09.19 & 20.08 Ike effects/The lights are on!

09.20.08 Update - THE LIGHTS ARE ON!
Time to stop loafing and get back to work!
This is Sassy doing what she does best ..

Well, our little sabbatical from electricity has come to an end. Dave and I both jumped when the power was restored last night. Let me tell you -- that first cup of brewed coffee this morning was KILLER! So, we're back at it with gusto.

I've just redone all the sale item pages so that they reflect both the "then" price and the "now" reduced prices. Hope you'll all take a few minutes to flutter thru those pages and find something you positively can't resist.

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LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS

I always wanted to be a pioneer woman. Not the kind that lived in town and wore all those petticoats .. more like the Ma on Little House On the Prairie. Or maybe it was just that I thought it would be nice to be married to Little Joe. Ha!

In any case, Dave and I are not quite pioneers but the effects of Ike have surely hampered our idea of modern life. We still do not have power and it may be weeks before we do. Now that our freezer is safe (we moved the whole thing and plugged it in at a friend's house 45 minutes away who never lost power) and we had the good fortune to find a generator at normal retail price, we're actually doing okay. A couple of days ago we saw the news for the first time since Ike's landfall and the pictures from the coast are just horrendous. But you expect people on the coast to have confrontations with hurricanes from time to time. Not that I am not sympathetic, but I think of it as the price you pay for all those days and days of sunshine, beachcombing and beautiful sunsets. But living this far inland we don't expect the kind of impact that Ike has had on so many lives.

Collectors in the Ohio area are telling me storm stories that match the ones being told by people that live in my town! Downed power lines and trees, roof damage - Ike remained quite powerful for a very long time! It just goes to show you (and I think we all need to be reminded from time to time) that despite all our all our technology and knowledge, we are still not in charge and there are some things we just can't amend, fix or avoid.

Apart from my concerns about the safety of my family (they are) and the hope that everyone's home remained intact (they did), I do find the power and sheer size of the storm fascinating. To think that a weather disturbance that started off the coast of Africa wound up in my corner of Texas, blasted us for hours with hurricane force winds and still managed to wreak havoc hundreds and hundreds of miles further inland is just amazing to me.

So are my hummers. I know I am probably boring you all to tears with this but they continue to surprise and delight me. These photos were taken on Sunday when the wind was still blowing so we put the feeders on the deck rail. It's a good thing hummingbirds are not the size of raptors -- I think we'd all be in trouble! Their perserverance in the face of difficult circumstances is inspiring to me. I guess they are getting ready for their flight south and they continue to consume massive quantities of nectar (two gallons a week!) as more and more "northern" birds come thru our area on their way to their winter home. Whoever is down there feeding them - buy LOTS of sugar!

Oh YEAH .. and then there's ZUNI SPIRITS!

Since we have our new, shiny RED generator we are able to respond to emails and orders now but we're only online about half the day. There were a couple of questions about why I didn't post the "then" price with the "now" price on our current sale. With the impending hurricane I opted for the quicker method and it was purely about convenience on my end. I do have all the original prices so I will likely go back and put the "then" price ahead of the "now" price so that you can see what good discounts we're offering on the remaining sale inventory.

We do have new things to show you but we're holding off publishing those in hopes we can move more of the sale items. I like to keep the site compact and easy to navigate. So BUY UP, people! Who needs gasoline and school supplies and dental implants when what you REALLY want is a couple of new Zuni fetishes! (grin!)

We continue to pick up new collectors and that's always a joy. Welcome to those of you who just "found" us. We hope to contribute to your pleasure and fun in collecting Zuni fetishes.

And to those of you who have known us since were but wee-tiny folks (okay, maybe we weren't wee or tiny but we were YOUNGER!) your continued support and friendship means more than we can say. We feel blessed to get emails from OH, AZ, NY, CA, NM, PA, HI, FL, NJ, the UK, Japan, Portugal, France, Ireland, etc. expressing concern for our safety in the wake of the hurricane. Thank you so much! There are so many others who weren't as fortunate and have lost everything. They surely need our prayers and concern.

Okay, I'm outta here, I have to go wash our clothes in the creek. JUST KIDDING!

08.28.08 New stuff at noon!

ZUNI SPIRITS NOONER UPDATE!:

We're posting new Zuni fetishes to the website at noon (CDST) today and we hope you'll take a look. This will be our last posting of the month but we'll be back around next month with more beautiful Zuni fetishes. We've also restored a sale section to the site, so be sure to check that out as well!

* * * * *THE JOURNEY OF THE BEARS ... HAS BEGUN:

Here are some group shots of some of the fetishes that have arrived on their trip toward Nepal. We cannot thank you enough for your participation!

Click to view larger

IT'S NOT TOO LATE! If you would like to donate a fetish to this worthy cause, please send it carefully wrapped to Zuni Spirits, P. O. Box 337, Grapeland, TX 75844 by the end of October. We are hoping for 100 donations so more are needed! Thank you for your consideration!

* * * * *PHOTO BREAK ...:

Yesterday, even though I still had writing to do, I needed a break. And despite the fact that the heat is stifling there are times when I just have to get outside. So Maggie and I went for a gator ride through the woods.

In the last couple of weeks we've had over ten inches of rain so I was thinking I would find some great mushrooms to photograph. (I have an amazing photo-file of fungi! But I won't bore you with it here! Ha!) I found a lot of them but most of them had already grown gangly and some had been toppled over by the creatures who snack on them. (Most likely (ugh!) feral pigs.) I did find one, intact, not overgrown bonafide-looks-like-a fairy-house mushroom. I guess it wasn't the tasty kind but it sure is cute.

It was the beauty berries, though that were stealing the show. Callicarpa americana (American beauty berry) grows with wild abundance in our woods. It's a beautiful shrub that produces the most gorgeous magenta berries in the late summer. The berries (birds love 'em!) hang on even after the foliage (reportedly a favorite of deer) has dropped off. Reportedly, this plant even repels mosquitos! So it looks like the beauty berries are more than just beautiful!

There's been a hummingbird population explosion at our house! Most of the time we can see at least 20 (okay, some are blurs!) so I know there are at least twice that many sharing our woods. We have eight feeders all around the house and I have to refill them about twice a week, going thru at least two gallons of nectar a week! This was the first year our hostas bloomed so we didn't realize how much we and the hummingbirds would enjoy them. Between them and the bumblebees, there was constant daytime activity.

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Okay .. that's it for August! See you next month and thanks, as always, for your continued interest! Dave and I wish you all the best!

NEW Zuni fetishes @ Zunispirits.com - 08/20/08 NOON

SECOND POSTING OF AUGUST!

Greetings! Thank you so much for the responsive answer to our "please sign up for this e-blog thing". Most of our old mailing list has now re-enlisted for the new Zuni Spirits e-blog. And we thank you! So here's hoping it works perfectly to let you know that we're adding 16 new Zuni fetishes to the website at noon (CDST) today. Here's what is coming up: There are some nice stones in this showing and carvings by Lena Boone, Hayes Leekya, Calvert Bowannie, Herb Halate, Bernard Homer, Jr., Carol Martinez and others. We hope you'll tune in. * * * * * THE JOURNEY OF THE BEARS I am so pleased and grateful to announce that we now have promises of over 70 Zuni fetishes which will be enroute later this year to Nepal. Your generosity and compassion for the young girls sponsored by the Madhav Ghimire Foundation is making this possible. Dr. Jeffrey Kottler, founder of the organization will be traveling to Nepal in December. And with him -- 100 of your beloved Zuni fetishes which will be distributed to the teachers and students in celebration of their achievements and to encourage them to continue their studies. These young girls come from the poorest of families and often the cost of educating them is too great a burden. Many times, the young girls are sold because the family simply cannot afford to feed and house them. For one hundred dollars, the Madhav Ghimire Foundation can pay the tuition, purchase uniforms, books and supplies for one school girl for a year. Just that nominal amount of money will provide her with an education and a more secure future for herself, her family and ultimately, her community. We encourage you to read more about this important volunteer organization and assist them in their efforts. Dr. Kottler has promised to send us photos of the recipients with their Zuni fetishes and we'll be posting them here early next year. * * * * * PUEBLO BIRDS AND MYTHS by Hamilton Tyler 1991 Northland Publishing Co., Flagstaff, AZ This is a book that I have had for years and really enjoy reading. If you are a bird lover (and I already know that you appreciate puebloan culture!) I think it is a book that you would also enjoy. It's available at amazon.com and you can even purchase used copies very inexpensively. Birds are very important in Zuni. Their feathers are used for prayer sticks and other ceremonies. Only native species are used for sacred purposes but other introduced birds (guinea, peacock, macaw, pheasant) may be used on masks and costumes. There are 73 birds that migrate through the Zuni region. Sixty-six are used ceremonially, three are taboo and sixteen are used only by religious elders. Boys are taught at an early age which birds are used for specific purposes so that their "collections" go to the proper person in the Pueblo. Eagles were once captured and kept for their feathers but now feathers are collected at the Zuni Eagle Sanctuary and dispensed for religious purposes. Macaws were traded from Mexico and during excavations at Chaco canyon, entire rooms were found with the carcasses of macaws that were kept for ritual use by the priests of these ancient communities. The last Zuni captive macaw from Mexico was given to a Sun Priest in 1920. It spoke Zuni and knew the names of about a dozen members of the community. Though they are rarely used today, Edmund J. Ladd presents diagrams in his master's thesis from 1963 (published in STARS ABOVE EARTH BELOW, 1998, Roberts Rhinehart Publishers, Niwok CO in association with the Carnegie Institute, Carnegie Museum of Natural History) the various snares used to capture the required sacred birds. For example, horsehair loops were tied to the mountain bee plant to ensnare the feet of hummingbirds. Dr. Ladd goes on to say in the conclusion of his thesis that "objects made for ritual and ceremonial use by the A:shiwi were never meant to be preserved, replicated for exhibition or collected for other uses. These offerings are made to the spirit beings, the ancestors, in the belief that they will be received in the afterworld only by disintegrating into the earth and air. In this way they benefit the individual and the world and provide spiritual protection, abundant rain, snow, good harvest, and, most especially, "a long and healthy road." Here's wishing you all a "long and healthy road." Till next time!