Cassie Langstraat

Love those photos Wayne. I think Ben took some of the finished project too, so once he sends them to me I might post one or two here. :)

Yay! Photos look great Wayne. What a great project, so glad we were able to work together and it was so nice to meet you in person too! :) Tell Elizabeth I said hi too!

Here are the dates for the tour! Will post here again when we confirm date and location for Houston Texas.

I'll be there at all of them, hope to see some of you!

Thank you SO much for all of this Wayne!

wayne fajkus wrote:I am unsure what you are looking for. I have no affiliations with any local groups but can reach out with more info on what the goal is.

I'm in Fort Hood area. Close to Austin and Waco.. I know the Mother Earth News fair happens around February . People like Salitan are there giving presentations every hour.

Heritage farms may be a place to check. Waco. They have 2 big gatherings a year. They would be aligned with Zach and have the space and following to pull in a crowd. In the back of their compound is an insitute. Maybe for sustainable agriculture. I cant remember the name. They do old school stuff at the farm and give classes.  Wool to yarn, yarn to finished goods. Wood fired pottery. Forging. Making cheeses. Water powered flour mill. Sorgum pressing. They bring in big numbers of people.

The goal is to find places for Zach to give his Water Retention Landscapes presentation at, places that could get at least 20 people to come.

So what I'm looking for is just places (cities, towns, etc)  that would maybe have a fairly big environmentally conscious population. And then once I've narrowed that down, finding specific organizations or universities in those places that would be willing to host the presentation.

So, the place you mentioned in Waco is a great example. I'd Imagine Austin would have some great places too.

wayne fajkus wrote:Is he doing an event in texas? Info on it would be great.

Hi Wayne,

There is potential for one in Houston, if it ends up happening, I will definitely post about it. :)

Where are you at in Texas? Any ideas on good spots to have a presentation?

Hey ya'll,

I am helping Zach Weiss (protege of Sepp Holzer) organize a small presentation tour through the southeast US.

Problem is, I don't really know what cities along the drive would be especially good for this. He will be driving from VT to TX, definitely stopping in Asheville, NC, and possibly Baton Rouge, LA, along the way. Here is a screenshot of the general route.




Any ideas of places directly on this route or even a bit off this route is fine too.

I just really don't know what cities would be worth going to, where there might be a big environmentally conscious community. Thoughts?

Atlanta? Birmingham? New Orleans?


A bit more about the presentation, just for context:

He gives a really inspiring talk about restoring the earth's water cycle by creating water retention landscapes. It provides both the context and theory for the larger ecological issues at hand, as well as real-world examples of the solutions and approaches. He highlights projects from a variety of different contexts, scales, and climates so participants are left equipped with a fundamental understanding of the key elements, and introduces the incredible possibilities for restoration and regeneration.

Let me know if anyone has any thoughts or ideas!

Trace Oswald wrote:

Dan Boone wrote:Whereas my default attitude is “why would we even be HAVING this conversation if they didn’t want help?”

Amen.

We all want some sort of help when we reach out to someone for support.

The thing is, is that everyone's version of what "help" looks like, is different. So asking someone what *kind* of support and help they need or want instead of assuming that its the same kind *you* want, is usually the best way to navigate this kind of thing.

This brings up an interesting conversation that has been coming up quite often for me actually.

I am notorious for getting annoyed when people give me unsolicited advice. It realllllly bothers me when people should on me and I take quite a bit of effort to avoid that phrase when I am giving people support, emotional or practical. So I've come to the conclusion that *why* it bothers me is this notion that these other people think they know better than me about *myself* and *my life* than *I* do, and that really irritates me because it implies I am not capable of figuring shit out on my own, which is very untrue.

But what I've come to realize is that it really only FEELS like they think that. Most of the time (at least for me in my experiences) they don't *actually* think they know better than me, they are just trying to be helpful because they care about me and want me to not be in distress about whatever it is we are talking about. HOWEVER, I think this stems from people being codependent as SHIT and not knowing how to be okay with the people they care about being in distress so they are *so* uncomfortable by your pain that they are taking great effort to get you *out* of pain when really they could maybe just sit with you and allow you to feel what you're going through and sort it out yourself, like a good therapist would. So really people just need to learn how to not take other people's distress and/or pain on and let people express themselves without telling them what to do UNLESS THEY SAY WHAT SHOULD I DO DUDE?

The last element that is tied into the first part of the previous paragraph is that I think I inherently assume people do not have good intentions. That's a whole other conversation, and I don't think I *actually* believe this, but it seems like my gut response is that people are saying I'm incapable when really they are just trying to be helpful and nice. So that's my own baggage that I'm trying to unpack but my perspective has kind of changed on this topic since I've started to realize that more. Of just like oh, yeah, this is annoying, but they are just trying to be helpful. With my close friends and partners though, I tell them that when I am in distress, I pretty much never want or need advice, so unless I ask for it, I usually just need validation and understanding and love in those moments.

Nicole Alderman wrote:It's so good to see you on permies again, Cassie! Your dailyishes over the years have me feeling like I know you (...which makes me wonder if people feel the same way about me now that I write dailyishes :o). I see a bio on http://www.elementalecosystems.com/about.html and it says you've got a farm and are raising cattle--so exiting! I hope life is treating you awesomely and returning 10 fold all your smiles.

Thanks Nicole! From what I've seen you've done a wonderful job with the dailyishes, and I'm certain people feel like they know you because of it too! :)

Yes, that is all correct, I am back living in Montana, on family property, a few hours away from Paul actually, and I'm raising cattle and doing the whole bit! :) Life IS treating me awesomely, and I appreciate you and everyone's support along the way! Truly!

Judith Browning wrote:Cassie and Zach, It's wonderful to see you both back here!
...and with such forward thinking projects  

Judith! Great to get a note from you. :)