Jeremiah Steele: Fire Crafter Extraordinaire

Since moving into The Yellow House, we've had our oil furnace in working order for a total of two weeks. Needless to say, our house has been cold. See-your-breath, huddle-over-food-on-the-stove, bust-out-gamer-mittens,  hover-over-the-toilet-seat, cold.

Jeremiah stoking a small
fire in our living room.

In our rooms, though, we each have space heaters. Our rooms are warm and cozy, thanks to the heaters. It seems that when we aren't cooking, warming our fingers over the stove, or playing video games, bundled with mittens and a pile of blankets, we are cozied up in our rooms. Don't get me wrong, I love my room. I get a lot done in it. It's strange though, to live in a house of five people that feels empty.

The first fire Jeremiah built was in our fireplace. That's right, The Yellow House has a fireplace. It is wondrous. We started moving our stuff from Moon Base the day before the big snow storm in January. We had all our kitchen supplies in the house by the time power got killed, but our clothes and bed were still at Moon Base. So, we drove back and forth; sleeping at Moon Base, cooking at The Yellow House.

Two days before Moon Base powered back up, we had electricity at The Yellow House. Kaylin, Jeremiah, and I, going stir crazy, decided a heatless house was preferable to a powerless apartment. We bundled up, gathered some food and supplies, and prepared to spend some time around a fire. It took Jeremiah an hour or so, but our wood finally dried out enough to really light up. Kaylin and I kept the coals stoked while Jeremiah was at work. We taped a fork to a stick and roasted weenies, and otherwise enjoyed our time until his shift was over.

The fire pit in our back yard at
The Yellow House.

Since this first fire, Jeremiah has built several more. Each time, he hones his technique finer. His first couple efforts, the fire would grow and appear healthy but suddenly die. This occurred several times before the fire was established. This happens rarely if ever, now. He's become well practiced at using the ashes from previous fires to direct the airflow beneath the one he's building. He's gotten more efficient at drying damp wood near the fire then cycling through to keep it burning. I watch him do all this, and I can see that it makes sense to him. But if my description is poor, it's because it doesn't make sense to me. When I watch him at work, I can see that he's got a plan and ideas and he's learning. But I only scratch the surface. I just don't get it. It's awesome.

Michaela and Josiah sun soaking
and jamming on our roof.

Jeremiah carrying a pilfered pallet
toward it's demise in our fire.

Last week, the sun showed up for a day. The sky was blue, the mountains were out, and we were finally rid of our winter coats. It was a happy dose of vitamin D before the six straight days of downpour we've experienced since.


The Yellow House crew took full advantage of that glorious day. We ate outside, took walks, played with Somewhere, and otherwise made excuses to be outside. On a whim, we decided to use the fire pit in our backyard for the first time. We used most of the wood stockpiled out back for fires inside, so Jeremiah and I went scavenging for pallets to break down. It took two trips to get four pallets home, but it was definitely worth the effort.

Miah and I testing our
mallow toasting skills.

Jeremiah smashed up a pallet with the axe that came with the house. We piled the wood near the fire pit for easy access, then made a quick run to the grocery store for sweets to roast. We realized then, that we didn't have any roasting sticks. Procuring them was another excuse to remain outside, which we appreciated. From trees that had fallen during January's storm, we gathered six or seven branches. We sharpened them with scissors and a pocket knife. Once finished, we were ready to start the fire.

J and K's roasting
sticks. Also useful for
vampire slaying. 

Before anyone else came home, we had the fire going strong. We wanted it started before it was dark. The pallets burned easy and incredibly hot. We spent about an hour together, keeping the fire alive and toasting marshmallows while we waited for our friends. We were worried that we'd run out of wood, but the pallet lasted even after everyone had come and left.

A little after dark, our friends and roomies started to arrive. There's something about sitting in a circle around a fire that makes conversation flow. From my experience, gatherings centered around conversation are rare. We didn't have TV, or even music, but I had an amazing time in the company of my pals.

Though technology wasn't present, we did have food - if you can call marshmallows food - which seems also contribute to the flow of conversation. In my opinion, only one thing beats a toasted marshmallow. Turns out, my husband is a pro mallow-roaster. He demonstrated this several times by forcing me to eat more marshmallows that anyone should ever eat in one sitting. Can't say I didn't enjoy it though. They were as brown as possible without turning black, evenly toasted on all sides, and hot to the center. Yum.

When Meghan (of the De La Rosa variety) got home, she opened our eyes to the one treat that beats toasted marshmallows: Banana Boats. She's described theses to me on several occasions, and I was beyond curious to try them. In our kitchen, she schooled me on their preparation. Once we'd made seven or eight and wrapped them all in foil, we gathered paper plates and plastic forks, and carted it all out to the fire. The foil-wrapped bananas, stuffed with bits of Milky Ways and marshmallows, were placed in the fire's coals and left for several minutes to cook. When Meghan deemed them ready, she removed them from the coals and set them aside to cool. Then we passed them around and dug in. We heard only sighs and chewing until they were devoured.

I'm fascinated by Jeremiah's proficiency at building fires. I almost feel bad that the task is mostly delegated to him. I try to help by gathering kindling and carrying wood, but I've learned the rest of the job is best left to him. He is officially the expert. Even more than I love the fires though, I love the people the fires bring together. When there's a fire in the living room, our roommates emerge from the cozy confines of their rooms. We get to hang out. Our big house feels full. When there's a fire in our yard, we get to ignore all the technology that distracts and entertains us, and focus instead on each other. My friends are really quite awesome. They're family, and more than worth my focus. As my husband has grown proficient at building fires, he's also grown proficient at gathering together people we love. How great is that?

Our friends, sitting around the first fire in our back yard. A sure sign of
a successful fire is when it ends with "Let's do this again."

Acts, Healing, and a Good Cup Of 'Spro

Last Tuesday we had God Talk at Moon Base for the last time. I would be sadder if we weren't coagulating at The Yellow House for God Talk tonight. We'll be discussing Acts 16, and whatever else inspires us and generates conversation.

About a month-and-a-half ago, I could have sworn we were on Acts 16. I read it. I took notes. I had questions. Couldn't wait to get started. Turned out, we were still in the Acts 10 area. Needless to say, I am pretty excited to get tonight's conversation underway.

Of all my questions on chapter 16, one has really stuck with me all these weeks. In the first few verses, Paul meets up with Timothy and wants to bring him along on his travels. Verse three says "Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek (NASB)." 

God Talk = growth check

Now, last week we discussed chapter 15. Circumcision was a big deal in that story too. The issue, though, was that some guys from Judea were trying to convince the church that circumcision was a requirement for salvation. Paul, Barnabas, and some pals went to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem specifically to address this. 


While Paul and crew are chatting with the church, some Pharisees cut in with their circumcision stipulation. Peter responds by reminding them that God gave the Holy Spirit upon Jews and Gentiles alike. "He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? (9-10)" 


Yeah Peter! Stick it to 'em!


And then I read 16:3. Why's Paul suddenly enforcing this circumcision rule that he and his fellows so adamantly rejected just one chapter before? 


I have no doubt my understanding of this perceived conundrum will be expanded at tonight's God Talk. Quite possibly I'm miss-interpreting what I'm reading. Or some kind of cultural context I'm unaware of will shed some light. Regardless, I've no doubt my friends will be down to flesh out these verses with me, and that's why I appreciate them. We can argue for hours and walk away with a sense of growth instead of offense. 


Back to last week... We ended with prayer requests as usual. I always see results in some way when I request prayer from our crew. This week has generated more thoughts and questions for tonight, though. My request was that I (via God) would heal someone this week.

My week is up and I've not laid hands on anyone. The one person I asked told me no, in fact.

While at work, I tend to pray over folks' drinks as I create them whenever I remember to do so. When someone happens to mention an ailment or struggle, I'm both reminded to pray and given a specific topic to lift to Papa.

This week, it seemed the topic of health problems worked its way into every other conversation I had. Often, this is the case when I work at our Group Health stand. Since I'm at a hospital and an obvious majority of folks I talk with are unwell, I try my best to avoid the conversation altogether (though it inevitably comes up and I pray over coffees after offering awkward condolences and encouragement). The health conversation comes up much more rarely when I work at our main shop. Until the past week, that is.

Though I didn't specifically heal anyone, God has given me more questions to discuss with my friends. Does praying over drinks benefit the drinker? Is the practice a substitute to laying hands? Is my discomfort at offering prayer while working justified?

Moral of the story, I'm looking forward to new God Talk at a new house. And it's about time I get myself to that house so I can eat some of Josiah's chili.

Blessings and growth,
Kaylani

Goodbye or Hello?

My friends and I are experiencing great change already this year. New jobs, new places to live, new friends to live with, new goals. I could go on. Stars wrote a song called "Changes." In it, they've perfectly described the my current emotional state: "Changes, I've never been good with change. I hate it when it all stays the same. Caught between the gold and the gain."

Jeremiah, Jared, Josiah, Meghan, and I are moving into what is tentatively being called "The Yellow House." It's huge, and opens up a wide scope of potential community building activities beyond just God talk and dinners. We've got space for yoga, a bonfire pit out back, an art room in the garage, and (hopefully) space for musicians to crash as they pass through.The moving process has been ongoing since the beginning of the month, and is expected to be completed this weekend. This means Kaylin is moving to Seattle.

Kaylin and I have been friends for almost 11 years (holy cow did that math just blow my mind). Time has proven to me that this won't be goodbye, but see ya later, which is by far more digestible. Once digested, we can move on to the exciting stuff: new roomies, houses, conversation, lessons, learning and who know what other possibilities lie ahead.

Jared moved here a couple months ago from Wenatchee and has been job hunting like mad. A week or so ago, he was feeling down. He'd had three interviews so far but none had progressed from there. He didn't have another interview lined up, and was running out of places to leave a resume."God would not bring you here, give you a place to live and a band to play with," Jeremiah told him, "if he wasn't going to provide you the means to stay here. You are going to get a job."

Jared received phone calls from both the Volcano Vapor Cafe and Great Harvest Bread the next day. He'd interviewed at both businesses and they were his best prospects for work. The calls, however, informed him they were no longer hiring. This meant he was back to square one. He wasn't there long though. Two days later the Volcano called him again. This time, with a work schedule. He started the next day.

Kendal has imagined building a distillery, which he would call Forest Child Distillery, for the past six months or so. His parents live deep in the forest out past Black Lake, and he imagined building his distillery there. He imagined bottles, labels, logos and recipes until, suddenly, things took a turn. Instead of imagining, he began planning. While sharing some of these plans with a friend at Mud Bay, a customer from Portland happened to overhear. That customer, who was sitting in the coffee shop for the first time, happens to build custom distilleries for a living. If the fellow keeps planning like this, Forest Child Distillery will be a full fledged operation within the year.

Rooms are being shifted, jobs are changing, hobbies are being dropped and picked up, goals are being discovered and reached. It's too much for me to recap here, these are just highlights. I'm compelled to share the changes happening in our personal lives, though, because they have/will effect change for Oly Acts, both as a blog and a community.

Once all the moving and re-situating slows down, we will be able to focus on getting the venue at Mud Bay  rolling. This, I am very excited about. We've got ideas out the ears and money in the dirt jar to help get us jump started. Exactly where we will begin is a bit hazy, but I'll be keeping the blog here updated as things get more clear.

As a collective, the venue will be a shift in focus for us. We will continue gathering for God talk and sharing life together throughout the week. The venue will be an outlet to share love and build community with people we aren't yet blessed to spend time with.

As we focus on building this community space, the blog with likely reflect some change. A booking page will go up for for folks on the hunt for performance space. Some of the pages I haven't been able to keep up with (water, light, seeds) will come down or change. As I am spearheading the venue project, I'll likely be posting more and more about it. To help offer a more rounded view on how we conduct life and community, I'm hoping the blog will open up significantly for friends to post pictures, video, thoughts, etc., about all manner of time spent with folks.

We are in a period of progression, and we will grow immensely from it individually and communally. Sometimes, though, it's hard for me to let go of one experience and move into the next. Goodbyes are not my thing, they hurt my heart. I've realized that change has always given me that goodbye tinge. Though sometimes change does mean goodbye, to friends, city, house, school, etc., I'm starting to feel a different tinge - that exciting, curious, engaging feeling my heart gets from hellos.

Be blessed, friends!
Kaylani

Since I quoted them, and the song is fitting, I've posted "Changes" by Stars below. Now, I find the video artistically beautiful. Those offended by nudity, however, won't be pleased to see it. Consider yourselves warned. If you are worried about your eyes, click play and scroll up. The song is worth a listen. 

New Year's Eve: Community Dance Fest

I found myself sick and asleep by 10:30p.m. this New Year's Eve. But the rest of our friends made it down town for a "Snow Rave" on Fifth Street.The Downtown Neighborhood Association blocked off the street from Capitol to Washington, hired a DJ, and invited Olympians to dance their booties off to bring in the new year. At midnight, it was advertised (via Olympia Power and Light) a snow machine would provide snow. Instead, several dozen small white balls were tossed from the surrounding rooftops into the dance fest. I'm told this was just as, if not more, satisfying than actual snow.

For those of us who couldn't make it, here are some photos by Josiah that will make us wish we had.

Mandy (front) and Claire (behind) enjoying the community

Meghan 

Mandy, Josh, Claire, and Kendal

Mandy and Josh

Josh and Claire. Shakin' it. 

Sorrel and Claire 

Update

Some things have happened. As a result, I've been entirely uninspired to write a thing since my last post. Nothing major, in the "Grand Scheme," but I'm nonetheless finding even this sentence extremely difficult to piece together. Anyway, I've experienced a shift in the past couple days. I've been struck by a faint glimmer of inspiration, and with that I give you the following updates. I'll start with the uninspiring, and finish with the inspiring.

1) The Story Tent: After visiting Occupy Olympia in the first week of its existence, the idea occurred to me to pitch a tent. I intended to set up my camera inside and give those involved in Occupy Oly time to tell their stories. The plan was to archive the stories on this blog. I posted an ad on craigslist listing my tent needs, and sure enough a tent to my exact specifications was donated. Long story short, the timing was wrong. The tent remained in the back of my car until I donated to Occupy Oly's supply tent where I hoped it would be put to good use.

2) Oly Acts @ Mud Bay: Since the first conversation from which Oly Acts was born, we envisioned a venue through which we could serve our community and spread some love. Of all the ideas we discussed, this one caused the most excitement. Recently, it's taken an abruptly plausible turn. We've got approval to use Mud Bay after close. Jeremiah and I bought a PA system. All that's left (figuratively speaking) is booking. To this end, I (along with everyone else involved in Oly Acts who takes interest) intend to begin show-going downtown and getting to know the local musicians. I'll also be creating a booking page for the blog, which will allow musicians to contact us to book shows.

That's all for now folks.
Kaylani

The Year Long Scat

"So what do you call that," I asked Kendal Calquhoun. "A hat-scarf, a harf, a scaharfat, what?"

Kendal shrugged. "A scat I guess."

"Why aren't you wearing it right now?" I asked him.

From behind the counter at Mud Bay Coffee, between drink orders, Kendal patiently answered, "It's ultra warm, it's really heavy and just bulky. It's hard to be doing things while you're wearing it. It's more of a sitting in the cold type of hat."

Kendal knitting his hat at Moon Base about a few
days before completing the project.
photo by: Kaylani, Oct 26, 2011

In October last year, under the instruction of our community's knitting guru Claire, Kendal learned how to knit. His first effort, a small gray test-swatch, is still attached to his key chain as a token of remembrance. After that, he began his hat. One year and nine skeins of yarn later, it is finished. "I wanted a wizard's hat. I wanted it to be a little over the top," says Kendal. "I knew it was done when it was dragging on the ground. It had taken so long I was ready to be finished. I just wanted to wear it."

The red and grey portions of Kendal's hat are knit with an alpaca and wool blend. The green at the end was knit with extremely soft baby alpaca. His yarns were purchased at Canvas Works downtown. "If you're gonna start knitting one, you'd better know your a patient person," Kendal recommends. "I knew I'd be able to finish it... I had an idea how long it would take, I didn't think it would be an entire year."

As a friend of Kendal's, I can confirm the patience he speaks of. I can't say I've encountered more patience in my life. But the man is not a machine. There were times during the project where boredom set in. "I got to the point where I had to take a break. There was a couple of times where I just didn't knit it for like a month." Learning new techniques helped keep the project interesting, though. "There was a lot of experimenting with knit patterns and ways of knitting where I took my rights as the person making it to go ahead and try."

Kendal learned from his experiments, though they didn't always go as planned. "In one of my experiments doing different knit patterns I ended up adding 40-plus stitches," He says. "After I screwed that part up I probably spent a good four hours fixing it."

Kendal also kept busy while he knit, exercising his multitasking muscles. "I listened to music, watched movies, rode in cars, came to Bible Study, sat by the fireplace [at Mud Bay]." When the hat was long enough to wear while knitting, he took full licence to knit wherever he wanted. "I walked around downtown, went to the Co-op, antique shopping."

During his walks downtown, he encountered a couple very curious folks. "I'd have the tail end and yarn in my bag and the part I was working on out in front of me," he explains. "People who didn't necessarily look like they understood I was knitting, but saw I had seven sticks in front of me, would come up like 'Whoa! What are you doing?'"

Next on Kendal's knitting agenda? Mittens. With a twist, of course. "I want the sleeves to be long, long," he says. With one hand outstretched as though a mitten coveres it, he draws his other hand up his arm and out past his head to demonstrate. "I'll have to fold them over my arm in order to wear them."

Occupy Olympia's Tent Community

I've been following stories about the occupy movement, from Wall Street to Oakland to Olympia and everywhere in between. The news coverage, from what I've seen, has been negative. This is likely due in part to the fact that media networks need newsworthy stories. Peace isn't exactly a headline topic. Police brutality, on the other hand, sure grabs viewer attention.

Several weeks ago, Jeremiah and I found ourselves bored and curious. So we headed down to Occupy Olympia with our video camera to ask questions and get informed. I highly recommend that anyone near enough to any occupation makes an effort to do the same (no video camera necessary). We found that the majority of folks we spoke with were well educated, well informed, and well intentioned. We sensed nothing but a deep sense of love and community from Olympia's tent city, and our hopes were lifted for the people involved in the movement.

After multiple conversations, I began to realize that the mass media's portrayal of the movement and the people had given me an inaccurate sense of the cause. At least in the case of Occupy Olympia, which I feel is different from other occupations in some beautiful ways. What struck me is that it's not really a protest, but a demonstration. A protest, to me, just says "you've got it wrong, fix it." Occupy Olympia is saying, "You've got it wrong. Let us show you how to fix it and let us be involved in the process." They've got a community medicine tent, food tent, and supply tent. No one's really in charge and everyone is invited to get involved. It's a demonstration of real democracy (despite the anarchy misconception), where individual voices are heard and community thrives because of it.

We used every interview (except one which we didn't hit record for) we conducted in our video. Due to technical difficulties, more than half our original footage was lost and we were limited to the first five minutes of each interview. We did our best to never misrepresent the occupation or the people involved. Though I am clearly in favor of Occupy Olympia, I made every effort to ensure the video is unbiased and un-manipulated. Regardless, I perceive a positive lean when I watch it. I assure you, had we any negative footage to include we'd have done so. Our desire was to get informed and share information, not to promote the cause.

Give us your feedback, share your thoughts, ask your questions. We're into that sort of thing.

In Solidarity,

Kaylani