Dan the man called me @ work in just the right moment with long anticipated news. We had been waiting weeks for this opportunity – tens of thousands of beautiful girls with wings landed high-up in a tree in front of Dan’s house on S M Street. Three urban farm boys (Dan, his friend, and me) eventually managed to charm these feisty ladies into a wooden box, called nucleus or nuc. This felt like being alive … especially each of the 4 stings. After living like the “Na’vi” for two hours we had some well-deserved beers on Dan’s porch. The next day at night I moved the nuc into my backyard.
Archive for education
a love potion as organic pest control
Driving up North Vasco Road to Brentwood is a wonderful way to spend a sunny Sunday springtime morning: white wind mills, green soft hills, family farms, cattle, goats, and orchards in bloom. For the annual blossom festival farmer Al of Frog Hollow Farm was giving us a tour of his organic fruit orchards. For pest control he uses a special “love potion” that prevents the moths from mating: from every tree hangs a little plastic envelope that is filled with female pheromones. When the male moths arrive there is an intense smells of female everywhere but they cannot find a single one. Poor male moths … I know exactly how you feel.
the farm house
Traditionally Livermore has been a farm town. But currently the downtown shows few signs of its rich agricultural past. Soon downtownfarm will move to 2410 Second Street and bring happy farm-life back to Livermore. Local students will help us to create the most beautiful urban farm in America. We will also develop cutting-edge LIDAR technology behind the Bay window of the farm house and show-case it with chickens, goats, and organic vegetable beds. This will be so irresistibly beautiful & educational … you will copy us (or so we hope).
high-tech bees (part one)
Bees are a fun way to teach yourself or your kids about the latest technologies: digital photographie, video editing, image processing, technical writing, blogging, etc. An outdoor IT education with bees is very memorable. Your kids will never forget the lesson they learn from cute little honey bees. Look at Tim, Jessica (aka “Queenie”), and Karleen: They are filming the “frames” with digital high-definition video. Later they look for the queen bee by inspecting some still images. Did they find her? You can find out here. And bees are good in geometry: look how perfectly regular they build the comb. To be continued …
creating an urban farm in downtown livermore 