How to Compost Human Waste

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Jaime

Nature’s Head Dry Composting Toilet

Composting refers to the organic materials that have first been decomposed and then, different recycling processes are used in order to make the compound fit for use as a fertilizer. There are lot of different methods of composting and in today’s world, where we are aware of the different troubles of chemical fertilizers, and how they are entering in the food chain, natural composts are gaining a lot of importance and popularity.

Although, it may sound eerie or even repelling, it is worth adding that a lot of human waste is used as compost these days. It can turn out to be extremely helpful for people who have to attend to their garden and other plants when they are residing in between the woods with no access to other chemicals and fertilizers.

There are a lot of products that can help in turning human waste or sewage into useful compost, which can then be used as fertilizer for plants and would aid in enhancing the growth of plants. In the process of composting human waste, one has to take care of a wide range of different factors. The first thing that must be done is that people must take care to ensure that the strong odor and pathogens that are generally present in human fecal matter should be eliminated and destroyed.

In order to achieve this objective, the sewage is covered with a pile of sawdust. It is the presence of sawdust, which eliminates such harmful bacteria. After the bacteria has been killed, ample amount of organic materials must be mixed with sewage content because it will help in easy composting and shall enhance the speed of decomposition as well.

There are various other methods of performing the task as well. However, it is recommended that enough time must be given for the decomposition process. This is because, with time, the decomposition process gets complete and thus the sewage can be completely broken down and the compost that is finally made would be rich in a lot of different organic compounds and will aid in efficient growth of plants.

The best part of the process is that it can be carried out easily and does not require a lot of additional materials. This means that even those people who do not have easy and quick access to various different chemical fertilizers and other products that are being used extensively these days, can use human waste as compost and carry out efficient plant growth.

Not only this, using human waste as compost has also aided in efficient sewage treatment as well. Sewage treatment is becoming a big problem these days because if the waste is not treated properly and left unattended, it becomes home to a lot of different pathogens and bacteria, which in turn can add to medical complications. Hence, the process of turning human waste into compost is full of a lot of different benefits and it is bound to have a lot of dividends.

You should be aware of the details of the process. However, if you are not willing to do the process manually, you can make use of different products that carry out the process. You can find lot of toilets that do not actually flush the waste. Instead of flushing the waste, the waste gets stored in the bin where it is treated so that harmful bacteria and pathogens can be eliminated. Then, the process of decomposition starts, organic greens, and browns can be mixed to the mixture and then it is left for a fixed amount of time. With the right processing, the waste product then turns into compost.

Generally, the compost before use is dug in the soil layer. When the waste is dug, the natural bacteria present in the soil work on these layers and make them fit to be used as fertilizers. Hence, it is an extremely efficient chemical and can contribute immensely to the growth of plants.

Therefore, if you do not have access to chemical fertilizers, or you are looking to save the money that would be incurred in buying these fertilizers, or even if you are in favor of green fertilizers and composts, it is healthy to opt for such natural composts.

There is nothing wrong in treating human waste because essentially it ends up with the soil particles and ultimately turns to compost. So, check out the different types of products that can make this process of changing sewage to compost an easy task.

There is no doubt that the compost formed from human sewage will have lot of benefits for us, because they have contributed in growth of plants. So, check out the right ways of making smart use of the compost-forming product and thus ensure that you can extract the best utilization of your own waste as well.

Nature’s Head Dry Composting Toilet

Posted in Health | Tagged compost or fertilizer, composting human waste, how do you make compost, organic compost, starting a compost bin | Leave a comment

The Story Of The Pink Pipe Cleaner

Posted on October 25, 2012 by LadyGuinevere

This story starts out with a couple of cats and a Pink Pipe Cleaner. On our back deck I have a basket full of cat toys. Some of them are those furry mice or the balls that they love to play with. I also have things like those plastic, empty Easter Eggs that you can fill up and some Pipe Cleaners. For some reason they prefer pink or red toys. I also feed them on the back deck and so that is where they eat.

Mikey is a totally outdoor cat. I have another one but he doesn’t like to play with anything. Mikey is the one who loves to play with those toys and many times he will push them under the railings on the deck and I have to go pick them up off the ground and take them back up the stairs and return them to the basket. He’s funny like a baby because he had me watch him one day and he pushed a ball right under that deck while I was watching him. It is just like the baby in a stroller that will throw their bottle or something onto the floor just to have an audience and delight at having mom keep picking up that object.

It was afternoon and I didn’t see anyone playing with the pipe cleaner. I saw it on the ground just below the front deck. I picked it up and threw it onto the front deck. A few minutes later I saw Sunshine came onto the ramp that is attached to the front deck and so I stood there at the glass door and watched her as she entertained me. She always entertains me weather she is running up a tree or chasing leaves or catching something on the ground. Sunshine Picked up the Pink Pipe Cleaner, in her mouth, and dropped it into the water bowl. She batted it around in the water for a few minutes and finally she fished it out of the water with her paw. I thought she was done with it. She’s not to hip of playing with “dead” toys. She is my hunter for the live kind of toys like mice, worms, baby snakes and big bugs that crawl around in these woods

After batting it around for a few seconds on the deck floor she picked it up in her mouth and took it over to the food dish. She dropped it in the food and proceeded to eat her food. I don’t know what the purpose was to having the pink pipe cleaner in the food dish as she ate. Only she knows that. She’s a strange cat. After eating a few kibble of food she just went off the deck and into the woods and didn’t bother it anymore.

It was now dinnertime for the cats. They always seem to come around to eat around five o’clock in the evening. We don’t eat at that time but they do and it doesn’t matter what season it is. I feed them enough to last the day.in the morning. Sometimes they will eat lots of it then but most times they will eat about a teaspoon of it and then nibble throughout the day. I mean nibble as in eating like a teaspoon here and there. Anyway it was dinnertime and Mikey came up to eat the food in the dish on the front porch instead of the back deck. The pink pipe cleaner was still in the dish. I went out and took it out of the dish so that he could eat. He ate his fill and went off into the woods to do whatever it is that he does too. He didn’t bother with the pink pipe cleaner at that time.

This morning I found the Pink Pipe cleaner just where I left it on the deck. I didn’t feed them out there today. I did yesterday because Sunshine, who is my indoor/outdoor cat, didn’t come in before the contractors came to start putting in our new driveway. I normally do not feed the cats there at all.

Being that Sunshine was out; I needed to feed her there as she is a bit of a bully out there with Mikey. We don’t know why she all of a sudden became aggressive towards him. She will stalk him and will not let him come to me when I call for him to come eat breakfast. She also growls at him and this makes no sense to me why she has chosen him or anyone to pick on. I have even seen her do that when food is not involved. LOL My husband says that she doesn’t think he belongs in her clan anymore. Most times cats will push out the ones who are ill but I checked out Mikey and he is as healthy as a cat can be.

It was chewed up by something and only a small piece remains. I went and got more pipe cleaners and twisted them up and put them in the basket on the back deck, since there were no more in there.

So that is the story of the Pink Pipe Cleaner’s adventure.

Posted in Animals and Pets, Cats | Tagged cat, cat toys, pet, pink pipe cleaner | Leave a comment

Even in Fall & Winter, Native Plants will provide!

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Kathy

Bob and I have lived all over the United States in both small and large towns, transferring as our companies needed us in other locations, doing what we needed to further our careers and climb the corporate ladders. We reached a point in 2006 where we took control, became the masters of our own destinies and decided to leave Madison, WI and move further south. We purchased 23 acres in Licking, MO in 2006 and by 2007 we had moved into our new home. We had always wanted to be back in the country where everything is much prettier and slower and as nature lovers, we quickly assessed what needed to be done to turn our 23 acres into a wildlife sanctuary and something that we could enjoy for the rest of our lives. These changes would also reduce our maintenance requirements for such a large piece of property as we age and can no longer do such strenuous, manual labor.

After taking a stroll around the property today, I realized that we are making a lot of progress towards that goal. Fall is my absolute most favorite time of the year. The air is cooler, the tick and chigger populations are receding and to my delight, the trees put on their most colorful, brightly colored costumes for the grand finale show of the year. As I look around I see the native plants that, during the summer had bright, showy flowers and hosted so many interesting insects, birds and butterflies. Now, these same dying native plants, preparing for their long winter’s slumber, will provide food for the many other forms of wildlife in this area that will depend upon their seeds and dropped fruit during the coming cold months.

Here are just a few of my discoveries along my hike today:

Buck brush – this is the time of year when the buck brush is easy to identify! It’s useful as quail and rabbit cover. The small purplish-red fruit stays on the plant through much of the winter and serves as an emergency wildlife food late in winter or during extreme weather when other foods are depleted. From the looks of it, I’ll have plenty of this available for the wildlife this winter!

Buck Brush

Black haw (viburnum)– the blue jays have already cleaned off all the fruit and they were very thorough! Blackhaw is prolific on our property and this grove is spreading quickly.

Blackhaw – even though the berries & most leaves are gone, it still makes good escape cover for small animals when being pursued by predators.

Fragrant (aromatic) sumac – provides cover for quail and other small animals due to its growth habit and denser branching. The seeds produced by the plant also provide food for birds and quail.

Fragrant (aromatic sumac) – There’s a black-capped chickadee in this picture – can you find it?

Rattlesnake master – This is a great grower on my property and it provides a lot of seed that my gold finches love. I’ve seen other birds on it, but the gold finches tend to dominate the seed heads.

Rattlesnake Master

Side oats – lots of seed produced for quail and other birds and provides good brood and nesting cover for quail. This is a great grass to plant because of its ‘bunching’ characteristics that allows the quail chicks to scurry around the base unimpeded. The chicks cannot navigate thick fescue and if slowed down while trying to run, can be caught by predators.

Side Oats

Indian grass – the clumpy nature of this grass also makes it good cover during the summer and brood cover during the breeding season. It produces lots of seed for birds and quail.

Indian Grass

Big Blue – this grass is great for nesting & brood rearing for quail and the dense stands provide escape cover and winter cover as well.

Big Bluestem

Blackberries – besides providing the obvious berries for all types of birds, the berries also draw insects for birds that prefer them. The canes provide good summer cover from the heat and year round escape cover. A healthy crop of blackberries will also eventually kill all the fescue that tries to grow under it.

A field of blackberries and broom sedge.

Acorns – dropped from the oak trees provide lots of food for deer & turkey throughout the winter months.

Acorns

These are just a few of the native plants that we have on our site. If you have native plants on your site, you can help them spread by killing the fescue, and discing and burning at the right times of year. The animals that eat them will also help spread them. Even though they may look ugly now, don’t mow them down just yet! They will provide much needed cover from the winter elements for many animals, as well as food. So get outside, enjoy a walk-about and discover your own native plants!

Posted in Gardening and plants | Tagged Birds, conservation, native plants | 2 Comments

Preserving Family Photos: The Family Album

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Aya Katz

Like everybody else, I have albums upon albums of family photos from the previous century. I inherited the albums of my Grandmother Klara, my father’s mother, after her death. Many of these albums are falling apart, with the pictures spilling out of them.

My grandmother’s album was purchased late in the twentieth century. It is much newer than most of the pictures that are spilling out of it, but the pictures are still good, while the album is useless.

Most of the photo albums that were sold to the public in the late twentieth century were a complete rip-off. They were not designed to last a century, much less a millenium, and though they promised to preserve our memories forever, the people who manufactured them knew that we would not live forever, and that many of the people who bought the albums would be dead and buried within about fifty years and would never live to see the promise broken or think to bring a law suit against the manufacturer.

What options do we have now to preserve these photos for our great-grandchildren, without getting taken in again by merchants whose wares will not stand the test of time?

I would avoid any albums that claim to be “magnetic”. First of all, they are not magnetic. They use a kind of glue that allows you to decide to place a photo anywhere you like on the page, and they hold up for about fifteen years, give or take a year, depending on the humidity in the room where you store them. Fifteen years is not even one generation, much less a lifetime.

The better choice would be albums with pockets, because while these are more restrictive as to where you place the photos, they will stand up for many more years than the so-called magnetic albums.

However, the best kind of album to get is one that is of “archival quality”. European albums are more likely to be of archival quality, because many American companies don’t actually intend for anything to outlast the consumer. Things are priced low to sell fast. In Europe, everything is more expensive, and often it is unnecessarily of high quality, in a way that is not useful for the consumer, since the consumer will not use it past his own lifetime. In the case of photo albums, especially if you are planning to found a dynasty, is it better to invest in the expensive kind. These albums are not for you. They are for future generations yet unborn.

Another way to preserve your family photos is to scan them in and then keep them in an electronic form.

I would not rely on electronic albums exclusively, because electronic products have shelf lives, and what is not copied and copied over and over again in the latest file format every five years or so will not end up being preserved, especially after a world war or other cataclysmic event.

You might be laughing at me at this point. You are probably thinking that I am being very silly thinking about the preservation of family photos during an event that might mean the deaths of very many family members. Shouldn’t we work hard to save our families, rather than the family album?

Maybe. But sometimes it’s not possible to save your family. It is, however, much more feasible to preserve a few rare photographs of them and to hand them down from generation to generation. That is what happened to my grandmother during WWII. She lost her parents and her brother, but she was able to preserve photos of them. It helps to have a photo to look at in order to understand the loss. These are people I never met, though they were my great grandparents and great uncle.

My great grandfather Goldstoff and my great grandmother Goldstoff (nee Horowitz) and My Great Aunt Eva and my grandmother Klara — marked with an X by her own hand (these photos are from 1913 and they were taken in Vienna.

The first picture with my great uncle Saul in it was from quite a bit later.

My grandmother always marked all her photos of herself with an x.

Here is a picture of her entire high school class in the Hebrew Gymnasium in Krakow in 1927:

Here is the last picture in which my Great Uncle Saul appears:

This is the last picture that we have in which my great uncle Saul appears. From left to right are Eva, Klara and Saul.

Here is a picture of my father, Amnon Katz, my grandmother Klara’s only son, in Krakow the year before the war broke out and another of him in Vilnius while he was in flight during the war:

To the right is a picture of my father mounted on a pony in 1938 in Krakow before the war broke out. To the left is photo of him, probably taken for some identification document, when he was a refugee in Vilnius,Lithuania, on the way to Israel.

One thing to keep in mind while leaving photographs for your descendants is that they may not live in the same country as you do — or even if they do, they may not end up speaking the same language as you do. Mark the photos in more than one language so that your descendants, whoever they are, will be able to identify the people and events in the pictures. That’s what my grandmother did on the backs of her photos:

You may be an American and you may only speak English, but after the next great war, your great-great grandchildren may be speaking Chinese. Make sure they still can identify you and your family by marking your photos with captions in more than one language: the language you speak and the language they are likely to be speaking in the future.

Keep in mind that your descendants may be very different from you in outlook, culture and technology, but they may still want to know about their distant ancestors. So don’t go for the cheap albums, back up your digital images in more than one place and more than one format and translate everything to Chinese. Your descendants will thank you!

Posted in Arts & Crafts, Family | Tagged archive quality, archive quality photo album, buy a photo album online, family album, family memories, how to preserve photos, photo album, photo album that lasts | Leave a comment

Fall Leaves Changing Colors

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Aya Katz

This gallery contains 21 photos.

When we cannot travel, it’s good to live in a beautiful place. Continue reading →

More Galleries | 4 Comments

Music Review: Avalon is Risen by Leslie Fish

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Aya Katz

Cover of “Avalon is Risen” Album produced by Prometheus music

Produced by Kristoph Klover, performed by Leslie Fish and published by Prometheus Music, Avalon is Risen is the filk album we have all been waiting for. The music is celtic and folkish, but with that special touch that only Leslie Fish adds. If you are not a Fish aficionado yet, you will be, after listening to these songs.

A Leslie Fish album is not something you listen to once and then put away. It is an experience to savor, to hear over and over again, until the music sinks into your soul and your spirits rise.

Some of the songs are funny. Some are serious. But all are full of magic and meaning. Leslie Fish composed the music to nearly all the songs, with some exceptions. She wrote the lyrics to most, and those whose lyrics are not her own come from the pens of Isaac Bonewits, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Browning, Poul Anderson, Gordon Dickson (music!), Don Simpson and Christa Landon.

Additional credits run as follows: Margaret Davis: backing vocals; Shira Kammen: vielle; Kristoph Klover: backing vocals, djembe, electric bass & percussion; Nada Lewis: accordion; Kevin White: backing vocals; Rob Wilson: bodhran.

If you buy the physical CD, you will receive with it a beautifully illustrated booklet with all the lyrics and an introduction by Diana Paxson.

But there is another, much less expensive way to to purchase the album. You can get all the songs as an mp3 download, or you can also download each song separately as a single. Just to give a few highlights, I will describe for you some of the individual songs.

The lyrics to “Avalon is Risen” are by Isaac Bonewits. He is the author of Real Magic, a seminal work on modern sorcery.

The song he wrote begins like this:

Hail the day so long expected, when the Gates are opened wide.
Magicks, old and new collected, have restored the ancient pride.
Throughout Faerie’s wide dominion hear the trumpets swoop and soar.
Avalon is risen, is risen, is risen.
Avalon is risen, to fall no more.

“The Sun is Also a Warrior” by Leslie Fish acknowledges that while war is to be avoided when possible, there are things much worse than war, and that is why wars will never cease.

Of course, battle madness, while helpful in the fray, must be controlled. That is the subject addressed by “The Berserker”:

Oh, do not seek to know what lies
Behind these mild and patient eyes,
For I have seen the demon’s powers –
And even let the monster run –
In certain unforgotten hours.

The fire that sleeps within the blood
Can waken to a burning flood
That sweeps away whatever moved
Before the wordless killer’s eye.
Oh, do not cry to see it proved!

“The God’s Aren’t Crazy” is a fun song by Leslie, more playful than serious, about how inexplicable events may be laid down to the gods’ inebriation:

Look out your window and what do you spy?
Rain falling out of a sunshiny sky.
It’s changing to hailstones that weigh half a ton,
With seven live frogs hopping out of each one.
It’s not the Last Judgment; stop wailing of Sin.
It’s only the gods at wine tasting again.
So drink, drink, to Charlie Fort’s memory –
Marvelous doings, and marvelous sights.
Drink, drink, we may as well join them.
The gods are not crazy; they’re higher than kites.

One of my favorites is “Lucifer”, with lyrics by Don Simpson based on a poem by Browning.

Taste of the fruit of the tree that is knowledge,
Of good and of evil, and all the world’s lore.
A creature’s thought must exceed what it’s taught,
Or who is Heaven for?

So come here and learn to become as the gods are,
For I’ve got a wonderful secret to tell:
A creature’s reach should exceed its grasp.
What else is Heaven or Hell?

Other notable songs include the “The Ballad of Three Kings” with lyrics by Poul Anderson and music by Gordon Dickson (!), which I used to hear sung not very well at my local filksing, but which is beautifully performed by Leslie, and Chickasaw Mountain, Leslie’s song about the deals musicians make with fame.

They’re good, and Bow and I have listened to them all. The only one he objects to is “Jack the Slob” which somehow seems to suggest that a female chimpanzee is unattractive. Bow and I know better than that. But on the plus side, the instrumentals on that song are great!

If you like folk music, magic, science fiction or even just metrical poetry, you will like
Avalon is Risen. Buy the album, if you can afford to. If you can’t, buy the mp3 download– or at least, your favorite song. Even if you’ve heard these songs before, you have never heard them like this!

Buy it on Amazon!

Order it on Amazon

Posted in Composers, Lyricists, Music | Tagged Avalon is Risen, best celtic music, best Leslie Fish songs, Chickasaw, Diana Paxson, Don Simpson, filk, filk music, Gordon Dickson, Isaac Bonewits, Leslie Fish, Leslie Fish album, Leslie Fish music, Lucifer, pagan, Poul Anderson, The earth's Fire breathing daughter, The Sun is Also a Warrior | 8 Comments

The Harvest Moon, the Autumnal Equinox and the Holidays of Autumn

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Aya Katz

In a perfect world, the lunar calendar and the solar calendar would be in synch. The cycles of the moon and the revolution of the earth around the sun would work together to create a single unified calendar by which we could mark all events. The fact that this is not the case is just one indication that the formation of our solar system was a random event, rather than a result of intelligent design. The mismatch in calendars, however, has spawned lots of mathematical calculations and has given philosophers and theologians much food for thought.

Early man went by the lunar calendar, because on a daily basis, and week by week, this calendar works best, but users of a lunar calendar were forced to make corrections, so that there would not be slippage from year to year for the major seasons, which are solar events. Because each culture made these corrections differently, there are several well known lunar calendars, the most famous of which are the Chinese Lunar Calendar and the Hebrew Lunar Calendar.

The calendar that most of the world goes by today is a solar calendar invented by the Romans, known as the Gregorian Calendar.

In order to see the variations in how the different calendars treat lunar events and solar events, let’s talk about the harvest moon, an annual occurrence that happens in the fall.

A Harvest Moon
Image Credit: Wikipedia

The harvest moon is the full moon that occurs “closest to the autumnal equinox”, according to the wikipedia. As such, this is an event that is defined both by the solar cycle and the lunar cycle. If the lunar and the solar calendars were totally in synch, then this event would occur on the same day of the year, no matter which calendar we were using.

This year, 2012, the Harvest Moon falls on September 29-30, according to earthsky.org. The “Harvest Moon” is so called, because in the days before artificial lights, farmers found that it was easiest to bring in the crops during the harvest moon, as there is no long dark period between sunset and moonrise during the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox.

The most famous song about the Harvest Moon is “Shine On Harvest Moon”
By Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth (1903).

Now, because the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar, the Harvest moon in the Northern Hemisphere occurs in either September or October, but never on the same day, from year to year. On the other hand, when you use a lunar calendar, then the full moon always occurs on the 15th day of the month. Every four years the Harvest Moon occurs in October in the Northern Hemisphere according to the Gregorian Calendar. Quite a bit more rarely, the autumnal equinox and the Harvest Moon coincide, occurring during the same night. When this happens, it is called a Super Harvest Moon.

There are two lunar holidays I know of celebrated around the time of the harvest moon, each in a different lunar calendar and according to a different cultural tradition.

Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration in Beijing
Image Source: Wikipedia

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival ( 中秋節) celebrates an ancient legend involving the moon, and it falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Because the lunar calendar and the Gregorian Calendar are not in synch, this is a different day in either September or October, by the western calendar, each year. Notice that it’s called Mid-Autumn Festival, implying that it celebrates the Autmnal Equinox, but it is not defined that way: it is defined by the full moon, so only on a Super Harvest Moon will Mid-Autumn Festival actually occur during the Autumnal Equinox. This year, 2012, Mid-Autumn Festival will occur on September the 30th. However, in 2013, it will fall on September 19, in 2014, on September 8, in 2015, on September 27, in 2016, on September 15, and in 2017 on October 4.

The holiday of Sukkoth, in Hebrew, סֻכּוֹת, is a celebration defined in the Old Testament, and it falls on the 15th day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. During this holiday, people build huts in their yards and gather harvested fruit. It is a seven day event, but the first day falls on the full moon. This year, 2012, that is officially set as October 1st, according to the Wikipedia. But if you really understand how Hebrew holidays work, then you know that the holiday starts on the eve of the day before, and that this year that’s on the eve of September 30th: ערב סכות erev Sukkoth.

Harvest-related accoutrements of Sukkoth celebration
Image Source: Wikipedia

So… do Mid-Autumn Festival and Sukkoth occur on the same day? It’s very, very close. From a celestial event perspective, are these two holidays not really the same? And aren’t they supposed to occur during the Harvest Moon? What do you think? Do Mid-Autumn Festival and Sukkoth start on the same day of the lunar calendar? Do you think they celebrate different things? Or are they two slightly different cultures’ way of observing the same celestial event and the same season of harvest?

When I lived in Taiwan, and I witnessed some of the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations, many things about the festivities did remind me of Sukkoth in Israel. I used this experience in writing my novel Our Lady of Kaifeng, which is set in China in 1941. When I was researching the story, I found out that in 1941, Mid-Autumn Festival and Sukkoth both fell on the same day of the Gregorian calendar: October 5th.

In Chapter 6, “Harvest Moon”, of Our Lady of Kaifeng, Marah Fallowfield is taken by Father Horvath to celebrate Sukkoth with the the Kaifeng Jews, but the ceremonies they conduct are not all that different from those being held by Chinese people throughout the city. When Marah realizes that the two holidays, Sukkoth and Mid-Autumn Festival, fall on the same day, she wonders why that is. Ted Sesame suggests that it might be because there is only one god. But Marah thinks it’s because there is only one moon. What do you think?

This year, whether you are celebrating the harvest moon, Mid-Autumn Festival, or Sukkoth, don’t forget to look up at the beautiful big, bright moon on the evening of September 29th and 3oth!

Our Lady of Kaifeng: Part One (Volume 1)

Our Lady of Kaifeng — Part One — Order Here

Our Lady of Kaifeng: Courtyard of the Happy Way (Volume 2)

Our Lady of Kaifenv — Part Two — Order here

http://sweetiepie.hubpages.com/hub/Book-Review-Our-Lady-of-Kaifeng

http://www.examiner.com/article/aya-katz-and-the-artwork-from-the-novel-our-lady-of-kaifeng

Posted in Books and Authors, Opinion Pieces and Editorials | Tagged Autumnal Equinox, Chinese calendar, Feast of Tabernacles, Gregorian Calendar, Harvest Moon, Hou Yi, Jewish calendar, lunar calendar, Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Cake Day, Our Lady of Kaifeng, Sukkoth, Super Harvest Moon, סֻכּוֹת, 中秋節 | 2 Comments

Tenerife Property Video Blog makes property searching easy

Posted on September 7, 2012 by bardofely

If you are searching for property in Tenerife the Tenerife Property Video Blog will make it much easier for you to find what you are looking for. Tenerife Property Video Blog provides access to some of the best properties for sale in Tenerife with its searchable database and video blogs.
Articles are published on a very regular basis to give would-be buyers the sort of information they require. Site owner and property specialist John Parkes also provides the latest Tenerife news of real estate on the island, and the Tenerife Property Video Blog enables you to easily browse for what you are looking for. You can search the listings for apartments, villas, houses, and land too, that is for sale in the south of Tenerife. The Tenerife Property Finder allows you to make your search on a map of the island.

How the Tenerife Property Video Blog works:
Besides publishing up-to-date news of properties and an easy to use search database, Tenerife Property Video Blog shows the apartments, villas, houses and land that is for sale in Tenerife with a click-able map. It is very simple to use because all you have to do is to click on an area to see a close up of the town or village you are interested in. When you do this you will be taken to a map of that location with a link shown for every part of the area that currently has property for sale. The Tenerife Property Video Blog makes searching for apartments for sale in Tenerife really easy.

Videos are featured of selected properties too, and in this way you can have an excellent visual guide to look at to help you decide if this could be the sort of place you are looking for.

Tenerife Property Video Blog also invites property owners who have properties for sale to list them on the site. There is a List Your Property section displayed on the website below.

Tenerife Property Video Blog links
• The Tenerife Property Video Blog – Property For Sale Tenerife
The Tenerife property Video Blog gives you access to the best properties for sale in Tenerife using it’s searchable database and video blogs. Articles are regularly published to give would be buyers information they need. http://www.propertyforsaleintenerife.com/
• YouTube – PropertyTenerife’s Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PropertyTenerife
YouTube site for PropertyTenerife
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What is Vacuum County All About?

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Aya Katz

What is Vacuum County all about?

Most authors are happy to be asked what their book is about. To me, this is a terrifying question, just like a few other seemingly simple questions: what is your profession, your nationality, your religion, your political affiliation? For those people who have a simple one word answer to each of these questions, summarizing what their novel is about can be accomplished in a paragraph.

For me, it is a trap fraught with pitfalls. If I tell you Vacuum County is a story about a college girl who gets falsely accused of DWI by a sheriff she spurned while driving down a lonely stretch of road in an obscure Texas county and who ends up trapped there against her will, eventually being reduced to the role of a slut, would this be true? Well, yes, in terms of a part of the plot structure, it would be. But if you really wanted to know what kind of novel this is, it would be a complete and total lie. Somebody who bought the book thinking it would be a titillating, mindless romp would be sorely disappointed.

If I told you that this a literary narrative, in which divergent points of view are contrasted and that it’s an exercise in polyphony, would this be true? Yes, it would be, but most people who are looking for that kind of book will not be happy with Vacuum County, for a number of reasons. For one thing, literary has been taken as the equivalent of “liberal”, and so everybody knows what basic kinds of issues and ideas can be explored in a literary work, and which cannot. Also, if the plot and theme are too well integrated, literary critics might be offended by the facile structure of the narrative. In real life, and in naturalist fiction, nothing works quite like that, and it is just as bad as having poems that really scan to have a plot with regular plot points that builds up to a climax and then releases. “How very phallo-centric of you!” they would sneer.

Okay, so maybe neither of these characterizations are the way to go with this book. Maybe I should just say:”It’s a book about a cattle rancher who gets audited by the IRS.” But then people would just give me a blank look, because I don’t think there is any stereotypical genre that this particular subplot brings to mind.

Which brings us to the issue of genre.

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The Problem of Genre Revisited

I have written about genre before. Here is the link:

The Problem of Genre

The real issue to me is why anybody would even be concerned with genre. It’s a lot like asking the author to tell you what ingredients he put in the literary pie that he baked, in case you are allergic to some of them.

I like reading all kinds of books, myself. I like detective novels, like those about Donald Lam, and I like science fiction, like Podkayne of Mars. I’ll read an occasional romance, like The Scarlet Letter or Wuthering Heights. No topic is beneath me. The only thing I care about is whether it’s a good book.

But some people seem to say that they want genre books, not for what’s in them, but for the elements they don’t want to find there. They seem to say: “I want mystery but not intellectualism.” “I want intellectualism, but no unexpected conclusions.” “I want a little bit of romance, but nothing that would challenge my views of what is romantic”.

For instance, is Vacuum County a mystery? someone might ask. And I could answer truthfully that it is. The mystery in this novel is why it’s called “Vacuum County”. It is a cultural and linguistic mystery. And you might be thinking, “Oh I know that kind of mystery. It’s one of those semiotic books, like The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.” But you’d be wrong. Eco’s book is a historical murder mystery set in a monastery. But all the murders in Vacuum County are solved right from the start. We always know who did it. The mystery is history itself, and how the words came to be the way they are. Is there a genre like that?

Some people buy mysteries, because they are promised that they are allowed to think about a certain level of puzzle, while feeling free to take the entire rest of their known universe as a given. It’s not mysteries that they are hankering for, but a safe universe where everything is in its place, except for one stray murder.

Some people buy science fiction, not so they can consider some advanced scientific theory, but so that they can contemplate saving the universe as we know it from evil forces, without having to make any commitment in their minds as to what evil forces are operating amongst us in our society even as we speak.

Some people like books in which good and evil are easy to recognize, or, alternatively, they like thoughtful books that are well-crafted but ultimately lead to no conclusions.Vacuum County is not that kind of book.

I can’t really promise the reader that he’ll get exactly the same pie he was expecting to get by labeling the pie as lemon meringue, but in the interest of full disclosure, I will fess up and tell you what some of the ingredients are that you are getting when you read Vacuum County.

List of Ingredients

10% Biblical Story

Vacuum County is a reworking of a Biblical story whose most important components are found in the first book of Samuel, Chapter 25. It is not a straightforward retelling, but rather uses the characters and situations presented there as a springboard for a “what if” story. What if Nabal hadn’t mysteriously died, freeing Abigail to bestow all her property and herself on David? What would have happened to the kingdom of Israel then?

20% local and Federal government

Vacuum County is a story of local government in an out of the way county in the Great State of Texas. It is about the way in which ordinary people interact with their elected officials. It is about the heavy price paid by outsiders who don’t live by the rules. It is about what can happen to the quiet life of the entire county, when the long arm of the Federal government is called in to settle a local power struggle.

30% Cultural Legacy of Spanish Explorers

Vacuum County is about the cultural legacy of the Spanish explorers who first arrive in Texas. It is about Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, his very real historic life, his fictional descendants, and his not-so-fictional — but unautheticated — ancestors. In the process, we get to know about the Carthaginians who explored the Iberian peninsula, when that was a brave new frontier.

40% social interaction across socio-economic, cultural and personality types

Vacuum County explores how people interact across social boundaries of class, education, language and culture. Moral judgments cast by one party on another are reversed and reworked , as the context of each individual reveals a different set of behavioral expectations.

Book Trailer for Vacuum County

Who Vacuum County is for

What audience is Vacuum County intended for?

Biblical scholars and ordinary Bible readers alike will find familiar ground in Vacuum County. They will enjoy hearing an old story retold, and they will find the new twists intriguing.
Anybody interested in what happened at Mt. Carmel near Waco, Texas in 1993 will want to read Vacuum County. Anyone critical of the Federal government, the IRS, the ATF, and all other entities that use military force against ordinary citizens will be sympathetic to its point of view.
Fans of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca will enjoy hearing this take on his story. There has been a resurgence of interest in this explorer and in his ‘magical’ acts of healing while lost among native populations.
New Agers will find Vacuum County alluring. There is an upsurge of interest in primitive religion and homeopathic remedies. Vacuum County touches on these subjects in a very unusual way, weaving the Biblical sources together with pre-Biblical religion, and tying the sacrificial habits of the Phoenicians to the exploits of Cabeza de Vaca to the current day practices and religious observances of people labeled “nuts”.

Who is Vacuum County not for?

Is there anyone to whom this book would not appeal? …Well, yes. Vacuum County will not appeal to thoroughly conventional sorts. It is only for those who are capable of independent thought. Not everyone who reads the Bible will enjoy Vacuum County. Those who read their Bible as a narrative will recognize the connection. Those who use it only for ritual will not get the point. Not all right wing militia members will be attracted toVacuum County. If they are in the movement by reason of racial bigotry, this book will not appeal to them. By the same token, not all New Agers or fans of Cabeza de Vaca are going to find this book entertaining. If they are looking for pure fantasy, they are not going to find it here.

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Who else will enjoy Vacuum County?

Are there any groups that I haven’t mentioned yet that will enjoy Vacuum County? Yes. Anyone who likes good fiction. This is not a patchwork of historical events or a thesis on the nature of justice. Vacuum County is a novel. The old fashioned kind, the kind we had in the nineteenth century, before modernism, naturalism or post modernism. It is a novel like the ones Sir Walter Scott or Nathaniel Hawthorne used to write, before you had to be ashamed of telling a good story and telling it well! Plot, characterization and theme are fully integrated. There is an enormous emotional pay-off! You will be moved!

Conclusion

So, anyway, that’s what I think Vacuum County is all about. But, what do I know? I’m just the author. You might decide it’s about something else entirely. Give it a read and let me know what you think it’s about!

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Comments 14 comments

dahoglund 4 months ago from Wisconsin RapidsLevel 7 Commenter

Genre is a commercial thing.They classify a book for marketing to readers who want that particular classification.

JamaGenee 4 months ago from Central OklahomaLevel 7 Commenter

Aya, like you, I don’t give a fig about “genre”. If a book appeals to me for whatever reason, I’ll read it. Now you’ve made me curious enough about “Vacuum County” to check it out!

Voted up, useful and awesome! ;D