I haven’t been writing since my return from the sea, as I have been so engaged in the many realities bursting into being since my return. I am so present now that if I write if I do & if I don’t, I don’t.
I really did appreciate though the writing of the days out at sea, highlighting the process, sharing the beauty, the focus of experience. I want to write more often of this experience of life so I begin now. There is just so so so much joy & wonder to be. There is so much opportunity for fulfillment & expansion. The universe is so abundant & unlimited that right now I am free to be as being is, then shift at any time to what is now. The universe provides so abundantly that as long as I am in connection all that I need is provided.
This all makes for a very exciting, expansive, creative experience. For as I desire, opportunity is provided, as expansion occurs change blasts forth in manifestation of adventure in many forms.
The journey at sea had so many levels of potent experience. Yet now here I am only getting 1 day of sun since my return! It has been sunny quite a few days but not enough so to take off my cloths & bask in it as I so love. Yet this is also just a new now, so much opportunity here as well.
I have done 3 art shows in the last 5 days & quite enjoyed it. I got my first printing of the Cortez journey made & received 2 days before my first show of the week. I have framed some, made my own frames for many, made post cards wall art & a new genius inspired creation of sustainability & beauty. This creation is a piece of handmade paper with a print sowed onto the paper in the middle with string over the corners of the photo so that the print itself is not punctured. Then on the back side, attach a handmade envelope the same way as the print. This envelope is attached to the paper as is the photo but both of them are able to be removed & replaced as desired. This gives the possibility to change out the picture on this card/art with a new picture based on the season the day or in the case of re sending the card to another. The envelope on the back makes possible writing hand written letters on nice paper of any length desired being able to put that in the envelope then send it as a card or use it as a place to write notes to household or family for notifications. Also the envelope itself could be removed & replaced if desired.
Then attach a braided cord to the top so that it can be hung from a nail or hook so that it can appreciated. This makes a beautiful handmade piece of art that can be sent as a card for a special occasion, hung & appreciated as art for as long as desired by any party & be sent then resent again & again thus sharing a sustainable greeting/blessing of beauty.
I have quit a few really epic prints but have only put 8 extraordinary prints to enlargement for this first run. I have sold 2 of them so far & defiantly want to add a few more in the next run. I make all the postcards, greeting cards & wall hangings of handmade paper from a run of epic smaller prints of a set of 60. All of the smaller epics I also take custom orders for large blown up prints, framed or unframed for these smaller prints as well as make custom card sets with a single photo or combination of photos of choice. This makes for a specialized card set for a specific taste or purpose.
I have really loved the process of printing as it is a whole new level of photography. The paper that is chosen the finish that is chosen & with digital prints every printer is printing differently & every monitor is displaying differently so a huge spectrum of color variation to work with. I have found that it is wise to get a printer profile of any printer that I am printing with even professional printing places. Then to get a monitor display program that aligns my monitor with the color profile of the printer that is to be used. This means that any new place I get prints from I may need to tweak each photo again. Also based on my monitor I may not be even seeing the picture as it will look as it is printed unless I have my monitor color profile tweaked to match.
Really engaging photography has influenced my life very much. As I see the world I am seeing it from the eye of the photographer. I am taking in the light, angles, shadows, & how visuals would look when captured in a focused frame. It is amazing how much tiny spots of isolated beauty can be found all over. For me in nature finding those beauty shots is quite easy, in suburb shopping areas or airports it is much more limited but still there are great shots to get. It has also brought my perception to a place of documentation, capture, sharing & such. Meaning that I am perceiving my life as a picture & this writing can be like a photograph in a way as well. I may focus on an aspect of my life, frame it, capture it then share it like a photo. My whole life is not captured in a page just like the whole world is not captured in 1 photo. However there are great highlights, extremes, uniqueness’s, & other various frames that are enjoyable to partake in. I love how various passions meld & fold into other aspects of life evolving large spectrum's of experience not just isolated activities. This is really important for me for I feel there is so much to be enhanced by in experience. Like during the sailing adventure I was able to experience living at sea, a life that comes with many new normal realities. I got to download new sailing abilities. I got to really engage photography at a level I was not previously doing while also having a playground of beautiful photographic opportunity. I was able to get great experience in new contrasts, scenery, & location shooting. I was able to commune & evolve from the spirit of the sea. I was able to explore new lands & meet new people. There was all this enhancing experience & more from ONE trip! Not only that but those enhancements also enhanced other areas of my life. Thus contributing to a very enhancing experience!
Winter Solstice Vortex
Started this epic solstice weekend off with a grand celebration of joy & wonder in Dallas at the Cathedral of hope for the second largest of its kind. I had the honor of calling the place to focus with the didgeridoo as the event began. The didgeridoo is such a divine space holder for clarity & focus. I then left the stage to meld in the flow of the event to come. There was much play, dance, sound & much to be shared by those present. I was part of various aspects of the celebration including 6 more didj pieces throughout the night with other various sound channels. Cornell, Charity, Ann, Gary to name a few. I was there until the Cathedral closed playing the last vibes of the vortex & accepting gallons of left over soup to utilize in a sustainable fashion. I am thankful to have been part of the event.
Just leaving from the Synergy event as the sun has risen & the people have dispersed. Been dancing, eating, drinking, singing, smiling, huggin, enjoying, & enhancing all night. Really powerful didj session tonight to bring the event to a focused, peaceful place together. We felt about as connected as connected feels. So present, in tune with the now, thoughtless, projection less, free & alive. So thankful to have the space to bring forth such sound creating a vortex for such experience. Great large circle of beings, heads in the middle receiving & enhancing the reality. So much energy coming through while simultaneously being released. I love how the focus & presence of the beings involved coordinate the unfolding of the didj journeys. So much individual channel coming through for the potency of those involved.
Chilling here in Austin enjoying this fantastic city, one of my favorite indeed. There is more winter solstice action going on here today and I will be providing the breath for another round of didgeridoo at winter solstice in the park. Tis another bright sunny day with so so so much opportunity available!
I love being in awareness that the universe provides all, that all I need to do is show up, let go, embrace opportunity & be in connection with inspiration from within. So much potential in the power of the unknown in faith.
It seems as if every day I am reborn again. For when I remember that there is nothing I have to do, there is nothing I have to be, I remember that nothing matters. Because nothing matters I am completely free to choose anew the entirety of my existence. All plans, ideas, beliefs, patterns are re considered & either shed or chosen again. It is very powerful to exist from a place of now in the awareness that right now anything is possible & non of it matters….besides what is made to matter. What it seems to come down to is what my preferences are for it is within preference that meaning exists.
Coming from a place of this is the way it is supposed to be or this is the way it is supposed to happen can be a limiting place of manifestation. It is important to be aware of what is & to also accept that. For it is in acceptance of what is that we may choose anew. Now to be in acceptance of what is & also realize that if something happens, yet we still desire another outcome, we may empower that, to choose anew, to re align so that a new reality is possible. To me this is a perfect palace of acceptance AND empowerment.
It is quite often in life that one encounters “failure” or “missed opportunity” this however can turn into learning, adjusting, evolving, perspective, preference, or other beneficial realities so a lot of what “failure” tends to mean is transformed into process for the upgrade. It is all possible now yet for some reason one may falter. This may be part of it & that’s ok. TO let go & now engage again from a place of focus is beneficial.
This played out perfectly in poetic fashion as me 7 Shellie recorded a winter solstice sound session. As I did sound checks to get mic levels right on the didj & Tibetan bowls, I got the balance where I wanted it & we proceeded to channel potent beautiful divine graced sounds for 25 minutes or so. We came to a pausing point & I checked the recorder to find out it had not been recording at all! These sounds un able to be reproduced channeled in the moment of a vortex by the river. I now had an opportunity to believe these sounds were not ment to be recorded, to be angry over the fact, to feel loss at the reality or to be done with it all together after being disheartened. Instead we laughed did sound checks again & made sure it was recording again. This time the sound that came through was different but it was as powerful as potent as that before it. One could call this a test maybe to see if recording was important enough to stick with it or one could simply continue to choose based on what is important right now knowing that it is available now. Either way if I were to have chosen that not getting a recording was what was supposed to be then I would have got nothing at all instead of just a different variation in a different set of nows. Every new now is an opportunity now to choose again, NOT based on the past but based on what is important NOW!
Another beautiful example played out tonight at our dispense for the sake of this session. We got invited to a sweat, pot luck & house party after the winter solstice celebration. It was about a 45 minute drive & the directions I got were all by word of mouth without any paper or documentation of the directions. When we got very close, the way that was within me was lost at the last road, as I did not know the house address. We did not have a phone number for the place we were going or anyone else that was at the party. We called someone to get a number for someone who was at this house. We left a message as there was no answer. The time approached for the sweat to start & passed. We had chosen to just sit in the car on the side of the road. Exchanging messages taking a short power rest, then the phone rang. It was the girl at the house with directions. She said my phone has been off we are about to start the sweat where are you. We were there within 3 minutes & perfectly on time for the sweat!
In the moments of not knowing where to go, not having a phone number, being out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the cold night we had many moments to make choices, to have feelings/reactions to our circumstances. By sitting & embracing what was, because it was what was while also holding true to the reality of being at the sweat it worked itself out perfectly. Not according to plan nor as I may have thought it would turn out but perfectly none the less. There were so many moments to move with a different path, to feel a different range of feelings to have different thoughts thus effecting where & how our night would play out.
There is so much power in the unknown for in the unknown anything is possible. There is also the most potential for fear as if one fears, then the unknown is very scary.
We had a nice sweat, a couple hours worth, didjing, singing, bowling, sweating, purifying, & focusing. We then enjoyed a feast of various potluck delectable’s. I sure do love to eat after fasting, cleansing, and other purifying events. It is like death and rebirth yin and yang that contrasting experience fulfilling and amplifying each other. I give thanks!
We have been playing in more sound for the last couple hours upstairs in this sweet wooden floor square dance/yoga/sound room with great acoustics. We had 7 drummers, some Tibetan bowls, didgeridoo, singers, flute, sax, it was epic! Just jamming away tuning into sound & each other through the process of letting go to the experience. I just love how well the spirit of sound can orchestrate so many people in a harmonized enjoyable way without any definable communication between the people at hand. THAT IS DIVINITY AT WORK! I am part of that; I surrender to that possibility, that opportunity that perfection while also embracing life force in its abundance!
After two really long nights of dancing, didjing, singing, playing without any sleep I feel great. By eating really quality foods, being part of a lot of really potent sound medicine & dancing in tune with the life force, sure channels lots of energetic potential. I have been aware of the power of sound medicine but after these solstice didjing journeys & this sound experience here tonight I am aware of it as ever! I am still sitting here an hour after everyone but the bowls have disappeared & yet still feel fulfilled, satisfied & called to sit here in enjoyment of their sound. It really doesn’t get any better than this! What a wonderFULL blessing to be so fulfilled so simply with such a renewable available source. The resonance of these bowls is amazing, the huge spectrum & layers of sound just blow me way AND tune me in! YES
~Present~
I sat in meditation yesterday, present, so in love with the moment that being naked in a squat on the bedroom floor was as much as I could wish for. As the awareness came to me that I was in agreement to meet my mother, sister and brother from out of town in 30 minutes. Putting on cloths, getting in the car to drive someplace to pay to drink, to talk, get back in a car then come home to this bedroom later that night, all seemed very silly. Yet I also felt that though I was complete in the moment & did not desire nor need anything, that I would still put on my cloths to get in a car to drive to a place and drive back home again..hehe hehe… so I pondred. “If I am to do this anyways it would be in my best interest to choose to do this, engage it & enjoy the process for its now potential.
So I got up took a 4 minute shower put on my silks, put my hair up & was ready to go like I had been getting ready for the event of the day.
When I drive down the road even though I am using gas preciously, honoring the path that has been provided before me, I still don’t like the info structure that the system is based on. Cars that run on fossil fuels, which drive on roads that cut down the earth and plaster it in cement. Yet I also feel driving is something that I am going to continue to be a part of. I can embrace it for what it is, focus on upgrades I can implement & utilize myself & continue to focus on what is important, what I enjoy & am called to do. Am I part of a system of unsustainability…..? Yes in a sense I am yet also I am most sustainable & efficient by embracing & expanding instead of blaming & fighting. If something is really important to me then I will find ways to implement it into my life.
I have not yet used any electrical, gas or any grid heating methods in the last 2 years. As I sit here & write this it is as cold inside as it is out. The sun has come up so its actually becoming warmer outside than in. I can see my breath thick like smoke. I do not disdain this nor experience this as torture. It is fun, it is fulfilling & inspiring for me. Because by doing this I am supporting what feels right to me. I walk around the house with a shake powered flashlight instead of turning on lights. I don’t throw away trash but find a way to use, reuse, recycle, build, create or otherwise utilize materials that I come in contact with. Instead of focusing on the ridiculousness of the trash system, how decomposing does not take place without air, water, & sun which is the environment of dumps across the nation. Instead of thinking about the millions of tons of trash thrown into land fills every week or all the useful materials that could be re used. I think about what can I do now with this! Because I know that material has a more efficient sustainable purpose than traveling on a truck to fill the land with seas of waste.
~Optimal Perspective~
While being angry, guilty, or vengeful is ok, it is not the most beneficial energetic place of experience for me. Meaning there are many places that I could come from & interact with while driving down the road. Consciously choosing from where I operate in this relationship helps to align with enjoyable manifestation.
I am inspired by some new winter pant designs & feel the salivation of my creation to come. 1 design of felted wool & leather another of inner silk layer, middle wool layer, outer layer strong fabric of earth winter color.
I have some wonderful loafs of bread ready for the baking. Loafs of bread made from starter that I feed multiple times daily, take with me to keep warm & feed, sometimes bring to bed with me at night to keep warm. Then mixed with primo ingredients to let grow, rise & transform into Uber Quality dough for loafs of bread over the course of 24-62 hours. Right about now is almost an opportunity for the baking part!
~Food~
I have been eating, making & sharing food using 5 gallons of soup I got from the left over’s after winter solstice. It was a potato veggie soup that I spiced up with fresh herbs from the garden, garlic & other flavorings. I heated up a huge pot for a bunch of hungry kids one night. Took it to Austin & kept making batches in my crock pot for an all night ecstatic dance event & shared it with other friends during the weekend. Upon returning home I still had about a gallon so I have been doing different things with it as it’s about the only food I have been eating for a few days! I came up with a dish I call VEGGIE soup or soup & salad, its fresh greens from the garden with cold soup, avocados & hot sauce. MMMMM it was good & a nice change up from the variations I have been eating. I so so so love to utilize abundance & free resources. This soup has been a fun one to share.
~Christmas~
Now I am at my parents house for Christmas & there is LOTS of food variations going on so the soup fast is ended in feasting fashion. Yesterday was her birthday & I inspired up a 3 course meal, 1 Fried Garden Green Tomato Salad with fresh baked foccacia onion bread, 2 Garden Curried Sweet Potatoes with coconut milk, cashews, & cranberries, on a bed of steamed kale. 3, sautéed cinnamon apples with raisins, peanut butter, candied ginger on top of ice cream. It was a mighty uber dank feast that was most indeed 6 star. It was a really fun late night with the family playing games, talking & enjoying life’s experience. Plus we had if not the most one of the most amounts of snow we have had here in Texas in the 20+ years we have been here, so beautiful & festive perfect for Christmas and Christmas Eve. The snow has been melting beautifully with the bright sun shining & reflecting as the day goes on. We have a middle eastern feast in the preps for today of hummus, fresh home made pita bread, taboolie, lamb, deep fried cauliflower/broccoli, fried cheese with lemon & rosemary, taziki, falafel & some other bits. I made an Uber Dank chocolate cherry bread for brunch today with fresh whipped cream, just about as good as bread gets.
~Holiday Aftermath~
I love being with my family & the holidays are yet another great reason to be so. A bit much food & gusto but fun as a contrasting occasion. We do not do nor have been doing gifts on Xmas for a while now. I quit prefer that reality. It is nice to be immune to the whole gift/consumer realities that seem to be so fixed in place. I do love to give & receive, it is a splendor of this experience. I love unconditional spontaneous giving & receiving from the now. This is what I like to give & receive. I remember in the olden days when it was like ok we will get eachother $20 gifts or you can spend this much on this person or this person spent this much on me or oh they got me something now I have to get them something, or I know they are going to get me something so I need to get them something, etc etc.
We did do a “white elephant” gift exchange of used items. So basically anything we want. No monetary value just something we don’t want anymore. It’s a fun way to exchange, to play with the gift thing yet be completely free of the aspects I do not enjoy. There is often lots of laughter & smiles from the strange gifts.
~Uber Dank~
We are having the first Uber Dank of the year on the 1st while also being the first Dank session since my adventure at sea. This one is titled “sweet potato heaven” we have a really bountiful sweet potato harvest & lots of dank recipes to do with them! We are also going to launch our “Uber Dank, 8 Days A Week” operation. Meaning we will now be offering Uber Dank food for take home, take out or whatever the purpose may be. We will have a menu that is changing from week to week, rotating old ones out & new ones in. We will have 3 raw dishes available every day of the week & at least 4 vegetarian dishes available all days of the week. People will be able to come by & pick up food to take home, to a party or for the week to come. We will discount dish price after multiples of 5 so if someone wants to get a weeks worth of food a discount would be in effect. The food will be cost effective, high vibe & of course Uber Dank. The menu will be available online & updated weekly. We want to have an uber Dank once a week to kick off the new weeks take out menu though this will not come to be every week as there is much traveling to be done. However the food will be here as we have staff & refrigerators to maintain dankness! The only times it may not be available will be on extended adventures & will be posted as such.
So this coming week the menu will be sweet potato based with lots of variety in dankness to spread around!
I have been doing some writing on the awareness behind the food that is being prepped & making videos/taking pictures of the process. I want to have pics & media available for all the dishes to be offered for the Uber Dank 8 Days a week so that on launch one is able to see them in all their uber glory before stopping in.
I have now written down my mission statement for my cooking/foodprep/foodalchemy classes.
“I am not here to share simple recipes. I am here to share the awareness, ability & art of cooking so that recipes (the preparation of food) BECOME EASY. When this place is realized an awareness, then an ability flowing through AS an art, in the form of cooking, becomes state of being.”
This of course doesn’t just translate into food alchemy being easy but also Uber Dank, which really is the more important factor! ;-)>
WHEWWWWW lots on my table besides the food! If it were not for my awareness that nothing needs to get done or that completion is an illusion I may feel overwhelmed ;-)> I am in appreciation for infinite opportunity & the life force to dance in it.
As I arrived at the house for new year’s celebration I could feel all the energy coming together, the flow building for the over flow into reality. I enjoyed a multitude of splendid experiences from baking & sharing a perfect living yeast activated Rosemary Bread (baked, so not raw) many other delightful foods including some super food chocolates, & raw truffles. Lots of beautiful dancing, some inspired drumming, the full moon through a telescope, fine drink, joyful company, then a long new years day sound session into the daylight hours.
Today on the “firs”t day of the “new year” we had our first Uber Dank! It was a mighty success. The sweet potato heaven was experienced, shared & appreciated. My favorite of the night was probably the sweet potato fries with the chipotle mayo topping or cream pesto topping. All though the sweet potato curry magic is defiantly one of my favorite meals ever & consistently so the fries just hit the spot. The sweet potato lentil soup was so full of flavor, it is a wonderful winter meal, with a lot of sustenance.
Harvesting all the sweet potatoes & greens fresh for tonights dinner is such a blessing. To eat food that fresh & alive is beyond words in gratitude for me. I took a lil video of some of the sweet potato harvest il post on youtube. My youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/silencewithinsound
I love being able to go out in the back & pick the herbs for my meals, the lettuce for my salad & the potatoes for my dinner. What freshness, fulfillment & sustainability I derive with this dance.
One of the most memorable moments for me was when I asked someone if they tried the sweet potato curry magic. They said yes, I said did you have it with the toppings? They said no. I said then you didn’t have it for I designed every level of flavor in that sweet potato curry with these toppings in mind. So I have him a bite with proper layers. The response was AHHHHHHHHHHH
Hehe the many layers of flavor & preparation is such an important process in Uber Dank food. When the ingredients are added, in what quantities & what they are layered with make a huge difference & a subtle spectrum of variation. I often have to try & tweak the dish 3 or more times to get it to proper dankness ;-)>
Sitting by the fire after eating for the first time this day as I have been in food prep & sound channel mode. I love to eat the leftovers. We almost ran our of a few dishes but had just enough of everything. Now I enjoy some fresh garden lavender, lemon verbena tea! This actually may be my favorite dish of the night! Its so full in flavor the tea seams buttery, but there is the really light taste & color so it almost appears as a water magically enhanced with life force……really that’s pretty much what it is! The magic of alchemy ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Thankful to have shared fulfillment from each other & food.
In Peace
<3
~EarthShip~
I have been out near Lufkin Texas building an Earthship for days now. I am really glad to be a part of the process. What I love most about it so far is, to experience a “company” who is actually building efficient sustainable homes. They only have 2 crews so they only build about 10 a year but they are working non stop, have a waiting list & have it all down to a pretty fine tuned operation. Most of all the crew can do every aspect of the building process, thus keeping it interesting & providing plenty of skill for any task needed on site. There is lots of into one can find on Earthships on line & also via books. There is a video called Garbage Warrior which features Mike Reynolds the founder of Earthship.
I still feel that there could be some fine tuning to the operation but all in all it’s a very impressive gig they have going with very dependable, usable, efficient, long lasting, energy conserving homes as a result.
I know it was this way for me though I suspect that for many it will be the same way. When I realized how efficient & sustainable homes could be built, there was no way I would buy & or build any other kind of home. This doesn’t mean that it has to be an Earthship but they are a great option for one who can afford it. There are plenty of variations using straw bale cob & other earthen, insulated techniques. One can build a home cheaper, that will last generations & require almost no utilities to live in while also requiring very little maintenance.
99% of all homes in America are built of very unsustainable materials, built to require lots of maintenance, require lots of money to live in & aren’t even unique or that attractive. A cob home for instance is cheap, completely insulated, made of earthen materials, can be made in almost any size & shape with all sorts of unique artistic variations, requires very little maintenance, is really comfortable to live in & easy to build.
I am really happy to share in the realities this group is providing to the world. I wish them all the blessings & success in the world & advise anyone who does not already know about Earthships to look into it as well as other earthen building options such as cob, straw bale, rammed earth etc.
Haven’t been writing at all as I have been putting in long hard hours, its very cold, I am sleeping in the truck & don’t have access to much power.
In enjoyment of these realities.
<3
So for now I am no longer on the job site for the Earthship in Lufkin. Lots of progress was made & my contributions where quality. I have a bunch of pics of the ship so far & feel I may be out there again near the completion of the project.
We would start the day at the site at 7:30 every morning & continue until 4. It was quite cold during the time but I kept really warm mixing lots of plaster pushing lots of heavy wheelbarrows & good physical labor. Earthships are very physically demanding, its nice strong real work.
I am home now appreciating the experience & excited for the possibilities to come. I feel really good about being involved with Earthship & feel lots of inspiration & life force flowing through me by creating with them.
~Epic Moments~
I was sitting outside today in the sun on a bench that I painted myself smoking some sacred green that grew myself, out of a handmade pipe, wearing clothes that I love & acquired for free, with people I love, listening to sound I recorded myself on a surround sound Bose system. FULLY COMPLETE, SATISFIED, INSPIRED, THANKFUL, GRATEFUL, ALIVE!!!!!!
~Progress~
Built my most favorite decomposing toilet ever today. Built of 100% free materials, in a perfect location, protected from the elements & in usable order! UPGRADE
Also built a window insulator frame for the house last night. Lots more to go! I will post some videos of the process as I feel they are a very cheap/free way to upgrade a current non sustainable home into a more sustainable existence. They will be on my youtube site soon not sure when hehehehe
Sitting here by the fire getting ready for some Uber Dank enjoyment, writing, facebooking & appreciating life's experience.
~Alignment~
As I write this it Is 234. I just got done watching sector 9 which I rented on the 9th along with the movie 9. The more present I become the more every detail of my experience seems to synchronize.
~Focus~
I am feeling very empowered by clear focus. To just focus focus focus in the now yet continually coming to a place of focus. It is so hard to get things done, to complete projects when focus is fragmented. When the path of thought, action & being is a streamline flow of focus manifestation & progression are highly accelerated.
I have started a “list” on a huge dry erase board. I am putting up every project that I would enjoy having be a reality & continually doing the projects on the board. Its so perfect now because I have been aware of this focus for light years, have utilized it before yet I have also really enjoyed “not focus”, it’s a beautiful thing to be able to flow in & out of realties contrasting & all. There is no right or wrong better or worse. There is often though preference, desire, want, like & dislike. I am still so aware of the beauty in being able to sit for hours & be fully content in being. To be able to lay in the sun all day & be fulfilled in the pure simplicity of sharing with the sun. I love to grow my own food & be at the house for days & weeks without leaving. However these past few days I have been inspired by the reality of getting projects “done” expanding into new realms or expertise & really “working”. I of course am open to letting go & traveling Asia for a couple months if that so becomes important.
This really highlights for me though how productive one can be, successful one can become, when acting from a place of really wanting to be so. Motivation & desire for such realities are the only important reason to “work”. I have met many who are very hard workers, who are successful & such but it is from a place of commitment not to the passion of now. To me the magic is in getting it done, being productive & really REALLY enjoying working. For if its not so success is really not worth much to me anyways.
Been bring many projects to a close, making progress on some & starting more!
Uber Dank Sweet Potato Dankness was last night. I love how the groups come together & the nights unfold in very unique fashion. Last night was no exception as the people came together very organically & enjoyed each others company a great deal. The food was really fantastic but yet again the sweet potato spiced pie was a favorite. We are starting to get comments now on how Uber Dank food can easily compare to 5 star restaurants & even someone said that the sweet potato lentil soup could be served at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant. I have long felt that the flavor combination's of Uber Dankness are of the highest quality, though it is nice to see that others appreciate the depth as much as I. Its funny to think that a strange guy out of his home is making up one of a kind dishes on a weekly basis that rival the flavors of the most famous of chefs. Wouldn’t it be something if one day this strange dude was on tv with bestselling books & world renowned restaurants??? Hehehe the expansion of the universe knows no limits! Are we ready?!??!?!?!!!
~WoW~
Been a while since I have written. Its interesting to be aware of how the ebbe & flow of life brings in lots & fades out into little of certain areas of life experience. Sometimes writing is a large part of what I do sometimes its as if I don’t care about it at all. What a dance!
I have locked in going to the gem show to sell didgeridoos, cater Uber Dank Food to the hotel & provide sound enhancement at a booth. The Tucson Gem & Mineral is an amazing event. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world coming together for all things rocks, stones, gems, minerals, fossils & more. Some of the best prices & selections for this kind of stuff around. It’s a super vortex of energy bringing much expansion & enhancement of experience. I have been going for years now but this will be the first time I am holding space as a facilitator/vendor. I can already feel the acceleration of energy as I am in movement in preparation for the show. I held space for two didgeridoo magic sessions at my own fire pit vortex where 4 people were part of making their own didgeridoo of their own hands! AHH what an empowering and enjoyable experience. I love how when people make their own they are much more engaged in the process of playing the didj as well. I get emails saying I have been playing all day! I so love to share in that! I also was able to make a few for my self to take with me to Tucson along with some others that have already been completed.
I was waken up this morning by a phone call I had for a radio show interview. I new that it was today but was mistaken on the time. I had just gone to sleep a few hours before but awoke to a rush of energy coming through me. I then basked in the bright morning sun while flowing inspired dialogue for an hour on the show. I am so thankful for the limitlessness of inspiration & how its all here right now with no need for preparation. The Radio Show is on the World Puja Network, my second with them so far, with a different host than the one before. It is available for listening 24/7 on their website.
Off to the final preparations for gem show! Lots in movement.
GEM SHOW VORTEX!
HAAHAHAHa the last words that I wrote was two weeks ago. SO SO SO much energy has been exchanged so much expansion of existence has been experienced.
Energetically I tune into the journey here in Tucson. As I contemplate writing it I realize how many words would be used to share it in this format.
Sharing potent existence is important for me. I love to share yet I feel some experiences are just for the experience of the now at hand. Not all experience is for a story, or a memory.
I am in such deep appreciation for what the sharing of Uber Dank has unfolded upon these days here. SO many relationships cultivated, so many ignited. Many people enjoying Uber Dank food & the benefits that come along with it.
We have brought bliss to people in the form of chocolate bliss, where upon drinking it feel a presence, an energy that seems strange yet delightful, then realizing….ITS THE BLISS
We have brought sustenance with divine rice dishes with fresh veggies & secret sauces ;-)>
We have brought warmth on cold rainy days with chai, hot cider & of course a warm SMILE =D>
We have brought comfort with warm tasty foods fresh & full of love.
We bring raw living foods full of life force in enjoyable combination's. Super foods for potent energy during an intense long event.
We have brought all this food & much more with love & awareness for the process. Using no disposables, small amount of waste, recycling, re using, & conscious preparation. With a daily changing menu, of custom made dishes right to the eater!
Showing posts with label sustainable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sustainable. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Holiday Sustainability Project Material Requests
I am in process of creating some uber sustainable house modifications for the winter time. The project is making window insulators for the purpose of keeping cold air out and warm air in. I will be using all free, recycled materials, creating a few different variations based on what materials I get. I will be making a video of this process to share the possibility.
There are some materials that are of common trash for many that i am requesting be saved for me for this project. If enough are collected I could come pick them up or if you are in my area a drop of would be awesome!
Material requests.
1.Packing Peanuts, I can use as many as you get and save over the holidays. I will be using them for insulation in my project.
2.Plastic bags.
any plastic bag that is not dirty or stinky would be appreciated, grocery bags etc. I can use thousands of these so bring em on!
If anyone feels called to contribute and save these for me it would be appreciated and a fantastic way to put trash to a sustainable abundant use. Anyone who wants to ask friends to do this or direct them to this blog to spread the abundance would also be appreciated. Anyone who wants to start a donations bank for sustainable materials would also be appreciated!
hahahahahahah
Blessings Allways
<3
P.S there are also many other materials that I have great use of that many may not. Any sort of cloth, sheets, cloths, towels etc.
Newspaper. I wouldn't be willing to drive far for this but for a truck load or if im in the area YES!
Carpet. I can use hundreds of square feet of this possibly thousands. Anyone have access or an idea for mass amounts of old free carpet?
Cardboard. I can also use huge amounts of this, wouldn't be willing to drive far for it but if anyone close to me knows where a great spot to get it is I would love to know.
Old Doors especially glass ones. I would so love some more of these.
There are some materials that are of common trash for many that i am requesting be saved for me for this project. If enough are collected I could come pick them up or if you are in my area a drop of would be awesome!
Material requests.
1.Packing Peanuts, I can use as many as you get and save over the holidays. I will be using them for insulation in my project.
2.Plastic bags.
any plastic bag that is not dirty or stinky would be appreciated, grocery bags etc. I can use thousands of these so bring em on!
If anyone feels called to contribute and save these for me it would be appreciated and a fantastic way to put trash to a sustainable abundant use. Anyone who wants to ask friends to do this or direct them to this blog to spread the abundance would also be appreciated. Anyone who wants to start a donations bank for sustainable materials would also be appreciated!
hahahahahahah
Blessings Allways
<3
P.S there are also many other materials that I have great use of that many may not. Any sort of cloth, sheets, cloths, towels etc.
Newspaper. I wouldn't be willing to drive far for this but for a truck load or if im in the area YES!
Carpet. I can use hundreds of square feet of this possibly thousands. Anyone have access or an idea for mass amounts of old free carpet?
Cardboard. I can also use huge amounts of this, wouldn't be willing to drive far for it but if anyone close to me knows where a great spot to get it is I would love to know.
Old Doors especially glass ones. I would so love some more of these.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Green Building
Green Building~
This is such a large spectrum topic and a very important one. It also can be very complicated though it does not need to be.
One can go the route of a 1,000 sqf self built cob home or a contracted mansion. Either way it is possible to build it so that it requires no non renewable energy sources to operate. Such as water and electricity. With a well insulated home of any size it is quite possible to keep it plenty warm in almost all climates with solar alone. A wood burning stove or a solar air heater would be plenty to subsidize on an extraordinary cold stretch.
When so much of the house is efficient renewable electricity could easily be supplied to operate the other things such as computers, lights, & maybe a refrigerator. Its really impossible to compare the electrical use of a standard suburb home or business to that of an efficient sustainable home or business. SO many of the energy uses are just non existent.
All day time lighting can be provided by windows and solar tubes. Almost all heat can be provided by solar and insulation. All water can be provided via rain and efficient water use. Such as in these amazing efficient sustainable Earth Ships here. These are some of the best examples of widely made and used sustainable homes.
Hot water can mostly all be heated via the sun. This leaves a very small amount of electricity needed and that is easily applied by renewable sources.
What I really love about efficient sustainable buildings is the many levels of efficiency in play & how they all effect and enhance each other!
Take cob for example. It is all earthen materials so its possibly free or very cheap. Its totally green meaning there is no environmental impact expect for how they may be harvested but the materials them selfs are totally green. Cobb just also happens to be incredibly temperature efficient for cold or warm weather making it a desirable insulating material. While also being so strong & solid that it is one of the most earthquake resistant types of buildings there is. Cob is also sufficient load bearing! This makes things so simple. You take 4 ingredients Water, Clay, Sand, Straw, mix & build. So simple, so abundant & so efficient! Because there is no need for weight structure support one needs no frame or load bearing implementations besides the cob it self. This basically means if you can build a sand castle you can build a house. What is also really nice is that these buildings are so unique & so so beautiful. I have seen so many beautiful cob homes & so many of them are very different yet still beautiful. There are so many people with very little to no building experience that have built their own homes.
So this gives us a cheap, easy to build complete building package that is totally sustainable & BEAUTIFUL!
There are hundreds of books on cob building & lots of videos free to watch online.
Straw bale is another very simple cheap & natural building source. There are applications where it could be more ideal than cob.
To me the properties of straw bale building are not ad ideal as cob in most cases so it would come down to material availability & ease.
Straw bale is much faster than cob as you can stack straw bales on top of each other until the walls are as high as you want & this is a very fast task. Where as with cob all the cob has to be mixed. added & then dried out a bit then mixed. added etc.
The aspects of straw bale that I really love are that is is very cheap, lots of natural materials, great insulation value, fast construction process.
It is really cheap because straw bales are very cheap & in many locations totally free. There are of course other expenses as you cant just build a house with stacked straw bales. The bales mack up most of the mass though so thus are a large part of the material needed.
Straw is a very sustainable & natural building material. It grows most parts of the world, it grows with little or no maintenance, it keeps growing & its totally biodegradable. Its so cool to think that you could be growing your house if a field, that if your house were to no longer be wanted it could be composted & you could grow your garden in it! This is an awesome and exciting dynamic to me. I love sustainability.
Straw bales are great insulation. They are thick & also create really good dead space. These are two major factors in good insulation. So by building all the walls out of straw bales the house is off to a good start in being well insulated. There are other important factors of course.
When the foundation & frame are built the process of building the straw bale walls is very fast. Much faster than that of cob walls. This is nice as cob as wonderful as it is, it is very labor intensive & very time consuming.
What I don't prefer about straw bale is that one has to build a frame as straw bale walls are not load barring. I don't like the idea of building frames out of lumber as it is cut un-sustainably, processed unsustainably & transported unsustainably. This of course is not always the case as one could make ones own lumber or buy it from someone who does this sustainably. Even if it were done in a more sustainable fashion I still feel that lumber is not a sustainable building material. I don't feel that trees are worth cutting down for all the buildings that we build.
A cool alternative may be building cob load barring pillars, or stone pillars, or something salvaged. Then creating the rest of the wall out of straw bales. As with everything there are so many ways to do & it is silly to say something is not doable or not right nor worth attempting. I fully support experimentation & exploration of new possibility in all areas of life.
The other aspect of straw bale that I don't prefer is that it is susceptible to mold & such. However when done right it is not much of an issue. There are many many beautiful sustainable & long lasting straw bale homes.
To me its just not as simple as other earthen building techniques & requires more expertise. Cob on the other hand anyone can do & do it beautifully of high quality.
What it comes down to me is what resources do we have available. If we do not have clay but have lots of straw & trees for lumber. Maybe its a good idea to do a straw bale. Or if I were going to be making a large house or many houses maybe straw bale would be better as it is much faster to build.
Its all relative & what is important is weighing the factors. Finding the most efficient & sustainable path. There are many factors, depending on the location & purpose of the building.
Rammed earth homes are pretty cool. Very similar to cob though instead of wetting and building it like clay it is rammed compressed into molds the shape of the walls one wants to build.
What like about rammed earth homes is that they are made from earth. By far one of the most full spectrum sustainable materials on earth.
Great insulation & heat retention. Because the walls are solid & thick the insulation value is quite good. Also when exposed to sun it absorbs the heat of the sun and because its so thick radiates that sun throughout the whole night and recharging the next day. This factor does require some building planning as in the summer the walls need to be shaded so that it is NOT absorbing that sun during the hot summer days. In the winter the wall needs to be exposed to the winter sun so that it utilizes this benefit.
Rammed earth walls are also load bearing. This makes construction design much simpler and the materials needed less.
These type of homes can also be built very fast. There are companies that build rammed earth homes in some parts of the country that have a bunch of pre made forms, power packing machines and dirt loading machines. This makes for about the fastest possible earthen building experience. Its really cool to think that one could pay someone to build a green, efficient, sustainable home of about the highest quality, really quickly for no more than a traditional built home.
The drawbacks that I see in rammed earth homes are that unless one has the forms & machines it is very very labor intensive.
Also it is not as adaptable as cob is as far as design elements. Because it requires forms this means you have to have lots of different forms for different angels and such or the house needs to be of uniform shape. Squares & such would work very well with rammed earth homes. Where as with cob you can do curves or any angle & dimension you wish with ease.
Salvaged material homes.
Sustainability to me incorporates any trash that is used for a purpose. Anything going to the trash is waste & when that waste is utilized sustainability is at work. I do not like the idea of building a timber frame house or a steel building. However if that timber were salvaged or the steel were salvaged then YES. When I say salvaged I mean from a source that would otherwise not get used.
To be sustainable the house would also need to be well insulated, utilize passive & active solar plus other various green/efficient/renewable/sustainable aspects.
I build lots of sheds & small buildings of salvaged materials. Tin & used lumber are easy to come by. Since insulation is not an issue in most sheds it is OK.
Whenever waste can be utilized I love and support this. Its important to utilize it an efficient way whatever that may be. A free building that is not sustainable is of little use. There are however many materials that can be salvaged & integrated into buildings or other projects in an efficient abundant fashion.
Hybrids.
I love cob/strawbale homes. I love cob for its dynamic sculptur and beauty possibilities. I love it for its load bearing preformance, green material, and simple method. I love that it retains heat from the sun and has great insulation value.
Straw bale is awesome because its fast and is really good insulation on say a north wall where there is no sun to warm the exterior. So a north wall of straw bale and the rest cob would be a nice choice. Or cob building and straw bale roofing insulation. Straw bale is an awesome roof insulation because it is very light easy to get in place and great insulation value.
A partial salvaged material house with the rest of an earthen building material is also great. Maybe a salvaged roof or frame. Salvaged doors and windows. Or whatever material that is abundant and can be utilized in a building.
There are lots of options here with many factors to work with.
These are my favorite Green Building realities though there are more. As I become framilier with other possibilities I will be sure to document them here. As we at Freedom Living are exposed to more possibilities and experience we evolve as well as all those who we facilitate.
Imagine living in a house of complete sustainability built of all green materials. Imagine how great it will feel to live in and to create in this way while supporting sustainability. Imagine the unique beauty that this house would have and all the special charicturistincs it would have. Imagine all the abundance that would be integrated derived from such efficient sustainability. All the bills, maitenence and stress of a conventional home disapear.
Oh what a wonderful dream!
Imagine
This is such a large spectrum topic and a very important one. It also can be very complicated though it does not need to be.
One can go the route of a 1,000 sqf self built cob home or a contracted mansion. Either way it is possible to build it so that it requires no non renewable energy sources to operate. Such as water and electricity. With a well insulated home of any size it is quite possible to keep it plenty warm in almost all climates with solar alone. A wood burning stove or a solar air heater would be plenty to subsidize on an extraordinary cold stretch.
When so much of the house is efficient renewable electricity could easily be supplied to operate the other things such as computers, lights, & maybe a refrigerator. Its really impossible to compare the electrical use of a standard suburb home or business to that of an efficient sustainable home or business. SO many of the energy uses are just non existent.
All day time lighting can be provided by windows and solar tubes. Almost all heat can be provided by solar and insulation. All water can be provided via rain and efficient water use. Such as in these amazing efficient sustainable Earth Ships here. These are some of the best examples of widely made and used sustainable homes.
Hot water can mostly all be heated via the sun. This leaves a very small amount of electricity needed and that is easily applied by renewable sources.
What I really love about efficient sustainable buildings is the many levels of efficiency in play & how they all effect and enhance each other!
Take cob for example. It is all earthen materials so its possibly free or very cheap. Its totally green meaning there is no environmental impact expect for how they may be harvested but the materials them selfs are totally green. Cobb just also happens to be incredibly temperature efficient for cold or warm weather making it a desirable insulating material. While also being so strong & solid that it is one of the most earthquake resistant types of buildings there is. Cob is also sufficient load bearing! This makes things so simple. You take 4 ingredients Water, Clay, Sand, Straw, mix & build. So simple, so abundant & so efficient! Because there is no need for weight structure support one needs no frame or load bearing implementations besides the cob it self. This basically means if you can build a sand castle you can build a house. What is also really nice is that these buildings are so unique & so so beautiful. I have seen so many beautiful cob homes & so many of them are very different yet still beautiful. There are so many people with very little to no building experience that have built their own homes.
So this gives us a cheap, easy to build complete building package that is totally sustainable & BEAUTIFUL!
There are hundreds of books on cob building & lots of videos free to watch online.
Straw bale is another very simple cheap & natural building source. There are applications where it could be more ideal than cob.
To me the properties of straw bale building are not ad ideal as cob in most cases so it would come down to material availability & ease.
Straw bale is much faster than cob as you can stack straw bales on top of each other until the walls are as high as you want & this is a very fast task. Where as with cob all the cob has to be mixed. added & then dried out a bit then mixed. added etc.
The aspects of straw bale that I really love are that is is very cheap, lots of natural materials, great insulation value, fast construction process.
It is really cheap because straw bales are very cheap & in many locations totally free. There are of course other expenses as you cant just build a house with stacked straw bales. The bales mack up most of the mass though so thus are a large part of the material needed.
Straw is a very sustainable & natural building material. It grows most parts of the world, it grows with little or no maintenance, it keeps growing & its totally biodegradable. Its so cool to think that you could be growing your house if a field, that if your house were to no longer be wanted it could be composted & you could grow your garden in it! This is an awesome and exciting dynamic to me. I love sustainability.
Straw bales are great insulation. They are thick & also create really good dead space. These are two major factors in good insulation. So by building all the walls out of straw bales the house is off to a good start in being well insulated. There are other important factors of course.
When the foundation & frame are built the process of building the straw bale walls is very fast. Much faster than that of cob walls. This is nice as cob as wonderful as it is, it is very labor intensive & very time consuming.
What I don't prefer about straw bale is that one has to build a frame as straw bale walls are not load barring. I don't like the idea of building frames out of lumber as it is cut un-sustainably, processed unsustainably & transported unsustainably. This of course is not always the case as one could make ones own lumber or buy it from someone who does this sustainably. Even if it were done in a more sustainable fashion I still feel that lumber is not a sustainable building material. I don't feel that trees are worth cutting down for all the buildings that we build.
A cool alternative may be building cob load barring pillars, or stone pillars, or something salvaged. Then creating the rest of the wall out of straw bales. As with everything there are so many ways to do & it is silly to say something is not doable or not right nor worth attempting. I fully support experimentation & exploration of new possibility in all areas of life.
The other aspect of straw bale that I don't prefer is that it is susceptible to mold & such. However when done right it is not much of an issue. There are many many beautiful sustainable & long lasting straw bale homes.
To me its just not as simple as other earthen building techniques & requires more expertise. Cob on the other hand anyone can do & do it beautifully of high quality.
What it comes down to me is what resources do we have available. If we do not have clay but have lots of straw & trees for lumber. Maybe its a good idea to do a straw bale. Or if I were going to be making a large house or many houses maybe straw bale would be better as it is much faster to build.
Its all relative & what is important is weighing the factors. Finding the most efficient & sustainable path. There are many factors, depending on the location & purpose of the building.
Rammed earth homes are pretty cool. Very similar to cob though instead of wetting and building it like clay it is rammed compressed into molds the shape of the walls one wants to build.
What like about rammed earth homes is that they are made from earth. By far one of the most full spectrum sustainable materials on earth.
Great insulation & heat retention. Because the walls are solid & thick the insulation value is quite good. Also when exposed to sun it absorbs the heat of the sun and because its so thick radiates that sun throughout the whole night and recharging the next day. This factor does require some building planning as in the summer the walls need to be shaded so that it is NOT absorbing that sun during the hot summer days. In the winter the wall needs to be exposed to the winter sun so that it utilizes this benefit.
Rammed earth walls are also load bearing. This makes construction design much simpler and the materials needed less.
These type of homes can also be built very fast. There are companies that build rammed earth homes in some parts of the country that have a bunch of pre made forms, power packing machines and dirt loading machines. This makes for about the fastest possible earthen building experience. Its really cool to think that one could pay someone to build a green, efficient, sustainable home of about the highest quality, really quickly for no more than a traditional built home.
The drawbacks that I see in rammed earth homes are that unless one has the forms & machines it is very very labor intensive.
Also it is not as adaptable as cob is as far as design elements. Because it requires forms this means you have to have lots of different forms for different angels and such or the house needs to be of uniform shape. Squares & such would work very well with rammed earth homes. Where as with cob you can do curves or any angle & dimension you wish with ease.
Salvaged material homes.
Sustainability to me incorporates any trash that is used for a purpose. Anything going to the trash is waste & when that waste is utilized sustainability is at work. I do not like the idea of building a timber frame house or a steel building. However if that timber were salvaged or the steel were salvaged then YES. When I say salvaged I mean from a source that would otherwise not get used.
To be sustainable the house would also need to be well insulated, utilize passive & active solar plus other various green/efficient/renewable/sustainable aspects.
I build lots of sheds & small buildings of salvaged materials. Tin & used lumber are easy to come by. Since insulation is not an issue in most sheds it is OK.
Whenever waste can be utilized I love and support this. Its important to utilize it an efficient way whatever that may be. A free building that is not sustainable is of little use. There are however many materials that can be salvaged & integrated into buildings or other projects in an efficient abundant fashion.
Hybrids.
I love cob/strawbale homes. I love cob for its dynamic sculptur and beauty possibilities. I love it for its load bearing preformance, green material, and simple method. I love that it retains heat from the sun and has great insulation value.
Straw bale is awesome because its fast and is really good insulation on say a north wall where there is no sun to warm the exterior. So a north wall of straw bale and the rest cob would be a nice choice. Or cob building and straw bale roofing insulation. Straw bale is an awesome roof insulation because it is very light easy to get in place and great insulation value.
A partial salvaged material house with the rest of an earthen building material is also great. Maybe a salvaged roof or frame. Salvaged doors and windows. Or whatever material that is abundant and can be utilized in a building.
There are lots of options here with many factors to work with.
These are my favorite Green Building realities though there are more. As I become framilier with other possibilities I will be sure to document them here. As we at Freedom Living are exposed to more possibilities and experience we evolve as well as all those who we facilitate.
Imagine living in a house of complete sustainability built of all green materials. Imagine how great it will feel to live in and to create in this way while supporting sustainability. Imagine the unique beauty that this house would have and all the special charicturistincs it would have. Imagine all the abundance that would be integrated derived from such efficient sustainability. All the bills, maitenence and stress of a conventional home disapear.
Oh what a wonderful dream!
Imagine
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Gardening
Gardening is the bread and butter of sustainability to me. Because we are actually planting & nurturing our food source which is really the most important physical need.
Organic Gardening is so important for so many reasons.
1. Most food that we eat is not local. This means that it is being transported via trucks that run on mass amounts of oil/fuel. It means that it is transported on roads which are made from machines using mass amounts of oil. It is most likely grown on huge plots of land worked with huge machines that run on mass amounts of oil.
By localizing our food ALL of that oil/fuel is negated. That is a HUGE environmental impact. Also by localizing our food we stop taking advantage of many countries who grow food for us at very small profit and death of surrounding land.
2. ~Health~ This is a huge factor. There is very little comparison to wild crafted produce grown on ones own property & produce bought in a store organic or otherwise. We grow the best tomatoes I have ever had, I & others often say if what I buy in the store is a tomato then this is NOT a tomato. It is like that with lots of what we grow. The quality is of such a higher degree for many reasons.
Even organic produce is allowed to have up to a certain amount of different chemicals present in the food. Even a lot of organic produce is picked early & selected for reasons beside optimal health/taste.
By growing ones own produce it is possible to grow completely chemical/pesticide/herbicide & even fertilizer free! This produces produce of such great quality that when paired with fresh daily picked ripe on the plant, we get OPTIMAL food. Also a factor overlooked by many is that when we grow our OWN food the food actually grows for US based on our particular make up & needs. Meaning a plant can specifically grow to benefit us individually based on who we are! This is powerful for full spectrum health.
3. Natural~ By growing food without any pesticides, herbicide, fertilizers etc there is much less impact on the environment. There is less run off into our surrounding environment & also the factor of BUYING these products saves all the shipping distance & all the factory space that is used to produce such products.
Its really important to take into account factors besides the present obvious ones. It is obvious that a pesticide run off will effect water supply close by but it is also true that this fertilizer was made in a factory put in a bag made in another factory & shipped across the country or state to get to you. There are many levels of UN-SUSTAINABILITY in play here. By growing our own food in this way ALL of these are negated. This is HUGE!
4. ~Cost~ This is a nice benefit of growing food. It is quite easy to grow enough food for ones self/family/community. We have many systems & awarenesses that make gardening easy, abundant, & self sustaining. It really comes down to planting, harvesting, & utilizing which are all fun aspects of the process!
By growing our own food we save money on costs of food but also we have a great way to make extra income without leaving the home, doing something we are doing any ways! It is almost as easy to grow 1 acre of food as it is 1/2 acre in our situations, but the profit is twice as much. Quality produce & products are in high demand while also fetching a premium price with individuals & businesses alike. There are so many ways to utilize a garden for sustainability and profit that it is my number 1 aspect to sustainability.
So down to the details. An efficient abundant healthy garden is very much about the soil. It has been found that with really healthy soil most diseases are of no issue & the plants produce prolifically , beautiful, rich produce.
So for that, composting is a huge factor of a true sustainable garden. Read the article on *composting* here.
Most land before it gets planted is not ideal for an abundant garden. The first belief that I want to dispose of is the idea that tilling or anything like that is necessary or even beneficial. This is actually quite harmful to the harmony & balance of the earth & is detrimental to a magical healthy prolific garden. Any time the soil dries out or is exposed to the sun many beneficial nutrients are lost. There are many aspects to soil that die when dried out or exposed to the heat of sun. Tilling stimulates both of these processes. Tilling is only actually needed because of hard soil and the inhabitation of unwanted plants in the growing area. There are much more harmonized, efficient & abundant ways to achieve this.
So lets start here. You have a plot of land & you want to start a garden. What now? Most likely this land will have grass, weeds or some plant life growing that you will want to replace with produce. You want to cover the entire area to be planted with cardboard, black plastic, carpet or some other water trapping , heat trapping and dark creating substance. What this does is, kills all the grass from lack of sun & exposure to hot moist climates. This grass then decomposes into perfect nutrients for the plants to come while also getting rid of all the plants that you don't want & also keeping the soil moist and soft! I prefer cardboard for this purpose because you can just leave the cardboard & it will decompose into the soil also! This is the single most magical awareness I have come to in gardening. By negating tilling completely one saves much energy in the tilling process itself, while much energy in the process of nutrients that are SAVED & also CREATED. After this is done in the case of plastic it is wise to remove before planting, in the case of cardboard just cover it with some rich compost & then plant.
Each kind of plant will want to be planted in a different time of year & want different conditions to grow. This is a bit to detailed to get into here however almost all seeds will have planting info on them as for when to plant, what kind of area to plant, how much water & what kind of soil they prefer. These general instructions are normally quite dependable. It is also quite different for someone in Wisconsin vs someone in Texas. In places like Wisconsin that has a very short growing season it is wise to have a green house to pre start plants & although it is a great head start in a place like Texas because of the long growing season it is not necessary.
As you start to plant, space the seeds so that they have the proper space for their type of existence. Radishes can grow very close together while watermelons need quite a bit of space to grow. The packages of seeds usually say how far apart to plant etc.
Also companion planting is a very useful and highly advised practice. The way it works is that there are certain plants that help each other grow or keep away pests that bother other plants. THAT IS PERFECTION! For instance a problem for squash or melons is the squash beetle. However squash beetles dont like marigolds so planting marigolds around the squash keeps many of the beetles away. There are many plants that serve this purpose. Check out the many gardening books & even web sites have lists of companion planting combination's. Check this out before you buy seeds for the season so as you know what it is you are wanting based on what you are wanting ;-)> Then plan out the garden so that the companion plants are next to each other & the ones that don't benefit each other are away from each other.
I also recommend making a chart of plantings so as you have documentation of what grew where with what and how it did so that on next planting the chart can be consulted & enhancements made. Every year that I garden I become more efficient & proficient at utilizing the space for what is planted.
After these seeds are planted the soil needs to be moist as the roots are very small to non existent. This is why the spring is the rainy season so that the new seeds can grow with their very small ability to absorb & retain water! THAT IS PERFECTION!
Most of the time we don't want soggy or soaking soil but damp moist soil. As soon as the sprouts are above ground it is wise to ad mulch around the plants. Add at least a couple inches or mulch to the entire garden where a sprout is not coming up. This serves many purposes!
1. It keeps moisture in the soil which is important to reduce water use and time spent watering. 2. Protects the soil from the sun! This is huge as the sun is one of the leading causes for soil depletion. 3. As the wood chips sit there all year they decompose creating their own small amount of compost, there by enriching the soil!
As you integrate these aspects you can see how the need for tilling disappears. With the cardboard composting all the plant matter not wanted is gotten ride of while being utilized in a sustainable fashion and also providing a clean slate. Then the wood chips protecting the soil while also adding to it, there is very little depletion which is easily substituted in the form of compost made on site.
During the winter months one can either just cover all the land with mulch or plant an over crop. Both are good options. A couple months before planting season cardboard, carpet, plastic or some such material may be needed again to prep the ground for the fresh little seeds to have no competition or interference from unwanted plants. It is also possible to cover the land with cardboard in the winter then wood chips & the next coming spring the cardboard will be decomposed enough to grow through & there will be no plants growing in the garden space.
This is the cycle for maintaining healthy soil and plants. It is so beautiful because it is quite clear how the techniques utilized save time and energy in one way while also contributing energy in another. This is the cycle of life and the abundance of nature being utilized. As one uses cardboard to prep the ground one is saving time on tilling and also CONTRIBUTING to the soil. This process is also utilizing cardboard that is being thrown away and not utilized at all. Its also free! That is 4 levels of sustainability and abundance being utilized in 1 step. That is the efficiency of Freedom Living at work. That is how our projects play out and the kind of techniques we implement.
Watering is a big factor in many areas. I feel its important in sustainability to provide the water from an off the grid source. We have wells, which are easy & abundant forms of on demand water. I highly recommend one for any moderate to large size garden or farm.
With on demand water like a well, setting up irrigation on specialty drip hoses with a timer is the ultimate in efficiency & ease. We use an amazing drip hose material called T-Tape. There are many variations of it for different purposes, it is very cheap & although made in a factory is such a time saver, I choose it. By setting up this drip hose system to a well with a timer one can actually leave as I have done for a month & come back to a perfectly healthy garden full of produce to harvest.
An ideal garden set up is one that sustains it self. If its not easy its not being done right.
Rain water collecting is a very possible watering method especially for the smaller sized family gardens. Most places get way more then enough rain when collected to water a garden. The main factor ( in some places much more than others) is the storage space. In a place like Texas it is common to get inches of rain in 1 day & not get rain for a month after. This means that to completely rely on rain water one must have enough storage to supply water for at least a month without rain. The question then really is not about rain but how much storage is needed for the garden size for the time there might be with no rain.
For a smaller garden it would be quite easy to fill 55 gallon tanks with water & just have hoses on them that when opened drained into the garden. For a large garden this would not be the most efficient set up.
For a larger garden an underground tank storage with a pump or an above ground tower is better. The nice thing about a tower is that it can use gravity. The nice thing about underground tanks is that they are much cheaper & because they are underground don't take up land space. Also if building cob dwellings it could be possible to use the dirt dug up for earthen building. One would defiantly need a pump for underground tanks however the money saved on underground tanks would easily pay for a pump. The worst part of an underground tank is that its underground so getting to it is a pain. This in most cases if planned right is not much of an issue.
I have quite a few other rain water collecting and distributing ideas that are not tested. Will share as experienced and worthwhile.
Another option is a pond or a river. Ponds or rivers could be pumped, channeled, or harvested to substitute water to a garden that isn't getting enough rain. Springs are also present in many mountainous areas of the country which make great garden as well as house water.
In low rain areas utilizing raised beds is a wise option. By making raised beds one gets a more optimal water usage. Combine this with lots of mulch & you can get by with far far less water.
With that lets get to raised bed construction!
I love raised beds & have utilized them many times from many different sources in many different forms. The factor that I use for all my beds is that the material is a free source being reused. This makes for a wide variety, keeps it creative & above all keeps from supporting the creation of more materials instead of using the over abundance of material we already have & throw away.
The beds can be long or wide as long as every area of the bed can be reached to harvest. So long skinny ones work well.
I have made raised beds out of doors nailed, screwed or fastened together to make large rectangles. They work great & if the doors are free then yippee =D
I have made raised beds out of cabinet doors tied together with strings that are made from that industrial shrink wrap they use on pallets of boxes & such. This was a cool model because I could make them any shape, triangles, squares, rectangles or even octagons. In this particular model I needed nothing that cost anything or that did not come from a trash source. WIN.
I have made lots of raised beds out of tires large and small. A car sized tire is only good for about 1 melon plant. I have also used huge 4 hundred lb tires that are 4 feet in diameter, as large raised beds that work very very well.
I have made raised beds out of bundled stick piles and my favorite ones are out of cardboard and bamboo! They are super beautiful, very easy, very abundant, free & sustainable resource. Can make any shape or size and they decompose quite quickly adding to the richness of the soil!
Organic Gardening is so important for so many reasons.
1. Most food that we eat is not local. This means that it is being transported via trucks that run on mass amounts of oil/fuel. It means that it is transported on roads which are made from machines using mass amounts of oil. It is most likely grown on huge plots of land worked with huge machines that run on mass amounts of oil.
By localizing our food ALL of that oil/fuel is negated. That is a HUGE environmental impact. Also by localizing our food we stop taking advantage of many countries who grow food for us at very small profit and death of surrounding land.
2. ~Health~ This is a huge factor. There is very little comparison to wild crafted produce grown on ones own property & produce bought in a store organic or otherwise. We grow the best tomatoes I have ever had, I & others often say if what I buy in the store is a tomato then this is NOT a tomato. It is like that with lots of what we grow. The quality is of such a higher degree for many reasons.
Even organic produce is allowed to have up to a certain amount of different chemicals present in the food. Even a lot of organic produce is picked early & selected for reasons beside optimal health/taste.
By growing ones own produce it is possible to grow completely chemical/pesticide/herbicide & even fertilizer free! This produces produce of such great quality that when paired with fresh daily picked ripe on the plant, we get OPTIMAL food. Also a factor overlooked by many is that when we grow our OWN food the food actually grows for US based on our particular make up & needs. Meaning a plant can specifically grow to benefit us individually based on who we are! This is powerful for full spectrum health.
3. Natural~ By growing food without any pesticides, herbicide, fertilizers etc there is much less impact on the environment. There is less run off into our surrounding environment & also the factor of BUYING these products saves all the shipping distance & all the factory space that is used to produce such products.
Its really important to take into account factors besides the present obvious ones. It is obvious that a pesticide run off will effect water supply close by but it is also true that this fertilizer was made in a factory put in a bag made in another factory & shipped across the country or state to get to you. There are many levels of UN-SUSTAINABILITY in play here. By growing our own food in this way ALL of these are negated. This is HUGE!
4. ~Cost~ This is a nice benefit of growing food. It is quite easy to grow enough food for ones self/family/community. We have many systems & awarenesses that make gardening easy, abundant, & self sustaining. It really comes down to planting, harvesting, & utilizing which are all fun aspects of the process!
By growing our own food we save money on costs of food but also we have a great way to make extra income without leaving the home, doing something we are doing any ways! It is almost as easy to grow 1 acre of food as it is 1/2 acre in our situations, but the profit is twice as much. Quality produce & products are in high demand while also fetching a premium price with individuals & businesses alike. There are so many ways to utilize a garden for sustainability and profit that it is my number 1 aspect to sustainability.
So down to the details. An efficient abundant healthy garden is very much about the soil. It has been found that with really healthy soil most diseases are of no issue & the plants produce prolifically , beautiful, rich produce.
So for that, composting is a huge factor of a true sustainable garden. Read the article on *composting* here.
Most land before it gets planted is not ideal for an abundant garden. The first belief that I want to dispose of is the idea that tilling or anything like that is necessary or even beneficial. This is actually quite harmful to the harmony & balance of the earth & is detrimental to a magical healthy prolific garden. Any time the soil dries out or is exposed to the sun many beneficial nutrients are lost. There are many aspects to soil that die when dried out or exposed to the heat of sun. Tilling stimulates both of these processes. Tilling is only actually needed because of hard soil and the inhabitation of unwanted plants in the growing area. There are much more harmonized, efficient & abundant ways to achieve this.
So lets start here. You have a plot of land & you want to start a garden. What now? Most likely this land will have grass, weeds or some plant life growing that you will want to replace with produce. You want to cover the entire area to be planted with cardboard, black plastic, carpet or some other water trapping , heat trapping and dark creating substance. What this does is, kills all the grass from lack of sun & exposure to hot moist climates. This grass then decomposes into perfect nutrients for the plants to come while also getting rid of all the plants that you don't want & also keeping the soil moist and soft! I prefer cardboard for this purpose because you can just leave the cardboard & it will decompose into the soil also! This is the single most magical awareness I have come to in gardening. By negating tilling completely one saves much energy in the tilling process itself, while much energy in the process of nutrients that are SAVED & also CREATED. After this is done in the case of plastic it is wise to remove before planting, in the case of cardboard just cover it with some rich compost & then plant.
Each kind of plant will want to be planted in a different time of year & want different conditions to grow. This is a bit to detailed to get into here however almost all seeds will have planting info on them as for when to plant, what kind of area to plant, how much water & what kind of soil they prefer. These general instructions are normally quite dependable. It is also quite different for someone in Wisconsin vs someone in Texas. In places like Wisconsin that has a very short growing season it is wise to have a green house to pre start plants & although it is a great head start in a place like Texas because of the long growing season it is not necessary.
As you start to plant, space the seeds so that they have the proper space for their type of existence. Radishes can grow very close together while watermelons need quite a bit of space to grow. The packages of seeds usually say how far apart to plant etc.
Also companion planting is a very useful and highly advised practice. The way it works is that there are certain plants that help each other grow or keep away pests that bother other plants. THAT IS PERFECTION! For instance a problem for squash or melons is the squash beetle. However squash beetles dont like marigolds so planting marigolds around the squash keeps many of the beetles away. There are many plants that serve this purpose. Check out the many gardening books & even web sites have lists of companion planting combination's. Check this out before you buy seeds for the season so as you know what it is you are wanting based on what you are wanting ;-)> Then plan out the garden so that the companion plants are next to each other & the ones that don't benefit each other are away from each other.
I also recommend making a chart of plantings so as you have documentation of what grew where with what and how it did so that on next planting the chart can be consulted & enhancements made. Every year that I garden I become more efficient & proficient at utilizing the space for what is planted.
After these seeds are planted the soil needs to be moist as the roots are very small to non existent. This is why the spring is the rainy season so that the new seeds can grow with their very small ability to absorb & retain water! THAT IS PERFECTION!
Most of the time we don't want soggy or soaking soil but damp moist soil. As soon as the sprouts are above ground it is wise to ad mulch around the plants. Add at least a couple inches or mulch to the entire garden where a sprout is not coming up. This serves many purposes!
1. It keeps moisture in the soil which is important to reduce water use and time spent watering. 2. Protects the soil from the sun! This is huge as the sun is one of the leading causes for soil depletion. 3. As the wood chips sit there all year they decompose creating their own small amount of compost, there by enriching the soil!
As you integrate these aspects you can see how the need for tilling disappears. With the cardboard composting all the plant matter not wanted is gotten ride of while being utilized in a sustainable fashion and also providing a clean slate. Then the wood chips protecting the soil while also adding to it, there is very little depletion which is easily substituted in the form of compost made on site.
During the winter months one can either just cover all the land with mulch or plant an over crop. Both are good options. A couple months before planting season cardboard, carpet, plastic or some such material may be needed again to prep the ground for the fresh little seeds to have no competition or interference from unwanted plants. It is also possible to cover the land with cardboard in the winter then wood chips & the next coming spring the cardboard will be decomposed enough to grow through & there will be no plants growing in the garden space.
This is the cycle for maintaining healthy soil and plants. It is so beautiful because it is quite clear how the techniques utilized save time and energy in one way while also contributing energy in another. This is the cycle of life and the abundance of nature being utilized. As one uses cardboard to prep the ground one is saving time on tilling and also CONTRIBUTING to the soil. This process is also utilizing cardboard that is being thrown away and not utilized at all. Its also free! That is 4 levels of sustainability and abundance being utilized in 1 step. That is the efficiency of Freedom Living at work. That is how our projects play out and the kind of techniques we implement.
Watering is a big factor in many areas. I feel its important in sustainability to provide the water from an off the grid source. We have wells, which are easy & abundant forms of on demand water. I highly recommend one for any moderate to large size garden or farm.
With on demand water like a well, setting up irrigation on specialty drip hoses with a timer is the ultimate in efficiency & ease. We use an amazing drip hose material called T-Tape. There are many variations of it for different purposes, it is very cheap & although made in a factory is such a time saver, I choose it. By setting up this drip hose system to a well with a timer one can actually leave as I have done for a month & come back to a perfectly healthy garden full of produce to harvest.
An ideal garden set up is one that sustains it self. If its not easy its not being done right.
Rain water collecting is a very possible watering method especially for the smaller sized family gardens. Most places get way more then enough rain when collected to water a garden. The main factor ( in some places much more than others) is the storage space. In a place like Texas it is common to get inches of rain in 1 day & not get rain for a month after. This means that to completely rely on rain water one must have enough storage to supply water for at least a month without rain. The question then really is not about rain but how much storage is needed for the garden size for the time there might be with no rain.
For a smaller garden it would be quite easy to fill 55 gallon tanks with water & just have hoses on them that when opened drained into the garden. For a large garden this would not be the most efficient set up.
For a larger garden an underground tank storage with a pump or an above ground tower is better. The nice thing about a tower is that it can use gravity. The nice thing about underground tanks is that they are much cheaper & because they are underground don't take up land space. Also if building cob dwellings it could be possible to use the dirt dug up for earthen building. One would defiantly need a pump for underground tanks however the money saved on underground tanks would easily pay for a pump. The worst part of an underground tank is that its underground so getting to it is a pain. This in most cases if planned right is not much of an issue.
I have quite a few other rain water collecting and distributing ideas that are not tested. Will share as experienced and worthwhile.
Another option is a pond or a river. Ponds or rivers could be pumped, channeled, or harvested to substitute water to a garden that isn't getting enough rain. Springs are also present in many mountainous areas of the country which make great garden as well as house water.
In low rain areas utilizing raised beds is a wise option. By making raised beds one gets a more optimal water usage. Combine this with lots of mulch & you can get by with far far less water.
With that lets get to raised bed construction!
I love raised beds & have utilized them many times from many different sources in many different forms. The factor that I use for all my beds is that the material is a free source being reused. This makes for a wide variety, keeps it creative & above all keeps from supporting the creation of more materials instead of using the over abundance of material we already have & throw away.
The beds can be long or wide as long as every area of the bed can be reached to harvest. So long skinny ones work well.
I have made raised beds out of doors nailed, screwed or fastened together to make large rectangles. They work great & if the doors are free then yippee =D
I have made raised beds out of cabinet doors tied together with strings that are made from that industrial shrink wrap they use on pallets of boxes & such. This was a cool model because I could make them any shape, triangles, squares, rectangles or even octagons. In this particular model I needed nothing that cost anything or that did not come from a trash source. WIN.
I have made lots of raised beds out of tires large and small. A car sized tire is only good for about 1 melon plant. I have also used huge 4 hundred lb tires that are 4 feet in diameter, as large raised beds that work very very well.
I have made raised beds out of bundled stick piles and my favorite ones are out of cardboard and bamboo! They are super beautiful, very easy, very abundant, free & sustainable resource. Can make any shape or size and they decompose quite quickly adding to the richness of the soil!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Worm Farming
Worm Farming is a fantastic way to cultivate the a super beneficial lil creature for gardens.
It is very easy, cheap and abundant. According to what I have read, as I have not actually tested this my self. Is that temperature, moisture and food affect the reproduction rate of worms. Under the best conditions, one pair of worms will produce one egg capsule each week. Each capsule contains up to 20 worms that will hatch in 2-3 weeks. These new worms will be capable of reproducing in 2-3 months. That's a lot of worms!
It is very easy to buy or find a hand full of worms to start the process.
Worm farming is a very easy way of turning vegetable and fruit scraps into a great potting soil or soil supplement for your garden or house plants. It can be done year round, by apartment dweller, home owners AND businesses. Worm farming is particularly useful for people who would like to compost their food scraps but do not have space for a backyard compost bin.
Or for me because I do do lots of composting I actually have worm farms so that I can add the quickly multiplying worms to my garden where they will naturally fertilize the soil as they live!!!
Here is what you need to get started:
Take not this is only 1 way and there are many ways. I will list alternate ways and pics.
Container of wood or plastic. I use a sturdy plastic container that is about 9 inches deep, 9 inches wide and 14 inches long. The measurements are not real critical. This an easy size for many situations. If you are going to keep your worm farm inside, you will want it to be water tight. The worms are going to be happier when kept in the dark where it is moist. If your container is clear, wrap it to keep light out or place it in a cabinet or a opaque container to seal out the light. Have a lit that has very small holes in it like a 1/32 inch drill bit hole. That way they can breath but not crawl all over the place.
Make sure that the place you find to store the bin is away from vibrations. Worms will try to move to a better location if they are too near a source of vibration.
Worms. I really suggest that you use red worms. They are also called red wrigglers or manure worms.
I do have some night crawlers farms but they do require much more space and are not as easy to maintain.
Bedding material. Start with some shredded newspaper, moistened, not wet. Use the black and white pages or really any paper without much gloss or color. Add a couple of handfuls of garden soil, not potting soil, and a couple of crushed egg shells. Keep the bedding damp but not sopping. The moisture helps them to breathe, but too much water will drown them.
Food. You can feed your worms fruit and vegetable scraps and starchy scraps, like bread, oatmeal, and pasta. Do not feed them too much acidic foods, like citric fruits, coffee ground and tea bags. Also fatty or high protein foods are also not a great idea. I really don't use any citrus, fats or proteins at all. They do best with a pH between 7 & 8. You can use egg shells to balance the effects of coffee grounds, orange and lemon peels. Never feed your worms meat, poultry, dairy products, or salty food , like potato chips. These will create odors and attract insects. Your worms will eat about half their body weight each day. Take this into consideration when you are deciding how much food to add to the bin.
Worms require oxygen so keep the lid partially open to allow air to circulate. on in the farm.
Worms will function very well at room temperature. Keep the farm temperature between +40 degrees F and +85 degrees F. Remember that heat will build up quickly in the farm if it is left in the sunlight.
Red worms reproduce often. Small, oval shaped cocoons in the bedding indicate that nature is taking its course. Cocoons may contain several baby worms and will take several weeks to hatch. Watch for tiny white worms. Poultry egg shells added to the bedding will provide calcium the worms need to reproduce. Don't worry about red worms taking over the estate, their population is limited by the size of their environment.
Its very cool how worms just naturally know when there is enough worms existing in there area. When there is a certain amount they just stop breading!
Farming worms:
Place the damp shredded newspaper with the garden soil and crushed egg shell in the container. Don't pack it down. Add the worms to their new home. If you leave the lid off and the light on, it will encourage the worms to investigate the new digs. Don't forget to add some worm food before you move the bin into the dark.
As your worm population increases, you can add more food per day. Burying the food in the damp newspaper will keep mold from growing in the worm farm. Worms can live on just the paper so its not critical that they get food every day. If there is no food or paper in there its time to get them more but there is no need to get a huge pile going on in there or it will rot/mold or create other realities we don't really want.
If your bedding is too wet, carefully drain the water and add dry ingredients.
Soon you will notice an increase in the worm castings in your worm farm. This makes a great natural fertilizer. And all it cost you was a little time and some stuff that you were going to toss in the garbage.
You can use these castings in potted house plants or mix it with water to create worm tea to feed to garden or other plants. Super rich stuff! Your plants will appreciate it!
When you see that bedding is no longer identifiable, you will want to harvest. Worms cannot survive in their own waste. The dirt will be very fine, very moist and very homogenized. Use it in some way, make another farm out of the multiplied worms, add them to a garden or give them to a friend.
I started with 1000 worms and have many worms farms of hundreds of thousands now. I use the castings for plants and add the worms to the garden when there is more than I want to house ;-)
There is lots of info on the web about worm farming. Google it or check on youtube for videos of the process. You will find it very easy and very rewarding.
Farm On!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coj7oumY3TY
It is very easy, cheap and abundant. According to what I have read, as I have not actually tested this my self. Is that temperature, moisture and food affect the reproduction rate of worms. Under the best conditions, one pair of worms will produce one egg capsule each week. Each capsule contains up to 20 worms that will hatch in 2-3 weeks. These new worms will be capable of reproducing in 2-3 months. That's a lot of worms!
It is very easy to buy or find a hand full of worms to start the process.
Worm farming is a very easy way of turning vegetable and fruit scraps into a great potting soil or soil supplement for your garden or house plants. It can be done year round, by apartment dweller, home owners AND businesses. Worm farming is particularly useful for people who would like to compost their food scraps but do not have space for a backyard compost bin.
Or for me because I do do lots of composting I actually have worm farms so that I can add the quickly multiplying worms to my garden where they will naturally fertilize the soil as they live!!!
Here is what you need to get started:
Take not this is only 1 way and there are many ways. I will list alternate ways and pics.
Container of wood or plastic. I use a sturdy plastic container that is about 9 inches deep, 9 inches wide and 14 inches long. The measurements are not real critical. This an easy size for many situations. If you are going to keep your worm farm inside, you will want it to be water tight. The worms are going to be happier when kept in the dark where it is moist. If your container is clear, wrap it to keep light out or place it in a cabinet or a opaque container to seal out the light. Have a lit that has very small holes in it like a 1/32 inch drill bit hole. That way they can breath but not crawl all over the place.
Make sure that the place you find to store the bin is away from vibrations. Worms will try to move to a better location if they are too near a source of vibration.
Worms. I really suggest that you use red worms. They are also called red wrigglers or manure worms.
I do have some night crawlers farms but they do require much more space and are not as easy to maintain.
Bedding material. Start with some shredded newspaper, moistened, not wet. Use the black and white pages or really any paper without much gloss or color. Add a couple of handfuls of garden soil, not potting soil, and a couple of crushed egg shells. Keep the bedding damp but not sopping. The moisture helps them to breathe, but too much water will drown them.
Food. You can feed your worms fruit and vegetable scraps and starchy scraps, like bread, oatmeal, and pasta. Do not feed them too much acidic foods, like citric fruits, coffee ground and tea bags. Also fatty or high protein foods are also not a great idea. I really don't use any citrus, fats or proteins at all. They do best with a pH between 7 & 8. You can use egg shells to balance the effects of coffee grounds, orange and lemon peels. Never feed your worms meat, poultry, dairy products, or salty food , like potato chips. These will create odors and attract insects. Your worms will eat about half their body weight each day. Take this into consideration when you are deciding how much food to add to the bin.
Worms require oxygen so keep the lid partially open to allow air to circulate. on in the farm.
Worms will function very well at room temperature. Keep the farm temperature between +40 degrees F and +85 degrees F. Remember that heat will build up quickly in the farm if it is left in the sunlight.
Red worms reproduce often. Small, oval shaped cocoons in the bedding indicate that nature is taking its course. Cocoons may contain several baby worms and will take several weeks to hatch. Watch for tiny white worms. Poultry egg shells added to the bedding will provide calcium the worms need to reproduce. Don't worry about red worms taking over the estate, their population is limited by the size of their environment.
Its very cool how worms just naturally know when there is enough worms existing in there area. When there is a certain amount they just stop breading!
Farming worms:
Place the damp shredded newspaper with the garden soil and crushed egg shell in the container. Don't pack it down. Add the worms to their new home. If you leave the lid off and the light on, it will encourage the worms to investigate the new digs. Don't forget to add some worm food before you move the bin into the dark.
As your worm population increases, you can add more food per day. Burying the food in the damp newspaper will keep mold from growing in the worm farm. Worms can live on just the paper so its not critical that they get food every day. If there is no food or paper in there its time to get them more but there is no need to get a huge pile going on in there or it will rot/mold or create other realities we don't really want.
If your bedding is too wet, carefully drain the water and add dry ingredients.
Soon you will notice an increase in the worm castings in your worm farm. This makes a great natural fertilizer. And all it cost you was a little time and some stuff that you were going to toss in the garbage.
You can use these castings in potted house plants or mix it with water to create worm tea to feed to garden or other plants. Super rich stuff! Your plants will appreciate it!
When you see that bedding is no longer identifiable, you will want to harvest. Worms cannot survive in their own waste. The dirt will be very fine, very moist and very homogenized. Use it in some way, make another farm out of the multiplied worms, add them to a garden or give them to a friend.
I started with 1000 worms and have many worms farms of hundreds of thousands now. I use the castings for plants and add the worms to the garden when there is more than I want to house ;-)
There is lots of info on the web about worm farming. Google it or check on youtube for videos of the process. You will find it very easy and very rewarding.
Farm On!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coj7oumY3TY
Composting Article
Composting is a great pleasure for me. When I compost I am very in tune with the natural abundance of the circle of life.
When I first got into composting I realized how much matter there was being under utilized and or thrown away. By utilizing many of these for composting I was able to generate 1,000's of lbs of compost per week with very little cost and effort.
Compost is essential for any truly organic garden to produce in an abundant fashion. With really good compost plants don't need fertilizers. Because they are so strong and healthy not only do the produce abundantly but they are not subject to many diseases and other ailments.
I love organic sustainable abundance!
The main understandings important to efficient composting are 3 fold:
1 moisture. Compost wants to be moist not wet.
2. Air Flow. Compost wants to be able to breath but not be super exposed to the elements. So usually the smallest size compost we want to have is 3x3x3ft. A container is good but only if it has some breathing space. I love to use pallets, chicken wire or old pieces of fence to make my bins. Bins are not necessary though.
3. Nitrogen. Nitrogen is what speeds up the decomposition process. Nitrogen is availabe in most green mater such as grass, vegetable scraps or manure. This needs to be added whenever the compost is no longer hot (135 df or hotter) to continue the fast decomposition process. This is not necessary as compost will decompose anyways however it is quite possible to fully compost leaves or straw in 1.5 months turning it twice a week and adding a nitrogen source.
What is awesome about all this is that water, air and compost able matter are all over the place and very free. I collect thousands of bags of leaves from suburbs that are all free and going to the trash. Not only do I get free compost matter but I also save the land fill and lots of gas getting it there.
I also get lots of free wood chips DELIVERED to my property from tree trimming companies. One needs to be wiling to get at least a truck load but other than that its a sweet deal.
These are the to largest sources of carbon in my compost. There are many other carbons available.
Matter is decomposing commonly. Composting is just a way to spead it up and utilize it for a purpose. Even metal or plastic left in the elements is going to decompose. Now we may not want to use this for the garden and it may take years but it is decomposing also.
So in composting we want to speed up this process in an efficient abundant manner for us.
By creating an environment where it is moist and active microscopic life forms start to flourish eating and composting the matter. Producing us with compost!
Its all about creating and nurturing a specific environment for this purpose.
So to start composting find a site.
I like to choose a site close to where I will use it as it cuts down on my transporting of the compost. I build a bin out of whatever I have available. If I use chicken wire I will cut a length of chicken wire at least long enough to make a 3 foot diameter circle. I will then connect each end together to form a cylinder. I can then fill this with layers of compost. If I made a bin out of pallets I would take 3 pallets and stand them up on their sides. I would then tie each one together so that 1 pallet is tied together on two corners and the other two are tied on one corner to that base pallet. This forms a 3 sided square.
To begin the compost I start with a layer of carbon (dried dead organic matter) for me leaves or wood chips. I then do a much smaller layer of nitrogen (living active matter) for me it is green grass clippings, manure or vegetable matter. The ratio for carbon to nitrogen is about 30-1 in volume not weight, 1 being the nitrogen.
As I layer the carbon and nitrogen I want to wet the layers with water. Depending on how dry the materials are will dictate how much water I use. Just remember that the compost wants to be wet not dry. The life thrives in moisture but is very much inhibited by flooding.
I just then repeat this process of layering carbon, nitrogen and water. It is a very simple and natural process that when nurtured profits great results.
An active compost will get up to 150-170 degrees F. You will know it is active because if you stick your hand in the center of the pile it will be to hot to keep near. If it does not get hot at all then there a few elements that can be out of whack. 1. To much or not enough water. 2. Not enough nitrogen (cant have to much if its a natural source) 3. No circulation, meaning it cant breath. This is not normally an issue.
If the compost does get hot then its working. Some people have compost thermometers that are a couple feet long that they stick into the centers. When the temp starts to drop its time to turn it and and nitrogen and water.
The main question is how much and how fast are you wanting compost. With the right ingredients and the proper nurturing it is quite possible to have a pile composted in 1.5 months. This will require turning about 2 times a week while adding a nitrogen source and the proper moisture. Do not add carbon during this phase. Carbon is only added in the begging. This is of course if you are wanting fast compost. Basically the nitrogen composts fast and the carbon is what takes "time" so by adding more carbon every time the compost will not really fully compost until months after the last addition of carbon.
The pile will get smaller and smaller every time it is turned as the matter becomes more compact and of smaller particle size.
Healthy compost does not stink. It is a common mis conception that compost stinks.
If it does stink it is because there are ingredients that are not ideal such as flesh, fatty foods, litter box, etc or its not getting turned so the matter is just rotting on top instead of composting.
After a very short time of experimenting with composting it will feel very natural and one can evolve techniques based on this.
I myself do not even turn compost any more. I have so much compost going at 1 time that I can just use my huge loads from a season before instead of needing it every month.
So what I do is create many large long term compost piles. I build large piles 4 or more feet tall and 10 or more feet wide/long. I then mix in nitrogen and moisture to get it started and leave it. The only thing I do is keep it moist by running a sprinkler on it every now and again depending on when its feeling dry. This takes longer but in the long run it saves me a lot of "time" and I still have just as much compost when I need it.
If there were 1 factor that is most important in composting I would say its moisture. A dry heap will not compost at all. Actually even good compost if it gets to dry will be much less nutrient. I feel that a lot of the benefit to fresh healthy compost is the living microbes in the soil that play many over looked rolls. So I always keep my compost covered/protected from the sun.
This is compost at its finest. Here is a list of many common abundant materials for composting:
Carbons Sources
1. Leaves
2. Wood Chips.
3. Straw/hay or brown grass clippings.
4. Cardboard, junk mail & Newspaper.
5. Yard Scraps.
Nitrogen Sources.
1. Green Grass.
2. Manure
3. Coffee grounds. All Starbucks save their grounds for composters. Stop in and ask.
4. Vegetable Scraps.
5. Pretty much any living green matter.
When I first got into composting I realized how much matter there was being under utilized and or thrown away. By utilizing many of these for composting I was able to generate 1,000's of lbs of compost per week with very little cost and effort.
Compost is essential for any truly organic garden to produce in an abundant fashion. With really good compost plants don't need fertilizers. Because they are so strong and healthy not only do the produce abundantly but they are not subject to many diseases and other ailments.
I love organic sustainable abundance!
The main understandings important to efficient composting are 3 fold:
1 moisture. Compost wants to be moist not wet.
2. Air Flow. Compost wants to be able to breath but not be super exposed to the elements. So usually the smallest size compost we want to have is 3x3x3ft. A container is good but only if it has some breathing space. I love to use pallets, chicken wire or old pieces of fence to make my bins. Bins are not necessary though.
3. Nitrogen. Nitrogen is what speeds up the decomposition process. Nitrogen is availabe in most green mater such as grass, vegetable scraps or manure. This needs to be added whenever the compost is no longer hot (135 df or hotter) to continue the fast decomposition process. This is not necessary as compost will decompose anyways however it is quite possible to fully compost leaves or straw in 1.5 months turning it twice a week and adding a nitrogen source.
What is awesome about all this is that water, air and compost able matter are all over the place and very free. I collect thousands of bags of leaves from suburbs that are all free and going to the trash. Not only do I get free compost matter but I also save the land fill and lots of gas getting it there.
I also get lots of free wood chips DELIVERED to my property from tree trimming companies. One needs to be wiling to get at least a truck load but other than that its a sweet deal.
These are the to largest sources of carbon in my compost. There are many other carbons available.
Matter is decomposing commonly. Composting is just a way to spead it up and utilize it for a purpose. Even metal or plastic left in the elements is going to decompose. Now we may not want to use this for the garden and it may take years but it is decomposing also.
So in composting we want to speed up this process in an efficient abundant manner for us.
By creating an environment where it is moist and active microscopic life forms start to flourish eating and composting the matter. Producing us with compost!
Its all about creating and nurturing a specific environment for this purpose.
So to start composting find a site.
I like to choose a site close to where I will use it as it cuts down on my transporting of the compost. I build a bin out of whatever I have available. If I use chicken wire I will cut a length of chicken wire at least long enough to make a 3 foot diameter circle. I will then connect each end together to form a cylinder. I can then fill this with layers of compost. If I made a bin out of pallets I would take 3 pallets and stand them up on their sides. I would then tie each one together so that 1 pallet is tied together on two corners and the other two are tied on one corner to that base pallet. This forms a 3 sided square.
To begin the compost I start with a layer of carbon (dried dead organic matter) for me leaves or wood chips. I then do a much smaller layer of nitrogen (living active matter) for me it is green grass clippings, manure or vegetable matter. The ratio for carbon to nitrogen is about 30-1 in volume not weight, 1 being the nitrogen.
As I layer the carbon and nitrogen I want to wet the layers with water. Depending on how dry the materials are will dictate how much water I use. Just remember that the compost wants to be wet not dry. The life thrives in moisture but is very much inhibited by flooding.
I just then repeat this process of layering carbon, nitrogen and water. It is a very simple and natural process that when nurtured profits great results.
An active compost will get up to 150-170 degrees F. You will know it is active because if you stick your hand in the center of the pile it will be to hot to keep near. If it does not get hot at all then there a few elements that can be out of whack. 1. To much or not enough water. 2. Not enough nitrogen (cant have to much if its a natural source) 3. No circulation, meaning it cant breath. This is not normally an issue.
If the compost does get hot then its working. Some people have compost thermometers that are a couple feet long that they stick into the centers. When the temp starts to drop its time to turn it and and nitrogen and water.
The main question is how much and how fast are you wanting compost. With the right ingredients and the proper nurturing it is quite possible to have a pile composted in 1.5 months. This will require turning about 2 times a week while adding a nitrogen source and the proper moisture. Do not add carbon during this phase. Carbon is only added in the begging. This is of course if you are wanting fast compost. Basically the nitrogen composts fast and the carbon is what takes "time" so by adding more carbon every time the compost will not really fully compost until months after the last addition of carbon.
The pile will get smaller and smaller every time it is turned as the matter becomes more compact and of smaller particle size.
Healthy compost does not stink. It is a common mis conception that compost stinks.
If it does stink it is because there are ingredients that are not ideal such as flesh, fatty foods, litter box, etc or its not getting turned so the matter is just rotting on top instead of composting.
After a very short time of experimenting with composting it will feel very natural and one can evolve techniques based on this.
I myself do not even turn compost any more. I have so much compost going at 1 time that I can just use my huge loads from a season before instead of needing it every month.
So what I do is create many large long term compost piles. I build large piles 4 or more feet tall and 10 or more feet wide/long. I then mix in nitrogen and moisture to get it started and leave it. The only thing I do is keep it moist by running a sprinkler on it every now and again depending on when its feeling dry. This takes longer but in the long run it saves me a lot of "time" and I still have just as much compost when I need it.
If there were 1 factor that is most important in composting I would say its moisture. A dry heap will not compost at all. Actually even good compost if it gets to dry will be much less nutrient. I feel that a lot of the benefit to fresh healthy compost is the living microbes in the soil that play many over looked rolls. So I always keep my compost covered/protected from the sun.
This is compost at its finest. Here is a list of many common abundant materials for composting:
Carbons Sources
1. Leaves
2. Wood Chips.
3. Straw/hay or brown grass clippings.
4. Cardboard, junk mail & Newspaper.
5. Yard Scraps.
Nitrogen Sources.
1. Green Grass.
2. Manure
3. Coffee grounds. All Starbucks save their grounds for composters. Stop in and ask.
4. Vegetable Scraps.
5. Pretty much any living green matter.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Abundant Resource Share
I have been loving my acquiring and alignment with so much abundance in the form of free used, materials. So much received and so so so much more still out there just not being utilized. I am inspired to create a web site for the purpose of finding a use for trash. Stuff that is going to the trash for sure or even stuff that may go to goodwill or some other donation. Although I feel I could utilize materials much more efficiently and abundantly than a donation service atlest it is being given someplace and not just going to trash. So my focus will be on trash. Having a space for people to share bags of leaves, grass clippings, old carpet, cloths, wood, sticks, yard trash, even stuff like plastic bottles and glass bottles could be used for really usable projects. Its pretty rare that I find something that is really trash worthy. Re use is even more efficient than recycling because we can skip all the steps of transportation, factory processing and company waste. Today I earned $0 but I got 33 doors and ate all free food. By utilizing free stuff, re usable stuff, abundant stuff life costs are so low! I will be able to build the whole green house out of free materials! I love trade and utilization of materials rather than relying on money for everything. Its funny I saw a guy but $50 in mulch at home depot the other day and I get 100 times that a month for free!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Composting and worm farming session
I am doing a free composting and worm farming session. This Sunday 17th at 1pm. I am inviting anyone who is interested to join me for a fully functional efficient understanding of how composting works, benefits, uses, natural resources, recycling and much more beneficial aspects of the process. Composting is such an efficient way of recycling matter into a useful substance of matter that is otherwise under utilized.
I envision the day when large plots are used for compost and that compost heats all the house water, when that compost is then used to grow all the food and that food is then eaten. When instead of millions and millions of tons of recycalable compostable USABLE trash is turned into compost on a local comunial level.
Composting is so doable and so efficient on many levels. I am so happy to share this with anyone interested.
This will be a 4 + or - time hour long session. It can be done fun and dirty or nice and clean. This will be hands on experiential composting feeling and understanding the process for real integration and utilization!
We will go over the whole process from starting a completely new heap and all the different ingredients that can be used and different styles and approaches. We will then turn other piles that are further down in the process and see results of the evolution.
Then anyone is free to pick and choose among the techniques and approaches based on what ones preference is. Fast focused or slow relaxed. Many many piles or one little one. It is so beneficial and is really worth integrating on many levels.
We will also go over worm farming and there is some nice gardening going also.
Bring food, snacks if you want such, we have good water. Will do no matter the weather.
Contact me with questions, comments or w/e =D>
Location 7325 Mansfield Cardinal RD, Kennedale 76060
817 845 4283
quinn@isnessis.com
www.isnessis.com
I will also be doing a day and weekend long cob/earth building, download session. Please email me for interest as grp size is important.
Possible reading for information on sustainable stuff we can do now. If you are interested in these books buy them as they have money back guarantee and you can get a full refund if its not a good deal for the money and still use any info that is gleamed. Since they are digital no paper is used and its easy to store and share or not use and waste nothing. Any sustainable practice pays itself off very quickly with many added benefits!
Start Sustaining NOW!
Rich Compost!
Solar Water Heater, Easy Usable Start
Free Renewable Energy Harvested at home!
Organic Gardening=D>
I envision the day when large plots are used for compost and that compost heats all the house water, when that compost is then used to grow all the food and that food is then eaten. When instead of millions and millions of tons of recycalable compostable USABLE trash is turned into compost on a local comunial level.
Composting is so doable and so efficient on many levels. I am so happy to share this with anyone interested.
This will be a 4 + or - time hour long session. It can be done fun and dirty or nice and clean. This will be hands on experiential composting feeling and understanding the process for real integration and utilization!
We will go over the whole process from starting a completely new heap and all the different ingredients that can be used and different styles and approaches. We will then turn other piles that are further down in the process and see results of the evolution.
Then anyone is free to pick and choose among the techniques and approaches based on what ones preference is. Fast focused or slow relaxed. Many many piles or one little one. It is so beneficial and is really worth integrating on many levels.
We will also go over worm farming and there is some nice gardening going also.
Bring food, snacks if you want such, we have good water. Will do no matter the weather.
Contact me with questions, comments or w/e =D>
Location 7325 Mansfield Cardinal RD, Kennedale 76060
817 845 4283
quinn@isnessis.com
www.isnessis.com
I will also be doing a day and weekend long cob/earth building, download session. Please email me for interest as grp size is important.
Possible reading for information on sustainable stuff we can do now. If you are interested in these books buy them as they have money back guarantee and you can get a full refund if its not a good deal for the money and still use any info that is gleamed. Since they are digital no paper is used and its easy to store and share or not use and waste nothing. Any sustainable practice pays itself off very quickly with many added benefits!
Start Sustaining NOW!
Rich Compost!
Solar Water Heater, Easy Usable Start
Free Renewable Energy Harvested at home!
Organic Gardening=D>
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