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Reclaiming the Art of Living on the Earth

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The Sun Rises on a New Farming Year
Okanagan Chestnuts
Earth and Moon
Ancient River
Political Shenanigans
The Pacific Northwest is Not the Southwest
Let the Life Go On
No More Wild Fires Please
Need Water? Make Some. Need Land? Make Some of That, Too.
Water Cress

Rakeball: The New Lacrosse

By Harold Rhenisch on June 19, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

You play it under one of those waterfilled basketball hoops that get parked on the gravel outside your driveway. But you need abandoned 1970s landscaping, or the rake is just a danger […]

Okanagan Landscaping Tip

By Harold Rhenisch on June 18, 2021 • ( 1 Comment )

Don’t plant cedars. No, really. Don’t. This is what they do. This is because it’s a dry grassland. Cedars like rainforests. Irrigation and landscaping can’t change that.

What We Need More Than Fences

By Harold Rhenisch on June 17, 2021 • ( 2 Comments )

Fence posts. Sincerely, your friend, California Quail.

Black Widow on Guard

By Harold Rhenisch on June 16, 2021 • ( 4 Comments )

The watch spider at my front door has been killing bees and using the protein to lay eggs. Here is one sac she’s just finishing up. 200 eggs in there. By the […]

Want to Buy Some Land in Vernon?

By Harold Rhenisch on June 15, 2021 • ( 2 Comments )

This orchard will be for sale soon. It’s dying. There’s no way that it can pay off the cost of its posts now, let alone anything else. There’s an idea out there […]

A Good Year for Birds (But Not for Everyone)

By Harold Rhenisch on June 14, 2021 • ( 2 Comments )

The robins hatched their young a couple weeks early, but the gold finches are six weeks ahead. Viruses are spreading through the wild roses and some have lost their pink .. … […]

The Mystery of Cicada and Ant

By Harold Rhenisch on June 11, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

 Cicadoidea Okanagan hanging out in the choke cherries. Note it’s companion the ant. I don’t know if they’re just sharing a choke cherry bush or if the ants and cicadas are interacting […]

Compacting the Soil in Vernon

By Harold Rhenisch on June 10, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

This Mexican rock-picking crew in Vernon is an example of what I call magical thinking. Notice a couple things. First, how many rocks are being picked (to make it easier for machine […]

Coyote Laughs Once More

By Harold Rhenisch on June 9, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

Apparently, one farmer believes this will keep the tricksters out. I don’t know whether to weep at his innocence or applaud his sense of determination and hope. This could be why coyotes […]

You Have to Earn Your Orange

By Harold Rhenisch on June 8, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

First, you’re spotty. Yes, the robins are hatched, just in time for strawberry season! There’s a family of four flapping around my yard and getting spooked when I pick my peas. All […]

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The Okanagan in History: Table of Contents

This is a Blog about People in Place

I have worked here since 2011 telling stories of the Earth as preparation for a history of the Intermontane Grasslands of Central Cascadia and the rainswept coast that keeps them windy and dry. Now I am presenting this history, step by step, as I have learned it, often from the land itself. The history of this region includes the Canadian colonial space “The Okanagan Valley”, which lies over the land I live in above Canim Bay. The story stretches deep into the American West, into the US Civil War, the War of 1812, and the Louisiana Purchase, as well into the history of the Columbia District of the Hudson’s Bay Company. In all, the story spans the Chilcotin and Columbia volcanic plateaus and the basins that surround them. In this vast watershed lie homelands as old as 13,200 years (Sequim) and 16,200 years (Salmon River.) That’s how far we are walking together here, who are all the land speaking.

https://okanaganokanogan.com/harold-rhenischs-shop/ Click to buy my new book The Tree Whisperer, an extension of Thoreau's Wild Apples and a book about learning to write poetry by pruning fruit trees. Only Olaf Hauge, from Norway, and I have followed such a path.
  • The Sun Rises on a New Farming Year
  • Okanagan Chestnuts
  • Earth and Moon
  • Ancient River
  • Political Shenanigans
  • The Pacific Northwest is Not the Southwest
  • Let the Life Go On
  • No More Wild Fires Please
  • Need Water? Make Some. Need Land? Make Some of That, Too.
  • Water Cress

Jesmond Mountain, Where the Coast and the Grasslands Meet

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This is a blog about living in place.

News, politics, art, literature, commentary, and happenings of importance to the watershed and path of the Okanagan River, no matter how far it flows.
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