The Basics: A Photo Essay

My thoughts of late have turned to planning for the seasons ahead. Who can I invite to live at the Patch? What twittering crowd can I make welcome? Growing vegetables, tending to piglets, planting and feeding and cleaning up – this life comes down to basic principles…

I share space with a profusion of other-than-human life. Managing those interactions often brings humor and surprise.

Without miles of running, Meg’s energy could express itself in chicken death. What else is a dog to do? With copious exercise, she half-heartedly chases guinea hens who easily elude her.

Thirsty bees that prefer the pigs' water to their own. Drink up!

Co-habiting creates rich and diverse connections.

This guinea delivered an earful. I could not fathom what it was attempting to communicate, but it was undoubtedly important.

Young cattle are curious, and they often come to the fence when Meg and I run by. They will trot alongside us – human and canine on the gravel road, bovine in a great galumphing herd in the pasture, all of us kicking up our feet, paws, and hooves in the sheer joy of moving.

Connections with other-than-human life forms produce beauty and humor.

Poets, philosophers, and artists rarely rhapsodize about the allure of pigs. These cultural purveyors of existential angst and high art are missing an opportunity, as Wilma’s ear is a stunning embodiment of beauty.

In search of a spacious roosting spot, this guinea hen attempted to sit on the slippery metal of the shed roof…and dangled her hind end off the edge during a brief flurry of gropple.

Pockets of rich, abundant life remain, ready for our participation and enjoyment.