Medano-Zapata Ranch and The Great Sand Dunes

Bison













The Sangre de Cristo mountains rise to the East of the Ranch, the Great Sand Dunes have formed just below them in the San Luis Valley. The Valley is an agricultural haven, with the mighty potato being the major cash crop around here.
















..Where the Buffalo, or are they Beefalo?, roam....














Read about the ranch here:
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/colorado/preserves/art535.html




The wilderness of the Sangre de Cristos is vast and wild, and with very few acess roads and trails, it is hard to get into. Natural and artesian springs sprout up all over the land with cotton wood groves forming small communities across the ranch's 150,000+ acres.

Just us and The Chairman

Neil and I just spent a weekend in Leadville fishing at a private fishing club, lets just say that we both caught rainbows that are no joke....about 18 inches, and i learned a new way to clean fish, that is really cool, but really gross. The perks of having new friends in CO. The cabin came into his family, ironically enough, through the Maytag family. It looks jsut like my grandparents cabin in Baldwin, which owes a lot to the Whirlpool family. It was like a time warp. Probably not weird to anyone but Neil and I.

Now we have arrived at our housesitting gig in Boulder for yet another new, and very trusting friend. Yup, its just Neil, me and The Chariman. Who is the The Chairman you ask? Well, Chairman Mao is a fat striped cat that I will pretend I like for the next week while we cohabitate in a 400 square foot condo; this place is small. Real small.

I'd send some new pictures, but our camera broke again. We have a full week of errands ahead of us.



Pedicularis grayii

Camp Recovery

Thought I’d hit you all with a picture of when I feel and hurt the old arm – that’s Kat and her brother Wes acting the fool in the background.















Another picture of the Sub-alpine meadows from out trip from Ouray to Durango. I love these meadows. We camped for 5 days just south of here.

















The Camp Recovery Center















Here is Neil holding up the tops and the root of Osha (Ligusticum porterii) – a major medicine of the region and world wide. Bears love this root; it is their medicine as well and hence has many spiritual properties for many of the native tribes. The aromatics are excreted through the lungs and are a classic remedy for cold, dry chest conditions that need moisture and heat brought to them.

















Osha Root














For the last two weeks Neil and I have been homesteading in the San Luis Valley – right near the great sand dunes. Neil has been cowboying around– I hear that he was born to ride and that he makes a great hand. I haven’t been able to do much riding with this arm; I can’t pull the reins hard enough to control these work horses. This place is owned by the Nature Conservancy and is 150,000 acre working ranch with one of the only free ranging bison herds in North America. What that really means is that we’ve been eating some buffalo burgers and elk stake.


We’re heading down South to the Conejos river today to get in some fly-fishing and camping. We’ve become masters of cooking over the open flames; just cause you’re camping don’t mean you got to rough it….




















Poppies in Ouray

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.

Duh

Thanks for all the would be birthday wishes from you all to me and neil. I had hopes of coming out of the woods, a newly graduated clinical herbalist and reveling in all the love and laughs on my answering machine; apparently Verizon Wireless had other ideas. They gently informed me that when you dont pay your phone bill for 2 months they shut that piece down. Oh. Never fear we are not trying to go ludite on you all, we are not trying to dodge reality too much, we havent even changed the numbas. Please call again.

We are in Colorado, actually in mOntrose and are going to continue camping with classmates and friends for the next week. Hope to meet back up with Crissy and a 1/3 of our belongings that we left at the Great Sand Dunes after the 4th.

Verbascum thapsus: The Mighty Mullein

Bye Bye Bisbee

Well, we are almost all packed up again, the car is groaning under the strain of all the canned goods and neil is rolling his eyes so far back in his head I can see his brain. If we have to climg these stairs again it will be too soon. The mercury has been stretching to reach 103 the past couple days and even the caynon walls cant keep us cool, time to roll on.




We are venturing off on a field trip that will last 10 days and take us to 10000 feet in lower Colorado. this week however, we begin in Northern New Mexcio -- lots of fly fishing and plant gathering on teh horizon.

We are free to wander into the woods under our own command the morning of my birth, the 25th. We'll be checking out Colorado for a couple months. If you need or want to send us anything, please do so to the following addresses.

If you are going to send something soon in june/july please send it to
Amy and Neil
C/o Crissy Supples
TNC in Colorado
Medano-Zapata Ranch
5303 Highway 150
Mosca, CO 81146

If you want to send something in later july or august (we will be there until august 30th) please send it to:
Amy and Neil
C/o Crissy Supples
409 Spruce St.
Boulder, CO
80302

When in doubt just send anything to Boulder, we'll get it eventually.

We graduated yesterday during our last day uin the classroom, I wish I could scan the diploma and put it up here, it is really cute. So proud!

So many visitors, so little time.

Well, our days in Bisbee are dwindling, but our numbers are up for visitors -- an all time high!

Susan and Brian stayed almost and full week and Crissy and Kurt ran the Subaru thru thousands of miles to be here. Check out the crew doing a little exploratory mining at the old Copper Queen Mine.














We have asked all of our guests to bring the essentials: sheets, towels, pillows, but i guess we forgot to add coozies to the list. Here are some last minute, homemade additions to the collection...















Thanks for coming!

Bahia Kino

Old Kino Fishing

Last week was another much needed break from school. Since there was no planned field trip prior to the break we decided to plan our own excursion. What started as a couple of people venturing south turned into a caravan of 13 people. We rented a house in Kino Bay, a beautiful and relatively undeveloped bay on the Sea of Cortez -- right across from Baja. Kino is a vacation destination for Mexicans from the city and an old fishing village. The Seri Indians roamed this land and still carve ironwood trees in to beautiful replicas of the mariscos that inhabit the sea there: tortoise, seals, shark, jelly fish, etc. I bought one of a saguaro cactus, but you could hardly call that sea food.




It was a very odd feeling to suddenly plunge our bodies into about 90% humidity and then take the final leap into the ocean -- to not only see water but then actually immerse our bodies in it! I have been having withdrawals from the humidity already -- the first and second nights back in AZ were terrible, i felt like a big piece of sandpaper and I couldn’t breath through my nose because it was drying it out too much.
The ocotillo and saguaros, the organ pipe and their cousins, the bearded senitas, all these cacti grow right up to the turquoise water. Elephant trees too, much bigger and without leaves. The Seri use the elephant to weave baskets, and the pelicans for their pelts!

Many Strange Friends Awaited Us

There were a lot of cows just out roaming the strees, those in addition to the horses that were whinnying and galloping up and down the streets at any given moment. I was scared to drive since they didn’t exactly obey the stop signs, i could just see myself bowled over by a horse.

Antojitos: the best part of the day

Selling Clams for the Shucking


The Fixins for the Best Crab Tostadas Ever


La Haiba



Fishing
Neil and I went fishing off the rocks one day and I caught this:



The next day we got our friend Felix "el Gato" to take a bunch of us out fishing and to show us how to make the local equivalent of fishing poles from empty soda bottles and line. It was fun and we caught a lot more sea bass and triggerfish -- not mention el pulpo -- the mighty octopus. We used el pulpo's head for bait and ate el pulpo's body, but not before it sucked me with its suckers!

Hills Tries Out her Snorkle, Gato Stalking the Fish


Neil Fishing in his Boots


we did get a little sick, but the ocean was worth it.

Cookin' up a Mess

For those of you that havent heard we have started a little business here of selling meals to our fellow students. Each thursday I bring in the preordered meals and a couple extra and sell them for $5 each. Sometimes I make money, sometimes it doesnt seem worth it...but neil and i always get to eat and besides I love to cook.
I've make pulled pork and homemade bbq sauce, jambalaya, chicken and dumplings, green chili pork cassarole, chard rolls and miso soup, massaman curry -- everything I do i make a veg and a meat version.

Its been really good practice for what I hope to continue to do on a larger scale.
One day I hope to be able to buy things at a wholesale price and actually have some selection -- can't wait to see a store other than Safeway Grocery -- blah!

My Best Helper Suits Up for the Challenge

He tells me that he learned this technique from his father, this will likely be a trick passed thru the generations.

This week I am forgoing the profit and cooked up a huge pot of curry goat soup with the leftover goat; suprisingly delcious, not gamey at all.

Now, we are off to Mexico!

Caprine Carnival

"Cinco de Mayo is holiday time,
holiday time in Mexico!"

We used to sing that and eat burritos on the 5th of May, that is until we wised up and organized a goat roast!

A couple of us hatched to idea one night sitting in buddy's trailer at the San Jose Lodge over plates of spaghetti and Elk meat balls. Buddy had gotten an elk last year and has been sharing the meat with us ever since we arrived in Bisbee. Neil and I ate Elk stakes for the first week we got here before we had any idea of where to buy good food. Every camp out we help cook the elk chili in the dutch ovens and sometimes we get invited over for elk balls. Buddy is an ex SERE for the Airforce, that stands for somethign i cant remember right now, but bascially had him jumping out of airplanes and teaching survial skills to all the soliders. Obviously just the person to carry out the plan.

I found a free range organic goat close by and with the help of Tracy's pickup with a
camper top we transported the goat with ease. We collected the mesquite and rebar out at Mike's place who owns land with his three brothers -- they store all their salvaged building supplies out there.

Braving the Savannah, looking for pictagraphs and camping by the fire


Aye Aye Captian: Mike G turns the wheel of the Rotisserie


The contruction of the spit, digging of the pit and laying of the fire were all met with energetic hands and hearts.
The Spit and Pit in all their Glory



The slaughter began at 7 am on friday and went so smoothly I dont think that we could ahev asked for a better expereience. 14 people participated and almost every single person got their hands in there to help with the skinning and collecting of organs. I was so impressed by the group of people who come together to share in this amazing ritual and skill. Since by now we are all anatomy geeks we had a great time indentifying all the organs. Evret aka "sweetbread" took them and stir fried up the liver and tongue with some prickly pear pads for our enjoyment.

Sweetbread and Kat in front of the pit.


All morning and into the afternoon we worked with the hide, people scapping it and lashing wood together to stretch it on, we even began the tanning process with a brain tan -- now that is hard core.

Buddy and Oliver using the brains to tan the hide.


Here the Hide is Stretched Out on the Frame
border="0" alt="" />

we made a spice rub for the goat and basted it every now and then.
Baste it Girl!


I'll spare you the pictures from the rest of the party - -a lot of people came later to enjoy the meat and the festivities and to dance. The meat tasted like lamb to me, very similar. We had a sauce pot luck -- horseradish, jalepeno, curry, etc... yum.
I'm making a goat stew with the left over bones and meat to share with the class later this week.

how'd this guy get in here?

Gone to Eden

The Bates Motel


How can I explain this hotspring oasis? The Rolling Stones own it and left it to their manager who then ran into trouble with the law and has left it in trust as a nonprofit while he does his jail time. This crazy place is private yet available to the right people for use -- guess we were the right people. Our class met up with a former student of Micheal Moore's herbal class. He uses this place as a home base to teach his year long class. There are rattle snakes, hotsprings in the shape of guitars, tamarisk trees, not quite abandonded buildings everywhere, and ofcourse, the bates motel. Most people slept inside this 3 stroy freak shack, but neil and I opted for the saftey of the van -- the bed is more comfortable than our apartment; i would sleep in the van every night if i could find a flat spot to park it in Bisbee.

Amanda dries off after a soak in the Guitar Pool


We caked our bodies in the mineral mud, soaked day and night in the hot springs, some partook in the sweat lodges, visited the special plants that were brought here thousands of years ago; The Yerba Mansa runs amuck near these warm waters (Anemopsis californica. The best part is that no one here was a stranger -- no weird men lurking in the shadows of the hotsprings.


Dawn picks the leaves of Yerba Mansa

Coronado Cave

A couple of weeks ago neil and I finished up the old taxes and ventured off into the fading light of the day -- we ended up at the Coronado National Monument and this cave. We had only our little solar flashlight and our sense of adventure to guide up. The whole place was about 600 feet long and cavernous. Neither of us are too into dark cramped places, but the longer we stayed the more we saw.

Elephant

Bursera microphylla


This little tree only grows in really special places were the is no frost danger. The trunk is elephant like, swelling with moisture and peeling its bark off. It is very similar to Myrrh gum....you can cut the tree and collect the resin, although we have yet to do that. You dont even hurt the tree, it just bleeds some of its amazing resivoir. The resin and to a lesser extent the twigs and leaves are a great white blood cell stimulant. They raise the wbc count an as such have great implications for all immune compromising diseases -- although since most cancer therapies are tested for efficacy by how many white blood cells they kill, this poses problems for people in hospital settings where they are doing the cheapest tests possible instread of actually testing for the effects of the chemo in the blood. If you are not in the hosptial under such setting, this, and myrrh are a great option.

The purple berries are a favortie treat of birds and they keep the production slowly happening slowly over a 4 months period to keep thier seed stratifiers near by.
I love this tree.
Neil and I sought it out on the slopes of the highway that runs out of Yuma (a total cess pool of a town) on the border of CA, we scrambled up the side of the cliff overlooking I-8 right past a border patrol stop and "sampled" some foliage. Not more than 15 mintues passed before we were being buzzed by a helicopter. The man at the controls flying low and tilting the craft so he could look down and report what he saw in his head set -- needless to say we got out of there asap. Anyone walking anywhere off a known road or trail is suspect mexican until proven innocent. Run!



We also found another stand of this precious tree in a basin inside Organ Pipe National Monument, the amazing park half closed due to teh fact that the narcotrafficante were running their hummers full speed across the border at night and destroying the ecosystem and land in order to deliver thier cargo -- we had to hike into this section due to the closures.

The park is names after this cactus that looks like organ pipes.

retroactive blogging (is that legal NGs?)

We made it to the oasis and back, narry a mirage stifled the way, although the wind blew its best, trying to whip us, still we persevered.



he's SWSBM class of 2006 wandering thru the desert, the botanizing fools!


here's a classic scene of the man at work -- the camp chair on the pavement. Usually all of us are gathered around him like kids at story hour. He zips around on a little scooter so we stuck to the packed earth and paved roads for lectures and meandered off over the hills on our own when we was finished lecturing...



We drove east down highway 8, back into AZ, after a week of camping in the Anza-Borego Desert in Southern California. We had a great time getting to know our classmates better and checking out the real oases of the desert. We hiked to a couple different groves of desert palms out in the unbelievable desert. Today we stopped in a place called Dateland, for a famous date shake, which was unbelievably good, and unbelievably sweet at the same time; glycemic index 12,000. There is a crazy date plantation there where they hand pollinate all the date palms with their 5 foot flowers!

Yesterday we saw a beat up old bus driving slowly down the highway; we thought to ourselves, who could be inside such a vehicle, another traveling hippie circus, a church youth group? No, it was packed to the brim with aging Mexican males. Where could such a busload of people be traveling so close to the border under the watchful eye of the omnipresent border Patrol? Today we saw their destination. Highway bound we headed out from the Kofa mountains: volcanic teeth of red, rhyolite rock with a hidden grove of California Fan palms and hummingbirds high in their crevices. We began to the pass the 100s of acres of vegetable fields at rest we had passed on the way in Sunday afternoon. This time the fields were alive with workers, the ones bused in daily from Mexico. The same beat up buses with government signs on the sides denotes the program that allows campsinos to labor for the day, week, etc. in the American agribusiness. Literally hundred of men and women were hand picking and packaging lettuce, cabbage and lemons and loading the “Foxy” Brand boxes on to huge flat bed trailers. This was barely 9AM and they had a third of the 18-wheeler already stacked and strapped down with boxes. It just seemed crazy, that here at the end of the Colorado river, that the last vestiges of that mighty force could be diverted to the flood irrigation we saw happening. Water flooded and pooled on the sides of the road, while the river dwindled to a creek before it entered into Mexico. Not much of the mighty force that carved ye ole Grand Canyon resonates here.


a bad picture with no people. but you get the idea.

3-28
Last night we stayed in the Saguaro Cactus National Monument….we slept in a field of the squbby, chubby and mostly just plain tall icons of this state. It’s like a dream waking up every morning when the sun comes up and deciding where to go next, just rolling down the roads in the old honey wagon stopping at places that interest us. Every night we stay in some new nook of this state. We love having everything we need right here in the car, cooking the best food on mom and dad’s old Coleman stove and snuggling down on the, now classic, futon mattress.




Camp

Two days ago on the way to the Kofa Mountains (a witty little contraction made from “King of Arizona” mine) at yet another random border patrol stop, the congenial guard told us to watch out for stray military parts and unexploded bombs – great. I told him that if he saw us the next morning, that would mean we didn’t get blown up. Little did we know that where as the map might call a land mass a “wilderness reserve” the military sees things differently. The “Yuma Proving Grounds” are a delightful little parcel of thousands of acres of tank staging ground. General Paton also used the area in during the first WW, to test all kinds of old school stuff – lucky us.


Kofa Mountains Palm Oasis -- the palms have "retreated" into a canyon deep inside this mountain over the last few hundred years of drought....

Well, we just passed the Best Western Space Age Lodge, an eccentric little place all decked out with a Sputnik theme…I think its time to move on.