20 Jan Friday: a wrinkle in Paradise--of course

The schedule for the next 10 days was greeting us first thing in the morning.  It was very discombobulating.  Up until this point, we had been doing things very in-the-moment, from our point of view, even though Jo, as Project Manager, knew the master plan.  Actually, she was just asking for our input, to see if this was OK:

Of course everything "looked fine" to me. I was unaware of its effect on me, really, but I kept seeing it out of the corner of my eye during breakfast and all the time we spent in the living area.  Unbeknownst to me, I was getting anxious about being able to do everything--particularly since Molly and I were scheduled to cook the Friday dinner and both plan and cook the lunch and the dinner for Saturday...

My way of reacting to the stress of cooking (when the meals planned by Jo were fantastic) was to plan ahead, starting immediately. Molly, who has cooked for 14 co-op-ers on a regular basis, and 100 workers during the dome project was unfazed, and had the experience of not thinking about things till it was time to cook.  Very different styles.   

Sigh. We talked it out. We worked it out. We made a compromise plan, that let me do the advance prep for lunch and dessert for dinner, and put Molly in charge of the evening meal, with me as sous chef.

It probably helped that I discovered a friend from home on Jo's shelf:

Actually, I have taken classes from Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, but they are not local.  But Insight LA is certainly a refuge and a home.

Then...there was the matter of all the regular work...and so many tasks had been listed on the "Proposed structure to reduce physical work in Sun and fit in Reiki" As long as they weren't on the list, they were fine...

I did an hour of tree clearing in the morning with Jo while Rex used the chain saw.  Meanwhile Jacques and Molly were scything away to continue clearing the area behind the Main Garden.

Then we switched things up and I cleared the closer areas with hedge clippers, while Molly and Jacques did tree clearing.

Lunch was rice salad. Afterwards, Molly and I had our talk about the food and the schedule.  We also talked about our different beliefs and perspectives about photographs and being photographed.  It was a very good bit of sharing for both of us.

Meanwhile, there was more flour to grind...and bread to bake.  The EXTREMELY hard part of this was the first kneading of the bread.  The 100% whole wheat sourdough bread was very dense.

the manual flour grinder

Molly at work

More grinding

Jo and Teri knead loaves...Molly is also working on her own hunk of dough.  They will rise today, get a kneading tonight and place in pans, and be baked tomorrow.

At 4:30 we watered in the shade house

Then we did 1.5 hours of Tree Clearing.

Then Molly and I did some sharking (clearing areas around the native tree-lings).  I don't know what Jacques was up to--maybe giving Jo a Reiki or EFT session.

At 6:30 Molly and I made the planned dinner of Miso raw soup  and a thai salad. Carrying out Jo's menu plan was pretty easy, and dinner was fine.

I did the dishes and soaked dates, cashews and chickpeas for the next day's cashew cream and hummus.  I also arranged to get the lunch gazpacho started right after breakfast, which was an adjustment to the schedule.

After dinner, we kneaded bread and let it rise in pans in the hot water heater closet overnight. 

We watch more educational EFT videos, and headed to bed, relaxed and close.