On this last day of 2008 I want to thank you for your continued friendship and support and to tell you some of the aspects of my last year of public work. Yes, I’m retired and eager to attend to my home and urban farm—I hope—my only base of operations for the next thirty years!
Retired, I’m better able to attend to my duties with The Conservation Council of North Carolina, Sustainable Sandhills, and Save Our Sandhills, and I’ve recently joined the board of The Moore County Historical Association, where I’ll focus upon sustainable, heritage gardens at The Shaw House here in Southern Pines. Once I’ve gotten this urban farm up and running and have more time, I’ll join the volunteer gardeners at The Weymouth Center, where I’ve enjoyed being writer-in-residence off and on for the past twenty years. Who knows? Poetry skills may resurface once the jargon/babel of educationese subsides. . .
I’ve had a 12’x12’ Carolina room/greenhouse built on the deck, and my good friend Lyuba is designing a workable plan in the gardens. A language teacher from Russia, she is smart, strong as a horse, and so opinionated that she convinces me to clear mountains of useless furniture, books and files OUT of my house. The assault continues, she liking nothing so much as extracting order from chaos. Her daughter needed a project for high school graduation and has adopted my Farm Up the Street, will continue to work with her mom on my environs ‘til March, then turn in her portfolio. Marvelous to have two hard-working women in my gardens!
Son Gray completes Alexander Technique studies in June, when his girlfriend, Jessica Burns, also finishes her degree in Environmental Science at East Illinois U. They will return from Urbana to North Carolina to see what’s next. Most interested right now in soil rejuvenation using mycelia and compost, they will set up mushroom experiments in my backyard using cultures from Fungi Perfecti. See Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets.
Daughter Carley is married and living with husband Steve Lucci in Durham, NC, where she works and attends The Whole You Institute from which she’ll graduate in the spring. She has great hands, has worked on me with reiki, Swedish massage, aromatherapies and spinal alignments. See www.rwnaturalhealing.com for her product line. Her studies include nutrition, and, while perusing her books, I read Alkalize or Die by Baroody. I’ve ordered a copy and have started its dietary suggestions.
With nine or ten extra hours in a work day, I’m excited as a child in a candy shop. This town and this farm are all I need to stay busy and useful. I’ll continue vending at the Moore County Farmers Market, April-September, also leaving plants on consignment at the local seed/feed, where my worm tea—not for drinking, rather, a fertilizer--is a big seller. I have a bee hive for pollination, three Guinea hens wandering and keeping fleas, ticks, and such off the property, my cats and strays to keep rabbits and voles contained, ten laying hens—gorgeous Black Australorps—who give me about six eggs a day, various fruit trees, and long beds for vegetables and cut flowers. Drip lines and rain barrels supplement water for so many plantings and heavy composting keeps soils in place and full of nutrient, everything organic.
So! Having a good time here in Southern Pines, NC, with many progressive, like-minded friends to keep me focused. Maybe you noticed that NC turned Blue in the presidential elections, almost as exciting as having Obama elected. Expecting big changes! But we know that we must BE the changes we wish to see.
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