Last weekend we finally got the plastic on the hoop house, just in time too, before the first big snowstorm. A couple of days after the storm something did not look right. Several of the “ribs” were no longer bent. A quick inspection revealed that the snow that had accumulated against the bottom had pressed …
Author Archives: kaat
Best Book
Edible Forest Gardens, vol.1 (It’s on sale at Chelsea Green)
Living Compost
A few weeks ago I used up all my compost. I had two full Earth Machines and one pile overflowing its chicken wire container. Not all of this compost was done yet, but after mixing it all up and adding straw, it was just the right mix of finished and unfinished for my purposes: mulching …
Permaculture – Transition
I’m reading Edible Forest Gardens (EFG) again, alongside Holmgrens’ Permaculture. I’m underlining and taking notes in the books and making summaries on a quadrille pad. I’m on volume 2 of EFG, which is the most practical volume of the two, and I foresee a lot of drawing up of plans as I come across passages …
I got NOTHING done!
Amie’s idea of cleaning up As I was vacuuming I deplored (again) how often the work of a homemaker is lost. It is lost when half an hour later the flour gets spilled and a day later the dust bunnies are convening under the sofa again. It is lost when the dishwasher is full – …
Can I Harvest It Now?
Just in Time
Whew, we got the plastic on the hoop house frame right in time, a couple of hours in fact before the snowstorm blew in. We used 6 mil landscape plastic, which turned out more opaque than we thought it would: will it reflect and diffuse the sunlight too much? Well, it will have to do …
Transition: Becoming Indigenous to a Place
During the Transition Training we watched a lot of images and videos of Transition Initiatives, and at first I watched them with mixed feelings of joy and anxiousness. My heart sank because I inevitably thought: “I can’t make that happen.” That sinking feeling stems from the fact that, though I arrived here over 11 years …
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Hundred Books Challenge
In Home-grown Kids’ Hundred Books-A-Month Challenge, we made it to 73 in the span of a month. I blame it partly on our bad record keeping skills and the crazy weather, which lured us outside all too often for this time of year. It was great fun, though, keeping track (mostly) and being aware of …
Tools for Transition: A Farm for the Future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xShCEKL-mQ8&feature=related I just watched a beautiful and well-paced BBC documentary called Farm for the Future. I’m totally re-energized by it. I wish I could find a permaculture course that’s nearby, affordable, and spread over a couple of weekends and evenings (not the luxury-resort two week intensive). In the meantime, I shall be hitting the books …
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