Quality Works By Example

As my regular readers know, I do not write for today, tomorrow or for yesterday. I only write for this moment, upon which all life, past, present and future, hinges. Life, achieves balance, or dies out, we can force it to become neither "sustainable" or "permanent", trouble-free or enduring no matter how hard we might try. This moment, is always a moving target, now and now, and now are seemingly sequential, but all writers know that time is malleable. Just as Heisenberg expressed that at any moment you can say where, exactly, electrons might turn up in their orbits, but you could not, also, reliably say when, or if you isolated one in time, you could never say where it might be. this also holds true for exploiting being in the moment. By the time I would tell you how to do it, there would be a series of instructions that masquerades as sequential. Those who use the relaxation response, (explained at length in the book of the same name)find that on a moment, they can call up the deep peace and sense of utter relaxation and harmony, allowing them to deal with otherwise stressful events in day to day life.

During my growing up, from the early sixties through about 1984, I learned Zen Koans, was raised as a Unitarian Universalist, developed my own path to shamanism and I spent time at half a dozen yoga ashrams and institutes. By the time I heard of the relaxation response, I had years of informal and formal training in mind body unity, exercise and balance. I theorized that this terminology was as good as any for what can take place when we take time to consciously relax our brains and bodies. Stillness on our inner levels creates harmonious waves in the outer ones. This is why some people seem to be constantly "on edge", randomly careening about caught, destroying things rather than creating them. It is not so much karma, it is just a need for tweaking their world view. The more they strive to get out of their "fate", chasing the cheese of a distant future, they become immediately caught in the trap of self destruction or suffering. The stillness within us echoes out through our relationships, our ways of making a living and our ability to help others in ways that get very difficult to measure.

I have heard that a smile can heal a thousand wounds. I believe that. This week I meticulously described the process for making char and charging it with local resources, to double agricultural production. I would normally cover the same material during the three hour class that I offer, but I wanted to help someone who may not have had the money to pay. for class schedules, or to schedule a group of twelve or more at your location, please contact me. My rig for making char is able to travel. At the class site, all we need is five to ten gallons (about 20 to 40 liters) of dry sawdust, about a quart of rain water, some local compost, a fire pit and enough firewood to have a bonfire for several hours. The classes work best if there is a potluck at the end. This gives participants time to make some of their own to make sure they get to own the process. This material gives you the ability to love soil back to optimal performance, it sequesters carbon and stabilizes soil moisture.

I am pledging to send char to the headwaters above Austin, Texas. they are ground zero this week for the effects of climate change. If we utilize char on a large scale, we could stem the tide of climate catastrophe. What we seem to lack is the will. There is no reason that char did not make it into the current farm bill. In my experience, quality works by example and invites reciprocation. Taking steps to heal the rift between humankind and nature needs to be out focus for at least a few dozen generations, just to find out if we can tame the carbon footprint that we blew out of scale over the past hundred years. In the now, we have the power to change course, in a huge way. Doubling agricultural production allows so many changes to come about. We can reduce acres under cultivation and yet still raise more food. We can begin to produce larger amounts of food closer to population centers, to increase health, reduce costs and kick the habit of petroleum. since char can hold up to six times its own weight in water, it would reduce negative effects of both drought and flood. Once char gets colonized by microbes, the water holding capacity is increased again, to more than double that amount.

I am available for classes in making char and although I need to make a living, teachers never get rich. I can work as a biochar consultant for far less than anyone who might want to, or claim to do with fertilizers and hazardous chemicals. Char facilitates healthy plants which are naturally resistant to pests. If you are at all unsure, run your own test plot, treating half with char and leave half alone. I guarantee you will want more for future growing seasons!
I am always willing to help. Contact me through my e-mail. tnsaladino(number fourty-two)@hotmail.com or send payments for char to that as my account number through Paypal. ECO-Tours of Wisconsin is also raising funds to send char to the headwaters above where the terrible flooding was this week. Send money if you can! This is a teachable moment.

Pagan Sanctuary Update

We are earnestly beginning the fund-raising cycle for purchasing a Pagan Sanctuary. ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. has begun collecting monies for a single location that will be central to Northeast Wisconsin and visible to the larger community. A place where nature is encouraged to recover and pagans are welcome to perform their rites. We are limiting this area to only non-invasive activities and there will be no permanent structures allowed, other than perhaps a trail, circle or perhaps a few cairns to signify solar and lunar events.

donations can be made directly for this purpose at ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. 1445 Porlier Street Green Bay, WI 54301-3334 any donations made should also include Pagan Sanctuary on either the letter or check. You can still use our paypal account, tnsaladino42Ahotmail.com or you can make arrangements for a direct transfer to our account by e mail. contacting our director and guide, Tony C. Saladino would also be a way to make sure that your donations go to the right account.

There had been some talk about locating another gas station on the site, but the public support for some other use of the property was overw3helming, located, as it is about half a mile (in each direction) from two other gas stations. This particular location is especially beneficial because it sits between two banks atop one of the highest hills in our town. This property was also the site of the former Catholic diocese headquarters. as such it was built on an ancient pagan sacred space and is highly appropriate for continued use as a sacred space. ECO-Tours is also looking for people who want to help with fund-raising for this project in and around their own communities. Not every church has walls and this one will be for like-minded individuals and groups that just need a place to gather.

For privacy, we will be encircling the area in native plantings and to encourage others to take a moment to just sit in nature and relax, we will have a few benches.