The Birdhouse Collective and other stories

Hi everyone,

I've been having a lovely time in beautiful Upstate New York, one of the most biodiverse regions I get to explore, thanks to a family who buys me plane tickets every summer so I can come see them. Right now, I'm sitting at a computer in Prattsburgh New York, the tiny "town" I grew up in which has a population of a whopping 2,000 people! (There are currently more homeless people in Portland then there are residents of Prattsburgh.) A field a couple hundred yards from here is brimming with biodiversity, wild strawberries, black eye'd susans, about fifty different types of grass, baby apple trees pushing their way up through the meadow, even a few succulants growning close to the ground, where the shade from the grass keeps things moist enough! This is a real meadow, the type they might have been mentioning in that movie "I love Huckabees," where the cubby kid asks "what happens in a meadow at dusk?" I'll tell ya what happens; at least in this meadow; morning doves start crying, crickets come out to play their creepy songs, and then, just as the sky turns that inky black-blue colour, bats start coming out and swooping around overhead. A few hours after the bats come out, the coyotes begin their songs. It is absolutely magic!

Across the street is another meadow with a few ponds in it which are excellent swimming holes/wildlife reserves. The other day, I saw a green heron take off from one of the ponds; thats a gorgeous bird if I ever saw one! The ponds are bursting with fish, frogs, snapping turtles (once I got bit in the ass by a snapping turtle in the largest of the ponds,) water birds like blue and green herons, sometimes mallord ducks and red winged blackbirds, dragonflies and more. I'm sure if I sat still by the pond all night, I'd see any number of wild animals come to drink by it; deer and coyotes, raccoons, possums, skunks, feral cats, maybe even a rare treat like a bobcat or a bear, because they certainly roam these woods as well. So I am absolutely in love with the nature in this area, and part of me wants to stay, especially now that I've dropped out of midwifery school and it is cheaper and easier in many ways to make a living around here (that is, if you aren't opposed to doing some farm work,) but I miss my friends in Portland terribly and can't wait to go back to see them.

I have been reading some pretty inspiring stories from Upstate New York the past few days however, which have convienced me that there are some "kids" here in Upstate doing good things. For example, I've been reading about a house in Buffalo New York, known as the Birdhouse Collective. This is truely one of the stories which gives me goosebumps. Apparently, what happened was a punk kid in Buffalo decided that since Buffalo is literally overflowing with abandoned houses and mansons, being a big part of the so-called "rust belt" (Wikipedia rust belt, I don't feel like explaining,) this punk kid decided it was high time he started squatting one. So he found this big old manson which had been a mental institution and an old folks home at various times, he loaded up a lawnmower in his mom's van, went over to this manson and started mowing the lawn. While mowing, he stopped to chat up many of his new neighbors and told them he was the new owner of the building. He and some friends successfully moved in and weren't bothered by the police until several months later. The police gave them a ticket and told them they needed to vacate the house, but the Birdhouse kids stayed. The building they had discovered, was in legal limbo, as the current owner owed too much in back taxes to want anything to do with it, the people who had been previously living in it had died without making any clear arrangements about what would happen next with the building, etc. Basically, it was a shithole which nobody wanted on their hands. The neighbors where just happy semi-responsible kids where occupying this building, since abandoned buildings often become hideouts for all sorts of devenant activities. In fact, it seems it wasn't the neighbors who tipped the police off that kids where squatting there; all the neighbors where solidly in favor of the Birdhouse kids getting legal custody of the house. After years of court appearances, that is what has happened; the Birdhouse belongs legally to the squatter kids. Read about them on their myspace page; just put in Birdhouse Collective.

So I'm gonna halfta go visit the Birdhouse. I hear from my friend Max in Portland who has stayed at various times at the Birdhouse, which is convienently located near some railroad tracks, that a lot of the kids who live/stay there are into rewilding as I am, and he would wake up some mornings to kids in the yard skinning deer and stuff like that. Man, I get goosebumps all over just thinking about squatter-punk-rewilder kids like that! I feel like here is where I should give a shout out to one of my favorite Upstate New York squatter friends, my dear friend Holly, who has the coziest squat ever in Branchport NY (a town not famous for squatting,) where her dog Wilber and her freeze through the winters curled up right against the tiny little woodstove they put in their squat/glass studio. (I should mention the building Holly squats is an old whore house, so it has this awesome upstairs balcony where the whores used to sit and solicit business from.) I guess maybe techically Holly isn't squatting since the man who owns the building knows she is there, and sorta turns a blind eye, but I still call it a squat, since by law Holly isn't allowed to be there, because it has no plumbing or anything really, and Holly has had to make a few cozy deals with various law enforcement people to not get tossed out. Holly is an amazing person, so if you are ever in Upstate New York, particularly Branchport, Pultney or Prattsburgh, find her!

For more inspiration, especially along the lines of squatting, check this band out: Oneiric Imperium. My favorite song is Clandestine Operators. Also, check out the joint project between my friend Jenny and them; Dead Girl History and Oneiric Imperium. Oneiric Imperium is an awesome band from Philly who started by banging on shit at their squat and recording the wierd echo-y noises they made; plus they do Chaos Magic and post all sorts of crazy art around Philly; anyway, I love them and their friend Dead Girl History, so check them out.

Love ya,
carrot