So the exciting day of genetic exchange has arrived. As the sun peaked over the mountain crest that surrounded us in its cold misery, I struggled with the zipper of my X-large youth sleeping bag. The heated rock Brian gave me earlier in the night did not, as had planned, aid in the maintenance of heat but ironically absorbed the much-needed generation of electrical friction from my feet. What remained upon awaking were stumps of ice begging to be placed back into their clothed receptacles.
Opening the tent, we see the camp already engulfed in activity. Cooking, fire maintenance, Frisbee interactions, dogs running around, and river cane slinking in the wind. It is always a pleasure to wake up to nature and her alarm clock. Leaving the campsite I begin to navigate through the reeds in search of the neighboring creek and its tranquility. The water is a beautiful blue grey today; remnants from the past snow showers of the month. I wonder to myself, ‘Will the integrity here be maintained within my lifetime? Is there a way it could be enhanced?’ and so it goes again….
I walk around absorbing the sunrays, feeling the transformation of Vitamin D take place and am soon urged by my compositional senses to take a few photographs. As I grab the camera from Wayne’s vehicle I am greeted by a fellow pilfering through the vehicle next door, which I will add for descriptive flavor, was a four door car with a bike rack, including a mountain bike, attached to the trunk, a full length canoe strapped to the top, adorned with a license plate from Florida in the back and one from Alaska in the front, with a Akita/Australian Cattlesue type dog. Camera lenses and stories were immediately exchanged between Pete and I. New and interesting facts on cacti, wet truffle mushrooms, and macro lenses became programmed into my mainframe as the rest of the crew packed up the vehicle for Jasper.
Katy, Carlos, Cara and myself set off for sustenance at the Ozark Star Café. Now I will honestly say I prefer the Boardwalk café only because they make in effort to source local ingredients, a value that I admire and appreciate. Food at OSC was consumable considering I went straight to the salad bar ($3.99-a steal for all-you-can-eat) after browsing the menu. The peanut butter milkshake continually called out from its paper prison as I sat and ate the lack luster greens from California, possibly even China. Luckily OSC didn’t have their soda bar stocked up or it would have been the sugar flash from hell. Ummm….more broccoli for me, yea.
Afterward we embarked up highway 7 towards the Newton County public library. As we walk I notice minute spring flowers budding up from the ground. Little specks of white and purple fill my irises, never before have I noticed such flowers carpeting the landscape. It is astounding how priceless beauty and color pigments arise from dirt….onward the group marches and I rush to catch up.
As we approach the library, there is a bright red sign featuring “SEED SWAP” posted within the roadside tree branches. A mass of cars greets us, quite the turn out for such a small facility. So many new faces and diverse walks of life were present; from UCA undergraduates to the subsistent farmer, all had rallied together for the trade of stories, seeds and life energy. One vendor, the subsistent farmer, caught my curiosity and inclination of intent. For the last 22 years, Doug Alexander of Deer, AR has used Belgian draft mules to perform the laborious duties that most farmers bestow to the tractor, an artifact artificially known as cheap petroleum.
I would have never guessed such a farmer to be present in Arkansas. Only few farms dive into the traditional draft animal model with even fewer successes and return. To see this man, his three varieties of corn, and clipboard was a rare sight to behold. We all remember that food and its food like derivatives come from seeds but too often we forget the labor, love and stewardship of those resources which provide a non violent, pollution free cycle of seed to fork, farm to table, and energy to life.
