November and December 2023 Update
Permaculture, projects, and events
The last two months have been slow due to personal reasons and the holidays. There hasn’t been as much progress on Montanoso as I’d like.
Nature
The environment seems to be doing well with periodic rain and new growth. Chris the permaculturist came by one evening to walk the property and give feedback. I showed him erosion concern areas and he gave me advice about water flow and swale construction. He wasn’t too worried about the loss of grasses, it’s been a tough year throughout the Hill Country with the drought and heat.
A large number of bluebonnet sprouts have emerged around the house and pool. This bodes well for our spring wildflower bloom. There are fewer sprouts in the wildflower meadow, but I’m hopeful we’ll get a better showing than last year.
The tall grasses went to seed. On my afternoon strolls I’d grab handfuls of seeds and manually disperse them on the ground. I carried some up the hill to spread in barren areas near the fence. I also had fun stomping and matting down grass clumps to simulate a cow and break off old leaves.
Now that it’s winter I was able to prune some of the oaks with less risk of spreading oak wilt. I pruned the oaks around the wildflower meadow to remove old, dead branches and improve the appearance. On the hilltop I removed branches that had been killed by the February ice storm but had remained in the canopy.
Events
I’m trying to host regular events to build the community. In December I hosted a dinner party for locals to welcome a friend of Montanoso who had just moved to the Austin area. The pot roast received rave reviews.
On January 20th I’m hosting an event at Montanoso for an adjacent group who are looking to build a freedom-centric town. And I’ve started early planning for an eclipse party on April 8th to celebrate the total eclipse.