We DON”T want to build our house out of two-by-fours and drywall. So what will we build it out of? Last weekend we explored the straw/clay insulation technique at a workshop offered by the Driftless Folk School taught by the Robert Schulz and his wife Summer. Their own home is […]
This spring we purchased an officially sanctioned bluebird house to support the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin (BRAW), and we placed it according to their directions. As with all real estate, location is key. A pair of bluebirds are looking for 1-3 acres of predominantly open land to call home. […]
I have a clump of dirt on my sideboard but I’m not washing it off. It’s a handful of the topsoil we just had delivered to our land for the septic system drain field and garden beds, and it’s my prized possession. I feel like I dodged a major guilt […]
Influenced any good public policy lately? How many times have you called or written your representative and felt like you REALLY accomplished anything meaningful? Here is a chance to give policy makers a holler through a forum that might make a difference. If you missed the Sustainable Communities Public Policy […]
I have come upon fawns lying still as statues in a stand of grass on our land. Their survival strategy seems to be to freeze, allowing me to walk right up and study their perfect ears, finely chiseled hooves and delicately dappled camo patterns. Baby animals always bring out our […]
Before we build a house on our land, we will need a septic system. The land has already passed its perc test (Doesn’t that sound cheerful? It’s 6 a.m., and at the moment, I’m not sure I feel perky enough to pass any test.) Our land is not only perky– […]
I like to spend Mothers Day communing with Mother Nature and planting. I used to content myself with converting our lawn into flower beds, but now Doug and I focus on plants that recreate the diversity of a natural community on our 44 acres. For Mothers day, we got 54 […]
It’s déjà vu all over again. Last year we spent weeks watching a pair of geese nest on the tiny island of our pond. When we went out to our land at the time I calculated the young should be hatched – they were gone. Vanished. We feared predators. This […]
I always love the drive to our land, getting closer and closer as the highway skims the top edge of the long, high Military Ridge that shows up on every topographical map of Wisconsin till we turn south onto the country lane and drop into our little valley. It’s a […]
I love going to the farmers market and buying fresh produce, bringing it home and eating it as close to immediately as makes sense. But I would not like to be on the other side of the equation – the farmer who has poured so much resource and labor into […]
Digging in the Driftless 