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"I have need of the sky. I have business with the grasses. I will up and away at the break of day to where the hawk is wheeling lone and high and where the clouds drift by."   - Richard Hovey, 1894-1961

Saturday, April 26, 2008

A year in the Garden

Mark and I moved to Precita Avenue a year ago. In the last year, ten months actually because I didn't get out in to the garden until June, I've spent many happy hours digging in the back yard and turning it in to a garden. It's come a loooonnngg way. Here's a post from the beginning.

Two weekends ago I tackled and conqured the fig tree! It certainly left it's mark on me too. It turns out I'm allergic to fig tree sap, so all of the scraps from the pruning turned into ugly blisters. I'm just about healed.


Last weekend, I pruned part of the plum tree. In this picture you can see some I've pruned on the left, and what I hadn't yet on the right.


These are the same branches after I've pruned the ones on the right too. I still have about a third of the tree to get to. It's the highest and hardest to reach by ladder. It's also where the aphids are hanging out. Last year, they were all over the tree. This year they're just on the parts I haven't pruned yet.


Mark helps in the garden too. He does mostly detail work and the watering, both things that I'm lackluster at.


I took out the last of the fava beans. This is the harvest. I still haven't gotten around to cooking them yet.


I'm not doing any garden work this weekend though because I had my wisdom teeth pulled Friday and I'm supposed to "take it easy." It's been really nice here the last two days, so I've been lounging outside and enjoying watching my garden grow.

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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Compromise

Compromises are necessary in a long standing relationship.
I found this post I never published, written in April 2006.

Compromise means "A settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions."

It does not mean one side giving in to the other. That is power and subservience.

Compromises are easy when the stakes are low or when one side does not feel strongly about the issue. Compromises are hard when both sides feel strongly and the stakes are high.

But ultimately, in all healthy relationships, compromises are made. Each side comes to an understanding of what the other wants and is willing to meet them in the middle. That means each side figuring out what is most important to them, what it is that they're really after. And then letting go of their ego and what they've said they wanted in order to ask for what will help them feel loved and honored. It takes two sides willing to come to the table. It can't happen until both are ready. It can't happen until both acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, they could have been wrong. It takes two people who are ready to apologize and work together to make the situation better.

Giving in just to get it over with and make everyone happy often enables abusive, controlling behaivior to continue. I deserve better. There are things that I could have and can do better, and I want to make amends, but I do not want to bang my head against a deaf wall. I want to work together to make sure that we all feel loved and honored and respected, but I don't want to give in. Giving in will leave me feeling unloved, disrespected and dishonored. I deserve better.

Garberville

I just got back from a visit near home yesterday. I got to hear some old-timers stories, eat some home-made baked goods, and gossip with some ladies.

In reality, Mark and I just got back yesterday from a site visit to Southern Humboldt County so that I could figure out logistics for the Annual Meeting in September. Much progress was made there, but that's not what this is about.

Occasionally, I am lucky enough to get to take a trip up North for work. Last year, I made it up to Crescent City, 7 hours north of SF and almost in Oregon, a few times. I love it up there. The big trees have a lot to do with that. But, also, there's the people. Every time I go up there, I hear stories ala Grandpa from some old-timer local, usually an ex-logger, and am usually mistaken for someone's relative, not a city slicker, but someone who used to teach at the school or someone's friend's niece. Really. This happens every time.

I take it as a compliment.

A little about Humboldt and Del Norte counties. Driving, you don't get to Humboldt County until you're about 4 hours north of San Francisco. You don't reach Del Norte County until at least 6.5 hours north of SF. It's country.

In Humboldt County, the Eureka-Arcata area is the major town, the largest urban area between Portland and San Francisco. It has a small airport and a population of about 60,000. Humboldt State University in Arcata has about 7,500 students. For many years, logging was the major industry. Today, the hospital is the biggest employer. The Garberville-Redway towns have a population of about 2,000. The surrounding hills have thousands more people. The area used to be large ranches, which have been divided up into 30, 40, 80 acre parcels with a family on each. The Garberville area has a rich pioneering history, complete with river rats, ridge runners, moonshine stills, logging, farming, ranching and all of the tensions and trials that go with settling an area. This area has also been a beacon for hippies and people who want to live a more "alternative" life. So the locals are an intriguing mix. Just north of Garberville starts Humboldt Redwoods State Park, the first redwoods park, which contains the stand of redwoods that inspired the founding of Save-the-Redwoods League 90 years ago. Today, the redwoods provide a lot of tourism and service industry jobs. There are several very nice restaurants and lots of places to stay and camp. Humboldt County is also home to Pacific Lumber, Headwaters Forest, and all the lands that are contested in the PL bankruptcy.

In Del Norte County, the major town is Crescent City. The town and surrounding area has a population of about 15,000. The major employer used to be the timber industry and is now the prison. My favorite chicken fried steak in California is in a diner here. There are lots of chain restaurants and a few nice restaurants. The "hippie" population isn't as prevalent here, so it's a bit more country. There are lots of gorgeous redwood parks up here.

I'm from the country, a small town of 35,000 in mid-Missouri. Before we moved to town when I was in grade school, we lived on a farm, complete with chickens, goats, cats, sheep and a sheep dog. My dad helped my Grandpa farm soybeans, corn, and feed for cattle. My days were filled with making mud-pies, playing in the creek, reading books in my treehouse, fishing with Grandpa, baking with Grandma, picking corn and watermelons for the farmer's market, and trying to steal the eggs from the rooster. I was a true tomboy. But we moved to town before I learned to hunt. That always has made me a little sad.

I went to university in a big city. I moved to California and have lived the last eight years in one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the nation. I'm still more comfortable barefoot up in a tree than I am at a fancy restaurant with three forks for my dinner or in Santa Cruz eating a tofu scramble. I can eat in a fancy restaurant without embarrassing myself (too much=) and I can do hippie handicrafts with the best of them. I've learned to do these things, but what comes naturally and what I feel most comfortable doing is making a pork chop gravy and listening to Dave's stories about the '64 flood.

So, when I go up North, I'm at ease, because it's country. It's the same folks as my family, making a living off the land. They don't set out to rape the land, they just want to use the resources they have to do as well as they can for their family. It's when big corporations got involved, in both farming and timber, that things got nasty. With this perspective, I can hear their stories and they can tell them to me. And it's like being at the kitchen table with Grandpa.

That's why the visit was like being home.

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Sunday, April 06, 2008

The Garden Experiment

I'm attempting to start seedlings. So far, more have died than appear viable. If it doesn't work, I figure it's a worthy experiment. As insurance, I'm stocking my garden with seedlings from the half off area of the garden store. So far, I've picked up spinach, several kinds of lettace, broccoli, parsley, cilantro, and cauliflower. I've put two tomato plants in, but I paid full price for those. I figured the 69 cents might be worth it later.

The chard is doing quite well. I put it in late last fall.



Isn't it pretty? There are about a dozen blooming.




To the right of the ladder are some of my fava beans. It's an eight foot tall ladder. The beans are having a good time. Orson has a little nest in the middle of them.





Oh, and I planted some more strawberries!

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