This Fall a group of seekers visited the Coastal Redwoods in Northern California. The learning and impact was glorious. In this post many people contributed their love of the Earth and the Redwoods.

Prairie Creek State Park
Photograph by Ken W. Brown

We have been given the responsibility to be guardians of all these sacred places, like the redwoods, and to keep them safe and holy. But so many life forms are in peril of going extinct because of our greed and our belief that this is “our Earth”, and we can do whatever want with it.
Donna Taylor

Today, only 5 percent of the original old-growth coast redwood forest remains, along a 450-mile coastal strip.
Save the Redwood League

Photo by Diane Kaplan

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.
Do justly, now.
Love mercy, now.
Walk humbly, now.
You are not obligated to complete the work,
but neither are you free to abandon it.

from The Talmud

Redwood Spirit Tree
Photo by RMaya Briel

The beauty and rarity of this Albino Redwood and it’s ability to find a way to live and be useful to the forest astounded me. It does not create it’s own chlorophyll and is fed by the trees around it. In return it takes on the heavy metals for the others. This lesson of interdependence and being yourself is worth pondering.
RMaya Briel

Photo by Diane Kaplan

Being with the Redwoods touched my soul. I feel the Redwoods within me.

Diane Kaplan

Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
Ken W. Brown Photography.com

And the Redwood said:  “I have seen humans eating cookies”

Human: “It is an advantage of being human”

And the Redwood said: “We have creatures and plants living on us
Roots that are connected to the Earth
And our crown is bathed in the sky.
We have the rain and the fog.
We are not full of cookies,
But we are full of life.”
Channeling a Redwood – Donna Taylor

A very old and wise maple tree nestled in the Redwood Forest
Photo by Robin Sanislo

I was thinking of writing a poem about the trees, but I couldn’t because, really, the trees themselves are the poems. An epic poem.
Annie Kitaeff

Redwood Burl
Photo by Annie Kitaeff

Shadows in the Redwoods
Photo by Annie Kitaeff

Being in the Redwoods, I became aware of the urgency of life, the enormous power of the life force, the precious nature of life, and the need to live in harmony with other life forms. As teachers, the Redwoods are unparalleled.
Annie Kitaeff

Survivor
Ken W. Brown Photography

I had come to the Redwoods to help them, and yet was so exhausted that I didn’t feel I had the physical strength to do so. I did what I could. However, at one point, I just felt that I needed to lay down. I laid on the forest floor and fell into a mystical, sleep-like state. I felt the redwood trees healing me with their roots growing into my heart as I lay on my back on the forest floor. I wished to give to them, but they gave to me so much.

I said to my friend, Larry, I didn’t have much strength to bring because I was so physically tired. He said to me, “But you brought your truth and that was your strength”.

Dr. Jedidiah Krauss

Humboldt Redwood Tree Prayer
Ken W. Brown Photography.com

Human: Grandfather, Grandfather
You said I was small.
But you weren’t just talking about my height.
Grandfather, Grandfather
Teach me not to be small any more
Help me to remember who I was

Redwood: “One tree never stands alone
One tree never has all the answers
We are all one root system
Let the sky and the Earth talk to you
It is almost like a singing”

Human: I am the forest.
I am interconnected with all living things
I am unique and can contribute to the whole
I listen with my whole body
I am the sky
I am the Earth
Grandfather, Grandfather
It hurts to feel this good.

Human:  Lawrence Wade
Channeling a Redwood – Donna Taylor

Redwood Root System
photo by Veronica Smith

Let the Roots Run Deep – Lyrics and song by Lawrence Wade

View on full screen. Shared by Veronica Smith.

Life is a big circle and many forget that when any part of our ecosystem is gone, it diminishes who we are and our potential.
Jim Cotton

Sunrays
Ken W. Brown Photography.com

Breathing with the trees
Joining their breath.
I am with you and you with me,
woven together…humble, patient
Be

Barbara Goodman-Fischtrom

Photo by Barbara Goodman-Fischtrom

Sunlight through the Redwoods
Photo by Annie Kitaeff

Jim Cotton and Kim Puckett live on less than an acre of land along the foggy coast of Humboldt County, California. Below they share their story, by living their commitment to the Earth.

My father passed on the values of being self sufficient, not being wasteful, and growing organic food. As a biologist, I value the natural world, if we can have less impact and reduce our carbon emissions, the planet stands a better chance of surviving. I am going to do everything I can to help.
Jim Cotton

I like to have good food. Food is fuel, but it is more than that to me. It is one of the glories of life. The tastes, the textures, the smells. Also, I really like getting my hands dirty. Working in the soil and producing my own food, it satisfies something deep inside of me. I like the satisfaction of saying to myself, “Okay, this is for dinner”. I know what has gone into it, since we grow everything organically. It is a good feeling.
Kim Puckett

Several types of lettuce

Broccoli and kale

Grow what you like to eat. If you have a small space, I would not grow broccoli because it takes up a lot of room. I would grow lettuce because you can rotate it quickly. Also, part of why I love growing food, is being able to share it with other people.
Kim

Designing and building is my personal art form. Some people are musicians or painters. Working with my hands and my mind,  is my creative outlet. The greenhouse expands our season; allows us to have higher production; and to grow tomatoes and peppers along our foggy coast. I have decided to go with a glass greenhouse because it is sustainable. You don’t have to re-skin it with plastic every year. This greenhouse is generated from 50 sheets of recycled sliding glass door glass which I gathered over 5 years. The wood for the greenhouse came from a local mill. The wood is from a fallen cedar snag, so no live trees were cut down to build this structure. Also, working with a local sawyer, I got the wood for a fraction of what I would pay at commercial lumberyard.
Jim Cotton

Inside the greenhouse, we went with raised beds made out of recycled cinder blocks because wood tends to rot in 5 years. Before filling the bed with compost, we lined it with hardware cloth to protect the plants from gophers. Then we filled the beds with a soil mixture that was made locally from composted plants and cow manure.

We grow our tomatoes by twining them up with string because it increases production. It keeps the air flowing around the plants better. The vibes in the greenhouse feel good and I’ll bet that the air is a purer form of oxygen .
Jim

Heirloom Tomatoes

I save the seeds from the heirloom tomatoes, so in a way they will come back next year – part of a cycle. Unfortunately, you can’t save seed from the hybrid varieties. The heirlooms don’t have as much disease resistance, are odd shaped, and will not last as long as a hybrid. However, the taste of an heirloom tomato can’t be compared to even a home-grown hybrid tomato. Heirlooms are misshapen, but they are beautiful. The hybrids are supposed to be the “perfect” tomato. At the end of the season, I thank the plants before I pull them up.
Kim

Garlic harvest (variety “Music”). Pure Joy. Kim is on the right with Kate Christianson. Look at all the garlic on the ground!

I plant garlic here along the coast and inland at Willow Creek. I grow 13 types of garlic, including varieties named: Turkish Giant, Music and  Zemo. When we harvest garlic, we hang it up to dry. The best garlic is replanted and I exchange garlic with other growers.  Once I have planting stock separated out, then the rest is for eating. I love garlic, and it can make the blandest food taste phenomenal.
Kim

Solar Panels on the roof

This 9 kilowatt system is converting solar energy to electrical and feeding it back to the electrical grid. We haven’t got a bill from the utility company for a year. The energy for this system is supplying all the electrical needs for our home. In the future, we want to buy an electric car because our goal is to be divorced from fossil fuels. This is our way of reducing our carbon footprint.
Jim

Worm Juice

Worm Bin

This is a cattle watering trough that we converted into a worm bin. All of our kitchen scraps go in here. All you do is dig a hole, dump in your kitchen scraps, then turn your bin with a pitch fork. The real benefit of this bin is the “worm juice” that slowly drips into the bucket. We dilute the “juice” 1:5 with water and then put it on our plants and you can just about see them “jump out of the ground”, they grow so fast. It is a wonderful nutrient.
Jim

This flower bed is my way of not having to mow. As you can see, it is good for the pollinators. We never have to replant this bed because the flowers re-seed. Once it gets established, especially the calendulas, poppies, borage, and sunflowers, they self-seed and choke out the weeds.
Jim

Adjoining our property is what is called a CSA or community supported agriculture. They have 7 acres under organic cultivation. I believe in CSA’s and donate the water from our well to them for a dollar a year. The CSA has worked out to be really beneficial for the community. People can buy food that is grown locally and not shipped here from out of the country.
Jim
                   

Blueberry Patch

This is our blueberry patch, I got tired of mowing the lawn, so I planted the blueberries. We’ve got over 40 plants and several varieties that produce fruit throughout the season. During peak production, we get a gallon a day of blueberries. We freeze most of them. There is nothing better than having a blueberry smoothie in the middle of winter.
Jim

Fig Espaliere

I love figs and these do well in a coastal environment. Figs tend to grow tall and overshadow everything. So I am getting these trees to grow sideways rather than up, using “espalaire” technique. This allows us to have row crops in between rows of fig trees. This is a learning process for me and I have no formal training.
Jim

I prune all of my trees so that I don’t have to get on a ladder. I have bent the branches in such a way that they get more light and produce more fruit. I use the “scions” (cuttings) from other varieties and graft those on to the existing trees. Some of our trees have six different types of apples grafted on to them, including King, Honeycrisp, Fuji, and Mutsu. It is way of getting a variety of apples without have a lot of trees.
Jim

I don’t like canning, it is a lot of work. But the middle of winter, I am going to open these jars of roasted tomatoes and I am going to remember when I harvested them. When I put the sauce over pasta, it is going to taste so good! We also can plum jam and  apple juice from our trees, pickled beets, and apple sauce. Also, I make baba ganoush from roasted eggplant and freeze it.
Kim

Frozen blueberries and beans

We vacuum seal all our food that is frozen. In addition, we dehydrate apples, pears, vegetable for backpacking.

Kim Puckett and Jim Cotton