Dream It and It Will Come

I have an obsession lately that I can't seem to break away from.

For the last few months we've been thinking very hard about what our next step is as far as a home. Where we're at now is 1000 sq. feet, two bedrooms, and an unpleasant neighborhood situation. If we didn't have so many things we liked to do with our hands it would be much easier to simplify life and stay here. Grow our family small-house style. But when it comes down to it, we really want more space. physical space, emotional space, social space, community space. Ok, so when I say space, I'm really talking about freedom.

I've always said that I wanted to live in a place where I could walk around naked in my back yard. Now I am a bit more realistic about the fact that I don't need a valley, just a few acres. And from a few acres away people can still see me if I am naked in my back yard. I am a nudist, but a very private one. The point is, I want space for my kids to stretch their legs and their brains and hearts. Where they can love butterflies and digging holes and sticks.

But this is not the recent obsession of which my husband tires. He's more of a 'when the time comes' kind of dreamer. I'm more of a 'build it and it will happen' kind of dreamer. But I'm not too proud to face it. We're lucky to be in the house we're in. The only thing that has changed in the last six years as far as our finances are concerned is that now we have kids. We didn't have kids so it's was easier to qualify for a loan. But the funny thing is, now we're more stable in about a hundred and one ways, all of which involve one 3 year old and one 4 year old and we're still wondering if anyone will actually give us a mortgage on our second home.  I think of all the people who are in a similar situation to us who are still renting and I know that I'm lucky to be where I am. I also wish that I would have known what I wanted 6 years ago.

So remember when you were a kid and you and your siblings had a lego set and you'd spend hours building and stealing each others pieces so you could put one more window on your house or so you could finish the castle tower, subsequently saving the princess. That's pretty much where this all started. This is what I've been doing to night:

Imagine little tiny people living in it, or imagine it on a larger scale with each block being made of corrugated steel container and each ice cube or transparent tub being a sun room or skylights. Right now, this is what I imagine when I imagine the future. Broccoli topped roof and all. The end result will be home of about 1600 square feet.

I'm just trying to figure out how to make it happen.




















Obviously making a lego style, ISBU house isn't a new idea. In fact I'm pretty sure that as soon as shipping containers started littering ports and rail yards around the world, people started living in them. But only in the last 20 or 25 years has the idea been taken seriously in places where it wasn't of dire need. To say the least it's an idea that hasn't caught on very fast in Utah, though I am pretty sure that most people who still rent here would agree that to have an affordeable space of one's own instead of paying a fortune to someone else to live in theirs is appealing. I'm not talking about forcing everyone live in boxcars like "The Boxcar Children" but an actual home that has all the whistles and bells and creature comforts. And though the idea isn't catching into fruition very fast, there are projects in Utah that use this very idea, though it's next to impossible to find actual information about them on the web. Here are a couple of them:



This is a digital rendering of The Sarah House, a project for Utah's under-served that is currently being built through Crossroads Urban Center.  Here is the most updated image I could find of it's actual progress.You can check their progress on the Sarah House Utah facebook page.



There's also the City Center Lofts, a seven story container apartment building that was built in the hear of Down Town Salt lake City and for which I can't seem to find an actual photograph. However it was scheduled to be completed in 2009.



Of the most useful resource I've found (Today) is this article from R One studio (Follow the link) The author makes some really great points. And I feel like I know what my next step is in building the dream. Find out how much an architect costs. Though, if you look at the two images he shares, I definitely prefer the one he clearly dislikes. Much more interesting. 

This concludes this session of my this redneck yerba mate dream...To be continued.

Sprouting: The Most Fantacstically Exciting and Terribly Boring Post Ever.

 
No big story today. I just did something that I've been wanting to do for a while. I grew my own sprouts. I bet you a bunch of money that you could grow sprouts with what you have in your kitchen right now, without buying a single thing. (ok, so I'm not really as reckless as that. But really, I bet you could.) The biggest problem for me was keeping clean counter space all week long amidst canning beans...


I can't say that I use sprouts all the time, or even a lot. I can't even say I remember the last time I bought sprouts. Neither can I say I thought the cost of buying them was justifiable even when I did, I'm sure I got them on a super duper sale day at Market Square. It's even less justifiable when I consider what I know now. Now that I know how easy it is to grow sprouts, I'm going to be eating them more and I'll never buy them again.

Actually though, they probably were worth the cost. I'm smart. I looked on wikipedia, and googled it (links provided below). And if you just want to pay for good quality food, that's alright, pay away. I had heard before, but know better now that they are really good for you. They are a cancer fighting, anti oxidant rich, power-packed, super-food. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Sprouting seeds simply takes the nutrient rich heart of the seed (the endosperm) and transfers it into something edible and delicious, all the while adding to the endosperm's super power by making a baby plant that is eaten whole. If you want more information on their health benefits (cause I'm really not a health fanatic missionary) look here.

My favorite way to use sprouts has always been in a sandwich. I'm a sandwich person. Though off my head I can think of other ways:  wraps, spring rolls, salads, stir fries.  But I'm excited to find new ways, scrumptious ways, to adopt into my kitchen. This is a more extensive list of ways you can use them.

You can sprout pretty much any seed. However some seeds are deemed inedible or unsafe for human consumption. Tomatoes, peppers, oats (at least raw). But most edible plants with edible raw leaves or seeds have edible sprouts. One of the biggest problems with Sprouts though is actually in the ease of their growth. If they aren't well taken care of or exposed to contaminants, they harbor lots of bugs that are dangerous to eat (not actual insects, but bacteria). If you've ever been paranoid about buying spinach or tomatoes with the constant Salmonella breakouts in the last few years you should know that Sprouts have been just as big of a problem. All the more reason to grow them yourself.

Which brings me to the very reason I decided to try sprouting them myself. I recently found a most excellent resource. His name is Mike Leiberman and he is one smart guy. You may have seen him or read about him in an number of places. He has all sorts of creative ways to simplify the art of growing your own food and to do it in amazingly small spaces. He makes me feel like my 1/4 acre is a farm. And I like that because it's what I imagine it to be anyway. Here is his post on growing sprouts. I followed it in a very basic sort of way.

The gist is you take some beans or seeds or grains (I used lentils) and soak them in water overnight in a jar with some nylon or cheesecloth tied on the top (tied with string, a rubber band, a bottle ring etc.) then in the morning dump the water out. Rinse with clean water and drain. Then let it all sit there on your counter top for a few days. Rinse them in the same way a couple times a day until they sprout. Then you eat them. That's it.

The only thing you have to do to make sure they are safe is not leave them around raw meat, cover them like instructed, and rinse them twice a day. I actually didn't cover mine. They did awesome, but probably wouldn't have if it were summertime.

And there you have it. An extraordinary leap for one kitchen makes a terrifyingly long post for someone who, well, doesn't want to grow sprouts...Lol.

This, That, and the Other

I wake up. The day feels like a normal day. I start to get ready, get the kids dressed, prepare my primary lesson, get breakfast, and then without any warning the day takes an unexpected turn. And even though I think it's going alright, nothing I think is going to happen happens.

That was yesterday.

Maybe it was boredom. Maybe it was wanderlust. Maybe I'm just tired of living next to a cocaine selling operation.Whatever it was, it tasted an awe-full lot like freedom. This is what it looked like.

This is sort of what it will look like in two years or so:

But with something like this...right in the middle.

Made with a few of these.

  

But until then, I guess I'll just enjoy a little bit of This. 

And a little of That...












And even though some might consider the events of the day useless, even a total disaster, somehow it turned into the most extraordinary day I can remember in a very very long time.

Coming Out

I'd like to share a dream, an itch. A reoccurring thought that nurtures and inspires other dreams while weaving it's way through me, making itself into my future. The first time I remember making sense of it I was a kid 'playing' with my girl friend Megan from across the street. I don't remember how old I was, I only remember the topic of conversation and the look of the light on the cement walls of my basement, sheets hung as partitions separating the play area from my Mom's work area, and sitting daydreaming about my future. The subject of conversation was 'if we could live anywhere we wanted...'

Of course the dream has changed since I was a kid. I use to want stables and horses and the whole idea was based on my vague idea of living on a ranch. There were animals in pastures and growing things and trees lining the whole of it. It's all still there, in my imagination, but now there are structures and more useful animals. And there are other things too. Like for example...People. More specifically...Kids. Now the nut shell of the life I want is this: A piece of land where the earth gives me what I need to grow a family and grow old with the ones that I love.

Ariel was born to some of the richest soils on the earth. A year round growing season for some of my favorite plants including but not limited to Eggplants. The climate, other than this unprecidented drought year, is perfect for entertaining my pastoral daydreams. This and the constant smell of the rain just on the edge of the next wisp of grey cloud, helped me to love that soil, those sunsets, the eucalyptus that give the horizon contour. Living on the outskirts of a small city on la pampa, I imagined my life with a few kids and some close friends on a plot of land far from civilization. I imagined a place secluded from most Argentine reality, so far from people that might take advantage of us and our North American capitalist roots that we would be forced to make a way for ourselves on the land. Of course we would need no forcing, this is part of the dream.

I dreamt about how we would meet a lot of our needs. Our need for an energy source: solar, wind, hydro; our food needs: seeds, greenhouses, root cellars, clean water. The most enjoyable needs to daydream about were how we would bring up those five beautiful children that we wanted. I had planned out a structure. It was simple, rustic; with strong bones and wide open spaces. Reading nooks and learning spaces with a little winding staircase that led to a star observatory on the roof. Chairs you could melt into a book with and tables with running water and art spaces. It was my version of what people straight out of a Charlotte Bronte novel would have done for being educated. With a little guidance and discipline combined with the natural processes of human curiosity and the world around them. Of course it was based on a firm spiritual belief that being close to nature would spark a flame and a curiosity for life that isn't found by spending your life in the suburbs, in public school, as I was. I had brief moments of fire-fed learning and growing, academically. But I think I've always recognized that the system I was educated in was stifling. I knew that few saw in me what I saw in myself and I bleieved that eventually I would figure out how to pull it out of myself on my own. I'm still trying. And sometimes I can't say I have the remotest idea how.   

And now I find that reality puts me far from that dream. But there's one piece that I follow still. Of course I haven't given up the idea of homesteading somewhere. After school, after Ariel finishes his quest to feel realized in some professional capacity, haven proved himself in two worlds, two languages, two cultures. But, after living in my current situation for more than five years, I've realized that there is no reason to wait for a lot of those things until I live in some pastoral paradise.

And as my children, who finally came, grow, I realize that this is one part of my dream that I need to cling to more than ever. They grow, they change, they learn new words and attitudes. The people that they are, regardless of the setting, show more and more color. With the culture of our family, what we choose to bring forward out of our own experiences as humans and children, I see a great need to let my children decide for themselves what they want to learn and how. I don't know what I've done to them to make them this way, but they are both highly suspicious of me. It just doesn't work to present something to them and say 'here, learn this' or 'come on don't you think this is interesting and fun, I do, don't you?' I know my kids and I know it doesn't work. So I guess this is a coming out of sorts. This isn't a subject I talk about very much, I guess I don't like having to explain myself when the inevitable doubtful questions come. I don't think that this is new for anyone I know, or who know me.  But it's stronger in this suburban ghetto than it's ever been in my romantic imaginings of cleaner air and more plentiful soil. When I imagine myself, when I imagine my kids, who are still young, I know that there is one thing that has always been the same.

My two oldest will have to suffer through a kitchen table and a back yard farm in the suburbs for a school house. I'm still trying to work out the details. I'll follow my own rugged way and I may have my eyes blindfolded half the time walking forward with faith, but one thing is for certain: I Am a Home Schooler.