-Minecraft 1.1 seed-

I'll hopefully update this with new seeds as I find them, but for now, here's the first one...
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#1 - rainbowTrout
Generate a pretty cool world. You land on the border of a desert & plains, with a swamp right next door. There are also some awesome mountains near-by, a forest, & a pretty huge ravine too (which I haven't explored much yet) There's even a super convenient hill a stones throw from the spawn that you can burrow into for your first night :) & not too far from that there's a handy little group of pumpkins. Enjoy.
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Play hard & have fun!

Before & After. Then & Now...

Back when we first started. Sunday, August 7, 2011 (Winter)

vvv

This morning. Monday, January 16, 2012 (summer)

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I tried to get (roughly) the same area in the photo... as you can see things have changed so much! In less than 6 months we've put in 7+ garden beds, we've got a huge variety of fruit, vegetables, herbs, etc growing (most of which we have started from seed), we've planted trees, chopped down the old dead plum tree up the back, tried a few mini swales, & heaps of other stuff. Since we started, life has increased enormously, there are lizards, butterflies, spiders, beetles, bugs, etc etc etc, all over the place ^_____^ It's amazing to look back & see what you've accomplished in such a short time :D It's all organic & it's all good. I hope I can continue practicing permaculture techniques for the rest of my life : ) & I strongly encourage absolutely everybody to take a look at permaculture & give it a try at your own place! If you keep it natural & follow nature (work with, not against) you can't go too far wrong.
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All the best! : )

Sneakily + WIP

A quick sketch I finished a couple of weeks ago, but never got around to posting.

This is a WIP, but I get the feeling I'm not going to finish it...

*Trees & bushes*

So far we've put in 2 trees & a Grevillea bush :) We plan on also getting a cherry tree, & sometime later down the track maybe a nectarine & a maple, along with some other natives that will hopefully attract some new species of birds, etc.

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Baby lemon tree.

It'll be interesting to compare this to how it'll look in a few years time :)

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 A 'moonlight' grevillea we bought at the market on the weekend. It'll eventually grow pretty yellow-green flowers that attract nectar-feeding birds. Hopefully it does well in the spot we chose (there are a few large eucalyptus out front & they're very pushy trees ]: /)

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We've also put an olive tree in out the back, & we have several varieties of trees & bushes at various stages in pots, ranging from saplings, to seeds, to cuttings. So far we have drumstick trees, elder bush, some wattles, a mystery tree from the city (we collected seeds & they're growing), avocado, nectarines & an acacia (possibly Acacia melanoxylon), & various others which we have not identified :p We're planning on planting them out as soon as they're strong enough, if they make it that far ': )

I'm going to try to collect & grow as many different cuttings, seeds, etc as I can to build up more stock for the future, & eventually have a go at grafting. (I'm so going to make a fruit salad tree one day :p)

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Ja ne ; )

How things are growing [: ) -Plants around the garden-

Things are going well out in the garden. We haven't had any huge yields, but we expect productivity to increase year by year as we improve the soil :) So here are some photos of things as they're growing...
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LEFT: A young Elder bush (Sambucus nigra). We managed to grow a few of these from cuttings. They were the only ones that made it though :( Guess I need to practice ':) They are easy to grow & there are many uses for the flowers & the ripe berries.
RIGHT: I noticed yesterday that the nasturtium flowers growing in the bottom bed are funky coloured. Usually nasturtiums I see are a single solid colour, but these have all kinds of beautiful patterns, etc. They are edible flowers, & are apparently great in salads, but I haven't had the heart to cut & eat any yet :p
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LEFT: Our very first borage plant, & this is the first flower :D They kinda remind me of face huggers, but at least they're blue ':p These plants deter pest species & help attract bees :) Both the flowers & leaves are also edible. I'm a bit worried about trying to eat something so hairy, but I'm sure I'll find a way!
RIGHT: Our first (& largest) sunflower, this is a 'giant russian' & it will grow to around 2 meters tall with a huge productive flower. They're surprisingly hardy, & do well even without much water. Eli & I both love this plant, it's leaves are beautiful & it follows the sun like a trooper. We can't wait till the flower appears!
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LEFT: The first sweet corn is starting to grow. These haven't gotten very big at all, so we may only get 1 cob per plant. We've planted 6 or so in various positions, so we'll see what they do. Can't wait to snap off the first ripe cob /XD\

RIGHT: A small strawberry ripening in the sun :) The strawberry plants have been a bit up & down, but we've enjoyed them a lot, & the berries we've managed to beat the slugs, lizards, etc to have been amazing. We recently mulched them with the scraps from our christmas tree because pine trees are acidic & strawberries like slightly acid soil. The most productive plant has recently sent out a runner, so I'll have to read up about what to do with it, cause I have no idea :p

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We were given this as a little (unlabeled) plant, & we had no idea what it was. So it was a nice surprise when it suddenly started busting out little cucumbers :D We've eaten one already & it was so good! Not sure if this one is going to fill out a little more or not, but if it doesn't soon it's gonna get eaten pretty quick :p
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ABOVE: One of the varieties of tomatoes we have growing. To be honest I don't know what half of them are... but I'm really keen to try these ones, just cause they're a funny shape :p
BELOW: Most of the tomato bushes are getting pretty heavy with fruit, & they're starting to ripen [: ) We've had 5 or 6 in the past couple of days, & very much looking forward to horfing down some more! Check out how many there are on this bush alone 0v0

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This is the confused diakon. Poor fellow got wrapped up around himself somehow :p We think he hit a rock or something, then started growing back up-ways, then got terribly confused 'XD None of the daikon have done very well yet, they've bolted to seed & the roots have been woody. We're seed saving from these plants, & we're going to try planting some more when it cools down to see if that makes a difference.
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This is what's left from what I harvested yesterday, a couple of toms & a beetroot. I should have got photos of all of it, but the camera battery was charging, & we were hungry... so it didn't quite work out :p All the veggies have been super delicious though. I'm so glad we've started gardening, I love it & I never want to stop.
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& that's where we're at.
Permaculture FTW! :p
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Ja~

purpleOctopus -Minecraft seed- (^_^)

Tis a nice seed for version 1.0.0 of Minecraft :)

There are some cool hills & mountains, & the spawn point is near several different biomes. Also heaps of sheep, plenty of pumpkins, & caves to explore too. I'm having good fun with this one so far :D

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So the seed for this one is purpleOctopus

Enjoy :)
Ja!

.。o○ Cheery Japanese Song ○o。.

I recently rediscovered this song. I listened to it heaps back it 2005, & it still makes me happy :)

Sakuranbo - Cherry - Ostuka Ai. Enjoy...

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Ja~

Merry (belated) Christmas (• ε •) & other things...

We had some crazy weather on christmas day, & it killed our internet @_@' & so that's why I'm kinda (super) late with this post...

Moving on though, I had a great christmas & I hope everybody out there did as well, or at least tried to make the best of it :p & so I say Merry christmas to everyone, & a happy new year too! On that note I will be sharing a traditional Hungarian recipe that is eaten on new years day, I'll post it later ;3

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The weather on christmas day as mentioned above was insane, there was an enormous hail storm, crazy loud thunder, & amazing lightning. There was a lot of damage around Victoria, but thankfully we weren't one of the worst hit, we mostly just had to deal with some minor flooding. Some of our larger leafed plants, like our pumpkin & sunflower sustained a bit of damage, but they all seem to have pulled through.

Personally I love storms & I was running around outside collecting hail as soon as it let up a bit, I did still manage to get hit a few times, & those things hurt :p but I found some strange & beautiful formations :)

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 Loop! :D

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 Claw >:)

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 This is what most of it looked like. I found it pretty odd, I'm pretty sure all the other hail I've ever seen has been smooth, white balls. I like these :)

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This is a tiny sample of the damage done to our pumpkin. Some hail stones punched holes clean through : / The nasturtiums, beans, sunflower, corn, & a few others also got hit pretty hard [:o...

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& some other photos I shot on the day...

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 The sky was like this all day, it made me happy :)

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 Macro shot of rain drops of a swizzle stick.

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One of our whirligigs.

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So we had a very eventful christmas, one I hope I won't forget. I do wish I had taken some more photos, but guess I'll try to remember that for next year :)

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All the best everyone!

Ja ne (〃^∇^)ﾉ