Meditations 4-26 | Ecosystems

Fly buzzing reaches fever pitch and spiders move into each available doorway, alcove, connection between branches.
Water available brings bees (bees! in the desert!) and green, green grass growing in the keyhole space where greywater flows.

We paid a permaculture designer $1000 more than he originally quoted to come here and tell us we cannot intentionally cultivate creosote along our fenceline to block wind and spent the rest of the day gathering creosote seeds to do just that after he tried to debate with us the best types of trees for the job.

What grows fastest here? What tolerates the wind? What grows deep roots and needs little water? What needs no shade? What grows rapidly when given extra water (without its roots rotting like many "drought tolerant" species)? No, of course not the single species that has dominated this environment. Don't cultivate that. We're supposed to want to eradicate it.

Grasshoppers come in and eat the flies, dragonflies come feast (yes, there are dragonflies here, the size of the back of my hand). Everything blooms and bursts, grass at our doorstep, thriving in the shade of our house.

Paid more than we could to be told to ignore the ecosystem at our feet. Paid more than we should have to be told grass will not grow here. Paid more than we should have to be told we get less rain than we've seen with our own eyes. His advice? Fight the ecosystem. Bring in water.

What's never taught to us: acceptance.
What's never taught to us: flow.
What's never taught to us: listening.
What's never taught to us: immaterial comfort.

He asked us about our quality of life goals and when I said we want to create zero waste he asked why. Why?
I said: "to be good stewards of the land"
But he didn't accept my answers. He came up with "to not spend money on trash service".

What's never taught to us: success as measured completely separate of material or monetary gain.

Walk barefoot through the desert and accept spines in the soles of your feet.
Feel the rocks. Feel the heat.

We will not be hiring anyone else to tell us that this ecosystem is dysfunctional and must be fundamentally changed. This ecosystem desperately wishes to be stoked, fostered, nurtured, and this land *will* provide as it once did. That is not to say: do not add anything.

But it is to say: everything in its own time, add what is ready, listen to the land, and watch the ecosystem.
Do not kill the spider and wonder why flies abound. Do not kill the flies and wonder where the dragonflies go. Allow the songbirds nest from your straw. Invite the bees to pollinate dates and pomegranates.

Abundance is a state of mind.
The land knows what it is capable of.

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #Abundance #Meditations #Permaculture #Reflections

Also we've decided to open this up a bit more publicly (for fun) if you're local to Southern California or more generally the American Southwest or West Coast & want to travel all this way DM me for details
Early afternoon will be casual, the first DJ set starts at 3, the second goes till 3am
If you don't RSVP in time but want to come you're still welcome to, DM me, but bring your own sustenance, we're in the middle of nowhere
.
Deadline to RSVP is tomorrow evening Pacific time
.
#SouthernCalifornia #Homestead #RanchoDeLaLibertad #MojaveDesert

Also we've decided to open this up a bit more publicly (for fun) if you're local to Southern California or more generally the American Southwest or West Coast & want to travel all this way DM me for details
.
Deadline to RSVP is tomorrow evening Pacific time
.
#SouthernCalifornia #Homestead #RanchoDeLaLibertad #MojaveDesert