Buck Moon 2010 update

In the middle months of summer, I have to mow this land every week.

Over the years, we have tried to add orchard and prairie plants strategically so that I have to mow less. I don't like mowing the lawn, and it always amazes me when I see country and suburban estates with extensively mowed lawns. Best I can figure is riding the lawn mower is fulfilling a deeply rooted need to farm. People farm grass.

Almost from birth, my daughter has shown serious disapproval with internal combustion engines. She's seven now, and, like all of us, has been conditioned accept it. But I remember very acutely her reaction to the noise, as if it was a monster, and thinking to myself, "No shit. This is obnoxious." Put that together with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this spring and maybe you can understand why I don't like mowing the lawn. If I could change the world, i would start by teaching people how to use their land for things other than farming useless grass.

Another reason I don't like mowing the lawn out here is because, unfortunately, the more time I spend at the ol' Heavy Duty Acres, the better chance I have of picking up a deer tick. Deer ticks carry Lyme Disease. I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease in May this year. Chronic Lyme...I've had it for over a year. I might someday talk about my experience at length, but for now I'll keep it simple. Lyme didn't cripple me. It is a nuisance pain. I think I sidestepped the most serious symptoms by living a relatively low-stress life and eating and extremely healthy organic diet. And I've decided to reduce the odds of another tick bite by reducing the tick population with a flock of guinea hens. That's the coop I'm building up there, where I once foolishly planted asparagus in clay.

Guineas are native to South Africa, so technically, I'm introducing a non-native species to the land. I'm not the first to do it, and I just cannot come up with a better solution for reducing the tick population. They like to roost up high, and the guy I'm getting them from said they'll probably just roost in the trees after a while. But for starters, you have to lock 'em down in a coop for three weeks to get them to forget about the past and see their new domain as home. That's why the coop is so tall. I started building the walls in the garage at home.

Can you transport four framed 8-foot walls ten miles down a state highway on top of a 2000 Chrysler Town & Country LX minivan?

You sure can. And this is where it'll get erected. I'm thinking up high, near the woods (where the deer trail is) and far from the road (where they might decide to go for a stroll down to Wanda's farm where all the other domesticated animals live).

The guineas are going to cost me $8 each. I'm getting five o them. I'm trying to do this on a shoe-string budget, so when it comes to siding the coop, I'll just use the scrap tin I salvaged from the lumber yard they torn down behind our house in town. My friend, mIEKAL aND, also donated some tin for the project. Me and mIEKAL have a few things in common, and one of them is we both have salvaged tin lying around.

And there you have it, sheathed and ready for a roof. I have since been told that I did this backwards...surprise, surprise! Generally, you sheath the sides after you put the roof on it, because you can climb around on the framework. Now I've got this 8-foot tall, 4' x 6' structure that needs a roof, and I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to get it up there. This project, like most things I start, is taking way longer than I had anticipated. It's getting to where I'm not even sure we'll get the guineas this year.

I still have Lyme.

Archive

CORN MOON 2009 A Pretty Good Summer

PINK MOON 2009 Holy Thursday

BEAVER MOON 2008 Prairie by Plugs

HARVEST MOON 2008 Early Summer Growth

STRAWBERRY MOON 2008 An intro to Heavy Duty Acres