A. R. Ammons

"In nature there are few sharp lines." - A. R. Ammons

John Keats

"The poetry of the earth is never dead." - John Keats

Charles Lindbergh

"If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes." - Charles Lindbergh

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

"Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get." - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

William Wordsworth

"Nature never did betray the heart that loved her." - William Wordsworth

Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Moonlight is sculpture." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Invasive species may reduce the spread of disease - The findings are forcing ecologists and infectious disease scientists to rethink how they account for invasive species.

Invasive species may reduce the spread of disease - The findings are forcing ecologists and infectious disease scientists to rethink how they account for invasive species.

Iowa town orders 17 year old to get rid of bees

Iowa town orders 17 year old to get rid of bees

How to live the Good Life without giving up the rat race: "Extreme downshifting to escape the modern world can end in disillusion. The solution lies with communities that offer a halfway house"

How to live the Good Life without giving up the rat race: "Extreme downshifting to escape the modern world can end in disillusion. The solution lies with communities that offer a halfway house"

Living without lights: a journey in off-grid living

Living without lights: a journey in off-grid living

Tracking wild pawpaw, descending into pawpaw-induced madness, and discussing "Pawpaw: America's Forgotten Fruit" with author Andrew Moore

Tracking wild pawpaw, descending into pawpaw-induced madness, and discussing "Pawpaw: America's Forgotten Fruit" with author Andrew Moore

A useful tool for checking the sun angle for your exact location.

A useful tool for checking the sun angle for your exact location.

Food Liberation: Why the Food Movement Is Unstoppable

Food Liberation: Why the Food Movement Is Unstoppable

A Guide to Meat Rabbits: a Sustainable Food Source

A Guide to Meat Rabbits: a Sustainable Food Source

How to Freeze Dry Food: Instructions And Best Methods

How to Freeze Dry Food: Instructions And Best Methods

Toni Morrison

"All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was." - Toni Morrison

Arthur Young

"God sleeps in the minerals, awakens in plants, walks in animals, and thinks in man." - Arthur Young

Lord Byron

"Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven!" - Lord Byron

Annie Leibovitz

"I wish that all of nature's magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed." - Annie Leibovitz

Roy Bean

"And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin' brown and golden under a sinkin' sun." - Roy Bean

Black Elk

"And when I breathed, my breath was lightning." - Black Elk

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

"Man is a creative retrospection of nature upon itself." - Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

Antoine Lavoisier

"Vegetation is the basic instrument the creator uses to set all of nature in motion." - Antoine Lavoisier

Canadian Town Giving Anyone Willing to Move There a Job and Land

Canadian Town Giving Anyone Willing to Move There a Job and Land

What Can You Build With a Dismantled Stadium? In Indianapolis, a nonprofit is turning the Colts’ old stomping ground into shade shelters, wallets, and more.

What Can You Build With a Dismantled Stadium? In Indianapolis, a nonprofit is turning the Colts’ old stomping ground into shade shelters, wallets, and more.

Agrivillages: an interview with James Skinner - Local Futures

Agrivillages: an interview with James Skinner - Local Futures

DIY goat perch!

DIY goat perch!

Living Without a Fridge

Living Without a Fridge

My Farm is Not a Petting Zoo - The importance of setting boundaries with visitors

My Farm is Not a Petting Zoo - The importance of setting boundaries with visitors

Five Things We Have Learned About Guineas

Five Things We Have Learned About Guineas

Guerrilla Grafting: Public Trees Spliced to Bear Edible Fruit Along City Streets

Guerrilla Grafting: Public Trees Spliced to Bear Edible Fruit Along City Streets

Permaculture Terminology #03: "Mulch"

Permaculture Terminology #03: "Mulch"

Rafter Sass Ferguson: Permaculture and AgroEcology

Rafter Sass Ferguson: Permaculture and AgroEcology

The New American Dream (TED Talk)

The New American Dream (TED Talk)

Book review: The Bio-Integrated Farm by Shawn Jadrnicek

Book review: The Bio-Integrated Farm by Shawn Jadrnicek

Guide to Selecting the Best Backyard Chicken Breed - 7 things you should consider

Guide to Selecting the Best Backyard Chicken Breed - 7 things you should consider

Edward Gibbon

"The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators." - Edward Gibbon

Chief Joseph

"The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it." - Chief Joseph

E. O. Wilson

"Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal." - E. O. Wilson

Mahatma Gandhi

"The good man is the friend of all living things." - Mahatma Gandhi

Nikolai Gogol

"Countless as the sands of the sea are human passions." - Nikolai Gogol

Diogenes

"The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted." - Diogenes

Georg Trakl

"I drank the silence of God from a spring in the woods." - Georg Trakl

W. H. Auden

"'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'" - W. H. Auden

Nikolai Gogol

"Countless as the sands of the sea are human passions." - Nikolai Gogol

Diogenes

"The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted." - Diogenes

Georg Trakl

"I drank the silence of God from a spring in the woods." - Georg Trakl

W. H. Auden

"'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'" - W. H. Auden

Zora Neale Hurston

"The man who interprets Nature is always held in great honor." - Zora Neale Hurston

William Allingham

"Autumn's the mellow time." - William Allingham

Steam Juicer

While we were rained in, we decided to make the most of the time by doing some canning.

Prickly pears

Before it started raining non-stop, we went prickly pear picking. Unfortunately, we left it a little late in the season, and a lot of the fruit had already fallen and been eaten. Still, we managed to gather a full crate, not to mention several crates of pads, which we are planting along the perimeter fence of the property.

We used our new steam juicer to extract juice from the fruit. It was awesome. We didn't have to cut the fruit or strain out the pulp. We just added the whole fruit to the top of the juicer, put it on to steam, and the juice came out of the hose!

We then used the juice to make jelly, which we canned. It was a process that took over the whole kitchen, but has given us well more than a year's supply of delicious jelly. We ended up with 28 jars. Most were pint size, although 10 were slightly smaller, so it was a little under 3.5 gallons!

If you want to know more about prickly pears, including our jelly recipe, click here.

Apples and Chutney

We also turned a crate of apples into apple sauce, which we put in the freezer for winter pies, and we made several jars of spicy mango and pineapple chutney.

All of this, coupled with the honey we robbed the other day, has left us feeling decidedly happy!

The post Steam Juicer appeared first on VelaCreations.

Steam Juicer

Cyril Connolly

"It is only in the country that we can get to know a person or a book." - Cyril Connolly

100 best homemade tools [x-posted from /r/homemadetools]

100 best homemade tools [x-posted from /r/homemadetools]

Urban Farming Takes Root In Downtown Atlanta

Urban Farming Takes Root In Downtown Atlanta

A screen porch is a must at the off grid cabin

A screen porch is a must at the off grid cabin

NUGGET HOPS A great vine to add to your permaculture garden!

NUGGET HOPS A great vine to add to your permaculture garden!

A Quick Look at the Elderberry - Sambucus

A Quick Look at the Elderberry - Sambucus

DIY wildcrafted sodas

DIY wildcrafted sodas

H. G. Wells

"Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative." - H. G. Wells

Full pond

Following the driest July since we've been here, we had the wettest August. We've been rained in for several days, and last night we had a 2.5" hard rain. The sound of the river (1.5 miles away) and all the arroyos running was deafening.

This morning, when we went to assess the damage, we found the pond full. The last time this happened, it broke the dam, so, as you can imagine, we were a little nervous. But everything was fine. The overflow worked great, even given the volume of water it must have had to handle. In fact the "pig pond" even filled up (it is filled from the overflow of the big one).

Here's a few photos of the ponds, empty and full to see the scale.

Big Pond

Empty

Full

Pig Pond

Empty

Full

Overflow

We have actually done a little work to the overflow. We used a water level to measure the height of the dam against the overflow, and decided it would be safer to dig it down a couple of feet. It probably would have been OK, but we're still glad we did it!

The post Full pond appeared first on VelaCreations.

Full pond

Wallace Stevens

"Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake." - Wallace Stevens