*Blood/Breath •* Wool Tapestry • 27'' wide by 48'' long • **Nancy McRay**

In This Issue: Arrowhill Farm, Site Fertility, Old-Time Music, Great Lakes/Line 5

**Click the play button to view the Arrowhill Farm Twilight Tour Video!**

The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration

|| 1 || The sandy soils of West Michigan don’t allow for intensive gardening or produce farming without the addition of inputs. Most soils don’t. Farming is a two-way street that requires give and take, and if you’re never giving, the process breaks down. This fascinating and wide-ranging read addresses the complex subject of waste and soil health by surveying historical practices for keeping nutrients around (think sewage, local food production and population distribution). These lessons from the past offer wisdom for today. Although they require noteworthy intention and planning, there are options for turning the "problem of poo" into a soil-feeding, watershed-protecting, freshwater-conserving solution on a large scale.

I’m not ready to tackle regional planning in those areas, nor do I ever think I will be. The folks at Arrowhill Farm ensure soil vitality with composted manure from their goats, chickens and ducks. I also find more approachable inspiration in Paul Kingsnorth’s short essay Learning What to Make of It—part technical piece on installing a rudimentary compost bucket system at his home and part reflection on the privilege and obligation involved with personal endeavor to live closer to the land.

There’s a fun story behind what compelled a slight revision of the Pee for the Peonies project name. The Ann Arbor endeavor showcases a more academic and institutional take on soil health: environmental engineering professors are working to normalize and create systems for “pee-cycling” to return necessary nutrients to the peony garden at Nichols Arboretum. This process could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to their studies.

|| 2 || A musical community is cultivated by intentional gatherings at the Arrowhill house, bolstered by the array of instruments within arms reach and the recording studio in the basement. Troy’s chosen study is old-time music, a tradition with egalitarian roots that showcases a spirit of participation, rather than performance. Utah Philips’ folk music flowed from this same stream, and his words in this interview explore the backdrop of what it means to share in the life of these tunes. A pieced together snippet: “These are people who, as part of their pattern of social responsibility, were making sure folk music happened in their community… The healthiest movement in this country is organized folk music. People turning off those machines and getting together and sharing music and food as a holy activity… Singer circles, folk song societies, campouts, taking care of each other’s kids, potlucks… All below the level of media notice… If we’re patient, and continue to build, and do our work in place, we will no longer be the margin.”

The de facto treasury of traditional music is the Alan Lomax archive. If you explore it, you might come across a participatory technique still used today–the call and response. This particular description of the process describes “building on each other’s offerings and working together to move the song along and create a sound that’s inventive and collective.” Similarly, we want to hear from you and work towards a more collaborative approach. If something struck a chord, please reach out. If something sounded off, let us know as well.

|| 3 || Years ago, the Bowditches were involved in the making of the documentary, “Great Lakes, Bad Lines.” Troy and Frankie, their yellow diesel ‘82 Vanagon, played a large part in the crew’s fossil-fuel free travel from the western outset of the Line 5 pipeline to its path beneath the Straits of Mackinac, and some of their music makes the score as well.

This is not a pipeline film. This is not an oil documentary. At the end of the day, this is a film about protecting the places that you love.

The latest on Line 5: documents produced by an Enbridge hired energy consultant show a Line 5 shutdown having minimal impact upon gas prices. This interpretation is disputed by Enbridge. The back and forth debate between parties can feel difficult to get to the bottom of. Both have experts aligned with their cause more persuasive and intelligent than me. I do think a helpful take is recognizing the track record of who we might choose to trust–those who draw from a record of taking care of these lands for roughly 700 years in ways conducive to a continued, thriving interdependence between humans and the more-than-human world, and those with a history of harmful and disruptive oil spills. I understand that Michiganders (most humans, really) rely on a consistent energy supply, and higher energy costs are extremely disruptive and affect folks disproportionately. But I also understand that decisions potentially impacting the very resources we all depend on should call forth careful consideration of long-term impact, and I don’t think there’s anyone who has done a better job at that in this region than the Anishinaabe. Read. More. Here.

The Weft — News and Events

|| 1 || With the help of community-members like you, we are bringing downtown Traverse City a unique optimized and intentional music and performing arts venue, along with nearly 2,500 sq. ft. of publicly accessible space for visual art—all co-located within the community-owned walls of the Commongrounds Cooperative building at 414 East 8th St. Donate, share, and learn more about what this powerful initiative can do for our community at patronicity.com/tc .

|| 2 || Making Herb/Flower Bundles with Organic Herb Farm Tour: Beginning this week (June 30th), Patty Travioli will be offering weekly tours of a working organic herb farm, including bundle-making and the opportunity to try an herbal tisane, at Heartwood Forest Farm in Cedar, MI. See more about these fun, educational and outdoor events, or register, here.

|| 3 || The Edible Trails Project will be hosting a Celebration of Life in memory of Jonathan Aylward on Sunday, July 17th at 2pm at DeYoung Natural Area. Find additional details here.

|| 4 || Traverse City Dance Project is returning to the Crosshatch meadow! The program features a stellar cast of eight professional dancers from national and international companies, including Traverse City natives Sarah Wolff and Gabriella Dorman. This year, TCDP will feature four works, including new creations by directors Jen Lott and Brent Whitney, and a staging of Italian-born Mauro de Candia’s Something I Had in Mind. TCDP originally presented this playful balletic comedy as part of their very first season in 2012.

The evening will also feature live music—a collaboration by former Alonzo King LINES dancer and rehearsal director Kara Wilkes and celebrated Kalamazoo-based cellist and vocalistJordan Hamilton. Hamilton and Wilkes are recipients of the TCDP’s 2022 NewVo Fellowship, which supports new creations by choreographers and composers. The NewVo Fellowship is made possible by a seed grant from Rotary Charities of Traverse City.

Scheduled date: Wednesday, August 3rd at 7 pm, with a rain date of Friday, August 5th. Tickets are available on a sliding scale from 0 to $20. (if that link is broken, start here instead.)

|| 5 || The Port Oneida Goat Crew will be at historic Dechow Farm in Port Oneida until mid-September. This twenty goat herd, along with YouthWork members to accompany them, will be working to clear autumn olive and return nutrients to the soil: “Grazing is the world’s oldest, safest and most natural way to clear brush and stubborn, invasive species. This low-carbon, pesticide- and herbicide-free method eliminates Buckthorn, Autumn Olive, Phragmites, Poison Ivy, and Mustard Garlic. A single goat can make their way through 100 square feet of unwanted vegetation in a day.”

The public is welcome to visit on the following Saturdays between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.: June 25, July 9, and July 23. Outside of those times, please don’t disturb the working goats.