Nancy B.
I was born in Berkeley, California in 1957. When I was 2 we moved to Rochester NY, where I was raised and my mother still lives. My father taught optical engineering at the University of Rochester for 19 years. I am the oldest of three girls. We are an intellectual family of readers and nature lovers, also possibly somewhat eccentric. I have always loved all things living and dead- rocks, plants, animals, lichens, mushrooms, rotifers, waterbears, soldier flies, saturn's rings, all of creation. I remember going to a nature camp with my mom when I was 8 or 9. There were plant walks and snake walks and bird walks and it was wondrous. I was a Girl Scout from Brownie to Senior and had many nature opportunities at camp and on hikes. When I was 10 my family spent a year in Sweden. I loved Sweden! I went to school with the swedish kids and became pretty fluent in swedish. Because of that time I have always felt some affinity for things and attitudes european.
In my early adult life I lived a fairly conventional life in cities- Cambridge and then Chicago. I worked in a photocopy shop, then repaired copiers as a field engineer for Savin, then did offset printing on a AB Dick 360, and then my life changed. I decided I did want to go to college after all and applied to Fairhaven college in Bellingham, WA. I spent a year living on virtually no money. I learned to love goats and chickens, I planted carrots in february (we had a warm spell, but then it was winter again, they rotted), I learned dumpster diving for food (crate of ripe papayas, flats of yogurt, sealed, one day past pull), clothes at the goodwill, I lived in a funky house (on five city lots overgrown with blackberries) with wood heat, and a wood cookstove. I tasted independence and non-consumptiveness and loved it.
Since then I've lived in Minnesota (one third of an undergraduate degree in soil science) and in Corvallis since 1986 (all the rest of my degrees: BS Horticulture MS Soil Science, PhD Entomology). My family currently consists of my dog, a two year old lab/shepherd cross (Jennie-fur) and a bunch of wild spiders which I feed from whatever insects I can catch and toss at their webs. I also have a collection of scrap wood for garden projects, trellises, cold frames, etc.
Jennie is an important part of my life and she also has had a lot of education, having graduated from advanced obedience classes as well as classes in agility (a dog/human sport) and freestyle (dancing with your dog). I hope to make her a registered therapy dog (visits to hospitals, nursing homes etc). We like to walk along the river in the off-leash part of Willamette Park at least several times a week. Jennie is the second dog I have had. She loves all people and all dogs.
In CoHo, I enjoy building beautiful things and most importantly, sharing them. I like to share what I know as well. I am learning that much of the pleasure in life is not in owning and possessing, but in sharing.
