As the Earthship build at the Doighouse is progressing slowly, I was going to post another Ride With Me article, or at least a Walk With Me. Last Saturday I went on a little exploration with my friend, whom I met four years ago at the Earthship Academy, and had the pleasure to work together with at another Earthship build the following year. He's a fellow bike touring enthusiast and skilled natural builder. Last year he helped Tony and Susan, and this year we get to build an Earthship together again.
A Journey Through the Woods
We set out by bike, but our explorations took us into the depth of the woods, so it ended up being a biking-hiking day. This time I omitted using Strava, and even my nifty GPS map was put on the back burner, for last resort. We were not going too far anyway, just exploring the neighborhood. The property of Tony and Susan may seem like a complete clear-cut, with the leveled ground for the Earthship and the garden, but in fact more than half of their land is still undisturbed forest. This joins up with the woods on their neighbors’ properties, which have been cut or may be cut sometime in the future. In any case, there is a whole lot of forest all around (still).
We set out on the beautifully built forest trail running right by our entrance. This is part of the Lighthouse Trail, which in turn is part of the larger Trans Canada Trail. Though it is not really connected to other trails, this short path is suitable for anything from strollers to wheelchairs, and presents a nice image of the forest. Once we were past it, continuing on logging roads and other trails, we were on our own, having to cross creeks adventurously by bikes on logs, and the like.
Lots of Tiny Fruit Servings
Before going out bush-bashing, however, we were distracted by the ample richness of nature’s offerings. At this time of the year the woods are a proper smörgåsbord, with a number of wild berries growing in ample quantities, pretty much everywhere. At least on both sides of the logging road there were so many bushes that we could pick to our hearts’ delight.
The berries in the left-hand picture are yellow salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis), looking a lot like salmon roe, which might have given them their name. In the picture on the right you can see more salmonberries, this time the red variety. At first we were not sure if the red ones were just ripe yellow ones, but a close examination revealed the difference: both varieties are present in various stages of ripeness. The red ones are especially flavorful when they’re super ripe.
The only thing even more delicious were the thimbleberries (Rubus parviflorus). Unfortunately they are just starting to ripen, but within a week the driveway to the property should be covered in these bright red “thimbles” one has to pull off the bush. The picture on the right shows native blackberries (Rubus ursinus). These are much smaller and less invasive than the common kind. They also produce smaller berries, but at least they don’t choke up their entire surroundings. As for the common blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis), there’s also lots and lots of them, most notably around the driveway to the property. But at the moment they are still in bloom, suggesting a bountiful harvest in a few weeks.
Most of us are familiar with Huckleberry Finn and/or Huckleberry Hound. But do we also know what huckleberries (Vaccinium parvifolium) look or taste like? Many tiny red berries on a bush, like the one in the picture. Very tasty, but so small that you can be picking them all day… which is exactly what we did. Boy, are there many of them in these woods! In higher elevations huckleberries tend to be blue (Gaylussacia baccata) - the explanation for Huckleberry Hound - but around here they are all red.
On the Lookout for Fungi
Granted, we’ve had a good number of rainy days in the past weeks, but still you wouldn’t call this time of the year mushroom season. Nevertheless, we went to see what kind of fun-guys we could find. The beautiful picture on the top of this post is of an oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus). At least, that’s what my guess is. I was not certain enough to taste it, but loved how the water-droplets were clinging to it. Another edible type we found (and brought some home with us) were these lovely turkey tails (Trametes versicolor). The other curious one is the artist's conk (Ganoderma applanatum), growing always horizontally to the ground, even if the tree changes its position to horizontal.
Not Just Flora, but Fauna!
There have been a good few bear visits on our site. Remember I mentioned one eating my granola? (It was in the comments to this post.) Well, he has been around, visiting on and off. Fortunately we have been keeping the kitchen cupboards bungee-wrapped (for the most part) since the first encounter. But Mr. Fuzzy has been coming and going like he owns this place. Not that you can hold it against him. He’s most likely been the main occupant of the area before the human residents arrived.
Since the first visit, we have been getting acquainted and accustomed to each other. For us this means not leaving food in our tents, locking away everything tasty over night, and generally being bear-aware. For the bear, it’s the complete opposite: he just doesn’t care! While at first he only made his appearance around dawn, when it’s the safest, this past week he has walked by in visible distance from us. We were hanging out around the kitchen area, and suddenly this bear walks up to edge of the woods and looks at us... Fortunately, he can be scared away easily, with just a wave of the hand (literally). His small stature suggests a young bear, probably a yearling, who hasn’t had too many encounters with humans. Since he hasn’t been a threat, nobody wants to call the authorities (who would most likely just shoot him). On the other hand, we have to make sure that he doesn’t get accustomed to hanging out around our place… for everyone’s safety.
If you like this project, please visit the other posts I have published in my Doighouse Series:
- Earthship and Permaculture - Introducing the Doighouse Series
- Shower for the Earthship Build
- Complementing the Earthship: The Permaculture Garden
- Essential for the Helping Hands: The Volunteer Kitchen
- Preparing for the Earthship Build: Milling Lumber
- Week of Volunteers - Getting Started on the Tires (finally!)
If you're interested in coming to visit, or better volunteer for a while, please contact [email protected] and visit http://thedoighouse.com/ Looking forward to getting to know you!
Please check out these great communities I'm contributing to:
#homesteadersonline | Website | Discord Community
#ecotrain | What is EcoTrain | Discord Community
#thankyoubicycle | Introducing Thank You Bicycle
Introducing SteemitDreamit | Facebook Group | Discord Community
So nice! Hope to see you this weekend. My sis says you are welcome to come crash on the property, I think you will love the island vibe there. Cheers!
Thanks, me too! So looking forward to it! We've been wanting to visit Lasqueti for a while. Amazing how we'll get to meet there!
Hey man, we are leaving right now. Still don't know where we're going, but wanna take the 9:45 ferry. Sent you a couple of emails. Hope we won't miss each other. Cheers.
Beautiful place. Be careful with that bear! He will grow and you don't want him to become too familiar with the site. You are right though. If you did report the poor creature, I don't think he would have much of a chance of survival. He definitely is a young bear.