the energy descent

I'm reading a good on permaculture. It's not a detailed "plant this here, and that there, and lay out your water collection this way" kind of book. It is a design philosophy overview. It was written in 2002, and is still way ahead of me in thinking through the things we need to do to figure out living in a world where we slowly transition off of the fossil fuel buzz we've been on for really only a few decades. Today's sharing: Reduce, reuse, recycle always sounded like a neat, tidy mantra to help you figure out the right thing to do in life choices. Well, the author goes this two better, and I hadn't even heard this till reading this 9 year old book. refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle. Damn, I was feeling all righteous green by at least filling the recycling tub each week, and I'm doing the least useful thing on the list. He starts with refusing to consume at all, and finding another way to accomplish your goal. The main thrust of this section of the book is that we are so immersed in the addiction to fossil fuel powered life that we can't even see the alternatives we could be doing. This book is very dense in ideas and observations on moving to a sustainable life, but it's also pretty spare on writing style, so it doesn't bog you down, although I'll need to read it again to catch more of the insights that went past me while I was mulling over the ones that caught me first.

sprouts up 2011!

Here are the sprouts. Here we have peppers and some impatiens on the left. We usually buy impatiens plants at the home supply store, but we collected seeds last year, and are doing these from those seeds. Should save a lot of money if they work out.

And here are some of the tomatoes. This is second try on the tomatoes. I did something wrong on the first batch, they died. These look like they will be fine.

Put up rabbit fence and repaired the deer fence this past weekend, so things are slowly getting in gear. Bought some CPM ( composted poultry manure) and spread it on the strawberries, hopefully at the right dosage. We are winging it! CPM has a lingering stench- be sure to wear clothes you plan to wash right away if you get too familiar with the bags. Also planted my first two apple tree graft experiments. I don't think my graft technique is too good yet, so I will not be surprised if they don't take.

sleeping garden

Here is a what kept us busy most of last summer, rebuilding the sunroom on the south side of the house. Got lucky and was able to find excellent carpenters to keep me out of trouble. Aaron helped with design and material selection, and I enjoyed working with him. I'll post photos of the finished product when it's finished. Got it closed in before the snow blew last fall, but plenty to do inside this winter. Insulation, wiring, and wall covering proceeded slowly.

Here is a shot of our main garden, with a bit of the deer fence still clinging to the wire we strung it to. That'll need some fixing before our plants sprout. This is from February, and as I write it's now March, but the sun is higher, the snow is leaving. I just planted our next crop of tomatoes, peppers, and onions in the basement today. A couple more weeks, and I will do some of our broccoli, a few other peppers. The wheel turns, and we are heading in to the next growing season. First in the ground will actually be potatoes, but we aren't quite to the point of saving our own seed potatoes.

another mystery of nature

This summer, our yard in wisconsin got decimated as shown. Overnight, something ripped up the sod, and left no tracks we could find. At first we thought feral pigs, which are beginning to spread in Wisconsin, but they would have left tracks. Neighbor says they suspect skunks going after grubs, but damn, I don't want to get sprayed by the behemoth that left this carnage.

The impatiens that ate Cincinatti

Not sure what mutation transpired in the back yard here, but we have this hulking Impatiens towering over the normal sized ones in this pot. Anyone ever seen this happen before?

yeah, another miracle

Here they come! I think we are going to have our hands full this summer. Did I mention the 1-1/2 lb of bean seeds we plan to plant? Bought deer fence materials last week, will put up as needed.

spring planting

Decided to ramp up our gardening effort this spring, with starting seeds indoors for the first time with grow lights and warming mats. Last year we did some with trying to use sunlight, but the plants were leaning toward the window too much, and getting leggy. While they transplanted ok, could have thived better with a better setup. This spring we planted two kinds of tomotoes, broccoli, and various peppers.

They are in my workroom in the basement. I'm starting 10 starter trays with 36 cells in each, and still have seeds left over. I think we'll watch the sprouting, and quickly infill any duds with the leftover seeds.


Actually, one of the trays has Impatiens in it for the planters here at home, the veggies will all go north in May.

As you can see it takes a lot of care to get these puppies wired up correctly.




With the scads of dry bean seeds we bought, I think we may be in over our heads this year. The tiller is going to be working OT once we get up there and the weather is right. Did *I emntion the potatoes we plan to plant also??