A Hero

Check out this link, please: http://garbagewarrior.com/index.php .
I saw the documentary on television once; the trailors are almost as good- this is a true hero of our day, a Champion, & a brilliant mad man who has a really workable solution (climate changes aside, unfortunately) to housing, garbage, & stepping lightly on the earth. I watched the whole thing partly agape & askew in wonder & frustration at what he went through in New Mexico, out loud laughter, and tears of joy & regret, At least it's POSSIBLE.

What happened next……

A long time since I last posted; a lot happening along with very apparently little….. first, the little:
Chickens: we lost another chicken to a night critter- didn’t put em up soon enough that night. We’re still getting eggs from the red hens; about 4/wk… surprising in this time of little light…. We didn’t expect regular eggs again till spring or so. The remaining white hen, Stripes, molted this year; looked like a frail old chicken for a minute, but’s now back in full henny feather.
Winter Garden: I planted in back, against my better planning, thinking I’d just put the fencing back around the plots….. well, it wasn’t nearly high enough, and the chickens had a Great Feast. We didn’t. In fact, if we were solely food-dependent on our winter harvest and what we stored from fall & summer, we’d be living on a few dried tomatoes, figs, grapes, and three giant zucchini; eggs, once in while; preserved lemons; wild salads, mostly sour grass; a few wild-seed crackers, including naturalized wheat and millet (about 2 cups worth); herbs & herbal teas, of course; about 10 lbs of potatoes; nasturtium capers; uncured olives, 34 of them packed in curing salt; and a few gallons of harvested rainwater.
I console my harvest-seeking self with the realization that this is MUCH better than last year, and next year is sure to be even more….. and my “told you so” self with one does what one can, and keeps on walking the walk, no matter.
Infrastructure: still slowly tooling along, but have moved back to the Front House for main living… front house with electricity, running water…. heat…. and moved almost all Stuff from the Middle, realizing that it’ll be MUCH more efficient to lay flooring and insulation with Stuff out of the way….. we’ve dug the deep trench and installed the conduit for electric to the Middle House, too, and started painting the Front and almost finished the front gracious stairs & porch….. one does what one can.
Then the lot…. Much social and inward change; composting old sour emotional shit, family relationships, old habitual un-needful behaviors; talk about Stop Shopping! (http://www.revbilly.com/…. Check out the music while you shop the site) I’ve begun to stop shopping in the aisles of discontent, going-nowhere-I-want-to-be-relationship; what a deep breath that is…
And what a hard road to travel; at least it’s clearly lit- the road signs say yes, keep going yr own way, focus on the vision, keep on keeping on, no matter what other’s want or expect that’s off the road- they’ve dropped off, gone their own ways without me; as Dr Seuss said, “those who mind don’t matter; those who matter don’t mind”…. So here’re me & QR, snuggled down in deep blankets, walking the walk with a whole lot of sweaters & coats on whenever we HAVE to get up. $…. After gaining, from family & friends & work, thousands of dollars, and then losing thousands to old debt and generosity and perfidy, I’ve decided to work full time. I’ll make a lot more $; I plan to pay for the work to be done, pay others who need the $ and want, and can, and WILL do the work we need. This has been a tough nut to compost…. I love sharing resources and visioning and what I think is building a future and an immediate Life…. What’s happened is, I appear to have cast my pearls before swine, and the swine have choked on em & spit em back in my face… So. I often struggle in relationship the ways I’ve often struggled in the rest of life: unsure what’s real, accepting what’s clearly not… going with someone else’s flow, at the strugglous expense of my own. Clearly not efficient or healthy or happy when I’ve so much I want to share, and so much to do…. and clearly an old habit, diverting from my own path in favor of someone else’s problems, part of the tough process of digging deep and letting the old relationships and unhappy habits go their own way without me; for the moment I’ve got my eyes on my own River, sailing along.

At Home In The Houses

It's so damn slow, this home building. Slower than I thought it'd be, anyway. Like the garden, it's a pain in the ass and immensely satisfying. I'm still stuffing the walls with insulation in the Middle House, still sawing and fitting in the old oak flooring we found in the basement; after moving furniture & books & boxes out of the way at least 102 times, I've realized that it actually WILL be easier if I move everything out first to make way for the infrastructure... and that involves help from the big guys who still have strong backs- which involves waiting for the big guys..... We did get an initial electrical hookup into the Middle House, sinking conduit pipe 2 feet down into the clay to run from the main box into a big new juncture. AND I've completely replaced the kitchen plumbing, with very few of the "right" tools and expert advice from friends who know how; now we'll see if I can fix the central heating before we freeze in here.
But I'll tell you, probably more than once: there is very little more satisfying, more empowering, than doing it with my own hands. I can do so much more than I ever thought!

Living In The Middle House

So now I’m living in the Middle House. We call it that because it’s one of three houses on one lot- yes, the middle one. The Middle House suits my practice: I have no independent electricity (extension cords, yes- I’m not doing without) running water, insulation, or conventional heat source. I’ve spent a few Springs & Summers here already, going “inside” to the Front House, which is fully functioning on the grid, to spend winters with my beloved housemates, who support me fully in my practice without wanting to join me out here- and who could blame em! It’s not easy or necessary at this point. I hope I’ll find the grit to stay out here this Winter… living here without (some of ) the usual comforts of grid life is a great motivator to explore alternatives.

Lack of $ is also a great motivator…. Some day I hope to set up solar panels and rainwater harvest for drinking water; until then, I get to explore available alternatives….. making it up as I go along.

Walls of Rubble

Our growing beds are mostly raised a few feet from the pathways, making it easier to maintain em- less stooping, easier to add compost and mulch, easier to harvest. The fact that we don't walk on the soil keeps it from getting compacted, too. There're a lot of ways to raise garden beds- our first raised bed was built of log cabin style stacked 2 X 4s with the spaces woven in with long crocosmia leaves to hold the soil; then we just piled up the earth, and it was fine, except for a little erosion.... and the chickens. They love to scratch around in the beds, disrupt young plants, and strew mulch in the paths. Well. So much for piles. Now we're using found rubble for garden walls. Chunks of cement and brick and occasional stones are easy to find in an urban area; I pick em up in vacant lots, building sites, and roadsides- throw em in the trunk & carry on. Broken cement is the best; it usually has flat top & semi-flat bottom, so it's easy to stack... and looks terrific!