
> Planet-Based Transformation.
Who is that at the Living With Harmony booth? It has been a transformative year for Andrea Rose, one of our co-founders. For starters, we lost our car in February, due to an accident while it was parked. That’s when the magic began! What seemed like an unfortunate incident was actually part of the potion for ultimate success for her.

Although she has always been active with the chores involved with running a non-profit and animal sanctuary, such as tabling and hauling equipment, gardening, animal care and moving buckets of reclaimed water and compost. The secret was losing the car.
When our car was hit while parked in February 2024, Andrea started biking daily and walking to public transportation. In a few months, she was able to achieve a goal of being in the same shape and the same size as she was in her early 30’s! The extra passive exercise on the bike was what she needed to cross this threshold.
Andrea, who just turned 53 and has been plant-based for 35 years, started on a more focused fitness journey in February 2023. She started to apply some of the exercise and nutritional recommendations from our co-founder JP. One trick he recommends is to include a fruit and vegetable day once per week to help clean up the diet and palate and to give the digestion system a rest.
So over the next year, losing the car and applying these fitness focused changes helped trigger a mind, body and spirit transformation. Feeling stronger and performing better than she had in the past 10 years or more, seemed to turn back time. How cool is that?
She bikes most days, even in the wind and rain, but in the dark, or on snowy or inclement days, she takes the bus and walks with an umbrella or extra layers. A traditional bicycle helps with fitness by using leg pedal power instead of electricity, but it really helps to have an electric bicycle/e-bike to use on those days when there are more miles to cover, if it’s windy, or when you need to get somewhere fast.
The LWH team loves their e-bike from Optibike, the oldest e-bike company in America that also happens to be in Colorado! Many of their bikes are custom made onsite, so some of their models are made in the USA. Check out some of their discounted bikes that have been pre-owned and refurbished. E-bikes are often available gently used at bike shops when they are retired as rentals, or online through Craigslist and other similar resources.

We run our non-profit operations without a car through our membership with Colorado Car Share – a local non-profit car share program. Each of their cars replaces 9 to 13 personal vehicles on the road! We rent one of their cars whenever we have events or have other organization needs, such as veterinary appointments.
You can rent a car for as long as you need from 15 minutes to several days or more! Why have a car sitting in your driveway not being used when other people can be using it?
Use the code HARMONY to waive the $25.00 membership fee. We are fortunate that many of their pickup locations in the Boulder and Denver metro are easily accessible by bike or bus. It feels amazing to put in a little more effort to be a superhero for the planet!
JP is available to help you achieve a life that you never thought was possible. He is happy to work with you no matter where you are at. Check out his website to find out more and to contact him.
> Enhanced logo and mission

Living With Harmony coined the term PLANET-Based Living. A PLANET-BASED LIFE is a life that is full of joy and abundance while using less. Using fewer resources preserves more life and allows happiness for generations to come. Because the words PLANET-Based Living affirms our mission so well, we decided we needed a second logo to capture that ethos for our educational and outreach.
We have enhanced our current Living With Harmony logo to celebrate Earth’s flora and fauna that we are fighting to protect. Grab a cup of tea (in a reusable mug) and prepare to get motivated and inspired by reading the assortment of articles on our redesigned Living With Harmony website.

> Why haven’t you heard from us in a while
We just wrapped up a very fruitful, energized and fun, but quite consuming tabling season. We participated at 21 farmers’ markets, divided between Boulder County and Louisville and a cornucopia of festivals, including the Colorado Environmental Film Festival, Spring Fest at Luvin Arms, Boulder Pridefest, Ecotoberfest and others. Our final event of the year will be on December 7th at the Vegan Holiday Market at the Avalon in Boulder.
We will keep representing the planet at local events and serve as a resource to help people embark on their Planet-Based Life.
JP has been sharing the PLANET-Based Living and health and wellness message at conferences and retreats around the country. He also hosted his 3rd Pillars of Health Wellness Retreat in Chicago in May.
JP and Andrea completed a three-part Podcast series about Living With Harmony and PLANET-Based Living thanks to a donation from a generous supporter.
Andrea was tickled to be featured in an online magazine, Shout out Colorado. Check out her interview.
To help offset some of our travel and other emissions, we support ClimeCo, a carbon fund organization that uses carbon credits to help offset some of the carbon emissions that we produce through air travel, cars, vacations, plastic and other activities. They use the carbon credits for reforestation and other planet-positive activities to help benefit wildlife and the environment.
A sloth named Syd that lives in the Amazon forest thanks you for taking this and other actions to save his forest home.

> PLANET-Based Challenge : Lots of cool(ing) things you can do

PLANET-Based ECO-Challenge – We encourage people to adopt a new Planet-Based Action when we are tabling at events. It’s fun to pick something out of our PLANET-Based Living Guide when engaging friends, family and the kiddos.
HOLIDAY HINT 🙂 Did you know that one billion pounds of pumpkins may end up in landfills every year? When decomposing they produce tons of methane – eeeek! Your mission if you choose to accept it is to eat them in baked recipes, feed them to sanctuary animals or wildlife, or compost them. Mission Not Impossible!
PLANET-Based Living Guidelines:


> PLANET-Based Coach
Andrea offers creative online coaching sessions to guide you on your PLANET-Based Life and to provide any extra support you may need. It is eco edutainment at its best!
> Community Garden Expansion


This summer, we acquired a second plot, right next to our original plot, at our community garden. This doubles our space and our efforts to grow as much local, veganically grown food as we can and to provide native and perennial plants for pollinators, birds and wildlife. We are mighty grateful to acquire this space after being on the waitlist for a few seasons.
Veganic food is organically grown without the use of blood meal, fish meal, manure, bone meal or other animal products that are used in traditional and organic gardening. We are using deep mulching and other organic materials (soiled newspaper and cardboard that cannot be recycled) that help enhance the soil instead of plastic weed barriers and other wasteful practices.
We use this space to devise new ways to properly care for the land. We also need a home for our homemade compost – made in our compost tumbler or Lomi tabletop composter. This compost and our plots are used to grow lots of yummy and package-free food! Contact us for a one-on-one garden chat!

Now is the perfect time to learn about planet-friendly veganic gardening!
The second annual Veganic Summit is coming from November 8-10th, 2024. This 3-day online event features international experts in veganic farming and gardening.
Join the summit to explore:
+ How farms and gardens can flourish using plant-based techniques, without any livestock or animal inputs
+ How veganic practices lead to healthier soils, greater biodiversity, and a lower environmental impact
+ How veganic is key to society transitioning towards fully plant-based food systems
+ How you can implement veganic techniques in your own garden or farm
It’s free to register for the Veganic Summit to watch all the presentations. Or you can upgrade to an affordable All-Access Pass for Q&As, networking activities, and extra resources.
Find out more and register at veganicsummit.com.
> Welcome to Your New Home

This past year, some of our long-lived and wise rescued friends moved on due to age or chronic illness or disease. Their absence helps create a space for new rescues to come to our sanctuary, so that happiness helps cancel out the sadness that we feel in our hearts over their absence.
There is never a shortage of animals needing refuge and rescue so we are selective about who we can take in. We make sure we can provide the new rescues with the resources and the play time that they need with the limited space that we have.
One of these new rescues is Spot, the turtle. Spot’s caregiver came across some serious health issues and could no longer care for him, so their family contacted Living With Harmony for help.
Spot is quite the adventure seeker and loves to play hide and seek with us when he is out in the yard. He is a western box turtle and is a native species to Colorado, but he cannot be released back to the wild because he had been kept in captivity for at least 35 years.

Box turtles spend their whole lives in the few acres where they were born and do not do well with leaving that area. If found, they should not be relocated or moved from where they were found unless their lives are in danger, or their habitat is destroyed or compromised. In addition to the stress of trying to find their original home that they will never find, or that no longer exists, they also cannot be released back into the wild where they can infect the current wild species with diseases or parasites that they may have picked up while in captivity.
Companion animals can live decades or more, sometimes outliving their caregivers. This is especially true for birds, horses and reptiles. It is essential to have a contingency plan for where the animals can go if their caregivers are no longer able to care for them. Choose rescue organizations that take your applicable species or identify friends or family that you trust so you can provide a smoother transition for your beloved companion animal(s).
Here are some more images of Andrea running Living With Harmony operations with ease and living a Planet-Based Life.

Andrea carrying buckets of reclaimed water from doing dishes. This water is perfect for watering shrubs and trees!

Create a life that you don’t need a vacation from by discovering (or rediscovering) local places, and make new memories by including friends. No plane required!

Andrea packing a tent, tables and display materials for an event. This used to tough, but it’s a breeze these days.
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