Here is a quote my good buddy Pilgrim Farmer John sent from his home in Iowa. I mean if there is ever a guy or a place that knows about corn and weeds he does/ they do for sure. And he quotes his wife’s grandfather, going back even further for this:
“I feel your pain! Forty or so years ago when I first started farming here on “the prairie”, Cathy’s wise grand father said: “You’ll work all your life at it, and the weeds will still be here when you’re gone”. ?”
I’m feeling part of that long proud tradition for better or worse. Geez, talking about pushing the rock up the hill. There is something I am supposed to learn here somewhere.
OK, off to the corn to get some lick in on it before work. Work before work, get it. It will all be worth it when we sit down to a platter of the fresh stuff in August I am sure.
Jordan at the long range target. Everyone was challenged.
Yup, I’m deep in the race with the weeds. All options are being considered. I am going to leave you early so I can get out there in the corn. Thanks for your long term loyalty.
“A journey implies a destination, so many miles to be consumed, while a walk is its own measure, complete at every point along the way.” Thomas Clark
What in the heck do you mean by that Felipe? OK, so there are so many great things happening in my life right now that I have a hard time keeping up with them. But they are all good, at least the ones I choose to focus on. Screw the other ones I say. And have no idea what that has to do with disheveled eggs either.
But it is Padre Tomas’s birthday today or tomorrow or yesterday. He is the only person that ever sent me five birthday cards, five for the same birthday that is. Where does he get that crazy energy from? Please say hello to him somehow, some way.
I am going to get out to the corn and get a half hours weeding in before work today. Stuff is just growing like crazy out there. Everything is perfect now. The trouble it is perfect for my weed friends too. Everybody is in high gear.
We are all still high, speaking of high, from our weekend retreat. We had a planning session over tapas yesterday for the next one. And let me announce that here. That is the 8,9,10 and 11th of September. The corn and blackberries will be in full stride then, Norhtwest High Cotton. So let me know if you are interested in attending and I will get you the details.
What else do we have? Felipe is wondering how come the word heck seems to appear in proximity to his name so often? Well, we will have to check that out. We don’t need any grumpy campers around here.
Well, I guess I am out of interesting and useful content. Time to go weed. Love and stuff from Felipe.
Tuesday here and recovering from the four day weekend. Yesterday noontime we wrapped up the first ever Women’s Archery Retreat. I’m calling it a total success. We could have had more folks but it was a great run through. And going through the process got us up to the next level in all areas. Saying a prayer of thanks that all went so smoothly.
So we are going to debrief and regroup and build for our next one which looks like it will be in September. We will announce the dates shortly. September is a great month around the Seattle area so alperfect.
Summer is off to a great start. The Fourth of July is coming up quickly. After that comes the Vashon Strawberry Festival which is a island wide blowout. We are shooting to have our roadside produce stand open for by that time. That will be too early to sell corn but we will have other stuff and it will get folks used to stopping by.
I am out in the corn daily. It is now the big race with the weeds. Fertilizer, water and keeping the competition down are the key ingredients to getting to the finish line and delivering the product. We will have plenty of corn on the cob to feed our archery gals in September besides stocking the stand. That’s the plan anyway.
OK, I am off to work in a minute, staying busy. Miss you, love you, Felipe.
Monday morning before our 9 o’clock walk and before our first ever Women’s Archery Retreat convenes for it’s final session. This has been grueling and a complete success. Sounds like the Camino. And yes, we covered a lot of ground in a very short time and have a few sore spots but we are still smiling.
By a long shot ( good pun ) this is the most intensive archery program that I have been involved in. We went from basic form Saturday morning the Saturday to shooting moving targets yesterday. Who else does that? Today we are going to have fun with some games and we are going to wrap it up with some last minute philosophy.
I am so so glad that we did this. We have another retreat in August or September, we haven’t decided as of yet. So, hopefully I can get some more of you to drive and fly in for that one. We will take what we have learned and improve on the program, just like always. Always improving, that’s us.
So Felipe, what does this archery thing have to do with the Camino thing wanyway? Why are we talking about it on Caminoheads? Well, excellent question and I have been thinking about that. They both seem to offer a gateway to things deeper not only in our past but in our basic makeup. Things that are hard to get to from our high tech world of speed and progress.
We seem to live our lives in the thin layer of the upper most layer of the body of water called life. We live in those fast moving reflections of other things. Taking the time and effort to dive down to the depths is refreshing, fulfilling, vital. That’s what we were trying to achieve this last weekend. I’m pretty sure everyone felt that.
OK, the walk here in a few minutes. We are on our way back from Muxia to Santiago on our “walk in Spain”. Here I go, love, Felipe.
Our Women’s Archery Retreat is going great guns or great bows. The gals are showing up in fifteen minutes so I have just a moment to be with you. Here is a In Praise odiferous Walking quote:
“There are walks in which we tread in the footsteps of others, walks on which we strike out entirely for ourselves.” Thomas Clark
Our archery retreat is off to a flying start after a slight glitch yesterday afternoon. We start shooting this morning after some eye testing and fitting of gear. I love archery and it is so easy to teach because it just sells itself.
We had a lovely start out dinner last evening out on the deck at the famous tapas table. Catherine y Dana prepared the whole thing, roast home grown chicken, salads and wine. We all got to know each other and talked about how the retreat was going to go forward. We are going to be shooting and conversing all day today and tomorrow and Monday morning. So everything should be a go. Looking outside and not a cloud in the old sky so we are golden.
I also want to thank everyone for all the great comments lately with my treatment complications. Can’t believe how many lovely people pay attention to my every little thing. Well, we are finding out that being a pilgrim involves more than just getting down the road. It also involves paying attention to each other along the way.
“Always, everywhere, people have walked, veining the earth with paths, visible and invisible, symmetrical and meandering.” Thomas Clark
I just walked over to the corn to take a pic of progress and turn off the electric fence. What a glorious morning, summer has finally found us. And my life does make more sense outside. Does that make sense?
Today I am back to Seattle and the hospital for more inside stuff. Then rushing back to the ranch to start the first time ever Women’s Archery Retreat. I’m so pumped to get this off the ground. I will keep you informed.
And look at the corn! It’s eight, nine, ten inches. Of course the weeds are trying their best to keep up that pace but Felipe puts in an hour or two a day to hoe and hack and pull to hold them back. Every year there is that saying, “knee high by the Fourth of July,” hanging over my head. That means for anyone that hasn’t heard that particular pesky phrase, the corn is supposed to be that height by our big American holiday on the 4th. What’s knee high? 18 inches I’m guessing. So, let’s see 8 more inches in 11 days. Seems doable. But what is really important is when is it going to be ready to eat? Mid August we usually are starting to sample it. And it should be ready in mass for our second Woman’s Archery Retreat. That would be my goal.
Here is some more Thomas Clark with In Praise of Walking. “Walking is the human way of getting about.” Somewhere I heard that is the speed that God travels at.
Good Grief Charlie Brown or Back In The Saddle Again. Really, hopefully, many ways to look at this thing. This is my first morning with the heavy drugs coursing through my body and brain, brain, let’s not forget that little forgetful unit. I am so glad that I have gone through this before, the heavy stuff that is. But it was way back at the beginning and I have worked at blocking it’s memory out. All I mostly remember is that it is really hairy scary when they hit you with the kitchen sink right off the bat and you have to deal with it as a rookie. Now I’m the seasoned veteran. Yea, got the t-shirt.
You know that one of the ways we do things at Caminoheads is look for the 5% goodness in the situation no matter how grim. You have to work at it hard sometimes but it always seems to be there and many it gets easier to find with practice. And it’s not a Pollyanna deal. We are acknowledging that situations can look like dog doo. Hehe. But somewhere there is a out, or an answer or a lesson or a chance to experience so that you can help someone else walk through their situation.
Yesterday in all the upheaval at the hospital I had realized that I had forgotten my iPad and left it home. Fortunately they have loaners and I figured that out and got another great blog on the air. And with my trusty ear buds I listened to some Pink Martini, the official unofficial music for Caminoheads. Well not only listened but UTube has great videos of the group. They are so fun to watch, you know like eat them with a spoon fun. So, I am going to try and put a hot link in here for Yolanda. Actually it’s Donde Estas Yolanda?
