Stories Told By Mother Earth

November 21, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

9! bar steady 30.57 2mph WNW windchill 9 Samhain

Last Quarter of the Dark Moon

“Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” – T. S. Eliot

When I ponder the amount of life I give to considering my weight, I wonder what Life I lose in obsessing. Fat or thin we all die. There may be a difference in quantity, may be, but what of the quality? The constant examination of ourselves and our bodies for signs of health (ok, my constant examination) may be just a shadowed manifestation of the fear of death. How will our world’s end? Not with a bang, but a whimper

We live in an age awash in information and too few of us take the time to shape the information into knowledge, the useful form of information. Even fewer of us take the knowledge we have earned, then sit with it in patience and compassion long enough to gain wisdom.

Here’s to a world where the most accessible wisdom, the stories told by mother earth right outside wherever you are, return gently to us.

Our Land and Home, permaculture

Two Little Peppers and How They Grew

November 19, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

34 bar steep rise 30.05 2mph W Windchill 31 Samhain

Last Quarter of the Dark Moon

The big news! I have two peppers emerging in my hydroponic garden. That means the fertilizing I’ve done has succeeded. This is the first fruits I’ve been able to coax out of the hydroponics. But, not the last.

More time on the forest’s edge. Whacking down tall weeds, cutting down acacia new growth, a little pruning and general clearing. One more major project before laying down the plastic and mulch: cut up, move and burn a tangle of vines, small trees and branches cast off during a clearing operation in this area last fall.

Working outside when it’s cool appeals to me. The work heats me up and I can strip down to whatever level of clothing fits.

Art and Culture, Politics, Woolly Mammoths

Acquisitions, Legislation and Conflict

November 17, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

17 bar rises 30.56 0mph NNW windchill 17 Samhain

Last Quarter of the Dark Moon

Whew. Docent book club at 12:30. Sierra Club legislative committee at 6:30. Woollies at 7:30. Home at 10:30.

The Docent Book Club (the name of which no longer seems apt to me) met at Common Roots. Tom Byfield invited associate curator of paintings and sculptor Sue Canterbury. She spoke about the acquisitions process and answered questions about the job of curating.

Wish I had more energy, but I don’t right now. The dialogue with her fascinated us all.

The Sierra Club Legislative Committee meeting, my first, went longer than I had planned. Also fascinating, for very different reasons. More later.

The Woollies had as the meeting topic, conflict. Stefan made salad, stew and had ice cream with chocolate sauce for desert. Hit the spot when I got there.

The talk about conflict had, as the guys like to say, a lot of juice. I asked that we eliminate that word during our next meeting, so I heard nothing but juice as I got ready to leave. Serves me right.

A very full day. A good day.

Writing

A Year and A Week +

November 16, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

Brief Note: I began using WordPress to create this blog just over a year ago, November 7th, 2007. Bill Schmidt took the initiative and taught me a new tool. Thanks, Bill.

Thanks, too, to each of you, now about 2,500 a week, who read AncienTrails. I hear from some of you, occasionally, but I’d enjoy hearing from more of you. Anyhow, thanks for reading.

Family, Garden, permaculture

Working on the Forest Edge

November 16, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

32 bar steep rise 30.08 0mph NW Windchill 31 Samhain

Waning Gibbous Dark Moon

Got groceries at Festival. Grocery prices have gone up, maybe 15-20%. Many people bought their Thanksgiving turkeys from a young woman with a table set up beside the butcher’s counter. Christmas music played in the background, in sympathy, I guess, with the lonely retailers who expect no Christmas present purchases this year.

Once again I purchased produce unrecognizable to the check-out person, a friendly girl of about 18. Is this a rutabaga? No, jicama. Is this a sweet potato? No, a yam. Oh, do they taste different? Yes and have different colors, too. What about these, are they good? Rambuta. Yes, just slice around the middle and take the top off. Are they sweet? Yes, if you like sweet, you’ll like these. They’re not too sweet, are they? No. Medium.

Then I was on my way with my plastic bags, once again shopping without the cloth bags I’ve purchased for the purpose. I wish they’d hop in the car without my having to remember.

The rest of the morning I cleared ground along the forest edge so I can put down black plastic, then mulch, to kill all the flora we do not want in the way when we plant the crops that will distract the birds from our orchard. They will provide a height sensitive edge, stair stepping back toward the poplars, ash, cedar, oak, acacia and pin cherry behind them.

Built up a good appetite. Still eating the 11-bean soup I made a week and a half or so ago. Nap.

Now, after the nap, I’m doing inside things I’ve held off until I had a bit of time in the afternoon. I put ink cartridges in my Canon Pixma printer. This is a real rip-off. Even when printing only black, like copies, it uses up colored ink. This means that you have to replace the color cartridges as often as the black ones. Guess what? The colored cartridges are expensive. Anyone with this printer as their primary printer pays a lot for the privilege. My laserjet printer handles black and white in an economical manner.

Also cleaned the carpet in the study. Dogs leave the occasional trail. Also cleaned the stairs. Dogs, again.

Kate’s upstairs threshing beans from our garden. I look forward to using them in recipes over the course of the winter.

The cones are finally on the zone 5 grasses in the perennial garden. I hope they survive. They were a nice, delicate touch behind the lilies, iris and, later, the iris and sedum.

Oh. BTW. No fruits on the pepper or eggplant yet. It was a false pregnancy. This may take a while to get down.

Family, Great Work, Writing

What Should I Do?

November 16, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

30 bar rises 30.00 1mph windchill 28 Samhain

Waning Gibbous Dark Moon

Kate is my wife, friend and partner. I had a conversation with her this morning.

“Kate,” I said, “I want to do something substantial before I shuffle off this mortal coil. (Dad used that phrase a lot. I don’t know where he got it.)”

She smiled and waited, her face turned a bit up to ease the strain on her neck.

“It’s not that I don’t like my life and what I do with it. I enjoy diverse things that require different skills. I’ve accepted that’s the life likely to be lead by a valedictorian. Good at many things, deep in none. Still. I’d like to work on and complete a substantial writing project.”

“What’s your question?” she asked.

“What should I do?” She’s good at answering questions like this. Most people are not, but I trust her and have trusted on these matters for years.

“Lake Superior. That’s the first thing that popped into my mind,” she said, “We could have monthly Lake Superior meetings. Get a large paper pad and work on the project at least once a month. We could make a point of going once or twice a year to different parts of the (true) north shore and pay close attention to it for a week or so.”

“Thanks,” I said, “That’s what I needed. Now I’m going to go get groceries.”

On the drive over I considered her suggestion. It was a good one. We could work on it as partners. I have a shelf full of books and two large file drawers filled with information on Lake Superior.

A few years ago I started in earnest on an ecological history of Lake Superior. I made three trip around the lake, visiting local historical societies as I went, purchasing books and making notes. Taking picture. I made notes, created an outline and a research plan, dug up many good websites. I still have all this material.

I may have stalled the first time around because I’d made my objective both too specific and inflexible. Lake Superior as myth, as geological feature, as water, as story, as an expression of a coming zeitgeist are all rich avenues to explore. Painting, music, lore. Some mix of these, positioning Lake Superior at the heart of the continent and the center of a worldview. Something along those lines.

Art and Culture

Judge Judged by Self

November 14, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

31 bar rises 30.01 1mph NW windchill 29 Samhain

Full Dark Moon

“Man(sic), unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.” – John Steinbeck

This evening I left home and journeyed to North East for the opening of the show. It is no longer my habit to leave home much in the evening except for meetings like the Sierra Club or the Woollies.

I felt excited, a bit apprehensive. After all, our judgments had a role in the evening.

By the time I got there, about 7:50 or 8:00, there was still a large crowd. A friend from docent training, David Fortney, came up and asked me about our selections. He had his own. As did everyone in the room.

At some point I began to feel uncomfortable. It was a little difficult to track down where the feelings were coming from, but finally I pinpointed it. I was there as a judge, an arbiter and I didn’t like the role. I could explain our selections, how we got to them, but the role put me in a place in position to the room that felt icky.

I’m glad we judged the show. I’m glad we made our decisions yesterday.

Would I do it again? Not without preparation and thought. But, yes, I probably would.

Kate’s neck continues to bother her, though I hope some of that will lift tomorrow as the dye diffuses and the pressure from the myelogram recedes.

This is the end of a long series of diverse activity. That’s what I like, different work that requires different skills with different people. The downside is that when too much comes close together it can tax me. I’m glad to be on this side of it all right now.

May head over to the Walker tomorrow. I haven’t been there in awhile.

Weather +Climate

Blow, Snow, Blow

November 12, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

35 bar falls 29.87 Omph NE windchill 35 Samhain

Waxing Gibbous Dark Moon

Another aspect of northern living involves snowblower maintenance. Each November those of us with long driveways go out into the garage, poke around until we find the 2-stage beast that will work with us through the winter.

Start it. Hmmm. That’s good. It runs.

Oil can to its tin-man parts. The rotating blower (the second stage), worm oil in the auger’s worm gear (the first stage), oil at various other points where metal grates against metal in the service of snow removal.

Ooops. There’s a mostly frayed wire leading to the snow deflector. Not critical.

Rust has bloomed over the snowblowers 15 year service here. With a wire brush and scraper the paint flakes away and the surface of the rust becomes smoother. A spray of paint here and there covers the rust with a paint designed to mitigate oxidation.

Check the oil. In this the oil hits the full top of the dip-stick. It looks clean. So, we’re ready for winter to do its worst.

Just as soon as we get gas.

Family, Garden

A Fruiting Body?

November 10, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

21 bar steady 0mph NE windchill 21 Samhain

Waxing Gibbous Dark Moon (I’ve been wrong on this for several posts)

Kate’s home and likely will be for a while until we get her neck dealt with in one way or another. She’s read. She’s sewed. She’s cooked. She’s helped out in the orchard work. Not enough for her sturdy Norwegian work ethic. Her neck is bad enough that work just makes it worse, but when she rests it subsides enough that she itches to get stuff done, a tough place to be in for such an active and alive person.

A bit more garden work to do. Stake the trees in the orchard. Put protective sleeves on my 2-year old, toddler trees. Put down black plastic on the forest edge and the shade garden area. Still, the end is in sight for this growing season.

This is said sotte voce: I may be a daddy! My dalliance with the peppers and egg plants seems to have begun to bear fruit. I can’t tell for sure quite yet, but it sure looks like both plants are with fruit. If so, I’m gonna be pleased. I’ll post pictures when I know more.

Paula and Lindsay come tomorrow morning to do some rejiggering of our site plan. Our work with them feels collaborative and I like that.

Tuesday evening is an event put on by our financial planner, talking about the current market situation.

Wednesday AM, most likely, Kate will have some more diagnostic tests for her neck.
Wednesday night is the Sierra Club political committee evaluation and celebration meeting. I hope enough folks show up to help us get a good sense of what happened. How many of our endorsee’s overall got elected. Why did the four campaigns we targeted win and why did two fail? What should be a time-line for next year’s political committee?

Thursday morning we see our financial adviser. Thursday afternoon Anastasia, Allison and I will judge the Northeast Minneapolis Art Show. Friday night we’ll go to the opening. Friday AM I have two tours and Kate has an appointment with the neuro-surgeon.

A very busy week.

Family, Weather +Climate

A Pain in the Neck

November 10, 2008 Charles Leave a comment

23 bar rises 30.24 omph NNW windchill 22 Samhain

Waxing Crescent of the Dark Moon

Change is the future invading the present… Alvin Toffler

Ready to head outside for some more garden work. A clear, bright day with a chill in the air. Good outside working conditions.

Lost sleep last night. No reason. Just woke up at 5:30AM and could not get back to sleep. Oh, well.

Kate got the report back on her cervical verterbrae and the news is not good, though not much different than what we expected. It highlights the severity of the problem with which she’s labored for so long now. Now, a few more tests and an appointment with the neurosurgeon.

Life. It goes on whether you are ready or not.