I have been making an attempt to mentally map out an overview of the connections that exist between the gardens, projects, points of nature, and care-taking of beings on my property. No doubt this is prompted by the fun I had when in order to create a mailbox garden last weekend I first had to move a pile of landscape timbers, clear piles of garden debris, and mow the front lawn.
Every little task or chore or project here is connected in innumerable and intimate ways. I love those connections. They are part of my wholeness.
One of my child-selves wants the lines on this map to be straight, connecting point A to point B with linear perfection. I can hear a long-ago teacher’s voice urging a classroom full of tiny people, including me, to use a ruler to draw our lines because she wanted our maps to look nice. That particular little kid gives valid planning input for many of my projects, but for most matters relating to the cottage or to spirit, I tend to listen more to the child who once colored a dog periwinkle blue with magenta spots and did not pay attention to staying within the lines.
A chicken named Jazz at Bear Path Cottage [S Barker]
Creating a homestead from scratch is a long, slow process, especially for someone with very little practical experience as a gardener, zero experience with livestock and water management, and limited financial resources. At least it has been for me. I find it helpful to break it all down into individual projects and aspects and to see each one as an ongoing experiment with endless room for improvement and change. Working from that point of view keeps me from feeling as if projects or plantings that do not work out are a failure and also allows the connections to show as they evolve.
Getting to know and building a relationship with this land and the land spirits has been the most important factor in whatever success I have had. That process involved spending a great deal of time sitting, observing, and communicating; watching the patterns of light and water movement, paying attention to the wildlife that moves across and shares the land, and tuning in to how the land spirits and land feel about their purpose.
Asking them to work with me to create and sustain space that is pollinator and wildlife supportive and that benefits and beautifies human existence was the largest leap of faith I have ever taken. And I take that leap over and over again whenever I begin a new project or pour precious resources into expanding or reworking something where perspective has shifted the understanding of connections.
My long-time dream of someday owning a cottage included having a variety of gardens, raising chickens, and keeping bees. I was not anticipating the bears but after years of having them as neighbors before I moved into my cottage, I consider their presence to be part of the divine mystery and blessing of living with nature.
The spiraling, winding lines that mark the connections here often move back and forth and twist around gardens, chickens, and bears and other wildlife. When I first saw this property, I thought about getting rid of almost all the grass and the volunteer plants and wild growth in order to create a landscape rich with native plants and flowers that would be beneficial to pollinators. But of course, I was taking my time to make decisions before taking action, and after the first spring here realized that the purple dead nettle, creeping charlie, dandelions, and plantain scattered among the grass were not only already helping the pollinators but were good additions to my herbal apothecary.
By the second spring I wished that the remaining grass would simply be taken over by white clover. I had many conversations with the Cottage and the land spirits about that, asking them to make it so. By the third spring, that bit of magic happened in most of the front and side yard without any help from me. The presence of clover means the yard does not have to be mowed as frequently, and the pollinators and bunnies are happy with the extra food source.
Here is a connection point: in the second spring, the first chickens came to live here. A friend had to move and could not take her hens with her, so she gave me four chickens and a small coop. Although raising chickens had been part of the original cottage dream, I had never even met a live chicken before these girls, and suddenly I was responsible for four living, breathing, tough but fragile creatures.
My husband helped me construct a temporary run for them, and I began to research the best options for housing chickens in an active predator area. I also researched caring for them, including how to supplement their diet from my gardens. Delighted and amused to learn that I could feed them most of the volunteer plants and wild growth that I had considered clearing from my land, I began to carry a basket whenever I walked or worked in the gardens, specifically to hold the treats I harvest for my birds. They still make a happy fuss whenever they see me approaching with that basket, which now holds clippings from bee balm, comfrey, chamomile, and other garden plantings as well as the wild growth.
Barn and coop at Bear Path Cottage [S Barker]
Another connection point: bears, gardens, and chickens. I write and speak about American black bears in a voice that I know seems casual to some folks. I never grow tired of seeing the bears that live in this area. I love when they pass through my property, when they play in the gardens, or when the sows park their cubs in one of the pine trees. I am not afraid of these bears because I have a healthy respect for them and am very aware of the damage they can do, so I avoid putting myself or them in situations that would make fear necessary.
Part of being a good steward of this property is being mindful of protecting the creatures that share this land with me. The best way to protect the bears is to make use of the guidelines suggested by https://bearwise.org, and my husband and I work diligently to do so.
The majority of my vegetable garden is located in a fenced section of the property that the bears have rarely entered. Two years ago, I planted an experimental three sisters garden (beans, corn, squash) in the unfenced front yard where the bears frequently visit. They had completely ignored my corn the year before, but in two separate visits, a sow with three cubs totally destroyed the three sisters garden. Now every time that sow passes through, she checks that raised bed to see if there is anything tasty growing there. Last year it became my medicinal herb bed; I will never plant corn again because I do not want her or any other bear to become habituated to it as a food source in my gardens.
The chickens and their feed are a big temptation to the bears and other predators that live in this area. Fox, coyote, possum, raccoon, hawk, owl, and mink are the ones I see most frequently here at the cottage. Of course, the feed that gets spilled in the run draws rodents, which draw snakes, both of which further draw predators. More origin points on the map of connections.
In the year before I acquired chickens, there were several local reports about bears destroying chicken coops and killing all the birds. Before my birds even arrived, I felt the weight of responsibility for their safety and lives and for making sure I do everything I can to never be the reason any animal associates human dwellings and human outbuildings with being a source of food. I take this very seriously, and it makes me angry and sad when I hear or read about human-created situations that lead to the loss of the life of a bear.
Origin point on the map of connections: the wooden shed kit I purchased that became the tiny barn, two-thirds of which is a chicken coop and one-third of which is secure storage space for feed and outside workspace for me. A very determined bear could possibly gain entry, but not without making a great deal of effort and a great deal of noise. My growing flock of chickens is as safe as they can possibly be, which by extension adds to the safety of the neighboring predators.
What about my dream cottage bees? The gardens are full of them from first bloom in spring until last bloom in fall, sometimes hundreds of them in a day. When I am weeding the flower beds they hover and buzz all around me, and it is a simple joy to watch them work. However, the bear connection means that I will never have beehives. The bears would be constantly tempted and the bees constantly in danger, and I cannot justify putting any of us in that situation. The wild bees will be enough for me.
These are some of the most obvious and less mystical points of connection that exist here, a small sampling to demonstrate the way life with gardens or on a small homestead creates a fine weaving of energies and life force and magic. I think the longer I am here the more those threads, those lines on the map, pull me into the weaving too.
Before tackling this seemingly not-so-weighty subject I was considering whether being a witch and a pagan who views the earth and nature as sacred creates a deeper responsibility for me as a caretaker of the land that I steward. Does that stewardship mean so much to me because of my spiritual beliefs, or would I feel the same depth of love and passion and humor about it no matter what path I walk?
Methinks there are no straight-line answers to those questions. Perhaps someone else could find them, but I would rather live along the meandering paths that loop and spiral and lead me to the borders, questions, and adventures that add depth and meaning to my world.
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