A new paradigm in Animal Welfare

Being part of the management team at HSSV (which by the way I LOVE) means that quite often I work just a bit of overtime. We are right on the verge of opening up a groundbreaking new Animal Community Center, which has been in the works for over ten years....and understandably everyone is VERY busy.

I can't tell you how excited I am to be a part of this transition! We're going to be nationally known as the first Gold LEED Certified Green shelter. Bringing together animal welfare and environmental stewardship couldn't be closer to home for me...two of the things I care the most deeply about.

Some of the blurbs:

"In March 2009, Humane Society Silicon Valley is going "green" and is "thinking outside of the cage" with its new Animal Community Center. This regional center will serve people and pets throughout the Bay Area.

The 48,000 square foot center will be the first Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified animal welfare agency in the country to combine an adoption program with a full spectrum of pet and community oriented services under one roof:"

"Our new Animal Community Center will reuse more than 90 percent of the materials from the building previously on our new site. We're also building in water savings and massive energy-efficiency to create a high-performance, sustainable “green” structure that meets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards set by the national Green Building Council, a level of sustainability never before achieved in an animal welfare facility."

All the details can be read on our website, www.hssv.org.

The building in progress..

The main entrance.
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no more chain link...no more 2'x 2' kennels for cats...environmentally friendly practices in everything we do..

So excited! We move in in March!

DIY

So, I've been immersed in this book lately "Making Stuff and Doing Things", from Microcosm Publishing, out of Portland. p.s. thats NOT my wrinkly hand.
I hesitate to call myself or my actions "punk rock" anymore...because 1) I'm not into labels, and 2)I'm probably not worthy of one anyway! Haha, but nonetheless, this is an awesome book. There are so many different DIY recipes in here that I don't even know where to begin! I think I'm going to attempt to build my own books...by reusing cardboard, paper, and cloth I have around here. If you know me well, expect a notebook in your mailbox soon!

Happy reading!

Framing Light, and Things to Bite!

So the prettying-up of the window is a couple steps further! My master craftsman Barrett (who btw had NO idea what he was doing when he started this) has pulled off another amazing aesthetic feat! Check it out...

From the loft looking in...


From the room looking out..check out the frame...classy!


p.s. the Gypsy in the corner is an original from our buddy Chris Lacey. The big one on the left is mine..


Just to give a lame "shout out". I bought this window at this freakin rad warehouse in Berkeley, Urban Ore. They do mostly reclaimed de-construction materials...with some thrift store type used furniture and fixtures...and other odds and ends. Its a reuse nerd's heaven (imagine how long I spent poking through stuff!). It ended up costing me $60, brand new, when it normally would have been a couple hundred! Long live local economy!

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The other topic I wanted to blab about is vegan comfort food. I've gotten my fair share of cocked-head looks lately at the question of "what do you eat" when I'm talking about veganism.

Here are some examples of staples I've converted. Granted these aren't health food by any means..but they taste good sans dead animals!

Creamy, "cheesy" mac!


Spaghetti Squash pizza!


"Chicken fried steak", gravy, mashed sweet and red potatoes, baked kale and carrots..


Purple, red and sweet potato scram. Spicy beans and rice. Corn on the cob!


Pig out!!! but let the pig live :)

Christmas trips, span of a month

Here's a couple glances at time spent with family and friends on our two trips during this past Holiday season. Every hard-workin pair needs to blow steam off once in a while!

Some time in the inland empire...

Joseph and Barrett


Amanda, me, Joe


Bert, Barrett and I


Some time in the high desert...

My Dad and Carrie looking toward Fish Slough




Paiute Indian petroglyphs near my Dad's house.



Nap time in nature for me


Nature eats Barrett


Searching for his spirit animal


alls well...

Let There Be Light!

So, we've finally got a window in our bedroom!

This little guy was a long time coming. We had been discussing different ways to get natural light into the room, since it had been completely framed in w/o it when the original warehouse converters built it. I (as well as many others) find it stupidly hard to get out of bed in the mornings, even though I do feel I am more productive and do my best work in the morning. Of course, one of the reasons for this is probably due to not having morning light in the room at all. We have literally had no sense of night or day since last March. No wonder there are motivational problems about! No more!

Here is our new window in its infant stages, from the loft view looking in..



From the bedroom view looking out..



There will still be a lot added to make it absolutely wonderful!

While Barrett was hard at work giving us light, I set to work on making a comfy workspace...


I dragged the removed window bars that I was originally planning a vine-climbing for into the space for a makeshift bulletin space. There are so many opportuities to stick both papers and items in the spaces for inspiration...I couldn't turn it away!


So goes another day..

The Beginning of the Beating Heart

So this weekend I got really feisty for a change in my surroundings. We always talk about being able to do whatever we want to this place, to make whatever we want, to alter whatever we want. Dammit I'm taking advantage of it! The little corner area under the loft that I blocked out to make a work area needs updating. This is the area where I want to spend most of my time at home, given that its where my sewing machine (thanks Bert and Heather!), the computer, my painting stuff, bookcase, and all other miscellaneous productive materials live. There is a waist high wall shelf that was here before we were, which I want to keep and use as main work space. Step one was updating my computer monitor. I had a big, heavy, awkward one that took up quite a chunk of space on every desk I ever had it on. So, in order to slim down and use my little space as efficiently as possible, I splurged a bit on a refurbished Dell Ultra Sharp 22" monitor.

It was about half the price it normally would be, which settled the feeling of "oh my god I just spent way too much money on a material thing".

Second step is actually painting the space in a warm color. I want it wo be welcoming. Right now its an icy baby blue, like so many of the walls in the warehouse. I wasn't going to skimp on the quality of paint this time around, so I searched out the best quality no VOC version I could find.




I will recaim this little space!! Barrett was good enough to muscle that giant ugly desk out of the space for me, to open things up.


I'm thinking of building a tree in the corner of the desk...with branches running across the ceiling....

The Little Things

Its cold here. Possibly colder inside than out. I have to gather more willpower than strength to get out of bed in the morning.

I was browsing through my phone and found some of the little things in my life that make things ok.

Surprises in nature


Dog crunching through leaves


Cat being cute


Purple potato tofu scram


Creamiest mac and "cheese" ever! (no animal stuff, no fake cheese....just pure genius!)


p.s. I know two of them are food. I miss cooking.