this journal isn't going to be written in anymore. i'll start another one, eventually, with a different name, and post on lahermite when i do that.

why am i not going to write here anymore? well, a haven is a safe place, a refuge. nowhere in that does it state, "as long as you're not black". but this little house here, in this little community, could not be a safe place for anyone black. in fact, people of colour would probably be safer just about anywhere that's not a backwoods community.

i love our home here. i love the community. the town. the mountains. the trees. i hate the racism, but, at the moment, it's so entwined in the culture here, i have no choice but obey their laws. which makes my little home not a haven. if it's not a haven for all good folks, then it's not a haven.

so i'll journal our little rewilding, off-the-gridding, gardening experiment under a different name. we can't move any time soon. this is our home for now. but it's not a refuge. :(

through the miracle of luck, i have a functioning worm bin. it started last winter when i tried to over-winter tomatoes in the house. before spring got here, aphids killed them all, but i discovered that worms had been living in the dirt the whole time. so i took a bunch of the dirt out and put it on my garden, then put some of the food that was going to go on the compost (everything except meat, really) in the bin, covered it with shredded wet newpaper, covered that with wet cardboard, and left it for ages. every now and then i repeat this. if i did it more often, and added more food, i'd probably get more dirt sonner. today the dirt i took out was full of big fat juicy worms. i put the dirt and worms around some of the veggies i'm growing in one of the plots. when i pull weeds, i lay the weeds back down around the veggies that are growing. it seems to be working, for the most part. i've also got dirt i can take out of the compost pile now. there's potatoes and corn growing in there, so i can't dig in those places, but i've got rotating holes i dig the dirt out of for the garden, and then fill the hole back up with food scraps and cover with grass i've pulled or dug up. again, through the miracle of luck, it seems to be working. come autumn, i'll rake leaves and put them in the compost and on the dirt in the plots. give it a few years, and i should have some nice healthy soil out there.

now that i've got the tiller, i need to decide what i'm going to till and what i'm going to plant. i want a section where i grow storage crops, like quinnoa, beans, winter squash, potatoes. i'll then cover crop it in the winter, preferably with something me and the birds and animals that over-winter here can use. i love that there's all this land here that i can plan and use.

i love that it talks to me and tells me what i can do. that i can work with the land instead of over it.

the landscape is trillions of shades of green. so vibrant, lush, dense, and alive.

there's some yellow summer squash growing, too, but they're not big enough to pick yet.



last year, after i moved in, i stuck some potato chunks in the ground. i didn't dig the ground except for a hole big enough for the piece of potato. the plants grew then died and i thought nothing of it. i didn't put anything in the ground in that place this year and didn't even think about the potatoes i put in last year, not expecting them to have actually grown! i was mowing the lawn the other day and found about ten potato plants growing in random places where i'd planted them last year. obviously potatoes did grow in the ground and, because i didn't dig them up, they grew new plants this year! i've also got potatoes thriving in the compost pile. yum!

the peach tree is in pretty bad shape. we picked a few of the peaches today but they're not quite ripe yet. the next few days are supposed to be sunny, so a bunch of them will be ripe this week. most of them have mold spots on them, though. the branches are so dense with fruit and leaves that the moisture is just rotting them. the big spring pruning should fix that for next year, but this year it means a lot of lost fruit. some of the fruit is edible, though, with a sharp knife! they're not overly sweet, but definitely sweet enough, even when still a little crispy.

i noticed a couple of baby summer squash forming when weeding, and the mystery plant that we think is a pumkin has a tiny forming fruit.

the plums on the plum tree are darkening. i'm not sure when they'll be ripe, i might have to try one to see. the plum tree is in dire need of a prune, too.

one of the apple trees, i noticed the other day, is one of those two-fruit ones, where half the tree grows one kind of apple and the other half grows a different kind.

i must get out and look at all this stuff every day from now on. can't pull another couple of absent weeks.

the baby willow isn't doing that great, but the pecan and the chestnut look amazing. the others are are doing well, too.

got up this morning and ran out in the yard and did a bunch of gardening. the peach tree got so bottom heavy a bunch of branches have broken. a lot of the fruit on there is rotting as it's all too close together. before next spring i must get a book on pruning and really cut the tree back to give it more space for better growth. there's a couple of pretty big branches that have broken. :( but i got a bunch of weedeating done, the ride-on mower is fixed so i mowed a bit, i did a whole lot of weeding, got a baby squash/pumkin/something out of the starter and in the ground, gave the failing cucumber and tomato plants a whole bunch of dug up compost, saved the mint from being annihilated by clover. then my energy flagged, which seemed to coincide with the rain, so i came in and showered (i still seem to have half a lawn and a tree in my hair, though!) the rain still hasn't come yet, but that's okay. i'll do some more later or tommorrow. it's actually supposed to be mostly dry for the next few days, so if i get out early enough, i should be able to do some more. it's no good being out there once it gets to mid-day, though. it's just too hot. but the sun goes behind the mountain late afternoon, and then it gets beautiful again.

i realised, looking at the peach tree and the huge zucchini laying there, that i better get ready to preserve some food. until i get some money, i'll be primarily freezing, but as soon as i can, i'll buy canning supplies. if it's hot all week, i may try dehydrating a few things by just laying them in the sun on the deck.

the get-up-and-out-of-the-house-early thing seemed to work this morning, so i might try that again! i'm sooo not a morning person normally!

there are baby zuccinni in my garden!

the corn is still growing, the squash (various kinds) is all flowering, the pinto beans are bushing out, there are baby cucumbers and tomatoes, and the other day, when pulling a weed out of the compost pile, i also pulled up some baby red potatoes. how exciting!

but the baby zuchini (how *is* that spelled?!) excited me the most. i've been watching them flower, trying to see when a fruit would form, and i got to see the difference between the flowers that don't fruit and the ones that do, and then lo! all of a sudden, there were baby zuccini's laying there. whoot!

danny is most excited to see baby jalapeno, baby hot banana peppers, and baby red cayenne peppers!

but i haven't done anything in the yard in weeks and i really must. there's still stuff langoring in flats that needs to go in the ground so they can grow, and weeds are over-running everything. i still did not get the tiller that i'm supposed to be getting, and haven't had the time to dig out any more beds, but as long as i get all that done before the frost kicks in, my garden next year should be much more organized.

four pics: a visitor on our front door step and a little something from our garden.

( Read more... )

been watching the upkeep of the roads around here lately. it's not like we have a choice but watch! big trucks go down the roads and the railway tracks spewing poison out everywhere, then tractors come down with huge cutting machines on them to eat anything and everything growing within 20 feet of the roadway. it eats baby trees, knocks rocks off, and reaches up high and out far. huge killing machines.

poison and destruction. and doesn't that just about sum up roads anyway. why would their upkeep be any less murderous than their very existance.

*sighs*

a neighbour came over with his ride-on yard mower and devoured my long lawn. he completely mowed over my little wild patch containing seeding wild onions, creasy greens, and chickweed. :( nothing that wont grow back but still... i didn't say anything, though, he looked so pleased to be devouring all the wildness. and it does look tidier and, more importantly, safer. then i got paid yesterday so went out and bought a weedeater and some fencing. i got 4ft posts and 2 ft high chicken wire to put round where i'm veggie growing to keep the dogs off. today i got the weedeater going and started the process of devouring all the bits jake didn't get. my hands are still buzzing now and my ears were weird after turning it off, but it does the trick.

i planted all the baby cauliflower plants and the 3 baby brussell sprout plants yesterday. i put them in the semi-failed plot 1 that i had direct sowed a bunch of stuff into that never came up. 3 of the potato plants came up so i covered them back up again, which should prompt the plant to produce taters in 2 layers. i've got to finish digging up the plot for the baby popcorn plants and i'm going to put the baby yellow squash plants in with them. the bean/corn/squash bed is coming up nicely and yesterday we picked 2 more strawberries out of the patch. we also picked cherries off the one tree the other day.

whoot!

soooo much to do. not enough time to keep sitting here, that's for sure!

i'm going up the road in a minute to get eggs off the gay couple that live there. oh for the day there's chickens living here!

the power was out for 12 hours today. big tree fell on the line in spring creek during the storm last night and it took them all day to chop it up and fix the broke bits. i got out the camping stove and made coffee on it, then hung out with sandy up the road as her oldest (he's 2) was pitching a fit because he couldn't understand why she wouldn't turn the tv on for him. loke and jiana provided great destraction for him! i was all prepared to make tacos for dinner tonight but the power came back on.

whodathunk.

jiana dropped a bunch of supermarket-brand popping corn on the floor, so just to see what would happen, i dumped it all in a pot and put some dirt on top. we're talking probably 1/4 of an inch thick of popping corn.

guess what's sprouting up all over the pot now!

and yet the corn i planted in the bean/squash/corn bed, actual from-a-seed-packet corn, hasn't come up yet, bar one. doh!

the hedgerows are full of blossoms. the yellow poplar have their tulip looking flowers all over, the brambles are covered in white, wild roses are everywhere. the honey suckle tantalizes you as you drive by, and all sorts of planted flowers are spiking up. beauty reigns!

i find it frequently frustrating that i'm a girl with no man and no tools. i hate the whole genderisation thing there, but that's the simple truth. i'm a girl with no man and no tools, therefore, i'm pretty much useless. of course, if i had a great set of tools, then the lack of strength and penis would be a little less frustrating, but not completely.

the latest in a lengthening line of challenges is the stupid lawn mower. i hit a rock and bent the blade so got a new one and put it on. but now the lawn mower won't start. two different people have told me that i need to clean the spark plug which, upon googling, seems like a simple enough thing to do, if you've got the damned tool to take the thing out.... and when you don't, and you have no man with tools in your life, and you have no friends who live close by who have tools, you have to call neighbours. so another sunny day goes by without the lawn being mowed, which is another day that the lawn gets longer, which means it'll be ten times harder to mow. and there's a lot of lawn.

so tools, people, rule the day. with the right tools, life is so much easier.

obviously i have issues with asking for help, which makes *my* life more difficult, because every time i need help, i have to find a place inside me that's okay with being useless. and i'm not okay with being useless. i want to be completely independant, but i'm not. i don't think we're supposed to be, but we also don't live in the tribes we're supposed to be in, where there's always someone you've known you're whole life close by who can help with those things you can't do yourself. and so i have to be okay with being useless.

but i'm not.

i'm just not.

been busy. digging, planting, watering. i now have, in the ground, planted and growing:

lettuces
potatoes
garlic
onions
radishes
basil
sunflowers
rosemary
mint
collards
spinach
brussell sprouts
kale
chard
broccolli
zuccinni
yellow squash
butternut squash
strawberries
corn
sage
tomatoes
cucumbers
borage
catnip
bell peppers
pumpkins
and lots of different flowers!

it sounds like a lot, but i only have a little bit of each. i want to watch everything grow, go to seed, watch the plants whole life span. learn about it.

things i've learned thus far:

if you can, start your seeds in pots. plant them in the ground where they're identifiable. if you direct sow and don't know what the babies look like, you land up with a huge patch of "weeds" and no idea which ones to pull! plus, the seeds get washed away, or washed over, or smooshed, or weeded out really easy when they're teeny tiny. by starting them in pots or flats and puting them in the ground as baby platns, it gives them a much better start in life.

lots of rain is best for germination. watering with a hose, even twice a day, delays germination. a lot.

tools rule. with the right tools, every job is made easier.

removing the top layer of grass is easy, it's just time consuming and back breaking.

then digging into the soil underneath, to make it all loose and rock-free for baby plant roots, well, that's damned hard work, but easily done. for stuff growing above the ground, i didn't dig down far, just to top, i dunno, few inches. i only dug down deep for below ground stuff, like root-stock. my deep bed is about 4 foot by 4 foot and it took me hours and hours to dig out!

when direct-sowing, always watch around the beds as the seeds wash away and start in all sorts of odd places. (yesterday, i discovered a whole stack of chards growing amongst the grass at the edge of the bed. i didn't know that many seeds had gone down! the day before i found a collard (or something) growing out of the bed, too, and a baby spinach, hiding amongst some clover.)

i love gardening. i had no clue it was so great. there's teeny tiny fuzzy baby peaches on the tree, and baby apples and pears and cherries and plums. all teeny tiny. the trees i planted all have lots of baby leaves all over them. the blackberries are blooming. it's just glorious!

all of a sudden the world turned green.

there are still some trees that are bare, like black walnuts, but most trees erupted into leaves of millions of shades of bright. the light coming in the patio doors is green, vibrant, alive, bright green. gardens are being planted, some vegetables already growing, some already being eaten. the state stocked the creeks with farmed trout so tourists and locals are on the roads everywhere. neighbours are visiting neighbours again, bonfires are being lit, people are outside, hanging out, socializing. flowers are everywhere; pinks, oranges, purples, blues. red birds and blue birds and green birds and brown birds. bugs buzzing, hummingbirds buzzing, bees and dragonflies buzzing. trillium fills the forest floor, wild ginger sharing it. the dogwoods are amazing! the fruit trees have dropped their blossoms and the teeny fruit begin to form. mustards and lilacs scent the air. dry days give out to rain and thunder and the earth shivers in delight.

i want to photograph everything and share it here, but there's too much. it has to be lived in. and wow. what a living.

hahahahhahah

fight at the feeder!

there's about four gorgeous fully-coated male hummingbirds doing amazing displays of aerobatics over who's going to get the sugar water from the feeder. it's hilarious and just astoundingly beautiful. they're flipping and flying all over the place, squeeking at each other, and then one will land, take a sip, and be gone.

they're so damned quick i can barely keep up with them!

the hummingbirds are back!

jiana just saw the first one trying to get a drink from the empty feeder outside my bedroom window. beautiful ruby throated hummingbird. we immediately filled the feeders!

everything seems to have survived dogwood winter. a couple of newly sprouting somethings (i have a bad habit of throwing seeds on the ground and then forgetting what they were!) got a little frost damage on their leaves, as did a few of the hawthorne leaves, but other than that, everything is blooming wonderfully.

yay!

and a walk-round today confirmed that yes, all the baby trees i planted in fall are alive and throwing out new leaves, and the strawberries i planted (some in fall and some recently, given by a freind) are coming up lovely, too. 4 out of the 6 blueberry bushes that were here when i moved in (but horribly neglected and abused for the last 3 years) have survived, as has the baby one i planted last year.

yay again!

the pretty black and blue butterfly have made an appearance, hawks have been circling overhead, their distinctive call filling the air, the teeny blue butterflies are out, as are little white ones, and there's tons of flies, wasps, bugs, and spiders around. the mountains now have greens amongst the red and gold flushes, and driving into hot springs is a joy because of all the flowering trees everywhere. it's a riot of pinks and reds and purples and whites.

oh glorious springtime!

mystery plant revealed!

it's borage!

borage

borage flowers up close

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borage

http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_borage.htm (this gives tons of info on it)

http://www.herb.co.za/herbal/borage-recipes.htm

"Imagine yourself escaping from the busy daily routine of that jungle we choose to call life, into a secret green garden on a warm July late evening in Virginia. There it is, with attractive little blue white-centered flowers that look like brilliant blue stars, resembling bluebells, or Forget-Me-Nots.
Prepare to indulge yourself in its aromatic flavor full of vitamins, potassium, iron, calcium and other mineral salts. With a mild tonic that acts slowly and persistently, it will relieve your tired muscles of rheumatism, even cure the common cold, while in large doses it is purgative. It is used as a remedy in all cases of fever particularly serviceable in the indigestion of old people. Prepare yourself to enjoy the unforgettable experience of the Chinese Lantern. Praised by most physicians and herbalists. It will make you delightful and drive away depression and melancholy."

"Although the borage plant is a restricted herb in Australia and New Zealand, other parts of the world have benefited from the use of the plant to make effective herbal remedies. Whether you suffer from a nagging cough or have experienced an event that has caused a great amount of grief, borage herbal remedies are perfect for treating the many ups and downs we face in the world of medicine.
When turning to the borage plant for an effective approach towards eradicating a certain health concern, you need to know that the leaves, seeds, and flowers of the plant work in many different ways. The leaves are often chopped or turned into a juice that allows individuals to treat problems, such as fever that arrives at the start of another medical mishap. The seeds contain oil that helps with issues, such as menstruation disorders. Traditionally and even in today's day and age, the flowers of borage carry great relief when used as a cough syrup.
Borage leaves are responsible for a multitude of herbal remedy approaches. One of the most popular ways to prepare the herb for treatment is to make an infusion, which helps those battling the early stages of lung disorders or colds where fever is a main component. To stimulate milk flow, lactating mothers may combine the herb with fennel to promote the act without turning to any prescription medication to help. Tinctures are also rather effective. Taking 10 milliliters for three times per day, helps to ease the symptoms related to steroid therapy, as well as bouts of stress.
The leaves also make a juice that aids in depression, grief, and anxiety. When you pulp the fresh leaves and drink 10 milliliters of the juice for three times per day, you may ease the tension you feel. A lotion made from the leaves is prepared when the juice is diluted with an equal volume of water. Rashes that appear from nervous behaviors, or skin that is dry and irritated – the lotion works wonders.
Borage seeds are made into capsules that possess a certain amount of oil from the plant. When taking 500 milligrams of oil capsules on a daily basis (such as a supplement), you may ease the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis or eczema. The oil is also known to help with an irregular menstrual cycle and irritable bowel syndrome. The herbal remedy also makes a great emergency remedy for hangovers. The recommended dosage is 1 gram.
The purple flowers that grace the borage plant can be used to create a syrup that is constructed after completing an infusion. This remedy is used as an expectorant for coughs. When the flowers are blended with mullein or marshmallow flowers, a better-rounded treatment is prepared. It is suggested to use fresh flowers when preparing an herbal remedy consisting of borage."

after winter passes and spring blooms, there's two more patches of winter. dogwood winter, the one we're in now, is the cold spell that signals the blooming of the dogwoods. most everything coming up right now is used to dogwood winter, therefore doesn't spoil. come the beginning of may, blackberry winter will come, which will signify the blooming of, yep, blackberries! on a normal year, dogwood winter and blackberry winter aren't cold enough to kill fruit blossoms or anything growing that's beyond the teeny tiny two leaf stage. last year was not normal. dogwood winter, last year, was three nights of ten degrees and three inches of snow. this year, dogwood winter is normal. going down to freezing at night, for a couple of nights, but with warmer temperatures during the day.

ie - my fruit trees survived!

i spoke to lots of people yesterday, and the general consensus was not to worry about my trees. normal dogwood winter doesn't harm them. i did throw a tarp over the teeny tiny two leaf starts of spinach and brocolli, though, just to be safe.

another solution given me was, if a hard freeze comes through, to go out before sun-up and spray everything with a hose. if it all is defrosted before the sun comes up, then mostly it survives.

coming up out of the ground, i have the spinach and brocolli, some rhubarb chard, two rows of snap peas, and something else, which i'm not sure what it is. mystery seeds! teresa thinks they look like cabbage starts, but i'm not sure i planted cabbage. i'll find out as they grow what they are.

another plant that came up last year, that survived all winter, that no one knows what they are, are about the bloom. i still don't know what they are! once i see the flowers, i'll be able to google and find out better. they only came up where i planted seeds last year, but they don't look like anything i might have planted.

i love mysteries haha.

i also have strawberry plants growing up, and the blueberry bushes are starting to leaf out and bud. whoot!

a local stopped by yesterday and is going to take me in a couple of weeks to show me a local morel mushroom patch. he said they came up for only two days this year, because of the cold, but he's thinking they'll come up again here in the next couple of weeks as it warms, at which point, he'll come get me. yay! more wild edibles i know that are up right now are branch lettuce (branch because it grows in the little creeks around here), chickweed, mustards, creasy greens (winter cress), the violets, and burdock.

there's also something growing in my compost pile which might just be a potato plant!

i love watching the earth be abundant!

tonight it might hard freeze. if it does, then all these will be gone. and i will be sad.

( baby tree and blossom pics. )