Sebastian

I love hanging out in Motels all alone! I am totally jonesin’ around all over the place in room 11 of the Last Port Motel in Canso, Nova Scotia. You don’t know where that is? Canso is at the pee hole of the Northern Nova Scotia peninsula. I drove here in the dark, talking to myself to stay awake. This was out of necessity because the Tim Horton’s coffee product doesn’t have enough caffeine. I had to drink Tim Dog’s because there isn’t much of a market for the fresh roasted, grinded and brewed beans in rural Nova Scotia in November. Isn’t the drive through line just so much more appealing then being served some by a groovy hippy? Did you know Slim Horton doesn’t even brew real coffee anymore? Earlier this year they switched to the instant stuff without telling anyone. Well, no one noticed, so after a few months they spilled the beans. Anyway, back to what you really want to hear about - me. I was driving along, all tired like. Just when I needed it most, my good buddy Caleb calls me up. Boy, was he excited.
“Seb! Have you heard about EARTHSHIPS?”
I’m happy to be on the same team as Caleb. Especially now that he is excited about earthships. GOOGLE. Earthships are low impact, high efficiency homes built mostly from recycled and natural materials. They are the coolest. Most of them are off the grid, use very little energy and produce most or all of the energy they do use themselves. The most common type seems to be built half below ground, half above, using old tires and mud. Caleb wants to build one. I want to help build one and then build at least twelve more.
Maybe you’ve heard some conversing about acquiring some land as a group. Some people seem to be interested, and it’s great to hear the excitement. Land in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is cheap. It’s really cheap, and it is also beautiful and fertile. With a little bit of effort and one less cup of Tim’s a day, in a few years we could be digging our very own earthship holes. Seriously though, in the near-distant future (?) we could all be kicking back in futuristic mud huts. Let that process while I spin some groovy tales:



In October, over Thanksgiving, I spent some time in New Mexico for the Balloon Fiesta. Coincidentally, at the same time my cousin Caitlyn was getting married to Steve, who just so happens to be one of the best dudes. They met at Middlebury where they were both studied fine arts. They love each other so much they decided to get married. The wedding was beautiful and simple. My grandfather presided over the non-denominational ceremony, which was awkward because Steve’s parents are fundamentalist Christians (his Dad is one of the boss men).
It was great to spend time with family and friends during such a festive love party, but I was just happy to be back in New Mexico. I was born there, in Albuquerque, where my family lived until I was 5. I don’t remember much from those days, and I don’t get to spend much time there. When I am lucky enough to be back in “The Land of Enchantment” (state nickname) do I feel a strong connection with the landscape, the people, the art, and maybe most importantly, the food. The red chile ristras are hanging anywhere anything can be hung. The green chile roasters are roastin’ in most of the vacant lots, where the smell is sure to gather in your good weather clothes.
New Mexican cuisine is unlike Texican food in that it is less greasy, less fried, but still sort of greasy and sort of fried, and it should always be smothered in red or green chile sauce. Much of it is meaty, but I spent most of the trip with my vegetarian brother and sister in (sort of) law, Elijah and Moorea, and they were never unsatisfied. Even my vegan cousin Sarah was happy, but she’s been known to cheat the cheese rules.
I also mentioned art. Albuquerque is where my dad studied fine art and where he began his career painting and doing graphic design. It is where the newly wed couple moved to pursue careers in art. When I spent a summer there a few years ago, I found work with an artist named Allan who only paid me in cash, disappeared for a few hours at a time every afternoon, and had a tear-drop birthmark/tattoo (?) below his left eye. What I’m getting at is that there are all kinds artists all over the place, and that might sound like the worst, but it is amazing because people really appreciate art. Art art art art. Public art is everywhere: on the highways, parks, buildings, street corners, etc. Most of it is reminiscent of the ideas that stem from the people of New Mexico’s roots. It’s a fine blend of Peublo Indian, Mexican and American. Earthy with a hint of turquoise. I guess it is the same aesthetic behind the Adobe style architecture that is everywhere.




One of the greatest parts of being in New Mexico is getting to know the friends my parents had when they were my age. My brother and I decided it would be worthwhile to pursue a career in time travel in order to be able to hang out with them our-age parents in the 70’s. One of them was my dad’s old roommate Ken, now living in Taos. In a gas-mobile, you can get to Taos from Albuquerque in three hours. The driving is nothing, though, because the landscapes are so hot! New Mexico isn’t all deserts, although if you ask me, the desert is some of the best scenery.

Beyond the billboards littered along most highways (My dad was proud to point out that the now-metal sings are the solution to the relentless war that he fought - with axe and saw - against what used to be wooden bill-board posts) are vast stretches of open, empty land covered with sagebrush. I couldn’t stop humming THIS. In fact, you should probably let that play as you continue reading. There are also mesas and plateaus, beyond those are mountains. Lots of mountain ranges: the Jemez, Sandia, Zuni, even the Rockies. Between the mountains are these lush valleys that are fed by rivers like the Rio Grande. There are also a few incredible canyons and gorges. Geologically, the place is fucked. There is a continental rift running through the state, so when the continental plates are bumpin’ and grindin’, the vibes are amplified. I think that is why the landscape is so cool, but another reason is because it is really dry. Only the toughest plants can survive, plants that you don’t see in the moist soils of Nova Scotia. People get really creative in their landscaping. Only the crazies have grassy lawns, because in draught times, the lawn watering types are heckled. The lawnscaping you do see is called xeriscaping: using only indigenous plants that can survive without being hose fed like little babies. Having a gravely backyard full of cacti and shrubs is a reality for a lot of people, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. It looks great with adobe houses. Ok, back on the topic of Adobe. I mentioned Ken earlier; we visited him in Taos. Besides fighting forest fires, teaching skiing and white water rafting, Ken makes a living building and selling Adobe houses. He cuts and mills his own wood, sources his own gypsum from the local mine and uses it to build houses that he designs. They are nice. When the climate is hot and dry, the doors really open up in terms of how you can build a house. Wood doesn’t rot, first of all. You don’t even need to pressure treat wood with chemicals that turn it green. There were three houses that Ken built within a few minutes walk, so we went to check them out. All I’ve wanted to do since then is learn to build these Adobe houses. They are sort of what gave rise to the earthships that Caleb called me to talk about. YES, ok, back on earthships. Now, here is the plan: when I am done school I am probably going to eventually find my self back in New Mexico, at least for a year or two. So now you understand that all of that ramblin’ was mostly a ploy to get all of you thinking about how cool New Mexico is so you will come hang out with my while I live there. Caleb is coming, he already signed up to come learn how to build earthships / adobes with me. My cousin is planning on starting an organic farm to provide all the produce for a hot restaurant in Albuquerque that friends of our parents run. So while we aren’t building, we can farm! Won’t that just be a time?
After a stint in NM though, I fully plan on coming back to the Maritimes. In fact, I might not even leave. Either way, pretty soon we’ll be ready to buy up a pretty little (100+ acres) piece with a lake, forest and farmland. I got to drive 1100 kms around the province last week, and oh my!





We’ll build ultra sustainable eco homes, grow our own food and generate our own electricity. Our green houses heated by Nick’s wood gas stoves will be producing Avocados in January! This kind of land is easier to secure in really rural areas, but I think that is just great. Our electric vehicles will have just enough range to get around, if necessary. I’ll probably run whatever business I will have started by then out of a lab/workshop/garage/office that I will have also created by then in my earthship, so no need for a commute. No need for a mortgage either, because your house cost less than $50,000 to build and there will never be electricity bills. Or expensive plane tickets to visit old friends, because they will live just behind the peach orchard, or around the herb (weed) garden, or across the root vegetable field, near the chicken coop. I think some of them will be living in tree houses as well.
See what I mean?



Thanks for reading.
Love, Sebastian


P.S. In case you were wondering why I am in the Last Port Motel in Canso, and why I drove a thousand kilometers around the province, it was for work. I work for Efficiency Nova Scotia, which used to be the Conservation and Energy Efficiency Dept. of Nova Scotia Power. My job is to help Commercial and Industrial customers reduce energy usage by retrofitting their facilities to become more energy efficient. The projects we do could include switching out lighting (incandescent to high efficiency fluorescent), installing new motors or pumps, switching resistance heating for heat pumps, even installing solar thermal panels. We help by providing incentives and financing for projects to make them economically feasible. It’s a good program. It is funded entirely by you and all the other NSPI customers.