Happy Equinox in the next days Everyone!
Well well well. Guess who I finally met -- at some distance, as I went out the front gate the other evening -- that’s right, the neighborhood bear.
This of course is not a real picture of the event as I had a big pot for tea water in hand and not the camera. It’s a cut-out bear but this is where he was, down by the lane to the trailer. I went out the front gate and was walking towards the trailer, looking down there going “What is it, what is it ------ OH yeah, it’s a BEAR! Hi....... Hi....... Okay stay right there and don’t move, I’m going in to get the camera ---- oh drat there he goes...”
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| Bear tracks in the pond bed, 2010 |
So that was the neighborhood bear. I had been forewarned one was around -- James my neighboring carpenter told me he saw the droppings in another neighbor’s yard recently on an animal pathway. I have yet to photograph it.
Well, that was interesting, and no it wasn’t fearful at all. He was just looking down here at the drinking bowls, and at me of course, as I slowly walked towards him/her -- until I got the big idea to go back and get the camera. Silly me, I should have stayed right there chatting to it....
I am always very glad to know all the creatures who are around. Know your animals.... It’s important. That way you have some idea of who is out there when you start hearing things going bump in the night. It’s less of a surprise.
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| What one did in 2010 |
And no I didn’t feel fearful of the bear because it wasn’t aggressive and there’s no fruit in my orchard this year. It isn’t going to just come in the house and get me...... And IF, I’ll get to try out this great trick I heard about to drive bears away:
This is from my dear friend Alan, who is a shamanic ol’ hippie guy. He got it from a friend who was a park or campground ranger of some sort. Apparently the friend showed him that if you get a set of keys and shake it at the bears so that it goes
JANGLE
JANGLE
JANGLE...
They don’t like it. He says they flee. He actually saw it happen.
Here are his exact instructions:
How to walk bears away
The basic fact: All animals are unpleasantly affected by the sound of metal.
Having metal is one of the ways that people in western civilization distinguish themselves from other species.
Some animals, curiously including the bear, are driven away by the sound
of metal clanging on metal. Something as small as keys will work! Hold
your keyring in your hand and shake it.
The bear acts and looks like it
is being sprayed with poison. It will turn around and walk away.
You
have to keep it up and keep walking behind the bear making the noise
until it finally gives up and runs away. Each time you stop, the bear
will turn around toward you, not menacing, just noticing if you are
going to stop the noise pummeling its ears! A spoon banged on a metal
plate is very effective. That is useful when camping because of the
metal plates.
I have walked a bear away from a compost area where it was
rummaging around for food. I did that because there were small children
nearby at summer camp. My friend and I shook our keys and walked the
bear about a mile or so down a canyon, across the road and over to the
river where it finally split. It was very impressive to see how well
this works, even with a bear that was looking for food and eating.
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| Bear Print found in pond bed, 2010 |
I thought -- that’s a great idea!! I’ve got the perfect hip scarf with jangly coins on it. I’ve got any number of belly dancing accoutrements that make such a sound, including an antique tambourine. I could also make something out of old junk metal on a big stick if one was really being a nuisance, and bears can be. Haven’t had the opportunity to try it out yet. But as long as they are not bothering me or the cats or anything -- FINE, I certainly don’t mind that her or she is around. I like bears. They are thirsty too. I’m sure ALL the animals around here are coming to the watering bowls. I caught a deer drinking out of the birdbath one evening.
So it’s the Equinox. Balance. Equal day and equal night. A most wonderful season in the Sierras, my favorite actually. It’s a special climate out here, not without it’s extremes. At this time of the last few months of hot and dry, the days are noticeably shorter and it’s very very dry. But very alchemically mellow too. The time of high alchemy in nature, and the ripening. Check out the incredible Ballerina Balance antics of the King Stag. Buck Show in the back yard again.
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| 2. Get Ready... |
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| 1. See the branch |
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| 3. Up on tippy toes!! |
Cabbage
What a great vegetable, totally humble and what a powerhouse. Full of fiber, nutrients and anti-oxidant properties. Not that easy to grow in the Sierras because it’s just too hot. You have to get everything just right to grow them in the winter, like starting them promptly in July. Aphids are a big problem. You can also start them in March to grow during the spring and summer. If you live in the Sierras I would choose a heat tolerant and small-headed variety and grow them under shade cloth. I’ve had good luck in years past with Early Jersey Wakefield, which produces small pointed heads.
What a great vegetable out of which to make kimchi - a fermented cabbage dish prized in Korea, not unlike sour kraut but definitely much better in my opinion.
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| Cabbages growing, and that is NAPA CABBAGE on the left |
Traditional Korean Kimchi is made with napa cabbage, which is EXTRA difficult to grow in my climate as earwigs love it, plus ginger, garlic, chili pepper, and various other ingredients. Check it out Megan -- my ex-apprentice who was very fond of trying to grow napa cabbage -- I’ve got some growing at present, in partial shade.
But back to bears -- I have another bear story. Some years ago I was at Lizzie Rosefield’s Goddess Retreat on the Tuolumne River - this was an annual retreat she held for many years, with 10 to 20 women at her beautiful Bottini Apple Ranch situated in the Tuolumne National Forest. Basically it’s a bunch of women camping on the river for some days. Great fun and a most needed
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Found in the woods in
2010, contains a
piece of tinfoil!
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The bear incident happened the first night that year. A few of us had arrived early on Friday and were hanging out on the river at the main campsite when at one point there’s this bear across the river from us, coming down the trail. We were all enthralled with the bear. She was just beautiful, all blonde and brown like she’d been to the hair stylist. We were calling to her -- doing just like I do when I see animals “Hi! Hi you bear, Hi!”.
Then, I don’t know where the bear went as we didn’t see her any more for a little while. However, a bit later there she was on OUR side of the river, coming down the trail from the outdoor bathroom, right into our main campground. At that point some of the women did not find the bear so cute. They were actually getting afraid.
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| Bear poop found in orchard, not recently |
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| They'll help take your trees down for you |
I like bears but they have to be good, meaning -- well behaved -- if we are going to share space. So I’m very glad to know the car key trick in case they start acting up. I know you’ve all heard horror stories or seen pictures of bears tearing into somebody’s cabin. Quite frankly I’m not worried about it. He or she won’t have to tear into my house, they can just climb in any number of screenless windows if they want to.... For what, canned tomatoes? Fabric? No, not going to happen. And if, you know I’d be out there making the biggest, bad-assed manzanita branch Jangle Implement.
Jangle Jangle Jangle you bear!!!!
Straight out of Doctor Seuss on steroids..... I draw the line at animals larger than I am coming into the house.
A few years ago he -- or maybe it was a different bear that year, I don’t know -- did get in my orchard. They certainly can be pretty destructive. Lest you think I am naive and uninformed of their abilities, I can tell you he completely tore through a section of 10 foot deer fence. Ripped numerous branches off small trees to get at the fruit. Left big poops and claw marks around. It was unmistakably the work of a bear. Well, they are certainly around. I’m sure he’s helped take my sorry fence down in other spots as well.
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| Bear Claw marks on a knocked over plum tree |
So back to cabbage. This kimchi is an excellent way to do something really powerful for your immune system via diet. It is probiotic and stimulating to the gut flora -- the healthy bacteria responsible for transmuting food into assimilable nutrients. When there aren’t enough of those, the gut becomes a climate of unhealthy bacteria that produce more unhealthy bacteria, and a downward spiral begins which results further in poor nutrient absorption, more inflammation as toxins collect, and an increasingly compromised and taxed immune system. In a very real way, probiotic stimulation = more life force. All those little transmuter bacteria that are your gut flora are literally beings of light and life force that make nutrient absorption possible. So it’s imperative to create a strong healthy digestive fire and maintain it by eating high quality food full of life force, as long as one is on a food-oriented path. Without this positive transformative digestive fire, an upward spiral of health is very difficult if not impossible to achieve.
Once a downward spiral in the gut takes hold, it just opens the door to degenerative disease and imbalances that become chronic over the long term, especially when unhealthful diet choices are a way of life. So why not do yourself a favor and eat for life, and incorporate something like kimchi into the diet daily. I love the stuff. It is very easy to make. I have found what I like, quite simplified and adapted to what I can buy and/or grow. You can make it more complicated than that, see some of the links at the end of the document.
https://word.office.live.com/wv/WordView.aspx?FBsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fdownload%2Ffile_preview.php%3Fid%3D425779264146070%26metadata&access_token=1630173245%3AAVIrdRfYtM_vCKj0T4EmI9ynoGqbykwl4-f2fkMeb0Lsaw&title=How+to+Make+Kimchi+with+Korean+Spicing.docx
I have a background in Ayurveda, mostly applied in the realm of cooking and nutrition. What an amazingly intelligent art/science of wellness whose basis and foundation is diet, is this ancient path. It has been around a long time, which says something about it’s efficacy. So many of the spices and herbs found in the ayurvedic kitchen reduce inflammation and promote digestion, in addition to making the food taste very good. I’m a big fan of turmeric.
http://beforeitsnews.com/health/2012/09/turmeric-curcumin-has-the-most-health-benefits-of-all-the-natural-herbs-on-the-planet-2449888.html
One of the most wonderful things I learned while living at an ashram was how to make a whole bunch of different indian pickles and chutneys. One day a week I hand lessons from an awesome woman who was a master indian cook. She taught me how to make all manner of different fruit and vegetable pickles and other condiment-like dishes. This is the indian version of including positive probiotic bacteria via food to improve digestion and stimulate gut flora. It is very masterfully done in Ayurveda, in addition to being just downright delicious. I still have all the recipes, what a treasure, and had forgotten about them until I started making kimchi.
I got on this kimchi kick recently when a friend brought me some that she made. It was delicious. I think I ate a whole container in one go. I must have more, I said, so started making it. It is very easy to make. You can eat it plain or use it all kind of different ways. I also got all excited to grow more cabbages -- which is not that easy to do in my climate. The discovery of the cabbage core trick was a great revelation. If the deer don’t eat them all for me.
Okay, I will end with
Kristine’s 10 Favorite Ways to
Stimulate and Strengthen the Immune System.
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| Jar of Kimchi made in class last week |
1. Healthy gut flora = healthy immune system. Eat your kimchi or other probiotics daily.
2. Other delicious immune stimulating herbs from the Chinese system that I like to toss into brown rice as it cooks are Burdock, Astragalus and Dong Quai. Dong Quai has the additional benefit of regulating and balancing out the hormones, particularly good for women.
3. Earth Contact. Go barefoot -- especially during the winter -- as much as possible. Try to walk outside a little bit on the ground every day, unless it’s covered with ice and snow. I mean, if you can hack ice and snow, go for it! The idea is to keep good circulation in the feet and get them used to being exposed to all kinds of conditions. I have uncarpeted concrete floors in my house and purposefully go barefoot inside, and a little bit outside, all winter. Yes I know I live in California but if you have been following my blog you know it gets cold enough to freeze and snow here, I am definitely not in a banana belt. My feet just hate being in socks. I rarely need to wear them. And that is not a proper sock in the picture!
4. Drink spice tea with lots of ginger and cardamom all winter. These spices are internally warming, digestive and anti-inflammatory and will keep you feeling toasty from the inside out. Makes a great base for chai too, with the addition of a black tea bag and some cream.
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| Elderbery flowers, anti viral |
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| Immune Boost tincture ingredients |
I made a second blend this year out of elderberries and elder flowers (anti-viral), ginger, and my first ever echinacea root.
Last year’s contained lots of turkey tail mushrooms and garlic. It doesn’t taste that great.
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| Tincture infusing |
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| Balancing on all of the tips of the tips |
6. Exercise your feet and hands regularly with a good hatha yoga practise. Cold feet and hands are often the result of poor circulation. Like this: Get up onto all of your tips of your tips and hold a balance pose for a few moments, every day. Very strengthening as well.
7. Learn some warming breathing exercises like kapalabhati, which also is stimulating to the immune system.
8. Eat high quality real food for life.
9. Take a bath with herbals tailored to your imbalance: If you’re chilled, choose things that are more warming like ginger or basil. If you’re hot and feverish, draw a cooler bath and add eucalyptus, lavender or peppermint.
10. Eat plenty of fresh garlic, it’s a natural anti-biotic.
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| Kristine Balance Queen |
Blessed Season of
Balance and Harvest Everyone
-- Namaste!
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| Stay Grounded |
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| King Stag or what!!! |
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