Catching Up

I finally feel caught up and am breathing a sigh of relief as I begin the design exercise of Geoff Lawton's online Permaculture Course.  It took me 11 months to get to this point.  I could easily watch every lesson twice more and wish I could turn the clock back a bit.  I've got one month only to "learn to think like a permaculture designer" and to finish my design exercise.

I am committed to adding my focus to become a part of the 10% that will create the tipping point in consciousness on planet Earth.

In sociology, a tipping point is a point in time when a group, or large number of group members, rapidly and dramatically changes its behavior by widely adopting a previously rare practice.

In a study done at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, scientists found that when 10% of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of society.  Computational and analytical methods were used to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion.            --Wikipedia  Tipping point (sociology)

If you've been wanting to make a difference in the world and you're interested in learning more about the Permaculture Design Certification, you can check it out at this link.  https://zaytunafarm.com/product/ticket-pdc-jan-2018-permaculture-design-certificate-20180101-20180112/

Record Temps

It's the day before Thanksgiving.  Before I even went out to the hen yard today, I knew something unusual was happening.  Today's high temperatures surpassed the old record high for November of 58 degrees set in 1954, according to the news.  Today's high temperature in WA state was 71 degrees.

Here where I live it was reportedly 64 degrees F.  It's 9 pm and the temperature hasn't dropped much.  The forecast overnight temp is for 55 degrees, but it's still 60 right now.

We have a flood warning due to snow melt mixed with heavy rainfall.  And a landslide advisory for the area.

It's worth observing that the rules are changing, both socially and in the natural world.

Chicken Roundup

My little escape artists, dug their way out of the hen yard and made it into the wide open spaces of the garden.

I wasn't quite ready for them to do that yet, since there is still food out there.  But the peepers were delighted to be back in their old nursery, scratching and tossing the multicolored carpet of fallen dogwood leaves.  I kinda hated to remove them, they were having such a grand time.

Here are 3 of the peepers safely back in the hen yard.

Breakfast With the Flock

Good Morning. Here's a little video of the flock having breakfast at Neverland Homestead.

Still Storming

Rocky the Rooster wandered into the kitchen one day.  I kind of miss that crazy ol' bird, and no hard feelings...

This morning it had stopped raining when I went out to the hen yard and it seemed relatively calm, though quite cold to me.  I made sure to check the "pond site" and found there was some standing water.  Not much, but to have any at all is encouraging to me.  

I spent the afternoon away from home and when I got back it was nearly dark.  I went out to check on the flock and found their door had blown shut and snapped the stout stick I use as a barrier to keep the door wedged open.  Unfortunately this meant none of the flock made it into their house.  And there I was trying to find my entire flock in the fading light.  Only 6 had taken shelter in the metal shed, which is where they like to lay eggs, but never spend the night in.  The other 8 had roosted in trees.  I was able to reach 7 of them, and brought everyone to safety eventually.  I considered leaving them, but the wind was coming up again, and I could see many of the hens quite plainly in the bare branches of the willow, lit up by the neighbor's pole light.  I've had owls in the yard at night, and didn't want to take that gamble.  Listening to the wind roaring outside right now and the rain pelting down, I'm glad I spent the extra hour rounding them up and getting them into shelter.  

Though I'm still pulling twigs out of my hair.  ;)

Wind and Water

This photo was taken during the eclipse on August 21, 2017, but it shows the place where the pond is forming.

In the last two years we've had record rainfalls.  It drives me crazy that I don't have a water harvesting system in place.  I've been pricing metal cisterns, and looking at plans to build water storage of all different kinds from metal culverts, to brand new concrete septic tanks, to primitive ferrocrete tanks... And I've looked into roofing materials to see which ones not to use, though I still haven't settled on which ones to use.

Since early early morning we've been entertaining a storm.  The wind has been slamming into the house, and the water is pooling everywhere.  In the hen yard, the chickens have dug out a sort of a pond near the willow tree, and it even has an island on it.  They've manured it and broken down lots of organic material in that spot.  I am wondering if they have done naturally, what I had been hoping to do in that very spot...To create a small pond.  I was going to try digging a small pond and then apply gleying to the interior so it would hold water.  If that failed, I thought of using concrete or something similar.  Then the little darlings went and constructed it all for me.  I am eager to see what will happen when it stops raining.

I am used to magic happening all the time, so I guess this is just another example of it.

There is an old wives tale which encourages people who keep hens to "tell your hens" or keep them in the communication loop.  It's considered bad luck to keep them in the dark, news wise.  I chatter to my hens always, so I suppose it's possible I told them of my plans to put a pond in that spot.  

Or did they tell me to do it?

Welcome

Neverland is a small homestead based in rural Olympia WA.  We employ Permaculture Design methods and values.  This is the story of our journey.