I have been talking about climate change and what we can do beyond ‘changing the light bulbs’ and the like.
Below is an example of a decision that I have been working on in the past couple of weeks that drew on outside information, dowsing, and talking to the land. It is a good example of the “small” decisions that we can make consciously to balance our needs and the natural world’s needs.
Here on my new place in central Vermont, I have about 15 acres of possible pasture for my two working horses. The land has been very poorly maintained, the soils are thin, and the hillsides are basically ledge so the fields are fragile. About seven acres were newly seeded last year and about eight acres are currently being grazed by my horses. I am in the business of building and working my forest and pasture land ecologically as best I can while meeting the needs of my animals, the state of Vermont, and my own energy and financial constraints.
My goal for the next five years is to improve the land while providing rotating pasture for my animals.
Traditionally this would mean going through with my tractor or horses with a grass cutter of some sort after the horses have finished grazing a piece of land. On a traditional farm, multiple species (sheep, cattle, horses) will graze a piece of land as each species will not eat where their manure has been dropped, but will eat the area of another species’s manure. Since the manure creates much better and more lush grass, you want those manured areas to be grazed.
With only one species, there are large areas that are not grazed both because of manure and the plants that aren’t palatable to that species. You also don’t want to graze the good stuff down too far or its roots are killed and you end up with a dust bowl and/or mud hole. All of this means that in good management practices, you move the animals around in a seasonal rotation over your grazing land. After you have moved the animals off a swatch, you need to clip what is left so the new grass can grow back and the old stemmy stuff doesn’t crowd out the new. You especially need to cut for the burdock and other unpalatable invasive species which shade out the native grasses.
In New England in the spring when everything is growing, you can put animals on a swatch of land every two weeks or so.
In July and August when the growth has slowed down, a wait of a month is best. Of course weather extremes as in drought and too much rain, makes everything more complicated. You need to walk the pasture and see what you have.
I am also concerned about the pollinators and the butterflies like the monarchs. My open land is covered with clovers, wild flowers, and milkweed all of which the bees and butterflies depend on for food and egg laying. On non-working lands, New England land owners are urged not to cut fields between mid-June and mid-September, give or take a week, so as to support the pollinator and butterfly habitat.
What to do? I want to support bees and butterflies.
My horses need good pasture to sustain them during the non-snow months. Their manure and the clipping invasive species feeds the soil and the local plants. I am caught between my needs for my animals and the needs of our insects. This is the type of decision made all the time by anyone who works the land. In the time of viable small farms and before mechanized equipment, the choices were much easier as the farm was feeding the ecosystem in more ways than today.
First I consulted others: I asked some of my local naturalist friends and farmers and had a great conversation with one of the staff at https://monarchjointventure.org/ . I now have a better idea of the general life cycle of the monarchs and what kind of milkweeds and other plant species they need. The same for the bees. Because each piece of land is different and has different needs, I next made a map of the pasture by sections and dowsed with the question “ For the highest good for all concerned, when is this parcel to be clipped next?” I gave dates at two week intervals from now until the end of September. My mind wasn’t happy with the answers as only one swatch was to be cut in mid-August. The other six were September 15th and one was the 30th which is late in the growing season.
One evening after I had calmed all my mental “buts…” and my need to understand the dowsing answers, I took the last step.
I went and sat with the divas of the land, plants, butterflies, and bees – all the beings known and unknown that are involved. It took a few days to give up some of my fixed ideas, renew my trust and commitment to the land, and create a good time to be able to listen.
I called in the four directions, my guides, the spirit of the place, and all the relevant beings. I told them of my question and what thoughts I had come to. I would like to say that some momentus communication took place. What I heard was “Continue what you are doing.” My mind had a great time with that: “what “ could mean so many things. I sat for a while longer and closed the ceremonial connection.The next morning, I decided that the “what” referred to the process I was using to make a decision. I would go with the dates I had dowsed and check in every couple of weeks as to the clipping. This felt good.
This process made me deepen my understanding of what business I was in. I needed to think bigger than my land and animal’s needs. My decisions needed to be more consciously joint rather than just a glance as I sped by. I needed to find a balance: a balance for the bees and butterflies, for the plants, for the horses, for the land, and for myself.