Goin' Up The Country

I've been out of touch for quite a few days but that's because I've......gone country!

OK, to be specific, on Wednesday I took the train up to Eumundi, about 140 km (90 miles) north of here to visit our friends Ben and Andrea Risby-Jones. I'm working with Ben and Andrea in the business -- Life Essences. Specifically, I'm helping Ben write a book and I'm helping Andrea find places in Australia to really get their products out there.



Because, ironically, while they are well-established in Europe and have a growing presence in the US (thanks to Kitty Southworth, LMT), they have virtually no presence in their home country! No workshops, no speaking engagements, no shops carrying their product.



So, on Wednesday I caught the 10 am train out of the Central Station, a whopping 15-minute walk from my apartment. I was so proud that I had figured out which train when straight through.....except that when I asked which platform I was supposed to be on, she checked my ticket and informed me I'd be switching to a bus for the last hour of the trip.

d'oh!

Oh well, I've done it before and it's really not bad. Ben picked me up right on time and we headed back to his house.



Ben and Andrea own 120 acres in a tight little tropical/rainforest valley next to national forest. Heavily wooded, they are working to return the land to natural rainforest vegetation while producing the bulk of their electricity from solar panels on the roof, growing a lot of their own herbs and veggies as well as chickens and the occasional pig, and running their cars on vegetable oil.



Yes, fairly crunchy green granola.

Ben and I spent Wednesday afternoon reviewing what we wanted to do with the book. We've been talking about it for at least 2 years. He's finally ready for it. We've had an outline for a while but now that I'm here, on the ground, we can make it happen.

While Ben has a fully-formed philosophy he wants to communicate, he's not a writer. We were pondering trying to do this long-distance but it makes a huge difference to be present together.



We spent a couple of hours on Thursday and Friday.....writing. Well, more specifically, he talked and I typed......while making observations, asking questions, and doing some editing on the fly. I'll do more editing / filling out now that I'm back in Brisbane this week.

Someone said I was the "guard rails", which is not a bad analogy. I noticed that when Ben started to go out on a tangent, he would bring himself back and I think that's because he was talking to someone who represents not just editorial expertise but who also represents his target market, the kind of people he wants to write this book for.

So we may have only produced 5 pages but it was still a big week.

It was gray and chilly on Wednesday and Thursday, a little better on Friday, and gorgeous on Saturday and Sunday. I was sleeping in an un-heated room (OK, the whole house is un-heated, like most Australian houses, except for a wood stove in the living room/dining room) and slept under a pile of blankets plus a sleeping bag. I was really happy to see Jeff show up on Saturday!



Their land is heavily wooded and I took a long walk on Saturday back to a huge tree called The Grandfather Tree. The roots on these trees fascinate me because it looks like nature laid a blanket across the root system, making folds rather than individual roots.

The rest of the weekend was chock-full of social life. Andrea and Ben invited several families of their kids classmates over for a cook-out, bonfire and sleep-over. Not all the kids had met before but they were a riotious noisy joyous bunch. They had a grand time.

I loved getting to meet some new people. Each of the women I met were interesting. Ben and Andrea have a good network of friends, many of whom are also not native-born Australians, so being American was a big "no big". One woman was Australian but married to an American. Andrea is an American married to an Australian. Another woman was Swiss married to an Australian.

I felt so vanilla, just being an American married to an American!

We tried to do a bonfire after dinner down at their fire circle but everything was much too damp. Even with both diesel and regular gasoline added to the wood (and everyone standing waaaaaay back) we couldn't get it started.



So everyone trouped back up to the house and the kids made s'mores.....in the wood stove in the house. They melted just as well and there were stickly chocolate faces all around.

Saturday night Jeff and I stayed in one of the two cabins they've built on the property. It's up on a hillside and just as cute as it can be....and very very quiet. We didn't even hear the normal night sounds of the woods and slept like logs.

Now, if Ben would only add a working bathroom so we didn't have to wander outside in the middle of the night to take a pee......

Sunday was another full-o-families day. Ben and Andrea had invited all the boys in their son's class over with their bikes for a day of "guy bonding". As I've said, they've got 125 acres plus Ben has recently completely a motorbike track out in a front paddock (field). Let the testosterone flow!

While the boys were doing their thing, all the girls (plus Jeff and one guy who was too young for the bike-o-rama) jumped in the car and headed across the ridge to Mapleton. Now, "across the ridge" is generally unpaved, heavily pitted, and quite a bouncy ride.



I loved it.

Plus, it gave us a chance to see how the terrain and vegetatation changed with altitude change. Also discovered some trail heads so I'd like to do some hiking some time when I go back.



Mapleton is an adorable little town high up in the hills with views out to the ocean. We sat out on a grassy area enjoying the sunshine and breezes for a while before heading back to the house.

Ben's parents were there and I had a chance to do some great visiting with both of them. Marie has trained in acupuncture and we talked quite a bit about the meridians. I'd like to understand them better, without having to actually go to acupuncture school!

Ben's dad Peter was a shop teacher and knows heaps about building and repairing and everything hands on. He gave me a great overview of what it means for a house to be Queenslander style.

Queensland is hot, humid at the coasts and dry in the middle, and tropical or semi-tropical. A Queenslander house is set up off the ground, with deep verandas on all 4 sides, high ceilings (9-10 feet) with fans in the roof (not just ceiling fans) and often with the rooms clustered in the middle of the house in such a way to catch as much cross-ventilation as possible.

They're a very popular style.

Jeff and I finally pulled out about 4:30 and got back to our apartment by 6:30. I was ready for bed when I got home but I wanted to (1) eat and (2) get this blog entry out so you'll know I haven't been swallowed by a python!