O. C. F. Caretaker's Journal O. C. F. Caretaker's Journal Wednesday 23 June While I stayed as busy as ever, I got to work around the Ware House most of the day with Marc on the dodecahedron for the Kaleidoscope, while directing traffic on the radio. Barney was up doing some metalwork on the skeleton trailer. Clif showed up and we worked on the shade structure for Cart Central, which will also be the center of our Burning Man structure. We will have that done for this weekend and think perhaps it can stay in the same location this year instead of moving. I have a new found appreciation for making jigs--- of which we used several on both these projects today, many more during the entire Kaleidoscope project. While it may take almost as long to make and set up a jig as to do the actual work, the result is accurate and repeatable. Inventing the jig can be a quite satisfying problem solving challenge as well. Anyway, it was nice to just get to get my hands on a project for awhile. I like these midweeek lulls.
Tuesday 22 June Today I theoretically had a day off. While even these rare days seem to be absorbed by the Fair, at least it is stuff of my own choosing.This morning I built another model for the bamboo projects in Chela Mela. After lunch I had a flying lesson and took the opportunity to buzz the Fair, then headed over to Craig's studio for more work on the Giant Kaleidoscope. I have bitten off quite a bit this year in terms of extra-curricular activities, but Art is one of the main reasons I am here, and so I am definitely not complaining. I am certainly learning a lot about craftmanship on the project. The conjunction between the Moon, Mars, and Spica was a heavenly sight as I drove home in my open topped Jeep.
Summer Solstice Monday 21 June Summer began today at 12:49 p.m. PDT as the Sun reached its northernmost point on the imaginary celestial sphere surrounding Earth,.and stood directly over the Tropic of Cancer in the Pacific Ocean just west of Baha California. The word solstice comes from the Latin solstitium, from sol meaning sun, and stitium meaning stoppage, reflecting the fact that the Sun appears to stop its northern advance. It is interesting to note of the times of the rising and setting sun. Today is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. However---the sun does not rise at its earliest on that day, nor does it set at its latest. Instead, the earliest sunrises come a week or more before the solstice. The latest sunsets come in late June or early July. The late sunsets explain why the days seem to continue lengthening, even though there is actually less total daylight following the solstice. Today, as is fairly typical in western Oregon, it rained on the Sun's birthday, but in the evening there was a beautiful sunset. The system has brought us over a quarter inch of rain. Since it hasn't rained much in over a month, it is something we were really needing. The timing last night's shower was perfect coming as it did on the heels of a big weekend, sending the weekenders scurrying home making my usual security sweep unnecessary, as well as watering the flora and wetting down the dust and pollen in the process.
Saturday 19 June Pre-Fair is operating at full blast. Suddenly there are lots of old faces I have seen for the first time this year.The metaphor of a ping-pong ball comes as close to describing how it feels to be me the past couple of days. There is an incredible amount of work being accomplished, and I for the most part am just here to keep the plates spinning and the wheels greased. I cannot even attempt to document the myriad of functions I perform, but suffice it to say that even that was only the proverbial drop in the bucket to the whole enchilada at this point. Fortunately I seem to be perfectly adapted to thrive on the unique Oregon Country Fair energy. It is completely satisfying for me to be encompassed by something so complete and great. This year I seem to be gaining a growing management role, and I am trying to walk the fine line of doing my job humbly and yet with some authority. Here is a quote that I seems to pertain nicely to this struggle: Moment to moment, there are aspects of life that we like, and other we don't. There are always going to be people who disagree with you, people who do things differently, and things that don't work out. If you fight against this principle of life, you'll spend most of your life fighting battles.--R. Carlson, Ph.D. I am learning the Art of Diplomacy. Yesterday the pump got dragged out of the ground through a hole cut in the pumphouse roof and the entire thing rewired and replumbed. Today the job is nearly complete although the Yurt is still without water. A shower and sauna at the Sauna tonight has made a new man out of me however.
Thursday 17 June Not quite the day I expected to have. Trouble always has a way of happening at the wrong time, although of course it is never the right time. I noticed that the water was off in the Yurt and I got right on it. Looking first at the pumphouse, but unable to ascertain what the problem was, I began making phone calls. Eventually Tinkerbell Tommy came to the rescue and begins to diagnose the situation. Meanwhile a huge semi from Mountain People, the UPS guy, and all kinds of other distractions are happening, and I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed. When heading out to Veneta Hardware to get new wire for the pumphouse, I back into one of my bikes with the Site Truck, pretzeling the rear wheel. When I get back I can't believe it's a dog, but of course it is---this time belonging to a coordinator. Anyway, by the afternoon the Quartermasters and Kitchen are arriving and there are people around to help out so I can relax a bit. The water problem turned out to be a compounded one and the submersible pump, which is probably some forty feet down, will have to be professionally yarded out and replaced tomorrow. Until then the Site is without its water system. Dinner was served and Main Camp has begun its 24 / 7 run towards the 1999 Fair.
Wednesday 16 June The last relatively quiet day although I was turning away a seemingly steady stream of people wanting to set up camp or start work. Yesterday some bonehead from Security brush cut and leveled a large area, then flagged it off as a personal campsite. Bucket encountered him and we later discovered that he had lied about where he had been working. Later there was a staff member with a dog in the car. You have to drive by two large No Dogs signs to get in here. The rules seem so simple and have been in place for a very long time.What part of No Dogs or No Brush Cutting is so difficult to understand? It then becomes my job to be the enforcer, one which I don't relish, but one which I won't back away from either. The camping scene begins this weekend in earnest. I cannot stress enough what a fragile ecosystem it is that we hold our event on. Simply raking an area free of its ground cover can be as devastating as the chainsaw in the long term, as it is eliminating the future understory. Here are several Leave No Trace camping suggestions and recommendations from your friendly and well meaning Caretaker. 1.) Use string or rope to tie back branches rather than cut them. Place large woody debris on top of thorny plants to hold them down. 2.) Please do not pile up woody debris or duff in the woods or on the paths to be picked up---rather, broadcast it deeper into the woods. This material helps prevent erosion during the floods and releases essential nourishment to the environment as it rots. However, please remove any old floated dimensional lumber, from anywhere you see it, onto the paths for removal.3.) Use you fingers rather than a rake to lightly groom an area no bigger than the footprint of your tent, leaving small shrubs in place. Pitch your tent right on top of them if you have to---most likely they will survive. 4.) Do not bring in any straw or hay into your camp. It can kill the native ground cover and is against the Guidelines as of this year. 5.) While it has certainly become customary to construct tables and benches and leave them in camps over winter, I am working hard to reverse this trend. Please help with this by bringing in portable folding furniture instead. 6.) Before you leave reverse the process as much as humanly possible, restoring the site to the way you found it. PACK IT IN, PACK IT OUT! Finally, don't leave twine or flagging to mark off your space until next year, it will still be there. Remember, we are all stewards of this beautiful property. Lets all work together to see that it remains so for generations to come.
Tuesday 15 June Last night when I had finished my journal and was headed for bed, I discovered a large ant's nest in, of all things, the bathroom scale. Arming myself with a vacuum cleaner, I fought a pitched battle with the swarming insects. Eventually and after a protracted engagement, I managed to throw the scale into the dumpster. The ants did manage to inflect at least a psychological victory anyway--as I felt imaginary creepy-crawlies for the rest of the night. Today I stayed pretty busy with a lot of little odd jobs such as irrigating the Far Side trees, putting handles on the six-pack fishing expedition nets, fixing the tractor tire, occasionally riding herd on the Sauna boys, and otherwise trying to get things organized for the upcoming onslaught. Twenty yards of loam arrived for Open Sesame from Lane Forest Products, Perry Mauldin has begun to hay the fields, and Buck Morris was working on the alternator for Mothra. Even though the site is supposedly closed, there were quite a few other visitors around and about as well and there is no stemming the tide at this point.
Monday 14 June A family style breakfast with the food on the table was a homey little touch for the dozen or so of us leftovers. Met with Leslie, Steve, and Palmer about pre-Fair crisis response, then helped get the place secured and the kitchen put away. I took a bunch of our refrigerated goods to Organically Grown with the Site Truck, to store for the week. I then met Craig at the woodshop we are using and we basically finished milling up the parts for the Kalideoscope and got the base unit loaded up to bring on out. Still a lot of work to do on it of course, but it is starting to come together nicely. I got to spend the evening with the one and only Bob Dylan. Well okay, out in the audience with a thousand other fans at the EMU, but it was the best concert I have seen in a long, long time, very much a privilege to be there. He played exclusively from the really old stuff, but with new additude---his unmistakable nasal twange, warped harmonicas, and incredible guitar playing as true as ever. During the encore playing his signature"Blowin' in the Wind", I thought it had to be over. He had one final trick up his sleeve however when the band played the Grateful Dead's "Not Fade Away". The crowd loved it all and were literally humming and buzzing when the lights finally came back up.
Sunday 13 June Biggest day of the year so far with about one hundred fifty for lunch. It was a picture perfect day too, without a cloud in the sky. Massive amounts of work got done. The feeling I have is that everything is pretty well in hand this year and that has allowed the luxury of doing some overdue fixes. For example Rainbow was rebuilding the showers in Main Camp. I operated the tractor and Site Truck for that and numerous other projects throughout the day. I did so much that I am too tired too write about it all. Time now to button up the Site for one more week then we will be going full tilt bogey.
Saturday 12 June The Momentum is building. Allthough the there was only about twenty for breakfast, there was around a hundred for lunch. I hop scotched around between several projects. I had a group of four young bucks peeling the tipi poles. At Chela Mela I gave lashing lessons. Helped on the Sesame fix. Facilitated odd requests. Lots of activity around moving stages today, but unlike last year, I was not directly involved in that. Having just recovered from a bad back, that is a good thing not to be doing. In the afternoon a crew of up to about a dozen people put up first the bamboo designs---but in the end it was not inspiring and it is back to the old drawing board on that one. It is a new medium for us and we need to learn how to use it, which is part of the whole reason we are here, to experiment with new ways of doing things. I fried quite a few Sawsall blades trying to cut a captured nitrous tank in half for use as the Kitchen Bell, but was unable to complete the job before dinner. Tomorrow will ring loud and clear for lunch however.
Friday 11 June Pancakes for breakfast with real maple syrup. Worked with Marc Donofrio on several projects throughout the day as he is Mr. Do Everything this year. First we mounted the Staff Kitchen sign higher---basically busy work, but of course anything for the Kitchen. I trained him on how to do the Far Side irrigation and he did that the rest of the time. Taboli and humus was for lunch. Marc helped finish off the Vehicle Shed knee braces and drove the golden lag bolt, then we took off the protective cover on Jill's Crossing and stored it in Main Camp. TVP sloppy joes for dinner and vegan chocolate cake! It is so great to be served such great food in the out of doors and then have the dishes done and all. Absolutely no way I could ever find to complain about that. But then it was learned that Marc had had forty bucks and his sunglasses swiped, probably some locals but who knows? A bit of a wake up call for me in that I am going to have to start being more vigilant already, although there is really nothing I can do to prevent stuff like that. We took the big generator up to the tank at the Warehouse and filled it with deisel, then did a perimeter security run on bicycles. After downing a couple of ceremonial virgin strawberry daquaris, Bucket and I put the energy carts to bed and I'm headed there myself.
Thursday 10 June The top came off my Jeep to celebrate the sunny, warm day. At the Oregon Country Fair often a seemingly simple task often doesn't turn out that way. It took me a couple trips to the hardware stores in Veneta and scrounging around in the watershed to cobble something together because I didn't have the right part to replace the coupler that broke yesterday, but eventually it was fixed. Every couple of hours I cross the river with the rowboat that has been set up as a ferry, then walk over to move the big water cannon around the Experimental Tree Farm. The Far Side is so beautiful and unspoiled right now that it makes this trip a pleasure. Brian got the Kitchen Bike back into action and shuttled about four loads of food from the fridges up here back down to the Reefer Truck near Main Camp. Bucket, Mark, and I built a platform for the compressor in its engine compartment, another task fraught with pitfalls, but determination prevailed once again. While we were at it we dropped the old drive train out of it so it will be easier to tow. Sheila was working on the Site Mac this evening and I leave it in her capable hands to succeed where I have failed in getting the thing set up properly, although she has admitted that the thing is a bit of a challenge.The Kichen served up dinner tonight and there were about a dozen grateful souls there to chow it down.
Wednesday 9 June Almost hard to believe that the Fair is exactly one month away. With Main Camp set up and nobody there, I am a bit paranoid and made several trips down to check it out. Gloria Stone from Community Village was here for a one woman work party and I set her to a few odd jobs around here. I mowed the Entertainment Camp area grass and it is much thicker and lusher than last year---so our seeding and coreplugging efforts in the Spring have paid off. The new grass on East 13th looks good to but I doubt that it will survive the trampling it is soon to get. Dennis Todd was here and we went over to the Far Side to set up watering on the planting project. I will be trying to keep things alive over ther until the drip irrigation system is set up in a couple of weeks. Later when I was over there moving the sprinklers a hose fitting failed and I will have to get that fixed in the morning. It is the calm before the storm and I tried to take it fairly easy today, but the phone was ringing, people were dropping by, and things are happening.
Tuesday 8 June I was off site most of the day, initally at my flying lesson and then working with Craig yet again on the Giant Kalideoscope project. The big ten-sided box has come together and so it is off the drawing board and headed toward altered reality. On the fourth day of my new vegan diet I can begin to feel my body adjusting to the change. While the Kitchen will make the transition relatively simple, dealing in the real world is another matter entirely. Over twenty years ago, when I first became a vegetarian, I adopted a plant only diet for about a year before I reverted back to dairy products. I am reminded anew of the difficulties, but I should be able to cope better as my metabolism has slowed down somewhat since then.
Monday 7 June Yesterday morning I had to scramble to keep up with the myriad of requests for this or that. Eventually I was able to get what Steve calls "tractor therapy" tearing a out big stump in the footpath of the new loop. Then last night I collapsed into bed too tired to make an entry. Up this morning with the few survivors of the first weekend, buttoning up Main Camp for the week. During the afternoon Kitchen Brian helped me harvest some bamboo poles at an old friend's property off River Road, for the Spirit Banners in Chela Mela. The rippling effect of the tree cutting incident reverberated during the Board Meeting, first with the President's report, then with a statement from Marlene, and finally at the end of the night with a Resolution from Dr. Jim. Basically reaffirming the Guideline tenets about no brush cutting and the consequences, it passed 10-0. So while my reaction to the entire incident was very emotional, perhaps it was worth it if the disciplinary and educational processes becomes more clearly defined in the future.
Saturday 5 June And so the Oregon Country Fair begins its Thirtieth season. A million and one things to do in the next five weeks and I cannot begin to keep track of them all. My job becomes one of running around keeping other people supplied with tools, information, and supplies. In some ways I feel that we are actually ahead of the curve this year altough I myself have bitten off a huge chunk. Grant and Terry, carpenters from Seattle have started contruction on the East Wing of the Ware House. Palmer, Reese and I performed surgery on the rotten old Communications trailer and were left with the skeleton which we will turn into a flatbed trailer. Lunch and Dinner were great, it is one of the best parts of the whole experience to be served good food, in the outdoors, and eat with such great company. Somehow it never fails to amaze me. This year I am going to do a Vegan diet, partly because it will be so easy to do, partly because it will be good for me and the planet, and partly because it adds another person to a small list. Admittedly it is fun to get the special treatment but it also reminds me of how I felt when I first became vegetarian twenty years ago. Not taking this on friviously, I hope to be able to continue after the Fair is over.
Friday 4 June It is Main Camp Eve. Brian and I went with the Site truck and got three huge pallets of food. The Kitchen and Quartermaster equipment was pulled out and taken down to be set up. The Kitchen Crew was busy getting ready for the first meal of the 1999 season, Saturday lunch. (Rumors of breakfast!) Ichabod and Tommy of Communications were working hard to get the Tinkerbell phonelines in. They have have had a lot to do in the early going as they have totally replaced and rewired the hub that used to be in an ancient trailer, into its new high tech home in Communications Alley. With Hilary's help I did another round of BT around the Fair. Tonight I really started to notice the mosquitoes for the first time, probably because I was hanging out behind Main Camp at dusk---in shorts. The Fair is exceptionally dry for this time of year ad that alone should account for a small population reduction of the little bloodsuckers, although there is still a lot of places for them to breed. Once the masses arrive they will have a veritable feast.
Thursday 3 June Many signs that Main Camp is now eminent. The big generator was delivered by United Rentals and the Reefer truck hooked up to it and running. I buried the cable to the kitchen under Snivel Road so we could drive over it. Mountain People were supposed to deliver food but didn't make it, although Brian and Eric were here to receive it. The Hamilton Electric guy hooked up the gas ranges and fired them up. I facilitated, then cleaned up the some loose ends like the burn pile at Main Camp and off loading poles from the Site Truck. Walking around Site this reveals that some folks have already claimed and cleared their campsites and booths, very often in a heavy handed manner. After grounding to this place for over a year it has become difficult to watch the inevitable encroachment of humans bent on reconfiguring Nature to resemble their living rooms. Unfortunately I cannot be everywhere at once to attempt to educate people about what they are doing, but I have resolved to try and be out there much more than last year. Hopefully I can also rehabilitate some problem areas with their help. It is a mixed bag. Talking to some people about their perceived patch of turf is like banging my head against a brick wall, while others are totally responsive and willing to do the right thing.
Wednesday 2 June Untold voluminous volumes of atrociously bad poetry have come into existence due to the simple fact that June rhymes with a bunch of other words such as: Afternoon, aswoon, attune, baboon, balloon, bassoon, bestrewn, boon, Brigadoon, buffoon, cartoon, cocoon, commune, croon, doubloon, dragoon, dune, entune, expugn, festoon, harpoon, hewn, honeymoon, immune, inopportune, impugn, jejune, lagoon, lampoon, loon, macaroon, maroon, monsoon, moon, noon, pantaloon, picayune, platoon, poltroon, pontoon, prune, raccoon, rune, saloon, soon, spittoon, spoon, strewn, swoon, tune, tycoon, typhoon, and untune. The month of June was originally called Junonis after Juno, goddess of the moon, and protector of women, especially in marriage and childbirth--- and so during Roman times June weddings were considered extremely unlucky. Nowadays however, there are more weddings during this month than any other. Which all goes to say that Love must not be only blind, but deaf as well.
Tuesday 1 June Today's flight lesson covered different stalls and that ended up being the least harrowing part of my day as it turned out. After returning the auger and getting a handtruck tire fixed at Max's, I returned to the Fair Site, where there was a waiting message from Mark Tucker. He was over in Crescent harvesting the lodgepoles for the Hemp Tipi, and wanted me to come get them. So rather than a slow day I had planned, I unload the Site Truck, built a makeshift rack, fueled up and headed out to rush hour. The chosen meeting spot was something straight out of Twin Peaks, a place called the Mohawk Restaurant, boasting a huge collection of Avon bottles and stuffed animals. Not just any old stuffed animals either, but stuff like Jackalopes and two-headed sheep. Well worth a look next time you're passing through. Anyway, Mark arrived late needing a break, but eventually there was a dust-choked drive through the woods. Needless to say it was getting dark as we worked to finish yarding the poles out. There is no way to put this delicately---a lot of the poles had big butts, and being freshly cut they were pretty heavy. At 32 feet in length they were over twice as long as the truck, but I was here now and wasn't leaving without them. Finally twenty-four of them were loaded and secured, but before we reached the highway the rinky-dinky rack that I had thrown together collapsed. Cinched down in this new configuration the butts were now about a foot off the ground, but the good news was that the tips would still fit under the tunnel. At Willamette Pass it began snowing hard and the steam off the tarmac created an eerie Transylvainian scene--- but also made it rather hard to see. Then a white-knuckle ride down the mountain at top speeds of 35 m.p.h. At one point a police car turned around and followed me on the Beltline and I was sure that I would soon be receiving a string of tickets for being overweight, over length, unpermitted, and who knows what else. The ancient ones must have been looking out for the interests their load however, because suddenly the cop was gone from sight and I miraculously arrived back at the Fair.