Book messiness

In case it was not obvious, I am usually reading from multiple lists at a time. While I have been reading for Spooky Season, I have also been reading for Native American Heritage Month.

There have been three NAMH books that could be considered a little spooky, two of which seem to be series.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Now, Moon of the Crusted Snow is the only one that actually has a sequel out (Moon of the Turning Leaves), though Elatsoe has a prequel, and I believe there will be others.

Moon was something I read specifically during this time, because I had seen it described as Native horror and I thought it would fit. 

If I were writing about these books now for real, I would argue that Bad Cree fits the category better, and that Elatsoe does not, despite the presence of ghosts and vampires.

I am not writing about them now because there are different things I want to say about them. Besides, there is one viewpoint from which it might makes sense to treat Bad Cree and Moon of the Crusted Snow with Braiding Sweetgrass

I mention this because I had thought that Native Horror could be the bridge for ending Spooky Season and moving into Native American Heritage Month. It could, except that there are ways in which there is an equally good bridge between Native American Heritage Month and some science reading I have going on.

That seems like it could work too, except part of that relates to the reading associated with Caliban and the Witch. Okay, I already wrote about that, except there are aspects of it that sent me down paths I didn't expect. I had not expected to be looking at any medieval studies, yet there I was.

This is a big part of why I am always behind in my reading, but that isn't just me being easily distracted by potential knowledge.

It is also how much of this knowledge connects to other knowledge. It is the patterns that we are constantly repeating, with not nearly as much variation as you would hope and certainly not the desired learning.

Next Friday I am pretty confident that I will write about the last couple of books that were read for Spooky Season.

After that, well, I could start with Science or things we misunderstand about the past or I might take some time to berate James Comey, though with those last two they might end up escaping the Friday posts and happening as part of the earlier writings in the week.

I will probably not start writing about Native American Heritage Month until I do some of those, but I am not positive. 

There will be more writing about music too, so there's that.

Permaculture

When I wrote about messiness, one reason I had been thinking about the term was an article I had read about how cities did not want to deal with fruit trees, because then you have fruit falling and rotting and it takes more work. Of course, then there is a missed opportunity for a food source. 

In fact, I do remember an Italian prune tree on my way to the bus stop that scattered plums all over the sidewalk each year, where they would turn to fruit leather.

They are a fruit I like a lot, but it didn't feel right to pick them off of someone else's tree before they fell, and it was not desirable to pick them after they fell.

What puts the "perma" in permaculture is that there are members of the system that fill multiple different roles in the cycle so that it can be self-sustaining. That does tend to eliminate waste, but it can be messy.

About the time I went to Outdoor School (many years ago), there was this process going on of moving away from the concept of a food chain to a food web. They were beginning to understand that it wasn't linear.

Having ground cover of native species does mean that there should be local pollinators and probably soil compatibility and maybe that your ground cover acts as a source of food and housing for local fauna.

To get it so that there is food and shelter for the fauna at different stages of life, and something handling the decay so that nutrients are put back in the soil, that becomes more complicated, but at the same time it becomes sustainable. It can continue.

Yes, it produces food -- lots of food -- but not all of the food is for you. Then you have lots of healthy living things around you that contribute as part of the web to the part that is for you. 

It's beautiful, and something that takes place naturally all the time, but something that our interference can make really difficult.

I admit that if you are looking at trying to set that up it can feel overwhelming. You need to start looking at different layers and interactions. What's going on in the roots? It will take time to grow a canopy.

It also shows us a path for healing and making things better.

One of the most beautiful books I have ever read was Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway.

It not only helped me understand some things that I had already observed, but also gave me hope for things I would not have expected, like a permaculture area in Arizona that was always 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the area.

Five degrees may not seem like much, but when we are talking about climate change, we are talking about one or two degree increases overall. If we could expand the area, and if we could heal polluted ground, and strengthen endangered species... there are a lot of things that we can do.

I recommend the book, no matter where you are in having a yard and what to do with it.

And it looks like next week -- instead of starting on one of the six areas I was already looking at -- I am going to go in a completely different direction.

These things  happen. 

Planting native species

Let's say you are still pretty much looking at a ground cover -- maybe with some shrubs and flowers bordering the house -- but you want them to be plants native to your area; what then?

Obviously, it will depend on your area. I will focus on mine, but "area" can also be kind of a loose term.

One potential starting place is PNW Native Plant Exchange:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1723453557818882

Nurseries in your area will almost certainly have some native plants, but they will also be selling them. 

With the exchange you will literally see people saying that something they have is splitting off and they may be giving away or trading. You can also ask questions and get tips, so it can be helpful with knowledge and with a sense of community.

Extension services remain a good source of information. For Washington County in Oregon, that's https://extension.oregonstate.edu/washington. 

Many years ago I became a Master Food Preserver through an extension program. I would team up with a Master Gardener at the Hillsboro Farmer's Market and we would answer questions and distribute information.

I can tell you that the most common question for the Master Gardener was about blossom end rot on tomatoes, which was related to not enough calcium in the soil. The favored solution was egg shells, which I believe gets recommended for roses too, but it was always the tomatoes.

On a possibly related note, the most popular food preservation publication was the one on making salsa.

At the time, I thought I wanted to later go through the Master Gardener Program, as well as two other programs; I would be master of it all!

I did not end up doing that. Programs have changed over the years, mostly for the better. 

That being said, it is possible that there is a program out there that will teach you a lot and that you will love. However, you do not need to become a master to be able to do things.

(And even mastering something... I have never canned fish, and it is not going to happen.)

The point is that there is information out there and people that are interested. If you need a slow learning curve or are ready to plunge right in, there should be options.

There was also a book I enjoyed:

Real Gardens Grow Natives: Design, Plant, & Enjoy A Healthy Northwest Garden by Eileen Stark.

In fact, that book goes a little beyond the ground level, as does the author, who is based in Portland and does landscaping consultations: 

https://realgardensgrownatives.com/?page_id=6376

Regardless, the book describes local plants that would makes sense as part of local ecosystems.  

Messiness

Last week I did not post on Thursday. 

I planned to, but I got busy with school. Besides, the topic was not fitting right.

I am writing about bigger things now, so it takes more time; I have accepted that.

There has still been this feeling that if I can cover something in one week -- so three posts, not counting the Friday post on media or the Saturday and Sunday blogs -- then there is still at least a semblance of order.

It just wasn't going to work. 

For school, I did finish the one course, but then I just started another one. It's going to be that way through the end of the year.

Bless this mess.

As it is, I can incorporate the theme of messiness into my Friday media post. 

It's fitting that it happened on this writing section. As you garden or work with nature or try and impose your will on nature, you will find a fair amount of mess. 

Things are really working out.

I believe the next two posts are going to be about native plants and permaculture, but that next week I will move on. That will probably be to one of six topic areas that I have been thinking about, but it can be hard to say.

There is so much to think about.

If you also feel like a mess, pulled in too many directions and not able to do nearly as much as you would like... hey friend!

Value what you do.

Let's support each other in good ways.