Zeek McGalla

I’m late to the party here… but I have about 300’ of 3/4” poly pipe just sitting on my black shingled roof.  I have the water circulating when the sun is out with a pump in the basement by the hot water tank.  It does enough to get the water to 125f.  I would suggest not making electricity with the sun… just use the sun to heat water.  There are many ways to make a solar hot water heater.  Think about how hot a garden hose gets when it sits in the sun in the summer!   I am installing a commercially made hot water solar panel that was made by a now defunct company in Texas.   See image.  

Cool name Clayton..that is my birth name but everyone calls me Zeek!

Is it appropriate/accurate to apply the Universal Systems Model as a filter to look at the way things work in the natural world? Do you think I could use that model to guide their designs as they build various systems like solar power, growies, filters.....  The model is divided into these 4 parts:

1.  Input
2.  Process
3.  Output
4.  Feedback

The idea is that the loop is closed and although the model was a huge part of my training as a Technology Education Teacher I think it can help my students think in a closed loop, system kind of way.   Any thoughts?
Thanks

I need immediate help with what kinds of activities can we do to teach a permaculture mindset.  Sadly I have not completed a PDC and I am not trying to teach a PDC.  Basically I want my students to design sustainable systems in the area of food, water and energy (see above) and evaluate their designs with Earth Care, People Care and Future Care (Return of Surplus) in mind. I am struggling with designing activities that will change and challenge their mindset..I want them to think about circular design, closing the loop, regeneration, observation and so on. I really think that if I can do a good job with the concepts of a permaculture mindset then they will be able use that new mindset to do great things for the earth, people and the future.  

Does anyone have some activities or projects I can do to effectively teach the permaculture mindset?

Hi Ron, I am in Ohio about 45 minutes west of Pittsburgh.  For some reason, this area isn't really demanding Dexters, but we manage to sell our calves each year.  In fact, we have never sold a Dexter to someone who already owned them....well one time in the past 8 years.  Our goal was to raise quality breeding stock and that sent me to Nashville to buy our bull.  

I am late to the party...but just wanted to drop in and say hello to all you Dexter folks.  I have been raising purebred Dexters for 8 years and really enjoy them.  We are very small only sell 2 calves per year and raise them for breeding, but if someone wants to buy one and eat it they can.  I remember when we got involved with Dexters and had a bunch of questions so please reach out if you have some.  I certainly do not have all the answers but after 8 years I can tell you all the wrong things we have done. All of our Dexters are ADCA registered, PHA and Chondro non-carriers.  Our bull is red, homozygous polled and all of his offspring will be horn free.   Just so you know there are 2 organizations that register Dexters, PDCA and ADCA, I do not know very much about how they differ, maybe someone can fill me in?  I do remember there was some disagreement about something and people got mad, and arued...blah blah blah....who cares?  Just raise Dexters is what I say.

Interesting suggestions....if it was a VFD issue then they should have asked for the VFD from the vet, but maybe the cashier didn't know what to do if the cash register system had some warning that came up.  The cashier may have seen some warning pop up and assumed it was an age restriction.  I stopped typing and went out to check the label, my son got the wrong minerals (he managed to convince the cashier he should buy it) and it has Altosid and for that, you need a VFD.  We never use anything medicated unless it is in response to a known problem, which thankfully we don't have.  So mystery solved.

I sent my son into Rural King to get a bag of cattle minerals and they denied him the sale because he is not 18?  What gives?  Any clue as to why this is the case?  We live in Ohio.
Thanks
Zeek

I am a little late to the party....I would suggest canning the extra milk just in case we all get stuck at home.... here is one site that explains it.  We have also frozen the milk and that comes in handy if we need to feed some critter who for whatever reason doesn't have a momma or if friends need milk for their nursing critters.