"All The Worlds Problems Can Be Solved In A Garden."

Front yard from May 2012

Yes, that's right!!!  All, not just some, but All the worlds problems can be solved in a Garden.  i came across this quote from Geoff Lawton after watching all the possible permaculture and homesteading videos i could and reading many articles over the last year.  i felt a bit more equipped to be that "Gardener" that God has purposed me to be for Him.  So all that was left was to take a little action, do some ant stuff and gather, pile, plant, build, wear out another shovel, etc.  Here's a bit of what has come out of my understanding through this research and a glimpse of my future direction and drive.
  i don't need to give you a lengthy definition of permaculture but will suffice to say that it is a way of life... "permanent culture" or "permanent agriculture."  The three most notable people that i have researched are Sepp Holzer, Bill Mollison, and Geoff Lawton, and each has had a profound impact on how many people now view and work agriculture.  i equate it to a revelation that brings people back to the Garden of Eden, and an understanding that God can provide all our needs as we keep and tend the Garden for Him.  (Genesis 2:15)  Through observation of nature, repeated failures and some successes, we learn what works, how plant guilds/families can support each other, how to store energy/gather yields, and the natural cycle of inputs and outputs.   ... If you're an optimist...

Front yard Hugelkultur bed December 2012

  One of the initial aspects of permaculture i began working on is soil creation - start simple.  Being a landscaper, i have an abundance of yard wastes that i have composted over the last seven years.  If we consider a forest and how the soil is built up over the years and seasons of growth and die off we start to understand the natural process of the natural system free of any chemical or synthetic inputs.  Through using my yard "wastes" in composting, soil creation is accelerated just as in nature, and the soil health, with all the amazing micro-critters and worms, increases.  Healthy soil creates strong disease and pest-resistant plants.  A specific technique i have used unknowingly over the years is called HugelKultur.  It's like making a big soil lasagna using wood as a foundation.  As the wood decomposes, it creates a sponge that retains water and begins the amazing breakdown of organic matter and the increase in mycelium.  Here's an after pic of the front yard since May..and a close up of the bed.  i am also using a large root ball from a Dwarf Yaupon bush i removed from a landscape demolition.  This bush serves as a corner piece of this landscape bed.
  The bed that i am currently building up is also forming a swale to catch rain water, much like terracing on a slope.  As the swale retains water it allows the soil to slowly percolate the moisture into the surrounding beds and the downhill flow is gradual and consistent.  Here's a great description and graphic from Geoff Lawton on the benefits of on-contour swales.  Without slowing down the natural flow of water, it would merely run off and take many of the soil nutrients downstream, or in this case into the storm water system.  i will add a couple feet of soil over the top of the wood foundation, plant some raspberries, strawberries and blackberries and mulch the top.

  On another site, my landscape staging area, i began building a hedgerow out of brush and log cuttings over many years of work.  My next step on this property is to dig a swale on the uphill side of this pile and deposit the soil on top of the hedgerow to create a self watering planting mound.  Earlier in the year i also dug a swale on the upper gardening strip and i recently enlarged this swale to hold a greater volume of roof runoff.  i continue to buildup the soil with organic matter on the downhill slope to create the moisture retaining sponge.  Although the initial work required to establish these swales and systems takes a bit of effort, it will generate a self-sustaining garden, and a piece of "permanent agriculture" to produce fruits and produce for decades to come.
  So where is all this heading?  Abundance was my first thought.  The direction i am heading with this is to establish these working systems, food forests, plant guilds, etc. as an example of what can be done with permaculture.  In the past i have developed several local garden plans and designs for individuals and our small town of Amory, but this deeper lesson was not taken to heart, though the words and drawings were well accepted.  In essence, i have had to take action, and keep my words few, in order to better communicate this direction, drive and purpose/vision that i am so passionate about.  These foundational elements are merely scratching the surface of future potentials, but i do have to keep it simple, focus on what is before me, and believe and hope in this future.  i started composting seven years ago and have come full circle... back to composting, back to basics.
  Glad to be back and writing some.  i have the main website back online - look for more in the coming weeks... www.antbrotherfarms.com

Love and God Bless,

~ antbrother

New Seasons

Dual Blossoms

 Azalea- 12/31/2007 (Colored pencil)

 Medicine Stick and Strong Heart

 Strong Heart and Medicine Stick

Lord Bless Them and Keep Them!

And bring their Spirit of love and joy, kindness, their pure child-like nature, and compassion for the weak,  into the home where the dual blossoms are gifted.  Let your Angels share that love and heart in this home.
Thank You Father.  This i ask You In the Name of  Your Blessed Son Jesus (Yeshua).

Amen.

~ antbrother

977

What does it mean?   i was given this number over five years ago and had no idea of it's importance or timing.  i merely wrote the number down for keepsake and waited for the right time to start the countdown.  This sequence began when i began writing this blog and today is the day it has been revealed.

i received my answers in church tonight at the prison ministry.

Really great service tonight with the inmates and visitors and the regularly scheduled preacher was unable to attend so we received a great Word from one of the other preachers involved in this ministry work.  A good many of the testimonies we heard before the Word dealt with the loss of someone, recent deaths of a family member or friend. My adopted Grandma Burma died last Thursday and the funeral was yesterday.

The Word was dovetailed into those messages in a way that was uplifting and testified that through the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us all, while we were yet sinners, He conquered death for our sakes.  It is a time to "Come Forth!" and not remain asleep in your grave though you profess to be saved.  It is a time to walk the walk that has been laid out for you before the foundations of the earth were established.  It is a time to go and share the Good News, not wasting time on those that are not willing or able to hear.  It is The time to be who you are in Jesus.

Mathew 27:50-54
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,  and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;  and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”


Today, right now, is your Day of Salvation.

Come Forth, 

~ Anias 

 

40 Miles on Empty - 973

 

God certainly knows how to empty and fill vessels - ours and our gas tanks', often.  In returning from the land where i grew up, God's country in northern Wisconsin, He tested my faith just south of St. Louis during the second leg of the return trip.  Having limited funds to make it home, He asked me again to let Him take the wheel and to trust that the gas gauge reading past Empty does not limit His ability.   So just south of St. Louis, MO i prayed and asked for strength to trust Him.  He answered that prayer, reminded me not to worry (Phil 4:6-7), and took me exactly where i needed to be, humbled, relying on Him, and to the next available gas station somewhere around mile marker 185.  

  From the start, the trip was blessed and i was able to see my daughter graduate and spend a few days with her.   There are really too many things to recount, and most people would dismiss these "coincidental events", but if you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear, He is evident in all things and all events.  i would love to share many details but i have to head back to the garden this morning.  Suffice to say, my way was paid, and i did stay longer than i had expected which was prophetic a week before i departed.  What else would you expect from a perfect God that gives you a Buick La Sabre (The Sword) to drive, and guides you 2400 miles from the south to the north and back along "The Avenue of the Saints" (Hwy 61)?  Lean on Him and watch Him empty you of the unwanted and inhibiting while filling you with the blessed things of the heart - love.

Love and God Bless,

~ antbrother

p.s.  We are certainly getting much closer to 977.  :)  Let's see what happens.

Our House is a Very, Very, Very Fine House - 959

Cleo's Summer Hangout

No, just one cat in the yard and she mostly lounges on the trampoline.  This old house is from the 1920's i'm told, and as with anything old, it tends to sag and creek and have a lot of history worth uncovering under the aged exterior.  One of the windows was covered over in the master bathroom and the first step was to locate it and the second to cut it out to let the light shine in.  More light and airflow through these older houses are a must and this includes the inside, attic and crawl spaces.  Just some helpful knowledge worthy of passing on as i open this old house up.
  i was offered another "rental" house that was a deal hard to pass up - free rent for a year while i pay the utilities and insurance.  They needed a care taker for the property and i had grown to know this family over the last couple years.  As much as i appreciated the offer and trust with their house, i thanked them and told them that God had already provided what i needed.  A blessing of a place with need of some tender loving care, a lot of scraping and painting, new flooring and several new doors.  i have a deep purpose here in this place and i view it as analogous to my walk of faith with Jesus.  This restoration manifesting in this old house has taken place in me, in my heart.  i was surely in need of some repair and some tender loving care and restoring through the Holy Spirit.
  i haven't written much in the last year and a half, partly due to technology challenges and partly due to my increased work load.  i had written much about my spiritual walk on my website and almost chronicled the process in word and drawing, in projects and ministry outreach.  The antbrotherfarms.com site has been dormant for a while and i hope to concentrate on getting it back up, while this house comes back up to being habitable.  i think that would be a good groundbreaking and reopening focus.

Our House is a Very, Very, Very Fine House

Joshua 24:15
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Love and God Bless You,

~ antbrother

He is Risen! - 906

If you're an optimist... - 864

Excerpt - Interview with Bill Mollison: Permaculture

Alan: Let's get back to permaculture. What's your current best definition of it?
Bill: You could say it's a rational man's approach to not shitting in his bed.
But if you're an optimist, you could say it's an attempt to actually create a Garden of Eden. Or, if you're a scientist, you could liken it to a miraculous wardrobe in which you can hang garments of any science or any art and find they're always harmonious with, and in relation to, that which is already hanging there. It's a framework that never ceases to move, but that will accept information from anywhere.
It's hard to get your mind around it - I can't. I guess I would know more about permaculture than most people, and I can't define it. It's multi-dimensional - chaos theory was inevitably involved in it from the beginning.
You see, if you're dealing with an assembly of biological systems, you can bring the things together, but you can't connect them. We don't have any power of creation - we have only the power of assembly. So you just stand there and watch things connect to each other, in some amazement actually. You start by doing something right, and you watch it get more right than you thought possible....


..."Then I sort of pulled out for a while in 1972 - I cut a hole in the bush, built a barn and a house and planted a garden - gave up on humanity. I was disgusted with the stupidity of the University, the research institutions, the whole thing.
When the idea of permaculture came to me, it was like a shift in the brain, and suddenly I couldn't write it down fast enough. Once you've said to yourself, "But I'm not using my physics in my house," or "I'm not using my ecology in my garden, I've never applied it to what I do," it's like something physical moves inside your brain. Suddenly you say, "If I did apply what I know to how I live, that would be miraculous!" Then the whole thing unrolls like one great carpet. Undo one knot, and the whole thing just rolls downhill."

Source - Complete Interview : http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Mollison.htm

Additional Links / Research - Building your own Oasis
Permaculture in Austria with Sepp Holzer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHkFG21mtcI

Permaculture: A Quiet Revolution - An Interview with Bill Mollison
http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/mollison.html

2,000 Year Old Food Forest in Morocco with Geoff Lawton
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=E5120F998378156892BA39C1F9AE5F45

7 Food Forests in 7 Minutes with Geoff Lawton
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=33B3A51230BB04745756E3E88DFA81FC


God Bless and Good Growing,

~ antbrother

Compassion - 845

We had a great church service tonight in the jail and there were a lot of testimonies.  Both the inmates and the visitors are going through many challenges in their lives and because this church family is so close knit, we bring those things to others as a witness to what God is doing in the situation.  Encouragement for one another, directed prayer, laying on of hands, and anointing with oil are the natural things that come forth when we are in one accord, and when our compassion for one another is greater than our own concerns.  This is a changed heart that many described and one that we shared with each other.  God changes our hearts from cold stone to soft flesh.  Compassion for others is a result. 

We now get to keep our eyes open to watch the great I AM change things for good. 



God Bless You,

~ ab

Go To The Ant - 844

Proverbs 6:6-8
Go to the ant, you sluggard!
Consider her ways and be wise,
Which, having no captain,
Overseer or ruler,
Provides her supplies in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest.