Last weekend we spent our Sunday at the Albany Arts and Green Festival.  Blessed with beautiful weather and a large crowd, we sold almost all our local organic honey, as well as many of the products from our Handcrafted Herbalim CSA. 

There was a diverse grouping of  booths at the festival; everything from solar/renewable energy to The Sierra club to The Alameda County Beekeepers Association.  We spent some time promoting our classes, discussing our farm with interesting people, and benefiting from all the giveaways (fruit trees, environmental books, compost and organic vegi starts).  

Fire Cider, Herbal Body Cream, Gardeners Salve,
Eucalyptus Lavender Salt scrub for sale

Both our honey and the model Warre hive we set up drew plenty of attention.  It was a blast talking about bees with other beekeepers and hearing about many of the local apiaries in the area. The best part of the festival was networking with so many interesting, like minded people. Of course taking home peach, apricot, and cherry trees, comfrey, globe artichokes, mugwort, and a few more starts for the garden was pretty great too.  Hurrah for the Green Festival!

 

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Has been a while since I ventured over here to blog land so thought I would do a bit of a catch up post..Think we shall start with he Fish..

Aquaponics...
I did a "What is Aquaponics" style clip a few weeks ago to help a friend explain aquaponics to her family members.. Not a real in depth one but it will gives a rough idea on how the system works including the relationship between the fish, bacteria & plants.. It also shows a bit of the growth in the system if your interested on how its looking at the moment..

Not much has happened with the aquaponics of late which is a good thing on one hand but frustrating on the other... The fish are all well & happy (so they tell me) with the growth in the beds travelling along fine.. The celery is still being picked every couple of days & the strawberries have been fruiting well..

Harvested our first aquaponic pepino last weekend which was great.. There are a load on there with a few easily 50% larger than the fruit above :D
Really hoping to get the grow beds sorted out into their new positions by the start of spring.. First a wicking bed needs to be pulled down & the ground levelled to make room for them.. The new configuration should free up some space to try out a few new ways to grow plants with the system..

Hanging with the Chooks...
The chooks are at the top of their game at the moment.. Greedy decided to moult at the start of winter, which was a bit of a concern to us, but grew back back a fine set of feathers just in time for the few cool nights we have had this winter.. Have started to make up 2-3 lots of sprouted wheat a week for the girls.. I think they now recognise the sprouting jar as there is much flapping & excitement when we go wandering down to the pen with it.. Have also had a go at growing them some wheat sprouts as a fodder crop in the aquaponics but have shelved that idea for a little while :)

Hope to make a start on the modified feeder & shall do a bit of a report on that once it is done for those interested..


Wandering the patch...
Have got stuck into a few jobs around the place of late getting the patch ready for the warm season crops.. There are some tomato, eggplant & capsicum seedlings that have just started to germinate which is a great sight to see..
 

Some water chestnuts have also made it into some small 100mm pots to give them a bit of a head start before going into the sedge bathtub bed that will be set up near the aquaponics..

 The yacon are starting to throw up shoots  & I think we will have more than enough for our purposes this year.. Have quite a few earmarked for other people & have already given a fair few away.. 

Made a decent start in setting up the new front yard garden beds as well.. There are now 4 IBC wicking beds along the front retaining wall with another 4 going in over the coming weeks.. The first 2 beds have the asparagus in them with some heirloom corn planed for at least one of the other beds..  Hope to do a post on them by themselves once they are in & growing :)

Garden walk around clips..
Have a couple of clips on whats happening in the patch at the moment... The first is of the front yard last week before the new beds went in..

The pigeon pea still havent been harvested but when they have I shall post about our attempt at making humus with them...Should be interesting methinks..


The second clip is of the backyard patch with a bit of a quick look at the 2 new pineapple flowers that have just started to form :)

Hope to make a proper start to the insect house extension soon as well (looks at list of jobbies).. After last seasons success with keeping the fruit fly out I think we might finally get a chance at growing some decent tomatoes & capsicums :) 

------------

Well that brings us roughly up to date... Shall post some project updates over the next few days to bring the blog up to speed all proper like ;)
Hope all are well & happy out there & have been having fun in the garden..
Cheers,
Rob..

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& were off !!!

Finely got motivated & set up the small barrelponic system using 2 x ½  drums as grow beds & a whole 44Gal/200L drum as the tank...

We used some saved metal for the stand along with recycled bolts & timbers...  We felt the old Hydroponic pump (14+ years old) should be left on the mothballs & a new one was purchased along with 5 x 45L bags of Hydroton to fill the tubs... Blue metal would of been cheaper but I think the weight would of caused some problems with the barrels distorting & possibly sagging in the centre...

Will be out there daily now for a few weeks taking the Ammonia, pH & Nitrate levels just to make sure things are kicking off nicely... I do have a slight concern that the pH was up a tad today nearing 8 so will be looking into adding some Acid to lower the levels tomorrow if it climbs again... Might start with lemon as we have so many on the tree & it goes so well with fish... **nods**  I have also been adding a cap full of Seasol seaweed extract to help the growth of the plants while it is starting up.. Will be searching a few forums into if it is a good idea to add worms or their "tea" to the system to help it out...

Now for the IBCs...
Have been cleaning some Besser blocks to line the base of the "trench" FT/FTs will be situated in but that is as far as I have gotten on the IBC system... I have been holding out for the BYAP IBC Manual that is coming out soon to see how different systems are set up before a decision is made on the final build...

 We have been on the lookout for cheap pipe & fittings for the IBC system... Made a start a few weeks ago by buying 2 buckets of used irrigation fittings including 3 brass gate valves for $5 at the markets...  Have used a gate valve & fittings already on the backup water tank for the system & a 19mm tap in the GB feed in line on the barrel system so has well & truly paid for itself already... Last Sunday we picked up 2 small drain fittings for the IBC grow bed stand pipes to sit in for $1 each...Still not to certain on the GB medium we will use.. I like the idea of scoria/lava rock but havent seen any for sale at the local suppliers... Might just have to be blue metal if I cant find it or it is to expensive...
Some helpful places to visit...
Just though I should mention the 2 places I have been lurking while trying to get sorted out...
Backyard Aquaponics & Practical Aquaponics...
Both sites have on line shops as well as forums that are full of helpful info...
There are other sites out ther but havent gotten past the forums of these 2 yet ....


Have a great one all...
: )»

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WOO HOO !!!!!

  Finished the last Bed yesterday... 
**Does Happy Dance**
It is shorter than was first planed but we now have extra space for a seat/storage box/workbench as well as a few chairs... I now have 3 beds to plant out.... Just need to work out what goes well with what...

 Saturday....

    Was a busy day today with a break in the showers so I decided to mow the lawn, fix up some dodgy paving, & put up some scratch barriers on the Chook yard... They went onto the fence & gate to stop them from spreading their straw onto the walkways...

Update Pictures.....

The Zucchinis (left) are coming on great & we are using the Kale a lot more now we know how we like to cook it...
The Snowpea/Cabbage bed (Right) is still going well... Hoping to get at least 2 more meals from the Broccoli before we pull them this week...

Honey Pod Peas & Thai Egg plant (left) are flowering furiously as is the Mini Roma Tomatoes (Right).... We should be harvesting some of  the Peas later this week....The Pumpkins in the bed at the back are doing well.. We will plant some Kent seeds just to make sure we have heaps to see us through next winter...

The Carrot, Lettuce & Beetroot bed (Left) are going great guns... We have been picking lettuce & beetroot leaves all week for salads.. Koos Strawberries in the barrel (right) have heaps of fruit on... We have been picking the Silverbeet regularly for ourselves & for friends......

The Back yard looks good after being mowed.... Has been a tad wet lately so was happy to have a few dry hours today to give it a quick trim...
The picture to the Right is of the neighbours Blood Grapefruit tree.... I have never seen that many flowers on it before & though it looks rather spectacular....

Thats about it for now me thinks....

Have a Great one all......
 : ) »

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This evening I saw a recent EE Times article about using Arduinos to control RGB LEDs (red, green, blue light emitting diodes).

One of the first things that many people learn how to control with a microcontroller is an LED. It seemed like it would be good to learn a little more about LEDs, so I read the EE Times article. All I know about so far about LEDs and microcontrollers is how to light them up and that I should make sure to have an adequate pull-up resistor so I dont burn out the LED by putting too much current through it. I think. (For more on pull-up and pull-down resistors, see the Wikipedia entry or the article about the topic on ResistorGuide.com.)

The title of the EE Times article was a bit misleading because it specifies an LED lighting project, but that project was not mentioned again until the last paragraph of the article.

While the article was disappointing in terms of living up to its title, it did spur me to ask Google to fetch some information based on the keyword combo Arduino RGB LED. Google nicely did as requested, and it turns out there are a number of tutorials on how to control RGB LEDs with an Arduino. Likely lots of advanced tricks with RGB LEDs or interesting RGB LED projects could be found by reading through more of the search result for the above keyword combination, or by adding a fourth search term such as projects.

A couple RGB LED tutorials come from sources familiar to those who read a lot about Arduinos and microcontrollers. There are an Instructables tutorial and an Adafruit tutorial. The first page of search results also gave me a tutorial from new resource, OscarLiang.net. Havent had time yet to check out OscarLiang, but the RGB LED tutorial looked fairly detailed. RGB LEDs have a distinctive appearance -- the RGBs have four leads instead of the two found on regular LEDs. That may make it a little bit interesting to plug into a breadboard!

If Jeremy Blum doesnt cover RGB LEDs in his first six Arduino Basics video tutorials, Ill work through a couple of the tutorials I found today to learn more about using this type of LED.


In addition to the tutorials, the first page of results did have a couple projects. One was a straightforward Make: Project -- an RGB LED Lamp. Getting a little fancier was a Make: Project titled "Control RGB LEDs with this Android-Arduino Combo-Circuit." Controlling the LEDs with an Android would be kind of fun since I havent run into opportunities to combine Android and Arduinos for a microcontroller project yet. Ill have to see if someone else in the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group wants to work with me on that one. Ill have to research the project and find out how much the components for that cost.

Lastly, a pretty cool Arduino-controlled RGB LED project is the Wormhole Actualization Machine shown on BoingBoing (and other websites) in late May. This was an extremely complex project, at least to me, but the end result was really cool. You have to watch the video for this essentially useless but interesting device. Ill bet kids would love playing with it. It would be an interesting project to build, but a person would need to have a bit of extra cash and a strong desire to make what is essentially an interactive art project, or at least thats what it seems like to me. It could also be a movie prop, but if you made the Wormhole Actualization Machine for that reason, then youre going to also need to make a movie to go with the WAM. You make the WAM and the movie -- Ill make the popcorn...

**********

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Decided that my scratchings in the note book really arent a great way of keeping tabs on what is happening in the patch so have once again made a vow to myself to keep this blog up to date so I can keep track of any mistakes & successes we have in the patch while sharing it with the world, umm, a few others as well.. I might even learn a thing or two which would be nice..

Catching up on the patch...
I think the easiest way to bring you up to date is via a quick walk through of the veggie patch & aquaponic system.. I tend to do a garden walk through one week & an aquaponic one the next... I have posted the latest of each here for anyone interested..
The aquaponic one is up to date as it was filmed late last week..

We are expecting to have the sparky turn up first thing in the morning so by lunch time the aquaponics should be right to plug into its very own power source..

This garden clip was shot on the 5th of October... A new garden walk through will be shot later this week..

I always find it interesting to see the growth in the plants from fortnight to fortnight.. Some plants like the zucchini & pumpkins just grow so fast.. 

Seeds & seedlings...
A fair bit has been planted out over the past few weeks...

The list of seeds that we have been sown out were being listed in the "Planting Diary" but now I shall be listing them on the weekly blog posts instead..
Seedlings...
On the 13th of October we planted out...........
3x bush beans (Ipswich Twilight markets) into Bed#4
1x bush bean (Ipswich Twilight markets) into aquaponic bed
3x Bulls Horn Capsicum (saved seed) into Bed#1
3x capsicum (Diggers 7 colour mix) into Bed#1
2x capsicum (Diggers 7 colour mix) into Bed#2
3x lettuce (Ipswich Twilight markets) into IBC wicking beds (Aquaponics area)
1x lettuce (Ipswich Twilight markets) into Aquaponic constant flow bed
2x lettuce (Ipswich Twilight markets) into Bed #4
1 nasturtium (Ipswich Twilight markets) was planted into each of the following beds,spice wicking bed (aquaponics area), spice IBC (behind chook house), pumpkin IBC & under the Kaffir Lime tree..

Seeds...
Today (16th October) saw us planting out a few seeds..
4 lots of seed were planted into coco peat pellets (thanks again Watsamadoing),
7x Purple Vienna Kohlrabi (Eden Seeds)
7x Osaka Purple Mustard Greens (BOGI)**
7x Tall Utah Celery (BOGI)
7x bok choi (BOGI)

**(BOGI = Brisbane Organic Growers Inc)


Garden Pond...
About a month & a half ago we decided to plant some water chestnuts into a bucket & keep it in a bathtub pond under the lemon tree at the back of the patch.. Probably wasnt the best idea in hindsight.. The pond had 8 White Cloud Minnows in it when the bucket went in but we quickly noticed a fair amount of leachate coming from it as well as finding a few deceased fish :(» The bucket was quickly removed as were the fish into a fish tank & the whole pond got a good cleaning from top to bottom.. The fish were quickly returned without the chestnut bucket & appeared to be doing rather well.. Well, they were that is until a White Faced heron decided to snack on 2 more.. We dont know for sure that it did but it was seen taking off, rather awkwardly, from the vicinity.. That left us with 3 minnows & little hope of their survival, until the other day that is......

We are rather pleased with this result & were surprised by finding even more over the past few days...

I suppose thats about it for now... Shall be back early next week with another planting update as well as any other interesting Bits from Out the Back...
Have a great one..
Rob...
: )»

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Have been doing a few small bits & pieces around the patch since I last posted...

Wicking Bathtub...
An old bathtub came up for offer on Freecycle  a few weeks back so we grabbed it to try turning it into a Wicking Bed...

 I wanted to set the bed up as a Thai curry bed but as we have enough Chillies already for what we need a Capsicum was planted in there instead...

 Seeding & planting update...
The morning the Bathtub bed was made we went to the local markets & purchased,
2 x Thai Mint, 1x Giant Capsicum & a Calendula seedlings... They were fairly advanced & very healthy looking so a bargain for $4 all up (if memory serves me right)... 1 of the Basils along with the Capsicum went into the Bath along with the volunteer Lemongrass we had growing in a pot...

Last Sunday (16th Oct) Bianca & I potted up all the seedlings that were advanced enough into 10cm (4inch) pots to allow their roots to develop a bit more & for us to make space around the place or find new homes for the leftovers... We now have the below thriving quite happily in their new pots,
Eggplant, Long Thai Purple  x 6
Eggplant, Udumalapet x1
Eggplant, Rosa Bianca x 2
Tomato, Black Russian x 6
Tomato, Brandywine Pink x 6
Cucumber, Mini White x 3
Rockmelon, Minnesota Midget x3
 The remaining Mini white Cucumbers & Minnesota Midget Rockmelons (3 each) went into 2 different barrels with cadges on them.. The Cucumbers should vine up alright & it will be interesting to see how the Melons will go...
B? also planted another 4 Amish Paste Tomato Seeds as we are really enjoying the ones we have already eaten fresh & turned into sauces.. The plants in the lime beds just are not doing as well as they could so we are going to try them in a Wicking bed where they will have constant water & see how they go.. Just need to find the room now... 

Aquaponics...
Not a lot has been happening with the IBC system other than the occasional Yabbie shedding its exoskeleton &n an influx of Mozzie wrigglers.. Some of them were taken care of quickly today after we introduced about 30 Firetail Gudgeon feeder fish into the Sump Tank... The Yabbies were put in there a few weeks ago & the Goldies from the house were put into the Barrel system along with the Pacific Blue Eyes we had in the Barrel pond in the patch... The Barrel system has still only got a trace reading of Ammonia & no readings that I can see for Nitrite or Nitrates... The tank is being supplemented with Seasol as well as Chelated Iron while the pH is above 8 as high pH locks out Iron which can appear as a yellowing of the leaves like a nitrogen deficiency...
I have been collecting bits for the plumbing work & think most of what is need has been found as well as buying a 2500LPH back up pump that is running during the day at the moment... 
Did a bit of rearranging of the AP site today & will be trying to knock off the rest of the set up in the next few weeks...


Potato update...

We have had a few problems with a Spotted Potato Ladybug infestation in the Kipfler drum... They are on all of the plants but really hooked into the barrel plants.. We started to spray all the plants with Neem & these are the only specimens I could find today but from the 

shot on the Left you can see the difference between the 2 plants...
I think we may just harvest the Barrel this weekend if the plant dies back to much... The Kipflers on the right in the shot have been left alone for now so we will be keeping the Neem up to them until harvest time...




A little Carrot experiment....

Mmmmmm.... Well, I did try to save to poor little feller...
The results can be seen at the start of the clip below.. : (»

Garden Walk through...

Tried to cram in as much as I could but still miss a fair bit out... The Patch just keeps growing which I cant really complain about..

New project....
Here is a sneak peek of a new project we will be starting today or on the weekend...

Going to be fun, messy but Fun....

Have a great one all....
: )»

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pHad a nice quite day today....

 Made some up some Dairy spread this morning.... Its easy to make & we know what goes into it...
 I use a Ratio of 2:1 Butter & Rice Bran Oil... It works out heaps cheaper than buying the "spreadable" butters & is a lot better to cook with as you get the butter flavour but it doesnt burn like normal butter due to the oil content... Taste great on sandwiches & toast as well....
Method : Just add the softened Butter to a mixing bowl & beat or whisk with Electric Beaters/Stand Mixer... When the butter is all smooth & creamy add the Rice Bran Oil a bit at a time.... I keep  Whisking it until it becomes pale & increases in volume.... I store it in decor 500ml containers & freeze until needed....
Costing : 
1Kg butter $4.58
500ml R/Bran oil   $1.63 (4L for $13 at Woolies on sale & I have a small stockpile..)
This works out to be  $0.42 per 100g or $2.10 for a 500g tub....
 The closest everyday cheapest equivalent is Aldi at $2.99 for 500g.... 
We dont like the Aldi brand due to it having Canola oil in it & that it spits everywhere when using it in cooking due to the water content.... Have been making this version of Dairy spread for a few years now after modifying a Recipe we found on the Simple Savings Site....
 This post has been copied & pasted onto our new Blog,   Bits Around the House..



In the Garden.... 
 Put up the Trellis for the Cucumbers & Climbing Beans today as well as planting out the 3 vacant beds....

  In Bed # 6 we planted, 
2 rows of All Season Carrots from Eden Seeds
Around the outside of the bed we planted,
Red Toga  Spring Onions from Johnsons Seeds,
White Lisbon Spring Onion from Hortico....
  In Bed # 7 we planted,
Blue lake Climbing bean x3
Marketmore Cucumber x 2
Lebanese Cucumber x 2
Purple Top Milan Turnips x 24-30
All these seeds were from Eden Seeds..... 
The Trellis runs the length of Bed # 7....   

  In Bed # 3 we planted,
Brown Beauty Bush Beans x 12
Cylindra Beetroot x 2 rows
Thai Green Eggplant x 2
Silverbeet Lucullus x 12
All these seeds were from Eden Seeds.....
Crimson Globe Beetroot  x 2 rows from Hortico

We are trying to use only old varieties of seed from the smaller seed suppliers as we try & save as many seeds from previous years as we can..... We have had great luck with Eden Seeds in the past & already have a couple of seeds saved from previous crops.... 
OH, & nearly forgot !!!! We bought a "long sweet Yellow" Capsicum seedling a few weeks ago & planted it out today In Bed # 1....  



This weeks harvest....
Kale, Silverbeet, Snowpeas, Broccoli, Zucchini & have gotten 3 eggs every day.....

 Have a Great one All....

: )»
 

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Have been a tad slack with the blog with all thats been going on so though it was about time to have a crack... 1st up, here is a post on our other blog with a few shots of our Wedding.... (click on "Wedding"..)
Now to the garden....

Gates...

The 2 side gates finally have been fixed.... Both are a temporary fix but should last for a few years... I think they were mentioned in a walk trough Clip last week...



Mushrooms...

The first flush of Swiss Brown Mushrooms have been harvested...We bought a kit from a local nursery, set it up about a month ago & forgot about it...  B? harvested just over ½ KG of fungus on Friday night... The top layer of peat has dried out a bit so it got a small watering & is being misted daily now but fear we may have neglected them for to long...



Out with the old...
A decision was made to remove old Goliath to help make room for the reception marquee so a new one was made out of bits of leftover play equipment... Not as big as the old one **Sigh** but will still hold 2 loads from our 7.5kg washer... It looks like we will be making a proper more permanent line in this style up the side of  the house...

Quick update clip...

When wicking beds go BAD !!!!
This is what was found in & under the plastic liner in Bed #5 when it was removed....

Harvests....
We have been getting heaps of fresh veg from the patch at the moment...
Left is what the Raspberries looked like before the wedding & the guests got to sample the fruit... Getting ready to cut it right back after the last 3 or fruit ripen... Right is the Swiss brown we picked on Friday....


Left is the huge Kohlrabi that has been used in 2 stews, last nights Chook & tonight Beef one... Right is a shot of Mangles in the patch... After reading a thread on Simple Savings we "thinned" some out last night & they tasted great in the stew... The leaves make a great Spinach substitute...

Have finally started to harvest some mature Carrots over the past week or so & must say, we are most Chuffed with the results... No bitter taste as some have told me their home grown ones have had... We will be making up some more Carrot seed tape tomorrow so another batch can go in...
The Beans, Snow & Sugar snap peas have all gone crazy... We are harvesting about 500g of each every 3 or so days... Think the Snow peas my be nearing their end but have plans for that bed so all is good...

Right... Tonights Beef stew with Carrots, Beetroot, Kohlrabi, Beans, Snow & Sugar snap Peas from the patch.... Very Tasty!!!!!!


Thats about it for now...
Have a great one all...
: )»

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Has been quite a while since a post was made on our poor neglected blog. So though I would pop up a bit of an update on a few changes to the chickens yard & water feeder..
To start with, the chickens water feeder has been modified to take another dripper station with both of them being connected to a float valve fed water barrel.. I think our daughters were more excited about this development than the chooks as it is one less job they have to do every day ;) 
The clip below is from a few months ago when the system was set up & will give you some idea on how it was made..



I have found that the barrel has started to grow a bit of algae after I neglected to add the apple cider vinegar.. You can see in the most recent update from the chook pen below..
Had a bit of rain over the past few days so thought I would show how we use dolomite lime to keep the odours down when the chicken pen gets a drenching.. It also doubles as a lice & mite treatment as well which is a bit of a bonus.. A new fence has been built down one side of the day yard as well which will help give them a bit of privacy from the neighbours dog..



Also thought I would include a look at how we are making up their nesting box filler using shredded paper.. Our shredded bills/scrap paper has been going into the worm farms for a while now & we have expanded our use of it due to Bianca collecting discarded "newspapers" on her daily train commute..  We are now using it  in the girls nesting box thanks to our increased supply..  



Would also like to use shredded paper & cardboard as bedding in the night pen as well but will need to stock pile a few more papers before we can manage that methinks ;)

Thats it for a quick little look at how the girls are going at the moment.. Hope to have a few more updates on the aquaculture systems as well as a run down on the soil patch posted in the next week or so, time permitting..

Cheers all & have a great one,
Rob :)

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This article was just written by my friend Thahoketoteh of the Kanionke:haka, the Mohawk Nation of Turtle Island (Canada Inc)- for Mohawk Nation News

You know what is the most ridiculous part of all of this?  .... I mean, beyond the fact that the Corporate "Governments" are  still trying to pull this bullshit.

Lacrosse is a Game that was INVENTED by our First Nations People!!!   Theyre holding the Lacrosse World Championships in Scotland.... and tell the First Nations teams that they cant play, because they dont have (and dont want, lol) a corporate employee identification number, ie: a Canada Corporate Passport.

L O V E  these women for standing up and NOT bowing to the pressure of the bullshit corporatocracy.   Well Done!!!


love d


PS: This past monday night Thahoketoteh joined Lisa and I on the One Peoples Roundtable Discussion.  I will publish the archive video as soon as its available.




http://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2015/07/15/those-wonderful-iroquois-women/

THOSE WONDERFUL IROQUOIS WOMEN!

Please post & distribute. Nia:wen.

MNN. JULY 15, 2015. Our proud young people stood up to the powers that be. The Haudenosaunee under-19 women’s lacrosse team withdrew Thursday from the upcoming FIL U19 Women’s World Championship in Edinburgh, Scotland. The corporatists say our Rotinoshonni-issued passports are not valid because they do not meet their corporate standards. We, the natural people of our land, need a colonial passport for international travel. This is illegal and immoral as we ongwe’hon:weh are not Canadian or American colonial settlers.

In 2010 Rotinoshonni sovereignty drew worldwide media attention when the U.K. would not allow the Iroquois Nationals men’s lacrosse team into its borders without Canadian or American passports. They withdraw from the tournament rather than use a corporate imposed identification. In 2014 in Denver they participated and earned the bronze medal because it took place on ono’ware:geh, Great Turtle Island.

The colonialists would not wish others to know that we had a sophisticated system of issuing passes to those who would enter our nation and territory. We gave them a special name in our language to use when traversing among us. Other systems existed for those who wished to remain.

Haudenosaunee Women’s Lacrosse

The Rotinoshonni issued passports in 1923 when Cayuga statesman Deskaheh went to Geneva to apply for membership in the League of Nations. Canada, a colony, had no right to be a member. Britain created underhanded pressure on the nine nations [Estonia, Ireland, Persia, Panama and other sovereign states] that supported us. Britain illegally made all indigenous people worldwide into wards of the colonial entity occupying their land.

These corporate “nations” will not recognize our sovereignty because it would destroy them and make them liable for all past crimes. The corporations of US and Canada do not want to respect the rights of the legitimate non-incorporated natural people of our land. Our identification does not meet the corporate requirements of the CROWN/Vatican to issue banking numbers.

Canada is violating an international treaty by breaching the 1701 Great Peace of Montreal, making the colonial settlers illegal occupiers on our land. The tehiohateh – Two Row – is the most brilliant piece of diplomacy ever devised for nations to live in peace perpetually.

These women stood up for freedom, dignity and integrity as a model for the world.

Bob Marley, the international traveler, would so admire these women. He would sing, “Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights”.

MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinetha@mohawknationnews.com more news, books, workshops, to donate and sign up for MNN newsletters, go towww.mohawknationnews.com  More stories at MNN Archives.  Address:  Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada]J0L 1B0 Thahoketoteh@mohawknationnews.com for original Mohawk music visit thahoketoteh.ws

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Weve been busy bees lately.  On top of the explosion of spring planting, milking 2x a day, catching several swarms, classes and chores, we have expanded our hen operation.  Two rounds of chicks we recently raised are mature and beginning to lay.  We also adopted a large group of Brown Isos from an animal rescue.  These ladies are between 7-11 months old, prime production brown egg layers.  Their dwellings are three mobile chicken tractors built from scrap materials we had here on the farm.  As we are moving them across the hillside, they will eat all the bugs and grass while preparing and fertilizing new beds for us to plant.

Using the chicken tractor is nothing new to us.  About half of our beds were initially prepared by our original lightweight tractor made from PVC pipe. Whats different about this set up is that these structures are sturdier and  predator proof.  The other big difference is that we are feeding the hens compost, or at least mostly.  Each day we dump into the tractors a load of manure, greens, straw and spent brewers grain.  The hens eat, scratch, peck and break down the goods into a most lovely and fertile end product for us to plant right into. 

We were totally inspired by Geoff Lawtons Chicken Tractor on Steroids video and decided to try out the concept but wanted to tweak it to make it easier for us. (We are leaving the hens on the beds for 2-3 weeks. Instead of turning compost, we let them do the work for us).  

So far, a month into the experiment, we reached down under the straw bedding to test out the soil and it is loose, moist and full of worms!  Just what we are aiming for.  The true test will be seeing how our tomatoes do in the first bed.  

The hens have taken well to their new environment.  They have had a big adjustment to make as we have changed their diet drastically from layer pellet to compost.  We are trying to boost their immune systems with a splash of apple cider vinegar in their drinking H2O and giving them fermented milk with all the beneficial probiotic bacteria. Plus the spent grain they are getting contains hops which has bitter acids know to be potent anti-microbials. These anti-microbials control the pathogenic bacteria Clostridium in the hens intestines.  

So all in all, these ladies are having to work a bit harder but they are looking healthy.  This coming week we will set up the electric fencing to give them a little wiggle room and allow them to forage through the tall grass a bit too.  They will be some pretty happy pastured chickens!

Check out this clip on the ramped up chicken tractor, well worth watching his whole video...Many spring blessings!

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