Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Jessica Hill|Cape Cod Times

Back in 1970 asthe 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim landing approached, Frank James,a member of theWampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah),was invited by Gov. Frank Sargent to write and give a speech at the ceremony.

But when James shared his speech with state officials, he was toldit was too aggressive and extreme. Then they asked him toread a statement written by a public relations professional.

James refused.

In his speech, James compared the white culture and the Native culture, how one conquered and pillagedand the otherwas enslaved or forced to assimilate. Onethought it must control life and profit off it, and the other believed life was to be enjoyed because nature decreed it. Onewas portrayed as organized and disciplined, and the other as savage and uncivilized.

We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end, James wrote, that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.

The censorship angered local Native people andhelped sparkthe creation in 1970 of the National Day of Mourning a gathering held every Thanksgiving on Coles Hill in Plymouth to honor indigenousancestors and the struggles that Native people face today.

That just further fueled the fire that after all these years, youre still trying to filter what we say, said David Weeden, tribal historic preservation officer for the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe about James being censored. Youre still trying to paint the actual history and tell a version of history, of what happened, reluctant to acknowledge the fact that Native Americans are still notbeingtreated equally or justly or not have a fair shake.

Even before James, who died in 2001at the age of 77,was censored,Weeden's father, Everett "Tall Oak" Weeden,had watched Native people demanding civil rights and recognition in other parts of the countryin the late 1960s.

Indigenous civil rights organizationsdemanded recognition and raised awareness abouttheinjustices taking place in several places around the country in thelate 60s and early 70s. In November 1969, "Indians of All Tribes"occupied Alcatraz Island offSan Francisco for 19 months.

In 1970, demands that Mount Rushmore be returned to the Sioux led to a group of Native American activists climbing the mountain and occupying it for months.

With this as the backdrop, around the same time James was censored, Tall Oak, a decedent of both Mashantucket Pequot and Wampanoag,traveled to Connecticut for a gathering of Native Americans. While therehe approached his friend James Fraser, who is Cherokee and Edisto, to discuss what happened to James.

As they sat in Tall Oaksblue Volkswagen bug, theybrainstormed ways to put a national spotlight on the eastern tribes and the injustices they faced.

Tall Oak, now 84, and Fraser, now 91,sought out four other Native Americans to help with the planning, and together they organized the first Day of National Mourning 50 years ago.

James, who taught music at Nauset Regional High School, Gary Parker, Shirley Mills, Rayleen Beyalong with Fraser andTallOakgathered multiple times to plan.

The six originally planned their gatheringfor Jamestown, Virginia, but later decided to hold itin Plymouth, where the Mayflower landedand a statue of Ousamequin, also known as Massasoit, which means,"Great Sachem,"stands looking over Plymouth Harbor.

The grouporganized different speakers and developed a list of different issues to discuss. They also spread the word across the country and arranged lodging for people who planned to attend the event.

Their biggest objective was to make sure the event was peaceful, Fraser said. No threatening or fighting words would be spoken.

It was the intent of the initial six of us that our observance on Thanksgiving would be a solemn occasion to bring attention to the eastern Native people that are still here, said Fraser, who lives in Lexington.

Part of their mission was to enhance relationships between Native and non-Native people onCape Cod, Fraser said. The event would have no ethnocentrism, no discussion of one culture being better than another. It would teach acceptance and cultural appreciation, he said.

The first National Day of Mourning was held onThanksgiving of 1970. Almost 500 Native Americans from across the country gathered at the statue of Massasoit. James gave a keynote speech, which wasmore tempered than the original speech he had prepared to give at the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims landing, Fraser said. They wanted a peaceful event that would inspire a connection between Natives and non-Natives.

It was thought that all hell was going to break loose at the first National Day of Mourning, Fraser said. There were undercover police officers. And there were cameras going, capturing pictures of those who had gathered.

Fraser remembers walking around the parking lot and seeing license plates from Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia and North Carolina. He walked around while people were eating and did a head count, and stoppedat 477 people.

It turned out to be a very lovely day, he said.

The National Day of Mourning is still held every year in Plymouth on Coles Hill. On Thursday, Nov. 26, people will gather for the 50th year and march through the historic district of Plymouth.

Fraser said both he and Tall Oak, who lives in Charlestown, Rhode Island, no longer attend the yearly event. But Fraser helped with an exhibit that the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., is planning for the National Day of Mourning, although COVID-19 delayed the preparation, Fraser said. A movie is also in the works.

David Weeden remembers going to the National Day of Mourning as a child.

It was all Natives in the early period and there was a lot of solidarity, he said. It felt good to be there.

In the early days the event would focus specifically to injustices Native Americans in the New England region faced, he said, but it now involves a wide range of issues, such as the environment and climate change.

Thoseissuesthat Native Americans first discussed 50 years ago at the statue of Massasoit are the same ones tribes are fighting for today. They fight for their aboriginal rights, the ability to hunt and fish, and to keep their sovereignty, Weeden said.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, for example, continues to fight to keep its land in trust and thereservation it established after officially receiving federal recognition in 2007, he said.

The discomfort that non-Natives felt from James' speech in the '70s also carries on today. Weeden said when Native Americans start talking about issues that are relevant to them today, the more privileged members of society get uncomfortable, wanting them to tone down their feelings.

Acknowledging that wrongs have been done is the first part of healing, Weeden said, and until wrongs are acknowledged and responsibilities have been taken for those wrongs and injustices, youre just perpetuating whats already been done.

Despite this,one of the original goals of the National Day of Mourning was to find a connection and peace between Natives and non-Natives.

James original speech also ended on a hopeful, uplifting message.

What has happened cannot be changed, but today we must work towards a more humane America, a more Indian America, where men and nature once again are important; where the Indian values of honor, truth and brotherhood prevail.

Contact Jessica Hill at jhill@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @jess_hillyeah

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Not all Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Find out why. - Fall River Herald News

BAGHDAD A bribe scandal involving an Australian man, officials from Iraqs oil ministry and government officials in the South Oil Company of Iraq, revealed on Wednesday the extent to which corruption plagues the Arab country and its state institutions.

The scandal erupted when Australian police arrested a man in connection with $78 million in bribes used to secure lucrative Iraqi oil contracts linked to an alleged international corruption ring.

Local media named the man as former Leighton Offshore managing director Russell Waugh.

Police claim his company paid bribes through contractors including Unaoil a Monaco-based firm which last year had two former senior executives plead guilty to being part of a scheme to bribe foreign government officials in several countries including Azerbaijan, Syria and Iraq.

Investigators believe the payments were used to secure contracts to build oil pipelines worth roughly $1.5 billion.

The key targets of the bribery scheme were Iraqi Ministry of Oil officials and government officials within the South Oil Company of Iraq, Australian Federal Police said in a statement announcing the arrest of a 54-year-old in Brisbane.

They said the investigation, which spanned nine years and involved US and UK authorities, was a painstaking process of piecing together a worldwide jigsaw of alleged corruption.

Police also announced they had issued two further arrest warrants for men living overseas.

Since last year, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi protesters have been taking to the streets in Baghdad and the predominantly Shia south to call for an end to endemic corruption by a political class that is largely seen as having squandered Iraqs resources through greed and mismanagement over the past years.

The protests were met with a heavy military crackdown and hundreds were killed.

Graft is endemic across Iraq, which ranks among the worlds worst offenders in Transparency Internationals annual Corruption Perceptions Index.

Since 2004, a year after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, almost $450 billion of public funds have vanished into the pockets of shady politicians and businessmen, according to parliament.

In 2018, Iraq gathered $30 billion in pledges from international donors in Kuwait to rebuild the ruined province, but virtually none of the funds have been disbursed.

The lack of progress has been widely blamed on the countrys infamous bureaucracy and rampant corruption.

Original post:
Australia bribe scandal sheds light on Iraq oil corruption | | AW - The Arab Weekly

An early morning fire Friday damaged a shed and the siding to a home in the 100 block of Birch Lane, and one woman suffered minor injuries attempting to help after alerting the residents to the fire.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue received the call around 6:45 a.m., with the first units on scene seven minutes later, according to a news release.

Firefighters found heavy smoke and flames coming from the detached shed, and they were quickly able to put out the fire. The nearby residence had heat damage to the siding, and the fire was called under control at 7:15 a.m.

The woman was treated at the scene and then went to a local medical facility for further treatment.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Engines 1, 6 and 9, along with Ladder 6, Rescue 1, Battalion 1, Tanker 9, Medic 9, Safety 1 and Car 1 responded to the fire.

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Early morning fire damages shed, siding to home on Birch Lane - The Suffolk News-Herald - Suffolk News-Herald

Elissa BunnMaster Gardener of El Dorado County

Cover crops are a great resource for home gardeners. They are essentially a ground cover for an area in the garden that might otherwise be bare for a season. They can be used in both cool and warm seasons. Gardeners plant cool-season cover crops ranging from legumes (peas, beans, clover, vetch, etc.) to grasses (rye, barley, triticale, etc.) for a variety of purposes.

All cover crops should be sown, sprouted and cut down before any flowering or seeding begins. You want to get maximum greenery instead of letting the plants put their energy into flowering and seeding. The cut-down plants can be tilled into the soil as food for decomposer organisms, which break down and release the plants nutrients into the soil, or they can be shredded and left on the top of soil if you prefer the no-till approach. Either way, you are helping improve the health of your soil and health of microorganisms in that soil.

Now for more specifics on different kinds of cover crops.

Legumes help fix nitrogen in soil through a symbiotic relationship with a bacterium. When the bacteria attach to the legume roots, the contact creates small bubble-like nodules that make a ready-to-use form of nitrogen. In a garden bed that has had heavy nitrogen feeder crops like tomatoes, squash, broccoli or lettuce, a legume cover crop could be seeded and cut down to help restore nitrogen for the next growing season.

Grasses help aerate and perforate dense, poorly draining soils. Grasses have deep, finger-like roots that reach into the soil and break up hard soils like the clay found in El Dorado County. These root systems can improve drainage, especially after the surface grasses are cut and tilled in.

Warm-season cover crops are used less in our climate because we love our tomatoes and peppers and want plenty of garden space for them. Nonetheless, some warm-season cover crops include the legume cow peas and the not-a-grass buckwheat. Both have deep roots and great green foliage. The same rule of cutting them down before flowering applies to warm-season cover crops.

Less common cover crops to break up hard soil are daikon radishes, mustard and other tap root plants. These plants can usually be seeded for cool or warm season; just make sure to read your seed information.

When planting your cover crop seed, warm or cool season, make sure you protect it from bird predation using mulch, a floating row cover or anything in between. Birds just love succulent sprouts when the seasons are changing. Another thing to consider is timing wait too long to plant in the fall and your cover crop will be fighting cold temps while germinating; plant too early and lack of rainfall might create the need to irrigate.

Which cover crop will be best for your situation? Use the information above, do some research and try it out. Mix and match or buy a pre-mixed seed; there are many options. We often get discouraged and quit after one try but, remember, this is gardening. There are so many variables. Dont give up after a disappointing result. After three years I have finally figured out the right cover crop for my home garden. Keep experimenting and you will find the best cover crop for your garden too.

Due to the pandemic, Master Gardener events will for the foreseeable future continue to be limited. Master Gardeners currently have no classes scheduled until next year. Keep checking the calendar of events for classes at mgeldorado.ucanr.edu/Public_Education_Classes/?calendar=yes&g=56698 to see what will be offered in the future. Find recorded classes on many gardening topics at ucanr.edu/sites/EDC_Master_Gardeners/Public_Education_Classes/Handouts_-_Presentations/.

Have a gardening question? Master Gardeners are working hard remotely and can still answer questions. Leave a message on the office telephone (530) 621-5512 or use the Ask a Master Gardener option at mgeldorado.ucanr.edu. Master Gardeners are also on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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Grow For It! The benefits of cover crops - Mountain Democrat

I was excited to read that intermediate wheatgrass is now approved for human use in the U.S.

This report is featured in the New Seed Variety Guide for 2021 put out by the Western Producer, Canadas preeminent farm newspaper.

Now if you are a cattle producer you might know about this crop as a cattle feed, mostly as a grazing plant.

If you have had an eye on innovation in agriculture then you might know about the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, or the more recent Minnesota Land Institute that launched a commercial variety which has been under development for 20 years.

The variety recently released for sale is a human food grade called MN Clearwater. It is promoted as superfood with environmental and health benefits.

As ranchers and farmers, we are always looking for better nutrition for our animals and as consumers we are all looking for nutrient dense foods since the industrial system of food productions often reduces the nutrient content, especially the micronutrient (essential for health) content.

READ MORE: Impacts of COVID-19 on food systems

I have written before about the Land Institute in Kansas and its leadership in developing crops that dont need to be seeded every year (annuals) with all the attendant costs of farming the land: plowing, disking, harrowing, seeding etc.

In a nutshell what the Land Institute in Kansas and their Minnesota partners aim to do is to advance perennial (lasting many years without reseeding) grains and polycultures (many crops all sewn together).

The Minnesota Land Institute has developed the first new grain crop in 4,200 years. The founding Kansas Institute set about developing the first perennial grains and figured it would take 50 to 100 years to commercialize such crops.

It was 1976 that Wes and Dana Jackson founded the Land Institute when his research science jobs at universities were taking a different tact: inventing destructive crop practices that used up soil and polluted land and water.

That was 45 years ago. Some beneficial innovations take decades.

Now to feed the world without depreciating the sustainability of farming practices and the land, this innovation is welcomed.

The scientists and farmers behind this new (old) crop are hopeful intermediate wheat grass grain can be mixed with traditional wheats for cooking and baking.

Beer fans will be interested that one of the first food products from the MN Clearwater variety is Kernza Ale or Long Root Ale. Yes, beer is food.

READ MORE: Flooding fun enjoyed by Cariboo family

The ecological benefits of this perennial plant, is that it can use nutrients that might otherwise be lost to the soil and the long vigorous roots systems can build healthy soil.

Intermediate wheatgrass is native to Europe and Western Asia. I see the potential to plant this crop as a part of a rotation designed to help grow and finish beef locally, since we are not a big grain growing region.

If the animals can graze, it may be cost effective. Plus, it is a grass and grassing beef programs can use it.

Check this crop out with Peace Forage Tools, from a neighbouring crop trial region.

David Zirnhelt is a rancher and member of the Cariboo Cattlemens Association. He is also chair of the Advisory Committee for the Applied Sustainable Ranching Program at TRU.

Do you have a comment about this story? email: editor@wltribune.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Williams Lake Tribune

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RANCH MUSINGS: Perennial cereals and their potential to heal - BCLocalNews

John Gaines|The Hawk Eye

There is more fuel than just ethanol fuel being made at Big River Resources in West Burlington.

In 2018, the company began a project to create acreage by the facility at 15210 103rd St. into a Monarch Fueling Station. The work has been completed and this fall butterflies were beginning to stop at the open space.

Its a reflection on what ethanol companies are all about, Big River Resources environmental compliance coordinator Ryan Janson told The Hawk Eye in May of 2018. Were taking care of our environment.

The project initiallywas proposed as a 1.8 acre site but was expanded to 5 acres. The area has been planted with a mix of flowers, prairie plants and milkweed. Its a pollinationmix called 10-40.

Its got a mixture of flowers for butterflies and bees and milkweed for the monarch butterflies, Janson said. "We had Des Moines County Conservation come out and help seed the land."

Janson said Iowa Iowa Renewable Fuels Association came up with idea and pitched the project across Iowa. Big River Resourcesalso has created a monarch station at the plant in Dyersville.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service played a role in the project helping fund the spraying and seeding. The group also is in the final stages to have monarch butterflies listed as endangered species. Plans are in place to complete this work in December.

Due to wet conditions in 2018 the project was delayed. It wasnt until the spring and summer of 2019 the plot wasplanted.

The property was first sprayed to kill offovergrowth and provide a clean slate for planting of the proper species of flora.

The plot was just short grass and we kept it mowed, Janson said. We had to spray and knock down what was there in 2019.

The work on preparing the land was done with the help of Land and Water Vegetation Control out of Wever.

This is the first year (2020) that it came up, said Janson.We are letting it do its thing now.

And as shown in the photos the butterflies are beginning to use this resource as fuel to perpetuate their species.

Continued here:
Big River Resources uses extra acreage at the West Burlington facility for a butterfly habitat - Burlington Hawk Eye

Wild horses reducing prodigious grass and brush fuel loading in a wildfire-prone wilderness area. William E Simpson

Naturalist and rancher William E. Simpson outlines why he thinks replacing wild horses with cattle in wilderness areas is costly to taxpayers and to the landscape.

The financial impacts of poorly managed public lands, especially wilderness, are very costly, far-reaching and significantly affect taxpayer pocketbooks and lifestyles, with direct and tertiary impacts.

Growing livestock management issues on public lands, especially in wilderness areas, is a major concern given that cattle and sheep are invasive animal species in North America that interrupt the naturally evolved evolutionary processes and trophic cascades, which results in undeniable damage to entire ecosystems. The unraveling of natures intricate evolutionary complexities yields losses to the forestry industry, recreational interests, watersheds and related fisheries, among others.

Both cattle and sheep have complex (multiple) stomachs and digest virtually all the seeds they consume from flowering plants and grasses, thus interrupting the natural reseeding of the flora in any given ecosystem where they graze.

Over time, via the disintermediation of natural reseeding processes, cattle and sheep grazing will strip the landscape of any ecosystem of much of its native flora, which is depended upon by numerous native species.

In wilderness areas where there are threatened and endangered species of flora, and native fauna that depend upon the native flora for their existence, livestock grazing can wipe out the native flora, thus adversely affecting native fauna as well.

Science shows that horses, having single stomachs, virtually pass all of the seeds they consume intact and able to germinate in their droppings, which in fact reseeds the landscapes where they graze on native flora.

When the soils of the landscape are depleted of native flora via cattle and sheep grazing, soils lose the stability that was provided by root systems and are then subject to catastrophic erosion during seasonal rains.

This abnormal erosion process also occurs when catastrophic wildfire (abnormally hot wildfire) defoliates a landscape and pasteurizes soils, killing root systems that stabilized the soils.

The recent evolution of catastrophic wildfire in western American states is also a result of less than adequate natural resource management, which has led to the collapse of large native species herbivores that had been consuming and maintaining fuel loads of grass and brush across the landscape to nominal levels annually.

Wild horses, with past populations in the tens of millions in the 17th century and numbering about two million in the early 19th century, were an important species in North America in regard to maintaining grass and brush fuels to nominal levels, while concurrently maintaining an evolved natural reseeding process across the landscapes where they grazed. In this regard, wild horses are unique, and their symbiosis is critically important in the American landscape.

Mankind and all of our technology (including modern livestock grazing) cannot duplicate the symbiotic value (in dollars it is worth tens of millions of dollars annually) that wild horses provide to plants and grasses on remote wildfire-prone wilderness landscapes.

The stripping of the flora from the landscape via invasive species grazing or by catastrophic wildfire, in turn, leads to catastrophic runoff and abnormal erosion. This abnormal runoff and erosion results in the silting-in of the gravel beds of the streams and rivers used by spawning salmon and trout. The silting covers fish eggs that may already be present, which are suffocated by the mud. And gravel beds that become silted-in no longer provide space within the gravels (also known as redds) for any fish eggs. The consequences are failed trout and salmon runs, among other issues.

There are tens of millions of acres of rugged and remote American wilderness landscape which are targeted for livestock grazing. These rugged and remote landscapes cannot be cultivated and managed using mechanized grass farming (re-seeding) methods, which are required to renew grasses on private tillable ranch land areas grazed by cattle and sheep. And therein is the problem. In the wilderness, which is mostly untillable because of steep and rough terrain, once the land is defoliated it cannot be reseeded by existing mechanized methods.

The end result is landscapes that are stripped of native flora by cattle and sheep become erosion-prone lands because they are defoliated and not reseeded. A further effect of this process is the depletion of aquifers in such areas with reduced ground-cover, leading to the ultimate failure of riparian areas.

Wild horses evolved in North America 55 million years ago and, as science shows, they have for millennia been natures reseeding experts in remote wilderness areas. It is my view that wild horses never went extinct in North America, as some people and agencies suggest. In fact, the most recent and best (unbiased) science proves that wild horses were present in North America before the arrival of any European explorers on the continent.

European explorers of the 16th century reintroduced additional horses to North America, horses that were descended from the North American wild horses that had migrated across the Aleutian land bridge about 17,000 years ago. The latest cultural and archaeo-zoology research presents a very strong case for these facts.

Public lands are arguably no longer managed sensibly, nor in the very highest standard of the public interest. And for that, American taxpayers pay the price. Instead, its becoming clear that our public lands are for sale to the highest bidder for exploitation by the livestock and mineral extraction industries, with livestock production being as ecologically egregious as the extraction industries.

The financial impacts related to livestock grazing on wilderness area lands is much greater than it may seem at first blush, and is largely based on the virtually irreversible adverse impacts that livestock grazing has on wilderness areas.

The unreasonable reduction of wild horses is supported heavily by the cattle and beef industries, and by those who lobby heavily for the livestock production industry to government agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Department of Interior (DOI) and US Fish and Wildlife (USFW).

Wild horses are arguably being exterminated from Americas public lands to create more livestock grazing; and because the additional funding to the BLM for wild horse roundups are a source of incremental revenue likely derived from related administrative fees levied for program oversight.

I intentionally use the term exterminated because of the method that has been crafted to manage wild horses into extinction and remove any impediments to expanded livestock grazing programs on BLM managed public lands, especially wilderness lands.

In short, the plan that has been adopted by the BLM that will arguably exterminate wild horses by motived people was carefully constructed to accomplish several key psychological milestones to limit public pushback.

The plan is accomplished in part by the use of studies funded by biased parties that misinform and confuse the American public (taxpayers) and their elected officials into believing these falsehoods:

All of the foregoing statements can be proven false in the light of facts.

The planned wild horse extermination process currently involves reducing population levels in herd areas below the numbers of breeding animals required to maintain genetic diversity and vigor of the species; and secondly, concurrently treating remaining female wild horses with chemicals (PZP and GonaCon) that cause sterility in mares as well as social disruption in family bands. The social disruption alone in any species of wildlife, including wild horses, is very detrimental, as science shows.

There is also a program on the table to spay wild horse mares using an archaic, cruel, and dangerous surgery ovariectomy via colpotomy.

In order to properly manage Americas natural resources, especially the remaining wilderness areas, we must take care in engaging the correct choice of large herbivores on such lands. And there is no doubt the wild horses are the correct herbivores for wilderness lands where threatened and endangered flora exist, and where catastrophic wildfires threaten both the flora and fauna of such precious lands.

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Bring back the horses: Public lands bear the ecological brunt of livestock grazing - Horsetalk

By Debbie James

High quality big bale silage is helping a Pembrokeshire grassland farmer maximise returns from his heifer rearing contract by achieving winter growth rates on forage only.

Keith Williams reseeds all fields approximately every eight years and that, together with cutting grass when it is young, are key to producing silage that can supply all the energy and protein requirements of growing animals.

It is not rocket science, you have to plant good quality seed, you must be prepared to cut grass young and it must have a high D (digestibility) value I dont want to cut old grass that has been there for donkey's years, says Mr Williams, who farms at Haverhill Farm, Spittal, with his wife, Helen.

The couple sold their milking herd nine years ago and now rear pedigree Holstein heifer replacements for a local dairy farmer.

They sell two crops of standing silage to a neighbour and make around 950 big bales of silage a year as winter fodder for the 160 heifers which range in age from 12-23 months.

Barley is grown on contract annually to provide an opportunity for reseeding with intermediate and late heading ryegrasses with a high D value.

These varieties will wait for you for a while, but if you have grasses that head too early you are in trouble, especially when the weather is changeable, says Mr Williams.

As an experiment, a short-term ley was planted in 2018. We decided late in the year to reseed and I dont like direct re-seeding so we used a short-term seed mix, Keith explains.

That ley is performing well but to capture the quality it must be cut every four to five weeks.

Prior to first cut, 112kgs/ha of nitrogen and slurry is applied. This is followed immediately after harvesting with 90kgs/ha of N via an after-cut fertiliser product.

For the third cut, 75kg N, 25kg phosphate and 56kg potash are applied the third cut provides the bulk of the winter feed, says Mr Williams.

The first cut of big bales in 2020 was taken on April 20 cutting dates depend on the year, he doesnt have a set calendar date.

I dont look at the calendar, I look at the grass, the weather forecast and the rotation do I need to take a field out to have it fit to graze by a certain date.

Mr Williams has used the same contractor, Geoff Thomas, for 30 years.

Mowing is done at midday with a mower conditioner, when the grass sugars are at their highest, followed quickly by tedding.

The number of times a crop is tedded depends on the weather if it is warm and sunny it will only be done once but if there is more moisture it will be spread a second time.

The grass isnt chopped before it is formed into bales because cutting it unchopped has never caused a problem with fermentation and conservation.

The crop is baled within 48 hours with a Fusion baler, with six layers of wrap.

Although it costs more than wrapping with the standard four layers, Mr Williams says it results in less waste and he doesnt use an additive so this offsets the cost.

Bales are stacked on their side, because his bale handler is designed for that rather than a preference over upright stacking; the bales are stacked within hours of baling.

All bales are marked to identify which field they have been harvested from.

It gives you some interest in the winter, to see how the silage feeds out according to the conditions it was harvested in and the ley it was grown from, says Mr Williams.

Producing good quality silage results from good farming practice, including controlling moles and liming.

Mr Williams approach to growing good quality leys coupled with attention to detail at harvesting produced the winning entry in the 2020 All Wales Big Bale Silage competition, 30 years after he won the equivalent award for clamp silage.

His winning entry analysed at 33.3 per cent dry matter (DM), a D-value of 69 per cent, ME of 11 MJ/kg DM, and 16.9 per cent crude protein.

He says he has learned a great deal through his membership of the Federation of Welsh Grassland Societies (FWGS).

I have always used the same principles for making good silage and have learned all of those things through being a member of the North Pembrokeshire Grassland Society.

Continued here:
Revealed the secrets of super silage at west Wales farm - Wales Farmer

One year ago, Tamika Caston-Miller was on a trip to the Andes, when she started seriously reevaluating her life in Houston.

Why do people need to get away? Why do people travel? she wondered.

For Caston-Miller, it was all about finding an escape into nature. She asked herself: Is this something I could create in Houston?

She also thought about the lifestyle of the city, the hustle and bustle and how so many Houstonians are separated from nature, often without community or even knowing their neighbors.

Were not meant to be alone, she said.

Then, Caston-Miller began imagining a solution. She dreamed of a garden space, where adults could dig into the dirt and watch plants grow; where school children could go on field trips and learn about nature firsthand.

As founder of Houstons Ash Yoga, Caston-Miller also imagined restorative yoga near the garden. Since her wife Lenie Caston-Miller is a sculptor, there would also be a place for art.

It would be a whole space for a healthy community, Caston-Miller said.

She and Lenie were still in Peru when they began hunting for a property where this vision could take root.

At the time, they lived a couple miles north of downtown. Lets put our house on the market and see whats out there, Caston-Miller thought. We need a place where we can live and create this space.

The couple mapped it out and decided they needed at least 2 acres.

If we find a property that matches what were looking for, then well take it as a sign that we should move forward, thought Caston-Miller, who has worked as a school teacher and a yoga instructor for about a decade. She started her own yoga practice a year ago.

Even though she felt a pull to do more in her yoga business, leaving the security of a day job behind was daunting. But, after the trip to the Andes, Caston-Miller took a leap of faith.

When the school year ended, her new life as a solopreneur began.

First, Caston-Miller had to find the space inside the Beltway. After a few failed attempts, she discovered an ideal location, just south of Sunnyside, 10 minutes from the University of Houston.

On RenewHouston.com: How yoga helped me build my inner strength during the pandemic

It was exactly what we were looking for, and I was so surprised, she said. I didnt think there was something like this in the city.

Caston-Miller closed on the property last January - and named it The Ranch Houston.

Its old ranch land, she explained. Everyone has horses. There was livestock on the property. At its core, it looked like a ranch.

The couple planned to renovate the home into a livable space and urban homestead, but then COVID-19 hit two weeks after they began remodeling.

We shifted from what we couldnt do to what is possible right now, Caston-Miller said. And what was possible was seeding the garden, tilling the land.

Another possibility was teaching yoga outside. So she began extending invitations for private lessons. By June, she started offering yoga classes. First, the sessions were on the front lawn. Then, she built a 1,000-square-foot covered pavilion.

Caston-Miller found that students were grateful to have this option. For some people, returning to a yoga studio wasnt appealing.But what was comfortable was practicing outdoors, socially distanced, Caston-Miller said.

Since The Ranch Houston was built during the coronavirus, putting safety protocols in place was part of the blueprint.

Because of COVID-19, we had to slow down and think everything through, Caston-Miller said. We had to consider all the risks. Everything had to be intentionally done.

She believes that attention to detail will pave the way to success in the long-run. This isnt the only time that disease is going to happen; we can build safety into our design, she said.

The pandemic also reinforced what Caston-Miller realized in the Andes - the need for health and wellness, the importance of de-stressing and being outdoors.

I want people to see this as a home not just for yoga but for complete wellness, Caston-Miller said.

Clients can wander through the garden, watch a plant they started as a seed grow, before settling into a yoga class on the lawn.

Caston-Miller said being close to nature is therapeutic especially in the midst of an uncertain time and increased anxiety.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Can yoga fix a community wrecked by persistent flooding? Wharton aims to find out.

No matter how difficult life is, growth is still happening, she said. Life is still happening. We just lean in and shift with life.

Caston-Millers yoga community was made-up of Heights and Uptown residents before COVID-19. Now, they trek a little further south to The Ranch.

Its right inside the Beltway, but when you get there its like, am I in Houston? Its acres of land, said Heights resident Crystal Sellers, who was one of the first to visit the property. Its been really great to have this experience.

Sellers has been practicing yoga with Caston-Miller for years and was drawn to the instructor for her approach, which was more focused on the philosophy of the practice.

When Caston-Miller moved online during the lockdown, Sellers enrolled. Still, she missed being in community. So when Caston-Miller mentioned The Ranch, Sellers jumped at the option.

It literally provided me with a moment of escape, Sellers said. You drive 20 minutes, and it feels like youre in a different world. Its amazing.

She remembers, on that first trip, kicking off her shoes and running into the grass. It was so grounding, she said. The Ranch just offers this comfortable repose.

Caston-Miller has also been a source of solace, Sellers added.

Its a combination of who she is, how welcoming and caring she is, being able to connect with her, be outside and continue this practice, Sellers said. The icing on the whole experience is Tamika and her wife, how theyve chosen to show up for everyone who shows up here.

As the weather gets cooler, she plans to continue classes outside, only with heaters. She continues to offer courses online, too. Eventually, Caston-Miller plans to host retreats at The Ranch, as well as events, like yoga and arts festivals, workshops and teacher training.

Already, she has offered virtual field trips for children and hopes that after the pandemic, students can come in person to learn about sustainability, gardening and nutrition.

Looking back at the past year Caston-Miller reflects on her original vision, the strides she has made and how now she is offering an oasis in the midst of the pandemic.

I think I did a pretty good job, she said with a laugh. You dont need to catch a flight to get away from it all. Just come on over.

Lindsay Peyton is a Houston-based freelance writer.

Read more from the original source:
Lean in and shift with life.How an urban ranch combines yoga and plant cultivation to heal Houstonians - Houston Chronicle

On the parishs edge, adjoining Viverdon Down and overlooked by Kit Hill, a 10-acre enclosure of wet ground is reverting to a wilder state, steered by new owners. The 1840 tithe map shows six small plots here, all called moor, although two of the three tiny fields then used for crops were named as Brick Moor perhaps a reference to the rich brown earth or the clayey subsoil. A concrete culvert, draining water from the nearby main road, has damaged much older field drains lined with slabs of indigenous chert; use of heavy machinery for silage making has also caused collapses, so the land is prone to seasonal waterlogging and surface runoff.

Just after last Christmas, swathes of saplings were planted, staked and guarded against browsing deer and rabbits. Rutted ways from adjoining arable fields have been blocked off, and previously flailed bushy growth on hedgebanks will now be left to thicken up to provide some shelter from wind and occasional spray drift. Gnarled thorns, ash, holly and oak line the stream on the eastern side; the lowest, rough and boggy ground, difficult to access, is overhung by sturdy branches of willow, and brambles creep out, fostering regenerating scrub.

Central to the whole enclave, a mature, lopsided oak leans away from prevailing westerlies; it used to shade the dairy herd when it was turned out for summer grazing. This autumn, red admiral butterflies and hornets bask in late warmth on the sunny side of the furrowed trunk; a barn owl hunts regularly across surrounding tussocky grass and has prospected the new owl box. Seeding knapweed, plantain, dock, rush and thistle attract charms of foraging goldfinches. Recently dug ponds now retain spring water and slow runoff, and, as soon as the largest filled, it became a focus for gathering swallows; mallards and a heron have already dabbled and waded in the open water.

A new, rudimentary shelter has been named Larkrise Halt in the hope that skylarks will come here; it also reminds that this land had been on the proposed route of the Callington light railway towards Saltash. That venture was abandoned; if it had gone ahead, the area might have been built over by now and become a suburb for commuters travelling towards Plymouth.

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Country diary: a waterlogged world reverting to the wild - The Guardian