Our Volksvegan Adventure

Well, we’ve moved again. This time it wasn’t far. We are now in Mendocino Village, about 10 miles south of Fort Bragg. Mendocino is where we wanted to move when we first visited the area, so we’re really happy where we’re at now. The town is historical and really cute, and we’re right up the hill from town, just a short walk or bike ride away. While we no longer have redwoods on the property where we live, we do have an ocean view, plenty of sunshine, and lots of room for an organic garden!

The volksvegan has taken us on a few small adventures this summer. We went to Sierra Nevada World Music festival for a day, and Reggae Rising for a day. It sure is nice to be able to roll into a festival, pop the top and have a cozy home base to camp in. We haven’t taken the bus on any long road trips this summer though, because she needs a bit of work. The glow plugs have burned out again (grrr!) and the muffler still needs to be replaced with a heavier duty one that won’t fall apart. We’re hoping to have her fixed in time for Okanogan Family Faire in October, where the bus makes a great camping spot as well as a vending booth (thanks to our canopy that attaches to the side), and we also plan to go to Earthdance a little closer to home.

We finally found a grease source nearby! A sushi restaurant in Fort Bragg has agreed to let us collect their waste veggie oil. Now we need to get a new barrel and test out our filtration system. We are very excited about this, because it has been difficult to find restaurants that didn’t already give their used oil to a greaser! California has a lot more veg-oil powered cars than Idaho. That’s a good thing, but it makes used oil harder to find. With the price of diesel and bio-diesel lately though, jugs of virgin veggie oil from Costco might be cheaper!

We are also dreaming about Volksvegan II, a second bio-powered VW we hope to get. We’d like to sell our small gas car and get a newer VW Jetta TDI. We use the small car to run errands that are too far to ride or walk, and to visit our community garden plot and friends in Fort Bragg. Jetta TDIs get great gas mileage since diesel engines are more efficient, and they’re bio-diesel ready. There is a bio-diesel collective about an hour from us that delivers large quantities, so with two Volksvegans we might use enough to warrant having it delivered.

We love our new home. The Mendocino coast is full of like-minded and eco-conscious people. I see Priuses everywhere, organic gardening is popular, and there are many great local environmental organizations. We’ve been going to a drum circle on the beach every Friday, making new friends, growing organic food in the community garden, and spending lots of time outdoors in the redwoods and on the beaches. I’ve found a tree-hugger’s paradise. So despite my urge to travel in the volksvegan, I don’t think we’ll be going too far for a while.

After about a month of living in Fort Bragg, we truly feel like we have found home. It has been fun exploring the area, meeting new people, and getting involved in the community. We enjoy living near the ocean and visit various beaches as often as we can. It’s amazing that in January and February it is often in the 50s and 60s here! We’ve had our share of rain, but the last week or so has been beautiful, sunny, and clear.

We’ve been using the volksvegan mainly for hauling driftwood from the beach to burn in our woodstove. Once again, the muffler has come disconnected and we need to get it fixed before any road trips. (Note to self: Bruneel Tire SUCKS at mufflers, never ever trust a tire place to do your muffler, as it has broken at least six times now).Here’s my top ten favorite things about living on the Mendocino Coast:

1. Glass Beach (see photo): unfortunately the site of an old dump before people knew that dumping trash in the ocean was not cool, glass beach is now a beautiful mix of human influence and nature. The “pebbles” on this beach are mostly sea glass and ceramic pieces worn down by the ocean.
2. Organic and vegetarian food abounds! There are several organic and/or vegetarian restaurants in the area, and even a raw vegan culinary institute with a take-out cafe. Farmers markets happen in every little town around here during the spring, summer, and fall.
3. No Monsanto. GMOs were banned in Mendocino county, so we won’t be seeing our least favorite corporation around here.
4. Living among redwoods. There are redwoods all around the two acres our house is on. Every window I look out has a view of these majestic giants, and I can hug them whenever I want. Unfortunately they block satellite waves though, so we can’t have satellite internet here.
5. California is the epicenter of all things green and sustainable. I see solar panels on the roof of stores and homes every day, and there is talk about generating wave energy from the ocean’s waves.
6. Sunsets over the Pacific ocean. ‘Nuff said.
7. The people here are really friendly and we’ve made quite a few friends so far. Even the cops seem friendlier than normal.
8. Rural, small town vibes. I am really surprised that more people don’t live on the Mendocino coast, because it seems like a little slice of heaven to me, but the area is surprisingly rural. That means no traffic or road rage, very few fast food restaurants, and lots of open green spaces.
9. For being such a small town, Fort Bragg is pretty happenin’ – there are a lot of music acts that stop here, there seem to be a lot of young people here, and there are many arts and cultural events.
10. In less than a month I have managed to find a local non-profit organic farming organization that needs (and actually has a budget for) a graphic/web designer. We are already making connections and getting involved in the community, and people are really accepting and open minded.

One of the more exciting developments (that I alluded to in #10) is our involvement with a really cool local non-profit called Noyo Food Forest. They are a small organization that has set up a learning garden near the local high school that supplies organic produce to the school and to farmer’s market. Seneca is taking an organic farming class from them, and after I heard about them from him, I contacted them to see if they needed any help with graphics or a web site. I got the best response I’ve ever received from a potential client, “you’re a goddess!” They had been looking for someone for a while and were really excited that I got in touch with them. They need help with refining/redesigning their logo and creating a web site, as well as updating their brochures and other materials to create a cohesive branding package. And they understand the value of good design and actually have a budget for it. So I got my first local client!We also went to a workday at Noyo Food Forest’s new community garden, which isn’t far from our house. They are starting a community garden where people can rent plots (we hope to have one since there’s too many redwoods to get much sun where we live) to grow organic produce. We helped clear the land and sheet compost the garden area this weekend. I shoveled sheep poo and it really wasn’t that bad! The people involved are really cool and we all hit it off right away, and we are learning a lot about organic gardening in the process. Hopefully this is just the beginning of our involvement in the community we now call home.

We hope to have some visitors soon (we’ve had a couple already), and would especially love to have people we stayed with on our journey come to visit. We owe y’all one, after all! And it’s simply gorgeous down here, we love it!

Driving on renewable energy is just one way to reduce your environmental impact and combat global warming. It’s also a way to go carbon-neutral – a term that basically means balancing out your carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy or a project that reduces greenhouse gases. By calculating your emissions, you can then offset them by contributing to a healthier planet in some way. Of course, you can change your lifestyle, change what you drive, eat lower on the food chain, and live more simply. These are great ways to lessen one’s footprint. But sometimes, lifestyle changes alone can’t compensate for the CO2 and other greenhouse gases our activities emit. For instance, I am flying to Spain next month, and since planes burn tons of fuel very high in the atmosphere, I wanted a way to balance out all those extra emissions besides my normal attempts at green living. This is where carbon offsets (also called carbon credits) come in.

There are many companies offering carbon offsets, such as The Carbon Neutral Company, who offer a carbon calculator and various ways to offset your emissions (through investing in renewable energy projects or buying carbon-neutral products, for instance). An excellent introduction to carbon credits and going carbon neutral can be found on Green Options. There are many options for calculating and offsetting your carbon emissions.

One interesting project that aims to “start global cooling” is Save Our Snow – a snowboarding tour sponsored by Clif Bar that includes education about global warming and a grease-powered Winnebego! As we’ve seen with the decrease in snow in recent years, global warming can have a serious impact on snowboarding, skiing, and other outdoor activities. S.O.S. indeed!

You can also join the virtual march to Stop Global Warming and find out what you can do to help heal the planet and reverse global warming. And of course, if you haven’t already, see Al Gore’s compelling documentary on the science behind climate change, An Inconvenient Truth.

It’s good to see that living green is becoming more of a priority in this culture. Every little bit helps, so I hope you’ll be inspired to do all you can to lower your impact on the planet and conserve our precious energy and resources. Being carbon neutral is a great goal on your journey to the green live!

I recently joined a new web site, Green Options as a weekly blogger. The site is a great resource for all kinds of green living information, including a section of their Green Life Guide devoted to green transportation. The Green Options Blog has regular posts on bio-diesel and WVO transportation as well. I will be writing about green art, design, and culture, but there’s a fellow greaser who blogs on Green Options, so more information will be out there on bio-fuels. Yay!