2019-03-03

We have mentioned our sweat before. It is a wonderful way to bond with friends and create nude community. We have described it to be as a spiritual exercise, but it is more. It is very healthy.

There is science to sauna and arts. Making something better and better is the science of sauna. Procedures evolve. When sitting around enthusiastic about something, it is difficult to not look for ways to improve the system. Questions come up and experiments are done. One decides where to sit, close to the heater, or higher where the air is more hot, or lower and stay in longer where it isn’t quite so extremely hot. Questions arrive like how much water to put on the stones for steam, when to scrape the toxins that come from the body, to sit, to lay down, to get up and move. These creative concerns can evolve into tools and design.

Self Styled Veniki Dance

Last Sunday we hosted a sweat. Several friends came and shared. A younger couple arrived, then a much older friend. We got started sweating and sat conversing from, “How ya doin” to Amazonian Anacondas. After a while, another couple arrived and then a late thirties mom showed up with two of her cool kids, which are something like eight and ten. With DF and myself, there were ten of us participating.

Russian people have bathhouses ingrained into their culture. One of us grew up around Russian saunas. He loves to spend time in insane heat. One day, we managed to get the thermometer up to over 212F. When it passed the red bar, we had to take more frequent breaks. I was trying to understand why my body didn’t just boil over, like a kettle on a stove, or a boiled egg. He has described big city Russian public saunas with walls of heat, their customs and how they are used. Continue reading →

2019-05-04

This year on World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD) we had no veggie garden. I’m selling my house and I figured that I’d be gone for the harvest.

There is a bumper crop of mustard, nearly waist high in DF’s yard. It had sprung up just as she was preparing to leave for Morocco with her women’s group. It all dried well under the Arizona sun while she was gone. The result was a mess. The thick stems have to be ripped up by the root by hand, or else they leave a yard full of daggers for bare feet. The task looked daunting.

There had been frost damage to her potted plants earlier this year. These had to be replaced. So, we had gardening to do. Not the typical green veggies, but we could celebrate WNGD.

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2018-09-23

We are up in the Huachuca Mountains. We have just located Bathtub Spring and filled our water bottles. We need to find a place to camp. It is forbidden to camp near these springs because it scares the wildlife.

For the our story about getting here: https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2019/04/12/miller-peak-bathtub-spring/

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11-26-17

Wandering Off into Desert Air

I cut firewood and then with DF hosted a Sunday sweat. There has always been something that I like about cutting wood for fire. Here is something real and very human about it. It is an activity shared by ancestors through millennia. I share that like the experience of being in my own skin, something very human and natural, a connection.

A couple of friends came by to share our spiritual cleanse and bathe together.  We sang and drummed as perspiration exited our pores, with condensation and it ran all over our bodies, making us shine.

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2018-08-25

We have left the Triangle T Resort Ranch and have headed out to hike the western slope of Cochise Stronghold Trail, the other half. We found that there is just too much potential for disastrous washouts with the threatening thunder showers. We have decided to head back and explore another safer trail south of here.

When we return to the trailhead, we see that that lounging guy’s truck is still sitting there by the creek under the tree. In response, DF chooses to wear a sundress to start up the trail. This will work well for me. I rig my backpack with the belt to carry the weight of the water. We have a water filter, just in case we find some.

Déjà vu, I wait out yet another jeep’s passing. Like the last time, I’m covered by my open driver’s door. This time, I have DF walking behind me covering my bare bottom from any possibility of view. She can wear her dress until we get around the bend in the trail. We think it wise to be discrete around the trailheads.

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2018-08-25

Liberating the Ranch

Saturday, we headed down to the Triangle T Guest Ranch in the Dragoon Mountains. This is right in the pocket of The Amerind Museum that we visited when we hiked Cochise Stronghold the week before. We have a going away/birthday party to attend and then we’ll head down to the southern end of the mountain range to climb up the western leg of that same trail. We are getting in shape for a more strenuous hike and this is an increment….but, plans sometimes must change.

The story of our trip to Cochise Stronghold can be found in the archives in November of 2018. Continue reading →