BELLE'S 60th BIRTHDAY BASH

So now it is finalized: On Sunday, August 14th, Thor and Belle are having a party and dance for Belle's 60th Birthday (and because we are due for another dance out here as the last two a fe years ago were fun and successful).  We decided to have the Honkey Tonk Deluxe with Susan Holmes, George Bullfrog (of Last Mile Ramblers and George Bullfrog and the Turquoise Trailers fame), Augie Hays (pedal steel extraordinaire and plays with Bill Hearne and Cathy Faber), George Langston ( lead guitar) and Michael Chavez (drums).  We have had Bill Hearne and Cathy Faber and Bob Goldstein out here before, so now we are going for  some more variety.  We clear out the shop in case of rain and set up a home made dance floor outside.  The backdrop for the affair is Adventure Trails Ranch, which can be stunning in the early evening with the setting sun glowing on the cliffs above, Galisteo Creek running through the property and a wonderful bosque and forests and fields all around. We are excited to have our friends and their friends, neighbors  and family out for the fun.  If anyone wants to help with the preparations, please let us know.  So look for the slideshow with a flyer (printable) and a map.  Plan on a small donation to help pay the band.  More postings later as the time draws near. 

Thor and Belle 

Now This Is Just What I Wanted to Say

I walked up onto the high ole' lonesome hill tonight 'cause my neighbor smelled smoke and thought maybe there was a fire nearby.  I walked outside and saw big flakes of what looked like smoke particles wafting around in the air alongside the moths and little flying insects.  I walked up onto the knoll where you can see 360 degrees for , probably, 60 miles in all directions. I scared up a herd of deer up on the hill above me and heard some toads croaking down at the waterfalls and being in the wilderness at night like that is an amazing experience.  But what I wanted to talk about is that to be there and imagine the energy that is being consumed in a bunch of wildfires that are probably 400 miles away is sort of a cathartic awakening experience that demands some thought and attention to what is really going on and how this could be occurring and what could be done to make things better in relation to our world and economics as they are right now.  I went online to get some idea about whether other people are thinking the same way and this is what I found right off the bat and it says most of what I want to say, so please read on.............

 

Put People to Work in Rural Communities Restoring Forests and Creating Biomass Energy

A Strategy for Oregon's Economic Prosperity

• Introduction
• Overview
• Vision for Oregon's Economy
• Immediate Job Creation
• Diversify Oregon's Economy
• Long-Term Prosperity
• Conclusion

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• Help Transform Oregon:
  Share Your Ideas

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• Download Executive Summary (PDF)
• Download Printable Document (PDF)

The growing demand for renewable energy creates immediate and long-term job opportunities in rural Oregon, while at the same time improving the environmental contributions of both federal and private forestlands.
Fifty-eight percent of Oregon’s forestlands are federally owned. Due to years of political gridlock, inadequate funding, the absence of a consistent federal forest policy, and lack of coordination between various local, state, tribal and federal government entities, these forests have become overgrown and present a major risk of fire and insect infestation, particularly in Eastern and Southwest Oregon.
This situation offers Oregon a significant opportunity to accomplish three of its long-standing goals: healthy forests, rural jobs and renewable energy. There is agreement among environmentalists, foresters and local communities that responsible thinning and other restoration activity must be done on our federal forests in order to reduce risk of catastrophic fire and insect infestation.
This active management, by itself, would immediately create in-woods jobs that are much needed in rural Oregon. Furthermore, the by-products of these thinning activities, “woody biomass,” if utilized as renewable energy for electricity and heat, can create many more jobs. In the near-term, jobs can be created through the building and expansion of biomass facilities. These facilities would continue to provide jobs in rural communities for the long-term as well. The generation and use of biomass energy can help protect Oregon jobs for the foreseeable future, as companies seek stable sources of clean energy to comply with increasing state and federal mandates for renewable energy.
There are significant barriers to capitalizing on this opportunity but a committed group of Oregonians is working to address them and has developed recommendations. They need strong leadership from Oregon’s next Governor to break through barriers and move ahead quickly:

• Tap ARRA funds for key projects that are ready to go.
• Implement a coordinated strategy with local government, industry, environmental groups, the Tribes and Federal lawmakers to identify new projects that can be implemented quickly.
• Create strong connections with the Federal government for key changes in policy that are required to take full advantage of this opportunity.
• Ensure that “woody biomass” is included as a renewable resource in state and federal renewable energy incentives and mandates. This will help ensure that there is adequate demand in the marketplace for the byproducts of forest restoration operations.

Biomass energy represents a growth sector for Oregon’s forest products industry, diversifying its longstanding base of lumber and paper products, while adding jobs both immediately and in the long term. Environmental benefits include both federal forest restoration, as discussed above, and the maintenance of private working forests, which now contribute over eighty percent of the state’s annual timber harvest. A robust market for woody biomass energy, combined with other non-traditional incentives such as payments for ecosystem services, would help private forest landowners keep working forests in forest use, and help conserve their contributions to clean air and water, carbon storage, fish and wildlife habitat and recreation, in addition to green energy.
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I have to laugh out loud at the idea of "burn days" and "non-burn days" in the halcyon days of trying to confront the issue of people burning wood in woodstoves as we confront whole states being innundated with smoke.......or as they said on the news banner: "There is a pall of heavy smoke over Albuquerque tonight.......yes there is a pall of environmental ignorance as we watch our inheritance burn up and our economy stagger."  Hmmmmm...maybe modern mobile steam generators attached to state of the art battery systems operated by people who could use the work and might benefit from being close to nature in our forest; the one thing that represents, more than anything, our wealth.  Period. 

Valle Grande Hot As Caldera Cools

I read today about Valles Caldera and thought I would put in my two cents worth as I have thought about this place for a long time…..since the late 60s when I first went up there to gather vigas on Dome Lookout. I was just 17 or 18 years old and had just moved back to New Mexico after graduating from high school in Colorado.  Although my family lived here and I had also, off and on, as the fickle finger of fate decided; I was not yet entrenched in this bio-region as I am now, having lived here for a total of just under 45 years, making me a relative newcomer, but something more than that; there should be a word for us, que no ?  Anyway I remember vividly seeing the Valle Grande back then and then quite a few times in those days and my thought and what I told people ever since was: “that place is so amazing and beautiful and so comprehensive the way it just lays there like a beautiful southwestern style oil painting…it should be set aside as a state park or a national park, not doubt about it…it’s got ‘park’ written all over it !”  And I was almost too young to even have those thoughts, but they just came naturally in this case.  It was, as they say, a “no brainer”.  I subsequently went up the creek and fished there, near the lower end and camped out a night or two on what was then private land.  I almost thought it was a park, what with all the cows everywhere and such.  Anyway, I was in love with that place.  Then a few years ago I caught wind of the possibility that it might  be a national park. “ Oh great, finally” I thought and was very excited.  And William DuBuys was involved.  “Even better !” , I thought.  But then the ironies began to set in; Pete Dominici was involved, beloved to many, but not me and he was riding that wave of privatization that was spearheaded by the same people who gave us the bankrupt “trickle down” stuff and the deregulation that  has nearly ruined this country and the guys who basically privatized the army, the prisons, the forest thinning, the fire fighting and the list goes on and on.  So I watched this with some skepticism and saw that people would have to pay through the nose to even see it, except for the one time they opened it up to the public for free and the lines went all the way back to the top of the hill and they couldn’t manage it.  I could not get in, so I turned back.  I love to fish, but the costs were too high.   I hunt, but that was prohibitive and now the place was no longer a querencia, but a resort for the ricos; not for the people.  Everything was just too precious for the peasants to be a part of; like  the old days of Europe where the dukes had the land and the poor were just potential poachers.  It was like a dog in a manger.  Then I read today that the director was being paid $120,000 a year to manage the place.  Gee whiz, you guys, what are you thinking?  I know plenty of other people who felt the same and yet nothing was done until now when the seed money is used up and the grabbers are jumping ship.  It was a bad idea from the get go; sounded interesting but no rancher can operate a ranch with a base salary of such big bucks for the foreman.  And no one who had a lick of sense would hire an  agribusiness honcho from Dole or whatever.   It doesn’t work in the real world of New Mexico.   So, in my lifetime, we have the chance to get it right again and I might get in there finally.  I feel like my neighbor who rides a beautiful old red classic Harley “panhead”; a prize winner that he has ridden all these years and has enough money, but when he went down to the Harley gathering down in the Burque and they wanted big bucks to enter the arena with all those weekend Harleys; he did what any real vacquero would do; he snuck in!  So maybe it won’t come to that now and we will do what any kid can see needs to be done; let the kid in and his kids when they grow up.  And everybody knows the place is called Valle Grande, so why don’t you call it that again?  So I am thankful that it was bought and is now possessed by the people and am thankful that the people can maybe get in there again sometime soon.

-Thor Sigstedt is an artist and landscape photographer and  long- time resident of Santa Fe County and  has been managing his own small, park-like property along Galisteo Creek and has stocked the creek twice so kids can fish.

Windmill

The Windmill

Land's heart is creek;
Susurrous sounds of infinite eddies;
Spelling life, shape changing daily;
The place to take the  ducks
For soul regeneration and chest repair

Built heart being The Windmill
 and the Tower, pumping, again.....
Water and marking time in circular fashion

Do you know how hard it is to get four strong 30 foot 6 x 6s
And bolt on 2 x 10 cross braces, X's in Golden Mean ?
Carrying the turn of the century on our backs,
bonding with the craftsmen who designed gears and pitmans and
Babbit bearings, sucker rod and stuffing boxes,
back when cast iron was king, history turning to make way
For steel
do you know how hard it is to make a new "sail" ?
The old guy at the sheet metal place does,
"Do not bring me another one", says he,
"I had to cut those by hand and my hands hurt"

Do you know how to erect a 30 tower?Or climb one for that matter?
Well neither did I till 31 years ago.
Do you know how scary it is up there,
Begging the questions of death and disaster?
Well neither did I having given up rock climbing
After that episode with Monique up in Cape Breton.
...Bonding with the mast climbers of yore at sea,
borrowing their descriptions of what is happening
In the Wind.

And, cupful by cupful, breathe by breathe, whisper and gale;
the Windmill spins and groans, sounding for all intents and purposes
Like a whale
Dryland leviathan skeleton
Picturesque archetypal phenomenon;
water oozing from the pipe to feed the forests
"We" planted, quench the thirst and beat the drought.

The grown children remember it with chills and twinges
As they ruminate and visualize where they came from,
their memory spinner, Guardian and Constant.
Giant weather vane for all to see,
Perch for feathered friends in calm weather
They even told me so

And it is a monument; put on maps everywhere
Like Camel Rock or Morphy Lake
Like a natural spring; gotta know where they are.....
Like a watercress patch or a stand of ponderosas,
Like the old bulldozer with its front bucket,
Like a husband or a wife or child;
take photos at every chance as they are so beautiful
in this light and that

A mystery like a ship in the fog
A friend of many years who has watched you grow
And then grow old and you them.
Has been there for you and you for it.
Part of your life, like dandylions, blue flax, sunflowers
Part of your soul like windy days,  rain and water

Part of your work, like your shop, your truck or your children
Something you would sorely miss if they were gone
Tragic as you ponder what you did wrong along the way
Like that burro that died young; only 25
So many years being there and then the dying  silver-grey donkey
staring at you, leaning like a drunkard against the crawler
Seconds from the final fall that spelled the end
In ways only I, perhaps, will ever understand
Leaving a hole where  a whirring stood

They say it is hard to kill a Swede
and I say it is hard to kill a donkey
Hard to hit the bullseye, Co, they shoot at the little" o"
way up there; too tempting it seems,
like tormenting burros
And easy to take a windmill for granted
Thanks to Aermotor's tough design
Rural gift.......of water and ...to be...
The heart of the land and the friend of
The homesteader......Part of.......
The Land Ethic

Honey Drenched Mouth

The evil man  bin Laden is dead.

Shot in the head
Millions cried, a million died,
The millionaire heir is dead

How can a man smile who has masterminded

Such destruction?
How can they look so beautific
As heads roll and children die,
Because of what you thought
And decided to bear arms and train for “terror”?

Hiding in a million dollar mansion/stronghold
Burning your own trash to limit contact;
No dna, methinks, no dna to find in the trash.
Not running from cave to cave up high in the hills
Not drinking tepid tea by candlelight,
Not a fox on the run,
But a man in a mansion, built by funny money

Never trust a spiritual leader
Who does not dance.
Watch that smile, folks, it can deceive, as it did.
Hitler was a vegetarian,
Can’t  always trust them, Ghandi said;
…they kill each other.

Jimmy Carter who raised bees honestly said it best
Referring to all sides of the fence;
The greatest threat in the world today is:
Religious Fundamentalism

So that sicky sweet honey drenched mouth
Can deliver bombs to children and ……
Cause others to do the same,
Cause others to do the same,
Cause others to do the same

Dancing the Two-Step and Other Steps Too

What does, say, Thor's Hammer have to do with dancing, you might say. Well, here goes:

http://www.quotegarden.com/dancing.html

So when the hammer is thrown, it comes back into your hands.

So do the dancers, into each other's arms and into their own lives and bodies and souls.

But the ones who "stand there with their arms crossed or sit in their chairs and act like they are appreciating music" have a lot to learn about what they might gain from their vulnerability. The answer is: everything.

The act of creation, be it what some call art ( which should be, mostly, the reflection of a moment in time when some image or shape or feeling is called up if only so briefly and in such a ephemeral or clumsy way) or what some call craft (which is just a way of saying the artist has decided to make something useful or not necessarily profound) is the "hammer" and, like our dance partner, it enters into a synergetic relationship where stepping together creates an energy where anything one puts into it will be rewarded wonderfully.

A culture that has decided to look and listen and not dance is like a woodworker without a hammer; what was he thinking?

More later, folks; this one is not goin away.