Author: jennynazak

Someone in one of my ladies’ groups suggested joining & supporting ACLU.

Good suggestion. In recent years I also became a life member of Veterans for Peace and NAACP.

Social justice, climate justice, demilitarization … It’s all connected.

Commented in response to a post in one of my women’s groups expressing hurt & confusion about the blue bracelet thing:

What may feel like hate and division, is actually constructive critique and an opportunity and necessity for us to evolve in our understanding.

I know a lot of us white women are feeling confused right now. The best advice I can offer is to follow Black women who are feminist and anti-racist educators.

Are you on TikTok? If so, you are welcome to friend me. Most of the videos I repost are from Black women who are feminist anti-racist educators.

If you’re not on TikTok, there’s a book called Hood Feminism, by Dr. Mikki Kendall. This book answers a lot of the questions and confusion I’m seeing from you and other fellow white women in this group.

There are many other books as well. We can and will totally get on the same page!! But we have some learning to do. There are so many resources out there to help us catch up.

You are welcome to friend me on Facebook if you like as well.

PS. One of the characteristics of “whiteness” is a fear of and aversion to confrontation. So we shy away from it. And therein lies a lot of our problems. Because then anytime we try to talk straight with each other it sounds like punishment or hate. We can overcome this conditioning. It’s sort of like exercising a muscle. Also, awareness is key.

One educator I’ve learned a lot from is Desiree B Stephens. She’s on TikTok and also has a substack. Things I used to take personally, I realize are just a part of our cultural programming and can be changed. This is a big part of our work!

I wrote the following just now and one of my women’s groups, in response to people who are feeling very vulnerable and lost.

Yes! We get ourselves resilient. Physically and emotionally. We can think of each of ourselves as one node making up a resilient net of protection.

As much as possible, we take care of our health using highly accessible plants we can grow in our yard. Aloe; greens; herbs. Fruit trees. We teach our neighbors how to be resilient. We collect rainwater so we are never have to be dependent on municipal systems. We share with our communities. Share knowledge, and share resources.

Emotional resilience. A big part of this is just finding our people. Yes, therapy and so on can be needed as well. But a lot of times, what we really need is just a few people right near us who we can talk to. Find those people. IN WALKING DISTANCE please. We all need people who are right around us. (I don’t know how any of you have survived without this. But now is the time to change it.) They are there. They are looking for you too.

Here’s a book recommendation. This was written by one of the leaders of one of the climate-resilience groups I belong to, Deep Adaptation, but it is very very deeply applicable here in this situation as well.

Eye of the Storm, by Terry LePage.

Also, definitely follow Sharon Astyk If you aren’t already. Sane, grounded wisdom on everything from dealing with pandemics to planting a garden to taking care of the people around you.

Also, check into the old traditional ladies networks that women used to use in wartime. Knitting circles, gardening clubs, etc. You don’t have to be a champion needleworker either.

Now that I’m in my 60s, I find it easier and easier to go under the radar as a harmless old lady who’s into plants and beads. There’s a lot of power in being in a segment of society that’s not considered desirable or worthy of attention.

Anyone here is welcome to send me a friend request as well. Some of us already now connected and getting ready to arrange local meetups. But no matter where in Florida you live, feel free to send me a friend request.

Pirate-UP, ladies!! (If you haven’t yet listened to Rachel Maddow’s very practical talk, where she refers to tapping into our inner pirate, you are in for a treat, go watch it — It contains nuts-and-bolts next steps for defending democracy.)

And (separate comment in response to same post):

I think that if Social Security gets eliminated, all of us will be in a similar boat and there will be deflation. I am a Boomer and have no kids. But I could live on the small income I get from my freelance work (writing, speaking, teaching, art) and from the rent that my housemates pay.

One thing I suggest my fellow Boomer women consider doing, if we haven’t already, is pay off our mortgages. Even if we have to cash out our 401(k)s to do it.

It’s amazing how little I can live on with a paid-for house.  And there’s a certain deep feeling of security.

I do a lot of other thrifty things too, like I arranged my life so I don’t need to own a car. And I can get along without electricity other than what’s needed to charge my phone.

All the little things can help us feel more secure, and be more secure and resilient. So that we can be in a better position to protect the vulnerable people in our lives.

As a white woman who is post-menopausal, and has some basic low-tech survival skills (which I teach to my community, those who will listen), I feel a lot safer than people in a number of other categories. So I am looking out for those people.

And in reply to someone who said she’s getting her handmaid costume ready:

I am souping up my green eco-warrior uniform, which I wear as an eco activist/educator, and adding sort of a sassy old lady pirate vibe ha ha. (the eco warrior uniform is an old army jumpsuit I thrifted, and then cut/sewed into a jacket and pants and embellished it.)

And regarding one commenter’s concerns that Social Security will be abolished:

I think that if Social Security gets eliminated, all of us will be in a similar boat and there will be deflation. I am a Boomer and have no kids, But I could live on the small income I get from my freelance work (writing, speaking, teaching, art) and from the rent that my housemates pay.

One thing I suggest my fellow Boomer women consider doing, if we haven’t already, is pay off our mortgages. Even if we have to cash out our 401(k)s to do it.

It’s amazing how little I can live on with a paid-for house. And there’s a certain deep feeling of security.

I do a lot of other thrifty things too, like I arranged my life so I don’t need to own a car. And I can get along without electricity other than what’s needed to charge my phone.

All the little things can help us feel more secure, and be more secure and resilient. So that we can be in a better position to protect the vulnerable people in our lives.

As a white woman who is post-menopausal, and has some basic low-tech survival skills (which I teach to my community, those who will listen), I feel a lot safer than people in a number of other categories. So I am looking out for those people.

In response to a comment from someone saying they had just joined ACLU and suggesting others do the same:

Good suggestion. In recent years I also became a life member of Veterans for Peace, and NAACP. Social justice, climate justice, demilitarization … It’s all connected.

Further exploration:

• “Trump win gives us a ‘really big to-do list’ to defend democracy.” (Rachel Maddow; MSNBC) (6-min talk). Practical steps, and a very inspiring call to get scrappy, and channel our “inner pirate energy.”

• “10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won” (Daniel Hunter; wagingnonviolence.org). “The key to taking effective action … is to avoid perpetuating the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.”

Today I started my first attempt to make vinegar at home, using some nice beautiful ripe prickly-pear cactus fruit that I espied on a plant at the parking lot down by the beach.

The ingredients are simple: prickly pear cactus fruit; sugar; nonchlorinated water. I googled and found this video. Very helpful!

How to make pear cactus vinegar (Creative Adventures channel on YouTube).

For this little first batch I am doing an experiment, which departs from her method in that I did not peel the fruits. And also did not do anything else to remove the glochids. I just cut off the wide and of the fruits.

This is based on my experience making smoothies and wine from prickly pear fruit back when I lived in Texas. The glochids, the tiny fine little spiny things you don’t want to touch, seemed to get dissolved by the process so it removed the need for that considerable labor of removing them.

We will see how it actually goes, with vinegar, when I taste the vinegar with caution in a month or so.

In the meantime, if you try this, I recommend you exercise caution and follow one of the methods for removing the locus. Other creators use a torch to sear them off. Or boil the fruit.

She has also posted an update video, which I haven’t seen yet but will share in the comments below. I have now subscribed to her channel Creative Adventures.

Update on the pear cactus vinegar: 2-week point (Creative Adventures on YouTube).

You can see my photos of the beautiful magenta liquid mixture sitting on my kitchen counter here on my art & design by jenny nazak page.

What an ungracious thought I had today. About, of all things, coming upon a giant pumpkin on the sidewalk!

The thought came to me when I arrived at my neighbors’ house to drop off some plant cuttings. Sugarcane recently harvested. Plumeria which was “harvested” by the hurricane. And chaya — Mexican miracle spinach tree — hurricane-harvested also. I had so many cuttings that I was really glad that several neighbors were eager to get some.

The young couple’s house had been the scene, this past week, of major neighborhood Halloween fun. They are generous hosts and really got into the spirit with the decorations and costumes. And they got a bunch of us motivated as well.

Their yard had been festooned with giant skeletons, inflatable haunted houses and gnarled trees and such, and way too much more to list. When I arrived with the plant cuttings, I noticed that the decorations had been partially disassembled. And on the sidewalk outside their fence was a whole giant pumpkin. Not a jack-o’-lantern carved, but a whole intact pumpkin.

And what do you suppose my first thought was? Gratitude to see a whole huge perfect pumpkin that I could cut up and toast the seeds, and use the flesh if I chose?

No, it was more like a feeling of obligation or responsibility. Like, well I can’t let this pumpkin go to waste so I’m going to have to take the time to cut it up. And spread the seeds out on trays and put them in the solar oven or toaster oven. And so on. Basically focused on the amount of physical labor for cutting and cleanup etc.

Granted, I have always had a lazy streak in general. But sometimes there’s something about gifts from nature that really bring it out. I think maybe it’s the fact that a very big gift from nature is not something you can keep and postpone. You have to deal with it right then, or as soon as possible, because it’s perishable. Even if you feel busy or preoccupied with something else, as I did in that moment, you simply have to make time for the gift.

Another challenge is that such gifts tend to be large (bulky or numerous or both), so not amenable to just being tucked into a corner of a fridge or cabinet. They have to be processed and compacted; sorted; containerized if appropriate.

And, maybe your situation is different but in my situation, the task of utilizing a gift from nature is something I tend to have to do by myself. As opposed to having multiple people near me who want to enjoy the fruits and divide the labor. (I do seem to be meeting more people near me who are similarly minded though, so that may be changing.)

What a negative attitude though! Not the attitude that I want to have.

Fortunately, the more I focus on the thought of delicious pumpkin seeds seasoned with chili powder and so on, toasted in the oven — and yummy soups and maybe breads made with the pumpkin meat — the more the spoiled-brat attitude starts to fade.

But there is definitely something about a hectic, time-is-money, money-driven society where gifts from nature are just seen as taking up time and labor. Money is like this artificially concentrated form of nature’s bounty. Something that doesn’t need processing and chopping; something you can just spend on anything.

People who are a lot better than I am at growing food, sometimes grow tons of food but then they don’t want to deal with cleaning and preparing it so they end up giving most or all of it away. Maybe next time I’ll suggest working together and dividing the harvest.

All in all, today was a success. Several neighbors wanted my various plant cuttings. And I definitely do want the beautiful sidewalk-foundling pumpkin, even though I’m going to have to use some elbow grease to chop it and scoop the seeds out and toast them batch by batch.

Some years back, at the Kerrville Folk Music festival, one of the regulars was lamenting the fact that people kept passing up pounds and pounds of beautiful pecans that had fallen from the many nearby trees. They were bags of pecans on the picnic tables but people kept passing them by.

When I look back, I think maybe some people just didn’t know how to crack a pecan shell, and maybe it would’ve been good if some of us had tried to show some people. And then again, a lot of us are just spoiled by the ready availability of nuts that have already been removed from the shell for us. So maybe the thing to do would have been to give out little cups of nuts that we had shelled.

I do sometimes find it easier to tackle a gift from nature if I have in mind not only my enjoyment of it, but also the idea that it’ll be enjoyed by one or more other people.

Anyway. Food for thought, literally. This blog post itself, too, was sort of a bounty of nature that I had the option to ignore, or embrace.

My general take on the interplay between money-driven society and gifts from nature:

— A person who earns a lot of money is less likely to have much time or motivation to make use of gifts from nature.

— And, a person who earns less money (either voluntarily or otherwise) is more likely to have time and motivation to make use of gifts from nature. And the gifts will be worth relatively more to that person.

— For some, a viable path to transitioning out of the purely-money-driven economy is to reduce one’s need to earn, and reduce one’s money job hours accordingly. Thus allowing time to harvest nature’s gifts. (Including time to learn how to do that.)

Pictures of the giant magnificent pumpkin being prepared for culinary enjoyment.

PS. My favorite tip for harvesting very large gifts from nature is, do it outdoors if possible! It drastically simplifies the cleanup.

(Example of a post encouraging people to adopt more gentle landscaping practices. Feel free to use any of this that is helpful for talking to your clients, your yardwork service person, city officials, neighbors, etc.)

[Text on cute flower background with cartoon Facebook avatar: “Feeling blue about ‘hurricane debris’ in your yard or curbside? Try some fun & practical alternative tips!”]

Are you sick and tired of seeing piles of “yard trash” left over after hurricanes? Maybe it’s time to try a new approach!

In my field, permaculture design, we learn about how to turn problems into assets by making use of on-site resources.

Here are some ways you can turn your “yard waste” into treasure:

• Use big long logs as rustic border materials for pathways, garden beds, etc. Even if the logs aren’t straight. That actually even adds more charm and uniqueness.
• With short stubby segments of logs, stand them on their ends and use them as a border material as well.
• LEAVE THE LEAVES under the trees: Instead of scraping fallen leaves off of your property and sending this valuable material to the landfill, ask your yard-person to rake the leaves into a wide circle under each tree. Include the small twigs as well. Not only is it pretty; it will also make mowing easier & faster (if you mow), since the people mowing your yard can make a wide berth around the tree roots. Much healthier for the tree as well. And you will be helping birds, butterflies and other wonderful residents of your yard.
• Make a hugel mound (berm). Cover it with soil or sand, or leave it as is. It will break down and feed your trees and other plants. And it will add interesting contours to your yard. It also helps with stormwater absorption. Every bit helps!
• Slender branches, palm fronds, bamboo, etc. can be used as outdoor art supplies. Use your imagination and have fun making trellises, little tent structures, etc. Definitely get the kids and grandkids involved! I have so much fun making various kinds of ornamental and decorative structures in my yard, using free natural materials.
• Another thing I often suggest to clients is to get together with neighbors and rent a chipper shredder for the day or week. The free, high-quality mulch you produce is like money in the bank! And those “hurricane debris” piles will shrink to nothing in no time.

Questions? You are welcome to message me anytime.

jenny nazak, eco landscaping services
“Puff it up, Daytona!”

***As a public service, we offer a mini workshop in how to apply permaculture design principles to your yard. You, your neighbors, and your yardwork service people are all invited. Message me for info on upcoming dates.***

“You don’t have a snail problem; you have a duck deficiency.” — Bill Mollison, founder of the permaculture design movement.

In my book and on this blog, I set out to help those of you who want to reduce your eco footprint and are looking for practical, do-able tips.

Even a beneficial change can be difficult to make. (A change that we want to make can still be difficult, I mean.) Because we’re changing a habitual routine practice. And furthermore, we are often swimming upstream against various things that are baked into our society.

So, one of the things I found helpful in changing my habits, and helping other people change theirs, was the incentive to save money. Who doesn’t want to save money, right?

Unfortunately, it turned out that most people were not sufficiently motivated by the prospect of saving $10 a month, or even $100 a month or more. There are various reasons for this, but for now I’m just saying this is what I noticed.

In recent times, I have noticed a further obstacle, even when people are sufficiently motivated by money savings. And that is that our capitalist economy oftentimes is structured such that people are not able to opt-out of certain purchases. That obstacle is exemplified by this recent news item from my local area. (Go here to see my Facebook post with the screenshots; and also see the quote & link to the article below.)

Florida Power and Light (FPL) is seeking a rate hike to recover costs of restoring power after the recent hurricane. Our bills will go up supposedly by an average of $12.

Big corporations that are deemed necessary public utilities can always rig it we don’t get to opt out of buying their stuff. Even when they increase the price.

In such times, it becomes all the more important to focus on yet another intrinsic motivation. I would sum up that intrinsic motivation as reducing our vulnerability. I can’t put a price tag on the fact that I am not fazed by a power outage, and can do without electricity indefinitely.

It’s not that I don’t find electricity convenient; it’s just that I can easily do without it (other than what’s needed to charge my phone, which is easy to get in a variety of ways including solar and hand-cranked), so the company isn’t dealing with someone who is desperate and fearful.

Of course, that still doesn’t mean I get to opt out of electricity. I still have to pay the base rate and all that stuff. But, reducing my vulnerability is an extremely strong motivation, I find.

And, I still do save money by not needing as much electricity. It’s just that my bill which used to be $12 is now $18 or $20 and probably going up to $35 or more. Still the savings compared with a typical bill is nothing to sneeze at!

A quote from the article:

“According to the company, ‘Electric bills in Florida do not include the cost of responding to hurricanes and tropical storms. Instead, a temporary surcharge is applied after storms.'”

Things may be structured to prohibit us from opting-out of purchasing certain goods & services from corporations. But the value of reducing our vulnerability is priceless.