It's fucking miserable here. 1 third of people in and around Portland, Oregon don't have air conditioning in their homes, and 2 thirds of people in and around Seattle don't have it because we might have 2 or 3 days in the 90s at most every year. Less than a quarter of people in and around British Columbia, Canada have AC at home because it rarely ( Read more... )

Summer has arrived! The weather was truly hot for the first time this year all through the holiday weekend, though it cooled quite a bit after Tuesday. Still, getting all these things done felt really good ( Read more... )

Keeping what I wrote yesterday in mind, I'm trying to stay ahead of things on the ground. Important things include:

~ Having a home with enough land to keep a few livestock and do gardens every year. CHECK

~ Having a home with room for renters to bring in labor help and income flexibility. CHECK

~ Having chickens all set up. CHECK

~ Start local, ( Read more... )

I can't believe it's been that long, but-- I was still married with a backyard garden the last time I made homemade salsa! It seems all that practice paid off, though-- as it seems I still have the touch ( Read more... )

Our friend Sleep is over for his monthly help-fest. I honestly don't know what we'd do without him! He's our "Momentum Man" because he moves everything forward on our ongoing home and garden projects. Over the last year, he helped paint the entry and parlor/library, he chopped up a fallen tree from last winter and chipped countless weeds and ( Read more... )

Reese is here this weekend helping us to do some gardening work and hanging out between times ( Read more... )

Our friend Sleep, the red-haired hero extraordinaire, was by for his 3-day helper thing he's been doing for us every month again!  In just one day, with Tess's help (as I was flaring again...) the POD was completely emptied of the last of our belongings, including kitchen supplies, books, games, and music, and movies. A few more pieces of furniture ( Read more... )

My challenging activity yesterday was trimming blackberry vines. They're terrible but ubiquitous all over the Pacific Northwest, and so dealing with them is part and parcel of living in this region. The front yard looks much more cultivated (and less jungle-like) than it did when I moved in, but there is still much to do...  I filled the 'yard ( Read more... )

I have my seedlings starting under a protective dome of plastic in the south-facing bay window next to a jungle of other houseplants. So far, so good. But when a couple of cukes got rather large, I put them outside it in pots with a loose plastic lid perched over them so they weren't as tempting to the kittens, but had room to grow a bit ( Read more... )

I'm having another rare good day. Some days still I struggle far too much, but last night I watched some Ballenchine choreographed ballets on DVD and drank some wine and then even danced a little. Besides not writing, I haven't been doing much dancing. I need to relax to some extent to dance... enough to "let go" of my rational mind and let my body ( Read more... )