For those who enjoy looking beyond the mundane, we are entering an eleven year, or a two year, depending on how you like to reduce such things. I generally think in terms of one to nine, especially when thinking about years. It's interesting to note though, that the number eleven, at least according to this site has the following meaning, which could be quite portentious:
11 is not an easy number, especially for material interests. You want to avoid heavy speculation, for example,And:. There is a huge potential for loss in high risk material concerns, .
Some of the more challenging traits associated with the number eleven may include any of the following (other considerations in the charts collectively either support or mitigate the energy): Nervous energy, intense fear, unpredictability, unrealistic outlook, lack of discernment, religious dogma, fanaticism, insecurity, ...If we consider the number two, it's generally considered to be a split from unity to either co-operation or division, or to consideration of duality. Being a bit irreverent, I also like to consider numbers in terms of Tarot, where two gives us Balance, Contrast, Partnerships, Choice etc. Two is also considered to be the number of Karma. It can also be about questioning which path to take. (from http://www.tarotteachings.com/meaning-of-two.html)
So we're in for quite an interesting year (as if we needed numerology to tell us that ;-) ) I can envisage that a lot of the world will be playing out many of these things over the coming year, faced as we are with an increasingly worsening economic crisis, with peak oil and climate change hovering on the horizon of our collective mind, and the fact that our leaders are scrambling for politically palatable solutions that continue to serve the interests of the big end of town without ruffling the feathers of the flock.
Back in the mundane world, we've taken delivery of our shed and are now waiting on our development application to be approved. Once that's through we will get a construction certificate in short order and will be set to begin. Having a shed on the new block is a big mental step, in a way it cements our relationship with that patch of the earth, as well as providing infrastructure to be able to get started on numerous other projects. Once we've got a tank stuck on there we'll be able to water things. Once we can water things, we can plant things!
Over the Christmas break we were lucky enough to source as much sheep manure as we are willing to dig and cart. Our plans to put in the initial orchard at the new place are thus given a great boost, as we can prepare each hole with this brown gold. We're still vacillating between an old-style orchard for aesthetics, or espaliered orchard for practicality. Given that one aspect of this enterprise is increasing our resilience as we head into the low energy future I think the espaliering will win out. It gives us greater security as we can net the fruit much more easily, protecting it from the voracious birds. At the very least we will have a high-security orchard as well as some traditional orchard.
In addition, I'd like to get some of the many trees we've grown up here out onto the farm. We're planning a forested area down one of the slopes from the house, though it's going to look a bit odd to start with, given we'll most likely be using apple bin tree surrounds to protect them from the goats and hares.
We got ourselves a new rooster, from Bron at crankycockatoo, and he has settled in wonderfully. He's calm and cool, even with the kids running around, and hasn't attacked anyone, the primary reason for changing from our previous fellow who was as vicious as a pit bull. We'll be getting ourselves a few point of lay chooks in the near future, as the current ladies are getting a bit old and don't produce many eggs anymore. Being sentimental as we are we'll probably keep the old birds on as mulchers, rather than trying to boil the woodiness out of them to make a meal.
This weekend we're going to be knocking down a big dead tree that sits right next to the house and shed sites, and I'm sure we'll manage to think of something to do for Australia Day as well, most likely celebrating in the traditional fashion with a BBQ and a beer or three.
I'd like to finish up with a question: Is it true democracy if you cannot walk away from it? Is it a truly free society if you cannot abstain or secede?
All the best for the year ahead!!
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