6.16.2006
Oh. Fine.
First off, I want to thank everyone for their thoughtful responses to my posts on home and place and community. One of the things I have loved most about blogging has been the on-line community that I have found. I always know that when I am low, I can reach out and get hugs from people I respect and admire. Thank you.
Secondly, I guess I can admit that perhaps the whole raising meat animals thing is going a bit far. Especially since I don't even really eat meat. I mean, I eat some fish and fowl and pork. But other than fish, I don't eat any meat that I haven't prepared with my own little hands. Because of the ickies that only I can (apparently) see. Yes, I know there are people out there who think they can see the ickies. But you can't. You can't see them all. NO ONE is pickier with their meat than I am. Even Kristin, who's been living with me for 6 years, can't get all the ickies out. So, I am certain that if I had to butcher animals to eat meat then I just would never eat meat again. It's all just an elaborate scheme to justify having a goat. Or two. And chickens. Chickens are a must. When you know your chickens and how healthy and happy they are, and you know that there's no rooster around to fertilize the eggs anyway, then there's no guilt to eating their eggs. Plus, home raised chicken eggs just taste better. We should know, we've been getting most of our eggs from my parent's chickens for the last 6 years. And those are some spoiled ass chickens. The only downside to having chickens is you've got to have the nerve to cut their heads off when they get sick, or when they turn cannibalistic. Oh yes. Chickens can turn cannibal. They start to eat their own eggs. And once one chicken figures out that eggs are tasty and edible she teaches the others, and before you know it it's all Lord of the Flies in the Henhouse. And the only thing you can do then is whack all their heads off. My parents leared this the hard way. They also learned the hard way that you really do need to hold on tight to the chicken's body once the head comes off, or they really do run (and fly) around spurting blood everywhere. So, I need someone in my co-housing project who can cut chicken's heads off, because I can never, ever do that. I can't even be around while it's done.
And, people, I really am so excited about the whole co-housing thing. It's all I could talk about with Kristin over dinner last night. There are some co-housing projects in Portland and sometimes they have rental openings, so we're going to be checking them out if we end up moving there. In fact, we're going to be checking all the communities we're interested in to see about co-housing opportunities. I think it might be really cool to live in co-housing and then (if we really do like it) start one of our own once we get settled in a place.
So, I'll keep you posted!
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You hippies!!
Get the F out of that stinkin' state.
I am so happy you are going to move. I really think your entire beings will feel different living in a queer friendly place...where you can even, say, adopt your own kid.
I love the idea of co-housing, but S and I hate having roommates which kinda means no co-housing :)
I well, that's the beauty of co-housing. No roommates, just close neighbors. Kristin and I don't do so well with roommates, either ;)
Why I could never live on a hippie commune:
Can't we just... hire someone to deal with cutting off the chickens' heads?
-Bri, firmly and happily ensconced in the capitalist consumerist borgeoisie (except also used to be president of her union)
I would like to live in your co-housing community, but under NO circumstances could I EVER cut the HEAD off a CHICKEN. I once had to pull over and have a good cry because a cardinal hit my windshield and landed with a hard thud on the pavement in oncoming traffic.