Handprint Press

  • About Hand Print Press
  • Art
    • spoons & wood
    • stories: building, earth, arts
    • oven stories
    • music & more
    • Kiko’s gallery
    • food
  • Tech
    • oventek
    • stovetek
  • Bookstore
  • Workshops

The Value of Water

May 22, 2015

watershed1The thirsty drink water from a bowl made of mountains, hills, and trees…

In the rural area where I lived for 20 years — and throughout Oregon, as well as elsewhere — “watershed management” has become a common term. Farmers and ranchers compete with urbanites and salmon for water to feed us all. The media call them “water wars,” but without water, no one eats and no one “wins.” If the salmon lose, we lose too. The issue looms ever larger: climate change, population growth, and an economy on the verge of collapse. Fear makes it hard to manage anything, but we try. Meanwhile, “watershed management” has become a career path. Years ago, an earnest young woman came to a community meeting to asked us this question:

“What is the one most beneficial thing that a resident can do to improve the quality of watersheds?”

She was trying to organize a citizen’s committee to come up with a “management plan,” but I thought instead of all the waters that pour from the sky to fill the creek where I lived, which replenishes the wide ocean, as well as our cloudy Oregon sky. I saw myself standing at the creek watching the salmon spawn as they have spawned since long before my ancestors stood on two legs. I thought of the bucket I used to haul water to my little house. I felt, again, the immense gratitude and wonder I have for all the miracles, seen and hidden, that make my life possible. Rather than sign up for more meetings, I sent her the following message:

(The rest of the story will be posted at Mother Earth News after 5/23/15…)

Leave a Comment · music & more, the work of art

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories

  • announcements, classes, opportunities (11)
  • Books (2)
  • Documents (3)
  • Tech (52)
    • building tech (13)
    • oventek (27)
    • stovetek (16)
  • the work of art (61)
    • food (5)
    • Kiko's gallery (8)
    • music & more (13)
    • oven stories (15)
    • spoons & wood (8)
    • stories: building, earth, arts (19)
  • Uncategorized (1)

recent comments

  • Kiko Denzer on Increasing wood-stove efficiency
  • Michael on Increasing wood-stove efficiency
  • Kiko Denzer on About Hand Print Press
  • Heather on About Hand Print Press
  • Kiko Denzer on Earth Oven builders in Ecuador (Manuel (10), Juan Carlos (6))

Search our site

from the publisher

Hand Print Press began in the early 90s, when I self-published Build Your Own Earth Oven. I was thinking of myself as a capital A  Artist. However, as I learned from the garden and other teachers, art just means “to fit together” — it’s how the world works — flora, fauna, humans — all must fit themselves together, with each other, with the landscape, with wind and weather. In addition to the bookstore (which now includes a few other authors), the site contains stories and updates on ovens, heat, baking, beauty, agriculture, fire, community, culture, (spoon) carving, etc. It’s all art! Thanks for visiting. You can contact me at handprint at cmug dot com, or thru instagram.
— Kiko Denzer

Copyright © 2023 Handprint Press