Reznjun

the tv weather people are predicting snow today. more so out west of here. we are maybe only getting a trace. we will get a cold front though. temps will be below freezing the next two nights. that prompted me to pick or dig up what we had left in the grow boxes.

I got this box of hot peppers. they are habaneros. not all turned color. you can pick them anyway. in my case, I would prefer to eat them instead of letting the frost kill them. there are a few jalapenos too.

I got maybe a 1/3 box of Anaheim peppers. I haven’t roasted them. might just cut them up for seasoning. all my peppers grew late because the heat was zapping the plants.

I dug up the sweet potatoes. didn’t get very many. nor were they very big. I will get a meal or two out of them. again better than letting the freeze kill them and they go to waste.

I also got a big box of onions. can never have too many onions. I planted a lot of them. we cook them with every thing. we will cut up the greens and freeze them. we use them a lot in cooking too.

this past week I filled out a form to have wood delivered to me. I am 66 years old, am diabetic and have arthritis. hope that is enough. in the past, I cut many loads of wood for my house and for ceremonial use. I can probably still do it but I would be sore for days afterward.  a nurse once told me ‘no one should have to live in pain’. amen to that. now I hope I can kick back and have someone else cut it.

they haven’t delivered any wood yet. I haven’t cleaned the old stove pipes out anyway. I will get to that before winter hits. I usually do that a few times a year. they aren’t very bad. the cold snap isn’t suppose to last but a few days. I have enough wood left in the basement to make a fire if I have to.

if we only get a trace of snow I wonder if that is enough to blast the little bunnies in my garden. we could never hunt rabbits until the first snow fall. then we would walk all day while hunting. nowadays some just drive around. most work they do is rolling the window down. that aint hunting.

and if we only get a trace will there be enough to wash my face in the snow. I have done that most of my life. even when I was out bumming around the country. I would do that whenever I seen the first snow.

a week or so ago we had 90 degree weather. now we talking bout possible snow. its like the old saying ‘if you don’t like the weather in Kansas, move to missouri’. or maybe I got that wrong. something like that.

we got a steady rain for a few days recently. a common enough thing for fall. this rain made little soldier creek run again. it running didn’t last long.

it crested but left pools of water. now the animals have fresh water. the few standing pools of water were stagnant. even my pond got more water though it is far from being full.

it was nice to see water running in the creek bed again. I miss that. it ran most of my life but not for the past at least 5 years, maybe longer. i still wonder if someone up stream is stopping the water from running.

the temperatures dropped into the 30s last night. it didn’t kill my pepper plants. I will pick the red habaneros today. I will freeze them.

the forecast is a killing frost is coming sunday and Monday. that should kill the rest of my pepper plants and my indian beans in the corn field.  I will pick the green habaneros before the frost hits. I have a lot of them. I was hoping my indian beans would make it but probably wont now. I will also dig up my sweet potatoes.

mary made some tortilla soup. she used some of the meat from the roosters we cleaned. the soup was better than mine. and I make good tortilla soup. I never had tortilla soup until we took a trip to cancun one year. I had some at a hard rock cafe. I said I had to try making it myself after I ate it. now it is one of my favorite soups. after corn soup or wild rice naturally.

I got my flu shot yesterday. it wasn’t time for my second shingles shot yet. that will be next month. I try to do as much prevention as I can. I don’t want to be sick. I have to get back to walking. we laid off during our fall dance.

I have a few people that are making trades with me. some for a roach and some for indian dice. I like to trade. I have said frequently that indian artists cant afford other artists work but they can trade for equal value. I have made trades over the years. I will continue to trade for other peoples art.

I got a jury summons for next week. I might not have to go. there is a number I call the night before. it will tell me if the case is called off or if I do have to show up the next day. I hope it is called off. I don’t think all get the same kind of justice. the wealthy and privileged get off while common people have to pay a price. many of the natives I worked with behind the walls did more time than others for the same crime.

cant wait til k u basketball.

 

I will get back to making roach head dresses again. I will spend all fall and winter working on them. my goal is to have enough to have a stand at some big pow wow next spring or summer. or maybe I will travel the circuit now and then. cop some road time.

I might have enough porcupine hair to make over 150 roaches. if not that many, at least over a hundred of them.  I stock piled porky hair before I retired. I bought pounds of hair from trappers. some have sold to me for years. we cut out the middleman. the supply houses paid them less than I did, and would charge me more if I bought from them. my website made that connection for me.

I knew I would do nothing but make roaches when I retired. I have already made a dozen. I couldn’t guess how many I will make over the winter. maybe 20. who knows I work at my own pace.

while I have pounds of porcupine hair I still need to buy deer tail. the hide and fur company I buy them from aren’t selling them yet. November quality is the best to buy. I have enough deer tails to last me until then.  by the time I run out, this seasons tails will be on sale.

my website finally made it to the first  page on google when you search ‘roach head dresses’.  I quit looking on the other search engines after page 15. that don’t matter. I have sold every roach I have ever made. my roaches sell themselves when people see them.

many of the images for roach head dresses on page one of every search engine are my roaches. if you click on the image some list my site. I get free advertising on every search engine then. I have seen a number of sites that have glommed onto  pictures of my roaches. I get no credit for my photo though. so what, the same pictures are on my page.

after 40 years I have roach making down to an art form. if you do something long enough, you get good at it. once someone asked me how much I had in materials for one roach. others ask how long it takes me to make a roach. I reply they paying for my art not my time or materials.

another thing I get is ‘what about indian price’. I say this is indian price. I know others sell roaches for a lot more than I do. I would put my quality of roach against theirs any day.

I still take pride in making roaches. I try to make the best ones I can. I wont try to cut corners or use inferior materials. If I put my name on a roach, I want it to be a good one. now I will spend the next few months making roaches besides my other artwork. I will be busy.

 

 

been busy at our fall ceremonials for the past four days. now it is officially fall season to me.

I had to make time to do my daily chores.  chickens and dogs have to be watered and fed every day. the eggs have to be brought in every day no matter how busy I am.

now that dance is over we will clean the rest of the roosters we were given. we fattened them up some more. we had soup made with one of the young roosters we cleaned.  it was good. we took several of the other ones we  cleaned to the fall dance. they went into the soup. now it is time to clean the rest. I will save on feed once those six roosters are cleaned and in the freezer.

this week I can get back to finishing up the roach for my grandson. I have no doubt I will have it done by the end of the week. if not, so what. I will get it done. after that I will go back to making two woodland style roaches. I already made the bases for them.

Andrew was all happy about his fancy dance bustles, arm bands and dance sticks. he had to play with them a few times. we are waiting on his southwest relatives to make the aprons for his outfit. I will make him some leggings and use deer dew claws and toes for his dance bells. mary made him some moccasins. it will all come together. pow wow season is bout over but by next season we will have his whole outfit done.

some where along the line I have to start making some indian dice sets. I have a few orders for them already. once I start on something I get on it. then I get into a routine and I can finish off a number of them. I need to make 5 sets of dice. well actually six pair. I need a set for me. I gave mine away.

it looks like I will have to mow the yard one more time. the grass has grown with the bit of rain we had. sooner or later it will be time to park it in the shed for the winter. I am keeping this mower out of the weather. I know that will make it last longer.

the grow boxes I planned on building are still waiting for me. I have the oak flooring boards I bought at a garage sale. I have enough to make all three rows of grow boxes I built to be even. I am sold on grow boxes. I prefer to have veggies in them instead of my field garden. the field soil seems to get packed by the end of the season. that don’t happen with my grow boxes.

I am hoping my hot peppers make it before a killing frost. I have a lot of habanero peppers still growing. they are big but haven’t changed color yet. some did, when they turned red I picked them and put them into the freezer. I am hoping my indian beans make it too. I can see the green vines in the corn field. all the corn stalks are brown but the beans are green.

my two mile walks got  stopped by our fall dance. I danced for 3 days so that should take the place of my walking. I will log some miles this week though. need to do that for my health. the food was so good at our fall ceremonials. I have to walk to burn some calories off.

back to the routine I guess.

this is a picture of Eleanor Mitchell or kinikwe. she was the sister of my grandpa Joe. we named one of  my grand daughters after her.

many of the women in those days wore long dresses. I remember seeing many women always in long dresses as I was growing up . I know one lady who never wore a pair of pants in her whole life.

I put my work away until after our fall dance is over. I can finish Andrews roach then. he is anxious to get his outfit done.  I enjoy watching him dance because he has fun. if he wants to dance I will support his decision. what misho wouldn’t.

on two separate occasions I told different people some thing I heard about crickets. they were about to kill one. I said if you do, it will come back and eat holes in your clothes. I got weird looks like I never heard of that. it was just something I remember hearing them old guys say when I was young. there used to be a story about everything it seemed.

we had to go to town yesterday. we stopped at the casino to eat the cheap breakfast. I waved at or spoke with at least 15 people.  I was like a politician except I really meant it.  we ate and left. no gambling. I am not making an effort to quit gambling but I have sharply curtailed my gambling the past few months. cant afford to lose what money I have so I save it for other things.

we took our 3 water jugs to town to have them filled. we got 15 gallons of water for about 5 bucks. it will last us a coupla weeks. we get it for drinking water. I can taste the tap water if we use it for our coffee morning. I want to enjoy the taste of the fresh coffee beans not taste the chlorine. we aint trying to go green but that is a side result. we use to fill up our recycle bin with plastic water bottles. we don’t anymore.

it will be time to drain my rain barrels. I don’t use them to water any plants any more. I do use them to water my dogs and chickens though. I don’t know when I will get the deer hides from the meat locker. if I get them before it freezes I will use the rain water to soak the hides in. I can make over a dozen drums from those hides.

haven’t had time to finish my latest book. I have read over half of it so far. I get busy with so many things. I still don’t get people who say they would be bored if they were retired. who has time to be bored.

yesterday was the first day to buy tickets to K U men’s basketball games. yep its that time of year. sorry football team. I am wanting to watch k u  basketball.

I bought tickets to two games. hell yeah. I haven’t missed an opening exhibition game in about 20 years. wont miss this year either.

I like to get tickets to another later game to see how much the team progresses in a months time. I bought tickets to the Louisiana game. maybe because I like gumbo. but more likely because they were cheaper than the other games.

tickets to league games will go on sale in December. they are priced higher than non league games. I do want to go to at least one league game. that is allen field house at its best. I was there for the triple overtime against Oklahoma. I was also there for the big comeback against west virginia. we set the record for loudest indoor crowd noise that game.

usually I buy a k u jersey at the first game. don’t know if I will this year. the price has gone up on jerseys. they cost $75  now. the field house generally only sells the jersey of one player. I have most of the jersey numbers of the expected stars on this years team.

the names of players cant be put on jerseys because of ncaa rules about amateurism. my withey jersey can pass for quentin grimes’ and my wiggins jersey can pass for de sousas’,

I will go to the tunnel before games end to high five all the players. done that for years. gotta keep it up. the trick is to get there early, like about 6 minutes to go in the game.  the first exhibition is usually a blow out anyway. if I don’t get there early enough I cant get in the first row to high five the players.

since it is nearing basketball season I will have to upgrade my cable package.  there isn’t much on that is worth watching even with all the channels that you can afford. I watch the current political happenings on cable news more than I watch regular programming. I am forced to upgrade so I can watch k u basketball games.  I wont get some games even then.

soon it will be officially basketball season. I will break out my Jayhawk gear and wear it. I wear the k u brand often. to all the k u fans–rock chalk. to the k state fans–sorry not this year either.

Andrew is in his second season of soccer. he likes playing. I finally went to see him play yesterday. he scored a goal. the indian section cheered loud for him. he knew his family was there.

while I was growing up I never watched soccer.  it was a game played by the rest of the world.  it is getting bigger in this country.

on the way home from soccer we stopped at a few garage sales. the boys seen two toys they wanted. I asked the woman if they worked. she said yes, her husband and daughter played them all the time. we got them home and seen one had a wire missing. we charged the other all night and it don’t work. aint the first time we were ripped off.  we don’t expect or get honesty from some of our national leaders but garage sale deals should be sacred.

the autumnal equinox and harvest moon were last week. that means it is now fall. I wait for our fall ceremonial. then it is officially fall for me. I am still waiting on my peppers, indian beans and sweet potatoes. that will be the last things I harvest this year.

I haven’t walked to the timber to check on paw paws. maybe this week I will. it will take the place of one of my two mile walks. I walk more than that in the woods. it is usually a harder walk too going up and down creek banks. I might take my .22 with me and hunt for squirrels. haven’t ate one of them in some time. they go great with wild rice.

I will look for dice counters they use with indian dice. I know several places to look for the trees the counters come off of. I will carry my back pack I bought in peru to put the counters in. I want enough for several sets of indian dice. I look for wooden bowls at garage sales, flea markets and auctions to use with the dice too.

often there are wild turkey feathers lying around in the timber. if I see any I pick them up. someday I will take them when I make a trip to the southwest. the pueblo indians use them a lot.

mary will be done with the belt we worked on before fall dance. she did a real good job on it. I helped her do the feather work. I have done that work on three other belts. grateful to the ones that donated feathers.

I will be busy with our fall ceremonies. wont get to my work until after we are done. I have plenty of work lined up. I will make the grow boxes I wanted. I recently purchased some used lumber at a garage sale. I have a few orders for indian dice sets. I gotta finish my grandsons’ roach. etc.

 

 

for the past 6 weeks we  fatten up the young roosters we had. I didn’t want to make cleaning them an all day chore so we just did six. we finished cleaning them in a couple of hours. we could have done all of them in half a day.

i doubled up on feed every day because we had twice as many chickens to feed. now these roosters will feed me. my feed bill will go down once i butcher the rest. good thing i sell eggs to cover some of the feed costs. cleaning chickens is getting to be a lost survival skill. not many do that anymore.

we made some soup with some of the chicken we just cleaned. we added home made egg noodles to it. it tasted good. I knew it would. we used a food saver and froze the rest. we separated it into bags of drum sticks, breasts and wings. we also had a bag of necks, backs and gizzards.

my grand son wanted to watch us clean them. he gets a kick out of how they jump around when we chop off their heads. he wasn’t here so we recorded it for him. seeing the chickens jump around with their heads chopped off reminded me of some leaders we had.

i haven’t been to any of my grandsons soccer games in Lawrence this season. we plan on going Saturday. my sons are going too. Andrew will have his own cheering section. i wish the k u football game would be at a later time. i would have gone to it while in town. it starts just as Andrews game ends. then there would be a drive across town and having to find a parking space near the stadium.  so no football game.

the Brownville flea market is going on this week end. i will miss it Saturday because of the soccer game. i cant go sunday either because of a ceremony. i will have to wait until next spring now. i probably have enough junk anyway.

i started on Andrews roach. i have the base almost done. the deer tails i will use for trim are already dyed.  i will make  a double row of front hair. sorting the hair is another thing i have to do. it wont take long to make this roach. i been doing this for over 40 years.

i haven’t had time to read my new book. i have been watching the news while working. that must be a statement about tv programming. i would rather listen to news than watch some of the stuff on the networks.

today is indian day or something. i will be kind to any indians i see today.

 

kinda getting back into a routine after a few road trips. we are finishing up the belt we are working on. sewing the feathers on is all that is left to do. that wont take long. I think the belt will  look real good.

we got our two mile walk in yesterday. we have been walking at least 6 miles a week for the past 5 weeks. my doctor said to walk more. yeah.  at least my lab tests came back in normal ranges.

I have to start on my grandson’s roach head dress next. he keeps asking if I made his roach yet. its been awhile since I made a roach. his will be the first one I do.  he wants porcupine rosettes too. he likes to call them ‘indian sunglasses.’

I got my book ‘fear’ in the mail. this is the fourth book I will have read about this administration.  I am several chapters into this book already. lately I haven’t had time to read very much. I will finish it though.

I keep up on politics. I read whenever I get a chance. I watch the news from several channels. I wouldn’t be very informed if the only news i got was from the local paper and tv station. they give a narrow glimpse of what is going on in the bigger world.

I was reading yesterday and my grand daughter came jumped on me. that stopped my reading. gotta make time for the kids. i can read anytime.  they play when they want.  I don’t want to chase them away. if they want to play I have to play. glad they have time for misho.

just got my donation in time to get my ‘cece rocks’ t shirt. that is the name of my grand daughters team. every year the Kansas City Downs Syndrome Guild has a walk as a fund raiser. it is called ‘step up for down syndrome’. their link is www.kcdsg.org.  deadline is at noon for the t shirt with her team name on it. donations can still be sent in later but you cant get her teams name of the shirt. we hope to meet her goal.

I picked some habanero peppers from my grow boxes. couldn’t miss them, they turned red. I can see them when I get out of the car. I picked enough to make a good batch of hot sauce. I will get more it looks like. I may freeze them. I still have several jars of hot sauce we canned. I put it on almost everything I eat.

my roosters are fattened up enough. we will clean them this week. my feed bill has gone up to feed them. it will be worth it when we make the first batch of soup. I can clean a chicken in no time. I have done that so many times over the years.

got chores to do. meds to pick up. and I have to go to town. where to begin.

we had our own caravan to sugar creek yesterday. mary and I took Andrew and Samuel with us. joe and sas took our grand daughters kinikwe and miamikwe with them. we made it a family outing.

I have been to sugar creek about 5 times. each time I came in from a different way. I relied on gps to get there this time. the last time I went there with gps guiding me I was taken over 20 miles of graveled roads. not so this time. it was all pavement.

we arrived just before supper. we had time to walk down the trail to see what they call the indian well. according to the sign by the well, it was dug and rock cased two years before the potawatomi arrived. the indians didn’t know they were going to be forcibly removed from their homelands but plans were made for their arrival to sugar creek. the well was used during the decade potawatomis lived at sugar creek.

we walked along the trail where the nun the potawatomi called ‘the woman who always prays’ lived. she later was canonized as a saint. no doubt she witnessed many of the potawatomi dying around her regularly. there probably was nothing she could do but pray.

before and during supper I was able to visit with the ones on the caravan I knew. I knew about 10 of them. I also visited with almost everyone else gathered at sugar creek. they were all friendly and open to talking.

I was glad my son and grand children were able to be present where some potawatomi history occurred. I want them to know about  history. often I hear people recite potawatomi history that is incorrect. they must only hear what they want. or perhaps they are averse to saying ‘I don’t know’.

I heard some say the prairie band were on the trail of death. they don’t know that the ancestors of what became the prairie band came from the Chicago area. the indiana potawatomi were the ones forced marched on the trail of death.

various bands of the potawatomi intermarried over the years.  a percentage of the prairie band do have citizen band blood in them.  it is true that some of the prairie band roll  have ancestors that were on the trail of death but it is from their citizen ancestors.

we were among the last ones to leave sugar creek yesterday. the caravan was on the road for about a week. I imagine they were anxious to get home. our grand kids wanted to play on the playground. it took some doing to get them to leave.

we stopped at the Haskell pow wow. we didn’t stay long. they were having a giveaway that was taking up some time. the boys were tired so we left. by the time we got home we all went to sleep. it was a good day trip.