I mentioned before that I believe our future sustainability is much more dependent upon the things we can not see then it is on the things we can. None more so then the very hidden threads of life that we find under our feet and that has been called by many as the Living Soil. This, a very complex community of very diverse groups of organisms, ranging from one-celled algae, fungi, protozoa and bacteria, to nematodes and arthropods, to earthworms, insects, small vertebrates and plants. All of which come together to work into some natural balance of making healthy Living Soil.
It is healthy living soil that then produces healthy food. It then becomes up to us to know what is healthy living soil and how to help to maintain it when we disturb it by raising our food.
In other words…
Feed the Soil and the Soil will Feed You.
These diverse organisms bring the soil alive, grow, eat and move through the soil. They make it possible to have clean water, clean air, healthy plants and moderate water flow. These soil organisms decompose organic compounds. They sequester nitrogen and other nutrients and fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, making it available to plants. Many of these organisms increase soil aggregation and porosity, thus increasing infiltration and reducing runoff. Some prey on crop pest and are food for above ground animals. This delicate dance of life is known in Soil Biology as the SOIL FOOD WEB.
The above and below images were borrowed from…
It is said the best way to grow healthy soil is to not disturb it! Well that may be possible except for one exception. The exception being when we disturb it to grow food. Agriculture by it’s very nature is disturbing the soil, otherwise we still be hunters and gatherers.
Now to this I will add being a hunter and gatherer as much as possible may not be such a bad thing in my book of sustainable agriculture. We do try here to maintain a diverse native permaculture landscape on the farm’s many environs, when possible, as to be able to forage for our food when we can… dare I digress.
Now since we also find it a neccessity to farm and that includes both raising livestook and disturbing the living soil to harvest vegetables, mushrooms, herbs and flowers, we must feed the soil to keep it living and healthy. How to do that best is through a planned system of soil conservation, with one important part of that process being organic composting. One important element to also mention in our soil conservation efforts is to eliminate or at best minimize any need for off farm inputs, making it a perpetual cycle on farm as we believe it was intended. In short it is finding a healthy balance.
Here we are again returning back to the land what we have taken from our kitchen Gardens of Black Rock…
In closing, I will type that it was not my intention to include any in depth facts, information or science of Living Soil or Composting. I was hoping to get someone to think about that gentle balance of life that they may find under their walk and hopefully look into the subject further. So please take the time to do a search on the Internet (There is a ton of sites out there), take the time to look at the soil you wish to raise you food and most importantly… Do it wise and Healthy! … your protozoa will Thank You!
~~~~It is that time of year, when out of the grass onto the road, our local snakes are wandering about. Please be cautious when driving and be prepared to stop if you spot one in front of you. Especially our Black Rat Snakes. They are important to the natural balance of rodent control. Here at Black Rock we have a sizable population that help us around the barns.
Just this morning, I had a visitor come up on the roof next to while I was at the computer. I thought of it as a sign of the time of year, to remind me to release back to nature the couple house guest we had over the winter. So it was, we carried them out to the barn for them to take up residence, now that the warmer weather has finally arrived. I am sure too that they will welcome back the freedom to wander about.
As you can see, these guys go about 4 to 5 feet long and are around 3 or so years old. No where near fully grown, as they will eventually reach around 8 to 9 feet. If they are anything like their older relatives around here, I suspect they may just grow a few more inches than that.
So off to the barn we went…
Here they are climbing out and on their way to find a place to hide and search out food. The barn they are in is also the barn we have our peacocks.
Here is one of our peacocks with a watchful eye on the arrival of his new neighbors!
You know where peacocks come from? There is one known predator snake of rat snakes there and that is the King Cobra. While we only have rattlesnakes and copperheads as native venemous snakes, when you are visiting Black Rock and if by some chance come across a King Cobra… Please do not attempt to do what this guy is doing. Well not until you at least get me. I want to watch… oh surely, I jest
Just an update of what has been going on around the Farm now that spring has sprung! …and has it ever! We experienced another one of those “Where is All the Rain Coming From Spring Storms”. You know, one of those rainstorms that the volume of rain falling is measured in buckets, not inches! …and with that… here we had another pond dam being washed out. Not a good thing, just ask the ducks!
…anyways…
It also became another one of those emergency fixes of replacing the overflow pipe and the earth dam around it. It has also become painfully obvious that doing this same old fix, now two years in a row, over again is not going to make it. It has become obvious (WELL LIKE 2 YEARS AGO that we need to re-think, re-design and increase the over-flow piping in the pond dams to a point that in the future, these terrestrial Downpours can be handled by the size of available overflow piping with out taking the pond waters up over the dam, washing it out again as has been the case here lately.
It has also been one of those times to make lemonaide out of the lemons as they say. What I mean by that is since we need to take the effort and material to re-construct the dams, we may as well aslo look in the design of it the possiblities of incorporating a small hydro-generator.
So here we go on the journey of those possiblities…
Here is the first video to watch of us getting down and muddy on the farm, rebuilding the dams and maybe a hydro-electric plant…
With spring just a few days away, it was time to get the egg factory on the farm up and running at peak performace! Winter’s waste needing to be cleaned out, factory walls needing to be white washed, equipment needing to be prepared and factory workers raring to get back to Work full time! …so here’s the factory ready to swing into full production! Hold on to your Frying Pan for now, there is no time to lay around… well unless you are making eggs…
You know there is plenty of opportunity right in your backyard to build one of these Egg Factories… I would strongly recommend to find out how by clicking on this link below and get started…
These diverse organisms bring the soil alive, grow, eat and move through the soil. They make it possible to have clean water, clean air, healthy plants and moderate water flow. These soil organisms decompose organic compounds. They sequester nitrogen and other nutrients and fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, making it available to plants. Many of these organisms increase soil aggregation and porosity, thus increasing infiltration and reducing runoff. Some prey on crop pest and are food for above ground animals. This delicate dance of life is known in Soil Biology as the SOIL FOOD WEB.
It is said the best way to grow healthy soil is to not disturb it! Well that may be possible except for one exception. The exception being when we disturb it to grow food. Agriculture by it’s very nature is disturbing the soil, otherwise we still be hunters and gatherers.
In closing, I will type that it was not my intention to include any in depth facts, information or science of Living Soil or Composting. I was hoping to get someone to think about that gentle balance of life that they may find under their walk and hopefully look into the subject further. So please take the time to do a search on the Internet (There is a ton of sites out there), take the time to look at the soil you wish to raise you food and most importantly… Do it wise and Healthy! … your protozoa will Thank You!
that we need to re-think, re-design and increase the over-flow piping in the pond dams to a point that in the future, these terrestrial Downpours can be handled by the size of available overflow piping with out taking the pond waters up over the dam, washing it out again as has been the case here lately.
