#walk for weeks in forests with no internet fresh food or clean water as many times a year as you can

[existential-dread-in-the-am]

Why are all my hobbies different types of self-inflicted suffering?

[gwynne-fics]

31 Days of AUs: Apocalypse

Requested by @mrshobbes

Marriage not Dating -- Jang-Mi

one. Jang-Mi thought that the end of the world would be a lot more chaotic than it turned out. When plant-life unexpectedly exploded, both on land and at sea, she and Gi-Tae watched the television with furrowed brows. There was some panic, especially when the army was called up to try and combat the growth that felt aimed at the cities.

“I want you and So-Hee to go to my family’s vacation home out in the country,” he said. “I’m going to pack up my office and transport all of my medical equipment out there. My mother had solar panels installed so it is off the grid.”

Jang-Mi looked at their three month old daughter with a sick feeling to her stomach. She didn’t want to be separated. “What about Yeo-Rim? His cell phone is off.”

Gi-Tae didn’t have an answer for her until she was getting into a car with his grandmother, his mother, his aunt, and their daughter. Her parents were going to join them in a few days. Traffic out of Seoul had already started to build. She’d closed down her restaurant and left Yeo-Rim a message on the counters, just in case he stopped by.

Gi-Tae did the same at his office but no one had seen Yeo-Rim.

They are driving away from everything they know when an emergency announcement calls up all former military men between the ages of twenty and thirty-five to resume their military experience. Jang-Mi started crying and couldn’t stop. It took them six hours to get to the vacation home. Traffic was slow and painful.

Mother-in-law took So-Hee from her and it was a relief.

two. Mother-in-law let her cry and avoid everything but breastfeeding for the first day. Jang-Mi wondered how long she could avoid her responsibilities until her natural inner drive took over. The vacation home had a lovely garden that, like a lot of places in Seoul with plants, exploded and overgrew.

The water feature broke and turned into a natural spring of clean, pure water. Jang-Mi sat by the edge and looked into it with a sad smile. Until the government figured out what was going on and life could return to normal, she needed to help her family survive. Survival was something she was good at.

She stood up and needed to occupy her mind and body or she would go crazy from loneliness. She wasn’t alone. She had her in-laws and her parents were coming soon. The world had changed and she needed to anticipate it.

They had power and the internet but she didn’t know for how long. She found Mother-in-law in the kitchen. Auntie held So-Hee. Jang-Mi went to her laptop and opened a blank document.

“I want to walk around this town after breakfast,” she said. “We need to know what our resources are and make long term plans. We should expect to become a target for needy people because this property is large and we are wealthier than most. Until Gi-Tae is released from the military and my father gets here, we are four women alone. We need to be realistic about that.”

“There is an old rifle in the basement. I don’t know how much ammunition we’ve got.” Mother-in-law’s eyes brighten and Jang-Mi knows she needs a project, too. Auntie isn’t as sure but that doesn’t matter.

“Can either of you shoot? I can’t. My father can but he’s not here yet.”

“Not in years,” she admitted.

“Alright. I’ll put it on the list. Let’s get to work.” It only took two days, but Jang-Mi had a survival plan to take to the small community. She didn’t expect it, but the older generation, once they saw she was serious about protecting everyone and most importantly, feeding, everyone, they made her mayor. Her parents arrived safely with as much nonperishable food as they could fit into their car.

Every night they watched the news and every night it seemed to get a little worse. Jang-Mi didn’t understand why so many people were having problems with their plants. Once they started working with the strange, new plants, instead of trying to cut them back or destroy them, they hadn’t gone hungry.

Jang-Mi made sure to accept everyone who came to their area. The only people she wouldn’t accept were the military deserters. The town council supported her. Nearly every family had someone who went back when called.

She had a month to implement her plan before things abruptly changed. Then she got a surprise text message from Gi-Tae. She aching loneliness stuck in her chest reminded her it was still there, waiting for her to let down her guard.

There is a plague in the big cities. Here are the symptoms to look for. I’m sending Se-Ah with my equipment and vaccines. I can’t leave Seoul. Still no sign of Yeo-Rim. I love you. Kiss So-Hee for me.

I love you.

three. “We need to build a quarantine,” Se-Ah said. “The illness looks like the flu and it is spread the same way. It moves quickly and if we don’t have something to contain it, we will be very dead. We have a vaccine but...production is slow. Gi-Tae figured it out and gave me the formula. He put it online, along with a video on how to make it safely. Where is So-Hee?”

“Napping. What is the survival rate for this flu?” One thing they’d found at the single drug store was plenty of face masks. When news of the plague broke on television, Jang-Mi made sure everyone had one. They’d had no evidence of the sickness in their town but Jang-Mi started construction on a hospital anyway.

She didn’t want to admit they might have to build a wall to protect them at some point. She wanted an open community, ready to take in refugees, but as her mother pointed out--they also needed to be realistic about outside threats.

“One in fifty, if you are a healthy, strong person over twenty and under fifty. I have a hundred vaccines with me.”

“I have about two hundred people. How many can you make over the next few months?”

Se-Ah smiled tightly. “It’s a matter of finding all the parts. Gi-Tae had a better background in traditional medicine and that’s why he was able to be creative.” She paused and gently touched Jang-Mi’s shoulder. “He is doing important work.”

“I know.” Her eyes stung. “What about Richard?”

Se-Ah looked away. “He allowed us to test the first vaccine on him. It didn’t work.”

Jang-Mi gave her a hug. “I’m glad you’re here. We need a doctor who can help us protect this little community. Let’s get to work.”

She was glad to have Se-Ah for the second month of the end of the world. Her one time rival worked tirelessly to inoculate their community while Jang-Mi put the old men to work building simple traps and some genius young women designed a collapsible wall that was both sturdy and defensible.

Everyone came together to build anything they might need and Jang-Mi considered a kind of...side effect that came from talking to her fresh spring.

The overgrowth that destroyed their civilization gave them the resources they needed past just food and water. Because at the end of month two, a warning went out on the one news station holding the fort in Seoul.

Several military platoons have abandoned their posts. They are going to small, successful communities, especially those still with electrical power, and taking over. Beware. The government has not released them or given them the mandate to protect citizens from the Overgrowth.

It was the last message they received from Seoul. The next night, the news did not return.

four. Jang-Mi knew it wouldn’t be long until all communication between little places like hers would cease. So she pulled out her cell phone and had Mother-in-law help her film a brief message to put up.

She ended it with what she felt was the most important thing she learned. “You should have several fresh springs in close proximity to your Overgrowth. Nurture these as best you can. Protect the water and use it to care for your Overgrowth and your Overgrowth will care for you.”

It felt a little ridiculous that other people hadn’t figured that out. She didn’t like the tone in her voice but she put it up on the internet anyway. Before the internet disappeared, her silly video had over a million views and thousands of comments telling her how much easier survival had gotten once they took care of the phenomena that put them in this difficult position.

Two weeks after the news’ warning, a bulldozer was sited in the outer growth that formed a protective circle around her town. They’d started call it the Ring. The bulldozer caused a stir among her people. The Ring was rich in small, easy to hunt, prey animals and was a major source of their protein. Jang-Mi narrowed her eyes and curled her hands into fists as a military unit came out of the forest and down the only road that led into town.

“Raise the wall. I’m going down to meet them.” Jang-Mi ignored the protests and went down to the main road. Mother pushed a mask into her hands and she put it on, just in case these men carried the flu with them. She didn’t want them to think they had the vaccine. She crossed the threshold and the wall snapped up into place, startling the soldiers. She heard a nervous murmur go through them until their leader stopped in front of her. “I am Joo Jang-Mi, the Mayor of this community.”

“That’s impressive but you’re in violation of the law.”

“No, I’m not. There is no centralized government anymore. We haven’t had contact with Seoul or an official news source for two weeks now. We know we’re on our own. Deserters are not welcome here. We only accept veterans with discharge papers. If you’re looking for a place to rest, you can do so outside the gates.”

“We’re here to put you in compliance with the law. In order to control the land, we need to destroy the source of its power. I believe you have four illegal springs. Open the gate.”

She had ten, as of this morning.

“No. Those springs are the reason we’re alive.” She didn’t flinch when he pulled out a handgun and aimed it at her head. “I will not be intimidated. They won’t open the gates if you kill me or take me hostage.”

“You’re the Goddess of the Valley. I can subdue them so easily if I kill you.”

She wasn’t a goddess of anything and she almost laughed in his face. She took off her mask, mostly because she wanted to keep control over this situation, and hiding her face wouldn’t do that. “Killing me would be a mistake. You aren’t that stupid.”

He put his finger on the trigger and two things happened at once: the ground beneath him gave way and someone shot him. The soldier fell into mud, quickly sank, and the ground solidified over him. He was gone. All of the men that followed him threw down their weapons and the ground swallowed them, too.

Well, that was interesting. And a little scary.

“We don’t have discharge papers. They didn’t bother to give them to us.”

It was such a huge risk but…Jang-Mi sighed. Goddess of the Valley was such a ridiculous title. “I want you to get rid of that bulldozer and spend the night in the patch protecting our town. If you survive that, you will go into our quarantine. If you survive quarantine and our doctor clears you of communicable diseases then you can try and find a place in our community. Don’t come near the wall. It is trapped.”

She went back inside and was rushed by concerned people. “Did you see where the shot came from? I thought it went through his temple, not his back.”

The consensus was that it came from the Ring. Jang-Mi decided it wasn’t important. The idea that she had some sort of connection to the Overgrowth scared her.

“I need to feed my baby,” she said. It was one of the few times she wasn’t the Mayor and she could have a few minutes to herself. Feeding So-Hee near the first spring she found was one of her few solaces. Today, it allowed her to calm down and cry, just a little. Mother and Mother-in-law joined her but didn’t push for conversation. “I miss my husbands,” she whispered. They didn’t comment on her use of a plural. “I don’t even know if Yeo-Rim and Gi-Tae are still alive. Yeo-Rim doesn’t even know to come here.”

“If they are alive, they will come here. Everyone knows that you are the Goddess of this Valley.” Mother-in-law said it with a wry grin and her own mother snorted in amusement.

“Don’t tease me. I didn’t ask to be our destruction’s avatar.”

five. Nothing big happened in the next few months. Jang-Mi thought they would get more soldiers but they didn’t and it made her concerned about whatever happened in Seoul. Every once in awhile she would turn on her phone and show So-Hee pictures of her fathers. She would point to both of them and quietly reinforce Appa over and over even though she was only seven months.

And if no one but her knew was checking for text messages on a dead network, that was her business.

Se-Ah became her deputy. The older generation was content to let them run things. She was glad to have a friend to lean on when disputes got difficult or she had to stare down some man who thought he could come in and do it better.

Thankfully, those were few and far between, but the rumors she could control the Overgrowth were out of control.

A mail system was set up and Jang-Mi started a family search effort. She found out Hyun-Hee and Dong-Hoon escaped Seoul with their baby boy and she is relieved to know they are alive. They hadn’t seen Gi-Tae or Yeo-Rim.

Jang-Mi tells herself they are alive and making their way home as soon as they can. She will see them again. They wouldn’t dare leave her alone in this new world.

As the community started running itself, she had less to do, and the whole reason she started such an intense project in the first place, came rushing back. She woke up crying more often than she would care to admit to anyone.

She is alone in that tiny house with glass and blood on the floor.

It was nearly six months since she and her family came to this odd little vacation home when Auntie and Mother ran into the garden where she was feeding So-Hee fruit from one of the new trees that appeared that week. They are out of breath as they talk over each other. “You need to go to the quarantine right now. Go! Go! Go!”

Jang-Mi doesn’t think. She just leaves her daughter with them and hurries out to the quarantine. There were two men standing just outside the gates with Se-Ah. Their backs were to her but she would recognize them anywhere.

Yeo-Rim noticed her first. He turned just enough she could see he was missing an eye but when he smiled and nudged Gi-Tae, she didn’t linger on the eyepatch. She ran to them and flung herself at both of them. Gi-Tae’s left arm was in a sling but he still hugged her tightly.

“It took me too long to find him,” Gi-Tae whispered into her hair. “I’m sorry we kept you waiting.”

“You turned into a goddess,” Yeo-Rim teased after he kissed her. “I hear the Overgrowth obeys your every word.”

“Only because I ask nicely.” She cried and clung to both of them. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t alone. “Welcome home.”

[nookishposts]

Renewals

If you are a Christian, the coming weekend is Easter. For the majority of the rest of us, its at the very least a long weekend,the gift of an extra day or two away from the usual routine. In our household this year its a designated time of rest. We are in the process of significant changes in our life. One house is sold, the other will be soon, and we are tired in a bunch of different ways, but frankly mostly tired from being tidy for showings. I hadn’t realized just how messy we usually are; not dirty, just cluttered. The dining table is often strewn with my own works in progress; laptop open, notes and pens and coffee cups and mail to be sorted. Trish’s knitting can appear anywhere; more than one hapless individual has quickly vaulted back to a standing position after having flopped into a chair without looking first. There are shoes on the stairs, laundry in mid-fold, sweaters draped randomly and meal-prep on the kitchen counter. All of the usual trappings of an active household. Pet hair and paw prints, critters to trip over, in varying sizes are a given, especially in Spring, so a mop and broom often lean nearby.

Its too soon to garden; but snowdrops are up and crocuses won’t be far behind. The lilac bush is heavy with buds promising exceptional blooms this year; it has come a long way from the struggling wisp a of transplant we poked into the ground with our fingers crossed and heaps of good compost. I don’t bag my leaves in the Fall, but rake them into the flower and vegetable beds for natural decomposition and Winter hibernation hostels. Its a time of brown-before-green, soggy and slick, weather for Wellies and extra caution as we step out to see which shoots are bursting and boasting up out of the muck. We know that any snow still to come will not last, that the windows will be open-able soon to let the fresh warm breezes bring the air in the lungs of our house back to life. It is a hopeful time, Christian or otherwise, a resurrection of seasonal rites and rituals, longer-lingering daylight, Nature’s promises kept.

Lifelong learning is the greatest of riches. Over the Winter, we realized that our behaviors have been changing and our focus has become more finely-tuned. We are so ready for the picture we have painted for ourselves of a quiet and sustainable life in a peaceful place; and if all goes according to plan, we will make that move in 2 short months.Its been a 10 year conversation; layer upon layer of “what-ifs” strewn and mulched into the soil of our sweetest wishes; that we might simply find a place to live more simply. We have formally studied, volunteered on building projects, researched, wandered, and wondered. Endless tromping of every imaginable kind of property; quarries, brown-fields,small lots and suspicious plots.  We’ve also aged in that 10 years, our bodies a little different in the way they work, a little more mindful of the value of balance and being reasonable about tasks versus time. Its been wonderful learning and we are very cognizant that the curve still ahead of us is a steep one. 

Heating costs will be measured in cords of wood culled from the ground-fall in a 98.4 acre forest, rather than diminishing dollars in our checking account.I will switch back to a small French Press for coffee in the mornings because boiling a multi-purpose kettle on the stove is more energy efficient than an automatic drip machine. Coffee grounds go right into the garden.Laundry will dry on the line rather than in an electric dryer. It will be mostly jeans and casual clothes anyway, as the era of business attire has finally come to it’s end. (Okay, I have always dressed like a 3-year old, but Trish cleans up really professionally well). We will walk across the driveway to get eggs in the morning, also ensuring the hens are warm and watered. Our batteries, both those that run the house as well as the ones that drive our enthusiasm for the physical work of producing much of what we consume,will be regularly  recharged by the sun. The grey-weather days will be for indoor chores, the cold ones, for dreaming by the fire.

We aren’t fools; we know we are swapping one set of jobs for a different set. We know there will be sweating, swearing, sighing, and the occasional “Oh gawd, what have we done?!” days. We know we will learn lots of things the hard way, and hope the resultant scars won’t be too off-putting. We also know that with the house sited South, we can sit and watch the sunrises, the sunsets, the storms, and the star-shows all from the same window. We will have to be deliberate in our trips to the store, because it’s a 20 minute drive into town on country roads...leaving the list behind on the kitchen counter will suck as much as our sort-term memorys are beginning to. There will be early mornings when the songbirds are too damned loud and nights when the bear tracks range a little too close. The propane could run out while we are still figuring out our rate of use and how to schedule re-fills. My bread-making skills will have to improve from doorstop-dense to edible enough for sandwiches. Toast might have to do. Enough butter will make anything bearable. The composting toilets (think in terms of an odor-free very efficient human litter box) will need emptying every couple of weeks. I know, I know. Our eyes and minds are wide open, believe me.

Opening a jar of our homemade apricot jam from the pantry on a snowy January morning, pasta-sauce in bulk simmered from our own tomatoes and peppers and herbs, smaller varieties of which will flourish in the greenhouse all winter long for fresh salads and stir-fries, syrup from our trees and honey from our bees will sweeten the recovery of muscles that ache from digging and  planting and  plodding through the snow to feed the critters and the firewood pile by the door. Plus, there’s internet. Surprised? We knew we would need to have it to keep up some kind of income; there will always be taxes, insurance, gas for the car, and those things we can’t produce or trade for ourselves.We are fortunate to both have the capacity to work remotely. Driving a tractor is still fun at our age, and there will be snowmobiles for practicality’s sake as much as for amusement. Without Tim Horton’s tea-biscuits on every corner, I may actually reduce the natural flotation device around my middle; the one that gets in the way of putting on my socks in anything like a hurry. 

Yes, its a big risk, but without pensions, this is also our way to be debt and mortgage free, live as healthfully as we can for as long as we can, and spend more time and less stress on those things that have come to matter so very much; the love of land, life, and letting them love us back. One of us could get very sick or hurt, but that could happen anywhere and any time. Better that it happen where we are happiest, for as long as it lasts. Our ancestors did  pretty well for many generations, internet aside. Its not for everybody, and there will be times when it’s exhausting..as living just gets to be now and then. But humor me for a minute: close your eyes and breathe deeply; imagine awakening to those damned birds instead of an alarm clock, to the smell of the woods and the knowledge that you can go to work in your pajamas or half-naked for all the chickens and goats will care. Sunscreen and Muskol are your cologne. Naps are a given. Whatever you put into the day is what you will get out of it, but at least its on your own terms. And since your city kin will regularly need to see it to believe it, there’s plenty to share. What better way to resurrect those things we all can freely worship; warmth, good food, room to breathe, loving kindness upon the Earth, and one another.

[mykatesingh-blog]

    The new year is coming.  I was bewildered when a documentary ask “what will you change in 2018?”  My first thought was how silly to asked that so soon.  It took the next morning for my muddled brain to realize that 2018 is within weeks.  By the time this post, it will be days.

I’m one of those die-hards that just love my New Years resolutions.  I’m getting pretty good at setting goals and reaching them.  The trick is to set goals you can’t wait to tackle and make plans you jump out of bed to accomplish.  It has to be fun things you love doing.  You then interweave the not so enticing task that will only improve the following lifestyle.

For example, my goals are to do as much homesteading as possible and to save a lot of money.

Easy peasy!  Except that building a homestead takes money, right?  Not necessarily.  We already have the foundation laid such as having land, having a huge compost rotting in the back of the detached garage as I type, we have chickens, raised beds…I even know where to get free horse manure.

I’m using my winter months wisely.   I have until the last frost in March to study and study I’m doing.  I’ve been browsing through backyard farming books, buying ones I feel are a library must such as The Encyclopedia of Country Living, watching anything on YouTube on gardening how to’s.  My new celebrity is Novella Carpenter that wrote Farm City, The Education of an Urban Farmer.  Fun book to read (not for the vegetarian though).  She and her partner moved to the worst part of Oakland and began farming an abandoned lot next to their house.  She raises poultry and goats, bees, even pigs for a time but that was too much.  The lot has a huge veggie garden with fruit trees.  I love this clip about her and her urban farm.  Vegans and vegetarians be warned, she does raise meat to eat.  There will be blood.

I would love to meet this lady.  But what I love about backyard farmers the most is when they spend almost no money to develop a mini farm that feeds them abundantly for years.  As one farmer calls it, “money on trees”.  They use what they find or is already there and create a sort of paradise.

I don’t know how well I’ll do or how far I’ll go.  I’m still a bit shocked that I have hens.  That was a move that seemed so advanced…so revolutionary, to have chickens in the suburbs, that I only dreamt big chicken dreams until grannie told me to get over it and get some hens.  Now I have 4 hens bossing me about my own yard.  They have a cute yellow cottage and a white picket gate to a yard that goes along the side of our house (all free).  I hear my girls clucking and scratching about under my bedroom window and I swear I hear them talking in the middle of the night even with my windows shut tight to the cold winter nights.

I’m already thinking bees.  I would be a very good bee mother, not stealing all their honey greedily and giving them sugar water for the winter as so many farmers do.  What a crime.  I think I’ll wait for the boys to get a bit bigger…or not, maybe just have some Epi-pens on hand just in case we have an allergy.

But gardening, that is something I can really get crazy on.  We have 5,260 square feet of yard.  It’s less than 1/12th of an acre.  I didn’t think it was much land until I saw a small family farming in the city on 4,000 acres and they were feeding themselves year round.  There were goats and chickens, trees and row after row of beds.

We have a cement patio in our yard.  We have a lot of grass…and fences.  There is so much potential in each situation.  We could grow grapes and berries on the fences, container gardens and a greenhouse on the cement, dig up the grass and make plots.

I’m really into the food forest idea.  I’m learning about companion planting of say corn, beans, and squash together.  I’m learning about growing bamboo to use for building fences, trellis, and more.  Potatoes grown in tubs, the magic of mulch, and how bees not only give you honey but make your crops more abundant.

It’s very addictive.  With each step of self-reliance and green living, I find myself doing all sorts of little things to further slow down the pace of the modern world that tries to creep in through the cracks of our magical world.  The wood floor vacuum broke down and would be easy to fix but I chose a handmade broom that I’m currently in love with.  Dishes are hand washed and the thought of taking up precious space in my little 1940’s kitchen for a dishwasher is forbidden.  I hang my clothes on a line outside most of the year and felt like I was taking a step backward when the dryer had to be plugged in this winter.  I have a wooden rack on back up but we have the heating on the ceiling and clothes take so long to dry that they begin to stink.

I love my coffee and recently I replaced Mr. Coffee with a stovetop espresso maker and a stove top percolator.  Bali had a conniption the first morning he couldn’t work the espresso maker (it was 5:00 in the morning and he hadn’t been trained, I would have hit the roof myself).  Now he makes himself coffee every morning with either the espresso or the percolator.  He never used to make coffee in the morning before work so I know he loves it.

Paper books are still big in our house and waiting for popular movies from the library trumps renting from Redbox or Netflix.

For me homesteading means that I do a lot of garden therapy year round, we feed ourselves for pennies, there is a connection to the land happening, and an old pioneering instinct is tapped into.  Our farm is creative and fun to build, it gives my husband and myself great pride in every victory.  I am thrilled when I can eat from the yard.  We love our hens.

Bali is not thrilled with the idea of rain barrels because he doesn’t feel we have space but he always talks about grey water.  He agrees on digging up the grass and planting food but he doesn’t agree on wood chips everywhere, as in no grass just a land of mulch.  He also is completely against getting rid of the garage.  If I had my way and extra money I would tear out the detached garage and all the cement.  That ain’t happening on his watch.

Oh well, I’ll negotiate on grey water and more veggie plots on the lawn.  When I get more courage I’ll get bees and a couple more hens.  But that is it!  Maybe…

Homesteading is living like a farmer in the city.  You get the entertainment and convenience of the city and not the isolation of a real rural farmer but all the health and well-being benefits.  You also save a lot of money as you get better at it.  You are growing clean, organic food that is so fresh and packed with nutrition.

As for the budget, that is changed vastly when the gardens produce and the trees mature.  Until then I do what I can to save money in all areas while I buy organics at the Coop.

Do I want to be off grid?  Live in an eco-village?  I’ve checked all these out and I’d say not.  I like small towns, walking to the store, buying burger buns when lazy, having coffee in a cafe and monthly movies at the theater (I keep threatening my family I’m having this again).  I do love some of the modern conveniences.  But I love the old-fashioned ways and the quiet and slow pace.  I’m a walking contradiction.

But what I love the most is being a housewife and staying home with my family.  I don’t want this to ever stop and recently we encountered some issues and I was looking at possibly going back to work and putting my boys in a school and daycare.  Things worked out in our favor but it made me really pursue all avenues of self-reliance and trimming our budget to the thread.

My budget is simply mortgage, food, utilities.  Bali gets free gas at work as part of his manager benefits and we have begun walking a lot.  If we can shop or do the library within walking distance, we do it.  My DirecTV contract will be up in the spring and I will be relieved of that.  I have the smallest internet, home phone, and cell bill ever.  The utilities are small.  Even for AC in the summer we paid half of what our neighbors paid.  I am always looking into other ways to save.

Our groceries are purchased at a very nice health food store in Grass Valley.  It is my one luxury.  Everything is organic now.  I afford it by joining the Coop and getting almost everything in bulk.  I only buy rice, beans, produce, nuts, raisins, flour, coffee, and plant milk and cream.  I make all my food from scratch.    I make everything from granola bars to lentil loaf.  If I crave it I have to make it.  I have a list of things I want to make such as pickles, burger buns, soap.

I do little things too, I save all the bags to reuse, water down dish soap and shampoo, boil toothbrushes instead of buying new every 6 months.  I am back to making all my own house cleaners and will be making laundry detergent again.  I even make my own houseplants from trimmings off the main plants.  Then I get all my needs met with hit movies and popular books by the library.

I write books to make money.  I was a caregiver for a season and that paid for book covers, editing, and sending Arjan to Fox Walkers every Friday for a year.  I also redecorated the living room with beautiful new furniture all under $220 at a high-end thrift store.  My royalties are set aside in a far away bank and automatically deposited.  Any extra home job I get I use for all the luxuries.  I am now considering babysitting to bring in some extra money for vines and seeds, a greenhouse, and doing more work on the house.

Those to me are luxuries.  And the occasional theater movie with that God awful popcorn.

      How to streamline that household budget and building that urban farm. The new year is coming.  I was bewildered when a documentary ask "what will you change in 2018?"  My first thought was how silly to asked that so soon. 

[plasmamagazine]

An Atlien Abroad 2

    The Flutterby Hostel is a unique universe unto itself filled with travelers and vagabonds from all over the world. The hostel started back in 2009 with the partnership of sisters Pam and Kim Andreasen. Since then they have been building relationships and funky treehouse hostel rooms to host their eclectic clientele. Reminiscent of Never Never Land from the classic film Hook, R.I.P. Robin Williams, the small piece of property filled with chickens running amuck, surfboards, a yoga deck, cabanas, a woodworking shop, a giant compost pit, and beautiful flowers. It is a little slice of Costa Rican heaven, with a sign outside that says ‘work in progress.’

     Here in Uvita, the days are long and time moves slowly. The days lurch forward until they leap into the evening when the stars come out. The Milky Way, crashing waves, a bonfire, and a bottle passed around was how we spent our first night. Then our first full day we ventured to the Uvita Waterfall and plunged into the cold river water via the natural slide that sits at the top. Next, we piled into Felipe’s two door, four wheel drive tank and swarmed the local fried chicken joint, Rapido Pollo. Downtown Uvita is a bustling little strip with taxis everywhere, the BM food market, a pharmacy, a coffee shop, a bank and a liquor store. It is the main point of transfer when entering and leaving the hostel.

     Life at Flutterby is in constant flux. People are always on the move, construction is always underway, and the tide is always changing. The volunteers living on site are Will, Mary, Bailey, Megan, Paul, Emilia, Josh and I. It is an interesting balance of personalities. Will and Mary’s calm energy balances out the boisterous personalities of Josh, Bailey and I. Paul practices amongst the Stoics, preferring a simple diet of bananas and peanut butter, perfect for studying and surfing. Emilia and Megan spend their time on the beach and searching for the elusive wifi to keep up with Megan’s Tinder profile.

     All the volunteers and staff get to rent the surfboards for free, and the beach is a five-minute walk down a rock laden road. The beach is part of the national park, so it is three thousand colones, or six bucks if you are a gringo. I have been surfing the past several days after I get off my morning ayudante shift.

     Ayudante is the "do bitch work," shift. You have got your list of tasks which include; cleaning the main tables, the guest kitchen, emptying composts buckets and then whatever different work that is needed for that day. It usually lasts from 6:30 am to 2:30 pm.

     However, back to surfing, in the afternoon the low tide waves get steep and choppy, but the experience of being on a surfboard and watching the sunset in the Pacific Ocean is incredibly humbling. The sunsets here are beautiful mixes of purple, orange and yellow and when the clouds linger on the horizon, they amplify all the colors. I had the most surreal experience during my third-day surfing. Sitting on my board out past the wave break, I watched the sunset, and in that moment of bliss I looked to my left, and there was a perfect wave. I paddled as hard as I could, and before I knew it, I was riding at the front of a wave that took me all the way back to the shore. Needless to say I that was my last ride of the day. Best to end on a good note.

     The schedule at Flutterby comes out every Monday, and they try to balance it out, so everyone gets some morning and evening shifts. Josh Peters in his infinite charm landed himself on PM bar shift for his first two days while I had 6:30 am ayudante shifts. In true Yardsale Pete fashion, give him an inch, and he will take a mile. It was our fourth night there, I am taking it easy; eating dinner, drinking beer and Josh is getting loaded on local rum. We played cards for a while and then at ten I decided to head to bed, while the crew decided on a bonfire at the beach. The next day I am doing my morning shift raking leaves and tidying up when Megan makes her way to the bar with a big ole grin. She proceeded to tell me about how Josh, trying to be responsible, left the beach early but when she came back, he was spread eagle butt ass naked in the crew common area. After taking a shower he decided to air dry in the crewcita but didn’t make it to bed before he fell asleeep. Emilia and Megan were kind enough to cover him in a blanket. I guess they like us because that was almost a week ago and we are still here. Our southern charm and our genteel vibes are taking us far.

     Cascading water and the changing of tides put this place in perspective. Everything is constantly moist. As soon as you take a shower, you start sweating again. You are always in between; wet and dry, coming and leaving, knowledge and feeling. The Flutterby is a bubble, a sanctuary for lost boys, a haven, and a cultural melting pot of ideas, languages, and adventures. Bahia is off the beaten path so, most people here aren't first-time travelers. It is not hard to find, but it does take some time. In many ways this place feels more remote than it actually is, I feel entirely removed from the rest of the world. There is hardly any internet. I cannot make phone calls. All I know is what is around me. It is blissful. However, it makes it harder to keep up with what is going on in other parts of the world. Ignorance is bliss if you can stomach it and right now my belly feels fine but who knows when this mandarina rind will mold?

    Mary, Will and I went to the secret stash waterfall Sunday the 15th. It took about an hour via riding bikes and hiking to get there. We rode through downtown Uvita, took a right at the bank, passed the liquor store on the left, conquered the road of poor terrain and faced off with Scary Gary the machete-wielding troll that lives right beyond the bamboo forest. That last part is lore, but we did lock our bikes up at the second river crossing and finish the half mile hike on foot. The river water rushed cool over our sweaty bodies. Amongst the lush rainforest, it is easy to lose your mind. It is a beautiful feeling.

    However, the bugs are huge. Things can kill you here. R.I.P. Colin Maldonado. 'Why you and not me?' Is a question I still ask myself. We both got the same type of infection at about the same time. It is hard for me to believe it is just because I was able to get to a doctor and you were stuck in the Costa Rican jungle. However, that is the only reasonable conclusion. I must admit ideas of transfiguration do pop into my head from time to time, the migration of souls from one vessel to another. It is a wild idea but nevertheless it does still wander the halls of my mind.

     However, the waterfall was beautiful probably about 20-30 feet high hidden right out of view from the main river. Before we found it, we got a Costa Rican family to take our picture where the river converged with itself.

     Surprised at the ancient Polaroid technology the abuela jumped back startled after the first picture. Then after the second photograph the young boys, about age 8 or 9, looked on with amazement as the picture developed. After basking in the glory of the secret stash, we walked back down the mountain in the light of the setting sun.

    On the way back we stopped at the La Panadaria, where Mary got some baked deserts, while Will went to the BM for some vegetables. Then on a whim, we decided to eat at Rapido Pollo. For five bucks I got a giant piece of fried chicken, rice, beans, pasta salad and a local beer, delicious. Once we awoke from our chicken coma, we raced our beach cruisers back to Flutterby. Last one there had to buy the first round. I was out 2400 colones by the end of it. It was money well spent with good company.

     Will and Mary have been dating for about two years. They are a homely couple with a healthy thirst for adventure. After Costa Rica, they are moving to St. Louis for school. Will is a pre-med student that plans on working in geriatrics. Mary has her undergrad in English and is planning on studying creative writing in grad school. They are good kids on track for a great life.

     Every Monday morning we have our weekly staff meeting at 8 am to discuss the past week, the coming week, and then we have our deep cleaning till 11. Emilia and I were in charge of cleaning the guest kitchen and the staff kitchen. Bumping Dr. Dre's The Chronic, we got down and dirty prepping for the two new volunteers to move in. After the cleaning, I took a nap to get ready for my third bar back shift.

     8 hours of stop and go food service on your feet can wear you out.  However, there's always someone new to talk to, new languages to decipher and to dance. Afterward, I drank a couple of beers with Felipe and Micco, the new volunteer from Germany and we decided to go out to some bars, but I opted out preferring a good night's rest.

     I woke up early Tuesday morning to go to a farmer's market in Tinamaste with Katie Zinke and her family. Tinamaste is a mountain town with a bustling Tuesday morning market filled with the local hippie community that resides in the adjacent mountains. The drive twists and turns up a well-paved road, but the squealing of the rental car tires keeps me on my toes. I am saddled in the very back with no seat much less a seatbelt. Todd, Katie's father, howls like a howler monkey as he barrels up the mountainside. He is putting his Tico driving lessons to good use.

    The market, set underneath a large pavilion, is filled with people selling crystals, tinctures, local cheeses, empanadas, fresh veggies, bracelets and other nicknacks. Waiting in line to pay for my veggies I struck up a conversation with Vinnie from Delaware. It was his second year in a row coming down to Costa Rica. He did odd jobs for a room, board, and extra spending cash amongst the Tinamaste community. Costa Rica draws beautiful people from all over the world to its beautiful landscape. Now for a dinner shift, a week full of work, waterfall excursions and serene surfing.

All Images and Words by Stephen Wilkins (@damngladtomeetcha)