Survival Strategy

The Huckleberries have been tremendous this year. We have picked plenty. Lisa has made delicious squares and other desserts. 

The crop could be attributed to a wet spring and summer. Much different than we have experienced in recent years. The bushes may have produced a mast year, similar the way trees produce large number of cones some years.

This is an evolution strategy to overwhelm predators from consumption, and also catch up for years of bad weather. Humans may also have these cycles for similar reasons. The only difference is our enemy is often ourselves. For instance we have population spikes after wars. Natures way of replacing the species perhaps.

Right now population is in decline due to the state of the environment and humanities action towards ourselves. It is interesting, if the trend continues, population growth will stop and quickly decline. The earth may need a rest. Hopefully we won’t destroy ourselves completely, but it is possible. It is also possible, something else may come along to do the job, such as a virus or cataclysmic event. Nature has a way of evening the score and restoring balance.

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The garden has been good. The garlic has been harvested and dried. I have set aside the largest heads for seed to be planted in the fall. The kids have enjoyed the peas and Lisa pulled the vines today. There is plenty of beans and at least a few ripe tomatoes everyday. The carrots are delicious, the cabbage is forming large heads and will do it’s best growing once it starts to cool.

The weeds have been hell to keep up to this year. Probably due to the rain. The best year for lack of weeds was a few years ago when the grasshoppers ate everything down to the ground. Of course they did the same with the vegetables except a few that they seemed to dislike, including peas, tomatoes, zucchini and spuds.

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I’ve noticed the loggers cutting new roads into the bush in a spot we frequent. They are even building a bridge across the creek and heading straight up a mountain that had been spared until now. It is a mountain I’m well acquainted with having roamed it’s side since I was a kid. I’ve even walked it in the dark looking for stars, my ears cocked for voices talking in cyphers, while spirits stole my breath.

Long ago, when I was a youngster, I picked out a rocky bluff and cliffs, half way up, with overhanging trees, figuring if things ever got bad enough I could toss a rope around one and swing out never to return.

The view would be good with the high cedars and creek below. It was a spot I always kept in my back pocket. I think everyone has a spot whether they know it or not.

Now there will be a road below leading to massive clear cuts. I would have never guessed, when I was a young wanderer, it would go before I did.

13 thoughts on “Survival Strategy”

  3. Jim R's avatar

    Jim R

    We’ve had double the normal rainfall for July and August. There are weeds I don’t remember seeing before. We have lots of cherry tomatoes and poblano peppers on the vines.

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    1. underswansea's avatar

      underswansea

      Hi Jim, I didn’t grow any peppers this year. The tomatoes are starting to come. Did you get a look at the crescent moon beside Venus this morning?

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  4. mountaincoward's avatar

    mountaincoward

    I take it these aren’t commercial, planted forests? Here we expect the loggers to come in every so many years as our forestry is all commercial so they’re just harvesting what they’ve planted but I guess it’s not the same over there?

    Huckleberries look a bit like our bilberries – a low growing hill/moorland shrub. But our bilberries have been truly awful this year – hardly any and small and not very juicy. We have had 2 dry spells though – plenty of rain in between but must have been at the wrong time for them I think. I’m hoping mushrooms do better this year – I only found one last year. I’ve had 2 already this year and also a couple of puffballs which I’m very partial to…

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    1. underswansea's avatar

      underswansea

      The berries have been very good this year. I think bilberries are the same thing.
      Canada’s forests are harvested by loggers that are subsidized by the government. Because we have so many trees the forests have been poorly managed. The thought is we have so many trees they will never run out. In this part of Canada a planted tree will take about 100 years to be ready to be harvested again. The opinion of loggers and the government is to clear cut the forests as quickly as they can before it burns. Not much of a management model.

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