Pink Coyote

Lessons In Need

One of the messages that came up for me many times as I prepared for and journeyed to Squam was one of traveling light.

I packed huge boxes of supplies and sacred tools which was far too many, I loaded up on layers of clothing, not knowing how that tricksy New England would feel on my California skin-and true to form it was hot at times and absolutely freezing at others. I didn't want to wear the same jeans under my hempy skirts with my ratty boots that I didn't care if paint fell on, but also wanted to have some spiffy items because ragamuffin is a look that kind of follows me around. Some things are hard to change. Overpacking is somewhat of a disease. My fantasy was that I would ship everything out beforehand, pray the boxes arrived and then just take my little carry-on and save the $50 in baggage check. In the end, I still ended up checking a roller bag.

Another artist and I had a dock chat about all of the stuff we humans carry on our backs from place to place, and it's always been a subject that feels important to keep digging into. I've gone from living in under 900 square feet with a partner, three dogs and two cats to trying to fill up 2200 square feet and never making it to the third floor most days. I've cleaned two and a half bathrooms for more years than I wish to count. And sometimes it feels like a blessing to have squatted on acreage with a trampoline and open space to roam. Other times it feels like too many precious hours are spent tending the grounds and organizing walk-in closets.

My lakeside mate told me of her experience post-Katrina, about seeing an entire town's personal belongings hanging from the trees and filling the streets after water levels floated homes up off of their foundations and left their drawers out in the branches. My heart hurt to think of what we hold onto that will be here long after we are gone, things that will not go back to the Earth anytime soon. So many of us value the fate of the planet, and yet we refuse to surrender what gives us the fleeting and illusory comfort of home. Letting go is my work in this lifetime, on all levels imaginable.

What are we really building?

As we search for a dwelling in Ojai, I'm looking at what another friend/fairy godmother calls *true need*. Do my children really need their own bedrooms and privacy, or would it bond them to share close quarters? Do I need to schlep every shovel, rake and hoe or can I use my hands, hire a gardener? Where do I want to create time and how can I do that by choosing the space that is enough, but not overly maintenence heavy? Do we need three boxes of Christmas decorations, or do I want to vacation away from home during the holidays where the season can be celebrated in communion with my children instead of consumption and waste? What sort of world view do I want them to experience?

I'm even looking at the acrylic paints I use. Those won't be breaking down soon. The wood panels I create on- can I stretch hemp fabric over some branches or scrap wood and make that work? 'Cause I'm really considering it. How will my art change to come into alignment with what is really important to me? I think of Mama Earth and the green woods I just left. How little I needed while I was there feels a little bit Walden and a lot doable.

All these questions and more, as I arrive back with a suitcase that still sits unpacked, empty plastic bottles to recycle, because it's too hard to find a fill-up joint for my kleen kanteen while on the road.

How will the Earth look one hundred years from now because of me and my family? What do we want to make sure we leave behind? What would we like to be assured that we won't leave behind?

Squam, travel, planning a move-they all tie into an opportunity to make the kind of changes I'm yearning for.

He doesn't require much.

Artist's Date

Well, I thought about taking my hulking camera, but being in the sand and not knowing what kind of shenanigans might go on, I opted to try out my smartphone's instead.

Saturday night I spontaneously (rare) decided that IF I got all of my paintings finished, sprayed, and ready to hang, I would drive down to Santa Monica on Monday night, which is about an hour and 40 minutes south of here, to see Jack Johnson play on the pier.

I got almost all completed, so yesterday afternoon I decided to fly. I went alone, blanket under my arm, basket of goodies in hand. Years ago, it would have been very unlikely for me to go "out" anywhere alone, much less a concert. It was awesome. He played a sweet set, dedicated to efforts by Heal the Bay, and it was a really easy, dreamy night.

On the way down, stars aligned so that I could stop for creative nourishment, and a cheese and cracker at a very local friend's home. We crammed a load of inspiration, project chat and storysharing into less than 2 hours and I felt so full at the end of the evening I thought I would burst.

It's really different for me to do things without a plan. I can't usually even pull it together to get the kids to the park for a playdate without half a day's notice. So this was big.

I highly recommend seeing some outdoor music this summer and filling your creative cup...and if your picks are as hunky as Jack...call me and I'll come with you :)

Green

It seems like Spring is already here, as it often drops in unexpectedly after Christmas in California, like a friendly face. Native here, I absolutely take this for granted. While a good part of the country is still freezing your bums off in subzeroes, we're already flipflopping and shortsleeving some days. Here's a little green I've been wanting to share to ward off the icicles.

Millions of Peaches

Peach season has finally come! They've been turning up at farmer's markets, but ours were a bit slower to ripen this year.

Our little peach tree was planted two years ago, along with an apricot and a plum nearby. We created a "plant guild" around it, consisting of supportive plants such as artichokes for continual mulching, nasturtiums as a soil fumigator, strawberries and allysum for shading the soil/water retention, and beans for fixing nitrogen. Using these and a few other basic permaculture guidelines, the first year showed rapid growth for our stone fruit trees.

My favorite resource for permaculture is Toby Hemenway's book, Gaia's Garden, which is now out in second edition!

Sadly, winter came, dogs dug and grass moved in, and the guilds slowly gave up and all became mulch. They did a great job for the year they were most active, though, and their benefit meant that when our trees were one year old, we had fruit! This is the second year we've harvested and look at these babies! We're pretty proud.

 

They're white peaches, so they're very sweet and soft (but not mushy!) when ripe.

And the shadow side of organic home farming...

Gross japanese beetles! Which divebomb my ears and head while I'm trying to pick! I've had to pick some peaches early, and invite my friends & family to rush over and do the same. Now that the fruit is ripe, the ne'er-do-wells have arrived! I don't mind sharing a bit of the harvest with the natural evolution of creatures, but these dudes are big, loud and fast and they cause me to run screaming and slapping myself.

I'm going to get back to that day off....:)

Skittling Across the Floor

 

Since all but swearing off plastics in M's toybox, we've been casually on the prowl for fun toys for him to play with that are made by artisans and craftspeople who are taking care of the planet while honoring their art.

We were thrilled to find Camden Rose, who have a beautiful story behind their imaginative children's company.  (I'm crazy to try their Demeter-certified baby woolens just to support those passionate people practicing agriculture properly!)

We ordered the above pictured birch skittles set for Miles from Palumba, who have a gorgeous catalog full of yummy natural toy offerings.

There are lots of games that can be taught to a three-something, but we have been having the most fun just setting up the pins and knocking 'em down American ten-pin style.  The set came with two balls and ten pins inside a little cloth bag, sweet!  We've taken them inside and out, on the grass, the sidewalk, tabletops, anywhere the pins will stand.  The pins are only 5" tall-but we found they were just the right height after using them for a bit.  They come unfinished, but you can shine them up with a bit of beeswax.  We opted not to, considering you-know-who-on-the-way  is going to have her baby lips wrapped around everything she can find by next winter.  That makes these sorts of toys even more fun.

We give this wooden skittles set points for encouraging counting, imagination, balance study, and accuracy.

Now, if only I could get all of the plastic out of my grocery cart!

To Your Good Health

Good Monday morning to you!

Quick, before I recap my weekend, I want to bring your attention to the axe I've to grind with our new President Elect.  He has appointed a rogue bio-tech poster child to the position of Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack.  As one who supports factory farming legislation, animal cloning and the genetic engineering of crops, he has compromised our health, our children's health and the health of the environment here on Mama Earth. Vilsack must be sacked.  Sign here if you'd like to take action and remind Barack Obama of his interest in organic food production, the preservation of the American family farm, the environment and our sustainable future. 

It has been a healthful couple of weeks 'round the den, with all of the juicing and souping (and other things that rhyme with "souping") we've been doing.  Brandon's beloved GrammaLo has been visiting us from her home in Idaho where it has already snowed over 80 inches, almost double its expected amount for the entire year.  The California sunshine did her well, and Miles loved having a willing playmate.

I'm so grateful for uber-fresh food, including soup that gets better every day, gently used baby hand-me-downs, warm belly-floatin'-baths with sea salt, seventy-nine year old grammies who think they are fifty-five and look it- too, friends calling to salespitch their new towns (you, Jill!), a tall pile of birth books on my nightstand, hot chocolatey chocolate, body pillows, snuggling with warm boys, popcorn and Babe, the Sheep Pig starring one of my heroes, James Cromwell as the compassionate Farmer Hoggett.

I love Kris Carr and her sexy tips-I really want her "make juice not war" t-shirt.  I'm really getting into this juicing thing and will have some recipes to share this week.  I already want to upgrade my juicer to a twin gear to improve my yield of juice from herbs and greens.  I've been told recently that you lose 15-30% juice in the centrifuge! plus you have to drink it right away to retain the enzymes or it will oxidize.  The mashing motion of the twin gear (the Greenstar is the one I'm in love with) results in 90% enzyme retention and you can store juice for up to three days in the fridgey in a tightly sealed pint canning jar if you fill it up to the top, leaving almost no air.  In the meantime...it's bottoms up!

And yet another photo of my perfectly disturbing brother, Doo, who sportily fell victim to my juicing of beets tonite:

Hard Cheese and Why I Love Knitting

I'm thinking of taking a no plastics for a week pledge to raise my own awareness of how much plastic our household consumes (then tosses into the recycling bin....or not, in some cases of saran and other baddies).  If you haven't seen pictures of the Great Pacific Garbage Dump, it may alarm you into swearing off of polymers, too.  Olga Naidenko's article at Enviroblog came across my inbox and led me on a scavenger hunt, which led me to this funny gal from Oakland, who is doing all sorts of neat comparisons to decide which commonly used grocery and household items we can replace in order to avoid adding to the plastic grossness.  Anyone know of a great plastic-wrapping-free cheese from CA? 

Every once in a frequent while,  I need to reassess consumption around here.  Miles birthday was an example of a lot of excess wrapping paper, plastic toys, giant gift bags, and things that I will be trying to find a home for when Spring cleaning and the nesting season kicks in.  I can tell you that this Christmas there will be major moratoriums.  If I thought I could do it, I would commit to handmaking all of our gifts, but I just don't know what I'll have time for.  I don't think it will be that challenging to select or make thoughtful, minimumally-packaged gifts, but I will forego Tyvek (which I don't use that much of anyhow) in favor of small boxes and no stuffin for the peeps far away .

Is it that time of year already!?  I'm going to try to put a list of my favorite gifts together again this year and also just throw out there that not giving gifts is totally ok with me, too.  What about you?  Would it ruin the holidays to adore someone in such a way that doesn't involve the purchase or exchange of items?  Of course, it is a little harder with the wee ones.

Totally changing the subject...

Design Studio, 5:20 am this morning:

 

Knitting Schmitting, are you tired of hearing about it yet?

Ten things I love about knitting:

1. Totally portable, follows me from room to room, to work or dr.'s office in the bottom of my purse and can be stopped and started at any time.

2. Kiddie-friendly, can be dropped immediately to wipe someone's bum or kiss a boo boo, with no handwashing or de-chemicalling required to do so.

3.  When natural materials are used, they can all go straight back to the earth (or compost pile) without harming groundwater or future generations.

4. My workshop is in bed. Or anywhere I want it to be in the moment!

5. Doesn't cut into my social life. With a headphone on, I can talk on the phone and do it. (nice social life)

6. Near instant gratification

7. Yarn that stretches even just a little forgives the advanced beginner

8. The colors the colors the COLORS!!!!

9. Cackling women that discuss the male anatomy in art while knitting in the yarn shop crack me up and help me fix my mistakes

10. Silence and sitting still have never been so fun

Eleventh Hour Wishlist

Hark! It's upon us! 

If you are running behind with shopping and are desperate for a few ideas, here are some last moment goodies that may save your Christmas keister:

Wee Babes: Organic *anything* is nice for the weans because their little skins and bodies don't like chemicals.  Nui booties are not cheap, but make a super sweet gift.  If you are the crafting type, felt your own!  My favorite source for wool top (roving) is The Yarn Tree in Brooklyn, because they're so flippin' nice.  Pair I felted for friend's babe:

I would have been all over this bunting, had I known about it when M was born.

Kid Over 2: This cool chalkboard placemat is Made in USA by a company called Chalk A Doodle (I can't say it without crowing).  The eraser is recycled wool and it comes with 4 pieces of dustless chalk.  I love the folks at Pokkadots, too.  Just dang sweet people.  No time to ship?  No money to buy?  Make it yourself by spray painting chalkboard paint onto a lightweight surface such as illustration board or Masonite.  Create the eraser by cutting a 4 x 6 square out of your least favorite wool sweater (or thrift store find) and wash it in a hot water cycle with regular laundry soap.  Instant felted wool eraser.  Reckon you'll have to go buy some chalk. Also, the album What Kind of Cat Are You? will drive the 2-6 set wild.

EnviroMan: Just Soap is a company anyone can love.  The creator designed a bike contraption to pedal and mix his large batches of soap.  Brilliant! Human powered!  More efficient than Santa and no pesky reindeer to clean up after.  The coyotes love Lemongrass Ginger for a scent that suits girlies, as well as boys.  We are intrigued by the shampoo bars and plan to try them next-I can't think of a better idea than eliminating all of the plastic bottles that shampoo and conditioner come in.  This water bottle solves all of the plastic, aluminum (evil SIGG), nalgene issues of our day.  With one for him and one for you, you can get on with things more fun than searching for the perfect bloody water bottle!

Host/Hostess/Special Lady Friend: These candles from Something Wicked are wickedly guiltless, especially if you live on the West Coast and don't have far to ship (think cruel fuel).  We've been burning "Hannah" (Fig Apricot) all week and the scent is intoxicating without being headachey.  They are thoughtfully poured into reuseable + recyclable glass, made of soy (no black paraffin lungs) with hemp wicks, toxin-free, and are packaged in deliciously recycled paper boxes (sturdy enough to have a second life as a cute and yummy-smelling storage box).  Lovely Jill Roy, creator, beloved Angeleno, and handpourer scores points for fighting global warming and gets one tiny spanking for using a teensy amount of synthetic fragrance to achieve the fruity part of the sniffins.  If she can live with herself, I can, too.

eGifts: Elf Yourself is the funniest thing I've ever seen.  When I received this gift from my girl, Julie, I almost peed.  Spread holiday joy and crack up your friends.  They'll forget that you didn't send them a fruitcake.

And,

If You Still Have to Buy for Me: Wink...

Wednesday Post Script: To SIGG or not to SIGG

I've been receiving some feedback about the water bottle issue and the comments of this post reveal some concerns and thoughts from a few well-doers.  Here is my final prattle on the matter which I tried to post as a comment but Typepad doesn't love me tonite:

I have been reading all night about bottles, bottles and more bottles.  What I'm hearing is SIGG asked Environmental Working Group and Organic Consumers Association earlier this year to remove the SIGG water bottle from their warning lists.  Both have done so, but it seems to me that they still have questions but aren't quite saying why yet.  SIGG has said (I'm paraphrasing, of course) their bottles do NOT leach at all, ever, the harmful hormone disruptor known as BPA *bisphenol A* from the linings of the bottles. 

SIGG will not release the content or manufacturing process details about their "micro epoxy" linings (born of petrochemicals, as all plastics are) because they want to maintain their "competitive edge".  EWG tested SIGGs for 3 days the tests showed no signs of BPA, but I hear that community making talk of the bottles wearing down and "leaching over time" and consumers not being able to see if there is internal damage to the lining when cleaning, which would definitely indicate leaching of the plastic lining components, not to mention the aluminum. 

A lot of effort goes into producing SIGG, in inks, printing & manufacturing the fancy decorative exteriors that have such great marketing appeal, mining of aluminum, etc.  I also hear consumers saying that the exteriors chip and dent when you drop the bottles, so what happens to the interior when that occurs? 

In favor of stainless steel, though the mining process is also intensive, is that it is the most recyclable material in the world- in fact over 80% of cars in the US are recycled, meaning my very own SS bottle could be the '74 Nova my parents drove when I was a kid!  I like SIGG's general ideas for fair trade and all of that alleged goodliness (w!), I wish they made a plain SS version with no fancy-energy-sucking frills.  I can paint my own dang bottle!

But seriously, my vote still goes for food-grade stainless steel (watch out for cheapies, they are out there!).  And I'm a product, design and packaging whore, so you can imagine how difficult it is for me to be so puritanical on such a matter.  EWG said it best when they said, "SIGG is an aluminum-bottle manufacturer with excellent publicity."

You can't recycle SIGG because of all that is in/on it vs. the plain Klean Kanteen (available everywhere, such as Amazon, GreenFeet.com).  My bone of contention is that SIGG is mfd in Switzerland (smaller eco footprint, yet still far to ship) and the damned KK is mfd in China-if you know me, you know I've begun to boycott China when possible.  If you use the tap to fill your bottles, you must always remember to clean them thoroughly-another problem I have with SIGG is you can't risk getting them too hot inside ....eeeeegad....(I run the hottest tap water my faucet will produce to sterilize my bottle and I can put it in the d/w, too)

I have to add that I think the best best best thing ever is to just drink from a glass or ceramic mug.  Easy to do at home and just take your water container out with you, reducing your *risk of the unknown*!  Enough fearmongering already...time to get back into the holiday spirit of pretending mass consumption is a healthy obsession. :)

(Whoops! Sorry for the weird link to funky eyelash girl! My Gina G is a potter, not a Get Up and Dance diva!-link fixed)

http://www.enviroblog.org/2007/05/ask-ewg-i-am-looking-for-a-saf.htm
http://greenerpenny.blogspot.com/2007/08/bye-bye-bpa.html
http://www.ewg.org/node/21491

Ecoliteracy and Visionarianism for the Holidays

I have to share this site with you because I love it so much.  Even before I had my own child, I have been fascinated with what growing food can do for children and adults.  How it has the power to revolutionize our schools and schoolchildren EXCITES me! 

I've always loved Alice Waters' story, each time I've caught a little promo in a magazine or a book over the years, I relish her vision and the results of her tenacious journey into this territory.

As my baby gets older and I move out of the mama cave and into the world with him, I find that I'm thinking more and more about health and of our impact on his world. 

This year, we have declared and committed ourselves, through the inspiration of friends and our own hearts yearnings, to a "No Made in China and No Plastic" holiday celebration.  It is another step on the path of awareness of our consumption and responsibility for what turns up in landfills.  I will very soon have some lovely alternatives here to share with you.

I do realize that I have effectively not tied the ideas in this post together but am going to just leave it alone this time.