Moonshine Junkyard

this is an old/new farmgirl obsession of mine, to go along with my post about mama earth farm. i first read about maryjane butters when i read, long ago, a 1995 National Geographic article before many people were even talking about the word organic. i was intrigued by her story, especially about the fact that she dropped out of college to become a wilderness forestry ranger at a young age. and i have been sort of in love with her ever since. I found her magazine while browsing the shelves of Borders one day and since then I've followed her as she has built an empire of organic living stuff. Her husband calls her a visionary, which i think is appropriate: she has a true entrepeneurial spirit but the nice thing about hers is that the ideas she comes up with bring community and organic living together and strive to make the world a better place. For example, she started this thing called the Pay Dirt Farm School which is a non profit organization that teaches young people how to do...

we are lucky enough that our good friends scott and gary work at the infamous Poor Reds which never changes (except the jukebox gets better) and which people travel from all over to visit. so we got to close down the bar with them sunday night and, once again, we had WAY too much fun. addie kicked off the night by starting to cry with nostalgia (you can see the tears running down her nose) when the dixie chicks' "cowboy take me away" came on and so em and i gave her some sweet sweet cowgirl love: which made us all very happy. and that turned addie's mind to dancing, so she grabbed the nearest partner: and she and joey whirled around that narrow little space that has seen so much craziness: and then we all joined in on the dancefest: while artie posed - sexy?- for the camera our friend gary reminds us of joey in ten years. and scott sowa, apparently the only one actually working here, who is going to have a brand new baby girl in about a week! without my little u...

my old dear friend mary lives on a farm. she and her husband ben are living the dream! they work so hard every day on their 5 acre property in somerset and they now have created a CSA (community supported agriculture) and sold ten shares of their farm to their neighbors. in fact, nancy, mom's friend from the library, is one of their lucky buyers. they will provide a box of fresh produce from their garden and eggs from their gorgeous happy hens once a week. they took us on a little tour through their growing goodies. kale, chard, carrots, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, strawberries, snap peas all flourishing green and lively in pretty curving rows. they also have all types of different herbs and they are starting an orchard with nectarines, plums, apples, two different kinds of pears, cherries. ben told us all about what he feeds the chickens, how they grind it up and what is healthy for chickens. and sylvan, who fell in love with the little crank to grind up the peas, worked on grind...

Oh how i love thee summer, for so many reasons Road trips with Darin: Going to the river: Spontaneous dance parties: Backyard barbecues with all the friends: Backpacking trips: Sleeping outside: My little swimming pool: Walking down to Cozmic Cafe for a beer and some live music: Going to Marco's Cafe for a beer and some live music: Bocce ball games: Going to the river again : Backyard music shows: Making great food with all the girls: my favorite summer treat by far, Mexcian coconut popsicles: Family adventures, like this hiking trip down to Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon: Summer reading, especially (of course!) at the river Jumping and flying into the gorgeous summer world! AHHH SUMMERTIME! It is the time of life and exuberance...the time of year that everyone comes together to dance and go in the back of old trucks to the look-out tower at the top of the mountain, the time that everyone hikes down to the river almost every day and then goes to FreshMex after, then back to my...

nothin left to do but smile, smile, smile... Alright, can I just take a minute to be completely self-absorbed? Okay, thanks, here goes... my big proud moment; i got special recognition from Dr. Madden for graduating *with Honors* but by the picture you might think my "special" recognition had something to do with me being a special needs student: calming myself down a bit in order to pose with some of my incredible professors Dr. Toise and Dr. Sweet: and Dr. Lee-Keller then, back home to my party, here are my decorations (thanks to em and noel): AND a bright bouquet of spring flowers my mom brought for me: AND my cake from rebecca: (okay maybe you're catching on. it wasn't just MY party. it was art's birthday too. thus, smART cake. together we got the royal treatment, so from here on out I'll drop all the obnoxious mine.mine.mines and sticks with OURS) in fact, here we are in all our glory, sporting enviable party hats ala emily. i also had a dramatic "g...

The other thing I am insanely inspired by today is my professor, Doug Rice. I have been taking his film class this semester on the French New Wave, as you can probably tell by my list of favorite things to the right. The way this man discusses film and writing and art take the breath out of my lungs and flies me up into the circussy air of an imaginative wild land. Here are some quotes from him or his own inspirations: "The more we speak the less words seem to mean." "I is an Other." (originally from Rimbaud, as performed in Vivre Sa Vie) "Your being changes through the act of writing." "You get to choose what you want to think about, and through this choice you come into being." Doug Rice addresses the REAL questions of being in the world: the things we should really be thinking about when we go to college and supposedly educate ourselves. He says that if you are really learning in college, (or anywhere) your brain should hurt, you should be ove...