Feeding Our Wild Friends

Feeding Our Wild Friends

Offer them food and they will come. Birds, deer, turkeys, squirrels, raccoons, mice, even bears. Often they will come with a vengeance for dining is a big part of the way of nature.

 

 

Tracks of the Trail of Deers

We feed the wild animals (our friends) all year - sometimes trying to keep them alive while the hunters come from other places to kill them when they step off our property - or like last year to ask permission to search for one who went on our land after being shot with a bow - I said OK but was not happy about it. Many of them can get maimed and wounded and die slow agonizing deaths. I see people buying bags of corn to lure them to their deaths. It is well known that it is cheaper to buy deer meat than to kill it. Perhaps it is that the Art of Stalking is so compelling. We have had to stalk coon hunters at night on several occasions. I thought about getting a game camera to watch things at the feeders. It could be fun as some take pics and movies via a motion sensor. Some guys at work did this with a corn feeding setup and watched the night feeders. Most all were deer but one showed a mouse eating the corn getting taken by what looked like a small bobcat. It could have been a domesticated cat but we were way back away from any inhabited areas. It might also be interesting to get to know specific deer. We have done this with bucks due to the size of their antlers and a few family groups when they have young ones.

The deer can be rather greedy.  They frequent certain oak trees after the acorns fall and develop feeding trails on their daily rounds as do the wild turkeys. Squirrels seem to prefer the hickory nuts. We feed the birds near the woods – one reason is that they are further away from the cats who can threaten and catch them. The deer have broken several of the bird feeders so I have to hang them up high and prefer the box-type squirrel feeders. Some deer come close and wait while I feed to come and eat.

After a storm felled a large oak tree, I noticed that the outer wood, about 2 inches thick had separated from the inner so I was able to cut this off a big chunk to make a roof for a large bird feeder. The roof piece is about 5ft long and a foot and a half wide. I attached it to two locust posts inserted into the ground and made a tray with plywood and small pieces of wood for a border. It sits in like a shelf. With occasional repairs the whole contraption should last for years. The birds enjoy it and the deer can also pull it out a little and eat from it. I had to put some fiberglass panels around the locust posts so the cat would not climb up and lie in wait for unsuspecting birds. The squirrels climb up and hide in the space between.

We always have an abundance of feathers since we have chickens, a turkey, geese, and ducks – also a few groups of wild turkeys and all the wild birds at the feeders. Morning Dove, Blue Jay, Crow, and Wild Turkey feathers are fairly common finds.

                          Deer block with 'irresisitible berry flavor'

I have not had good luck with bird baths – at least with non-concrete ones.  The deer or possibly the squirrels or raccoons seem to knock them down. I guess I’ll have to get a concrete one but I fear they will somehow break it too.

One year during a cold winter we hung many pine cones slathered with peanut butter. These were popular as most got emptied fairly quickly.

In the winter through early spring the birds begin roosting in our biggest bamboo grove in the front yard. Usually – the starlings come by the thousands – making a powerful cacophony – otherworldly at times. I have heard it said that starlings are aggressive at bird feeders but have never noted this at our feeders. They are the blackbirds of European lore but have migrated to North America a couple of hundred years ago I think.

 

Animals seem to understand food. It is their prime need and securing it often requires danger and struggle. They are keenly aware of its presence or absence, it’s time and place, it regularity. Food is energy. It is fuel. All energy comes ultimately from the sun, our patron star. The activity around the bird feeders is nice to watch and hear. The birds, the squirrels, and the deer all seem to be enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, due to having many cats we never feed close to the house or where cats dwell so we have to wander off a ways both to feed the wild ones and to observe them so most of the observing is done before, during, and after feeding. I think they like it better too having food where they are less disturbed and where the birds are safer from predators. One year when we fed out in the open the hawks would swoop down so we put up an army camo net. 

I have some CD’s and tapes of specific bird calls but have yet to listen. I can recognize a few so far but hope to learn many more. Been meaning to do this on long drives but I guess I’m a bit lazy. A few years ago I went on a May morning bird walk at friend’s place with a bird guy there to point out birds and calls. That was cool. Often I will carry food with me in the car  – corn for birds, squirrels, geese, ducks – esp. in snowy times where it might be hard for them to get food. Actually, I often have bags of bird food in the car since the raccoons are adept at opening containers and raiding the food which really sucks if it rains right after they leave the container open. Animals can convert food into heat rather efficiently I am guessing. Also, as I know from having quite a few cats and birds – they can covert food into shit rather efficiently as well. Another thing one can do for birds is to plant things that leave big edible seeds that birds like – millet, sorghum, sunflowers are examples. One might also plant berries and fruits that they like in various seasons as well such as viburnums, mulberries, and a million others.   

                                  Hungarian Broom Corn (a form of sorghum)

                 
                              Chionanthus retusus (Chinese Fringe Tree) - from                       olive family - birds seem to enjoy them

 

 

Midwinter Update 2012-2013

Garden Journal, etc

Early December – add leaves to compost and mix in

Dec.28 – pick spinach and kale for pesto and salad and pick endive and turnips for salad. Pick fresh flowering heather tops, sage leaves, rue, scotch broom, juniper berries, and ground ivy for herbal beer.

Dec. 29 – make first batch of gruit – beer with 11 herbs: heather, mugwort, yarrow, myrica gale (bog rosemary), rue, broom, irish moss, sage, ground ivy, chamomile, and juniper berries. Added a pound of organic honey at flameout. Added about 2/3 pound extra corn sugar. Added honey and corn sugar increase ABV from about 4.6% to about 6.5-7%. Beer, actually Ale, is an Irish Stout from a box kit with dark liquid malt extract, roasted dark barley, and crushed crystal. Fuggle and Golding hops from the UK.

Dec 31 – sweat lodge on cold snowy night – not hot enough, floor mucky wet, feed cold, naked in 20’s not real fun. Good meditation though with a bit of sweat.

Jan 5-10 – get a couple truckloads of oak sawdust from neighbors to add to blueberries, azaleas, rhododendrons, cranberries, and heather.

freshly-picked mid-January salad with spinach, kale, endive, and turnips - all especially sweet and non-bitter due to the cold and frost

Thistle found a dead cat – long dead. No fur. First I thought she dug up Caesar or Clea –two old brothers who died last month within days of each other – both rather suddenly – but their graves are intact. This happened once before a few years ago when I found an unknown dead cat near the house. Cats come out of the woods to eat with our cats. We have actually gathered several cats this way. They appear and gradually become our pets. People know we care for them I guess and dump them off nearby. I found another dead cat along the bike trail in Athens. I also found 2 sets of moms and kittens living near Wal Mart. I have been feeding them when I run. Today I noticed someone else was also feeding one set. Not sure how the one died but it did not look old or unhealthy. Unfortunately people like to poison and torture them in various ways. Since then I have seen a handful more living in same area – probably sheltering and sleeping in the drainage culverts that lead from the large parking lots. Stray cats living behind the soon to open Pets Mart seems a bit ironic although from reading about PetSmart – it appears they do a lot for adoption, shelters, and humane societies – so maybe they can help get some of these cats adopted. It looks like they do not do puppy mills and things like that. I remember reading about the ubiquitous Amish puppy mills – apparently the Amish think of dogs much like livestock – as a purely money-making venture. Their record with other animals such as horses is legendarily abysmal as well. I think we have a duty to take care of animal species that we have domesticated as well as a duty to not exploit any animals for profit.

Jan. 11 – siphon beer into carboy with some corn sugar. Sample a bit right off the sludge – bitter (probably due to herbs) but acceptable. Current ABV about 5.35% - still fermenting a bit. Increased after sugar added to secondary. Nice dark color. Next step aging a bit in the carboy then bottling followed by bottle aging for at leat 3 weeks. May have to bottle early and bottle condition as I may have too much head space in carboy but I don't think that is a problem. Obviously I am still learning as this is my first batch. I like a nice foamy head on my beer. I guess the carbonation comes when priming in the bottle. The slower fermentation may be due to the honey which takes longer to ferment. I had a heat belt to regulate temp on the bucket but nothing on the carboy so it will take some time. Patience is part of the recipe I guess.

HML Nu Moon Rite – Ipsos Maat Flame and Feather Magick, bibliomancies, and contemplation of Peace for the World.

Jan. 12 – gather quinces – hope to make both chutney and jelly. Beer bubbling good in secondary fermentation. Many other things going on here as well. Have plans to make turnip kim chee. Hopefully there will be enough turnips. The Silverberries flowered this fall. I guess the fruit then ripens in spring. Something new to sample.

Piper, our first goat, passed away today. She lived about 12 years or more (pygmy goat lifespan 8-15 yrs). She had a good life I think. We will miss her. Never forget chasing her around as she liked to slip out of the fence. Took care of her for a week in the barn but she was weak and did not want to get up. Hand fed her and cleaned her. We enjoyed a few apples together and she liked being in the cat barn. She was destined to be a meat goat when we got her. Glad we got to change her destiny and she got to enhance our lives. Now she is deep in the woods. Doing a sky burial type instead of an earth burial.

January thaw in progress. Global Warming Suspected. The Prunus mume – Japanese Flowering Apricot has significant bud swell and may flower before it cools again. It was still over 60 deg F after 9 PM. It bloomed in January a two years ago as well. Bloomed in early Feb last year and stayed in bloom for nearly two months! Heather bloomed late December 2^nd year in a row. Pulminaria (lungwort) has a couple of flowers opening up. Magic Lily foliage popping up – probably daffs too. Moss beginning to flower. Wild onions growing. All this earlier than last year which was early Feb. Lichen and moss are glowing on the tree trunks. I think that global warming is pushing the agricultural zone designations significantly northward (which results in loss of northern species) I am finishing up my 4^th book on global warming/climate change with one to go – all from differing perspectives (pro/con). Also. listened to Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth CD set a while back and watched news special – Climate of Denial. Soon enough I suspect fewer and fewer people will be able to deny it as ice sheets continue to melt, sea level rises, and storms get more powerful. Hurricane Sandy and this summer’s derecho are possible examples. It won’t be radically apparent though as things happen slowly and gradually.  Hopefully solar panels will be going up here soon. Felt kinda eerie in the warm but gray cloudy sky sitting outside. It seemed like the trees and the land were trying to say something - maybe that they were not getting enough sleep. It’s mid-January and I have seen spiders breeding, a bee flying outside, several moths, gnats, and other bugs landing on me. Wtf happened to winter. It seems as if nature is ignoring it. Down in the woods there is a place I referred to as Three Pines due to the three mature white pine trees. Well when I went down there after this summer’s derecho I noticed that one tree was intact, the second one was snapped off about two thirds the way up, and the third was basically snapped in half. So many old trees were permanently damaged in that storm.

 

Goats having dinner one summer day. Piper is the goat in the background eating some greenery

 

Sweat Lodge and Sauna

Sweat Lodge and Sauna: On Detox and Sacred Intent

Sweating is an age old method of forcing out the dregs and opening flow. The lodge is the womb of the mother. There is darkness, moisture, and heat. There is the darkness of transformation, of after death and before birth, the tomb and the womb. There is sitting cross-legged on the bare ground with little or no clothing. In group lodges there are other people to consider. In ceremonial and traditional lodges there is ritual and protocol. I tend to prefer a looser approach with limited ceremony. I actually enjoy doing sweat lodge alone and buck naked, even getting out and getting the rocks myself. Traditionally there is a fire-keeper who delivers the rocks. Often the rocks are red-hot enough to put out some light and they sizzle quite a bit when the water is added. One may add various incenses onto the dry hot rocks such as cedar, juniper, white sage, sweet grass, copal, tobacco, willow bark, and corn meal. I think that these are best in very small amounts as too much smoke can be a problem. Rattles and synthetic drums are good in the lodge to accompany chants and songs. After a few rounds most of the salty sweat is out and the rest is typically water. In ceremony there is often much hubbub about the four directions and their symbology. I keep a Medicine Wheel made of stones near the lodge which is aligned to the directions as ais the lodge. Nowadays there are about 20 or so stones, enough for five rounds – one for each of the directions and the center. The stones do break in the fire and eventually get smaller and smaller.

I was able to do a group lodge over the summer at Starwood. It was a bit crowded with 8 people and I did not like the format and the length (esp with that many people). It was ceremonial – a bit too ceremonial for me. Although it was stated to not be an endurance contest I think some people actually want it to be an endurance ordeal. I guess for me sweating is more of a relaxing thing than a ritual ordeal. Being in an intimate surround – a womb as it were – with strangers can also be an issue – perhaps that’s my own hang up though. The lodge there was OK but I am glad I have my own lodge to work. 
 

We made the latest lodge in a new place in the shaded woods fairly close to the house on the camp land. It is an easy walk and the path can be easily lighted with solar path lights. The topography is fairly flat as well. Ani Chitta helped me make the lodge and added some nice features. She stayed here with us for over three months. Alas she is off to Mongolia. We will miss her. She led a few of the lodges in a more ceremonial style than me – women’s lodges too. She is a veteran Sun Dancer as well as a Buddhist nun so has experience leading Sweat Lodge and Pipe Ceremony. Our lodge is covered with blankets and some canvas – actually a painting drop cloth canvas that I cut into triangles. It can get quite toasty hot inside. Ani Chitta made me up a very nice medicine bundle with offering substances. I am quite glad to have encountered her Sweat knowledge – which I think comes from Lakota Sioux tradition. She says she is going to make a sweat lodge in Mongolia and I sure hope she does. I am said to have some Native American blood as are many people but I am not entirely sure as it is not easily found in genealogy. In any case – ethnic-based spirituality where one’s degree of direct blood-link influences one’s ‘status’ has often troubled me. I like it better if everyone is considered equal regardless of ethnicity.

This lodge was made from maple branches ripped down in the super-derecho at the end of June. The curved branch tips proved good for making a Sweat Lodge. Willow is said to bend better but maple lasts longer – should last two years. An interesting observation is that trees (and maple is a very good example) grow in a spiraling out manner which follows the Golden Mean – or the Fibonacci sequence. The branches curve at the tips but they do not curve in the same plane. Instead they spiral a bit out of the plane in the proportion of the Golden Ratio. This makes building the lodge circular nearly impossible – so it turns out a bit oval and oblong. Sweat lodges and saunas are made in different ways around the world. Recently I saw some photos of Taino (Caribbean Native) sweat lodges – basically small round houses with vertical sides. They are quite nice – would probably take longer to heat but comfort level might be better – since in a curved dome lodge it is sometimes hard not to lean in a bit when in certain positions inside the lodge. 

We are lucky enough to also have an infrared sauna. There is much less sweating with it than with a sweat lodge but it can still be a nice experience. I like to sit in there and read or meditate and it is quite nice as a way to soothe one’s muscles after working out. Occasionally I also get to do a dry sauna at a hotel where I sometimes stay when out of town working. These are electric with rocks and can get quite hot.

Native American lodges can involve preliminary actions such as fasting and refraining from alcohol, sex, or even mundane activity. Often they were done as part of a vision quest or a magical quest, for searching out solutions to a problem, for preparation for an upcoming difficulty, or for healing of disease.

                                 Oroboros tile as a landing pad for stones

The Finns, Scandinavians, and Russians seem to take a slightly more casual approach where the sauna is a form of healing and cleansing, but also a center of socializing. The Russians are known to drink Vodka and even to pour a little Vodka on the rocks. In Finland it is common for the elderly to take sauna frequently, some even going to die in the sauna. Babies are also born in the sauna. The practice of dowsing with cold water or going out to roll in the snow between rounds is also common among the Finns and some Native American tribes.The Russians consider a fierce and sometimes hostile spirit of the “bania” or Russian bath, as their sauna is known. The Finns do the rite of whacking one another with Silver Birch branches to work the circulation stimulated by the sweating. Theoretically this should help work toxins out of the system. The Scythian tribes of the Eurasian steppes were known to have sweat lodges where they would burn cannabis on the rocks in a magical effort to contact and assist the souls of dead warriors. Romans, Turks, various Islamic peoples, and many others all have sweat bath traditions. A pre-Celtic or early Celtic sweat lodge or bath was recently found in the highlands of Scotland, See below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-19976653

 

Detox is a popular pastime these days. Since we are exposed to many toxins in this day and age it is thought that detoxification is more needed than ever. Subsequently, herbs and fiber for digestive and liver cleanses, yoga, sweating, hydrating, fasting, and other practices are popular. Environmental toxins are ever-present these days – in the water, in the air, in food (especially processed food), in the chemicals we use and encounter, and in the materials in the buildings in which we live, work, and play. A wet sauna such as a sweat lodge can help move some of these substances out through the skin. Keeping well hydrated within – before and after a sweat can also help as it dilutes and lubricates our innards. Sweat lodges also put out negative ions which are thought to be therapeutic. Below is a book review I did of an introductory book on Sweat Lodge from an eclectic slightly New Age perspective – but still good. It is called – The Sweat Lodge is for Everyone – by Irene McGarvie.

http://chakra37.blogspot.com/2010/12/sweat-lodge-is-for-everyone-we-are-all.html

Sacred Intent

The whole idea of ceremony is an interesting contemplation. This is an attempt to transcend the mundane and enter the sacred. Yet this separation may well be contrived. Even so the quest to be sacred is a mindful act where attention and control are engaged. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition one engenders this ‘sacred intent’ which is also known as “divine pride” as a concordant means to discover one’s inherent enlightened nature. It is acknowledged to be contrived yet since we are said to have the capacity to become awake – we can mindfully act in an awakened manner (according to traditional symbolism) and so aid the actual approach to such a state. In this sense I see ceremonialism as a means to an end but this may not be entirely accurate. The open view is endless so all means to an end are temporary and limited. One can become attached to ceremony and the need for it. One can get caught up in symbolism and forget the very reason for ceremony. One’s magickal persona (akin to sacred intent) is useful only to a point. Engendering sacred intent is often recommended for sweat lodge. On another level a person could practice mindfulness, akin to sacred intent, at all times. Being careful and calculated with all or a significant portion of one’s activities is possible. So is everything sacred or is nothing sacred? It’s all relative I suppose. Sacredness is an arbitrary attribution that we place on things and actions. I suppose that sometimes the division of sacred and profane is useful and at other times it can be a problem. It's another Balance that we hold as best we can.

 
                      Path down to the lodge now lit with solar path lights

Squirrel Medicine

Squirrel Medicine: October’s Busyness

 

   Preparing for the future is something we all have to do. Some are better than others at this. Nobody wants to get caught off guard and unawares and tossed into crisis mode. Yet all our lives we have to prepare for things – work, holidays, change of seasons, maintenance, life changes, and ultimately – death. The squirrel gathers stores of nuts and stashes them in various places. Survival is the goal. As habitual beings what we do now affects what we do later – whether we store nutritious karmic nuts or yucky ones – might affect our fate. One way to get into doing things we don’t want or like to do, but are useful and necessary, is simply to find ways to enjoy them, though I admit I am often not very good at this. I can be resistant and procrastinate. Canning and drying food seems a squirrelly activity. We ahave been crazy at it this year. Re is the expert - I am just learning. I am the grower and picker mainly.

     Living on a farm or owning land and house – one has significant preparation for each season. Things have to be put out and put in, shored up, cleaned up, planted, picked, turned under, ad nauseum. We have a greenhouse with potted plants. Our animal houses and shelters need to be readied for winter. Our ice-free waterers need to be set up. We need extra straw and hay.

 

     The first fire in the fireplace – Oct 7 this year – with flowering pear wood ripped down by the super-derecho at the end of June. It was warm. We won’t turn the gas heat on till November as usual.

     The smell of apples is still pervading the house as we make more awesome applesauce from wildish apples given to us by the neighbors. Ripe Keiffer pears and delectable dried Asian pear slices also abound. I have been collecting leaves – Italian basil, purple basil, perilla (shiso), and Japanese parsley (mitsuba) - to make pesto. Hopefully this will be a tasty experiment. I have pine nuts and hemp hearts to add. I think walnuts might be good too. Made them last night - pestos - 3 different kinds - mitsuba-walnut-lemon-vinegar-shallots, Italian Basil with hemp hearts, and shiso with pine nuts and garlic. All are quite different in color and taste but really fukn good! Next I need to do the purple basil. I bought a few plants about 10 years ago at a pagan gathering and they have re-seeded every year all over the yard. They make a nice mild tea too - similar to Tulsi basil.  

 

 

 

     The dehydrator has been quite busy as well - drying Asian pears, apples, bananas (great dried), eggplant, peppers, and hot peppers. Some of the veggies can be dried and powdered into soup stocks and the peppers made into super hot pepper powder.
 

     The autumn greens garden is in full swing with kale, turnips and greens, lettuce, endive, spinach, radishes, broccoli-raab, collards, Tyfon greens, a few cabbages, and a few mustard greens. One more week and our first batch of kombucha should be done! I want to try flavoring it with Asian pear, ginger, and Pawpaw. I froze some pawpaw pulp from the few that I found here among the thousands of trees in the woods - I guess the derecho knocked many off and they ripened early (like everything this yr) and fell off and the deer got them. However, we did get tons from a neighbor that came from West Virginia - maybe from the mountains - as they were really late. It will be time to break out the recipes this winter.  

     The late sunflowers are blooming – Jerusalem artichokes (good eating too – raw or cooked) and Maximilian sunflower. Leaves are falling making everything messy – but they will be the brown in the compost to mix with the green to make the black. I will probably mow through some of the leaves to make them smaller.

     The smell of apples pervades the house as we make the last of the applesauce. I must say, eating warmed cinnamony apple sauce by a roaring fire is rather relaxing. There is also the proliferation of ‘pumpkin spice’ products. We have pumpkin spiced ale, coffee, and even rooibos tea. In a few weeks there will be the big quinces left out to make the house smell good. They seem to be too hard to cook. I have another tree that will eventually make smaller ones to cook into jelly and sauces. The bitter trifoliate oranges will make a perfumy lemonade and I want to try marmalade with the peels which is supposed to be good. They are said to have anti-tumor and anti-inflammation properties. Picking them is rather unsettling as the tree is full of 3 inch long foreboding thorns but we managed to get a bucket full of them.

 

     We have about 30ft of fence covered with luffa gourds for making the sponges. Did this several years ago – not the funnest but they are big and we should have sponges. Gotta wait till they frost and dry up a bit though.
 

     Another thing maybe for this fall is harvesting, sweating (singing the oils out in a fire), and making some projects out of bamboo. We have several different varieties and more every year so we need to start harvesting it. I hope to harvest some shoots for food next spring as I just had some fantastic ones.

     Some winters I have made wreaths – mostly for relatives at Yule time but I have mucho Akebia vine which is said to make very good baskets. I may try something but I have never done before so I might just suck at it. The fruit pulp is sweet and edible but not much there except seeds. Before they split open they look a lot like pawpaws – thought about pulling a switcheroo at the PawPaw Festival! I just read that the rinds are often fried as a vegetable in Japan. Too late this year but will have to try it next. Strange berries can appear this time of year - beautyberries (cultivated), coral berries (wild), bittersweet vine berries, persimmon fruits, etc. Persimmons get edible after a frost but there is still a risk of getting a bit of the horribly astringent skin. We cooked with them one year - made bread that was good. October is a good time to transplant trees, shrubs, and perennials, and to plant bulbs. I wanna do some garlic and possibly some asparagus as the oldest bed has pretty much dried out. I have blueberries and wild peach trees to move among other things. Puckery persimmons are just about ready - better after a good frost - horribly astringent if you east any part of or near the skin.

 

     We got hay for the barn – food for the goats and bedding/insulation for the animals – straw coming tomorrow. Re brought home way too many pumpkins too – to can. May try some in a juice recipe too. The goat house needs to be shored up - They have banged a couple of the walls to smitherines with their butting - appatrently head-butting is fun. I dread having to cut hooves - mainly on just one goat but Re holds them while I carefully saw off the overgrown hooves with a hacksaw being careful not to go too deep as there are nerves and usually a bit of blood. All five girl goats have their horns. For the first few months when we got them - about 8 years ago - they would get their horns stuck in the fence and bleat(?) horribly - but they learned how to disengage them very well after that as it never happened again. The hens are making about 4 dozen eggs a week - we don't eat them but give them out to people.

     Still have a bit of work on the bird feeders. I need to repair and reload the niger feeders for finches. The deer have broken many of the bird feeders = frustrating. We have put out mineral and feed blocks for deer and turkey and a plot with turnip greens. We also put out salt blocks. The raccoons get the spent apple stuff and some of the rotting apples – we have been throwing them food over the hill for years now. Sometimes the fucks live in little holes adjacent to the roof and I have to climb out onto the roof to clean up their shit piles. They share the cat food much of the time – not much to do about that. I did put up another bird feeder, a bird house, and a hopefully deer-proof squirrel feeder. Re brought back ten bags of 'squirrel corn' from a nearby farm. Peanuts in the shell I need for the furry squirrels. Apparently they have been using the rocks of the medicine wheel for cracking hickory nuts. Indeed every flat service seems to have become a processiong station for hickory nuts.
 

     There are things I hate about autumn though, the busyness for one can be taxing and I tend to resist and complain. Whine and bitch are probably better terms. Those pesky ‘sticktights’ and ‘hitchhikers’ SUCK. When the snow comes it sucks trying to do shit with your fingers when they are numb. It was frost cold the other night and my poor bare feet were chilled under the tiny blanket but I was too lazy to get up and get socks and another blanket. Cutting wood is a good way to warm up on a cold day.
 

                                     Compost

                                    Witch Hazel in bloom

                                                  Eleuthero (Siberian Ginseng)

     I am sure there’s more but that’s quite enough braggy babbling for now. Guess I should get off my lazy coffee/computer ass and do some work.

As I Roll Along My Wheel (a song)

As I roll along my wheel
The sun sets behind me in a world that seems real

As I roll along this wheel
With beginnings and with endings will we all have to deal

We surf at the summit but are crushed at the base
Dead skin and bones
Recycled like the stones
Like the water, like the air
The fire is rare, it imbues our lively stare
Space invisibly pervades us

As we decay under this wheel
Time will yet betray us as our fates time will seal
As I roll along my wheel

And as we worry and we feel
We give away our moments though it seems that they steal
As I roll along my wheel

We live as if we will live forever but what else can we do?
But carry things from here to there?
And collect things to offer and share?

As I roll along my wheel
The days pass behind me for the past to conceal
As I go, in front of of me the future to reveal
Time swirls, time whirls
As I roll along my wheel.

 

 

Fruits of Summer and Early Fall

Berries and Fruits

Berries are quite healthy. They are generally full of fiber, anthocyanins, antioxidants, enzymes, and other micro-nutrients. Through the summer there are plenty of wild ones. They may help ward off cancer and other maladies. The first fruits (cultivated and wild) of the year here in Ohio seem to be: the bush cherries – ie. Nanking cherries/Manchu cherries (cultivated) from China, a pleasant mix of sweet and sour;

 

                                                                                         

                                                                   Nanking Cherries

                                                        

 

mulberries – good tasting and healthy and very popular with the birds; mayhaws – from the American southeast – related to hawthorn and apples and also popular with birds; and goumi berries – the cherry eleagnus (related to autumn olive) – good tasting when ripe and full of cancer-fighting lycopene (also said to be good for men). In early June the wild black raspberries are getting ripe and one of the most medicinal. We had a great blackberry crop (both wild and cultivated), blueberries (both wild and cultivated), and my fave – Japanese wineberries – these are an orange-red raspberry like fruit that has escaped cultivation and is becoming more common here in southern Ohio. They are also called ‘podberries’ among the locals – with ornamental thorny red stems and pods. I first encountered them when a colleague on a work site in deep southern Ohio announced that he found some berries that were so good he couldn’t stop eating them. I found them and had a similarly pleasant experience. I also have some Scottish raspberry/blackberry crosses – Wyeberry and Tayberry as well as mountain trailing raspberries, dewberries, and boysenberries in small amounts. In the fall there are the less palatable black haws, nannyberries, wild grapes, bush cranberries, and occasionally a few varieties of hawthorn. In July there are gooseberries and a few currants. The birds seem to get most of the big cherries from the Compact Stella – supposed to have topped out at 8-12 feet but is now about 25ft after only 6 or 7 years. I like to eat the raspberries and goumi berries when I am walking by. I often share the goumi berries with the chickens, the geese, and the turkey as they tend to follow me around the yard anyway.

 

 

 

 

 Goumi Berries - ready first of June

 

I have had poor luck with plums as they all – and I mean all – seem to rot on the tree. Next year I plan to use the lime sulfur in the early spring. I did have one tree produce a few. I have several black chokeberry bushes but they have not been fruiting like they used too - maybe too much shade. Their skin is a bit astringent but the juice is very good so it is nice to just suck out the juice and spit the rest out. Peaches do OK including the ones that sprouted after we threw them off the porch. The raccoons tend to ghet them though. Pears generally do well. All three varieties of Asian Pear have produced quite a bit this year and the Kieffer European pear.  Apples are fine but seem to require much care with the exception of a few varieties. The Paw Paws from the wild were few - only about a dozen from thousands of trees though I saw quite a few before they dropped off early and were taken by the deer. Apparently many were knocked of by the 'derecho' at the end of June. The derecho also forced us to can some of our frozen stuff from last year. We made many jams and from fresh fruits as well. Blackberry, wineberry, gooseberry, goumi, bush cherry, and a wonderfully tart Cornelian Cherry preserves that go great with yogurt. A neighbor brought us apples and Re made tons of delicious apple sauce. I had hoped to have some Brazilian guavas from a potted bush but the dry weather dried them up. I guess I need to re-pot them in a bigger pot and keep them watered better during fruiting.

 

                                                     Pods full of the delectible Wineberry

                                                                   

                                                                     
                                                                       Wineberries                 
                        

            
              Some tiny but tasty Blueberries brought up into the sun from a wild patch in the woods

 
                                          Cornelian Cherries (Cornus mas - a form of dogwood)

                                                               
                                                               The Lovely Rue

                                                      
                                                           Another hot summer day


                                                          

                                                          
                                                            A swim in the pool

 

 

The Expanding Magick Garden from below 

 

 

 

A favorite shady midday chicken roost

 

 

Why thank you derecho

 

 

 

Lucifer the Turkey with some young Asian Pears