great blue heron swoooop

photo by KarinB

Nye Ranch Farm Projects..

Big things happening here at the ranch. Eli came over and we prepped a couple of raised beds and planted them with tasty cool season veggies. We also collected mass quantities of llama shit, 20 wheelbarrow loads. Llama dung is a great natural fertilizer. It is considered a "cold manure" because Llama's have 3 stomachs that digest seeds, thus there is no need to compost the crap. Llama poop can be applied directly to a soil mix or used as tasty mulch.

I've been continuing my exploration of various farming techniques and different types of agriculture. Organic has always been my base, but have always found Biodynamic agriculture very interesting.

As defined by Wikipedia.
"Biodynamic agriculture, a method of organic farming that has its basis in a spiritual world-view (anthroposophy, first propounded by Rudolf Steiner), treats farms as unified and individual organisms,[1] emphasizing balancing the holistic development and interrelationship of the soil, plants, animals as a closed, self-nourishing system.[2] Regarded by some proponents as the first modern ecological farming system,[3] biodynamic farming includes organic agriculture's emphasis on manures and composts and exclusion of the use of artificial chemicals on soil and plants. Methods unique to the biodynamic approach include the use of fermented herbal and mineral preparations as compost additives and field sprays and the use of an astronomical sowing and planting calendar."

Anyway I came across a crazy Hungarian named Zsolt who is into Biodynamics, and has worked on farms worldwide. He came by the Nye one day and brought some female cow horns, and some cow shit. Both came from Frey Vineyards, a Biodynamic Vineyard. These two ingredients are part of a BD preparation called "BD 500". You simply stuff crap into the cow horns and bury them underground from fall to spring. Then you mix the dung with water and spread it over your fields, greatly increasing the humus content in your soil and the amount of "active life" in the soil.

The various crops I planted are:
Mizuna, Kale, Chard, Bok Choi, Cabbage, Celery, Brussel Sprouts, Spinach, Romaine lettuce, various lettuce varieties, Garlic, Onions, Broccoli, Parsley.. YUMMMY

what I've been up to.

Fuck Oil

Just over a year ago, 53,​000 gallo​ns of bunke​r oil spill​ed from a South​ Korea​-​bound​ conta​iner ship.​ The ship hit the Bay Bridg​e,​ pictu​red below​.​ Follo​wed by some other​ Photo​graph​s I took docum​entin​g the nasty​ spill​.​

Heal the Bay. You Bums.​

3 men and a ghost.

Halloween