Lazy time

Feb. 26^th, 2010

Back in the swing of things here. This week we had a lazy day on our free day, only leaving to go to the post office (straggler thank-you notes). Then we snuggled up with a Reese’s peanut butter cup, two wee bags of thai sweet chili crisps (chips), and caught up on the recent episodes of Glee. We are six weeks or so behind yall in the states, and it is very tempting to watch ahead, but our frustratingly slow internet connection squashed that impulse. The Reese’s were smuggled in from Scotland by Lukas, who was visiting his mother and sister there last week. N. Ireland has not figured out the beautiful combination of chocolate and peanut butter, and Lukas knew that I had been pining after some. Then Jeff napped, I read a book, and life was superbly lazy.

Later this week we had our supervision meetings to talk about how we are doing in Clanabogan. They are modeled for young co-workers, and the sheet we had to guide the meeting was rather frustrating. Most of the questions do not apply to us. So we laughed off many of them and had good, productive conversations instead. Jeff’s meeting brought about a change in his daily life which has been a big relief to him. You could ask him about it, but this is not the proper place to type it out. My meeting was just nice to have—no changes really, but a good conversation and good self reflection. Both meetings were very positive, and we were grateful for the reinforcement. I have been feeling good about the way things are going in the house generally. There are always little hiccups here and there, but the fact that they have all been little things is great. Somehow this week we are both very tired (I blame the Olympics, which air live starting at 11pm) but feeling good about our accomplishments in Rainbow house.

London

February 18, 2010

Amazingly, there are several very dedicated readers of our blog though we are not very dedicated bloggers. I am going to attempt to do this more often rather than posting huge ones once a month (no comment from Jeff, though). First, a couple photos:

My recent spring cleaning issue-- the holiday decorations

The cat in our manger at Christmas

A coastline in Sligo which we walked last week

Jeff, on the same walk, contemplating his next step

Over Valentines weekend we went to London and stayed with Jeff’s cousin Bill, wife Laura, and two kids Poppy and Daisy. They took us under their wings and showed us how to get about. We learned the tube and rail systems pretty quickly (one is forced to, lest they be trampled by hoards of women in heels). Sights on the list included the following, though I will not go into all the details of each: the National Gallery, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, the V&A Museum, a walk around the river, junk store shopping, the Tower of London, and the London and Tower bridges. These were cool, but I only want to talk

about my two favorite things, which were the food and the Jack the Ripper tour. Imagine a hundred tourists standing around in the dark, some with clear plastic ponchos despite clear skies, following around a dude with a wheely suitcase and a stool. Funny scene. We walked around what was old London proper and learned all the gory details of the Jack the Ripper murders while standing at the actual murder sites. The guide was awesome, though sometimes the sites were unexciting. (“This is the very site of the third murder…” as we stand in the middle of a parking lot). Anyway, it was a good time and a funny way to spend Valentine’s. Then, there was lots of food. We have

been severely lacking tasty tidbits here in N. Ireland—we have found one good Indian take-away in Omagh, but everything else is just lacking taste. So in London we got our fix. We had good Thai with Bill and Laura, made Mexican, had lunch at a fabulous vegetarian café (Jeff loved the sweet potato pie), and we finally struck out at a bad Chinese place our last day. The best day was at a place called the Bell—we went out to the country a bit to see Laura’s parents’ place and go to this pub. The Bell has been owned

by one family for six generations, and the rafters were literally brushing my hair as I walked around. On offer are three things—beer, pickled eggs with vinegar chips, and baps (buns). Pickled eggs are, by the way, fabulous. On your bun you can order a variety of options, all of them meat or cheese. Jeff got ox tongue, which apparently tastes like baloney. I got the strong cheddar bun which is literally a bun with a half pound of cheese on it. It was

amazing, but definitely more cheese than I could ever eat myself. Here is a photo of the cheese. After lunch we visited a nearby sacred old yew tree, estimated to be around 1000 years old. There are all sorts of random sacred things around here.

We flew late at night, took a bus back to Omagh, and a taxi to the community to get in bed by 2:30am. The next morning we were up by seven to wake people up! I do not know how it came to be that all the people here are woken up by us (my previous experience shows me that most people can wake with an alarm). But that morning we were especially cursing the pattern that has been laid out for us.

More to come, sooner than later. This is unofficially my last big post, hopefully to be replaced by more frequent but smaller ones.

Honestly, a real time update, with TACOS!

We start with a few photos completely unrelated to the post from Giant's Causeway:




Chelsea: Well hello everyone! This is a real time update, not another thing I have been working on for weeks and am just now posting. Here is what is on my mind today.

On Monday, the whole life changes. Our kitchen in Rainbow house is being re-done into this beautiful model-home kitchen. We already know what it will look like because there is a twin home here, called Sunrise, and they have already finished their kitchen. There will be a beautiful tile floor, five (count em, FIVE) sinks which incidentally each have specific purposes under health code, granite counter tops, a new window, a new larder, new cabinets, better lighting, and a copper fume hood. Custom made dish sinks made to fit people more generally so that we do not have to bend over to do the dishes. We will still have the aga, but they're also putting in a range with an oven (read: proper temperature regulation for baking). Finally, a dish washer. If anyone can imagine doing dishes by hand for a family gathering or party of 12-20 people, then imagine doing that three times a day, you have an idea of how excited I may be for a dish washer.

This big change brings about all sorts of little ones. Our cooking crew is shifting over to Sunrise and their new kitchen, and Jill will no longer be in the crew. She will move to another house so that Catherine can cook in Sunrise again. What I hear is that Catherine is a wonderful cook and very efficient, so I am excited to see what we can do together! In reality I am only really cooking three days a week now. The bakery makes us pizza one day, a support worker (employed by the community to help out) cooks on Sundays, and I have a big meeting every Wed. so Christina has to cook on her own... more on home group meeting later. Besides cooking changes, we also are all spreading out over different houses for our lunch meal. Lucky for us, Jeff and I at least still get to eat together, and then run back home for a little R and R.

Home group. This has been slowly ramping up as one of my additional responsibilities. Wednesdays are a funny day for me. I attend this meeting, which is all about every big or little thing that needs talking about in the community, with the home coordinators of each house. These are the mover and shaker people who really run the administrative side of Clanabogan. They do not make every decision alone, but most things at least start in this meeting. I am learning a lot about the way things work here, and tucking tidbits away for future use. Later in the day we head to Introductory Course with all the young co-workers, and I get the other very basic side of things-- what is respect, how do we ensure safety in the tub, antidiscrimination policies etc. So I find myself a unique bridge between these two groups. I am quite comfortable in the young crowd meetings, and generally feel a need to help those meetings along with participation. My footing in home group was initially tenuous, but I am starting to feel the ground there and I am speaking up more when I have options or opinions. There is this funny thing that I think can be found in many do-gooder non-profits everywhere... do-gooders are not always so practical. We weave and tip around subjects, someone forgets their point, another brings a new one in the middle of a current point, someone brings us back to center... repeat. No kidding, it took us 25 minutes to figure out where everyone from our house could eat. So I find myself often drifting between daydreaming and bringing up poignant ideas that are often solutions. Oh, inefficiency mingled with efficiency mingled with bleeding hearts on everyone's sleeves.

Tonight we are celebrating my birthday with tacos. Old El Passo has a complete monopoly on the Mexican fare here, so you can imagine exactly what we will be eating. Add to those staples home made guacamole and salsa, and I am quite excited. We are having our house dinner early because two guys from the house, David and Christopher, are leaving tomorrow to visit home for the weekend. It was absolutely crushing to David that he would miss my birthday dinner (because he thinks everyone wants sausages and chips on their birthday), so we moved it up. In a wonderful but completely unnecessary gesture, his mother drove 20 minutes from Kesh to bring a gift for me. Likely, a tin of chocolates. We are still working on the tins we got at the holidays! After supper, I have a distinct idea that Jeff is taking me to a Jazz ensemble and dinner (second dinner). Maybe I have this thought because I told him it would be a nice idea for my birthday. Perhaps I will even get him to dance with me. We will see! More on all that next time. I leave you with a few completely unrelated photos:

Backdated...

Here is a very old post that I meant to send along but never did. New one coming with updates in a day or so.

January 4th, 2010
Christmas Season
Greetings in the new year! Many, many things have happened since that last posting, what with the holidays and all. Here is a brief update on the facts, and some fun as well.

1. We moved into the house over boxing day and have since welcomed everyone home from their holiday breaks with their families. The house is remarkably calm after such a big switch, considering how difficult it is to accept change sometimes. The rooms are nice and we can sleep a little longer in the morning.
2. A new co-worker is moving in, a Dutch guy named Gawan. He is 19 and his mother is very concerned that he gets enough to eat here—I do not think that will be a problem, seeing as one of his “responsibilities” will be to attend three meals a day and be served by yours truly.
3. Another person is moving in as well, Lukas. He grew up here, and his dad already lives in Rainbow. He is taking on more responsibility with the house and will be here over night with us, which will be helpful if Jeff and I want a date night. Unlike Gawan, he already knows the house well and will not need an adjustment period.
4. Christmas was interesting. We are perhaps more tired now than we were before! Jeff and I were Mary and Joseph in the play in the barn on Christmas Eve, complete with calves which pushed out of their pen at the end of the play (and then stood in the hall, very unsure of what to do!). We had a big meal both Christmas Eve and Christmas, lots of cultural events since then, a New Years game night put on by yours truly, and now we are celebrating Three Kings and singing lots. Yikes. The weavery is calling my name.

So. We have two conflicting desires right now. The general theme of the season and holiday is rest, and we are resting. But we are also feeling the urge to get going here, and organize ourselves. The day to day stuff is old hat to us, because we have experienced most of that since October. However, there are administrative things that we are learning now, and part of that is organizing the house so that we can understand it and administer! The office needs a clean-up (overhaul?), medicine needs attention, monthly reports, and all the Christmas refuse needs to be dealt with. When we return to work on Thursday, I will be in the house cooking and doing what needs doing in the morning, and Jeff will technically be “in the house” in the afternoons. For him, that means organizing things, running errands, being nurse if someone is sick, and otherwise going to work in the garden if there is nothing here to do. Anyway, we will both have loads of time to do what needs doing here, and somehow I cannot believe that we will actually need all of that time. So we are trying to resist the urge to get moving, enjoy the relaxing time, and use the time allotted to us later.

Weather—feels like home, which is to say, incredibly cold and snowy for people here. There is an arctic air mass blah-de-blah and its cold. The irritating part of this is that there is still ice on the roads and it can be quite “slippy” in places. So the community has made the decision that none of the “villagers” should go walking about unaccompanied until further notice. Jeff and I both raised our eyebrows at that. Right now, there are two of us here and five people who are to be escorted everywhere. It is not practical, and most often not necessary. One would have to try pretty hard to slip on the path we take to and fro. So that has been annoying, but we are too-proud Minnesotans who know how to walk (and even drive!) on ice and we should remember it, so we have kept out mouths shut. Meanwhile, our people often “forget” that they need one of us with and walk to the hall alone anyway.

This reminds me. There are no inbetweener aged people here. Either you are 20 or 50, or a child of a person who chooses to live here. This is a general problem in Camphill, finding people to carry the torch if you will. Anja, our mentor here and a really lovely woman, has been making sideways comments about us staying on for life here. Beyond us, there is one guy in his 20s like us who may stick around in community for a while, but that’s it. Stagnataion.

Well, that is all for now. Happy winter!

the past few weeks, and snow!

Jeff: A long time with no posts. As we’ve settled in fewer things have become notable and with the holidays community life has grown busy. Our home life is going to change as well. The home coordinators for our house decided to take a break. This creates a hole in the house which the community has asked Chelsea and us to fill, at least temporarily. We are not going to assume the role of “home coordinators” which are the people that take full responsibility for a house. But our duties will be expanded and we are moving into Rainbow House. So we must bid Lilac Cottage goodbye and move on to the big community. Though it will be sad to depart from our newly christened abode, we are happy and excited to join community life more fully by actually living in our house! We’re happy to make Rainbow even more of our home and become closer with all of those living there.

Notable adventures to date.
Monday, 4 Mondays ago – Chelsea and I took a car and headed out to Eniskillen, a town 30 miles south of the community. The day was beautiful and clear. After exploring the town and the castle, we went out for a hike. The hike was straight up a hill that overlooked Lough (pronounced loch, don’t asked me why…) Erne. The views were spectacular, we could see all the way to Donegal Bay. Then we went to see some old statues in a graveyard, they were ok but what was even better (for Jeff anyway) was seeing pheasants!! We saw 4 roosters and a hen. Terribly exciting!
Thursday, 2 Thursdays ago – We needed to pick up some people up from the Dublin airport at 11:30 and bring them back to the community. We were able to get off early so we could make more of an adventure about it. We had a map and a GPS (just in case) and headed off to find the ocean, something that we hadn’t seen yet. After driving for a few hours in fog along meandering roads that most often lead nowhere, we happened upon an unmarked little beach just before it got too dark to see. It was beautiful but not exactly picture taking conditions. Then we got to have a night in Dublin: walking the streets, shopping and eating. It really got me in the Christmas spirit, with the lighted streets, street musicians and young carolers in Santa suits, the mood was right on.

Chelsea: And today, snow! We awoke to a perfect snowy sunrise, and took a little longer than normal walking to the house. These Irish are all tough with the rain and wind, but put down three inches of the white stuff and everyone freaks. Many people wouldn’t travel today because of it, and all of a sudden everyone is wearing ear flap hats even though it’s not any colder than before. Don’t get me wrong, the roads are treacherous enough without the ice, and I guess I understand. We do not even have shovels in the community, so the shovelers had to grab the scrapers from the farm. Jeff and I have been feeling very smug about grabbing snow with our bare hands (aren’t we wild!) and giddy from it all. This afternoon there was a Christmas carols celebration in the hall, and greeting everyone at the door was a four foot snowman with pine for hair, apples (one yellow, one red) for eyes, and an onion for a mouth. Now I just hope it can hang on a couple days so that we can enjoy a white Christmas!

Irish Thanksgiving?

Hello! We are fully stuffed with our Irish Thanksgiving meal, sitting in the living room with a few folks. Dessie, right next to me, is dozing off. We have been cooking since yesterday morning, and it was pretty darn good if I do say so myself, complete with three kinds of potatoes for 17 people! Here’s a list of what we had, along with a photo of the leftovers.

All home made: mashed potatoes, cheesy potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, creamed corn, cranberries, gravy (with just a little bit of turkey—we got two giant drummies from Asda supermarket but that was all) and vegetarian gravy. Top it off with two apple pies. Yummy!

We started cooking after breakfast with Jill, assembling all the ingredients that we prepared yesterday. Around 3:30 people began to assemble, and we made pilgrim hats! How cute are we?! By 4:15 everyone had arrived and we sat down for a meal. Jeff read a Thanksgiving story, and then we went around the table and each said thank you for one thing. In our hats, of course. Finally, one guest insisted that we sing “Oh the Lord is Good to Me” because he knew an American once who loved that blessing. Then, food! There was no American football to be had, because in a couple minutes we are going to begin constructing our advent wreaths. Some other day, perhaps January 10^th when Joe Wags is on TV for the Junior All American game. (WHooooo!!!!)

A day in the life... Chelsea

Well hello! It is amazing to me that I last posted few weeks ago, but it is true. My aim today is to post a day in my life. Many people have been asking what I have been doing, and though it seems very normal to me I guess it is not so normal to all of you. So here it goes.

Morning
We wake around 7am and hit the road. All Jeff and I have to do is brush our teeth and get dressed, because we eat breakfast with everyone at the house. Some weeks we are responsible for waking people up and making the breakfast, which means we get to the house a little earlier. Here is a photo of our morning walk, complete with rainy day weather. The walk is a nice way to shake out the cobwebs from sleep, but it sure is muddy. Usually my pant cuffs have mud splatters, and it is totally normal around here. After breakfast I usually do things like help with medicine, double check tooth brushing, laundry, etc.

AM Work
At 9:30 (supposedly, anyway) everyone goes to work. My morning task is in our house, cooking lunch with three other women. We have three hours to cook! It is too much, but means that I am doing all sorts of fun things. We also manage laundry and cleaning in there, so the time is certainly not wasted. First we head to the "store," which is a building all of 30 feet from our front door. There we have a community storage space filled with all the essentials. We pick up the vegetables and maybe meat for the day, and stock up on any of the essentials that we may be out of in the house. You know-- cereal, TP, flour, light bulbs. Several people are involved in maintaining the store, and some days they are in there doing their work in the morning as well. It is really wonderful, and a good way for the community to save money because it is all bought in bulk.
After we get our stash for the day (lately, a lot of root vegetables from the garden and thats about it) we start the cooking. We work on this massive beast called an Aga, which is basically an old-fashioned farm house stove. It used to be a wood stove, with a fire in the middle, warmer on the left, ovens on the right, and stove space on the top. The Aga and I, we have a love-hate relationship. I do not know how I would do cooking for 15 every day on a conventional oven. But, ug... the Aga is not an accurate stove or oven. You can "change" the temperature, but the only settings are 1 through 5, and it changes the temp of the whole thing at once but very, very slowly. The roasting oven is sometimes too hot while the baking oven is too cold. Baking cakes and cookies is difficult, as they are either scorched or doughey. Oh, and if it is a windy day the Aga may be lukewarm all over anyway. I am learning, and so far I have not burned myself on it (which is apparently impressive). So that is morning work. We are supposedly done cooking at 12:30 and eat at 1:00, but with my cooking style I am often steaming spinach right before we eat so that it is perfect. Some days I sit for that half hour, other days I do not.

Lunch
Usually tasty, sometimes crazy. Today we made squash soup, paprika cabbage, and quinoa with lentils. Camphill generally (that is, not just this community) is stuck with some residual gender role issues. Not only do I cook with three other women (and it is the same in nearly every house), but we also serve up everyone when we cook. I and Christina, the other co-worker who cooks with me, serve everyone their plate. We sit down to eat and the first people to be served are asking us for seconds. Don't get me wrong, some people need help getting their food and I do not mind that. But sometimes I would like to enjoy what I am eating for a couple minutes! There are some people that recognize this, and others that do not. Anyway, sometimes I feel a bit like a 1950s housewife, which many of you can imagine, does not settle well with me. Jeff has been jumping in here and there to break the stereotype every once in a while.

Afternoon
In the afternoon I work in the weavery. Look how beautiful! Like I have said earlier, I do not actually do a whole lot of weaving, but a lot of finishing work. That can be as simple as tying the ends of a scarf, or as difficult as a bag or toy. Here, you can see a few of the things that I have been working on. The purple purse is my favorite, I just finished it today! Also, a big bag, a turtle, and a cushion. There is a whole lot of room for artistic preference here, which is wonderful. It is for a funny reason though-- the weavery here is not dependent on selling any of the products made. So they do not mind if we make crap now and again because there is room for mistakes. Don't get me wrong, we do still sell a lot of it. Soon we will have an advent fair, which is what the push is for now. A lot of the things we are working on now are for in-house consumption as well, as people prepare for Christmas time gifts. I am anxious to buy some items to send home! They really are beautiful. By the time I leave the weavery, it is dark outside already.

Evening
The evening is pretty mellow. Before supper some nights I help with showers, other nights I just chill out for a while. We usually help prepare supper which is a small meal here, just bread and jam or perhaps some cake or fruit salad. Afterward, everyone does their own thing. The house we are attached to is not particularly social, which is tough sometimes! If we sit together after supper, it is really just that-- sitting together. Jeff and I have made some headway getting people to talk with us, but it is slow in coming. People start heading off to bed at 8, and if we are "housekeeping" (which is two nights a week) we mop the floor and encourage people to do their nightly routine. There is more hand-holding in this respect than there was at Community Homestead, and I am trying here and there to encourage more independence. For instance, does a person really need me to get them to go for their evening juice? No, he does not, but the routine suggests that he goes when we say something rather than when he feels like it. Little bits of independence that could be encouraged. If we are not housekeeping we go back to the cottage when we feel like it. But if we are housekeeping, come 9:30 everyone is off to bed, and we start our walk home. I like this walk, as it is a nice reflection time.

Well, there you have it! This was a very long post, but I think our moms appreciate knowing what we do every day. If you have questions, please post them and we will answer them in our next one! Lots of love...