Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Big Blue

In Permaculture when you are doing a design one of the things that you need to do is list all your current resources.  What do you have?  What can you do? What can't you do?  You need to do an evaluation that show your potential or lack of potential to do things.  One of the many things that we all need are tools.  There are the shovels, picks, axes, etc that we all need to get things done and then there are those things that most people don't have but may need from time to time. 

That's where Big Blue comes in.  Everyone needs a 4 horse / livestock trailer in the suburbs of Atlanta Ga. don't they? 

Before

After

 It's ready new lights, floor, paint, and it has working brakes.   Some things are better if they are available and ready when needed.  Not everyone needs every type of equipment out there.  In my quest to create social capital (I'll have to talk more about that later) I have bought and cleaned up this trailer for my use and local like minded individuals that may have need for such a thing.  If you need help picking up a new backyard goat, or a pig or two, let me know I'd love to meet you and we are up for the adventure. 

I am going to need some practice pulling this thing...




Sunday, October 14, 2012

The What am I going to do about it part of the last post.

So here we go.  I start this thing off with all the good stuff I have read.  Any questions?  I have the books if you don't have the funds or access to the reading I will be glad to look something up just give me a shout.  If your local and want to look something up let me know we can meet for some coffee, I always want to meet like minded individuals.

Next, I want to connect with some different groups around atlanta and do a bit of volunteering.  Maybe I can help them with what I have read and they can help me with the hands on stuff.  On that note I found a great group of people down in Decatur  at a place which used to be called the Oakhurst Community Garden but they changed their name to The Wylde Center , here is the link: http://wyldecenter.org/  They are really nice people with a great program.  I only helped for 2 days and the director Stephanie Van Parys showed me how to remove seedling plugs and transfer them to larger containers for later sale.  They are a non profit and sell a lot of plants to fund activities that they have going on from beekeeping to raising rabbits and chickens to composting.  I took a composting class last year and built a composter for my backyard. 

There is no great science to transfering seedlings but what I did learn is the trays with the square holes allowed the plug to come free much more easily and whole (which I would think should lead to better growth due to less root disturbance) 

 
These are the ones I liked : above
These are the ones that were a bit more difficult : below
 
 
Another thing I learned was the that volunteer that was before me either created more work or made things much easier for me.  If the volunteer was careful and put 1 seed in each plug hole they were quick and easy to get out and transplant, if they put 3 or 4 in each hole then you had to spend time seperating the seedlings and taking more time.  It was fun and I'm sure I will do it again soon.