Use A Tool, Don’t Be A Tool
Unless it’s a tool for JUSTICE.
Last week, we didn’t post an episode because we felt it was important to amplify black voices instead. This week, we wanted to use our voices to actively affirm that here at The Grid Is For Squares, we believe that black lives matter. Black men’s lives matter, black women’s lives matter, black trans lives matter. Period.
So we talk for a while about being an ally, how it’s a marathon and not a sprint. And how our white feelings, our guilt and sadness and anger, don’t actually help anyone; you have to use those feelings to fuel you to take action. If you aren’t protesting, donate money to bail funds or black action funds, put pressure on your politicians, and above all keep listening to black people.
We’ve both always been civic-minded, but we’ve tended to focus on other issues: the LGBTQ community for Amy and the environment for Vince. But A) people of color don’t have the liberty to decide whether race is an “issue” they “want” to focus on; and B) both of those issues intersect with race in important ways. Poor and BIPOC communities tend to be disproportionately affected by environmental issues and LGBTQ people of color are way more at risk for violence than any other group. Racism compounds every other issue.
On to homesteading! First we discuss historical black homesteaders; thousands of black families successfully obtained land titles in the 19th century through the Homestead Act. We also mention some current-day black homesteaders to check out on YouTube: the Randle Family Shalomstead, Black RVers Chronicles, and Black Off-Grid. If you know of other black homesteaders who are doing podcasts or YouTube series, let us know!
Then we chat about our new electric tools… Vince recently invested in a Milwaukee string trimmer and chainsaw, and we tried them out for the first time when we were at the property last month. I went to town on our overgrown driveway with the weed whacker while Vince cut firewood and a dead overhanging tree with our new chainsaw. Be very careful about kickback! Respect the tool!
Finally, we discuss our growing notions about renting an excavator for a weekend. Vince is always thinking about our carbon footprint, but because digging has been so slow, we’re actually contributing more carbon to the environment by driving up to hand-dig than we would by just getting an excavator. We haven’t made a decision yet, though. TBD!
WHAT WE BOUGHT:
Milwaukee M18 Quik-Lok String Trimmer
We sprung for the “quik-lok” style so we can later add some different attachments (like a pole saw) to the same base tool.
One of the cool things about electric tools is that you can use plain ole vegetable oil to lubricate your chain rather than adding petroleum to the environment.
WHAT WE LEARNED:
We learned a lot about historical and current-day black homesteaders, as mentioned above!
Manzanita trees germinate in wildfires, so the fact that we have manzanitas on the property means that (in case there was any question) we certainly have to think about wildfire defense. The chainsaw is the first step of many towards defending our homestead from those California wildfires.
