Frank goes into some detail
about a new project he's working on with a group in New Mexico that
wants to expand a program that teaches gardening skills to school
children.
It's a concept that is long
overdue and I can't help but to feel like a couple of hours working in
the dirt might actually help to calm down some of the more energetic
students that can never seem to stay in their seats.
I would take it a step
further and teach the kids some basic janitorial skills and put them to
work cleaning the school like students do in Japan.
The
Cottage Garden by
Christopher Lloyd is a pretty and chatty book, perfect for flipping
through when you're yearning for spring. It's nearly a picture
book, and doesn't have any in depth information, but the book is a
helpful look at the tradition that helped give rise to Robert
Hart's forest gardening. Cottage gardening
also has something to teach anyone who strives to be self-sufficient.
Microhydro:
Clean Power From Water
by Scott Davis is written at a sixth grade reading level...and that's a
good thing. I'm far from ready for an installation guide;
instead, I just wanted to know if microhydro is feasible on our farm.
Although most people
with an interest in alternative energy go straight to solar cells,
microhydro
can be a much more economical option if your terrain is right.
I've read estimates suggesting that consumer-level microhydro systems
are between 5 and 40 times as cost effective as photovoltaic systems,
in large part because water is much less intermittent than the sun so
you don't need as many batteries.
Scott Davis divides
microhydro systems into five levels, only two of which are of interest
to me. The bare essentials level will run lights and small
appliances (like a microwave, radio, telephone, blender, stereo, and
laptop) while the modern conveniences level adds in efficient
refrigerators, freezers, and well pumps. A microhydro system
running the bare essentials can be put together for as low as $2,000
(or possibly even less if you scrounge some parts) while the modern
conveniences level can cost two to three times that much.
Finally, an alternative energy source that wouldn't put us into debt!
If you enjoyed yesterday's
documentary on Arctic
homesteading then you
will most likely appreciate how Robert Long and his family get by
homesteading in the New Zealand bush.
It's a nice short video which takes time to interview the
13 and 16 year old kids and show how they feel about growing up in such a
remote and beautiful setting.
Heimo Korth grew up in the
suburbs of Wisconsin and when he was 18 wrote a letter to a random
trapper in Alaska looking for work. He got a job as a packer, learned
to love the wilderness of Alaska, and has been there ever since
homesteading with his Eskimo wife Edna.
A small 3 man film crew spent 10
days with Heimo and Edna to get a feel for what it's like to be one of
the last full time homesteaders in the 19 million acres of prime boreal
forest that is now known as the Arctic National Wilderness Refuge.
It's an excellent
documentary you can watch for free here that provides a glimpse into this
lifestyle and climate. The producers don't hold much back and you learn
first hand how to snare and skin a rabbit without using a knife. I
really liked Heimo and Edna and felt like I was visiting them with this
film. Makes our recent bout with a colder than normal winter look like
a day in the park compared to the struggles they've got to go through
to get by.
The last forest garden tidbit
that caught my fancy was Robert Hart's Bouche-Thomas hedges. He
planted apple trees diagonally so that they grew into each other and
created a rigid
fence like the one shown in the drawing here. Since I'm currently
in the research stage of including
hedges on our property, these looked intriguing.
Overall, I found Robert
Hart's Forest Gardening
to be a bit disappointing since it was low on how to information and on
plants suitable
for North American climates. His book isn't a reference work so
much as it is a dreamer's manifesto. But it often
takes a dreamer to bring an idea like forest gardening to a temperate
climate. The next generation of forest gardeners are still
working to make his dream a reality.
Although
Edible Forest Gardens is truly the
book to read for North American forest gardening information, I'm
always intrigued to go back to the primary sources. So I checked
out Forest
Gardening: Creating an Edible Landscape by Robert Hart, the father
of temperate forest gardening.
I have to admit that I
was sorely disappointed by about two thirds of the book. Robert
Hart was clearly a dreamer, a poet, and a philosopher, not a
scientist. His book jumps around through a discussion of how
important it is to eat your vegetables, how ley lines can impact your
garden, and through several similar topics. But in the midst of
all that,
he also documents his journey toward creating the first temperate
forest garden. As I suspected, there were some fascinating ideas
waiting for me in the book --- we all have something to learn from this
forest gardening pioneer.
Stay tuned for more
information in this week's lunchtime series. Meanwhile, if you
haven't already, check out our series about the
roots of permaculture
and our how to series about planning a forest garden.
Joe Dominguez, one of the authors of Your
Money or Your Life,
retired at age 31 using the formula he outlines in the book.
After figuring out the true value of his time and minimizing his
spending, he invested his savings in long term U.S. treasury bonds and
lived off the proceeds. Unfortunately, I don't know that his
success is replicable any longer --- treasury bonds are currently only
paying half of what they paid at that time, and I haven't stumbled
across any other types of investments that are as safe and stable while
paying such a high rate of return. I feel like it would take a
very determined person to save up a quarter to a half a million dollars
of investment capital and then manage to disentangle their souls from
the rat race.
While discussing the
book's anticlimactic ending with Mark, he pointed
out that we've really reached the same point using our chicken waterer
microbusiness. With just a few hours of work per week, we make
enough money to pay all of our bills and get to spend the rest of our
time pursuing our dreams. Basically, we're retired.
If you're still working
a full time job and dreaming that some day you
can retire and live your dream, now's the time to rethink your
priorities. You only live once, so you might as well enjoy your
hours here on earth! Here are a few more resources to speed you
on your way:
Your Money or Your Life
by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin --- a bit out of date now, twenty
years after being published, but most of the book is still right on
track. (There's also a new edition that might be a bit more
up-to-date.)
Financial
Integrity website --- the up-to-date and free version of the above.
The
Four-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss --- this is the book that
jump-started us on our own quest to leaving the rat race.
Microbusiness
Independence by Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton --- This
is our own personal story of how we created a small business that pays
all of our bills in just a few hours a week, along with lots of tips to
replicate our success.
This post is part of our Your Money or Your Life lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries:
Did
you know that before the Industrial Revolution, the average person
worked for about two or three hours a day? Studies from a wide
range of pre-industrial civilizations show similar data --- it takes
only about fifteen hours a week to provide for all of our basic human
needs. And that's using hand tools.
So why is the average
American working a dreary forty hours a
week? I've heard from at least half a dozen readers who say that
they'd love to live like Mark and I do, but only once they save up some
large sum of money or bring their microbusiness up to a level where it
can pay them some other large sum of money per year. So, even
though it's a bit off topic, I want to spend this week's lunchtime
series talking about money --- how much do we really need and how can
we make it without selling our souls?
Most of the information
I'll present is drawn from Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin's Your
Money or Your Life
and the loosely affiliated Financial
Integrity website.
You can find the same nine step program, complete with worksheets and
examples, in both the book and the website. (Download
the worksheets and examples from the website for free here.)
Both are highly recommended! I'm going to gloss over some aspects
of the program that seem old hat to me, so if you like what you read
here and want to learn more, I highly recommend you go straight to the
source.
Are you looking for some more blogs to
follow? I read over fifty, ranging from personal odysseys to
nonprofit newsletters, but only a few are so rivetting I want to share
them. These top three blogs are my personal picks based on:
posting frequently enough to keep me hooked, mixing personal and
informational in a fun proportion, and either being beautiful or well
written (or both.)
Causabon's Book is probably the blog I
discuss the most at the dinner table. Sharon Astyk is a Jewish
homesteader and peak oil writer who sucks you in with her tales of
family life and simple living but adds plenty of meat about how to
store your food and prepare for the end of civilization. Her
posts are thought provoking and mirror my own world while also veering
off in other directions. (She used to write over on her personal blog, but is mostly writing at
the link above.)
Sugar Mountain Farm is "stories from a small
farm in Vermont's mountains raising pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, dogs
and kids naturally on pasture." I started reading because we're
contemplating running pigs on pasture some day, but I kept reading
because Walter's photos were astounding --- really the best I've seen
on any blog. It's also fun to read about someone running a
successful small farm. Not Exactly Rocket Science is a new favorite,
interpreting new scientific discoveries into layman's terms. This
isn't precisely homesteading, but you need to know the science to make
it all work!
What are your top three
blogs and why?
Don't forget to subscribe to
our chicken blog where I'm currently going on
at great length about formulating homemade chicken feeds.
Kristie
Lu Stout has an interesting post about this exciting new product
that will allow everybody to generate their own hydrogen from water and
store it in a safe, low pressure battery-like container. No word yet on
how much it might cost, but plans are to have a tabletop model
available by the end of 2010.
Getting off the grid with
solar or wind has always come back to battery storage. If this
technology improves, it could replace most of those expensive and toxic
chemical batteries and bring alternative energy within the reach of the
common homesteader.
What
do you do if you want to install an automatic chicken coop door but
you don't have electricity running to your coop?
Chicken
coop door.com has
recently come out with a new solar powered option that will save you
the chore of letting your girls out in the morning and remembering to
lock them back up at night.
Masanobu
Fukuoka's The
One-Straw Revolution
is a hodepodge of advice for farming and living. To be completely
honest, I adored the first third of the book, but was annoyed by the
philosophical bent of the rest. Sure, I agree that we should
garden organically, eat locally, minimize our meat consumption, eat in
season, turn away from commercial farms and back to the small family
farm, reject growth economics, live simply, and work to live rather
than live to work. But those concepts are all old hat now.
Since I wasn't alive while he was writing the book, I don't really know
whether Fukuoka's ramblings were insightful and innovative at the time
or simply derivative.
That said, the first
third of the book was rivetting. His farming
method (which I'll describe tomorrow) clearly paved the way for the
entire permaculture
movement. Fukuoka dubbed his technique "natural farming", and it
went far beyond simple organic gardening. He advocated working
with nature and mimicking natural processes, positing that many parts
of modern agriculture systems are only necessary because the farms are
out of balance and we're working against nature. As a result, he
also used the inspiring phrase "do-nothing farming", referring to the
aspects of modern agriculture that he did without.
Although there was still
a lot of work involved in Fukuoka's farm, his
do-nothing farming was unique. He promoted no-till techniques,
green manure, and mulching. You don't hear much about
Fukuoka nowadays, but I wonder whether he wasn't as influential in the
birth of the
permaculture movement as its self-styled father, Bill Mollison.
Cosmic Cookout is a project that's been in the
back of my head for years now, and thanks to Anna's help as webmaster it's finally
ready to see the light of day.
It's a place to help me
distill down some of the more interesting and fantastic information
that has been gushing out of the physics of consciousness field the
past few years with some attention paid to the disclosure movement.
The intention is to stimulate
debate and conversation through a process of observation and questions
and hopefully increase awareness and understanding and perhaps move to
a higher level of consciousness.
Credit goes to Neuronarrative for the fine images above.
Carolyn Roberts from house of
straw.com has made a fun and informative 8 minute video
that takes you through all the hoops she had to jump through to make
her straw bale dream a reality. What sets this collection of
information apart from others I've come across is the level of detail
she shares when it comes to building codes and materials.
We considered the straw bale approach briefly, but decided against it
for multiple reasons, mainly the fact that we get a lot of moisture
around here, and it's not really as cheap as you might think.
Carolyn spent 50 thousand dollars and a good chunk of her precious time
to finish the above home, which was way out of our price range and
would have delayed our garden infrastructure building considerably. Her
Walden castle is hands down more beautiful and efficient than our
recycled trailer, but we would have had to go in debt to attain that
level of comfort, an option that shouldn't even be on the table for
anyone who prefers time over money, which goes to the very core essence of what the Walden Effect is all about.
As the next step in my pursuit of easy to grow
grains, I decided to
take everyone's advice and read Small-Scale
Grain Raising by
Gene Logsdon. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, although (as usual)
I felt it glossed over some very important aspects of bringing grain
growing to the backyard. Still, the book made me feel that
growing grain was within my reach.
I have to admit that
before reading Small-Scale
Grain Raising, I
fell into the category of folks who don't really think about where
their grain comes from. The only grain commonly grown in my area
is corn, and I grew up thinking that flour came from the store. I
assumed that grain-growing was an esoteric undertaking requiring vast
amounts of land, equipment, and know-how. And could you really
grow it around here?
But some rough and dirty
math suggests that I could create the three cups of flour I use in my favorite pizza
crust recipe from 22
square feet of soil --- about the size of one of my raised beds.
As I'll explain later, Logsdon has had success threshing and winnowing
grain on the backyard scale.
Many of you are probably
thinking --- why grow grain when you can buy flour so cheaply in the
store? My primary motivation is a bit geeky --- I just like
knowing how to do things myself. But growing your own grain has
other perks. When I read Farmers
of 40 Centuries, I
was a bit jealous of the endless rice straw these farmers seemed to
have on hand for mulching. Straw is a major byproduct of all
kinds of grain-growing, and I am always on the lookout for more sources
of mulch.
Growing your own grain
is also the key to independence from store-bought chicken feed.
And if you grow your own grains, you can make true whole grain flours,
without the healthy germ removed. All in all, it looks like an
endeavor worth experimenting with.
In doing some research for the home
made storage building I discovered the term garden office which is
how they describe some sheds in parts of Europe.
Shedworking.co
is a great place to browse pictures of other garden offices to spark
your imagination and learn new techniques.
I'm partial to this thatch roof design, but don't think it would work
for us here.
I've only just started using it, but I can already say I like it a lot.
It feels like I'm getting more splitting action for less energy input,
which is a very good thing. What I like most so far is the feeling of
increased safety. When there's not enough power to split the log
the Chopper 1 just sort of bounces as opposed to grazing off out of
control like the Super
Splitter has been known to do if your aim is a little off.
Credit goes to Anna for capturing the exact moment when the Chopper 1 is
completing a split.
Regular
readers will remember how Mycelium
Running
sent me on a quest to propagate our edible mushrooms cheaply.
Paul Stamets' enthusiasm was so contagious that I've spent the last
nine months experimenting (with semi-success, which I'll discuss
later.) I reached a point where I needed to know more, so I
requested another one of his books on interlibrary loan.
The 574 page Growing
Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms arrived at my library a few
weeks ago, and I've been reading it ever since. This book
is more technical than Mycelium
Running,
since the purpose is to provide the information new commerical growers
need to start their operation. The result is a book that is
slightly more tedious than Mycelium
Running, so I
can't recommend it to the general reader quite as whole-heartedly.
Nevertheless, Stamets'
enthusiasm shines through...along with so much
information that I'm struggling to pare it down to fit into two
lunchtime series! After reading the book from cover to cover, I
seem to have come up with twice as many questions as I started with,
but at least my original questions got answered.
The team at KMS
woodworks has made some interesting progress in bringing together a compact solar charger that can be used for several low
end power needs like a lap top. They are still in the testing stage,
but it looks like they might make them available for sale in the 300 to
350 dollar range in the not too distant future.
It would be worth that much to me if it could power our modem and both
lap tops for a few hours per day, especially during a power outage.
I really like the idea of having a portable off the grid option,
especially one that can be taken on a back pack to provide the power
for blog posts in some random ancient megalith site or more Mayan ruins.
A new layer of snow and some frigid temperatures kept us working inside
today. Brrrrr.
The movie Avatar
was a fantastic initiation into the new realm of 3D cinema. Science
fiction is the perfect genre for this new technology and Avatar was a
non stop ride that remains with you long after the house lights come on. A great way to celebrate the beginning of my 41st year.
A
few quick book-keeping notes for the new year....
First
of all, thank you
to everyone who posted comments this month to enter our daffodil
giveaway! I've
really enjoyed hearing all of your feedback and getting to know you
better. The grand prize winner is my father --- I swear it was
random! :-) We had a really good month selling automatic chicken waterers, so there were only about 20
daffodil bulbs left to give away. I'm tossing in some poppy seeds
to round his
flower bed out. Stay tuned for another giveaway soon!
On
another vaguely
chicken-related topic, I'm posting a long series about chicken tractors
on our chicken blog this month. Some of
the posts you've already seen over here while others are totally
new. My goal is to really think through all of the chicken
tractor designs we've used in the past so that our next tractor will be
awesome. I hope my musings will also help other folks design a
cheap and effective tractor and get those hens out of the mud.
You can subscribe to the RSS feed of that blog just like this one --- I
look forward to seeing some of you over there!
Finally,
I was going to post a review of the best non-fiction books I'd
read in 2009 over here, but instead decided to finally set myself up a
Goodreads account.
If I stick to it, I plan to post all of my fiction and non-fiction book
ratings over there (although I'll keep posting lunchtime series over
here.) Feel free to friend me and share your own books!
The Ford
Festiva stalling issue came back when the gas tank hit the 1/4
level point. Something the chainsaw repair guy said after he tuned up
our Stihl recently got me to thinking. His comment was that he had to
use his special carburetor bath 4 separate times to get all the gunk
cleaned out. This prompted me to give the Festiva another Seafoam
treatment, and it took over half the tank before the problem finally
went away, but it's running like it should now and it's all thanks to
Seafoam.
Old
timey apples are one of my oldest loves. The first June apples,
translucent against the sun, are far too tender to sell in the grocery
store. We used to gather them from abandoned roadside trees, then
Mom turned them into the world's best applesauce and pies.
In the winter, Daddy
would buy us Stayman Winesaps by the bushel.
We kept them in the basement with a bowl of sweet, tangy fruit always
at hand in the house. Since I was raised without sugared treats,
that crunchy fruit was like nectar.
When I grew up and left
the nest, I realized that most folks don't eat
real apples. They subsist on tasteless Red Delicious, insipidly
sweet Golden Delicious, or blandly sour Granny Smith.
Which is all to say that
I could see myself --- in another life ---
running an organic apple orchard full of unique varieties, just like
the one Michael Phillips documents in The
Apple Grower.
I've critiqued
his apple orchard microbusiness
over on our microbusiness blog, but over here I'm going to pull out the
gems that we small-time growers can learn from a master.
I was sucked into Teaming with Microbes by
Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis this weekend. Teaming with Microbes took
the information from my Living
Soil lunchtime series and turned it into what felt like a fast-paced action novel,
complete with stunning photos of the characters.
As you probably remember, a healthy soil food web equates to a healthy
organic garden. If you have the right critters in your soil,
you'll have better nutrient retention, better soil structure, and
better defense against diseases.
But Lowenfels and Lewis took the story one step further, explaining
that not every soil food web is created equally. Nor will one
type of food web make all plants happy. The key is to come up
with the right fungi to bacteria ratio for each garden.
Looking for a gift for the
homesteader on your list? Our automatic chicken waterers
keep water poop-free!
This post is part of our Teaming With Microbes lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries:
If you enjoyed my
series on traditional Central American farming practices, you'll love Farmers
of Forty Centuries
by F.H. King. Precisely 100 years ago, the American author
visited the eastern sections of China (along with Korea and
Japan). He documented his journey with
anecdotes, photos, and vivid prose like the following description of a
Cantonese house boat:
Sometimes husband and wife and many times the whole
family were seen together when the craft was both home and business
boat as well. Little children were gazing from most unexpected
peek
holes, or they toddled tethered from a waist belt at the end of as
much rope as would arrest them above water, should they go
overboard. And the cat was similarly tied. Through an
overhanging
latticed stern, too, hens craned their necks, longing for scenes
they could not reach.
I'm excerpting the
portions of the book which appeal to my organic
gardening and permaculture leanings, but I highly recommend that you
read the whole thing as an ultra-cheap Asian vacation. Although
Farmers of Forty
Centuries is currently back in print, you can still read the
full text (minus the photos) for free on Project
Gutenberg.
The palomino grain cow
hide work gloves are still my preferred glove for handling heavy
jobs. I estimate that the work load here at Wetknee seems to chew
through them somewhere between 9 and 12 months, which is a good value when you consider the wear and tear you're saving on each
hand.
Lawrence
Weingarten was kind enough to share his oyster mushroom cultivation
secrets in an easy to understand web page with plenty of pictures. He
starts by shredding up a bale of wheat straw and then cooking it in
water at 160 degrees for about an hour. You've now made your own
pasteurized substrate. Drain it and carefully mix in the proper amount
of spawn, which is mycelium
growing on grain or cardboard. Stuff it all in a tall plastic bag
and hang it up somewhere safe. Follow his instructions on humidity and
temperature levels and you'll have a serious harvest of fruit to enjoy
in less than a week.
If
you raked back the leaves and carefully weighed out all of the life in
a forest's soil, the sheer quantity would astound you. The soil
invertebrates would add up to the equivalent mass of four to thirteen
sheep per acre. In a coniferous forest, where fungi are king, the
threads of fungi in a single teaspoon of soil would unspool to stretch
forty miles. Tickle out the tiny bacteria and they'd add up to a
few tons per acre as well.
That said, the volume of
soil microorganisms doesn't hold a candle to their essential
functions. This week's lunchtime series is based on Dave Jacke's
Edible
Forest Gardens volume 1. I didn't have room to present all
of the rivetting information there, so if you're intrigued by this
teaser, I highly recommend checking his book out and flipping straight
to chapter 5.
This post is part of our Living Soil lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries:
This home made cat door uses a low budget and clever way of taking a
picture just before the cat reaches the door to enter. If the picture
shows anything in your cats mouth like a mouse the computer tells the
door not to let him in. Same thing is true if a skunk or other animal
tries to get in. If he's all by himself the computer grants permission
and unlocks the door. You can also use this system to keep track of how
many times your cat goes in and out, complete with a fancy program that
will send a picture to your cell phone every time an event happens.
Our cats have always kept their hunting prizes outside, and Lucy does a
great job of keeping other small animals out of the yard, so we won't
be going to this extreme. Quantumpictures is working on a self
contained unit that will be available from their website in the near
future.
With an armload of new permaculture books
waiting on my attention, I figured it was high time to finish up my
series on traditional Central American farming practices. The
first half of Gene Wilken's Good
Farmers has already tempted me to to embark on a huge
leaf-raking project. Where will the second half lead?
To start with, the book noted that Central American farmers have been
forest gardening since long before the term was invented. Large
scale farms were usually all annual vegetables, but most farmers had a
kitchen garden that modern permaculturalists would approve of.
Coconuts arched over papayas and mangos which in turn shaded cacoa,
bananas, peaches, avocados, pomegranates, ad oranges. Enough
light filtered down to the ground to feed maize and beans, and chickens
ran free under everything.
Farmers noted that their kitchen gardens required more work than their
less diverse fields of vegetables, and that crop quality was often
lower in the crowded forest gardens. On the other hand, the
farmers seldom saw weeds or pests, didn't have to worry about erosion,
and enjoyed having a diversity of food at their finger tips.
Clearly, forest gardening was worth their while.
This post is part of our Central American Permaculture lunchtime
series.
Read all of the entries:
The Spud Buddy is a device
that gets mounted to the side of an old broken freezer or refrigerator
and uses a fan and a steady supply of water to keep the inside
temperature and humidity where it needs to be in order to function as a
root cellar.
I've never seen one of these in action, but the concept seems solid
enough to work. Expect to spend about 160 bucks on the unit, and maybe
some extra pennies per day for the additional electricity.
I was experiencing some power trouble with the
Ford Festiva last week. It stalled out three separate times during a
short trip to town. My first thought was that the repair
last year with a dab of silicone to the ignition coil was giving
out, but then I decided to try a 10 dollar can of Seafoam. You put this
stuff right in your tank and top it off with whatever fuel you usually
use and presto...I noticed an immediate improvement. I could now get up
hills with only dropping down to 4th gear instead of 3rd or 2nd.
Technically speaking something happens that cleans some internal stuff
to make things run smoother. No more stalling! I'm now a believer in
Seafoam.
What makes the Highpoint
40 caliber carbine rifle a good choice for the modern day
homesteader? It's affordable...a bit over 200 bucks, it's easy to use with
minimal kick back, and it serves two roles on the farm as a weapon for
home defense and a tool for hunting.
We could have gotten by with hunting our garden raiding deer with the
trusty Winchester shot gun, but that thing has a hard kick to it and
you only get one shot before you need to stop and reload.
It's been almost a week now since we upgraded
the rear tires on the golf cart and the only regret I have is that we
didn't do this as soon as we liberated her from the nice and clean
campground that she came from. I would guess that our ground grippage
has doubled in comparison to the traction cables we had rigged on her
before.
Every
year, I let myself splurge a bit on new perennials for the
garden. Last year, my splurge
rounded out our traditional fruits --- a cultivated black raspberry,
blueberries, a plum --- and started exploring the world of nut trees (a
butternut.)
From previous years, we have young apples, pears, peaches, a nectarine,
a cherry, cultivated blackberries, ever-bearing red raspberries,
strawberries, rhubarb, asparagus, and hardy kiwis. We've started
grapes, a persimmon, wineberries, and a Chinese chestnut ourselves.
This year, Dave Jack's Edible
Forest Gardens volume 1 came in on interlibrary loan just as I was
starting to get my cold weather craving for new perennials. I
flipped to the back of the book, to the list of the top 100 forest
gardening species for the eastern U.S., and my mouth watered. So
many delicious species, some of which I'd never considered! This
week's lunchtime series highlights the four species I chose to splurge
on this fall to fill in gaps in our forest garden.
This post is part of our Splurging on Perennials lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries:
The collapsible lawn and leaf bag is a product that works and works
well. I imagine most folks would use it to support a big trash bag so
that your lawn and leaf material can be bagged up and hauled off to a
land fill. We use it in the raw to increase our mulch material, and it
makes the job a bit smoother than trying to
use a large tarp.
The best book I read while on
our cruise
was Brad Kessler's Goat
Song: A Seasonal Life, a Short History of
Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese. The book traces the
first year in the author's life with Nubian milk goats, and I warn you
that after you finish it you will want milk goats too. I had to
remind myself repeatedly that I wouldn't have been able to leave the
farm if I got milk goats and thus wouldn't have been on the cruise.
The book was almost blog-like in parts, a format that I obviously
enjoy. One chapter ran through the highlights of a season of
milking, day by day, and another chapter was a blow by blow account of
cheese-making. He mixed in some monks, a visit to artisanal
cheese-makers in France, and the effects that herding has had on our
language and culture. When I closed the cover, I could almost
smell new hay, meadow flowers, and goat cheese lingering in our cabin.
A week from today, Mark and I will be
climbing the Uxmal pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula. So this
week's lunchtime series is actually a two week series, spanning the
days we'll be away on our honeymoon.
Luckily, I found just
the book to fuel two weeks of permaculture musings: Designing
and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally by Robert Kourik. This
book was written about the time I entered third grade, but the facts
are nowhere near out of date. Actually, I can see where the
fascinating forest
garden book I read a
few months ago grew organically out of the rich compost of Robert
Kourik's guide.
Robert Kourik's
flawlessly researched and referenced book is also based on his years as
a landscape architect, tempting clients to include edible plants in
their ornamental gardens. This week's first half of the series
sums up his wisdom about the foundation of permaculture plantings ---
soil.
This post is part of our lunchtime series reviewing Robert Kourik's Designing and Maintaining your
Edible Landscape Naturally.
Read all of the entries:
Secrets of
shed building.com is jam packed with information on building a wide
variety of sheds. You can tell the people who put it together really
have a passion for everything shed related.
There's a place you can ask questions about your shed project with
someone to give qualified answers for free.
If building it yourself doesn't sound like fun then maybe you could get
something out of their review section of available shed kits and shed
building companies.
I think I might incorporate a few tips I've learned from this site into
our next firewood shed, but that won't happen until we fill the first
one up with split logs.
If you've ever wanted to have a table that eats food scraps and
entertains you with visions of worms crawling about, then Amy Young
has an interesting design you can build if you've got the stomach for
it.
It's basically a fancy worm bin with a low light security camera wired
up to an LCD screen embedded into the table for your viewing pleasure.
I like the idea, but wonder about the smell level and the possibility
of a fruit fly problem?
Anna and I finally got a chance to watch a film my cousin was in a
couple of years back and I couldn't resist the urge to swipe the scene
under the fair use doctrine. He's the one sleeping on a bench. I slowed
down the video to half speed so you won't miss him.
The film was directed by Fred Durst and it's a period piece set in the
early 1970's titled "The Education of Charlie Banks". It was a good
coming of age story that unfolded nicely and captured our attention.
Great job Ben, can't wait to see what you star in next.
Having 2 medium ratchet
straps made it possible to hold the freezer in place while I used
the other strap to finalize the mount.
Speaking of freezers, We saw a fresh independent film last month by the
name of Freezer
Burn. The hero is a quirky scientist who sells his house in order
to raise enough money to modify a freezer so that he can be frozen for
15 years in an effort to capture the attention of a girl he has a thing
for. It's that good kind of whacky that makes you feel just a little
bit more alive after viewing it. I give it 2 thumbs up for its charm
and wit.
I've had a few of those small ratchet straps
for a couple of years now and they really come in handy...but they also
have a problem getting hung up and stuck in some pretty nasty tangles
if the load shifts.
We got a set of the medium sized ones a few weeks ago and I'm still
kicking myself for wasting so much time on the small version. No more
pinched fingers and frayed straps with the bigger more substantial
mechanism.
Fowlvisions.com
has an interesting picture of an automatic chicken waterer one can
build from scrap material in 5 minutes or less.
This might be fine for small chicks who aren't strong enough yet to
knock it over, but once those little chickens start growing up they're
curiosity increases and eventually the clown of the group will get out
of hand one day and spill everybody's water all over the pretty wood
chips.
For just 15 bucks(shipping included) they could have ordered a do it
yourself kit from us and installed an Avian Aqua Miser in about
the same amount of time it took to throw a 2 liter plastic bottle into
a mixed nut container.
Today was the day our windshield wiper blades decided to give up the
ghost, and after stopping by 3 different auto part stores on our way
home we discovered that our Toyota Previa is rudely excluded from the
computer list of replacement wipers.
4 dollars worth of Rain-X solved the problem nicely. This stuff really
works. You just apply the transparent polymer to a clean and dry
surface, let it dry, and buff it in for a coat of near magical
protection.
If you have ever wanted to know more about
the mechanics of the mind and how consciousness works then you might
find a new website I discovered a few months ago of great value.
It's a husband and wife team that have struck out on their own with
what they call the Conscious
Media Network. They interview authors of books in the growing field
of consciousness and awareness and varying degrees of finding the
truth. They have hours and hours of interviews going back to 2005 and
it's all free at this time. You need to become a member to view the
interviews the same month they come out, but the archives are
generously offered as a gift to the public. I've heard enough really
good free interviews that I'll probably get around to sending them a
donation as a show of gratitude for a job well done.
Each interview is like a juicy sample snack of what new and or old
concept the author is exploring in their book or documentary. It's a
great way to taste a book and its essence before dedicating your
valuable time and resources to actually obtaining the book and finding
the time to read it. I dare anyone out there to listen to the Bob Dean
or Jim
Marrs interviews of the most far out and fantastic material
out there and try to dismiss what they're saying as "fantasy" or
"crackpottery". If anything it's going to really make you
think...Question Everything is the Conscious Media Networks motto and
it's a simple way to sum up this kind of search for truth at its most
fundamental level.
We tried incubating some eggs with an
incubator a couple of winters back and didn't have any to make it
because the outside temperature was fluctuating too much.
Chickenschickens.com
has a nice set of free plans to make your own brood box for the typical
Styrofoam incubator.
If I didn't have the Cochin hen to
do most of the mothering work I'd be building one of these to get ready
for operation brood.
I've had this 18 volt Black and Decker
Firestorm drill for over 4 years now and it's still as strong and
dependable as the first day I got it.
Its taken some serious drops and bangs over the years ...proving itself
in the heavy duty tool league at a price well below the heavier brands.
I've worn out one battery so far...but still have 2 more that provide
more than a day's worth of work at an impressive charge time.
1491's
summary of American Indian agricultural practices reveals societies
full of people a lot like current farmers. Neither Indians nor farmers aren Noble
Savages who live in totally harmony with the land, but we are constantly striving to achieve
a more sustainable system. I hope that recent forays into
permaculture show that we are on the cusp of reaching a new
relationship with the natural world.
Although I'm a bit sad to see my childhood image of Indians dashed, in
a way the reality is much cooler. I wonder what other ancient,
permaculture-like techniques scientists will turn up in the years to
come?
This post is part of our American Indian Permaculture lunchtime
series.
Read all of the entries:
Mycelium
Running
- This is still one of the most fascinating books I've read this
year. Although my morel cultivation didn't work out, I'm going to
keep experimenting.
Edible
Forest Gardens, volume 2 - I'm still incorporating
this book's information into our gardening lives and I rank it right up
there with Mycelium
Running.
That reminds, I wanted to order the first volume in the set from
interlibrary loan....
The
Backyard Beekeeper -
I pored over this book for weeks when we started out with our bees, and
I still dip back into it. A keeper.
The
4-Hour Work Week
- Some books you love at the time, then forget about. This book
was the opposite. At first, I wasn't so sure that I liked it, but
I kept coming back to its advice as we developed our
microbusiness. Now I'm about due to re-read it.
The Good
Life - Bits of this
book keep popping back into my head, though it's not one I'd feel the
need to own.
A heavy
duty tarp has a million uses on a farm. Don't waste your time or
money on the lower grade tarps that barely last a few months before
they start showing signs of wear.
We put ours to use today on the roof over a trouble spot that insists
on leaking in the middle of our kitchen. With any luck it will stay dry
long enough to finish up the repair tomorrow.
TC1840H
Garden Cart
- I would recommend this cart to anyone. We've ridden it hard and
put it
to bed wet, and still it keeps right on hauling all of our household
and garden supplies.
Ridgid 1 HP Sump
Pump - This is our
well pump, and it keeps right on pumping like a dream!
Trake - I'd like to give this tool
six stars, but it would mess up my rating system. The trake makes
weeding a joy!
Heavy
hauler
- The heavy hauler continues to hold up under serious abuse. The
only downside is that it's hard to maneuver by hand --- keep it hitched
up to the golf cart or your lawn tractor and you'll be in good shape.
Mintcraft garden sprayer - A competent gadget for the
price. For under $20, what would you expect?
Everett sent us a Redi-Set Go Indoor
Grill to test out last week. While the recipes included were
aimed at the culinary illiterate, the grill itself worked like a
charm. I tested it out on fish patties and banana muffins and was
very impressed by the quick and easy cooking. Both came out
pleasantly browned with a crusty exterior and a moist interior. I
did have to use some oil despite the pans being non-stick. (This
may be par for the course --- I know very little about non-stick
surfaces.)
I think the grill may fill a nice niche in our cooking lives, fixing
small dishes which only Mark likes (such as the fish patties) or which
I want to whip together quickly in the morning (like the banana
muffins.) What I like the best is that the grill stores on its
end, so it only takes up about three or four inches of counter space.
My biggest warning --- don't open the enclosed recipe book and get
excited by the picture of lava cake muffins. That recipe is not
included. I guess I'll be looking for a good lava cake recipe now
--- anyone?
Fuji
Finepix S100fd
- We both still adore this camera. We've yet to use all of its
features, or to reach many limits in its abilities. The only
thing it
doesn't seem to do well is extremely low light conditions without a
flash, but I suspect we just haven't found the proper setting for that
yet.
Liquid
nails - I think that
if Mark had to choose between me and a lifetime supply of liquid nails,
it might be a hard choice....
Skil saw - This electric saw keeps
right on going. We often bring it with us when we need to do home
repairs away from the farm. Ultimate
sink strainer
- a piece broke off the bottom of one strainer under light wear, but
the lost piece didn't seem to affect the strainer's performance.
A great replacement to the dishrag mashed in the drain with a pint
canning jar.
pStyle - I thought the pStyle was a
great idea, but I forgot about it after a week. Must have been
the return of warm weather.
Champion
3000 watt generator
- It's sitting in the barn looking pretty. We've yet to have a
serious power outage, so haven't revved it up. We probably should
give it a spin, though, just to see how it works.
This post is part of our Re-Reviews lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries:
I like Chris and
Keri's automatic chicken door solution for several reasons. The design
is simple, solid, and cheap to do for under 20 bucks, and they have
detailed pictures with videos, and a wiring schematic to make the
process easy for someone who might want to follow in this direction.
I've been looking at several different versions of these automatic
doors on the internet and this is one of the first to use limit
switches, which might come in handy for future experiments.
This is a plan I would favor because of the low cost and easy to
follow directions. Thanks for sharing Chris and Keri.
Agroinnovations
podcast - Mark's
still listening regularly and enjoys their high quality archives.
Carcassone: The
Discovery - I still
adore this game, probably because I've only gotten to play it a half
dozen times when Joey and I get together.
Star Trek - still one of the best
movies we've seen all year. I suspect we'll watch it again a time
or two once it comes out on DVD.
C-realm
podcast - Mark
still listens to it every week when it comes out.
The Field
Lab
- He gets four stars just for showing up every day. The
information can be a bit repetitive, but Mark keeps going back for
more, watching the day by day unfolding of an American dream.
Yoga videos -
the winter retreated and yoga fled with it. I may go back to
these videos
when the cold weather returns, but we'll have to wait and see.
Countryside Magazine - seemed like a good
magazine, but I only have room for so many magazines in my life, so I
stopped reading.
Royalty free
music - Mark
thought this was cool, until he realized that it was far from
free. The music was vastly overpriced, and he won't be going back.
This post is part of our Re-Reviews lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries:
Mark and I enjoy reviewing interesting
products, books, and other things which pass through our lives. A
lot of them seem really cool at the time, then fade into
obscurity. Others become integral parts of our lives.
Like a love affair, what counts isn't the first flush of lust, but the
lasting joy of togetherness. This week's lunchtime series
revisits some of the top products we've reviewed over the last ten
months to see which ones have sticking power.
This post is part of our Re-Reviews lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries:
ChickenCoopDoor.com
takes the guess work out of building your own automatic chicken coop
door opener with its complete kit for 150 dollars.
Could you build something cheaper that does the same thing? Maybe...
depending on your skill level and access to tools and supplies...and
then there's the time issue. I think we all can imagine a project like
this taking more hours than anticipated to get it just right.
Chances are if you are in need of such a device you want it right away
before some hungry raccoon decides to make a midnight snack out of your
best laying hen.
It seems like it would be worth the money, time, and emotional anguish
to splurge for the door if you prevent even one attack from happening.
Of course another solution is to abandon the coop concept and make your
birds a chicken
tractor, but I know that's just not possible for some folks.
While you're simplifying your chicken care lives, you might check out our homemade
chicken waterer.
I forget the name for these flip pliers. I
bought them during a stage of my life when I was doing industrial
fencing...that's chain link fence...not fancy sword fighting for some
corporate pirate outfit.
Some days I would spend hour after hour securing long lines of chain
link fence to its respective post. These pliers were good for that, but
not optimal. They mainly functioned as a back up to my heavier duty
set.
I thought this particular tool was gone forever in that vast vacuum of
nothingness that tools disappear to. It showed up earlier this week
when we were helping my mom with some home repair jobs. Somehow it got
mixed in with her tools and she was happy to match it back up with its
previous owner. Thanks Mom!
What I really like it for is the help it provides while I put together
the hanger portion of what I think is the best chicken waterer money
can buy. I used to use needle nose pliers, and then channel locks
to finish each hanger. Now I just give these flip pliers a West Side
Story switchblade twist and I'm switching tools without setting one
down.
I think this tool is on par with the Trake...yes,
it's that good.
This one is made by Scotch, and it's considered heavy duty. It was
about 10 bucks, which includes a small roll of tape.
It works better than the cheaper model we bought back in the winter,
and it has a nice feature that hides the cutting blades until one puts
pressure on the top guard.
I learned today not to leave even a little amount of water in the
sprayer after using it. It doesn't take long to get some algae buildup, which will clog the end of the sprayer that reaches the bottom of
the container.
It's pretty easy to clear the clog, which is another selling point for
the MintCraft garden
sprayer I reviewed last month.
I just found out about a fun new
website last night. (Thanks Maggie) It allows you to build a short
animation complete with your own custom dialog.
That's right. Just type in whatever you can think of and the actors do
their job. You then have some choices to spice it up.
A basic account is free. Anna and I played with it for about 20 minutes
last night and came up with the episode above. A premium account is
only 5 dollars a month.
I've been waiting a long time for technology to make computer animation
easier and more fun. It seems like that day is almost here if places
like xtranormal.com keep up
the good work of bringing esoteric image manipulations down to a cookie
cutter level.
Check out this one by rcg if
you want a good laugh.
The Boing
Boing crew pointed me towards the amazing results achieved by Mike Turner and the new aero
modification of his 1992 Honda Civic.
He's spent around 400 dollars and 250 hours of his time making the car
more aerodynamic. The inspiration came from some of the older designs
from the past that help to streamline air flow while decreasing fuel
intake.
This bit of tinkering has changed his drag coefficient from .34 to .17,
which can equal 90 MPG on a good day!
He claims that hitting a deer with a car like this scoops them up and
over with minimal damage to car and deer. That would make it worth the
400 bucks right there. Watch this 8 second video
if you have any doubts.
Sometimes a cedar post is just a smidgen too big for even the longest
drill bit we've got. A well placed notch can sometimes solve any problem.
That's what it took today to finish up a trellis for the new grapes.
I struggled with keeping the drill level in the past when boring
through a post. The new Skil
drill has a nifty bubble installed on top to allow for a perfectly
straight angle when drilling horizontally.
The new Skil
drill got a workout the other day when I needed to make a hole
through some cedar posts.
I was surprised to see just how much more leverage the side handle
gives you.
The 1/2 inch chuck allows for the bigger size bits and the extra 7.0
amp motor provides more than enough power. There's a nice rubber holder
near the handle to hold the chuck key and the speed is adjustable
depending on how hard you squeeze the trigger.
I finished the latest Lee Child novel over
3 weeks ago now and its vivid imagery is still lingering in the
background of my subconscious.
All his books revolve around the Jack Reacher character. A guy who
embraces the drifter lifestyle in such a clever and believable manner
that after you finish one of his adventures you're left with the feeling
of what it might be like to live day to day with only a tooth brush, an
expired passport, and an ATM card.
Gone
Tomorrow takes place in modern day, post patriot act New York City,
which is also the current home of the author. You can feel Child's
affection for the city in his style and pacing throughout the story. I
felt like I needed to be debriefed by Homeland Security after finishing
the book. Its an intense, modern,
narrative that will come close to knocking your socks off with the way its action filled mystery unfolds.
I made our motorized mechanical smasher to streamline a step in the Avian Aqua Miser
building where the wire hanger needs to be squeezed. This way is over
twice as fast compared to using channel locks and saves a ton of wear
on my wrists.
The Skil
7.0 amp drill is a perfect match for this application due to its
adjustable trigger speed and easy to reach reverse switch. Its 1/2
inch heavy duty chuck locks down on the Wilton drill
press vice handle with the right amount of clearance. Watch out!
I'm sure it will smash fingers if given the chance. This is not a toy.
If you've got a low impact, repetitive turning
task that needs to be motorized then the new Black
and Decker 6 volt drill/driver might be just the tool for the job.
I've had mine for a couple of weeks now and it's really helped to
streamline our Avian
Aqua Miser building process.
It takes 4 AA batteries and transforms the combined 6 volts of DC power
into a surprising amount of torque. We found this one at a big box
store for just over 10 bucks. Don't expect it to do any medium or heavy drilling chores and you won't be disappointed.
If I was stranded on an island and had to
choose just one power saw, it would have to be one of these
reciprocating
tools.
They start at just under 50 bucks and can be used in a wide variety of
situations where you need to cut through some wood, metal, plastic or
whatever.
Of course if I was stranded on an isolated island there would most
likely be no electricity...in which case a good hand saw would be the
wiser choice, but if you want a heavy duty cutting tool that can fill
in for almost every saw job imaginable, then one of these should be on
the top of your tool wish list.
In the early days of spraying Bt I used an old
Windex bottle to apply the fine bacterial mist.
That was a mistake I repeated way too many times before I wised up and
invested in the MintCraft
garden sprayer.
It's a well designed unit that holds a decent amount of pressure.
I give it about 5 or 10 good pumps which will last through a half
gallon of spraying. The extended wand allows you to easily target any
area of the plant while providing a convenient control knob for mist
level adjustments. It gets a bit heavy to carry if you fill it all the
way up, especially if you're using the shoulder strap. You might want
to upgrade the strap with some padding if you do the maximum capacity.
I'm trying a new method of support for the
tomatos this year that involves the 4 foot high green plastic
fence material that comes in 50 foot rolls for 27 bucks at Lowes.
It's a 3 sided enclosure that provides easy access for weeding and
pruning.
We invested in the next size up fence post, which cost nearly 5 dollars
each. It really seems like the best option if you expect to repeat this
procedure year after year in a different spot.
I've washed a lot of dishes in my time...and read each and every
soapy adventure in the compelling story of Dishwasher
Pete's
cross country journey.
I'm sure he would back me up here when I say the Lok-Spin
sink strainer is the ultimate in water trapping sink technology.
I just installed two in our sink last week and couldn't be happier with
the look and functionality of this practical and affordable kitchen
innovation.
The strainer has a small dial that threads to the bottom section
creating an unstoppable barrier. No matter how rough you are with the
suds this stopper will never be accidentally dislodged.
Dawn Rivers Baker has an excellent blog on microbusinesses
that pointed me towards a post on bootstrapping that I thought would be
worth sharing.
Tim Berry sat down with his wife recently and came up with 10
lessons they've learned over the last 22 years of running their
business.
At the top of the list was learning from your mistakes. It got me to
thinking how much we learned a couple of years ago from a failed
attempt to video tape and sell footage of local parades. We lost money
on the deal, and spent a lot of time producing each product, but those
lessons gave us some confidence and we were able to translate what we
learned about marketing to our next business idea. The contacts we made
along the way also helped to introduce us to the area and the people.
Looking back now I can clearly see how those early failures were necessary steps in the quest for a microbusiness that fits our lifestyle.
Mark: "The more I use this Trake
the more I like it."
Anna: "Yeah....I know what you mean, the solid-cast aluminum design and
molded grip make it a tool you really miss when it's not there." -long
and dramatic sigh followed by a furrowed brow.
Mark: "Uhhhhh...maybe we should get a second Trake?"
A stellar storyline combined with an amazing level of chemistry between
the crew equals one of the most enjoyable movie experiences I can
remember.
Watching this adventure on the big screen really allowed me to fully
lose myself in this new and exciting frontier which boldly goes where
no film has gone before.
The C-realm podcast is an
evolving expression of a dynamic guy by the name of KMO. The C stands
for consciousness, and he has a way of choosing words and guests that
really take you down roads mainstream media could never even dream of.
I'm still going through his archive of shows and have really been drawn
in to the story that's unfolding. He seems to
be open to new ways of thinking when it comes to such subjects as
the re-location of community and agriculture. I think people who read
the waldeneffect might enjoy his show and I encourage everyone to give
him a listen. His new shows, which come out every week on
Wednesdays are something I now look forward to.
Paul Stamets is an interesting guy with a
genuine desire and belief that he can help heal some of the damage
humans have done to the Earth with the help of mushrooms.
If you don't have time to read one of his 6
books, then I suggest a recent interview
by Frank Aragona as an excellent introduction to the wonderful world of
mushrooms.
This is an exceptional 2 part interview from Frank's podcast archive at
agroinnovations.com, which is
totally free of charge. You'll learn how Paul got started with
mushrooms, his work with the government and petro-chemical industry,
and a great breakdown of the history and evolution of mushrooms and how
important they are for survival.
I've heard several podcasts lately and this one really charged me up
like no other. Frank posed some great questions and Paul took the ball
and ran a few enthusiastic miles with it.
If you want something to last a million
years, then carve it into stone.
Words have a mysterious power once they make the transfer from thought
to reality, and if you want to harness the full potential of this power
you might want to consider having it written in stone.
We've had our new garden stone for about a week now and I've noticed a
slight change in the way I feel about the Waldeneffect as a concept.
The handsome rock represents another level of commitment to this life
style and provides a non physical anchor to the idea of a path that
continues to increase in sustainability as we solve each puzzle that
pops up. I was pleasantly surprised by the positive effect this little
rock ritual has had and feel like I've created a literal milestone for
our permaculture life back here in the woods.
Jeremy and Tavia at engravedstone.net can make you a customized stone
like the one pictured next to our dwarf apple tree. They have fair
prices, and a quick turn around time of only about a week.
One of the biggest problems with the basic
wheel barrow is the wheel.
When an inflated tire sits for a few months or longer you can expect it
to loose some of its air pressure.
The solid tire version can only handle so much weight before it gets
too hard to push.
The NuBarro from Germany seems
to be a new level in single wheeled hand trucks.
That big wheel never needs air and is extremely tough. I've never seen
this in real life, but it's easy to imagine how much more traction a
person can expect when you look at the impressive design. The maximum
weight is 750 pounds, and the price is in the 150 dollar range. A bit
more than your average wheel barrow, but it might be worth it if you're
pushing through ground heavy in sand or snow.
I made a discovery recently in my search
for some accurate and free pedal power details.
Pedalpowergenerator.com is a one stop shopping spot for everything
pedal power. The prices seem fair, and the pictures and diagrams are
easy to follow and understand.
We acquired an old exercise bike recently and I'm sure we can modify it
to produce small amounts of electricity. Thanks to pedalpowergenerator.com
I'm a few steps closer to understanding why a charge controller is
important and where the 15 amp blocking diode is wired. The guy who
runs the site is Brad, and he only requests a few pictures of your
project if you use his plans, and to be safe and take normal
precautions.
If you want to pump water in a place with
no electricity you might want to consider building a hydraulic ram pump.
It's a clever design that uses the momentum of flowing water for
pumping.
The Clemson
University cooperative extension website has a detailed explanation
of the process, complete with a step by step process on how to build
your own from plumbing parts and a bicycle inner tube for about 120
dollars.
It seems like the height your flowing water drops determines how much
pressure you can expect. You'll need at least a 2 foot distance to get
started.
Frank Aragona has an interesting company
by the name of Agricultural
Innovations. They are using technology to promote permaculture and
sustainable practices throughout the United States and Latin America.
I was really impressed with the block
press pictured to the right. Two people can make an average of 300
blocks in a day using this machine, which works on hand power. It
requires a mix of 90% dirt and 10% cement, although the earth should
have some clay and other minerals with agglutinating properties.
I just finished listening to episode 49 of his podcast, and if you like
this subject it might be something worth checking out. He's got a good
speaking voice and I like his style. I give his podcast two thumbs up.
The guys at Dragonpower.com
have the cheapest automatic chicken coop door design I could find
during my search.
It's use of a basic alarm clock keeps the cost low, but I've
got some serious doubts on how solid of a solution this is going to be
for the long haul.
The complete design is being given away at their website in
what looks like an effort to promote their build your own wind
generator plans, which are 10 dollars.
I ran across a new magazine a few weeks
ago that many of you may be interested in --- Countryside &
Small Stock Journal. It's put together by the same folks who
brought us Backyard
Poultry, and it has the same in depth articles and lack of
flashiness. (Think Organic
Gardening Magazine in the '70s before it turned into a mass of
color photos and ads.)
Countryside is intriguing because of its large section by readers --- a
full twenty pages of firsthand accounts from people who're living the
homesteading dream on a big or small scale. The one I read most
recently also had an article by a couple who were homesteading in
Canada, 100 air miles from the closest town. Wow!
While Mother Earth News
fills a similar niche, Mother is flashier and, after about a year,
became very repetitive. (I keep reading Mother only because every
month or two it comes up with a really cool article like this
one on biochar.) I don't know yet whether Countryside will
become equally repetitive, but from the breadth of topics covered in
the three issues I've read, I suspect not. If you're the magazine
type, I recommend you check Countryside out.
While searching for a cheaper alternative to
power an automatic door I found this linear actuator that sells
for 30 bucks plus 14 for shipping.
It's rated to pull 450 pounds! Which is more than you need for the
average chicken coop door, but with a little imagination this device
could be used as a light duty gate opener and closer.
You'll need 120 volts of electricity to power it, unless you rig up
some sort of solar cell and battery combination.
This could also be used to open and close a window for green house
ventilation.
Mark
Frauenfelder had an interesting post on his automatic chicken coop
door he put together based on an informative page at buideazy.com.
The meat of such a contraption is a device known as a drapery motor
controller, which takes the guess work out of when the door stops and
starts and has some built in safety features.
Be prepared to spend around 100 bucks on the motor once you get it
shipped, and maybe 20 to 50 more on the door and rail system. A remote
control is available for an additional 20 dollars, just make sure you
keep it out of reach from wiley coyotes and the random fox.
Gary
Larson has given me more laughs and chuckles than all other comic
artists combined.
His surreal sense of humor has really spoken to me in the past, and I
was one of the many folks who were bummed out when he retired
in 1995.
The reason he stopped even makes me admire him more. He felt like it
was getting repetitive, and didn't want to be trapped in what he called
the "Graveyard of
mediocre cartoons".
His artwork and punch lines still hit me where it's funny, and I wished
more comic strips would follow his lead by making such a graceful exit
when they feel like all the good jokes are used up.
Okay, so I figure about 60% of you will be
seriously squicked by this post. Feel free to skip it.
Well, squick-free 40%, you will be glad you stayed on board.
Because two weeks ago I saw an ad in a magazine which broke through my
internal ad-blocker software. "Eliminates the need for toilet
paper!" it exclaimed, and I perked right up. I visited Krista's pStyle website, and
before I knew it, I was hooked.
The pStyle is a little plastic cup/funnel which fits between your legs
(women only, but guys obviously don't need one) and lets you pee
standing up. Our "outhouse" (such as it is) is a good little
distance from the house, so I generally don't wander all the way over
there to pee, especially if I'm hard at work in the garden. Plus,
if you pee in the yard, it attracts scads of butterflies. I'm
pretty good at squatting, but let me tell you, there's splattering now
and then, and drips at the end. And, in the winter, it's cold. The pStyle solves all
that.
We had blizzard like conditions at the Wetknee farm that kept me
working indoors most of today. I discovered a bounty of royalty free music on
the internet that will work in nicely with the video project I'm
editing. It's easy to download MP3 formats, and the introductory
descriptions make searching for specific music speedy and efficient.
Finally someone has made a weatherproof time
lapse digital camera. It can take a picture every hour for a few
months before the batteries need to be replaced, or you can adjust the
interval from 5 seconds to 24 hours.
It gives a whole new meaning to that favorite past time of watching the
grass grow. Now you can watch the same grass grow over and over.
The hose I installed going to the well pump
needed some help making it around the curve towards the water. The problem
was a slight kinking in the hose as it angled downward, resulting in a
decrease in water pressure.
The solution was a product called a kink-free
flex hose adapter. It's basically a small section of hose with a
heavy duty coil secured to the outside. I imagine a person could
fabricate one by wrapping some heavy gauge trellis wire around the
section of hose needing protection, but since I already had one of
these I went for the easy fix.
The biology is a bit complicated, and I won't go into it here, but
spores can be used to start new mushroom colonies a bit like seeds are
used to start new veggie gardens. The trick is to get the spores
to grow, and Paul Stamets suggests two
options.....
This post is part of our How to Cultivate Mushrooms for Free
lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries:
I've been on a quest over the
last few months to find a way to produce my own edible mushrooms.
The obvious answer --- what we did --- is to buy commercially developed
spawn to start cultures in our logs. But once we have shiitake
and oyster mushroom logs fruiting, it seems like we shouldn't need to
keep buying the pricey spawn. Can't we save our own "seeds" and
start mushrooms from scratch?
The internet gives a pretty resounding "no." Most discussions
tell you that you need sterile laboratory conditions to produce your
own spawn, at an estimated cost of at least $1,000 to get
started. Way out of our price range.
Then I stumbled across a reference to Paul Stamets' Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help
Save the World. Through the wonders of interlibrary
loan, I now have this enticing book in my grubby little hands.
The book tells me "yes we can!" --- it's quite possible to reproduce
your edible mushrooms on the cheap.
I might try the ancient
technique of cutting new logs for our shiitakes and placing them
underneath our existing fruiting logs, hoping that spores will fall off
the shiitake mushrooms and grow on the new logs. For our oyster
mushrooms (and the wild morels we find in the woods), though, there are
some more exact options. This week's lunchtime
series will cover the most interesting techniques, the ones I hope to
try this year. Stay tuned!
This post is part of our How to Cultivate Mushrooms for Free
lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries:
Dmitry Orlov came out with a book last year
titled "Reinventing
Collapse" where he compares the collapse of the Soviet Union with
what's going on now in the United States.
His attitude towards this bleak version of our future has a surprising
upbeat tone to it. He points out some simple things we can change now
to be better prepared for what he envisions as a tough ride.
I got attracted to his way of thinking by watching this very
informative interview
on Russian television. His blog
has even deeper articles he's written on the subject, including a
radical way of using sail boats to solve some of the problems he
predicts are already unavoidable.
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