first, a couple other accomplishments.
last week, we went to the river and caught some spadefoot toads, which we re-homed into our gardens here and there around the property. the night-wandering bug population is already noticably decreasing, to our benefit. i keep seeing the front door toad in the evenings; he’s fat as a tangerine, and has his work cut out for him. here he is in his “pond” (refilled daily) in the front garden.
out back, red yarrow and red amaranth share their glory in the sunshine:
we let the young turkeys out for their first romp in the gardens last weekend, too. Here’s Baxter The Endlessly Patient, looking somewhat beseiged by young poultry.
and the garden itself, growing strong. peas are done, foliage crisping on the trellis in the summer heat, and the onions are ready for harvest. kale, spinach, amaranth and lambsquarter going strong in the shade beds. tomatoes plumping green on the vine; corn coming on two feet high. sunberries in bloom everywhere.
and my herb garden is incredible this year. here i am stunned by the clary sage, whose scent pulls me out of bed every morning and makes the day worth facing.
in front with purple flowers is the mallow, and a rose by the pump house wall behind.
and the rest: feverfew, gaillardia, “cerise queen” yarrow.
and finally, good signage on the compost! we’ve had a few information failures out there, from buckets emptied in the wrong bin to buckets added without leaves/dry material going in, to compost removed from the curing bin for want of adequate information on what we really meant. Alan and I finally went to work on an energy systems diagram and associated signage for the bins, so that all interns, community volunteers, friends and associates understand how the compost works and can put the right thing in the right bin.
On to the work party. another stretch of wall begins at last Sunday’s work party.
Ana wrangles the barbed wire and wins.
connecting one stretcj of wall to the next:
Ana and Kat laying mortar:
Mary enjoys the cottonwood shade north of the Web (Kat’s yurt).
Ian, Vanessa and Ryan lay the next course of bags while Rev trenches more foundation for the upcoming weeks’ work.
Alan, Jenny, Ana and Graham fill bags as the wall continues to grow.
Ryan, Jenny and Rev working into the evening.
This view is from our neighbor’s land, looking west-ish up the length of the wall.
and turning about, looking east-ish down the wall:
more clay-slip painting moved down the wall as well, heralding what it will look like after its plastered. i like how the clay-slipped bags look like large adobes already, earthen and solid.
Rev tamping the wall into alignment:
our fuzzy supervisor basks in the sunshine.
the next day, Rev, Ryan and Graham extended that section and added our second arch.
i can no longer fit the whole wall into one photo. I’ll try to take one from up the street on my walk home from the bus stop tonight. all this hard work, and i’m ready for the solstice. we will spend the weekend celebrating the long dance of the Sun in a day-long ceremony involving much music. next week, back at it, refreshed and reinvigorated as the wheel turns.