And then it was April...

Woahhhh. Somehow, it has become April. Late April, at that! Who knew? (Hopefully most of you already knew...) Since last posting, I've been pretty busy--- buzzing around doing all sorts of things--- and here are some highlights and clips:

I got a few tubes of the magical new print run- courtesy of all the fine folks that helped support us with the kickstarter campaign- i may or may not of had an excited freak out- which included pulling them all out and saying 'ahh!! yesss!!' alot.... the landlord was doing a check in at the time, and probably thought i was a total crazy person...


the doughnut man came to hang out- and we made delightfully colorful (red, white, and yellow!) beer batter vegan onion rings.... deeelightful!

Strategy session for the media working group... outside on the porch-- success!

haha. oh my.

birthday birthday bithday!


Dartmouth College students came for a visit to the coal river valley- and we had a hang out/chat about the work volunteers do with CRMW... followed by a beehive presentation in big room.

I complained to my mother about the John Kerry sticker that was on my new car---- so mom decided to get me a cover up sticker.... Give Bees a Chance... so so so cliche and so perfect.

Just hanging out in Charleston...

Beehive show at the Covenant House in Charleston



Our little ballerina

This is the pressure I have to deal with... everyday. I just wanted to make dinner...

My mama came to visit---- buttermilk biscuits for breakfast!

haha....


triple wow! heading to dc for a Training for Trainers for powershift stuff. The trip was horrendous-- including the worst anit-oppression workshop I've ever been to. But there were some highlights: meeting our new friend Reece- whos family is from WV and he has worked as a union organizer for years and now lives in DC and plans to come to the march, eating sprouts in the most obnoxious fashion during a session at the training, pressuring andrew to sing opera in front of everyone, and getting Georgetown cupcakes. Worth it? No, but those are some pretty great bonuses.

Open house pot luck at New House...it was so nice to have folks over and the weather was just perfect to be hanging out outside

Emma came to visit (the same week Mattie came to visit- what a week!)- we went for a hike up the the ridge behind our house... a few days after I had just hiked up there. It was so amazing to see how much the plants had come to life and peaked out---

We found a nice big patch of ramps... the first time I had pulled some out this season. And Em got to take some home- win win win!

Ramps, Fiddle Heads, and the first morel of the season!

We went for a family hike at the New River Gorge--- it was pretty much a cluster, lots of running around, getting there late--- the usual. But it was awfully pretty and things were on the verge of bursting out of their winter time shells... so exciting!

I was being serenaded by these two lovely folks from above that rock--- "If i fall, will you let me down easy. If I leave my heart with you tonight will you promise me that you're going to treat it right?"

Exploring

mountains + hiking= happy dave!

Family photo!
awwweee we love each other!

love bug

CRMW strategy meeting... we were able to rip open the big bag of 'what is our strategy, what are we doing, how are we doing it, and why are we here?' a long day of meetings, but totally productive.

More strategy session break outs- at the end- we came to the conclusion that one day is not enough and we have scheduled a follow up session to put that bag we ripped open back together... woohoo! (i love meetings, i love strategy, and i love collaborative conversations... even if they take us a while to get through!)

The only photo taken at Powershift (from my camera). Lord Andrew leading the crew...

Powershift 2011--- ended up being rough. The trainings went better than I expected, but still felt like an un-strategic use of resources (time, money, people power...). Blair Outreach went really well, to spite not having a table (which means there was no CRMW outreach- bummer!).

Most notable and summary report I can give? We made the very smart choice of bringing a coffee maker with us- and setting it up in the training room. So on sat morning, we got the the convention center at 7:30 or so, and immediately put on a pot of coffee (duh). EK, Becks, and I all fell asleep, right next to the coffee maker- waiting for it to brew. So sad, so true, and so telling. We were woken by James yelling 'hello beautiful people' and Andrew opera singing us to our feet... yup. that's powershift 2011 in a nut shell.

Question: How do you make a 5 day march more accessible to more people? Well, you have 40 cots shipped to your house so people who need them can have another option other than sleeping on the ground or being driven to a hotel each night....

Of course, those cots may be damn near impossible to put together (as the reviews promised). We tried pulling, tugging, wiggling, inching... and every thing else to get the polls into the slots. EK and I even tried a game of tug-o-war to stretch out the canvas... no luck. Just impossible!

And then-- out of the mountains- come Ivan and Maureen. Who, after the standard push, pull, and tug- ended up using a root digger tool to pop the polls in. Next step? Test out the comfortability of them.

Conclusion of the cots: Well, it might be better than sleeping on the ground. maybe.

Mountains providing dinner for us- Morels, dryad saddle mushrooms, fiddle heads, nettles, poke, green brier shoots, chick weed, ramps, solemn seal, water leaf, dandelions, Japanese knot weed.... so. so. amazing! (plus- i'm learning a lot about wild edibles--- woo!)

Dryad Saddle mushrooms... beautiful and delicious!

Ek petty the very very cute baby goats we had at our house for a bit. William and Julia got these two babies- blacky and spot- to raise and make into dinner once they get big. They have been moved to a new home now (thanks to the extreme patience and understanding of William and Julia)...


And now- April is somehow coming to an end. What's next? Well- a week and a half of go time here, then zooming to columbus for a few days (beehive show, family/friends, work time mania), flying out to Maine for a week and a 1/2 of Beehive meetings, stopping in Boston for another show (with tyler! who i've never done a show with- sounds fun!), getting to columbus and quickly heading south for MJ Summer Camp in KY, and getting back to WV by the end (very end) of May... oh and then you know- getting ready for this totally amazing, totally huge, totally overwhelming, and totally great March thats happening starting on June 6... woah.

If you didn't catch it- the March on Blair Mountain is happening in June. You should come, and you, and you, and your friends, and your sister, and your parents.... yup- even you. Oh, and especially you!


its go time!