Yips and Howls
A Writer's Reflections on Nature and Culture
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beauty

Note the lovely platform to keep our feet out of the mud.

Shower Under the Apple Tree

By Elizabeth Enslin on May 28, 2010

People often ask me what it’s like to live in a yurt. As I wrote in an essay published in The Smoking Poet last Fall, much of the living goes on around the yurt rather than in it. And that’s as it should be with a shelter traditionally used by nomads. Take the shower. There’s  

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Posted in Homesteading, Recent, Yurt Living | Tagged beauty, Homesteading, photography, yurts | Leave a response

Domestic Challenges, Wild Beauty

Domestic Challenges, Wild Beauty

By Elizabeth Enslin on May 23, 2010

I’m ecstatic to be back on our property in Northeastern Oregon.  There’s lots to do: organizing inside the yurt to make cooking and storage more convenient, building a spring box and laying pipe to get potable water into the yurt, putting in the garden.  And there are many challenges: a muddy road, cars that get  

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Posted in Images, Recent, Sustainable Food, Wild Plants, Yurt Living | Tagged beauty, Homesteading, photography, Sustainable Gardening, wild | Leave a response

Blueberry Blossoms

Blueberry Blossoms

By Elizabeth Enslin on April 21, 2010

A photo.

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Posted in Recent, Sustainable Gardening | Tagged beauty, food, photography | Leave a response

Rainbow in Joseph Canyon

Rainbow in Joseph Canyon

By Elizabeth Enslin on March 3, 2010

A photo from the Joseph Canyon overlook in Northeastern Oregon…

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Posted in Around the Northwest, Images, Pacific Northwest travel, Recent | Tagged beauty, canyons, photography, rainbows | 4 Responses

Fuyu Persimmon

Persimmon Joy

By Elizabeth Enslin on November 18, 2009

I love how persimmons hang on the tree after the leaves have fallen.

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Posted in Images, Recent, Sustainable Food, Sustainable Gardening | Tagged beauty, persimmons, Sustainable Gardening | 2 Responses

Autumn Color in Northeast Oregon

Autumn Color in Northeast Oregon

By Elizabeth Enslin on October 28, 2009

Series of photographs of trees turning color in mountains of Northeastern Oregon.

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Posted in Explorations, Images, Seasons and Rituals | Tagged beauty, nature, photography | Leave a response

Quaking Aspen: Species of the Week

Quaking Aspen: Species of the Week

By Elizabeth Enslin on October 27, 2009

This time of year, I’m one of many throughout the West enthralled by – and worried about – one of our most striking fall color trees: Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides ). Utah and Colorado have acres and acres of aspens.  In northeast Oregon, we have smaller groves dotting the more prevalent bunchgrass slopes and ponderosa  

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Posted in Around the Northwest, Seasons and Rituals, Species of the Week, Wild Plants | Tagged beauty, climate change, land stewardship | 2 Responses

First Snow

First Snow

By Elizabeth Enslin on October 27, 2009

A photograph of the first snow of the season in eastern Oregon mountains.

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Posted in Explorations, Images, Seasons and Rituals | Tagged beauty, nature, photography, snow | Leave a response

Old House.

Species, Satellites, and Old Houses

By Elizabeth Enslin on June 24, 2009

Living off-grid in a yurt is mostly wonderful, at least this time of year. I know that spending time in such a beautiful place is a luxury not everyone can afford. So please understand, I’m not complaining….

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Posted in Homesteading, On Blogging, Species of the Week, Yurt Living | Tagged beauty, Homesteading, patience, species | 4 Responses

Bluebunch wheatgrass grows in dispersed tufts.  Other bunchgrasses, such as Idaho fescue, and many herbaceous plants grow in-between.  It's a wonderful example of how diverse native grasslands can be.

Bluebunch Wheatgrass: Species of the Week

By Elizabeth Enslin on May 26, 2009

I hate lawns. I dug up most of mine on a city lot in Portland, Oregon and replaced it with fruit trees, berries, vegetables, and flowers. In the parking strips, I planted drought tolerant species. Now on our property in Northeastern Oregon, I’m battling a much larger swath of smooth brome and other introduced pasture grasses to establish an orchard and kitchen garden.

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Posted in Species of the Week, Wild Plants | Tagged beauty, Sustainable Gardening, wild | Leave a response

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About Elizabeth Enslin

A writer based in Oregon, I look for inspiration and distractions in nature. An anthropologist, I ponder the places where nature and culture meet. A kitchen gardener, I promote biodiversity and learn from farming traditions around the world. A recovering academic, I try to do all with compassion and humor.

Find out more about me here, or at elizabethenslin.com.

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Recent Comments

  • Elderberry Bloom 
    • suzi smith: our flowers are fading in the uk… i love the elder, especially the older trees. An elder orchard...
    • Mike B.: You’ve got a great site! Unfortunately, we have tons of RED elderberry which are poisonous- but the...
    • Patricia J. O'Brien: I feel like I took a stroll through your woods and learned something new and wondrous. Thank...
  • When Life Gives You Weeds…Eat ‘Em 
    • Jennifer (ponderosa): You have clover among your miner’s lettuce. Can people eat clover? My guinea pigs love...
    • arati: ver y cool :)
  • Photos 
    • Nicole Raisin Stern: Hello Elizabeth and greetings from Kyoto, Japan. I found your website via a Pacific Yurts...

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Tweets

  • Our new farm website is up and running. Guess that makes it official: I am now a professional garlic farmer. http://ow.ly/2yCWD #profood
  • Grilled Walla Walla Sweets are becoming one of my all-time favorite foods.
  • Survived the city & big box stores. Happy to be back in #yurt with crickets chirping and rain pattering on roof.
  • is in the big city ... of Lewiston, ID fortifying herself with a cappuccino and sandwich before tackling the big box stores.
  • Didn't expect a day of thinning ponderosa pine to be so satisfying.

Blog Bling

Thanks Erin, Carole, and
Irene.

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