SWSBM

The wind starting blowing 24 hours ago, and I think it may never stop. Bisbee is getting a cold front, the clouds are racing over the tips of the Mule Mountains, the street of Brewery Gulch are filling with dust storms and tumble weeds are flying high; take shelter! Everything on our porch blew over, but we rescued our humming bird feeder before it flew to Mexico. We heard what sounded like a piece of corrugated tin flying through town a few hours ago; no rain yet, but tomorrow seems like the day.



Neil and I are greatly enjoying the South West School of Botanical Medicine. We are really glad that we came here; this is exactly what we were looking for. The first three weeks of school we concentrated on human physiology with an herbalist from Oregon. We spend the majority of the day sitting at our desks typing and writing pages of notes. Michael Moore, the reason that we all come here, is awesome. He is a man like no other. His knowledge and brain is like a warehouse and all of us, even him, frequently get lost in there. Our tasks as students is to keep him on track when he starts wandering too far from the herbal path…he is a lover of pop culture and obscure trivia, and he is a master of human perception. He takes stereotypes to a new level, but he really seems to have human nature down to a tee, the way he explains each herb and the scenario and personality type that they would be useful for is usually side spitting. You have to see him to believe him. Anyone who comes to visit should sit in on some class; you wont be sorry.

We sit on our butts from about 1-7 Monday thru Thursday, and have Fridays off; a glorious reprieve. The hardest part of class is the sitting. We don’t go out in the field (although next week 7 Song, an herbalist from Ithaca, NY is coming to teach us botany, maybe we’ll go outside) with class, but there is much hiking an exploring to be done of these crazy lands. I checked out a ton of books from the library to see what animals live in these lands: coati (this weird lemur/raccoon thing, jagarundi, jaguars, bobcats, cougars, ringtails, otters, minks, jackalopes, etc. etc. I can’t wait to see more than the tail of the deer I saw in the Riparian area yesterday.

Well, we’re just sitting here with some friends, trying to do our taxes……free fun provided by the feds, thank a lot Uncle Sam.

And then, 24 hours later: The rain came last night, the wind bashed things around and drunk people howled at the weather from down in Brewery Gulch. A Wild night.

ALOE-HA

ALOES



I’ve been meaning to write some more herbal things on this gurggle, and this seemed like it would be interesting to some folks. We all know aloe as the sunburn remedy, but it has a lot more to offer our culture than just relief from over indulgence in UV rays.

“Aloe vera,” as we refer to the plant is actually Aloe barbadensis, and is a member of the Lily family. We saw pictures of aloes in N. Africa, where they are native, and they are huge trees with little aloe plants at the top!

Aloes make two types of medicine: the latex from the inner leaf is “used as a bitter shitter” to use Mr. Moore’s words. This will produces copious, watery evacuations accompanied with intense griping. But, if you are constipated, it is likely due to improper eating habits, improper foods and stress; you need to look at the upper GI tract from a solution. The second medicine is the inner gel, which most of us are most familiar with. The gel- is a muck-polysaccharide, virtually identical to our body’s polysaccharides-polysaccharides.

As with most natural health products, the quality varies dramatically from brand to brand, the best way to use the medicine is to get it you, but even the worst of the products are strongly anti-diabetic. Aloe is a great plant for off setting type II, adult onset, diabetes, a problem for many people in our sugar culture. Take one tablespoon of gel once a day for lowering blood sugar and diminishing insulin resistance. Aloe is especially good for the stocky, fat, or plump diabetic. That’s right, you can use it to prevent the diabetes, or use it to help if you already have it. Aloe also lowers triglycerides, which is a problem not limited to diabetes alone. The use of this plant is a harmless approach to lowering blood sugar and type II diabetes.

The gel, scooped out of the leaf, will keep in the fridge for a month. This is a great treatment to use early in life or early in a sickness before your other organs get worn out and broken. And, as a side note, the pads of the Prickly Pear as well as the juice can work in a similar way.

Additionally, the leaves of aloe can be used for radiation burns. They pull feral fluids out of a burn and help it heal more quickly. This is why is works for sunburns so well – as well as anything that runs the risk of blistering and peeling; it is anti-inflammatory.

The gel can also heal stomach and esophageal ulcers that result from making stomach acids when your stomach is empty -- a learning body habit as a result of eating for comfort. There are a lot of things that work, but this is predictable. The best thing about aloe is that you can beat the streets to find your medicine making this a good option for the poor folks.

HOT TAMALE!

Tamale Making


We're trying to get the feel of the southwest, so we thought we'd make some tamales....Our friend Kat lives in a hotel here in town and we spent the evening making pulled pork, roasted pablano and chedder tamales. MMMMM. {i dont think they were as good as the ones we made Markham ladies...the masa was too dense}.

El Tigre

This weekend we drove over to Sierra Vista where there is yet another military base: Fort Huachucha. We bought a new camera, but suprise, suprise, the stupid memory card we have doesnt fit...technology wins again. In the mean time we can take about 8 pictures on the card that came with it, here are a few:


This is us at Ramsey Canyon, a Nature Consevancy Preserve, where there is actually water and trees and things with leaves.

On the drive home we took the small road that runs along the border. This mountain dominates the scene around here, it is technically called San Jose Mountain, but i like to refer to it as The Sleeping Lion, and sometimes as El Tigre.

THE SLEEPING LION



El Tigre is a dangerous place that has become a major passage way for drug traffiking. We are told that no one goes there but the border patrol and drug runners; never the less it still draws people. El tigre is also the name for the rare and elusive jaguar.


Jaguar sightings have been few and far between in the past decade, but there are stories that confirm this magical cat's existance in the area. The range of the jaguar used to be from central america to northern Arizona, but poachers, hunter and ranchers have ensured that the numbers have dwindled to a point where, officially, there probably arent any jaguars around here. Unofficially, well, that's a different story. It is said that adult mountain lions need 50 square miles to survive and hunt. Jaguars may need twice that much space to roam. So, I like to call the mountain El Tigre, and know that the jaguars are watching us and keeping thier distance.