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  • From: Bunjov AT aol.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Primitive Technology Living
  • Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2008 06:36:48 EDT

Sage - SUCH interesting stuff! Thank you!

No, you're not the only one up at this time of day/night.

Unfortunately, I don't think any of my grandchildren would be able to tell
the difference between a honeybee and a yellowjacket. (The yellowjackets will

eat the cat food, so don't leave it outside). Lesson learned early on.

We humans have developed such an over-blown idea of our own self-importance.
Instead of learning to live 'with', we have instead have developed multiple
methods of living 'against'.
To our detriment.

I noticed before that someone had posted that...mistletoe berries are not
really red (the ongoing pokeweed thread). But - if you are unfortunate
enough
to have to actually go shopping for holiday decorations, the faux mistletoe
in all the stores has red berries on it. What are our children going to grow
up thinking? Not much. They'll all be starting to do their own shopping
soon,
and won't give a thought to the "Made in China" label. Sad.

I've probably said before...I'm not just hemispheric, I'm a regionalist. For
example, the borders between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico should not be
defined by anything but the migrational trails of the animals, and the
timberline, etc., and the varying micro-climates and ecosystems.

It's unfortunate that our lives - or most of our lives, anyway - have become
defined by $$$.

I can look in my wallet right now and nothing in there would mean as much to
me as the fact that I have a whole stack of firewood right outside the door.

Sandy
Mid-Mojave





In a message dated 10/18/2008 2:47:42 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
eureka AT hctc.net writes:

Unfortunately the gall would be seen by many as something
making their tree less than perfect (such an American
obsession), and chemicals would be brought in to eliminate
the wasp. But we know wasps are such great pollinators and
these undoubtedly have some vital roll in your diverse
ecosystem. Isn't it wonderful when every new discovery
rekindles one's sense of wonder?

Our oaks are heavily "infested" (as they like to say
locally) with ball moss and there are companies that will
come and spray your trees with something akin to baking
soda to kill it off. I don't think it is particularly
attractive for the trees, but the plant itself is quite
interesting and I know Tillandsia sp. are used
medicinally, Although people think it is a parasite it is
really epiphitic in the bromeliad family and exists
entirely from what it can collect from the air. It also
grows profusely on the electric lines here (proof that it
is not parasitic).

It seems to me there has been an increase in the last two
decades of ball moss in the hill country. I know that
lichens are an indicator of clean air (kind of a miner's
canary) but I often wonder what the ball moss
proliferation is indicating. It seems to me it would say
the air is supplying more nutrients now?

Also, in the case of the galls on your trees, which you
have not noticed before, I wonder what this is indicating?

Here I have already learned to "read" some insect
activity. For instance, when the cutleaf ants get active
we are going to have a rainy season and some flooding. I
think I already mentioned on the list once that during the
two 500 year floods I've been through large slugs came
into my kitchen. One was a two slug flood and the other
was a three slug flood. I am sure the next time it is
raining and I see slugs in the kitchen I'm in for a bad
one. How can these slugs know what even our meteorologists
with the best equipment cannot? How nice to have them to
warn me should I find myself without electricity in the
future.

As you can see you are not the only one with insomnia.

--Sage


On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:46:45 -0400
EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I'm like you, I want to know things. I want to know
>every plant, tree,
> insect, gall, whatever, that is part of my world here.
> Even with the
> internet and Google, I haven't been able to find a
>picture of my gall.
> That is indicative of some serious biodiversity. I may
>be looking at
> some indigenous localized wasp species or maybe there is
>something
> unique about my soil that causes the tree to make a
>different kind of
> gall. I cut it open, and inside I can see pulpy
>striations like the
> striations you see on a larger scale in the apple oak
>gall.
> Anyway, you never know when or how such knowledge might
>be useful.
>
> Bev
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