Ive been inspected

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
His name is John Odenkirk, and hes Certified Fisheries Scientist #2043. Hes the guy who inspects aquaponics facilities for the neighboring 11 counties - required for facilities that are requesting permission to raise tilapia.

He came. He snapped. He left.

It was a pretty painless process. And after he conveys the form and picture to the right people, my permit should be in the mail in a matter of a couple of weeks.

I was happy to show him my auto-siphon. Didnt look like hed seen one of those before. And I was happy to show him my current water chemistry: 7.6 pH, 0.0 ppm Ammonia, 0.0 ppm Nitrite, and 80.0 ppm Nitrate.

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Not so near distant future

I got up today and realized my stomach was gurgling.  I was still compelled to go hang out with old friends today till...I met up with the magical potty closet.  My friends dont mind and I have no shame but I think it is pretty rude to go and blow up someones bathroom when I knew I wasnt feeling good before I came.  This may seem irrelevant but everywhere I go for advice on starting up my little farming project, I hear "blah blah blah do it rain or shine, sick or well."  I understand where theyre coming from and I know the consequences.  Just making sure everyone else reading knows as well.  I also thought...what are my future plans besides college and a family?  What comes after?  What will be on this crazy farm I want?

I decided against a cow.  While I could provide milk for my local family and myself, it is just otherwise a bad idea.  My dearest loving boyfriend would likely drink himself sick for number one.  I dont actually drink milk.  It makes my stomach hurt for the most part.  I want a milker just to keep him from drinking my milk (which is usually hemp milk) when he is out and because it does wonders on dry hair.  Yeah you heard me right.  Yes I have used milk in my hair before.  It was wonderful!  The way it shined and bounced...oh it was beautiful.  Besides milk, I also wanted something with meat output.  We do eat quite a bit of beef (although with healthier choices, meat will be severely cut down) but eat much more chicken.  The goat meat will be for the pets.  I am leaning towards pygmies because of their lower meat and milk production.

And yes chickens!  We eat chicken, dogs eat chicken, we eat eggs...where would we be without chickens?  I hear they arent worth the work...(but neither are most things according to the people around me.)  Cows arent worth the work for us because we just dont need that much meat or milk.  But chickens?  Free range organic chickens are a pretty penny.  I have no doubt in my mind that we will be raising a crap ton of these for yums with some supplemental chickens from local co-ops.  Besides the point of growing stuff at home is to be as self sufficient as possible.  With a bunch of new people, there is no way this will happen right off the bat.  I have been leaning towards Rhode Island reds but have taken a look at leghorns as well.  Both are common in this area (along with New Hampshire reds.)

I have greatly considered owning some turkeys but not quite sure.  Where I grew up, turkeys are protected by law and are even more stupid and aggressive than normal.  They think it is ok to run in front of your car (they wont cross the street if it is empty...only in traffic) and think it is ok to kick it on your porch.  If you try to tell them otherwise, the males get all jumpy and fluffy.  They attacked our pets if we took them outside in the morning.  I told my old manager about this one day and the wild turkeys in her area (just a few miles out) were nothing like that.  If anything, theyd adopt your cat or your yard.  Our local feed store says the same thing about pet turkeys.  Apparently I just lived around some psychos or something crazy.  By the way killing them is a $500 fine.  I do hear that non psychotic pet turkeys can be very rewarding, especially around thanks giving.  I havent quite found a breed but am heading towards heritage types.

 

 A horse is also high on the list but I like things to have multiple purpose.  It will probably be for short trails and riding around the area, checking fences along with getting food to everyone.  I have greatly kinda thought about it.  I have settled on either an expensive gypsy, a cheap mustang (probably for later), or a dales pony...which would also be expensive.

And of course a dog that can actually protect the other animals from things like coyotes and cats that can protect our fields from things like reapers bunnies.

 

Of course I have my pets that are simply around for pleasure too.  I havent forgotten my current dogs, nanas dog Beau, and the dog that will be tagging along that dearest loving boyfriend doesnt know about yet.  I also still want that beautiful goldfish or koi pond.  Did I also mention that I want a few maple and oak trees as well as some rose bushes?  I know these arent pets but it is still something to take care of!

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When I was little

Remember when you were little and thought life would always have this or that?  A couple of weeks ago my grandmas fax machine went off.  I forgot to mute the modem and we were blessed with beeee burrrrrruuuup followed by the fax.  Yes her fax machine still handshakes very vocally.  Kinda got me thinking...I never thought life would change so much.

My dad is a computer nerd (I inherited it) and we, for the most part, had DSL at home.  I knew most people didnt however and was pretty used to that handshake...you know that funny sound your modem made right after your computer dialed out.  For those of you that dont know, it went a lot like this

beep...beep...beedeedee burrrrrr badangbadang shhhhhhhhhhhhhh

And many other forms of that.  My grandmother had AOL for a while which made a sort of creepy alien sound and went on with more shhhhhh-ing. Depending on how fast your ISP responded, it would continue or youd connect.  When I was little, I thought dial up (which was just called internet back then) would always dominate the market and only people with nerdy parents or that were extremely rich could get DSL (which was also called internet.  Dial up was considered regular.)  Now Im older and dont have screaming modems, I found out they have a mute button.

When I was really little, I thought nothing would ever replace VHS.  I would always watch my favorite parts over and over again till my tapes would come apart.  Not once did I ever stop to think that these would be replaced by DVDs or that we would be able to stream them online (after all...dial up is slow.)  When DVDs DID get big, I thought this was some pretty sexy technology.  Then came high definition DVDs.  Next thing you know, blu ray is out.

I knew my computer games were on CD (CD...not DVD like they are now) but figured most important things were kept on floppy disks only.  I was so excited one day when my dad bought colorful floppies.  I didnt have much use for them but hey they were cool.  I eventually found out about flash drives.  Of course, those were only for the rich and/or important people!  A little while after, I accepted them and figured that this was it.  Now computer games are on DVD and Im sure they will eventually be on blu ray.

Remember Sony Walkman cassette player?  I never had one but my sister did.  I was so jealous of her cool name brand Walkman!  Of course I was born in 1990, CD players were starting to hit big.  By the time my parents let me have something portable, CD players were battery operated.  My parents/grandparents still called them walkmen but hey I was cooler.  I had a CD player!  Then, mp3 players came out.  I held onto my CD players all the way up till college when my last one finally died.  I had an mp3 player somewhere in high school but it was nowhere near as durable.  I got an iPod, which also died shortly after.  It wasnt my fault...I got a bad batch of nanos that were known for not working.

I found my Razor scooter when I moved out of my moms house...wheels worn down and all.  I also found roller blades that were still in OK condition.

When my cousin got the chicken pox, the entire neighborhood had a sleep over at his house at one time or another.  We all got sick but were back to school in no time. Then they came out with a shot for it.  It is often seen as "child abuse" to send your kids to a pox party.

I thought Saturday morning cartoons were an American tradition.  You can still find them on some stations but it only lasts about 2 ish hours.  I remember ABCs motto..."five hours of summer once a week.  Five hours of summeeerrrrr One Saturday Morning!"  This is pretty much what got me out of bed in the morning.  After those were done, it was outside all...friggin...day.  By the way, I couldnt wait to be in 7th grade so bad so I could be like Pepper Ann and hang out like on The Weekenders.  At the same time I wish my school was like Third Street School and we had cool recess.

When I was really tiny, I truly thought that we would have flying cars by the year 2000.

But then again, I thought that world peace was coming in the near distant future as well.
Oh children.  Were so cute!

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cocky I think so bloggy blog

I walked home slowly through the dark. I got out early that night. My Ipod died soon after class though. I saw a pit bull in the yard. She looked alert. She went into the bushes. I had to walk near them...it was the only way home. And then...she pounced. I stood still. She scared me. She came up to me. She opened her mouth...she aimed for my hand....and then...

SLIRP. Yuck. She drooled on my hand. I didnt mind though as it was freezing outside and her hot breath warmed my icicles for fingers. "Hi" I said. She was lost. Her leash was on with no ID. "Where do you live?" What a foolish question. This dog was truly lost. I think she knew what I meant...as she walked from the direction she possibly came from but ended up going in circles and tucking her tail in between her legs. I gave up. Mom surely would kill me if I took her home...even though I would very likely walk around looking for her owner...ESPECIALLY since she had a collar with leash attached.

I saw a man swiftly and anxiously walking down the street. "Did you lose a dog?" He came up to me "Yes please have you seen her?" I gave him reassurance and told him his dog took off about three seconds ago and to keep going straight.

And that is my latest vicious pit bull attack. She looked a lot like the one in the picture but very much more terrified.

Ok So I know I usually talk about my odd application experiences. Well...out of all of them I think JC Penney has been the worse. I mean I had to start over like...six times because of computer errors. One time it was simply because I couldnt change my previous payment history under my previous jobs. I mean one I put 7.50 and it insisted that I added another zero...so it was 7.500...

...

So then I entered it as 7.5 and it re-entered it as 7.500

lol

And during the survey thing...about 30 out of the 50 questions it had asked if I shopped at Jc Penney and what my favorite store to shop at is.

LAME

I mean thats as bad as Petco asking about a TV or GAP Inc (old navy) having most of their questions ask if I have ever stolen anything.

so as I was writing this blog I realized Gunther sounds like Takakura from Harvest Moon: Its a Wonderful Live Special Edition.

HAHA

Like when he says "Oooh you touch my talala" it sounds almost exactly like when Takakura says "ooooh" when you talk to him.

Anyway I just found out that when you have a daughter on Harvest Moon Wonderful Life she looks like the dad. That sucks because you need to do extra steps to have a girl...and I tried super hard to marry Nami...the redhead so I could have a redhead daughter =[

I have decided that all of my favorite trance/dance/house/techno/blah blah blah songs are all emo...except Lifestyles and pretty rave girl (Which I found out is by DJ S3rl NOT I am X-ray...please everyone make a note of it)

lyrics such as

"Heavenly, is all that, I could feel
Now your here
And left without a single feel
From this day on..."
-Markus Schulz Never be the Same Again

"Feeling sad and lonely
Cause I cant find you
Call your telephone
And theres never no answer
Said you love me
Kissed me
We were in heaven
Said Im sorry
Love you, want you forever"
-we all know that one

And I just ran into this really cool song while looking for this other song.
Beam vs Cyrus - Lifestyle (original mix)

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The Future of Farming

Rebecca Hoskings "Farm for the Future"

I was browsing the videos posted at Tricycle Gardens media library and came across this 48 minute documentary by Rebeca Hosking, a wildlife photographer who grew up on a farm in Devon, England.

Its a visually lovely and compelling look at the predicted peaking of the fossil fuel boom, and the effect of declining availability of fossil fuel on current methods of farming. The idea is that we will transition from fuel surplus to fuel shortage sometime in the next 2-10 years, with the fossil fuel age slowly declining over the next 100 years, about the period of time over which weve enjoyed the burgeoning of the fossil fuel age up to now.

I enjoyed the early bit where Rebecca looks at a sandwich, the kind you buy for a couple of bucks at a convenience store. She explains how fossil fuel is necessary to production and shipping of each bit of that sandwich, and doesnt even point out the fundamental petroleum origin of the plastic packaging.

This brings me back to the reason why I want to figure out a system that almost anyone could set up - to make it possible for millions of folks (specifically Americans) to create millenial "victory gardens" from readily-available materials.

As for supplying the needs for fuel for vehicles, I enjoyed this video on production of algae, which in open pond culture can produce an astounding 20,000 gallons of oil per acre per year (compared to a mere 18 gallons per acre per year for corn). The vertical grow system seems like it could be much more productive than open pond culture:


Culture of algae to be refined into carbon based fuels

I look forward to seeing how all this evolves over the next decade. I predict many will be taken unawares - living at the edge of their finances and relying on modern conveniences to meet the requirements of their lives.

But I doubt there will be world-wide apocalypse as sometimes projected. Personal discomfort, but not collapse of civilization.

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The Future Its In Our Hands

A Growing Trend In Aquaponics

By Marta Lane on Aug 15, 2012 in Farmers Markets, Lifestyle

“Most of the soil on Kaua‘i is junk,” says Glenn Hontz, program coordinator for advanced education and training in agriculture and business programs at Kaua‘i Community College. “It’s not because of the plantations either. You can blame it on the sun, the rain and the incredible amount of heat that the soil is exposed to all the time.
“That soil can be built back up within a few months,” Hontz continues. “But it’s a lot of work. It’s easier to build an aquaponics facility.”

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On March 8 of this year when I got an email from Udemy.com asking me to create an online Aquaponic Gardening course for them.  At first the idea was honestly completely overwhelming.  We were in the midst of getting our arms around large system sales and shipping, I was one month away from teaching for nine days at the Green Acres Aquaponic Farming Course in Florida, and I was leaving for ten days in Japan with my son in the next two weeks.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this was actually the perfect way to bring the book to life!

The result is a comprehensive course that I feel incredibly good about!  It contains 33 video lessons, most as PowerPoint Mashups, that each average about 10 minutes in length.  It also contains twelve of my most educational (or entertaining!) blog posts and a couple of charts for tracking data and maintenance tasks.  Most of all, this is the visual life that I wanted to give to my book all along.  I hope you give it a try!  To learn more, please click here – Aquaponics Course.

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Affnans Aquaponics

Help Us Go Green, Together We Can Do It.. :)

Mini Aquaponics Set

Been toying on this for quite a while now, ever since knowing that I will not have any space  for a bigger setup. Using siphon on smaller set may not be feasible, multiple growbed with one master siphon is do able but will be difficult to maintain due piping and space required.


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Solar & Hydro-Electric Powered Aquaponics For Sustainable Vegetable & Protein In Every Season & Education Facility.

  For the construction & development of a solar/hydro electric powered Aquaponics greenhouse used for sustainable, nutrient dense food production year round, & educational purposes via farm tours, video & printed materials.  Powered by nature: solar & hydro electricity.

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  Home Aquaponics: 1 dead fish and flowering tomatoes- YouTube
One fish has died and left me with too much tomatoes for 1 carp that already has Ich, having ...

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Gardening provides job skills, behavioral benefits for developmentally disabled clients

By Mary Beth Breckenridge, Akron Beacon Journal

Published 11:23 a.m., Friday, August 10, 2012

Doris Wallace, of Springfield, a program participant at Bridges Training Center, holds one of the centers egg producing chickens, July 13, 2012 in Tallmadge, Ohio. Developmentally disabled adults are learning to raise food at the center
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 aquaponics update 8-5-12 - YouTube
We have some issues with the squash fruiting and more bean problems. The fish are doing well ...

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 Solutions cultivates idea to end homelessness

VISTA — Ami Richter is a single mom with four kids who was stuck in a cycle of abusive relationships, leaving her and her children looking for a home. Now she’s a farmer of sorts, working at Solutions For Change’s latest project, Solutions Farms in Vista, and trying to end her homelessness for good.

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Harbor grad starts up sustainable, local aquaponics farm business here

Published as part of the August 8, 2012 edition.

Editor’s Note: This is another in an occasional series profiling Harbor Springs High School graduates pursuing unique and interesting paths in life. It also fits with our series of stories celebrating people who are dedicated to protecting our area’s natural resources, and who celebrate small town living, and the promise of a creative, vibrant local economy. If you have a suggestion for such a profile, please email us at news@ncpublish.com

By MARK FLEMMING
HARBOR LIGHT NEWSPAPER
In 2010, while sitting in the LAX terminal en route to Australia, Michigan State University (MSU) junior Josh Graybiel (also a 2007 graduate of Harbor Springs High School) began talking to a fellow traveler who hailed from the Caribbean. The man explained that he worked in the field of aquaponics,
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Saturday Aquaponic Farm Tours

By TCLynx, on August 5th, 2012

For the next Month I will be offering weekly farm tours, Saturdays from 1-4 pm, this is a great chance for Floridians to see Aquaponics
Come visit our farm in Central Florida to see what aquaponics is all about.
$10 recommended donation per individual or $20 per group.
Donation can be applied to purchase (I just need to keep my time productive.)
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 Recirculating Farms Help Florida Families Through Tough Economy

Winter Park, Florida (PRWEB) August 08, 2012

The paved alley behind the Winter Park Commerce Center strip mall does not look like fertile farmland. But there, urban gardener Sahib Punjabi grows an abundance of lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, and more, all with the help of water and fish, instead of soil. Sahibs Aquaponics Research Farm — or as he calls it, his "living food jungle"

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 Ok Folk, Hope this helps or encourages or pricks your interest. And if You have the time take a look at the Video below......

Back Soon.....

O Z Z I E

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THE FUTURE WITH A P and Why Not

Local community makes UH D.C. exhibit shine

July 6, 2012  |  Tracy Matsushima  |  0 Comments

The University of Hawai?i has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors to its exhibit tents during this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
Visitors have tried hula, lauhala weaving and taro pounding. They also learned about navigating by the stars, lomi lomi, aquaponics and taro patches.
The exhibit, however, has been about more than the University of Hawai?i. It has been about the community working together.
UH M?noa alumnus Rick Barboza co-owns Hui K? Maoli Ola, one of the largest Native Hawaiian plant nurseries in Hawai?i. The company transported the taro patch exhibit and aquaponics plants free of charge. 

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Is Aquaponics the Way We’ll Farm In the Future?

• On July 3, 2012
• By Meleah
• In Fertilizer, Indoor Gardening, Organic Gardening, Sustainable Agriculture, Veggies

Aquaponics has been on my “Must Learn More About This” list for a long while. So when I found out Garden Fresh Farms in nearby Maplewood was giving free tours of their aquaponics facility, I signed right up to go. The tour was scheduled for the middle of a week day and Maplewood is a pretty long drive out of the Twin Cities, so I didn’t expect much of a crowd. Whew! I was so wrong.

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Discover Aquaponics

Posted on July 3, 2012 in Neighborhood News by Isaac Gonzalez
Tags: aquaponics, sol collective

Sol Collective’s Liberation Permaculture is pleased to present “Discover Aquaponics”, as part of our ongoing monthly skill share series. Come learn about growing fish and vegetables together in a recirculating, environmentally-friendly, do-it-yourself system.

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Aquaponics – Growing Plants from Seed

Posted on July 4, 2012

I had heard about aquaponics from some gardening friends and the idea stayed with me long enough to do something about.
This long cold Melbourne Winter has been an opportune time to assemble a wonderful collection of posts about my experiences with an aquaponics method for food production. These will be published in an almost sequential order over the next couple of years…
If you want to learn more about aquaponics and how to go about doing this for yourself, I can recommend the following resources that were a benefit to me:

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Vertical farm in abandoned pork plant turns waste into food

• Features

 2012-07-06 11:45

• 
  Greens growing on floating beds in an experimental aquaponics farm in a project called The Plant in Chicago on June 21, 2012. Photo courtesy: AFP

1 of 8

by Mira Oberman
CHICAGO, July 6, 2012 (AFP) - Urban farming is being taken to new heights in an abandoned Chicago pork processing plant where environmentalists hope to "get off the grid" by using the waste from one crop to feed and power another.
Schools of tilapia swim in water cleaned by the roots of leafy greens that feed on the nitrogen and other nutrients in the fish waste.
A bakery will later move in that will be able to use mash from the brewery upstairs to fire its oven.

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From Slaughterhouse to Aquaponics Farm

Blog

Peer Foods, former owners of a meatpacking and slaughterhouse business abandoned a factory in the Union Stock Yards, Chicago. Plant Chicago recently bought the facility and started to restore it. Using a complex interrelated system, The Plant will create 125 jobs in the particularly economically distressed Back of the Yards Chicagoan neighborhood.

Not only is The Plant creating new job opportunities and restoring a prominent building, the whole organization will be self sufficient in energy needs.
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Summer progress! PortFish Aquaponics Model 3

  June 30, 2012 | Aquaponics, Journal

PortFish Model 3 Aquaponics System continues to move forward. The greenhouse frame is now constructed, and our vision is coming to life!



Check out the latest collection of progress photos in our Facebook gallery.
 Please like us while you’re there, too!
Check out the aquaponics page to see the floor plan and other details about the project.
Want to learn more about aquaponics and have some spare time to lend a hand?
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Aquaponics and the Homeless

Hi,

Over the past several years, Ive read about a variety of aquaponics endeavours (like this one) that have sought to provide aquaponically-grown food to homeless people.

With the short growing cycles involved, it seems like a no-brainer....in terms of food production.

With some more integrations (a la Microponics), it has even greater potential.......particularly if
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Aquaponics And Conventional Agriculture

Aquaponics differs in many ways from conventional agriculture and other kinds of factory farming.

I have made a chart of the differences between aquaponics and conventional agriculture:

Conventional Agriculture	Aquaponics
Conventional Agriculture	Aquaponics
Grows crops in soil.	Does not grow crops in soil. Grows crops in recirculated fish waste water, either on its own with the crop plants suspended at the surface in plastic net pots on floating polystyrene rafts, or suspended in the flowing water by an intert growing media fill such as expanded clay balls (Hydroton or Hydroleca brands) or pea gravel.
Uses artificial fertilizer from a natural gas (methane) or methane from oil refining feedstock.	Does not use artificial fertilizer. Nitrates dissolved in the recirculating fish water from the intensive fish farm, flowing through the grow beds or floating raft deep water containers fertilize the plants. The source of these nitrates is the ammonia excreted by the fish in the intensive tank-based fish farm part of the aquaponic recirculating aquaculture system. Aquaponics uses liquid organic fertilizer sourced via the solids removal and mineralization section from the fish excreta. Fish excrete ammonia through their gills and a certain amount is also dissolved

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Scrutiny reveals troubled Sweet Water

July 2, 2012

By Michael Timm

A $250,000 public loan supported Sweet Waters outdoor expansion. Former employees have criticized Sweet Water management for past failures. —photo Monica Ray

Sweet Water Organics, the Bay View aquaponics farm, is a media darling. But scrutiny of the local startup business, which angles to be a leader in a globally emerging urban agriculture industry, reveals a darker tale.

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OK...Holiday is over, now its catch-up time.

Back Soon

O Z Z I E

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Thinking Six degrees future communication

Those six degrees of separation are really a lot less than six when it comes to communicating with people who are, say, on the same forum as you are, live in the same street, or to people you actually know.

But even when they arent people you know, six is not so many. From now on, Im going to just rely on the few degrees of separation for all my communication needs. Booking doctors appointments, airline tickets, ordering pizza, everything.

Ive been dealing with the support desk of a net based business trying to find some information, and I think my new method might be substantially more effective than my current approach of filling out thousands of web forms.

It would certainly be more comfortable.

Because theres only a few degrees of separation between me and whoever it is a want to inform,  from now on, Ill  just chat about it casually to someone I meet in the street, and hope the query or order finds itself on the correct desk on the other side of the globe.

As a method of getting a help desk to respond, I cant see it being any worse than my recently tried methods.

I feel better already.




120 Things in 20 years - Going crazy one purchase at a time when thinking about my communication issues.

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