I’m not sure if I have ever heard of this before, but other than the first bites of the summer season, mosquito bites don’t last longer than a hour with me. Why? I believe I got bit up so much as a young child from the age of 5 or 6 upwards that I gave myself allergy shots from the mosquitos themselves. In any case, I hate the buzzing in my ears and even my eyes, even if I don’t mind the bites.

I find that the Off-like insect repellents literally leave me out of breath, so I have been searching for something natural that repels mosquitos. I want to have an enjoyable time picking wild berries. I do believe I have found something.

Mosquitos seem to like berry plants. Is is it for the shade the wide and long berry leaves provide them from the sweltering sun, or is it that they can actually drink some of the berry juice themselves? Come to think of it I don’t recall seeing any mosquito sucking a berry, but they do seem to come out of no where the minute I pick my first berry off of the vine. They attack buzzing the ears or even coming straight for the eyes.

I have heard of a lady, while in Mexico, who used only an oil made of equal parts of rosemary, rue and wormwood and slept without mosquito nets and rarely was bitten. Don’t have any of that, at the moment. However, I have read about mints or even using catnip as a repellent.

I invariably sprayed myself with a catnip mixture as I was spraying my Wild Evening Primrose to keep the Japanese beetles off. (BTW what works great is any mixture including a few drops of oil of oregano. The Japanese beetles won’t be back until it washes off in the next rain!) So I ventured into the woods and the mosquitos did not even blink, they just attacked. Time to read up some more–or back to the drawing board.

Two days later, I made myself some chamomile tea, without the sugar. I let it cool down and then dabbed on everywhere I would be exposed-my neck, my arms, my face, and my legs. I even poured some into a 1.5 oz plastic container.

I went to pick the berries and… nothing. Were the mosquitos on vacation? I can honestly say I had my first enjoyable berry picking time ever. No mosquitos!
After about 15 minutes into my hiking in the woods, I started to sweat-it was probably 84 degrees outside. Then some mosquitos came. So I got my spare bottle out and dabbed the chamomile tea on the areas around my face and neck where I had been sweating. Again, no mosquitos.

I know at Valli Produce, a local grocers, I should be able to buy dried chamomile flowers. I plan to put those into a oil base and let sit in the sun. Perhaps then I can make a chamomile oil, impervious to sweat droplets and I will have solved the problem of those annoying mosquitos!! Time will be the answer to that question.

what do they have in common? No it is not a plot for some fiction novel, but a real life story of people helping people.

Dr Mutlu Ozdogan, an assistant professor of forest and wildlife ecology as well as a scientist with the Nelson Institute’s Center for Sustainability, pairs up ground pictures taken with his satellite images. Satellite images show different degrees of greenness which Dr. Mutlu has brought to a whole new level by coupling it with actual ground photos taken by Iraqi scientists and farmers organized by Nic Jelinski, a Civil Affair Trooper.

Instead of remaining cut off from the outside world as the Iraqis have been this past 20 years, they now have a chance to network with the outside world and it all started with UW-Wisconsin -Madison.

© Photographer: Bradcalkins | Agency: Dreamstime.com
© Photographer: Gerrymphotos | Agency: Dreamstime.com
© Photographer: Massman | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Some of the crops to be helped by this collaborative effort are tomatoes and apples, to name just a few.

Here is an overview of Aquaponics. You basically have 3 barrels cut lengthwise and laid on their sides or you have 3 horse troughs filled with water. These tanks are roughly arranged in a circle. Two troughs are connected to each other with tubing or pcv piping. In addition, the barrels are at different heights or levels above the ground or floor allowing for a free flow of water coming into at least one tank.

In Tank 1 are fish of some kind. You could use tilapia, or even trout, if the tank is big enough. Tank 2 is the nutrient tank. This receives the waste products of the fish from tank 1. Tank 3 has plants in it that were planted in upright pcv pipes that are stuck in gravel. This gravel purifies the nutrient water, so that the runoff from tank 3 that goes into tank 1 is relatively clean.

Notice that water runs from tank 1 to tank 2 which is in turn flows into tank 3. Lastly, water in tank 3 flows back into to tank 1. This is called a closed system which is self sustaining. Now, from time to time new gravel needs to be added and, as evaporation occurs, more water as well.

This is a very simplistic view of the aquaponic system. This does serve to show you how your protein and vegetables can come from one source. Even your fertilizer is produced for you in this system. Imagine the cost savings as you enter into the growing system.

I welcome comments on all your varying experiences/expectations from aquaponics. Perhaps you even have a working system that you would tell us about in a guest post.
This exciting new urban/rural frontier needs to be explored as we move forward toward a more healthy style of living.

Of course, the question still remains — is aquaponics right for you? An informed buyer is a dangerous buyer. So, in the near future, look for more information concerning aquaponic systems. The old adage, an informed buyer is a happy buyer, may still be true.

Related Blogs

• Aquaponics in the S.F. Bay Area :: The Ethicurean: Chew the right thing.
• Aquaponics Secrets Trailer | Ecofilms

Thanks for being patient. You can contact your Congressmen
and your Senators . The Alliance for Natural Health USA has so graciously provided us with the text of our appeal to Do Not Co-sponsor Senator McCain’s Attack on Dietary Supplements

When you are at the congressman site, you can leave your 4 digit postal zip extension blank.

When you are at the Senate site, click on Senators and select your state in the first drop down box. Immediately your 2 senators should appear. After selecting the first one, click on the web form to enter your name and address and your all important message. I picked nutrition and dietary supplements, respectively, from the drop down boxes for topic/subject areas.

Please note there is some talk of adding portions of the DSSA to other bills as a way of getting around the huge outpouring against this bill. So continue to let congress hear your voices, especially that portions of the bill are not to attached to other bills. Just kill this bill and banish all portions of this bill. Bury it please!

To the text that the ANH USA provided, I added the above portion. With all the links I have supplied you with, it now should take mere minutes to contact your congressmen to let them know how you feel.

What exactly is this all about? Read on below.

Occasionally I bring you important news!! This is one of those times. Although I have not spoken much about herbs, this is a right we all must protect. The right to choose which dietary and herbal supplements we wish to buy.

Your rights to supplements are under attack! Should DSSA Bill pass, the federal government will take over the dietary supplement industry!

The misleadingly named Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) will limit which supplements you can buy and reduce what can be sold!!!

HEALTH FOOD STORES NATIONWIDE ARE IN SERIOUS JEOPARDY. IF SENATE BILL S.3002 PASSES Contact your congressmen Tell them to vote NO to Mccain

Despite supplements safe record, the DSSA Bill would allow fed govt to take over the dietary supplement industry!!! Vote No to DSSA Bill

If FDA takes over dietary supplement industry the prices are going to drastically increase!! Health enthusiasts need to speak out!!!

Senate Bill S.3002 will limit which supplements you can buy, while substantially
restricting the number of acceptable ingredients. Vote NO!!

Tomorrow I will add a link to your congressman, unless you know it already. If you do know it, then by all meansYes, please contact your congressman and tell him to vote no!! Tell him you want to choose the dietary supplements that you wish to take. Tell him that this is your constitutional right!!!

Related Blogs

• How Dare You Take Away My Constitutional Right To Have a Prom? « Majority In Mississippi
• The Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » New Supreme Court Case on the Constitutional Right to Informational Privacy
• Concurring Opinions » NASA v. Nelson: Is There a Constitutional Right to Information Privacy?

A brief look at blacksmithing in action.

I want to thank all of you for so patiently waiting for these videos to be published. I was working 6 days per week and did not have the time to discover the 2 tricks to getting the video from my Sony camcorder to my PC. Thanks again.

Sorry for the delay in telling you about how you can feed and care for your red worms and not go “nutso” in the process.

If you have been reading my posts about how to set up a red worm farm, some of the staples you now always have on hand are flattened cardboard cereal boxes, rinsed eggshells, newspaper and/or old mail you want to safely get rid of because it has your address on it, and vegetable ends or tops.

Pretend you are baking a cake. You have ingredients for that cake, right? It is the same here, only the ingredients will be eaten by the worms, and not baked.

Squirmie food ingredients:

flattened cardboard cereal boxes
rinsed eggshells
newspaper and/or old mail
vegetable scraps -ends or tops (keep in a cool place like a plastic bag in the refrig)

Now to make the food for the squirmies without going nutso:
Shred the cardboard and newspaper/old mail, keeping the two separate. Immerse both into water and wring gently. (I use two plastic tubs, but 2 buckets would work just as well)

Pretend your squirmies are a batch of dough and you want to
hide the egg shells and the shredded newspaper in that dough. Do it!
Chop coarsely your vegetable ends or tops and hide that in your squirmie “dough” as well. (Large vegetable scraps chunks are acceptable here)

Now, check the moisture level of your “dough”. You want it moist
to the point of dripping, but not saturated with water. If it is fairly dry, drip some handfuls of water into the bucket. If your squirmie “dough” is wet and moist, the worms will continue to keep it moist, but if it is saturated with water the red worms might drown because they need to breathe as well. If it is too wet, try adding some additional shredded cardboard and see if that doesn’t dry up some of the additional moisture.

You are almost done. Dip your shredded paper in water and squeeze
together as if you were doing papermache. Put these clumps onto the top of your squirmie “dough” to seal in the moisture and keep out the light.

I do believe the red worms squirm because they are light sensitive and so are working to get away from the light. Cover the entire top surface of the squirmie bucket with your clumps of wet paper shreds and you are now done.

By not making the green smoothie or fluffy green shake, you are
slowing down your worm farm production to a manageable level. Remember, you have the controls as the red worms themselves will die and be absorbed into the “dough” if conditions become not right such as over crowding or too wet. It is not a perfect science,
just start and enjoy the results.

Be sure to comment and ask questions if anything is not clear.

Do you ever wonder what is out there? In terms of gardening blogs, that is. Now, gardening involves so many different realms. Think relationship. When you do, you should be able to come up with a dozen different garden relationships. I have picked eight. Only two categories are in this post.

Here are blogs that relate to gardening, each in their own special way. I will be going into more depth on the individual blogs later. However, to start off and to get a feel for those relationships I deem important, I have listed the blogs in categories.

Give me a shout out if you think I have missed another delightful blog. I may update this list, especially if you tell me who I am missing that is exceptionally cool and informative. Stay tuned for future episodes. Watch for additional categories to be included.

You can e-mail me at gardeningbycathy@gmail.com

Gardening Blogs | General Gardening

Backyard Gardening Blog

Garden Rant – Uprooting the Gardening World

Sustainable Gardening Blog

Sustainable Gardening Blog by Susan Harris

This Garden Is Illegal – Obsession not a Hobby

Cold Climate Gardening Blog

Tiny Farm Blog

Life and Style – Gardening Blog

Times Topics Blog – New York Times

Clean Air Gardening Blog

Gardening | Hydroponics

Hydroponics Online Blog

Jasons Indoor Guide To Organic and Hydroponics Gardening

Grow GH blog

Bestes Hydroponics

Hydroponics – Soil-less gardening

Hydroponic Gardening Blog

Simply Hydroponics and Organics Open 24 hours

Growing Edge – Hydroponics