With a Little Help from My Friends

My lovely friend, Gretchen Elsner is a seamstress/designer, artist, mother, adventurer, soft electonics engineer, artist, author and more. She is also, for the present, stuck. Stuck in Georgia trying to find a creative way to get back to Canada where she will finally be able to reunite with her son.

Gretchen has an overview of her situation listed here in her blog. In order to find a creative and resourceful way out of her current situation, she is trying to construct an awesome solar powered vehicle to provide a home for herself, as well as find a way to work her way back to being closer to her son in Canada.


Which brings me to the reason for this, my post....

If you have mechanical or immigration advice, or know someone who does, I would ask you to please contact her and give her a hand. Wouldn't we all like to see that solar powered van work in the end and not break an axle or something en route? Wouldn't we all want to help a mother down on her luck reunite with her child? We can all use a little help from our friends now and then.

If you'd like to help out, I suggest writing Gretchen a comment on her blog or firing her an email at egretion@gmail.com. Also if you have any of the following materials she needs, or know someone who might, please let her know:

• incinerating toilet
• 1/4" plate steel, 6" wide, any lengths
• 270 watt solar panels (8-12)
• tyvek / 1/2" Dow insulating foam
• brake light covers from an antique car (1950's Chevy Belair)
• 1' x 5' sliding, double paned windows, 5 of them
• submersible water pump
• a small wood burning stove, such as is found on boats

Thank-you for reading and I hope you can help make Gretchen's dream a reality!

Sometimes life gets busy

Sometimes life in large blocks the path!

I just wanted to check in to say that I know I haven`t posted in a while. Events in real life with work and family have been taking up my time, but I haven`t forgotten about this blog and look forward to coming back, sharing and connecting with you all again soon!

Slow Food Bike Tour - Yeah!

The start of the journey.

If you long to leaisurely bike meandering country paths, sample homemade pies, visit local dairy farms, see where cranberries come from, and even stroll through hazlenut groves that harken to scenes in Lord of the Rings, then you need to look no further than the Slow Food Vancouver cycle tours. We decided to go whole hog this year and do both tours of Agassiz and Chilliwack.

The tours are family friendly. I brought my own daughter both days, and we all enjoyed it. Here are some photos from our biking adventures en campagne.

Agassiz:

I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;
I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha’n’t be gone long.—You come too.*

It almost feels like flying.

Wondering what this is? A cow massager! No dairy barn worth its dirt would be complete without one.

The deep silent hazlenut wood seemed to stretch on forever.
This one is worth clicking to view larger!

Now this is what I call a greenhouse!

Rows of giant sunflowers.

Chillliwack:

You know you are in farmland when...

Nothing like that Chilliwack corn.

The wind at your back and the road under your pedals.

One of many lovely old barns along the way.

Edible flower cupcakes!

I’m going out to fetch the little calf
That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha’n’t be gone long.—You come too.*

* Above poetry from The Pasture by Robert Frost.

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