[Cob] RE: Sustainability

[Rob Hayes]

You know I'm glad you didn't take "the fifth" Mary Lou, but be careful when
planning to be torn apart.  That planning for failure thing comes in
to play.  
I like your notion of "each one teaches one" and avoiding too many 
seminars seems a likable enough notion too.
I'm thinking of all the millions who were recently homeless due
to all the storms and EQEQ'srom here to Pakistan.  I'm just about 
ready to hit the road to go and build some cob "chicken houses" just to 
show off how small ststructuresould be done.  The building codes here might not 
allow what I'd accept as housing, but I'm ready to talk about the chickens
& while I'm waiting for them to be delivered - just move in.
This brings up "thriving skills" as being prpreferableo "survival skills".
You might very well be able to make your life happen here with your non-dominant foot 
most days.  After we're done counting and covering the dead, after some tragedy,
cooperative skills have continually emerged and endured.
Check out more cooperative projects and poponderingsike those from:

hthttp/wwwwwmsmartmobsom/archive/cat_alalwaysonapanopticonorooperation_amplifier.hthtml
 "Smart mobs emerge when communication and computing technologies amplify human 
talents for cooperation. The impacts of smart mob technology already appear to 
be both beneficial and destructive, used by some of its earliest adopters to 
support democracy and by others to coordinate terrorist attacks. The 
technologies that are beginning to make smart mobs possible are mobile 
communication devices and pervasive computing - inexpensive microprocessors 
embedded in everyday objects and environments. Already, governments have fallen, 
youth subcultures have blossomed from Asia to Scandinavia, new industries have 
been born and older industries have launched furious counterattacks."

I might not be considered "dregs" but I've been in that situation where I couldn't 
afford the bus fare out of town before the storm hit too, just like alalotf folks in 
NOLA before Katrina and elsewhere.  Without our cooperative tip we might not know 
where & when to go next.  Some happy practice might lead us down the road well enough.  
Isn't that why the world is round and you can't see the end of the road you're on?  

It seems as if UmUmatilland Morrow Counties in eastern Oregon as well as part 
of Benton County in the State of Washington might be a good place to build a few
cob chicken houses.  The ininternetccess might still be free there for a while.
Check this out at:
hthttp/wwwwwmsmartmobsom/archive/2005/10/22/_nearly_700_sqsquthtmlJust make sure your mud has
drainage and an overhang.
------------------------------

Message: 8
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 09:52:27 -0500
From: "Mary Lou McFarland" <lolouiethefifthohotmailom>
Subject: [Cob] RE: Sustainability
To: CoCoblistedeatechom

I hadn't checked my e-mail for several days  and was surprised at the course 
of events on the sustainability issue.  No matter how we feel about a topic, 
I think it is important that we remember there is a human being on the other 
end of that posting.  Everybody has bad days or haven't been exposed to 
another side of an issue, but that is no cause for blasting them.  This 
should be a safe place to set forth ideas, projects and poponderings..no 
egos allowed.  If it were such a place than I think we would have a much 
more lively interaction than we do.  So, with that in mind, here's my 
thought for the day...  Things haven't improved much around here and I have 
given up hope on ever making it to any cob workshops as they are usually on 
the coasts or Mayne island.   I also think that in the current political 
climate, survival skills are of the utmost importance, especially 
considering that at last count there were over 11,000 dead in New Orleans.  
In the event of a tragedy, I know it will be up to me to take care of 
myself.  I am one of the dregs of society and no one is going to save me.  
With that in mind, I try to suck up as much knowledge as I possibly can.  It 
doesn't matter if it is cob, cocordwoodr ststrawbaleetc. because I will have 
to use what means are at hand.  I also think that it is important for other 
people to have this knowledge, even if they don't use it.  for this 
information to be widespread, we will have to get away from the seminar as 
the principal method of hands on training.  What I would like to see happen 
is for everyone who knows how to build cob to go 50-100 miles from home and 
teach a few people how to build and then those few students go 50-100 miles 
from their home and each one of them teach a few people and on and on until 
we have networked the country with people who have this rudimentary  
survival skill.  And it isn't enough that we know how to build.  It should 
be common knowledge how to save seed, grow food and preserve it as well as 
some animal husbandry and how to distill water.  I took a business workshop 
once and one of the big themes was that in order to survive as a business, 
then you must plan for failure as well as success.  I apply it to every 
facet of my life and it has saved me more than once.
There it is , I'm done. and anyone who wants to tear me apart may do so.





------------------------------


		
__________________________________ 
Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click.
http://farechase.yahoo.com