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News from Reevis Mountain School
October 2010
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A Division of the PAAK Foundation, an Arizona 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Peter Bigfoot, Founder and Director / Patricia Busnack, Office Manager and Editor
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 With the coming of fall, leaves in the orchard are turning yellow and orange, the cool-weather crops in the garden are growing more eagerly, and we humans, along with our wild neighbors, are preparing for winter - gathering nuts, exchanging our cotton clothing for wool, insulating our yurpees, fattening the turkeys, and cutting wood. We arranged with a rancher in Top of the World to cut down a dead black oak on his land, and after a couple of days of hard work brought home nearly two cords of good firewood. While Peter and Jonathan delighted in wielding their chainsaws, axes, and mauls against this very hard wood, what particularly pleased Patricia was our discovery, inside the trunk, of a bird's nest made of peacock feathers.
A couple of weeks ago, Patricia was working in the house when she heard a chicken yelling, up at the coop. Sometimes when that happens, it's just the chickens being dramatic. So she ignored it ... but after an hour or two, she decided to wander up there to see what all the fuss was about. She went in the pen and looked inside the coop, and there was a rooster still making the ruckus she'd been hearing ... but there was no skunk or bobcat or anything else in sight to explain his distress. Until, leaving the pen, Patricia glanced over and noticed a five-foot Mojave rattlesnake curled up in a corner of the pen.
What to do? She closed the coop so none of the chickens inside would come out, and closed the pen so none would get in - so now, at least, all the chickens were safe. But what about the snake? Usually Peter catches rattlesnakes that we find around the farm, and we put them in a metal trash can and take them down the road to let them go. But Patricia was concerned that if she went to fetch Peter, while she was gone the snake might move under the coop or to a place hard to see or get at ... plus, there were seven younger chickens in the nursery pen, right on the other side of the chicken wire from where the snake was curled up. So, till she could come up with a better idea of what to do, she just sat down and talked to it.
She told it how handsome it was and promised we had no intention at all of hurting it ... that we just would like to protect our chickens, because they depend on us ... and pointed out that the chickens were all really too big for him to actually eat, anyway, and there was probably lots of food up on the hillside ... and so on in that vein. She may even have sung to it. Well, after about ten minutes the snake uncurled itself and started away - toward the coop. When it got under the coop, the chickens inside squawked and squawked. But the snake kept going, to the far corner of the coop, where it poked around and finally found a hole in the chicken wire, and disappeared up the hill!
Not all of our adventures with predators have ended so wonderfully. One day when Peter was away from the farm last week, a bobcat - probably the same one Patricia glimpsed outside the yurpee last month - killed a chicken. We scared it off and got the chicken back - which made three good meals - but now we are keeping all the chickens inside the pen and the vineyard, hoping the cat will eventually give up and go somewhere else.
The seven chicks that were in the nursery pen when the rattlesnake visited are big enough now to live in the coop with the grown-ups. This group of chicks is the most mellow and human-friendly we have had ... perhaps thanks to the Annies' loving attention during their egg-hood and first weeks. They are fearless with humans, and when Patricia goes up to visit them, she usually winds up with one perched on her shoulder, one clinging to her back, and one standing on top of her head. Two of the chicks are particularly amiable, and we have named them Penny and George.
Mentioning the Annies is bittersweet, as both have moved on from Reevis ... but we hope to see them again, and we are grateful for having enjoyed the blessings and lessons of their presence. We were happy, too, to have got to know Christopher and Kim, who stayed with us for about ten days during October. Chris's eager assistance made it possible for Peter to finish the masonry work that needed to be done on the swimming pool before winter, and Kim was a great help in the garden and house. We wish them well as they continue their journeys.
After Christopher and Kim's departure, Peter and Patricia enjoyed a week or two of "honeymoon" time, having the farm to themselves, and then toward the end of the month we welcomed Jonathan. We appreciate his skills and industriousness, but even more his gracious and congenial company. We hope he will stay through the winter (and longer!).
During October Bigfoot spoke at the Phoenix Institute of Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture, about his uses of plants, and at Preparing Wisely, in Mesa, about the new edition of Natural Remedies for Bites and Stings. Here at Reevis, we enjoyed visits from old and new friends for the Herbal Pharmacology class, where Bigfoot teaches medicine making - from plant identification and harvesting through the making of tinctures and salves. The same weekend, sixteen students visited overnight for a wilderness survival class taught by Josh from the corporate team-building company One-Day Adventures. Peter presented the slideshow from his solo trek, and we had a good time playing host to a crowd of folks who are into what we have to teach.
Big thanks, again, to everyone who donated to our solar pump fund drive. We ended the drive on October 31 with $3,282, leaving about $1,800 to go in order to fund the replacement of our gasoline water pump with a solar pump. We will continue to direct donations and a portion of RMS's operating income to the pump fund, with the intent of purchasing the equipment and having the new solar pump in place by next summer.
We were delighted to learn recently that a feed store in Globe will soon be carrying a line of organic feeds. After a long search for non-GM and organic feed, it is a relief to know we will be able to obtain it locally and affordably. To help spread the word about the dangers of GM foods and how to avoid them, we will be enclosing a Non-GMO Shopping Guide (provided by the Center for Food Safety at the Institute for Responsible Technology) with each Reevis Country Store order.
We are looking forward to the next few months being relatively quiet; our main projects will be to complete the revision of Bigfoot's Book of Ancient Natural Remedies and to start the renovation of our 25-year-old greenhouse. In February, Peter will be speaking at the REI stores in Paradise Valley (2/1) and in Tempe (2/22), and Reevis's spring classes will begin. Dates will be announced in the newsletter and on our website as soon as we have them. (If there is a class you are interested in taking, please let us know!)
For more information (and pictures!) about the farm, Peter Bigfoot's herbal remedies, and classes and events, please visit www.reevismountain.org.
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| Reevis's Solar Pump Fund Raiser
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Big thanks to all who donated in our fund drive for a solar water pump!
From August through October, we raised funds to replace the gasoline pump we currently use to pump irrigation water from the creek into the water tank. Details can be found in the July newsletter or on our website. The total amount required for the project is $5,080, and donors contributed just under $3,300!
We appreciate the very generous contribution from CentroSolar America, Inc., of Scottsdale, Arizona. Chris Wood, CentroSolar's regional sales director, arranged for Reevis to purchase four 175-watt modules for only $700. We had expected to pay $2,120! The fund total above includes the value of these modules.
We will continue to direct a portion of donations and RMS's operating income toward the purchase of the solar pump and related equipment. If you would like to donate, you can mail a check, payable to RMS, to 7448 S. J-B Ranch Rd., Roosevelt, AZ 85545, or use our website's Donate button.
Why donate? What's in it for you, besides a receipt for your taxes? Well, to feel good about making our world a little greener - to know you are helping to make a positive, daily difference at Reevis. And on top of that, you'll have your name inscribed on the solar pump project's permanent plaque of appreciation, a reminder of our gratitude.
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| Natural Remedies for Bites and Stings Now Available!
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 For more than 50 years Peter Bigfoot has been gathering knowledge about natural remedies for bites and stings - mainly through firsthand observation and experimentation. This 88-page, illustrated softcover book offers the sum of Bigfoot's wisdom. Concise instructions for preparing and applying the remedies are enlivened by Bigfoot's vivid stories of actual experiences of healing and survival. Kentree Speirs' beautiful and accurate drawings of the plants and animals aid identification.
These are the remedies we use regularly here at Reevis Mountain School.
The focus is on Sonoran desert plants and animals - including remedies for rattlesnake bites and scorpion stings - but much of the information would be useful anywhere in the world, for treating common bites and stings, from ants to ticks, with widely available plants such as Echinacea and Walnut.
You can find the book at Preparing Wisely, Healthy Habit, Changing Hands, and the Boyce Thompson Arboretum gift shop, or order online or by emailing Patricia. |
| What We're Growing, Harvesting, and Eating
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 We'd like to share with you what's going on in the garden, the orchard, and the kitchen - the vegetables we're planting, the bounty (fruit, veggies, livestock, and herbs!) we're harvesting, and how we turn our harvest into nourishing, delicious meals.
We have recently begun to offer seeds, gathered from our garden, for sale in our Country Store. Please visit our website.
What We're Growing
With cooler weather, our fall crops are growing more happily. We are already harvesting kale, red radishes, arugula, and chard ... and waiting patiently for cabbage, bok choy, several new types of lettuce, parsley, garlic, shallots, onions, carrots, turnips, parsnips, and rutabagas! The winter squash - which we plant every year, and harvest between 800 and 1,000 pounds! - is looking good. We will harvest the squash sometime in November.
What We're Harvesting
In addition to the fall crops mentioned above, we continue have cucumbers and summer squash from the garden, plus lettuce, beets, tomatoes, and peppers. Jonathan has already gathered eight gallons of pecans, which will need to dry out before we shell them. Our pomegranate harvest has been the best in years, with much less loss to insects than usual. (We have two kinds: the familiar red pomegranates, which are sweet-tart, and a golden-skinned type, with pink seeds, that is sweeter!) And we're just beginning to harvest a few ripe fruit from the persimmon trees. From the herb patch, we have been harvesting lemongrass (with constant gratitude to Lee Ann for the plants!), comfrey leaves, and mallow and dock roots. What We're EatingEvery meal at RMS is built around greens, whole grains, and natural animal protein. You can read a description of our diet on our website. And please visit the recipe page for lots of delicious and wholesome farm recipes! |
| How to Purchase RMS Remedies
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Peter Bigfoot's herbal tinctures and salves are available to order by email (orders@reevismountain.org), phone (928) 467-2675, on our website (click on Country Store), by mail (7448 S. J-B Ranch Rd., Roosevelt, AZ 85545), or at retailers in Phoenix (Healthy Habit, 6029 N. 7th St., and Total Body Awakening Legacy (602-774-0160), Scottsdale (The Natural Medicinary at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, 8010 E. MacDowell Rd.), Mesa (Preparing Wisely, 144 S. Mesa Dr.), Tempe (SWIHA's bookstore, 1100 E. Apache Blvd.), Flagstaff (New Frontiers Market and Village Healing Center), Sedona (New Frontiers Market), Cottonwood (Mt. Hope Foods), Camp Verde (Healthy Thymes), and Globe (Back to Basics, on Hwy. 60).
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| We Welcome Donations
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RMS is a division of the PAAK Foundation, an Arizona 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization; donations may be tax deductible. Currently our highest priority to is replace our gasoline creek pump with a solar pump, and any assistance toward that goal will be greatly appreciated. Cash donations are always welcomed with deep gratitude and will be put toward the solar pump fund, ongoing expenses, or the costs of housing and feeding our interns, who pay for their stay here in work rather than money. Please see our website for more about giving to Reevis.
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"Don't be obsessed with figuring out life before you live it. [Jesus] reminded me often 'to live, experience, and enjoy.'" - Glenda Green, Love Without End: Jesus Speaks
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