Winter Fireflies, Sunshine and Life on the Farm

And just like that, it's spring. The birds we so recently watched soaring south are soaring north. The maple sap is running or finishing up. Frogs and salamanders moved to the vernal pools in the first warm rains and I hear the frog songs as I type. Winter Fireflies are basking on the warmed south side of trees and we are savoring every last delicious minute of the season of rebirth.

Ellychnia corrusca are pretty fascinating fireflies. You must read about them; they will make your life richer if you know them and it sure makes for a fun end of winter scavenger hunt. So far we've seen them on 10 species of trees at Mohican State Park/Forest: black oak, white oak, pignut hickory, sugar maple, black cherry, red elm, red oak, American beech, tulip tree, Pinus sp.

The raccoons and deer are moving about, I assume, grateful for the retreat of the deep snow that blanketed the Earth for quite some time this winter. We loved watching the fluffy white stuff fall and we loved watching it melt and smell the thawing earth. 

A Gray Catbird spent the winter here up until the day before the last big snow storm when the food ran out. Poor timing isn't it? You know what that means....yep, planting more, more, more!

I'm spending time putting thoughts on paper and then the computer and Steve made me a repurposed table to handle my chaos. I love it. Garage sale legs and an old bulb crate we used for winter produce came together just right. There is so much stuff already in existence, isn't there? A little creativity is all that's needed...

Our little Oreo (aka Wuk) helps me on occasion...

and celebrated with me on my first deer shed. 

Steve and I handled cat chaos with cat gates and now we can breathe again and the oppressed cat (Minnie Pearl) eats and drinks without fear. Can you hear the long exhale? It's been rouuuuggghhhhhh.

Bird houses didn't work well here so we finally threw the towel in and that's also a great, great relief. (Sometimes, we just have to quit fighting a path that isn't changing or improving.) We will continue, as always, to promote snags and natural tree holes.

Woodland sedges are reunited with our little woodland and it made us so happy to have our hands back in the soil, to enrich a beat up fence row and to accept the generosity of these plants to grow.

Thanks to some coordination with a neighbor of ours, the road trash is picked up on our stretch for the time being. This is what Steve and I picked in a couple of hours! Hmmm. 

The dove covey makes us smile every single time. Flighty birds, they are and we get it. They've spent a large portion of this winter here and we are going to miss them when we stop feeding the birds this spring, but we need the birds to disperse for their own health. We also feel conflicted about the bird seed bags (see above). What do you all do with them?

Richard Louv put into words what we feel when we are in the magic of the planet. That's who we are. The rest of it, who knows what that is. That's not our essence and what a gift to know it.

Soundtrack:

MILCK - Quiet

Joseph - White Flag

Native Foods, Beauty and Generosity of Spirit

Hi friends,

Have we told you how much we appreciate you? Truly, we do. You make our lives so much richer for your existence and the mutual sharing of heartfelt experiences and joy. Thank you for joining us on this journey of meaning, compassion and gratitude.

As I write my eyes continually wander to the door bathed in sunlight. The sun wanes and the black walnut in my view holds the last of the rays. What am I doing inside? Sitting down indoors challenges me more with each passing day. I love the coziness of a wood-warmed house, but I feel constantly that I am missing the most important moment of my life. What is happening outside? Who is heading south? Is the blue wood aster still blooming?

Are the robins gathering and chatting in the top of the maple? Is there another American woodcock probing in the recently moistened Earth beneath the rough-leaved dogwoods?

The gift of persimmons sit on our table waiting: giving us great joy in their presence, in their delicious flesh and in their hope-filled seeds.

Our refrigerator houses baggies of these persimmon seeds from our second annual autumnal pilgrimage to our Indiana homeland, marking an important ritual to gather these delicious native fruits and to revere big trees, limestone-weathered Earth, good people doing good work and the ecology of the land.

George Donaldson: you are one of our heroes; please know you made a difference. You preserved a piece of Indiana that we very much needed to see and that gives us such hope.

Caterpillar lives continue to mingle noticeably with our lives and teach us almost daily that it truly is the greatest miracle that we are all alive and that we get to bear witness to other lives and gift one another with appreciation and love.

American Dagger on a long journey...

Virginia Ctenucha benefiting from the long fall...

Possible Tufted Thyatirin feeding on hazelnut...

Brown-hooded Owlet from aster...

Syncronicity of spirit or intuition? I am not sure which, but this box turtle reminded me to listen to what cannot be heard. A venture off trail to visit some pawpaws in search of any lingering fruit inspired me to tell Steve to make sure to watch for box turtles....a few minutes later look who we found.

The kitties tolerated our traveling and are learning to appreciate new lands and new experiences. It's a joy to not leave part of our family behind and to feel new opportunities opening in front of us.

Meeting Carolina Buckthorn and Seedbox again thrilled us. 

Spending time with old trees strenthened us and heartened us in ways that is as necessary as breath, but is as hard to understand as tides and moon cycles. 

Our travels out into the world always inspire such action on our little patch of Earth. They ignite something deep within and we get lit, I mean LIT, on fire. We come home and we visit the plants we share space with and we plant more and we dream about persimmons and learn about native foods and dream some more and then form plans.

American Chestnuts will rise again and we vow to support their rise. The local economy of native foods is so damn satisfying and we feel like there is giant bright spot before us, if we just open our eyes, look around and support others on their life paths doing meaningful, important and most certainly imperative work.

Winter hardy greens in a junk built lean-to cold house... 

and homegrown saffron...

offer nutrition and satisfaction. That's a key piece of life isn't it? To feel satisfied and proud of your life and at peace with what is and what is not.

We savor autumnal light like it might never return again. "Yes fence, we will continue removing you. First though, we must lay on Mother Earth (Mother Shelter, Mother Shelteress; thank you Anais Mitchell), feel her strength and soak up the rays." Weakening rays, but still our mightiest and most longed for winter friend.

Mother Shelteress, creator of perfect mud homes. There is much to admire here: beauty, builder, earth materials, innate know-how, protection of young...

remnants of what was and what will return once again to yes, Mother Earth, Mother Shelteress. We humans have much to learn.

We wish you joy, more and more "awake" moments and meaning-filled discoveries.

Hugs,

j and s

Find an extension of our travels and some more of our joy here. 

Making a Courtyard

Our creative inspirations often arise out of something else we want to do. In this case, it's the desire to build an aviary off of our chicken coop so that meant the cool, old, salvaged fence around the coop needed to go elsewhere.

We chose our front yard for this special fence so we can make a courtyard for privacy and because we love secret nooks - who doesn't?! We chose some rough cut boards for our end caps around our porch, which we scored at an auction a couple of years ago.

This old path is now shut down and there is already a great patch of Common Milkweed filling in the gap. With this path shut down, our courtyard will actually feel "courtyardy" very soon. The ability for plants to populate bare soil in one season is seriously remarkable.

Here's a view North of the fence, which will also help keep our path open to walking and not just the flopping of plants after a heavy wind or rain. (We really, really adore the wildness of these plants so it's just about making them fit in a way that works for them and us.)

Steve's super charming gate made the move from the coop too.

We love the feel of this fence here already and the chickens think it's cool as well. 😍

Under the canoe is their favorite dust bathing area; You can spy Eby if you look closely.

View of our courtyard from the South. In a months time these plants will be in bloom and huge and we are so excited!

Our inside plants are already outside and are loving the rainwater, fresh air and sunshine; they said enough with the indoors.

The indoor plants - outside, and the chickens pecking about and exploring makes this courtyard feel charming already.

Take a tour via You Tube here.