I started this blog post back in early July, my thought was to write something that would catch up on our spring and early summer activities.  Well, here we are, almost Sept and I’m just posting it now.  I’ve had to keep adding paragraphs to keep it up to date.

Spring and summer have found us busier than we’ve been in quite some time and obviously lacking the time to sit down and write something interesting. So………..I got to thinking, that after this post, I’m going to try something different for a change and do shorter and more frequent posts.

I don’t much care for month-by-month reports, but for now, I’m afraid that’s about my only option. Wow, I just counted and this post goes back 6 months, half a year. To begin, let’s go back to mid-March, the event – an Up With People Gala event at the University of Arizona ballroom black tie dinner.  Our job?  Get the kids from that fabulous high school folkloric dance group – Grupo Danza Xunutzi from the Rio Sonora Valley to the event several days early for rehearsals and host them in Canelo.  Like they always do, they somewhat stole the audience away from an impressive collection of talented performers.  For me the highlight was watching them meet and interact with cast members from all over the world. Old news by now, predictably, once again, these kids won the overall folkloric dance competition for the entire state of Sonora.

Related to news about the dance group, we were able to help two of the kids that graduated high school and the dance group last year attend a summer program that after an additional two summers will certify them as folkloric dance instructors qualified to teach in a variety of educational institutions.

April is typically workshop month in Canelo.  We always start with our Comprehensive Straw Bale workshop and follow with a course called Artistry with Clay and Lime.  Workshops these days are a little smaller, the economy doesn’t really inspire building new homes, but always the quality of people that we get for participants is superb.

Workshop participant Miguel Sanchez with his plaster carving, carving on the right is by Athena.

May took us once again to Bluff, Utah for another round of plastering on the house where we have been working since February.  One more visit this September should finish it.

At the same time I began work with old time friend, Gary Nabhan. on several different projects.  We took a trip together down the Rio Sonora in April, the main objective was to visit and photograph the partially restored historic flour mill in the town of Ures as part of a larger project that is dedicated to the revival of heirloom White Sonoran Wheat that will be available for the first time in three centuries.  In addition to a second trip that we made to western Sonora to photograph other historic mills in Oquitoa and Magdalena, I did a clay oven weekend workshop for Gary and his wife Lauri at their home in Patagonia, AZ.

Gary also got me enrolled into a 3-day digital storytelling class taught by Bob Demers and Therese Perrault, a format that combines images/video with music and narration into a 3 to 4 minute personally moving story.  In short, it was humbling and challenging.  I quickly understood that creating a concise personal story is not an easy thing to do especially when trying to learn a new skill like narration, at which my first attempt is far from impressive.  Here’s a link to my first effort - //www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgBsoW8lSwg

The pre-monsoon month of June is usually catch-up time for any number of things around our property.  The list of maintenance items on the grounds and buildings can be overwhelming.  We have been extremely fortunate to have our friend Susan Rummerfield, recently returned from 20 some years living in France, taking care of the vegetable garden as well as keeping all the plants and flowers around our buildings in immaculate shape.  Afternoon walks provided a little leisure for photographing the small inconspicuous plants that seem to miraculously appear in the dry and hot month of June.

During July we completed a project called the “Clayhouse” at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum where we are surrounded by abundant plant life everywhere.  The Arboretum’s summer program was called the “Dirt O Rama” and dedicated to the conservation and creation of top soils, making composts for soil improvement and and in our case, allowing families and their children to work along with us.  My first hand experience with arboretums is limited, but I would think that the Minnesota Arboretum is among the very best in the country.  Everything about it was splendid from the buildings to the library, the grounds and exhibits.  And the staff, some of the nicest and most helpful people we’ve encountered on our various projects.

We built a small round structure out of burlap bags filled with road base material and a casual and tiny reciprocal roof.  Filling the bags with damp dirt, tamping them solid, essentially makes an instant adobe brick that is ready to be plastered with the textured surface of the burlap.  Working along with us were teenager Catherine Gustafson from Tucson and mom Casey as well as Arboretum volunteer Nancy Guldberg.  And of course, endless kids, ages 2 and up joined us on a regular basis as well as parents and grandparents.