Bamboos

I've heard many a prejudice against running bamboo, which has led to the general public (at least around the US) thinking that all bamboos are invasive, destructive and very difficult to get rid of. The thing is, we want bamboo to flourish on our land...and for the places we don't want to have it growing can easily have a barrier dug into the ground to keep the running bamboo from spreading, not to mention we'll be walking all over the land stamping out unwanted shoots. Running bamboos can create a beautiful wall as well as sufficient shade, and clumping bamboo grows even faster than running bamboo, which will easily create shade, firewood and even food. Thankfully for us, clumping bamboo does not spread away from where it was originally planted and merely spreads out into a thick clumping plant.

This is a perfect example of clumping bamboo:

 Clumping bamboo can also be used to create walls.
Here is an example of running bamboo:

Running bamboo is perfect for having a low budget and wanting to have a lot of bamboo just about everywhere. 

Bamboo can be harvested after about 2 or 3 years of being planted, because you want mature, strong culms to be able to support the structure you're trying to build. We're looking into both thick and thin bamboo, to give us a variety of sizes and thickness to build with. With clumping bamboo, we can cut the new bamboo shoots from their rhizomes, cook them and eat them. You can cook with running bamboo, but the shoots are harder to get at than with clumping, because the part you want is going to be further underground, where as clumping is right beneath the surface and above.

Stewart and I were watching Myth Busters not too long ago and saw an episode about how the Chinese used bamboo as a torture weapon. Basically the myth was to see if bamboo could grow through a human body, and after just a day the bamboo had grown from its tiny shoot to getting the tip into the back of the fake body they were using for the test. After about a week the bamboo had grown right through the body. Talk about tough plants! What I'm getting at, is, bamboo grows really fast! It can grow its full height in just one season, and can even grow up to three feet or more in one day, depending on your type of bamboo.

While bamboo gives us the options of food, fuel and timber, it can also be turned into paper, musical instruments, tools/weapons, decoration...it even has medical uses. It makes me wonder why America hasn't gotten more into bamboo. The East seems to have it down. With just bamboo, we could be completely self-sustainable. Build a house and all your furniture out of bamboo!

After forgetting multiple times, we finally took pictures of the things we've gathered so far. Unfortunately, it's only things we've bought from the Market. We still have some other things at Stewart's place. Still, they're all so useful and fun! Also, the trusty van...

So that's two windows, an earth breaker, saw and hoe.

I just wanted to shout out a huge THANK YOU to one particular Joshua for donating today, every bit is so helpful! Thank you so much!

Okay, so you're probably wondering what those links are, exactly, to the right. I'll get right down to it.

Full Moon Ranch Facebook is pretty self-explanatory. We update it from time to time and are slowly gathering a following.

Valley of the Wind Festival is what we'll be calling our festivals at FMR. We're looking more on the lines of trance/psytrance private shows and whatnot. The link leads to the Facebook page for it, which will be updated whenever we have artists lined up and when the festivals will be, etc.

Math Dealer Facebook links to just that. Math Dealer is Stewart's psytrance name, where he produces and remixes psytrance. He will always be at the VoF festivals and Full Moon parties. His page contains new songs and updates and also, his soundcloud page.

Farmers Against Chemtrails is a Facebook page raising awareness of the damages jet aerosols and other chemical sprayings have against farmers' crops. You don't have to be a farmer or even have a green thumb to support this cause! If we cannot grow our own food the natural way, we're in a lot of trouble!

That's it for the links. But you may have noticed a new button up there as well. That's our Paypal Donate button. Fully functional! I just wanted to mention that donations can lead to free hostel stays depending on the amount you donate. Feel free to e-mail us at fullmoonranch@hotmail.com if you have any questions.

Our next update will be on bamboos and what we plan to do with them. Later!

The beginning...

I know for a fact that most people aren't so keen on our ideas for off-grid living. They enjoy their comfortable lifestyle, living on grid and going to their every-day job and wondering when some "change" is going to happen like it's been advertised so lavishly. There's nothing wrong with that lifestyle and we respect it. Of course, we would like the same sort of treatment; being respected for the choices that we make, the lives we live and lead... What we want out of this is the basic foundation of American society... Freedom.

When you think of where you get your food, it's likely that you'll think of your local grocery store. When you think of the meat you eat, it's likely that you'll think of it in its little plastic wrapper on a refrigerated shelf. The vegetables you eat, so large and almost perfect... Farming isn't what it used to be, stuffing hundreds of chickens in a coop, never seeing the light of day, then to be reared and sprayed with chemicals and then wrapped in plastic and served to the good old general public. I'm all for feeding the hungry, but most people don't think of the actual chicken when they're eating chicken. I don't think most people even think of where their food comes from. Sure, more people are becoming food conscious these days, but honestly... Being able to provide good, honest, healthy organic produce is one of the most important things for being a healthy community. And being able to self-sustain yourself, I think, is a very wonderful and important thing for any individual.

What I'm getting at is, farming is very important. The earth is getting ever more polluted. Sooner than later, now, the earth isn't going to be able to produce anymore food without bio engineering the seeds. Organic farmers in Hawaii are unable to grow native fruit, like papaya, because there is an abnormal amount of aluminum and barium in their soil, while this occurrence is happening all over the world, not just in the United States. What we are hoping to do at Full Moon is to raise awareness in toxic metals via pollution, in whatever that may be... Jet aerosol, car exhaust...  And so the farm at Full Moon will be organic, and to protect against toxic metals we will be building greenhouses and composting. Being unable to grow your own food without buying corporation, bio-engineered seeds because of toxins in the soil is basically taking away our freedom. We want to still have the ability of farming fresh organics rather than buying mass produced edibles.

So...we have quested for land and have found a lot that suits our needs. For homes, we'll do earthbag domes. We will start a hostel for those who need a night's rest. We will build a venue for full moon parties.

Starting Tuesday we'll have put down money for the 20 acres in Pershing County. Hooray! Our first land, ever! Of course, we won't have it all paid off and are fervently looking for new ways to bring in some money to get it all paid off by June. If any of you are interested in gifting cash or any useful tools or even your own hard work by coming by the land when we get over there, please feel free to e-mail us at fullmoonranch@hotmail.com .

If all goes well, financially, we'll be able to move ourselves out to the land mid-summer. If not, it would have to be spring next year. We've gotten some useful tools; a new saw and a hoe over the weekend. Also picked up a second window for the first dome. We'll be roughing it out in tents for a while, but we won't be too far from town, so that's a plus. There are two streams going through the land, so we have a nearby water source. We're looking into DIY methods of water filtration, and if that fails then we'll be looking for a way to finance a five stage reverse osmosis filter.

I guess, for the end of this, I'll list the rules we'll be having:

Take only pictures
Leave only footsteps
Waste only time
No Violence
No Commercial Alcohol

We'll definitely be putting pictures up of our progress once we get out there!

Earthbag homes?

Earthbag homes are homes made with sandbags/feedbags filled with earth and covered in plaster, which can be made with natural materials as well as man-made things like concrete. We want to create our homes in this likeness, stepping away from the more traditional American homes and lifestyle. The benefits of earthbag building are great; because the walls are made of earth, they are very well insulated and protect from most weather conditions and are even bullet proof. You can create stairs, walls, deco... They heat and cool on their own, by being the very earth itself.

Our personal preference for building are polypropylene sandbags. After searching in bulk, we've found the costs aren't too high, and for a basic one dome earth home, about 4 to 500 bags would suffice... We will be collecting any gifts/donations for supplies as well as cash gifts in order to get the homes underway. Our first step is to make our own homes, and then delve into creating a village on the 20 acres we are acquiring so as to create the hostel. Other than sandbags, we will need barbed wire to keep the bags in place, and although it isn't entirely necessary, wood (2x4 etc) would be a great asset in building these beautiful, earth friendly homes.

A home wouldn't be so homey without windows, so Stewart and I have been looking around at flea markets for them. We've scored two so far for under $10, both about the same size. They're kind of small, but for a single dome house, that's almost perfect. But in order to install them, and to make the home actually long lasting...there's the plaster. Fortunately, there are multiple recipes for making plaster, especially earthen plaster. You can use a basic mixture of mud, clay, straw, hay and water, all native to the area. The straw and hay absorb the water, making it thicker and turning it into paste. As you can see in the picture above, he plopped it right on there and paved it out. Currently, he is installing the window.

The Full Moon Ranch is an off-grid organic farm set on 20 acres of beautiful land in Pershing County, Nevada.   Our goal is to produce the highest quality organic produce and livestock possible to improve our health and health of the earth. 

We are currently raising funds for "earthbag" homes which we will build to house the residents and guests of the farm.  A hostel will be provided to travelers and campers who wish to explore the beauty of natural Nevada and detoxify from their usual routines.

One main focus of Full Moon Ranch will be live music.  We will be constructing a stage area for live music events and all night full moon parties.   We urge all bands and musicians who support local organic farming to contact us for booking.