Daily Archives: August 3, 2013

Humanities, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., World History

Sapere aude

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Lughnasa                                                        Moon of the First Harvests

A slower day today.  We both needed a little less activity.  Nice to be able to ratchet back and not worry about it.

Did spend an hour plugging the new credit card number into those accounts that need it. Our card got stolen by someone who bought a hotel room and flowers.  A romantic thief. A bit of a hassle but not too bad.

I’ve also been reading Jean Jacque Rousseau for the Modern and the Post Modern MOOC.  Kant, too.  Kant’s essay What is Enlightenment began the course.  It contains his Dare to know idea.  That is, trust your own reason and act on it.

The two Rousseau essays are very interesting, one on the arts and sciences which I plan to give more time here at some point, argues that the arts and sciences represent culture at its most decadent, at its furthest remove from the state of nature.  It’s a very interesting argument.

The second, which I’m reading right now is on the origin of inequality.  Here a couple of quotes from it:

Nature speaks to all animals, and beasts obey her voice. Man feels the same impression, but he at the same time perceives that he is free to resist or to acquiesce; and it is in the consciousness of this liberty, that the spirituality of his soul chiefly appears…

(Henri not Jacques)

It is by the activity of our passions, that our reason improves…and it is impossible to conceive why a man exempt from fears and desires should take the trouble to reason.

The first language of man…was the cry of nature.

…as to adjectives, great difficulties must have attended the development of the idea that represents them, since every adjective is an abstract word, and abstraction is an unnatural and very painful operation.

Bees

Oh, Well

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Lughnasa                                                                  Moon of the First Harvests

Drove out near Stillwater today to Nature’s Nectar, a bee supply store.  Picked up some miticide and some honey robber.  Also, some knowledge.  Geez, hard to believe I missed in this school.  “Never,” said Jim, proprietor and keeper 0f 75 colonies, “Never do extraction outside.”  Oh.  Well.  I know why.  The bees all come and want some.  But doing it inside never seemed like an option.  Now, all of a sudden, it does.  Cardboard, plastic sheeting and everything inside where there are no bees.  Would be way simpler.

(note:  outside)

On the way out the clear blue sky with cirrus horse tails high and wispy kept firing memories of Canada.  A magical place, in my experience, a place I could live easily.   This sky, wonderful.

Faith and Spirituality, Family, Garden, General, Great Work, Our Land and Home

Dancing in the Garden

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Lughnasa                                                         Moon of the First Harvests

We’ve settled into a rhythm that will continue until the last substantial harvest.  I go out in the mornings and harvest.  Kate then pickles, cans or freezes.  I helped with the garlic drying, but otherwise she’s done all the work.  We’ve had to clear the detritus out of the food storage room, gathered there over the winter and spring, because now trips down there for empty canning jars or to deliver full ones have become frequent.

Kate said she needed a calico dress and a gingham (Gangham?) apron.   I suggested a bonnet.  This work for her, right now, is primary in her life and she reports getting energy from doing it.  She must because she stands long hours in the kitchen.  Of course, she’s one tuckered out gal at the end, but the pantry has more stores and she feels good.

This whole garden is a dance with each of us playing different roles over the course of the season.  I have overall responsibility for the gardens and their health.  I do most, but not all, of the planting, all of the international ag labs supplementing and survey the various beds for plant health over the course of the growing season.  If there’s corrective action to be taken, that’s my job.  I bag the apples and take care of the fruit trees, also harvesting. (but not pruning.)

Kate weeds and that is one huge job.  One I don’t like.  She says it brings her satisfaction. I can’t get no satisfaction there so I’m glad she can.  At harvest time Kate takes the lead and chooses what kind of recipes to use and what methods of preservation to employ.  Near the end, when the leeks come in, I’ll make pot pies for freezing.  We both do fall clean-up and I plant bulbs.  Then the garden takes its long late fall and winter nap.