Hi, I'm Bob, Buckingham, Virginia, USA zone 7

Discussion in 'Introduce Yourself Here' started by ramdai, Feb 28, 2014.

  1. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    ah, i have my preferences set to show times on posts in local time, so your post shows up here as being made at today (Monday) 4:27PM. :) ramdai is in the same time zone as moi. that puts you 16 hrs ahead of us (also Benjy and Willie are in the eastern time zone) and 13hrs ahead of Paka and Gandalf (i think mountain time doesn't go that far west...).
     
  2. ramdai

    ramdai Junior Member

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    Temperate, zone 7b 40 inches rain -avg inland -500 feet
    makes sense to me, i'm trying to confine more and more of my busyness to being in my head,, so when i do get out and start doing stuff it is efficient and in harmony with natural order, not totally contrary, a total invention of my ego

    That's actually a positive effect of these forums, to get some feedback from people that have experience in similar situations-- a place where failures become invaluable to keep the rest of us from wasting energy there as well

    my biggest questions i guess are more esoteric, how my actions will relate to the community,, especially since 30 acres well managed should have enough abundance for lots of extra people, as well as lots of zone 5--how to figure out those balances --funny how i sort of see those questions, and yet have a confidence that a lot of them will naturally be answered as i progress with smaller issues within my immediate needs

    there's a quote i learned that helps me keep moving forward at times when big picture type stuff seems so overwhelming i get a bit paralysed---
    To reach for things beyond our grasp is fantasy
    when that which lies within our reach we see
    has not yet been completed but holds the key
    the simplest things in life will set us free
     
  3. ramdai

    ramdai Junior Member

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    i'll have to look at preferences and play with them a bit so i can see those time shifts a bit, not that it's super critical, just curious
     
  4. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    I can't remember that .... I can't even remember how to retrieve an auto-saved post, or how to post photos : /
    I need a clock widget - so it's just there :)
     
  5. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    Mmmm. Yeah - the quote is correct. Right now my head is about to explode. I need to reduce my field of focus way down, down, down, tiny, tinier ... & breath. I stopped doing *stuff* ages ago, when I realised I was just working over the top of myself. But I have continued to let my monkey mind reel on at a million miles an hour. I need to just stop that too. My natural personality is very passionate & energetic ... it's hard to accept that the answer is to just stop everything. It's scary.

    I can't offer much help or even relate experiences I'm afraid because of your very different physical zone. I have no idea how life works where you live : ) But you sound like you have a really good handle on it & you've spent a good few years just watching the seasons on the place haven't you?
     
  6. ramdai

    ramdai Junior Member

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    I used to spend 2 or 3 weeks at the ocean in september after the tourists left--during the first week i'd be ready to leave at the drop of a hat, and it would be all i could do to just stay parked and not run back home to do stuff

    by the end of the third week i would be reluctant to leave, my body would be baked by the sun my lungs and skin clean and clear --funny how wound up we get even when we know how nice it is to just let stuff go

    and yes, i have been watching quite a bit, one summer i was having a lot of trouble with predation of my guineas and i used to just go out and sit with them in the trees while they foraged for hrs at a time

    other times i just go down to the creek and put a lawn chaise in the middle of the ford (to keep the ticks off) and lay there listening to the water fall in the sunshine

    some of the areas i'm planning to restructure i'm not quite as familiar with, but by the time i'm done laying out contours and maybe beginning the hugel swales i should have a much better idea how everything is working there before i start preparing for the main pond

    but again, that's my mind racing way ahead of my actual knowledge/ experience, by the time i get to that action point i'll have a pdc under my belt and probably a consult as well

    oh well, it's late here, time to turn everything off and rest
     
  7. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    : ) Yeah the sun & the ocean have that effect on you - they can get right down deep into your bones : )

    This morning I could hear a baby wedgetail eagle yelling its head off somewhere close & I went outside to investigate. I stepped out the door & looked up & Mum & Dad were right there circling over the top of me : ) Didn't see junior, but he was in a tree somewhere very close.
    Went for walk up to the mail box this afternoon & stopped & hung out by the creek on the way back.
    Tried to breath : )

    I saw a documentary on TV about a guy who hung out with some wild turkeys ... I can't remember the details, but it was pretty amazing : )

    And now I have to go to bed because I have to get up at 6.00 to drive to Coffs in the morning : /
     
  8. ramdai

    ramdai Junior Member

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    we have hawks here and chicken hawks/vultures, never did quite get the difference--i surprised a hawk once on a kill-- one of my guineas- if i had been a few minutes earlier..the whole adventure with keeping guineas was such a trip, went over two years and they were always safe in the coop, then i was away working up north and started getting calls from my friend that they were being killed in the coop,

    later on a neighbor caught a big raccoon and let it sit in the trap overnight--that night he tore through the metal of the trap--i couldn't have done that through that heavy wire, i could only assume he was the culprit --killed about 14 over the space of a few days that was just this past december-- i still have the one that imprinted on me-- she was just a couple weeks from being introduced to the flock--or she would be gone now too


    the real problem was that they clear cut about a thousand acres just down the road- that really increased the predator load-i'll be curious to see if it changes the rainfall here as well,, prevailing winds are from that direction--so far i can't tell a difference, i've been here about 13 years, and it has cycled in and out of drought- funny, i always thought that the trees and plants sort of called to the clouds for the rain, after hearing Bill talk about it it's so neat to be able to put some science to it.

    Hanging out with wild turkeys is probably safer than hanging with grizzly bears

    we have black bears here, and i've had some real close encounters--probably the funniest (in retrospect) was skinny dipping and sitting on a rock and a bear come crashing through the underbrush and is suddenly in the clearing about 25 feet (8meters) away i shouted, he ran, but it did put a crimp in my swimming for a bit
     
  9. Herb Burgart

    Herb Burgart New Member

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    Hi, The lay of your place sounds similar to where I am, Mecklenburg Co. VA.
     

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