One good reason to consider moving to a small town: coffee shops can be bigger and funkier while still making rent. Chiro Java is a case in point, violins decoratively hanging from the ceiling a block from the town square, as well as an excuse for an extended morning. It's also a neat mixed use: "chiro" as in chiropractor, one of whom has this as his waiting lobby. Could be cool in cities, combining multiple offices / doctors chill / lobby areas into one bigger, cooler cafe. Saves space thus cutting rent, but unlikely to retain sufficient funk.
Even leaving Seguin after noon, we're making good time. Or, at least before a detour in the unlikely shape of a heavyset old dude with long hair, a camo jacket, and a white pickup. One of our bikers had met him working on Stockdale's town square, creating a community garden.
~2nd sentence out of his mouth is along the lines of "I built a house of shipping containers," and I'm sold. Half an hour later, Dr. Paul Range (PhD Sustainable Agriculture) is driving us up to a structure comprised of ~12 shipping containers. Arranged in a 2-story square, they're the centerpiece of a very interesting, ongoing experiment in sustainability he calls Reliance Community Farms. A brief highlight reel:
-Pooponics: Paul's growing duckweed, etc. to feed his livestock from human waste straight out of his biodigester.
-Simple shipping container windows: new construction windows with self-tapping metal screws through the nailing strips and Great Stuff foam sealing the edges. Should be uber-simple to replicate.
-Ammo can + propane canister heater + sink-style water spout = super-low-flow hot shower, Marines style. Get wet, soap up, rinse with < .75 gallons
-30-45 day goats followed by pigs to condition soil.
-Great Pyrenees dogs guarding different species basically by hanging out with them as puppies.
-Aquaponics with all gravel, 55-gallon containers split as grow tanks, always-on pump to water upon overflowing, and supposedly great results (Paul runs aquaponicsfarm, a listserv I'm subscribed to).
-Cheap / innovative wind turbine designs, both for pumping water and generating power.
-And, my favorite detail: the treads on his metal steps to the 2nd-story deck are simply beads of welding wire he's run.
I definitely plan on coming back out here to learn more from a most interesting old dude.
In comparison, the rest of the day's unsurprising; in absolute terms, it's great. A second non-camping night, as the residents of Kosciusko open up their community center to us. It's a much better place to eat and sleep than the gas station / mercantile we encountered upon arrival to town, which was a shop stocking so many pricey calf milk replacer - parasite treatment - vaccine - Monsanto ads that it's a fairly convincing testimonial about why to farm organically. Good food, a bit to drink, and some fireside conversation with farmer / mechanical engineer / guy who helped bring cell phone towers to this neck of the woods Tom Price about how America's more or less fucked and he's bought 50 acres in Mexico wrap up the day.