As happens to many of us I have let things slide with my blog and other IHC obligations. So, it's time to kick things back into action. What could be better than starting with the question we were asked about, what are we doing for Earth Day?
I will give you a short answer, and for the people who are curious enough, a long answer as well.
Short Answer
Preparing to add good soil biology to our new farm property. To our eyes the property has been over grazed and over tilled. There is very little soil structure left. So, there is a lot of composting and other activities to add and promote good soil biology in the soil. Today I am collecting the various materials and tools that I will be using over the course of the next three days to start the process towards much healthier soil to grow our medicinal herbs, foods, and animals.
Long Answer
Good soil structure holds together and when you break it apart it does so in crumbles. The soil on our new property breaks into powder with little or no crumble at all. Mycelium, the main part of mushrooms (mushrooms are just the fruiting body) are part of what holds soil together.
Pictured above is the contents of a container filled with the broken pieces of the best of old spent mushroom growing blocks from a mushroom farm. Most of the mycelium in here is from Lions Mane and various types of Oyster Mushrooms.
You can see how the white mycelium is holding the sawdust together in chunks. This, the mycelium, is what you need to break down wood. There is a saying in Permaculture, "the soil is all mouth and mycelium [could say fungus] are the teeth". Forest soil is a fungal dominant soil.
Outside the forest you have bacteria dominant soil. The bacteria produce gels that help hold the soil together. There is fungus in this soil too.
So, I'm gathering up some of the mycelium from the bin, some microbiology that I collected and stored from last year, some worm "juice" from the small worm farm we have, some water from the fish aquariums (those are naturally kept too, no chemicals and little or no mechanical filters) to help with putting microbiology back into the soil at the farm.
Why worm "juice"? Because the liquid that drains off the worm farm is rich in humic acid. Here's a link to a video about the importance of humic acid that explains way better than I can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKzwgJMy0sQ
I have gathered some microbiology from the wild here and stored it using sugar to create osmotic pressure that renders the organisms dormant. That way I can store it for use when I need it. So I will be taking some of that with me. This is a Korean Natural Farming technique. You can learn more about that here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChrisTrumpSoilSteward
There are bones on the property from where a couple cattle died, and a deer. These will be getting burned to make a sort of biochar that provides calcium and phosphorus for the soil, and high density housing for soil microbes. Similar things (among other uses) will be done with the wood from the trees that have been cut down off the fence lines. Still a lot of cutting to do there! You can learn more about biochar and bone char here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loglsAoa48g&t=14s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBvPvcIadZI
There's a lot of manure left over from when cattle were on the property and I will be collecting more of it this weekend for composting. Need to collect a lot of carbon rich material to go with all that nitrogen rich material!
Part of the plan is to start an 18 day compost on a large scale. Yes, that's 18 days from start to finished usable compost for this year's new garden, for which I've set aside 2 acres. I've done compost in about three weeks before so I know it can be done. I've just never done it on this scale before. Fortunately we have a new shovel (pictured here) that should make the job much easier. Hopefully all the work it's doing should nicely offset the carbon footprint that it has. You can learn about making 18 day compost here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tk_melmv14&t=2s
I also need to get the area in the garden ready for the chicken tractoring system that will be in it. They help make compost too as well as breaking pest cycles.
And, if I'm really lucky, and get all my work done this weekend, and the creek is melted enough, I may even get to work on making that willow spiling I need to make to prevent soil erosion into the creek and stabilize the creek crossing. The willow cuttings are currently sitting in buckets of water to keep them alive.
Somewhere in there I still need to find the time, and energy, to practice my Kung Fu forms, do my planks and situps, etc. Whew!
Kung Fu really is "hard work"!
:-)
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