I never told you about that letter Jane
Crofut got from her minister when she was sick. He wrote Jane a letter and on
the envelope the address was like this: It said: Jane Crofut; The Crofut Farm;
Grover’s Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of
America…Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar
System; the Universe; the mind of God – that’s what it said on the
envelope.
So my address would be Cindee Karns, AlaskaBioshelter,
RamValley drainage, Eagle River Valley, Anchorage; SouthCentral; Alaska; and
then the rest and finally: the Mind of God. The Mind of God is the coolest.
Permaculture says to design from WHOLE to PARTS and to look
for patterns. What’s my whole? If I work on designs for all of my biomes,
will that thinking process of mine somehow seep out into other’s thoughts of
their biomes? Since Permaculture also
says start with observations, that’s a good thing. It gives me some focus, but then I get lost
when I’m hearing a podcast about the similarities between Italy’s President and
our in-coming president. That’s a
pattern and if you look closer at other countries you can see other similar
patterns in leadership. What pattern is
that? Do I have a responsibility for
that Biome?
And then I go out to shovel snow. I don’t hear the birds that I know winter
here. I hear snow blowers all around
me. That’s a pattern. Is that a sign of our pattern of oil
dependency? Or am I just observing that
because I have a shovel in my hand and am feeling a little elite in my attempt
to become part Amish. J
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| Eklutna Lake |
I often think of who might have come back to this valley in
ancient times: where was the
glacier? It’s still astonishing to me
that Knik was the named because it was the END of the Knick glacier when the
town was founded. Amazing. We still have a glacier hanging above us I
think. No telling when it will be
gone. Soon I fear. It sends water down to us—on both sides of
our neighborhood. Many of us drink it
right from the stream.
I see cottonwoods everywhere---an awful tree to partner with
in terms of a heat source, but they are responsible, along with the willow and
other water-loving plants, that sprouted and grew really fast because of the
water source. All of those leaves over
the years have turned this valley into a place of soil, a place that can be
cultivated, albeit with LOTS of rocks throughout.
There are many animals up here, but they are also down in
the valley: moose, bears, coyotes,
rabbits. We could have warm clothes,
bear fat and meat to eat, but I’m not sure we could feed the current population
in our neighborhood. We have plenty of
year round birds to entertain us:
ravens, eagles, chickadees, nuthatches, and stellar jays, and my
favorite: the grouse. Our nocturnal residents help us keep our vole
populations down: owls and coyotes, but
unfortunately they eat the grouse too.
So, if I think of my
ancestors, I don’t think they would have settled here. Even though there’s fresh water, and SOME
spruce trees, it’s 1 mile up on the side of the mountain. They might have lived in the valley after the
glacier receded. But not up here.
It certainly makes me wonder if I should live here? I rely on fossil fuel to drive that mile up
and then another 10 miles to town. We
use lots of electricity and natural gas to stay warm. We have to import our wood because we live in
a cottonwood forest. However, it all
might be changing. Our summers are now
warmer and I see the cottonwood struggling, but so are the birch and the
willows. There isn’t enough water or
snow melt. Apparently this area used to
be covered in PINE trees before the last glaciers covered our area. Maybe that will be the new tree?
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The mind of God……up here in the mountains. What pattern is that?
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