appalachia-lujah!

Appalachia Rising was really amazing! I was a little worries about it, heading to DC and trying to make things happen there made me think twice about it, but it was really amazing. There was two days of conference stuff (Sat and Sun), which I unfortunately was unable to participate in at all (beehive stuff), but I generally heard good things from folks about it, and people were giving off good vibes in every direction.

We were set up in the hallway, and it was the first time I was able to participate in returning the poster to the people who shared their stories with the bees. It felt really good to be there working with the Bees and working with so many amazing people all working towards the same goal.

Erin sharing the poster with a group of people huddled around in the hallway.

Reverend Billy and the church of life after shopping spread the gospel of ending mtr.

Lovely music filling the room


The next morning, on Monday, folks gathered at Liberty Park in DC for the mass mobilization. The weather was not good- rainy rainy rainy- but still people came out in drives- at least 1,000 showed up to march but very possibly more. There were speakers, musicians, and lots of people doing their best to take on big coal and end mountaintop removal.

Bees Plannin'

I say Mountain You say Justice!
Mountain!
Justice!
Good Ol Uncle Scam...

talkin'
right?

One: We are the people
Two: You can't ignore us
Three: You cannot blow up mountains!


Holdin up giant banners sure does make your arms tired...

Making jams and keeping energy high

Hugs for friends who have to leave


Always remember to get in a good dance before being arrested

Yup.

Over one hundred people were arrested outside the white house during the action, as they refused to leave until the mountains stopped being destroyed.

Exhausted bees at the end of a long weekend


Check out the video of the action! And there's been lots of media around it, including from Democracy Now!

Woo!

visiting ohio

feels super weird to say that i 'visited' ohio. didn't i live there for the past 23 years??

I failed to take many photos of the good ol' OH... but took a few when I remembered...

gems on noses with super cute boys named finn.

pot luck and friends!

Open mic at the union. Dandelion sings... with backup dancers!

beehive poster in the office of sustainability! yay!

bobb hatt!


and on my trip to the midwest- i went to court for g20 stuff (yup- that was a full year ago). After my lawyer showed up late (awesome!) I found out that they had double booked the court room and could not hold my case that day. Cool! So I had two options 1) take a plea or 2) postpone. So, I took a plea- seeming as I don't know where I'll physically be in a week let alone 3 months and have no income to continue paying for things like flights to Pitt. So, that sucked. But! On a good note, the ACLU has put together a suit against the police for their uncalled for actions the night I (and many others) were arrested. So here's to wishing the folks able to partake in the suit some very serious luck (and justice).

and now- i'm in Troy, NY and need to get ready for a workshop this afternoon. Yay!

Human Powered Carnival

Half way between the September meetings, some of us broke away to go to the Human Powered Carnival. Super fun. There was a theme of gnomes- which apparently those who live on the land the carnival is held on- hate gnomes. making it an ironic theme.

Teter Totter that goes in circles, too!


Sometimes our socks match. Ok, often.

Yo Yo Swings!


Roller rink!


Waiting in line for the Take-A-Break booth.

Stand up swing.

A play about gnomes... of course.

Part of the Circus show, this woman just swallowed that sword shes holding.

They also juggled fire, ate glass, hammered a nail up their nose, did a burlesque show, had a skit, rode unicycles, and other cool things.

Steal Wool+String+lighter fluid= really cool



Music, Music, Music time!

The view of the fire from the swings!

Mystery Tattoos!

Tattoo success!

Nap time!

Vroom! Time to go home...

Just a dead timber wolf- hangin with diapers. (wtf??)

and September Begins...

Well- the work party is over. Summer is over. Fall is coming in... and things are changing a lot with the season (as it should be). Ian has deemed the fall "autumn of abraiding." Abraid means to awake or to arouse... so the theme seems appropriate for my fall as well.

So now, I'm currently sitting in an airport in Burlington Vermont waiting for a flight. I was in vermont for the human powered carnival (photos to come later!) and am now waiting for a flight to Columbus, Ohio. Really excited to be back for a bit before jetting off again.

After getting pounds upon pounds of wild blueberry's from our lovely friends who were raking them, i started a Jam Making marathon.

Michaela and I ended up making about 4 dozen jars of it for the hive this winter.

We had a to-do list to get ready for Hurricane Earl. Turns out it was a bit of an pver reaction and the storm wasn't anything more than a regular heavy rain...

The morning of the storm we decided to head out to Jasper Beach to watch the storm roll by. So we all got decked out in our rain gear and worked on heading out the door...

The waves were pretty big... taller than me by the time they hit the shore. But we still made sure the ocean knew we wanted something more... so we all yelled at it together "Is that all you got!?!"

It was barely raining by the time we got there, so we decided to just play in the ocean instead.

We definately had to brace ourselves against the waves.

buried feet.

Sometime they were big enough to knock us down, and sometimes drag us around a little bit. Don't worry, no one got washed into the ocean.

Cute to the max.


Bloody knees... you won this round, ocean.

Erin made blueberry pies! They were so good! (please not the Bees and Beehive...)

We started the September meetings... I could only stay for the first week though. Here we were planning tour routes... Midwest, Appalachia, East Coast, West Coast, South West... lots of tours. lots of stops. Tour updates posted here!


I made Chamomile Shortbread Cookies with honey glaze on top for the True Cost of Coal presentation at the Grange this past week. I think the recipe needs some tweaking before I put it up...

Giving our 32 ft Banner a closer look as the presentation started... lots of folks showed up and the presentation went so well- Can't wait to learn to give the presentation myself!


Well... its getting close to plane time. See you in ohio?