Category: da rez blog

my corn is doing good. rain at the right times and planting in new ground is responsible for that. most of it is about 4 foot tall. the indian beans are climbing up the stalks. still a long way to go before harvest time. too many variables to deal with yet. wont know how much I get until I pick it in early august.

the wind broke one of my tent poles on my last trip. another one was cracked. I ordered replacements. they have the reorder number on the inside of the tent bag. I called the company and ordered  replacements. they were delivered to my house yesterday. that tent was too nice of a tent to toss. ordering two replacement poles for 20 bucks was cheaper than spending over a hundred for a new tent.

got a call from the meat locker yesterday. they said all of our pork was ready to be picked up. I was surprised that included the cured pork too. we have ordered whole hogs before and get the fresh pork and cured pork separate. we went after our pork. it filled up our freezer.

we took a round about way to the meat locker. we had Andrew with us. Samuel had to stay and take his nap. we hit a few garage sales on the way. Andrew has gotten to where he hollers ‘garage sale’ when he sees the signs on the corners. he got that from hanging around his misho. he looks for toys.

seen where they are housing some of the kids separated from their parents at the border in topeka. I still think the underlying reason for going after the kids is racism. our borders are more open to anyone that aint brown. we are not demanding a wall across Canada.

the people, and they are people not ‘aliens’, asking for asylum just want a place safe for their families and to be able to provide for them. most of the people in this country came here for the same reason. our president is trying to demonize the displaced people by comparing all of them to criminals. he has more compassion for dictators that kill their own people.

we are expending a lot of time and resources on people driven from their homes and are only charged with misdemeanors. why don’t we spend that same amount of energy in making our country safe from real threats. station those national guard at our schools to protect our school kids. we are more apt to be killed by a fellow American than anyone else.

I take interest in these kids because I went to boarding school. I know what it is like to be separated from parents. many of the kids there like me came from broken homes. because of economics many young mothers couldn’t afford to feed and clothe their kids. many of the kids I went to school with ended up abusing alcohol and/or drugs. some ended up in prison. many died violent deaths.

I hope nothing like that happens to these kids. the kids separation is just a political ploy by a desperate man and his cult followers.  no wonder we withdrew from the united nations human rights council. we say we are against torture but we are hurting these kids and their parents.

our presidents wife went to visit the kids being held. she wore a coat that had the words ‘I really don’t care, do u?” well yes many of us do care.

 

I bought a new straw hat at the flea market in Denver last weekend. it has a wide brim and a string on it to prevent the wind from blowing it off.  I thought it would be a good mowing hat in the heat we get. it takes me an hour to mow my big yard.

I tried my new hat out yesterday. it was time to mow again. I wanted to mow while it was cooler. the grass had grown since the last rain. I figured I better mow before the next rains come or it would be real tall. only problem is I couldn’t wear my head phones with it. I gotta have music when I work.

I picked  another handful of cherry tomatoes. they ripened on the vine. I already picked some a few days ago. they taste good. I didn’t get any ripe ones last year because of the heat. I thought it would be the same this year. glad I am getting something. my other ones have fruit on them but aren’t ripening yet.

my sema plants come up by themselves naturally. the seeds land everywhere. I transplant them into rows. I only keep so many plants.  I usually have some left over because so many plants come up. I don’t like to see them go to waste. I try to give them away so some one can use them. I gave some away again this year. I have about a dozen plants left. I am trying to locate a good home for them.

mary went with my sister to pick cherries yesterday. they asked me to go. I said no. back in my days of bumming around  I had to pick them for a dollar a bucket. at the time I needed to make some money.  I didn’t make much money at that. i barely covered my lunch and had a few bucks left over. mary canned the cherries she picked. we will have some pies or jam out of that later.

I should be getting a call from the meat locker this week. the hog I bought is being butchered. I will be getting the fresh meat soon. it will be another week or so before I get the cured meat like bacon and ham. my freezer will be full. I wont have to buy meat at the grocery store for awhile. I will have better tasting meat than the grocery store too.

I dyed a lot of deer tails to use as trim on my roaches. I hang them on wire hanger with a clothes pin. I put them in the rafters of the overhang of my tool shed’s porch. that has always worked. the wind blew one hanger off. the dogs got ahold of the fallen tails. they chewed them up. I lost 3 blue deer tails. I saved the rest. I will have to find a new place to dry them.

I charged the batteries of my Nikon camera. I planned on taking pictures when I went to Colorado. I didn’t even take the camera out. since I have the camera ready to go, I will take pictures of my roaches I made. I only posted a few of them on this site. I need to get the rest of them up.

I am almost finished sorting the hair for my latest roach. the base is made and I have the inner row of deer tail trim done. once I have enough porky hair sorted I will tie it and finish this roach. gotta get busy on it.

when we were at the mile high flea market I spotted this necklace.  it was a sun/moon design. it kinda caught my attention. mary said if I wanted it, she would get it for me as a fathers day present. I asked the guy in Spanish how much. he replied in Spanish. I thought he said five dollars. I told mary 5. he said in English “25 dollars”. my Spanish made him talk English.

my kids texted me wishing me happy fathers day on sunday. so did one of my nieces and one sister. that made me happy. I had to think of the kids at the border. our country is separating them from their fathers and mothers. I don’t agree with that. we are the most powerful country in the world and we are locking up kids to spite the parents. we should be more humane than that.

I heard many people on tv saying that our country don’t do that, referring to the separating children from their parents. I thought hey you don’t want remember your history.  this country used to do that to indian children. it was to ‘save the indian’. maybe we should say we only do that to brown people.

before I left on my road trip I had to have a tire fixed. a symbol of a tire on my dashboard lit up. I checked my tires with an air gauge. one tire was low. I aired it up. it was alright for one day then lit up again. I took it to the place where I bought the set of tires. they fixed it for nothing.

I noticed many police on the road home from Denver. a few stopped some cars. before I left home on this trip I was stopped in Mayetta by the middle school. the police guy asked me if I knew how fast I was going. I said no. he said 30 in a 20 mile an hour zone. he was sitting there at the school knowing that some would probably be speeding. he let me go. I saved $116 he said.

I don’t understand speed traps. all they do is catch every day law abiding citizens during a lapse. seems if the police really want to catch some one doing something wrong maybe they should put their efforts in catching bad guys.

got a text this morning asking if I want a medium sized snapping turtle. I said yeah. it is the first one I got this year. most years I would already have a few by this time of year. maybe they aren’t moving as much because of the heat.

we did get some rain last night. I didn’t know if we would. I went out and watered my sema. it should grow with this rain. more is expected. that’s good. my crops are growing.

it was nice to have a short getaway. it is just as nice to be home. we just got back today at 1.

we drove to indian springs on Saturday. I wanted to soak in the hot springs. it took me awhile to get used to the hot water. I haven’t soaked in some time.

I did the cave package. there are 3 hot pools in there. clothing is optional. I went in naked because everyone else was. didn’t want to look like a tourist. i remember back in my hippie days i would go to a nude beach north of san Francisco. i was straight off the rez but the hippie crowd i hung around with all went to this beach. they would take this indian with them. i think cuz they thought it was cool to have an indian as a friend.

glad i made it back to indian springs. I would soak then cool down then soak again. I would get to perspiring a lot from the hot water. that cleaned the toxins out of my system. I probably soaked about 3 times. I would go from pool to pool. i felt good after soaking.

we headed to central city to gamble. i had my picture taken with this cowboy. they had street entertainment going on. i didn’t win while gambling but only lost 20 bucks. i write that off as my entertainment. once i got my juice we headed back to Denver. there were no openings in Idaho springs. they had some kind of bluegrass festival going on. we got a room in Denver even tho i wanted to camp.

we went to the flea market we go to when we in town. it took us 4 hours to walk thru it. didn’t find any real treasures. it was nice to walk that long in the cooler weather. here in Kansas i work up a sweat in no time. a few days i had to change my t shirt twice a day when i was working outside.

we bought some fresh cherries, blueberries, apricots and oranges. i got my smoked turkey leg. that is what we ate for lunch, supper and on the trip home.

we got done walking the flea market about mid day sunday. i told mary i was done. i soaked, gambled and hit the flea market. i suggested we hit the road. we made it as far as wakeeny. it is halfway between Denver and the rez.

we pulled into a koa. i wanted to set up our tent because i didn’t get to camp in the mountains. we set it up and the winds came. they were so strong they broke one of the tent poles. i didn’t feel like going anywhere so we upgraded to a cabin after we took the tent down. the cabin had a/c, wifi and cable t.v. that was nice.

we packed up early and went into town to get breakfast. once we hit the road it didn’t take long to get home. it was a good trip. we haven’t been on the road in some time. now back to my routine.

some of my per cap hit the bottom of my pockets. that means some road time. we usually don’t go anywhere on weekends because we have the grand kids. the boys gonna be with their mom for samuels 4th birthday. we celebrated with him last night at a place called bonkers. the grand kids loved all that climbing.

we are heading out to Colorado. gotta see some mountains. after all this hot weather I want to camp in some of that 70 degree weather at higher altitudes. my tent and air mattress are packed. I got my walking shoes too. I want to do some hiking in the hills.

I want to soak in the hot springs. the place I go to often is called indian springs. indians used to soak in the springs. now we are charged to do that.

I enjoy soaking in the springs. I usually go into what they call the cave. it is cut into the rock of the mountain. inside are three pools that each have a different temperature. I like the hot one. after soaking I feel a bit younger for the rest of the day.

after mary and I soak we like to head to the old mining towns to gamble. every now and then we win some coin that pays for the trip. one casino I go to has the best buffalo wings around. once some lady worker spotted us and had to tell us her boy friend was indian. aim guy and all that.  then she comped us some dinners. she suggested the wings. I agreed with her. they were damn good. good enough that whenever I am in town I gotta have some of them.

I want to head to the big flea market they have in Denver. like I need more junk. never can tell what kind of treasures I will find. once I scored some nice hardly worn levis for 6 bucks. cant beat that. it takes us about 4 or 5 hours to walk the whole 80 acres. they have fresh veggie stands. we usually buy some fresh berries. I might have to have a smoked turkey leg.

if I have a chance I wanna head to one of the few native owned restaurants. they are known for their  indian tacos. I would rather have green chile stew or mutton stew with fry bread. its always kinda funny how if there are other indians there, they check you out. now and then a few will nod or say hello.

when we travel we like to stop along the road side and soak our feet in the water. the mountain streams are probably cold now from the snow melt. it is invigorating to soak the feet in that cold water. I really feel awake while traveling after that. if my feet were tired they no longer would be. I remember one time my mother was with me. she asked ‘aren’t we gonna soak our feet.’ she got into our habit while traveling with us.

I am a creature of habit. I like doing the same things when I head to the mountains. nothing wrong with that. I enjoy doing them. don’t see any sense in stopping because I have done that already.

the temps were in the 80s yesterday. I used that as an opportunity to cut the suckers off my corn. that leaves one main stalk. all the plants’ energy goes into that one stalk instead of several.  i get better corn that way. we only got 12 rows done. one of my other sons said he would finish what we didn’t get.

my corn looks good. it is about waist high. I am not surprised because I planted it in new ground. every thing grows better in new ground. I move my garden every now and then because of that.

while cutting suckers off the corn I noticed my indian beans were doing good. they are ready to climb up the corn stalks.  I seen that my crooked neck squash didn’t come up at all. I planted 8 rows of them. I probably will have to go over to the amish store in Missouri and buy some of their squash. I did last year. they sold me squash that weighed up to 20 pounds. I dried 10 of them.

the weather guy says no more rain til next Tuesday. I am a gardener. I have to keep up with what the weather is going to be like. I am glad my rain barrels are full. I will use that rain water to water my plants. the temps will be in the 90s for the next 10 days.

I had my lab and doctor appointment today.  I have quarterly check ups. my blood sugar was 7.2.  not good but not bad either. I will work to lower that to under 7.  last check up I had 6.8 I think. . my blood pressure wasn’t bad either. I don’t have another lab and dr. appt until September. I am hoping my numbers will be even better by then.

I set my tent up today to see if it had all the parts. all the parts are there. I will leave it up today to make sure it is all aired out. I plan on camping in Colorado. it may be cool at nights if I am in higher altitudes. I wont care. we have had some hot days here in Kansas.

per cap tomorrow. I wont rush to town to cash it. it is pretty much spent. i will have a few dollars left to spend. i already went to the gift shop to take advantage of their 30 % off sale. i bought two pair of Pendleton socks. i like how comfortable they are. my wants are pretty simple. i don’t yearn for bigger and better. give me comfortable and i am satisfied.

mary is taking a sattken making class at the rock building. i am sorting hair for my latest roach. seems like i sort hair all the time. i like how roaches look when they have solid colors in them. i gotta get busy.

we got rain last night. I am grateful for that.  I laid in bed listening to the rain come down. that sound was like music.  my 4 rain barrels are full again. I have 220 gallons of rain water to water my plants and animals.

the storm brought strong winds with it too. it knocked out electricity on parts of the rez. wonder if the tribe will put people up at the casino and give them meal tickets. (it is an election year) we have about 4 or 5 power companies here so not everyone is out of electricity. my grand daughters are with us since the day care is closed.

the winds also knocked my corn down. I aint worried. I remember that happening before. an old guy said stay out of the garden. the corn will stand back up on its own. it did. I am glad my corn got the rain. the rain will be very beneficial to my corn. it should have a good growth spurt. my indian beans too. I haven’t noticed my crooked neck squash yet. maybe after this rain.

I got my ballot for tribal elections in the mail yesterday. I filled it out already and will send it in. I doubt that much could happen or promises made in the next month or so that would cause me to change my vote. like most indians my mind is already made up about some people. nothing they could do would get my vote.

too bad I aint got an ‘I already voted’ sticker. that way some candidates don’t have to waste their time shaking hands with me. and they could save the phony smiles. I try to see candidates how they are all the time, not just during the short period before elections.

I got a kick out of some one promising bigger per caps. I thought we risked $55 mil we already had to ensure our per cap was gonna be bigger. maybe the promise should be ‘I will make sure that money makes it happen’.

I had to laugh about a bro from another tribe. he said we got our trump too. indians always get a trump. the kind of politician who borders on being a tyrant. they can do anything they want because they know no one will say a thing or can do anything about it. that’s too bad for indians.

I am hoping tribal members seriously think about the people they vote for. we always have some that want to get rid of people after they on the council. if we made better choices in who we elect, there would be no need to get rid of them.

gotta work on a roach.

the grand kids  had a sleep over Saturday night. that was fun. they keep me young. I relish my time with the grand kids. I loved my kids but grand kids are different. maybe its cuz you get another chance with little ones after yours are grown up. I guess I still have some teaching to  do.

I am still hoping for rain. seems they predict a slight chance of rain and we don’t get it. this weather is real warm for this time of year. its been a hundred degrees or close a number of times already. temps have been in the high 80s and 90s the last several weeks and its not even summer yet.

I wonder how hot it will be when the potawatomi gathering is here at the end of july. I am thinking we gonna have some uncomfortable guests if this heat keeps up.

it has been hot outside. kinda makes it hard to work out there. I have been wanting to cut the suckers off my corn plants. that puts all the energy into one main stalk. get better ears of corn that way. I will get out there and cut the suckers off when it is slightly less hot. like early morning or around sun down.

I have been watering my sema plants and the veggies in my grow boxes.  I lost a few plants in this heat. I am using the rain water from my rain barrels. I am getting exercise by carrying the water can full of rain water back and forth between the barrels and my plants. don’t know how many trips I make watering the plants.

my rain barrels are getting about empty. need rain to fill the barrels up. I use the rain water to water my dogs and chickens too. they are going thru a lot of water during this warm spell. I keep their watering containers full.

today is commodity buffalo day. last month all they had was burger and liver. we must have weird buffalo that don’t have steaks, roasts or jerky. or else maybe elders get no respect by getting what is left over. fort injuns get the prime cuts. today we got  roasts and burger. I wonder what a buffalo steak tastes like.

my virus protection on my computer runs out in a few days. I am thinking ‘pa ma per cap’.  I will get it renewed when my per cap rolls in.  gotta get chicken feed and dog food too. most of my per cap is already gone. oh well. I appreciate it while it lasts. I lived on this rez when we had nothing. we appreciated what we had.

I better have a little per cap left. the gift shop always has a sale around per cap. I want some of those Pendleton socks. some one gave me some as a give away during one of our dances. the socks are thin and comfortable. I want a couple more pair. I have a collection of Pendleton coffee cups. I seen there are 3 new cup designs. I want one of them too.

I have been wanting to go soak in  hot springs. the closest ones are west of Denver. we go there often because we can go gamble in the hills at the old mining towns. maybe I need a trip there soon to get away from this heat. I get my old folks check and my per cap. maybe I will.

 

my corn is doing good. most of it is over two feet tall. well ahead of the old adage ‘knee high by the fourth of july’. I usually till in between the rows to kill the weeds. my tiller finally gave out. r.i.p. old tiller.  I had it for a good ten years that I can remember. maybe longer.  this indian gotta wait for a big score to get another one.

I heard thunder in the distance this morning. I was hoping for rain. it would do the corn good. my corn isn’t wilting but rain would make it grow some more.  we didn’t get the rain. it was south of here. still hoping we get some rain.

I put sema down when I heard the thunder. that was one of my first teachings. we had a rock we used to put it on.  my misho taught us to do that when my brothers and I were young. as soon as we heard it thunder we had to go put sema down.  I have done that over the course of my lifetime. now I have taught my grandsons that. I am hoping they teach their grandsons.

when I used to be bumming around the country I thought of home when I heard thunder. for some reason it always reminded me of home. sometimes I wouldn’t hear any for a long time. I missed it when I didn’t. it felt good to hear it when I did.

last week I seen a flyer bout coupons for farmers markets. they have been giving them out for a couple of years but I wasn’t aware of that. this year I finally got signed up as a senior citizen. we get $5 vouchers to buy veggies at the farmers market. the vouchers total $25. I raise a garden but I will use the coupons to buy things I don’t grow.

we had to go to Lawrence this morning. my grandson Andrew plays T-ball. he asked if I was going to last weeks game. I didn’t so I made it a point to go to todays game. I seen him turn around a few times to look at us to see if we were watching.

glad he can play in a league. my brothers and I had to play in a hay field by our house. don’t wanna sound all rez but we had to use hub caps for bases and home plate. hay bales marked fair territory and anything over some were home runs.

after Andrews game we went to the farmers market in down town Lawrence. I like to cruise mass street when I am in lawrence. it has one of the most vibrant down towns i have seen for a town its size. we used the previously mentioned coupons to buy some fresh tomatoes and green onions at the farmers market.

forgot to mention I gave away a jar of canned nenwezhek. we suppose to give away first pickings. sometimes I forget to do that but i try to follow that.  I wanted to make it right so I can eat the nenwezhek I put away this year.

the grand kids are having a sleep over tonight. we will have 4 grand kids running around. that should be fun.

I have this plant that comes up everywhere in my yard. I decided to look it up. it is called purslane. it has six times more vitamin e than spinach and 7 times more beta carotene than carrots. it has an omega 3 fatty acid, is rich in vitamin c, has magnesium, potassium and riboflavin. don’t know what some of those things are but they suppose to be good for you.

I picked some and put it in with the veggies I use in  juicing. I added some to a salad too.  I stripped the leaves off a bunch of plants that I purposely left in my grow boxes. I froze them to add to soups and stews this winter. if its good for you and its free I want some for later use.

I got my car back. it now has new brake pads on the front and back. I also had to have new rotors on the front. I was hoping I caught my brakes before the rotors gave out. I didn’t. the guy that fixed my brakes used to work for an auto dealership that charged $140 an hour for work. he saved me a few dollars.

now I know I have new brakes all around on my rav4. this indian had to take it for a cruise soon as I got it.  I have said I will drive that car til it drops. like old man andy. I like not having made a car payment for the past almost two years.

I have been going to watch my sons play softball.  they play in a league in topeekie. I get to visit with my Kickapoo family who have sons on the same team. I sit with my sisters, nieces and nephews. I have family everywhere. it was my son joes birthday yesterday. my nieces sang happy birthday to him as he was at bat. I got a kick out of that.

I was joking with some of them about some of the softball  players.  I said some of these guys are older than me. I gave up sports years ago. I was never into the competitive thing. the only one I want to be better than is me. I walk, garden and  do chores for my exercise. it keeps me going.

I have put a lot of work into my yard and garden. that work must be playing off. my sister commented on it. she said my yard looks nice. I liked hearing that. I have lost a few pounds. I burned off the weight by working outside.

I had a few laughs after hearing about some of the promises that tribal council candidates are making. it is really too bad that they don’t keep these promises. what is sad is some people actually believe them. I still say we should have elections every few months. some people are so nice when they run for office. wish they could be like that all the time.

gotta work on a roach today.