Hay Every Body!

 

I'm reaching out hoping to get your support as I'm trying to realize my dream of creating stable, simplistic housing on land where folks are living intentionally & cultivating community. Establishing a stable, secure home also means escaping the competitive, exhausting, unhealthy experience of constantly seeking affordable housing.

& Perhaps~ if monetary support is not in the cards for you right now~ which I 100% understand~ you can share this with your community via social media or whatever is clever ! 

Since a couple people have asked me about Venmo & Cash App info on  I figured I should set it up and post it here for folks who prefer not to go through Go-Fund-Me  !!!

Venmo: @Aster_Opal-666

Cash App: $AsterOpal

 

 

Over the past few years, I've saved enough money by living alternatively and frugally while working various jobs to buy myself a 20ft yurt. Unfortunately, the CZU lighting fire complex near Santa Cruz in August 2020 thwarted my first attempt to bring this yurt-life to fruition. This massive fire proceeded to burn the land I was prepping to build on, along with my temporary basecamp, including a lot of my camping gear (more detailed story below). The pandemic, of course, made everything more complicated.

 

This fall, I moved into a room in a house with terrible mold problems, causing health issues and soon, I found I was unable to sleep. This toxic mold reality rekindled my desire to purchase a yurt, in which I'm able to install a wood-burning stove, thus allowing me to control & maintain a mold-free home. So, this winter, I took the leap to purchase a 20ft yurt. Buying the yurt, unfortunately, has wiped out my savings. However, it is the beginning of a meaningful life transition for me, bringing me out of the cycle of living in less-than-ideal conditions outside of my control. Now that I have taken this leap, I've realized I need monetary support for the extra expenses that accompany buying & installing a yurt.

 

This fundraiser is my attempt to supplement the wages I am earning to realistically prepare financially for the costs of installing the yurt alongside the inevitable collapse of my current vehicle (a 2000 Toyota RAV4 with over 200,000 miles on it). It's also an experiment in vulnerability, honesty, seeking support & community care. Can I dream of affording to create this space where I can grow, thrive and live communally without the constant threat of instability? I've been tirelessly working landscaping jobs in the Bay Area to secure the funds I need to build an insulated deck, install a wood-burning stove, and anticipate the possible loss of my current vehicle.

 

I understand that this is a big request when the world is hurting. So many people are in dire situations, yet I also need housing stability. I hope that you all, my community, my family, my friends, might be able to lend a hand to help me actualize a dream I’ve worked towards for years, allowing me to put down some roots and perhaps even cultivate a place to thrive. My main desire in this life is to build community and forge deep connections with everyone and everything, hoping that this might aid in healing the wounds of the divided & colonized world. Still, I can’t effectively do that until I am in a stable place myself.

 

Thanks for taking the time from your busy days surviving in this world to check in on me!

 

For a breakdown in expenses and more details of these last few years of my life, feel free to keep reading~

 

& Take a gander at the 20ft yurt I bought !!! https://www.livingintentyurts.com/

 

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This April, I turn 31 years old ~ So, I'm allowing myself to hope that soon after my 31st birthday rolls around in mid-April, I'll find myself by a cozy wood-burning stove, sleeping soundly & deeply in my yurt!

 

Late this January 2022, I drove my 2000 Toyota RAV4 (w/ 219,000 miles) to the Bay Area (& got the heck out of my moldy house!) to work full-time landscaping while staying with friends. I've been working as much as possible in an attempt to secure the funds I need. After living in the Bay Area for the past seven years, I have decent-paying work connections. Pandemic conditions have made cultivating comparable work connections in the Pacific Northwest challenging.

 

& After these months of working in the Bay area, after paying off the $8000 I still owe on the Yurt, I'll only return to WA with a little more than 1,000 to fund the deck & woodstove install ~

 

The 20ft Yurt costs about $11,333, & I've paid for this with my savings + most of the money I've earned in these two months!

 

Estimates on Costs :

 

 

 

Raising between $6,666 & 12,345 allows me to buy a reliable vehicle & to quickly complete the deck & stove installation upon my return to the Pacific Northwest.

 

The stresses of Capitalism so often overshadow our lives. In response, I've been attempting to engage playfully, in spite of the pressure, by infusing the dollar amounts with whimsy; however, these are, indeed, accurate estimations of my upcoming expenses.

 

I'm doing my best & working my butt off, hoping I can somehow do this all on my own. But, it feels impossible to earn the amount of money I'd need to feel a true sense of security.

 

Having some backup funds will allow me to find meaningful work; instead of forcing myself to grab the first job that comes my way in order to survive. This money lets me pour my heart and energies into the deck build, erecting the yurt, building an outhouse, a bathhouse, and a kitchen while not simultaneously throwing myself into full-time wage labor out of desperation.

 

Recognizing the intensity of distress I experience when facing the possibility of my car breaking down any day helped me realize that asking for support before I am in a desperate situation is the wisest move for maintaining my mental & emotional health. Another avenue of support I'd honestly prefer is if anyone has a Toyota truck, minivan or other similarly sized, reliable vehicle they are not using &/or can afford to sell to me for a reasonable price.

 

We all need support from time to time. I appreciate any help you may be able to offer me, and I would love to support you in whatever ways I can~

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

~if 202 people can donate $33 to my go-fund-me, I'll reach the low end of my goal of $6666 ~

 

~Or if 33 people can contribute $333, I'd hit 10,989 ~

 

 

Thanks, everybody, for checking this out~ Wishing you wellness & peace as we navigate this wacky& wild world. May you have all your needs met & may you find love & belonging ~

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

I've found it very challenging to find the courage to ask for this support due to my white privilege and as a descendent of colonizers.

 

The interplay between Colonization, White Supremacy, Racism, Transphobia, Imperialism and Capitalism constantly influences the lens through which I see our society. After graduating Midland, I've tried to comprehend the meaning of these words. Over the years, I've learned that this is a lifelong pursuit of pushing through and sitting in discomfort to continue to learn about and actively acknowledge the relentless violence, deeply horrifying disrespect & ongoing terror that these words encompass.

 

Seeing these disturbing realities & horrors experienced by marginalized & oppressed people worldwide within the present-day colonized world has me seriously conflicted about asking for support. Countless people struggling in this world deserve the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical resources they need to live meaningful and secure lives. Simultaneously, securing stable housing for myself and acknowledging that monetary & material support is critical for me to, in turn, engage my energy, resources and attention meaningfully towards supporting others to have their needs met as well.

 

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For those of you who would like to know even more about my last few years, you are welcome to read the more detailed story below ~~~~~

 

~ In the fall of 2018, I landed a job (that included housing!!!) at an International Youth Hostel at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse on the Occupied Indigenous territories of coastal CA, North of Santa Cruz & South of San Francisco. I felt very hopeful I'd finally found stable & affordable housing. Enter Covid-19 in March of 2020/Global Pandemic & shelter in place, leading to the furloughing &eventual dissolution of this job & million-dollar-view housing scenario.

 

 

 

 

As I anticipated the loss of housing at the Lighthouse, I hatched a backup plan to buy a Yurt and put it on an incredible piece of land high above the coast in the Redwood forest. This land supported a 40-year-old food/fruit forest thanks to the caring relationship & deep watering practices of the land cultivator, Randy Bennett. Tragically a 100yr lightning storm occurred, sparking many small fires that promptly grew & morphed into the CZU Lightning Complex fire; For more info on that fire, this is the Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CZU_Lightning_Complex_fires

The fire decimated this gorgeous fruit forest, the home of Randy & two of my dear friends & the location of my to-be yurt home. (Considering this was smack in the middle of my 'Saturn Returns' [for the astrologically minded out there], It seemed more fitting that all of my hopes & attempted plans to secure stable & affordable housing in the bay area went up in flames).

Here is the go-fund-me that happened for Randy's wildfire recovery: https://www.gofundme.com/f/randy-bennett-wildfire-recovery

 

In December of 2020 I vacated my seaside room at the Lighthouse. After six months of rustic living in the Santa Cruz Mountains/living out of my car, an old Midland friend invited me to live on their land in Occupied Indigenous territories [known to many as Washington state].

 

However, this January, my sleep became disrupted in my home due to mold issues. This inability to sleep caused severe distress, leading me to re-visit my yurt dream & my desire for a wood-burning stove, where I am in direct control of drying out my living space with wood heat & preventing mold.

 

At the end of each day, I continue to hope that each and every one of you finds ways to experience the fullness of your feelings. From the depths of grief to the joys, pleasures and peace of connection and belonging in a world designed to keep us divided & in states of distress and survival ~ I would love to hear from you & reconnect if you feel so inclined~

 

I offer yew my sincerest gratitude & ever-expansive love~