As of today there are about 20 folks on site at the Indian Prairie in the Ochoco National Forest in Oregon at the same site as last falls Medicine Wheel Gathering and reunion. Please treat this as a sacred assembly and please do not post the traditional rainbow howdy folks because this is a unique Mountain Spirit Tribe prayer assembly and work project. Trail restoration and bridge work will continue as well as checking for any signs remaining of past gatherings such as fire pits, etc. These issues will be handled and work to restore will be done.

Hopefully, we will have the sweat lodge again this year if I can get word to Medicine Dancer. Raven and I are in route and expect to be there in two days. If anyone can call Medicine Dancer, he is in Oregon. I will try as well.
Summer Breeze and Raven have been in communication with the Ranger from the Ochocos but hesitated in putting out any formal invitations until today because there was a huge fire within a mile of Indian Prairie just two weeks or so ago and last week they were still mopping up. The universe decided it was still happening because folks showed up there a week ago. The Ranger emailed me today but Raven and I already suspected as much and began heading that way. So the prayer assembly is on. Follow the directions posted last year and for the 1997 Rainbow Annual gathering.

It is our hope to keep these numbers under 75 as there are issues with the government over the permit, and talks with the Undersecretary Mark Rey have fallen by the way side concerning the operating plan under alternative means. We are still planning to use an operating plan and do not foresee a need for a permit as this will be a small assembly of the Mountain Sprit Tribe. Our focus will be clean up and restoration while maintaining our prayers for the healing of the land and its people.

If you want to help with this unique project, please show up with enough food for a week to feed your self and two other people. Bring trash bags, buckets to carry rocks and water, shovels, saws, picks, pulaskis and whatever tools will be useful for clean up. Please bring water jugs and be prepared to fill and carry them from the spring tap across the road. There will not be any water pipes or formal kitchens. It is our hope to have everyone circle up in one camp and unite to feed and pray and get the work done. Bring drums,guitars, and all musical instruments. Bring warm clothing and sleeping gear. Be prepared to be self sufficient.

Dates planned for the gathering are September 11-18, with a clean up crew staying up to one week beyond.
If you need further details, email me at angelonmyshoulder77@yahoo.com.

I will be in the woods September 10th in the evening until about the 24th, so I will be out of touch most likely during that time, unless you are on the land with me.
See you at home family. We love you.

Please be respectful. Pack it in. Pack it out. Clean up starts the day you arrive. Be respectful to the Forest Service rangers. If you cannot participate in the circle unity and the prayer assemblies or the restoration work, maybe there is another event more suitable to you. Please do not bring alcohol or drugs. This is a spiritual assembly.

Make sure your vehicle is legally registered and be sure that drivers have license and insurance. Follow the laws of the land and the forest to prevent any problems. If you need something while at the gathering, please ask for it and please do not take what does not belong to you. Please respect all who attend.

Respect. Peace. Love.
Welcome Home.

Summer Breeze, the Midnight Writer

For tonight, I want to introduce a topic to accompany the previous one-music in the seventies.  I bring it up for two reasons, nostalgia, and to share the passion and soul of the music that I grew up with in the 1970′s.  During that time, I was a teen ager who graduated in 1973.  In that very same year, I got married and became a mother a year later.

Responsibility knocked quickly on my door to life, but my passion for music was never quelled.  Through motherhood, into becoming a grandmother of eighteen children, I still love music.

Rock and roll, folk, soul, blue grass and blues and a little rock abilly played almost continuously from either my stereo or radio, or that of a sibling or parent or friend. It surrounded my life everywhere.

The days of concerts and the groupie scene with wall posters and screaming crowds of fans were the substance of my formative years.  Having a mother who adored Elvis Presley set the stage for my love in music, I suppose.

Let me first say, that I was inspired by the song “In the Midnight Hour”, so I’ll start with that reference. 

Wikipedia’s reference url on “In the Midnight Hour”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Midnight_Hour

For the Warren G album, see In the Mid-Nite Hour

“In the Midnight Hour” is a song originally performed by Wilson Pickett in 1965 and released on the 1966 album The Exciting Wilson Pickett. It was composed by Pickett and Steve Cropper at the historic Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Martin Luther King, Jr. would later be murdered in April of 1968. Pickett’s first hit on Atlantic Records, it reached #1 on the R&B charts and peaked at #20 on the pop charts.

The song has become a ’60s soul standard, and placed at #134 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time, Wilson Pickett’s first of two entries on the list (the other being “Mustang Sally” at #434). It is also one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, Pickett’s only such entry.

The track has been covered by many artists, including the Grateful Dead (who often played it as a closer to their sets in 1966 and 1967), B.B. King, Chocolate Watchband, Razzy Bailey, Roxy Music, The Jam, Johnny Thunders, The Chambers Brothers, The Toasters, Buddy Guy, The Rock Bottom Remainders, Rock Nalle, The Commitments, Cross Country, and Guy Sebastian. On the night of Pickett’s death, Billy Joel and his band performed a rendition of this song in his honor.

Listen to the song at You Tube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3lv2PAwke8

And then there’s the “Extreme Mortman” blog. You have to check this out. It is an award winning blog with an interview featured on Fish Bowl DC.

http://www.extrememortman.com/bill-clinton/in-the-midnight-hour-america-cried-more-more-more/

 I couldn’t just paste these links on this most famous song, without including this link to Rolling Stone.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6595979/in_the_midnight_hour

Wow! I didn’t realize what a famous song I had chosen for my theme. I just knew I was inspired.

“I’m gonna wait till the midnight hour till your love comes tumblin’ down…”

I guess I should paste the actual song lyrics. Here they are:

I’m gonna wait til the midnight hour
That’s when my love comes tumblin’ down
I’m gonna wait ’til the midnight hour
When there’s no one else around
I’m gonna take you girl and hold you
And do all the things I told you
In the midnight hour

Yes I am, oh, yes, I am

Verse 2:

I’m gonna wait ’til the stars come out
And see that twinkle in your eyes
I’m gonna wait ’til the midnight hour
That’s when my love begins to shine
You’re the only girl I know
That really loves me so
In the midnight hour
Oh, yeah, in the midnight hour

Instrumental:

[repeat verse 1]

Just you and I… oh, baby, hah!
Just you and I… nobody around, baby, just you and I
All right… you know what?
I’m gonna hold you in my arms…
Just you and I, oh yeah
In the midnight hour
Oh, baby, in the midnight hour [fade]

More tomorrow on my inspired theme for this blog…beyond the song and the singer. What was happening in our country in those days? We were definitely entering in the midnight hour.

Across the street from Denny’s, where our waitress currently lives, a swat team swarmed the Motel 6 searching from room to room.  Our waitress received a phone call while waiting tables from a friend who was concerned about her well being. She shared this story with us since she could not go home.

Swat teams and police forces were not allowing any one to enter or exit the motel.

So much for the usually quiet little city of Pocatello, Idaho. I am checking the news for updates on this story, since it made the news on television last night. I’ll post my findings here.

Rural Policy in 2007 – Building New Alliances
In 2007 the Center led the fight for farm program payment limits reform, arguing that farm program money is better spent supporting beginning farmers, protecting our natural resources, and encouraging rural small business development. Support for rural small business development became one linchpin of our argument. It was not the only thing we fought for, but it was an issue that many new allies coalesced around.

Many agriculturally-based rural communities have suffered a precipitous loss of small businesses that serve their communities. Small businesses are vital to their future success. They are our grocery stores, hardware stores, local retail, and local service businesses. When we work to strengthen these businesses, all of rural America benefits.

Building on our own success promoting rural microenterprise through the Center’s Rural Enterprise Assistance Program, we championed a rural microenterprise assistance program as a part of the 2007 farm bill. We were successful in getting the program authorized in both the House and the Senate, and the Senate bill provides mandatory money for the program. While the fight to fully fund the program is likely to go on beyond the end of the farm bill debate, we have gained more support this year for rural microenterprise in the farm bill than under any previous farm bill.

New and old allies alike joined us in support of the rural microenterprise program. Some of these groups were new to the farm bill debate, and the breadth of support for the program demonstrates that this legislation can help make the farm bill about all of rural America.

One group, the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, made support for the program a major priority. Working with the Center, their efforts brought farm bill support for rural microenterprise to the attention of rural development organizations and contributed to the legislative campaign. Nearly 100 organizations, including some of the largest and most influential local and regional economic development organizations in the nation, joined with the Center in signing a letter supporting inclusion of the program in the farm bill.

Throughout the farm bill debate we stood on principled ground and voiced support for policy that will truly support family farming, rural communities, and our natural environment. Even without winning every fight, we advanced policy in the interest of rural communities across all of rural America.

Contact: Brian Depew, briand@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1015 for more information.

I suggest taking the time to look around you, and start with what you see in your community. Then reach out a little further and extend your hand as you are able.

As for me, I am branching out into sharing news and events of particular concern in America. Our homeland is in dire distress.  ON the following pages, I will be posting stories that involve all who live in this great country.

Please join me and share the heart of America with the world.