Grape Lane Poultry Orgainic Farm

Along with her writing and illustrating, Allyson is a grant writer.  Of the 11 grants Jayne wrote to revitalize Grape Lane Poultry Farm, she was awarded nine.  Her efforts paid off with grants  for 1000 trees, all new fencing and cross fencing, gates, gutters, barnyard fabric, round corral, no-till drill of the front fields, rain harvest tanks, livestock tanks, K-Line irrigation equipment, 7000 feet of drip lines, pumps,  wells, birdhouses, chicken tractors, Fodder Feeder livestock sprouting system, and much more.

GRANTS

The Savannah Oaks.  These trees opened the door for all the Grants to happen.  Less than 1% of these oaks are left on the Valley floor.  Grape Lane Poultry Farm's trees have been untouched for over 100 years.  Marion Soil and Water Conservation District supplied the Grant funding for all the grants referenced at this site.  If you do not live in Mariion County, there are other water conservation Districts in you county that can also give you grants for your projects.

WATER AND SOIL GRANTS

Miss Kitty and Allyson monitoring the new K-Line irrigation equipment watering the newly no-till-drill reseeded fields of herbs and drought resistent grasses.

RAIN HARVEST

One of 4 major rain harvest systems run off the house and the barn.  The green color of this tank compiments the color of my green farm house from which the rain is harvested and this tank sits next too.  The tank feeds the  Fodder Feeder that is housed in the green house just behind the tank.  Gravity feed from this tank supplies all the needs to the green house.   3 larger black tanks run off the barn  are used to water the livestock or the gardens.

 The Fodder Feeder has been a life saver!  35 pounds plus a day for about $20.00 a month helps feed 2 horses and six cows;  extending the rotational grazing and protecting the habitat for the Upland Savannah Oak Riparian program! 

Seriously content cows after day 2 of sprouts feeding!  

CHICKEN TRACTOR GRANT

Chickens live out their lives in happy harmony with the soil.  Vegan is my life style so these chickens are appreciated just to care for the soil!   After these guys have done their job, you do not need a tractor!

Permiculture rotational grazing has improved my soil and cattle operations.  The soil is better able to hold moisture, reducing the need for irrigating.

TREE GRANTS

I don’t grow trees for lumber.  I grow them for carbon sequestering and to "manufacture" air and water.  I have not figured out a selling price yet, but I am sure these "products" will become a rare commodity sooner than later, so I am selling “franchises” in them.  For the small investment of approx. $100.00 for one hundred trees sold by the below nursery, a bit of mycorrhizal on each tree and some good thoughts while planting them and you are in business.  Guaranteed returns of air, water, carbon sequestering and stunning views for generations to come. 

Fifteen years ago and with one shovel and both hands, I  planted over 1000 trees on the farm all of which came from grants.   The first year I watered all the trees using buckets.  It did not take long after the first Spring to write a grant for drip lines!  

But this year I lost almost all of my cedar and learned an amazing lesson.

Death is not really death.  At first it really hurt to watch my trees die, but I soon learned that it takes longer for the soil to build up than a forest to grow.  Thousands of years longer actually.   All kinds of trees have grown in an old growth forest before it became an old growth forest.  And my "forest" is no different.   I will leave the dead trees for the birds, the insects and the soil and replant with Douglas Fir and Willamette Valley Ponderosa Pine.  Those two speices seem to do better in our unpredictable climate.  Some will make it, some will not, but all of them have a purpose - to make water, breathable air and to build up the soil.

You can purchase trees at:  Drakes Crossing Nursery.  503-873-4932.  Approximately $100.00 buys one hundred trees, which is their minimum.  Plant them using mycorrhizae which is a natural element that works much better then man-made fertilizers.



ALLYSON (JAYNE) STUDIO ART

Oregon Artist Ray Eyerly taught Allyson  how to draw a picture or two when she was just a kid. Fascinated by his art,  she would send her drawings to Ray and he would write back lessons for her to follow.   In her past, she worked in ink, pencil, colored pencil, water color, oils, and china paints.  She was also a skilled porcelain artist and mold maker.  Currently, she has trimmed her desires and is focusing on her skills as a Renaissance painter of ecology and the celebration of the artist's soul and epiphany of orchestrated light, life, and love. To many, ecology or art may seem messy, but for Allyson gardens messy with ecology and life with art all makes beautiful sense.  Allyson holds two Masters of Ecology from OSU, and is known by her fellow students and staff as the Barefoot Ecologist. Below is an example of Allyson's skill with oil paints and design. This painting is of Kid and her child Love. Days after the painting was finished, Kid died at the age of 38. This painting depicts her and her child standing on a typical cloudy day in Oregon in their field of gold. She died from a heart attack literally in the same place from which she was painted.

 Illustration of a cougar for her children's book referenced below.

Jayne's wall mural of the birds living on Grape Lane Poultry Farm.

Beaded hair piece with some of her porcelain work.

And her famous buttons in porcelain and wedgwood which have sold around the world and were featured in several magazines.

 Currently selling at Barns & Noble and Amazon

This is my latest children's book, "the Cougar, The Wolf, And A Tree Named Albert, Storybook of Trophic Cascades."  It will be out about May 2016.   I also did the illustrations for the book, including the cover.  Below is the editor write-up for Amazon.com: 

For most people, there’s little difference between taking a gift that is offered and gratefully receiving a gift. But for author Allyson Jayne Miller, a compassionate conservation bioregionalist, the difference is immense and holds the key to the planet’s survival.

In this wise and beautiful story, Miller shares the importance of living sustainably with kindness and compassion—to gently receive from the Earth what it offers instead of greedily taking from it what we want.

Demonstrating the concept of trophic cascades—how ecosystems collapse when key predators are threatened—this story follows Hope, a bright young girl who sets out to save the natural world around her. Along the way, she meets a beautiful cast of characters, including Albert, an old-growth tree; Solomon, a wise old owl who knows the language of trees; Kumulipo, the stately elk; and Nanabushu, the mischievous mountain sheep with a Scottish accent.

Named after ecological studies and indigenous cultures, each of these characters plays an important role in Hope’s attempts to mitigate the damage done by humans upon the environment—and together they create a beautiful tale that will open the eyes and the hearts of children of all ages. 

KEEPER OF THE WHEAT

LETTERS TO MY BROTHER DURING THE TIME OF CLIMATE CHANGE.

I cannot think of my brother without thinking of climate change.  Although we grew up together in the same family on the same 7000 acre cattle ranch Dad ran according to the principles of Aldo Leopold, our ethics grew vastly apart.  Tony's legacy is that of a CEO overseeing a vast international  Japanese food grain commodity group that supports fracking and Monsanto GMO. He is one of the Nations highest paid CEO's and is therefore, a 1%.  I am a 99% who lives on the fringes of society on an Organic farm in Oregon.  While I am advocating and protesting to save the rights of animals, the greensinks in forests, clean water, and the rights of third world citizens and the ecosystems that sustain us all, Tony is supporting lobbyists and business that threatens the extinction of the whole world.  We could not be more opposite. 

Where there is great light there is great darkness, a power that  knows no boundary and cannot be bought or sold.   There in the light I find my strength against my brothers great wrong.   



Penned in my letters and emails to my brother is the story of one family's contributions to both the dark and the light of a planet in trouble.

"Keeper Of The Wheat, Letters To My Brother During A Time Of Climate Change"  is a book I am finally able to come to terms with and write.  It has been almost a decade in the making, but now the seeds have grown into seedlings and are ready to reach for the sun.

So Tony, I dedicate this book to you and all the innocence we were as children.  May we find common ground again.

Religion is for man, God is for the soul.  Blessings to all who believe.

God is not anthropocentric in His approach towards designing and valuing the ecosystems, yet in His work is a display of art and numbers that is beyond man's capacity to comprehend. Have you watched a spider spin it's web, counted the pedals on a flower and then the arms of a starfish, noticed the spirals of a seashell and the twining vines of snap peas?  They are all mathematically and physically sustainably designed and networked. It is a math design that goes on into infinity. God has a number system, and it created the balance and order of the soil's organic matter to be just right for an old growth forest to happen, or the stream's flood pulse to carve out the perfect spawning grounds time and time again. And what of the rocks and minerals! Who designed the ideal relationship between chemistry and heat for which produced gold and diamonds? 

Whatever our economics will be, whatever our ecosystem relationships and whatever our values and our perspectives of them will be; our accomplishments will pale at the ponderous normality and purpose of God's handiworks.  Until we overcome our egos and politically flawed value systems, we will not achieve harmony and life with the earth. Humans in the order of beings are one of the species most vulnerable for being outlived by fungi, bacteria, and other "lower" orders of life. But for a spec of a moment on an earth aged beyond time, were we the top of the food chain.  Our history, our numbers, our policies, our cities, our values, our flaws, will most likely someday be remembered only in the contributions to the orders of rot and decay compressed under thousands of years of new life. Writings from Ecologist Allyson Miller, 2019.