burlington to jeff and lori's

just before leaving burlington i stopped by the coop. there i sat down to eat lunch outside by the bikes, where there are tables and many people socializing. it is a simple, yet rich community space. a guy came to sit in a chair near me and said hello. then, "hey! look at this!" on the bottom of the metal grating of the chair's seat was a light brown praying mantis. he wanted to relocate it but was affraid to grab it with his hands, thinking it might bite him. after he made a vain attempt to coax it onto his i-phone, i went ahead and got it in my hands and we brought it over to a bed of flowers nearby.
conversation struck up and this bright young fellow, ryan, began offering me food from his lunch; baguette, avocado, chevre, olives... which i gratefully accepted as i still had some room after eating the leftovers from yuko and greg's. all sorts of things came up. ryan is volunteering at a place called the root center, ,where they currently have the three sisters planted in triangular configuration in raised beds, not in mounds as was traditional. he said was a hula hoop club at the university and he would see these 'faeries' walking around playing with hoops during the school year. he also told me, without me mentioning my interest in song circles, that there is a kirtan every monday at a park in the area! after all this i was beginning to consider staying a bit longer...
closing remarks included his that, "it's all about imitating the ultimate heart." wow.

at the library i asked a cyclist couple sitting outside if they could direct me to the credit union. the girl made a valliant attempt to find it on her phone. these folks are from montreal and had come on a little bicycle tour around new england. couchsurfing of course... cool to meet them.

didn't find the credit union to change my canadian bills to u.s. and decided i had better get on my way to hitching down to N.Y. state. i ode highway 7 a little ways out of burlington and found a decent hitching spot where i could stand in the shade of a friendly tree.

1st ride: sean, teacher and dj

said he composts by burying food scraps on the ground. sometimes he incorporates some dry grass clippings.
said a professor at the college he attended used to share about the buddha and at that time he was introduced to meditation. he does not have a regular practice now, but sees the value in it.

2nd ride: chuck, beef producer, parents are lamb producers

"you can't reason with a sheep." he says. "you can reason with a cow."
he was on his way to pick up a steer from the place that it had been butchered and bring it to the place where he would be roasting it whole for a big party. they had built a contraption for it that uses leverage to flip or raise and lower the huge carcass over the fire. it is an experiment to see if he can pull off this kind of event. it could help him to earn about twice as much from a cow he raises. about $5000 from an event where people pay $7 each for a meal, instead of $2500 earned from sale to a market. during the drive he made a call to the owner of bread and butter farm to invite him to the event.
he also has a business where he sells the grassfed beef from around 50 other producers in the region to markets in new york city and boston mostly. sounds like a big player in the nutrient dense, local food movement.

3rd ride: dan

first thing he says to me is, 'it is good to see someone traveling around by bicycle. unfortunately we've gotten so far away from our work... you have to drive."

and on to, "i'd like to go back to the old ways, but people didn't live as long..."

and i liked this saying. "do what you gotta do in a day."

4th ride: bruce, engineer

it took me a long time to get a ride onto highway four, a stretch of highway going vermont to new york where it is illegal to ride on the vermont side. finally this guy picked me up.
he was of the mind that one could make the most of their intelligence by attending university. it would be the way to make a career out of a passion. he kept saying how it seemed like i was living in the wrong time and whatnot. i was glad i could be an example to him of someone with very radical ideas and ways. i told him there are others with the same interests as me, despite his doubts. that he had picked me up shows that the world i envision is possible.

i rode the rest of the way through beautiful new york farming country to the home of jeff and lori, a little north of hudson falls.
i met jeff and lori at the carpenter's boat shop. jeff learned to build boats there and now has built some beautiful ones in this home where he lives with lori. she works as a holistic healer, primarily as a nutritionist, but incorporating other useful healing tools. she is really a shaman i think.
jeff was the most gracious host, very old fashioned in a way, and we visited much of the time. he is a gentle man and dedicated to doing his best in living love every day.