In all sincerity, I think people are sleeping on Wisconsin. High quality infrastructure, vibrant cities and farm towns, diverse geographies, lots of conservation, high-trust and genuinely kind people. Lived around the world and this place is my favorite to grow with my family.
When I saw the old wooden door to our home when we were on the market last year, I knew it’d be ours. It’s an inch thick of solid wood and made with care. Never thought a door would make me smile. I take Finn with me to have coffee on the porch thru it - a portal to memories.
Our neighbor shared a photo with me in the Northwoods. Wisconsin snow season has started thanks to Lake Superior lake effect. I like small talk about the weather, so I'm enjoying all the Wisconsinite and Yooper postings today.
In my view, one of the cooler picture stories by
@NatGeo
in the past 5 yrs. It echoes what
@RobGMacfarlane
recently wrote in "Underland" that we have worlds beneath of vast import:
"Digging Deep Reveals the Intricate World of Roots."
#Prairie
#Plants
"Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill — more of each
than you have — inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity." – Wendell Berry, How to be a Poet
#Leadership
#Patience
Couldn't resist animating Abraham Lincoln with that new historical app. Wild technology. I'm reading about a lot of people feeling moved by photos of their deceased relatives and friends spirited again - even if for a fleeting and contrived moment.
Water Word of the Day: chork (v.): to make the noise that feet do when one’s shoes are full of water. Example: “Caught in the rainstorm with no shelter, he was soon chorking his way toward a terrible cold.” Inspired by
@RobGMacfarlane
#Water
#LostWords
‘Lucky’ doesn’t even begin to express it. Karen’s a growing mother to our firstborn in Oct. Her tenderness is as intense as her beauty. We’re on the older side, but still two prairie people hoping to raise a wild, compassionate, and kind child. A new good chapter unfolds...
Welcome to the world Finn Rowe Sabich! Healthy, blue eyes, and 7lbs 9 ounces. Karen was so graceful and courageous.
“The light of love, the purity of grace,
The mind, the music breathing from her face,
The heart whose softness harmonized the whole,—“
Lord Byron
There’s a remnant prairie in Virginia, Illinois that I wanted to go see on this Christmas morning and it did not disappoint. Take a walk with me and get a glimpse of the tallgrasses and awesome colors that shift with the light. The Midwest used to be covered in prairie and
Closed on our new hobbit hole home today in Wauwatosa. Standing here in living room to take a moment to retrace the path that led us here - and the improbability as an entrepreneur that we overcame to make it happen. Thanks to all along this path. It means more than you know.
I drove past the Mississippi River today and Cahokia and, to tell you the truth, found it heart wrenching. The amount of plastic enmeshed in the trees, wetlands, and prairie grass was overwhelming. What are we doing to ourselves? And on sacred grounds and waters. I’m struggling.
Been fortunate to live in many places and, for cities, Milwaukee is perfect. Access to endless water, bike paths, quick jaunts to bucolic countryside, local food and brews, and grounded people. Friendly hipsters, farmers, hunters, and bankers all sharing same places with a smile.
I tell ya what, if Biden brings back the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) there's going be a strong pull to join as part of the historical renewal. Rewiggle a river? Done. Restore a prairie? I've got your bluestem seed. Plant a tree? Let's go see my collection of acorns.
I am marrying this sweet, joyful, and prairie-filled girl tomorrow alongside the Sangamon River. Thank you to my water friends in the twitter community for your lightheartedness, friendship, and hard work for protecting the waterways like the one next to where I will be married.
Said goodbye to my grandma today in Roberts, Illinois for the last time. A simple, kind, and rural life in a village of no more than 350. She loved her home and knew well its people. Lots of sunsets, harvests, and calm while passing through this life. Can’t ask for much more.
Some of the timber frame progress on a collective family project in the Northwoods. A message of gratitude to Doug Beilfuss, founder of Custom Timber Frames, for his team’s craftsmanship, communication, and being darn good people. Link to their work here:
Where I'm from in Central Illinois, there's still some corners that resemble this photo. It's a subtle landscape that doesn't demand much of you other than to simply be. I find quietude in those corners.
"Native Illinois Prairie" by Ray Mathis
The future just arrived in my mailbox. A bag of flour, you may ask? The innovation and solutions I like best are grounded in the elements. This is a perennial grain called kernza, pioneered by the regenerative ag leaders at
@NatureAsMeasure
and brought to us by
@perennialpantry
Surprise in the mail today of a hand-carved spoon for Finn made from the sycamore branches of Karen’s and mine wedding arch. We made the arbor out of a sycamore from our good friend’s land in Illinois and he saved them to make this gift for us. People are incredible.
You cannot do everything - but you can always do something. It may be a drop in the bucket, but I couldn’t stand seeing the Menomonee River with plastic at its edge and cleaned up as much debris as possible. Incremental change...
#Water
#SDG6
#Rivers
#MKE
#WI
#Menomonee
#Plastic
Staring at Lake Michigan and thinking all bodies of water in the U.S. over the next four years will have a better chances to become even cleaner. A circular, clean, renewable economy and philosophy will grow exponentially - and our waters will benefit.
With clean water, life comes rushing back to enjoy it; dolphins, whales, mollusks, humans, crustaceans and more. Hats off to NY and all those making it happen like
@BillionOyster
. In 10-20 years I bet there’s full on pods everywhere and it will be radical.
"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape—the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show." - Andrew Wyeth
Mechanical push mower arrived. I don’t like lawns, noise or pollution, so - before switching everything to native wildflowers, grasses, and raised vegetable beds - here’s this cool Fiskars mower for the trick. Like a dream.
For me, these are the top 4 photos I’ve ever taken. It’s my home back in Illinois and that lostness you feel in the Midwestern firmament and backroads.
Can you imagine what Illinois would have looked like with millions of acres of diverse tall grasses blowing in the wind like this? It would have been astounding.
#Illinois
#Prairie
#Midwest
#Winter
“Instead of being at odds with his conscience, he is at odds with his times”
It's not about being a Luddite. I think it's saying there's other ways of work, being, place and spirit for modern times that complement our humanness rather than mechanize it.
Milwaukee is the place I call home. It's super friendly, beautiful, adjacent to Lake Michigan, and filled with rising innovation in water tech and other industries. Thanks to the
@Bucks
, the world will glimpse the positive energy of this city. It's going to be a good night.
11ft Ribbon Maps were invented in 1866 as a portable guide for travelers floating down the Mississippi River by steamboat.
#MississippiRiver
#Rivers
#History
Some updated timber frame shots of our family build involving 3 generations in the Wisconsin Northwoods. I’ll share some lessons once we finish on how to visualize, organize, and execute since I know there are others here hoping to do similar legacy projects with their families.
If we want to see regenerative agriculture skyrocket, we must support with our money. I just bought some Kernza Perennial Grain flour from Perennial Pantry and encourage you to pre-order too. Thanks
@perennialpantry
@NatureAsMeasure
!
#Crops
#RegenerativeAg
Nature-based solutions are the infrastructure future for our cities, homes, and countrysides. Make it all green, holistic, and biodiverse.
"Nature based solutions: how nature can help prevent flooding"
I said I’d provide a few lessons-learned on our 3-generation timber frame build. The first key is to find a place that satisfies your vision. We creatively found an off-market deal and paid a reasonable amount for 30 acres of lakefront.
My tender wife, Karen, with our 2lb heirloom tomato find from the Wauwatosa Farmers Market this morning. The flavor, colors, size, and texture are cosmic. Thank you to the small Midwestern farmers keeping such unique produce alive.
#Farmers
#SmallFarms
#Tomato
#Midwest
#Heirloom
I turn 40 today. In this next chapter, I’m eager to experience more snowstorms, suns, skies, streams, smiles, and sips of coffee. A small and simple life while fading into the blanket of time sounds right. Thanks for the support, knowledge, and compassion as I pass through.
Osage orange also served as mastadon and giant sloth food, as the preferred tree of farmers for living fences to protect against wind erosion, and its hedge apples as the battle weapon of choice between my brother and me to lob at each other in our childhood skirmishes.
#Didyouknow
that the best wood for bow making comes from Osage Orange trees? Bow builders appreciate the Osage Orange tree's interesting character and durability. Learn more about the use of Osage Orange in bow making:
#WoodWisdomWednesday
5 years married as of today and 8 years together. It’s been an awesome and easygoing ride, which I believe will continue as we go with the flow. Grateful for such a lighthearted gal and caring mom to the Finn we created. I love her.
I commissioned a draw knife from the Northmen guild last year to use on logs from our small forest for projects. Took 11 months of patience, but look at this craftsmanship and artistry! Finn will be inheriting this family heirloom
#SlowTools
#Timberframe
#Forestry
Come on. There's zero need to hunt wolves in the Great Lakes. They've been here for hundreds of years and they're integral to the ecosystem. On our land in the Northwoods we saw evidence of them passing through this weekend. They're incredible and this is unnecessary legislation.
Six Ojibwe tribes in Wisconsin are opposing legislation introduced by
@SenRonJohnson
and
@SenatorBaldwin
to delist the gray wolf in the Western Great Lakes region and Wyoming.
Always a hard stat to digest. Losing the Illinois tallgrass prairie is one of the greatest ecological disasters of modernity. No time to despair, though - you just gotta keep working, restore what you can, and educate everyone to recognize prairie's value.
Live streaming the small and beautiful life I get to lead with Finn and Karen. I saw the wonder in my son’s eyes looking at the running spring water and saying, “oh, wowwwww.” I aim to pass down an appreciation for the natural world and internal calm knowing it’ll all be alright.