Fenris

Totally agree with Incog, VS is certainly a guy to be respected. I met a guy once who did massage and a lot of other different types of energy work at the Subiaco markets years ago, (not where I met him) he had knowledge of my interests and things about me without asking any questions, he just came out and told me all this stuff about myself and my relationship at the time. Actually I wouldn't call him a shaman but he was maybe a clairvoyant. I did spend some time in Peru with Percy Gonzales although Shamanism is his life so I guess you mean non indigenous. I actually have a friend who is an artist who is the most connected white person I have probably met, he has some crazy stories of shapeshifting and meeting spirits although he doesn't really practice so much, he is just really tuned in.

This may have been posted before, its an excerpt from Adventure Time which is a children's cartoon - The brain is releasing dimethyltryptamine from the pineal gland.

Now that was a big fart

Always happy to receive advice. My partner has a 5yr old daughter and we have all been living together for the last year which I think has eased me into this, so the transition is not a complete shock. I was worried I wouldn't love being a new parent, however a switch did seem to go off in my head, its like nothing else Ive experienced before, (except maybe when I got an 8 week old puppy). I'm lucky that my parents live 5 min away and are both retired and are more than happy to help out in any way they can, which I have been taking advantage of already. I have an enormous amount of patience which I am sure will come in really useful, now I just need a good nap.

I became a dad this week :-) Huxley was born at 10.10am Monday 04 Dec weighing in at 2.95 kg and 50cm long. Its been a full on week and I am totally exhausted, and somewhat overwhelmed by the whole thing. Its totally awesome. Now if I can just get some sleep.

Sorry to derail the thread before with all that talk of "not real treasure". I had been looking through some threads regarding hunting and it seems that a lot of people start off looking in sand lots at playgrounds for buried coins, I would definitely look at sandy play areas followed by the beach. Yowie aka Marcia got me keen on prospecting, I think it would be a great way to spend a holiday. Unfortunately the only really valuable stuff to find in West Aus would be gold - not that that is a bad thing but I would like the possibility of finding some artifacts of archaeological significance like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_sky_disk over some nuggets.

Shiny treasure :-)

I started converting some fiat money into a real store of wealth - gold, silver & platinum coins, I have the treasure bug pretty bad at the moment and would love to take a month or 2 to go prospecting and find some in the raw. In the mean time here is something to aspire to collecting, I believe that it is a 2oz coin, however they also come as a 1kg proof coin, now that is some treasure.

My gut feeling recently told me to get into stacking precious metals before the SHTF. It took some effort to override my normal thoughts that money in the bank is the safest place to keep it. Now I dream of treasure

Here is a method I have been working on which is a kind of crossover between the standard jars and mycobags. Its really inexpensive and the only problem is what to do with all that spawn. Firstly get a plastic container like the one shown. It needs to have the number 5 in the triangle on the bottom which indicates what type of plastic it is. The type 5 plastic is autoclave safe Cut the container in half or a bit less, all you really need is the lid and top of container which is pretty obvious from the pictures to follow. Get some large oven bags, a pack of 4 costs less than $5 from the local IGA and double bag them for strength. Put the top of the bags through the inside of the container and fold over the lip and attach lid and there you have the basics. and then Some holes will need to be made in the lid for breathing. The better gas exchange you get the better the colonisation towards the end will be. I had experimented with also adding an injection port on the lid but gave the idea up as it was easy enough to inoculate by unscrewing the lid for a few seconds in a clean kitchen. I initially used tyvek and some super glue which works fine but the tyvek didn't give the gas exchange I wanted and the colonisation seemed to slow down a lot and almost stop. At that point I removed the lid altogether and colonisation took off again at a fast pace, fortunately the bag was colonised to the point that nothing else wanted to grow other than the mycelium. The next trial is using micropore tape instead of tyvek however I think 2 layers of micropore might be needed to stop any ingress of bacteria. and finally the whole bag. When filling with grain or whatever, the lid and collar should be removed first and fitted after the substrate has been added to the bag. A half full bag of hydrated substrate can weigh up to a couple of kg's. I recommend using liquid culture as the colonisation times are much faster, I use a minimum of 5ml per bag, 10 if I have a large syringe. The bag should be kneaded once colonisation has started to break up the clumps and spread the love throughout the whole bag. You can get colonisation times similar to other tek's that use 1/4 the substrate. With all that spawn it almost seems a waste not to bulk it up further so I recommend mixing it 50/50 with pasteurised horse manure. Now with 3kg of spawn the only question is where to put it, I used a styrofoam eski like container which was just small enough to fit in my 80L fruiting chamber. Don't forget to case the substrate, it does make a difference. Constructive criticisms will be gladly taken on board. If you think something will work better I would love to hear.

Ive had some problems with contams in the past, using plenty of LC helps, don't overfill the oven bag, and try not to handle too much until colonisation is well under way. I had a feeling that maybe contams were getting through the collar, I think on my next try I will tape up the area where the lid meets the bag, I think air may be getting through there rather than through the filter patch. If the colonisation is going well it might be best to let is sit for a while and only shake/ knead the bag when the colonisation starts to slow. I actually had one or two bags where I left it until colonisation slowed, presumably due to lack of air transfer, I was careful to take the collar off and fold the oven bag over, and put the bag away. With the collar removed the bag breathed much better and things took off really quickly, but you need to position it in such a way that contams aren't going to inadvertently find a way in.

When you say Nedlands area, are you referring to a location within a nearby learning establishment? An old Catha about 10m tall?

There was one time when i was driving and I was thinking which freeway entrance to get on, I was visualising to the point that I stopped seeing where I was and felt like I astrally traveled to a location about 4km up the road, when i came back to my body everything was buzzing and I didn't know where I was and the road seemed so unfamiliar, it scared the crap out of me as I was doing about 60kmh at the time. That was the only time it has ever happened like that.

I met Penny at the 2009 EGA and thought she was awesome, she had such a warm friendly vibe. I have the 2011 EGA journal on my desk at work and occasionally read through Penny's essay on coming to terms with dying. People of her caliber deserve so much more time on this earth.

Ok it had been raining furiously the day before I arrived and I got off the bus with an old guy of 65-70 and we chatted and he agreed to show me how to get to Percy's. The jungle was flooded and all the planks that sat 2 feet off the ground were 3 feet underwater. The old guy knew which planks had fallen away and where we had to step from post to post, we eventually got to his hut where he put his stuff down, we heard a grumbling feline noise not far away and he picked up his machete and signaled to me to see if I had heard, I asked un gato? and used my hands to approximate a cat size, he grinned and shook his head. Shortly after that he left me with a couple of young guys who took me the rest of the way, the final trek I had my backpack on my head and water up to my belly button. I couldn't believe that I was going the right way as apparently it was a 30 min trek from the road, it ended up taking me about an hour. The jaguar didn't stop me wandering as far inland as I could go before the the path became uncrossable, nobody mentioned there was one on the loose that might be a problem, I just assumed the one I had heard would probably want to leave me alone. During non ceremony time I was reading and relaxing in my hammock and chatting with the other people there, it was uber relaxed and really great to get to know a bunch of interesting like minded people. There is no electricity there and I usually wandered back to my cabin when it was dark. Percy most definitely speaks Spanish, and you will need as much of it as you can get your head around. The translator when I was there was Carol and she spoke Spanish, English, some German & French. I also found that most people don't speak English and it is absolutely necessary to at least learn some basics. It was such an awesome adventure. BTW I didn't fly into Iquitos, I flew to Pucallpa, got on a river boat with about 150 locals and spent 5 days in a hammock chugging up the Ucayali & Amazon which really helped increase the "I'm having a freaking awesome adventure" factor, fortunately there were 4 other English speakers on board as well which helped to pass some time.

Hey Domide,I spent some time there as well, I was over at the start of August 2010 & spent a week at Percys, the whole trip was absolutely amazing all 2 months of it. I really liked DAS and would not hesitate to go back though I have no comparison in Peru. I was surprised that Percy didn't spend more time there. I could probably rant on how awesome Peru was for hours. Check over at the Ayahuasca forums for some idea of who is good to see. If you spend any time in Iquitos outside of the retreats you will find out about other ones available no doubt, I couldn't help but bump into people with stories to tell.

The way I see it, the only way for America to get themselves out of the financial Armageddon is to grow their way out. Change could be closer than you think.

During the winter storms the neighbors very large tree at my previous rental fell over taking out a number of fences and a shed. I am still good friends with my ex and left my plants in the ground when I moved out on the understanding that I could get them at a more convenient time when I had the space to move them. About 3 weeks ago I did a bit of pruning as my big pach cactus had difficulty holding its arms up under its own load, so I took 30 odd feet home with me for replanting. I was over yesterday dropping off our shared dog and noticed that a number of arms had been snapped off the same plant and a 4 ft section of bridge as well. The back yard is much more exposed with the removal of the trees and there have been fencing guys around and tree pruners as well. In 8 years of collecting cactus, this is the first time someone has entered the property to steal cactus. I am now concerned about the safety of the rest of the plants if the dog isn't there (I have him every weekend), and the time and effort to relocate them all. Unfortunately with my current living arrangements I think everything will have to be potted up and relocated and I'm hoping the new neighbors don't start eying them up. Its just as well I had cactus to spare, I hope they eat the 4ft of bridge and get caught in psychedelic purgatory for 16 hours of torment.

Thanks for the offer Myco, I am a bit squeezed for space its true, however my biggest problem is digging up a number of 2m tall multi armed bridges and how to transport the beasts. I'm still in the process of relocating and the volume of cactus I have collected made me think I was getting overly upset. The dog is doing his duty looking after them at the moment, my parents volunteered some of their back yard which I may take them up on. Edited by Mod! No discussion of ingestion please.

The underside of a huntsman spider I found on a bottle of seasol, don't know why he was face down bum up

Its been in the ground a few years and growing well. Currently in the boot of my car Notice the withania behind.

I was over picking up the mail last Tuesday and they were still fine, then last weekend they had been violated. Strangely the sections taken were only from my recently pruned plants. The boys will be dug up and relocated tomorrow, I can't leave them there knowing someone can come back at any time to help themselves. I'll take some pics for reference.

I found the first half entertaining and an enjoyable read however when the author starts lifting large sections of text from others work to better explain his thoughts I started to switch off. I really enjoyed his adventures looking for the desert toads.

The rest of Australia is happy to take all the mining tax revenue and distribute it eastward, why not our cactus as well. Nice crest Naja.