WILDFIRES AND WASTELANDS

Long before experts figured out how to use controlled burns, those called the savage and primitive used fire to manage the land. Every part of an animal or plant that was killed was used in some way – for food, medicine, cleaning, clothing and tools.

It’s like humanity is relearning, at least trying to, but also claiming it as discovery. How Columbus of you.

You may have heard of agricultural land being used up, the nutrients sucked dry, infected with toxins and disease.

Pharmaceuticals are made from chemically synthesized concentrations of medicinal plant compounds. However, the balance of the plant is lost in this process and can just as easily cause disease rather than cure it in the long term. Quick, fast, easy solutions are part of conquest western culture paradigm that always ignores the long term.

The wildfire site near my location is filled with burnt, downed trees and scrub brush with leaves turned to ash.

I came upon the site which is great for exploring. There is an abandoned bridge beside the new road. It would be a great structure to build a little house on, or perhaps continue the house underneath where the creek runs through.

Once past its wasteland appearance, it is like the Garden of Eden. The land purged by fire, life proliferates. White sage with fragrant flowers, dandelion, pine saplings, mullein, yerba santa, and wild rose grows on the slopes or in the cracks of rock where the creek quenches their thirst. Each one of these plants has more vitamins than the greens you will find in the store, or it may possess a medicinal use, pure flavor and scent, health and beauty applications.

Funny, a person will pay hundreds of dollars for products made from the same thing plus filler chemicals, and turn up their nose at its contents if it looks like a weed. Not funny. Weird and sad.

The cold clear water of the stream, filled with the perfect balance of minerals, encourages the growth of the water-loving plants. It made me wonder if a waterfall garden would not serve as a sufficient or better hydroponic system minus the materials and design specs of the human engineered system.

But in this spot, I don’t think about those things so much, or anything really. It is just there and I am just there and everything is just right as it is.

Such a growing plan would not produce as profitably year-round because it is still dependent on natural light and seasonal weather. Perhaps in the right location within a warm greenhouse. Or one could just adopt this spot as the garden.