Welcome
I hope you find this site interesting! It's my own personal place in the ethernet and I will share a little about myself here.
I grew up in Tillamook, Oregon and have spent most of my life in the Pacific Northwest. I did 4 years in the Air Force and was stationed in Delaware, but I have been here the rest of the time. I love the seasons and the temperate climate - it rains (a lot) in the winter and the summers are generally dry and warm. Snowfall is minimal here in Portland but the mountians are close by, providing us with abundant opportunities to play in the snow or hike in the summer.
My "day job" is running the biosolids department at a local wastewater treatment plant. The biosolids are highly processed and do not have the unpleasant characteristics that you may expect. We transport them to farm fields here in the Willamette Valley and also to fields in Central Oregon. We apply them to pastures, hayfields, and wheat fields at rates which are calculated to meet and not exceed the needs of the crop. Biosolids are highly regulated by both the state and federal governments, and a significant responsibility in my job is to ensure that we meet those requirements. My employer is very environmentally conscious and often our guidelines are even more restrictive than the laws that we operate within. The bottom line is that we beneficially reuse about 12000 tons of material annually that otherwise would end up in a landfill or incinerator.
This life has been an amazing journey involving a few more twists and turns than I ever thought possible. I have seen most of the United States, some of Canada, been to Europe 52 times (thank you Uncle Sam), sweated in the Middle East, and have visited the far east including Japan and Thailand. I have been a flight instructor in airplanes and balloons, a farmer, a truck driver, a commercial pesticide applicator, and a parent to 3 lovely daughters. At this point I have learned that none of these things define who I really am; that they are all constructs of the ego built to distract me from seeing the truth, which is that I am a child of God, and that like God I am only perfect unending love. Nothing else exists.
Please feel free to take a look around this website. I will occasionally update information or add pictures - who knows, your picture might already be here!
Namaste,
Colleen