Getting to know my neighbours II, the Jha-DA’ Body Orb Vehicle

The Silver Seed Awakening, the Jha-DA’ Body Orb Vehicle

The Silver Seed Awakening, the first spark of the Silver Seed of the Mashaya-Hana Hubs of Aquareion Matrix; activation of the Sphere of Destiny, which is a 6-dimensional transharmonic protection sphere that turns into our Jha-DA’ Body Orb Vehicle, giving us the ability to eventually biologically Orb; and activation of the Lotus Bud Vehicle, which is the access code for the 48-Strand DNA imprint that connects us into Higher Earth.

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Getting to know my neighbours, the Horseshoe Whip Snake

My first close encounter with a Portuguese snake.

I found this one basking on the rocks near to the house

I believe its a Horseshoe Whip snake, this is a photo of one from the internet

Non-Venomous

English: Horseshoe Whip Snake
Scientific: Coluber hippocrepis (Linnaeus 1758)
Castilian: Culebra herradura
Catalan: Serp de ferradura
Portuguese: cobra-do-ferradura

Family: Colubridae
Distribution: Portugal except north, Spain except north and much of Castilla la Mancha. North west Africa and south west Sardinia



The Horse-shoe whip snake can reach a length of 180cm although they are often less. They are fairly slender, shy and fast moving. Although mostly diurnal they can also be seen out on warm evenings. The pattern is brighter and more obvious on juveniles with the main colour varying between yellow, off white, olive, grey or sometimes brown, this is marked by large black or brown spots uniformly placed along the dorsal line with smaller alternating spots along the flanks. In adults the paler areas within the pattern are much finer giving an overall darker appearance. The belly is pale in shades of peach, yellow, orange or red with dark marks openly dispersed near the head and more dense near the tail. The name stems from a shape on the head which looks like a horse shoe with the points facing back.
Their habitat ranges from coastal plains with low vegetation to dry scrub covered mountains up to 1,800m within the southern part of their range. Most of the population is found below 700m. They also live close to humans in cultivated areas and orchards, hunting around buildings or ruins and making use of dry stone walls. Generally ground dwelling and moving very quickly these snakes are also agile climbers going into bushes or along rough vertical banks and can move along dry stone walls searching the crevices for prey.

Their diet consists mainly of small mammals, the largest being rats, occasionally taking lizards and small birds. The young eat mainly lizards and also invertebrates. They actively seek out their meal, grasping it in their strong jaws and swallowing it head first. Horseshoe whip snakes may occasionally constrict their prey and do not have fangs or venom. This species of snake will always try and avoid detection, fleeing rapidly from human disturbance, but if cornered and handled will defend itself by hissing and biting.



In warmer zones of their range they may be active throughout the year, otherwise taking a short hibernation period during the colder times between November and March. Mating takes place in the spring with the female then laying a clutch of around 5 or 10 eggs (occasionally more than 20) under a rock, in an existing mammal tunnel or in old wood. Around two months later hatchlings will appear at a length between 15 and 35cm. The females are not sexually mature until they are about 8 years old and the males 5 years.

Similar species: none with these markings

Thanks to Wildside holidays for the info

Albert Bates describes the difference between "organic" and "biodynamic"

Click here to listen or download the podcast

Albert Bates describes the difference between "organic" and "biodynamic," and why people might still be drawn to the ideas of Rudolf Steiner in an era when less woo woo but equally effective options exist.

Thanks to KMO

Flood irrigation in the main kitchen garden

From Project. The kitchen garden pond and flood irrigation

Im hoping that I can use the natural irrigation channel that runs along top and behind the sloping raised bed kitchen garden. At the moment im using a tube to deliver water to the paths between the beds but its helping me to see the way I need to sculp the rest of the raised beds so that the water simply cascades from one swale to the next, back flooding I think its called.

From Project. The kitchen garden pond and flood irrigation

My mind is turning to irrigation systems as the weather hots up and I see that my loamy soil dries out very quickly. Ive got a timer and drip irrigation planned for the main poly tunnel, potting shed and new tomatoe areas, but I think for the kitchen garden it would be great to have a slow seep irrigation.

The ancient irrigation water course that runs right along the back of this veg garden is fed from the waterfall and I doubt better treated water to irrigate food crops could be found.
I was leaning on my shovel the other day taking a breather and I imagined the water tumbling down this massive 30 plus meter fall, the rocks, the pools, the pure nature of the surroundings and the water being totally in a natural ellement.
Victor Schauberger and Masaru Emoto theories were very much in mind when I thought of flood or slow seep irrigation, what a shame to stick this beautiful water into a black plastic irrigation tube when I can simply clear and repair the ancient stone canal and allow the water to caress only natural materials as it slowly seeps down from the high point through the land and into my permaculture kitchen garden.

Ive been enjoying the first salad greens of the year and they are exceptional confirming my belief that if we pay as much attention to the treatment of the water as we do to the treatment and creation of fertile soils we will see massive improvments in taste, hardiness and yield.

From Project. The kitchen garden pond and flood irrigation

Ive not done much to advance the kitchen garden pond but its doing its job, the garden is full of frogs and lizards, my 24 hour 7 day a week pest control.

Building a yurt deck by Awakened Life project

The Awakened Life Project takes YouTube by storm!

A couple of weeks ago we made a new yurt deck. I wrote about this in a post called Building a Yurt Deck in Cosmic Flow. Well now hot off the presses, the whole process is captured on this short 10 minute video.

Eco Construction building with roundwood

Wolfe in Transition

About our project in Northern Portugal to renovate some ruins and abandoned land. But more than this - to apply building and energy systems that are local, renewable and less polluting, more efficient, healthier and cheaper. And to actually learn about how they work practically, so one day we can teach others here and in other parts of the world where crises and poverty are permanent overlords. This is our story, our search, our transition.


This issue of using wood close to the ground in building is a classic design fault common all over the world. In 1997 I worked with Movimondo in Guatemala where a part of their community development project involved showing locals how the use of around 70cm of stone footing for their homes would extend the life of the wooden walls, saving them the financial burden of rebuilding their homes every five to ten years.

Here in Portugal, and also in Scotland, I know that people generally believe it's sensible to sink a post deep into the ground, often bedded into cement for "extra strength". We are also advised to paint the end of the post in tar, or burn it first to prevent rottage.

But Paulo has introduced the idea of using rocks as the principle footing to ensure the posts stay dry and last many times longer.



Small metal bars, around 8mm diameter are inserted into the but of the post, and a similar hole drilled into the rock.



This merely holds it in place - it is really wobbly and insecure at this stage.

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Once a few posts are erected, a beam joins them together along the top, with simple lap joints with more metal bar to keep it together. This helps to secure the wobble a bit, but it really starts to get more secure when you link up the posts in both directions and add cross bracing. Rafters helped with stability too.


Read the rest of the article here

KMO launches his new podcast ETC Voices

KMO is the host and creator of the C-Realm Podcast.

He currently resides at the Ecovillage Training Center on the Farm.

ETC Voices Podcast 001

KMO talks with the other folks who live, learn, and work at the Ecovillage Training Center in Summertown, Tennessee. This week, KMO talks with Merry Moore, the ETC innkeeper about the kitchen co-op she conceived and continues to refine, then comes a walk and talk with Cliff Davis, ETC Head Gardener, about collecting and using local micro-organisms to make compost tea, and finally Garrison, an ETC permaculture apprentice, shares some surfer lingo.