Late April PHOTOS: Community Dinner, two work parties — plus de-mucking the pond!
Green Acres Village News, late April: Community Dinner, two work parties — and de-mucking the pond!
Category Archives: Uncategorized
GAV News, Late April 2018: Repotting, planting, plus IU “infomatics” workshop
Podmates Rebecca, Dario, Andreas, and Solan worked on yesterday’s rainy Monday morning in the large greenhouse, repotting tomatoes, mostly, including ones grown from heirloom seeds from my daughter-in-law Sue’s recently deceased Mom’s long decades in the garden. So good to have this way of honoring her memory. She was an elder from whom we could have learned much about all aspects of growing and preserving food. Too bad she lived in Ohio! Sue handed me a packet of her Mom’s seeds when I returned from Massachusetts with puppy Shadow last November. They stayed in the glove box for a couple of months, until I remembered them! Luckily, in time to plant this year.
Still lots of plants to go out, including all the tomatoes.
But I noticed Solan out in the original garden this morning, planting. So I decided to take a look when he was done.
Meanwhile, we’re in the middle of reworking the compost area, and await horse manure to finish the job. Rebecca’s ex-husband came over to lead a compost workshop a few evenings ago, with Solan and Dan paying close attention and laboring for several hours.
Then there’s the “pond,” now a wetland, again sprouting the pesky bambooish sprouts that tend to want to spread into the garden, too.
Meanwhile, yesterday, inside, a group of graduate students at the I.U. Department of Infomatics met Solan, Rebecca and I for the second time. The first time, on Saturday, Solan took them on a tour of the Green Acres Village grounds, and we all talked a bit afterwards about the the history of this place, our overall goals, and the nature of their project: to somehow help us focus in on a project that we would like to do, during a one-hour workshop. I know that sounds vague, but Rebecca and I both realized independently in the time between Saturday’s orientation and Monday’s workshop that what we should focus on is our relationship with Indiana University itself. What kinds of fruitful connections could Green Acres Village make with I.U. in general, and specifically? On Monday, we spent that hour quite productively. After brainstorming for 20 minutes we started winnowing down all the ideas to focus on three, and their possible connections, how they could leverage each other: these were: networking with likely people in the University (various faculty and/or living/learning dorms) who would be open to us giving presentations on the nature and evolution of Green Acres Permaculture Village, and then, also, possibly a radio presentation that might segue into a regular weekly radio show.
Who knows? We’re already networked with SPEA (School of Public and Environmental Affairs), and have utilized interns from there, plus, a few years ago, two classes utilized Green Acres Garden for projects in composting and building a cob oven. But we would especially love to get connected to the Art Department, for art projects, not just here in the Village, but throughout the Green Acres Neighborhood. And of course, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Biology, Sociology, City Planning, Infomatics, and other Departments might be open to creating educational programs that utilize this neighborhood or this village in some manner. Since ours is the neighborhood closest to the I.U. campus, partnering is an welcome opportunity.
Here are two photos from yesterday morning’s workshop.
They will organize and write-up their findings, both to satisfy their course requirement, and perhaps, to actually help us make further I.U. connections!
Next up? Our regular Thursday Community Dinner, this week at the second DeKist house, with Andreas in the lead.
Monday through Saturday, mid-April: Spring has sprung, finally!
Spring may be late in Indiana, but somehow, this week, both the plants and the people got going.
About time! The greenhouse ready to give up its seedlings.
So, at Monday morning work party, lots of moving stuff around. BTW: Christina (below) tried to come with her partner Payton again for this morning’s Saturday work party, but their car wouldn’t start . . .
On Tuesday (?) Solan (Nathan) and Dan planted all the brassicas.
I went out there again this morning, to see how their plants had fared after last night’s heavy rain. All intact.
This morning I also checked on the condition of the 60 flowering annuals that I planted yesterday (on sale at Lowe’s) in the two big mounds out front. All okay, too.
Also this morning, Solan and Dario replanted tomato seedlings into bigger pots.
Finally, not sure when, but a little roof went up to help shelter the new chicks, to arrive any day. See it? Beyond what will again be the tomato patch, on the side of the chicken coop.
We’ve got three hens now, will get seven chicks. Aggie, next door neighbor, wonders if it’s okay to toss scraps to them over the fence. Yes, just don’t give them citrus, onions or garlic. She and I talked about letting the chickens out into her back yard to eat bugs. She would watch so they wouldn’t wander into the street. I told Rebecca about the idea, and she suggested a chicken tractor instead. So that’s on the list, joining all sorts of other small construction projects.
Village Rhythms, early March: Inside/Outside, Below — and, unfortunately, Above
As spring draws near, daffodils —
and other flowers — what are they? — peek out of the ground, push up through layers of wood chips,
seeking the sun.
Oh! And a single blossom! What is it?
Meanwhile, seven of our nine podmates were actually present last Monday morning, for a work party, to plant peas —
and get a bed ready for potatoes —
u
adding fragrant, finished, over-wintered compost —
while puppy Shadow lay patiently watching nearby,
and “director of operations” Rebecca oversaw the whole.
Then, on Thursday evening, another Community Dinner, this one featuring baked chicken from me, in the “lead.”
Lots of juicy conversations —
and the finale, my presentation on The Energetics of the Astrology of Donald Trump and the U.S.A. Ice cream afterwards, so people — despite many (most?) of them Trump-haters — would stay for the program!
“Remember, folks, we are focusing on the energetics, not on the politics,” I kept saying, over and over again, as I pointed out the warlike, volatile, impulsive, even violent Mars connections both inside Trump’s chart and in Trump’s connection to the U.S. chart. In short: his volatile nature cannot help but stir up the volatility in the U.S. populace. There’s no getting around it. And then, without recognizing it, we polarize, into love and hate. Let’s not!
Several people told me afterwards that the presentation, kept deliberately elemental, and only 30 minutes long, was “eye-opening.” That included Rebecca.
Glad to know. Maybe I should take this presentation on the road? Any group within, say 150 miles, want me to visit you for an evening? It sure would help if we Americans learned to notice our own reactions to things, rather than just blindly feeling them and then immediately shifting into judgment. Once we notice something, we can transform our response, and perhaps even use this intensely energetic period in human history for the public good.
Oh yeah, and puppy Shadow (above) got a haircut two days ago, transforming him from a dirty mop into a handsome fellow. It took four hours . . . I gave the groomer a big tip.
BTW: As I got in the car to take him to Delilah’s at 8:00 AM, I couldn’t help but notice the sky: drowning in chemtrails. Which means that whatever are the poisons that spread out and turn into a mist, they will rain down on our soil, get in our plants and water, and into our lungs and stomachs.
Notice the cross that has just been created in the lower left hand corner? Ten minutes later, it too, had spread. That’s how you know a “contrail” is really a chemtrail. If it stays a long time, and spreads, and sometimes even seems to drip. Because it does drip.
