Phase 2

Greetings and Salutations!

From a series of conversations over the past few weeks, it has become clear that we need to rethink our current plan as a crew.  So much growth, and such a wide variety of experiences over the last six months has been intense!  We find ourselves confronting needs that often get overlooked in our lifestyle...certain environments, personal space, individual goals relating experiences or skills we wish to have.  And we also recognize that such extreme togetherness inevitably needs balance...space will keep our relationships and selves healthy.  

Thus, it seems we are closing the first chapter of the Loki adventure, and beginning the next. 

We are pausing the veggie conversion until we secure more stable funding, for one.  That will take a while, but we do not want to continue the use of diesel fuel in the meanwhile.  It is looking like the bus will remain stationary in the interim...sorting out those details currently.

Kaley is seeking an education in herbalism, off on her own adventure already. 

Jeff is visiting friends and family in Philly right now, taking a personal vacation of sorts, playing music.  I hear he will likely stay for the Philadelphia Folk Festival in August.

Jason is planning on returning to Philly for August for the Folk Fest as well.  He and Max have been having conversations around the idea of focusing on music for a while, maybe arranging a small tour in the next few months?  Max has been writing a lot of new songs, and learning them, and Jay has been writing a lot of poetry that seems headed for songville.  (For the record, I would totally attend a Max and Jason show.)

Rabbit needs wilderness, so she will be leaving Asheville soon to decide how she wants to spend her time elsewhere.  I saw her browsing agricultural internships online yesterday.

Max and I plan to stay in Asheville at least until we decide what to do with Loki in the upcoming months.  I have a feeling she would be a great outdoor clubhouse for someone with property or a farm.  She just needs to be started up 2 to 4 times a month.  Not too worried about securing something for our bus...we have a bit of time.  We have been warmly welcomed to continue to participate in The Landing community, which feels like a good springboard from which to bounce to the next adventure. 

I am a little torn about what form my own adventure will take, though I have zeroed in on a lot of needs and wants I can address.  I need a personal space...haven't had my own room since May of 2011!  And of course I need to continue my studio practice, which has been healthily and steadily growing, taking up more of my time, in the past two months.  I am open to setting up a tour of existing communes and collectives, so I can pursue the social researcht hat has been my primary interest on the trip. And I am very interested in seeing Washington State.

Through all of these recent shifts in the adventure, a few important realizations have emerged.

We are each others family, and still share the same dream, of putting all these experiences and explorations into practice, in our Someday Space.  Have we talked on this blog about The Someday Space?  It is the idea that fuels this adventure, even when it begins to feel TOO difficult.  The Someday Space is where we want to settle, to grow food, to play music, and to support collaboration in all areas of our lives.  It is a venue for creativity and performance, and has a rich relationship with a nearby town or city.  It is not isolated.  It is a place to educate and be educated in any skill or method or practice that a resident or guest wishes to explore.  It will probably include a collectively run restaurant, dogs, zip lines, outdoor art installations, several dream houses, trails, slack lines, at least one bus, goats, a kale patch, and lots of bright colors.  We learn more about The Someday Space every day, with each experience.  And The Someday Space is what we on the Loki Crew are looking for in our travels.  We are looking for it in the people we meet, the land we tour, and the things we learn to make or do.  The past six months has been about looking for the Someday Space in learning how we best function as a family, what togetherness means (and doesn't mean), what is necessary for a conscious, respectful community to function.
 
So, this idea of a phase 2 makes perfect sense.  Six of us, with the Someday Space in mind, diversifying our experiences and skills, enriching the collective dream.  Balancing our relationships with adequate space.  Strengthening our relationships by nurturing ourselves in the ways we individually need to.   Widening our perspectives.  Spreading out our tendrils and scoping out the country in six places at once.

I hope you keep following our blog!  It's likely to become much more interesting, if anything, in the next few months, as we report back from our variety of experiences.  Stay in touch!

Love,
Jackie

Head shots

Our friends Esteban and Alyssa from our Durham stay way back in February came to visit us in Asheville recently.   Esteban is an awesome photographer, and shared some shots he got of the visit.  Awww!

Yesterday we said goodbye to our friend Les, who came to visit from Texas last month and told us good stories and made us delicious raw food...we'll miss himmmmmm!  (he's the one with the dinosaur hat eating the unicorn hat eating his head:

The Loki Post

So, the latest project I've been working out is a newsletter a lot of you have probably received invitations to on facebook or in your email:

The Loki Post

The newsletter is NOT the same as our blog.  It is about YOU...all the teachers and sources of great ideas and inspiration that make up our network and support system.  The idea behind this newsletter is to expose our network to itself...strengthen it by encouraging a better interconnectivity, exchange of ideas.  We see so many people doing amazing things, and I am constantly thinking, oh my YOU should meet THIS person and talk, or these projects would make an AWESOME collaborative.  And for the most part, when we do connect people actively, good things have happened.  Our hosts at the Landing just took their circus show up to philly, Loki's birthplace, and so many amazing new relationships happened when they hooked in with people we knew from the circus scene, Occupy scene, urban garden scene.  So we are attempting to do that regularly by setting up this newsletter as a nexus.  We will include descriptions of projects we are seeing, and contact information for the people in charge of them (better still have the people in charge of them write that description themselves), talk about communities we've stayed with and how they are uniquely making it work, and then all the ideas, recipes, sustainable living methods, gardening tips, discussions surrounding said people and projects will have a place to be shared.

I am seeing the bus more and more as a vehicle of communication.  This is definitely how my personal mission on the bus is evolving, but I suspect it might be beyond me, too.  We could become a thread between all the cool stuff non-nomadic folks are doing.  There is so much good happening on a small scale in this country but it can be so isolated...a lot of people don't think about how much more independent they could be from the structures they are criticizing if they were more interdependent, resourceful, collaborative with others seeking the same freedom.  This idea is already showing its merit in the local food movement...small communities and farms supporting each other, creating a well-rounded selection but maintaining their ethical codes and quality by centralizing on a small scale (the farmers' markets, CSAs, etc).  But I think there are a lot more aspects of DIY living and innovative sustainable lifestyles that would benefit from this sort of organization.

I hope you're all into it!  I appreciate any feedback too...email lokithespacebus at gmail if you've got ideas!

Love,
Jackie

These are really good

Our refreshed Etsy shop!

Hello friends and family,

We would like to make you aware that we are revamping our effort to earn money through our creative practices on the road.  We will be updating our Etsy shop regularly, so subscribe or just stay tuned to check out the latest Loki road-gifts!

Available now is the first edition of our cooking ZINE, in the Belly of the Beast, an awesome necklace made by Rabbit, and a series of paintings by Jackie

Visit our storefront HERE !