The earth doesn't need us. How does that make you feel?
Taste a poem.
There are no consequences for your actions. Do you give or do you take?
Feel a song.
The one substance needed for life to exist rains from the sky in vast quantities, yet we buy it in small toxic containers from people we don't know only to throw the container away so someone else will throw it on the ground somewhere we don't have to look at it anymore.
Smell a landscape.
View the world.
Sense your place in it.
Tag Archives: earth
A Poem
Filed under poetry
Battle Royale Pt 2 – Sustainability
I find it necessary to address the sustainability of each of the methods of growing that I will be comparing in my Battle Royale. Sustainability is very important to consider when undertaking any agricultural venture. When I say sustainability I mean it very literally, not just speaking from an environmental standpoint. Can this method be sustained indefinitely under the current or foreseeable future conditions?
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Filed under agrarianism, homesteading, soil, Uncategorized
Progress or …?
One of my best sources of information in the agronomic field has been the USDA Yearbooks of Agriculture. Having access to studies from 130 years ago up until the end of publishing in 1992 has been a boon for my education. It is hard not to notice, however, the stark changes in the writing styles over those years, and the perceived shift in the target audience based on the tone of the writing. Here I will present a contrast of two randomly selected excerpts to illustrate my point.
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Filed under agrarianism, books, Uncategorized, USDA Yearbooks of Agriculture
Subsoiler aka Chisel Plow (not a hand tool)
In my last post (Battle Royale (Agrarian Style)) I revealed that I have indeed used a tool on a tractor to accomplish an agrarian goal. I used a single shank subsoiler, aka chisel plow or ripper, to help prepare a hillside to become a productive orchard. There were definitely ways that I could have used hand tools only to suit this purpose, but it would have taken years worth of work and crop rotations. This solution allowed me to jump ahead with minimal investment of time and money, and with minimal negative consequences. Read on if you are interested in the reasons behind this exception to my rule (Hand Tools: The Simple Choice).
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Filed under agrarianism, hand tools, homesteading, pond, soil, trees, Uncategorized, water
Battle Royale (Agrarian Style)
I am starting new gardens from scratch this year, and in the interest of learning new things in new places, I have set up an experiment to compare a few different methods of gardening. I will keep this as brief as possible, and expound upon each of these methods as I update you with progress reports over the following years. Each bed will be planted in the spring with potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, and an assortment of vegetables, along with a row of sunflowers and buckwheat. I have no expectations or knowledge of how the results will look, this experiment is purely out of curiosity and I am excited to see how the different methods turn out. How will they yield, handle drought, soaking rains, etc?
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Filed under agrarianism, food, hand tools, homesteading, soil, Uncategorized
Mountain Art, While Supplies Last
Mountain art
With the snow relinquishing its hold on the hillsides, we have been spending much more time wandering through the woods. If I walk slowly enough, the woods will reveal creative opportunities in every direction. At my feet there is a pine cone that looks strangely different from the rest. To my right, a rock that sparkles in the sun. On the bank beside the path, a gnarled root that would make a great paperweight or bookend without any alterations whatsoever.
On a recent trip two of our children carried half of their body weight in rocks home because they couldn’t bring themselves to leave such wonderful treasures behind. When they learned they wouldn’t be allowed to bring armloads of rocks inside, they quickly found creative outlets for them. For one a massive addition to her fairy garden, to another a great start for a decorative stone border for her strawberry patch.
The burl on this tree will make a few beautiful bowls or one gorgeous bushel basket.
What I love about these woodland art supplies is that as long as we manage the wilderness with gentle benevolent intent, there will always be more creative project prompts ready and waiting. I never go into the woods with an artistic purpose in mind. The things I see and find will guide the process organically.
The balanced rocks in the feature photo took maybe 3 minutes of my time, but I get to watch their journey through the seasons for the rest of the year. I definitely didn’t expect that I would do that on that walk, but there was a pile of stones that was just waiting for rearranging. I don’t doubt that snow will knock them over this winter, but that will just give me a clean canvas for next year.
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Compost!
Compost is the breakdown product of organic wastes, containing large proportions of humus which is a long-acting soil fertility booster. Any organic material (not talking about certified organic designation, just the carbon-based once-living kind of organic) can be composted, eventually becoming soil again as it once was before being integrated into an organism.
“Composts offer a practical means of maintaining the soil fertility which is the most important factor in the successful operation of a subsistence farm….There are available on practically all farms and gardens many materials which are useful for composts, although the farmer or gardener often fails to appreciate their value. Some of the common materials which are often wasted are leaves, straw, muck, vegetable tops, grass clippings, and garbage material which is inedible for chickens or pigs.”
~C.C. Fletcher, 1935 USDA Yearbook of Agriculture
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Filed under agrarianism, soil
Green Manure and Cover Cropping
I find it interesting to read agricultural texts from different eras of our civilization. At the present moment I am increasing my collection of USDA Yearbooks of Agriculture, which I would recommend to anyone who is curious about agricultural techniques, policies, and studies. Particularly interesting to me are those books which were published during and directly following the Great Depression. In these years, agricultural science was making great leaps and bounds, not necessarily with new discoveries but with scientific proof that the practices of the preceding millennia were indeed spot-on, and that we should continue following our ancestors’ examples of land husbandry.
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Filed under Uncategorized
It All Begins With the Soil
Our lives rely completely upon soil. My life in the country is very simply and easily attributed to a direct link with the soil. In the city you may feel as if you are a few miles removed from getting dirty yourself, but in reality you are just one small step from having manure under your fingernails just to prevent starvation. Even the astronauts in the space station are not immune from requiring the basic necessities of life which we indeed must derive from the soil. With life itself hinging upon the presence and condition of this most necessary substance, shouldn’t we all feel some obligation to consciously contemplate the crumbly crust of the earth for at least a few minutes each day? Continue reading
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Filed under soil
Anonymous Appalachian Agrarian 