Neoprene and environmental racism – FaceBook group reaction #1

Yesterday I posted a question on an open water swimming FaceBook site about leads on ethically and environmentally sourced swimming wetsuits, adding a link on environmental racism around neoprene factories. Within an hour I got a message saying the post had been removed because the piste (sic) was about how wetsuits are racist and they felt it was inappropriate.

A real knee jerk reaction, based on what? Fear that I would enter into some kind of social justice tirade on a swimming forum? Tribal loyalty to the neoprene tradition, effects be damned? Anti Black racism issue fear or fatigue? I was surprised and thought it was really strange, as everywhere else there is so much openness to see and connect the dots on how Western society is racist. It touches conversations where it was hidden, and thank heaven so many Black writers, speakers, comics, artists, friends and acquaintances are speaking and being heard more. May it continue, and not just be “trending now”.

And for the question itself, what kind of moderator can’t see the sense in looking for a product that isn’t directly tied to illness and injustice? Wearing something made from a known carcinogen, even if only at the manufacturing level not a concern?

I looked for a way to respond to the moderator. Didn’t seem to be one, and I was reluctant to put my response out there for all when the issue, I hoped was with this person; I also didn’t want a public call out to be my first conversation on the page. I wondered if perhaps I would be blocked if I continued in that vein, and the pros and cons of making a stand.

After some thought–not a lot, I reposted the question without the link, and soon had some good suggestions. Others saw the value in a more “green” suit.

I now I feel I should have pushed back more, at least appealed to site members somewhat to look into the issue for themselves, and use the opportunity to spread the conversation about anti-Black racism, what is known as Cancer Alley seems to be a prime example. I have not given up hope that it’s possible to get through the moderator’s fears to allow at least a conversation. When I looked again at my second post I realized it was pretty whitewashed, no mention at all for my social-ethical reasons for wanting to avoid neoprene. I will take another stab at it, and if I do get blocked, that site isn’t local for me anyway, and I did find one connected with my own waterways. It will be interesting to see what may come up when I bring up the topic three, or if others have already done so.

 

Yard and garden projects worthy of months of near quarantine

I finished out my school year last week and have my vacation stretched out before me. It’s a cool summer night after a warm day, one of the few this month. This may signal a real entrance into summer at last, good for the tomatoes and cucumbers that have barely been hanging in there through the cool damp we call Junuary.

Yesterday I discovered and pulled up three tomato plants that had begun to succumb to the irreversible and contagious early blight, a first for my gardening career. I grew other tomatoes sufficiently distant, including some in my greenhouse, so I should still get a good crop. The others are all robust and ready, beginning to need ties to their stakes, but only slowly growing, late to flower and only one in the greenhouse has formed fruit.

The experimental eggplants and peppers I set outside a month ago are a total loss, as are the cantaloupes seeded a few weeks ago, and the watermelons I planted out after a few months of greenhouse protection.

The local FaceBook gardening group I joined features many variations on the question, “What’s wrong with my tomatoes/cucumbers,etc.,” and correct answer is always “too cold still–just wait and see.” The inexperienced gardeners who plant tomatoes too early just because they are for sale for the gullible and for those with greenhouses watched them decline and die.

Beans have been mowed down by slugs through late, rainy mornings and cloudy afternoons, basil struggled with both the weather and various grazers, and yielded an anemic-looking harvest. Even a few broccoli could not keep up with the usual predators and were so stunted I pulled them up. Other garden rookies who never plant anything until Labor Day may have the right idea for this year at least.

Still, the cabbages and their kin came through these extra spring rains splendidly–I have been eating kale, Chinese cabbage, choi and radishes for weeks, and the tops of the cauliflower have formed their secret chambers where white heads will emerge in all their glory soon. Brussels sprouts look the best I’ve ever seen, with tiny buds swelling daily in the crook of each leaf. Lettuces and spinach are almost all harvested and a second planting seeded, or soon to be. Peas are in full production, sweet and tender. Thyme and oregano, as well as asparagus, all perennials, have also all been productive, with the herbs ready for a second cutting soon, the first dried and in jars.

The end harvest of the once-and-done plants and those prone to go to seed will free up more space for new greens, beets, and late summer and fall crops, if I renew the clay soil with organic matter and minerals and irrigate through the summer.

This is where I must strengthen my resolve to keep working or I’ll have a production gap later–no rest when the garden is looking glorious, the days are hot and it seems that fall is eons away. No, I must get our in th emild morning and start more onions, brassicas (cabbage family), greens and other annuals in pots, as well as sow more beans, cucumbers, zucchini and maybe melons for a second shot now that it’s warm and the slugs have fewer hours in which to graze.

Plus there are cover crops to sow, compost and mulch to renew and of course lots of weeding, harvesting, thinning, pruning and training to do. I will have to fit in strawberry and pea harvest these next weeks, get the blueberries protected from birds, pick and freeze currants, and in a few weeks, harvest blueberries, raspberries, marionberries and then blackberries almost daily.

Few of these tasks feel like chores to me, and many, especially picking berries, are a delight. Loading up my granola and yogurt with three or four types of sun-warmed berries never gets old, and the simple task of popping the extras into the freezer means healthy flavor all winter and into spring.

Then there’s the new yard drainage system to finish: trenches to slope, a new pond in back and rain garden in front to sculpt (fed by a new sump pump that is keeping my crawl space happy). These may become two rain gardens instead, depending on if the pond can be made to retain water year round.There will be paths, mulched with wood chips or maybe paved with stone or recycled concrete. I’ve even dreamed up a low rock wall to surround the unkempt Pippin apple tree and its groundcover of strawberries.

Working at home this spring gave me hours extra to plan more ambitious projects, and follow a learning curve on design, execution, and maintenance of the new system. Dating a guy who loves to get his hands dirty and is both an artist and engineer, with the muscle to help with the digging and trenching, made things happen even more quickly than I’d hoped and made it extra fun. My seventeen year old son is enjoying pitching in with digging in the much too. All good, as I gave myself tendonitis this spring by too many hours of pulling roving buttercup weds out of the muck around my trees and bushes, moving blackberry plants from one heavy clay area to another specially raised and amended, and pulling up landscape fabric to finally free the diurnal paths of the local soil fauna.

There’s more–the return of my young people and friends due to the pandemic created a make work opportunity while I housed them temporarily, so I have a partially finished giant three-bay compost and shed roof replacement to finish up. We did not get to the capping of the retaining wall and completion of the cedar fence replacement, both of which have been stalled for several years. Today I started the process of learning how to cut concrete blocks for the wall, but the digging of fence pot holes and decision making involved in the fence project are beyond me right now. The retaining wall will more straightforward and good project for summer, as it’s located on the shady side of the yard. More fun that finishing painting the trim, though that must be done too while days are long and I’m not working.

All this makes me look forward to each day. Yes, sometimes I take off for a bike or swim, or go visit my special guy and we play around in his shop, work on his home projects, go out, or watch a movie, but I truly enjoy having projects on the go, preferably several at once but mostly with completion in mind. Or, in the case of gardening, the productive seasonal round and useful work that benefits my life, health, and environment. Sometimes I have doubts about my ability to sustain so many, but console myself with the thought that a good number really will be complete and only some are ongoing. I have an eye to simplification, to making more space for time with my friends and family, to taking care of my body as age wears more on my joints and changes my energy level. But I know I’ll always want to stay active. Both my parents set examples there–Mom walking daily, Dad doing Tai Chi, sawing wood and managing a garden. Both are artists with materials and words, both make music.

The one thing that sometimes bothers me is whether I might be too inclined to fill my days with activity at the cost of reflection and contemplation, or even relationships and service. What is the right balance there?