Chop Wood, Carry Water, Stop Wood Peckers!

     This is just a note about how living a Sustainable Lifestyle helps to create a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at things.  One of the concepts of Permaculture, one of the Sustainable Living Philosophies, is to use "Stacking," wherever possible.  Stacking is the only form of multitasking one should implement.
     Regular Multitasking, doing numerous things at once, like answering phones, cooking, Tweeting your latest recipe, and washing your dog, all at once, is distracting and doesn't allow you to........oops, I have to go check to see if the cookies are fully baked yet.  Just kidding!  Multitasking doesn't allow you to focus on each individual action, giving it the attention that it needs to be completed successfully.  Multitaskers will tell you that they CAN do five things at once, completing them all successfully.  However, when put to the test, multitasking individuals, if successful with their tasks, use as much or more time to complete them; it just seems that they are doing it all at once and, therefore, faster.  Usually, they just make mistakes along the way.
     Stacking is a form of multitasking only in that, when properly designed, a system does two or more jobs at the same time.  A classic example is a gray-water system.  If designed correctly, every time someone does the laundry or takes a shower, the water is then channeled to a plant well or green area.  This system creates a three-way multitask: washing; a reuse of water; and plant watering.  The system save, as mentioned in other posts, water and time.
     Today's multitasking event occurred as we were trying to stop the woodpeckers from destroying the wood poles that hold up our patio roof.  At the base of each pole, we have vines growing and have been stringing them up to encourage their vertical growth.  The woodpeckers are trying to make their homes further up the poles, above the vines, by testing various spots and making lots of holes.  On one pole that has fully grown to the top, the woodpeckers stay away.  To discourage their continued hammering and hole drilling, we looked around for something that might work.  To that end, we found some wire mesh that was leftover from the construction of the house.  By cutting strips of the mesh and wrapping them around the upper parts of the poles, we performed an act of Stacking.  We were able to accomplish three things: the close knit mesh keeps the birds from being able to peck the wood; the mesh will, when the vines reach it, give them a tentacle-hold; we were able to use most of the leftover mesh, thus not wasting it.
     So, there you have it.  Stacking.  The only form of multitasking you should be doing.  Now how are those cookies doing............?