Yard News

[elainegrey]

It didn't rain for 24 hours! I mowed! I'm particularly happy to scalp the grasses in the glade to give the mosses a chance.



I also continued to weed whack the drive way island that i had seeded with native flowers. You can see some yarrow, blanket flower and blackeyed susans struggling in the presence of the nuisance stilt grass that is about 4 ft tall. Else where i would try to get the stilt grass all the way to the ground, but here, i want to leave the natives. My hope is that in the two and a half months of growing season to go, the natives will get sunlight now that stuff is whacked between a foot to three foot high. Even if the stilt grass sets seed, the natives -- i hope -- will be able to out race them next year and more so the year after that. It's a long game.

Then i went around picking up rocks in the orchard to be while Carrie ran around like a wild thing and the light faded. I was able to shore up the base of the down stream end of one of the berms. I assume that's where most of the erosion would occur.

I've got a person who says they'll prep the yard for seeding fescue at the end of next week and another guy who says he'll come look to give me an estimate tomorrow or Saturday. I'm thinking i'll get an estimate from the second guy as part of my due diligence. Contractors. Ugh.

We are still waiting on gates for the fence. Christine is simmering with irritation, spiced up when she finds trash they didn't pick up.


--== ∞ ==--

In documentary news, the 30 minute cut film documenting how Christine's family handled the her/our transition has been part of the PBS Online Film Festival (Read about it and watch it here http://www.pbs.org/filmfestival/2018-festival/ties-bind/). While the film didn't win, the Producer and Editor of American Experience ranked it #2 and the FRONTLINE writer, producer and editor ranked it #1. Christine was so delighted. The process has had a great deal of pain for her -- revisiting over and over painful episodes, composing music for the film and having her sister dismiss it (some of her music did make it into the film, though), providing critical feedback and editing advice and not having her technical contributions recognized.... And finally, Christine did the original edit from the hour long film to the 30 min PBS film. Having the FRONTLINE editor approve of the film is wonderful for her. I'm so proud.

Comments

[sonia]

Congrats to Christine for the recognition her documentary is receiving!

(And congrats to you for the ongoing yardwork. When you describe what you're doing and yet need to do, it sounds huge and overwhelming, and you seem to be managing and making progress.)

[elainegrey]

Thanks.

Regarding the yardwork, i've been doing it in my mind since graduate school. Walking the fifteen blocks or so in to the lab in the morning i would imagine siting a house and landscaping it as a mini farm. To actually be able to do it now is so magical. I'm delighted i actually do it.

One piece is that i think i carry the future vision in my mind so concretely that making the vision real is motivating. For Christine, who doesn't see that vision, the yard is INCREDIBLY overwhelming. It's a challenge to navigate our disconnects. I'm looking at the chestnut tree seedlings and carrying a vision of fifteen and twenty years from now. She sees the current mud.

[sonia]

Ah, that makes sense, that you have a vision you're working towards and that you've practiced in your mind for a long time. I'm so glad you're getting to live your dream!

(Reposting in the right place.)

[gurdonark]

that's good news about the film.

[egret]

I scrolled back to find this entry so I could tell you I found the documentary on PBS and watched it. I thought it was absolutely lovely and also touching in that people were doing tremendously brave things in very matter of fact forthright ways. (Though perhaps that’s an effect of the editing and it didn’t feel at all that way living through it.) Best thing I’ve watched in ages and kudos to Christine!

[elainegrey]

I think their family has some rather good communication dynamics that made some of the process much more clear. In my family there's not much acknowledgment that there has been a change in attitude since we came out.

Thanks for watching!