From the profane to the religious

Alzheimer's is a miserable god damn fucking disease
and
my Dad is doing sacred work
right here,
at this time,
in this world.

Just before I am wrong, I am right. - 99% Invisible

Day starts

Up at 6:15 with cup of coffee,
some Morning Edition (not to much)
45 minutes of moving listening to
trance.
Something just right for breakfast.
The best days in my life are
those I do something.

Really

Invited to a meeting to be told I did not have to attend a meeting.

"I remember firelight, you remember smoke." -Molly Drake

A book

Reading at one time was

the thing unto itself,

What am I doing today

you might ask? Reading I would answer.

Then I became busy and I used to squeeze reading

in around the edges. Then for a while I hardly

read at all.

Today, a cool rainy spring Sunday,

the long dark teatime of the soul,

and all day to read.

A gift returned.

City Refocuses Its Vision on Urban Farms

Frank CariniPROVIDENCE — The words hit with the force of a hoe bashed upside his head. After all the work his soil-stained hands had done to transform a derelict city lot into a bountiful urban farm, Than Wood couldn’t believe what he was reading: “… a vacant lot, which we propose to purchase and convert into a community-based garden.”

What!? During the past two growing seasons, Wood’s Front Step Farm had produced more than 2,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables, and this upcoming season two dozen neighbors had already bought weekly community-supported agriculture shares in the Backyard Farms CSA.

However, a neighbor of Wood’s urban farm recently was awarded a $10,000 community development block grant (CDBG) from the city. In its grant application, the nonprofit organization referred to 1240 Westminster St. — aka Front Step Farm — as a “vacant lot.” Organization officials wrote that their project “will catalyze community development, stimulate social interaction, beautify the neighborhood and provide nutritious food.”

Than Wood, in April 2010, preparing Front Step Farm, 1240 Westminster St. in Providence, for its first growing season. (ecoRI News file photo)Re-Focus Inc. can sure write a grant, but its observation skills are suspect. Beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and salad greens have colored the 6,000-square-foot lot for two years, a greenhouse and a handmade “mud” oven made of cinderblocks and used to cook community pizzas adorn the urban oasis, and many a neighbor has stopped to chat with Wood about what he is growing. Visitors often leave with a handful of raspberries and some good growing advice.

The nonprofit at 1228 Westminster St. can also be less than neighborly.

Only days after planting the first seedlings for his third growing season, Wood was rudely told to pack up and leave — despite the fact he was a legal tenant with rights; he was paying $100 a month in rent. It was a hostile takeover of a plot of land long ignored until an ambitious East Providence native picked up the trash, lugged out rubble, ripped up pavement, pulled weeds, planted flowers, dumped 40 yards of topsoil, grew chemical-free produce, and continued enriching the land with manure, seaweed and neighbors' food scraps.

Little work needs to be done to “catalyze community development, stimulate social interaction, beautify the neighborhood and provide nutritious food” at the “vacant lot” at 1240 Westminster St.

The former City Farm apprentice was told he could stay until the end of the season, if he paid more rent for less access to the land he nurtured back to life. Wood’s other option was to leave immediately. The nonprofit so interested in “stimulating social interaction” bullied an engaged member of the city’s West Side community off the property without even a “thank you” for the work he had done helping revitalize the neighborhood. Instead, he was told it would soon be changing the lock on the gate.

For the next week, Wood attempted to contact Re-Focus officials to ask them for at least 30 days to get off the property — a right afforded to him under state law. He needed time to move out his tools, the greenhouse, the “mud” oven and the soil he worked so hard to create.

Re-Focus officials ignored Wood and his request for mediation through the Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island, until, that is, a besieged official in the city’s planning department was moved to intervene by Front Step Farm friends, neighbors and CSA members.

Garry Bliss, director of compliance for the city’s Department of Planning and Development, took note of the outpouring of support, and in a memo dated April 19 to the chairman of the Committee on Urban Redevelopment, Renewal & Planning deemed the Re-Focus grant application ineligible.

His decision was based on three key points:

1) In its application, Re-Focus characterized the lot it would be acquiring as  “vacant” and “empty.” However, according to city ordinance, the lot at 1240 Westminster St. doesn’t meet the definition: “A lot with no existing structure that is littered with trash and obviously abandoned.”

“The lot in question has, in fact, been the location of an active and well-maintained urban farm,” Bliss wrote in the memorandum.

2) In its application, Re-Focus stated it wished to acquire the lot and “convert (it) into a community-based garden.”

“This is a misrepresentation as, stated above, the lot is already a garden serving the community, including low- to moderate-income neighborhood residents who obtain fresh produce from the farm during the growing season,” Bliss wrote.

3) The money requested in the grant was to support the acquisition of the lot and the projected date for that activity, in the application, was September 2012 — well within the time period for grant-funded activities.

“However, Re-Focus acquired this property on April 4, 2012 (for $27,000). Grant funds for the July 1, 2012-June 30, 2013 Program Year cannot pay for activities conducted prior to the beginning of the Program Year,” Bliss wrote.

And for those of you concerned about Farmer Wood, he’s currently looking at land in the city and on the outskirts. He’ll be growing food again this season and selling it to neighbors and restaurants, at farmers’ markets and through the Little City Growers Cooperative.

Hi Rick!

A good day.

Its more than a thumb in Re-Focus's eye,
although that part is pretty sweet,
its getting knocked down
and getting back up.
Its pride and conviction
shared. Its making this place
a little better for others. This smells
like an intentional community,
that's right, hippy talk!

Stone Man

My rock collection is
now watched over
by a inuksuk made of
rocks from a  Shogun fortress
and Shinto temple and they from
the even older strife
of planet formation.
A cool roommate indeed.

Been on a conference call since noon

1:39pm
2:37pm
3:07pm
3:40pm
4:05pm
5:00PM
5:08pm done!

At Front Step Farm.

The dried horse manure,
gotten free from the Providence
Police horse barn at Roger Williams Park,
was still in dry clumps after the dry winter,
waiting to be released by April showers..
Yellow blooming dino kale that had overwintered.
Barrel of seaweed tea waiting
for the tug of the moon.
Stinging nettles daring me to lightly brush
at my peril. Scallions and carrots getting
ready to do the heavy lifting,
strawberry plants making a promise
of a sweet trip across the tongue.
Mint having its way in a side bed.
A salute with a quick piss goodbye behind Al's shed.

Listening

During the day I use my hearing
to navigate and inform.
Some of what I hear brings me
pleasure, some becomes a memory
and some is immediately forgotten.
What happens to what I hear
when I am a sleep? So just like I
have a set of awake sounds is
there a whole other set of
sleep sounds stored away?

Post card from Rick and Michelle in Japan

Weird juju at work today. Better slaughter a chicken.

Critter

One of the things that scamper around through
the walls of my apartment has created a hole
in the wall of my bedroom. I haven't seen the animal yet so I am
not sure what it is. I called and reported it to the landlady
and she said she would come and take a look but
she hasn't shown up yet. However that's
not my problem because to quote the great Mitch Hedburg
"I am a renter, I ain't fixing shit!"

Adding casein in a blender.

Speed nob set to about one third
so a whirlpool is formed
start to add the casein and
at the same time slowly increase the speed
otherwise the increased viscosity
will collapse the whirlpool
sending the casein to clump on the
sides at the top of the blender.

My mind is of my body, my body is meant to be in motion.

I want to stop being self deprecating.

This weekend I was invited into the lives of loved ones to share and to bear witness in struggles that I see as the definition of what it is to be human and truly alive.