KNEE-DEEP IN THE HOOPLA

Introducing: Tinker Soap Co.

2012-01-31T10:46:00.000-08:00

After all these months, I finally secured a job with a small non-profit here in Sacramento that works toward food access. I'm manning EBT-processing booths at farmers' markets and stocking a fresh produce section at the Home Cash Market convenience store in Oak Park, among other things. This is very exciting and meaningful. It also only gives me 15 hours a week, so I'm left with a whole lotta free time for the rest of the week.

The result? Tinker Soap Co., my fledging homemade soap company. It's in its earliest phase right now, during which I am gathering supplies, ordering herbs, and setting up a small soap studio in the basement. I've made two batches of soap so far and this week will make my first attempt at making liquid soap. Eek.

Last week, I procured a big box of lemons from a generous Craigslist advertisor and proceeded to fill up my food dehydrator with lemon peel. While looking for directions on storing this lemon peel, I found this nice page. What do you do with leftover citrus peel?

Showering with Meat Loaf

2011-12-11T14:36:00.000-08:00

According to USGS, 2.5 gallons of water are used every minute the average shower is running. Have you noticed that it’s really hard to tell how long one has been in the shower? It’s like a time warp for me, a brief black-out. I decided to do a little experiment to gauge how long I’m bathing. And what gauge, you might ask, did I decide to use?

Music! And not just any music, but my favorite music of all time – MEAT LOAF. I challenged myself to a five-minute shower, and the song closest to five minutes long on the Bat Out of Hell album happens to be Track 2: “You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night).”* I was setting myself up for an awesome bathing experience.

I did so well. By the time the intro was over (On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? Will he offer me his mouth? Yes. Will he offer me his teeth? Yes. Will he offer me his jaws? Yes. Will he offer me his hunger? Yes. Again: Will he offer me his hunger? Yes. And will he starve without me? Yes. And does he love me? Yes. Yes. On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? Yes. I bet you say that to all the boys.), I was already washing the shampoo out of my hair. I actually turned the water off a full forty-five seconds before the end of the song, which afforded me the pleasure of drying out my hair to the clapping breakdown until the fadeout.

Showering to Meat Loaf songs as a means of keeping track of water usage is environmentally responsible, saves money, and gives you a needed dose of incredible power rock piano music from the 80’s. You cannot lose.

*This is an amazing music video. I highly suggest you view it.

Goat Obsession

2011-12-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

You all have checked out the website of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, right? I spent a lot of time perusing it late last night, largely due to my recent obsession with keeping goats. The ALBC keeps records of which livestock breeds are dwindling in numbers and growing closer to extinction. There are 11 kinds of livestock on the watch lists and 5 categories for each kind: study, recovering, watch, threatened, and critical. There are only two goat breeds on the critical list, the Arapawa and the San Clemente (groovy California island goats) - both are charming and I am considering becoming a goat breeder just to preserve the lineage of each. Geez.

What sent me over the edge into goat lust, you ask? I checked out this book from the library: Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese, by Brad Kessler. It is dedicated to possibly my favorite author, Annie Dillard, so I knew what I was in for as soon as I read the dedication. The book is about Kessler's move with his photographer wife away from New York City to a farm in Vermont, where they herd goats and make cheese. It's positively dreamy.

Recently, I got a bad diagnosis on the health of my lower back and I'm going to have to sort of change my plans so that I don't cripple myself. My plans were still pretty atmospheric, so it's not going to be a huge sacrifice - especially because of goats. Goats, you see, come in many sizes. There are such things as mini milking goats, which have a weight that will be manageable to me in the future. I may move more towards maneuvering mini milkers.

2011-10-18T11:41:00.001-07:00

My blogging enterprise took a hiatus during my time at Blue Heron Farm because a) I didn’t have access to the internet, and b) I started doubting the value of blogging in general. I usually view it as a great exercise because it forces me to organize my thoughts about what I’m doing in a way that is accessible to others. I usually think more deeply about what I’m doing when I’m trying to describe it to someone other than myself. During my time on the farm it didn’t feel right to publicize it, I don’t know why. But here I am, back on the internet a lot, feeling like I can check in with y’all.

I hurt my back on the farm, just as I feared. It didn’t get better and then my boyfriend decided to take an internship in Sacramento, CA, my hometown, so I left the farm early to accompany him and get some medical attention for my back.

We’re living with my folks until we get our feet on the ground – a.k.a. until I get a job. So far, the job search is looking bleak but coming home has been wonderful. I’ve been visiting with all kinds of people that I have missed for the five years I lived in Seattle. I’ve been getting to know Sacramento as an adult, which is something I’ve been longing to do ever since I left.

It was sad to leave Seattle. We have so many good friends there, three of whom are pregnant. In a lot of ways, Seattle feels more like home than Sacramento does. But this is a good move for us, and we can always visit or even move back if we don’t find a niche here.

So, there’s your update. Since I’m job hunting and spending a lot of time effing around on the internet, I might just be putting stuff up here so I can remember that I found it. Maybe it will be interesting for you, too!

2011-06-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is what it's all about:

2011-06-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

My ideal self:

· Never needs to rest during a day of hard, physical labor

· Doesn’t crave cheese all the time

· Has no self-doubt

· Wakes up early to exercise and listen to the news before work

Mary Oliver has a poem about waking up early that inspired me last night to leap out of bed this morning, but that intent was squashed when my alarm went off and it was pouring rain out:

Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who make the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even, the

miserable, and the crotchety –

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light –

good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

2011-06-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

We’re swinging into the busy season now. Anne says it gets busier once the blueberries start fruiting, so I’m glad to be able to ease into it. This last was the first week of the CSA, and I spent all day today harvesting, washing, and boxing produce. We are harvesting:

• Radishes (pink, red, and French Breakfast)
• Loose-leaf lettuce
• Hot mustard and mizuna greens
• Arugula
• Pac choi
• Spinach

2011-06-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I drove to Walla Walla with Chandler, Becky, and Tierney, three young farmers in the Western Washington area who represent the Washington Young Farmers Coalition. We were in Walla Walla for a farm walk at Welcome Table Farm, organized by the Tilth Producers of Washington. Andy and Emily (and their wee one, Hazel) run the farm using human and HORSE power!

Even aside from the draft animal prowess, I was really inspired by Andy and Emily because they have managed to put together a farm with vegetables and a diverse company of animals, which is what I would ideally want to do with a farm. They have a 40-50 person CSA, sell at the farmers market, and sell wholesale to restaurants, so they have a diverse market vegetable operation. They also keep horses, goats, sheep, hogs, and layer and broiler chickens.

The draft horses, Avi and Dandy, are gorgeous. I don’t know much about horses but these two looked beautiful (and muscular!). Andy and Emily purchased them as draft-trained adults without much practical draft experience and have been learning as they go.

The farm walk was well worth the five hour trip down, and it was really fun to meet the three fellow passengers of Tercy Tercel. Walla Walla country reminded me a lot of the Sacramento area, being warm and hilly and with the same amount of deciduous tree cover. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, unzipped the tent, and stood up into a night FULL of stars! It took my breath away. I love the lush world of Western Washington but I really miss warm, wide-open spaces. Everything smells so good when it’s warmed by the sun.

2011-05-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

My plans to update my blog on a regular basis were thwarted by the fact that I have no way to connect to the internet besides dial-up, which requires impinging on Anne and Mike’s space and probably isn’t fast enough to upload photos anyhow. This is why I am beginning my fifth week living at Blue Heron Farm and I haven’t shared anything at all.

Here’s where I live now:

I hang out in here in the morning and the evening and all through the night.

In the morning, I can be seen stumbling out to the propane tank that provides the fuel to heat my morning water for coffee/oatmeal/grits/facewashing. I slip on my overalls while the water heats and then eat breakfast before heading out to meet Anne, the big boss of Blue Heron Farm.

Over the past five weeks, we have

· Planted, thinned, potted up, watered and mixed potting soil in the greenhouse

· Pressure-washed crates

· Tilled, weeded, and applied fertilizer, manure and woodchips to the blueberries

· Maintained the tractor

· Tied up raspberry canes

· Transplanted lettuce, parsley, chard, beets, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and kohlrabi into the fields

Right now, I work 8-5 or 6 with an hour for lunch. It’s pretty swank. Anne has no such schedule, and I feel a bit bad on sunny days when she drops me off at the end of the day, only to turn back around and go back to work until dark.

At night, I make dinner and read/write/draw/talk on the phone. I’m also integrating a half hour of pilates every night to strengthen my core muscles so that my back, already so fragile, doesn’t put me out of commission.

More updates to come.

Washington Emmet Beall

2011-03-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

My nephew was born yesterday morning. Ginger has a little brother! Congratulations to Nikki and Charles.

This is how I look holding my nephew for the first time after staying up all night with my laboring sister .

Planting Peas

2011-03-29T22:03:00.001-07:00

Proud moment in the life of an aunt: planting peas with Ginger last week. I poked holes in the soil and she dropped in the peas. She liked the sweet peas best because the packets were pink, I'm assuming.

Highwater Farm

2011-03-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

In February, I quit my soul-sucking job as a groundwater sampling technician and moved to the Skagit Valley, to live with my sister’s family and work at Highwater Farm.

Located on Francis Road in Mount Vernon, Highwater Farm is in its fourth year of production and is preparing for its first CSA season. Danielle and Jeff run the farm with their four boys (the youngest is brand new, born two days after my last day of work there).

During my three weeks on the farm, we did lots of different kinds of things, including

· Blueberry care

· Strawberry weeding

· Shallot preparation

· Digging potatoes and parsnips

· Picking kale

· Readying and delivering orders for the Skagit Valley Food Co-op

· Fruit tree fertilization

· Fence deconstruction

Freshly dug parnsips, which were planted last March. Year-old parsnips will have some rust, but are still extremely edible and delicious.

Shallot preparation involves digging through these screens of curing shallots, cutting off roots and leaves, and shucking the nasty old outsides to reveal the gleaming, papery insides. Very satisfying and dusty-smelling.

It was a great educational experience to work with farmers who are new to the business of having their own land. I learned a lot. It felt so good to get out of the city and work outside all day surrounded by snow-dusted hills. I became nearly obsessed with the mated pair of bald eagles that nested in a tree on the property.

I look forward to my next bout of farm work, which starts next month. I’ll be working for Anne Schwartz at Blue Heron Farm in Rockport. I’ll actually be living on the farm, which I’m really looking forward to. Anne has been farming up there for over thirty years and I know I will learn a ton from her. I am fighting dog adoption as part of my next phase of life, which has become harder since I found this dog for adoption, who closely resembles my childhood dog, who used to spoon under the covers with me nightly.

Things are blooming

2011-03-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

Recently, Caelum said, "I think I have allergies." And I said, "Psh, there's nothing even blooming right now." Then I went on a walk and took pictures of everything I saw that was in bloom. Boy, was I wrong.

Heather

Crocus

More crocus

Daffodil

Euphorbia.

Rosemary

Azalea

Anemone

Poppy

Camelia (see Jago's blog for a fascinating post on the history of Camelias)

Greendale Farm

2011-03-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

In November, I visited my friend, Colleen, who was working at Greendale Farm in Madison, GA. Colleen is from Atlanta, so she was the perfect hostess for my first trip to the South. Madison is one of the only towns in Georgia that General Sherman didn't burn on his exodus from the South at the end of the Civil War, so there are several Civil War era buildings in town. Working on Greendale Farm gave me a jolting realization that working on a farm is what I should be doing now. The farm produces pork, beef, lamb, chicken, eggs, and cheese. It was while hauling a 45 pound bag of hog feed through a sea of hungry male pigs at 7:00 in the morning that the realization came.

Lily and Zulu the farm dogs: very bad at being farm dogs, very good at being sweeties.

The shiny cheese room, where the magic happens.

This magic, specifically.

I got a tractor-driving lesson from Colleen on this huge John Deere.

Every evening, Colleen and I moved the lambs. Now I know the meaning of the word "sheepish."

Happy, happy cows.

The pigs actually live in the forest.

As of late...

2011-03-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos that represent my activities since October (aside from the job, of course):

Snohomish pumpkin patch trip.

We discovered a hidden, terraced P-Patch.

Early snowstorm.

Late snowstorm, which buried my newly-acquired 1985 Toyota Tercel.

Roadtrip to Spokane.

Christmas-time beach outing with the Bealls.

Building matchbox rockets.

Delicious food.

More delicious food.

It really was that cold.

JM long-term loaned her 1930s-era pressure canner to me. It dominates my tiny stovetop.

Portland trip with this beautiful girl.

Outing to the mailbox.

Rebirth

2011-03-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

I think I've sufficiently recovered from a 3-month-long bout of largely uninspiring work. Hints follow:

This was the landscape I studied every day.

This was my dress, but you must also imagine cut-resistant gloves covered in nitrile gloves.

My hands looked even smaller than usual in my huge, hi-viz coat.

Not everything was discouraging at this job. There were signs of nature persevering even at the most broken-down gas stations:

The rosebush blooms even as the vac-machine flops over in defeat.

Does this bush need an ugly, cement planter to show off its shiny foliage? It thinks not.

Anyway, it's good to be doing my work again. I expect to be much more present in general, as evidenced by my return to my blog.

2010-10-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

I walked home from the bus stop on Market the other day and saw some nice things, including a billion outrageously beautiful dahlias.

Someone has started a brand new succulent garden.

Dogwood berries are actually a little tasty. I feel like someone could make a pie out of them if they removed the outside part.

These little plants can grow anywhere.

Evidence that these plants self-seed like crazy.

And finally, home.

2010-10-03T12:38:00.000-07:00

Last week my internship with Seattle Tilth ended. I took a last walk through the garden as its Steward.

Granddaddy Lavender is almost done blooming for the year.

Globe thistle is seeding.

The tomato plants and spud sacks have been taken down.

There are lots of pumpkins on the vine - here's the biggest.

There are still flowers providing for the pollinators.

There are now two huge, beautiful amaranth plants in the edible flower bed.

As I left, I noticed a baby lavender under the east arch that I had never noticed before.

My internship has been incredible. I have learned a lot and had a great time. Thanks, Seattle Tilth.

Blueberry Pickin with the Alleycats

2010-09-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

The folks at Alleycat Acres are doing a work party this Saturday at Hunters Moon Farm, from 10:00 to 3:30, to help finish up the blueberry harvest. Should be super fun! E-mail Tori Brewster at tori@alleycatacres.com for more information.

Compost Tea

2010-09-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

Seattle University has a great composting program, wherein food scraps are collected on campus in cans next to the garbage and recycle cans, and then two dedicated facilities gentlemen turn it into the good stuff. An exciting component of the composting program is the compost tea that is brewed by the Grounds crew and applied to plants on SU Grounds. I have the immense pleasure of brewing that tea with my coworker/mentor JM, and I took some photos last time I brewed to share the experience with folks.

This is the tea-brewin bit of the field house at SU. The 100-gallon brewer is on the left, and the 100-gallon sprayer tank to which we hook up the small tractor and with which we apply the tea is on the right. The shelves in the background have tubs with vermicompost, food compost, tea food, and mycorrhizae in them.

These are the magic additions we make to the tea - humic acid, kelp, and fish hydrolysate (less processed and FAR smellier than fish emulsion fertilizer, if you can even imagine that).

Here are the parts of the brewer, which we clean and dry on this super-organized pegboard. From left to right: cleaning brush for the tank, the filters that hold the compost, the bubblers that push air through the compost filters, the covers for the filters, and the attachment for the smaller bubblers to fit onto the larger bubblers.

Here is the trug in which we mix SU compost, vermicompost, and fish hydrolysate and let it sit for a few days.

This is what it tends to look like after a few days. It's just teeming with microorganisms. Mmmm.

Step one: fill the tank with water. Chlorine will kill the microorganisms, so it's important to use a chlorine filter or bubble the tapwater for 2 hours or so to let it off-gas.

Here's a closer look at the fish hydrolysate, which we add to the water along with kelp and humic acid.

Those things turn the water this color. Pretty nice, eh? The humic acid makes it smell like really good soil, which is what it should end up smelling like if the tea turns out right.

Put the top on the brewer and install the filters, and put that compost into them with some tea food (in the yogurt container on the right - JM sure does love Pavell's).

Here's how it looks with everything installed and the smaller bubblers turned on. It flows over the top when I brew, but not when JM does - I'm clearly an amateur.

...turn the large bubblers on overnight, and this is what you'll find the next morning. Yum! The whole field house smells like fresh earth and it's ready to pump into the sprayer and be applied to whatever lucky plants are chosen.

Feasting at A Caprice Kitchen for WOW

2010-09-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, A Caprice Kitchen donated 10% of its proceeds to Tilth Producers in celebration of Washington Organic Week. C and I seized the opportunity to finally try out the restaurant, which is two blocks away from our house but a little pricey for casual dining. Since our anniversity is sometime in early September (no exact date has ever been pinpointed) PLUS it was for a good cause, it seemed like a perfect time to quench our curiosity about the place.

We were not disappointed. Holy moly, it was one of the best meals I’ve eaten in a while (and I eat a lot of delicious foods). The food used at A Caprice Kitchen is primarily local, excepting (explained the waitress) salt and olive oil, which they source from California.

We had a local red wine, the name of which is escaping me now, then a toasty brioche with figgy jam, ham, and melty brie-like cheese, a carmelized onion pancake, lasagna, and, for dessert, a carmelized peach brioche bread pudding. Yes, sir.

As we were leaving, I caught a glimpse of Anne Catherine, the chef. And may I just say - she is a major cutie patootie, with her red shirt and her curly dark locks.

I can’t wait until we have another great excuse to eat out at A Caprice Kitchen.

2010-09-04T22:55:00.001-07:00

Regis Larcher from City Fruit will be doing a canning demo at the Phinney Farmer's Market on Friday at 4:00. You can watch for free!

2010-09-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

Washington Organic Week is coming up on September 12th. Washington Tilth Producers made a website with lots of information and an events calendar that can clue us in to all of the excellent things happening in the next few weeks. You can see it here.

2010-09-02T11:18:00.001-07:00

The Pollinator Pathway folks got their funding! An installation party is planned October 16th-17th to build 16 new gardens toward completing the swatch of pollinator forage/habitat from 29th and Columbia to Seattle University. Get involved!

Their site is a great resource for information on pollinators and plants that attract them.

2010-07-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, I went back to the Seattle Tilth Good Shepherd Center garden for the first time in over a month. The garden is looking great!

Here is Granddaddy Lavendar, looking fine.

The sunflowers are starting to bloom.

Here is a little pumpkin.

The spud sacks we planted are doing great. S. says they grew a foot last week.

D.'s Iraqi tomatoes are fruiting!

Even these unprotected-by-footies apples are looking rosy and plump.

M. and D. planted this bed while I was gone - a three sisters bed: corn, squash, and beans.

2010-07-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

Sara, Sean, Gabe, Jessica, Caelum, and I got together yesterday and made jam from the plum trees by Sean and Sara's house. It was my first time making jam, and it was so fun. We made a total of 20 pints of jam. !!!

Jars, waiting to be sanitized.

Pitted and quartered plums.

The finished product.

2010-07-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to spend a few hours yesterday at the Microfarm. I put in a new bed, which I'm going to plant today before heading over to my friend, Sara's, to make plum jam from her plum trees.

Here's the bed I dug. The soil was really dry, and it

would have been better to wait until it was less so, but I was seizing the moment - I really want to get all of my space cultivated!

These rhubarb plants looked really sad earlier this spring. They've thrived in the hotter weather. I made strawberry rhubarb crisp last night from some of these stalks.

Here's my tomato/fennel/basil/pepper/eggplant bed.

Squash are forming on my squash vines! I hope to have a profusion of them, so I can be like all those cool gardeners who thrust excess produce on their friends, saying wryly, "I am so SICK of [insert name of whatever produce they're giving away]."

2010-07-09T17:26:00.001-07:00

Some webcomics artists (including Kate Beaton of Hark! A Vagrant - possibly my favorite webcomic of all time) are doing an auction to raise money for somehow stopping the unending stream of oil in the Gulf. Click here to see the site.

Kate's auction piece is of Aquaman standing in a puddle of oil, saying, "What the heck, man." I'd buy it if it weren't already going for almost $500.

2010-06-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

It is helpful to remember, when the weather looks so typically Seattle this late in the year,

that just two weeks ago, this was my view from a prostrate position on the lawn. It will not always be rainy.

2010-06-02T20:59:00.000-07:00

I planned to spend today in the garden, clearing out a new bed for the food I plan to grow for the food bank. However, to do that, I need to pull turf up and shake out the topsoil stuck in the roots, and it’s too muddy.

Instead, I’m at Java Bean Coffee House in Ballard, making plans for the garden. I am using my Maritime Northwest Garden Guide and the resource book given to COG graduates - both resources I got from Seattle Tilth.

Early this month, I plan to plant dill, more lettuce, and snap bush beans. If I can get my hands on it, I want to plant some orache, which is apparently like a salty spinach. Yum! And I’ll find some starts of basil, since it’s too late to seed some of my own. I can’t go a summer without lots of basil, and it seems like I could get it more inexpensively if it was in my garden.

Two of the things on that list, dill and basil, discourage pests in the garden . Dill discourages cabbage looper, tomato hornworm, and imported cabbage worm. Basil discourages asparagus beetle (good for Erick and Alice, who have some gorgeous asparagus!), flies, mosquitoes, and tomato hornworm. Double whammy on the tomato hornworm, although I think we’re pretty safe from those up here in the Pacific Northwest. Tomato blight seems to be the larger problem. I remember lots of tomato hornworms in my parents’ garden in California, though!

And I’ll plant some sunflowers because they’re just so beautiful, and maybe some borage for the bees.

Later in June, I probably won’t get a chance to plant anything because I’ll be travelling. If I do a get a day, though (maybe with my family, when they’re in town!), I’ll plant some more carrots and beets in the ground, and start brussels sprouts, cabbate, turnips, endive, and chard in pots, so I can plant them when I start harvesting the things that are already there and room becomes available.

2010-06-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

Things are starting to happen at the Microfarm!

Cherries are forming on the cherry tree.

Eric's potatoes are showing their leaves above ground.

The seeds I planted have germinated and are doing great. The heat we had last week is doing wonders for them.

I was VERY excited to see these guys: my squash. I thought they would never come up.

My lemon cucumber is languishing.

I cleared the space out by the log in my area and planted flowers. I bought some flower mixes from Walt's Organic Fertilizer Company - they attract songbirds and butterflies (which means honeybees, too). They'll go well here, by the stump, where my veggies might not do so well. The creatures that are busy breaking down all the carbon in the stump do so using lots of nitrogen, meaning that veggies growing around there wouldn't get enough nitrogen to put on lots of green, leafy growth. The flowers will suffer from it, too, but I'm not trying to eat them.

2010-05-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

Did everybody hear about the giant Amazonian serpent? I came across it during a Google search...good thing I did, I couldn't believe I hadn't heard about it before!

2010-05-26T20:25:00.001-07:00

Nature photography seems like such a sincere occupation. A nature photographer can never be a selfish artist because one has to sit in the cold in a wee hut for hours on end to get any results. One has to really love the subject at hand.

For example, Erlend Haarberg:

"The symphony orchestra of the forest is broadening every single day with a new instrument, as the migrating bird species arrive back to their nesting areas and fill the forest with the sound of life. In the dark hours, the hornlike sound of the cranes breaks the silence, and then at 5 o'clock in the morning, nature awakens to the echoing concert of the black grouse, starting suddenly out of nowhere."

2010-05-23T15:48:00.000-07:00

One exciting thing that happened this year is the installment of permanent raised beds at Seattle University. There are about six beds that have trellises and the plants growing there are starting to look really healthy and beautiful! My friend, Colleen, is sharing a bed with her History of Costume professor, and I went with her when she planted spinach and lettuce starts earlier this week.

2010-05-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to the Microfarm to start my beds. There is a lot of loose turf in my area, but it proved to be fairly easy to pull up, especially in the area just south of the raspberries. I cleared a good 3’ by 5’ area, amended it with compost, and planted lettuce starts and a lemon cucumber start that I got from SU Grounds, and a bunch of seeds that will grow lettuce, radishes, spinach (it’s a little late, but I’m willing to give it a try), chard, carrots, beets, and squash. My education at Tilth tells me I should get a soil test to know what kinds of fertilizing I should do, but Eric and Alice assured me that the soil was great, and I don’t want to sneak around and doubt them. So I will wait until Fall, which is the best time to soil test anyway.

Working in the garden felt so good – it’s something I’ve been really wanting to do, ever since I began my food education. Katie, from Tilth, told me that there are bacteria in soil that work similarly to antidepressants, as is addressed in this article from Medical News Today. That might also add to why I am feeling so good after a day of digging in the dirt.

This is the work I did today. You can see that I started a bit of a bed to the right of the cloche, but ended up working mostly in front of the raspberries. The soil was easier to work with, and that was where I planted. I covered the planted-in area with remay, to keep weeds down a little, to make it harder for insects to get in (although the slugs certainly aren't hampered by it), and to keep water from evaporating so quickly. The lump you can see is a plastic bottle with its bottom cut out and its top off. It's acting as a mini-cloche over my lemon cucumber.

2010-05-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

I have learned a lot about growing vegetables in the last year. Until recently, I was feeling very frustrated because I didn’t have a space of my own, to practice the things I had been learning theoretically. I did find, at one point, a whole lot with sparse grass, just across from the Burke Gilman and the canal in Fremont. I found the owner on the seattle.gov accessories website, and was excited to find out that she is an environmental artist who lives close to the Good Shepherd Center. She never responded to my hand-written letter, though, and I figured it wasn’t meant to be.

Janice, a staff gardener at SU Grounds (where I work as a student gardener) suggested that I sign up on the Urban Garden Share website. This is a place where Seattle gardeners in want of gardening space can create profiles and meet people in Seattle who have unused garden space (Urban Farm Hub did a piece on them in January - you can read it here.

My experience on Urban Garden Share was much easier than I expected it to be. I e-mailed the people with garden spaces in Ballard, and even got some people contacting me, wanting me to garden in their space. Nothing seemed to fit until Eric and Alice, from Ballard, e-mailed me about what they called “The Microfarm.”

I went to meet them one Saturday in April. Eric ushered me out to the Microfarm, which turned out to be an entire lot they own - which, according to them, has never been built on. It’s a huge place, and I was unsure why they had contacted me, because most of the space seemed to be planted and cared for. It turns out that Eric and Alice do grow veggies there, as does their neighbor. But there was a whole corner that remained unplanted, and if I wanted it, I could use it all. I accepted, of course. It was way more space than I had dreamed of, and I couldn’t believe my luck.

Here is my space on the Microfarm!

Erick and Alice's lot on the upper level. You can see my part behind the Super Cloche.

The Super Cloche and the raspberry patch. My space is behind these two.

2010-05-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

My interest in growing food started during the snowy winter of 2008, when I was in the throes of an environmentalist’s nightmare, unable to deal with all of the horrible things I was being taught about in school. I was so depressed that I couldn’t even take action to do something about the problems that were depressing me.

During that time, I came across the African proverb, “When you pray, move your feet.” I’m not a praying person, at least not in the conventional sense, but I did take to heart the message I interpreted from the proverb: if you want something, don’t just sit there, wishing – do something about it. I realized that I was no better than people who have no education about environmental issues, in terms of trying to live in a less impactful way, because I was too busy crying about how much humans are messing everything up.

I chose a focus, to be my area of expertise and passion. Food was the obvious choice for me, since I love eating, as a source of pleasure and health, and as a venue for building relationships and community. I also had interest in agriculture, possibly from my 4 years living in the country in California.

At the time, I was volunteering with Seattle Tilth. According to their website, “Seattle Tilth is a nationally recognized non-profit educational organization dedicated to inspiring and educating people to garden organically and conserve natural resources.” I now intern for Seattle Tilth, as a Garden Steward for the annual vegetables in the adult demonstration garden at the Good Shepherd Center.

2010-05-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

This is the first entry for a series I’m doing to record the activities of an independent study I’m working on, to be finished June 11. For my independent study, I will be learning about gardening, practically and in the community spirit. This will include reading Public Produce by Darrin Nordahl and gardening at my new gardening space in Ballard, called the Microfarm. I will be growing for myself and my friends, and also plant in a space for the Ballard Food Bank.

2010-04-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

Update on the plants from last post: All my Roma tomatoes, most of my Brown Berry tomatoes, and none of my onions and belle peppers survived. I think that I may have a few Cayenne peppers, but it was mostly my tomatoes that made it through the bathtub ordeal. They're doing splendidly. I shall take a photo next time I'm at the Dude Palace so that you all may enjoy them, too.

2010-04-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

Tonight I planted:

Cayenne peppers
Mini belle peppers
Large belle peppers
Brown berry cherry tomatoes
Roma tomatoes
Yellow of Parma onions

They are in egg cartons in the unused bathtub at the Dude Palace. I hooked up a space heater to an outlet in there, and the heater is precariously perched on the side of the tub, getting the soil toasty to encourage germination in the hot season seeds. I took a photo but my spiffy new phone won't let me e-mail photos to myself, like my ghetto phone used to. Hmmm.

I also planted Bright Lights chard and French Breakfast radishes in pots, which are outside, against the side of the house.

Yayyyyyyyy!

2010-03-11T10:22:00.000-08:00

Gracious was wildly helpful as I assembled the posterboard for my thesis presentation on Monday evening.

2010-03-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

Breakfast this morning (throughout this whole week, really): buttered toast, Earl Grey tea, a banana, and yogurt with honey. YUMMMMMMMMMM.
(Too bad Thomas Friedman also had a place at the table, since I'm behind on my reading for Environmental Politics).

2010-03-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

Or, the Whale is playing at the Tractor Tavern on Wednesday with the Maldives and Weinland. I am unfamiliar with Weinland, but in fact I just discovered Or, the Whale this afternoon, and I am enjoying them muchly. So I suspect that I will soon be researching the sounds of Weinland, too. I am unfortunately unable to go to this show, but any of you with $10 and a free evening should definitely make it out there.

ALSO: The Red Elvises are playing at the High Dive on Friday. You know, the group that did all the music for Six String Samurai. I have been trying to see them since I was, oh, fifteen, so I'm hoping I'll make it to see them now. We shall see.

2010-03-06T21:19:00.000-08:00

Well, here's something handy! This bra doubles as a shopping bag! I can think of so many times when this would make my day even more convenient.

Apparently it came in out in 2006, so I could have been utilizing this all through my college years. How strange that none of my fellow radicalists wear them.

2010-03-04T23:02:00.000-08:00

I heard Elliot Brood's song "Write It All Down for You"on KEXP this evening. I am really into those big BOMFs in songs lately - Odetta does some good BOMFing in this song, too.

2010-03-04T12:41:00.001-08:00

2010-03-02T15:08:00.000-08:00

This guy is way more of a Debbie Downer than I am. He's one of the guys who predicted the 1987 economic crash and the recent recession. From reading this article, he reminds me of Larry Diamond from Half-Asleep in Frog Pajamas. In the article, he suggests that "fund managers buy houses in the countryside because it was more likely that violence, biological attack and other acts of a 'dirty war' would happen in cities....He also said that they should consider holding part of their wealth in the form of precious metals 'because they can be carried'."

Jeeeeez.

...Sad part is, he's probably right. Waaaaah, waaaaaah.

2010-02-21T21:46:00.000-08:00

I just tried to generate a pie chart with only two slices: 1 for "yes," and one for "no." This is what I came up with. Looks like I need to dig deeper into my SPSS Survival Manual.

2010-02-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

Even the foliage is celebrating the warm temperatures Seattle is enjoying this early spring.

I am airing out the house and my cat is going absolutely insane with all of the smells the fresh air carries to her.

2010-02-12T13:54:00.000-08:00

Texting with Jordan...

Jordan: Can I ask you a rather serious question?
Me: Absolutely.
Jordan: What would YOU do if your son was at home, crying all alone on the bedroom floor because he's hungry?
Me: Um... I would go home and feed him? Not leave him alone and hungry in the first place? Why
Jordan: What if the only way to feed him was to sleep with a man for a little bit of money?
Me: Um... Well, if I had really exhuasted ALL of my resources, I would sacrifice myself for my kid and do that. What the hell, why do you ask?

Then she called me, cracking up, and sang this song to me.

To my defense, I forgot about City High and their 2001 R&B hit single because I was reading "Swim, Wombat, Swim" to my 8-month-old niece during that whole conversation.

I tried on Kiera and she replied, "I would probably sleep with a man for a little bit of money cuz his daddy's gone." Damn girl, you is on TOP of things.

2010-02-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

I was innocently cooking paratha the other night, when the face of an ancient frog deity appeared, burnt into the bread! What does this mean? Most importantly, should I sell it on ebay for thousands of dollars, a la the Virgin Mary toasty sandwich lady?

2010-01-31T16:36:00.000-08:00

"Americans who believe in the words of the Declaration of Independence, in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, in the 14th Amendment, and in the Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and equal dignity before the law cannot sit by while this wrong continues. This is not a conservative or liberal issue; it is an American one, and it is time that we, as Americans, embraced it."

This is a quote by Theodore B. Olson, from his Newsweek article "The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage." Olson represented Bush in Bush vs. Gore and is a well-respected Republican. Now he's attempting to overturn Prop 8 in the lawsuit Parry vs Schwarzenegger. It's very interesting to hear his case for gay marriage.

2010-01-24T22:55:00.000-08:00

I just watched a PBS special on the organizational failure across the board that compounded the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. It was awful to watch. One of the things that's been on my mind lately with the earthquake in Haiti is that I don't remember so much swift, federal aid going to New Orleans as is going to Haiti - and it's not like things are finished in New Orleans. There is still a lot of work to be done in there to make it livable and restore the lives of the people who lost their homes. This is, of course, not to say that we shouldn't be sending aid to the Haitians, I don't mean that at all.

The only reason I can think of for the fact that Haiti is getting more federal aid than New Orleans is that it makes the US look good to the rest of the world. I went to a teach-in on Friday evening about Haiti. There were five panelists from different backgrounds (sociology, history, law, etc.) who told us about the history of Haiti (didn't know the US played such a big role in Haiti's current state of poverty) and about what's going on now. The man who taught in the law school told us about the U.S. immigration policy for Haiti: the international refugee protocols say that a nation cannot send refugees home if their lives are at risk there, as they are in case of Haitians trying to come into Florida. But they have to reach a certain point before they are being "returned" rather than prevented from coming, so the Coast Guard patrols the ocean and turns boats around before they can reach land.

Can you imagine being so desperate that you jump on whatever boat you can find and try to aim towards the U.S., only to meet a Coast Guard group that forces you to turn around? And the first aid that the U.S. sent to Haiti were military troops, to ensure that Haitians were not attempting to leave Haiti for the United States.

2010-01-24T18:20:00.001-08:00

Elise, a statistics teacher at SU who is helping me with my honey bee research, sent me this poem by Julie Cadwallader Staub.

Joy

Who could need more proof than honey—

How the bees with such skill and purpose
enter flower after flower
sing their way home
to create and cap the new honey
just to get through the flowerless winter.

And how the bear with intention and cunning
raids the hive
shovels pawful after pawful into his happy mouth
bats away indignant bees
stumbles off in a stupor of satiation and stickiness.

And how we humans can't resist its viscosity
its taste of clover and wind
its metaphorical power:
don't we yearn for a land of milk and honey?
don't we call our loved ones "honey?"

all because bees just do, over and over again, what they were made to do.

Oh, who could need more proof than honey
to know that our world
was meant to be

and

was meant to be
sweet?

2010-01-21T18:51:00.000-08:00

Caelum found a Wrap Sack in an old box and gave it to me. Wrap Sacks can be traced because of their unique numbers, that are catalogued on company's site. People are supposed to enter in the gift-exchange and where it took place, so that you can see where the Wrap Sack has traveled, what gift was given, and where it has traveled! Pretty neat.

2010-01-19T17:53:00.000-08:00

Caelum and I found a new place to live yesterday! It is in a big house betwixt Wallingford and the University District. The couple who showed it to is, Eili and Michael, just joined the household and are taking over as the lease-holders. The house has been used as a big party house, so it's pretty funky and dirty right now, but Eili and Michael moved in intending to fix it up and turn the household into a working community.

We have plans for growing food in the front and back yards. We're also going to turn the pre-existing henhouse into a duck abode. I've been researching good laying varieties, and have come across the Campbell Khaki, the Magpie, the Welsh Harlequin, and the Orpington.

Caelum and I are planning to live there only until June or July, but I'm hoping I can still be part of the household and continue gardening duties outside. We'll see how it all works out.

2010-01-10T20:24:00.000-08:00

Anyone know what this tree is? Along with the diamond pattern on the bark, it can be distinguished by leaves that are powdery white on one side, as if they had been sprayed with something.

I noticed these tree growing along the Rails-to-Trails in Sedro-Woolley. I also saw one in South Park one time.

Thanks to Charles for sending me the picture.

How I Came to Be Where I Am

2009-12-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

My lifetime is a process, just like anything is a process. Nothing alive is in stasis. Some people think that original thought exists, but I hesitate to agree. Every thought, action, or phrase that I produce has germination in others’ thoughts, actions, or phrases. Even my laugh has evolved, according to whose laugh I have loved and studied most over my lifetime. It is interested to trace such things as far back as I can, examining the numerous sources of the fuel that powers me. Now, I am twenty-one years old and I want to grow food. How might that have happened?

Just before my seventh birthday, my family relocated. We moved from South Natomas, an unfortunate suburb of Sacramento, to a six-acre piece of land in the foothills near Esparto, one hour west of our previous home. I say now that South Natomas is unfortunate, but while it was all I knew, it seemed an expansive wilderness, full of possibilities. Our turfed backyard, the largest out of all the cloisters behind the houses in our cul-de-sac, stimulated my imagination to its full potential. Imagine what it was like for a suburban animal, like my six-year-old self, to move onto six acres of what I saw as unexplored, untapped potential for adventure.

My family’s move to the country and our four years spent there is absolutely the most important contributor to my development as a person who cares greatly about the environment. I spent four years on those six acres, running through the mud (or star-thistle, depending on the time of year), sowing wildflower seeds, swinging on the rope-swing over the seasonal creek, pulling stumps from their impressions in the earth with a slow, sucking sound to reveal the grubs nestled there. I never wore shoes at home. Those four years made a dramatic impression on me, one that surely influences my reactions to the environment now.

Out in the country, I led a double life. The two-story, blue house, slowly sinking into the creek, was my castle. I ruled it. My family members were my subjects, for I was a princess or pirate or runaway, known by wise persons as the unknowing fulfiller of a prophecy or inheritor of a great lineage. Outside, I escaped the droll court life and ran, feral and disobedient, through the commons. In my mind, outdoors and indoors were separate elements. Ten years later, in college, I was taught the dangers of such dualistic thought. I know now that humans are part of the “outside world,” the wildness we usually separate ourselves from: the environment. This is something that is often hard to see, since humans are capable of destroying everything around them as they innovate and create resources for their overly successful population.

When I was ten years old, we moved back to the suburbs so that my older brother, Skyler, could attend the Waldorf high school in Sacramento. I do not know how long I cried, but it seemed a long year before I was sure my little heart would not rip from my chest. I distinctly remember feeling like I was being tamed. Not only was I being separated from my land, my realm, I was being removed from my class at the Davis Waldorf School, a group I had been with since kindergarten. I was a bold child before the move, but amongst my new classmates at the Sacramento Waldorf School, a new, shy part of my burgeoned. I spent lunches in a large elm tree for almost the entirety of fifth grade.

But I got over it. Until I graduated from high school and was again divorced from my community, I was frenetically social. It was a selfish period of my life. My friends were my principle focus, occupying the brunt of my time. I did not think often of the environment, for I was a teenager surrounded by an academic faculty of environmentally minded hippies, and it was my business to not care about their business. I remember that I actually hated hiking – it removed me from my familiar climate and clothed me in unfashionable boots. I was disconnected from the natural world.

Still, I had not forgotten my wild heart. I reserved for myself memories of our land in Esparto, relishing them during quiet moments. I believed that no one else I knew had the visceral connection that I secretly kept to the soil, sunshine, wind, trees, mountains, and everything else that constituted my childhood spirituality.

Science courses reoriented me to the natural world. Now I knew how seeds germinate to become wildflowers and that the grubs underneath the stump were adolescent insects. Not once did nature lose its magic due to some “unveiling” through science – no, there is no beguiling veil that kept or keeps me still entranced, seeking intimacy with the natural world through knowledge. I merely learned and still learn new ways of knowing it as I mature.

In college, my scientific and philosophical background has expanded. Simultaneously, I have undergone notable changes in my person. My environmental education is not an accessory; it is a tool that is an integral part of my personal progression. The best example of this happened during the first quarter I was taking all environmental studies classes. The professors that taught those classes grasped the environmental crisis of our time and, with it, slapped me across the face. I carried around my bewilderment, too overwhelmed with the issue at hand to do anything proactive to address it. One day I realized that I was being utterly useless and needed a point of reference from which to act. A love for food and direct interaction with the natural world led me to agriculture and the modern food industry, which has become my passion and possibly a life-long pursuit.

Every environmental problem I can think of is somehow related to the food industry. It is my belief that the way food is produced and regarded in this country must change. Eventually, I want to take matters into my own hands by farming. Until I can, I keep a modest vegetable plot and try to be thoughtful about what food I buy and eat. It is my obligation and pleasure to do so, because where I distribute my money is significant, and when I spend it honorably I usually end up eating delicious food.

My effort to be aware of my role in the food chain and in the larger environment is just part of an effort to be conscientious in general. It is right to think deeply about everything one does, to question one’s motives towards others and oneself. We are special animals because we are thoughtful. Society’s disconnect from the environment is matched by a disconnect between people. Why should we commune with the natural world if we do not commune with each other? It is important to minimalize waste. It is equally as important to take off your iPod and put away your cell phone once in a while. Though it is a rarity to get a smile returned from a stranger, it is worthwhile to give one out in the first place.

It is foolish to believe that we can mend our relationship with nature before we mend ourselves and our relationships with those directly around us. The first step is to accept and love ourselves. From there, we love each other, thoughtfully build communities, and find that the natural world cannot come second, because it is part of us and we are part of it.

My hope is that I will be able to honor every seed of inspiration that has contributed to my growth, from the little, untamed plot in Esparto to the monstrous garden of ambition, pessimism, and joy that I am now. I want to accept myself, have the energy and optimism to smile at every stranger, work the land, love my family, friends, and community, and take care of the natural world as best I can. The specifics are negotiable.

2009-12-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

I put pigtails in Ginger's hair when she was at my house for Thanksgiving. Goodness gracious.

Here's Ginger again, giving me a famous smile.

These are some berries/flowers that my Mom and I were admiring during a walk over Thanksgiving. I had planned to find out what they were but somehow a google search of "blue berry purple petals" hasn't been fruitful.

2009-11-30T19:35:00.001-08:00

According to water use estimates, American are using less water today than we did 35 years ago! A lot of the conservation is due to more efficient technologies. All in all, fairly heartening:
http://www.doi.gov/news/09_News_Releases/102909a.html

2009-11-23T17:12:00.000-08:00

I was collected information for a presentation I'm giving tomorrow in Senior Synth, and I was struck by an ad banner from the Church of Latter-Day Saints that said, "Remember when you knew who God was?" With a jolt, I did remember! When I was a little girl, there was no real question about it, I just knew my own intimacy with some presence and attributed it to the God that my mother believes in. Just after that moment, I received an e-mail from a fellow student who had this quote as part of her automatic e-mail signature:

"Life is really very beautiful, it is not the ugly thing that we have made of it; and you can appreciate its richness, its depth, its extraordinary loveliness only when you revolt against everything - organized religion, against tradition, against the present rotten society - so that you as a human being find out for yourself what is true. Not to imitate but to discover - that is education, is it not?"

- Krishnamurti

What an odd course of events.

2009-11-04T20:15:00.001-08:00

"Or could I feel the starlight? Every minute on a square mile of this land - on the steers and the orchard, on the quarry, the meadow, and creek - one ten thousandth of an ounce of starlight spatters to earth. What percentage of an ounce did that make on my eyes a nd cheeks and arms, tapping and nudging as particles, pulsing and stroking as waves? Straining after these tiny sensations, I nearly rolled off the world when I heard, and at the same time felt through my hips' and legs' bones on the ground, the bang and shudder of distant freight trains coupling."
-Annie Dillard

2009-11-03T19:01:00.001-08:00

Jiminy crickets, I've just discovered that Meat Loaf was once in a DUO! With a beautiful lady named Stoney! Their duo is called "Meat Loaf and Stoney," and they sing songs like this one:

2009-11-01T21:17:00.001-08:00

Two people sent me this Grist article, wherein Ross Conrad discusses the challenges of organic beekeeping and beekeeping in general, the merits of supporting bee populations, and some of the lessons bees can teach us:
"This is the ultimate lesson that the bees teach us and challenge us to accomplish: How to live our life in a way that by taking what we need from the world around us we leave the world better than we found it."

2009-11-01T18:31:00.000-08:00

Kseniya Simonova makes astounding sand animations. Apparently, she won the 2009 Ukraine's Got Talent show. Plus, she looks like she belongs in Firefly or something.

2009-10-24T15:04:00.001-07:00

2009-10-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

I made a sandwich yesterday. When I reached for a tomato, this is what I saw.

2009-10-21T23:43:00.001-07:00

Oh, god, I just discovered a potential source for my frequent rage at the misguided motivations of conventional university education:

"One of the principles of Waldorf education is the emphasis on the development of student capacities rather than curriculum content."
-http://www.waldorfanswers.org/GoetheNewton.htm

I've had so many projects where I wanted to reconfigure the guidelines so that it would fit me and what I wanted to get out of it better, and so many of my professors have been unreceptive. It has greatly puzzled me until now.

What an enlightened way to educate, though. I'm dishing out another point to ol' Rudy.

2009-10-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, yet another relaxing Saturday morning.
It's raining outside and oh-so-cozy inside.
Caelum is busy in the kitchen cooking a breakfast that smells absolutely fantastic. I'm working on writing a pre-proposal memorandum for a class, Ham snuggled into my left side. Gracious watches us from the top of the cat tower.
...and Dayde plays a WWII game with two armies and a large alligator that is devouring the Germans.

2009-10-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

10-year-old Dayde just knocked over a glass of water and said, "When we clean that up maybe we'll find some cubic hairs," and then snickered. I asked him what cubic hairs are and he looked at me like I was a big loser and said, "You don't know what cubic hair is?"

So I told him I'd google it and here's one thing I found: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090110215448AAxa1hD

Some folks just shouldn't get knocked up.

2009-10-16T14:03:00.001-07:00

This TED talk has a conclusion that makes me giddy.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_barber_s_surprising_foie_gras_parable.html

2009-10-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

I am studying for a big test I have on weather patterns, and just as I was reviewing cloud types, Judy Collins came, on singing this song:

“Bows, and flows of angel hair, and ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere: I've looked at cloud that way.
But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone.
So many things I would have done, but clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall.
I really don't know clouds at all.”

How did you know, Judy?

2009-10-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

I went to the chicken coop building workshop at the ReStore yesterday. Brad Halm, one of the two men who make up the Seattle Urban Farm Company, taught. We had about an hour of lecture and questions and then we all shuffled outside into the parking lot to build a coop out of salvaged materials from the ReStore itself.

At one point, I thought to myself, "What a diverse group we are. We range from me, the youngest, to a gay man in his fifties, a lesbian couple, and a young man with a five year old son." Then I realized that every single one of us was white.

It was highly amusing, watching nine or so people with seemingly little carpentry experience be directed by Brad, who's a pretty quiet and overly polite kind of guy. We had to do most things twice, but we had an almost-finished coop by the time we started cleaning up. We built a chicken tractor, a design with a built-on run, that can be moved around the yard so that the chickens don't destroy whatever surface they're on.

This workshop combined with the Chickens 101 class I took last month leave me feeling pretty confident in my basic chicken knowledge. Can't wait to put it to use! Who knows, maybe I'll set up a wee coop on the deck of the Valkyrie if we move onto it next summer.

2009-10-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

"The land still provides our genesis, however we might like to forget that our food comes from dank, muddy earth, that the oxygen in our lungs was recently inside of a leaf, and that every newspaper or book we may pick up is made from the hearts of trees that died for the sake of our imagined lives."
-Barbara Kingsolver

2009-10-04T16:00:00.001-07:00

Charles sent me this photo of Ginger.

2009-10-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

I just read the entirety of Rice Boy by Evan Dahm instead of doing homework. It's astounding! You should read it.

2009-09-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

Sprouts emerging from beans.

Nikki and Charles sent me these photos of my niece, Ginger. My mom has a hat like that and she looks just about that cute in it.

Photo of Jordi, looking annoyed at me in Sacramento. Warms my cockles.

2009-09-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday ended up being great, starting with my visit to Seattle Tilth. We harvested tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, basil, eggplant, beans, zucchini, and lemon cucumber (which are spiny! Who knew?). It was extremely gratifying, and they even gave me some tomatillos, a tomato, a zucchini, and a sprig of basil.

I cooked it up when I went to see Colleen (!!!!!), who is freshly yet temporarily back in town. I just threw it all in a pot with olive oil, cornmeal, and salt and pepper. 'Twas the bomb diggity.

Last night, Caelum and I went to square dancing at the Tractor Tavern. We got there a half hour after it started, so the first crew of dancers were on the floor, getting lessons on following the caller. It was total mayhem - no one knew what they were doing at all. We even ran into Caelum's friend, Gabe Strand, who was manning a bake sale, benefiting a big huge square dance that will take place in Capitol Hill later this year. His group is called the Seattle Subversive Square-Dancing Society. An excellent title!

Fortunately, square dancing happens at the Tractor Tavern every other week, so we can soon return.

2009-09-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Over the past days, I have been discouraged from the Danny Woo/SU alliance of bees that I had been working for, overlooked by a farmer I really respect, and thoughtlessly denied the possibility of keeping chickens (merely three!).

I am excited about the things going on in Seattle right now that are inspiring people to produce their own food. I want take part - to grow veggies, keep chickens, learn how to care for a beehive, milk my own goddamn goats. I am aware that I am a broke college student who rents an apartment in the city, and not capable of having my own urban farm. I did think, however, that having three chickens was reasonable, in light of my current situation. BUT no. I am just really sick and tired of people catching the enthusiasm I toss at them and grinding it under foot. Every time it happens I get a little less capable of producing enthusiasm to toss.

I'm going to Seattle Tilth this morning to work in the garden and talk to people who are positive. This should help.

Also, once I get some money, I am going to build a humongous worm bin in the sideyard (where my chickens were supposed to go) and am I going to ask my landlord? FUCK no. I have to get some fertile soil from somewhere in my garden, and it sure isn't growing underneath the ivy desert that's in the front.

2009-09-08T21:15:00.001-07:00

I have become obsessed by the idea of keeping chickens in our unused side yard. I am waiting for a few days to pass after our late submission of rent so that I can call my landlord and see what he thinks about it...

A gardener bribed me with fresh lettuce from her [mother's] garden today. She wants me to get Jonathan to recreate the paths so that they're not narrow and treacherous for any elder who might wish to work in their garden. PSHAW.

2009-08-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

Oh, PS: Y'all should check out M. Bison, a Seattle band that Skyler told me about this evening. Apparently Goodness Gracious Me played with them in Sacramento and he thought they were pretty righteous.

2009-08-27T02:15:00.000-07:00

Hell yeah, Seattle family portrait (missing myself, clearly)!

2009-08-27T02:06:00.001-07:00

A project I would really like to complete:
1) Take a photo of myself, naked.
2) Record what I eat every day for 1 month.
3) Record what kind of exercise I got every day for that same month.
4) Take another photo of myself, naked, at the end of the month to see if I look differently.
There might be better results after 6 months, but just one month of that sounds exhausting, which is probably a good indication of what sort of a worker I am. Not a hard one, I might venture.

Other explorations into being conscious of what I consume are also interesting to me. For example, not eating for one week would be incredible. I don't think I could probably do it without some heady preparations, honestly.

2009-08-24T12:54:00.001-07:00

The other night, we were falling asleep and Caelum said, "It's hard for me to say."
I looked blindly in his direction, puzzled, and then realized he was talking in his sleep. "What are you dreaming?" I asked.
He woke up. After a minute he said, "I was thinking that because of my rock n roll lifestyle, I had no point of reference. I was imagining myself as a leather-clad Harley midget."

Being around Jordan, Hollis, and Ben reminds me of why I used to quote my friends all the time. Sometimes I feel like nowadays I just don't have the discipline to discern amusing quotes, but it's actually because those three are very quotable and my Seattle friends apparently aren't.

ME: You'd be dirty, too, if you were a polar bear in captivity.
JORDAN: How can you say that? You have no way to know that.

2009-08-18T17:26:00.000-07:00

Today, Terry and I went to the Seattle Aquarium before lunch with Caelum (at the Pink Door!). The sea otters are at the end of the display, after all the lewd and colorful fish and aquatic vegetation (including a very sorrowful octopus). We watched them scratching themselves all over, and after I had quietly worried that they were sick, I realized that they were probably oiling themselves, duck fashion.

After I had moved beyond my initial wild conjectures, I did a little research. I found out that sea otters use AIR instead of oil to keep their bodies dry. Their body temperatures are over 100 degrees! To keep theirselves warm, they blow bubbles into their fur (which has about half a million hairs PER SQUARE INCH...holy hell) by turning in the water and voraciously rubbing themselves. Caelum says that they spend 70% of their time doing this, lest they die of hypothermia.

Herm. Humans' lack of vital activities, outside of eating and sleeping, may be what gives us such existential angst. Sea otters have no time to ponder their purpose in the world, and if they did, they would clearly come to the conclusion that their purpose is to blow bubbles, spin around in the water, and rub themselves. Not bad.

2009-08-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

Sean and I have a perilous job, which today involved shoving Sean's upper body into the chipper-shredder.

2009-08-13T17:26:00.001-07:00

The Danny Woo Community Garden’s Bearcat chipper-shredder somehow got its sticky hands on my personal destiny for today. Jonathan instructed Shuna and me to put the entirety of the 15’x6’ compost pile through our 3” chipper-shredder, so we trucked it up the hill, gathered our pitch forks and safety goggles, and proceeded to approach the small mountain of decaying matter located at the back of the garden.

Soon I was shoving green and brown goods through the machine with a feeling of disgust at the violence of the act. My disgust gave through to pure, greedy enjoyment just as large quantities of white smoke started pouring out of the chipper-shredder, filling the entire pocket of the garden.

“Aaaah! Aaron!” I yelled to my garden colleague who was building a wall further down.

He fixed that and I happily went on my chipping-shredding way. One hour later, though, the teeth stopped masticating. My enthusiastic shoving of plant matter down its throat had caused the machine to loosen its belt, and stop chewing. Sad.

Well, I took the motor off and removed the belt, planning to buy a new one. Then I talked to a guy on the phone who told me to put it back on (after removing the motor again) and then I made lots and lots of phone calls to every hardware store in Seattle that doesn’t carry chipper-shredder belts. When I finally found a place that does sell them (in West Seattle) he needed me to take the belt off again (after removing the motor) and bring it to him so he could be sure to sell me the correct one.

After all that, Princess Chipper-Shredder gets to sleep in the cozy tool-shed tonight because of the rain. Well pooh-pooh.

2009-08-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

Best word verification yet: PROVABLE GRANDMOTHER. Thank you, craigslist.

2009-07-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

After hauling wheelbarrows of gravel up and down the hill on Kobe Terrace, my back has gone out, as it is wont to do.

I am tired of having a bad back, and want it to be actually HEALED, not just feeling better. Though my body was crying, "Chiropractor! Please!" I opted to try acupuncture.

I found a community acupuncturist that charges according to a sliding scale based on income (great, considering that my income is $00.00). I trucked it to Beacon Hill, let him put needles into my hands and feet, and fell asleep for TWO HOURS.

This is not the first time that I have overslept unto humilation this summer. I have started telling people to make sure to wake me up. I don't mind getting up - in fact, I like to! I just need some encouragement because I fucking love to sleep. So, WAKE ME UP. Please!

2009-07-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

Interns at the Danny Woo Community Garden:
Aaron (landscape architecture work study student from UW)
Sean (fellow SU student)
Will (visiting from Atlanta, Georgia. Also unpaid)
Myself (unpaid intern)
Jonathan today dubbed us THE DREAM TEAM

I was given the task of planting something in the western part of the garden so that the transients who drink, sleep, fuck, and poop there will stop doing so.

I shall plant edible natives! AND INOCULATE LOGS WITH STINKY YET DELICIOUS MUSHROOMS

2009-07-02T17:29:00.001-07:00

Ginger is wildly goodlooking.

2009-07-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Passing the welding shop down the street this afternoon, I noticed that their thermometer read 79 degrees. Whatever sensor decided that temperature was not planting buckwheat under the apexed sun at the Danny Woo Garden.
Chapin from SU volunteered today, so we got to work together. Our task was to clear two weedy plots that weren’t being used, remove the divider between them (which included removing rebar that had been thoughtlessly shoved into the ground), level them out, and plant buckwheat, which would occupy the space until the chickens are moved in. A seemingly simple task. Jonathan seemed surprised when I staggered in at 2:45, blotchy and soaked in sweat, and told him I’d have to come into tomorrow to finish, lest I collapse in a sunstroke.
Soon I will be able to complete physically demanding, shadeless jobs without such setbacks. My lower back taught me today that if I don’t put sunscreen on it, it will turn a violent shade of red. I could hear my newly purchased straw hat crying to me from the boat, and I wished fervently that I could perform the Accio sunhat! spell,*

*at first I couldn’t remember the spell, so I googled it, but even before the google page loaded, I remembered. Am I proud? I really couldn’t say.

2009-07-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

My first day as an unpaid intern at the Danny Woo Garden in the International District was a short one, from nine until two. During that time, I was assigned only one physical task: to water the newly planted Siberian Sea Buckthorn plants, which had been given their new home to discourage the rampant fallatio/babymaking that happens/ed there (Jonathan refers to this part of the garden as the "sex alley"). As the location of the plants is in the corner of the garden, I had to drag a hose around the corner so that it wouldn’t tangle on the plots between the water source and the site that needed watering.
Well, dragging a hose is no easy task, my friends. Every step I took it caught on a post or I tripped. Just getting the hose the 40 feet I needed to move it took me about fifteen minutes. The whole time I kept looking over my shoulder, hoping with all my might that no one would be looking back at me.
I triumphantly arrived in front of the Sea Buckthorns and twisted the power nozzle to the “ON” position. I had just thoroughly soaked the first plant when I realized that there was one on the other side of the alley, and I had to water that one first before the entrance to the alley got too wet.
I borrowed an empty bucket from a nearby plot and began filling it with the hose. The water coming from the power nozzle was so forceful that it got all over me when I pointed it into the bucket, so I thought I’d just take it off and use the regular hose end. I proceeded to do so without walking back to turn off the water, which resulted in my front and face getting soaking wet. I deftly screwed the power nozzle back on, and, choosing the lesser of two evils, filled the bucket.
Fortunately, I ended up watering the Siberian Sea Buckthorns without anyone seeing me, and I was almost dry when I met up with the others at the end of the hour.

2009-06-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

My mom, the nurse, is asserting that my cat has a neuro-deficit disorder.

2009-06-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

This is my niece, Ginger Rae Beall, on her first day!

2009-06-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Last night, as I sat on the deck, waiting for Caelum to join me, I happened to glance across the marina and notice that I was not alone out there. There was a man directly across from me, in a relaxed stance, perusing the night. We made eye contact and acknowledged each other, and that was when I realized that his thumbs were not in his beltloops, as I had imagined earlier – he was peeing. In my direction.

I’m in the boat right now, officially moving my stuff into its new place. Combined, mine and Caelum’s tea and spice collections are mighty indeed, far too large for this tiny boat on which we reside. Fortunately, it will not be long until our stores have dwindled to a more manageable size, seeing as how much we like tea and spiced foods.

Another thing that will be more manageable is life aboard once I know more lingo. Here's a texting conversation that exemplifies this:
CAELUM: You are silly. What were you looking for?
ME: I was looking for the pan and then once I found it I couldn't turn the rangetop on. It doesn't work, does it? I really wanted some cream o wheat!
CAELUM: It does work, you have to turn the gas on first, it's out under the tiller, then you turn on the burner, hold down the button on the front and light it.
ME: What the holy hell is this "tiller" you speak of?

2009-06-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Since Monday, I’ve been on a service immersion trip through the Center for Service and Community Engagement at Seattle U, called “Earth, Air, Water.” We were exploring environmental issues around the Seattle area and doing some service hours as well. We were staying at the SU Homestead in North Bend, about 40 minutes out of Seattle.

Monday, we went to see Farmer Erik at Jubilee Farm, a biodynamic farm in Carnation. We pulled plantain and other weeds out of some broccoli rows. He also spoke to us for a while, as he is wont to do, and inspired me a lot, as usual.

Tuesday, we met up with some folks from Mountains to Sound Greenway to help build a trail. We hiked up a mountain between Mount Si and Mount Tennerick (?), carrying tools, and then moved a lot of rocks around for a couple of hours, trying to get them into a stable situation so they could be walked on.
After that, we went for a tour of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery.

Wednesday, we met with representatives from the EPA and Washington Department of Ecology to discuss the Superfund sites on the Duwamish “waterway.” Afterwards, we took a kayak tour of those sites, which was a really great way to see first-hand what is going on there.

Yesterday, we did some invasive plant removal at a place on the Duwamish that had been replanted, and then went to the Duwamish Longhouse to get a tour from James and learn the history of his tribe.

Last night we were all kind of creeped out by the legend of the little girl who comes into the Homestead, looking for her bracelet, if you leave the doors or windows open. We finally turned the lights off about 12:30, and right as we were drifting off I received a text message from my mom, informing me that Nikki was in labor.

Lizzy Fox and Alison Pollack kindly offered to drive me back into Seattle so that I could get Caelum’s car and drive out to Mount Vernon to be there for the birth. We were driving up the long dirt driveway to the road when the AVC light that had been blaring at us all week decided to make good on its threat. We slowed on the hill, the tires started spinning, and then we were going backward. Lizzy, the driver, was yelling, “The brakes aren’t working! The brakes aren’t working!” as Alison and I sat, frozen and useless. Fortunately, she pulled the E brake just as we moved into the bushes toward the trees.

Caelum again saved the day by meeting me up in North Bend, and I continued on up the 5 after dropping him off in Ballard. I arrived at the Skagit Valley hospital around 4:30 and met Nikki, Charles, and Marla in the hospital room. Nikki was standing up, swaying and smiling at us in her little pink nightgown. She was a powerful and amazing creature in labor. I will never forget it.

After only about two or three hours in the hospital, Nik gave birth to Ginger Rae Beall at 6:37 am, June 19th, 2009. She’s 7 pounds, 18 inches, with so much curly black hair that the nurse, Kim, had to shampoo it. I am completely in love with her.

2009-06-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

“Industrial agriculture receives government subsidies on a huge scale that makes it cost-effective for farmers to burn the equivalent of 400 gallons of oil a year for every person fed – so that simply feeding America expends 120 billion gallons of oil a year, more than most countries consume for all purposes.”
-Edward Humes, Eco Barons

I know, I know, the whole eco[insert word] thing is getting really old. But, man, we're all so damn overfed. It's shameful.

2009-06-08T12:09:00.001-07:00

I had a dream last night/actually more this morning that was so involving that I slept really late. These days I usually only sleep late when I'm being entertained by a dream.
It involved being sexually harassed/molested by a South American Jesuit, killing someone who tried to take Gracious* hostage, talking to Dana Vigran in Spanish, and trying to get Francesca a job at Taxi Dogs.
Right now I sort of feel hungover from all that dream action.
I'm on the boat on a Monday, at noon, by myself. I can imagine living here really well, which is great since I'll be moving here within the month. I think that Gracious will actually dig it. It's not as dark as it is in midwinter, when we all are deprived of light SO SHE WILL JUST HAVE TO DEAL.
Summer freedom is dangling just INCHES (days?!) away from my eager fingertips.

*my cat

2009-05-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

I went to Moses Coulee this weekend for an EVST 200 field trip. We stayed at the bottom of a canyon.

We did a transect on the creek that runs through the Nature Conservancy's property there. I was in pungent silt up to my knees downriver of a dead porcupine for part of the transect, and I was really into it. When did I start liking these things? I remember looking at an article about the dwindling bat populations of the Northeast, and all of the sudden I'm an environmental studies student, wading in mud with a big smile on my face.