Green Tribe of Belonging

 I suppose every living creature tends to perceive the world in terms of its own species. So when we humans look at history, we look back at all the events down through the ages of human habitation on earth, including what we now describe as the development of civilization. It seems like such a very long time ago when our species was in its early stages. Humans have changed and evolved so much in a few thousand years that it takes an effort for us to even recognize our early ancestors as relatives. In contrast, I've been engrossed in a PBS series about the evolution of our planet in which the time dimensions are mind-blowing. The episode I just finished is about Pangea, the supercontinent that included almost all the land on the planet. Pangea existed here 299 million years ago, and it lasted for 26 million years. Compare those numbers to our human historical ones! Scientists have been able to read Pangea's history from messages in rock fossils and formations, so we know what

  I know that many of you blog-readers are from far-flung places. So for you, this post might be interesting but it's telling about something you're too far away to participate in. I do know, though, that there are a few local folks who get this blog. It's for them that I'm posting this announcement about the workshop I'm giving in 10 days.  You're invited to make medicine with me on November 4th here at Prairie Hill. If you'd like to make some healing tonics for the winter, this is your chance to harvest home-grown medicinal herbs from the Street Corner Garden. This time, not only will we harvest. We'll also take our harvest to the common house kitchen and make things with them: tinctures, salves, and oils. That way we can do it together, make sure we get it done and have more fun. We'll start around 10:00 out in the street corner garden. We'll be harvesting not only the upper parts of herbs, but often the roots too. This is a good time of year

 A bunch of us from Prairie Hill trekked out to Margaret and Dan Bailey's beautiful place in Cedar County yesterday. They have many fruit trees plus all kinds of interesting plants on their acreage. Margaret has been giving us plants for Prairie Hill ever since we started our project here. If there ever was a plant whisperer, she is one! And yesterday we went out to their place because they have had such a bumper crop of apples this year that they need some help doing something with them. They have taken many loads of apples to the local food bank, have made many many gallons of cider, and the trees are still full of huge apples, all kinds. Dan said that he doesn't remember ever seeing a bumper harvest like this. And we have been experiencing bumper harvests in our community garden as well. (If the deer hadn't eaten most of the things in my unfenced garden, I might have had a bumper harvest too.) We've been hearing of other folks in the area commenting that they have wa