Thursday, December 31, 2020

2020 Myers-Benner Year in Review!

Well. 2020! Who could have imagined it? Remember that 80s classic film, Back to the Future? My (Jason writing) favorite internet meme of this year was one featuring Marty McFly (with the DeLorean time machine) where the Professor was shouting, "Marty! Whatever you do don't go to 2020!" Ain't THAT the truth!

It isn't as much a personal complaint on my part as it is on behalf of my society-mates. That is to say we at Tangly Woods have had it comparatively easy, or at least have not suffered nearly the isolation and disruption that many have due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are not right in the middle of the political strife and civil upheaval that has marked this year. Despite laboring over it at times, like everyone else we've had a hard time knowing how to retain a sense of balance in the constant tugs-of-war between (among many competing forces) caution and connection, advocacy and dismay, solidarity and tranquility...looking back we wonder if we got the balances right, and despite our friend and neighbor Jonathan McRay aptly dubbing this year "The Year of Hindsight" we realize even hindsight isn't 20/20. As always, we welcome you into our ongoing process of discernment, and volunteer ourselves for involvement in yours.
But enough abstractions...you're here for the goods! Read on for an update and review about each of us.

Terah (5): The essence of this kid might be understood succinctly if one had witnessed her last evening sitting on my lap and repeatedly, gleefully ROARING into my face, no holds barred, then breaking down in giggles at my shocked reaction (not entirely voluntary...you try it with a straight face). The free-flowing emotions we recognized in her as a baby who "went from 0 to 100 in less than a second" continue unabated. Her fifth year saw her able to hold her own in imaginative play with her 9-year-old sister, and ushered in a new fascination with all things fancy. This year she was able to fulfill a wish held over from last year's hog butchering when she so longed to cut pork fat for lard rendering. This year she diced fat like a pro, braving cool temps to stick with the job for an hour or more. Endurance and enthusiasm for butchering may be a theme; after plucking her second whole chicken in November she burst out, "This is like a feather festival!" We're considering phasing out "chicken butchering days" and starting "Feather Festivals." Terah has a special knack for art; rainbows a specialty. When drawing flowers, she never neglects to give them soil and water. Smiley faces must always include a nose! If she gets bored, she knows how to make something happen. Often that includes disappearing up the stairs to go see what Grandma is up to, and if she can get a piece of dark chocolate out of it (she usually can), all the better. What a kid! A ball of energy and spunk running around in footy jammies most of the time...that is, if she has anything on at all.
Alida (9): This kid has probably faced the most changes with the advent of the novel coronavirus. Her somewhat regular play times with several friends were all dramatically changed, reduced, and/or dropped this year. Soccer was not an option. In-person art classes were off, though she participated in an online arts camp through JMU's Furious Flower program. Empathy has fully kicked in developmentally (right on cue), so movies and books tend to grab her attention thoroughly, and can threaten her stability if characters experience danger, disappointment, or heartbreak. Sometimes the world found inside the walls of the house is just not big enough for Alida, so it's a good thing she's caught on to the joy of caring for CHICKENS! No day is complete now without at least one trip down to the chicken coops to check up on her favorites, make a little progress on taming, and scatter some treats. When she and her rosy cheeks make their way back to the house (sometimes it can be quite a while), whoever she sees first is likely to get an excited earful about the joys and sorrows she observed amongst the feathered friends and how CUTE they all are. She brought it to a family meeting that she wanted to take on more chicken responsibilities...as of now she is in charge of feed and water for the Arch Coop, home of the Cub Run Crele flock, and will be assisting with breeding decisions for that project going forward.
Kali (17): Our eldest offspring (almost hard to call her a kid anymore) is continuing more or less apace. COVID scuttled her plans to be the assistant coach for Alida's soccer team, and also made getting together with friends harder, but given her homeschooled life so far, her days were not changed dramatically. She continues to love reading, cooking, music, quirky and challenging conversations, and trying new experiences. This year she has been spending some of her time turning the tables on her favorite pastime by starting to produce some literature of her own. Her work is an intriguing and enjoyable glimpse into the impishly intelligent world of her mind. She is starting to gear up, we think, for some big adventures. Travel and some additional adventures outside of Tangly Woods is appealing, and after a complete 2 week quarantine, she enjoyed a 2 week trip to Pittsburgh, PA to spend time with her Aunt Christie and Uncle Mark. She is starting to lay plans for a possible visit to the Philippines with Tala (our dear temporary family member/housemate).
Janelle: Still working at the same place after 20 years, Janelle has been at CJP for more than 80% of its existence. One of a series of podcasts intended to contribute to 25th anniversary celebrations for the Center (postponed until 2021) was focused on her as a person and her long history there. That podcast also featured her experience with Nora. COVID upended much of Janelle's work environment, since all the graduate and other programs at CJP suddenly had to go online. She was grateful some decision-makers there had the foresight to plan that way even before undergraduate programs had made their decisions for fall! Still, the added stress of rearranging standard practices made what were already jam-packed work hours into a protracted series of doozies. Furthermore, the full blending of the home and work environments with zero in-person office hours proved a challenge. She's looking to some healthy boundary-setting in the new year, having gotten clearance to put on her autoresponder and be truly absent from work on any day she's officially "off." She is tentatively hopeful that will reduce the relentlessness of the pressure, but remains concerned about what these limits will do to the possibility of getting her job accomplished in the part-time hours allotted. But a change was definitely needed to allow her to focus on what she most wants to be doing. And that is...well, actually...what does Janelle really want from life? 2021 will include investigation of that and other personal questions - she embarks on a stint of intensive individual counseling this week with both eagerness and some apprehension. All that is clear to her so far is that it will not do to have her most precious relationships compromised by stress, anxiety, and performing to others' expectations, and that living out just relationships while advocating for a just society is the essential component of the good life she yearns for.
Jason: This year was basically split between family life and a continuation of the steady crescendo of Exciting Projects Jason has presented to himself and/or the whole family. Many of these are showing noticeable improvement, and we all love taste testing squashes, popcorn, lettuce, etc... Jason loves little more than to dive into a breeding, caretaking, or cultivation puzzle or endeavor and follow and blend the needs and constraints into a harmonious solution. He loves this so much that he finds it much easier to do this than to step back and consider the wisdom of plunging into so many such projects simultaneously, success notwithstanding. But it's coming home to roost now, our life and homestead are full up to the gills, and 2021 must be the year of respecting limits, which means the year of letting go of some possibilities (and perfectly good possibilities, at that!). Life on a home farm involves much joy; e.g., pulling carrots in the evening light and chill of late fall, plunging a tool to the hilt in rich, dark, loose soil where once there was gray, dense, silty, compacted dirt. It also has its measure of grief, in both general and particular ways; e.g., scaling back one's scope of work (required in 2021) and mourning a failed litter of piglets (as happened in August). But pruning one's ambitions, like pruning a vine, leaves more room for excellence in what remains, and Red Rosy the Pig is due again in late March...hope springs eternal! Jason showed up last March as an interviewee on the Virginia Farming TV show in 2020, and also presented his first virtual seed saving workshop through JMU's Seed Library. He taught a COVID-wise version of his annual chicken butchering/caretaking lesson at Allegheny Mountain Institute (AMI), and AMI and Oak Spring Garden (which also signed up for a chicken breeding talk) took on flocks of our Shenandoahs (and a few Cub Run Creles, too, for Oak Spring). It was heartening to engage with these folks in this way and good, too, to have the birds trialed by others...he'll be eager for their feedback. A few folks also got our Blacks Run Browns for backyard pets. So much good work to be done! We're always glad for good partners.
Now for some news from the rest of the Tangly Woods crew:

Nora (in memoriam): It touched these parents deeply when at Christmas we pulled the few items out of Nora's stocking and found a handmade card from Alida, inside of which was a heart shape with the inscription, "May you feel our love." COVID made blood drives a greater challenge this year...we decided to only hold one, in October, and we think that tradition (in that form, anyway), may have run its course for us. This is due, largely, not to COVID but to Virginia Blood Services having been bought out by the Red Cross and that shift turning what used to feel like very meaningful community gatherings into ones that include jumping through an unwieldy number of bureaucratic hoops! It may be time to move on to other ways of celebrating her.

Tala: A recent graduate of CJP's masters program and a dear friend, Tala joined our household (after a careful quarantine) on July 1. She comes from Sumacher, an indigenous community in the Philippines. We didn't know at first how long she'd be here, but it's now clear she'll be with us until she goes back to her home in August. Yay! Tala enjoys working with all the plants and animals here...except the prickly ones! Also not snakes. Her enthusiasm for weeding, rock picking, cooking, washing dishes, and gathering fodder for pigs has been a welcome boost, but not as welcome as the hugs, games, and excellent conversations on all topics. Tala fits in great at Tangly Woods, and claims to be the hyphen in "Myers-Benner." We love our dash!
Mom and Dad (Grandma and Grandpa) Myers: Mom and Dad started 2020 loving their WV home and continuing to have a hard time making a definitive move towards Virginia as their main residence. Everyone was mostly content to let that run its natural course, and when COVID hit, they missed not a beat as they hit the trails and birding spots to fill in for their usual social and volunteering engagements. But circumstances intervened in this stable system when Mom slipped on wet grass and did a number on her perfectly good ankle bone assembly. They oriented all the ensuing surgeries and physical therapy and etc. from Harrisonburg, VA, and settled in for a few months' recovery. Following that period, they announced a decision to begin switching the bulk of their time to Tangly Woods. We welcome them gladly and mourn with them the emotional losses that accompany this life transition. We have been so very glad to have them in our pod this year, for the in-law quarters having been right ready for them in a time of need, and for Mom's incredible recovery. 
In other news, we kicked of 2020 with a flurry of non-routine activity the likes of which COVID prevented us from later on. Fulfilling Christmas coupons, the parents enjoyed a solo date on the town with each kid (Kali's actually occurred at the end of 2019). We'll look forward to resuming that kind of fun when risk of infection subsides. We spent most of our "building time" last winter doing deep cleans of some of the outbuildings, which sorely needed it. The state of order we established then served us well all year...we recommend the process, even if it's not always much fun in the middle of it. Janelle and Jason took some time away from home together to attend the Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture/CASA annual conference in January. This didn't yield the chicken leads we might have hoped for (despite many brochures distributed), but reinforced some realizations coming our way over the past few years of the need for new leadership in the sustainable agriculture movement that hails from BIPOC communities.

I think that is our condensed update for 2020. If you all wish to get more detail, simply flip through the year's worth of blog posts available on this site and help yourself! Here in the season where we let go of the old year and turn toward the new, when the light fades and then returns, in this time when quality takes a little territory back from the tyranny of quantity, when there is a little time and space reserved for remembering how much we need hope, peace, and each other, may there be enough light, hope, peace, and good company for each of you! And as the new year gets up and running, may you all stay safe (enough) and experience joy (enough) as you live into the life you believe in with those you love. Thank you for being part of our life!

p.s. Here are a few books that have been part of our year:

In the Shelter by Padraig O Tuama
Collapsing Consciously by Carolyn Baker
Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad (in process)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Jason)

p.p.s. See below for family photos taken on the first day of every month in 2020, from the same place and "as is."

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Pittsburgh Visit (Kali writing)

Here (at last, sorry for the delay) are some photos of my trip to Pittsburgh (Nov 21-Dec 4)! Of course, photos can't truly capture everything about the trip, but hopefully they can at least begin to give a picture (so to speak) of it. 

Saying goodbye...






And here we are (me with my Aunt Christie and Uncle Mark)!

This is my room/the library, containing 439+ books at the time I was there.
And here I am, reading one of the 439+ books!

Here are some Thanksgiving photos:
I did have flashbacks to being Miss Bingley while wearing this outfit...
...but I wasn't too fancy to help with Thanksgiving dinner (at least not while wearing an apron)...
...and I didn't hold myself to Miss Bingley's standards of propriety for the entire evening...
...let alone for the entire visit.
We took a lot of walks around Pittsburgh, of which this is one...
...and this is another! (Pittsburgh has many public staircases, some of which are listed as city streets!) 
I got to decorate for Christmas twice this year!
This may or may not actually be a photo of us Googling animal nose information or watching videos of things in vacuum chambers, but it easily could have been if it isn't. 

I am usually aware of the fact that I am not an article of clothing, but for some reason I seem to have forgotten that a few times...
I am here, though I kind of blend in with the surroundings...
Eating waffles!
Stuffed bananas! They were delicious (surprisingly or not surprisingly, depending on your level of dubiousness towards stuffed bananas.)
Stuffed bananas along with cucumber curry and curried cauliflower

My visit also involved some painting:
This is not a stuffed banana (and probably
less delicious, though I didn't actually
taste it so I guess I can't really say...)
One of these was eaten shortly after this photoshoot...


And it SNOWED!
Apparently the snow angel I'm making is flying away with me!
I would have liked to be up near the top of this picture (or in another tree nearby; I'm not actually sure which tree this is)...
...but sadly, snow makes tree branches slippery.
We also unexpectedly ended up doing some attic insulation. (In this photo I'm regretting not having worn a coat.)
I didn't actually spray in any of the insulation, but I did take a peek into the attic!
Introducing...
Snowy Personeus!
Who unfortunately did not survive long after my departure (but has since been reincarnated!)
And finally, here is the other Kali, going home.
(Apparently she has an easier time sleeping in the car than I do!)