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Please pardon any inconvenience you may have had registering on this site. The activation emails are not functioning correctly and we are working on it now. If you do not receive an activation email please contact us at sbafarmsoffice@yahoo.com and we will gladly activate your account manually. We appreciate your patience and your interest in our little community. Peace and light be with you all. 
Posted in Uncategorized
Minimalism and Sacred Spaces
Minimalism and Sacred Spaces
Written by meg on January 10, 2012
The Intersection of Light and Silence
Sacred spaces are not exclusively places of worship, but they are places where we are more keenly aware of an existence outside the mundane, the temporal, the profane. They can be found in nature and in manmade structures, and surely they can be found in other parts of the universe. Yoga and meditation can even help us find such spaces within the infinity of our own minds and bodies. Sacred spaces can be collectively recognized, such as Mecca, or recognized by only ourselves, such as a spot in a garden, or in a room of one’s own. It’s the place where we just know.
A common experience among those who have decluttered is a heightened awareness of the value of space and time. By facing the collected detritus of shopping, waste, and distractions, we give ourselves a chance to restore harmony with what is most important in our brief lives, and to improve the quality of our lives by making much more of what time and space we have. Space and time take on such value that they can be considered sacred concepts. Both are needed, I think, to properly experience the other.
There are many ways of selecting or arranging spaces for ultimate benefit, such as feng shui, and other traditional methods. Consciousness of the spirit of a place, the genius loci, is part of Western pre-Christian belief, bits and pieces of which have hung on and found their way into philosophy and even landscape architecture. Sometimes the spiritual is emphasized, and sometimes the rational–the genius loci seldom refers to a local deity anymore, but to the natural and logical way any given space is used, its traditions and history, and the physical particulars, such as the lay of the land, the water, rocks, trees, native species, and the quality of the light. Capturing this sense helps to create well-loved parks and public gardens, within which many people can find “their” spots.
Personal sacred spaces are those which speak to our specific needs, whether spiritual, psychological, or physical. I’ve had several in my life, often stumbling across them without realizing I even needed them, only knowing that they were “my” spots: among them were a copse of trees on the farm where I grew up, the end of a pier on the gulf side of Florida, the end of a long table in the reference room of a university library. They are long gone, these spots, but seem as real as yesterday in my memory. I did some good work and thinking in those places, and they helped restore me when times were difficult.
The idea of sacred spaces came up because we have just rearranged the living room for the first time in about a year and a half, and I’m once again sitting in the spot where I sat when I first started this blog and a few other creative projects. The difference between the feel of this spot and where I have been sitting for the past 18 months is striking. Within an hour of enjoying the rearrangement, I could feel my mental energy shifting gears, feeling simultaneously calmer, clearer, and more energized. Obviously this was a better spot for me to sit than the other one. I didn’t realize it, however, until I returned to it, bringing with it the sensation of being “my” spot that I recognized from having had “my” spots in the past.
From here I considered if there were other special spots in the house, and realized that the whole house could be considered a sacred space to a certain extent, but only since we went minimalist. Excavating the excessive stuff of life literally carved out the space for the sense of sacredness to occur. Even when a room gets messy and cluttered again, it retains a certain sensibility because the mess and clutter are not overwhelming the space, not smothering the life out of it. There’s no longer enough stuff left to take over a space in that dangerous manner, and the amount of time needed to restore its harmony is rarely more than the amount of time one would give to a period of contemplation. This might be why housework itself has taken on a much different sensibility than it had before–it now has more in common with devotions than chores.
Two things stand out: sacredness of space is fragile, and sacredness of space can be restored. One needn’t live so minimally that no activity beyond sipping a cup of tea or meditating can occur within our homes–laundry can accumulate, sloppy meals can be made and eaten, parties can be thrown, crafts or fix-it projects can hang around for a bit, and drawers can get packed pretty tight again. But proportions are what’s crucial, the balance between space, time, and the stuff of ordinary life.
There needs to be enough stillness, enough emptiness, for the sense of sacred space to emerge and re-emerge. In those spaces we are most likely to grow into our best selves, to be happy, to be creative, to be generous, and to make the most of our precious time.
Copyright © 2012 The Minimalist Woman
Composting and Bioremediation
The primary interest at Sharondale is in using food mushrooms to break down and
convert agricultural waste. The idea that waste from one use equals food or energy for another use in a continuous cycle is prominent in ecological design and is the basic premise for growing mushrooms and composting. Using substrates such as straw, manures, yard debris and other organic wastes, mushrooms grow for our food use and leave an enhanced nutrient base for other organisms to grow. Composting is the simplist way for you to use mushrooms on your property to break down the waste carbon sources you have available and create soil. By retaining and recycling carbon with naturally occurring microorganisms, you conserve an important and useful natural resource that would otherwise cost money and fuel to remove.
for more on this subject please see our page : http://www.sbafarmscollective.org/gardening-information/composting-and-bioremediation/
Legendary blues singer Etta James dies in Calif. Rest in Paradise
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY and ROBERT JABLON | Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Etta James’ performance of the enduring classic “At Last” was the embodiment of refined soul: Angelic-sounding strings harkened the arrival of her passionate yet measured vocals as she sang tenderly about a love finally realized after a long and patient wait.
In real life, little about James was as genteel as that song. The platinum blonde’s first hit was a saucy R&B number about sex, and she was known as a hell-raiser who had tempestuous relationships with her family, her men and the music industry. Then she spent years battling a drug addiction that she admitted sapped away at her great talents.
The 73-year-old died on Friday at Riverside Community Hospital from complications of leukemia, with her husband and sons at her side, her manager, Lupe De Leon said.
“It’s a tremendous loss for her fans around the world,” he said. “She’ll be missed. A great American singer. Her music defied category.”
James’ spirit could not be contained — perhaps that’s what made her so magnetic in music; it is surely what made her so dynamic as one of R&B, blues and rock ‘n’ roll’s underrated legends.
“The bad girls … had the look that I liked,” she wrote in her 1995 autobiography, “Rage to Survive.” ”I wanted to be rare, I wanted to be noticed, I wanted to be exotic as a Cotton Club chorus girl, and I wanted to be obvious as the most flamboyant hooker on the street. I just wanted to be.”
“It’s a tremendous loss for her fans around the world,” he said. “She’ll be missed. A great American singer. Her music defied category.”
Despite the reputation she cultivated, she would always be remembered best for “At Last.” The jazz-inflected rendition wasn’t the original, but it would become the most famous and the song that would define her as a legendary singer. Over the decades, brides used it as their song down the aisle and car companies to hawk their wares, and it filtered from one generation to the next through its inclusion in movies like “American Pie.” Perhaps most famously, President Obama and the first lady danced to a version at his inauguration ball.
The tender, sweet song belied the turmoil in her personal life. James — born Jamesette Hawkins — was born in Los Angeles to a mother whom she described as a scam artist, a substance abuser and a fleeting presence during her youth. She never knew her father, although she was told and had believed, that he was the famous billiards player Minnesota Fats. He neither confirmed nor denied it: when they met, he simply told her: “I don’t remember everything. I wish I did, but I don’t.”
She was raised by Lula and Jesse Rogers, who owned the rooming house where her mother once lived in. The pair brought up James in the Christian faith, and as a young girl, her voice stood out in the church choir. James landed the solos in the choir and became so well known, she said that Hollywood stars would come to see her perform.
But she wouldn’t stay a gospel singer for long. Rhythm and blues lured her away from the church, and she found herself drawn to the grittiness of the music.
“My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy,” she recalled in her book.
She was doing just that when bandleader Johnny Otis found her singing on San Francisco street corners with some girlfriends in the early 1950s.
“At the time, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters had a hit with ‘Work With Me, Annie,’ and we decided to do an answer. We didn’t think we would get in show business, we were just running around making up answers to songs,” James told The Associated Press in 1987.
And so they replied with the song, “Roll With Me, Henry.”
When Otis heard it, he told James to get her mother’s permission to accompany him to Los Angeles to make a recording. Instead, the 15-year-old singer forged her mother’s name on a note claiming she was 18.
“At that time, you weren’t allowed to say ‘roll’ because it was considered vulgar. So when Georgia Gibbs did her version, she renamed it ‘Dance With Me, Henry’ and it went to No. 1 on the pop charts,” the singer recalled. The Gibbs song was one of several in the early rock era when white singers got hits by covering songs by black artists, often with sanitized lyrics.
After her 1955 debut, James toured with Otis’ revue, sometimes earning only $10 a night. In 1959, she signed with Chicago’s legendary Chess label, began cranking out the hits and going on tours with performers such as Bobby Vinton, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers.
“We would travel on four buses to all the big auditoriums. And we had a lot of fun,” she recalled in 1987.
James recorded a string of hits in the late 1950s and ’60s including “Trust In Me,” ”Something’s Got a Hold On Me,” ”Sunday Kind of Love,” ”All I Could Do Was Cry,” and of course, “At Last.”
“(Chess Records founder) Leonard Chess was the most aware of anyone. He went up and down the halls of Chess announcing, ‘Etta’s crossed over! Etta’s crossed over!’ I still didn’t know exactly what that meant, except that maybe more white people were listening to me. The Chess brothers kept saying how I was their first soul singer, that I was taking their label out of the old Delta blues, out of rock and into the modern era. Soul was the new direction,” she wrote in her autobiography. “But in my mind, I was singing old style, not new.”
In 1967, she cut one of the most highly regarded soul albums of all time, “Tell Mama,” an earthy fusion of rock and gospel music featuring blistering horn arrangements, funky rhythms and a churchy chorus. A song from the album, “Security,” was a top 40 single in 1968.
Her professional success, however, was balanced against personal demons, namely a drug addiction.
“I was trying to be cool,” she told the AP in 1995, explaining what had led her to try heroin.
“I hung out in Harlem and saw Miles Davis and all the jazz cats,” she continued. “At one time, my heavy role models were all druggies. Billie Holiday sang so groovy. Is that because she’s on drugs? It was in my mind as a young person. I probably thought I was a young Billie Holiday, doing whatever came with that.”
She was addicted to the drug for years, beginning in 1960, and it led to a harrowing existence that included time behind bars. It sapped her singing abilities and her money, eventually, almost destroying her career.
It would take her at least two decades to beat her drug problem. Her husband, Artis Mills, even went to prison for years, taking full responsibility for drugs during an arrest even though James was culpable.
“My management was suffering. My career was in the toilet. People tried to help, but I was hell-bent on getting high,” she wrote of her drug habit in 1980.
She finally quit the habit and managed herself for a while, calling up small clubs and asking them, “Have you ever heard of Etta James?” in order to get gigs. Eventually, she got regular bookings — even drawing Elizabeth Taylor as an audience member. In 1984, she was tapped to sing the national anthem at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and her career got the resurgent boost it needed, though she fought addiction again when she got hooked on painkillers in the late 1980s.
Drug addiction wasn’t her only problem. She struggled with her weight, and often performed from a wheelchair as she got older and heavier. In the early 2000s, she had weight-loss surgery and shed some 200 pounds.
James performed well into her senior years, and it was “At Last” that kept bringing her the biggest ovations. The song was a perennial that never aged, and on Jan. 20, 2009, as crowds celebrated that — at last — an African-American had become president of the United States, the song played as the first couple danced.
But it was superstar Beyonce who serenaded the Obamas, not the legendary singer. Beyonce had portrayed James in “Cadillac Records,” a big-screen retelling of Chess Records’ heyday, and had started to claim “At Last” as her own.
An audio clip surfaced of James at a concert shortly after the inauguration, saying she couldn’t stand the younger singer and that Beyonce had “no business singing my song.” But she told the New York Daily News later that she was joking, even though she had been hurt that she did not get the chance to participate in the inauguration.
James did get her accolades over the years. She was inducted into the Rock Hall in 1993, captured a Grammy in 2003 for best contemporary blues album for “Let’s Roll,” one in 2004 for best traditional blues album for “Blues to the Bone” and one for best jazz vocal performance for 1994′s “Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday.” She was also awarded a special Grammy in 2003 for lifetime achievement and got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Her health went into decline, however, and by 2011, she was being cared for at home by a personal doctor.
She suffered from dementia, kidney problems and leukemia. Her husband and her two sons fought over control of her $1 million estate, though a deal was later struck keeping Mills as the conservator and capping the singer’s expenses at $350,000. In December 2011, her physician announced that her leukemia was terminal, and asked for prayers for the singer.
In October 2011, it was announced that James was retiring from recording, and a final studio recording, “The Dreamer,” was released, featuring the singer taking on classic songs, from Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Dreamer” to Guns N’ Roses “Welcome To the Jungle” — still rocking, and a fitting end to her storied career.
Posted in activists, consciousness, Music
The Reason our site has been blacked out for the last 24 hours.
First of all let us apologize for any inconvenience that the blackout of the last 24 hours may have caused. Normally you will not find this site in a state of direct political action. In this case we at the collective thought it important enough an issue to involve this site.
To start with I would like to point out a victory on a critical issue facing us all that was recently, today, brought under control by the means of public information being disseminated by the use of the internet.
Today this was published”
SOPA, PIPA lose support from lawmakers on Capitol Hill amid blackout
By Eric Engleman and Derek Wallbank, Published: January 18
Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — Six U.S. lawmakers dropped their support for Hollywood-backed anti-piracy legislation as Google Inc., Wikipedia and other websites protest the measures.Co-sponsors who say they can no longer support their own legislation include Senators Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, and Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat. Republican Representatives Ben Quayle of Arizona, Lee Terry of Nebraska, and Dennis Ross of Florida also said they would withdraw their backing of the House bill. Video
A number of major English-language websites around the world, including Wikipedia, have blacked out their pages Wednesday, to protest anti-piracy legislation under consideration by the U.S. Congress. (Jan. 18)
The Senate bill and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House are backed by the movie and music industries as a means to crack down on the sale of counterfeit goods by non-U.S. websites. Hollywood studios want lawmakers to ensure that Internet companies such as Google share responsibility for curbing the distribution of pirated films and television shows.Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, covered the “Google” icon on its home page today with a black box and linked to a website that says the bills may spur censorship and slow U.S. economic growth. Visitors to that website are urged to sign an online petition asking Congress to reject the legislation.Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia run by the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation Inc., shut the English version of its website for 24 hours in protest against the bills. The home page of the English website gives visitors information about how to call their elected representatives.Craiglist ActionCraigslist Inc., operator of the online classified ad website, steered users to a page with a black background and a message in white letters asking visitors to “imagine a world without craigslist, Google, Wikipedia.” The San Jose, California-based company provided visitors with a link to a page with online tools for contacting lawmakers to voice opposition to the Hollywood-backed legislation.Rubio said he switched his position on the Senate measure, the Protect IP Act, after examining opponents’ contention that it would present a “potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government’s power to impact the Internet,” according to a posting today on Facebook. Blunt said in a statement today he is withdrawing as a co-sponsor of the Senate bill.Ross said he was withdrawing support for the House legislation in a Twitter post today. Spokesmen for Quayle and Terry said the lawmakers would no longer back the House measure. Cardin said he couldn’t vote for the Senate bill in its current form, according to a statement Friday. The Senate bill is S. 968 and the House bill is H.R. 3261.
Obama administration rejects Keystone XL pipeline
By Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, Published: January 18
Video
Raising the stakes in a bitter election-year fight with Republicans, President Obama on Wednesday rejected a Canadian company’s plan to build a 1,700-mile pipeline to carry oil across six U.S. states to Texas refineries. (Jan. 18)
Posted in Uncategorized
awaiting the quickening emerging from the light within us all…
i am not the droid anyone is looking for and so i am deeply quiet and barely visible in the host of the CIA, spy game, pathos of control known as facebook and those other ‘social’ networks...
but i keep a presence there…
but i keep a presence there…
and i am watching, listening, caring and sending my most powerful prayers to those in the light,
to those who are striving toward balance and peace and walking their talk toward the future that is assuredly bright for those of us who have been letting the light in…
through wounds or windows, it shines to and from our core, that illuminating energy that is inherent in all things, infinitely.
and…as it is darkest just before the dawn, the seemingly overwhelming power of shadow is dispersing, will disperse and fade completely…
soon, very soon, we will be the solar storm that will reclaim, redeem and remediate our garden of eden planet from the corruption, contamination and confusion that have reigned, ruined and repressed too many for too long.
we are becoming the change that is needed and nothing can withstand the power of our love, one love…
know peace, share love, live in joy…the time is coming when this meme will not be denied or delayed any longer. be ready to shine, to share…
namasté
to those who are striving toward balance and peace and walking their talk toward the future that is assuredly bright for those of us who have been letting the light in…
through wounds or windows, it shines to and from our core, that illuminating energy that is inherent in all things, infinitely.
and…as it is darkest just before the dawn, the seemingly overwhelming power of shadow is dispersing, will disperse and fade completely…
soon, very soon, we will be the solar storm that will reclaim, redeem and remediate our garden of eden planet from the corruption, contamination and confusion that have reigned, ruined and repressed too many for too long.
we are becoming the change that is needed and nothing can withstand the power of our love, one love…
know peace, share love, live in joy…the time is coming when this meme will not be denied or delayed any longer. be ready to shine, to share…
namasté
Posted in Uncategorized
Plight of the Rural Farmer, Plight of the Planet
Kentucky in Winter’s icy grip….
We may not realize it, but the interstate highway system hides a multitude of sins, though a few cannot be adequately disguised.
From the interstate, the rolling hills of Kentucky’s farms, even at the height of Winter, appear lush and green. Upon closer inspection though, it becomes clear these are not the family farms that comprised the “backbone of America,” as we were taught in history class; these are corporate-sponsored farms. Turning onto the state and county roads of Kentucky’s interior, the sad state of America’s few remaining farms becomes clear, and the contrast could not be more glaring or stark. It is here we see the truth of the bleak and desperate situation our country’s few remaining farmers face.
Whereas the corporate-sponsored farmland appears as perfectly groomed as a suburban yard without the slightest remnant of fall’s crop, the rural farmland appears as a mountain range in profile, with the stalks of fall’s crop forming jagged peaks, white with death. While the acreage surrounding the corporate farmland appears loamy and verdant, the acreage surrounding the rural farmland appears seared, brown and brittle. Residents tell stories of how corporate farms were easily able to irrigate their crops, thriving despite the drought, whereas rural, family farms were unable to properly irrigate their crops, and so were ravaged by summer’s drought. Conversely, in early fall, the area received so much rain the ground was akin to a swamp in many places. Strangely, the corporate farms’ crops suffered few ill effects from the tumultuous weather, as most of them had already harvested by the time the rains appeared, while the rural family farms’ late summer and fall crops nearly drowned.
Though Kentucky is where I witnessed this austere commentary on the plight of the farmer, it was evident all over the country this year, from the grain belt in the Midwest to the cattle farms in the South. We have all been affected, directly or indirectly, by the strange meteorological and geological occurrences not only in our own country, but all over the world. Moreover, scientists have also recorded an unusually high level of activity on the surface of the sun in the form of solar flares and storms. Interestingly, scientists have proven a correlation between solar activity and tectonic activity in the form of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on earth (See Linda Tucker’s Mystery of the White Lions, 2010). Ancient wisdom, too, informs us “as above, so below,” and this year has provided us with a three-dimensional demonstration of exactly that.
The plight of the farmer, it seems, may be an allegory for the entirety of humanity on our planet. We have plundered the gifts of our planet, just as drought has ravaged rural family farms in Kentucky and elsewhere. Our very identities are bought and sold as commodities in this era of global commerce, just as corporations buy and sell farmland previously held by families for generations. Just as the rural family farm withers day by day, so too does our ability to live on this planet unscathed by the consequences of our actions. It is only by our collective action that we have any hope of changing the course of our future and restoring the natural balance to our planet. Whether we plant our own gardens, take part in community gardens, reduce our carbon footprint, or simply find our personal center and live our lives according to its guidance, we must all act if we hope to continue living on our planet.
Posted in Uncategorized
Totally Unwarranted Attacks on Artists and Journalists
I am compelled to comment on the recent attack of one of the most gentle and kind souls I know by a quasi political organization that basically exploits women and the culture of one of the most peaceful and beautiful cultures in all of history. In her defense I offer the following thoughts:
I have been watching the erosion of First Amendment Rights, the erosion of personal expression and the obsessive attack of right wing groups on a number of Journalists and Artists that have long maintained a vital and vibrant presence on the Internet. I have become aware of the United States Government using private contractors to track and profile almost everyone who comments on anything political or expresses an opinion about anything that is considered, in their opinion, a “potential for domestic disturbance”. This information is then forwarded to the US Department of Homeland Security
. I have watched dozens of friends work co-opted and their intellectual property rights be compromised.
This represents a disturbing trend to us here at the collective. We attempt to educate on a number of issues, in particular Sustainable Food and Water supplies, the dangers of Genetically engineered foods and their deceptive methods of avoiding their labeling in our common food purchases,
We further attempt to educate and make available some of the more beautiful blogs and commentaries about the role of the arts in the healthy
Image by gelinh via Flickr
development of local communities. You will find here links to many blogs that are oriented around these issues. We feel that this information should be readily available and in scholarly context.
In addition we attempt to make available thoughts and ideas that can be openly discussed in open forum and perhaps result in a collective sharing and learning experience. Our forums range from political to classic literature.
The rights of Indigenous peoples globally are extremely important to us here at our collective and are critical in obtaining a global understanding of the shared resources of our mother earth. The wanton waste and exploitation of these resources threatens the population of the entire planet not just the people, the entire population of all living things. This is unacceptable.
Image by GirlReporter via Flickr
We also have observed a particularly dangerous pattern in these attacks. If the blogger, artist or journalists respond in any way they are publicly slandered and liabled for simply responding to the attacks. These are well funded attacks and are in most cases easily traced back to “bots” or in other words, not real people but rather personalities fabricated by the surveillance companies engaged in this sort of attempt to discredit or subvert the careers of those attacked. This is totally unacceptable.
Our friends and colleagues from other cultures and faiths are coming under these attacks with increasing frequency. This is a tool of those who seek to be divisive and to discredit the faith the average person has in their system of government. The intent is to surrender your governments to multi national corporations that already are in control of the worlds energy, food, water, health and information sources. Hence the recent emergence of the “we are the 99%” movement that is organically growing and spreading globally. This is a natural reaction to Tyranny or perceived threats of Tyranny and Plutocracy.
Image via Wikipedia
Peace is not a polite suggestion it is a demand made on the behalf of those of us who do not value might over right, It is an inalienable right of all sentient beings on the planet earth. It is your right to expect the world of your children and grandchildren to have progressed toward a more secure an sustainable world. Native Americans often remind us of the fact that we cannot OWN the world or anything in it. It is in fact borrowed from our children for our stewardship.
It is common in indigenous cultures to understand morality and decision making in terms of the decisions and actions being taken be considered in terms of their affect and effect on the next seven (7) generations. This is wisdom lost in the financial markets, the corporate markets and sadly in most of our political institutions. We must wake up and remember these ancient ways, they are directly responsible for how we have come to be here. In the last 500 years of history we are in real danger of erasing the last 10,000 years of thriving and growth.
We are asking that you join in our call for unity, if you are on a different continent or from a different culture please consider working with us to develop a presence for your point of view and the history of your cultural ways and wisdom. Join in our attempt to offer a vehicle of unification globally. We are not so arrogant as to think we are the only way, we just seek to educate and share within the bit of cyberspace that we exist in. Your assistance and the willingness ot help expand our collective sphere peacefully and sustainably.
the ripple that spreads creates the wave of peace and harmony.
Posted in Uncategorized
The Monarch Butterfly Migration has Begun, Please Help
Image via Wikipedia
As many of you know, who have visited the farm over the years, we plant and cultivate the weed Milkweed. This is not an accident. It is the primary food for Monarch Butterflies. They are my very favorite butterfly and always have been.
I have posted earlier about the Monarch’s totally unique life cycle. This takes place during the migration, and just before, these particular Monarchs are the result of that unique life cycle, they are the migratory generation. This is one of the reasons I have always been fascinated by them. Please enjoy the following reposting and consider lending a moment or two of your time if you live where they will be passing through. We do, it’s kinda nice in a warm fuzzy sort of way. Peace be with you all.
Reporting on migrating Monarchs
First posted on Friday August 26, 2011 at Gardening with Nature.
The Monarch butterfly migration is under way and Journey South, the citizen science project that tracks them, wants you to report your sightings. Your observations can help the scientists get a more complete picture of how the migration is proceeding. You can sign up and sign in at the link above and start sending them your information.
The Journey South people urge us to make a report at least once a week as long as Monarchs are present. You can report anytime you see a Monarch. I don’t personally have any confirmed sightings of one of the butterflies yet, although I thought I might have seen one today. We were on State Highway 249 headed north and I saw a butterfly high above the traffic, as migrating Monarchs typically fly, and it was headed southeast. But I couldn’t see it well enough to be sure that is what it was, so I won’t report it.
The Journey South site has several maps which help to illustrate and track the migration. It is very interesting to check in on them once or twice a week just to see the progress of the fliers.
I’m not really expecting much from this year’s migration. I’ll be happy just to encounter a few of the beauties in my yard. If they do visit me, they will find plenty of milkweed on which to feed and to lay their eggs. I’m hoping I’ll have some of that action to report along the way.
If you haven’t already signed on to Journey South, I encourage you to do so and take part in this important project. The bits of information which you can provide may be just what the scientists are looking for.
Posted by Birdwoman
Dear Tsyen
A remarkably beautiful and insightful image from our dear friend Tsyen Teoh. An artist, gentle soul and fellow pilgrim on the path of peace and light. Enjoy.
Posted in Uncategorized
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