One way to accomplish this is by a method I learned at the Aldo Leopold Center Land Ethic program in Baraboo, Wisconsin in October 2012.  Yes!! near Devil’s Lake where Grandpa and Grandma Hull took our Mother and your Grandma Ruth and her sisters camping and hiking and where we continue to take our kids and our kids take their kids!

The method consists of Observation, observing the natural world around you and at “the farm”; Participation, Participating in purposeful work on the land (more simply I would welcome man power on scheduled work days and welcoming people to take hikes and nature study here and walking my labyrinth in the old horse pasture); and lastly ongoing, Reflection on the experiences of observing and participating.  Thus we would gain a deeper connection with the land and our own environmental values.

“There are two things that interest me; the relationship of people to each other and the relationship of people to land”. –Aldo Leopold.

If land is healthy, it can provide nearly everything we as a family need and want — food, fiber, recreation, retreat, wildlife and beauty.  Wildlife depends on us for food and shelter and breeding.  Our care of the land will provide ways to meet both species needs (ours and theirs = we).

“When land does well for its owner, and the owner does well by his land; when both end up better by reason of their partnership, we have conservation.  When one or the other grows poorer; we do not (have conservation)”.-Aldo Leopold.

There is now an imbalance due to soil and trees being smothered by invasive species and lack of land management.  Smothering reduces nutrient cycle of plants and soil and nitrogen is reduced.

Objective: Let us connect to “the farm”‘and each other.

Much of the family’s discussions have been among a few members and have focused on identifying problems and formulating solutions.  We need time to contemplate the root cause of these problems and our personal and communal connections with our natural world where ever we live right now.

Let us work on conservation through education, research and restoration of “the farm”.

Through this process of reflection, we can contemplate the root cause of the land unbalance.  For example, we can come to some understanding of the biodiversity of the land before Grandpa Hull purchased it for his daughter, our mother and grandmother, Cantonia Ruth Kilkenny.  By biodiversity of the land we mean what it was before grazing and application of chemical intensive mono culture farming, e.g. beans and corn.  What were the native plants and the biodiversity of the land before cows and horses grazing and agriculture?

Our land is open oak woodland/oak savanna, upland oak and Shagbark hickory stands, and a lowland marsh with the creek. (An extremely rare variety of habitats)