The Cook

I love to cook, but never learned to cook in my dysfunctional childhood nor in my dysfunctional wasted decades within the mental health system.

Now, especially with my bum knee, I have taken to learning new things in my down time. Cooking is one of them. I have been trying simple exotic new recipes whenever I can. And, after discovering Amazon and their cheap used books of all sorts, often with free shipping, man alive, what a world out there open to discover even if I cannot travel.

I am also attempting to learn a couple of new languages.

My latest cooking attempts are ethnic Israeli foods, middle eastern and Greek cousine and Russian cousine.

The world is like an active infection, in some ways, teaming with all sorts of life and cultures. I suppose that metaphore is unappealing to some. Is that why life began on earth, I wonder? A vacancy promotes opportunity and opportunistic organisms. Why did the Europeans come to America? A perceived vacancy. Why are we looking into space? Perceived vacancy.

I do want to move out of this neighborhood. I only think this now and then anymore. Because I actually now have a wonderful place to live and the best neighbors I've ever had in my life!

It's the yard thing is getting to me. I don't have much money and what I have I cannot use to invest in yard supplies and equipment. I see this as self destructive. But the people living on this street are just very strong yard people. I feel inadequate and judged all the time solely on the basis of that square of front grass.

I need a lawnmower, at the least. Those are expensive and it can be expensive to repair and maintain a used one. I am on the hunt for a used one, however, and when I get one, and can maintain my front square myself, it will all be ok.

I have a rake and a shovel and a broom and that is the extent of my yard maintenance tools. That old Habitat store bought manuel mower is no good and never was. I miss my first manuel mower that worked so well I often mowed a half acre lawn with it at my old place in Corvallis. It was, sadly, run over and mangled beyond repair.

The only way I might become accepted completely in this neighborhood would be if I become a front yard fanatic. I also think about the peeling paint and disintegrating roof. My brother isn't going to come paint this house or have a new roof put on it. I don't expect him to. But the paint is peeling off and the siding is bowing and splits and swollen places in the siding are apparent. I'm not sure how to fix those.

I don't have the sort of money necessary to maintain a house. In other neighborhoods a bit of peeling paint would not matter much and I would not feel self conscious about it. But on this block, appearance is everything I think. I did spray the roof last year with a moss killer but it didn't seem to work.

The backyard has too many trees--five in all. My backyard is not very big, really. You would never think it could hold five huge trees. The two maple hybrids alone spit down massive volumes of leaves in the fall. Their trunk girths are small, however, and I am told the Cottonwood grew to its astounding height in under ten years.

But, the biggest problem of too many trees, outside of too many leaves, is too much shade. I can't grow a vegetable garden. Besides the two maples there is a cottonwood and birch or hemlock. The one tree I would keep, if I chose between the five: the cherry tree, which produces high volumes of really good cherries. Trouble is, I can't get to most of them. It needs pruned, after which, a couple years would pass, I'm told, before it would produce again.

The back two trees and one maple could be taken out, in my opinion. All have trunks under the diameter required by the city for a tree removal permit. It is extremely costly to have a tree removed by a service, however, costing close to $800 to $1000 per tree. There is no way in the world I could afford to have even one of those trees removed.

This afternoon I did go after a few of the lower branches of one maple, removing three, although the three each had many side branches. I used the sawzall I have, although it's power is minimal, because the battery packs I have that also fit my drill, are shot, been recharged too often I guess.

However, I stood on the ladder, cut what I could of the branch with the sawzall, then used a handsaw and finished off the branch by pounding it with a hammer. I had to cut around the now rotted boards my brother put around the branches to attach wire to for the cat yard, to free the branch, which I then would pull out from the outside, or pull through to the inside of the cat yard.

I was methodical and careful, so I would not hurt myself further, something I don't need, more injuries. I cut up some of the branches afterwards, into firewood long lengths. Maybe I'll go camping one day and need to take firewood, although it'll be green wood. Maple is a very dense hardwood.

Just taking out three small diameter branches produced a massive amount of debris. Boy, think I made a big mess! But even removal of three, with their offshoot branches, opened some space for light penetration into the backyard. I think it helped.