What am I doing here?
A little explanation, at long last. I'm on Denman Island, 45 minutes north of Nanaimo, in the Georgia Strait between mainland BC and Vancouver Island. The island itself is about 1200 people, and maybe 20 or 30 km (?) from north to south. Most people who visit Denman know it only as the gateway to the more touristy Hornby (attractive because of its fine sand beaches), if they even bother to learn its name. Though Hornby is the more celebrated island, I've so far found Denmaners nothing but welcoming. We've found work and great community, in only our first month, in a place where there's supposedly nothing. It's true that people here are a little more insular, isolated, than those on Hornby, but it's just that they like their privacy, they like doing their own thing, something I can strongly relate to. There's a group of folks here who are welcoming and politically motivated, and manage to blend tradition with innovation, for the most part seamlessly. Not to say Denman hasn't had its share of problems of course, extensive logging, and a push for development (like golf courses and condominiums) since it's so close to Courtenay, but there seems to be a strong community resistance to that, to which we hope to add our own voices.
As for who "we" are, I use that term to refer to Peter, Emerson, Sam and myself, those of us who live on "the farm," thus far unable to find a more original name. The property itself is 40 acres of wetland, forest and cleared area. We have 11 sheep, 20 young chickens, a quickly developing garden, one dog, a treehouse, and lots of ideas for the future. We're basing our development of the property around permacultural principles (Bill Mollison, David Holmgren, Toby Hemenway have all published excellent books on the subject), with an eye to some hoped-for political activism. For more information on these subjects go to: http://www.livejournal.com/users/madfarmers/
Denman looks to be my home for the indefinite future, and although I'm always a little to restless to stay anywhere forever, basing myself from Denman, growing with the community here, seems like a pretty great possibility.