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this is a "sled"  that Jenny found.   She likes things like this.  that are simple,  and work.  Make things possible.   It's just a very thick kind of plastic…or,  whatever something like this is, vinyl maybe?….?   Anyway….this is some of the old straw bedding that i cleared from the Doe Rain Shelter.   Raked into a big pile outside the entrance where it's gotten rained on.  a lot.   Loaded this first batch today and yup,  the sled slid easy and perfect down and around that corner and down to here,  somehow not being bothered by rocks in the way at all,   just slides  right over them.   And…..was easy enough to pull up and through the gate into the B Garden where i unloaded it on the new area for Earth planting in the Spring.   I tried to get a second pic to  "take " here of that but it wouldn't.   I used some of the partially decomposed cardboard from around,  then this.   Will continue every day there's not rain.  There's a Lot more.   Over that will be that last bag of Garden Soil and then that bag of Mulch stuff.   It'll be so Great.    Will use the sled to bring the log branches that  will  be  borders.   Combined with rocks that will hold it all in place.  

ADD:    there are 3 wheelbarrows here.  One of them that i 'd  brought from N Mex…. a prized possession….but wheelbarrows go out of control here in a moment…the Hill….going down,  OR,  such impossible LABOR,  going up

 

 

NPR Weekend Edition  Saturday  11/13    author interview with Azra Aksamija   the book   Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp in Jordan

  So much,  but as i worked at this today,  i thought about her telling of the Vertical Gardens there,  in an endlessly bleak and stark landscape where planting Anything in the earth is prohibited.  Repeat…PROHIBITED  And so…the vertical gardens made of whatever can be found rising up against the walls of their one room shed housing  to hold containers,  plastic jugs,   yogurt containers,  to grow  SEEDS they save   that grow Food     Just sit with this a minute.   let it sink in.  

 

 

 

 

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14 responses to “grateful to be able to be grateful”

  1. Peggy Mcg Avatar
    Peggy Mcg

    I just can not imagine a life without the freedom to plant! As for your world,, I would be tempted to ride the sled down the hill!

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  2. Nancy Avatar

    It is hard to imagine…so sad, yet that uplifting part, how people find a way. “It’ll be so Great” – made me smile 🙂 And that does indeed look to be a very useful tool. I sure would not trust myself with a wheelbarrow on those rocky slopes.

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  3. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    As I read about the prohibition of planting anything into the ground, of not being able to grow food in the ground, I felt ashamed for even complaining about my lack of land fro a garden here…the power to survive and how we do what is absolutely essential to survive, to go on so the vertical gardens…
    Why this prohibition: in reading about this on NPR, the idea that planting is not allowed for several reasons, lack of water in an extreme desert environment where the temps can rise up to 118 degrees but more to the point, if you allow planting, you allow people to feel that they are part of the place, permanently and refugee camps are supposed to be temporary yet people have lived in them for many years…it is just so de-humanizing to me to not allow people to grow food but then, as I mentioned above, people find ways to rise above the most terrible conditions…

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  4. Liz A Avatar

    this made me smile, took me back to the Hill Country house days when I tied a rope to a concrete mixing tub and dragged it around as I weeded out star thistles and whacked back rampant cacti, the better to let the native plants grow … how it would glide right over the rocks … I miss the rocks
    happy composting … what amazing soil you and the goats will make together

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  5. jude Avatar

    i use a tarp for this. amazing how much I can slide down the hill in one shot. same here with the wheelbarrow and the rocks and the hills.

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  6. Deb G Avatar

    Like Jude I use a tarp. There is an organization, I can’t remember the name of it right now, that has set up centers for children to go to at refugee camps. If I remember right, they are in Greece and Mexico right now. Places to be safe, places to play.

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  7. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    I’ve come back because of reading Liz, Jude and Deb G’s comments on using what was on hand to clear brush, etc. I’ve written about “dirt surfing” before but I will put it here again. We lived on 1/2 acre in Alamo, CA, a bay area city about 28 miles from San Francisco. The property came with peach and cherry trees, a worn out rose garden, lovely camellia bushes and a pool.
    We had enough land for several gardens but we wanted our main garden for veggie and herbs. We had a smaller one for flowers. The ground was rocky so we spent a lot of time collecting rocks, using some as borders but most were too small. After we took out most of the rocks, we needed to level and smooth the land but what to use to do that. Rich would rent a rototiller after we had leveled the ground so we came up with a frugal but good idea. We flattened out one of the huge long cardboard boxes that had held our mattresses, Rich put holes in the cardboard to loop rope through for handles. I stood on the cardboard to add weight as he pulled it back and forth across the spot picked out for our veggie and herb garden. I literally surfed the dirt, falling a few times because I couldn’t stop laughing…well I guess we created a bit of a commotion because our neighbor Hall peeked over the fence and asked, “what on earth were we doing?” Well that brought on a fit of giggles and I replied, “Why we are dirt surfing! He looked at us as if we were nuts and went back inside his house only to come out later with a bottle of wine and invite us over after we were done with our strange project! Hal and his wife Brenda and Rich and I enjoyed many a fine harvest from our dirt surfing project.

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  8. grace Forrest Avatar

    i would be too, but its not that steep

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar

    i tried and crashed time and time again

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar

    i think that’s part of the point…the dehumanizing

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    your days there were so filled with Glory

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    tarps here are shredded…the rocks, sticks and especially the huge pinecones and their broken pieces. We went
    through too many tarps

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    we need to know these Places and support them in any and all
    ways possible

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