Sharing...

A work day today. Still trying to get the chicken coop ready to go. No photos though---as something is either wrong with my computer, or my camera.

Do any of you share a computer with a Nine year old? An Eleven year old? I do. This is an exercise in frustration the likes of which can only be likened to a Tea Partier and a Wellstonian Liberal trying to hammer out tax policy. Children's gaming sites are great places to catch a cold (a virus). And now, with a certain Eleven year old's brand new cell phone and Mplayer, or whatever you call them, all sorts of mysterious things occur on this computer. Downloads and Youtubes and games and "cool" stuff. A new "Nook" also competes for attention. USB ports all aflutter.

And, of course, now my stuff doesn't work. I think I'll buy a laptop. That way I won't blame the youngsters of this household when their stuff works and my stuff doesn't.

Cleaning Goat Compost and Moving Stuff

Oh those chickens. We had an idea to turn part of our shed (which is a ramshackle building) into a chicken coop. The problem? One of the prior owners had kept a goat in there. Hasn't been cleaned out for years. Plus my pile of wood, excess building supplies, old satellite dish, pipes, steel rods, tin and lord knows what else, is in the way of where we want to the chickens to happily wander within an enclosed fence.

So I moved the pile--winnowing it down, while Joni heroically cleaned out the goat compost. Of course, we didn't get the thing built. Soon.

Properties that get over-run with piles of stuff annoy me. So many properties have seven cars in various forms of disrepair lying around. Piles here. Piles there. Time for me to clean up my property.

Now that the weather has turned warm, we are enjoying getting to work on creating this little piece of heaven that has been entrusted to us.

Hot Water!!

After 1,080 days without running water to the kitchen, nor hot water to anything, nor a shower that operated---we replumbed the house and installed a propane hot water system. Yes, sort of a sell-out to not use solar. One project at a time. And yes, I hired a couple of plumbers to put in the system. I mostly watched, grabbed tools and tried to not get in the way. Everything works! Jazzy has dibs on the first shower.

The weather has turned, finally, to a decent temperature. Time to get some work done around here! It is absolutely glorious to be outside now after the longest rainy season I have ever endured.

And the coyotes got Big Bird. Big Bird wasn't really an endearing chicken. She must have been one of those industrial chickens because she grew so very fast and her body was so big she could hardly walk. A good meal for the coyotes and their pups.

The coyotes got another one of our red chickens. We are down to ten. The project for tomorrow is to build a Fukoshima style chicken pen.

Beer for the Tillerman...

Spent the afternoon with my new Tiller. Stage one in getting that garden ready to go. Thinking about Aldo Leopold and these words of his that Larry sent to me today:

"We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."

Work Season Begins...

The work season has begun! Today's task: weed whacking. Been awhile since I've actually done physical labor. The last time we've actually done any work around here was when we put in our wood stove the end of December. So, after a day of making the house safe for the fire season, my muscles are sore.

Best to think of Wendell Berry while doing this sort of work. How sacred it is. How wonderful to be outside, enjoying the land...

Stacking Wood...

Got the old Gateway Dinosaur Computer up and running. So now I can throw a couple of photos in. Excuse the mess, but this is our new wood stove that has made our lives oh so wonderful! (and warm).

Took my broken ribs outside and did a little stacking of firewood this afternoon. After a month of not doing much, my jeans are starting to get a bit snug.

Splitting Wood and Arianna

A neighbor dropped by today with his gasoline powered wood splitter. I wasn't about to tell him not to split our wood (despite having romantic visions of splitting the wood myself with human power). I helped out for a bit before the pain from this healing-quite-slowly rib told me it was time to head inside and watch Chris Matthews. Priorities.

So, thanks to the kindness of a neighbor, we have more than enough wood split to last us through the winter. Not that we need it now. We've had about the nicest January that I can remember. Sunny and warm. T-shirt weather. Great to be outside.

And I finished Arianna Huffington's Third World America. When Arianna talks on the pundit shows on TV, I can never understand a word she says. She speaks with a thick Greek accent. Reading her, I can understand her points. As for the book? Lots of research from a Liberal perspective; fairly harsh on Obama (with justification). The book is about the decline of the middle class, a category we cling to up here at this mountain homestead. With success (so far).

I've never read a book by Arianna Huffington before. I've always been rather turned off by her involvement, chronicled in the Doonesbury cartoons, with a group called the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. Their leader is a guy by the name of John-Roger; a typical California New Age Woo Woo group with a charismatic leader who lives an extravagant lifestyle while his followers are encouraged to tithe to his church. However, they are mostly harmless, quite similar to Eckankar (John-Roger studied with Eckankar, and seems to have borrowed much of their cosmology).

My problem with all these New Agey, Astro-projection and other worldly spirituality is that it leads to neglecting this Earthly plane that really is our home. As Thoreau said: "One world at a time". Exactly.

I also have a hard time with a Guru who drives a Lexxus. I like my Gurus poor. Ordinary. Lower middle class. Nothing pisses me off more than a religious leader who has an investment portfolio the size of New Hampshire, a house larger than a State Park and a car that costs more than what the average RN earns in two years.

Back to the book. A good read. And I have more admiration for her Huffington Post, which seems to be increasing its influence.

Days 298 to 300: A Week With Mark...

The finished wall...
Mark and I putting up a tin wall...

Just got done spending the week with my old college roomie. Mark was kind enough to forego a late season backpacking trip in order to help me put up some tin on the inside of our Addition.

We also spent four days in the Napa Valley together: Mark out tasting wine while I worked. A fun time was had by all...

Thanks to Mark for being such a trooper!

Days 291-294: My College Roomie...

My old college roomie is here: Mark. And as usually happens when we have visitors that are more talented than yours truly (easily done) , we are working on the house. Nice to have him here for a week.

Mark and I have had many adventures in our twenties together. He was a great friend to experience those silly things that immature young men do together. These experiences create a bond that sticks with you for life.

So despite our very infrequent visits over the last twenty five years, our visits are always a celebration. And I admire his kindness, gentleness, generosity, positive attitude. It reminds me the luck I have had when it comes to friends. Much of it undeserved.

So we shall catch up with these adventures a bit later. For now, we have work to do. Wine to drink. Life to catch up on. And maybe a couple more rascally and immature adventures to be had.

Photos to be added when our computer gets out of the shop.

Days 286 and 287: Four Hours a Day...

One of my work colleagues put up this poster at work. The photo didn't really turn out. The caption says: "Allan Stellar meets John Muir on the Appalachian Trail. Where's the action?"

Work places in my line of business are healthiest when there is a sense of humor present...

Okay. New goal. Drove home yesterday, traipsing in the door at 1:30 am. Since I'm finally feeling well, I decided it is time to get some work done around here.

Scott and Helen Nearing lived very segmented, disciplined lives. Of course they wrote the bible when it comes to hippy dippy "back to the land" types when they authored The Good Life. They broke the day into four hour segments: one of the four hour segments consisted of doing work on their homestead. Six days a week they lived by that rule; they took one day off as a day of rest.

Since I can wile away a day easily by watching clouds or contemplating my navel, it would be good for me to adopt such a rule.

So here it is.

When I am home and don't have any guests or an illness, I will work four hours a day on improving this bit of planet that I live on. Most of the work will be done outside.

So that is what I did today. I'm getting one of our tiers ready to be transformed into a garden. And also since my friend Mark is coming next week (he is a very talented gardener), I'm trying to get this place looking a bit better in the hopes that he won't turn around and catch the next flight back to Minnesota.

I spent four hours today weed whacking and hauling old crusty, moldy straw into a compost pile.

Day 215: End of Sloth...

Back to work. Outside. A day filled with Wendell Berryesque grunting, groaning, digging, heaving, hauling hand work. Menial under-rated work. But productive...

Day 196: Floors and Coyotes

Kylie and her friend's idea of how to make a mud floor.

Human powered activities. Lots of that today. Working on the floor. More weed whacking. Moving things. Cleaning up. Getting ready for a special visitor tomorrow.

Chicken update: Joni saw a coyote in our driveway when she got up this morning. Now that the chickens are bigger, they seem to have drawn some four legged interest.

Day 189: An "Off Grid" Home

Morning chores. All done outside (the way I like it).

Hard to leave this place to go to work for five days. Just being outside moving this and grunting with that is a treat. Birds sing everywhere. Jack rabbits wander by. Turkey vultures circle above (keeping an eye on us?). In the evenings, we sit on the couch above and watch the stars slowly emerge. Later in the evening, a breeze rushes down from the mountains, with the sound of the wind through the Ponderosa. God's air conditioner: the temperature perfect.

Yes, it is hard to leave this place. But the Napa Valley has its own charms.

Day 187: Wendell Berry Rules!

It is hard to read Ed Abbey and not want to take a walk. It is hard to read John Muir and not want to head out to the Sierra, loaf of bread in hand, climb a tree and ride out a thunderstorm while swaying in the storm. Same goes for Wendell Berry.

Take this paragraph for instance (which is at the end of the 70's classic: The Unsettling of America):

...as a people we must learn to again to think of human energy, OUR energy, not as something to be saved, but as something to be used and to be enjoyed in use. We must understand that our strength is, first of all, strength of body, and that this strength cannot thrive except in useful, decent, satisfying, comely work."

Wendell Berry makes a person want to become a farmer. With horses. And now, after re-reading this classic, it is sooooo much fun to see the tide turning. All those organic farms and farmer's markets are making a difference. The next revolution will come through food: we will suddenly be eating a whole lot like our grandparents did. And we will benefit.

So I worked today. After doing the requisite mud work, I cleaned up the property. Good, sweaty, dirty work in high temperatures. Four heaping scrap wood piles became one. Things got cleaned up. Moved. Tidied.

Reading Wendell Berry makes you either want to plant a seed or take care of your property. Joni did the former; I did the latter. A good day! And I am enthusiastically happy!

Day 176: Wendell Berry and Chicken Coops...

Dusted off my old copy of Wendell Berry's "The Unsettling of America". It seems as powerful now as it did back in 1977. I liked this passage on how we have tried (through labor saving devices and becoming a "specialist" culture) to get out of work:


"But is work something we have a right to escape? And can we escape it with impunity? We are probably the first entire people ever to think so. All the ancient wisdom that has come down to us counsels otherwise. It tells us that work is necessary to us, as much a part of our condition as mortality; that good work is our salvation and our joy; that shoddy or dishonest or self-serving work is our curse and our doom. We have tried to escape the sweat and sorrow promised in Genesis---only to find that, in order to do so, we must forswear love and excellence, health and joy".

In celebration of Berry's quote, Joni and I started work on a chicken coop. Shoddy work? No doubt.

And now off to my "specialist" job.

Days 171 and 172: Guests!

The past couple of days we have been honored to have a couple of Joni's friends drop by. Tom and Kathy (and their son) are on their way (amongst other things) to run the Rogue River. Kathy wrote an excellent, beautiful guide to the wildflowers of the Rocky Mountains. If you happen to be saved while getting stuck on some mountain somewhere, the people who saved you might have done so by reviewing Tom's very successful book.

Good people! Wilderness loving, river running, mountain climbing, rappel roving, high mountain hiking enviro friends.

While here, Tom and Kathy helped us stack some bales. Tom, who is a fire fighter by trade, easily climbed the 18 foot ladder while hauling strawbales. He made it look effortless! Tom is one of those people who can tie any knot, build anything, carry anything. He also helped shore up a wall where we have neglected to put in a sufficient header. His advice is treasured!

And the conversation. Oh the conversation.

Something Kathy said last night, while we watched the stars come out, sticks with me. She feels that, really, after spending a few years in the burbs of a major metropolitan city that there is no hope that people will "get it". We are doomed. For her, hope lies in that after every major extinction event (such as we are in now), bio-diversity comes back bigger and better than before. The Earth is a Phoenix.

It just might take a few million years.

Day 169: Climate Change in 1956

Off to Paradise this morning to buy some Topo maps for the next backpacking trip (gotta start training for the bugger soon!). While there I dropped in to visit "The Abbey" and the Abbot there who will be joining me on this next trip.

Then home to more puttering about the property. A nap. And a couple of lazy dog walks.

I've been reading Joseph Wood Krutch lately. Last night I ran across this passage from The Voice of the Desert, written in 1956:

"Workers in several different sciences are becoming more and more convinced that both the north temperate and the arctic climates are growing milder. A minor evidence is the way in which certain animals and birds--notably the possum, the turkey buzzard and the cardinal are extending their range into New England".

So there we have it. In 1956! Krutch was ahead of his time!

Day 166 to 168: Computer Troubles and Electrical...

The computer has been down for the past couple of days.

Outside activities? Weed whacking to get ready for the fire season. And (with an electrician's help) we managed to get the Addition wired. We have electricity in the Addition!

Now I can start working on the floor...

Day 161: Chores...

I bought this place in order to have chores to do. Chores are one of those things in life that keep us alive and kicking. Keeps us out of trouble; away from the bars and other potentially negative distractions that perils adulthood.

I've moved everything out of the Addition into convenient piles outside. I've declared it Summer! The dry season.

So I moved the straw bales and insulation outside. I created a large flat surface to house stuff until I can move it all back inside again. The minute I finished, it rained!

Jazzy standing in the Addition..

And another view...

And I created a new bedroom. This will have to serve for quite awhile, as next week we will put the electrical into the Addition. Then I have to level out the floor and start the months long process of putting in an adobe floor...

But that's all for now. Off to Napa!