Owners: Sylvester and Teddi Moore
Location: Talihina, Oklahoma
History: Teddie Moore and husband Sylvester were married two years ago and had a little extra land around their home.
“He is Choctaw/Chickasaw while I am a part Choctaw,” Teddi said. “We had outlived our capacity to do what we would like to do in in maintaining our close relationship with the land and agriculture. We need a new and still active lifestyle change because we are not rocking chair people. I have always liked butterflies and read about them being endangered and the role they play as pollinators of clovers and native grasses in cattle country.”
Products and Services: “In order to support our butterfly project, we construct bug, bird and bat houses for sale, sometimes during events like the annual Broken Bow Owa-Chito Festival. All profits go to our save the monarch work. The houses are built for artistic as well as practical purposes and decorated with a colorful variety of bits and pieces. Consequently, people sometimes use them as decorative items in their homes and yards rather than habitats. We also sell the houses while we speak to civic organizations and churches. We talk to anyone interested in the monarch and other pollinators including schools. Because this is a new business and lifestyle for us, we are still building connections with communities and finding new outlets for our houses. Since our program is an outreach, we frequently give away two milkweed seeds and a bag of dirt filled by members of the Talihina/Clayton Choctaw Nation Youth Advisory Board under the direction of Becky Nail.”
Philosophy and Future: “Because we are dedicated to the environment, we use as many recycled products as we can, including discarded wood pallets and PVC pipe as small as 1 inch. The cups for growing our giveaway milkweed seeds are made from recycled paper flyers provided by the Choctaw store in Clayton, Okla. Milkweed and cows are not compatible, and Sylvester and I sometimes transplant milkweed plants from pastures to our ground, making our little acre a safe location for monarchs to lay their eggs. Then we collect the seed pods from our milkweed plants to provide the seeds we give away to the public. In the future we plan on building a website to promote the environment and our houses as we strive to save the monarch and other pollinators and the important role they play in the pollination of clovers and native grasses in pastures.
