Here’s Stassj, sitting at our reading table, totally engrossed by her book “Poisoned Profits”, which is about all of the poisons that industrial processes create that end up in our food, air, and water.
Stassj reading Poisoned Profits in the cabin
This is our “library” — this is what we have to keep ourselves occupied over the winter. Stassj is going to be learning about fungi & microbiology. Jesse is going to be learning physics, various math topics, and how to draw with pencil. Both of us are going to be learning Spanish & French, botany, chemistry, biology, and ecology together … and drinking gallons of tea in the process.
(note from 09-18-2009 — we’ve added 2 more full bookshelves since this photo was taken … and I don’t think we’re quite done yet.)
The library in the cabin
Here’s part of our food for the winter … we’ve also got a bunch of salsa, fruit preserves, and veggies that we canned, which are stuffed under our bed. And 30+ jars of peanut butter!
Winter stockpile in the storage shed
The people that were here before us left tons of dead trees lying all around, and the forest floor is so covered in dead wood in some areas that the baby plants can’t even poke through. So we’ve been going around and picking up tons of dead wood and making piles to clear of some of the ground to allow the forest to heal itself. The rotting wood lowers the pH of the soil (i.e. makes it more acidic), which causes bacteria levels to drop dramatically (because they like a neutral to slightly basic soil), which means that the protists don’t have anything to eat, which means that the arthropods and roundworms and earthworms don’t have any food, …. dead soil.
Anyhow we’ve also been chopping up lots of this dead wood (anything that isn’t rotten) to burn in the stove. Here’s Stassj looking really tough … Marvin is in awe of her.
Stassj lugging a tree around on her shoulder
Here’s Jesse splitting a log. He’s looking especially dashing.
Jesse whacking a log to pieces