Dear folks: September 4, 2001
It’s been a very hot dry summer, and you can really tell
from the plants. I started to make the jewelweed ointment, and I
could hardly find any healthy plants. Jewelweed is a very juicy
plant that generally grows in wet places- and all the wet places
are dried up this year. I picked a few blackberries- maybe a cup
or two, but most of them were just shriveled on the bush. It
looked like it would have been a spectacular crop if it had had
enough rain. Luckily we have begun to see a little rain. (Willow
and Kat, who sleep by their windows tell me that I missed a
spectacular lightning storm Friday night. No doubt it rained
because I had left my car window open.) The other day it was
overcast, so I tried to get it to rain by watering the garden
(which desperately needed it), but it seemed the only way to get
it to rain was to wheel Fitz outside. He’d go out- it would start
raining. Willow would push him in, and it would stop- almost as
soon as he cleared the front door. It was funny.
Aelfwine has started mowing again. Last Yule we gave him a
scythe with a brush blade and a grass blade. (One blade and it’s
a tool, two and it’s a toy.) He’s cutting the raspberry bushes,
goldenrod and asters and such in the yard and tossing it in to
the goats who really enjoy it. The yard is starting to look more
kempt, and it indicates that Aelfwine is getting stronger.
We still haven’t heard back on the results of his biopsy
last week, so we just have to assume that it was good- if there
were any problem they’d call us right in for immediate treatment.
(I also still haven’t heard back from the orthopedist to whom Dr.
Quirbach referred me. I always get a “I’m in the office, but
can’t answer the phone right now, leave a message and I’ll get
back to you.” or “The office is closed until Tuesday.” voice
mail. I am irritated. Bet you could guess that.
The kids had their first “week” of school (three days- four
this week). The buses are coming at the exact same time as last
year- which is convenient. Kat’s in High School at the Wilton
Lyndeboro Coop this year. She has covered her books with mylar
wrapping paper and used stick-on letters to label them all with
Hogwart type names (the school in the Harry Potter books): She
has designated French Incantations, English is Divination, Social
Studies is Muggle Studies, Math is Arithmancy, and her notebook
is labeled the Dark Arts and covered with Harry Potter stickers.
She is very pleased that she has a full sized locker that works.
Another neat thing (well, flattering for me) was that one of the
kids she eats lunch with asked her why she always had gourmet
lunches.
Star is back at Mescenic, and we were impressed (especially
comparing the WLC student handbook with that of Mescenic) with
how much common sense Mescenic displays (as opposed to WLC, where
sometimes we can’t even figure out what the rules are supposed to
be by reading them, and when we can, they are often ridiculous-
such as deciding that being tardy is a partial absence, so that
if you are often tardy, even if you have great grades and test
scores, they can flunk you by saying you were absent too often.
It is so pathetic it may drive me back to the school board. So
far Star has only had one problem. Last year when signing up for
this years classes, he chose weight training, as he’d enjoyed it
before. I figured it was simply one of the phys ed options, so I
didn’t think much about it. But when he got to class the first
day, the teacher recognized him and announced that he’s not
allowed to take it twice. The only other alternatives in that
block are Spanish and Technical Drawing. Personally, I think he’d
like technical drawing, which I assume is something like
drafting. But we’ll have to see at parents night. He was not
happy about the last minute change though. Also we don’t think
much of his history text- the end of chapter questions (which are
assigned as homework) require information not given in the book.
I wonder if perhaps (I hope) that that information MAY have been
given in class, but he doesn’t have lecture notes with what he
needs. We are VERY lucky that Fitz has the ability to help him-
due to his background in teaching history- he knows most of the
information, and is able to deal with Star’s teen-age attitudes.
Thursday we had a visit from Raphael and his wife and son:
Barbara and Christopher. Once again, I got to meet someone I
think I could really get to be good friends with- if only we
didn’t live three thousand miles apart. At one point I had fallen
into one of my longstanding rants (going back to AS 8) about how
peerages shouldn’t be automatic with winning the crown, and they
started smiling at each other “Where have we heard this before?”
At first, I assumed that Raphael was being amused because I was
doing a rant he heard me do back when he was going to Phillips
Exeter fifteen years ago, but it turned out that it was one of
Barbara’s hobbyhorses as well! Christopher was 18 months old,
blonde, and incredibly cute. Made all my hormones go bananas. We
brought down some of the toys I’ve been saving for grandchildren
in the attic. Generally they live in California, but they were
spending a week in New Hampshire and running around seeing all
his old friends. As with many guys who have continued to fight,
he has hardly aged at all- a bit of gray in his beard, but he
hasn’t seemed to age much at all.
This weekend we went to Harpers’ Retreat- an SCA event
dedicated to Bardic Arts, held at a campground with cabins a bit
more than an hour from here. Star watched the goats and Kat came
with us (Willow is still recovering from her hectic summer). We
left after the chores Saturday morning, and took the jewels with
us- figuring at least when we have to stay by the table selling,
our friends have to come to us. As it turned out, people were
very happy to see our stuff, and we more than made back our
expenses- which is nice. Most hobbies DO cost money, and SCA
events are no longer $3 a head. They gave us a lodge right next
to the hall, and even carried our gear to it. Everyone is very
solicitous about Aelfwine’s health. One could easily get spoiled.
There were classes available, but I only took one- the basic
harp class. The class before it was Tuning Your Harp by Ear,
which I figured was about the only thing I knew how to do- having
just done it (although I’ve lost that particular harp key, and
had to have Aelfwine do it with pliers while I plucked). But when
I got to the class, it turned out that my harp was just a
fraction of a note off of everyone else’s- so I’d have to re-tune
every single string- with Aelfwine again. So I didn’t stay for
the group play along session afterward. At least I learned a
little about how to place my hands and such. Artos gave us all a
bunch of SCA dance music to practice on, many of which I remember
from having heard them so often in the barn at the War. I have
come to the conclusion that I CAN learn to sight read music- but
it’s a skill that has a body-mind interface, so I’m going to have
to just practice until I get it down. There’s still the same
problem I’ve run into before, which is that harps don’t have
accidentals, and most music does. Artos gave us some hints (like
convince the other musicians who are playing with you to all
transpose to the Key of C) or do chords without the third when
it’s minor, because that’s the one that’s modulated. Still, the
long and the short of it is practice. Megan has offered to
practice with me- I’m going to have to practice the sight reading
until I catch up with her before it’s not painful to listen to,
`though.
As ranking peers (meaning we’ve been around almost forever)
we were at High Table again. The feast was done in a
Mediterranean theme- meatballs with a dill and yogurt sauce, flat
bread, some sort of eggplant dish, a really fantastic pasta and
cheese dish, zucchini egg drop soup, saffron rice, poached
salmon, salad with olives, capers and beetroots, and for dessert,
slices of orange with whipped cream and coconut. (It would have
tasted better if I hadn’t had a lot of garlic salt on my plate
when it arrived!) Pity Aelfwine doesn’t eat eggplant, salmon,
saffron, black olives or zucchini. I rather liked the soup, even
if it had zucchini in it.
The Bardic Circle this year didn’t have as many really
spectacular performances as last year, but it was still
enjoyable. Aelfwine somehow got to be “fire warden” (meaning he
sat by the fire and if logs started to roll out, or sparks flew
out, he put them back in, and we stayed up long after Kat thought
we should have gone to sleep.
Packing for Harpers, we managed to get Aelfwine’s, Kat’s and
my garb all into one of the smaller war chests Aelfwine made for
Star and Kat when they were little, and all the food stuff into
another, so we managed to fit everything neatly into the back of
the van- with one twelve by sixteen inch space left. So Monday we
decided that we would make a 12×16 box to go into it, and keep it
packed with staples like dried fruit, oatmeal, barley, and jerky-
and we’d be able to leave it packed and ready for any event.
Also, keeping the staples packed like that would reduce the
between event pilferage of what are rather expensive snacks.
Before we built it, however, we checked the mill store, and found
a box just the right size, which we’ve covered with black leather
and brass tacks, and found cans to just fit in to contain the
staples. The next project is the kneeling stool for courts- I may
have to take out the upholstery books from the library again, but
I tend to think that comfort is based more on the proper design
of the wood than how you pad it.
Another project we’ve finished is Aelfwine put the last two
pieces of stained glass in beside the front doors. Home Depot
opened a new store up here, and we checked it out- there are so
many home improvement projects we have that really require more
time and energy than we have while Aelfwine is still recovering,
but we are planning- like fixing the bathroom floor, or replacing
the tiles in the front hall that have worn down almost to the
wood. Sadly, beyond- what do we like the looks of, what will be
sturdy, and what does it cost is- what is non-toxic. If I can
help it, I’m not going to introduce anything to our environment
that could have potentially carcinogenic or even allergy
triggering outgassing. Thus, we are looking at wood, stone and
tile. I’d consider linoleum, but all that’s available where I can
find it is vinyl flooring. Whichever, the front hall can’t last
too much longer.
* * * * * * * * * * *
It occurs to me that maybe you’d be interested in hearing
about the things that I generally don’t think are worth
mentioning- the everyday stuff. Generally I only mention things
that deviate from or are beyond the normal activities. So here’s
our daily schedule:
Our alarm is set for 5:45. We figure that this gives us
fifteen minutes to laze in bed before six, even though we can see
our neighbors headlights (in the winter) as he leaves for work at
six, and Star gets up at five, and sometimes we hear him walking
around then. Heavens knows what takes so long, but it’s usually
6:20 before we get down to the kitchen. I suppose we should get
up sooner, because I like to make a hot breakfast for the kids,
and if I don’t start by quarter past, there isn’t time for
pancakes, hot cereal or eggs. Star’s bus comes at quarter of
seven, and Kat’s at five past seven.
Since both of them are allergic to wheat, they take their
lunches to school. This means that after dinner each night, we
put together a couple of plates of leftovers- three when
Aelfwine’s working, so they only need to grab the plate from the
‘fridge and a bottle of drink, and find their homework. In the
past this has actually been a major project for Kat, which has
led to many missed breakfasts; but we are hoping for better this
year. It’s actually not too tragic if she misses the bus- that
just means that she needs a ride- leaving at about 7:40 to get to
school on time. We actually prefer that in several ways, because
she is harassed horribly on the bus, by kids who are younger, if
not smaller than her, so she really can’t defend herself
effectively; and because I am convinced that it is the bus seats
that are the vector for the lice which has been such a problem
for her. Perhaps other High School students don’t pick them up
because they are tall enough that their heads don’t touch the
backs of the seats, but as Kat is still as short as a grade
school student, hers does. So if she catches the bus, we always
remind her to wear a hat or hood.
Also we always tell the kids that we love them as they leave
the house. I worry a bit that it may seem automatic, but I figure
it’s better for them to hear it than not. It’s like leaving the
lights on when someone is coming in late. This week I had to
change the bulbs when Willow was out gaming, so they’d be on when
she got home. I think it would be just awful to get home and not
have the lights on. It implies that they didn’t notice you were
gone, or that they weren’t looking forward to your getting back.
So I like to have the lights on at night. Don’t you?
Anyway, with the kids out at around seven, we can head out
to milk the goats right about then. We take the bucket of food
scraps that sits by the sink and give it to the chickens, and
then toss them some cracked corn. Because of this, it’s sometimes
hard to approach the barn because the chickens mob us as we come
out, being too stupid to realize that we have to actually GET to
the barn before we can toss the corn. While Aelfwine is tossing
the grain, I go into the milk room and unpack the jars and
milking hardware from the cloth bag we carry it in. (I used
baskets for a while, but they kept breaking.) Currently we use an
one quart jar for Galadriel, an half gallon jar for Sweetie, and
a pint jar for Cobweb in the evening, or an half gallon in the
morning when her son has been locked away from her.
Aelfwine lets the goats out, one at a time. Cobweb comes
first. It may be that since we’ve been locking her son out she is
VERY eager to be milked- I know that most mornings she walks with
an odd gait: her front legs are normal, but her full udder makes
her walk with her back legs spraddled wide. As it’s her first
year, her teats are still very small and I have to use only two
or three fingers to milk her, which makes it very awkward. Next
comes Galadriel, who has a damaged udder on one side. We hoped
that it would get better the year after she’d gotten mastitis,
but it didn’t. If she gave milk on both sides as she does with
that one side, we’d still be getting nearly a gallon a day from
her, and she is “milking through”- that is, we didn’t breed her
last year. Wonderful bloodlines. But now we have to decide
whether to kill her because she DOES have the damaged udder, and
still eats the same amount for half the milk. On the other hand,
she produces great milkers- like Cobweb. On the third hand (lots
of hands around here) she is a grade goat- no papers, so while
her offspring are great milkers, we can’t sell them for much, if
anything. Still, she’s not a pet, as fond as we are of her. Well,
as long as she’s still producing good milk, she’s got a place
here. Star prefers her milk to that of the others. (I can’t tell
much of a difference.) It doesn’t take long to milk her, so I
usually go out and check to see if Aelfwine has fed and watered
the rabbits yet, just to give her more time to eat. Sweetie comes
last, because she’s the bottom goat in pecking order, and they’d
beat her up worse than usual if I tried to give her any
preferential treatment. So I’m really nice to her in the milking
room where they can’t see it.
While I’m milking, Aelfwine gives them water and hay- or
weeds, puts out food for the non-milking goats, and makes sure
the chicken feeder and waterer are full. In the evening he checks
for eggs, which MAY be in the nests, or they may be in the
mangers, or the loft, or any of a dozen places. The turkey has
adopted a small pile of eggs in the corner of the chicken room,
and we are letting her sit them. She wants to SO badly, and it
wouldn’t be bad to get new chicks. On the way in from the barn we
check the Hi-Low thermometer on the north side of the house and
find out how hot (or cold) it has been in the shade during the
day or overnight.
When we get back inside, I record what each goat gave, (and
in the evening, how many eggs we got) and what the weather was on
the computer. We also track how much we spent on farm supplies,
and how much we took in for eggs and such, how many rabbits and
kids we got to eat, etc. So far, it isn’t paying for itself if
you compare the price of the milk we get to the cost of cow’s
milk and eggs in the store. On the other hand, if you compare
them to the cost of organic free range eggs and health store
goats milk- we are about breaking even. So the extra labor
basically gets us a better product.
When Aelfwine’s working, he generally dashes off (it’s about
7:30 when we get in) and heads to work with Kat (assuming that
she’s missed the bus). I get to start in on whatever projects I’m
thinking of doing each day. Collecting and doing laundry, washing
dishes, sweeping the floors, checking my e-mail… it’s not worth
mentioning, but it does fill time- and if I DON’T do it, it
shows. We have a system for the laundry which has worked
remarkably well, and I wish I’d thought of it sooner. Mom used to
fold and sort the laundry and leave it in neat piles on her bed-
that way she couldn’t go to bed until we’d all come and collected
our laundry. I am never sure whose clothes are whose- and strange
clothes seem to appear out of no where. Part of it is friends
leaving stuff behind, part is kids getting clothes from their
friends. And part is the teleportation function of washers/dryers
I am sure. Anyway, now I take all the clothes and pile them on
the kitchen or dining room table, and everyone has to come at the
same time and claim whatever is theirs. (We have had an
occasional problem with people claiming clothes that they WISHED
were theirs, but that does eventually sort itself out.) Besides
my own, I also pull the rags, towels, and sheets, and the socks
all go into an extra basket to be paired and distributed after
the main sort. Whatever is left is challenged- “Does ANYONE know
who’s this is?” Usually it is something someone doesn’t want any
more. But whatever it is, it goes to the gets recycled. Before I
came up with this system, I kept trying to send clothes with the
wrong person- they’d dump it on the floor and walk on it until it
was dirty, then it would go through the same cycle again. I will
admit that it’s harder for me to catch clothes that shouldn’t be
worn outside the house- I generally don’t catch them until they
are being worn. My impression is usually the entire outfit has
been planned to go along with the ripped or stained item. But
eventually they get weeded.
I have also taken to sewing small appliques on items that
are still good enough to wear- but just not in public. Part of
this reflects back on the philosophical discussion I mentioned
last week about servants/wives. We are a society with too much
“Stuff”, and also a very homogenous society. Used to be that
people associated mostly with people of their own general
incomes. I remember reading in a 1920s etiquette book that if you
knew that your host didn’t have a maid, you shouldn’t let her
know you were aware of it by making your own bed, as that would
acknowledge her deficiency. No, you were supposed to let her
scramble up to make your bed for you while you were doing
something else, to maintain the image that she HAD a maid, when
you both knew that she didn’t. Well, things are in a similar
situation now. Women who work outside the home are somehow told
that they CAN keep their houses as dusted, clean, etc. as if they
spent all day cleaning it. All they need is to get the
cooperation of their families, and use (buy) the right products.
It doesn’t work like that, but everyone seems to think that it
does – for everyone else- and there’s just something wrong with
them that they can’t make it work.
Back when laundry meant hauling the clothes down to the
stream to pound them on a rock, or boiling them in a big pot and
ironing them (another day), people recognized that laundry was a
significant chore. But now when you are supposed to just toss
things in one machine and then another, it’s not supposed to take
any time at all. It doesn’t take a day and back breaking effort,
but it still eats whatever amount of time the amount each
household generates- and that time is gone forever. Yes, the
washer does the agitating and rinsing while we do something else.
But the sorting, folding, collecting, putting away, etc. takes
time, and it’s the laundry, dishes, sweeping, picking up,
cooking, etc. that ENABLES us to do all the other stuff: the
buying and selling, writing computer programs, all the work
that’s done outside the house. People used to understand that
running a house was both work and a skill. I think that that
understanding was lost, probably when more people were working
for wages than working at home.
The vast majority of people used to be farmers- eighty to
ninety percent. You grew, and stored, your own food. You made
your own clothing and shelter. That was just considered living.
Money was something that was used for things you couldn’t
generate for yourself: taxes, to contribute to the projects that
the community needed, goods that had to be imported- like salt or
coffee, items that were beyond your ability to generate. Now that
we are apart from the land, no one can even consider making their
own food, clothing and shelter. We define our ability to live by
the amount of money we can generate to BUY those things. So house
wives work, because it has no monetary recompense attached to it,
is thought of as valueless, whereas, in truth, it is the only
real work that most people do these days. This is extended to
jobs like farming and teaching and child care. Oddly, these
occupations which are acknowledged to be incredibly important to
the extent that eating and an education are considered things to
which everyone is entitled- are considered low prestige and low
paid jobs. At this point, medical care has escaped this stigma,
but I expect that as universal health care becomes more real, we
will see more of the long hours and low pay that the lower levels
of nurses and health care support staff are having to deal with,
will begin to extend to the more highly trained medical people.
At one point people had only a few necessary clothes, and
they kept them reasonably clean and repaired. Now no one repairs
clothing or wears it beyond where you can see it has been worn-
they must be thrown out! You must have different clothes every
day! When we were kids when we got home from school we changed
into play clothes from our school clothes. Kids don’t do that
anymore. Clothes are bought in abundance, worn, and cast off. In
the sixties the concept of disposable clothing was explored, but
as they couldn’t make the paper clothes comfortable enough that
people would want to wear them even once, it didn’t go anywhere.
I predict that there will be “wear once and throw away” underwear
within the decade, if it isn’t out there already. They do it with
diapers and women’s monthly supplies already. How different is it
to not want to wash adult undies? It’s not hard for ads to create
an “ik” factor in the minds of the public. I expect the paper
companies will generate it as the hemp lobbies get stronger. They
need to come up with something to keep having excuses to chew up
trees rather than a more quickly grown crop like hemp. And when
underwear becomes disposable, can outerwear be far behind? But,
you may object, the clothes will have parts that can’t be
recycled- the fastenings, the elastic… Yeah, and how recyclable
are Pampers? But, BOY, have I digressed!
Mondays, my major project is writing the letter- that
usually takes about four or five hours- which I do enjoy, by the
way. Recently, Willow has been printing the non-e-mail copies
(not everyone has e-mail, even in 2001) for me on her printer. If
not, I take it out to Milford, to Marilyn’s to print. That means
that the paper copies take much longer to get to their
recipients. I do try not to take the car out but once a week.
Whenever possible, I try to save up all the errands for one day,
to reduce the amount of gas I use, as well as the amount of
running around. Traveling between places is wasted time as far as
I’m concerned. A few years ago I used to reward myself by
stopping and talking to Dennis at Emerald City Arts for an hour
each Thursday. More recently, Willow goes with me, and we stopped
in at Aelfwine’s work to have lunch with him. In the summer, the
kids could come with us. (For reasons I have yet to comprehend,
they don’t hate shopping.) More recently, Aelfwine has been
coming with me, and has been amazed at the number of stops and
the amount of stuff we can get done in one day. You have to
figure out all the stops before hand, and the best route to hit
them all. You have to leave space for anything you are picking up
later- usually Agway, where we pick up 50 pound bags of feed and
bales of hay gets the back of the van reserved for that load. I
try to remember a cooler chest if I’m getting frozen stuff.
Usually I have to hit the Post Office, the Bank, a couple of
grocery stores, the health food store, pharmacy, hardware store,
bookstore, library, maybe toy store or some other specialty
store, like the stained glass shop in Nashua. (Aelfwine put the
last two panels of stained glass in by the front door this week.)
When I’m feeling lazy I can cover a lot of categories by going to
Walmart, but we do make an effort to shop locally.
When Kat has to have an after school pick-up, I’m a LOT more
likely to figure “I’m going out anyway” and pick something up
sooner. Of course, you have to take a doctors appointment
whenever it’s available, so that’s had us out a lot more during
the last six months. Tuesdays one of the local video places has a
2 for 99 cent sale, for even recent releases, so if we are out on
Tuesdays, I like to go there- spending 50 cents on a video is
more palatable than $2.50 to three dollars. Fridays I try to do
sewing- this is a throwback to the days when we were more active
in the SCA and I was getting ready for events. I rather hope that
we will be doing more of that in the future- at least until Star
moves out.
I have found that I pretty much have to start dinner by four
if I want to have it by six. Kat is SO bad at getting to doing
the dishes I have been trying to get dinner early, so she could
get to it before bed. It used to be much harder as Aelfwine
rarely got home before 7 or 8. Mother used to feed us before Dad
got home, and he’d eat whenever he got there, then whoever was on
dishes would come down and finish, but I think it’s important for
everyone to eat together. Unless there are guests we do, which I
understand makes us pretty unusual these days. The evening chores
are at 7. In the past I’ve tried to do the goats at sunrise and
sunset, which I figured would be easier for them, (also, if we
lost power, I’d still have light to do it) but for a while at
least, I’m going to stick with Stars 7 and 7 schedule. Usually
we go to bed at 9, but since AElfwine got out of the hospital in
July, we’ve been ready for bed at 8, so we went. Why not? We are
slipping back toward nine again, which is more convenient for
phone calls.
Dan called and told me that Mr. Rogers has finally retired-
the passing of an era. On a brighter note, I saw an ad for a new
animated version of adventures from the Redwall series on Public
TV, which looked pretty good.
Well, now that life is returning to normal- if you’ve been getting
the letter by e-mail, but really prefer it by post- just let me
know. It’s much more civilised, and I’m sure, easier to read. And
I know lots of servers just don’t deal well with some of my eight
page tomes!
Tchipakkan
“Find out just what the people will submit to and you will have found out
the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them;
and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or
blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of
those whom they oppress.” –Frederick Douglass
Tchipakkan 