You might have already noticed some videos on this blog of people touring our gardens. In the summer of 2021, I created a photo panel display of changes in the land that we live on over the 37 years that we have been here and began showing the photos to the small tour groups that come to see the farm and give them some of the background information before we start walking around the place. The following video contains some of that kind of info, but takes it a little further and lasts a little bit longer than what I tell the tour groups, since I save most of my talking for when we actually do the walking tour.
As I describe in the video, our little five-acre place in the northern Rocky Mountains of western Montana, on the Flathead Indian Reservation, had been badly damaged by previous residents before we moved onto the land, mainly by scraping off much of the topsoil and overgrazing with too many horses. The video demonstrates how this habitat and ecosystem was restored by the work of water (selected small-scale flood irrigating), the natural deposits of organic nutrients, the entrance of various species of wildlife into the system, the planting and self-propagation of trees (into small forests in places), the increase in numbers of birds, the sun, the germination of dormant seeds and the natural spread of seeds, human labor, and the diverse activities and interaction with land and water of many people of other species. Some of the activities of other species can also rightly be called “labor.”
As with all my posts, I hope that you enjoy and find value in this and are possibly moved to leave a comment or question.
Learning Earthways 