Backcountry Almanac
September 1, 2007
Month dedicated to goddess Pomona/ Demeter
Time of the Fruit harvest
Stone: chrysolite-antidote to madness
Tree: grape Vine
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end” – Semisonic
Apache Sunrise dance// Lilly Tomlin b.1939
Great Fire of London, 1666 // Battle of Actium, 31 BCE
Labor Day// Treaty of Paris, 1783, ending American Revolutionary War
Geronimo surrenders, 1886/ Tragedy of the Commons 1830
Crazy Horse assassinated, 1887/ Gerrard Winstanley d.1676
La Purisima// Frances Wright b. 1795
Buddy Holly b. 1936// Goat Days, Millington, TN
Naked Gardening Day// Galveston Hurricane, 1900// Star Trek premier, 1966
Wonderful Weirdos Day – you know who you are! // Leo Tolstoy b.1828
Feast day of Asclepigenia, Greek priestess of the Eleusian mysteries, 5th century
Solar Eclipse/ New Moon in Virgo@ 5:44 a.m. /Patriot Day- expose the lies //
CIA assists overthrow of Salvador Allende, 1973 Chile// O. Henry b.1862
H. L. Mencken b. 1880, critic, newspaperman
Rosh Hashana begins
Che Guevara b.1928// Margaret Sanger b.1883
Blame Someone Else Day
Mexican Independence Day (1910 Revolution)
Time’s Up Day: do it now!
Chiricahua Wilderness Area established, 1940
Festival of the Grapes
Emancipation Proclamation 1862// Yom Kippur
Autumnal Equinox/Mabon 2:52 a.m.: equal day & night// Ani Di Franco b. 1970
Don’t be fooled
Full Moon/Harvest or Blood Moon @ 12:45 p.m.
/ Johnny Appleseed b.1774, medicine man, planter of seeds, friend of animals
1954, the US Senate finally calls for censure of Joe McCarthy. Will they ever dump the Patriot Act?
American Indian Day
Lech Walesa b.1943 Polish Nobel Peace Prize winner
Banned Books Week begins- ALA- support the freedom to read anything one chooses
Local forage for September: Devil’s claw (young pods & seeds), Barrel cactus seeds, pomegranates, prickly pear fruit, mesquite beans, seeds of amaranth, certain grasses, & coyote gourds.
The Druids call this celebration, Mea’n Fo’mhair, and honor the Green Man,
the God of the Forest, by offering libations to trees. Offerings of ciders, wines,
herbs and fertilizer are appropriate at this time … Mabon is considered a time
of the Mysteries. It is a time to honor Aging Deities and the Spirit World …
Mabon by Akasha
September days:
Plant above ground crops- 12,13,14,15,16,20,21,24,25
Plant root crops & perennials-1,2,5,6,28,29
Brew- 5,6
Can-1,2,5,6,7
Cultivate-3,4,7,8,9,10
Entertain-7,8,13,14
Harvest crops to dry- 27
Planets visible in the morning sky: Venus, Mars, and Saturn from the 9th
Planets visible in the evening sky: Mercury and Jupiter
“When you lose the rhythm of the drumbeat of God, you are lost from the peace & rhythms of life.”
– Cheyenne
The time is now, don’t put it off; this is the perfect month to be out walking, hiking, horse riding in southern Arizona. Get up early for the cool air and perfect light of morning; the time when early blooming flowers begin closing up and the daytime blooming plants open. Usually there is more wildlife moving and visible also – turn up your snake radar so that all are left in peace. It cannot be predicted when we shall have such a glorious early autumn again, Seize the Day!
“The body seems to feel beauty when exposed to it as it feels the campfire or sunshine, entering not by the eyes alone, but equally through all one’s flesh like radiant heat, making a passionate ecstatic pleasure glow not explainable.” – John Muir
The numbers of wild beings are crashing if my observations may be added to the official count. I don’t hear or see so many frogs, toads, honeybees, wild bees or wasps, carpenter bees and other pollinators as I have in past times. Deer and snakes are scarce, too. Admittedly, the 10-year drought has taken a toll on all desert dwellers and the recent rain has not made up for the accumulated water deficit. This is worrisome to me.
Certainly, we should all be acutely aware by now that everything from the climate to the social order is changing rapidly and those changes are picking up speed. I believe that it is more than appropriate for people to get themselves allied with friends and companions in groups for mutual support and benefit in these next years and decades. Do this with your own knowing and sustainable design. Disregard any government template whatsoever, as this current regime and its minions does not have your best interests in mind. This applies to everything from water resources, food supply, and utilities, to public institutions and law enforcement. Don’t get the picture? Eyes wide shut? Try looking at life in these times as if a Cartel is controlling everything, including water supply, and tell me you cannot see my point.
My advice is to wean yourself from government handouts in any form and become independent producers and consumers of your basic needs. We have been in training for decades for dependency upon a central control by government/cartel for all of our needs and wants – the noose is tightening. What will you do when Central Control begins to dictate what information you have access to, where you may travel or live, if you can pump groundwater for your needs, where your food comes from and what form it will take, which medicines you may use, which drugs are illegal…oh, they already do that…
“What most humans desire is liberty, spontaneity, nakedness, mystery, wildness and wilderness…what we really need now are heroes and heroines—about a million of them. Sentiment without action is the ruin of the Soul.” Ed Abbey
In the September garden it is harvest and planting time all at once. As one crop finishes, make a place for the next one. Compost or burn old plant material so pests do not make homes in the rubbish. The first frost date in Arivaca (alt. 3600 ft.) is traditionally at Halloween, the end of October and day length will be diminishing until January. Plant frost hardy greens such as kale, chard, tatsoi, parsley, spinach, collards, mustard, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce; root crops such as beets, carrots, turnips, and garlic. Most of these crops do best if planted by the equinox. Protect your young crops from pests like grasshoppers.
Start planning tree and perennials plantings and select your plants for setting out later in the fall.
Long life, honey in the heart, no Evil, 13 thank yous
The golden-rod is yellow;
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bearing down.
The gentian’s bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.
The sedges flaunt their harvest,
In every meadow nook;
And asters by the brook-side
Make asters in the brook.
From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes’ sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.
By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather,
And autumn’s best of cheer.
But none of all this beauty
Which floods the earth and air
Is unto me the secret
Which makes September fair.
‘T is a thing which I remember;
To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September
I never can forget.
Helen Hunt Jackson; ‘September’
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. – Mark Twain
You may not be able to change the world but at least you can embarrass the guilty. – Jessica Mitford
Copyright 2007 Meg Keoppen
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