Where the maize is to be found.

So just an additional thought onto the last post (with attached article I hope you read). Have you given any thought to all the places we find maize in our daily lives and don't give it a second thought. It's horrifying! And really I'd rather use ostrich vision on this but I must think about it for Max.

These are the most obvious "unobvious" places I found maize in some form:
-cornflour (Maizena, unspecified starch or cornstarch)
-corn syrup (or glucose which is found in most sweetened drinks and confectionery)
-baking powder
-some personal care products containing magnesium stearate, linoleic acid
-anything beginning with "malt"
even MSG and Xylitol can come from corn. Glycerine can be a waste product from making bio-diesel from...corn.

We just can't win on everything so just READ THE INGREDIENTS and make your best choice.
Recipes for corn-free products that work coming soon!

GM maize and its evils

AI am growing a lot of mielies this year but now I see I'll need even more- just to feed our hens and ourselves. What a shocking comment on our country this is. The only thing to be done, is to be independent in any manner you can.
 http://www.acbio.org.za/index.php/media/64-media-releases/401--south-africans-call-for-immediate-ban-on-gm-maize-after-shocking-cancer-study

Solar and gas- and a fire for heating.

So with all our wwoofer and other visitors, we did not know there was a problem with the gas geyser being either scalding hot or cold. Somehow, when you switch the hot on, the geyser comes on just fine but as soon as you try to balance with cold, the geyser switches itself off. I have to say I am stumped. And some people did not understand that the small solar panel cannot support their appliances as well as give them light. I guess just as well we put out some candles and oil lamps too.
And did you know most people cannot light a fire in a fireplace? Well, I will be re-painting our beautiful cottage due to massive (the whole living area) soot damage. Grrr! No more fireplace to heat the cottage. By next winter, we hope to have passive underfloor heating in place.

A nice biomass digestor and a big water tank on a tower for extra pressure with a solar pump to get it up there and a solar geyser and a clean burning wood stove and...

It seems, we always choose the difficult route.