Garden Oysters

Do you remember the buzz these two Berkeley kids created by selling a box of coffee grounds that will grow tasty mushrooms? When our box gave up its last oysters, I took the mycelium and inoculated our garden with it. This year, I'm being rewarded with some new oyster mushrooms!

Adding mushrooms to a raised bed garden is simple. do a little research and learn what sort of stuff your desired mushroom grows upon (oysters: oak, maple) and stuff some of the host material into the moist corners of your garden. Prep it well (make it good and wet, in most cases). Buy plugs, or look for living mycelia. Inoculate the host matter... and then wait. In a year or less you might have a new, renewable source of mushrooms!

BTW, did you notice how low effort this is?

The Pause

I hired my coach again.

Years ago, Nika Quirk helped me reach into my yearnings and pull out an action plan that got me to today. I'm caught up with the steps we outlined. Many manys of rewards and unseen consequences have occurred; for example, I have oodles of opportunity before me and my family has moved out and the big old house is effectively empty.

So, what's next?

Don't know.

But I'm curious to find out.

Cold Water from a Hot Tap

One of the water heaters stopped functioning. The other one. Karl and I replaced the first of these some time ago; they were contemporaries and we knew this one would need replacing too. We asked it to wait until October. It did. We asked it to wait a little longer; it did. Finally a couple weeks ago it gently stopped.

If we actually get to short sell the house we are considering replacing it. If the house goes all the way to foreclosure then the bank can deal with it.

The impact of being down a water heater is we are boiling water in the kitchen to wash dishes. It's a bit like camping. Xena said, "After a few days, camping in your own kitchen isn't so much fun." Betsy and Jori are bathing over at the common house. Our bathroom still has plenty of hot water, thankfully. But neither kitchen does.

Hot tap water is such a given for people in developed countries. We've "solved" that hygiene issue so we can now focus on Pink's performance at the Grammy's. Or we can debate whether FoxNews is fair or balanced.

I'm sort of wondering what a "live simply" week would look like. Could I inspire people to live without electricity, heat, and potable water for a week? Or perhaps to live without relying on the infrastructure for a week?

Tired

After a couple of months away from the blog, I find my skills rusted. Where will I find that delicious pithiness, that juxtaposition of hope with reality, or merely a well-turned phrase, sparking an "aha!" for my visitors?

The thing of it is, I am tired.

There's a concept known as "cosmic timing." It's being the right person in the right place at the right time with the right skills, and you get swept along into the great rushing river of Success.

I see people expending less effort than I expend and they achieve better stability, better financial success, better familial harmony... sure, most of them are blind to the effects of a consumptive lifestyle on the opportunity for others, but is that what it takes? Is that what Abundance demands of her disciples?

Where is my ease?

Where do I yet sabotage myself?

Short Attention Span Day

I started a group on Facebook, "Short Attention Span" day.

Xena and I planned to paint the ceiling in our bedroom. It's an oppressive smoggy pink, a sort of intestinal mucosal membrane color. Short Attention Span to the rescue! Instead, two leather love seats, a handful of ottomans and a few sacks of craft supplies came home. Instead, we drove out to Napa and bought a 22' travel trailer. Instead, I did laundry and vacuumed. Instead, Karl and I caught bees (I got a small sting). Instead, we scheduled to go look at a vegie oil Mercedes. Instead, I babysat our chiropractor's lovely daughter. Instead, we partied with an impromptu bar-b-que. Instead, I foraged urban lemons. Instead, we began moving stuff into the attic.

So what's the progress on painting? We bought paint (yes, it's the enviro-friendly zero VOC kind!), we did some room prep, and Xena scrubbed part of a window's trim with TSP.

More Unintended Benefits of Thinning

We sow seeds thickly. We also inter-crop intensively; lettuces, radishes, carrots, mustards and kales, all sown together. Two benefits have already become apparent: pests can't get a very good grip on the crop (mustard seems especially good at keeping slugs away) and as we thin baby plants, we get a harvest much sooner than if we had to wait for full maturation. As long as seeds are cheap, this will be a good strategy.

Two benefits showed up over time: the cats don't poop in the beds (they prefer fluffy dirt, not soil filled with growing things) and now, this. Jori thinned some kale, and made an edible "floral" arrangement with it.

I've been really enjoying wandering through the kitchen and eating a few leaves. As if going down to the garden were any great burden! But here are greens, in the kitchen, succulent and tasty, just waiting to go into my mouth.

If It Gets Easier, Am I Still Doing It Right?

When I wonder if I'm still following my calling (as it becomes easier, and familiar, I have to find a compass other than "is this the most uncomfortable, growth-filled thing I can be doing right now?"), I'll catalog activities over a couple of days and assess them.

Karl made an amazing barbecue over the fire pit for dinner. Much of the food was local. Then we had our weekly community meeting, but outside, around the fire. Hank took notes on his laptop, and we had illumination from fire, solar-power lights and regular electric-grid tied lights. Urban permaculture rating: people care, earth care, fair share, stacked functions, integrate, small slow solutions, use edges and margins, observe and interact, produce no waste... yeah, that one ranked pretty high.

At work I tried to explain PG&E's TOU (Time of Use) E7 rate to a client, and I measured how much sun shine falls on his roof. I quoted a 4kW system to another client. As much as Right Livelihood fits into urban permaculture, this activity fits: especially as I consider fair share, observing and interacting, planning to obtain a yield, catch and store energy, design from pattern to details, use edges (specifically, the "edge" of a roof and the sky, a place currently barren on most dwellings).

I helped Ingrid Severson install a rain catchment system at her cute cottage. She gave me coconut oil from the barrels we were converting and fed me. Earth care, people care, fair share, catch and store energy, apply self-regulation and accept feedback, small slow solutions, obtain a yield, use edges and value the marginal, creatively adapt to change... another multi-point score!

In no particular order: I also had a sauerkraut party. Not as much fun as the last, but it was spread over both Saturday and Sunday as people dropped in and out. I got invited to two presentations, but I already had plans. I also played, with family and housemates, a version of Sorry!® in which you hold 5 cards and plan your strategy. I comforted a child who was feeling hurt, chauffeured parents to collect their child from the YMCA, and shared our one car back and forth with my wife.

I courageously called a friend when I was feeling down and shared my sorrow, and she listened and I felt better and no longer stewed in my juices.

Well, how about that. So many delicious, delightful activities in my life in the last few days, and all of them supporting and supported by the dense interconnected web that is urban permaculture.

I suppose I'm still on the right path.

Checking the Decomposition of the Pee Pee Ponics Raised Bed.

The rich soil in the picture above is made of wood chips and urine.

Pee-pee ponics promises fertile soil from free resources, and it delivers. The wood chips were free, the urine is free, and the end result is beautiful. Why buy topsoil when you can make it so easily?

After Dinner of Lemon Chicken Soup

Diane and I made a very tasty lemon chicken soup for common meal tonight. I'm sensitized to seasonality now; the fact that our lemon tree is producing an overwhelming amount of fruit and we have chicken that needs to be cooked at the same time makes me wonder about other dishes that have become year round favorites. Lemon juice pairs nicely with chicken fat; what other pairings have become part of our 365 day homogenous diet, that might have had been part of a seasonal diet?

Our yard provided a fair amount of dinner tonight. What an amazing climate we have, that in February our yard provided chicken, lemons, thyme, parsley, chard and mustard greens. I really enjoy cooking for everyone, and it's even more fun when an unfamiliar recipe is received so warmly.

Tomorrow we're processing our honey (finally) and Karl and I will work on more trenching and drainage. We had a bit of flooding again, but for some reason no one seems very fussed about it. Karl's grey water/rain storage system is working really well. Water ran off the roofs and through the french drain to the edge of the yard where you could see it percolating up and then spilling over into the overflow channel to the street.

I wish I could find my camera. Karl and Aaron made a beautiful trellis for peas and beans in one of the raised beds. I'd love to share it with you.

More Clarity for Me About Eating Meat

Thank you, everyone who commented.

My guru has spent decades sifting wheat from chaff in spiritual teachings and scriptures. It is his opinion that there is a hierarchy of consciousness, and that while all life is precious, self-aware human life is very precious.

As I held the dying bird, I could feel some of what he must know; this living, breathing creature shares a measure of Everlasting Spirit. It's not wrong to take this life, but it is wrong to do so in a way that demeans all life or corrupts human consciousness. Eating meat should be an intentional choice and an act of reverence, even more than our thankfulness for the bounty of plants God has provided.

A Bit of Culture (Sauerkraut and Music!)

What an amazing afternoon.

I invited Neighbor Jan and Friend Franziska over to make sauerkraut. Jan brought friends who played violin, guitar and banjo. So while we made brine by massaging cabbage and salt, setting up our cabbage cultures, they made music. The weather was of course very cooperative.

"What can I do to help?" asked Crafty Girl.

"And me! And me!" echoed the others.

"Here, help me grate carrots."

"Okay."

The sun kissed us, a breeze cooled us, the music blessed us, and we chopped, salted, massaged, and packed. It was our own little "Super Bowl" of culture.

Hank brought some sauerkraut he'd already made. "Mm, love the caraway seeds," I said.

"It's believed they help with gas," he said.

Well, I suppose on Super Bowl Sunday, a little fart humor is appropriate, right?

Franziska used some crazy grater/slicer that made parts of me run and hide whenever I looked at it. But it was German-made, and we were slicing up 'kraut, so it's all good. I know you can go to the store and buy sauerkraut. But you can't go to the store and buy an afternoon like this one. This is the goal of urban permaculture: use everyone's skills together to make every moment a reflection of Heaven. I got to live there for a bit, today.

Xena, Did You Know..?

Fun in a House with No Water

We live in a house with no water (we're sort of practicing our habits of how life could be if a massive earthquake severed the water supply) but that didn't stop Liz from throwing an amazing birthday party for her daughter over at the common house! Phil, Liz and Betsy cooked. I thought, where else in the world could I take a break from installing some fresh plumbing and a water heater to feast upon freshly fried shrimp, homemade pesto pasta, and baked onion rings?

Steve is absolutely right: I am wealthy beyond any measure Midas ever knew. And even beyond that particular beyond, I feel the draw of even greater wealth, inexorably bearing down upon me.

I hold faith for this greater wealth, with trust, and a hope that Life is very, very long.

The White Pigeon

In a flock of pigeons, is the white bird amongst all the others serving its species by attracting the attention of the predator? Does its mutation help all the other birds escape?

As we move into a post-carbon, post-affluenza world, who among us is willing to step forward and be the white pigeon? Not so much to be prey, but to help forge policies for grey water permitting, to be examples of non-violence, to show how to support ourselves while also supporting our neighbors and leaving a resource abundance for our children's children?

Typical. Other People's Good Deeds Boost My Mood

Karl, Nini, Liz, Betsy, Jori, Crafty Girl, Puppy Girl, Aaron and Jess are packed and off to Yosemite for a quick visit. Xena, Nick and I could have gone, too... except Xena left me here while she goes up to Seattle on a work trip and Nick is feeling not-so-well in his throat and chest, and the upstairs toilet is starting to leak through the ceiling of the downstairs when it gets flushed, and I wanted someone to go with to see my friend Lisa dance tonight, so I sat down to write a poor-lonely-me post--

But instead, in my email, is a message from Village Harvest! Next weekend, the 15th, they'll be harvesting fruit from homeowners' over-burdened trees in the Palo Alto area. Volunteers get first dibs, and the rest of the fresh fruit feeds the hungry. NBC Nightly News will be filming them that day, too! More info is at Village Harvest. Or call (888) FRUIT-411 to join in.

Someday, after I've fixed the drain and toilets and doors and walls and floors and relationships I will have the energy to spearhead fruit harvests in my area. Until then, I can get vicarious joy from this truly sustainable practice that brings community, local food and social justice together.

Movie Night

I am recovering my real identity.

Lat night was gorgeous. Warm, gentle, a little muggy but not too bad.

Betsy and Xena were cooking in the kitchen, getting it hotter, and Abbers sat in attention on a chair enjoying the smells of curry and sweet and sour.

"Would it be fun to have a movie in the backyard, tonight? It's so lovely out this evening," I asked.

"That's a really good idea," said Betsy. "Especially if it starts soon so we can still get to bed at a reasonable time."

I tracked down the projection screen, and Nicholas lent his speakers. I got it all set up just as it got dark enough to not see what I was doing.

"A movie? Under the willow? Sounds great," said Jess, as I went around inviting the community.

We all giggled our way through The Royal Tannenbaums. I am so glad my life path is trending towards being more connected, so I don't have to undertake heroic measures at the end of my life the way Gene Hackman's character felt he needed to. Life is long, but there's no reason to wait for it to be full.

Cap'n Trade

I am so thankful for my life experiences. My childhood and the examples my parents set for me, my ever-evolving relationship with my wife and children, my prayer life, yoga and mediation, coaching, chiropractic, births, deaths, disruptive events... as I embrace these, I become gentler, humbler, wiser, more tuned to God's will for me, more tuned to a consistent and verifiable worldview.

Tim recently commented that capping wages at "something outrageous, say $80,000 per year" would be a good thing. Steve commented that deadbeats dads are a primary cause of economic woe and the decay of our social structure. To my way of thinking, God's love for us, the evidence of His concern for us, His wishes for our lives to be rich and full, stands in often mute testimony to the fallacious nature of those ideas.

For those of my readers who struggle with an idea of a big guy in a long white beard pulling strings, rest assured that's not what I'm talking about. Consider the Universe began in an instant and created vast energy and abundance from nothing, and that 13 billion years later this energy is scarcely begun in its work; we are part of it, imbued with it, and this driving force of abundance is built into every bit of us. So think of that when I use the words God's Spirit or Mind or Will.

Going against the Will of God is a sin. He wants to shower us with His Divine Grace, Abundance, and Sufficiency (recall Jesus' words about toil and the lilies of the field, among other biblical references concerning God as our abundant provider). Therefore, to limit what we will accept from God is a sin. If God blesses us with vast income, that's great! The downfall then becomes if we curtail others' opportunities, in order to preserve our abundance. Humans love the temporary to become permanent, and we often lose sight of how our choices decay into expediency in order to preserve our status quo. There is no sin in making money. Rather, there is much grace in making money in a way that increases the opportunities for other people to live well, and grow in grace themselves.

Steve's views about fatherhood are informed by a sincere belief that the nuclear family is the best kind of family. I got to go to a party this Sunday celebrating an unmarried white woman's adoption of a black baby. Her extended, "by choice," family attended: people she has surrounded herself with to substitute for her abusive birth family. I saw more love and care and Spirit of God shared and displayed among this assembled group of athiests, trans-genders, alternatively oriented, multi-classed family than sometimes I see when I go to Church. Love is compounded in its sharing.

Again, God's support for us is infinite; whether it's income or love for a child, limiting Divine Abundance is selfish, sinful, antagonistic, contrary, and non-harmonious. When we use our free will to align our lives with generosity and abundance, instead of "rightness" and forced redistribution of wealth, we are living truly sustainably.

If I had a Million Dollars...

We wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner.

And I wouldn't. Which, I already do. Not. Do.

So... I guess I'm a millionaire?


(apologies to BNL)

Found my Joy

I am now aligned with God's abundance. His Universe of Joy. I feel great.

When I started this journey to recover from affluenza, I asked God to align me with the Tipping Point. "God," I prayed, "will You please echo in my life, what the future holds for humanity?"

Hey, it seemed a good idea at the time. I wanted to know. Will we recover? We are His hands here, specifically tasked with bringing His Kingdom to earth; will we succeed? Will we restore the earth?

I don't want to know anymore. Knowing is tiring. I learned a bunch of stuff along the way, experienced brief encounters with joy so intense it consumed me, and experienced depths of pain I didn't know I could survive. I have an answer, of sorts. It is time to move forward. I am part of the solution. I am now cause, not effect.

I've got a new prayer (which is still private) leading me to an inner place filled with joy, lightness, enthusiasm. I like it very very much.

Squash-tastic!

Our raised beds are going great guns! Of course, it's hard to go wrong with squash in this area. Many of our plants are volunteers from seeds that didn't get hot enough in the compost; so at least we know these are things we've eaten before! I just couldn't resist taking a pic of this flower and two fruits, spilling over the side of the bed.