So many of you know I have been growing my dreadlocks 25 almost 26 years so know the history of my dreadlocks but not of my name.

Right about the time I tarted growing my dreads, less then a year before I broke my back, suffering a spinal chord injury, just a mile or 2 from where I grew up, and from a little 'old timey' grass airfield with gliders and biplanes.

The sound of gliders releasing from tow, and seeing WWII era biplanes doing aerobatics over my backyard, was the backdrop of my youth. I think I took my 1st glider ride at maybe 6 or 7 maybe younger.

25 years ago after breaking my back and being paralyzed, just weeks after getting out of the hospital and facing this new reality, only to find out that this little airport, I rode my bike to as a kid, that I even lived right next to for awhile around age 14, was the home to something else that would shape my life.

I discovered Freedoms Wings would help me change my outlook on my new reality.

The most magical things can happen to you, when you climb out of your wheelchair to soar high into the sky, and see eye to eye with hawks and eagles. It was  of those moments, just me on my second solo flight, circling in a thermal  with 4 golden eagles that earned me my name (by way of a Seneca mentor  of mine). 

Unfortunately life happened as it sometimes does, and that solo light with the eagles was the be the last 1 for a number of years, with the exception of 3-4 or so every couple years (each 1 lasting a good 5 hours though). That is, until this year!

Last fall I resumed my flight training, and hope to get at least 1 or 2 lessons in each week in the spring so hopefully by next fall can take any of you up for a ride!

But Freedoms Wings needs support and volunteers.

If you live in the PA NJ DE area we have 2 airports we fly out of, and volunteers often get to fly and some have gone on to become pilots themselves. If you are unable to volunteer, there are other ways to support us .

Volunteers can join the site now, because safety is of utmost importance there is some volunteer training involved (if your volunteering at the airfield that is, we could use fundraisers etc all over the world).

Winter won't last much longer and then it will be time to fly! So who wants to come soar with me?

Soaring is a sport like no other. So what is soaring and what brought me to this amazing sport to begin with?

Soaring simplified:

Soaring is the act of using rising air to extend the duration, and distance of unpowered flight. An unpowered plane also known as a glider, or sailplane, is powered strictly by gravity. in other words, its forward momentum is created by the downward pull of gravity. Efficiency of a glider is expressed in l/d or lift over drag at a certain speed, which translates into glide angle. This is a ratio like 38 to 1 (the ship I fly) up to 68 to 1 or slightly better for the most cutting edge "racing gliders" these numbers translate to  the number of miles  flyable for every mile of altitude.

So, in other words a sailplane or glider is always going down, losing altitude, and from 1 mile up will have to land within 30-68 ish miles. So how can a glider, that would land in 20-40 minutes travel 1550 miles and stay aloft 15 hours (world record)?

As seen in this video, gliders use updrafts called thermals to climb in rising columns of air exactly as eagles do. Circling slowly in a thermal increases altitude (the beeping you hear is the electronic variometer, the faster and higher the pitch the stronger the lift source, and faster you climb. You then can turn altitude into distance, and speed.

Other lift sources exist like ridge lift and wave lift, both caused by wind flowing over the mountains. Ridge lift is used in racing to fly very fast, very long distances, very close to the mountains.

In this case, the closer you fly to the ridge the stronger the lift and faster you can fly.

Wave lift is downwind of a mountain these standing waves can carry a glider higher then any powered plane can ever fly. the perlan 2 project is a "space glider" that will soon take mountain waves to a new altitude record..to the edge of space, without power!

Gliders also offer extreme, unpowered aerobatics like this:

But for me, the greatest challenge is cross country racing:

This is my eventual dream, to compete in glider racing.

How did I get involved in soaring? I grew up just below where the gliders released from tow. All my childhood the sound of tow planes throttling back and diving after release, was the soundtrack to my childhood. At a young age, maybe 8 I took my 1st ride. At 14 about I left home and lived right next door to the airport I now fly out of.

But, it wasn't until I was in my early 20s, and broke my back, ending up in a wheelchair for life, that I discovered that very gliderport that was such a part of my life already, was also home to www.freedomswings.org  a non profit that teaches people with disabilities to fly gliders

 With both disabled students, and instructors, this was something that really opened my mind to the possibilities that lied ahead of me. After listening to long lists from doctors of things I would never do again, here was a group saying you can do more then you ever dreamed of doing.

It was just 2 weeks after getting out of the hospital that I took my 1st flight, and began lessons the very next day.

Due to lack of transportation, after my 1st 2 solo flights I was no longer able to fly, for nearly 20 years.

2 weeks ago I resumed my lessons! And finally I'm back in the sky where I belong.

This video is very informative into all aspects of soaring.

 While hurricane Patricia was making landfall in Mexico, supporters of Donald Trump showed their true colors and reasons for supporting Trump who often makes racist and sexist comments.

YouTube had several live feeds of the hurricane Patricia making landfall with people dying on live cam. There was a live chat that was clearly divided along political lines. Although there were people from every nation, including many from Mexico scared for their lives, trump supporters took it upon themselves to drown everybody out with some of the most horrific remarks I have ever seen.

These are just a few of the remarks that I can remember, but there were thousands and they were flying by very fast.

"Donald Trump's fulfilling his promise to wipe out all Mexicans"
"thank God for Donald Trump. I hope there's less than 1000 of those dirty wet backs left when this is all over."
"I can't wait to see some dirty wet backs flying through the air."
"I'm glad Donald Trump's getting his way and will soon be rid of all of those Mexicans and when that's done we can start wiping out the N-word's too. Starting with that N-word. Obama"

There were heartfelt concerns and prayers going out from all over the world to the poor people in Mexico were already struggling and are now facing the largest storm ever. But for every person that tried to express concern, they were drowned out by dozens of trump supporters shouting racist hate, and making it clear that they wanted nothing less than total genocide.

It was the most horrific thing I had seen. I posted about it on Facebook and everybody who replied had seen the same thing from supporters taking over every chat about the tragedy in Mexico and turning it into a racist genocidal hate-fest. All fueled by Donald Trump's blatant hatred of Mexicans.

How can anybody support a candidate's whose supporters are happy to see people die?

One by one each of the lied feeds had to be taken down because of the racism. The trump supporters got their way. Nobody was able to give their heartfelt condolences to those who were suffering and in harm's way.

This year's race, it is clear that one party is taking the high road and talking about the issues and the other party is simply trying to be a bully.

In about a week my dreadlocks will be 25 years old, they started growing naturally at the Vermont rainbow gathering.

 What my dreads have taught me.

Growing dreads naturally has taught me a lot of patience. It has taught me to just let things happen instead of trying to force them. It is taught me that those who will hate you just the way you look don't matter. His taught me that people's worth is deeper than just appearance as taught me that many people are very superficial and vain.

The history of my dreadlocks.

My dreadlocks began at the rainbow gathering in Vermont when I traded for some beads and stuck them in my hair, I also added a few hair wraps. This began the dread within a week, maybe week and a half.

The rest of my hair was shorter so took a little longer to dread. It may have been a couple months before the rest of started to dread.

I've never done anything to my hair except for wash it and separate the dreads that were forming too thick or combining. After 18 years, however, I stop separating completely for 4 or 5 years. Only in the last year or 2 and I began to separate occasionally only those that are already pretty thick. Because of this many dreads have formed Congo's, with as many as 6 dreads combining into one thick one. I did not however let them get very thick.

I have never palm rolled, crocheted, used wax or any dreadlocks products other than shampoo, never back combed did any root maintenance or anything else.

Since about 18 years and they started to drag on the ground. My dreadlocks are now about 8 feet long.

My dreadlocks are unique and unlike anybody else's. Growing dreadlocks naturally means they form organically. This makes every dread unique from every other dread. This makes no to dreads alike.

My dreadlocks began at the Vermont rainbow gathering which is a spiritual gathering deep in the wilderness. During that week had spent much time in a silent meditation tepee surrounded by 300 oh to 1000 pound crystals. Growing dreadlocks in this type of environment is a very spiritual experience.

I'm including a couple of older pictures, and will update with new pictures, probably around the Fourth of July weekend which is approximately when my dreads began to form 25 years ago.

This is my dreadlocks at the Wyoming gathering when they were 18 years old.

This is my dreads about last year at 24 years old.

Ok here are my dreadlocks now at 25 years, the longest is i guess about 10 feet

Members from Russia and Ukraine lets talk about this war threat. War isn't personal, its political, so lets discuss this on a personal level, from your perspective.

I don't want to talk about world opinions, but your thoughts, fears, and insights.

this winters sicked

last week we had an ice storm that caused us to npt have power for 4 or 5 days ..no heat except 1 lil propane heater for a big house

2 days after getting power back the heater system died wich wasnt as bad as no power cause we had 3 or 4 electric heaters so can heat more then 1 lil room.. except they keep blowing the circuite breaker

but now

starting now were getting 10-14 more inches of snow (ontop of the 4 that hasnt melted yet) and...lots more ice

last week 450,000 in this area lost power

thus storms already knocked out power to that many down south and will be many times stronger when it hits us (wich is now)

so i totaly expect to be without power..and heat for a week

i made naturaldreads01 a temp admin so let him know if u see any issues

im gonna curl up under 5 or 6 blankets in case the power goes out b4 morn

send me warm vibes

warning

this contains real images of the devastating effects of a new drug hitting the streets

krokodil

its being called a cheap but powerful heroin like drug..with devastating effects.

theres only been a few reported cases in U.S.A. so far but Europe is seeing a increase in it's availability on the streets despite the horrendous effects.

it is also now showing up in pills as well.

unsuspecting addicts are taking this powerful and dangerous drug without knowing it.

often the 1st signs of trouble don't appear untill its already been used a few times.

so whats so dangerous? isn't heroin bad enough how much worse can this be?

the high is more powerful then heroin supposedly, but thats not what causes the danger.

the danger is that it has a flesh eatting property that causes rapid deterioration of skin and muscle tissue.

i would recommend reading no further unless you can handle extremely gruesome images

these images are real..and really shocking..

i am posting this as awake up call to anyone who messes with powders..or even pills

your high is not worth it.. you will never know if this was added to what you have taken.

this could happen to you

im sorry for this

i know its horrifying im feeling sick posting it but if it helps shock people into awareness and get them clean before it affects them its worth it

many of t6hese images are out of russia where the drug began

but it has spread quickly despite strong efforts to keep it contained.

marijuana users believe in legalization of marijuana, a few may also believe all drugs should be legal. but if drug manufacturers are willing to do this to thousands of people just to increase profit margins, isn't some drug enforcement necessary?

krokodil is desomorphine

because it is easily synthesized from commonly available ingredients addicts have learned to make it themselves at home.

the high is short lived compared to heroin with withdraw symptoms starting almost immediately.

because of how quickly and easily it can be manufactured, and the short term high and quick withdraw users would make a batch and use it right away without further purification resulting in devastating gangrene often requiring amputation.

Of the few reported cases in U.S.A. several reported learning how to make it themselves online, but most thought they had bought legitimate heroin.

i have so many recordinfgs from rainbow gatherings im always finding ones i never heard besfore

just now came across this gem

fun with dyslexia

the three pittle ligs

enjoy