The week was such a grind with so many subzero fahrenheit bike commutes. But it appears the worst of winter is over. Saturday we made it above freezing for a gorgeous, brilliantly sunny day. James and I biked for groceries and arrived home just as Chad, our mail carrier, walked up to deliver our mail. We had a lovely chat with him about bikes, especially e-cargo bikes. He wants to get rid of his car and had all sorts of questions, which we were more than happy to answer. He lives in our neighborhood too and said he usually sees me most mornings on my bike commute to work. What a wonderful connection and conversation!

It was one I really needed too because what’s happening to the U.S. government continues to be pretty grim. My university lost another grant of several million dollars, one that was being used to provide stipends to students who are in the teacher training program while they fulfill their supervised teaching requirements at local schools.

Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that mindfulness allows one to be filled with peace and compassion and love, and that by tending to ourselves, we will be able to affect others in a positive way. By being the compassionate and peace-filled person in the room, you help others too so that they move out into the world with more compassion and peace. And while maybe you interacted with only one person, that person then interacts in a positive way with someone else and so on and so on in exponential waves.

I understand and believe this teaching, but it’s so hard to hold onto in the current onslaught. It doesn’t seem like enough. Other members of my sangha are also struggling and we are in the midst of forming a group who are interested in mindful action. We don’t know what that means yet, but it gives me hope.

Conversations like the one we had with Chad today are inspiring. I’ve also been having some wonderful conversations with students during my work day too. As they study to become lawyers they are already doing amazing things–helping immigrants and juveniles stuck in the criminal system as well as people who are currently incarcerated to get re-sentencing hearings. Their energy and desire to do good in the world lifts my spirits.

The chickens are also good for the soul—not chicken soup! They came through the arctic week like troopers in spite of their red heat lamp being on 24/7 making them just a little loopy. Saturday afternoon they got to come out into the garden and sunshine. Since everything but the main garden path is covered in snow, and they hate walking on snow, they pretty much wandered up and down the path and also hung out on the deck leaving blobs of poo everywhere for James and I to navigate around. Today, Sunday, is even warmer than yesterday. The snow is melting, and I suspect will be gone by mid-week.

Earlier in the week I got an email from Eggplant, the urban farm store where we bought all of our chickens. The email was letting me know it is chick season and listed out all the breeds they have available this year. Now, James and I decided in the fall that we were not going to replenish our shrinking flock because feed prices keep going up and since we don’t keep chickens for their eggs they are getting to be expensive pets even if they do provide excellent garden services. But I wonder since egg prices have gone up so much because of the bird flu, and social and economic collapse continues apace, whether continuing with chickens would be a good idea? The bartering power of fresh eggs! Wishful thinking really. Minneapolis does not allow me to sell my eggs, though I don’t know if that also covers barter. Regardless, I made the mistake of looking at the chicks, out of curiosity mind you. There are so many more breeds available now than when we started with chickens 9 years ago. I swooned over the cream legbars which are not only pretty and a little silly looking, but also lay blue eggs!

I mentioned them to James and he said, remember how Marianne Dashwood, our Easter Egger was supposed to lay green eggs but laid light cream colored eggs? Yeah, but she was also supposed to be speckled brown and was black and white instead, clearly non-standard, but well suited to her namesake nonetheless. The legbars are also $15.50, which is super expensive for a chicken. And James said if we get more chickens then we should also get a couple cats (we both still miss Waldo and Dickens), and while we’re at it, we should get a dog too. Ok, fine, when he put it that way. Still, I can’t help but think about the legbars anyway.

I have been trying to distract myself from chickens by planning garden projects. Without cats in the house we’ve had a mouse visitor the last couple winters, a “mouseguest.” I’ve decided part of the problem is that the compost bin is too close to the house. As soon as it thaws I’ll be moving the bins and everything in them out to the chicken garden next to the shed. This will delight the chickens, I’m sure. They will be able to scratch in it all season because it will no longer be closed off in the veg garden. This will also be good for aerating the compost pile, a chore I have never been diligent at doing.

Additionally, I’m considering removing the hazelnut tree at the back of the garden. We’ve had Hazelnut for over ten years and never gotten a single nut from them because squirrels. They sucker like crazy, however, and every spring I’m out there cutting down most of the suckers. I have let the tree expand over the years, thinking that I might be able to get at least a few nuts, but that has not been the case. The thought of taking out a mature tree like that makes me sad, but I would be planting a new tree, a serviceberry that will grow as tall as the hazelnut. While I would be competing with the birds for the serviceberries, I’d have more of a chance for at least some of them on such a big tree.

I currently have a low-growing serviceberry about thigh-high who suckers vigorously. Every year I am digging up new suckers from the garden path next to them. I do get berries but they have never been very productive. I’m thinking if I replace Hazelnut with a serviceberry tree, I can dig out the low-growing serviceberry and then pack the sunny area with a bunch of perennial herbs. Or possibly a few perennial herbs and a jostaberry which is a cross between a black currant and a gooseberry. I already have three small gooseberry bushes, a red currant, and a black clove currant, would I need a jostaberry too? Is this a case of two good things going great together? Can one have too many berries?

Just in case, I have also designed–in my head–a solar dehydrator using one of our old windows we saved when we got new ones installed in the house a couple years ago. In my mind I am already drying currants and mulberries, plums and cherries, and even tomatoes. See what comes of trying not to think about cream legbar chickens?

Meanwhile, the onion sprouts are doing great. Next weekend will be time to start all the peppers. And then after that there will be new seeds to get going nearly every week into mid-April. The apple trees and elderberry need pruning too. Since the snow will soon be gone I am hoping to get started next weekend, but the future forecast says sunny with temps around freezing, great for the trees but not great for the humans. Perhaps I will take the pruners to the elderberry and save the apples for the following weekend. March weather is typically a rollercoaster though, could be warm, cold, rain, a foot of snow all within one week. I will be keeping an eye on the forecast. Needs must might mean James and I are out in the freeze next weekend sawing on apple branches.

All part of the fun of gardening.

Reading

• Book: Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll. This is less of a book and more of an extended essay analyzing fascism in science fiction. It is both fascinating and chilling because by the end of it I could see the place many of the tech bros like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Peter Thiel navigate from. It is an ugly place of white supremacy and eugenics in which men who are deeply wounded nerds are pushing an Ayn Randian world view on all of us. They are the übermensches, the geniuses, who are being exploited by the stupid masses, and they are out to take the ultimate revenge of the nerds and assume their rightful place in the hierarchy of power.
• Book: Ixelles by Johannes Anyuru, translated from Swedish by Nichola Smalley. This is a quiet novel about immigration, belonging, power, grief, lies, and the social and political systems that keep people in a limbo space of nothingness. Beautifully written and full of things to think about, I very much enjoyed it.
• News Article: WWF helping facilitate trade in polar bear fur, investigation reveals. I used to think the World Wildlife Fund with their panda logo was a good organization until I read a number of disturbing reports about them a few years ago. And now, here is a new report that reveals that they’ve been helping facilitate international commercial trade in polar bear fur. Their governing policy is that by allowing exploitation of a small number of animals for trophy hunting, the species overall will be helped. This is disgusting. Do not donate to this organization. Spread the word.
• Executive Order: Establish the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission. Beware this commission which is set to save our children from autism, ADHD, mental illness, obesity, and a variety of chronic diseases. They will do this not by funding scientific research by qualified, legitimate scientists who have all mostly been fired or had their grants frozen or revoked. Nor will they help anyone’s health by guaranteeing for chemical-free food, clean drinking water, and clean air for everyone, rich and poor. No, they will be looking at fake science about vaccines and anti-depressants and electromagnetic radiation. Do tinfoil hats protect against brain worms?

Quote

“‘What did you mean when you said no one comes from anywhere?’

‘We read a book and start crying.’

‘Do we? You and I?’

‘Other people do. Ordinary people. And it’s not because the people in the book are real, but because so much of ourselves is fiction.’”

~Johannes Anyuru, Ixelles, page 321

Watching

• Movie: Flow (2024). This is an animated movie about a cat whose home is destroyed by a huge flood. The cat finds themself taking refuge on a boat with a dog, a capybara, a ring-tailed lemur, and a secretary bird. There are no humans and there is no dialogue. It is a beautiful movie. James and I both loved it. See it if you can.

James’s Kitchen Wizardry

James has been making magic in the kitchen, keeping us warm throughout the cold week. He made a savory miso grain bowl, cheesy broccoli and potato soup, butternut squash and lentil soup, and as a treat, peanut butter cookies with coconut. James pretty much made these all up himself. He looked at a few recipes for ideas and off he went.