Polyamory in the News - Polyamory - tribe.net

Polyamory in the News - Polyamory - tribe.net

moonshaddow garden update

In March I stared working with Randall on the gardens for SVI. And its been busy, but I want to take a moment at the end of a long gardening day to talk about the garden with everyone. Randall may have more to add or some editing here if he feels it- he does a TON of work in these gardens and I am always thankful for his friendship and knowledge in and out of the garden. (pictures will be on soon... paitence)

At SVI we utilize these gardens for food (firstly and most importantly in my opinion- because we like to eat good food), for education- for ourselves (i'm learning a LOT about how to grow food, preserve it, and harvest seeds for the next year.) and to teach others about permaculture, young and old and from every kind of background. It also gives us a great opportunity to work with lots of interesting people who have years of experience growing plants and food, and some who have never picked up a shovel. We also create habitat and biodiversity with our landscaping and permaculture techniques. And its all non profit. We sweat, and check seedlings, haul mulch, turn compost, fix fences, prune vines, and more, all for free, and for the love of seeing happy plants, insects, birds, and people.

So here's what we have been up to since March - in short. (I wanted to put up blog info on all the notes i've taken, pictures i've taken etc... all perfect and in such detail... but with that kindof goal, nothing will ever get done, so I'm doing a little now, and hopefully a little more in the future... like a seedling, this garden blog is coming slowly and not real showy for a bit.)

We stared in March /April with:
flats of:
leeks, kale, kholrabi, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, Broccoli (old seed- don't use old seed... none made it.)
Tomatos- several varieties, Peppers- hot and sweet, Basil,

Direct seed/sets:
onions, potatoes, beans (pole beans, bush beans etc.), snap peas, Zinnas and several flower varieties- (i should have done flats- i had to buy seedlings later since i lost the baby plants in the faster weeds. But the seedlings are doing great.)

May: Food for life and a couple of other trips happened at the begining and end- so thats when I lost the Okra to neglect. (bummer- thank goodness for Sequatchie Cove !)
We also did lots of weeding and I worked on some of the herbal spirals.

Between March and May we had SO many wonderful hardworking people come and work in the garden! There was Mountain Justice Spring Break folks, who built rock walls, did mulching and composting and built pathways for us. There was Stephanie and Patrick who worked SO hard on double digging a LOVE garden among other amazing work like fixing the road from the rain, pruning Kiwi, hauling shiitakii logs out of the woods, etc... And Kai who well... does a LOT and we arn't going to let him leave now.(mwahahaha.) (thanks for mulching today Kai!) And there have been some cross country bike riders, food for life presenters and attendees, friends and family of folks at moonshaddow, folks like Bo who have lived there before and had SO many things to teach me, and of course Chris with his chainsaw, knowledge of where the tools are and what will get the job done, and what goes great in tea etc... and Asha with all her advice and wisdom of whats been done before, and Sage for finding the best berries, bugs, hide outs. Anakesta, for all her awesome help planting herbs, veggies, and teaching us to make smells ... the list goes on and on...

SO ... THANKS TO ALL THESE awesome people and the millions of Lady bugs, wasps, humming birds, bees, and WORMS!-

We have harvested:

(~amounts arn't exact!)
~2 lbs Radishes
~5 lbs Beets
~9 lbs Kholrabi
lots of onions... i can't even imagine the lb's...
LOTS of Lettuce
LOTS of parsley (we have LOTS AND LOTS MORE! anyone want to trade for some parsley?)
Leeks- with more to come
basil- lots of it and more coming
15 lbs of beans!
Potato's! lots more to come.
Chard
MUSTARDS (anyone want some?)
Spinach
fava beans
snap peas
thyme
sage
oregano
rosemarry
pineapple sage, chocolate mint, lots of other mints, catnip, yarrow, rose hips, poppy seed, purple sage, lemon thyme, lemon balm, chick weed,


lbs and lbs of Wine Berries
Blueberries
mulberries
gummie berries
currents
(one lowly strawberry - too much rain/bad location... but again- THANK YOU Seq. Cove Farm!- Padgett's did great- so we had all we could eat!)
Shiitake mushrooms
golden oyster mushrooms
Cherries

And I've harvested an ungodly amount of worm dirt, worm tea, and compost from our little dirt production centers - that i feel i have to mention it.

I'm going to harvest more beets and more potato's this week- golden, red, and white, and more leeks and a spaghetti squash and a watermelon.

I planted in the last two days: some heirloom corn from DiDi, and some sweet corn. Pumpkins- a few different varieties- and i think too close together so we shall see what happens there... Cantaloupe, Loufa, gourds, pimento peppers, MORE BASIL (cuz you can never have too much basil and parsley).

All the tomato plants have tomato's on them- i made a few fried green ones for me and Chris because i just couldn't wait anymore for a red one. One red one that was coming on today- had a little bug in it... boo!- but i ate a cherry tomato today!

We have Cucumbers in the ground now too, and some pepper plants with small peppers on them.

Anyone want Comfrey for anything- i have to cut some out of some beds its trying to take over? Anyone want to trade some stuff for veggies- let us know!

Anyone with cheese, milk, eggs, or meat that they would want to swap for herbs and veggies- that would be a great trade for us. OR be creative- if you would like some dried herbs or fresh, or frozen beans or whatever for something you make or some work, or even a box of screws for my fence project... whatever... we are really into bartering! We have some small plants also to trade for.

I'm also interested in farm work trade - I would love to come see other people's gardens and farms and work there for the day. I understand if other farmers are really too busy to come to SVI to work- but if you or someone you know would like a day in the sunshine pulling weeds - or picking berries- we would love to do that as well with you. (tomorrow - Pears!)

We are also very interested in information exchange and I'm working on the farmer activist group we started at food for life. If you would like to be on that mailing list, let me know, i'm putting those things together this week as well.

I'm looking for Eggplant seedlings if anyone knows of a source right now.

So that's all for now folks!
Happy gardening!

plastic bag user- turned Paper-tarian

So how many people here NEVER use plastic bags? and i mean - go vegan on the whole plastic bag thing and NEVER EVER EVER use them- don't let them touch your food - don't let them near your home... hmmm? how many?

*crickets*

How many folks know about how much plastic is in our ocean, in our world? killing off other speicies? toxifying the whole place? hmm? anyone? ya you all know its true...

but why do i meet so many Vegan people. raw food people? people who NEVER buy chemical products that choke and kill streams? people who only buy local... but i never ever meet anyone who is so ANTI Plastic shopping bag that they talk about it, wear shirts promoting it, fight for taxation on the stupid things, or even talk to people about it. Why? is it not important? Is it that packaging is SO invisible that we can't see the mess we are making?

So i was at Ingles, a local grocery store - not organic or local grocery- just your general regular every day store. They do promote organic items on the shelves and sell a broad range of choices from the always save type to the organic to the high end stuff.

I forgot my fabric bags. I knew i was going to the store and had made a mental note- but that got tossed when my house mates added some to do's to the mental list and it didn't go on paper... so i'm at the store with no fabric bags- EEEEK! WHAT TO DO?! oh god please say they have paper!

Well they did. Walmart does not carry paper bags at all anymore but will sell you a fabric bag for a buck. and its little... ya thats great walmart- love listening to your new green washing that you play over and over again on the loud system to make people feel better about buying your child labor made crap in over packaged plastic. (Has anyone picked up on the hypocrisy of walmart lately talking about how Green they are?! )

So Ingles has paper bags but she had to go get them and made some excuses about that trying to talk me into plastic. I said politely, "No, i can wait."

So the teenager grumbled and went to get them. (the same girl while ringing me up held up my red cabbage and asked what it was and what to do with it so i wasn't working with someone who is at all savy i have a feeling. but she was pretty so i guess she's hoping to get by on that the rest of her life.)

So while she and the bagger are using team work to open the paperbag and put my things in- all my grocery's went into 3 paper bags. I think they would have used like 15 plastic ones because they were putting one item at a time in the plastic ones before i stopped them.

I mentioned this to her- like "Look, see how much fits in there! its so much better!" and she scoweled at me (friendly like of course) and said, "I just hate paper bags, they are such a pain."

I took this opportunity to talk about plastic in our environment, how that plastic bag right there would be in our world for a VERY VERY LONG TIME and go into land fills etc. and that the paper one would go in my compost and in a few weeks be gone to worms and dirt and would go into my garden for me to eat.

She kindof had a blank stare and didn't get it really. just really wanted me to stop talking about the environment I think because it was just too much for her.

But i of course went on... because these three paper bags were very difficult to work with apparently and they were giving me time to get on with the business of saving the environment.

I tried to discuss with her, if the bags were easier to get to, easier to open and fill, would she like them better and offer them over plastic? but by then i think i stretched her brain too much. I don't mean to insult the pretty girl- i was just kindof in awe of her bubbly-ness and apathetic attitude.

She did respond with, "I hear they might ban plastic bags." I replied, "Actually most countries tax them, about .10-.20 cents each and there are groups trying to here but the plastic industry are fighting it." I also continued, "It would make since that since american's are among the MOST wasteful and most consumer driven, that we would institute that automatically to control how many plastic bags get used." She mindlessly agreed.

I realize everyone around me (not including my bubble of environmentally enlightened people) and everyone around you- are apathetic to all the problems of the world: climate change, child labor, prescrip. drugs in our water system, mountain top removal, coal and all that nastyness, GMO foods and pesticides and loss of habitat and biodiversity... and the list goes on and on... so its hard to be focused on every action as it all somehow bloodies our hands with the murder of the world.

I started thinking that really, there are a lot of us educated enough to know - you can grab a cloth bag at the good will for .25 and keep it in the car and get in the habbit of using it - or you can demand paper- but often - people just forget and go- oh... next time... or - i'll save and reuse them... or whatever... but I don't think there are people that are Anti plastic packaging or plastic bag. and maybe its time we did go on a no plastic diet huh? Maybe its time the vegan's and the raw foodists, and the localvores - looked at the WHOLE picture of what they eat and look at what it comes in- maybe we all should... but that isn't enough even. because the minions of folks who go on eating at fast food places (i'm one. i do it. i like taco bell. sorry.) and the folks who never ever think a second thought about any of this... need a little help in controlling the plastic bag extravaganza.

Maybe if we start talking about it more - and talk to the people it matters to- like the folks GIVING IT TO YOU, we could do something about it.

I'm trying to go on a no plastic bag diet now. maybe you can call me a paper-tarian? i have no idea what catchy phrase you need to not have plastic in your life- but join me. Talk to your supermarket check out girls and boys. Hand out fabric bags you pick up from good will or make some out of old jeans... you don't have to buy a fabric bag unless having something nice like one of those makes you feel cool and you will use it more.

But whatever you do- LOOK AT YOUR FUCKING PACKAGING.

don't buy organic if its in mylar. come on. Don't buy the stupid crab meat thats tripple wrapped in plastic - with dolphin safe stamped on it.
buy in bulk. ask if you can reuse the plastic bags.

and if you take an evening walk- take a bag with you to pick up the trash you see. its a great addition to the work out.

ok off my plastic soap box now.

please don't go back to your apathy though.

1 love,
trish

healthcare reality

So, this has most likely happened to you at one time or another. You feel a bit sick... not too bad, but its not the usual and your concerned a bit. But you go to diagnose & treat yourself because your uninsured. (even if you are insured- do you have the co-pay? are they open? will they take you soon or in two weeks?)

In my case I'm uninsured and unemployed with very little income. So its important for me to stay healthy, and to be able to diagnose and treat my illness on my own either homeopathically or with over the counter drugs. In the odd case I do have to go to a physician for a prescription, I usually know exactly what I need before I go, and I go to a local walk in clinic and spend less than 20$- typically...

Apparently not in middle rual TN. So its Saturday afternoon by the time the pain gets to tear jerking status, and by then I was fully aware of what I had, had taken all the homeopathic remedies I could muster, and still felt- now is the time for some antibotics. (I very rarely and usually reluctantly take antibiotics but sometimes you have to go that route.)

So I called 10 min after the walk in clinic had closed. Could not reach anyone else by phone at any other hospital or clinic from my home to Chattanooga 1 hour away. I started loosing hope and sanity by this point- and a friend calls to let me know that there IS a hospital that works with uninsured patients in Dunlap and she gave me directions. I went there and was the ONLY patient there. I was there for 2 hours. I told them what I had. They ran tests, confirmed what I had, made me wait some more, the Dr. asked the exact same questions the nurse did, and confirmed exactly what I had said. Finally wrote some prescriptions and had me go to billing. Which took me another hour.

I left there finally and stopped by 3 pharmacy's and all were closed. I went to a phone as I don't have a cell phone now and no where has a pay phone at all anymore... called 5 more pharmacy's in an hour radius of me and all were closed till tomorrow at either 10 or 12.

The cost of all this frustration: $136.42 up front (after a 65% discount for being poor but able to pay up front) + whatever the doctor bills me- because that comes later + whatever the two meds he prescribed cost (and i am going to look up if one of them can be otc instead of prescrip.)

The benifit of all the time and effort to do all this: not much. I am still in pain, still not treated till tomorrow and misserable- and taking more painkillers than i will admit here. I did get started on the process for State insurance. But thats got way more paperwork and meetings to come so it wasn't really worth all the time i spent on it. If i get approved, I will get reinbursed the whole ammount except the meds.



__________________________________________________________

Everyone knows this kindof hassle. Hates it and lives with it. Let me tell you an alternative story.

I was feeling sick, not the usual cough and cold. I was in RURAL Namibia. In the middle of the national park to be exact. I was self employed with no insurance and far from a city with what most westerners would think "proper" doctors are found.

My collegue convinced me to go to the clinic. I knew what I had, what I needed but needed her help to navigate a whole different system of healthcare than I had known before.

I walked in, there were maybe a hundred people in the large waiting room. I got in within about 20 min. My whole appointment took about an hour at most. When I got there, they had me fill out one card which they copy and I keep the master. I spoke to a nurse after all the vitals were taken, and told her I thought I had an ear infection, she checked me out, confirmed it, wrote me a prescription - told me how to take it, went over any other concerns with me, and had me shown to the desk to obtain the prescription. Then they had me go to billing and I spent $10.00 USD. That was it. For a consultation and my meds- 10.00.

______________________________________________________________

So tell me why socialized health care is bad? Tell me what's so great about our system here?

Why do people fill the clinics in Africa- Because they CAN! they are not afraid of an illness because of what it will cost them, so they go in for everything. - (and because the conditions of life are more hazardous in the bush maybe... and lots of other social reasons- but i feel that one part of it is that going to the doctor is so easy- why not?)

And- i've been insured before through employers and i have to say that what i spent/ was taken out of my pay check was a HELL of a lot more than I ever got out of it.

_______________________________________________________________

My solution-
lets have some alternative health care choices in this country and SEE what people choose to do huh? if there's so much debate over which is better- insured - self paid for - healthcare? or- socialized, state provided healthcare with some minimum costs for medications? (which would mean possibly higher taxes- but far cheaper than insurance taken out of every pay check.)
Offer up both and see what people choose.

Oh wait- we sort of do that now a little- So many people don't have insurance and go to Mayo.com and their local walk in clinic. I need to see statistics but I would bet the people going to the doctor most frequently, are not paying for the treatment - they might even be on Medicade or some state program to be there.

With impending collapse of our systems - and possible flu outbreaks like in 1918- i think our health care system will be an epic fail.

share your thoughts... i might add more later... i'm just pissed off and in pain right now.

1 luv, mizz trish.

Early Spring Garden in TN

I am currently a gardener at Sequatchie Valley Institute in TN- www.svionline.org . It's my first LARGE SCALE garden project ever and its for education and consumption so I'm learning a LOT and I believe there is a LOT to share.

We started in February- prepping some garden beds, creating compost piles taller than me with weeds and leaves from all the garden beds. I have before and after pictures I will include I'm sure.

Between early March and now, we have planted hundreds of seedlings in flats- Brassica's, Leeks, Collards, Mustards of various varieties and some herloom variaties, Asian greens, Lettuce (which we have a succession of lettuce that will hopefully give us 3-4 harvest's), Gourds, Squash, Beets, Basil, MISC. Herbs- I will detail out the herbal spirals in another blog in the future. I thought I planted WAY too many Broccoli flats, however it turns out not one came up because the seed was too old. So unfortunately this year, no broccoli unless I trade someone brussels sprouts for it.

In the ground we have collards still from our winter crop and just now pulled most of them up as they started to bolt. The Raddishes are getting pretty big, something is chewing on the leaves but not doing too much damage to them- the one's in High Lonesome are getting attacked by Deer and now I have cages over them for a temporary solution.

We also planted spinach, transplanted some Lettuce, Parsley, and i've planted hundreds of flowers all over- Callendulla, Zinna, Cosmos, Sunflowers, Larkspur, snap draggons, etc. to attract preditor insects.

Our lady bug population is HUGE this year thanx to a left over mattress that apparently served as the lady bug Hillton for the winter.

Our worms are Amazing. We have a vermaculture bin- but our compost is FULL of worms, so the ducks seem to chow down over at the compost pile after I go retrieve some for planting- and still don't make a dent in the numbers! Its great! Go Worms! I have several jars of worm tea right now from our vermaculture bin.

We have hundreds of tomato seedlings with many varieties.

We also pruned the kiwi a MASSIVE amount this year- its about 5 yrs old more or less. The guys fixed the walkway trellising and it looks amazing and there are buds already.

I transplanted Quince Suckers this month as well. Quince is really exciting for me as I've never seen the fruit and I hear that its DELICIOUS cooked with this recipe I kept for ages now for when I ever saw a Quince.

With a little help from friends I was able to find 3 morel's so far this season. It's COLD right now so maybe tomorrow when it warms up I will go back to the spot to look for more.

We have hundreds of fruit trees and the guys did a lot of trimming in that department this month. We also had some trees fall in a Microburst which took out one Cherry Tree but could have been MUCH worse- it fell pretty much perfectly. Chris and friends cut up all the pine and cherry and I learned to stack wood "Johnny Style" and made a great smelling collection of Cherry and Pine for many fires in the future.

I also planted some odd things that I found in our seed collection: Prickly worm (weird flowers) - some asparagus peas which are neither peas nor asparagus- but looked kind of interesting and are still eddible. And some other variaties- we will see if the seed comes up - some of the packets were old. We tried to use EVERY older seed this year- if it doesn't come up now, it won't ever was my thinking. So we have lots of some things and like broccoli and several rows of raddish- we didn't have at all. The ducks liked the left overs of the raddish seed that didn't sprout. :)

SVI is also helping out with a garden in the city near Look Out mountain - The Bethleham Center - about 85 kids between 1st grade and i think jr high school in an inner city neighborhood are starting a couple of community gardens and this is the one we are working with. It was REALLY fun! The pictures so far are online, as it grows, I will post more pictures up.

So... Its been more relaxing around here than it sounds. There was lots of help with things - we had several volunteer groups and visitors help out with double digging at High Lonesome, and mulching and whatnot... its been really fun having so many interesting people. But the weather still hasn't warmed up completely. We have days of glorious beauty and days of sleet and cold, but we believe this is our last cold snap now. (really it is)

I'm currently working on bamboo art and pyrography. I've been scavenging dried bamboo and making jewlery and such. I am also busy with a Bamboo arbor.

The snakes are out on the sunny days- days when I want bamboo- and thats where they want to sleep and wait for ducks to lay eggs. But they are harmless and slow with the temperature still a bit too cool.

The surface rock removal across the creek from us is working hard and is more visible with less tree coverage, i swear they blast there - they arn't supposed to. I want to go scope the operation out and check the water nearby. I would love to do some water testing in the area anyway. How would one go about testing your fish for mercury anyway?

Food for Life is coming up and we are very excited about it and busy. I will post more on this later too.

Wed/ Thursday- THATS when it gets warm enough to put some of these seedlings in the ground and more herbs direct seeded! :)

Fire Feast

So I was at SVI this weekend for my first workshop before starting to work there. It was great. SO many great people who are experianced in all manner of interesting skills. From Mushroom growing to building, to grant writing, to cooking and everything in between. We had some excellent sessions. The whole workshop was run on Open Space Technology- which is a great tool for organizing people and projects, can't wait to learn more about it. The workshop will hopefully be availible on podcast soon and I will post links. One interesting thing we did was celebrate Fire Feast at the end. Seemed appropriate considering the ocassion was a visioning workshop and we are planning the year.

Fire Feast or Imbolc or Bridget’s Feast or Candlemas or Ground Hogs’ Day is Feb 4th this year.
Falling half way between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, Fire Feast is considered a predictor day for the year. What you do, what you discuss, who you see on this day predicts your year. Fire Feast hails the end of winter. (sure beats having a ground hog telling you when its over.)

So my intentions for the year are pretty simple. The grand plan is to learn how to build some things out of stuff around me, and feed myself out of whatever comes out of our yard at SVI. And to help out with some kids in the city of Chattanooga learn to garden etc. Cameron and I also want to find land and start getting sorted with our homestead.

Specific tasks surrounding this are:

• Planting two large gardens at SVI with one other person.


• Learning some building, cobbing techniques- first project: to build a solar shower/ compost toilet for the bungalows maybe up at SVI if they agree.


• Learning lots of food prep/preservation skills.


• making a worm bin. (if it works, making a second for the community center in Chatanooga with a friend)


• Working with the kids from a community center to build a community garden.


• Learning all about grant writing.


• Making some art to sell at craft fairs or Etsy. (pyrography of useful things.)


• Organizing a large workshop called Food for Life with SVI.


• Going to Haiti on an exchange program for 10 days. (fundraising for it)


• Finding land for a home.

I will be sharing pictures & stories of this process for the following year.

The view from my seat

So folks have often said they live vicariously through me which I actually find very strange. I would hope they would see something interesting and use it as inspiration to go off and do something even more interesting. (Or at least see my mistakes and know what NOT to do.)

Another friend stated, "If you have something to share and it takes longer than 30 min to tell the story, you should just write it down." (I'm thinking she stole that quote but its good advice)

I have seen a few blogs where people lament the daily mundane things that happen to them. The traffic jam that made you late or the line at the bank (unless its a robbery why repeat that?) and some co worker that laughed at your skirt stuffed into your pantyhose while you got a drink at the fountain. I hope not to delve into that when I'm strapped for something to say. If I run out of stories, I just share the interesting, inspirational, funny, or insane things others put out there. (I hate being unoriginal so hopefully I can stay true to that.)

And why, you may be asking yourself, would anyone say they are living vicariously through the chubby, middle class, miss matched more often than not, kansas girl? Well, I've gotten the opprotunity to spread my wings (and maybe my legs too... if your lucky I'll feel the urge to write some erotica too...) and go do some interesing things (and people...ehem... I am not going to pretend its a family show here.)

Short list of accomplishments (and maybe I will list the failures too for perspective - just to show ya that it ain't all roses all the time) :

I went backpacking for 6 weeks through the mountains when I was 10 yrs old. Had my first house sitting business that same year. My first job when I was 13 as a dog washer in a groom shop. I was a band and art geek in highschool and very activist driven in environmental causes that wern't just about recycling cans by the vending machine. First person in my family to go to college and afterward I was managing a group home of three fantastic guys. I went off to the Peace Corps and didn't come home right away. I stayed in Namibia for 5 years developing my non profit / consulting business. Came back to the US for graduate school and changed my perspective on our future, economy, the reality of graduate school etc, went to work in an Elephant Sanctuary. I stage managed, painted backdrops for plays, created a haunted house, and now I'm off to learn how to cob build and permaculture. Life has been grand.

Thats a short list of the fun things.

I've also been rejected on jobs, been lazy and missed opprotunities, wrecked 2 cars which changed everything in those times of my life, and I've had my heart broken, mended, and broken again. But my scars and callouses make me stronger.

I truely believe our way of life that the masses are enjoying so much in this culture are going to come to an end. How that happens, how we say good bye to so much technology or supposed luxury and what we replace it with interests me. So expect some doom. Expect some ideas on how you can escape the culture of makebelieve with me.

"If your a dreamer come in" - shel

1 luv,

Trish