pile. The straw on left is chicken bedding awaiting composting action.

Layer the above materials in your pile, try to keep it even parts wet nitrogenous materials (produce, grass, coffee, urine) with dry carbonaceous materials (straw, newspaper, cardboard (not waxed), nut shells, yard waste/dry plant materials). Keep adding materials as you have them and keep it moist, if necessary to your climate. We have an extremely dry climate, so watering is necessary. In a moist climate, a cover may be necessary to keep rain out.
When your pile is large enough, 3′x3′x3′, you can start a new pile and finish this one into soil. To do this, stop adding new materials, keep evenly moist and stir it up every couple of weeks. In a few short months it will look like dark brown/black rich soil. Spread it around your garden, top dress houseplants or plant straight into it. An old compost pile is a perfect place for a new tree.

Urine is another free waste fertilizer. Urine is a fantastic source of nitrogen. Diluted with 10 times water, urine is a perfect fertilizer directly applied to houseplants and your garden. Undiluted it could burn plants up, but diluted it’s like free Miracle Gro.

Compost and Shit. They just happen. The substances that come from the Earth know to return to her when they are done; It’s like the Earth calls back that which came from her. As naturally as those things came from the ground, they return to enrich the soil and provide new life. It’s a circle, in nature, that never ends.

Only in civilized society do we completely ignore this necessary cycle and ignore the health of our soils. Let’s change that, one backyard farm at a time.

Is the war on Fat actually making us fat?

lostvegan — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:38:28 +0000

You decide.

End The War on Fat in Slate Magazine.

Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op Now in Las Vegas!

lostvegan — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:00:29 +0000

$15 for $50 worth!! The power of bulk buying.

Bountiful Baskets website

Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op is a group buy using the power of bulk purchasing to get great prices on produce and other goods from wholesalers. This group operates in the southwest states and was recently expanded to include Las Vegas. Produce is delivered twice monthly and the reception was so great, you can expect new locations next time around and the option for an organic basket for $10 more. What a fantastic new food option for us all in southern Nevada!

I attended the very first Bountiful Baskets Event this morning and it was amazing. There were many volunteers, dozens of boxes of fresh, colorful produce and within minutes it was all sorted out into hundreds of beautiful and for only $15, extremely bountiful baskets. There were freebies for the volunteers and lots of friendly faces, even at 8 am on Saturday morning.

This is how it works:
You place your order on the Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op website and select your location.
You pay and print out your reciept.
The next Saturday morning the goods are delivered 6 am, volunteers arrive by 7 am and sort the produce into individual baskets before 8 am when the people who ordered arrive to pick up thier baskets.
Simple and a great way to get out chat and meet people in this little-big town of ours.

There were about 50 people at any given time chatting while waiting for fantastic fresh produce.

This was so popular there will definitely be an organic option in the future.

Check your local resources and chances are there are co-ops and group buying clubs near you waiting to save you a penny or two.

Instructions

lostvegan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:09:36 +0000

Instructions

Give up the world; give up self; finally, give up God.
Find god in rhododendrons and rocks,
passers-by, your cat.
Pare your beliefs, your absolutes.
Make it simple; make it clean.
No carry-on luggage allowed.
Examine all you have
with a loving and critical eye, then
throw away some more.
Repeat. Repeat.
Keep this and only this:
what your heart beats loudly for
what feels heavy and full in your gut.
There will only be one or two
things you will keep,
and they will fit lightly
in your pocket.

by Sheri Hostetler

Long fat skinny ones, short fat juicy ones…

lostvegan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:22:45 +0000

…itsy bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.

Over the weekend I recieved a shipment of red wrigglers. I ordered these little guys off ebay for just a few dollars. I want free fertilizer, I want free worm castings (soil) and I want worms to reproduce themselves for yummy chicken treats. So I ordered about a hundred worms and I set to making them a home. There are plenty of awesome pre-made worm compoting bins, but they cost money. Too much money for plastic, in my opinion.

A DIY worm composting bin just need three basic things; a large cavity that will hold the worms, scraps and the soil they make up, a basin to catch the good fertilizer that drips down and a lid to keep in moisture. You can add facy features like stacking bins, for more than one stage of compost, or a spout for removing and using the liquid fertilizer easily.

I started with two rubbermaid bins. Any size is fine, as long as they are the same size:

Two large well used rubbermaid bins.

Next, one bin will need small holes drilled in it. Large enough to allow liquid through, but small enough to keep worms and soil in. Lots of small holes. Like seen in this poor quality photo:

This part will be filled with shredded wet newspaper. Shred as much as you can, wet it and squeeze the excess water out. Fill the holey box with moist newspaper, place the lid on top and set aside.

Wet newspaper in holey box

Next, I made a small device to keep the weight of the holey worm box from caving in on the bottom box. The soil, food scraps and reproducing worms will get quite heavy.

device? well, just four pieces of wood and 4 nails. I used the power saw all by myself.

Once this is in place, put the holey box on top:

Finished DIY worm composting bin.

Fill with purchased worms and feed them your kitchen scraps.

There are so many resources for learning more about worm composting. Learn more and reduce your kitchen waste by turning it into good soil.

http://www.wormcompostingtips.com/

http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html

Or check out this great book on Vermicomposting: Worms Eat My Garbage

What a bunch of horse SHIT!

lostvegan — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:21:04 +0000

No really! I spent yesterday hauling car-fulls of manure from nearby horse country. 28 cubic feet, to be exact. Yes, I did the math. Including cylindrical volume equation googling.

To haul 28 cubic feet of manure in a mid sized Saturn, one needs large plastic boxes or tarps, or a heavy duty vacuum, I guess. I used rubbermaid bins, the kind with a lid that you store your Christmas stuff in all year. Except mine are caked with dumpster goo and manure, year round. To haul manure: bring wide shovel, fill boxes, struggle to lift and take home, rinse and repeat. Well, the rinse is not so much necessary.

So, what do you do with all that manure? You make compost! And lots of it. I happen to have two large bales of straw that was [oops] ruined in the recent unseasonal desert rains. So to make waste useful again, I layer a nice base of rotting, moldy straw and then layer the dry crispy manure nuggets and the straw and manure and repeat, like a really disgusting lasagne. Spraying with water all the while, of course. You need moisture for rotting.

I will continue to spray and turn this pile with my pitchfork daily, or as much as my back can handle, until it all turns into beautiful black soil. Hopefully it will take no more than
18 Days!!

This is the finished lasagne pile:

Notice how much larger this pile is compared to my kitchen and dumpster waste piles.**

**Close up of the colorful compost pile back there: beautiful dozens of roses and other flowers I collected dumpster diving in the days after Valentines day.

Most of the flowers become compost, but some become money saving post-valentines gifts to mommy from son: