Monday - Midday
It’s cool and windy, and although it’s sunny there is a definite nip in the air. I should put on proper shoes, but my slip-slops were under the kitchen table this morning. It was a case of easy access.
I pottered down to the poplar tree, and made myself comfy.
I pottered down to the poplar tree, and made myself comfy.
The temperature drop means that mozzies aren’t really a bother anymore. The wind on my face, I closed my eyes for a while - just enjoying being outside with the elements. There’s a strong smell of wet dog but what I love is the aroma of freshly cut grass. We’ve been cutting the weeds, and some of them exude a strong menthol like smell when they get chopped. We use a tractor with a “cutter” drawn behind it, and I wonder when and how we are going to be able to “green” that side of the coin. At the moment, it’s just not viable to work without machinery --- even though it should be. I think about how they worked the land one hundred years ago, and how I should look into getting an old horse drawn plough to teach Ferdie (BIG horse) to work for his keep. But that’s nonsense - it’d take months to do what take us a week with the tractor. My mind rumbles on along the mumbo-jumbo lane, as I listen to the soft farm-y sounds of the leaves, a horse neighing a distance away, another horse (closer) is stomping at the flies and I can hear his tail slice through the air. Then I hear Bina! Baaa baaa baaa. She’s seen me, and I have a bag of goodies with me. (Pen, notebook, crayons and camera - but she doesn’t know that!). She starts out determinately towards me - but gets side tracked by a clump of grass.
I looked at her carefully. Her pointy little face and v-shaped nostrils. Her hard and “sharp” horns, her funny little tail curled over towards her back and her long, thin ears. Her neat little hooves. Everything has been so well made - seemingly with a purpose. I just don’t know it. I leaned back against the tree, shifting slightly to get a better view of all of the goats. The number of “building blocks” in their make up is astounding. Each animal is an organism made up of their unique organs, that operatedifferently to other animals’ organs. They have been “put together” like a puzzle, with the exact pieces that they need for optimum animal performance. Goats also make up a community - which one could also view as an “organism” i.e. the herd, which has its own habits and needs. As a herd, they also make a significant impact on the functions of an ecosystem. An ecosystem that includes goats is a very different place to one that does not.
TOP SIX Life’s Principles:
Life creates conditions conducive to life
Example of: Using multi-functional design
Natural Model: Goats’ Horns
Description: Goats’ horns are very useful items to have around. I, in particular, find it much easier to catch, lead or restrain a goat when I can grab hold of his horns. To a goat on the other hand, they are much more useful and meaningful. In terms of herd hierarchy, horns are very important. The bigger your horns, the less likely it is that someone will challenge you for power. Horns are also used for protection. Where we live, there are lots of stray dogs, farmer’s dogs that are “sheepkillers” and people who will herd up your sheep in the middle of the night (using dogs) and away they go. I prefer goats. They chase and “butt” the dogs. No more dog problem. But, in all seriousness, horns are the goats’ defense mechanism. (They also make extremely good back-scratchers). Also, the core of the horn is jam-packed with nerves and blood vessels; and they act as thermal cooling devices. This is vital when one is dealing with a variety of temperatures, and/or with working goats.
Design Concept: Multifunctional design is definitely the way forward. I like to think of a kitchen. Instead of having one set of beaters for mixing, one liquidiser (blender?), one coffee machine, a toaster, one electric kettle, an electric grinder (for coffee beans), a food processer (chopping machine), a dehydrator - or whatever have you... Each item has a long history of “heat, beat, treat” - combined with packaging, and seeing as most things are made in China these days, their own hefty carbon footprint. What if you had ONE machine that boiled, sliced, diced, combined, chopped, whizzed, whirled, mixed, ground EVERYTHING for you. (Reverting to a whisk, knife and chopping board would actually be the better way to go - but hey!) One box, one apparatus, instead of shelves full of appliances. Less materials, lass waste, less chemicals, less carbon burped into the atmosphere. It would be great if benign materials could be used too.
2. Leveraging Interdependence
Example of: Fostering cooperative relationships
Natural Model: Goats and Other Farm Animals.
Example of: Fostering cooperative relationships
Natural Model: Goats and Other Farm Animals.
Description: I’d never thought that having a different variety of animals on the farm would or could be beneficial. It was a case of getting one kind of animal, then another with no real thought of the relationship between the species. In fact, the diversity that we have on the farm is beneficial to all. While there is no direct link between one particular animal or another, within the “micro ecosystem” of the farm - their habits are interrelate. When grazing, all of the animals graze together most of the time. The goats generally wander with the goats, the horses with the horses etc. What is important for me though -is what they eat. Goats, generally prefer shrubs, weeds, leaves and twigs. They aren’t big grass eaters, and when they are, they are especially selective. Horses on the other hand, are not big on brush and wildflowers, but prefer grasses. This m
akes them ideal pasture-partners. Behind them come the chickens who scratch around in the dung of the animals, looking for tasty morsels, and spreading around the fertilizer and grass seeds in the process. This fertilizer helps give nutrients to the existing plants, and also gives the seeds a better chance of healthy germination and growth.
Design Concept: Industry and manufacturing should work in the same way as the animals in their environment. This could be achieved by creating company “partnerships” where each industry has its own individual needs. This would mean no fighting over resources, and that, at the end of the process, something has to go back into the environment - that benefits it!! This, in turn, displays the need to create benign manufacturing processes.
3. Benign Manufacturing
Example of: Using self-assembly
Natural Model: Goat Horn.
Description: The goats’ horn is made of keratin, just like our hair and finger nails (and rhino horn). When a kid is born, he is born hornless, and the growth process only starts (slowly) when the goat is a few days old. The horns continue to grow throughout the animal’s lifetime. An age-ring grows once a year (so you can tell a goat’s age by his horns).
Horns often break, in fights of when an aggressive buck bashes into things. As long as the soft tissue core of the horn is alive, new horn will grow and mend the break.
Design Concept: Imagine a strong, impact absorbing material that could “fix itself”. Goat horn reminds me a bit of fibreglass. Both materials are strong, weather resistant and durable, the main difference being in the method of manufacturing. Fibreglass is made in large furnaces at high temperatures, chemicals are used to “size” the material - and that’s just the first step! Mimicking goat horn could be the next step to finding a benignly manufactured material that could be used in the many applications of fibreglass.
Example of: Using self-assembly
Natural Model: Goat Horn.
Description: The goats’ horn is made of keratin, just like our hair and finger nails (and rhino horn). When a kid is born, he is born hornless, and the growth process only starts (slowly) when the goat is a few days old. The horns continue to grow throughout the animal’s lifetime. An age-ring grows once a year (so you can tell a goat’s age by his horns).
Horns often break, in fights of when an aggressive buck bashes into things. As long as the soft tissue core of the horn is alive, new horn will grow and mend the break.
Design Concept: Imagine a strong, impact absorbing material that could “fix itself”. Goat horn reminds me a bit of fibreglass. Both materials are strong, weather resistant and durable, the main difference being in the method of manufacturing. Fibreglass is made in large furnaces at high temperatures, chemicals are used to “size” the material - and that’s just the first step! Mimicking goat horn could be the next step to finding a benignly manufactured material that could be used in the many applications of fibreglass.
4. Locally Attuned and Responsive & 5. Integrates Cyclic Processes
Example of: Learns and imitates & Feedback loops
Natural Model: Goats - Alpha Female
Description: In the social structure of a herd, goats have two leaders. An alpha buck who is the “macho” of the herd whose role is to breed his choice of does; to maintain discipline and to protect the herd from predators. The “real” leader however, is the alpha female, the “herd queen”. When she moves, all, including the alpha buck follow. When she halts to browse, everybody else stops to eat too. Herd queens are also those who “test” the food before anyone else eats it. Goats are notorious for eating “everything” - when in fact, many things are poisonous to goats (e.g. tomatoes). No one will eat anything before the queen. If she samples a plant or a shrub, and its nasty, she will make a great show of spitting, sputtering and wiping her mouth on the ground. If she keeps on eating the others will know its OK. Alternatively, the alpha female will stare at the alpha male with a long hard look, he will come and start eating, followed by the rest of the herd.
Design Concept: In terms of “learning and imitating” - I think we need to think of education. Not just at schools or colleges, but educating the common man on greener design choices. Courses like this one are fantastic because they open people’s eyes - but how many people (percentage wise) are actually exposed to a more biomimetic, natural design. And if they are, how would they know what they were looking at? Businesses and Industries need to be educated. Creating a new, eco-friendly product may not be what they have in mind, so the seed needs to be planted. In many cases, although research etc may cost them, in the long run, they will save on costs - no expensive furnaces and machines, the
Example of: Learns and imitates & Feedback loops
Natural Model: Goats - Alpha Female
Description: In the social structure of a herd, goats have two leaders. An alpha buck who is the “macho” of the herd whose role is to breed his choice of does; to maintain discipline and to protect the herd from predators. The “real” leader however, is the alpha female, the “herd queen”. When she moves, all, including the alpha buck follow. When she halts to browse, everybody else stops to eat too. Herd queens are also those who “test” the food before anyone else eats it. Goats are notorious for eating “everything” - when in fact, many things are poisonous to goats (e.g. tomatoes). No one will eat anything before the queen. If she samples a plant or a shrub, and its nasty, she will make a great show of spitting, sputtering and wiping her mouth on the ground. If she keeps on eating the others will know its OK. Alternatively, the alpha female will stare at the alpha male with a long hard look, he will come and start eating, followed by the rest of the herd.
Design Concept: In terms of “learning and imitating” - I think we need to think of education. Not just at schools or colleges, but educating the common man on greener design choices. Courses like this one are fantastic because they open people’s eyes - but how many people (percentage wise) are actually exposed to a more biomimetic, natural design. And if they are, how would they know what they were looking at? Businesses and Industries need to be educated. Creating a new, eco-friendly product may not be what they have in mind, so the seed needs to be planted. In many cases, although research etc may cost them, in the long run, they will save on costs - no expensive furnaces and machines, the
manufacturing will take place at room temperature - no complex, fabricated elements and chemicals to create their products - but free, simple building blocks. Jeez -- they’re a long way away, but they have to start the process at some point. Right?
6. Resilient
Example of: Redundant
Natural Model: Goats!
Description: Goats are a lying out species i.e. does hide their newborns in the grass as shelter from predators, returning several times a day to feed them. Newborn lambs on the other hand, shadow their mother within hours of birth. Does usually give birth to one kid in their first pregnancy, then two the next year. After that they normally have two or three kids every spring. (Three is a problem when she only has two teats - there are some breeds that have more than two, but not many). Having more than one baby at a time increases the survival rate of the species. If a doe only had one kid, and it died, she would have to wait another year before giving “kidding” again. A lot can happen in a year.
Design Concept: Redundancy basically revolves around the concept of “back-up” (from what I’ve understood). Be it generator back up, extra water tanks for dry spells, extra materials in case of a duff up - or a “Plan-B” should the prototype not come out as planned. Redundancy = Planning, and thinking about the consequences of what we do, where, how, what we use to complete the “mission”, and how it affects our global backyard... Something that we haven’t really been doing until now.
Example of: Redundant
Natural Model: Goats!
Description: Goats are a lying out species i.e. does hide their newborns in the grass as shelter from predators, returning several times a day to feed them. Newborn lambs on the other hand, shadow their mother within hours of birth. Does usually give birth to one kid in their first pregnancy, then two the next year. After that they normally have two or three kids every spring. (Three is a problem when she only has two teats - there are some breeds that have more than two, but not many). Having more than one baby at a time increases the survival rate of the species. If a doe only had one kid, and it died, she would have to wait another year before giving “kidding” again. A lot can happen in a year.
Design Concept: Redundancy basically revolves around the concept of “back-up” (from what I’ve understood). Be it generator back up, extra water tanks for dry spells, extra materials in case of a duff up - or a “Plan-B” should the prototype not come out as planned. Redundancy = Planning, and thinking about the consequences of what we do, where, how, what we use to complete the “mission”, and how it affects our global backyard... Something that we haven’t really been doing until now.
I feel as though there is so much to be done, but so little that I can do to make a significant difference. I wonder how many people feel this way?
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