december 11,2008

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2008/12/11
december 11,2008

Hi diary.We got our first big snow today.I was working on the chickens's greenhouse when it came.I didn't quite finish it,but got the top on temporarily so i can work on the inside until it thaws .If it thaws.There must be 5 inches of snow so far.
For the people who want to read my diary in English click on the diary top and then Ben's articles.My articles are beening translated into japanese now by our good friend Keiko.Whom i haven't met yet.She is volunteering to do this for all of us.Thank you Keiko.Now we need a volunteer to translate Konomi's articles into English.I have entered us into the Rudolf Steiner Archive.com website so people from all over the world can know we are here doing biodynamics.
Not much exciting news about prep making lately, just keeping my eyes and ears open for deer bladders,and doing some reading about Biodynamics.So i'll have to talk about whats going on and whats coming up.Whats going on is the greenhouse project and keeping the cows and chickens fed.The cows have put on their winter coats and look much darker than before.They like their organic hay so far.Later this week we will get our hay from the pasture in Shimizu that we rented this summer.Earlier this summer we sprayed this field with Maria Thun's formula barrel compost.Konomi tells me the hay was chopped and fermented because the weather was to wet to dry bale.I hope fermented hay is ok for the cows and the Demeter certification standards.We want to stay as close to the Demeter standards as much as possible.Some things are beyond my control.I don't speak Japanese yet and i don't have my own transportation yet,but i do have a valid Japanese driver's license now.Yeah!I'm learning to speak Japanese but very slowly and i don't know many sentences, only a few words.Maybe 100 words so far.The chickens are giving us 10 to 15 eggs a day.I'll have to clean the coop later this week too.More chicken manure for the compost pile.Yeah!.
Konomi is working partime at a farm nearby making caramel candy.I got an interview to work with her so maybe next week I'll start work there too.We will try to work the same shift and ride together but until i finish the greenhouse i will work from 5pm until 10pm.Konomi is working from 1pm until 10pm now.And has been for nearly 3 weeks.Of course i would rather be farming or working with cows.
We are really excited about our plans for a CSA garden.We will have our first CSA meeting this December 19.We will have a slideshow of how things worked at Jeff Poppens farm in Tennessee.We learned a lot from him and we wish to do almost the same as he did there.He has 130 members now.We want to start with 25 the first year.Then work our way up to 100 or more the year after that.The best way to recruit members is by word of mouth and seeing a CSA garden operation in action.We hope to have a good presentation so the attendees will want to tell their friends and neighbors about the CSA and want to join too.So far we have 6 members but we have a lot of time to do more recruiting.There is more information about our CSA plans in my CSA speech back in my later diary pages.Please try to come or wish us good luck.We can except donations at anytime.You can give us some good advice at anytime too.We are trying to book a room in the Tokachi plaza in downtown Obihiro.We will have snacks and drinks.We will have other meetings later during the year so the new members can meet everyone so far and be informed while we try to recruit more members too.
After the CSA meeting on the 19th we will have a winter soltice party on the 21st.More details about this later.Konomi and I are still working on the plans.I think she has already talked about it in her diary page but i'm not sure all the details yet.I'll let you know more very soon.I do know that i will dress up like Santa Claus and pass out presents to the children there.I think we will show a dvd about Peter Proctor's "How to save the world"If you haven't seen it yet please do.It explains a lot about what is going on in the world of agriculture in India.Peter Proctor and India is just an example of how Konomi and I want to help Japan.See also"An inconvenient truth" by Al Gore.This movie made me get off my ass and do something, so now i'm here doing it.We have another movie about Cuba's peak oil crisis.Cuba is now 80% organic because they almost ran out of oil and had to resort to other means of survival.Do we have to wait for something like this to happen before people wake up?Konomi and I are here making the Biodynamic preparations so when they do wake up we will be ready to help them heal the earth too.I just hope it isn't something bad to make them wake up.Our CSA garden will support us in making preps and trying to set a good example of how Biodynamics works.This is our first year here and we learned a lot.Next year is really going to be a challenge.We have been doing a lot of talk about why someone should be organic and/or Biodynamic farmers and now is the time to prove it by our actions.Talk is cheap.It is time to put our money where our mouth is.We will need some support even if it is only prayer.We look forward to doing this because we believe it is the right way to get our mission accomplished.Our mission is being translated on the front page in English very soon.Please check it out.It's simple, make preps,have a CSA garden and love each other and our fellow human beings.We will be collecting seeds from other organic farmers who have been saving their own seeds and when we get going we will trade with them some of our seeds.Seed saving is a tricky business but it very necessary to insure pure heirloom organic produce varieties.If you have organic seeds or anything else we can use please contact us.
We went to visit Konomi's family on the main island.She has 1 sister and 1 brother.Most of the family came to see us there at her parents house.We had a good visit and ate some real good food.I hope to see and hear more of them.They are a wonderful family.I'm glad to be part of them.
Across the street was a Waldorf nursery school.Imagine that.We went to visit them and exchanged email information.They gave us some gifts and we were very glad to have met them.They have plans for expanding and i hope they do.They are wonderful people and are doing a lot of good for the community.We will trade with them some of our preparations.They have a wonderful organic garden,Cafe and nursery for the children.

I wish them all the success they deserve.I dont know the name of the school but i do know the son's name is Yutaka Tamano.Please try to support them if you can by contacting us.The Waldorf schools should feed the students Biodynamic food.We want to help them and any other Waldorf schools with Biodynamic gardening.We will be glad to give talks and/or workshops to help promote Biodynamic farming and gardening especially to Waldorf schools in Japan but also to anyone interested.That is part of our mission too.

We went to a Christmas party in Obihiro at a friends restaurant last week.Rancho Elpaso is the name of the place they had country and western music and a pork buffet.Our friend the restaurant owner is also a pig farmer.At the end of the night he asked me to help him convert his pig farm into an organic pig farm.He already has pigs on pasture or a woodlot but feeds them scraps from food factories and other food byproduct industries.I told him he needed to grow his own feed .That may mean he has to cut back on the number of pigs for a while until he can do this.And he may have to buy more land to grow these crops for feed for the pigs.I'll do what i can to help him.I really don't know that much about pigs,although i have raised pigs myself from time to time and will raise some next year too.Maybe 3 pigs.I do have several sources of information to give him from the states.But he will need someone to help grow the feed or be partners with a vegetable farmer who wants to be an organic farmer too.That would be the best way.2 farmers becoming organic at the same time,learning together and supporting each other.Start small and work their way up.We will talk to him again soon.
Light a candle for Advent days.Stay warm and dry.Love and peace.Ben.

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Edited by ベン／ Ben Campbell 2008/12/11 22:15:14
Last Modified 2008/12/11 23:54:10

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