I’ve seen a lot of dead rodents in my time.
The list includes but is not limited to:
Rats and squirrels with tire marks across their backs, they were mostly just fur and skin remaining. The grackles likely got the brains as soon as their skulls popped like little, boney rodent zitz.
Rats and their babies attacked and consumed by crows.
Countless mice killed by cats. I once saw Trevor kill, torture and eat a little field mouse in less than nine minutes.
I’ve fed live mice to snakes that a buddy had as a pet.
Then there are the porkeys. I’ve seen porcupines die by: Shot gun, rifle, drowning, axe, rake, garden shovel, pitch fork, crossbow and 2x4.
I am not a fan of rodents.
And I’m also not a fan of killing them either.
When it comes to animals, I’m speciesist in my adoration: Cats, humans, horses, dogs - then the rest of the creatures are essentially food.
I had a problem though.
There were porcupines on the property and they posed a threat to my dogs. But problems are just that - ‘problems’ because they can be solved.
When something can’t be solved, it’s not a problem. It’s a situation. Some wouldn’t consider this porcupine thing a problem. Most would consider this a ‘situation’. But I’m a remarkable fool and know odd ways to do things. This situation for some seemed like long term problem for me. Progress would take time.
We began by looking around: Where do we encounter these porcupines most frequently? In those areas we found two things these little prickly rodents love.
The first were a few species of trees. They tended to like to climb the larger spruce and fir trees. Those trees were wrapped up in hard metal sheeting. The porkeys could neither climb nor eat the bark any longer.
Next, I went in and hacked back all of the small hardwood shoots that both the porkeys and the deer loved to eat. We did everything we could to eliminate or make difficult any food sources.
With them starving, our next tactic was to make them homeless. In the areas we frequent, I burnt old piles of brush. Logs left to decompose were junked up and carted out. Then, with my machete, I really did some damage.
No.
I didn’t attempt my version of a Hulu on some Tutsi little porcupines. Instead, I killed babies. Baby trees that its. Porcupines thrive in thickets. Around the property we have several thickets. Rodney had his snout peppered with quills in a thicket.
Anywhere we walked the dogs, I made the thickets thin. I slashed and grunted and groaned as I swung my big powerful tool around in the forest. Three trees died for every one that I saved.
And that tree that I saved? It will grow more quickly. It will likely be stronger. Thinning saplings is an important job in a growing forest.
The saplings that we removed I took to places next to thickets far away from where we like to walk. In doing so, I made a places for the little pricks to live. Given that porkeys tend to only travel around a hundred meters per night away from their dens, I tried to keep the kind of places they thrive within one hundred meters of each other while remaining as far as possible away from our trails.
In these ares I added big chunks of raw salt. By taking care to keep them mostly out of the rain, the salt chunks lasted quite a while. The porcupines love salt. They’ll even lick a shovel handle if they thing there may be traces of sweat on it.
Essentially, I was giving them a place to go, live and be happy where the dogs would be less likely to encounter them.
Over time, I stopped finding traces of porcupine turds around the property.
The industrial model and the medical model have a similar approach to each other: Find the problem and eliminate the problem - ie: fine the porcupines and get rid of them by any means necessary.
Our approach was based on permaculture. In permaculture, you look at how things tend to be. Porcupines like salt and thickets and little places to hide either in trees or low to the ground.
By making small adjustments to the habitat, the porcupine situation evolved into a problem solved.
The porcupine problem was not their existence. It was where, when and how we might encounter them. By getting to know this damaging threat and working with its natural tendencies we were able to decrease it’s impact on our lives.
A lot of the time people see their vices, shortcomings and struggles as porcupines to be eliminated. Instead, we could consider them just part of who you are.
How can you take a permaculture approach to your mental health and personal growth?
Instead of being hard on yourself when you’re a fucking idiot, how can you make that a pocupine moment? How can you give that aspect of yourself a home where it’s fed and happy and not inflicting pain on something - or someone - precious to you.
A simple hint?
Love the people who love you and fuck the fucking fuckers.
Leave your quills in the thicket of the masses and keep things at home safe, tender and warm.