Apologies for the supersize photos! This template is due for an overhaul!

As you may have guessed, the garden is winding down. Not that it ever winded up…our weather has been muy terrible this year…everyone is pulling out green tomato bushes and mourning the loss of their warmer weather crop failures. Well why do that when you can just get ready for a nice Winter garden? I’ve just planted about 10 kale, 10 cabbage, and 10 lettuce plants. I’m hoping we have a somewhat mild Fall. But who knows. At least with these plants you don’t have to worry about losing an investment.

Speaking of which, my son learned how to plant peas. Check out this video:

I’m happy to report that his efforts have paid off. They are hardening up now as we speak.

Two types of peas, and to the left, some lactino kale…I always try to start them under lights and they always stretch! I just need to throw a packet of seeds down and just not worry about it.

Anyhoo, I harvested all my potatoes. Man they were good. Something about biodynamic potatoes…completely different animal. I made a biodynamic compost heap, vegan, taking out the weird animal things that that methodology requires and instead used medicinal plants, chamomile, nettle, horsetail, and I did use some manure. The ground was so fertile that when I pruned my grape, lo and behold 4 months later one of the twigs had sprouted! So I decided to go ahead and propogate more. Here they are all root hormoned up and sitting in a rooting chamber. I’ve got 5 plants…if they sprout roots that will save me a lot of money! I would love to have a small vineyard haha!

It’s been a good year. They are saying that we are supposed to have a very cold winter…and from the looks of it we may. We have tons of spiders around lately. That to me means that nature wants them to fatten up so to speak to make it through the winter.

Lastly, we had a friend drop by tonight…a little tree frog. The little guy was no bigger than my thumb. Nature is so beautiful! We felt blessed by this. Then again it doesn’t take much to please us! ;D

I really loved many many aspects of being a raw foodist. Oftetimes when one hears the term “raw foodist” a whole host of things come to mind like cows grazing in the field, monks, and hippies. Hey it’s all good! When I did it for 3 years consistently I had higher energy levels, zest for life, clarity of mind, incredible information retention ie; my brain was amp’d. It was an incredible experience. There are many things within the raw food lifestyle that are well worth incorporating into one’s life even at a slow pace, like a great salad a few times a week, going to a juicebar, accessing spring water etc because, these little things add up.

One product line that I’ve always had great results with is SunWarrior. They don’t just grind up grasses, they ferment them at low temperatures so you get a living product and so much more vitality. Greensmoothiegirl.com posted a great video about them…enjoy!

(lots of pictures need to load, if you have a slow internet connection, please hang on a bit!)
Part I Here
Part II Here

…As I kept walking on this amazing trail; soft yet firm, undulating up and down like a dream, and shaded all about by evergreen trees, I had to keep stopping because of the berries! I asked myself…when was the last time I got full on just berries? And wild, organic, incredibly local, and free berries! Even growing up around acres and acres of blackberries, I couldn’t remember. Salmon berries were a favorite as a young forest dweller but they were only in season for a short while and not that abundant. So to see this treasure trove on all sides was very overwhelming…I kept laughing out loud! I wasn’t getting anywhere fast because the berries! THE BERRIES! Each one more perfect than the last! I so wished I could share it with someone, a childhood friend who grew up in the forest with me.

I literally had to stop myself from eating the berries. I could have just wild foraged all day, but I decided I needed to keep going. I continued on the trail…after a while, and to my surprise, there was a graded walking path intersecting my woodland trail. Funny, that wasn’t there before. Turns out its a big walking trail that just went through this area and had nothing to do with the campsite. Another wonderful example of imminent domain. Whatever… I crossed it and noticed the trail picked up on the other side with a warning sign stating the trail was private property. Seeing how I had permission, I continued.

The trail became a bit steeper now. Finally it leveled out and I came to a board walk, made out of pressure treated lumber. Such lack of foresight with people these days…Cedar would have worked just fine and been way better for the environment. I understand why they did it however, the ground looked pretty soft underneath.

As I walked along the boardwalk, my feet made low xylophone sounds that only boardwalks can make. Doot-dloot, kadoot-dloot. I began to wonder if I had taken a wrong turn. Nothing seemed familiar, but it had been 25 years since I was last here. I quickly looked at my smartphone and checked the map. Funny I had perfect signal out here in the middle of no where. It looked like I was so I continued and then heard a noise….like small a glass windchime…the SPRING! But it was about 6 feet off the path and covered in all sorts of wild brush. I stepped off and my footing was good. “Darn!” I said as I leaned over and inspected…this water seemed really slow flowing and muddy, almost stagnant.

I climbed into the thicket and was able to just reach in and get a sip. It was prett good. I tried to go in a little further and SPLURSH, my foot sunk ankle deep into the forest mud. As I pulled it out, I thought I would lose my shoe but instead was rewarded with a sucking noise as my foot became free again.

“Just great.” I said to myself…”all this for nothing”. The Spring obviously didn’t have the oomph it used to, I thought to myself, and now I’ve got a muddy wet shoe. Well, the berries kept calling me so I continued on the path just for the heck of it.

Further down the path I heard more crystal water chimes. Could it be? But this part of the path was completely covered in really healthy stinging nettles. I scanned the area for a stick. As a child we would go to war with fields of nettle, and whole patches would be whacked down in afternoons play. (Little did I know how great a herb it is!) Anyway, there were no sticks around…just bendy stuff with lots of leaves on it. So I gingerly stepped on,and pushed past the nettles, and within a matter of moments found my legs completely stung, as if standing on an ants nest covered in maple syrup. Where was my machete? But the sound of that water kept me going. Soon I saw that this spring was even further back from the trail, with more mud and even more flora. I was stung, my foot was covered in mud, and I couldn’t get to this one…what could be worse, yet in spite of this, I kept going down the trail.

After about 40 feet or so on the boardwalk again, a rushing of waters commenced…was this yet another spring? Sure enough it was. I kneeled down and tasted the water. It was not as good as the first spring I just tried, and certainly not as good as when I was here as a child. I couldn’t believe how much water was coming out of this particular spring however, it made a small rushing stream about a foot across! I continued on my way, still more stings from nettles as my walking became a gingerly dance in the woods, I’m not sure which bent and swayed more, me or the nettles? Finally, the path opened up and I noticed a AA battery had fallen in between the wood slats of the boardwalk. I fished for it under the board walk and put it in my pocket. This area was too special for litter.

As I kept walking, I noticed just up ahead that the boardwalk was ending. Was this it? I was a little bummed. I kept walking along and then all of a sudden I heard a tinkling sound. This was different though, almost as if the very air was resonating. I looked to my right and there it was, another spring, and this one within reaching distance!

I parted the branches, leaves and twigs in the way and took a sip. This was it. The taste took my breath away, as if someone had poured the sound and shock of a large crystal vase smashing on a granite floor into the very water itself. I drank again…but it wasn’t enough! I gently scraped into the rich mud and created a small pool and let the detritus clear itself out.

I reached in with my hand and brought the water to my mouth. I slurped humbly, and gratefully and full of love, over and over again. It was like the Earth was loving me, and God himself was giving me a gift.

But I had to have more, the water was calling to me, closer, come closer. I lay down on the boardwalk and positioned myself over the stream and put my lips into the water. The water was ice cold. I noticed from this position that there were little pieces of dirt dancing around…it didn’t matter. I took a draught then maybe 2 or three more and found myself incredibly full. This was the effect of highly mineralized water. The “full” response signaled clearly to my brain.

I just stood there, silly grin on my face, gratefulness in my heart…I turned around and started my journey home.

As I was walking along, a particular patch of trail was covered in gravel. I lost my footing… and came crashing down on my knee. It didn’t hurt to bad…but then I looked down and noticed that blood was pouring out.

Great…what now? I had no first aid kit on me…I really didn’t want to walk back with a sock full of blood and have the caretaker freak out…what was I going to do? My survival training kicked in…first clean the wound. I went over to the fast moving section of the spring, (down stream of course), and washed the blood off. I noticed something strange happen. The bleeding stopped almost immediately and I had another thought…”now we are one, the stream of the earth and the stream within me .” Powerful medicine. I sat on the boardwalk, wondering if the wound would start gushing again if I started walking.

Again survival training said to me…now dress the wound. I had no idea what to dress the wound with until it occurred to me, make a bandage out of your shirt! Lucky for me I had a jacket on. Soon my shirt was torn to shreds and the loose tatters tucked in as I fashioned a bandage out of it.

I walked/limped back, over the river and into the campground. The caretaker was gone now. Still after all this, I felt like I was walking on air.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the stinging nettles, the mud and the blood were all part of the price I had to pay to find this lovely water nymph of the woods. If so, then it was certainly worth it. I looked at the sky, and it too seemed reminiscent of the water…I drove home a happy young forest dweller again.