MAP Forum Introduction

My name is Marianne West and I currently live in San Diego, California.

The first 23 years of my life, I spent in Germany, mostly in Coburg in the house my great-grandfather bought and my mother lived in her whole life. Here is the Wikipedia entry of Coburg with lots of great pictures.

I have many interests and have a tendency to get deeply involved in something, then back off for a while and if it was meant to be for me, I will come back to it from time to time.
Right now, most of my time is spent on my podcast, the Sustainable Living Podcast and my urban homestead which includes chickens, dogs and tons of trees and plants.

All my children live within minutes from me and 3 little dudes are frequently at our house.

I am a yoga teacher but am not teaching a lot right now. Two friends and I are managing a community type garden and public food forest space we are slowly turning into a Sustainability Center.
Throughout my life, I have filled many roles. I home birthed all my children which let to activism in the birthing choice movement as well as years of being a La Leche League Leader. We homeschooled and I was the Vice-principal of a private school we founded to enable homeschoolers to stay legal.
Later, I owned and run an international grocery store for 12 years. During that time, I had colon cancer and am still around after 15 years.
I am a registered Yoga teacher and have all kinds of certificates including Kids, Laughter and Hormone Yoga. I also studied Permaculture and have two PDC certificates - one from Geoff Lawton.

To celebrate my victory over cancer, I hiked Mt. Whitney and wrote my bicycle from San Diego to Eugene, Oregon and back before I had kids. Other skills/hobbies I can claim as mine: Studied Hotel and Restaurant management, went to massage school, took many writing and general interest classes at a community college, did all kinds of fiber art since early childhood such as knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, sewing and more. Have all kinds of homesteading skills such as canning, preserving and growing food.
Reading has always been a big love of mine and I can't imagine a life without books. Actually, I am always a bit suspicious when I am in a house without books. It just doesn't feel right.
My husband is also on Steemit, but he is not very active.