Labyrinths have been integral to this year’s activities. Locations have spanned from the East Coast to the deep South, and from Alaska to Hawai’i. Catch up with Winding Pathways’ 2019 walks at 1080 Laughing Labyrinth website.
May you enjoy labyrinth walks in 2020. Join Veriditas Council for a Qualifying Workshop for those interested in learning more about labyrinths. For trained facilitators a Renewal Day in Rapid City, SD, April 25, 2020.
Solvitur Ambulando.
A few minutes after we dropped a match into our front yard’s dry prairie grass, the wind unexpectedly puffed up. Almost as fast as an explosion, eight-foot flames roared up from the burning grass. Our yard was on fire. The heat was intense as the fire zoomed toward our house.
The grasses catch quickly and subside as quickly.
Were we worried? Nope. Between the fire and the house was a three-foot mowed lawn, then our ten-foot-wide driveway and finally another 30 feet of mowed green lawn. Asphalt and green lawn don’t burn. When the raging blaze met the first strip of lawn it almost immediately calmed. Soon all the dry prairie was consumed, and with a final weak smoke puff, the fire was out.
From many years of experience with fire and its impact on the land, we know that our annual burn will stimulate a rush of colorful wildflowers next year while toasting any unwanted brush that tries to establish itself in our grassland.
It seems like almost every evening newscast shows photos of burned-out homes, usually in California, and reports of wildfires rampaging across the landscape. It’s easy to become fire scared without understanding how, where and why fires burn, their benefits, and how to protect a home from a wildfire. News reports and photographers frequently show the worst appearing spot and never return months later to show the profusion of wildflowers and tree seedlings the burn created.
As a former Forest Service Hot Shot, and with nearly 40 years of prescribed burning in prairies and oak savannas, Rich has much fire experience. Marion has been tending prescribed burns for years. They annually burn the prairie and savanna surrounding their home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Here’s their perspective.
Many of us remember grade school history lessons telling of Europeans discovering a forest primeval when their sailing ship landed along the East Coast. We often have the notion that North America in 1492 was pristine and untouched by people, allowing trees to grow into an immense phalanx. It wasn’t so.
Historical ecologists know that North America’s vegetation had been altered by people ever since humans colonized the continent some 11,000 years ago. The Eastern Forest that European explorers found had burned frequently, with most fires started by Native Americans. This created an open woodland of massive trees. Sunlight reached the ground, stimulating a dense growth of wildflowers and grasses. There was little brush, making it relatively easy to walk through the woods.
Prior to the settlement of North America by mostly Europeans, the land burned often enough that vegetation became dependent upon frequent fire. Indigenous people set fires because the resulting landscape produced more food from an increased abundance of wildlife and acorns, berries, and other edible plants stimulated by fire. Europeans generally viewed fire as an enemy and began suppressing it almost as soon as they colonized the continent. This fire aversion is reinforced by modern newscasts showing burned-out homes and towns.
Like the weather, fire is a natural force that sculpts the landscape and its vegetation. Many ecosystems decline in health when years go by without the rejuvenating impact of a burn. Areas suffering from fire starvation tend to build up flammable brush and tree debris, creating a potentially devastating future fire.
Knowledge of the predictable aspects of a fire helps us manage burns near our home at Winding Pathways as well as helping fire managers plan prescribed burns and fight out-of-control fires. Fires generally burn most vigorously when:
We take all these factors into account before we start a fire. For example, if we want our fire to move slowly and be easiest to control, we set it to run against the wind, downhill, and at a time when the humidity is high, usually before 10 a.m. If the area is reluctant to burn, we’ll do it when the humidity is low and plan it to go with the wind and upslope.
Early in the season, we get a fire permit from the county. It requires us to check the air quality and only burn on days when it is good. We call the sheriff’s office before we burn so they are aware of our activity. We also prepare firebreaks and reinforce our nonburn able asphalt driveway with mowed strips of lawn. Before lighting it, we have our water turned on, the hose stretched out and ready if we need it, and have a backpack fire pump called a “Smith Indian” ready to use to stop or slow the burn.
It is tragic when communities and homes are ignited by wildfires. Almost all are in Western coniferous woodlands or in California’s chaparral vegetation. These plants burn with extreme heat and create embers that blow in the wind, igniting new patches of forests and homes. Ironically many western plants, including Lodgepole pine and chaparral require fire to seed or be invigorated, yet people often disregard the risk and build fire-prone homes within historically fire-prone areas. Building a home in a flammable wood is akin to building in a floodplain or on a bluff over the ocean. It’s risky. Always have good insurance and follow fireproofing directions provided by the US Forest Service, insurance companies and others. In contrast, fires in Eastern deciduous woods rarely ignite homes. Here are a few resources for tips on how to reduce the odds that a wildfire will ignite a home:
Sierra Club and Protecting Your Home from Wildfire
The US Forest Service has extensive information online on how to protect a home from fire.
Individual Insurance Companies also provide information on fire protection.
We appreciate watching the impact of prescribed burns on the plants at our home at Winding Pathways. In the spring following a fall burn our savanna ephemeral wildflowers thrive and grace our property with color. By summer prairie wildflowers dance in the wind in our front yard. We’ve attached a few photos of our fires and resulting wildflowers.
For many people, 2019 was a roller coaster year in some respects. A habit I have developed is writing down each day a gratitude on a sticky note and placing each in a jar on the counter. Then, at the end of the year (three years now) I read them and select a few to remember. These are randomly selected.
In General – * Several times throughout the year we enjoyed breakfast, coffee or dinner with neighbors and friends.
* Yoga classes are always an activity I am grateful for.
* Healing energy work at home and the Nassif Community Cancer Center.
* Computer help from Turner Web Marketing and Dustin at Kirkwood.
* Taking in displays at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art with a friend.
* The year-long Shaman class. Meeting new people, learning different techniques and having the similarities of techniques affirmed.
January – * Grateful we have a competent tax consultant to help with tax ins and outs.
* We found an important letter that had dropped in the snow at the mailbox.
February – * After bitter cold for weeks on end, we had a sparkly, mild winter day. Birds singing and the sun strong enough to melt snow and ice.
* The previous year I had investigated possible sites for Renewal Day 2020. One of the excellent sites, Outlaw Ranch in the Black Hills, contacted me for an update. They were gracious when I explained the Veriditas Council had chosen a different location. The Ranch is a great location. A concern is that late April we could have a “snowbound” event.
* We’ve done monthly Facebook Live shows with Hoover’s Hatchery featuring Winding Pathways chickens: what’s new, how to, humor and gratitude for the hens. And, I hammed it up for KCRG-TV doing a FB live at the Nassif Community Cancer Center promoting their wellness center.
* A friend fixed our water pipe going to the outside, so it would not freeze up.
March – * Nancy arranged flights for me back East when Claire Patterson died. The ZOOM meeting from The Lake went well. The remembrance time at “33” on a beautiful late winter day – snowdrops outside the kitchen door. Coffee with Nancy before we separated to our respective terminals for flights. Flights on time!
April – * Excellent support from the Interreligious Council of Linn County and Lisa R. for the Global Healing Response program.
May – * A quiet student in the Journey’s class opened up day three, smiled and shared. Wonderful!
June – * Jazz festival Elkhart, IN. NYC with D and A and her mom. B-day celebrations by Jack and Marie. Quite the antipasto feast. Fireworks as we came back to Denville on the bus! Fireflies when we returned home.
July – * Walk labyrinth in the early morning.
August – *Journeys with outstanding colleagues.
September – *Tour of the Elmcrest Country Club by JH, who was so gracious to my sister and brother-in-law who is quite the golf enthusiast.
* Alaska adventures with B and N.
* House re-roofed.
October – * Visit with friends in Ohio. Attending the simple Sunday evening service at a retirement home. Labyrinth walks at Cedar Lake and Parsippany.
* Veriditas Council meeting to plan Renewal Day and Qualifying Workshop 2020 in The Black Hills.
November – * Dan and Amy’s wedding in the East. Fun times. Music. Food. Relatives and friends.
* Cleaned the prairie after the wimpy burn. Goodness the ground is wet and the air humid this year.
* Thanksgiving with friends here.
December – * Re-connecting with a massage therapist I know from another venue.
* D. came to Scott Mansfield’s memorial service.
* Calls from and to families.
* Kopecky’s hosted us and a family far from home.
There’s a surefire way to tell we are in the depths of winter. It’s the arrival of garden seed catalogs in the mail. We get many at Winding Pathways.
Seed catalogs make great winter reading.
Some come from massive companies that sell a wide range of flower and vegetable seeds plus tree seedlings and garden supplies. Others are from companies that specialize in one type of seed or plant, like fruit tree seedlings or prairie plants.
We buy vegetable seeds in late winter from either the Dutchman’s Store in Cantril, Iowa, or the Stringtown Grocery near Kalona, Iowa. Both are run by Mennonites or Amish people and sell bulk seeds. Scoop a spoonful from a large jar and deposit them in a small envelope. Then write the code and vegetable name on the envelope and pay on the way out. We’ve found the seeds to be of excellent quality and much less expensive than similar ones sold in stores or through catalogs or the computer.
Not everyone has access to a bulk seed store, so buying prepackaged seeds makes sense. Sometimes seed catalogs list vegetable varieties we want to try and can’t get otherwise. This year, for example, we will plant a new dwarf winter squash. The vines are short and the fruits just the right size for two people.
We usually buy trees from the National Arbor Day Foundation, and prairie plants from Prairie Moon Nursery. Arbor Day Foundation trees are small but we’ve had excellent results from them, and they are inexpensive.
In early 2020 we plan to convert about 3,000 square feet of lawn to low profile pollinator habitat. We’ll buy a prairie seed mix from Pheasants Forever (pfhabitatstore.com). They have many mixes available that are suitable for different soils. They are most appropriate for larger areas.
Happy Planning and Planting.
When the next soft snow falls, go tracking outside! A mid-December 2019 skiff of snow delighted us. There was not enough of the white stuff to shovel but the thin white blanket that covered our yard revealed who visited the night before.
The dimples of deer tracks were clearly visible as we went out to get the newspaper, but one set of tracks was unusual and especially interesting. Four footprints, in a rough line, kept repeating with about three feet of untrod snow between them. Just what animal created them?
After a bit of sleuthing, we decided it was a coyote out seeking a mouse or rabbit dinner. Coyotes aren’t rare around our home but they aren’t in the yard often. We wish we could have watched it lope across the yard.
A skiff of snow makes for a delightful walk in the woods, grasslands, or wetlands. Often animals are easy to spot as their dark coats contrast with the white snow and tracking is superb. It’s usually not hard to figure out what animal made the tracks, and following them gives some idea of what the animal was doing and where it was going.
Many Websites and books help with track identification but we like www.naturetracking.com because it shows tracks of animals most likely to be in a backyard.
Happy tracking.
