Vela Creations: February 2016

Monday, February 29, 2016

Walt Whitman

"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars." - Walt Whitman

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Alan Hovhaness

"I've always regarded nature as the clothing of God." - Alan Hovhaness

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Aldo Leopold

"Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land." - Aldo Leopold

How to slaughter a chicken for food - Quickly and humanely

Chicken Coops - Three key principles for choosing or building the right one

Turning Floodwater into Drinking Water

Tour of the "Matchbox" tiny house - Inspire your own Tiny House

Soil temperature for vegetable seed germination

Friday, February 26, 2016

Ambrose Bierce

"Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills." - Ambrose Bierce

We took Sophie, our female dog, to the vet's a weeks or so ago to get spayed. We wanted her to have one litter of pups, just to have had that very beneficial experience, but now that she has we got her fixed. Everything went well and she is now completely back to normal. We'll take the stitches out on Monday, but the wound looks great, totally healed and healthy.

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Sophie’s spayed

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Bill Watterson

"If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I'll bet they'd live a lot differently." - Bill Watterson

Air-layer madness

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We have been unbelievable busy these past few weeks with non-homestead related work. Abe's been full-time on the computer working on a rabbit management app, called Hutch, and I have been almost living at the school tutoring the kids on the scientific method needed for their first ever science fair. It seems like the time has flown by in a haze.

Now, however, spring is in the air and we are having to set time aside for the coming season. Abe has started to air-layer small branches of trees and shrubs all over the place. He's using plastic cream and yoghurt containers and it looks like we have bizarre little Christmas trees everywhere! We also have a good amount of pruning to do, as well as starting seeds of various kinds inside, not to mention prepping the next level of our forest garden (we try to add an extra terrace to the system each year).

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Air-layer madness

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Edward Fitzgerald

"The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop, The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one." - Edward Fitzgerald

Growing Goji Berries

Monday, February 22, 2016

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

"Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature." - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Removing load bearing walls the right way.

The Life-Style Guru of Frugality, Mr Money Moustache

When I first started pruning fruit trees a few years ago, one of the hardest things for me to learn was to be confident. It seems so radical to cut so much off these trees. In this video I show some of my methods of thought when I prune a Pear tree.

When I first started pruning fruit trees a few years ago, one of the hardest things for me to learn was to be confident. It seems so radical to cut so much off these trees. In this video I show some of my methods of thought when I prune a Pear tree.

How Local Food Is at the Heart of America's Rural Renaissance - People are building strong places with local and regional food

Dumpster divers: Scavenging is about more than the trash

kratky hydroponics vs aquaponics

New Buck

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When you keep rabbits, or any animal for that matter, you have to periodically add new bloodlines to avoid any in-breeding. As we decide to keep young females to replace the older ones, we then encounter the problem of them being the daughters of the male they would be breeding with. So the simple answer is to get a buck buck and that is what we did.

His name is Dunbar. He's a beautiful, grey Dutch mix (not as small as normal Dutch rabbits, but with the same telltale white band on his neck). He has been in quarantine for the last couple of weeks, just in case he carried any noticeable disease from his previous residence, but he seems very healthy so today will be his first time with one of our ladies.

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New Buck