Return of the Dread Community Organizers

This weekend was an especially good one as the temps have gotten into the mid-50's (F) and the sky is a brilliant, cloudless, blue. Mr. Fuzzy and I spent most of today proactively fighting next season's weeds. He on the riding mower and I with mulch in the garden. The two sections off the hay field we had cleared of hawthorn trees are now well covered with "early colonizer plant communities."

Please allow me to translate that for you: brambles, invasive roses, and more hawthorn trees. One area looks as though we had it seeded in the thorny beasts! Mr. Fuzzy reports that much of the mowing has been done and that he is becoming quite skilled at getting the little mower/tractor un-hung from the many hidden holes the moles have left us.

Who needs weight machines when you can just lift your 750 pound tractor ten times a day?

Yesterday was almost equally lovely but with enough chilling wind to make it feel OK to find inside garden tasks. My big inside task yesterday was to attend the annual Seed Swap hosted by Miracle Farm at the Floyd Country Store. I am informed by our English friend B. that this must be a "peculiarity of the American race" as it "would never happen over this way." I think the Scots might go for it if pitched just right...

The setup is this: people who have leftover seed, extra seed saved from their own plants, or old stock seeds from retail shops bring their offerings and set them out on tables, hopefully with enough labeling to be helpful. The organizers provide tables, pencils, and little paper packets to hold your selections. Lots of people come and take as many seeds as they need for themselves and a good time is had by all. Folks are remarkably honest about only taking what they need.

I took our last remaining pumpkin from the 2009 harvest and a few dozen pumpkin seeds to give away. I wanted folks to understand that these were Good Keepers. The pumpkin has not left our kitchen counter since October 2009 and is still quite sound. I came back with a pocket full of packets of lettuces and herbs. Not a bad trade. Many folks managed to collect all the seeds on their list, helping them grow more vegetables than they could have afforded if they had to buy their seeds.

A Giving Community

Here's a big shout out to Floyd's excellent Jacksonville Center for the Arts and their successful campaign to raise 20K in the month of December...

in a down economy....

in a community with no large employers...

nor many wealthy individuals...

and with no budget to advertise the appeal.

May the Jax enjoy continued success and the great good will of their community in 2011!

Sunday Doings

Today we toddled over to Vesta Fire & Rescue in Meadows of Dan for their annual fundraiser meal & gospel sing. As is usual at these things, the food was lovely and the music simply outstanding! Mr. Fuzzy took photos & videos.... maybe I'll be able to cajole him into uploading some.

Pictures, Please!

I'd love to show you pictures of our cute little town all tarted up with streamers and plastic flowers... the big parking lot full of local craftspeople selling pottery, jewelry, tie dye (worth wearing!)... the stage-on-a-trailer and the little dance floor set up in the new park... the food vendors with portable wood fired pizza ovens and big smiles.

But I can't.

My camera went tits up, as Mr. Fuzzy would say. The lens moves around and then selects a random point to decide to crap out. After four tries I got lucky and it's almost all the way in and the cover is almost closed-- so at least it fit in my purse while I walked around and enjoyed myself at the Floyd Town Jubilee this afternoon.

Dred Organizers Grow on Trees

Or so it seems. We've had many dealings with such types in the last few days. Perhaps they grow them like cabbages in the next holler?

Today I took five of the second-cutest kittens up to the little college town of Radford where I met two other Floyd Humane Society volunteers to show off dogs and cats to folks visiting the Grove United Methodist Church annual yard sale & community 'do. They had a helicopter and a fire truck too... which meant large numbers of young children waiting until the 'copter landed. "Something to do" translated as "pet the kitties and doggies." It was lovely.

Then last night was First Friday at the arts center. ooooh Lots o' organizers there too. Terrible people. They hang shows of local art and have lovely classes to teach you new arts and crafts. Don't mess with them, though. They have blacksmiths and glassblowers!

And then there are those pesky village governments out in the county. Off they go donating the village hall, sound system, and hot dogs to throw a beneft to help an unemployed lady fighting her second bout of cancer.

Naughty, naughty people!

But it gets worse. There's this group called Angels in the Attic who run a really inexpensive thrift shop and send nearly 100K a year (their total earnings) to various local charities in need. And the worst of the worst... Plenty... a loose association of kind people who grow extra vegetables and keep extra laying hens to share the surplus with housebound and poor neighbors.

Why am I telling you this, in this way? Because someone tried to insult me for being something a pinko ecohead because I posted a wee thing from some other, national, community organizers on my Facebook page. See, your average pinko commie conservationist about Floyd is as likely to be an old school conservative Christian and Republican as she is a head-in-the-60's Democrat.

Ain't that cool?

Sense of Community

Most valued reader, our humble apologies for the delay in posting new essays. Mr. Fuzzy was away for three days last weekend and it was such a marvelous experience that his paltry writing skills have been severely challenged.

Thus this post regards yesterday, Saturday. The Fuzzies began their day early in order to be at the semi-annual community flea market before all of the good buys were sold. Overwhelmingly, the items for sale were clothes, shoes, etc., not farm tools, tractor accessories, and those other objects of our lust. Nonetheless, Mrs. Fuzzy bought some vegetable seedling for next to nothing. We worked up such an appetite walking and shopping that, after most careful deliberation, it was decided we should eat breakfast at the Cafe rather than perish of malnutrition on the way home. Alack and alas, the same thought was on many minds, er, stomachs, and the line was to the door. Sigh.

We came home and Mrs. Fuzzy worked hard in her garden; Mr. Fuzzy took a nap... until the appointed hour when we raced for the Honda and sped down Highway 221 to the next wee village of Willis. There in the fire station was a five hour Gospel and Bluegrass concert by three bands, barbecue, cake auctions, and a generally good time with our neighbors - all to raise money for the food bank. The music and singing was very good and then some, but for a while, we were severely distracted by the barbecue plate ($5.00) which centered on the tastiest barbecued pork yet to temp our palettes in Virginia - and the cooker was mounted on the back of a tractor - and done by two gents who live across the road. Mmmmmm. Mighty fine. The cake auctions were hot with some delectable delights going for nearly $30.00. We hung out until about 6:30 p.m. by which time we were feeling the pull of unaccomplished tasks on the farm.

What a nice day it was, mostly spent with our fellow Floydians (?), much fun, good grub, and sharing the news with our friends. What is there not to love here?

dreaded community organizers

It seems just like yesterday, during the Republican National Convention last September, when Sarah Palin said “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities,” and later Rudy Giuliani made humor of the very concept of a community organizer.

Here in Floyd County, Virginia, what makes most all of the good things happen are those worthless community organizers, most of whom are working for free (not even the normal substandard pay) to help their fellow citizens without demanding government handouts or invoking the need for outside intervention. I've always heard things were done differently up in Alaska - and have known they were different in New York City - and this must be another case of unbridgeable cultural canyons.

Yesterday Mrs. Fuzzy and I attended an annual pancake breakfast put on by a tiny community organization centered around the little county church we live near. The organizer and power house behind it is in her 80s (being a gentleman, I will not divulge her precise age), aided and abetted by a 30-ish Methodist minister (the two folks in the photo-- you can probably guess which is which). This very loose group picks up trash along State Highway 221, helps elderly neighbors get their trash to a county trash center, and tries to make certain there are no hungry families in the community. They care for each other and strive to make Falling Branch strong and healthy. God bless them all.

On May 16th, the next village (Floyd is a teeming metropolis by comparison) down Hwy 221, Willis, will have a fundraiser at their fire station. For a very nominal donation ($8.00) you get to eat barbecue and listen to five hours of live gospel music so that the Willis Community Food Bank can take care of its own. Oh, and did I mention a cake auction? Their flyer advertises "bring your own chair and appetite, for good food, gospel singing & fellowship."

And here I thought grass-roots action was a hall mark of America and one of its greatest strengths - before Sarah and Rudy set my wrong-headed thinking back on the right track. Wow, thanks! I had even been thinking that Christ must have been one of the great community organizers of all times --- and Pontius Pilate one of the more interesting governors... where is he now when Alaska needs more good politicians?