So
One would think that it be hard to get a network up and running.
To some it might be. With this the issue is content. Got the ideas even have crew now its the waiting game.
What will we be doing for CONTENT. For how do we move ahead with nothing? Lets see what happens. For we have far more then nothing and I think some cool ideas
Hello!
The deal is to document my travels along the way to getting The Agricultural Network, up and running.
Going to be interesting.
Bike Needed!
The car we were using is no longer working and the owner will be junking it.
We are now looking for a Used man’s Bike Single Speed to use as a cargo bike, to transport Tools, Plants, Produce,Water and other goods back and forth to the garden plots and Asgard. Please if you have one think about donating it. If you do email me at wclingman@wi.rr.com
Thanks
Quick update!
Will describe in detail the mushroom grow efforts.
been busy setting up the temp effort.
Can say this: I CAN GROW MUSHROOMS ON CARDBOARD!!!!
Found this out when I put what I thought was a box that was not working in the compost. Found lots of great growth going on.
So I will put the set up into go mode!
Kids
Part of Lots to plots was working with kids, no group liability insurance put a huge damper on that. The school will not allow them say to visit sites without it. To say the least I was bummed.
Well the other day I met by chance the youth leader of the Racine County Volunteer Center! She is all about Gardening and has the insurince needed for the kids to visit the areas AND!!!!!! wants very much to work together to grow food in the Gardens she has for her center. Talk about Win/Win.
WE have moved
http://greenracine.net/ please update your book marks
Seed Corn for the Future
BY James C Langcuster
Specialist III, Comm & Marketing-dept
CES Communications
Alabama Extension
Following is a significantly revised rework of a piece I uploaded a couple of weeks ago about 4-H serving as vital seed corn for the future.
If you happen to be an Extension educator, please feel free to copy and use the material freely in newspaper columns, social media outreach and other measures aimed at heightening public awareness of the value of Extension programming.
Seed Corn for the Future
Folklore abounds with accounts of people yielding to the temptation of eating seed corn during unusually lean times, with predictably disastrous results.
As New York Times columnist David Brooks observed recently, this era of budget cutting appears to be one such time. Many policy makers are threatening to consume precious seed corn — wealth better invested in the human crop of the future: young people.
“In education, many administrators are quick to cut athletics, band, cheerleading, art and music because they have the vague impression that those are luxuries,” Brooks writes. “In fact, they are exactly the programs that keep kids in school and build character.”
Add 4-H to that list. For more than a century, 4-H has fostered skills that not only keep kids in school but also busily and happily engaged in learning.
In response to impending and especially stringent federal budget cuts, Cooperative Extension professionals all over the country have been relating some of the tangible ways 4-H involvement has had a direct bearing on kids staying in school, going to college and pursuing lifetime passions acquired through the informal, hands-on learning associated with 4-H.
Yes, 4-H offers immense opportunities for enriching the learning experience at a critical juncture in this nation’s history.
In an earlier column, Brooks stressed how much the success of this nation in the 21st century will be determined by how closely it hews to the traits that have long distinguished it: self-discipline, punctuality and personal responsibility, to name only a few.
Likewise, the longstanding American reverence for practical science and critical thinking, which vaulted this country to the forefront of scientific and technological leadership in the 20th century appears to be steadily eroding.
As Brooks observed in an earlier column, Americans have “drifted away from the hardheaded practical mentality that built the nation’s wealth in the first place.”
What youth organization is better equipped than 4-H to provide young people with a renewed appreciation for practical science and critical thinking and to restore these values to a preeminent place in American life?
4-H arguably has another critical role to fill: putting young people squarely on the path toward acquiring the levels of immersion in learning and related skills considered crucial for high achievement in life — what social critic Malcolm Gladwell has described as the 10,000 hour rule.
“If we’re trapped within the walls of a learning environment, reading, writing and arithmetic don’t spawn the creativity to go out and do great things,” says Wes Laird, an Opp, Ala. attorney and 4-H alumnus who has spent his legal career defending the economically disadvantaged.
Laird lauds his 4-H involvement as his social networking experience that enabled him to see beyond his rural Alabama hometown to the larger world beyond.
“Extracurricular activities that lie beyond classroom walls and that allow freedom of mind are crucial for excelling in any field,” Laird says.
In fact, research has confirmed that outstanding creators and innovators throughout history have spent a minimum 10,000 hours — roughly 10 years — learning and perfecting their skills.
This insight speaks volumes about the sort of role informal, unstructured learning activities serve in putting kids squarely on the road to lifetime success. It also underscores why so-called frivolous school activities such as art, music, cheerleading —and, yes, 4-H — should be valued for what they are: critical pathways to lifetime self-mastery and achievement.
Let’s not allow these valuable lessons to be lost on our policy makers, those who are threatening to consume all of our seed corn.
4-H is seed corn for the most critical crop of all: young people.
End
Folks we need the Extension Call or write your Rep today!
Davis Dexter Cattle Company. DDCC. Mini Post
A 70 Ac+ farm in Mount Olive, Arkansas
City
From one of the kin that run the farm Perry Davis and member of Lots to Plots
we are clearing a two acre area to raise bottle calves and Dexters. we are building two new sheds soon as the weather clears. One for the calves, the other for equipment and feed. our chickens and pigeons are laying and hatching now. soon we will plow and till gardens for the farmers markets. and we are waiting on the last freeze to plant forage for our calves and chickens. we sell peppers to the local Mexican food stores. we raise heirloom tomatoes, colored corn for flour, and cucumbers. It’s great to be alive in the Ozarks.
Needs list donations stuff
Green Racine is looking for the following to help with lots to plots and other programs we are undertaking.
As we will try to use as much that we can find scrap or donated so if you have access to the list and could donate that be great. I do not have a truck to pick up large amounts or sized items:
1) 55 Gal Plastic Barrows clean be great but can not have been used for toxic chemicals
2) Drills
3) PCP Pipes
4) Garden Hose
5) Shovel
6) E-Tool
7) Garden hand tools
8) Wood saw
9) plastic tubing all sizes
10) Clamps
11) PVC Glue
12) Old windows
13) Scrap wood
14) Scrap metal
15) nails
Major Ask!!!!!!!!
Warehouse space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shared space is fine no power needed or heat/AC just a few hundred sq feet
Please email me at wclingman@wi.rr.com if you can help!
Why Solar/ Human power
Those who read the blog here might notice I talk about powering projects with solar power (Water pumps) or Human power (Cargo Bike) I question was ask of me of why?
Easy part of this whole grand plan is to see what out of the box ideas will work and what ones will not the old what happens if we try this…
Another part is well to test what will and will not work to help us survive if the shit hits the fan, not some 2012 BS but anything from say a major storm to major riots. Any number of things that could disrupt power for say a few hours to well years. I think the time to plan is well now./
Lets take the Cargo Bike A great transportable tool for close travel say 10-15 miles be it point to point or a route picking up composing stuff. See gas prices lately? Better yet what if there was a rationing or NO gas? The bike does not need any. Used mortar oil and an inexpensive air pump are most of the maintenance tools you need.
The saving this (cargo bike)brings more then pays for itself.
The Cargo Bike can be used to generate small amounts of power, and recharge batteries. A very very useful tool
Solar power
The main use for us is for the pumps running the Gray water recycling
and the pump for the vertical garden. It too can be used to recharge batteries and provide hot water. The water pumps will be very low powered the water does not have to be pumped in a hurry does it?
The Herb Dryer will be Solar Powered as well. Just foolish to using anything else. The Sun is free. The first hand information will be very useful to share with others as these folks might try to do more experiments to see what their needs are and how to meet them.
We plan to take photos of the equipment as we build it and of course talk about how its working on the podcasts we do.
