Wordpress, not for me.

Well, I tried to have a real website on wordpress and I could not swing it. Every so often I would get hacked or some kind of virus and it was just really too much for my limited skills to try to deal with. I have another website but I have not published anything on it yet. I might use this blog there. We'll see.

Chop and Drop!

Check out the newest post

Sensible Design

Check out the latest post over at the new site!

Transitioning to a new site

We are transitioning over to a WordPress site with the blog. This is going to give us a little more flexibility and it's actually a complete website not just a blog. Check out the latest and greatest!

The archived items will stay here.

Interesting Blooms

Here are a few interesting blooms you don't see every day.

The one on the left is a persimmon tree. Not showy at all, in fact it's nearly impossible to tell that it's blooming at all. The blooms all face downward and they are well concealed with leaves. They smell a little like rotting meat too. They must rely on alternative pollinators. This asian "hana fuyu" persimmon is supposed to be self pollinating but it's always better to have multiple trees. At the moment it's the only one we have however.


This is the first time this tree has ever bloomed. It buds on new wood.






Here is an interesting bloom many people may not have seen before, it's vetch. These blooms are very small.

On the right is some volunteer honeysuckle that is in full bloom. Honeysuckle is very fragrant! I wasn't aware of this but it is said to have many herbal actions and is widely used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It's said to be cooling, so a good thing for fevers.

Here are some links: altnature.com bearmedicinal

The hibiscus overwintered inside and is now beginning to bloom. That's a showy flower! They've got some medicinal/culinary properties too. Hibiscus tea is one common usage for the flowers.

The next bloom is valerian. It has hundreds tiny flowers and a very fragrant licorice aroma. The seeds are very tiny and resemble sea anemones. They float on the breeze like dandelions.

Beebalm or bergamot has a very interesting flower. Beebalm is also referred to as Oswego tea and can be used to make a good tasting tea which I prefer to the usual tea.

Where to begin

If you want to learn more about permaculture the best place to start is with the founder himself, Bill Mollison.

There is a free online resource from Networkearth.org that has Bill's lectures from 1994 in Texas.

There's no better place to start learning about permaculture for zero money!

Link to the new site.

A Sad Day

When I went out this morning there were ten fish floating in the pond. They were gone, it was too late. I didn't think losing gold fish would bother me much but I guess it does actually.

Because of my own stupidity they died. I left the hose running in the pond for several hours and for whatever reason, I think lack of oxygen, they didn't make it.

I'm not one hundred percent sure exactly what the cause was still but I think that since the water level was above the spill pipe the water didn't get aerated properly.

They lived through the winter, and the time that the pond didn't even have a filter. So I'm scratching my head on this one.

Later on in the day I lost one more and one isn't looking good. So there are five left, even though I only put ten in originally. Most of the big ones died.