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| A close-up of the fire weed that burst into bloom Up Here Sunday morning. |
Monday 6/8. JB left for Down There at 8:00 am. I clipped foliage away from the path to the north ridge before lunch while it was still in the shade. The breeze died down and it was HOT. Our high for the day was 88.
JB was back home by 1:00 pm and so happy to be Up Here. The high for the day Down There turned out to be 102!
The fire weed that I had let grow in the rocks is now as tall as I am, and Sunday morning it burst into bloom. Am sure that is about four to six weeks earlier than usual. It is so pretty.
In the current Time Magazine, their 10-question interview is with Barbara Bush as she is turning 90. I have often disagreed with the lady, but this interview is a hoot!
Our breeze returned around 5:00 pm and helped cool off the evening nicely.
Tuesday 6/9. It was 70 this morning with clear skies and a forecast of cooler weather for the rest of the week. Even though our high for the day was 86, there was a nice breeze all day so it didn't seem that hot.
RJ came up this morning to get water and return a tent stove he had borrowed. Then we talked specifics on how we can get a permaculture project going Up Here. Am very anxious to start, and did just that shortly after he left. I started by building up the rock wall just outside the house by the clothes line. That can create a small swale against which we will put cut grasses and mulch, and then dirt on top of that. We will put a couple more small swales on the west side of the east fence. Then we will build a larger swale next to the fence to the north. We will put a huge swale directly across the driveway from the house which will may be a perfect place for a small seasonal pond. Lots of things to keep us busy.
While I was working on the rock wall, JB used the tractor to move a lot of rotting logs down to where we will create the large swale. We will also use the big pile of small branches we have to build it up, along with my compost pile of grasses and such that I started six years ago.
Basically, permaculture is using the land as nature intended it to be used and has been practiced in most parts of the world right up until the industrial revolution. Of course this is an extremely simplified description of a new name for an old idea. Since we are on a mountain, we look for the way the water is naturally going downhill and build swales (not terraces) to catch the moisture and keep it in certain places where we want to grow crops. The small ones should be ready for use next year, and the larger ones in about three years. After that there is very little effort needed to keep the crops going. I am making a list of plants we want to grow, which includes potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, squash, kale and herbs.
An excellent book on permaculture is Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale Integrative Farming and Gardening. He lives in Austria at the 5000 ft level and has created quite a large farm based on this idea. But he is just one of many people around the globe who are getting "back to basics", so to speak.
JB grilled pork chops for dinner along with a large apple wrapped in foil with cinnamon, sugar and butter. Mmmmmm. . .
After eating I drove Miss Kitty down to see RJ again and take him the coffee cans I forgot to give him when he was here. He is going back to the other side of the mountains tomorrow morning.
Wednesday 6/10. It is 68 and clear this morning with a nice breeze. We should be able to get a lot done outside today.
Thought for the day: Nothing that is can pause or stay; the moon will wax and the moon will wane. The mist and cloud will turn to rain, the rain to mist and cloud again. Tomorrow will today. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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