Lists

It turns out strawberry jam is about the easiest canning project you can ask for. Another success: my first batch of compost appears quite satisfactory. I’m currently reading The Complete Compost Gardening Guide and wishing I had read it years ago.

I mentioned to my mother on the phone that I’ve decided to move permanently to Central America this year, after which we talked for several more minutes and everything seemed fine. Hours later I got an email from her saying how distressed she was by what I told her. She’s worried because I told her my passport may not be renewed because I owe the government money that I cannot pay, so I might not be able to attend funerals, like my father’s (she’s morbidly preoccupied with funerals). She’s worried that my son will be isolated and illiterate because I plan to homeschool him. She’s worried about how we’ll get along living together.

This has become such a pattern in my life that I can’t but think the problem is me, that somehow I’ve forgotten a critical step in communication. It goes kind of like this:

Me: I’m thinking about moving to Central America permanently.

Other person: Oh, really? That’s interesting.

(a few weeks later)

Me: I’ve decided to move to Central America in December.

Same other person: WHAT? Where did this come from? Have you thought this through?

My answer to my mom is that I’d rather be trapped outside of the USA than inside of it, which is the likely outcome if I wait too long to leave. And that I think I can do an excellent job educating my son, I’m not worried about his socialization, and that I think the value of formal education will continue to decline during his lifetime. And that I too have concerns about how we’ll get along living together, but sooner or later we might have to suck it up and make it work because we’re going to be a lot poorer than we (especially she) have been in recent years. Somehow my response made her feel better, maybe just because I told her I’m not going to expect her to commit to the move this year.

I got some lists made. I made monthly to-do lists. For what’s left of this month, I hope to make a solar box cooker, parabolic cooker, and dehydrator, and a haybox cooker, and start using these; sew myself some cloth menstrual pads and start using the extra cloth baby wipes as a toilet paper substitute, since we’re washing cloth diapers anyway; get a tetanus booster; experiment with rooting comfrey from a tiny piece of dried root (so that, if that works, I can smuggle a piece to Honduras sewn into my clothes, since it can’t be grown from seed and live plant material can’t legally be carried in); and test the solar battery charger and path lights I’ve bought and set up the Berkey water filter I got for my birthday to make sure it has all its pieces – well, except for the two filter elements that were missing that the seller promised to send. That’s a lot, especially considering we’re going camping all next weekend with a group of friends. Sewing projects are especially hard for me to get to, they require a type of uninterrupted concentration I don’t often achieve anymore with a two-year-old.

My brother called me while I was writing this to tell me he’s writing a letter to ask for a full-time volunteer (with stipend) position with an organization in Honduras. My brother is unemployed and kind of lost right now. He recently planned a bicycle trip across the country but I think he’s chickened out of that. I hope he will join us in Honduras, but I mustn’t push too hard or I’ll scare him off. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I’ve become interested in old-fashioned printing presses and bookbinding. I am signed up for a bookbinding class at the local leather shop, but the printing press is more complicated. They are very expensive. I found plans online for a rough homemade press that I may pursue at some point, but right now I have too many projects. My favorite part of projects seems to be reading about them and buying supplies; when it comes time to actually do the work, I have a hard time following through.

This is a list of skills I want to work on this year:

Sewing – I have basic sewing skills and I want advanced skills

Leatherworking

Soapmaking

Herbal medicine

Bread baking

Fermentation

Solar & haybox cooking

Composting – I need to master the basics before I can start doing humanure

Storytelling

This last might seem out of place and frivolous. It is inspired by three things besides the obvious entertainment value. One is the observation both Sharon Astyk and John Michael Greer have made about our culture needing a new kind of myth or story to tell us where we’re going in the post-progress world. Another is that I think storytelling might help me with my memory problems. And a third is that I want to tell my son a different kind of story than the ones I grew up with. In particular, I reject the myth of romance, which is so prevalent in my culture and possibly even more so in Latin American culture. This myth, which has been one of my personal favorites, has done me so much more harm than good in my own life that I want to do whatever I can to rewrite the script for myself and others. I may write more about this in the future.

One more list, these are a few things I need to acquire this year:

A hand-held corn sheller from Lehman’s (I took one to my in-laws and they found it very useful.)

Seeds for medicinals, uncommon tropical food plants, and other ethnobotanicals (perusing my long-time fave, J. L. Hudson, Seedsman)

More horse tack, especially a helmet

More books, especially for homeschooling (We won’t have library access.)

A straight razor (Yes, I am going to try to shave my legs and armpits with it.)

A second solar battery charger (to be able to charge 8 D batteries at once for my boom box)

Some new bras (because I can wear a sack if I have to but I need a good bra, and my size – 36 J – is only available online. This is one reason I need to get really good at sewing.)

A stockpile of ibuprophen to last a few years (I depend on it for menstrual cramps, gardening aches, etc.)