It seems this @ecotrain Steem engine never runs out of Steem! Welcome back to the @ecotrain magazine, where we bring together some truly brilliant posts from 15 truly brilliant people! This week we cover a wide range of topics including TOPICS INCLUDE Pond Making, Mushrooms!, Homesteading, Worms, Vegan Recipes, Homesteading, Cycling and more! You never know what you are going to find here to please have a scroll and see what catches your eye!

@mountainjewel

Looks Like A Pond! Concrete Liner Finished (Homestead Vlog)

Whew! After we made that Vlog yesterday introducing the pocket pond’s next steps, we worked on the pond into the night and got about 1/2 of the basin plastered with concrete.Today we worked all day and got it finished up to the lip where we’ll set rocks, planting shelves (of differing levels for planting aquatic plants) and will have a spillway into the gardens.It was a hot one today and mixing concrete in the sun and plastering makes for two tired homesteaders! By the end we were pretty beat, but wanted to finish the task up to the lip. If it rains, we were afraid it may erode if we didn’t get it up to the lip.

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@artemislives

Seasonal 'Shrooms Are Medicinal Magic

They come but for a few short weeks during the business end of the Asian monsoon season. "Hed Cummin" เห็ดขมิ้น (Turmeric Mushrooms, translated literally) but more elegantly called the 'Golden Chanterelle' mushroom, botanically Cantharellus cibarius.We picked up a bag of them tonight for 20 baht from a tiny roadside vendor on our way home. 20 THB = USD $0.61. Thai people eat them just for the flavour, and they are DELICIOUS. A culinary & gourmet delight. But actually, they are also a well-studied and powerful medicinal mushroom.

The Psychology of Injury & Why It Doesn't Serve Us In The End

"Wow - you're a real pro at that one-handed thing now!" my dear friend commented during yesterday's product photo shoot. I responded in some inane way about pain levels and hips being a perfect substitute for a second hand as most moms know, and thought the comment was a passing one. But his words revisited me early this morning before dawn, and I knew that my friend had chosen his words very carefully. He's like that. Economical in what he says. A guerrilla guru, who slips you a hard-hitting truth disguised as small talk while he makes you a superb coffee.

The Doctor's prognosis hadn't been great. "You may regain full use of your arm, in time", he had said. Like it was only a possibility, a maybe. "The fractures are basically healed but you have some serious soft tissue injury and nerve damage in your hand, arm and elbow joint. If pain levels are not dramatically better in two weeks, come back and I will refer you to a surgeon." Urgh! Not exactly what you want to hear from your last visit to the orthopedic specialist. He had been thorough to a fault, finding 3 more fractures in my hand and wrist after bone scans. As if the 3 fractures in my elbow weren't quite enough. What did I do to my arm? Compression fractures from locking my arm at the point of impact when my large-safe-truck slammed into the back of a fast-moving tourist mini-van which had failed to indicate and cut in front of me. Lucky I was only driving 40km an hour.

The Thai Flower Tax

I paid it again today. The flower tax. Willingly. Taxes are not inevitable in Thailand and a trip to one's Thai accounting office usually starts along the lines of, "How much tax you LIKE to pay?" I'm definitely not opposed to creative tax planning - indeed, it would be financially irresponsible to my company's major Thai shareholder (my daughter Ploi, @nabithecat) if I carelessly overpaid government taxes. But the flower tax? It's a no brainer. One pays. And knowingly pays more than is required. Every. Single. Time.With pleasure.

What on earth am I even talking about? These. Flower garlands. In Thai they're called 'puong malai' พวงมาลัยดอกไม้. Sold all over Thailand, to honour the Buddha and various Deities, to show formal respect to monks, teachers and parents, or simply to make your car smell naturally wonderful while you receive a @naturalmedicine aromatherapy treatment in its purest form.

@trucklife-family

The Beautiful Majestic Oak Tree

Today I began to harvest the almonds from the tree's on the land that I live on. I have always written before that it is the land that I am currently living on as I have wanted to get back on the road with my family and return to our nomadic ways. But life changes and that idea is going to have to be shelved for a wee while. So today I write, the land I live on. I am so lucky with the amount of trees that bare fruit and nuts on this land. Right now it is all about the almonds, the figs and the grapes. I can walk around the land and happily eat from the trees and the vines and so can my 3 girls, oh these gifts that have been bestowed upon us.

Steemit Vision Quest 20 "From The Mud The Lotus Blooms"

Oh I have missed the Steemit Vision Quest, I have missed the opportunity it provides for me to journey inwards, to journey inwards and connect with my higher self. Because I know, we all know what we need to do. We just need to remember to listen, to listen to the wisdom that flows through us and is forever seeking ways to be shared and celebrated.

So thank you @cabelinsday for creating this, creating this quest and holding the space, thank you for bringing this back into my life and allowing me to unite with all the other wonderful people involved. Thank you @eaglespirit, @rensoul17, and @girlbeforemirror for co-facilitating the quest. And thank you to @alchemage for inspiring me.

@riverflows

Elderberry Syrup: A Natural Medicine for Winter and Adding to the Cornucopia

I've just drained the last bottle of elderberry syrup and used the last frozen elderberries in the freezer for last's nights mushroom and elderberry gravy that we had with roast vegetables. It seems appropriate as the first leaves appear on the elder trees in the garden and we anticipate Spring and Summer and the last of the cold season. I'm pretty sure it's worked so far - I tend to use it when everyone is snuffling a lot around me and I'm trying to ward off a cold, but it's brilliant when you have one too.

Getting Down and Dirty in One of My Favourite Parts of the Garden

Does anyone else get excited about worms? I kinda squeal when I see big ones. I just think they're the best little critters known to man. I get this kinda childlike glee every time I uncover them in my garden.
I'm not going to eat them, and I've never seen a fuzzy wuzzy worm, but I swear to god I get this song in my head every time I play in the compost. The more worms in my compost, the more they're breaking it all down, so I do tell them I super duper love them and think they are doing a fantabulous job! I say play because I love my compost heap. I find it an absolute miracle - how can you throw waste somewhere and have it turn to gold? Are you KIDDING me!

Actually, it took me an awful long time to get a handle on making compost, and now that I've got it figured, I'm making as much as I can. It's a good time of year to get it really going, when it's still kinda dampish and I don't have to water it, and the air and ground are heating up to really turn over bigger quantities. I'm so enamoured with it this weekend that I'm going to tell people who might listen, because J. is too busy mowing out front to care about worms and dirt. What's wrong with the man? I bet if I told him there was a landrover in there he'd be into it.

@solarsupermama

The Constant Drive to Do

The other day a friend of mine said, "I need to learn how to chill out!" I was thinking he was talking about how uptight he is because he gets really wound up about a host of things. Actually, he was talking about wanting to just relax and do nothing and finding that task harder than you'd think. I've finally realized not everyone is like this. My wasband is definitely not like this. He can veg out for hours. No guilt, no mind racing. It was always a struggle to determine if it was more annoying or impressive. In any case a friend once told me, "you can't yoke an ox with an ass."

I'm like my friend, and I get the distinct feeling most of us on Steemit are like this too. I don't necessarily need to be out and about doing stuff, but if I'm sitting still, I'm almost definitely typing or playing a game with the kids or reading. When I'm not doing those things, I've got to do something physical, usually cooking, cleaning, or laundry. My daughter says I can't sit still. I guess it's true.

What was one of the happiest times of my life, and what made it special?

This @ecotrain question of the week has all of us headed for the way back machine. It's also a great opportunity to shift focus away from all the chaos that has been happening. If we want to create a beautiful and joyful life, it definitely helps to focus on beautiful things that bring us joy. Having a touchstone, particularly an emotional touchstone, is probably more helpful than just about anything else in creating the life we want.

Sometimes I do loose interpretations of these questions, but I wanted to be more precise with this one. So, while there's no doubt the days my four children were born were my happiest days, all of those times were pretty challenging. Mostly because I just seem to have horrible taste in men. I decided I wanted to focus on a span of time where I was happy most of the time. Many of you know my first trip to Belize was one of those, but I've talked a lot about that. So, I want to talk about a different time.

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