Oh those systems
Sunday, 19 May 2013
I’ve been reading about a huge range of life cycles and species relationships in David George Haskell’s wonderful The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature (2012). More than I’ve ever realized before, I now understand how animals can be viewed as the way plants and micro-beasts get things done that they couldn’t do alone. And all sorts of patterns are incorporated into a complex whole. And how that whole might be is likely to be misunderstood if you view it from the perspective of the mammalian world. Consider this (p. 134):
Without exception, reproduction in animals and plants involves sex cells that come in two distinct forms: large and well-provisioned cells—eggs—or small and mobile cells, sperm. But fungi show us that this duality is not the only possible arrangement. Fungal mating types can number in the thousands.
Yikes.
I dealt with another wee system today. Yesterday afternoon I made a small fire in the wood stove, just to get the house temp higher in the 60s, and, despite having good dry fuel, it just wouldn’t draw. Highly probable problems: blockage in the chimney (hope not), poor incoming air flow. Decided to explore the latter today, hoping for a solution there. Indeed.
Second bit of evidence: ash bucket in outhouse, aka the little house in the lilacs, is almost empty.
Yup. Emptied ash from the stove this morning, filling the bucket and opening the airflow through the bottom of the stove. All systems ready for the next fire and next, um, personal outdoor meditation in the wee special activity area structure.
NOTE: special thanks to Soliel the alpaca for commenting yesterday on “her” post…. Read more about Soliel and her barnyard buddies here.