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[strum]

I'm a 44 year old Australian man currently located at the south western corner of the wide brown land.

I have wanted to be involved in a project like this most of my adult life, having spent some time in failed attempts at this sort of thing as a child in the 70's.

I have been trying to get a project off the ground where I am here but sadly it seems there are few like minded people around. Lots of talk and very little agreement about actual practical steps to make it happen.

I have been reading Visible's blogs for a few years now and I find myself struck by how similar his views are to my own. If only I could express them as powerfully, humbly and poetically as he does.
Great work Les you are a bright light in these dark times.

I have a wide and diverse range of skills in many areas some of them in areas of I think maybe of practical value to a self-sufficient community, here's a bit of a list .

Horticultural and Agricultural skills
      Organic vegetable gardening
      Composting
      Vermiculture (worm farming)
      Fruit tree pruning
      Animal Husbandry
      Pasture improvement

Preserving Food
      Drying, Canning, Salting, Pickling and the like
Cooking - I am an excellent cook and really enjoy cooking for people
Baking Bread
Knowledge of herbs and spices and their various culinary and medicinal uses
Knowledge of health and nutrition

Brewing and Winemaking

Mechanical Skills
       Cars, machinery, bicycles, small engines, not much I can't fix if I can find replacement parts

Building

Woodworking

Computers
       Lots of experience building and repairing PC's
       installing and configuring linux and windows and application software, configuring networks
       Some programming skills in C, PHP and BASIC
       SKills with a wide range of applications including CAD, architecture, 3d graphics, desktop publishing, and music software

Electronics
       soldering
       diagnose and repair simple electrical and electronic problems
       design and build simple circuits
       read and understand schematic diagrams
       some knowlege of home power systems, solar panels, wind generators, hydro, batteries etc.

Music
       Play many musical instruments, mostly strings, but keys, wind , and percussion as well.
       Guitar and Bass being my main instruments, playing experience mostly in jazz, blues, rock and country
       Extensive knowledge of musical theory and history
       Extensive repertoire of popular songs and love a good sing a long
       Read music well
       Teach music
       Experience with recording and live sound mixing
       Guitar setup and maintainence, other instrument repairs
       Making PVC and bamboo flutes

I'm also up for plenty of grunt work and have lots of ideas about building community.

enough about me for now

I'd better get on and try to get up to speed with where the rest of you are at by reading more of the forum posts.

blessings

Strum

[anka]

Hi Strum,

your self-introduction is pretty impressive to me. If I was on the other Earth's hemisphere, would be trying to come up and see what you are up to. I have picked up some skills along my way too but could not simply find one that you would not present here. Playing guitar myself, having been learning to work with natural building materials (hemp, straw, clay, some lime too), cooking meatless meals... blabla... If I meet you we must jam if you like simple improvisations ala mantra minimalista.

Take care.

Anka