Late Summer 2021
The oak leaves have their mature deep green, leathery appearance. The fog has a gray cast, rather than the golden hue it somehow gathers in the spring and early summer. […]
Animals
Looking green!
Greener and greener! The garden is beginning to produce! I started most everything from seed, so it lags behind other gardens a bit, but the wait has been worth it! […]
Rehumaning
Yup. After about a week of being eaten alive by bugs; shredded and impaled by raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, Devil’s walking stick, locusts, and greenbriar; endured thousands of demands from hungry […]
Under Dinosaur Skies
Much about the times is difficult for me to accept, process, reconcile, and so on. The politics. The environmental rape. The selfishness of maskless morons. Racism. Nationalism. It has all […]
Feral
The dynamics of isolation are complex. As an extreme outlier on the introversion scale, as well as a practicing hermit, I’ve found myself alone for some significant time. I can […]
A busy busy spring
I took on too much. I foster baby wild birds and release them back into the wild each spring. This is the fourth year. The first year, I had 6 […]
Eastern Phoebes and a Black Cat
I have a pair of Eastern Phoebes nesting in the eave of the shed. I will take this as a sign that parts of the compound are being integrated fully […]
Steaks and Lollies
Organisms have an intimate and complex relationship with food. We not only literally take it into our bodies, but also we assimilate it into our own being. Additionally, it triggers […]
Wildlife List Spring 2021
Wildlife spotted at Mons Domus this season. Birds American Crow1 Slate Junco1 Chipping Sparrow1 White breasted Nuthatch1 Mourning Dove1 Carolina Wren1 Black-capped Chickadee1 Downy Woodpecker1 Hairy Woodpecker Tufted Titmouse Pileated […]
My Wren Friend
This Winter has been all about Juncos and Nuthatches. It’s a huge flock. There are a handful of chickadees and three doves that regularly partake in the peanuts and sunflower […]
How big is a soul?
I’ve always had an interest in consciousness, self awareness, and how the brain seems to have a sense of where the self ends and where the rest of the universe […]
Chickadee
We did actually get a good bit of snow over the past 48 hours, hard to say how much total because it is fluffy and considerable drifting has piled it […]
Snow Day Prep, and Latin with the Starlings
There was much to do this past Fall. I was getting the main structure ready for occupancy inspection and had to shore up the 250′ fence, in addition to the […]
Mons Domus Deep Space Observatory is OPEN
An important part of my monasticism is the regular observation and appreciation of nature. I’ve invested in a microscope and a telescope to help open my eyes a little wider […]
The Lichen Diaries
Lichens are cool. Seriously. They are a mashup of individuals from two different phyla of life: Plants and Fungi. Imagine a whole body merge with a portabella or an eggplant. […]
Connections
Social connections do a great service to an individual. Extroverts are happier and healthier than introverts, and often find it easier to integrate into the workforce. Being connected had advantages […]
Attempted coup and the mouse in my car.
Filters are important in most monastic endeavors. Selectively permitting the passage of information, and selectively permitting the information to be of impact. A matter of scale in the importance of […]
The mouse in my car
About a quarter century ago. The windows of my car were smashed in an act of vandalism. It took me a good while to scrape up enough cash to get […]
Making room for the rest of the week
Mondays are my days where I clear out business so I don’t have so much to worry about the rest of the week. Today, I picked up meds, took care […]
Resolutions 2021
New Years has always been a favorite time. It’s kind of like a birthday- a fresh start, a new cycle, but one where I’m willing to spoil the opportunity for […]
Gwen
Although Lady Gwynhyvar died of spleen cancer right before Mons Domus was built, she was with us in the Shed as the project started. I met Gwen at the animal […]
Horus
Horus was adopted from an absolutely horrendous rescue in Tennessee back around 2010. His mother was vicious and feral and gave birth to a litter on the way to the […]
Wildlife List Winter 2020-21
Wildlife spotted at Mons Domus this season. Mammals Whitetail Deer Groundhog Gray Squirrel Opossum Unidentified rodent living in my car. Chipmunk! First noticed returning on March 11 Birds Junco- daily […]
A Guest
For safety during the Pandemic, my son is staying in “The Shed” some of the time, where I lived when I was building the house. He’s a good guest, offering […]
This is for the Birds
I need a lot of windows. I knew this after living in a couple homes that didn’t have enough. When I designed my house, I thought about monastic life, and […]
My First Hermitage
It was in 1991. I was in Lakewood, Ohio with a literally mangy rescue dog. Milton had passed mange on to me, and so we were both in recovery. I […]
A New Winter
Winter feel like it has finally arrived. It’s cold enough out to stoke the fire in the wee hours, and we’ve had snow in several different varieties already this year. […]
Loneliness Prevention Plan, kind of.
Solitude can be peaceful, productive, and empowering, but there’s little to gain from loneliness, and much to lose. Loneliness erodes confidence, self worth and can lead one to compromise in […]
With little more time.
A few days into the big media reduction shift, I’ve found I have some extra time. And I realize that I should update my routine. Here are somethings I’m thinking […]
Wildlife List Fall 2020
Wildlife seen at Mons Domus this season Mammals Whitetail Deer Groundhog Red squirrel Gray squirrel Eastern Chipmunk Birds Junco House Sparrow Catbird (released) Purple Finch House Finch (released) Gold Finch […]