Fleas - how to keep them away.

Fleas love sandy places and hiding under things.

Their eggs can survive for ages until vibration makes them hatch.

Warmer winters means that there's no proper die off  so they manage to overwinter.

 

1. Your dog get fleas from hanging around sandy areas where other dogs (with fleas) also hang out
 
2. Any flea treatment loses potency as the insects that don't die get a tolerance to that toxin. For this reason, I recommend only using flea treatment if you really Have to, and use different ones each time.
 
3. Vacuum all the dusty corners and bedding where flea eggs can be. Wash their beeding as well.

4. Wash the dog using a gentle soap and warm water. Firstly, make the neck soapy so all the fleas can't rush up onto their head when you start doing the rest of the body. Soap the entire dog from the neck back. Ideally have a person at each end and use a liquid soap so you can sponge the warm soapy liquid onto the dog and access all areas underneath and the tail as well.  

Rinse well and towel dry. Try not to let them roll in dirt and let them back onto their clean beeding that has been drying in the sun!

 

 
 

When gardening began for me and how it ended as a money making option.

When I finished high school , I wasn't the ideal daughter. After hitch-hiking around Australia with an unsavoury boyfriend I came back to Perth and once I had sorted myself a bit decided to go to TAFE.
It started as a Wildlife worker course, but that disappeared so I moved into horticulture.
One of they units was Introduction to Permaculture, being taught by the wonderful Miles Durand, sometimes nicknamed Miles Away as he would drift off into other ideas of how to practice permaculture everywhere.

I learned a lot there and I always felt to glad that I had discovered what i wanted to do while I was young.

Skip a bunch of years, the learning and sharing of lots of info on how to grow things, months of propagating natives and lugging too much soil around awkwardly at a native plant nursery with poor occ health and saftey, and the onset of tendonitis in both shoulders.

Then add Perth summer and sand, too many yearly cycles of repeating the same info to nursery customers and I am now not all that interested in gardening any more. The idea I might end up with aching shoulders takes away some of the gung-ho joy I had of being strong and able to lift heavy things.

ADHD discovery and moving house

 At the start of this year in the hottest part of summer we had to move house. We’d been there for 25 years and grew a lot of biomass and food in that time.

Life had changed a lot in that time. Getting older meant we had less energy to look after the garden and we were both busy running two small businesses we have so it wasn’t a bad time to have to leave the garden behind but it was very sad in some ways. 

The road had become much noisier outside and there were lots more diesel fumes and loud vehicles going past 

A friend took some of the fruit trees and we had a lot of help from other friends taking the shed contents away to their places or the tip. 

So now we move in a more southern suburb in a house we were very lucky to find via a mutual friend with the house owner. Very lucky. 

Just before moving I had been diagnosed with adhd so when we moved in I had just started my meds so I got a lot of work done in the garden here. Lots of pruning and cleaning up needed doing. 

My partner had to learn how to clean the pool so it was useable and not very green. It’s been fun to have a swim and I’m able to do a few laps now. 

Being diagnosed has been really great. I’ve always been a bit of a kook so it’s good to know why. 

One thing has been wanting to write about my experience growing up. I’m not doing much gardening and am distancing myself from the word permaculture as it seems to have become a hokey bunch of ppl who are into conspiracy theories these days. These days regenerative farming is better and there’s also a lot of rewilding going in around the world. 

It’s good to be back. I’ll add some pics  when I get on the computer and off my phone.thanks for reading. 

Diesel Fumes are Killing People

 Diesel Fumes are Killing People

https://thedriven.io/2023/02/24/new-study-reveals-catastrophic-health-impacts-of-petrol-and-diesel-cars/

https://www.epa.gov/dera/learn-about-impacts-diesel-exhaust-and-diesel-emissions-reduction-act-dera

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-01-30/stuck-in-traffic-diesel-fumes-may-be-harming-your-brain 

 

 

https://www.cancer.org.au/cancer-information/causes-and-prevention/workplace-cancer/diesel

Reducing Single Use Plastic is More than Just Straws.

People are more likely to change a behaviour if they see something graphic to demonstrate how bad something is.
A turtle with a straw up its nose is a horrifying sight. They are not the only species affected by plastic however.

Sea life of all sizes is hugely affected by plastic debris; among that debris is 1000's of straws and bottle lids, cigarette butt ends and billions of other tiny pieces of plastic from all around the world, all mashed together so much that is has become habitat for tiny ocean flora and fauna and at the same time, food for the ocean animals that end up in the stomach of the fish that humans love to eat.

Every single day people with money are buying items that are single use plastics. Bags, packaging, take-away cups, cutlery and plates, sauce packets, cosmetics.. a myriad things I don't even realise exist since I have long been aware of reducing my use of resources and live fairly simply.

Plastic items that are going to be reused many times or will have a long useful life are better. If you don't like the idea of leachates in plastic containers there are many glass  or stainless steel options around these days too.

Less is More
My dad was young during WW2 so he was always frugal and I grew up with the habits of using soap for my hair (thereby avoiding many shampoo bottles) and not buying sugar water drinks (no single use plastic bottles). I'm not really boasting, more saying how easy it is to not make rubbish. I've never been into cosmetics either, so that's a whole lot of stuff I never bought or bought into.

It's really easy to get yourself a set of reusables of whatever you think you need. Good water is available for refilling bottles and there's no reason not to have a reusable bag by now, surely! In parts of Australia, boomerang bags are being made by communities so the public can get the idea and the habit of bringing bags when they go shopping.

And of course, if we all do good things and keep on lobbying governments and corporations we really can make some difference.
Eventually the coal barons will have to die off, surely.