Author: Richard

restocking the little pond

In June last year I dug a small pond in the woods where a spring emerges from the hillside.  I stocked it with a few goldfish and minnows - see my post on the little pond and by July I was sure the frogs had eaten all of them.  Then later in the year I noticed one fish, about 6 inches along, and then two fish and in January, the same two fish and a small fish.  Somehow a couple had survived and apparently propagated. In my post in February this year I mentioned the frogspawn in the pond and, Read more [...]

why austerity should work, but doesn’t – from an organic grower’s perspective

Austerity is not a novel tactic.  Micawber recommended, though failed to implement it when he proclaimed in David Copperfield: "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.". With an austere regimen, including food discipline and exercise, the overweight human gone to seed can be restored his former efficient self.  And it can also work for struggling Read more [...]

hatched chicks

We have a Buff Orpington rooster and 8 hens, one of which is his sister.  Because most nights I am away from the property I have an automatic coop door opener (design specs elsewhere on this website).  Most nights I lock them in but, when I can't neighborhood kids earn pocket money doing so.  And when they can't a neighbor obliges and I will offer, though she doesn't always accept, a dozen eggs.  She used to keep guinea fowl and she mentioned to me that all the eggs I had given her were fertilized.  Read more [...]

rampant nostalgia

I have heard of misty nostalgia when we revisit scenes from the past, often with selective vision ignoring what was bad.  I am now seized with rampant nostalgia. A couple weeks ago the NYT Sunday magazine featured an interview with the author John Le Carre'.  I had tried his books several times the past 30 years and never got past the first 30 pages.  I was out of tune with his writing.  With T.S. Eliot it had been different.  I was aware that Eliot was a top poet (though he held several Read more [...]

Is not impermanence the very fragrance of our days?

I have a 50 minute drive to my property.  And NPR informs and entertains.  Except during the 2 week fund raising campaign.  Then I have to improvise and, since I have a basic truck which does not have a connection for mp3, I burn podcasts on CD's and listen, intently, since you cannot rewind a missed phrase but must go b ack to the beginning of the track. A review by Paul Wheaton on the self sufficiency and sustainability practices of the Japanese during the Edo period (book "Just Enough" by Read more [...]

sweet potatoes

I listened in on a nutrition lecture and heard a pointed saying, ascribed to Ayurveda: "With good food, medicine is of no need.  With bad food, medicine is of no use." Sweet potatoes were prominent in the highly regarded traditional Okinawan diet - see my recent post.  In March I ordered "southern" styled sweet potatoes, they arrived yesterday and today with the Ayurvedic prescription in my thoughts, I planted them. Detailed instructions accompanied the package and, as recommended, Read more [...]

neighborly chat

Every so often I meet my neighbor (I will call him Thomas) and we catch up on local goings on.  Not a Robert Frost walk the line and set the wall event but courteous enough.  He hailed me as he backed his truck out his drive (I learned later he was on his way to the insurance company) and we got chatting.  I mentioned I heard his chainsaw the previous day hard at work followed by a loud crash.  He explained that he was taking down a rotten tree some of whose limbs had fallen on and made ineffective Read more [...]

favorite bloomings

In early summer my two favorite blooms are the Cherokee rose and the Grancy Graybeard.  The Cherokee rose is not a sophisticated rose. Like the dogwood it has simple bright white petals.  It has vicious thorns, dark green leaves and thrives in the humidity of Georgia.  It is tough, independent, requires no nurturing and is our state flower.  It is an ambitious climber.  I nailed several cable hoops around a tall pine and after pointing it in the right direction it took off and now has Read more [...]

Activity in the yard

In the woods the splashes of white are the dogwoods. They have a striking, bright white flower. The dogwood tree trunk is also unusual.  It looks like the hide of an alligator. Lots of white foam on stems and leaves everywhere. If you probe gently with a twig and look carefully you will see the odd looking spittle bug emerge. The bamboo patch is producing offspring. And of course, with the good comes the nasty - the ever lurking poison ivy. I thought the ohio Read more [...]

Aldo Leopold – Green Fire

The local weekly gazette mentioned that the Mountain Conservation Trust of Georgia (MCT) was screening a new documentary on Aldo Leopold.  I was interested that Pickens county, where my property is, was the HQ of MCT an environmental group and I wanted to learn more about it.  Also, I vaguely knew the name Aldo Leopold but was unsure what he had done. Last Saturday at the event I met with several board representatives.  Their mission, as I understand it, is to encourage large local landowners Read more [...]