8.7.2011, on a lighter note

Tonight I am joyfully exhausted. It was our day off, and I woke up early to watch the sunrise over the Patagonia Mountains, wrapped in a blanket and barefoot on the sidewalk. This evening, a friend/fellow volunteer and I started digging up the side yard to plant a garden. The soil is packed and dry. We ripped up the grass that clenched the top gravel layer and broke up chalky, caked layers of calcium carbonate. We started sprouting eggplant, zucchini, cucumber, habañero peppers, tomatoes, amaranth, and basil, and planted native Tepary beans, a traditional legume of the Tohono O’odham people of southern Arizona. For dinner we cooked up a big pot of blackbean stew with ancho chiles, epazote, cumin seeds, along with fresh guacamole and hot corn tortillas. I’m mulled in a night of good food and good company and recharged for morning’s work.