Save

In my last post (The Lost Seed) I expressed my desire to have the Potato Scoop that was advertised in the The Lost Seed's newsletter that I'd received from the The Lost Seed company. And just to show you I was serious about buying the Potato Scoop I went out and bought a cheap money box ($2.95), which is in the shape of your keyboard keys by the way, too help facilitate in the process of doing such a thing.

As you can see I written on it what it is for and at $2.oo a week with postage and handling it will take me 20 weeks to save the amount required which should give more than enough time to prepare my soil and get some spuds in the ground so I can give it a good ol' try out.

Cheers 'till next time

Stewart

The Lost Seed

I recieved my newsletter from the, The Lost Seed, (Purveyor of rare & heirloom seeds, organic garden products, books, ancient cultures and essential plant oils) company the other day and along with a host of other marvelous things this one really caught my eye and is now on my to purchase list.

Being the lover of gadgets man that I seem to be (I hope I'm not alone here) I just can't (read don't want to) help myself but at $38.oo (though the quality seems to be there) it's a bit on the steep side for me to purchase just on a whim so I'll put a little away each week and eventually I'll have enough to get it.

What's your favorite unusual tool?

POTATO HARVESTING SCOOP

Brilliant re-interpretation of a traditional potato 'grate' – for harvesting potato crops without damage. The bar across the end of the tines prevents accidental stabbing while the tine's spacing and shape allows potatoes to be sifted from the soil.

If using to harvest potatoes grown in the ground it is recommended to first loosen the soil around the base of the plants.

Forged from stainless steel, with hardwood handle and leather hanging thong.

The The Lost Seed has a lot of other interesting stuff as well and it's well worth checking them out. THE LOST SEED LINK

Cheers and 'till next time happy tooling

Stewart

Tucker time

Tucker time for the girls. The layer mash I buy is coated in molasses and there is black sunflower seeds (chicken lollies) in the mix which they go mad for.
A little fresh straw and away we go.

Popcorn anyone?

Riveting stuff hey? You can hear the traffic in the backgroung because we live a few houses from one of the busiest corners in Toowoomba.




The pecking order isn't hard to work out. The Isa browns, Bill(ie) and Ben(ita) seem to have control of the place even though they were introduced after the White Sussex, Shirlie and Anne Boleyn, who are second in order.
Then there is the random in-between supposed to be some kind of a bantam is third and then the, Andrews Sisters, three bantam Australthorps are last.

And this is what I get for all my trouble.
Two bantams are laying and it looks like the Isa Browns are laying.
I knew the White Sussex would be lazy layers which is why I got the others to pick up there slack, but I like the look of them.

Cheers 'till next time,

Stewart

Others

Other hands may fell the last stands of rainforest. Others may clearfell forest wilderness for woodchips to make wasteful packaging for goods we do not need. Others may release the pollutants that degrade the oceans, the rivers, the air that we breathe and the atmosphere that makes the Earth alone among the planets a haven for life.

Others are the agents, but we are the principals, or at least the aiders and abettors. It is our values that are expressed in these actions. It is our lifestyle that makes such vandalism profitable. It is the governments we elect that permit it.

Hal Wootten QC
President, Australian Conservation Foundation, 1986

What will you do to-day?

Cold and rainey

It's a rainy day in paradise today and I was think about how my chickens are feeling in the cold and the rain so I thought I'd play them a song to cheer the up.



'till next time, cheers

Stewart

Most Chemicals have not Been Tested for Safety

Cancer Pesticide Link - US President's Cancer Panel Report

Critical Issues around Chemicals Raised by the Report

Most Chemicals have not Been Tested for Safety 'Only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States have been tested for safety.'

Pesticides Linked to Many Types of Cancers
'Nearly 1,400 pesticides have been registered (i.e., approved) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for agricultural and non-agricultural use. Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to brain/central nervous system (CNS), breast, colon, lung, ovarian (female spouses), pancreatic, kidney, testicular, and stomach cancers, as well as Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and soft tissue sarcoma. Pesticide-exposed farmers, pesticide applicators, crop duster pilots, and manufacturers also have been found to have elevated rates of prostate cancer, melanoma, other skin cancers, and cancer of the lip.

'Approximately 40 chemicals classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as known, probable, or possible human carcinogens, are used in EPA-registered pesticides now on the market.'


Read more here

• Organic Federation of Australia
  

• May 10, 2010 - Cancer Pesticide Link – US President's Cancer Panel Report