TRUTH MATTERS

I’ve struggled recently with the question of “how permanent?” should our housing and our settlements be? And why? On one end of the spectrum, one could cite the Plains Indians who lived in teepees and moved with the roving buffalo herds. Or Abraham who was called to leave a permanent settlement – Ur of the Chaldees – and live in a tent surrounded by his flocks and herds. On the other end of the spectrum might be the massive “dream home” which my sons helped build recently for a bank president and his doctor wife which ran into problems because the husband and wife were disagreeing. (Figures, doesn’t it?) Anyway, I hope there’s a happy medium in there somewhere and I’m trying to find it. Where I’m at personally, keeping in mind Joel Salatin’s talk of “Compostable Housing” and “Mobile Farms” is that I’m not pouring any concrete (too permanent for me) and I’m trying to avoid massive digging as much as possible. All my water systems and sanitation systems (toilet / grey water) are very cheap and mobile and I’m even designing my houses with the thought of easy dismantling / moving. But at the same time, I really don’t want an “RV Park” look … I prefer a “Thomas Kinkade VIllage” look. Now some have asked me “Dave, how can you set up a Woodland Agriculture System if you are a modern day nomad? You’ve got to establish gardens and pollarding and such.” The answer for me is that I’m doing Perma-CULTURE, not necessarily Perma-SETTLEMENTS. To me “culture” is all about mind set. It’s my MIND that is “permaculture” and that affects the type of settlement I create and the type of food systems I adopt, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that my settlement will be permanently fixed, or that if I establish something that I myself will necessarily be tied to it permanently. With the knowledge I have now (and am gaining daily), I am able to create a settlement complete with instantly productive food systems anywhere there are trees (or tree / pasture mix). I’m talking about woodland (and/or savanna) dairy / meat / eggs and even gardening. I have a plan to take a cross country trip sometime with my dairy goats and see how it goes. (I have come to believe that Tree Fed Dairy Goat Milk is a very complete food and I think you could live well for a very long time – possibly your entire life – on nothing but this food) Anyway, these are just my thoughts and no, I didn’t have a “thus saith the Lord dream” last night or anything like that, and I may be wrong about some of this, but it’s where my brain’s at so I thought I would share it. I often think of that verse (Philippians 3:20) that says “our citizenship is in heaven” and I love that Negro Spiritual “Poor Wayfarin’ Stranger.” Yes we are!

BACK TO EDEN (BTE) GARDENING. I wanted to throw in my two cents on the Back to Eden Gardening method because I’ve been using it for about 4 years now with good success. I have also flown to Washington State and taken a personal tour of Paul Gautschi’s garden (See pic below). I do agree with some critics of the system that the need for animals manures early on was not emphasized enough in the film, but I do really like the system for the following reasons … (1) NO TILLING … the earthworms take care of that – I used to till my garden every year and what a pain!! (2) NO MEDIA MIXING – I’ve grown stuff in all kinds of media from perlite in bags to elaborate mixes (Lasagna Method) (3) NATURAL LOOKING – I personally do not like “the look” of rectangular garden boxes. I prefer flowing curves which to me look more like Nature’s patterns. (4) MOISTURE – I’ve had problems in the past with raised beds drying out but with BTE I never have moisture problems. I never have to water at all even in drought conditions. (5) WEEDING is very easy with BTE – much easier than with other methods I’ve tried (6) TREE BASED MEDIA. BTE Gardens are made from chipped up TREE branches and leaves. This to me is so important because it means that my vegetables will have much better trace mineral content (and perhaps other micro-goodies) than vegetables grown in non-tree based media due to centuries of land abuse by broad acre farming. Trees are the great “miners” of the plant world because their roots go so deep into the ground. I get all the free wood chips I want from my local electric utility company. (7) Last but not least, I just like Paul Gautschi … he’s really a great guy and it was wonderful to meet him in person. I do love his application of Jesus words “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” to gardening. I have come to believe that God’s Way is indeed the easiest, lightest way in whatever we are doing, gardening or otherwise. Note Proverbs 13:15 – “The way of the transgressor is hard.” Indeed it is.

“The vast Sahara desert is largely manmade, the result of overgrazing, faulty irrigation, deforestation, perhaps combined with a shift in the course of a jetstream.” –Paul and Anne Ehrlich in “Population, Resources, Environment” (1970), p. 166.

Joel Salatin first made me aware of this in his book “Salad Bar Beef” and most of mainstream science disagrees with this view. But Ehrlich is a bit independent which is rare for scientists.

As for evidence supporting Ehrlich’s claim above, Ehrlich himself does not provide any … I suppose at the time he wrote it, he thought it was self evident. But now, with mainstream scientists making up wild fantasies about 200+ “Green Sahara Periods” (they even give this an acronym – GSPs) and Milankovitch Cycles over millions and millions of years, it is helpful to have some supporting evidence for Ehrlich’s claim.

The best evidence I have found comes from cave paintings found in southeastern Algeria, which is smack dab in the middle of the present day Sahara Desert.

The Pastoral Period (or ‘Bovidian period’) from around 7,200 BC to 3,000 BC is the dominant period in terms of the number of paintings, during which there is the representation of bovine herds and the scenes of daily life. They have an aesthetic naturalistic realism to them and are among the best known examples of prehistoric mural art.

The Horse and Libyan Warrior Period (‘Equidian period’), which dates from approximately 3200 BC to 1000 BC, covers the end of the Neolithic and protohistoric periods, which corresponds to the disappearance of numerous species from the effects of progressive desiccation and to the appearance of the horse. Horses have also been depicted pulling chariots, driven by whip-wielding unarmed charioteers, suggesting that the chariots were not used for fighting, but possibly for hunting. However, chariots with wooden wheels could not have been driven across the rocky Sahara and into the mountains where many of the chariot paintings occur.

Some of the last artistic images reflect the taming of camels in the aptly named Camel Period, which dates from around 2,000 BC to 1,000 BC. This period coincided with the onset of the hyper-arid desert climate and with the appearance of the dromedary (a camel with one hump on its back). http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/15000-artworks-over-ten-millennia-reveal-evolution-human-life-edge-sahara

Some things to note here …

1) It didn’t become hyper-arid until the 2000 BC – 1000 BC range, much later than the mainstream view.
2) The “Pastoral Period” is dominant in terms of number of paintings and includes depictions of bovine herds. And since overgrazing is causing desertification today, it is likely that it also caused desertification in the past.
3) The timeframe for the Pastoral Period is skewed. See the work of GRISDA physicist RH Brown. I believe he has co-authored a book which contains this called “Origin by Design.”

Note to self: Gotta read this book sometime … http://www.amazon.com/rape-earth-world-survey-erosion/dp/B00086L0IC

Read more »

This is not commonly known but is explored here in the following paper …

“The central purpose of the ‘classical’ scholia was to support the doctrine of universal gravitation as developed in these Propositions, and to enquire into its nature as a cosmic force. This doctrine is shown by Newton to be identifiable in the writings of the ancients. As will become clear, he is not using this historical evidence in a random fashion, or merely for literary ornamentation. Rather the evidence is used in a serious and systematic fashion, as support for, and justification of, the components of Newton’s theory of matter, space and gravitation. The evidence is used to establish four basic theses, which correspond to the matter of Proposition IV to IX. These are, that there was an ancient knowledge of the truth of the following four principles: that matter is atomic in structure and moves by gravity through void space; that gravitational force acts universally; that gravity diminishes in the ratio of the inverse square of the distances between bodies; and that the true cause of gravity is the direct 9 action of God.”

“After having written his highly technical and innovative Principia, Newton sought to justify his concept of attraction by showing that the ancients had already discovered the law of universal gravitation.”

” […] the Classical Scholia belong to a particular tradition: rather than consorting with the tradition of the prisca in the broad sense, they belong to a variant properly called ‘Copernican’ which was used to vindicate the validity – on both the technical and philosophical level – of ancient cosmological models which were alternatives to the geostatic system. Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and their followers had often understood the progress of astronomy as being also a reversion towards propositions comprehended intuitively by the Ancients. 14 ”

https://core.ac.uk/download/files/425/11921629.pdf

Ambio. 2010 Jun; 39(4): 279–283.
Published online 2010 May 13. doi: 10.1007/s13280-010-0038-z
PMCID: PMC3357704
Damage Caused to the Environment by Reforestation Policies in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas of China
Shixiong Cao,1 Tao Tian,2 Li Chen,3 Xiaobin Dong,4 Xinxiao Yu,1 and Guosheng Wangcorresponding author5
Author information ► Article notes ► Copyright and License information ►
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
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Abstract

Traditional approaches to ecosystem restoration have considered afforestation to be an important tool. To alleviate land degradation in China, the Chinese government has therefore invested huge amounts of money in planting trees. However, the results of more than half a century of large-scale afforestation in arid and semi-arid China have shown that when the trees are not adapted to the local environment, the policy does not improve the environment, and may instead increase environmental degradation. When precipitation is lower than potential evaporation, surface soil moisture typically cannot sustain forest vegetation, and shrubs or steppe species replace the forest to form a sustainable natural ecosystem that exists in a stable equilibrium with the available water supply. The climate of much of northwestern China appears to be unsuitable for afforestation owing to the extremely low rainfall. Although some small-scale or short-term afforestation efforts have succeeded in this region, many of the resulting forests have died or degraded over longer periods, so policymakers must understand that these small-scale or short-term results do not support an inflexible policy of large-scale afforestation throughout arid and semi-arid northwestern China. Rather than focusing solely on afforestation, it would be more effective to attempt to recreate natural ecosystems that are better adapted to local environments and that thus provide a better chance of sustainable, long-term rehabilitation. LINK TO PAPER

I’ve been fascinated for a long time with Bible Prophecy and until recently I was a bit mystified about “Babylon the Great” (Revelation 18). However, it’s dawned on me recently that “Babylon the Great” is probably one and the same with what George Bush Sr. called “The New World Order” and it appears to me that two key components of this “Babylon/NWO” system are

(1) Big Cities, which in turn are dependent on …
(2) Big Agriculture and it’s attendant land control schemes and distribution networks.

One of the key characteristics I see in Big Ag is … FORCING the ground. Or to be blunt, RAPING the ground. God tells us we should “serve the ground” (Gen. 2:5 … “till” is a mistranslation – talk to Dan Grubbs). Josephus writes that “God was more delighted with the latter oblation, [Abel’s] when he was honored with what grew naturally of its own accord, than he was with what was the invention of a covetous man, [Cain] and gotten by FORCING the ground; [emphasis mine]” (Ant. Bk.1, Ch. 2). One of the key characteristics of big cities seems to me to be PRIDE. (See Nebuchadnezzar’s boast about “great Babylon” in Daniel 4:30, “Glory of Rome” etc). So we have FORCING + PRIDE as the key characteristics of the “Babylon/NWO” system. So we could say that God wants us to do the opposite of this and follow the “Abel Way” (humbly working WITH Nature) as opposed to the “Cain Way” (proudly beating Nature into submission … which doesn’t work, by the way, all you get is death, destruction and slavery). I get the impression that in general God doesn’t like Big Cities (or at least the Pride that often goes along with them), as evidenced by the Tower of Babel Dispersion where God scattered them over the face of the earth.

So finally at 52 years of age, I have come to view the world in these terms:

Babylon / NWO / Forcing the Ground / Big Industrial Ag / Big Cities Dependent on Big Ag / Pride

vs.

Christian Stewardculture / Serving the Earth / Nurturing Her so that She Flourishes / Small Productive Communities Dependent only on God and their own Resourcefulness / Humility

NOTE1 … The Babylon / NWO system got it’s start with Cain, then the Tower of Babel, then Nimrod and Babylon and the kingdoms which succeeded Babylon – Persia, Greece and Rome, as depicted in Nebuchadnezzar’s Vision of the Great Image. Now it appears to me we are living in the Age of the Feet of Mixed Iron and Clay. Soon – I hope – the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands will smash the Feet of Iron and Clay and the God of Heaven will set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the angel of Revelation 18 will shout “Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen …”

NOTE2 … James Lovelock’s “Gaia” Hypothesis is interesting to me and – I believe – a very good description of how the earth really works. I find it fascinating that he chose a woman (Greek goddess named “Gaia”) to represent his theory. In light of this post, the Earth truly can be thought of as a woman … which can be RAPED … or LOVED. Men, not only should we ask ourselves “How do we treat the Earth that God gave us to steward?” but also “How do we treat our women that God gave us as help meets?” Do we RAPE and FORCE them? (Even within our marriages?) Or do we LOVE and NOURISH and CHERISH them?

LINGUISTICS. I’m a bit of a “language geek” since my mother and father were both linguists. So I was fascinated to find out the following info from the “Father of Modern Linguistics,” Sir William Jones, discoverer of the “Proto Indo-European” language … this bit is from George Stanley Faber, written in the early 1800s about how there were probably only 3 original languages at the Babel Confusion …

“Now the researches of Sir William Jones are in effect the very process, by which alone the matter can be settled: and it is remarkable, that they at once finally decide the question, account for the circumstance which has been noticed in the history of Abraham, and establish the number of primary languages which originated at Babel. He has discovered, we have seen, three primary tongues, into which, so far as such points can be positively determined, all other tongues ultimately resolve themselves. These three he pronounces to be radically and essentially different from each other, both in words and in grammar and in construction, so that no two of them could have originated from the third: and all the three he finds existing together in that centrical region, whence the several families which spoke them must have branched off, and where Moses fixes the production of some preternatural dialectical confusion which was the efficient cause of that emigration. Hence, I think, it will necessarily follow, both that the confusion at Babel must have been a real confusion of language, not merely a temporary inarticulateness of pronunciation; and that the number of primary languages, which then arose, was precisely three, answering, though not with absolute exclusiveness, to the three great patriarchal houses. Hence also we must understand the languages, which are said by Moses to have been severally spoken in the various families of those three houses, as mere dialects of one or other of the primary tongues; which, in process of time, received such alteration, that even the families of the same house became unintelligible to each other.(Faber, “Origin of Pagan Idolatry,” Volume III, p. 465)

Scholarly book about Jones HERE.

One of the most serious agricultural problems in the world today is TILLAGE … ‘ploughing’ the ground, and forest clearing which accompanies it. Tillage destroys topsoil, and – eventually – entire civilizations, and as well-known Permaculturist Mark Shepard has shown us, is completely unnecessary for feeding people. In fact, recent studies like this one have shown that food produced from this type of agriculture is generally harmful to the body. How interesting then to discover that the famous Jewish historian Josephus wrote quite unfavorably about the ORIGIN OF TILLAGE. Enjoy!

1. ADAM and Eve had two sons: the elder of them was named Cain; which name, when it is interpreted, signifies a possession: the younger was Abel, which signifies sorrow. They had also daughters. Now the two brethren were pleased with different courses of life: for Abel, the younger, was a lover of righteousness; and believing that God was present at all his actions, he excelled in virtue; and his employment was that of a shepherd. But Cain was not only very wicked in other respects, but was wholly intent upon getting; and he first contrived to plough the ground. He slew his brother on the occasion following : – They had resolved to sacrifice to God. Now Cain brought the fruits of the earth, and of his husbandry; but Abel brought MILK [emphasis mine], and the first-fruits of his flocks: but God was more delighted with the latter oblation, when he was honored with what grew naturally of its own accord, than he was with what was the invention of a covetous man, and gotten by forcing the ground; whence it was that Cain was very angry that Abel was preferred by God before him; and he slew his brother, and hid his dead body, thinking to escape discovery. LINK HERE

“I do not particularly like the word ‘work.’ Human beings are the only animals who have to work, and I think that is the most ridiculous thing in the world. Other animals make their livings by living, but people work like crazy, thinking that they have to in order to stay alive. The bigger the job, the greater the challenge, the more wonderful they think it is. It would be good to give up that way of thinking and live an easy, comfortable life with plenty of free time. I think that the way animals live in the tropics, stepping outside in the morning and evening to see if there is something to eat, and taking a long nap in the afternoon, must be a wonderful life. For human beings, a life of such simplicity would be possible if one worked to produce directly his daily necessities. In such a life, work is not work as people generally think of it, but simply doing what needs to be done.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

“In my opinion, if 100% of the people were farming it would be ideal. If each person were given one quarter-acre, that is 1 1/4 acres to a family of five, that would be more than enough land to support the family for the whole year. If natural farming were practiced, a farmer would also have plenty of time for leisure and social activities within the village community. I think this is the most direct path toward making this country a happy, pleasant land.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

“Food and medicine are not two different things: the are the front and back of one body.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

“Modern research divides nature into tiny pieces and conducts tests that conform neither with natural law nor with practical experience. The results are arranged for the convenience of research, not according to the needs of the farmer.”
― Masanobu Fukuoka

Wooowww. Just wow. Remember George Orwell? Watch this video clip (I got from Mark Shepard) with Orwell in mind … here’s the best quote …

“I think that New York [City] is the new model for the New Concentration Camp where the camp has been built by the inmates themselves where the inmates ARE the guards and they have this pride in this thing they’ve built. They’ve built their own prison and so they exist in a state of schizophrenia where they are both guards and prisoners and as a result, they no longer have – having been lobotomized – the capacity to leave the prison they’ve made or to even see it as a prison.”

Link to video clip from “My Dinner With Andre”