The Flo-Op is finally official!  6-8 High St in Florence signs the papers to transfer from being owned by me, Alex, Tammi, and Matt, to being owned by the Flo-Op Inc, which I think is currently me and Alex Jarrett and Sara Howard, and growing.  Alex, Sara, Rebecca Fletcher from Cooperative Fund of the NorthEast, and Jim Oldham from Equity Trust celebrate around the dining room table of 6 High.  A Northampton Community Land Trust will be in the works.  It’s all a way to preserve affordable housing and democratic control.

Live guests in the studio today:  Vincent Hedger and Francie Delaney (York, PA) are visiting me for the week :).   Vince’smain project has been ComeByBike Farm on the eastern shore of MD for the last 7 years.   He bikes 25 miles from the barn/studio where he stays to the farmland where he grows.  He’s a channel for growing and feeding people, helping out with his broad array of practical skills wherever he can, generally rejecting the money economy.   In his 60s now, when I asked him about health care, he kinda laughed and said he said he was on God’s plan.  He’s hoping to find a place, a farm, to relocate to in WMass this year.   Originally from Alaska, MD is getting too hot for him.

Francie is from York, PA, where she does urban gardening, and homesteading, has raised 3 children, hosts wwoofers, does physical therapy, art, all kinds of community engagement, and has partnered with Vincent on multiple projects.   She reminds us to Leave the Leaves!  they’re important for the ecosystem.