Some of my projects...

Hello my friends!

I have been on this journey for three weeks, give or take a day, depending on how you count the days.

I am learning so much! And not what I thought I'd learn.

Ever heard of a towel cooker? Well, me neither. It's based on the concept of a Hay Cooker. That is a box of hay with a hole in the middle into which you place a pot of boiled rice and cover it, leaving it to cook. Since we don't have hay, or dry grass, I concocted a different method – surrounding a pot with towels just after I've brought rice to a boil in it. After about two or three hours, I've got delicious, hot rice! How exciting! And the best part is, it isn't taking any energy or the space on the burner, so I can make something else to go with it.

You might be wondering, those of you who know my food obsession, if I've managed to take over the kitchen yet. Well, the answer is yes, I most definitely have. I plan meals morning, noon and night, and I get full reign in the kitchen to create and improvise and see what works. To date, I think the curry was the best, and all that was was a liberal dose of blessing and love! Really. It seems all it takes is that intention and the space I give myself to be creative and wonderful things flow out.

Another unexpected lesson is that of childcare: I'm learning to put myself in Solomon's place to try to understand him, why he lies and is obstinate all the time, and how to be his friend and help guide him to more honesty and happiness. As it is, I'm learning to have a good time with him, and not to be so serious. Let me give you an example.

When I first arrived, the first thing I did when I got up in the morning is my qigong set. As it was so cooold in the mornings, I stayed inside the shed (although that’s just shelter from the wind, it’s not heated or anything luxurious like that J), and that meant Solomon heard me and popped out of bed as well. The thing about him is he's a verbal processor, so everything that goes in comes out the mouth. He's not afraid to repeat himself, to ask for anything, over and over again, or to simply talk, keeping a running narrative going of whatever's going on. Being very introverted and intellectually-oriented, I think a lot about things before I talk about them. Having someone around who is talking all the time, asking me for attention and treats and approval and telling me he wants to go back to Bev's house was exhausting to start.

He won't shut up!

So I began to ignore him.

This doesn’t feel good.

It doesn't feel good to be ignored, but I found myself treating him like Della and Tyler treat him: only paying attention when he does something wrong, or is about to do something wrong.

That's not how I want to be treated. That's not what I want to foster in my friends around me, or in my relationships.

So, how do I relate to this verbose child in a way that doesn't stifle or ignore him, but doesn't mean I'm always replying to his running narrative? I find I'm learning when he's talking to me, and when he's just talking, I'm learning to take time to myself and to walk (or run) away when I want to. Talking to him just seems to encourage him, so I’m finding other ways of communicating as well.

I think this will develop in time as I learn more of how to relate to a precocious, extroverted-to-the-extreme five-year-old. If anyone has more ideas, let me know! This is all new to me, and I'm like a possum that's been surprised out of its burrow in the middle of the day – bright lights! Confusion! Noise! Ahh! Roll over and play dead!

Well, even if I rolled over and played dead Solomon would have something to say about it. And he might poke me, and then run and tell Tyler.

I'm learning to have fun with him as well, and in the morning as I do qigong with a little boy running circles around me as I Belt Meridian Grind, I giggle to myself and think of last week when it irritated me to have him asking or saying “anyways, didja know? Didja know? Anyways, I'm gonna have some meusli now.” I can see how parents learn to tune out certain things and pick up on other certain things.

**

We've been planting things off and on, when the weather permits, and when we create a new space to plant seeds. A possum's been visiting our garden the last few nights, despite the electric wire and the extra electric wire Tyler added after the first visit. We have a possum trap and everything; just no possum. The possums and wallabies are our main plant threats – they can eradicate a year's work in one chomp, like when a wallaby sampled some of the bamboo seedlings out behind the shed. It takes at least a year for two inches of growth, and they probably won't come back. This means we have to put everything we seed into the fenced area, or it has to be something nothing wants to eat. However, we have rhubarb planted out by a water trough outside of the fenced area. It's surrounded by netting but some leaves poke through and these have been thoroughly munched, even though they're toxic! There's no telling what the wildlife will eat around here, despite the abundance of gum shoots (young Eucalyptus trees) on the plantations and grass and thistles and blackberries and bracken. On second thought, I bet we've got the tastiest shoots around!

I've been learning other things about the wildlife as well – it likes to crawl on you. There are ticks and LEECHES here, and while the ticks can leave a nasty bite that “feels like being hit by a hammer for three days” the leeches simply suck your blood and leave you bleeding when they're done – no diseases or infections or swelling. There's just something about them that's GROSS and fascinating. Tyler found one crawling up his pant leg. Watching it inch its way up, expanding and contracting an incredible amount to cover up to two inches, you can really see its elasticity. We put that one in a jar. I guess they can live a long time without food, but I feel bad about starving it, so I might release it along a wallaby path some night.

The other morning when I was doing qigong down by the pond on the dam, enjoying morning light and less wind than up by the shed, I felt something wet along my waist. What could that be? I'm not sweating, and it hasn't been raining. I pulled up my shirt and my waistband looked a little crooked – it was a LEECH and it was on me! My toes still curl at the memory. Needless to say, I brushed it off as quickly as I could and then watched, fascinated as it inched its way into the grass, disappearing within seconds. That sense of revulsion has stayed with me, even though it didn't attach itself to me, even though it's not going to give me anything, it just needs a little sustenance so it can grow. Is this what they mean by survival of the fittest?

Yesterday afternoon I decided to pull the thistles in our 'front yard,' the space just outside the shed door that Elly sometimes steps in barefoot. I'm finding myself creating projects to keep myself busy and feel productive, since Tyler and Della are self-contained projecters, and for me to help them means they have to tell me what's going on in a way I can understand. Often they don't know what their objective is anyway, or how they're getting there, so directing someone is impossible. I've taken it upon myself to do what I want here, and pulling thistles is about as satisfying as it gets! I happened to look behind me and watched a giant black snake slither across the bare ground and under the rotting Volvo behind the shed. Mind you, I was yelling, “black snake! Big black snake out here! There's a big snake out here!” as I watched it disappear. All the native Tasmanian snakes are deadly poisonous. Normally I might squat down and see how close I can get, or try to take a picture of it. This time I stood back and yelled.
And, I saw it again an hour later when I went to retrieve a bucket to catch worm juices from our new in-ground compost pile. Again I yelled. I'm still getting used to these deadly poisonous, shy beings. I suspect next time will be easier for me.

One thing I'm learning about is the soil here. On Saturday, when Scott was plowing, Bev and Grandma commented on how many bracken we have around the place and said it's a sign of good soil fertility. In general, Tasmania's soils are low in Phosphorous, a necessary element for plant growing. Tyler's latest plan for adding it back in is to use homebrand cola as a fertilizer – it's a combination of phosphoric acid and sugar, so it's like putting the soil on steroids! I'm thinking of how horrible this stuff is for humans, how could it be good for plants? But I'm the one learning about gardening here. Maybe fertilizer is the best use for it!

We've been planting a lot of Tagasastie seeds, and various other things like corn, buckwheat, amaranth and alfalfa, sunflowers, basil, squash and cucumbers. Tagasastie (a.k.a. Tree Lucerne) is a do-everything tree that has edible leaves and nuts (forage for animals and maybe for humans) that we plan to use as a hedge separating paddocks (fields). Everything we plant has a use and maybe several. Our latest plan has been digging a swale around the top of the hill in the garden. We used a triangle level to mark out the contour of the land that's level, then Tyler mowed the grass around there, and we dug a trench on the uphill side and dumped the earth on the downhill side, mounding it up. We'll plant pumpkins at the base of the mound, so they can suck up water from the trench. It's a work in progress, so it'll take some time for all this to happen. One thing I really love about planting this is watching them explode out of the ground. The larger the seed to start with, the faster it grows, so watching the pumpkins shooting toward the sun has been especially exciting! You can practically see them waving their leaves around and stretching out, bending their waists and looking around. Very charismatic, pumpkins.

I've been vaguely considering doing a comparison with plants – blessing one tray of tagasastie seedlings and comparing its growth to the other trays. Would I bless it every day, or just do one blessing and see what happens? I remember hearing about plants listening to music, and responding to being talked to, and I know the food I eat tastes better when I bless it (like the curry dinner!). Guess I'm off to bless some tagasastie!

Tyler and Della are using the Subaru to jump-start the tractor, so they can drive it into town to pick up the disker to break up the plowed earth down in the bottom where Scott plowed and where we'll eventually plant potatoes. I'm in charge of watering – with a hose! Ahh, this is the life for me!