Hubs & Routes (& Gifts!)
If all the computers were blank, the banks were closed, and no trucks came here with deliveries or left here with trash, what would we do to survive?
We would live on the gifts we give each other. We would be gifts ourselves.
It can be hard to picture this kind of future. What would we eat? Would there be enough? Would we be able to stay warm? How many medical supplies do we have stored up? What would we be able to do with what’s in our trash piles?
Little by little, we are getting closer to being able to answer these questions. People are filling out Hub Resource Forms with information about the skills that help make them the unique gifts to the community that they are.
In Manchester, people are saying they know how to build tools and shelter with local materials, how to make new items out of discards, and how to work with cloth and fiber. They are storing dried food. They are offering emergency shelter for pets, farm animals and injured wildlife. They are thinking of places on their land that could, in a pinch, be used as burial grounds.
In Fort Bragg, people can teach composting and canning, offer emergency shelter and bedding, provide space, tools and parts for repairs, operate ham radios, safely store hazardous waste, translate languages, repair vehicles and appliances, work with cloth and fiber, charge devices, and keep food hot and cold when the grid is down.
Gifts offered in Albion so far include vehicle repairs, fruit, vegetables, land to farm on, backwoods errands, treecutting skills, water, shelter and more.
This is just a sampling of what exists. We also have wonderful Hubs also on Ten Mile Isle, North Jughandle, Westport, Caspar, Mendocino, Little River and Navarro Ridge “islands.”
We know that Comptche, Elk and Irish Isle have been preparing for years. We look forward to getting to know more about Usal, Rockport, Howard Creek, Branscomb Road, Hare Creek, Arena and Gualala “islands.”
If we had to stop here, we’d have to say, “No — the food being grown here right now is not enough to keep all of us alive and thriving into the future. The shelter is not enough to keep all of us dry in a tsunami, warm in a frost and out of the reach of the flames of a forest fire. The rain being caught and stored is not enough to get us through a long drought.”
But we don’t have to stop here. Every time you help your friend or neighbor fill out a Private Hub form, every time a business or non-profit signs up as a Public Hub, every time you learn a new skill or create another food garden, you are giving a gift to yourself, to your island, and to the Mendocino Coast. You are improving the chances that we can survive and thrive through the challenging times ahead.
Private Hub Offer forms are available on paper at the lobby of Fort Bragg Library, in the barn at Fortunate Farm, and at kneelevel on your left as you enter Cleone Market. They are available online at hubsandroutes.net (click on the blue shirt.) If you would like to be able to print your own blank copies to give away in your neighborhood, please email us at hubsroutes@ mcn.org and we can email you a printer-friendly version.
Are you curious about who has signed up to offer what? Do you enjoy matching up people with resources? Do you think you’d be interested in helping your island track what is offered and which resources are still needed, so that you can help your whole leadership team set priorities for next steps? Great! Look on our home page and click on the water tower to see if you have what it takes to be a Public Hub Leader.
Thank you for being the gift that you are.
P.S. For an overview of Hubs & Routes, watch our intro video on YouTube, follow us on Facebook, visit hubsandroutes.net or attend a Hubs & Routes Zoom meeting for your island. The next Zoom meeting for people who live on the Fort Bragg island will be on Jan. 26 from 1 to 2:30 p.m., sponsored by Redwood Coast Seniors. To offer to organize a Hubs & Routes meeting for your island, email us at hubsroutes@mcn.org.