Sneak Peek

cha cha cha

Lesson #2

Okay so this week I was out of work. I got a call from a friend of a friend who needed help putting in a patio. No problem, I think. Paver, sand, gravel, easy. The patio and path is 20x40 and 4x20 feet respectively. Hmmmm, that's pretty big, I wonder if I can do it? I ask my boss. She says sure you can.

So I start working. Lotta raking and shoveling. Delivering yards of sand, 6 tons of material. Leveling, raking, sand, sweat. It goes on for a while. I'm beat. I don't think I can get this level. This is too big. Hell, I can do it. I can do anything.

So yeah. I just decide I gotta get going on putting down the pavers. I do it the way I was shown, labor intensive and not very accurate. Not flat, kind wavy. They have problems with it, say they are not going to pay me for some of the work I did. I freak out a little. Not get paid? Jesus, all that sweat for nothing. And I gotta put gas in the truck, pay for mileage. Am I gonna lose money? They have problems with the levelness and layout. Okay fine, I tell them, we'll talk about it in the morning.

Turns out hubby was a contractor, and he redoes my work overnight. I look at it and go, oh shit, it's way better then my work. So I say to the client, okay you don't have to pay for that work I did. She says Oh but you did do work, so I say fine just pay me a little. I tell her I'm not the right guy for this, she says yeah, she pays me fairly and I leave. So it worked out, but I feel like an idiot.

Why did I think I could do such a big job without that much experience? Humility is a hard trait to learn. I've been taught some lessons. Start small. Be honest and truthful.

Climby

Last weekend we went and learned how to rock climb at Vertical Endeavors.

http://verticalendeavors.com/vestpaulnew/index.html

It was really fun and informative. I'm looking forward to climbing on real rock, though. I mean, isn't that the whole point?

I would recommend the beginners safety class to anyone.

the metaphysics of green

Is there an underlying ultimate reality which the material world merely covers like an old blanket?

I watch this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1732009010723681488&hl=en

And read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/science/14tier.html?em&ex=1187323200&en=2590af4760a81047&ei=5087%0A

And I wonder about the primary imperatives that motivate us forward in this linear timescape we call life.

Is life a tragedy or comedy?

Refusal

No matter what happens...

I refuse to accept your bullshit.

You, Society. You, Family. You, Friends. You, Corporations. You, Politicians. You, Bankers. You, Religions.

You Who Wish To Slide Stupidly Into Death!

No, I don't need a house, a job, a car, a mortgage, insurance, cancer, sadness, guilt, pressure, madness, hatred, anger, poverty, or shame to be alive. Or new clothes.

Sex is a natural part of life. So is dirt, stone, ecstasy, insanity, decay, food, shelter, love.

Get over yourselves.

Fishing Philosopher

I work with stone, dirt, plants, and water. I shovel and tamp and haul and push. My hands are pinched, my back is pulled, and my biceps are stretched.

Standing in the river I see the swift river birds dive and the gulls soar, I see the pitter patter of raindrops on the rushing water, and hope for a fish to bite my lure. I don't really want to kill anything but the fish tastes good.

My blood flows like the river, my bones are worn away like the stones, my muscles bend and sway like the trees in the wind. Sometimes my mind shines like the sun, other times like the moon.

I think about building a house, a wall, a waterfall. Harvesting the vegetables out of the garden takes time. The mind doesn't want to meditate, it wants to jump around and climb mountains. Learning to climb rock would take time. Time, being swallowed by the giant whale of life.

Fall coming up out of the ground like a mushroom. A motif presents itself to me: the Grotto. I remember that I haven't written poetry for awhile, haven't written a song in a year. Have I retreated to the primal cave to resurrect myself?

this day

my grandpa died of cancer this morning
a good friend hung herself to death one year ago
my life partner's little sister is getting married this afternoon

I caught a smallmouth bass yesterday
I had to hit it on the head with a hammer many times until it took its last breath and let its fins go limp
today I sauteed it in some butter for breakfast and it was very good
there was another fish that I caught but I killed it while trying to retrieve the hook from its mouth
I left it for the birds

I have to go to the dentist
I have to get ready for tomorrow
I haven't gone to work today

the cycle of life and death goes on and on

Flowers

shamanic happenstance

We had wonderful weather yesterday. The heat drove us to the river and we were treated to breakfast by family. I fished but didn't catch anything, because it was too hot of course. Then, with sweat dripping from our brows, we drove for home into stormy weather that dropped much needed rains on our parched soils. We decided to check out the movie Sicko which saddened us and gave us energetic anger. It was an interesting weekend. We also saw amazing fireworks.

Garden Trelliseseses

New photos from the garden. We made trellises out of sticks and twine.

Preachy

That last post was bitchy and preachy.

Anyway, I feel like I have one hundred things to do. I have creative plans, practical plans, project ideas, vacation inspirations, and of course life choices. Life is full. My work is good, and it tires me out most days. I'm learning and enjoying my life as an independent contractor. Maybe not so much when tax time rolls around. Hopefully my rental rebate will cover my taxes. I'm sure you really care.

Well, my next post should have some pics of the garden. Hopefully the weeds haven't taken over.

We're planning on fishing later today, so maybe I'll have some whoppers to tell later.

My Sustainable Life Criteria

1. Compost Everything. (Including cheese and meat scraps and paper towels and old underwear. All those recommendations you find about what to compost are full of shit.)

2. Reuse Everything. (Forget the bourgeois idea of middle class wealth. We're all poor, unless you're in the top ten percent that owns the world.)

3. Use your bike, carpool, use public transportation. (If you drive around in an SUV you can go to hell. I'm not interested in your reasoning; you suck. Even you know that. So knock it off. Also, thanks for destroying my world.)

4. Meat is something to eat once or twice a week at the most, once or twice a month at better, none at best.

5. TV kills your brain. (Stop watching it. Make something.)

6. Cook your own food. (With friends preferably. Use only local organic ingredients. Make with love and compassion. This is our main focus as humans.)

5. Grow your own food. (Anything. A couple of potato plants in a 5 gallon bucket is good. Some chives. You've just changed the world. You are part of the revolution.)

6. Do nothing. (Save the planet and meditate. Read, sleep, sing.)

resurrection

Also, many of our tomato plants died in a long frost at the beginning of the spring. But they really didn't, they somehow survived. Now they are teeny but pressing on. No pictures here, just some squash. Also, a picture of borage which is taking off.

garden goings on

The gardens are going on without us. Life is happening while we are busy making other plans. We haven't added any nutrients to the soil as of yet, but we plan to add a thin layer of compost when we have the chance.

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.