teonanacatl

Or they could put a note in their signature for a few weeks if they wanted....

They were the days Never even got to reach my potential haha. Might start growing some cacti again when my living situation changes. Glad people still have a use for it!

Im going to try and stabilise my soak (a large deep hole in nearly pure sand that allows infiltration of water from the surrounding area) and Im looking for some bulk vetiver grass. Anyone have any knowledge on a supplier? Looking to plant in april/may.

Ive got/ tried most of those you listed MG plus kangkong which I love and a native beach purslane which is tasty and nutritious. Statakak- that sounds great. Id be keen to see the cassava too as I grow a lot of that!

Searching for cuttings of both these plants. Can anyone help?

Well my swarm is making comb (checked last night) and they are collecting pollen so Im assuming the queen is laying brood now too! Have a big honey flow from Melaleuca's in my swamp so that should keep them busy and give them a good start!

Maybe grab some other media for her to play with, water colour pencils, pencils, paints and stuff like that. Just leave it lying around for her to find as often incentives, pressure and expectations can make the creative daemon go away. Second the holidays art programs, really dig deep to find stuff. Also check out the botanical gardens they might do botanical drawing classes which would be fun for both of you!

The term is hygroscopic and there is usually a point till which it will absorb water (equilibrium is reached) and yes this will depend on the relative humidity. Found this nice graph. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/LyraEDISServlet?command=getImageDetail&image_soid=FIGURE%201&document_soid=AA249&document_version=71486 So Id say its safely below 21% when relative humidity is below 65%.

The honey will absorb moisture in a humid environment and soon wont have the right osmolarity to stay fresh. Let us know how yours goes! If I had the money and the hive numbers Id probably buy one for fun.

Excellent thanks The bees cannot clean up inside the frames though right? So there would be honey residue in there ripe for bacteria and fungi?

Great idea, Im not sure I understand its popularity though? Its too early for major honey producers to be switching over. I see problems with hygiene. Was harvesting honey the thing that stopped more people keeping bees? I doubt it. Would you buy one WT?

My attempt above failed, as did one other when the bees absconded from their branch hive. I just caught a swarm yesterday and they appear to like the makeshift hive I gave them. That flow hive is cool

Frankly the point with slow growing cacti is they dont need much to be soluble at any given time. They have evolved to survive. Have a read of the article if you havent, it explains everything

Your sensitisation to wheat dust makes sense given your job, Id start looking for a new one. Re the takeaway food: Id just put it down as a coincidence and see if it happens again.

Highly likely, decreased transport costs too.

Yeah this is definitely the future. Solar powered would be good! As would using treated sewage as the base nutrient solution. Next step would be to actually breed some nutrition into the lettuces !

Yeah for sure the electrodes will get poisoned- see below. So the simplest way to look at creating energy is to devise a system where there is a gradient of something, if there is a gradient the one can create energy and one can then convert between different types of energy. Eg lots of water no water- hydroelectric, electrochemical gradient- battery, pressure gradient- engine, even people moving too and from work could be used to make power. I think this one is working on high and low oxygen content and providing a loop back. Oxidation happens at the anode and in this case the electrode captures the e- produced during oxidation of the organic matter or sugars produced from the plant. In a normal anaerobic system these electrons would go to S for example producing the typical smell of anaerobic conditions. The electrons then go to the cathode where they reduce O2 to produce H2O so O2 is the receiver of electrons no S. The electrodes will get poisoned as species being oxidised at the anode will not just be sugars. Transition metals and organic compounds containing P, S, N and O can all be oxidised. Likewise at the cathode it wont just be O2 that is reduced in fact a lot of other species will be reduced before O2, for example all the transition metals. This results in deposits on the electrodes that decrease its ability to work.

Looks like this is using anaerobic and aerobic areas to produce electricity so the microbes would be vital to this system. I wonder how long it would take to poison the electrodes?

From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_exchange_trading_system "LETS networks facilitate exchange between members by providing a directory of offers (and wants) and by allowing each a line of interest-free credit to each. Members IOUs are logged in a centralised accounting system which publishes a directory and balances visible to all members. In case of a default, the loss of value or units is absorbed equally by all members, which makes it a mutual credit exchange. For instance, a member may earn credit by doing childcare for one person and spend it later on carpentry with another person in the same network, or they may spend first and earn later." LETS Australia http://www.lets.org.au Might interest a few people here.

This quote is exactly why I love the work in this article. "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away" Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Possibly the least discussed section in Mollison's permaculture book is the chapter on setting up a business/community/trust. Im struggling to understand how it all works though so Id like some help. The following paragraphs will be me putting down all the info as Mollison puts it plus other research onto paper in order for me to try and consolidate what is proposed. "?" are things Im not sure of and Ill try come up with a list of questions at the end. So a community/ family of people sets up a company, this company acts as a trustee for a for-profit public trust (he calls it the institute trust). This trust issues shares to members and partakes in no trading or cash-flow. A second non-profit trust is set up by the company but separate from the first trust (the trading trust). The non-profit trust owns nothing and employs no one. It leases land/buildings from the profit trust for free as it funds the profit trust. Employees are volunteers. Both trusts are income tax free and one can probably get tax deductible status? Or one can route funds to them via a tax deductible trust at a cost of 2-4%. The trading trust (non-profit) registers a number of useful businesses (real estate, consultancy, travel agent, publisher etc). It can also hold shares. The non-profit trust is for cooperative money flows and the institute trust is for informational/ research flows. The trading trust is non-profit so it must distribute all its income, it can do this to the institute trust or other charities as a tax free/deductible donations, it can also give this money to people and dependants working for the trading trust, probably just enough to survive, all other money is better in the trust? Once the money is in the institute trust it can no longer be used or profit from it. It does not employ anyone either so no one can personally profit from it, it is run for public benefit. Not sure what happens to the shares that were given to members at the start? But one can start an institute/company and employ people through that for public good, say a school. Trading trusts come and go, but land should be heavily insulated and the institute/public trust doesnt take risks. All land donations go to the trading trust, the trading trust pays all transfer costs. Only land that is fully owned or has some financing attached pass to the public trust. Part owned land is a risk and stays in the trading trust. So the public institute trust owns everything that is paid off including tools, intellectual property and land etc. If one wants to buy more land then the public trust can loan the money to the trading trust, the property is then transferred to the public trust when the repayments are complete. The trading trust puts down deposits on land and once its paid off it goes to the institute. Any land can end up in the institute. For example gov land that the institute uses to build a farm for public good. Benefits: - land is free from tax, rates and gov charges, or at lease cheaper? - Links with other institutes for research etc. - Insulated situation - Donations tax deductible - Not corperate so no income tax So I see the advantages do using this sort of a system as I understand it is low/no income tax/ fees. A secure system for holding of property (used in the broad sense). The possibility of acquisition of funds, land for public benefit. Seems a lot of paperwork though, may only be worthwhile if one was making considerable money? Mollison wrote his books a long time ago, is this financial structure is still relevant? Are there easier options, say a family trust? Did I get that all correct? Has anyone had experience with this system?

I was stumbling around the internet the other night reading about work weeks in other countries and societal structures etc. To give you an idea hunter-gatherers or foragers spend around 15-20 hours/ week collecting food in order to survive, they spend 40-44 hours/ week when collection, preparation and cooking are all taken into account. Agrarian societies too worked less then 40 hours/ week, and often only half the year, surviving (this link sums it up better than I can): http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html It wasnt until the industrial revolution that we started working many hours. People flocked to the cities for jobs and would work 10-16hr/day 6-7 days per week in shifts to keep production up. It was in fact Henry Ford that came up with the 40 hour week. Though it was not decided upon to be healthier for the worker, or to give them more time relaxing or spending time with their family. Ford recognised that in a capitalist society one needs consumers to drive demand, so he gave his workers 2 days off to be good little consumers and workout what you could do with a car/ work out what else their lives were missing. The notion of 4 days weeks at same pay has been floated a few times with the idea to stimulate economies, more time off = more time to be consumers. So there you go, your precious days off are nothing more then those who hold your chains letting you put money back into the machine that makes you work. Marshell Sahlins once described hunter-gatherers as the original affluent societies where people in egalitarian societies achieve affluence by desiring little and meeting those needs simple by the things around them; compare to western man whose wants are great (infinite?) but his means are limited though the gap can be reduced by using industry. I know which model I prefer, I work random jobs and Im time rich but money poor. Time provides me with many more rewards then money does. Id like a bit more security, my own dependable part time business would be ideal but that is hard to find. Anyway just thought Id share this as I found it amazing! Please contribute your thoughts!

Aww disappointing!

Anyone tried keeping cacti flowers in a vase or the like? If cut as a bud do they still open? I think the large flowering columnar types would be amazing even if only for the one night

Haha, yes it does appear that they were pushing for an 8 hour day for a long time and certain trades had managed to achieve it for their workers, the first being Building trades council in 1900. Ford introduced his in 1914 but it was 8 hours x 6 days. In 1922 he introduced 8x 5 days to give a 40 hour week. The first federal law on the issue related to railway workers and was instated in 1919 but it wasnt until 1937 that 40 hours and overtime became a federal law. So you're right Ford didnt come up with the idea. But I think he was one of the first big businesses to use it, he also doubled wages at the same time. His reasoning was as I stated above. I think it makes a lot of sense too!