mobile home, burned brownies, tackyness on a whole new level

So here is a brief attempt at an update. We're still in the process of moving. We acquired an old 1969 mobile home for only $300 and we just got it moved over to our new land last Thurs. With the help of our neighbor Dean, Billy and I got it leveled and up on block on Sat. morning, and all afternoon until it was too dark to see inside, we worked. We tore out a mountain of rat poo and dust laden ugly brown 70s carpet and uncovered a mostly solid plywood floor and some old vinyl floor that was still in okay shape. A lot of the ceilings need to be replaced and the roof needs to be patched at least and as soon as we can do it, replaced. After getting the carpet out, which was in every room, even the bathroom, and even on the floors inside all of the cabinets, we've started the bleaching and scrubbing the hell out of everything task. I spent all day Sun. scrubbing the living room and hallway top to bottom. The living room may be ready to paint in a few days. After the living room, we're going to focus on the kitchen, which still need a lot of deep cleaning and some cabinet removal or repair, and a new stove/oven, which we may be getting from our neighbor's appliance salvage yard. Now we just need to round up an affordable and functional propane fridge.

We're having lots of fun deciding on paint colors and room lay outs and stuff. Imagining the end product is what is sustaining me on these long stinky days of scrubbing, and there are sure to be many long days to come. Today we're taking a day off of the new house to let ourselves recover. My throat is feeling pretty rough. We used face masks for all of the obvious tasks, but you still breath in a lot of shit, and the smell and taste of rodent shit, dust, mold, old wood and simple green lingers long after.

Here's a list of all the fun things we've found in the trailer so far:

empty natural light case and cheap cheap liquor bottles,

dog food and rat bait crammed into a cup like light fixture, which has inspired a new flavor of trail mix,

bright bubblegum pink carpet in the bathroom... whoa,

a complete fondue set still in the box in plastic,

taped up brass knuckles hidden on top of the built in bookshelves near the ceiling, now that's something you don't find everyday,

an entire dead mouse family resting atop a bed of burned brownies, or so Billy described in between gagging and puking noises,

the wood paneled support beams across the ceiling in the living room are not actually support beams, they're decoratively nailed to the inside walls over the lovely cheap motel room floral wallpaper trim hmmm...,

multiple shades of pink brand new mini blinds to match the modeled brown shag carpet,

and solid wood in many places we expected to find particle board.

Pictures coming soon.

dancing, battle horn, people, new land

So I have not been keeping up with this, but we've been so busy and had many guests. I'm not sure where to start. Farmers markets have been going well, although folks aren't tearing into the chocolates as i had thought they would, but Shevy's jewelry is in demand. Every week he gets at least one new commission, so we've had the most profitable markets days ever, which is cool because then we can buy shit from all of our friends so they have good market days too. Last week, Shevy got me a battle horn which is a cleaned and polished buffalo horn. I am working on making it produce the perfect call, but it kind of tastes like ass when i play it. We've also been doing more ceilidh dancing, and i'm getting better at it, and its actually fun. I never thought organized dancing could be fun.

Our friends Rain and Sealu are visiting now, and my Mom is coming next Tues, so i am kind of overwhelmed with guests right now. Its fun though, i will miss these days come winter, but i think i'll be ready for the rest and calm of a landscape of snow. Until then though, the garden is doing ok, our lettice is going well, and cabbage and chard are getting big. Our burgundy beans are flowering and zucchini and pat-a-pans too. We've gotten a few radishes and one beet so far too.

Ok, so i've beaten around the bush enough so far, i have big news. We're moving to another property, still in Candy Kitchen, but we'll have a lot more room to grow and we'll be further away from the road, so more peace and quiet. Our neighbor and friend Jo, is giving us a chunk of her 30s acres and in exchange we'll live there, near by and help her take car of the land and her horses and goats. She's getting older and though her spirit is vibrant, her body body keeps telling her to slow down a little bit and i don't mind helping with the grunt work. Sheves and i have always wanted to take care of horses and goats. The goats are babies, so when they grow up i will learn all about milking and cheese making. I figure its a good idea to learn how to make my favorite food ever, since i already eat so much of it. Jo is going to Texas for three weeks, but after that we will start the move and hopefully be settled by winter. No more grid power though, but we're going to scrounge together some solar panels to have lights and maybe a stereo, but Jo has a good set up at her house for solar, so i may set up my beloved robotic bread slave over there so i can still make fresh bread all the time. I'm excited and nervous about this all, but i think its going to work out great. I'm not looking forward to having to break everything down and move it and reset up. Like the dog yard and the chickens, I hope its not a rough move on the animals. I already am planning to improve both dog and chicken areas though, and i think they'll like it over there. I'm being called to dinner so this is all for now.

2 poems

First one:

Now is not the time.

Tonight is not the night.

I draw up from the roots,

healing amber flow

from the mouth of the goat,

And clear water,

from the mouth of the stag,

To ice the fire in my eye,

To form my will,

from a single crystal,

and fall back to the earth,

in a summer storm,

seeping down to the well

from wense it came.

Tis only the beginning.

Second one:

A thousand years ago it was,

And we awake now,

With the old Gods in our blood,

The old ways in our thoughts and dreams,

The old tales in our songs and hearts.

We are the fruitful green,

which breaks free of the earth,

reaching skyward,

after the long storm.

The chariot rumbles home,

and we are inspired by a new song,

A glimpse of the iron hammer,

a flash,

And we awake stronger now.

Inspired by Uruz, Thurisaz, and Ansuz.

happy garden, sad eyeball, chainmail, no more Sparkle balls

It has been a while since my last update, and not to much has happened. The gardens are doing great due to even more unseasonable rains, although now it is time for the monsoon rains to come. Today its very humid but coolish and cloudy. We're harvesting lettuce now and more chard, and soon some cabbage. Shevy ate an unripe beet this morning, I guess for fun, and it upset his stomach, surprise surprise.

I haven't wanted to write for a while because my good eyeball has been in bad shape. Swollen and angry, and thus i could not look into the glowing computer screen of death. I have been playing more bass, studying and meditating on the runes and writing some poetry again after so many years of not doing o. I will post them later. We did very well at farmers market last week on jewelry and chocolates, and it was a wonderful day of trading and gift giving with our neighbors. We got fresh goat cheese and blue tortillas!

Shevy has spent much of the past week getting back into making chainmail and leather working. He made an awesome chainmail belt and now he's making one for Billy. Billy and I both have requested bracers too. He also made this amazing braided silver knot work ring that the guy he works with commissioned. Its totally brutal; if i wore rings i would want one.

Not too much else to report, same old country life chores, animals are all doing well. Aspen is still almost as evil as Squishy cat. Squishy has been sporting a new red and black sparkle bow around her neck. And little Sparki is going to have his balls lopped off next week. Fun fun fun.

bugs of doom, Celtic music, chariot of lightning, tired

The bugs are here. I am now marked with their flaming wounds. Besides that, all is well. We are journeying into Albuquerque tomorrow to pick up Billy and Shevy really wants to go to this awesome rock store. Then we will dash towards home and go to ceilidh dancing in the evening, because it will be Wednesday. Speaking of ceilidh, yesterday Mike Francis cam over with his banjo and i got out my bass and we worked on some Celtic songs together. I learned the parting glass. A few days ago i also ordered the Celtic fake book, which has 400 Irish, Scottish and Welsh songs in it, including the Gaelic lyrics. I want to learn a ton of folk songs, they're really fun to play on bass, and challenging. It will make my fingers swift enough for really brutal metal in the future. There's another guy out here who plays metal drums, and Mike and I both are looking forward to playing with him as soon as all of our schedules can mesh. The drummer is also into Celtic music as well. I've been playing bass everyday lately, just like i did when i was younger, and it feels great.

So there is a real possibility that i may be getting a golf cart to serve as my chariot soon. Dean found another one on Craig's list and he's going to pick it up in a few days and then we will see what kind of shape its in. If it works out, i will paint it black with lightning bolts and it will be my thundering cloud rider. Although golf carts don't really thunder, they're pretty quiet, but whatever, it will totally rule!It must have some skulls too, and a rack to hold swords and spears, or tools and small water jugs.

We were fairly busy today. Well cleaned out the chicken house, brought a dozen eggs over to Dean's to be hatched, mulched the apple trees more adequately, planted irises, did dishes, cleaned the kitchen, made covers for the booth cushions, and made bread. We still have to water tonight, but its getting cloudy again, but rain doesn't look likely. Tonight may be a chill and watch a movie night.

first farmers market, hail, power outage

All afternoon it has been alternating between spitting cold fat raindrops and being sunny and clear. I was just playing bass in the garden and it threatened rain again so i took cover in computer land. Shevy is off to a Shakespearean monologue audition thing and i stayed to water plants when the sun drops low enough. The spitting rain isn't enough to water everything, just enough to keep you from working on anything outside.

Farmers market was this morning, and we stayed up until midnight getting chocolates made and packaged. We only made fifteen bucks, but it was a slow day. Its early in the summer, the tourists will pick up later. There were lots of new people selling stuff this year, i expect the economy is to blame for that. There was even someone selling organic grass-feed beef, but we didn't have the cash to get any this time, but maybe things will go better next week. We need to work on our chocolate display. We didn't have time this week to plan because we didn't know when the cocoa shipment was coming and it finally came around 5 in the evening on Friday, so we were scrambling to the have the chocolates ready for early Sat morning. We still sold a few and one pair of earrings, to our new neighbors up the hill that we also met this morning. They seem cool, they're into rocks and jewelry too. They can hear our rooster. Since they're from Chicago, they think its cool. We also met some other new Candy Kitchen residents this morning that are around our age, and they seem cool too. Its pretty neat, we're finally not the new folks in the area anymore, and we know all the locals at market. I really like the feeling of our little community here in the mountains, where Mormons and bikers and Pagans and hippie-queers all sell fresh farm veggies and crafts together in the summer. My heathen heart is at home.

Lovely, now its pouring rain and hailing and thundering while still sunny.

...And then the power went out for several hours, so i post this now late into the evening. My gardens were watered enough by the rain for today. Thank you Thor, although the hail was a bit much.

great horned death

The night felt strange and still. We awoke in the night to ominous hooting and Hansi barking his aggressive guard bark. Shevy ran out to see and encountered the beast that has been devouring our kitties. He walked towards it, it was by our driveway, and it left before too long. Sqishy came running out to Sheves and she then came willingly into the house for the first time since we got Aspen. All cats spent the rest of the night inside, with only minimal growling and hissing from Squishy. I knew it was a large bird of prey that got Ivan and Ursula, but we hadn't seen him here yet, until now. I didn't think it was the coyotes or stray dogs because they don't normally come that close to our dogs. Shevy said he told the owl, before it flew off, to go and eat the rabbits that have been feasting on Dean and Mike's wheat field. Some of our friends recently lost six cats in one week to this great horned owl, or one of his friends or relatives. We've also heard of them killing puppies up to 25lbs. There isn't really much we can do about it, except hope they eat their fill on jacks and our kitties get lucky or start staying inside at night, which isn't likely for that is their hunting time. Squishy has been eating lots of mice lately, and her fur looks extra shiny.

Yesterday, i cleaned stuff, Shevy changed the oil in the truck and made jewelry, i played my bass for a long time and we read about etins. We also planted radishes. The rain really made the garden happy and now mullion is popping up that we planted last year. Also more calendula and zucchini. We also planted a bunch of a native plant last week that's basically a purple spinach called orich. I hope some of it pops soon. Well, tomorrow is the first farmers market and i don't think we're going to have chocolates ready. We're still waiting on our next shipment of cocoa powder to come in. If it comes today, we may be able to pull it off. Oh, and we got paid to feed cute horses this morning. One was a pinto and she was really sweet and let me pet her, until the hay was tossed in and she started pigging out. I've decided that i want to have horses someday. They're pretty awesome creatures.