And now a bit of politics!

The Moral vacuum that is Capitalist consumerism.

The messages of our culture: 

 All that matters is the profit margin

• ·         Growth in GDP is the main objective
• ·         Large business only responsibility is to make a profit for their shareholders
• ·         Paying as little tax as possible is ok
• ·         Success in life is making loads of money

What we don’t often hear:

• ·         Employers have a responsibility to their employers
• ·         Everyone deserves a wage enough to live on
• ·         I don’t need so much income to be happy
• ·         What can I do to improve my local community and environment
• ·         I know my neighbours and help them out when they need it

      How can we change this?

More Batteries for our Solar system

I have added the old batteries from our electric car (we replaced the batteries recently) to our solar system.
What a huge improvement!! The old electric car batteries (Lithium Iron) are 5 years old but they are streets ahead of out old deep cycle lead acid set.  The new system capacity is much greater and will enable us to run our house into the evening on stored solar power.

New gate from our wood

I have finally finished our new gate, made from chestnut from our wood and planked with a chainsaw mill.

The cut pieces immediately turned into bananas!

The bees flying well today and gathering pollen (13th January)

2014 season in a nutshell

Thas been a very productive season for us here in Clacton but with some challenges.  We are used to having very dry summers here but this year there has been enough rain and we have hardly used our large rainwater tanks.
We have had a massive harvest of apricots and peaches this year which we have bottled, jammed and dried, we gave away about one third of the fruit.
Tomatoes in the poly tunnel have been great but in the greenhouse all the plants have been killed by a mosaic like disease that makes the leaves dry up and fall off.
Four trees have died very quickly from unknown disease (only a week from full health to death!)
Lots of chicks hatched, we are still waiting to see how many are cockerels!
Two of our large grapevines have suffered badly from a white mildew like disease on the fruit with brown patches on the leaves, the grapes become leathery and crack, we had to cut off the grapes and feed them to the chickens.  The grapes in the poly tunnel are already sweet and being enjoyed as desert grapes.

Surplus honey bees in North Essex

I have a surplus of bees and am passing them on in the way I have done for a number of years. I sell the bees not the equipment . Prices start at £30 for 5 frame nuke. All bees with laying queen. people bring me their hive and frames, I transfer the bees to their hive and keep the appropiate number of frames in exchange.
Contact me on chris@ecodiy.org if you are interested.

Self sown Poppies

Self-sown poppies between our vegetable beds, we will harvest the heads for the seeds when they dry (great in our home baked bread)

Dealing with aphids without chemicals

 Its worth looking at the pictures of these aphid eaters as some of them look surprisingly like slugs but are 'goodies'

http://ventnorpermaculture.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/beneficial-insects/