The Old Buzzard's Roost

Talk About Good Luck: Driver finds dead 16-foot python for dinner & leather

2011-08-08T15:51:00.004-05:00

A driver in Sedro-Woolley, Wash., says he found a 16-foot python in the middle of a local road.

Lino Silva and his friend Sarah Vogt were driving down River Road near Riverfront Park in Sedro-Woolley Thursday morning when they spotted something they originally thought was a big branch, the Skagit Valley Herald in Mount Vernon, Wash., reported.

It was actually a python.

Dr. Skip Snow in lab with Burmese python captured in Everglades National Park

"I just turned my head, and I saw something huge like a snake," said Silva. "I have a fear of these things. We looked at it and we were like, 'Holy guacamole!'"

The two called Vogt's boyfriend Nick Pfeifer, a snake enthusiast, to help them move the carcass of the snake to a relative's house.

Once they moved the snake, it took about 30 minutes for the three to skihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifn it and remove the meat for preparation to cook. Ed Note: Snakes have the same internal organs as poultry and are all white meat. Lightly steamed snake meat is much like chicken breast. It is easy to manage if cut into 1-2" sections. The meat can then be gently forked off the ribs to eat. Meat from venomous and non-venomous snakes are edible and safe. (HB-C)

Pfeifer says he plans to have a jacket made out of the brown, tan and white skin.

"I'm hoping to get enough to make a leather jacket out of it," Pfeifer said. "If I don't have enough for a whole jacket, I'll probably do a vest."

Silva said he was happy to pass the find along to his friend.

Snake field guide at Back40Books.com:

Smoke Plants of North America

2011-04-25T16:56:00.004-05:00

"What a rabbit eats we can smoke"

Smoke Plants of North America by Author Mairi R. Ross. Ms. Ross acknowledges the serious negative health, social, and spiritual consequences of smoking commercial cigarettes and the author challenges us to look past our modern practices and rediscover the truth about the age old ritual of smoking.

The author shares her personal discovery of over 150 wild plants, legal, non-addictive, medicinal, and enjoyable, that have been smoked by Native Americans and others for centuries. Compiled here for the first time in print, this knowledge is drawn from the author's own experience and her research into original ethnobotanical texts and contemporary herbalism. Acknowledging the serious negative health, social, and spiritual consequences of smoking commercial cigarettes, the author challenges us to look past our modern practices and rediscover the truth about the age old ritual of smoking. In this book you will discover: over a dozen smoke mix recipes made with legal, non addictive herbs that calm nerves, reduce anxiety, relieve insomnia and may help you stop or reduce cigarette and marijuana smoking. A guide to gathering over 50 smokeable wild plants. Over 150 smoke plants, many traditionally used by the Navajo, Iroquois, Cherokee, Hope, Cowasuck and other Native Americans. The original spiritual purpose of smoking. 5+"x 7+", 182 page paperback. Available from www.Back40Books.com for $15.95 + shipping

Whispers of the Ancients: Native Tales for Teaching and Healing in Our Time

2010-08-18T17:26:00.003-05:00

I am pleased to recommend a new book by Tamarack Song, illustrations by Moses (Amik) Beaver. It's easy to imagine yourself transported back to a time when an Elder might have told stories like those in Whispers of the Ancients around a glowing hearth. Thanks to Tamarack Song's storytelling skills, monsters, heroes, and shapeshifters come alive and open a doorway to the mysteries of life.

Stunning Aboriginal artwork by Moses (Amik) Beaver combines with provocative storytelling to renew, in all their traditional splendor, exceptional legends from around the world. Entertaining, profound, passionate, glorious these are stories that illustrate and evoke themes common to everyone's life, with an ancient wisdom that helps the listener to cope with today's opportunities for tenderness, grief, passion, and irony. --- Easily accessible to all ages, this is a book that speaks to each person at his or her own level of comprehension and need. It's as beautiful to read as it is to look at. Soft cover, 9 x 12. 224 pgs. 115 full color illustrations.

There Goes a Man of God

2009-08-14T11:31:00.004-05:00

"It's time Indians tell the world what we know... about nature and about God. So I'm going to tell you what I know and who I am. You guys better listen. You have a lot to learn.
--Mathew King, LAKOTA

A long time ago the Creator came to Turtle Island and said to the Red People - "You will be the keepers of the Mother Earth. Among you I will give the wisdom about nature, about the interconnectedness of all things, about balance and about living in harmony. You Red People will see the secrets of nature. You will live in hardship and the blessing of this is you will stay close to the Creator. The day will come when you will need to share the secrets with the other people of the earth because they will stray from their spiritual ways. The time to start sharing is today."

Oh Great Spirit, today I am ready for You to use me as a channel of Your peace. Let my walk today be visible so the people will say "There goes a Man of God." I want to know what He knows. If they ask, I will tell them to go out into the wilderness and pray for You to guide them.

When you click the underlined title "There Goes A Man of God" you will be taken to the Native American Department at Back40Books.com. You'll discover a great storehouse of Native American Spirituality, practices and lifestyle.
Buzz

We are to walk the Sacred Path

2008-06-28T18:22:00.003-05:00

"What could be greater than to be Wakan-Tanka's mind, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, arms, hands, legs, and feet here on earth?"

--Fools Crow, LAKOTA

In order for the Creator to do His work on this earth, He needs the human being to do it. How He guides us is through our eyes, ears, hands, nose, mouth, arms legs and feet. We are instruments of the Creator. We are His keepers of the earth. We are the keepers of our brothers. We are to teach His children. We are to respect the things He has made. We are to take care of ourselves and treat our bodies and our minds with respect. We are to do respectful things. We are to walk the Sacred Path. We should have good thoughts. We should do only things that we think the Creator would have us do. What an honor to be a human being. What an honor that He would talk to us and guide us to perform His wonders.

Oh Great Spirit, let me appreciate the role you have given me. Let my sense be sharp to hear Your voice. Keep my mind clean so I can do the things You would have me do.

Real Life: A New Forum

2008-05-14T14:12:00.004-05:00

I have established a new forum on the www.Back40Forums.com site. It is more of a daily-reality based column about how to live an authentic nature based life in today's "Virtual world" It will be different in focus than this mostly spiritual blog and more interactive as well. I won't be abandoning this roost, just adding a new outlet for my works.
Here is some of my first post. Please visit the forum regularly or sign up for the RSS feeds.

Welcome to Real Life. This forum is for folks who want to wean themselves away from the many practices of the "virtual world": the world of manipulated prices, manufactured foods and exaggerated or untrue advertising claims and work on developing an "authentic" lifestyle that will be healthier, more satisfying, and good for our planet and all beings (animal, vegetable, mineral, forests, etc.). All Fall and Winter Linda and I have been eating fresh greens from the garden and nature, root vegetables from nature, fresh raw milk, fresh eggs, all kinds of meat (wild and domestic) and even delicious homemade wines. We will talk about that more prior to next fall. I'll be giving you information on when to plant the things you'll be eating throughout the winter. But first, lets talk about the present.

We are located in the Missouri Ozarks, zone 6, so your harvest and planting time periods may fall before or after ours. Right now we are eating Chickweed, violet leaves and flowers, simlax tenderals, field garlic, dandelion leaves, redbud blossoms and clover blossoms. Topped with grated and sliced eggs from our free-range hens, doused with extra-virgin cold-pressed olive oil and herb flavored vinegars we make ourselves.

All of these plants and foods are available right now in our area, free for the picking. It usually take Linda about 15 minutes to gather the ingredients. In the photo above you will note that we added some grated carrots stored in our garden all winter. I haven't figured all the nutrition completely but I believe this is a top quality lunch, full of vitamins and minerals and abundant protein. Earlier in the spring we had cottage cheese filled tulips!

We have planted a 4 season garden so we will have plenty of fresh domestic greens, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbages and Jerusalem Artichokes all winter. But every year we find our selves eating fewer cultivated vegetables from the garden during the green season. Coming up over the next months will be watercress, poke weed, plantain, field cress, raspberries, blackberries, and on and on.

This forum won't be just about food. We will cover all kinds of ways we all can save money, help the planet, stay healthier and live longer. Linda and I have been living this life for over 30 years now so we can offer a lot of tips. One of Linda's specialty areas is medicinal herbs. She recently discovered a fantastic oil she formulated to tame the poison ivy we always get at the first of the growing season and become immune to later. If you have specific questions to ask us, or, if you have tricks and methods of your own to contribute please don't be shy, ask away.

And visit often, I will be posting several times a week as time is available. We are planning a DVD on this subject so ideas are also welcome for that. If you want to get a head start of the foraging part you'll need one or more good field guides. I recommend you visit this link to see a great selection and get free shipping:
One of my favorite books for beginners is "Edible Wild Plants of North America" by Elias & Dykeman. Please add this link to your favorites now so you won't lose track of the new forum: Real Life

Meet My Friend Fluff

2008-05-09T11:50:00.004-05:00

Yes, I know this doesn't seem to have much to do about Native Spirituality. But, in reality it does: We are are all to be respected equally, why can't a Cat become a valuable part of my business world. He is a part of every minute of my Life, every day. Fluff usually holds court at his Forum over at the Back40Forums
Fluffy Cat Records List. He's promised me he will be a regular contributor. If you want to know where the Old Buzzard roosts visit the Back40Forums index and check out the various message boards. You might find one that will interest you!
Here is Fluff's first message:
Hi Folks-- Allow me to introduce myself: I am Fluff A. Catt. If it weren't for me there wouldn't be a Fluffy Cat Records. Without my best buddy Herm I wouldn't be enjoying this special life. One day when I was riding on the E-Z go that we drive back and forth to the office he said "How would you like to be Chairman of the Board at our new record company division?". Well, I had been watching butterflies soaring through our cart so I really hadn't been listening well. But, when it finally hit me I thought "what a cool idea". Me, the biggest, fluffiest Tom on the farm with a REAL position. I love good acoustic music (but I have to cover my ears around rock bands) and sometimes even sing along on vocals, especially if the singer is performing under the full moon. So I answered "yes", on the condition that I could be an integral part of the team. Herm suggested I write a regular column to our friends and customers and I thought that was a great idea.

So, keep checking back here on a regular basis and I'll keep you up to date on what's going on in my life. Of course, right now it's Spring and since I am a bachelor who plays the field, I might be pretty busy (if you know what I mean). Well, right now it's time for a nap on a nearby tree branch so I'll catch you later. Thanks for visiting!
Affectionately--
Fluff

Stoking The Inner Fire-Turning Inward During Winter

2008-01-10T10:19:00.002-06:00

In the depths of winter, we can forget that bare trees will once again be full with foliage, and grass and flowers hidden beneath a blanket of white or a deceptive covering of hardened earth will burst forth once again. While they slumber, nature is continuing its work at the center of each living thing. We can think of our blankets and warm clothes as similar protection—like the cocoon that surrounds a changing caterpillar—while we undergo our own inner transformational work. In the meantime, the lights that twinkle and the fires that warm us can serve to remind us of the flame of life that burns within us.

In order to stoke our inner flame, we can use the time indoors to focus our attention on our homes and families. We can become distracted by the world outside and forget that we need to nourish the lights that warm our hearts. Interacting at a soul level can be done by sharing stories from our hearts, doing projects together, dancing, or playing games. Devoting energy this way helps us build a stronger bond that will sustain us once the world allows us each to pursue our individual goals again.

Winter allows us to feed the flame in our own centers by reading or researching to nourish our dreams and plans for the future. This can mean catching up on all the quieter things we wanted to do but didn’t have time for, like reading books, watching movies, or listening to music. We may have set aside creative pursuits such as painting or writing that can be brought back to the center burner now. It is also a great time to do some journaling to look back on the year that has passed and perhaps the years before this one in preparation for forward motion in the coming year. Nature’s wisdom offers us opportunities to nourish our inner seeds of hope in preparation for our future, so let us enjoy the inner warmth and be grateful for it all.

For an excellent selection of books and music about Native American spirituality, lifestyle and Antique Indian Ways of living in Harmony with all creation visit the Native American Store at Back 40 Books

No Left Turns

2007-12-06T17:48:00.000-06:00

This is a wonderful piece by Michael Gartner, editor of newspapers large and small and president of NBC News. In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. It is well worth reading, and a few good chuckles are guaranteed.

My father never drove a car. Well, that's not quite right. I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet.

"In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it." At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in: "Oh, bull----!" she said. "He hit a horse." "Well," my father said, "there was that, too."

So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The neighbors all had cars -- the Kollingses next door had a green 1941 Dodge, the Van Laninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the Hopsons two doors down a black 1941 Ford -- but we had none.

My father, a newspaperman in Des Moines, would take the streetcar to work and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home. If he took the streetcar home, my mother and brother and I would walk the three blocks to the streetcar stop, meet him and walk home together.

My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and sometimes, at dinner, we'd ask how come all the neighbors had cars but we had none. "No one in the family drives," my mother would explain, and that was that.

But, sometimes, my father would say, "But as soon as one of you boys turns 16, we'll get one." It was as if he wasn't sure which one of us would turn 16 first.

But, sure enough, my brother turned 16 before I did, so in 1951 my parents bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts department at a Chevy dealership downtown.

It was a four-door, white model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded with everything, and, since my parents didn't drive, it more or less became my brother's car. Having a car but not being able to drive didn't bother my father, but it didn't make sense to my mother.

So in 1952, when she was 43 years old, she asked a friend to teach her to drive. She learned in a nearby cemetery, the place where I learned to drive the following year and where, a generation later, I took my two sons to practice driving. The cemetery probably was my father's idea. "Who can your mother hurt in the cemetery?" I remember him saying more than once.

For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the driver in the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of direction, but he loaded up on maps -- though they seldom left the city limits - and appointed himself navigator. It seemed to work.

Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement that didn't seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of marriage. (Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.)

He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20 years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin's Church. She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would wait in the back until he saw which of the parish's two priests was on duty that morning. If it was the pastor, my father then would go out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the service and walking her home. If it was the assistant pastor, he'd take just a 1-mile walk and then head back to the church. He called the priests "Father Fast" and "Father Slow."

After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother whenever she drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If she were going to the beauty parlor, he'd sit in the car and read, or go take a stroll or, if it was summer, have her keep the engine running so he could listen to the Cubs game on the radio. In the evening, then, when I'd stop by, he'd explain: "The Cubs lost again. The millionaire on second base made a bad throw to the millionaire on first base, so the multimillionaire on third base scored."

If she were going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry the bags out -- and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream. As I said, he was always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she was 88 and still driving, he said to me, "Do you want to know the secret of a long life?"

"I guess so," I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre. "No left turns," he said. "What?" I asked. "No left turns," he repeated. "Several years ago, your mother and I read an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic. As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make a left turn."

"What?" I said again. "No left turns," he said. "Think about it. Three rights are the same as a left, and that's a lot safer. So we always make three rights." "You're kidding!" I said, and I turned to my mother for support. "No," she said, "your father is right. We make three rights. It works." But then she added: "Except when your father loses count."

I was driving at the time, and I almost drove off the road as I started laughing. "Loses count?" I asked.

"Yes," my father admitted, "that sometimes happens. But it's not a problem. You just make seven rights, and you're okay again." I couldn't resist. "Do you ever go for 11?" I asked. "No," he said. "If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can't be put off another day or another week."

My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her car keys and said she had decided to quit driving. That was in 1999, when she was 90. She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year, at 102. They both died in the bungalow they had moved into in 1937 and bought a few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years later, my brother and I paid $8,000 to have a shower put in the tiny bathroom -- the house had never had one. My father would have died then and there if he knew the shower cost nearly three times what he paid for the house.)

He continued to walk daily -- he had me get him a treadmill when he was 101 because he was afraid he'd fall on the icy sidewalks but wanted to keep exercising -- and he was of sound mind and sound body until the moment he died.

One September afternoon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I had to give a talk in a neighboring town, and it was clear to all three of us that he was wearing out, though we had the usual wide-ranging conversation about politics and newspapers and things in the news.

A few weeks earlier, he had told my son, "You know, Mike, the first hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred." At one point in our drive that Saturday, he said, "You know, I'm probably not going to live much longer." "You're probably right," I said. "Why would you say that?" He countered, somewhat irritated. "Because you're 102 years old," I said.

"Yes," he said, "you're right." He stayed in bed all the next day. That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him through the night. He appreciated it, he said, though at one point, apparently seeing us look gloomy, he said:" I would like to make an announcement.

“No one in this room is dead yet". An hour or so later, he spoke his last words: "I want you to know," he said, clearly and lucidly, "that I am in no pain. I am very comfortable. And I have had as happy a life as anyone on this earth could ever have." A short time later, he died. I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot.

I've wondered now and then how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so long. I can't figure out if it was because he walked through life, Or because he quit taking left turns. Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the one's who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it.

“Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would most likely be worth it."

Fend For Yourself

2007-09-26T11:13:00.001-05:00

When did we decide campgrounds needed laundromats? When the car stalled, whose bright idea was it to reach for a cell phone instead of a tool? When did we decide to eat manufactured food instead of growing it ourselves, cooking it ourselves, and sharing it with our families and friends?

There was a time when the words "quick" and "fix" were never found together in the same sentence. When our homes needed to be built, we grabbed brothers, fathers and hammers, not a mouse that clicked on Mr. On-line Contractor. Our nation's great accomplishments were a testament to hard work, sweat and ingenuity. After all, we not only put a man on the moon, but built him a rover to drive while he was up there.

What will we achieve today? Can we turn our backs to the enemy known as convenience before it makes us helpless? Do we have what it takes to depend solely on ourselves? Can we learn the skills necessary to survive in a nation without electricity or public services such as heat, water sewage disposal, electricity and readily available gasoline? Think it can’t happen here? Look at Baghdad, the CAPITAL of Iraq, a city without reliable utilities for over four years. Think back to 9-11. Can we protect all of our water systems from deliberate contamination? Our power generating facilities from a 9-11 style attack? Our cell phone towers and transmission systems? Our country has made a lot of enemies over the past few years and those enemies are dedicated to destroying the comfortable life we Americans have become accustomed to. We can’t possibly expect to protect all of our infrastructure all of the time.

Ponder these questions, consider the consequences. Learn to be more self-reliant. Gather self-help books or instructional DVD’s. Consider acquiring the tools, knives and outdoor gear that are essential, not only for the task at hand, but for bringing back something lost: our self-reliance.

Fend for Yourself!

This article was inspired by one written by Gerber Legendary Blades and featured on their web site at www.GerberGear.com. Many book, DVD’s and tools to live the self-reliant life can be found at www.Back40Books.com . This message was written by the Old Buzzard on September 26, 2007. Permission to reproduce is granted if the article is printed in it’s entirety and credit is given to http://the-old-buzzards-roost.blogspot.com/
© 2007 The Old Buzzard

Apache Prayer

2007-09-14T09:45:00.002-05:00

The Gentle Art of Blessing

2007-08-05T10:35:00.000-05:00

by Pierre Pradervand

On awakening, bless this day, for it is already full of unseen good which your blessings will call forth; for to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all.

On passing people in the street, on the bus, in places of work and play, bless them. The peace of your blessing will accompany them on their way and the aura of its gentle fragrance will be a light to their path.

On meeting and talking to people, bless them in their health, their work, their joy, their relationships to God, themselves, and others. Bless them in their abundance, their finances...bless them in every conceivable way, for such blessings not only sow seeds of healing but one day will spring forth as flowers of joy in the waste places of your own life.

As you walk, bless the area in which you live, its government and teachers, its nurses and street sweepers, its children and bankers, its priests and prostitutes. The minute anyone expresses the least aggression or unkindness to you, respond with a blessing: bless them totally, sincerely, joyfully, for such blessings are a shield which protects them from the ignorance of their misdeed, and deflects the arrow that was aimed at you..

To bless means to wish, unconditionally, total, unrestricted good for others and events from the deepest wellspring in the innermost chamber of your heart: it means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to behold with utter awe that which is always a gift from the Creator. He who is hallowed by your blessing is set aside, consecrated, holy, whole. To bless is yet to invoke divine care upon, to think or speak gratefully for, to confer happiness upon - although we ourselves are never the bestower, but simply the joyfull witnesses of Life's abundance.

To bless all without discrimination of any sort is the ultimate form of giving, because those you bless will never know from whence came the sudden ray of sun that burst through the clouds of their skies, and you will rarely be a witness to the sunlight in their lives.

When something goes completely askew in your day, some unexpected event knocks down your plans and you too also, burst into blessing: for life is teaching you a lesson, and the very event you believe to be unwanted, you yourself called forth, so as to learn the lesson you might balk against were you not to bless it. Trials are blessings in disguise, and hosts of angels follow in their path.

To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty hidden to material eyes; it is to activate that law of attraction which, from the furthest reaches of the universe, will bring into your life exactly what you need to experience and enjoy.

When you pass a prison, mentally bless its inmates in their innocence and freedom, their gentleness, pure essence and unconditional forgiveness; for one can only be prisoner of one's self-image, and a free man can walk unshackled in the courtyard of a jail, just as citizens of countries where freedom reigns can be prisoners when fear lurks in their thoughts.

When you pass a hospital, bless its patients in their present wholeness, for even in their suffering, this wholeness awaits in them to be discovered. When your eyes behold a man in tears, or seemingly broken by life, bless him in his vitality and joy: for the material senses present but the inverted image of the ultimate splendor and perfection which only the inner eye beholds.

It is impossible to bless and to judge at the same time. So hold constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought that desire to bless, for truly then shall you become a peacemaker, and one day you shall, everywhere, behold the very face of God.

And of course, above all, don't forget to bless the utterly beautiful person YOU are!

The Echo of Life

2007-06-09T11:40:00.000-05:00

A man and his son were walking in the forest. Suddenly, the son
trips and feeling a sharp pain he screams, "Ahhhhhh!" Surprised,
he hears a voice coming from the mountain, "Ahhhhh!" Filled with
curiosity, he screams, "Who are you?" but the only answer he
receives is, "Who are you?" This makes him angry, so he screams,
"You are a coward!" and the voice answers, "You are a coward!"

He looks at his father, asking, "Dad, what is going on?"

"Son," the man replies, "pay attention!" Then he screams,
"I admire you!" The voice answers, "I admire you!"
The father shouts, "You are wonderful!" and the voice answers,
"You are wonderful!"

The boy is surprised, but still can't understand what is going on.

The father explains, "People call this an 'echo' but truly
it is 'life!' Life always gives you back what you give out.
Life is a mirror of your actions. If you want more love, give
more love. If you want more kindness, give more kindness. If
you want understanding and respect, give understanding and respect.
If you want people to be patient and respectful to you, give
patience and respect. This rule of nature applies to every
aspect of our lives."

Life always give you back what you give out. Your life is not
a coincidence, but a mirror of your own doings.

-Author unknown

Asnishinaabe Hunter-Gatherer Traditional Foods

2007-05-28T11:31:00.001-05:00

Eating the foods Creator gave us will Honor Him and give us good health.

FOCUS on LOCAL
Eating the foods that are grown in the soil and climate that you live in is very important. These STAPLE foods provide the specific nutrients your body needs. The Creator has given us everything we need literally within walking distance from where you live (wild rice, fish, deer, corn, various greens, and the other traditional foods mentioned above.) How else could people have survived without modern transportation? ... and they did so for thousands of years.

Spring Time is a time of renewal. Fish, eggs, fresh shoots (such as horsetail and cattail sprouts) and tender greens (such as lambs quarters which is also known as wild spinach, dandelion, plantain, purslane, mint, wintergreen, nettles, wood ferns, and creeping snowberry leaves) help us to cleanse our systems from the heavy winter foods.

You can view the entire Pyramid here: Anishinaabe Food Pyramid

Special thanks are in order for the Anishinaabe Center, Detroit Lakes, MN www.anishinaabe.org 218-846-9463 for commissioning this work.
The Old Buzzard

Through Food We Are All Connected

2007-05-18T10:56:00.001-05:00

While I am not Jewish I respect the fact that every one of us has to find his or her own way to God (The Great Spirit; the One who is known by so many names and in so many ways) This article is reprinted from My Jewish Learning: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/index.htm

Eco-Kashrut: Environmental Standards for What and How We Eat

We need to renew the unity of earth and humanity.

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

In recent decades, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and others have advocated a broadening of the concept of kashrut to include restrictions on consumption based on ecological considerations. Here, one of the Jewish Renewal movement's most articulate spokespersons argues the case for eco-kashrut in the form of a commentary to the Torah portion Shemini (Leviticus 9:1-11:47).This article is reprinted with the permission of the Jerusalem Report.

It reads, to modern eyes, like a cookbook. The Torah portion of Shemini begins by telling us to bring beef, mutton, and pancakes to the sacred altar at the transcendent moment of its dedication. It ends by making sure that on any ordinary day we do not eat whales, hawks, camels, or shrimp. For even in our ordinary lives, some foods are sacred.

And between these two celebrations of the sacredness of food, we witness the deaths of those who brought "strange fire" to the Holy One.

How did biblical Jews get in touch with God? By eating and choosing what to eat. Not by murmuring prayer; when Hannah did that (I Samuel 1:13), the priest Eli though she was drunk.

Why by eating? Because in the deepest origins of Jewish life, the most sacred relationship was the relationship with the earth. For shepherds, farmers, orchard-keepers, food was the nexus between adamah, the earth, and its closest relative, adam, the human. So ancient Jews got in touch with God by bringing food to the Temple. With our bodies we affirmed, "This food comes from a Unity of which we also are a part: from earth, rain, sun, seed, and our own work. It came from the Unity of Life; so we give back some of it to that great Unity."

In our most mundane moments, we affirmed through the rules of kashrut that what and how we ate was holy. And in our wildest poetic fantasies of the history of humankind, we thought that what went wrong was somehow wrongly eating--a mistake that brought upon us an earth that would bring forth only thorns and thistles for us to eat, as we toiled with the sweat pouring down our noses.

When the moment came for us to turn history around, we learned to rest. We learned Shabbat. Not from the thunderclap of Sinai, but from eating--from the manna--that sweet and flowing breast-milk of El Shaddai, the God of Breasts, All-Nourishing. From the manna, we learned that together with the earth, we rest. And rest was then extended from the seventh day to the seventh year, when the earth was entitled to rest and the human community that worked the earth was obligated to rest as well.

Today, most of us have shrugged away the bringing-near of sacred food, the sacred choice of foods we do not eat, the sacred pausing so that one-seventh of the time we do not grow our foods. We think that resting is a waste of time that could be used to make, invent, produce, do.

Indeed, in the last few hundred years, the human race has invented the most brilliant act of work in all of its history. We have affected the planet--its very biology and chemistry--in ways no species ever has before. And we have invented the Holocaust, the H-bomb, global warming. Strange fires, all of them. Fires through which a few people can now kill billions, a few corporations can now kill thousands of species.

What can we learn by renewing the ancient text? For shepherds and farmers, food was what they ate from the earth. For us, it is also coal, oil, electric power, paper, plastics, that we take from the earth. For shepherds and farmers, kashrut was the way of guiding their eating toward holiness. For us, eco-kashrut should do the same.

We should ask: Is it eco-kosher to eat vegetables and fruit that have been grown by drenching the soil with insecticides? Is it eco-kosher to drink Shabbat Kiddush wine from non-biodegradable plastic cups? Is it eco-kosher to use 100 percent unrecycled office paper and newsprint in our homes, our synagogues, our community newspapers? Might it be eco-kosher to insist on 10 percent recycled paper this year, 30 percent in two years, and 80 percent in five years?

Is it eco-kosher to destroy great forests, to ignore insulating our homes, synagogues, and nursing homes, to become addicted to automobiles so that we drunkenly pour carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, there to accelerate the heating of our globe? Strange fire indeed!

We can light a blaze to consume the earth. Or we can make a holy altar of our lives, to light up the spark of God in every human and in every species.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow is a Pathfinder of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, director of the Shalom Center, author of God-Wrestling--Round 2, and Down-to-Earth Judaism, and co-editor of Trees, Earth, and Torah: A Tu B'Shvat Anthology.

The Long, Winding, Red Road

2007-02-04T18:39:00.001-06:00

The Red Road is a circle of people
standing hand in hand,
people in this world, people between
people in the Spirit world.
star people, animal people, stone people,
river people, tree people…
The Sacred Hoop.

To walk the Red Road
is to know sacrifice, suffering.
It is to understand humility.
It is the ability to stand naked before God
in all things for your wrong doings,
for your lack of strength,
for your discompassionate way,
for your arrogance - because to walk
the Red Road, you always know
you can do better. And you know,
when you do good things,
it is through the Creator, and you are grateful.

To walk the Red Road
is to know you stand on equal ground
with all living things. It is to know that
because you were born human,
it gives you superiority over nothing.
It is to know that every creation carries a Spirit,
and the river knows more than you do,
the mountains know more than you do,
the stone people know more than you do,
the trees know more than you do,
the wind is wiser than you are,
and animal people carry wisdom.
You can learn from every one of them,
because they have something you don’t:

They are void of evil thoughts.

They wish vengeance on no one, they seek Justice.

To Walk the Red Road,
you have God given rights,
you have the right to pray,
you have the right to dance,
you have the right to think,
you have the right to protect,
you have the right to know Mother,
you have the right to dream,
you have the right to vision,
you have the right to teach,
you have the right to learn,
you have a right to grieve,
you have a right to happiness,
you have the right to fix the wrongs,
you have the right to truth,
you have a right to the Spirit World.

To Walk the Red Road
is to know your Ancestors,
to call to them for assistance…
It is to know that there is good medicine,
and there is bad medicine…
It is to know that Evil exists,
but is cowardly as it is often in disguise.
It is to know there are evil spirits
who are in constant watch
for a way to gain strength for themselves
at the expense of you.

To Walk the Red Road,
you have less fear of being wrong,
because you know that life is a journey,
a continuous circle, a sacred hoop.
Mistakes will be made,
and mistakes can be corrected -
if you will be humble,
for if you cannot be humble,
you will never know
when you have made a mistake.

If you walk the Red Road,
you know that every sorrow
leads to a better understanding,
every horror cannot be explained,
but can offer growth.

To Walk the Red Road
is to look for beauty in all things.

To Walk the Red Road
is to know you will one day
cross to the Spirit World,
and you will not be afraid…

"By Unknown"

Way of the Sacred Pipe

2007-01-06T12:49:00.000-06:00

If you are interested in learning the true Spiritual way of being a personal pipe carrier reading "The Way of the Sacred Pipe" by Jim Tree is where to start. "Jim Tree has taken a subject many feel is taboo, and approached it with knowledge, dignity, and great sensitivity. A must read for First Nation Peoples who have been raised away from their roots."Will O.,(Cherokee), Ciolo, Texas. "The book, "The Way of the Sacred Pipe" written by Jim Tree, is a must read for those interested in our tribal ways, especially concerning the use of stone pipes." Bud Johnston, (Anishinaabe) President, Keepers of the Sacred Tradition of Pipemakers. "In this instructive volume, Jim Tree takes us on a voyage through part of Native America and it's traditions that outsiders know little or nothing about. A good read." Slim Randles, author, "Sun Dog Days," "Ravens Prey", "Ol' Max Evans. "The Way of the Sacred Pipe" could not have come at a better time. With so many of the Indigenous ways and traditions vanishing like the morning dew, Jim Tree shares meaningful- and personal- insights into walking with the Sacred Pipe of our ancestors, not just for Indigenous Peoples, but for anyone anywhere who feels called to walk this path. With a focus on the living relationship with the Pipe instead of dogma, Jim hits the nail on the head and brings an oft-misunderstood topic into clear focus." Tim "Shadow Viper" Ott(Cherokee), Vienna, Austria. "What a breath of fresh air among all the plastic and Hollywood Stereotypes to see the real thing: Honest and authentic teachings put forth in a respectable format. Thanks to Jim Tree for this gift to the seven generations." Elisabeth Dietz, Eagle Woman, (Anishinaabe), author, "Now is the Hour-Native Prophecies for the coming Earth Changes." Author Jim Tree's training in the care of the Sacred Pipe has over the years been with several Elders representing Nations other than his own Cherokee People. This has given him a broad perspective on the ways of the Pipe, and it is from this collection of information that he offers the material presented here. His Elders of influence have been Adam Fortunate Eagle, Anishinaabe Spiritual leader, M. Running Deer, Apache spiritual leader, the late Lilly Windrider Nevarez, member of the Cherokee Medicine Society, and the late Larry War Eagle, Cherokee spiritual leader. To Order: http://www.back40books.com/get_item_978-0977-782000.htm

Prayer Ties

2006-12-18T20:55:00.001-06:00

PRAYER TIES AND FLAGS; See Drawing. Prayer ties and flags are spiritual tools created to be a physical representation and carrier of the energy of a prayer. They may be brought and left at the spot that a ceremony is being held or carried to some other place and left as a token of your dedication. Each time the tie or flag is re-encountered it becomes a reminder of your prayer/intention and thus fortifies it with your additional energy of attention. Through your intention the prayer moves on.

I am suggesting designs for your ties or flags, but be aware that there are many forms and you may envision and design ones of your own. This is your Soul’s way of letting you know what serves it and your energy best. I suggest you try each of these examples and be on "the look out" for others that come to you. I recently read about a little "prayer basket" filled with feathers, a stone and a shell laying on a bed of herbs. Tobacco ties were tied to the handle of the basket. Please bring your ties and/or flags to place on our sacred cedar tree. If you wish, bring your supplies and make the ties here; we will have some sacred tobacco & cornmeal to use. If you can’t do this, please come anyway.

PRAYER FLAGS: Cut strips of natural cloth (so they bio-degrade) about an inch wide and in various lengths. Use various colors that please you. (Many Earth People used red, white, yellow and black representing the directions and the inter-relatedness of all things.)

PRAYER OR TOBACCO TIES: (drawing) Cut a 1 1/2 - 2 1/2" square piece of natural cloth. The color can be any color you choose that represents the dedication (prayer) you are making. Tie bundles strung together often have four colors representing the unity of the four directions.

• After you have cut the square a pinch of tobacco only or a mixture of tobacco, sweet grass, sage and/or other herbs are placed in the center of the cloth as you say your prayer (request). Your prayer is thus mentally placed with the "tobacco" into the bundle. Gather the comers together and tie it at the top around the pinch of tobacco. When tied, touch the pinch bundle to your forehead and say words of dedication that represent the quality of your thoughts in relation to the bundle. Then place the bundle in front of your mouth and nose and breath your essence into it with your out breath. Next, touch it to your throat and speak about the qualities of your speech that you make with this bundle. Touch the bundle to the center of your chest with words about your heart-felt-ness, and lastly touch your belly between your navel and your regenerative organs and speak about the qualities of creation and the powers that go with it.

You may string many ties (bundles) together on one string or cord if you wish, or make individual ones. They can be strung into a necklace to be worn during a ceremony and burned so that the smoke released carries prayers to the universe and the Great Mystery. If you tie the bundles to a sacred tree or other relation you may wish to tie downy feathers with them so that when the wind blows it carries your prayer above.

Winter Solstice Ceremony at Nature's Pace Sanctuary

2006-12-18T18:51:00.001-06:00

December 21st is the shortest day of the year and the Sun reaches the furthest point in its southern travel at 6:22 PM that evening. In consideration of this event we will hold our annual Solstice Ceremony on FRIDAY December 22.

The festivities will begin at 2pm as we gather wood and construct our bonfire. We will also make prayer ties (See instructions for making Prayer Ties in the next post) and grind some Sacred Cornmeal for everyone to take home. Folks are welcome to come anytime from 2 pm until 6 pm. Partners and children are welcome. At 6:00 there will be a short talk explaining the ceremony and Solstice traditions.

The bonfire will be lit at 6:30 pm and will be followed by a potluck feast after the fire. Please bring some food to share. Herm and Linda will be providing Esau’s Potage, a traditional soup made of goat meat, lentils and other fresh vegetables.

We will observe the beginning of Earth Renewal by lighting a symbolic fire. Several of us will have fasted, meditated or reviewed our lives during the time leading up to this ceremony. Now we are prepared to make an offering to our ceremonial fire that will represent something about ourselves we would like to change, a habit we would like to break or we may add something symbolic to the fire that symbolizes closure in an area of our life.
Each of us will have an opportunity to step forward to the fire as we feel moved, one person at a time. We should solemnly remind ourselves of our intentions and make our fire offering. You may silently add your offering or you may share what your offering symbolizes with the group. When you are satisfied that you are in tune with your thoughts and the fire, you may step back to the group and another will step forward. There will be silence by the group during the ceremony.
When we have each made our offering representing change in our lives we will each step forward and add a final offering as we send a prayer of thanksgiving for all of our Blessings to Wakan Tanka, The Great Spirit (God). Once again, take as much time as you need, then step back and rejoin the group.

This will conclude our fire ceremony. We will now light our Owl candle to transport a portion of our fire back to the lodge where feasting and celebrating await.

We hope you can join us. RSVP is required. E-Mail your intentions to Linda at: "LindaNaturesPace (at) earthlink.net" prior to December 21 at 9pm.

LIFE: Your Best Spiritual Guru

2006-11-25T12:10:00.001-06:00

Many of us long to find a spiritual teacher or guru. We may feel unsure of how to practice our spirituality without one, or we may long for someone who has attained a higher level of insight to lead the way for us. Some of us have been looking for years to no avail and feel frustrated and even lost. The good news is that the greatest teacher you could ever want is always with you-that is your life.

The people and situations we encounter every day have much to teach us when we are open to receiving their wisdom. Often we don't recognize our teachers because they may not look or act like our idea of a guru, yet they may embody great wisdom. In addition, some people teach us by showing us what we don't want to do. All the situations in our lives, from the insignificant to the major, conspire to teach us exactly what we need to be learning at any given time. Patience, compassion, perseverance, honesty, letting go-all these are covered in the classroom of the teacher that is your life.

We can help ourselves to remember this perfect teacher each day with a few simple words. Each morning we might find a moment to say, "I acknowledge and honor the teacher that is my life. May I be wise enough to recognize the teachers and lessons that I encounter today, and may I be open to receiving their wisdom." We might also take some time each day to consider what our lives are trying to teach us at this time. A difficult phase in your relationship with your child may be teaching you to let go. The homeless person you see every day may be showing you the boundaries of your compassion and generosity. A spate of lost items may be asking you to be more present to physical reality. Trust your intuition on the nature of the lesson at hand, work at your own pace, and ask as many questions as you want. Your life has all the answers.
DailyOM Novermber 25, 2006

Climb the Mountain

2006-11-16T17:51:00.000-06:00

Climb the mountain and hear its wisdom upon the wind.
Spirits peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you
Storms will give their energy, Moon her light, Wolf his wisdom.
Your cares and worries will drop off like autumn leaves.

Strive to make yourself like water, both gentle and strong. Make yourself gentle enough to follow the natural paths of the world And yet strong enough to rise up and reshape the world around you.

In your journey you search for answers and wisdom
Yet the best things in life are already nearest to you.
Spirits breath in your nostrils, sunlight in your eyes, flowers at your feet,
The duties at your hand, and the path of rightness laying just before you.

Do not grasp at the stars; take life's plain, common work as it comes,
Bid your children to accept and walk with Nature.
Let them see the beautiful blending and communions of death and life
Teach them of the joyous inseparable unity.
To learn in woods and meadows, plains, mountains, and streams
Discovering the blessed path we walk.

And help them to learn that death is not the end perceived,
But as beautiful as life and as unending as creation.
Spirit provides the three things we crave most:
Happiness, freedom, and peace of mind,
Easily attained by simply giving them to someone else.

The Old Buzzard offers his thanks to author
Steve ‘Easy' Whitacre who posted this on
A Single Standing Teepee
Nov. 16th, 2006

Walk the Shining Path

2006-11-13T15:15:00.000-06:00

We all desire a better tomorrow. A World made better, more peaceful and tranquil, with which to raise our children and live our lives. If you want to make a real difference in this world we all share, there are steps to learn to take. First, learn to be optimistic. Don’t allow yourself to be depressed, frustrated and disillusioned, all the time. Know that you are doing what you can and that it counts. Every single solitary thing that we each do and say and, most especially think, really does count. More than you can ever believe. Some might argue that we don't have any choice in this upside down dangerous world and that we can't effect what will happen. But even if we can't immediately alter the course of human events on the world level, we can certainly create change in our own lives and in all of the lives that we touch, (and this is really where it all starts, yourself), and our thoughts are the seeds of that change.

Use your thoughts wisely. Understand their power. Thoughts have a tendency to become their physical equivalent. This is one of the fundamental laws of the universe. Another one is the Law of Attraction, which states that 'like attracts like,' positive to positive, negative to negative. Because it is consciousness that creates reality, the kind of consciousness you hold, your vibration if you will, actually creates the kind of life you're living. So our first order of business must be to stay positive. Hold and entertain only positive possibilities. Teach yourself to imagine only affirmative alternatives. Surround yourself with wholly uplifting, life-affirming people and influences. Align yourself solely with the greater good so that your actions will be born of only the finest of your best intentions.

Remind yourself that far away, there in the sunshine, are your highest aspirations. You may not reach them, but you can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. I have been haunted recently by the words written by a Protestant minister after the downfall of the Nazi regime. "First they came for the gays. I am not gay, so I didn’t say anything. Then they came for the Gypsies. I am not a Gypsy, so I didn’t say anything. Then they came for the Jews. I am not a Jew, so I didn’t say anything. Then they came for the Catholics. I am not a Catholic, so I didn’t say anything. When they finally came for me, there was no one left to say anything."

Be bold. Make a statement. Make a stand. Make a difference.
In light of the widespread oppression, manipulation, intimidation that surrounds us today, you most certainly need to say something. You need, in fact, to talk to everyone who you meet, actually engage on a human level with those who you encounter as you make it through our day. Not just your families, friends and colleagues or those of presumed like-minds, but the shoe repair guy, the waitress at the coffee shop, the post office clerk, the bag boy at the super market.

If you ignore, exploit or patronize those people whose lives intersect with yours, how can you expect international relations to be more civilized? You need to "Walk your talk" wherever you go, whatever you do, remembering always, that by doing so you do make a difference. Let yourself be a sun, sending your caring energy out into the world, shedding light wherever you go. You never know who you might touch, or what a difference you may make with the radiance of your smile and warmth of your friendship.

Walk in peace and beauty,

Steve (Easy) Whitacre, Copyright 2006

Kewaa's Baskets

2006-10-13T10:16:00.000-05:00

Growing up a woman was not an easy task for the women of Kewaa's village. The burdens of every day were hard on a woman's spirit and body. Kewaa saw this through her young eyes.

One day, as she helped her mother scrape a hide in preparation to make clothes from it, she dared to ask, ''Why do we work so hard and when we are sad and so tired, we have to keep all these woes to ourselves?''

Kewaa's mother stopped and, taken by surprise by her daughter's question, very softly asked, ''Why do you ask such questions? Complaining will not get anything done and no one wants to hear our problems. You should not let anyone hear you talk like that, especially the men.''

''But the men have their games and sit around and talk. They can complain,'' Kewaa was quick to answer.

''I know, my daughter,'' her mother replied. ''You are right. There are days when it is very hard for me to do my tasks. There are times when I think about your grandmother, my mother and how I miss her so. My sadness keeps me from doing my work. Where did all these questions come from my daughter? You are always so quiet. You are young. You should not worry so over such things.''

Kewaa became quiet for a while, but she felt she had to answer her mother and explain her feelings. She told her mother she also had days of sadness and days when she was so tired that she found it hard to work. She was no different because she was younger. Illness, sadness and just being troubled do not happen only to older people, but to everyone.

Her mother sighed and said, ''You think too much.''

Kewaaa became very quiet and went on with all her tasks of the day.

Later on, as the sun was starting to leave to make room for the moon, she took a walk to the river. It was her favorite place to go. She would watch the fish peek at her from the river; listen to the trees sing their song in the breeze and just try her best to feel good about her day. But that evening was different. She was sad and she could not help herself. Tears rolled down her face as she leaned over to look into the world of the river. Crying seemed the only way to get rid of her burdens.

As she wiped her eyes, she noticed the reflection in the water. The reflection was not her own, but a beautiful woman with long white hair. Startled but not scared, she asked the woman in the water, ''Who are you?''

''It matters not who I am,'' the reflection answered. ''But I know who you are and I am used to a smiling face. I have never seen you sad. Why do you cry?''

Kewaa told all her complaints and woes to the kind face in the water and it made her feel good. ''I am sorry to tell you of all my burdens, but what could I do?'' The woman smiled and said, ''You need to find a way to put these burdens to rest in a special place. Make baskets from the reeds and grasses. Have the other women help you. Then make sure every home has a basket in it placed by the entrance.

''Your homes are a sacred place. You do not want to fill them with worries, illness and anger. Explain to all that they should put their worries in the basket before they enter their homes. Also put their anger there. Send all these burdens and bad feelings away. Let the baskets help you to reach within yourselves for inner strength and wisdom and to solve problems. Let them be the keepers of all your private thoughts. Also tell the people the baskets will make their burdens lighter because, as they give the baskets their burdens, they will become less and so disappear.''

Kewaa promised she would do as the woman told her, but asked, ''Who should I tell the people told me this?''

''Tell them the Creator, for he makes the river and I speak for him. Kewaa, please tell your people not to enter another's home with bad feelings or woes, but to put them in their basket. It would not be good to leave one's troubles in another's home. You go now. You have a lot to do. The next time you visit me I hope to see you smiling.''

''You will!'' Kewaa replied. ''Thank you.''

Off she ran to her home to tell her mother. By the time Kewaa got home, it was past her time for bed and her mother was concerned that something had happened to her.

But after Kewaa told her of her day and what she experienced her mother was very happy. They planned to gather everyone together in the beginning of the new day. After all, there were baskets to be made. As the day was new, Kewaa was sure to be up extra early. She could not wait to spread the word for all to come to her home so she could tell them what she learned. As the people showed up, Kewaa's mother stood proud as her daughter spoke of the burden baskets. Everyone listened and even then the men helped in gathering reeds and different grasses, for they too needed places to put their burdens.

For the next two days, everyone was busy making baskets; and as they wove the baskets all had a chance to talk and share stories, which made everyone feel good. Laughter ended the night. They finished the last basket. After that night, all had their baskets and all did as Kewaa had said. It helped each one find the strength they needed and make their burdens lighter. Kewaa never saw the woman in the river again, but some say she was looking at herself as an elder.

I, myself, am not gifted in the craft of basketmaking, but you can be sure I have a basket at my door and try to lay my burdens in it every time I come home.

Copyright by Ken ''Rainbow Cougar'' Edwards, from the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington, is an accomplished painter and storyteller. Edwards is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., and a longtime cartoonist for Indian Country Today. Originaly posted on ONEOFMANYFEATHERS@groups.msn.com

If You Can't Forage It or Grow It Yourself, Buy Local

2006-09-28T20:24:00.001-05:00

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the most important thing consumers can do to respond to the current E. coli outbreak in the United States is to avoid eating spinach, the suspected source of the contamination. But Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer with the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, acknowledges that buying spinach that is locally-grown may be a safe alternative. “Clearly the risk is significantly reduced if you know the farmer and know his farm,” he told the New York Times on Wednesday. This is particularly true if you live on the East Coast, far from the California farm that packaged the spinach that has now sickened people in at least 23 states, he added.

Worldwatch Senior Reseacher Brian Halweil, a long-time advocate of buying local food for health, security, and environmental reasons, supports this perspective. “Food that spends large amounts of time in transit, changes hands multiple times, and is processed in huge batches provides nearly unlimited opportunities for both accidental and malicious contamination,” Halweil says. He notes that smaller, local processing plants, though not immune to errors, accidents, and sabotage, at least limit the effects of these problems simply by the scale of their operations.

Halweil says that local food production and consumption could have mitigated the devastation wrought by serious outbreaks of food-borne illness in the past. In his 2004 book Eat Here, he describes how the British foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001 spread much farther and faster than a similar 1967 outbreak because of increased long-distance transportation. While in 1967, most slaughter and consumption took place locally, by 2001 animals were being shipped from all over the United Kingdom to a central slaughterhouse. According to Halweil, as long as today’s industrial-scale food system continues to dominate global agriculture, widespread illnesses like the recent E. coli outbreak are likely to continue. “Large-scale food contamination events like this give us one more incentive to preserve farms and food makers around the nation,” he says.

This story was produced by Eye on Earth, a joint project of the Worldwatch Institute and the blue moon fund. View the complete archive of Eye on Earth stories, or contact Staff Writer Alana Herro at aherro [AT] worldwatch [DOT] org with your questions, comments, and story ideas.

The Red Road

2006-09-14T11:14:00.000-05:00

Long road winding began in the stars,
spilled onto the mountain tops,
was carried in the snow to the streams,
to the rivers, to the ocean…
It covers Canada, Alaska, America,
Mexico to Guatamala,
and keeps winding around the indigenous.

The Red Road is a circle of people
standing hand in hand,
people in this world, people between
people in the Spirit world.
star people, animal people, stone people,
river people, tree people…
The Sacred Hoop.

To walk the Red Road
is to know sacrifice, suffering.
It is to understand humility.
It is the abilility to stand naked before God
in all things for your wrong doings,
for your lack of strength,
for your discompasionate way,
for your arrogance - because to walk
the Red Road, you always know
you can do better. And you know,
when you do good things,
it is through the Creator, and you are grateful.

To walk the Red Road
is to know you stand on equal ground
with all living things. It is to know that
because you were born human,
it gives you superiority over nothing.
It is to know that every creation carries a Spirit,
and the river knows more than you do,
the mountains know more than you do,
the stone people know more than you do,
the trees know more than you do,
the wind is wiser than you are,
and animal people carry wisdom.
You can learn from every one of them,
because they have something you don’t:

They are void of evil thoughts.

They wish vengence on no one, they seek Justice.

To Walk the Red Road,
you have God given rights,
you have the right to pray,
you have the right to dance,
you have the right to think,
you have the right to protect,
you have the right to know Mother,
you have the right to dream,
you have the right to vision,
you have the right to teach,
you have the right to learn,
you have a right to grieve,
you have a right to happiness,
you have the right to fix the wrongs,
you have the right to truth,
you have a right to the Spirit World.

To Walk the Red Road
is to know your Ancestors,
to call to them for assistance…
It is to know that there is good medicine,
and there is bad medicine…
It is to know that Evil exists,
but is cowardly as it is often in disquise.
It is to know there are evil spirits
who are in constant watch
for a way to gain strength for themselves
at the expense of you.

To Walk the Red Road,
you have less fear of being wrong,
because you know that life is a journey,
a continuous circle, a sacred hoop.
Mistakes will be made,
and mistakes can be corrected -
if you will be humble,
for if you cannot be humble,
you will never know
when you have made a mistake.

If you walk the Red Road,
you know that every sorrow
leads to a better understanding,
every horror cannot be explained,
but can offer growth.

To Walk the Red Road
is to look for beauty in all things.

To Walk the Red Road
is to know you will one day
cross to the Spirit World,
and you will not be afraid…

"Unknown" This work is NOT copyrighted. Feel free to copy and distribute.
The Old Buzzard's Roost

Eat, Exercise, and Be Healthy: A Lesson from Our Ancestors

2006-09-13T14:40:00.003-05:00

Long before fast-food restaurants became a part of our lives, our ancestors hunted wild animals for meat, gardened, and gathered berries, nuts and plants to provide a healthy and well-rounded diet.

These "hunter-gatherers", as they were called lived long before the beginning of agriculture and the domestication of animals. Many groups throughout the world continue to live this way today. Perhaps most interesting for today's health conscious people, these humans did not and do not have anywhere near the amount of the so called "diseases of civilization" such as cancer, stroke, diabetes, and high blood pressure that cause 75% of all deaths in America today.

It is commonly thought that the reason our ancestors did not get these diseases is because they did not live long enough. It is true that these early people often died early in their life because of infections or accidents. But those who survived these early set-backs lived long lives--surpassing in length the longevity of people today.

So why didn't they get "age-related" diseases like heart disease and high blood pressure? Scientists believe that diet and exercise had a lot to do with it.
You may wonder how we can know how people lived long ago and what they ate. First, the bones of these early people have been found and analyzed by scientists. Bones reveal how much calcium a person consumed in his or her diet, for instance, or how strong this person was. Also, there are people who still live today as hunter-gatherers throughout the world. Though they are mistakenly referred to as "primitive" people, they actually have very sophisticated knowledge about plants, animals and vitamins and minerals in their environment. Modern scientists are now trying to learn as much as they can about the medicinal use of plants from the medicine men and women of these tribes.

It is known that today's hunter-gatherer tribes live very much the way that our early ancestors lived. Researchers are studying these people to determine what contributes to their health.
In the past men and women got much more exercise than the average person today. Basically, they needed to engage in relatively heavy and consistent physical activity just in order to eat. The men in these early and present tribes were and are hunters. Hunting requires walking or jogging long distances for hours or days to track animals. And the women were no slouches either. It appears that the primary responsibility of women in early tribes was to garden and gather plant foods, berries, nuts and fruits.

In one African tribe existing today, the women routinely walk between two and twelve miles per day to gather food three days per week. If you think a twelve mile walk is impressive you be even more impressed when you consider the 15 - 35 pounds of food they carry on the return trip. In addition, many are also carrying babies on their backs. And, gathering food does not mean lazily picking up fruit off the ground: these women often have to climb the trees to get the fruit. Or, they dig out potato-like tubers or roots buried in the ground.

Today we are told to eat foods from four basic food groups: meat and fish, vegetables and fruits, milk and milk products, and breads and cereals. Our ancestors derived most of their nutrients from two groups: meat and fish, and vegetables and fruits. Even today, most hunter-gatherer groups do not rely on milk or milk products or upon breads or cereals. These products were not available to anyone until the beginning of agriculture. These two food groups supplied our ancestors with a good healthy diet. Much healthier than our diet of cereals, white flour and processed foods. If you compare modern diet with those of our ancestors, present day people are the losers.

Our ancestors consumed far more calcium (for good strong bones) and fiber (prevents colon cancer) than we do today. Our ancestors ate a high-protein, high fiber diet. Their intake of sodium, which causes high blood pressure in some people, was far lower than the intake of the average American today. When they consumed fat they consumed polyunsaturated animal fats instead of the hydrogenated plant fats that are included in today's processed foods.

Interestingly, their cholesterol intake was higher than modern peoples because they consumed much more meat than most folks in "civilized" societies now. However, our ancestors, and today's hunter-gatherers, ate wild game which has a much lower fat content than animals raised in confinement today. Furthermore, these fats were of the polyunsaturated type, the opposite of what is contained in our confinement raised beef, pork and poultry.

Additionally, unlike their cooped up counterparts today, wild animals ate a natural diet that did not contain hormones, tranquilizers and antibiotics. These wild animals had as much as 20% less fat than domesticated, confinement raised animals on commercial "factory" farms. These early people also did not have to contend with refined flour and grains which have had the fiber removed, so their food had more bulk and roughage than present day processed products.

Modern peoples wishing to live longer, healthier lives can take lessons from our ancestors: Eat whole un-refined grains, free-range or wild meats, and plenty of high-fiber vegetables. Limit your intake of carbohydrates and eat a high protein diet based on lean meats. Avoid sugars.

You can learn more about the benefits of native-style and high protein - high fiber diets from the following books, most of which are available from www.Back40 Books.com web store or by calling 1.866.596.9982.

Recommended Reading:

Traditional Foods are Your Best Medicine, Ronald Schmid, N.D

Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden, Gilbert Wilson

Nutrition and Degeneration, Weston A. Price

Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution, Robert C. Atkins, M.D.

Early Autumn Eats

2006-09-09T12:52:00.001-05:00

Now, in early Spetember in the Ozarks, is a great time for foraging. There are greens and potherbs such as Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and Lady's Thumb (Polygonum Persicaria) and a great tea maker called Sumac.
There are two kinds of Sumac around here, Staghorn (Rhus typhina) and Smooth (Rhus Glabra). Both are small trees or shrubs and this time of year have a seedhead of red berries. The earlier you harvest the berries after they turn completely red the fewer arachnids will have made their home there. Also, rain dilutes to potency so now is the time to take a walk. Sumacs are pioneer species and so will be located around field and stream edges. I usually harvest a gallon or two of berries. Notice I said berries. You will want to break off whole seed heads and allow to dry for a couple of weeks. Then simply strip the berries off and store in glass jars for future use. You can skip this step and just use the entire seed heads, right away if you like, but they will take up a lot of storage space and the twigs can make the tea bitter.
To make tea, use about 1/4 cup of berries to 1 quart of water. Bring water to a boil, add berries, remove from fire and let set about 1/2 hour. This drink is high in vitamin C and is nicknamed "Indian Lemonade" as it is VERY tart. You will want to add some stevia, honey or sugar to meet you taste. It IS good.
I haven't gone into preparing the potherbs listed above as I assume most of you know how to deal with these. If you don't, leave a comment and I'll post some instructions.
A really good book on wild edibles is, Edible Wild Plants, A North American Field Guide by Elias and Dykeman is availible from Back40Books,com by clicking here: http://www.back40books.com/search.asp?p=1&amp;amp;amp;w=%7E&c=Edible+Wild&t=s

Welcome!

2006-09-08T11:51:00.001-05:00

This blog is about my rustic life. I strive to live in Harmony with all of Creation, and I try to make posts that will be evocative and will lead others to this way of life. I live and work in a very remote area of the Missouri Ozark mountains surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness land. I actually live a dual lifestyle: Many days I am at one of my computers heavily involved in the "virtual world" creating how-to videos, taking nature photographs and helping out with our web bookstore www.Back40Books.com Other days I will be out in the "Real World" practicing my "Old Ways" lifestyle and Spirituality.
My posts will often detail activities that are appropriate to the changing seasons such as foraging, hunting, gardening, wood cutting and tracking. I will present specific details and use photographs as necessary. If you would like to see photographs I have for sale visit my photography web gallery at www.Chenoweth-Collection.com
As I strive to live the life the creator has directed me to do I will also talk about aboriginal spirituality and antique Indian Ways of Living in Harmony with Nature. Feel free to make follow up posts or ask questions at any time. Thanks for Dropping by!
The Old Buzzard