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

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.

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 ?

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.

Top

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.

Arithmetic, Population and Energy

Video parts 1 of 8

Arithmetic, Population and Energy -

a talk by Al Bartlett

http://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_population_energy_video1.html

How to Butcher a Chicken

How to butcher a chicken

This internet tutorial tells (and shows) you how to skillfully butcher a chicken in ten easy steps. Your instructor is Herrick Kimball,

http://butcherachicken.blogspot.com/

The Eighth Day, For the children of the world

Earth repair foundation

What is it to live in this life

What is it to live in this life?
Compost, embedded complex systems
I used to ask about this, having grown up in a catholic system.
Science, religion, Christ, football, competition.
A murdered Jesus constantly on display.
One would be condemned to hell for not being mindlessly enslaved to the authority of the unknowable father.
A mind fucking double bind.
The core of slavery. It has harmed so many.
Not the way of the Christ at all.
I left school very confused and questioned this deeply.

The hard Question.
This led to two Questions.
What does life ask of us? What is it about this earth that all living things have in common?
The answer was within the Question, the question it is the key!
-- Life asks us to live in awareness.
-- All living things must take the life of another to live.
-- We are all food to this life process.
This became the basis for my living ethos.
If we are to continue evolving in this paradise we must honor life.
And honor our food.
Relies that our shit is sacred and own it.
Care for her and all her creatures.
Eat and be eaten in awareness.
Its all we need to do.

YES

http://www.yesmagazine.org/default.asp

Harvest the Suburbs

Wood Gass Stove

This is a small wood gas stove, it pyrolysis the fuel (wood chips) giving heat and leaving charcoal. it holds about 200g chips, boils 1lt water in 7 minutes and burns for about 20 minutes, leaving charcoal for the composting process.
I'm Learning about the carbon cycle and how much energy this culture wastes.
Charcoal added to humanur composting may fix a large amount of carbon into active earth nutrients, might be the secret of Tera preta.
more stoves to follow.
http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/types
http://www.bioenergylists.org/
http://www.planetthoughts.org/?pg=vid/ShowVideo&qid=2948

Rose

From Flowers

Homegrown Evolution: Our Rocket Stove

Homegrown Evolution: Our Rocket Stove

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Tread softly!
All this earth is sacred ground.
It May be, could we look with seeing eyes.
This spot we stand on is a paradise;
Where dead have come to life and lost been found,
Where faith has triumphed, martyrdom been crowned,
Where fools have foiled the wisdom of the wise;
From this same spot the dust of saints may rise,
And the kings prisoners come to light unbound.
O earth earth earth. hear now thy makers words;
"Thy dead thou shall give up, nor hide thy slain"-
Some who went weeping forth shall come again
Rejoicing from the east or from the west
As doves fly to their windows, loves own bird
Contented and desirous to the nest.

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Temple of The Sacred Ego - Spirit Eaters

Something that happened a wile back.

Eagle May 17, 2007

On Tuesday at work Two Wedge tailed Eagles flew over. One was downed by a couple of hawks. I don't know what happened to the other. I contacted wires and a lady turned up with a couple of blankets, (I think they need more resources). I then spent a while talking to and calming this huge scared injured bird walking with her through and around paddocks, Getting closer. Eventually I got close enough to capture her.

We took her/him, I'm going to call it her. We took her to the vet rolled in a blanket. The Bird had an old wound on the wing the elbow joint, this wound the hawks had attacked to bring her down. She had a lice lode, she looked exhausted . I left as they were going to ex ray her, thinking she was in good hands. Later on I heard that the vet had put her down.. justifying it with,,,,

..There was damage in the wing, it did look like the other,,,, What type of life would this animal have,,,,

I am hurt deeply by this, look at this picture! Her wings are up!

A couple of years ago I found a Rosella on the roadside flapping and in shock, I took It to the same vet,

Do you know what they said,,, Its got a damaged wing, wires normally put them down,,,, We would have to bind it, it would be difficult,,,, It may never fly again,,,,, What type of life would it have,,, You need a license to have a captive native bird ,,, ,,, ,,,etc....

I took the parrot home he lived on the curtain rail floor and chair backs and in spring when I opened up the house he flue away.......

So today &Tonight I sit hear and think of this vet the Eagle and wires and my giving my power away.....

Its no good crying over spillt milk. The Eagle is a symbol of power, I knew in my inner heart and promised her that we would look after her when I was trying to capture her, I knew what should be done....And when I caught her I gave her to another who seemed to have more authority than me......

IF I had honored my promise to and of my own power I would have taken her to a cage no more than 200m from where she fell and looked after her with the help of the farm manager for the winter.

I am sure she would have flown again.

A lessen on how easy it is to give up ones own inner heart felt authority and power to others that only wear a badge of authority and have no true training or commitment.

Temple of the Sacred Ego

Shaman what is this beating of the drum, the dance of the circle, the smudge of the smudge, this ancient fire light with sanitized vision quests. whats this sacred thing you talk about!

Shaman do you take time to learn & relearn the language of the animals?
Have you held an eagle, do you talk with the birds, do you know there language. Could this language be of chemistry love and time.. Do you truly understand that we are all brothers or do you own a cat!

Shaman have you spent time with the plants and learnt there way.
Do you know the dance of chemistry, the cycle of the elements.
Do you know how to produce your own food.. This be truly sacred self!

Shaman do you know death, Has a loved one died in your arms.
Have you breathed and pumped life into another and watched him in his eyes and seen him struggle as he dies, only to live again. Have you died yourself!

Shaman have you been in the eye of a storm, danced with lightning on a mountain top, swum in the desert. Have you lived alone for an extended time!

Shaman Do you tend the sick and frail when your spells can’t cure, or do you hide them behind glass walls in the temple of the soul!

Shaman truth need no words. Do you give honour to your words of love and friendship or leave that for others to do. Do you judge another according to their truth or judge to bind in serving the temple of your ego. Do you serve your shaman way or cheaply use this truth!

Shaman when truth is murdered in the temple of the ego of another.
Stop stomp and listen as the ego corridors shatter.

Shaman do you truly hold all this earth as mother sister brother daughter son.

Immanuel Kant
"An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?"

Plant Grow Unit

Found a double bunk, all the uses it can be put to?
A bath tub will fit.

Parrot

Many people will walk in and out of your life,
But only true friends will leave footprints
in your heart.
To handle yourself, use your head;
To handle others, use your heart.
Anger is only one letter short of danger.
If someone betrays you once, it is his fault;
If he betrays you twice, it is your fault.
Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.
He who loses money, loses much;
He who loses a friend, loses much more;
He who loses faith, loses all.
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,
But beautiful old people are works of art.
Learn from the mistakes of others.
You can’t live long enough to make
them all yourself.
Friends, you and me…
You brought another friend…
And then there were 3…
We started our group…
Our circle of friends…
And like that circle…
There is no beginning or end…
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is mystery.
Today is a gift.

Unknown, not Eleanor Roosevelt
Quoted by Eleanor Roosevelt’s grandson David Roosevelt in the book Grandmère: A Personal History of Eleanor Roosevelt

Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman

What chemistry!
That the winds are really not infectious,
That this is no cheat, this transparent green-wash of the sea which is
so amorous after me,
That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its
tongues,
That it will not endanger me with the fevers that have deposited
themselves in it,
That all is clean forever and forever,
That the cool drink from the well tastes so good,
That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy,
That the fruits of the apple-orchard and the orange-orchard, that
melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me,
That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease,
Though probably every spear of grass rises out of what was once
catching disease.

Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient,
It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless
successions of diseas'd corpses,
It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor,
It renews with such unwitting looks its prodigal, annual, sumptuous
crops,
It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings from
them at last.

Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman

Slow food

This is good to share, to much for me and the birds.
There is a sharing system a que gaes back a few trees.
Jump the que and listen
Help, Bring a container.
Another yummie pie

Vermiponic biorecycling

Vermiponic bio recycling

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: aquaponics hydroponics)

View on slideshare blogger has not updated this.

As time goes by this system is moving from an idea to a reality.
We all need to understand the carbon & nitrogen cycle. A system that we are embedded in. So far we don't do to well.
This may offer some solutions.

Vermiponics

Click to view collection

Walt Whitman introduction to the first edition of Leaves of Grass.

Love the earth and sun and the animals,
Despise riches,
Give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labour 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 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 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 in the introduction to the first edition of Leaves of Grass.

Shiting in water

Shitting in water
Create a list of animals that shit in water
Create a list of animals that don't shit in water.
Strange how we (humans ) shit in water and then wont drink it
Not very intelligent are we.
Give this a moment thought will you !!!
My dog won’t shit in water; he doesn't need a nuclear plant to power a desalinater
Dogs must be more intelligent than humans

Cob Workshop

http://www.gudhara.org.au/
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/ausearthling/CobWorkshop20081129#
http://www.davidjohnson.id.au/

Beannachtaí an tSéasúir,

May you be blessed with discomfort
at easy answers, half-truths, and
superficial relationships,
so that you may live deep
within your heart.
May you be blessed with anger
at injustice, oppression, and
exploitation of people,
so that you may work
for justice, freedom and peace.
May you be blessed with tears to shed
for those who suffer from pain,
rejection, starvation and war,
so that you may reach out your hand
to comfort them
and to turn their pain into joy.
May you be blessed with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make
a difference in this world,
so that you can do what others
claim cannot be done.
Amen.

Beannachtaí an tSéasúir,
(Blessings of the Season)

Biorecycling flow chart

Vermiponic Diagram 2

View SlideShare document or Upload your own. (tags: vermiponicsbiorecycling)

Video & Pictures

Husband The Earth

The question keeps coming up.
"How can we care for all the children of all the species for all time",
William Donaugh.
My question is, How can we care for this earth and all her creatures?
The answer is simple really.
Care for this earth and all her creatures.
The practice the way is difficult in this day.
I used to use a mantra - I am the earth, when I first started to query what she was about.
What I have noticed is that as I ask this question every day my perceptions are changing.
A lot of what I used to find satisfying important for human life is now just so vile and sickening.
I have become the earth and I feel sick at what we do.
Its strange and sacred, She is always talking silently in us.
If we would only listen we would know what to do.
She loves us so much.
please open your heart and know
its in thy thymus
'-'

carbon negative cooking.

- Click on image to see the collection
Almost. 25l burner, 8l chiminy, 2*4 reformer inside, loaded with wood.
Burns like a furnace.
Not much of a yield, no smoke great for cooking
rice and a stir fry
Burnt for about 60 minutes
I Want a charcoal stream for nutrient buffering in soil and compost
http://www.holon.se/folke/carbon/cooking.shtml
http://www.terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/makingcharcoal

Sacred Food

(Food is sacred,
It is what connects us to this earth.)
I lack artistic computer skills. would a creative person be interested in creating a image from this.

At Home, Vermiponic Permaculture microfarming

Spring is here and I'm behind.
Ive been busy with -
Permaculture class.
Walking A friend through the dark night of the soul, (It is a joy to help in the birth of an adult human,rare these days).
A new and proud owner of 6 lovely gals (one above).
Attempting to craft an aquaponic - vermiponic system.
Worms - chooks - plants - fish, all from food wastes from the local organic grocer.
Is this permaculture

This is a beginnings of an aquaponic - vermiponic system made from salvaged bits.
A chook tractor and worm farm at back of image.
I intend to use the nutrient solution and worms to feed it.
The bath tubs have worm castings as a growing medium.

Vermiponics

Above - link to Pictures of vermiponic experiment in my back yard
http://www.vermiponics.com/
http://ecocard12.angelfire.com/plants.html
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bCV7DABEz20&sdig=1

Tera Preta

Terra preta


The secret of el dorado

Bees CCD & GMO

Dear Friends,

I am rather confused and concerned by the disappearing Bees around the Globe and our responses. Bees are kind of special, a canary in a haystack, a keystone specie. There seems to be a connection between certain insecticides used in almost all horticulture situations, from urban gardens, golf courses to commercial agriculture and GMOs.

Bees don’t do to well in genetically modified crops that express insect toxins. e.g. bt cotton, canola.

The countries using GM crops linked with systemic insecticides are having staggering Bee losses. It is known as CCD colony collapse disorder.

Australia is spared this blight at present. We use these Insecticides but as yet don’t have widespread GM crops expressing insect toxins. This is Changing Quickly.

FSANZ is asking for public submissions on the release of these lethal corporate bio-engendered money spinners.

My dilemma is this. I don’t feel confident or understand the process involved in creating and submitting this information to FSANZ or other authorities. I do feel it is extremely important to do so.

I am asking for a call of solidarity, a call to arms or maybe a whimping plee for help.

Is there anyone interested in gathering collating and creating a submission?

Please contact me if interested in doing something about this.

http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/newsroom/mediareleases/mediareleases2008/6august2008publicsub3969.cfm

http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/standardsdevelopment/documentsforpublicco868.cfm

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/honeyBeeOrganicFarming.php

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/31/animalwelfare.environment

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/12/conservation.wildlife1

http://www.esajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1890%2F03-5271

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/03/HOGIROCUE71.DTL

Permablitz, community sharing

Cob

Permablitz Southern Highlands

Let no one be discourage by the thought of how much there is to learn...
For the first steps are steps into a delightful unknown..
The first successes are victories all the happier for being scarcely expected
and with the growing knowledge comes the widening outlook and the comforting sense of an ever increasing gain of critical appreciation.
Each new step becomes a little surer and each new grasp a little firmer,
Till little by little comes the power of intelligent combination.
The nearest thing we can know to the mighty force of creation.

Gertrude Jekyls.

absurdism

Miguel De Unamuno, - "Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible."

Christian slavery

Shame June 27, 2007

http://culturematters.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/a-new-paternalism-for-aborigin...

http://www.westender.com.au/stories.php?s_id=595

We have dis-empowered these people completely, pushed them onto the rubbish dumps of our cultural refuse.

We have stolen there land, raped there children, sold them into Christian slavery, abused them, murdered them, diluted there spirit with ours (petrol)

We have projected our shadow of hatred on them. and still do

We have treated them worse than dogs and vermin, and still do.

We have taken advantage of them, using them for our political gains

We destroy all other cultures in serving our Christian greed.

Then blame them for there destruction!!

To continually treat others less than human creates less than human others

The only shame is in us who judge without recourse to truth

We call ourselves Christian and demand others accept cultural enslavment.

Lets give ourselves a pat on the back.

* Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.

* Unite humanity with a living new language.

* Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.

* Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.

* Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.

* Avoid petty laws and useless officials.

* Balance personal rights with social duties.

* Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.

* Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.

"Those who commit evil acts do not see those acts as evil or even malicious.
They see themselves as justified" -- David Gerrold

Technorati Profile

Worm Tower

The original

Atrazine - from silent night to silent spring

From Silent Spring to Silent Night
A talk by Prof. Tyrone Hayes,
Department of Integrative Biology,
University of California Berkeley. Given at Humphrey Institute in
Minneapolis on March 23, 2007. Dr. Hayes is an authority on the
effects of the pesticide atrazine on frogs, and is not popular with
chemical companies for his views and proven research.

Vermiculture - Aquaponics.

A semi closed organic food system created in a minimal space intergrating vermiculture and aquaponics - using organic and Permaculture principles.

The goal is to cycle nutrients solid and liquid through a combined aquaponics and vermiculture system to grow food for the table. Recycle organic food and organic matter. Possibly produce Vermicompost and liquid fertilizer.

Musings
Worms produce nitrogen rich liquid and solid products suitable for growing plants, are a rich protein source.
Fish eat worms and also produce nitrogen.
Plants use nitrogen.
Hydroponic gravel beds act as filters removing particles and nutrients.
I Eat fish plants and worms (sometimes).
What type of fish?
Commercial home size aquaponic systems take about the space of a double garage and are claimed to feed a family of four.

Permaculture

“What permaculture designers are doing is the most important activity that any group is doing on the planet.

We don´t know what will be the details of a truly sustainable future,

but we need options,

we need people experimenting all types of forms

and permaculture designers are one of the crucial groups who are doing this."

Dr David Suzuki

Large Backyard Vermicomposter - Worm Box

Worms

Click image to view videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KKLYiih1U8

Worms in the system

A worm Farm

This is large backyard worm farm

Worms

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: worms vermiposting)

Worm Capsules

Home Worm Organic Digester

http://www.vermiculture.ca/articles/basic_earthworm_biology.htm
http://ausearth.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-on-worms.html#links
Some worm anatomy

Mittagong

A rain in Mittagong

Kangaroo valley - Permaculture workshop

Permaculture Upper Kangaroo Valley 2008-05-11

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