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Retired at 45

Tag Archives: Harn

The Guest that Keeps on Giving!

25 Monday Jul 2022

Posted by JamiG4 in Community, Homesteading

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Cutting Wood, Friends, Harn, Helpers, Splitting Wood


So happy always to have people come share our space here at the HARN. This past few days has been especially lovely… and productive!! …with our latest guests.

Eoin and LJ have been quiet visitors with LJ enjoying loads of porch time with me. And we all enjoyed the porch in the evening for dinner and… we were lucky to hear many of Eoin’s latest pieces as he ran through a song list one evening!!

We have been eating some good food, as neighbor Stacey seredipitously gave us casseroles the day they arrived!! Lasagna/pasta (one gluten-y good… and one GF and tasty too!) along with roasted veggies!! We made delicious hash with potatoes, kohlrabi, onions, and eggs this morning (well about noon… as it was after I was down to visit Misi-ziibi).

We got serious after our mid-day breakfast and headed out to check out the wood shed situation. There was an 8′ x 8′ wall of wood ready to be split into burnable size. Now… Eoin wasn’t aware this would be quite the job he thought initially, as the Rocket Mass Heater burns TINY wood. We split to about 2″ x 2″ and like things small as possible as our feed tube into the stove is only 7″ x 7″. So he had to split over and over again! And he was AMAZING at making tiny wood with his big axe.

A little view of the HARN wood processing station on 7/24/22.

Meanwhile Dan was splitting the weird stuff on the electric splitter and I was stacking. [LJ was supervising.] All in all, we got 75% of the wood for winter split and stacked in the garage. And… I was just thinking in recent days about how behind we were with wood processing!! No more!! Though, yes, we still have loads of wood to process… Gotta fill the shed for coming years so that wood has time to cure.

We hope you all are having a wonderful week, living big, getting prepared for what is coming next, and enjoying nature as much as you can.

Blessed be!!

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Expectations… Those Bitches

15 Monday Feb 2021

Posted by JamiG4 in Musings

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Disabilities, Genocide, Harn, Insurrection, Line 3


This isn’t what I envisioned…

I guess it almost never is.

Expectations.

Those Bitches.


Some random thoughts from the HARN this past week
(in no particular order):

Why is it that only people in wheelchairs or who are visibly physically handicapped in some way are called “disabled”. Do we realize that, if we live long enough, we ALL WILL BECOME disabled? Is that what drives us from engagement? Should we maybe give the voices of the disabled some room? Might they help teach us to live with dignity as we lose our abilities? Show us how to shine with our circumstances? Might we realize the value of every human more fully?

How much of this is about the chemicals they keep putting in our bodies…
glyphosate, toxins in our baby food, and what is in those vaccines?
Why do we trust that Big Pharma has good ideas? Aren’t THEY grabbing at straws?
Didn’t they get us into this mess in the first place with ‘better living through chemicals’?
Meanwhile, they UK won’t eat our bacon! Shouldn’t that tell us something?

Or are we so PROUD of our EMANCIPATION from Britain [still] that we refuse to acknowledge the UK, let alone any of Europe – who’ve been managing for far longer than us? Not to mention the Indigenous folks who lived in this land for millennia in reciprocity? You know, those people ‘America’ has been and continues to try to wipe from the face of the land?

Line 3 is just another form of genocide.

How many Americans believe Indians are no longer around? Or did until recent years when, beautifully, we are giving more attention to these voices and we see more and more rise to stand together with Native Peoples? Watch out… the Supreme Court is ruling in their favor. Those Treaties – they matter. 😉

Shout out to Martin Case who helped broaden my understanding of Treaties as being pretty much just about Property Rights. And as we watch thousands of Americans being evicted from their residences, in winter, perhaps we will all take some time to READ the Treaties? They’re short. You can read them all in about an hour. Easily. Danny and I spent an afternoon reading them. Taking breaks in between to discuss the atrocities and absurdity of each. A contract was made for 25-years… and before that contract could expire, they came back and made another contract… until the contract language met colonizer wishes. How can these treaties hold any legal status if they are based on a false understanding of the first signers?
How can people who believe land to be a relative ever consider OWNING it?
The basis of this entire country is on lies.

If you take a moment to read the Treaties – and literally, it’s a few pages of text (p. 45-53) – you will be astounded by the atrocities. You see the undervaluing of colonizers and the deals – the corruption in government has always been…

And now we see the Feds saying $1400 will last until July? IN WHAT WORLD? One Senator said the $600 check would last 6 months – in what world can ANYONE survive on $100/month? Real easy for a Senator making FAR MORE [who is provided Health Care no less?] to say this? Doesn’t make it so… No matter how many times you say it, dude.

I’d propose we let Senators live on a minimum wage and see how long they last.

Yet they put TRILLIONS into the Market and don’t even DISCUSS IT? Why is it when PEOPLE need support, there’s no money? But when Billionaires and their Casino need it, we just print whatever is deemed necessary?

Is anyone prepared for the pending collapse? For $20 bread costs? Do we think it won’t happen here? What gives the average American ANY CONFIDENCE that the government is gonna protect them? We just watched as Republicans refused to acknowledge we’ve had an insurrection! In broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon. Just like Kavanaugh!

These politicians live in a fantasy world of greed and economics while most Americans are struggling to figure out how to get to work to be able to feed their families and pay for housing? And watch as many are being kicked to the street in mid-winter – a vicious one at that?

I get why ppl just say FUCK IT and put a bullet in their brains. We’ve seen more of late. We just got a call from a friend whose daughter was found dead of suicide. We hear talk of struggles and feelings of hopelessness and unsuccessful attempts. I imagine this will be a more common occurrence as many in America find themselves with fewer and fewer options in this game of survival of the richest. I pray we keep reaching out to help each other get through all the BS.

If this is a concern for you – check out Anxiety in the pandemic – why you’re told it’s your fault from Russell Brand. He’s been putting out some pretty cool stuff and this was especially informative and comforting. And ask for help when you need it.

Is it not until it is Your Own Mess that it becomes clear how rigged the system is? And maybe see the disparities that show we require solidarity, not supremacy? Yet we see White Supremacy America screaming about freedom! Can’t be bothered with the discomfort of a mask even if it does save Grandma?

And what does it matter… as depopulation is something that will help the planet? [We’ve always thought humans a plague on the planet.]

Nimaamaa Aki – Mother Earth – She is depopulating the planet now. At our direction. We’ve created a pandemic with our actions and it’s coming back to bite us humans. We’re seeing hundreds of thousands killed in the climate chaos of floods, fires, drought, hurricanes, and tornados. Mostly the result of human burning of fuels. We are our own executioners. Well, some of us more than others…

Humans, especially in America, continue to live in denial, helping exacerbate the issues – as many ignore Her power, living on coasts that are submerging, building in places where strikes occur year after year? FFS, how many times has Duluth rebuilt their waterfront?

And some believe Bill Gates’ is vaccinating humanity to death as a de-population objective. I find it hard to argue that powerful folks are NOT simply trying to reduce the ranks… [as they automate their factories and don’t need so many of us?] As I watch the managers (not leaders – we no longer have many of them really) misinform about masks, then say they are ok, all while NOT TALKING ABOUT BOOSTING YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM or Vitamin D or other supplements that CLEARLY help mitigate the effects and symptoms of Covid?

The Arctic Sea ice is gonna continue to melt, the oceans will continue to warm, the warming water will expand and levels continue to rise, and when the Greenland ice shelf breaks free, New York will be gone. Yet we have NO PLAN IN PLACE? And San Fransisco is going under with major waste water treatment plant concerns near-term.

Read Ted Koppel’s Lights Out if you think there are plans. Every department thinks the OTHER is on top of things. The DOD, DHS, FEMA – none are prepared. The people that have these responsibilities have failed and we’ve got 4 years of a non-functioning government that mean a big hole we have to escape.

And Why TF do we need nine people to tell us the weather in Miami? Are those seven guys just taking credit for the work of those two women? That seems to be how things go, if you look close… It’s often not until women get involved that CHANGE FOR THE PEOPLE happens. And you see the kids on the protest lines? Lotta them are chickas… just sayin’…

Did you know that the military used to just issue guys boots and clothes and such… whether they fit or not – YOU MAKE IT WORK. Then women get into the military and are like, “No, these boots are not effective.” and they bitched about it… until they got gear that fit and made ALL the soldiers more effective because EVERYONE GOT GOOD BOOTS THAT FIT after that. [Kinda makes you wish there were more “bitches” about, eh?]

Meanwhile, in DC, Insurrectionists WALKED INTO the CAPITOL. If you think that wasn’t an inside job, you’re fooling yourself. Last year we watched George Floyd be murdered before our eyes and this year we watched as a policeman was beat to death by his own people! He voted for Trump, FFS!

Meanwhile, no one has been impeached and convicted. Johnson survived by one vote. Nixon RESIGNED and LEFT before they could impeach him. Clinton was impeached and acquitted. The penultimate impeachment involved no witnesses, no evidence… and, apparently, no guilt??? And the latest American news talked FREELY, OPENLY and INCESSANTLY about how we all WATCHED WHAT WE SAW… and then Republicans do not convict? And we’re supposed to respect them? When they don’t respect the very Citizens they represent?

It’s the Illusion of Accountability Show. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court refused to do his part under the Constitution! It doesn’t say ‘if he wants to’. And Americans have yet to revolt?

We may see the rest of the world revolt with embargos [WTF do we really make here anymore anyway?] as they watch the Apartheid in America? It’s becoming more of an authoritarian police state with media supporting the powers that be and their messaging every day. Look at coverage in MN on Line 3 as an example… and the law enforcement colluding with Enbridge.

The Constitution is like the Treaties… you can read it too in about an hour.

Or maybe we’re gonna be like the Soviet Union? Get all split up into Regions? FEMA regions would make sense as it seems this was our Coronavirus response – we’re District Five. Do you know your FEMA district? [Are any of you recognizing the Hunger Games appearance of those on the news? While the rest of us are Zooming without pants? Will we all soon be relying on FEMA? Take a look at Snowpiercer again?]

This is the Winter of our discontent. [We’re only in second winter here. March-April winter yet to come.]

Can we watch what is happening in Europe and Africa and take heed? Or will America (seemingly) continue to think we are a different kind of human? We’ve got YEARS more to get through this Pandemic. And if vaccines only last 3-6 months, how can we keep up? Unless more of us die and there’s less of a burden in keeping up? Well, there is always that…

Mozambique hit with 3 hurricanes last year. Honduras and Guatemala hit by hurricanes a week apart. Floods in China, Italy, India. Why do you think Elon Musk wants to launch multiple rockets at a time? Talking of a Fleet of Rockets? WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY GOING?

If America is about being willing to fight to the top of the mountain, crawling over whoever we need to to get there, is that a society in which we want to live?

Does anyone wonder why we’re so fucked up and never question that there are so few women, disabled people, Natives, children, recent immigrants representing us and informing the decisions being made on our behalf? Rich, old, white people, mostly guys, are running the show. WHY DO WE PUT ALL HOPE IN THESE FEW WHITE PEOPLE?

I’ll hold that if we’d let the PEOPLE speak in 2014, we’d have had Bernie as President. [And if we’d done it in 2019, we’d have seen a landslide.] And perhaps all these White Supremacists would be hiding back in their holes of societal disapproval instead of planning another takeover in a couple weeks? March fourth, anyone? [All those years of focus on 45… gee, looks like we could have just stopped watching long ago?]

Biden is basically reinstating the CCC to do all the kinds of things they did then, planting trees, building roads, supporting the local infrastructure needs with a civilian servant corps. This could be a gap-year option for teens looking to figure out who they want to be before jumping into a career after school is done? [If ‘schools’ even exist as some kind of an entity that leads to college? … Which could be a good thing as there aren’t many jobs available?]

And will MANY be looking to require some kind of training to a new job – like growing food or helping others in the community? As we work to live more locally and sustainably? As we realize the real important work of connecting with each other, supporting each other, and enjoying the richness of nature and living simply? Will we tire of the consumption… before it consumes us?

What are so many gonna do Thursday if the fast food workers DO walk off the job? Maybe being hungry will give some more folks a perspective? Unfortunately, the ones to suffer are always those without resources to find another path.

The ECONOMIC segregation leads to EDUCATIONAL segregation leads to OPPORTUNITY segregation. And we all stay in our places.

At some point we will need to stand up and say, Enough is Enough.
This is NOT what we want and we WILL NOT continue.
And in the end… Love Wins.

“Love wins every, single, time when we join hands and fight for it just like it fights for us. Even islands are connected by water. Nature knows that without connection, there is no love and without love, there is no survival.”

 J. Autherine, Wild Heart, Peaceful Soul: Poems and Inspiration to Live and Love Harmoniously

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Year End at the Harn 2018

17 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by JamiG4 in Community, Happiness in Life

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alida Baking Club, Babe City Rollers, Corey Medina and Brothers, Harn, Klobuchar


As the year closes down,we still have a long list of things to do here at the Harn.  We still have yet to get to cobbing the RHM.  But we’ve been doing lots of other stuff and I’ve been sending lots of cards and letters though I still owe a few…

We continue to work on activism and helping others with their projects.  An unexpected accident in November of a couple friends changed our calendar a bit and we’re all learning from the experience.  Life is not always what we plan but it’s been nice seeing so much good come from what was a fatal tragedy for another family.  When you almost lost a friend, it makes you look hard at what is important in life and we have decided that one of the most important things is spending time with those we love. 

The simple things like cooking become a gift and a privilege when we do them for those we love.  It’s been a cooking month and I have enjoyed cooking for St. Lucia in Osage at Bruce & Budd’s, Alida Church Potluck, and several visitors we have had at the Harn, some of them bringing lovely gifts like a beautiful wood cook stove from Bruce & Cheryl O’theShire. 

And baking together is a real joy as well as being productive. The Alida Baking Club again allowed me to join them for candy making and I took home a HUGE platter of cookies and candies that we were able to share with friends and family.   Connie’s platter looks lovely and Glenda enjoys her beverage while Ada likes a bowl.  I did miss the Shevlin Garden Club as we we’re spending the time with Anne (see below) but I am happy to have passed the Phenology baton to Janine.

And I’ve been making a bunch of pendants – really loving this fun work.  I happened to make a couple for one of my bookseller friends and ended up giving three away when I happened upon a CSB Bookseller Gathering on a recent trip to my old workplace. And you can see the new scarf I picked up at Char’s Yarn Basket – it’s a daily wear for me now as I just love it!

  • Dan works with the various contractors doing the kitchen remodel at Mom’s.

Dan has begun his work as Citizen Advisor to our local Electrical Co-op.  I’ve been lucky to get to the symphony twice recently thanks to Connie, a neighbor who performs in the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra. And we both enjoyed the Babe City Roller Fundraiser with DJ Divewire and Corey Medina & Brothers.  What a great night though we needed a “disco nap” to be able to make it through the evening.  

Catching some zzzzzs in the Wally World parking lot.

Little did I know I’d win Anne’s quilts… I didn’t even enter!  But Ann Zick got the winning answer and gave her prize to me!!  Anne and I celebrated with Dan – the First Tea Party at the Home at Crone Cross – after we installed a new carpeting from Jamie Sandberg.

And I’ve continued being political…  I recently sent to Tina Smith(and also to Amy Klobuchar with one sentence removed):

I voted for you though I didn’t want to.  I am sickened by your stand for Polymet and against the clean waters of Minnesota.  I am disturbed by the financial contacts you maintain that seem to create a conflict of interest for you serving the people of Minnesota instead of your corporate friends. I don’t know how you can call yourself a Minnesotan and not care most for our clean waters.  Recycling efforts for copper offer much more opportunity than mining.  And fossil fuels are on the way out so it’s time to stop investing in pipelines, especially for Tar Sands which must remain in the ground to have a habitable planet.

I don’t have lots of money to entice you with but I hope you will answer to your conscience and start standing for clean water, the most valuable resource on the planet.  Maybe this will help… Just think how RICH all us Minnesotans can be if we’re the only ones with clean water in another decade!!! 

Please use your brain to do some critical thinking.  Use it to consider our children’s future.  Then make decisions and votes that align with children, clean water, and a livable future for our state.

UPDATE 12-21-18: After receiving a form letter response which gave no answer to any of the content in my letter from Ms. Smith, I sent her the following input:
Form Letters say to your Constituents, “I’m not listening to your input, here’s what I believe and what I will continue to believe.” If all you are going to send as a response is a form letter, you should know that form letters are not usually helpful when someone sends you information for consideration. Unless, of course, that is what you’re trying to communicate – basically, “I don’t care about you or what you think”. While this is unbecoming of a Senator, I am pretty sure it’s exactly how you really feel. At least that’s what I feel at this point in our communications. But, I know, I’m just a lowly citizen in out-state Minnesota. I’m not expecting any better from a Senator with financial interests that appear to supercede the importance of clean water, safe industry, and respect for Indigenous citizens, let alone little ole me. [Man, I’m pretty blunt and sarcastic, eh? I guess sometimes that helps me feel like I’m sending a clear message of frustration and anger…]

And on hearing Zinke resigned, I encouraged Senators to replace him with a candidate that will work for us, not Big Oil: We need pure water, clean air, and a healthy ecosystem,NOT continued devastation of our lands. Let’s take a note from the Indigenous who lived sustainably here for thousands of years before the colonists arrived.  We have destroyed so much in a short time.  It’s past time for land stewardship that assures we have a livable planet for our generations to come.

I don’t know that my actions will make a difference but I have to act as if they will.  There was good coverage in the Pioneer recently saying that actions do make a difference and I am glad to live in a place where people feel compelled to stand for their fellow citizens, truth,and justice.  And I’m even more glad to know so many of these wonderful citizens personally.

Here’s to success in 2019 for Justice, Truth, and Compassion.

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