What We Need Is Here

De-cluttering update

This time last year I was about to sell my house and begin the process of downsizing - a physical chore with all kinds of psychological, emotional, and philosophical baggage attached to it. Sorting through the stuff in my brain took at least as much time as going through the accumulated stuff in the house. Now, almost nine months in, it's time to assess.

First, let me confess that I ended up cheating. I rented a storage unit in which to store a few things for a year - like the many boxes of books that belong to my son in grad school, the personal memorabilia of my other adult children (who are supposed to be going through it at some point...), and some furniture that I wasn't sure if we needed and hated to get rid of prematurely. Three more months.

That said, I don't really miss any of the things I gave away or sold, and I look around my living space here and think about how many other things I might give away. I like the spareness, and I like the fact that we use pretty much everything we have and that I know where it all is.

Still the "attachment issues" remain. Because we share our house with five other people regularly (and more on cold or rainy nights), I often find myself ridiculously bothered by people using my things, especially when they use them badly - scratching my dining table (not an heirloom, not expensive, and I only owned it a couple years before moving), using my grandmother's spring-form pan to hold leftovers, breaking the blender... These are all things I intentionally decided to share because I did not have any particular attachment to them. And now when I ponder my upset about them, I am flummoxed. Did I just transfer my old attachments to these things? Could it be that ownership is so ingrained in us that we're compelled to do it - a variety of animal territoriality?  Or is it that, regardless of how often we demanded it of our children, we really just don't like sharing very much? 

I have no idea. But I am learning. And what a good place to finally drive the lesson home.

Sadness can't cope with me

Beneficence - a little ladybug came with the cucumber transplants

No puede conmigo
la tristeza
la arrastro hacia la vida
y se evapora

Sadness
can't cope with me
I lead it toward life
and it evaporates

- Claribel Alegría

Rogue North Florida Gardens

We're planting! The preparation was finished up yesterday morning, and purchased transplants (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers) are in the ground! We also seeded the first round of green beans - both pole and bush. While we were working, our mid-western helpers had a lot of questions about why we ignore seed packets and just about all other common garden wisdom in our preparation and planting.

It's because we live in North Florida. It's a no man's land between USDA zones 9a and 8b where soil consistency varies between lots, where insects and fungi thrive, and where old patterns of rain and temperature have not been very reliable lately. We make our own rules.  Mwahahahaha!

Soil preparation: We don't till. One reason is that we have some particularly heinous weeds here that thrive when tilled, just sending out new rootlets along their broken stems. Another is that there are good things in there - like earthworms and beneficial insects, microbes, etc. - that like the little world they've created for themselves. Since good soil is the basis for everything we're going to grow, we try to disturb it as little as possible. For new plots we loosen grass and weeds by wiggling a shovel gently beneath them and pulling them out by hand. Labor intensive - but good work for groups who want to garden.  If we'd had more notice about this lot, we would probably have covered it with cardboard for a season to help some of the vegetation die back and begin composting. It would have saved us some work and added more nutrients to the soil. 

Seeds and transplants:  A number of vegetable seeds that seed packets will suggest fare better sown directly into the ground, we sow in containers to be transplanted later. We need to baby our baby plants here. Periods of soil-baking drought followed by torrential downpours are one reason. We can better mind our sprouting seeds and keep them consistently watered if they're growing in seed flats. Another is the variety of sprout-loving insects that lurk in the garden, waiting for just this kind of thing. And then there are squirrels. How do they know we just planted corn or sunflower seeds? Do they smell them? Or were they watching from the trees?  Better to give the little plants a head start before we send them out into the cruel world. 

In short,the only things we sow as seeds are plants that truly do not do well when transplanted: root vegetables (carrots, radishes, etc.) and green beans. Everything else gets its start in flats or pots so they can grow up a little before having to fend for themselves.

Mulching: We cover every bit of soil. Mulching both keeps moisture in by prohibiting quick evaporation and keeps weeds down by shielding them from sunlight. We use fallen leaves in the path and hay around the plants to distinguish walking areas from areas freshly planted or about to be planted - keeping soil impaction in the beds to a minimum and saving new sprouts from being stepped on. It also looks pretty. And all that mulch will compost itself as the season wears on, enhancing soil fertility for next seasons veggies.

Watering: We rarely use a sprinkler, preferring to hand water directly at the roots of the plants; this saves water and, during a drought, directs the water to the plants we want to grow rather than to awaiting weeds seeds.  If we could afford it, we would invest in drip irrigation. Someday. For now, we're happy strolling through the garden each day, carefully watering each little plant while contemplating our good fortune to have this plot to water.   

We can use these more labor intensive methods because we have a relatively small garden - not field after field to be planted and cared for. But the principles are the same for sustainable farming as well (on large farms, not on huge agribusiness enterprises which are too big to manage sustainably).  Knowing your particular place - bioregion, ecosystem, neighborhood - in all its peculiarities and conforming the garden/farm practices to that knowledge is vital.  And keeping an eye to the future health of that place and the future eaters (whom ideally you care about as family and neighbor) is simply good practice - wherever and whoever you are. 

It's a good system to be a  part of, even in a small way. We're grateful to the farmers and gardeners who've passed down these ways to us.

Garden update - and growing through the economic crisis

We are so close to being able to start planting. Seven people working several hours each day has produced an almost weed-, brick-, rock-, broken glass-free, 20' X 35' area of awaiting soil. Almost.

We are fortunate that a group of young adults from the University of Cincinnati decided to join our household during their spring break - right at the time the empty lot became available for a garden. They are a joy to work with, and much needed labor!

I'm generally inclined to appreciate any person on an "alternative" spring break.  Being oriented toward something a little different, they seem particularly open-minded, and even enthusiastic about some of the goals we have around here. No one balked at flushing the toilets with gray water from the sinks and showers. And when I talked with some of them about our kitchen policy and "food theology" they asked good questions and seemed well-disposed overall toward the idea of eating more simply and with the well-being of others in mind. They seem to want something more, but not in a material sense. It gives me hope that these are some of the young adults next in line to take the reins.

Ironically, one morning while the students were gardening, I needed to step out for a while to talk to another young adult I know who had a problem he wanted to discuss with me: crippling credit card debt that had gotten completely out of control. He couldn't make the monthly payments anymore and wondered whether he should try to consolidate the debt through credit counseling or seek bankruptcy. On top of it, he was deeply ashamed and embarrassed to be in this situation. My first inclination was to encourage him by reminding him that he is not alone - that people all over the country (some with a lot more life experience than he has) are faced with debts they cannot pay, and to tell him that we could look together at the options for handling the debt. But there is so much more to say.

I tend to think of crises of all stripes as spiritual/moral ones, crossroads where you have to look hard at yourself and decide not only what you are going to do, but what kind of person you are going to be. But I want to talk about the economic crisis - both personal and national - in this context for very practical reasons; I think the other solutions - getting bailed out by the creditors or the government or a family friend - are not getting to the root of the problem. Surprisingly, my young friend didn't balk at this. He wanted to talk about his drive to prove himself to his family and friends by appearing successful, i.e. having and doing lots of stuff. He wanted to confess that he kept telling himself "his ship was about to come in" - graduation, the first job, the raise, the tax return, etc. - and would wipe the slate clean for him. His biggest worry was not his credit rating or even the problem of having a lot of worthless stuff that he was expected to pay for over the course of many years. His biggest worry was what people would think of him.

I think this is a burden so many in our country drag around - the need to prove our worth to others by the things we own, the places we can afford to vacation, even the degrees we were able to purchase with student loans.  We've had it driven into our heads for so long that happy or good or smart or successful people (choose your measure) must have certain things (an SUV or a Prius, an expensive dinner out or a concert experience, a cruise or a "green vacation"), that we've lost our ability to think what it is we value or need for ourselves. We've lost our (own) minds.

These crossroads appear in any life, but it is interesting when so many people arrive at the same one at the same time. What are we going to change? Who do we want to be? I'd much rather be having those conversations than just the ones about what size and type of bailout or stimulus will get us back to where we were the quickest.  Backwards is not the direction we need to be going, or leading our young toward. Fortunately, there's a lot of reason to hope in our young people, both the alternative types and the ones being forced to seek an alternative. We need to grow with them.

Where Does the Dance Begin,Where Does it End?

Seeding the new garden

Don't call the world adorable, or useful, that's not it.
It's frisky, and a theater for more than fair winds.
The eyelash of lightning is neither good nor evil.
The struck tree burns like a pillar of gold.

But the blue rain sinks, straight to the white
feet of the trees
whose mouths open.
Doesn't the wind, turning in circles, invent the dance?
Haven't the flowers moved, slowly, across Asia, then Europe
until at last, now, they shine
in your own yard?

Don't call the world an explanation, or even an education.

When the Sufi whirled, was he looking
outward, to the mountains so solidly there
in a white-capped ring, or was he looking

to the center of everything: the seed, the egg, the idea
that was also there,
beautiful as a thumb
curved and touching the finger, tenderly,
little love-ring,

as he whirled,
oh jug of breath
in the garden of dust?

- Mary Oliver, from Why I Wake Early (1984)

White House/Blue House Garden

An idea whose time has come! The Obamas are starting a garden on the South Lawn. While it's true it's no panacea for our dilapidated food system, maybe Michelle Obama will do for healthy food and gardening what she's doing for the toned upper arm. Soon Americans will be chomping at the bit to "turn their lawns into Michelle Obama lawns."

Coincidentally, the same day Michelle announced the new garden, we got the go ahead to garden on an empty lot in our neighborhood! 

Let the arugula begin!

I can't stop loving you...

I am a coffee addict. Coffee does not grow in Gainesville.

Lucky for me, I am not a purist (so I tell myself), so I can compromise when absolutely necessary (and it IS absolutely necessary) and buy fair-trade, bird-friendly, organic, etc., etc., etc. But no coffee I buy and brew at home tastes half as good as the stuff for which I spend ten times as much at a coffee shop and drink with a friend - or a good book and a little knitting.

It's the experience, the ritual... I recently read that it is now a Documented Fact that ritual is important to the enjoyment of the cuppa. Apparently the good feeling associated with the caffeine buzz attaches itself to the props as well - the mouth-feel of a particular cup, the ambience of a particular coffee shop, the morning ritual of newspaper and quiet. Put more bluntly: "People develop a passion for the way the drug is delivered." 

Right now, I really like my drug delivered at Volta. How this place escaped my notice for as long as it did is amazing to me. Volta specializes in coffee, tea, and CHOCOLATE for Pete's sake. It is a five minute walk from my house. I can practically see it from my front door. 

It is a little pricey - which will hopefully help limit my consumption. It's also not a grab and go kind of place. I've noticed most people stopping in and staying to drink, eat (they've got pastries...), read, and use the WiFi.  So it's community-building, okay?  Local community building, that's why I go.

the next generation (it's hot chocolate!)

Blue House Pants™

family pants

I love it when resources and needs come together. So often it's the other way around: There's a need for a vacation, but no time or money. Or tons of seeds, but no garden space.  How about this: There's a need for fair-trade boxer shorts, and we have a lot of sheets.

We're hoping this may morph into a "cottage industry" for our Catholic Worker House; you can read more here. But we're also thinking it's a good way to help clothe a family. Re-using is time-honored for sure. Before the advent of shockingly cheap clothing (back when we used to manufacture clothing in the USA and labor laws forced us to offer fair hours and wages, safe working conditions, and adult labor), families saved money by handing down clothes, often re-made to fit the next in line.

Now we're looking at sheets and other large swaths of fabric with fresh eyes: I see embroidered baby pants from the sage green flannel sheets; I see skirts and pants from the floral curtains we no longer have windows for (uh oh, now I'm seeing the Trapp family on the Sound of Music - STOP!).

And I'm seeing "locally sewn" pants-making this Saturday in our dining room. If you know how to sew and can help, or if you want to learn how to sew (so you can help), stop by.

locally-sewn

What would we create?

Native Columbine

it's like being sick all the time, I think, coming home from work, 

sick in that low-grade continuous way that makes you forget

what it's like to be well. we have never in our lives known

what it is to be well. what if I were coming home, I think, 

from doing work that I loved and that was for us all, what

if I looked at the houses and the air and the streets, knowing

they were in accord, not set against us, what if we knew the powers

of this country moved to provide for us and for all the people - 

how would that be - how would we feel and think

and what would we create?

- Karen Brodine, "June 78"

Thank you, Jon Stewart

This morning, we watched the much touted face-off between Jon Stewart and financial commentator Jim Cramer on "The Daily Show."  Please bear with the discomfort of watching someone publicly exposed as an unethical liar, and watch it.  Jon Stewart, a comic, is such an unlikely hero; but here he is doing the hard work of real journalism - researching the facts, asking what, why, how, and reporting them with candor and passion. After one video clip of Cramer describing how to manipulate markets to make a lot of money quick (at the expense of someone who actually works for a living), Stewart describes how sick and angry it makes him that the retirement accounts of so many hard working folks were played around with like this.

What does this have to do with "living locally?" We're watching an economic system collapse, and along with it - one hopes - the collapse of greed and self-centeredness as the admired and rewarded traits they became among us. We've got something to learn as we do the hard work of remaking the way we take care of ourselves and each other - which is, at its core, what economic (and food, and healthcare, etc.) systems are for.

Jon Stewart unveiled a little more of the truth last night. I'd love to see us turn our anger and disgust into passion for change and the energy to make it happen.