This morning I decided to widen the path to the dam, which means whacking blackberries with Tyler's imported heavy-duty scythe. It's hot, sweaty work! I'm glad it's cool today, I don't know what I'd do if it was hot. It's pretty satisfying work – you can see results immediately. The path is three times as wide now! I got so into it, I gave myself a blister. And I thought; ‘this is where I belong, putting my energy and intention into a lifetime living space. How wonderful. (That’s just a side note. Read on.) As I walked back to the shed for lunch, I scratched my side and wondered at the funny feeling I had there. I lifted my shirt and found a LEECH! Freaked out, once again, and this time it was attached – so when I flung it off into the far reached of the pasture I was walking through, a spot of blood appeared that didn't dry up for five minutes – it's just as Tyler said. Leeches don't give you anything, they don't hurt; they just fall off and you bleed. Later, a red ring appeared around the blood spot – I’ve got a LEECH hickey! I’m just going to close my eyes and pretend I don’t know it’s there.
I wonder if there's a plant here I could use to help stop bleeding? I've been thinking a book of the native medicinal plants of Tasmania or Australia would be great – I'm always asking Tyler or Della, “what's this? Can you eat it? What does it do?” We don't have any local bookstores, and Smithton is too mainstream anyway, so maybe the internet is the best bet there. I can't think it would be anything but fun to wander around seeing what does what. Although my experience with the homeopathic/western herbalist in Hobart was a bit lacking.
When I came in to the pharmacy, I wanted something to help my headache I'd had all night. I'd already tried all the remedies I know, and I needed something. The herbalist I talked to (Jason, I think his name is) concocted a noxious, brown substance that tasted bitter and hot with a nasty, lingering aftertaste. I took it seven times over the course of the day, without change to my head. The next day my head pain was gone, but I don't credit the brown stuff. Hmm, what is western herbalism based off of? Western medicine? Not the best system, from my experience. Maybe learning the local herbs (pronounced with the H) is more of an indulgence than something useful.
Tyler told me the Australian government is going to start censoring the internet here – they're putting two filters on AUS internet: one for porn, which you can choose to have on or not, and the other for ?, which is not an option, it's Australia-wide. What do they need to censor? And, is there a way around this – some way to get internet from somewhere else, like satellite, or to connect to an unfiltered system? We're on the same level as China at this point. Welcome to Communism. Fascism. I don't know if they've done it yet or not; the local access center has signs posted on all the computers saying they're filtered already from “unsuitable content.” Tyler wasn't able to open a You-Tube video about Vote n Vaccination in the US before the election. Why the AUS gov. wouldn't want you to see that, who knows. Maybe they're doing it next. Since voting is the law here.
It's pretty important to me to have access to uncensored information. And it's disturbing that they're not telling us, or giving us a choice. I don't know how to respond to this, except it seems more and more like a police state. You can get a $50 fine for NOT locking your car here. Seriously. I read it in the paper. Don't they have anything better to do???
My first day here, we stopped at the entrance to the block because two motorbikes were blocking the road. Della said, “those bikes drive around through the plantations, mainly on weekends, and they'd better not be on my property!”
'My goodness,' I thought, 'what's the big deal?'
Now I know. It's been nice the last couple of days, sunny and a little breezy, allowing the ground to dry out from all the rain we had. Last night was the first time I've heard motorbikes, and I'm coming to understand Della's frustration with them. It was noisy and disruptive, surrounding our bit of peace and quiet with a distant buzz-saw. Despite that, the sunset was like watching a golden surfer heading out to sea; the clouds wisped like the tide going out. I wanted to stand outside longer, but it was getting cold, and I've learned that if I let myself get cold at night, it takes forever to warm up in bed!
One thing I've been spending more time on is setting my intention for Abeo: for things to go smoothly, with planting and building cool things like brick ovens and solar cookers, AND, for people to visit our community and become a part of it. Building community takes people, and that's what we need here – people! Everything seems to be waiting for this. An explosion of creativity seems imminent!
On the rainy days, I've been going through old issues of a magazine called GrassRoots. I imagine it's like Mother Earth News in the US, but since I've never really looked at that mag, I don't know. GR has articles on sustainable living, permaculture gardens, a recipe section, building with rammed earth, straw-bale housing, choosing poultry and livestock, a huge section for readers to write in asking for information about making soap or starting a worm bin or they're taking a trip around Australia and would like to visit other permaculture farms. They print the address of the person asking, and voila, it's like freecycle before the internet. The mags I've been reading are from the mid-90's. I'm impressed, since so many people were working to be self-sustainable even then, and the information is still viable. I just wonder if they've got a website! Maybe: www.grassroots.com.au or something like that. I don't know, I haven't found one more recent than 2002, and that was their first completely digital issue.
The other mag I've been reading is called Earth Garden, and it's a lot like GrassRoots, it's just fancier. More color, more ads. Same information, more case studies of straw-bale construction. It seems that straw-bale construction is the way to go for a warm house! You end up paying the same amount for a completely natural kind of insulation that works 100 times better. The main thing is keeping it dry; other than that, once you've plastered, that's it. Done. Sounds good to me.
Straw bale me up!
It looks like we might be using straw bales to insulate Abeo house, once Tyler digs it out. However, there was a nasty frost this spring that wiped out a lot of straw-type crops; I don't know if we can afford strawbales this year. That means we might be looking at other options to use as insulation, like bracken or shredded newspaper. Tyler's current house design looks like a simply squeeze horn – the horn opens north toward the sun, narrowing down and back into the earth, forming a tunnel leading to a circular opening that would turn into a tree-dwelling, growing with the circle of pine trees planted around it. A picture might do a better job of describing it. Ah, well.
Showing posts with label LEECHES. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LEECHES. Show all posts
20.11.08
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!
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!
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