evan's ant village log

Days 262-265 (part 1)

Feliz Navidad permies! Here's a picture of Allerton Abbey we hope will warm your heart.

The amazing and generous Su Ba has been sending tons of fabulous ant love for months now, but she's really outdone herself with the most recent packages. Honeys, jams, coffees, coconut candies, assorted cooking gear and winter attire, and... wait for it... coffee beans dipped in chocolate and macadamia nuts dipped in chocolate! Oh goodness. A thousand thanks and a million mahalos, Su Ba!

Su Ba manages to send crazy amounts of support to ant village while simultaneously homesteading on a real volcano in Hawaii and documenting her experiences on her blog! Check it out: http://www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Days 262-265 (part 2)

Jocelyn and Paul had us over for a glorious Christmas dinner, featuring honey-glazed ham with pineapples and cherries, mashed potatoes, bacon broccoli salad, pickled sunchokes, kraut, green bean casserole, and hot apple cider! Mmm mmm good! Thanks for sharing your food and home with us this Christmas, Jocelyn and Paul!

Days 262-265 (part 3)

Gifts!

And cookies!

But, but you (and Paul!) had Christmas without any... PIE?!

Oh there was pie. I think it was like a cherry and cream cheese pie with graham cracker crust!. And there was peach cobbler too! I should have got pictures...

Days 262-265 (part 4)

Pittman, one of the two brothers who insulated the red cabin at basecamp, also built a neat little birdhouse.

There's a lot of traffic up on the labs. If it wasn't for all the snow I wouldn't even have seen all these deer and turkey tracks criss-crossing all over the place up there.

And something is peeing orange. Or, according to Paul, perhaps the bacteria are turning the pee orange after the fact. Maybe a deer or an elk.

Day 266

Stuffed some wool into some of the airleaks in the Abbey.

Jocelyn is so generous in giving away their delicious leftovers! A cup of soup and a biscuit hit the spot for lunch. Thanks Jocelyn!

Observing the land in the icy grip of winter has allowed my imagination to run wild, and also reminded me of the importance of solar exposure. And while I could theoretically be building fence even now in the snow, I've decided to keep gathering materials and continue observing, imagining, and designing. There'll be so much to do come spring, having a plan and having many of the materials already prepped should help me get a jump on things.

Day 267

I've gotten into a nice rhythm of getting up around dawn, letting the ducks out and feeding them, brushing off the solar panels if necessary, and then getting right to work cutting, limbing, and staging poles.

Avalon is starting to see a bit more light now that I'm taking down trees to the south, the mulchy carpet of limb-trimmings is expanding, and little tipis of poles are popping up all over Ava.

Taking down all these doug firs will give more sunlight to the saskatoons and using the limbs as mulch should help too. Mmm saskatoons...

Oh, Evan, you are so reliable for a constant flow of info from Montana! Love it...makes me feel I'm never far away from the going's-on there...thx ;)

Day 268

Hiked down to basecamp and spent some time splitting and stacking firewood.

Those canvas firewood totes sure come in handy. I may need to get or make one of my own.

It's New Year's. How about that?

Day 269

A dark day for Ava. The department of ducks has been attacked. There were two casualties. Gigantor the Benevolent and Petunia the Valiant succumbed to the darkness of predatory forces.

I failed in my duty to protect them. I foolishly didn't close them up overnight and a predator, (a coyote or bobcat perhaps,) took the opportunity to strike.

The ducks have been totally free-range during the day for months now, only locked up in their hollow during the night. Now that there's been an attack, I don't feel comfortable letting them free-range without supervision, and while the ultimate goal is to finish the perimeter fence around Ava and perhaps eventually get a livestock guardian dog or two, for now I've confined the ducks to a coop and run.

The size of their new run is much smaller than their normal range, and while they do at least have the ability to get outside in the sunlight, and there isn't much forage available for them this time of year anyway, I don't like having to keep them in what is basically a jail. When I'm around they can venture out under my watchful eye, but at least until there's more human activity up here and/or the perimeter fence is completed, the ducks will be locked up in their run for their own protection.