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| fermented pepper sauce is the jam. with enough friends & garden beds, generating a glut of peppers is fun n easy (thanks ms. Allison!). this year's sauce is a blend of cayenne, red jalapeno, red serrano, habanero, and one green pepper thats either a pasio or corno di toro rosso. |
All things cycle and pulse.
Each year of our lives breathes in & out, slumbers & wakes, dies & is reborn.
That's why my heart clings to the transition times... the spring & especially the autumn. The Fall.
I feel I owe you an explanation, o vast interwebs, as summer bleeds out and the winter winds warm up (ha!) for the onslaught of what looks to be a cold little death.
The equinox approaches and, with it's coming, heralds changes not only in the weather but in the path unfolding before me.
Life, relationships and change are all interconnected & weird. Those of you who know me personally probably already know about my sticky mess of a disintegrating marriage. If you didn't then it's probably due to my tendency to wrap my problems in enigmatic words and avoid conflict. So sorry.
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| chop off the stems. i deseeded the habaneros but nothing else cuz fermentation takes out a lot of spice apparently & deseeding a bunch of peppers takes too long. we'll see how spicy this batch is next solstice-time. weigh them suckas. |
So I left this summer to study permaculture design, fulfilling a long-time dream, with the intention of returning home and helping spread the knowledge out here, in the dreary burbs. But my homecoming has been marked primarily by emotional turmoil, inner struggles and learning how to adapt to a less-than-desirable situation.
The 3 foundational ethics of permaculture are “Earth Care, People Care & Fair Share,” and an important aspect of the second ethic, People Care, is self-care, right? So my focus has been working on myself, figuring out how to move forward from here in a positive way...how to move on, process these often-harsh realities I helped create, deal with the defects of my personality that contributed to this shit-storm, and maintain the ability to interact from a place of compassion, forgiveness, healing & peace. No small order, that. And I stumble. And I falter. And I skin my metaphorical knees. But, shit man, I'm trying.
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All this has led me to an intense reevaluation of my goals and to an open acceptance of diverging paths. I can't stay where I am. I love my yard & gardens. I love my neighbors. I love the friends i've made here. But this is not my place. Maybe it's weakness, but I can't stay in this area. Not now. And i'm okay with admitting that weakness while simultaneously understanding that the ultimate weakness would be to let the funk & depression lull me into complacency... to allow myself to sleepwalk through this life, going to work, going to the saloon, going home, going to bed boxed in by walls insulated with emotional baggage, dragging myself out of bed to do it all over again, day after day, month after month, year after year, until i'm just another husk of a human, disspirited and broken. nah. that ain't the way.
So...sitting here like Linus over the keyboard,
no idea where “my” place might be,
contemplating Right Livelihood,
looking through a lens that encourages us
to see that the problem is the solution...
I know that I must make the most of
an unfettered situation.
::(knowledge can creep through a variety of media)::
It's time to strap on them journeyman boots
& get down with OPP:
other people's permaculture.
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| process it up, chopping salt & peppers all together. use a food processor while energy's still cheapish. mix all the batches together to ensure more uniform salt distribution |
There's a path glowing in the starlight
and it leads to adventures...
where, with open eyes & hearts,
lessons of the good life abound
& creativity blossoms
to turn problem-solving
into solution-sharing...
if only we believe.
Yes.
&
Please.
&
Thank you.
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| pack that mash into yer fermentin vessel. the goal is to remove all the airpockets so's to facilitate the anaerobic lactic process, but who's perfect? |
backyard beddie's is going walkabout in a couple weeks, dropping off a garden or two on the way to Taproot Farm...more on that later.
If you signed up for an indiegogo fall plant package, there's arugula & chard growing now, to be planted in the fall rains in the next few weeks, some comfrey cuttings, topsetting multiplier onions, some baby strawberries and some homegrown seeds in the mix, very well suited to the local climate, all comin atcha next week.
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| kind of adapting an old technique to suit my needs, i'm using a layer of olive oil to keep oxygen out. |
until then i'll be shedding the detritus i tend to accumulate: art, plants, nursery pots, some furniture, non-essential kitchenwares, kipple & the like.
if you live close by, this sunday is the equinox and there'll be a good karma giveaway at the house. come by and pick up a piece of art and a treasure. stay till dark-thirty for a ceremonial burn, which in my world means lighting a fire and staring into it and dropping sentimental combustibles into it and letting go. bring stuff to burn.
it's always hard to say good-bye,
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| coffee filters are classy and keep out dust & other uninvited guests. put the mash someplace out of direct sun with a relatively stable temperature. wait a while. i usually sneak a taste after a month or so three months is better haven't had the patience to try 6mos yet. but who knows? this could be my year. |
to a kitty,
to a lil flock of hens that saved my sanity,
to remarkably fertile garden beds that will most likely turn back to lawn,
to a life that surely exists now in some parallel dimension,
to all, to all,
but Brother David taught me long ago that it ain't as hard to say, "See ya next time."
i think i'll be saying that a lot
learning to let go.
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