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.