Tuesday 22 July 2014

Biochar Herstellung - Terra Preta - Charcoal

The TRUTH

Branding the truth.
Its gets me that so many people fall into this trap.
We use branding to promote products, define our social group.
weather its the shoes aperal clothing, from nikie to savel row
We have the truth, is the declration of the branded.

Community in a transition shire

To live we must daily brake the body and shed the blood of creation.
When we do this knowingly lovingly, skillfully and reverently it is a sacrament.
When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily and destructively it is desecration
It is in such desecration, we condemn ourselves to spiritual moral loneliness and others to want.
 Wendall berry
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry

I feel overwhelmed and in shock at what is our culture.
Every day now I am asking the question ? What is community what is its relationship toward our live and  the earth we live on.?
At the core of every community is food its creation and consumption.






Thursday 31 May 2012

THE SIMPLER WAY:



29.4.09
Our industrial-affluent-consumer society is extremely unjust and ecologically unsustainable. The argument below is that these problems cannot be solved in a society that is driven by obsession with high rates of production and consumption, affluent living standards, market forces, the profit motive and economic growth. Most people do not realise the magnitude of the overshoot, the extent to which this society is unsustainable. Because this is so great there must be vast and radical system changes if the big global problem are to be solved. A sustainable and just world order cannot be achieved until we move to very different lifestyles, values and systems, especially to a new economic system.
The alternative we must work for is The Simpler Way, based on frugal "living standards", co-operation, high levels of local economic self-sufficiency, and zero economic growth. The final section below argues that the top priority for people concerned about the fate of the planet should be starting to build these new lifestyles and systems within existing towns and suburbs.

  • Material living standards must be much less affluent. In a sustainable society per capita rates of resources use must be a small fraction of those in Australia today.
  • There must be mostly small scale highly self-sufficient local economies.
  • There must be mostly cooperative and participatory local systems whereby small communities control their own affairs, independent of the international and global economies.
  • A very different economic system must be developed, one that is under social control, geared to meeting needs as distinct from maximising profits, not driven by market forces, and without any growth.
None of this is possible without radical change in values, away from competition, self-interest and greed, and to cooperation, participation, giving and non-material satisfactions.

http://ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/TSWmain.html

Sunday 20 May 2012

Wendell Berry


“To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. 
When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. 
When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. 
In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness, and others to want.” 



Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Choice



 Choice
"" ""
I choose to live by choice,  not by chance;
To make changes,  not excuses; 
To be motivated,  not manipulated;
To be useful,  not used;
To excel,  not compete;
I choose self esteem,  not self pity;
I choose to listen to my inner voice;
not the random opinions of others.
"" ""
~Unknown~

.

Walt Whitman

This is what you shall do:

 Love the earth and sun and the animals,  despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, 
stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, 
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
 have patience and indulgence toward the people, 
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, 
go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, 
read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, 
re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, 
dismiss whatever insults your own soul; 
and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words
 but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body…

Walt Whitman 

Listen to his audio book when doing other things

http://archive.org/details/leaves_of_grass_librivox

Wednesday 26 October 2011

King parrot




This one turned up and said good morning in a playful way, asked for breakfast,
We had fun for about half an hour, Later in the day some white cockatoos turned up..
Their big birds, eat a lot and destructive. I said no and closed the lid,, haha,,
We had a short discussion and they flew of...
I went in side and there was a loud thump thump on yhe roof.
I went out side to look and there was a cockatoo on the roof look at me.
He flew of....about half an hour later they started turning up , within ten minits about 50 in the trees about the house making a rukus.. OK OK this is scary,
I have heard of these birds destroying houses, dont want war, took the lid of, three came down to eat and the rest flew off...
I think when you make a pledge to this earth to care for her and all her creatures you open yourself to a greater consciousness, with a ever growing responsibility.

Thursday 13 October 2011

Dogs


Dogs

He knows an open free environment,
She is having fun being guided in open human/canine social culture
They help one another.
In a way they are more human than many of us humans!





Des is a 13 year kelpie cross, my dog, he has taught my so much about communication,,
Maggie is a young dog of a friend I borrowed for a few days. It took so much to gain this dogs trust when we first met, Maggie comes from a dysfunctional high stress environment,, so we are teaching her to be confident and trusting.
Its an open canine/ peoples social scene on this beach,,,,

Maggie is so unsure with herself jumpy hypa-aware and anxious in strange environments, she reacts with fearful aggression meeting other strange dogs, snarls and snaps when they get to close, The sniff over totally freaks her out, nose to tail and nose to nose.
It was good to meet others ,stand and chat, It gave mag an opportunity to see and be with calm passive dogs, With the right guidance she will be a top dog.
Des is very curious, friendly, excited intelligent over the top stirrer fun mature dog. He likes being her guardian and together we had a very fulfilling and heart warming fun time.

The beach has no where to pis mix and sniff, no marker posts, daily their sent traces are washed away, A part of dog behavior that was largely absent. Des would occasionally mark something that had been washed up. when he wasn't to busy having an ecstatic time.

I am learning so much working with dogs, they respond so well to aware compassionate consistent responsible interactions. They learn and move on so quickly.
Their exactly like us in how they express the behavior patterns of their environment.
I am sad in a way, because the warmth of heart shown and felt from caring dogs is so often inhibited in humans.
It is often difficult for us to move on.

A Week Later

Magi can catch, she couldn't before the weekend..
Iv been having fun, its amazing watching another learn.
I kept throwing little nuggets of food at her mouth.
At first she would just look as they rolled of her and hit the ground.
It was fun rolling them of her nose, and aiming between the eye
(straight in towards the eyes is difficult for anyone)
a slight oblique angle is best for learners (easy). Target practice for me.
She saw the other dogs, has the idea, but couldn't get the timing..
(they also suffer envy and jealousy when another is rewarded for something they cant do).
123.......... then 123 in a row, and another... Phase lock,, let her sleep.
next day..... misses a heap then 1234.....got it..
I step back a bit, "stay". and improve her skill....she wants to get it good,,
I step back some more, "stay" and improve her skill.
Open full awareness and attention, total willingness to grow in self.
What we learn't, was she learn't stay without being taught.
So many ways for neural networks to share information,
Human language needs to be decoded,, so many blocks.
I often have more intelligent interactions with the birds
that visit my backyard than with 80% of the humans I know.
Sad in a way...
Ive ran out of language.
have a good day

Thursday 29 September 2011

Thick warm Chocolate Drink

A chocolate thick shake to warm cold bones, its good.
semolina, drinking chocolate, milk.
Cook enough semolina in milk to just thicken, add chocolate. heaps.
Toast sweat bread, butter and spice.
listen to music
breakfast of the gods,
Wonder what it be like if the semolina was cooked in butter then milk + added.
With a side dish of chocolate cake smothered in rich warm chocolate sauce
yum and velvety maybe.
don't tell some till they can escape close proximity to the kitchen.
oh dear, cant get my tong to the bottom of the mug.
yum

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Color Madness

From Collages

Color Madness

Overwhelm -

Fun driving while this is about.
I need to concentrate intensely with time/vision to keep objects vectors and my position in the environment together.
It is incredibly confusing and fatiguing to drive in traffic with all this color.
To walk and stare and take it all in is nirvana.

I don't get why when I'm overwhelmed by color it it diminishes my ability to discriminate position in space/time.

Could you imagine trying to paint it, changing before you could get paint on brush.

Divine Madness

Saturday 30 April 2011

Aspergers in a skin shell

Thinking in pictures

Aspergers in a skinshell



Thinking in pictures, I like that, relates.. its somatic..

It feels like a blind person navigating a room,A house, a town.
I know my mind though I cant see it, I feel the colours and textures I hear its edges.
Its very somatic, very sensual, thinking in pictures.
Its not sound, its not touch, its not seeing, its not taste, its not smell.
Its any and all, all at the same time.
Harmonics.

Learning language

Something I've just learnt, deeply.
You have all been a part.. I hope you are getting this as well....
It doesn’t mater who you are,what species, how you process information.
We all have our own internal language, alien in a way to others.
Real communication happens when we take time to learn and integrate the internal language of another.. this is friendship. It is what the whisperers know......
The interface between self and other, congruency in harmonics between isolated but connected neural networks, brain resonating with brain in a choral symphony.
We only miss it because we don’t take the time to learn our own internal language.
Or the internal language of another.

Autism
It gets in your life and you cant get rid of it
It leaves a trail of inspiration confusion and emotional carnage in its wake.
The stigma associated with it reveals the depth of prejudices & bigotry in out society.
I must apologise to those I offend , some I have no intention to.
But I get confused by those that project false image.
The amount of covert bulling and violence was the thing that led me to a diagnoses of aspergers, I am autistic.
I have tried so hard to be accepted by NT, twisting my mind in ways that is to me warped, just to communicate on that wavelength/phase.
Yet I have this disability, this gift. It is so foreign/familiar. It does not mean I don’t comprehend! I have spent my life emulating NT brains in order to communicate, it is not automatic or in real time. It takes as much time to learn NT language as it takes for NT to learn aspie. Yet most NT refuse. I wish more would spend the time to learn more than one style/phase/way of thinking.
It is fatiguing to tangle my mind to untangle another, I don’t always get it right.


Often I wont look into your eyes

So as not be overwhelmed by raw information.'

When I am doing a lot of internal processing. Just to be able to comprehend you.
I am filtering vast amounts of information consciously to be able to capture what you are saying. I am taking it on board. Mostly I get it, if I don’t I will ask for clarification.

When I look at your face and into your eyes I see the micro expressions, I feel your body, I feel your emotions, I feel your mind, as if they are my own. Yet I don’t know the centre. It takes effort to separate, Its intense. I need to do a lot of real time internal work to discriminate and maintain separation, Just so your words can make sense..........

When you’re words, body language, eye & facial micro expressions don’t match, it flaws me in real time, I wont make eye contact.

When you force or would impose the NT way without thinking. I wont make eye contact.

Mostly even my best friends. I don’t spend much time making eye contact.
Its to intense, except in love!
I do look, I do see.
I just don’t do it for social reasons.

Imagine -
sensory overload as a base state.
Light, colours, sound, tone, touch smell taste.
surfaces and waveforms in sound colour texture.
vibration sound feeling
is all the same
only different depending on processing/filtering mode

Vision always intense colours and detail incredibly rich.
I see/hear//feel/taste/smell my visual cortex Raw, internal noise is not filtered ,
sometimes overwhelmed unable to discriminate.
Like A blind man knowing a room a house a castle.
I feel my mind, I feel my vision, I hear its notes, it is rich and pleasant.

Filters,
High level vision auditory somatic primary sensory dater processing,
Low level secondary filtering, including social, gender stereotyping.
Not always under conscious control.
A team of wild horses.

Senses

Like a team of powerful horses with the lightest of chariots

wild, and unskilled charioteer learning from cart drivers.
Time, the rains are different,there are more
Senses, feel the reins they quiver always both ways.
gentle time to know this beast.

Visual cortex exploring, surfaces and waveforms in sound and colour
vibration sound feeling
is all the same
only different depending on processing mode

Naming/language - seeing/reading – reading /naming -
The hearing/naming works buts does not connect ,( like when you look at a leaf - primary processing,, knowing its name "leaf" is not overlayed in conscious, it happens but in separation.. takes a lot of time and energy to get this right for some, just a curse for others.).(microsecond delay echo, uses a lot of mental resources)....

Nameit/Speakit
look at a scene any scene look at a object, name it. Speak it.
Look what’s happening. seeing/naming/knowing – knowing/naming/seeing/Sharing.
We all have times when we slip. How frustrating. When its all there!
Say a word repetitively until it has lost meaning, feel it.
Apply it to an object, knowing/naming disconnect.
I have to spend a lot of time on the mechanics of this just to be able to communicate.
It takes up mental resource, is fatiguing, and at times overloads .

Object. seeing /naming no overlay, word somewhere somewhere else, colours intense.
one colour jams, a little bit ok, much more it bleeds into everything , hearing touch smell, nothing else,
language- naming no name/comprehending, no language, its so loud, not fun.
Shut down /reboot ,don’t look... quick quick real quick,,, before they think your thick!!!
From mild to total disconnect. Have patience. My friend.
You will never see as I see when I see what I see,
as I will never see what you see when you see what you see. see
Sometimes I just have to go.
Its loud in here and my head hurts.

Its good to be around caring friends when one is vulnerable.
No meltdown.

Communicating
Internal/external Its a bit like, no major highway, only a common bus.
Racing along back streets, flat out weaving turning swarming sweeving data collecting,. STOP.............. which port
No super highway, No of the shelf NT encapsulation.
Error check, resend.


A windy day
chaotic I feel the sounds, I feel the pressure changes, the hair on my skin, pervasive chaotic,
I hear what I feel,my body makes a noise.
I feel what I hear, the feedback a bit much.
it makes me itchy. Irritable
its hard to filter out. I close My eyes, its like sparklers, like the wind in my visual cortex.
Harmonic noises Stochastic resonance amplifying not squelched.
And when its quite again I still feel the wind I see the noise.
I need time to process all that I hear?!?
I cant process the chaotic info as my brain insists,
it takes up a lot of processing to filter this out.
Ill stay inside.

Hearing sensitive felt deep in the belly, some sounds nausea some nectar,
On the skin all ways tingling just to hear/hearing/sounding/speaking/comprehending.
I hear my skin, I hear my body, I can hear an individual finger a part of, any part of my body,
I discriminate, always my mind is filled with noise, all frequencies, everything its own note.
Colours sounds textures smells, all as sound. Often confusing, sometimes it screams, overwhelming, its loud it full on.
Most time music.
I avoid loud confusing places if I can. I need to be certain of in making sound.
A little ok, depends on overload threshold.
And sometime I scream at a world that’s screaming at me.




Transparent blood brain barrier
I don’t feel I have anything needing to be fixed.
Its good to have a hypa sensitive system. and intelligence to integrate all that input.
All the chemicals I Avoid because they interact at a conscious level are also the ones that they are finding insidious harmful.
Autism is essentially a name for a set of symptoms.(symptoms is not the correct term)? (Processes maybe)
When Asked by the psychologist did I want It fixed. NO no No was my reply. no way.
I just wanted conformation.
Severe autism I know nothing about and is not my place to comment till I spend time with that brain.
The brain has its own agenda not always concurrent with self
It has its own self witch is not yourself
its neat to be able to relate to brain as society.
Its 4 am and I'm dreaming.


Sims

As I go to sleep,
I find quietness to go in and explore.
Last night I sat with my heart for a wile.
Felt its her/his rhythm,
heard how he beats, and listened.
Listened for that beat wherever I could.
Felt it in my hands, my feet, my groin, my belly, my diaphragm, my wrist, my neck.
listened for where I could hear it.
Then I went back to my heart and felt its beat, and just listened.
I moved my hearing along the sound as if it was a surface and noticed it change.
And a map in my vision. As I moved back it became quieter until I got to the diaphragm where it became loud again and as I moved forward it increased in volume.
Forward and up along the sound, then back and down.. I noticed I was tracing out surfaces, one curved in and concave. I realised where I was and felt the surface clean, as I moved back and down in a way, the sound became harder more clunk clunky, and then softer.
Moving following the sound path back it became louder at my diaphragm and then it went straight down. Loud and soft smother, then suddenly no sound and a dissipating expanding falling cooling whirlpool without the whirl. Spraying cooling heat into my feet and hands and neck and everywhere. My body feels nice .
Wow , neat roller-coaster, lets do it again.
Find the heart,
Today my heart feels content.

meditate with a tree.. separation- combining, visual/self
A tree not to complex, not to simple, one that you can fit in the visual field and still define the leaves.
A non distracting background.
Look at it, just take it in, breath.
Look at he tree nothing else
let your vision relax fade blew a bit.
See the whole tree, let your eyes scan, Don’t bring your eyes to point focus.
Keep looking. Watch it become more three dimensional, greater depth.
Notice the detail increase.
Don’t bring your eyes to point focus.
Keep allowing the image in your mind to grow.
With practice you can hold a leaf still in the mind and see its surface.
(I think this is an artefact of our evolving visual system.
We no longer have the patience or need to sit still in a forest watching one area of our visual field.)

Chair
chair - separation/boundary/somatic
sit in a chair,you know this.
What's it feel like. Close your eyes,
feel the chair
What are you experiencing ?
Try really hard to feel just the body contact
the primary data
separate it from your experience of the chair.
What do you notice ?


This is not compleat
to more sims to come

Friday 29 April 2011

What would you feel

From Care for this Earth and all her creatures

What would you feel

What would you feel if you were punished for being a defective NT
What would you feel if on greeting another they just stared at you
what would you feel if you were different and were insulted and belittled for being different.
What would you feel if you had a limp and another tripped you for their fun. Would you laugh.
what would you feel about someone that wont truth speak face to face
what would you feel about another spreading fear and misunderstanding ahead & behind you.
What would you feel being treated as a non-person.
what would you feel of being ostracised for missing subtle social cues.
What would you feel being made the but of anthers joke.
What would you feel as another insulted you with a smile
What would you feel to be threatened with violence covertly by others.
what would you feel being told to honor another’s lie as truth.
What would you feel being told to believe by those that don’t question belief
what would you feel
What would you feel being treated as stupid by someone 10 points below you.
What would you feel being told you are less than others because you don’t have a piece of paper
What would you feel being treated with respect less that a dog
What would you feel being ostracised.
what would you feel watching others join in where you are socially bared.
What would you feel knowing you were autistic and treated without basic respect
what would feel knowing you could continue this over several pages , but don’t because the feeling it would evoke.


I am not a child
I am not a student
I am not a possession
I am not a commodity
I am not a christian
I am not a catholic
I am not a Jew
I am not a Muslim
I am not NT
I am not another
I am not you.

I am not a product of your mind
I am none of these things

I am Autistic
I am Human, Homo sapiens
An Earthling
Phillip

Thursday 28 April 2011

When I go to sleep

As I go to sleep,
I find quietness to go in and explore.

Last night I sat with my heart for a wile.
Felt its her/his rhythm,
heard how he beats, and listened.
Listened for that beat wherever I could.
Felt it in my hands, my feet, my groin, my belly, my diaphragm, my wrist, my neck.
listened for where I could hear it.
Then I went back to my heart and felt its beat, and just listened.
I moved my hearing along the sound as if it was a surface and noticed it change.
And a map in my vision. As I moved back it became quieter until I got to the diaphragm where it became loud again and as I moved forward it increased in volume.
Forward and up along the sound, then back and down.. I noticed I was tracing out surfaces, one curved in and concave. I realized where I was and felt the surface clean, as I moved back and down in a way, the sound became harder more clunk clunky, and then softer.

Moving following the sound path back it became louder at my diaphragm and then it went straight down. Loud and soft smother, then suddenly no sound and a dissipating expanding falling cooling whirlpool without the whirl. Spraying cooling heat into my feet and hands and neck and everywhere. My body feels nice .

Wow , neat roller-coaster, lets do it again.
Find the heart,
Today my heart feels content.

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Social Prejudices



Something I've just learn't, deeply.
You have all been a part.. I hope you are getting this as well....
It doesn’t mater who you are, what species, how you process information.
We all have our own internal language, alien in a way to others.
Real communication happens when we take time to learn and integrate the internal language of another..
This is friendship. It is what the whisperers know......
The interface between self and other, congruency in harmonics between isolated but connected neural networks, brain resonating with brain in a choral symphony.
We only miss it because we don’t take the time to learn our own internal language.
Or the internal language of another.


Monday 13 December 2010

Berry Cheese cake

From
I lived with a German guy once he was a baker,
he showed me how to cook cakes and breads on a stove top.

This is a great cheese cake
Play wit it -

24' pan

100g Fresh ground flour
40g ground almonds
40 -50g honey
45g butter
65g cream
spice of your liking.
Put flour almonds spice, honey butter in a bowl , work into a crumbly mass,
mix with cream keep cool

250G raspberry.
350g cream cheese/quark.
40-50g honey
2 eggs
juice of lemon

Mix honey cheese egg yolks,
beet egg whites till yummy
fold in with raspberry cheese.

Push pastry into pan fill with raspberry mix
bake high ten minutes
low 30 or so..

Guten Appetit

Sunday 15 August 2010

Does Biochar Deliver Carbon-Negative Energy?


(May 19, 2010) Johannes Lehmann, Associate Professor of soil biogeochemistry at Cornell University, discusses the characteristics of naturally occurring terra preta including its agricultural and carbon sequestering benefits and then turns to considering the factors involved with implementation industrial biochar systems for large-scale carbon sequestration and energy provision.

Stanford University
http://www.stanford.edu


Biogeochemistry at Cornell University
http://www.biogeo.cornell.edu/


Stanford Energy Seminar
http://energyseminar.stanford.edu


Stanford University Channel on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Medium sized TLUD wood gas stove




Play slide show for easy navigation.

A larger version of a TLUD wood gas stove, rotates in stand for emptying. A large flat iron plate edged by bricks servesas the base and containment to break up char.






More photos of some stove evolution.

Everything nice stove

Monday 12 October 2009

A TLUD - Top Lit Up Draft - Spinner

I’ve been following a couple of different groups and discussions to learn about biochar for about 6 months. Id like to share what I’ve been learning and ask a couple of questions.

My purpose is to use biochar as a component in biological soil synthesis and buffer for use in a vaquaculture growing system.

I have been making small TLUD stoves, observing modeling tweaking making another.
It’s been informative and fun. The char is as valuable as the worms.
I have been producing about 1.2kg biochar a week to play with.
Fresh char is inhibitory to worms, needs further evaluation.
Its hungry & harsh with a high Ph. Treatment with Activated Compost Tea softens and makes it more bio friendly. Plants like it.

The idea is to learn the principles and process of Pyrolysis to make a stove that is efficient, produce char heat and cook on. I have learnt a lot in the last 6 months. A major observation is why are we humans still in the Stone Age when it comes to combustion and use of biomass?

My most recent stove is from a small barbecue gas bottle. It has heated central and radial secondary air, being introduced at 3 different levels. The original flame was long and unstable, headache and vision screwing – high CO? An after burner was created to improve combustion compact the flame to make it more stable and usable.

My strategies was to -
Introduce air in stages to heat air being injected a little higher in the flame column increasing the temp at each stage. (Hotter gasses improve efficiency of reaction allowing a wider air fuel ratio?).
Keep the reacting process as compact as possible by getting the flame to spiral and travel in a horizontal plane. Improve mixing by manipulating the resulting vortex.
Use boundary layers to advantage - (a boundary layer will insulate reacting gases from the walls of the combustion chamber, it will also inhibit heat transfer on the air side.
Insulate the stove well.

The available fuel source is mixed tree wood chips from urban sorces.
It takes about 1.5k wood chips, yields about 400g char, burns for about an hour till the flame changes. At this point I have extinguished it and harvested the biochar.

I call it the Spinner.
It’s a wonderful teaching device, as a cooking device it’s a bit overpowered.
It burns clean and very stable,
No bleary vision or headaches.
Each tweak teaches me, failures are best.
Combustion and knowledge continually improves.
Imagination is the most precious resource.
This is alchemy, art & science.

I find CO a problem in that it is extremely toxic and if not burnt its energy potential is lost.
I Wish I had a better CO CO2 temp ...meters than my nerves system as it would give me better feedback on what happening.

From Reforming Charcoal wood gas stove


From Reforming Charcoal wood gas stove




A couple of links to this stove and other things will fill in some details.
Thanks, keep up the good work.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ausearthlove
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/ausearthling/ReformingCharcoalWoodGasStove#
http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar-soils/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar-production/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/compost_tea/

Friday 2 October 2009

Reciprocity

We Are
we develop monoculture, we are monoculture.
we poison the earth we poison ourselves.
We breed cattle, we breed ourselves.
we lie to another we lie to ourselves.
we make war on another.
We love another.
what we do we do to ourselves.
reciprocity

Saturday 26 September 2009

Carbon alchemy - Stroking the Peacocks tail

Look at how he flies.
Where is she.
Hidden.

This is the sacred part, the insight of alchemy.
Plant and animal - light and dark.
We are as we eat mind of this earth.
Sacred root.

Carbon alchemy
We take in nutrients to generate energy, produce CO2.
We think wrong to see CO2 as a by product of respiration, a pollution.
As semi conscious beings we do the same externally with all our actions.
Yet we do not look at carbon in our lives, our own carbon cycle.
We are blind to how we cycle.
How we eat breath & shit carbon.
How we are. Carbon flux in being.

Where did this food come from?
How did earth water air sun do this?
How is life your life derived/realized in this.
Our Spiritual life together.

The carbon in your body, the carbon you eat,
the carbon you breathe, the carbon you shit.

When does it become you?
When does it become not you?
Meditate on this.
The same with all the elements.

Sit in front of a small tree and watch your breath, its breath.
Merge ,be one.
Experience Learn.

What would it be like to take responsibility for this carbon, Our carbon?
The carbon in carbohydrates, CO2, food, shit.
The carbon that moves through this personal life.
The carbon we fix = the carbon we liberate!
The whole cycle!
How can this be achieved?

An alchemical relationship between!
The heat of the sun growing the food we eat
The heat of the biomass cooking the food we eat
The food we eat & heat of our body.

When we crap in water we loose the smell of our own soul. We break our contact with the earth.
Cover shit with sweet earth compost & char, in a breathing enclosure. Separate from the earth yet worked upon by the earth.
When we piss in water our salts are diluted and lost.
Piss on char kept separate from the other.

Char derived from the Pyrolysis process is raw and hungry.
- The dust strips oils from the skin. Ph 8
- If slightly dampened it will generate heat?
- It needs to be further processed further processed to enhance its qualities.

- steeped in urine for a few days. Strained, diluted 1:10.
- Added to active compost tea brew. Bubbling air through water nutrients compost.
- Used in the compost.
- This softens its harsh character.

What is my personal carbon equation?
How much active biomass do I need to re-fix the carbon liberated by my life activities?

Biochar retort

.
A very good video on clean biochar/charcoal production

Tuesday 25 August 2009

keeping it clean - Organic best pratice

I Shall die young.
What the heck.
The chickens are teaching me.
Get rid of the plastic petrochemical derived soulless stuff, its of no use.

If I am Going to eat from it.
Then only clean organic materials be used in the system.

Compost Tea Knowledge - The way of the microbe.

Soil Food
Microbe Organics
Compost tea
Tea brewer

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Carbon Alchemy

The external carbon that we oxidize to enable our own carbon cycle. What is the relationship?



It performs well as a stove.
burns about an hour
40% yield charcoal, biochar

Monday 13 July 2009

Backyard Experiment - Carbon Biocycling

The backyard experiment.
From Composting proceses
The organic cycle?

I have had this machine for many years. It has a 9 horse power engine, chips wood up to 3 inches in diameter, Its brutal to use.
I wonder if the shredded garden waste can be sieved, the larger woodier used to gasify and power the machine, the finer stuff composted.


From Composting proceses

So many ways to compost,
This is a two year project.
An old computer fan circulating air through an agg drainage pipe at the base.
Avoid anaerobic zone, evaporate excess moisture.
A membrane to contain liquid and keep tree roots out.
screened inoculated char about 25-50%,
fill for a year, mature for a year.
Think it will be a good compost.

Making Charcoal - biochar for the compost
From Reforming Charcoal wood gas stove
This is a retort pyrolyzing 10l wood chips,
Can this energy be usefully used,heat water, run a machine, cook food.
The char needs to be matured in some way.
The PAH in the fresh char inhibits worms, may be mildly toxic to soil and life?

From Vermicomposting
A worm farm, can recover liquids as well as solids.

From Vermiponics

A vermiponic system makes use of the worm liquor.


Processing growing mix
From Vermiponics
A rotary sieve used for mixing up soils.
A versatile work area.
A propagation enclosure.

This is also part of this carbon cycle.
From Vermiponics
Food is that light and the way.
without it we die, it connects us with the earth.

This is the carbon cycle that we need to understand its sacredness.

Sunday 12 July 2009

Smoke burner



From Reforming Charcoal wood gas stove


A new stove, Its A smoke burner,
pyrolysis reduction oxidation.
This is art as well as science.
Design create, observation, tune - next.
A process of learning.
What am I trying to achieve?
Efficient controlled combustion, Charcoal, knowledge.
Heat for cooking and heating.
biochar for composting, creating stable soils.
Alchemy exploration
Carbon = life ?

Monday 29 June 2009

The Earth Charter

THE EARTH CHARTER

Preamble

We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

Earth, Our Home

Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life. The forces of nature make existence a demanding and uncertain adventure, but Earth has provided the conditions essential to life's evolution. The resilience of the community of life and the well-being of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and clean air. The global environment with its finite resources is a common concern of all peoples. The protection of Earth's vitality, diversity, and beauty is a sacred trust.

The Global Situation

The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous—but not inevitable.

The Challenges Ahead

The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more. We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions.

Universal Responsibility

To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world. The spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature.

We urgently need a shared vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world community. Therefore, together in hope we affirm the following interdependent principles for a sustainable way of life as a common standard by which the conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and transnational institutions is to be guided and assessed.

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Principles

I. RESPECT AND CARE FOR THE COMMUNITY OF LIFE

1. Respect Earth and life in all its diversity.
a. Recognize that all beings are interdependent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth to human beings.
b. Affirm faith in the inherent dignity of all human beings and in the intellectual, artistic, ethical, and spiritual potential of humanity.

2. Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love.
a. Accept that with the right to own, manage, and use natural resources comes the duty to prevent environmental harm and to protect the rights of people.
b. Affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge, and power comes increased responsibility to promote the common good.

3. Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful.
a. Ensure that communities at all levels guarantee human rights and fundamental freedoms and provide everyone an opportunity to realize his or her full potential.
b. Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible.

4. Secure Earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations.
a. Recognize that the freedom of action of each generation is qualified by the needs of future generations.
b. Transmit to future generations values, traditions, and institutions that support the long-term flourishing of Earth's human and ecological communities.

In order to fulfill these four broad commitments, it is necessary to:

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II. ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY

5. Protect and restore the integrity of Earth's ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.

a. Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives.
b. Establish and safeguard viable nature and biosphere reserves, including wild lands and marine areas, to protect Earth's life support systems, maintain biodiversity, and preserve our natural heritage.
c. Promote the recovery of endangered species and ecosystems.
d. Control and eradicate non-native or genetically modified organisms harmful to native species and the environment, and prevent introduction of such harmful organisms.
e. Manage the use of renewable resources such as water, soil, forest products, and marine life in ways that do not exceed rates of regeneration and that protect the health of ecosystems.
f. Manage the extraction and use of non-renewable resources such as minerals and fossil fuels in ways that minimize depletion and cause no serious environmental damage.

6. Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach.
a. Take action to avoid the possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm even when scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive.
b. Place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm, and make the responsible parties liable for environmental harm.
c. Ensure that decision making addresses the cumulative, long-term, indirect, long distance, and global consequences of human activities.
d. Prevent pollution of any part of the environment and allow no build-up of radioactive, toxic, or other hazardous substances.
e. Avoid military activities damaging to the environment.

7. Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human rights, and community well-being.
a. Reduce, reuse, and recycle the materials used in production and consumption systems, and ensure that residual waste can be assimilated by ecological systems.
b. Act with restraint and efficiency when using energy, and rely increasingly on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
c. Promote the development, adoption, and equitable transfer of environmentally sound technologies.
d. Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards.
e. Ensure universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and responsible reproduction.
f. Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world.

8. Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired.
a. Support international scientific and technical cooperation on sustainability, with special attention to the needs of developing nations.
b. Recognize and preserve the traditional knowledge and spiritual wisdom in all cultures that contribute to environmental protection and human well-being.
c. Ensure that information of vital importance to human health and environmental protection, including genetic information, remains available in the public domain.

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III. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE

9. Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative.
a. Guarantee the right to potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required.
b. Empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves.
c. Recognize the ignored, protect the vulnerable, serve those who suffer, and enable them to develop their capacities and to pursue their aspirations.

10. Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner.
a. Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.
b. Enhance the intellectual, financial, technical, and social resources of developing nations, and relieve them of onerous international debt.
c. Ensure that all trade supports sustainable resource use, environmental protection, and progressive labor standards.
d. Require multinational corporations and international financial organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them accountable for the consequences of their activities.

11. Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care, and economic opportunity.
a. Secure the human rights of women and girls and end all violence against them.
b. Promote the active participation of women in all aspects of economic, political, civil, social, and cultural life as full and equal partners, decision makers, leaders, and beneficiaries.
c. Strengthen families and ensure the safety and loving nurture of all family members.

12. Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.
a. Eliminate discrimination in all its forms, such as that based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, language, and national, ethnic or social origin.
b. Affirm the right of indigenous peoples to their spirituality, knowledge, lands and resources and to their related practice of sustainable livelihoods.
c. Honor and support the young people of our communities, enabling them to fulfill their essential role in creating sustainable societies.
d. Protect and restore outstanding places of cultural and spiritual significance.

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IV. DEMOCRACY, NONVIOLENCE, AND PEACE

13. Strengthen democratic institutions at all levels, and provide transparency and accountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision making, and access to justice.
a. Uphold the right of everyone to receive clear and timely information on environmental matters and all development plans and activities which are likely to affect them or in which they have an interest.
b. Support local, regional and global civil society, and promote the meaningful participation of all interested individuals and organizations in decision making.
c. Protect the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly, association, and dissent.
d. Institute effective and efficient access to administrative and independent judicial procedures, including remedies and redress for environmental harm and the threat of such harm.
e. Eliminate corruption in all public and private institutions.
f. Strengthen local communities, enabling them to care for their environments, and assign environmental responsibilities to the levels of government where they can be carried out most effectively.

14. Integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life.
a. Provide all, especially children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development.
b. Promote the contribution of the arts and humanities as well as the sciences in sustainability education.
c. Enhance the role of the mass media in raising awareness of ecological and social challenges.
d. Recognize the importance of moral and spiritual education for sustainable living.

15. Treat all living beings with respect and consideration.
a. Prevent cruelty to animals kept in human societies and protect them from suffering.
b. Protect wild animals from methods of hunting, trapping, and fishing that cause extreme, prolonged, or avoidable suffering.
c. Avoid or eliminate to the full extent possible the taking or destruction of non-targeted species.

16. Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence, and peace.
a. Encourage and support mutual understanding, solidarity, and cooperation among all peoples and within and among nations.
b. Implement comprehensive strategies to prevent violent conflict and use collaborative problem solving to manage and resolve environmental conflicts and other disputes.
c. Demilitarize national security systems to the level of a non-provocative defense posture, and convert military resources to peaceful purposes, including ecological restoration.
d. Eliminate nuclear, biological, and toxic weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
e. Ensure that the use of orbital and outer space supports environmental protection and peace.
f. Recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.

The Way Forward

As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning. Such renewal is the promise of these Earth Charter principles. To fulfill this promise, we must commit ourselves to adopt and promote the values and objectives of the Charter.

This requires a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. Our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision. We must deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the Earth Charter, for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.

Life often involves tensions between important values. This can mean difficult choices. However, we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals. Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play. The arts, sciences, religions, educational institutions, media, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are all called to offer creative leadership. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for effective governance.

In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development.

Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.