Riot

Have you seen these "new" climate activists?  

A group of young people from Germany have decided that fossil fuels are bad (no shit!) and destroying the world (really?  that's news?), and to bring attention to these facts, they are throwing food at priceless works of art as a form of protest ... or as a way to shine light on the issue of climate change, which, I can only assume, they believe that everyone else is ignoring.  Their rational is that due to continued use of fossel fuels, the human population is doomed to extinction, and since we're all going to die, anyway, and no will be around to appreciate the art, they should just destroy it, because, you know, that's the logical and useful way to deal with the issue.

My question, to them, is what are THEY doing about it?  Well, other than trying to destroy priceless and timeless works of art as a form of protest.

Several years ago, I joined a group of thousands of other "activists" in a form of protest to bring to light the issue of climate change, and I dragged (a mostly reluctant) Deus Ex Machina and our daughters into the fray with me.  We were writers, bloggers, authors, civic-minded individuals, who saw what was happening in the world and wanted to change things before it was too late.  

We didn't march on Washington wearing oddly shaped hats, or visit museums and throw soup or mashed potatoes at centuries' old paintings.  We didn't call on our leaders to pass laws and make policies that forced others to make changes, we, ourselves, had not, yet, commited to making. 

No, what we did was attempt to follow the sage advice of Mahatma Gandhi, who believed that true change can only come from within.  We change.  We BE THE CHANGE, we want to see in the world.  That's what he said.  That's what we did.

The movement was called the Riot for Austerity, and our goal and our practice was to change our own, personal, footprint with the goal of reducing our consumption to 10% of the resources that the average "westerner" (mostly calculated by American standards) used.    There were seven categories we were attempting to reduce: gas/oil (for heating and cooking); transportation; water; garbage; consumer spending; food; and electrical usage.

Here at Chez Brown, we cut our electrical and water usage to one-third average; our food consumption was 80% locally sourced; garbage was 5% of average; consumer spending was 40% of average.  Because we were homeschooling and I worked from home, getting our numbers any lower was difficult, and whereas other members of the community might not count their personal consumption of electricity, water, etc. at their jobs or at their children's schools, I didn't have that luxury.  

At any rate, we rioters thought the best way to fix the climate issue was to make changes in OUR lives, and so we did.  

We cut our own consumption.  We wrote books and blogs and magazine articles.  We went to the Mother Earth News Fairs and the Common Ground Fair, and we spread the word as far and as wide as we could.

It was a different mind-set, I guess.  One of *I* can DO something, and *I* SHOULD do something.

Rather than, someone else needs to fix it, but let me tell them how.

The onus was on us, rather than us pointing the finger and demanding someone else do the work to make things better.

I don't disagree with the intent of the protesters who are tossing potatoes at paintings.  We do need more people to be thinking about climate change and ways they can mitigate it. 

And really about resource scarcity and depletion, in general.

I do disagree with their tactics, and I wonder what they are, personally, doing to make things better so that there is someone here far into the future to enjoy that Monet they just tried to defile.

Shelter ... First

Deus Ex Machina always calls me when he's on his way home.  We chat during his drive from there to here, about the day, about whatever, and the call usually ends when I see him pull down the road or into the driveway, and I say, "I see you.  I'm hanging up now." 

The other day it was raining during his drive home.  We were chatting, as usual.

"There's a hitchhiker," he told me when he was less than a half mile from home.  "I'm going to see if he needs a ride."

He pulled over, and I could hear him having an exchange with the, what turned out to be a couple of,  hitchhikers - a man and a woman.  They were going into town - about a two and half mile walk, which under better weather conditions wouldn't be bad, but in the cold, autumn rain, wasn't pleasant.  He offered them a ride.  I told him I was hanging up.  I knew where he was going, roughly, and about how long it would take ... if they had nefarious intentions.

When he got home, he told me their story.  They were homeless and needed a ride into town to retrieve their stuff.  They lived in a tent, which they had stowed behind the drug store in town.  They were unemployed, but were looking for work.  

"It's hard to find a job when you're homeless," they told Deus Ex Machina.  "When you can't shower and all," they added. 

We're nearing the end of what has been a month and half-long remodel project of my daughter's bedroom.  It's only taken us a quarter of a century to get around to fixing that room.  The closet was a hacked-together mess that looked like it had been hastily constructed using leftover materials from some other project ... or actually looked like something someone like me would have built.  I am not handy, and any building projects I have ever tried (which are very few and far between, because I *know* I am not handy) look much better in my head than in reality.   I have always wanted to tear down the closet and rebuild it, and we finally had the time, the money, and the incentive (revamping our auxillary heat system, because having a back-up in case something like what happened last year, when the glass door on the front of our woodstove cracked in November, is always good).  

After we took out the closet "walls".  The "BEFORE."

In addition to the closet issues, we've known for a long time that the room was inadequately insulated and the carpet is older than the *adult* daughter who occupies the room.  So, we demo'd the room down to studs (including the stupid closet) on the outside walls and ceiling and pulled up the old carpeting.  We tripled the insulation in the ceiling and doubled what was in the walls, put up new drywall, painted, and laid a wood laminate floor.  

Goodbye, carpeting!  I can't say I'll miss you!

The new closet is a custom built-in cabinet installation and will be on the other side of the room, which should open up the room to allow for a better placement of a bed.

It's been a lot of work.  A LOT more work than we actually wanted to do, not because we didn't want those things done, but because we are of a maturity level that we wanted to hire someone to do the work rather than do it ourselves - not that we doubted our abilities (although, as I mentioned, I am not the "do-er", I am the helper for most of the project).  The problem is that most handymen/contractors are very busy - still.  No one wanted a job as small as ours.

We got it done, though, and in between doing the work on the room, we still went to work during the week, continued with our weekly dance and music lessons, maintained our farm/home, and found time to go apple picking and do some canning.  Some things are still on the to-do list, but mostly, we were able to do all of the things that needed doing, and also finish the room. 

It helped that we were placed on a very strict time-line by scheduling the heat system installation and deliveries of fixtures and furniture.  We couldn't just claim to be too busy to get it done.  

And it's mostly done. 

Taken from the side of the room where the closet used to be toward the door.  Yes, it's a very long/narrow room.  The "new" closet will be to the left of the door.

There's some trim that needs to be installed, still, but by the first of November, our daughter should be back in her room, and her stuff, of which there is a great deal, should be recorraled out-of-(my)sight/out-of-mind.  It will be very nice to have my house back in order.

We installed the floor this weekend.  It took about four hours.  A VERY LONG four hours, to be honest.  It was a lot of bending and stooping (mostly for Deus Ex Machina, who did the bulk of the work) and standing and holding and sweeping and moving of things (for me).

In a moment of weakness, I might have wished the time away and longed for that "being done."  I find the measuring and cutting especially tedious, and I still don't know why we had to cut so many pieces.  "To stagger the seams", I was told, but the laminate already has built-in staggered seams.  I just thought, cut what we "have" to cut to make it fit, and just lay the rest of it, which is why *I* am not in charge of projects.  Deus Ex Machina tends to be a bit more of a perfectionist than I am.  Thankfully!

There might have been a moment or two when I wished we were done, or, maybe, even regretted getting started, but then, sometime in the middle of my achiness and fatigue, I thought of that couple that Deus Ex Machina met on the road the week prior.  

I am grateful to have a room that I could demolish and rebuild.  I am thankful that I don't live in a tent and have to hitchhike in the rain ... or walk two miles to find the tent I have hidden, all the while hoping that someone else hasn't found it.  

In an extreme survival scenario the first priority is shelter.  I always think about that. 

I also think about the fact that everything is easier when one has a place to live.  

It's easier to eat an affordable and healthy diet, because one has a place to store extra food and to cook food from ingredients rather than boxes.  Costly take out is a luxury we can occcasionally afford rather than how we have to eat, because there are few other choices

It's easier to save money on clothes.  With the space to store sewing supplies, one can mend rather than having to re-purchase.  Or redye one's black shirts when they start to get faded from drying them on the "solar clothes-dryer", and speaking of, one can have a clothesline and a washing machine, rather than having to spend an hours' worth of our wages to to wash and dry a load of laundry.  

With a place to live, life is just easier.

I've read a lot of anecdotes from the (last) Great Depression, and the thing that sticks with me are the stories of people who stayed put.  Who were poor, very poor, but they had a place to live, and that made all of the difference.

They had a place to live, and if they were lucky, a small yard where they could grow a few vegetables and/or raise a few chickens for eggs.  They didn't have much, but they ate.  That's more than a lot of folks could say.  And they could use what they had to make what they needed, rather than having to depend on someone else to meet their needs, which always costs more than doing it oneself.

I did some touch-up painting this morning in that room.  I installed the outlet and light switch covers, and then, I sat in the middle of the empty room, singing, and enjoying the cool acoustics.

And I gave thanks that I have this space, this home, this SHELTER.

If I could give one piece of advice to people who ask me what they should be doing to prepare for this coming economic downturn, I would say make sure you have a place to live.  

After that, life is easier.

I'd Like Change for My Dollar

This is a post from my original blog "Surviving the Suburbs."  I was thinking about this post this morning, when my very lovely, incredibly talented, extremely capable, and highly intelligent friend sent me a text.  She said that the husband of one of her friend had asked her what she does, and she answered that she is a housewife.  His response was to leave the room and take a nap.  She asked me if I thought she was boring (!!).

My friend holds a nursing degree.  She is a licensed massage therapist.  She is bilingual enough that she lived and worked in a bar in Europe in a non-English speaking country, and no one knew she wasn't a native.  She is an incredibly talented artist, and when it comes to home economics, she is a superstar.  She can do everything from sewing slipcovers for her patio furniture (altough she claims she hates to sew) to making soap (and the soap she makes is as much a work of art as it is functional).

I was sad to hear how this man treated her, leaving her feeling like she was worth-less than other people, because her "job" was to take care of her home - like all she does is wash dishes, fold laundry, and watch soap operas all day, all of which assumes that she has nothing interesting to say.  It's frustrating and disheartening to be made to feel less-than, because one does not make money.  Unfortunately, our consumerist culture is all about "making money", but as I have shown, or at least tried to show, here and here and on most of the other posts on THIS blog, housewifery is more about how we "earn" by not earning.  

My daughter stopped by this morning to borrow some camping gear, and I was telling her about my friend's worry.  My daughter works a full-time job and is raising two teenaged daughters.  I said to her, "I don't know how you do it."  Her response was, "I pay someone else to shop for me."  She explained that she does curbside pick-up.  She places the order, the store employees pick her groceries, she drives to the store and parks, and they bring out the bagged up groceries and put them in her trunk.  She says it saves her HOURS per week, because just the in-person grocery shopping experience would take more than an hour, and she shops more than one store.   

I hadn't really considered how having someone else do the shopping could be a benefit to a working parent, although Deus Ex Machina hates all shopping and is very happy to allow me to shop for him  for everything from his clothes to his food.  

"Housewifery" is a dying skill, thanks in a large part to the attitudes that I discuss in this post.  

Feel free to leave a comment.  

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Most people who've read my blog for any length of time know that I'm a stay-at-home mom. Well, actually, I guess technically, I'm a work-at-home mom.

A dozen years ago we called ourselves WAHMs. Lots of books were written about us, and we were considered the fastest growing industry in the country. I was even quoted in The Entrepreneurial Parent: How to Earn Your Living and Still Enjoy Your Family, Your Work, Your Life, and for a time, I had an online bookstore with a niche focus on offering information, articles and low-cost books that focused on working from home. It was one of my many home-based entrepreneurial projects.

I was so determined to stay home with my children that I worked really hard to earn, at least, what I would have earned, minus expenses (like childcare, transportation, extra food, clothing etc.) if I had an outside-the-home job. For the most part, at least for the last ten years, I've had a pretty steady income working from home, but even if I didn't, I would still be here, because over the years, we've developed a certain standard of living that is only possible because I am home full-time.

The problem with being home full-time, however, is that society often has a fairly negative view of us SAHMs/WAHMs. I've personally experienced the insurance industry's opinion when we applied for life insurance. I've written about it before, and we were able to find an insurance company that didn't care about my income, but was more than willing to take our monthly premiums and insure me at an amount that actually reflects our need.

It's not just the insurance industry, however. Last week, our President gave a speech to a group of Rhode Island college students in which he espoused those very ideas - that legislation should be passed to allow women to be "full and equal participants" in the economy, i.e. that women should not be penalized for being mothers (maternity leave), that wages should be more even between the genders, and that "quality, affordable daycare" should be made available so that women can get out there and make money without worrying about whether their children are receiving good care.

What bothers me most about the speech is that, whether intentional or not, President Obama is espousing the exact same mistaken idea that the insurance agent expressed - mothers who choose to stay home are not as valuable to our society as mothers who work.

This morning I found this article, and from the first few paragraphs, I began nodding my head, and by the time I was finished, I was nearly giving myself whiplash.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

All of the things that the author of the article cites as being beneficial to her family, but also more.

Because I'm home full-time, we were able to explore alternative lifestyles, like suburban homesteading. I was able to learn skills I would never have thought needed to be learned if I were working full-time, or even if I wanted to know those skills, I would have had less time to work at them. Soap making? Yeah, right.

My being home also improves our personal economy, because we can heat with wood, which would not be possible if we were gone for ten hours a day, five days a week. We would not be hanging the laundry on the line. I would not be cooking, from scratch, five nights a week, and our daughter, who cooks, from scratch, the other two nights, would never have learned that skill.

All of that aside, the problem is not really about my need to defend myself, but rather this continuing battle between those who work and those who don't. Having someone as influential as the President of the United States saying that we need more programs for working mothers (so that women can be "full and equal participants" in the economy) just encourages the idea that non-wage earners are less valuable.

More of the same old rhetoric of "more money will make everyone happier" is tiresome. As a veteran stay-a-home/work-at-home Mom, I know the value of having parents be home with their children, of finding a true work/life balance, of finding meaning and value in one's life outside of the need to make more money.

My being home may well be a luxury, for both me and Deus Ex Machina, but maybe, instead of wasting time trying to force legislation that makes more workers, we should be focusing on encouraging one-income families in which one parent stays home full-time (and it doesn't have to be the "mom". Dads can be awesome stay-at-home parents, too!). Maybe the answer isn't to put six million children in day care this year, but rather to find a way to allow six million parents to be home with their children.

Here's the video of President Obama's speech in Rhode Island.

For the record, this post isn't a defense of SAHMs or a criticism of working mothers, but rather a commentary on the fact that by placing all of our emphasis on the need to work, we are stripping ourselves of our independence and choice. Independence isn't having a job, an apartment and a car, but rather the ability to meet one's own needs, and I would never have cultivated the skills necessary to be truly independent, if I had worked a full-time job and put my kids in daycare.