The herbal quadrant of the foodforest has its first medicinal plant. Not an annual, it still manages to come back strong each year from seed. A good plant to have plenty available.

Just sights and sounds of the stream ~ 24 April 2025 ~ 487MB

A short spell of springlike weather allowed an excursion to evaluate another possible new homestead property. The owner asked that no photos of it be included in my post about it, wanting to maintain all control over its online advertising. Totally understandable. While it's a fantastic location for off-gid solar power generation, it's not an ideal parcel for me, though, being situated in the Transpecos where no good groundwater source exists. And I do prefer a parcel with lo

With significant portion of long-overdue compensation finally remitted by FEMA, normalcy of life is in sight at last. No more letters written and sent to congresspeople and the POTUS requesting assistance penetrating the systemically dysfunctional agency's red tape. Seething anger slowly subsides. And with this renewed sense of normalcy comes an abiding, peaceful mood making me capable of appreciating the small things in life again, like cat and dog sleeping soundly on the ba

Although I'm still looking at parcels across the nation, I've pretty much decided the next homestead must have plenty of well forested acreage to provide lots of trails for walking and biking. Without forestland I don't think I'll enjoy my remaining years of life much. The shade alone is worth having but I don't want to build in desertlands, prairies or plains where there are no forests to savor. Parcel candidate number one continues to occupy the top of the list. Its forest

When I saw this my immediate reaction was surprise, then disgust and finally wonder. I resisted an urge to disturb the eater just in case it was merely too full to move or to show signs of life, but it sure looked dead to me. Leaving them alone I searched herpetology reference sources for the species. The eater appears to be a Western Coachwhip. The first of these I've ever seen in the wild. The eaten was unidentifiable until I checked a few hours later after sunset when it b

In reporting my losses in the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, FEMA is treating me as though I am a damned liar intent on fraudulently claiming loss of raw creative artworks assets as a portion of my compensation offering. This is part of PROOF #1 that I am not lying and that loss of these raw assets will negatively impact my ability to earn future income. This test video was retrieved from temporary storage where it was saved in September 2017. I showed it to a client sometim

Before purchasing Los Veranos it was obvious it needed tending to. Its forested portions were far too dense, somewhere between five to six or seven thousand conifers packed way too close together for their own good interspersed by small groves of densely packed aspen and oak with scattered maple around the edges. But this was a major factor in my decision to buy into the parcel. Heartachingly beautiful and soothing to the eyes, it was obvious the forest was a treasure-trove o

Trying to keep my electrical power consumption in check these days isn't difficult with so many nice energy-efficient devices available on the market. The previous kit of devices before they were all incinerated in the fire were guzzlers compared to what I'm using now. So in that respect, their destruction has led to improvements realized years before planned. Social power struggles aren't so easily managed, though. The fire is forcing me into human-on-human engagement I woul

Dandelions beat daffodils to the blossom by a week this year. Good to know since in a pinch dandelions are edible, packed full of nutrients, while daffodils are as toxic as the GOP is now. Both are a delight to see after so long without blossoms of any kind gracing the landscape. The GOP is not a delight in any form or fashion by any stretch of imagination, and so useless.

Negotiations to replace my homestead destroyed by the Hermit's Peak Fire will begin sometime next year. When next year is anyone's guess as bureaucrats work to get their ducks in a row for the process. Well, apparently they're not working today, Christmas Day. It's a federal holiday, so they're with family in warm homes celebrating in comfort and cheer. I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude about the upcoming negotiations, but it's not easy to do. Can't help steeling for

Went to get some fresh socks out of the travel bag to go check the outside temperature and then go out to the water tower to make sure its system heaters had automatically switched on as they're supposed to. Outside temp wasn't forecast to drop below freezing but it might have anyway. I just needed to go out and make sure. At midnight. And I might cook a bite to eat, too. Maybe. It was dark in the room when I found the socks in the bag by touch and I felt something stuck to

This was my home for seventeen years. In this home I had a studio where I operated a creative services business for twelve of those years. This is where I retired. This is where I intended to live out my days pursuing various hobbies ranging from hiking and camping to music composition and even attempts to achieve maturity in mathematics through slow, steady honing of those still maddeningly perplexing skills. Thousands of acres in every direction stood mixed conifer and hard

This baby tumbled out of a rotting Ponderosa Pine I felled several years ago for firewood. It had only rotted a little at the base and apparently this creature was born in the midst of that spot of decay. This was near the time I had just formed my company and I was flush with cash enough to not be worrying at all about food, but I did understand that most startups in the USA fail within the first three years, or less. So I spent a long while looking at it and wondering what

FEMA is inspecting my government-burned homestead today. Before that imbecile Las Vegas/Pecos USFS district ranger Steve-O burned 341,735 acres (...534 square miles...1,383 square kilometers) of beautiful forestland, 1,500 homes housing thousands of people now homeless, these would have been seasonal sights emerging there right about now this fall. Thinking back to the first day I set camp on the property twenty-four years ago, spent the first night and began exploring its la

Not trying to be cute, just trying to grow a decent melon without ants boring in and ruining them. So I'm training my little muskmelon vines up the yard fence to produce their fruit off of the ground where I can more easily keep an eye on them as they grow and ripen for picking. I'm not sure what variety of melon I'm growing. They sprouted from seeds planted from a grocery store purchase which was simply labeled "Asian Melon". They might be Musketeer or even Collective Farm W

Found this little fellow hiding under the damp end of a washrag draped over the edge of the bathroom sink this morning. More than a little surprised to see it, I wondered how it got into the house because this house is sealed pretty tightly against visitors from outside. Then I remembered when and how the creature managed to do it. It hitchhiked in on my shoulder. Summer heat has settled in here now. It's been over 100ºF several days in a row so I've been going out during nig

It's raining on white Iris blossoms at the family homestead downslope where the house has stood for just over 120 years. A nice, long, soaking rain is still falling tonight as I write this. Wild Iris at the mountain house have bloomed in the meadows too but they are facing drought conditions and now wildfire caused by a bungling national forest district's botched prescribed burn near Hermit's Peak. The house is steel and may survive, with a little help from firefighters. The

With the compost bin full, it's time to begin work preparing for the next growing season. It's been a dry winter so far, so the wood under Hugel bed #1 isn't at all wet. Rain is forecast next week but not enough. The first starter trays are ready for seeding with lettuce, spinach and celery. The first layer of compost has been spread in the raised bed for tomatoes. The garlic beds are sprouting on their own, as usual. And Sky just wants to play frisbee keepaway.

Like any green room in studio or theater, this one is a great place to relax. But the only performance going on is happening right in this green room as plants are wintering over. Not a lot happening last month after bringing everything still growing inside from the cold. And only a little more growing one month later with plenty of tomato and bell pepper plants still bearing fruit, a starter blueberry bush and asparagus plant, two surviving cherry trees grown from seeds germ