I realized Monday that I'd never explored all the way up the holler behind our farm.  When we first moved here, I didn't want to trespass on someone else's property, but a year or so ago, the owner of that property mentioned that he didn't mind if I walked there since we let his son hunt down onto the adjacent parts of our property.  So I set off with the camera to explore.

Long-time readers will know that our farm seems to completely lack rocks --- not so up the holler!  Before long, I came across mossy boulder fields, rock-loving ferns and liverworts, and even a pretty waterfall.  Granted, our main creek was at flood stage, so this waterfall on the little spur creek might not exist in dry weather.

After about half a mile climbing straight up, an old tire in the creek suggested I was approaching civilization, so I looped back toward home, this time walking on contour along the side of the hill.  Along the way, I discovered another perfect stump-dirt tree, but I had nothing to collect the prime potting soil in (and doubt I'll climb that high with a bucket).  This tree is an ancient beech just like my favorite stump-dirt tree, suggesting that something about that species makes the best potting soil --- I've rooted around in the rotten center of many other trees without finding such black gold.  Maybe rotting beech wood hosts a particularly good species of fungus or beetle?

I'm afraid that after the halfway point, though, I stopped taking photos and started writing the sequel to Watermelon Summer in my head.  Oops.  I really meant to write a non-fiction ebook or two before scratching that itch, but it'll probably be good for me to at least start another fiction piece while all of the lessons of the first are fresh in my mind.  And if people like the fiction, the sequel will be ready to go that much sooner.

I hope you're taking advantage of the winter lull to explore the wider world!

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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