capitalism – Jenny Wren

Tuesday Update – Feeling Fruitful

23 June, 2026

Happy Solstice! My corner of the Pacific Northwest welcomed midsummer with unending days of sunshine and heat advisories. Yes, in some parts of the world 85+ degree weather deserves a heat advisory!

Writing has been going well, but I don’t have very many (interesting) updates.

There’s a new essay over on Medium. If you want to learn the secret of life, you can read about it here (no subscription required).
I completed about 4500 words for The Ragman.

Summer is hard for writing, because I have so many other tasks I must tend to so we can cope with late stage capitalism nonsense. We have also had a few new responsibilities on our plate for this beautiful homestead that we are able to call home, as the owner has been dealing with a few emergencies and we are helping all we can. Thus, although the writing isn’t too difficult, finding the time is.

I have set a personal goal to publish on Medium once weekly(ish), and to keep up with Tuesday updates here on the blog. Otherwise, my limited writing time will be dedicated to churning out around 5,000 words on the Ragman project every week. I’m not going to beat myself up if I don’t achieve these goals every week, but I am going to try to stay accountable via this blog.

As for daily life:

Today, Mozy and I bottled the rhubarb wine. It needs to age for six months, so it will be ready to drink around the winter solstice. I foresee breaking open a bottle for the holidays!

We also transferred the cherry wine from the fermenter into a carboy fitted with an airlock. We will rack it again in two months, as cherries need a couple of rackings for clarity. After four months of further fermenting in the carboy, we will bottle it and then age it for one year. Yes, cherry requires a bit more work and time compared to rhubarb. It will be ready in October 2027.

Everything is clean and sterilized, ready for whatever we brew next, I’m not sure what, quite yet, but will update once we decide!

Cherry and strawberry season is also upon us. I spent the morning hulling and slicing 8 lbs of strawberries. They are in the dehydrator. I’m debating on whether or not to make strawberry jam. It is the least popular jam in the house and for gifting, and we still have 10 half-pints left from last year. The dehydrated strawberries are excellent for snacking, and I also use them for making dessert toppings and in baking throughout the winter. I may do some more, if the patch produces more than we are able to enjoy fresh!

As for cherries, right now there are 30 lbs in the fridge in need of pitting and preserving. These will become both cherry jam and pints of plain cherries (for use in pies or simply eating as a side, like one would with canned peaches). I have a couple jars of each left from last summer, but we go through a lot of cherries. Possibly because they are my favorite fruit!

Otherwise, life is quiet. We do the usual chores of a household trying to live minimally off the broken systems that rule our current world. We garden, forage, and tend to the property. We bake bread a couple of times a week, and do it ourselves with found objects as much as we can. We look out for our neighbors, help those whom we can, and commiserate with those whom we can’t.

Life is hard, but that is no reason to compromise on the values that make you a beautiful and unique person. Yes, we all make mistakes and sometimes allow circumstances, rather than what we believe in, guide our choices. I know I do it sometimes. That doesn’t mean we make excuses for it — part of being a part of the solution is accepting responsibility for, or at the very least acknowledging, our mistakes. We simply accept our fallibility and try to do better next time.

Two steps forward and one step back is still progress. We all must do our best, especially when it is hard. The good news is, we don’t have to do it alone. I got you!

Always yours in hope,

Tuesday Update – In the Thick of It

We discovered a dawn redwood seedling in a cage full of weeds. Gonna have to clean that up so the little one can thrive!

I do wish I had more news from the writing front to share this week, but I do not. Okay, a bit of a lie. I reworked about 6,000 words of Ragman into a better form. I was hitting a wall. Not so much a wall, but a stumbling block. The issue? I had three strong characters all vying for the limelight – Ragman, Blue, and Indigo (yes, there is a reason why two characters are named after colors that lie close together on the spectrum, although one character is a mostly human woman and the other is a dog, well, a Grim to be exact). Holy run-on parenthetical, Batman!

Anyway, I worked out the head butting that was occurring with these three so that they can share the stage in a mostly sensible manner, so I hope to start moving forward with the story itself this week. I hope to give a more concrete update next week!

My reading has been all over the place. I am almost finished with TJ Klune’s “In the Lives of Puppets.” Barring something horrible happening in the last couple of chapters, which I am not concerned about because I adore Klune’s work, this will be a whole-hearted recommendation for anyone looking for a bit of queer fantasy lit. I typically describe Klune’s work as pre-hopecore. Why? Because he catches that fleeting bit of time when the dystopia is dying and hope is just about to be sown anew. Klune’s work leaves me heartbroken but hopeful, which is quite powerful since the real world we live in also leaves me heartbroken but overflowing with hope each and every day.

I’ve also been plowing through various bits of non-fiction. I finished my re-read of Mark Boyle’s Moneyless Manifesto, I will finish Live Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies tonight or tomorrow, and I will begin Eisenstein’s Sacred Economics tonight or tomorrow. The first two are recommends, for sure, and the last one likely will be as well. At least for those of my readers that are sick and tired of what the industrial revolution has resulted in, economically speaking.

Seriously – we industrialized just so we can make squishy toys and Pokemon cards? Really? This is why I read hopecore fantasy for relaxation, people!

Finally…FINALLY…we are doing so much work on the property. We dug out a sawmill from 18 wheelbarrow loads of partially composted sawdust. It had been overtaken by blackberries that had rooted in the sawdust (the sawmill sits atop asphalt, so the blackberries couldn’t root any deeper thankfully). We have hauled so much scrap to the brush pile that we may need to build a new one. We also discovered an entire sequoia tree buried underneath blackberries at the foot of our lane. The tree is healthy, and will likely be more so now that it is exposed to the light.

We also found time to start a batch of cherry wine, to dehydrate 15 pounds of rhubarb, to celebrate Mozy’s birthday (my partner), to pass all of my university courses this quarter, tend to the garden, do general (non-clean-up) yard work, work at the bookstore, drink beer and play darts, practice violin, and somehow, miraculously, to sleep.

Summer is both my favorite season and my busiest, which is exactly how it should be!

Go forth in hope, friends!

Tuesday Update – Compromise

A harvest from a year or two ago. Hoping for another abundant summer!

Everything can and will change. It doesn’t matter if it is our own hand that sets change in motion, it can still be a bit discombobulating when it descends with one fell swoop.

I was swooped by change, which I set in motion, on Friday. The swoop came in the form of a job — wage pay — which was something I had hoped to be done with when I left the plant nursery last autumn.

It’s only part time. It is at a bookstore, thankfully. It will eat up some of my writing and living hours. I’m ambivalent, but right now a wage is integral to survival on our own terms.

Wish me luck.

Writing Updates:

My weekly piece on Medium is live. I took it easy this week and simply polished and printed one of the rambling pages from my journal. If you read it, you can see how I tend to organize my thoughts on paper when I think no one will ever read it.

How Can We Opt Out of the System That Is Killing Us All?

Most of my words this week, those not destined for my personal journal at least, went to my friend the Ragman. Literally. He finally stepped out of the shadows fully alive and ready to chat. Over the course of thousands of words, he revealed who he was (mostly), how he was, and even a bit of why he was. Not all of it, of course. A fellow has to keep a bit of his mystery.

He showed me the rules for his universe and introduced me to the web of hope, which stretches out along the Ley lines that connect time and place, moment by moment. I finally understand the world he has been inviting me to see.

I don’t really understand him, but I’m not sure if anyone really can. I’ll share a bit soon, but not yet.

Reading Updates:

I finished Katherine Hibbert’s Free. I will no longer link to it, nor will I give it further press after this. It was an engaging read, but something about it was setting off alarm bells. Perhaps it was the way that she scrounged after money the entire time she was squatting. Perhaps it was her refusal to hold any sort of ideology beyond getting whatever she could for free. Whatever it was, I decided to look up the author.

Ooooh boy. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Seems to me that she is a sell out and traitor of the worst kind. Apparently, her squatting adventure was simply a buildup to launching her own “guardianship”company, which has been in the news for fee/rent-gouging “guardians,” who are basically tenants with absolutely no rights who are “hired” to live in empty properties to keep squatters out. Hired in this case means unpaid. In fact, the guardians pay a fee (rent, if we are honest in our nomenclature) for the privilege of “guarding” the property. I find it sickening.

For nonfiction, I’ve moved on to re-reading two books: The Moneyless Manifesto by Mark Boyle, and Living the Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing. Since I have read these both before, I can already recommend them. Both books have some issues. Boyle’s only issue is that one needs a healthy dose of idealism when reading his words, which is only a problem if the reader lets the idea of perfect get in the way of good enough. The issue with any of the Nearing’s writing is well known, and based off the fact that they glossed over some important details on how they financed the “good life,” but there is still so much good information in there (and I believe their hearts were in the right place), that I still recommend it as foundational reading.

As for nonfiction, I am still working through Sanderson’s Elantris. As I mentioned last week, I am on a nonfiction kick, so I am only reading a chapter or two a day.

Survive & Thrive

Beyond a wage job, we’ve been thriving a bit around here. The rhubarb wine gets siphoned into a demijohn today so that it can start its long ferment.

I’m working through the last of the fruit I canned last summer. A jar of blackberries went into two batches of scones, which I shared with some friends when I attended a get-together at one of their homes last week. I also present these friends with some jars of jam. As for me, I came home with a bottle of nice sparkling wine.

The garden is planted. Unfortunately I didn’t start any seeds this year, since I was unsure how I was going to garden with no existing beds and a deer issue. The procurement of the raised deck beds from the local Buy Nothing group solved the challenge. I planted lettuce, spinach, peas, cucumber, beans, carrots, and zucchini from seed, as I always have luck direct sowing these plants. Our older son’s partner gifted me tomato starts (and I returned the favor with some young raspberry canes and plant pots).

I visited a local grower for the rest, and did well. For minimal cash outlay ($8.71) I was able to get eight cabbage starts, four pepper starts, and 24 onion starts. We already have garlic growing in the raspberry and blueberry beds, as well as a healthy strawberry patch. For herbs we have sage, thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil, and tarragon. There are also elderberry and currant bushes, although these are still young and not very productive yet. I’ll expand more next year, but this is a good start.

We are still harvesting nettles and rhubarb, of course. Life is good, with the only thorn being the need for a wage job. That is the cost when one is on rented land, though. As much as I despise it, cash — not effort nor personal worth — is king.

Yours in hope,

Tuesday Update – Digging In

My image. Mine, mine, mine! Okay…I’ll share it. Enjoy!

Blue sky. No wind. A perfect day in a perfect place.

The problem with perfect days and perfect places is that they can never last. Eventually the wind and the clouds return. The rain sheets down. The river floods. Developers destroy, using a method that they call creating, yet is anything but.

Still. Today is perfect. Tomorrow will also be perfect. Perhaps here, perhaps somewhere else. That’s okay, I’m told. It’s progress, they say.

Maybe, maybe not.

Writing Updates:

I’m still publishing weekly on Medium. This week’s oeuvre is:

True Community Isn’t Pay-to-Play Go read it. I’ll wait right here for ya.

I’ve set short fiction aside, for now. The Ragman wants out. Actually, Blue and Indigo want out. And Skookum. And a few other characters that have been poking me in the brain box when I least expect.

They want out so badly, in fact, that they took up the nearly 9,000 words I wrote last week. Skookum especially. He is an old fragment of a character I wrote a few paragraphs about, for a completely unrelated project, about six years ago. I was dusting off some old files (i.e.- actually trying to clean up the ol’ hard drive for once), and stumbled across those forgotten paragraphs.

He was ready and waiting for me. He leapt out of the screen, grabbed my hand, and said, “I have something you must see.” I followed. I saw. I wrote it down. Then, in the last sentence, he sent out a call.

The Ragman heard. I didn’t realize it when I first met Skookum all those years ago, but he is part of the Ragman’s universe.

How exciting!

Reading Updates:

For me, reading goes through phases. I usually bob along finishing two or so books a week. Usually a fiction read and a non-fiction read. But, every once in a while things go haywire and I find myself reading LOTS of books at once.

We just entered a once in a while period.

I finished A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny. Exactly what I expect of an Agent Gamache mystery, no more, no less. Although, I will admit I am having a hard time suspending disbelief, the more of these books I read. How many murders can happen in such a small town that mainly affect the same six people over and over and over again?

I also finished The Way Home by Mark Boyle. I can never recommend this book enough. This is probably my 12th time reading it. I seem to cycle through it again every few months. I am not sure why I find it so appealing, it just feels right.

I am reading:

Poor Richard’s Women by Nancy Rubin Stuart. A very engaging read! We had a power outage for a few hours last night, and I easily read over half the book before the battery in my booklight gave out. Highly recommending it so far.

Free: Adventures At the Margins of Society by Katherine Hibbert. You can read it for free on archive.org.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. More to come after I finish it!

Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Communities by Nelson and Timmerman.

Survive & Thrive

I haven’t changed much in the previous seven days. I still hate the fact that our lives are controlled by (fake) silver coins, colorful pieces of paper, and digital pips in a bank’s database. But, I’m also a realist. So I recently got a job.

You heard me right. An actual job with regular paychecks. Don’t worry. I’m a bookseller now, working part time in a book store. A real, brick and mortar bookstore that sells real, paper books that are, to the best of our knowledge, written by real, actual human beings.

This doesn’t mean that I am giving up on the Mowse project idea, nor am I going to stop writing or publishing. It just means that even with my highfalutin ideals of a moneyless, egalitarian, eco-utopian world, I still need to eat and sleep in this world. And being able to eat and sleep is necessary to the effectiveness of the work I try to do to unravel systems of greed, stolen privileges, and eco-human destruction.

Try not to be too disappointed in me, please.

If it helps, I also started a batch of rhubarb wine, baked all our own bread, hung out with a rough sleeper (and did what I could to make their day a little less rough), published a piece on those highfalutin ideals, took care of the property I am lucky enough to call home for now, looked after a neighbor, spent lots of time with my family and friends, stood up to a bully, used public transportation, cut back on our energy dependency a small amount, harvested nettles for tea, and took as little part in the monetary greed economy as possible.

So, I’m trying!

Tuesday Update: Mobile Creative Third Space Dreams

(Not Mowse, but similar) Photo by Julia Volk on Pexels.com

We had our first unbroken week of fine spring weather here in the perpetually damp Northwest. For those not privy to the PNW mindset, lots of sunlight makes us a bit crazy. We know that it will never last, so we run outside to soak up as much of it as possible.

Here on the little homestead, this meant lots of weeding and outdoor projects. We managed to sand down and repaint our entire deck, as well. This, of course, meant we had to host a bonfire and cookout. We also attended a bonfire that friends hosted.

Why yes, I do smell perpetually like a campfire. Why do you ask?

It also means that I am behind on my usual writing output. Life is lived, and sometimes the living of it leaves little time for writing about it!

Writing Updates:

Some work was put in on the novel project (working title “Ragman”). I’m still playing around with characters and plot, so most of this work went towards character development, but I also wrote a few sample scenes so that I could start to get a better feel for how all the pieces will work together.

I’ve outlined and begun a few essays, which will be hitting Medium and Substack next week.

Reading Updates:

Spending time working outside also means I slowed down on reading a bit this week.

I am still working my way through “Tress” and “The Future Is Degrowth.”

I also finished “The Way Home” by Mark Boyle. I reread this book every six months or so. It’s a comfort tool at this point. It is also an inspiration, because although I don’t want to live exactly like Mark, I do wish to emulate many of his choices in my own ways. This is Mark’s last public work, which he wrote in a note with a pencil after he decided to follow a life without wasteful modern tech. He contrasts his journey against the Blasket Islanders, a group of people in Ireland that lived cut off from the modern world in many ways until they were forced to evacuate their homes in the 1950s. I consider this book one of the great inspirational works in my life, so of course I recommend it!

Survive & Thrive:

It’s hard not to thrive when the sun is dealing out photons like candy. Vitamin D is my favorite drug!

My thoughts have turned towards finding more ways to cope within the confines of a capitalistic system that doesn’t value, well, anything of true worth. Unfortunately, the system is set up in such a way that fully eschewing it and remaining part of community is difficult. So, I constantly seek ways to live between the lines of capitalism and to thrive within its margins.

I’m playing with a brainstorm right now. I have a little Japanese Kei truck named Mowse. This used to be my work truck when I was gardening, but the economy and my failing rotator cuff is only going to allow me to work for a couple of regular clients going forward.

What to do with Mowse?

I’m still noodling, but here is my idea. What if Mowse stands for Mobile Outreach Wonder SpacE? And, what if this mobile space showed up at local parks or other public areas, similar to an ice cream truck. But, instead of ice cream, what if this space set up an arts and crafts table, where kids and adults could come and create something beautiful and happy, together? What if this space was actually a mobile third space, free of charge, for people to gather and create an impromptu (and, even, perhaps, a lasting) community?

Yes? Yes!

We’ll make books from recycled items, share poetry, have music jams, create art from what is available, read stories to young and the young at heart, and teach the kids and the kids at heart new ways to make, well, anything!

Maybe we’ll add some display racks to the back of Mowse. Sell some art and writing, but not really sell. Suggested price, sure, but I imagine a “pay what you can” model, especially since most of our creations in this household take time but very little money since we scavenge nearly everything we have. I’m not aiming to make money, so much as making sure we can continue to provide art and words and craft and community to everyone!

Things are hard out there. We gotta make it better.

As always, go forth in hope!

Good Food Sometimes Means Doing Hard Things

The Homespun Foodie’s week in review, Nov 30-Dec 6

Winter often drives me indoors more frequently, which in turn means I spend more time in the kitchen. This is an odd December, though. Although I still find myself in the kitchen most days, it is at the comfort of my desk with a pen and paper in front of me, instead of before the stove and dusted with flour.

In other words, cooking has been a chore rather than a delight. An odd December indeed.

It is easy to compromise our goals and our plans, to literally go for broke, when the body and mind rebel against what must be done. It is easy to frame poor decisions as giving oneself grace or as self-care.

Compromising values, giving up on goals, and taking the easy way is not self-care, no matter what your influencer-guru tells you. Hurting your future self is never self-care. To throw away money — and the life energy we spend acquiring it — on food choices that go against our values and drain our wallets is not self-care.

Continue reading for free on Medium…

Localize Your Feed and Free Your Mind

Less News is good news

The alarm goes off, and I grope for my phone in the dark. As soon as I silence the auditory noise, I begin filling my eyes with visual noise. The daily scroll has begun. I cycle through headlines on the news feed, helpfully curated by algorithms that no human hand controls.

When that becomes too much, I flip over to social media and begin reading the headlines and hot takes regurgitated by a million countless cogs in a machine that is imprisoning us all. By the time I roll out of bed an hour later, my brain is filled with rot I can’t control, and I have lost all faith in not just humanity, but my own future.

This isn’t some dystopian fantasy; this is the reality for millions, if not billions, of people around the world. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be.

The 24-hour news cycle has created a trap that leads to personal paralysis. If everything is so screwed, then why bother? If you still have the energy to bother, to try to effect change, then where to start? For too many of us, where we start and where we end is by banging angrily on a keyboard. Adding to the noise, but not creating anything of substance. Certainly not creating any solutions.

Continue reading for free on Medium…

Eating Through Life’s Seasons

The Homespun Foodie’s week in review, Nov 23–29

Life, much like the wheel of the year, is an ongoing cascade of different seasons. Usually, we cycle through busy seasons and slower ones, but recently, life around here has felt like one busy season after another. True, each one is busy for different reasons and in different ways, but busy nonetheless.

It makes cooking even more challenging when one has mixed feelings about the winter holidays. The dominant culture around me celebrates three main winter holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Of the three, the only one that raises no misgivings in my heart is New Year’s Eve and day.

I struggle with the colonial roots of Thanksgiving and the Christian appropriation of various solstice/midwinter celebrations that evolved into our modern Christmas. I am sure I am not the only one who finds this challenging.

Continue reading on Medium for free…

Tight Belts, Full Bellies

The Homespun Foodie’s week in review, Nov 16–22

Although it is both physically and figuratively impossible for one to pull oneself up by one’s own bootstraps, it is possible to tighten one’s belt. Whether that is a good thing depends upon the individual’s need, of course. In general, though, it does all of us a bit of good to tighten our belts periodically — whether necessary or not.

When life becomes too easy for humans, we begin doing stupid things — like running monopolies, hanging out on private torture islands, and engaging in senseless cruelty against the underprivileged. I know I don’t want to begin on that path.

For many in the US, the end of November is the theoretical release of said belt, allowing it to stretch to its utmost as we stuff ourselves with good food and cheer (and, for some, a lot of shopping). Of course, this loosening of the belts often continues into December. This is why so many of us wake up on January first feeling desolate, indebted, and afraid. For the fortunate, there are credit card bills to deal with. For the less fortunate, being short on rent or another important bill may be their lot.

Well, let’s say balderdash to that!

Continue reading for free on Medium…

Living within Your Time and Money Means

The Homespun Foodie’s week in review, Nov 9–15

We are in a lull right now, here at the always cozy Sequoia Cottage. It is a financial lull, as our income continues to hover at its lowest since 2009, and a time lull, as few outside responsibilities are tugging at me.

Having little money but plenty of time is preferred over having little money and little time, of course. With time, we can invest in those actions that make the most of small means. Whether unfortunate or not, our time will soon be in high demand, but there is no guarantee that our income will rise with it.

All is well and all will be well, though, for we are experienced at living large on little — whether that little be time or money!

One way to control working-class folk is to make their survival all-consuming. The workers can’t organize for better pay and improved conditions, for example, if their waking hours are booked full with scrambling for a few meager crusts to make ends meet. Without time, who has the energy to trace their difficulties to the feet of the elite, or to change something about it if they do?

Money-deprived folk with time revolt; money- and time-deprived folk simply struggle to survive.

Continue reading for free on Medium…