Symbiosis Farms- Permaculture and More

2017-05-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hello! It is May 2017 already. Here are some pictures from around the farm:

The greenhouse/shadehouse finally got finished!!!!!!!!! Thank you Alfred.

We don't need the shade cloth for the arbor patio anymore. The grape/honeysuckle has done it.

These purple beauties were new last year. Pride of Madeira.

Chickens vs. no chickens.

Official State of May 2017 photo: We got a lot of rain this past season. But the grass still turns.

Here is wishing you all a wonderful summer. We have some big travel plans to Hawaii! I was having some technical difficulties which kept me from posting. But they have been sorted so I will probably post here more often.

Samhain and the New Year

2016-11-02T07:45:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween a few days past.

We had fun here on the farm. It has rained quite a lot for us and the greening is starting all around.

Lovely. :)

Getting 10-12 eggs a day now. And they are all healthy and look exactly the same. A little strange.

My father brought me over my favorite persimmons, yum. His trees are producing, don't know why mine are taking so long.

My iPhone and iPad don't share photos as easily as they used to so I don't have as many to share. Technology.

2016 was actually rather hard. I am looking forward to 2017.

Hope your November is wonderful.

Soon to be Fall

2016-09-18T11:04:00.001-07:00

About this time of year I start wishing our area had more traditionally Fall weather- sunshine with a cold edge to it, the turning of the leaves. Today is 99. But there is some hope that in a few days it will cool down. It is getting cooler at night which is nice.

Our chickens have officially started laying. We are getting 7-9 eggs a day now. Very cool. The moon was full last 2 days and I heard and saw the shadows of many animals across our land. I think last night was a coyote.

I cut the Jerusalem Artichoke down earlier than usual. Fed it to the goats. They love that stuff. Chickens don't mind it either.

September is the time for the Great Goldenrod blooming. Bees adore these late bloomers and we have a ton of them right now gathering for the coming winter. This golden rod stand is quite large now. I started it from seed and it has really taken off and take over different areas of the south herb garden. It moves mostly by underground runners.

Even though we still have days of heat ahead of us, you can feel a shift in the air. And the light takes on an amber glow. The days grow shorter and the sun is slower to rise.

Wow, Is it Hot Enough?

2016-07-29T07:50:00.001-07:00

We are going through a heat wave here. 110 yesterday. I am happy to report the Rhode Island Reds seem to be doing really well with the heat. As long as they have water and shade, they are not as listless and holding their wings out as much as the Barred Rocks or Australops I had in the past.

I have also noticed a huge population of praying mantid and more spiders than in previous years. And yes I spoke a little too soon about the grasshoppers. :( We do have them but not in invasion numbers. And they were late this year so they missed the peaches. Golden plums are the only fruit right now. It has been so hot I have not seen as many bees.

Work on the greenhouse continues. Alfred has part of the walls up and laid the weed block and some gravel down for the floor. Hooray!

Here are some pics:

Vegetable garden above.

New bed with plants filled out.

This is the skullcap baikal I talked about in the last post. Pretty right?

Independence of July

2016-07-08T18:21:00.001-07:00

This July has been unusual. Today the high was 87 but last week we had a high of 108. And although we have a few grasshoppers, there are very few. How it is possible that they went from plague proportions last year to barely any this year is confounding. It just points out to me again that there are so many factors involved in nature that our small human brains can not know. We are having a bumper crop of peaches and the golden plums are coming along. They sure are late! I am trying to keep up with the zuchinni since I planted one this year. They are so much more vigorous than patty-pans. I have been making dosas (Indian flat bread made with soaked fermented rice and lentils). I love it.

The chickens are doing very well. All big and beautiful and reddish brown with black markings. I can't really tell them apart so they are just "the chickens" which is probably better for my long term mental health. There are clouds today which is nice. Alfred has started work on the long delayed greenhouse. I am very happy. Only took 5 years. Our grapes have some disease this year. Poor fruit formation and lots of leaf drop. Don't really know what's up with them. I finally got a Baical Skullcap and it's doing so well. Best anti-viral around apparently with beautiful blue and white flowers.

This is a photo of what I think is Palo Verde. I started it from seed. It has super small leaves and its trunk is really green for photosynthesis. The flowers are strangely shaped but pretty yellow and orange.

This is pennyroyal. Some farms around me on irrigation have a ton of this stuff. But I had to import it.

We in the USA are going through some heavy stuff politically and socially. We are having to face some terrible truths. But come to think of it, it's pretty harsh in many countries right now (Bangladesh, Iraq, Turkey, all suffered attacks of late.) Many days I dread opening up my computer and logging on. It's often so heart-breaking. Through it all though, I find Nature a great restorative. It doesn't erase but it does ease.

Summer Photo Fun

2016-06-11T13:47:00.001-07:00

Stephen and I got a new camera. He wants it for photos but mostly for video. And I want it for photos specifically close up shots.

This camera, a Panasonic LUMIX with an Olympus macro lens is great and we are having a lot of fun.

Here are some shots from around the farm. Maybe someday soon Stephen will shoot a short video of the farm for the blog!

Nice right? :)

June Begins with Big Heat

2016-06-04T19:41:00.001-07:00

Every year we say, "wow! Summer sure came quickly this year. It's only June 1st and it's over 100F. Was it like this last year?" Yes, we say this every year and yet we are still surprised come June 1st. I think it is just selective amnesia because we don't want to believe that the heat has arrived and is not going anywhere for many months.

Last year this time we were on the other side of the world exploring southern Taiwan. But I am happy to report we have no big summer travel plans. And as I watched myself this morning, (what? You don't watch yourself?) I realized there are hundreds of little things I do which are impossible to tell someone else to do. I am the care-giver for this land. If I go away for longer than a week, things will die. Things die anyway even when I am here but not so many I guess.

Our chickens are doing well. They don't seem to appreciate the heat much but they are also getting used to it. Shade is so important during these heat spells and now the chicken area has way more. Strangely our apricot has fruit on it that is ripening really late. I think it must have been late flowers that got pollinated when all the regular ones didn't. No plums much this year but there are some golden plums and lots of peaches. The black berry patch I "planted" on the bottom swale is getting bigger. I am somewhat ambivalent about it. It makes things harder but I want it there also. Did you know the petals of pineapple guava flowers taste delicious? So sweet. If you are careful you can eat them and not pull off the developing fruit. Pinapple guava are tough plants. Not really prolific but I appreciate their tenacity.

More honey bees have arrived. I am now getting zucchini and patty pans. I also grew fava beans for the first time and have been enjoying them stir fried quickly with garlic. They get covered in aphids but this doesn't seem to matter. The butterfly bush and silk mimosas flower at the same time so we have tons of black spotted butterfly (Limenitis arthemis), so many.

And all sorts of bees like those flowers as well. Also the honey bees really like Myrtle (not Crape Mrytle). Here is a pic:

I hope wherever you are, you are enjoying the beginning of summer.

May 25, 2016 Summer is Coming Fast!

2016-05-25T09:23:00.001-07:00

This time of year is always bittersweet. The last of the cloudy days. The last of the wonderful sound of raindrops on our metal roof. The last of the cooling breezes. But all the plants have woken up. The trees have been in a parade of blooms since Feb. starting with the yellow Acacias, to the Russian Olives, to the Bottlebrush and now the Silk Mimosas. And although we don't have the number of bees I would like, this has been the best year for Hummingbirds. The air has been fragrant with purple Sweet Peas and Honeysuckly vines. (And not so sweet when I dumped a bucket that sat wet too long of chicken manure and pine shavings from the courtyard. Yuck.)

The hot-wire chicken pen is done and the young chickens are in their new (to them) coop.

Next to the front door I planted a grape when we first moved in (2008). I thought it died many times. But it is still there. And finally I think it may make it to the trees nearby, up and away from the deer. We will see if it does.

Sometimes my extreme DYI tendencies make my husband shudder. Like these new beds for example. Pretty they are not. But I am happy they are finally in. Sometimes it takes me so long just to decide which way I will go I get paralyzed. The idea with these beds is to utilize their proximity to the chicken pen. I have comfrey and nettles which are both good for compost. Inside the chicken pen I will have two compost piles going. These will be located right near where I put the coop manure when I clean it out. The beds here are made of e-Crete left overs, broken cement bricks from our patio project and cement board backing. I also bought some concrete blocks which are grey in the photo. But they were too heavy and we have so much e-Crete anyway.

This circular bed below is to the right of the comfrey and nettles. In it I now have planted: perennial kale, skullcap baikal, milkweed, ma huang, hollyhock, sunflowers, purple plantain, thyme, and chives. This bed was constructed with a layer of cardboard, then gravel, manure and then good soil on top. It is a permanent bed and since my soil is heavy clay with poor drainage I wanted to alter that. I got the idea from Strictly Medicinal seeds. They call it turtle beds. (This photo was taken a bit before the photo above.

To the right of the circular bed I have since filled that in and planted red clover, trifolium pratense. I got the seeds from Strictly Medicinals. Harder to find this seed. This is the variety that is used in herbal medicine although I used our native burr clover flower for tea this spring and liked it as well.

The younger chickens are doing well. We did have one rooster in the bunch which we killed so we are down to 14. We bought them in April and so should have eggs around August.

It has been a very good year for Pacific Tree frogs. tons of them!

And our passionflower vine is exploding in flowers! Now if I can just get it to go up the arbor instead of out!

The last thing I want to share with you is the power of dew. Is that a commercial? Anyway, we get lots of dew even when we don't have rain. Each time you plant a tree or shrub you are installing a dew collector which catches the water in the air and draws it downwards. This is a good thing for the soil. Now we have hundreds of dew catchers. However, I noticed that one plant in particular is really great at accumulating dew: the yellow bamboo. I planted it to the left of the front door to block the western sun because although it has tenacious roots, they run horizontal and not deep (water lines are here). I have noticed even on mornings that don't "feel" wet, the bamboo will have water droplets all over. They were hard for my camera to capture however.

Hope you enjoy the last days of May. :)

State of May 2016

2016-05-06T16:32:00.001-07:00

I like to do a post beginning of every May to give a sense of what kind of summer we are heading into. We had a storm system come in yesterday and drop a nice amount of rain with thunder and lightening. No fires started as far as I know.

The rain made the chick pen kind of a mess. Although it is in the courtyard, I had expanded their area and it got rained on. A soggy mess to clean up. They seemed to enjoy the rain though.

I have seen the dreaded grasshopper babies already. Historically if we have a bad year (which we did last year) then the next year is still bad just not as bad. If no one else is happy about the grasshoppers this summer, hopefully the chickens will be.

We are getting the chicken coop ready for them and digging a trench to connect the goat electric fence to theirs. This will make for a very powerful deterrent to predators. It will have three wires, low medium and high. This requires me to cut back and move some planting along the garden fence, but I am ready to do it.

Right now the sweet pea, roses, honeysuckle, red hot poker and bottlebrush are blooming. I have seen several more honey bees so that is encouraging.

I have decided to wait until 2017 to get honey bees. I tend to take on too much and right now chickens are the priority.

This last photo is looking from the back of the chicken pen. The trees here have gotten a lot bigger since we had chickens. They will provide way more shade for them. In various areas I am more and more excited about shade and soil building. I also noticed that the goats are eating a ton of mulberries and not that interested in hay or the cuttings I bring them.

These last two pics are at the bottom of the south swale under the acacia canopy. They have nitrogen rich leaves and shed them all the time. Here I found not only crumbly soil but a big fat earthworm just doing its thing. Yay! And a lot of leaf mulch. Remember how this area was just huge clods of clay I had to break apart with my rake? Progress!

Kathy at Goodins had a volunteer Lapins cherry growing by her potting area. It was full of cherries last week. I asked her about it. She said it is self-fertile. And that my friends is the cherry tree for me. Self-fertile.

The pond has a decent amount of water. Not great but good. I made a new garden bed in front of the chicken pen, well kind of. It is getting there! I am going to use a technique I heard from Horizon Herbs for making them. They call them "turtle beds." This area has been "under advisement" for years. Finally I decided I am just going to plant herbs for making herbal infusions for me, and green manure for the compost. So, comfrey, nettles, red clover and oat straw. I am placing two compost areas in the chicken pen which will make it easier for me to dump their manure in there when I clean out the coop. (Is this post too long?)

And this last photo is my bamboo guild to the left of the front door. It is made up of yellow bamboo (which looks green when it first comes out), and mule fat as the upper story, bottlebrush on the side taking the wind blast, San Pedro cactus (1), horsetail and blackberry as secondary layers and spearmint at the bottom. It kind of formed on its own. And they are tough I will give them that.

Ok one more! I started this tomato plant by laying a slice of tomato on top of a pot of compost and then putting a thin layer over that. I just wanted to see if it would work. And it does! Now I wonder if it will have tomatoes that are good to eat?

Here is hoping that the end of your Spring is filled with gentle rain and lots of growing!

Until next time.

Growing up 4/22/2016

2016-04-24T07:21:00.001-07:00

Our little permaculture farm is growing up! We are finally in need of either hugelkultur beds which means you bury wood left over from cutting or downed wood in a basin and then cover it with dirt or something more intense. As it breaks down over time this wood enriches the soil. Funny thing is, on our farm dirt is not as easy to come by as you might think. Nor is it easy to dig here. Heavy clay soil with gravel. Did I mention heavy? So I am thinking it might be a good idea to rent a wood chipper. My father took out some trees on his property several years ago and that wood chip is awesome stuff. He was nice enough to bring it over. Now he is smarter and I think he would keep it for his own fruit trees! ;)

I have been trimming the California Pepper trees, Acacias and the African Sumacs. The Sumac and the Acacias have the harder wood. It is cool to see how under these large tree/shrub layers the soil is getting better and the weeds are much less. The birds are visiting us a lot these days. Bullocks Orioles, Meadowlarks, Western Kingbirds, Purple Finches, Western Mockingbirds and even Scrub Jays love all the tree cover and branches we have. Oh and fruit. All our mulberries are setting tons of fruit right now. I even ate some Pakistan mulberries in the goat pen - delicious! And early. Everything seems really early this year, the weeds and the trees. I think it is due to 2 things. One, the intense stress of last summer's grasshoppers and Two, the drought we have had for several years. Although this year was "normal" I don't think the plants trust it.

On a more troubling note, this time of year we usually have a ton of honey bees. They love the Bottlebrush and the Russian Olive flowers. But right now we have hardly any. I don't know where they are. :( I have been thinking of getting some bees myself and this makes me want to even more. I have seen a few around the Borage plants which they love but there is so much in bloom right now. I have seen many native bees which is always a good thing visiting the yellow lupines blooming around the pump house. They have self-seeded nicely. And the pink flower is Mexican Evening Primrose. Since this area has grown up and has more shade the wildflowers that used to be here are mostly gone.

We have areas of shade now. For our little bit of land this is HUGE. Remember there were no trees at all on our land when we built our house. Nothing but grass grass grass. Now when I walk around I can stand under trees in the shade. It is so awesome.

Our place is definitely a hodge podge of what will grow. We have tried many plants over the years and what you see is what survives, heat, clay soil, wind, grasshoppers, deer, ground squirrels and rabbits. I saved a little striped racer snake from the cats today. Did you know they can swim? They are so cute. And I enlarged the chicks pen in the courtyard. I am a little anxious but they are so much happier now, scratching and running and being curious. They love grasshopper poo. Is that too much information?

Be well. :)

April 2016

2016-04-08T19:56:00.001-07:00

So we got baby chicks!!! Finally. I tried three times to get them from my favorite feed store in Chico but it just wasn't working. So Tracter Supply it is and they sell organic feed now. I just hope we don't lose too many and none are roosters!!! Remember Naomi and Wynona who turned into Ted and Ned?

Looks like we may get some peaches this year but I think the cherries are planted too far apart from each other. We have varieties that cross pollinate but they are not setting fruit. They flower but they don't set. :( Our Fuji apple in the chicken pen had a lot of die back, almost a third of the top of the tree. So I cut it out. Oh and our big pluot died. I don't know why, no signs of disease or wounds.

(I am not mentioning the dreaded grasshoppers on purpose.)

The kids weeded between the raised beds. It looks great. Since we put gravel there the weeds are super easy to pull out. But it is clear to me that the soil in the beds is in need of some major rejuvenation. So one of my main goals for this next year is creating better soil.

And now I am fighting Bermuda grass. Yes, it has finally breached the garden beds. So my next adventure will be how to live with Bermuda grass. I have already seen many ways where it is a benefit. 1. It has covered many areas which used to be annual grasses. I used to have to mow and mow these areas in the spring. And I am allergic to their pollen. This spring I have not had to mow and my allergies are not so bad. 2. It is perennial which means it covers the soil year round and cools the temperature in the summer. Also unlike annual grass which when cut is a fire hazard, Bermuda grass doesn't usually get as tall as wild oats or other grasses. Obviously I am trying to be optimistic....

We lost a lot of plants from last summer's grasshoppers so I am re-thinking many areas. A happy note, the Duke avocado somehow survived!!

Spring has Sprung! 2016

2016-03-24T16:41:00.001-07:00

We have had a pretty wet winter finally! So yay!

I have renewed my love of all things farm so you might see more blog posts.

Here are some pics of the farm in the last few months (oh! And we are getting chickens next week!)

Happy Spring!!!!

Nov. 2015

2015-11-18T08:24:00.001-08:00

Happenings on the Farm:

Still no chickens. :(

A lot less Fall weeding to do since the grasshoppers ate so much.

Lost an Apricot and a Fuyu persimmon for sure.

Seeing more and more Scrub Jays!

Pineapple Sage appears dead as well.

Hmmm I am trying to think of happy news....

Due to mold problems we had to finally take out our evaporative cooler and change to A/C (but that was a big ouch in the wallet)

Our wind breaks on the north work really well!

We did get some pomegranates. Yum.

Our cat Mouser got two puncture wounds on his head. We used Yunan Bai Yao on them. Worked wonders.

Looking forward to the promised rain this wet season. Here is hoping Winter 2015-2016 lives up to the data. Please?

August 2015

2015-08-10T09:59:00.001-07:00

It is a tribute year out here on our farm. That means grasshoppers. They came just as we left for Taiwan. Our friend Alfred saw most of the devastation. We got very little fruit from the trees and several trees were stripped. Many small ones might be dead. We won't know until the rains come. Oddly, the courtyard was one of the worst places. I have hypothesized that I must have brought a plant container in that was full of grasshopper eggs. Hundreds in such a small space. Many very special plants were killed like my jacaranda tree and various cactus and jade plants. :( They don't seem to like Ashwaganda so that survived.

These years are very hard to bear. You work so hard to get things going and fall into the belief that they will remain. But grasshoppers are a great teacher in letting go. On the bright side, I have very litte weeding to due this Fall. And the bermuda grass has taken over in many places that are now full sun due to the stripped larger plants. I don't know if this is good but it is what it is.

Beabea our oldest goat got an abscess while we were away. It grew to the size of an orange. I called the vet and he came out and lanced and drained it 3 days ago. I am giving her penicillin and applying antibiotic ointment. The drained fluid smelled extremely foul. But she is doing much better. She never seemed really sick, but now that she has it drained and healing, her energy is way up. We still don't have chickens but we want to get some by Fall.

There are so many things coming up for us this year and into 2016. We are opening our clinic, Tehama Natural Health in Jan. 2016 in Red Bluff which will offer acupuncture, herbs, and health coaching. One of our children is starting high school (eek!) and of course we always have 10 things we want to work on at our farm. I don't know if I mentioned it here on this blog but we converted the kids playshed to my office/shed. I love it. Hope you are enjoying the summer where ever you are. :)

Taiwan, Taipei 2015 June

2015-06-06T01:03:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics from our first few days in Taipei:

State of May 2015 and Summer Travel

2015-05-09T20:09:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures from around the farm. We are going overseas for June andJuly. I am going to miss all our plants and space. But oh the food will amazing!

Sometimes its the End.

2015-03-11T13:39:00.001-07:00

We suffered a loss this past week on our land. A large blue oak tree snapped off at the base and fell. When it happened at 5:45 am, I thought it was a massive snake and then a crash as the cats tried to get away from it. I know... But no monster snake, just a sad fallen tree. It was full of new ever so green leaves too. Everytime we drive anywhere we see it. So sad. It was not windy. One of the things we went out of our way not to do when we developed this land and built on it was to cut any trees down. We have so few. So with this tree falling, we have lost a very important part of our farm's ecosystem. I know it will continue to provide food and homes for many years. But still....

Stirring Jan. 2015

2015-01-24T18:19:00.001-08:00

I think its still winter although for us in the valley winter and spring get rather muddled. With the first rains in October we start to see new green life. And with the rains come the cooler temperatures that we dream about in summer days. So winter can be like spring with the desire to get out and do work in the garden, clean up beds and start new projects.

Today I did lots of fruit tree pruning. Tomorrow I will try and spray with the copper sulphate for fungus. These are the only two things I do for our trees. Their water is automatic. Oh sometimes when I have the mind, I put goat manure around the base. I will need a ladder to trim the cherry trees which got away from me. And two silk mimosas will need a ladder to be trimmed. Last year I let the two peach trees get too big and some branches full of fruit broke. I trimmed them back pretty hard in the summer so they will have less fruit this year.

All the acacias are blooming and so are some of the african sumacs. Our place is absolutely buzzing with honey bees. More than ever. I wish we were getting some of that acacia honey! In the next two weeks the almonds will blossom and then the bees can move to them as well. The rosemary did not bloom as much and I think I need to prune it back. Today I also freed the olive trees that were put in cages a few years ago to protect them from deer. They are big enough now and so I had to cut the chicken wire off of some branches. The prickly pear cactus I stuck in the ground (literally) at the end of the north swale is huge! It has not fruited but I am looking forward to it. I think this year I want to plant another apricot and a persimmon Fuyu.

I am sad when I look out into the garden that has no chickens. We are going to be traveling in Taiwan for two months this summer, but when we get back I intend on getting more chickens! I miss them for their manure, their company, their eggs and their weed/ kitchen waste eating.

Good Bye 2014

2014-12-31T16:33:00.001-08:00

I learned a lot in 2014:

Just because you have lived somewhere with chickens for several years without incident does NOT mean they won't be killed.

Bob cats really are terrible and beautiful at the same time.

Finding pomegranates that escaped the deer is quite fun.

I like apricots better than peaches.

I love the rain but really hate cold mud.

The Universe hears what you tell it about your life.

I would be bereft without birds.

Worms are like nebula.

I miss my chickens.

Happy New Year! May 2015 be filled with even more love and light and happiness for all. :)

Happy Winter!!

2014-12-15T11:09:00.001-08:00

Hope you all are doing well.

We are finally getting a proper wet winter here in the north valley and I couldn't be happier about it. Our pond is full, our creek over-flowed and washed out our road and BOTH swales filled and spilled over. Unfortunately, since we have not had this type of rain in several years, many levees have been breached which has proven very destructive for some neighborhoods in the area. :(

Today is a cold system from the north which is rare for us. The last big storms were all fairly warm "Pineapple Express" systems. We got out Yule tree from the Paradise tree farm in between systems beginning of Dec. The kids had a Chrismtas show at school which was very cute. And the meyer lemon on the west gave 4 lemons this year!!!

Stephen is working hard as usual and my coaching business is growing. :)

The garden has been utterly neglected although I did finally plant out many avocados started from seed that had been living in the courtyard for a few years.

Since we only have 2 chickens, I have been forced to make compost again since they can't keep up with the kitchen waste anymore. Miss my chickens. :(

Here is a pic of our pomegrante harvest. Small but yummy! And a pic of the southwest before the rains came and knocked all the leaves off the trees. The yellow tree is an Arizona Ash and the orange small one is a Vitex and the red one is a Chinese Pistachio.

Loving What Comes

2014-10-19T11:04:00.001-07:00

This mimosa tree with goldenrod is where the birds hung out.

So remember when I said I would really know we had done some transformation on this land when I saw both robins and scrub jays out here? Well, a few weeks ago we saw a whole family of scrub jays come out to our place and play in the sprinklers. It was amazing to see. I could not capture it on camera but I really celebrated their visit. :) Wheee!!

Also as some of you may remember, I inadvertently introduced Bermuda grass from our old house in Corning when we moved my in ground herbs here. I have been dealing with its ever growing reach ever since. But today when I went outside wtihout shoes, I thought "I have Bermuda grass to thank for this." When we moved out to this desolate grassland over 5 years ago, I could never go outside ins summer/ fall without shoes. With the star thistle and puncture vine and other nasties, it just was not possible. Now I can venture into the south herb garden bare foot. Not only does it help with grounding (!) but it feels good. Also I learned from Michael Tierra that Bermuda grass is one of the holiest herbs in Ayurvedic medicine. Who would have thunk it? Star thistle is also a powerful medicine, as is puncture vine..... So sometimes the things that appear to be wholly bad, are actually doing some good. At least I have found this to be true with most natural systems and beings. Althought truth be told I am still looking for the great mutual benefits of radium and radon.... I will keep you posted on that. ;)

So many things have been shifting and opening up for me personally in my health and wellness coaching but I wanted you all to know that I never forget my first love of herbs and permaculture. It's my rock and roots, my foundation. It's also the place where I come to replenish myself and recharge.

Here are two photos. The first is a pomegranate!!! It survived! The second is the full ripe olives on our biggest olive tree. Enjoy the cooler weather, even we have had some.

Bobcat Comes

2014-09-07T10:41:00.001-07:00

So for the past week I have been seeing a lot of crows. For me this represents something coming, a big change. Sometimes it has to do with global stuff, sometimes immediate family. For various reasons I felt like the message they sent did not have to do with my immediate family but certainly I got a pain imprint. I'm sure this makes little sense to people who never feel such things. In any case a few days ago I saw a Bobcat in a field about a mile from our house. I stopped and watched it. I had never seen one before. It was very pretty and small and stocky. It stared back at me. Yesterday, I got the feeling that pain was coming my way so I was careful as I did my chores. I was careful when I drove the car. I was careful but not paranoid. Then this morning all the signs made sense. Two chickens had gotten caught between the electric fence and the tall wire fence. They were making a racket when I went over to them. I got them freed but they immediately escaped into the garden. Damn. Then it hit me. There was no morning chattering, clammering chickens. It was all too quiet. For a second I thought I would find them all huddled scared due to the two that had been panicking. I rounded the corner of the coop and found them all, dead. And the only panicking thing in the chicken pen was a Bobcat - jumping repeatedly into the electric fence and getting stuck. I was so mad. I wanted to kill that Bobcat. I walked out of the enclosure and turned the fence back on - just to shock it. I got a large rake. I came around the other side of the pen. It growled and freed itself and ran to the end far from me and tried to escape. Finally after much clawing it did escape. I was coming back around and did not see it go. By then I felt no anger towards the animal. For all I know it only killed so many because it could not get out. A tired sadness filled me. The Bobcat had acted out of its own nature. I knew this but I mourned the viciousness of the attacks and so many dead, 11 in all. In all honesty I felt bad for the terror my chickens felt in their deaths; I felt like I had let them down. If only I had..... But whatever fantasies I construct only makes reality more sharp to bear.

And so I am left with two freaked out chickens in a huge coop and the eery silence of the morning.

Life It Changes

2014-08-29T08:55:00.001-07:00

I am starting a new exciting chapter in my life. I have launched myself into the world of health coaching. All these years of accumulating knowledge of herbalism, physiology, biology and human experiences of loss and growth and now I am full. I am ready to share what I have learned with as many people as are willing to learn and grow. This place I am at is scary and exciting and awkward and wonderful. I had an astrology reading five years ago and she asked me "When are you going to step into your greatness?" I was really surprised by her question and stammered a bit. Who me? But deep inside something was stirred by her question and I heard the response "yes, when?" Turning 40 was a pivotal moment for me and I feel like I have finally woken up. And I am no longer satisfied to sit on the sidelines of my life. So out I go, pushed by my own desire to activate my dreams. If you are interested in my health coaching you can find out more here:

www.reneehollandchang.com

I will continue to post here because I still love permacutlure and I still love our farm. Big things are on the horizon for 2015 so stay tuned! My daughter has started a series of drawings about her Fluff characters. This is her superhero Fluff and I like its spirit.

A Little Trip Down South

2014-08-03T09:14:00.001-07:00

We took a small vacation this last week. We went to visit family in Walnut Creek. This means lots of yummy food. My favorite was the small Ethiopian place we went to in Berkeley. I LOVE Ethiopian food wtih its amazing spices, melding of flavors, eating with your hand and fermented flat bread. Wow so good. Or course we had a lot of great asian food as well. We also visted the San Francisco Comic Art Museum and went to the beach there. Ah the cold, windy beaches of SF.

These pictures however are from the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek. She is still living at over 105 years old! Reminded me of the Huntington Library Museum in LA we saw last year.

Is August here yet?

2014-07-29T11:25:00.001-07:00

I find myself quite pleased that August is almost here. Why? Well I think it has to do with the end of summer being in sight. Honestly, in August we see some of our hottest temperatures so I am not so sure why I am looking forward to it. But I will say that I have sensed a small shift in the air. Instead of a building up, things are relaxing and drawing down. The peaches are done. Those left on the tree are soft, having started converting their sugar to starch or just goo. The morning air has a hint, a whiff of something different at the edges. It's not always there but I have smelled it of late. For me, it's the coming shift in seasons. And I have to hope, the coming rains. Being in a place that often doesn't get the rain it "should" makes you much more in touch with nature. The wind, the sunlight, the turning of the seasons. And when something is missed like the rain for us or snow for other people and places, it leaves a big hole that nothing can fill. Not movies, the internet, food, consuming, nothing. It's a primal absence. And you feel a sense of being left behind, bereft of the pleasure of the rains which you look forward to all year. Now not all people feel this way, obviously. But those of us who know that rain = life for plants and animals all around us, it is important. And although we are not running out of water due to the cyclic nature of the earth's water cycle, we are running into more problems with availability of fresh water and unpolluted water. (And on a completely random tangent, has anyone else seen the parallels between the dwarves digging ever deeper into the earth for treasure in LOTR and our current debates over fracking? I mean if anything is going to awaken a deep dark force fracking might just do it.) End of random. Or is it? No, for me it will never be the end of random I'm afraid.

Ok onto photos:

First photos is how much I love looking out my window and seeing GREEN where I used to see dead golden grass.

Next is just the southwest filling up with trees.

This photo which is kind of embarrassing due to my ugly Hobbit feet (wow I really have that book on my mind!) is to show where once was dirt and star thistle has now become soft indomitable Bermuda grass.

And the last photo is to show how the African Sumac has really JUMPED in growth and formed the hedge I wanted on the west along the brick walkway. Plants do surprise you btw.