Half Nekkid in the Willows

I love the century-old willow in the backyard.

In permaculture, we'll perform a "functional analysis" on various organizms and systems. Chickens, for example, have inputs that include the need for water and feed (which can include your kitchen scraps) and outputs that include eggs, poop and chicken prozac. After analyzing a few parts of a whole, you begin to see how the outputs of one part can become the inputs for another part. Kitchen scraps (output) feed chickens (input) make poop (output) fertilizing the garden (input) making vegetables (output) to bring into the kitchen.

A functional analysis of the willow tree includes as outputs, poles for building living willow structures, sucking up the water from my boggy backyard to dry it out and creating shady spots to hide half-nekkid within.