They were quite popular, even after telling everyone that we eat trash and stress about fracking and gentrification and other less-than-sexy situations. They came home feeling rejuvenated by everyone’s enthusiasm, and with a pretty good workshop about egalitarianism and revolution to share.
But before they made it home, they stopped in SE Ohio for a Community Land Trust retreat. Ten of the best people in Columbus gathered for two days around a run-down cabin to discuss the possibility of forming a CLT. They made one very important decision while there: to do it! Molly facilitated our meetings–we might never have made up our minds without her help. Thanks Molly!
Kate went to a conference, too! She drove to Denver to meet with lots of people engaged in different kinds of prisoner support. Redbird, therefore, got some great ideas and connections!
Also, Mattie built a bike cart between helping other people fix their bikes at the bike coop.
The Columbus Capital crushers- including Kate, Mattie, Molly and Wes- are performing semi-regularly. They can’t wait for y’all to organize a mass street demonstration so they can cheer you on!
Our garden has been a robust jungle this season, as Cole continues to take the lead on maintaining and growing it. Despite the mild summer, our tomatoes are finally turning into one of the most delicious foods, ever. Our plates have been sprinkled with a diversity of treats- kale, beets, strawberries, okra, green beans, snap peas, garlic, and more herbs than you can shake a stick at (to name a few). Through surpluses from our garden, jobs, and foraging- we’ve gotten a nice little back stock of canned jams and sauces. We’re working our way into the fall season as we get late season crops in the ground and do some mild reshaping of our garden beds. We also moved our compost system into homemade tumblers, which is an exciting upgrade!
(Tomatoes, of course!)
Starting in July, we’ve been re-thinking our labor system as we keep a strong eye on moving us toward egalitarianism. We’ve spent a lot of time creating proposals, hearing ideas, and making decisions about what we want our contributions to our household to look like.
We’ve started supporting individuals’ in their financial obligations outside of the house, updated our agreements about new members, recommitted ourselves to taking time to check in with each other each month, emphasized our belief that an hour is an hour as we reduce the disparity between different wages, and cutting a few budget items allowed us to reduce our overall need for contributions. We’ve altered quite a bit more, and have a few things still on the list to go through.
Despite the many hours, we’re still excited to re-imagine the ways we contribute our labor to the world and our household, and would probably be pretty stoked about hearing your thoughts and sharing what we’ve come up with in more detail.
To celebrate Mattie’s 30th birthday, we had a slumber party! The house was filled with people here to celebrate the birth and life of Mattie– as we gathered around the table to share food and stories of lessons learned through the years. There was an epic game of hide’n’seek, dancing, homemade tomato wine (2 years in the making!), musical chairs, a couple rounds of Big Booty, movies, and eventually… sleeping.
As we quickly move away from blazing summer into a sweet fall, we’re glad to share with ya’ll what’s been happening and keep you updated!
The Midden 