evan's ant village log

Exciting and scary to see all that water!

Evan,  these photos rule!  Can't believe the epic amount of water!!!   I'm super stoked my little fence is still standing, that's awesome haha lakefront property' . seems like that should help seal that spot a bit !  hows the other pond area shaping up?  do we know if Seans bench is still holding up also ?> would love to see hows shes aging ...  i lost all photos of it, along with other media ...   I swear i'm still working on sending out a care package. I'm just in the middle of converting from one craft to another, and have been volunteering and donating a lot of my time to getting some community gardens put together out here, so i have been super broke , but soon !!!  anyways hope all is well and you guys are all staying dry . Please tell everyone is said "YOOOO what up " and cheers!  

every single one of ya's are dynamic badassaderos y deras ... just wow. wouldjyalookathat? JUst look at it!

Thanks for logging. It was a true treat. Inspiring in ways i can't yet comprehend. Go go go! I'll do the same. Together we are but fruit bats in jam.
Small psa:: Water is life!!!

It's official, the Rhubarb Micro Village Challenge is now accepting applicants: Rhubarb Micro Village Challenge

Also, Springtime! Yay!

So, did the ponds empty down completely, or is there still standing water?

Hey, Evan!  Looks like all that hard work you and Kai put into your earthworks design is paying off. Very cool! I'll have to tell Josh to make sure he checks out these amazing pics.   So how are your plantings doing?  Anything emerging from its winter rest?  Sure is great to be back in the growing season, eh!

As expected, most of the water soaked into the too-steep sides of the pond pretty quickly, but for a little while the solar pump was moving water up into a higher pond that, at least at the time of this writing, still has some water in it.

The Gulf of Téjas, maybe the highest pond on Ava, collects road runoff and is still quite full. I think the ducks have done a nice job sealing it.

Overall, I'd say the earthworks are holding water at least as well as I could have hoped.

Back in February I went on a trip down south to visit family and friends and to escape some of the winter cold.

It was pretty much already spring there and so Ben and I threw together a spirally rock-lined raised/lowered hugel-ish garden bed on our friends' land in south Austin. A whole bunch of seeds were then mixed up and thrown onto this new bed, and a few transplants stuck in for good measure. We pillaged the local curbs for a few dozen of those big bags of leaves that people mysteriously abandon, and some of this we used as mulch while some became part of a big compost heap for accelerated soil-building. And we even built a quick rockjack to reinforce a fence post and wove a little bit of woody trimming leftovers into the fence.

More recently, my friend Sally announced that the garden is growing stuff and they even ate some green beans grown out of it! Hooray!

Rumour has it Sally and friends will be visiting Ava and Ant Village in August for the Rhubarb Micro Village Challenge!

Very cool spirally garden bed design!  I know what you mean about the bags of leaves. I, too, find it strange that people throw out their leaves and trimmings and then they go out and buy mulch and growing amendments. Hmmm ...(?)  I ask my neighbors for all their leaves and stuff, chop 'em up with my lawn mower, and then pile it thick on all my garden beds for the winter.  Now they're all full of big, fat, juicy, soil aerating, earth worms.  Time to plant!

Some sights from Austin...