Permaculture in Action

Friday, September 16, 2011

Busy Days

We now have 3 WWOOFers and just feeding and getting them organised is a full days work. On top of that we still need to keep things happening on and around the farm.Seeds are being sown, seedlings potted up, bigger seedlings planted out, new beds being got ready for the summer crops,produce to be harvested and boxes made up for our CSA members.......



This is our egg harvest today. See the little ones, they're from our bantam. She's just about ready to sit I think so I swapped these tiny ones for 8 larger ones which I hope she'll hatch out and mother. Before placing them in her box I dowsed them to see if they were hens or roosters, and only gave her the ones showing hen. I hope it works!

...and a festival to organise. We are hosting a 'Moving Planet' event here on the farm. We are encouraging people to come to the farm by any means other than one powered by fossil fuels. "Show the people power that is needed to move the world beyond fossil fuel". If you are nearby come and be a part of our day on 24th September, and if you are far away find an event near you and show that we mean business when it comes to moving beyond fossil fuels.

15 comments:

  1. Hi Kate
    I love your blog so thanks for all the effort of your regular posts. I'm curious to know how you dowse the eggs to tell if they are hens or roosters??

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  2. Gee a nice lot of eggs there. Our bantams do that, lay lots of eggs and then go broody...I have one sitting on six eggs now. We always go by the shape when sexing the eggs, pointy ones being roosters and rounded ones being hens. Not sure that any of the methods work...my mum always said it usually works out 50/50.

    Sounds like you are keeping very busy...

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  3. Hi to you both and welcome energiser bunny. I dowse by using a pendulum, knowing what is yes and no for me( it's different for everyone)and asking for each egg if it's a rooster or hen.I've used dowsing for various things and find that it works, but this is the first time with eggs. So we'll see.There is a bantam already sitting, she'll have hatched them in a week or 2. Will keep you all informed, although it will be a few weeks after they hatch before I'll know.

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  4. Thanks Kate and Tania, I am going to try out both these methods. I haven't heard either of them before! I hope they work, I'm so over separating roosters due to personality issues!!!

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  5. That basket of eggs looks amazing with all the different colours, shapes and sizes! Beautiful.

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  6. i think I'll try the dowsing - it worked for me when I was pregnant with my youngest so it should work on an egg!!
    Kate, is it worth having Woofers? If you are doing all that feeding, I wonder if I really want to do more cooking..... I do enough already!!

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  7. I like the sound of being able to sex eggs as i'd love to have chickens again, but don't want to go through having to deal with roosters again. I'm looking forward to hearing the results.

    I like the sound of the moving planet event. Perhaps we'll catch the train with or bikes.

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  8. Ok Kate, this dowsing is new to me...can you explain? Out of my last hatching I only had two hens and the rest were rooters, not what I had planned. Anything to help with the hen population would be greatly appreciated. Have a wonderful weekend.xx

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  9. It is witch craft Tracey and best left alone dooooo

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  10. Take no notice of Henry, Tracey. I use a pendulum that Mark (henry) made for me.which brings in energies from the Universe to answer yes /no questions.It's the same energies that people have been using forever like our indigenous people to find water etc. I ask and hold my pendulum over an egg and ask if it is a hen and the pendulum says yes or no. In my case yes is back and forth, and no is in a circle. .Mark and I hosted a workshop here years ago on geomancy ( the study of Earth's subtle energy and spirit, one example is feng shui) by Alanna Moore who is well known in Australia for her knowledge on Poultry.

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  11. Mark here - too lazy to log on properly but want to say that some great stuff on pendulum dowsing comes from Ester Deans (No Dig Gardening) If you have her little book or can get hold of it in the library.

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  12. Thanks Kate. I have heard of that and also something perhaps a bit similar in muscle testing. We should all try dowsing and egg shaping and see what results we get...

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  13. That's really interesting stuff. Can't wait to see how you go with the roosters/hens ....I am waiting for one of my bantams to get clucky too! I just so love what you are doing as far as fossil fuels go. Although I don't think we are ready for letting go of them here on large acerage ....I can see the potential if we do. Did you ever go through a stage in your ecological evolution where you were in the middle Kate, or have you always been at this point?

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  14. Hi Kim, I've been at all the stages, starting at totally ignorant about 30 years ago to now, much more informed and still adjusting my life to using less of everything! We still have quite a ways to go. We still use some fuel on the farm with a tractor and mower but they get used less and less all the time. My philosophy is to be ever mindful of what we use. Please come on Saturday even if you have to come by car, just try to make the car full, bring others if you have to and connect with other people who have the same intention.We are all at different stages learning from each other.

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  15. Not that I can make it sadly, but would avoiding fossil fuels include avoiding the train, since the train out to Maitland runs on diesel? Or would a train and then a bike be okay?

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