Keep your eye on that grand old flag.

Hops To it My Pretty


Oh, my heart beats true for that red, white and blue,
where there’s never a boast or a brag,
let old acquaintance be forgot,
keep you eye on that grand old flag!
Happy Birthday America.

Salsify aka Oyster Root



After a week of camping and caravanning around the state with Kat and Amanda we are on our own for the new month of July. We drove throught the most beautiful mountain passes from Ouray, CO to Durango. We made it, in one piece, almost. Last week I had a little fall, I will spare you the details, only to say that falling face first off rocks into a few few of ice cold Animas river is about what its cracked up to be. Haha. I can type again after 6 days, but still cant twist my arm much.
Here are a few things I learned:
1) Rocks can look rough and yet be worn to a slick consistency; look carefully before you bound down to the first bath you’ve seen in a week.
2) Your brain works amazingly fast in situations like that. I had time to think about hitting my face on the rocks below and time to decide to break my fall with my right arm.
3) That all that herbal mumbo-jumbo is a little more than just magic and hippies picking flowers; it can really save your life. If you all had seen the way the swelling of my arm went down in just a couple of minutes, if you could see the lack of bruising, the way the color came back to my blue lips, then you would be in awe and know that arnica is truly a miraculous herb.
4) That I was lucky to be with people who had cool heads and listening to me and held me up on the rocks while I got over the shock. Good frieds make all the difference in crisis. Thank god for people who don’t want to rush you to the emergency room, but trust your knowledge of your own body and how to heal it.
5) That money is better spent on a nice hotel room with cable and a hot tub rather than on x-rays that tell you something you already know and splits that you could make yourself.
6) That a first aid kit is something that you really should have if you happen to not be traveling with every possession you own in your car.
7) That I was luckier than hell to have only hurt my arm and banged up my legs.

Anyway, enough of the tragedy. I can’t find the camera cable or I would gift you with some pics of the mountain views or at least of my huddled in the folding chair post trauma. An old plant picture from the field trip will have to do. Neil and I have been camping north of Durango, in the San Juan Mountains for 4 nights now and are about to start heading back toward Alamosa and the Great Sand Dunes where we will meet up with Crissy in a day or two. I haven’t been to the rest of this state, but from what I have heard and seen this is a place not to be missed. The Southwest corner of the state is awesome, full of national forest and BLM land, and not over populated.
We are gathering plant medicine, cooking over fires made of aspen and sleeping soundly in the honey wagon. Life is good, hope all of you are too.


One of the last classes with the illustrious MM.