7/4/11 - 7/8/11

7/4/11
A rainy morning 4th of July. Fog in the valley with sun slowly burning through. Yesterday was torrential. I pray for sun. My garden is magnificent but could use a steady three days of good weather.
Friday my younger brother came up and spent the night. We had a lot of laughs. Laughed till it hurt. Friday he arrived around 8 so we went downtown to get some food and drink, came home and laughed until I started nodding out from fatigue. He took this opportunity to clown me as I spoke in random thoughts every 30 seconds... in between falling asleep. He said I made no sense and talked crazy shit. Funny thing is that he's done the same thing with me once. Back in WA, when he was visiting and had taken allergy pills that caused him to drift in and out of consciousness. We were having a conversation and he was saying the most illogical things. Then I knew he was all narcoleptic. So I asked him all kinds of testy questions and got the most insane answers. Hilarious!
Seems to be that it runs in the family. Dad, the two brothers, and myself can't make it through a movie. Food + couch + TV = sleep. We hiked a semi-marked trail on the west side of the valley, an area I've wanted to explore since I've been here. It was awesome! So many creeks! I continuously looked for good rocks to cross the creek by. Waterfalls and springs led us back over the other side and we looped around, back up to the east side , spotting tiny bright orange and yellow shrooms all the way. Nothing edible and if so, not choice, but very illuminating and cute.
Starving we headed back to 'campus' and decided to get burgers in Phoenicia. Afterwards we shared a beer at the river and gasped for breath laughing, watching the dozens of people tubing get stuck, their tubes stuck in an outcrop of rock. Our stomachs hurt. We likely cried and peed a bit in our pants. Good times.
Last Sunday I earned some extra cash planting, pruning, and weeding in Uma's mom's yard. It was a great time hanging out with her and the pups. We had an awesome lunch of salad from the garden & toast topped with parmesan and prosciutto. Some of my favorites. She also made an awesome cup o' tea. Some kind of vanilla rooibos chai with a touch of cream. Yummy like dessert.
On the way home the El Camino overheated and I pulled over and saw a spittering leak in the radiator. I topped it off and got it home. Monday I went to gettin' it fixed. I don't recall ever replacing a radiator, but I knew I could do it myself, maybe with a little help. I popped the hood and saw it wa just a few bolts and a couple of hose clamps... plenty of room to work... ahhh, old American cars... you could lay down in the empty space under the hood. I mentioned it to a few guys that work here- maintenance dude for tools in the shop, kitchen dude to see if they'd offer muscle. No one offered help. Not because they didn't want to I suppose, but because they had no idea what was under the hood. Wow.. seems sad in my book. I may not need a man to fix my car, but I rely on them for advice. To reinforce that I've got it right.
By Monday evening at 6 I had the car in the shop and went to scavenging a catastrophe of a shop for the right wrenches and sockets. Amazing I found everything I needed and had the new radiator in by 8. Woo-hoo!

7/8/11
Honeybees showed up
Watched a male hummingbird drink from a pea blossom
Sunflowers 6' & up
Tomatoes chest high
Corn 5'
Kale & collards 8th harvest

6/24/11

6/24/11
I'm not too sure how much more of this I can take. Of what? Of the decision making and the pressures that build. I have a short list of serious problems all of which I can remedy with patience, time, and strength. Each one's final decision will change my life in a major way,, but to make the best choice is the painstaking part. Two days off with no where to go except in my own head has left me exhausted and still I feel at a loss. I know when I feel like this the anvil is hot and ready to strike. The pressure will build and when I'm about to lose it, the levee will break and the answers will come.

6/20/11

6/20/11
I've been waking up in the middle of the night pretty regular lately
I don't like it at all
Sometimes it's a mosquito
Sometimes a thunderstorm
Sometimes I have to pee
I feel wide awake and lay there wondering how I'm going to fall back asleep
Funny thing is that if I just closed my eyes I'd probably just drift off
But it doesn't feel like it so I turn the light on and stare at the ceiling
And hunt the mosquito when he flies near the light
If I actually sleep through the night, every bird in town gathers outside my window at dawn
And if the window's open, it's like being awoken by a symphony
just more psychedelic for lack of a better word
Listen to me complain about about birds
It's just that they rob me of a couple hours every day.

kmtorpay's photostream

6/9/11
Though this 'log's (I dislike the word blog) called 'A Growing Season in Phoenicia' I haven't shown much of what I'm actually growing. Here are pics of my world. Evolution of the garden from April to June. Hee-yah!

kmtorpay's photostream on Flickr.

6/14/11 - 6/18/11

6/14/11
I need to get off the property. Living and working in the same place basically makes it so that I never really 'go home' from work. For a while now going downtown to the local restaurant/bar has been escape enough, but I tend to drink more than I 'd like to. If I stay up here at the cabin with no source of music, no housemate, and limited movies... I'm stir crazy. I really just want to explore the woods but feel incomplete ans unsettled without a dog, especially because the trails are made by deer, not people. Sounds chicken and retarded but it's true. I want to forage for rare plants and mushrooms but would really love a companion. If I could just borrow someone's dog I'd feel OK. I've been lost off trail bushwhacking and rested assured when I can just follow my dog whether or not they have any idea which way is the right way. Not to mention athat I like to walk solo in the woods... without other humans. A walk clears my mind, keeps it moving. I find that when I sit and think by myself my mind has more of a tendency to work in circles. I tend to stress out and worry. I think about work too much, all the things I have to do. At night I sometimes even have nightmares, waking in the middle of the night panicked because I need to harvest the cilantro before it goes to seed. Silliness.



6/18/11
I spent 3 much needed days in Jersey. I was supposed to stay only 2 days but I just didn't want to leave. I stayed at my friend Teresa's house. If we were in still in 5th grade I'd call here my BFF but I like to refer to her as my favorite person now that we're grown and have known each other for over 25 years. She's like mu other half. A soul mate of friends. We can't really seem to be mad at each other. There's no conflict ever and she makes me feel normal. She's the only person who doesn't have a problem with how I live or decisions I make. She tolerates me and accepts me for whoever I am and I do the same with her. She's silly and crazy so very caring. I love her! I spend my time in NJ with her. She actually had a lighter work schedule this week so we got to spend more time together doing stuff. Going out to breakfast, planting flowers,... the dog park. I love spending time at her house even when she has to work. It's homey and comfortable and she has great fuzzy pets.

















While I was there I found myself looking on Petfinder and sent an email about adopting a puppy- a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever/ Golden mix... a little girl. Exactly the knid of dog I would like to own next. She looks like a little bear! I approached my boss about getting a dog a couple of months ago and she indirectly, meaning through somebody else, told me no. Not because of anything involving me, but because the neighbors have an unruly dog that barks all day, runs away, and nips at people. They're afraid that if I had a dog their dog would behave worst. It isn't my problem that they don't control him. No dog of mine would act that badly. I believe pets are supposed to make your life better, not more stressful.

6/5/11

6/5/11
A few weeks ago I posted a couple of songs by the band Baroness when I was writing about loud heavy music and church. Somehow the bassist of said band read my blog and liked my style or writing calling it 'rude yet gentle', a top compliment to me. He was looking for a sweet place to go camping and Phoenicia seemed ideal. So last week he came up. He traded me sweet merch (including swamp green vinyl pressing of their first and second albums, named 'First' and "Second'.) for information about the area. I would have been happy to just to have met with him, yet the gifts were an awesome bonus. He camped and we hung out at my cabin. We got along really well. It seemed like I'd known him in a time before. We shared similar quirky thoughts, he was one of those people you meet that are few and far between; someone you meet and you don't have to try to get along with. It's just easy.
The irony is that he came up here to camp, but also wanted to meet the person who wrote my blog, extremely flattering. Yet normally it's the fan who'd love to meet the musician. No doubt I wanted to , but not entirely realistic that I might send him and email and pay him a visit. I was lucky.
After all that's been serendipitous or magical or good luck around here, this was the crescendo. growing up a rocker chick I would have gone to great lengths to meet a musician I admired. Being a teen fan with an intensity comparable to those screaming Beatles girls, if he would have paid a visit then, I'd have died from anticipation. But I'm glad that I'm not that young nor that crazy anymore because hanging with this 'rock star' was just like hanging out with any other supercool person. It was rad. We also share the same birthday, May 14th. It's got to have some kind of relevant cosmic meaning, they are such rarities. May 14 was also the day I returned his email. A holiday for sure.

6/2/11

6/2/11
After all that rain I complained about last month, the sun came out and hatched a running series of buzzing bloodsucking relentless insect monsters. First were the May flies, appropriately named, who are large enough to see coming and slow enough to slap and kill. Though if they do get a bite in it will swell and itch for days.
While the May flies were still present, Memorial Day weekend brought the no-see-ums by the millions. They just spontaneously came to life out of thin air, assuming so because they are also appropriately named. Little bastards can sneak through the holes in the screens! There's no hiding from them. Since they arrived in such great numbers I had no defense and was welted from their attacks. They also itched something serious. I think they get trapped in my afro and bite my head.
This week the infamous mosquitoes came to town and brought their shade loving friends, the loud big black flies. They may not suck blood but they love to vomit and suck your skin when you are sweaty.
To defend myself from constant bombardment I stock an arsenal of repellent. Natural, almost natural, not-so-natural, and death in a can. I start with the least toxic and graduate up the scale of toxicity hoping not to reach level 4, the 30 deet. I burn citronella on my porch and carry one of those clip-ons that seems to do nothing unless you're sitting completely still. lately my skin has been covered in a cocktail of sunblock, bug spray, sweat, and dirt. Talk about being uncomfortable in my own skin.
Maybe I should invest in some long sleeve cotton or start eating raw onions and garlic. Maybe make a juice from them and spray that on my skin. These bugs coupled with the high temps and humidity is a major reason why I lived west and also why I never wanted to visit the east in the summer.