a more naked world...

Meadowsweet

One Hand in a Goat, the Other on a Conference Call

It turns out that Arava, who is small and a little younger than I'd like (we also had a critical technology failure - the fence - when getting the girls knocked up) had a mispresentation - a baby goat is supposed to come out diving, with head and two hoofs forward. Unfortunately, Arava had two difficulties. First of all, her baby was the single largest Nigerian Dwarf baby I've ever seen. The second is that one of her hoofs was folded back under her.

The traditional strategy for dealing with this problem is to push the head and hooves back into the birth canal a little bit and unfold the bent hoof, sending the baby through in the proper position. But since this was actually my first mispresentation, and she was coming fast by then, I screwed up - I didn't realize what the positioning was until the baby's head was out and she was already breathing. At that point, you can no longer shove them back in for obvious reasons. So I had to rearrange her feet while the rest of the baby was hanging out, which can't have been pleasant for my goat - the only consolation being that leaving her in was worse (I really, really remember that stage of birth myself, in which the only thing worse than getting on with it is not getting on with it, and thus had a profound sympathy.)

The end result was this. First, I did shit to do improve the status of the proletariat blogger being ground under the heel of management. Fortunately, my awesome colleagues handled that, and we're totally off strike. I have not fully resolved all my own issues with Science Blogging, and I'm not sure what all my longterm strategies are, but I still think Science Blogs has the ability to help me expose a new audience to the real issues of depletion and energy constraints, and I still like it here in many ways. I think Adam Bly and Seed Media are frankly committed to doing what it takes to make this work. And more importantly, you don't negotiate in bad faith - when you ask management to do something, and they comply, it would be bad faith to then say "I'm blowing this taco stand anyway." So, I'm back.

Plants Adapted to Aquaponics: The selection of plant species adapted to hydroponic culture in aquaponic greenhouses is related to stocking density of fish tanks and subsequent nutrient concentration of aquacultural effluent. Lettuce, herbs, and specialty greens (spinach, chives, basil, and watercress) have low to medium nutritional requirements and are well adapted to aquaponic systems.

Plants yielding fruit (tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers) have a higher nutritional demand and perform better in a heavily stocked, well established aquaponic system. Greenhouse varieties of tomatoes are better adapted to low light, high humidity conditions in greenhouses than field varieties.

Fish Species: Several warm-water and cold-water fish species are adapted to recirculating aquaculture systems, including tilapia, trout, perch, Arctic char, and bass. However, most commercial aquaponic systems in North America are based on tilapia. Tilapia is a warm-water species that grows well in a recirculating tank culture. Furthermore, tilapia is tolerant of fluctuating water conditions such as pH, temperature, oxygen, and dissolved solids. Tilapia produces a white-fleshed meat suitable to local and wholesale markets. The literature on tilapia contains extensive technical documentation and cultural procedures. Barramundi and Murray cod fish species are raised in recirculating aquaponic systems in Australia.

Superadobe (sandbag and barbed wire) technology is a large, long adobe. It is a simple adobe, an instant and flexible line generator. It uses the materials of war for peaceful ends, integrating traditional earth architecture with contemporary global safety requirements. Long or short sandbags are filled with on-site earth and arranged in layers or long coils (compression) with strands of barbed wire placed between them to act as both mortar and reinforcement (tension). Stabilizers such as cement, lime, or asphalt emulsion may be added. This patented and trademarked (U.S. patent #5,934,027, #3,195,445) technology is offered free to the needy of the world, and licensed for commercial use.

This concept was originally presented by architect Nader Khalili to NASA for building habitats on the moon and Mars, as “Velcro-adobe”. It comes from years of meditation, hands-on research and development, and searching for simple answers to build with earth. It comes from the concerned heart of someone who did not want to be bound to any one system of construction and looked for only one answer in human shelter, to simplify.

Superadobe ArchCal-Earth believes that the whole family should be able to build together, men and women, from grandma to the youngest child. As such, we have spent many years researching hands-on how to make the process simpler and easier. There should be no heavy lifting or backaches, no expensive equipment, and a flexible and fast construction. The bags are filled in place on the wall using small pots like coffee cans, or even kitchen utensils. You can build alone or as a group.