solar powered water fountain

 Solar Garden Water Fountain

* Today's article was written by Aksha Serum who invites our readers to find more of her articles about Garden Fountains , Master Resell Rights Ebooks and Home Remedies for Heartburn

You can instantly set up a beautiful garden fountain using solar technology. Solar garden water fountains provide the calming effect of flowing water without requiring access to an electrical outlet. Not only do solar garden water fountains allow you to "go green" by conserving energy, they are very low maintenance. You simply let the sun work its magic and the fountain runs on its own. Solar garden water fountains are both beautiful and safe, with no distracting electrical cords to disguise. A bamboo garden water fountain is an especially nice fit for a solar pump as it is very naturally appealing; a beautiful choice to be powered by nature. The popularity of solar powered water fountains continues to grow, as do the choices, with major retailers now offering solar power garden products.

Basic Types of Solar Fountain Pumps

There are three basic types of solar fountains pumps, and choosing the right one will depend on your specific fountain needs and desires. The first type is a direct power solar fountain pump, which operates off of a built-in or remote fountain solar panel. Although no installation is required, a direct power water pump only works when the sun is shining on it. Therefore if there is no sun, your solar garden water fountain will not operate with this type of pump. The second type of pump is a submersible solar fountain pump, which can be fully submersed below the water of a garden pond, pool or lake. Submersed solar pumps rely on energy from a remote solar panel and produce a very decorative above-water spray. The third type of solar pump has a backup battery that recharges through the solar panel during sunny days, and provides water flow, and typically also illumination to the solar fountain at night.

Solar Powered Fountain Accessories

If you have a pond or other water feature and would like to easily install a fountain, consider the solar-powered lily pad fountain. This floating device contains a thin solar panel, a pump and a filter. You simply place the floating lily pad in your water feature and can immediately enjoy the calming sound of water. The pump is automatically activated by sunlight and will create a beautiful vertical spray. You can select from different fountain heads for the type of spray stream you want. The lily pad oxygenates your water as well, thereby eliminating odors, and it keeps water moving to eliminate mosquitoes. The floating lily pad is a wonderful solar garden water fountain option with several benefits.
 

   Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

habitat

 -- Quote of the Day -- 

"You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be -
I had a mother who read to me."

 
~Strickland Gillilan

 -- Gardening --

Definition of Back Yard Habitat (www.cwf-fcf.org) and Bee Friendly Garden/Farming (www.pollinationcanada.ca) certification:

Recognition of farmers and gardeners who plant native and pollinator-friendly plants, minimize tilling, use no chemicals (fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides), and provide both water and habitat for a wide array of living beings.

Definition of Natural Insect Pest Control (http://natural-insect-control.com):

Use of organic and environmentally friendly beneficial insects, biological pest controls while creating a biodiverse and healthy ecosystem.

 

   Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

agro-tourism

-- Quote of the Day -- 

"Animals give me more pleasure through the viewfinder of a camera than they ever did in the crosshairs of a gun sight. And after I've finished "shooting," my unharmed victims are still around for others to enjoy. I have developed a deep respect for animals. I consider them fellow living creatures with certain rights that should not be violated any more than those of humans." 

~ Jimmy Stewart

-- What is Agro-Tourism? -- 

* Note: In the article below I'm going to refer to "farmers" as anything from grain and seed suppliers, to gardeners and meat producers. 

There are several different ways of looking at Agro-Tourism.  Basically it involves communities making information and tours and markets available to the general public. Manufactures from wine to cheese, jam to pickles might offer seasonal tours as well. Parks and wildlife centers might get involved. Businesses might offer special sales, specialized theme products, or contests. Sporting events might be scheduled around special local happenings too. Restaurants might offer specialized menus based on the theme of the event.

To look more deeply however we need to see who is going to be interested in this type of tourism.

Amature, aspiring or professional chefs might want to learn more about local suppliers and taste varieties of fruits, vegetables and other produce they've not used or heard of in the past. They take the experience and perhaps a few recipes home with them to try out on their patrons and create a ripple in the pond effect. For instance, a farmer who specializes in rare and endangered vegetables introduces a professional chef to a variety that they start serving in the restaurant and their patrons become very interested in this unique food, talk about it and perhaps become intrigued enough to include it in their own gardens or to ask for it when shopping. The farmer benefits from increased sales, other farmers decide to start growing that variety and before you know it - that variety is no longer endangered from extinction.

Families may want to go on specific tours for education and entertainment purposes to learn how things are grown, how animals are treated, to view the foods produced, to learn about farming, and to taste interesting foods. Locals may want to visit farmers to learn more about what is produced locally and to be able to better decide who they want to purchase from. Gardeners might be looking for interesting plants to include in their patch. Farmers might be looking for ways of running their business or hobby more efficiently.

Some communities arrange for special festivals where local producers offer unique tours, information and tasting booths, where there might also be live music and parades and contests happening for a specific time frame. Perhaps during peak tourism in the area or during peak production of a particular crop. A community could, theoretically, have several of these festivals for different crops.

A more simple form would be effectively managed markets where live music and vendors supplying foods and drink and art made locally are available. These are seen as experience events and provide a lot of entertainment and new experiences, sometimes they might even include speakers and other entertainers from the area. 

The benefits go beyond supporting local producers, artists and entertainers, and saving endangered or rare foods from extinction. They also include opportunities for people close to your community to have stay-cation events to attend, encouraging them to spend their time and money locally. Agro-tourism also encourages increased tourists and people coming back year after year. People might hang out for the day (or longer) and visit the local businesses, gas station, grocery stores, restaurants and cafes. Cross promotion at any and all of these venues mentioned in this article is vital to keeping people informed and interested in doing more, attending more happenings, spending more and enjoying their stay in your area more.

Check out what is happening in your area (whether at home, visiting elsewhere or on vacation), invite people you know to attend events with you, and be sure to send your suggestions or comments to those involved with creating and maintaining events in your area.

   Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

Get Growing!

 -- Quote of the Day -- 

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow, which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

A Crowfoot Saying

-- What Is The Impact Of The Food On Your Plate? --

Our choice of food really does have a major impact on the environment, on policies, politics, social, economic and cultural aspects of our society.

You can look at 2 systems of your food - global and local. Global implies whether you choose to purchase food that comes from countries with policies (such as racism, war, child slavery, women's rights) that may or may not agree with your own ideals. When we refuse products from one country we are telling them we will not support them. When we purchase from others, we are telling them that the world supports their efforts and policies and are rewarding them with economic benefits. 

Local  - this is a whole other ball game. We might choose to purchase from one retailer over another because we know they treat their employees better, have wonderful zero waste and energy wise policies in place, purchase from local farmers and suppliers, or the company has participated in charities and causes and events that mean something to you. We choose one farmer over another because they have a better reputation and pay their employees well. So you reward them with your business.

But there are other aspects to our food as well beyond economic, social and cultural... and these are biological and environmental... while they seem similar, they are very different.  The biological aspect involves whether the farmer uses monoculture or diversity methods, whether they grow their soil first using natural amendments as opposed to chemicals, whether they get supplies from local sources, whether they are bee friendly and wildlife friendly, and so on. The environmental aspect really implies things like use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and of course natural pest control by attracting beneficial insects and birds with habitat creation, and providing food and water sources. It also implies energy use, type of fossil fuel used, maintenance of their machinery so the machines run efficiently and produce very little pollution, water conservation, and so on. So biological implies how the food was produced, and environmental implies the impact of the farm - whether they are making the world a better place or just using the resources up. 

Whether at home, on vacation, or at work - when we purchase foods that are as close to where we are as possible we are having an impact as well. First, and perhaps most important, we are helping to ensure food security for our area. We are also purchasing from producers who live, work and spend money in our area - thereby ensuring local job creation and a stronger economy in our area. We are also assured that the food has traveled the least distance possible - and that means less fossil fuels expended in transportation and potentially less packaging.

You know that I'm a proponent of gardening and have encouraged people to garden even in containers or on their roofs, balconies, window sills - because the more they produce themselves the more cash they will save. The fresher the food is, the least travel involved, means that food will have more nutrients - so people will be healthier. The more greenery we have, the less reflective surfaces (Urban Glare Effect) and heat absorbing surfaces (Urban Greenhouse Effect) we have, which improves the environment in our neighborhoods. Plants also release moisture, provide shade, pollination sources, reduce water runoff and many other benefits. If we grow pole beans on our balcony for instance, the balcony will be shaded and cooler, the air will be more moist, we'll have flowers, food and privacy. 

Gardeners also share produce so get to know your neighbors and start exchanging excess. As you become more familiar with the people in your area you'll find out who needs your excess the most, such as physically challenged folks who cannot garden anymore. And we can reach out further to benefit food banks, soup kitchens, and so on. Even flowers are helpful when taken to seniors centers, churches, etc. So get growing everyone! 

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

Writing, article

  The ABC's Of Writing Into Truth

* Today's article was submitted by Tina Welling, is the author of Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature and three novels including Cowboys Never Cry. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Sun, Body & Soul, and a variety of anthologies. She lives in Jackson Hole, WY. Her website is www.TinaWelling.com

 The ABCs of writing into our own truth are attention, belief, and courage.  Attention means offering awareness to our body sensations and our emotions; belief means trusting our responses; courage means taking action based upon our responses.  Each time we follow these ABCs, we strengthen the access to our inner authority.  When we write down the discoveries our attention brings us – our emotions and body awareness – and read it back to ourselves or someone else, we are taking a step toward trusting our findings and taking action upon them.

We don’t have to know something to write; we write to know something.  We write to bring into our consciousness the inner authority that so often remains in the unconscious.  If you doubt at all your inner well of knowledge and creativity, stop right here and write a paragraph about any object in your vicinity.  Report the findings of your senses and body sensations.  Allow associations to occur and images to arise.

People often ask writers, “Where do you get your ideas, your stories?”  Even we wonder sometimes where our material comes from, especially when we are writing in a concentrated way that flows with newly unearthed material.  Some writers give over their power and their reverence to the product – the book or poem – rather than the source of that product: their own inner authority.  That’s another result of thinking the source is one of luck, of mystery, and feeling superstitious about examining that too closely, fearing it will disappear.  Possibly, this accounts for those writers who have enormous success with one book and then can’t write another.  They’ve put all their power into the outcome of what is an inner process.  Sadly, this sometimes happens with a person’s first poem or story.  It receives rave responses, and the writer believes it was a fluke because she can’t trace the flow of the work from within her to the product without.  She believes it was a onetime accident and, after the immediate exhilaration of her experience, becomes depressed.  Oddly, this can happen even after multiple successes.   

One of my workshop students reports that he sees each publication as a fluke and fears he can’t ever do it again.  It’s this inner process of arriving at our own material that intrigues me and that I demystify in Writing Wild.  For if we don’t understand it, we feel that creative energy is in control and shares itself with us only on whim.  Our relationship to writing and to ourselves must be more intimate than that.  Intimacy, in partnership with another human or in partnership with our inner selves, demands trust and faithfulness.  We can’t write if we think a disembodied muse may or may not show up to unlock our creative vault and give us access to our own personal material.  This kind of thinking is irresponsible, as if we are refusing to be accountable for our own creative lives.  Material can occur to us with such rapidity that we cannot immediately trace the steps our minds took in connecting two seemingly unrelated ideas.  But when we are very alert to the data our senses bring us and to the memories, hopes, fear, and dreams that the sensory data triggers, we will make instantaneous links.  It’s this fully traceable process that many of us mistake for mystery, luck, and visits from the muse. 

*Reprinted with permission from New World Library. www.NewWorldLibrary.com.

  Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

poetry celebrates our anniversary

 -- Quote of the Day -- 

"Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life. "

~ Jesse Lee Bennett

  -- Poetry --

Today I'd like to share an excerpt from my first book of poetry: Towards Understanding... which includes poems written between the time period of 1987 and 2002. These poems were selected to reflect my unending, immense love and appreciation for my husband - Dave. We're celebrating our 24'th anniversary tomorrow (July 19th). 

I Love You That Much

Can you hear the fan blowing

Trying in vain to cool

On this hot summer day?

Holding you close, so strong

Feels as though nothing 

Will ever go wrong. 

I part the hairs on your chest, 

just to feel them curl around my finger

Like a chick cuddled in her nest.

Your eyes bathe me in their embrace.

And it feels so good for it to be this way;

New and exciting yet tame,

Knowing that it is here to stay.

I have felt so inadequate,

Yet you seem to be fulfilled.

I only hope I can fill your needs - 

I love you that much.

This next excerpted poem from the same book was written earlier upon feeling the enormity of the potential of this relationship, feeling vulnerable and scared, yet willing to plunge in anyway...

Love Of A Many face

Love of a many face,

I shy from your disgrace.

Love of a many hill,

I won't let go of my will.

Tumbling, falling,

Just tired of stalling.

Can't let it fade away,

Yet won't allow myself to beg.

My heart means so much more...

Yes - I step harder than before.

Why jump blinded, headfirst,

Into the never ending thirst?

Slowly, I watch and sigh.

Silently, I smother my cries.

Trying to hold onto what - I don't know.

But never - no never - let it show. 

My eyes see danger up ahead.

Threatening to leave my heart stone dead.

Tonight, I caress my greatest fear.

To love you always, and hold you near. 

Towards Understanding

   Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

 

Positive News

 -- Quote of the Day --

 

"I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts."

~ John Lock

-- Positive News -- 

Here is an interesting unique way of approaching greening a business through a joint venture between Chiyoda Manufacturing Co., the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and the Food Research Branch of the Kagawa Prefectural Industrial Technology Research Center.   

This joint venture resulted in a new technology that recycles udon noodle waste (which is big business, particularly in Japan) into bioethanol using a three part system – a fermentation system with a distillation column, methane fermentation tank and a methane gas power generation system.

This new technology, according to Japan For Sustainability (http://JapanFS.org) can produce 200 liters of bio-ethanol from 1,500 kilograms of udon noodle manufacturing waste.

The potential for expanding into other food industries is thrilling! Just think of all that valuable “waste” resource going to the landfill where it offers a host of environmental issues. If that could be diverted, create jobs, and provide renewable energy – what could be better?

  Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!