Is saving the planet a ‘non-profit, mission of sacrificing everything … or can brilliance even in finance come into play? We need more and more and a thousand times more like these! And note that clean rain water collection is a benefit, along with lighter weight requiring less intense weight-bearing construction materials, less labor intensive, less carbon emissions in manufacturing … etc!!
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/kenyan-scientist-throw-plastics-build-homes-191213191145227.html
The Geometry of Organic Design and Clean Water. (In memory and tribute to the efforts of Dr. Nakamura to provide clean water for irrigation and people) Just the form of these towers is comforting. Locally sourced materials. Simple technology and construction. I have the unlikely fantasy of creating one here. Who knows.
And like the refugee tents in the last post, the towers are an ever evolving creation. Organic design learns, is dynamic, evolves to the changes in goals, resources, challenges.
http://www.warkawater.org/warka-tower-copy/
Winter is dipping into my garden again tonight. I bundled up and put Bridget the Highlander in the loafing shed with some grain, MSM for her arthritis and some hay. I let the Angus girls in for water and over-night shelter. I told the ducks and geese that it was time to go into their houses, which they do with very little other direction. The weather station screen in my mudroom shows 25 degrees. The woodstove is hot and I’ve put the extra blankets on my bed. All of which tells me that it’s the season for planning next year’s projects, dreaming next year’s landscape. This year I will be doing this comfortably by the fire along with sips of homemade rhubarb liqueur.
Also color pencils. Mine are kept in pieces of Styrofoam so that I can see the colors. And no matter where, no matter when, I am never without a notebook, a sketchbook and the camera and SMemo app on my phone to capture and record ideas, inspirations, questions, colors, textures. So the first step is to prioritize things that need to be done and things that I would like to see done. Then I pull out all those scraps, notes, photos, color palettes.
**Review of 2019 Projects: Livestock Loafing Shed. Goal: Repair, restoration, cleaning and organization. Methods: (All contractors in Casper WY) Cleaned and sanded exterior and painted metal siding (special paint from Diamond Vogel); pens cleaned, corral cleaned and grading for drainage (Glenn Ross Excavation); repaired and restored broken metal fences around corral (Double D Welding); repaired / re-stretched wire and re-secured cattle panel fences; installed wood posts and three metal gates (gates purchased at Tractor Supply); and repair of frost free hydrant (again Glenn Ross Excavating). I also completely cleaned out the storage area – disturbing at least one 6 foot bull snake – organized surplus materials from scattered storage, and stored small hay bales (from my East Field by JW, my Neighbor)for times when the cows are confined. The painting of the metal fence around the corral will have to wait until 2020.
The cows are still figuring out where all the new gates lead…typical.
For You: Be patient with yourself, with your list. But the most important step toward getting a project done is to take the first action. Study garden catalogs; sand the wood; collect the materials; find what you love, what comforts you, what makes all the work worthwhile.
FIRE RANT TWO: In my first lifetime, as one of the first female cops in my region, family and friends were fascinated and thought I was something very special. I wasnt. I was just another pioneer. Like my Great Great Grandfather James Pursell. Who were my hero’s at that time? Who did I see every night stepping into harms way, up close and very personal, in blood and guts and every other fluid possible? #Firefighters – called ‘firemen’ back then.
And right now literally thousands of #firefighters are stepping into harm’s way risking their lives and the well-being of their families to protect other people’s home and structures BUILT IN INAPPROPRIATE SITES, inappropriate environments, buildings and structures with no #defensiblespace.
To those homeowners who did create defensible space: thank you, but it’s one of those community things. If your neighbors don’t do it their fuel loading feeds the #fires, makes it so hot that very little can stop it.
Planning departments, materials manufacturers, architects have all of the knowledge and technology to mitigate the damage. And any insurance company that issues a policy without inspecting or requiring proof of best practices mitigation – whether for fire or flood or earthquake or hurricane – should have their licenses suspended or revoked.
A disaster occurs only when human beings contribute or are victims. Otherwise these events are ‘naturally occurring wild fires.’
Somewhere in the very deep back of my mind I thought that I might return to California to die. It was mostly fantasy. I’ve always told people that I missed five things from CA: fresh salmon, redwood forests, museums and art galleries, ethnic restaurants and the isolated, remote beaches of the far north of the state. Having lost my own home there to similar fire event, having written emergency plans, I now feel the reality. As long as governments and corporations base their actions on greed and mediocrity, on working to maintain the status quo, living in most of California will be a severe risk of loss. California has for thousands of years, been a FIRE DRIVEN NATURAL ENVIRONMENT WITH AN ACTIVE UNDERLYING GEOLOGY. With the density of development and fluctuations in climatic extremes the present events will become the norm and everyone will learn how to face loss … including the bankruptcy of public agencies and major corporations on which people depend for recovery. Check your mutual funds for property/casualty insurance companies and public utilities and get the heck out … of high fire risk areas and those stocks. Adapt now.
Growth: for me, in plants, in diversification of offerings. The priority project for this year was to convert the potting shed to a small propagation greenhouse. And with the assistance of my good friend Donna this project is completed. Please join me in a little tour of the new shed with a new video on the Tara Farm and Nursery YouTube Channel. Being able to grow clones, seedlings and cuttings from plants that have been proven to thrive here in Central Wyoming is huge. I also posted a short video update of the Fruit Garden. There will be pounds of elderberry, lots of raspberries and later this summer, grapes.
Please “Like” the videos if you find them interesting and Subscribe to the Channel for all future video updates. The next videos will each focus on one of the plants seen in the videos.
And if you live in the Casper Wyoming USA area and see plants that you would like to add to your garden please feel free to contact me with a message here, a Facebook Messenger contact, an email to tarafarmandnursery@gmail.com or text or call 307.262.8043
Having my morning coffee in the cool green of the gardens and nursery, seeing the lush growth and the green fruits, checking their health and the moisture ~ my favorite start to any day… creating a refuge in the wind … together.
It is very rare that a client or colleague asks about my background…who am I, what do I do, how have I done it? Why should you trust my recommendations or pay me for them without knowing the work I have put into being able to help you. Here is a brief – somewhat conventional – video resume. From here feel free to ask or challenge or trust. I want you to love belonging to the natural world just as I do. Muddy hands are a statement of purpose…and comfort.
