Our Road to Paragon: Grant and Paige: the "final week of July" and the transition into August

Can you believe it? July has come and gone. We are going into our 4th week being at the Grange School of Adaptive Agriculture!

I had an amazing, busy and long weekend. I couldn't make a post on Saturday because I was out camping in the middle of nowhere with hundreds of loving people who came together with great intentions. So, here I am doing this on a Sunday. I will get to explaining what I have done over the weekend later into my post.

Love is grand. It really is.. man. Sometimes I get so lost in love around here and I forget that a society exists out there and how there are billions of humans who aren't aware to some extent of what Love is and how much nature can provide for them in abundance. It is both a beautiful and heartbreaking feeling. This is why I believe we are in a very weird time in our humanity. This is because there is "no one way to farm" and there is only ONE reality and ONE Mother. Our All-Mother is an organic being, so that means there is definitely one way to farm, since she is "a singular system". The one way to farm is through Love. The fact that this is being thought of shows how divided we humans are as a race.

"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings." - Masanobu Fukuoka

LONG LIVE PARAGON!

So, my third week shall be recapped. I feel as if it went by fairly quick and most of the lessons

Monday, July 25, 2016 was an easy and normal day. We went from breakfast to fieldwork for a few hours then lunch to a class on how ruminants are different from monogastric animals such as dogs, cats and us humans. As well as, the business aspects of these ruminants. Ruminants are animals that have a complex, compartmentalized stomach characterized by one large compartment in which microbial fermentation of ingested feed occurs. The ruminants comprise the cattle, goat, sheep, antelopes, deer, giraffes, and their relatives. We also learned that having the right breed matters for business in breeding, dairy, meat, fiber, and land management. It was a fun class. I was mostly interested in the meat and fiber aspects. This class opened some doors in my head on the road to Paragon. Because I am definitely going to collect wool for its multipurpose use and I am slowly learning about the meat industry and would like to do my part to feed people healthier unprocessed meat.

Take a look at this good link below about a Harvard research study on processed meat VS unprocessed meat. This post is 6 years old but still relevant.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/processed-meats-unprocessed-heart-disease-diabetes/

On Tuesday, July 26, 2016, we learned about "cereal grains" ALL DAY long while at a field trip to a local farm/garden called the Biointensive garden which is situated on the Golden Rule Ranch. The word "grain" was ingrained into our minds that day, hah. It was a very informative day though. We learned about the main whole grains such as, barley, wheat, rye, corn, rice, oats, and quinoa. There are a lot of varieties but we were only introduced to a few, which are the "cereal grains" and their methods of growing and harvesting. The Biointensive garden teaches techniques to individuals from third world countries, on how to break down grains without technology. They also have programs that teach individuals how to farm biointensively. Other than that field trip, the heat was very brutal throughout the day and everyone was sweating their grains off. I remember the eve coming by and the coolness of the air made a huge change. We all relaxed well that evening.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016 was another typical day of breakfast to field work for a few hours and lunch then some R&R before a class on holistic planning/mapping/diagramming a farm.

(A picture of the field being worked on by our group on a Wednesday morning.)

We mostly learned that planning and mapping any farm effectively helps a lot of people down the road with operations when their farm becomes more established. We were taught to view the landscape in terms of boundaries, zones, and common features in a way that simplifies and clarifies the relationships on the land. We also learned about different open source software available to keep maps/plans of the land. There are main overlays such as, boundaries, zones, future human development space, cultivation, livestock living areas, pipelines, environmental variables, and flow diagrams where most human traffic goes. It was an interesting class. I also remember how incredibly hard it was to stay awake because I was exhausted that day from field work and had to get up in the middle of the lesson to get some raw cashews so I could gobble on them in an attempt to stay awake for the remainder of the class. It worked well, hah.

After the mapping class, I excitedly hurried over at full speed, on a bike, to the ranch community center, with Sky, for our weekly Wednesday night dinner. I think if I remember correctly, the bible mentioned that we should always build bigger and longer tables so more people can be fed and that everyone can get together. I have seriously lost track of how many potlucks we have gone to while being here. I realized communal living is necessary for a thriving community.

Thursday, July 28, 2016, was consisted of little field work in the morning and a class in the early afternoon then a trip to town for the farmers market. Every Thursday morning, we harvest and prep the fresh food for consumers for the market that afternoon. Before the farmers market, we had a local individual who is a powerhouse in strategical social media/marketing come lecture on what we could do to get ourselves out there. His name is Ian, and he works for a local organization that connects new farmers to the community and he does a great job at it. The internet is an awesome tool because it is kind of a level playing field that connects all of us together. While learning in class, I was slowly realizing I was a little ahead of the curve because I had already thought of these strategies that were mentioned in class that day. But it was definitely a good refresher to learn these things again from a professional. Basically, to brand something.. CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING.

(Lynz washing some red/white onions for the farmers market. With Garlic cloves sitting to the left. and a beautiful mountain scenery is sitting in the background.)

Later that evening, a group of us went to get some ice cream at a local place around the corner from the farmers market. Scoops is a local favorite, and was a good way to wrap up a hot day.

Friday, July 29, 2016 to Sunday, July 31, 2016 was a good weekend. On Friday morning we did our weekly group check in to emotionally recap on the week and on what we could do better for the next week as well as acknowledging other members in our groups for what good they have done during the week. We did a little carpooling and livestock management planning so we could all attend the "Not So Simple Living" Fair throughout the weekend in Boonville, California which is a little drive south of the farm in the middle of Anderson valley. We promised the event organizers to do volunteer work so we could get in the fair for free the entire weekend. Most of us were assigned to different shifts on the fairgrounds.

On Saturday, we went to the fair to attend workshops/demonstrations all day from 10am to 5pm. After the workshops, Sky, Paige and I chose to work in the kitchen with a wonderful old lady named Barbara who was incredibly loving, talkative and loved our dreadlocks. We were the SWAT team for the flies in the kitchen, did some cleaning, ate some good juicy watermelon and cantaloupes while helping fair guests cut their fruits/melons and breads that were brought in for the potluck dinner that night. We did so much in the kitchen and worked longer than planned. Barbara loved how hard working we were and excused us from our volunteer shift the following morning. She said if anyone says differently, just tell them the kitchen Nazi says so! The lil old lady had some power around there, haha.

We set up our tent in the late evening and then when the darkness came, the stars were so extremely bright you could see the milky way's spiral arm, the dark rift and the meteor shower. We left the tent shield off so we could see the stars through the mesh while laying down in our sleeping bags. It was so beautiful and peaceful.

Sunday morning came by and we had a big pancake breakfast then one workshop demo, which was the hunting demo and then we headed back to the farm to take care of our livestock and I started working on our blog post.

I could write pages about the event I attended but I don't know where to start. It was too informative and exposed me to many awesome methods of living. I learned about blacksmithing and forging, a little about medicinal herbs and tinctures, a little about rocket stoves and hobo cans, and hunting. there were about 15-20 workshops going on at once during each hour, so you could choose to stay for the entire workshop/demo or just attend 5 minutes of each workshop and see all of them. But we chose to stay for most of the time to make sure we absorbed good amounts of information.

http://notsosimple.info/

Check out the link for information on the fair. It was very cool and I look forward to next year's fair.

Here are a few random pictures I have took over the week.

(Our camping circle at the camp area in the fairgrounds. There were hundreds of people there. I did not have time to take good pictures of my time at the fair over the weekend because we were very busy meeting people and learning stuff. I considered the event very unique because there were old people and young people all learning from each other. And everyone was there to learn so the vibe was amazing.)

"There is no such thing as away" (Everyone at the Not so Simple Living Fair does their best to either recycle or compost everything to create as little waste as possible so they started a crafty little mandala with all the items that couldn't be recycled or composted.)

(Trash monster on the Art of Waste Mandala)

(Next to the fair is Pennyroyal farms where we took a short tour before returning home. They produce goat milk products and wine which we were able to taste at the end. VERY delicious!)