If you are going to build a house, you get the best builder in the area. Doing it right—from the foundation up—makes or breaks the whole project. It's the same when you set out to build thriving, resilient community—especially in hard economic times.

Nobody's going to give you much of an argument about the idea that the US currency is in flux. Some people are worried about devaluation; others inflation; and yet others, collapse. In fact, at present, more than a dozen States have proposed reinstating their own silver and gold coin currencies. And, while it may seem like Monopoly money to outsiders, a growing number of local communities across the U.S, too, have started using homegrown local currencies to stimulate their economies and protect themselves from the nation's broader economic woes. One of the most common types of local currencies being used successfully is Time Banks.

After months of wrestling with the local County Building Department about permits and codes, excruciating financial gymnastics and down and dirty back-breaking spadework, we finally got our solar installation up. It's a massive 3 kw (stc) photovoltaic pole mount.

Everywhere I go around Mt. Shasta, even in back of downtown stores, I see apple trees. Vacant lots, old town, and tract houses, there are apple trees all over the place.

What did the old folks know, who planted all of these trees, that we seem to have forgotten?

I am pretty sure that it was history in the making. Local history, anyway. And, who knows? Maybe Mount Shasta's example will encourage other towns to take similar action.

Last Wednesday night, concurrent with the first snow of the season, a meeting between Shasta Commons and the Tea Party took place. While sleet and ice pounded the windows on the outside, warmth and understanding predominated in the meeting room inside.

I recently participated in the Shasta Commons monthly Trader's Co-op. At first, I felt reluctant to attend, uncertain if my items were good enough and how uncomfortable it would be to refuse a trade. Would they say yes? How would I say no? What is it worth?

Have you ever been driving behind another vehicle that is traveling with their brake lights on? Unless this is a mechanical malfunction, you are watching a driver who is unconsciously resting their foot on the brake peddle.

Do you have an environmental "line in the sand"? I mean, is there some environmental activity you must do because you believe it is important for sustainability?

Let's get this straight: I've never been a big-time criminal. True, I was arrested once as a trespasser. I was a newspaper reporter at the time, covering protests over clear-cutting in an old-growth forest near Arcata. I still remember the taunts of the other prisoners as the protesters and I were led into the holding cell. "Ooh, look out, here come the trespassers. They bad, man, they bad."

For many years I have noticed that reporters often talk about "getting back to normal" only a few days after major disasters. They seem to want to reassure us that, even though something disruptive and tragic has occurred, we will quickly get back to normal, and things will go on as before. They seem to imply that nothing will be changed as a result of the disaster; we will simply pick up the pieces and reassemble our lives. They imply that we are immune to real change—maybe even immune to learning, or transformation.

Patricia Williams wrote in The Nation this week that, "You know these are interesting times when Glenn Beck, Dianne Feinstein, Rand Paul and the ACLU all stand on the same side of an issue." She was referencing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Here is what is at stake: Most critical are Sections 1031 and 1032 of the Act, which authorize detaining U.S. citizens indefinitely without charge or trial.

Human beings are intellectually capable of fooling themselves until hit with the hard reality of devastating bad news. Often that news is accompanied with no way out, such as a smoker being told he or she has terminal lung cancer or emphysema.

Where does our tradition of gift giving come from, and why do we still celebrate this? We would all probably cite the biblical account of the three Magi, but gift giving has a much more ancient source. Gift giving hearkens back to the economic form of exchange that humankind practiced before the advent of money. Money did not become a factor until the establishment of civilization. Civilization, for all its amenities, also brought class divisions and poverty, so gift giving and receiving reminded people of a time when people lived in egalitarian, close-knit communities bound more by the heart than by the impersonal "head" system of money.

Ooooby (Out of our own back yards) connects communities through local food.

This Action group would be closely linked to the Local Grub Club with an emphasis on Back Yard Growers and Local Neighborhoods.

If you like to grow food (on a farm, in your backyard, in a community garden or where ever) or if you just like to eat locally grown food then Ooooby is for you.

OOOOBY ("Out Of Our Own Back Yard") is a new local food initiative.  The first OOOOBY Store in Ireland was set up by Carraig Dúlra farm in Glenealy village, Co Wicklow, and features local produce, food growing supplies, ecological products, crafts and fairtrade.

Items to explore:

• Neighborhood Grennhouses
• Cold Frame Green Production

This autumn's fruit harvest is the bountiful example of the abundance available to our greater community. Even the vegetables grown at the Land-trust Garden Share across from the MS Library were so plentiful that after gardeners received their share, many bags of fresh food were delivered weekly to the St Anthony's Food Pantry. Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields and orchards after they have been commercially harvested.

‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun