“The oldest task in human history is to live
on a piece of land without spoiling it.”
- Aldo Leopold
To automatically receive an alert when there's a new post, just send an email with 'Bird subscribe' in the subject line to: hawkcall@yahoo.com
Your email address is safe here - it will never be sold, shared or linked to anything else.
16 ~ Dark elixir, and the largesse of May
With the arrival of some warming days in early May, the flow of birch sap finally ceased. The tally of my joint effort with the trees is a mere 5.5 pints (2.6 liters) of syrup from 83 gallons (314 liters) of sap collected from about a dozen white birches – a ratio of 121:1 of sap to syrup (compared with about 30:1 for maple sugaring). This was my first foray into birch syrup, and the result is amazing, its rarity fitting…
15 ~ Homage to opening day
Last Saturday morning I was in the car at 4 am, heading west, deeper into the Driftless Area. I love driving through the Wisconsin countryside at that hour - nearly alone on the quiet roads, and watching the night lift as the day world slowly comes alive. By 5:30, I was pulling on waders in the soft early light near a favorite stream, for opening day of the Wisconsin trout season…
14 ~ Amish arc
Early this week, in a respite of fair weather between damp cold of last week and a forecast of warmer yet rainy days, I put in a big push and planted early, cool season vegetables… Most of the vegetable starts I put in are Amish-born…
13 ~ Salt, salarium (and saola)
The large, Soviet-made Mi-8 transport helicopter paused in a hover, then eased down toward a small field that had been cropped close and hard by water buffaloes and cattle. As we descended, the rotors kicked up a dust storm, and through the swirling tan veil, out a small porthole window, I could see villagers gathering along the edges of the field, to watch the arrival of the biggest, loudest thing ever to visit them…
12 ~ Notes from Day 116: Mother hubbard, fowl, rabbits & abundance
A windy, sharp cold and some come & go snow returned this week to the Driftless Area. In response, I cozied into the kitchen…
11 ~ Lessons from Hunza
I’ve now run out of some kitchen staples; still, life is good today - I write this beside a pot of tea that’s steeping in boiled birch sap instead of water. Gone now from my larder are olive oil (but have offers for some to follow up), regular sugar and white flour. For this situation, encouraging lessons come from the mountains of Pakistan.
10 ~ P.S.- Wildlife conflict: Scarecrows
Just a quick note today. On the topic of scarecrows from the last post, I thought you might enjoy these images of scarecrows I encountered during wildlife surveys in Laos.
9 ~ Chicken-wildlife conflict
A few days ago, I returned home from an afternoon errand and only five of my six laying hens, which had been free-ranging in the yard, gathered round in greeting…
8 ~ Day 99
Today marks the 99th day since I last went grocery shopping… It’s remarkable how much food I continue to find, mainly just looking among – and getting a bit creative with - my cupboard and freezer. A loaves and fishes experience…
7 ~ Full circles
March is the month God created to show people who don’t drink what a hangover is like. - Garrison Keillor
6 ~ Welcome, Spring
Greetings on this first day of spring for we northerners, and first day of fall in the southern hemisphere…
5 ~ The lean time
About a week ago I met this listless, emaciated white-tailed deer along a road near the farmhouse. March is the lean time, when most of winter’s deprivation is behind us, but spring and new growth still lie ahead...