Far From the Maddening Crowd

When I saw retirement on the horizon, I decided to pursue one of my lifelong dreams -- to have a place in the country that I could manage for sustainability and increased biodiversity, a sanctuary for wild things, many of which are persecuted and pushed aside by humanity in our headlong rush to "progress". I began searching for land in NE Iowa, not to far from Cedar Rapids, that wouldn't take me half and day and many gallons of gasoline to get to. The counties comprising NE Iowa are very unlike the rest of the state, much of which has been altered from its original state, and converted into a monoculture of endless fields of corn. NE Iowa, the so-called "driftless area", was never covered and eroded level by the last glacier, and is characterized by lovely rolling tree-covered and limestone out-croppings. After several months of searching I settled on 30 acres, 23 acres of which were woodland. I was able to make the purchase with money inherited from a very frugal person, my mother Dorothy, one of the finest mothers any man could hope for. One of the first things I did in 2003 was to purchase a log cabin, hand-crafted by the Amish. The bottom half of the cabin was built by Amish in Wisconsin and was delivered by a huge truck. I was taken aback when I saw the flatbed truck carrying the cabin coming down the road! The cabin was then lifted by a crane and carefully set on pilings. Then it was the turn of local Amish carpenters who constructed the top half of the cabin on site. Because I like to hear the sound of rain on a metal roof I opted for the slightly more expensive option of a metal roof. Once the cabin was in place, I could then think about my water and energy needs, and all the landscaping and tree planting that I knew would keep me busy for years to come.
I knew I wanted to be off-grid and to generate my own electricity, so one of my first decisions was to purchase 4 photovoltaic panels. I purchased an energy efficient DC refrigerator which runs directly off the batteries. For my lighting needs in the evening, I have an inverter which converts DC to AC to illuminate the compact flourescent bulbs in my lamps. At the same time I started a modest garden, which has grown bigger and bigger with every passing year. The photo below shows my PV panels and part of a bumper crop of butternut squash.

I considered the cost of putting in a well prohibitively expensive, and so I installed a 500-gallon tank which collects rainwater off the roof. I use this water to water the garden and to take bucket baths. My drinking water needs are met by water that I bring to the cabin from Cedar Rapids, less that 75 miles away. I enjoy long-distance hiking and when I am at the cabin I often hike the property, and so one of the first things I did was to establish several trails, many of which were already there thanks to the many deer that live on the property, and take more than their fair share of my garden and the young trees I plant. Below you see a photo of part of the Ridge Trail and some of the limestone bluffs on the property.

At the same time that I was exploring the woods I began an ambitious project of building rock walkways. Whenever I found flat rocks I would collect them. As I am a low-tech operation with my machinery, the rocks were hand-carried out of the woods. Other rocks, for either the walkways or for landscaping, were collected with my car from rockslides at the side of roads. As I was building the walkways I began planting trees, shrubs, and flowers. Every year I plant dozens of trees: pines, spruce, oaks, black walnut, chestnut, and many others. I planted dozens of serviceberries around the cabin: these produce lovely white flowers in the Spring, soon followed by berries which attract robins, cardinals, cedar waxwings, and other birds. One of my major tree-planting efforts involved hazelnuts. I have planted many hazelnut trees, located in a small grove next to my storage shed and very sturdy outhouse, and with others scattered around the property. The nuts are produced inside clusters which develop from small inconspicuous flowers. Because most of my hazelnut trees are hybrids they produce numerous clusters, some of which can contain up to as many as 10-12 nuts! I love flowers, especially lilies and lupines, and I planted many around the cabin. Some hazelnuts clusters from the hazelnut trees and some of the lupines I have planted by the porch of the cabin can be see in the photos below.

One of the features of the property that I found attractive when I first saw it was the fact that there was a small pond. The pond had no resident fish, so it was an ideal location for the breeding of amphibians. During the first year, as I went to bed at night, I could hear many different kinds of frogs calling from the pond. I also found a few Tiger salamanders near the cabin, so assume they are breeding in the pond as well. During the first year I installed a nest box for woodducks, and they soon began using it. I also saw a lone painted turtle, but over the years more turtles have miraculously made it to the pond from elsewhere, and now I have counted as many as 7 painted turtles sunning themselves on logs or on shore. Water attracts wildlife, and since my goal is to provide sanctuary and as much useful habitat for wild critters as possible, I also built a small Amphibian Pond next to the cabin, which collects some of the rainwater from off the roof of the cabin. Below is a photo of the pond and the small amphibian pond which I built, which is filled with American toad and Gray treefrog tadpoles each year.

Back in Iowa after a wonderful 2 weeks in Belize

I returned to Cedar Rapids on June 26, 2011 after spending 2 terrific weeks in Belize, one of my favorite destinations. On this trip, instead of going solo as I often do, I took a group of 12 adults, ranging in age from 60 or so to 76 or so. I organized the trip and made all the arrangements, and then served as a Group Leader of sorts; everything went off without a hitch. Nobody got sick, nobody sprained an ankle or fell down and broke a bone, no one got impaled by a Southern sting ray or nipped by a 5 foot barracuda.

And although it was hurricane season, we lucked out and missed any bad weather. We began by spending a week on lovely Tobacco Caye, about 12 miles off the coast due East of the coastal town of Dangriga. Tobacco Caye is a 5-acre paradise of an island, conveniently situated right next to the barrier reef. We stayed at Tobacco Caye Lodge, which had nice accomodations and terrific meals. From our rooms we were able to look out at the Caribbean with waves on the forereef breaking on the reef crest, about 100 yards away. A nearly constant comforting breeze off the ocean allowed for insect-free enjoyment. The island sports a variety of tropical vegetation, with lovely swaying palm trees. Most everyone in the group during our week stay tried their hand at opening the coconut fruit to get at the nut inside.

During our week on Tobacco Caye we were in the water snorkelling at least once -- and usually more often -- every day. At the end of the day we would gather to talk about the fish and other sea creatures we had seen. Although primarily a vacation trip, it was also an opportunity to learn about reef ecology and the many vertebrate and invertebrate animals inhabiting the Belizean barrier reef, the longest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most biodiverse reefs in the world. I have a personal interest in sponges and in the many animals, especially small shrimps, that live inside of them. There are many organisms on Planet Earth that have yet to be discovered and catalogued by researchers. A major reason for our ignorance of the totality of the planet's myriad life forms, is that many organisms are very small and easily overlooked and/or because of the fact that we often don't make the effort to look for them where they live -- like inside the canals and chambers of sponges! As we snorkeled in the sea grass beds surrounding the island we saw cushion sea stars, many kinds of fishes, including lionfish, an alien invader, sea cucumbers, and long-spined sea urchins, to name but a few. One day we found a giant red hermit crab, the largest marine hermit crab in the W. hemisphere. I mentioned to the group that there are other organisms that often live in close association with hermit crabs, a "living-together" relationship called symbiosis. Often there are small porcellanid crabs that live inside the Queen conch shell occupied by the hermit crab and -- sure enough -- when I looked I found a male-female pair of these brightly-colored porcellanid crabs living inside the conch shell, sharing the same shelter with the hermit crab.

Leaving Tobacco Caye we travelled inland to the capital city of Belmopan, where we visited the government buildings and explored the market. Then we travelled further west to the town of San Ignacio, close to the border of Guatamala. We checked into Martha's Hotel and spend several days exploring San Ignacio and the surrounding area. One of the highlights was a visit to the Mayan site at Xunantunich, one of the many Mayan sites in Belize, and one of the most impressive. Nearly everyone in the group climbed to the top of El Castillo, the largest structure at the site.
In addition to visiting Xunantunich, we visited Rio Frio cave, the Mayan site at Cahal Pech, and a conservation center where they were raising Blue Morpho butterflies. Our last day, before heading back to Belize City and then home, was spent at Banana Bank Lodge outside Belmopan, an eclectically interesting resort in the jungle with a wide variety of accomodations and a swimming pool. Most of the group opted to spent the night in one of the thatched roof cabanas.