It all started with a student named Brent – an adventurous and savvy indoor grower of basil and other crops. He spoke of pupping cream and sent me a link. I went down the hole. The timing was fortuitous because we had all just read an essay by orchid master Tom Perlite about the various plant hormones and the role they play in development. We were about to make cuttings and use auxins in products like rootone, dip & grow, and clonex. The topic of discussion was the synthetic versions we apply to plants in cultivation. Most folks do not recognize or understand the overall importance of hormones in plants, animals, humans. So here then is a quick primer of pictures for an overview that brings it closer to home.
We talk about the old time sources of hormones and why we sought after them. Perhaps a male eager for that boost to be the alpha, or a female in menopause hoping for the return of coolness, skin and lubrication. We touch upon triiodothyronine, thyroxine, estrogen, adrenaline, cortisol, growth hormone, insulin, testosterone, and erythropoietin. Then we circle back to plants and cytokinins, the ingredient in the pupping cream. More another day about the other plant hormones like gibberellins, ethylene, and abscisic acid.
Went on a walkabout in the turkey filled hills with a friend nicknamed ‘French Boat’ Yes I know that is a kinda weird name, and does not come off the tongue easy Nevertheless it fits, anyhow He asked me Why do you write so many native American stories? How about a Chinese tale? Well okay, here it is I’ve entitled it an ‘Explanation’ etc . . . But some folks might end up more confused than clarified at the end of it So for those who cannot do without their logic and rational thinking Have a difficult time with negative space, washed out blurs of gray ink, And loosey goosey gobble gobble mindsets There is another explanation that follows the set of drawings Written in plain straightforward English, more like a set of notes and annotations So that you might venture further, and not be left with wtf?!
1 So the classic old timer phrase is In the dark there is light, and in the light there is dark And the spheres are constantly moving and shifting dynamic equilibrium some would say
2-3 There you have it, the yin and the yang opposite principles derived from the observation of nature
5- 14 We launch here into the mahjong tiles, For those of you not familiar with the game It is kinda like this card game called gin rummy You play by making sets of three tiles Either three of a kind like 777, or three in a row like 123 456 And to win, you also need a pair of two identical tiles So sets of 3, and a 2, more or less Theres a lot of variations too
Instead of spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs, and a couple of jokers The mahjong set has winds, numbers, coins, bamboos, and fundamentals Instead of jokers, theres these ‘extra’ optional tiles that are seasons and plants
4-5 The winds align with the four cardinal directions of play Here we usually say north east south west In Chinese it goes east south west and north Probably because it starts with the rising of the sun The north wind is shown as it evolved from bone script times to present day The winds were coming from the arctic recently, really cold and on my mind
6-8 The fundamentals are kinda odd They have to be used in the game as triplets of three identical tiles Since they are each their own thing And cannot be used in a sequence or linked with one another Each character speaks for itself They exemplify the qualities or values considered good and noble In order to be grounded in society, nature and ritual They play off of one another
9-14 These pages show examples of the three linear ‘suits’ Numbers, coins, and bamboos After a while of playing this game, you start to see sets of three everywhere Whether that be 234 456 or 222 and 999 Anyhow, when you want to make that pair, the set of two of the same tile The pair you have to have in order to win Oftentimes you want to try and make that a 22 or a 55 or an 88 2’s, 5’s and 8’s Not 1’s, 4’s, 7’s, nor 3’s, 6’s, 9’s The simple reason is that you get more points for a pair of 2, 5, or 8’s The more complicated reason is that You want to be in the middle, not at the ends 123 – the middle is 2 456 – the middle is 5 789 – the middle is 8
Thus 147 258 369, the sequence in the middle is… In farming times its probably a practical thing like the ends of cordage being weak Or the bottom of the barrel being gunky and such In imperial times you would want to be fair and hence in the middle, and so on So a pair of twos, or a pair of fives, or eights
12 Think the drawings 9 -14 are pretty clear in and of themselves But this one needs just a little touch The particular ‘suit’ is coins The coins in the old times had a square hole in the middle The word for coin is similar to a cylinder or a ‘sleeve’ Colloquially we will also call this suit pancakes because of the round shape Cookies are pretty close too Yummy starchy dough products that are baked or fried savory or sweet
15 -18 Mahjong has a couple of different names in the north and the south In the south it is the game of sparrows Something to do with all the chit chat sounds of the tiles being washed and jettisoned And the fluttering of small birds Chinese used to loved to hunt or keep in cages In the north, the second character sounds more like the jong of Mahjong How the character came to be linked with the game May be lost to history But if you play Chinese chess, the general or the ‘king’ for one side of the game Has the same character In the old times, it is doubtful that the ‘king’ ( emperor) would be on the battle field at all For sure the all powerful queen is not roaming around the trenches Launching rockets and crossing rivers Western chess is similar to, but different from, eastern chess Anyhow, this is yin and yang embodied as play A social game loved by kids and addicted gamblers alike
19 This is the silly page before the more peaceful and contemplative ending Followers of the tao who adopted the yin yang symbol Love to quote old man Laozi Going on about ‘if you know the way, you don’t know the way’ On the one hand, its kinda true In the sense that any ol kinda dogma or institution or binding (Materialized as ropes, words, boxes, data sheets and the like) That tries to strap down and stop the movement of the dynamic state-changing equilibrium Is gonna fail On the other hand, you also get these folks that just make stuff up Turn night into day and day into night, like none of it matters Don’t know which direction the sun comes up Operate in a magic bubble not grounded in nature at all I kinda prefer what my uncle Tito Grabiel says The way or the path is forward, tira adelante Yes linear Or is that circular? Ugghhhh
20 So there you have it Ancient Chinese philosophy based on a lunar calendar Farming in riverine valleys and fishing by a still pond Cutting firewood in the forest, and harvesting medicinal herbs on a sunlit ridge
Was honored to sit with Taita Sandro Piaguaje of the Aguarico Sionas, And his assistants In a circle of yage drinkers A chance to fade away from the routine of day to day life Reflect in ceremony And feel the spirit force As hard as it is, energetically and physically
Have an old book by ethnobotanist William T Vickers entitled Useful Plants of the Siona and Secoya Indians of Eastern Ecuador A good and occasional reference for whenever I have pangful dreams of Canon ball trees, oropendola nests, and a field full of manioc Cloudy brown green rivers Specks of humid light under a shady still canopy Endless trees and vines embedded in the fabric of the jungle And the people intertwined with such worlds I had never met anyone from the Siona nation Or heard their songs, observed their healing practices Sure do like the peccary necklaces and the tigre motifs And the medicine that’ll wake you up from a selfish slumber But man, really heavy How do you shake off the sickness and purge the plague that is The destruction of the forest The strangling of culture The contamination of life
Like a thick two ton block of lead falling on your head Blood vessels choked with voracious worms Splintering your innards with barbed teeth and fine crystalline hairs Joints fractured crumbled into teeny shards and dusty bits Makes you have serious reservations About our responsibility and duty as caretakers of a planet Gifted to us by ancestors at the origin of time And blessed by countless guardians who open and close the gates Of mind and consciousness
Well this is what I saw and congealed together by day break Still contemplating, because the painted story seems kinda incomplete A little bleak at a cross road The colors and lights seem so distant Where do they lead? No obvious signs or tracks to follow Sniffing… Seems to head towards the wet swampy grassland plains South
Up in Sonoma county between Petaluma and Cotati Is a small town with farming roots called Penngrove That is where we went to visit the Penngrove Power and Implement Museum The heart and soul of the operation is Nancy and Steve Phillips And their dedicated family and crew They keep all the machinery running in good shape Restoring not just the equipment, but a relationship and knowledge of how things work
As gardeners, we are into plants and farming implements So of course I gravitated towards the seed sowers and tractors of all kinds That red Schramm engine had three cylinders running and three compressing See the air tank? And there was Deere, Farmall, International Harvester, and more
Inside the barn was a magical mechanical dream Full of belts, pulleys, and the hum of work being done From the Hicks marine engine used on San Francisco feluccas out at Monterey and Morro Bay To all kinds of little outboard motors with a variety of propellers There were small machines to braid lace, make furniture legs, entertain and teach the kids, A generator to reminds us of the War of the Currents between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla And plaques that emphasized the importance of READING THE INSTRUCTIONS!
Outside, more metal, pistons, and lubricated gears Check out the pull start on this USMC Caterpillar tractor And imagine a time before hydraulics on heavy equipment When a cable lifted your bucket And gravity dropped it back down
On the one hand these are relics of a time long gone They are no longer used in our very modern era Because they are too heavy, too noisy, too polluting, too slow, not safe, not enough power, difficult to start and so on But they are like the wisdom of the ages and stories of elders How else do you understand change evolution and progress If you don’t have any roots or understanding of basic engineering principles Or know about adapting to field conditions and problem solving with the tools at hand Dave told me – you need only seven tools to work on a model T Seven tools!? What?! And that thing came in how many colors?!
At the end of our visit We got a train ride on the tracks, in carts meant to haul salt from the bay And posed for pictures by the Petaluma Trolley Well if you want to meet some great folks who can take anything apart and put it back together And reacquaint yourself with fine machinery that has lasted the test of time for decades and a century or more Mark your calendars! The next Power Up is July 11th, 2026 Heres the website: https://www.facebook.com/penngrovepower/
Chugga-chugga-chugga Cinder and ashes, come along, come along! It’s important to keep trying, no matter what Little engines can do big things!
Mission Azul 