PeacefulBirder.com

The big news is that my daughter Kasie has moved here and I am happy and thankful she is here. In addition to the joy of just having her spirit and energy around, she has also relieved me of my overnight work for Origins. This currently leaves me working two day shifts per week which is much more manageable considering all of my other work and activities.

I started a batch of prickly pear fruit wine this morning. In another few weeks it should be ready and I will bottle some as wine and make brandy out of the rest. Tomorrow morning I’m gathering more fruit and will make more wine. I also want to try making mesquite wine and brandy which should have an interesting taste. I also need to figure out how I want to distill the wine. I could buy a distiller or I could build my own from parts I buy. The kind you buy costs $500, so I don’t think I’ll go that route!

We had another great meeting/potluck for Arivaca Local. There was another big event going on at the same time, so we only had 10 people show up, but I enjoyed the smaller group and felt more connected to each person. We started by talking about the upcoming barter faire which then segued into discussing local economy in general.

Here are some of the things keeping us busy:

1. Eating freshly butchered (and roasted) chicken. The meat was tougher, but I realized that I liked it better that way. It tasted more like real meat than the mushy crap from the supermarket. It was also much tastier.

2. Making sourdough bread. I made the starter completely from scratch, so it is filled with native, wild yeasties. The starter took off like crazy, so I know I have some really active yeast. I have the first loaves rising as we speak and I will let you know how they taste.

3. We started drinking fresh, raw, goat’s milk and kefir… yum! I love the food scene here. We’re also part of a local CSA (community supported agriculture) and will be getting a load of fresh vegetables every week. Oh, we also get fresh, free-range eggs. Damn, we’re eating well!

4. The monsoon rains are here in full force. We got plenty of rain in July, right around the average, but now it’s here for real. At 4:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon there were a few fluffy clouds and by 4:30 it was starting to rain. Around 5:00 the wind started blowing extremely hard and erratic and the rain came down in sheets. We later found out that there was a microburst nearby and we were feeling the effects of that. For those unfamiliar with microbursts, they are large masses of colder air that suddenly drop to the ground and can create tornado-strength winds. There are places here where metal t-posts are bent almost in half because of a microburst. They are also responsible for a lot of the plane crashes that occur as a plane is just landing or taking off.

5. I’ve started working again… for now. I’m working a couple of overnights and a couple of days, working with people with developmental disabilities. I’m glad this opportunity is here in town, because there is no way I would drive 3 hours per day to work in Tucson. I have mixed feelings about the work. On one hand, I’m thankful for the chance to make some extra money, on the other hand… it’s work! I’m still doing my web design and have other projects going

6. The music scene is getting bigger and better here. Someone I met last year has moved to the area and he plays old-timey clawhammer banjo; along with fiddle, guitar, and mandolin. We’ve been talking about putting together a string band called the Arivaca Ramblers and I would play fiddle along with his banjo and our resident washtub bass player might join in as well. There are also three jam sessions a week going on and I’m working on having a fourth. I don’t make it to all of them, but it’s nice to have them available.

7. Sara paints every day and is currently working on a new, looser style that I love. Awesome colors and powerful style. It’s nice to see her feeling well enough to do this. Two days ago she spent the day making a butt-load of banana bread using raw coconut oil and agave nectar for sweetening.

8. I’ve joined a group that practices gentle hatha yoga twice a week and Sara plans to attend also. We meet twice a week and practice for an hour. Last time, my back felt sooooo much better and I was hooked.

9. After yoga class on Mondays, we have an hour-long quiet meditation. Although I practice meditation throughout the week and take moments of mindfulness throughout the day, it’s nice to sit with other people. The energy is different.

10. Twice a month we meet to watch a DVD of Adyashanti, a spiritual teacher from the Japanese Zen tradition with a practical and often humorous bent. I love listening to this guy because what he says makes sense, is helpful, and he’s very down to earth.

11. I joined a video club called Earth Cinema Circle where I receive a DVD bi-monthly with independent films related to environmental topics. I’m not sure if I’m going to simply pass around the DVD or if we’ll try to have a bi-monthly showing as a group. I think this will fit in well with our Arivaca Local group.

12. Speaking of Arivaca Local, the group is continuing. The website is up and people are participating in the forum and last week we had a very good turnout for the potluck. We have decided to have the potlucks the last Sunday of the month and the barter faire the second Saturday morning of the month. We have also talked about other ideas, such as Sara’s idea to have fundraisers and then use the money for such things as sending people to workshops, bringing speakers in, or even starting our own local Heifer International-type program. I’m excited to see how this all grows.

And that is a little taste of what has been going on in our lives here in Arivaca. This is such a difference from what we experienced in Las Cruces. Arivaca is alive, energized, vital, and… home.

Bright and early this morning, I drove over to my friend Kyle’s place to butcher some chickens. He has a small flock of Java chickens, an heirloom breed that used to be the most common homestead chicken. He had three young roosters that needed to go and I quickly took him up on his offer to barter them for computer services.

The three victims were still on the roost when I got there and one by one we brought them out and chopped their heads off and let them drain. They were beautiful chickens with black feathers and bright combs and I felt very connected and thankful for this opportunity. We de-feathered, gutted, and rinsed them off and I threw them in my cooler and brought them home. I finished cleaning them in the kitchen sink and chopped off the necks and wings to make stock. Sara prepared one for roasting by rubbing it with olive oil and salt and then inserting cloves of garlic in the skin. The meat is tougher than a young hen’s would be and it is still roasting as I write this. The other two were cleaned, stuffed in plastic freezer bags, and thrown in the freezer for a future date with my cook pot.

Yesterday evening we had a potluck for people interested in Arivaca Local and over 25 people showed up! I made tofu and black bean whole wheat enchiladas with garlic and swiss chard thrown in for good measure. My favorite dish, though was the squash blossom rellenos made with all local food, including fermented barley, corn, eggs (from those Java chickens), and fresh squash blossoms. There was tons of other food as well and I went home stuffed to the gills.

I’m currently reading a book called “Wild Fermentation” by Sandy Ellix Katz and I’m excited to try some of the recipes. I have a jar of whole wheat flour and water sitting out with expectations of delicious sourdough bread in the near future. I also want to try making Chinese hundred-year eggs. They are fermented in horse urine for a few months until the whole egg is solid, the yolk turns green, and the white turns a smoky black. Doesn’t that sound delicious!? (I’m trying not to gag as I write this!) We also picked up a juicer and are going to make juice from prickly pear fruit and anything else we feel like trying. I’ll keep you posted!

Mesquite pods are a gift from the land and I spent the morning accepting that gift. The procedure is simple. Wait for the pods to become ripe and fall to the ground and then gather them. After they are washed and dried again, they are kept in dry storage until they are milled. Arivaca Local will help plan the Mesquite Festival this year and Kyle Young will again generously offer use of his hammer mill to mill the flour. I’ll store my pods until the festival comes around the end of October, then come home with the very sweet mesquite flour. The flour has no gluten, so any bread products must be blended with wheat flour. Of course, the mesquite flour is so sweet that using much more than a handful per loaf of bread would be overpowering. Seriously, this stuff is so sweet that some people will put a teaspoonful into their coffee in place of sugar.

Moving back to Arivaca has been one of the smartest things we have done. We have deep roots in southern Minnesota, but we have strong roots in Arivaca. Everyone who knows me knows that some of my interests come and go, while others become part of who I am. One of those deep interests is music, another is birding (although I’m a terrible lister), and a third is the idea of knowing a place. This third one can be called bioregionalism, a sense of place, and living in the land. My sense of place in southern Minnesota is strong, having grown up on a small farm and spending a great deal of my life in the area. I’ve fished, hunted, explored, hiked, gardened, birded, gathered wild foods, camped, and truly lived in the land. The same applies to Arivaca. I feel the roots growing deeper and although I will always travel and explore new land, I hope I can allow these roots to grow deep enough to keep me grounded.

Gathering mesquite pods is one way to deepen my roots. This is an act of connecting with place that has been practiced by dwellers in the land for hundreds and thousands of years. Sitting on my stool, hand-picking pods one by one from the ground, I feel deeply connected and grateful to be home.