Modern Woman…Ancient Irrigation.
I am going to share something that I’m spiritedly geeked out over. It’s a problem/solution thing that is fueling a surprising connection to myself, to nature, to innovation, and to my beloved fierce simplicity.
Here’s my modern problem.
My mountain property does not have a well or a natural flowing water supply.
I want to start planting fruit, nut, and medicine plants as well as hedge rows and tree diversity.
North Idaho summers get very dry, so I need an irrigation solution to water the babies until they get established.
I don’t live there full time but can commit to come once a week in the hot and dry part of the summer.
Limited financial resources, so I need a simple solution using the most of what I have or can get for cheap.
Needs to be easily moved for winter and changing lands as we do layers of development.
Here’s my experimental solution.
Ancient olla pot irrigation.
Rain catching system that is mobile, and can be easily transported for winter storage.
Weekly trips to water the pots.
Barrel for free. Feeder and parts for cheap. I made 2 for this experiment. They are meant for early spring installation to catch and contain rain and snow.
Using some of what I had, but buying others, the bottom container will be buried into the earth near the young plants to slowly seep water out all week long.
I’m starting small this summer to gather observational data. If this goes the way I hope it does, I will scale it out and adapt next year and the year after that and so on until we can order the drilling and implementation of a well in which I can fashion hoses and timers for a set and forget ease. But, until then I am a modern woman who is choosing an ancient solution.
Sometimes the only way forward is to go back. ~ Nissa
This tiny, mundane, practical choice has awakened something in me that is a culmination of many parts of me that have been conceived from the years of work I’ve done learning from the spirit of the animals as I work their hides. For example, the cow elk of Teaching Ancestry is very present in this project. Because of her, I am able to connect to the ancestry of an ancient solution and hold the oracles of “how did humans do this 200 or more years ago?”. The I am the Portal cow elk brought me the valuable trait of “fierce simplicity”, helping me to trim the fat of my original plans. My Scrappy Ragamuffin nuley buck who holds me to a higher standard worth fighting for, and my beloved Vision Quest Living cow elk who still supports me in prayerful choices that come from within.
A shift has been happening slowly…but it also feels suddenly. My passion…focus…and creative force…and energy out-pouring seems to be under a change of winds. It’s been a slow unfurling of simply choosing to do or perceive things differently and that has become what seems like a fast slam into simply prioritizing under a new being. And so I need to let you know that I am beginning the end of my drum and rattle making work. In the coming months, I would like to see all my remaining physical stuff go (drums, rattles, rattle making kits) and see my making courses (drum making, rattle making, hide processing) get gobbled up so I can shut that portion of my life down and focus on things like ancient solutions to modern problems, free-range human inspirations, and ACTUAL natural health and healing.
There it is. I said it. It’s both hard to say and maturing to say. It feels like that is all I want to say right now. Let’s let it breath…and stay tuned for what it could mean for you if you are wanting what is left of me in that work.
Until the next one…