White Buffalo Calf Woman

While on retreat in New Mexico, the staff and participants were treated to a fantastic opportunity – a “Becoming Relatives” ceremony presented by my new friend Karen. (I’ll withhold her full name for confidentiality). In this picture, several people are helping raise the lodge that will be used for part of the ceremony and also as a sleeping shelter for a few of the women staffers that same night.

While we as a crew probably took longer assembling the thing than Karen could have probably done by herself, it was a very fun and memorable experience as our ‘guide’ explained the purpose of each step. The tearing of the red cloth to make the flags on the top poles, the raising of the poles, the placing of the outer covering – all have a meaning and order that must be followed, and yes – treasured.

As dusk fell, everyone gathers outside the lodge in a semi-circle around the front opening. Karen sits in front dressed in full length ceremonial dress, a white confection of skins that gracefully defines the beauty of this medicine woman and her beliefs. In front of her are the skins of buffalo laid respectfully on the ground at her feet. As she begins to speak, a hush falls into the valley and I’m sure I’m not the only one to feel a shiver crawl down my back as nature opens our eyes and ears to the surrondings and the quiet, but forceful words being spoken. A fire is lit at her feet, and the smells of sage and sweet grasses wafts over to the farthest corners. With accompanying gestures of respect, our spirit guide welcomes the cardinal directions, explaining the meaning of each. She tells the story of White Buffalo Calf Woman, a sacred entity and prophesy in itself cherished not only by the Lakota tribes, but also other religions. A rare twist in the story – Karen had been dreaming about the reappearance of White Buffalo Calf Woman and indeed, such a woman did appear in our midst and take on the name of White Buffalo Calf Woman. (That is their story to tell, not mine). There was a lot of tearful joy in this ceremony as it progressed on to a blessing ceremony as each sister was welcomed to the buffalo robe. By the tribes they had been split into, Hopi, Zuni, Apache, Comanche and Navajo, each tribe consisting of 10 newly bound sisters, they were called to the rug, then ceremonially blessed and given a ‘medicine’ pouch. The moments passed with tears of joy, hugs and sharings. Towards the end of the groups’ blessings, I had to leave because I wasn’t feeling well and coughing loud enough to disturb the proceedings, so when I was offered a ride back to camp just then with Turkey Tom and Motor Matt, I sadly accepted so as not to disturb the peace and solemnness of the proceedings.  I missed the final closing and blessing of the staff members, so did not receive my Sister name or medicine bundle, but the memories I take away from what I was able to help with in setting up the lodge, making a beaded prayer chain for a hawk feather and the ceremony I did get to observe will stay in my heart. We are all blessed with the hope the White Buffalo Calf Woman brings to us.

For lessons of hope to add to your life, do a search and read the stories on White Buffalo Calf Woman. Each telling is a little different, but the message of the hope it brings is universal.

Women’s Wilderness Escape

In July, I was priviledged to attend (as an instructor) the NRA’s Women’s Wilderness Escape in New Mexico. Many of the pictures and stories you will see on this blog for the next month will be about that event; mostly the wildlife in that region of NM.

Among some of the events the “Escapees” were treated to are Pistol Shooting, Rifle, Shotgun and Muzzleloading, Archery, Turkey calling, Tree stand use and safety, Refuse to be a Victim training, High Powered Rifle shooting, building wilderness shelters, wildlife viewing, camping under the stars, Cowboy Action Shooting with a bonus CA Fashion show (those corsets! Wow!), a Blessing Ceremony, Laser Shot and more.

With over 30 staff and instructors, most high in the Type A personality profile, the women attendees were treated to a high caliber of experience. Sure, there would be glitches and disputes, as par for the course, but the professional team assembled on site were up to the task. I hesitate to comment on personalities (did I mention the Type A’s?) and my feelings on them, but stand firm when I say these women (and a couple guys) are the most fantastic people I have ever worked with. I’ll include some of the funny and interesting stories and hopefully not step on any toes. I’ll try to keep names out of it with the exception of some first names, nicknames and hints alluding to what they do. This event differs from many of the courses I have taught in that not only was it instructional – but it was also emotional. My profound thanks go to the ladies that invited me along for the ride. Now that I’ve been on this trail, I hope to ride back for more and meet more beautiful women. I wish I could include every person there in my life and finish every conversation ever started there, but time was tight with an overfull schedule and opportunities sorely missed.

More yummies from my garden

Yesterday I helped my husband bring in more produce from the garden. The catch of the day yielded a dozen bell peppers, some cherry peppers and more tomatos. My overstuffed refrigerator couldn’t take much more and the counters are getting full again with the zuchinni, yellow squash, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and more, so it was time to cook up a new dish for our evening meal. Some of the ingredients are local from my garden or freezer, but I added in mushrooms with brown and wild rice, olive oil and sea salt. The mushrooms COULD have come from here, but they were from Arkansas. The rice came from Houston. I try to keep as much of my ingredients somewhat local as I can to help with the gas crisis.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

• 4 large green bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, left whole
• Rice for 4 servings
• Finely chopped sausage (deer/hog), about one cup
• 6 small tomatoes, diced
• 1 green pepper, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup mushrooms (fresh – diced)
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1 cup water, more if needed (for rice)
• 1 teaspoon grated sea salt (more or less to taste)
• handful of fresh herbs (basil, parsley, oregano) chopped fine

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Set aside a large iron skillet that has been lightly greased with olive oil.

On stove top, bring water to rapid boil and stir in the rice. Let it boil on high about 7 minutes until water is absorbed, add more water if needed. Just before it starts to stick to pan, add remaining ingredients except for whole peppers. Mix thoroughly and warm on medium heat for about 3 minutes. Remove pan from fire. Put prepared cast iron skillet (or dutch oven) on counter and center within it the 4 whole cleaned peppers with openings on top. Spoon rice mix into peppers, any remaining can be bunched around the outside edges. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Top with cheese if you like as it comes from the oven. I used parmesan this time. Serve immediately. Serves 4 people, but we three managed to polish it all off and want more. Along with the pepper main dish, I served steamed green beans with tiny boiled potatoes mixed in, a dash of salt & pepper. Our garden grapes were for dessert and cool herbal tea quenched our summer thirst.

NOTE: this recipe can easily be made in your dutch oven outside, you may have to replace the coals to get the full cooking time, so keep extra coals ready. If you have thawed out more sausage from your freezer than needed, this is a good use for the coals!

Little Bear in New Mexico

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This is Little Bear, one of the three bears (or more) that I saw in New Mexico earlier this month. I definitely need a better camera for next time, but for now, this will have to do. To give you an idea of size, the stump to his left came up to my shoulder (about 5 feet) and he is approx. 20 yards away from me. This picture is the point where he decides to ‘mock challenge’ me as I am trying to drive him away.

The bears of New Mexico are starving right now with the severe drought they have been experiencing. At this location, we are just under an elevation of 7000 feet according to my GPS. The bears have been coming into our camp, digging into the dumpsters, leaving teeth marks on the bumpers of cars, paw prints on the mirrors, snuffling under our windows for scents of forbidden food taken into the cabins, and even exploring the port-a-potties. We did answer the age old question – does a bear poop in the woods? Nope! Not if they have a port-a-pot around!

The story of this particular bear is a fun one with a good ending, but I’ll repeat the oft heard phrase ‘don’t try this at home’. For a handful of days, I had been really wanting to see some of the bears that had been visiting our camp. Also, it was our job to ’shoo away’ the animals that entered our gun range so that we wouldn’t shoot them. This event happened about 2 in the afternoon. I was away from the student group and I was replacing bulls eye targets while the Pistol class was listening to the Master Sargeant talk about the semi-auto they were getting ready to shoot. I heard a rustling at the edge of the range and looked up to find a black bear entering the range and headed for the trash can – right next to the students. Aiming to keep him up range and scare him away, I stepped from behind the target frame, grabbed my instamatic camera, shot a picture – then yelled at him. Slowly, he paced away from me and further up the range, with me walking behind yelling ’shoo, go away’ and all that. Each step I took, I bent to the camera, took a picture, then shooed some more. It was step, ‘click’ – “Shoo bear” – step,  click – “Git” – and so on. The bear was getting mighty sick of me and stopped at the stump about two thirds of the way into the range. It could be he was looking for grubs, insects and such since they all spend most of their day foraging and the stump looked good to him. He stopped at the stump, put one paw on top and stood up part ways. It looked like he was posing for a photo op. I was closer than I liked and he was bigger than I first thought. Hopefully, the students behind me were getting good pictures (or loading their guns!) Earlier, I had taken off my long sleeve shirt, so all I had was a short sleeve T-shirt – so nothing to hold above my head and wave to make me look larger.

The bear didn’t want to go and didn’t like me, so he stepped down off the stump and came around – then stomped a couple feet towards me. At this point, I thought he was huge and that I was maybe 40 yards away. (Yes, this is an Oh Shit! moment). Knowing I can’t run because that is an open invitation for a bear to chase, I started yelling louder and flapping my arms up and down like a huge – well – gooney bird I guess. He got the message, thank god, and backed away and took off for the woods. Later, I measured my distance from the bear, and I was only about 20 yeards away and had put myself in a very bad position in my attempt to get a picture AND chase him off the range and away from the trash. My pictures will sometimes be shown to my Hunt Ed classes with the firm admonition – do what I SAY and not what I do. Good intentions aside (chase bear away from students), what I did wasn’t too smart.

This bear I named Little Bear because he was the smallest of the three I could seperately identify. He was healthy and fat, mostly a medium brown with a little lighter cinnamon color on his top hairs across the back. I would estimate his weight at a bit over 200 pounds with his shoulder (when on all fours) at about 3 and a half feet tall. The bears are getting used to all the humans around and finding food quite plentiful in the dumpsters and trash cans. Sadly, if they become too used to us, they may have to be destroyed. At the very least, some will have to be relocated, which often just moves the problem elsewhere or only allows a temporary solution as bears cover large territories and often find their way back.

After hearing the stories of my chasing the bear off the range, the next morning I gave a briefing to all present at our flag ceremony. I reminded everyone of the following facts that everyone should pay attention to:

• Bears are normally not aggressive to people.
• NEVER run from a bear as it triggers their chase instinct.
• Take off your shirt or pack and raise it over your head to appear larger and yell loudly. If I had done this (removed my skimpy T shirt) – I imagine the bear would have said ‘oh yuck’ and ran as quickly away as he could.
• Throw rocks, use an air horn, make noise any way you can while backing away slowly.
• Don’t make eye contact with a bear or any wild animal, it’s a sign of aggression to them and often one challenge they won’t back away from.
• Keep your camps clean and never take food into your tent or cabin.
• Do not wear sweet flavored lotions, deoderant, perfumes, hair gels or use shampoo, body wash or laundry soap that smells good.
• Above all, do not force an encounter with a bear. If you are attacked, fight back with everything you can lay your hands on to show you are not easy prey. DO NOT PLAY DEAD!

This is only a brief description of one of my bear close encounters over the two weeks in the New Mexico mountains. Many more opportunities will show the desperation of the bears to get food.

Wildlife sightings

On Monday, July 14th, I saw a gorgeous lizard. When I pointed it out to one of my bunkmates, she said it was a Collared lizard. He (she?) preened on a rock below our patio and then, in the blink of an eye, disappeared. Man that dude was fast! Here is a picture:

It’s possible this one was a female as some of the males are even MORE striking in their colors.

Happy Birthday, Beatrix Potter!

Today is the birthday of Beatrix Potter, I wonder what she would think of the world today if she were still alive? Fondly known for her tales of Peter Rabbit, I dedicate this post to her.

The Jack-a-lope:

Out on the gun range last week in New Mexico, we warned the new shooters that we would need to ‘cease fire’ on the range if any wildlife were to meander by in shooting distance (which they often did). One of the ladies asked if there were any Jack-a-lope’s in the area, to which the story teller in me promptly replied “of course there are” as I proceeded to list some of the wild life we had seen so far.

Later, on break, I spied a cotton tail in the brush and said to the ladies, “Hey look – there’s a Jack-a-lope!” All got up to look, and two grabbed their cameras to get a shot of this rare but cute creature. Sure enough, they spotted the ‘antlers’ above the rabbit’s head and they zoomed in for a good shot. About that time, the cute little bunny decided it didn’t like our company and hopped away – showing the obvious lack of antlers. I told them maybe a real JAL would come along later, to which many of us giggled and laughed. I’m glad I don’t remember the names of the two ladies that eagerly leapt up for the photo op. And I wonder, are they still looking for that illusive beast? Did anybody ever tell them the truth?

As an aside, one of the shooting days brought us the largest Jack Rabbit I haved ever seen in my life. When he stood, with his ears he was over 3 feet tall. What a magnificent boy! He darted all over the range, then was shooed off to the side so we could continue shooting. He crouched down low in distress at the sounds of the guns, but didn’t want to leave the area that he claimed as his range. Finally, he couldn’t take any more and rushed away to find another more suitable location to rest or feast.

Spiders – A Unique Light Pull on switch

After over two weeks away at a retreat in New Mexico, I’ve returned with loads of notes and many stories to while away the hours.

My first story, entirely true, is about the cabin room I shared. These cabins were mostly bare, with 4 bedrooms containing two single beds, two windows, a tiny bathroom with shower and one plug in outlet. On the ceiling were two florescent lites centered over the beds. Not much else in the rooms. To turn the lights out, you had to toggle the switch by the door which controlled both lights. Somewhat inconvenient, but better than flashlights and lanterns! Towards the end of my stay, I was leaving the room around sunset, shadows abounded. I had switched off the light at the door and was turning back to close and lock the door when I noticed, hanging in the room, a light pull rope with something like a decoration for the ‘pull’ hanging from one of the lights, just above head height. “Huh,” I thought to myself, “I wonder why I never noticed that light pull before? It would have been so convenient”. I went in to test it, reaching out my hand, and just before I grabbed it, IT MOVED! Jumping back to the doorway, I turned on the light switch and observed a HUGE spider hanging on it’s silk rope. (I don’t do spiders). I ran to the central area of the cabin, grabbed two plastic cups, and returned to capture the spider and liberate it out of doors. I couldn’t have gone to sleep knowing that monster was in my room! I had never seen a spider like this before, it was large, brown and furry, reminding me of a small tarantula. I know some spiders, it wasn’t a camel, tarantula, black jumping, brown recluse, black widow or anything I had seen before. (We did find two black widows at another location on the ranch last week; one of them survived) If I had grabbed it with my hand, I’m sure I would still be running and screaming. That had to be the most unique light pull switch I have ever seen – it sure turned my lights on!

Wolf Spider

It’s possible the spider I saw was a Wolf Spider, but being ground dwellers, I can’t figure how it was hanging from the ceiling of the log cabin.

Summertime cooking

It has come to my attention (thank you for mentioning it Susan A,) that many people, myself included, don’t like to fire up their ovens in the summer time. For my recipe from yesterday, and many of your own recipes, you can try the option of fire pit and dutch oven cooking. When you trim back your trees & shrubs, keep the larger branches for cooking instead of buying expensive (and in some cases – poisonous or taste spoiling) charcoal. Use your fire fit or build a small fire in a turkey roaster pan to create coals necessary for ‘Dutch oven’ cooking. I often use a cast iron skillet in my bar-b-que grill or take a dutch oven out to use in an old turkey pan. Many of you buy the heavy duty foil turkey pans to use at Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years or Easter, then throw away the pan when you are done. Instead, clean the pan and store it in your attic, garage, or even in your Grill and use it over and over to start small fires for use with a dutch oven. Many veggies cook very nicely just wrapped in a double layer of foil and placed on your grill next to the meat.

Recipe from my garden

Today I had to clear some counters of the produce from my garden that seems to be taking over. Here is what I came up with:

Squash Parmigiana

2 yellow squash per person, cut into large chunks

1/2 zuchinni per person, cut into large chunks

12 medium tomatoes, peeled & pureed

1 medium or two small onions, pureed

1 clove of garlic, pressed over tomatoes & diced very small

Herbs to taste (thyme, basil, oregano, cilantro, sage picked fresh & diced small) I use fresh from my garden, but you can probably substitute with dried store bought. If you don’t have a ‘feel’ for herbs and their uses, just put in a tablespoon or two of dried salt free ’Italian Seasoning’ mix.

1/2 teaspoon grated sea salt (OK – this wasn’t from the garden)

small flavorful pepper – I used a pimienta (diced finely)

Simmer tomatoes and all ingredients except squash over low heat for 15 minutes.

Lightly grease a baking dish with Extra Virgin Olive oil (not from my garden)

Spread squash in baking dish. Pour tomato sauce over squash. Generously grate some Parmesan on top, bake for 20 minutes at 400 degree. This works well if you include one breast of roasted chicken for each person in the pan. I roast the chicken for 30 minutes before I add the squash, tomato sauce and parmesan. The tomato sauce recipe is approx. enough for 4 chicken breasts and squash for 4 persons. Not only does it SMELL great, the taste was fantastic. Serve with your favorite hot bread.

Cooking tips: For those of you that don’t know how to peel a tomato, heat a pan of water to boil. Place tomatoes in boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove and place in a bowl of ice water. Peel & snip top off. For the onions, you should know to remove the outer dry skin or first slick layer of skin before you chop it. For the garlic, same deal as with the onion – peel outer layer. I puree my tomatoes, onion & garlic because my family doesn’t like chunks. (Go figure?) Personally, I prefer sliced & diced to puree.

June too soon, July flies by

Already it is July and the first part of summer is over. With the end of June, my son and I find ourselves home again after a week of camping in the searing heat of Boy Scout camp, this one located west of Ft. Worth, Texas by about 60 miles. I have to say this was one of the most miserable camps I have been to, mostly due to the weather (101-103 every afternoon), the terrain (up or down with hernia hill thrown in), the fire ants, the one hole latrine shared by 35 men and not too clean (women’s rest room 1/2 mile away up hill through the trees) and the very bad food consisting mostly of starchy foods and beef, of which I can eat neither. Even the meat/pasta/bread eaters said it was bad. The first night had some of them throwing up. YUCK! The camp program, classes and attitudes were great though and most of the boys had a great time. The staff were great too. I’ve been to over 1/2 dozen of these week long camps and just don’t remember it being this bad. Last year, in particular, was so fantastic as we rode horseback into the wilderness of the Davis mountains and slept on the ground for a week with only a ground tarp, blanket, personal items to fill one small saddle bag, the clothes on our back and a couple water bottles. Maybe I’m just getting old. But I’m glad we went as my son got his coveted Certified Life Guard & CPR credentials. It was tough and I am proud of him. as usual, I spent most of my time helping at the gun range. But that’s another story….