Kk Murphy

Getting myself back to this project. Thanks for your responses!

Tel, I have hydrated lime, but i was under the impression it's not as good quality for painting as a non-hydraulic. Has your experience been otherwise? I'm thinking to make up a limewash for the top bar bee hives I'm constructing with lime, boiled linseed, and pigment. With your bee knowledge do you think that would seal the hives enough? This is my first dive into beekeeping. Given that I'd have to reapply a limewash eventually would that disturb the bee too much?

Karen

Anyone have a good spot to recommend for sourcing non-hydraulic lime putty, boiled linseed oil, other natural paint and finish ingredients? I'm not too far from Portland and plan on picking up pigment ingredients from Georgie's Ceramics but not having much luck nosing out supplies.

Thanks!

In preperation for my local one straw revolutionary seed balling making party today I searched high and low online for quotes by the master himself. Below is one of my favorites. Please add one of yours. I'd especially love to see Sowing Seeds in the Desert Quotes - not as many of those in the virtual world and I of course have lent my copy out ;> - such a good reason to have a few copies on hand! Thanks for throwing the MF celebration Permies. Thanks Larry Korn for your huge part in spreading the MF seeds far and wide. ~Karen

“I look forward to the day when there is no need for sacred scriptures or sutras. The dragonfly will be the messiah.”
Sowing Seeds in the Desert. Masanobu Fukuoka

Dearest Cascadians,

In celebration of Masanobu Fukuoka's birthday a group of natural farmy friends in the Columbia Gorge is throwing a family friendly seed ball making party. While we're mostly inviting local folks if anyone is eager to join the fun feel free to PM me and I'll share more details. See the basics below and be encouraged to go forth and create your own local MF celebration.

Karen

Fellow Earth Dwellers;

Saturday Feb 2nd would be the 100th birthday of Masanobu Fukuoka. If you are unfamiliar with his name or work, he is among other things, credited with rediscovering and bringing attention to the ancient practice of making Seed Balls (also called Earth Balls). Here is a brief synopsis of Seed Balls from Wikipedia just to get you a little background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_ball

For those of you who resonate with this, Feb 2nd is also Imbolc. Imbolc has been traditionally associated with the onset of lactation of ewes, soon to give birth to the Spring Lambs (in short Imbolc is the celebration of and preparation for the soon to come Spring).

In the Spirit of planting seeds for abundance come Spring, we would like to invite you to join us in Seed Ball making.

The ingredients that will need to be pulled together for this project are:
1) SEEDS
2) clay
3) peat or possibly local forest duff
4) humus/compost
5) potluck snack food item

We ask that everyone bring at least one ingredient in addition to seeds.

May we all continue to put seeds in the ground in gratitude to our Mother Earth, and to share in the bounty of the beauty that we co-create with her through this process.

“When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

Rich response Diana, thank you!

I'm one member of a group that has been working in the past year to pull out all our big dreams, visions, ideas etc. regarding community, farming, permaculture out of our heads and hearts and dig into the very good, real, damn hard work of co-creating. We've been at it for 12 months and more and more layers continue to reveal themselves waiting for our processing, communication, decisions, time, energy and attention. Though we are creating community within the group at the same time as researching land we have yet to purchase land. We've been sorely tempted by a couple of properties so far but realize that we may well have another year of internal processing to do before we're ready for that step. Diana's book has been a godsend of a resource. It's by far the most informative book available on the subject of creating intentional community with lots of practical data on communities that have been successful. For anyone considering sharing land with other folks I highly recommend a study of this book.

On another note, I live in Oregon and in our processing have learned lots about zoning, local ordinances etc. We do have it pretty strict here originally to protect farmland which means there's now lots of farmland close to urban areas - a good thing. But in conversation with city planners, county commissioners, etc. there's also much more openness to wanting to make farming accessible to new farmers than I would have thought - including open discussion in my county about how to allow for multiple families to live on one piece of property - not legal for most ag. land right now in OR. Planners are recognizing that farmers in our area are not making a living that's easily transferable to the next generation. It's a heck of alot of work to farm on your own and less and less profitable. In my area in addition to the strict zoning land is very expensive - a tough sell to new farmers. Planners are starting to recognize that something's gotta give eventually. All this is to say that if you happen to be in a difficult state zoning wise but are highly connected to the area (as i am) there may be some room to make your voice heard and do some good on both county and state levels that could hugely impact sustainable community and farming creating.

Good creating to you all! Grateful to have this community to learn with and from!
Karen

Good to know! Reading about the 2/2 MF b-day here a few days ago inspired me to put out the idea for a seed ball making party in my local area (Columbia Gorge area, Oregon-side). Maybe encouraging other local celebration events would be one way to go. I'm pasting below the invite we've sent out to our local crew.

Seed ball power to you all!
Karen

Dear Fellow Earth Dwellers;
Saturday Feb 2nd would be the 100th birthday of Masanobu Fukuoka. If you are unfamiliar with his name or work, he is among other things, credited with rediscovering and bringing attention to the ancient practice of making Seed Balls (also called Earth Balls). Here is a brief synopsis of Seed Balls from Wikipedia just to get you a little background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_ball

For those of you who resonate with this, Feb 2nd is also Imbolc. Imbolc has been traditionally associated with the onset of lactation of ewes, soon to give birth to the Spring Lambs (in short Imbolc is the celebration of and preparation for the soon to come Spring).

In the Spirit of planting seeds for abundance come Spring, we would like to invite you to join us in Seed Ball making.

The ingredients that will need to be pulled together for this project are:
1) SEEDS
2) clay
3) peat or possibly local forest duff
4) humus/compost
5) potluck snack food item

We ask that everyone bring at least one ingredient in addition to seeds.

May we all continue to put seeds in the ground in gratitude to our Mother Earth, and to share in the bounty of the beauty that we co-create with her through this process.

“When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution