My style of activism...

My style of activism evolved over a long time of trial and error. There’s no one way that will fit all situations and I’m sure I’ll adapt and continue to evolve my way as times and conditions change. If I were to suggest one thing that will serve all conditions and times, it would be the act of complete thought.

All too often alleged activists will only go to the woods to protest whatever the cause of the day is and go back to the comfort of the city. I’ve seen this a lot. They forget the loggers may have grown up with that trade, as did miners and other villains of the environment, and support themselves and their families that way. The anarchists/activists mentality is to clog up the works at the last minute and wonder why they get beaten by people who want to get to work and locked up by cops who would rather be sitting in Starbucks. Maybe if the anarchists/activists used the available technology to get ahead of the issue and gather information on upcoming issues they wouldn’t be so far behind.

Let me point out that I am totally against clear cutting, strip mining and the hot pursuit of more fossil fuels without the equal pursuance to more sensible energy resources. I am against raiding public lands for any resource, for any reason. Since I am on the resource subject I want to remind everyone that the only reason there is a need for more resources is because there is more people yet I’ve never heard birth control ever brought up as a form of activism.

I’ve done my share of demonstrations and hell raising but it never really had the positive effect as when I educated people with information and example. I do reserve the right to go back to hell raising after I have exhausted all other intelligent options and have been circumvented by shady politicians and their lawyers. Rumors of me using explosives and high powered rifles at long distances are entirely false as are dumping large amounts of laxatives in coffee and food for authorities policing demonstrations.

I want to point out again that the opposition is intelligent, well informed, well funded, disciplined, organized, punctual, foresightful, focused and work as a collective.   Generally speaking, the activist movement is almost none of the above. That’s not a slam, it’s the truth and big business will continue to have the upper hand as the activist brag that they don’t have cell phones or get on the internet. Please wake up. That’s right people, someone has to be the leader and there must be order. Hard to fathom, isn’t it.

I finally got to the point where I realized I was wasting my time with groups and the best way for me to be the most efficient was to do things myself. I didn’t have to wait on people that slept till mid morning try and find people who said they were going to participate but went surfing instead or whatever. I just made a plan and got busy. Coming from poor people whose main concern was food and shelter, I took up pollution and farming as my activist passions. I grew up being able to drink from streams and rivers and watched as those same places became poisonous to drink from, thanks to mining logging, modern farming and industrial waste. I watched as the partnership of government and big business orchestrated everyday life in a way that people had little time to do anything but live to work and pay the bills that come with the American dream. As a hobby and for side money I started using reclaimed materials from construction sites to make furniture. I’ve been in construction since 1972 and I can tell you it is a severely wasteful industry. So between farming and construction I started showing examples of how things could be done to make changes and was able to give an accurate account of man hours per project. That’s part of complete thought. It’s easier to sell an idea of change to intelligent people when you have first hand logistical information. Intelligent people will ask questions and want proof.

The truth of the matter is we live in a world of predators and if you don’t keep yourself able to defend your self you get plundered and whatever else the invaders want to do to you. This country isn’t about to just lay down and go peace out and get invaded so therefor there will continue to be a grid that will support an infrastructure that will consume a resource of fuel. Get over it. We can push and educate people to the benefits of change but until then its a good idea to use present technology to further your cause. The following pictures are of projects I did and some required the use of electricity and fossil fuel. I did the best I could in the ratio of grid and fuel use to productivity.

Here’s a garden project I did in South Alabama. This house was moved from a military base (recycled house?) and placed on what used to be a trailer park. All of the digging involved was done by hand in all of the planted areas, by me alone. People from local environmental groups that were looking for a place to do organic gardening said they would come out but flaked out instead.

I just had the usual stuff like lettuce, corn, kale, spinach, corn and squash growing.

You can see the different stages the soil was in.

All in all it turned out good. It was a difficult area  to garden in because it would have hard frosts and hurricanes.

These next pictures are from a nudist camp I lived at in Florida. My girlfriend and I took areas that were grown over and made them into gardens.

This is a trash pile of rotten wood decks with assorted garbage underneath. We had to cut back the thorns and move the trash before we could start the transformation.    Nothing here was worth salvaging.

After scrounging around for old blocks, rocks and bricks we now had material to build our tiered garden. Lucky for us we also had an old stable next to us that had plenty of composted manure. Mmmm.

This was the back of our love shack before the garden process. Yep, more trash to get rid of, more thorns to cut back and a lot of digging to do.

The dirt I dug up went over the fence to the left to form a flower bed.

This is a picture of the garden area where the wood decks were and the back of the shack after the digging and laying the old bricks I found.

Not too shabby? The area behind the coral rock wall was used to grow tomatoes. All of the coral rock came from the immediate area.

This picture above mess is a burm of coral rock and weeds. It used to have several tiers of rotten wood decking on it. Under the deck was layers of old ground cloth that was covered with mold.

Why do people insist on using this stuff?

This is what the South side of that area looks like after a little digging. You’ll see a stair way to the left. Plenty of rock for tiers here.

Here is the North side of the hill with the same stairs to the right. All of this work was done by me and in about 40 man hours.

Think about that. What could a few people have done in that time?

I looked at the area and saw completed gardens in a short future and got busy.

This is the entire wall, facing East. Not too bad for one 51 year old guy in a week.

See why I don’t have patience for whiney young hippies that just want to bitch? You think the anarchist types would do this? I doubt it.

This next set of pictures is from a project that involves a log cabin that was built before the civil war. Originally the cabin was built in Tennessee and moved to the Atlanta area. It was taken apart, cataloged trucked as lumber and reassembled. This was done by a couple in their early seventies who were very “hands on” people.

Of course they had help and they were not rich so much of the help was volunteers. This was another recycled home that gave more life to the logs that were already close to 200 years old.

My part was to make crooked doors and windows for crooked openings and to make use of what we had outside to terrace the hillside and make walkways.

The house is another great example of what and how materials can be used over and again with just a little foresight and labor. Tis is a picture of some stairs built out of old railroad ties and bricks.

This is a picture of a retaining wall made from hand cut blocks of sandstone that were salvaged from another site. These blocks are over 100 years old.

Everything here was reclaimed or recycled.

Recycling old materials has its risks. The husband, Leo, recently died rewiring on old well pump. He was a master electrician and we aren’t sure exactly what happened but his loud style of anti establishment activism and his leadership by example is greatly missed.

The next set of pictures are examples of how nice furniture from recycled or reclaimed woods from construction sites can look. Yes it did take the use of electricity and fossil fuels in the making and transportation but the alternative was to let it get thrown in the dumpster.

This a dresser that started off as cypress beams that were 12 inches wide and 5 inches thick and 10 feet long. I had to let them dry for 2 months before I could start milling them into boards.

This is the finished product. I used beeswax to let the drawers slide freely instead of using modern mechanisms. The hinges are from an estate sale where the husband kept all kinds of old screws and hinges. The mirror and stained glass were things we came across cheap.

This is called a sideboard. A piece that normally sits in a hallway near a door to where one throws keys, mail and whatever else as they come in the home. This one is made from oak flooring that was on it’s way to the dumpster.

No metal hardware and the drawers waxed to slide smoothly.

This is the kid’s version and made from the same oak flooring.As you can see from the square it’s just over 2 feet tall.

This is a cabinet made specifically for a massage therapist. It’s made from  Brazilian cherry flooring.

I know you wanted to see the inside.   If you look to the left you can see stacks of more flooring that was going to be thrown out that’s about to become more furniture.

This is a mantled mirror made of Haitian mahogany. Six large boards were bought for a project in a mansion and the owner changed her mind as the wood was being delivered. It couldn’t be returned and I was asked if I wanted it. Hell yeah!

This is a kid’s trunk made from mahogany flooring.  As you can see, furniture and other household articles can be made from reclaimed and recycles and look as classy as anything built from new woods.

The next pictures are structures that can be quickly built inexpensively and with minimal unskilled labor. They are great for areas that have severe storms in that the wind goes around them with little resistance, unlike the large flat walls of normal construction. Since there are no seams or joints in the construction the force applied to the exterior is distributed around the structure.

They have a steel skeleton with concrete and cement skin. These materials will do almost whatever you want and with proper sealing, last generations. I think this is an excellent to solution for affordable housing with a minimal impact on the environment.

This is the next phase of construction where the first layer of cement is placed over the steel bars and wire mesh. Three feet of this one is underground. It has a concrete floor.

After the last coat of stucco and a couple coats of acrylic masonry paint, we can call it finished. Even with a dark coat of paint on the outside it was fairly cool inside which is great for South Florida.

I built this dome in Bat Cave North Carolina, a town near Asheville. This gives proof that a stucco structure will do well in a Northern climate. This one is about 3 feet underground. In the coldest part of Winter you can put a blanket over the door and heat the inside with a few candles. The dome structure built of saplings in front of it is a Sweat Lodge.

I built this dome in Villa de Leyva, Colombia, South America. It overlooks the canopy of a rainforest and sits on a mountain side. This one is totally above the ground.

This is the same dome and as you see the inside can look very nice. Shelves and even beds and sitting areas can be molded into the walls however you want. This one has a painted floor with mosaic of tile.

I built this dome in Candler N.C. not too far from the one in Bat Cave. This one is about 4 feet underground and has Goddess images from all over the world carved into the walls. Yes I can carve concrete. (Much easier when wet.)

This is a sphere I built in Villa de Leyva Colombia. It’s a hallow ball, half of which is underground. At ground level there is a floor that separates the two levels. in order to get to the top level you must climb through a hole in the center of the floor. This structure is 6 meters wide and 6 meters high.

The stones that make the wall were carried from a river about 50 meters in front of it.

With simple structures like these and practical farming people can live comfortable and healthy lives that are of little impact on the environment. My style of activism is to go out and show how change can be made easily and of little costs. I gave people proof by examples and that’s what they need to see if we are to shift the mainstream mentality to a sustainable society.

The everyday person hears and sees enough negativity in their day. They want to hear and see positive things. They want to see the beauty of nature and enjoy good health for themselves and their loved ones. The proactive activists shows the way and leads by example.

Big business and big government wants the people to think life is unsafe and impossible without them. I have proven many times that is not true. So can you. Pick an issue you are passionate about and get busy. You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish on your own and if more people do it the movement will pick up momentum and eventually it will just be normal. Imagine that.