Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Honeysuckle. . .mmmmmmmmm, smells good.

Mary Oliver asked the title question in her poem "The Summer Day".
"Smell honeysuckle flowers," I would tell her.

Another year in the garden!  Let's check out the habitat.

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We planted many more trees.

Rainer usually manages our forestry projects.

Several new books about redwoods are now listed on the side of the blog thanks to Rainer.

The one below is a living Christmas tree and also a memorial to baby Matilda, our niece and cousin who was born and died this year.

Planting 14 redwoods along the back fence with dad.

 
This avocado tree was planted from the seed 12 years ago, when Rainer was born.

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Another book we listed along the side of this blog is Keepers of Life: Discovering Plants Through Native American Stories and Earth Activities for Children.  That book has been a guide through the plant families for our science club.  The backyard has become more of a botanical research lab, and the mushrooms in the picture below, found by the raspberries under a birch tree, are fascinating in new ways.  

In the bag below is a mycelium for shiitakes or blue oyster mushrooms.  We're growing both in the garage.  So easy!  You just spray them with water and shelter them in a plastic bag to keep in the moisture.  Fungi Perfecti and Paul Stamets are new discoveries we're delighted by.  We're grateful to our friend Esther for getting us started. We also bought a bag of Blue Oyster plugs, which are sawdust and spore bits that you stick into a log and let nature take it's course.  Yeehaw! We love it. Mushrooms are hopeful.  Several new resources regarding fungi and plant studies are now listed on the side.

Turns out many other people in this area study nature, too!  The Telenocher Marine Lab offers great opportunities for studying algae, the plant-like life form.  And checking out your finger under the microscope is also fun.

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Here in the yard, Rainer made a LOT of signs this past year. A comic garden inspired by Bloom County and other greats!

 Tonio is our landlord.

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Frida had a vision of the garden in this picture.  With just a little help, she did it! Strawberries, lettuces, marigolds, pumpkins.

All from our garden, all by herself.

  In the picture below she is selling her special recipe raspberry mint lemon balm honey tea to another satisfied customer.

So, we might as well start a farm and sell all the products in this picture.  Sounds like a great plan, Frida!

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The hang-n-read! One of her favorite spots to read in the garden, spider-free.

A little poem she wrote and illustrated:

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Rainer set up a few new, very inviting frog ponds.  Materials: cardboard boxes, small boards as ramps for tadpoles, an old exercise ball and air mattress as liners, stones, duckweed.  As many frogs as possible is the motto here.

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New bunnies!

Names: Sherbert and Hodge Podge.

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Spring of 2012: another round of guerrilla gardening.  Here Alexandra, Frida and Rainer used the compost, clay, soil and amaranth seeds to make balls for future beauty-bombing missions.

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A mouse was stuck in Rainer's digging hole.  This milk carton trap didn't work, but a board placed as a ramp helped the critter get out.

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Remember the ring of fire during the solar eclipse on May 20, 2012? That was great.

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Imagine the little worlds of life that go on.  You might not notice unless you turn over the next leaf! Sights like this make you more careful.

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Here's to a fertile growing season and lots of wild encounters in the coming year!  
Happy New Year!
With love from Zak, Kris, Rainer and Frida

Shot-Through Winter=Spring

The Rainer-hog peeked out of a new hole he had just dug and declared 6 more weeks of winter.

But spring is coming faster than we can account for the winter. It has been warm. Raspberries, willows, alder, garlic, fava beans, plum trees, borage, daffodils are all green and blossoming.

See the bee in the borage above?

Below is honeysuckle over artichokes.

Above, willow. Below, garlic.

Silhouettes of ecium with green tops and last year's dried flower stalks, tall as telephone wires.


Can't remember the name but this bush is a bright spot.

Some raspberries are bare, but some are like this:

Something is eating all the fava leaves from around the edges. Not sure what. . .

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Rainer's frog haven on the back deck.

Most of last year's one hundred and six eggs completed their water cycle and left the tank, but several are still growing so slowly.

Rainer notes: "Every night as we go to sleep the frogs start croaking. At first there was just one frog, then two. A duo of frog musicians that entertain us with night time music. I always yell, 'Encore!'"
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These are some of our wonderful new neighbors. We get fresh eggs from the other side of our fence. We feel less motivated to get our own chickens.

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The very latest, a winter family project: a little free library to sit by the street. Built by dad, stocked by mom, painted by kids and parents. Neighbors are really using it. It is so fun.

Rainer says the words on the side are a quote from a Bloom County cartoon. He donated a copy of Berke Breathed's "Tales Too Ticklish To Tell" to the little library's first batch of books. I made him use the proper "We've" got books before I understood it was from a cartoon in that book spoofing a library that advertised itself with an improper "We got books" sign.

We loaded it with thrift store books and donations from friends.

We learned of this idea from a recent article about other little libraries.

Another thing happened over the winter that inspired us to make a symbolic stand for free speech.
We will keep stocking this library, which is one more place in the world where ideas and the people who have them can't be bulldozed and thrown in the trash.

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R.I.P. Bunnies

Rabbits have surprised us as the hardest-to-keep pets. Predators took two sets of bunnies from us this winter. Wildness happens. And of course it has been a lesson in how to keep animals safe. To the skunk: we understand you, and your dexterity with locks is amazing. To the two boxer dogs from a nearby yard: Animal Control has your number. But if our neighbor with the gun gets to you first for harming her cat, that's beyond us.

In the end (of our blog post), there is poetic justice. Below is a picture of the offensive skunk stuck at the bottom of Rainer's hole after a night of mayhem. Neighbor Keith, who has a Ph.D. in wildlife studies, used his years of book learning, and courage, and common sense, and carefully put a board down there so the skunk could get out. Skunky spent a confusing day in the hole and left later under cover of darkness.


Happy Spring to all! Stay safe!

Wildness to Spare

"Welcome to the Jungle", photo by Rainer

Ok, ok, that title is an exaggeration, AND a now-classic rock song, but this is the wrong bio region. The yard does have a damp, dense, subtropical rainforest feel to it in some spots.

We've got photos of our wildness to share, including a tour of some garden highlights with Frida and a baby bunny as docent.

Above is how big one of our two bunny sisters is now.
Below is how tiny they were when they came to us.

Poppies grew taller than children this year.

Wild peas and staged bunny eating happened!

The asparagus and parsley bed was great this summer. If we keep it going it could produce for 20-30 years!

Woolly bear on rock roses. Normal, comforting, reassuring.


Ooo, a bull thistle spilling it's seed all over the yard. A metaphor for life. We take heed of it, stay vigilant, protect ourselves and solve the problems of a thorny situation as best we can.

Now what is this business on a river willow leaf?! I'd love to know.


Speaking of funny business, we're enjoying visits from the neighbor animals.


You never know when a chicken will be in the strawberries.

Or ol' #1499 will greet you from behind a fence.

Or a goat like this will follow you down the street.


No shame about where he relieves himself.

So you might need to herd him to Wanda's house.

He can stay there with her impressively horned goats until someone claims him.

So at any time you may need to put up a sign so Wanda doesn't have to.

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Otherwise, we were delighted that our comfrey could be used to heal someone Shelley knows.


We finished up at the farm class for the season.

With winter almost here, there will be less of things like setting up a scientific-looking krabby patty secret formula lab.


We were lucky to have a wildlife encounter in a neighbor's yard at a party with Nature Joe.
Look at that 9 foot python! When it gets to about 12 feet, Joe says he might not be able to control it.

He had snakes, roaches, scorpions, a tortoise, all for holding.


Just like our bearded dragon lizard at home.


Now we will slow down. According to plan, Rainer spent pre-hibernation week getting as much done as possible.

And the hole just gets deeper.

It IS time for winter. Rainer is hibernating.

Thanks for reading this update. Happy Hibernation!