Mark Valencia

Unsustainable Population Growth – The Human Mouse Plague

Australian millionaire businessman Dick Smith, founder of Dick Smith's Electronics, has launched a campaign (link further down the page) against the common notion touted mostly by governments and big business that endless economic growth linked to population growth is the key to world peace, increased collective wealth, and equality. Instead, he claims that continued population

Read More »

How to Grow a Lot of Limes on Just One Tree – Organically

Lately, I have been sent several requests by viewers of my YouTube Channel to "transcribe" some of my more popular videos so they can be read (for various reasons, including those who have difficulty understanding spoken English). This article/transcription is on Five Tips on How to Grow a Ton of Limes – Organically and the

Read More »

Lemon Worcestershire Beef Jerky

The base of this jerky recipe is a homemade Worcestershire sauce I had made from our own plums several years ago and since we currently have a ton of lemons growing I decided to add a good hit of lemon juice to the mix for extra zing.

Read More »

Gabion Raised Garden Beds

With the popularity of raised bed gardening growing faster than weeds in a newly tilled patch so too is the growing array of materials available to build them. And, gabion raised garden beds is the latest material/method I've come across that has now entered the market as an alternative to the old wooden style sleeper

Read More »

Take a Closer Look at Your Food Garden for Beneficial Animals

Heard of the saying, see the forest for the trees? Well, how about see the animals for the vegetables..? Frog on a radish leaf  in a raised garden bed (image above) And I'm not just talking about pests either because whilst most gardeners look for pests when they inspect their plants it's often the good animals that

Read More »

Ethnic Minority – Woman with Child in Sapa Vietnam

The ethnic minorities in the Sapa region are often looked down upon by the main Vietnamese population, well that's the distinct impression we got from our own observations and comments from our personal tour guide. But despite, or perhaps because of, the harsher living conditions and social isolation these minority groups were often classically attired

Read More »

Hanging Grill for BBQ Fire Pit – What to Buy & What I Got

Cooking over a flame grill BBQ on your very own homemade fire pit in the backyard for family and friends is something special indeed. Thankfully, these days there are lots of different grill plate options to choose from off the shelf for reasonable prices without having to weld your own purpose-built mechanical cooking monstrosity! When I was a

Read More »

Playing Tennis for Fitness is the Best Excerise Plus It’s Fun

I've spent a good 35 years of my life working out regularly to maintain a reasonable fitness level and over that time I have tried many different types of exercises but one activity stands out above them all and that's playing tennis.  In this article, I'm going to detail several persuasive arguments for playing tennis

Read More »

Certa Garden Greenhouse (3m x 2m) Good Value?

Kogan's Certa Garden Greenhouse (3m x 2m) for around $130 seems like a great buy.  These types of inexpensive "portable" greenhouses have been around for a long time now and are becoming very popular in the USA. The quality of the materials used in these types of products is improving each year and the prices are

Read More »

What’s the Difference Between Biltong & Beef Jerky?

With the rise in popularity of this amazing beef snack called biltong you might be wondering how it is different to beef jerky? Well, in a few words I can sum it up like this… Biltong is similar to beef jerky but nothing like it.   The other day, I was shocked to see Biltong

Read More »

Politicians At Fault For Rising Electricity Prices In Australia

As Labor and Liberal Parties shadow-box between themselves like the worst fake WWE show imagined, Australia's energy woes are growing on steroids with prices for electricity doubling in just the past decade.  Australians now pay 4 times more than households in the USA for electricity. The rising cost of energy has reached a point where

Read More »

Harvest Fiesta Fermentation Crock was worth the buy

I ended up buying a Harvest Fiesta 5L fermentation crock (also called a Decorative crock) but there are several good brands to choose from and this just happened to be my personal pick when I was searching at the time. I based my decision to buy this particular fermentation crock on where the product was actually manufactured,

Read More »