rest in peace, cozy kitty

Cozy the kitty fell off the roof last night, and broke his back. It was only a brief time until he passed away. He was three years old. He is missed by all in this house, especially by Kaleigh, because he was, above all, her kitty. He will forever be remembered as the softest cat ever, especially with his thick winter fur. We remember his penchant for curling up in box-like structures and for tuna fish, his amazing mouse-catching abilities, his love of catnip, his desire for fresh food pellets every day, how he loved to snuggle with Kaleigh in the mornings and when she was ill, and how extremely cozy and cuddly he was at all times really. We will plant some catnip in his memory.

busy

Today we were recognized by the Lt. Governor of Illinois as a Sustainable School. If you'd like to see our Funschool at Home in an official list, it's here. We are funschool at home. It is nice to be recognized, and also nice to be called by the staff of a public official with some integrity and interest in issues that I think really matter, and have said staffer say, "We're excited about what you're doing!"

A lot has been going on. We've been incredibly busy. It's never a regret, since being busy usually means we are getting a lot done or having a lot of fun, and the last couple of weeks have been full of both. But it's also nice to take a break from busyness, to spend the day in our jammers, lounging around (still waiting for that, maybe tomorrow?). Here's what we've been up to.

Community gardens have been on our minds. Food not lawns Springfield is pursuing several different ideas regarding community gardens. I attended a meeting today at the Dept. of Agriculture on behalf of fnl. They are planning on turning part of the infield of the racetrack at the grandstand into community gardens (at the State Fairgrounds, north end of Springfield). They will have roughly 500-600 roughly 10' by 12' plots available. Wow! That is an incredible opportunity for the citizens of Springfield. I am hopeful with not only this option, but the other options food not lawns is pursuing. Next week's fnl meeting features our friends Mike and Abby, and will be about their adventures forest gardening.

Next weekend, we are going to do a food not lawns table at the local Meet Your Producers event on the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Last year they had about 400 people. I think I will need to print out a few more brochures...

Knitting has also been on my mind and hands. Kaleigh has learned to knit and started on a scarf. Somehow knitting socks has clicked in my brain. I knitted a pair for Kaleigh in about ten days' time. She's been wearing them nonstop since (got to wash them sometime!). I started knitting some for my step-dad for Christmas now. I love knitting socks!

I finally got the last of the garden squared away. The tomato tally is 32 quarts of red tomatoes canned, and 24 quarts of green tomato pickles. We have a crock of fermenting green tomato dill pickles. The last drying herbs and seeds are packed away for the winter. Whew. I am glad to be done for a while.

Kaleigh has been to play dates galore in the last couple of weeks, including her organized classes which provide social time. We've also started playing racquetball in our downtime between art class and open swim at the Y. Yesterday we went to the children's museum with four other kids & had a screaming time, literally. It was all good, just all good and loud! The pictures at left are Kaleigh next to the Children's museum's tarantula (she got to pet it), and Kaleigh, Payton, & Kallie playing in the post office.

This Saturday, Don is taking Kaleigh to the circus. We scored some free tickets. Also, they will be attending Collector's Day at the Illinois State Museum. It will hopefully not be too blustery!

I think that's all the news that fits.

carey

voting with consciousness

Well, here we are, on the eve of another presidential election. I'm so happy, mostly because the spectacle noise will die down appreciatively after tomorrow, provided that each sides' dirty tricks don't mar the appearance of a "true winner".

Whether you vote or not, no matter who you vote for, I implore anyone who reads this blog to not give away your personal power to make change. Change within, talk with others. Memes spread, lives change. If we can envision what we would like our world to be, we can make it so. It takes each of us, voting every day for things that matter. Yes, it's good to think about the polar ice caps melting & know that our continued outlandish patterns of consumption are making the difference. If we keep on down the same path, we know where we will end up. It ain't pretty, especially for those who come after us, born into toxicity, and dying in it, living lives in steel and concrete cages, never knowing they were alive in the first place.

It's good to take the red pill and be aware of the bad shit, but also good not to dwell in it. Sometimes it seems like a bad dream, but people are waking up. We've got big brains, and we can think. We use our imaginations. We learn and adapt. We're humans. It's our specialty. And now it's time to switch off the part of our brain that occupies itself with flashing screens and imaginary rituals that promote death. If we kill our habitat, surely that means we are killing ourselves. And that's pretty dumb if you stop and think about it.

It's time to switch on the part our brain that lives in another paradigm. We can do better than this win/lose world, can't we, way way better than empire? Win/win sounds much better. In the economy of money, the have nots suffer while the haves kill themselves with indulgence. In the economy of community, we give time and help to each other. The more we spend, the more we receive. Community is an unlimited growth economy. Ask yourself, what matters? Think about this constantly until you find an answer. I have thought of a few things: food and shelter, human relationships, contentment.

We live in a world that is totally constructed by our minds. Is Wal-Mart real? If we didn't believe it was real, would it go away (Phillip K. Dick's reality test)? Yes! Money, government, social class--all these things disappear when we stop believing in them. They are constructs, consensus reality. They do not exist outside of us believing in them. Think of your paper money. Is it real? It's paper, which is not backed by hard currency like gold or silver. It's backed by the economy of the United States. If the economy tanks, the dollar tanks. It's only worth what worth we give it, which isn't much here recently.

If we live in an imaginary world, it's fairly easy to dismiss the importance of the death-wish culture in my life when it no longer felt relevant. I get the feeling this is how paradigms change. It's been 200 plus years since a bunch of rich guys signed a piece of paper declaring that we were all free and equal. We're still dealing with institutionalized racism and classism. If government were going to make a positive change, don't you think we'd be seeing it by now? It's been 50 years since the civil rights era. Sure, on paper, we're equal. But we can look around at our segregated town and prison cells and see with our own eyes it's not.

I don't have much, well, any faith left that my government will do something meaningful. I mean, hell, faceless men are still being tortured in Cuba on my behalf. I think I can make more and positive change in my community by being active every day, by fomenting change, growing and eating the food on my doorstep, talking with people, acknowledging the marginalized (minorities, homeless, soil, trees) as equals in a world of community, being open and honest about what I do. I vote for that, and I vote for it every day.

I hear all about what I'm supposed to do tomorrow, but quite honestly, I think it's what I do the other 1,460 days that make a difference.

carey

keeping the harvest

With freezing temperatures eminent, I spent a couple hours in the garden yesterday, harvesting what I could. That included a pile of dry beans, carrots, fennel, parsley, bee balm, a laundry basket and canner full of tomatoes (!), mostly green, and enough lemon balm to make a big carboy of wine, plus 2 quarts of tea. I cooked up the ripe tomatoes and with what I had cut up previously & added 6 quarts of tomatoes to the pantry. The remainder of the bag of apples Dave & Dorothy (Don's parents) gave us made 4 and a half quarts of delicious apple sauce/butter, and the cores are fermenting into apple cider vinegar. We shelled scarlet runner beans yesterday to save for seed. My friends Patrick and Abby helped me cut green tomatoes, and now 5 gallons are soaking overnight to be made into pickles tomorrow. Green tomato pickles are one of my favorite childhood foods. Still a lot to do, including find/acquire some more canning jars.

Patrick brought over some leftover mushroom soup and other culinary goodies. It was a delighted crowd of eaters. Merry brought her neighbor's homemade salsa and some chips, plus a jar of hot and spicy pickled beets. Otherwise we have been eating on some white bean and scarce vegetables chicken broth soup, with rosemary. It's pretty good. It's starting to be good soup weather! It's been great cooking on the woodstove again.

Here is Kaleigh in her first two Halloween outfit choices. Dressed as a pioneer (left), she attended the Where the Wild Things Are event at the Illinois State Museum today. She & Don saw a cool owl show, went on a scavenger hunt, and had a pretty good, although stimulating, time. The outfit on right is Kaleigh as a queen, and she attended the (crowded) farmers market costume contest. Although she was one queen of many at the farmers market, she was the only pioneer at the museum. Hooray for homemade outfits and original ideas. Kaleigh and I went to the free festival downtown yesterday also. It was a bit stimulating as well, with lots of sugared up kids, and a lot of time spent waiting in line. We got to go on two hay rides, which was very strange (daylight, lots of traffic, pavement in every direction). No one fell off that I have heard.

When I was a kid we used to have harvest parties, when there was a full moon in October. We'd have a big bonfire, and roast marshmallows and hot dogs. There was a lot of potluck food also. When the moon rose, we'd go on a hay ride, with my grampa on the tractor. It was great fun. These would often take place after a day of cutting wood up in the hills, taking down a few dead trees and cutting them up to provide my grandparents with a winter's worth of fuel.

And now a pile of dishes are awaiting me in the kitchen, to clean up for further culinary adventures tomorrow. In the cold and breezy day of tomorrow promise, Kaleigh starts her first culture club class, and will go to another free and open swim after homeschooling swimming class ends. And then a warm kitchen!

carey

so much beauty it can make you cry

Reading the headlines can sure make you depressed. The economic system of the planet is tanking, global climate change is coming on faster & stronger than scientists' models predicted, education is making children hate learning (the trademark of being human!), and so on. So when I hear about beautiful things, I get excited.

In Pasadena, California, the Dervaes family is making a living on their 1/5 acre city lot, producing 6000 pounds of food last year. They encourage the 100 foot diet. They live an inspired life, and their contentment shows. They live simply, but intently. And it's not impossible for any of us to live this way.


If you're interested in learning more about the Dervaes family, there's a lot on youtube. Additionally, check out the blog at http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/ Their web presence is at http://www.pathtofreedom.com/ I am hopeful to be able to get through interlibrary loan a movie about them. The trailer is at http://www.homegrown-film.com/trailer.html

Anais Dervaes says she feels like she was born in the wrong time, that she identifies with Laura Ingalls Wilder. Me as well. I don't like electrically powered kitchen noise, convenience foods, or microwaves. They're unnecessary to worthwhile living. The thrill I get opening up a pantry with shelves bursting with canned garden produce is probably the same feeling someone else would get browsing for a new car. I can't help but be different.

I've been reading a book by William Coperthwaite called A Handmade Life. It's a beautiful book. I enjoy that he talks about all the beauty you can see and feel, and that beauty should be something of abundance in our lives, not scarcity. I like his idea that "we must learn to see beauty in our neighbors living well". You can be sure by "well" he doesn't mean in McMansions with giant lawns, but well in a sense that they are cared for by us and by each other, and have enough. Even though we live in a ghetto, I am constantly amazed by the beauty I see. It's mostly the human interaction that reaches me, people caring about each other in a way that I never saw when I worked a job for a living. These people are so rich, so wealthy in human interaction and love and beauty. I feel privileged to live in such a place.

carey

stacking functions

One of the permaculture design ideas is called stacking functions, and this is an example. This woodstove not only heats our house, it functions as a cookstove and a dryer. It also warms up the wine so that we can brew into the chilly months. The woodstove has been getting a winter preview the last week. We've been soooo toasty.

Our friend Dan brought over a hydraulic wood splitter, and we were able to split a cord or two of wood, including almost all the large stumps that were lining our driveway. We are now down to the huge stackpile in our back yard, what used to be the giant elm, and that is all that is left to be split. The same day, our friend Steve brought over his drill & he and Don drilled holes and set the faucets for a couple of rain barrels. Don is considering overflow methods, and then this project will be a functioning part of our homestead.

I have canned 25 quarts of tomatoes for this winter. I have another four quarts in the refrigerator, waiting until the day comes when I make applesauce & get the canner out. The tomato plants are still producing big beautiful tasty tomatoes, but the colder weather has slowed them down. Frost is imminent, of course, and we shall see how it goes. I am hoping to make a big batch of green tomato pickles when the time comes. We also have quite a few carrots out in the garden to dig up. The big pan on the woodstove in the picture above is chicken stock soup. I made stock a few days ago, and it's been overflowing the refrigerator. Today I cut up most of the vegetables in the house & made a hefty pile of soup. I am going to fill up the freezer & we'll eat the rest.

Our friend Mike brought over a pile of dumpstered bread from his step-dad (who only likes white bread). We've had a pile of cheese to go with it. We also plowed through the pile of eggs from our friend Shannon & our friends Matt & Debbie from the farmers market. We've been chowing, on good food. We've been drinking wine also: raspberry, plum, peach. There's only a couple of farmers markets left.

I went to a knitting group last night and had a good time. There are several experienced knitters, and I am hopeful to make another pair of wearable socks, and learn how to sew a pattern. Today I went to a meeting today with the pastor of a church down the street. He is interested in starting a garden to supplement their food pantry. What a great idea! I am hopeful this will be a fruitful venture, and I like that it is only a block from my house.

Community, that's our wealth. It's wealth that expands with each interaction. It doesn't get scarce, only more plentiful. Even if the U.S. economy tanks, community can get stronger and more abundant. I count my blessings. They are many.

carey

mo money

Couldn't help but chuckle at this headline:

US debt clock runs out of digits

That was when it went woosh! over ten trillion, but no worries, they are adding two more zeroes. It'll soon be able to record a quadrillion dollars in debt. I have no idea what that means. I was barely comprehending billion when trillion started being bandying about. And now, for the first time in my life, I see quadrillion mentioned as an actual "for real" item. (Well, except that money is all pretend & it's one of the big con games they don't want you to find out about.) I wonder how many years before they'll have to add more digits. And how many more after that we're pushing around wheelbarrows of worthless paper to buy bread.

Where is all this money coming from that we are supposedly giving to the banks? The U.S. no longer relies on the gold standard, but the value of our money is backed by the U.S. economy. Does that mean our money is worth less, or even worthless? Certainly, the more they invent to grease the wheels of commerce, the less any of it has in make-believe value. I'm not sure why the stability of our neighborhoods and communities should be based on the ability of banks to loan money.

And in Cook County, Illinois, the sheriff is not enforcing any more evictions. Now there's someone who's going to get a lot of votes come election time!

carey