Sun and shade or morning mist

There comes ... a longing never to travel again except on foot. ― Wendell Berry

When possible, and other things permitting, I get out and walk. Today will be over 90F, but this morning was nice.

For years I had a walking companion, a cairn terrier named Toto, who once walked seven miles with me. We took a celebratory selfie.

Over the last year we were limited to going about a block and back and then, one day, he could not walk at all. My walks are longer now and I keep an eye out for flowers for his grave.

When the plant is useful, like chicory, I may also gather leaves or seeds. Generally I carry pruners and a bag or pack, and watch out for any kind of seasonal forage (and also pick up trash) wherever I go. In high summer, some folks set up a put-and-take table by the mailbox, and so I stop by the garden and orchard to gather some "put" to leave at the table and then "take."

You might make a bag from a cotton flour sack or old canvas shopping bag. In the case of the flour sack, cut out a "c" shape at one end and put an overcast stitch along the edges. In the case of the shopping bag, the kind with two cloth handles, cut each handle from the bag at opposite ends and stitch the ends to each other, for a shoulder bag.

Around here, roadside or vacant lot forage might include, in season, dandelions, chicory, nettles, deadnettle, blackberries, apples, pears, rose hips, firewood (sometimes dropped from overloaded trucks), St. John's wort, usefully shaped stones, salvageable bottles, willow leaves, maple flowers, plums, clover, fresh soil from gopher diggings, or horsetails.

Locally, we have quite a range of walking opportunities, including underutilized parks,

deep forests,

cobbled riversides,

uncrowded seashores,

and quiet mountaintops.

I'm willing to take advantage of those, but to me, the most fulfilling hikes are the ones that begin from my front door. The hat, stick and bag (with pruners and some water) hang in the mudroom, close to where my shoes or clogs await. What will I see ... what will I carry home? Often the tea that I make and drink, later in the day, has walked home with me from elsewhere in this valley's sun and shade or morning mist.

Just about anything but ice cream

Drying. This process removes the moisture which is necessary to the functioning of the various spoilage organisms. Vegetables should be dried so that they contain no more than ten percent water; fruits can contain up to 20 percent. -- John Seymour

Any long stretch of days in the 80s (F), as opposed to 90s or 70s, turns my mind toward dehydrating foods. As no one here seems to like my dried apples, squash, or tomatoes as much as storebought, I've backed off a bit and stuck with drying foliage mostly.

For awhile, at the height of my "farming" career, I kept a nine-tray Excelsior going:

But it died, and I went back to my simple home-built glassed-over boxes, with screened holes at the either end.

I was told this arrangement causes some loss of nutritional value, but I found the product satisfactory, and was never one to chase after every molecule.

The results seem to keep a long time, in case the wolf comes to the door. And if you really want lost nutrition, try the middle sections of the supermarket.

Vegetable leaves "process" well with dehydration, and the results are satisfactory in several uses. I keep an eye out for excess abundance, usually the lower, outer leaves of kale, broccoli, cabbage, collards, chard, Brussels sprouts or the like, and add in whatever else seems likely to do well, such as dandelions, nasturtiums, some squash leaves and blossoms, chickory leaves and blossoms, some herbs, and so on.

Make a single layer in each dryer box or on each shelf of your electric dehydrator, and wait. This used to take three days in my boxes, but now is often done by the end of one day; I don't know what that's about.

Strip the dried leaf matter from stems, crush into flakes by hand, reduce to smaller flakes (or powder) in a dry blender or grinder, and store in glass.

Use in tea, soup, stir fries, breads or, I suppose, just about anything but ice cream.

It's a wrap

Hens will do pasture good if they are not too concentrated on it. -- John Seymour

Some years ago, I came across the concept of a "chicken moat" and it fired my imagination. I was not much into having livestock myself, but, partnered with an enthusiast, knew poultry and other animals were going to be part of my life.

Chickens, ducks and their guard goose in the moat

I thought about the idea for years without implementing it, until the day I discovered deer had climbed onto the porch and eaten all the tomato seedlings in their pots. We counted up the costs of fencing the entire acre so as not to have this issue, and found we could do it.



This had the immediate benefit that we could extend the range of the poultry, but their effects in the garden were deleterious, even though they were no match for the deer in that regard. We could have them there in winter ...

... but in summer, once the slugs and bugs were under control, lettuce and chard would appear on the menu. So the obvious thing to do was to have an outer deer fence and inner poultry fence, defining the space between as pasture, and -- mirabile dictu -- a "moat" had been built.

We next placed the orchard in the moat, reasoning that even fallen fruit that was not eaten by the birds would produce bugs of various kinds that might be opportunely snapped up.

Chickens, however, are very hard on the root collars of young fruit trees, so we tried first caging the trees with prunings (the birds pulled them apart), hardware cloth (too many weeds) and then a rock mulch. We found we could spread fruit pulp (fertilizer) from cider making at the roots of the trees, and it could be explored at leisure by the birds, with the roots protected by the buried rocks. These must weigh at least three pounds or hens will root them out in order to make dust-bath pits. With ducks, this is really no issue.

We do think the garden shows signs of a reduction in slugs and veg-predacious bugs, though we have never been able to close the entire circle because of our predetermined layout, which can be an issue when buying a place already developed -- renters may encounter even more issues.

But almost every single-unit or cooperative housing place in arable temperate country, including in the suburbs could potentially benefit from such an arrangement, local codes and HOAs permitting (if they don't, now might be the time to go into politics!). I think it can be kept attractive. Of course, the more freedom you have, the more species of plants you may wish to encourage, so as to work toward a true permaculture forest garden.

Acre or even smaller lot: a) House b) garage c) wellhouse d) garden shed e) barn/poultry house f) garden beds g) fruit trees h) chicken moat i) optional goats/sheep j) truck access k) walkway l) shade trees such as mature cherry or walnut. m) place for humans to zone out.  Not shown: plantings of tea, herbs, berries, grapes, lavender, etc.

In our case, it's impossible to tell from the road that there is a moat, as we have shrubbery along the road and apple trees along the inside of the fence there. Ten feet from the road is the location of the fence, to account for county right-of-way. The poultry zone stretches from there all along the east side of the property and, as the neighbors have their own chickens, there are no diplomatic concerns. You can see from this that the idea of a moat can be very flexible indeed.

This is shaped more like a pipe wrench than two concentric circles. But for us it's a wrap.

She's done so

That which is medicinal is where she finds it, in many cases, though she's not always willing to write about her findings. Fortunately, libraries, the Internet, and conversations with the right people will bring anyone up to speed who has the will to ask. She does try to sprinkle her findings with Occam's shavings as needed.

poppies and mint

Much the same is true for food,

peas and grapes

water,

flushing out and reviving an old well

housing,

salvaging materials for an enclosed porch

Heating

cutting up windfalls

and cooling.

exterior shades for a dollar each

All these activities will not come to much, though, if one remains prey to the internalized demands of the current civilization, which requires of us that we either exemplify greed or, through fear of loss to ourselves and our loved ones, grovel to the greedy.

To the extent possible, she would prefer not to give in, at least in the last things. Here she's mindful of the pressures that can be brought to bear. It might come to be too much, yes? But for right now she has some wiggle room in which to choose a story, and she's done so.

In spring the hills are green 
the stream below is blue
the ox gets by with few desires
a good feed keeps it happy

like this for thirty years
the ox has been well trained
seeing someone else's grain
doesn't make it hungry

-- Liao-an Ch'ing-yu in P'u Ming's Oxherding Pictures & Verses (unpaginated, tr. Red Pine)

To so live that one does not need television

Cultivate poverty like sage, like a garden herb. Do not trouble yourself to get new things, whether clothes or friends. That is dissipation. -- Thoreau

Down to a twelve hour week? We need not fret. Not so many years ago I was living in a single room, doing laundry in the sink, cooking in a rice steamer on my desk, drinking tap water. I made teas from found herbs, and then ate them with my rice; I prowled alleyways for apples and plums in season.

Once I had made my way back to the country (a house was for sale with an overgrown acre at its feet and blue tarps on its roof), I resolved to eat better, and picked up tools.

A tree planter's shovel can do a lot; with it weeds and roots may be chopped, posts may be set, soil turned, seedlings planted, and an orchard set forth. Some have dug wells so. Acceptable soil, temperatures and moisture (while that is possible) can be a big help, though one might be surprised at what some have made arable.

One may find other tools at yard sales and thrifts. Or make others. Know when to stop acquiring; a tractor, for example, can lead to complications. You need not grow twelve acres of carrots for people in the next province, state or country.

I favor a short-handled hoe made from a car fender by a handy friend. For transplanting it has no equal, and it can weed or, in a pinch, plow. But we are a deep-mulch family.

If one can count on relatives that's a blessing. Maybe my best garden tools are the bench grinder and vise given to us by my dad almost fifty years ago. With these, what I don't have, I can generally make. His old wrenches, hammers and such came in handy as well.

One may be given seeds, or find them at a seed library, or on sale. Or from reputable suppliers.

Then there's seed saving. I have always avoided patented seeds for this reason and others.

Saving all compost has worked well here; gardening, like farming, mineral mining and fossil fuel extraction, costs the earth. The costs must be repaid if the garden is to continue. The more local the nutrients, the lower the cost to the earth. I know the gadget pictured here is expensive; it was a gift.

Work and rest, eat, sleep, drink tea, watch the clouds go by. The idea is not to save the earth; as I have said, that's water over the dam. But to at least so live that one does not need television.