In one of the nature-oriented Facebook groups I’m in, a land-management newbie was talking about how they were frightened to do a controlled burn of their property (for weed reduction). They were afraid the fire would get away from them, and were thinking, rethinking, and (I think) over-thinking the difficulty of doing the burn. As…
Nature’s calls resonate all around me. Whether I’m home on the banks of the West Chickamauga Creek in Northwest Georgia, at my Dad’s on Lake Winneconne, Wisconsin, or visiting my children, friends and relatives in Arizona, Utah, Lake Tahoe area or the Pacific Northwest, Nature’s calls reach out to me, grab me and hold me…
Gardening when you’re going to be traveling can be a real pain … weeding and watering can both be a problem. Here’s how we solved our weed control challenge. Thankfully, Mother Nature provided the rain. My goal this year has been to find a way to produce a great garden and keep it weeded. I…
I don’t know about you, but the conditions of society and the world can stress me out. Since I run an online business, social media is part of my every day life and it can suck me down a rabbit hole and become a huge time-waster. I stumbled on a free method for getting my…
Last week Dave and I were outside and saw a flock of robins – twenty or so. We were both shocked to see robins at the beginning of February in Northwest Georgia. Anytime Dave spots something in nature that’s unusual, he takes note and points it out to me. Years ago a friend taught me…
I’m reading “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It’s about Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants written by a scientist who is also a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Kimmerer teaches botany and ecology at a university several times a week. One morning, she surveyed her 3rd year students, asking them…
This random pumpkin showed up in our yard and taught me about compensating blessings and how sowing and reaping can come in unexpected ways. I don’t recall ever tossing any pumpkin out in our front yard. It isn’t a composting area, and we’ve never even planted pumpkin that I know of. Perhaps Dave dropped a…
Recently, I relaxed in the water rapids and deep pools of the #WestChickamaugaCreek near my home in Northwest Georgia. It was a typical hot, muggy, sunny Georgia noon, and the cool water called my name. As I floated, wandered and sat in the creek — sometimes only inches deep, sometimes over my head — I…
I’m environmental activist tired. Today I went out to my back yard garden. I pulled up a bunch of native grasses that recently went to seed, and threw them in the brush pile. The brushpile is about 10 feet high, made out of non-native privet bush branches I’ve been trimming on my acreage. I’m piling…
Trees, wildflowers, birds,/ bugs, fields. The land teaches me / much. I want to share.