O. C. F. Caretaker's Journal O. C. F. Caretaker's JournalJune 1999 / Main / August
1999
Saturday 31 July The big news around here seems to be that the Fair has finally finalized the deal to acquire the Hubbard property on the end of Chickadee Lane--- the historic signing taking place on Thursday at three o'clock. While relatively small at 5.5 acres, this partially unfloodable location at the furthest northwest corner of the property is a key piece in the future development of the OCF. This morning got here way before I was ready for it, along with the arrival of a dozen bright and chipper Highway Pickup folks. A few hours in the blazing sun picking up little scraps of paper that had been run over by lawn mowers wasn't really enough to completely wake me up. There is no rain in the forecast for at least the next ten days and the fields have turned brown and crispy. Field burning has already begun and dry lightning storms are predicted for the Cascades. Fire season is now upon us---so please be very careful about that if you plan on visiting the site. In the afternoon Steve and I built some new lightweight sideboards for Lobstera, and later headed over to our Daily Bread for the weekly pasta ritual, albeit a day late.
Friday 30 July Did tractor work in the morning hauling some stuff from Chela Mela and coreplugging the Dragon Plaza, then continued to clean up and organize things up at the Ware House. In the afternoon Hilary and I went up to Portland to see a Joan Armatrading / Taj Mahal concert after a brief stop at Powell's Bookstore. It was at the Zoo of all places, and upon arriving we ran into Jenny Newtson and David Helton and proceeded to crash their rather prime spot. Between sets we got to check out the elephants and monkeys. During the latter part of the concert a lot of people got up to dance, and almost immediately I was singled out by one of the security guards as the troublemaker for some reason. She made a sarcastic remark about the way I was dancing and ordered me to move. The tone being thus set, and considering that I was doing absolutely no harm, I decided to stay put. Her supervisor, with seemingly with even less social graces, came over to deal with me, radio in hand. I amicably replied to the effect that until she sent over the four or five big guys that would be required to carry me off, I would continue to enjoy the concert and dance on the sidewalk along with everyone else. A little more than slightly disappointed was I that they were unable to muster the necessary forces! Coming home late at night on Suttle Road a large deer, paralyzed by my headlights, suddenly appeared directly in front of me. I had to slam on the brakes and steer off the road in order to avoid the collision, skidding around to come to rest sideways in a ditch. Driver, deer, and Jeep all okay thank you very much, but I did need four-wheel drive to extract myself. The driver directly behind me must have seen everything but just continued on without stopping--- which all causes me no small wonder about the current state of our human beneficence.
Thursday 29 July Steve is off for a few days and I have had the place entirely to myself---with the exception of the very odd visitor or two. I'm still continuing to deal with the fallout from the Big One, and that will be for some time to come. We have been watering the paths and almost miraculously a few blades of grass are emerging at ground zero. Some of the details of what I do around here can be somewhat boring to write about, while at the same time being fairly satisfying and enjoyable to do. While I'm working I will try to focus my energy on a certain area, but I inevitably get involved in various side projects as I go---so it always takes a little while to get anything done. In the late afternoon I went flying with Clif for a couple of hours and, after several attempts, made my first unassisted landing at Creswell's Hobby Airport, something I am quite pleased with myself about. The most important thing to learn about flying after all, is how to get back down to good old terra firma in one piece. My brother called me this evening and he is in the Sacramento with a group of his Central Asian brothers, his first time back in the USA in over five years. He will be here at the Fair on August 10th for a visit so I am looking forward to that.
Tuesday 27 July Finally got the last load of Festiva Latina's stuff back, thanks to the help of Travis Hudson---who was a trooper in meeing me there in town all four times, two loads in and then two loads back with the Site Truck. Stuff like barricades, snow fence, concrete blocks, steel T-posts, and shade structures had to be carted back and forth across a long yard. Unfortunately the Fair didn't use half of the stuff this year so it was a lot of hard work for nothing, but I'm not complaining because next year we're going to get the stuff we need, period. This evening the Long Tom Watershed Council meeting was hosted by the Oregon Country Fair in Chela Mela Meadow on the banks of the Long Tom River. About thirty people ranging from college students to land owners were present, and three presentations; one about obstructions and channeling in the river, one on its history, and the third from Dennis Todd on the dynamics of the river on our own property. I've signed up to be a water quality monitor, will attend an all day session to learn how to do it on August 11th, and will be testing the water quality as it passes through the property about once a month after that. Unfortunately, I was so busy during the Fair that I didn't take any pictures---but I did recieve this photo of Palmer and his long lost twin via email from Steve Harter today.
Monday 26 July Today I basically played hooky from the Fair and what a great day to do it, with perfect weather! I took my first flying lesson in several weeks and am determined to start going about twice a week now and start moving on getting my Pilot's License. I took the chance to speak with my instructor about JFK Jr's accidental death---from a pilot's point of view. Without a horizon to go by a banked turn feels exactly like straight and level flight. Quite possibly the plane had entered a left turn without Kennedy realizing it. At that attitude it takes more pressure on the yoke to right the plane than it does to put it into an even steeper turn. What might have happened is that as he tried to turn the plane to the right, in actuality it was still banked to the left. Then, when he thought he thought he was correcting back to the left, he actually tipped the plane over to perhaps seventy degrees and entered a spiraling dive that is difficult to recover from even with good visibility. Most airplane accidents are caused by pilot error, which combined with inexperience was almost certainly the case here. However, on the first day of 1978 a Boeing 747, Air India Flight 855, dove steeply into the Arabian Sea killing all 213 people aboard. The senior pilot, Captain V.I. Kubar, had 18,000 flight hours logged during his twenty-two years with the airline, but was also a diabetic and had been allegedly been drinking the night before. The moments before the crash were, ironically, very much the same circumstances in which Kennedy most likely found himself. A murky black sky and sea with no horizon or reference point, a momentary lapse of attention, an unnoticed bank to the left, confusion about the instruments leading to a correction in the wrong direction, and an unrecoverable spiral downward. For the morbidly curious here is a list of other celebrities who have died in plane crashes.
Sunday 25 July Hey, hey, hay! Today I get to spend time on another favorite gripe, the spread hay and straw left behind. The encouraging thing is that some people did rake their hay in to piles and a few actually removed it as stated in the Guidelines. The discouraging thing is that we probably unwilling provide the vast majority of it. The duff, which is part of the natural ground cover, is first raked out, causing great damage to the fragile understory. Once hay or straw is put down, the only options are to leave it, which completely smothers the ground over time, or to rake it, which strips away even more of the ground cover. Finally the residue must be trucked out, causing further compaction and damage to the paths that we are attempting to get recovered. Shane from Site Crew was here, and so with a 2:1 manager to volunteer ratio we proceeded to haul a couple loads out of the upper part of the Eight using the tractor and Lobstera. No sign of a single VegManEC today, doubtlessly because they knew for certain what lay in store for them if they showed up, and who can blame them? It is ridiculous that they should be expected to be responsible someone else's mess. Booths with unraked straw are going to be notified by mail this year. I am definitely going to strongly suggest a straw deposit for next. I understand the desire for a pretty presentation, and that is all it really is---but at what cost? If it necessary to have straw or hay in the first place for aesthetic reasons, then it should be equally necessary to deal with it once done for environmental ones. But hey, that's the end of today's rant and rave!
Saturday 24 July Spent the good part of the day out on in the Fair picking up dimensional debris with David Hoffman. Having seen last Winter's flotsam and jetsam distributed far and wide across the property and beyond, I am determined to be more proactive. If it is on the ground and if it can float away, then it is fair game. The birds and animals don't see artificial boundaries, the floodwaters don't pay them any heed, and as Caretaker I certainly look at the Land as one interconnected system. Once the July 31st cleanup deadline comes and goes, so goes as much brush killing, nail filled, rotted dimensional wood (especially pallets and plywood) as I can find anywhere on the floodplain.
Friday 23 July I am finally getting back on top of my domestic scene around here, which was layers deep. Yesterday I bought a real vacuum cleaner and it does an amazing job. With everything else I am always all about having the right tool for the job---so it is a wonder that it has taken me so long to realize how much cleaner and easier my life could be with lil' Dirt Devil. Steve and I attacked Main Camp in the heat of the day and dredged out a truckload of miscellaneous stuff, filling up a dumpster besides. Main Camp is always the worst cleanup site on the Site, but that is understandable considering how long and how hard we use it. There is still a couple of sessions there before it will be truly flood ready. By evening it had cooled off quite a bit due to a stiff Westerly breeze, and the days are getting noticeably shorter a month after the Solstice. I am definitely going to savor the rest of the Summer. Steve and I resumed our weekly custom of eating Friday dinner at Our Daily Bread and on the way back we recycled the remaining stack of Peach Pits into the drop box at Ray's.
Thursday 22 July Today is the feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene.The life of Mary Magdalene is known only from a few gospel passages and has been greatly embellished by legend. The story goes that she was a prostitute because of her frustrated love for St. John. Converted from her ill gotten ways, she burst into a little reception for Jesus at the house of Simon the Pharisee, where she washed Jesus' feet with her tears and dried them with her copious hair. Well ol' Simon was a bit indignant about all of this of course, to which Jesus supposedly remarked that there had obviously been some mighty serious oversights going on due to the fact that nobody had even offered to wash his feet up to that point, which was considered quite rude in those days. Well that shut Simon up and Christ was so thankful that He even cast seven demons out of her, and there seems to be a connection between that and the seven veils which Salome wears in her famous dance. Mary followed Jesus religiously after that as one of his female disciples---but she obviously couldn't become an apostle because she was, naturally, a female. She was present at the crucifixion with Mother Mary and some other Mary. A popular scene in Medieval art is her encounter with Christ resurrecting at his grave, where she does not recognize him until he calls her by her name. According to a French tradition Magdalen and some companions came to Marseilles and converted the whole of Province after which she is said to have retired to a life of penance for thirty odd years. After her death she was laid in an oratory constructed by St. Maximinus at Villa Lata. History is silent about these relics until 745 when they were removed to Vézelay through fear of a Saracen invasion. No record is preserved of their return, but in 1279, when Charles II, King of Naples, erected a convent at La Sainte-Baume, the shrine was found intact, with an inscription stating why they were hidden. In 1600 the relics were placed in a sarcophagus sent by Pope Clement VIII, her head being placed in a separate vessel. In 1814 the church of La Sainte-Baume was sacked during the French Revolution, but in 1822 the grotto was restored and reconsecrated. Magdalene's head lies there still, the object of countless pilgrimages. I have the vaguest recollections of being there when I was a kid. Anyway, Mary Magdalene is now fittingly the patron saint of sinners and prostitutes, and revered by both born again feminists and Gnostics, which are kind of like an early cult of Christian Scientists or something.
Wednesday 21 July Sometimes men accidently stumble into immortality without actually seeking it. Dr. Wilbur Scoville, a humble chemist who worked for the Parke Davis pharmaceutical company, was just such a man. In 1912, Wilbur devised his Scoville Organoleptic Test, a method of determining the heat in hot peppers. The substance that makes a pepper hot is called capsaicin (N-Vanillyl-8-methyl-6-(E)-noneamide). The process measures the 'heat' of the pepper by essentially measuring how much capsaicin it has. The test was originally a subjective taste test in which blended pure ground chiles were mixed in a sugar-water solution and a panel of testers then sipped the concoctions, in increasingly diluted concentrations, until they reached the point at which the liquid no longer burned the mouth. A number was then assigned to each chile based on how much it needed to be diluted before it could no longer be tasted. Today the test is done with high-pressure liquid chromatography but the measurement still bears his name---Scoville Heat Units. Your basic bell pepper, for example, rates zero. Jalapenos, those ubiqutious little green peppers, can rate up to 5,000 Scovilles. Serranos, which are found in salsa verde in every Mexican restaurant, rate around 20,000 Scovilles. Tabasco peppers are only grown in one small area of Louisiana, where the McIlheny Company makes its famous Tabasco sauces, 30,000-50,000 Scoville units strong. The Thai pepper, the tiny pequin, the chiltepin and the red Amazon weigh in at approximently 75K. But the mighty Habanero pepper is truly stratospheric. According to the Guiness Book of Records, the hottest pepper ever tested was a Red Savina Habanero, which rated an incredible 577,000 Scovilles. Pure capsaicin rates over fifteen million Scoville Units! Find out lots mo' about hot peppers at Mo' Hotta, Mo' Betta.
Tuesday 20 July Steve is off on his weekend. Even though I should be well used to it by now, it is still a little strange to be the only one on site after literally thousands occupied this space just a little over a week ago. In the aftermath there are still plenty of little reminders that that something big happened here; overflowing dumpsters, a few port-a-potties yet to be picked up, unraked straw, and the like. On the whole however, I would say that Recycling and Decon did an excellent job this year and that the Site is in pretty good shape. A few exceptions not withstanding, I feel that booths and campsites look a lot better this year and that the new Guidelines and energy we put into making this happen certainly helped. The motto for next year is going to be "Save the Duff". No more raking out and disposing of natural woody debris will be allowed---if Recycling, VegManECs, and the Caretaker have their way about it at least. We have begun irrigating the paths and meadows and already the grass is returning and greening up. It doesn't take long. A good rain followed a few relatively cool days would greatly help to restore the rest of the Site. Things aren't as quite as dry as they were this time last year but August is coming and that is always the hottest, driest time of year around these parts.
Monday 19 July Well, it's over. I've missed almost a month of entries but the way I see it people should not have been experiencing virtual reality when there was the real thing. Certainly I had zero time for my computer. Apparently the purpose of this Journal is covering the rest of the year. For those of you that were unable to attend, I apologize--but it had become impossible for me to chronicle the day's events as there was so much going on that I could not keep track of it all anyway. Now that things have settled back down to a normal routine I can begin to write again. I have had several metaphors to describe myself during the last month. The first was a human ping-pong ball. I could scarcely take five steps when I would be bounced into another direction with another request. In Vaudvillian terms I would be a juggler or a plate spinner. Later I compared myself to the lobster that is put into a pot of cold water and then the heat slowly turned up. He doesn't actually realize how it got into the boiling water in the first place. Finally it is like my life was put into a Osterizer blender. Everything is tipsy-turvey, things lost, things gained, laundry piled high, tools in disarray, bills unpaid, etc. After Fair everything has shifted around a bit and settles into a new configuration. It was a fun and wild ride but I am glad to start putting everything back into order.
