A new day

Chickies are fed and watered, pup let out, koi and tilapia fed, ... and now coffee for Joan. It's a good morning. :)

Yarn ball!

It's Zen. All Zen. It's easy to get lost in spinning.

Here's my first yarn ball that is destined to be my first knitted beanie. :) Wow, it's incredibly satisfying to know that I can transform tufts of wool into something that will keep someone warm this winter! It's about as sustainable as it gets.

A bobbin's worth

My new spinning wheel arrived this week! I bought it on Ebay from a wonderful woman in NM who included a bag of wool, instruction book, and a pair of carders. I L-O-V-E my "new" Ashford Traditional wheel! My engineer brain thinks it's a fascinating piece of machinery and my artist brain considers it a work of art!

Can you tell I've been practicing? I tried using the white wool first, then the beige. What a difference practice makes! After spinning another bobbin's worth, I'll ply them together and then I'll be ready to knit! Oh, I am getting an angora rabbit next month ... but that's another story.

Golden tilapia

I just added 16 more fingerlings to the mix. 34 in all. The 2 largest ones are Lunch and Dinner (sick, I know) and one without an eye is Jack, the one-eyed tilapia. And I put 5 pretty koi in the sump. They all seem to like their new digs.

Oh my ... folks, please remind me to stop naming animals I will be eating!

My aquaponic setup

Aquaponics setup - 75% done!

I probably have just one more weekend of fiddling before my aquaponics setup is fully functional. The continuous flow half is up and running and I started my lettuce yesterday. I also inoculated the flood and drain grow beds with some vermicastings and worms in the hopes I've introduced necessary nitrifying bacteria. The pipe fittings are not glued yet as I'm still tweaking the system. I've yet to connect the fish tank pump and of course, I still need to get some fish! Almost there!

Edited: Cement mixing tubs, while not obviously made for other purposes, should be vetted for fish and food safety before using. The brand I purchased is fish safe and materials it is made of suggests it is food safe as well.

Rules of Daily Conduct

Words I *try* to live by:

1. Be grateful to all beings in the whole universe.
2. Always be your natural self.
3. Be sincere in all things.
4. Have deep consideration for all people and all things.
5. Look on the bright side of people and things and not their dark side.
6. Destroy your selfish attitude.
7. Believe your life to be God life and move forward with faith in certain victory.
8. Practice prayerful meditation at least once a day to enlighten yourself.

Aquaponics! Getting there!

I'm so excited to get the media into the bins today! The two black tubs are my biofilters, which will accept the water directly from the fish tank. One is filled with 3 bags of black cinder and the other is filled with a 50-liter bag of hydroton. It could probably use another 10 liters tho'. Before filling the tubs, I sifted the black cinder with a screen of 0.25 inch hardware cloth and washed it. I just washed the hydroton.

So, generally, my setup operates in two integrated parts, in theory:

Part I, Ebb and Flow: Water runs from fish tank via 500 GPH water pump => 2 biofilter grow beds => through bell siphon (CTAHR-style) => sump => overflow returns to fish tank.

Part II: Continuous Flow: Water runs from sump via 250 GPH water pump => 2 white floating rafts grow beds => overflow from grow beds returns to sump => overflow from sump returns to fish tank. Note: the fish tank is not shown. It's located in the slightly sunken basement, behind the brown laths of the house.

Goodness, I really hope this works.

Afternoon harvest, 10/14/10

Walking around the house after work and gathering fruits and veggies from my garden and coop is such a relaxing afternoon treat. BTW, the tangerines are the Okinawan variety. Each of the section of the fruit is more like a packet of sweet juice than a typical tangerine wedge. If you come to visit, you'll have to try some!

A Good Day

I believe that gratefulness is the basis for appreciating the beauty of our planet and all of its occupants. I am thankful ...

*love*

"A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help." ~ Albert Schweitzer

Little Tulip

Tulip is a bantam silkie pullet and already 5.5 months old! She's gotten quite a bit fluffier in the past couple months.

Backyard aquaponics ... the adventure

On to my new project ... AQUAPONICS! Aquaponics is the cross between hydroponics (growing plants in a water medium) and aquaculture (growing fish for food). It's a rather ingenious idea, actually, and is really catching on by those who want to grow their own food and to remain sustainable. Basically, one grows vegetables using fish poo, which is high in nitrogen. The fish water is piped to vegetable growing beds where bacteria break down the ammonia to nitrites and then nitrates, which is a form plants can take up. In doing so, the plants clean the water, which is then circulated back to the fish!

I've started building my three grow bed benches and have already finished the table for my 100-gallon fish tank. Thanks to Donna and Tracy, the Vierra's, and donations from church, I have enough recycled wood for my construction projects. And bless you Dennis for cutting the 2x4s to length for 2 tables! It helped tremendously!

Oh, did I tell you that I am running all of this on solar power? The generator is purchased and ready to install! I'm so excited! More pics soon!

Home grown

I love the recruits from my worm bin! This papaya started sprouting in my flower bed after applying my worm compost to the soil. Just like my other crops that have come before, they were from kitchen scraps that I had thrown into my worm bin. After a year of doing nothing but watching the tree grow, I finally got to enjoy the "fruits" of its labor for breakfast this morning! :D Yum ... strawberry papayas are the best!

I'm really enjoying being able to eat the things I've grown myself. I know for a fact that I have not used any pesticides, are picked at the peak of ripeness, and well, I know I can share them to feed the people I love. There's a lot of satisfaction in that. :)