I left Portland at around 7:00 a.m. and needed to arrive at the course site for our 9:30 a.m. morning circle.  I made very good time despite the rain.  The one thing I remember from the ride is the billboard for cage fighting.  Unbelievable!

I was barely 15 minutes outside Eugene when the fuel light came on in the car, and I noticed it was almost on empty.  I was peeved that I would be late but thankful to see that the next exit had gas.  I pulled into the station, got out to pump my gas, swiped my card and then heard the attendant say, “I’ll be right there.”  I replied, “Do I need you?”  He then proceeded to tell me that there is no self-service gas pumping in Oregon.  This was quite a shock – I didn’t know such a thing existed, and I found it quite silly.  Why was I not allowed to pump my own gas?

Fortunately, he was expedient about it, and, once on the road again, I saw that I was still on target to arrive at 9:00.  I had plenty of time on arrival to get ready for our morning meeting.  Later in the morning, we all walked a few streets over, near where I’d parked my car, to another homestead where the owner, Jan, told us all about what he was doing there.  It’s amazing the structures they’ll let you put in your back yard here.

He has some cool things going on – rain barrels, chickens, fruit trees.  He’s doing passive solar, solar water.  He has some huge rain collection containers.

We went back to the course site for lunch, at which time one of my classmates offered to help me return my rental car.  I drove to the Budget store and said a tiny “thank you” to the Universe as I had opted not to purchase the insurance.  Today is a good day!  Judy showed up just as I sat down to wait for her, and on our way back to the course site, we stopped at a coffee hut, and she very generously bought me a caramel latte.  It was just another little slice of heaven today.

In the afternoon, we went back to Jan’s house and spent several hours helping him out with various projects.  I did a lot of wheelbarrow handling and pitchfork slinging.  We basically mulched all the pathways throughout his back yard/garden.

Now we’re back in the cob building hearing instruction.  I’m not looking forward to sleeping on the futon again – perhaps I can think of some other way to make it comfortable.