a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Month: August 2014

  • Planning Ahead 400~500 Years

    When it comes to vegetable farming, success requires planning. To have lettuce or cabbage or cucumbers ready for sale on a given date, you need to plant them two, three, four months in advance in sufficient quantities.

    There is also longer term planning. Each year you need to rotate your vegetable beds so that you don’t plant the same thing in the same bed. Some vegetables need more rotation time than others, so you need to think two, three, four, even five years in advance where you are going to plant what.

    However, most vegetable farmers aren’t thinking about what their vegetable plots or farming needs are going to be 400 years from now. But those who look after Kiyomizu-dera (clear water or pure water temple) in Kyoto, are planning what the temple will need 400 to 500 years from now.

    The temple was founded in 798 and in 1629 there was a great fire which destroyed the temple. It was rebuilt soon after. The current temple was constructed in 1633. The main part of the temple is built on the side of the hill and as you can see in the photos below, it is supported by numerous tall pillars made from massive zelkova trees, felled when they were hundreds of years old.

    KiyomizuderaEntrance
    KiyomizuderaA
    KiyomizuderaB
    KiyomizuderaC
    KiyomizuderaD
    KiyomizuderaFoundationA
    KiyomizuderaFoundationB

    The temple is in the midst of a grand restoration project. During the restoration process, sections of the temple are painstakingly taken apart, the wood examined to see which sections need to be replaced, and which sections can still be used. When the restoration project is completed, the pillars supporting the temple should last hundreds of years more. However, at some point, the pillars will need to be replaced.

    There are 139 zelkova tree pillars in the temple. To replace them requires trees that are 400 to 500 years old, but finding such old lumber these days is difficult. So to make sure there are plenty of 400 to 500 year old zelkova trees in the future, according to an interview in 2006 with then head Buddhist priest of the temple, Seihan Mori, the temple has planted groves of zelkova trees on its own land. Mr. Mori said, “By the time the trees have grown 400 years, we will all be dead. However, we want to die, knowing that we have made sure there will be trees for the temple in the future.” Now that is planning ahead.

    How are we living so that 400 to 500 years from now, our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren will have a world as beautiful as the one we live in now? Much of what we do, seems hell-bent on making sure nothing is left in a few decades.

    KiyomizuderaForestA
    KiyomizuderaForestB

  • Late Summer – Expected and Unexpected Wonders

    BlackBerries

    If you keep your eyes open, life can be a wonderful mix of the expected and the unexpected. But you have to put your mobile phones away (maybe lock them up for a day or two) and actually look at things as you walk about outdoors. In late summer in the Skagit valley you expect to be able to pick blackberries by the handful. You not only expect it, you look forward to it.

    What you don’t expect to see in August are wisteria blossoms. Wisteria bloom profusely in spring. And yet, the other day I happened to see a few blossoms on one of the wisteria vines. What a pleasant surprise. Maybe someday the blackberries will surprise me and have a handful of ripe berries in May.

    WysteriaInAugust

  • Do Chickens Count?

    HenWithChicks140819A

    Do chickens count? The mother hens seem to be able to count rather well. While they herd their flock of chicks around, they are keenly aware if all of the chicks are present. If a chick or two or three are missing, they will go looking for them. Or if they are leading their chicks on to a new place and there are stragglers, they will go back and fetch them.

    So the mother hens have a concept of “all my chicks are here” or “some of my chicks are missing”. Whether they count or not, who knows. But they certainly know if all of their chicks are present or not.

    In his New York Times article Are Chicks Brighter Than Babies? from 2013, Nicholas Kristof writes:

    For starters, hens can count — at least to six. They can be taught that food is in the sixth hole from the left and they will go straight to it. Even chicks can do basic arithmetic, so that if you shuffle five items in a shell game, they mentally keep track of additions and subtractions and choose the area with the higher number of items. In a number of such tests, chicks do better than toddlers.

    I’ve had hens raise as many as 12 chicks, and they keep track of every single one, so perhaps hens can count up to at least 12.

    HenWithChicks140819B

  • Feather Art

    FeatherArt2

    Chickens come in an endless varieties of colors and patterns. Your image of a chicken might be that of a plain white or reddish brown bird, but they come in a kaleidoscope of brilliant colors and amazing patterns. These feathers are the back of a Sven, a Swedish Flower Chicken rooster.

    FeatherArt1
    FeatherArt3

    And the colors and patterns from some of the other chickens. If you need inspiration for a design, look at some chickens.

    FeatherArt4
    FeatherArt7
    FeatherArt6
    FeatherArt5

  • Green Nests

    EggsOnGrass

    Hens like to lay eggs in soft, quiet nests. Straw and hay make nice bedding for nests. This time of year, there is an endless supply of tall, green grass. I cleaned out three of the nests and filled them with freshly cut grass to see if the hens would like it as a bedding material.

    NestingHenA
    NestingHenB
    NestingHenC

    They aren’t filing any complaints with the management. And their eggs look really fresh laid on green grass.

    ThreeEggsOnGrass

    I’m not surprised. Back in 2010, Sunflower made a nest in tall grass in the backyard behind the propane tank. Chickens have an affinity for thick grasses and brush. It makes you wonder if instinct has embedded in their little brains, images of green grass which they long for, even if they are born and raised in crowded broiler sheds.

    SunflowerOnNest

    Chickens know by instinct to run for cover if they see any large bird in the sky. They will go running for shelter even if a harmless heron flies low overhead. Somewhere in their brains, is the instinctual knowledge that big things flying overhead are not good. Perhaps millions of years of evolution has imprinted images of good things as well as scary things.