Aquaponics
Ok, for those who haven’t heard of aquaponics, this site gives you a good introduction on how the process works. I saw it on Gardening Australia once, when Joel Malcom was on there and it made so much goddamn sense that I thought I’d give it a go. Its like a little eco system of it’s own, almost a closed loop (you still need to feed the fish and provide sunlight). It uses less water than conventional veggie gardening because anything not used by the plants goes back into the tank instead of sinking into the earth. In addition to veggies, you get edible fish out as an end product. By virtue of the fact that it’s a closed loop it has to be organic. It’s a cool idea. I even went out and bought the guys book.
So this week I actually started. Here is my post on the backyard aquaponics forum. I’ve also uploaded some photos to my gallery. Check ‘em out.
This is going to take me a long time to build, and even longer to get right. I’m going to try and do it on the cheap, so far it’s cost me all of $10, but I need to buy pumps, piping, and all sorts of other expensive bits. We’ll see how I go.
Paddles and Poetry
I’m off to work, there I row
It’s a little strange I know
But thats how I do it, thats how I go
Sure its tiresome and a little slow
Learning was hard, but now I know
Lucky for me the river doesn’t flow
And the water level isn’t too low.
So I get out there and make a show
Paddles and poetry, rhymes and … doh
Ahem, sorry about that guys. Got a little bit “inspired” - once again, my apologies. Yes, I paddle to work (and I’m quite aware that technically I’m not rowing). It’s really quite hard, it takes me an hour to paddle to work. It takes Josh 10 minutes to ride from the same start point. Admittedly I’m probably not the best paddler in the world, but I’m getting there. In the mean time, I’m finding muscles I never knew I had, and seeing an aspect of Canberra less travelled and quite pleasant.
Death by fruit, AKA: I think I am a bit loopy for thinking about this
If a family member was killed by a particular animal, fruit or vegetable, would the rest of the family eat the aforementioned organic matter? For instance, if a coconut fell out of a tree and knocked me on the head, killing me instantly, would my family ever eat a coconut again? Or would it be too much to bear to be confronted by the killer at the table? Or maybe they’d eat as many as they could to get back at the coconut. Well, that might work for animals and things since the animal would be slaughtered, but maybe not coconuts.
Stepping back up the thought-stack, I was in Goa, India [fade in the flash back music]…. I was chatting to some fellow travellers just outside my beach-shack after ducking inside to get some more sunscreen when THUD, we heard a coconut smack into the sand not 5 meters from where we were standing. We went over to check it out and lo and behold, it had landed on my towel. It was still stretched out on the pretty white sand where I had been lazing in the sun not 5 minutes before. We worked out it would have hit me fair in the head, probably giving me some pretty serious head injury. Would my family be embarrassed and not release the details of my death?
Anyway, thats why I was thinking about death by fruit and its enduring effect on the family.