Daily Archives: November 7, 2015

Holidays, Jefferson County

Holiseason Events

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Samhain                                                                      Moon of the First Snow

Over to Conifer Mountain for a Christmas craft boutique at the Conifer High School. Bespoke soup kits, mountain honey, glass cutting boards with mountain scenes, pine cone wreaths and bowls cut from 2 year dead aspen. Bob, who made the bowls, says, “If you get the wood too soon, it’s all white. If it’s too old, it’s crumbly.” He has, he says, a garage full of aspen trunks neighbors have brought him. In another room Mountain Mama Knits, pottery of various sorts, crystals, Three Hands Traders with handmade leather books and 1790’s wooden portable writing desks, quill pens and powdered ink.

Kate’s on her way to the Episcopal Church for another one. Not me. One leg wobbling shopping event a day for me, thanks.

It’s in the very low 50’s/high 40’s today so the snow has begun to melt. The next few days will be good ones for fire mitigation work. The front has to be finished before the third week of November because the solar panels may go on then. Always Chipper, LLC, will chip our slash and cut down trees I can’t fell.

Feeling that weekend malaise setting in. A powerful urge to stop whatever seems intentional and watch TV. Maybe even go to a holiday craft show?

German safety goggles, knit hat and Honolua hoodie. The perfect fashion statement for Shadow Mountain lumberjacks.

 

Family, Jefferson County, Mountains, Third Phase

Down the Mountain

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Samhain                                                                   Moon of the First Snow

Date night. Kate and I found a new restaurant, The Bistro. It’s between Conifer and Evergreen on Hwy. 73. Excellent food, a piano man and a wonderful dining companion.

20151106_174457We both agreed last night that our move here has been good. Black Mountain Drive fits our lives extremely well. The surrounding geography is varied and beautiful. We’re closer to the grandkids.

Getting older has been wonderful. Sure, there’s the pain and the cancer, yes, but the joy of time together, time we can order as we wish, is delightful. We’re living into our highest and best selves.

 

Great Work, Politics, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Sierra Club

Yes

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Samhain                                                                             Moon of the First Snow

Keystone rejected. Booyah! Bill McKibben wrote a while back that the amount of oil slated to pass through the Keystone pipeline would be enough to push us well over the 2 degree centigrade warming some folks still see as the maximum allowable. (My understanding is that 2 degrees is baked in and the key moves now are to keep us from going very far over that mark.)

Jeff Mirkley (D-Or) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) have introduced Keep It In the Ground legislation. I like the phrase. It’s short and to the point. Fossil fuels not mined or fracked or pumped cannot add to the carbon load of our beleaguered atmosphere.

Momentum seems to be shifting, at least so it seems to me. Big coal is on the defensive. Keep It In the Ground shifts the conversation. 350.org has organized a new mass movement for climate change. The Great Work has begun to capture more and more attention. The rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline signals, I hope, a willingness to challenge big energy in specific instances, not just in rhetoric.

On the homefront Kate and I shifted our money out of energy stocks earlier this year. We’re installing solar panels.  If each of us align our lives as we can, to the Great Work-creating a sustainable human presence on earth, then those larger societal trends will have a strong base of political support. No action by any one of us will stop global warming; but, no action by all of us will cook our grandchildren.

Too, individual actions like owning an electric car, supporting President Obama’s climate initiatives, adding solar panels, taking money away from big oil and big coal, can have a ripple effect. As others know what you’ve done, they will consider what they might do. And, even if they do nothing more than change a vote, support candidates with strong environmental policies, then you’ve begun to create the kind of math that can change things.