Monthly Archive for May, 2007

Endgame

Published
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Brian
on May 16, 2007
in Books, Civilization and Environment
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I finished all 450 pages of Volume 1 of Derrick Jensen’s Endgame a few days ago, and now it’s time to start reading the next 300 pages of Volume 2. I don’t think that the book has necessarily opened my eyes to any new-new ideas (after all, like this Wikipedia entry correctly states: “the books are addressed not to ‘fence-sitters’…”), since I have read similar ideas and concerns in other books by other authors. But it has strengthened these ideas greatly, and it has introduced some new food for thought about subjects I don’t always think about. Jensen is powerful with words.

I think that if you have a particular interest in a certain subject or have a certain vision or worldview (my interest being the somewhat broad subject of civilization and moving beyond this destructive social structure to a more sustainable and peaceful form of social life), it helps to continue reading about these ideas, no matter how ingrained the beliefs may be in your mind.

Anyway, here’s a small (very small) highlight of some of Jensen’s own beliefs and ideas that he presents in Endgame. He starts the book with twenty premises that guide the rest of the book’s claims and ideas. Here are two of them. Food for thought.

“Premise Twelve: There are no rich people in the world, and there are no poor people. There are just people. The rich may have lots of pieces of green paper that many pretend are worth something—or their presumed riches may be even more abstract: numbers on hard drives at banks—and the poor may not. These “rich” claim they own land, and the “poor” are often denied the right to make that same claim. A primary purpose of the police is to enforce the delusions of those with lots of pieces of green paper. Those without the green papers generally buy into these delusions almost as quickly and completely as those with. These delusions carry with them extreme consequences in the real world.”

“Premise Sixteen: The material world is primary. This does not mean that the spirit does not exist, nor that the material world is all there is. It means that spirit mixes with flesh. It means also that real world actions have real world consequences. It means we cannot rely on Jesus, Santa Claus, the Great Mother, or even the Easter Bunny to get us out of this mess. It means this mess really is a mess, and not just the movement of God’s eyebrows. It means we have to face this mess ourselves. It means that for the time we are here on Earth—whether or not we end up somewhere else after we die, and whether we are condemned or privileged to live here—the Earth is the point. It is primary. It is our home. It is everything. It is silly to think or act or be as though this world is not real and primary. It is silly and pathetic to not live our lives as though our lives are real.”

If anything, too, Jensen’s writing is inspiring in that it makes me want to write more. Sometimes I think that everything “has been said already”, but that doesn’t really mean much… That is, I think Jensen’s ideas (and those ideas of like-minded authors, thinkers, activists, etc.) are extremely vital for all of us living in this civilized, globalized society that is causing so many (environmental, social, economic, even physical) aches and pains.

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Keeping busy

Published
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Brian
on May 15, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage and Life
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On Sunday, Sara, a friend from my visitor group from last year showed up for her one week “guest” visit, and yesterday, the remaining visitors left. This week will be sans visitors until next Monday.

Yesterday was all about gardening and cooking. I spent about five hours in Bobolink’s garden, doing mostly weeding and some bed turning and some planting with the other folks who were helping out. Afterwards, I wanted to buy some milk and eggs from the dairy down the road, so I took a bike ride there with a few folks. We picked up three dozen eggs for $3 (yes, that’s $1 a dozen for organic, free range eggs [!]), but the milk tank was empty, and the Mennonite woman on her porch informed me of the refilling schedule. She asked me how much milk I wanted to buy, and then went inside her house to check her supply, but she came out and said she could not sell any because she “had just enough for supper”.

When we got back, Sara and I made some granola (oats, oil, vanilla, sorghum, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and raisins), and chocolate chip scones. I am a scone fiend.

Then we made “sushi” for dinner with one of the wex-ers here. It consisted of nori (definitely not local), with sticky rice, carrots, sauerkraut, and peanut butter. It was a surprisingly good combo.

Later in the evening, Dan (another resident) and I put in our order for some cheese making supplies. I anticipate making some mozzarella in the next few weeks… I know my friend (and cook guru) Jeff back at home in NJ will be proud.

All in all, it was a tiring but eventful day.

I still can’t believe it’s not even quite a month since I’ve been here…

Yesterday

Published
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Brian
on May 13, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage and Life
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Yesterday was a pretty interesting (and tiring) day. A group of us drove into Kirksville in the (biodiesel) pickup truck with trailer. Kirksville is a large-ish college town about 35 miles away (also home to the closest airport to Dancing Rabbit). Anyway, Truman State University was having their annual we-need-to-dump-a-ton-of-old-school-furniture auction, and a few members were hoping to scoop up some new chairs, etc. for the Common House and elsewhere. Another member here, Nathan wanted to do some dumpster diving around the dorms while the others were at the auction. (Remember, students throw away evvverything, as we all probably know…)

I decided to go dumpstering in Kirksville instead of biking to the Dog and Gun at the last minute, but unfortunately it was a bust. We were too late and all the dumpsters had been emptied. At least I had the opportunity to see Kirksville, because I’ve never been outside of Rutledge thus far. The town was kinda large, very empty, and quiet. I guess with all the students away it’s more desolate than usual.

The DR folks scored an entire trailer full of furniture (and a mini fridge) for $87 at the Truman auction. That includes an entire sectional couch (about 20 feet long when put together, I would imagine), three couches, a love seat, and another handful of chairs. Quite a bargain. Unfortunately the furniture screams “school dorm”, but who could beat that price…

Later in the day, we all headed to Sandhill Farm for their annual May Day party. Sandhill was celebrating their 33rd year (!) of existence. There was a Maypole dance, swimming, and some very good eating. There was pork that Sandhill themselves had raised (and I assume slaughtered), and it was absolutely delicious. This was the first time I’ve had meat in four weeks. It was great to know exactly where the pig was raised… I wish eating all meat was like that, and I would feel a lot better about it. But yea, delicious.

Later that night, I walked halfway home (until I got picked up by a car on their way to DR), and when I got back, another resident, Jason was talking about some dogs he had seen on his bike ride home. It’s quite common around this time of the monthly Rutledge flea market to find loose dogs on the road in the area. When some dogs are not sold at the market, the owners simply let them loose instead of taking them back and caring for them, or trying to sell them elsewhere. Jason said that the owners try to hawk them as purebreds while they are still young, but if they get older it is more difficult to make that same claim. Anyway, these two dogs had found a bunch of DR members walking home, and followed them all the way back to our property. They’re two large-ish black puppies of some unknown breed, one with short hair and the other with a bit of a beard. They are still roaming around DR as I type this. They’re really cute, but unfortunately we will probably have to let them go… but that will probably be decided at today’s meeting.

I kinda wish I could keep one myself…

Time for growing

Published
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Brian
on May 11, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage and Life
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Yesterday and today, I was able to spend time in both Bobolink’s and Ironweed’s gardens. Although I usually only do natural building with Ironweed as part of my work exchange, they were looking to get extra garden work time in today, since the season is upon us for serious garden preparation and planting.

Ironweed has a very nifty setup, with an interesting space and many differently sized beds. It’s quite beautiful and it will be great to see again once everything really starts to kick in:

ironweed garden ironweed garden

Bobolink has a more traditional space with long, rectangular beds. The space could use some tidying up, but there is a lot of room for growing. Yesterday, we planted some strawberries, cabbage, and brussel sprouts seedlings.

bobolink garden bobolink garden bobolink seedlings

While working in Ironweed’s garden today, I spotted a long, white thing that I thought was a root, until it starting wriggling about and curling up. I pulled it up from the ground, and another few inches of the long, white mass came out of the ground. I held it in my hand and it curled up. Very weird… It’s like a long insect/parasite thing, and very thin. No one had any idea what it was.

Another resident, Dan headed back to his own garden beds elsewhere on the property, and minutes later he then spotted an identical creature, pictured below… Weird coincidence. I would love to know what this thing is:

parasite-thing02.jpg bugparasitething

In other news, tomorrow is the infamous “dog and gun” (flea market), and there’s a Mayday party in the afternoon at a neighboring community, Sandhill Farm. Fun.

Sustainability

Published
by
Brian
on May 10, 2007
in Civilization, Culture, Environment and Sustainability
. 0 Comments

I want to quote this statement that I read today. It was quoted in Endgame, which I am currently reading.

Here it is. Some food for thought:

“The whole individualist what-you-can-do-to-save-the-earth guilt trip is a myth. We, as individuals, are not creating the crises, and we can’t solve them. Take our crazy energy consumption. For the past 15 years the story has been the same every year: individual consumption – residential, by private car, and so on – is never more than about a quarter of all consumption; the vast majority is commercial, industrial, corporate, by agribusiness and government. So, even if we all took up cycling and wood stoves it would have a negligible impact on energy use, global warming and atmospheric pollution. I mean, sure, go ahead and live a responsible environmental life; recycle, compost, ride a push-bike; but do it because it is the right, moral thing to do – not because it’s going to save the planet.

If we really want to understand why this happened we have to ask ourselves another question: ‘Why is it that we seem willing to live with the threat of apocalypse rather than trying to seriously alter a world where consumption, of anything, is seen as unrelieved virtue, production, of anything, is regarded as a social and economic necessity, and more, of anything (like children or cars or chemicals or PhDs or golf courses or recycling centres), is unquestioningly accepted?’”

(by Kirkpatrick Sale)

Read this in full.

Elsewhere

Published
by
Brian
on May 9, 2007
in Current Events, Environment and Sustainability
. 0 Comments

Old ways never die.

Get that wallet out.

This or that

Published
by
Brian
on May 8, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage and Life
. 1 Comment

A friend e-mailed me, and she said: “your life sounds crazy. in a good way, not a cuh-razy way.”

And then I thought, yes, maybe it is crazy. Maybe it’s crazy because it should be more like this each day for everyone everywhere.

I am outdoors most of the day.

I can see the stars at night. Not just one or two, but all of them. (Shooting stars, too.)

The only constant noise I ever hear are birds chirping and bugs buzzing.

I can walk around with dirty feet all day.

My body has become very regular and I sleep soundly at night. (And I use the bathroom once a day at the same time everyday!)

There is no intrusion of billboards, or commercials, or any advertising in my daily life. (You’ll never know how liberating that is once you experience it.)

The complete lack of television is, by itself, a very beautiful thing. (Not that I watched it at home, but it’s still always there on the periphery.)

I can sit around and talk with people at night and it’s relaxing, and there’s no dwelling on “there’s nothing to do”.

The sunsets are always visible and always beautiful.

I look forward to waking up.

It’s a culmination of all these small, simple things that make daily life nice.

Cookie baking in the night

Published
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Brian
on May 7, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage and Life
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The past few days have been really gray, gloomy, and wet. The paths outside are totally soggy and squishy, and it’s been a bit of a bummer to be inside most of the day. Yesterday we experienced an extraordinary amount of rain, probably 2+ inches with killer lightning (particularly at night) to boot.

Mostly everyone has been keeping dry indoors. I was hoping to turn some garden beds today, but the soil is too wet.

Some random goings-on…

A visitor and I baked some “no recipe” chocolate chip cookies the other night which turned out really swell, and yesterday I made another batch using a cookbook this time around. The recipe worked nicely, but I need to cut back on the sorghum next time… (I used whole wheat flour, sorghum, oil, some rolled oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. And a sprinkling of water. Oh, and the chocolate chips, too, of course.) I bought the chocolate chips from Zimmerman’s in town, and then dwelt (or is that dwelled? why does this word sound so wrong right now?) on the fact that chocolate is not and will never be produced locally. Damn.

I think I might even admit that giving chocolate up would be difficult in a local foods-only diet.

Cashew macadamia nut butter is addictive as hell and I heartily recommend it to all nut butter enthusiasts.

I am probably going to settle on the Bobolink food co-op in another day. It’s not that I don’t enjoy Sunflower, but I think I would prefer the smaller and more personal setting of Bobolink over the long term. Plus, they have a much nicer kitchen.

The kombucha I brought along with me is a big hit with a couple of the kids here. I’m hoping my kombucha splits so that I can do multiple batches at the same time. Maybe I can start selling it… A bunch of folks seem to enjoy it around here.

I want to learn how to do more fermenting at some point. There is a soymilk/tempeh/tofu making workshop tomorrow that I hope I can attend.

Speaking of which… there are so many things that I want to learn and read about. It seems like everyday there is something different that pops up that I want to investigate… mushrooms, sourdough bread, companion planting…

There is a small movie theater in Memphis (13 miles away) that only plays movies on the weekend. It’s one screen, and plays one on the weekends. Apparently it’s really small and run by a couple of older folks. It costs $2 to get in, but they’ve only played a few of unappealing kid movies since I got here… I am really curious to see this place, though. Strangely (or not so strangely, maybe), I have not really missed going to the movies since I’ve gotten here…
That’s about all the random musings I have in me for now. I can’t remember what else I wanted to say…

Wex-ing

Published
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Brian
on May 6, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage and Life
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This week, I started work exchanging (wex-ing). That means I will be doing a specific number of hours of natural building and gardening work, and in return, most of my fees (food and other basic costs like water, showers, phone, internet, but not rent) will be covered for the next two months. I will be helping the Ironweed co-op for three days a week with their kitchen, doing cobbing and natural plastering and other fun stuff, and gardening for two days a week with the Bobolink food co-op.

Ironweed is hoping to finish their kitchen by the end of the summer season, so a lot of the work that remains is not necessarily structural (building walls, etc.). Instead, there is a lot of plastering work (covering the cob and straw bale walls with earthen plaster, a mix of sand, clay, and hay), and things like that. There is still quite a bit of work to be done, and it’s exciting to take part in the process.

Bobolink has a fairly large garden space (15+ beds, I think), and some of the beds still need to be turned. And then there is the planting, of course. There is a lot of work to be done. Yesterday, I helped to lay down straw on some of the already-turned beds, and then we did some transplanting. I’m a complete beginner with the gardening thing, and I’m glad that I can take part of the process from the very beginning.

But yea… I’m glad I have this opportunity to work exchange since one of my goals before coming here was to get really active in the natural building and gardening scenes. If I was not wex-ing, I would still be able to get involved in those things, but at least it is now scheduled and guaranteed, and I know that I can get some of that experience that I’m looking for.

Other than that, it’s still really cloudy and the forecast does not look promising for the next few days, either. I am going to cut this short for now and write more later. Almost time for lunch… mmm….

Cloudy days

Published
by
Brian
on May 4, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage and Life
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Unfortunately, the past couple of days have been rainy and cloudy, so we all must conserve power… But hopefully this weekend will brighten up so I can keep the computer on for more than a few minutes and post some updates!

The cook shift

Published
by
Brian
on May 2, 2007
in Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage, Food and Sustainability
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Monday was my first “real” cook shift for Bobolink. (Here’s a summary of the Bobolink food co-op for some background info.: it’s vegan, and currently composed of seven people.)

Since the group is vegan, that obviously means no animal products are used, which I don’t have a problem with. I’m not strictly vegan, or even strictly vegetarian, but I guess I lean in that general direction. Last year, I stopped eating beef, and I decreased my overall consumption of meat. I wouldn’t have any problem at all with eating meat if all animals were responsibly raised and grass-fed (or naturally fed, and not injected with hormones and locked up in cages)… But as you probably know, the industrial “production” of meat is quite troublesome. (I mean, I don’t think eating meat is “bad” or unhealthy or unnatural, but meat “production” in its current form makes it a lot less desirable, ya know?)

Anyway, the general rule of thumb for Bobolink meals is to include a grain, a protein, and a vegetable. Since vegetables have yet to start coming in the garden or from Ramers’ (the local, organic farm here in Northeast Missouri), we rely on dehydrated veggies that have been stored in jars from last summer.

Amy of Bobolink showed me how to make pasta with their hand-cranked pasta roller, so I used that to make homemade pasta with freshly milled whole wheat (they have their own miniature electric mill), chickpea flour, and water. The chickpea flour gives the pasta a somewhat strange bean-y flavor. The pasta also easily falls apart after boiling it (from a lack of egg or other binding agent?), so that is something that needs to be worked on, I think…

Other than the pasta, I made garlic biscuits, and sauce with rehydrated zucchini, navy beans, and garlic, and vegan peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate ganache. I’m glad I started super-early, because I ran a few minutes late when all was said and done. (Dinner starts at 6:30.)

It was a fun experience, but challenging, too, because I am not completely used to cooking with some of the ingredients here. And I’ve been spoiled by the always-available vegetables back at home from the food store. Grocery stores really distort your sense of food-reality and how food is grown, and it seems like fruit and vegetables (in particular) are somehow always magically available, all year round. Of course we know that these foods have been in cold storage or shipped from somewhere halfway around the world, but these facts are obviously not always advertised, and we learn to simply take it for granted when we eat those tomatoes in January. Thankfully, I think the public’s perception of food is starting to change, though… But I think it will be some time before most people are committed to eating food that is only grown locally and in season.