Signs of spring

This past month marked the formation a new work team to work on a crazy big eco-project with Fortune 100 CEOs, as well as the milestone of finishing the first draft of my book on building neighborhood resilience.

Highlights:

• Snippets of the sun coming back. Some gorgeous days interspersed with gloomy cloud cover.
• Garlic shoots emerging. Better sign of spring for me than any decorative flower bulbs, although those are gorgeous, too.
• Ever watchful dog protecting my kids and letting me know when anyone is near when I’m deep in thought about how to fix my latest farming mistake.
• Found the best Big Picture summary of what actions our country needs to take that I’ve read in a long time.  (note subscription to read is free)
• Two enjoyable weekend construction projects with trusted friends, building a semi-portable rocket stove and a new Perone style bee hive. Details on implementation of each next month after some testing.

Lowlights:

• Food crop beds riddled with mice holes, especially under the floating row covers. Time to add a pair of barn cats to the microfarm.
• Two separate dog attacks on our chickens, each time injuring one bird. Negligent dog owners drive me nuts.
• Last bee hive died (the Kenyan style one). They left stores and were OK two weekends ago, so I have some investigation to do to determine the cause.
• Too many laying chickens from our latest batch. They are beautiful healthy birds, but my life is now out of work/farm balance as they require more frequent rotation in the pasture and feed/water refills. Solving by selling off half the flock this week.
• And finally, a lowlight that will become a highlight. Due to my day jobs, I end up reading a lot of bad news. And I’m burning out on it. Yes, our society is due for a radical overhaul, which will most likely be painful. And our planet is reacting against all the damage we are causing it. Which will definitely be painful for us. But I’m weary of reading and researching the bad news each day. So I’m taking a cue from the permaculture revolutionary Paul Wheaton’s email signature about “making a better world through learning good things rather than being angry at bad guys.” Perhaps I’m not the only one going through this…