4/19/11 - 4/21/11

4/19/11
I woke almost every hour last night. Now I know why. The mice got into my room and dug up and devoured my sunflower & hollyhock seeds, and basil starts. Little bastards. Time for PB spring traps! I figure the pound of seed Jr. put out on the deck for wildlife are more than a rodent attractant to our house. Just wish they'd not fuck up a good thing and stay outside! The clouds are hanging in the valley this morning. A foggy 50 degrees or so. Perfect for working.
There's a group coming in a couple weeks that everyone's pretty excited about. The elders from a few North and South American tribes are coming to meet and talk about the state of the world and peace. I'm sure this kind of gathering is rare, if not a first, at least in the century. The following week they will join other spiritual world leaders for an international summit in Newark, NJ. The brick city of all places! I guess the city has comprised a model for peace within the community.
One of the tribes are of particular interest, The Kogi from the mountains of northern Columbia. http://www.theelderbrother.com/kogi/index.cfm I haven't researched the details, I'll leave that up to you, but I have been told my coworkers that they are also called the 'seers'. Their first 8 years of life are spent in total darkness to sharpen their senses, their ability to 'see'. The tribe has lived secluded in the mountains, unchanged for generations. They still speak their native tongue, they don't even speak Spanish. I believe they have decided that they need to travel out into the world to deliver a message about our earth. If now is the time they have decided to leave their mountain top, I can't help but to think things can't be good.

4/20/11
Today a WOOFER http://www.wwoof.org/ is coming to volunteer his time. WOOFERs works on organic farms, 4 hours a day, in trade for room and bored, supporting the organic growing movement. He'll help me hula hoe the weeds out of the vege beds and maybe haul some chips from a spot down the road, where there's a mountain of a pile. The aftermath maybe of some trees which may have fallen across the road and were chipped up. I've seen people filling up the bed of their truck or garbage cans full of the free stuff. We need to load the truck by hand. Hopefully the truck with the dump bed will be available for an easy unload at least. It has rained for 3 days and the mulch will be wet and soooo heavy. As is the garden, making tilling a big clumpy, muddy mess. Hopefully drier days are to come, I'll try to wait till then to do any heavy material moving.
I set traps wit PB last night and slept the night through soundly. Likely because I wasn't woken by a sprung trap, but mostly because I knew my seedling garden was safe. Nothing looks disturbed... not the seeds or the traps. It's working. The smell of PB can only mean one thing to a smart mouse. Death.

4/21/11
I picked up some vege fertilizer from a great little nursery in Rhinecliff called The Phantom Gardener http://www.thephantomgardener.com/. Dr. Earth brand is a staple for organic gardeners on the west coast, especially in CA, it's made in the Bay Area. It's a mixture of organic materials (alfalfa, sea bird guano, blood meal, greensand, oyster shells, mychorrizae, etc.) which are ground to a consistency alike what you'd get if you mixed dry oats and cream of wheat. Powdery but not exactly dusty. It mixes beautifully and feeds for the long term, nutrients becoming available as those tiny lil microbes and beneficial organisms break it down through consumption. All the while improving the soil's health, bringing it to life; building it over time. Opposite of what a chemical fertilizer does, gives it a quick fix of petroleum based plant food & leaves heavy salt build-up over time, creating a saline environment, inhabitable to those lil microbes so necessary for beautiful, bountiful soil.