Rainbows and Clearcuts
So, another blog! It has been some time. To be honest, for the majority of the days in the past couple of weeks I actually forgot I had been writing a regular blog. Surprisingly it has been quite hectic here. Actually, it’s always pretty busy here because I tend to keep a regular routine with my studies and writing. However, in the past couple of weeks it has been even more so due to the fact that there were people here basically every day for a week. I believe I mentioned in a previous blog, but a group came a while ago to start cutting down some trees in my area. Well, a couple of weeks later they returned to finish the job.
For about five or six days there was a group of ten guys here slamming their chainsaws into the majestic, aged trees on the east side of my site. At first, I was rather distraught. I had become quite attached to those trees, especially since that area was where I had been harvesting spruce tips for most of my time here. If you didn’t know, spruce trees are ones that have needles instead of leaves, and spruce tips are basically the same as when deciduous trees have buds, which then turn into their leaves. Spruce tips are little green soft needly treats and I was enjoying having them in my salad every morning. Furthermore, my sadness towards the tree cutting stemmed from the world of fungal ecology that I have been studying, in which I have gathered that the slash-and-burn technique that is used all over for cutting down swaths of land doesn’t do well for the forest floor, since the belowground fungi, bacteria, and other organisms were previously relying on the trees’ roots and shade to help them with nutrient cycling and creating a beneficial habitat in which they could live. There are alternative forestry practices and I would like to study them in more detail to get a better understanding of all of this. Although I was sad, I had to work on detachment as while I am living here, I do now own this property, so I must relinquish control. They will be installing an automatic weather system here, which is why they needed the space where the trees were, which will be helpful in determining the exact weather so they can better predict where fires will potentially pop up.
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| My new office |
All that being said, around the same time, the forestry department also sent over a group of guys to build me a screened-in porch! Furthermore, the area where the trees were cut down actually makes it so I have the most incredible spanning view of the landscape around me, so for this I am grateful. This porch has significantly transformed my experience here, as I can sit out in the sun without fear of mosquitoes draining me dry, as well as creating another barrier between my cabin and the outside, so the insects have a harder time of sneaking in. However, one or two mosquitoes a day still manage to find their way in. I admire their determination. I choose not to kill any living beings, so I have developed a pretty good method of getting the mosquitoes out of the house. Typically the mosquitoes gravitate towards open windows, as it seems that as soon as they get in the cabin, they realize, “oh...I don’t really want to be here” and they try to escape through the windows screens. Thus, if I know a mosquito is inside, I open all the windows and wait. Once they are on the window, it is easy to catch them in a mason jar and transport them outside. Though they still annoy me a little, I’m somehow starting to develop some compassion towards them. They don’t really know what they’re doing, they’re just trying to eat! And imagine if every time you went to a restaurant, a giant came by and trapped you in a mason jar and put you back outside of the restaurant. Poor creatures!
Along with these two groups, I had another team come out and dig me another outhouse hole although I had a new one dug just a few weeks ago. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t be able to fill that entire thing up on my own. I had help from the 100+ mm of rain that came down in the last few weeks. In two weeks, it rained almost double the amount that it rained in the month of June, a month that I considered very rainy. Suffice to say, there have not been many fires in our area so far. The day that this team came, I was up in the tower in the afternoon and noticed that the moon was out in the sky. It was the first sunny day we had had in awhile, and I was chuffed to see the moon so clearly up there. I grabbed my binoculars to take a closer look and truth be told, I just about started crying. I really love the moon, as evident by my naming of my former band The Moon Moths as well as naming many of our songs by different names of the moon (Flower Moon, Pink Moon, etc.). However, I had never actually seen the moon this close with my own eyes. I could see the craters on the surface and it just felt so powerful to see something like that. It made the moon seem a lot more real. Then, after this emotional moment, the pilot of the helicopter who had brought the team offered to take me on a flyaround tour of my surrounding area. I hadn’t left this site in two months! To be up in the sky observing the beautiful purple-coloured rivers, the glistening lakes, and the vast areas of land around my tower was such a fantastic experience. Having only seen the same things day after day, it made me much more grateful for everything I was seeing.
And there we go. I’d say that’s enough for now. Thanks for reading and enjoy your days.
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| Some mushrooms I found in the forest. Edible but unfortunately riddled with maggots. |
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