Years ago there was another drought coupled with swarms of grasshoppers
chewing my veggies , sparking an interest in raising turkeys which, I found
out, are grasshopper eating machines and you just had to be careful with the
turkeys around your children because they tended to go for the little dot eyes,
being capable but not all that smart; (not the child; the fowl, of course). I even bought a bb gun to use them for target
practice (not the child, of course) and even tried to teach my teenagers how to
shoot, until I had to put a halt to that because of the car windows they were
shooting out by mistake when they missed the grasshopper. I ventured up to the other end of our valley
to visit Suchi. I am not sure where she
is now and haven’t seen her truck, riddled with progressive bumper stickers and
loaded down with manure, for a while. Her
garden was stunning; the corn plants were taller than me; the soil was the proverbial
“sponge” we yack about at watershed restoration meetings; when you walked on
it. I said, “How do you do it” and she
said, and I quote, “Soil is Everything!”
I continue to think about that statement and what it means and I take it
to perhaps even loftier levels than she might have. I am still working on the soil in my little
way, having raised donkeys for many years and I have used their ‘road apples’
for mulch, fertilizer and for blackening steel, which I discovered when I
remembered that Maria the potter discovered the black glaze she is so famous
for because when they were firing, raku style, there was manure in the straw
and the rest is history. I also compost and save or recycle almost
everything. There is that word again; a
dirty word in family squabbles; I have learned not to talk in generalities
like, “you always……. everything”; that is a recipe for disaster! But, with
things, which many people eschew, preferring a minimalist,
non-material, Zen sort of existence where objects are tossed or given away with
fervor; and I am often the recipient, therefore have a fairly large ranch style
‘boneyard’ for objects of interest to me (everything) and I often sing the
little song as I cart away ‘unwanted items’, “I’m just a guy who can’t say
“No”; I’m in a terrible fix….”. So I
have stuff to make stuff with and that is what I do. I love old weathered wood because I do not
have to put a finish on; maybe some wax; saving time and my health. I save trips to town because I have the “raw
materials” on hand to create with. It is
a lifestyle and sort of a choice. An old
pet travelling container on end makes a great compost bin and mine have
survived a few bear raids. Cardboard is
great for working on cars or making templates. Pallets are very useful; I even
made an emergency railroad crossing. I
mix oil and sawdust to start fires in my shop.
I use steel for making stiff things and tools, like the great spud that
I call “The Tool” out of a broken leaf spring; wire is always handy, iron is
for melting with the Iron Tribe, dead piñons have warmed our house for years. The list of resourcefully created objects drones on, including an outdoor reusable dance
floor that Keith helped me put together a few times, a log splitter, bridges
and road drags, plant holders and sheds, fences and sculptures. When talk arises about “reconstruct, recycle,
reinvent, restore”, my eyes light up and the juices get flowing and I am off; “cooking
soup with stale words and fresh meanings; it tastes soo good”, thinking outside
of the “crate”. Now we are talking ‘sustainability’ , helping the “soil”, the milieu,
as it were; get better and better, until
we are rich and fecund and useful, like the busy beavers of old or my two year
old grandson, Abe, who made a Play-Doh blender; with fruit, ready to
whirl, the other day. And
these concepts all apply to our personal desires to rebuild our contentment,
reinvent our attitudes and priorities; take the raw materials of our past, pay
attention to the values, find our voices, remember our experiences and create
wonderful new “USes”! Good pun, if I do
say so myself!
