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Mid-March Photo Essay: Community Dinner — plus acrobatics!

You just never know what will go on at one of our Wednesday Community Dinners. This past Wednesday, we enjoyed a more intimate dinner, during which a number of females got together talk about, guess what? RELATIONSHIPS with men. I noticed that the men present tended to congregate in the other room! Wow just like dinners in old-fashioned social settings, where after dinner the men retired to the den to smoke cigars and the women to the kitchen to gossip and do dishes. Well, in this case, everybody does dishes, nobody smokes cigars, and I’d like to think our talk was a bit more elevated than “gossip.” More like “consciousness-raising,” what we newly self-ordained feminists used to do in the late ’60s. Helping each other understand our processes as we go through various experiences.

One pic from the table. Sorry, my hand tremor sometimes produces out-of-focus pics!

Next, while the adults were eating, Mariella’s youngsters Asiri and her brother Juakim were preparing a performance in the room west of the kitchen (the men were in the room east). Finally, Asiri told me to get the adults in there in five minutes. Okay.

So here goes. First, the kids show off, then the adults. Who woulda thunk it?

 

In case you can’t tell, Asiri is driving Juakim forward, holding on to his legs.

Next, Asiri rides on top of Juakim . . .

Then their mom, Mariella, decided she’d hunker down on her hands and arms . . .

Hard to tell what’s happening here, either. Sorry! But it inspired Juakim to do it too.

Well, then, it really got wild. First Briana . . .

Then yours truly, who aspired to a cartwheel . . .

Then Aron. Wow!

And finally, Dan, a Virgo, and the only acrobat to exhibit perfect form, despite puppy Shadow trying to lick his face.

 

 

Community Dinner, March 1: Featuring Dreams, Music — and Gurgling Mead!

Last night’s Community Dinner drew an intimate crowd, and, from what I heard this morning, the music lasted until 2 A.M.! The meal, hearty and good — an interesting rice dish, equally interesting lentil dish, organic chicken, quiche, four types of ferments, smashed brussel sprouts, other sundries — was finished in a flash.

One interesting tidbit from dinner: two people there have had recent chicken dreams! Plus, in one of these dreams, the dreamer (who shall remain anonymous) was supposed to learn a foreign language; and when he went to class, all the others present were ducks, quack quack quacking away. This broke us all up in laughter.

A while later the music began, with troubador Logan instructing Ari on the intricacies of playing the mandolin.

Kat and Aaron sat off to the side, and agreed to pose.

As usual, I saved the best for last. This time it’s a tiny movie I shot a few days earlier, after being urged by our fermenting genius Dan to check out the mead. It’s gurgling madly, even though it was made with wild yeast. (I guess most people can’t get it to gurgle with wild yeast?) Check it out! Unfortunately, don’t know how to upload it here, but you can download it to watch. Only runs for a few seconds, but look closely!

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PHOTO ESSAY, Village Life: February 14-18

Here we are, supposedly still in the “dead of winter,” but the ground is already waking up, crocuses pushing through, birds returning, and juices flowing in all directions. Global warming?

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14

On Tuesday morning, Ari, Brie and Rebecca worked in the new greenhouse, planting seedlings into “soil blocks.”

We made the soil blocks from Eliot Coleman’s recipe from The New Organic Grower (includes peat, sand (perlite), compost, soil, lime, and base fertilizer (we used worm castings)). This recipe concentrates nutrients so powerfully that the plant shouldn’t ever need more amendments. An excellent jump start for seedlings!

 

Here’s a view of our newly repurposed garage into greenhouse (and bunk room) from behind.

And here’s what the completed project looks like. We will be both transplanting seedlings and offering some for sale, once they grow up enough.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15

Our usual, weekly community dinner. That’s Evan, on the left. You already know Ari, but how about her reptile, Orin?

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16

Rebecca and Brie broadcast seeds,  including peas, not sure what else, into one of the long beds. Given that they are lying on top of the soil, it’s important that we put a thin layer of mulch on them, which Dan promised to do on Friday.

Meanwhile, that evening, our first pod (two house) meeting in many many months (We kept trying, and outside work schedules kept interferring). And the very first meeting for Logan (third from left), our newbie. And I must tell you, this was the first time where I felt we have graduated from inspiring a village “atmosphere” to embodying a village “culture.”

Why do I say that? Not sure. But I do know that for the first time I could feel all the long-term members stepping up to the plate in their own highly energized and original ways. An extremely productive and creative meeting, with everybody volunteering for appropriate roles in whatever tasks and celebrations (including Equinox!) lie ahead. PLUS. And this is HUGE. Ari, Brie and Dan are now all three fully vested in seeing their own individual value-added food-and-home-based businesses get started and grow. Stay tuned!

Already we have all sorts of short and long-term ferments starting, thanks to Dan, including mead, kim chi, cabbage and beet slaws, various others. “Green Acres Alchemy” is bubbling up from below.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2017

On Friday morning, both Brie and Dan went out to Brin and Duncan’s place outside town to help mulch their garden which we are jointly farming. When they came back, yes, they did as Dan promised, spreading a thin layer of crushed leaves on those broadcast seeds so that the returning birds wouldn’t be tempted. Logan joined them.

Meanwhile, our dear Ari, 20 years old, decided to put up a hammock on the front lawn. And yes, she was the one who gave the finger at the pod meeting. Check above. There’s always one . . .