It’s not a great time to be a grassland bird. Their numbers are diving faster than a hawk after a ground squirrel. Yesterday I learned more precisely how grassland birds are doing in my neighborhood (Southwestern Wisconsin). Mike Guzy did his Wildlife Ecology Ph.D. research just a few miles from […]
Geography is destiny, and I got both my geography and my destiny defined a little more clearly yesterday at the University of Wisconsin-Arboretum’s Winter Enrichment Lecture Series. Naturalist extraordinaire Rich Henderson shared his insights about the past, present and future ecology of prairies in Wisconsin. He was speaking from 34 […]
guest post by Doug Hansmann Our architect gave us his shopping list for 73 joists, rafters, posts and beams for our new house today. He could supply everything from his woods, but we hope to find most of them on our own 44 acres. Here’s what it will take: Trees […]
As soon as the first snow accumulates 4 inches, I strap on my snow shoes, and I live in them off still spring. (Well when I’m outside of house and town – and there’s a part of my brain which says that the only time I am really living.) Snow […]
For better or worse, the race to get projects done before the ground freezes is over, and I think we won. The temperatures around here have dropped. At the moment, it’s 17 degrees F outside, and a big snow dump is predicted today – the first serious snow of the […]
We reach Thanksgiving from a winding road through autumn and exit into winter. The time available to work outside on our land is truncated more with each passing day. Sunset comes earlier. Night lasts longer. And longer. That’s why of all the Christmas/Solstice traditions, I love trees the best. Our […]
SHOULD I SERVE MY THANKSGIVING GUESTS FOOD MADE WITH RAW MILK? My daughter is the new and proud owner of a cow share. Last month she came home from LaCrosse with a glass jar of milk from her friendly, neighborhood family farm. It was filled with the familiar white liquid, […]
In the background of this photo of our just finished hay stack, (see my post Stacking Hay) you can see our barn and the attached greenhouse. Having a greenhouse has been a dream all my life, and when we designed our barn, the attached greenhouse was on the drawing board […]
This week UW-Madison ethnobotanist Eve Emshwiller taught me to care deeply about oca, a funky little tuber that I will probably never see. Botany seems like a conflicted field to me. Some researchers are working to develop “perfect” varieties of plants that can be grown in vast monocultures, while other […]
Michael Pollan’s breakout book (and PBS special) Botany of Desire starts with the saga of the apple. He calls the apple as important as the axe and the plow to the pioneers. They were not valued as a sweet, crunchy snack but as liquid refreshment. Apples were the easiest source […]
Digging in the Driftless 