The Kitchen Tree

Intending to give one as a gift, i changed my mind. Rather than drive all the way back to Home Despot, Michelle suggested we put it in the kitchen. Methinks we have a new tradition. 

Note pumpkin. We're still celebrating All Hallow's Eve. 

Emily Cornell - Nose Smears

Emily owns and operates Sol Ranch near Wagon Mound, New Mexico where she raises 100% grass fed & finished cows. She has about 500 beeves that she tends on a personal basis. She has a degree from Ft Lewis College in Durango and worked, for a time, for the National Forest Service.

As a carnivore who's been deeply affected by the depredation of the over-grazing of The West, it's been heartening to find someone who is taking a responsible approach to raising cattle. 

Every couple of months Emily brings her products to several cities.

Her truck is a real-live, working vehicle. You can see by the NOSE SMEARS and dents it probably hasn't had a single day of sitting in the driveway prettying up the owner's ego.

Emily went to elementary and high school in the local village of Wagon Mound then left to attend Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado where she obtained a B.S. in Environmental and Organismic Biology where she studied climate change and soil health in her thesis work. While in school, Emily worked as a river guide in the four corner’s region during the summer months. It was through this work and research that Emily reconnected with the land and deepened her appreciation for the natural world. In true Durango fashion, learned to see the landscape as a playground and developed a passion for hiking, climbing, trail running, snowboarding, camping, rafting, etc. Combined with her education in ecology and soil biology, she developed an ever growing passion for understanding the ecological processes at play on the land and the importance of careful land management.

After graduating college, Emily became a range technician for the Manti-La Sal National Forest outside of Moab, Utah where she worked in the forest performing range trend and utilization analyses of the grazing allotments while spraying weeds and working on spring developments.

After her first season, she returned home to the ranch to help her dad through his shoulder surgery recovery. It was then that she realized that if she intended to manage land, it needed to be her family’s land, so she moved home. She started out working for her dad, managing his cattle on part of the ranch. She attended Ranching for Profit school and completed online courses through Holistic Management International while soaking up as much education on land health and cattle management as possible.

She began custom grazing yearling cattle on her own in 2016 and transitioned to running mama cows and calves of her own by 2018. The first grassfed animals were sold to other grassfed producers in 2019 and by 2020 Sol Ranch was selling its first orders of grassfed beef from the ranch. Emily currently runs mama cows that she purchased from Jeff and Camille’s herd. For over 40 years, they have selected for cattle that are naturally healthy and have the basic ability to get fat on grass in this arid landscape without the need for bringing in outside hay, just a little bit of protein supplement, some free choice salt and mineral and that’s it for feed inputs.

The Tree - Living Room

We couldn't make up our minds so...one for the living room and one for the kitchen. 

Decades ago Michelle's fury over the cultural perversity that drove women to modify their appearance extended to its impact on animals. Poodles were the most obvious examples.  To siphon off the angst we had a show at the gallery called Poodlemania. To augment the art we collected a bunch of poodle chotchkas including several ornaments. Who knew they were a popular subject?

Catering (or is it CAT ering?) to Michelle's

proclivity for cats

The Tree

Note pumpkin awaiting next year

A 1970s acquisition

There was a time when my

totem animal was the badger

Note splendid lace collar

A survivor from the earliest

of earlies

Hoopa Tribe & 11th Hour Project

The11th Hour Project helped make possible the writing of Kochland by Christopher Leonard.

Now, in this article, they're credited with helping the Hoopa Tribe of Northern California purchase over 10 thousand acres of their pre-incursion lands. 

https://11thhourproject.org/hoopa-valley-tribe-regains-major-tract-of-ancestral-land/

The 11th Hour Project is one of several founded by the Schmidt Family Foundation. Created by Wendy and Eric Schmidt. Wendy was a Silicon Valley interior designer & Eric was CEO of Google & Alphabet. 

Today, 15.Dec.24, delving further into the 11th hour Project I found this video about their support of California farmers and ranchers. The video is about 8 minutes long but is on Vimeo so cannot be embedded in Blogger, but the link below will take you to it. 

 https://vimeo.com/856542540

Here's The Foundation's description of the program:

To commemorate ten years of co-evolution and connection, Kitchen Table Advisors (KTA) created a film, “A Decade of Growing Community” celebrating the beautiful stories of three farmer and rancher clients. The film visits Ge Moua of Moua Farm, Javier Cruz of Cruz Martinez Farm, and Dede Boies of Root Down Farm to showcase the ways KTA has grown alongside them.

Over the past ten years, Kitchen Table Advisors – their purpose, vision, and work – has been guided by the voices and visions of small sustainable farmers and ranchers. Their work focuses on both directly supporting farmers and ranchers through practical business advising and relationship building, as well as creating a friendlier marketplace that centers their agricultural practices and lived experiences.

According to the USDA, 50% of small farms don’t survive beyond their first five years and, out of the survivors, only 25% make it to 15 years. The industrialized food system depletes land without providing adequate nourishment, all while disempowering farmers and ranchers who seek to create environmental and social change. This leads to higher failure rates for the producers who nourish us — especially women, BIPOC and immigrants.

From 15 farmer and rancher clients in 2013 to 172 clients now served in 2023, Kitchen Table Advisors supports farmers and ranchers who use regenerative agricultural practices, and are leaders for social and environmental change within the food system. KTA’s work is driven by its vision of a vibrant food system based in community, justice, and ecological responsibility, where all farmers and ranchers can thrive.

Scrub Daddy

David's The Death of Marat

(after Colombo)

Scrubb Daddy is the name of the wire encased sponge supporting the sliver of Kirk's Castile.

ThE wire could go on for decades but the sponge wastes away in less than a year. 

Here's its predecessor.

I do enjoy a bawwtth.

Ouch!

Time seems to fly by and things happen more quickly.

When i briefly looked away i was surprised to discover the vegetables i thought to sautée had set off the smoke alarm.

Turning to take the pan out the back door i moved too fast, spilling hot grease. I've always felt it my duty to be barefoot-in-the-kitchen but this shows the hazard of preparedness. 

Polyamory Day

November 23rd is the date when a court explicitly decriminalized polyamory in Canada in 2011. Canadians started Polyamory Day accordingly, and it spread worldwide.

Roundtree & Yorke

My vintage Roundtree & Yorke robe arrived.

I can now enjoy my evening cognac by the fyre with Michelle and The Cat in full comfort.

Full Moon

12:05 a.m. Full moon directly overhead sending big light into skylight tubes. Traffic noise horrendous! I lasted mere seconds outside.

Sally Ranney

https://sallyranney.com/about-sally/

Cook-Lynn & R.D. Laing

It happened again. I awoke at 11:30 to the call to meds. After going out to the Smirket Room and filling several containers so I wouldn't have to do it again for a few days, I was wide awake.

Now wading in Cook-Lynn's vitriol over America's rascism toward Red skin; she does an admirable job of scathittude.

It makes for perfect bedtime reading...all hatred of hatred and calling out the stupidity (willful ignorance) of academe and The Establishment just as R.D.Laing, Jerry Rubin & Stokely Carmichael did back in our heyday. Ah, those were the good times...when we thought we might change things.

Mom would be scornful...wasting time over useless angst-driven whatever when I could be reading The Steadfást Tin Soldier, The Velveteen Rabbit, or The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. All of which I read every 20 years or so...just to remind me what it is to be human. 

Here's R.D. saYing it more succinctly...

From: The Wing of Madness by Daniel Burston

Brock Chisholm

Excerpt from The Wing of Madness: the life and work of R.D. Laing by Daniel Burston (Harvard University Press, 1996).

The excerpt below was delivered in a speech by "...Major-General Brock Chisholm, director-general of medical services for the Canadian Army who delivered it during the William Alanson White Memorial Lectures in 1945." (Burston, p. 103)

Harry Stack Sullivan founded the Willian Alanson White Memorial Lectures.

William Alanson White was a neurologist and psychiatrist.

In "Later Life and Advocacy" in The Canadian Encyclopedia, it says...

Chisholm became involved in many peace organizations and wrote for pacifist magazines. Atomic destruction and germ warfare particularly concerned him, and he opposed the idea of Canada acquiring nuclear arms. In 1957, he took part in a meeting of international scientists in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, to discuss the dangers of nuclear arms. This was the first in a series of conferences that would eventually win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 (see: Pugwash Wins Nobel Prize; Nobel Prizes and Canada). In 1961, Chisholm helped found the Canadian Peace Research Institute. To prevent nuclear war, he advocated for a global government, a global police force and a global legal system.

Turning to the tale of the Pugwash Nobel Peace prize, there's mention of Cyrus Eaton. Now, 55 years after driving up & down Euclid Avenue (to & from work at the Bobbie Brooks factory) and seeing a marquee that read "They thought Cyrus Eaton was a bull shipper" and having no idea then or until now who he was, I can now die with at least that bit of curtiosity saited.

Brock was influenced by Herbert Marcuse

6:20 pm - Thurs 7.Nov.24. - Mayhaps I'll sleep 2nite.

Magao Caves

Somehow I was drawn to my blogpost about Nancy Grossman

https://newmexnomad.blogspot.com/2014/08/nancy-grossman-discovered-better.html?m=1

The Google Books description of Tough Life Diary mentions...

"blew conventional images of femininity to smithreens," critic Holland Cotter noted.

Cotter's Wiki page led to The Magoa Caves 

Cave 96 - Photo from Wiki (unattributed)

...specifically:

 "The Library Cave" section.

The "Gallery" section is also interesting.

The 1904 "find" of the Library Cave is detailed in

The Ruins of Cathay Vol II

1:47 a.m. Thurs. Sleepless in Albuq.

Lee Miller

 

https://www.liliums-compendium.co.uk/post/lee-miller-muses-the-beau-monde

Lee Miller dehusking corn in the garden of Farleys House, East Sussex, circa 1960. Cooking became a creative outlet for Miller after the horrors of the Second World War (Roland Penrose/Lee Miller Archives)

Farm Bailout

Nov 19, 2021

https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/trumps-hollow-promise-trade-war-relief-small-farms

Nude Trump Statue Tour

Best photos & story from The Wrap

About the artist 

Below is from Newsweek

https://www.newsweek.com/obscene-giant-donald-trump-statue-pennsylvania-angers-gop-1978456

The first statue emerged on Sunday in Portland on Southwest 6th Avenue, next to an existing abstract nude bronze female sculpture, which was installed in 1975.

Ronda Churchill / AFP/Getty Images

Quoting remarks Trump made to Access Hollywood in 2005, which leaked ahead of the 2016 election, its plaque read: "I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p****. You can do anything."

A second statue of Trump, featuring an identical plaque, appeared in Philadelphia's Maja Park on Wednesday, also close to a preexisting bronze sculpture of a naked woman. According to Philly Voice, it was swiftly removed by local authorities.

The effigy seen in Las Vegas (AFP via Getty Images)

Below excerpted from another article in Newsweek.

Last week, two mysterious statues appeared in Washington D.C., one featuring a giant pile of feces on Nancy Pelosi's desk with the caption: "This memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election."

The bronze ‘poop’ featuring a Nancy Pelosi placard appeared in Washington DC on Thursday (AFP via Getty Images)

The second statue was a tiki torch titled "The Donald J Trump Enduring Flame," an apparent reference to the 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" march, which featured neo-Nazis. Trump later sparked controversy for saying there were "very fine people on both sides," though he also said there were "very bad people" at the far-right rally.

More from The Independent

Trump mocking disabled reporter in 2015.

FBI Counterintelligence

From 1956 - 1971, the FBI carried out counter-intelligence activities against five groups deemed troubling.

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/def/files/94755_III.pdf

By now they've refined their techniques and invented all manner of new toys.

Annie Stegg's Videos

It's not entirely clear who did what, but it appears that either Annie or Justin Gerard, or maybe both, painted the endpapers for Peter Beagle's I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons.

Annie's videos...

https://vimeo.com/user11289850/videos

Forgetfulness

Creeping alzheimer's most likely. Early-stage dementia. I can no longer leave the room...the kitchen that is. These were a splendid array of pork robs until I turned my back. 

Trixie, the cat, tried to alert Michelle, but she was engrossed in a tiling project.

Finally, the smoke got to her. Fortunately, nothing caught fire.

Pumpkins

Numero Uno.

30.Okt

The End of A Dream

She left Ghost Ranch Monday morning and drove to La Posada in Winslow. 

She laid over a day, recovering from packing, the turmoil of leave-taking and the 6-hour drive. 

It was a month that passed too quickly. Filled with new friends, art-making, beautiful scenery, much hilarity and good food, it might've gone on indefinitely.

One participant is dying of cancer of the spine. Another received her diagnosis two days after her arrival and will undergo a double mastectomy two days after she leaves.

Despite the above, everyone participated fully. It was an amazing time.

Today she moves from Winslow to Barstow.

Al Christensen Stopped By

My Overlanding tenant* is having to make due with vicarious experiences. Despite the deterioration of the infrastructure, it's enthusiasm hasn't diminished a bit. Thus, I check the blogs I follow several times a day. RollingSteelTent provides the most frequent "fixes."

We've known each other for a number of years and if it weren't for the fact that we've tended to be at widely separated places most of the time, we might've hung out together more often.

Though we've traveled many of the same roads and been to many of the same places, this was our second face-to-face. Typical I think of both our personalities, it felt as if there'd been no gap. And since we both know of the separate but shared travel experiences, we skipped the road stories and launched into swapping tales of our former work lives. I hadn't a clue Al had visited Montreal via Toronto and been to Frankfürt and Beijing.

My limited stamina means I usually set a timer for an hour, but this time I wanted to see how I'd do. It seemed as if it'd been only a few minutes when an hour and a half slipped by. 

He had already driven over two and a half hours getting to Albuquerque and had anothet 2.5 - 3 to reach his destination. 

I was glad to read my baking passed muster.

I can't believe I didn't get a photo.

* We are, according to Kristen, comprised of multiple tenants. Each one steps into its role as occassion demands or permits.

Jetsonorama Post

This 2013 article in Mens' Journal describes physician Chip Thomas's work on the Navajo Rez.

The article below appeared today and is about Chip's latest collaboration in Cincinatti, Ohio.

https://jetsonorama.net/2024/10/19/sight-does-not-equal-vision/

Two Peas Inna Pod

 

More From Ghost Ranch

 

Observations

Gretel Ehrlich is one of those extraordinary people. She's done cattle-ranching in Wyoming, spent 23 years dogsledding in Greenland, has explored Japan and survived being struck by lightning.

From Unsolaced: Along the Way to All That Is comes this observation by a Greenlander whose family has, for MANY generations before Wyoming was even thought of, hunted the nothern country.

Robin Magowan's dad married Robert Merrill's daughter thereby becoming Mr. Merrill's adjutant. Robin, deeply influenced by his uncle, James Merrill, traveled and wrote.  Improbable Journeys describes his time in the Mideast.

The quote, indirectly attributed to Omar (1048-1141), echoes today's sentiments around "disinformation." Some things never change.

O'er the Mesa

 Ghost Ranch

It whar a good day. They played a risque round of Haikubes followed by Jenga in which much drama was shared; she toppled the tower.

New Mexico!!

They went out to O'Keefe's house. They were gonna paint; she was gonna amble about.

SpaceX - Launch & Recovery

Return of the booster, a milestone in engineering.

Bruce Potts

He was closely scrutinizing his receipt, but when I drew alongside he paused and I asked, "Could I video you?" he said "Sure."

I waited outside talking with Tim, the security guard. Tim said he's here often. 

When he emerged I asked a few questions. Bruce was pleasantly unaffected and told how he'd taught highschool in Gallup for 25 years and after getting his Masters degree taught public speaking at the University of New Mexico.

The video wasn't good but I got the above "still" from it.

His Über showed up and we parted. He said he had a website but all I could find was a few isolated references. 

The first 7 minutes of this YT video are about him.

A couple of pictures. The link to the article returns a 404 error. 

Pegasus Massage

The sciatica flares, on average, every 18 months; just long enough between times for me to forget. Of course, there's the expense, but I suspect if I'd kept on it at least once a month it may not have gotten as bad...if at all. 

As it is, I'm into the tenth or more massage with Pegasus. Fortunately, they're celebrating a decade of being in business by offering a reduced rate. Normally $100/hr, for the time being it's $60.00.

It's odd how similar it is to psychotherapy in that though I'm getting better, old aches and pains are surfacing. My highschool hip injury from running hurdles is back and the sprained ankle from a bad leap on the tennis court a decade or so ago is haunting me.

April is amazingly strong and I've had to ask her, now & then, to lighten up. 

Despite my skepticism, the cupping helped.

Longitudinal View