hello!

[yarrowkat]

Hello! I am always interested in making friends on here and I will return comments for folks who comment on my entries. i have been on DW since the last large migration off LJ in 2017 (i held on over there way too long.) very interested in meeting more people here!

NAME: Kat or yarrow

AGE: 42

INTERESTS & HOBBIES: i’m not sure that hobbies are things that i have so much as that my life has lots of moving parts and there are lots of things i do. former lit major with an MA in Literature from a long time ago; still a word geek and avid reader. i read mostly sf/f of all descriptions, and some historical fiction and “literature,” but i’m primarily interested in thoughtful, character-driven stories, and in work by women, POC and LGBTQ authors. i am an organic gardener and i live in a five-person poly-pagan intentional community on a working farm, so i talk about that stuff pretty regularly. i’m pagan and slightly involved in my local pagan community (after decades of deep over-involvement in it). i am a poet and enjoy reading poetry, and i post my work in my journal. i’m queer and poly, in two committed long-term relationships. one of my sweeties is trans, and if you are not 100% cool with transpeople, we should not be friends. i don’t post about politics here but i’ve spent my life prety far to the left, consider myself progressive and would prefer to hang out with folks who value the environment and the lives of people of color, queer folks, immigrants, folks of differing abilities, and anybody else being actively oppressed by our culture and insistutions. i am deeply worried about climate change, and the tiny community i live in was formed partly in response to climate change, in the “ripple-effect activism” sort of way. i work in the art department in a large university and i love it, and i talk about work sometimes. o and i am an enthuiastic amateur photographer (yarrowkat on IG).

LOOKING FOR: friends who are engaged here and will comment sometimes and like to get comments. a slightly random list would include (but by no means be limited to!) people who are interested in any of the same sorts of things i am, people who write about their own lives, people living in yurts or intentional communities, pagans, queers, poets, gardeners, other childfree people (i have nothing at all against people with kids but i am a little starved for the company of other childfree adults), other people in their 40s, any of the above. i am always engaged by hearing about things that people are passionate about, whatever that may be. i’m most interested in “slice-of-life” journals.

ANYTHING ELSE?: idk, i think that covers it? i’m wordy? but very friendly! i miss the community feel that LJ used to have, back in the day, and am kinda trying to recreate that with new people here. if i sound interesting, feel free to add and i’ll add back!

Comments

[zhelana]

I have a slice of life journal. I'm in the SCA which is a lot about how to do arts and sciences from the middle ages. I think we could be friends. Shall we?

[yarrowkat]

let's! a million years ago (in high school) i was in the SCA! and am still loosely in touch with it, have friends who are in it. the overlap with the pagan scene is pretty wide.

[zhelana]

A million years ago (in high school) I was pretty active in the pagan scene, and still have friends from then. :)

[yarrowkat]

perfect! :-D

[foliedemars]

Age 40 and childfree! *waves*

[yarrowkat]

yay! *waves and adds*

[theoryoferin]

only (almost)33, but passionately childfree, also very concerned with climate change, am an active ally (i even play saxophone in a local pride band!), am a teacher, and am growing veggies on my apartment balcony to the best of my abilities.

friends? [:

[october_rain]

You sound interesting and like a lovely person to get to know! : ) We share a few things in common, and I'd love to add you as a friend on here! I also enjoy interacting via comments and having nice conversations on here. Feel free to check out my profile and add me if what you read there is interesting to you. : )

[yarrowkat]

yay yes friends! saxophone, that's marvellous. what kind of music do you play?

[yarrowkat]

added you!

[theoryoferin]

we play standard wind band / orchestral stuff sometimes, sometimes random pop tunes... kind of all over the place!

[october_rain]

Thanks! I've added you back. : ) I have an about-me sticky on my page for a quick introduction. : )

[disartster]

I'm fairly young compared to you. I'm only 23 and I'm non-binary. I'm super into gardening and your current relationship farm thing is like.. dream. I would love for me and my partner to move to a more community area and have the space to really garden and farm.
I am pretty new here but do plan on being active from now on.
Also I love yurts they are so neat. I was looking into them a little while ago :D
I'll add you, I hope thats fine. you seem super cool.

[silver_chipmunk]

Hello! You sound interesting. I'm a 56 year old divorced librarian in New York City. I have a married 28 year old daughter, and two cats and a turtle. I'm probably not very interesting,but I post something every day so you always have something to read. I'm politically and socially liberal, and also very worried about climate change, though not in a position to do much about it. I'm going to friend you, hope you friend me back.

[yarrowkat]

hello and welcome! i added you back! it is honestly pretty validating when someone half my age thinks i'm cool, so i'm really happy to make friends! (i am an academic advisor by trade and aspire professionally to be the cool big sister/aunt for my students). if you want to read about our IC, we're at sunflowerriver.org, but give it until Monday because we are doing a major website overhaul right now so like half of it is 404s until we get it fixed. i built the yurt i live in and it's definitely had its ups and downs over the years (and three long stories about insulation) but mostly i really love it. you can make your community/garden/farm dream happen! it's so worthwhile.

[yarrowkat]

hi! i also have two cats and a turtle, though Grigsby, the rugged feral survivor turtle, is presently hibernating for the winter at the bottom of the pond, or so i presume. i manage to post around once a month (besides poems) but when i do it's usually a small novel, so maybe it balances out? nice to meet you!

[yarrowkat]

awesome!

[evilpettingz00]

Hi, I'd like to add you. I'm (almost) 45, pansexual, poly-ish (poly-minded, but not in a poly relationship), child-free, not pagan, but I used to be (atheist now), liberal, and a bibliophile. My journal is pretty slice-of-life. And I, too, am wordy. :D

[reveiled]

I'm 40 and not child free (I have a 7 y/o daughter and would love more, though it probably won't happen at this time in my life, but I do journal about it sometimes - be warned and feel free to skip those entries). I LOVE character-driven stories and novels, and would love to connect with another person who shares this approach - I roll my eyes on a regular basis when people criticize my favourite books because "not much happens". I am in a process of writing (very slowly) a character-driven novel. I also write poetry. I have not been journaling much over the past couple of months, but I have been on DW and previously on LJ for about 13 years, and I know my patterns - slowing down in the fall due to lower energy levels and work being extra busy (I'm a teacher) and getting back into it with increased energy around Christmas. I may not post much for another couple of weeks, but then I will, I promise! Friends?

[metall_lover]

I would like to follow this very much <3
Love to read/comment, and still learning to write about myself, though all I get is something laughable, I mean this is not that bad when life is a good humor, yeah?
ps, got banned on tumblr, i didnt even do something p*rn i swear! xD
Cat, coffee and music lover)

[rafiwinters]

Added, because you seem like an interesting person. My sweetie aka my wife is trans, I'm bi and exploring poly, and I write like nobody's business, or I do when I'm not too stressed out about stuff.

[yarrowkat]

hello and welcome! i added you back! (i'm pretty convinced that polyamory is as much a philosophy of/approach to living as it is the actual fact of multiple relationships)

[yarrowkat]

nothing at all against hearing about other people's already-existing kids, just also building my childfree peer circle. anyway my housemates on the farm have a 7-year-old, too. i look forward to reading your poems!

i get book recs sometimes from other diehard SF people and i pick up the book and get 50 pages into it and there is not one single relatable character and i wander off in dismay and they cannot understand why! for me the best is a lively plot AND superb characterization, but i'll take people over action if i have to pick.

[disartster]

I'll definitely read it on monday :D
Insulation is tough sometimes with cooler climates. I have been researching it but the area I live can get down to under -30 fairly regularly in the winter so its a priority.
I'll make it one day once I manage to get off disability. Its like my main big Goal

[zetetopia]

I'm a WLW who's polyamorous and a writer of SF/F--it sounds like we could get on nicely!

[yarrowkat]

awesome! i live in New Mexico, so high desert -- we do get winter, and sometimes even a bit of snow, but it's not a colder climate by any stretch of the imagination. i just re-re-reinsulated the yurt with rockwool and OMG. it is worth what it costs. it's not particularly environmentally friendly -- i previously had this recycled denim stuff and unfortunately, biodegradeable insulation will eventually biodegrade inside your wall. when we had to remove it, it was a moldy mess that had been holding water -- even here in the dry! -- and slumping off the wall in nasty patches -- terrible. the rockwool is firm, doesn't bend much, so should stay put better (and we affixed it to the yurt with very tight non-stretch straps and set the base on the deck, so that should work better), and should last for decades. which ideally is what insulation should do -- go into the house and then stay there, working. the difference in heat retention and sound quality, keeping out the highway noise, is amazing.

[yarrowkat]

hello! it sounds like! added back!

[yarrowkat]

ah, it's always good to meet another person who is partnered to a transwoman. it sounds like we have lots in common; added you back!

[yarrowkat]

tumblr is definitely chasing away its userbase this month! welcome to dreamwidth. added you back!

[disartster]

Sounds much better! I've been looking into either earth ships or maybe even I think they are called earth bag houses? Basically anything that is naturally heat retaining and earth is very good at that though I will probably have to still burn a fair amount of wood, thats kinda a given in this climate and is probably better than gas which is what I am forced to use since I am renting.
The area I plan on being in. Which is where I used to live before having to move for awhile gets snow over head height. So I gotta take that into account to. I just love yurts cause I know many are very mobile and thought that having such a beautiful house that can basically just be packed up and moved is so neat. Sorry about your mold though. We get a lot here and it is the worst.

[yarrowkat]

oh, check out straw bale construction! super earth friendly and its insulative power is WAY better than adobe/earthbag/rammed earth. we have two houses, and the second one we bought as a kind of extreme fixer-upper and then remodelled literally from the ground up. we wrapped it in straw bales, around the adobe core and the cinderblock wings, and it is SO cozy and perfectly temperate in heat and in cold. and it completely blocks road noise, bonus. adobe is good thermal mass, but poor insulation -- the difference is that it will absorb & radiate heat, if the sun is on it all day, or coolth in the night - but it will not retain either heat or coolth. earthbag is just another way of doing adobe -- we built an earthbag property wall, which we love. there's more about it on the farm blog.

[yarrowkat]

https://sunflowerriver.org/blog-3/

this page is currently up, from which you can see lots of our current projects. the wall art post will show the earthbag wall and the bas-relief sculpture project we've been doing on it.

[quantumcupcakes]

hi there, almost 50, child-free, bisexual, poly and work for a university. Just reading your intro I think I kind of adore you already and would love to be friends!

[evilpettingz00]

Thanks! And yes, exactly! I see it as being similar to how I'm still pansexual even though I'm a (cis) woman married to a (cis) man and not currently involved with anyone else.

[evilpettingz00]

It doesn't look like you added me back, though!

[yarrowkat]

ack, thank you for catching that! fixed! i tried to go through this whole list of wonderful new people and add everybody but i'm also at work and distracted and i think i may not have been adequately thorough. my apologies!

[yarrowkat]

aww, thanks! i'm looking forward to getting to know you!!

[disartster]

I will look into straw! It seems to be a good alternative if I can find a good amount of it nearby. Thanks :D
I think like you I may do a mix of stuff and that will help with keeping any issues with the snow at bay.
Also I love your wall. I checked it out and the frog is super cute

[rafiwinters]

Yep, it is, that. See you around!

[silver_chipmunk]

Nice to meet you too. My turtle is a spoiled pampered indoor turtle in a tank, she's 23 and I've had her since she was a baby. Her name is Christy. Or Christie, I've never been quite sure of the spelling. The cats are also indoors only (this is New York City after all). Oreo is the male and Sibyl is the female. They don't get along at all well.

[evilpettingz00]

No problem! :)

[theuncertainhour]

Hi! I'm in my late 20s, lesbian, & am always on the lookout for good sci-fi & fantasy by LGBTQ/POC/female authors! I'm also navigating a growing interest in paganism & think you sound *incredibly* cool - plus, I love your poetry.

I came over from Tumblr, but I used to be active on LJ back in the day and really miss it, so I'm hoping to find a new community of interesting people. I've added you and I'd love to be friends!

[zesty_pinto]

Hi, you sound open and easygoing enough; I'd be happy to add you to my network if you're cool with it. I'll interact, though these weeks have been worse than usual since I'm obsessed with DIYing crap for Christmas.

[yarrowkat]

hello! sounds like we have a lot in common, and I'm so glad you like my poems! i look forward to getting to know you!

[yarrowkat]

bingo. no erasure going on here! i am also married to a cisdude, who is a bit more of a dude (in a lot of unconscious, refuse-to-get-conscious, privilege kind of ways) than someone i would pick out today, but we've got 12+ years together, and we are two of the four co-founders of the intentional community we both live in, and we're navigating it.

[naturallyeclectic]

Your life is basically my current dream..?

I’m a 23-year-old who loves agriculture and poetry, and am 100% supportive of my trans friends. I’m a year and a half into a Social Service Worker program with Indigenous Specialization (basically social work meets decolonization) and extremely excited to get back to school in January after a year hiatus! I’m new to DW, but I intend on being an active member of the community between classes and other responsibilities, so hopefully we get to interact a bit. :)

[yarrowkat]

it also sounds like you and disartster (upthread) should meet because you are both aspiring community-living people with stuff in common!

i wrote a poem some time back, which does a couple of the things your "what i'm from" intro does, though my piece is more time-specific and more narrative. anyway i thought you might like to see it. it's the centerpiece of my book of the same name, published fall 2017.

https://yarrowkat.dreamwidth.org/572645.html