Rodents 'n' Rabbit
May 18th, 2018Well I'm pretty sure I saw a rabbit yesterday crossing the track from the compost field to the Townsend's field, so much to look forward to there maybe.
On the rodent scene I have problem with peas and beans being eaten. Initially it was before they came through the soil, then it include when they were a centimetre or two tall, now some at 10cm.
Veganic and Biodynamic
September 8th, 2017The two principals, at least to me, are addressing different issues and as such are not really comparable.
The veganic principal is that cultivation of plants does so without exploiting animals, and whether a bee hive is acceptable for instance is up to the person who cultivates. Arguably there is transition from one variety of consumption to another. In the most extreme veganic would not use bees, yet as cultivation requires control of the environment it is hard to see how even if the smallest of creature are not used they have an essential role to play. The fencing of land, the screening by netting and other actions taken to protect plants are in themselves a front to animal exclusion and an interference in their ability to roam.
Biodynamics are not concerned with avoiding animal exploitation as the main focus but the larger environment as the source of all consumption, much like permaculture, except that in permaculture there in no order to cowtow to the moon, nor a strict avoidance of synthesis aids.
Today many people are vegetarian or vegan and they are so for a variety of reasons. For most, the reason is a striving to live by the highest principles and wanting to live in harmony with nature and the environment. Aware that animal manure as well as some animal parts, such as cow horns, are used in making the biodynamic preparations, they are keen to find out more to ensure that eating biodynamic produce doesn’t compromise their principles.
To look at this question brings one to the very essence of what nature and biodynamics is all about. We will only be able to scratch the surface here, but we believe it is very important that each individual is free to make up their own mind for themselves as to what diet is right for them and the world., and we are grateful that the question has been raised and the opportunity to discuss it. To do so, requires we first place biodynamics in context of modern agriculture:
https://www.biodynamic.org.uk/vegan-concerns/
The difference is that the vegan notion is focused on animal consumption, most often with a view to compassion, whilst biodynamics consider the larger environment. Both address exoterically the same issue, that of unacceptable exploitation, differing only in what is deemed acceptable.
The vegan principal, not the diet, can be esoteric; in that it is a personal mediation not to exploit, starting with the obvious ~ animals. The larger environment including people are not the primary concern. The concern is not how I treat the whole or how I treat humans but how I treat the vulnerable and all animals are dumb and vulnerable to human intelligence.
The environment is vulnerable to human consumption with near global recognition of global warming, genetic mutations and all out nuclear degeneration.
Yet as long as consciousness is not seen as a product of the brain then there is something more valuable that humans, cows and the environment to consider, and if so then the individual has options to consider the benefits of further consumption in a fashion that suits them, not some order defined by the massive intellect and ego but by acknowledging that no matter how powerful a consumer ultimately in consumption is the demise.
Should consciousness be dependent on consumption it is not an exoteric argument but of essential feeding of some finite amount. Otherwise if it be an esoteric argument it will be eternal and the consumption will have at some point to end by choice.
Whatever the variety of consumption esoterically it is the individual that chooses and is no one else's concern, yet whilst dead is a fear and consumption delays it foe the individual then methods and arguments shall prevails in the attempt to secure a well stocked kitchen, and what better kitchen than the dynamic larder of the Earth.
For the individual this can well equate to an organic worlds rich in animals, that they are bred and eaten is of no consequence, for the veganic such an organic world would not breed animals. For the common consumer including vegetarians,vegan and fruitarians etc., the organic environment is not the issue but a world for as many humans as possible, with washing machines and mobile phones and all manner of conveniences. Order is the main course and politics and pressure groups ensure acquisition and division of assets.
Wetland Drain Damage
June 5th, 201614th August, 2017 As the water entering the drain seems to go into the pipe I imagine there's a break in the pipe; an outer part was probably connected to an inner and has been dislodged by the falling tree. Water now flows around the pipe and constitutes the larger part of the flow once water has receded to a degree. It's hard to know without getting down and dirty with some risk
June 4th 2016 I had cleared a path along the bund some week ago, thinking I had reached the Japanese Knotweed patch; today I realised the landscape had changed. A large tree in the bund had fallen into the river damaging the bund and drain. Subsequent tides have washed away a substantial part of the bund adding to my disorientation.
Looking at top of the bund
Looking from bund down to the drain.
Previously the drain was within the bund.
Next page pics from 2017