Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Last email before the 3/22-23 primitive skills gathering, I hope

It will be great to meet you all up in Rainbow on Saturday! Here are some last-minute things to think about:

Directions / Ride Shares / Blankets Needed / What do you want to have happen?
  • []
  • I set up a mini rideshare & needs board where you can post rides needed and offered and blankets needed and offered.
  • Ev Lu is looking for a ride from Sorrento Valley.
  • With all the drivers we have headed this way, if you get to downtown Fallbrook we can find someone to help you get the rest of the way.
  • The number of people and guests you all have rsvp'd for is great! You're all welcome.
  • Outside of any blankets we need to borrow and rides we need to share, generally plan to be self-sufficient--bring what you would want (food and equipment) if you were camping by yourself for a weekend.
  • What would you like to have happen as a result of the gathering? I put up a post to comment on if you want to share ideas ahead of time.
Organizing Ourselves

Maybe around 3 p.m. or so we can meet and do some brainstorming about what we'd like to have happen. We've got some practiced people coming who'd probably like to share skills. And even if none of us have experience doing something, we can still try it out.

So someone might facilitate an open space meeting where we schedule in different affinity groups, workshops, and sharing circles we'd like to meet in in the short time we have. These can be anything you can think of: "how to shit in the woods", "meditating outside", "wilderness food and water", for example. If you have an interest, you can write it on a small piece of paper, announce it before the group, see who else wants to meet on that topic (or a close variation), and then post it on a cardboard board with a rough schedule of time slots on it. As more affinity groups get announced and placed we can sort out any time conflicts that come up.

That's a basic idea of how we might organize ourselves a bit--we'll see how things go and what other ideas you have.

Lightly, Prepare

Let's not demand too much []

We'll have a composting toilet of some kind set up. You can also help fertilize the trees more directly if you'd prefer.

Shelter & Sleeping

The weather is looking good. It may be warmer than 50F Saturday night.

At least a few people mentioned wanting to borrow a tent and / or a sleeping bag. So:
  • Marc B offered to/will bring a 4-person tent that could be set up as a place to retreat to.
  • There's a big tent platform we can put a tarp over.
  • If you can bring extra blankets and warm clothes for the two or three who might want them, please do (and perhaps mention that you are bringing them).
  • However: most everyone will probably be happy (as long as they're warm enough) just sleeping on a tarp on top of some of the tall grass.
  • We also have a firepit to sleep near.
  • And it's possible someone might make a debris hut to stay warm in without needing any blankets or extra clothes!
  • The site is mostly steep hill, not a big grassy field. There's still plenty of room for sleeping places, but you'll get to hunt for them a bit if you don't want to be next to many others.
Photography!
If you'd like to take some pictures, please do--I'd like to have more for the sdprim photo feed but I like not being the photographer. We'll ask and see if anyone does not want their picture taken. There are two somewhat serious photographers coming already from among []'s friends, but I never know who I'll manage to get photos from later.

Pre-intros
You can meet some of the people who will probably be coming here and here.

This is it!


This is a great opportunity to spend some good time together and to dream up other great things to do. I find it is mostly in the canyons, forests, activist camps, and on the ecovillages and permaculture farms where wonderful connections are made because people are living together, generally in a great natural space. Otherwise our SoCal experience is just a short meeting here, a short meeting there, and lots of driving (or walking, bussing, biking) back and forth--in a paved and engine-dominated landscape.

So let's prepare the ground for some slower and deeper connections in the future. Maybe we can have some longer gatherings in smaller groups in nearby SoCal forests.

Peace,
Colin
http://sdprim.blogspot.com/

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