Thanksgiving 2019

One Seed Juniper covered with berries for the wildlife.
Arroyo Hondo Preserve

Thanksgiving and our anniversary (we met 32 years ago on this day of giving

thanks) is happening "late" this year: on November 28. We honor one another on Thanksgiving each year in spite of the varying date each year. We are thankful that we both took up our individual friend's invitation to join a gathering at the late Helen Ramstad's home.

While pulling up our 30+ year roots in Northern California was by no means easy, we are ever so thankful we are not still living at MuRefuge in West Sonoma, California. Our friends and neighbors still living in the area were not only evacuated during the Kincade Wildfire but were without power since PG& E cut off electricity. Most people living in this area have wells and electricity is necessary for them to function. The nighttime temperatures dipped below freezing and most furnaces are powered also by electricity.  So all in all very primitive living and everyone is considering generators if they already do not have them plus installing solar panels, storing the electricity in batteries which have been much improved in the past twenty years.

Here's what the present steward of MuRefuge had to say about the evacuation: "the collective consciousness of 200,000 people experiencing the same drama is a truly interesting thing to experience - 'the new normal’ they say." Climate change is bringing more raging wildfires not only in California but throughout the West. "The new normal" seems to be a common phrase heard almost daily as erratic weather inundates Mother Earth.

Wide leaf Yucca in front of a local, typical reddish rock covered with beautiful lichen.
The Pinon Pine/Juniper Forest at the Arroyo Hondo Preserve
on the way from Santa Fe to Eldorado, NM, is one
of the most lush we have visited since our initial forays into
and now living in the high mountainous desert.

This year we will have our traditional Thanksgiving/Anniversary dinner of duck (Peking from Lotus Farms who comes to the Santa Fe Farmers Market each Saturday) with dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh cranberry/Satsuma relish, Brussels Sprouts this year and Kabocha custard. Of course, there is always tons of left overs which is great since this year the day after Thanksgiving we are planning an outing to Hopi Pueblo then onto Gallup to visit my very favorite trading post: Richardson's. It is like walking into a museum of mostly Navajo artifacts. The antique jewelry and rugs, among many other items, are stunning. So all the left overs will be our meals on the road and at an Airbnb in Winslow, Arizona: The Haven which is a repurposed old vintage church.

"Eternal Spirit of Justice and Love,

At this time of Thanksgiving we would be aware of our

dependence on the earth and on the sustaining presence of other

human beings both living and gone before us.

As we partake of bread and wine, may we remember that

there are many for whom sufficient bread is a luxury,

or for whom wine, when attainable, is only an escape.

Let our thanksgiving for Life's bounty include

a commitment to changing the world,

that those who are hungry may be filled

and those without hope may be given courage."

Congregation of Abraxas

As we honor Thanksgiving, filling our day giving thanks and feeding those who are hungry, may we also have a good belly

Climate Crisis, Part I

Our planet, Mother Earth, due to humans and how they go about their daily lives, has been deeply violated by her human inhabitants. Here is an Earth based Pueblo woman's view that perhaps would be useful to each of us as we move forward in these perilous times. Roxanne Swentzell shares her Earth based view through one of her sculptures: "This piece is a statement about our relationship with our Mother Earth. Everything comes from the earth. When we forget this pride creeps in. Our Mother holds and nourishes us. She deserves our respect."

I am extremely interested in how you are responding to the climate crisis. . . changing your daily life, your habits, attitudes, behaviors and way of thinking and acting. And in addition, are you individually involved in supporting policy change of Big Money at the highest level?

In Part I individual alterations will be front and center; while Part II will focus on the bigger picture of policy change.

 

One rocky water catchment below the rear canale of our house
surrounded by native perennials, grasses and shrubs 
here at 6790' MuRefuge.

Here is one example of how one couple, owners of Nut 'n Other, in Dixon, California are living more sustainably: 

"Sustainability Message

We firmly believe that our practices as humans on this earth must be sustainable. As farmers, this means we strive to use our land in a manner that does not deplete its health or its resources. We use processes that are as natural as possible, and do things at rates that are not destructive or depletive.

Put simply, we try to live off of the land where ever possible. Here are some examples:

1) We compost everything that can be composted and use that in lieu of fertilizers or other purchased supplements. Because we have a pond, we get a lot of compost from the algae. Composting is the ultimate in recycling.

2) We use the sun in every way we can. Besides growing vegetables and nuts, which use the sun, we also grow algae, fruits and grains. We also have solar water heating and solar electricity (photovoltaic). We also use the sun for heating and drying.

3) Our chickens and turkeys free range on our farm and eat bugs, as well as grains and vegetables we grow. We minimize feeds that we buy from outside sources.

4) We practice Integrated Pest Management (IPM) with a focus on natural processes. It's interesting to watch nearby growers spraying their trees regularly. We don't spray them at all and produce plenty of nuts that everyone loves. True, we are more likely to have a worm in one of our nuts, but we have never heard a complaint about that.

5) We hand harvest our walnuts and also ensure that none of our nuts are heated, abused, or otherwise disturbed from their fresh-from-the-tree taste and character. WE DO NOT PASTEURIZE OUR NUTS. This limits our market, but it’s a value we believe in.

6) We recycle everything that we can. This means both re-using things on the farm, as well as sending things to those that can reuse them.

7) We eat from our farm as much as possible. There are many meals we have where we can say "everything on this table came from our farm."

8) We use energy wisely and carefully. This year we added another 6 kilowatts of solar electricity to our farm. We have also instituted energy audits and then have taken action to reduce our annual consumption of electricity.

9) John commutes on Amtrak for his "day job" and we combine vehicle trips to minimize our annual mileage.

10) We hang our clothes on the clothesline to reduce the use of our dryer."

Mondays are wash days with clothes 
drying on the line at 6790' MuRefuge. 
In the background is the smallest hoop house 
where greens,strawberries and herbs thrive.

What we eat seems to be up for a change/make over if we are concerned about the crisis here on Mother Earth. I found this information provided by Dr. Dobbs, a veterinarian in Southern California who has evaluated Shasta's saliva for food allergies and sensitivities, extremely helpful in looking at not only what we as humans eat but our pets as well.

To change how we eat, consume less resources and if necessary recycle, take a solar powered sail boat across "The Pond" as did Greta Thunberg for the U.N.'s Climate Crisis gathering, avoid using any plastic, take public transportation or bike as your means of transportation, grow one's own food, sequester carbon on your property, etc. is not enough. Especially it is not enough when those who can afford to own more than one home go about life as though it is "business as usual." Many are hopeful humans can alter their own self serving course of life on Mother Earth. Greta Thunberg, the 16 year old from Sweden who has led others her age to stage massive rallies to awaken all of us "old folks" to the climate crisis, is now in deep despair as evidenced by her speech before the United Nations. Watching her crying and raging at the attendees for not acting to dramatically alter the climate crisis brought to mind the immense grief I and others in my life have likewise felt when we came to grips with the fact that life as we know it will cease to exist . . . in my lifetime.

Way back in the early 1970's, I heard Bill Mollison, the founder/father of Permaculture, share his belief that humans will not change. He saw the climate crisis then and found few humans who were willing to change their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Humans feel entitled to fulfill all of their greedy wants and wishes; believing if they do not, then they are sacrificing unduly. 

As each of us face the reality of the climate crisis and deal with our intense emotions, and perhaps make huge adjustments in our way of BEing here on Mother Earth, may we