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  • From: venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] pc aquaponics
  • Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:05:03 -0400

On 10/8/2012 2:16 PM, KAKerby@aol.com wrote:
Right now that is the Big Question for us. It would be a huge jump for us
in terms of property size to be managed. Just this year we finally made
use of the entire rented portion; past years it's gotten away from us over the
course of the growing season. But the rented portion is just 1/5 of the
total farm size. We've been invited to consider buying the whole thing.
WOW! That's a heady invitation, and a staggering responsibility. And we're
trying to make the first best use of our home property, which is also a
challenge. There are always questions about how to use/work the land now, vs
how to manage it over time, and whether what we do now is conducive to
long-term goals. Then there's the family we rent from and all their inner
political strife (present in any extended family), and the historical aspect
of taking over and working on a 100 year old working farm, which in this
area is amongst the older properties. Really, really brings the concept of
"humble caretaker" to mind, knowing that we're inheriting someone else's
plans, and we'll do whatever we do, but inevitably leave things unfinished
for
someone down the line. How aquaponics figures into that, in large part or
in small part, is just one drop in the bucket of the issue in general.
Lots to consider. We're on the fence between "too big a job for us, sorry"
and "if not us, who?" The land calls to us to not let it be taken over by
someone who doesn't care about such things as trace mineral balancing and
rotational grazing and water quality and the sight of egrets flying low and
slow over the wetlands. THAT is the context that I try to fit our aquaponics
plans into. If it doesn't fit in that bigger picture, then for us it
doesn't fit.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA

Fascinating. A way will be found for you. You are in the right forum to seek permaculture apprentices and teachers to help transform that new land, should you buy it. I hope you will. I am sure you will find ways to farm it, maybe even profitably. You could use the people in this list as "farm manager". You might want to think of the prospects for turning it into a land trust (Christian, are you reading this?, maybe submit input). Do not worry about the farmland "getting away from you". This is natural. Consider Fukuoka Natural Farming options. Apart from all that consider the possibilities for an integrated diversified farm operation. What an opportunity for the right apprentices, market farming ones and permaculture ones, all doing the same jobs. You could hold PDC's and convergences (Skeeter, are you reading?) Appreciation for your owning and preserving that land might bring in volunteers for work days to help "keep the land from getting even further away from you". Some of those could be hired for farm work or with marketing.

Think about the farm equipment you have and what you plan to purchase
to create the systems you need for your farming ventures. This is a really big issue. My take is to create large areas with raised bed gardens, laid out according to the terrain and available sunlight, drainage and slope. I corrected those variable on my farm with a skid loader and virtually terraformed much of my property. That is a long story and I will go into it in detail if you want to know more about the methods I used to build the beautiful garden sites with incredible enriched deep fertile soil.

In short I suggest you use the following:

70 hp tractor (preferably with airtight cab with recirculation and A/C)

8' 2 toolbar Cat 2 Roll A Cone hiller bedder with 4 chisel tines and two trailing subsoilers on rear toolbar, 4 26" discs on hubs, two per side, 1 front & 1 back, offset, covers tractor tire tracks, creates giant raised beds with sloping sides and flat top plus drainage ditch between beds

three bottom plow

three shank Yeomans plow on a Roll A Cone single toolbar Cat 2

a good quality 7 tine spring tooth field cultivator

a 60 inch Howard Rotavator

a round bale transporter
- if you can grow weeds or grasses or legumes for hay and get it round baled you can use a transporter to move the baled hay to each individual raised bed and unroll them onto the beds for their entire lengths for mulch and eventually fertilizer and increased organic matter - result nearly no weed problem and excellent soil moisture retention -

You could certainly create there the aquaculture systems that you have in mind and more. The possibilities are almost limitless. The other thing is that if you make enough on 20 acres you won;t have to worry about farming the rest of the land, just manage it correctly with permaculture and natural farming. I always though that if someone gave me 10 million dollars I would go out and buy a large tract of prime farmland with water features; then the fun would begin. I would probably create an intentional community on it made up of like minded dedicated people, some who do physical work and some who don't do anything but brainstorm all day but all contributors to the greater good.

I wonder how many people in this list have land that they might want to protect in perpetuity by converting their property to a land trust under and using an umbrella trust already set up an functioning. Twin Oaks farm in Virginia has done this. They are part of an umbrella trust. I do not have names and links at hand but can find them later to post.

This is a great conversation. More later. Got to go for bacon and grits
and fried apples now. And coffee.

LL










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