As a delayed spring cleaning is happening, it occurred to me that one of the best ways to disinfect things is with ultraviolet radiation. UV is usually used to purify and disinfect water, air, etc. .... and it's also a movie!?
Here's more info on UV... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet
I usually try to avoid UV since it's one of the most damaging natural elements out there for buildings, human skin and countless other things. That's why i use steel, stone and dirt as much as possible in my building plans - those three are impervious to UV.
and now, the rest of the story...
A common laundry dilemma is what to throw in the washer and what to soak/hand wash and what to take to the dry cleaners (yuk factor here for many reasons). I occurred to me that i have the best antiseptic cleanser right outside: the sun. So i put all the down comforters out there in full direct sunlight for a few hours and then place them into large plastic bags filled with home-grown biodynamic lavendar buds. So I get a germ free (i mean what bacteria/bugs can survive hours of UV? yikes, I don't want to know!) and sweet nerve-calming lavender smell.
As a side note, I discovered a couple years ago that most critters hate the smell of lavender as much as they hate cedar. Who knew? Why do stores market up cedar based closet boards, cedar soaked whatevers... when the sweet, calming smell of lavender does the same? For the last couple years, I split my lavender plants each year and have several varieties abundantly growing. They don't need ANY maintenance! no watering, no pruning, no nothing... my kinda plant!
This is the 3rd year for the little garden that keeps expanding. Last year there were 50+ grape globes and lotsa rhubarb... and from the look of it this year there will be hundred's - amazing what a bit of pruning and proper bracing will do.
Straw bales are truly amazing. i wish I had discovered them decades ago. It saves SO much de-weeding work, it's wonderful to walk on barefoot, it protects runoff and soil, decomposes in 5+ years and adds nutrients to the soil, it's cheap!, can be used as building and sitting blocks, on and on...
So the construction of the iLc begins. It's a momentus decision to pour the first footing. There should be some sort of a celebration or ribbon cutting. This iLc (international learning center) will shape not only the future of WinSol3, but also a future eco-village (i call it Sieben Linden West) based on living by the sun.
Felling four tall fir trees the other day gave me pause to admire the beauty and bounty of trees. Sometimes I wish I would re-incarnate as a tree - they are so buddha like. There's a wonderful buddhist saying: 'the Banyan tree even gives shade to the person that cuts it down'. I am careful which trees I harvest in thinning the forest, I use every little bit of the tree (lotsa biochar from the slash), I debark them immediately when the sap is running, and then they dry for a year before they become the long-standing main supports for the iLc.
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Of all the seasons, Spring is by far the hardest working and most joyous time. Farmers used to celebrate the spring planting and fall harvest seasons, and gardeners relish the daily observations of newly sprouted blooms and growth. Each year the flowers and shrubs and trees seem to multiply ten fold.
There are irises, poppies, rhubarb, grapes, lilacs, lavender +++ blooms just exploding here every day - almost too much to handle, not! For the first time in 9+ years, I have my 100+ strawberry plants back. I tried a supermarket strawberry the other day: tasteless, methyl iodide, and unnatural - yuk! But for me, one of my most relished rituals is to pick fresh strawberries from the garden each morning with cereal bowl in hand. ahhhhhhh..................
And straw bedding makes it easier and so much less work!
