Maebius Musings

One of the kid’s favorite recipes that he “created” is Strong Arm Stew.

So named because chopping the veggies and ingredients helps build arm muscles, plus, eating such healthy food keeps you strong and healthy!

Every incarnation is slightly different, as local ingredients and “whats in the fridge” changes and shifts depending on seasons.  but overall, this stew has been consistently DELICIOUS!

The basic recipe is as follows:

• Water (to make the broth)
• Stock or Bullion
• Meat of some sort
• Any and all Veggies he can find to chop up.

In last night’s version, the total ingredients were as follows:

Pot of Water and one Bullion cube

about 1 cup of sirloin or t-bone steak chopped into bite-sized chunks.

a handfull of real bacon bits. (crumbled bacon)

4 small peices of hamburger

3 stalks of celery, chopped

a cup of corn

a carrot, sliced thin.

one half onion, chopped

a big handful of steamed Kale chopped

a couple shakes of garlic powder

one leftover baked potato, chopped

one half leftover Sweet Potato (yam), chopped

A handfull of “tater tots”

about a cup of Steamed Zucchini, sliced  (leftovers from yesterday’s dinner)

hearty dash of ” Spice”.  (see below)

*”Spice” (said as in Dune “Spiiiice”) is a concoction of random ingredients all dried and powered together for sprinkling on food. It’s basically sea salt, dulse, dried portabella, ginger, chipotle chili, black pepper, garlic powder, basil, and lambs-quarters.

Been slowly cleaning up all the branches, rubble, and such around “The Sitting Spot” and mowed it twice now.

After spending a few moments over the last couple days actually Sitting and relaxing in the spot, I realized that I will not be re-seeding it with grass and covering up the cement with a layer of fine soil. The area seems top prefer being slowly overtaken by dirt, but the exposed foundations like being, well, exposed.
So I’ll merely tend the area and mow it and keep things pretty much as they are right now, in these two images.

All mowed and cleaned up a bit

Another view of the mowed and semi-cleaned area

The wall behind us is going to get braced up a bit more, and filled in with soil from above to make a nice embankment still.  Also, the area of sumac growth will be trimmed away anad a more structured arbor for vines will be built, but otherwise “the spot” is feeling much more near completion than I expected, this early in the project.

I guess this means I’ll be continuing this series with more meditative observations and musings, rather than logistical progress-reports.  

Hey you RPG-playing friends of mine,

I funded a kickstarter program, which I thought actually looked cool.

I’m curious what you think of it, in a meta-game sort of way.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/500894669/serpents-tongue-a-new-magick-experience

NOTE: this is not an add to get you to also join in. 

Basically, take your average TradingCard Game, like Magic:TheGathering, where you play the role of a magi and must defeat your opponents.

The spells are “spoken” by decoding a little sigil/glyph on the card that corresponds to a key with “letters”.  Kinda like the secret decoder rings we used to have.    Simple level 1 spells are 3 syllables it seems.  (FUS RO DA!) and if you don’t say it right, you mis-cast the spell. (the pronouncing is on hte bakc of hte cards so others at the table can verify it’s correctness or not.

Instead of a deck, you put your cards in a little soft-cover “SpellBook” (that looks like it’s essentually a single card-holder sleeve on each page) to add to the feel of casting spells from your grimoire.

I really REALLY like the meta-idea of learning the spells “rote memory” the more you cast them, and get better at decoding the Glyphs on the fly as you familiarize yourself with the key over time.

What you think?  

Sprogling’s been playing Magic and made up his own “spell game” with his lego guys, so it’s ramping up to TableTop time in the next year or so.

I also kinda like the idea of this concept as a springboard for “learning about Magick”, as in the Hermetic sort as part of a more general study of different churchy type things.  His pen-pal in Brazil is wiccan so we’ve been discussing the differences between our more Unitarian/Methodist visitings, and the sort of ‘pagan stuff’ he finds at Fairy Festivals.

What has begome an annual tradition, we attended the Spoutwood Farm Faerie Festival, with soem friends of ours, and really enjoyed ourselves.  The weather was gorgeous, the vendors were awesome, and the Mountain Tribe Rocked!

Before going, my son (the sprogling, to many readers here) made sure to tell all his friends that he would be donning his armor, and heading off to Protect the Beautiful Fairy Princess that weekend.   Here’s a great picture of the leader of the Mountain Tribe, calling on the spirits of her direction (with the beautiful Princess in white with orange face-swirls beside her).

He also made sure we brought “his drum” to the festival and carried it so that he could participate in the drum circle, and have a little video of it here.   Kinda bad quality as it is two short clips mooshed together, but I’m slowly learning the camera movie functions.  He drummed for a good half hour, and was rather intent towards the end.  Really getting into the energy of the thing, rather than “just making noise”.  My wife, Anne, and I seemed to have similar visions of him in his teens, at festivals, drumming all night, and surrounded by a throng of cute adoring fans.  (*oh my)

All together, a great weekend, and I can’t wait until next year!

Pictures!! (the last two days it absolutely Poured rain and thunder, so I didnt’ do much outdoors.)

They are a bit large, so I’m simply linking to them here, and you can follow them at your own risk.  I wanted to keep them as un-edited as possible, so you can fully see the starting state of the Sitting Spot.  

First, a view from a bit more distance, as you walk from the house down towards our well.  It’s a mess, but you can see the general overview of what I am working with.  You can see the overhanging Maple Tree (with rope ladder), and the grown up weeds and general “mess” pretty well.

Next, another image from down below, looking “back” into the wall a bit more. This is probably the best view of what will eventually become the full “Sitting Spot”.   The pile of mulch & Pony-poo will be seeded and supported with a low wall, the weeds mowed down and grass-ified (while retaining the mint, lemonbalm, and other nice ‘weeds’, and maybe add soem ground thyme or such), and the trash will be cleared up.

Finally, a view from the “top” of the hillside, looking down over the area I’m reclaiming as The Sitting Spot.  Essentially, it will run from the low concrete wall on the left, to just beyond the concrete panel on the right, straight out from where the two tires are visible near the bottom.   I’m planning on covering the cement with a thin layer of compost, then spreading grass seed over it to make for really nice smooth barefoot walking.  I’ll keep the slightly different elevations caused by this old barn foundation, and the deeper “cleaning tracks” (just on either side of the futon frame) are where the mint and other “wildcraftables” will remain growing and tended.

The area to the east (left in the third picture just beyond the low wall) will be cleared of the sumac ‘forest’ and replaced by a sort of arbor, possibly for Hops, or grapes, or wisteria.  Just beyond that, there are some white Ceders planted, which should grow in a few more years to fully block the view “in” from that side.    Once that happens, the entire area is locked away from the “outside world” by the landscape, so will become a perfect little spot to meditate, read, tend small fires, and generally “unwind”.

Any suggestions from the readers on things to add to the space, feel free to post in the comments!

Spent the day at Spoutwood farm’s Faerie Fest, a wonderful event full of wings and rainbows, and Springy Joviality.   While it was a good distance from our backyard, I consider this “preparation” for the Sitting Spot, by tapping back into that Community of earth-spirit-magic-ness, watching the kid get involved in the rocking Drum Circle, and otherwise just Being with a myriad of stranger-friends on the site.

I saw some neat ideas for little “altar charms”, and pondered some Deep Thoughts while staring into the sun.  (they have a really neat observatory there, and I looked through at the solar disk, which was AMAZING in it’s clarity and “zoom” resolution.   )

So, with yesterday spent observing and outlining Intent, today was spent offsite, to collect my dreams and let whatever magick filtered back by tomorrow simply happen and soak in.

The next day, we spent returning home after relaxing with some friends and taking our time driving, so we didn’t feel rushed.   It was a lovely day, and an easy drive (though 5.5 hours still seems long once it’s almost over!)

I’ll consider it at least a day to Ponder the Sitting Spot, and recharge my batteries for actual “Work” this week.

There’s a little spot on our property, which is shades by a big Maple tree, sitting precariously atop a crumbling stone retaining wall.   Below this is a flat cement area, where a barn used to be decades ago, and the perfect semi-secluded spot for small fires or other quiet time.   The cleaning ‘gutters’ from the barn are full of mint, lemon balm, and lots of wild weeds (mostly yellow dock and grass, with woody nightshade if I don’t keep it yanked out).

The rock wall has been buried by dumploads of composted pony-poo and mulch and other filler, to eventually be a steep, safer, slope of garden/grass, but this process will take a few years due to compaction of the soil and the sheer volume of wheelbarrow loads we’ll need.  Still, the vision in my mind is pretty nice.

I’ve decided to clean up this spot over the course of the summer, and make a (hopefully) semi-daily meditation while sitting in the area, after doing a few chores to clean it up and such.  I’ll eventually be setting up a little outdoor altar, somewhat inspired by the Bored Gods “Shrine of the Mists” in spirit, but with a bit different ‘look’ physically.

I’ll post pictures soon, but think that starting with the Superfull moon this coming weekend, and Beltane just past us, this is the perfect time to start a Big Project, that can be done it tiny little steps over a long season.

Wish me luck. 

I write this as a proud father of an 8yr old boy, who finds himself crossing the Threshold of Proper Fantasy Geek.

Before that though, I’m also happy to report another win FOR SCIENCE.

(warning: bugs and bits below.  You have been warned.)

This weekend, after a good day of playing around at a nearby farm, and being locked into the chicken coop by playful cousins, we discovered a spider mite or louse in the kid’s hair.  Now of course mom has a bit of an overactive “eww bug!” reaction, but after a recent purchase of a microscope at a yard sale, I figured “why not check it out”.

Of course, the kid was completely boggled by the fact that we “had a REAL microscope like the science labs?!”, but I assured him that it was a recent purchase and may be a bit blurry or entirely non-functional, but it was worth the attempt, for this particular Teachable Moment.

So, we grabbed a blank slide, wiped the copious dust from the lenses, and smacked a cover slip on top of the bug (it was a louse) and peeked through the eyepiece.  The little teeny hard-to-see spec was flailing it’s little legs around, and when the kid peeked through, his shriek of Joy was contagious.   OMG, MOM MOM, LOOK! IT’S MOVING! LOOOOOK! YOUCANSEETHEEYESANLEGS, and EVERYHING!

The afternoon then filled up with further micro-curiosity.  I plucked a hair by the roots.  The kid hesitantly yet stolidly plucked his own to compare (FOR SCIENCE!), and we brushed the dog to get a third hair sample.  A bit of lettuce leaf, an onion skin, the wing of a dead fly.  Sugar.  Salt.  Gourmet Salt flakes (not cubes). Water from the pond. Dust from under the sofa.  … all this flickered across the single “blank” slide that was included with the microscope kit. (a LEGO brick did not work, sadly, which I expected, and was a good lesson in optics and transparency necessary for Micro-viewing)

I’m sure we would have continued with flour, skin samples, and such but dinner time came and there were other chores to do.   Still, I’ve added microscope slide kits to my Amazon WishList, because my son already plans on trying more stuff to look at this week.  It’s pretty awesome.

As for the geeky Rites, I am also happy to report that we have just finished watching the Fellowship of the Ring, and  The Two Towers,with plans to complete Peter Jackson’s amazing trilogy at the end of this week.  We were a bit unsure if he was ready for it, but after being assured (by the kid of course) “I am eight, and Oh Yeah, I love epic battles.“,  we tried the first movie with a finger on the pause button just in case.

We shouldn’t have worried.

So far, Legolas is his favorite character, mostly for the action scenes with rapid-fire arrows.  He thinks Gimli is silly, especially during the battle for Helm’s Deep.  Aragorn is a good king, but dreams about his elf-love too much, but overall, the Ents attacking Isengard were the high point in both movies.

As he said loudly last night… “See, now THAT is why you don’t mess with Nature, right?!”    

Spot. (aka: Mr Moo)
Now resting in the clearing at the end of the path (aka, our freezer)

This time, our son was old enough to realize that ‘The Moo’ we had been feeding and tending to for the last year and a half was going away, not because he was sick or dangerous, but because he was loved and healthy, and will feed us this winter.   He cried.

Later in the day, especially after seeing the guy walk willingly into the truck and be driven away with “his family” (some other steers on their way to slaughter from the nearby farm), and a gentle reminder that beef=cow, he seems to ave realized what I consider the “rightness” of the situation.

I understand those who follow a vegetarian lifestyle, and respect that.  For us, an important thing for our son to know is where food comes from.  Be it the garden or the pasture, or the coop.   We raised Spot (and a brother who passed away last winter unexpectedly) with the intention to become “meat”.  He was loved, he had fresh grass and a building all to himself (seen in the background of this image), and a pond to drink from whenever he was thirsty.  Daily buckets of grain or cracked corn were an expected treat each evening after school.

I much prefer the beef we’ll receive from his life, to one of commercial farmed produce.  We put ourenergy and love into the spirit inhabiting this cow’s bo, and will receive it back again to nourish us.

R.I.P.  mister Moo.  You were part of our ‘family’, and will be part of us forever.

(Note: images removed for now, since it’s not posting properly with imbedded media for some odd reason.)

Sorry for the horribad use of mis-spelled alliteration up there, (and here!) but it seemed to fit.

On October 22nd, I attended another firewalk with the lovely and talented Dorita Reyen (of Reyen Design Studios) at her friend Judy’s house.  It was one of the smaller groups I’ve walked with, but was extra special for me because after walking the coals a number of times before, I am now learning the Art of FireTending.

Preparing the pyre, configuring the coals, and all that.  From start of torch to hearts of ash, I was involved, and it is a much different perspective from simply attending the workshop to build energy, then heading over to walk the fire afterwards.   I liked it.  A lot.   Much more attuned to things, and such.   More to come on that front, as the season winds up again next year. 

At that firewalk, one of the folks brought a couple bottles of home-made kombucha tea.  I’d read about such things before for a few years, but never felt the need to go out and buy some at a commercial store.  To me, growing and fermenting your own supply just seemed more natural, similar to how I much prefer to wildcraft my own tinctures and herbal tisanes(tea) from the local area.  Might not be as “pharmacologically pure”  or effective as more exotic medicines at times, but the connection to the local lands and energies outweighs things, in my opinion.

So, through the wonderful synchronicity of Life, I managed to get a bottle of wonderful Kombucha tea, with a healthy ‘mother’ in it.  A real live culture.   So I took it home and have split it into two batches to grow myself.  (Kombucha info readily available online, along with far too many “how to grow” videos on YouTube if you are interested)   I read up on the various methods of keeping a Kombucha alive, then dove into the process.

The first small sample went into a larger bottle, and is becoming the most crisp and intoxicating vinegar.    I’ve swapped it out once now, transferring the SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) which is a thick ‘jellyfish’ that formed as the vinegar mother kept growing.   It’s doing very well, and I had a splash of this vinegar on my salad tonight at work.  Yum!

The second larger bit, I have been keeping in a gallon-sized glass jar.  It’s been a bit slower to grow, since I am swapping out half of the fermented tea twice a week, and taste-testing it.   A bit of a strange brew, like ‘not quite sour apple cider‘ mixed with sweetened black tea.   However, I wouldn’t call it a “bad” taste at all, and I’m learning slowly to let it sit a full week to ferment properly, instead of being impatient and sipping some each day.   Patience pays.

Starting on the last Full Moon, I have a weight-loss goal set, since quitting karate for work-schedule reasons has proven I’m packing on winter-hibernation weight again.  But it’s nothing too drastic.  More of a “have water instead of soda, and a bit more  salad instead of extra scoops of ice-cream for dinner/dessert.”  I’m still not considering it a “diet” by any stretch of the imagination.

Also starting on the last full moon, I have been lighting a candle each night, with whatever prayer comes to mind or seems appropriate for the day.  Nothing big and complex with layers of ritual, just a nice drifting into darkness before bed, and a sudden flick of a lightswitch.

I’ve also been reading Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series, start to finish.  This will be my second time through these books, and I must admit that reading them without hte year or two between volumes is an interesting perspective.   Somehow, I think mentioning this is not as off-topic from the rest of the blog post as it initially may seem.  Things have been a bit ‘nineteen’ lately, and are starting to line up again.

Lots of other things going on, but those two “catalysts” have kick-started a renewed sense of “I should be doing something spiritual” or at least “mindful” again.   This blog is part of that.

Little things.   But they seem to work.

Blessings of awe-tumn to all you readers!