last job

Here are a couple photos of Local Roots last job. We finished up yesterday and I think it turned out pretty good. Sadly I don't have any before pictures.

100th post

Today is Friday June 8, 2007.

At Local Roots we have finished up a number of projects. I will post pictures of them when I can find the time to download and upload and all that. The transformations are amazing. My back is killing me though.

I have to figure out what to do this weekend. I want to camp and fish, but I also want to build a wind turbine. Go figure. I'll keep you updated.

what is the point?

I operate with three basic assumptions.

1. A single omnipotent being that presides over the universe is extremely unlikely.

2. An infinite number of sentient beings are constantly creating the universe, from the smallest molecule to the largest galaxy, consciously or unconsciously, via evolution, procreation, innovation, homeostasis, etc...

3. I exist within this mind boggling complexity as an aware being, and I have the ability to act humanely with prescience and wisdom.

These basic assumptions guide me throughout my daily life. You could say they are the seeds of my own personal religion. Since society relishes labels, I tend to tell people that I am a Buddhist, but my Buddhism is primarily a practice, and my spirituality is constantly evolving and changing as I grow older and wiser and learn to love and cherish what I have and what is out there in this beautiful world.

Many people would say that I am a nihilist or atheist, but I find these labels irritating and inaccurate. I believe that the world has inherent value, and I believe a higher power exists, but not in the way that monotheistic religions do. I believe that an invisible "god" shapes the universe to it's will; it's called energy. And the study of the movement of energy is called physics.I believe it is good to shed old unproven suppositions when new proven theorems are shown to possess a modicum of truth. Therefore I would advise anyone with a brain and a heart to discard their religion if it has done more harm then good, for you or for humanity.

I have always believed that every person creates there own belief system out of their own experiences and emotions. By this I mean that even if you say you are a Evangelical Christian who is against abortion and for the war, you still have your very personal vision of what heaven and hell are, what god is, what the world means to you. Religion is not objective, it does not exist without being thought into existence. Religion is not Family, Genus, Species, Varietals. Every person has a highly personal religious and spiritual idea, and to me it's somewhat hypocritical that one religion can shun another. It's the same with politics, and more comically with sports. You have a bunch of people from Minneapolis against those from Chicago, partitioning themselves based on various differences that in the long run don't mean diddly squat. In the end we all have our separate homes which mean more to us then any city or country could. But they wouldn't exist outside the framework of these arbitrary boundaries. Ever since we crawled out of the sea, and even in the sea, we have been exceptionally good at creating boundaries, shells, bark, skin, walls. This is our imperative as living biological creatures, in order to survive and flourish. I'm off on a tangent as usual.

So my point is that you have your own personal God, no matter what religion or prophet you say you follow, and in the end you write your own bible out of your own experiences and emotions. This just seems completely obvious to me.

I write this thinking of my Grandpa who is dying of cancer at home alone, with my Grandma wandering around a nursing home and losing her mind. I wonder what their religion has done to console them or even help them along on their life journey. It seems to me to have done nothing good for them. All I can think of is that we have only one life to live, and to waste it in fear of hell and condemnation for improper behavior is absolutely depressing. That is the problem with most religions; the idea that you can store up your treasures in heaven, that the best parts of your life will be after you die. What a fucking joke. More like a papal conspiracy. If you can get all the peasants to think that it is their lot in life to suffer, and that when they die they will be rewarded with infinite riches in heaven, then your job as ruler is ever so easy.

I am convinced that the riches are all around us. The earth is the only source of any real wealth, or any real spirituality. Religions mostly teach you to ignore the physical world. The world is full of suffering but happiness is achievable by anyone. Everyone has been led to think that religions are necessary and good. I propose that they are unnecessary and mostly harmful.

I welcome any commentary. But I'm not interested in any bible verses. I don't give a flying shit about what the bible has to say about itself. It's an interesting and rich book, I give it that.

Permagarden

We started our permaculture garden pretty small and very unpermaculturish. You gotta start somewhere.

We have a 15x48 ft. (720 sq. ft.) area. I tilled up the creeping charlie and grass numerous times, but the grass would just not go away. We pulled out a lot of weeds by hand. Giant crazy roots. Fuck grass.

We worked Sunday through Monday. Monday was really hot and I got really sunburned.

We put in more then a dozen heirloom tomatoes, peppers, basil, thyme, sage, peas, radishes, spinach, lettuce, borage, garlic chives, melons, a number of different cucumbers, some flowers, and some other things I can't remember. I will have a full reporting of everything growing in a month or so. I still have a tray of thyme and yarrow, and a bunch of seedlings that we might transplant when we go back up to plant onions, potatoes, cabbage, and broccoli.

I have a word of advice: Do not chug four beers when you are totally sunburned and sunstroked.

We muclched the whole thing with four bales of straw, $4 each, $16 total expense. We did not enrich the soil with compost or fertilizer. I am hoping the soil is fertile enough. Otherwise this year we are basically building up fertility with green manures. Maybe we'll put a few cubic yards of compost on a little later.

Double Dig Deux

Hey there. This is the next installment of the the tiny 7 by 10 foot (70 sq. ft.) plot in front of our apartment. We did this after visiting the Friends School sale and buying $90 worth of plants. This is about a quarter of our plants. We finished this up on Saturday morning before we went up to the farmstead to plant our 720 sq. ft. plot.

New project

We're working on a new project in the Victoria Crossing neighborhood of St. Paul. It is a long and arduous journey. Here are a few pics.

Mayday

It's May. I'm tired because I moved a lot of bricks this week. Today it started raining.

We were planning on going backpacking somewhere beautiful but the weather foiled our plans. Now we're stuck here in the city, forced to enjoy friends, the Green Expo, the Mayday parade, and other terrible things.

My Grandpa has cancer and burned down a big garage with tractors in it. Life is nuts. I hope he lives twenty more years and doesn't burn anything else down.

Stonewall

This was my first project at Local Roots.

Before:











































After:

Double Dig

I decided to do a little experiment in the front of our duplex. I decided to combine the Biointensive double dug bed and the newspaper sheet mulching of Forest Gardening fame. The area I had to work with was about 10 feet wide and 7 feet deep. I left a small 4 by 7 plot there on the south side with some Solomons Seal, tulips, ferns, and a small oak tree. I'm not sure what we'll plant there but it will probably be a combination of shade tolerant perennials and some edible annuals.

In the first picture I have dug the first row out and put it on a plastic sheet to use for the last row. I then spread a small amount of compost I picked up at the local free compost pile. It was pretty nice stuff, not too much sticks and garbage. I had barely enough to count, but at least it was something. I then dug the next row and filled the first row. With my crappy shovel I loosened the second row up. I noticed some clay compaction.

















You can see my progress. The soil was dry but nice and black. I mixed in the pine needles that lay about from the big white pine north of the house.

It was sweaty work, and took about an hour and a half. When I was done I raked the soil so that it was somewhat even. Then I soaked a whole bunch of newspaper and laid it down on top of the the loose soil, overlapping the edges by six inches or so, 5 to 8 pages thick.

The paper dried quickly, and I noticed it blowing away, so I decided to go get some more free compost, two garbage bags worth, and spread it on top to keep it from blowing away. Now it kind of looks like shit, but what can you do. At some point I want to get about 4 times as much compost to lay down on top, and also a nice layer of mulch to retain moisture and prevent overheating of the soil, but I'm done for the day and I have work tomorrow and a full weekend so maybe I'll get to that next week at some point.

Carbon-based life forms

So here's the scoop on carbon sequestration.

We burn fossil fuels to produce energy, and the byproduct of this process is the rapid release of carbon dioxide into the environment. Carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Global warming is part of our overall global climate change, which has devastating consequences such as the melting of the polar ice caps and subsequent rising of the oceans, affecting weather patterns around the world. We can offset our own carbon dioxide emissions (driving our car, heating our house, buying our food) by carbon sequestration.

"Carbon sequestration refers to the provision of long-term storage of carbon in the terrestrial biosphere, underground, or the oceans so that the buildup of carbon dioxide...will reduce or slow." (1)

"A carbon dioxide (CO₂) sink is a carbon reservoir that is increasing in size, and is the opposite of a carbon "source". The main natural sinks are (1) the oceans and (2) plants and other organisms that use photosynthesis to remove carbon from the atmosphere by incorporating it into biomass. This concept of CO₂ sinks has become more widely known because the Kyoto Protocol allows the use of carbon dioxide sinks as a form of carbon offset." (2)

Here in Minnesota we can preserve and create carbon sinks by protecting and planting forests and prairies. Native plants are better adapted to our soil profile and climate, as well as having natural pest and disease resistances.

On the individual scale, Scientist Jonathon Foley has been creating a carbon budget alongside his financial budget. He and his family have reduced their carbon dioxide footprint as much as possible, including using energy efficient appliances and moving closer to work, as well as getting rid of a car.

"Every square meter of forest, Foley says, stores 10 to 15 kg of carbon in biomass above ground and 10 to 15 kg in the soil. A prairie stores only three kg above ground, but 30 to 40 below. Midwest soils are deep and fertile because the prairie built up humus there for millennia. Prairie restoration is a popular community activity around Madison, so the Foleys will help do the work and also contribute money to prairie and tree planting groups." (3)

Jonathon's brother David has taken up organic gardening. When David and his family first began, the soil tested at only 1 percent organic matter. Now it's at 7.7 percent, about double your average farm soil. His brother Jonathon runs the numbers for him to see how much carbon he has offset.

"A silt-loam soil, Jonathan says, weighs roughly 85 pounds per cubic foot. Eight inches of it weighs 56 pounds per square foot.

Organic matter is about 58 percent carbon. So soil with 1 percent organic matter contains (hmmm, 1 percent of 58 percent of 56 pounds) 0.3 pounds of carbon per square foot. Soil with 7.7 percent organic matter contains 2.5 pounds of carbon per square foot. David and Judy have increased the amount of carbon in every square foot of their garden by 2.2 pounds.

It's a big garden, 0.4 acres. (Actually it's a communal garden, which David and Judy share with their neighbors.) That's 17,424 square feet. Multiply by 2.2 pounds of carbon per square foot -- let's see here -- that makes over 38,000 pounds of carbon removed from the atmosphere -- 19 tons!

Jon writes to David: "You have sequestered 19 tons of carbon into your garden over the last 10 years. If you think that the soil test is representative of a deeper soil profile (let's say 16 inches instead of 8), then scale that number up. This is impressive! The average American releases 6 to 6.5 tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year. So you have offset about three years of an average American's emissions." (4)

Obviously this is only part of the solution. Fossil fuels are non-renewable, and Peak Oil is just around the corner (or maybe it's in the past). But by reducing the use of fossil fuels and increasing our use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar we can certainly take a giant leap forward.

If the average American can reduce their consumption by 50%, down to 3 tons of carbon per year, they would have to plant the equivalent of about 15 trees a year. At 20 to 30 kilograms of carbon storage in a cubic meter of an average forest vs 33 to 42 kilograms in an average cubic meter of prairie, prairie plantings are 40% to 65% more effective then tree plantings in the storage of carbon in terms of area. Given the chthonic perennial nature of the biomass of a prairie vs. the terrestrial linear expansive nature of a forest, prairie plantings would fit into the urban niche better then forest gardens.

The old paper vs. plastic debacle

"Reusable vs. Disposable Cups

University of Victoria 1994

This classic life-cycle energy analysis was performed by University of Victoria professor of chemistry Martin B. Hocking. Hocking compared three types of reusable drinking cups (ceramic, glass and reusable plastic) to two types of disposable cups (paper and polystyrene foam).

The energy of manufacture of reusable cups is vastly larger than the energy of manufacture of disposable cups (Table 1). In order for a reusable cup to be an improvement over a disposable one on an energy basis, you have to use it multiple times, in order to "cash in" on the energy investment you made in the cup. If a cup lasts only ten uses, then each use gets "charged' for one-tenth of the manufacturing energy. If it lasts for a hundred uses, then each use gets charged for only one-hundredth of the manufacturing energy."

-Link

Spring doth cometh

I predict that spring is here to stay. According to this, here in MPLS we should be frost free by the end of the month. That's odd though because here it shows that May 15 is the cutoff date. So between the end of the month and the middle of May is when we are free to plant our little baby plants without fear that they will die a miserable frozen death.

But in any case I think that Global Climate Change has altered the climate such that spring has sprung for the year.

Another blogger on the GSK/PBS alliance

The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb™ Blog

Fat lovers unite

I'm gonna blog about this show I watched last night because it pissed me off. The show was on PBS and it was called "Fat: What no one is telling you." The show immediately began by excusing personal responsibility towards ones physical health, and placing blame on various psychological and physical disorders. The show goes on to reveal that the intestines have a marvelous nervous system, and is essentially a second brain. This is exposited by an intelligent doctor who lets out the secret that most doctors think that the digestive system is totally gross, dude.

I have to tell you that I love fat and I love food, but the way most people eat is abhorrent and unbelievable to me. Basically if you're fat you're probably not exercising, which means you have a sedentary lifestyle; the answer is to move, do, act, work. If you're fat you probably eat too much junk food. Stop it. At least try to, anyway, I know how hard it is to resist buttery mashed potatoes and such. But don't whine about your weight, then, if you can't stop eating and you can't start moving. Walk to work. Walk up the stairs. There are millions of ways to move, just start. And then of course you have fast food, or any processed food in general. Don't buy it. Wow, I'm sorry, but thats the only answer, and it's not too complex. Don't turn into the Hardees to get your Thickburger, you idiot. One hundred years ago there were no Hardees and no giant blubber people! Hey, I know about addiction to processed food, and it's not easy to forgo, but of course you can just say no. So much sodium and calories are injected into such small portions in processed foods, not to mention nasty preservatives and whatnot, and your body has to work so hard to process all the garbage. Well, thats my rant on that.

But whats worse about this PBS show is that it was funded by GlaxoSmithKline, GSK, one of the top five pharmaceutical companies in the world (1). Anyone else noticing the surfeit of funder advertisement on our so-called public airwaves? I am sure there are a million things to uncover about GSK but I'll just mention one relevant piece of info. A little over a month ago, on February 7, the FDA approved an over-the-counter form of the drug orlistat. GSK will market this drug as "alli". It says here that "alli is the only FDA-approved weight-loss product available to consumers without a prescription". To me it seems that the program I watched last night was merely an hour long infomercial for conventional medicine's solution to weight gain: drugs, surgery, and costly physical therapy.

Evidently this alli drug is ineffective.

" Well, it turns out that Alli is just barely effective in clinical trials. Patients who took this drug lost about 1 pound a month. That's hardly any weight loss that all. That's the same amount of weight loss that you could experience simply by eating about a thousand fewer calories a week, which comes down to just a few cans of soda per week. By the way, that weight loss reversed itself as soon as people went off the drug, meaning they gained it right back. Still, the drug is being heralded as a potential blockbuster because so many Americans are desperate to lose weight and it seems that they will do almost anything to accomplish that goal." - source

As well as having unpleasant side effects.

"My question is, will they tolerate soiled underwear to accomplish it? That's one of the most common side effects of this drug. People actually spotted their clothes with uncontrollable anal discharges. I don't know about you, but to me that's not worth losing a pound a month. I think losing your self respect might be more valuable than that, but I guess that's up to each person to decide. I wonder how this works when dating? Do you wear, like, diapers?

However, it's not the side effects that I'm most concerned about with this drug. What I'm actually concerned about is the potential harm this drug might cause. This drug works by absorbing fat; that way, when people eat fats like those found in milk or cheese or even salad dressings, this drug binds with those fats and carries them on out of the system where they can't be digested. But at the same time, this drug also blocks all those essential fats that we need to be healthy.

Those acids include omega-3 fatty acids, which is why you're hearing about all the benefits of eating oily fish like salmon. But people who are taking this drug are inevitably blocking the absorption of these essential fatty acids as well as blocking the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins that go along with them. Some of those vitamins are extremely important to human health. The fat-soluble vitamins include vitamin E, vitamin A and vitamin D." - source

Hmmmmm.....sounds unpleasant.

I don't know much about the stock market but a quick glance at Google Finance reveals that at the start of February, GSK stocks were at 54.71 and by Feb 14 they had climbed to 58.37 an almost yearly high (2). Hell if I know what that means, but check out todays stocks here. At the end of yesterday the stock was at 55.93, and today its at 57.00 right now. It looks like quite a significant jump overnight. I wonder why that is.

Wait, there's more.

"Glaxo Wellcome plc and SmithKline Beecham plc merged in 2001 to become GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK), the largest pharmaceutical company in the world.
At present, private pharmaceutical companies control the development of new medicines. Profit margins, not global health needs, are what determine the next new drug. GlaxoSmithKline’s corporate motto is ‘committed to improving the quality of human life’[1]. GSK has shown it’s commitment by suing the South African Government for trying to supply AIDS victims with medicine they can afford [2], knowingly producing toxic drugs [3], and by emitting more carcinogens than almost any other chemical producer in the UK.[4]" - source

So think what you will, but I think PBS is a shill for GSK.

I feel like I'm in a bubble right now

Nothing new is happening right now. I am in a bubble. Trapped, or consigned?
Irritation at having to do chores.
No one around.
Same old food.
Not feeling arty.

bla bla bla bla bla bla bla

everything is happening next week. what is art/stop/what is cognitive inconsonance/stop/I found a button in a shoe.....................................................................................................................where is my mind...
maybe tonight in Uptown Pundits etc,,,

alive, terribly unimportant....






What we do need is a revival of spiritual/scientific/artistic dominance...not religiopoliticomilitarial madnesses. Fuck the power.

sad to say I have no readership no authorial maintenance....can god live in a seed in a bubble in a word where does it differ Einstein thinks there cannot be a Unified Theory of Everything.

Grow Biointensive

I went to a lecture by John Jeavons on Monday, from Grow Biointensive, Executive Director of Ecology Action. I thought it was a good amount of quality information. Together with Permaculture and Forest Gardening, Biointensive Gardening is part of the growing interest in and thirst for a meaningful relationship with the earth. What we have is a populace starved for meaning and context. When you begin to decipher the puzzles of the planet you began to see an underlying meaning in the machinations of the universe. What I don't get is what the hell is everybody doing all the time? What the hell does anybody care about? Why aren't we working hard to create meaning, beauty, and comfort for all of us rather then creating video games or strange colognes or lighter cameras? It seems like a particular sort of large brained madness.

Nieces

These are my two cute-as-the-dickens nieces, Maya and Brin. Maya turned two a couple days ago.

Nader

I went to see the film An Unreasonable Man, which was all about Ralph Nader. I found it to be an essential film to watch if you care at all about the political world, which is a world that seems to stand apart from day to day life but is in fact the underlying brickwork of our corporeal reality. The movie really points out that Nader in no way "spoiled" the 2000 elections, and made me realize what a total fallacy that presumption is. In the end, the Democratic party presented itself as little more then a big gaseous basket full of the status quo and reeking of corporate money and influence, and the people that really care didn't want that. The movie showed the vitriol of the establishment "Left" press and institutions for what it was, a psychotic attack on a man who literally has saved us from the disregard of big corporations. Go watch it.

We also went to the French Meadow Bakery on Lyndale which is a totally delicious local eatery. Eat there. Good prices for local organic fare.

Permaculture ideas

When I first got into Permaculture last year I was convinced that here, at last, was my calling. Mainly because it seemed to fuse all those disparate interests that I possess into a coherent system and philosophy. My fickle interests wax and wane with the moon but I tend to come back to those things that really make me who I am, like Permaculture and music, meditation and backpacking. A few weeks ago I got sidetracked as usual and started fiddling around with electronics, but such geeky pastimes don't really suit me.

I wanted to put down a few Permaculture links here that I think are interesting and informative:

Midwest Permaculture Our local area Permaculture hub

Plowboy Interview with Bill Mollison

Permaculture Video Part 1 An interesting video with Bill Mollison, in parts on YouTube

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Greening the Desert Another interesting short video from a wacky looking Australian

Edible Forest Gardens The BEST books on gardening with soul

Grow Here Now A little vid I found that was somewhat interesting from the Lama Foundation

Enjoy these resources and I would be glad to talk about any ideas or thoughts you have on any of this.

New job

Well, I worked a couple days with my new boss and I think it's going to work out.

It's a small local native landscaping and stonework company called Local Roots. Today we hauled a bunch of really heavy stones in the rain. It was fun but I have been sick for the last few days, with some sort of cold like deal. I was totally konked out on Monday. And the water smells funny here.

This is an awesome idea

Berkeley has a tool lending library.

http://berkeleypubliclibrary.org/tool

Okay okay

I think I have the job I wanted. Starts tomorrow, hope it works out. It's one of those jobs that you can't tell if you're really hired until you're three months into it. So yippeee. Time to celebrate. Until my new boss calls me back and says she thought it over and realizes I am a creepy turd so tough bananas to me.

Today I can't seem to focus on my music. The technology is in the way. It's raining and grey.

Spooky times

I'm reading Dhalgren by Delaney and I remembered that DJ Spooky (one of my favorite electronic music artists) liked the book so I went to his site and found a couple interesting things:

Shooting War: a free online comic about an Iraq in the future

Buddhist Hip-hop

March madness

I don't know about you but I'm seeing things left and right, things that shouldn't be there and that whisper sweet nothings to me in my dreams. Just kidding.

You might have noticed that I have a music toolbar deal on the left. I'm working with more electronic type music these days, and I'm considering going to school for sound art, something I've wanted to do since I was young. It seems like a frivolous thing to study. I should take a major in plumbing instead. But no, there is something that has always called me to play and create music, and I'm not sure if I should ignore that.

I possibly have a job, and I will update you soon if it works out. I hope it does, I can't keep working the streets. Just kidding.

Tired

I'm just tired and sick of being out of work. I would like a job and a paycheck so I can get on with my consumer behaviors. I also need a teacher and a community. My desires are taking over. What should I do?

Pray for me.

Saturday flings

What I do love is fresh chai tea. I use organic whole milk, local honey, and bulk chai tea mix from the Seward Co-op. 1 part water to 2 parts milk, honey to taste. Yum.


Today is the See the Light! film festival over at MIA. This is the info:

"See The Light!" Energy Film Festival

Sat. Feb. 17th, 12noon-10pm Minneapolis College of Art & Design, 2501 Stevens Avenue, Minneapolis 55404

"See The Light!" Energy Film Festival examines our energy use and how it relates to global warming, showcasing opportunities for moving toward a cleaner, safer, and sustainable energy future. Films include Too Hot Not to Handle, French Fries to Go, Being Caribou, Power of Community, Kilowatt Ours, and more! To view the full screening list and days activities go to http://northstar.sierraclub.org/activities/events/2007/20070217.html Questions? Contact Cesia at 612-659-9124 or cesia.kearns@sierraclub.org Admission is FREE. Enjoy a reception with Minneapolis Mayor Rybak at 6:30pm, solar powered popcorn, door prizes, action opportunities, and light refreshments

Before all that it's meditation time. I think we're going to Macy's for some reason. Then lunch at Quangs.

Then up north perhaps to catch some fresh air. But there is no snow, so what do we do? Visit a friend recovering from back surgery I suppose.

Tibet is a metaphor

I went to a reading last night by Thomas Laird from his new book The Story of Tibet at the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota.
It was highly informative and I urge everyone to read about the plight of Tibet.
http://www.freetibet.org/

Here in North America, we have displaced and destroyed a different indigenous culture, and we feel guilty about it. So not only should we fight for Native American rights, but we should fight for any culture that is being destroyed by a huge superpower. If we allow one person to go unfed, everyone will starve.

I love breakfast burritos

I don't know about you but I love breakfast burritos.

Magic

What is magic? Explain in three or more words...

Dark Light Interplay

DIY God

Do you think you know what God is?

Me, I have a pretty good idea. Find out if you're anywhere near the ballpark here:

http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/whatisgod.htm

Goodbye for awhile

I'm working on some more serious writing then this blog. I will let you know when I finish my novel, and then I will go to the bar. Adios for now.

the end, redux

Please spare me

My brain is a tesselated fractal staring in a mirror at 3 Am on a Friday after three Twinkies and a shot of Jager and a long discussion about cats and bolts.

Spare me, I cry loudly to the antiquated sky.

My mind weaves in and out of lucidity. I don't know how people do the "regular" thing every day. Us humans pretend we have things under control, but we don't. We don't even have enough food in our houses to last three weeks. We're stupid.

Yesterday my I-Ching was the mountain over creativity. I am to stay put, to eat out, and to practice. Not to force myself into a situation I don't want to be in. To have a goal.

Therefore be it resolevd that I shall become Farmer America, wonderman of all things agricultural.

Everyone is invited to my farm, and we'll eat and play music, as well as fingerpaint and build cob houses.

some of my pottery pictures

New Myspace music blog

Check it out: http://www.myspace.com/theandrewfrench

Fragile

Sometimes I see the fragility of everything around me with a clarity that is hard to deal with.

With my internship wrapped up, the holidays coming to a close, and a new year closing in on me, I feel a sense of relief and trepidation, relaxation and terror. What is next? What has it all meant? What choices do I need to make now?

The fragility is everywhere. The fragility is in my new little niece with tiny macaroni fingers, in my girlfriend as she wakes up and gets ready for another day at the job, in the clerk behind the gas station counter. The tenous nature of life is so clear sometimes that it makes a lot of what we do seem so stupid. How do we balance career with fun, cooking with conversation, shopping with living? I look around and I wish we could all just stop and try to understand eachother, ourselves, and the world.

the end

4 pics of strawbale construction in chron. order

one more pic of me helping put in a solar panel in two harbor

Here are three pics of the madness

Strawbale madness part 1

Well, it's been more then a month since my last post, and I apologize for that. I've been busy. Last night I went to a going-away party for my friend Krista (sustain-this.blogspot.com) who is is going to California to pursue her Masters degree, and that was fun. We drank tasty good homebrew that I participated in brewing. It had a whole pound of hops added. Very biscuity.

I would add photos to the following but I can't find the cord that connects the camera to the computer so you'll just have to take my word for it for the time being.

First of all, living with a group of strangers is odd. I've become somwhat acquainted to them, but you never really know who they are. I live with my boss who is 30ish lawyer/green builder woman, and the other interns Jesse, 30ish hippy Bahai cabinet-maker man, and Phyllis, 40ish insomniac builder/designer woman. We make a strange team, but we can actually get some things done sometimes. There was actually another intern but he gave up after a month. He was a carpenter for Habitat for Humanity, and he talked in a Clint Eastwood drawl and wore black work clothes. I called him the Carhart Ninja.

The house where we live is relatively large. It's on the market so it's pretty empty of furniture. The heat seems to be cranked to the max even though I've turned the thermostat in the basement to zero, and when every body gets bundled up for the days work in the morning, we all overheat and start to sweat. The boys are in the basement and the girls up in the normal part of the house. One day I was snooping around and I found a piano in the boiler room and then another room adjacent filled with pails full of staple every day items like corn and diapers. End -of-the-world room, I guess.

I don't have a a bed or any furniture, so I sleep on a futon and create back problems for myself.

I'll focus on the actual building of the strawbale house, and write entrys for side projects and other assorted topics later.

We started out with an empty space, just a big chunk of sand. Then a contractor came in and dug out a hole, about 45' by 25', long axis facing south, two thirds of the north side about 3 feet deep, the south side about 5 foot deep (where we were going to put the greenhouse). The contractor put in our septic system, then we spent a few days learning the ins and outs of a batter board type system, trying to get the foundation staked out and ready for construction. Let me tell you that staking out a house is no easy thing. Creating a perfect rectangle in sand with rebar stakes is like trying to eat with your mouth full. But on day we got it down, and we were ready to proceed.

I forgot to tell you that before all that we sat down with the boss and she said that we were going to get a giant 60'x100' tent that we were going to put over our work area adn that we had to build giant wooden skis for it and it might take a few weeks to put up. I felt like that was a waste of our time and said as much. To weigh down this giant structure we went out and cut the tops of 45 plastic totes with a Sawzall, got the Bobcat revved up and filled them up with sand so that they weighed a couple tons each. It was the weirdest task I have ever done. But I like learning how to use the Bobcat, it was as if I was in a Mechwarrior video game, and I had the ultimate power to crush and move and grade. Then we had to move them off the field because the contractors came in to put in the sewer and level the ground.

We also learned that we were going to be building with giant (8'x3'x3', 700 lbs) bales of flax straw, and that we were going to be putting a giant bale living roof on our structure. This sounded amazingly ambitious to me, considering we had to months and we had to construct a giant tent with cranes first. After debate and a couple weeks went past, the giant tent idea was discarded as well as the giant bale living roof system. We were now going to use SIPs panels for the roof, but of course no ordinary SIPs, which are usually a rigid insulation encased in two layers of OSB or plywood, we were using a SIPs that was a partial metal interior inside two layers of rigid insulation.

So in the final analysis, the house we are building consists of a tamped earth foundation with a treated 2x12 toe-ups filled with stone under the giant flax strawbales on the west, east, and north sides of the building. The south side consists of post and beam construction for the greenhouse which will have plastic glazing. The structure will be precompressed with plastic strapping material and the SIPs panels will be mounted on the walls for the roof. There will be solar water heating collected from the roof by refurbished solar panels and circulating throughout the pex laid out in the earth under the cob floor, and their will be a modified heat sink utilizing black drain-tile laid out 5 feet deep in the greenhouse floor. Ther will also be a rocket stove for back-up heating. The inside and outside walls will be cob. There will be a composting toilet. We have been using biodiesel for running a lot of the machines we use.

Now, each of these components could be discussed at length, and sometimes it's hard to focus on one thing at a time. My guess is that you don't know what cob is, because I barely did until I started this internship.It is just a mixture of clay, sand, and straw. It is a very natural and versatile material. The clay is the basic medium, the sand prevents shrinkage and provides strength, and the straw provides an interwoven matrix and structural reinforcement. It is like natural concrete. I have seen many things made out of it, including walls, floors, coat hangers, and dragons. As a structural component it provides mass, and it breathes well, which is important in strawbale construction because you don't want to trap moisture inside the walls and provide a breeding ground for molds.

I'm going to stop here and get back to you later. It's Sunday and I have to do chores and get a breakfast in me before heading back to the north woods. Any questions so far?

grocery list

Well, I managed to make it to today without any bumps and now tomorrow I am off to learn strawbale construction. This is my first "living by myself without female significant other" grocery list:

2 each five-grain organic tempeh
2 blocks RGBH-free cheese, one monterey jack, one sharp cheddar
3/4 loaf Great Harvest bread
1 head organic garlic
4 each organic onions
1 1/2 pound red lentils
1 1/2 pound brown basmati rice
1 bag organic potato chips, yogurt and green onion
1 jar of local honey
2 boxes organic green tea
1 box "sleepytime" tea
4 free-trade bananas
5 pounds local organic yellow potatoes
1 can organic refried black beans
1 can roasted garlic salsa
1 package 8" flour tortillas
2 thai rice noodle packages
1 box organic Kashi cereal
1 box organic soymilk
1 pound local butter
1 jar Hellmanns mayo
6 eggs
1 jar Spike seasoning
12 pack Leinies
12 pack Sierra Nevada


What do you think?

internship

So in a few days I am off to intern at Happy Dancing Turtle http://www.happydancingturtle.org for October and November. Happy Dancing Turtle is a partner with Hunt Utilities Group http://www.hugllc.com/ which is a family owned for-profit. It seems that HDT is housing me and HUG is supplying most of the tools, projects, and technical training. Check out the HUG site for pictures of the buildings and projects they are working on and to get a sense of what this is all about. I will be learning strawbale and cob construction, as well as refurbishing solar panels. So I should be done by Thanksgiving.

Thoughts on a rainy day #1

When an ideal is envisioned one must work toward the fruition of that idea. An ideal is something that one creates as a building block of one's moral and ethical reality. When we work toward an ideal, we work toward the idea of something better, which indicates the power of the idea, the power of imagination and thought, the mind. What is the mind? Is the mind the brain? Is the mind the electrical impulses in the brain? Is the mind the individual electrons that make up the impulses? When you deconstruct anything, it becomes nothing.

An ideal can be good or bad. We all have the idea that we are something more then the physical being that we seem to be. We call it spirit or soul or atman or ghost. Most of us don't feel the need to define it. Is it real or as it a collective hallucination?

Then faith emerges to prop up the ideal. Without faith the ideal becomes unreachable, unrealistic, and there is no impetus to reach the ideal. Without faith in the ideal it becomes nothing. So faith arises out of the individual spirit, the jiva in Sanskrit, out of our "minds" and our "hearts". Without the faith that the ideal can and will be realized there is no reason to work toward the ideal. It's an example of quantum physics in that we create what we we see by seeing it, we destroy what we don't see by not looking. In any case, the more you take it apart to look at its parts the more it resembles nothing.

The ultimate ideal is God. God can be described as everything, or within everything, or as a separate being. It is ridiculous to describe God as anything less then everything, as a God apart from everything makes everything look ridiculously like nothing. If God is everything, our jivas are God, as well as everything else. It's simple but important.

Why work toward something good? Why not? Why move or breathe or walk or sing at all? The reason is that you want to become happy, that you want others to be happy. And to be happy you want to know God, and God is nothing less then love, and love is joy. Essentially all existence is joy. At the essence of our enlightenment experience is comapassion and the realization that we are not seperated, that we are all utterly connected, and this brings joy to us.

a response to my organic farmer blog

Noah said...

All your points are silly. Let's take them one by one.

1. How is it better to support your local economy then the poor Chilean farmer? Is an American better somehow? Is someone who lives close to you better?

2. If the product is being made in Chile there is even less harm to the local watershed then if it is grown by a local organic farmer.

3. The vegetable is probably fresher, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is any more nutritious.

4. You will only save a small amount of petrolium products for your vegetable. Large ships use a lot of oil, but they also carry huge ammounts of produce.

5. Your local farmer care no more about you than the large corporation. They're both in it for the money. But the local organic farmer asks for more of your money.

Also, you say that food co-ops were started to help poor people. If that was the case, it is no longer. They are the gathering places of snobs.

Give me a big Safeway or Albertsons any day.

4:33 PM

Cosmic Monkey said...

Noah, why do you prefer a Safeway or Albertson's to a small co-op or grocery store? Is it because you like being the anonymous shopper, you like the giant buildings pulsing with wasted energy, the glib and unresponsive staff...You need to reevaluate why you prefer a giant box store before I can really debate you about local organic agriculture. You want to pay 5 cents for an apple from mexico? Go ahead and suck down those pesticides and herbicides, go ahead and feel happy about subjecting those farmers to these chemicals. Your points are not thought out:

1. It is better to support your local economy because that is where you live. Don't you want to support your neighbor, build a relationship with the farmer, recirculate your "hard-earned" cash in your town? this has nothing to do with being "better".

2. There is no harm to the local watershed when a product is farmed organically. None.

3. Fresher vegetables are better for you. There are more enzymes and vitamins. This is a scientific fact.

4. You don't honestly believe this? The farther away a vegetable comes from the more fuel is used in getting it to your plate.

5. The small local organic farm cares about the community and the earth. There is no other reason to get into organic farming. There is not alot of money in it. The farmer might as well work at UPS and get health insurance and a decent wage, rather then work their ass off every day for no money and no insurance.

I said in my blog that the co-ops were started to help the poor get bulk commodities, and now they have turned into rich peoples dietary centers. But I think it's important to support them anyway, the same reason I think it's important to support your community even if you think it's full of assholes. Only you can be the change.

1:05 PM

You can't understand anything until you have sprouted a seed

No you can't. Not until you've seen a small seed burst with infinite energy out into the universe, expanding forever outward toward the only thing that matters, sex. Whether you sprout a handful of lentils or a ten foot corn plant, seeing magic take place on the linear tightrope of time opens the mind up to the possibilities of the galaxy.

Isle Royale

Well we just got back from a six day trip to Isle Royale National Park in Michigan.

The weather was beautiful the whole time, no rain. Our first boat ride out last Tuesday was canceled because of the waves being too high, so we had to wait around for another day. The boat ride out was fun, buit 3 hours is a long time no matter what you're doing. When we got to the island, we and a few opther backpackers were instructed on the "leave no trace" principles, which was irratating.

The hiking was hard but rewarding. My partner got huge blisters on her toes the first day and we had apply bandages frequently, but she hiked through the pain with hardly a complaint.

Our favorite time was spending a full day on the beach, where we did yoga, meditated, and watched the waves. I also met a giant bull moose on the beach.

The last day was pretty hard. We hiked around 14 miles up and down ridges in the sun and we were tired and in pain overall. But we also agreed it was the most beautiful part of the hike.

I will blog more about it later, and perhaps add pictures.

Money vs. Ethics

I talk alot with friends and family about the benefits of small organic farms vs. large agribusiness and their commercial extensions, your local co-op and Rainbow foods. I wanted to make a few points clear here about my thoughts on thses subjects.

First of all, it is ethically better to purchase an organic vegetable from your local farmer at a Farmers Market or co-op then it is to purchase a conventional vegetable from Chile at your so-called "local" Rainbow Foods. Why? Because of these reasons:

1. You are supporting your local economy and your neighbor
2. You are being a steward of your local watershed and your local land
3. The vegetable will be healthier and therefore more nutritious for you
4. You will be saving a ton of petroleum products and other energy sources that are used to get the vegetable from Chile
5. You will not be supporting a large multinational corporation that does not care for you or your family or your neighborhood or your local watershed, but only wants your dollar bill

Simple. Obviously the first thing people say is, "Well, it costs too much." And my first reaction is to be angry because what is "too much" when we are talking about the future of our planet, the future health of our soil and our communities? When you have huge government subsidies for all the commodities that are out there, such as corn, rice, and wheat, but very little financial aid to small organic vegetable farmers, what do you think is going to happen? You can go down to a Superamerica or Cub Food and get pressurized Cheez Whiz in a can for a couple bucks as opposed to a juicy ripe organic tomato for a buck. Which do you think will be better for you? Why do you choose poison over health? Think about it.

What I can't deny is that a lot of co-ops and trendy food stores are starting to attract a more wealthy crowd. This doesn't matter to me. You have to look at the essential nature of what the co-ops were created for. They were created so that poor people could pool their resources to obtain cheaper bulk foods. And they grew into more and more elaborate organizations until what we have now is little different then your average Byerlys or whay have you. But their essential nature is different. Essentially their is democratic co-operative power involved in the governance of the business as opposed to a centralized dictatorial power. What we need to do is create our own modes of purchasing. We can get together with friends and purchase a CSA share and get our vegetables every week, we can go down to the Farmers Market and talk directly to the farmer. We can organize buyers groups and purchase directly from the big companies that supply the co-ops and grocery stores. We can by in bulk and split up shares. Basically we can and should recreate the food co-op that we used to know and love.

Small farmers are not making any money. They are basically out there tilling and harvesting because of their passion and dedication to creating a better world, a healthier reality. I think the least we can do is pay them a few extra bucks for their labor and spirit. Organic farmers are real live Bodhiisatvas on tractors.

Shadow boxing

There is definitely nothing worse in this world then pain. How can we avoid it? We can't, but we can take steps to minimize causing our own at least.

Today my step was to attend the Minnesota Zen Center for the first time. It is located on Lake Calhoun in a nice building. I decided that I have been essentially a Buddhist now for years so I may as well go see how they do things in their churches and so forth. It went well and I learned the basics of the zendo (the place where Zen Buddhists meditate). The only problem was that it was early in the morning and I had a late night last night, and I did have a number of liquid refreshments at the party that affected my stomach. Not to mention the coffee I gulped as I drove to the Center.

Everyone there was pleasant. I will try zazen (meditation) early tomorrow morning and see how that goes. Well it can't go too badly, I mean, what are a bunch of Bui\ddhists going to do to me? Kick my ass?

Tonight is movie night. I have a movie about the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and a movie made in Tibet by some famous Lama. Whatever.

Well, life never stops

Strangely, life never stops. I went to a friend's housewarming party last night and it was good. It was nice to be around good people.

Sometimes though you wonder, what am I going to do next?

My friend is in Peru and I think that would be awesome.

I don't know, any ideas?

Your cat will make you crazy

Cat Parasite Affects Everything We Feel and Do
Research Shows That a Certain Cat Parasite Impacts Our Behavior and Mood
Cat

Researchers say a cat parasite could be responsible for all kinds of human behavior and qualities. (AP Photo )


Aug. 9, 2006 — Kevin Lafferty is a smart, cautious, thoughtful scientist who doesn't hate cats, but he has put forth a provocative theory that suggests that a clever cat parasite may alter human cultures on a massive scale.

His phone hasn't stopped ringing since he published one of the strangest research papers to come out of the mill in quite awhile.

The parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, has been transmitted indirectly from cats to roughly half the people on the planet, and it has been shown to affect human personalities in different ways.

Research has shown that women who are infected with the parasite tend to be more warm, outgoing and attentive to others, while infected men tend to be less intelligent and probably a bit boring. But both men and women who are infected are more prone to feeling guilty and insecure.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/story?id=2288095&page=1

The end of an era

Yesterday I quit my job. I feel great. You should too.

First a little background: I have been working there at the cafe since January of 2005. Almost every day my boss, Nathalie the Phsycologically Disturbed Progressive Democratic Nazi, would find something to complain about, somebody to ream. I felt that I would try to redirect her energies into more positive avenues, such as food. I don't even know why she has a restaurant, because to me it doesn't seem like she likes food. I love food. I love the farmer's market and the farmers, I love cooking for friends and family, I love the colors, textures, and flavors. I just dig edible stuff. So you'd think working at a small cafe right across from where I live would be a good thing, right? Wrong, man. Wrongo.

NPDPDN and her husband would constantly fight, even screaming at each other about ten feet away from paying eating customers. I honestly thought they were going to get a divorce, I don't even understand why they haven't gotten a divorce with all the pressure. Her husband doesn't even want to be there. He hates the customers.

And there was the heat and the filth and the grease and the mess and the mouse shit and the mice. Those were the physical things that bothered me, but that I thought could be fixed at some point. I also wanted to steer the food toward organic and vegetarian fare, and I didn't want to use bagged mashed potatoes and soup. What the hell is the point of convenience when the whole purpose of the business is to create good food? I wanted to cook, not dish up one more goddamn pot roast with fried potatoes for one more white-haired bitchy welfare sucking blue-brained sycophant debutante geezer. So I had my own problems.

The main mental strain came about because there were a few good things about the place, sort of. Pretty good wage. I had ample time off (not paid). Free food. That's about it, and I didn''t like the free food.

But NPDPDN would compliment me sometimes, make me feel she cared, then yell at me for some dumb thing that I messed up or wasn't even involved with. There were a number of times I came home ready to just quit. But I hung in there, because maybe things would get better.

NPDPDN: I was talking about how all my pets were tragically killed and she said, "You should not have pets. Wouldn't you get a clue after the first few were killed?" And she wasn't joking. That is probably the worst thing anybody has ever said to me. And she didn't apologize. And that same day I came home to find out that one of my best friends had killed herself. There is something about that connection that really stands out in my head.

She fed squirrels out the back door, and had names for them. She liked them more then her staff. I don't really like squirrels. In the city, they are fat indolent scavengers. She would alway tell me to come here so I could see one of them come into the building. I always smiled politely and tried to get back to work. I'm sick of being polite.

She would leave used paper towels everywhere. She would leave messes in my workspace. She and her husband and the staff ate soup and pot roast out of the container, dipping bread directly into the food. Not sanitary at all. They wouldn't clean the baskets for bread or fries ever, don't ask me why. Fish and meat were left out for hours. And so on. One man can only do so much to change the direction a ship is sailing. I tried, but it was like cleaning diaper, smelly and never ending.

The husband never yelled at me. He got mad and told her and she would yell at me or others. That was his way of staying uninvolved. He would storm around furiously for reasons I don't even know.

Every machine would break down every week. The new freezer broke down immediately. Coolers couldn't keep the food cool. And so forth. I could go on indefinitely but I will just tell you what happened at the end.

I went on break for fifteen minutes. I came back and they were both in the kitchen, facing away from me. I started to wash my hands and hear Nathalie say, "When that fucking dumbass comes back I'm going to give him a piece of my mind." I look at her and she turns around, somewhat startled to find me there, and she tells me I am in big trouble. And I say, "What?" I have no idea. The husband is sweeping and there is water on the floor, but the cooler had been doing that all summer so I thought nothing of it. And Nathalie says something like,"I can't believe you didn't notice the cooler was warm, I can't believe it, I just can't, never in my life, there is no excuse!" And I just don't even know what to say. She's picking up stuff and trying to make a point and I'm blanking out. In essence she's blaming me for a piece of eqiupment failure, at least for not noticing the failure of said piece of equipment. Fine. Maybe she has a point, maybe a should have noticed that a cooler was not working in a kitchen that is a hundred degrees without air conditioning, two loud fans on, and me being totally overworked every day, used like a mule. The temp guage is inside this custom made cooler, so I would have had to take out a drawer and peered into the depths of the machine to casually check the temp, even though I had no reason to and you can't tell what the temp reading is anyway becasue it's too far back inside. So I said, "Well..." and I was going to say something like this thing had happened and I will try to help fix it but all we can do is work to make it better. Basically there is no reason to go ballistic ever, really, in a business. I did not deserve such total disprespect after the hard work I have put in for them. She interrupted me and said, "No, don't say a word, I don't want to hear!" She said it in such a flagrantly condescending manner that that was it for me, I wasn't going to be called names behind my back and be discounted as a human being. Everybody has the right to be respected as a human. So I said, "Fuck you, fuck this place, and fuck it all!" And I chucked my apron down and left. And that was it for me. If they want to apologize then maybe I will work a little more for them. But I know them well enough to realize that they are complaining about me to all the other staff, calling me names, and they have moved on and this is just another bump in their Idot's Road to Hell.

So this is what I learned in the last 3 years:

You need to have a plan of where you want to be in three years.

I am a hard worker that can tolerate most anything, psychological or physical.

Your co-workers are the most important part of a job.

I am an artist, and I should behave like one.

Let that be a lesson to you. Don't allow anyone to treat you badly. They can treat themselves as badly as they want, but you are worthy of respect, just by being alive.

Industrial Anarchist Co-ops

THE SILENT REVOLUTION
By Marcello Balve

ONE MORNING IN JUNE 2002, a group of twenty unemployed factory workers gathered on a treeless sidewalk in downtown Avellaneda, an industrial suburb of Buenos Aires. They came loaded with poles, plastic sheeting, scrap lumber, and rope. In short order, they raised a tent before a nine-story brick factory known as the Cristalux Glassworks. The factory, recognizable by its billboard-sized bas-relief of a worker blowing glass, had once employed a workforce of twelve hundred. Now it stood abandoned and shuttered.

It was late fall in the Southern Hemisphere, and night temperatures dipped into the low forties. The wide, bleak avenue offered no shelter from wind, rain, or sun. The tent was just an orange tarp strung up between the factory’s main gate and a light post, the sides anchored to crates. But the workers were determined to keep the tent fastened to the gate until they could go back inside. More than one hundred ex-employees eventually joined the protest, either lending their bodies or bringing food.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/pages/om/06-4om/Ballve.html

What strikes me about this article and others I have read in the past few years is that certainly, at some point in the future, our society will look like this, will react like this, will have to cope like this. Surely you do not think that we wil be able to ride this wave of oil-induced affluence forever? At one point, when our oil is to costly for the average working class or middle class worker, we will need to revise our strategies and create sustainable worker-owned businesses.