A Solstice Reflection

The summer solstice has just passed and the earth has begun its slow tilt back toward the winter solstice.  The days that have been lengthening since Christmas are now shortening again.  The change isn’t pronounced yet – the hottest weather of the year has yet to come and the sun still shines well into the evening – but for those that live in relationship with natural systems it means a subtle but real shift in the year.  The spring rush of growth is done and the trees and other plants have started storing their winter starches and ripening their fruit.  The greens turn from vibrant and light to darker and more deep.  The change isn’t just in the plants though.  

The humans in this system also know that a shift is happening.  The summer has only just begun but for the grower, winter is coming already.  The rush of spring planting and planning is over; the garden is growing; summer crops are getting their legs and setting first fruits while spring staples are fading.  For us, we will celebrate the start of summer with food – creamed peas and new potatoes are the meal that says summer for us and we have eaten it every year that we have had a garden big enough to grow them.  The meal is bittersweet and delicious – a celebration of the start of the harvest season and also a reminder that time is already running out to get food put up.  We are thankful that we don’t have to count only on what we grow for our annual nourishment.  The safety net of modern society and the grocery store make the rush to put up the harvest a little less pressing and stressful.  

I’m finding this year more than many others that the solstice is also bringing an introspection.  At 40, I relate to this time of year more deeply.  I am now at or just past the solstice of my life – I am not getting stronger or taller, I have spent my youthful energy and now am settled into my life’s pattern.  I feel much like the trees with my arms stretched to familiar sunshine enjoying the built up years of work already done while still trying to reach a little farther into the warmth.  It has been a good first 40 years by any measure, but the celebration is bittersweet.  My children will move on from me soon and the house will feel empty.  While I can still do a hard day’s work now, I know the time is coming where I will have to slow down.  My knees and shoulders already tell me that I am not the 25 year old that started this journey so many years ago.  I know my winter is coming even as I celebrate my life’s summer.

I think in some ways this is the greatest gift of living in relationship with the land.  The annual cycles of birth, growth, maturity, decline and death are comforting in their familiarity and humbling in their inevitability.  As I walk with my plants and animals through this cycle, I know that I too am going through the same cycle.  I know my own mortality deeply.  I know that there is no way out of my own physical decline and eventual death just as there is no way to avoid the coming winter.  I will celebrate the summer harvest as I celebrate my own growth to this point and all that it has created.  I will watch as each crop declines just as I will one day not be able to keep the pace I do now.  I will watch the leaves turn in the fall just as my hair and skin will change and are changing already.  I will see the first frost kill the last of the summer crops just as one day I will have to stop doing things I love.  The world will go to sleep under a blanket of snow and I too will sleep one day with only memories to remind those who know me of what I was once like.  

These changes are inevitable and ultimately welcome.  When we focus only on one time of year or of life, then we miss the beauty of the others.  I would not want to have a year without the autumn leaves or the crisp mornings of fall and I don’t think I would consider my life fully lived if I did not get to enjoy the young adulthood of my children and celebrate their life’s spring with them, perhaps offering some wisdom gained from my own spring and summer.  I look forward to the coming of age of the trees I plant this year.  I will walk more slowly under their shade than I do now and I will need help to care for them, but what a wonderful autumn to my life to see their flowers in the spring time and their leaves in the fall.  While I don’t look forward to the cold of winter, I do enjoy the wood stove and the time to rest with family.  I hope that the winter of my life will be filled with the warmth of love and the deep rest of a life well lived.  

As I stand on the farm on this year’s solstice and recognize my own life’s solstice, it is profoundly grounding and real.  I feel immersed in nature’s rhythm and I am enjoying my small part in this great dance.  

Happy solstice day to you all!

Real rooms and lights!

At the end of the last post, we were starting the flooring in the bedrooms.  Since then, we have finished the flooring and trim and gotten the lights and outlets all done for all 3 bedrooms.  Woot!  We are all in our own rooms for the first time in 4 years with actual furniture (not plastic bins and suitcases).  Wow.  So, back to where we left off....

While Scott and I worked on flooring upstairs, Jeremy cut our leftover car siding into trim for the upstairs.  This way it matches the ceilings and the beams and we don't have to buy more stuff.

Stack of trim waiting to be installed

Once the trim was made, he moved on to finishing out the windows.  We used cedar boards milled from trees we cut off of my mother's family farm (where she was born) to finish out the deep window wells and do the window built in shelves in our room.  They are absolutely beautiful thanks to Jeremy's amazing attention to detail.  There is something really special about being able to tell my kids that when their grandmother was a little girl, she probably played around the trees that are now in their windows.  You can read the story of us cutting those trees 5 years ago here:  http://thelehrmans.blogspot.com/2012/11/logging-again.html

Sealing the boards after they were cut to fit.

The first finished window!

 

Cedar under our window waiting for the built in

 



 



While Jeremy was busy with that, Scott and I hung the ceiling fans in the bedrooms, finished out the rest of the upstairs electrical and hung the doors.   Doing the trim was somewhat tricky in that our beams are not square thanks to the trees growing on the side of a mountain.  That meant that the trim around every beam and collar tie had to be custom cut which was a very fiddly, tedious process.  The end result is beautiful though!

Doors hung

Finicky trim

They were predicting a very cold couple of nights and we really wanted to get the kids into their rooms and out of the RV before that happened, so we were all in on getting the rooms done.  We just made it!  The kids got to sleep in their own rooms for the first time on the first near freezing night of this fall.  Whew!  Then we started moving the rest of their furniture in and put the finishing touches on Jeremy and I's room. 

Jacob on moving day

 

Our room with actual furniture!

With everyone in a more stable sleeping place, it was time to get the power on to the house.  We had been running our refrigerator and a single lamp off of an extension cord from the outlet in the shed since August.  Now that we had all the circuits upstairs and in the bathroom tied off and ready, we started the process to cut power over to the main house panel.  First, we dug a trench and laid the heavy gauge wire in it inside of electrical conduit.

Trench with conduit starting

Then we killed the power to the power system in the shed - inverter, batteries, everything - to make sure no one got hurt.  Then my amazing brother took care of connecting the wires to the appropriate ports on the inverter and in the house while the rest of us buried the conduit. 

Covered trench and Scott working on the cables in the shed.

Then it was time to flip the switch!  As you can see in the sneak preview above, it worked!  There was much rejoicing that we didn't have to keep wearing head lamps around the house to see.  It was a pretty awesome feeling to get to pull the extension cord out of the house for good!

No more extension cord!!!!

 

Let there be light!

Due to the impending cold weather, getting the place for the wood stove ready to go became the next top priority.  The first step was to finish out the electrical by the front door since we needed to close up that wall.  That involved installing the outside light and outlet.  Scott and I knocked that out in about 2 hours last Wednesday.

Outlet and door light

Inside view of the wood stove corner

Now we are focusing on getting the corner ready for the wood stove.  It is going on a platform which Jeremy is busy building.  One step at a time, we're getting there.  It is starting to feel a lot more like home now though. 

A Note about Camping Full Time

We have started getting a lot of questions and interesting looks when we explain that our family of 4 is now camping full time without running water or electricity.  It seems that there is a widespread opinion that this must be misery and we will have no end of bad anecdotes to share.  I’m afraid we’ll have to disappoint on that count.  Here are a few of the things we’ve experienced as we move through our second full week living at the farm.

Last night we enjoyed home cooked (and grown) potatoes and cabbage cooked in (home canned) chicken stock with fresh tomatoes.  This was accomplished with very little fuss on a camp stove that we are becoming very adept at using.  Man was it delicious!  While we ate sitting outside around our patio table (that is larger than our old dining room table I might add and the chairs are more comfortable) we were treated to a glorious double rainbow in the Eastern sky.  I can’t remember seeing a rainbow as brilliant as the lower of the two.  It had rained for most of the day so the air was cool but the sun decided to peak out for most of our meal.  I wouldn’t have noticed any of that living in town.

You can see the lower rainbow in this picture clearly

Home cooked cabbage and tomatoes.  Yum!

There are 2 pairs of cardinals and a pair of yellow orioles living in the locust grove.  We get to watch them swoop at each other as they come and go.  There are countless other birds on the farm that pop in and out of our space as we go about our daily life.  It has given Catherine the inspiration to become a bird watcher so she is now cataloging all the different birds she sees. 

As I make my semi-regular middle of the night voyage to the composting toilet in the shed, I often see the most amazing moonlit views around the farm.  We are near the crest of the hill with the trees on the other side dimly visible.  There are no sounds except the occasional insect or owl and the wind in the trees.  It is almost like we are the only people on earth.  When the moon was near full, we could see almost as well as in the daytime making for a stunningly serene and quiet view of the world.  Somehow everything looks a little bit magical when seen in the silver light of the moon.

One day last week I had to walk down to my car at the bottom of the hill before work in the morning.  As I wandered down the driveway enjoying the early morning fresh smell of dewy grass and a light breeze, I realized that I was following a coyote.  He was trotting through the north field on my right, completely oblivious to the fact that I was there.  He moved with the simple grace of an animal that has often come through this field and is on his way to a familiar spot.  We listen to the coyotes call every evening at twilight.  It has become an expected ritual that tells us the day is over and it’s time for bed.

Do all of these things mean that there is no downside to long term camping?  Of course not.  We all miss some of the luxuries of life like a hot shower (camp showers are just not as convenient although we all get clean) and a real refrigerator.  On the whole though, the experience has been far more pleasant that we expected and I really don’t have any complaints.  Soon, the solar panels will be up and wired and then we’ll regain many of our lost comforts (although not the shower).  The kids, in particular, are looking forward to the return of electronic entertainment.  I hope that being able to turn on the lights again won’t make us forget the moonlight or stop looking for the birds though.  We might have to turn them off again to remind ourselves to enjoy where we are.  That is the key to happiness, wherever we may be.

Why aren't we talking about this?

FYI:  This is a break from your regularly scheduled homestead building programming.

I recently watched this clip from Bill Maer’s show where world renowned climate scientist Bill McKibbon had a short debate with 2 conservative commentators about whether climate change is real and warrants immediate action.  In it, Bill McKibbon asks if the actions to mitigate or reverse climate change are conservationist in nature (i.e. trying to maintain the current state), why isn’t it a conservative political issue?  I would encourage you to watch it (its short) before reading the rest of this so that you have the context for what I’m about to say.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ce7_1349566635

In the clip, a conservative writer for CNN makes the argument that “The projections for how bad it will be go out for 100 years and no model can be accurate that far in the future”.  He also seems to imply that we should just wait and see before we commit to doing anything about the problem.

This argument amounts to saying “We don’t know for sure so we should just ignore it.”  I have 2 counter arguments to this one.  First, there is a scientific process for evaluating how accurate a model is and one must follow it to determine how trustworthy the projections are.  You can’t just make a blanket statement that all models that try to project into the future are inherently wrong.  That would mean that all budget projections for federal and state governments should be tossed out, all retirement planning is a waste of time because it depends on projections of the economy out 40+ years and no one should ever be granted a 30 year mortgage because it requires believe the model that our economy will grow thus ensuring that you continue to have a job to pay it back.  Clearly, we use models at all levels of our society and they serve a useful function to alert us to trends and help inform decisions about how our current behavior can influence future results.  The same is true for climate models.

The scientific method for evaluating a model uses shorter term predictions to test whether the model accurately represents a system’s behavior.  Typically, a scientist would put in the values for the system at some known point in time (so, say the climate and human activity for 1990) and let the model run to see how well or poorly it predicts the current state.  Additionally, a given run of the model using current data would be checked against as we move forward to see if it accurately represented how the system is behaving now.  If the model performs well in those tests, then its results can be assumed equally trustworthy in the longer term.  No model is 100%, but many are close and they provide necessary information on how our decisions can affect the future.

Along with the accuracy check, a scientist would look at the bias in the model.  No model is 100% accurate, so an analysis of the gaps between what the model predicted and what actually happened gives  a sense of whether the predictions generally err on one side or the other of true – in other words, is the model generally predicting a worse situation or a better one?  Future predictions can then be evaluated in that light.

Lets take a look at how climate models perform under this process.  First, there are many climate models out there.  Every major national energy agency has a model and there are numerous models in academia.  All of the commonly used models show a significant warming trend that leads to increasing natural disasters, more frequent and severe droughts and significantly rising sea levels.  Lets look at one of the oldest of these models, the one presented in The Limits to Growth published in 1972.  In this book, a group of scientists predicted that human populations would collapse somewhere around 2050 without significant, large scale and unified action.  Scientists have compared actual conditions in the world with the model's predictions at several points, including a printed update in 2004 (Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update)  demonstrating that we are tracking very closely to that prediction now.  We are right on the path predicted by the model when no actions are taken to improve the situation.  Based on that, we can have a high degree of confidence in the model’s future predictions, none of which are pleasant. 

Now lets consider the second test – which way are the results biased?  This model, along with the ones used by the major energy agencies, has a bias toward optimism.  What does that mean?  It means that the predictions are proving to be better than what is actually happening.  The current effects of climate change are more severe than what is predicted by most models.  This means that when we see the model predicting it to be really bad in the future if we don’t do something, it will probably be worse in reality.   

So, the models used to predict the effects of climate change have proven very accurate and their bias is toward showing things will be better than they are actually proving to be. 

My second argument for why we should not just throw out all scientific models that predict the future (other than that it is a ridiculous idea on its face), is that his argument amounts to saying, “lets gamble and see if its really as bad as you think it will be.”  This is akin to saying that we are collectively ok with gambling the lives of over 6 BILLION people because we don’t want to change our policy and behavior.  Why do I say we’re gambling with people’s lives?  Lets look at some of the concrete effects of climate change, most of which we can already see.

First, we know that we can grow enough food to feed the current world population in the climate we have enjoyed for the last several centuries.  As that climate changes, there is no guarantee that we will be able to continue to do that.  In fact, there is mounting evidence that we will not be able to feed the world in the near future.  The overall drying and warming trend mean that the kind of farming we use today to feed ourselves can’t produce as much food as it does now.  More specifically, it says that every 1 degree increase in the average global temperature results in a 10% reduction in the amount of grain harvested.  We are already predicted (and remember the predictions are biased toward understating effects) to see a 2-4 degree rise in global temperatures.  That means a 20-40% reduction in our staple crop production.  This in a world that is already seeing record levels of hunger (we hit an all time record for number of people starving in the world last year).  Its safe to say that a reduction of that magnitude would result in widespread famine because it already is (we’re already 1 degree higher than our 1900’s average).

But wait, if it gets warmer doesn’t that mean we can just move farther north and farm there?  As one who has spent a lot of time growing food, I love this line of reasoning.  It clearly comes from people who have no basic understanding of geography or farming.  If you look at the world’s major food producing areas (like the American Midwest), they share one common thread – great soil.  In order to consistently farm somewhere, you need deep, loose soil that will feed the plants.  Now lets look at what is directly north of the Midwest.  Hmmm.  Canadian forest.  Well, we can just cut the trees down, right?  Not exactly.  Those trees are growing on rocks.  The soil in the area of Canada that will have weather most similar to the current Midwest is shallow and full of rocks.  This is not an area that can be successfully farmed on a large scale.  Additionally, if we cut down all the trees we will further accelerate the warming trend and all of its effects.  So, no, we can’t just move our farms north. 

Second, the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters means that more people will be killed, displaced and traumatized by tornadoes, floods, droughts, hurricanes, mud slides, etc.  It will also be more expensive to pay for more and worse storm damage.  Anyone who thinks that we can pay for these exponentially increasing costs hasn’t been paying attention to the current debate about the federal deficit.  The magnitude of natural disasters that we can expect to see, not in 100 years, but in 10, 20 or 30 years (so well within my lifetime) is projected to overwhelm the GDP of all developed nations.  In other words, we won’t be able to rebuild.  Those affected will be left with nothing.  The suffering and trauma this will cause are unimaginable and they will happen everywhere.  We are already seeing this in New Orleans where many communities still have not been rebuilt since Katrina.

To summarize my argument against the “models aren’t accurate and we should ignore them” point:

-The models have proven very accurate in the 10-40 year window that we already have data on.

-The models are biased toward things being better than they are turning out to be, so if they say its going to be bad we can assume it will be worse.

-We will not be able to feed ourselves in the world predicted by climate models

-Increasing numbers of people are and will be affected by natural disasters that we are less and less able to deal with.

One last thought in case you aren’t convinced:  you don’t need the model anyway, because its already happening. All of these effects are already starting and are easy to see.  Climate change isn’t the future’s problem, its ours.  Right now.  Here.  And its getting worse.  This is THE ISSUE we should be talking about.  And we are ignoring it.

Thoughts about work

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
-Thomas Edison

Over the last several years, we have undergone a significant shift in our attitude toward physical work.  We once considered work something to be avoided – it was uncomfortable, it made our muscles sore, it was hot, inconvenient and any number of other associations.  Shifting from that perspective to considering work like an old friend – something that validates us, gives us purpose and produces innumerable benefits – has taken a lot of thought, determination and adjustment.  I thought I would write a bit about how we got to this perspective in case it helps anyone else.

The first obstacle we faced was deciding that the effort was worth it.  For example, when we decided to build our first 4 garden beds the decision took a while and was made a bit reluctantly – the garden beds weren’t going to build themselves and we wanted fresh vegetables!  It probably helped that we couldn't afford to hire anyone to do it for us.  So, we went out on several fall days and created our first 4 garden beds.  We complained, we drug our feet and we made a great show of being glad to be back inside when we were done.  It took us FOREVER compared to what we would do today.  At the same time though, there was a sense of pride that we had done it and the vegetables were really good!  That made the decision to expand the garden the next year easier – we had already done this once after all.  The work didn’t seem as daunting and we knew the reward would be more fresh food.  Over time deciding that something is worth the work has continued to get easier.

The next challenge was integrating work into our self-image.  We both saw ourselves as academics.  We did well in school, we liked school, we liked to read and discuss and debate.  How does that jive with wanting to go get sweaty with hand tools?  How can these 2 things go together?  It felt a little like telling the class nerd that the school was depending on them to win the basketball tournament. It just didn’t fit.

Then we discovered that there is no end of things to learn!  Learning to use a tool or build a raised bed is a different kind of learning than reading a book or taking a test, but creates the same sense of satisfaction.  We found that we could use our love of books to learn about anything we wanted to try and then we actually got to do it!  There is such a sense of satisfaction in taking something from abstract words on a page to something you can see, touch and feel.  We became hooked on finding new ways to learn and apply that knowledge.

We also had a perception that somehow people who did physical work were special and separate – they must have some kind of training that let them do that kind of work.  Our grandparents had grown their own food, but they grew up doing it.  Clearly someone taught them what to do and that’s how they became good at it, right?  We didn’t have any training or any special skills.  We didn’t even know anyone around us who did any of these things.  How would we know where to start?

We still occasionally run into this one when we contemplate trying something new.  However, after trying quite a list of new things over the last several years we can confidently say that none of it was nearly as hard as we thought it would be.  There isn’t anything we’ve done that any adult willing to try couldn’t do.  That only makes sense when you think about it.  For millennia, people survived on what they grew themselves.  That means that growing food has to be something that everyone can do, right?

An interesting side effect of work being this accessible is the sense of self confidence it breeds.  The skills don’t take long to master and from then on you have a skill you can use, teach and rely on.  When I think about how this might change people’s view of themselves and others around them, I have to wonder if having the opportunity to be good at something would make people more confident in themselves.  I think of this particularly for our children.  My kids will always know that there are tons of things they’re good at, even if none of them relate to current social norms.  It is my hope that this confidence will form the foundation they will need to go through life.  They have value – concrete, real and tangible value and ability.  That’s a powerful thing that more people should have (in my humble opinion).

So what’s the moral of this story?  Do more work!  Just kidding…mostly.  Changing our perspective from "hating" work to enjoying it has opened up a whole new worrld for us.  We are happier, healthier and more secure in our lives.  Being willing to do work has allowed us to meet so many amazing people and try so many cool things that we now can't imagine a life where we aren't working.  Work is our friend - we like it!