It's turtle time!

Hey all, quick bit of housekeeping before we get started: Nate and I are heading to Virginia this weekend to visit family and attend his grandfather's memorial service. This means that we won't be at next Friday's protest, or next Saturday's Artisan Market, and I won't be doing an issue of the newsletter next week either. We'll be back to our regular schedule for the week after that.

This Week in the Commons

I spent most of this week either cleaning the house or being depressed about the news, so this section is going to be a little light this week, but let's see what I can pull together.

I added a background layer of artwork to the Artisan Market sign, using artists' tape to protect a border of white around the lettering. I'm pretty happy with how this layer turned out, and it may stay at this stage for a while before I decide what embellishments I want to add.

We also wrapped up this months upcycling-at-the-artisan-market project, with a total of about 150 plant tags made over the course of the month. Thanks to everyone who chipped in some folding time! For those who didn't make it down to the market, here are the steps to do your own upcycling at home:

For this project, you'll need some tin snips, some scissors, a rubber mallet, and one or more aluminum cans. I usually stick to cans that can't be returned at the Montague Foods can return, since I've only got so much time to fold tags and ten cents a can adds up when you have a bunch of cans. Warning that the scissors will probably want some sharpening once this project is over, so don't use your only/best pair. Also, disclaimer that we're going to be cutting up bits of metal, and that means there are going to be some sharp edges involved. Use common sense, and stop when you start getting tired.

Use the tin snips to cut through the rim of the can. This is their only job in this process, so if you're the sort of person who hates switching tools, you can go ahead and cut through the rims of all the cans you're planning to upcycle.

Next, use the scissors to cut a line down to the bottom of the can.

Next, cut along the "shoulder" at the top of the can until the top section comes off and you're left with a straight-sided cylinder.

Next, do the same thing along the bottom until you're left with one flat sheet of aluminum (which is what we want for the tags) and two extraneous bits (which can go in the recycling to be made into new cans.)

Cut the big flat section in half to make two tags, and then snip off about an inch from each corner. This will let us fold the sides in without big hard-to-work-with lumps forming at the corners.

Then, you'll want to fold each edge in towards the center by about an eighth of an inch. This is probably the most fiddly of all the steps, especially for folks who don't do this sort of thing often. Luckily, it doesn't need to be perfect. The last step of this process is going to be hammering the whole thing flat, so don't stress out if it looks a little wonky in the meantime.

Next, fold the edges over a second time. This traps the sharp edges on the inside where they can't snag clothing or skin. (I got the idea for this technique from a lifetime of sewing french seams and rolled hems into clothing that I make. Edges are edges whether they're aluminum or silk 😊) I like to start with the two longest edges first, and then fold the shorter edges in so that can make them a little wider if that will get me a nicer point on the corners. (Hard to explain that bit in words, but hopefully it'll start making sense once you've done a few tags.)

Lastly, I take a rubber mallet and tap along the edges of the tag until the whole thing is as flat as I can get it.

You can use a pencil or a ballpoint pen to write your info onto the tag. As long as you press hard enough to indent the surface, that info can never be washed off by the rain or faded by the sun. You can staple it to a stake, or use a hole punch in one corner to tie it wherever it's needed. This tag is destined for a mushroom totem that Nate and I inoculated a couple of years ago that's finally fruiting and ready to be moved to Mushroom Trail over at Treespeaker, so it's going to be stapled directly to a mushroom log. And if your tag ever outlives its usefulness, you can recycle it just like you could with any other piece of aluminum.

Hopefully that's enough to get you started on your own can upcycling experiments. It's a wonderfully adaptable material, and it can do a lot more than just plant tags. I've used can aluminum for everything from shed roofs to camp stoves, and it's amazing to think that so many people are willing to just chuck it out the windows of their cars. If our ancestors had found a source of this stuff, they would have honored it with a week-long ceremony every year to make sure the knowledge was never forgotten.

Coming Up Soon

• Tues. 06/24 @ 6pm - Whitehall City Council meeting
• Fri. 06/27 @ 12pm - Dance For Democracy at the Weathervane
  • Note: Since Nate and I won't be there with the boombox, this is the perfect opportunity for aspiring protest DJs to try their playlist out on the crowd! All it takes is a portable speaker and confidence in your musical taste 😉
• Sat. 06/28 @ 12:30pm - Rank MI Vote is holding a town hall at the White Lake Community Library to explain how Ranked Choice Voting could improve our elections and give voters more power to elect candidates they actually like
  • Marisa McGlue and I are the co-captains for Rank MI Vote in the White Lake area. (They initially asked me to be an area captain for Muskegon and I had to explain that I go into Muskegon like 4 times a year 🤣 Luckily they were open to my argument that the White Lake area had its own distinct culture and needs, so we get to be our own organizing area now.)
  • So far our local town hall has gotten more signups that the equivalent town hall in Grand Rapids! So not only is this town hall a chance to learn about Ranked Choice voting, it's a chance to show some big city political professionals just what small town organizing can do. So check with your friends and neighbors and see how many folks you can bring with you. It would be fun to really pack the meeting room at the library.
• Mon. 06/30 @ 5-7pm - Common Ground is holding another town hall at White Lake Community Library. Some of you may remember the one we held in May about how federal funding cuts were affecting local services. The theme this time is "Community Labor: The Long View". Featured speakers include Professor Nicholas Budimir, who studies labor rights, Jon Horne, a former union president, and Chris Burnaw from Agewell Services.
• Wed. 07/02 @ 6pm - White Lake Climate Action Council is meeting up at the Book Nook to plan upcoming events and projects
• Thurs. 07/03 @ 9:30am - White Lake Area Futures is having their monthly business meeting
• Fri. 07/04 @ 10am - The 4th of July parade! Montague Commoners isn't participating officially, but lots of our coalition partners are, so if you enjoy parades you shouldn't have much trouble finding a group to march with.
  • Because the parade will be happening in our usual spot, there will be no Dance for Democracy that week. We don't want anyone taking out-of-context pictures and making it look like we're protesting the 4th of July.
• Sat. 07/05 @ 9am-2pm - We're back at the Artisan Market! And we'll have a new upcycling project: turning junk mail into seed packets. If you've got junk mail that's blank on one side, bring it to our Artisan Market booth and we'll show you how to turn it into a durable, self-closing seed packet that you can use for saving seeds from gardens and wildflowers.

Plant Turtle of the Week

Turtle season is upon us! Our local turtles spend most of their time hanging out in White Lake, but for a couple of weeks in the early summer, they venture out to lay their eggs, and we get a chance to see them. This one is a young-ish snapping turtle that I encountered on the bike path behind Montague Foods. A few tips to keep turtle season enjoyable for everyone involved:

• Snapping turtles have that name for a reason, and incautiously trying to pick one up is a good way to lose a chunk of your hand. They have very long necks, and there are very few places on a snapper that you can grab without it being able to bite you. The safest way to move a snapping turtle (for example, to get it out of the road) is to find a sturdy branch or stick and get the turtle to bite one end. Once the turtle has latched onto the stick, you can use it as a "handle" to drag the turtle out of the road without putting your fingers in harm's way.
• Keep dogs leashed and under close observation when you're near a body of water. Turtles are full of exciting new smells, but they aren't always enthusiastic about being sniffed, and turtle bites to the nose are no fun.
• If you see a turtle crossing a road, it's a good idea to help it out. Cars are waaay faster than turtles, and drivers often aren't paying enough attention to avoid them.
  • Before you interact with the turtle, take note of which way it's going. You want to help it get where it's going, not force it to re-start its road crossing.
  • If it's a snapping turtle, or you're not confident in your turtle ID skills, use the stick method or scoop it up with a shovel.
  • If it's not a snapper, you can safely pick it up by firmly grasping both sides of the shell. Be prepared to get scratched or peed on! The turtle has no way of knowing that you're trying to help, and getting suddenly lifted into the air by an impossibly fast alien many times your size would probably freak you out too 😆
  • Always wash your hands very thoroughly after handling a turtle. They are basically made of salmonella.

Solidarity Steps

Another protest-themed one this week, this time focusing on protest safety. We got word recently that there was a guy at the Whitehall Walmart looking to buy some pepper spray "to deal with the commies on the corner in Montague." He was turned away, but it's a good reminder that anti-protester violence can happen anywhere, and it's a good idea to be prepared.

Let's start with some tips on pepper spray first aid:

• If you're in the vicinity of a pepper spray incident, hold your breath and move towards fresh air as quickly as possible. People always think about pepper spray and eyes, but breathing it in can mess your lungs up for weeks. If you are standing near someone who gets hit in the eyes and can't see, ask if you can take their arm and guide them to fresh air.
• The best way to rinse pepper spray out of someone's eyes is with water, and possibly a little baby shampoo if there's some on hand. Do not use milk! Putting milk in your eyes is a great way to get conjunctivitis.
• Sudecon wipes are a commercial product designed to neutralize the active ingredients in pepper spray, and they're a convenient way to carry a "just in case" solution.

Now, some ways that you can help keep our local protests safe:

• If you're interested in joining the protest safety team, let me know. I've been putting together some protest safety kits that include first aid supplies for pepper spray attacks as well as more serious injuries. Ideally, I'd like to have someone with these supplies stationed at each of the corners where people tend to protest so that no one has to make the call of whether or not to run across the street if someone's been injured.
• Take a Stop The Bleed and/or Street Medic training to learn what to do in an emergency.
• If you've got a GoPro or other wearable video camera, consider wearing it to the protest. I wear mine mounted on my head so that it automatically records whatever I'm looking at. This makes it easier to capture faces and license plates when someone's behaving aggressively. Even if you don't have a wearable camera, you can pull your phone out and start recording as soon as someone approaches the protest antagonistically. The more we document their behavior, the more evidence we'll have if they decide to escalate things.
• If you can't make it to the protest in person, you can still help the safety team out by reviewing footage and working to ID some of the regular troublemakers. We've got hours of footage to go through, and it would be great to get some help with that. Familiarity with OpenShot is a bonus, but there's plenty to be done that doesn't require anything but the ability to watch a video or look through some still images.

Recommendation Corner

There's a new Aysanabee album out! Aysanabee is a Juno-award-winning Oji-Cree alt-rock singer from the Sandy Lake First Nation in northern Ontario. His work manages to be simultaneously mournful and soaring, and I often turn to it when I have grief or other hard emotions to process. With everything going on in the world this week, it was nice to be able to put on the new album and tune the world out for a while as I was painting the Artisan Market sign.

Concession to Capitalism

We're still looking for $20 more to cover the cost of hosting this newsletter for the next year. If you've got $20 to spare, you can send it our way on our Ko-Fi page.

This Week's Nails

You made it to the end of the newsletter! Congrats, it was another long one this week. That means you get to see this week's nails! Went with a fairly simple design this week, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. Funny story from the manicure process: While I was doing the golden dots, I dropped the nail polish brush and it landed on some laundry on the floor. So now I have a pair of boxers that a) kinda look like I s--t my pants, but also b) kinda look like I s--t golden glitter 🤣 Luckily they are very unlikely to be seen by anyone I'm not already married to.

Hope everybody stays safe this week, and I'll see you again in two weeks.