Permaculture Photo Challenge - December 2019 - January 2020

those red and green at Mt St Helens

T J
Your pole barn takes me back 40 some years ago.
The first year my parents and I moved to a new, old house. Probably a hundred years old, the farmer that owned it had used the house to shelter his sheep. My parents, a step uncle, and my dad's dad((not a grampa to me) and a little help from a general contractor, rebuilt the house down to the two by fours and lathe style plaster.
Anyway my dad had gravel trucks, one of the rearends went out. A Nipco heater, a sheet of plywood and the dump box provided a poor shelter to work on it.
Winter was still in full swing as he had the local elevator's construction crew putting up a 30' by 40' shop. No more laying in the slush while putting in a rebuilt rearend.

Su Ba wrote:........

COMFORT

Cats are one of our permaculture rodent control methods. The farm currently hosts 22 cats, most of which are freeloaders, but that's ok. By using cats we avoid introducing toxins into the environment and endangering the protected species here (the Hawaiian hawk & Hawaiian owl).

The photo is of Newton, the adult cat who was a sick lost tomcat 2 months ago. We've neutered him and healed him up, giving him a permanent home in the process. He's still very insecure and nervous, trying to adjust to living in a feline commune. He often seeks out a lap, looking for comfort. The kitten is Tunafish, a throwaway kitten that was spied at our local restaurant. Too frightened to go near people, it took a can of tuna fish to lure her into a trap. Her first week after being captured, she desperately wanted a mother cat to bury her face into its fur and hide. She needed comforting. One evening she cautiously approached Newton, somehow got approval to snuggle up to him, and now uses him as her comfort blanket.

Su,
I was just wondering how Tunafish is doing?
Mike

REST

HALFWAY OUT OF THE DARK

Halfway Out of the darkness. Grant's Grove, California

Decoration
15' airbrush portrait of Jerry Garcia I painted for a West Virginia music festival

Mike,

Tunafish is doing fine. I happened to be volunteering at a cat spay/neuter clinic shortly after acquiring Tuna, and there was a homeless kitten brought in that was Tuna's size. So I adopted him to be a companion for her. Named him Arlo Guppy. The two kittens are now fast friends and playmates.

Thanks for asking.

WARMTH

28 tradition

COMMUNITY



Canned cranberry relish

White. Some white feathers and white seeds found on a walk.

More COLD & NEW It was 9 degrees this morning!

We got some more of the barn up, so I thought I'd share for those interested in seeing the progression. :)

T.J. Stewart wrote:We got some more of the barn up, so I thought I'd share for those interested in seeing the progression. :)

Fast progress!

SAVE ENERGY

ALONE

I'm not really, have just taken to sleeping alone of late.  Perhaps something that happens when you have been together most of your life, the kids are gone and you just want to listen to a book before you sleep...then hear no snoring and feel no movement.  It's been rather lovely here alone in this little room.

Su Ba wrote:WHITE

This is a young white pipinola, though many folks know it as a chayote or choko. It's not quite real white yet, but as it grows larger and matures, it turns white. We prefer to eat them smaller while the skin is still tender....and more of an off white. I grow plenty of these on my farm, primarily as a food forest plant.

I grow them too, although the part that I like the most is leaves. Older ones are good for cooking and juicing, younger ones I eat raw. In some countries young shoots sauteed are a delicacy. And they grow many of them, that is for sure. In summer it can grow a foot a day.

DECORATION

COLD and NEW

It wasn't as cold as it had been thankfully, but it was still cold.  Here are photos of the last of the barn project for interested parties.  :)  Next week we replace the roof and siding on a smaller outbuilding and set the posts for our 30x100 greenhouse... soooo I imagine that there might be more COLD and NEW photos.  :)

TRADITION
9 Mile Canyon, West Tavaputs Plateau, Ashley National Forest, Utah

TEA

Leigh, that's a very interesting combination in that pot. What's the ingredients?

Su, it's a detox tea. 2 parts dandelion root, 1 part each of: burdock root, cardamom seed, ginger root, pau d'arco bark, cinnamon bark, clove buds, fennel seeds, licorice root, juniper berries,  black peppercorns, uva ursi leaf, horsetail, parsley leaf and root, and orange peel. Very tasty, I might add.

REFLECTION

This was shot under the light of a quite affordable warm-white LED with a 50mm (75mm with my camera) lens at F1.4 and ISO 200.
I had to adjust the white balance (luckily he as this white area at the nose so that was used), raise the reds (because the LED produces poor reds) and make it quite a bit brighter (equivalent to ISO 400).