Make a Difference Day

We had a mandatory day of service on Saturday where we drove out to some camp (camp Zanika) and helped them winterize for the coming...well, winter. When I do these pictures, none of them are mine, btw, we have a shared photobucket where people can put their pictures and first I pick out the ones I want to share with you, and then I think of clever or entertaining captions to accompany them on this site. This picture shows me and steph (hiding in the box), debbie, and our supervisor toby. This, p.s. is the closest picture I have to us actually working. We were moving stuff and decided to hide in the box and then jump out and shout when we passed the other people cutting wood. Fun!

Oh, actually this is of us working. It is me (Huck Finn), Amanda (Huck Finn) and Judy (Tom Sawyer, she didn't speak up or anything, so she got the lame character) They have a long floating dock that is segmented and we helped bring it in for the winter by rowing it to shore once it had been cut free. Fun!

This is our other supervisor, Julie. She is raking the outdoors. Good luck Julie!

here are a couple obligatory pictures of how pretty it was out there

Oops, Judy just walked right into that one! (hehe, I'm lame)

We also had to build a huge bonfire to burn brush in, there was so much brush. Once it had burned down a bit, boys started daring each other to jump over it. Diarmid did so, as shown in this picture. A lot of other guys did too, but no other picture turned out so awesome. P.S. Those are mine and Amanda's shoes by the fire, they got completely soaked with that dock project, when I slipped and fell and my feet went in the water.

So here is me and Amanda, barefoot by the fire, along with Yolanda and Judy

stuff and things

This is at the ocean shores thing that I mentioned before, and these are all of my ameripeeps in costume. I think that is the frowniest I was all night, and I'm not sure how it happened, although I do remember that Grease Lightening was playing when they pulled us out to take pictures.

In other news, my mouse had babies this morning, 10 black eyed little squirmies, I don't know yet how many males and females and coat color/types yet. The story on the mice is that I was going to do an afterschool class on genetics and it was all planned out and I got some mice for the project and then the next day was told that they were going to do the really required stuff first, enrichment would be next semester. Oh well, this way I will have more information on what mice would be good to cross to make an exciting experiment for the kids.

Also, I just found out that one of my kids, the new student who speaks very very little english, got a 96% on her science test that I helped her study for! That is really awesome because I am basically the only person she was getting the information from because she can't understand the lectures, so it was me and Wendy translating who taught her the whole chapter. She's really bright, though, so it makes things easy.

Meat

I am cooking chili now. This is the first time ever in my life that I have really handled and dealt with raw meat, so even though I’ve been planning this chili event for a couple of days now, when I got home and took my 1.16 lbs of steak out of the refrigerator I didn’t know what to do with it; I kept just reading the recipe over and over. Then I read the part in the Techniques section on how to trim the fat off of meat. All I could think about, looking at it in its dinky styrofoam package, (because I had only worked up the courage to slit the plastic wrap all the way down) was Lord of the Flies: “Kill the pig, slit her throat, bash her in, spill her blood!” My kids are working on Lord of the Flies right now in English and I’ve been reading it with them to refresh my memory and less than 30 minutes before now, staring at the meat in its styrofoam tray, was the truly chilling description of the boys killing their second pig, the sow who had been nursing her piglets. It was bloody and visceral and frightening and the ropes of shiny colored guts, Jack laughing as he gets drenched in blood, and the head on the stick, with the blackening liver and the flies and the pig’s cynical conversation with Simon. So here’s me again, in my kitchen, knife in hand, staring at this tray of meat. My knife, btw, is about the length of my index finger; I really don’t have many cooking supplies. And my cutting board is this ridiculous yellow plastic 70’s thing with flowers on the handle, it is a little larger than a postage stamp and looks laughable when I work up the courage to touch the meat and pull it out of the plastic and slap it onto the cheerful little cutting board. My pets are both crowding around me, what is going on? Is this for us? Let us cut it, we will just take off the fat!

I made a quiche!

I did it hardcore, I made the crust myself with no mixer or anything, a delicious mushroom and spinach quiche. I only have two bowls, count ‘em, TWO bowls bigger than cereal bowls, one of which I suspect is an old decorative wash basin and I don’t have a single knife, spoon, spatula or non-stick pan that isn’t from a secondhand store. I don’t know if a quiche is a very sophisticated or difficult thing to make, but it sure felt that way when I was mixing up that pie crust with my hands and prebaking it and everything. Further, I don’t see any point in having more than one cookbook, especially until you’ve used all the recipes from it. I just have one from a goodwill, it is big (but rather thin) and has a lot of pictures, plus basic info on what kinds of tools you need and how to prepare all the ingredients you need for the recipes. Tomorrow I am making chili and I already have my red kidney beans soaking. Losing my cell phone has been great, I have had no interruptions from my interests all weekend. I get up early, read, write, draw, plan, cook, do dishes, hang out with my pets, read more, etc. I don’t think I will ever see the point in a television again, and I am learning that I can do with a lot less internet. Yesterday I read Kurt Vonnegut’s last book, A man without a country and finished Watchmen, which I found incredibly exciting and enlightening. I think it might be the only graphic novel on the Time’s best 100 novels list, but that might not be true. Regardless, if you are thinking of getting into that sort of thing, I highly recommend watchmen, it raises a lot of exciting and thought provoking issues. A man without a country is best if you are thinking about becoming an expatriot because Vonnegut basically just rips us to shreds. Maybe you would like a few quotes? You know I keep a running list of all the things from books I never want to forget.
“A twerp was a guy who stuck a set of false teeth up his butt and bit the buttons off the back seats of taxicabs. And I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.”
“Evolution can go to hell as far as I am concerned. What a mistake we are. We have mortally wounded this sweet life-supporting planet – with a century of transportation whoopee.”
“Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.”
“When you get out of bed each morning, with the roosters crowing, wouldn’t you like to say, “As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, my soul is not free.”” (p.s. that is my new thing that I say when I get out of bed each morning, get ready for my next visit home, I am more hilariously socialist than ever!)
I guess I’ll conclude this post with just one more delightful tidbit from the late mr. Vonnegut, “The good Earth – we could have saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy.”

oceanshores

Seattle: check.

So we had a 3.5 day long mandatory and oh so important training session at a cold and blustery beach 6 hours from wenatchee this week. I lost my phone so I couldn't tell anyone that I was going to be gone. My pets stayed at Wendy's, as I had house-sitted for her last weekend, so it was like a trade. Basically I've just spent a long time with other people and I would really be into some alone time for about a week so here's some pictures and don't call me.

Oh well it was a little fun when we all got into my car in our halloween costumes on the way back from the ball. I was a cowboy, ps, and most of us had taken off our hats/masks/etc. A ninja's weapon is stealth.

Yeah, cookin! and bikin! and rockin' out!

This weekend I had my bicycle (bicicleta in spanish) repaired by the aforementioned Chaz (pictured rocking out on my new pogo stick) because there are these thorns everywhere called goatheads that stick in your tires, shoes, dogs feet, etc. and ruin everything. They are tough like steel and they suck. Anyway, I was so excited that I rode my bike to work Monday morning (it is 7 miles away!) and it was very refreshing and then I had to ride it home which was also refreshing.
Also I purchased a cooking book at the goodwill a while back and then I went through it on Monday and picked out the recipes I wanted to eat during the coming week and went grocery shopping with my new food stamps and got all of the ingredients. I ghetto rigged a broiler using a small cast iron frying pan and broiled up some of these veggies that I had marinated in vinegar and oil and herbs and it was really good! I even ate the onions and green peppers, which I had only really put in there to follow the recipe because I didn't think I was going to like them. AND then I put an egg in the bowl and got all those delicious herbs mixed up in it and scrambled it and made a delicious breakfast. I am a good cooker!
In somewhat related news, I purchased some dog shoes for Judy at the unbelievable price of $30 (unbelievably expensive that is. she's a dog for pete's sake) and she hates them and walks like...a cat in snow or something, really funny but also I have no intention of letting 30$ go down the drain so she's just going to have to get used to them. This is so that I can walk her around my trailer without having to stop every 30 feet and pull out a million goat heads from her poor little feets. And also for the winter.

some pictures

Here are some pictures of me in Washington, taken by one of my Amerifriends, Amanda.

This is me driving in my car to number 2 canyon.

This is Amanda. We get along well as she is also a dirty tree huggin' hippie. Judy is also a wildlife enthusiast: see her smile!

Amanda is 19 and from Kentucky, she serves at the Bruce Hotel, which is a transitional housing center for people transitioning from homelessness to having a home and a job, etc.

Here are some other friends, from left to right: Diarmid, he is 18, from Georgia, he likes computers and playing video games. He is serving at a junior high part time and a highschool the other part of the time, helping the "high risk kids" who are newly in highschool or will be soon.

Next is Jake, he has a beard and really likes Tom Waits. He is local and has introduced us to a lot of cool people, and shown us where a lot of cool trails and things are. He is cool in general. He is 19, I believe, and serves at Sterling Elementary helping high risk kids with their homework and reading.

Next is Steph, she is from Ohio and is 23. She served with Forest services at Mt. Rainier last year and is serving at Grant Elementary now, with Reading corps, so she is helping kids who are just a little below proficiency learn how to read.

This is me enjoying a funnel cake at the Chelan County Fair. This was one of the first things me and my amerifriends did together. Check the fanny pack, although I'm wearing it in the nonconventional, over the shoulde style, for easy access.

This is what you get once you get the the top of number 2 canyon. The view! Seen here: Jake, Judy, me, fanny pack strap, the enchantments.

One of our Amerifriends, Debbie, has a baby, Jacob. This is him, Judy, and I. Judy loves a baby.

This is Steph, at a river park downtown. The rest of us are probably there somewhere!

I bought a pogo stick at the goodwill, an excellent purchase.

Jake introduced us to Chaz, not shown, who fixes bikes, has red hair and a free spirited mother. She has campfires in her yard on Fridays and lets me bring Judy. Chaz took us on a hike yesterday to squillchuck national park and after a long time hiking, this is what we saw. Not too shabby.

And one more pic of me and Judy, to tide you over until next time.

I found a green place

I found a green place!
Today is the first full day in my new house alone (I know, I’m milking it, two days ago was my first official day in the long haul, that night was my first night in it, the next day was my first full day in it and my first night alone, and now today is my first day completely alone. What.) and me and judy just got back from a long enjoyable walk. We just walked up that dirt road I had seen past the goats and pigs, it didn’t go very far, and then climbed up the ridge at the end. We followed what must have been bighorn sheep trails, they were littered with poop and pretty well used. Once we were at the top, I was pretty winded. It was neat to see the different kinds of foliage that grows here, a lot of it is what I want to call baby’s breath, even though I’m sure it isnt’, just something similar. Tons and tons of little tiny white flowers, it looks like white shrubbery from a distance. Everything looks like shrubbery, either white (which turns out to be flowers), green, which turns out to be sage, or, usually, yellow, which is tumbleweeds, bramble-y things, goathead things, etc. Also there are somethings that are a bright yellow, which also turns out to be flowers. Anyway, once we got up there I thought maybe we could walk back towards the long haul and climb down from near it, so I was walking back the way we came, but maybe 100 feet or so above the dirt road (and the highway, which is always visible and audible) We didn’t get very far though when it started sloping down, too steep to climb down safely (I think, I might try again when I’m in better shape) but I saw judy perking up her ears and I thought she might see a sheep or something, so I stopped and listened and I heard water falling, and looked around, and sure enough there was a spring or something making a little tiny waterfall. This steep slope, I should try to clarify, was like….butt cheeks or something, it was steep straight down and then steep straight up again, and the waterfall was between the two, accompanied by a whole lot of plants, so I decided that since we couldn’t get there from above that we would try again from below. Once we got there there was a clearing with a lot of rocks, I don’t know if these clearings are something Terry did, or the highway makers did, or if it is natural, or what, just clearings full of piles of big and small rocks. So there was a pen of some sort and I could hear the water behind it, but I couldn’t get to it from around the pen, the plants were thick and tall! Like a place that wasn’t a desert or something! I went in the little pen and it was beautiful, I felt like Mary from the secret garden. I even now think maybe I’ll try to hang out in there a lot or something. Just lots of plants, and green. Sage was growing on the ground and the back was basically obfusicated by foliage of various types, I got the idea that maybe it had been a place where grapes were grown at one point, but who knows if that is true. I couldn’t get to the water, the plants were just too thick, judy and I were covered in cottony things and there were all sorts of bugs and some of the plants had thorns, but I could see water falling, with a big white pvc pipe coming out of the same place and off the water fall, but I feel like I didn’t see a pipe before, so there must be another one farther back and I intend to go find it, I just don’t know when or how…yet. I’m already thinking about putting my hammock in there. I need to hang it somewhere. Maybe from the trailer to the rock wall behind it? Another thing I’d like to mention about the long haul is that I have a lot of flies here and Judy and Juliette both think they are the best in the world, they seem to spend every waking minute stalking, pouncing, running around looking up, circling, snapping, etc. at these awful flies. Its enough to make you want to pull your hair out!