Lloyd Charles wrote:
> Merla wrote > > > > > Andrew looked like he'd been hit by a ton of bricks. "I've been using > > Bio-Dynamics for some years now. Let's chat about it at our place. My > wife is > > baking so we'll have something to snack on. I'll put the tools back in > the > > trunk." > > > > 'Thanks for your help with the white beast. I'd be quite interested in a > tour > > of your place and a cup of tea. The lady climbed back in the rented car > and > > off they went... > > As they cruised back down the gravel road she noticed the vertical plastic > pipe in a new wheat crop (almost like the pipe she had seen at the BD > conference last fall), and as they pulled up in the farmyard another beside > the house, different, a bigger size but plain pipe with something pointing > out the top. Walking past a small herb garden Andrew stopped, " just watch > this little feller don't frighten you, he's having his last warm up before > winter sets in" a rough coated, prickly looking lizard, slim built and > about a foot long, sunning on a log border, and almost the same colour as > the timber. Andrew knelt and slowly poked his finger toward the lizard's > nose, at about eight inches he arched up off the log and projected a spikey > collar a couple of inches out around his neck, hissing, trying his best to > look mean, he subsided as soon as the finger moved away. "The bearded > dragon" Andrew explained," we call 'em frill neck lizards, the Japanese > tourists go mad over 'em. They're everywhere round the yard since we put > that pipe up out the side and we dont have snakes around the house anymore!" > "So" the Idaho lady asks " is that a Hugh Lovel broadcaster and how would it > affect snakes and lizards?" > " No, its a Callahan type, paramagnetic tower, just a plastic pipe full of > rock dust with a crystal on top I would be interested in making one of these. We stopped at an old quarry site to get the basalt for the BC. Is this the type of rock you're talking about? I bet you doused the rock to see if it was what you wanted? How did you choose the rock dust? > - I've heard that reptiles are highly > sensitive to energies and it seems we may have moved the balance a little in > favour of lizards - not part of the original plan." " you drove past a Hugh > Lovel broadcaster on the way in - we have several of those that I made to > his design - he's been very helpful" > A short haired, smiling lady in gardening gloves appears around the corner > of the farmhouse "Thought you were going into town for some pipe bits?-- > Ahh you did'nt tell me we were having visitors!" > "Did'nt know did I?--how did the cooking go?" > "Its too nice a day outside - I'll do that later - you better come in we'll > have a cup of tea" > The threesome chatted for most of half an hour then Andrew pushed his chair > back and said " you better come see my workroom" > They walked the hallway and turned right into a small well lit room, > cluttered but reasonably tidy, two desks, bookshelves full, a well worn > swivel armchair, large storage cupboard, but what caught her attention were > the instruments and glassware, there were numerous lab racks of glass vials > most of them filled with all sorts and colours of things Chemistry--I have a soil testing kit with test tubes, but you're way beyond that. > - an ugly looking > pair of pliers lay beside a small silver case open on the first desk. Fitted > snugly in the case were black and yellow meters. > "OK" he said "we start here, juicing pliers, homemade, How did you make the juicing pliers? > these will get juice > out of just about any live plant, we use these to get sap samples to test > with the refractometer. Yes, I'm still trying to get Brad to let me buy a refractometer on the grant. > > " But I thought that was something the wine growers did to check sugars in > their fruit, how do you use this with a wheat crop" > " Any growing crop - we measure the sap brix and that indicates the plant > level of health - resistance to diseases and insect pests - but more > important we use it to check the plant response to foliar sprays - > nutrition." > "Then what" she asked, eybrow raised. > "Well that brix response is the plant saying ' yes I like that' or 'no dont > do that to me right now' and we also test the weeds - often we can make a > foliar mix that will increase brix of the crop and decrease brix of the > weeds - that puts the weeds at a competitive disadvantage, the crop outgrows > them." I've saved your email on this, but could you repeat this in detail for me? > > "Now there are 'sensitive' people that say they can do this testing without > instruments - just go out in the field and feel the energies - I won't argue > with that - but most of us can't and its one more variable in the chain" > " In here I also have pH and conductivity meters, and a probe thermometer, > these are for soil testing and mixing brews - did you know you can switch a > crop from growth to fruiting mode by tuning up the nutritional energy? pH is > a part of that." > "Over here now" he indicates the second work desk, this is my favourite > gadget, its a potentiser, with this and a little box of Malcolm Rae cards I > can make any homeopathic remedy for soil, man or beast" > Amanda picks up a tiny glass bottle, the kind you see with perfume samples > in the stores - but this one has a green label with a number code - there > are lots of these on the desk in little boxes and a slab of new clean ones. > "Thats BD500 potentised D6" he says " part of a set for one of the field > broadcaster pipes, I'm treating against weeds for a couple of days so I've > taken the preps out." > She takes a seat on a stool near the second desk and slowly says "I dont > think I could figure all this out, it looks so complicated" > "Well I guess all the stuff I have here makes it look that way, but like > anything else, we can make it as simple or as complicated as we like. > Rudolph Steiner laid the foundations many years ago for much of what I do, > biodynamic remedies for the soil and atmosphere, peppering of weeds insect > and animal pests, its all there in the Agriculture lectures and he urged the > Koliskos to experiment with homeopathic dilution - they did an amazing > amount of work. Anybody can make up potencies by hand (dilution and > succussion) but a MM takes hours that way - three minutes on this little > machine. Same with the preps applied by broadcaster - it takes me about half > a day every three months and costs almost nothing to treat this whole farm - > stirring and spraying manually on 2000 acres is a big job and costs > considerable - with the broadcaster it gets done!" > Lets leave this for a while and go look at some plants! > They do a circuit past the vegie patch on the way out to the car, no sign > of insect damage here,"the most important paddock on the farm" he says "and > dont let anybody tell you different, we soil test it every year to make sure > the minerals are in our food, and it gets special treatment, If I want > rubbish food I can buy it in town cheap any time. Amanda thought to herself, "This is a method I can well use in my garden and on the right-of-way." "Andrew, can you show me your test plots that you put the foliar sprays on and how to extract juice from a plant and encourage the veggies and discourage the weeds?" "How did you make your juicing pliers?" She remembered the second year of her first weed grant, how she'd struggled with those test plots trying to find something that worked. The third year she had needed a way to evaluate the plots besides just counting weeds, and a way to tell right away if a foliar spray was right. She had been frustrated by the slow process of demonstrating methods that were foreign to the conventional farmers who were on the Weed Committee. They wanted 'scientific proof' even if they themselves weren't very scientific. Bio-Dynamics might as well have been from outer space. In her mind, she could see ten people sitting around a conference table at the Public Works office, each one passionate about getting rid of weeds and all but herself and Lang bent on using 2, 4-D and Clopyralid. With their enthusiasm, they would saturate the county with the soil-killing herbicide before she could ever catch their attention and motivate them to use BD preps and weed peppers, which to her were the best solution. And she had wanted to make a Lovel field broadcaster that year too. "These guys in Australia are way ahead of the Americans on radionics. Our laws discourage creativity and hog-tie us." She thought about the piece she had written to be published in the Bonner County Daily Bee... TO ORGANIC HOMEOWNERS "We label some plants "noxious" and don't realize that the weeds are here because of human activity. We need to take the responsibility, not blame it on the plants. We humans move into a place and build roads, and spread seeds by the tires of our vehicles and milfoil by pieces of the plant wrapped around the props of our boats. We disturb the soil that contains many plant seeds, on the noxious weed list or not, and they sprout. Then we spray herbicide which has health dangers to children and ourselves and are fatal to small creatures like fish fry and amphibians. All we think of is having a neat lawn or being able to use our boats. We disturb the soil and don't revegetate the bare ground to make it harder for noxious weed seeds to take over. We fail to clean the weed off our props and dispose of it, not throw it back in the water. "We need you organic people to do a good job on your county right-of-ways when you get No Spray signs from the county, and everybody to take care of weeds on your private right-of-ways and your own land. "The county weed committee doesn't have the money to pay for the materials or the manpower to do the job of weed control we want to do. We are trying to get state money for neighborhood coop projects. If anyone has any free time, please try to take the seedheads off your knapweed and tansy and other weeds now in this warm week before the snow comes so they won't drop and bag them and 1) take them to the dump or 2) if you'd like to experiment with energetics, slightly burn the seeds to take the moisture out of them and so they won't germinate, grind the charred seeds up in a mortar and pestle and either sprinkle this pepper on the land they came off of or make a homeopathic remedy of them by diluting at 1/10 of weed pepper and 9/10 spring, well or rain water (not chlorinated) in a mason jar and after closing the lid, hit the jar on the palm of your hand for 10 minutes. (Do this 7 more times to get an 8th dilution. This is a long-term homeopathic weed control remedy for that particular plant. You spray this on the ground for 4 years. Yes, I'm serious.) "We need to take care of our noxious weeds and help out the volunteer citizen Weed Committee and the Weed Supervisor to get the job done. If you don't like herbicide, then don't just leave the weeds. Do something about them now and I'll help you strategize what to do on your land. We need to show the conventional paradigm people that we are taking the responsibility to control our weeds. I'm also glad to hear your questions about weeds. Do you want to commiserate on certain plants that you don't think should be condemned to "noxious" status? Do you want to take care of a whole field of knapweed without herbicide? Do you want to know how to take care of hawkweed non-chemically? Call me and we can talk about it. I'm writing this on my own, not as a member of the Weed Committee." She'd had a lot of calls about that letter...Andrew had gone on ahead and she started after him at a fast trot...
