Rural Dreams

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Which do you like best:
one
two
or three?

Three Horse Stories

one
Since the weather got warmer, we have horses right across the street from us. Their owner comes and brings them grain every day. I spoke to him one day and he told me that they are very, very old, and he has to give them grain because if they eat just grass, they loose weight. I haven't wanted Aidan to go over there, or to see us going over there, lest he get the idea to do it on his own. One day, Aidan took an early evening nap. I was washing the windows outside the front of the barn. One of the horses was up near the road and I had the idea to bring her a carrot. She loved the carrot and pushed her big horse head closer and closer to me, hoping for another. Horses are BIG and I was a little intimidated by her, so I kept stepping back. When she realized that I wasn't going to give her another carrot, she stepped away. The back of one of her front hooves had gotten caught on the wire fence. She just kept pulling on it and I could see that she was scared, in pain and bleeding as the wire cut into her foot. This went on for several minutes while I panicked. I tried to get her to come closer to me to relieve the pressure on her foot, but she wouldn't have it. I was too scared of her size to try to manually maneuver her foot. Finally, she got her foot free somehow and limped away. I felt awful. I was sure that such an injury would be the death of a geriatric horse.

I was grateful to see her owner come to feed the horses soon after. I went over and explained what had happened, apologizing. I felt guilty about the carrot and omitted that from the story. He was very nice and said he was sure that she'd be fine and that he'd go and look at her. We ended up talking about all kinds of things for a long time. I asked him if I could bring the horses carrots and he said sure. I also took his phone number in case anything else bizarre like that ever happened again to his horses.

The horse is just fine and before we go to Montauk for nine days, I am goint to bring them all of the carrots in my fridge. I will feed them over the wooden gate though - not the wire fence.

Posted by Christy at 03:24 PM | Comments (2)

And while I'm posting pics,

And while I'm posting pics, here's one I took a few nights ago, this is in front of our barn - Aidan was a reluctant subject - I really just wanted the lawnmower, moon, & gas pump:

Dirt Digger

This is Aidan's absolute favorite shirt:

Sunday

We had a really nice Sunday. Steve has been gone for about ten days, so we were really happy to have him back this weekend. We went strawberry picking in the morning. There is an organic strawberry field about 20 minutes from here. The berries were $1.25/lb - we picked over 10 lbs in about 20 minutes. I thought Aidan would like it because he enjoys it at our CSA farm, but at this place they had these spheres hanging up with big eyes on them - to scare away birds. Aidan was completely distracted by them and just wanted to play with the "ball". It didn't matter because the picking was so good that we got plenty of berries really quickly.

The berry farm was in Ancram, in southern Columbia County - its an area that we haven't really been looking in and it was absolutely beautiful. On our way home we took a detour to a yard sale and got Aidan a tricycle for $3. Steve had to raise the handlebars a lot for our gigantic boy. He loves it and scoots it around the barn in circles, pretending he is going places, saying goodbye to us as he passes. Though I am sure he could pedal, he won't, he is strangely stubborn about it.

At about 1:30, Steve remembered that he had a softball game at 2:00 in Great Barrington and we rushed out the door. He didn't realize that he wasn't wearing sneakers until he got his first hit and looked down at his feet at first base. On our way home we stopped at the Green River so I could show Steve where it was. Aidan likes to throw rocks and sticks into the water.

Late last night, before we went to bed, we sat out on our front stoop and watched the fireflies in the huge field next to our house. They were mindblowing.

The fourth of July is

The fourth of July is coming up - do you need a flag?

Cohousing Dreams

Steve and I have sort of decided to take a break from real estate (tho we still crane our necks at every for sale sign that we pass on the road) and we've been lightly talking about cohousing, something I saw an article in Mother Earth News about. This is along the lines of what I want - it doesn't require a guru or anything. I spent some time at The Cohousing Network's website last night and was both encouraged and discouraged. It is awesome to see the vision realized, but there were a couple of parts in the FAQ that bothered me:

Why is cohousing so expensive? The simple answer to this question is first, that most cohousing communities are new construction and second, that cohousing communities have very extensive common facilities considering their small size relative to conventional housing complexes. Also, remember that although you are not getting a custom-built individual residence, as a group you are getting a custom-built community for your money. Many cohousers are getting an opportunity to work more closely with the architect(s) designing their future home(s) than they ever imagined they would have. Given these factors, it is remarkable that, in most areas cohousing units do not cost any more than other market rate housing. So why do costs keep going up during the development phase? Despite dire warnings from cohousing professionals about the cost of customization, there is a tendency in every group for people to plan too much customization of the private homes. Even if only some households want to customize their homes a great deal, it raises the costs for everyone. In addition, many groups have a desire to build as "green" as possible, and they are often surprised at how much additional these environmentally sound materials and building techniques can cost.

See, I was under the impression that co-housing would be LESS than regular housing. Here's the other one:

How does cohousing provide for residents of different economic means? In some states, counties or municipalities, developers of multi-family housing are required by law to have a certain percentage of the new units meet a standard for "affordability." People in cohousing usually welcome this, and as a matter of fact often wish they could make even more than the required percentage affordable. Unfortunately, unless the developer can get public or private subsidies or grants, there is a limit to how many affordable units can be built without driving everyone else's costs sky high.

I don't understand why smaller - lower income housing needs to drive other people's costs up! And what about a whole community made up of affordable housing - like an alternative to trailer parks - that's what I'm thinking about. Boy, we'd like to have some diversity and invite those people with higher incomes, but they will drive our costs sky high!

I'd also like to be a little more DIY than this website suggests - like have people involved in the actual construction of their own homes in whatever ways they are able.

And the number one discouraging thing is that it seems to take many years (seven in the example I read about) to get a community off the ground!

Coloring Contest

I have been anxiously waiting for Mena's next coloring contest at Dollar Short. I checked yesterday and there it was! When I first came across her website, I found her first coloring contest and spent several hours coloring before I realized that not only was it over, but there had been a second one that was over too - but I learned so much from my coloring efforts, and it is because of this that I feel confident (sort of) about tackling a full deck of tarot cards in this way. We spent the afternoon and evening at Will & Val's last night and the kids wore Aidan out completely, so I was able to do a little last night. A contest is so good for me, I am shamefully competitive, and already what I have done looks far better than the first tarot card I tackled.

We went to Steve's parents

We went to Steve's parents house on Long Island for Father's Day. We weren't going to go at first - but the family cat died and somehow that made us feel like we should go there. Steve's father had been sick with no diagnosis: pain in his belly, elevated liver enzymes, high blood pressure, no appetite. He had a CAT scan on Monday and went to the doctor that night for the results. He came home before going to the hospital - they found tumors in his pancreas and liver. Steve's family is handling it very well, but I have a familiar feeling, recycled I think from when my father died: that the whole world is turning upside down, that sometimes life is just too powerful to handle, that everything is going to change quickly so hold onto your seat.

So we stayed on Long Island longer than we had planned and I have been busy finishing up Back Street Blues' website. There is just the directions page left and I am waiting for the owner to send me copy for it.

I met a dreadlocked woman yesterday at the health food store - or rather, she met me! I noticed her and her dreadlocked little boy and as I was taking Aidan to my car (he sits at a little table in front of the store while I load up my groceries) she approached me, excited about our common hair, and was so friendly and wonderful. I felt just elated to have met someone who might be a kindred spirit. I thanked her for being so outgoing and we exchanged numbers. Her name is Stephanie and her son is Elijah - he is older than Aidan, maybe 5 or 6, but they were interacting right away in their own way. They moved here from Yonkers a year ago.

Unbelievable

I went and looked at the land this morning with the realtors. I was very encouraged by the whole thing - my worries that it would be too wet were put to rest. I took a ton of pictures and came back to get the following phone message and e-mail from my realtor:

Christy and Steve, I just got a call from Chuck Bartolo. The Songs have decided to take the land off the market. He lost his job and they have to rethink their plans. Back to the drawing board. I will be back 6/23. I will have my partner Audrey check the "hotsheet" for any new listings this week and will call after the 24. I feel as frustrated as both of you but "things" always work out for the best. Regards

I never felt quite as excited about this land as I thought I should. Maybe it was intuition. Bleh.

On the way there, I almost hit a deer. On the way home, I got a speeding ticket.

I have been trying to

I have been trying to use Movable Type to set up a calendar of events for Back Street Blues that the owner can edit himself. I am so excited about this - because if it works, I can use it for Instant Karma, Nassau / Queens Drum and Dance and who knows what else. So I stayed up late last night trying to work it out - working from home is hard. Aidan went to bed early but woke up and had to be nursed back to sleep repeatedly. Friends called, family called. I was up til 2 and got very few actual work hours in. Aidan woke up at 6am, having gone to bed pretty early, and played on and around me before gently insisting that I get up around 7. I am exhausted - the kind of tired where your belly feels a little queasy. I am really excited about working this thing out though, and so I'll probably be up late and bleary eyed tonight again.

I am meeting the seller's realtor at the land tomorrow and he is going to show me where the borders are. Jes is going to come too. Maybe we'll take some pics - though its just woods, I don't think the pics will be really interesting.

We went and picked up our first CSA share today. Does anyone know what you do with turnips? They are small - not like the ones we have for Thanksgiving. How bout radishes? They are long - not like the little round ones at the grocery store. The produce is all so pretty, I can't stand the thought of it going bad in the fridge because I don't know what to do with it. Aidan and I also picked strawberries in the mud. Aidan refused to eat any at first (like he does with most fruits and vegetables) but eventually he tasted one and then started eating so many that I became a little self conscious! Then he just stopped and was ready to go to the car. Funny guy.

Birthday Wish List

Subscription to Mother Earth News
Tickets to see Urinetown: the Musical
Successful Scrap Quilts from Simple Rectangles
Spectacular Scraps
These Hoops - scroll to the 4th item
A popcorn popper
An apple peeler
A CD player for my car

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now.

Visualization Works

I just got the phone call - the other people are turning down the land. I am in shock - I was really feeling like it wasn't going to happen. Thanks for visualizing!

Yard Work

I spent a lot of the day yesterday doing yard work, a completely new experience for me. Yardwork is different from gardening. It requires gasoline and makes a lot of noise.

Our landlord got his piece of crap riding mower fixed and I rode and mowed a lot yesterday. I had already done a little bit with Aidan riding with me the day before, I went really slow because its not terribly safe and then we ran out of gas. Several times I thought the thing broke on me. Well Aidan took a rare nap yesterday so I took the opportunity to really open her up - it has 5 gears and it can go really fast! I have to say I had fun. Aidan woke up just as I was finishing the front. He ate something and then went out to play in the dirt and I broke out the weed eater and cut down some grass that was on a slope that was up to my waist. We bought the weed eater last week and I insisted on the best one ($40 more) because I thought we'd be using it a lot. The thing is, it is incredibly heavy and my hands are useless for a little while when I'm done with it. I think that they still might be shaking a little bit from it.

My dad used to work for the guy who invented the weed eater. He owned the Westchase Hilton in Houston where my dad was the manager for a little while. He had this big sculpture in front of the Hotel. My dad explained to me one day that it represented the weedeater - and he told me how a weedeater works - that it is essentially string that spins around really fast. I was thinking about this while I was weedeating yesterday - and thinking about what it must have been like to be the artist who was commissioned to do that piece. I mean, its a WEEDEATER.

So I keep looking at my lawn and feeling so sort of proud - it was a LOT of work. I want to make a sandbox for Aidan where that really high grass was. Then I can use the dirt that he plays in to plant tomatoes.

I just solved a huge

I just solved a huge problem with my tarot website by finding this and this.

update: its only the major arcana, so it isn't as great as I imagined, but it does leave me inspired.

Another Run-In With Nature

While driving down Rt.7 in Great Barrington early yesterday evening, I saw a huge turtle trying to cross the road. I stopped my car and chased it onto the side of the road, but there was a fence there and no good place for it to go. It was one bad ass creature and not at all appreciative of my lifesaving efforts. Turns out it was a snapping turtle. I thought if I reached down for it it would hide in its shell and then I could relocate it somehow but instead of hiding, it almost took my hand off. It was like godzilla weighed down by a big shell. I stood there for a few minutes trying to figure out what I could do to relocate it, but came up with nothing and was about to give up when someone from a wine store across the street came over to see what I was puzzling over. He went and got a big garbage can and we managed, with great difficulty, to get it inside using Aidan's wiffle ball bat and a nerf bat. There is a swamp on the other side of the wine store and he took it there. I took Aidan out of the car to see it once it was in the garbage can and he just let out a real scared, "Mommy!" and held me tight.

This is for Tyson.

This is for Tyson.

I am a Tick Finding Jedi

I woke up out of a dead sleep last night, reached up to my face, and pulled a tick off of my eyebrow. It was weird. How the hell did I do that? I have found ticks on me twice before in bed in the pitch dark, but those were before I fell asleep. I don't know whether to be comforted by the fact that I have enough awareness to feel them, or to be totally creeped out. I certainly didn't just fall right back asleep.

If you grab a little bug off of yourself and it doesn't squish, but rather becomes flat between your fingers, you might have a tick. To kill it, drop it in alcohol or microwave it in a little water. I keep a mini Mason jar of alcohol next to my bed. It is quite a sight.

My Father Raised Chickens

My aunt sent me the following e-mail yesterday. The pic is her and my father in Hungary sometime before 1956:

Hi, Christy,
I've been trying to find this picture for weeks, ever since you started talking about raising chickens. I am visualizing you not just on this new land today, but with a working, pleasing house, and chickens. I can even explain to you or Aidan or Steve about how to count tomorrow's eggs... or you can just rely on nature. Anyway, I'll hold you in the light.
Love,
Alexa

Thanks so much to everyone who is sending good wishes and visualizations!

An Update on the land

Well, we were right, someone else already had an accepted offer in on the land. I don't know why the listing didn't say that, but its typical. There is hope though.

The other people made a contingency that the land pass a perc test. It didn't. So now they are waiting to get an estimate for an engineered septic system - a very expensive proposition. If they don't like the price, they will walk away from it and Steve and I will be next in line. We don't mind that much about the perc test because we were thinking about getting composting toilets and a greywater system anyway.

So please join me in visualizing us getting this land. It is lightly wooded on 3.75 acres at the end of a dead end dirt road in the town of Austerlitz. It is absolutely perfect. I've been trying to think what magical thing I can do to make it ours. I might just go and pee on it.

I went on a HipMama/Mamatron

I went on a HipMama/Mamatron camping trip this weekend with Aidan. Steve was on Long Island so it was just the two of us. We just spent one night - which was enough. Aidan had a great time and was so exhausted that he went to sleep in the tent WITHOUT NURSING! I was able to have some mamatime around the campfire which was a real treat.

Remember, when you go camping with HipMamas/Mamatrons:
don't assume that those long haired kids are girls
don't assume that the mamas and papas are married

Kara posted some pics here.

It rained for several hours in the early morning, but it dried up by about 8:00 so that it was pleasant to get up out of the tent. We stayed warm and dry and I was grateful for our fabulous little tent that was a wedding gift. When we got home, I set it up on the side of the house to get nice and dry so that it wouldn't get musty. I staked it down because it was very windy and our property has no trees so the wind really whips through it. We went to look at a piece of land and when we came back it was gone! It blew away I guess - I keep imagining what that must have looked like - it probably took off like a kite and maybe it is resting in a cow pasture somewhere. Or else it blew into the road and someone grabbed it. I am so sad about it. I am still half hoping that we'll find it, but Steve needs one for EDC this weekend, so we are probably going to have to buy another one.

And by the way, that property that we looked at is THE ONE. I am going to try to buy it TODAY, but we have had such rotten luck that we are both imagining the worst - that it is somehow sold already. If we get it I will tell more.