Raw Vegan Community

Heidi everybody!

I got back from the Turtmannhütte and had a great time. The night before we left I twisted my ancle real bad, so I couldn't stand on it. After some treatement with arnica and light life tools, I decided to take the risk and do the climb.

We had some help carrying the bags from the dog. What else do you have a greater swiss mountain dog for (aka swissy).

(me at the left before the gletcher)

As I said before, I took a lot of dried fruits, some bananas and nuts. Turns out it was more then plenty. The dinner in the mountain cabine was "schweinewurst" (porc), so while the dog was very happy, I was happy too because they made a big bowl of salad especially for me. I must admit, the old people at the table looked very strange and whispered/laughed how I was watching my figure... but I didn't care since it gave me the energy to fly over the mountain :-) Well, not exactly...

My dog (Angel, pronounced Angèle), did a great job. She was really considerate and lead the way the entire time. Once in the cabine, she welcomed all the climbers as they arrived (hence she was able to get the meat). Since dogs are normally not allowed, we got a special sleeping place in the kitchen. Here we slept with two people and the dog (52 kg btw) at our feet:

The next day, my (not raw) cousin and his pregnant friend got stumachflu and were really sick:

Luckily our Angel made sure she was feeling better.

Here is me again at the top:

See you!

Hi everybody,

This is the first post in my blog. I admit, I took me a while to find the time to write but here I am. A lot of stuff is going on at this time. But before I go into details, let me tell you something more about myself, so that you can follow the story.

I am of Belgian nationality, but two years ago (two days and two years actually) I move to the Swiss Alps. One main reason: to be in touch with nature and to find a quit place to live. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't retiring, just wanted a more natural place to live, I couldn't live in Gent/Antwerp anymore, I got bad asthma (which is now gone :-)) and wanted to be in the green...

So, the day after I got my uni degree (Msc commercial engineer IT if you where wondering), I rejected 3 doctoral positions and moved to a chalet to be unemployed. Can you imagine how my family freaked out... It was great to get back in touch with mother earth. And Wallis (the valley where we live) has an amazing micro climat, so we have clear blue sky in summer and meters of snow in winter under the same sky. I worked in a bar for a while trying to figure out what I wanted and then an English university Les Roches (hotel school in crans-montana) offered me a teaching position, so I took it. Meanwhile I started up a business together with my partner (who is an osteopath), and I am starting to do some web developement.

Now let's get to the vegan part. Being a vegetarian for over 9 years, I didn't feel I was eating right anymore. It might have something to do with the local food. Swiss people reaaaally don't know how to cook (no offense)! And you can hardly find anything you want in the supermarket. This slowly let to us almost not eating anymore, not knowing what to eat, the food not tasting good... we tried a glutenfree diet, but we ended up eating only risewaffles (and I tell you I will never eat one again...).

One day I was surfing the net, and I don't know how or why I got the info, but I started reading about the raw food diet. I came home that day, bought a blender and didn't use the stove since then! That was about 3 months ago. I swear, I have never eaten this much fruit in my entire life! The energy blast at first was incredible, I felt so light...

The last month however, I have been really suffering with cravings for potato chips. Especially in the evenings, before dinner, I get really hungry and don't feel like uncooking something. It helps I eat some nuts. But I believe it is just that I don't want to be confronted with myself, some emotional problem that is about to be resolved. Let's stay strong and see how it goes, I'll let you know!!

Meanwhile, I am also very busy, as we are building a loghome here. It is a completely natural house, build with 200 year old wood that has been struck by full moon (so it does not need to be treated chemically). This has something to do with the amount of water that is in the wood then. We have a great location and we plan to start a raw vegan bed and breakfast in spring 08. I will keep you posted in this blog or when the website gets onine.

This is my partner and my dog at the location of the BnB.

And here is our house standing at the construction site:

Today, they transported the wood and brought is to Loye (where we will build), next week they will put it back up. Very exiting!!

It might be a while before I report back, as I have a lot to do with the house and all... Also, we will be making a mountain tour with the dog around the turtmanhütte (2500m and who knows how high we will get :-)). Kinda exiting, the first time we go away and be it 3 days in the mountains... We are drying lots of abricots, bananas and tomatos right now. I really hope this will give us the strenght to follow the dog (who is carrying her own food btw)! I will get back to you soon!

Live raw and prosper!