Happy new year! Agoucha, Toon, Neko [pronounce N- e (like the first e of there) ko (like in in loCO)] and I wish everyone a healthy and happy new year!

The tower farm keeps growing slowly and surely! Some plants seems that they are really liking it there, especially  the collard greens. I Also am pretty sure that I need to add more light to the system. Also the compost tea "experiment" is continuing, and so far it does not seem to provide significant amount of nitrates. Here is a breakdown of the state of things from top to bottom.

On the top, the is a pepper seedling, It grew in the compost from the worm crate and I transferred the 2 leaf seedling into the vertical farm a little while ago. It now has 4 leaves, and seems quite happy there. 

Next there is one of the collard greens that grew its longer leave from 7.5 cm to 10 cm now. It also has added new leaves. (see second photo)

Next there is the parley, I harvested half of the leaves last week (not much, but it was tasty). this week it put out 2 leaves (stimulated by the cut ?)(see second photo)

Next there was a small 3 leave seedling of parsley that died, not sure why, but it became suddenly totally dry.

Then the is the bok choy core that seems to grow too, and added a few new leaves in the last 3 weeks.

Another collard grows lower, it also have grew new leave regularly, but it is not as green as the one on the top of the tower. This is what makes me think I need more lights. The light are placed on the top.
Notice on the picture how the collard on the left is not as intensly green as the one on the right.

Also There were a few green onions lower, but they died (except one that is higher in the tower) after I did the monthly cleanup. I have disturbed them, and they didnt like it, maybe added to insufficient light also participated, as they were not as green as the one closer to the top.

When I did the clean up there was a bit of a biofilm in the reservoir, internet sources are no agreeing whether it s good or bad, but logically, since we are dealing with a system full of life, I would expect such biofilm to develop.

For the water quality, I have hiked up the amount of ammonia to 4 ml for about a week, and there is now an obvious accumulation of ammonia and nitrate, with some traces of nitrite. I have back down the additions of ammonia as I would aim for an amount that gets quickly processed into nitrates. I am also wondering if this increase of ammonia may be in part linked to the cleanup - which may a killed some of the living film, releasing ammonia as it decomposes.

For the compost tea addition, I have kept increasing the amount of compost used. Yesterday, I have added  2.5 cups of compost to 4 cups of water, and "brewed" for 24h with aeration. I finally got around to get test strips to look at nitrates, and it does not show a significant amount of nitrate in the compost tea. However, the stips also measures general hardness (180 ppm) carbonate hardness (120ppm) pH (7.5) and nitrites (0 or maybe traces).


Finally, I seems that the Blog will pass the bar of 1000 views ! that is quite exiting, Last check I had 997 views! 

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Now that we are finally receiving the long awaited rain (hurray!!), the race is on to get winter chores done.  Weve been amending beds with manure, heavily mulching, building compost piles everywhere, and transplanting lots of starts from the green houses to the beds.  After going at this small farming business for almost four years now, we are honing in and getting organized.  Our seed list has narrowed as we have learned a thing or two about what we like to eat and preserve, what types of plants grow well here, and what we can plant that will give us a large yield with little energy input/water.  

The changing climate and weather patterns are forcing us to rethink everything.  For us that means starting to establish our food forests and for annuals, keeping it simple.  Growing the staples (beans, potatoes, squash, brassicas, and eggs) can keep us well fed all year long. Of course well plant some of our other favorites, but the bulk will be these five.  

Since runners beans are hardy, produce a large harvest that can be eaten fresh or dried, and can become perennials, there are big hopes to plant them all over the garden this year. Scarlet runners, painted ladies and many more varieties to climb the fences.  

Yukon Gold is our preferred variety

Potatoes are probably the biggest crop we want to grow.  Our family consumes masses of them and with growing boys its always good to have some around as a base for a meal, especially when we are trying to cut back on wheat.  Plus they thrive here, our big dilemma is that the gophers love them as much as we do.  Were still searching for a solution to that problem.  

Eggs are versatile, reliable, dont need refrigeration, and can be grown off the compost, extra vegis and waste products from our farm.  They are our main source of protein given half of us dont eat meat.  Every breakfast around here includes eggs with a variation of avocado and toast, porridge, or potatoes.  

winter squash grows exceptionally well in our garden

A list of other crops that are easy and grow well for us in our soil and climate are zucchini, tomatoes, pumpkins, winter squash (Oregon Sweet Meat is our favorite), red and yellow onions, garlic, quinoa, amaranth, and artichokes.  Planting vegis that need more hydration near the grey water is key and well be dry farming tomatoes again this year. These rainy days are perfect for planning and dreaming of the garden to come....

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Has been nearly 3 months since the last aquaponic vlog update so here you go folks.
Winter has struck here & the fish are starting to get a tad lazy due to the cold water but the plants are still growing strong.

The tomatoes have had another trim today with a few branches strung up due to the weight of the new fruit forming.
Have noticed that the water level is dropping a bit more than normal so shall be investigating to see if there are any leaks developing on the pipe work. Im hoping that its just just the growth spurt weve seen over the past week or so that is causing the increased water usage.

Best be off & start working in the patch.
Cheers & all the best folks.

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Picked up a commercial aquaponic system last week & now need to work out how to fit it into the yard :/ Am fairly sure that our existing system will be off to my parents & then we can get into setting up the new system here..

Am really looking forward to planing & building this system.. Am hoping to still include some Dutch buckets & DWC beds too :)

Decided to harvest the sweet potato from the aquaponics this week.. Also had a bit of a surprise when I was following the vine
that had grown over the side of the system :)


Cheers all & have a great one..
Rob :)

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Worm Kingdom Update...

An update for Lynne & all... : )»
The worm farm is going great guns... The little fellas are munching through 3-5 kg worth of "processed" food every week... It is getting near time to harvest the little fellas so they can start again as nearly all the Coconut coir bedding has been turned into castings... They love to mass under their food along with a few Black Soldier fly larvae... The larvae are no real problem & when picked out make a great source of protein for the Chooks... Some even farm them as a food source for their Chooks & for fish bait/food... Here is a great site with heaps of information on the Larvae... http://www.microponics.net.au/?p=175
We have been stockpiling the Worm wee over the past few months just for the Autumn crops... I pour about a Litre into a 9 Litre watering can then spot water the Veggies & lime trees every second week... None have complained yet so it must be good...

Horse Poo Palace...
 Charming name me thinks... **giggles to self**

The old worm farm has been sitting around doing nothing but storing some Wetpots so today it was put into action as a farm again...

 I filled the 3 tiers of the farm with some of the "special blend"  manure compost with some Sugar cane trash and about 1 cup of worms for every level... It will be interesting to see just how fast they get comfy, start little families & eat their way through the mammoth size meal that they have..

My Favourite plant...

B? & I have this thing when we go driving around where we get so excited when we see nature start to take back over what we Ooomans think we have conquered... Trees & grass growing in gutters always bring a smile & grass growing from cracks in the centre of bitumen roads just makes us do a seated Happy dance in the car, much to the disapproval of the spawn in the back seat... That is one reason I dont mind the weeds & grasses growing in between the paved paths between the beds... I figure they also provide food for pests which in turn feed the countless Skinks, Geckos & spiders that live in the gaps around the beds & pavers... This Sweet Basil deserves to be a revered plant & wont be harvested unless catastrophe strikes all the other Sweet Basils that are popping up in & around the patch... The others that live in the lawn around the patch are still there even though they have snapped their main stems due to their size... Nothing better than the smell of fresh Basil as you walk around the patch & disturb the leaves on the plants...


Have a great one...

: )»

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Just a update walk through Clip....

& an update on the Bucket experiment... (lazy I know....)

Shall do a proper post soon on whats been going on in the patch later this week...

Have a great one all!!!

: )»

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Did another backyard aquaponic system update last week.. Its all travelling along rather nicely at the moment & am happy to report there have been no dramas as of late..  **knocks on wood**
Plant growth is still coming along nicely even though the temperatures have been dropping a bit.. Thinking we are still right to plant out a few more seeds though..

Should have the site for the mini fish farm all sorted by the next update hopefully..

Have taken the first 4 perch from the system to share at a bit of a family get together over the weekend.. 3 were not the largest but wasnt expecting too much.. Might pull a few more over Winter but not sure yet, shall see how we go..

Information on the iki jime method of despatching fish can be found here
http://www.ikijime.com/
& is well worth the look I think.

For more regular updates & pictures from the patch come visit us on our "Bits Out the Back" Facebook page..
Have a great one All...
Rob..

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Even though it has been a while since the last post a bit has been going on out the back...
But first, a quick update on the Rust & pest problem from the last Blog post... The beans were removed & disposed of in the garbage in an attempt to get rid of as much infected matter as possible... The garden was then sprayed on the 17th of September with Neem... The White Cabbage Butterfly caterpillar & Colorado Potato beetle populations have nearly disappeared completely so I am very chuffed with that.. I was contemplating purchasing some Dipel powder for the caterpillars as it will be needed for the Aquaponic system as it is Fish friendly but that can wait until the beds are all set up..


Spring sowings...
Seeds...
Since the last post a few seeds & a couple of seedlings have gone in...
Bean, Black seeded Snake, Madagascar/tropical Lima
Purple Vienna Kohlrabi
Mangelwurzel 
Beetroot Early Wonder
Cucumber, Muncher Burpless, Lebanese, Mini White
Corn, Baby Pop
Rainbow Chard
Eggplant, Thai, Udumalapet, Large White 
Cumin
Tomato, Black Russian, Brandywine Pink
Rockmelon, Minnesota Midget
Cos lettuce & Unidentified Lettuce seedlings from mum
Seedlings
Mixed Capsicum
Transplanted unidentified volunteer Brassicas  x 2 Bed #2
Transplanted Red salad & Brown onions into Beds # 1 & 2 form various beds in the patch...
Transplanted the Broad Ripple Yellow currant & Wapsipinicon Peach Tomato seedlings from the Lime Bed into newly prepared Wicking Barrels with cages...

Still waiting for most to sprout & most from the previous batch are yet to sprout but here is a quick look anyway...

Strawberry wall...

As the remaining Strawberry barrel was cleared out to make way for some Tomatoes so what was left was put into the Strawberry wall... Was a bit of a squeeze to get them in but theyre all in there now... What surprised us the most was finding 2 small plants that look like they have sprouted from seed...
 Left is a shot before the other plants from the barrel went in... There is a quick look at what they look like now in the clip above..



 
Happy Harvests... 

We are still harvesting the last of the Carrots from the Bath tub bed along with Kohlrabi & Spring onions for coleslaw a few times a week... The last of the Beetroot& Purple Caulis were harvested for a nice Roast Lamb lunch with guests on Sunday... They all went down a treat...
Still getting heaps of tomatoes from the volunteer plants around the yard & the Mangles that had all their sick looking leaves trimmed off are now providing us with some lovely fresh greens...
Most of the tomatoes on the Right are now a very tasty tomato paste in  the Freezer...


Have a great one all....
: )»

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Aquaponic update...

The sump tank/grow bed have been set up now...  The clay balls were all washed & a failure on the shroud around the bell siphon was fixed...

The site where the fish tank is going has been set up ready for the tank & the grow bed frames to be installed... Had a friend give me a hand on the weekend with the box... Thanks Mark.. The pump is in but is a bit to powerful to just run 1 bed so will have to wait until the rest of the grow beds & fish tank are on line I think... Power to the site is delivered through an extension cord to the pump & a water proof connection box is used keep it all safe... A bucket is also placed over the top to make certain no water gets in...






The barrel system is still lacking nutrients so we hope to get the Goldfish from the house into there as soon as I can get the IBC system plumbed up so the Yabbies can be added to it...  Its just a matter of finding the $$ now for the plumbing fittings... I have also been told that we should have permanent power to the site within a month...
                        **Crosses fingers & toes**


Have a great one & take it easy all...
: )»

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New Worm Farm...

½ the Worms we harvested on the weekend are now in a new home, the ½ barrel we found at the local nature reserve... We are using an old fly screen frame with black builders plastic in place of the screen as a lid... They appear to be happy in there so all is good... The other ½ were put back in the 3 tiered farm...



Transplants & Seeds...
4 Passion fruits were taken out of the old Sweet Potato bed on Sunday, 1 was planted in the new Passion fruit barrel in the Chook yard as a back up & the others were potted out along with some that we planted a while back to give to family members...
A few punnets of Broccoli, Kale & Purple Cauliflowers will be sown out tomorrow just to cover any failures that may happen & for when we clear out Bed #5... Also planting some climbing Beans on the Cucumber trellis as soon as the seed arrives...  

Walk through Update...
Had to cut this one up a bit as I was rambling on just a tad... Hopefully I shall get better at this so the clips run a bit smoother... 

 
Have a great one all...
: )»

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The construction is almost over ! in the last 2 weeks, we built 2 frames to hold the grow-beds using re-purposed wood from a futon, an old build-in cabined, and a bed frame, and placed the half buckets in it. 
The apprenticeship has 12 student signed up, we started with 6 student the first week, then 8, and last Wednesday we had 10 students. So I think we can call that a success
! students are coming in increasing numbers! Her are some picts of students hard at work !


And the almost finished product!

Just one thing missing besides the media and the plants: the grow media!

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Its been now 9 months that the indoor worm composting experiment has started. During these 6 months the small Styrofoam (very) mini box grew to a slightly bigger composting crate, then expanded into a soy sauce bucket for the Bronx Writing Academy, and 3 (very) mini worm bin. All of that, in an apartment, with no odour, escapees or inconvenience.
In 9 months, 50 kg (110lbs) of food scraps, 16kg (35 lbs) of paper-cardboard and wood dust (dry weight) have been diverted from landfills and transformed on 20 kg (44 lbs) of compost.

We actually do not put all the food waste into the composting system, as it may be too small to process all of our food scraps, so we take the remaining food waste to the farmers market, where it is collected and composted by GrowNYC. Close to none of our food waste ends up in landfills.
Food waste in the landfill when "washed down" with rain, can pollute the water in the surrounding, costing in treatment to make it safely drinkable. Food in landfills also produces CO2, CH4, NO2 and other greenhouse gases. It is important to note that CH4 and NO2 a much more potent greenhouse gases. While composting - worm composting- will emit C02 as well, and may emit other greenhouse gases, it is emitting less of the CH4 and N02 - if the compost bin is kept aerobic - which is the case as worm are tunneling though, keeping space for air to circulate.
The compost progressively changed aspect, as I have used compressed wood chips in the bedding, and the wood chip do take much longer to degrade. I think it also may have rendered the compost tea less rich, as the compost tea powered hydroponics has shown some deficiencies recently. Another thing I have noticed, is that with the heat of the summer, in a non air conditioned apartment, is that the food scraps heat up quite a lot after addition, which has lead to a dryer compost coming out of the bottom. It also may have reduced the overall worm population. So I have been able to put less food scraps lately, as the input seem not to be transformed as fast. I also recently stopped putting the food scraps in our old food processor to see if it heats up less.
Overall, the compost from the composting bucket for the school is much (very much) wetter, even with numerous holes. It is also darker than the compost form the home composting bucket. In the school bucket, no (or very little) compressed wood chip are used in the bedding, only paper and cardboard is used.

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The tower farm is doing great, The collard greens growth burst is accelerating, it has put 4 mores leaves on this week (yes 4!!!), the green onions are going too, and the parsley actually put on a new leaf for the first time in
almost 5 weeks! Also the pepper has a tiny new leaf growing - it seems to have recovered from the rough handling
of the tower a few weeks back
The collard greens are really inexpressively growing in the last 2 weeks, they put out new leaves, and the leaves are getting quite big! see below - click to change the pics at your own pace



For a bit more than a month, the nitrates have reappeared in the systems water at a quite high concentration, so last week, I decided not to add ammonia to the water and track the levels of nitrates in the water. Interestingly, the nitrates have kept increasing, even if I didnt add more ammonia. Also, some ammonia has actually appeared in the system.
Obviously, it didnt appear from nowhere, so the most logical explanation I can think of is that the compost tea (or maybe I should call it compost wash) is bringing some more complex forms of nitrogen that gets converted into ammonia and than nitrate.
The worm compost wash I made this week end is very simple: 4 cups of worm compost, 4 cups of water.

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Well, after last nights Transpicuous News Report, where I ended the show with the latest CERN "news", I woke up to yet another interesting article from the London Rag news"paper", the Express:

Scientists at Large Hadron Collider hope to make contact with PARALLEL UNIVERSE in days

SCIENTISTS conducting a mindbending experiment at the Large Hadron Collider next week hope to connect with a PARALLEL UNIVERSE outside of our own.

 

Followed by This one:

Did parallel universe open up? Hundreds see floating city filmed in skies above China

CHINESE TV news reports have told how thousands of residents in TWO areas reported separately seeing a huge city form in the skies.

The interesting part of this "news" story is the very last paragraph:

"The apparition, which was witnessed by hundreds of shocked residents, only lasted a few minutes before completely disappearing."
The channel speculated it could be "the result of a project blue beam test."
Project Blue Beam is a prolific conspiracy theory which believes NASA will one day
simulate an alien invasion of Earth or second coming of Christ through holograms.

Are you kidding me?  Did a main stream media (albeit junky) just openly talk about Project Blue Beam?   Holographic invasion by aliens?  Faked second coming of Christ?!?  ....

REALLY?!?

Of course they use the ol "Conspiracy Theory" tag line, but I found the play out of these two articles very interesting given all the stuff thats been going on this past few weeks....

Anyway, With the announcement by CERN that they may be opening a "parallel universe", I figured Id better keep a close eye on CERN.

The past week Ive been sorta ridiculously busy so I havent been watching CERN as closely as I usually do, but there have been a few interesting things showing up in the graphs.

First up, here is a screen shot of CERN Operations as of 10am UTC this morning,  and sure enough there was a couple of interesting things in the past day.  "Bobbles" that Ive not really seen before.



the Beam dump information doesnt line up with what is seen on the graphs.... sorta.  Or, lets just say, it looks like the graphs have been set up to be misleading- as they say "No Beam".... and yet the dump is showing a beam.... oh and that little beam blip at just before 11am GMT...  the dump is showing the last injection at 1:48 last night.... and no dump after that.





So I went to take a look at the solar info for the past few days.  While the sun has been supposedly quiet for the past 36 hours - no flares to speak of- there are active xrays and an uptick from the coronal hole that is facing us.   But more interesting is the geomagnetic info for the past 24 hours or so.

Coronal Hole Earth facing

Geomagnetic storm mid day Oct 18

You can see the Magnetopause crimping inward and distorting in several frames- cross reference the time with CERN

You can see on the Magnetopause pics that at the times when CERN was showing strange "bobbles" that I havent seen before- remember that CERN is one hour ahead of UTC timing for the Solar information..

In the UnFuckers Unite Facebook group weve been having quite a few conversations about the "physical", so to speak, "symptoms" that are being experienced across a broad spectrum of people over the past week especially.   With the "Notice" type article put out in the past few days about scientists using magnetics to literally numb and change people minds.... well, it puts CERN that much more directly in my focus of attention to keep an eye on.

Mind hack: Scientists use magnets to change attitudes on immigration, religion 

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Update Video... 
Another walk through the yard...

Compost Tea...
Oops....Forgot include the Tea into the Video... I did up a smaller, more concentrate batch using the air stone & molasses... I didnt really notice a difference between the control plants & the watered ones this week but will give it 3 more weeks/batches of the tea & then report back...

Other bits...
 There are a few jobbies I need to finish off that were not done on the weekend like potting out the Pineapple & removing some shade cloth but should have them knocked off by the weekend...

Harvested to first of this batch of Zucchini yesterday along with a Cucumber & 2 smallish Eggplants... The Zucchini & Eggplant are going into a sauce in about 10 min... : )»
We had some soil & sand delivered to make up some more Wicking barrels & accidentally got too much sand so it looks like we might just have to build another bed in the next few weeks... Such a shame... Hope B? doesnt mind...                 **very cheeky GRIN**
We put the batch of manure we had into the barrels last weekend so got 8 more bags on Friday... B? hasnt seen them as of yet..  Have also thought up another stage in the compost screening process, shall be built later this week, that should make the job of breaking it down faster...
We are also putting the finishing touches on our first pond in the garden which should be stocked with some Pacific Blue Eye fish & some plants later today....
**Does BIG HAPPY DANCE**

Thats about it for now...
Have a great one all....

: )»

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Time for a bit of an update on the veggie patch in our little Backyard Farm now that Summer has well & truly hit SE Queensland..  
Was working on a few clips but they unfortunately got lost when the hard drive crashed so I thought Id give you a quick look at a few of them all in one clip.. 

Will have a follow up post on the wicking beds & how they fare during the high temperatures we had during Spring posted in the next day or so ;-)

If anyone in Australia is interested in purchasing the Root Pouches you can find a tab to our small store under our banner above..

Cheers all & have a great one.. 

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Update Shots....
Not much going on planting wise in the garden at the moment...
The Caped Gooseberry seedlings in the trays (Left front 2 trays) are still not big enough to be potted out & we are still waiting for some more Udumalapet Eggplant seeds (Left rear tray) to germinate.. Might just have to try again with the Eggplant... There is a bit of "action" in the Passion fruit tray (Right) with what looks to be Tomato, Eggplant, Chilli/Capsicum & what may yet turn out to be a single Passion fruit, seedlings sprouting...

The 2 beds that were planted out the other week are going very well.... The Kohlrabi (Left) & Red Cabbage (Right) roots have settled in nicely & dont require watering any more...     





The Pac Choi in Bed #3 (Left) has germinated but still no sign of the Lettuce that was planted in Bed #4... 
The Zucchini barrels had some Lebanese Zucchini seeds planted in them mid last week as the seedlings we purchased were just so pitiful.. They have now shot so the seedlings got yanked out today ...

The Red Flowered Strawberry (Left) has some interesting Fruit that taste just as good as any other I have had... The Cucumbers (Right) have started to fruit... I have been fertilising the Female flowers myself so as to guarantee some fruit.. All the bees appear to be more interested in the neighbours clover than our garden... Such is...

The Orange Chillies are ripening  & looking great... We are still getting heaps of Rainbow Silverbeet for ourselves & the Chooks at the moment... From the base of the plants you can tell just how productive they have been....

The Mini Roma Toms (Left) are ripening & tasting great... The next lot of Tomatos (Right) are coming on nicely & were joined by some Celery seedlings during the week... Both the Chilli/Capsicum in the bed have picked up as well... There are also a couple of Capsicum & Eggplants behind the trellis at the end that we are going to let live...

Pest/Disease Control...

I am trialling a new deterrent for the common garden pest, the White Cabbage Butterfly... Apparently they are territorial & will not lay eggs where they see another Butterfly so I have put white bread bag clips on a few Beetroot & Turnip leaves to see if they help... If they do I shall be hitting up the extended family for more as we dont buy much bread...I shall also be Neeming the garden again today as the turnips have been attacked by some grubs & powdery mildew...We did pick a few & give them to my Father for his dinner last night... I thought it may help to thin the rows out a bit to try & stop the spread of the mildew...

Worm Farm.....

Started work on the new "Kingdom" for the worms... A full run down of its construction shall be given at a later date... I hurt my foot yesterday so didnt get as much done as I had planed, but such is....







Weekly Harvest...
Lettuce,  Beetroot leaves, Zucchini, Turnips, Baby Dragon/All Seasons Carrots, Mini Roma Tomatos, Strawberries, assorted Herbs, Beans, Eggplant, 3 eggs a day...






Have a Great one all...
: )»

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