Garden Updates...and the year of the snail

This is going to sound wrong, but I've been waiting for an overcast day to take photos of the garden...It's been so nice here...however, this morning dawned gray so I snapped some shots of the struggling garden.


I say struggling because we inadvertently cultivated a snail friendly environment over the winter by mulching with leaves and while it was a great strategy, and the beds overwintered nicely, we are now in our second round of planting, the first attempt having been decimated by snails and tiny slugs. After much research and some attempts at peaceful deterrence by Joe (read: marigolds and evening flashlight hunting and removal by bucket-loads), we are now onto the beer method, which I feel much less guilty about after having lost 3 rounds of pole beans, the entirety of our kale, kohlrabi and brussel sprout seedlings and watching the sugar snap peas suffer.

Blueberries and the magnolia (notice the new and amazing shining white garage door in the background)

The poppies have taken over...seriously. I planted one packet of seeds in between the artichokes and in the bed of the raspberries last year...they needed no help this year to get going (see all that orange...)


greenberries, soon to be blueberries
Little hop of horror (heh heh), the hops are also doing quite well:
Our first cherry from the bubala tree
my half milpa (just corn and sugar pumpkins, no beans), seedlings at the moment
The hops in all their glory
Summer raspberries (left) outstripping the fall ones (obscured by poppies)
Rhubarb still going strong
The first climber of the surviving pole beans (take three), the empty trellis looks so bad...
Much taller artichokes this yearthe sedum stretching out...


A volunteer onion (I think) coming from under the neighbors fence in the backyard

Fava beans and tomatoes...the only thing the slugs and snails have left alone

Surviving cabbage and broccoli
Solstice garlic...everything seems to be running a little late this year, so I think these will stay in the ground a bit longer, they're just starting to produce their 'whips'

sugar snap peas....


I'll be anxious to see how things do while I'm away. I'm already missing the sugar snap peas....

What has been really amazing is to watch the perennials change year to year...and while I don't think it's quite come to a "clip show" phase, I do want to put the cherry tree in perspective...

[From left to right these photos were taken 02.21.2009 (original planting); 06.27.2009; 06.29.2010 (almost a year to the day from last summers growth)]:

When algorithims fail...

Google uses algorithms to display ads (in a very minimal way). When referencing a page of a book I do not currently have in my possession (I heart googlebooks), ads come up, very discreetly on the side of the page, I generally ignore them...

The book I was referencing just now "Lawn People" is a political ecology study of the lawn that questions why lawns have such power over people and why, despite a desire to be good ecological citizens, we pour billions of dollars into chemical lawn care each year....whoopsie!

Soccer [blanks] the world

I still need to find out if Soccer Explains the World, but I'll tell you, today, I'd say it creates community throughout.

I heard the US score and advance this morning. Not because I was watching a gamecast, or listening to the play-by-play on the radio, but because I heard the cheer go up while sitting at my computer writing.

Die hard soccer fan or not, there's something about the World Cup...

Frolfin'

Ahhh, and now come the days of no homework...

Hale's

Cream ale on nitro...eat your heart out ;)

Caution: may cause giddiness

I have recently undertaken acupuncture treatment, something I had been talking about with Joe for awhile, and then finally decided to do.

My conversations with Joe centered around alternative treatment more generally, but one of my questions in this context was whether an ancient treatment from China/Japan could be equally successful for people living in a different cultural context? Put differently, I wondered if the impact of acupuncture would be as dramatic for folks who did not have the same everyday life (read: diet, exercise, sleep patterns etc.) of the culture that the treatment was cultivated in?

At this point the question seems rather moot, I absolutely enjoy the treatment. Whether it can be a comprehensive preventative medicine is beside the point...I have never achieved such a relaxed state. Laying on my back on a table with needles sticking out of me brings the matrix to mind, perhaps, but after a few minutes my body/mind finds a place between waking and sleeping that is positively sublime.

Yesterday I walked to my midday appointment from campus, knowing full well I had to return to my office and finish my last paper of the term.
I didn't think about it once. In fact, I emerged from the office stifling giggles. I felt positively giddy.

Summer Research

So, I received some polite stares from friends over Memorial Day weekend when I explained what I was up to this summer. I realize that I have not been particularly forthcoming about my plans, part of it was because I wanted to be able to announce my funding and explain the trip, but didn't want to be too precipitous. So.....
I have received funding for graduate student summer research from the Center for Latin@ and Latin American Studies and from the Center on Diversity and Community to conduct pre-dissertation research in Chiapas, Mexico for two months this summer.

I leave on the 1st of July. I will arrive in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas State and make my way east to San Cristobal de las Casas, where I will spend some time at CIESAS Sureste.
Following that I will be in the southeast of Chiapas, adjacent to (and sometimes in) the Lacandon Jungle volunteering with a grassroots organization there. I am first going to be involved in testing for GMO corn, but I hope to get in touch with the farmers that work and produce for the Mut Vitz coffee cooperative, a fair trade producing cooperative that is made up of Zapatista affiliated farmers.

The academic line on this one is that this work, this summer, will contribute to my eventual dissertation research which focuses on the tension between production of luxury crops for the fair trade marketplace and production of subsistence crops. I chose Chiapas because it is unique in that the small farmers (read: peasant farmers) there have been fighting for land rights since prior to the Mexican Revolution, moreover, they have somewhat effectively petitioned the government for communal land rights in the post-NAFTA period, they are traditionally subsistence farmers and they are supported by the Zapatista social movement. So, my inquiry here is two-pronged (1) how does the production of fair trade crops change the way people produce for subsistence (or does it)? and (2) how does producing for the fair trade marketplace align/contradict with the oppositional politics of the Zapatistas, who deploy a much deeper critique of the marketplace?

So, I have to get my immunizations updated, my anti-malarial prescription filled and figure out how to pack for jungle/mountain/city conditions and fit it all in my red backpack. Oh the calamity!

Race!

Early mornin' on the mountain... (posted from the mountain)

and to follow-up:
What fun! Getting to participate in this relay race was quite exhilarating, a good time with good friends.
I dragged myself out of bed at 4:15am to rendezvous with the mountain part of the relay team (skier, snowboarder, runner) and was the first to be dropped at the holding site (photo above). I spent the 3 hour wait time looking like a total nerd, wearing all my bike stuff plus other warming fleeces, hats, whathaveyou and reading for school. When the runners started to come in and pass off to their riders, it was impossible to not get caught up in the excitement.

Everyone before me rocked their leg of the event, I saw runners coming in that looked like they'd rather have been force-fed poison then ever run again, but Holly was amazing. I took off on my 40 mile adventure down the mountain...it was glorious. I got passed. a lot. but I passed some people too (one of them on a hill!). And I got cheered on by my teammates who, I think, were proud of me, and that meant a lot.
I know that I brought the team down significantly for my time, but I must say, being competitive is not my strong suit and frankly, it was a personal achievement. 40 miles in 2 hours 28 minutes including: 3 downhills (topping out at 37 mph) and 5 significant hill climbs (scraping the barrel at 4 mph at my lowest) with an average of 15 mph.

...and then at the end there was a shower, a nap, some margaritas and all the amazing gourmet tacos you could possibly eat.

oh yeah? Well, your ad campaigns are stupid.

Seen while in NY, a new Diesel ad campaign...takes one to know one?

start spreadin' the news...

...and I went to NY. I finally had the opportunity to stop in instead of pass through and was graciously housed, fed and shepherded around the city by a good friend.

I had to go to DC for the Annual Association of Geographers Meeting and I thought a side trip to Brooklyn would not be amiss.I had the most amazing time.
Highlights include: MOMA, West Side Story, bagels, singing, the imagine circle, the public library and making fun of the NY beer selection.

Rockefeller, where they were ice skating in 70 degree weather:
In Central Park, at the Alice in Wonderland Statue...I would have taken a picture of the whole thing, but just then a class full of giggly teenagers came through to climb on it...

In the recording studio (shhh this is my "art shot"):
Rays shining on to the statue of Liberty, as seen from Brooklyn:
The Museum of Modern Art: Tim Burton exhibit! and much much more....

Mapping the internet:

Flight paths...much cooler in person:

Ducks on the UO campus

...which I suppose isn't that rare, if you think about it : )

Chick! Chick! Chick!

The brewery is now the proud parent of 8 little chicks! Fuzzy, chirpy goodness, these girls will (eventually) provide eggs to the greater brewery family. It is quite a fabulous treat to be a part of this...what is really step 1 in a larger urban farm that is being established at Oakshire (hurrah!)

As I'm sure other chicken owners will acknowledge, they're fun and they grow fast, it's absolutely amazing.
We all get to name one, and true to form the first thing that popped into my head was a book character, so meet Bokonon (from Cat's Cradle) I think I'm funny, because for short we can call her "Bok" ...bok bok bok (heh heh heh).

Further evidence of nerds

Not staged...I swear.

Seen in downtown

Yet another reason to hate grass.

for a little inspiration...

During the course of my MA studies there were a handful of activists and scholars that I can now point to and say that they were incredibly influential in my thinking and further study. Tonight I had opportunity to see Frances Moore Lappé speak. My attention was captured by her books "Diet for a Small Planet," "Hope's Edge," and "The Quickening of America," to name a few; as well as her activist work and the work of the organization she co-founded--Food First.

Although she did not explicitly discuss food issues tonight, I feel that old familiar excitement that came from reading her books. So much so that I have to get it all out right now or I feel that I'll lose it to another day of sitting in my office reading. Lappé is on tour for the new edition of her book "Getting a Grip" and is, in my opinion, spreading the enthusiasm for a different kind of social, economic and political future. Just to highlight some of the sticking points from her talk tonight where she identified three major issues that cause such unevenness and disparity in a world of plenty and then turned them on their heads.

Problems:

1. The concentration of power in the hands of the few (and with that I would add wealth)
2. The lack of transparency (at multiple scales) in politics, economics and social welfare
3. The increased propensity to "other" (or play the blame game)

Solutions for what Lappé refers to as 'living democracy':

1. The dispersion of power
2. Transparency and community cooperation
3. Recognition of accountability

We are living in a time of a facade of democracy in which we have what Lappé calls the biggest oxymoron ever..."privately held government." What a contrast it would be if we scale-jumped to allow for community interaction and citizen voice. I get a sparkle in my eye with this kind of talk and then slowly and quietly doubt and cynicism creep up on me and I become angry with the reality of life, the universe and everything. She must have been prepared for my train of thought because she started giving examples of where this is happening. I certainly didn't write them all down, but several caught my pencil and I will be exploring them in days to come. I will highlight briefly that she spoke specifically to Bellingham which warmed my heart. Apparently, Bellingham has been extremely successful at convincing citizens that buying local is the way to go, to the tune of 60% I think....

...more on this...
some things to look into:

• timebanks.org (could it be?! a social wage?!)
  
• Apprentice citizenship in Maine (youth activism and education)
• The Fair Elections Now Act (what if we were able to exercise our free speech rights as well/much as corporations?!)
• Brazil, food as a right
  

and a thought to chew on....in our super individualist society we have great difficulty, it seems, breaking away from social norms, how is it that as individuals were operate in a way that will not let us leave the dominant group and choose differently?