I went on a slow 4-mile run on a coastal trail the other evening. A skunk ambled across, then cottontails, one after the other. These little rabbits seem to have proliferated. I counted 9 of them in all. A young deer stood stock still as I went by, his ears revolving and tracking me like radar antennas. At a hillside pond, swallows were swooping down to skim the water, picking up insects and leaving ripples on the smooth surface.
Driving home along the coast that night, I spotted the wily coyote that I’ve seen before, standing by the side of the road. “Let the Juke Joint Jump” by Koko Taylor was playing on the radio. I backed up so the coyote was about 20 feet from my rolled-down window and turned up the volume. He stayed right there—his first experience with the blues. Fittingly, this song is on Koko’s album titled Force of Nature.
via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BEXP69eAMvZ/
For a couple of years, I’ve had 2 hummingbirds that got trapped in the greenhouse and died. They were kinda mummified. Recently they disintegrated. I put the skulls in strong hydrogen peroxide and voila!
This is just one of the many sea creatures at this remarkable store: the 6th Avenue Aquarium and Flowers place at 429 Clement in San Francisco. There must be 50-60 tanks of exotic sea creatures, all clean and beautifully tended.
The 3 or so blocks centering on 5th Ave. and Clement is a great neighborhood, with 3-4 dim sum places, Chinese herbs, all kinds of ethnic restaurants. The Cafe Bunn is a great Vietnamese restaurant, with Vietnamese sandwiches along with typical Vietnamese dishes, good, inexpensive.
“As part of my work I’m lucky that I get to work all over the UK but I very much enjoy finding wildlife thats local to me and on the way to doing a workshop for Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust I noticed a barn owl flying over a field. I drove down a country lane and parked up alone a fence line and sure enough the barn owl landed metres from me an amazing sight that was totally unplanned and still made it in time for my workshop.”
I’ve had a number of coyote encounters. They’re unlike any other animals; they seem to tune into you, like they half-way want to play. Trickster of the Miwok people. Poem of Jaime de Angulo, from Coyote’s Bones:
15 years after resurrecting and refining Mother Earth News, Cheryl Long is retiring, and they are looking for a new editor-in-chief, as follows:
“Topeka, Kansas-based Ogden Publications is looking for an experienced professional with passion for, and knowledge of, all things sustainable to lead its flagship media brand, Mother Earth News into the future. Ideally this person will have first-hand experience as a sustainable lifestyle community member as well as an impeccable record of innovation and leadership in the publishing business – or other closely related media area. But don’t let us define you too narrowly. If you have related experiences and the drive to lead a highly collaborative team devoted to creating and delivering the best, most relevant sustainable lifestyle content possible, we’d like to hear from you.
Snark snark: this place is vastly overpriced ($35 general entrance fee for one day), not very well designed, and compliments the weirdness and architectural absurdity of the De Young Museum across the way from it. Sorry, it just pisses me off. The old academy and museum were just fine and in harmony with the bandstand with its pollarded trees outside.
Like many others, your books inspired us to build our own home. Four years ago I left a career as a helicopter pilot in the Army with my wife and two kids and moved to the Mission Valley of Montana (north of Missoula). We bought 40 acres of bare hay fields and built an 800 sq ft. house. It was quite an experience since neither one of us had experience with construction. We broke ground in late September, and six weeks later I remember the first snow of the season blasting me in the face as I dryed in the last wall. We finished it more or less over the winter, then went on to build a barn a few years later…still working on that one!
We grow organic produce and pastured hogs and like to farm as much as possible with our draft horses. I’d like to say 800 sq. ft. is working for us, but after four years, we currently are in the midst of adding on, increasing our square footage to about 1800*. With our remodel, we are trying to replicate the classic American Foursquare style of architecture that is widely seen across the country with a few timber framed details here and there. I think we could have lasted longer with a house sized somewhere in between, but this was initially going to be just a small cottage for family to stay in and down the road we would build another house. therefore we built it without storage in mind. Well we ran out of money and didn’t see the need to do that, so here we are! Nevertheless, its been a wild ride!
Thanks for the inspiration!
Micah & Katie Helser
Yes, it’ll exceed our size limit of 1200 sq. ft., but it was smaller to start, so it’s going in the book. (We have been known to stretch parameters.)
