My husband, Daniel, is a problem solver. He looks out for things that don’t work and fixes them. His clients over the years have been fortunate to have him find bugs in their software and create features to make stuff work better.
Now we’re lucky to have him around our home sniffing out ways to have our household work better.
The lower third of our acreage was prone to flooding during the big rains we had in the last few years, making a bog that never quite drained. Daniel figured out that the ditch that ran through our property from neighbouring Farmer Scott’s pastures and Scotts Creek was blocked. It seemed like a too-simple solution just mucking it out – a particularly smelly and dirty task – but Daniel did it and it worked.
As a result, we have a ‘dry’ wetland, full of casurinas and paperbarks. Eventually we’ll get rid of the opportunistic radiata pines and who knows what wonders will present.

Although nature is self-evolving (IV-2), obstacles can diminish and even stop evolution. Everything in us is made for change, but obstacles block us so that we need outside intervention in order to modify our nature.*

Nimittamaprayojakam prakrtinam varanabhedastu tatah ksetrikavat
The causes of evolution do not set nature in motion, but withdraw obstacles, like a gardener opening an irrigation canal.*
*The Essence of Yoga – Reflections on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translation and commentary by Bernard Bouanchaud.