Natasha Turner

Wish I could come, but we're committed to other things right now. Sounds like a great opportunity, and I hope a good group of people join you!

Let's do it!! I'll send you an email Doug.

To everyone else: I'm still looking. I'll take as many as I can get. We want subjects your passionate about, and we've got presidential go-ahead to be innovative, creative, and do something new every year. Pizza oven, solar oven, water catchment, mass composting, and anything else appropriate - I would love to eventually make all of these elements inter-connected parts of the whole.

I am a community developer at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY. My official title is so glamorous. Are you ready? Head Gardener! Ha, ha.

Anyway, part of my job is to hold workshops that will be well attended and draw interest, not only for the seminary but the surrounding Asbury University, Wilmore, Nicholasville, Lexington communities. There is some existing knowledge of permaculture on the University side of the street, but it is a new subject here at the seminary.

I am looking for those interested in teaching introductory permaculture ethics and one-off permaculture topics workshops. There is a huge emphasis here on the community aspect of things. We have an existing community garden, small orchard, bees, and chickens, but these placements were not planned by a permaculture designer, so there are definite improvements to be made. The surrounding homes in Kalas Village were built with the environment in mind (not sure of all the details), and there is a beautiful, large facility on site for holding classes when the weather is unfavorable.

The teachers I am looking for will be at the very least considerate in their speech and not derogatory toward Christian views. This will be a time of proving that permaculture is a design "science" and not a religion of its own.

Hey Bob, I am soooo upset. They all died! 11 were unformed (one of those was just a little mass of veins). The day before we were expecting them, I was out in the garden, and an egg exploded all over the other eggs. I ran online to see what to do, and all I was seeing said to clean out the nest and wipe down the remaining eggs (so they wouldn't be contaminated with the bad bacteria). The kids and I did, but that evening she only sat on the eggs for five minutes. We went through a bunch of hoops trying to save them, but on day 37 I gently peeled back a shell and found the perfectly formed duckling dead. I went through the last five and found the same It was a great loss to me

I second that thought. I love my Muscovies. I don't think I'll ever want to be without them. Mine are sweet, quiet, endearing. The girl is prettier than the guy, but he can be a sweety when he is pining for his broody girl. He'll seek out company. Mama is sitting on my doorstep right now, curious about what I'm up to and probably hoping for a treat or some fresh cool water from the faucet

I came across this document on the Net while searching for an idea of how to keep our rabbits cool in this hot Kentucky summer . . . Great ideas, nice concise read with illustrations. Italian breeders got there before me and did all the brainwork.

Thank you for your 2 cents Thomas That sounds like a do-able fix. I will work on getting more comfortable around them. I do hate getting stung though.

We have a plethora of beetles in our hive right now. It has just been moved from a farm about 20 miles away. Most likely, the bees were stressed for a few days, because we had a makeshift entrance reducer on during the move that we were nervous to pull fully off. The bees were extremely active after the move, in the middle of the night. Hubby pulled off as much as he could and took off running. A day later, he went to see about pulling it out again, but they were still very active. Two days after that, when he was away at work I heard the bees very loudly from far away and upon approaching noticed they were in a columnar form from the hive to the top of the tree above them.

I thought they were swarming, so I manned up and got geared up to check the bees myself, for the first time ever. When I pulled away the shirt [makeshift entrance reducer], the folds were filled with beetles. Some ran back into the hive, others dropped to the ground. I tried to research what to do, but the opinions are so mixed that I finally went with the opinion of letting the bees deal with it themselves (since I had at least gotten our mess out of the way).

Was this a good way to "deal" with it? Should I do more? They are considerably calmed down now. There are active bees still there. I don't think I have the guts to open the hive myself. Would it change anything?

Seeking more knowledge than I have . . .

Just now found this thread. Lovin' it! Can hardly wait for the next update . . .