2nd Monday Genre: Reflection ——— “Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet, do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past…They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring.” —Dogen Another spring is here. Last week was my first day on [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eymZEx8wKDU Here at ABC acres, we have fallen in love with the thornless honey locust tree. Its many uses and benefits to a landscape demand we acknowledge its value, and we are happy to do so. A brief list of some of its favorable attributes include fast growth rate, drought tolerance once established, quality timber, livestock feed, nitrogen fixation, nectar [...]
1st Monday Genre: Fiction ——— It was months before Beck went back to the pit after he discovered the iron veins. By the time he finally did return, during the lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the exposed veins on the walls were rusted a deep orange, striped magical and dangerous as a tiger. The pit stared back at him, waiting silent and [...]
https://youtu.be/fbSVzp9ckFk Chickens and Trees: A Natural Connection Conventional commercial egg production offers cramped cages for laying hens, with a steady diet of GMO grain, water, artificial light, and antibiotics to fight off the disease that is inevitable in these unnatural and polluted conditions. While large-scale organic egg producers are not feeding chemical-laden food, the housing conditions are typically not [...]
4th Monday Genre: Open Letter ——— Dear Sekuru,* You would be proud of me, I think. I’ve finally started reading Walden. As you’ll recall from our conversations in the office, I was never much enamored with the classics. I read them, sure, in high school and college, but it was more about checking them off the list. I felt a [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzcpGK0vXiE While this topic may get your goat, I am still boldly going whole hog on the matter. I feel the importance of the issue justifies it, although perhaps not the use of my puns! The issue at hand being that most of the meat consumed in the US is factory farmed in confinements, not only leading to a number [...]
Where walk the willows, Under the sapphire sky? Along what cracked stones have their roots travelled? What maps do they make along their lonely ways, Amid the eddies of streams and the banks of the rivers? And we half-men, with our bustle and bluster, Do not see them. And past the trees we stampede. Beating breasts, calling for more. Demanding [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MeFQ73F0ZQ Most fruit trees we see, whether in a yard or commercial orchard setting, have neat and tidy lawn or mulch rings underneath them. Many a gardener or farmer fears their yields will be reduced with the competition of other plants growing near the base of their fruit producers. You may also witness, or yourself be applying various soil amendments [...]
As happens sometimes on the farm, I found myself working on a number of solo projects last week--burying irrigation lines, planting early seed starts, and moving hay...always more hay. I have come to find, somewhat to my surprise, that I relish such projects for their simplicity, regularity, and operational patterns. In Buddhism there are people who practice walking meditation, and [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8cwRXPdxbs Here at ABC acres, we pursue the goal of being constant students of permaculture. Absorbing relevant information by reading books and articles, watching videos, and attending continuing educational events are all certainly part of this process. Equally important is not only engaging Creation itself as a teacher, but also learning lessons from the designs we ourselves placed on the [...]
