Kitsune Bamboo Nursery

This is the first Epiphany Now post to emmerge from my space phone blogger app bluetooth keyboard device.  I hope all goes well, and the many batteries it requies stay charged long enough to complete this communication (although currently I could just plug in and recharge but that doesn't sound as dramatic).  I plan to write much more here at Epiphany Now, but for now I'm just unveiling some intention into the digital cloud.

Shortly after dropping out of the Matrix I moved to my current residence.  My intention for my new unplugged lifestyle was to learn Permaculture and to create a garden of eatin' into the landscape.  I was following my bliss (and still am) and activeily writing the story of my destiny.  My words shapped the land and fostered the birth of an ecologically healthy landscape filled with intentional spiritual energy and meaning.  Essentially I've created a Druid food forrest painted in the Ogam ( the Ogam, or Ogham, is a celtic tree alphabet I happen to study).  

I bet I sound crazy as a shit house rat to a lot of people reading these words.  I don't care really what I sound like.  I'm authentically on fire and refuse to apologize for it.  

Anyways, when I moved here I dubbed my abode, outside of the actual house, "The Fox Den."  I mostly live outside.  Being that I'm domesticated I am forced to spend time indoors, but I am constantly attempting to minimize that time.  I blame it on Aspergers, at least to use the modern psychiatric explanation for my irregularities (than's an entire other bag of worms).  I'm a shaman at heart, and I have a theory that Aspergers may be displaced shamans, displaced by suburban sprawl and cookie cutter jobs complete with required behavior patterns.  It may be that I'm not an aspie, but a shaman, and it just so happens that the diagnosis for Aspergers overlaps qualities of a shaman.  Whatever the case, I have a very strong need to minimize my interaction with people.  I'm perfectly fine one on one, however, which would make sense following my shaman theory.  

I want to make it clear that I have no desire to fill some egoic need to be special.  I'm no more, or less special, than you or anybody else.  However, I am fundamentally different, and science explains that via a neurological difference...so be it.  

Kitsune is the Japanesse word for a fox, but it has strong mystical and magical associations in Japanese folklore culture as well (if you want an interesting read on the subject than I'd reccommend the wiki article for Kitsune).  When I moved here, and essentially devoted my life to Permaculture and Druidry, I had just found the fox to be a spirit animal that was following me around.  I resonated with fox, and so embraced that friendship and guidance that was being offered.  

Then the Bamboo Monster revealed itself to me.  I fell in love with that monster and was unable to resist the overwhelming need to suddenly begin digging up bamboo to plant it at the Fox Den.  Bamboo even began showing up at the Fox Den in pots due to a serrendipitous friendship that started one magical day in the woods at a near by park.  I have since began an internship with Keiji Oshima of Haiku Bamboo Nursery.  He has been teaching me everything he thinks I'm ready to learn about bamboo.  I am interested in the culture of bamboo and not just the growing of it.  Bamboo is very familiar to the shaman in me, and I know that is because I have known bamboo intimately before, just as I have known Kitsune.  

Therefore, to honor the relationship that I have with fox, bamboo, and Japanesse culture, I have decided to dub this bamboo nursery (with very heavy Permaculture overtones) Kitsune Bamboo Nursery.  To kick off the declaration I figured that I would share pictures of all the characters of bamboo that reside here.  I also want to publicly decree that the Bamboo Monster regurlarly hangs out here at Kitsune, but don't worry because he's a nice, and useful monster.  

Here at Kitsune Bamboo Nursery we have 11 varieites of bamboo (not counting two which we're trying to propagate rhizomally which are Moso, and Makinoi).  Two of those varieties are in pots only, they are Green Onion, and Koi.  Currently we have only Buddha Belly and Medake for sale, however next fall we will have several other varieties for sale.  Within four years all of our varieities will be for sale, hopefully.  I'd also like to note that I plan to have only four varieties growing at this site.  We will be moving bamboos to our Rock HIll property as they grow and we run out of room.  Kitsune Bamboo is already expanding habitate for the Bamboo Monster to inhabit.  

The picture below is a fall Madake shoot (phyllostachys bambusoides), planted August 2015, given to KBN (Kitsune Bamboo Nursery) by HBN (Haiku Bamboo Nursery) and showing how bamboo plays with water.  The presence of morning dew on bamboo auricles is considered a sign of good health.  This, however, is rain water.

The same Madake plant showing rhizomal character.  Phyllostachys like to snake in and out of the ground.  I'm performing an experient with this rhizome.  If you look closely at the left hand sid eof the picture you can barely see a rhizome leaf about to hit that rock.  I placed that rock there, and one under it in the ground, to study what the rhizome will due upon encontering it.  It appears that it is already aware of the rock and is simply going to go up and over it...but I'll see as time moves forward.  

Same Madake plant with a gift given to Ayden Zen by Stefani Oshima at the final intern day of the 2015 season.  Madake is one of the two most useful bamboos (according to Japanesse Culture, the other is Medake featured later).  Madake is a timber bamboo capable of 72 foot tall canes that are 6 inches in diameter.  Madake is very hard and it grows straight.  It's great for building structures or for splitting and weaving.  Madake is my favorite bamboo because it's the most useful to humans.  It's also used to make flutes (which Keiji Oshima makes and sales).

Koi (phyllostachy aurea 'Koi'

Some potted Buddha belly (phyllostachys Aurea).  This was the first bamboo plant I ever dug up.  Buddha Belly is valued due to its ornamental appeal for crafts because of it's compressed internodes.

Some more Buddha Belly, in the ground, with Hairy Vetch planted as a nitrogen fixing cover crop.  I'm trying to keep the bermuda at bay.

Medake (Pleioblastus simonii) purchased at HBN and planted here spring of 2015.  Medake and Madake are considered the most useful bamboos in Japan, and with good reason.

This is Phyllostachys Vivax which I propagated rhizomally.  The rhizomes were given to me by Gary McPhee (the serendipitous friend I met at the park)

This is fall growth.  Here you can see how beautiful this variety of Vivax is.  It's a timber bamboo that is celebrated for it's beauty.  It's wood is not very hard and often breaks due to the weight of ice in the winter.

Phyllostachys Aureosulcata f. Spectabalis.  This bamboo has the most character and a lot of beauty in my opinion.  It has variagation on the leafs like Koi, it geniculates (the can zig zags as it finishes the growth of the last couple of internodes), it changes colors in the sun, and it has the green sulcus with bright yellow canes.  It truly is a spectacular site to behold, but it is not a very useful bamboo...just beautiful.  

Showing the green sulcus of Spectabilis

Another timber bamboo I propagated early spring of 2015.  This is Phyllostachys Nigra Boryana, also known as snake skin bamboo.  Right now it's a sleeping giant capable of 60 foot canes that are 4 inches in diameter.

Bamboo island with two species of bamboo.

This is Phyllostachy Nigra Henon.  This is another bamboo that is considered to be one of the most beautiful, especially in Japan.  This is the original "Nigra," although it does not have black culms.  It's a very useful bamboo.

Close up of a Henon culm showing how it plays with slight color variations.

Psuedosasa Japonica, or Arrow bamboo, so called because the Japanesse used to make arrows with it due to it's straight growth and perfect diameter for crafting arrows.  It also makes a very effective screen for making neighbors dissappear.

This is yet another planting of Buddha Belly with some new growth.  This growth is from the last month.

legionomous anonymous awenomitly

 3/13/13

That's a lot of threes isn't it? It doesn't matter what spiritual what-have-yous you subscribe to, it's sorta hard to get around the fact that three is a holy number. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the three temptations, the three rays of light descending on us from the heavens via rowan staves encircled with ogham. The ternary that breaks the binary that is dualistic envisioning. That's the meaning of the gray in the gray area that resides in our unknowing monkey mind. There is more than just left/right, up/down, democrat/republican, God/Satan, good/bad thinking. There is that which can't even be seen yet with a 20th century mind because it doesn't contain the proper lens to see it. The 21st century mind is in the business of evolving just now. It must evolve to survive the next large adaptation that is this experiment of life on Earth. It is evolving that lens capable of seeing this new layer of complexity.

We continue bickering with one another about money and how it matters still. It does matter...but just barely. It's approaching the no longer matters mark however. That mark has many historical precedents to pull from. None of those precedents are precedented in this Orwellian New World Bravely that we are entering. This is the last fascicle of the control paradigms hypoxic power grab. Lot's of grabbing going on out there just now. It's starting to get desperately close to unable to deny status. We all know it, but many among us like to pretend like drones aren't already assassinating Americans and sodium amytal isn't already being used by the prosecution for Spanish inquisition like mind manipulation....pheww. Wasn't sure I'd get all of that out before I lost my train of thought.

Here's to the germinal post-petroleum fiber-optically connected interweb tribe. Sounds funky doesn't it? There is a nation of Foxsteaders popping up like mushrooms. The time is coming where the veil will drop and we will all see each other standing. Mike Ruppert likes to use that analogy. We are all in a large stadium, the masses, and the hologram makes it appear that nobody is standing. We are standing, and we are starting to see that we are not the only one standing. The illusion is starting to dissolve because the energy that sustains it is vanishing. That means we can now begin to see each other. We can see that we are legion, and we are not going to be counted by any machine. We will go to the margins and watch the machine run out of fuel. It will rust as metal is wont to do when met with the elements found in mother nature. Metals turns to rust and are transmuted into blood given a long enough time line.

Now we must believe that we will outlast the machines dying prominence. We must accept that so that we can begin the business of moving on into the reality of the future, and not the denial. So many intellectuals like to argue about what we think we know about nature, reality, and matter. What we think we know does not matter. We know nothing. There is a place where music emanates providing sound to a joyless world. The vocal chords evolved to reach out into physical space and be heard. There are those among us who can yell at the machine without being heard. We can stomp up and down and beat our noise makers and they will not notice our objections. We can stand in front of an imperial tank and demand a line that won't be crossed with our bodies...and we can pour gasoline over our heads and strike a match. We can bite a bullet and check out, but what of our children? What will they do with us checked out?

It's time to stop living an illusion. It's easy: wake up. Denial only distorts the truth. What is the point of existence on this Earth without Truth? It's a simple equation really. We don't need books to know what it is. We don't need our hyperintelligent monkey brains to experience joy and healing. We have a choice to make between nature and electrical artifacts broadcast via teevee and memory hole mind control. The truth is being accessed by more and more of us in an exponentially expanding function of interconnectivity. If we don't believe in the 100th monkey than he will never be. He can be, but not in a cornucopian hallucination of suburban consumer consumption projected via the American Hologram.

So the legion of us I've been referring to of late. We are looking for land over the horizon. We pushed off in a vessel designed to catch the trade winds of our imagination and collective faith in Earth based breathing and dancing life. No space ship is going to transport us to some new land full of infinite resources to infinitely squander into mindless wasteland heaps of thoughtless drivel. Hands in the Earth and hands in dirt. Stones to absorb the minerals we need for formation. Water for our spiritual transmissions concerning our collective emergence. The wind we need to alchemicalize spirit into accessible AWEN. Fire we need to remember pain in the form of the final convolution. Is this Zion? This post petroleum Foxstead tribal nation? Do we dance and allow beautiful music to guide us? Or do we lay down as the totalitarian totalitarians totalize our trashmission into wasteful oblivion via boot stomps to the face? The choice is ours.  We are legionomous anonymous awenomitly.