green grass growing

insects

2011-06-26T18:28:00.000-07:00

Here are a few insects I've seen around here lately.

larval stage ladybug

tiny blue moth on a horseradish leaf

garden

2011-06-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from my garden I took yesterday.

mullein

motherwort

red clover, feverfew, and arnica growing together

lemon balm and winter savory

chive flowers

egyptian walking onions

hops

sage flowers

artemesia absinthium

yarrow

burnet flowers

comfrey

arugula

currant

nettle

some kind of mustard

acorus calamus and acorus americanus

greens! mostly mustard but also kale arugula cress and some other stuff

tom brown iii

2011-04-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

Barely made it to Tom's lecture last night; "Primitive skills and everyday life". Really inspiring for me.

winter plants

2010-12-16T19:33:00.000-08:00

It's winter here. Hasn't snowed an incredible amount yet, but has been really cold. Most all of the plants around are warm and cozy underground or have already let their seeds go and turned brown. In the garden a few are hanging on but most won't be seen again until spring. If I ever get serious about self-sufficiency I'll set up good row covers and cold frames so I can grow a lot more.

Collards

Sorrel

Burnet

Clover

Mullein - Year round medicine.

birds

2010-12-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

Spent a little of today playing with movie maker.

new bow

2010-11-28T19:52:00.000-08:00

I finished my second bow. It is made from a maple board,

about 50"ish with silk backing. It has a short pull back

and is a lot of fun to shoot.

bobcats!

2010-11-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

Don't really feel like writing anything.

Here is a new video and some bobcat tracks.

Seeing this video made me really happy.

bird bath

2010-11-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

I've felt an affinity with birds since I was pretty young.

That's one reason I try to offer them water.

This camera set from last winter helped me to understand

how important and meaningful a few drops can be.

At some point the time stamp goofed up and I was too lazy to fix it.

chipmunk

flicker and rabbit

jays

chickawhat?

nutcracker

pygmy

junco

thirsty squirrel

wood rat - the water is right next to its midden of sticks and

cans and wooden lids

spoon number two

2010-11-07T20:46:00.000-08:00

I'm really liking this spoon carving thing. I never would have

thought I would think so much about spoons in my life.

ferment projects

2010-11-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

I started fermenting a couple new things this past week: a spiced ginger wine and sauerkraut. I've made wine a couple times with milk bottles and balloons and it worked okay and helped me understand how that works. The first was just a Welch's wine and the second was made out of the leaves of Agastache foeniculum immediately after reading Stephen Harrod Buhner's Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers. Anyway I found a couple cheap one gallon glass jugs sold with apple juice and decided to experiment a little more with small batch brewing. I even went to the brew store and bought rubber stoppers and airlocks, which are a big step up from the balloons.

I found this video of Sandor Katz (author of Wild Fermentation) talking about Frank Cook and herbal elixir meads which is something I would like to explore more eventually.

I also started some sauerkraut. This time I used a base of red cabbage and added a bunch of garden greens including collards, sorrel, chard, dandelion greens, and chives and winter savory for flavoring. Kraut is a really good way to preserve fresh vegetables and actually makes them more nutritious through better absorption and adds plenty of the good Lacto-bacteria that help keep us healthy. The process really is easy, simply chop, add some salt, and push down into a container until the juices cover the vegetables. It's okay to add a little water if needed. If the water falls below the fermenting plant matter there will likely be mold. Let it sit out for several days and you are good to go.

under the deck

2010-10-31T06:56:00.001-07:00

More trail camera photos from the last year.

Time frame was a week. These are my favorites.

Bushy-tailed wood rat

Chipmunk

Hairy woodpecker

Pine squirrel

Cottontail

Jay watching last years first snow

spoon carving

2010-10-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I found a link to the blog Wood Spoon Inspired by Nature.

The pictures on that site inspired me to figure out how he was doing that and do it myself. I ended up getting a Mora hook knife and made my first spoon. Nowhere near as good as his but I'm happy with my first try.

past few days

2010-10-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

gaillardia

rocky mountain maple

wild rose

sumac

strawberry

red osier dogwood

aspen

western mugwort

fields of kinnikinnick

shaggy mane

camera-trapping part two

2010-10-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

One of the lessons of trail cameras is that if spots aren't chosen well, you may end up with 900 pictures of wind and grass. I have found a few places to set the camera that don't trigger obsessively and are traveled by animals. While our imaginations occasionally let us see bears and cougars in every shadow, I'm beginning to learn that while there aren't animals everywhere, if you wait long enough you may be surprised with what you see. These pictures were taken over a period of months.

first bobcat. i can't explain my excitement of seeing these shots.

steller's jays

nutcracker

jay and hairy woodpecker

hooray for cows! :/

year of camera-trapping

2010-10-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

About a year ago I was inspired to buy a trail camera. Blogs like Camera Trap Codger really inspired and excited me. He gets really great photos with 'homebrew' cameras that are built with certain models of digital cameras. Because I didn't want to jump into that right away I decided to buy a camera and chose the Bushnell Trophy Cam. It was the talk of the internet forums at the time and I have been really happy with it. With a few minor exceptions there have been no issues with it at all. The best part is that it has been running for a year on the same set of batteries.

Using cameras helps answer questions. In the past I might see a track or sign and think about what it seems to be, but would never know for sure. Through the camera tracks come alive and you feel closer to particular spots, watching what and who might move through and interact with them over a period of time.

This is going to be a series of posts. Here are my first few camera sets which took place last fall:

unknown bird, maybe a solitaire?

first deer!

red coyote

porcupine tail?

crazyperson

kanna flowers!

2010-09-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

I've been growing Kanna (Sceletium toruosum) for two years now in a small pot. In its second summer here it finally formed a flower.

Kanna is a succulent native to southern Africa. According to wikipedia, "The plant has been used by South African pastoralists and hunter-gatherers as a mood-altering substance from prehistoric times." Even more "Sceletium is known to elevate mood and decrease anxiety, stress and tension. It has also been used as an appetite suppressant by shepherds walking long distances in arid areas. In intoxicating doses it can cause euphoria, initially with stimulation and later with sedation." [. . .] "Having such properties Sceletium is classified as an empathogen type herb." [. . .] "The plant is not hallucinogenic, contrary to some literature on the subject, and no adverse effects have been documented."

In colder climates Kanna needs to overwinter indoors where it is warm. Keeping that in mind it is a relatively easy plant to cultivate and well worth growing. If you use this herb I especially suggest growing it yourself. While some online sites offer farm grown Kanna, much of what is for sale comes from wild populations which are sensitive to over harvesting.

today

2010-09-23T17:41:00.001-07:00

Aspen leaves are changing. Another few weeks and they'll be gone.

Steller's jay - counted nine at once.

Female merlin falcon (I think). Hung around for a few hours chasing

the jays. They didn't seem too bothered though.

mushrooms

2010-09-20T17:56:00.001-07:00

A month or so ago conditions were perfect for mushrooms at my mountain spot. Here are some that I was able to take pictures of.

free seeds!

2010-09-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

I have a ton of these seeds if anybody would like any. Just post a comment with your email. Click on the plant name for more info.

Red Clover - Trifolium pratense

Feverfew - Tanacetum parthenium

Wormwood - Artemisia absinthium

yellowstone: plants

2010-08-20T06:47:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of plants around and in Yellowstone. Many of them I was familiar with and many were new to me. Here are a few pictures.

Grass

Sulphur flower

Gairdner's Yampah

Native Thistle

Groundsel

Monkeyflower

Pedicularis

Yellowstone trip: Animals

2010-08-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

My family and I spent that last week around Yellowstone National Park. This was my first time in that region since I've been old enough to appreciate it. It was definitely a worthwhile and interesting trip. I even saw several grizzly bears!

To make this easier for me, I'm going to share pictures through several posts instead of one. The first will be animals, then birds, and last some of the plants that I saw and hung around during my trip.

BEARS

This was the first bear we came across and the only one that created a true 'bear jam'. A very beautiful black bear. I will remember the way he/she walked over young pine trees, bending them and then letting them pop back up. We also saw another young black bear which couldn't have been more than 2 years old.

Grizzlies! Off of Dunraven pass, one afternoon a mother and her two cubs walked and played far below in the meadow for a long while. Another, larger grizzly relaxed in the shade. The next day a nearly black grizzly foraged near a herd of bison in the Lamar valley eventually climbing down by the creek where we couldn't see. This bear was much closer. As we watched the bear, trucks drove by with what I realized later were bear traps. Down the road, the night before, a mother grizzly and her three cubs attacked 3 people sleeping in tents in a National Forest campground. One man died. As a result so did the mother grizzly, and her cubs will live the rest of their lives in a zoo.

A wolf! This was a first for me too. This black wolf was seen during the afternoon in the Hayden valley. I believe it is the leading male of the Canyon pack. I could be wrong. I heard someone saying there is a den in the valley. But since this was a family trip early morning wolf watching didn't happen. :)

Bison are really great. Just seeing them in the wild gives me hope and reminds me of everything our culture has lost.

Moose

These bull elk were hanging out on the hill above where we saw the first black bear.

Stay tuned for part two of my yellowstone trip.. Dum dum, yup.

birdhouses

2010-07-22T16:56:00.001-07:00

I'm going to try and make new posts here to share some things. We'll see how well that works. Something I am interested in is providing nestboxes for birds. There are different places that give instructions for building them and the dimensions needed by different birds.

When I started learning about birdhouses the suggestion was to build them from cedar bought at the store. This probably makes the best boxes, but so far I've been able to make them out of found materials, and they have served their purpose well.

When a tree dies its importance continues. Standing dead trees are called snags and allow space for woodpeckers to create holes for nesting. Many other birds rely on these lasting woodpecker holes for their own nests. They are also used by overwintering birds during cold nights. Nowadays snags may not be seen as valuable or attractive to landowners and 'forest management' types. This is why human made nestboxes can be important.

Can you see the nesting hole used by a flicker in this aspen?

Here are the nestboxes I have made:

This was my first. It is made out of plywood found in a dumpster. the area around the hole is doubled to protect the entry way. After a year or two I also needed to do something with the plywood roof that was falling apart. I found a roof shingle and screwed it on. This box has been used by wrens two of the past three years. The other year it was filled with sticks by the male wren but left without a nest by the female.

This is the Peterson design specifically for bluebirds. It has been used by mountain bluebirds every year for the past few since I put it up. Instructions for this type of house can be found here: bluebird box.

This is another scrap wood nestbox that has been hanging for a couple years. This is the only one that has not been used. Not sure why.

Lately I've been thinking about building birdhouses to give away. Let me know if you want one or have any comments or suggestions. Thanks

2008

2008-12-31T20:56:00.000-08:00

lizard tracks in the valley of fire

continental divide

mountain bluebird, a neighbor to my favorite

place in the world

owlclover

wild 'strawberry spinach', chenopodium capitatum

id anyone?

indian paintbrush

long exposure

imagine a giant perilla forest

smokeythecat

madcap laughs

mullein flower

heimia salicifolia

monarda

dandelion salad

2008-04-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about spring is that there are so many leafy plants to eat. While garden greens are still small some wild plants are ready to harvest. The first time I ate dandelions was a few years ago camping with a friend in Wyoming. We spent an entire morning picking dandelion flowers in an area that had an amazing amount. Growing up, for some reason I thought dandelions were poisonous. I know other people often have this idea too. I think one of the reasons is that dandelions in public places are often sprayed with dangerous chemicals. Dandelions actually make a very good food and medicine too.

Dandelions are not native to North America but have adapted through most of the continent. They grow as a perennial and spread widely through their flying seeds. The leaves can be eaten raw or cooked. The young leaves are the least bitter. PFAF says this: "A very nutritious food, 100g of the raw leaves contain about 2.7g. protein, 9.2g. carbohydrate, 187mg Calcium, 66mg phosphorus, 3.1mg iron, 76mg sodium, 397mg potassium, 36mg magnesium, 14000iu vitamin A, 0.19mg vitamin B1, 0.26mg vitamin B2, 35mg vitamin C". The root can also be roasted into a healthy coffee substitute or addition and the flowers can be made in syrups and wine.

annie dillard

2008-03-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

I recently read FOR THE TIME BEING by Annie Dillard. Here is a passage from the first chapter that maybe meant something to me:

“The blue light of television flickers on the cave wall. If the fellow crawls out of the cave, what does he see? Not the sun itself, but night, and the two thousand visible stars. Once, I tried to converse with him, the fellow who crawled out of his blue-lit cave to the real world. He had looked into this matter of God. He had to shout to make himself heard. “How do you stand the wind out here?”

I don’t. Not for long. [. . .] It seemed unlikely that he heard. The wind blew into his face. He turned and faced the lee. I do not know how long he stayed out. A little at a time does for me-a little every day.”

Blanket Time

2008-03-21T17:56:00.001-07:00

Three years ago my sister told me that she made a blanket for my birthday, only she had a little more work to do. She finished last week and gave it to me today! It is a very nice blanket.

Verbascum thapsus - common mullein and its uncommon uses

2008-02-04T21:16:00.000-08:00

Mullein is a plant that can be found naturalized in every US state and many other places around the world. Though often seen as nothing more than a troublesome weed mullein has much to offer us. Native to Europe, northern Africa, and Asia, mullein was introduced into North America early in the 18th century as an herbal medicine. It is best to look for mullein in relatively disturbed soils, often along roads or railroad tracks. If you can spot dry stalks, it is usually possible to find plants in the area at any point during the year.

Verbascum thapsus is a biennial, which means that it lives for two years. The first year it will grow only leaves, and the second year a stalk that produces many yellow flowers. The stalks generally grow 1 - 2 meters high, though some can grow much taller. Mullein is easy to find and in the fall seeds can be collected and spread into gardens or other areas. It is also possible to transplant young plants which tend to grow close to one another. Each part of the plant has unique uses and I hope here to help others see the beauty in a plant that is often overlooked.

The plants for a future database has valuable information on mullein, as does wikipedia. Instead of repeating the information I am going to give the links and encourage everyone to read them and make time to find some mullein plants or pay closer attention to those already growing around you.

Plants For a Future - Verbascum thapsus

Wikipedia - Common mullein

More 2007 photos

2008-01-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more things that I wanted to post.
Hopefully I will get caught up and start
making better posts..

Mullein - Verbascum thapsus

Feverfew

Squash cross

A young Rhubarb plant from seeds I brought
home from Wyoming

Steamboat Botanic Park, Steamboat Springs CO
I wasn't in much of a picture taking mood here
but maybe you can get an idea how cool of a
place this is.

All white columbine

Motherwort

SBP Medicinal garden

Smokey

Summer 2007

2008-01-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

Naturalized poppies near an abandoned building

Pedicularis groenlandica - Elephant's Head

mesa verde

2007-12-06T16:58:00.001-08:00

late spring in southern colorado

2007-12-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

winter part one

2007-01-19T08:20:00.000-08:00