AQUAPONICS!!

I'm finally writing a post about my (my family's) fantastic Aquaponics system!!! :D

I really think everyone should have one!

We got our system just after Christmas if I'm not mistaken and after a few months and some mysteriously missing fish later its up and running and producing some wonderful veggies!

What is an Aquaponics system?

It is a hydroponic garden bed which gets its water and nutrients from a connecting fish pond.

  

Image: backyardaquaponics.com

Once you get your fish in and your plants in, all you have to do is feed the fish and pick the produce. The water from the fish tank cycles through the growbed, the excrement from the fish acts as the nutrients for the plants, and then the water drains out of the growbed back into the fish tank to be recycled by the fish and so the cycle goes on and on.

Which type of fish do you use?

Our Barramundi

Well at the moment we have Barramundi, but you can have a whole range of fish. Depending on which type of fish you choose they can usually be harvested every 6 months and eaten. As this idea is a bit unsettling for some (eating a 'pet') you can get non edible varieties such as Koy and Goldfish instead which should last year round.

Barramundi are used to the warmer months and so are usually harvested around this time, as ours are still runts and didn't grow very much we will have to try and find a way to keep them warm in winter. Currently we are using a pool blanket.

Other species include:

Catfish - Don't have scales so they need to be skinned, they are quick growing and have a good food conversion ratio

Carp - Not easily obtainable, and often there are high fines and fees for keeping them

Jade Perch - Has the highest levels of omega three oils of any fish species in the world, require warm water and consume an omnivorous diet

Murray Cod - Quick growing, and a great eating fish. One of the downfalls is that they must be kept at high stocking densities, and kept well fed otherwise they cannibalise each other

Silver Perch - Take 12-18 months for fingerling's to grow to plate size, Perch are omnivorous and will happily eat green scraps as well as Duckweed and Azolla

Tilapia - Easy to breed, fast growing, withstand very poor water conditions, consume an omnivorous diet and are good eating but require warm water

Trout - Have extremely fast growth rates and excellent food conversion ratios, prefer water temperatures between 10°C and 20°C.

Which plants work best and are there any plants you cant grow?

You can grow almost any vegetable, herb and leafy green in a grow bed, you can even grow root vegetables such as carrots and potato's.

For us personally we have found Basil to grow phenomenally well!! We don't have a Basil plant we have a Basil HEDGE!! When you have an Aquaponics system plants will almost grow before your eyes.

What worked?

Cucumbers have done exceptionally well for us with countless very large cucumbers, but you have to be tough with pruning because the vine can take over. 

Basil as mentioned earlier have just been amazing with shopping bags full every week of basil leaves.

Parsley it took a while to establish because it was a bit of a weak plant to start, but now its come good and just taken off.

Tomatoes were okay, but they are okay in almost any condition, but be aware that they can poison the other plants when they start to die.

Celery we are yet to have a harvest of Celery but its growth rate has been amazing as well.

Capsicum, now I grew my Capsicum plants from seeds at the beginning of the year and I am getting my first crop now, they were very slow growing and I think that might be to do with the temperature, so anyone growing capsicum..winter is best.

What didn't work?

Corn We didn't get one harvest of corn unfortunately and had to pull them out after they started to die

Lettuce We haven't had much luck with lettuce, it either hasn't grown or has been very bitter

Eggplant The eggplant seems to have stopped growing, it has one baby eggplant on there at the moment but it has been the same size for a few weeks now.

Some of my produce!!

Capsicums



 

Tomato's





Basil

Our System when we just started :D



I would write much much more but I think this blog would go on forever.
I want to thank the http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/ website for the information about the fish.

This is also the company that we bought our system from so if you want to check them out they will answer all your questions. They are located in Jandakot, south of Perth.

Happy Gardening!!

Em

What Is Your Ultimate Goal?

I haven't blogged in about a week, but I've been really busy with assignments but they are all over now, 2 weeks of exams and then its one long holiday :D

But I want to ask those who ready my blog, and those who stumble across it for the first time...

What is your ultimate goal out of life?

 

I want to know what other people see life to mean for them. Everyone is working towards a bigger goal. It doesn't have to be as huge as "world peace" but it might be.

This is just a little post for me to see if anyone wants to share, it might even inspire me to write a whole post about it, or learn new things.

People have told me that its too complicated to comment and so they haven't, if you aren't signed up with Google that's fine, just chose the option that says anonymous or enter your name. :)

Whats my goal?

I could write a list forever and it would be constantly changing and evolving.

I used to want to save the orangutans in Borneo by working it the sanctuary there, and I still do, but I have learnt that if I want to save this species, I have to work on something much bigger than the life of a select few animals. So now my goal (and its gonna be a hell of a battle) is to stop logging and forestry in Indonesia.

My second goal is to improve the public transport system in Jakarta, so that people can use a train or a bus safely, efficiently, and easily.

It all comes down to making the world better than when I arrived.

I admit that I have more of a passion for the environment than people, but I do believe that even if you are just one person, you can make a big difference. And like the bus driver told me the other day: "If you can save one tree in Indonesian, you've done a damn good job"

The goal is what makes you do it, but its the effort that you put in to get there that makes the result worth something.

So I ask everyone who reads this to leave a comment below sharing what your life goal is.

Or even if you have reached your goal, please share what its like, and what it took you to get there. :)

Have a wonderful day

Em

Mobile Phone Diet and Slowing Things Down

This might sound like a crazy impossible idea, but I just went two and a half weeks with a phone that does nothing but call and text. No games, no Internet, I'm surprised it was even in colour! All because my blackberry died after only one year. Anyone who owns a blackberry knows that you can do everything on it, so it was tough going from all to nothing in the space of one day. but to my amazement and actual enjoyment, being virtually without a phone for a couple of weeks was the most cleansing and relaxing experience.

I didn't have the social pressure of being "on call" 24/7, I didn't have to be on twitter, Facebook, blackberry messenger, or emails. I started reading a book on the bus (something I haven't done in years), i talked to my friends without being divided between them and the virtual world of the phone. And i was able to people watch like never before.

I was standing at the train station with 3 friends, one had an iPhone and two have Samsung galaxies. I stood there as the three formed a semi circle in front of me, and simultaneously they all reached for their phones and started mindlessly poking away, then all together they would put them in their pockets, and you could almost time it to the second as they all once again about 30 seconds later took their phones out of their pockets and once again started poking away. I could do nothing but smile as this went on in silence in front of me. :)

Its like we have this subconscious connections to our phones, this need to be constantly reassured that someone is following us, messaging us, tweeting us and we lose sight of the people around us who are face to face. If there was a test done on the dopamine levels in our brain when we received a text message from one person, compared to the levels when that same person said the exact same thing to out face, I can be fairly sure that we would find higher levels in the short term from the text message than we would from face to face, but i think we would also find that even though face to face contact would result in lower levels, over a longer period of time the levels would be higher than normal.

It is this desire to get quick hits of happiness rather than slow release doses that makes mobile phones so addictive. In this ever quickening world, where speeds have to get faster or they get left behind, we lose the joy and small details of just going slow, enjoying a moment rather than trying to get somewhere. Walking rather than running to the train station when you know there is only a 5 min wait between trains. Taking the bus that means you have to walk for 10 mins rather than the one which gets you there faster.

Taking the back streets rather than sitting on the freeway. In the end it might take you longer to get somewhere or you might have to wait a while, but this need for speed world that we are living in isn't spinning any faster, at least not fast enough that you will ever tell in your life time.

I will come back to my point about mobile phones. If you own a phone which connects you to almost any social media site, if you are constantly checking, even without realising it, try for a day going without a phone, or at least turn it off and put it in your bag. Leave it there. try it for a week even two weeks, and you will feel after that week or two that when you do go back to your phone, maybe you wont want it so much. At least not as much as you thought you would.

If you think you could try this, and you want to give it a shot, please let me know how you get on and if this is true or if I'm just a fluke of nature :p

Happy slowing down and disconnecting...

Em

Procrastination or Over-Inspiration?

I have to keep this short but I doubt that I will, I should be finalising my major assignment right now but I am overflowing with inspiration and enthusiasm! Its a fine line between reading about sustainable achievements for research or reading them because they are fascinating and personally interesting.

For a 2 years now I have been scared and unsure about where I can or will go after uni, but now thanks to some field trips and an assignment I just want to get out there and get involved in everything. My head is teeming with ideas and possibilities, trying to calculate when and how I can do everything I want.

It is the slack thought that maybe someone will "snap me up" as if I am carrying around a billboard flashing just how enthusiastic and willing I am to start some where, any where. But I don't have a billboard and I don't have the spotlight on me. So I just have to realise that I need to get out there and get my imaginary billboard flashing so I can turn on that spotlight!

If you haven't noticed already, on the right side of this blog I have a growing list of links to websites that have inspired me and given me this wonderful feeling. I want to share them with you so please check them out. They range from campaigns and organisations, to inspiring seminars and lectures available online, to magazines and news papers and other neat sites that I stumble across during my studies and searching. I am thinking of writing a blog which gives a little summary of my top websites to make it easier to know what they are all about.

I will end my little rant here and hope that everyone can get as inspired and enthusiastic as I am no matter what your interest may be!

Have a wonderful day :D

Em

Would You "Give It All Up"?

Many people all around the globe are taking and making the shift to lower paying more sustainable lifestyles. Could you make the switch?

It gives me great joy to hear of people "giving it all up" to pursue a simpler way of life. A life of lower consumption and lower income, leaving their often higher paying jobs and comfortable lifestyles to live in a smaller home and have a part time or lower income more environmentally sustainable job. Even to the confusion and shock of their friends and families who cant comprehend like many, why you would want to 'down grade' your lifestyle. But as a matter of fact, these changes can (and are the reason why many make the switch) be very rewarding. Leaving a fast paced, stressful life, leaves room for family, friends, health and re-connecting with the environment around you.
It can be compared to retirement, when a couple may wish to stop working and downsize their house, and get back to each other and enjoying life. But why wait till you are 60 to enjoy all their is to enjoy in life, why not start now.
It somewhat ironic that we are brought up to believe that in order to be happy we must first be stressed and over worked, we start out as kids perfectly happy and content then we are told its time to grow up, we have to go to school, where we are stressed about homework because we are told that it will give you a good life later, then we are told to go to uni because its how we get a job, so in uni we are stressed with more work, because we are striving for this ultimate job, then we get the job and we are stressed because we work so hard to get a promotion because we are told the more money you have the happier you will be, we take on a big mortgage for a big house, because we are told that the bigger the house the happier you will be and so the stress of paying the mortgage makes us work more and its one big vicious cycle. *phew*

But what if we changed this around? I have been inspired this week by reading a book called 'Into the Wild' by Jon Krakauer. The book follows the short life of a boy not much older than me who finishes university and sets out on a life of subsistence, and tramping (hitch-hiking) across America to reach his goal of exploring the Alaskan wilderness. I find myself relating to Alex (the boy) and I see many similarities with myself. He is friendly, intelligent and could have the grand American Dream that his parents dream for him, but he sees past the illusion and goes in search of real experience and the real meaning of what it is to be human.

I know that structure and organisation, hard work and stress is what holds our society together. Growing populations need to be supported, and nobody can afford to 'slack off', but I feel that if we take the meaning of life to be live to work instead of work to live what are we really taking away at the end of it. Remembering that we cant take money with us when we die, and we cant eat it either, our pursuit of money as wealth instead of experience as wealth is our greatest downfall.

I hope that in reading this blog you will find some time to reflect on what you want out of your short time on earth and to ask yourself; If I look backthe real beauty of the world, or do I want to spend every day embracing what it means to be alive.

 on my life before I die, what will I want to see and what do I want to have achieved? Do I want to wait till I'm 60 to experience
I will finish by going back to my main point of 'giving it all up', if you were to take what you needed to survive and only to survive from your home today, what percentage of your household belongings would you actually need to take with you, then ask yourself, how would I feel if I emptied my house, and kept only that which enhanced my every day life. What would you keep? How much would you get rid of? Would you ever consider making the change? or to what extent?
Let me know with a comment.

Have a wonderful day
Em

Phone Etiquette

We need official, universal, mobile phone etiquette!!

If there is one thing that drives me nuts, its people being totally disrespectful when using a mobile phone. So here is a list of my top mobile phone inappropriate situations:

1. DO NOT answer your phone, or be on your phone if you want service!

The person serving you isn't your slave! Respect your server, they are

doing you a favour, so get off the phone for 2 mins (its not that hard...really!)





2. DO NOT answer your phone or text at the table!

Or while your are sharing a meal with anyone, anywhere.

You are there to be with that person, if the person on the other end of the phone is

more important than your present company, why aren't you out for dinner with them??



I would also like to add if you are in a restaurant, not only are you disrespecting your date, but

you are guaranteed to be annoying all the other restaurant patrons. 

3. DO NOT talk loudly when using your phone on public transport!

Being a bus and train catcher this is particularly irritating to me. When someone

gets on their phone and starts talking so loud you would think they were at a rock concert, and then

they proceed to talk about all kinds of details about their life that the rest of the passengers

really didn't want to listen to, especially after a long day at work. I think this image

from Transperth is very fitting!



4. DO NOT use your phone in a cinema or theatre!

For starters, why did you pay for a ticket to sit there on your phone, you can do that at home for free?? Secondly, don't think you can hide that bright blue light that is illuminating you and the people next to you! Thirdly, those people next to you haven't complained because they are too polite!

Get off the phone, or go home.

5. DO NOT wear your bluetooth earpiece and then talk as if your talking to me!

a) You look like a fool, everyone knows it!

b) The only respectable place for bluetooth devices is when you genuinely cant use your hands!

ie. When you're driving.

c) Don't walk around and talk to yourself, and look at people (unless you want to look crazy, then

go ahead!)

 I know that there are many more situations in which phone use is just down right rude, but I'll leave

that for you to mention in a comment :) I'll finish with this picture, as I think it is perfect, and I

wish I had a pad of these in my bag so I could hand them out as needed!

 Be a respectful, responsible phone user!

Em