Sustainability means balance

At 4:22 in the afternoon the sun has set, the light is rapid fading from the sky. It shouldn't be this dark this early. . . in my not so humble opinion. But what nature says should happen, should happen. We were just outside, Jacob and i, looking at the existing garden and where the additions to the garden will be. It is growing a bit. In fact when it is done it will be just shy of three times the square footage of our house - Its both exciting and terrifying. After the terrible neglect that this years garden took, i fear that a larger garden might be a fools errand!
Amy and i have been talking with the staff at the local university. They have asked us to consider organizing (or helping to organize) the university garden. Its a very tempting and worthwhile, yet daunting task. They have been looking at a parcel of land that is 25 acres and was formerly an alpaca farm that the university acquired a few years ago and has no plans for at the moment. The food services folks have tried some small garden projects on it the last couple of years, but want to go whole hog with it this year. The food service division is a contract company that is part of an outfit that is very interested in local, sustainable, organic farming, and food bio security. The goal is to produce as much food as we can to be used in the school's cafeteria! Their thinking seems to be right up our alley!
So the question remains, "Can we balance our respective jobs, volunteer at the school and still make time to give a go at a much larger garden in our backyard?"
Amy says, "No, we should think about scaling back a bit."
i don't yet know what the right answer is. At the moment nothing is set in stone, and as we desire to produce more of our own food it would make sense to have a couple of plans in place and later choose the most logical.

We (Jacob and i) talked about the birds becoming more sustainable as well. Our flocks right now are larger than they should be. Space wise we are all set, but the birds are definitely NOT cost efficient - hence, not financially sustainable. We were thinking that we could sell eggs and perhaps meat as well. This would help to offset the increasing cost of corn which seems to be the most painful pinch on my pocket at the moment (maybe with exception to taxes!). As corn rises, poultry feed rises. We have a large number of birds for a "hobby farm" and need to figure out where to go next. . . . oh yeah, and i think we have an extra rooster. . . stupid bird!

i love conversations like this for two reasons:

1) It's good to jump start young people's thinking about sustainability and agriculture now. When they are adults, the world may be a very different looking place.
2) i love planning things!!! Especially next years yummies!!!!

WE the PEOPLE

Blessedly the transition to socially accepted isolation has been a slow one. One day the house is totally void of Hogans, and way too quiet. The next day they are all here, and then the next there are just a handful of them. As they are working on their new house i have had a lot of time to reflect on our months together. There are a lot of lessons, all of which i am thankful for. Obviously our circumstances here are/were not ideal for the number of folks in a three bedroom house, but there is so much that is/was beautiful about what has been happening here in the last eight or so months.

With the presidential election and the state of affairs of the world i have been thinking a lot about the "split" (i don't like to think of it as a split because we are such good friends and we do love each other terribly! To me a split implies hatred and hard feelings.). As we reenter isolationism as two families it seems horribly unnatural to me and honestly i am having a pretty hard time with both the volume of the house decreasing and the idea that we will be in a place once again where we are having to possess the same things that the guy next door has. In some neighborhoods (and ours is one of those) folks will share some or even many items between neighbors, yet still so many things are duplicated needlessly when we could share together. Our need to possess and to keep up with the Jones', or to one up our neighbors is what is destroying our planet for our children and any chances or teaching our children real peace and love between neighbors.

The elections are now done and over and i have been listening to many of my friends lament how president Obama wants to turn this country into a socialist nation. And they are afraid and resistant, and yet these are the same friends that claim to follow Jesus. i am left wondering, "Wouldn't Jesus want us to be a socialist country?" Not a govermentally forced socialist country but a country of sharing a redistribution caused by an outpouring of love and spontaneity from the heart. Perhaps that is the state of the Church in America. We suffer, but not from persecution, or starvation, but of excess and a inappropriate sense of entitlement.

i didn't vote for Obama. i didn't vote for McCain either. . . i did vote though. While i don't agree wholly with the candidate (sort of) that i voted for, i don't agree with the other two guys either. A government of the people, for the people, and by the people is not a government that leads a people but a people that leads a government. To vote and then consider yourself relieved of all other duties is arrogant. People that think or live this way deserve to live in an oppressively taxed over regulated country.
People instead should steer the government by their actions. When the people start living out the principles taught by Jesus the government will have no option but to follow. To feed the hungry, to love each other, to take care of each other, to tend to the earth, to abolish oppression, to teach each other, to look after our neighbors (all of them local AND global) before ourselves, to speak with one voice, to be the change in the world that we want to see - These are the things that the government is arguing over making us do. . . because WE have FAILED to first do these things ourselves.

Some watery tart throwing swords from a pond is no basis for a system of government!

There is a duck in my garage. . . in a rabbit cage on the eve of history being made.
Oh sure there is some silly election taking place somewhere, but who really cares? What's really exciting is that the chicken coop now has an officially water proof roof. No more silly looking third world-tarp topped-shanty. Now those spoiled birds have a two room suite fully furnished with amish-esque wooden nesting boxes, wall to wall roosting bars, private entryways and picture windows.
Life continues to be exciting on the pharm. Bruce the mystery neighbor continues to cut down our spruce trees for us, opening up the view of the river and the kids are endlessly entertained by the new wind mill that our neighbor Mark set up just across the cement brook.
The elusive 'buck' that has been rumored to run around the neighborhood has finally been seen. He was feeding with his share of little lady does back in the swamp. All those years of rumors and blurry photographic evidence may soon be vindicated if the boys in blaze orange (the hunters) finally have their way.
In the meantime the Hogans just sent an email from their secret hidden (is that redundant) base. Word on the street is that after all of their labor and days of high nerves are finally paying off!! The title to their future kingdom has been located and is on its way to being officially signed by all of the powers that be. Sadly this means that next week will likely be our last together :-(.
And it isn't sounding good for McCain. At least retirement is still an option.

Stay tuned. . . next week - Why is it a "fourgone conclusion". Or - Americas obsession with oppressing "odd numbers".






. . . yes, i know that i spelled it wrong.

Back to. . .well. . . it isn't quite reality!

Nothing racks the brain (and the emotions) worse than returning to the hum-drum routine of "normal" life after a weekend in a place that you love to be. It's a confusing feeling - energized and excited about what life holds in the coming months and at the same time longing to return to where you were just moments ago. 

 

i am sure that up here in the great white north folks must be tiring of hearing my constant chattering about community. About the benefits of living together and serving one another while learning to invite Jesus to work through us. About finding a much more sustainable way of living by stripping away the excesses of individualism (and by this i mean ownership, and not personalities!). About regressing technologically in some respects. . . so as to unclutter landfills and make even our refuse more ecologically friendly. About simplifying and spending more time devoted to relationships and less time devoted to our affairs with our televisions and computers (ironic isn't it - but hey, i am at work). Still i dream of community forming and growing. i dream of brother and sisterhood developing in new depths of love even here in New England. i dream of a love that cancels out debts and provides enough for one another and an excess that flows out and over to those in need. A contagious love.

 

And hope remains.

 

In our time with our dear friends we had many conversations about how we should live and how we struggle to find that. We spent some time reflecting, and we spent some time stacking boxes, unstacking boxes, talking politics and the economy (no big suprise there given the season) cooking, washing potatoes, looking at rocks, and leaves and red efts, and singing. . .

i will give a more thorough report in the coming days, but now we are back and i am excited about the future. Yes winter is fast approaching. In fact i just saw on the news that parts of New York were buried under a foot of snow. . .i hope Bellvale was spared :-)

There are a slew of projects around the pharm to do, the turkeys are getting big, the chickens are laying and we have the food pantry and deer season to keep us busy for the time. . .

 

i love this time of year!!!!!

 

 

It's alive!!!!

OK, it's not alive, but IT IS DONE!!!!!!

All most two months to the day that we undertook this silly project we have finally completed it. . . and just in the nick of time. The roof has been water tight, and likely snow tight for two months, but it was never finished. With much thanks to the Kurtz, the Breards, the Bevins, the Mcleods, the Hogans (of course), the Morelands, and Chuck (the wonder engineer!) we were able to get the roof up on that first weekend. Alas, Mr. roof delivery guy forgt to give us twelve feet of flashing. A month later he delivered us a replacement ten feet. . . oops! Then Last Friday an extra ten foot section of rake edge came. Oh the joy! (Not to steal an expression from some old explorers).
Amy, Chris and i got up, did some tweaking, some installing, and some caulking (please cure, please cure, please cure, please cure!!!) And all of this as the temperatures have suddenly dumped, and snow is forcast for Wednesday morning.

So now i move into two plus weeks of vacation with one major project off of the books. God be praised. Autumn is here and now i feel like i can finally sit back and enjoy it.

The Big Five are just two weeks away from meeting their "processor" so to speak. That will be another huge relief. We are currently going through just over 150 pounds of food a week between the chickens and the turkeys. When the Hogans move they will take twelve of the birds, but the bulk of the food is being eaten by the Big Five. So it won't completely eliminate the need for feed, but it will help quite a bit. One of the major upsides is that all of that feed going out will finally be coming back in. Though i confess it has long been a goal of mine to raise a turkey that was forty pounds dressed weight, i don't believe i have done it yet. Our current record is 38 pounds. We will see if we can at least match that. The other turkeys (those that we aren't using to start our own flock should be ready to go by Christmas).

That's all for now. . . off to bed. Hurray!!!

One stalwart maple. . .

It's October, not that i have need to remind anyone, but it feels an
awful lot like late November. The wind smells different. It finds it
way deeper into the bones than a normal wind. The undergrowth is dying
back and forests are clearing, and the leaves are turning. We are very
near what the tourism folks like to call "peak foliage". Meaning that
the most leaves have turned to reds, oranges, and yellows and the like
at the same time. It makes for extraordinary beautiful sunsets. This
time of year while the sun dazzles while tucking into the horizon, the
opposite horizon gives it's best effort to rival with a glowing
bronze, lending to the notion that the whole skyline is ablaze.

On our way to work tonight, Jessy and i stopped for coffee, and there
near the coffee shop was a lone maple standing resolute in it's
longing to hold onto to summer. It was a modest little fella, not
standing more than twelve, or so feet tall and not yet possessing that
imposing canopy of some of it's older brothers and sisters. One might
miss it were they not paying too close attention.

This is the time of year when my usually hyper-obnoxious nature gives
way to an equally irritating melancholy. The ol' mind tends to dwell
on what was, mourn what isn't to be this year, and curse the coming
cold. i would diagnose it as seasonal depression, but this is my
favorite time of year. . .the harvest is in, the forests are passable,
the wildlife is scurrying around preparing for a long nap (lucky
buggers!!). This year is already proving to be tough. my dreams have
been tormented as of late. The Hogans are just days away from moving
and it will be lonely in the house again.

The last size months have allowed me to take stock in where i am, and
where my family is. This has been a time of putting our money where
our mouth is and bringing the reality of life in (tight) community to
bear along with the honeymoon dreams of it. i have to confess that our
report card doesn't afford the marks that i would have liked. Our time
together has brought to light our weaknesses (as well as our
strengths), and stretched all of us in many directions. We have had to
face variables and obstacles of every kind. And in many ways we
succeeded. We have made amazing friends and watched each others
children grow. i can say that i have not had a friend as close as
Chris in a great many years.

i am exceedingly thankful for our time together and now i hope that we
can take inventory of what we have learned about ourselves and grow
from it. Who knows what the future holds. . . only God is good.

Missing God. . .

Tonight was wonderfully inspiring.
i have allowed God to sit on the back burner for far too long. It is one thing to believe or not to believe, each person has to make their own decision about that. It is completely different to believe and not to do anything with it.
i wish that i was a better orator. More often than not i am ill-prepared, when i am not ill-prepared i am absent (or wandering) minded. When i am not that i am just hopelessly lost in life. Tonight it fell on me to "moderate" and i was the perfect mix of all of these things. In the long run the conversation went directions that i didn't intend, and probably i said things that the were interpreted completely differently than i planned. In the long run i drew out of it as much and perhaps more than some of the others. i definitely didn't intend to make it about me. . . but i think that is where it went. Some good statements were made though. Really they were truths that i have thought about for a long time that finally got verbalized in a great way (i didn't say any of them - that was icing on the cake).
The Church is the gathering of disciples of Jesus. We come together to share how Jesus is moving in our lives - and that encourages us, and iron sharpens iron. This being a new and enlightened age perhaps it should be titanium sharpens titanium.
After we fell to chaos (we were done talking anyway) i was taking out the compost from the kitchen, and i sang. It was the first time that i have worshiped -really worshiped- in a long time. i forgot that i missed it. i forgot that i missed God. i know that i am not a disciplined man. i know that there is so much of me that is not broken. i know that there is so much of me that will never be broken because i am not disciplined enough to be broken.
i have found that as i seek God through being the Church, rather than being part of a greater organized collective. Not that there is anything wrong with belonging to the organization, i simply have found a glass barrier that needs to be conquered so as to find a new depth to God. It is hard though to find the balance of living and belonging. Maybe that doesn't make any sense. . . i don't know.
i do know that i miss God, but he has never been farther than right there, i just have to open my eyes and love
On a closing thought. . . the garden wasn't wholly unproductive. Yummy goodness lurking in our backyard. i enjoy finding God here at home. Peace, Love Joy, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness and Self control. . . and sewing, hoeing, growing, and just sitting back and watching in amazement at all creation.
.