The impressions of people who come to see us.

The Aquaponics and Earth Sustainable Living cycle of life farm is quite the site to see. One day the coordinator for the Dallas Farmers Market came to visit us for our acceptance into their program and she said, “This is a little bit of heaven right here in the city.” It’s interesting to see all the different reactions, but so far 100% have been extremely positive and uplifting.  One extension officer with Texas A&M University came to visit us with the intention of staying for forty-five minutes, and stayed for five hours. He said, “You have ideas that could help save rural Texas.” Most of the people who come to visit ask us to help them install a system for them before they leave. The farm attracts both young and old visitors alike. Why? I am convinced it is because of the following reasons:

A CYCLE OF LIFE

First of all, it just makes a lot of sense to people.

The water from the fish tanks can be re-circulated from the fish reservoirs to vegetable grow beds and back into the reservoirs. The vegetables receive vital nutrients and the fish in turn have clean, fresh water, and we get to eat the nutritious organic vegetables.

Gallons of fish water have to be let out of the tanks weekly while cleaning the tanks. The waste water goes into underground containers to be used as fertilizer, irrigation for the earth, and compost tea. The water is filled with billions of microbes which can heal the land and attract red worms to make the land live again. The waste water is also used to seed worm beds and soldier fly pods.

The chickens provide good meat and eggs, but also manure that is used for some of the best compost available. The chickens love to eat soldier fly larva that collects in a clean container. The soldier fly larvae grow from eating the dead fish or the remains of harvested fish. The fish also love to eat the soldier flies.

The rabbits love the extra vegetables that we don’t use from our square foot and raised bed gardening systems. The manure from the rabbit cages can be applied directly to grow beds, or placed in special containers beside plant roots for the best fertilization (see illustration of rabbit waste root feeders) and any that is left over can be used to feed the soldier flies and red worms.

The goats will supply you with milk and meat. They love the extra garden produce. Their droppings are thrown into the compost pile to refresh our grow beds in the fall.

The worms eat our garbage and supply nutrient-rich compost for compost tea. Also, a handful of them are put in every grow bed for a continuous fertilizer release.

The soldier flies consume large volumes of waste that the worms can’t eat. All dead fish are put in our soldier fly bio-pods. The larvae are fed to the chickens like popcorn. The larger tilapia will feed on the larvae also.

The compost barrels and bins are filled with all kinds of microscopic and visible life. These organisms are too numerous to count, and their purpose is to eat up grass and vegetables from the garden that would normally be thrown away. The final product is “brown gold,” so rich that most anything will grow in it.

Every fish, chicken, rabbit, goat, worm, soldier fly, and microbe work harmoniously, creating a cycle of life system that is incredible to witness. This is why we often call our farm the AESL cycle of life farm.

We must help keep the earth clean and all life flourishing; so we not only feed the fish and animals but, on a daily basis, pounds of food waste leave our kitchen to feed the worms, flies, and compost piles.

Second, it is born out of necessity!

A man once said, “necessity is the mother of invention.” However, the cycle of life system we are talking about has been around since the beginning of time itself – not with the bells and whistles we have today, but the basic principles have always existed.

Recently, my wife and I went to EGYPT and saw a picture of King Tut’s tomb, which had a tilapia fish on it! One thousand years ago the Chinese had a system much like the one mentioned above using the silk worm. I will have a number of these stories on our blog in due time. I know you will enjoy them. The important thing to note is that this type of system is not new. However, we have developed ways to take the “guesswork” out of it.

A representation from virtually every type of people and organization have come to see us, urgently wanting to get started with our system. These include humanitarian and faith-based organizations of all kinds: inner-city and urban works, women’s shelters for abused women, and over 30 missions-based works throughout the world devoted to helping the poor and oppressed. Humanitarian groups in Ethiopia have risen to help curb the terrible starvation crisis. Colleges and universities want their students to learn the farming techniques of the future. We have small-business people wanting to learn the craft of raising Tilapia and organic vegetables for local farmers markets. Many local people want to start small systems right in their backyard for basic survival in case of harder times ahead.

We are living in uncertain times. During the Great Depression, the “victory garden” movement spread across America like a prairie fire. People want to go back and learn what they have missed out on,  realizing that they have been caught up in a system that we are all too co-dependant on. Many times desperation wakes us up!

Thirdly, we have wasted too much!

 Not until you get involved in a cycle of life program will you realize how much humans waste these days. You will discover that we have become lazy and want what is convenient and fast. Enormous amounts of the waste products that come from companies, small businesses, and even common households can be used constructively in a cycle of life system. We began by shredding all papers and putting them in big plastic bags in our small barn. With this paper we established worm beds and compost piles and mixed it in with other ingredients to make ALL of our soilless grow beds that produce vegetables.

Scraps and food waste that we throw off our plates in the trash can almost entirely be used for compost piles, worm beds, or soldier fly bio-pods. Stale popcorn is a delight to chickens, along with other things we throw away. This is just the beginning!

Fourth, anyone can do it!

People view our system, and instead of seeing it as being complicated with secret hidden parts, almost everyone says, “I can do this!” Anything that is really successful has to be duplicatable, achievable, and economical enough in hard times to at least get a small system up and going on a shoestring. I’m so glad that we did NOT have a lot of funds when we first started this project so we can say to everyone, “If we did it, you can too!” We scraped, saved, and went to feed stores to get our first basic system. It worked very well, and we added on as we were able. This happened to us so we could show people how to build a successful system without a lot of income.

Fifth, our AESL System has brought us many new friends.

I have found that there are a lot of neat people out there, including farmers. Our beliefs, values and political views may be a little different than theirs, but farmers are some of the most wonderful people and this system teaches all of us to be like farmers who are friends with the earth and nature.  We share ideas, seeds, plant starts, fish, and even things we have in our backyard that we don’t need. Our common basic need for food brings us together. We are just people who want to help others come together. I have met hundreds of new people and we are all interested in the same things: the poor and needy, cleaning up our planet, conserving energy, recycling, elimination of wastes, and making a difference for our children, grandchildren, and future generations.

Last, but not least, the system brings some peace in uncertain times.

A system like this shows you that you could survive for several months from your backyard; this assurance brings peace in a very troubled economy. Organizations find new hope in becoming self-sustaining, such as the orphanage we are working with in Mexico. They will be able to not only eat the food they grow, but also sell it. I remember when I experienced this for the first time. I have never had to fear for my next meal, but one day my wife and I went to the store together and priced out some things. Some products had gone up in price over five times in one year. We can now almost live entirely off our cycle of life program, apart from flour, sugar, and some other items like this, but we are working on this too in the future.