Rand Hunt 27, Male Olympia, Washington United States Friends since January 2008 "School, community, family" Friendship Type: Best Friend I vouched for windingway 30+30+15
Ed Welter 21, Male Olympia, Washington United States Friends since February 2011 "This woman is a deeply connected soul sister. We have a magical way of crossing paths and sharing plants, songs, and stories." Friendship Type: Close Friend
Billie Burlock 22, Female Olympia, Washington United States Friends since January 2008 "I woke up in the Treehouse to Laura's shining face fresh from Europe." Friendship Type: Good Friend I vouched for windingway
Natalie Pyrooz 31, Female San Vicente, Manabi Ecuador Friends since July 2008 "Potlucks and botany geek-out sessions" Friendship Type: Good Friend
Aureliano Garozzo 32, Male Catania, Sicily Italy Friends since October 2008 "i met her in dublin for a lovely discussion in front a cup of tea :-)" Friendship Type: Good Friend
Alex Patia 23, Male Olympia, Washington United States Friends since January 2008 "We met while Laura was couchsurfing upstairs from where I live." Friendship Type: Good Friend
Ariel Birks 25, Female Olympia, Washington United States Friends since January 2009 "Singing in harmony at the Brotherhood!" Friendship Type: Acquaintance
Daniel Carr 29, Male Ashland, Oregon United States Friends since May 2007 "met at potlock" Friendship Type: Acquaintance
Nicole Cipri 26, Chicago, Illinois United States Friends since January 2007 "We used to work together. Now we run into each other on the bus all the time, and go to the same potlucks." Friendship Type: Friend I vouched for windingway
Kyle Merrit Ludowitz 22, Male Olympia, Washington United States Friends since March 2008 "Stayed at my flat for a little while" Friendship Type: Friend
I dance between the worlds of old and new, urban and wilderness, simple and sublime. The most powerful and precious possessions I own are knowledge and skilss.
I have been traveling around visiting communities in Cascadia. I have spent the last 10 years living in Washington, lately studying permaculture, forest gardening, and agroforestry. I am living off the grid, homesteading, wildcrafting, and gardening, and am now searching for a new home. I am researching and developing educational materials about the use of perennial vegetables, or edible plants that yield food for more than one season. Many of these plants are little known and studied. I am studying them, and have grown many of them. Imagine an herb garden that instead of just rosemary, oregano, basil, and etc, had medicinal herbs, and perennial vegetables like rhubarb, asparagus, perennial spinach, perennial kale, ancient letuces, potato like tubers that grow on vines, and thick carroty roots that produce many long fingerlings from a single plant every year. It would look and act much like many of the herb and flower gardens you see, and could include flowering edibles like Mallow, Pansy, Violet, Evening Primrose, Campanula, Lily, Onion, and many more... This dream is so ready to happen that I am moving to the Oregon Coast to grow in the lush rain forest near the Ocean. I want to experiment with finding more hardy varieties, and encouraging hardiness for eventual inland importation of these plants, while many of them are hardy up into Alaska.
I recently studied the astronomical alignments of megalithic remains in Ireland, and am always seeking new ways to learn about our world. Can you tell what time it is by where the moon is at in the sky? Ill give you a hint, its easier to do near the 4 quarters.
I am passionate about natural history, especially all things to do with plants, such as eating them, making medicine, gardening, and ecological restoration projects.
How I Participate in CS
I tell many people about the site and encourage them to empower themselves to travel in this way, and develop their profiles. I have also hosted when I can. I actually live so far off the grid up a gravel road that I cannot host really right now.
CouchSurfing Experience
These last few months I have hosted a few times, and being a host for people has enriched my life.
I have lived for several years in a community that is very couchsurfing friendly, and have hosted people or been hosted on numerous occasions before I joined the site.
I liked being a part of the communities that I visited by seeing what was needed that I could provide.
I am comfortable with people in my home. I have a good intuition for good people, so I have generally had mutually beneficial surfing/hosting experiences.
I believe that every single person and experience on this planet has something that I can learn from. That reality lies somewhere between the subjective and objective. That the karmic wheel is neat, and that we should transcend by healing the planet, not being higher, better, or beyond our sweet mama.
Music, Movies, Books
Movies: Ink, Waking Life, Bruce Lee, Akiro Kurosawa, corny kung fu movies, Princess Monoanoke, Fight Club, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, The Last Dragon, Crash, Children of Men, Matrix, Seven Samurai, The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Avatar.
Music: Anything I can dance, meditate or live to. I have especially developed a taste for eclectic folk, world, and fusion music. Reggae, dub (when in a agro mood), folk punk, singer-songwriter, nw indie (don't know shit, just like some of it), trippy hippy stuff, classic rock, bird song, silence...
Books: The Fifth Sacred Thing, The Secret Wisdom of Plants, One Straw Revolution, Ecotopia, The Alchemist, Siddartha, Earth Abides, The Earth's Blanket, Wisdom Sits in Places, Spell of the Sensuous, The Secret, Secret Life of Plants, The Celestine Prophesy, Emerson, Godbody, Jonathan Livingston Seagul, Daughters of Copper Woman, Thoreau, Walt Whitman, John Muir.
Types of People I enjoy
Down-to-earth, creative, spontaneous people who are full of love. People who are passionate about their lives and what is important to them. People who can laugh at themselves. I especially get on with nature geeks, and people who like wool...
Teach, Learn, Share
In my home there is alot of beautiful natural forest, very close to the wilderness. I am an ammateur herbalist and natural history enthusiast. I have led a environmental education group for several years, and would love to show you around the verdant and awe-inspiring rainforest around where I live.
One Amazing Thing I've Seen or Done
Hiked the "North loop" trail of the slopes of Mt. Rainier in less than 48hrs. Its 42 miles long, with at least 32,000 elevation gain and loss over that stretch=swollen feet. You can do anything you set out to do! Especially when you surround yourself with encouraging friends!
Opinion on the CouchSurfing.org Project
I am so thankful for this site. Before I started travelling abroad, I traveled locally extensively, but felt intimidated with foreign travel. Now I feel free to roam the planet wherever I choose, and feel empowered to share these experiences with others.
This summary is not a replacement for reading references; it's a quick summary to help you get started. At a glance, you can see how many references a member has, and how many of them are positive, neutral, and negative.
In the second line, you'll see how many references came from people who hosted this member, surfed with them, and traveled with them. These numbers won't always add up to the total: some references are not categorized, and some may be categorized as more than one thing.
When viewing this summary, don't jump to conclusions! Things that are negative for one person may be positive for another, and vice versa. It's important to read references carefully and evaluate what that information means to you.
From Adam Haigler Portland, United States May 12, 2011
Positive
Laura is quite an interesting friend of mine with lots of great experience and knowledge to share about nature, wildcrafting, and agriculture. We have been on many walks in the forest and I always learned many new things when I went with her. She has a contagious passion and excitement for life and would likely make for a great host or surfer.
Laura is a fun willowy wispy witchy folk. She will pick you loads of herbs and works on farms! I think if you meet Laura you should go out to the woods with her. She also has lots of fun stories :)
From Rand Hunt Olympia, United States Aug 11, 2009
Positive
Laura is family to me. She knows me better than most anyone, and I feel honored to know her just as well. She is very genuine, very forward, and lovely all around. Laura is a textbook definition of a Good Cascadian. She knows how to operate the forest better than than a computer (and she can do that too!) Laura knows more about the native plants of my bioreigon than any botany professor Ive ever had. She is an incredible herbalist. my friendship with laura has really improved my life in ways that this little blurb can say. You would be lucky to get to know this amazing woman.
From Christy Dixon Portland, United States Jun 19, 2009
Positive
Laura came over during a little housewarming party we were having. She sat around the fire with us talking, drinking, singing, etc... she identified a motherwort plant for us that we have in our garden. I'm glad she came to our house!
Laura...lovely person, shining soul and great heart. one of the best meeting during my 2 years in Dublin. I can't forget our journey in the ring of kerry!!! :-) i hope to visit u in USA one day and enjoy again...do u remeber our sicilian song?!! :-)))
Laura is great! She is a smart cookie, who has many wonderful stories to tell. She'll inform you on how to make various kinds of tinctures to improve your health...I look forward to hanging with her again sometime.
From Nicole Cipri Chicago, United States Dec 29, 2008
Positive
Laura is a smart lady, who I'm fully confident will soon change the world with her wily fiery red-haired ways. In the meantime, she's a lot of fun to share some tea or organic beer with.
Laura was a very thoughtful and helpful hostess. I appreciate her straightforward personality and had a comfortable experience in her home. I hope to see her again!
Had a wonderfull time at a Candlelit Solstice Potluck celebration at Laura's home with her roommates and other friends. Also surfed their couch, Wonderfull people!
I actually replied to her first in January and then now again. Many people used to doing so for what I have heard. By the way I thought it was ok since I am getting into a moment when I can be more active again and I think it is well known that 'increasing' the % of replies help all of us to understand more about your potential host/guest in that moment. I may be wrong and probably I am, but I am sorry to have bothered her since it was not my intention. Life is such that you just can't always do what everybody likes...No negative reference for her since I never met her of course! Ciao ciao!
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