Altering Expectations

Stephanie and I had a gathering a while ago with a varied group of our closest friends and after dinner, folks pitched in to help clean up. In the hustle of tidying, I overheard someone say to another, "Oh, the dishwashing liquid is eco-friendly."

And in a quieter tone, "That means it doesn't work."

Then I watched as she used half the bottle of concentrated detergent, a squirt at a time, on the rag she was using to wash the dishes instead of filling the sink with soapy water. She was used to using a commercial brand.

We have been using the eco-soap for a while now and have come to understand that it works as well as commercial soaps, but it doesn't work the same. Furthermore, I found that in order to use it properly, we also must change the way we work. A squirt per dish, or on a brush will not achieve good results like filling the sink would. Also, the sink won't be as sudsy as when using conventional dish soap.

That same weekend, I had a discussion in which I described how I was growing black locust trees that would one day become a fuelwood hedge. With the trees at a fairly young age, I will be able to harvest firewood off of them, without killing them or cutting down the entire tree, that I can use to heat our home. My friend asked the obvious question, "How many trees will it take to get the 5 cords of wood you need to heat for a winter?" My answer was that growing the hedge isn't the only facet of the fuelwood solution. In order for us to be able to practically grow our firewood in this way, we'd need to drastically reduce our consumption. We'd need to change our expectations; We'd need to change our need; We'd need to change our way.

More people are getting used to buying organic and locally grown produce and realizing that real food doesn't need look to like an illustrator's pictures of food to be good. It can be shaped irregularly, may have some spotting, may not appear waxy and "perfect" and be more delicious and better for all parties involved in its growth, purchase and eating (including the earth). Why wouldn't we take the same stance toward all of our choices? Are we willing to change our expectations, our needs, our ways of living to embrace food and products that are actually better for all involved?

Complicity or Contrariness?

There is a quote from Wendell Berry in the forward to Bill Coperthwaite's book The Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity that strikes me. It goes to the core of what I think it means to live by one's values.

To make public protests against an evil, and yet live dependent on and in support of that way of life that is the source of the evil, is an obvious contradiction and a dangerous one. If one disagrees with the nomadism and violence of our society, then one is under an obligation to take up some permanent dwelling place and cultivate the possibility of peace and harmlessness in it. If one deplores the destructiveness and wastefulness of the economy, then one is under an obligation to live as far out on the margin of the economy as one is able: to be as economically independent of exploitative industries, to learn to need less, to waste less, to make things last, to give up meaningless luxuries, to understand and resist the language of salesmen and public relations experts, to see through attractive packages, to refuse to purchase fashion or glamour or prestige. If one feels endangered by meaninglessness, then one is under an obligation to refuse meaningless pleasure and to resist meaningless work, and to give up the moral comfort and excuses of the mentality of specialization.
(from The Long-Legged House, page 89)

Dibbin' it up in Cloverdale, MI

I spent most of today in the greenhouse getting the herbs started. I have about 7 more flats to do for this round, but have already planted basil, oregano, parsley, sage, chives, garlic chives, thyme, cilantro, spearmint, mugwort, feverfew, lavender, sweet pea, echinacea, chamomile, rosemary and cumin. I might have forgotten a few...

I'm going to start some peppers tomorrow and as well as flowers. Shhhh, don't tell Stephanie :)

Resurrection

The churning ice machine drowns out the sound of her labor pains.

The 24" x 24" floor tiles in the miles of empty hallways in this place must have cost thousands of dollars. The walls and floors are covered with expensive synthetic materials which I can immediately smell upon coming in from the outside, and the food in the cafeteria is the cheapest money can buy. Most of the nurses here are overweight , pasty-faced and tired-looking. I have seen several health-care professionals standing on the curb, smoking on their breaks. This building, this system is considered by many, I'm sure, to be an amazing achievement.

There are bulldozers across the street from this hospital that have sheared off the top layer of land for some new building, probably related to this one. It required the wiping clear of another farm field for the sake of this overstuffed suburbia. There are a couple of coyote decoys around these man-made ponds to scare away the geese. The birds aren't the only ones frightened of this place.

On the other side of the wall is the piercing shrill cry of new things aching to be birthed. A seed's workings make complete sense to me. It goes into the ground to the depth of twice its width. In this precise position, the sun can still warm it, but it is protected from drought by a thin layer of moist earth. Inside that seed is everything the plant needs for the start of life. It is just waiting, dormant. It is waiting for the exact moment when conditions are right for it to part its jacket and bare itself to the world. To become what it will.

The ice machine is silent now, as are the cries behind the wall. Soon, conditions will be right for the new little one to burst forth; To become what she will in our harsh and oftentimes unintelligible world. Maybe she will make some sense of all of this and find a way to make it right.

Hope is, she will at least find some peace in the process.

Furniture Building

The cherry has been purchased and my jointer and planer knives are back from the sharpening service. It's finally time to start making some shavings. Almost...

I am planning on starting with the hardest piece first, the chairside cabinet. There will be many parallel processes that could be happening and would be made easier if I do them all at once, but I want to focus on one piece at a time. The steps will be getting my cutlist in order, picking out wood for each piece of the cabinet, highlighting grain where appropriate. Then it'll be time to cut pieces to rough lengths and get the wood squared up to plane to thickness.

I'm a little concerned about maintaining even moisture in the shop once I start slicing into boards. They'll move like crazy if they're exposed to a lot of moisture. I'll likely wrap the pieces in polyethylene to keep the swings from doing much to the wood. We'll see... More to come as I have more to say.