Faith and Becky

I first met Faith at the garden. She was living next door in a squat. She told me she had plants and my plans began to bloom. The idea of a community fertilized the seeds. As I got to know her, she showed me her house, told me about her travels including living in fabled caves in Greece, and eventually she came with us to get the chickens. She had her own chicken, which, as she described it more, degenerated the romantic agricultural quality into an odd fact. "Her name's Becky" She said, "She's blind". Her eyes then, clashed with my own as I switched from regarding to staring. Sure enough, a rescue from a farm west of Philly, Faith took Becky to Pittsburgh, to share in her journey. Faith is always journeying even staying still. I was glad she had the chicken, sorry Becky, since her living conditions were abismal, dismal, and mal; squalor. Moldy. Her house was named "Mold Squat," no electricity or water, a few windows and walls. She slept on an old couch on the third floor. Becky needed hand feeding and hand watering. Graffiti filled the moldy walls, frescos by Murph Dawg, a local legend, scrawlings by passers through. A studded jacket, piled high with fungus and ceiling plaster still sat in the coat rack in the foyer. She had an elaborate system of bottles, the pattern of which she would inspect upon entering to see if anyone had been there in her absence.

photos by Anna Brewer

Photos by Anna Brewer

Eventually she moved in with Verasi and Ed, to an established squat, and began working construction for cash and building the raft that she would eventually take down the Ohio River.

She was the first to find my chickens dead. A week later, Becky, tucked away in Mold Squat got ambushed in the afternoon. Only feathers were left. Verasi thought that Racoons would not enter an inhabited house. This isn't true. I neglected to remember the story of a family friend who was once bitten on the big toe by a raccoon as he slept in his bed. There must be some folklore that grants meaning to the intrusion of a raccoon into a home. I finally got the trap. The hunt for the raccoon began.

She's got two new chickens, and is on a raft right now with Collin and Verasi. Check out her blog at http://www.wewillnotdrown.blogspot.com !!