Like the Arabian Nights, my 301 st. Post!

Michelle of Rambling Woods has bestowed this
beautiful award on a number of us who care about
our planet with the proviso of posting on how we
make a difference.



I have just surpassed 300 posts so on this milestone
it is only right and proper that I tell you a little of why,
where and how we live.

We live on a 500 acre farm and keep breeding cattle and
sheep and grow some timber. We set aside a portion of
land to plant to trees every year as well.

All animals are pasture or hay fed and have the bare minimum
of vaccines or chemicals. The sheep need a vaccine annually but
our cattle are healthy without intervention.

We grow our own food as far as weather conditions allow.
One yearI cropped a hundred weight of strawberries from one
strawberry bed and we had raspberries by the bucket load.

Last year, at the end of our 6 year drought, I lost each

and every atrawberry and raspberry plant as well as

all our currant and blueberry bushes.

I do not mind a few grubs on the outer layers of my

vegetables and only use companion planting and natural

pest deterrents. Onions amongst the roses confuse aphids

so they do not breed, any that do, are taken care of by the

lady bugs.

Needless to say, fertillizers are supplied by sheep. cattle

and horses, What better source could there be? The

vegetables have supplements from the poultry run.

All our water comes directly from God and we store it
in many very large concrete tanks with lids. This year

we added two large tanks, an extra 32,000 gallons.
We now have sufficient stored water to be able to be
stretched over 2 years for our two households.

One can, after all, never know what the future holds.
We have lived off our own water supply now for 38 years.

In good years we have given masses of fruit and vegetables

away. We keep a small orchard of various fruits as well as
just over a dozen citrus trees, oranges, mandarines, blood

oranges, ruby grapefruit, pomelos, limes, both for gins and

tonics and Kaffir limes for their aromatic leaves, as well as
cumquots for marmelade.

Our air-conditioning is provided by curtesy of the grapevine

and rose covered pergolas the length of both sides of our

long and thin house. We only heat the one room we live in
and sleep with open windows all year round.

We buy as little as possible from supermarkets and augment
our food supply from the farmers' market insead.
Our daughter is a fibre artist and natural dye maker.

Her dyes have no toxic elements to be disposed of. They

are truly natural and any residue goes on the compost heap
as she uses the metal of the dye pot as a mordant.

Her book ECO COLOUR by India Flint is being reprinted

in the USA next year. Here it is already in its second edition.

Both these ec0-prints are from her last exhibition.

Needless to say , her two daughters are also conversant

with her methods and are given to designing and making

their own clothes mainly from recycled preloved clothing

from op-shops.

Each garment and each piece of dyed cloth is unique and

a piece of art in its own right.

We also prefer to wear natural fibres, wool, silk, hemp, jute

and cotton although cotton uses chemicals in its production

which we do not like at all.

You may have noticed that I am not a shopaholic
except perhaps where oldfashioned roses are concerned.

To sum up, we have to date improved the degraded barren
land we bought 17 years ago and have native animals like

kangaroos breeding here where there were none before.

Finally, I would like to pass on this lovely award to the
following bloggers, all of whom I admire. You all deserve it
and are in random order.

To:

Kathie of Kathiesbirds

Celeste of Celestial Ramblings

Weaver of Weaver of Grass

Nina of Nature Remains

Carol of Photo Phase

Gaelyn of Geogypsy

Montanagirl of Montanagirl

Mary of Faith Fabric and Photos

Tammie of Spirithelpers

Tom of Wiggers World

Isabel of A Room of One's Own

Please keep on making the world a better, cleaner place.