As I got up to leave my room and check laundry I had to get Stubbs off my lap so I threw him over my shoulder (I'm not sure why.. but I did.) and he liked it there. He had his claws in my for about 10 seconds once I started walking, but then he realized he was in good hands and just laid there, draped over my shoulder! I'm not sure where I'm looking, I guess I forgot to choose a place to look while I was trying to balance a cat on my shoulder and take a picture of myself.
For rest of the morning, after I had completed my personal chores like doing dishes and sweeping my room, I was continuing to work preparation for my next adventure, in which I will be going to Thailand.
I got word a couple of days ago that I was accepted to a 6 month internship at a new Permaculture site in Thailand that will be converting a traditional 50 acre organic farm into a thriving, dynamic, synergistic Permaculture site!
I applied shortly after the completion of the permaculture class that I took in St. Louis. The man running the show is named Christian Shearer and he was my teacher for part of my permaculture class I took prior to coming to the farm. He is by far the best teacher I have ever had and a really incredible individual! Not only that, but as far as permaculture goes he is up there with the most knowledgeable of people.
Permaculture was started in the 60's by an Australian man named Bill Mollision, who taught another Australian named Geoff Lautner, and Geoff was Christians teacher. So to be learning from Christian is quite prestigious, as he is the apprentice of the apprentice, also he mentioned that Geoff, his teacher and the first apprentice to it all, would be hanging around the project for a little while. So it is clear that this is an incredible learning opportunity! I will be surrounded by extremely knowledgeable people.
There is also some philanthropic spin to this whole opportunity for me. Since I will be in Thailand, part of the mission of what we will be doing there is to provide affordable permaculture classes for local people so that they have the knowledge to be more self-sufficient and sustainable! If anyone is curious for more information you can either click on this link below or leave a comment at the bottom of this post with a more specific question and I'll receive and email notification that I can reply to.
I am extremely excited for this coming adventure to Thailand that I don't think I should even try to put it into words!! It hasn't even really sunk in yet either. In addition to that, I still have 2 and a half long and happy months ahead of me here in Arizona, so for the sake of staying grounded and present that is all I will say for now about the Thailand adventure!
After finishing the work I was doing to renew my passport, I decided to go start working on the Egg-Mobile. I believe I have mentioned this contraption before, but so as to not confuse it with a chicken tractor I'll reiterate the differences. In a chicken tractor, they don't ever actually get to leave the structure, they are confined to the 200 sq ft inside it. However, we do move them everyday onto fresh new grass so there is never a build up of manure, and they have fresh foraging area foraging area. We have 4 chicken tractors in total right now. Now the Egg-Mobile is a similar concept but actually less work for the farmer, and better for the chickens. The Egg-Mobile is a much larger structure, in our case is is an old live stock trailer that I am in the midst of converting into a skunk proof Egg-Mobile. And I say skunk proof specifically because if skunks get in there, they murder every last chicken, and then only eat the corn out of the chickens throat, and wastes the body. Morbid I know, but it is a reality, and it makes me want to do a really good job skunk proofing! So the Egg-Mobile is just going to be a large trailer, with lay boxes in it for the chickens to lay eggs in. But the major difference is that the trailer or Egg-Mobile is just a roosting spot for them at night and when laying, they can go in and out of it as they please during the day since they will be in fenced in pasture with a guard dog. So now they have exponentially more grazing and foraging room and the farmer only has to move them maybe once every two weeks with a truck versus 4 of them everyday by hand. That is unless we start following the cattle with the chickens so that they root through the cattle manure for bugs while simultaneously spreading the manure and helping to fertilize that field If that happens we'll be moving them every three days. By following the cattle I mean that we hope to start grazing the cattle on a scheduled rotation in a smaller fenced in mini pastures that move every day. It would be sort of like a chicken tractor equivalent for the cows. By doing this you can actually get more efficient grazing out of the pastures as well as reducing your cost of chicken feed because there is ample supply of grubs in 3 day old manure, which is where this comes full circle back to the Egg-Mobile. After moving the cattle, you let the manure age, and then drive the Egg mobile out there and let them feast! It is all very interesting to me, because it reflects Permaculture in a lot ways because you are getting multiple uses out of things and being efficient and earth friendly!
Here's a picture of the Egg-Mobile on the left, and the third chicken tractor that I repaired the other day.
As to the specific work I did on it today, it was just a bunch of cutting boards to the right size to go over any holes in the trailer, and then screwing them in to place. Screwing them in was the hard part because I was attaching plywood to metal, and I had never screwed into metal before but it was pretty hard!
That's all for now! I have to be up unusually early to help Jim with chores, because he and the kids have soccer practice tomorrow, well the kids have practice, but he is the Coach! And Tina is at a Yoga retreat in Phoenix, she is training to become a teacher so she has a certain amount of classes she has to take. So it will be just me tomorrow from about 8 - 1, I'll be preparing all the CSA shares and things to take to the market!
It was a great night for start gazing tonight, it really is every night, but tonight for some reason tonight it really captivated me. I don't think I ever noticed that some stars actually "blink" on and off. But I was staring at one start for a long time and I realized that was twinkling on and off.
Okay, so I actually did sign of and even close my laptop a couple minutes ago, but I had to get back on and post about the adventure I just had. I just spent 10 minutes trying to catch a tarantula in my room. Yep. a Tarantula, that's what I said. Now I have held a tarantula before, I took care of one for 7 weeks when I was in school, but then I would put it back in its cage and leave it there. I was not okay with this tarantula having free reign in my room! I ended up pinning it on the wall with a pot and then sliding a piece of paper over it. My adrenaline was pumping hard, because this thing was FAST it could cover 3 feet in about a second! Which meant if it got out of the pot it could have been on my face in about 1 second! Eventually I caught it though.
Here is a picture, although it doesn't do the size of the the thing justice. Those stripes on the flag are about four inches wide, it's a full sized flag, and the body of the spider was about the size of a quarter, and including it's legs it was about 3 and a half inches in diameter!
Okay, enough excitement for one night! Goodnight!
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