Tag Archives: winter
Visiting a neighbor’s fire
Though the work is easier together, we spread out in the darkest time of year to cozier burrows, diffusing the weight of winter, lighter on the land.
Though it is dark, we are warmed to know there are familiar others nearby. Our struggles are tied up together, and while one faces scarcity, someone else has more than enough to share, so that we may survive together and work together in brighter times.
So it has been through the ages. So it is still in little ways in overdeveloped places where big systems eclipse mutual aid: we turn to neighbors for power during long outages, for tool shares, for relationship. So it is still in big ways in underdeveloped places where small systems are made sufficient by human relationships: cooperating to cultivate land, to maintain infrastructure for basic needs, for relationship.
The lessons of the seasons proceed before us, though we may be distracted by a house on fire, our own or our neighbors.
May we be there for each other, so that we may all meet our needs, in mutual benefit with the sources of that sustenance and satisfaction. May peace be upon you.
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happy renewal
In cultures around the world, the quarters of the year come with special significance. Here at the midnight of the year we have the fullest darkness yet with that a moment of renewal, of a change in direction as if hitting a rock bottom. Hopefully a soil bottom, but anyway. . .
A merry Christmas celebration of the birth of the solar Son of G-d in many traditions; a happy חֲנֻכָּה lasting of the fuel of the flaming trinity which is a candle (flame, wick, wax); and to all the rock bottom & bounce back of seasonal midnight, winter’s dawn. With that: a new year, an inflection, an arc to bridge the fall and rise, an angle to connect the number lines of one’s lives. A threshold – where you going? I&I Hॐ.
שלום One Love
Mulberry transplantin’ & snow storm dancin’
Planting rooted mulberry medium-softwood cutting that was collected in ~Spring 2018 and grown in water, on the heat mat and under a grow light at the indoor nursery. It’s the pot on the black table in the photo below, and it’ll be moved back to the indoor nursery for the winter. Yesterday, moved any trees that remained outside in pots, bringing them into the garage for the winter or at least until I can heel them in outside ’til planting elsewhere in Spring 2019. That’s the trees huddled together in pots on the floor. The weather’s taken a rapid turn toward winter, with nighttime temperatures below 30dF a few nights in a row, and a sudden 10″ of snow in a day!
The basement is around 40% humidity and a little over 50dF. That’s with 2 heat vents opening to the room left on; heating vents could be sealed off from that room but it gets very cold, and it’s below our bedroom and has some pipes so we want to keep some warmth in there. ~55dF might be too warm for the trees, preventing them from having a proper dormancy. I’m not sure about this – comment below if you know please! I hope to heel these trees in ASAP; they’ve been in pots for so long as I only moved to this more permanent location ~1 year ago.