Faithful Farming Resisters

We were about to cancel the second Faithful Farming Resistance Retreat, when we realized we could re-frame the retreat for a couple of WWOOFers. Javi and his spouse Gwen had never been to a "special event direct action" or protest in their young lives (they are under 25 years old). So, before we can talk about "lifestyle direct action" we figured it's good to PRACTICE the modus operandi of a protest-action which is traditionally a public manifestation of a more subtle long-range campaign to correct social ills. Therefore, Tom, Xels & the young couple went to Sonora to join the March Against Monsanto (MAM), while i stayed back at the Farm with two other would-be retreatants, Kelvin & Xandy. Xandy said it's the first time in 16 years since he's milked a goat here at the Farm, so we took to the task of milking Onya. Meanwhile, the four other retreatants worked at Chris' garden at the Montesano home in Sonora, just a few blocks away from the protest (MAM) seen below. A year ago, Tom & I & Chris were at the MAM in Sonora, then we recognized the next MAM would be a perfect time for the first Faithful Farming Resistance Retreat, and held it in October during that MAM (which included a Zombie walk too). This was the third MAM in Sonora, and we didn't have a critical mass for our land-based retreat so we split up into two groups. It makes sense to me: if you are in a city or suburbs and have that isolation of the industrialized/computerized world, then the allegedly healthier life of integrated nonviolence on-the-land is hard to achieve. In other words, if there's just a few people, then small direct actions or street protests are useful, and better than nothing. But if you have three families committed for the long-haul, then you can attempt the integral nonviolence of a farming commune, a.k.a. direct action lifestyle which helps resist militarism, nuclearism, sexism and GMOs. Snow's brown is coming in to his coat, but we know not if he'll get the stripes on his face like his mom's got. Snow got bigger; that's what kids do if you feed them. He's almost as big as his mom (less than 2 years old) and he's only 2 months old. That's why we are weaning him now, so we can share his mom's milk with our retreatants, and make butter for our bread. Typing of bread, our wheat and rye are doing well and should be harvest-worthy in about 6 weeks.