Pacific Hound's Tongue is blooming everywhere on the mountain this week. It's beautiful blue and purple flowers are on a stem that's about a foot tall. It's the only species in the genus Adelinia, and the roots were used to make a Native American r…

The Pacific Madrones are flowering. They're in the same family as manzanita, but much larger. This one is covered in flowers right now. I think it may be blooming with some extra vigor because it has a fungal infection in its leaves, which is why so…

Red-bellied newts are one of my favorite critters up here on the mountain, and they are only found here in Northern California. In the summer, you'll see them down in the creek, which is where they lay their eggs. In the winter, they are frequently…

Manzanita is such a beautiful plant and it grows everywhere here on the mountain. It's got a smooth, bark-less maroon trunk and grows as both a bush and as a tree. It's also got some medicinal uses and the Native Americans in these parts made a cide…

The California buckeye trees are the first to leaf out in the spring and the first to drop their leaves in late summer. Every part of this tree is beautiful. In a couple months, I'll show you a picture of the flowers. :) They have another kind of …

We had a cold front come in from the north this week. It dumped some more snow on the ridges and some rain down here in Rainbow Valley. Joe, Bodhi and I took a walk yesterday afternoon to go and fetch the eggs from the chickens and as we were walkin…

About a year ago, I decided that I was going to grow my hair out. At first, I felt like it needed a reason, like "I'm growing it until I can get a vaccine." Then, somewhere along the way, I just started saying that I wanted to be a wizard. These da…

March marks one year that we've been mostly hunkered down here at the cabin. While it's been difficult not to see friends and family, it's also been an opportunity to connect more deeply with this land and the plants and animals who live here. The …

In today's Wall Street Journal, they published a story about 'chosen families,' a term that originated in the gay community in the 70s & 80s. The writer got in touch with me via Twitter after I tweeted something about how important both my chose…

This week wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for me. It was hard, for no particular reason and ALL of the reasons. I felt like I hit a wall of depression when I marked one year without seeing my parents. One year without any work in San Francisco. One…