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Unplugging

Jul17

In the last couple of weeks we have had our vacuum cleaner and clothes dryer break. At first I did not think I could move on. Is the another way to get the dirt off the floor?  I have realized how much I rely on that little plug in the wall.  So many things that we do everyday require us to plug them in, including the computer I am writing this on.  But have you every stopped to think about what you could “unplug” and “do things the old fashion way”? So in the last two weeks I have unplugged my clothes dryer, my coffee maker and my vacuum cleaner.  It has taken a while to get used to it, but I think I like it better this way.  I make my coffee every morning using a tea pot and a coffee press.  The coffee has amazing flavor and I can reuse the grounds for afternoon ice coffee.  I do not miss my coffee maker at all and I do not think that I am going to go back anytime soon, if ever again.

The next thing I changed was I stopped vacuuming.  This has been difficult.  We have 4 cats and 2 dogs…hair is a major part of my life…it is everywhere.  The good thing is I have hardwood floors and I am able to sweep up most of the hair.  My challenges have been area rugs, furniture and dusting.  I never realized how much I “dust” with the vacuum cleaner.  So I have gone back to using a duster, and beating my rugs and pillows outside.  I am still looking for ways to get the hair and sand out of the couch if you have any suggestions, but all and all, I am getting along fine without the vacuum.

Last thing that I unplugged was my dryer.  Well, it kind of unplugged itself.  It stopped drying, my husband can fix it but the parts cost as much as another used dryer.  I decided to try and go the rest of the summer without it.  To help support me, my wonderful husband built me a clothes line out of pallet parts.  It is wonderful! It is almost 200 feet of drying area, I love the location in the yard and my sheets feel and smell great. We also have a small stand style clothes rack in the basement for the things I don’t want to air dry in-front of the neighborhood.   Between the two I feel that all of my clothes drying needs are met. My husband calculated that we will save $30 a month by not using the dryer…I am excited about that! I am going to use that money to support a child through World Vision.

So far I am enjoying unplugging things.  I challenge you, what could you do “the old fashion way”?  What could you unplug?

Aquaponics- Part 1: Greenhouse

Jul3

We have finally taken a step to following our aquaponics dream. Some married couples go away for weekends alone, some go to marriage retreats, some go to marriage counseling…we build a green house.  We decided to buy a kit instead of building it from recycled materials like we had planned.  We knew time was short and we wanted to stop procrastinating. We bought a 12 x 10 foot greenhouse from Harbor Freight. It took us 3 evenings and 1 full day to put it together.  It was not a labor intensive project, it was a test in patience and teamwork, which I think we passed with flying colors.  After 6 frustrating months of not feeling like we had accomplished very much, it was very rewarding to build something together and have a feeling of accomplishment.

There are a lot of blogs about putting together this greenhouse out there… I think our only comment on the process is go slow, don’t skip steps, read the directions and be patient.  Here are some pictures of the project and it came to life.  Thank you to everyone that is helping us to make this a dream come true.

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Summer harvest

Jul3

I started planting in February.  Seeds, flats, transplants and grow lights.  My spring harvest was a complete flop. (I am blaming my chickens… I need to work harder on chicken proofing the gardens next year) I did not get any of the broccoli, cabbage, lettuce or cauliflower that I had planted.  Now that summer has come I am starting to harvest things and it really is rewarding.  We planted garlic in the fall and I have been harvesting garlic shoots off of it and using them when I roast chicken and beef, all the while patiently waiting to pull the garlic out of the ground.  Yesterday I had my 15 minutes glory, I pulled 25 heads of garlic, pretty good for my first attempt I think.  I am drying them on top of the hot tub cover I look forward to braiding the stems in a couple of days. 

The other big harvest that we have had is potatoes.  Being able to grow potatoes made me feel like a real farmer.  I don’t know why potatoes made the difference and not the chickens but anyway, we harvested a bucket of potatoes, (red, white and Yukon golds). I cleaned them in vinegar water and look forward to eating them over the next couple of weeks.  I have posted some crazy pictures of our potato “journey”.  For a while this spring we were not sure if we would be moving or not.  My husband was jobless and we knew we would have to go where ever there was work. So I did not plant as much as I would have if I did not have that time of uncertainty.  While I was packing boxes in the basement I checked on my potato starts that I had been saving since fall.  Oh My!!! I was shocked to find a box of potato shoot spaghetti.  With the warm winter the potatoes were growing like crazy in that box.  I had to plant these potatoes.  We laid them out the best that we could in this bed… there was nothing organized or row like about it, and covered them with compost and mulch. I honestly did not expect anything to grow.  Within a week,ImageImageImage we had a very happy little potato patch.  Well it was happy when it was not getting eaten by chickens, but that is a different story. A week ago, last week of June, my potato patch started to turn yellow.  I thought that my plants were dying and that I was doing something wrong.  When I pulled up a plant just to prove that it was dead, a string of potatoes came up with it. It felt amazing.  I stopped everything I was doing and spent the next hour gathering potatoes from this patch.  And also to my amazement, the chickens actually came in handy. I had spent most of the last two months trying to keep the chickens out of this potato patch. When it came to harvesting the potatoes the chickens would dig the potatoes up for me and I would just have to gather them… it is was nice team work. And once I found the snake my son was more then happy to help too, in hopes of finding another snake.

Two first for us, potatoes and garlic.  It was pretty cool.  I am learning so much and having fun along the way.  I still can not believe how you can put this small wrinkly thing in the ground and end up with food, but it is amazing to watch and be a part of.

Go get dirty!

Unworthy Jam

Jun4

Sorry that it has been so long since I have updated the blog, it has been a crazy spring for us.  Everything seems to be going back to “normal” and we are moving forward full force with the “farm”.  This spring I learned that the definition of a “farm”, according to the FSA is a property, regardless of size that can produce $1,000 worth of product.  While $1,000 is not a lot of money these days it gives us something to work toward.  It would be amazing if we could produce enough food for our family and $1,000 worth of food to sell.  I am not sure that we will meet this goal this year, but we are working towards it in 2013.  So far this spring we are almost ready to harvest a couple of pints of blueberries, and we have dried some parsley.   We have lost a few crops to the chickens, who thought that raised beds make a great buffet.  The chickens have put a hurting on my broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, parsnips and lettuce.  It has been very tempting to make roast chicken for dinner but I remember I can get more meals from the eggs than the meat, so we have trying different types of fencing and coverings to protect our plants and extend the lives of the chickens.

This spring we did not grow any strawberries on the property but we did go and pick some for jam.  The strawberries this year seemed to be really watery; this made them very difficult to turn into jam.  I canned 9 jars of the thickest jam I could make and it still is not worthy of a PB&J. So now what do I do with these 9 jars of unworthy jam? Our first solution was ice cream topping, it is wonderful, but I still wanted to do more with it.  Yesterday while I was drying parsley I had the idea to make fruit leather out of my runny jam.  It worked great!!!  The dehydrator has a fruit leather tray.

 

 

 

I set the dehydrator as low as it would go and went to bed.  This morning I woke up to a wonderfully smelling house and the best fruit leather I have ever made.  I think that the pectin helped the fruit leather to set up really nicely.  I cut the fruit leather into strips and rolled it in some parchment paper.  All natural, homemade, dye free, gluten-free, low sugar fruit roll ups.  It is a wonderful option for jam that just did not jam. (Ice cream topping is another option).  Enjoy those berries and remember to buy local this summer.

Again, sorry there has been such a long break in postings, hopefully I will be able to get back to regular updates soon.

Nebraska

Apr6

Call me weird, strange or even crazy but I had just had a great time in the middle of Nebraska.  Nebraska in the beginning of April is magical.  I can say this because I just vacation there and do not have to do all the work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, but calving season and planting season is just beautiful.  To see the gigantic pieces of machinery crossing thousands of acres of corn fields as the sun comes up, it is picturesque Americana.  These farmers, that I had the pleasure of sharing coffee with in the mornings, are planting food that will not only feed their small town, but the world.  The United States farmers supply a large amount of the worlds food supply.  The demand for corn is growing as we produce ethanol and plant based plastics.  The small town farmers with crow’s feet from squinting in the sun, scars and bags under their eyes from years of hard work, provide the world with the corn that it needs.  To watch that and to be a part of it, even if it was just for a brief moment, was really amazing.  I was able to teach my children about where their food comes from and the hard work that goes into the corn chips that they enjoy so much. 

On the first day there we saw a baby calf being born.  My family watched in awe as a new life entered the world.  They asked a few questions but mostly they just watched.  We watched as this new calf worked to stand and then walk for the first time.  Later in the day when we returned to check on the calf we found out that the mother had delivered twins.  Which in the cow world is kind of stressful, the momma cow claimed one of the calves and took care of it, but she was not too interested in the other one.  We learned how the rancher tries to help the momma as well as the calves.  There were times when we thought the calf was not going to make it, but the will to live, and stubbornness, pulled the calf through. Before we left town we went to the rancher’s barn and fed the calf by bottle.  This rancher is going to invest hours feeding this calf. 

I am going to rant for a moment please excuse me…I was a vegetarian for a couple of years as a teenager, I was young and naive what can I say, however some vegetarians believe that raising cattle for meat is barbaric.  It is cruel and mean, I have even heard the term heartless… there is nothing heartless about the fight to save this calf’s life.  There is nothing cruel about the 4 times a day this rancher, in rain, snow or shine, is going to go out and bottle feed this calf.  It is true that this calf is being raised for meat, but I am proud to eat that meat.  There is a lot of love and hard work behind that meat and I have respect for the farmer as well as the calf.  The food that we get in the store comes in this nice wrapped package and there is complete disconnect from that hamburger at the drive through and the rancher who worked day and night to raise that meat.  (I know there are animals that are treated badly, but that is a different rant all together, for the most part the animals are respected.) 

Tonight when you eat your tacos with corn chips and ground beef, or your hamburger and French fries take a moment and think about all the hard work that went into that food.  Instead of inhaling it, enjoy it, respect it.  A lot of work went into bringing that food to your table.

First day of spring

Mar21

I am so happy to say that Spring is officially here!   I have already started planting and look forward to my much needed vitamin D and dirt therapy.  Some friends asked me if their garden was ruined because they have not started doing anything yet.  The answer is NO! It is never to early or too late to start planting something. Where do you start, well lets talk about it…

Some people might argue with me, but I believe the most important thing that you need when you want to start a garden is the desire to start a garden.  If you don’t like dirt, you don’t like a little sweat and time in the sun; gardening is not for you. Check out your local farmers market.  So the first step is that you want to garden.

Next you need to define what a garden looks like to you.  Not everyone needs to dig up all their grass and turn their whole property into a garden.  A garden can be as simple as a small container in a sunny window or it can be a couple of feet in your backyard.  The pallet garden beds that I wrote about in a previous post make a wonderful small kitchen garden.

Now, we have established that you like dirt, know the size of your garden area, next you have to think about what you want to plant.  Please, I beg you do not plant veggies that you have never tried before, or worse is veggies that you don’t  like.  Do not plant cucumbers if you do not like cucumbers.  Last year I planted 8 cucumber seeds and I got 110 cucumbers… if my family did not like cucumbers we would have had a problem. Lettuce, cucumbers, squash, peas,  and beans are all wonderful low maintenance crops.   For your first garden, keep it simple and don’t try to do every veggie known to man. Seeds can be bought at the grocery stores, hardware stores, gardening centers, or even Walmart.  If you were to ask me which seeds I would choose I would say Seed Saver Seeds, but I started out with Blurpee seeds just like everyone else and they worked great.

All of the crops that I mentioned, lettuce, cucumbers, squash, peas, and beans… the seeds can just go right into the ground.  Don’t worry about getting an early start.  It does not matter if the soil is perfect. A sunny spot with some dirt is all you need.  Compost, soil pH, and mulching are all things we can talk about later. In most growing locations you can plant your seeds after the weather starts to turn warm.  It is fun to plant and just watch Mother Nature take over.  Provide sun, water and some dirt and you will be amazed at what can come out of that little seed. The cool thing is most of the time the seed packet tells you what to do and how to plant the seed.

Keep it simple and have fun. Let me know how it turns out.

 

 

Signs of Spring

Mar12

There are many signs of spring, Robins singing, trees blooming, slightly warmer temps, seeds starting…. the list goes on.  For the last two years a sign that spring is coming for out family is the sweet cheeping sound of baby chicks in our bathroom.  (Yes I said in the bathroom) It has become something that our family looks forward to even though we have only done it for a short time.  Six dark Brahma female chicks are living in a Rubbermaid tote in my bathroom  Even though we have a great coop outside it is best to wait until the sicks are older to introduce them to the rest of our flock.  Plus we love to be very hands on with the chicks.  We want them to be used to us, and what better way is there to get acquainted than to shower together!

The cool thing that we learned the last time around is by hand raising them we become the mother hen.  They come to us for comfort when there is danger.  Another plus with our last flock is we had no bullying for pecking order among the chickens.  I was the dominate female, not them.  We are hoping to be able to duplicate that with these new chicks.  I will let you know how it works. 

Backyard chickens are a great way to teach children about where their food comes from and provide healthy food for your family.  With our four birds we get 10 dozen eggs a month and it costs us about $6 in feed.  Great return for a little investment. 

If you are interested in starting your own flock now is the time of year to do it, chicks can be purchased at Tractor Supply, local feed and gardening centers, and on-line through websites like mypetchicken.com.  The chicks are only a couple bucks a piece and they truly are a joy to raise.  If you have any questions please let me know, I would love to be able to help any way I can. 

 

 

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Mar6

I don’t know if we are resourceful, environmentally friendly or cheap, but whatever we are it works.  There is a local company that throws away non-standard size pallets, a standard is 4 foot by 4 foot for those of you not up on your pallet regulations. These pallets are 44 inches by 63 inches and I had the wonderful idea to use the pallets to make raised garden beds.  And my husband loves me enough to say “sounds great, where do we start!”  I gave Ry the basic idea of what I had in mind and he made it happen.  The finished product is a 22 inches tall by 63 inches long by 33 inches wide.  The finished beds are just tall enough that the dogs don’t want to get in them and just low enough that the kids can still help me plant. So, here is how Ry did it.

He started with three of the non-standard size pallets, a roll of black weed fabric, scrap pieces of 2×4’s, a screw gun, a staple gun, some staples and some screws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan cut two of the pallets in half. Then the third pallet he cut in fourths.

 

 

 

 

 

Once all the pieces were cut out Ry used a staple gun to attach the weed fabric to the panels. To help give the beds some strength Ry reinforced the corners of the beds with scrap pieces of 2×4’s that he had cut off of other pallets. This is a great picture to show the height of the beds.  They are slightly above knee level.  (Or dog head level, depending on your measuring tool.)

 

 

Ry filled the beds with some of our mulch.  Search my blog posts for mulch, if you don’t know our mulch from heaven story.) The last 6 inches of the bed he filled with top soil.  It took 10 bags. I want to plant root veggies in the beds, if you are not planing root veggies you might not need as much top soil.  Each bed cost less than $20 total including the top soil. The picture below is our finished bed with some recycled windows on top.  It makes an instant cold frame.  We are starting to harden off our onions, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and cauliflower. 

I am very impressed with these raised beds.  They look great and are an economical solution to our poor soil problem.  Most of our backyard is fill dirt with chunks of bricks, rocks and concrete.  I am so excited about trying to grow carrots in these beds.  I will let you know how it turns out.

What have you built with pallets? I would love to hear your ideas.