Opinions – Edgewise Wendy Writes

It seems there is a push these days for everyone to de-clutter their lives. “De clutter your home! You will feel better! It will free up your mind!” Maybe for some people this all out attack is useful, but not so much for me. Sure, I like my home to be clean and organized, but I have plans for that so-called clutter. I am sorting through the filing cabinets and burning outdated, paperwork in the woodstove. When it comes to getting rid of all the random bits of crafty things I have saved though, I draw the line.

I am not a hoarder. I am an artist, a craftswoman, a collector of weird things. I keep my spare rooms useable for guests while also using the spaces for writing and sewing and growing fodder for the chickens. I save some things other people might see as trash and I repurpose them into usable goods. I will not replace my perfectly functional formica kitchen counter tops with newly quarried granite slabs, just because it looks nice. My idea of living green means using what I have as long as it still serves a purpose. My closets hold remnants of past and future projects that I will eventually use or give away to someone else who needs it more. The difference between myself and a hoarder is that I am not waiting for some future that never comes, I utilize what I have all the time.

I do not want to live in a house devoid of my homey things and the memories they conjure up.

Yes, I saved dryer lint from my old job. I still save my dryer lint at home. I have always thought to make paper out of it but never had the time or inclination until now. My first project was thick seedling starting quilts. They turned out to be very absorbent but I need to refine my microgreens setup. I hope to try my hand at fancy writing paper to write poems on next. I want to try incorporating colorful bits of leaves or threads or even feathers in to it and make it thinner somehow. It is a project for another day.

I have a hank of tail hair from my old pony, Ranza, that I saved when he died. It has been stored away in the hat cupboard in the mudroom and whenever I come across it, I think of him fondly. Some day I will make something cool out of it, maybe by braiding or macramé. Who knows? There are crafters, like Tail Spin, or Spirit Horse Designs, or Horse Hair Art on the web who do this for people as tokens of their beloved companions. Someday, I will make a hatband to remember Ranza by.

I save lots of potentially useful things and almost always get around to using or even needing them someday. It is quite satisfying to search for a particular bolt or piece of metal, or a chunk of wood or slab of rubber, and find it, ready for reuse, right here when I need it. I prefer building with things that have a bit of history or memory behind them to spending money at the soulless Home Depot down the road.

My chicken house is constructed from bits of an old wooden-floored outdoor tennis court, from a favorite gardening client in Great Falls, Virginia. I think of her every day as I feed my chickens and horse. The heavy green wire and green painted 2 x 6 ‘s are continuing their life that began in the 1950’s. Extruded aluminum panels from discarded benchtops in a greenhouse where I once worked make fairly predator proof chicken yard fence. This was all destined for the dump.

Salvaged Cedar boards and coat hooks salvaged from during a friend’s house remodel, now hang my iron pots in the kitchen. I also made some to hang backpacks and clothing. I have furniture and odd bits saved from the house I grew up in. My favorite chair came from a neighbor who lived by the dam on the boy scout lake. I do not remember their name but I remember the pine tree we used as a launching pad to jump into that lake. I made the cushion for that chair and some dog beds from an old futon mattress that we no longer needed.

I have an 8 gallon sauerkraut crock I bought at Starks hardware in Harrisville West Virginia. I will use it to ferment cabbage again, but currently it doubles as a plant stand in the living room. For many years I used it as a stool at my old treadle sewing machine. I kept sewing supplies inside and used a potters wheel bat as a lid and seat. Why would I ever want to get rid of things like this? Plus, it did not cost me much back in 1975 when I bought it and would cost a fortune today.

My father used to call my decorating style early attic. I call it just what I need. I have a corner cupboard that my dad’s mother made, canning shelves and a cedar chest my ex made, a crocheted blanket my first husband made, a wood cook stove I got for cleaning out a root cellar. I have a whole set of little wooden boxes filled with assorted hardware pieces that came out of a neighbors’ workshop on Mimosa Lake from when I was a kid. All very useful stuff that I go through whenever I am searching for just the right thing.

I do not save everything forever. The grandfather clock that was handed down in my family could not stay with me because I had no safe place for it. It passed to my mothers late husbands daughter, who takes good care of it. The potters wheel I bought in Greenwich Village in 1973 will most likely be passed on to someone soon, since it takes up space in my studio that I need for other things. However, I may save the round slate flywheel from it since it makes such a fine porch table when laid across the iron legs I found out in the woods.

So no, I will not stop collecting things that I can foresee using later in one of my many projects. I enjoy being creative and re-purposing old stuff way too much. I will not feel guilty for cluttering my life space. I will continue to dig into my closets, sorting and coming up with new ideas. I finally have more time to implement ideas that have been on the back burner for years. It would be such a shame to hold on to things and then get rid of them just before you finally retire and have more time to play.

-Edgewise Wendy

Farmers Too Big to Fail

I was listening to National Public Radio yesterday and an interview with a big mid-western farmer. This guy grows the same rotation of crops as many of our local, much smaller farmers do. Soybeans in the spring, wheat in the fall, corn the next spring. Over and over and over again. No deviation. Sure, they might have some fields in permanent pasture or hay, but that is basically it. Not much diversity there.

The farmer they were talking with plants 5000 acres using the soy, wheat, corn rotation and as usual, ordered next seasons seed last year, to the tune of a million and a half dollars. He is locked in to planting those soybeans this spring. The problem is that China, the largest buyer of United States soybeans, will not be buying our soybeans next year. This is in retaliation of the tariffs Trump has put on steel and many other imported Chinese goods. We are in the midst of a trade war which will probably be getting much worse. China has been smart and working on just this scenario for many, many years. They plan long term, unlike our country. Where have all the steel mills gone that we used to have in this country? China. What are all our cars and trucks and SUV’s made of? Chinese steel. Poor quality Chinese steel. Toyota recently had, yet another recall of SUV’s and Pickup trucks, assembled in America, but made of Chinese steel, because the frames had rusted clear through and were seriously dangerous.

If we get into an actual military war with the Chinese, what will we make our war machines with? Chinese steel? Think again. They have us right where they want us, dependent on them for goods we used to make ourselves. Cheap labor in China lured most of our manufacturing over to them and now we depend on China, and other countries, for many indispensable things. We cannot easily rebuild our steel mills and return to supplying our own high quality steel. How will we repair our bridges without U.S. steel? This has nothing to do with the unions, it has to do with the greed of the companies who moved out of our country, who do not want to pay taxes to help our country, who do not care if our own countrymen even have jobs. Our corporate tax laws and loopholes have enabled this to happen. Our banking industry has enabled this to happen. We are at the mercy of greedy corporations and now we are at the mercy of China and other foreign powers.

Back to the farmers who are locked in to growing soybeans for a non-existent market. The price of soybeans is bound to fall drastically with a glut of unsold beans waiting in silos. Russia has already announced that they will gladly supply China with their soybeans next year, so we can forget about getting that buyer back, even if the trade war were to end.

American farmers have become the latest business that is too big to fail. Just like the banks back in 2008. Are we now going to bail them out with our tax dollars? The farmer being interviewed did not seem to have any creative ways of dealing with his problem. He is so big, and so used to relying on the government telling him what to plant, insuring him against crop failures, subsidizing lime and fertilizers and farm improvements, that he no longer plans for himself. Every decision he makes is tied to cost sharing and the futures market and whatever the big agro seed and chemical companies are pushing. This is no way to farm.

Farmers need to be flexible, basing their decisions on weather, markets, soil health and the peoples needs, not blindly planting the same old crops every year because that is what they have always done. A good farmer looks at all the variables and weighs the cost of seed and planting and harvesting against what the market will buy. These big farmers seem to have lost their natural insight. Smaller farmers live somewhat closer to local market changes and have to scramble year to year to make their crops pay for them to stay in business. They have to be creative and come up with specialty crops that might bring in more money, even though there is more risk. Organic farmers practice this way of life and change their plantings based on what people want to buy each year, a market that is constantly changing. They work on improving the soil and therefore the health of their crops without having to rely so much on government subsidies. They also supply us with healthier food, not chemically laden food that endangers our health. We need to learn the true cost of raising healthy food and be willing to pay accordingly.

Our government agricultural programs have gotten so large and powerful that many farmers do not even try to plan for themselves anymore. They rely on the government to insure they do not go under, even if they make bad business decisions. They plant the latest genetically modified Round Up Ready seeds, then spray Glyphosate on our food crops, and pretend it is all healthy and good for us. It is dangerous to give up your individual power and allow the government and agro corporations to decide what you should plant and what the best management practices are. We will all be paying the price with our health down the road. Multi-thousand acre farming operations, heavily in debt, and dependent on bureaucratic subsidy programs, are not run with an understanding of the connections between soil health, plant health and human health. They are run as a big business. People need to return to thoughtful planning and being responsible for their own destiny.

Wendy lee, writing at Edgewise Woods, Gardens and Critters

My 500 Words Challenge, Day 6

Category: Opinions

Not Clutter, Good Stuff

Farmers Too Big to Fail