March Madness

Maybe it's the shape of things to come, but right now we are having what seems like unbelievable weather for mid-March. It's still late winter, officially, but it's sunny and balmy. No jackets needed. Kids out in the streets on their bikes and skateboards, even after dinner when it's getting dark.

It's 72 degrees on St. Patrick's Day, which I seem to remember as a time when we kept marching (Girl Scouts in the parade) to keep from freezing solid. For some reason unknown to me, Jamestown celebrated last Saturday, a week early. Maybe they thought they'd trick Mother Nature into an early spring. Actually, I have no idea and pulled that one out of my hat, but this is a city of Swedes and Italians, so what can I say.  I don't think they dye the Chadakoin River green either, but what do I know.  I missed the whole thing.

But I'm way ahead of schedule with my garden cleanup and rose trimming this year. The raised beds are just about ready for planting, but I'm not doing that for a while because this is not normal.

Besides, we're having some more work done on the house in about a week, so I need to get busy and select light fixtures, bath fixtures, tile, and stuff like that. Chaos may be contagious, because Ronnie and Sheryl next door are turning everything upside down in their house too. 

How many of you read the title and thought I was going to write about college basketball?

Springing forward

This week we had a brief taste of spring. This morning it is 18 degrees. March is like that.

This weekend is "Maple Weekend," the first of two here in NY.  [EDIT: I'm a week early! It's actually NEXT weekend! Can't blame me for anticipation!]  It's going to be nice and sunny, if not exactly warm, so why not head out to Big Tree Maple and learn (taste!) more about one of our great local (and natural) products. Sorry, Mrs. Butterworth and Aunt Jemima, you lose out by a landslide to "the real thing."

The forecast for the coming week is even better, so much so that I am planning to  turn over the soil in my raised beds and start marking the squares. I've decided to try "square foot gardening" this year, and have been doing lots of reading and drawing diagrams to get my plans in order.  I have some seeds left over from last year, and some freebies I picked up at last weekend's garden fair, but there are some "decisions, decisions" yet to be made about what varieties to plant! I am loving my Seed Savers Exchange catalog--gorgeous color photos of so many varieties of heirloom veggies that tempt me to plow up my whole yard and turn it into an urban farm.  But...the dog needs room to run, and I no longer wish to destroy dandelions, having decided that they're going to be part of our diet.

Turn your clocks ahead tonight as Daylight Savings Time returns.

When communication fails

Can we talk? Technology will not save us.

The rapid development and expansion of the means of communication has opened up never before seen possibilities for reaching out and touching people almost anywhere, any time, instantaneously. Minds are crammed with information overload. Our lives have become noisier and more immediate. We hear something on the radio or read it on the internet or get a text message, and zap off an instant reply. It's so easy to skip over fact checking and time for careful reflection when we can simply blurt. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, and the rapid response mindset it has brought with it, human error is also compounded and amplified. Words cannot be bitten back because they're already halfway around the world. The genie cannot be put back in the bottle.

We don't take the time to ask whether the message we received was the message sent, or the message intended, or to seek further information. And corrections are too little too late, because the original damage has already been done.

Technology will not save us from our human communication failures.

High wind--the new normal?

We're under another high wind warning today. (It's tempting to blame Rush Limbaugh, but I'll leave it alone.) Considering the tornado destruction to our south the past few days, this is only a minor problem for us. But it did cause some minor damage to our house overnight, and is probably just a taste of what we have to look forward to this spring and summer.

At the moment we're fortunate to be on the northern side of the colliding air masses--the low dipping jet stream, which is going to bring us a bit of snow and overnight lows in the teens over the next couple of days, and the warm air rising from the Gulf of Mexico. This collision is responsible for the violent storms ripping through the south and midwest. And since the Gulf of Mexico is now warmer than usual, the conditions are ripe for stormier than usual weather. We may lose some tree limbs and roofing shingles this year. And watch out for those flying cows.

Anyway, this is probably a good time to review your emergency preparedness.

*****

We had a really good discussion the other night following our third film in our social action committee series, "The Power of Community." First of all, it provided a view of Cuba most of us had little awareness of, given our political weirdness about that little island. Seeing how the Cuban people were able to respond to their low energy crisis by decentralizing education and healthcare, while transforming their communities into glorious, green, petroleum-free food gardens, was inspiring and thought-provoking. The degree to which our lives are dependent on oil is shocking. But what if we started getting more of our food locally, grown organically without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides? What if we stopped relying so heavily on each person having their own private automobile and started sharing rides? What if we farmed tilapia here instead of importing it from farms in South America?

At the same time, the newly reconstituted "Occupy Jamestown" group has begun holding meetings, with a focus on "occupying" our community and working to strengthen it. I hope this continues, because the idea of occupying a park or having a protest march to get attention in a city the size of Jamestown is kind of ridiculous. Can't we just find the people we want to send a message to and TALK to them? That's the beauty of community. But you have to build those personal relationships. I know there are people who favor more militant approaches to changing the world, and good luck to them, they can bang their heads against that wall if they want to. There are always protests and marches in bigger cities, campaign craziness to indulge in, petitions and boycotts to join, whatever. I may, from time to time, be inclined (as an individual) to support some of these things. But I see most of them as a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. I'd rather take a hands on approach to building something that will yield tangible results in the place that I live. I'd prefer to foster a climate of cooperation instead of maintaining and intensifying the awful polarization and quite uncivil adversarial environment we've come to accept as normal. (Do you really wonder why we have perpetual war?) I think I've found some people who agree with this approach. But we'll have to wait and see what develops.

Today, there's a spring garden fair downtown. Tom and I are going to check it out. It's still going to be a little while before garden season arrives in my backyard, but I'm making my plans.

Is it still only February?

We took an early spring break and spent a week in Oakland, CA visiting our son. He is an amazing host and kept us wined, dined, and entertained in style the whole time we were there.

And what a great city! Overshadowed by its big sister across the Bay, Oakland usually only gets attention for its riots, on and off the football field. They actually do a lot of things right.

There are neighborhoods wonderfully walkable and alive with a great variety of small independent cafes, restaurants, bakeries, and shops, driven by the Oakland Grown localization movement. Fresh food is grown in back yards and community gardens and offered for sale through CSA's, farmers markets, and local grocers.

There is public transportation and there are bike lanes--unfortunately, there are still too many roads and cars and people. You can't blame people for wanting to live in such a naturally gorgeous place with a mild climate and beautiful architecture. But the crowding makes living expensive. The climate makes the streets a haven for the homeless.

By the way, do you think these cranes gave George Lucas any ideas?



We had a great vacation, but we're glad to be back home. Even though it's cold here and it will be months before we can dig in the garden.

Meanwhile, good things are happening here. We're very satisfied with our first order from the buying club, Furniture City Foods, and encourage everyone to join (free) and check it out. There are no minimum requirements for personal ordering, and you may find yourself as delighted as we are with the variety of healthy, high quality, and regionally produced foods available.

"The Power of Community," will be screened on Wednesday, February 29th, at 7 pm at the UU church on Prendergast. Turning to localization out of necessity when they were cut off from the Soviet Union in the 1990's, the people of Cuba have managed to turn their country into the only sustainable one in the entire world. There are some wonderful lessons here and I'm looking forward to the discussion. This is offered free and open to the public.

Finally, I've gathered some info and posted a Local Banking page here as a resource for people who want to move towards greater freedom from corporate rule over their lives. Bon voyage!

Back under the blanket

Winter's back, so I've burrowed into my corner of the couch again and started a really complicated new needlework project that changes colors every few stitches and uses mostly blended threads. It should keep me busy till spring.

I also finally took the time to figure out what Pinterest is all about. What a great time suck! File this under "a picture is worth a thousand words" --in this case, lots of pictures, so make that thousands and thousands of words. I've found some great ideas for future projects out there on The Internets, and some great eye candy too.

Our first order has been submitted to the new food buying club, and as word gets around town, we seem to be growing by a few new members almost every day. We're hoping, of course, that this turns out to be a huge success and we all end up eating healthier foods from nearby sources. Go Jamestown!

The winter that isn't

While this season has had its moments, it is far from what we are accustomed to. The daytime temperatures are mostly above freezing. There is no snow on the ground. And we actually bought snow tires in preparation for what last winter had led us to expect this time around. Nope.

Instead of spending my time huddled under a blanket with books, I've been kind of busy with what I think of as "projects." The new second story, while unfinished, has heat and insulation, so I have craft space, previously confined to the kitchen table, and have been taking advantage of it.

I'm also getting involved in things outside the home. The film series has brought me into contact with new people who share my interest in localization. Some of them are Jamestown's version of the Occupy movement, with a strong emphasis on community building. I expect that we will start holding meetings soon. Yes, meetings, not encampments. I don't control what other people do, but I'm hoping to skip the drama stage and go right to positive constructive actions. We'll see how that works out.

Frank Besse of JTNY has started a new food buying club, Furniture City Foods to allow people to buy healthy foods directly from regional food producers at wholesale prices. Anyone who can pick up their orders in Jamestown is invited to go to the sign up page, create an account for free, browse the online catalog, and order as desired. This club is just beginning and Frank expects to add more local suppliers to the mix as things evolve.

I've also begun to learn weaving, a whole new skill for me, from Joyce Rose, who has her studio in the UU church basement. The idea of making my own fabrics (particularly from strips of old garments) is intriguing to me, but first I have to understand how a loom works, and the whole new set of terminology that goes with it.

We'll probably make trips to both coasts to visit the kids before spring, while we can still afford to travel. Watching the Middle East growing more and more unstable, I'm expecting that transportation (ourselves from place to place, and goods to markets) is going to become very expensive sooner rather than later. I remember the lines at gas stations, the 55 mph national speed limit, the lowering of thermostats in public buildings during the oil embargo in the 1970's. The WWII generation remembers rationing. Younger people have no experience with things just not being available for them to buy. This is concerning.

I'm planning to be busy expanding my own food production this summer. To be dependent on things we have no control over has reached dangerous proportions.