sofi's to goldengate

when the superhero ride continued west of detroit on august 29th i stayed behind. laughing moon also left the ride that day and went back to superhero heartquarters, which is housed at song and spirit institute for peace in berkley, just north of detroit. i stayed several more nights at the home os sofi and nils, some local superheroes, making trips out into the city to continue with some solo superhero work and exploration.

one place i volunteered a couple times is spirit farm. this is where the tearful goodbye circles for me and laughing moon took place. the work i helped a little with that day was in moving wood chips that were being incorporated in a 'will allen style' compost pile. this method is really becoming popular it seems. i went back to spirit farm on two volunteer days in the following week to help out. one day i was paid ten dollars to cut all the grass around the farm and church with a lawn mower. it was meditative work and cool to get paid a little. the man who usually does it was very grateful for the help. other things i helped out with at the farm included watering the compost pile, removing lower leaves of kale and chard and feeding them to the chickens, collecting eggs, spreading wood chips in the hoop house, and harvesting herbs.

on my last day with the superhero ride i teamed up with caroline, who is managing occupy detroit's compost at the michigan ave. site. we layered in a bunch of straw and left it with a thick layer of cover material on top. we used some wonderful, sturdy, dried stems of plants growing nearby in this wild lot to lend more support to the freestanding walls.
at sofi's house i did a lot of cooking and cleaning and maintained the rotating drum compost system. it was a pleasure to get back into making food the way i like to after not having many opportunities during the superhero ride. this is one of my addictions...

on the way to my next destination, in the northern edge of detroit, i noticed an herb garden where a woman was working. i stopped to talk to her and she invited me in to pick some herbs. a whole plastic shopping bag was filled with treats such as sage, oregano, basil, thyme, mint, parsley, tarragon, tomatoes, and a little lemon balm. when i told cheryl about the trip i am on, which i consider to be my mission at this time, she told me that the herb garden is her mission from god. she cares for all these healing plants and increases the size of the beds a little each year. eventually maybe the lawn will be reduced to paths. she was not doing her own composting and i arranged to come back another morning and build her a pile. when i went back with my new friend shane a couple days later she said she had a bunch of errands to run and it wouldn't work to do it that day... oh well. i do hope that shane can form an alliance with her and maybe help her with the composting.
shane is who invited me to the Goldengate Restoration Project. we met at Spirit Farm, where he was part of a permaculture course in the summer and has been volunteering since. living at the restoration project, he has been very active in the garden and other priority projects to help the community towards thriving self-sufficiency. he helped me cook a couple meals and we got to know each other a little bit during my stay. he is a superhero who is strongly supporting positive change in detroit.

sharpening loppers with a file in the
fireweed universe-city shop

so i stayed a couple nights at the Goldengate Restoration Project (also the site of what is called Fireweed Universe-City and Dr. Bob's), where a few other superheroes from the ride had stayed before. one drop wrote about it in her blog. four french girls who are part of this exciting project arrived shortly after i did. i went with them on a mission to buy organic foods at the natural food store in nearby Ferndale, then went along with them to avalon, where they were able to use the wifi and we all enjoyed the wholesome community atmosphere of this popular destination for positive people. there i ran into an old friend i'd known briefly several years ago in seattle! it was nice to re-meet after so long. she was visiting with friends and told me about this project they were going to visit called the powerhouse project. the french girls and i proceeded to visit the sites where i'd been working and a couple in addition that were near spirit farm. one of them was the impressive brother nature farm.