Friday, June 27, 2014

On Guns and the Bypass (for Rosemoon)

I gave a very old man a ride to Asheville once the day after Thanksgiving in my old doo-doo brown 1979 Pontiac Catalina. He was hobbling down 25/70 very slowly in the rain on the bypass. I couldn't bear to see it, so I pulled over and asked him where he needed to go. Asheville. I was going anyways. He had his hand inside his coat holding something which I couldn't see, presumably to protect it from the rain. I said to the man, "sir are you armed?" He squinted, rain in his face, and loudly replied, "What?" I repeated myself one or two times, very loudly. He said, "no ma'am, I ain't armed," to which I politely informed him that before I would give him a ride to Asheville, I needed to see what he was holding inside his coat. 
He pulled his hand out to reveal a light bulb. "I found it on the road. It's still good" he told me. 

I told the man I would give him a ride to Asheville, but then he would need to find another ride home.

During the ride, I asked him how his Thanksgiving was. I gathered that it hadn't been much of a to-do, what with his wife being old and bed ridden. I couldn't verify if he celebrated Thanksgiving at all. When we got to Asheville I asked him where he wanted to be dropped off. He told me he needed to go to the Sheriff's station downtown to get his gun back. As I dropped him and his light bulb off, he attempted to insist that I take $5 from him for gas. I refused thinking he might need that later. 

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Saint Johns Day update, small scale

I was awakened last night by a beetle trying to crawl through my ample head of hair. At least it was not a wood roach, of which I occasionally find a few in the house. At least it was not a cockroach, which thank the god of all things nasty we don't have here. At least it was not a wolf spider spinning a web in my hair like what happened to RM a couple summers ago. Just a small beetle, trying to get somewhere.

I am on a food growing kick for some reason. I can't stop planting more and more seeds. It's really scratching an itch.

I am putting together samples of the Xiao Yao San tincture with an official letter explaining my philosophy and methodology for the process of making this formula, which includes cultivating some of the ingredients. These samples will be distributed to acupuncture clinics in Asheville. I am hoping that local practitioners will want to use this locally produced product to meet their Xiao Yao San needs.

I saw a man walking on 25/70 yesterday on the Marshall by-pass. He was walking rather briskly and was carrying 5 or 6 rifles over his shoulder.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Mowing on Thor's Day (just when you thought the Thor tributes were on summer vacay...)

This evening, as I mowed through the jungle which is also called my yard between rain showers , I stopped after a time to refuel. As the engine quieted I heard the rumble of Thor. I couldn't tell if it was the deeply wild and prehistoric sounding beating of turkey wings flying to roost up in the woods, or the thundering rumble of another storm over beyond Franklin Mountain. It was both. I remembered it was Thor's Day. Glory. The frogs sang extra loudly, and the wet heavy smell that hung in the evening air permeated all of me like a memory. The perfume of the woods in June.
Poppies in foreground overlooking garden stretching up into cove. Thor has been good to us this year. 

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Dang gui

This is dang gui (Angelica sinensis) thriving in my garden. The dang gui root is harvested after the second year of growth, dried, soaked in yellow rice wine, and then cooked in a wok over an open flame. It is then combined with 7 other herbs to make the Xiao Yao San traditional Chinese herbal formula. The cultivation and production of this formula is my primary project on the land here.