Greenadine’s Weblog

Back to short short nails, the garden is calling and i have once again sacrificed beauty for efficiency. It is an intrinsic failure on my part, i apologize to the hairdressers of America. The nail salons and cosmetology colleges too. Organics before glamour. Loose cotton clothing is fashionable, isn’t it?

The chickens are corralled, the leaves are littering the coop, twigs raked and i can see the myriad crop of violets shouting purple dreams all over the natural lawn. Worms are joining in the fray, multiplying profusely under mulch. sparrows playing chicken in the yard, like a deer in a cattle pasture, just pretending to belong. Well actually, they are the original inhabitants of the place, we, my chicks and i are the intrusive species in the prairie.

The world hasn’t changed since this morning, but i do feel better. All local stocks are perky, whoopie!

Wall Mart up, Aquila Up, Energizer way up…what, they expect to make a killing on the presidential incentive checks. More people will be buying battery operated toys for themselves and for the kids to forgive them for all the partying they are going to do with all that –free money–

Such is the economy in dark times, quick, celebrate while there’s a chance! can’t afford that new SUV nor the gas to put in the old one, so? Let’s go kids, McDonald’s stocks just went up, they must be expecting us, hurry! and what am i going to do ? Raid the beans and rice shelves, that’s what..

I already have a fair installment on the dry staples department, flax seed, soy beans, lentils and their leguminous cousins, split, dahl, black beans, will get quinoa, just bought semolina, one package at a time every time it’s on sale, that’s how you do it in the rural areas. I asked for untreated whole grain at the feed store–they looked at me–so i rephrased that request–they looked at me–we both nodded.

A large agricultural supply center should be able to supply natural agricultural goods–but nooo! rye and wheat seed are treated with mercurial compounds and other pest deterrents; therefore unfit for animal consumption, my chickens will be forced to live by the freegan’s creed. Donated left-overs and the green grocer’s discards, lucky them!.

So far the fowl population and the local wild rabbits have kept the weeds down and much of the lawn mowed wherever allowed. Robins, cardinals and those invasive starlings have kept the yard tidy. Not much left for the ants or the ground wasps. A few bees have visited the forsythia and flowering quince. A ruby throated hummingbird comes to the red quince. Red hooded finches sing loudly under windows and irritate the resident squirrels. It’s a zoo out there!

A buzzard cruises for squirrel mishaps on local streets, as fast as these furry critters are, they manage to get run over at an alarming rate. Alarming? Not really, no chance of species endangerment here, our protein supply is guaranteed in case of total financial collapse– post rebate checks. And of course, raccoons and possums lay down their lives quite regularly on roadsides for us. And deer insist on committing suicide by car somewhere every night out there; saves on bullets, (get in the truck, Junior, we’re goin’ huntin’.)

We do not travel, instead, we shop local, we walk or ride bikes when not so lazy. The garden and spiral stairs provide plenty of exercise to be sure. And memories of intercontinental trips suffice along the years. The computer fulfills its entertainment duties, the doves cooing in the oak  and the blue jay quarrels do the rest. Sheltered from indiscriminate news media and too busy to be anything but selective, i am fermenting the seeds of change in a country mood. May the city dwellers find green spaces to satisfy their primal needs.