poles against the sky

Summer Soltice 2013

By freeacre

Happy Soltice

It’s the first day of summer, a time for renewal. I guess that is especially meaningful this year, considering the devastating fire that destroyed much of what we had accumulated over our lifetimes. All the firearms, re-loading gear, tools, hides, traditional Indian blanket project that Murph had two thirds completed, money, tool sheds storing collectables, writings, photos, you name it – all gone. Dealing with the mess and the clean-up has been daunting, but we are finally making progress. We still have a lot of work to do to get the property looking decent, but at least we’ve got the tipi up and the land is cleared and ready for the installation of a new shop and car port. We are not putting in a garden this year, but we do plan to harvest the Swiss Chard and Kale that wintered over, and we planted potatoes and herbs, lettuce, and some Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower that should produce a bit this year.

 Here’s a picture of what we started with:

This is what the area looks like now:

Renovated and painted shed from fire. 

Here are some more pictures of the tipi and grounds as it looks currently:

The on top of floor fire pit

Looking at sky through smoke hole

UPS just delivered a new foam sleeper/sofa that we can sit or sleep on in the tipi.  When we get the liner, carpeting, and furniture all in, we’ll take another picture and publish it on our next post. Soon, we should have some money from the frigging’ insurance company to re-build buildings and begin replacing tools and things we need to get going again on our favorite projects.

I’ve been thinking a lot about collapse. I find myself feeling unusually emotional. I cry at the drop of a hat over just about anything. I also have been even more grumpy than usual. I came almost un-glued at the Grange Potluck/business meeting when we were told we have to post a no smoking within ten feet of the entrance to the Hall sign outside our building. I got all red in the face and began ranting about how stupid and infuriating this was to me, especially in light of the FUCKING RADIATION in the air that nobody seems to give a shit about! I probably was appalling to many of my fellow Grangers. I just couldn’t help it.

What I am realizing is that in many ways, the collapse that we have been anticipating for the last eight years has already happened to us personally. It just doesn’t look like we thought it would. We anticipated a financial collapse based on Peak Oil and other resources. We could not have imagined the bazaar lengths to which the Federal Reserve and the IMF would go to forestall the inevitable. We could not have imagined the police/surveillance state that has been developing over the last twenty years or so. We had no idea of Agenda 21, the world-wide program to depopulate rural areas and funnel us into cities. We didn’t know how many millions the governments of the world would be willing to sacrifice, kill, incarcerate and displace in order to keep their personal fortunes and power bases.

It is becoming clear now, however. I watch in wonder as the people of Turkey and Brazil mobilize in the streets to protest the policies of their out-of-touch governments and civil servants.  Their protests began over rising bus fares and destroying a city park in order to build a shopping mall – and have grown to include general dissatisfaction with the lack of freedom to express themselves and heavy-handed, unresponsive central powers.

This country has even more to protest against, but has done very little so far. We, of course, have been distracted by one questionable outrage after another – Sandy Hook, the Boston Bombings, Whistle-blowers, wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and potentially, Iran, Sudan, and on and on, as the relentless natural resource grab continues. And whether it’s the mind-numbing drugs we are collectively on, the mind-control shaping our limited attention spans by the mass media, the desperation of at-risk jobs, the indebtedness - the population of this country seems to be in a virtual coma.  Mumbling and hand-wringing are about all we can come up with as conditions deteriorate and the world slides into a full-on global corporate police state.

No wonder I am sad. I have not just lost my stuff. I have lost my country. I have lost any semblance of faith that I would have any influence over national or even local politics or policies. We have jumped through every hoop they threw out there for us to repeal the Local Rule and put a moratorium on mandated ATT septic systems due to them being unworkable, unaffordable, and ineffective for seven long years. And, after all this, we find that yet another agency, the EQC is in charge of the DEQ, and they won’t even hear our petition. There we are – flat up against Agenda 21. Screwed and tattooed.

It’s “Hunger Games,” “Le Miserables,” “Elysium” for us, and the “Great Gatsby” and “Anna Karenina” for them. You know me. I speak in movie metaphors. Think of every martial arts film you ever saw and how much the peasants’ opinions affected the Emperor, and you get the idea.

The only thing potentially leveling the playing field would be the intervention of Our Mother, the Earth, Herself and our sentient Universe. Therefore, I find myself backing away from the fray out there and shifting my focus to the inside link to the collective consciousness. Whether it’s due to global warming or a coming Ice Age, the acidification of the oceans, radiation from Fukushima, a kill shot from the Sun, drought, famine, volcanoes, floods, or whatever other natural disasters that seem to be piling on, the end of life as we know it seems to be upon us. Personally, I am going to spend more time concentrating on those desires that I still want to be met within this incarnation. I’d like to be more artistic, more at peace, healthier, more loving. When up against the globalist agenda, I admit to being powerless. I ask for divine intervention.

So, I turn within and celebrate the Summer Solstice. Despite the apparent clusterfuck, I will beat my drum and be grateful for each day that I have left on this wondrous planet.

aho