Free Tea Party

10 Years of Free Tea – Durham, NC

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Guisepi

10 years and almost 30,000 cups of free tea. That’s nearly 8 cups of tea a day for 10 years!

10 years ago, I was lonely. I was living in my pickup truck and working 50-60+ hours a week in front of a computer as a video editor in Hollywood. When we finished the rough cut of the documentary, my hours dropped to 30-40 hours a week. With all this free time suddenly dumped in my lap, I realized that I had almost no friends, and no community.

What does a 22-year-old do when they want to meet people? In Los Angeles, like so many places, the best and most acceptable option was going to the bar. I tried my luck a couple times, but the noise and dim lights didn’t help foster good conversation. And to top it off, I was approached both times by women who asked if I could buy them a drink. Wow, was it me, or was that the least genuine human interaction I could possibly have? These people only wanted to talk to me because they wanted my money.

Serving tea back in the day.

One evening, in January of 2006 as I left work, I ended up driving down to Hollywood Boulevard to cook dinner on my tailgate. As some of you know, the characters who find themselves on Hollywood Blvd. are what give that town the name Hollyweird. That night, and the several nights that followed over the next couple weeks would shape my life in ways that I hadn’t imagined.

When I pulled out my camp stove on those evenings, and started cooking dinner, instantly there were curious passersby who would stop to chat. “What are you doing?” “Why are you cooking dinner here?” There was the Nazi gutter punk street kid, Lefty, and the guy who dressed up like the Christmas Bunny (whatever that was). Then there was the gangster with street names tattooed on his face, and that family from Japan. Oh, and there was the sweet Hispanic family from East LA. Then Rudi from the Erotic Museum, and the Middle Eastern shopkeeper. Geraldine was a German music student, and Lunchbox lived on the street. A club promoter came by, followed by a college professor. Some of them I fed food. Some of them I fed conversation. And after dinner was done, to keep the interaction going, I put on the kettle.

Back on Hollywood Boulevard 2+ years after first starting to serve tea.

All of a sudden I had community! And so did they!

For the same price I could buy a girl a drink at the bar, I could buy 100 Lipton tea bags and have 100 genuine human interactions.

I had discovered that when my interactions with people had money taken out of them, it made them much more genuine. There was something about unconditional sharing that created trust in a way that no interaction based around profit maximization could. And no wonder, because people have been using free tea for thousands of years as a way to create bonds between people.

All of a sudden people started saying, “Hey, when are you going to be serving tea again?” “Hey, it’s the tea guy!” “It’s the tea man!”

I thought to myself, “I don’t even know if I like tea!” And then I thought about it more, “I guess I could be the tea guy.”

Making tea made me happy!

After those three months on Hollywood Blvd, and when I left LA, I served tea wherever I went as a way to meet people. There was never a FREE TEA sign, just the welcoming camp chairs, rug, and steaming kettle. Those first few years, I probably only served tea about once-a-month, but nonetheless, people enjoyed it, and I met the most eclectic people everywhere I went.

After a long stay in my hometown, I hit the road again, stopping in Seattle to serve some tea on Broadway with my friend Elena. After a great evening of street kids, Christian missionaries, and Seattle yuppies, Elena turned to me and said, “You have to do this… more.”

And that’s when I realized that making free tea was going to be the main function of my existence.

Edna survives the mountains and deserts of Big Bend National Park.

As most of you know, I spent the next 8 years building out and traveling the country in Edna Lu, the teabus. In fact, we have served almost 30,000 cups of free tea, which ends up being on average almost 8 cups of tea a day for 10 years! New Years’ has become an anniversary of sort, as the first tea parties occurred in January of 2006.

New Years Eve in Durham, NC

Last night we drove the tea bus down to downtown Durham, NC to bring in the New Year and celebrate ten years of serving free tea. Wow, ten years! I still can’t believe it. What does this mean? Am I lonely any more? Nope! Do I feel as inspired serving tea as I did way back then? Yup! Every tea party presents new characters and new ideas. I am actually happy to say that something that has never ever happened before happened last night – the money drawer in the Gift & Take was emptied.

As many of you know, the Gift & Take money drawer is for anyone to put in and anyone to take out. There is an allegory about the Gift & Take that I often use: The Gift & Take has never, ever been empty, which says to me that when you trust people, even strangers, they will take personal responsibility for themselves in relation to the whole 99% of the time.

Last night, a nicely dressed fellow came to the bus with a sad story of hard times. He was a minister, one-time staff sergeant, and had done homeless outreach. But due to a series of events, he had been locked out of his apartment for not having rent money. All he needed was a small amount to get his landlord to open his apartment back up.

The Gift & Take

I told him he was in luck and that he came to the perfect place. “You see that set of drawers over there? There’s one for money, where anyone can put in and anyone can take out, based on excess or need.”

“Wait, seriously? Can I?”

“You don’t need to ask me, you just need to ask yourself.”

He looked half startled and feeling like he was in a dream. At first he took all the cash (probably around $20), and then he asked about the change in the drawer. I gave him the same response. And then, amusingly, he asked for a bag to put all the money in.

I could have been heart-broken that the drawer was empty, and my faith in the goodness of people when given the opportunity to act responsibly could have been destroyed… But, as tea guest Ellen said that night, when you give people that responsibility, inevitably there will be someone who has had hard times compared to the rest, and there will inevitably be people who need everything that’s in the drawer.

A typical day on Hollywood Blvd.

I am also amused to think of the sight when that fellow counts the money. People have been putting coins from all over the world, pennies painted with peace signs, parking coins, and more into that Gift & Take for many, many years. He did not take the wooden nickel, nor the coin good for “One Dollar in Trade for Whiskey, Women, or Tobacco.” He also did not take any of the money in the coin dispenser.

Whether the money was for rent or drugs, what this man really needed wasn’t necessarily money, but for someone to treat him as a human being. Just as I was needing to be received as a human being on Hollywod Blvd. ten years ago, I could see from the look on his face that this is exactly what he received.

As I reflect on a decade of sharing tea for free, I can’t help but think about power that sharing has. It has given me purpose and happiness. It has made me realize that sharing is completely karmic, and the reason I can travel around sharing is because of all the sharing that is done with me. You give and you receive – this is how the world works. The tea bus has also created impacts on people that I can only begin to see. Beyond the emails and stories of how the tea bus has inspired people, I can only imagine the effects that it has had. For a culture of hyper-individualism, mega-consumption, and fast-paced lifestyles, the tea bus has been a remedy for many, a natural reaction to our current conundrums. If you feel inspired, check out our Share Page for ways to help the tea bus to keep sharing.

Thanks to decade of tea guests.

Thanks to all of the help from friends, family, and strangers.

And thanks especially to loneliness and Hollywood Boulevard.

Serving tea on Hollywood Blvd in 2014, 8 years after the first time.

Posted in Events, Journeys, News, On the Street | Tagged CA, community, diversity, Durham, genuine human interactions, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd., LA, loneliness, Los Angeles, NC, Seattle, WA | 17 Comments

Maine to Georgia (or Not!) – Winter Update – Efland, NC

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Guisepi

Our winter home on Fireside Farm in Efland, NC

More than a month and a half ago, Ally, Edna Lu The Teabus and I left Maine on a long journey south to potentially spend the winter in Georgia. I had decided that after years of pushing off “wintrospection,” that it was finally time to work on all the winter projects I had been wanting to. Plus, Ally was aiming to finish writing her novel.

Ally enjoys Jiling and Billy’s music at Out on a Whim Farm.

After picking up a new solar panel and charge controller in Massachusetts, our first stop was at Out on a Whim Farm in Bethany, CT. We arrived in time to see our herbalist friend Jiling as she was setting up for her weekly herbalism class. This week’s topic was on tea, so she had invited me to sit in and share some knowledge along side her. It was fun to get to share some of the tea and herb knowledge I have acquired in a semi-formal setting.

Out on a Whim Farm is a sweet old barn and connected house, with each room decorated with fancy junk – everything from antiques to quirky second-hand finds. Billy, who owns the farm, is a retired doctor who has grown out his beard and dread locks, and is usually without shoes. He’s taken his love for healing people to a whole new level since retiring. Billy offers a community hub for locals, respite for travelers, and a monthly barn dance of sorts called BMAD.

The amazing colors of Sleeping Giant in CT.

Preparing to serve tea at BMAD along Route 69 in Bethany, CT.

After exploring the area (scrumping apples, hiking through fall colors at Sleeping Giant, wild-harvesting autumn olives, etc.), we were convinced to stay for the monthly Bethany Music and Dance, or BMAD that weekend. The evening was a fanciful whirlwind of live music in every room, from bluegrass to drum circles to square dancing. We set up Edna Lu the Teabus right outside The Big Room, and served tea well into the evening. Our interactions were spectacular, and many new friends were made.

The insulated water house I built at Meadowburn Farm.

Installing Edna’s new 320 watt solar panel.

After our week in New York City (read about it and our New York Times article here), we made our way to northern New Jersey to Meadowburn Farm to visit with my college friend, Quill and her friend Nick. After a week of being in NYC, we were ready for some down time, and Meadowburn turned out to be perfect for this. We spent our days resting, or working around the farm, and I installed Edna’s new solar charge controller and panel. We drank gallons of free raw cow’s milk from the farm’s cows, hiked through the fields and forest, and had family meals every night with good conversations and company. Our couple of days there turned into a week. I finished our stay by finishing an insulated water house, built around a spigot, filter and hose to increase the season which the spigot could be left on to include early Spring and late Fall.

In West Philly passerby Nas stops in for some tea and fills out a Share Card.

In Philadelphia, we met up with Jon and Meagan (remember them from Blues Recess Massive?). They’re two of our favorite Quaker activists, and they welcomed us warmly. We spent our evenings at Clark Park, and even decided to open up one day there to serve tea. The day was slow, but good. The diversity that Philly holds definitely came out in the people who showed up for tea.

The new drain (from sink to greywater tank).

Down the road, we stopped in Dover, PA, where our friend Sarah and her family live. They welcomed us with food and community. Sarah’s dad was excited to help with some plumbing I was fixing (replacing the whole sink drain from sink to greywater tank), and I was grateful for it.

After wandering through Harper’s Ferry, Charlestown, and Sherpardstown, WV we stopped in to Middleburg, VA, where we got some waste vegetable oil from a restaurant that Ally used to work at.

Tea guests in Warrenton, VA.

Finally, we settled into Warrenton for the week around Thanksgiving. Ally grew up in Warrenton, so much of our time was taken by family and friends. I had the chance to install a new drain for my hot water tank. In downtown Warrenton, we got the chance to serve tea on Shop Small Saturday in front of Ally’s friend’s shop. We made tea for hours, and people loved it. One fellow stopped in to tell of his relationship woes; the head of the Chamber of Commerce came by and told us how much she loved the tea bus; and some of Ally’s old friends got to experience the tea bus firsthand.

The perfect place to be!

In Mineral, VA, we were hosted by Acorn Community – a commune and seed company. They were celebrating their Thanksgiving late, so we got in on the fun, and served tea into the evening. People in this community were living much of our money/community/sharing talk. All money is made communally, and the community provides all food and shelter for people who live there. Ally and I are always talking about how if we didn’t have to use money ever again, we’d be perfectly happy sharing our skills freely.

A bunch of students at Carolina Friends School gather around as I talk about sharing.

Chatting with kids at Friends School.

In Efland, NC we were welcomed by Randall (who we had met in Philly) and his wife Lisa. They live on a 6 acre homestead called Fireside Farm and teach at a Quaker school nearby called Carolina Friends School. Their home was incredible, with chickens, goats, a garden, a sawmill, and more. Randall taught us how to run the sawmill and Ally how to drive the tractor. They also invited us to come to Friends School and make tea with the kids. We drove down there one day and parked in the middle of campus. Kids of all ages came throughout the day with their teachers. We chatted about the Gift Economy, sharing, relationships being the highest form of currency, etc. The kids at this school were so open to talking. I was impressed.

The bench I built for Hostel in the Forest.

After a brief visit to Savannah, GA, we arrived at Hostel in the Forest, our potential winter destination. The Hostel is an amazing Ewok village of domes, tree houses, composting outhouses, and good community. As we prepared to dig in, we were faced with one major setback – there was nowhere to park and get sun on our solar panels. That, along with the fact that people aren’t supposed to use devices or computers in common areas, made it hard for us to attempt our main winter goals of writing. This small logistical hiccup was just as important as getting the right parking spot to serve tea. The Hostel community was so welcoming, and kept us feeling comfortable, even after we decided not to stay. I also took the time to leave an imprint by building a small bench for the porch out of salvaged materials (Mr. Tinker strikes again!).

Billy shared some old vegetable oil that he had laying around with us.

As we considered our departure from the Hostel, we had to think about finding waste vegetable oil, as we had used our stash to get us down there. In nearby Brunswick, we were having a heck of a time finding any waste oil. We were getting a lot of no’s, or yeses where the oil was too dirty, or where we couldn’t access the oil. But what was happening was that customers at the bars and restaurants we were asking at were super curious. We ended up in several conversations with all sorts of folks who ended up coming on the bus and checking it out. We had a truck driver, a guy who works for the US Marshall Service, and two fellows who were hesitant to tell us what they did. They sheepishly told us that they were federal agents with Homeland Security. They were super intrigued with the bus, and one of them pulled Ally aside and told her that many people in their line of work are waiting to retire to do something like we’re doing. Even his wife was into “micro houses.”

One restaurant we asked at was The Farmer and The Larder in downtown Brunswick. The owners, Matthew and Javon, didn’t have a deep fryer, but they took the tea bus and our search for vegetable oil to heart. Matthew made phone calls, asked his friends, and searched far and wide for us. In the meantime, when Ally and I ate at their restaurant on her birthday, our check came back with no $ owed, only a Happy Birthday wish. Matthew ended up finding us a huge supply of vegetable oil from the college.

The Farmer and The Larder is a farm to table restaurant, with hopes that most of the food come from the owners’ personal farm as the years go on. They offer lots of local and organic options, with so much emphasis put on quality. Lots of the interior is salvaged material, and you can feel the goodness of the place as soon as you walk in.

Ed Hose starts sketching her illustrations for my vegetable oil collecting card.

One evening as we were hanging in the bus outside The Farmer and The Larder, a couple knocked on the door. Moses and Ed came aboard, and as we explained our vegetable oil woes, Ed asked, “What do you need?” I said, “I dunno,” and then in passing, I told her that I was looking to make an illustrated card to hand to people at restaurants to give them a brief description of my bus and what it is, partially because it’s hard to tell people in one sentence when I walk into a restaurant to ask for waste vegetable oil. Moses and her gave each other a funny look. It turns out that Ed is an illustrator and my project was just up her alley. She went and grabbed a sketch pad and she started sketching while I showed her photos and explained a few things. Wow!

Just as Ally and I were feeling low on resources, people stepped in! Ed also linked us up with a couple different restaurants to give us waste vegetable oil. Another couple we met at a restaurant brought us out to lunch and let us shower at their place. The Farmer and the Larder gave us steep discounts on lunch. And it went on and on. Brunswick was the town that gave us so much without us even serving tea once.

Our reception as we’ve headed south, and people were “worried” for how we would be received, has gotten better and better. The deeper south we’ve gone, the more people are asking us directly what we need. In most other places people say things like: I’m leaving my email in your guest book, let me know if you ever need anything. The further South we’ve gone, more and more people are just saying: What do you need? And these folks aren’t satisfied until we’ve given an answer. Southern hospitality takes east coast directness and puts a sharing spin on it. Ally and I were feeling well taken care of all of a sudden.

Savannah, GA tea party at the Forsyth Farmers’ Market.

Gifts from Asi Yaupon Tea in Savannah, GA.

We had chatted with Randall and Lisa back up in Efland about coming up there for the winter, so we started heading back north. We served tea at the Farmers’ Market in Savannah, GA, which was such a blast (even the Mayor – also named Edna – showed up for tea). We love that town. We also made friends with a local tinkerer and artist named Krystal, who shared her tinker studio/home with us. Lou from Asi Yaupon Tea invited us to their headquarters, and they gave some Yaupon to us. Yaupon is North America’s only native caffeinated plant, and was drunk by natives regularly. In both downtown Raleigh and Chapel Hill, NC we cooked dinner on the street and enticed passersby to come and chat with us (without FREE TEA signs out), like the good ol’ days on Hollywood Blvd.

Krystal’s tinker studio/home in Savannah, GA.

Back in September in Maine, when we were serving tea along the Appalachian Trail, Ally and I went on a hike one day. As we were walking, I pulled a quarter from my pocket and tried to see what state it was from down by my waist. I couldn’t tell, but I had a moment of clarity: whatever state this quarter had on the back that was the state where I would spend the winter. Lo and behold, the quarter was for North Carolina. I dismissed this clarity as stupidity, and decided a month later that Georgia was going to be the place. In my never ending travels, it helps to have a goal, but to also be flexible. And I am pleased at this turn of events.

Little did we know we’d be back so soon!

Ally learns how to use the saw mill.

Now we are back at Fireside Farm with Lisa and Randall in Efland, NC. We plan on being here for the winter. They have welcomed us with no explicit arrangement, other than living and sharing in community, a general hope that we can help them a bit around the homestead, and they can help provide the space for us to write and grow in the ways we want – an amazing form of non-calculated exchange (AKA, reciprocal altruism, or traditional human economy). I can’t imagine a better place to be. We will be spending the winter here working on writing, bus, and homestead projects, as well as reading, and likely serving tea around the Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh area on occasion. Keep yer eyes out for us!

Happy Solstice!

THANK YOUs:

A huge thank you to: Greg at AltE; Billy and Jiling at Out on a Whim Farm; Quill and Nick at Meadowburn Farm; Jon and Meagan in Philly; Sarah and the Ferraro Family in Dover, PA; Missy and David and fam in Charlestown, WV; Kristen and Nate and Kylie in Warreton for hosting us; Jerrod and Kierstin and fam; everyone at Acorn; Randall and Lisa and all of Carolina Friends School; Pinto, Jonah and everyone at Hostel in the Forest; Matthew and Javon at The Farmer and the Larder for food and support; Ed Hose and Moses for excitement and help with illustrations; Kate at Indigo Shanty; Jill and Danny in Brunswick for food and showers and good company; Krystal in Savannah for the stockings and sharing; Lou and Yaupon Asi Tea for tea, shirts, and good conversation; and so many more folks who stopped in for tea and conversation, or shared resources like honey and food.

Mad love also to Gopi Kallayil for sending out his book (with a chapter on the tea bus); Dr. Bronner’s for sending some soap; Bill for sending some maple syrup; Mason at Herb Rally for sending a t-shirt; Betsy from Enbi Studio for sending out some amazing little tea cups; Mountain Rose Herbs for sending out some tinctures and cinnamon; and WishGarden Herbs for sending out an enormous amount of tinctures and teas.

Billy and Ally.

Harvesting autumn olives in Bethany, CT.

Jam session and kids at Carolina Friends School.

The Mayor of Savannah (also named Edna) stopped in to say hello at the Farmers’ Market.

Posted in Journeys, News, On the Street | Tagged Acorn Commune, Appalachian Trail, Asi Yaupon Tea, Bethany, BMAD, Brunswick, Carolina Friends School, Chapel Hill, Charlestown, Clark Park, commune, CT, Dover, Dr. Bronner's, Durham, Ed Hose, Edna, Efland, Enbi Studio, farm to table, Fireside Farm, Friends School, GA, gift economy, Gopi Kallayil, Harper's Ferry, Herb Rally, Homeland Security, Hostel in the Forest, MA, ME, Meadowburn Farm, Middleburg, Mineral, Mountain Rose Herbs, Mr. Tinker, NC, New York City, New York Times, NH, NJ, non-calculated exchange, NY, NYC, Out on a Whim Farm, PA, Philadelphia, Philly, plumbing, Quaker, Raleigh, Reciprocal Altruism, Savannah, SC, Sleeping Giant, solar, solar panel, Solstice, southern hospitality, Thanksgiving, The Farmer and The Larder, traditional human economy, US Marshall, VA, Warrenton, waste vegetable oil, WishGarden Herbs, WV, WVO, Yaupon | 2 Comments

The City that Never Steeps – New York City, NY

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Guisepi

Our last day in NYC – new friends and a New York Times journalist and photographer.

A dream has come true. For years, even prior to Occupy, I had a dream of serving tea on Wall St, and another of being featured in the New York Times. Upon arriving in New York City, I realized the first dream was an impossibility due to lack of parking on Wall St. The second dream, however, just came true.

Downtown NYC skyline.

So many people had warned me that NYC might be a little hostile. From people who knew the city, as well as people who only knew the stereotypes, we heard about the culture of money, the lack of eye contact, the fast-paced lifestyle – all things that seemed to oppose many of the foundational ideas behind the free tea bus. Friends and acquaintances were warning us about police, how graffiti artists would see Edna Lu the teabus as a canvas, and how difficult it would be to find places to sleep.

Ally, Edna Lu the teabus, and I arrived in NYC without knowing where we’d stay, or what our week in the city would hold. On Halloween evening, hoping to find decent parking near the end of the Halloween parade, we arrived in the Big Apple. Our late arrival, however, left us in bumper-to-bumper traffic though the streets of Manhattan for two hours, until we finally found a spot in SoHo near the parade. Somewhat exhausted from the traffic, and not knowing what to expect, we opened the door to serve tea.

The Joker eats a donut on Halloween in SoHo.

Our reception from NYC was fantastic. That first night there in SoHo we had programmers, some ladies from Egypt, a stockbroker, a couple from England, and many, many more people – most of them in costume. The stockbroker played devil’s advocate, as his job is to move money, and despite the disagreements on money and sharing, he ended up offering a place to shower and stay. Two programmers decided to be friends. Free donuts were shared. The depth of the conversations, the willingness for New Yorkers to come aboard the bus, and the wide variety of people who came aboard, really made this tea party special, and set the mood for our entire stay in NYC.

Ally fills water from a rec center in Brooklyn.

Our daily activities were searching out our resources, as it is when we get to any new place. In places we have visited often, we know where those resources will come from. In NYC we had to figure out where to get water (a rec center ended up letting us fill up a couple times), where to empty grey water, where we can shower, where we can park and feel comfortable, who our community is, where we can get food, etc. Most of these things are fulfilled through non-monetary means – but through relationships instead, so it takes time to figure these things out. This is part of the reason that the tea bus travels so slowly – because relationships, both with people and with the objects we use and consume, take time.

Fellow Colorado College friends sip tea on Edna Lu.

I was also very fortunate that so many folks I went to college with live in Brooklyn, so many of my days included visits from, and meals with old friends. It was fun to share the tea bus with so many folks who had only heard about it, but never experienced it.

I also spent a bit of time working on my solar upgrade (blog entry soon), rebuilding some cabinet doors to fit my new charge controller, and more. One of the reasons I also came to NYC was to finish up some filming for a documentary about the tea bus that a Brooklyn filmmaker (Jackie Snow) began filming in Austin earlier this year. She was able to capture more footage of some of the hands on aspects of my lifestyle for the film.

Our home on the end of 12th street, where we often slept and did projects.

One evening when leaving my friend’s art studio, as Ally, my friend Nick, and I all rounded a corner to the street where Edna was parked, I said, “How much do you want to bet someone is tagging Edna.” And sure enough, half-a-block up, there was a fellow with a paint marker doing graffiti on the side of Edna while his buddy watched. I ran full speed, yelling profanities about how they were messing with my home. I think the word “home” was one of the things that made the fellow apologetic — I mean apologetic enough to help clean it off, but not apologetic to let down his machismo and admit he had done something wrong. It was actually a very interesting experience.

A bus full of tea sippers and new friends.

One weeknight we were there, our dear friends Elephant Revival were playing a show in the Bowery at The Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan. We parked right out front, right by the entrance to the subway, and opened our doors to the wide variety of folks that pass by, and who were headed into the show. And again, the willingness of people to participate, and shove off the NYC stereotype was incredible. At one point, the head of security at the Ballroom stopped Ally and said, “There’s people on your bus who shouldn’t be there – known drug-addicts and robbers. If you feel uncomfortable at any point, scratch your nose, and I’ll take care of the rest.” We felt well taken care of, but of course knew that all people are welcome on the bus, and in fact misled people are some of my favorite people to engage and to actually re-engage in genuine human interactions. It is my firm belief that people become addicted to drugs partially due to lack of genuine human interactions (see this study), and people become robbers because our society teaches us to act out of self-interest (see Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations). Most people actively attempt to not interact with these kinds of people. For me it’s the opposite. Regardless, the night went on without a hitch. Old friends showed up, new ones came aboard, and many cups of tea were had until 2 am.

Folks jamming tunes at the Brooklyn Free Store.

The next day in Brooklyn, Ally and I were looking for a place to relax in Edna. We stumbled upon a nice park and set ourselves up to chill. Looking down the block we saw a bunch of books lined up. What’s that? A FREE STORE! No way! Despite being exhausted from serving tea the night before, we pulled up next to the Brooklyn Free Store and started serving tea. The Brooklyn Free Store has been happening once a week for 10 years. Similar to the tea bus, the Free Store offers a completely non-monetary exchange, with people sharing simply because they want to build resilience into their community. Just as stoked as I was, the people around the Free Store were stoked for the tea bus. We shared in much tea, people played music out front, and the conversations were spot on.

Guisepi and a guest chat at McCarren Park, Brooklyn, NY.

The next day I got an email from Colin Moynihan, a writer for the New York Times, who was interested in doing a piece about the tea bus. Wow! I asked him to come the next day for our last planned tea party in NYC at McCarren Park in Brooklyn. He sat with me asking a few questions, observed all the folks coming for tea (and it attracted quite a few), sat down and totally busted out an 800-word article in about 45 minutes. Holy moly! The tea party went fabulously, so it was easy to be excited about the article.

Here’s the New York Times article:
A Vagabond Teahouse Pours Camaraderie, One Free Cup at a Time

Serving tea outside the subway in front of Elephant Revival’s tour bus.

I think the main reason why the tea bus was so well received in NYC was precisely the same reason that people thought it wouldn’t be. Because part of the mainstream culture of NYC is money focused, because there is a lack of slowing down – these things make the need for the tea bus even more apparent. When people actually find something that doesn’t revolve around making a buck, when they find something that’s closer to that sharing aspect of human nature, they want to experience it. It feels right. And I think that’s also why I experienced more eye contact walking down the street in Brooklyn than I expected, and I experienced things like the Free Store, but there still is a heavy, dominant culture that is based on profit maximization and self interest, and this is why we had so much success in the city that never steeps.

A tea guest takes a deep sniff of some pu’erh.

A big ol’ thanks to Nick Gehling for helping us get our bearings and resources; Colin Snapp for sharing some space; Jackie Snow for making a movie and lending an address; Kelly Britton for reconnecting and a nice shower; the rec center in McCarren Park for letting us fill water; All of Elephant Revival; Dexter at The Bowery Ballroom; Abbey and Camillo for being our van dwelling community; Colin and Alexandra for sharing food, friendship and a shower; Calvin; Julia and Bruce for organizing a brunch and feeding many of us; Thadeaus and all the folks from The Brooklyn Free Store; and so so so many more. Thank you, New York City!

Woodworking on the streets of Brooklyn – is this legal?

Edna gets a shower from FDNY.

Jackie gets some needed shots of kombucha, sauerkraut, and sprouts.

Halloween in SoHo.

Folks gather in the tea bus near the subway station in The Bowery.

Handing out some tea!

Visitors outside the Elephant Revival Show at The Bowery Ballroom.

Tea sippers in The Bowery, NYC

Posted in Events, News, On the Street | Tagged Adam Smith, Brooklyn Free Store, drug addicts, Elephant Revival, Free Store, grafitti, human nature, New York City, New York Times, non-monetary exchange, NY, NYC, Occupy, sharing, SoHo, stereotypes, The Bowery, The Bowery Ballroom, theives, Wall St., Wealth of Nations | 3 Comments

Autumn Update – Square Pond, ME

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Guisepi

Serving tea at the monthly First Friday Artwalk in Portland, ME.

Ah, another season is upon us. I can feel the Fall in the air, and I think I’m ready for it.

Edna gazes out on the Atlantic Ocean for the first time on Cape Cod near Provincetown, MA.

Our summer has been interesting and fun. After arriving New England for the International Herb Symposium in June, Ally, Edna (the teabus), and I were excited to explore a little of the Northeast. Our path took us out Cape Cod, where Edna gazed across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. We were disappointed by parking restrictions, anti-camping laws, pay-parking, and what seemed to be upper-class snobbery. We were blessed at a roadside pizza joint with 55 gallons of waste vegetable oil, but other than that, the only other activity we enjoyed was thrifting.

We made our way up through New Hampshire, visiting with one of Ally’s oldest friends and her family, and landed at my family’s camp outside Sanford, Maine. In Sanford, we served tea at the local Farmers’ Market a couple times and got to know some local farmers. It was fun to share the tea bus in the town that my Great-Grandparents had lived, and where my Grandfather had grown up. We gathered water from a spring that my Great-Grandfather had used as well. It was great to get together with family to work on some projects at The Camp, and serve a little tea on the side.

Ally and I have tea on a tiny island in Square Pond, ME.

Over the course of our summer in Maine, we used The Camp as a little home base and getaway. We ended up there three times, with one more couple-week stay coming up in October before we head south. It has been so nice to have a place to be, do projects, relax, swim, fish, and recuperate from work, travel, and tea.

The other place that we ended up spending a lot of time was Portland, ME. I reconnected with friends of old, Owen and Courtney, and their new kids, Oisin (pronounced Osheen), and Caimhoa (pronounced Kiva). We needed community to interact with, and they were our main source of this. We shared in food and space, spent time with the kids, worked on Edna’s transmission in their driveway, helped them with some projects, and had a great home-base.

Our ‘family’ in Portland, ME – Oisin, Owen, Caoimhe, and Courtney.

Some folks enjoy tea at free music in the park on the Eastern Promenade in Portland, ME.

Amongst our adventures, we set up to serve tea a couple times at Portland’s Eastern Promenade for their summer weekly free music on Thursdays. It was a great little introduction to the people of Portland. What a blast! On our second time there, a man from the City who organizes the event told us to leave the park or else he would call the Code Enforcement Officer to come down the next week, who, he said, would shut us down. We explained that we were just like everyone else out there on their blankets, sharing food and drink with their friends and family. He knew in his heart that we were right, and just asked us to move onto the street (and into reserved parking for food trucks). He biggest concern was that we were “competition” to the food trucks that were there. It’s a funny time when sharing is demonized because it has the potential to obstruct profit maximization.

A variety of folks enjoy tea at First Friday Artwalk in Portland, ME.

We ended up serving three times at Portland’s monthly First Friday Artwalk. What a great time it is, with people filling the streets for blocks and blocks, walking, selling art, exploring, playing music, fire spinning, and more. At Monument Square, we set up the tea bus, inviting in people of all walks. Artwalks have always been a favorite of mine because it’s an accessible free event for all people, who, inevitably, are open to new experiences. We had everything from people in suits and dresses, to those living out of backpacks, to local business owners, artists, and more.

In July, we went out to the Great Northern Sound Society in Parsonsfield, ME to spend some time with our friends of Elephant Revival and do some filming of the recording process of their new album. Nearby, we visited Willowbrook – a 19^th century town and museum.

Wood shop at Willowbrook 19th Century Village.

Bus Projects (skip if uninterested):

Installing a shift kit and new solenoid pack in my E4OD transmission.

Throughout our journeys in Maine, we undertook several bus projects (per usual). Edna’s transmission has been trying to hold in there for the past few years, so I babied it a little by installing a new solenoid pack, a shift kit (Transgo Tugger HD2), and a new ECM/EEC relay and relay pigtail.

I have also been having alternator issues, where the voltage would jump or bounce. After someone told me it was a diode going bad (and I believed them because it made sense to me), I’ve been replacing alternators left and right (luckily I bought one form Autozone with a lifetime warranty). However, I realized that it was actually some of the wiring that was causing it (specifically it was either the voltage sensing wire, or the wire that tells the alternator to be on). After replacing the alternator pigtail (wiring harness) and the voltage sensing wire, my alternator has been all good. Although, throughout the process, Autozone was testing all my alternators and they were coming out “bad” – strangely, their test doesn’t tell you why the alternator is bad (silly). I plan on replacing the rectifier with a police/ambulance one with welded instead of soldered diodes (much more heavy duty).

One of the new window screens.

One of the most impactful projects was finishing the window mosquito netting. I had been unsuccessfully messing around with some snap on screens for the inside of the bus, but it was almost impossible to get them to lay flat and keep all the bugs out (the screen likes to stretch over time – especially if the window is open and it gets wind while driving). My solution: install C channel on both sides of each window on the outside so that the open side of each C channel face each other. I build custom screens out of materials from Ace and Home Depot – I know, I felt weird not making it all out of salvaged material, but the outside of the bus is important to keep looking nice. The screens fit nicely in the slots of the C channel, and stay put using screen springs, which also allows the screens to slide up and down in front of the open window. I used “pile” weather stripping both on the inside bottom of the screens as well as on the top of the window, which, when the screen is up and the window down, seal the only open gap. After lubing the C Channels, the screens slide like butter, and stay up when wanted. Soooooo nice!

Drilling holes in the bed for ventilation.

I had been having some slight mold issues with my bed, especially once I started heading into moister climates. After some consulting with my friend and anarchitect Jonathan Odom, who works at Instructables.com, I decided on drilling holes through the bed platform (through both layers of plywood) in a geometric pattern, while leaving some 6” wide strips – all for structural support. Although I didn’t get to completely finish the project (needed a plunge router), I got the holes drilled, which was the most important things. It just so happened that the neighbor I was helping build a pole barn has a friend who manufactures a product called Mortairvent – a roll of light, but strong fabric with criss-crossed plastic, adhered in a way to keep air pockets and allow for ventilation. My mom had just a week earlier been telling me about a product for beds on boats with almost the same exact construction. What great serendipity. I cut a piece for between the bottom mattress and the platform, as well as a piece for between the two mattresses.

The product from the neighbor wasn’t quite up to spec to sell (not sure why – looks great to me), so he had been given it from the manufacturer (who is local here in Sanford, ME). Oh, and it just so happens to come in rolls that are 39” wide – the size of a twin bed. For anyone else looking to ventilate a bed, this product is cheaper than the marine version ($1.51/sq ft vs $3.69/sq ft), but only comes in 61.5 foot rolls (enough for 10 single beds).

Primering new rim, spare tire brackets, and sink backsplash.

Some other projects: added a seatbelt to the co-pilot chair, painted the backside of the stainless sink backsplash black so you can’t see it from the outside anymore, made a tire cover for my spare tire (from a firepit cover), made a bike cover (from an old rainfly), installed a new (used) rim on one of Edna’s wheels (old rim had worn out lug holes from tire installers not tightening nuts all the way), refinished the counter-top, resealed inside of roof after small leak in torrential downpour, painted back door (lower half has been primered for several years after welding shut a window), did an oil change, installed new solar batteries, installed a new gear for the Vehicle Speed Sensor on my transmission, fixed some curtains (added stainless rings for sliding on cable after biased tape for this job wore out), repainted the spare tire brackets, cleaned out the fresh water tank, installed a fuel return line filter/clear sight, replaced the drawer slides on my slide out WVO filter station, replumbed the WVO transfer pump, replaced a 3-way electronic valve for the send line of my WVO conversion, and probably 100 more things…

The Peace Parade in Belfast, ME.

In August we took a trip up to Mid-Coast and Down East Maine. We stopped in Liberty to go to Liberty Tool, which is the most EPIC antique tool store in the world (in my mind, at least). If you’re into tools, go there! In Belfast, we accidentally arrived on the evening of their monthly artwalk, as well as the opening night of their Peace Festival. We served tea for an evening and part of the next day, slowly meeting people from the town, and making new friends.

The main reason for our trip up the coast of Maine, was to visit the Blue Hill Inn – which Ally is currently writing an essay to try and win. They are the second inn in Maine to offer their inn to someone who writes a 200 word essay and pays an entrance fee. We drove by the inn as we came into town, and set out to see town and meet people to see if this was the place for Ally to start her (long dreamed about) community café/hostel. We heard live music coming from a park, so we went down to serve some tea. However, the scene was straight out of a Grateful Dead parking lot – with lots of dirty, dready, stoned, drunk folks making trash and being loud. Whoa, I felt like I was back on the Arcata Plaza. I never expected to find this in this little coastal Maine town. The parking was poor, and everyone was super messed up, so we ended up not serving tea.

Making tea at the Loose Canon Jug Band CD release party in Blue Hill, ME.

As I walked into the Blue Hill Coop, I recognized my friend Eryn, who was a regular on the tea bus in Arcata, CA years ago. She had a baby on her hip, and it was a fantastic reunion. Seeing her, and meeting other folks at the Coop left us feeling like we wanted to explore more, and get to know the community. We were swooped up and directed to the CD release party of the local Loose Cannon Jug Band, where we danced and served tea in the parking lot.

Headed out to Deer Isle, ME.

At the suggestion of several folks, we ended up at Tinder Hearth Bakery for their open mic night. And what a wonderful community! Since Ally has been searching to create a community hub based around food and baking, this place was food for Ally’s soul (and mine too). We brewed up tea all evening, meeting people, and learning about the real locals. People were excited for our reasons of coming to the area and wished Ally the best of luck in winning the inn. We fell in love with this little community.

After a trip to Deer Isle, we cruised back through Tinder Hearth, and back south to Chewonki – a school and boys summer camp with gardens, boats, camping, lots of sustainability, and so much more experiential learning stuff. We got to spend an afternoon making tea in the middle of campus to a bunch of kids and staff, got fed two meals, went out around the bay in a motor boat, hung with birds in the aviary, and they even filled both our biodiesel tank and dirty WVO tank (80 gallons of fuel, total). It was great to see the awesomeness of this great model of education (I was so impressed that I put in a little word to them about future employment for myself). Thank you, Chewonki!

Music and tea at Chewonki with teenagers.

The Apothacary and loft we built for Sarah in Homegrown Herb & Tea.

Back in Portland, we worked out a deal with Sarah, the owner of Homegrown Herb and Tea, to build her an apothecary in the back of her store. We spent five days building and helping her organize, and in exchange, she bought us new solar batteries and a tool I had been wanting (pocket screw jig). Our exchange started out as a calculated monetary transaction, but worked itself, through cooperation and communication, gradually into a relationship based on reciprocal altruism – where we helped each other simply because we wanted to see each other succeed. It was a great break after Ally and I had spent three weeks working a remodel that had been quite the opposite.

School Bus Row at Common Ground Country Fair.

In September, we spent an epic four days serving free tea and pancakes along the Appalachian Trail near Sugarloaf ski mountain, followed by a weekend at the Common Ground Country Fair. We served tea in the volunteer parking in the evenings, and wandered and volunteered at the fair during the days. On the final day, we pulled up to the top of the parking lot and served tea almost all day to people coming in and out of the fair. The people, the exhibits, the concepts, the talks and workshops – all top notch. The kind of sustainable, organic, low-impact lifestyle that Common Ground Fair promotes is so awesome because it’s accessible, fun, and well-attended.

Making tea for people coming in and out of Common Ground Country Fair.

Currently, we are at my family’s camp on Square Pond, getting ready to head south for the winter. I’ve spent part of the past few weeks here working on bus projects, helping a neighbor build a pole barn, and getting some well-needed rest.

Current mission: Find the right place to spend the winter on the east coast/southern US. Help me find a place to hunker down so I can write the tea bus factory service manual! A little work-trade, a little paid work, good people, and easy access to resources are all pluses. We’re looking at possibly work-trading at Hostel in the Forest in Georgia, or heading to a friend’s place in Hot Spring, AR.

Ally and I work at Two Toad Farm.

A huge thanks to Owen, Courtney, Oisin, and Caohmia for being our family and community; to my mom, Levi, uncle Brian, the twins, and all my cousins; Kristen, Nate and their whole family in NH; Ian and Betty the bus for solidarity and WVO; Mountain Rose Herbs and WishGarden Herbs for boxes of teas, tinctures, and more; Scott, Tom, Lesley, and all the folks at Chewonki; the whole Tinder Hearth community; Ruthie from Chai Wallahs of Maine for tea and a chicken; Bahia in Blue Hill for a home, water, and a shower; Eryn on Deer Isle for a quiet place to rest (and blueberries); the folks from 44 North; Case, Roger, and Eda in Freeport; Chase from Sugarloaf; Sarah from Homegrown Herb and Tea; the whole Alchemy family; Pastor John for helping us get a place to stay on Cape Cod; the parking lady in Augusta, ME; the parking lady in Provincetown, MA; Tyla and her family in MA; Scott on Square Pond; Barack the Baker; Dave and Pat at Common Ground; Mary Beth and Jordan from Two Toad Farm; Cousins Dick and Cathy; and so many more!

The pole barn I was helping build on Square Pond, ME.

Donation from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Ally collects water from a spring in Dixmont, ME.

New solar batteries! Work-traded from Sarah at Homegrown Herb & Tea.

Seriving tea at Chewonki.

A Chaga chai donation from Chai Wallahs of Maine.

A fellow looking for work is given a card by a fellow who might have work – lots of wonderful interactions stem from the tea bus!

Oisin loves the bus!

Making Chaga chai in front of Alchemy apothecary in South Portland as part of a fundraiser for Stone Cabin Collective.

Local teenagers dig in to the Gift & Take area along a bike/walking trail in South Portland, ME.

Getting ready to serve tea at First Friday Artwalk in Portland, ME.

A boy and his dog stop for tea at the Sanford, ME Farmers’ Market.

Ally and I have tea on a tiny island in Square Pond, ME.

My mom, Levi and Ally collecting water from a spring that my great-grandfather used to collect from.

Serving tea at the Sanford, ME Farmers’ Market.

WVO from a roadside pizza joint on Cape Cod.

Making a window screen.

Installing window screens.

Case gets tea-bagged (chamomile).

Edna at Liberty Tool in Liberty, ME.

The new 3-way valve for my WVO system (mounted to my 30-plate flat plate heat exchanger).

Posted in Events, On the Street | Tagged Alchemy, alternator, apothacary, Appalachian Trail, AR, artwalk, Atlantic Ocean, batteries, bed, Belfast, Blue Hill, Blue Hill Inn, Cape Cod, Chewonki, Common Ground Country Fair, Common Ground Fair, Deer Isle, Down East Maine, Elephant Revival, First Friday Artwalk, GA, Great Norther Sound Society, Homegrown Herb & Tea, Hostel in the Forest, hot springs, Liberty, Liberty Tool, Loose Cannon Jug Band, MA, ME, Mid-Coast Maine, Mountain Rose Herbs, NH, Parsonsfield, Portland, Provincetown, screens, solar, solar batteries, Square Pond, Sugarloaf, The Camp, Tinder Hearth Bakery, transmission, Two Toad Farm, Unity, Willowbrook, window screens, WishGarden Herbs | Leave a comment

Appalachian Trail – Stratton, ME

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Guisepi

The Tea Zone along the Appalachian Trail near Stratton, ME – Mile 2001

Free tea and pancakes!

Wow! What an amazing place to serve tea.

My girlfriend in college hiked the Appalachian Trail before coming to school. She told me about the arduous 2,200 mile hike from Georgia to Maine, the highs and lows of trail life, and most importantly, she told me about Trail Magic.

Trail Magic happens when someone decides to help a hiker simply because they want to see them succeed in their hard journey. It can take the form of a ride from the trail to town so the hiker can resupply. Or perhaps it’s someone who leaves some energy bars at a trailhead. Often, the best trail magic is unexpected, personal, and/or includes needed resources like food, transport, or showers.

Two years ago, I brought Edna Lu the teabus, and Ally brought her van up to Packer Saddle – mile 1204 of the Pacific Crest Trail. We camped there for five days serving tea, snacks, and baked goods to hikers. It was such an incredible experience that we knew we had to do the AT should the opportunity present itself. And since we were already in Maine during the right season this year, we just had to!

Jukeboxx (northbound) shows 00-Zero (southbound) whats ahead for him.

Ally and I showed up with Edna Lu in the Sugarloaf area as recommended by Chase (the owner of the bar The Rack in Sugarloaf), who we met in Portland, ME. He told us about a nice parking area at the trailhead. Almost immediately upon arrival, we found several hikers in the parking area getting ready to hitch into Stratton to resupply, or get back on the trail. Thus our tea-making began.

We stayed up into the dark hours sipping tea, getting to know our first AT hikers. As we were chatting about calories and energy, it came to me that we should be making pancakes for hikers. I knew we had some pancake mix, and it wouldn’t be hard to get more ingredients. So, the next morning, we drove into Stratton and stocked up on pancake ingredients. We gave some hikers a ride back to the trail, and started setting up our tea zone – rugs, cushions, a table, and topped it off with my half-a-parachute. It was minimal, but cozy, and much more than what hikers are used to. In fact, many hikers wouldn’t even come onto the rug throughout the week, and preferred to sit on the ground or on their packs. I think it’s because not only have they become accustomed to that, but they also know that they’re “dirty” by some people’s standards and are a little tip-toey around non-hikers and their space. We didn’t care.

Hikers enjoy tea and pancakes.

Much of the conversations revolved around community, sharing, the trail, the teabus. A common observation by hikers is that they often start what they think is going to be a journey of rugged independence, only to find that the community of the trail is what ultimately makes a huge impact on them. When someone gets hurt, everyone pitches in to divvy up their load so they don’t have to carry it. When someone runs out of food, everyone pitches in for them to eat. People often gather in “shelters” to share a space to cook, eat, and engage. In towns, there’s always “hiker boxes” that have people’s excess gear, food, and more for anyone to take for free. For most people who upgrade their gear or have extra food, it goes in a hiker box, rather than being sent home. Because hikers can only bring necessities with them, any extra they have is shared freely. And it’s easy to do so, because you want to see those around you succeed as much as yourself. You’re all in this together.

00-Zero

I really loved all these concepts because this is what the tea bus is about out in the non-trail world. Serving free tea is Trail Magic, but for anyone and everyone. The Gift & Take is like a hiker box – where anyone can put in and anyone can take out. The teabus is like a shelter, where people can gather, drink tea, and connect. And all of this happens because the culture around the tea bus is wanting to help people simply so that they succeed in this hard, arduous journey called life.

Throughout the four days that we were set up, we served more than 40 hikers 80 pancakes and 150 cups of chai. People slept in our tea zone, and we had hikers for all but 3 hours of our four days. The spot we chose was awesome because it was at mile 2001. The first thing you came upon after the 2000 mile marker was the tea bus. We made friends like 00-Zero, who earned that trail name because he “zero-ed,” or didn’t hike any miles, for three days in a row when he stayed with us.

Mile 2000 of the A

One day, a fellow in a white SUV pulled up, asked if we were doing trail magic, and started bragging about all the Trail Magic he’d done this year. “Here’s a list of 70+ hikers I’ve given a ride to.” Then he mentioned being the Chief of Police for Carabasset Valley (the closest town). “Really?” I asked. He held up his badge and gun, and continued to gloat about his Trail Magic. I loved this interaction for many reasons. One, I loved that the Chief of Police was helping so many hikers. But I also loved this interaction in that it was quite to opposite from many interactions we have with authority while serving tea. Contrast this with the time we were forced to shut down at a National Park for serving tea, or “conducting business,” as the Rangers said. Since we had been camped there for several days, I would have more likely expected an authority figure to tell us we couldn’t camp there. But what I find is that many people around trail culture latch on to the awesome power of community and helping people. Thanks, Chief Lopez!

Our tea zone became a hub for folks coming in and out of Stratton for resupply.

I truly believe that if we put as much weight into seeing people (and even strangers) succeed in their daily lives, the non-trail world would look more like the Trail – with people sharing excess freely, helping without being asked, and offering the comfort of community to those in need. And we’re all in need. I truly believe that genuine human interactions and community are, along with food, water, shelter, warmth, and air, one of the basic human necessities. Without community we perish.

Sucking up WVO from The Rack at Sugarloaf ski resort

Thanks to Chase for letting us know the good spot to serve tea and hooking us up with waste vegetable oil; to all the hikers who shared their stories; to the hikers who brought us more pancake supplies; to Fotter’s Market for letting us fill up water; and Chief Lopez for serving people like police should.

Next stop, Common Ground Country Fair!

Posted in Events, On the Street | Tagged Appalachian Trail, AT, community, genuine human interactions, Gift & Take, Gift and Take, independence, ME, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, police, Reciprocal Altruism, sharing, Stratton, Sugarloaf, Trail Angels, Trail Magic | 1 Comment

International Herb Symposium – Wheaton College – Norton, MA

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Guisepi

The Tea Zone at the International Herb Symposium

What an unusual weekend! Ally, Edna Lu the teabus, and I spent almost a month making our way from Austin to Boston for the International Herb Symposium. The whole trip was interesting because on one hand I had committed to the event, but on the other hand, it didn’t feel like the event had committed to us. This, combined with the fact that we fell in love with so many people and places along the way and wanted to spend more time each place we visited, made for an interesting balance to try and be had.

Rosemary and Guisepi at FHP in Eugene, OR.

Rosemary and Guisepi in the tea bus at FHP in Eugene, OR.

At the first Free Herbalism Project in Eugene, OR in August of 2013 I had the wonderful chance of having (renowned herbalist) Rosemary Gladstar over for tea. Excited about the teabus, she invited me to bring it to the 2015 biennial International Herb Symposium that she helps put on. I kept this invitation filed away for when the time was near. A few months prior to the Symposium I got in touch with the event organizers and it seemed like a “go” for us.

First off, the organizers were quick to ask what our ideal situation and setup was. It made me feel welcome and invited. We don’t need electricity, we don’t need money, we don’t need lodging, we don’t need anything other than entry registration for two tea helpers (Mountain Rose Herbs had given me their extra registration), a sink to wash dishes, some ice, and to be included in the meal plan for attendees. In return myself, Ally, and another friend Tyla would provide free tea, a lounge space, and work our butts off.

In doing events like the IHS, it takes a lot work. Because I don’t do a lot of larger events, I have to do a fair bit of shopping around at thrift and other stores for more mugs, large glass containers for sun tea, an extra pump top thermos, more cushions, local honey, etc. Ally and I started this process when we left Austin, and finished it a few weeks later on the day before the event. I also like to make sure I have a tank full of good water (in this case, spring water). All items have to be thoroughly cleaned and the bus must be in immaculate condition. All of this on top of traveling 2000 miles, collecting and filtering vegetable oil along the way, serving tea, gathering and making food, helping people who need it, and living a generally DIY-lifestyle – this takes a lot of work.

Erin finds some new shades in the Gift & Take

Living a low-monetary input life requires lots of hands-on skills and projects, but also lots of relationship-building. These relationships revolve around building trust, collaboration, and reciprocal altruism – which is the activity of sharing with people simply because you want to see them succeed, but also know in doing so you are strengthening and supporting your community, which will in turn will do the same for you. It felt like I had my hand extended to provide for the IHS, but they didn’t have a hand extended back. They were happy to provide the basic service of a sink to wash dishes and ice for iced tea, but other than that, there was no support for us being at IHS.

My first hint of feeling a little un-supported was IHS not wanting to give us each a meal plan. Okay, I understand, IHS is a fundraiser for United Plant Savers. Then, they asked us to look into getting a health permit (see the relevance of this in our Texas Tea Festival blog entry). Luckily, the woman at the health department said we didn’t need a permit to brew tea for a short-term fundraiser. Then an email to IHS organizers with important info wasn’t returned. As the event drew near, and we were driving closer, there was a slew of things that happened: IHS took back how many event registrations they offered us, they didn’t have any posting about the teabus on their website, Facebook, or even the final event schedule PDF, they had a free tea table planned that they hadn’t mentioned to us, etc. In the end, we didn’t even get one full registration for the event – only two single day passes for my tea helpers (even though Mountain Rose had given a full one of theirs to me).

The tea zone.

Regardless of all this, we arrived to make tea.

The International Herb Symposium offers an excellent assortment of classes, workshops, and hands-on herbal learning opportunities from an assortment of regional and international teachers. It takes place on the beautiful campus of Wheaton College in Norton, MA every other year. From my experience, the knowledge shared, the friendships created, and the lasting impressions that people carry from this event back into the world are top notch, to say the least.

We set up the usual medium-sized event setup – Edna’s telescopic shade structure with a half-a-parachute, outdoor rugs and cushions, waste vegetable oil-powered lanterns, Free Tea signs – everything to tantalize passersby to stop and share a hot cuppa. We were fairly centrally-located on a nice lawn, with lots of morning sun and afternoon shade – quite ideal. The only difference between other events and this one??? Almost no one was stopping for tea.

Weird!

A few folks enjoy the tea zone.

On Friday, the first day of the event, a few stragglers stopped in, and as the first half of Saturday rolled past, it seemed like this was going to be the trend for the weekend. Ally, Tyla and I literally sat sipping tea for hours amidst a quiet tea tent on Saturday morning, with a full pot of chai, gallons of fresh sun tea and no guests. As we watched people scurrying about with to-go cups in hand, we began to question why this was happening. Was it because this was the teabus’ first event east of the Mississippi? In the west, people know us wherever we go, and our reputation precedes us. Here we were stepping into new territory. Was it because east coasters have a different mindset that makes them less likely to approach something as different as a free tea bus? (Nothing’s free!) Was it because there was a free tea table with to-go cups in the main building? After asking a few folks who had experienced the teabus at other events, this seemed like a likely contributor. Inside the event was a free tea table, with endless hot water in big plastic insulated containers, and stacks of easy to-go cups. Several guests remarked about how busy people were getting from one class to another, and that to-go cups were easier. In other words, taking the time for genuine human interactions isn’t a priority when people have places to be.

Erin, Howie, and Mason – good peeps!

Having both a free tea bus and a free tea table seemed like the organizers misjudged the situation. To me, it made sense that the organizers would have seen having both as a redundancy, and suggested that the two were combined. Even though I’m not super fond of disposable cups, I would have agreed to host the free tea table, as well as keep the hot water and tea bags stocked, if I had been asked to. To have another free tea option felt a little disrespectful to me – not because I want to have a monopoly on free tea, but because I want my energy to go into actually being of service. I thought that I would be working as hard as at most other events that I do, but when no one showed up, I felt like I had traveled thousands of miles and worked hard to provide a service that was already being provided. I knew I would have had a bigger impact serving tea at another event or on the street.

A busy afternoon.

Regardless, as Saturday rolled on, more folks began to come to the teabus. This often happens as word spreads about the teabus and the space provided. As more folks came by, and people shared conversation over tea, played music, talked herbal knowledge, and shared in the experience, I knew that I had nothing to worry about. Over the weekend, I was able to see many old friends and made many new. We had a great time sharing in music, telling stories, dressing up, and staying up late laughing.

From nearly the beginning of all of my interactions with IHS coordinators, I felt unsupported in being there. I’ve had this happen before. Usually, people have no idea the value of having the teabus there until the event starts. When it picks up, lots of people come to the bus, and it becomes a hub, then organizers start to realize. But this didn’t happen. It didn’t become a hub – for the first time in teabus history. By the end of 99% of events I do, organizers ask for the teabus to come back next year, or next time. This didn’t happen at IHS.

The three wiremen – Howie Brounstein, Jim Mcdonald, and He-Who Sips-a-lot.

Instead, I felt like I had promised so much, but because the “demand” for my services was low, it showed the organizers that what I had to offer wasn’t particularly special or important. It was truly a weird experience. I thought that even though I wasn’t met in my conversations with organizers before the event, I was hoping that once we got there, they would realize the teabus offers something worthwhile, and would then reciprocate.

Overall, the importance of the International Herb Symposium wasn’t necessarily in getting there, but in getting the teabus to new and uncharted territories. Here in the Northeast we will meet up with family, old friends, and visit new people and new places. The Northeast is an unfamiliar frontier for the teabus, and one that we’ll be exploring this summer and fall. We hope to see you here!

A huge thank you to Tyla and Ally for helping make the tea zone happen at IHS; to Rosemary Gladstar for having us out (this blog entry definitely does not reflect on her personally as one of the organizers); Mountain Rose Herbs for shipping out a bunch of tea for the event and providing an event registration (or at least trying to); John from LearningHerbs.com for long-term herbal support; Cheng for making a sweet video about the teabus at IHS; Buelo for playing tunes; Erica for the lemon balm for our garden; Jim McDonald for lots of laughs (and help fixing the water filter); and all the Tea Wenches (Ally, Tyla, Mason, Erin, Howie).

Check out this video about the tea bus from IHS:

‘Buelo plays some tunes

Mason rocking his new Tea Wench name tag

Howie and John like each other.

Tree Huggers!

Mason and Erin – Tea Wenches!

Howie’s favorite pastime at IHS – sleeping in the tea zone.

Posted in Events, Video | Tagged community building, Free Herbalism Project, herbalism, International Herb Symposium, MA, Mountain Rose Herbs, Norton, Reciprocal Altruism, Rosemary Gladstar, serving tea, tea bus, to-go, United Plant Savers, WVO | 2 Comments

Austin to Boston – The Road, USA

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Guisepi

Edna and Ally look out as a storm approaches over Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, NY.

Traveling far fast is not part of my modus operandi. The longer I stuck around Austin, the less time I knew I had to travel the 2,000+ miles to the Boston area for the International Herb Symposium. Ally, Edna (the tea bus), and I left Austin on May 16^th, which gave us three and a half weeks to get there. This averages about 1.5 hours of driving per day (back highways), which is quite a bit more than my preferred average of 1 hour of driving per day. This average was made dramatically worse by the fact that we ended up sticking around our first stop at The Cosmic Shed for a whole week. Of course, this was made up for by that awesome nature of the experience there (Read about it here).

Hilltop tea party in Hot Springs, AR.

Marshall, TX

We meandered through east Texas stopping in towns such as Marshall, and eventually made our way to the hidden gem of Hot Springs, AR. This town has a strong history from Native Americans, to baseball players training, to gangsters and gambling, to it being a mecca for it’s healing hot springs. These hot springs were channeled into the many bathhouses that line the east side of Central Ave. Also, surrounding much of the city is Hot Springs National Park. Perhaps one of our favorite aspects of this town was the numerous springs that fed up through the ground, and were channeled through pipes for the public to gather all around town. Some are hot and some are cold, but the cold water is by far some of the BEST spring water I have ever tasted. Ally and I gathered this water gallon by gallon until Edna’s 42 gallon fresh water tank was full.

Serving tea atop a hill in Hot Springs, AR.

Up on the hill overlooking town and the surrounding area we set up to serve tea at a look-out spot just below a big observation tower. Hot Springs seems to attract many tourists from all over the world. We were chatting with folks from China, Japan, Portugal, Belize, and one of my favorites was a conversation with a man from India about the Indian concept of Seva – or selfless service/being in service to God. We also connected with the woman who was to host us that night, Crystal, who opened up in our presence to talk about her own path and shifts and changes she was inspired to make in her life to live more in line with her beliefs and passions. As the day went on a thunderstorm forced us to close the doors and have an intimate half-dozen person tea party with lightning striking around us. BOOM!

Birds in Bloomington pick off all the bugs smashed on Edna’s grill.

Arriving in Bloomington, we immediately felt at home. We saw an anarchist book store, a food co-op, and lots of kind folks. One night we decided to set up at People’s Park on Kirkwood Ave, right between downtown and Indiana University campus. We didn’t realize that it was such a hangout for homeless people. Normally, I have a huge amount of patience and respect for homeless folks – probably from my early traveling days of hitch-hiking and riding freight trains, as well as the space I’ve held for serving homeless folks from the early days on Hollywood Blvd. But for some reason this night I was triggered into having less patience. As soon as we opened the doors, a mass of homeless folks came to see what it was all about. We were handing out tea left and right.

Filling Edna’s dirty vegetable oil tank in Bloomington, IN.

Ally helps gather waste vegetable oil in Bloomington, IN.

The first three people put more sugar in their tea than I have even seen any do before – they used over a cup of sugar between three smallish cups of tea. Then a fellow came up and asked for English Breakfast. I told him there was some in the large grab basket of tea bags. He made a weak attempt to find what he wanted, and complained that he couldn’t find any. At this point, both Ally and I were super busy with serving and making tea and talking to people – and this fellow demanded attention. I dug through the basket and helped him find the English Breakfast, which I promptly brewed for him. Once he had the tea in hands he asked, “Can I have a banana?” “Sure,” I said as I handed him a loose banana. “No, I want one of those greener bananas,” he said pointing to a bunch hanging from a hook. “I’d rather give you this one, it’s about as ripe, and I’d rather use up the loose bananas first. Plus, riper bananas are better for you.” “No they’re NOT!” He started to get angry and upset that I wasn’t catering to his every need. I had the stop the interaction there and said something like, “I’m sorry, sir, but you are being extremely rude. Here I am trying to share with you and you are being difficult, picky, and unappreciative.” At this point he quieted down, but I was still affected by the interaction.

Serving tea at the Bloomington Farmers’ Market.

Later in the evening several IU college girls came aboard the bus. They had been out wandering looking for something to do that didn’t cost money. Just like most people ask, they were curious if the tea was really free. This brought our conversation to some of the deep levels that it often comes to with curious people. The girls were so inspired that they came back a couple days later when we were serving tea at the farmers market with a whole slew of friends.

Because we knew what parking spot we really wanted for the farmers’ market, Ally and I parked Edna there the night before and just slept right there in the middle of downtown Bloomington. At 6 am we awoke to a busker playing guitar and singing sweet songs very near to the bus. We got up and thanked him for being such a wonderful alarm clock. He ended up being a great guy, and played tunes for much of the day.

Tea party at the Bloomington Farmers’ Market.

The Bloomington Farmers’ Market can truly be described as one of America’s finest. There’s good people of all ages wandering amongst lots of organic veggies, baked goods, raw milk (not for human consumption, of course), meats, eggs, and more. The beauty of the market spilled out onto the B-Line – a rail turned walking/biking trail through the heart of town, next to which we were set up serving tea. We had doctors, farmers, Mennonites, kids, adults – everyone – aboard for tea.

By the time we had spent a few days in Bloomington, it was hard for us to leave. We had made friends and felt called to stick around. Alas, with out a semi-tight schedule to get to the International Herb Symposium, we were constantly re-evaluating whether we were doing the right thing in rushing towards a goal (and especially a goal that wasn’t particularly accommodating to us being there – see next blog entry). For much of our journey we were in this space – meeting good people, falling in love with places, finding good resources, and feeling a little rushed.

Indiana!

We left Bloomington the next day and just drove. We drove all day across Ohio in order to get us to an Elephant Revival show in Peninsula, OH. For the first time on our journey from Austin, we took interstate highways the whole day. Usually, we have a preference for back roads and highway – where the real America happens without as much distraction of American monoculture that exists along so many well-traveled roads. This day, we let go of ideals, and made it in time to see our friends play music and spend some time with them over tea afterwards.

The next day we decided to celebrate the cooler weather with a tea party in a parking lot in neighboring Cuyahoga Valley National Park. At some point a Park Ranger came to ask about what we were doing. Calling for backup, two more Ranger cars pulled up, and five Rangers total came for the commotion. They told me that it was illegal to conduct business in National Parks without a valid permit. I told them, “Thank God! I knew there was a reason I decided to not make the tea bus a business!” They didn’t find that amusing, but were nice enough about it. After digging through their law books (36 CFR), they pulled out a law that says:

“§ 5.3 Business operations.
Engaging in or soliciting any business in park areas, except in accordance with the provisions of a permit … is prohibited.”

There was no definition of “business” in the law, so I looked it up in the dictionary (occupation, employment, or trade), and none of it seemed to apply to my situation. Pressing them on the issue, they told me that it’s illegal to perform “trail magic” in any national park. Many of you know that trail magic is any kind of sharing or kindness from strangers towards people hiking long-distance trails like the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail. It would be okay to share tea with my family in my bus, but it’s not okay to make friends and share tea, evidently, especially since I had a sign. Though there were no laws quoted stating this, I had to comply with these authority figures.

Deciding not to push my luck, I offered to stop my free tea activities. Inside the bus was the best group of folks for the situation. They were a group of six Unitarian Universalist pastors. They, of course, like any other levelheaded person, thought it was the silliest thing to be hassled for genuine sharing, and as they exited the bus, they each came over to me to hug, shake hands, and offer places to stay, serve tea, and community to be with in the places they lived.

Of course, modern culture assumes that people are acting out of self-interest most of the time, and hence laws are written in this manner. And this is the stance that the Rangers have to come from – to protect people from a potentially nefarious situation that could come out of people serving free tea.

A pastor gives me a hug while a Ranger attempts to find a law we are breaking.

All of this leaves me with these questions: If the Rangers had been out of uniform and simply walking by, would they have been concerned at all? Is it simply the fact that they are paid money to uphold (supposed) laws and orders from superiors that they had a problem with the tea bus? If they weren’t on duty, would they have shared more similar views with the pastors?

Tru from Tea Witch Tea in her studio.

Edna looks out on Lake Erie.

Moving down the road, we stopped at Lake Erie, camped out for a few days in a state forest near East Otto, NY, visited family and met up with Tea Witch Tea in Rochester, NY, and filled up with spring water outside Ithaca, NY. Finally, on June 9^th, we landed in Southborough, MA in order to prepare for the International Herb Symposium in nearby Norton, MA.

It was a long journey, and was a bit faster than I like. I’m excited for the Herb Symposium, but more than anything, I’m stoked that the tea bus has crossed the Mississippi River for the first time and we get to spend some time in the east for the next year or two.

Edna all warshed up and ready for the International Herb Symposium.

Gathering water at a roadside spring near Ithaca, NY.

A huge shout out to: Gil and Crystal in Hot Springs, AR; Judy and Malcolm in Bloomington, IN; Elephant Revival; all the Unitarian Pastors; Uncle Mark and his family; Tru from Tea Witch Tea; Walmarts for having overnight parking for us; and all the restaurants that gave us vegetable oil.

Posted in Journeys, News, On the Street | Tagged AR, Austin, back highways, back roads, Bloomington, Bloomington Community Farmers' Market, business, community, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, East Otto, Farmers' Market, free, Hollywood Blvd., homeless, hot springs, Hot Springs National Park, IN, Indiana University, International Herb Symposium, Ithaca, Lake Erie, laws, legal, MA, Marshall, Missisippi River, National Park, Norton, NY, OH, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, Peninsula, Ranger, Rochester, serving tea, Southborough, spring water, tea party, Tea Witch Tea, The Cosmic Shed, Trail Magic, TX, Unitarian, WVO | 1 Comment

The Cosmic Shed – Henderson, TX

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Guisepi

The Cosmic Shed in East Texas.

“Y’all are getting a real dose of East Texas, with a capital T,” said our host Cindy partway through our stay at the Cosmic shed. Since arriving at the Cosmic Shed, Ally and I had met backwoods rednecks, experienced a bunch of the culture, had a run-in with a local Constable, eaten deep fried catfish caught that day, and I had had an extreme allergic reaction to a sting from a red wasp. What was meant to be a day or two stay had ended up being a week before we knew it. Part of it was a need to relax after a hectic couple weeks trying to prepare for the road, part of it was because we enjoyed the folks we were meeting, and part of it was The Cosmic Shed itself, and the woman who care takes it, Cindy.

Some of the salvaged sculptures.

The Cosmic Shed was built in the 1960s by a man named Fred Rogers, who shape-shifted his way through life from being a systems analyst for the Pentagon to a maker of trash art. The grounds around the Shed are scattered with salvaged art, made from old appliances, machinery, and other do-dads. “Trash Sculpture – An Art Form Appropriate for Our Time” reads one sign. The Shed itself is a large four-story pyramid, reminiscent of both a tipi and a fire lookout tower. It is clad with salvaged corrugated metal of rust tones and various colors of blue automotive paint.

The stairs up to the fourth floor.

Inside the Shed, considered both an art gallery and a museum, a guest will find artwork from many artists, along with old tools, old wasp nests, and anything else deemed museum worthy. The first floor grasps your interest with the eclectic nature of items and artwork displayed. The second floor makes you feel at home amongst the madness, and allows you to interact via the Ping-Pong table, foosball table, and balcony. The awkward stairs up to the third floor up through a hatch in the floor, make you feel like you’re entering a secret hide-away. And indeed, the third floor has few windows, and the walls of the pyramid shape start to taper in, making it feel like an old attic in which you might make a secret fort. Protruding from the center of the third floor is a system of large cross-braces, which form a nest of stairs leading up towards the light beaming down from the fourth floor. Going up these small stairs, one finds themselves in a room of glass. The trees have grown up in the past 50 years, making it feel more like a tree fort than a fire tower.

Cindy makes bubble with the kids.

When Ally and I first arrived, Cindy, who was Fred’s partner, told us she wanted for us to hear the story of Fred’s death from her. When Fred was diagnosed in the early 90s with cancer, he said that he wasn’t afraid of dying, but he didn’t want to suffer. And when the suffering started, he built a funeral pyre, lit a fuse, and took his own life with a .357, while simultaneously cremating himself in front of one of his own sculptures. When talking about it later, a local police officer said, “Yup, that was Fred.” People knew him as a person who knew himself well enough to live (and therefore die) in the confidence of his own beliefs. The power of the place that Fred built, and the profoundness of his death almost brought me to tears, and gave me complete respect, as well as a sense of connection to The Cosmic Shed and the man who built it.

The second floor.

However beautiful, inspiring, and interesting the Cosmic Shed is, because it is in the heart of conservative East Texas, it isn’t always seen as proper or socially acceptable. Over the years the place has been shot at, been the source of many un-Christian rumors, and Cindy has even been accused of being a witch by a fellow whose daughter got candy from her on Halloween. The last case was settled when the fellow’s friend who was with him recognized Cindy and they ended the confrontation with a picnic amongst the sculptures. I speak about these things, not to bring any pity, but rather to show the extremes of culture present here in east Texas.

Our Sunday tea party.

The first full day there, we had arranged to serve tea to many long-time “Shedders,” many of whom come most Sundays when the Shed is open, as well as many new-comers and folks who hadn’t been in years or decades. It was a lovely day of tea, meeting new folks, and sharing space with a whole new culture. Ally and I connected with several folks – Jonathan, who was a traveler at heart and was glad to meet some like minded folks in his neck of the woods; Jody, who was a craftsman and loved talking about building things with me; Dee, who is the mother of my friend John in west Texas and loves these kinds of things; Dee’s grandsons, John and Andrew, who I had fun beating at Ping-Pong and talking stories with; Glen, who hadn’t been to the Cosmic Shed in 40 years, but came out because the tea bus was there; and so many more.

Andrew, Guisepi’s eyebrow, and Cindy.

After the tea party slowed down, Ally and I went for a walk and discussed the culture we had entered. When some of the first folks arrived that day, immediately plastic shot “glasses” were brought out, with Fireball, cigarettes, and eventually some KFC. I was a little confused by all this, as the Shed seemed to be a somewhat liberal place with open-minded people. Even though so many of the folks there are liberal, and might be called “hippies” by east Texas standard, I realized that they were all folks who still operated within the confines of east Texas culture. Even when one wants to live better, open their mind, be healthier, and live in community, there are many things that get in the way in a cultural sense, but that overlaps into the physical reality as well. What I mean by this is that you can’t really buy much in the way of healthy food, or socialize/build community without booze, or get away from the throwaway consumer framework. There just seems to be too few options in this part of Texas. Ally and I decided that we love the people out here even more for it, as they do what they can within the framework that exists.

Having a small fire in Edna amongst the art.

Over the following week, we spent time organizing more of the bus, making and eating good food, going on walks down the road, playing with Cindy’s dogs, and just really getting to know Cindy. She is a total sweetheart, and one of the best hosts we could have asked for. She made sure we were comfortable and fed, offered us great stories, and we talked and talked. And it’s not just us that she does this for. Cindy shows this same kindness to anyone who comes down the road to the Cosmic Shed – whether it’s the usual “Shedders,” the twice-yearly motorcycle campout folks, or people like us. And for people like us, it was easy to recognize a fellow community-builder. Thank you, Cindy!

The Cosmic Commode

One day as Cindy was at work, a police car drove by the property really slow. “How much do you want to bet he’s going to come back?” I asked Ally. She thinks I think we’re going to get hassled more than we do. I just think that it’s best to be prepared. A couple hours later the police car pulled into the driveway. It was Constable Jimmy Skinner. “We got a call from one of the neighbors about a strange vehicle over here. Can I see some ID?” Hmmm, he’s on private property, with no specific crime to be concerned about, just an odd vehicle. “If I’ve done something wrong, I’d be happy to give you my ID.” Of course I hadn’t done anything wrong. I gave him Cindy’s number, but he couldn’t reach her because she was working. The whole thing felt odd. When I told a local later about the neighbor calling the cops, he said, “That’s a good neighbor.” This mindset that things shouldn’t change, that people shouldn’t make new friends, or have different people come over, that different is bad – this whole notion is what I don’t like. This is what Cindy is up against with the Cosmic Shed, why she’s been called a witch, and why Fred was said to have killed himself because he was a devil-worshipper. When people are closed to differences, closed to new things, closed to change, that’s when people do ugly things, and that’s when community is un-built.

Even Buddha gets cold sometimes.

And here’s where I tell you that it’s not all that bad. Cindy rarely faces this kind of discrimination, but over the years enough has happened for it to be commented on. I actually hesitated to write about some of this, because I don’t want a few instances of intolerance to interfere with what is otherwise a beautiful picture of a community hub for people who need it in east Texas. If you happen to be near there on a Sunday, I highly recommend a visit.

When all was said and done, Ally, Edna, and I came out of the experience recharged. We had learned how to clean a catfish, made new friends, experienced a magical gem of east Texas, and felt utterly refreshed. As we were leaving, Cindy told us that we had recharged the Cosmic Shed batteries too.

Next stop… Hot Springs, Arkansas!

The wondrous Cosmic Shed

Agreed!

Yup.

Gathering fresh drinking water at the Frankston Spring for serving tea at The Cosmic Shed.

The second floor.

Where are we?

The fourth floor lookout.

Free Books!

Edna and The Cosmic Shed recharging each other.

Andrew, Guisepi’s eyebrow, and Cindy.

Posted in Events, Journeys | Tagged art, East Texas, Henderson, police, salvage, salvaged art, The Cosmic Shed, TX | 8 Comments

Austin Tea Parties – Austin, TX

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Guisepi

Serving tea near downtown Austin at the Hope Outdoor Gallery (photo: Nathan Rice)

Ahhhh, a great little break for the tea bus. Edna (the tea bus) and I had been on the road, serving tea, and working pretty hard for the previous five month, and Austin offered us a place to decompress, do some bus projects, and serve a little tea.

After an interesting first tea serving experience at the first annual Texas Tea Festival, I found myself during the depths of the winter exploring depths of my own being. I’m not one to place too much faith in astrology, but a reading from a woman in Madrid, NM last fall told me that I would find myself in a hard spot come late winter and early spring – and she was right. I was a little saddened by how difficult it was to be of service at the Texas Tea Festival, as well as feeling like I had a lot of bus projects that needed to be done, whereas I had been hoping to spend the winter writing. I was feeling like I put so much effort into being of service, helping people, offering advice and hands for other people’s projects, but also feeling over-extended, under-supported, and basically that I work super hard to be of service, but live in a world where we often don’t support people who share, probably because we don’t trust that the giving is altruistic. We are trained that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and that people act out of self-interest – so, why would anyone think to share freely back with the tea bus? Sometimes I feel like I have to prove myself and the tea bus everywhere that we go, just to get a basic level of respect. Of course, there are many people who just get it, and love the tea bus from the beginning, but being in new places and having lots of bus projects to accomplish made it a little overwhelming.

Edna meets the Shady Shack.

I settled in to both the Stick Farm in deep south Austin as well as Shady Acres up in Round Rock. Both places offered a great place to park, gardens, chickens, and a good community of people to be around. I needed this. I was grateful to have such places, but moving from one to the other, with time in central Austin in between was a little too much movement, so I dug in up at Shady Acres.

Shady Acres is a small homestead run by a fellow named Shade, who is in the process of building a tiny house out of salvaged materials (The Shady Shack). Having WOOFers and HelpXers around meant he was open to work-trade, so I ended up sticking around for a couple months. When the lawn mower needed fixing, or some leaky pipes repaired, or a hand needed for pulling wood through the table saw, I was there to help. And in return, I was offered food, cement to park on to work on Edna, and most importantly, good people to be around.

Shady Acres and all the salvaged wood therein.

Shade in the Shady Shack.

Early on at Shade’s place, I was in my bus one morning, only to look out and see a familiar face. I realized this was a face that I had never seen in person, but the face of a fellow I had seen on a video from Texas Tiny Houses (an epic salvaged material tiny house business). As it turns out, Mackey was helping Shade on his tiny house. He, along with Shade, became the friends that I could geek out on tools, materials, methods, and more with. I love those guys.

The deconstruction crew in Taylor, TX.

Shade runs a house deconstruction operation, so partway through our stay in Austin, we drove out to Taylor, TX to take down an early 1900s farmhouse in order to salvage the materials. We spent a long weekend out there, with half a dozen of us camping out, sharing food, cooking on the campfire, and going to the bathroom in a bucket out on a dock in the middle of a reservoir. During the day, we were pulling out hardware, wood, and anything else of value. It was beautiful to see the way a house comes down and the materials saved for later use. This experience was crucial for me gaining a deeper understanding of salvaged materials. In the end, we used Edna to pull down the skeleton of the house. See video below:

Transmission wiring harnesses – old and new.

Projects (skip if uninterested):
Edna needed some love, with so much travel and not much down time this fall and winter. Her transmission (e4od) was acting funny and throwing codes, which led me to replace the VSS sensor, MLPS, and some wiring harnesses/plugs, as well as drop the pan and replace the fluid and filter. I was still having trouble with my 2-3 gear shift, so I went ahead and ordered a new solenoid pack, as we all a shift kit (Transgo Tugger), which I will install somewhere down the road. After I disconnected my batteries to reset my tranny codes, I haven’t had it throw any more codes, so we’ll see (it needs to have problem shifting from 2-3 gear ten times in a row before it will throw codes). While I was under the bus, I did an oil change and drained and refilled my rear differential as well, as it has had a small leak since the last time I drained it a year and a half ago.

The old filter/pump/transfer/centrifuge setup.

Hose-in-Hose (HIH) for new dirty WVO system.

I knew in spending time working on the bus this winter that I was going to rebuild my dirty waste vegetable oil (WVO) system. It was working fine, except for a couple components/methods. The main issue I was having was that I was using just a single 2 micron filter for transferring vegetable oil from dirty to the clean tank. Even though this oil had already been centrifuged, there was still enough junk in it to clog the filter rather quickly (every 15-30 gallons or so). I decided to plumb in another filter (10 micron) before this one, so that I could potentially use less filters. The new system also included putting the feed line for both the centrifuge and the filter/transfer system in a Hose-in-Hose (HIH) setup. This is basically a 1” coolant hose with the ½” OD vegetable oil line inside of it. This helps blast the WVO with heat prior to being centrifuged or transferred/filtered. The oil also gets heated by a flat plate heat exchanger, as well as an optional 12v or 110v heater inline on the way to the high-pressure centrifuge pump.

The new graduated filter setup for transferring WVO to the clean tank.

The new double/graduated filter setup for transferring oil is great. Both filter heads are coolant heated (1/2” copper tubing wrapped). I also installed a separate pump for transferring oil, as the high-pressure pump I was using previously only transferred at less than 1 GPM, so it took almost 40 minutes to fill my 30 gallon clean WVO tank. The new pump is rated at 2 GPM, but it seems to transfer closer to 1.5 GPM, which is the rated flow for my filters. This means that it fills my clean tank in about 20 minutes. Ah, way better!

New access panel for dirty WVO centrifuge system.

As part of this dirty WVO replumb, I installed a new little plastic door on the side of the bus, which acts as a control panel for the centrifuge system. In this door is the high-pressure inlet and outlet (from dirty WVO tank to centrifuge and back into the other end of the tank), a temperature sender (gauge in bus), a pressure gauge, a pressure relief valve, and a bleed-off valve for adjusting pressure to the centrifuge. This last component was super crucial. The centrifuge setup that I bought used a ball valve here, but it eventually got so easy to turn the handle that it would turn on its own from any vibration. This was no good because it would adjust the pressure being sent to the centrifuge. If it raised the pressure, then I would have WVO coming out of the pressure relief valve. After doing some research, I realized that ball valves are not supposed to be used to control pressure/flow (simply on/off), and that the proper valve to use here was a globe valve, which is what I installed instead.

Dropping the dirty WVO tank to clean.

The small amount of gunk in my dirty WVO tank.

During this whole operation I decided that it would be a good idea to drop the dirty WVO tank to give it a clean out. I’ve been running WVO for over two years, so I was expecting it to be pretty dirty – but alas, it was not. I only pulled out a large fistful of gunk, and scraped out a little chicken skin (polymerization), but for the most part, it was pretty clean. This is because I pre-filter all my WVO to 150-200 microns, and as all the oil gets centrifuged it is cycling through the tank.

Part of this process was also making it easier on my alternator to power the load required to centrifuge (the high pressure pump, occasional air pump, and optional inline 12v heater). I found a mod online for adding in a switch that would allow me to turn on the high idle solenoid at any point. Usually the solenoid is only on while the engine is cold. Once it gets up to 130 degrees F, it shuts off. This is accompanied along with a timing advance on the injection pump as well. In doing this mod, I had to install a diode (which allows electricity to flow only one way) so that I wouldn’t be turning the timing advance when I turned on the high idle solenoid. When the high idle solenoid is on, the engine’s RPMs increase from about 700 to 1100, so that I can get more juice from the alternator. It also help prevent “wet stacking” when idling for long periods of time. See the mod, and definition of wet stacking here.

Sheri works on the floor of her bus.

One of the fun non-Edna projects that I got to work on was helping to install salvaged long leaf pine flooring in my friend Sheri’s bus. The flooring was taken out of the house we deconstructed in Taylor. We planed it down to give it new life, and spent a good amount of time making sure it was installed nicely. It turned out beautiful!

Helping Trey with his van in a library parking lot.

Other projects include: Sheri helping sew mosquito nets for a couple of Edna’s windows and skylight (thank the lord, now that we’re in bug country); getting hired to help reinstall some doors in a couple shipping container cabins; helping my new friend Trey get adjusted to van living with some curtain wires, a 12v plug/inverter setup with a voltmeter, and other advice, in exchange for some help with my new Tea Map (coming soon!); a bunch of bus maintenance like an air filter change, fuel filter change, WVO filter change, brake check, etc.

Serving tea at Music on Main in Round Rock, TX.

Even though much of our time was taken by bus and other projects, we still found time to serve tea in the Austin area. Some of these tea parties included a medicinal plant walk, a Butch Hancock show at Strange Brew, a First Thursday Art Walk on South Congress, the Katherine Anne Porter School in Wimberley, Music on Main in Round Rock, sunrise with beautiful friends in Blanco, a monthly potluck at the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, and with So Han at The Tea Spot at Spider House. These, of course, are along side all the small tea parties at people’s houses, on the street, and other more intimate tea sipping moments. On Edna’s 7th (re)Birthday, which was the 7 year anniversary of buying her, as well the 2 year mark of our 2+ Year North American Tour, we hosted a wonderful tea party in east Austin (read about it here).

Making tea at GayBiGayGay

We also served tea at a few events. One of them was GayBiGayGay, a queer response to SouthBySouthWest. Ever since coming to Texas, I’ve found myself around more gay and queer folks than any other part of the country I have been to. I’m not sure why that is. Regardless, I was told I would fit in at GayBiGayGay because I was “queer” – not in the gay sense, but the “different” sense. Okay, whatever you say 🙂 … The event was one of those super simple ones where I just pull up, explain what I do, and they say “come on in!” as they direct me to a place I can park. I ended up in the “Sexy & Sober Zone,” which worked out pretty good since I don’t usually allow drugs and alcohol on the bus while serving tea. The tea bus was a hit, and I got more good hugs than I could imagine. There was a topless woman making friendship bracelets for hours in the bus. There were people geeking out on the tea bus’ build-out. There were kids and adults, costumes and picnics, music and fun.

Honk!TX

At Honk!TX, a multi-location free community festival of marching/brass bands, we set up right at one of the parks they were having their event. The day was incredible, with iced tea being served left and right. My Australian friend, Dan, took it upon himself to make and serve free Vegemite sandwiches at the tea bus for much of the afternoon and evening. They were a hit! We had many, many friends – new and old – stopping in for tea.

Serving tea at the Texas Wild Rice Festival in San Marcos, TX.

In San Marcos, TX we setup the tea bus at the Texas Wild Rice Festival, along with fellow free tea servers Fritz and Sheri. Fritz just likes to make tea for people, as does Sheri. They both do it in their own way, but for the same beautiful reasons: to connect people, and share a beautiful experience. I couldn’t say no to collaborating with these folks. Sheri brought her short bus, Grace, and we set up the wagon circle right there next to the San Marcos River in the park. It was fun to have some double tea bus action happening. Inside each tea bus was their respective tea hosts, and outside Edna was her shade structure with Fritz’s tea zone. Everyone had three options for who to get tea from, and what experience to have. It was a blast! We also had a filmmaker there named Jackie who came out from New York to shoot a video about the tea bus. It was a long day, starting with an interview at 9 am and ending after 11 pm with breakdown. Whew!

Sheri serves tea in her bus, Grace, at the Texas Wild Rice Festival.

PS – I highly recommend swimming the San Marcos River, which stays around 72 degrees F year round. It was the best part of my day there!

Serving tea at the Hope Outdoor Gallery.

One event that went wrong was Eeyore’s Birthday. This yearly event has been notorious for 52 years as an event that keeps the “weird” in Keep Austin Weird. I figured that if I arrived at 5:30 am when the parking restrictions opened up, I could serve some tea. But boy was I wrong. At 6:30, I heard a rapping on my driver’s window. I was wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, as I had been awake for a couple hours. I think this caught the fellow off guard (I think he was waiting for some ragged hippy to come to the window). “You’re in the wrong place, boy!” he said in a Texas accent. This was the last thing I was expecting from this hippie-looking fellow in a tie-dye shirt. I tried explaining what I was hoping to do there. He was just about the least respectful, worst listener I have ever come across. “I’ve been running this event for X amount of years, and it’s a fundraiser for non-profits, and if you’re even thinking of selling anything…” No words would appease him, or get him to calm down. Basically, I was an imbecile, and he was going to have me towed. He couldn’t hear, or grasp that this was a free tea house, nor that I didn’t need a health permit according to the health department since we were in a residential neighborhood (see info on this in this blog entry). I couldn’t imagine how such a fellow was in charge of anything. He was a jerk and a terrible listener.

Two guests do watercolors of the tea bus in action at the Hope Outdoor Gallery.

Despite feeling a little upset and defeated, I moved my bus just a few blocks down the street to the Hope Outdoor Gallery – an awesome graffiti/mural park where lots of people gather every day to paint or just enjoy the art. And I can say that the day actually turned out great! Many people came, as they often do. When the tea bus opens up, it’s hard for a lot of people to pass by without at least popping their head in. My cousins popped in to say hello, local artists offered me beautiful pieces of art, and such beautiful interactions transpired that I could no longer be affected by the jerk earlier that morning.

UT film crew.

Our time in Texas happened to one of much media attention. In the course of our time here, we were the subject of five documentary film pieces, three radio/podcast pieces, and numerous written pieces. As always, the completed ones of these can be found on our In The News page. One great evening was spent in a UT professor’s backyard watching a bunch of student films, one of which was about the tea bus and myself. What fun!

Backyard film screening for some UT film students’ film about the tea bus.

Ally arrives in Austin.

A couple weeks prior to leaving, Ally (remember her?) showed up to spend the summer traveling with Edna and myself. With her help, we reorganized many of the spaces in the tea bus, getting rid of a huge box at the thrift store. She was also there to help me as I spent nearly a week under the bus trying to put the final touches on the dirty WVO system. I am so grateful to have her with me now. She brings so much to the tea bus (and everywhere we visit) in the realms of nurture, collaboration, and companionship. Thank you, Ally!

My nephew Denzel comes for a visit and blows on the train whistle.

On a side note, it was great to get to see my brother and his family, including my little nephew, who I adore so much. I am so glad that you came to Austin for a visit!!!

Huge thanks to:
Frank (and Brian, Emma, Laurie, Will, and Karen) at the Stick Farm; Shade of Shady nAcres, Neal, Rhonda, Bob Sokol, George, Katie, Jackie and her house, Jackie the filmmaker, the whole UT film crew (and professor Ellen Spiro), Travels with Benji, the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, Thora, Mackey, Jeremy for 60 gallons of clean WVO, Paul and his food trailer Flats for the dirty WVO, So Han Fan, Sheri, Fritz, Virginia, Butch and Adrienne, Tara, Cara, Nathan, Amelia, Adam, Eco-Wise for selling us so much biodiesel, Trey for help on our new tea map, and many, many more!

Posted in Bus Building, Events, Mechanical, News, On the Street, Video | Tagged Austin, Blanco, Butch Hancock, Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, deconstruction, Eco-Wise, Edna, Edna Lu, Edna's Birthday, Eyeore's Birthday, First Thursday, GayBiGayGay, Grace, HelpX, Honk Fest, Honk!TX, Hope Outdoor Gallery, Katherine Anne Porter School, Music on Main, North American Tour, Round Rock, salvage, San Marcos, Shady Acres, So Han, South Congress, Spider House, Stick Farm, Strange Brew, Taylor, Tea Map, Texas Tea Festival, Texas Wild Rice Festival, The Shady Shack, The Tea Spot, transmission, TX, West China Tea Company, Wimberley, WOOF, work-trade, WVO | Leave a comment

Spring Update – Austin, TX

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Guisepi

Almost 10 years on the road, 9 years of free tea, 7 years of Edna, 2 years of the North American Tour.

Hello, friends and family!

Two years ago on March 20^th, Edna Lu (the tea bus) and I started a 2+ year North American Tour. This tour was imagined as a journey around the continent with no itinerary, allowing us to fully immerse ourselves in the places that we visit, be of service, and share conversations with the broad spectrum of people around this part of the globe. And I’d like to say, it has been a success…

…but, we’re not done yet!

And that’s exactly why we phrased this journey as a two or more year tour. In the past two years, we’ve only visited 7 states (WA, OR, CA, NV, AZ, NM, TX), so inevitably, our journey continues. And I’m happy about that!

I’ve put in many years of time and energy to create a lifestyle that’s nomadic, low-monetary input, low-environmental impact, creates positive social change, and makes me and many others happy. So, why stop now? I’m not sure how long this tour will last, but it goes on for now.

I guess the main reason that our tour has been so slow is because we really like to take the time to do things right, to dig in to communities, to allow for flexibility in our plans, and to do things that help us continue this lifestyle.

Edna on her (re)birthday

Some tea serving highlights of the past two years are:
–       Serving tea at the Procession of the Species Parade in Olympia, WA.
–       Serving tea at 7,000 feet in the Sierra Mountains on the Pacific Crest Trail to through hikers.
–       Creating a week long free tea café at Blues Recess Massive in Placerville, CA
–       Making tea at a Portland, OR fire station for all the fire fighters.
–       Helping revive and serve alongside the only other mobile free tea house we’ve ever heard of, the T-Horse, at the Village Building Convergence in Portland, OR.
–       Serving tea without permission on Reed College campus, and getting invited back by the head of security.
–       Making tea at several Free Herbalism Projects in Eugene, OR with Mountain Rose Herbs, where we served our 20,000th cuppa free tea.
–       Serving tea on Hollywood Blvd. – where it all started 9 years ago.
–       Tea at the Tera Vita Herbal Symposium.
–       Making tea with free Yoga on the Bluff in Long Beach, CA.
–       Making tea at Soka College for their Garden Party.
–       Serving tea alongside The Herb Bus at The Ecology Center in Orange County.
–       Making a tea zone at the Herb Folk Gathering at Mormon Lake, AZ.
–       Sneaking onto the Balloon Fiesta launch field and serving tea on my birthday in Albuquerque, NM
– Getting our first health permit for the Texas Tea Festival, which made us rethink parts of our moral framework.

Some creative/community-building highlights:
–       Working with the Shook Twins at Bear Creek Studio shooting some video and taking photos.
–       Taking a WFR course with MASHH geared for herbalists, activists, and homesteaders in Orleans, CA.
–       Hanging with Common Vision in Los Angeles, planting fruit trees, and making them a couple videos.
–       Making videos with Earthroots Field School in Orange County, CA.
–       Working on bus projects (garden/door, Gift & Take area, curtains, rebuilding the wood stove, installing the inverter, rebuilding the oil cooler, and much, much more.).
–       Becoming involved with building, fixing, and creating at The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano, CA
–       Guest lecturing at Saddleback College in Orange County, CA.
–       Work-trading at El Cosmico in Marfa, TX
–       Building a straw bale and salvaged material house in Terlingua, TX
–       Deconstructing an old farmhouse in order to salvage the wood in Taylor, TX.

Kids at the Alpine Montessori School

Edna overlooks the Pecos River.

The little free library at La Loma Hostel in Marathon, TX.

Before coming to Austin, we spent a wonderful week traveling from Terlingua across Texas. We stayed in Alpine, where we were invited to serve tea in the heart of town in a parking lot by the Alpine mural, as well as with the kids at the Alpine Montessori School. In Marathon, we met more traveling folks who live in an amazing converted step van and travel around playing music. Also in Marathon, we friended folks at the local papercrete hostel, La Loma del Chivo. We had tea and good conversations. We stopped at the bar/barbershop/house/courthouse/etc of Roy Bean in Langtry, TX, and finally landed in Austin in time to get our health permit for the Texas Tea Festival.

The kitchen and campfire area at La Loma Hostel in Marathon, TX.

For the past month and a half, we’ve been hanging in Austin. We came here originally to have some winter time, with much writing and reading, but Edna has been a little cranky with how hard we were traveling through Fall and Winter, and most of my free time has been dedicated to bus maintenance and projects. Along with all this, we’ve been serving tea at places like the Texas Tea Festival, SXSW, GayBiGayGay, HonkTX, The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, and more.

Some friends gather over tea on Edna’s (re)birthday

On March 20^th (the day that I bought Edna 7 years ago, as well as the start date of our North American Tea Tour), we hosted a birthday tea party at some friends’ place in east Austin. It was a good blend of friends and newbies. We drank tea all afternoon, and the teabus provided some shelter for passersby from the intermittent rain that was falling.

I invite you to continue to share in this journey with the tea bus by signing up for our regional tea-mail list, having tea with us when we’re in your town, friending or following Edna Lu The-Teabus on Facebook, or by checking out our Support page for ways to help us out. We’d love to hear from you!

An enormous thanks to John and Katie in Alpine, TX for hosting us several times; to Shade for having us around his place; to Frank Meyer for being an elder and host; to Lori in Alpine; to the Alpine Montessori School; to Heather for tea, friendship and a Giuseppe mug; to George for being a fellow builder and brother; to Chaz for friendship and a place to park; to So Han for having us serve free tea at his tea house; to Bob for being a friend and offering mechanical advice; to all the people who live at the Stick Farm for being a family for us; and to all our wonderful tea guests. No thanks to Border Patrol who continually want to search Edna.

Thanks for the support, community!

Oh and we hired a sign spinner. We’re giving him 10% of our profits:

Posted in Events, Journeys, News, Video | Tagged Alpine, Austin, AZ, CA, Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, Edna, La Loma del Chivo, Langtry, Marathon, NM, North American Tea Tour, North American Tour, NV, OR, TX, video, WA | 2 Comments

WELCOME!