Holden Main-Street: Catalouging with Kennedy
[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to Holden Main Street: a playful podcast series dedicated to capturing the daily life and creative musings of ordinary folk at Holden Village. Who are the people drawn to this wild and uniquely transformative mountain community? How do their descriptions of hilarity, wilderness living, shared work and interior exploration shape the landscape of their time here? Expect to be delighted by improvised stories, poetry readings, the sounds of tea being poured, songs being sung, and bits of whimsy inspired by the moment. Enjoy.
[00:00:41] Dev: Welcome to another episode of the Holden Podcast. I am your host Dev (he/him pronouns), and I am with the wonderful Kennedy.
[00:00:52] Kennedy: She/her pronouns.
[00:00:53] Dev: Excellent. How else would you like to introduce yourself Kennedy?
[00:00:58] Kennedy: I am the village's repairs associate and utilities assistant. So I work with everything between heat, plumbing and power...and then I fix everything else in between that needs to get fixed.
[00:01:11] Dev: What is your favorite out of all those activities?
[00:01:14] Kennedy: I like carpentry, which is also a part of repairs. I like working with structures the most. Small projects like cabinets for fun, but if I'm gonna do the grunt work, I wanna work on the structures, which are so fun.
[00:01:29] Dev: Wonderful. So is this something you came with--these skillset--to the village, or you learned on the fly?
[00:01:37] Kennedy: I am just learning all of this on the fly. I knew a little bit of carpentry before coming in. I took a wood shop class in high school when I was in like ninth grade, which was like gazillion years ago.
But other than that, anything that I'm doing right now, I have learned in the village, which is hard work and it's definitely stressful, but it's definitely also really rewarding. And I'll know leaving the village that I'll have a lot on my resume saying I got to fix a 60 year old turbine for our hydro. Where else would I get the skills to learn this but here.
[00:02:12] Dev: Wonderful. Bags and boxes.
[00:02:17] Kennedy: Bags and boxes. We have a lot of those.
[00:02:21] Dev: That may seem like a weird segue, but we were having lunch at the same table, and you had this magazine in front of you. I really want want this to be an actual series in this podcast. Can you just describe your love for what was in that catalog?
[00:02:41] Kennedy: So essentially we ordered a bunch of stuff from U-line, which is like some sort of company that provides you with all sorts of storage, containers of all sorts, from boxes to bags, to carts to bins.
And I found the catalog and I went absolutely crazy yesterday over lunch, just oohing and ahhing everything in there. Ooh. Is that a protective gear? I want that. Oh, you know what, we could really use these shelves elsewhere. Oh man. You know what? We should get Emer Kate a yellow bucket. But yeah, I just got really excited because it's like all these would've been really useful to have in the village.
It brings me joy to have things organized. Especially with where I work in repairs. So everything has its own place, everything's like neat and packed. And if you go to U-line catalog, you can find a container to store stuff in it.
I just got really excited. It was like Christmas day. like If I had a sharpie, I would've been sitting there circling what I wanted. And then actually at the end of the catalog there was like some sort of deal where if you spent $1,500, you could get a free speaker.
And so I brought it up to the ops manager. During the middle of lunch, I walked up to him, opened the magazine. I was like, "Ben, look, if we order 1,500 thousand dollars worth of items from this catalog, we can get a speaker." And he's like, "oh, perfect...and it's for wood chaining." Because we usually listen to music while we're wood chaining. But we actually can't spend that much in a single sitting. Usually we buy things in spurts. Maybe next year when we get a new budget, we'll think about that and get that speaker.
[00:04:24] Dev: Absolutely. Fantasy shopping is real. And also, you've heard it here first. This is gonna be potentially the start of a new series called what? What do we even call it?
[00:04:34] Kennedy: Cataloging with Kennedy
[00:04:35] Dev: Catalog. Wow! Cataloging with Kennedy! I feel like you've thought about this.
[00:04:40] Kennedy: Just a little bit. I'm really mad that I did not bring the catalog with me because I think I went for like a good 20 minutes at lunch just talking about the catalog.
[00:04:50] Dev: And it wasn't just you?
[00:04:51] Kennedy: No. Me and Arrow who works in the kitchen. They were like, "oh yeah, I like these sparkly little bags. Oh, I want those for sure." And then I think Beth came in and they're like, "oh yeah, we could definitely use some things in the craft cave." I'm like, oh my God. I was like, I honestly wanna order some stuff from you U-line now.
[00:05:11] Dev: So next time, that is what we're gonna do. We're gonna have you and Arrow and perhaps Beth...and whoever else you think would be delighted by cataloging with Kennedy. And yeah, we'll just rock that.
in regards of community, what has been your favorite part of being in Holden?
[00:05:29] Kennedy: Oh gosh, there's so much. So much. Okay. Stop days. So for those of you who haven't been on staff, usually during the off season ,once a month, we get a stop day where staff just completely stops, except for those who are essential.
And usually we do something fun each stop day. In the past couple of stop days, I've hosted a couple of meals for people to come over and eat with me. The first one we did egg rolls and then the second one we did momos, which was super good. Just being able to hang out with people and cook something different is absolutely wonderful. Being able to just chill with everybody; that's been my favorite part of the village is stop days.
But on a regular basis, I would say my chele mates are pretty fun. Those of us who live here full-time get to live in chele's, so small houses with a bunch of other people. There's always something going on each night. So it's just always fun to hang out with people there, for sure.
[00:06:33] Dev: Wonderful. Tell us about the kids.
[00:06:35] Kennedy: For some reason am like a children magnet. In this village, all the kids gravitate towards me, and I don't know why. I've always told people that I don't want kids. I used to say I hated kids, but I think the village kids have like really opened my eyes up to the idea that kids are okay.
[00:06:56] Dev: Holden Village kids are okay.
[00:06:58] Kennedy: Yeah. Holden Village kids are okay. These kids are just so lovely. They're all just so cute. Lizzy, she's almost two. She's just the cutest thing on the planet. I love to play knucks with her.
I'll ask her, "where's your nose?" Or "where's your ear?" And she'll think about it for a second, and then she'll point at her ear or her nose, and it's just really cute. And then I also like to bake with the kids. Oh, for a while there I had a point where I would bake with the kids every single weekend and I'd take all of them with me and we'd go to different chele's of the families.
We'd all come up with some sort of baked good that we all wanted to make. I'd let them pick and then I'd gather all the ingredients. I'd help them following directions, how to measure, and then taking turns and collaborating with each other.
Josiah came up to me a couple weeks ago after we had made like these cookies and he's "Kennedy, when's the next time we're gonna bake?" Can we do it tomorrow?" I'm like, no, cuz it's such short notice. And he's like, "okay, would you let me know when?"
I'm like "as soon as I get some eggs." And then the next day he comes up to me and he's like, "did you get eggs yet?" I'm like, "what?" He's like, "the eggs!"
[00:08:10] Dev: We had an agreement here.
[00:08:11] Kennedy: For baking. I'm like, "oh, eggs." I'm like, "no, I don't have the eggs." He's like, "You need to get the eggs." I'm like, "okay, Josiah." And so it's just interacting with them brings me joy and many people have come up to me and said, you're so good with kids. I'm surprised you don't want them. And I'm like I'm not ready yet. I'm happy to hang out with other people's kids, give the parents a little break and then hand them back.
[00:08:37] Dev: I prefer being the uncle as well.
[00:08:39] Kennedy: Yeah
[00:08:40] Dev: If you had a superpower, what would it be?
[00:08:42] Kennedy: Oh gosh. There's two.
[00:08:44] Dev: Okay.
[00:08:45] Kennedy: Can I pick two?
[00:08:45] Dev: Yes.
[00:08:46] Kennedy: Okay. I'd like to read minds.
[00:08:48] Dev: Read minds. Okay.
[00:08:49] Kennedy: But not I'm reading every single thought. If I'm like having a conversation with someone and I'm trying to like get information from them. And they're just like not giving it to me.
[00:08:58] Dev: So read minds, but like the Cliff notes version.
[00:09:02] Kennedy: Yeah, cliff notes. Yeah. I don't want to hear all of it, just like a tiny bit of it. But the other one that I'd really like; I would love to fly. Or at least just float. Just a little bit...hover.
[00:09:15] Dev: I don't need much...I just need to hover. Wait, so what qualifies as hovering? How many, like feet or inches off the ground?
[00:09:22] Kennedy: Like maybe a foot's fine, maybe two. Just so I can hover around the village. If I'm going on a hike and I wanna make it back by like dinnertime. Let's just hover up to Hart Lake or hover up to Holden Lake.
[00:09:33] Dev: Perfect.
[00:09:34] Kennedy: Hover up the Hilgard pass and back. As long as it doesn't take extra energy. I'd like to be able to fly.
[00:09:40] Dev: Is there like a miles per hour cap on this hovering adventure?
[00:09:44] Kennedy: I think 20 miles per hour would be pretty good.
[00:09:45] Dev: 20 is legit.
[00:09:47] Kennedy: That's the speed limit that we're allowed to go in the village.
[00:09:49] Dev: You're so law abiding.
[00:09:51] Kennedy: Yep. And don't you worry, I will go at least five miles per hour on Main Street cause I know Janice will yell at me if I don't. Cuz she has yelled at me when I'm in the golf cart just tearing down the road and she'll come up to me. Last year she came up to me and she's "you really gotta slow down on the roads, man." But yeah, it'd just be so nice to fly. You could just fly down to Lake Chelan and back, boom!
[00:10:14] Dev: Totally polar plunge and then just come right back.
[00:10:16] Kennedy: Especially on a hot day, like just to hover and go 20 miles per hour throughout the village, just to cool down. Oh, they're goes Kennedy, floating by.
[00:10:26] Dev: So if there was one celebrity that you would want in the village with you right now, who would that be?
[00:10:32] Kennedy: There are so many, I can't even just have one.
[00:10:34] Dev: Top two. You get two.
[00:10:36] Kennedy: Two. Okay. Okay. Oh God, this is hard.
[00:10:40] Dev: The first two that pop in your head.
[00:10:41] Kennedy: Okay, fine. Vigo Mortenson.
[00:10:44] Dev: Awesome.
[00:10:45] Kennedy: From Lord of the Rings. He played Aragorn.
[00:10:48] Dev: I feel like he'd fit in pretty well here.
[00:10:49] Kennedy: He'd work out great. It'd be so fun to hang out with him. But also I have been watching Lord of the Rings for the past week, so that's why he popped into my head. And then I guess the only other person, oh gosh, honestly, Aiden Turner. He was in The Hobbit and he played Keeley, and I've always had a crush on him. So it would be really cool to hang out.
[00:11:09] Dev: Yeah. Sticks with the Lord of the Rings theme.
[00:11:14] Kennedy: Exactly. Exactly. If I could have the entire company of the 13 Dwarfs, I'd be happy.
[00:11:21] Dev: There we go. There we go. I think we can make that work, actually.
[00:11:25] Kennedy: Oh, okay. Let's get crackin. Let's send the invites. I have 21 friends and family days. Anybody else wants to cough some up? Now is the time so I can meet my buddies. My 13 Dwarfs.
[00:11:39] Dev: What would you say to someone that is looking at the village and thinking about volunteering or working here? Any advice?
[00:11:47] Kennedy: Oh gosh. There's a lot I'd like to say. The village is a truly wonderful place to live, but it is also incredibly hard physically and mentally. This winter has very tough with low power, low wood. So one of the things that I would highly recommend is finding something where you can do something at least weekly, whether it's just time alone to yourself or hanging out with a good group of friends.
Having good work and personal life boundaries is also really good to have. And it's nice to respect that for other people just cuz we all live and work in the same place. And just make sure that you take your outs. That's another thing. If you're gonna be living here full-time year round, you get an allotted number of out days. Use them.
[00:12:34] Dev: Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to express?
[00:12:37] Kennedy: This has been really fun. I am really excited to be on more episodes. This will be so fun.
[00:12:44] Dev: This has been absolutely delightful. Yeah. Let's just end with a silly sound.
[00:12:51] Kennedy: Yay. Yay. Oh my goodness.
[00:12:55] Outro: Thanks for joining us. Be sure to view the links in the description for more information or visit our website to find out more about the village. We hope you'll make a pilgrimage to Holden soon. Blessings and peace to you.
