O. C. F. Caretaker's Journal O. C. F. Caretaker's Journal
I once asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his subject, when it seemed to me to be nothing but a monotonous and sordid succession of robber baron scumbags devoid of any admirable human qualities. I failed history. -- Sting
29 February 2000 Sorry about the brief interruption of the website---seems the last upload of the index page went awry. Today is a very special millennial leap year, the first ever! Here is the the way it works. A year is a leap year (and so contains a February 29) if it is divisible by 4. But if the year is divisible by 100 , as in a century year, then it is not a leap year---unless it is divisible by 400. Thus the year 2000 will be the first century leap year since 1600. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar decreed that every year should consist of 365 days. Previously there had only been 354 days in a year, but because years are actually 365.2422 days long, he also decreed that an extra day be added to February every forth year. While this worked well for a long time, the calendar year was still about eleven minutes and fourteen seconds longer than the seasonal year, causing the seasons drift by one day in every 128 years. By the Sixteenth Century the problem could no longer be ignored. On 24 February 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a proclamation that century years not divisible by 400 would not be leap years. This made our current calendar year 365.244 days long, but still we will gain about a day by the year 3300. So a final rule has been suggested that years that are evenly divisible by 4000 will be non-leap years, making the calendar still more accurate. So mark that on your calendars, the year 4000 will not be a leap year. Learn ever so much more about this utterly fascinating subject at leapdaybabies.com.
Monday 28 February A day of rain and the forecast calls for it to continue throughout the week. I will therefore be making myself useful at the town office, as I did today, bringing the bathroom into complience with the American Disablities Act. My method is to continually chip away at a project to eventually get it done. Spending time with my two co-workers, Leslie and norma, is nice considering that usually our small staff is divided by the twenty or so miles between Eugene and Veneta. Still waiting as patiently as I can for that window of good weather that we usually get around this time of year, so I can get working outside again.
Sunday 27 February In today's paper I read about a women who kept her mother's jewelry in a safe deposit box in the Dime Bank in New York City. She had been visiting the bank once a month since 1996 to view the jewelry and think about her poor dead mother. Then one day she went to the bank and not only was the valuable jewelry gone but so was the entire number sequence. Naturally her bank is trying to deny all knowledge and responsiblity. This women made the same wrong assumption that I did----that banks actually gives a hoot about their customers. Unless I fork over another fifty bucks in "fees", the Evil US Bank has seen to it that I will not get another debit card for five years, which is fine because they will never get anything but grief out of me from now on. I had my satellite account on autopay but since I can't do that anymore I called Dish Network and told them to pull the plug on my service. They are another fee happy corporation anyway, happily adding services for free, but try to disconnect and that will cost you. Pay your bill more than two weeks after recieving it and that will cost you too. I've decided to do without the idiot box for the next six months at least. Paradoxically I will actually be a lot more connected by being less connected. Quite a few folks were out today including Carol West and Sheila who were uncovering all the plants in the nursery (another sign of Spring), Bill Verner, norma, and Howard McCartney, who were out to take walks. We have had about three inches of rain in the last few days and that was enough to put the lots underwater.
Friday 25 February Rain again, after yesterday's nice weather, and so somehow I didn't really manage to accomplish all that I had planned to do today, however I did get to Jerry's with the Site Truck to purchase drywall for the office bathroom and some floodlights that I replaced in the conference room. I forgot to bring my propane torch so I couldn't finish removing the plumbing, but with Sheila having just cleaned up the place in time for the Coordiator's Potluck tomorrow, I suppose it was just as well that I didn't mess everything right back up again. I stopped and saw THE BEACH*** on my way home and I found it to be rather interesting with some clever cinemagraphic touches. Well worth seeing for the locations alone, but beyond that it has some allegorical themes about the human condition, ala LORD OF THE FLIES, that makes one think. The island where the movie was shot has now turned into the latest tourist mecca, escape from which was ironically one of the central tenets of the movie---so you have to go figure on that one. After I got back I started in on a new canvas. I am also reading an astronomy book and I used my REI dividend today to buy the Audubon Night Sky field book for when I get my telescope. The only thing is, out here in Oregon---will I ever get to use it?
Thursday 24 February Back at the office and today I removed the shower surround that was in the bathroom. Unfortunatly it was just a few inches to big to satify ADA requirements and had to go. Now there is a big hole to patch. I will also bring the surround back here to the Fair and see if there is some way to fit it in to the current project hot water and sink project. It will take a bit of creativity but a year round shower would be a definite plus around here and would be especially valuable at Fairtime.
Tuesday 22 February Not much to report from the Fair Site, the weather has been rainy and I went in and did odd jobs at the town office during the last cople days. Today the staff also met and discussed the operational Guidelines revisions. Yesterday I fiually got back to the gym after being laid low by the welding fumes a couple weeks ago. The evil US Bank tried to put its hooks into me one last time as a couple charges came in after I had withdrawn my funds. Although I willing paid off the money that I spent, I refused to pay fifty dollars more worth of overdraft. They have made it clear to me that they do value profit over their customers. Steve is off to the Newport Wine Festival and his family's winery, Valley View, won the Best of Show this year so I am sure they will be busy.
Sunday 20 February The nice weather that was supposed to last through today unfortunately reverted back and although Howard showed up to in hopes of mowing, it was again too wet. Yesterday however, I jumped into the window of opportunity to give Chela Mela its first mow of the season. The grass has never looked better this early in the season and mulching up the pockets of leaves and cutting it early will help ensure a beautiful turf this year. The Guidelines group met at the Yurt, talking mainly about distribution plans for this Summer.
Saturday 19 Feburary The Chinese New Year's two week long festivities culminate tonight during the first full moon of the lunar calender. In ancient China people believed that celestial spirits could be seen on this night. Torch-lit searches for these spirits eventually evolved into the present day Lantern Festival. The Chinese hang colorful lanterns of all shapes and sizes in their temples, parks, and doorways, while inside their homes they arrange 108 small lanterns on a table with a larger ont in the center representing the god of Longevity. Incense is burned and sweet rice balls are offered to the gods. Rice balls are the traditional food associated with this holiday and are made by dipping a kernel of flavored sugar repeatedly in rice flour and water to form successive layers, then boiled in water until the sugar center dissolves into syrup. Making the rice balls is a family ritual and to insure luck for the coming year, family members only mention good things while they are being made. Parents prepare lanterns for their children to carry to the first day of school to symbolize the hope that the children will have bright futures. After the festival the holiday season comes to an end, people go back to work, and life returns to normal.
Friday 18 February Today is the seventieth anniversary of the discovery of Pluto from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Wobbles in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune had led to the long held theory of the existence of an unknown ninth planet. On 18 February 1930, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh finally located and named it Pluto after the Roman god of the underworld. Its average distance from the sun is nearly four million miles, and takes 248 years to orbit the Sun. Pluto has an extremely elliptical orbit which actually passes inside of the orbit of Neptune. The plane of its orbit is also tilted with respect to the orbital plane shared by all the rest of the planets. Because of this and other facts, debate has raged among scientists over whether Pluto should be considered a true planet at all--- although undoubtably it will retain its planetary status in the popular culture. In 1978 Pluto's only known moon, Charon, was discovered and determined to have a diameter of 737 miles to Pluto's 1,428 miles, a similar ratio to Earth and its Moon. Here, in my tiny corner of the Solar System, it was a beautiful springlike day. I worked around the place on a variety of little projects including finishing the sulky. I hooked it up to the mower to take it for a test spin and the next thing I knew I was mowing the lawn! That is a Spring milestone for sure. I did some lock work including relieving a tree of a chain that had become stretched tight around it. Clif showed up to borrow my headset and go over a few more details on the house deal. We rode a couple of the muntant bikes down to the lots and observed Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn with binoculars in the evening sky. Mercury had already disappeared beneath the horizon before we could spot it. Venus is still visible in the early morning but will soon be lost from view behind the sun for some time. I am contemplating buying a telescope to have around down there during the Summer and I have decided it would be fun learn more about the night sky since the Fair is such a great place for celestial observation.
Thursday 17 February Today I tackled a job that has become a running joke between Steve and I, the recomboing of the locks. It is not that I dislike doing it or any of that, it just seemed like there was always something more pressing. It is a job that requires almost absolute concentration. There are lock numbers and combination numbers old and new. The job needs to be done slowly and methodically. One tiny mistake and bango, you now the not so proud owner of a twenty dollar fishing weight. At any rate it is enjoyable ranging over the property retrieving and replacing locks, something satisfing about oiling up the old rusty ones, and also getting myself into operational mode again. I ran into Jason, the new tenet at Zen Acres (the old Hubbard property, named after Charlie Zennache who voluteered a huge amount of time to help us aquire it) and we talked at some length about some of his plans for fitting into the scheme of things. At sunset was back down in front of Main Camp.
Wednesday 16 February Very queit day around here. The lots have flooded fairly significantly after the rain earlier in the week. There was a beautiful sunset there and I was there to enjoy it. I've picked up a paintbrush and I think I'll try to knock out a couple canvases. I haven't been doing enough real Art lately and there is really no excuse not to. Speaking of Art I read an article in yesterday's paper about a current art exhibition at the Trapholt Art Museum in Kolding Denmark---that features live goldfish inside plugged in blenders that viewers can switch on at will. At least several of the poor little fish have gotten blended. Supposedly the artist is making a statement about the ethical treatment of animals. The symbolism of this angers so greatly that perhaps on that level it actually works. Yet animal cruelty is carried out so routinely that we rarely even think about it and this is a case in point. Gandhi once said that you can judge a nation by the way it treats its animals. By that test I think we have a long way to go.
Tuesday 15 February Today I headed in to town to have my teeth cleaned, and stayed around to take care of some personal business--- so not much to report from the site. Although nothing is ever certain until it happens, I am hopeful that I'll have my house sold before the end of the month. Although I have spent more time in Eugene than anywhere else, I know I will never go back there to live again. The world is a big place and it is calling my name, only I am not ready to leave the Fair just yet. This has been, and continues to be, the perfect spot for me to be at during this period of my life. I fully realize how lucky I am to be here. The weather looks like it is taking a turn for the better, the stars are out tonight. That is not really news but I have the definite feeling that if the sun will shine for a few days and start warming up the soil a bit, then Spring will not be far behind at all.
Valentine's Day The story of this holiday, like many others, has its beginings in ancient mythology. To find the roots of this modern day love fest we must go back to time immemorial. Then, mythic legend has it, Rhea Silvia was forced to be a virgin by her wicked uncle, King Amulius, so he could maintain his claim to the throne. When Rhea bore twins anyway, they were ordered to be cast adrift on the Tiber River. The twins, Romulus and Remus, were suckled in a cave by a she-wolf before being found and raised by a herdsman. To make a short story of it, the boys grew to manhood, killed Amulius, and restored Numitor (their grandfather) as king. After a quarrel about the siting of the city, in which Remus was killed by Romulus, Rome was founded and populated by outcast, fugitives and kidnapped Sabine women. (Modern archeology traditionally dates the founding of Rome to 753 BC.) Centuries now passed, Romulus had become a god on Mount Olympus under the name Quirnus and a a rowdy fertility festival, called Lupercalia honoring the legend of the wolf that suckled the twins, had sprung up. On Lupercalia Eve, young Roman girls wrote their names on slips of paper that were placed into jars. The following day, every lusty young man in Rome withdrew a slip of paper from the jar, and the girl whose name he had withdrawn became his lover for the year. On the morning of February 15th, a band of priests gathered at the cave. They sacrificed goats, a puppy, and made offerings of a mola salsa which was made of the first grains of the previous year's harvest---considered sacred. Two naked young men of noble birth were then smeared on the forehead with the sacrificial blood, which was wiped off with swatches of milk-soaked wool. After feasting and much merriment, they wrapped themselves in loincloths made from the still wet skins of the sacrificed goats and ran around the circumference of the Palatine Hill. They lashed everyone they met with thongs, called februa, also made of the sacrificed goats. (Februa means to purify and is also the root of the word February.) Young women were particularly eager to receive these blows, often baring their flesh to get better results, because it was believed they promoted fertility and easy childbirth. These ceremonies were naturally accompanied by much revelry, rowdiness, and drunkenness. It was at the Lupercalia in 44 BC that Mark Antony, as one of the Luperci, ran up to Julius Caesar as he watched from the Rostra and offered him a laurel wreath as a token of his kingship. But, when Caesar rejected it, there was a roar of approval from the crowd, which demonstrated to he did not have the support of the people. Exactly one month later he was assassinated. Early in the fifth century the Pope tried to ban the wild pagan festival. The people were so outraged that the papal residence was completely surrounded by an angry mob, and he was forced to reconsider. But inevitably, in 494 AD, the Pope tamed it by converting it into the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary. And although, alas, the story of Valentine (there were actually two) will have to wait until next year, it is interesting to note that the although Catholic Church replaced an ancient sexual ritual into a more staid convention, it again evolved into a modern day celebration of romance and passion. Saint Valentine's feast day was therefore removed from the Church Calendar by papal order in 1969.
Saturday 12 February Steve is still out sick so when David Hoffman arrived he and I worked on the costume contraption. The project managed to suck up yesterday's entire steel purchase and darn near all the wheelchair parts as well. In case anyone is wondering, I use my own money on these wild hare brained schemes of mine, not the Fair's. It is my idea of fun I guess. At any rate David and I worked really hard all day on the wacky old thing and it is coming together very nicely. Randy and Mike were out here to see if there was canoeing at the Fair but not a chance of that despite the recent rain. They borrowed my canoe and went back to the duck pond in Eugene. When they returned it we went to Our Daily Bread and so managed to keep the tradition alive this week.
Friday 11 February Steve called in sick from Salem this morning. Apparently he caught the flu that I thought I had gotten. I did my now usual run through Jerry's to get supplies to finish up the history vault. While there literally everybody checking out was buying pansies while the rain pounded mercilessly outside, which sparked a lively debate for those of us still back waiting in line. Spring is still on the way was my opinion! Down in the office dungeon I wound up having to moving a light fixture about six inches in order to let the vault door open. Another one of those truisms is that nothing is ever as simple as it first appears, especially when it involves remodelling. I will probably spend at least a couple more days in the office next week, because in reality I will keep finding more work to do there before I can finish the final task. I stopped by Coyote Steel and bought eighty feet of tubing. It is such an inspiring place where all there is are lengths of steel of all descriptions that you can make practically almost anything out of. This evening I relaxed and listened to the rain, a quiet friday night.
Thursday 10 February Today I was back on track. I stopped by Sanderson Safety Supply and picked up a respirator for about twenty-five bucks, which I now consider Cheap. You cannot put a price on good health. Went by the Fair Office again today and put in about four hours building a vault under the basement stairs for the storage of all our precious History Booth junque. Since norma wasn't there I figured I had the place to myself---but apparently the new tenants wondered what the noise was about. I was actually right under their stairs. I got the vibe like they were the tweensiest bit huffy as I was leaving. I get that reaction from time to time, but hey, construction happens. Human nature dictates that it always seems like the most inconvenient time possible when it does. When I got back here I worked on putting together a new costume rack for Chela Mela out of some old wheelchair parts I scrounged at Center for Appropriate Transport. This will assuredly be quite a ridiculous looking contraption when it is done. Why not give some of your old goofiest looking clothes that you'll never wear again a new life by donating them to this project? I am working on a couple signs for the Fair Office here in the Yurt. Themes like sign painting or building kiosks or the History Booth continually reemerge in my life at the Fair. It is like once you have done something around here you become the resident expert and those same things will probably always fall to you forever after. Take notes here, that is how this place works, plain and simple, and for better or worse. I'm back on another project with Craig Huber, this time a Labyrinth. It won't consume the energy like the Kaleidoscope did but it have be a very magical presence never the less. So that is becoming my life now, radiating energy in many directions, not focusing on any one thing. While I know that some others of you are doing the same, I have begun to ramping up for the Big One. Have you realized that it is now less than five months away? Get busy!!
Wednesday 9 February On Sunday the VegeManECs were out and I worked with Randy and Howard on the new sulky for the mower, which Randy will be able to wheel right up on. The four employees had a staff meeting of sorts on site as we, along with Tim Wolden, examined the piles of round rock underand around the water barrel stations---and which are to be slated for removal during the upcoming Main Camp. Later that night I was making some midnight modifications to the new Wheelie Machine which, as will shortly be told, was terribly ill-advised. The following day I went to the town office and completed a few chores such as installing some new cabinets in the kitchen. That night was the Board Meeting, the most involved part being when several Union people spoke out about the evilness of Bi-Mart, and which caused the Board to at least revisit their decision to do business with them concerning their wetland mitigation at our Barrow Pit. During my walk back from EWEB to my Jeep at the office I felt extremely cold even though it was a respectable 51 degrees out. Once home I went straight to bed wearing a sweat shirt and pants and piled high with blankets. I drempt weird dreams all night and awoke many times drenched with cold sweat. On Tuesday morning I awoke with a splitting headache and a feeling in my chest that felt (for lack of a more verbous description), as if I had smoked a case of Pall Malls while a mule was kicking me in the chest. This caused me to call in sick from work, thinking that perhaps I had the flu, but I eventually realized I didn't have the classic symptoms such as congestion, sore throat, sneeziness, watery eyes, etc. It finally dawned on me that I was suffering from welder fume sickness. My Sunday night welding session was the same as all the rest with one crucial exception. I had been fabricating with a chrome lawnmower handle. Chrome, unbeknownst to me at the time, contains cadmium---a deadly heavy metal. Dizzy and tired, I slept through the day and most of the night. By today I felt a whole lot better. I did the water quality monitoring and brought some supplies to the office for my next project there. Will Rogers, a man much wiser than myself, once said: "There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves." Unfortunately I have to fall into this final catagory, but I can assure you that I'll be thinking a lot more about ventilation and respirators when welding from now on.
Saturday 5 February Today is Chinese New Year, the year of the Dragon. The observation of this lunar festival occurs on the second new moon following the winter solstice. It is the most vibrant and colorful festival of the Chinese calendar. The Chinese use twelve animals as their signs of the Zodiac and also use them to designate the years in a twelve year cycle. The Dragon is the only mythical creature and in many ways considered the most powerful and auspicious. During the Lunar New Year people pay debts, clean homes, return borrowed items, buy new clothes, and make offerings to the household gods in preparation for the upcoming year. Firecrackers and lion dances are used to scare off evil spirits. All the food is prepared ahead of time, as no cooking is permitted on the holiday. Knives and cutting instruments are put away. Bad language and unpleasant topics are highly discouraged. No one sweeps since that would sweep away good fortune, but if absolutely necessary then it must be swept into the center of the house. Children and the elderly are given little red envelopes containing money. Red is the lucky color of the Chinese and it is especially prevalent during this time. Open house is the traditional way to celebrate and it is a time for people travel to see each other. Etiquette dictates that oranges or tangerines and a lai be brought when visiting family or friends anytime during the two-week long Chinese New Year celebration. Oranges and tangerines are symbols for abundant happiness. Many other foods are also given special significance and used in special ways. The Lantern Festival at the full moon marks the end of the New Year season and afterwards life becomes routine once again.
Friday 4 February We had a staff meeting at the town office and as I arrived there the place was abuzz with energy. They were installing a new copier, the were several coordinators around and it felt like things were starting to get kicked into gear. After our meeting had another with Marshall Landman of Crew Services and discussed some possible scenarios for some new showers. I did a few errands in town and when I got back to the site, I had Steve take me over to Woodall's to pick up my Jeep which gotten a new manifold gasket put in, among other things. From there I went to finish off my weak week at the gym then met up with Steve and Arrow again for the weekly ritual dinner. I ate three plates of spaghetti at Our Daily Bread and was therefore entitled to ring the new steeple bell, which of course I took advantage of. The great thing about working out is that I can eat as much as I want. The object here is usually to try and put on weight, but I can never seem do it. I have been caught up in watching the Louis Vuitton Challenger Cup between the yachts America One and Prada of Italy. This is the race series that determines who goes up against the Kiwi's Black Magic for the America's Cup. The series is now tied 4-4 in a best out of nine and it has certainly been a classic duel.
Thursday 3 Feburary Its been a quiet couple of days around here with Steve off on his weekend. My friend James Bateman was out to have breakfast with me at Dixies and to check out the WOW Booth and the site. Along our walk I happened to pick up a handful of some of the organic deposit that is left behind by the floods to illustrate how it is composed mainly of seeds, and suddenly realized that many of these seeds had already sprouted into tiny little seedlings! So in a miniscule way the greening of the Fair has already begun anew. In personal anticipation of the coming Spring I have signed up for two months of self flagellation at the Body Connection in Veneta. The first few days are the worst of course, my muscles unaccustomed to the sudden increase in workload after a relatively sedentary Winter. At times the I have moments of wooziness as I try to establish a base from which I can work from, but I also find myself quickly falling back into the routine. The good news for me is that I weighed in at about 177 pounds which is actually about seven pounds lighter than last year, and that is right about where I want to be if I can just firm up a bit. Actually the best indicator isn't the scale at all, but the mirror---and that gives a whole lot more information than is ever required!
Wednesday 2 February Groundhog Day is an extremely popular tradition in the United States. As we all well know from grade school on, if the groundhog sees its shadow then we are in for six more weeks of Winter. This is quite an interesting tradition because it connects us directly with the ancient times when practically everything in Nature was an omen or carried some sort of message. This particular convention has its roots in the early Christian holiday of Candlemas which, not at all coincidentally, also occurs today. Candlemas it is one of the four cross quarter days between the Solstices and the Equinoxes. Back then the anticipation of the coming Spring must have been much greater than it is today for the people by necessity lived much closer to the Earth, and this day marked an important symbolic juncture of winter. According to an old English song: If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come, Winter, have another flight; If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, Go Winter, and come not again. As the Roman Empire expanded northward into what is today Germany, the Teutonic peoples picked up on the tradition and inferred that if a hedgehog saw its shadow on Candlemas Day then there would be a second half of Winter---that is the full six weeks until the Spring Equinox. Pennsylvania's earliest settlers were mostly Germans and although they found no hedgehogs here, there was a profusion of groundhogs and so an ancient European tradition evolved into an important part of our own folklore. Today there are at least two main groundhogs who claim to be the one true Prognosticator. The first (and arguably the most famous since the Bill Murray movie GROUNDHOG DAY was filmed there in 1992) is Punxsutawney Phil from Pennsylvania. This year he saw his own shadow and you gotta know what that means. The other then is General Beauregard Lee from Georgia. It was cloudier down south this morning when he climbed out of his hole and he is therefore predicting an early Spring. You can pick whichever one you believe might be the real McCoy---but after exhaustive scientific research I have determined that General Lee might know a thing or two more than your ordinary, run of the mill groundhog.
Tuesday 1 February In ancient Europe, this was the time to begin preparing the fields for the first planting with seeds ritually placed on the the ground to awaken the Earth, a significant moment in communities which by now were usually running low on their Winter stores. The fields were purified and offerings were made to the Brigid, a goddess whose name, as the daughter of the Dagda (the Celtic Zeus), signified Fiery Arrow. About 451, in Kildare, Ireland, a girl was born to an indentured servant women, who was named Brigid presumable after the pagan goddess of fire, fertility, and grain. Raised by a Druid she was eventually returned to her father. Although she was extremely beautiful she spurned all propositions of marriage. She was to become St. Brigid, the Mary of Gael. Her friendship with St. Patrick is attested by the following paragraph from the "Book of Armagh", a precious manuscript of the eighth century: "inter sanctum Patricium Brigitanque Hibernesium columpnas amicitia caritatis inerat tanta, ut unum cor consiliumque haberent unum". (Between St. Patrick and St. Brigid, the columns of the Irish, there was so great a friendship of charity that they had but one heart and one mind.) She built a great convent on a hill in Kildare and there a sacred fire burned in an enclosure hedged by a circular fence. No man was ever allowed to enter. Twenty vestal virgins, with Brigid at their head, fed and guarded the fire each night in turn. After Brigid's death in 525, the nun who finished her watch of the nineteenth night would cry: "Brigid, guard your own fire, the next night belongs to you." It continued to burn in this way for six entire centuries, but in 1220 the Archbishop of Dublin, who came over with invaders, ordered the extinction of the fire. Later it was rekindled and burnt for nearly four centuries more, this time until King Henry VIII undertook the elimination of monastic life and the historic fire was extinguished forever. February 1st is the feast day of St. Brigid. People in Ireland put a loaf of bread on the windowsill for her and an ear of corn out for her white cow. Her statue is washed in the sea, and then carried in a cart through the fields surrounded by candles. Wheat stalks are woven into X-shaped crosses and hung in the rafters of homes to protect them from fire and lightning during the rest of the year.