Human Silly-ness, aka "Progress"

Farewell to Spring (Clarkia amoena)

“When will we give up the artificiality of 

our tiresome lives 

and cleave instead 

to what is natural? 

All the achievements 

of man are only monuments to overwhelming pride. 

There has not been a single man-made item 

that has been a necessary improvement to the earth. 

We don’t need all this ‘sophistication’ 

in order to live with Tao. ... 

We ignore the natural order of our own bodies and minds 
and close ourselves ... 

We lament that we are lost and alienated. 
Ironically, the answers are right nearby. 

If you just go to the nearest tree and contemplate, 

you will easily see the secret to natural living.” 

Tree, 365 Tao Daily Meditations, Deng Ming-Dao, 1992.

In April I went to a well attended event at Tara Firma Farms located West of Petaluma in the hills then still a vibrant green and the air washed the previous day by a late rain brought by El Nino conditions.

Joel Salatin, whom I first heard speak many years ago at one of the early Bioneers Conferences in San Rafael, and Paul Kaiser, co-owner of Singing Frogs Farm, right here in Sebastopol/the “West County,” were the speakers that drew me to attend. There were other speakers, of course, including  Mark Squire, the new owner of Tara Firma Farms, which previous to registering for this day I did not know existed just a short drive from MuRefuge.

Joel is an entertaining and incredibly informed speaker. This perfect place: sunny, warm, with a gentle breeze wafting over all of us sitting on straw bales in a green pasture, AND Joel sharing his insight gleaned through observation, experience and historical reading . . . what a wonderful afternoon spent. The information he expounded upon about the nature of grass and the activity of migration herds back before Europeans slaughtered the Bison into almost extinction brought into focus our human silly-ness. The relationship between the native grass prairies and the migrating Bison reminded me once again how Perfect Wild Nature is.

Grass in its “baby phase” and its mature phase when the seeds flourish and ripen have little nutrition for such four legged mammals as the Bison and cattle. It is the “juvenile phase” that provides the maximum nutrients for these BEings.  When huge numbers of Bison inhabited North America, they migrated, starting in what is now Mexico onto the United States grasslands and up North into Canada and Alaska. The native grasses of these regions differed in grass species but all were native to the specific region. Joel shared from one of his readings of early explorers/settlers their witnessing Bison covering an area 50 miles in length and 20 miles in width; another documented millions of Bison seen all in one area.

There are groups of people today who say there are too many such animals living on the planet polluting our atmosphere. In actuality the present day numbers are minuscule compared to those existing before the pre-European explorers. The belief of Joel Saladin, and mine as well, is that it is not the number of cattle but rather the human silly-ness (of course, Joel did not use this phrase) of the present day agribusiness practices used in raising these animals: containing these animals in feed lots and feeding them grain that the cattle cannot digest.  How many of you have eaten dairy, grains or some other food that you could not digest and your became bloated with much ensuing gas eliminated. Well, cattle react similarly to grain. Grass, especially juvenile grass, is much more easily digested. Thus cattle are now labeled as a major cause of greenhouse gases in the form of methane. There is also the issue that these animals are often unhealthy and carry diseases which after they are  slaughtered and consumed by humans can cause illness or possible death.

When I went to nursing school in Omaha, Nebraska when the stockyards still were in existence, the smell often wafted to the area where the school was located. My stepfather always said the smell of manure was the smell of money. Well, the smell of the manure from the stockyards and from his pig farm was so much less offensive than the smell of the present day feedlots . . . oooohwheee!!! The smell of the present day feedlots is 1000% more odiferous than the stockyards of 1960's.

In the distant time of huge Bison migrations, the herds ate the green nutritious grass of the low lands near water, then at nighttime moved upland to minimize the predation of its members by wolves. As this Wild Nature behavior took place, the urine and feces elimination took place on the hill tops feeding the soil upland rather than accumulating in the lowlands near the water sources, demonstrating yet again the ingenuousness of the Wild Nature of the Bison to the health of the land. In tune with their natural instincts the health and wholeness of the planet was not compromised as they are by the present day human silly-ness of feedlot beef. 

Sad but true, the only remaining remnant of massive hoofed four leggeds migratory behavior exists in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Africa.

This picture of the migrating Wildebeest was taken 
by our friend, Steve Sweaney,
 earlier this year in February when he and his wife,
Judy Withee, spent a few weeks in the Serengeti.

Human silly-ness was exemplified last week as monstrous sized equipment arrived in the fields South of MuRefuge. The agribusiness equipment was so large it could hardly be turned around in the small fields. This massive equipment was a first we have witnessed for the harvest of hay which has been occurring in the late Spring/early Summer for years. These huge "toys" fueled by petroleum add mightily to greenhouse gases.

This agribusiness equipment reminded me of the saying, “the difference between men and boys is the size of their toys.” 

I grew up in the Southwestern corner of Iowa not far from the Missouri River. Living there I saw much hay cut and baled, some years even participating in the process. The bales were picked up by humans and stacked on wagons to carry them for storage in a barn. This monstrous array of equipment used here included a machine to take these huge bales, probably the size of nine of the old time size bales, and shrink wrap them in plastic. This particular harvest of hay has been in the past, and I assume will be this year as well, used to feed dairy cows designated as organic. Plastic  is not organic!

This is Dwight standing next to a shrink wrapped hay bale in the field South of
MuRefuge. Beyond the Oregon Oak trees is our house.

"What if . . . the whole construct of human progress is a sham?" 

Scents and Sensibility, Spencer Quinn, 2015.

This quote reverberates and rings true me as I look out onto the golden field of mowed grass to the South of MuRefuge dotted with the huge shrink wrap hay bales.

The other speaker who drew me to Tara Firma Farms was Paul Kaiser, the co-owner of Singing Frogs Farm, who proclaims himself to be a geek. Paul  and his wife Elizabeth’s focus on their farm is feeding the soil so that it is alive and vibrant, which in turn grows alive and vibrant food sold right here in the West County (of Sonoma County, California). He is mesmerizing to listen to as he expounds on the research he has read and internalized, as well as on the implementation of healthy soil practices at Singing Frogs Farm.

It is helpful to know that Paul does not come to farming from an agriculture based education, rather he immersed himself in forest restoration. The concepts he learned he now applies to restoring the soil at Singing Frogs Farm.

One of Paul’s loves is planting woody plants which provide year round “homes” for beneficial insects, aka good garden bugs, since these plants have flowers over an extended period of time. He shared that most predatory insects, aka bad garden bugs, flourish on annuals, plants that all flower at the same time. So if one has a garden to feed humans, what a glorious idea to plant native flowering bushes and perennials. By choosing and planting many different varieties of native plants that each flower at different time of the year near and/or around your vegetable garden, fruit trees and berry bushes, you support the life cycle of native pollinators (of which there are over 19,000) and other beneficial winged creatures. By offering year round habitat for these beneficial insects one can usually minimize the destruction of your berries, fruit trees and vegetables by the predatory insects, or bad bugs. Diversity and balance is the key. It is the way of Wild Nature and perhaps a way to minimizing human silly-ness.

California Wild Rose (Rosa californica)

“I’ve been having my morning coffee 

out on my back porch. 

Previously, I would have it in front of the computer 

while checking email or browsing Facebook, 

but this morning I was struck by all there was to see. 

Birds in and out of the tree, 

a bee collecting pollen from my drooping sunflower, 

squirrels calling to each other 

and racing along the power lines, 

gorgeous clouds nearly covering 

the deep blue end-of-summer sky. 

There was so much movement and so much noise ... 

I noticed as I came in this morning 

that there was a small smile on my face 

rather than a furrow on my brow. 

I hope to carry the peace with me through the day. 

And now I want to tell everyone, 

‘Just go sit outside! 

Do you know what’s out there? It’s amazing!’ 

But then I think ... 

it seems to be the kind of thing, 

perhaps like faith, 

that you just can't force upon another. 

You can live it 

and revel in it 

and be available 

when someone comes along 

and says ‘what’s the fuss all about?‘ 

But you just can’t force a person to be amazed 

by the chaotic dance of some unidentified insects 

in the rising sun.

... and if you haven’t already put it in your book, 

one of your days should be 

‘have your morning coffee outside.‘“ 

Personal email from Jessica McMaken to author. 

Living Earth Devotional: 

365 Green Practices for Sacred Connection, Clea Danaan, 2013.

May our connection with the natural world and its Wild Nature magnify as we