This Years Garden

This year, Shusli and I got our garden in late. We got a good amount of produce out of it, but no where near as much as we could have. We also produced this mini-melon. It wasn't supposed to be a mini-melon, but there you go. It was tasty and the chickens loved it, but it was the only one that grew.

Our corn failed because we planted to late I believe, and it got but infested. What we did get we passed on to our chickens.

We got lots of tomatoes, green beans, and chard. Some zucchini and other squash, and one pumpkin. We got about 80 pounds of grapes from our grape vines and made juice (the best grape juice I ever had) from it all.

Our apples didn't do well, but at least we no know we have an apple tree. Last year it didn't even flower. This year we didn't see it flower, but we suddenly had fruit. There is some sort of worm infestation and I have to clean it up come this winter when the poor thing is dormant.

Our chickens have slowed down in their laying. They are only a year and a half old. We are thinking of getting more next year and even some eating chickens.

RECENT ACTIVITY

I built this rain catchment system under Shusli's suggestion. We bought 7 barrels in early summer, but I was thinking you'd need a Ph.D. to figure out how to make something work like she wanted. I finally got off my ass and watched a couple of videos and found it to be rather easy. Took a weekend and about 8 hours altogether, including trips back and forth to Home Depot.

I also built a compost bin of pallets with 3 sections. We keep it in our chicken camp.

I also tore apart the area in back around our lilac's. I removed a bush I had no idea what it was, then cleared out all of the blackberries and such to find we also have a volunteer hazel nut tree back there. The nuts are bitter so we are thinking of cutting it down and planting two others besides the lilacs.

I will be working on tearing about the side yard and possibly grinding stumps so we can make a nice little area over there that Shusli has some good ideas for.

I tore apart our garden and planted cover crop seeds last week. We'll see what happens. We never did anything like that before.

GRAPES

We had a good year for grapes, about 80#'s. We then went wine tasting and found out there are better ways of growing the things that we are going to attempt next year.

The Longest Walk 2

Shusli and I met Dennis Banks some years ago when he was speaking at the PSU Native American Student Union. During that lecture he talked about doing "The Longest Walk 2."

Shusli and I talked with him about the walk. Shusli said she would like to help him out with it. They corresponded via e-mail for a while, and then we went to the Siletz Powwow. We ran into an acquaintance, RV, there and when Shusli told him she was working with Dennis Banks on "The Longest Walk 2," RV went into a tirade that went something like this:

"AIM was nothing but a bunch of poverty pimps. They took money from Indians and partied on it. Dennis Banks has 16 illegitimate children and can't go through (I don't remember the state mentioned) because he'd get arrested since he never paid child support on those children. AIM also received a million dollars from Moammar Ghadaffi meant to help Indians in their struggles and they used it on limo rides and parties." That isn't verbatim, but it went something like that. More on RV later.

Shusli sent Dennis an e-mail asking if his 16 illegitimate children and not paying child support was true. It didn't matter to her so much that she wouldn't help with "The Longest Walk 2," but she wanted to know if RV was lying. Dennis never responded and never contacted Shusli again.

How Native Men Treat Native Women and Children, Part 1 of Way Too Fucking Many!

My wife, Rhonda "Shusli" Baseler-Johnson, has been involved in a conversation with a group of Native women on her facebook. It is a discussion of the hero worship of a well known Native man, now passed on, who was a self-aggrandizing fucking asshole, and how such Native men treat women and children. This conversation set my wife and I on fire. These are conversations not heard in Native country often but should be on the forefront, ESPECIALLY THE WAY NATIVE MEN TREAT WOMEN! Here is one of thousands of stories that taught me to hate being Indian:

My wife, Shusli, and I, were a part of a Native American radio collective called "Mitakuye Oyasin" some years back.

Shusli had found a news documentary called "Rape on the Reservation." She wanted to get a program produced around the survivors of rape that were portrayed in the program and discuss the issue of rape in Indian country.

I explained this to one of my other co-hosts after the show (Shusli was unable to make it). This particular co-host told me on occasion that he was told by a Sundance chief that he didn't need to dance, which seemed to insinuate some sort of ultra-holiness. He also used to talk a lot about "matriarchy." His version of matriarchy seemed straight out of the RM playbook and seemed to have NOTHING to do with women. However, knowing he always talked about matriarchy, I figured he would understand about Shusli wanting to produce a program about "Rape on the Reservation." Here's what he told me:

"I have an objection to doing a show on 'Rape on the Resrvation.'"

"You do? What is it?" I asked.

"I don't want people to think all Indian men are assholes."

I was so dumbfounded I couldn't respond. How could this alleged matriarchy supporter say such a thing?

I told Shusli later about being so dumbfounded by that statement and not being able to respond. I did think of a response later which I don't recall ever telling him: "This isn't about Indian men. It is about Indian WOMEN being RAPED BY INDIAN MEN."