alternatetheory

real artificial habitat

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Originally uploaded by hellbender.

one of the best pix i've taken.

beaverdamn

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Originally uploaded by hellbender.

doesn't quite make sense to me, how the beavers accomplish this. it's just a bunch of detritus, floating crap, crap that should just float away.

i think they may actually have planted the willows into the dam, which basically blows my mind.

structural. landscaping. by animals.

smarter than most humans.

sunbleached boy

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Originally uploaded by hellbender.

days are hot and long. and goddamn bright.

worship the sun - hide from his face.

summary one

chronicled, notebooked, and now repeated, re-entered into the greater database of all knowledge.

wherefore all the commotion? i drive into town and sit outside a bank for internet. to blogg i must transcribe, transcribe, transcribe.

4/23
nothing doing. planting at sunset. tomatoes, peppers, onions, kale, cucumbers and squash.

dont tell me i'm late. late is how it's done around here. we're testing the limits of viability, for plants, and laziness.

4/24
deluged, so drive into Town (chattanooga). see friends, dumpster, salvage. generally forage the abundance of cities, and get nothing significant done.

4/25
first try at second solar oven design. basically failed. the glass was ridiculously steep, my whole design was stupid, glass angled at something like 45degrees, hinged. think i'm gonna go more for a straight-up box style next. maybe all right-angled, it would still be fine for heating water, which is what it'll mostly be used for.

washed and dried the 4 gallon screw-lid heavy hdpe olive containers, into which i decanted oats. many oats.

no longer have 50 lbs of oats in my living room. fairly major accomplishment.

been playing go with the christer.

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Originally uploaded by hellbender.

go.

gave him a four stone handicap. didn't do to well.did white still have a chance?

4/27
tourguide some 4th graders for Moonshadow. takes all morning.

later, take the boy in the backpack for a walk, which turns into a major forestfarm weeding expedition. mass-killing honeysuckle, and some trailiing rose, some privet. i get a little involved with defending my trees, chris walks back with logan, i kill invasive species till my ipod dies, and then a good while longer.

discover a few baby persimmons in the landscape.

trek overland into a neighbors trashed property, the dumped detritus of decades, find something usefull.

4/28

cornbread festival. meh.

another solo hike, destructive treasure hunt, finding persimmons basically everywhere i didn't bushhog a few months ago. killing honeysuckle feels like protecting the family. very fucking rewarding. plus, it's destructive. which is always fun.

later, propogate, transplant, nurture the little herbs + veggies.

yes, it's late. i know.

spent a while ripping up vines of poison ivy from public space. i'm basically immune now. i've also spent the last five years developing an immunity to iocaine powder.

4/29

swat flies while nada sews. catch wasps in a butterfly net and put them outside (they pollinate and kill other bugs! wasps are super mellow if you're nice to them.)

clean public space+1

blog +2

soon to be

this b-log is, at least primarily, about homesteading.

one aspect of homesteading is: you don't have time to blog.

things learned from homesteading: people are furry as a parasite early warning system. it is good to be furry.

difficult, from way back

opening libraries.

starting small.

miniscule, unstoppable.