Seeds, Storms and Gunshots

Five days spent working on Brother Nature's Farm. Highlights so far-
A hippie in search of a Rainbow Gathering, Twelve gunshots, A city council candidate posing for photo ops on the farm, A desperate woman and her daughter trying to pawn off a vicious dog, Kids playing endlessly in a fenced-in lot surrounded by vast open land, Thick rainclouds rolling through in time to water freshly-sewn seeds, A neighborhood standby in a truck making his rounds and inquiring about work for his eleven-year old granddaughter, The neighboring house demolished in a day, and 16 perfectly flat graffitied cinder blocks coming in handy as steps to walk across the new thick planting beds.


The hippie first. He was amazing.
This morning a small grey sedan pulled up and I mentioned that I thought it was this girl I knew. But once the driver got out I saw it was a guy and had a good laugh. But this guy was a trip. Fresh, clean tye-die on, a leather string necklace with a swirly-psychadelic painted bead hanging from it, a swirly long black earring and deep outerspace eyes. He came up to me and asked if I had ever noticed people gathering over there and pointed in the direction of the community garden Brother Nature had started a few years ago, two blocks away. I said, 'you mean at the community garden?' and he said 'no, right there - right across the street.' There's nothing right across the street. An alley bisecting an empty block. Totally empty. I said 'no, why?' Then he told me about the Rainbow Gathering he was organizing for this weekend. Folks were supposed to come out Friday and spend the night, having drum circles and trying to get back to the animal roots of humanity. Woah. He went on, explaining how society is like a zoo for humans and that rainbow gatherings help us get back to our roots as hunter-gatherers. He impressed me the most when he said- 'you can't say that humans are giraffes. That's not true. It's a bad argument. We're mamals.' It was refreshing to see he had drawn a line somewhere in his life.

Basically, this guy is a therapist who was helping a female friend/patient(/potential suitor?) who he said might be bi-polar to organize a Rainbow Gathering. He was excited about staging one in an urban environment. I tried to caution him against camping around here, but he didn't register that advice. Don't know how you host a Rainbow Gathering without a host, or at least a sign, but I guess he thought there would just be a Rainbow Gathering there today. He said there were 20 people pumped up about his online post. But I guess none of them wanted to be the first tent pitched either.

#2- Twelve gunshots. It was yesterday, about evening time and I was pulling the dead trees from the empty lot next door toward the bonfire pit at the back of the farm. I'm a freak about fallen down trees and branches. I love the satisfaction you get when you clear away branches, so I was setting off to make a dent in the pile right next door and then heard six quick gunshots and their echoes from a few blocks away. The guys I work with told me they sell guns across the street and fire off quick shots about four nights a week, testing them out before they get sold. But this was daytime. It sounded like a ways off, though, not like it came from this close-by neighbor. About a half hour later the same thing.

3- The city council candidate came last saturday to photograph herself farming in Detroit. I wrote about that here.

4- The desperate woman drove a gray mini-van with her daughter and the vicious blue-eyed pit/boxer mix riding shotgun. She used to live in the neighborhood but her house burned a few years back and she rents rooms now. She had gotten this dog a few months back but didn't know how to train it and didn't have enough time to spend with it. I hope the best for this dog. And especially this family.

Next: Across the street kids play in the yard of the house where guns are sold. The house has a chain-link fence around it's tight property line, and the kids ride a big wheel around it all day while an old lady watches from the porch on a rocking chair. Five or six open lots surround this small playpen. But the kids play all day long. Once they took a field trip with the old lady who carried a filled black garbage bag toward the liquor store. I'm guessing deposit returns.

6- You really notice the weather when you're out on the farm all day. You're in the city - and you see that every time a bus rolls up Rosa Parks or down 14th a few blocks away- but 90% of the time you're out on the farm you feel like the city couldn't be farther away. You feel the wind change directions, see the billowing dark clouds roll in, hoping they'll help you out with the watering. You notice the lone cloud on a hot, sunny day. The weather is a very active character on the Brother Nature farm. Moreso than most places in Detroit.

7- George rolled in driving his full size pickup and let the engine run for a half a minute or so before getting out. He strolled out and asked Greg if he was a glutton for punishment. They've known each other for years and he was impressed by this year's farm. He's got an eleven-year-old daughter who suffers from mental illness and after taking a walk around the farm and teasing Greg a bit, he asked if she might find work here. She'll be working at the Eastern Market this summer. George wasn't wearing his Pork Pie Hat today, but apparently he usually does.

8- Yesterday the city demolished one of five houses on Greg's block that you can see from his yard. It was burned-out and needed to come down, but still strange to see it gone in one day. Now you can see the public school's playground from the farm.

And finally... Cinder blocks look great as steps for planting beds. Especially when they've been broken into square pieces. Even better is when they have graffiti on them. Gives it that Urban Farm Touch.