Conference, Home
Nov. 12th, 2007 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenThe conference was a good one. Went down to Delaware for Between the Worlds, went to sessions, met people. Got to meet ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
oakmouse and JMG in person -- had many great conversations about everything and nothing, just like old friends although we only met over the internet last spring. Favorite sessions were JMG's and also Mark Stavish's class on plant alchemy. Both simple and complex, alchemy. Don't know as I'll do anything with it, but got a book on it to read.
I talked for a bit with this lovely young lady Brenda, after the Chi Gong class. She's a yoga instructor, but not to aware of things like how much water is used to produce plastic. No questions plastic has many great and important uses, like for medical equipment! But hardly needed for bottling water, for instance. I'm thinking about getting a couple of those stainless steel water bottles... eminently re-usable.
We also talked about stuff like gaining self-confidence through exercise -- learning to use your body in the way you intend can lead some folks to have the confidence to try out other activities. Knowledge, practice and experience lead to having less fear. Even knowledge can lead to having less fear -- that's why I read about different things, whether big things like disaster preparedness or 'lesser' things like weaving patterns. When I was a kid taking karate, the idea was to learn self-defense so you wouldn't have to use it. Basically, having the self-confidence bred of hours of practice led to a different way of holding yourself, of showing more confidence on the outside -- also meant most of us were more likely to not do anything stupid. Rule #1 was run away if you can. Rule #2 was give them the money if you couldn't (assuming they're armed and you aren't). Rule #3 was that if you had to fight, fight dirty. Because you have to be really, really, really good to use martial arts effectively. Other folks added talking in there... we know people who have talked their way out of being injured.
Same applies to fire drills, first aid training, and other emergency preparedness exercises. You hope you never need it, but if you've practiced it, you're less likely to panic when something happens.
Anyway, while I enjoyed the sessions and see the importance of holding the various magical, meditational, chanting, prayer, etc. sessions, one comment from Brenda struck me in particular. She said she was glad she'd taken the Chi Gong class because she'd been falling asleep and was now awake. Got me to thinking about other sorts of classes that would be useful -- not magically perhaps, but every day useful.
Like an herbal/plant track for instance:
- a dozen medically useful herbs, how to use them, how to grow and harvest them and/or how to find them in the wild (with education on proper and respectful wildcrafting)
- a dozen magically useful herbs, with same type of info as for the above class
- gardening in pots
- gardening outdoors
- gardening in a greenhouse
- working with fruit and nut trees
- permaculture on a small scale
And tracks on useful stuff, like leatherworking, simple metalworking (non-forge stuff), sewing (at least for hemming and repairs), knitting, crocheting, making soup, maybe quilting, stuff like that. Breadbaking and/or making pie crusts would be good too. Canning. Some people really don't know much about basic home skills and some want to learn but have no one to teach them. Learning from books can be iffy sometimes... I think soupmaking would be good because there are and aren't 'rules' for cooking -- different foods take different amounts of time (potatoes take longer than onions for instance), but it doesn't have to all be as fussy for timing as making a souffle. Or some people freak out over having the exact amounts and the exact ingredients specified in the recipe... I didn't include weaving because most weaving is too complex for most mixed subject events - I could be wrong of course :)
Info on repairs should be included somehow, whether in each of the classes or separately or both... Too often people throw things away because they need repair, and some of those repairs are quite simple.
A tai chi/chi gong/movement track would be good. There was another session at the conference with movement involved, sort of dancing/magic thing... sorry, didn't go to it so I don't have the details handy. In fact, took a nap in the room during one of the session times, as the brain was full and I was tired -- had been planning to go to the lucid dreaming/body of light session, but figured that wasn't a good place to be if I fell asleep :D
An outdoor track with nature walks, archery, tracking, etc. could be useful too. Yes, tracking is usually part of hunting, but you don't have to hunt with a weapon -- it's a useful skill for photographers and nature lovers who want to see more than plants when they're out and about. Also useful for knowing when to go in a different direction, like when you spot some bear scat... wouldn't it be good to know if it's fresh or not?
Sounds more like an SCA event than a new-age/alternative religions event I suppose, but I think these sorts of things might be of interest to everyone and so ought to be open to everyone.
Ah well. I don't know as there'd be enough folks interested in something like this to pull it off, either as one event or several. Still, worth thinking about....
Glad we went, but glad to be home again. What a pleasure seeing the stars and the Milky Way when we got home last night, in all their brilliant glory!
And the air is noticeably better here than at lower elevations.
The kitties were happy to see us too, and vice versa :)
Today, more emptying of boxes and trying to make space. Our grain and container supply came in this past Friday. One of the things I ordered was rolled oats (organic even), because we often have oatmeal for breakfast, so I thought storing larger amounts in re-usable containers would be better in the long run -- yes the containers are plastic but have great durability, and now we won't have to keep buying it in smaller containers... although I may save some of the cardboard containers we still have for storing non-food stuffs. Looking forward to trying out grinding wheat to make our own flour too -- I've heard that the bread is quite different made from fresh flour. And there was something else I ordered in a small quantity to try... can't remember what it was at the moment. Guess I'll find out later, when there's space up here for unpacking the shipment :D
Oil is around $98/barrel now.... glad we don't live at the house in Holyoke anymore! And I'm sure the new owners are glad they were able to get a nearly full tank of oil at the lower price we paid earlier in the year! The farm's heat is primarily a wood furnace, with oil backup. It's a good furnace, not one of those nasty short stack things. Burns cleanly, works well, and vents high up. Still going to insulate more though -- don't want to use any more wood than we have to.
oakmouse and JMG in person -- had many great conversations about everything and nothing, just like old friends although we only met over the internet last spring. Favorite sessions were JMG's and also Mark Stavish's class on plant alchemy. Both simple and complex, alchemy. Don't know as I'll do anything with it, but got a book on it to read. I talked for a bit with this lovely young lady Brenda, after the Chi Gong class. She's a yoga instructor, but not to aware of things like how much water is used to produce plastic. No questions plastic has many great and important uses, like for medical equipment! But hardly needed for bottling water, for instance. I'm thinking about getting a couple of those stainless steel water bottles... eminently re-usable.
We also talked about stuff like gaining self-confidence through exercise -- learning to use your body in the way you intend can lead some folks to have the confidence to try out other activities. Knowledge, practice and experience lead to having less fear. Even knowledge can lead to having less fear -- that's why I read about different things, whether big things like disaster preparedness or 'lesser' things like weaving patterns. When I was a kid taking karate, the idea was to learn self-defense so you wouldn't have to use it. Basically, having the self-confidence bred of hours of practice led to a different way of holding yourself, of showing more confidence on the outside -- also meant most of us were more likely to not do anything stupid. Rule #1 was run away if you can. Rule #2 was give them the money if you couldn't (assuming they're armed and you aren't). Rule #3 was that if you had to fight, fight dirty. Because you have to be really, really, really good to use martial arts effectively. Other folks added talking in there... we know people who have talked their way out of being injured.
Same applies to fire drills, first aid training, and other emergency preparedness exercises. You hope you never need it, but if you've practiced it, you're less likely to panic when something happens.
Anyway, while I enjoyed the sessions and see the importance of holding the various magical, meditational, chanting, prayer, etc. sessions, one comment from Brenda struck me in particular. She said she was glad she'd taken the Chi Gong class because she'd been falling asleep and was now awake. Got me to thinking about other sorts of classes that would be useful -- not magically perhaps, but every day useful.
Like an herbal/plant track for instance:
- a dozen medically useful herbs, how to use them, how to grow and harvest them and/or how to find them in the wild (with education on proper and respectful wildcrafting)
- a dozen magically useful herbs, with same type of info as for the above class
- gardening in pots
- gardening outdoors
- gardening in a greenhouse
- working with fruit and nut trees
- permaculture on a small scale
And tracks on useful stuff, like leatherworking, simple metalworking (non-forge stuff), sewing (at least for hemming and repairs), knitting, crocheting, making soup, maybe quilting, stuff like that. Breadbaking and/or making pie crusts would be good too. Canning. Some people really don't know much about basic home skills and some want to learn but have no one to teach them. Learning from books can be iffy sometimes... I think soupmaking would be good because there are and aren't 'rules' for cooking -- different foods take different amounts of time (potatoes take longer than onions for instance), but it doesn't have to all be as fussy for timing as making a souffle. Or some people freak out over having the exact amounts and the exact ingredients specified in the recipe... I didn't include weaving because most weaving is too complex for most mixed subject events - I could be wrong of course :)
Info on repairs should be included somehow, whether in each of the classes or separately or both... Too often people throw things away because they need repair, and some of those repairs are quite simple.
A tai chi/chi gong/movement track would be good. There was another session at the conference with movement involved, sort of dancing/magic thing... sorry, didn't go to it so I don't have the details handy. In fact, took a nap in the room during one of the session times, as the brain was full and I was tired -- had been planning to go to the lucid dreaming/body of light session, but figured that wasn't a good place to be if I fell asleep :D
An outdoor track with nature walks, archery, tracking, etc. could be useful too. Yes, tracking is usually part of hunting, but you don't have to hunt with a weapon -- it's a useful skill for photographers and nature lovers who want to see more than plants when they're out and about. Also useful for knowing when to go in a different direction, like when you spot some bear scat... wouldn't it be good to know if it's fresh or not?
Sounds more like an SCA event than a new-age/alternative religions event I suppose, but I think these sorts of things might be of interest to everyone and so ought to be open to everyone.
Ah well. I don't know as there'd be enough folks interested in something like this to pull it off, either as one event or several. Still, worth thinking about....
Glad we went, but glad to be home again. What a pleasure seeing the stars and the Milky Way when we got home last night, in all their brilliant glory!
And the air is noticeably better here than at lower elevations.
The kitties were happy to see us too, and vice versa :)
Today, more emptying of boxes and trying to make space. Our grain and container supply came in this past Friday. One of the things I ordered was rolled oats (organic even), because we often have oatmeal for breakfast, so I thought storing larger amounts in re-usable containers would be better in the long run -- yes the containers are plastic but have great durability, and now we won't have to keep buying it in smaller containers... although I may save some of the cardboard containers we still have for storing non-food stuffs. Looking forward to trying out grinding wheat to make our own flour too -- I've heard that the bread is quite different made from fresh flour. And there was something else I ordered in a small quantity to try... can't remember what it was at the moment. Guess I'll find out later, when there's space up here for unpacking the shipment :D
Oil is around $98/barrel now.... glad we don't live at the house in Holyoke anymore! And I'm sure the new owners are glad they were able to get a nearly full tank of oil at the lower price we paid earlier in the year! The farm's heat is primarily a wood furnace, with oil backup. It's a good furnace, not one of those nasty short stack things. Burns cleanly, works well, and vents high up. Still going to insulate more though -- don't want to use any more wood than we have to.
