Roses into Buffalo

Blog, Other Animals | June 20, 2012

If it can’t have its mother’s milk, the next best thing for a buffalo baby is fresh goat’s milk. That means getting a goat. And so we were blessed with Adrianna. She has tried her best to eat all Jean’s roses, though she has to compete with the massive ground squirrel population which has the advantage of being able to run free.  She has managed to make inroads into some aspen and willow as well before being rounded up, protesting loudly.

 She gives nearly a gallon a day. Jean is to be found morning and evening, head leaning against her side, patiently milking one teat, then the other. Adrianna races to her milking station and eagerly puts her head in the stall, in effect saying milk me milk me milk me please! As Jean milks away a look of great contentment comes across both man and goat. It is a peaceful time.

As soon as the pail is full and Adrianna is empty, we pour the milk into a rather large “baby” bottle and within minutes 2 quarts are down the gullet of a demanding little bison mouth, open and pouting in its urgent desire. Aspen and willow and roses into goat; goat into goat’s milk, goats milk into buffalo…..

Roses into buffalo is one of the millions of variations of the endless truth – we are all part of one another. We see this once we step back to allow a wider perspective.

Living here by the Grand Tetons we see the winter snows fall on the Tetons, sometimes ever so gently, sometimes in howling blizzards. In the spring that snowmelt rushes by us in South Leigh Creek, watering the wildlife corridor that runs through our property, giving life to the trees which are home to communities of bird and insect, plants and fungi (and morels). It gives fresh cold oxgenated water to the native cutthroat trout  as it rushes down to meet the Teton River; then the Snake River, then the Columbia and the Pacific Ocean and back again to the mountains in the form of summer thunderstorms and long slow autumn rains and then the winter snows.  Our well water comes directly from the mountains and we and the animals become part of the cycle as the mountain water circles through our blood.

There‘s a different kind of cycle here too. We have reason to believe that Adrianna was not happy in the home from which she came.  Because we were given the gift of a white buffalo calf, Adrianna now has a loving home in which she is clearly very satisfied (except she would prefer more roses thank you).  So the gift of a calf to Earthfire became a gift to Adrianna,  and Adrianna gave the gift of rich nutritious milk to the calf who loves it and everyone is happy and thriving.  

And furthermore… Introducing Adrianna!! by Jenn Rein

Never would we describe Adrianna as “ornery”. Her sweetness and vocalizations are very endearing. She adores attention from humans, and now even accepts it from her charge – the baby bison lays against the fencing that separates them, and the creature that is nourishing her daily returns the favor by leaning and then finally succumbing and laying down in friendship. She has a spark to that goat personality of hers – an individualistic way of handling her current situation that perhaps means that she didn’t belong in that small herd. Maybe the perception of her being a difficult goat was due to the fact that she had already redefined how she wanted to be treated – and the family that had her before simply didn’t catch on.

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Do Trees Communicate?

Blog, Deep Ecology, Ethics & Whole Community | June 6, 2012

We have a divide in our country between science and art; a divide that seriously affects our ability to understand ourselves and the natural world around us, with equally serious consequences. Great science and great art enhance and support one another. They are two ways of understanding the way our world works, seen from different perspectives. The artistic is intuitive; a more poetic less precise way of grasping a truth before we understand it with the rational aspect of our brain. Thus poets and artists have always sensed the connectedness of all living things without really understanding how – just that it was somehow so.  From these intuitions can also come ethics. Because we feel the connection, it  leads us to treat living things with care. This can save our butts so to speak. As per conservationist Aldo Leopold, a land ethic is a useful guide to behavior with respect to nature. It encourages us to take no more than we need and to interfere as little as possible, so we don’t screw things up without knowing it, before it’s too late. Thus ethics are extremely practical, helping to counteract lack of knowledge and our human tendencies towards arrogance (what we know is all there is to know).

From the opposite angle of science and careful research we begin to understand how things are interconnected, which makes it possible to take more precise actions and make policies about how to preserve things. A great example of intuition and science supporting one another is coming to fruition in our increasing understanding of the plant world. The following video of how trees communicate is a great illustration, starting from careful science and shading into the near-mystical. An excellent combination since that is how our world seems to work. From the Earthfire perspective, the wild animals under our care serve as a portal into a wider understanding of the wonder and interconnectedness of all life, including trees. Anything that supports that understanding is part of our mission. Enjoy the video.

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