Monthly Archive for May, 2007

Mid-western

Published
by
Brian
on May 31, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage and Life
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Today, a group of us drove over to a farm in Gorin to pick up some sheep manure. This morning it had been raining quite heavily, but the sky was clear and bright by mid-day and filled with amazing and hugely puffy clouds. It was quite a sight as we rolled up and down the gravel roads.

When we got there, the owner of the farm had driven up to the barn where we were to start shoveling. He was an older man in his late 60s, with the traditional farmer get-up: faded blue jeans, and old and worn button down short-sleeved shirt, a tattered mesh baseball cap, and he chewed on a toothpick while we all spoke. He was an extremely friendly gentlemen who spoke happily and openly while we worked. He was generous enough to let us shovel as much of the manure and soil that we wanted, and he asked us about the ecovillage while he shared some information and stories about his own family and work. One of his more interesting stories was about getting electricity for the first time. He was seven or eight years old and had gotten home from school, and his mother had attempted to explain that the family need to now only flick a switch to turn the lights on, and the farmer recalled that he was perplexed by the notion. The year was 1945. Only sixty years ago.

Nevertheless, he had some interesting stuff to say.

After our shoveling trip, I somehow felt that this man must be a great example of the kindhearted mid-western farmer figure. I hope I can meet more of these people some day.

Note: Please find all of my cob building related content at my new blog, The Year of Mud: Building a cob house. Thanks! See you there!

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Life in an organic vegan food co-op

Published
by
Brian
on May 30, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage, Food and Life
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Amy of Bobolink (the food co-op where I am currently eating) has started a blog to document our daily meals. She started it only a few days ago, so there’s only a few images so far, but check it out. Today was my cook shift, and I made tempeh reubens again, and you can see what they look like there. (The rolls didn’t rise properly today, though… damn.)

Here it is: Eco-vegan, or Life in an organic vegan food co-op

Schedule

Published
by
Brian
on May 29, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage and Life
. 1 Comment

Because I am currently wexing (work exchanging), I have a pretty consistent daily routine mapped out here at Dancing Rabbit. Here’s an example of a typical day.

7:30 a.m.: Wake up.
7:34 a.m.: Walk outside into bright sunlight, wait for eyes to adjust to sheer brightness.
7:35 a.m.: Use bathroom.
7:40 a.m.: Eat breakfast. Examples include: homemade granola with kefir, a “Skyhouse Special” (raw oats, peanut butter, sorghum, raisins, and water), or eggs on homemade bread.
7:50 a.m.: Turn on computer to check email, and do my daily writing at CamcorderInfo.
8:55 a.m.: Brush teeth.
9:00 a.m.: Head to the Ironweed kitchen or the Bobolink garden to do some work.
11:50 a.m.: Stop working.
12:00 p.m.: Lunch! (Always leftovers from the previous night’s meal.)
12:30 p.m.: Hang around outside, chat, etc.
1:00 p.m.: Head back to Ironweed kitchen or the garden to do some more work.
3:00 p.m.: Stop working.
3:05 p.m.: Jump in the pond to cool off and get clean.
3:30 p.m.: Read, lounge about, socialize, etc. If it’s the night of my cookshift, I’ll start cooking around this time.
4:00 p.m.: Think more and more about tonight’s meal. Grab a snack (slice of sourdough bread with peanut butter and honey, granola, etc.) in anticipation.
4:15 p.m.: Continue reading, chatting, etc.
6:30 p.m.: Dinner!
7:30 p.m.: Watch a movie (if one is scheduled), hang out in the Common House (and/or attend an event if one is scheduled), play cards, play a board game, use the telephone, use the computer, read, etc.
10:30-11:30 p.m.: Sleeeep.

Where we went wrong

Published
by
Brian
on May 28, 2007
in Civilization, Culture, Uncategorized and Video
. 0 Comments

A short interview snippet with Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael, which was the first most personally inspiring book I have read. Not sure when this was conducted, but there are some good chunks of knowledge in there.

What’s wrong here?

Published
by
Brian
on May 26, 2007
in Civilization, Culture and Photography
. 0 Comments

Indian Hills

Published
by
Brian
on May 26, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit and Life
. 1 Comment

This morning, a small group of us went to the Indian Hill Conservation Area that is about six miles away from Dancing Rabbit. It’s a 3600+ acre piece of land set aside for camping and hunting usage during the appropriate seasons. It’s mostly open land, with plenty of rolling hills and wild grasses, and with some scattered woods. There are some gravel roads passing through it for walking, and other mildly treaded trails. Strangely, there are a number of areas that have been tilled and planted (some freshly planted, some apparently no longer planted) with food crops. It seems strange that this conservation area would have some farming being done on it, especially since it’s so out of the way, not to mention.

Anyway, it was a nice walk, and there were some interesting sights to be had. It’s not like any hike I have done back home in New Jersey, with mostly woodsy and well-marked trails. This was more like an open, explore-it-yourself sort of thing.

The real highlight occurred when we were walking back through some tall grasses from a small pond that was far off the gravel road. First, Jason pointed out a deer bed, a small clearing in the brush. And then, while walking over a small incline, I nearly stepped on a baby dear. It was cuddled up in a ball, protected by some tall brush, and I literally saw it only as I was stepping over it. The fawn didn’t even move. We all stopped and admired it as it lay curled up in the grasses. It couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old. The fawn didn’t move at all while we watched it and softly pet its back. I took some photos, but unfortunately I only had my film camera.

It was an amazing sight and definitely made the trip. It’s rare you get to see something so precious like that, up close and personal and out in the wild.

Natural building

Published
by
Brian
on May 24, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage and Life
. 1 Comment

I have been happy to help with the building of the Ironweed kitchen during these past few weeks as part of my work exchange. It has been really exciting to see the continual progress of the construction of this hybrid cob and straw bale building. The kitchen has been in the works for over three seasons (this is the fourth year), and Ironweed is hoping that it will be complete by September. I have no idea if it will happen, but I hope so, and it seems like the pace has been consistent thus far.

The first two weeks during my work exchange, I spent a lot of time plastering. (The plaster is a mix of sand, clay, and fine straw, similar to cob, but smoother. You take a handful of plaster and smoosh it onto the wall surface.) The first coat of plaster on the exterior and in the interior seems to be entirely done.

There is still a lot of work remaining, though: fill plastering (fixing cracks and uneven portions of wall), finish plastering (the final, smooth plaster coat), the earthen floor, building the interior cob pantry wall (see below), installing a power system, building kitchen counters, building a wood rocket stove (the Ironweed kitchen will be entirely petro-free), and the list goes on…

A few days ago, we started building a cob wall for the pantry. We laid down reclaimed cinder blocks to make a foundation, filled the gaps with gravel, and started laying down cob on those blocks. The wall will be ten inches thick. It stands at maybe eight inches at its highest point right now, but the final wall will be about eight feet tall. Here are some photos:

ironweed pantry cob

(The interior pantry wall)

ironweed kitchen exterior

(The south-facing exterior)

Cheesemaking

Published
by
Brian
on May 23, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Food and Life
. 2 Comments

This morning, Dan (another resident) and I headed up some mozzarella cheesemaking. Yesterday, we bought a gallon of milk (raw and organic, $2 a gallon!) down the road from the dairy, and buried it in the ground to keep cool overnight. (We were out of space in the fridge.)

raw milk

Using a 30 minute mozzarella recipe (from this book), we set about the curdling up the milk and had no difficulty in producing curds and separating them from the whey. Overall, it was a successful first attempt, and the venture resulted in a nice yield of delicious mozzarella. It was a quite simple process (in no doubt due to the quality milk!), but I think our first batch could have benefited from better stretching and shaping; our cheese was a little flat. Although, that is something that can be worked out as we do it again.

I can’t wait to be do another, bigger batch for some homemade pizza.

And damn, you just can’t beat raw, organic milk for $2/gallon. My friend Jeff back in NJ would be in high heaven with such easy access to cheap, raw milk for his own cheesemaking adventures. (I know you are reading this, Jeff!)

cheesemaking cheesemaking2 cheesemaking3 cheesemaking4 cheesemaking5

(Note: No, the cheese was not that yellow… I am just too lazy to correct the color in the photos.)

Technial difficulties

Published
by
Brian
on May 22, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

There were some weird problems with this portion of the website over the weekend… but I think that they’ve been cleared up. So. If you couldn’t access this page, have no worries. Should be a-ok now.

mm…

Published
by
Brian
on May 21, 2007
in Food
. 0 Comments

veganchocochipcookies

Vegan chocolate chip cookies: whole wheat flour, rolled oats, sorghum, oil, vanilla, chocolate chips…

So good.

There will be no flying cars

Published
by
Brian
on May 19, 2007
in Civilization, Culture, Environment and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

I oftentimes wonder what the future will look like. Now that I am older, I know it won’t be filled with flying cars or people living in space, or any of those childish fantasies. In fact, I now wonder when cars will cease to be, never mind when will they take off from the ground.

I like to consider myself a logical-realist-humanist-person (or something like that), and I know that the future will look nothing like it does now. That is to say, I am not very hopeful about where we are headed as a global community. It’s difficult to summon hope and foresee peace and harmony, although I do try to maintain a positive outlook and hope that change will come.

During the past century (in particular), the global population has been increasing at a nearly exponential rate. We’re sitting at six billion with our sights set on nine billion in another forty years. More and more environmental catastrophes have cropped up with the potential to completely alter the natural landscape, and even make the planet unlivable. (Global warming, what?) All of these worldly problems have been the result of civilization, especially industrial civilization, and the destruction and exploitation on which it is built. Humans have been living as part of civilizations since 10,000 years ago, but the overwhelming majority of human life has existed in harmony with the earth before that timespan. Can you visualize this current way of life, civilization, continuing another 500, even 100 years? What will the cities look like then?

I try to avoid being negative, but it’s difficult watching an entire planet support itself on unsustainable practices and technologies, and especially witnessing civilization’s incredible use of finite resources that fuel our entire way of being. (Oil, anyone?) We treat the planet as if it were something to be used and abused, and this is detrimental to our own well-being. You can’t destroy the land on which you expect to live, right? So how can we possibly expect the planet to support us for another millennia if we keep treating the planet the way we do, tearing down forests, scraping the bottoms of the ocean, spraying the land (and the stuff we eat) with toxic chemicals, and pumping the air full of carcinogens? And for what? What’s the point of all of this destruction, really?

As Derrick Jensen says, this culture is “insane”. And I think it’s hard to deny. And I don’t want to take part in the destruction and exploitation that makes this insane civilization-machine run. But it’s damn near impossible to avoid, and it will take a huge cultural shift in our perception and worldview to move beyond civilization, to a more healthy, peaceful, sane, and sustainable social order. Of course it first demands that we change our attitudes about how we view (and use) the planet, and then, change our actions.

When I am older, I at least hope that I can say that I did my part in avoiding a contribution to the toxification and degradation of the planet. That is why I want to live simply, and I want to be self-sufficient, and I want to take part in a culture that values sustainability and cooperation and harmonious living. I want to know that the planet will still be livable in another 500 years. That’s what I am thinking.

Cooking and eating

Published
by
Brian
on May 18, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage, Food and Life
. 0 Comments

Cooking here at DR is a bit of an exercise in adaptation and substitution. Most cookbook recipes are bound to require a bit of ingredient substitution because we almost never have everything that is called for, and some items we never use, period. In the Bobolink food co-op, we don’t use sugar, for example. Instead, we use sorghum or honey as a replacement. You need to have some creativity when you’re cooking here.

Wednesday was my most recent cookshift, and I made tempeh (provided by Sandhill Farm down the road) reuben sandwiches (from the Vegan with a Vegeance cookbook), along with sweet potato fries (the potatoes were left behind by a visitor), fresh baked rolls, and cinnamon raisin scones. We also had freshly picked greens from Ironweed’s garden. The sandwiches were pretty dang good (not to congratulate myself or anything), topped with homemade sauerkraut and pickles, homemade ketchup, and some sauce conjured up by my friend Sara (with tahini butter, capers, pepper, apple cider vinegar, and oil). I know I’ll be making these again in the future.

I used to obsess over food to some degree at home, but I think it’s even worse now that I am here… But not in a bad way. It’s just that I like to eat, and the food and eating here are always enjoyable, and it’s great social event, too. It’s great to eat with a large group of people (Bobolink is currently sitting at seven members) at dinner and lunch on a daily basis. I talked a bit about this with my friend Noah back at home, and we agreed that it’s unfortunate that so many people miss out on that social aspect of eating, whether it be because of their jobs that prevent it, etc.

Whatever the case, now I’m thinking about delicious leftover vegan pizza for lunch…