Reading this article brought me back to 1976. I was living at Green Gulch Farm, a Zen community retreat center in Marin County California, and we along with another organization called the Farralons Institute, were involved with many of the same kinds of projects.

It was then also that I first learned of permaculture, but never actually practiced it.

At the time, since it was a meditation center, many of us got up at 4:30 and sat in meditation for two 40 minute periods pretty much everyday.

We also had one or two meditation periods in the afternoon and evening, and had meditation retreats.

It was there that then Governor Jerry Brown came to see the abbot, Richard Baker, and where some of California’s first environmental initiatives were conceived. That earned Governor Brown the nickname, "Governor Moonbeam", since things like Sustainability and Peak Oil were considered crazy.

We can all see who was crazy now.

Those doing mostly farm work (there was a huge amount of infrastructure and other work to be done, not to mention cooking for 60 people) didn’t sit as much since the farm work often came at the same time as the sitting.

We also had humanure composting toilets, and we also had 55 gallon drums where the urine from the men’s urinals went into 55 gallon drums. One of my jobs was to put on some rubber boots, empty the drums into 5 gallon cans, drive down to the regular compost heap (greens and also chicken and cow shit from cows and chickens they had at the time) and dump the urine on the compost pile.

Of course all the food we grew was so fresh and organic.

The place was pretty chaotic—the facilites were designed for ten but there were 60-70 living there.

So it was good experience in non attachment, you might say.

Never thought I’d go back there, but maybe I will get to experience a replay—a big jump into the unknown in a very new organic farm/community.

Hello, My name is Don Baker. I am an illustrator living in Seattle, WA (www.kolea.com).

For years I’ve thought we need some sort of "good news network" to cover all the good stories that occur, and that the major media ignores. So I realized it must be up to me to create one, and that is what I am doing.

I am compiling stories of positive change, good things individuals and groups or organizations are doing to better our world.

I plan to publish them on my new site EvidenceofHumanity.org, which will launch this summer. It is not an e-commerce site, and will have no advertisers. 

It will simply be a place to raise awareness of positive developments, to empowers us, and affirm the fundamental truth that we all do make a difference.

Your development sounds like a dream! I would like to ask permission to include the story of your Baan Thai Project in the new site, along with perhaps a photo from your site. I would credit you and include a link to your site. Thanks for considering. Don Baker

ps: I discovered you thru Ryan Libre’s site. I am using the story Mr. Seng’s Homecoming with Ryan’s photos from the Common Languages Project website in a story as well.