A big mess and dirty dishes.

Submitted entry:
Well as soon as I think I’m on a roll with these entries our life gets busy again!

Tuesday, Paul’s first birthday, we went across town to visit a couple we knew who did what we’re doing back in the 70’s. Back then they bought land here and moved sequentially into a number of dwellings while they reconstructed a 100 year old cabin on the land. They lived in a tipi, large military tent a la M*A*S*H a recycled-cardboard/tin shack and a renovated schoolbus with first 1 then 2 children. Now they live both in Texas where they’re working for a year or so to raise money to fund several years’ living here. Now, though, the cabin is built and has all the modern conveniences - solar electricity, running water, electric washer, refrigerator, shower and wood furnace. We also met their daughter (our age) and her daughter (2). Shortly after we got there the person we met at the health food store stopped by with her daughter and something of an impromptu playgroup ensued. Paul was fascinated by the two little girls and was pretty shy preferring to watch them quietly rather than participate. When we got home, though, he was a dynamo~ He got really inspired by them and is fixing to walk and has been trying really hard to talk.

Thursday we finally got rain -it was lovely! We went to town for a quick shopping trip then spent the afternoon enjoying the cool rain.

Yesterday we went out again. This time for a scheduled playgroup. Paul finally got in to being with the girls a little towards the end and came home inspired as ever!.

Today we were planning an East Wind trip but one of our friends was sick so we rescheduled for next week. Probably a good thing since our social calendar has been really tiring! We’re having our usual Sunday gathering at the house tomorrow and then another playgroup at the yurt on Wednesday. Seems like we’re only at the yurt long enough to make some food, a big mess and dirty dishes before running out the door again.

Well, This will be a short entry - Kitey brought Paul back and we’re going to hang out some. Maybe more later - no promises.

The post office is open for 10 minutes on Saturday.

Submitted entry: Once again another consecutive entry - have I shocked everyone here yet?

Today we went to town again to stop at the post office to have a package we’re sending for an Ebay auction weighed. We brought Kitey to town as well since she was meeting Dolphin at the library who would take her to the womens’ land for a few days. Well the post office closed at 11:00 and we got there at about 11:15. Stupid luck. We did get a bunch of stuff we’d been waiting for from the PO box though (You can get your mail there 24 hours a day) so that was a good thing.

Then we went to the health food store since we needed garlic and also were told they’d cash a 2 party check (which we had and given our last experience trying to cash it at our bank…) Well the store owner wasn’t in and they’d changed their policy disallowing the cashing of 2 party checks. We were told that we probably could have cashed it if the owner, who knows us, were there. Oh well. Her daughter-in-law, however was there with her daughter who wasn’t much older than Paul. They’d just moved back to the area from Northern California. It was funny how we met -she mentioned our sling to her daughter and we were so thrilled that she even knew what it was that we struck up a conversation. Seems they’ve been looking to meet other families with kids Paul’s age for over a year now so Hurrah! But the sad part is that we all wrote our numbers on a single piece of paper that we tore in half and divided between us. Now we have our number and she hers. Oh well!

We then went to our bank who gave us no problems about cashing our check (for the same amount also from another state) this time. Different, younger teller was all we could guess at as to why they let us this time. Then we had lunch at Subway and went home.

When we got home, Sage went to work on the site and Paul and I hung out at the yurt for the afternoon. I had a really interesting experience. He and I were playing in our front yard and I ran in to get my coffee off of the kitchen counter. When I did I looked outside at him through the kitchen window and he was sitting there patting Claire and digging in the dirt with his hand. Every few seconds he’d go from a squatting position to a standing one -trying it out while he thought I wasn’t looking - like he was practicing for him to just come running across the room someday without ever having walked more than a couple of steps before.

Then an odd thing happened. Unbidden I remembered playing in the dirt my own self maybe 25 years ago while my mother watched me from inside. It was such a vivid memory - I could feel the summer sun, hear “Southern Nights” on the radio, remember the print and little pompoms on the kitchen curtains that my mom later accidentally set on fire - I forget how, probably with a cigarette.

So there I was simultaneously experiencing 1999 and 1974 from both sides of the kitchen window. It was really eerie to say the least. Then of course, as the soap bubbles of memories do, it burst leaving me pissed at my mom yet again. Pissed that if she felt as much love as I did for the little one on the other side of the kitchen window how could she have done so many selfish things throughout the 80’s and early 90’s (and probably today too - I just don’t know because I haven’t talked to her since 1992 when I finally gave up on her and my dad’s quitting drinking and realizing that they had two sons to think about -at the time one still in junior high.

But hey, I heard something once (embarrassingly enough on Dr. Laura) that has always stuck with me since: If you’re disappointed at how your childhood was, quit whining. You get two chances to experience childhood - once as a child and once as a parent. At least one of those times you can choose to not have it be crummy.

And so I went to the sink to get Paul a spoon to dig with and went outside to show him how to use it.

I felt like Babe Ruth.

Submitted entry: The weather feels like one does when you’re about to sneeze. It feels like it might rain — the bugs and birds have nearly silenced, the sky is overcast and the air is still. Smoke is still in the air from tonight’s cooking fire — we have a gas cooktop that’s not hooked up yet and we also have a 2 burner cookstove but it runs on bottled gas and it uses the canisters up fast — 1 every 2 hours or so. Tonight we had Bengalore Phal and rice. We didn’t quite follow the recipe since we didn’t have everything specified. Instead of Garam Masala I used Sambar powder that I made in Bethlehem. We omitted the lemon and cilantro, it tasted good but those would improve the curry. Careful, though, if you make it. It’s very hot and I don’t have any recommendations to cool it down except maybe use lots of rice, serve it with raita, plain yogurt, bread or other things to cool the tongue.

I wrote my first Book Report in about twenty years today — a review of the latest book I’m reading for our new book review section — look for it and the new White Elephant Contest section soon — Sage spent a good part of today designing them. Paul and I spent the day at the yurt playing games, reading books and wandering around outside. I’m really glad that we’re developing the site now — it’s nice to have lots of interesting things to do and variety, that’s important to me. My last two jobs had a great deal of variation both expected and unexpected so it’s nice to find a way to keep living a varied life.

I’m still getting antsy to travel with Sage and Paul and hopefully when Paul’s able to handle it we can afford to do it. Otherwise we’ll have to sell out and get a corporate sponsor *grin*. I’d given some serious thought to doing the Appalachian Trail as a family in several years. That seems do-able, of course, since we’re living in the woods now and have no monthly bills like rent or whatever so we’d only really have to get used to carrying our lives on our backs. But then I don’t know if I’m up for that — today we got water I was carrying Paul in his sling on my front, 5 gallons of water on my back and one jug in either hand. Carrying that 500 feet gave me some second thoughts about walking with our life on our backs…

Sage adds: I just had to tell about this dream that I had just before I woke up this morning. I dreamed that I was in the computer room and Kitey knocked on the door and came in and gave me the phone, saying, “It’s for you.” A nervous sounding woman was on the other end of the line saying, “I’m calling to find out what would be a good time for you to come over and have dinner at my house.”

“Uh-huh…”

“I think you should know the house rules before you show up. They are –” and then she got too nervous and hung up.

I put a little notice on my website saying the person who’d called should call back, and who do I see as I’m walking down the street but the person who called and a friend of hers. So they asked me to come to their house for dinner and to meet a little boy who “loved my website and has been wanting to meet me for years” (this is probably all due to the fact that I was mooning around the Ani Difranco websites yesterday) and wow, did I feel like Babe Ruth or what.

He’ll be a year old on the 24th.

Submitted entry: I feel so decadent lately! It seems like over the past week or two we’ve figured out how to grant ourselves inexpensive little pleasures that given our current living situation seem really enjoyable and that we would have turned our noses up at when we lived in Bethlehem. Case in point: In Bethlehem I showered every day — weekend or not. Not so much to be clean for others but it also cleared my head and gave me something of a head clearing/relaxation like Sage has in the bath. Since we moved here, though, I haven’t done that since it seemed a bit excessive and also lately I’ve been visiting the house less for everyone’s peace of mind (I’m no longer officially not-going to the house except on Sundays — just minimizing it so I can get water, etc.) So out here if I wanted to wash up I’d use a couple gallons of water in jugs to wash up with in a small basin. This was a pin, especially washing my hair. One morning I was extra crabby about it and Sage suggested a solar shower that they had at Wal-Mart. What a great thing! I fill it up in the morning — it holds 5 gallons. Then I just set it out in the sun. 3-4 hours later it’s nearly steaming-hot. So I’m back to showering every night. I can’t tell you how decadent it feels to now have hot and cold running water here so to speak.

Then there’s food decadence. This morning I had cinnamon rolls with my coffee. I bought 1/2 dozen at the supermarket yesterday. A totally luxury item in my mind with no nutritional value and not to be shared with anyone. In Bethlehem I probably would have eaten the whole box throughout the day but here I’m savoring the enjoyment of eating them with my coffee in the (thank god) cool mornings. Damn, I’m not doing a great job of explaining the phenomenon I’m experiencing but trust me. I’m really appreciating it!

Of course it could all be a result of the fact that the heat wave has broken — nights are in the low 60’s — sweatpants weather and days are cooler so just knowing we’re near the end of the worst of the heat is quite something.

As a result I’ve been working outside some, piling rocks and cutting a lot of the dead wood in the “yard” into firewood. These are things I’ve been wanting to do all summer but have been too hot do consider doing it.

Meanwhile, Paul is growing so fast! He’ll be a year old on the 24th. It’s hard to believe that a year ago today things were really hectic with contractions and hospital visits and the start of many sleepless nights. So now after such a seemingly short time Paul’s feeing himself some, and asking to go outside to go to the bathroom. He’s really not fond of diapers at all and would rather go naked and he seems to really get it about not going on the floor — when he has to go he heads for the door. This is something he taught himself — we really had no plans for trying to teach him for a year or two more yet. He still wears diapers at night of course.

Sage has started to revamp the site — we’ve been designing it here on paper and she’s been going to the house to actually code it. I look forward to seeing it on Sunday. We’re also working on some new sections so keep looking or join the notify list. She’s also started a rug that should be up for sale in the Baby Tyrtle soon.

And the sax sold for $365 so we’re definitely getting an AlphaSmart so look for more from me in the near future. Now we’re off to listen to Westway.

Here are the recipes.

Submitted entry: Amazing what a cold front will do for a person. All day yesterday it was in the mid 80’s and breezy. Sage and I went to town and did some shopping then, feeling restless, we drove about 15 miles intending to stop at an Amish-run store to look for non-electric stuff -lights, etc. When we drove up, there was a buggy parked out front and a number of Amish people about. A sign said “Next time…Please don’t wear shorts” which made me feel instantly self-conscious as we were both in shorts and Paul was wearing only a diaper. Everyone was wearing long sleeves, pants and hats or bonnets. How do the children, or anyone for that matter, manage in the heat? We didn’t find anything, really - there were some small oil lamps - we’re looking for a brighter, Aladdin lamp.

When we got back it was absolutely wonderful -cool cool cool. I took the opportunity to clean up the yard - I still had lumber piled up from the yurt building so I moved that under the deck. I also moved rocks out of the “yard”. The Ozarks are basically a range of crumbling rotting mountains and therefore it is terribly rocky with lots of sharp rocks waiting for a barefoot person to step on them. For awhile I just threw them into the forest but last night I got smart. I remembered what Helen and Scott Nearing said they did in The Good Life They piled potentially useful rocks up, saving them for building projects and sorting them by shape. I just have 2 piles -flat and not. I highly recommend the book. The Nearings were World War Two protesters who moved to Vermont in the 1940’s and set up a homestead. They were definitely an inspiration to me - to realize that this idea of self-sufficiency and simplicity is possible.

On that note - the Baby Tyrtle is open. Sage is uploading it as we speak. There are only two artists now Sage and Kitey but more are getting ready to come on board. We were waiting until it was up before approaching other artists here since several have not even seen the web yet so we needed something to demonstrate. If you’re interested in exhibiting, send us an email.

Hopefully as I type this in I will have set up an actual listserv for the notify list. Those of you bumped off the notify list during our crash -sorry. It shouldn’t happen again. If you didn’t get a notify message for this entry, here’s how to subscribe:

send a message to [link now defunct] with only the word subscribe in the body.

I made chili and polenta for dinner this afternoon. Here are the recipes. I’ve tasted the chili - successful! The polenta isn’t chilled yet so I can’t say how it was yet. Note as of typing this in today - it was very bland even with chili on top of it. Anyone have any other recipes for it that have more flavor?

Polenta:
Boil 6 cups of water with 1 tsp. of salt in it. Gradually whisk in 2 cups of yellow corn grits. Simmer for 20-25 minutes stirring frequently until a spoon stands up in it. Pour it all into a greased loaf pan and chill for 2 hours. My recipe says it can then be fried but we’ll probably just slice it and eat it with chili on top.

Chili:
Forgive me, I was winging it as I cooked and I tend not to measure but to taste and adjust as I go so measurements are just guesses here.

Heat 4 TBSP olive oil in a large pot. Add 2 chopped onions, 4 TBSP of chili powder, 1 TBSP each oregano and basil, 1 TSP pepper, 2 TSP curry powder. Cover and allow onions to cook.

When onions are well cooked (not crunchy) add 1 chopped green pepper, a handful of chopped chili peppers (they don’t have to be hot ones, but I used cayennes) and 5-7 cloves of chopped garlic. When peppers are soft, add 2 cups of vegetable broth, 28 oz. crushed tomatoes and 2 12 oz. cans of chopped tomatoes (I used one can of tomatoes, habaneros and jalapenos and one can of regular chopped tomatoes), and 4 15 oz. cans of beans (pink, pinto, black or kidney - whatever). I also added about 1 1/2 cups of TVP (textured vegetable protein). Simmer until spices are blended and serve.

Okay - have to put the polenta in the fridge.

The trees were whipping back and forth.

Submitted entry: Wow, about a couple of hours after I wrote that last entry it got unbearably hot and humid. We went to town to be in air conditioning and to check our PO box -we got a check for Sage’s latest bag but still no money. The bank won’t cash an out of state check for us so we used the last of our money on some necessities and went to the library and then to Wal-Mart. It was fascinating! Sage and I both got the I-want’s. Then we went to the baby section. Paul wanted everything and some in the toy department too. But only in those two departments. How did he know? He hasn’t ever seen a TV commercial or other advertisement for toys. I guess it was just the packaging (he wanted disposable diapers as much as he wanted Teletubbies).

When we left town it started to rain heavily with lots of wind and thunder. But by the time we got home it was dry. It never rained here. It did get drier and breezy though so we were glad about that and later that evening we got a bit of rain.

Well, we forgot coffee on our last shopping trip and ran out three days ago. Since we couldn’t cash the check we didn’t get coffee so I’ve been drinking black tea and missing coffee. I was pretty lethargic and depressed as a result. Then I got an idea yesterday. I had some whole bean coffee a reader sent me but no grinder and a single-cup coffee maker. So I ground some beans in a mortar and pestle. As soon as I thought of the idea I felt cheered. It worked great and my day was vastly better than the day before despite the temperature being even warmer - 102F! I spent most of the day with Paul and Sage continued to work on the gallery.

Last night we listened to Westway on the BBC World Service and then went to sleep. We were awakened at about 11:30 by a strong wind and nearly continuous lightning. I quickly closed the yurt dome (so it wouldn’t blow off - it does keep the rain out even when open) and sat back to watch the storm. It was beautiful - mostly wind and lightning in the beginning. The trees were whipping back and forth above the dome. Then came the rain - a lovely downpour that made the forest smell like fresh (not burning) tobacco. This morning the effects were obvious. The dogwoods perked up (all had brown wilted leaves and some were actually wilted the day before).

This morning we saw a gigantic spider on the window - biggest I’ve ever seen. It’s body was an inch and a half long and three inches long including the legs (yes, I did measure it!). I’m guessing it was a wolf spider.

We made pancakes and listened to trading post - a hysterical (not intentionally) show where locals call in and try to buy and sell things. I swear half the people are either nuts or drunk. Just before it from 8:00 to 8:05 or so the DJ just blabs about the weather. For some reason we find it really entertaining.

Yesterday Kitey gave Sage and I some money as a “Happy 1 year family anniversary gift” (Paul’s birthday is on the 24th) So we’ll probably go to town to shop and also hit some yard sales - one has bookshelves which we need. Our books are in boxes now.

I’ve been getting really into the idea of traveling - must be all these books we’re reading. Should things go well with the gallery and Sage’s crocheting this could be really do-able. Both jobs are portable so if in 2-3 years when Paul is old enough to appreciate traveling we want to summer on Hudson Bay (that’s our fantasy anyway given the weather these days) and still work. And hey, I think it’d be fun to write it up online as we go and perhaps do a book ourselves.

So that’s it - we’re off as soon as Paul wakes up from his morning nap.

She seems like a coiled spring.

Submitted entry: It’s been some time since I’ve done a morning entry - seems like most of my entries have been written by lamplight these days. The heat has been pretty miserable these days. One day in particular it never seemed to cool down at night so we had our first (and so far last) hard night sleeping. Mostly we’ve still been sleeping under sheets and often blankets too.

Last Thursday we went to Eastwind for the day again. We always have such a good time there. Paul seemed to be glad to be there too and got more comfortable as he stayed longer, walking (while I held his hands) all over the land, and in and out of the kitchen. He also figured out how to climb stairs on his own that day and spent quite some time climbing them, being carried to the bottom and starting again.

When we got back Kitey had left for the womens’ land planning to come back on Tuesday (yesterday). I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t glad. Things have been tense between us ever since that big fight a couple weeks ago. She’s back now and things seem way better - like we both needed the break. There’s a mood she can get in where there’s a bad feeling about her where she seems like a coiled spring (snake?) and saying the wrong thing (which could be “the sky is blue”) can and often does result in a blow-up. At that point I feel on very unsteady ground as I’m walking on eggshells trying to avoid saying the wrong thing. But anyway, things seem better - being at the womens’ land, away from the dogs and men seems to rejuvenate her every time.

In other news, I’m out of coffee. I was a bit worried at first about headaches but I found some caffeinated tea so hurray! It isn’t quite the same but at least I’m functioning. I’m not sure when our next trip to town will be but I’ll probably pick some up then.

Paul is at the house with Kitey and Sage is there on the computer. We got an idea as we found ourselves surrounded by artists and craftspeople with few outlets for their work. So we’ve decided to devote some web space here to an online consignment gallery with no monthly charges (just a percentage mark-up) to defray costs and allow us a little income. So far the response from interested exhibitors has been really positive. Hopefully it’s rolling out today. There will be many more soon. If you’re interested in exhibiting, feel free to drop a line.

We had a fire outside this morning. No, an intentional one. We wanted pancakes for breakfast since we have little else (we’ve got to get to town!) I’ve become something of a snob about pancakes -they only seem to come out right on an open fire in a cast iron skillet - otherwise they look funny and don’t taste as good.

I think I might have found away to get my alphasmart. There have been a few on Ebay for $100-145. Now we don’t have that kind of money to spend these days. But - I have my saxophone that’s been sitting idle since about 1989 so I listed it on Ebay and hark and lo - day 2 of bidding and it’s up to $135! So with any luck I should have it soon and be able to keep up a bit better with email and journal entries.

I should run now and get a few things done before it gets too hot. Sage and I have been dreaming of cold weather the way you think constantly about a new love…

Beastly Hot

Submitted entry: Well, just a quick entry since I have a few minutes while dinner cooks (spicy chickpeas with butter and onions). Sage is crocheting a bag and listening to an audiobook. Things here continue much in the status quo. It’s beastly hot even now with maddening reports of a 40% chance of thunderstorms that never materialize. Rain really becomes a relief when you live without a fan!

I was having a bit of a bad day between the heat and feeling inept at anything that doesn’t require electricity when Sage finally talked me in to doing some web design for a new section with her on paper -layout and text, not code. We got nearly the whole section figured out. Sorry, though, it will be a commercial one. Cash flow is still pretty low. But watch for it in the next few weeks, anyway. And who knows, you might like it! We had a great time doing it.

Tomorrow is my day to go to the house. Hooray for showering and being on the computer and fans! I also have to fine tune the computer a little after it’s crash and subsequent reinstallation of windows.

Oh, and I’m pretty excited. I finally got to make my experimental nuclear gazpacho and it’s chilling now for tomorrow’s lunch. At Yngve’s suggestion I’ll include the recipe here - he might have trouble finding some of the ingredients in Norway, though (sorry!).

1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
1 10 oz. can of Rotel (brand name) Extra Hot Tomatoes (they’ve got both jalapenos and habaneros in them
1 finely chopped cucumber
1 finely chopped green pepper
2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
1 finely chopped onion
1 Tablespoon Olive oil1 Tablespoon of lime juice or wine vinegar1/2 teaspoon salt1/4 teaspoon pepper

Mix it all together, chill well and enjoy!

I haven’t tried it so no promises as to it’s value. Hopefully between the coolness of it and the spiciness it will help keep us cool tomorrow! Note as I transcribe this on 8/1: The gazpacho was wonderful - highly recommended! If you don’t like hot stuff, eliminate the rotel tomatoes. YUM!

Okay, I think that’s it for now. It’s getting late by our standards anyway and we’re off to bed.

Crocheting my brains out.

“De plane, de plane!” Do you hear the music? Do you see the beautiful Fantasy Island waterfalls careening across the screen? It’s Charo! Come to guest star for the day!

Okay, not really. It’s just old Sage, sitting here in the computer room in the early hours of the morning eating a loaf of sourdough bread because there’s nothing else to eat that I don’t have to cook first. So…how’ve you been…how’s the kids, the mortgage… Oh yeah? And your cousin beat that rap? No kidding. Your husband ran off with an AOL user named Danielle who said she was twenty two but was actually fourteen? No! You don’t say, you don’t say…

Me, I’m going through some of the biggest changes of my twenty six years. I remember when I had the old website (collective sigh of nostalgia), how I sat in the house completely alone with nothing but the latest Ani Difranco album playing at top volume and eight cats milling about and lying on the keyboard every chance they got, walking occasionally to the library when I wanted to rent Prime Suspect or Cracker and relax a little. And now? My day starts with light filtering through the dome of the yurt and the baby sleeping on one side and Todd sleeping on the other. The baby wants to nurse and that’s what wakes me up, and I look out the window while he nurses, watching the forest and thinking, “Ah, what a wonderful life I lead, and how lucky I am to be here.”

Okay, not really. What I really think is, “I hate my fucking teeth and when are they going to stop hurting and am I going to have to have them all extracted and be a toothless can’t-eat-anything person before I hit thirty and why didn’t I take better care of them and why do they hurt the most in the morning, goddamnit?” And then the baby goes back to sleep, and I creep out of bed and put some clothes on (we have two options in our fanless existence: either sleep with the door open and wake up scratching insanely at three o’clock in the morning, but be relatively cool, or sleep with the door closed and dispense with the clothes and I pick door number two) and walk up to the house and turn on the computer. I spend some time here in the morning, and then…chaos! But, you know, not evil sickening chaos — fun, interesting, giggly chaos. I crochet, I nurse, I sit outside the yurt on a blanket in the heat of the day, pouring water all over myself every once in awhile, with Todd and the baby and play with him and switch off reading our current book (The Great American Bus Trip) with Todd and smile. A lot. I walk up to the house and get milk and butter out of our refrigerator in the basement to make Tuna Helper with. (I confess. As a nursing mom who is ravenous all the time I’m eating a little meat. Bad on me.) Kitey shows up at the yurt, making a dove sound on her way (we call it the Granny Bird sound) and the baby looks up and sits up and beams hugely when she arrives. And d’you know, for all the times I feel a pang for the way my life used to be, it doesn’t hold a candle to the way my life is now.

The yurt kitchen arrived yesterday! It was handmade by a master craftsman as trade for web work. It felt really good to do the web work for trade instead of for cash and, hell, where else would we have found a yurt kitchen? We hauled it through the forest to the yurt, all three pieces of it, and even though I’m rather embarrassed to admit it, it’s changed our lives already. (Well, you know, it’s like those people who say that they bought a gor-geee-ous beige couch that changed their lives. It’s icky.) We have a sink, we have the illusion of running water (big 7 gallon tank next to the sink) we have cabinets. The baby thinks the kitchen is fantastic too, he holds onto one cabinet knob and opens and closes the other cabinet over and over and over and over and…

It’s strange to be the working person after never really working at all before. I had a couple of afterschool and summer data entry jobs, but never anything that I did because I needed the money. But now here I am, crocheting my brains out and doing web work (I’m sincerely curious: can anyone tell me why being on the computer makes me feel like I’ve started drinking coffee again and have had WAY too much, and crocheting makes me feel like I just spent three hours in a Zen Buddhist temple? And while we’re at it, if anyone has any suggestions for making the tiny threads section more palatable/profitable, I would love to hear them) …where were we? Oh, yes, so I’m the working person, even though I’m able to do the crocheting right in the yurt hanging out with Todd and the baby, and it’s strange.

It feels like I just started to tell y’all what’s going on in my life and now I’m itching to back to the yurt and hang out with Todd and the baby. I may be back for more guest starring roles. Hell, Amanda was a Special Guest Star for years.

Email Postmistress

Submitted entry: Hot and humid here in this part of the country but from the sounds we’ve got it easy compared to other places. I can’t imagine what it must be like in the cities when it’s like this, with all the asphalt, steel and concrete radiating heat, going in and out of air conditioning. I’m finding air conditioning hard to be in — pleasant while it lasts but making it more unbearable to experience the heat afterwards. All sorts of happenings here good bad and indifferent. Casey and Crow just got back from their first real vacation in about 4 years. WE all house-sat and watched the dogs while they were out. It was nice in some ways to be able to stay inside near a fan or outside with our feet and baby in a big tub of cold water. It was hard too. We’re getting to like being in the yurt to the exclusion of other buildings more and more.

Things did turn a bit stupid towards the end, though as with our increased presence at the house, Kitey felt more and more overwhelmed, and in her words, claustrophobic, at both the more frequent presence of a man, namely me.

So it all capped off in a screaming fight on the path outside the yurt — Kitey trying to say that she has trouble with our frequent unannounced trips to the house, that Casey hides in her room to avoid me. But, she said, her saying this did not imply that she wanted anything to change. Sage and I both had a hard time understanding that — as if we could just pretend that nothing had happened, that my going to the house at any time might be upsetting one, more, or all of its residents. Neither of us liked that idea at all.

So, after Kitey left, Sage and I had a pretty crummy time trying to figure out what to do next. Finally we hit upon a good solution — or a bearable one at least. The solution: I go to the house only on Sundays. All other days Sage goes to use the computer, do laundry, get food from the fridge or water from the pump. I’ll pass through on my way to the car on other days but otherwise stay in the woods.

Sound miserable? It was for the first day or two then I noticed things being different. Sage and I have a better time together, I am getting to spend more and better one on one time with Paul (I realize I can’t keep calling him a baby forever — Coffee Shakes fans may recognize the source of the pseudonym). Then there are the other practical things. I’m learning how to cope with the 90-100 degree heat and humidity without a fan or air conditioner (Thanks, Forrest for the great tips!), I learned how to bathe using only 2 gallons of water and a small basin (okay, it used to be a litter box but I cleaned it). Oh, and of course the obvious — Kitey only sees me when she expects to which is easier for her and by extension, me since like most people she’s miserable to be around when she feels miserable — especially when I’m the cause. It still feels miserable from time to time, but all in al it is a vast improvement over the way everything was before. Would I like it to be different?Of course I would. The inspiration to work together as a group more closely is here but, at least for now, I don’t see that happening. For whatever reason my feelings about doing communal meals and the like as I said in my last entry have all but evaporated. My focus has turned once again to Sage, Paul and our own friends. So in that sense it’s kind of like being in the city again. I’m living my life, the neighbors live there`s and maybe sometimes we barbecue together and trade stories about our kids and jobs and the like but otherwise just have idle chit=chat if we see each other going to or from work.

In other news, we had a couple Eastwinders over for dinner and had a really great time. It’s so great to know parents our age who share similar values. We also made another trip out there to see them. The timing couldn’t have been better. I was at a particularly low point relative to my current isolation (it’s only happened for one day at the point) and it was so hot we just spent the day at the creek swimming with the babies and a couple of other kids until a storm drove us out of the water.

Oh — and it was also a particularly low point since just the day before Sage, Paul, Kitey and I drove to a nearby creek to spend the day submerged. I was exploring downstream of where we were looking for a little deeper water (where we were was calf deep at best) when Sage called me back. Apparently as I was walking upstream Kitey let her know I was getting too close to the women’s land where she lives. Not that I have a problem with that. It just felt like I was restricted no matter where we went (Did any of you ever see “Snoopy Come Home” where at one point in the show he keeps running into “No dogs allowed” signs (the sign would come on screen and a taunting deep voice would sing “No dogs allowed” and at one point he and Woodstock were going to a hospital to visit someone and the sign said “No dogs allowed…or birds”). So you can imagine my relief to be somewhere where that wasn’t happening to me seemingly all the time.

Casey and Crow had a meeting with us all a couple nights ago to go over the whole situation and I realized that day how I really felt. Better to be out here enjoying myself with my family, reaping the benefits of my not spending time or showing up at the house. Casey did mention that Kitey got it wrong — she only hid maybe once when “pms-ing” but it became particularly clear to me of lat. That is their house. I have the right to feel comfortable in my house, and they do in theirs. It’s more a privacy thing than a gender thing. Kind of like having guests always popping in. Some of whom you don’t always feel equipped to deal with. And why should you?

So that’s where I’m at. Sage is being my email postmistress printing my mail and transcribing my handwritten responses. (In life I hope to get a low end 386 or 486 laptop or even better an Alphasmart to enable me to have an easier time responding quickly and staying on top of this journal!

In still other news, our kitchen arrived! Wow does it change our lives to have a sink and counter space to do dishes and prepare food on. Still no running water but we’ve got a 7 gallon jug with a spigot that sits above the sink so water does “run” when we do dishes or need a drink. We have to pipe the gas in and plan to pipe the gas lights then too. Those two things should work wonders for our level of “civilization” or at least make our lives easier.

The bugs are getting more and more evil by the day. Seed ticks have hatched — they’re ticks that travel in huge groups, landing on your shoes and traveling up your legs to your crotch. They’re so tiny (like the size of a period in a book with fine print). The best defense is to take a loop of masking tape and stick it all up and down your legs to grab them. Yuck! Then last night something got Sage and I bug good. WE had been leaving the door open in the evening for the breeze but some tiny bugs came along with a bite that felt to Sage like a burn and to me like getting fiberglass or nettles on your skin. The same lasting effect as fiberglass. WE closed the door and lived with the heat.

So that’s it for now, off to town tomorrow, for some grocery shopping. We’ve waited too long and we’re out of just about everything that doesn’t require 45 minutes on the gas stove (tanks last 2 1/2 hours total) or require a campfire. Oh — Sage just got back. Plans changed, we’re leaving NOW. Gotta run!