Pasture Friends backed by the Olympic Peaks

Wow, this evening’s yoga practice in the hayloft was my version of paradise.  The warm spring air moved just enough to bring mindfulness to our skin.  A symphony of robins and swallows mixed with ribbits and croaks provided a sweet backdrop to our practice.  We wore shorts! and the sun setting bathed us in a warm glow.

Springtime is an expansive time of growth, energy, and opening: the perfect time for sowing seeds, creating anew, and setting intentions.  In practice, we took some moments to solidify our intentions for the coming Spring season–be it greater awareness, deeper self acceptance, a greater connection to our equine partners, more patience–and we moved through each of the poses with that intention.  This is a powerful practice, where we can mindfully create our reality by giving energy to what we hope to manifest.  It starts on the mat, and then moves beyond through our actions and our thoughts.

I love the yogic concept of setting an intention because in my experience, it has been more useful–and effective–than something like a resolution or a goal.  An intention to me seems gentler, more steady, and more attainable, because it’s something we work patiently and persistently.  So long as we give it awareness, maybe even just once a day, it slowly works its way into fruition.

What is your intention for Springtime?

With a garden like this, how could we NOT have a breakfast party?

Nathan and I were up early in the morning, so we ventured out to the bike path and foraged for one of our favorite delicacies: Stinging Nettles (we wore gloves, of course).  Nathan and crew had found wild oyster mushrooms the previous morning, our garden was exploding with delicious bounty … we needed to have a breakfast party.

Wild Oyster Mushrooms! Look how cute!

Nathan was on omelet duty and I took on tea duty.  I had heard from an elder that Native people use Nettle Tea as a strong cure for colds and a variety of illness (in addition to having extremely high iron and calcium contents)–when our first Distinguished Guest, Chris, arrived, he wanted to try some.  With gloved fingers, I plucked the buds (the very top portion) off the Nettles and collected them in a glass.  We boiled some water in the teapot and poured it in.  I covered the glass and let the buds steep for five minutes.  Chris tasted the tea and reported a delicious, earthy flavor.  I also expect that he will be immune to illness for at least a week after consuming this tea!

Fresh-Picked Stinging Nettle Tea

Don’t worry–as soon as the Nettles are heated, the toxins in their needles is eliminated and they no longer sting.

On a side note, Nathan and I decided that in Sedro Woolley, peoples’ wealth should be measured by the number of beautiful, golden dandelions they have gracing their lawns.  This being the case, we are the richest people on our street and perhaps in all of Skagit County!  They made for a beautiful bouquet.

Dandelion Love

One of my favorite friends from the garden are these colorful felows:

Our Cosmic Purple carrots live up to their name!

Back to work!  Upon the arrival of our second Distinguished Breakfast Guest, Jess, and after brewing her some delightful Holy Basil tea (with coconut milk–yum!), we retreated to the garden to get her stocked up on greens we hoped would fuel her on her journey back to Portland.  She collected brussels greens, broccoli greens, kale, chard, and mustard to a total of about two pounds.  It didn’t even make a dent!  We’re going to have to start having more friends over or this garden might overtake our house!

Nathan was inside busily preparing the duck egg omeletes … we came back in just in time!

Nettle Oyster Duck Egg Hemp Seed Omelet

Breakfast was served!  And wow was it delicious.

Meet our distinguished guests, Nathan’s coworkers and lovely people:

Jess

Jess is obviously thrilled by her exceptionally-brewed Holy Basil tea.  The giant stack of omelet sitting in front of her was almost too colossal to finish!

Below, Chirs is practically up to his eyeballs in Nettles–just the way he loves it.

Chris

And the fabulous host and chef:

Nathan

I think it’s safe to say that our first Breakfast Party was a scrumptious success!  My mouth waters in recollection.  Here is a view from my end of the table:

The Spread

It was a lovely morning full of great friends and food.  What could be better?  I can’t wait for our next breakfast party!

We saw lots of friendly creatures–up close and personal!  Below, a garter snake.

This guy was pretty crabby.

The flowers buzzed with pollinators of all sorts.  I was amazed at the variety of bees we saw.  And inspired … a hive in our future, perhaps?

A regal Bald Eagle perched watching us weave our way down the trails.  There are zillions of trails, perfect for jogging or mountain biking!

An interesting shelf mushroom with dew droplets!

The extent of yoga I practiced on this trip: Savasana on a bluff.  It was heavenly!

Nathan used classic boy-techniques and ran up and down the sandy bluff.  He was a mountain goat in a previous life, I’m sure of it!

Sine we were car camping, we bought along a feast!  Here, the cast iron atop Nathan’s bush buddy, fueled by nearby dead and down.

Our campsite was shaded by a giant Douglas Fir, one of our favorite trees.

Panaang Curry a-la-Campsite!  It was soooo good.

An after-dinner hike graced our gazes with beautiful expansive Sea and Sky!

Mt. Ranier in the distance, looking broad and inviting.  We’ll climb Ranier someday!

The next morning, we headed down the bluff to the boulder-y beach and hiked around.

It was wild and beautiful.  And sunny!  I got pretty red!

Someone’s beach shanty!

Fort Ebey was an awesome spot–highly recommended!  There was so much diversity in just one small area: beach, bluffs, sandy and rocky shores, grassy highlands, forest, meadows, and mountains!  There are tons of trails, probably enough to keep us exploring new paths for a week or more.  We will definitely be back!  Perhaps with our parents next time!

Pete taught me as much about yoga as any of my human instructors!

The opening practice for Hayloft Yoga could not have been sweeter.  Spring at the barn is positively enchanting!  Frog ribbits from the pond outside soothed us as we worked in poses; then, toward the end of practice, a gentile rainfall added to the tranquility.  I think the horses knew what we were up to, as they seemed unfazed by our activities above them in the hayloft.  Even when we practiced “horse breath,” (inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth buzzing our lips like a horse) they continued methodically munching on their dinner.  Perhaps we were speaking their language?

The breath, for me, is the foundation of all yoga.  In yoga, breathing is called pranayama.  Prana is the Sanskrit for energy–the energy of everything around us, of God, life force energy.  So, as we re-learn to breathe in our yoga practice, we learn to observe and perhaps enhance the flow of prana in and out of our bodies.

As we work with the breath, we begin to learn the language of the body.  Most of us are limited to our awareness of the body’s language only when there is pain.  “Ouch!” is like the body screaming at us, loud enough that we will slow down our busy, outwardly-focused lives to listen.  By that time, there may already be a problem: we’re sick, we’ve strained something, we’re fatigued, and we have to take a day off to recover.

Yoga offers us a different approach: we begin by listening in, learning this new language, and we see that the body is constantly speaking to us.  Very slowly, through continued practice, we find that we can move more mindfully, we find space in our lives for self-care, we sense when we may be starting to feel under the weather so we make nurturing choices instead of “pushing through it.”

It all starts with an awareness of the breath.  And that can be elusive in itself!

I love how B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the major contributors to yoga in the West, puts it: The breath must “be enticed or cajoled, like catching a horse in a field, not by chasing after it, but by standing still with an apple in one’s hand. Nothing can be forced; receptivity is everything.”  As we sit at the beginning of each practice, we practice drawing the senses inward and observing the breath.  As we do this, the mind gradually stills.  We breathe–not forcefully, but with awareness, watching the breath, listening for the language of the body.

Learning a new language is not easy.  But neither was learning to ride, and that was an entirely new language, wasn’t it?  Horsepeople, whether they are aware of it or not, are already practicing this inner awareness, thanks to their equine friends.  Horses are exceptional practitioners of Pranayama.  Their entire survival depends on their awareness of breath and body language.  Their awareness is fine-tuned (far beyond the sense or smell that alerts them to the carrot in our back pocket, or the sense of sight when they see the invisible boogie man on the trail).  They feel our moods and our intentions.  This extra-sensory awareness is something that can be shared across species.  Practicing yoga helps us to become more horse-like, practicing and fine-tuning our “extra” or “hiding” senses.

I am honored to report that many new faces joined in tonight.  One comment at the end of class was truly a compliment: “This was not like the other yoga classes I’ve been to.”  All yoga is good yoga.  For me, some of the most important aspects of yoga are lost when the primary intention is to “get fit.”  Of course yoga helps us become fit.  That’s an awesome side effect, but it’s not the main attraction.  Yoga (and horses!) help us find ourselves–our authentic selves–and to be present to that in us which holds the highest potential.

Thank you sincerely to everyone who joined in the first Hayloft Yoga session of 2012!  Deep breaths until we meet again.

Namaste.

What is plug spawn, you ask?  Plugs are sterilized dowels of birch with grooves carved into them that have been inoculated with mushroom mycelium.  Mycelium is the vegetative part of the mushroom fungus, which absorbs nutrients and also “colonizes” the decaying matter it is placed in–in our case, the mushroom logs we harvested from downed logs on a hike in one of our favorite spots!

Here is a step-by-step pictorial guide to inoculating your own mushroom logs with plug spawn!

Step 1:
Obtain the correct mushroom logs for your spawn.  Some prefer cottonwood, others prefer maple.  We found our logs on one of our hiking roads, downed from the snow the previous winter.  Once obtained, store the logs for 1-2 weeks to be sure they are fully dead.

Step 2:
Drill holes in your mushroom logs.  Nathan and I preferred to use a hand drill (to be carbon-neutral; plus, it’s more gratifying to put a little elbow grease into the process!).

Holes should be 3-4 inches apart, spaced equally throughout the logs.  This way, the mycelium can have space to expand and populate the entire log with mushrooms.

Step 3:
Get your plug spawn ready!
From Fungi Perfecti, the plugs come in a small plastic bag.  Wash your hands before you handle the spawn–don’t want to contaminate them.

Step 4:
Insert the plugs into the hand-drilled holes!  We found that combining steps 4 and 5 worked best: I would insert the spawn and Nathan would follow with the wax (step 5).

Step 5:
Cover the holes with wax to seal the plugs in completely.  Nathan and I used the wax from a recycled candle his mom got for him and we’d burnt out.  This can be a messy (and fun!) process.

Step 6:
Let the wax dry (this doesn’t take long).

Step 7:
Place your mushroom logs somewhere outside, not directly on the ground (to keep them free from other decomposers), stacked log cabin style.  Keep the different types in separate piles so they don’t cross-contaminate.  Here, we have Lions Mane, Oyster, and Shitake.

Step 8:
Wait.  It can take up to 9 months for these babies to start producing, but once they do, it will be mushroom heaven at our place!  Meanwhile, we’re lucky to have some mushroom kits going for our own immediate gratification, and wild mushroom season is coming up soon!

Happy hunting!

However, this crazy low-altitude PNW snow has thwarted our efforts numerous times.  Both times.  And yesterday, it proved to do the same.

Climbing Faces show our unparalleled excitement for the day

Nathan, Thomas and I embarked on a gung-ho snowshoe attempt at summiting.  We started early enough (10am).  We were feeling robust and equipped with our snowshoes and trekking poles (Nathans, of course, were made from vine maple).  Thomas even drove, in his all wheel drive vehicle.  Nothing was going to stop us …

Three miles from the trailhead, however, there was a sudden increase in snowpack and we soon found that the road had snow far too deep to drive in.  We strapped on our snowshoes, put on our packs, and started hiking.  3 miles.  On the road.  For the third time.  Sauk had thwarted us again!

It was still a complete blast!  Here are some pictures from the day.

We took a munchie-break up toward the trailhead.

A cool sunspot.

Thomas

The brief view of the Cascades before the clouds rolled in!

Though we did not make it anywhere near the summit, it was still an awesome trip.  Next time, Sauk, next time …

When we learned about enzyme inhibitors which comprise most of the beans, nuts, and seeds we love and depend on for our main sources of protein, we were eager to learn how to make these foods more digestible and their nutrients more readily available to our bodies.

Lo and behold, SPROUTING things like mung beans, sunflower seeds, almonds, and kidney beans not only removes these nasty little enzyme inhibitors, which cause gas and stomach upset among other issues, but is also a BLAST!  We learned that sunflower sprouts are some of the most power-packed foods out there.

Thanks to this guy (click to see his video until I can figure out how to embed it below), we are well on our way to sprouting everything in the house, including garbanzo beans for hummus, quinoa and rice!

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We are thrilled to have growing things in our home, and even more exciting is that we can eat them!

By far the most photogenic are our sunflower sprouts.  Nathan carved out two lovely cedar planters, which sit in our living room windowsill.

On our first round of sprouting, we just used the organic, shelled sunflower seeds that we bout from the CoOp.  There were mixed reports on if pre-shelled seeds sprouted well, but we had great success!

Sundlower seeds are delightfully crunchy and slightly sweet, with a sunflower seed aftertaste.  YUM.  The seeds from the store didn’t yeild 100%, but wow were they delicious.

However, as we gobbled them up, we quickly realized that this new way of eating sunflower seeds could get spendy (we want to eat them all the time!), and we wanted to do it with a 100% yield.  So, we investigated alternatives.

We discovered that the most affordable way to obtain sunflower seeds was actually to buy organic black oilseed birdseed.  We like Harrison’s Bird Food–just order them by mail!  There are a great many reasons why you should choose organic seeds (whether you’re sprouting them for yourself or feeding wild birds), but I won’t get into them here.

We can’t get enough sprouts!  In fact, in the meantime until Nathan carves more planters, we are also using milk cartons cut in half, and re-used salad containers.  They all grow sprouts perfectly well!  We are happy to know that we can be growing fresh, homegrown greens all year round, while also providing our home with a little beauty in the form of fresh greens.

There are zillions of ways to enjoy sprouts.  One of our favorites is to pluck the sweet leaves off and munch them right then and there!  Today I had a sprout salad with a ginger apple cider vinegar dressing Nathan made, topped with hemp seeds (another stellar superfood packed with protein).  They’re always good as a garnish, and we often top our stir frys or omelet breakfasts with them.  Possibilities are endless!

If you are interested in starting your very own windowsill sprouts, definitely watch this video for step-by-step instructions.  We get a kick out of this guy because he’s so excited about sprouting.  We know how he feels!

Happy sprouting!

Classes have begun!
Every Tuesday from 7:00 – 8:00 PM

This Accessible Yoga Class is Specifically Designed for Horse Enthusiasts Across Disciplines
with All Levels of Yoga Experience.

YOGA IN A HAYLOFT?
Practice yoga to the sounds of munching horses and that infamous smell all true horse people love. This unique class meets in the upstairs hayloft of Double S Quarter Horses, a beautiful training and lesson facility in Bow, WA. Sue Sultze and Tom Pasma have graciously opened this space where horse enthusiasts can meet for a fun, non-intimidating, riding-inspired yoga practice led by Jessie Tierney, Equestrian of 19 years and Registered Yoga Instructor.

THE CLASS
Horse lovers will learn to unite with their breath and balance their bodies, fostering flexibility, balance, strength, and ease of movement. The practice will also attune the mind, helping participants sharpen their focus and deepen their ability to communicate with their equine (and human) friends. Jessie leads an alignment-based, intuitive class, responding to the needs and concerns of participants, offering hands-on adjustments and variations that suit each practitioner’s needs. You don’t have to be a pretzel to do yoga! Learn more about Jessie and her approach to the teaching of yoga here.

EXCHANGE
Classes are $10.00
Drop-ins are welcome
Click here for details on attending your first class for free!

DATE/TIME
Every Tuesday 7:00-8:00 pm
Please arrive ten minutes early to sign a liability waiver and to get acquainted with the practice space.

DIRECTIONS
Click View Larger Map to plan your route

Double S Quarter Horses, 15216 Colony Road, Bow, WA
Parking is available at Double S

ATTIRE
While it is possible to practice yoga in boots and jeans (or jodhpurs), it is usually more comfortable to wear clothing that does not restrict movement, such as sweat pants or workout clothes (or even your breeches if they’re stretchy). If you do show up in Wranglers, however, you won’t be turned away. You should be able to sit with some semblance of crossed legs and lift your arms overhead comfortably in your clothes. The yoga practice is done barefoot, without socks (so your feet don’t slip off the yoga mat).

EQUIPMENT
Please bring your own yoga mat if you have one.  Jessie will provide mats, blocks, and straps if you don’t have them. Please feel free to bring your own supplies, including a blanket that can be rolled or folded for use as a bolster. The practice is held in a hayloft, which is something to keep in mind when the weather is acting particularly Northwestern.

JESSIE & HAYLOFT YOGA
Yoga gave Jessie the same type of emotional and physical benefits that horseback riding had given her for years when she discovered this powerful practice during college. While she didn’t have the resources to ride in Chicago during school, she could dedicate a few evenings a week to her yoga practice. Once Jessie graduated and started riding again, she recognized that despite her time out of the saddle, she was a more balanced, focused, and effective equestrian. Yoga helped Jessie not only get her long-distance horse fix, it made her a better rider. She is thrilled about the opportunity to share the profound benefits of a regular yoga practice through Hayloft Yoga.

Click here for all Hayloft Yoga posts.

SUPTA BADA KONASANA

Below, a wonderful restorative pose that is great for opening the shoulders, heart, and the hips–without overstretching them.  This pose is a fabulous end-to-your-day pose, and is especially effective in relieving PMS symptoms including bloating, cramping, and general ickiness.  If you have hip pain, this is also a great pose to address the hips in a gentile, supportive way.  Just make sure that the knees are higher than the hips here, with the support of blocks and with a strap around the small of the back and the feet.  You can place an eye pillow onto the eyes, a small pillow under the head to lengthen the back of the neck, and blankets under the wrists or forearms for complete serenity:

Below, using a strap (you can use a belt or webbing, or even a tie) to support the hips by wrapping the strap around the feet.  The blocks can be placed at their low or high setting, allowing the femur head to sink deeply into the hip socket:

SETU BHANDA SARVANGASANA

Below, supported bridge pose with the help of a block under the sacrum:

PASRVOTTANASANA

Next we practice Parsvottanasana, with the hands on blocks to avoid curving the thoracic spine.  Draw the heart through and shoulder blades together behind the back:

MODIFIED ANJYENASANA

Below, blocks give an added lift in Anjyenasana variation, enabling the hips to square toward the front edge of the mat and the heart to shine forward:

I love the feel of these soft cedar blocks.  They are such an asset to my practice.  I appreciate the heavier weight and greater stability.  What a sweet sweet addition to my yoga practice!

Before

After

Now he’s ready for the “office.”  He sure cleans up nice!