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Communities beneath our feet

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Mycelium Sun by Raya Wolfsun. http://www.rayawolfsun.com/2014/04/24/mycelium-sun/ One of the most fascinating topics to me is soil. Earth Dirt. But more-so what makes good soil. Or, more accurately, who. The soil micro- and macro-biomes are rich webs of life Unravelling energy from the dead. Decomposers Little-celebrated yet immensely-important, Decomposers are to thank for the fact That we aren't all chin deep in refuse and dead cells. They break down dead and dying organisms, To process and recycle the nutrients from our bodies. Returning the calcium in our bones, The iron in our blood, The nitrogen, carbon, potassium, magnesium, oxygen, Into bio-available treats for new life to sample. Without the cycling of nutrients, the Earth would be a big dead thing, All existing nutrients trapped in the dead bodies preserved, shrivelled up in the sun. Decomposers like bacteria, fungi, bugs and worms work hard, chewing through the detritus of sloughed off cells. Fungi produce hyphae, myc...
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Hello again! I’ve realized that I am no good at regular updates to this blog. Living in the woods with no internet has a big part to play in that. But at long last, I’m back to give an update on my west coast life. Recently Michael and I have invested in a solar array. We’ve got two monocrystaline 270 W panels, two 400 Ah, 6 volt flooded lead acid batteries in series, a charger and a inverter. The whole system cost over 2,000$. And while the price was an uncomfortable pill to swallow, we are now off the grid energy wise. It feels right, to be set up in a small clearing in an alder and salmon berry forest, less than 500m from a small organic farm, and to be hooked up to solar power. It feels like one more step towards assimilation with our natural neighbours. In a sense, we are photosynthesising energy to run our little trailer. And our bodies are fuelled by the vegetables we pick, which ate the same tasty sun, less than a km away.  On our property we also have our own l...
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A beginner's guide to compost

I've been composting my whole life. My parents had built a big compost bin in our garden and it yielded such rich hummus that when spread on the garden made it grow so great. Now that I'm living on my own, even though I don't have a garden or even much of a backyard (we live in a basement suite) I still felt it necessary to build a compost bin. You never realize how much food waste is generated every day until you start composting. We are able to divert probably a third of our household waste by composting. When this is combined with avid recycling, we probably only throw away 25% of our waste in the trash. The rest is reused and kept out of the landfills. It is my personal opinion that we as a city should compost, not only on the large scale but also at the indivdual scale. Making a compost bin is not very hard, and it helps divert a sizeable percentage of daily waste. If everyone in Canada composted, we would divert enough waste to cover San Fran Sisco in two feet of co...
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