Are We The First Human Beings Never to See Anything for the First Time?

A First?

There may be no place on earth humans have not been, no village, no culture still hidden from our first hand accounts.  Yet still everyday there are new mysteries that open their doors to welcome us.  The photo here was a remarkable sunset.  The day long cloud bank ended in a sharp line to the west just as the sun set.  Brilliant yellow-orange sunset rays reached under the clouds, not yet retreated, and illuminated the hillside.  When will the next time such a combination of events present such a gift?  Maybe never, maybe this was the first time.

Foliage performances are more an more frequent here in Central Maine.  Most of the country has some time to wait before this show comes to their town.  The leaves will soon fall insulating the soil from winter's cold.

Grab a shovel, Tom

Swales are good for rainwater harvesting.  The swale slows the water's movement down the hill, hydrating the planting bed.  This can be especially important during the hot summer downpours where a massive amount of water would otherwise travel over the surface of the hill down to the lowest point.  For these first two swales, I have dug them by hand, and while a mini-excavator would be very handy, I don't have to move things along that fast.

First digging the  soil under where the mound would be, I then continued to dig a ditch or depression uphill and piled the soil on top of the previously worked area.  I should point out a year and a half ago this area was full of small trees * the transformation of the field- http://seaberry-hippophaerhamnoides.blogspot.com/2013/06/from-forest-to-seabuckthorn-orchard-in.html

The clover and pasture grass and their roots will decay in the new mounds along with pieces of wood placed in the bottom of the pile.

Elderberries (3 varieties, 6 plants), garlic chives, asparagus, yarrow, an Viking Aronia were planted in the swales.  Finally a mixture of clover seeds were broadcast over the disturbed ground.  Hope it works!

Sea Buckthorn Vacuum Harvester.

Soleberry of Manitoba is testing a version of this.  I found this video and it demonstrates an inovative version of a vacum harvester for Sea Buckthorn.  The first part of the video demonstrated red currant harvesting and the second part is Havtorn/Sea Buckthorn/ Tyrnin.  Seems to be effective.