Green Temple

[sun burn]

Grahame, what exactly is it you are worried about - identity theft? or photo theft? or that someone will find your home? or something else. Anyway i can do my best to reassure you.

First about photoblog, i've been on it for a few years now. Initially i was bothered anyone having access to my email address. When I made a fuss about it, they site owners changed it. So that problem is solved. Of course I could have used a special address but that sort of thing annoys me. Its not convenient.

When i started putting up certain pictures, i was bothered that someone might steal them. I no longer worry about that. It does happen and sometimes on the site, you see people spot pictures on a wrong place. But really this is only a concern for professional photographers who are having their livelihoods compromised. Most of them have learned to live with the threat of this too.

Indentity theft? I don't know how that's possible on this site. You don't give your birthday, your name, your address or your credit card details. What you put out is entirely up to you. Even on facebook, i think its only a problem if you use your credit card through the site which i don't. Even on facebook, i don't allow friends that i have never met in person. That's my rule and I stick to it. I know its not what most people do but it enables me to put up what i want without wondering what any stranger is making of it. I can be me and trust those who see my page.

Discover your location and come and rob you? Well i think its highly unlikely. Mostly people won't even know where you are from looking at your pictures.

I used to be anxious about my name and image being on the internet but i got over it.

On pblog, you can make it private to friends only but then all the members here would have to become members on pblog in order to see your pictures. The thing is, if you are showing pictures here, anyone can see them so its not more private than it is on pblog.

pblog is run by two young american guys. They seem pretty straight up. They try to run a fair model of a site and keep us all happy. Unlike say yahoo, you can actually communicate direclty with them.

If you don't like free, you can pay and get more gizmos. But the free version is pretty good value. It was free as a means of getting off the ground. These guys have no ulterior motive. They are photography amateurs and just saw a need. They hope to make money from the site but i would say still as yet, they are not making a lot even though the site is very very popular around the world. I have no idea how many members but it certainly is global.

[Grahame]

Thanks sunburn, I'm not worried about any of that. I mostly have stuff other people have already discarded, if they are desperate enough to take it they are welcome to it.

[Grahame]

How do you bottle the apricots? The birds are hitting my nectarines hard so I want to harvest a whole heap and preserve them.

Eco, we use a Fowlers preserving kit. It serves the purpose for now, although the one-use rubber rings cause me a bit of angst. There is an american system of 'canning' into different bottles with lids that can be re-used. Compared to old fowlers systems that pop up in op shops regularly these things are hard to come by unless you order them from the USA (which of course poses other questions).

As for nectarines, well you can do it but they tend to discolour to an unappetising grey. They are only OK in terms of taste quality too I reckon, but it is better than nothing.

All the best

Permaculture Man!

[Grahame]

Thought I might try doing this to see if it works...

http://www.permacultureglobal.com/posts/101

It does.

[Grahame]

We have just completed a major 're-arrangement of Chickens'. Our domes sort of started to thin out over time...

If a bird goes broody we tend to move her out into 'private quarters' and put a good stock of eggs underneath her. Usually about a dozen eggs for good measure (This then usually becomes the seed for filling another dome). Sometimes chickens die (although, touch wood, not for a long time now). We gave a few good birds to the Steiner Kinder too. We like to keep about 5 or 6 hens and a Roo in each dome and things were getting a little 'thin'. We also have a new hen and a new rooster from a breeder to integrate for breeding so that our flock doesn't become inbred.

So it's winter, there wasn't much ready to go into the beds and it was time to think about putting unrelated Roos with different hens. It was a bit of a logistical nightmare really and it is amazing how different hens react very differently to integration - Some don't even bat an eye-lid, others seemingly want to fight to the death! So generally we like to have a separated house where they can see each other well, all day separated only by a wire screen. If I have the odd new hen that is still young and didn't come with other 'sisters' we have had some success in just throwing them into the dome with the existing birds. If they are young this seems to work very well. But once the birds get a bit older they aren't so accepting.

So now we have 3 integrated domes with 5 or 6 birds and a rooster ready for breeding when the time comes. The oldest birds (now 3 or 4 years old) are all together in one dome. They will be moved out of the dome into some form of retirement at the end of this cycle. A fresh dome full will go into their dome in the spring (we already have a broody hen sitting on some eggs!). The idea is that the chooks will like in the domes for about 3 years and then get cycled out.

The last set of hens are now getting used to each other in the divided coop, complete with a new daddy Roo.

The worst part of the 'clean-up' was culling the excess roosters, which have just started to crow (i.e. time to eat them if we are going to!). We don't generally eat meat, but we do occasionally eat the Roos. I try to give as many of them away as I can first.

I'm glad that job is done for now.

[eco4560]

Yoo Hoo Graham! (Waving across the fence...) Amazing how old birds get set in their ways. Might explain why there's no Rooster in my house too. I did end up bottling the nectarines and they kept their colour and were really yummy.

[mischief]

Your allowed to have Roosters and dont have to 'hide' them(not that they are all that easy to hide),I',m jealous.
Can you come visit next time we need to despatch our geriatrics?

[sweetpea]

Grahame, very nice insights! And nice that you want to look for the spiritual, too. Sometimes it gets so practical I just can't forcus on anything else.

I feel your pain about moving trees and fences, and in my case 100 berry bushes. My father taught me, if you're going to do something, do it right. And I started doing things thoroughly and "right", only to have to undo them...ugh....so I now I do a 75% right, and a 25% wait-and-see. I wouldn't make a good lawyer, I'd come up with the proper argument the next day, not when the person's life is at stake. Sometimes I look at the things I've done, having planned, and planned, and planned, and still think, "What was I thinking?" But maybe when Mother Nature has her say 6 months to a year later, it becomes obvious.

Eco, I have had good luck keeping squirrels and birds away from apricots and nectarines by throwing sheets over the tree and over clusters a couple weeks before they are ripe, kind of like ghosts floating on top. They won't go underneath them for a couple of weeks, until they find a "safe" entrance, so wiggle them a bit with a broom or long stick so the entrances change. They are up there a max of 6 weeks, so it's not that long, and it has worked for me for years.

My favorite book for canning and preserving food is Putting Food By, Hertzberg and Vaughan, used copies are easily gotten. I love the jars with the reusable screw-on part, but the flat part of the lid gets replaced each time, but they aren't expensive, like Kerr or Ball.

[Grahame]

It's all part of the continuing learning Sweetpea. I wonder if that is why old permies often move on to new gardens and do things a lot differently. I've learnt sooooo much in the last 4 or 5 years. I would probably do things a lot differently if I was to go back in time; if I had a reset button (but still got to keep my experiences).

[Grahame]

Hi folks, I've done a Photoblog update to show how I deal with potatoes in the mandala beds here.

The process has a few beneficial effects especially in the early days of new beds. My soil was particularly heavy clay, sometimes quite shallow, so I used this technique to build some deeper soil. It also feeds the fruit trees by creating compost heaps nearby, where a heap would not 'normally' go with the Linda Woodrow technique.

Enjoy and ask questions/make comments if you like

Grahame