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Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Thirty Days

As the old saying goes, 30 days has September, April, June and November...All the rest have thirty-one, except, well, you know, February which can't make up it's mind on how many days to have, 28, 29 sometimes. I guess for accounting's sake they say 30 1/2 days make the "average" month. Since a moon cycle is about 28, I often wonder if february almost got things right. In spite of the vagaries, I'm just looking back now, about a month. Between Mid-Nov. and now, these last thirty days have had me as crew for two Broadway shows, Several other national touring shows and I got to lead a biochar class at Lily Spring Farms a not-for-profit organization out near Minneapolis. The tour of their facility was great and they were warm, welcoming and accomodating beyond all measure. We made char in the morning and into early afternoon, about 900-1000 pounds in all and they will be making more throughout the witner months, then in Spring, I'll travel back out and do a two-day event focused on preparing the char to support the microbiome! These events have all taken place overlayed or embedded in a constant search for property and a house. Due to covid and climate destabilization, our location has changed into a space too small to officially be a home base. Charmaking materials and equipment are in several locations strewn across half the county, getting the things I need in one place is easy, because the back seat and trunk of my car hold all the charmaking essentials. Those things combined with a laptop and I can cover charmaking 101 anywhere I can drive. Since the start of covid, I have taught many times more people how to make biochar online but that's another story. The past month, We finally did a few more placards to help discuss the carbon cycle and the relative sizes of soil microbial communities. We also reached out to both CWAC (Clean Water Action Council) and CCL (Citizen's Climate Lobby) developing more community involvement. There has also been th eslow unfolding trauma of losing a loved-one to covid. My cousin Scott passed from it after a month of hospitalization. This was a man who was happier than I had ever seen him the last we met. In the same thirty days, our state, Wisconsin saw people on th enews championing how our covid rates had dropped to less than half what they had been just a few weeks earlier, but over these brief four weeks or so, we are experiencing new covid infection rates higher than ever. It seems that every time people breathe a sigh of relief and try going back to "normal" the virus remains anxious to continue expoliting the resource we provide, a warm, moist Petri dish in which to grow, replicate, mutate and slough, adapting better and better ways to spread and latch on. I won't say there were no dark times this month, because there most definitely were. Because Scott's brother also passed away during covid, I have lost two very close relatives just these past two extraordinary years. Losing Bradley, Scott's brother was horrible enough, not being able to even have a funeral or service still affects me. Now, another person whose diapers I changed has passed and I can't help saying I would not wish these feelings on anyone. My aunt has now survived her two oldest sons. We are bereft. Wherever our facility lands, we will create a memorial to these two amazing individuals. One, who coined the term "puppyducks" upon seeing ducklings for the first time and the other who came to realize not only his own deeper nature, but that of all out human and non-human relatives when he went to South Dakota to shar ehis skills as a Water Protector. We will tell their stories long into the night, around campfires not yet kindled. As we all remain, affected by covid protocols and growing awarenewss that it really is now or never, we either stop covid-19 or it becomes endemic. The reinforcement of that consciousness weighs heavily on those of us who understand and paid attention in biology when viruses were covered. That too is requiring a death of parts of us many never knew existed. fortunately we as a species have learne dot adapt to new conditions before, it surely isn't the first time we have had to change and it certainly won't be the last. I challenge everyone who reads this to spend thirty days doing as much as you cna for others, reaching out to your community, perhaps a group or organization or two and to spend some time reflecting on what you want to build for the future. Our school is getting closer every day, we still have not found the exact place, but we are getting closer and colser to finding a palce we can bring all of our resources back together into a functyioning school or at least a home base for classes. They may have to be outdoor and reaaonable socially distanced, but in-person classes hosted on site will be a large part of our continuing work.

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