i tried to get abraham & silas to write a bit about their feelings on the state of the world, but they were not nearly as interested in pushing buttons as i thought 2 year olds would be, so i'll have to write something myself.

READ THIS BOOK - Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. it was written by a guy who was one of the first people to go to developing countries and convince them that they should take big loans from the world bank and other such sinister organizations that they would never be able to pay back, thus forever indebting them to the US. the future of imperialism is now. the book is interesting both in its honesty about the inner workings of corporate and governmental greed and in the personal drama of how perkins continued to convince himself, for 10 years, that what he was doing was somehow ok. read it. tell your friends.

right after leaving the farm in wisconsin i wrote a long piece about all the wonderful people i met this summer and all that i learned at the pleasant hill farm. it was beautiful. it would've brought a tear to your eye. so of course, the computer timed out and erased it when i tried to post it. in my frustration, i neglected to rewrite it, and now i am sad. so i just want to give a shout out to Katya, Laurel, Kenzie, Jody, Asa, Nate, Andrew, Tony, Jody Epstein, Erica, Amanda, Randy, Sid, Duncan, Frank, Ellen, Aaron, Daisy the dog, and of course, Farmer Rob himself, who manages to gather all these wonderful people about him to grow some damn tasty veg and a beautiful community. thank you all for enriching my life in countless ways.

please excuse the scatological nature of this blog entry

i hope i am using that word correctly.

it is almost christmas! and boy howdy, it is a winter wonderland out here on the prarie. last night i agreed to pick blair up from the train station at 1am before realizing that the car was stuck at the neighbors. between our farm and the neighbors house is a field which offers no windbreak for the blowing snow, causing a pile up of said blown snow in the dirt road leading to our driveway which the car was unable to breach. so i pulled on my mongolia boots - there is something to be said for winter boots made by a culture of people who have spent hundreds upon hundreds of years trudging through snow - and budled up and made my way into the cold midnight air. it was magnificent. mars was proudly red to the east and the moon was directly overhead, just past full, still bathing the land in a bright silver light. I've always loved when there are shadows at night, and it is even better in the snow. with the land all a sparkle and the only sound my footsteps, i was happy to have an excuse to be outside, walking through the chill.