a tired pants

braw! sorry it's been a few days, lots going on here.
The rest of natural paints and finishes class was pretty amazing. The class was taught by Deva and Ace, two fabulous folk that own a natural building business . I have always realized that I really like cooking, and really enjoying painting, and that they go together in the sense of "I'll combine these things I like in some hypothetical amazing arty/ cafe/ community center with rainbows where people hug a lot..." Natural paints, though really are cooking. On Sunday we made a casein/ lime paint which involved warming milk, separating the curds and whey, then blending the curds with water, lime putty, and pigment to make our paint. So Cool!!! I learned so, so much. A woman who raises goats and spins and dyes yarn brought in some of her fiber dyes which she awesomely let us use.We use Madder (a plant that usually turns fabric orange/ red) and added it to the casein/lime paint- and the paint turned bright purple!
http://newframeworks.com/gallery/index.php?gallery=./Natural%20Wall%20Finishes#
a wall at yestermorrow (from last time this class was offered) this makes me a bad student, but i'm not sure if it's a natural plaster wall, or the casein paint...
It's kind of tiring to be in class all weekend and not really have a weekend, working on balancing that better.

Last night I took a road trip to Burlington to hear Wes Jackson speak. I've heard vaguely of him and The Land Institute he started in Salina Kansas my whole life, but I wanted to see what it was all about- and it was all about amazingness. His whole work is about making wheat, and corn into perennial crops (so that they are better for the environment, work withour eco systmes and are lighter on topsoil, everything by the virtue of them not having to be planted annually and are thus colser to prarie grasses and what the land that is Kansas naturally wants to be.) So interesting- I only understood a small fraction of the talk, just because a lot of it was a bit over my head language and concept wise, but still so cool.

Feeling pretty overwhelmed and underskilled for everything that I need to be doing these days, but I'm trucking along. The big NOFA organic farming conference in Vermont is this weekend, so I'm tabeling and going to workshops. Also in the stages of buying seeds, getting seeds, and generally focusing on the garden and feeling a little behind in it.
Worried about our chicken friends a tad and have to do some research on them.
things are picking up speed and piling up and I'm working on taking it a day at a time.

on an exciting note- I made scones for tomorrow's breakfast: vegan banana, date and maple and a vegan garlic chive variety. yum!