Revealed: how GCSE results owe more to genes than teaching » The Spectator

Intelligence is mostly genetic and will, very soon, be testable. My father finished primary school in the army at the age of 19, my mother finished high school early, does that mean my intelligence is low? In truth it is circumstance that stopped my parents from becoming educated (World War 2 will do that) and I grew up in a house full of books and interesting conversations with interesting people, so my parent's IQ is probably higher than it would at first appear. The article below proposes (subtly) that we test children's genetic potential for intelligence and base their education on the results.

Revealed: how GCSE results owe more to genes than teaching » The Spectator

This article says that if we know the projected IQ of children, we won't love them any less. Maybe mothers and teachers won't but what about the people who make legislation? People are already numbers and statistics to them, merely because of the distance from the majority they stand at. How long will it be until we are shipped off to a  work house because our genes aren't good enough?

What do you think?

Thinking about water use

I was just reading a post from one of the blogs I follow,

http://sustainaburb.blogspot.com.au/

It's all about water harvesting and daily water use. It started me thinking about how we use and conserve our water. So I thought I would share the broad details of our water harvesting and use here in the humpy.

When we moved here we had one 1000litre tank which harvested water from the roof of the humpy (about 6 x 9m then). There is no mains water here, if you want it, you have to get it yourself. We have gradually increased our storage to 5000 litres on the humpy (in the form of two tanks) which are pumped to the top of the ridge into a 22000 litre 'header tank' which gravity feeds back to the humpy.

The drinking water tank; 2500L

The 'pump up' tank; 2500L. The pump is that thing under the tin in the front.

The green one in the front is the header tank. The black tank is the new one (yet to be installed)

This provides all our water needs; washing, drinking, garden and animals. I did a quick calculation and discovered that we use about 143 litres a day, including the garden. These are the figures I used;

Water use	Litres per week
Showering  (15 L x 24 showers)	360
Animal watering	70
Garden watering	140
Clothes washing	320
Drinking and cooking	30
Washing up	70
Total	1000

Of course in dry weather our usage goes up as the garden uses more and the animal water needs refilling more often, I would add another 100L per week to the tally for dry weather use.

Because we have had good rain over the last five years it doesn't seem as important to conserve water at the moment, but the one thing you can count on in the bush is that there will be drought (and fire and flood and locust plague). With this in mind, we recently bought a larger header tank (27000L) and plan to move the old one down to the humpy so we can harvest every drop that falls on our roof. With all that storage and at current usage, we should be able to survive for a year without rain.

How do you rate your water usage?
What do you do to conserve water?

I can always use more ideas?

It Doesn’t Take Much….

It Doesn’t Take Much….

Linda Woodrow has been one of my inspirations for years. Check out her blog, its full of information and human moments.

How To Make A Mind Map - Version 2

Mind maps are really useful things; I use them for planning assignments and lessons. I also use them to plan a new project around the property. Here is a short clip on how to make them... just ignore the annoying music; I recomend the mute button.

Greenhaven: UNsustainable sustainability

Greenhaven: UNsustainable sustainability

Linda says what I have been thinking for a while.
We all need to see that consumption has to slow down.

Advanced Cell Grazing - Permaculture Livestock Systems at Zaytuna Farm

Advanced Cell Grazing - Permaculture Livestock Systems at Zaytuna Farm

Have a look at this idea.
I would love to establish this on my property.
Time to get planning....

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in dogs?

This clip shows one of our dogs; Jess, guarding her pet guinea fowl. It may look like she wants to eat him, but she is actually looking after him. The little nips she gives him are a signal to move; herding behaviour. That particular guinea fowl was a sickly chick and so spent a month sleeping in a box by the fire, which is also where Jess sleeps (not in a box, on a mat by the fire), so they must have bonded. She spends her day following him and if he gets into a fight (which he does a lot) she will move in and break it up. When he goes outside the yard where she can't follow Jess will sit at the gate looking worried until he returns. When he flies up into a tree to sleep at night Jess comes to the door to be let in, she flops down by the fire with a sigh that sounds like the one I give when I get home from work.

Jess has an adult puppy; Val, who also lives with us, but she has never been like that with her own pup. I don't know if this is frustrated herding/ guardian behaviour or if she has an OCD tendency.