End of the season approaching

News from the Sugarbush

The sap flow is definitely starting to taper off, and more and more of the trees are looking like they're done for the season. We still got about 12 gallons of sap on Saturday, so we held off on pulling the taps for now, but unless we see a sudden resurgence over the next few days, Tuesday will probably be our last boil. It's been a great season, and I'm very happy with what we've been able to accomplish. I still need to do a bunch of math to figure out how much syrup and how much biochar we've made in total, but I can confidently say that it's "quite a lot" in both cases.

Now that the snow has melted, I was able to use our new pedal truck to move some extra firewood down from Treespeaker. Technically I've had the pedal truck for a couple of years now, but what I didn't have was the leg muscles or lung capacity to pedal a 200-lb pedal truck without any sort of assistance. Luckily, Rob Wyngaard was able to install an electric motor for us about a month ago, so it's finally able to reach its full potential. It can hold 12-15 bundles of kindling at a time, and it can do a round trip between the campground and Treespeaker (up at the corner of Skeels Rd and the bike path) in about an hour and a half. I'm looking forward to all the options this will open up for us this summer, and especially to being able to grab shipping pallets for building brush bins and firewood racks over at Treespeaker.

Other News of the Commons

As the sugarbush starts to wind down, we've got our eyes set on the next couple of projects in the queue. First up, on April 26th, we're going to be doing a biochar demonstration at the Oceana County Earth Day event. We're going to be trying a new experiment, and cooking up a big pot of stone soup over the biochar kiln. So if you find yourself in possession of any chicken bones or onion, carrot, or celery scraps, stick them in a ziplock bag in your freezer. We'll be collecting them as we get closer to the event, and using them to cook up a big pot of soup stock as part of our demonstration.

Once that's done, our next big project is going to be getting ready for the opening of the Artisan Market in mid-May. We'll be selling a wide variety of things we make, from paracord baskets and information zines to biochar and mealworm frass. Our goal is to raise money to support Montague Commoners programming, as well giving people the opportunity to learn more about who we are and what we do. We'll also have a firewood splitting station set up next to the shed so that people can help prep the firewood for next year's sugarbush.

In the Broader Movement

There were large #TeslaTakedown protests all over the country this Saturday, including in Grand Rapids. (I didn't even know there was a Tesla dealership there, but luckily local organizers down there did.) In a few places, far-right organizers tried to counter with "Operation Tesla Shield", but they were massively outnumbered and no violence took place. If you search for #TeslaTakedown on social media sites like Bluesky that aren't censoring pro-democracy speech, you can find all sorts of great ideas for signs and chants. My personal favorite came out of the protest in Boston: "We don't want your nazi cars, take a one way trip to Mars!"

It's easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless with everything that's going on, but it's important to remember that fascists depend on shock tactics and fear to do most of their work. There are far more of us than there are of them, and when we join together in solidarity we do have the power to stop them. #TeslaTakedown has already made a significant dent in Musk's ability to buy power, and if we keep the pressure up we can still stop the corporate coup.

Solidarity This Week

The Disability Network of West Michigan is hosting a film screening of "Crip Camp" at the Frauenthal Center on April 15th. This is a movie that I've been wanting to see for a while, and I'm glad it's going to be showing in the area. It follows a group of teenagers with various disabilities in the 1970s. In their day-to-day lives, they were pushed to the margins of society, but when a summer camp for kids with disabilities brought them all together, they realized that they had the power to fight for a better world, and the Disability Rights movement was born.

The event is free, but the organizers are asking folks to RSVP here: https://disabilitynetworkwm.org/event/inclusivity-in-focus-a-crip-camp-a-disability-revolution-screening/

Recommendation Corner

If you're looking for some light-hearted TV escapism this week, it's hard to do better than Our Flag Means Death, a historical workplace rom-com about a pirate ship. It stars Taika Watiti and Rhys Darby, with a strong supporting cast and an absolutely brilliant writers' room. It aired for two seasons on HBO Max, and it's been over for a couple of years now, but it's one that Nate and I revisit periodically when we need a mental vacation.

This Week's Nails

I didn't get a chance to do my nails this week, because we had family visiting this weekend, so this week's nails are still last week's nails. But it seemed like a good opportunity to show what things look like after a week of working down at the sugarbush. There's some minor chipping and a little grow-out, but overall things are still looking pretty good. I credit this to 3 factors: a good basecoat, a good topcoat, and always wearing work gloves when I'm working outside.

I'll probably do my nails this afternoon after I finish catching up on housework, but I didn't want to make the newsletter any later than it already was, so if you want to see the new colors you'll just have to come find me in person.