Jury Duty

I received a jury summons.
I had to attend court one monday and went into a room with about 60 or so other randomly selected citizens. After a brief spiel from a friendly staff member, names were called over a loudspeaker of people who had to go inside the court room to be part of a jury. They selected people for 2 trials, i think. I wasn't selected on the first monday but along with the rest of the people, had to go back the following Monday. This time my name was called up....

I was then on a jury for 2 days. The first day involved hearing witnesses and the defence and prosecutors present their case. The second day involved a summary by the judge and then deliberations by our jury. We went into the jury room from about 11am and finally reached our verdict by 4pm. It was a rather challenging experience in interpersonal communication and justice. I found it a challenge to be objective and not feeling sorry for the accused - i was consantly reminding myself that it's important to make a decision based on the evidence not on wanting the person not to go to prison. I feel my conscience is clear in that i was as fair as i could be. (In a way we all had to make our own decision and then discuss it, and not just follow what the other jury members decide).

The charges against the accused were for burglary, stealing and commission to commit a crime. Our decision didn't have to be unanimous but had to have a majority of 10. None of our verdicts were unanimous and at one point we had a 3-9 deadlock. Our jury reached a verdict of guilty for 2 of the charges and not guilty for another. After we announced our verdict we stepped down from the jury box but were allowed to stay, in the back of the court if we wanted to hear the sentencing. A few of us stayed and so we heard the accused's criminal history and that he received an 8 month prison sentence. I was quite suprised at the harshness of the sentence but I trust the judge because he seemed fair.

There's not much joy in helping someone to spend more time becoming more corrupt in prison, especially when they are younger than me and have been a victim of crime themselves as a child, as this person had been.

Some of the jury members were really annoying but most were impressively clear-headed and objective who really helped me by their clear thinking and communication.

It's sad to me that people can so easily label other people as criminals and bad people as if they themselves were "good" people. I was sickened about how easily we ignore our own hypocrisy, pride, hatred, arrogance, unforgiveness and selfiness and self-righteously condemn another persons crime. Some crimes are laid bare for all to see and others are hidden and brushed over.

"To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

A new pond

This is the new pond that I've been very excited about. It's very "Permaculture". This old bath had been in our backyard since before I moved in. Dave dreamed of using is as an outdoor bath and positioning it so a fire could be lit underneath to heat up the water. That idea sounded great but it so heavy, and Dave hasn't been living at our place for a while so I ended up decided it would be good to have a pond because it has greater benefits with less work. Owen helped me with converting it.
Here's how we did it:

• put clay underneath the plug hole and inside the plug hole to stop it leaking
• put a normal plug in the plug hole, then covered with plastic and put sand on top of the plastic
• we had bought coarse sand from the local landscape suppliers (Males Sand in South Hobart) but washed this so that the dirt/dust in it didn't make the water murky. We then put a layer of sand in the bottom of the bath
  
• rocks were placed towards one end to create different levels, including a shallow levels for birds, lizards and frogs to access the water, and midway levels for plants in pots to sit on.
  
• the bath-pond was then filled up with water using the garden hose, but then left for a few days to allow the chlorine from the mains water to evaporate
• I bought some plants from a couple of different nurseries - mainly Stonemans Nursery in Glenorchy - the first time i had been to it and had a good range of pond plants
  
• The plants included two native water plants: Water ribbon (which i have since seen in the creek at St Peters Pass roadside stop on the Midlands Hwy) and Water Flag. Plus a native bog plant (not full submergible) Tasslerush and 2 non-natives: water cress and Water Milifoil. (i'm not sure if I've got the names of these plants exactly right)
  
• I have since obtained some water chesnuts and plan to get a water lily or two
• I bought five brown goldfish from a pet shop and added them to the pond to eat the mosquito larvae so that the pond don't breed mosquitos.

The Permaculture features of this pond include: (encouraging maximum productivity in a small space with minimum work)

• it using an existing structure in the garden that was otherwise just taking up space
• It will increase biodiversity by providing a source of water for birds, lizards, good bugs, frogs - this aims to encourage predators for the bugs that eat vegies in the vegie patch
• I especially hope the pond will attract frogs - I was hesitant about adding goldfish because the risk they will eat the tadpoles so I added less fish than the pond size could support in the hope that they would have plenty of other food thereby allowing some tadpoles to survive. And, at their current size, the fish are too small to eat tadpoles.
• Food production: Edible plants such as Water Cress, Water Chestnuts and Duck Potatoes can be grown in the pond (a significant motivator for me to make the pond). Although Water Cress is supposed to prefer running water so i'm not sure how it will go (although i'm thinking about diverting water from the rooves of the adjacent sheds to run into the pond to make up for evaporation without having to use the hose - so this would help add some running water.
  
• The fish are fed by mosquito larvae (so don't have to feed the fish) and then there shouldn't be any problem of breeding mosquitoes that could eat me or the neighbouring children.
  

Remaining problems to be resolved:

• The pond is in a sunny location - which causes a dilemma: the sun has contributed to algal overgrowth but some water plants need a certain amount of sun. Now that spring has come I will put in some water lillies to help block out some sun (they grow from tubers planted in spring, but go dormant in winter) to help with this problem. In the mean time I've tried to minimise nutrients by not feeding the fish (as i had been doing this to get them started); taking out plant in pots that had soil in them and adding floating water plants - (Azolla) that blocks out some sun and hopefully uses up some nutrients. I've also floated lids from icecream containers to block out some sun.
• Evaporation is a significant concern - it's only early September and I've been suprised at the evaporation rate - so greater heat in summer presents a challenge. As I said earlier, I'm thinking of diverting water from the rooves of the sheds into the pond to help with this.
  

I'll let you know how the water chesnuts taste! I will hope to locate some Duck Potatoes to add as well.