. Page 22 RAIN June 1976 JUNGLE .DRUMS Where is Truth? It's good to get your note, and to think about mp,ybe lining up t<;> do something helpful_for the c;ontemplated issue on what's happening where (I) live .. .. WHAT'S HAPPENING WHERE I LIVE "Where is Truth?" I ask·the rain tapping its questionnaire over the hill. It comes back hollow, and I ask again, "Is there a house with an open door where Truth used to live without an address?" Rain taps once more, tben still. These questions reach to touch my face every day in this wilderness. (Wm. Stafford) Ellensburg I am excited about seeing more-farmers • markets, a,nd community gardens, more individuals beginning to grow small crops of vegetables and herbs to eat and sell. I hope to see food growing, trucking, and marketing become more and more localized, as it is. Being on the east side of the mountains in Washington, I have come to feel there should be a warehouse over here somewhere ... buying wheat shipped ·from Yakima to Seattle back to Ellens- .burg. I have been involved in a proposal to use a big old brick school near here for a warehouse. To date, it has fallen through; if anyone would like to buy a - school and 10 acres here, do drop a line. I am very impressed with a system Don Newey wrote to me ;ibout, which · he's using in California. They are using money from food buying clubs to finance growers, thus releasing growers from the current economic system. Also, they have a community. Becoming independent of the current economic/banking system by starting our own seems to be a very import'ant need for us now. I myself am working to start a community center in EHensburg. I formed a non-profit corporation to be the legal umbrella to work under and am planning to buy a two-story house on 2 lots with root cellars, workshop and gc1:rage. Suggested uses include: -communal meetings, alternatives library, greenhouse, community lumber pile, cold storage of roots for co-op, etc., etc. I would.like to have the property held in trust, as by the Evergreen Land Trust, someday. Book Review: Rave review of The Findhorn Garden. Findhorn is a very amazing place. This book tells a lot about how Findhorn came to be, and the main people involved in creating it. It has a lot of information on the Nature Spirits-Devas and Elementals, and how man can iearn to cqoperate with them to transform the earth into, a place of harmony :md beauty. For anyone suspecting or believing in nature spirits, this book is amazing, inspiring, won<;lerful. (Joyce Schowalter, Box 172,· Epensburg, WA 98926) 'D..House c/o VAHID , Rt. 2, Box 259 Aurora, OR 97002 I now have 56 acres near Donald, Oregon, and am in the process o_f setting up something similar: to Earthmind, though incorporating the many many lessons learned.. Example: this one (At Home Everywhere)' is not non-profit. For this type of work (sale of informatio,n) there is little need for and much hassle in a non-profit statl;lS. We will explore small farm~ted energy options and concentrate on cultural attitudes and biological k'nowledge. Two books in process now. As I only have "200-300 words," the most important thing I can say is this: we cannot make a golden society out of leaden individuals. • All of our popular concerps-ecology, energy, economics, world hunger·, wor,ld peace-all depend upon a certain moral climate, and, lacking that, they wither and die. Vision eq·uals action, and any action taken to "solve" the problems is boun_d to merely bandage symptdms unless it is directed toward the moral, eth- • ethical and spiritual development of society-our view of the nature of man·- and the universe, and the purpose of both. Many will regard this as abstract, but it is our inner life which directs, conditions and forms our outer life-at least our response to the conditioq.s which present themselves. There is much more that could be said here; but space is limited: The above realization does not solve our problems, it merely directs our attention to_the area where our energy must be expended if we are to cure the disease and not merely shuffle the symptoms from place to place. I feel the most effective agency I have ever found for such deep and lasting transformation is the Baha'i Faith, and I yvill be happy to write to anyone who wants to know about this newest in the ages-old line of world religions. I realize that the idea of religion seems, to many people, irrelevant, but' the principles by which the Baha'is have lived for over 100 years are the very ones only now beginning to be recognized by the world as the benchmarks of progressive· thought; the equality of men and women, the unity and oneness of all people, the essential harmony of true science and religion shorn of dogma, are only a few examples. Again, though your space. is limited, I do hope that this letter is not too long to find' print. In His service, (D. House) Thermography & Solar Cells Institute for Local Self-Reliance , 1717 18th St., N.W. Washington, DC 20009 Dear Rain, Here is some more information your readers might find useful: On Thermography- AGA in Secaucus, New Jersey, ·came out with a machine firs,t, but it cost around $35-45,000. Inframetrics, at 225 Crescent St., Waltham, Mass. 02154 (617/891-6784) came out last year with one that is semi-por~- able (requires a shopping cart to be pulled around). It, is in the. 200 series . and costs $22-27,000 and operates on 110 volts. A prot.otype 5,10 series will •cost $20,000, is less versatile, fully portable, and will" be available this summer. The AGA machine uses the 3-5 micron spectral range, whereas the Inframetric uses the 8-;14 micron rarige and therefore permits the use of smaller optics. Radiance peaks at 10 microns, so this works even better than the AGA machine according to the Inframetrics people. Send for_their literature on tpe 200 series and 510 series. Rental of 510 was $500 per two weeks with a half-day - spent at the factory to learn its use. Larger 200 series costs ,$1700 per month to rent. It picks up a·fraction of a degree centigrade temperature differential. • On solar cells~ The book you reviewed in last month's RAIN concerning solar cells (Sunlight to Electricity) is, I believe, a relatively poor choice for readers. it is not all that good on the technology, is very expensive, and· speaks not at all to the political implications of solat cells. If people are interested in learning how the cells work_, the best way is to get a booklet called Energy from the Sun, by D.M. Chapin,
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