CURRENTS THROUGH USELESS BAY

Today in the rain I raked gravel from deep gouges in the newly graded driveway, trying to fill in ruts already beginning to form from our car.  The excavator said we should try to pack it down by driving on it.  Bad idea.  Water mixed with gravel dust and clay ran light brown in rivulets [...]

An edible forest garden, from what I am reading, makes use of permaculture principles to create a sustainable and self-sowing garden that is in harmony with the local ecology. It is the least destructive sort of gardening or farming we can do. While providing nutritious food that one “forages,” the self-sowing plants work in harmony with how a natural ecosystem develops, and is actually restorative to the soil, building rather than breaking it down.

Christopher is working assiduously on the site plan and permit process. I’m upset today.  The way the trees are cut and piled makes the land look worse than it is.  We are not allowed to work until permits are straightened out, and now it’s the weekend, and the holidays are coming.  The plants beneath the [...]

Today we learned, a bit too late, that we were supposed to have some sort of a permit to clear the site for the house.  Someone from the county stopped by and talked to a neighbor.  We had been told by what we thought was a reliable source that if we were using the trees [...]

The dream begins on a difficult uphill slope, with doing things I never thought I’d have to do.   Some trees need to be cleared from the site where we will build our home–mostly alder grown old and at the point of breaking off and careening like missiles into the ground, through a roof, or [...]

This week we began our new direction.  My partner Christopher and I are now stewards of land in Maxwelton Valley, a couple miles east of our current location near Useless Bay.  Nestled in wooded lands near the Whidbey Institute, our dream of creating an edible forest garden with meditation trails is now taking shape.  Our [...]