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Spirit Tree Farm’s God, Jesus and Nature Focus Difference

ByNaturesGuy Dave

The world is full of concerns about the environment, global warming, biophilia, connecting with Nature, and more dealing with the pluses and minuses of Nature and Mother Earth. There are few that have a God, Jesus and Nature focus. As we’ve been defining what we’re doing at Spirit Tree Farms, it’s been natural to compare…

Sunset Sunflower Bee Zen Serenade
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Sunset Sunflower Bee Zen Serenade

ByNaturesGuy Dave

A native bee on a sunflower at sunset creates a zen-like moment. Coupled with the background of water splashing in the pond and Creation Girl Marnie Kuhns’ extemporaneous piano music, the colors, movement, and sounds help us connect with God in Nature, #BeZen, and #FindNatureJoy. Sunflowers are native to North America, and I believe this…

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A Tale Of A Pair of Pears: Find The Good In The Bad

ByNaturesGuy Dave

Invasive species — plants not from our part of North America, that take over and crowd out beneficial plants -are something native tree and wildflower fans fight against. One of the worst is the Bradford pear, aka Callery pear (Pryus calleryana), Cleveland pear, or Plymouth pear. Yet we’ve discovered how having a pair of pears…

Sticks In Wildflowers For Birds

ByNaturesGuy Dave

Planting wildflower gardens to attract birds, butterflies, moths and other pollinators is a wonderful and interesting activity that often brings unexpected results. Nowhere is this more demonstrated than our sticks in wildflowers discovery. Like most actions we’ve taken in our wildflower and native plant patches, our sticks in wildflowers came as the result of a…

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Removing Invasive Plants

ByNaturesGuy Dave

When trying to promote native plants, including wildflowers, native trees, shrubs, and more, one of the first steps is to get rid of non-native, invasive plants. Why? The privets, nandinia, amur honeysuckle, Cherokee rose, and other invasive plants often lead to mono-cultures, lack of bio-diversity, AND they crowd out — and even actively prevent —…

Marnie Pehrson Kuhns in field of Goldenrod at SpiritTreeFarms.com

Is Spirit Tree Farms An Ecolodge? No, But …

ByNaturesGuy Dave

Ecolodges are, as Forbes Magazine says, “having a moment”. As I excitedly read about this new travel trend, I wondered if our Nature refuge at Spirit Tree Farms could qualify as an ecolodge. To be honest, I think the answer is, sadly, no. But maybe that’s a non-sequitor, macht’s nichts, question. Even with our environmental…

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Remember The Spiritual Roots of Nature Observation

ByNaturesGuy Dave

As a young man, I often took walks filled with nature observation with my Grandma Bertha. These meanderings were filled with discussions about beauty, being connected, joy, harmony, and feelings. Rarely did we discuss the scientific, practical aspects of what we were enjoying, unless it was somehow connected to a larger discussion of serenity, cooperation,…

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Why Document What We Experience?

ByNaturesGuy Dave

Brain scientists have long taught that, if we document what we experience, we’ll retain more of it. Originally, that was part of the reason that we at Spirit Tree Farms issued our #FindNatureJoy challenge: To encourage us all to document — whether in word, photos, drawing, music or some other form — the joy we…

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Dragonflies and Nighthawks in a Wildflower Sunset

ByNaturesGuy Dave

Spending weekends and summers at Lake #Winneconne, WI at my Grandma’s cottage was idyllic. We would often go on walks out in nature. It was during one of those sauntering evenings of nature observation that she taught me to “always take a moment to look back where you’ve been; enjoy the view!” The other day,…