When you’re a small or part-time operator and you compare yourself to a social media influencer or a giant in any given field, it is tempting feel substandard. The more educated we get at Bird’s Nest Garden Farm, the more we realize what we’re not doing as ideally as possible. The accusations drip down: we’re not organic enough; we’re not regenerative (beyond sustainable) enough; we don’t collaborate or host enough; we don’t move our livestock frequently enough within our rotational grazing system.
Somebody dropped something: getting a grip on the tail end of… a tail! Two lambs eating the grape salad I planted on the “dead hedge.”
One self-administered accusation goes like this: “You didn’t plant the woody plants thickly enough within your baby tree/pasture (“silvopasture”) system. And this is actually technically true. But occasionally, something you’ve done right smacks you in the face.
I found a red oak seedling in the current livestock pasture paddock. There are no red oaks on our property or immediate environment that we did not plant.
The red oak seedling sprouts to the right of the white stake.
Where is the closest possible parent red oak to this seedling?
Pasture with white stake marking the seedling.
Planted over 25 years ago, the parent oaks soar at the far right edge of the forest in the background of the picture above.
Wildlife are co-creating the biodiverse treed savanna pasture we seek.
A White Tussock Moth caterpillar explores an unchecked Sugar Maple log. Unchecked wood is recently cut and moist enough to not feature a large shrinkage crack. I re-homed the caterpillar to a living Basswood branch.
Summer soldiered on. My “To Do” list was left unchecked for a week or so. When I finally did check it, one item was “Check Firewood Supply.” I did check. I needed more wood. Sigh.
I asked myself, “How do I get the most wood for the least effort and energy? After all, I’d rather watch baseball or eat cookies. Ideally, I’d stack functions and do both simultaneously.
The answer came in the form of a mental cookie, a permaculture platitude named: “Stacking Functions.” On Permies.com, Jocelyn Campbell writes: “Stacking functions is doing (or building or designing) something that serves more than one function simultaneously.”
On the same post, Mike Hasl writes “It’s getting multiple uses out of one element of your design. Like a pergola that gives shade, has a gate to your garden, supports grapes and looks pretty.”
Killing two birds with one stone makes sense to every meat eater, but what if the ratio was seven to one? Systems engineer and Manager of the Student Organic Farm at Clemson University, Shawn Jadrnicek opines:
“Once the magic number of seven is breached, the design takes on a life of its own. For a component to perform seven functions it must be so connected to its environment that it takes on a new autonomous, lifelike quality. I refer to this quality as bio-integration…” The Bio-Integrated Farm, p. 4.
Okay, okay–but what the Funktion does stacking function have to do with firewood? In pursuit of an idea, I cruised a local backroad. Some local people bemoaned the damage caused by an ice storm this past winter. Many trees lost their tops or major limbs.
Not so nice: our soft hardwoods bent under the ice.
I observed that most damage was done to tree limbs that were in a weak position structurally, were members of a weak species, or were located without much tree peer support. Enter the cheapskate! I dunno how bio-integrated I am, but I could cruise a local backroad and look for “Stacking Function Firewood”.
Timber cruising a back road with a wood shepherd.
I located downed maple and ash limbs. I cut them to fit in my truck.
Load Number Two? Load Number One? Either way, there was more to be done.
I brought them home to cut, stack, and dry further. My one simple idea was in the running for Stacking Functions medals. “Stacking Function Firewood” indeed belongs on the bio-integration podium because:
It was FREE for the price of gathering. The only thing taxing was my moderate paced labour.
It built or maintained muscles outside of a fitness club membership; see above–my Fitness Club IS The Outside.
It is composed of relatively high fuel value dense hardwood species.
It removed obstacles or potentially dangerous snags like ones that might fall on hikers, livestock, drivers—or snow removal workers like me!
The wood is already primed to dry: the tree limbs started to dry the minute the ice ripped them off of the trees. This maximizes heat value and minimizes the weight of moving them.
The wood required no further splitting by a nasty hydraulic machine nor a heavy maul axe. Most limbs are small enough that they will mostly dry within one year of seasoning thus need not be split.
Retrieving the wood fuel required a minimum of fossil fuel. The truck had a very short drive. The chainsaw is battery-powered, not gas-powered.
The project was “time-stacked.” The gathering of fuel occured simultaneously with exercising domestic canines.
The project provided fuel for winter warmth AND for a Blog Post!
Each of us excels at fetching sticks. She usually does it barefoot. I usually do not. Nor do I use chainsaws while wearing slippers.
Winters can be long here on the homestead. But this past winter we had a project that helped take our minds off all of the snowstorms in February and the ice storm that top-chopped many trees in March.
Wiarton’s Deep Water Gallery called for submissions for their 2025 exhibit and the creative floodgates opened. I floated a concept which was accepted: what if there was a display that explored the different levels the lake waters occupied since the last glacier melted?
Now to bring it to life.
The slice of the Saugeen PeninsulaLaser cut wood at Arbello CreativeColour planningAll the painting, varnishing and gluing complete
This project would not have come about without our community.
We are so thankful for Arbello Creative (Anthony Perusello & Rebecca Arboly) for their flexibility in working on this unprecedented project without much lead time. The plywood that their laser cut is the physical foundation that supports this conceptual piece.
We’re indebted to the “Deep Six:” especially Natalie and Kevin Kuipers geophysically and Katrina Keeshig & Ryan Lauzon “limnospiritually”. Thanks to Natasha Akiwenzie and Ray Auger for freely sharing their knowledge and insights. Thanks also to Jason & Cindy McNamara for makerspace and listening to our grousing about our project’s dousing.
Finally, a heartfelt miigwetch to Lenore Keeshig for her geomythological immersion in deep water and for the deep truths she has spoken.
Gallery Iteration
Read the accompanying deep dive for more background on the piece.
After the show closed at the gallery, visitors to the Bluewater Outdoor Education Centre interacted with the piece until the end of June.
A New Life
With some clever adaptation, the art piece is now a table that will live for an extended time at Lost Art Espresso in Wiarton. Over a deep cup of quality coffee you can stare into the ancient watery depths until your eyes glaze over or until the caffeine wakes you up.
Converting the art piece to a table by adding wooden sides and a sheet of glass.
Speaking of ancient, the sculpture’s new blue sides originally were red oak timbers manufactured for pallet bases. They sat unclaimed outside exposed to elements and decaying fungi for years. Now they contain this conceptual work which cycles through the different depths the lake water occupied over many eras.
Battening down the table for transport from the farm to town
Transporting the table the 22km to Wiarton was a slow, careful affair. We’re glad the rain held off until later in the day. The table just fit through the entrance door like it was going into a nitrile glove!
We hope you have a chance to visit this new iteration of Deep Water, Deep Time and gain an appreciation for the changeable nature of water and nature!
Virtuous carbon cycling can be joyful–especially on a dreary morning when I didn’t want to get out of bed!
I discovered this downed tree in the neighbourhood this morning. It must have come down recently in the stormy weather we’ve been having over the weekend.
Not pictured: the truck piled high with aspen boughs and the neatly cleared roadway I left behind.
It’s the second day the lambs have had tree fodder. Below: chickens observe bare branches that the lambs tore ash leaves off yesterday. Sticks are leftover salad stems. Later I’ll mulch them in place as a soil enricher with the tractor flail mower to make ramial chipped wood.
The chooks of course are wondering if I brought them anything better than branches (sorry, not this time).
Peter stands by his submission to the Wood/Land juried exhibition at Deep Water Gallery Feb 16, 2023
Wood/Land reflects the relationships and influence of the forest. Artist submissions must consider the theme Wood/Land through technique, perspective or subject matter. What of the land that grows the tree? What do forests and woodlands mean to us?
Deep Water Gallery call for submissions January 20, 2023
When our local gallery published this call for submissions, I saw Peter’s eyes light up.
Really, he lives his life immersed in trees, constantly interacting with them through his teaching, planting, removing, burning of them for heat and reading about them for pleasure. On top of that, we are taking an online class about coppice agroforestry. Trees are his jam.
