“The oldest task in human history is to live
on a piece of land without spoiling it.”
- Aldo Leopold
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20 ~ Consider the morel
“We crossed the brook to the left side and came to the foot of a hill. Age-old oaks, mighty cedars, black birch, maple, Aralia, firs, poplars, hornbeam, spruce, larch and yew all grew together in picturesque profusion…”
19 ~ In memoriam
Today, a pause to join the remembrance, from a blog about living in deeper, positive connection with other living things in the world.
17 ~ Auction!
From the beginning, it has been my intention to shield this blog, and you, dear readers, from surveillance capitalism…
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…