rewilding, or, turning back the clock

[billy rubin]

okay. lookit this

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/25/it-fully-changed-my-life-how-young-rewilders-transformed-a-farm-and-began-a-movement?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

i live on 25 acres of former farmland. it was farmland, then it was strio mined, and then it was cheap hayfield.

my wife and i are rewilding it. from shallow heavy soil and grass hay, we re filling it up with native hardwoods, mast crops for wildlife that we can eat too, and a soil-rebuilding program that will take 100 years to finish.

ive already seen results. in the spring and summer, the property is a riot of butterflies. skimmers, whites, sulphurs, swalliwtails, monarchs, fritillaries (my favourites), as w re ll as mantids, walking sticks, lightninng bugs, noctuid moths, all sorts of things. we have possums (on the porch five minutes ago, in the cat food), raccoons, distant bobcats, coyotes, and skunks. enough deer that im going to blow them away in the spring so i can have a garden.

in the end, we ll have a climax ecosystem of deciduous woidlad, with enogh permaculture to keep us fed until we die.

thats the plan, anyway

[Dark Lightning]

Good on ya, Billy! Every little bit helps nature. I know a lot of cynical people, but I what I can...which in actuality ain't much, in a tract home.

[billy rubin]

tbink locally, act locally. i cant change a lot, but i can change whats within my reach.

i live i  a place where mowing ones lawn is a cultural necessity. i havent cut the grass in years. so my neighbours have the manucured floeer beds, but i have the butterflies, wasps, and bees.

bats too but not enough. im gathering wood to build a major bathouse, one that can hold 200 or 300,00 bats. ive got two telephone poles and need another