gertee logo by Nordica Friedrich,2007, all rights reserved.
Plans to build GerTeeville are underway! We now have 2 carpenters.. whoo hoo! We'll start with raised gravel pads and decks and build five to ten private gertees for overnight rentals. I think a sweatlodge gertee or a hot tub gertee is an essential. This could all be ready by June 2008. We also have the go-ahead to build Camp Redington's Alaskan Homesteader Museum. I'm separating Iditarod/mushing items for ebay auctions and the museum now. I want the museum to be inside a big 30 foot gertee that sits right on the edge of the Edgerton Hwy, but we're dealing with Alaskan carpenters here, and they can't help it.. they think in logs, not sticks.
We're still not finished with 2020, we just had to buy new software to even be able to edit the file, but the next printing will have an ISBN# and some exciting additions that should make it worth the wait. I'm thinking of ways we can make it up to people for having to wait so long for us to fill their orders. We've done so much of this in an accidental and often rushed way, and now people are showing up looking for opportunities and several of them just happen to fill our needs. Our new neighbor is a professional proofreader, and we just hired her to work for ACL Books. So it will only be about two more weeks for 2020, even if we have to make them by hand.
I'm trying not to be overwhelmed by all the things that keep popping up. I'm learning to "roll with the punches," and I am not going to waste another second worrying about what's going to happen next. I'm going back to my old idea that all I need to do is show up and do what's right in front of me. I took on a lot lately. I buried myself in work for the next three months. So to all the people who email me, please understand this is why I don't always respond right away.
My current project list includes:
1. ACL Books: 2020 revisions, print books and mail orders
2. Contract/ACL Books: edit book for Jack
3. Contract: research markets for Johnny
4. Contract: ebay auctions for Iditarod items
5. ACL Books: write/collaborate on: How to build a GerTee with $500.00 (or less)
6. ACL Books: print hardcopy of the Anticommunitarian Manifesto
7. AKN Webwriters: campredington, kennylake.com, ACL, primitivwerks, GerTee
8. ACL: write article Hegels' Big Idea, Part II
9. Camp Redington: plan and build museum
10. GERTEEVILLE: plan, design and build an Alaskan experience campground
11. ACL Books: write Cooking and baking on top of a woodstove
12. AKN Webwriters/Primitivwerks: Build shops
Man, if I finish all that I'll be totally amazed. Then maybe I'd get to work on the vacation packages that Sharon was hoping we could set-up. Just this past week a guy talked to me about bringing people out this way. There's already a local driver who can provide van service between the Wrangells and Anchorage, which will make it a lot easier to plan entire vacations for visitors who want to be picked up in Anchorage. Lots of opportunities to involve small, local businesses in something like a "poker run" vacation package. There is a trail almost all the way to Chitina now (and City Electric hasn't given up on their drilling, so there may be DSL too!)
GerTeevilles's residents have been discussing the kinds of visitors who we think would be attracted to this kind of an Alaskan vacation, and we pretty much all decided that (if we're right) those are the kinds of people we'd like to meet.
Then there's all the sad people who write me lately, the ones who live in so much pain because they found out too much about the Plan. I know that for me, I had to walk away from the work in Seattle and take a breather in the mountains to get my sense of self back. When we fight the communitarians alone, after a while it takes a toll, and there's usually nobody there to help us deal with it. Not that I want to start a recovery camp or anything of the sort, but maybe this could also be a place where anticommunitarians can come to rejuvenate their spirits. I learned the healing power of sharing our stories in 12 step meetings.. maybe we could even build a little empty church GerTee, where our visitors could go to pray. That could be taking it too far, but while I'm back into my "fun" mode I can't help but remember all the years I too was SO totally freaked out to learn the truth about our system. If I hadn't of gone to the Big Horns in 2003, who knows what my state of mind woud be today. I'd like Barbara and all our other suffering (and not-suffering) friends to know we'll be happy to make space for them to build and stay in whatever they want to here. If things go well for us, we could have some real nice, uptown plumbed GerTees, with decks, silks and woven fabrics, and gorgeous furniture for our visitors who will pay us big bucks not to have to rough it. Could be something for everybody.
There's no reason anyone in the world should be homeless when there are so many ways to build a ger/yurt/hut out of local wood and recycled materials. Even a homemade 18 foot gertee is better than a cot inside a fenced stadium, school, or military fort. Obviously it's not something people think will ever happen to them.. but it does. I just read that almost 200,000 U.S. military veterans are homeless in the United States every night. If that's true, then maybe it's past time to start taking this whole gertee idea to the streets. Do Katrina victims still need housing? One man who contacted me thought it would be a great idea to take our yurt concept to a depressed area of the world and use it to stimulate local people to rebuild their own neighborhoods. Maybe a homeless vet wants to come up; we'll show him how to build one and he can take it outside.
We're still not finished with 2020, we just had to buy new software to even be able to edit the file, but the next printing will have an ISBN# and some exciting additions that should make it worth the wait. I'm thinking of ways we can make it up to people for having to wait so long for us to fill their orders. We've done so much of this in an accidental and often rushed way, and now people are showing up looking for opportunities and several of them just happen to fill our needs. Our new neighbor is a professional proofreader, and we just hired her to work for ACL Books. So it will only be about two more weeks for 2020, even if we have to make them by hand.
I'm trying not to be overwhelmed by all the things that keep popping up. I'm learning to "roll with the punches," and I am not going to waste another second worrying about what's going to happen next. I'm going back to my old idea that all I need to do is show up and do what's right in front of me. I took on a lot lately. I buried myself in work for the next three months. So to all the people who email me, please understand this is why I don't always respond right away.
My current project list includes:
1. ACL Books: 2020 revisions, print books and mail orders
2. Contract/ACL Books: edit book for Jack
3. Contract: research markets for Johnny
4. Contract: ebay auctions for Iditarod items
5. ACL Books: write/collaborate on: How to build a GerTee with $500.00 (or less)
6. ACL Books: print hardcopy of the Anticommunitarian Manifesto
7. AKN Webwriters: campredington, kennylake.com, ACL, primitivwerks, GerTee
8. ACL: write article Hegels' Big Idea, Part II
9. Camp Redington: plan and build museum
10. GERTEEVILLE: plan, design and build an Alaskan experience campground
11. ACL Books: write Cooking and baking on top of a woodstove
12. AKN Webwriters/Primitivwerks: Build shops
Man, if I finish all that I'll be totally amazed. Then maybe I'd get to work on the vacation packages that Sharon was hoping we could set-up. Just this past week a guy talked to me about bringing people out this way. There's already a local driver who can provide van service between the Wrangells and Anchorage, which will make it a lot easier to plan entire vacations for visitors who want to be picked up in Anchorage. Lots of opportunities to involve small, local businesses in something like a "poker run" vacation package. There is a trail almost all the way to Chitina now (and City Electric hasn't given up on their drilling, so there may be DSL too!)
GerTeevilles's residents have been discussing the kinds of visitors who we think would be attracted to this kind of an Alaskan vacation, and we pretty much all decided that (if we're right) those are the kinds of people we'd like to meet.
Then there's all the sad people who write me lately, the ones who live in so much pain because they found out too much about the Plan. I know that for me, I had to walk away from the work in Seattle and take a breather in the mountains to get my sense of self back. When we fight the communitarians alone, after a while it takes a toll, and there's usually nobody there to help us deal with it. Not that I want to start a recovery camp or anything of the sort, but maybe this could also be a place where anticommunitarians can come to rejuvenate their spirits. I learned the healing power of sharing our stories in 12 step meetings.. maybe we could even build a little empty church GerTee, where our visitors could go to pray. That could be taking it too far, but while I'm back into my "fun" mode I can't help but remember all the years I too was SO totally freaked out to learn the truth about our system. If I hadn't of gone to the Big Horns in 2003, who knows what my state of mind woud be today. I'd like Barbara and all our other suffering (and not-suffering) friends to know we'll be happy to make space for them to build and stay in whatever they want to here. If things go well for us, we could have some real nice, uptown plumbed GerTees, with decks, silks and woven fabrics, and gorgeous furniture for our visitors who will pay us big bucks not to have to rough it. Could be something for everybody.
There's no reason anyone in the world should be homeless when there are so many ways to build a ger/yurt/hut out of local wood and recycled materials. Even a homemade 18 foot gertee is better than a cot inside a fenced stadium, school, or military fort. Obviously it's not something people think will ever happen to them.. but it does. I just read that almost 200,000 U.S. military veterans are homeless in the United States every night. If that's true, then maybe it's past time to start taking this whole gertee idea to the streets. Do Katrina victims still need housing? One man who contacted me thought it would be a great idea to take our yurt concept to a depressed area of the world and use it to stimulate local people to rebuild their own neighborhoods. Maybe a homeless vet wants to come up; we'll show him how to build one and he can take it outside.
Have a Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI'll have you know a gift should be arriving for you in the mail...it is mailed from a book site, and I don't know if my name or address will be on it, so when you get it, I sent it.
Thank you for having Johnny's project 3rd on your list! WE are working hard on getting his idea totally ready for promotion, and knowing you are truly on board and ready to help gives me strong encouragement to push forward. Now reading this article, you've got me wanting to build a Gertee up on a friend's property, just so we have more than a cabin to "retire" into when times require such action.
I'm nearly done reading, "A Gun for Hire" by Patrick Seale, which alleges Abu Nidal was an Israeli/Mossad assest, he was the world's most famous terrorist before they ultra-hyped that rich boy Bin Laden.
I am going to start another book called, "Conspiracy, a Christian View" by Gary North, next. So no rush for me on 2020, I'll consider this other reading simply apetizers to a nice intelectually honest MEAL I can sink my teeth into. I'm starting to realize the ajenda being pushed by Johnny's local communty "leaders" to completely reorganize the school sytem, and build new lavish schools, is very much part of the "Communitarian" way. The superintendent of schools, who is hated, and who is pushing this with the most veracity, is also a graduate of the "Ford Family Foundation" school of "Sustainable Programs" etc. That was a big buzzer going off for me, so when I get 2020, I want to read it and get the real community members where Johnny lives involved in realizing that it is much larger than reconfiguration of their middle schools/new building projects.
PEACE TO THE NEW YEAR!
keep it up ACL!
Thanks s! Happy New Year to you guys too! 2020 is going "global." We're adding a section on Canada for this edition, and over the next few years we hope to add country specific references and local source/action info from every place we have made contacts.
ReplyDeleteI too see communitarian influence in my neighborhood. If we learn just a few key phrases we can see through a LOT of the b.s. almost immediately. We designed 2020 so it would be a tool in people's hands when they walk into these meetings. Now we think we'll try to mass produce 2020, and bring the retail cost way down. Some people think we should just donate it to the "cause," but we're too poor to be so gracious. When we're rich like Aaron Russo, we'll do what he did. Thanks for whatever I'm getting in the mail!!