Crazy Ideas

Here's the full-moon paddle group from my birthday! So great. Love you all!

Today I got some harebrained ideas. All inspired by my recent adventures.

One is that I want to buy this land next to my dad's place in Maine. It's crazy, I know. I live in California. Western Maine can get cold, is kinda boring and there's not a lot of live music. Unless you're into country, and my dad's community hotspot attracts a fair amount of locals playing that on a Friday or Saturday night all summer long.

Ok, well, I'm not moving there. But if it looks like the land is reasonably priced, I'd like to buy it and build a winterized house with natural materials. We can't do it in CA because we're not millionaires. But it'd be great to always have a place on the land in Maine, and an opportunity to create some local knowledge about green building up there. Not to mention a tax write-off for my trips home and a chance to see my Dad and my soul sister, Heather. (who happens to build and remodel green homes out on Peak's Island.)

I don't want to get ahead of myself here. So, for now, I'll just relay this flicker of a thought that somehow gained momentum today in my head and out loud to my dad. There's lots to research. Like whether we could even get a loan to buy it, or afford it at all.

On the getting off the grid topic, I stopped by Real Goods on the way back from the Emerald Earth community in Mendocino where Liz and Brent live and are building their house with strawbale and cob.

I saw this older fella at another counter, thinking it was the register. His arms were full and he looked tired. As I suggested he put his things on a chair by me, I noticed he was a familiar face. It was Wavy Gravy, the famous clown of the San Francisco 60's hippie scene.

I grinned at him and asked if he was going to summer camp in Laytonville, which is a short bit north of nearby Hopland. He said he'd just returned. His arms were full of bubble wands and toys. What a sweet man he is.

I laughed when I saw all the groovy stickers on his Camp Winnerainbow caravan, parked next to my Jetta in the lot. One sticker said "Don't push the clown" right next to the picture of the Dali Llama and a bunch of peace stickers. When I told some of my family that I'd met him, only my 90-year old grandmother knew of him. Same generation? I guess. She's pretty on top of world news, my grandma.

Check out the vlog post above for a little video about what I got...it's silly, as usual.

While I was at EE in one of their fine solar-paneled compostable restrooms, I read a bit of this great back-to-earth publication, Lehman's, "Products for Simple, Self-Sufficient Living". I'm pretty sure it's from Amish country. I found myself getting unusually enthusiastic about canning fruit and veggies. I wonder where that came from...maybe Maine is on my brain these days. I have been eating an absurd amount of blueberries and rhubarb.

Tomorrow I'm making strawberry-rhubarb crisp again. Mostly organic. Mostly vegan. Mostly sugar-free. Third time this summer. Yum.

It's been fairly easy to find here, though last week it was sold out at the market. I think the two other women I've met locally who make crisp or pie from it had gotten there first. This week, the farmer is saving me 2 lbs, so I guess I'm making it next weekend too. I'll have to post the recipe I come up with. I hate following strict recipes, so I just work it out by taste and look at a few to see what they call for. It usually works out better that way.

Rhubarb was a staple of my summer diet growing up. We froze it and made a lot of pies from it. It seemed to grow wild everywhere in Temple, Maine. In all my nearly 15 years of living in Northern CA, I swear I'd never noticed rhubarb before. Not even when I worked at the Farmer's Market in Santa Cruz selling avocados. What beauty we pass by and never stop to notice!

I'm hoping for a kayak or a hike tomorrow too. Can't believe I've rambled on so. My god. Back to the real world.
Oh, check out this sticker I got at Real Goods. I like it.

-K