Getting out into the yard today was good. I need to get out there more often. I keep thinking about gardening but get overwhelmed with the thought of it, partly because I’m also doing like 50 million other things (at least), but gardening and composting is really important to me. The compost pile is in full effect (yo), but the most I’ve done with gardening is daydream about luscious, home grown kale.
What I need to do is just start small and build up. There is a small bed next to the garage and also a small frame that our landlord dropped off for a raised bed. I’m going to start with one of these and just one or two “crops” then work my way up to other stuff. Also, on a related note, inspired by a recent blog post elsewhere, I plan to start sprouting.
What are they looking at? Photo taken with iPhone and scaled with GIMP.
Here’s something that I’m sure the world just needs to know. After many years, my bed finally has a frame. I’ve been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for a long, long time. I stole the frame from a futon that L and I bought back in 2002.
The futon mattress was pretty shitty anyway, and, besides, I really don’t need three couches. I could probably get by with just one, the one that’s in my room now (that I finally got the cushions for after two and half months of them being out of stock at IKEA. Yes, I just admitted to shopping at IKEA. I will now go hang my head in shame.)
I like the bed being up off the floor for two reasons. A) Insulation. This house is well insulated, but the bed would get cold through conduction. I’d be cold on bottom and warm on top. B) It’s easier to sit on and functions as a makeshift couch. My room is currently set up somewhat like a tiny studio. I’ve got a couch, desk, and bed in here. One person can sit on the couch and another on the bed. This works well for playing guitar together, as Isaac and I did just a few days ago.
Anyone want a shitty futon mattress? It’s actually not all that bad, and it’s got a removable, washable cover, and we bought it new. Otherwise, I think it’s going out via craigslist.
Lawns are weird. I’m not sure why most people have one. They don’t seem to be fully utilized all that often. We water them just to mow them down. On top of that, we could be growing food, not some pesky weed. In fact, we could just grow dandelions and other edible “weeds”–they’re highly nutritious. But we hate dandelions in this culture.
Having said that, I actually enjoy mowing the lawn. Not with one of those noisy, polluting gas mowers but with a push mower. Now, that, my friends, is some good, clean fun. It’s somehow meditative and a damn good workout. Not that it’s all that hard, mind you. The push mower I used looks ancient, but it cut that grass down like nobody’s business.
Photo taken with iPhone and edited with GIMP.
Take that, grass!
We* had our first house meeting this evening. It was quite possibly one of the best house meetings I’ve ever been a part of. Without discussing it formally (until near the end), we used consensus to make our decisions. Everyone listened and everyone got a chance to speak, and we stayed fairly well on track.
It’s all the more interesting considering our lifestyle differences, but none of that mattered as far as our ability to communicate respectfully and make decisions that everyone was comfortable with. One of our decisions was to try to have “family game night” once a week or so.
Afterwards, we got into some furniture arranging. That was fun too. There’s a lot left to do, but I’m looking forward to it. This weekend will include mowing the lawn (with the push mower), moving the Internet connection to a more public location, and installing the cat door (which is now in my window). Domestic chores! Yay!
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*I was living by myself (with a cat) in a four bedroom house for two months. It was nice in a lot of ways but was too much space for one person (and a cat), and it was draining me financially. Now I have three house mates. Things won’t always be perfect, but living alone isn’t always ideal either. It’s all about balance, clear and direct communication, creating and maintaining personal space, and mutual respect.
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