We were there!

The girls made the "350" signs all on their own!


I was only four when Woodstock happened, but it feels all tingly to be a part of something so much bigger than one's self. We were in the "3", buffeted by a cold rainy breeze. "This is weather, not climate" they told us. Still, we were there!

OCTOBER 24, 2009 ... 350!

OK local couch potatoes, here's your chance to participate in THE social movement of our time. Go to tc350.org to find out the details, but the best estimates are that 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere is safe for the world as we know it. Higher than that and bad things gonna happen! While you're at the website, download 2 really cool tunes from Seth & May!!

Peace and 350!

Met one of the neighbors today

Ah, fall. The smells of leaves, applesauce cooking, cold north winds, soil on the beets and carrots just dug from the garden; the sounds of chainsaws and rifle shots. As hunting season approaches, I took a few minutes to post our land. It reminded me of that scene in Never Cry Wolf where Farley Mowatt and the wolf try to work out their territorial issues in true wolf fashion. Well, I didn't drink a quart of tea: I used bright orange signs instead.

LR came with me on the back part of the property, and while I prepared to staple a sign to a big basswood on our eastern boundary, she looked up in a maple nearby. "Hey dad, look up there!" On a branch about 15 feet up sat a snoozing porcupine! We watched for a minute while I stapled up the sign, then headed back to the house for the camera.
She was absolutely tickled that she had just seen her first porcupine, and she spotted it! That's my li'l half pint!


The garden has made its transition to fall: some kale still standing, a few collards, the cold frame is out with spinach and more kale, and the garlic is in (followed cabbage in the rotation). Now for blankets of leaves over a sprinkling of rock dusts, soft rock phosphate and a light dose of wood ashes. I put it to bed like I do the children, with a prayer that spring will come and all will be well.

Bioneers!

Today was a return to "real life" after three days of listening to and hanging with Earth-loving, courageous people who are actually working to make a difference. It was a bit of a letdown, actually. After hearing all the bad things that are happening on this planet, I walked back into the Land of the Clueless. I just want to scream, "WAKE THE @%#$ UP!" I work at an institution of higher learning for crying out loud, and I saw only TWO other members of the staff at the conference. We're getting so close to the Point Where Things Will Get REALLY Bad, that this stuff is more valuable than anything taught in a class. I can't believe some of the things that students are asked to learn, while the few classes that might give an understaning of climate change are "electives". Good God, EVERYONE needs to know this stuff.

The real power of a conference like Bioneers is in bringing together people who strive and struggle, day after day, to get something done, sometimes alone. In one big room, we recharge, exchanging energy until we can go out and work one more day, or one more year. Often, what moves us to cheers and tears is music: thanks to Seth and May and the other amazing Earthworks musicians for their gifts of song.

Some sites I learned about:
http://www.350.org/ - actions regarding climate change worldwide on OCTOBER 24th! GET OUT THERE, or start an action near your home!
http://circleofblue.org/ - water news from around the world
http://www.storyofstuff.com/ - Annie Leonard has even by demonized by Fox News! (She must be doing something right!)
http://www.nrec.org/ - the Neatawanta Center's site, thanks to Bob & Sally or whoever put this together!

The Great Lakes Bioneers in Traverse City had a water-oriented theme, and I came home after the first day with plans to make a shrine around our well head. It's squeezed uncerimoniously between the driveway and the woods, just a few feet upslope from the propane tank. The spot is currently a "weed" patch, with some catnip, motherwort and burdock (all good friends). I don't know what I want it to look like, but I want something to remind us that this hole in the ground is the source of our life, our blood, our energy. The little pump down there brings us something sacred. Winter is bearing down on us, so watch for news and pictures in the spring.

Over the weekend, we heard from several amazing elders, from familiar places like California, and unfamiliar ones like the North Sope of Alaska. Our region's own John Bailey challenged us with a very important question for this time in the existence of human civilization: "What kind of ancestor do you wish to be?"

What kind of ancestor do you wish to be?

Summer gleanings

The night-time temperatures are back in the 40s. I guess summer's over, even though it never seemed to get here. We've been ripped off! The garden greens have done well, but the tomatoes are abundant and green. In the one area of our property that was not logged, the fungi have been amazing. I walk 20 yards and find perhaps ten kinds of mushrooms! Then comes the work of identifying them. Golden way caps, a polypore on an elm stump, a still-unknown bright orange one, and more.

I found several interesting tidbits this summer:

• three grass fed beef links:
  
  http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2006-12-01/News-From-Mother-December-January-2006.aspx
  
  http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2006-12-01/News-From-Mother-December-January-2006.aspx
  
  http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2007-08-01/5-Reasons-to-Add-Grass-fed-Beef-to-Your-Grocery-List.aspx

• an article on the impact of air pollution of the dispersal of floral scents
• Want to scare yourself? Check out this search tool for finding out what chemical residues have been found in your food. All the more reason to eat organic or grow yer own!
• I also asked the manager (?) of our local feed store about products with a common insecticide that has been linked to Colony Collapse Disorder (imidochloprid). He said since the patent came off, it's showing up in everything. To pull it off the shelves would leave him with virtually no OTC insecticide products. PLEASE be careful what you spray, if you have to spray at all!

That's enough to share for now. As you walk and ponder, pause at the goldenrod and watch for pollinators. Slow down and look for fungi in the moist places of your world. And if you're around my corner of Michigan, I'll see you at BIONEERS in October!

The garden is in, finally!

Well, it's in for now. I finally got to transplant the basil now that the night temps are out of the low 40s. Let's see, there are about 4 kinds of lettuce, spinach, arugula, mache, swiss chard (2 var.), beets, parsnips, onions (3 var.), leeks, broccoli, cauliflower, savoy cabbage, brussel sprouts, pac choi, bell peppers, slicing canning and cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, fresh and storage carrots, cilantro, parsley and zucchini. And rhubard.

All this is in nine circular keyhole beds about 10 feet in diameter each. Hmm: five squared times pi times nine equals ... (pop), another brain cell explodes. Not too much space, compared to the old rows of plants between great swaths of weed-free dirt.

Oh yeah, there are 2 varieties of strawberries, German chamomile, calendula and teddy bear sunflowers on the slope nearby. And a few culinary and medicinal herbs in a perennial garden. In the words of Dave Mallett, "Someone bless these seeds I sow, till the rain comes tumblin' down."

Summer Rains

The past month seemed drier than usual, but maybe I was just watching it more closely. Now that the May flowers have faded under the growing canopy of maples, the early summer rains are starting. The pond is almost full again after an inch-plus rain in the last 24 hours. The rain barrels that I hooked up at work are full to overflowing. One hundred gallons in the bank!


My rain harvesting plans are starting to flesh out here at Snowy Hollow, after learning how easy it is to hook up a barrel. We have a barrel on the hill above some transplanted raspberries, rigged up to water the bee garden by gravity-fed soaker hose. I put out another barrel today to catch rain pouring off the roof where two pitches come together. For now, that one will just fill watering cans.

The big issue here is most of the useable space is uphill from the house and pole barn. The barn could catch almost 1000 gallons from an inch of rain, but I need to get it up to where the plants would be. Fishing for ideas like battery-powered sump pumps from RVs, bicycle powered pumps, ... anything but buckets! I'm hoping to host a cistern-building workshop someday that will end with a BIG cistern of ferrocement and fieldstone behind the barn. The garden in the front yard will have it easier; it's downhill. That old septic tank will take care of things there. Like I said, everything is an asset!

The difficult thing about harvesting rainwater in Michigan, I'm realizing, is we get plenty in June, but not much in July and part of August. Could we store enough to get though a month or two? That 100 gallons at work will water a small herb garden thoroughly one time. The barrels drain out in under 2 hours. If it doesn't rain every other week, I'll be out there with a hose. I think the best bet is to catch what rainwater we can, but also make use of gray water to get us through the dry months. It's easy to catch water while the shower warms up. It's easy to divert washing machine water, but we'll need to do something about the soap. One doesn't take up homesteading if one doesn't like challenges!