Peaces Pirates

Home Work

2012-01-26T08:21:00.009-06:00

Our school bus home....and I set up a work station on the hill out front

Here is the view looking out from my work bench

I used wood scraps left over from the tent platform project below the garden area; they make a good fairy fortress too!

The day before, I had been using this low deck by the green house. I still use the slats in the deck for bending money clips.

Still learning the new tools. I packed wire, steel wool, a metal block for making rivets, pliers, hammer, metal punch....airport security left a nice note in my suitcase. I'm sure the x-ray picture peaked their interest.

Sabio, hard at work on some techy project

And Indigo, taking good care of all the kids

Our recent group project: creating a recycling system. I had the idea to use the coconut sacks to sort and envisioned some kind of stick structure to contain them. Sage and Blake went to work with pencils and paper and measuring tools, cut some trees from an area being cleared for tent platforms, and created this frame.

Next, the posts were sanded and I painted some signs that will be laminated in town. It's really humid and breezy here so any paper will curl and crumple in a day.

One of the categories for sorting: Misc. cobb bits (burned out lighters, dry pens and markers, caps) these will be collected and incorporated into cobb walls like the ones in the pictures I posted in the blog earlier.

A couple of new volunteers arrived this week. Chelsee is in the picture above - she and Jeff specialize in video documentation and production. Soon, there will be a great video orientation for new comers to get acquainted with the workings of the farm community here at Finca Fruicion

Sabio, kickin' back in the hammock above. Below, making signs for all the compost buckets so folks will know which animals eat what kinds of food

Indigo, baby "hugging" - no sitting - Cedar

Home - Sweet - Home

Indigo designed a little cafe on the bus called The Smoothy Shack, the menu is in english and espanol.

Hunab Ku - our Mascot on the Benny Bus

The bus at night. Sage sleeping on the couch, solar lights along the windows. Through the front windshield, you can see the lights of San Agustin in the valley.

Chocolate Bunnies

2012-01-26T07:28:00.008-06:00

The other day, we made chocolate to sell at La Ceiba (the store in San Isidro)

Four kids and I took turns (get it - turns) cranking the shaver as we ground a huge block of raw cocao purchased from a local farmer at La Ferria.

After it was all ground, we added cacao butter, coconut oil, agave nectar, and vanilla. Next, we put it in a double boiler and stirred until everything was well acquainted.

We separated the batch in half and made two flavors. One had peanut butter, the other was mocha mint.

Meanwhile, the three "female" rabbits surprised us with two litters of bunnies!

One day, they all got out of the hutch and Snow Foot never returned.

The two we found are definitely love bunnies, more babies might be on the way already.

While the kids love them, the neighbors in the pueblo are already talking about eating them and there has been discussion here of raising them to sell.

While they're still here, we're enjoying the softy-softy snuggles!

When Jason brought the rabbits home, Alana asked, "What's the permaculture role of rabbits?"

Finca Fun

2012-01-24T09:33:00.020-06:00

Recently, we went to a neighbor's place to check out their DIY systems

Arriba - their version of a solar food dryer; de bajo - their solar water heater

The day after our epic, double beach birthday party, I went to San Isidro for the day. I had lunch at a little soda (cafe) next to La Ceiba (the store/healing space/community center run by Jason and Alana). Imagen Mundial specializes in local, organic, fresh and healthy food options. There are two primary supermarcado chains here that have been bought out by....Walmart. They specialize in overly packaged, preservative laden, nutrient deficient food stuffs.

I had a lovely walking tour of San Isidro with Jim, who we met the first day here. He gave me a great orientation of town since none of the streets have names, it's important to find the primary landmarks. La Iglesia is the central square and time keeper, from there, you just have to look for particular corner stores and things like "the green roof" or "Libraritorio" (bookstore) to know where you are.

Every Thursday is the Ferria (Farmer's Market) and our once-a-week shopping spree to stock up the finch kitchen. In this picture, I am standing near the center of the market, looking one direction - so double the size of what you see here!

There are a handful of growers who do not use pesticides and such, of course, Jason and Alana know them all and have their favorites. The folks who provide the eggs live near Finca Fruicion, we drove past their farm on the way to visit the neighbors I mentioned earlier. A primary reason that so much has been accomplished at Finca Fruicion in the 3 years of stewardship so far is the low cost of labor. The average hourly wage here is under $3. Trouble is, many of the goods cost as much, if not more, than the same product in the USA. That means, for us to work off our expenses here on the farm, we are putting in three times the amount of time for the same dollar. This doesn't leave much time for me to focus on booking gigs in the States for our return. There is a festival in the works here for the end of February, I'll be performing without my usual assists (Digitech JamMan and BOSE tower). The Renegade Spade Tour dates and locations are being assigned by divine appointment!

We see these vultures circling in abundance everyday around here

In the evening, local cane growers light their fields on fire to prepare for harvesting. It's a general practice here, apparently the intention is to rid the field of snakes, insects and weeds to make the harvesting easier. Then, the farmers transport their crops to a nearby factory for processing. The raw cane, before processing, is called tapa dulce (or just dulce) and is what is most commonly used by the locals. It comes in blocks that can be shaved as needed.

The valley at dawn.... fog over the river every morning

Sunrise in the garden

A lily blooming near the pond

The greenhouse, soon-to-be community kitchen area, bodega (tool shed), and upstairs classroom area.

The roof and frame structure of a tent platform in process

Mycelium branches, Blake in the background - our resident Eagle Scout

The Star Lodge where Blake is currently camped

Inside the Star Lodge

The Star Pentagon Hinge in the center of the roof

A strangler fig growing on another tree along the path down to the garden

An epic, tree-sized fern

A new leaf, unfolding

Jason and Cedar

Baraka

The Bat House - La Casa de Murcielagos

There are at least 15 different species of bats (murcielagos). I'm not sure yet what kind these are, hangin' out makin' great guano used to fertilize the gardens.

A beautiful banana flower that we walk under on our hike up to the main house

Close up, you can see the little black bees

The resident Banana King - Cedar - sometimes eats eight or more a day!

La familia alborozado

Sobre la casa, el recreo para ninos y ninas. Above the house, the playground for the kids! Trampoline, balance logs in spiral formation, swing, and pirate hideout complete with treasure chest. The dream is to add a little swimming pond that can also feed the gardens below the playground; this project may become the community project during the festival in February. The ground is mostly hard, red clay here - best dug during the rainy season when it's soft. Or, run the sprinkler for the kids to jump in on the first day of the festival and dig the pond the next day! We'll see....

The blue "ball" in the photo below is actually an ice cream maker, being tossed from atop the pirate hide out and rolled down the net. The kids were tired of bouncing it on the trampoline. There is no milk in the mix, just banana and maybe some coconut; more the idea of it than anything.

The mango trees are in full bloom right now, we'll miss the fruiting season...darn!

El Gallo y Las Gallinas:

This tree is called "Ice Cream Bean" - see the long, curvy pod? It's a great nitrogen fixer that gets it's name from the white pulp inside the bean that melts in your mouth like....ice cream

Here is Indigo, harvesting salad greens for community dinner. The structure to the left is a hoop house, full of leafy edibles. Banana trees on the right, behind her. Cosechamos unas hojas - We harvest some leaves

A citrus hibiscus, we've been adding the leaves to our salads

A vining spinach (espinoche) that is best cooked

My little harvest helper....the puma bunny, Janga

In the garden, we "chop and drop" - trimming nitrogen rich plants and laying them on the ground around the base of the other fruit trees to feed the soil. In the kitchen, we chop and stir - chewing up the nutrient rich plants to feed our village!

PURA VIDA!

Epic Birthday Party!

2012-01-20T23:44:00.014-06:00

In celebration of Magic Mama's Birthday, we piled 9 people, luggage and food into a truck and trekked about an hour through the dark on an incredibly bumpy gravel road to Costa Rica's Pacific Coast town of Uvitas - near Dominical. We stayed the night at hostel called the Flutterby House.

We awoke to the sound of monkeys and chickens

And had our first tour of the place in the daylight - there are several places to sleep: some tree houses, a couple of cabins, a few hammocks and a tent site.

Here's where Indigo and I slept:

Morning toothbrushing party

Rad mosaics in the bathrooms and showers

Cobb bottle walls too!

A map of the area shows the whale tale formation of the peninsula

My birthday breakfast of fresh papaya and pineapple in the community kitchen

Then, we walked to the beach....

and spotted two macaws along the way

The best birthday card ever:

This iguana came to the party for awhile

A jade tear to top my cairn

Sage, Jason and Blake rounded up about 17 coconuts near our hang out and cracked them open on a rock for a Birthday Bliss snack

Eventually, we went back to the Flutterby to make lunch

The monkeys came back while we were cooking

Standing in front of this tree house, I was looking at the monkey in the picture above

After lunch, we drove to another beach nearby called Las Ventanas (The Windows)

My Birthday Dream-Come-True! Gracias Amigos

Costa Rica - Dia Cinco

2012-01-15T13:37:00.013-06:00

The roots drying in the picture above are most commonly known as taro. Here in Costa Rica, they are mostly referred to as dasheen or yampi. They come from a diverse group of plants called Elephant Ear and are a healthy and versatile starchy crop.

Back in Eau Claire, we had this plant growing in pots around our house. It's in the spiderwort family and commonly referred to as Wandering Jew. It's being used here at Finca Fruicion as an edible ground cover underneath some of the other taller plants in the garden beds.

The most common ground cover we have seen so far in Costa Rica is this little yellow peanut called Manisillo (mani means peanut, sillo makes it little). It's not actually a peanut, no nutty tubers, but the foliage is very similar and the little yellow flowers are quite tasty. It's a great nitrogen fixer, like clover and vetch, and is nice and soft on the bare feet!

On our way to visit a neighbor, we stopped at the river for a hike and a swim and found these delicate little purple flowers growing out of the rocks.

Sage (Sabio is his newly adopted Costa Rican spanish name) trying out his new waterproof video camera.

Some lizard eggs were discovered in the sand, a couple came back to the farm with us as an experiment, we'll see who hatches!

On the neighbor's lot, checking out their solar hot water heating system....

And their solar food dryer

A few days ago, we had a visit from a couple from Austin, Texas who have been traveling around checking out various farms and permaculture communities in the region. Rose (far left) is quite fluent in spanish and gifted with the ability to pick up languages quickly. Jake (right next to Rose) runs the Sustainable Urban Agriculture program for the city of Austin. Check out this urban farm ordinance! How about more of this in the world? www.ci.austin.tx.us/edims/document.cfm?id=148296

Also pictured are Alana (in the center) Benjamin (on the far right) who is one of the primary laborers here at Finca Fruicion and lives nearby, Sabio (hiding in the back), Kita the dog, and a gorgeous mango tree.

From the bus where we are living, we hike up a steep, narrow trail with about 7 switchbacks to the main house - here you can see the porch on our way up. We've been chopping open coconuts on that porch and tossing the empty shells over the edge to help build up the soil around the house on the hillside.

JangaRa likes to shimmy up the center post on the porch like it's a coconut palm. Both he and Baraka can zip right up like little monkeys, gripping with their feet. They have TONS of energy! How could we harness that for the farm?

Here we are in the lower garden area with Albis, who is the other primary laborer on the farm and also lives with his family nearby. He recently fractured a rib and was practically forced to take a week off to rest! He is the oldest of 8 and his mother is like an adopted abuela (grandmother) to Cedar, JangaRa and Baraka; she takes care of Cedar 3 days a week.

The pond has 3 kinds of fish, including minnows and talapia, and soon to have fresh water lobster and crab. Albis loves to fish; Alana calls him the King Fisher. He has been very patient with our minimal understanding of spanish and is quite a teacher. We have learned a lot from him already!

Origami lessons at the school bus

Home Sweet Home

Costa Rica - Dia Uno

2012-01-12T13:37:00.012-06:00

After a 6 hour drive to Chicago, 4 hours of waiting, 3 hours of flying, 10 hour layover in Florida, 4 hours of flying, a taxi ride to the bus station in San Jose, a 4 hour bus ride to San Isidro....(The patron saint of farming)

We arrived after dark, cracked a fresh coconut and enjoyed a delicious meal with our amigos. We camped on a school bus down by the gardens for the night and awoke to this view

The road down to the bus.... and looking back up at the bus

Crackin a coco for lunch, up at the main casa

A view from the porch at la casa

Amigos en la cocina: Alana and Jason

columpio sobre la porche - swing on the porch

Army ants on Jim's tent, "cleaning" off other insects

Baraka, our 4 year old trail guide, leading us to his favorite waterfall

Snow Foot, one of the farm rabbits - conejo

Alana jokes that this papaya tree is her "best work" - it volunteered out of the compost

Teepees for the passionflowers to climb - someday, they will produce my favorite fruit liliqoui (I don't know the spanish name)

Citrus Orchard

Off to feed the goats

A young cashew tree

The bottle wall in the community kitchen, near the vegetable gardens

A friendly cow, and Benjamin working on a plot which will host tents for the next wave of visitors

Belladonna smells delicious at night! It's an aphrodisiac and also very poisonous to the touch

Time for me to get off the bus....see you at the next stop!

Year of the White Rhythmic Wizard

2011-12-25T19:50:00.012-06:00

"And now it is us. We are the ones they spoke of long ago... They say this is the hardest time to live, but they say to be alive, to come into creation and to live upon the earth at this time is also the greatest honor." - Lee Brown, Continental Indigenous Council

As a wise instrument of the Divine, I set myself free of the past and walk into the future now.

With integrity, I stand in love, in alignment with divine will.

I know that whatever serves the larger vision also serves me, and I act in accordance with that knowing.

I understand that all things are possible, and from that knowledge springs my innate magicianship.

In humility, my clear presence magnifies to include all abilities that appear magical to the limited mind.

I am complete.

All of myself dances around the center of my being...in alignment with cosmic consciousness.

I stand in unmarred correspondence with the original condition of love."

This prayer is found in "The Mayan Oracle" ...IX Sun Runner, Torchbearer, Magician, Healer

I invite you to visit the website 13 Moon and read 2012 Prophecy ~ Making it Real by Eden Sky

Excerpt:

Making The 2012 Prophecy Real! ~

"Let us soberly and humbly realize that we live at the whim of natural forces, inside of a greatly imbalanced planetary equation, and amidst the climate of our collective human consciousness. How our human society will navigate our course in this universal curriculum is a total mystery. What is certain is that we influence each other, and model to one another the possibilities of human culture in all our attitudes and decisions. Whether we can see the results or not, all of our energies and actions ripple out to the whole. Within this unpredictable universe and unstable Earth, what is in our domain to tend to is finding our deepest Intuition of how to conduct our lives in these uncertain and pivotal times; realizing how to truly live our life's purpose; discovering how to love and care for ourselves and all beings in life-affirming ways; growing in understanding how to evolve our lifestyle choices to be in harmony with our Biosphere; joining in deep collaboration and synergy with our allies on this path.

The December 21, 2012 Global Synchronization is calling us to make an internal commitment to participating in the start of a New World Age. This prophetic date is offering us both an inner alignment, and a collective focus point as we acknowledge we will be the Graduating Class of 2012! Let's drop our expectations, embrace the challenges, and celebrate the vast power available to all of us as we go through this initiatory gateway together. We can then consciously support each other on the other side of our global ceremony, vowing to actualize a new era, one day at a time."

~Eden Sky

A Ho Mitakuye Oysin - To All My Relations
In Lak'ech - I Am Another Yourself

Wild Birds Migration

2011-12-22T22:47:00.004-06:00

Wild Birds Migration is ready! I've created a limited edition of this CD as well. The first thirteen CDs come with a full color book of lyrics and one of the original origami cranes featured on the album cover. My son made the cranes and the painting is a print of my Matriotism painting (which you can read more about by typing in "Matriotism" in the search bar on this blog).

*As a side note, it is interesting to me that the word matriotism is not only not recognized by this program, but it automatically changes the word to patriotism for me and I keep having to go back and retype it!

Here are a couple of photos of the Limited Edition Set

Cosmic Cash: Genesis

2011-11-16T20:53:00.003-06:00

COSMIC CASH is about redefining our relationships with money, currency, wealth and abundance.

I have been pondering this blog entry for a long while, wanting to find a way to "sum" up the concepts that have amassed since I began this journey ten years ago. Now, more than ever, we are living in a time of economic and ecological crisis. This blog entry is just the first of many yet to come. There is too much information, too many stories and tidbits to fit into one place at one time. I have been creating and gifting COSMIC CASH

to people and places all over the world, sharing bits of insight and much gratitude along the way. I will do my best to describe the process in print for you here. I invite you to join the conversation of alternative forms of currency in the communities in which you participate; feel free to send your thoughts my way!

CHANGE (or ex-change) is trading one thing for another. Can you spare some change? Change is the only constant right? When something changes, it has been transformed in some way. COSMIC CASH is tangible transmutation: taking that which has become over-abundant and toxic in our lives, and creating something life-giving and good out of it.

My Cosmic Cash journey began with this realization: I can make, with my own hands, everything I need to survive and provide for my family - I can grow food, build shelters, weave and sew clothing and fabric, make clay dish ware...why is it so hard for me to "make" money? I was feeling the deep ramifications of lack-mentality. Money was not flowing freely through my life in a balanced way; the OUT box was always full and the IN box severely neglected. Then I thought, "Wait, I am a paper maker. Why don't I start making my own money?" As an artist, the process of creating becomes a radical ritual that transforms my relationship with the world around me. I began asking crucial

questions about the nature of money.

I looked closely at the symbols and statements pictured on our American Dollars and imagined what meaningful replacements I would create for my own dollars and "coined" the term COSMIC CASH. Everyday, I was being inundated with paper symbols of debt in the form of credit card offers and statements, receipts, bank statements, legal documents (I was in the midst of a custody battle at the time as well). I began collecting this toxic energy in a bucket - tearing it up into little bits and adding symbols of love and gratitude in the form of journal entries, my children's artwork, wild flower seeds, prayers for abundance, gratitude for all the ways in which we are blessed. When the bucket was

full (which didn't take long!), I added waters-of-the-world which I had collected from Lake Superior, Minnehaha Falls, Pacific Ocean, and a jar of rain from a recent storm.

Think about the word CURRENCY. A current is a flowing energy like in a river or electrical system. Perhaps you've heard the saying, "Don't push the river, it flows by itself." I wondered how to have this kind of easy, zen-like relationship with money. The real value of any currency is in it's motion. Currency as a verb, rather than a noun, conveys the movement of energy. Adding the waters-of-the-world to my 5 gallon bucket of a cauldron, I imagined the flow of energy being infused with the fibers [paper that used to be trees; living, breathing beings that drank water from the earth and sky]. I imagined reanimating and restoring

honor to these sacred beings that had become credit card offers and the like.

The paper was left to soak in this water for several days while I journeyed deeply into the well of transformation in search of answers. I found that I was associating American Dollars with Corporate Greed and I had created a barrier which was preventing my ability to receive money. So, I saved up enough resources to acquire one of each bill: Washington on the one, Founding Fathers signing the Declaration of Independence on the two, Lincoln on the five, Hamilton on the ten (Hamilton was the first Secretary of Treasury and created a Bank Bill that established the privately owned National Bank system - now the Federal Reserve), Jackson on the twenty, Grant on the fifty and Franklin on the hundred. I pondered again, the symbolism on each one. All depicted

affluent, white men credited with establishing the current political and economic system we inherited. I wondered about what any of them would have to say now, from the world of ancestors on the other side of the veil, looking at the America of today. I rolled these bills up together tightly and tucked them into my medicine bag which I wore for 90 days straight, only removing it to bathe. I allowed my dreaming body to commune with the ancestors of these icons and searched the stories of their lives for as many clues and patterns as I could find that would help shed some light on the mystery of money.

Choosing the scraps that will become the next batch of Cosmic Cash

The scraps are put into a blender and made into slurry

The slurry is poured into bins and sifted out using a mould and deckle made from scrap lumber and fiberglass window screen.

Paper drying on felt couching sheets

A side view of a stack of dry Cosmic Cash

Contemplating the symbols and expressions that will be printed on some bills...

Gifting some Cosmic Cash to a sacred place...

And Another....

Let's think about the word GRATUITY for a moment. The term used for the "tip" left for your server at a restaurant shares the same root as the word GRATITUDE. It is a way of expressing thanks. So often, I found my wallet void of American Dollars. I created a green-energy way of leaving a gratuity anywhere I felt compelled to express some thanks. Cosmic Cash has been left as part of my tip at cafes, drifted down rivers, planted in gardens, tucked into a crease in a special tree, shared with hundreds of people. Some restaurants have even mounted them on their walls along with their first American Dollar.

I wrote a Cosmic Cash Financial Statement to accompany the original batch of bills. I have since printed hundreds of these and the symbols and statements change and transform in tandem with my own evolving consciousness surrounding money.

Here is the first batch of Cosmic Cash ever printed. The symbols in the corner were created by stamping a eucalyptus seed pod in some ink. The seed pod is a natural symbol of abundance and potential, each pod contains a multitude of seeds which each possess the hidden potential to become a giant tree. Money may grow on trees after all, it really depends on what we value. For that is what money really is, a symbol of that which we value. The paper we are presently trading in this country is life-less; it is not worth anything all by itself, the way gold or silver or copper or food is. We must collectively agree on it's value, collectively honor that agreement and allow the papers to be exchanged for goods and services. "WE" did not choose this broken system, we inherited it and are continuing to perpetuate it by using it! We can choose to infuse anything with value, the key is the communal consent to recognize and honor the symbols of value

In this original batch, I was focusing on bringing some balance to a patriarchal/hierarchical system of exchange. American Dollars are printed with the words "In God We Trust." And, "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private." I printed the Cosmic Cash with the words "In Goddess We Trust" and "This note renders the new." Printed in each corner is the number 13 - there are 13 full lunar cycles for every one Earth year. The moon models for us the natural process of growth, fulfillment, decay and renewal. What is full, must become empty and what is empty

must become full. This is the cosmic way! Everything in balance - masculine and feminine. 13 is also the Mayan galactic prime number, the Force of The Universal Movement of Creation.

Keep in mind, the Federal Reserve is a PRIVATE entity! The paper dollars we recognize as symbols of our national value are printed, distributed and controlled by CEOs, not the Federal Government....and who, then, controls our Government?

Going with the flow...

In 1998, I participated in the creation of local currency for the the Mendocino Coast in California. We based our system on models from Ithica, NY and a few smaller projects. We called it S.E.E.D. and each bill was printed with art that highlighted the valuable nature and culture present in our community. Local businesses agreed to honor the value of SEED as a replacement to American Dollars. There was a basic measure of time, goods and services attributed to each and local businesses could determine what percent of SEED it would accept per transaction. This kept much of the wealth generated by the community - in the area.

There are as many forms of currency as there are cultures in this world and they all have one thing in common: in each community that honors the currency as a symbol of value, the people have agreed to the nature and measure of that value. A good example of this is the Tevau (or feather money) from the Solomon Islands.

Since the creation of my first batch of Cosmic Cash, I have made many new discoveries. The process continues to unfold and the mystery is ever evolving. I have made several batches with my family and friends, hosted community workshops and have been collecting words and images that make their way onto new versions of Cosmic Cash. As I stated at the beginning of this blog, this entry is only the beginning of the story, the Genesis.

As we approach another ThanksGiving HolyDay, I invite you to ponder the ways in which you express gratitude and the symbols you infuse with value. Lately I have been printing the following things on my Cosmic Cash:

What you appreciate, APPRECIATES! Grow Gratitude!

Gratitude is the memory of heart

Uni-Verse = One-Song

Plant Seeds....Sing Songs

To be continued!

Urban Ecology Center

2011-11-04T21:13:00.012-05:00

On our recent visit to Milwaukee for two Magic Mama performances, we added an extra day to the journey to check out the Urban Ecology Center.

The Urban Ecology Center is a neighborhood-based, environmental education, nonprofit community center. The “outdoor laboratories,” located in two urban parks, include 15 acres of wooded land and riparian habitat on the east bank of the Milwaukee River, an imaginative, habitat-themed playground, and a lagoon. The “green” building in Riverside Park that houses the main offices, resource areas and classrooms is home to live animals, informational exhibits and user-friendly resource materials about the environment.

In the early 1900's Riverside Park was a well groomed, popular park for seasonal swimming, boating, skating and curling. Over decades of industrial use, the Milwaukee River reached a level of pollution that no longer attracted visitors and the park was essentially abandoned. In 1991, after much discussion regarding the best way to revitalize the area, the Urban Ecology Center was born. Dr. Else Ankel, Environmental Scientist in Residence at Riverside High School, was the driving force behind this grass roots effort. The organization grew from a few volunteer teachers taking children into the park into what it is today.

We didn't get to climb this wall, but we did find the secret entrance around the back of the building....

Enter the hobbit-size hole...

And slide on in!

Scooby-style hidden classroom!

The Urban Ecology Center inspires people to tread lightly on the earth while being mindful of their impact on the water, climate, energy, land use, biodiversity and community. Making intentional, mindful food choices is one way to have a huge impact on each of these things.

Rainwater flush toilets - choose between a half tank or full tank flush.

Pumping water from the pond

Wrap around porch made of wood scraps from the construction of the Atlantic City Boardwalk.

At a huge 44.4 kilowatts, the solar electric panels now covering the roof at the UEC are the largest such solar installation in the state of Wisconsin. The system, originally installed in 2003 by H&H Solar Energy Services of Madison, started out as a 48 module array. With the addition of 208 solar panels, the completed system now consists of 256 Kyocera solar panels mounted directly to the Center’s metal standing-seam roof. The Kyocera panels are expected to produce over 55,000 kilowatt-hours each year.

We brake for funky structures!

And always make room for art.... We found this Chagall Tapestry at the Jewish Museum

Milwaukee has acquired the nickname "The Cream City" which has nothing to do with Wisconsin's dairy industry. Rather, it is reference to the cream colored stone used in much of the older architecture found throughout the area, like this house in the picture above.

Our trip would not have been complete without a visit to Lake Michigan, one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. The word "Michigan" originally referred to the lake itself, and is believed to come from the Ojibwa word mishigamimeaning "great water."

Lake Michigan used to be home to lake trout, yellow perch, panfish, large and smallmouth bass, bowfin and catfish. The Great Lakes are on the verge of ecological disaster. Lake Michigan's water quality is endangered by shoreline development, toxic pollution, invasive species, sewage overflows and unrestricted water withdrawals.

Research shows that children who explore natural areas throughout their childhood, guided by environmentally literate mentors, are likely to become ecologically responsible adults.

Growing Power

2011-11-02T18:10:00.015-05:00

Magic Mama performed for the Milwaukee Urban Gardens 10th Year Anniversary Gala and turned the whole weekend into a grand home school adventure. We visited Growing Power and were treated to a private tour. Following is a photo journal with a few scattered notes.

After passing through the small store front where locals can buy fresh produce, we entered a green house where people were busy with the pea shoots. One man was harvesting shoots from the flats by cutting them with a scissors. Above, the flats of pea roots are turned out into a wheel barrow to be delivered to a compost area.

Here you see much of what Growing Power is famous for: aquaponics and vertical gardening. This whole operation is located IN the city. Thousands of fish are swimming around in rainwater (more on water catchment to follow), the fish water is pumped up into long troughs that hold cress and pea gravel. The pea gravel hosts beneficial bacteria that help clean the water as it filters through the cress and back to the fish. The same water is used for all the plants and fish.

Above, Kate explains the process of filtering and feeding all the organisms that make Growing Power grow. Jahmes (on the left) is a fabulous percussionist who performed with me at both venues for the weekend and hosted our tour.

Below, rather than using peat moss (which takes hundreds of years to regenerate), Growing Power utilizes one of my favorite plants: the coconut!

The coconut has a thick, fiberous layer around the nut (actually, it's a seed). This fiber is harvested and ground to a pulp, and then shipped in blocks. Pictured above are a couple of shitake logs on the far left, a coier block (a word derived from coconut fiber), then the coier all crumbled, rough coconut fiber, coier mixed with compost made by the famous Red Wigglers at Growing Power. The coier is mixed with the compost to aerate the soil and hold moisture.

Here you can see all the worm bins. Along with composting any of their own vegetable matter, Growing Power collects food scraps from around the city and turns it into Black Gold.

Burlap coffee sacks over the worm bins help keep them from drying out and gives the worms a dark place to work their magic. Micro greens in pots everywhere!

Shitake logs suspended over talapia tanks. Growing Power raises about 80,000 Lake Perch and 80,000 Talapia at a time!

Micro Greens Galore!

A BIG fish tank, filled with rain water harvested from the rooftops. They have an outdoor water tank that holds 10,000 gallons and they are currently building a new one to hold 20,000 gallons!

Solar Panels used to pump the water around the greenhouses.

Some visitors from Guinea left a working example of a common raised bed style garden used in their home villages. A burlap sack is filled with soil, holes are cut and plants are "plugged in." It retains moisture quite well.

Some beautiful cress!

HOLY SH!T - That's a big pile of dung! Growing Power now has contracts with Sysco who delivers fresh greens to restaurants around the region. Another benefit of the urban garden is the Farm to School link, providing fresh, vital energy to the public school cafeterias!

Indoor kale forest!

Goats in the yard eat the produce not deemed "good enough" for distribution. Manure makes good fertilizer too. Plus, they're so dang cute and have a lot of personality!

Urban goats are quite curious and definitely not shy!

Through another hoop house, tucked back in the corner of the lot....BEES!

This is a bee pod, meant to emulate a fallen log. Apparently, these urban bees are a bit more aggressive, perhaps just street wise?

A quote from the Growing Power Site:

Our bees may be the hardest workers on the farm - and that is saying something! Worker bees travel more than 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to collect pollen to make just one pound of honey. At Growing Power, our apiary is filled with European Honey Bees, or Apis Mellifera. The bees collect nectar from several sources, but in Milwaukee the primary pollen source is white clover and basswood, creating a light yellow, delicious, high-value honey. Each hive produces 150 pounds of honey each year.

We currently have 14 active hives in Milwaukee and 6 hives in Chicago at our Iron Street Urban Farm. In July, when the hives are in peak production, each hive has over 60,000 bees. That is 300,000 bees pollinating crops, trees, and flowers in our neighborhood. To put it another way, a 2000 Cornell University study concluded that the direct value of honey bee pollination to U.S. agriculture is more than $14.6 billion each year.

As if honey and better crop production wasn't enough reason to have honey bees, our Chicago Youth Corps also uses the beeswax to create value-added beauty products, such as lip balm, soap, scrubs, and candles.

Visit Growing Power online AND in person!

Sweet Water Organics and Milwaukee Urban Gardens

2011-10-25T20:46:00.006-05:00

Sweet Water Organics is an urban farm located in the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee that has re-purposed unused industrial building space; using aquaponics to grow fresh, safe produce and fish for local Milwaukee residents, restaurants and groceries.

AQUAPONICS

A symbiotic union of aquaculture for raising aquatic animals and hydroponics for growing plants.

Milwaukee Urban Gardens 10th Year Anniversary Gala at Sweet Water Gardens

Magic Mama performing with Jahmes and Harold and a few budding rockers!

Grow Your Own Groceries

For all of you that enjoy the taste of homegrown food, Grow Your Own Groceries is a backyard gardening course that teaches urban residents how to design, plant, and care for a productive vegetable garden, plot or any space available. By growing food at home individuals and families save money on groceries, eat healthier, and avoid commercial food safety scares.

Milwaukee Urban Gardens (MUG) supports efforts of community groups wishing to start or sustain neighborhood gardens by negotiating long term lease agreements with the City of Milwaukee. MUG leads the development and preservation efforts by facilitating land acquisition, resource development, and helping groups develop local leadership and beneficial collaborations.

Twisted Groove

2011-10-03T12:53:00.007-05:00

Magic Mama Music and Twisted Groove Unite! A view of our booth at a recent event:

In preparation for this event, I gave copies of my Renegade Spade and Peace Pirate art to Scott - owner and artist of Twisted Groove, a tie dye and batik shop in South Minneapolis.

Scott created some sample batiks of each image.
These shirts are kids sizes 2, 4, and 6 and can be made to order in ANY size - send a message to Magic Mama if you would like one!

Renegade Spade in Sky Blues and Greens

Below - Renegade Spade in Purple and Blue
Below - Rainbow Peace in Purple and Blue

Below - Rainbow Peace in Purple

Below - Peace Pirate in Pink

Peace Pirate - Fire Colors

Simple Peace Sign, green and turquoise

Onsies come in short and long-sleeves. Pictures are fire colors, sky blues and blue-green

More rad batik and tie dye specials on the Twisted Groove Website. For those in the Twin Cities area, shop in-the-real at their store near Minnehaha Falls:

4503 34th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55406
(612) 721-3524

You'll find Magic Mama's Cat Hats and CD's, Dancing Willow Hula Hoops, and a great selection of original batiks and tie dyes.

Twisted Groove on Facebook

Art Fairs and Eco-Fests

2011-09-27T11:53:00.006-05:00

My mother recently retired from a life-long career in public health. Somehow, she always managed to find ways to keep creativity alive in our household; her latest venture -
NUNO FELTING!
We had our first art fair together this summer, here you can see some of her beautiful scarves:

More about Gayle and her designs (including photographs, paintings and pastels) on her website

A cutie cat, enjoying his new hat, and listening to one of Magic Mama's CDs while his mom checked out the scarves. The Rodeo deGaia CD comes with a book of full-color illustrations for each song!

Back Stage Pass - felt like Italy, or maybe the Alamo, with the canal behind our tent. Here's the crew behind the scenes after helping set up for the fair.

Magic Mama's Lady Bug Picnic at the RiverSong Folk Music Festival

Some festivals run for an entire weekend and include camping. Often, Magic Mama performs multiple sets and teaches EarthShaker Workshops at these kinds of festivals. Her role as Eco-Edu-tainer is not limited to her scheduled set times however, Magic Mama is "in character" throughout the entire festival. Rainbow ribbons, bubbles, wings, hula hoops, musical toys to share, a joyful spirit and the intention of cultivating the Children's Fire are all a part of Magic Mama's....Magic.

A couple of the "EarthShakers" - Ice Bucket Drum and a Rainstick!
**Enter DIY Rainsticks into the search bar on this blog for step-by-step instructions and photos**

Magic Mama's personal EarthShakers include a Custom Tank Drum (made of a salvaged propane tank) and a Frame Drum made of reclaimed lumber and packing tape.
And...a washboard!

Wacky Jacket - The Book!

2011-09-18T21:52:00.004-05:00

EXTRA! EXTRA!

We've been talking about this book for a couple of years, NOW -
Wacky Jacket Jenkins and the Cheese Puff Quest needs a PUBLISHER!

Based on the song "Wacky Jacket Jenkins" written by Magic Mama
(track number one on Rodeo deGaia)
Illustrated by Brianna Capra

CHECK IT!
You can now see the artwork on Brianna's website

MakeShift

2011-09-13T21:47:00.004-05:00

My favorite artist vendors at the Fall Into the Arts Festival -
Centennial Lakes, Edina MN
Visit their website, buy some eco-groovy art and support these guys!
http://makeshiftaccessories.com/

All this jewelry is made out of old street signs, license plates, rulers, clock parts, coins, silverware and other up-cycled and reclaimed objects. Check it!

I had a cymbal ring custom made with a square design so I can drum - while wearing a ring made of a retired percussion instrument!

Butterfly Wings and Fairy Rings

2011-08-14T11:13:00.011-05:00

After performing at the RiverSong Music Festival in Hutchinson, MN I was heading home. Traveling east on interstate 94, listening to a radio interview with James Lovelock (the scientist credited with popularizing the perspective of Earth as Gaia - a living organism who we are a part of) in a five part series on NPR "What is Life?." I'm thinking, Life is an energetic cycle of becoming that also includes death and then....SPLAT! A swallowtail on my wind sheild.
You may know that my yard has been transformed into a butterfly sanctuary amidst mono-cropped sod lawns. All my efforts to assist in the perpetuation of a few small organisms seem hardly enough to compensate for the instant destruction of them that occurs constantly along the highways. Needless to say, I felt like a horrible murderer in that moment. I slowed way down, pulled over and carefully lifted the injured butterfly from the wiper blades and held it in may lap until I arrived in Eau Claire. Blessing it the entire way and listening to the radio program...What is Life?

The butterfly's abdomen had been smashed, oozing yellow goo; it's right wing slightly damaged. It convulsed and twitched and then lay still for awhile, I was almost certain it was dying.

By the time I arrived in Eau Claire, the swallowtail had turned itself over and gingerly crawled up onto my shirt where it clung like a brooch.

I carried it to a tigerlily and began unloading the van. When I returned to check on the swallowtail, it was gone! I have seen it flying around the garden the past several days, identifiable by it's damaged right wing. Imagine a gaping wound in your belly, seemingly bleeding to death. Imagine having enough magical powers of regeneration to heal that wound in an hour! Small and delicate they may be, yet the miracle and mystery of the butterfly is enormous.

Our next magical, musical adventure brought us to the World of Faeries in South Elgin, Illinois. I created a bubble of butterfly radar around the van so there were no casualties along our route.

These folks make Goblin Dolls. Unique, hand sewn, hand dyed, one of a kind! Check them out at http://www.goblinroad.com/dolls.html

Living Statue in mega hot and humid weather!

Rockin it with Patchouli! Check them out here: http://www.patchouli.net/

A human ambassador of the Faerie Folk, Joshua Safford aka Jeremiah Wiggins. Check him out here: http://www.ravenstory.com/

The festival came to an abrupt close in a rainstorm, followed by a beautiful rainbow and faeire ring sunset in farm land. Winged, magical creatures abound! Caution, Magic Mama swerves to save them.

Cat Hat Current Color Options

2011-08-04T18:32:00.014-05:00

"Ear to Ear, Cat Hats Spread Smiles!"

Limited Edition, Hand Dyed Velour Cat Hats
- The Blue Batch-

Cutie Cats - Child Small

Green Stripe, Cream, Navy, Red Fleece, Pink, Orange,
Yellow Leopard Fleece, Blue Stripe, Hand-Dyed Blue, Brown Leopard

Kitty Cats - Child Large/Adult Small
(This size fits most, including Magic Mama and both her kids)
Green Stripe, Lavender, Cream, Red Fleece, Navy, Yellow Leopard Fleece, Olive, Pink, Hand-Dyed Blue, Orange, Brown Leopard Fleece

Alley Cats - Adult Large

Green Stripe, Yellow Leopard Fleece, Sapphire, Pink, Lavender, Purple, Brown Leopard Fleece, Hand-Dyed Blue

Back in Black!
As always, the standard black Cat Hat is available in all sizes

Tails sold only at Magic Mama performances

Becoming Magic Mama, Eco-Edu-tainer

2011-07-28T20:27:00.002-05:00

The Journey to becoming Magic Mama Eco-Edu-tainer....

I have always been musically inclined, I think I started singing before I could talk and played the piano as soon as I could climb up onto the bench. I played by ear, mimicking what I heard around me; classical, jazz, dixieland, 60’s pop, musicals and the like; I created my own tunes from the get-go. I tried out the violin in elementary school and played in the orchestra, sang in school and church choirs, and took piano lessons. I quickly “outgrew” my piano teachers and my parents signed me up for classes at MacPhail College of Music in St. Paul, MN where I played songs like “Flight of the Bumblebee.” The problem was, I was terribly shy and had such intense performance anxiety that I would totally freeze during recitals. Songs that I could play with my eyes closed for months would suddenly disappear and the piano keys would scramble and become foreign to me. I played the clarinet for awhile in Junior High and enjoyed being a part of a band where I could blend in but because of my musical gifts, I was always placed in first chairs - right at the end of the row, edge of the stage etc. I was especially self-conscious then (as most preteens are) and quit playing altogether.

In High School, I focused on visual arts and received some fairly prestigious awards from Hallmark along with scholarship offers to fine art schools out of state. When the time came for me to choose a college, my parents were not in a position to support out of state tuition, even with scholarships and, I suspect, they were not comfortable sending their first born so far away from home. So, I went the liberal education route. I never took a music class. Knowing that a piano is not very portable, in celebration of my Senior Art Exhibition, my parents gifted me with my first guitar. I traveled to the West Coast to look for work, played guitar and sang around camp fires with close friends, just for fun. I received a BFA from the University of Minnesota along with a degree in Art Education and an emphasis in Outdoor Education. I have held many part-time positions that utilized my “expertise” but never found a full time, paid job as an art educator.

Eventually, I moved to Minneapolis with my two kids. I built a little moon lodge in my parents back yard, one tiny place amidst a metropolis where I could feel close to the earth, create some sacred space and pray. This was 2001. After what felt like a long, dark journey, I called music back into my life and began to play my guitar again. Shortly thereafter, my friend Craig Minowa invited me to perform with his band Cloud Cult as a live-action painter. OK - What?!

While the band set up and did their sound check, I set up an easel, paints and brushes. As soon as the band began to play, I began to paint. Since my back was to the crowd, I didn’t feel the same kind of anxiety I used to experience as a child. I learned a lot about non-attachment. You may know that many artists are perfectionists. I had never before let anyone see my artwork before I thought it was finished and yet, here I was creating the entire piece in front of an audience. The paintings were auctioned off the stage at the end of the show; paint still wet. I found myself disappearing during those 45 minute sets, I just merged with the music and the images came through me as a dance. I felt a kinship with the musicians and we spent time together between shows, gardening, sharing meals, making music around campfires, dreaming of building a sustainable community.
One day, the drummer (Dan Greenwood) called me up and invited me to become the new singer-songwriter for one of his other bands. I remember saying “What? Me?!” He really liked the songs I had shared around the fire and encouraged me to play in the studio. The next step was to try performing at some open mics in Minneapolis. Magic Mama’s musical debut was at Galactic Pizza in Uptown. Next, the Cloud Cult bass player invited me to record a demo CD at his recording studio, Essential Sessions in St. Paul. About the same time, I formed two bands with women I had met at the open mics. The first one was an all-female collective we called GRUVZ and the other was Black Blondie. I recorded a demo with Black Blondie, very impromptu and they sold out at our first show. At that same show, we were offered a contract with hip hop label, Interlock Records on the spot. I was the primary instrumentalist for both bands, the other ladies were singers, lyricists and percussionists. We wrote songs together, practiced on the light rail just for kicks. Suddenly, I found myself as a musician, sharing the stage with acts like Dessa, Heiruspecs, Omaur Bliss, Wookie Foot, PeeWee Dread, and other Twin Cities Super Stars. Trouble was, I had two very young children at home with a baby sitter and really wasn’t into the whole late night bar scene. I don’t smoke, even second hand makes me feel sick. I don’t really drink alcohol either and don’t enjoy hanging around intoxicated people. So, it seemed like the music profession was not really going to be a good fit for me. Meanwhile....

One of the GRUVS had met a producer who invited her to rehearse at his studio and when he heard about our group, he extended the invitation to all of us. After one of our rehearsals, I gifted him with the demo I had made at Essential Sessions. He really liked what he heard and called me up the next day to offer me the opportunity to work on a “real” record.
Trying to impress me with his resume, he dropped all sorts of names that, being the media drop out I am, I had never heard of. Apparently, he had been the sound engineer for Jessica Simpson’s World Tour, worked with Mariah Carey and clocked many hours at Paisley Park working for Prince. OK, to be fair, I was a Prince fan but honestly had never heard of Jessica Simpson. My only prior experience in a recording studio was at Essential Sessions, I had my headphones on backwards and didn’t know a quarter inch from an XLR! Not exactly a professional. I am so thankful for the time Kevin spent with me at Parlour Music Company, I learned so much!

Although I think he really wanted to turn me into a pop star, after my experience with the city scene, I felt compelled to focus on the music I had been creating with and for my children. I hadn’t found much music in the “children’s section” that I wanted to listen to so we made up our own. Those songs became my first album Rodeo deGaia (deGaia means “of Earth” and is the last name I gave to my babies, the rodeo is our traveling family circus).

Once I had made a professional album, I had to figure out a way to promote it and perform the songs live. After investing over a year in the project, moving to Wisconsin and taking on a mortgage payment, I had to create some kind of sustainable career that could support my family. I felt that I had finally discovered my true calling, one that made meaningful use of the gifts I was born with, combined with my education and experience, provided me with a platform to help heal the earth and feed the children’s fire in a joyful way.
It was then that I created a Stage Persona as Magic Mama, Eco-Edu-tainer

And the rest, is OUR story! I may have always had a bit of magic, but I wouldn’t be mama without my kids. They are certainly the source of much of my inspiration, my loyal crew and loves of my life! What kind of world will we create for their children’s children to inherit? I choose clean air, clean water, fresh and vital food, healthy and loving communities, and still-wild places. It will take a world of villages committed to conserving and preserving Earth’s resources for this to become reality. I cannot do it alone, nor do I wish to - join me, joyfully, in song and dance and celebration of the beauty and abundance of this Miracle of Earth! May it be so!

Rock On!

2011-07-21T20:26:00.008-05:00

Magic Mama loves to Rock!

Recently, we gathered up all the stones and shells that have accumulated in our house from our travel collections. We carefully placed them in a cast iron tub that sits in our driveway (Once upon a time I intended to remodel our bathroom). Instead, the rocks got the spa treatment: rain water, sunshine, moonlight, gentle massages, lots of love and admiration.

While the stones soaked, Magic Mama rocked the Lake Harriet Bandshell in Minneapolis. It was nearly a hundred degrees with about 98% humidity. Still, some hearty folks managed to perform "cheese puff solos" while hula hooping! Notice the Peace Pirate Ship in the background....
We're preparing to set sail!

Behind the scenes in the air-conditioned recording studio designed by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and used to record Janet Jackson.... add to that line up - Magic Mama's Baritone Ukulele, a hand spade, djembe and bamboo flute for Renegade Spade

Some of the Crew keepin' it cool "back stage"

And back at the ranch with the rocks, Steve Bateman's "Bomb Girl" sculpture landed in my milkweed.

"Red Light" still rockin' and resplendent in the kale

And the ultimate success story of our five years in Eau Claire, WI.... monarchs now have a new landing pad for feeding, breeding and pollinating

ROCK ON!

In(ter)dependence Days

2011-07-05T23:19:00.006-05:00

Remember our Founding Gardeners! We are the new
Revolutionary Generation

Magic Mama's yard is a food forest. Food for pollinators and people.

Every three weeks or so, a small group of folks gather to share raw food, recipes, stories and friendship.

Potatoes are flowering in the back yard

Sweet Peas!

Edible Flowers

Dessert for Butterflies

Bees love to eat these....so do we!

Tie Dyes, Batiks and Paper Making

2011-06-26T22:12:00.010-05:00

Magic Mama's Eco-Art Camp

Paper Making

Tie Dye

Batik

More Camps on the Horizon:

Prints and Patches
Friday, July 8th 1-3pm
Participants will learn how to make block prints, stencils, and mono prints then design and create their own "patches" on recycled fabric and paper.

Nature Weaving and Kinetic Sculpture
Tuesday, July 19th 1-3pm

Participants will explore a variety of natural and recycled objects which will be used to create three-dimensional hangings. Possibilities include dream catchers, wind chimes, garden sculptures and more.

Recycled Paper Making
Friday, July 22nd 1-3pm

Participants will learn the art of paper making using natural and recycled materials. We will create seed paper which can be planted, design our own currency, experiment with pulp painting and casting techniques.

For the Birds
Tuesday, July 26th

Participants will use natural and recycled materials to create bird perches, feeders and houses; art for our feathered friends!

Seed Balls and Fling Shots
Tuesday, August 2nd 1-3pm

Participants will learn how to make seed balls using clay, compost, and wild flower seeds. We will use a variety of natural and recycled materials to create "fling shots" with which to catapult the dried seed balls. Learn about some guerrilla gardening ethics and earth stewardship.

Tie Dye and Batik
Friday, August 12th 1-3pm

Participants will learn a variety of fabric dying techniques and create a string of "flags". Batik is a wax resist used to create original designs. Bring a 100% cotton shirt (light color or white) to dye and wear later!

Gather Water

2011-06-13T23:05:00.004-05:00

Drip Drop Hip Hop, Every Drop is Holy
Slip Slop, Sip It Slowly
Every
Drop
Counts!

Taste the pure, crystal clear, liquid life!
This is what we drink:

This is where it's from

Hike in, leave a gift of gratitude, gather water, hike out

A nibble of cress too!

Suncrest Gardens Farm

2011-06-13T22:10:00.005-05:00

Magic Mama recently performed at this rad CSA

Suncrest Gardens Farm is a 16 acre family farm nestled amongst the rolling river bluffs of west-central Wisconsin.

The farm’s mission is to create and enhance community relationships through fresh, locally produced food.

Suncrest Gardens Farm was founded in rural Cochrane, WI, in 2003. The 16 acre farm continually grows into a more sustainable farming business that brings community together around the subject of food. Suncrest Garden’s flourishes in diversity and variety with vegetables, raspberries, strawberries, sheep, cows, goats, ducks, rabbits, laying hens, meat chickens, llamas, as well as handcrafted items like our homemade jams.

The farm has two main enterprises: CSA vegetable subscriptions and wood-fired pizzas.

The farm began as a way to provide a rich, nurturing environment for their family to live and eat healthy while caretaking the land for future generations. And today, the farm has developed a solid community of supporters within the local region in order to produce a living wage for the farmers. Over 2 acres of vegetables and berries are cultivated and an unheated hoophouse and heated greenhouse help extend the seasons. Taking raw ingredients to the next level in the licensed food processing kitchen helps diversify the farm and create economic stability. Handcrafted soaps, homemade jams, wood-fired pizzas and other seasonal culinary inspirations fit this value-added niche for Suncrest Gardens LLC.

Heather Secrist is the farm owner and a mother of 2 very active little farm boys, Ashlan and Ethan. Heather’s interest in working with the land was cultivated on her parent’s dairy farm in Alma, Wisconsin. Her degrees in biology and psychology from Cornell College led Heather to pursue field research and later small-scale organic agriculture. Today, she enjoys the challenge of running a diverse small farm while balancing the duties of a busy mother. Heather continues to pursue personal learning while striving to implement creative solutions to making the farm a sustainable operation.

Farm Cats!

******************************************************************************************

Composting Toilet

In order to be more inline with our organic philosophy and to reduce our use of chemicals in all forms on the farm, we have built a two stall composting outhouse for people to use while at the farm. It is cleaner, more aesthetic, and does not smell like a traditional port-a-potty. And the extra bonus is that all excrements are composted through a heat cycle and two year decomposition process which creates a dirt like substance which will be used on flowers and trees, not any vegetables here at our farm.

2011 LIVE MUSIC SCHEDULE…check back for updates!

Eco-Art Camps 2011

2011-05-10T12:22:00.011-05:00

Magic Mama’s Eco-Art Camp

A. Recycled Paper Making
Tuesday, June 14th 1-3pm and Friday, July 22nd 1-3pm

Participants will learn the art of papermaking using natural and recycled materials. We will create seed paper which can be planted, design our own currency, experiment with pulp painting and casting techniques.

B. Tie Dye and Batik
Friday, June 24th 1-3pm and Friday, August 12th 1-3pm

Participants will learn a variety of fabric dying techniques and create a string of "flags". Batik is a wax resist used to create original designs. Bring a 100% cotton shirt (light color or white) to dye and wear later!
C. Prints and Patches
Friday, July 8th 1-3pm
Participants will learn how to make block prints, stencils, and mono prints then design and create their own "patches" on recycled fabric and paper.

D. Nature Weaving and Kinetic Sculpture
Tuesday, July 19th 1-3pm

Participants will explore a variety of natural and recycled objects which will be used to create three-dimensional hangings. Possibilities include dream catchers, wind chimes, garden sculptures and more.

E. For the Birds
Tuesday, July 26th

Participants will use natural and recycled materials to create bird perches, feeders and houses; art for our feathered friends!

F. Seed Balls and Fling Shots
Tuesday, August 2nd 1-3pm

Participants will learn how to make seed balls using clay, compost, and wild flower seeds. We will use a variety of natural and recycled materials to create "fling shots" with which to catapult the dried seed balls. Learn about some guerrilla gardening ethics and earth stewardship.

G. EarthShakers
Chippewa Valley date pending,
Magic Mama will be teaching an Earth Shakers workshop at the Green Mountain Eco-Fest in Eldridge, MO
August 18-21, 2011

Participants will create musical instruments using recycled and natural materials. Using our rhythmic and stringed inventions, we will compose our own music too!

***Magic Mama has a degree in Environmental Art Education K-12
These programs are designed for kids ages 6-12, younger children are welcome with an accompanying adult (and vice-versa!)

All projects will take place in Magic Mama's wild-lawn and each camp will include a rainy-day plan. Two hour sessions are $17 per person, some materials fees may apply.

To Register, contact Magic Mama at 612-812-8620 or
PeacePirate@MagicMamaMusic.com

Art on the Wall

2011-04-28T17:07:00.007-05:00

Magic Mama's most recent visual art will be on display for the month of May at
Tangled Up In Hue
downtown Eau Claire, WI

A look behind the scenes....in Magic Mama's studio. Creating cast paper banners "10 cm Circle Yantras" and other mixed-media art inspired by Nature, Sacred Geometry and the art of waste stream diversion. Some pieces are collaborations with my own children. At the foundation of all my actions is the intention of feeding the Children's Fire.

Unless you were born via c-section, you entered the world through a 10 cm portal. These meditations and mandalas may awaken something deep within our cells and psyches that transcend race, class, religion, sex and all other illusions of separation that are at the root of all violent conflict in the world.

10 cm circle Mandalas made using colored pencils, markers, 35mm photos of flowers I grew. Circles are then adhered in various ways to cast paper forms.
Using earthenware clay, I created a variety of forms which I cast in plaster. Then I made slurry (paper pulp) out of junk mail, discarded art and writing, natural fibers like cattail fluff etc. The plaster molds are then filled with the slurry to create the cast paper forms I incorporate into much of my artwork.

My daughter created the under-painting for an acrylic on canvas "Kuan Yin"
Her assignment: Think about he number 5 and your connection with the hibiscus flower. I gave her the color palette and did a bit of painting with her as well.
Here she is with the hibiscus:The number 5 resonates deeply within the divine design of our own bodies: 5 digits on each hand and foot, 2 hands + 2 feet + 1 head = 5. The flower of every edible fruit has 5 petals (though not every 5-petaled flower produces and edible fruit). Fives are about regeneration!
Here is her painting:

I brought the painting home and "journeyed" into it until I found Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy and Compassion. Her left foot is firmly rooted and channels earth energy. Her crown is somewhat transparent, like a crystal, channeling and radiating divine cosmic energies. Like the Mona Lisa, her gaze follows you. The greatest challenge for me was to pull Kuan Yin out of the painting without disturbing the integrity of my daughter's original design.

My son's task was to reconnect with the Honu (sea turtle) and the number 6. I gave him a palette of greens to create an underpainting. Here he is, greeting a Honu in person for the first time:
Here he is in the studio, living deeply into the experience of the Honu and the number 6. Six is the seed of life and expresses the archetypes of structure-function-order. It is the strongest and most efficient architectural form. At the core of our sustain-ability is our connection to nature!
I brought the painting home, turned it on it's side and felt the Sri Yantra. I pulled from my own direct experiences swimming with the Honu and the ancient, archetypal feelings that were evoked within me.

One of my specialties is the art of waste stream diversion. Before throwing anything away, I always ask, "What else could be done with this? What can I make that gives new life and creates some form of beauty out of something that would otherwise be buried or incinerated?" We do our best to reduce and reuse but there always seems to be an over-abundance of plastic bags. I used over a hundred bags to create "fabric" by fusing six or more layers together with a warm iron. We donate most of our used clothes to local thrift stores and give them to friends and family, but there are always a few items that are too worn out to be used as clothing. Using my kids old jeans, some of the fused bags and old pieces of canvas, I created the following "DNA" series:

Printed on the top banner are lyrics from the title track of my third album
Renegade Spade
"Our DNA is undomesticated and our wild animal nature highly underestimated"

Visually connecting with sacred geometric designs like the 10 cm circle and sri yantra, meditating on the spiral-twisting ladder of the double helix may re-awaken a timeless and fundamental wisdom within our bodies.

The banners are a combination of cat hat scraps, cast paper pieces, fused bags, recycled canvas and used clothing.
Art Smock made of recycled clothing pieces and fused plastic bags.

Cast Paper Hands and Peace Dove Banner

Mother Earth Water Walk

2011-04-20T11:33:00.005-05:00

Following is an introductory excerpt taken from the website Mother Earth Water Walk visit the site for more valuable insight on the Water Walk and support the cause! Do you know where to find drinkable water coming directly from the Earth? It's time to reconnect with the source, reclaim and preserve our right to life! Celebrate "Earth Day" and the re-birth of Spring by visiting a local spring; gift a crystal to the living water, gather some to drink and, if you can, gift some of that water to the Anishinawbe people who are walking the waters of the world to Lake Superior!....The Southern Water Walk Leaves Gulfport Mississippi today....

Two Anishinawbe Grandmothers, and a group of Anishinawbe Women and Men have taken action regarding the water issue by walking the perimeter of the Great Lakes.

Along with a group of Anishinabe-que and supports, they walked around Lake Superior in Spring 2003, around Lake Michigan in 2004, Lake Huron in 2005, Lake Ontario in 2006 and Lake Erie in 2007.

The 1st Annual Women’s Water Walk took place April 2003. Several women from different clans came together to raise awareness that our clean and clear water is being polluted by chemicals, vehicle emissions, motor boats, sewage disposal, agricultural pollution, leaking landfill sites, and residential usage is taking a toll on our water quality. Water is precious and sacred...it is one of the basic elements needed for all life to exist.

The Annual Women’s Water Walk was chosen for Spring because for the natural re-growth of our natural habitat, as it is a in time for renewal, re-growth, and re-birth.

An Anishinabe prophesied that "In about 30 years, if we humans continue with our negligence, an ounce of drinking water will cost the same as an ounce of gold."

Water Walk 2011 Press Release:

Mother Earth Water Walk Returns and begins April 10, 2011
As the northern snows begin to melt and further south spring rains fall, our Mother Earth awakens and new life begins. At this time of renewal Anishinaabe grandmothers, women and men, and youth from Canada and the United States will continue walking for our waters. The Mother Earth Water Walk began in 2003 in answer to question—“What will you do?”
The 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Mother Earth Water Walks encircled Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie respectively. In 2008 the water walk revisited Lake Michigan. The 2009 Mother Earth Water Walk stretched from Kingston, Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean along St. Lawrence River.
The 11,525 miles or 18, 549 kilometers were walked to call attention to the sacred gift of water, the source of our life, the source of all life. The past walks also raised awareness of the need to take care of the water, and to help our Mother Earth who is struggling to survive and to provide for all her children.
Each of the 24,113,700 steps taken was a prayer for the water, for Mother Earth, for the animals, the birds, the insects, the trees and for us, all two leggeds. Together the walks were one prayer for life.
This spring the Water Walk returns and the prayer continues. The 2011 Water Walk unites all the waters of our Mother Earth. Water from the vast Pacific Ocean, from the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Hudson Bay will be gathered in copper pails and carried by hand to the shores of Lake Superior. Ocean water from the four directions will travel the miles with Anishinaabe women and men walking side by side.
The western water walk begins Sunday, April 10 in Aberdeen, Washington and travels through the States of Washington and Montana, the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitboa, and the States of North Dakota and Minnesota before arriving in Wisconsin.
On Wednesday, April 20, the southern water walk will leave Gulfport, Mississippi traveling through the States of Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa and into Wisconsin.
Walkers from the East will leave Machais, Maine on Saturday, May 7. Their walk will take them through the Provinces of Quebec, Ontario and into the States of Michigan and Wisconsin.
Churchill Manitoba is the beginning point for the Northern Water Walk. Water from Hudson Bay and the water walkers will travel, on Saturday May 21 by train toward the south to Winnipeg. Their route will carry the sacred water through Manitoba, Ontario and into Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The walkers, journeying over 10,400,000 steps and carrying the healing and sacred salt water from the four directions will converge June 12 in Bad River, Wisconsin. The water will then be united in Lake Superior, where the first Water Walk began.
The Anishinaabe, also known as the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi, are the caretakers of the eastern woodlands and Great Lakes, the largest freshwater system on Earth. Anishinaabe women, as givers-of-life, are responsible for speaking for, protecting and carrying our water.
All people are encouraged and welcome to participate in and to support the 2011 Water Walk as it passes through their Provinces, States and communities.

Jewelry, by Magic Mama

2011-04-10T14:44:00.005-05:00

Here are some examples of necklaces I have made recently. Some have already sold, I am experimenting with some new styles as well.

Rose Quartz with counter-weight

Jasper and African Copper

Garnet, Carnelian, Cherry Quartz and Copper

Art Glass (Made by an Artist in Berkeley, CA) and African Trade Beads

Amber and Sterling Silver

Charms - Art Glass, Silver, Bicycle Parts, Bottle Cap etc

Charms - Fimo Beads (hand made by me), Silver, Pewter, Art Glass, Bicycle Parts etc

Carnelian, Bone, Brass and Antique Clasp

Flourite, Agate, Art Glass from Venice, Silver

Hole-y Stones (Pacific Ocean), Vintage 70's Stoneware, Tulsi, Wood

Mermaid Tear (Found, then soldered Beach Glass), Inlaid Abalone Bead, Art Glass from Rome, Jade, Silver and more Art Glass

Art Glass Pendant (Berkeley Artist), Jade, Sunstone, Copper, African Turquoise, Glass

Art Glass Pendant (Berkeley Artist), African Trade Beads, Lapis, Brass, Art Glass

Contact Magic Mama to schedule a "Trunk Show" featuring one-of-a-kind jewelry and cat hats!

April Fools

2011-04-10T14:36:00.004-05:00

Our back yard, on April's Eve. Everything ice coated

Snowed over night, April Fools us again!

My favorite April Fool

Hope, in the hoop house!

A week later....real signs of spring, the miracle of re-birth!

Scenes from the Capital: Madison, WI

2011-04-02T22:27:00.007-05:00

A Photo Documentary Project
"Settle Down Kitty: UNCENSORED MESSAGES FROM THE WISCONSIN STATE CAPITOL"
Check it out and VOTE this Tuesday!

Vernal Equinox, Full Moon Ritual

2011-03-24T11:33:00.005-05:00

Full Moon, "Last Day of Winter" - Big Falls, Wisconsin

Skunk Cabbage beginning to bloom

A Ritual Picnic:
Woven Cattail Mat, Snake Skin, Cactus, Tobacco, Fermented Hops, a Nappy, Dried Flowers and Herbs from last year's garden, Sacred Ash from Ritual Fires, a Raven Wing, Jade Tears, Stones and Shells, Native Corn, Squash and Bean Seeds (Three Sisters), My Kids Baby Teeth, a pint of Moon Tea, several Cosmic Cash, an Eagle Feather and a Paleolithic Hide Scraper that I found in the Colorado Rockies about 17 years ago.

In Honor and Gratitude, I gifted all these to the Earth in Radical Forgiveness and with the intention of Healing the Sacred Masculine. Finding Balance. Letting Go.

Tis the Season of Re-Birth

Time to re-weave the World
May we find Harmony
and Restore Balance....
This is my Medicine
~All My Relations~

Rainbow Studio, Cat Hat Velour

2011-03-22T15:50:00.008-05:00

Behind the scenes....in Magic Mama's Rainbow Studio

For the next series of Cat Hats, I hand-dyed some cotton velour

T-Shirts on the rack, waiting for Renegade Spade and Peace Pirate prints Kids paintings inspired by 6 Honu (sea turtle) and 5 Hibiscus

Props for Wendell Berry

2011-03-22T15:31:00.006-05:00

Erica Zerr, a friend and Food Not Lawns neighbor, recently wrote this and posted the following interview:

We Can't Have it Both Ways: Sustainable and Industrial/Capitalistic

I have made no secret of my love for Wendell Berry. The writings of the much celebrated agriculturalist (as much as he loathes the word) have always engulfed me with a deep sense of longing for a simpler life, one dare-I-say, closer to the Earth and to God.

I have also made no secret of my belief in sustainable agriculture, local food movements and the importance of the strong domestic skills inherent to traditional preparations of seasonal, fresh food. I believe that is neccessity for food and water that provides the very genesis of human community. We rely on each other, on some form of community structure to supply ourselves, families and neighbors with these most basic needs. Therefore, community relies on a connection to the land.

Mr. Berry has always celebrated the thread of human connection to the land as the greater fabric of community. This existence fosters caring and hard work and moreover, a reverance for the delicate balance of give and take that must happen with the Earth in order for it to continue providing for basic human needs. The human community relies on the sustainability of our most vital resources.

Below is an interview Mr. Berry gave to Heifer International regarding the degredation of not only the Earth's natural resources, but also the degredation of the human community. Mr. Berry points to the historical connection of agriculture to communities and human beings, both wealthy and poor and how simple reliance on the land required all classes to live in close quarters and take care of their communities. As industrialization turned sustainable production into mass production at the expense of natural and human resources, a wedge was placed between the owners, investors, elite and the working class. Sustainable communities which once relied on one another to care for themselves in turn caring for communities were driven further and further apart, separated by thousands of acres, miles, interstates and concrete and suddenly humans were relying not on their neighbors and their land, they were relying on something intangible, a large system of resources of which they could not see. Because human beings no longer had to, or in some cases could not, utilize simply their natural surroundings to provide for their community, the human connection to the land was lost.

Industrialization has not only depleted natural resources at a rate unseen in the entirety of human history, it has also depleted the human community. Humans can no longer rely solely on their connection to one another and their connection to the land to provide for themselves. Industrialization required that human beings begin working for wages to in turn buy the food they once provided themselves. This drove humans off farms and into cities, which grew at an unsustainable rate thanks to natural resource powered industrial food and water systems.

The human existence within community is no longer specifically related to the shared need to provide one and all with basic human needs as Mr. Berry often celebrates in his writings. Industrialization has made it so the main focus of our lives is earning the money which in turn purchases those basic human needs we once provided for ourselves. Even those remaining on the land farm large-scale monocrops which they sell to industrialized food companies in turn for wages which they use to drive into to town and purchase their basic needs.

There is a great movement within urban communities to reach out to the rural community and purchase small-scale agricultural products, grown with the reverence for the land that most small farmers (at least the ones Mr. Berry writes about) have. However, this doesn't solve the problem because it still places wages and cash exchange in the middle of human connection to one another and the land. We can't buy sustainability. The reliance on large stores of cash to purchase goods is inherently unsustainable. Creating more big business, more industrializtion, with the goal of creating more jobs and more money to turn around and purchase more "sustainably produced" goods does not solve the problem. It only feeds the problem, however good the initial intentions.

Arguably, the Earth provides everything human beings need to survive - food, fiber, water, energy and building materials. Humans have known for tens of thousands of years how to care for those things and build sustainable communities based on those things. No more than 100 years ago, humans lived lives without oil. Communities thrived based on human connectedness to one another.

I have said time and time again that I want to live like one of Wendell Berry's heroes. I want to live in Port Royal, Kentucky, where life is a simple as preparing and storing food, tending to the land and animals which assist in the human massage of the land, have a porch where neighbors, close-by, stop by for vists. I want to get around by river and train, sell small stores of extras or a fwe cords of timber to nearby towns in exchange for a small amount of money, enough to pay for services from local artisans, shoe cobblers, black smiths and carpenters and only purchase the things I can not trade some labor/goods for. That world, however distant it seems, still exists in the world. These aren't wealthy communities monetarily, but they are spiritually wealthy. Human beings remember one another, learn from one another.

Mr. Berry lives, farms, works and writes in that place. It is off the beaten path in Kentucky. Many similar pockets of agrarianism, sustainable human relationships with the land, still exists all over the world. All we must do is stop the constant accquisition of more industrialization and more capitalization, scale down and not up. We need to cease constant growth and return the land to small communties, connected and maintained by those who live in the surrounding homes and farms. Work together to once again provide for ourselves. There is enough land and enough water and enough of our old selves left that we can still return to that world.

Without further ado, Mr. Wendell Berry:

Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry: On the Natural Order of Things

Interview by Lauren Wilcox

PORT ROYAL, KY.— To get to the writer Wendell Berry’s farm in Kentucky, it is necessary to leave the interstate for a diminishing series of state highways and country roads. As the roads become smaller they become slower. The fields seem to shrink into large gardens; the trees grow taller and broader; buildings grow older and closer to the road, until the road is a shady street fronted with wood-frame houses. The houses have porches; old men on the porches raise a hand at passing cars. Back where the interstate meets the smaller roads, there is a sign listing things one must not drive onto the interstate, including “Farm Implements” and “Animals on Foot.” It is as if the sign marks not only the intersection of two roads but the intersection of two worlds, and cautions one against trying to merge with the other.

Much of Berry’s poetry, essays and fiction is concerned with this divide: between city and country, product and source, joy and grief, one person and the world. Berry is perhaps best known as a champion of agrarianism. He has empathy and a deep affection for small farmers, whose livelihood he has watched decline precipitously in his lifetime; his novels celebrate their work and mourn its slow erosion. But he is not a romanticist. His agrarian Interview by Lauren Wilcox essays are intellectual and often maverick analyses that touch on every part of our lives: environment, culture, spirituality, government, relationships.

Mostly, I think, his writing is about relationships. He is concerned with sustainable and productive interactions, whether between two people or a people and their land. Any functional relationship will deal with the bad as well as the good, will include waste and death just as it includes birth and growth. This is the natural order of things, and it works as a system of checks and balances, to keep the cycle of life progressing at a sustainable pace, without more waste than we can handle. A road that prohibits “Animals on Foot,” in other words, is a road on which traffic is moving too fast.

Wendell Berry knows this, but he also feels it. The way he renders the world in his poetry and his novels is not altogether happy and not altogether sad but a vivid, unnameable combination of both, the way it feels to love something, to be fully committed to something, that is all the time growing and changing and vanishing. That work, says Berry, is the work of living.

World Ark: In both your fiction and your nonfiction you talk about community and its importance to healthy living. In your writing, this sense of community arises out of a connection to the land that generally comes from farming, from an agrarian lifestyle. I’m curious to know if you think that agrarianism is the only basis of a healthy community. I live in a big city, where there are great, old vibrant neighborhoods with a strong sense of community, but that isn’t based even remotely on farming.

Wendell Berry: But it [that sense of community] is based, a good bit more than remotely, on eating. It’s based as immediately on eating as it can be. And so we don’t want to be led astray on labels. Agrarianism is a label, and you’ve always got to particularize it, but as those people in those neighborhoods become aware of all that’s implied by their need to eat — and their supposable wish to continue eating — they will come to a kind of urban agrarianism.

Suppose they say, ‘We want a dependable supply of good food, produced in a way we can be assured is sustainable.’ If that kind of thinking gets loose in an urban neighborhood, you’ll probably have a few people who will go looking for local produce at the local farmers market. The next natural step is to wonder where they can get a quarter of beef produced locally. And maybe they become aware then that they don’t have a good local processing plant. So an agrarian awareness can spread in an urban neighborhood until its economy will be affected in elaborate and intelligent ways. The city, in that way, begins a collaboration, a cooperative relationship, with its own landscape.

WA: So a healthy community really must be connected to the land in some way.

WB: Well, I think so. It has to have a conscious and responsible connection to its sources, if its sources are going to be maintained. Phoenix, say, is a bad model. It can’t hope to live from its desert landscape. It’s a sort of suspended population. Everything has to come in by longdistance transportation. A better model, if we want to look for a historical one, would be the Greek cities. The Greek city, I’ve read, did not consist simply of the built-up urban center. It consisted of that center and its tributary landscape. So, as I understand it, the Greek cities were full of granaries and other storage places for local food.

It’s silly to sit in a modern city in a kind of idiot complacency and depend on the hidden hand or God or luck to bring food and the other necessities. So the intelligence — and we have a suffi cient amount of intelligence at least to ask questions about what affects us most immediately — intelligence, if it’s in working condition, begins to ask, “Where is this stuff coming from?” And then it asks, “How much do I need?” And then, “Where can I get that much? Do I want to raise my children here and never ask whether they can have a safe food supply or not?”

WA: You’ve been saying that for a long time, long before it became fashionable to say.

WB: [Laughs] I’ve got it memorized.

WA: Do you think that the main problem of industrialization is that it is isolating? That it removes people from the causes and effects of their actions, and contributes to neglect?

WB: No, the main problem is the permanent depletion of resources. We’ve burnt fossil fuels at an astonishing rate. I’ve lived through the burning of nearly all the petroleum that has been burned, and that’s about half of it. And industry’s use of the fossil fuels has sort of been the pattern for its use of everything else. We’re using up topsoil as if it were not a one-time supply, as if it were an inexhaustible resource. The industrial economy has made lots of estrangements and divorces. It has divorced people from the land because it needed to shift them around. It needed a labor supply, and it didn’t believe it needed people on farms. So you had factory centers that drew people in by depreciating their economies at home and appreciating the economies somewhere else.

Industrialism also separated utility and beauty. If a thing was functional, it didn’t make any difference how it looked, and I think you can go only so far with that. If a thing is ugly, I think we need to ask questions about it. How did it get that way? What else is wrong? We know that a great ugliness has accompanied industrialization. I’ve read that the mill towns in England were beautiful as long as they were water-powered because the mill owners lived in the towns. And so for their own pleasure, they saw that the towns looked good, with shade trees and fl owers and that sort of thing. When they started running on steam, using coal, the coal smoke blackened everything and ruined the air. The owners moved away. And that removed any effective motive to make the towns beautiful. The owners’ living circumstances then were separated from the workers’ circumstances. Another disastrous divorce. Industrialization functioned as a way to siphon the wealth of the countryside into the pockets of owners and investors as quickly and cheaply as possible. Caretaking has not been a part of the deal at all.

We’ve reconciled ourselves to this destructiveness and adapted our lives to it, so that now we’re utterly dependent on destruction and the services and amenities have declined. My great-grandfather had better public transportation than I do, and better mail service.

WA: Which was what?

WB: The train, just a few miles away, and the river. He could walk down here from Port Royal, get on a boat, and go anywhere in the world. Never set foot on a vehicle he owned himself. The train station was a short buggy ride away.

WA: You and your wife lived in New York City for a while before moving back here. Do you think your way of thinking about all this would have evolved in the same way if you hadn’t come back?

WB: Coming back here has certainly made me aware of what is going on in a way that I couldn’t have been anywhere else. I know the history here pretty well. I know the local life has declined. Port Royal probably never had more than a hundred people. There were 16 economic enterprises in Port Royal when my mother was a girl and 12 when I was a boy. There were two grocery stores, and my grandparents divided their patronage of those stores to the penny. Now there’s only the bank and a store and the post office. If the store went, the bank and the post office would probably go, too. So we would go down like some other little villages around here. In a hundred years, we would go from a sort of self-suffi cient village that was the center of its own attention, that did most things for itself, to a vending machine. Or less.

WA: Many of our readers have connections to farming themselves, so could you tell us a little about your own farm?

WB: As long as our children were at home we had a fairly elaborate subsistence economy here. Had two milk cows, fi nished a couple of meat hogs a year, raised our own poultry. We’re older now, the children are gone, so we’re just raising sheep — 32 ewes at present. We have a team of work horses to do the work we have to do, and a pretty good garden. The garden gets three or four big loads of manure every year.

WA: Which really helps with the productivity of the land, right? That’s one of the things that Heifer teaches to its project partners.

WB: That’s observing what Sir Albert Howard calls the Law of Return. And it is a law. What you take you’ve got to give back, or else what Howard called the Wheel of Life won’t turn. The wheel turns through birth, growth, maturity, death, decay and back to birth. Round and round. If you don’t keep that wheel turning, you finally exhaust the land.

WA: Today, so much of the effect that our consumption has on the world happens without us knowing. Is it important for us to actually see our personal give-and-take with our environment, our effect on the world?

WB: It’s important at least that we understand our economic relation to the world, the way we live from it, the way we do or don’t take care of it. I think the conservation movement unwittingly helped to drive a wedge between us and our land by implying that we could live most of our lives in circumstances that don’t quite suit us — doing work that doesn’t suit us, work that makes us say, Thank God it’s Friday — and then somehow, on vacation, go to a national park and reconnect with the natural world. But of course that’s not a connection.

WA: It’s a way of thinking that treats the natural world as a precious object, not a part of everyday life.

WB: These people get in their cars and go west across Kansas, which feeds them, and they never look at it, because their chins are on the dashboard looking for the Rocky Mountains. Wes Jackson has watched them doing that. No snowy peaks in Kansas. My own testimony about this is that I know we can connect to nature in a better way. You don’t have to go to the Rocky Mountains to confront nature, to learn from it and ask the necessary questions. If you go to a good farm that has been properly and gracefully fi tted into a place, then you can see that real questions about the terms on which we live have been asked, and answered.

Suppose a family in Louisville is connected with a CSA [community-supported agriculture program] out here. We don’t have any great stands of old-growth timber around here, no great wilderness, no high waterfall, no snowcapped peak, but say that this family would come out, by invitation of their farmer, and have a picnic in the woods on her good farm. And they would see where the food is coming from while they’re there. They would see that you can have a nice outing even in such ordinary countryside as that. They would see how you can live in a place like that, and that living there requires respectable intelligence. And it seems to me that in their minds the breach between the city and the country would begin to heal.

Lauren Wilcox is a freelance journalist and a former World Ark associate editor. She lives in New Jersey with her husband. Lauren recommends these favorite Wendell Berry works: What Are People For? (Essays); The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry; Given: Poems; Jayber Crow: A Novel.

Chocolate Obsession

2011-03-13T01:40:00.007-06:00

Making the Posters...

Rockin' the Truffles....

The third Magic Mystery Gift!
Magic Mama has started a "Magic Mystery Gift" project. Prior to each performance, she packs up a gift bag with all kinds of treasures that include original artsy items, music, seeds of all sorts, toys, and "treats" for all ages. She encourages the recipient of the gift to continue the flow of gratitude by gifting some of the contents of the bag to others. Raffle tickets are available at the show for one dollar.

Every village needs a good chocolatier! Obsession Chocolates also has great food, and classes for those who wish to learn the trade. Workshop schedule and menu is available on their website
Obsession’s Chocolate Lounge & Café

Renegade Spade Print

2011-03-08T17:39:00.004-06:00

Linoleum Block Print art for album and posters.
I made this hand, by hand.
I'm not much for computer graphics programs, I like to keep things tangible.
First, I drew the design on the linoleum, then used the pictured carving tool to scrape away the part of the image I don't want to print. Here's a finished print:

I'll be able to print with a variety of colored inks, some for paper and some fabric paint for clothing and patches. Text will be added using a stencil technique.
Fists in the sky with a Renegade Spade-
Plant Seeds, Sing Songs

Art from the Archives

2011-03-04T14:09:00.006-06:00

Magic Mama makes art. Her next exhibition is coming up in May, here are some images from the archives to peak your interest....

Ten Centimeter Circle Meditation Banners, including the original "Matriotism" image. Cast paper, watercolor, mixed media.

Five Ravens is an acrylic painting that I did as a "live action painter" on stage with the band Cloud Cult. While the band performed music, I performed a painting that was often auctioned from the stage at the end of the show. I don't have many pictures and not sure where those paintings live these days, I found this photo on a disc last night!

The "BirthBody" above is made from cast paper, acrylic paint, beads, wire, rusty bottlecaps

I have participated in many Blessingway Ceremonies for pregnant women. As part of the blessing, the new mama is cast in plaster. I take the plaster cast to the studio, reinforce it with more plaster, coat the inside with a beeswax salve and fill it with recycled paper pulp. When the paper dries, I pull it out of the cast and patch it up. Then I paint it with images that I "received" during the blessingway. Images that are meaningful for both mama and baby. This one is "little wolf" who has native Ojibwe ancestry so I included designs inspired by bandelier bags. It's all acrylic paint on cast paper. This is a detail of the full cast.

This is a colored pencil drawing I did for the home page of a website for my Galleria deGaia

"Bird Basket" is made from woven belladona vines, lined with cast paper and decorated with deer fur, pearly everlasting, pussy willow, poppy seed pods and found feathers.

Zero Waste Industry

2011-02-10T16:32:00.004-06:00

As many of you know, Magic Mama makes Cat Hats (among other things). The production of "things" often generates some kind of remnant. These remnants are called "waste" when we do not put them back into some kind of production.
There is no such thing as "garbage." Everything goes somewhere when we're done with it, some things get buried, some get burned which puts more of other harmful stuff into the environment. So, we make an extra effort to reduce waste in our cottage industry by making new things out of our scraps. Here's something we did with some Cat Hat scraps....

Magic Mama has been rescuing things from the waste stream for years. We have broken leis left over from various birthday parties, random beads from all over, cotton surgical thread we found at a thrift store in Oregon on our last West Coast Tour, colored drinking straws (we cut them into small sections), a few pom poms and some other silk flower parts.

A lei is any series of objects strung together with the intent to be worn. We are preparing for Valentine's Aloha performances next week and will be gifting some of our creations to the audience. Lei's are a traditional Hawaiian way of expressing affection.

Thread a needle, create a pattern by stringing these various bits of "junk." The Cat Hat scraps are scrunched up, accordion style, in little wedgies that look like blossoms.
Magic Mama's Kuleana....

Live Aloha

Peace Pirate Press Valentines

2011-02-08T20:09:00.006-06:00

What do you do with sprouted potatoes?

Slice it open....

Watch your fingers!

Our supplies all ready to go: Home grown potatoes, (slightly sprouted), knife, cutting board, paper, pencils, sharpies, x-acto blades, ink, brayer
Trace around the potato and create a design on paper
Draw the design on the potato with a sharpie
Using an x-acto blade, carefully cut away the part you do NOT want to print
Roll out your ink (we use water-based speedball) on a piece of plexiglass, stamp the potatoes in the ink, then on your paper
Cut and PasteLOVE....
Pass it on!

Cutie Cat

2011-01-23T11:57:00.002-06:00

The hat is a Magic Mama special. One of many beautiful photos taken by Mark Anderson at a Faerie Festival in 2010. See more at Thistledown Gardens Website. Magic Mama will be performing again this year at the Thistledown Faerie Festival.

Aloha in Dairyland

2011-01-15T16:23:00.002-06:00

A Valentine Party for Music Lovers!

New Year's Gifts and Gratitudes

2011-01-08T16:12:00.003-06:00

The Earth Birthing Herself....

Blessings and Gratitude

Cosmic Cash and Sacred Medicine

The sun sets on another magical journey with the Aina

Aloha and Mahalo Nui!

A Hui Hou - Ohana deGaia

Aloha Fairies

2011-01-07T23:32:00.007-06:00

After many magical meanders on the Big Island of Hawaii we had pockets full of treasures. Many of the bits and pieces we collected were incorporated into these Aloha Fairies. I made little heads using air-drying clay which I painted. The "skeletons" are made of pipe cleaners. I used some freshly harvested cotton for white hair. For the dark ones, I selected some buffalo hair from my medicine bag. Every fairy has a shell on it's head, many have coconut fiber clothing. We took the fairies on an adventure to visit the birth place of Kamehameha I and see the original statue of the King.

Make your most magical wish....
an urchin spine wand will swish,
Now, Live Aloha!

Jungle Circus

2011-01-02T16:46:00.006-06:00

A Rainbow Circus...on the most isolated archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. We learned a bit about climbing silks, walking on stilts, playing on an aerial hoop, Magic Mama even hung upside down on the silks!

Every circus needs a good clown or two

Spinning fire to usher in a new year

Yoga Rocks!

Assembling a costume....

Winter Solstice Cookies

2010-12-21T09:00:00.001-06:00

A Winter Solstice tradition in the deGaia household is the making of these spiral cookies along with story telling that deepens our awareness of the earth's cycles.

The dark and light spiral together, inseparable yet always moving.

As you probably already know, the Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) is the longest night and shortest day of the year. Here in the northland, it is also the darkest and coldest time, it's as if the sun is dying. We celebrate the birth of the sun as each day after the Solstice is increasingly longer until we reach the Summer Solstice and the light begins to wane again.

We burn candles, neighbors decorate their yards with lights, we come together to sing and celebrate and collectively strengthen the fire within and without. To represent the balance of day and night and the turning of the wheel of the year, we make two batches of cookie dough. One includes carob flour, dark and rich. The dark is where dreams are born - what lives deep within you that wants to shine this year? For the light dough, we grate the peel of an organic orange, adding the flavor and aroma of sunshine. We thank the sun for the energy it gives to the world, without it, life would not be possible. We honor the dance of day and night, winter and summer swirling and wrapped together in the cosmic map.
Here is Magic Mama's Solstice Cookie Recipe, a gift to all of you from the deGaia clan - the sun has been born in the longest night!

You will need: 2 large mixing bowls, wooden spoons and scraper, unbleached waxed paper, rolling pin, cookie sheets, an electric mixer is helpful but not required, sharp knife, spatula and a roll of brown craft paper (grocery bags work too).

Ingredients for the Day Dough: 1 cup of softened organic butter, 2/3 cup cane sugar, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 2 cups unbleached organic wheat flour (white), finely grated peel of one or two organic oranges.

Ingredients for the Night Dough: 1 cup of softened organic butter, 2/3 cup cane sugar, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 1 and 3/4 cups unbleached organic wheat flour (white), 3 heaping tablespoons of carob powder.

The steps are basically the same for each batch of dough: Cream butter in mixing bowl. Gradually add sugar and vanilla (and the orange peel to the day), cream until light and fluffy. Now gradually add the flour (and carob to the night). When the dough is thoroughly mixed, form night into two balls, do the same for the day and let them chill for an hour or two. We simply set them back into their bowls and put them out on the front porch.

Prepare a surface for rolling the dough, lay a piece of waxed paper down and choose one ball of dough to begin with. Press the ball with your hands until it's more of a cake, lay a second piece of waxed paper on top and roll until all the dough is an even 1/4 inch in thickness. The goal is to create a long rectangle so trim the sides and use the scraps to fill in the shape, roll again to make sure it is evenly pressed. Now, repeat this with the opposite dough, creating another rectangle of the same length and width. Lay one sheet of dough on top of the other and carefully roll the two together to form a log. Roll the log a bit to make sure there are no air pockets and the day and night are really stuck together. Wrap the log in one of the pieces of waxed paper and allow it to chill while you roll out the next two batches of dough.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and allow both logs to chill for at least a half hour or more. When the logs are quite firm, use a sharp knife to slice into 1/8 inch discs and place on a cookie sheet. (Usually the first two slices will be a bit wonky but then the beautiful spiral will reveal itself). Bake for 5-8 minutes, don't let them get too brown, you still want the day to be light. We let our cookies cool on brown craft paper, which absorbs a little extra bit of the greasy butter.

Eat some and share some - Solstice Blessings!

Coconut Crash

2010-12-15T02:33:00.006-06:00

Step One: Harvest Coconuts....

Coconut Crash!

Fetch

Get the machete ready....

Crackin' Coco

Husk'n

Shave the nut...for what?
(we'll show ya later)

Scrape the meat and grate it

Dried and made into....

Avo Truffles:
Start with....
1 Ginormous Avo (that fell off a tree in the backyard)

Some Dates
Stevia
Raw Cacao Powder
Soaked Chia Seeds
Cinnamon (harvested from the hedge outside)
Mix up just the right amount of all these goodies until they're reeeel smoooth! (I-Heart-Vitamix)

In a cast iron sauce pan, med heat:
a heaping tablespoon of coconut oil
1/4 c. raw cacao nibs
(crush the nibs as you stir them around, toasting and turning for about 10 min, until they smell really yummy and taystee)
Have ready: one minced fresh Hawaiian Chile (from the backyard) add it to the taystee
Sprinkle in a heaping tablespoon of cane sugar (from the neighbor's backyard)
Let it all mingle until it tingles
OK...NOW
Stir the ooey-gooey nibs into the avo-cacao-wow
Roll spoon-sized globs in the following crumble:
Ready to Rumble...
Pop a bunch of Amaranth Seed (use a cast iron with lid, med-high heat, add 1/4 c. seeds, shake pan until popping slows, dump it in a big bowl and do it all again - about 3 times)
Next, crush some fresh Macadamia Nuts (from a sister down the road) and toast them ever-so-slightly in a cast iron pan and add them to the bowl
Toss in a few handfuls of the aforementioned shredded coconut
Stir in more cinnamon-yum
Ready to roll!