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It has been a whirlwind since we returned home from Bali. We pulled into The Farm on a Saturday, and the next day on Sunday Deborah and I were featured on CNN's United Shades of America, an episode called "Off the Grid."
Hosted by comedian W. Kamau Bell, it was a lighthearted look at life in community. Kamau handed me a huge microphone to speak to the culture at large, when he said, "Sell me Doug, sell me." My message, loud and clear, was "YES YOU CAN!"
Yes you can:
- grow your own food.
- build a natural home.
- deliver your children at home.
- find a community of like-minded people
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W. Kamau Bell goes "Off the Grid" on CNN's new show,
United Shades of America, Sunday nights at 9 PM CST
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Kamau wrote this on his Facebook page: "And then finally in this episode, I met with people at The Farm. They went full on off the grid, and kind of ended up building their own grid in the process. It started out west in San Francisco with just a few people. Then they recruited a larger community and headed back East, out to the hinterlands of Tennessee, where they bought up acres of land and built a whole new town and intentional community, The Farm Community. And when they realized they needed an industry of some sort to sustain them, they came up with two things: tofu and babies. The Farm has a world-renowned midwifery program. If this sounds like a 1960s hippie vision of peace and love, I can confirm that it pretty much is."
Coming up July 13-17, My Summer Retreat. All are welcome, single/solo people, couples without kids, but the event is family friendly, with special activities for children included. REGISTER TODAY! I hope to see you there.
Peace,
Douglas
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Awakening Update
Our time in Bali was both fun and productive. We made serious headway on our new web site, and recorded 10 Awakening Birth podcasts which I am in the process of editing.
We released our first podcast while still in Bali, in response to an editorial opinion piece published in the New York Times questioning the safety of home birth and the work of Certified Professional Midwives. My wife and Farm Midwife Deborah Flowers and midwife Robin Lim put together this response which you can view on YouTube, called "Is Home Birth Safe?"
Various studies show the U.S. now ranks anywhere from 43rd to 60th in maternal mortality and its position in infant mortality continues to drop, recently listed as going from 30th to 33rd. We at Awakening Birth will continue our efforts to bring Gentle Birth to the forefront as a right for all mothers and babies.
Deborah and Robin Lim with a new baby born at Robin's clinic in Bali, Bumi Sehat------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Honey Report
Bee hive "swarm" or divide, with half of the hive's population (or more) leaving the hive to find a new home, essentially how the bees "reproduce."
One of my hives swarmed while I was away, but my daughter Leah and granddaughter Lulie received word and captured the swarm. The bees attach themselves to a limb or branch, surrounding their queen, while also sending out scouts looking for a suitable new location.
Leah cut off the branch and placed it in a 5-gallon bucket, then transferred the bees into one of my empty hives. I am happy to report that the swarm has stayed put, the queen is now laying eggs, and the new hive has started collecting honey.
Before I left for Bali, I put empty honey supers (wooden boxes} on my two strongest hives. Each super contained frames of drawn comb, empty honey comb from which I had removed/extracted last season's honey.
Upon my return, I was pleasantly surprised to find all the supers completely full of honey! The family (and a friend) spent a day extracting the spring honey and returning the empty comb back to the hives. We harvested 6 gallons off just two hives. Three weeks later, the frames are all almost completely full of honey again.
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