Month: January 2018

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Porcupines and Permaculture

Did you know that over 1/3 of the carbon added to the atmosphere since 1850 has come from exposing soil to the air through tilling and deforestation? Tilling soil exposes the stored carbon to the atmosphere.  (see this)  Not only does tilling release carbon, contributing to climate change, it also devitalizes soil, creating the need for fertilizers and pesticides.  It is even possible to farm in a large way.  Here is an agribusiness farmer who has been working no till for over 25 years.

Many farmers, like us, are farming without tilling.  No tilling mimicks nature, where there is a natural fertility and growth with regular mulching from leaf fall.  Just dig up some soil in the woods and take a look at it.  The soil will have worms and bugs, smell deeply fragrant and feel moist and crumbly in your hands.  Tilled soil is dense, with little fragrance and without life.    Tilling leads to dead soil.

Today, Zoe and I are driving the Worcester to attend the NOFA winter conference.  (Northeast Organic Farmers Association) We’ll be meeting and talking to other farmers and attending workshops all day.  I’ll write a blog post about our experience soon.

In the mean time, the temperature has gone up more than 70 degrees from a week ago.  From -20 to 59.  Yesterday the rain began and it’s still going.  Most of the snow turned to slush and then ran down hill in rivulets of water.  Because the ground is so deeply frozen, all of the water is running off into our stream.  As I sit here now with the window wide open, I can hear the water crashing through.  This is the highest I’ve seen it so far. This photo is from the day after.  Already the water is a foot lower than yesterday.  It was so high one could have white water kayaked down it.

With the rain, yesterday the air was filled with dense fog.  Clouds blew around like beings all day.

Zoe and I took a walk out in the rain with the dogs.  About a mile from home, unfortunately, Oscar was surprised by a porcupine.

 

If I had seen it first, I could have warned him and he would not have gone for it.  But he saw this one before me and he dove on it.  Zoe and I removed 50 plus quills from his lips, tongue, palate and muzzle with pliars, something I’ve done many times.  Poor guy.

Today the temperature will fall 55 degrees, down to below zero again.  Crazy.

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There’s a Low Below the Low you Know

This is a line from an old Malvina Reynolds song called “there’s a bottom below“.

Yesterday morning it was -11 F when I went out at 6:30 to feed the horses.  That was so so low…but today…Oy Vey!  -12 F.   The cold is bitter, almost mean feeling, like it wants to hurt.  I dragged the hay across the pasture on the sled, breathing deeply.  Now as I sit here writing I can feel the cold in my chest.

The cold seemed to be freezing the little alveoli and capillaries in my lungs.  I have the water on to make some ginger honey tea to warm them up again.  

I’ve been locking the horses in their stalls at night and closing up the barn.  I give them two buckets of water each which are 3/4 gone when I come in the morning with the rest frozen solid.  I have to bring the buckets in to melt so I can fill them again.  It amazes the me that the hydrant in the barn keeps flowing!  I let them out in the day but feed them their hay in their stalls so they can be out of the bitter wind.  We haul the hose down from the house and then back to fill the daytime outside tank with the heater.

This cold feels epic!

However, the pipes in the clinic only froze and didn’t burst, there is a big pile of wood outside to keep our stove fed, we can unplug the freezer that is in the garage and, astoundingly, the ponies are warm under their blankets.  Today, from this low below any low I ever knew, the temperature is going to rise! Life is good.

We also keep warm by having friends here.  We had a wonderful Shabbat dinner with John and Sharon on John’s 83rd birthday.  I made Cholent and Zoe made Challah.  I feel so blessed in so many ways.