W49: Molalla Scout

This week I have spent almost all of my time scouring the internet, thumbing through phone books and scouting around the town of Molalla. In my search for temporary work, I found a lot of precious gems.

This weeks Laundry List:

1. Move into motorhome. Assess situation. Generate repair/move plan. (In progress)
Despite the fact that the motorhome showed no sign of leakage when we moved our stuff in, that first night a leak appeared right above Penny Scout as we lay in bed trying to fall asleep. Of course! The next day I did some moving around of the tarp and some more propping of things and the leak stopped. At this point, I have the feeling that the motorhome will never really operate at a functional stage and I will always have to improvise. Oh well. At least as long as I live in it I will keep it dry and functional. Really, I can most likely keep it here until I find a piece of land I can move it to once, and than tend to it there.

As I moved in some stuff I found this poster in one of the upper cabinets:

As you can see it looks like a band poster. I searched myspace and found them! Now I know the previous owners of my moho! I sent them a note but haven’t heard back yet.

2. Come up with random money making plan. (Failed)
3. Work on book. (Failed)
4. Get Urban Scout Movie on site. (Failed)
5. Generate garden plan with Mom. (In progress)

I failed to do most of these things because I need money very badly. When I feel anxious I can’t write or read. Instead I decided to dive into the world that makes up Molalla and seek out the things I find of interest.

Molalla River Corridor/Table Rock Wilderness
As most of you will remember, Penny and I went on a hike a few months ago through the beautiful Table Rock Wilderness. I find it the most amazing view of the cascades that I have ever seen. You can read about that adventure in my previous blog, “Table Rock For Two.”

Splat Action Paintball
Splat Action Paintball lies just outside of Molalla and boasts the largest paintball playing field in Oregon. I totally plan to go there for my birthday!

Victory Seeds/Dunton Family Farm
Victory Seeds operates on the Dunton Family farm. They believe in stewardship and sustainability and they have had the family farm for nearly 100 years! They even have experimented with humanure composting. It appears from obscure and almost coded text on their sites that they also think that collapse of economics and environment loom over head. I’d like to make them my friends.

Community Garden
I heard that Molalla had a community garden last year, but it doesn’t look like much yet.

Sky Dive Oregon
I could make an educated guess that Sky Dive Oregon attracts the most people to the molalla area, at least in terms of tourism. My sister has worked there in the past and loves to sky dive. I, on the other hand, have NO interest in jumping out of a plane!

One Green World
One Green World focuses on horticultural plants, specifically food bearing ones. They have all kinds of great foods from all over the world. Great for permaculturalists who don’t care about native food plants. They have a cute native section too. I plan to buy all kinds of plants from them soon, not just the native ones (don’t shoot me!).

Miniature Trains
Yes, Molalla has a miniature train park where people can ride the cute little trains that actually use steam engines.

Remote Airplane field
Too bad I don’t have a remote control airplane.

Random
For entertainment in town I found a skate park, aquatic center, bowling alley & arcade, 2 coffee shops and if you feel really bored, I here a trip through the car wash has more excitement than Six Flags Themepark.

Hippie Shit
In spite of Molalla’s seemingly redneck culture I found they actually have quite a few alterative lifestyle options in town including a naturopathic clinic, a massage clinic, 3 chiropractor clinics, Sonlight Vital Foods, A “Natural Health Center” with supplements and things. I also found an organic CSA in the Silverton area (just south of Molalla) that delivers to Molalla called Gardenripe.

Let’s not forget the cute and well-established newspaper, The Molalla Pioneer. Despite Molalla’s small size, this paper comes out twice a week. The top story usually involving the controversy over a domesticated deer named “snowball.” At first the insane amount of misspellings and typos in the Pioneer irritated me, but now I find it sort of endearing. They accept all kinds of stories from the locals, so I definitely plan on writing an article once I feel more established in the town.

I also took the bus from Molalla to Portland on Wednesday to lead a group of Americore Volunteers on a two hour class/thing for “Urban Survival.” The bus ride took 1 1/2 hours and cost $3 for a one way trip. The class felt a little lazy, not in a negative way, but in a human “it feels so good to lie in the sun” kind of way. We chatted about urban survival and collapse and urban gardening and than I taught them some fun sensory/movement games.

Friday I drove Penny Scout to her job so I could use the car and scope out Silverton. Instead I drove down to Salem and sat in a coffee shop for hours working on this blog and a some other blogs and some other shit. Unfortunately for her, now that she works 40 hours a week she doesn’t have time to write blogs, so now I will have to include a little tidbit about her on my blog. I feel great about this, I think her blog had started to steal my thunder! Haha. She never reads my blogs anyway. Her work uniform says “Horticulture” on it. I love my girlfriend!

I have to say, I’ve felt difficulty in adjusting to Molalla. Yes, I have only lived here for a few days (if you exclude the other times I lived there temporarily) but it feels different this time and I still feel trapped. It feels like a far off suburb of Portland. I still can’t get to the woods easily without a car. It feels like some weird middle ground. Though I do like it better that it feels like “less city” but it doesn’t feel like “more woodsy.” I will probably feel differently about that as I adjust and begin to work on my mothers permaculture garden. Maybe she’ll even pay me my allowance.

Week 50 Laundry List:

1. Make awesome plan with my mom for the yard, post plan on site.

2. Continue begging for a job at One Green World.

3. Work on book, post new chapter… if not completely depressed.

4. No coffee for the whole week!

5. Paint interior of the moho.

6. Make beef jerky for Penny Scout to take with her to work.

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