Permaculture Blog

They fly so effortlessly. This is 1 of 2 that were floating around overhead. If we kill or poison all their food they can’t survive.

So I was talking to someone the other day and laughing that I had got a D1A in a Typing class. Letter grade D, a 1 or the top in effort, and an A in attendance and behavior. In other words I tried real hard but got a D. The person I was talking to said “I got an F in biology.” Sometime later in the conversation (and this person was told that I have a PhD in molecular genetics, microbiology) I commented about pesticides being somewhat damaging to the environment and the person said “oh I don’t believe any of that.”

What is it with people and their pride in their ignorance. This person knows absolutely nothing about biology. Their entire biology experience is less time than a class I took in the molecular mechanisms of viruses and yet they are so sure that they know everything they need to know about biology and that pesticides can’t harm the environment.

Well it looks like I’m going to be speaking from 10 to 11 on the first day, Saturday, March 9. Anyone who enjoys reading this blog and/or looking at the constructed wetland information on my website will thoroughly enjoy this permaculture convergence. Hope to see you there.

Sometime on March 9th or 10th at a beautiful location: Sky Mountain Institute and the Harmony Grove Spiritualist Association — in Escondido CA. I am going to give a brief talk on ponds, how pesticides breakdown in our environment, and a few of my suggestions on what we can do to protect our world for our kids.

This is a great permaculture group. I have done several things with them in the past. There will be all sorts of classes, talks, and demonstrations.

The Key-note Speaker will be Paul Wheaton of Permies.com

I seriously encourage anyone reading this to check it out. And after January 31st the price goes up. For further information including places to stay, contact permaculture@skymountain.org to register visit http://sdpermaculture.webs.com/.

Gophers on their side of the “moat”

I found this little guy yesterday. Not as familiar with salamanders as I am with snakes. Looking it up on the web produced…. http://www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/b.nigriventris.html an excellent web page that shows many of the difference between very similar species. I forgot to take a picture of its belly. That is how you distinguish between Batrachoseps major major, Garden Slender Salamander and B. nigriventris according to the website. Maybe I can find the little guy again.

There are now 2 pairs of Western spadefoot toad swimming around the pond0. I have never seen them in the constructed wetland. I assume because they cannot climb in. The pond is level with the ground. So the wetland is chorus frog territory while the pond will be toad property. I’m going to have to make sure that the fish are all in one side for the winter. Otherwise the fish will eat the tadpoles that I am hoping to have.

Everybody who let the Monsanto and Pepsi companies buy their vote on Califonia’s Proposition 37 ought to be ashamed of themselves. Even if you don’t care whether YOU eat GMOs, you allowed big chemical companies to buy from you the ability for them to prevent other people from knowing. You allowed them to buy your vote and block basic information from other people.  You let millions of dollars convince you that the addition of 3 letters to a food label would bring economic disaster to all.

99 percent of liberals, democrats, or republicans have a real resistance to being called ignorant. 99 percent can’t consider that they should be ashamed of themselves. Are you a member of the 1 percent who at least can admit that you are ashamed of yourself if you did not vote for Proposition 37.

And the real problem with GMOs is that they are not being developed for increased flavor, color, shelf life, packing ability. Virtually every GMO has been designed to increase herbicide resistance — THINK ABOUT IT.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/jan/22/eagles-build-nest-near-ramona/

Yes THINK about what DDT did to our environment. And now think about how our companies (yours and mine — it’s our country and we are responsible for its behavior) are still manufacturing and exporting DDT to third world countries. And we think America should have a stranglehold on the world’s morality.

Western Pacific chorus frog. They move down from the oak trees into the water in the rainy season. How they know is beyond me. But we are supposed to get rain in a couple of days.

Bob

Lizard that is. Which is not as usual as it sounds, as I have snakes and Roadrunners and Falcons and hawks. In this case however I was out in the garden and I had passed a lizard sunning itself on a rock. It had been cool, maybe in the forties, but the Sun was out and it had warmed up and it was very nice. Anyway, I had noticed this lizard for some reason sunning itself on a rock. I was working at something in the garden and heard a sound that sounded like something had slapped a rock. It is usually very quiet in the garden so I looked toward the sound and didn’t see anything but noticed the lizard was gone and at the same time something caught the corner of my eye and I turned 180 degrees and saw the little Falcon Landing in a leafless tree about 40 feet away. It then proceeded to eat what it had caught. Can’t say for sure but from the direction of the sound I pretty much assume that that was a lizard.

by voice recognition on bob’s droid. Sorry for the Weird capitalization. Website http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/