Clay and Wattles

“Money is the motive for about 90 percent of all crime committed in North America.” – Ernie J. Zelinski, The Lazy Person’s Guide to Success

I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one’s while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men’s while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them.

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden

…has me in its spell.

Compost never ceases to amaze me. I just turned over the winter pile again (took me about half an hour, but, oh, so worth it) and could already see the progress since just last week when I turned it over for the first time. Turning over the pile adds lots of air (an essential ingredient in a good compost mixture). The looser pile is nearly a foot higher than it was before.

I was especially struck by the energy of the pile – it’s working hard. Grass cuttings in particular seem to be pure sunlight converted to a solid: in the compost, they quickly release all that sunlight again as heat. I guess that shouldn’t be surprising, since it’s exactly the way fossil fuels work too.

Yellowknife had cold weather this week while I was out of town, but to my surprise, the minimum soil temperature under my plastic pods never dipped below 7 degrees celcius while the air temperature hit a low of -8. My quinoa seeds have come up, but nothing else yet. Cats or ravens or squirrels have been digging up my potatoes!

The town of Falls Church offers a service to all its elderly residents: A computer will call you at home once a day. If you don’t answer, help is automatically summoned. Surely very few societies have ever needed such a thing – surely very few people lived such unaffiliated lives that their death could go unnoticed for a day.

-Bill McKibben, The Age of Missing Information

Sorry that I’ve been too busy in the garden to post here. I’ll provide a better update soon. Today, I planted onion sets, potatoes, peas, and a few other things. Last Tuesday (May 8th) I planted lettuce, spinach, mustard, and some other greens. All of the garden (except the potatoes) is under plastic for a while yet.

One exciting thing: when I turned over my my winter compost pile a few days ago it was already steaming away (even though the finished compost right next to it was still frozen solid). I checked the turned-over pile yesterday and just a few inches below the surface was too hot to touch!

it is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one’s being alone.

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden

I’ve finally started working on my garden (no, the photo is from last year – I’m not that far ahead). There is still some snow in the corners of my yard, but the raised beds are all thawed out. My compost piles are still frozen solid in the middle, but I’ve been scraping the finished compost off to dig into the beds. I’m sure they’ll thaw quickly if I keep it up.

I’ve covered some of the beds with plastic to warm them up for planting. I’m hoping to plant radishes, lettuce, spinach, peas, carrots, and potatoes in the next few days. I have some cool-weather asian greens that I’m going to try as well.

Unfortunately, my good rain barrel cracked (I must have left enough water in it for the ice to swell up), so I’m going to have to find a new one. My pet waste composter is also still frozen and full of water, which can’t drain until it thaws at the bottom.

I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that corporations may be enriched. In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden