Dirt Smarts

Religion and Politics

2012-01-22T14:42:00.014-07:00

I remember growing up when there seemed to be so much time between presidential elctions. Kennedy was elected when I was in 3rd Grade, Johnson in 7th and Nixon in 11th...eons of time between elections. Now it seems that candidates are running for president continually.

I've found myself voting for various candidates from various parties all across the politcal spectrum, from Gus Hall to Bo Gritz, knowing that my vote or non-vote in Utah will make little difference in the big picture. I've also voted for John Anderson and Ralph Nader.

The other day I received a group emailing about how weird it is that the Republicans can support Newt Gingrich, who cheated on his wife. The following is my response:

Ah, the conundrums of the far right and far left, where ideas become ideologies and where fear and hate flourish and dictate actions, REactions and votes. If there were an adulterous democratic challenger to the left of Obama, he or she might win a primary run-off because of all the times our "Uncle-Tom President" has "caved."

Just curious how many of you would vote for a monogamous democrat over a polyamorous republican? :-) I wonder how many people in Utah would support Romney if he were not LDS, given the perception that he is a moderate.

We really don't vote on issues, do we? It's basically emotion, fear of Mormons, fear of minorities, communists, fear of terrorists (which means they win). We are moved by a need to blame and mistrust groups, the media, the government, corporations, Jews, Muslims, unions (especially teacher unions) or anything that offers alternatives to our ideology, which possesses and identifies us: liberal, conservative, tea party, occupier. Are there any people left out there who exist independent of their self labels or the labels we tag onto them?

Gingrich's second wife's interview gave him the chance to attack the media, tap into that mistrust and need to blame the messenger. If we can discredit the media then we are free to believe whatever we want to believe... neat trick, eh? I don't have TV and am curious how Fox covered the ABC interview. The lady may have been vindictive, delusional or whatever. For sure she's opening up her life to all kinds of scrutiny.

Here are a few of my predictions, based on my narrow perspective and having been alive during the past 11 administrations and having seen a few elections. If Santorum stays in the race, he will be Romney's main opponent. He may not because of $, but the Cain, Edwards...infidelity thingy should catch up with Gingrich. Of course, he's a good communicator, clintonesque, and may get by it, but I think his ex has some fire in her belly and is willing to take it to the next level. Romney should win the nomination. The commercial media would have us believe that every primary or caucus is a king maker-breaker (stay tuned after a word from our sponsors) I'm not as confident as I was before of Romney being able to beat Obama because he doesn't have the emotional appeal that would get the ultra-christian conservatives to the polls, especially as he moves to the center to appeal to more voters after the primaries. Plus, if the economy is swinging up come the summer there are a few who would rather vote for a left-of-center Christian than a right-of-center...whatever Mormons are. Gotta love religion and politics.Save Now

Update Jan 2012

2012-01-22T14:03:00.003-07:00

I thought I'd include some random photos from 2011, up to Christmas. The first shot is from Silver Lake Reservoir, kind of a retake of an earlier shot, perhaps from my first entry in here. It's just 5 years later and such a great picture.

Others are of Christmas this year. Every year we have a Shepherds Supper where we eat Mediterranean foods on Christmas Eve. We play games and pig out on figs, melons and

other anti-pasto dishes. People in the pictures include Kristina, Anthony and his wife, Catherine and Rebekah (red coat) who is my baby. Anyway, 2011 was a great year in which I learned soooo much and watched diverse strands of my life and such emerge and interweave, taking me in directions I may not have been able to

imagine earlier.

2011-11-04T15:55:00.003-06:00

So much has happened over the past year, Landmark, Community Garden, Japan and on and on. I'm not sure if it's a factor of aging or reverse aging or what. I hear people talk about this time of life as when people slow down and time speeds up. Time is definitely clipping along but life, projects, school, ideas just keep coming, and I'm loving it...actually.

I wish I could keep up with myself. I wonder if just doing a lot of things, fingers in a lot of pots, is an obsession or just an excuse to not do anything well. I am energized by so many things. I love schol and am in the midst of many projects and am enjoying being suffocated in the excitement.

Perhaps the thing that's most on my mind, at the moment, is ANETA. That's the acronym for the academy that I'm involved with...not exactly an academy yet. That's the point though: all sorts of ideas, models and excitement. It's truly something on which I could focus in my quest to "save the world."

I sold the goats, grrr...sigh. I miss them but I wasn't able to take care of them, especially when I had to rely on others if I was out of town. So it's bees and grapes for now.

The Secret

2011-07-04T05:23:00.010-06:00

Three years ago I got a MacBook Pro for making and editing documentary movies for my classes. One of my aides whose mother is from Taiwan uploaded a picture of an incredibly beautiful Buddist temple. I always assumed that it was in Taiwan, since he visits there often.

Last night I slept in a Buddhist temple in Kyoto and visited two others today. The second one was the same one I've had on my desktop for almost 3 years. Kinda reminds one of the movie,"The Secret" where the guy buys the house he had in the collage on his wall. The pic on the top is the original desktop. The others are ones I took today. Crazy stuff, eh? I wept openly when I rounded the corner of the little lake and got my first glimpse.

It's About Time

2011-06-29T05:44:00.013-06:00

We are everywhere doing everything we can in such a short period of time. The past 5 days have found my group in Nagasaki visiting schools, Ground Zero, the Peace Gardens, Christian Churches, Tea Ceremonies, Universities and a recycling plant. All of that plus eating some of the most outstandingly amazing foods I've ever experienced. I also, through an incredible coincidence (do they exist?) was lined up with an LDS family for a home visit over the past weekend. I went to church with them. It was the first time I've been to church in more than a month. It was a good place, a good space, for me and seemed to be a positive experience for everyone.

I have sooo many images I could upload, but am prohibited from uploading the best ones. Those w

ould be the faces of the children at the schools we have visited. They are incredibly beautiful. sitting with them, feeling their energy, innocence and passion for life was/is

transformative.

So much to write...so little time.

One thing that's coming to me about ESD is that there will never be sustainable solutions for sustainable development issues, be they energy, housing, transportation, resource depletion, climate-change, sustainable food supply, world peace or any other SD issue of substance just by teaching it in the classrooms. There are some internal issues that a substantial number of us will have to confront. It will require a shift in our nature or at least in our perceptions of

who/what we are and our place and relationship with everything and everyone else.

It's about time, no?

2011-06-23T15:00:00.003-06:00

Thursday we went to a public bath at a hot springs. It waas a little different :) but very relaxing. The meal we ate there reminded me of an Italian wedding. We ate such a variety of foods, including Kobe beef which is the most expensive beef in Japan. We also spent some time at the longest suspension bridge in the world, 2 1/4 miles long. If one picture is worth a 1000 words I'll add a lengthy chapter here.

One pic is a cross-section of one of the cables used in building the bridge. Wactually took an elevator up onto the bridge.

Japan is AMAZING

2011-06-22T07:07:00.003-06:00

Actually, its the Japanese who who are so hospitable and proud to do the best they can as they perform their jobs. The airport was unlike anything I've ever experienced, so polite and orderly. Anyway, I'm here in Kobe with the Fullbright ESD teacher exchage. I'm just going to add some pics for now of our first evening here.

Flooding and Such

2011-06-17T12:53:00.003-06:00

It's been a crazy month so far. So many things to do between gardening, goats, getting ready for Japan and working with the Forest Service. Today is the first full day off I've had from the FS in 2 weeks.

I thought I'd include some pics of what I've been up to. We've been blasting rocks, repairing roads, filling and laying sandbags (all of which activities are related to our heavy snowfall this year).

April 30-More and More Snow

2011-04-30T19:19:00.005-06:00

Just a few pics of what we woke up to and saw this morning. Just what we needed: more snow.

Water is Coming

2011-04-18T17:10:00.003-06:00

This may be the worst year ever for flooding in our neck of the woods. There is so much snow pack on Timp (the tallest mountain in the area) which drains right into the two canyons just above us.

I took my daughter Catherine and Nikki, our pooch, up into the hills to have a look at the creek and such. The pictures are: (1. from our house, looking up at Timp; (2. Catherine above the stream; (3. a view down the canyon into the valley; and (4. Nikki getting her chin and ears scratched by her alpha male.

Anyway, we're going to be sandbagging in a couple of weeks, probably while I'm in San Francisco with the ESD Japan Exchange Program. I'm a bit worried. The city is going to put a big pipe down the middle of our street but I don't think it will hold all the water they are projecting will be coming down. So much depends on the weather. I guess we're all in God's hands in that we just have to do the best with the cards we are dealt. I don't think there's a habitable "safe" spot anywhere on the planet. Safety, true safety, has its origins in other spheres. It is reverence and awe of nature's power and fury coupled with a realization that acceptance of its cycles, twists and turns, are just how things are that make me grateful to be a witness and part of it. I will work and prepare to save our house and property, but in the end nature will ultimately have her way with all of man's creations.

Split Hives

2011-04-18T17:00:00.002-06:00

I split a couple of hives on Saturday, so I'm up to 7, or back down to 5, depending on how it goes. I hope they all survive. I left them lots of honey.

Square-Foot Gardening SFG

2011-04-09T12:24:00.003-06:00

Just had a great presentation on SFG by Alan Silva for our school community garden. It was EXTREMELY interesting and it made a truckload of sense. Check out THIS SITE for more information. I'm still kinda hooked on dirt, rather than "magic mixtures," but it really sounded like something I could use, particularly between the grape rows. It's a fairly portable system and I'm pretty excited to try it out this year.

School and Sustatinable Living

2011-03-28T11:28:00.011-06:00

The past five months have been a whirlwind of activity. I've been busy with school and Landmark Forum, church, family as well as the regular chores and duties. I'll include more pictures and information about my own enterprises in the future but what's been happening at school has been transformational, for all of us.

The first 3 pictures are of a service project at a local Hindu Temple where we were helping prepare for the Festival of Colors, or Holi. We were able to begin cleaning up their community garden, clean up after the Llamas and fill bags of dye for the 30,000 expected attendees.

The arena of Sustainable Development has expanded with:
1) my acceptance into a UN-Japan Teacher Exchange that's focus is SDE (Sustainable Development Education;
2) a local Economic Self-Reliance Conference sponsored by Brigham Young University and the Ballard Center where multiple connections and validation for my students' Community Garden project were forged;
3) Common Ground which is the community garden project that my students initiated in conjunction with the AP Geography units on Agriculture and Development and my continuing interest in Sustainable Living.Common Ground is developing into a project in diversity. Almost 2/3 of the participants are Hispanic, which community represents 1/3 of our school population. The students are entirely committed to the project. They even had a write-up in a local newspaper.

CabSav

2010-10-05T08:32:00.002-06:00

What a season of brewing this has been. I now have 4 gallons of white grapes, 5 gallons of apple cider and now 6.5 gallons of deep red cabernet savignon going. It's so addictive, the process. It's like magic to have the fruit purify itself and change into wine then vinegar. Dang, I'm hooked.

Apple Cider Vinegar

2010-09-19T20:40:00.003-06:00

I tried my hand at apple vinegar but there wasn't enough juice in the apples to even begin. I hustled onto the internet and found some recipes calling for lots of sugar water which really added to both sugar and liquid contents. I let it sit in 3 big buckets for a few days then pressed it off into a single bucket, 6 gallons. You can see the results so now it's bubbling. I'm going to follow the same pattern as I have for grapes so we'll see what comes out. I pressed out all the juice I could then strained it all back through a strainer into a 6 gallon bucket. Then I siphoned off enough to fill a 5 gallon carboy and 4 1-quart bottles. It began bubbling almost immediately. I placed it outside on the table under the grape arbor, as you can see.

Vino Non-Fino

2010-09-05T11:50:00.003-06:00

Perhaps 3 pictures are worth 3000 words. This year's batch is white again, from my own grapes. I did a little experimenting but you can see that it was very active. Gianni said that it tasted good...I'll take his word. This should make a nice batch of vinegars and cooking wine. I bought a press (as you can see) and a crusher which made things a lot easier and efficient.

Where'd Summer Go?

2010-08-14T15:23:00.003-06:00

Lots of things have happened in the past four months: we're back down to two goats; we have a new daughter inlaw; I've finished a season with the Forest Service; we've bottled the red wine and I've started a new batch of white; daughter received a mission call to Italy; I harvested 300+ lbs of honey and now have 6 hives; and on and on.

I'm going to try to market the honey this year and see if I can't get back some of my $$$ back.

Anyway, just and update.

Spring Break...over

2010-04-11T21:08:00.003-06:00

What a busy break it was: a new bee colony, triplets, the vineyard arbor, manure spread, orchard sprayed and preparations for a wedding, with the breakfast being in our yard...maybe. I know that the baby goats came last week so I'd have an entire week to dedicate to them, in fact, they are all alive and very healthy. A month ago we had two goats and now we have six...goats, not rabbits. We'd have had seven if the other had survived.

The grape arbor looks pretty simple, it is, but it was a whole lot of work for just one person. Hefting the horse corral up onto the arches was a task. I believe it's sixteen feet long by four feet wide and heavy. I hoisted six of them that day...poor me-strong me :) All the fence is up and I'll be tying up the vines this week. There are 29 vines: 7 Carbernet Savignons, 3 Savignon Blancs, 2 White Canadice, 3 Catabwas, 6 Stuebens, and 8 Cynthainas. Those are only the grapes in the new area. There are 8 vines around the gazebo and pathway, 6 mature white vines that came with the house, 2 new starts from those vines and 1 white Canadice that I randomly planted until I can find a permanent place. My gosh, is that 46 vines? The others consist of Thompson, Concord, Swenson, Mak(something or other) and one Red Canadice.

I also checked into what I'll be doing this season with the Forest Service and it sounds like a I'll be back outside on my feet. I can't wait. I love driving around and seeing a lot of country, but my heart is on the trails, building and repairing. I'll be working with young people, YCC, which should be good. I enjoy young people, geeze, I'm a teacher. They always have fresh perspectives. Amidst thier "sophistication" there's an innocence, almost a vulnerability that allows them to be impressed, even taken by nature, which is what I am: taken by nature.

Soap

2010-04-05T23:17:00.003-06:00

This is my fourth batch of soap. It has goat milk, honey, coconut oil, cocoa butter, glycerine, olive oil, oatmeal and some clove oil. The last batch was pretty powerful stuff, perhaps too powerful. I misread the proportions and added too much lye. This batch will be a good one.

The goats are all alive and well. I made a larger hole in the feeder nipple and they downed it in minutes. I reckon we're in the goat business.

I bought 18 more 20' lengths of rebar today. That makes 33 so far. I don't foresee many more being needed. It will be pretty nice when the vines bet large and fruitful.

Triplets: New Life on a Cloudy Day

2010-04-03T07:58:00.011-06:00

I went to SLC yesterday and got a new colony of bees. On my way home my cell phone rang and my daughter informed me that Pinky, our other goat, had triplets. I was grateful that my daughter was able to witness the birth of at least one of the kids. My own children have not been into my little natural-sustainable fettishes. Anyway, it is a cold weekend and I'm going to do everything I can to keep these kids alive.

I learned a new way of installing bees yesterday. I started doing it without dressing up but got stung a couple of times. I should have let them, the bees, sit in the hive for a while before opening them instead of hurrying to get done after the jarring ride in the field.

Bees, Vines, Goats and Soaps

2010-03-28T20:46:00.011-06:00

Amazingly busy time of the year. I'm down to a single hive which is doing very well...knock on wood. I've ordered four new colonies and I'm going to have to pay closer attention. It makes me wonder how people do it with hundreds of hives. I guess they have extra queens and colonies all ready to slip into service if something goes wrong. I took the hives apart yesterday and cleaned them out. I got lots of honey and comb and tried melting down some wax. I wasn't very successful.

We have a new baby goat and should have at least two more within a week. We had twins a couple of weeks ago but one of them died, in spite of our best efforts. They were born while the weather was still pretty nippy and I think it was mostly exposure. As was the case last year with the other set of twins, she died in my arms. I hate that feeling of holding something as its life slips out of it.

I've gotten a bunch of new grapevines in during the past couple of weeks. I've shortened the goat pen and am making a regular little vineyard, much more organized than my usual style. I'm using rebar arches for support but the cover or roof will be flat. I've pruned everything down to about 3 buds for the roots to grow strong and will be a fairly diligent pruner that way for the next couple of years. So no great amount of fruit for awhile.

I'm also trying my hand at soap, so to speak. I'm experimenting with various oils and such but my primary ingredients are honey and goats milk. I've made three batches, each different than the others, and am learning, hopefully, from my mistakes.

Finally, I'm getting to be a little more active. Today I went on a 20 mile bike ride with my son and then on a 4+ mile hike with my pooches. My foot still aches from the December surgery but I'm hoping it's getting better. The puppies have grown. The one we kept is almost as large as her mother.

Every Seven Months, or so.

2010-02-12T20:47:00.002-07:00

A few things of note have happened. I've lost a total of four hives. One top-bar hive swarmed, the other seems to have not made it through the winter. I mentioned the regular hive that seemed to have had some disease. There were a lot of drone cells so it was a matter of a missing queen. I went out and checked the remaining hives on a warm day in December and found that another had died. So this year I will buy some more colonies...at least two.

Stupid Homesites Continued

2009-07-13T09:48:00.002-06:00

Last Summer I had a post about stupid places people have built homes from a fire point of view. This shows some new homes in Utah County that are were built on sites that were made by cutting a swath from the face of a mountain side. and at the bottom of a major wash. The pictures should speak for themselves. The backyards for some of these homes are about teen feet deep. The house with all the windows is built up against an 80 foot cliff and alread has falling rocks bumping into the uncompleted house. All I can think is this home must be someone who is into rocks because that's all the family will be avble to see from the north-facing windows.

Sufficeth to say, there is nothing holding back the weight of the mountain, rocks will keep falling, and a heavy spring runoff down the wash (esepcially following a fire the year before) could bring lots of mud and stuff .

Who do we think we are to defy the laws of nature, not the least of which is gravity! Perhaps the problem is that our egos have blocked our thought process to the point that we've forgotten how to think.

Some Visuals

2009-06-04T22:26:00.006-06:00

These are some images from a few weeks ago. I'll update and comment on them further at a later date. The topbar hive is pretty busy. I'm not sure if I should take out more corks oor not. The white hive that's so dirty was diseased and I lost the whole hive. I'm not sure what it was. I'm going to have an expert come by and have a look.

Perspiration and Inspiration

2009-05-26T17:39:00.004-06:00

Saturday was a very good day. I went with my students to the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. Caru Das is someone I consider a dear friend and spiritual mentor. After a brief tour of the temple and an introductory overview of Hinduism, the students worked hard cleaning up the grounds, feeding animals and reorganizing parking spaces.

I've been acquainted with Caru and Vai for 16 years. I haven't attened services there for some time so I stopped by on Sunday to listen to Caru's lecture. It was such a unique twist on the topic of faith, given articulately and from first-hand experiences. Every time I listen to Caru I have a feeling of peace and a desire to search my innermost motives and yearnings more deeply. It's a feeling of, coming home.

I appreciate the diversity and unity that religions offer. Hiduism, as preached and practiced in Spanish Fork, is definitely a philosophy that unites.

SPRINGing into Things

2009-05-16T21:01:00.003-06:00

It's been so long since I've taken any pictures. School has been busy, but most of my time is beingtaken with bees and garden. I've planted 13 new grapevines, taken out a gigantic blue spruce tree, more than doubled the amount of beehives I have (now I have 5) and am making more cheese than we can imagine eating. All very satisfying but really time consuming.

I'm going to see if I can't make some $ to offset some of the expenses, even make a profit at some point. I'm going to try to make some cooking and seasoning vinegars, hence the mini vineyard. It's all going to be organic and I'll need to renew a food-handlers permit, get certified and all that. I hope the money thingy doesn't overshadow the "spiritual" satisfaction and motivation.

I have come into indirect contact with people involved with the Provo Farmers Market. I may make it part of my Saturday routine. It symbolizes what I believe and what I'm hoping to accomplish, if only on a personal level.

Hopefully, I'll have some shots of the bees, the vineyard and the animals and such. Until then....

Home SWEET Home

2009-04-20T22:03:00.005-06:00

The new bees have arrived and SEEM to have taken up permanent residence in one of my new hives. Here are a few pics of me introducing them to their new home.

The first picture is me carrying the bee package to the new hive. The next ones oare of me taking out the canned syrup so I can shake the bees into their prepared space.

The rest are of me preparing the queen and putting her into the hive; uncorking the entrance into the NOW-OCCUPIED hive; and lastly some random shots of bees.

TopBar Hive

2009-04-06T22:10:00.007-06:00

I am moving close to finishing the two top bar hives. I'm not sure it wouldn't have been cheaper to purchase some already made. That said, it has been very satisfying to make them.

The pictures show things like the bottom with screen and cover; top bars being glued to the ridges; a lid under construction; the inside and a quasi-finished one with the lid on.

It's been a huge time and effort commitment. Hope they work.

Spring Fever

2009-03-30T20:51:00.009-06:00

So much is happening so quickly. I'm going to put some pics in, quite a few, that indicate a fraction of what's been going on the past couple of months.
The garden will be bigger and better this year. Here are some pics of some seed boxes, my first real pruning effort (a gigantic cherry tree) and the area out in the orchard that a good neighbor has tilled for me. We burned the pruning pile: there was a lot of wood in it this year.

I haven't planted anything outside yet. We are in for a very stormy and cold week this week. This morning we woke up to 3-4 inches of snow.

Ebony had two pups. It was an accident that she got pregnant. My daughter saw a dog hanging around the pen and thought it would keep Ebony company. Now Eby has company. Anyone want a pup?

This is a time of life. Eby was not the only one to have a suitor last Fall. Our first baby goat was born March 24. Kids are up and on their feet from the first moments of birth.

Finally, I've been working on the new beehives, top bar. I'll include some pics in the next post.

FREEZE-thaw-FREEZE

2009-02-13T13:56:00.010-07:00

We have experienced some very cold weather which, when coupled with the hefty amounts of snowfall, has left the ground white almost the entire winter. There have been some periods of warmer (in the 40's F) weather.
Here are some images of January 2009. They include the "vineyard," the goat and chicken pens and a couple of bee shots. I have to admit that I've been worried about the bees but they seem to be doing okay.

Top Bar Beekeeping

2009-02-13T13:11:00.003-07:00

This year I think I'm going to try a few new things, one of them being top-bar beekeeping. It will require building a different type of beehive. This is a pic I got from the website called Barefoot Beekeeper.

Cheesy

2009-01-09T22:36:00.004-07:00

I've been experimenting, not so successfully, with easy cheese recipes for goat's milk. My children pooled some of their shekles and got me a cheese press. It's pretty basic but it does make a difference.

Since I first posted this pic I have experimented quite a bit. I just cut into a cake of hard cheese. It's remarkably good. I soaked it in wine for 3 days and then let it age for 5 weeks. It's hard enough to shred over pasta or into soups or salads.

Mormonism and Environmentalism

2008-11-23T21:10:00.004-07:00

I made a reference in the to religion and environmentalism in the previous post. Click here
for some links to articles and such about God and the environment. Here's an article about Mormonism. Apparently, according to the few articles I read, the leaders of the LDS Church will not need to make any official statements because the scriptures, ancient and modern-day, already encourage conservation. Here's another article.

This will be a topic of future entries.

UPDATE

2008-10-20T07:58:00.015-06:00

I started this post more than a month ago. Today is actually November 23rd. I've neglected making entries for more than a month now. There are a lot of things keeping me busy and I'm not disciplined enough to document as I go, though I know reflection and documentation are processes that would enhance efficiency and actually save time over the long run.
Last month, besides canning food I began winterizing, beginning with the animals. I took on the most unpleasant task first, goat poop. I spent about 8 hours on Thursday, Oct 16, shoveling, wheelbarrowing and spreading the...wealth. I fertilized all of the trees in the orchard, 30+, dug a five foot deep pit and filled it plus I spread some around the grassy part of the goat pen. The neighborhood had a distinctive air about it for a couple of weeks. I also finished my grape trellis which will support two-three new grape plants. I'm not sure why I need more grapes, I guess it's just that they grow so well and perhaps a red grape will give a new flavor to next years juice.

The bees are doing EXTREMELY well. they are consuming 4-5 gallons of syrup a week and should winter well. Next Spring I'm going to split my hives which will give me a total of four. I was told by a local expert that I could probably set up to forty hives, yikes. He said that the usual harvest per hive is 35 lbs and the fact that I averaged 60 per hive was pretty...cool.

I am considering ending the chicken enterprise, not that it ever yielded much. I'm space poor and we have neighbors who have chickens and may be willing to trade for milk. The section of the shed I'm currently using for chickens would be converted into a greenhouse of sorts. I've needed an area for starts for the garden and I think it would be a much more efficient use of space. Nothing set in stone on this.

The goats are doing fine. The young one is now pregnant, I hope, as is Pinky. I'll have to dry Pinky up here in a month or so. Come Spring there will be a lot of milk. Spot, the third goat, will have to "fall in love" in the Spring which will give her a break over the Summer and even out the milk flow. That will mean 2-4 kid goats in the Spring and 1-2 next fall. I spent almost the entire month of October procuring hay from four different sources. I hope there will be enough. The price of hay has dropped a little bit this year.

That's it for now. Needless to say, I'm getting deeper and deeper into the sustainable model, intellectually if not in practice. I'm also forging some spiritual linkages, not only with nature but with my own tradition, Christianity, particularly Mormonism. I've always felt there was an affinity between eastern religions and nature and it's been enlightening to make new and familiar connections.

Domestic Me

2008-10-12T16:45:00.019-06:00

Not sure what's going on with me. It seems every free moment I have I find myself preparing food. My son and I went out and picked tomatoes and apples on Friday. The orchard is chemical-free and I have been taking care of it for a neighbor who has been deployed to Iraq. Anyway, it is the same orchard where I have my bees. I am thinking that one of the reasons the bees have done so well is because of the LACK of pesticides and such. Anyway, the apples were pretty well picked over and we were left with the wormiest and smallest. It's okay. I'm really glad a lot of families were able to use healthy fruit. There are about 28 trees.

So I spent most of Saturday doing stuff for the animals, chickens and goats, and putting up applesauce.

The applesauce would have been easier if we had been among the first to pick.

My hands got all rough and cracked. I only got 11 quarts for all the time I spent but the process was so...cleansing that I am sure the benefits extend beyond the nutrition and such. Knowing that the ingredients are organic will surely make it taste better too. The funny thing is that I've never really been an applesauce fan.

Today I'm making Italian tomato sauce. I'll probably be freezing, rather than canning, it.

I also made some green tomato salsa as well as some cheese. Actually the cheese takes a few days.

I have included some photos of this weekend's activities and a few of the landscape after this season's first snow in the valley.

Finally, a shot of my trusted companion. Ebony's my walking-running partner. She's a 5-year-old puppy. She is as affectionate as kitten and as forgiving as a grandparent. Not a flattering shot. Good thing she's forgiving.

Grape Processing

2008-10-05T16:36:00.013-06:00

Last weekend, with the help of my good friend Gianni, we picked and mashed the grapes into a large plastic vat.

Every day for 4 days I pushed all the grape skins and whatever else was floating at the top of the mixture to the bottom of the vat. I should have done it all barefooted or found a few willing maids with clean feet.

Thursday we drew the juice out from underneath the...floaters, storing the majority of juice in a large glass vask. Within 5 hours it began bubbling and has been doing so for almost 4 days. All the gunk is coming out the top and I have to pour in extra juice to replace the stuff that's bubbling out.

What appeals most to me is the simplicity of the entire process. I feel like I'm participating in an

ancient ritual of sorts, bonding

with some primal, ancestral, instinctual...NATURal essence. Does that make sense?

Summer has FALLen

2008-10-05T15:01:00.007-06:00

It has been raining constantly for the past forty hours. I was planning on harvesting apples and making applesauce and juice. That will have to wait for another day. The Indian Summer that we have been enjoying seems to have drawn to a close. My last day of roaming the woods and getting paid to do it has passed. I thought I'd include some pictures of that last drive. These pictures are even more beautiful when opened and enlarged.

The vehicle that is off the road happened to be at

a particularly picturesque spot, where the driver was probably looking at the back side of Mount

Timpanogos when s/he went over the edge. I imagine there's a lesson in that, avoid distractions such as texting, etc., when driving; but, I'm willing to cut this person a bit of slack IF being overwhelmed by nature's beauty was the distraction. I took a few pictures after radioing it in to dispatch.

I'll truly miss getting out and visiting with campers and talking about Smokey Bear to their kids. But most of all I'll miss the Uintas. I had not spent much time there before this year and I do not own a truck that will take me to many of the places I was able to see this summer. Next season, beginning in May, I'll be back up in the hills, almost daily, again.

Just Who Are We?

2008-09-23T22:15:00.004-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I was out on patrol and thought I'd just take a few pictures of some residences. I am amazed at where people choose to built some of the nicest homes on the planet. I think we develop a sense of invincibility, that we are somehow shielded from the forces of nature, much as those who continue to build and rebuild in flood or hurricane areas. The first picture is of property where excavation has begun for a private drive and housing lot. The others are close-up and distant shots of nice homes built in incredibly STUPID places.

Season of Satisfaction

2008-09-21T21:32:00.008-06:00

Everyone tells me Fall is their favorite season, and I can understand why. I like Spring and Fall, the in-between times, like dusk and dawn. I must say that I prefer Spring as it seems so full of promise.

I rode in the mountains today. I drove the Alpine Loop as well as the road between Sheep Creek (up Spanish Fork Canyon) and Strawberry Reservoir. The colors were breathtaking. I stopped and talked with some families who were camping together. I commented that it wasn't fair for them to be out sucking up nature while the rest of us were in the valleys fretting about our 401k's and the financial debacle our county is in.

Yesterday I harvested more than eight gallons of honey from my two first-year hives. How satisfying! It was a long process, about two hours longer than I had anticipated, plus I still have seven gallons to filter. But the satisfaction of caring for the bees and having them reward me with such a plentiful amount of honey is...singular. I took some video footage of the process. Perhaps I'll have to open a YouTube account or something. I'm not sure how much I can upload to this blog. *Update: Click HERE to go to my new YouTube page. The feeling of working with the bees, interdependence, reminds me of an experience I had last month with my goats. I was called out on two consecutive fires and was relying on my son to feed and care for the animals. Doing so was out of his routine, plus he had to ride his bike twelve miles from Provo where he's enrolled at BYU. He either forgot one or more times or whatever: I'm not sure exactly what went wrong. I do know that the goats were very sick when I got back and I was sure I was going to lose them. I called the vet, who was not very encouraging but was willing to try a few things to the tune of $200 each animal. I declined and began my Reb-Tevianesque mono/dialogue with God. I blessed the animals and went to the feed store to look for ideas. Fortunately, I found a clerk who raised goats and whose grandmother in Idaho was a pro with natural remedies for animals. The clerk called her grandmother on her cell and I got the ingredients and administration instructions for two concoctions. Anyway, after 5 days of TLC Dot and Pinki were back on their feet and eating on their own. Their current milk production is back to where it was previously. What is most satisfying is my impression that they sense I saved their lives, or at least they know that I care enough to have tried.

I am living a charmed life in so many ways. I don't have enough money (who does or ever will?) but I'm having experiences that are priceless. A flood of ideas and insights come to me during these experiences, ides that seem to have broader application. For the present, I'll try to comprehend their personal meanings and bask in my season of satisfaction.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quote

2008-09-12T19:11:00.004-06:00

"I used to sit on the beach by the lakeside in some hidden refuge. There, the sound of the waves and the stirring of the water held my senses still, drove out of my mind all other kinds of agitation, and immersed it in a delightful reverie."

Does nature have that effect on anyone else but Rousseau and me?

Grapes and Such

2008-09-12T15:34:00.006-06:00

It's been a long time, gosh, about 3 months. I'm keeping too busy and I'm enjoying most of it. Life is good.

I'm really trying to live off the land, eat what I grow. Next week I'm going to extract honey from my beehives which have been extremely productive. I've been making grape juice and am tinkering with the idea of making some wine. Not sure what I'd do with it but I have SO many grapes that I hate to see them go to waste. I'm making 2-3 lbs of cheese a week now. I got a few ears of corn and the tomatoes are flowing to the point I can't keep up with them.
I'm surprised at how much time it all is taking, yet I'm finding that other concerns that have been major stressors in my life are taking human dimensions. They are not so collosal. The money and material are always concerning, but I sense more of a sense of centeredness. Does that make sense?

Flat Tire

2008-06-30T22:49:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I was out on "patrol" and decided to go up into Spanish Fork Canyon to check on a small fire that had begun the day before. After speaking with Nick, the Incident Commander (IC) I got back into the truck and headed west on Highway 6, one of the most dangerous highways in the state. Anyway, I'm cruising along at about 65-70 mph when my left front tire blows and the steering wheel jerks to the left. I had images of flipping over but the truck, a 2004 Ford Ranger, handled it remarkably well. The worst part was changing the tire in the dirt. I wanted to make sure I was safe so I got completely off the road way, which put the left side of the front end right into the dirt. In short, it took me 1 1/2 hours to change a simple flat.

I'm not sure how this episode ties in with the NATURE theme for this blog. Perhaps it's the natural high and the sense of accomplishment of first, maintaining control of the truck, and then changing a tire in what often seemed to be impossible conditions. It reminds me of the emphasis we teachers put on buoying up student self-esteem. I think real self-esteem comes from taking on a difficult, even risky task and doing our best. Completing the task is icing.

Milking Goats and Karma

2008-06-27T07:37:00.008-06:00

These are not my goats, though they are the same breed. My goats have a fairly large pen with lots of grass to eat but, alas, I do feed them alfalfa, fourth crop preferably. The sweetness of the alfalfa seems to make the milk sweeter. Whatever goats eat comes out in the flavor of their milk. And since they'll eat a variety of things, their milk sometimes tastes "goaty."
One of the lessons nature teaches us is that what we put into something affects what we get from it. Our modern culture insulates us from the effects of our actions or inactions. We often forget that what goes in eventually comes out: what goes around comes around.

C'est Moi

2008-06-27T00:31:00.010-06:00

Here are a couple of pictures of a couple of disgusting places I've been. One pic is in Europe and the other one is where I work in the summer: someone HAS to do it, eh. Here's a little video of a couple of places up American Fork Canyon.