Giving your son a skill is better than giving him one thousand pieces of gold. -- Chinese Proverb
Welcome to Ross and Carla's Bootcamp day two.
Today we are going to talk about help you have at the end of your own arm.
Why?
Because recently, Carla's work sent out a letter saying that a major business collaboration was unsuccessful in negotiations, and 'divorced' for lack of a better word. Now thousands of people, who, unknowing to them as they paid their insurance premiums and deductibles and copays, are locked into a contract with their insurance but are no longer able to access their providers -- the healthcare system where Carla works. The insurance company asked for forty percent reduction in hospital costs. The hospital said no, you are paying the same as all of the other insurances. This won't affect her much because already surgical patients from this insurance have been siphoned off to a neighboring hospital. But it's the people we want to talk about. Carla too had been affected like this once, while using her own healthcare system in something called an EPO. A PPO means your insurance is accepted anywhere. Her particular one now is having some people not accept it, even though it's a PPO, for example, her local Urgent Care. The self-employed policy isn't as good as the employer-purchased one as far as provider networks. With the EPO, the insurance company had Carla agree to only access one healthcare system. But then mid-year, they broke contracts. She had to go to the other hospital down the street that isn't much better than a County hospital.
What would you do if you couldn't do business with the places you normally do?
Could you grow food? Could you make your own clothing?
Could you repair your house?
Our preposition is, even if your house was free--paid for--without the services and the community--who would be able to help you live? Could you do it on your own?
This is not to say it is time to go living off the grid--no, by all means, no! But when you 'unplug' for your daily one hour, perhaps it would be wise to think about such things...
Yesterday the two, Carla and Anthony, planted the rest of the garlic. This year, they have planted more than one hundred garlic plants. The goal is two-fold. The first is to protect the other plants from pests, as garlic is a natural repellent. The second is to make the garlic braids like her grandfather used to make to keep them supplied for cooking the whole year.
Anthony also asked for Carla to let them drain the rainwater out of the pool, and he enjoyed playing in the mud and water, re-routing it with a hose and learning how the water would flow.
It was a good time in the fresh air and the sunshine, completely unplugged.
Ross asks me to talk about the composting systems. The truth about them. Here we go:
- My greatest success has been in the ground, a French technique, where you create a pile, in a hole in the ground, with purely vegetable and rabbit litter/wastes. Every week you turn the pile. The worms go to town. You get some grubs in there too. Everything decomposes well, it doesn't stink. You 'move' the piles/holes to newer ones while the old ones are finishing the decomposition process. I've actually composted an entire six foot noble fir this way, but in pieces of course.
- Bokashi is tricky. It doesn't rot/ferment like they say. Apparently some 'friendly bacteria' bran are more potent than others. What will happen in the low-oxygen process is mold will form, lots of white mold. But the food wastes--including dairy and meat--take much longer than the four to six weeks to decompose. So I let it have a head start then eventually bury it in the compost pile. You must drain the 'tea' from the bottom, it's strong and good for plants but totally stinks. It must be diluted one tablespoon per gallon. It's kind of a lot of work. The spigots tend to leak, so keep a tray under the bokashi bin. It is still empowering to process these wastes. For example, our parrot's waste bird seeds I can process, instead of throwing out. I never could put them in the first method because it attracts rodents.
- Our house generates lots of wastes because I cook. For example, yesterday I made limeade, and there were many lime rinds. I thought perhaps to make lime marmalade from it. But that only needs one pound of limes and seven cups of sugar! That's not how we wish to eat, you know? I also took the old apples, made a warm applesauce with calamansi and lavender. We had many old peels and cores, far too many for the rabbit to eat. These will go into method one today.
Ross says that's enough.
Our point is that there is a certain sense of accomplishment after doing menial tasks. A pile of potatoes that are peeled by hand, and put into the pot is daunting at first because it's a lot of potatoes! With steady focus, and patience, every single one of them will be peeled.
Doing laundry is a similar task, somewhat mindless as it doesn't take new decisions every time, so in a way it is comforting and the fresh clean clothes afterwards smell nice and are cheery and worth the effort. Ross says it is kind of like putting new sheets on the bed, that crisp reward at the end of a long day...you just like to snuggle in it.
How many unused opportunities to create pass by without our realizing it?
For example, Carla ordered some rare citrus fruit online. She wanted to understand what Etrogs, Calamansis, and Yuzus look and taste like. They were expensive and had to be shipped. She's looked at her local Asian markets, yuzu were nowhere in sight, fresh.
As she cooked with them, she got to know them, the pith, the rind, and the seeds...the seeds! Around the same time there had been something online about growing lemons in the house from seeds and explained how.
Carla has a little seed bank going at her home. It started with the sweet pea flower seeds, which are easy to harvest. Pretty obvious, Ross says. But then, she found sometimes her squash would volunteer and grow out of the compost bin. So now she had pumpkin, delicata, and spaghetti squash seeds she has saved from her organic produce she has delivered to the house. Then now, she has Yuzu and Calamansi...as the skill level of growing things goes up, she will always be able to grow food for herself, and others.
Wisely, Carla stated to Anthony with confidence that when you cook for yourself, no one can tax you on it. Nor on the foods you grow for yourself. She also remembered that her former grandparents, Mark's maternal ones the Zeitvogels, used to remind them that when you save money on something, no one can tax you on that either! It's earned!
Also, we would like to share with you that if you would like to grow garlic, the kind found in the produce aisle will not grow. It's treated with a chemical or some process to prevent it from growing. It won't be healthy. But if you know someone who grows garlic, or you would like to order some from a gardener, you take one little piece from the clove and place it 'nose up' in a hole, and cover it. Carla found using the tulip hole thing (a special one you step on that costs about forty dollars) makes the process much easier so you don't have to bend.
We want you to create.
Do the things which bring you joy.
If they are also things which can help you with your survival, so be it.
We live in times of great change.
Carla was startled when she calculated that the pizza she ordered for her and Anthony with a coupon--saving seventeen dollars--two mediums at $5.99 each--gave them five meals total, and with tip it was a little over four dollars a plate/meal. She was aghast at just how much it cost for pizza--the delivery, the ease were enticing but the cost! That's eight dollars when she and Anthony ate together. (Yesterday Carla had breakfast of pizza, Anthony didn't want any, that was the five.)
So for health, for well-being, for satisfaction of being able to feed her family economically, and for the pleasure of using her skills for a job well done, Carla is able to create prosperity for her family. As her skills increase, perhaps her community will become aware of it. She already shared some garlic with a neighbor to plant in their garden.
The question we ask you is, what is your skill? What is your talent? What interests you? What can you do, with ease and with enjoyment, that will benefit you and your greater community?
Make something.
The best helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
We are made that way on purpose! (Ross is smiling very big, and shows a remote in a hand, clicking away and says--no! no! no! that is not what that hand was made to do! and laughs)
clap! clap!
Aloha and Mahalos,
Namaste,
Peace,
Ross and Carla
The Loves
P.S. Ross reminds us that the hands are extensions of the heart chakra....put them to good use! One awakens the other and vice versa--an open chakra fuels the creativity of the hands, and the hands help to open the heart chakra... <3
