I’ve had a quiet little dream for about 4 years or more. I noticed these things sometime ago called XTRACYCLES. They were a cool attachment that you plugged into the back of your bike (remounted your back wheel into), and this suddenly allowed someone to carry a person on the back, extra packs, construction material, surfboards, dogs…up to 200 pounds of it. They refer to it on their site as a SUB: sport utility bike. Low carbon footprint. High functionality. Inexpensive compared to a new “used” car. No insurance. No guilt. No gas. I daydreamed about it for a number of years…and just tabled it, as some of us do with little dreams.

Sometime passed. Deb and I purchased a used EBike (a steel framed, cool Hybrid Electric Assist bike from the early 2000’s– Lee Iacocca’s prescient company, which, sadly folded with the dotcom bombs of 2000-1, I believe).

Sometimes, in the morning, I just don’t have the gumption to pedal to work, so this was a compromise between my legs and the need for something to help get around the South Hills of Eugene. Well…the EBike did it for us. When we need extra “juice”, it scoots up hills like “Hawkins”, “City View” and (fill-in-the-blank) with ease. You still have to pedal, but just barely.

…then, in between jobs, I just figured it out. Let’s combine the 2. A sustainable-vehicle-Frankensteinian vision. How? Do it myself? No time. I got too much wood to chop, too little time at home. I should be spending that with Eli and Deb anyway. Deb and I talked and we visioned: Deb doing grocery runs all summer long…picking Eli up on the back from school…the inexpensive nature of an SUB. The sustainability. The Sexiness of it. Cycle in the City. So we went for it.
That’s where “Revolution Cycles” came in.

A number of months ago, I noticed Rev’ carries Surly bikes (steel framed “old-skool” bike which also make use of Xtracycles).
I talked to Shane, Revoulution Cycles’s CEO, and the odyssey for them began. You see, the Ebike and Xtracycle never knew each other…so it took some thought by Shane and his talented team to marry these two concepts together. They gave me a good price. They worked hard. And this was the outcome: a beautiful marriage of cycle, engine, electricity and sustainability. (They’ll have pictures on their blog in the future–I’ll post links later).

Let me tell you–it’s a little heavy (due to the monster 36 volt battery). But it’s stable. And Eli loves the ride on the back, as does Debbie also, as do I. And it will get Deb out of the car this Summer, and REALLY on the road. It was the right choice.

So, you can’t always get what you want…but on this dream, I did. Thank you Lee I. Thank you Ross Evans. Thank you Shane. My dream has come true. I need the “long hauler” attachment still. Then,maybe I’ll serve tubs of Cherry Amaretto Coconut Bliss off the back of it. Or maybe I can strap on a cornelius keg of Mike’s home-brewed Nut Brown Ale for an impromptu tasting party at Monroe park. Or add an outlet/small inverter/speakers to the battery, play some tunes and “blow a 50 amp fuse” (hey, Shane, got any shop time open? Maybe we need to talk soon…more mods to come).

Summer’s almost here, and the time is right. If you see me cruising by, do say hello.

The video is only 4 minutes long –shorter than it takes to check in on your Facebook profile for sure. :)
Another kind of “Spring Cleaning”…

Ok, great article. Little dreams make things happen. Good for you, Will!!!
Am reposting it from the New York Times)

An Urban Farmer Is Rewarded for His Dream
Darren Hauck (

Will Allen at Growing Power’s farm in Milwaukee.

Article Tools Sponsored By
By BARBARA MINER
Published: September 25, 2008

MILWAUKEE
WILL ALLEN already had the makings of an agricultural dream packed into two scruffy acres in one of Milwaukee’s most economically distressed neighborhoods.

His Growing Power organization has six greenhouses and eight hoophouses for greens, herbs and vegetables; pens for goats, ducks and turkeys; a chicken coop and beehives; and a system for raising tilapia and perch. There’s an advanced composting operation — a virtual worm farm — and a lab that is working on ways to turn food waste into fertilizer and methane gas for energy.

With a staff of about three dozen full-time workers and 2,000 residents pitching in as volunteers, his operation raises about $500,000 worth of affordable produce, meat and fish for one of what he calls the “food deserts” of American cities, where the only access to food is corner grocery stories filled with beer, cigarettes and processed foods.

Now, with a $500,000 “genius grant” that the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded him last week, Mr. Allen is dreaming bigger.

“I’d like to see Growing Power transform itself into a five-story vertical building being totally off the grid with renewable energy, where people can come and learn, so they can go back to their communities around the world and grow healthy food,” Mr. Allen, 59, said in an interview at the farm.

For Mr. Allen, only the second working farmer to win the award, according to the foundation, his efforts are not meant simply to keep people well fed. He sees Growing Power as a way to organize people whose voices are rarely heard and to fight racism.

“I am a farmer first, and I love to grow food for people,” Mr. Allen said. “But it’s also about growing power.”

For 16 years, through sales, and proceeds from grants, he has extended Growing Power’s operations in Milwaukee and Chicago, spreading the gospel of urban farming around the world and training fellow agricultural dreamers.

An imposing 6 feet 7 inches tall, Mr. Allen, who grew up on a farm outside Washington, D.C., played professional basketball for a time after college, mostly in Europe. In 1993, he left a job with Procter & Gamble and bought a roadside farm in Milwaukee’s economically depressed north side — the last remaining registered farm in the city — and got local teenagers involved.

Now, along with its main farm in Milwaukee, Growing Power, a nonprofit group, has a 40-acre farm in a nearby town, and gardens throughout the city. The group also has operations in Chicago, including a garden at the Cabrini-Green housing project and urban farms in Grant and Jackson Parks.

In addition to retail sales at the Milwaukee headquarters, Growing Power sells to food co-ops, other retail stores and about 30 restaurants in the Milwaukee and Chicago areas.

The Growing Powers headquarters looks like a farm stand in need of a paint job and feels like a 1960s community center. Young and old mill about, shopping and waiting for a tour or a training session or a conference.

There is constant activity, with projects at various stages of completion. Mud-encrusted boots share space with pick-axes and pots of salad greens.

“It’s a crazy place,” Mr. Allen said.

As with any top-notch farmer, Mr. Allen takes special care with his soil. Using millions of pounds of food waste, his farm produces endless compost piles, which are then enriched by thousands of pounds of worms, essential to producing what he calls the highest quality fertilizer in the world.

“There are worms in every pot of soil and every tray of vegetables in this greenhouse,” Mr. Allen said.

His food, free of chemicals, tastes better, Mr. Allen said. “And that’s what the really good chefs understand.”

Paul Kahan, the chef and managing partner of the award-winning Chicago restaurants Blackbird and Avec, is one of the chefs who has been working with Mr. Allen’s organization.

“They are wonderful people and do some interesting things that fit in with what we are trying to do,” Mr. Kahan said. “We buy regular produce, such as tomatoes, but they do some things in particular that we really love: pea tendrils, baby beet greens, nasturtiums, baby mustard greens.”

Mr. Allen said he learned it all from his parents. “We’re having to go back to when people shared things and started taking care of each other,” he said. “That’s the only way we will survive.”

“What better way,” he mused, “than to do it with food?”

Locality is everything, especially these days. And one person’s problem is another person’s solution.

For example, if you’ve got a restaurant and dirty grease is accumulating everyday, you have an issue. If you’re selling green diesel cars, you got to fuel them. And if you’re human, you’ve got to eat and drink.

There it is : a green business symbiosis just waiting to happen.

Who are we talking about? The Blazing Chef (coffee and ‘fish and chips’ house) and “Green Eye” autos.

The Blazing Chef is owned by Ms. Haven Sundstrom, and has done fish and chips at our local Saturday market for over 7 years. And she always hung out with Green Eye people. Sooner or later, they realized a synergistic opportunity.

The staff of Green Eye said to her, hey, why don’t you open up a fish and chips place on our parking lot…and we can take that extra oil off your hands.

It’s one year later, and the mutually beneficial partners are rocking: coffee in the morning (River Road drivers, take note!) and fish and chips till 7pm.

Jonah her son: “My mom made (the shop)…and it took her a long time. Well it’s cool to work so hard at something, then have it happen.”

“I use as much local stuff as I can…Bread Stop bread, Fisherman’s Market fish , Wandering Goat coffee…”, Haven explained.

So, if you’re thinking fish and chips, and you’re aiming for something green, check out her shop, just after you go over the bridge where Chambers turns into River Road. If you’re heading North (towards River Road), just look for the big “green eye” sign on the right side–her shop is in the corner of the parking lot. It has fish painted on it. And the fish and chips were tasty–I wish everyone’s tartar sauce tasted like that!

My brother lost his Palm Treo recently in a tide pool in California. This is a great metaphor for what has happened to Palm over the last few years.

Well. After checking out today’s preview of the ‘PRE’, their new smart phone, I’m thinking they may have turned a corner. It won’t take down the iphone, but–if priced less and with a little luck– it could take solid second.

And Palm has a ‘green’ approach to their company, so that’s why I’m stoked to see them fighting with this new product, as well.

Here are some articles on the “PRE” :

The Pre Homepage

Initial Investor Response

A PRE Review

Palm Inc’s 5 Year Chart

BTW,
here’s that other ‘PRE’. And who knows…maybe it’s OS will run faster, and it’s battery last longer than it’s competitors, too. :)

Pre

Deb and I visited Moab 5 years ago or so–what an amazing place.
And to think it was up for “auction” ?! By the current administration ?! Utah’s Arches and Canyonlands National Parks !!!

In this day and age, winning the rights to lease is tantamount to outright ownership–especially if you’re a gas or oil company.

I’m not “political” per se, but I want my kid(s) to be able see this National Park the way it looks now. That’s worth $10. Or $20. Send Tim a 10-spot if you agree.

Ok. I now descendeth the soapbox…

(Thanks DailyKos!)