Garden Expansion Update!

I finally managed to obtain some seed potatos today at a rather remote Agway near Lancaster. Three different potato sub-species were obtained to create 3 successive harvests stretching from june to october. Interestingly enough, less than four centuries of selective breeding by Gardeners had managed to produced dozens of potato breeds. Each one adapted to a particular growing region. In the colder regions, potato strains were selected for the ability to mature quickly in the short growing season. In warmer areas, traits such as higher yields and disease resistence were more favoured by pre-industrial farmers. On the way home, I picked up some peat moss to provide drainage for the 2 potato growing containers.

Saturday afternoon was spent with the Garden expansion process. Two additional garden beds were hacked out of the lawn. The work was of course very tedious. At times there seemed to be more rocks than there was dirt. At a certain point, I could no longer extract the mischievous stones with the shovel, so I called my father out for some "father-son bonding!"

Of course by bonding, I meant mutual participation in back-breaking manual labor. The large fist-sized rocks, I removed with the trusty pick-axe, while my dad shoveled out the loosened soil. Two hours and 50 pounds of compost later, we were finished. While much has been written about the hardships of peasantry, one has to comment upon the flip side. There is so much innate joy in creation, even if it involves just a few garden beds. We had turned a large stretch of grass into the beginnings of a huge organic garden. A large block of suburban monoculture has been transformed into a canvas of sorts. A canvas in which a tapestry of life and happiness can be cultivated. Isn't saving the planet fun?!!

Massive Garden Expansion Underway!

Over the winter, I've finally convinced my family of the value of organic gardening. A single 2 square meter plot had managed to produce over 100 lbs of food last year using permaculture methods. As such I got the go ahead to expand the area of my little gardening experiment by four folds. So on sunday, I made a go at it. And it was rough going to be sure.

First the old plot had to be enriched. The two square meter plot was dug up to a depth of some 6 inches. The top soil was collected into a huge pile besides the plot. Then a layer of leaf mulch weighing some 30 lbs was packed into the plot and beaten down with the handy shovel until it was compressed firmly along the ground! Now this technique accomplishes two things. The packed leaf mulch(which had been composting since last november) provides a hard base with which weeds will have trouble breaking through. Additionally, over the coming months, worms will eat through the decomposing leaves and return the nutrients back into the soil, adding to the amount of top soil on that plot by several inches. After this was done, the removed topsoil was mixed with 40 lbs of black organic compost(half a bin) which had been sitting in the 2 composting bins for the last 9 months. This blended mixture was then applied back into the packed garden bed. The resulting garden bed was then lightly tilled to an even depth of 8 inches of topsoil/compost mixture. This took some 2 hours of hard digging and tilling.

After a short lunch break, I began the construction of a second garden bed. The progress was quite slow. Each and every shovel brought forth a broken piece of turf about 6x6 inches in area. The square of turf had to have it's attendent sod shaken out by hand. The sod is of course valuable top soil that needs to be collected to build the bed. At the end of all the extraction, the piece of turf was just a tangled mass of grass and roots with a little bid of soil left. Under the hot sun, the manual labor was quite exhausting. This de-turfing took over an hour and resulted in some 30 pieces of turf along with it's attendent soil. Then came the painful process of digging up the actual bed. Some six inches of soil had to be removed from the garden bed. That translated into over 60 lbs of top soil. Unfortunately, the geography of the Northeastern U.S dictates that the soil be rocky as all hell. A single 2 square meter garden bed yielded over 20 lbs of rocks(lodged in hard to extract angles) which had to be tediously levered out with the trusty spade.

After the top soil had been extracted into a nearby pile, the packing begins anew. Instead of wasting the valuable turf, I chose to put it towards good use. Take a piece of turf and turn it upside down, there's exactly enough flipped turf squares to cover the garden bed. This packing accomplishes 3 things at once. Firstly, it inhibits weed growth. Secondly, it attracts beneficial organisms such as worms and arthropodes. Because the upside down turf dies within a day, that entire layer becomes in effect a compost pile. Both worms and centipedes eats the decaying matter and produces valuable organic fertilizer. And lastly, the packing of the turf inhibits one dangerous organism, the tiger beetle larva. These little critters specializes in the consumption of living roots. The turf, once flipped and packed, can no longer serve as a viable food source for them. Thus, within a week or so, all the tiger larvas must either move away from the area or starve to death. After the packing was finished, I spent another hour mixing the extracted top soil with the remaining half bin of enriched fertilizer with the handly rotational plow. After the mixing, there was only some nitrogen rich sludge at the bottom of compost bin number 1, I had exhausted 50% of my compost supply with the 2 garden beds. The soil/compost mixture was then placed back onto the packed bed and roto-plowed to break up the larger lumps of soil. After this step, the bed was tilled to an even depth.


The 2nd bed took over 4 man hours to construct from start to finish. After the deed was done, I drove to the local Agway to buy some heirloom saplings which had been started off in green houses. Vegetable/flower saplings, thus started, could mature earlier and produce food several weeks earlier than normal if transplanted into the garden beds. While there I picked up some onion chive flowers and cabbage transplants for 4 dollars of hard currency. These saplings I'll have to keep indoors for another 2 weeks before the transplant can occur. Here in PA, killing frosts usually dissapear after mid april. That's it for this week. Next week I shall begin the construction of two new garden beds!

Energy Efficient Light Bulbs!

After much heated debate last month, my family had finally allowed for the replacement of every incandescent light bulb in the entire house with an energy efficient Florescent or LED light. If one considers the unstable and diminishing nature of our world's energy supply, it makes much sense now to become as efficient in the ultilization of electricity as possible. A gradual "power-down" through more efficient and sustainable technologies is much preferable to an abrupt crisis in energy services. If our civilization is to last the ages with our culture and technology intact, it is of paramount importance that every individual do their utmost to conserve our valuable supplies of non-renewable resources.

It is thus worth mentioning that an NVision Florescent bulb can deliver the illumination of a 60 Watt conventional light bulb while consuming only 14 Watts of electricity. So we replaced some 24 light-bulbs in the house with this efficient bulb. And this month, vindication has arrived in force. Our monthly electric bill has been slashed by over 40 percent! My goal is to reduce the house's total( grid-derived) electricity usage to 1/3 that of the usage volume last year by 2008.

Grand Canyon Expedition...Part II

So the next day, we decided to take a trip to the Indian Ruins at Tuyusan. Now, it is without doubt that the environment of the canyon is rather inhospitable to human life. There simply is not enough rainfall here to support large populations of either human or animal life. The geography of the region is also rather daunting, it's filled with steep ravines, deserts, and mesas. In fact, the immediate surroundings of the canyon somewhat resembled the past martian landscapes that one reads about in science fiction novels. I can imagine just how difficult it would be to transport raw materials and goods across even short distances here. For stone age peoples, a high material culture would hardly be sustainable from such a barren resource base. Yet, the Pueblo tribes that inhabited this area in the 1600s were inheritors of considerable cultural sophistication.



When European explorers first reached the area, they encountered groups of Pueblo dwelling tribes which, among others, included the Hopi, the Zuni, the Navajo, and the Hosni. Now these tribes built relatively sophisticated multi-level buildings from sun baked mud and stone. Their pottery and jewlery making technology was literally centuries ahead of the tribes around them. But the most interesting technology was that of the solar calendar. These primitive peoples built a solar calendar out of stones and used that calendar to synchronize their plant growing seasons. Now, sophisticated pottery and precise solar calendars don't usually come to primitive stone age tribes, actually they almost ever do. But in the case of the pueblo builders, their material culture benefited from a neighboring high-culture that has unfortunately dissapeared from history.

Some 1000 years ago, the landscape of northern Arizona was a bit wetter than it is now. South of the modern day Pueblo builders, there existed a high culture of great sophistication, the Anasazi. Now the Anasazi built large cities fed by spring water. Their original center at Chaco Canyon had enormous forests of cedar trees. With such a resource base, the Anasazi had the material wealth to build up their culture and technology. Over centuries, their cities and settlements expanded in all directions until they reached the Grand Canyon in the North, and the salt river in the south. Their agricultural system was of course entirely unsuitable for the environment that they lived in, but during that period of benign conditions, their unsustainable methods would've produced the kind of manpower that allowed them to expand their culture far and wide.

In anycase, the Anasazi civilization eventually expanded to dominate the tribes of the Grand Canyon. In the process of expansion, they gained the resources to develop a stratified society of priests, kings, craft specialists and peasants. It was during these period of growth and expansion that the "advanced" technologies such as gold/turquoise jewlery, slipcast pottery, solar calendars, and multi-level buildings were developed. It was also during this time that the Anasazi elite gained a taste for treating themselves to the benefits of "civilized" society. Benefits such as huge palaces and temples with scores of rooms, expensive jewelery with thousands of precious stones, and of course, lots and lots of slaves.

Needless to say, the Pueblo cultures supplied the Anasazi hegemon with timber, chert, turquoise, goats, slaves, and other natural resources that the Canyon provided. In exchange, these tribes gained a measure of the cultural and technological sophistication from their southern neighbors. Unfortunately, the Anasazi completely deforested the areas under their immediate political control. The trees and shrubs which had served the vital purposes of water retention and soil enrichment were largely gone by the 1300s.


When the severe droughts of that century hit, the Anasazi high civilization collapsed into anarchy and cannibalism. Within a generation, the Anasazi were gone. Their cities and temples remain as a silent testament to their greatness...and foolishness. The pueblo cultures survived the disaster however. By using a combination of sustainable dry bed agriculture, hunting, and gathering, they weathered the massive climate change. By keeping their population in check, they never deforested their environment to the point where water retention became impossible. In the wake of the Anasazi collapse, the entire region swept into a kind of dark age. Tribes of cannibals from the plains states to the north swept down the now depopulated region and devastate the few surviving settlements. The Pueblo cultures largely survived the ordeal due to a combination of their harsh environment and superior technology. While there is much to be said for greatness and ambition, it would appear that in the case of this area, humility translates into long term survival.


When I picked up some local pueblo pottery from the Indian gift shops, the sophistication of the culture that inhabited this land a thousand years ago really stood out. It is up to us to make sure that our culture doesn't suffer the same fate as that of the Anasazi. Perhaps a degree of long term consideration should be factored into our daily decisions. This has been a very educational trip indeed!

Grand Canyon Expedition....Part I

During the deepest months of winter, a good friend and I planned a journey to the Grand Canyons of Arizona . As such, we made good upon that plan and flew to Arizona last friday. Aboard a jet aircraft, some 2600 miles of North American continental vastness was bridged in 4 hours. Upon arriving at Phoenix, I was quite surpised by the vastness of this city. Of particular contrast, was the lush(almost tropical) city scape when compared with the semi-arid desert which surrounded the metropolis. I saw a series of well maintained canals which undoubtedly supplied the city's million or so inhabitants with potable water. Of particular note is the fact that the canal network was originally built by the pre-literate Hohokam culture. That group of people, through a centuries long construction effort had enabled the Phoenix area to be inhabitable in the first place. Unfortunately Hohokam society unraveled and perished due to the decade long droughts which hit the region in the 13th century. Basically, the canals dried up, Hohokam agriculture collapsed, and their society soon followed.


In anycase, we drove some 270 miles across the desert Friday night. We passed the night in the small town of Williams. On Saturday morning, another 60 miles of barren desert and scrubland was crossed to reach the Grand Canyons. It dawned upon me that the desert effectively served to isolate the early Native American societies of the region from each other. This must have been a great inhibitor on the spread of ideas and technologies between the various regional tribes. It is doubtless in my mind, that the indigenous peoples of these lands must have been extremely clever and adaptable to have survived at all in the harsh landscape. But I do surmise that the isolation of the desert prevented the emergence of a literate, high civilization in these parts.


The Grand Canyon was of course as awe-inspiring as the advertisements promised and more. After some preparations we began our hike down the cliff-side to the bottom of the Canyon. The trail was of course narrow and quite slippery at certain points. The Canyon floor, some 5 miles away, was approached at a steady pace of 2 miles per hour. Along the way, we encountered many other hikers going in both directions. The Canyon cliff top where we started is a vetical mile above the canyon floor. Thus, as we descended upon these heights, the surrounding climate and vegetation began to change very significantly. The cliff-tops were predominantly alpine in nature, but the vegetation gradually transformed into a kind of bushy scrub as we went lower. The temperature of rather cold at the top and of course got higher as we went ever downwards.

Along the narrow trail, there was a rather constant stream of dung and other wastes emitted by the mule teams that walked up and down the canyon. At the higher elevations, this was rather endurable since the lower temperatures kept the smell down to a minimum. Near the valley bottom however, the scent of mule dung permeated the entire trail. In some areas, the dung was grounded into a fine greenish paste which was subsequently sun baked into a distasteful(literally) powder which of course was carried everywhere by the dry wind.

Along the trail, I noticed several rather interesting cliff-side paintings. Of worthy mention, was one such portrait depicting the pursuit of a mountain Ibex by several paleolithic bowhunters.
Of course these hunters belonged the little-known Mogollon culture. The Mogollon tribesmen of this region were of the hunter gatherer type found in so many other primitive cultures. They hunted mountain Ibex, collected berries, and lived in the hillsides. When the droughts of the 1300s hit, their small populations were significantly impacted. Their enviroment effectively collapsed. When the droughts finally ended, a new tribe of part-time cannibals(whose descendents were destined to become the Apache, Kiowa and other plains tribes) migrated here from the northern grasslands and effectively wiped out the remnents of Mogollon society. Coincidentally, the mountain Ibex prey of the Mogollons has outlasted their hunters by some 700 years.

And speaking of the Mountain Ibex, never in my life have I seen a breed of goats as fluffy and lovable as these. In fact we bumped into several of them along the trail. They would come to within a few feet of us and just stand there. I surmised that they were begging for food or candy of some sort. In anycase, these goats had hooves that looked like tiny claws which effectively allowed them to grab onto small stones and bits of turf along the cliff sides. These goats were able to nimbly scale up and down cliffsides with the kind of speed and agility that no human could match.

After 2 and a half hours of hard hiking we came down to the valley floor. It was more or less a desert. The dry wind swept away any sweat that had accumulated on a person's skin. Thus I had to drink water every so often to prevent dehydration. We stopped at a camp called Indian Garden to grab a bite to eat from our backpacks.


After the refreshment, we immediatly headed back up the cliff side. Since it was already 3pm in the afternoon, we did not want to be caught scaling a cliff after sunset. Going up seemed to be twice as hard as coming down. The relentless pace of progress only exacerbated my discomfort. And the occasional passage of mules certainly didn't help the situation! By the end of that 5 mile upward hike, my back, my calves, in fact my entire lower torso felt like a huge burning mass of cramping muscles. But we had made it back to the top before dark!

Rustic Wood Chopping

Over the last couple of weeks, the North Eastern States have gone through an extremely severe ice storm. What compounded the situation was the bouts of relatively warm diurnal weather after the storm. Snow would melt during the day and freeze overnight, thus causing much damage to the local flora(as well as roads and powerlines). Of much notice was a large white pine tree in my backyard. The geological processes of thawing and refreezing seemed to have caused a large section of the tree's branch structure to snap off on friday night. Now under normal conditions, a wood removal company would be called over to haul away the broken subsection. But there seemed to be no reason why I should pay someone else to take away such a fine supply of wood. Alas, American society seems almost to have been made for such wasteful activities.

Thus saturday was largely spent with the act of wood chopping. I decided to split and cord the broken wood without the use of power tools. Taking only my home-forged axe, I set off at once to work. The smaller branches and pine needles were first sequestered and applied to one of my leaf mulch piles. In due time this acidic material will decompose with the leaves and create a fine organic fertilizer for the growing of berries and tomatoes. The larger section of wood proved to be a tougher job to tackle. With my iron age axe, I hacked away at the pine wood for an hour until I had about 60 lbs of small pine logs. These I set aside directly under the now smaller pine tree. I have yet to decide what to do with this stockpile of wood. One possible use could be as a base for the growing of shitake and other mushrooms. But I suppose some of the larger logs can be used for woodworking as well!

Spring Hunting Season is here!!!

After a relatively uneventful winter, I've begun preparations for the taking of spring season small game. After checking my inventory, it struck me that several of the wooden arrows that I crafted last spring has warped over the winter and are now unusable, this leaves me with only 14 good hunting arrows left. Both of my crafted longbows were warmed besides the heater and then rubbed down with animal fat to restore wood elasticity. After such preparations, archery practice have resumed with renewed vigour on saturday.

The underlying trick to accurate primitive archery seems to be constant practice. After 2 months of neglect, I could barely hit the 30 yard target with 5 out of 10 arrows. Nevertheless the launching of handcrafted arrows from a handcrafted bow is a true joy to behold.