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The petition is live! Also: How to make a seed packet

The petition is live! Also: How to make a seed packet

Hey all! It's been a busy week this week, so let's get straight into it.

This Week in the Commons

The biggest news of the week is that the Rank MI Vote petition to put ranked choice voting on the ballot in 2026 has finally entered the signature collection stage! I spent most of last week assembling clipboards and getting them out to local volunteers. We'll be collecting signatures from now until January 12th, so there's still plenty of time to get involved. If talking to strangers isn't your thing, you can still help circulate the petition among your friends, family, knitting group, soccer team, church group, etc. Every signature we can get moves us closer to the 611,321 signatures we need statewide to get on the ballot. (At time of writing, we have ~3100 signatures so far statewide, and about 90 from White Lake.) Our local petition team meets on Tuesdays at 6pm at the Artisan Market picnic tables, and if that doesn't work for you, you can email me at wiley.fry@rankmivote.org and we can figure out a time for you to pick up your clipboard.

A box filled with folded seed packets. Each seed packet is stamped with the Montague Commoners logo and has a blank space for writing the type of seeds it contains.

Down at the Artisan Market, our project this week was round 2 of turning junk mail into seed packets. We've made six or seven hundred total, and run through my entire stack of blank-on-one-side junk mail. For those who didn't a chance to learn in person this month, here are some step-by-step instructions:

A sheet of junk mail from a scammy AI "fitness" company

Start with a piece of junk mail that's blank on one side. If you're making this seed packet to share (or posting pictures of it to the internet) you might want to ink out any sensitive personal information.

Next, fold the short edge along the long edge to make a triangle with a "tail".

Cut the tail off with scissors or a paper cutter. These little leftover strips of paper are perfect for grocery or to-do lists. I've got a HUGE stack of them at this point, so I've been experimenting with turning them into little pocket-sized notepads, but that's a how-to for a different week.

Next, use a ruler (or a finished seed packet) to measure four inches in from the corner along the hypotenuse of the triangle and make a little reference dot. This will help you fold the triangle into thirds. If you don't have a ruler or pen handy, you can also use this method the same way you would fold a letter before putting it in an envelope.

Next, fold the tip of the "long end" towards the dot you just made. (You get to see my "naked" nails in this tutorial because I forgot to take pictures of the process before I took off last week's polish.)

Now fold the other tip to the corner of the fold you just made.

Tuck one tip in-between the layers of the other,

and slide it in until the whole thing lays flat. (This might take a little massaging depending on how precise your earlier folds were.)

Fold the bottom edge up to the corners at the base of the triangular flap.

Fold the flap down over the body of the packet,

and tuck it into the slot on the bottom.

Now you've got a packet that can securely hold even small seeds with no tape, glue, or staples required! It can be hard to learn tasks like this from written instructions, so if you get stuck just bring it down to the Artisan Market and I'll give you an in-person lesson.

Coming Up Next Week

  • Tuesday:
    • 5:30-7pm at White Lake Community Library - Come meet the Muskegon Country Emergency Manager. She'll be talking about the windstorms last summer, as well as the effects of federal funding cuts on emergency preparedness in our area. Hosted by Restoring Our American Democracy (ROAD)
    • 6-7pm at the Artisan Market picnic tables - local Rank MI Vote meeting
  • Friday:
    • 12-1pm at the Weathervane: our weekly Dance for Democracy protest
  • Saturday:
    • 9am-2pm at the Artisan Market: shop our selection of locally handmade baskets, tshirts, and more! Proceeds support our events and programs. The project next week will be learning to bundle paracord so you can carry it around without having it turn into a big tangled mess.

Food of the Week

A close up of a Queen Anne's Lace flower

This week's food is wild carrot, better known to most people as Queen Anne's Lace. I'm not going to go into harvest details on this one, because it's a good idea to take a year or two learning to distinguish it from poison hemlock before you try to eat it. Around here, hemlock tends to flower much earlier than Queen Anne's Lace, so it's usually six feet tall and obviously hemlocky by the time the Queen Anne's Lace shows up. But since we do have both in the area, and poison hemlock very much lives up to its name, make sure you have real life experience with both plants before you eat anything from the carrot family.

Solidarity Steps

This week's Solidarity Steps is about reaching out to right-wing friends and family in the wake of the administration's sudden change of tune around the Epstein files. A lot of MAGA folks have had their faith shaken, and it's a good opportunity to remind them that there's a path back to communities that care about them outside of the MAGA cult. A lot of them are recognizing that they've been lied to, and I think there's a good opportunity to help them understand that they've been lied to about more than just Epstein. If you can be there to help them emotionally process the experience they're having, you have a real chance to help them get out. Listen to them about the experiences that pushed them towards MAGA, and offer empathy for those experiences. Share similar experiences you may have had, and how those experiences have helped you find solidarity and empathy with others. This kind of de-radicalization work involves a LOT of emotional labor, and it's not for everyone, but it's extraordinarily valuable and now is a very good chance to give it a try.

Recommendation Corner

Most of you probably know by now that I have extremely strong views about "AI" and the damage it's doing to our society. Nate's a software engineer who specializes in machine learning algorithms, and watching the tech industry convince so much of the media that predictive text algorithms are "intelligent" has been extremely depressing for both of us. Luckily, there are still some tech reporters out there who aren't falling for it, and one of them has recently put out a comprehensive guide to the AI bubble. It's a long read, but it's well worth it for people who don't want to be surprised when the whole thing falls apart.

Concession to Capitalism

A picture of a crocheted basket made from pastel paracord in shades of blue and green

Do you want a sturdy and attractive basket that can carry everything from foraged mushrooms to river rocks without getting damaged? Do you want to help support Montague Commoners and the work we do? Do you want the security of knowing that even if society continues its slide towards breakdown and chaos, you'll have plenty of rope? Come down to the Montague Commoners booth at the Artisan Market on Saturdays and buy one our Commoner's Baskets. They're made out of 550 paracord, and they're extremely strong. Plus, the modular handles can be swapped around depending on what you need from day to day, and even used as a dog leash if you need one in an emergency. We've got all sorts of sizes and color combinations, so you're bound to find one you like, and all basket sales go towards supporting Montague Commoners programs here in town.

This Week's Nails

You made it to the end of the newsletter, and that means you get to see this week's nails! I went fairly simple (for me) this week, but I really like the way the maroon flaky topper looks over the yellow base. Plus, the base glows in the dark, which makes bedtime feel like a mini rave party.

Have a good week, and I hope to see you around town soon.