Damer.com: Ancient Oaks Farm Events, Images and Project (1998 to present)

Recent Views & Events - 2008

View Allan Lundell's wonderful video "8.08.08 Celebrational Ritual at the Loveland Godfarm"
(hosted at Google video)

The building of Ancient Oaks Retreat (All 2008)

Peacocks invade Ancient Oaks Farm! (Winter 2008)

Past Event Archive (since 1998)

2007 Views & Events

The Summer Harvest 2007 at Ancient Oaks Farm (Summer 2007)

Walkways, garden beds, and retaining walls projects (Summer-Fall 2007)

2006 Views & Events

Felling four giant oaks (March-May 2006)	Ben's tree view of Ancient Oaks Farm (March 2006)

2005 Views & Events

Garden project 2005

Flowering trees at Ancient Oaks, Late Winter 2005

2004 Views & Events

Year 2004 Photo Collage and New Years 2005 greetings (with visitors to Ancient Oaks)

Arrival of the NoFurthur art bus studio (November 2004)!

Turkeys at Ancient Oaks (Fall 2004)

Views of Ancient Oaks Farm (July, 2004)

CatCam and PigCam @ Ancient Oaks Farm (December, 2004)

Great shots of the pigs (Winter 2004)

Huge Burn! (Winter 2004)

2003 Views & Events

December 2003 , read the third report to the Kriz family on events and progress made from 2002 through 2003. Plenty of pictures here!

Galen and Bruce's Ancient Oaks wedding celebration (#5) (Nov 22, 2003)

Big Fencing Project (July-August 2003)

Big Family Gathering at Ancient Oaks (July 2003)

Ancient Oaks Signage! (July 2003)

Road Culvert Completed! (June 2003)

April 2003 Spring Views

Ancient Oak's spring bumper orange crop!

Ancient Oaks Garden Project moves into high gear! (May-June 2003)

Donna Kriz's masterpiece, the Ancient Oaks hot tub (March 2003)

Rachel's Charm at Ancient Oaks (March 2003)

2002 Views & Events

Hardwood floors

Burns to prepare for new gardens

Deck stripping and sealing

Ancient Oaks Fall 2002 Views

Pigging out on organic greens at Ancient Oaks (Sept 2002)

DigiBarn Computer Museum Opens! (July 13, 2002)

Brandts and Wallaces visit 2002, Aptos and Boulder Creek CA (July 2002)

Ancient Oaks Way gets its own official street sign! (July 2002)

Building a fence @ Ancient Oaks, Boulder Creek CA (June 2002)

Spring views of Ancient Oaks (April 2002)

2001 Views & Events

The (arrival of the) pigs of Ancient Oaks! (November 2001 to present)

DigiBarn Computer Musuem Initiated!

May 12, 2001, read the second report to the Kriz family on events and progress made from December, 1999 to May 2001. Plenty of pictures here!

A first! snow at Ancient Oaks! (February 2001)

January 2001, return visit of John Turner

January 2001, visit of Howard Rheingold

February, 2001: 40th birthday of Marian Sun MacNamee

2000 Views & Events

Life on the farm at Ancient Oaks (2000)

October 21, 2000, fabulous wedding of Lee Gilmore and Ron Meiners held at Ancient Oaks Farm

See the original Ancient Oaks Community Road Drainage Proposal developed in 2000

1999 Views & Events

Images of Ancient Oaks and first views in May 1998

January 16, 1999 saw us hosting the 57th birthday of James Essex, keeper of the Garden

January 30-31, 1999 was the 37th birthday of Bruce Damer

February 1999 the BBC Radio 3 was here interviewing Bruce and other Contact Consortium folks on the Sherwood Town project.

April 3, 1999 was the second annual Avatar Fools Day Party

My parents, Enid and Warren Damer visited over Easter Weekend

Galen Arrives! (June 1999)

See images of the fabulous wedding of Marni Jaime and Eric Geis, held at Ancient Oaks Farm on June 19th

July 17: was the Contact Consortium annual meeting followed by a community Bar B Que and party

In August, watch for the August Moon party and the Annual Santa Cruz Mountains Poets BBQ and performance. We had a bash at 1998's Poetry at the Redwood Garden.

October 30th was Avatars99, with the Garden hosting a key node. See our pictures of Avatars98 at the Garden.

December 1999, read the first report to the Kriz family on events and progress made from August 1998 to December 1999. Plenty of pictures here!

1998 and before...
A year of new beginnings, with the realization of a dream..
a garden, a community and a powerful creative space
for the opening of cyberspace in the coming century

Timeline to Ancient Oaks Farm..

October 1994: move into the rented "cabin at Nellie Lane" on Bear Creek near Boulder Creek CA after a long journey of searching all over North America for my "ideal" place to set up shop.

April 1998: after a tough, cold, sunless and rainy El Nino season, I visualize and then decide to look for a new home. For 4 1/2 years I have been living pretty much alone (with Alex the cat) at 14205 Frost Blvd, Boulder Creek, on beautiful but chilly Bear Creek.

April 1998: Allan Lundell and I (Bruce Damer) decide to drive around looking at places for sale, drive up Ancient Oaks way first and notice the red barn and house, not sure if that is the place with the sign for sale on Bear Creek Road.

Late April 1998: Jan Lafever, my landlady and realtor representing the property calls to see if I want to see "Joes place". I decline until after returning from a trip to Microsoft and to see Galen in Vancouver BC.

May 1, 1998: I do go to see Joseph and Donna Kriz's place, fell in love with it and start moving toward making an offer.

May 5, 1998: visit Joe and Donna, let them know I will be putting an offer in. Offer written up in the next few days.

May 12-14, 1998: offer submitted, Joe sees another couple interested in the place, declines their offer, subseqently negotiates and accepts mine, escrow set to close August 7th giving them enough time to move.

May 25, 1998: combined set of photos from me and Jan put up on the first website picturing the property, designed to let me show it to friends and family.

June-July, 1998: nervous Bruce goes through all inspections, arrangement of the load and insurance, title search, and on and on. All goes smoothly. Downpayment is hurriedy assembled before I leave for Banff. I am calling from Luke's boat in the San Juan Islands to see if anything went wrong, nothing did and..

On the early afternoon of August 7, 1998:
the passing of the property from Joe and Donna Kriz to Bruce Damer
Later John Turner and Allan Lundell (above) came by for a special walkthrough.
That night and the following morning, Dominic helps prepare for the hastily arranged christening ceremony.

8/8/98 was the Blessing and Christening on 8/8/98

Web site and images of Ancient Oaks (beginning August 1998)

August 16, 1998 was the first BBQ and community gathering

August 30, 1998 was our first big event on August 30:
Poetry at the Redwood Garden 1998

The Official Ancient arm Oaks Housewarming
was held on November 14, 1998

Ancient Oaks Farm was a Node of Avatars98, the first conference held
entirely inside cyberspace on November 21, 1998
see our pictures of the event here

Also visit the Avatars98 Conference Review

December 12, 1998: Ancient Oaks hosted a special visit and
demonstration of virtual worlds for Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham

And don't miss...

See all photos of Bruce @ Galen's life/travels here and the reports to the Kriz family on projects and events here at Ancient Oaks

See our pages on the History of Ancient Oaks for the past 100 years or so