An Alternate Reality

That’s the name given to my new podcast.
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It’s a format where I can give a voice to my observations and ramble a little bit about...oh, you know. Just life

An alternate reality sort of describes the way I’ve chosen to live.  I really don’t fit into the parameters dictated by society, especially for someone my age.

Born under mutable Gemini, I find myself constantly drifting from one expression of reality to another.  It follows me in my daily routine, (what routine??) and allows me to navigate through a sort of platform 9 3/4 on my way to whatever expression of myself I need to be to get the job done, whether I need to be a book-binder, a farmer, an energy worker, a writer, chief cook and bottle washer, accountant and book keeper, and/or just general dog’s body and go-for.

After a few years of living like that, I had sort of moved into a very narrow expression of myself, perhaps in order to move into the confines of each job I was asking myself to do.

“Wait a minute!”  I had to ask myself, “When did that happen??”  Time to let my mind expand again. Time to remember a more fluid way of doing this.  Time to release tightly woven bonds that have crept in...the learned patterns that twine around me like ivy twining round a tree.  Eventually the ivy becomes a parasite that kills its host.

Yeah, so fair warning...If you listen to An Alternate Reality, you may be in for that kind of a ramble.  Also stories, essays, and just plain (or not so plain) observations about life in my little world, and the world beyond.

Eccentricity Rules!

I spend a lot of time binding books for our small family run press.  And yet it is only one of 4 jobs I work to earn money, not to mention the non money earning jobs I do, which are every bit as important.

I have a bit of a love hate relationship with my binding work.  The hate part comes from the friction caused by Mike and I working together under the same roof and never being able to separate business from personal.  (Word of advice...Don't try this without a net.)

But recently, Mike decided that I was done binding.  He had a call out to a local binder to see if we could afford to outsource our books.  He had the best reasons.

Mike can not help it, he micro manages everything in his life.  And I can't help it...I don't.

Two polar opposites.

It drives him crazy and he'd had enough.  We talked it through and I was finally convinced that there was no getting away from it.  It's just too stressful for Mike to work with someone as quirky as I am.  And his stress affects me, even when he tries valiantly to hide it.

I pointed out to him, that he might still be just as stressed working with a new binder.  To which he replied, "Yes, but I won't be living under the same roof with that person."

Soooo, I agreed to his plan.  But inside I was feeling like a jealous woman.  Here he was "leaving me for another binder.  After giving him the best years of my life!"  All the clichés fit the situation.

I kept telling myself I should be happy to be done with it.  I have way too much on my plate.  But I couldn't help it.  I very much identify with being the binder for Pegana Press and I feel good about the job I do.  Especially since I am self taught.

The phone call from the prospective binder came just after lunch.  And I found myself muttering under my breath as Mike stepped out to the porch to take the call in private.  "Fine! Go ahead and leave me...grumble, grumble."

"You're jealous!", I told myself.  "So what!", I retorted back.  But I suddenly knew, that she wouldn't take the job.  After all, she's a professional master binder.  She's not crazy!

When Mike got off the phone, he confirmed what I already knew to be true.  She wanted more than we could afford to pay.  (She would actually be making more than we would per book if we could somehow convince her to even take the job.)

She had also checked out our website, and she couldn't understand why we needed a binder.  She thought our work was well done, and after reading about my process, said that I was doing all the steps.

My inner voice said, "You tell him, my sister!" Mike also said that she sounded relieved when he told her we couldn't afford it for this current book.  Like I said--She's not crazy!

Hand binding is very detailed, labor intensive, plain ol' hard work!  I picked it up out of necessity and found that I liked doing it.

I know that by trying to find a binder, Mike was trying to give me a break (and give himself a break from the difficulty of having to trust that it will all get done on time, and look just fine).  But I feel like my personal stock just went up.  Because there is no way around it.  I am the book binder for Pegana Press.

He ended our conversation with, "I guess you're stuck with it.  A normal wife would have told me --there is no way I'm doing this!

I responded with, "Yes, but then a normal wife also wouldn't do her dishes outdoors using the wheel barrow as a sink, so that you can mix a tune for a client and not compete with that noise."

And if you think I'm kidding, here is proof.

I know, but eccentricity rules!

Monday Moonday

The Mamas and The Papas sang "Monday, Monday can't trust that day...."

Being self employed, I never have a problem with Monday.  In fact, I'm hard pressed to tell Monday from any other day of the week, since I pretty much work 7 days a week.  (An occupational hazard of the self employed is to learn how to draw those boundary lines between work and personal, which I haven't really figured out yet, but I'm working on it.)

Today was wonderful because I was able to pick up my life again after my marathon sequester last week.  I cleared everything from my calendar in order to make sure that the tax return would get done on time, and hooray! it did.

But not my favorite kind of work.

So today I was able to engage in my favorite kind of work, which is the business of living.  I love taking care of house and home, growing food, raising chickens and seeing clients for energy work.   I love making my own shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste.  I love it when my skin and hair smell like fresh air and sunshine because I've been outdoors for hours. And I love cooking outdoors, then sitting around the fire afterwards, gazing at the moon and stars to wind down the day.

I'm trying to continue to find time to bind books for Pegana Press too.  Today I think I worked out a schedule where I work on book binding between 8 and 11, and then see clients in my healing practice between Noon and 3 pm.  That way I still have time to fix meals for us all and then I can crash in the afternoon.  I think it's a good Summer schedule, because it allows for working outdoors in the very early morning and the early evening when things are cooler.  I am learning to adapt my schedule to match the ever shifting seasons, especially with the changing weather patterns we are having now...It's the Pacific NW for heaven's sake...We just don't have 87 degree weather in April!

But yes, I guess that is now a possibility.  All potentials exist, and I'm feeling the need to be flexible.  So I have also adopted the practice of Siesta in the hottest time of the day which seems to be late afternoon.  And today I needed it!! And really appreciated it.

It left me feeling energized so I could tackle the super wild part of my yard.  I was just going to build the fence to bypass that area, but I got thinking about it and really, the practical thing to do would just be to clear the blackberry overgrowth and include the old rusty metal storage shed -which I never use- to maybe do something practical with it.

This evening I uncovered a beautiful Hazel (one of my favorite trees) which was being choked out by brambles.  My heart glowed to see it, and I found myself whispering to it, "Do you trust me?", because I wanted it to know I would go carefully and cautiously while I was removing the thorny plants around it.

I also freed up the tall Oregon Grape which was in danger of being covered by long thick blackberry canes.  Now it should be much easier to build the fence in that area, with just a little more work.

I also uncovered some wood and some perfectly good fence posts.  It just goes to show you that treated wood will stand up to the test of time even after laying on the ground, half covered with soil for the past 15 years at least.  I'm going to use the posts to build frames to hang a gate on, so I won't have to contort myself, to avoid getting hung up on primitive wire "gates" to get around my yard.

The fence building project is going slower than I wanted it to.  But I'm trying to keep at it because I'm anxious to plant, and there's just no point planting if I can't protect the garden from my chickens who are talented escape artists.  My goal is to have them moved by the end of this week.  Which will also require some pruning.  I realized that the willow is not only the perfect cover, perfect playground for chickens but also the perfect jumping off point to fly right over the fence.  They might not try it if they are entertained enough with their new environment, but why take the chance?

I'm crossing my fingers that I can plant soon!

This photo shows the full grown Peeps perched on branches 10 to 12 feet in the air.  The fence behind them only reaches 8 feet tall.  In this picture you can see how interested they are in the next tree over, which is outside of their yard, and located just a few feet from my raised beds.  The Peeps began flying when they were still only a week old.  And they're very good at it.

Cooking Out

Sunday morning I went to pick up more fencing materials from Kipperts Korner, so I could get the chickens moved and plant my garden.

When I got home Mike suggested we have a barbecue.

Hmmmm.

We don't have a working barbecue anymore, and I stopped buying propane about two years ago because of fracking.

What to do?

I have a kind of cast iron dutch oven and a wrought iron plant stand.  I put the two together and created a make shift hibachi.  The one thing that always survives a rusted out commercial hibachi is the stainless steel grill that comes with them.  I happened to have one or two on hand.  And came up with this design.

It uses very little wood, gets really hot and makes great coals.

And at night you get a cozy little bonfire after supper.

Naughty Girl Tag Team

I think Ruby (hen) and Esmerelda (cat) have formed an alliance with their end goal being to drive the humans insane.  Anyway, that's what it feels like for today.

From early in the morning, I have been kicking both of them out of the house.  And no, Ruby does not live indoors with us, but Esmerelda does and she's been crazy naughty all day.  In fact they both have been into things that they shouldn't be.

And at one point Mike caught them on the back porch together.  I'm sure they must have been comparing notes.  It's just been one of those days where I've spent more time removing animals from places and situations where they don't belong.

My last post was on Thursday the 7th.  We had a wonderful time that evening having dinner with friends.  It's not often Mike stops working long enough to socialize.  But he had a great time, and so did I.

Friday I went on my quest to Kiperts Korner Feed store and found exactly what I spent all day Thursday looking for.  Fencing materials, and they were 25% less than anywhere else I could have gone.  Everything was made in the US and I supported a local business, rather than a corporate box store.

Hooray!

Yesterday we spent the day getting the posts pounded into the ground and the first level of 4 foot welded wire clipped on.  After we quit for the day, I found out Mike had injured his shoulder the day before and didn't tell me how badly he was hurt.  After a day of helping me build the fence, he spent the night in agony.  Fortunately, he's much better today, but I didn't want to continue with the fence project because I knew he'd want to help.  It's unfortunate, because if I don't get those chickens into their new home soon, I won't be able to plant my garden.  Ruby got into the garden area so many times today that I lost count.

General mayhem rules around here.

Sticking To The Plan

It's a crazy ol' world.  And you can lay all that craziness at the feet of human beings.

Today I went on a quest to find 8 ft T posts so I could finally build the fence to the new chicken yard and thus make the garden safe from poultry.  You'd think I was trying to build a skyscraper from toothpicks or something equally ludicrous.

Finding fence posts...It shouldn't be hard.

But the world has gotten complicated and me, with my take on what it is to be a responsible consumer, well that just makes it that much more complicated.  I know this, but I am also too stubborn to give in merely for the sake of convenience.

I began my quest by traveling across town to the west side.  There is a Habitat for Humanity store, and I wanted to see if they had fence posts.  Nope.  But they did have my sink.  Not the sink of my dreams, but a pretty incredible one and for a great price.  So I bought it.

Then I went next door to the True Value Hardware store, because on line it said they had 8 ft fence posts, but nope.  They only had 6 ft. posts.  but I did buy a scrub brush, because it was a stiff natural bristle brush set in wood.  And with my stubborn resistance to buying plastic, I snapped it up.

Then I went next door to the Good Will store just in case they might possibly have fence posts, which they didn't.  But they did have really cheap enamel pans and I had been looking for cheap water pans for the chickens...again, not plastic.

Yes, lots of great stuff that has been on my list, but no fence posts so far.

I headed home and said a prayer that Mike wouldn't rain on my parade about the sink.  But on the way I checked out Lowe's.  They also only had 6 ft posts.  Pretty wretched Lowe's.

When I got home, I thought I'd quietly haul the sink via wheel barrow into the back yard.  No easy task, since it took two strong men to load it into my car.  (Double cast iron porcelain sink.)  I eased it into the wheel barrow, and got it as far as the back gate, when Mike came outside and gave me a hand.  He thought it was a good deal and a nice sink.  I think he was relieved that I got it at Habitat instead of at an antique store.

After telling him I'd had no luck finding fence posts, he got on line and announced to me that True Value had them.  I told him I'd been to the one on the west side and they didn't have the size I needed. We decided to try the one down town, so I called them.  Yes, they had 8 ft T posts in stock.

Hooray!  Mike and I drove into town, and he helped a young man load the fence posts into our car, while I was inside paying for them.  When I got out to the car, I noticed that the posts were different, but didn't know why.  When we got them home, I realized that they were made in China.

What's the difference? you may be asking.

Let's just say that for reasons of my own, I specifically sought out posts that were made in the US.  The True Value Website shows that the fence posts they carry are made in the US.  It didn't occur to me to check because I believed their website.  It's the ol' bait and switch.  Maybe not intentionally...but maybe?

I was angry.  You know, the kind of angry when you've been led down the garden path.  Nothing to shout about or anything, but it is typical business as usual in corporate America and it makes me mad every time it happens.

I could just keep them, and get on with my project.  But I knew I would never be happy about it.  I also knew that every time I looked at my fence I would get angry.  I told Mike that I was disappointed, frustrated and getting angrier by the minute.  He double checked the website and saw that I was right.  What probably convinced him was the sticker on the post driver that declared the product to contain toxic chemicals known to cause cancer and birth defects...Translated that means that there is lead in that there red paint.  I also wondered about the paint that was already chipping off the posts.

I told Mike I had to take them back, and he helped me load them back into the car.  He often thinks I'm crazy, but he gets this.

When I got back into town, I suddenly felt happy.  That's when I knew I was doing the right thing.

If you know me at all, you probably know that I work to eliminate plastic from my life, and try to reduce waste, and I am an advocate for organic sustainable local food production.  But that isn't all there is to it for me.  I also take my role as a consumer very seriously.  In my life time I have watched local businesses and even whole economies ruined by multinational corporations and I am not okay with that.  And it has shaped my habits and my strategies as a consumer.  It has been the reason I always choose local first, and often go without certain things for long periods of time and sometimes all together, to keep me from betraying my principles.  It is the reason I shop at antique stores and second hand stores, and the reason why if I have to buy from corporate America (which is everywhere), I want to know where the product was made, because it will be one of the deciding factors whether I buy or not.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not against corporations in general...just their practices and ethics.  There's an old saying that may be familiar to certain movie fans, which goes "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining."  That about sums it up.

I had no trouble returning the fence posts, but I did have trouble finding something to replace them.  So today I struck out at seven stores.  Even at the big box stores.  So add totally disgusted to the list of emotions experienced in the quest for the simple domestic 8 ft T post.  It's just fence posts for God's sake, not a rare mineral or secret plans or a living coral reef (since we're mentioning hard to find items here).

I returned home totally defeated, and told Mike that I would have to try Lewis County or Mason County next.  Then I suddenly remembered something..."What's the name of that little farm store on highway 99 out by the airport?"

Mike didn't know, but he found it on line.  Kipperts Korner Feed.  I called and this time I asked all the pertinent questions.  "Do you have 8 ft T posts in stock?" "Yes." "Are they the green and white made in the US posts?" "Yes."  "I need a dozen.  Do you have that many in stock?" "We have 500 of them in stock."  Now that's my idea of a farm store.  In response to my enthusiasm, she said "I love it when I give all the right answers!"  I told her she was a blessed angel and that I would be there in the morning.

And Kipperts is local.  Maybe that's why they carry what people need instead of what they want to force us to buy.

Garden Build Day!!

Hooray!  I have my garden beds.  And they're beautiful!

Three people from GRuB arrived at 10:30 am on the dot with a truck load of soil and this beautiful lumber.



Within 2 hours we had these three beds built and filled and the trellis built, too.







They also left me with these lovely plants.

They were such a pleasure to work with.  Fast and efficient and friendly.  It was a wonderful experience.


And they loved the chickens. :)


I feel good right now, but I wonder how I'll feel tomorrow after shifting that much soil.

I can't wait to see food actually growing abundantly on this land.

Later that afternoon...

I went out and walked the beds, pruning any branches away that would interfere with the trellis and putting down straw to make the paths look tidy.

It began raining in the sunshine, so I had to get a picture of that.

The air smelled amazing.  I love that smell of water in the air.

I spent a moment connecting with the spirit of the land.  It approves.

And look...Pachamama is apparently purple.

Zoë and I were sitting on the porch snuggling while we watched it rain, and I suddenly got the impulse to see the sky behind me.

Oh yeah.  Glad I checked it out.

Seems like a good sign to me.

#FeelingBlessed

The Kitchen Garden Project part 3

Pictures

Before

This is the quack grass and chicken scratched lawn that was my back yard.   You can see the large Rosemary bush and what is left of the old herb bed on the right side of the photo.  There are little animal trails still evident in the lawn, a remnant from when Ruby was raising her chicks right outside my back door.

Sod overturned in preparation for raised beds

 Looking the landscape over, I realized that the beds would be on a slope.  The ground here originally had a very gradual declivity sloping away from the patio.  Over time, and with the help of a mole infestation the ground sunk even more in this part of the yard, and became over run with weeds and quack grass.

I wanted the raised beds to be level and decided to get the site ready so on "garden building" day there would be no unexpected challenges.  I leveled the beds by placing sod from the higher side of the beds on the lower side, which evened things out nicely.  This photo shows the spot where two raised beds will go, and also the old herb bed in the back ground.

Originally, I thought I might place the third raised bed on the old herb garden site, but I decided on a different location for it.  I've been burying rotten wood and compost in that old herb bed, and hope to coax it back to productivity now that I've removed the invasive alkanet.

Alkanet growing under my Rosemary bush, looking like a harmless ground cover. If allowed to continue, it will overwhelm the entire site. This alkanet can grow to approximately 2' in diameter in all directions with flower stalks even taller.

While digging the sod, I was careful to take the pieces with quack grass and toss them over the fence to the chickens.  They enjoyed scratching through the clumps for bugs and worms, and ate the grass as well.  I've learned not to turn the quack grass in to compost, because the rhizomes continue to grow and invade the garden site  creating a mesh and chocking out all other plants.  The chickens made short work of it, as well as the large dandelion plants I also dug out.

I'm also taking the opportunity to give my back yard a make over, which is why I was so careful when deciding where the raised beds would go.  Now that I've reinforced the chicken fence, and made it taller, it has (at least for now) stopped the chickens from over running my back yard.  I couldn't blame them for wanting to keep coming back, because the chicks began their lives there.  But I have plans for that part of the yard.

Besides growing food there, I want to create an outdoor kitchen and I want to restore the yard back to a place where the cats can enjoy being outdoors.  With the advent of the chickens, the cats have been all but crowded out of their special, safe, fenced in yard.  And Buddy won't even go outside anymore, because he worries about those strange birds in the yard.  He doesn't trust that they will stay on their side of the fence.

And the chickens have attracted the neighborhood cats, making them determined to get into the yard, which they do by climbing a nearby tree outside the fence, and jumping onto our roof.  This is causing stress on my cats and I worry about fights.  My new plan of action includes moving the chickens outside of the cat's yard and into their very own overgrown part of the yard with more cover.  That part of my yard is very wild, so it will require new sturdy fencing and I will have to move the chicken house.  In it's place, I dream of constructing a small green house where I can start garden plants in the winter, but that may be a ways off.

The outdoor kitchen takes precedence because starting this time of year, I almost can't stand to be indoors.  Last summer, the only way I could get my dishes washed was to set up a dish washing station on the patio so I could be outdoors.  I want to have something more permanent and primitive/cute/rustic in design but very functional.  Instead of plastic tubs on the table, I want something more like this...





Preferably with a dual compartment sink.  These are just too cute.  If I had something like this in my yard, I'd love doing dishes.

For now, this is my yard.  Make over on the horizon.

The Kitchen Garden Project

First things first.  Sparky turned 16 weeks old yesterday, and today he began crowing.  And if you don't think that's just the most adorable and funny sound in the world than you just haven't heard anything like it.  Honestly, I wish I had a recording.

The human equivalent is a young boy when his voice begins to change.


Today was a catch up day with dishes and housework.  At 1:30 Esmerelda had another distance session with healer Sid Snider of Portland.  I got so involved with housework afterwards that Mike had to remind me at 4 pm that we still hadn't eaten.  I made a late lunch for him, and was going to finish vacuuming the bedroom when the belt slipped off and that put an end to that, so I gave in and realized it really was time to eat.

We were kind of sitting around chatting after lunch, when I suddenly realized I had somewhere to be in 10 minutes!!

I have been anticipating this meeting for weeks.  It was on my radar all day long.  But somehow between 2:20 and 5:20 pm it just disappeared from my awareness.  Fortunately, I made the Pre-Season Orientation meeting to participate in The Kitchen Garden Project -and I was only 10 minutes late.

What is the Kitchen Garden Project?

One day --January 31st to be exact--I was visiting my friend Sage Adderley.  She and her family had just moved into a house complete with yard, and she was excited because she had applied for a GRuB garden.  GRuB stands for Garden Raised Bounty.  As she spoke about it, I almost couldn't believe what she was telling me.  A local organization that will build you a garden --free of charge??

She urged me to apply and later that evening she even sent me a link.  I'm so grateful she did.  And I am even more grateful that at the end of a long day, I didn't put off exploring the GRuB website.

Because as it turned out, I did qualify for their KGP (Kitchen Garden Project), and the deadline to apply was January 31st.  It was already after 9 pm on a Sunday evening.  Fortunately, I was able to fill out the form electronically and emailed it off to them with an hour or so to spare.

GRuB Mission Statement

• We inspire positive personal and community change by bringing people together around food and agriculture.
• 
  
• We partner with youth and people with low-incomes to create empowering individual & community food solutions.
• 
  
• We offer tools & trainings to help build a just & sustainable food system.

When they called me less than two weeks later and gave me the news that I had qualified and been picked to receive one of their gardens, I was overcome.  I haven't felt this much anticipation and excitement since I was a kid waiting for Christmas to arrive.  My friend Sage is also receiving a garden.  After the orientation meeting tonight we ripped into our little brown paper sacks of seeds to see what was inside.  She said it first.  "It feels like Christmas!"

Tonight I learned that not only would I be getting 3 raised beds built (4' by 8'), and the soil to fill them, but all the plants as well.  They will be leaving me with seedlings to plant.  They also have other resources available and free classes.  And this project support lasts for two years.

At the end of the meeting, we went up and scheduled our garden building day.  We received A Growing Guide book, filled with info and a brown lunch bag stuffed with seed packets.

I've scheduled my KGP build for April 4.  That's the day when they will show up with a truck load of soil and volunteers will turn lumber into frames for 3 garden beds.  I have 3 spots all picked out and I can't wait.

And here is a picture of the book they put together.  56 pages to help you plan, plant, and maintain your garden, as well as other resources like scheduled workshops and where to find free seeds and other gardening support.

Click the link for more information on the Kitchen Garden Project.

And there is so much more to explore on the GRuB site.  For example The Victory Farm.  

Victory Farm is a safe, non-confrontational environment where veterans work shoulder to shoulder, immersed in the healing nature of the outdoors, agriculture and dirt work. In this environment, we find new meaning and purpose. Stories are shared, new connections are made and roots in community take shape.

There is also the GRuB School.  

For over 15 years, grub has been running agriculture-based alternative education, employment, & drop-out prevention programs that engage local teens in land & community-based projects, working to break cycles of hunger, poverty, inequality, and oppression. From 2001-2011, only 39% of youth who entered GRuB’s youth programs were on track to graduate. Today, 90% have either graduated from high school, are on-track to graduate, and/or have earned their GED and 66% have gone on to college.

GRuB is an amazing organization and I am really grateful for its presence in our community, and that I am now a part of it.