Jan, Thank you for the welcoming message. I have already looked at your microponics page, Neat! In fact I have been a fan of the integration of small critters with aquaponics for some time. Quite a while ago I discovered the Dervaes family at ubanhomestead.org and became convinced that the building of a closed system for urban agriculture/survival agriculture is the ideal approach to gardening.
It is interesting how I came to locate this site. I was searching for information on the course Murray and Sylvia have planned for later this year. There are some folks on APHQ that have very strong opinions about the course and those involved in it! My Google search put me on page 26 of the discussion on World Aquaponics Association. I think I may give the course a miss and spend the registration fee on the construction of my system.
I want to see aquaponics as part of a successful system of systems (SOS) for survival agriculture. My view of a successful SOS follows the approach taken by Jules Durvaes in that the urban farmstead includes chickens, rabbits, goats, fish, plants, worms, BSFL, bees, bats, bugs, composting, micro organisms, etc., in a way that allows the output of one element to take maximum advantage of, if you will, pre digestion benefits and therefore allow each to operate at peak efficiency.
So what else brings me here. It all goes back to my Grandmother. I can picture her even now, She is standing at her kitchen door handing me the spade and the bucket of kitchen waste and saying "Old Socks, go dig this into the garden, be sure to work it in just at the edge of where you dug yesterday - go left to right." She was doing wind row vermiculture 60 years ago. The tomatoes she grew had the best smell of anything on the face of the earth! I have tried to replicate it everywhere I have lived and see Microponics as the wisest approach and my next step.
I have to say this at the outset. I am an old line bound book reader. Give me a hardback anytime. I will never own a Nook or a Kindle and print nearly everything I find on the internet. I make notes in the margins, put sticky tabs on pages. and genuinely use my books, the corners wear, pages get smudged. I looked into the Online Urban Aquaponics Manual link and my first reaction was $#!^, don't I even get see the table of contents first! As for the $39.95/year, for the on-line version, it isn't a whole lot different from what the much maligned Aquaponcs Association charges for an annual membership.... Does anyone have a copy of the earlier printed 2nd Edition version they are willing to part with?
I am a member of the Yahoo Barrelponics Group and a spin off, the Yahoo DIY_Ponics group. I hope to integrate my membership on these forums as learning tools to build my system of systems and to share my experiences with anyone willing to listen!
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