David Nightingale

+ Follow
since Mar 11, 2026
Merit badge: bb list bbv list
Biography
Biospheric painter of the Farm Ark.  As others have done for me I wish to pass agrarian life and ideals into the future for my son and others. 
For More
Pierce County WA, Northwest and Sound
Apples and Likes
Apples
Total received
In last 30 days
12
Forums and Threads

Recent posts by David Nightingale

Hello there Matt,  It’s said humans can really only do one task at a time.  Farming, agriculture, permaculture are all full time jobs.  I do two, with a career and farm as my parents did… It takes a lifetime to master just parts of them, thus the intense analysis here by the most wonderful folks and their brilliant intellects.   We all try to do multiple tasks simultaneously though and it makes life both harder and sweeter.  Yet, when starting out on a complex life long task, focus is your reality daily.  Go for a daily walk on the land, breathe deep, feel the place, dip yourself into that nature as it will speak to you.  Myself, I grew up doing many farming/permaculture activities, and have done these throughout my life in various places on other’s places.  Practice makes better, to get to a working system.  After all these years I still have to start my focus with walks around the place daily.  Example, these are the things I thought this morning.  What’s wrong with the pigs today, winter garden planting, compost in garden, picking some vegetables, hardening off/planting cuttings, sheering sheep, irrigating fields, crops for next year, soil quality check, and all this versus weather.  I can do a few tasks their near ends today (some never finish), and that’s what I’m doing.  Is there anyone local you can apprentice with a bit in things you wish to do?  Talk to them, read, ask questions can’t stress this enough.  It gets you going, and lets you practice with help.  It can take a bit to really know what to do and that’s good.  
The oldest farmers in my childhood valley used to have secret meetings weekly.  90+ year olds who lived next door for over 70 years.  What could they possibly talk about, I always thought?  ‘Weather’, most of the time one told me at 101.  He grabbed my arm hard, grinned wide with 5 teeth, gasping and laughing he hollered “I Limed my fields in 78’, he didn’t”.  I believe in the spirit of the people living a simpler life in an equal relationship with nature.  Hope you find your balance Matt, Cheers
16 hours ago
Cheers for being a good human, Doug.  Walking along the road yesterday with my son we pass several old plum trees, loaded, just about deep purple, on a vacant lot.  They were perfect.  I took out my knife and cut two small branches 12”, then took the plums off.  We walked on to a coffee shop we were headed to.  My son asked, why we don’t get a whole bunch of plums.  I handed the few plums we had to the barista, she smiled.  I turn to my son and looked him in the eye,  I’m teaching you to fish for yourself, holding the two plum branches up.  “Ohhhh”, then he gave me his sheepish grin.  They made excellent cuttings, and are in the soil, hopefully rooting.  Life is just practice for more life, I breathe, I hope, then try, then wait.  Cheers,
4 days ago
Cookware, my most eclectic side.  It has come to me from everywhere I ever lived, and from anyone I’ve ever truly known.   Old, worn, and crafted for a lifetime lasting longer.  Held close for many years, loved then enshrined on the lazy susan.  My mother’s kitchen-aid mixer, beats anything like pure passion.   Cast iron pans pitted deep from both sides of the family came overland in sod huts.   Steam canner, made concord jelly every year until I was 13.  Obtuse large pink and blue ball jars full of cherries, peaches, hot beans in the basement pantry that was my room for a year.  A sauté pan my best friend’s mother gave me when I moved to Missoula.  A gift I accepted without a word.  Just a look from the most giving person I ever knew.   Friends, family, people that live deep within my soul re emerge each time to help me stew, baste, and boil.  I use the best pots, pans, cutlery from those who taught me how to craft ideas into food.  Cooking is still a pure art for those that savor time, truth, and a quiet love of real food.  Pass it on with the pans.
1 week ago
My son has been running a Shiitake culture, his first serious one. June 1st he started the culture.   He wants to time summer growth, harvest and re inoculation of wild substrate (log) before winter. We used smoker pellets mostly oak, autoclaved 1 kg with 1.5 kg water.  Cooled and then broken up pellets, inoculated with Shiitake spawn, closed up the bag and into the cooler.  We took top off double ice cooler and put plexiglass over the top under window A/C.  Cardboard over the top of the plexiglass cooler for darkness.  Digital temp probe to the cooler controls the  A/C and this is the key.  Mid 60’s slowed culture a bit so should be completed by end of July. We made it through some mid 90’s this week and have survived so, yeah!  2 more weeks to brown, 2 weeks to fruit then. Sep 1st into a wild culture.  Video games maybe, but “How’s the Shiitake doing”?  Never gets old, and caused a bit of reading on the subject.  And endless questions. cheers
1 week ago
My sister’s creation from her love of dwarf Nigerians.  Small but mighty milk producers of so much Cheve I grew and concerned.   Cheve/Ricotta sour cherry ice cream.  1/3 cheese, 2/3 fresh cream. 1lb cherries to the gallon of dairy.  Often she uses beet sugar, I prefer turbid sugar.  Lime leaf Bearss fine 1/2” julian and summer savory.  Spicier with some fine chopped mioga, Ahh summer. Cheers.
1 week ago
The better the protection the longer equipment lasts. A trick from an old farmer was to store implements as you attach them ready to go. Makes maintenance easier for most, safer, reminds me to look at them regularly.  Kinda led me to a few vertical/hanging storage systems which requires a robust structure….Use the thing for a very specific purpose and it will last longer doing a better job. Is the goal to grow food outcompeting nature, or to integrate ourselves into nature so you can’t tell we’re even there?
1 week ago
Wow Anne, I used the look at US hydrological climate models while I was looking for a place to settle down.  Texas was not overly wet in any of them.  But mountain top speaks volumes of practicality, stay safe.  Love that Sepp. Cheers
1 week ago
Sounds like a good start. Quite a few of the best planned communities in BC you could visit. Curious as to why people don’t advertise ‘Looking for Doctor, Naturopath, Teachers, Engineers, ect?  More professional people waking up to societies eminent failures daily.  Counter intuitive yet, some folks with high end practical skills in the system might have the best answers as to how to get your ideals to work and avoid certain aspects of our current failing systems.  Excellent safety concerns, keep them up! Cheers.
2 weeks ago
Yes, my carrots have an oniony, beet sweet smell now. And my tomato’s basil savory scent gave a chef friend of mine 10 minutes of sniffing my fruit before he said a word.  Then he just “what are these”? The companion planting really has many possibilities.
2 weeks ago
Wonderful, ideas all.  I view these exchanges as a true blessing.  It’s difficult to test many ideas into practice. Has anyone tried Circular beds?  And/or using hay bales as a wall to prevent rabbits? And best rabbit resistant veg  and herb combos?