Aquaponics Update, April 27, 2011

I'm excited that folks at our Seicho-No-Ie truth realization seminar made a short visit to the house to see my "mini farm" this weekend. We checked out my aquaponics system, little chickies, bunnies, fishies, and even worms. I think the kids enjoyed feeding all of them and collecting eggs! Chicken eggs, that is! And we picked alot of lettuce and watercress for our dinner salad. It felt really, really good to share what I grew with friends.

That evening, we boiled and colored the eggs using natural dyes ... blue with purple cabbage, green with spinach, yellow with ground tumeric, yellow with onion skins, pink with beets, and red with red onion skins. To make green, we also mixed the purple cabbage and onion skins dye and it worked really well! It made a delicate green.

And we even had a taste test. Clifford, our chef for the weekend, tasted mainland eggs and my chickie eggs side by side ... and he said there is a definite difference and that my chickie eggs tastes like what eggs used to taste like! That's the biggest compliment ever!

Layla ... pure sweetness!

Layla and Murk

Layla loves her Murk!

Rabbit cage using storage cubes

I found these indoor cages really easy to make, especially in a pinch. I used 5/8" plywood with 12" square tiles and pretty much zip tied the thing together and put 5 casters on the bottom so I can wheel it around. It doesn't keep "debris" from *rolling* out (if you're a rabbit owner, you know what I mean) but a quick sweep usually does the job. It's nice cuz the rabbits have 3 levels to explore and get some exercise in. Oh, I should mention I'm not quite done and in true form, I would like to expand it a bit.

If you're interested in owning angora rabbits so you too can spin their wool and have hours of entertainment, check out this video that describes how to build a spiffy rabbit condo.

Okay, it's not very "green" but it is excellent in a pinch. I am finding that going green requires a lot of storage space to keep things you might need at a future date (get what you can when you can) and time to search for the things you need. In this day and age, we often have neither. Hmmm ... what to do ... what to do ... Any ideas?

Silly Murk in his bowl

Murk, do you like your new cage?

`Nuff said.

My little English angora rabbit is now about 7 weeks old and he is so much fun! He's already a ball of fur and his fur keeps getting longer by the day. His wool has a wonderful crimp so he will no doubt be a great wooler. But I love his personality most of all ... inquisitive and such a wonderful lap bunny!