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From the Editor<br />
A Close Look<br />
by Beverly Faxon<br />
To tell this story, I must confess a phobia, fueled by the media and my natural fear of<br />
hard-to-resolve problems that can multiply exponentially and make you itch. The idea<br />
of bedbugs drives me wild. I’ve never had a bedbug, never seen a bedbug, but I keep<br />
a sharp eye out. My fear is not completely unreasonable—my family is no stranger<br />
to hotels, and without going into gruesome detail, the bedbug is apparently a wily<br />
hitchhiker with a long, sneaky, and fertile lifespan.<br />
And so, one Saturday morning when I noticed a small, brown, apple seed-sized<br />
thing in my bed, I investigated. The thing was too small for me to clearly identify with<br />
my naked eye, and it wasn’t moving. I got my magnifier. (Yes, this is where the crazylady<br />
part of the story fully emerges.) I once bought a sweet little magnifier, like an<br />
old-fashioned monocle, that I keep on a green ribbon. I bought it so I could delight in<br />
the details of found butterfly wings and seashell whorls and feathers, but now I just use<br />
it to identify bugs.<br />
Often, on magnified examination, what I see are not bugs, but pieces of lint.<br />
But this was a bug. And unlike other bugs I’ve seen close up, this looked a lot like a<br />
bedbug. A lot. The panic set in. Instead of settling in with a cup of tea, a waffle and<br />
NPR, I spent the morning bouncing between the computer--please, if you have never<br />
looked up bedbugs on the web, don’t do it now--and the magnifier. I spent the afternoon<br />
vacuuming and tearing apart my bedroom.<br />
Because I’ve looked at a lot of websites, including all the sites that show the<br />
difference between bedbugs and bedbug wannabes, I knew in my heart that this was a<br />
bedbug. Its legs were gone, but it had all the body attributes: shape, color, size, markings.<br />
Still I wanted outside confirmation, so I found a tiny box, lined it with tissue, laid out<br />
my dead bug, and sent it to <strong>Co</strong>rnell University, where, for a small fee, the entomology<br />
department will identify any insect you send them--a good thing to know.<br />
I would not say that we are old friends, anxiety and I. Although that suggests<br />
the right degree of intimacy between us, it also suggests an affection that I don’t feel.<br />
Anxiety piles up like a wave and grabs the chest. It makes a deep breath hard to take and<br />
flutters around in the throat like a swallowed butterfly. It wreaks havoc on the stomach<br />
and intestines, roiling around like—forgive this simile—a can of worms. And it takes<br />
a seat in the brain, where it instigates self-dialogue like this:<br />
“There’s no point in worrying until you know there’s something to worry about.”<br />
“Well, that’s true UNLESS you’re VERY (fill in the blank—“good”, “careful”,<br />
“smart, “proactive”). Then you could somehow avert this crisis with (fill in the blank—<br />
“the septic system”, “that mole on your back”, ”invading weasels”, “BEDBUGS”).<br />
Anxiety self-talk usually backfires. At my best, I try to just ride the wave, hang on<br />
tight, and wait for the waters to calm.<br />
And so, once the bug was tenderly packaged and securely taped into its tissue-lined<br />
coffin and mailed off to <strong>Co</strong>rnell, it was just anxiety and me, hanging out. I was wanting,<br />
like usual, to know what was going to happen next—how big a hassle or disturbance or<br />
fear this problem was going to be. How I was going to handle it. How much it might<br />
disrupt my life or derail my plans. Whether or not it would ever be resolved.<br />
Then, a surprising thing happened. I had a thought that wasn’t counterproductive.<br />
I think my thought was brought on by reading Wendell Berry’s New <strong>Co</strong>llected Poems.<br />
Berry, like A.A. Milne, can somehow make me feel that everything is going to be all<br />
right. Such lines gently turn the world on its head:<br />
Seventy Years<br />
Well, anyhow, I am<br />
not going to die young.<br />
Reading Berry, I see the continuum: life is a good story, and where would we rather<br />
be than in the midst of it?<br />
This was my thought: “We don’t know how this story is going to end.”<br />
I’m not sure why it was so comforting, but it was. I like being in the middle of a<br />
good story—one I might be able to tell later. I like being alive, and who wants to know,<br />
prematurely, how any of it is going to end? I’ve been testing out this new mantra, and<br />
although it is not an anxiety cure-all, it helps.<br />
But I will tell you how this story ends, in case you ever come over for dinner.<br />
Jason, the nice guy from <strong>Co</strong>rnell, emailed me to say that my bedbug was not. It was<br />
a pseudoscorpion. Jason was kind enough to send me a lot of information about these<br />
insects, including photos. I have seen pseudoscorpions before; they don’t look like<br />
bedbugs. Unless their legs and pincers are gone. Check. Jason, a true entomologist who<br />
probably didn’t want me to randomly squash things, assured me they are “considered<br />
beneficial”. They don’t bite pe<strong>op</strong>le; they mostly live outside and eat things like flies<br />
and mites. This was good news. I once had a run-in with mites that had me out in the<br />
chicken co<strong>op</strong> at 10:30 p.m. with a flashlight and a mason jar. But that’s another story.<br />
From the Board<br />
Board Declares 2012<br />
Patronage Refund<br />
Look for details in your mailbox the first week<br />
of May Refunds available at the registers,<br />
May 1-July 29, <strong>2013</strong>.<br />
Earth Day at the <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong><br />
We’re celebrating<br />
Earth Day,<br />
Monday <strong>April</strong> 22,<br />
by giving away<br />
free trees and<br />
seeds!<br />
Salmonberry <strong>Co</strong>mmunity Land<br />
Trust will join us for the day to<br />
share <strong>op</strong>en-pollinated heirloom<br />
seeds with our customers, as part<br />
of their seed distribution project,<br />
and we’ll have four varieties of tree<br />
saplings from Brooks Tree Farm in<br />
Oregon. This year we’re sending you home with Giant Sequoia, Red Osier Dogwood,<br />
Vine Maple, or Noble Fir starts. We will also be packing some of your groceries in<br />
Earth Day bags decorated for us special by the kids at West View Elementary School.<br />
Also on Earth Day, st<strong>op</strong><br />
by in the morning and<br />
talk with local beekeeper<br />
Bruce Vilders,<br />
owner of B.V.’s Bees, a local back yard pollination service. He is a WSU certified<br />
beekeeper and will be available to discuss and answer questions dealing with honey<br />
bees and pollination. We’ll put up a tent in the parking lot where he’ll be from 9am-12<br />
noon.<br />
<strong>Skagit</strong> <strong>Valley</strong> <strong>Food</strong> <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> Mission Statement<br />
The <strong>Skagit</strong> <strong>Valley</strong> <strong>Food</strong> <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> is a not-for-profit organization whose purpose is<br />
to provide good food at a low price. As stated in the <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> By-Laws: “The <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong><br />
shall promote member welfare by utilizing their united funds and their united efforts<br />
for the purchase and distribution of commodities in accordance with the following<br />
criteria:<br />
A. Maintaining the non-for-profit status of the <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong>;<br />
B. Offering high quality products which contribute to good nutrition;<br />
C. Supporting a low impact, non-harmful approach to the environment;<br />
D. Supporting local suppliers and producers;<br />
E. A commitment to building a co<strong>op</strong>erative economy and supporting others who<br />
share that commitment;<br />
F. A commitment to educational programs relevant to members and non-members<br />
in the community.”<br />
The <strong>Skagit</strong> <strong>Valley</strong> <strong>Food</strong> <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> Natural<br />
Enquirer is a bimonthly publication of<br />
the <strong>Skagit</strong> <strong>Valley</strong> <strong>Food</strong> <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong>. Opinions<br />
expressed are those of the writers and<br />
may not reflect <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> policy. No articles<br />
are meant to be used for diagnosis or<br />
treatment of illness. The <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> does<br />
not endorse the products or services of<br />
advertisers.<br />
Editor: Beverly Faxon<br />
Staff <strong>Co</strong>ntributors: nancylee bouscher,<br />
Jodie Buller, Claire Harlock Garber,<br />
Baiyu Mukai, Neil Soderstrom, Todd<br />
Wood<br />
Board of Trustees: Steve Bluhm,<br />
nancylee bouscher, Kristen Ekstran,<br />
Mariana Foliart, Donna Hegstad,<br />
Patricia Sneeringer & Tom Theisen<br />
<strong>Co</strong>pyright <strong>2013</strong>:<br />
Reprints with permission<br />
Phoebe Carpenter Eells<br />
Open 8-9 Monday-Saturday<br />
9-8 Sunday<br />
202 So. 1 st Mount Vernon, Washington<br />
98273<br />
360-336-9777<br />
www.skagitfoodco<strong>op</strong>.com<br />
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<strong>Skagit</strong> <strong>Valley</strong> <strong>Food</strong> <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong> The Natural Enquirer <strong>April</strong>/May <strong>2013</strong>