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Post by 12540dumont on Jul 20, 2013 16:34:26 GMT -5
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Post by steev on Jul 23, 2013 19:41:36 GMT -5
As a member of the choir, I enjoy being preached to.
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Post by 12540dumont on Jul 23, 2013 21:09:03 GMT -5
Steev, when I saw those recycled concrete water cache things, I immediately thought of your farm
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Post by steev on Jul 24, 2013 0:17:15 GMT -5
Yeah, well, I mulled that. I'd like it a lot better if I didn't have to haul urbanite (which is certainly readily available free on craigslist in the Bay Area) so far to the farm. It would also seem better if the farm weren't flat as piss-on-a-plate. I do suspect that when I've a dwelling there and get around to landscaping around it (well, it's what I do), I will build raised beds/terraces and a raised koi pond with a bench around (I already have about a dozen Japanese maples, of various varieties, in pots, growing on).
To some purposes, I do envy folks who have more vertical land to work with, as that lends itself more both to views and terracing, both valuable assets, I think. I think terracing is lots of work to build, but really the way to go if one isn't committed to large mechanization.
I was especially struck by the hugelkulture aspects of his beds, very enticing, mushroom-wise.
One consideration that concerns me about raised beds on my farm is the fact of daily, dry breeze/wind, which would really suck water out of them if they had non-impermeable sides, like stacked urbanite; aside from temperature concerns and humus-deficient soil, water is really my most important concern, as note my postings about P. vulgaris, most of which seem incapable of sucking up water as fast as the air sucks it out of them.
It does, however, occur to me that it may be worth the work of building an urbanite bed, wired on the bottom, plastic-lined on the sides, for gopher-prone things like spuds and artichokes. Even a dying light-bulb flickers on, occasionally. Life is good.
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Krofting
Feb 15, 2015 17:30:34 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Marches on Feb 15, 2015 17:30:34 GMT -5
I thought it was introduced to Scotland and Northern England by the Norse? Why change the letter? Crofting with a K looks awful, English prefers the letter C! Can't understand their reason for changing it to honour it or whatever they wrote, more like for the page hits from Google.
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Post by blackox on Feb 15, 2015 19:02:19 GMT -5
I don't completely understand the letter thing either. Maybe Masanobu Fukuoka pretty much summed it up in "Sowing Seeds in the Desert," when he says that he thinks that Americans feel isolated in their individualism? I think that it might apply to language as well as culture?
I often wonder about preferred letters and sounds in other countries. I know that there are different words or different ways of spelling things in the English language that make me cringe. The U.S. being a nation of mutts, is it the same for people in more "purebred" countries? (I personally prefer the "K," but do have a large Germanic background.) Then again the English language has been butchered and changed so many times.
I'm really just thinking out loud here.
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Krofting
Feb 16, 2015 7:26:58 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by Marches on Feb 16, 2015 7:26:58 GMT -5
I don't completely understand the letter thing either. Maybe Masanobu Fukuoka pretty much summed it up in "Sowing Seeds in the Desert," when he says that he thinks that Americans feel isolated in their individualism? I think that it might apply to language as well as culture? I often wonder about preferred letters and sounds in other countries. I know that there are different words or different ways of spelling things in the English language that make me cringe. The U.S. being a nation of mutts, is it the same for people in more "purebred" countries? (I personally prefer the "K," but do have a large Germanic background.) Then again the English language has been butchered and changed so many times. I'm really just thinking out loud here. Soft C is always preferred in UK spelling to hard K, and Crofting is how the Scots spell it after all despite the Norse influence.
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Post by imgrimmer on Feb 17, 2015 2:33:41 GMT -5
I found this on erdakroft.comI’ve taken the liberty to change the ‘c’ in crofting to a ‘k’ to create a new word that not only pays homage to the spirit aspect but also takes a broader perspective to encompass all the major consumptive aspects of human activity; housing, textiles, transportation, energy as well as, food production.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 17, 2015 18:57:11 GMT -5
Thank you Imgrimmer.
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Post by steev on Feb 17, 2015 21:20:46 GMT -5
It seems to me that k/c-rofting is just thinking how to maximize the diversity of inputs/outputs of one's holding; that's why my farm's motto is "Way past Plan B". There are always new things I hadn't thought to work into its fabric; sometimes it means I have to rip out or discard something I've invested time and resources in, but if the result is an improvement, do I care; if the gain outweighs the loss?
In a way, it's rather like a belief or practice one may have learned or inherited, which might best be re-thought. I am, of course, thinking only in terms of farming, and nobody should think this has anything whatsoever to do with religious, political, economic, or social constructs, nor anything at all apart from agriculture, which is a subject hermetically sealed away from all other facets of human life.
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