G4s (backyard) Homestead

The Week in Rabbits

2009-05-04T07:24:00.008-06:00

If this rabbit could speak....

Rain Catchment

2009-05-03T19:23:00.003-06:00

Our local feed store was selling these barrels. I tried to ask a few questions about converting this solid barrel into a rain barrel but they couldn't fathom it. They are for planters, not holding liquids, appearently.

Using the plans at
Life is Good in Penticton, including buying the tap, we were quite successful at converting this $65 planter into a rain barrel. I think we'll continue to use the tap as we continue to set up rain water harvesting in our aired climate.

As we "tapped" the barrel, the fumes made my eyes water. It's going to have to be flushed out.

My new Steed

2009-05-01T07:35:00.006-06:00

It has arrived. It is strong and glossy and ready to take me places and haul things. It challenges me, it asks me to be more than I am. It allows me to go car-lite.
I started out with a beach cruiser, but after a few days riding I knew that it was not going to work for me. I found out that I didn't really ride well in a skirt getting a step through was holding me back. The guy at the LBS was great and took the cruised back as a down payment on another bike.

I worked with the brand they carried and even then the choices were overwhelming: urban bikes, crossovers, road bikes, mountain bikes, cruisers... This is a major purchase and will be with me a long time (God willing). I have chosen a Trek FX 7.5 - it is beefier than a road bike, so like a commuter bike. I kept the 700 wheel in front and put a knobby tire on it, and then put a 26" wheel in back with a narrow tire to better take the load of what I put in the bags and get me sitting upright. I'm waiting on disc brakes and fenders. The xtracycle turns the regular bike into a long bike that can haul amazing things.

I have a 23 year old mountain bike I bought in college when they were brand new. I took it with me when I worked for and lived at a state park. I gave it up when my girls were little,having hung myself up on a fence at 8 months pregnant, but later it was my on-campus transportation in grad-school. I've had it out again as I attempt to get in shape again for the xtracycle. It is very heavy steel and I have big knobby tires on it. It's still good for the trails here. I'm feeling some old injuries that have turned chronic and invasive. I may just have to deal with that. I don't want to be sedentary.

flu thought: I had a lunch with a nurse yesterday who had studied flu before. I already knew that flu travels in waves, but she pointed out that the Spanish flu of the early 1900's had a spring wave and a fall wave. The spring variety was relatively mild and those who got sick and recovered were then inoculated for the deadly fall wave. It is the fall wave that we think of when we remember the Spanish flu 1918.

A Preppers note

2009-04-29T18:26:00.004-06:00

I really want to write about my new bike/ car lite, but in light of the world health organization moving this outbreak to a 5 out of 6, I thought I'd address the issue in terms of our family's preparedness.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am a prepper. There was a time I was a preppie but that has been many years ago.

In the last year we have made many preparations, and continue to fill in the gaps for what we think will be hard times with peak oil. However these preparations also work for natural disaster, and pandemic.

Over the last year I've blogged about first aid, alternative cooking and heating, food storage and several other areas.

Is there anything I'm adding or doing differently? Well, as a community leader I've downloaded and printed out some materials from .gov sites to hand out, and I will again publicly speak about food storage. But for my own preparations, I have picked up a few things: disinfectant wipes, nose tissues, and ginger ail. I had not really focused my preparations with disposable items in mind, but for this particular situation, I think it could be important. The Ginger Ail is because that is what our family wants when ill. It's all about comfort. We have chicken and chicken stock and turkey soup and even soda crackers, but we hadn't stocked was what we serve to the bed bound.

My prayers are that all are well and that this is of short durations and limited affect.

Spring Updates

2009-04-27T11:30:00.004-06:00

It really truly is spring, it's just that some parts of spring are really cool while other days are lovely warm. We have had much needed deep rain, but it has frosted the last couple of nights - nothing that would take out a daffodil or a pansy. I'm dressed in long sleeves with a wool vest looking out to a day that can't decide if it will get over 45 degrees or not. It's hard to get motivated to be outside when its so wet and chilly.

I decided on the location for the two espalier trees and planted them, but the spot really calls for two more so I'll picking those up soon - darn they're expensive though.
I'm going to plant raspberries today - Mr. Greenjeans is hurt (dislocated shoulder) so he is not able to be much help and not at work. I still haven't built the potato condo because the drill is too big for my hands to operate. I'll have to see what I can cobble together.

We're in the milk again

2009-04-21T19:44:00.004-06:00

My friend's milk cow has calved and the time of colostrum is done and that cow is producing enough milk for several calves and two families (she is Jersey x Brown Swiss). This is her second year and she is much better at milking - no kicking or fussing and the milk comes much easier. I milked out a half gallon and my only trouble was that my hands got really sore.

The calf is very cute. They are already making excuses not to have him go to the freezer. His daddy is a beef variety, however. I missed pictures of the bummer lambs - so cute!

I came right home and made yogurt and have been reading up on cheese making. Ummmm. Good thing I'm out riding the bike - that fresh milk and all the things it makes is dangerously yummy.

Plans for the edible front yard

2009-04-19T21:08:00.005-06:00

The time has come to address our front yard. We sort of fell into this house - I wasn't thrilled when I pulled up out front the first time - though we like the inside and backyard. We've never lived near town center before - even if it is a small town.

You can see from the photo how drab and empty the front yard is. My excuse is that last summer was our first summer here and it was spent hand gardening a 1/2 acre. Now I did pull out shrubbary before this photo, but trust me, it wasn't great. This a before photograph, published here for that purpose of documenting a make over. This is the before pictures of our lawn's liberation. You can see the trees haven't even started to leaf out here.

What is awesome is that I went to the local plant nursary and asked for an Espalier fruit tree not really expecting that they would have any, but the owner said, "wow, these came off the truck and I said, "what the ... I didn't order this!" So, we bought two Espalier gala apples - they were destined to be ours. When Mr. Greenjeans met the Espeliars in person, the light went on, and I believe we will be forging full speed ahead into Espalier trees.

I am fairly paralized about the big picutre. The front yard is north facing but we have great east and west sun and the side yard does get southern sun.

Today Chibi and I planted Gladiolas (yes the flowers went in first while I'm plotting the big picture), I top dressed the soil where the shrubs were evicted with rabbit manure, and DH sawed wood for the potato... house.. er condo... I'm going to try the potatoe feature that I learned about over at Rob's world. We want raised beds, and as much fruit as we can get in the ground these first years (last year we planted 4 fruit trees and 3 survived) as well as neighbor appeasing landscaping. I want to work with the neighbors so that instead of being put off by the strange and new approach to landscaping, they too may consider planting useful and edible things.

Thinking about getting a new SUB

2009-04-16T07:41:00.006-06:00

Yes, it's a major purchase, but I find that I need haul things, you know? Oh.... you're perhaps thinking that as I have a spelling problem that I'm trying to say, SUV. Nope, I mean SUB: Sports Utility Bike.

I live close enough to everything in town to ride or walk, but I find that bringing things home is a problem. Besides I'm enough of a klutz that last summer I struggled to ride safely with a swinging bag or 9 lb laptop.

I like to read the folks over at Homegrown Evolution and have been in love with their bike since this post on taking their newly published book to the P.O.

The bike is by Xtracycle. Sunset Mag. called it a bike that thinks it's a station wagon. You can haul 4 bags of groceries in the panniers, or haul another adult, and there is an attachment that can take long loads like lumber, ladders...

Now, I could either get it as a complete bike from xtracycle (this is a radish - the frame for people between 5' and 6':

Or, I could convert an existing bike or buy a new bike and add the xtracycle kit onto it. That's really the first design. In this case I'm thinking of getting a 7 speed beach cruiser and add the free radical kit.

For a complete car replacement, an electric assist is available for heavy, long rides or rides with big hills.

Don't forget the fender blender for a smoothie mid point in the ride.

Do any of you have one of these bikes? How do you like it?

A riot in the rabbitry

2009-04-15T14:31:00.002-06:00

Each morning the bunns get a sweet top dressing on their food. They love it and look forward to it. This morning however I didn't have any made up. I tried to explain that but mid-excuse a real protest of thumping and rattling ensued. So, I took the time to make their sweet treet. In fact I made up a 5 gal. bucket of it. I had all the indredients on hand because I had purchased all dry goods in 25 to 50 pound bags.

Our G4s for Rabbits recipe is this:

2 parts black oil seed
1 part crimp oats (this is their least favorate part and the really picky ones leave every oat. When I run out of this 50 lbs I'll try rolled oats)
1 part calf mana
1 part "Docs" for rabbits (has yucca and papaya and things)
I mix it all together with some warmed molasis and a little wheat germ oil.

I give an 1/6 to a 1/3 cup to the giant rabbits and the Holland lops share a 1/3 C. scoop between 7 of them.
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Early this morning there was a purple Ibis in our back trees. We brought the dogs and cats in and watched it for quite a time. It looked as if it had spent the night in the tree and was just waking up. It preened and streatched. This is a shore bird and we are fresh out of shores. We began to think it might be hurt and snuck out with a camara and long lens to get a better look, which caused it to take flight. Perhaps it landed mid migration - alone?

Garden Planning: looking back, looking forward

2009-04-14T08:01:00.005-06:00

I know, I know, it's a little late for the planning stage. Honestly I was so sure I'd be able to use the open 1/2 acre garden space of last year that I didn't plan an alternative. Now that the garden is sold and not available, I have to begin the rather daunting task of finding another way.

I've been thinking about many different options - leasing land or buying farm land. I drive around and look at 1 to 5 acres properties, but really I don't need that debt - I need to refinance a looming balloon on this house. And I don't need to be adding a commute to garden. What it comes down to is that I need to make do with what I have: a plain house with a smallish plain yard two blocks from city hall.

We moved here a year and a half ago - this was the house of the person whose position I replaced at church. Last summer was our first summer here and I spent 110% of my energy in the big vegie garden across the street. Now it's time to focus on what's in front of me. The back of the house is south facing and so that is the logical place to plant but we do have dogs out there and it isn't that big. We did plant fruit trees there last year.

While there is still lots going on in the back - I'm going to be focusing on the north facing front of the house. The part that isn't shaded by the house is pretty open and flat - and of course covered in lawn.

Yesterday I began by taking out the ugly fitzer bushes along with another bush that wasn't very alive anyway. What started with quiet project involving myself, a shovel, and a rabbit on a leash turned into a neighborhood project.

There is one disabled guy across the way that comes to help every time one of us shows ourselves for a moment - so he was there and wanted the bushes dragged to his place because he has secured a burn permit and wanted them for his fire. UMmmmm. Then Mr. neighbor came over with a 4-wheeler and a power winch which worked great popping out the small bushes but not so much the larger ones. So he then he got his pick up truck with a chain and up onto to lawn he came. One tow strap broke and nearly hit the one guy who is always a little too close for comfort. The rabbit was relocated several times and as Mr. Neighbor went for his truck I put her up.

At some point the immigrant laborers across the street came home from work and found us entertaining to the point of getting out cold drinks and lawn chairs to watch the action. There was another woman I've never seen before standing around watching with us. Mrs. neighbor came over for a few minutes but had to otherwise keep her toddler occupied.

Mr. neighbor was having such fun (did I mention he got out of babysitting very small children by doing this) that he popped out the roots of the bushes Mr. Greenjeans and I had cut by hand. These came out with the truck and then were attached to the 4-wheeler and dragged across the street and around the corner to the burn pit....under the power lines. (shakes head).

The big job is completed rather quickly - if somewhat more dramatically than I intended when I headed out with a shovel and my rabbit companion. Mr. Greensjeans was out of town taking Chibi back to school after the Easter break. He will return today to not only find his property sans bushes, truck prints all over the lawn, but broken sprinkler lines all along the way where the bushes came out with such force. Did I mention that he hates to take out living vegetation and is plain resistant to change? Well the good news is we don't have the water on just yet as there is more freezing weather to be had. Now, I think I hear my office calling (coward)...... more later....

I need to start taking pictures for you all.

Hoppy Easter Monday

2009-04-13T09:32:00.010-06:00

On Good Friday the birds arrived again. It was so noticable to suddenly have bird song. Even thought the weather has been snowy and sleeting for the last week suddenly on Easter the sun came out and things were green and the trees had buds and of course the tulips and dafodills had been blooming. Spring was pushing through and the weather wasn't going to hold it back.

After two church services that began in the dark of morning with a new fire, and continuing through noon time, and after a nap, the bunns got out to explore the spring. You can't see it in the photos but there is a carpet of new mint coming up and even some dandilions.

I havn't posted photos of these guys before. These guys are 4 months old. The fawn is Tiffany and the white is Pooka. Pooka came down with snuffles and her growth has been stunted.

Bunny Monday

2009-04-06T08:20:00.003-06:00

Shhh, we are seeking to capture a picture of the illusive wabbit camouflaged in its natural habitat:

Doomer Update

2009-04-02T10:44:00.008-06:00

Well spring has energized me to once again pick-up working toward sustainability. My motivation has several facets: stewardship of the earth, a deep belief that this is what is "right and good", a concern for my children's future, as well as a spoonful of belief that all is not going to go smoothly for any of us in the future. It is this last point - the idea that there is a kind of future that needs special preparation - where this blog tends to find its niche.

While I don't think I'll do a marathon 21-day challenge again (which seemed to coincide with some scary financial times where are still grappling with), I am reviewing family preparedness again. We hardly set foot in the grocery store this winter as we ate the foods we had produced and preserved from our garden as well as those we had stored.

One of the things I'm doing now is looking over the pantry - and seeing how we used our food over the winter. I'm getting a better ideas of how much of what we actually use. I bake a lot, and so in addition to grinding wheat, I used 25# of white flour. Some things were hardly touched - some of the fruits and juices are so prized we hardly get into them duing their shelf life (now that's silly and I'm encouraging their consumption while they are prime). I found I'm not that fond of vinegar pickled cucumbers, and that if I were to try and meet all our needs, I would need to dehydrate onions and potatoes to make it through the year (or get much better at cold storage). We are heavily dependent on onions and potatoes. Dimitri Orlov mentioned how crackers were an item to store and I began to watch how many crackers we really did use.

One place where we are completely dependant: cheese. We love cheese, and yet I horrible at making it. This has to change.

I am entering into a different level of food storage - and that is the dehydrated long-term storage. No I'm not also buying cammo and night vision goggles to go with it (yet ;-). I still plan to preserve the bounty and harvest, but I've lost my garden space for good and I think of the dehydrated foods as insurance in tough times - job loss, interrupted harvests, economic collapse... It's also easy to do here - hey, Walmart sells blue water storage barrels and gamma lids for buckets. The grocery store has an entire isle of 10# cans of long term food storage - dehydrated butter, sour cream, milk, all sorts of flavored TVP, peas & carrots, muffin mix, pudding and on and on.

Reading the super-doomers (who have so far been batting better than say, the media or the experts) I get a picture that while we may soon enjoy a return of what looks like the good 'ol days with the pundents proclaiming the return of a healthy economy and easy money, it won't last long. The idea is that for one thing the card house that is modern economics and culture is beginning to develop structural problems, and for another our infinite energy consumption and finite supply will one day collide.

As the darkness of winter lifts (even if it is still snowing), I will once again be
looking toward posting about our own preparations. Such is the saying: make hay while the sun shines

Now THAT's a talented Rabbit!

2009-03-31T22:17:00.005-06:00

Plotting the course:

Coming into position:

Ah, getting down to quilting... where do you turn it on?:

Article on a Mormon cannery in Seattle

2009-03-31T09:29:00.003-06:00

This is just a quick post to include an article for the Seattle times about the Mormon Cannery there.

Please do not think I am advocating Mormon doctrine or beliefs (quite the opposite,). I think therer is tremendous value in the implimentation of a common warehouse of equipment for use by an entire town is quite important for transition towns and a post peak oil future. It's interesting that article says these came about in the Great Depression.

Oh, and the reason I don't have pictures up is that we have a nice new camara and I have no idea how to get the pictures out of it. How's that for lame?

My trip to the Mormon cannery

2009-03-30T13:31:00.005-06:00

Mrs. Neighbor and I went to the Mormon cannery one evening last week. It was an interesting experience. People sign up to come in shifts every hour of the evening. When you walk in you are handed a slip of paper to fill out with your name, what church you attend and to check out what you want to buy. The food available to purchase is organized by shelf life. Then you go and wash and put on hair nets, aprons, and food service gloves. Everyone is listed on a white board with what you're buying and then everyone sets to work packing -not your individual order, but filling cans to fill the common food stores.

The cannery is in a house on a farm at the end of a dirt country road. On the outside it looks like a regular western farm house with cows in the field next to the house and dogs in a kennel and a plaque on the door. However there is no living space inside the house - the entire house has been converted (upstairs and down, floor to ceiling) into a cannery/food storage area. The wall was taken out between the living room and kitchen and there is a desk as you walk in and filing cabinets (where what you bought is filed away). There are long processing tables and a hoppers to fill tin cans and a way to put the tin lid on and seal it. Everything is packed in #10 cans. There is one white board with lists of places where you can get different information and other food storage items. This information changes regularly according to our host person.

In what would have been the master bedroom is flour processing where flour is poured into cans and sealed (and the mess is contained to that room), in the other old bedrooms, boxes are stacked on custom pallets floor to ceiling in a maze. And in what would have been the laundry room off the kitchen is an office for keep record of what is needed. The bulk foods are brought up from the basement and taken to the various processing stations.

There was an older lady in charge who told people what their job was and everyone set to working. I was given the task of folding cardboard boxes, and the lady in charge watched for a moment to be sure the packing stamp was on the bottom and I was keeping everything neat and straight. I thought it was because I hadn't been there before and was being kept out of the way that I was given that job, but by the end of the evening I realized that every job had equal importance. During the course of a half hour I built a mountain of empty boxes. As the cans came off the line every box was filled, labled, each packed with two plastic reusable lids. The full boxes were put onto a dolly and taken to the bedrooms and placed with other like. During the course of the evening one team had been filling the orders off the white board.

The work was strenuous with everyone working at top speed for one hour. There were no little children underfoot and there were so many people working we were packed in like sardines. There were old people working, strapping young men, and pregnant women. I noticed one quite pregnant woman sitting quite a bit on about the only chair while her husband did the work - each did according to their ability. The atmosphere was happy and people caught up with each other's news as they worked along side by side. As each order was filled the lady in charge would tap you on the shoulder and you would go and settle up. Only checks were taken and a receipt was given and your information was filed and your took your order out of the way to your vehicle and come back in and keep working your shift.

Mrs. neighbor and I were obviously outsiders but were treated very cordially. However at one point two men stopped behind us and said to the other "Well, I just figure the more of them that comes and works with us the less of 'em we'll have to worry about when the time comes."

When the hour was up, the white board was wiped clean the floor was swept, counters wiped, food stowed, packing tape placed in his location, and the next group was standing outside to come in and take their turn working at full steam for one hour. The last group of the night empties the trash and cleans the equipment.

It boggles my mind the amount of food processed every night, and the efficiency with which the whole operation clicks along. There is at least one such cannery in every town in the state and then less frequently in other states. No wonder their symbol is the bee hive. It was very interesting to see lines of people working on common food storage and yet just a little eerie. I know that in Salt Lake city there are entire huge silos that are kept full of food at all times. That must be where the bulk bags come from.

As the worm churns

2009-03-21T11:55:00.004-06:00

Well, worm ranching may not be rocket science but I think I've managed to drown my wrigglers. I've got them new bedding and better drainage so we'll see if they dry out and rev. up. I have 2"x3"x1" plastic bins under the rabbit cages to catch the manure (and urine). I had set one aside for the worms but I didn't have good enough drainage. I think that the cost of converting all these bins to containers with catch buckets would not be cost effective so I'm going to look into finding a place in the ground to make a trench. That way I can water the rabbit manure down and wash out the ammonia so it doesn't burn the worms.

Sadly we lost a bunn last week. It was one of the new Flemish Giant babies - a light gray. He just didn't travel well and didn't recover. We were very sad and gave him a decent burial.

This winter it was as if someone pulled the plug on the economy of this town. Even I was surprised at how it happened overnight. Everyday Mr. Greenjeans is fearful of losing his job. Every week they lay off people both above him and under him.

Today I went to a yard sale at a neighbor's house - they are moving to AK. I picked up a food dehydrator (electric) for $3.00. I guess I've got Mrs. neighbor's attention as she is now looking like a survivalist nut (I taught her well). She wants us to go in on packaged food storage. I like our fresh food storage (I hear Chibi beginning to measure wheat into the mill, now) but I suppose long term packaged stuff has its place. You could bug out with it in its boxes. It's so expensive though!

Our garden land (and house and other land) sold to the neighbor's son just before the bust. He's now looking to sub-divide it for building lots. He hasn't (yet) given us permission to garden this year. I don't know what he's asking for the land. The time is ticking on the season here! I'm going to have to start thinking about raised beds in the lawn.

Boy am I pleased as punch to see a (little) veggie plot going into the White house lawn. I love our president and his family but I think he needs to think outside the box to turn the economy around. Payroll had to tell me I'd gotten my economic stimulus tax break - it's so small it wouldn't take us out to lunch at a fast food place! I am very grateful that we are both employed. We're saving money but we've only too recently been at the end of our financial rope to have much cushion.

Still Around

2009-03-09T20:18:00.002-06:00

I noticed that Chili posted a comment about wanting to check in (what a sweetie). I checked in because it may be time to begin blogging again.

You know, some folks give a warning that they are taking a haitus, I just seem to waunder off...... must be a personality thing. (INFP for your Meyers-Briggs types).

No pictures today but here is some of what I've been doing: for one thing paying closer attention to my work and really ramping up the creativiy there. I am the keeper of tradition but the folks who pay my salery really like creativity as well.

Chibi and I have taken our rabbits on the road. We have started showing our rabbits and have purchased some more. Chibi's French Lop won Best in Show, and I have picked up another couple of Flemish for show. Beatrice is doing very well and is a constant companion in the house.

I didn't really intend to get into Holland lops but I went with a friend to get some bunnies for her from an old guy who was going out of rabbits. I saw that the little guys only have ice to suck on and the guy who owned them had run out of feed and was only feeding hay, and so I picked up some myself - he said others were interested. After thinking about it over the weekend he was out of town I went back and bought the rest and realized they hadn't been fed since the last time I'd visited. I now have quite a few Holland Lops.

The chickens are doing well and producing beautifully. I did a spring cleaning on the chicken coop this weekend and now have more brown compost materials than I can deal with so it's piled up in the corner of the property to age.

Nee has been accepted to all the nice private schools she's applied for. She has been awarded half tuition.... which leaves $24,000 a year. Mmmmm hope there are scholarships out there or its a no-go.

The wood stove has cut our gas bill to a fraction this winter. We've been buying wood from a guy who goes out to the bone yard at the factory he works for and cuts up shipping pallets to the proper length and takes out all the nails. I figure its a win-win scenario. He obviously needs the suplimental income.

The snow is all but gone except for the north side of the house. Mr Greenjeans is itching to go fishing as the ice breaks up. Related to this is that with my composters being full, and animals producing manure, I've started in on the worm farming end of things. I'll post more on that as it gets going. I think I started with too few worms for the job.

I'll be checking in with you all - even if I'm not blogging every day.

Big Bunnies have big friends

2009-02-09T09:35:00.006-07:00

For some reason, Beatrice loves dog food. She got in trouble trying to push the alpha female Border Collie out of her food, but while Bernese Mountain Dog, Toby isn't thrilled, he allows her to eat out of his bowl with him.

Her abcesses are getting better. She was not doing well with 'fingers' of abcesses spreading and Mr. Greenjeans reminded me that we have a resivour of information and remidies in homeopathy left over from when we had children and no health insurance. We looked up abcesses, choose Mercurium as a remidy and Beatrice is doing better than she had with surgury. Within 3 days she was zooming around like she hadn't done in months, eating as she should, and the abcesses had shrunk. They are not totally gone, but MUCH smaller.

Dog meets webcam

2009-01-15T18:30:00.003-07:00

We got a web cam for Nee and us for Christmas so we can stay better connected with one another. The dogs all hear and recognize her voice and the Border Collie caught glimpses of an image on sceen, but in the end her nose told her that it was all fake.

Bunnday Monday

2009-01-12T09:56:00.003-07:00

Beatrice is working hard on recovery.

She did have to return to the vet because the infected ear also came with an abcess in her neck under the ear. She stopped eating and started snorting and having trouble breating deeply. She had surgury, and now has a shaved spot in her dew lap and is getting antibiotic shots in her bunny butt everyday.

Her career as a diva show rabbit has been put on hold for a while.

Come tumble compost with me

2009-01-11T18:27:00.004-07:00

As Mr. and Mrs. Garden have moved to their smaller house, they have sold me this composter for $150.00. Of course the one I'm buying is under snow at the moment but if there is another nice day tomorrow, Mr. Greenjeans and I are off work together and can try and pick it up. This is great as all my other compost means are full and the chicken coop needs cleaning.

Have any of you used one of these? How do you like it?

Our food storage feasting today includes leftover lentil soup and cornbread made from the ground corn from the garden. I think it is the grind available from the country living corn auger that has the sweet corn making much better cornbread than polenta.

Soap Making Day

2009-01-10T12:51:00.005-07:00

We have finally used the last of the powdered laundry soap we made. While it stored nicely, we didn't like it because it left a white powdery residue on the clothes and the grated bar didn't dissolve well in the laundry. The recipe we're trying today comes from The Tipnut and is as follows:

2 C. bar soap grated (1 bar Fels Naptha = 2 C grated)
1 Qt. boiling water
2 C. Washing Soda (made by arm and hammer but is different than baking soda)
2 C. Borax
2 gal. water
Boil the water in a large sauce pan. Add the grated bar soap and stir until dissolved. (This takes a while!)

Add the dissolved soap and water to a 3 gal pail and then add the extra water. We used one gal boiling water, added the other ingredients, stirred, and topped it off with one gal cold water.

Issues we encountered were that the bar soap irritated Chibi's hands when grating (as the packaging said it would). Perhaps use a bit of paper bag when grating. We had planned on putting it into an old liquid soap bottle we'd saved to the occasion but when it cools, the soap forms a firm gel and I wasn't sure about getting it back out of the bottle. We ended up keeping in the pail used to mix.

We do add just a bit of oxyclean to the laundry soap because we tend to get our clothes really dirty with animals and work. I do think it would be good to rinse the clothes with a bit of vinegar to get rid of any soapy residue.

I couldn't find the materials in town and so ordered a quantity from soaps gone buy (much better prices than Leamans for the same products).

The food storage feast for today is Lentel Soup using the Christmas ham bone, carrotts, onion, ect.

Sprouting your Food Storage

2009-01-08T08:22:00.006-07:00

I know that sprouts have been mentioned before in food storage but here we are in the winter and our family is having wonderful (if not quite voluntary) meals from our self-sufficiency plans and one thing becomes obvious to me:we still crave fresh vegies. We have some lettuce growing and that is good the once a week that it produces, but what we realize is how a sprouting set-up can be really vital to self-sufficiency.

One can sprout a wide variety of nutritious seeds (dozens of varieties!), the seeds will store well, you don't need a garden, and they require next to no special equipment to sprout. You do need to have gathered the necessary materials however and not be sprouting your garden seeds.

We're not that crazy about sprouts so I didn't pay too much attention to storing sprouts before but now. I have in the past tried to add alfalfa sprouts to our diet (probably when I was pregnant) and one of the problems was that there were so many of them and then they went bad all at once. I can still remember the smell. But here in mid-winter with only canned vegies, they are sounding quite appealing. Also, the chickens are stuck inside their coop because they refuse to set foot in the snow (there's nothing out there for them anyway) and since they are producing nearly a dozen eggs a day, I'd like to give them some greens. That solves that waste problem.

BTW, We had a lovely savory quiche last night for dinner with leftovers to go for lunch today yummmmm.

So, I'm beating the drum of adding a sprouting kit and seeds to your food stores!
this post was edited for grammar

Chibi's New Bunn

2009-01-06T11:35:00.006-07:00

This is Eclypse, Chibi's 5 month old French Lop. Her color is gold tipped steel.

"Hey, you lookin' at me?"

She's still worried about the new home. She is however much more interested in the typical tossing things about than Beatrice.

No pictures of Beatrice today. Her coat is too ragged and she's not looking her best from her illness.

Of Weather and Bunnies

2009-01-06T09:55:00.003-07:00

The posting is rather sparce because ... well... not much is happening. It is cold - below zero at night and now at 10:00 a.m. it is 5 degrees. We've used most of a cord of wood and will have to buy some. Gathering and cutting wood makes for one more project for the good weather (in addition to gardening and canning and fishing).

Mr. Greenjean's company messed up on his check and so he got a quarter of the pay we were expecting. They're all scratching their ..... and talking about what to do about it but in the mean time, we're feasting on our food stores.

Last evening I stewed one of the roosters we'd butchered this year. I browened the meat on the stove top but then did the long simmering and cooking of vegies on the cook surface of the wood stove. The birds have been a little tough so I'm looking for ways of getting them more tender - if anyone has good recipees for for tough birds, let me know.

Beatrice bunny is still on the mend but it is slow progress. I want to see her 'bounce' back but she's lethargic. We've stopped the antibiotics and are on to pro-biotics so maybe she'll be coming around. She is eating enough to make up for lost time and no longer rejecting anything on her menu. She does see me coming and start sniffing around to see what delicacy I've brought to tempt her. She has me trained to greater amounts of treats.

We took Nee back to school (always so sad) and on the way home went by the breeder's house and picked up Chibi's show bunn. We had been waiting for a certain color that was not born and so the breeder sold Chibi a 5 month old rabbit she's been keeping for herself. The breeder is the president of the local club and wanted to encourage her in youth showing. So nice! The blood lines are to the best rabbits in her barns. Oh, it is a French Lop, doe. Pictures later.

Beatrice Update

2009-01-02T19:55:00.008-07:00

First thank you all to the e-rabbit community - I don't even know you all and you've come through with great suggestions. Here are pictures of her recovering curled up tight in the recliner away from dog and foot traffic:

She started drinking water by herself mid-day. This is a huge improvement as yesterday I spooned drops into her mouth but most of it dribbled out. She ate raisins on her own (thanks for the suggestion Ilex), but the only other food she has eaten has been that that I've placed in her mouth and she's eaten. That includes her favorite multi grain crackers with black and white sesame seeds and poppy seeds and her specialty feed (the breeder has it made specifically for her rabbitry) melted with fresh made apple juice.

We all survived my giving her an antibiotic injection (did I mention I took her to a cow vet on the holiday? I had to assume the shot went under the skin and not IM).

I can not believe how much I care about this rabbit.

The new addition

2009-01-02T09:27:00.006-07:00

Introducing Beatrice, the [edit: baby] Flemish Giant rabbit (never you mind the strange woman holding her). [She will get another 1/3 larger than this]

Chibi has been pretty low since Nee left for school. We decided that as mom and daughter we would take up showing rabbits. We've been to one show but had the only Flemish Giant and so it was more like parading her for the judge as there was no competition. I prefer the giant rabbits as they are more cuddly and docile than smaller rabbits. Chibi wants a French Lop and is waiting for just the right color to be born.

Beatrice lives in the house (in the laundry room when I'm out) but I'm getting really large cages built (4'x 6') when it comes time to have kits or when she needs some cage time.

The problem is that Beatrice got sick on New Years Eve. Actually, it was earlier but is mistook her bad behavior with me as rabbit heat (I went to put her up so I could go to work and she biffed me hard on the chin - so I went to direct a children's play with a couple of 2" bleeding cuts on my face - nice). When I returned that evening she was clearly ill and was worse on New Years day. I took her to the vet (called in the cow vet for the next town over - yea emergency holiday pay $$$) and she had a raging feaver and an ear infection. He had to get out the books to treat a rabbit but he was kind to us about it. She's on antibiotics and today the feaver is down and the ears are up but she's not eating or drinking. I'm feeding her water and a few sips of apple juice off a spoon - which she takes off the spoon but doesn't eat at all, yet. I'm all ears for suggestions - she's lost over 2 lbs.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T15:47:00.003-07:00

This is a picture of the cat enjoying the new fireplace. This winter isn't as cold as last, but it is below zero at night with daytime highs in the 30s. We LOVE, love the stove. I cooked beans on the stove top the other day. I'll have to get more adept at cooking on it.

The photo is taken wit Nee's new Christmas camara - I still have an old one.

....And we're back

2008-12-27T16:11:00.003-07:00

Phew, I think I've been run over by the Christmas truck. No, not necessarily by the consumerism because Christmas was a bit smaller this year, but more by church and obligations. I've had a full two services a week from Advent through Christmas - one more pageant play to direct and I believe we can put that season behind. Lots more work to come but work is perennial, thank goodness.

We got the wood stove all installed just after Thanksgiving. I'm glad to have it as the nights are below 0 and the days don't get above freezing. I've got beans cooking on the cook top right now as I type.

The chickens are starting to lay eggs - yea!!!. We get a few more each day. It started out as one egg every other day and this morning I'm up to 6 from 4 the previous couple of mornings. This is good as Nee is home from school and as a vegetarian, eats a lot of eggs.

We lost one hen to a visiting dog. The dog was part of a rescue we were holding for a few days. She got put out back to potty before bed, five minutes later she had ignored the entire nice yard and gone through the hole in the fence into the coop and snagged a sleeping hen off the roost. Thankfully the dog then brought it into the yard to eat and didn't rip the whole coop full apart. The loss stung, but I feel lucky to have averted disaster.

I'll be visiting around the blogs to see how everyone is doing.

Back to the routine

2008-11-17T13:19:00.003-07:00

In addition to the cooking last weekend, we also filled shoe boxes with little things for presents to be sent as presents to kids around the world. This meant shopping and buying all sorts of little new things like pens and pencils, notebooks, hairbrushes and hair ties,toothbrushes and toothpaste, flashlights and extra batteries, and teddy bears... All that consumer spending felt out of place.

I'm glad to be back home today, baking bread, making jerky, cleaning the chicken coop. I even just sat on the back step in the sun and clucked with my chickens.

Having the birds in the yard with the dogs is working out fine. Mr. Greenjeans made a Bernese Mountain Dog sized hole in the fence so the dogs and cats now check out the chicken coop as well. They'd never been in there before. Of course the dogs think the chickens leave snacks around for them...ewww.

As others have posted, it is time to begin to do Christmas shopping. I feel we need to scale waaay back, but I see Mr. Greenjeans perusing catalogues and thinking about buying stuff. I think we're going to have to have a talk about 'stuff'.

I look like Every Woman

2008-11-16T20:53:00.005-07:00

Preparing for dinner by shopping, cooking, and set up all in one day was a bit of an undertaking. In managing my time, I didn't want to take up too many days for one event because I'm stingy with my quiet time that way. However readying in one day meant starting early and moving quickly and taking my chances that everything would fall into place. I guess that's called risk taking (for the 40's crowd).

I started early (before my shower) because I only wanted to shower once before greeting Important Person. I was moving fast in my shopping making decisions such as finally purchasing matching place mats for 20 (18 were actually invited though 16 showed), shopping for fresh ingredients, making substitutions as needed, noting prices, thinking of forgotten details, mentally checking off what I'd need from a different store, and shopping at a couple of stores... that sort of thing.

However beginning early in the day I kept noticing women smiling at me and saying "hello". Now I emphasize, I put a brush through my hair, made sure there was no smeared make-up from the day before (and did not put on any makeup), dressed in my thrift store jeans (rolled up at the bottom and baggy enough to come off without unsnapping) a sweat shirt, and my hair cut appointment is next week - and would have been 2 weeks ago if I weren't trying to be frugal. I'm over 40 and out of shape. This is no pretty picture - I assure you!

At first I thought to myself, have I met that person? [smiling back] Then I thought, these people have been to some workshop and think I was the presenter (poor person). In the midst of my hurrying and worrying and fretting about dinner and all, I was surprised by the people who smiled and said "Hi".

In the end I didn't know one person who greeted me - I just figured I looked like Every Woman. I figured that in some Sci Fi way, I became the projection of what what these women were recognizing. I smiled and said "hello", and sort of wished I'd showered.

Dinner and the following lunch went well. It was tense at first - dinner cooked more slowly than at home and was late and Important Person was hungry and a little grouchy, but in the end ate every crumb in sight and complimented the meal and at the end of the evening everyone relaxed and remained relaxed through today as well. We had music and wine and candle light and set tables and I couldn't have done it without the help of Mr. Greenjeans and Chibi, and the lovely ladies of the church.

Do you ever get confused for someone else? Do you smile and greet strangers you don't know?

Sit down Dinner for 16

2008-11-15T07:26:00.008-07:00

Many obligations come with my vocation and one of those is hosting Important Persons coming to town to visit the church. This is one such occasion. Last year I was new here and did it all myself, but this year people have volunteered to bring a dish or two so I'm setting up (cleaning up) and hosting and cooking the main dish(es).

Last year when this happened we had moved here 3 weeks earlier and I hosted at my house as that was what my predecessor had done. Not this year. For one thing, I don't have a dining room set for 16 and when I strung tables together I filled the living room too and it was just awkward and ugly. Besides, cleaning to the point of hosting a dignitary - ain't gonna happen. I've been to a dinner at the French House at the University where they did sit down for upwards of 36 where the tables went through the living/dining areas but they had more style than I'm able to pull off and were much more relaxed about it. But that's another story.

This year I'm having dinner at the church. Now, we don't have a typical church basement but rather a beautiful old parish house on the historic register that was remodeled about 5 years ago. One parishioner has a good sense of style and keeps it decorated, seasonally. There are square tables in a sun room that can get pushed together for gracious seating of 16. Edit

I had considered doing an all local meal and in the summer I would have done a garden meal, but I find that some folks are not happy to find that their milk products are raw and came from a cow named Pretzel. They don't want to know that someone knew the cow on their plate, or that we raised the chicken, and they don't want to eat home canned foods. So, tonight's dinner comes from the grocery store.

In some of my first blog posts I gushed about loving the Cooking Light magazine. I will be making two pork tenderloin dishes one with blue cheese and the other with figs. I'll serve it sliced on a bed of wild rice mix. The side dish will be a roasted cauliflower casserole from this month's issue (I made the pie on the front cover and took it to dinner but it wasn't great). I will serve my dilly beans. Others are bringing salad, rolls, dessert, and wine. We have pot-luck for the whole church on Sunday and for that I'll make clam chowder.

I'm off to shop, set the table, set up serving, cook, set up music and candles, and finish things for the morning (like straighten and spruce up my office). I half enjoy this but I'd enjoy it more if it weren't tied so closely to my livelihood.

How about you, do you enjoy doing dinner parties? Do you host regularly as a part of your (or partner's) work? How many do you usually serve and do you still do a sit down dinner or a more relaxed affair?

A Bumpersticker seen at a payday loan place.

2008-11-12T15:09:00.002-07:00

Walking of course affords all sorts of sights you don't see otherwise. On my way to the office I saw a bumper sticker on a shiny pick-up truck parked at a payday loan shark office. It read:

I saw it.
I wanted it
I threw a fit to get it

Sort of made me stop in my tracks.

What being a Pioneer means to me

2008-11-08T08:03:00.009-07:00

Yesterday was cold and rainy. The laundry is still out on the line. However I was busy in the kitchen. It was time to take care of the tomatoes that were beginning to rot in their baskets, time for fresh bread, time for fresh yogurt made from the fresh milk from the cow.

I made spaghetti sauce from the last of the season's fresh tomatoes that ripened in the kitchen, you can see the last of the onions frying in the pan before going into the sauce.

I made meatballs from a combination of an elk shot "up on ta mount'n", and my neighbor's friend's cow we bought together. I mixed them with herbs from the garden, bread crumbs from stale bread, and egg (store bought because my hens aren't laying) and the moisture was the chicken (foot) stock I made earlier.

I had bought fresh milk last night and skimmed the cream off this morning and made yogurt. Mr. Greenjeans was home and DD14 wasn't feeling well so he did her job of grinding the grain for the bread.

I eventually got the sauce down to one pot which required us to eat some for dinner(I could really use a large stainless stock pot). This picture shows the yogurt maker and the fresh bread as well.

I canned the sauce at 13 lbs for 25 minutes and lovely Mr. Greenjeans cleaned the kitchen.

During the day he also made a hole in the chain link fence so that the chickens now have access to the yard from their rather small run. The trick will be to keep the dogs from harming them, but we can close the fence again too. Now that it's cold the dogs are inside a lot.

In some ways I didn't do so well with the pioneer challenge - I didn't always walk to my office, Mr Greenjeans and I went out to dinner at a new Mexican food restaurant that has just opened. But then again I think I'm living the pioneer challenge. We go out to dinner so very rairly that it was a real treat for all of us to go celebrate - and the food was good. Driving? Well, sometimes I'm just lazy and that has to get addressed at some point.

Even though these things are just the day to day for us, I love this challenge because as things go to hell in a hand basket, we are going to have to remember our pioneering spirit. People may have lost skills, but some still remember and others will figure out new and innovative ways to get things done. The new frontier is not clean and open land they way it once was, but rather how we begin new lives once the card house of our economy and oil experience has come down. It is the pioneering spirit that lies dormant in people of all nations and races that will once again come alive when needed.

Pioneer Days: The Cockerel killing

2008-11-06T07:11:00.005-07:00

The cockerel's were growing big enough to be making quite a ruckus here where we live down town. They were also growing so large that the coop space allocated to them was getting too small. On Monday Pa and I both had a day off, it was a nice day before the first snow storm and so we planned for Cockerel butchering. At first we planned on only doing 4 but reasoned that it was going to be a long time before we got to the job again and worked from dark to dark butchering 11 chickens. I only took one picture, a clean one.

We started in the dark of the morning gathering supplies, there had been rain the night before and the standing puddles were icy. That would mean no flies and a cool day for the meat. It took a while to round up all the roosters, as I carefully chose who would be left behind and handled the birds gently and quietly. The last choices were difficult and they were the most difficult birds to kill as well. We put the birds in large dog crates and put them in a dim garage away from sights and smells of the action.

Pa had never killed anything before. My processing experience was limited to an one animal or two many years ago and there was someone around who had a clue. If anyone else is in this situation, we found a few sights helpful, mostly this site. I have just a few extra suggestions that aren't on the site. We worked in batches of 5 and 3 so that the meat could get chilled and not sit around.

At first we procrastinated starting but then reasoned we were in for a long day and better get on with it. The lives of the birds I had carefully tended and protected passed quietly and easily and I said a blessing for each one. Pa and I quickly found a division of labor based on having different jobs that each of us really, really, didn't want to do. I really, really didn't want to kill my birds and so Pa cut the juggler vein and bled out the bird, and we both plucked (not a bad job when the water is 147 degrees). When the cleaning part came it turned out that Pa got squeamish and hated it and so I volunteered to gut all the birds since he was doing the job I didn't want to do. It took me about 8 birds to really figure out what I was doing. I hadn't found any good instruction on this - just live and learn. I saved the livers for eating and a few hearts for the dogs.

No one part of the day was particularly difficult but the length of job and the shear numbers of birds processed took its toll as we were finishing in the dark under a flood light with freezing temperatures descending into the muscles of my shoulders and across my back, 10 hours after starting. You can bet I did those last three more quickly than the first 5.

We had saved the feet and neck of the birds. They are a delicacy the world over and have long been used for soup by people who raised backyard birds. When we came in and cleaned up I looked up soup stock made from chicken feet. (The feet had already been a minute in the scalding water as the birds were feather footed, but of coure they got washed again in the kitchen.) The recipe called for chopping of the toe nail which I couldn't do with the kitchen shears and when I called in Pa to do the chopping with his cleaver, his reaction wasn't fit to print and left DD14, exclaiming, Dad! He's a good sport and so did it anyway. I assured him I'd do the skinning after the initial 5 minute boil and he sputtered about skinning chicken feet and went to the shower. Only a modern people can eat a dish called "chicken fingers" and not think about it.

After his shower, I thought it best not to remind Pa that we were doing a pioneer days challenge and not to veg in front of the TV.

The I simmered the feet and necks with onion and herbs all night long. The recipe had called for thyme and I took a lantern - sorry a torch - and went into the yard looking for the thyme I'd planted last spring but it had been killed off by the aggressive mint. I grabbed a handful of Rosemary while I was there.

Pa didn't sleep well knowing the large stock pot was on the stove and got up several times to stir it. At dawn I got up and strained it and pressure canned 7 quarts with an 8th in the ice box (er the 'fridge).

Maybe one day this all will be a necessity. I think its important that the old skills don't get lost. If the economy gets turned around and we find a cure for our energy problems and the climate heals itself then this all will be for naught, but somehow I'm not betting on an easy future, but rather one where we will know how to feed and care for our families better.

Yes, We Did it

2008-11-05T07:54:00.009-07:00

I have pioneer things to blog, but I can't put anything here for a moment. This is too wonderful. People have to have hope. Today we have hope.

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Election Reflection

2008-11-04T08:55:00.002-07:00

This is a nice piece I picked this up at The Brewer's Wife". It was written by her friend's husband or something - No, its not one of those "pass it all over the internet things". Tonight I hope to be out staring up at the stars giving thanks.

I've been meaning to ask, just haven't gotten around to it, plus I'm
worried that the question is premature. But you know, I think I'm finally at the
point where I believe it will happen. Now there's less than a month to go. Now
it's just a matter of days. Days until America does something which, I'll be
honest, I would have bet America would never do. At least not any time soon.
Just days until in one swift moment, the entire world will do a double-take.
Days until Americans of all stripes will come together to reaffirm America's
promise to its own people. Days until MLK's dream, and the dreams of all people
who love this country's founding PRINCIPLES more than life itself, finally come
true. I want to know: Where's the party? On the evening of November 4th, when
this moment is finally announced, where do I go to celebrate? Where can I be to
experience this historical moment with my brothers and sisters in humanity, with
those who truly understand what it may mean for us all? I'm not going to be at
some Democratic party balloon fest. I am not going to be at a bar. I am not
going to be in a gym. I am going to be at home, watching the TV with the volume
turned down so I don't wake my kids. And when the time comes, when the moment is
announced, I will walk out my front door into the street, and I will look up at
the sky and shed tears of joy. That'll be my victory party. To look up at the
stars and hope that this means a better future for my little ones. If I'm lucky,
some of you reading this will come outside right then too, and maybe we can
smile at each other in silence. Either way, when you finally hear it announced,
on the evening of November 4th, that Americans came together and took their
country back, and you're sitting at home celebrating the moment quietly alone or
as a family, spare a second would you and join me out in the street, and look up
at the sky and feel the smiles, hopes and joy of millions of people like you and
me reflecting down from the stars."

Pioneer Week November 3-10, excluding the election coverage

2008-11-01T21:26:00.003-06:00

I used to say I was going to grow up and live at my Grandparents fishing cabin. I'm still waiting to grow up so I can move there. However for the week I'm participating in Crunchy's Pioneer Week!

Day one of Pioneer week. The roosters are costing us money in feed and 9 of them are making a ruckus (we live right downtown). So today is butchering day for 4 of them. We don't have room to store any more than four.

I went to a neighbors (about 30 miles down the road) to borrow a 15 gallon pot for feather plucking and learned they had had a fire in their farm shop. 50 years worth of tools, welding equip, shovels and files and rasps, chain saw, and all manner of hand tool and garden and farm implement, 4 saddles and tack are gone. Good thing the new tractor was still parked in the driveway and not in the shop for the winter.

They had been working in the shop and gotten tired and went to bed early (must have left a spark) and a neighbor saw the flames and woke them. They had firemen from two towns and they went in to the fire and removed the welding equip to prevent and explosion.

They say they don't need any help and they are just grateful no one got hurt.

Independence Days 20th Update

2008-10-31T10:35:00.005-06:00

Tracy, over at Ramping up the Garden noticed this is the 6 months anniversary of doing the Independence Days Challenge. I think my personal anniversary is next week but close enough to jump on the anniversary celebration wagon. Tracy's updates are always so amazing that I find I'm encouraged to do more. Happy Anniversary, Tracy!

No Planting right now.

Harvest Something: Onions, potatoes (not many in the barrels), the tomatoes are still ripening on the window seals and kitchen table. I'll go out and get Brussel's Sprouts today, and I picked the corn left on the stalks (now brown and frozen) and took it to the chickens (and they were happy to see the corn again after a break from it). It got too cold for the Brocholli. Oh, the cow is producing like crazy with lots of cream - she's happy out in pasture and the calf is weaned. Today's payday so I'm going to order cheese making supplies.

Turns our neighbor's son had an out of state tag for an elk hunt, took days, off flew in, and then thought the shipping was too expense to take back so their family who didn't really want game. The family took 1/4 of the meat and the neighbors and I split the rest. Several folks stopped by (including folks delivering some freecycle aquarium fish) as I was packing it in and they all left with packages. I'm not sure how much there was, roughly 60 lbs for us. I am just about out of freezer space and have roosters to harvest. This is going to be a juggle. Maybe I'll try jerky again.

Perserve Something: Made 5 Qts of really flavorful spagetting sauce from the tomatoes picked green and ripened inside, 7 1/2 pints of grape jelly. Not so much canning as it had been, the dark evenings seem to slow my productivity.

Prep Something: When I was in the city I went to the thrift stores and found nice wool material in winter white. Now, this material was hiding in the form of skirts and blazers but next it will appear in a quilt for cold winter nights.

I took a sick dog to the vet in the next town over (unnecessary as the diagnosis was wrong and he got better anyway) and bought 25 lbs potatoes dug that day for $6.00.

Manage Reserves: I've been trying to keep up with the tomatoes ripening in the kitchen. They seem about done.

Now is time that I'm trying to juggle the freezer space: get out those short ribs that are a bunch of fat and bone taking up freezer space and baked and trimed and boiled and skimed and what not until I had beef soup (lot of vegies too). The whole thing only yielded a couple of gallons so I didn't bother with pressure canning and will just eat it through the week.

Another dog got sick with whatever gave them such bad belly aches they could hardly stand (actually big Berner couldn't get to his feet). I cautiously waited 24 hours and it passed and no vet bill this time.

Got in replacement globe and have been successful using the oil lamp correctly.

Cook Something New: My new things all fall into the failed category - which means - well expensive learning. I tried to smoke some marinated venison (old veneson from another year) for jerky, but it didn't work out so well - we didn't like the heavy smoke.

I tried to juice the grapes in my juicer but it is more for hard fruits and vegitables and ground up the seeds so finely that it was an aweful mess getting the juice seperated from the seed shards. The seeds particles suspent - neither floating or sinking and have taken hours to seperate.

Made butter in the antique butter churn. Made a big mess, with flecks of paint and old stuff that flecked off fell into the butter (yes I washed it and scrubbed before using). I think I get a denser, creamier, more yellow butter when I use the kitchen aid (it's still messy but maybe not so much so). I think the old daisy churn is going back on 'display' until the electricity goes out.

Learn Something New: I was a guest speaker at a training for advocates, and police. My hour spot was faith perspectives on sexual assault and rape, and I tried to include sources from several major faith perspectives. Its true that the person doing the training probably learns the most. It was an eye opener for me.

Reflections from the city

2008-10-28T08:47:00.005-06:00

In the past, when I have been to the city I have felt sort of a disconnect between the excesses and fast living and my own life. I have wondered who was out of step - me or them. But this weekend was different - and the change was startling. We had annual meeting of our church and finances were the topic of the day. The church has been mostly living on money in investments and of course we all know what has happened there.

There was faithful conversation about how to support ourselves when we are dependent on the giving of people who are being pinched and the interest from investments. How do you respond to people sinking financially while asking for money to continue the church? Of course there were no easy answers. At one point a hospital chaplain had to leave because a (formally) well to do man in town felt he had no more options left and was going to leap off a building.

We try and be green and so there were not fancy printed material as in the past. I found it a little difficult to respond to resolutions with just a projected screen and memory. An adjustment for sure but a far cry better than the cases of paper used in the past.

They did give each congregation a book called, "Three Simple Rules: A practical manual guaranteed to improve your finances" by Theo Boers. I haven't started it yet my Mr. Greenjeans has and says it is good - and simple. It looks as if it is written where most people live - not for those with a lot of money.

I stopped by a clothing sale at my favorite store and found it to be very quiet even with the sale. Of course it also seemed that prices had been jacked up.

In this community of bloggers, financial concerns and future scenarios have been the norm for a while. We are used to the conversation. Watching a bunch of main steam folks come to this place en masse was a little disconcerting. People are waking up to the notion that this might not be a market gyration but part of a longer term problem, and they don't know what to do about it. It is perhaps a little overdue, but I suspect those of us who have been thinking about this for a while may need to have in person conversations to those who have just looked up from the feed trough.

A Surprise!

2008-10-27T14:49:00.007-06:00

While I went to meetings, Mr. Greenjeans had to stay behind and take care of critters. He cleaned house (we had a high ranking guest returning with me), made a stove pad and Brought The Wood stove inside! We still have to get the stove pipe installed but I couldn't imagine how he was going to get it inside. (He fed pizza to some big guys at work)
This is my birthday/Christmas/ everything present and more! I am so happy with it!

Because it is a stove inside a stove, it can be placed closer to things in the room and has these warming wings for keeping food warm or cooking on.

Gone Until Monday

2008-10-23T08:59:00.003-06:00

Hello all, I have to be out of town at a meetings this weekend. I'll probably be able to check in on the blog conversation but won't be posting.

I'm also taking Chibi (DD14) so she can attend a anamation convention down the street from my meetings as well.

Mr. Greenjeans is staying home and taking care of critters and working on getting the stove installed.

Early and Often!

2008-10-21T10:00:00.002-06:00

Checking in

2008-10-21T08:17:00.003-06:00

We had a wonderful weekend with Nee (our daughter who has to attend high school in the city to take advanced classes). We didn't do anything special. The girls hung out together, we made 2 batches of apple butter and bread, and I managed to get her to clean the mess she'd left behind in her room.

It is so difficult to have to take her back and forth to school. It's a three hour drive, expensive, and with the shortening days part of the drive is always in the dark with animals on the road. I always give thanks when we make it safely.

An interesting note is the mom where she is living was sick and had been to a gastric specialist. One of the possible theories of why she was sick (besides overseas travel) is that she is sick from eating "backyard produce". You see the Dr. said that the food we are used to eating is to highly treated that she may then have encountered a bug (not killed by pesticides) in the garden produce. I am equally horrified that my produce may have harmed her and the thought the people's digestion is so changing as to not be able to deal with eating natural food! The girls and I agreed that this is yet another reason to produce your own food.

Independence days 19th update

2008-10-17T09:34:00.004-06:00

This is the 19th update of the Independence Days Challenge but not the 19th week - some just don't get blogged.

Plant something: Nope - I've thought about planting garlic - does it count?

Harvest Something: In addition to the tomatoes, apples, onions, and beans I posted pictures of a few days ago, I also had an offer for grapes from Mrs. Neighbor's father. They are wine grapes and also make a nice juice and jelly. So now I have grapes waiting to be processed. We're getting another round of raspberries that just are just about a handful at a time....mmmmm. Ohh my (now) friend's cow is producing milk again - oh yea!

Preserve Something: Lets see, last night Mrs. N. and I canned 14 quarts of tomato juice, and I dehydrated a round of Romas. I've gotten the family to help with the bean shelling and so have a couple of pints of shelled, blanched, and frozen green bean shell-outs. I don't find just too much information on them out there on the 'net. I finished my goal of a bucket of dried corn.

Prep Something: Well Nee made more canning labels (I'll put them up soon) and I bought more color ink for them. I put together my oil lamps and after breaking the chimney on the second lighting realized I had more to learn on using lantern light. Leahman's has a video on using an Aladdin lamp and I think that may solve my problems. I am concerned that they are not really advertising this lamp too much so I hope there aren't real problems with it. It was

We've been trying to really cut back on all spending and living on what we've stocked up, though I've begun picking up a few Christmas presents.

Manage Something: I find that I have to move the tomatoes around several times a day. I've had nearly an entire bushel ripen in the window seal and in boxes in the sun, but they have to be rotated around, and I pull out the ones that look as if they'll be bad and feed them to the chickens before they really rot.

I got the bottles labeled and off the kitchen table into the pantry:

Cook Something (new): I've looked all over for how people use shelly beans but in the end I've added them to tomato soup, and I've boiled them and served them with butter and salt. I also made my first successful batch of cheese. I went back to the beginning and made squeaky cheese and ricotta from the whey. I plan on working my way through the cheese book.

I've been pretty good about making weekly bread and yogurt.

Learn Something new: Learned about the oil lamps by trying them out and making mistakes. Have learned more about the requirements for installing a wood stove (that's going to be a big job). Got the canning sessions going with two pressure canners at once. Learned to make and enjoy tomato soup- a life time first but I've never had it with garden fresh tomatoes before.

Local: Have started a hand craft night at church with people knitting, cross stitch, beading, and me quilting (or taking apart last year's mistake to start over again).

Rob's Challenge

2008-10-15T08:11:00.006-06:00

I love this banner! I also love the idea too. Great challenge Rob - though I'll bet we'll be at it longer than two months. I wonder does this cover no new store bought Christmas presents too?

We have had this colander since before we were married though we can't remember whose it was or where it came from. This summer I wore one of the legs off.

yesterday Mr. Greenjeans fixed it using the leg we'd saved

Winter on the way

2008-10-11T10:56:00.010-06:00

Well, I'm sitting here with my socks on my summertime feet, a shawl over my shoulders, and a cat on my lap as I wonder how long we'll hold off turning on the furnace. Maybe we can make it through this cool spell and on to another week of warmer weather. I know the neighbors already have their furnaces but as I've mentioned so often before, my garden neighbors are elderly and the others have newborn baby so they all need to shelter more.

Now that the nights are below 30 degrees, we've closed windows and will have to go through and get all the storm windows closed for the season.

I'm getting kind of anxious to get done with the preserving season. I've hauled in as much as I can from the garden ahead of the killing frosts and now have to actually do something with it.

Here are some photos from my mess to commiserate with Sharon

Some of the tomatoes

A bucket of dried corn

Jars waiting for me to get color ink and label them. Yes those are clothes on a rack in the background

And a fresh look at the chickens.

Day 1, and we're done

2008-10-10T09:05:00.005-06:00

Looking back over the last 21 days of the challenge, I hope that this exercise has better prepared you for any hard times that we might see. Just looking back at how much the economy has changed, during the time of the challenge, the food alone can be a hedge against inflation or, God forbid, another economic depression.

There are some who are saying that this looks like the beginning of the Greater Depression. And if times don't seem bad where you are, consider that the Depression didn't take hold of regular folks until about a year after the stock crash. I guess that's the good news because it gives us a chance to simplify, reduce consumption, and learn to do without. Bloggers like Crunchy Chicken and OTHERS have been hosting challenges like the cloth TP, Buy nothing, keep yer cool....that have been whipping us into shape better than a masochistic aerobics instructor. That's a good thing. If we combine increasing our personal preparedness and self-sufficiency and sustainability, we are taking the necessary steps to insulate ourselves, as much as possible, from hardship while taking positive measures to reduce our carbon footprint. Hey austerity and frugal are IN! This is something I am genetically programmed for - I just have to unplug from consumption to do it.

Unplugging from conspicuous consumption is different than doing on a debt diet or a budget (though budget is good), unplugging means making the perspective shift to not need to be a constant consuming machine. It means seeing advertising hype as hype and not buying into it. It means that as a society we have to accept that in a finite world, the economy can not expand indefinitely and the expectation that it should defies physics and history.

When you see flashy advertising that says: "World Record holder", "Biggest Blowout Event Ever", "Prices Slashed", and billboards aimed at our most primitive urges know that you are being manipulated. We have been conditioned to think the biggest variation is the best, and while some variety is nice, the kind that society is offering is plain unhealthy. For one thing it numbs us to recognizing seriously big threats.

While we're conditioned to hype and hyperbole, we lose perspective of the warnings we are receiving in increasing volatility in the markets. In the last few weeks we've seen the record largest one day jump in oil prices, the largest DOW point drop (not percentage drop), the most number of days of a declining market, the lowest price of oil (edit this year) following the highest prices of oil ever. A couple of weeks ago one could say that the country is spending 2 billion dollars a day more than it's taking in, and yet now that figure has changed so radically, I can't keep track of it. - It's as if our national debt has been put on on steroids.

What I'm getting at here is that these daily increases in volatility in our systems bodes of a bad storm ahead. I figure if nature were doing this we would be looking at an enormous building storm, dark clouds, increasing winds and waves. What I wrote on day 14 and didn't publish was: what I fear (and hopefully I am wrong in which case I'll crawl back under my rock and start posting cookie recipes again) is that a storm of global proportions, created by the forces of human beings, is brewing.

What does one do in a storm? At sea, one would batten down the hatches, and locate the life boats and make sure they are set to provide (gotta have potable water). In an electrical storm you get down low and hug the earth to avoid a lightening strike. In a flood, seek higher ground, in tornado seek In snow seek shelter and stay put, In an earthquake, find an archway or a small room... and in a storm of human making, one needs to have self-sufficiency skills, and the support of community. That's of course what we've been working on.

Humans are remarkably adaptable beings - just look at how a soft skinned creature without hide fur (well most of us ;~})have so sculpted the planet and affected every other life form on the planet because we have a larger brain and opposable thumbs. We adapt to altitude, cold, hot, dry, humid, and we develop sea legs in a matter of days. We've adapted to outlandish living such as never been seen before and we'll adapt on the downside as well. At least those of us who are paying attention will.

So the final skill of the challenge is frugality, unplugging from consumption, reusing, repurposing, and just plain doing without. That is where the community of bloggers encourages, and supports one another. I'm headed over to Crunchy's to sign up for the Little House on the Prairie challenge! Thanks for playing!

Day 2, more to do

2008-10-09T11:08:00.004-06:00

Last night I was experimenting with shelling and eating the seeds out of my green beans gone to see. Yes, I will save seed, but there is more than enough of that. I cooked the green bean seeds in salted water and added a touch of butter and it was really good. Mrs. Neighbor stopped by in time to comment that next we'll be finding a use for tomato leaves.

As challenge winds down, I thought a good topic would be food foraging. This is not my strongest area, and so much is location dependent that I hope you all will chime in on the subject.

Picture that the time has come when you have eaten and shared or lost all your stored food. You have made the switch to being committed to a truly simple lifestyle or perhaps TS really has HTF. Either way, you are looking to supply some of your calorie needs without spending any money.

Currently one can ask the produce manager if you can take the vegetable trimmings to feed to chickens or pigs. Often what you get is a lot of usable produce that you can sort out and use yourself before headed out to the animals. Some stores now have rules against such a thing, but often times employees set discarded produce by the dumpsters. Yesterday's MSNBC had an updated article on frugalists or regular employed persons who are stretching their dollars by eating out of the garbage cans. I'm not thinking I'll go there anytime soon but I have been known to happily pick things up from the curb with a 'free' sign - the precursor to freecycle.

In order to get my liberal arts degree in social sciences in college, I had to pass a certain amount of hard sciences. One way I got the credits was to take a really weird biology class called 'survival biology'. In this class we had to show proficiency in foraging, shelter making, orienteering and other things. We learned that bugs like grasshoppers are edible and nutritious but that they have to be cooked because they carry parasites. The test was then to eat baked grasshoppers - I suggest removing their scratchy legs first. Vermin are also quite nutritious - there's a lot of meat on a rat, and pigeons are all dark meat. Yes, we had to kill, cook and eat lab rats. (Luckily we were allowed a partner and my partner was a hunter - phew). Unfortunately city pigeons can also carry up to 65 diseases harmful to the human as well as toxins from pollution - so handle them carefully and don't eat them from a really dirty area. I'm thinking the pigeons who litter my rural church are pretty clean, and there are actual recipes for squab. Dog is still on the menu of many people in different cultures.

If that's too hard core for you, as you get out on foot and bicycle more, you will notice that down many a neighborhood alley way are fruit trees that grow over the fences, as well as herbs and perhaps strawberries that have left their yards. Few will object to your picking the fruit that grows into public space. You may even notice trees that are going unpicked and may ask to pick or to pick for the owner in trade for some of the crop. The same for the end of season gardens. If you have seen a large lovely garden, the owners may be done and would let you glean the last vegetables from the garden before winter. I mentioned in the comments of Shasha's blog that I had people gleaning in my garden this last week (and this is not the first time) but that while I have plenty to share, I would have liked to have been asked first.

I know a young man who grew up quite poor whose childhood play included gleefully gathering honey from a wild comb and picking edibles with his mother. And when I was a child I would get up very early in the morning with my cousins and my Uncle would send us out into Denver neighborhoods picking mushrooms. My Uncle was however thepresident of the mycological society at the time and so knew his shrooms.

The gathering of wild plants is so individual to your area. I have grown up knowing little by litte about the edible plants in my area: wild turnips, garlic, sego Lilly roots, tiger lilly roots, apples, currents, pinyon nuts, walnuts, paintbrush, lambsquarters, nasturtium, dandelion, Acorn (flour), prickly pear fruit, rose hips, purslane and cattail hearts to name a few available in the southwest. I lived for a short time in Tennessee and while I LOVED the green growth everywhere, I just didn't know it.

The plants I've mentioned are all pretty easy to spot - you probably can picture them in your mind and they don't have close poisonous look alikes - and so could use them in a pinch. However, if you are going to start in on wild harvesting, learn about all your plants - that way you will know the poisonous ones when you meet them, too. If a bit of jimsome weed were to accidentally get mixed in with edibles it would really wreak havoc with your health and mind. Avoid gathering beside busy roads as traffic pollution will gather in the plant, and know if the yard where you gather has been sprayed!

Do you have foraging stories? Do you have a favorite food that you forage? Could you identify enough plants to get a meal in good season where you live?

Day 3, nearlly there

2008-10-08T10:49:00.005-06:00

As a springboard from yesterday's post about developing post-peak skills by way of learning from hobbies, today I'd like to have conversation about depression era careers, post peak work, and general low energy living. Yes, I know that we've moved a little away from imminent preparedness, but you see everyone has been such a good sport that we're either out of money or done.

There is something that has really caught my eye in my Internet reading the last two days and that is the widespread use of the word "depression", meaning economic depression. Yesterday's MSNBC business page used the word in conjunction with several stories (though they are missing from today's headlines), and other blogs I read, such as Sharon Astyk's, Shasha's Seeking Simplicity, Wendy's Home is..., to this worthwhile Opinion piece at the LA Times all are talking about an economic Depression. The Great Depression and our current situation even came up in the presidential debates last evening.

If these economic times are the beginning of The Decline, the Long Slide into a post-peak world - its beginning marked by economic crisis - then how might we think now about what employment will look like in the the future? As we can't see the future clearly, many are looking back at the Last Depression and remembering how things were and bringing the ideas forward. People worked hard, they just didn't earn a lot or have a lot of expectations for grand things. Sometimes, it seems as though people think that they'll just not have a job - and that may be true but you will always have work. Work isn't about getting a job done for someone else but rather about putting a roof over our heads and food on the table and maybe getting a little coffee.

If I were young and preparing for a future career, I'd look into medicine or engineering - but wait, I don't have much aptitude for mathematical things even with a do-over. Still if you are creative and technical, there will be a great need to rethink how we do things...starting now. No, there isn't a great technology that is going to suddenly replace our dependence on oil, but there is a world of creative ideas that can help us adapt to the world as we have it.

Other work that is emerging and will continue in the future is the local foods movement. Yes, it can get a little groovy and chic in places, but at it foundation is a sustainable, community oriented way of life. If you didn't grow a garden this year, you might be thinking of all the ways you can grow food next year. In the informal economy - one that is increasing in value with every day the formal one decreases, friendly trade and barter with either homegrown food or homemade useful items stretches the household budget and tightens community. My family's story from the Last Depression was that no one in the family went hungry because the women always grew a garden even if the men had to travel to the city to work for days at a time. Growing food translates into a career when individuals sell produce locally or make specialty items: local cheese, wine, meats, meals, bread...

Repurposing can be a career: what one is able to scavenge (and the rules get relaxed when the formal society crumbles) and make into a new useful item is a worthwhile career. Those who have started dismantling the McMansions for the salvage are probably at the cutting edge of that line of work.

A while back I read an article by Matt Simmons (OK it was probably last week but in my fuzzy brain it feel longer) in which he talked about the great need to bring the infrastructure to the consumers, the community. Those of you who have replied that you don't have particular talents other than being bossy - this one's for you. It takes tremendous organization, and push, and thick skin to rewire society. What your community will use in the future needs to be produced where you live - now there is a wide open field.

Construction will once again be a viable field. When we lived in a community that had undergone years of economic hardship and geographic isolation, there were a lot of folks who, because of lack of paying work, would help each other with projects on each other's houses. One friend needed help patching his roof, we needed help installing a stove pipe out the roof (need that help again but here everyone is busily employed), someone else needed booths made for a restaurant starting on a shoestring, someone else wanted to begin the process of building a (first) bathroom...it was all informal - no tit for tat. In the future, there may be a call for alternative building techniques. This same community did a lot with straw bale building.

In this same town I could point to babies and toddlers I knew to be born at home with the help of a local midwife. After I had had a child of my own, I went to one such delivery as an attendant to the mother. These same midwives treated heart conditions, spider bites, infections... herbally and homeopathically. I knew to expect trouble with my own deliveries and had to drive (in labor) to the nearest hospital that would take deliveries - 120 miles between phones or even ranches (no cell towers in the area then) in the adjacent state. Because there was a functioning outside economy at the time, there were also many artists who made a living there.

I found that people who could butcher animals where in strong demand as well. I for one was content to midwife for my small flock of sheep. I would deliver lambs (with vigilance to my flock I lost only one), dock tails, vaccinate, sheer, trim hooves, put up hay... but after all that, I gave myself permission not to have to butcher. The guy who did this was really hard to book as he had a lot of work in an area where that had to be done under the radar.

I saw on the news the other night that mechanic's shops are booming. People who would ordinarily buy a new car are now fixing the one they have. I thought to myself, funny when we needed a repair all the bays were empty. Just then the newscaster said, only a month ago, business was down - perhaps as people waited to see what would happen with jobs and economy but now delayed repairs have to be completed.

I would guess that solar energy - always a great option - will be taken more seriously as those who have to save up a significant amount of money to hook up utilities that have been shut off for non-payment may save a while longer and begin to invest saved money into off-grid technologies. One couple in my very small church is looking at buying unimproved land and not putting in the standard electricity and natural gas but instead focusing on the technology available for methane gas and solar. Did I have any influence on this decision... perhaps. ;-)

Perhaps an interesting activity would be to visit an historic farm with an eye to skills that may once again be in demand - with a 21st century twist. Our world won't ever again look like the world before modern technology, unless you head out on a piece of land and make it that way. For the majority of people who have to survive, the future world will take that spirit of ingenuity, some old time skills, some technology, and add in some of the local movements that are happening so far and turn it into a new world. The success of which will depend on creativity and innovation.

Old time careers that could see a resurgence: hat making, shoe repair, glove maker toy maker, textiles and tailor, brewer, cook, local grocer, farmer, smith, boat making, herbalist and mid-wife, veterinarian, tobacconist, communications, transportation (alternative), security, building repairs...

So, are you doing the job that you would ideally be doing? What would you like to do? If you have to reinvent yourself in a simpler economy, what calls to you? How can your work be retrofit?

Day 4

2008-10-07T13:17:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was a review day and today's post is sort of a fun alternative to market watching. I'm thinking about play and the role of play in both animals and people to increase skills needed in life. What kinds of skills can we expect to need in either a post peak world, or perhaps a Greater Depression world? What sorts of hobbies build these skills?

I know that I started canning some jam years ago as a fun activity in the kitchen. This year that hobby has expanded into full-scale work on food preservation until mid-night and get up in the morning and can before work, as was the case today. (Mrs. Neighbor and I picked tomatoes and onions and used our frozen blanched corn to make a really nice soup - mmmm).

In my family, each of us is taking an area of some interest and moving it to the next level. For instance, in the past my sister (who is great at gift giving) gave the girls soap making and candle making kits. Now, these are the sorts of kits that come out of craft stores and arn't really about taking over the needs of a household, but I did ask DD14 to begin to look into soap making. She made our last laundry detergent - the the next batch will need some adjustments.

DD17 is a serious academic with intentions on medical school (oncology). I have asked her to begin to learn more about herbal remedies and natural cures. If things crash before she can get all the loans she needs to get through medical school, she can use her desire for the medical arts and her exacting nature to learn about alternative cures.

I have been quilting for a few years, producing a handful of quilts with fine detail. However I suspect this winter will turn to larger quilt squares, and faster turn out of work to increase the number of warm quilts in the household. I have what my family has Always called, Grandma's Depression Quilts. When the yard dries out I'll set them out to air and take a picture of them. They are made of all sorts of pieces of old wool clothing. I imagine the center layer is an old blanket and the backing is a wool Army blanket. My Grandmother was nothing if not frugal. Sleeping under these heavy quilts in the cool, thin, mountain air, I can remember concentrating on breathing in and out as I felt crushed.

Mr. Greenjeans is an all around handy fix-it man who has years of honing his ability to fix, and build all manner of things.

Some other hobbies that I know people have that can be honed to be useful in a power-down world are: knife making, re-loading, smithing or metal working, making oil lamps, wood working and furnature making, gardening, sewing and needle work such as knitting and felting, raising livestock, hunting and fishing, basket making, throwing and firing pottery, spinninng and weaving...

What kinds of hobbies do you pursue? Can you add ideas to this list?

Day 5 - review

2008-10-05T12:48:00.007-06:00

I did not post a day 6 as following my community notes I put on a baby shower for Mrs. Neighbor. Sometimes you have to put this stuff aside and have some fun. Besides things like showers are traditional ways we take care of one another, honor one another and pull together to see people off to a good start.

This has not been a class, but the way the economy is going at the moment, there may be a final exam. Personally, I'm topping off the gas tanks today and buying a gal of fresh milk and vegies I didn't grow. So, let's review for a moment:

Are you prepared to stay put and ride out anything that may come? If not, have you talked with people where you may be headed? If there were to be a disaster right where you are, do you have an alternative location? (My family is pretty much in a few hundred miles so my answer is, not really). Can you heat your home with alternative means - no, not to to 72 degrees but enough to keep from freezing? If you lose electricity, can you cook food? Do you know how to safely take care of human waste without water? Take a look at the first aid kit, what do you need to beef it up?

Do you know how to get drinking water out of your hot water tank? Do you know where a natural source of water is? Do you have a filtration system? Do you have stored water - a bare minimum of 1 gal. per person per day. (Note this is not much for drinking, cooking dry food and basic hygiene. It doesn't cover things like washing pots and pans).

How about food? If you have any money at all, this is the easiest one to fix, right now. If you were to wait until there was a shortage, maybe not so much. Besides, if you are reading these things, there's no point in being part of the problem, should anything untoward occur. There will be plenty of ostridges needing to be fed. Personally, I'd go for your favorite carbs, canned fruits and vegies, and some canned protein, in that order.

How about garden seed? While I'm out and about today, I'll be looking for garden seed on sale. Yes, I prefer to order heirloom seed, and thanks to a my birthday present from DD17, I have fresh seed, but all seed is important if you get to next spring and need to garden for food. Now might be a time to find garden tools on sale - particularly if there is something you need.

I'd get a little money out of the bank - enough so that if there were a sudden bank holiday, you'd have case in different sizes. Barter items aren't a bad idea either.
Now, on my errands for the day, I'll also be stopping by the thrift store just to see if there is anything good(we don't have a very good one) as well as the antique store to see if there is an analog tool that I don't have.

I'll continue to post on other skills, but right now it seems as though a review of the basic stuff is in order. Remember, should TSHTF, don't isolate. Reach out, make community, be level headed and ask how everyone can pull together.

Day 7

2008-10-03T08:48:00.003-06:00

I had to get my Independence Days Blog out of my system before I could concentrate on posting for my own challenge. I'm just too trained.

I have always felt strongly about community. I would even say it is one of the key cornerstones of preparedness. The bunker type survivalists have been with us for many years, and we can lear something from them, but the kind of people finding each other in cyberspace, encouraging one another, supporting each other giving ideas to one another are those who are not only picking up on the real need for preparedness but are willing to form community in real life as well.

Being a part of a community - say 5 to 40 (with 40 maybe too high) families has been the rule of thumb for the success of people since before we stood upright out on the savannas. The current model of city and suburban living is a formulation of the Industrial Age, and by the rates of people who feel disconnected and incomplete, it doesn't seems to be meeting the needs of a communal species.

I want to dip into the Industrial Revolution for a moment longer because I think that that time represents a critical turning point in the structure of people's living arrangements and sense of community (range 1760's to 1850's) from what it was from human origins. During the industrial revolution, the birth rate increased dramatically as child mortality decreased, and people moved from an an analog agrarian based economy to, well, an industrial based society. Trains moved people easily and they moved moved from their roots to the cities, from the land to the factory and got mixed up. Machines became the new rulers (Ludd, anyone?). During these 100 years, we see the rise of religious fundamentalism, a knee jerk response to the rule of science and technology including Darwin.

Move forward again another 100 years and find ourselves post WW II, the 1950's were times of great industrial 'advancements'. However, religion still ruled as the center of the social world until then. Looking back to a time I didn't know, it seems as if expansion would go forever. Add another decade to the time sequence and we have a restructuring of society, leaving the structures of organized religion, the questioning of social boundaries. I think everything we've been doing over the last 40 years has been a response to this. Social systems were disrupted and never quite put into place. Youth, who used to have an important role in the family are now treated as little emperors while the parent's work is disjointed from home life. And as spoiled as our kids are, their now long and extended childhood is not regarded as having too much contribution toward larger society. There aren't many real rights of passage left except getting a driver's licence. I really see gang activity as the need for youth to have structure, social expectation and to make an impact in the world. Hell, even a dog will get destructive left alone.

What does this have to do with the coming age? Well, people are not wired to be disconnected from families and the land. We don't get to have unlimited expansion in a finite world - the basic math doesn't add up. Whether the Great Change comes at the end of this challenge ;-} or after we're headed down the slippery slope of peak oil, we may just get the opportunity to rework some of those missing connections.

We who connect through these blogs, CSA, permaculture, and all the good work that's going on out there are the ones who are able to lay some foundations for the age to come. It sure won't be those who have laid themselves up in lonely bunkers or those who won't let go of life as we've already known it until it's long gone.

Building community takes risk. It always does. We risk being rejected. We risk getting in with a bunch of nut-cases or hurtful people, we risk being ripped-off. I find that it's easy to find like-minded people here, on the Internet but we're pretty spread out. Depending on your community, it might not be so easy elsewhere. Where I am is an oil boom town and, I feel as if I'm preparing for a hurricane during Marti Gras. I have to find a fine line between self-disclosure and what others are prepared to hear. For those who have a wider base of willing folks are to build community, then provide the platform. What skills to you have to share? What neighbors would be receptive to outreach? What needs do you have? Can you have a dinner cooking group, a bike shop, a took lending group....(keep in mind you too have to be open to receive, else the scales aren't balanced). My garden owners and I had better not talk religion, politics, economics, or ecology, but we know this and have formed a wonderful bond of real concern and regard for the other.

I kind of like where I am but I'd rather not be trying to make community here. I'd rather be living in the community Eric Brende outlined in his book, "Better Off". I'd rather be living with you all as neighbors, separated by little farms. But we likely won't move, we have work and a house and have been building community for a year now. We'll just have to adapt, and build community right here, down town Smalltown, right wing, USA.

The thing is, that building community is every bit as important as building a food store. We humans don't do well without community. One person can't cover every eventuality. At some point we need one another. When resources are limited everyone is better off working together. We're all in this together.

Independence Days Update

2008-10-03T08:18:00.005-06:00

I do update my Independence Days Challenge on Fridays. On that vein, I'll post a modified check in and post my challenge seperately.

In yesterday's mail I received 2 oil lamps from Lemans. Interestingly, they are out of stock on a lot of the lamps - esp. the cheap ones. I havn't been ordering enough to know if this is unusual. I picked up lamp oil at the local True Valu hardware store so as to not pay shipping on such heavy things.

We also got 1/4 of a beef yesterday. Mrs. Neighbor and I went in on a side of beef grown by a friend of hers. As I made dinner last night, I realized everything but the oil in the bottom of the dutch oven was local - and everyting but the beef we'd grown and processed ourselves. That was a fun aha moment. We ate by lamp light.

I was talking with Mrs. Garden about the shock Mrs. Neighbor and I had gotten walking back to the garden and coming across the head of a very large bull elk - big even for an elk - lots of points on the rack. I thought Mrs. neighbor was going to climb me like a tree when she came around the corner and was surprised by that! I don't make much of a hunter, I feel sad when I see the beautiful creatures dead - I don't feel the same about an animal I've raised for it's meat. It turns out the Garden's son got the elk and isn't going to take much home on the plane and they don't want much and so I think we'll recieve a good amount of elk as well! We're a year plus on the meat front and two weeks ago I thought we'd be going without meat (except our chickens) in even of a crisis.

I am drying corn most days a week though I need help with the shucking. Turns out I think I sliced a nerve in my finger when I got the deep cut doing apples and it is still really tender to bumping and pressure and numb in one spot. I'm aiming for a bucket of dried corn and am nearly there. I am putting it in the bucket in storage baggies incase the dehydrating is bad in one batch, it won't spoil all the batches.

Day 8 - a little late

2008-10-01T22:22:00.007-06:00

I didn't like what I'd written for day 8 - it may make a better day 1 so I started over. I guess it's sort of like the House who are going to have to look at that *(&^ bailout again. Maybe I'm glad I don't have a crystal ball - just enjoy today.

Mrs. Neighbor and I made a FINE salsa last night. We also made a pact to sit down with families and Mexican food and margaritas before winter sets in for the next half of the year - we've been spending a lot of time standing beside the sink and in front of the stove this latter summer.

I've had some requests for a garden post and must admit, I'm not sure which end to pick that baby up. There is so much information on gardening all around - including in talking with older folks puttering in their yards nearby. Yes, garden. Please garden. A couple of years ago we had some very lean times and put up a raised bed in a sunny corner of our lawn. We built it with scrap lumber and hauled in manure and dirt. I gardened that 8" x 16" spot in a passionate way, succession planting and intensive planting and we ate from it nearly everyday for 4 months and had a few things lasting longer. A garden saved many a family in the Last Depression. Garden because it connects you to the food that sustains you and roots you to the land that supports you.

I'm hauling the food out of my garden literally by the bucket load. However, the land, the seeds, and the water weren't mine - they belong to a neighbor who is too elderly to do the garden he's always grown and I showed up in time to plant. They want some fresh food for the two of them - we have enough for the entire block grown on that 1/2 acre, and indeed we are feeding many people. I can only hope to be able to garden that ground another year.

You don't have to have a big spot. By now I imagine that everyone is familiar with the Dervaes Family and their inspiring bouny on a regular urban lot. People have also been doing a great deal with container gardening in buckets from bakeries, old tires and raised beds.

I can assume my feeling overwhelmed even talking about gardening is what some folks are feeling about starting gardening. After all there are wonderful materials about forest gardening, permaculture, lasagna, cold frames, no dig, double dig....and guerrilla gardening. I'd say, look at your space: you need sunshine, soil, water, and nutrients.

If you have any question about contaminants in your soil, have it tested. There is a great picture in this month's Mother Earth News about gardens that have been planted year after year in bags of garden soil sliced down the middle. Plant what grows in your area and what you will eat first and store second. Jump in. Start somewhere. Don't be easily discouraged. Talk to old folks puttering in their yards. Only then will you begin to know about your land and ability to grow. You can always get more complicated later, but if you don't start you don't get anywhere.

I have the book Gardening when it counts: gardening in hard times but immediately came on two major road blocks: 1. the fertilizer he recommends has been flat impossible for me to obtain the ingredients - even extending my search area by 150 miles. 2. During the time I was looking for the soil amendments, I realized that the author was giving advice that was contrary to my soil type here and adding what he suggested would have been disastrous. As a beginning gardener, I didn't realize this for a while.

I'll move on to using the book, Four Season Harvest once storing the produce from my current garden is done.

Edit Something I had forgotten in this post is the necessity of storing seed. If we are indeed preparing for an unknown disaster or long-term disruption, it is important to have next year's garden seed in. Order Heirloom seeds for you area and store them as you would store food. We favor the Seed Trust company for seeds.

Day 9 and still counting

2008-09-30T08:16:00.009-06:00

Well, yesterday's stock market dip has got our attention, yes? Things are going to be starting to get a little rough for some folks. While we were in the city, the local radio was saying that the homeless shelter has had a 121% increase in families seeking shelter in July & August.

As important as the economic current events are, I'm still focused on preparing for an event that will significantly impact us where we live. Thank you all for your suggestions for topics including: first aid, gardening, books, and security. My ideas have also included food foraging, games that teach, and old time skills.

With these things in mind, today's topic is First Aid.

Let me start by saying I have no particular expertise in first aid, I'm writing about my life experiences, what my family does to prepare and ideas I've picked up on the internet. I encourage anyone and everyone to take first aid classes and learn about herbal and back-woods alternatives. This is the stuff of volumes of books and can't be covered in a blog post.

I've found that quantity really counts for a lot in home storage of first aid. When you have a serious injury, you don't just need the contents of your first aid kid, you need boxes of stuff to see the process through. For instance DD17 was injured this summer and had 4 incisions that reached into the center of her bone. We were conservative in our use of bandages while keeping everything as clean as possible, we used 5 boxes of 3x3 gauze pads (125 pads), 2 bottles of hydrogen peroxide, and 4 ace type bandages (to keep the hand washing and line drying going). This is the amount used for one injury for one month. That's expensive and the need didn't coincide with our financial ability to buy those things. Of course we bought them anyway and scrimped elsewhere.

Mr. Greenjeans was put in charge of updating the first aid kit recently. He is the one who has been a back country guide and has had advanced first aid. He is not through packing the kit - just out of money. Notice that there are no band-aids in our kit. Building the kit on a budget he says those are just convenience items and we make our own. However last week after a day of picking, hauling, and slicing apples, I cut two fingers very deeply with a sharp knife. I wanted band-aids and didn't want to fiddle with making them. They are on the grocery list.

Mr. Greenjean's First Aid kit beginnings in a little tote box:

A basic first aid book,
waterless hand sanitizer
box of safe skin exam gloves,
bottle of spray hydrogen peroxide
bottle of spray benadryl
aloe vera jell
iodine packets
neosporen
non-stick pads
gauze pads
roll bandage that sticks to itself
medical tape
Artificial tears
medicated tooth ache swabs
tooth repair kit
eye glasses repair kit
thermometer
paint stir sticks (for supporting breaks or sprains)

He wants one of those portable defibrillators that are out now that anyone can buy.

What we will add to this kit:

spray sanitizer
Lysol wipes
tweezers of various lengths and shapes
instant chemical cold pack
"..." hot pack
dry electrolyte packets
pill benadryl
more alcohol or iodine prep pads
scissors
finger size splints
large size splints
clean rags
safety pins
neosporin lip ointment
aspirin, Advil, Motrin
hydrocortozone cream
Antacids
butterfly closures
wound closure bandages
gauze eye patch
large trauma pad
roll gauze
sun screen
crack open bright stick
flashlight
emergency blanket
dedicated fresh water jug
knuckle band aids
a Sawyer Extractor (venom removal)
scalpel
suture kit
eye protection
draw string plastic bags
mouth and nose mask
plastic sheeting to set up quarantine area

Naturally there is a lot more that can be added (back boards?)

On my end of the family, I have been stocking up on aspirin and alternatives when I do food stores. Also, on occasion I've seen a Dr. and been given an Rx for antibiotics that I had no intention of taking because I (rightly) thought them unnecessary. I did fill the Rx and stored the full series. Likewise, we never use all the pain killers in an Rx so that we can save some for when we might need them when no Dr. is available. DD17's orthopedic surgeon thought that she was too nervous and flighty and wrote out an Rx for Valium without asking if we wanted it - yup it got filled and stored. I have some Rx strength salve that numbs the skin. I got this when I was in an office appointment and the rural Doctor (read only doctor in the area) was called out of the office on an emergency. On his way out, he told me the stuff was expensive, scooped some out of his big jug and put it into a little tube and sent me on my way. Medicines can get weird if stored too long or out of temperature range so they have to be managed. You have to be willing to throw them out when they get old. Note that these activities are not recommended by the experts.

I think as important as industrialized medicine is a knowledge of herbs and homeopathy. Years ago we didn't have medical insurance and I took classes in homeopathy from a local midwife. At that time I bought supplies and books and we still use the remedies. In fact DD17 has been left with nerve damage from the wound which we are home treating homeopathically.

I know very little about herbal medicine, but would love to learn. I find it hard to learn on the Internet as I'm such a hands on person, but it can be done. Edit I just noticed that Hen and Harvest has an article on growing medicinal plants. Please go there and read and I will do likewise.

I would also recommend that people learn what the indigenous remedies of the area were as well as food as medicine (limes used liberally over food help prevent food borne illness...)

Naturally, all this takes time to learn and master and there is always more to know. Books are important. I've learned some veterinary skills on the fly in a barn, at night with a lantern and a vet book and a ewe in trouble. I'm looking for first aid classes in my area as well as learning about herbal medicines.

Books on my next to order list are:
Wilderness Medicine, beyond first aid by William Forgey

Where there is no Doctor, by Jane Maxwell

Where there is no dentist
Where there is no veterinarian

OK, long post. Are you still there? What else can you think of for a first aid kit? Do you have a favorite first aid book? What's in your kit?

Day 10 home...

2008-09-29T21:40:00.007-06:00

Well, we have been to 3 of 6 of the corners of our state, and went through two neighboring western states in the process. The trees are in full color - better than they've been in over a decade. That's probably not what you are here to read, but it's important in all times, and maybe especially in hard times to look up and notice the beauty of green trees blushing pink at their tips, or shudders of gold coursing through an aspen grove flanked by the stalwart evergreen of the pines. They smell good too.

Well yes, wow, that was a jaw dropper of a stock drop today. We were actually standing in a vehicle repair shop when we caught the news. We have an old truck and the shocks were spent and we were about to load a 450 lb stove and pipe and bags of stuff from costco and... well there aren't enough hours to do everything yourself. As we drove around getting estimates for repairs at brand name places, I was interested to find that every single tire/repair shop could work on our truck and had plenty of inventory with no waiting.

The reason we had time was that we had left early to get Nee back to school before noon (they are doing a simulation on totalitarian government and she had to show loyalty to the state - she took them home canned food and reported in on her whereabouts on our trip). That meant we had to leave before confirming that our stove had actually arrived for pick-up.

You see we are trying to do business with regular folk and not big business, when we can. So I gave my credit card over the phone to have the stove shipped and the person on the other end. The woman was obviously elderly and mentioned told me her husband had Alzheimer's - which explained a few things from dealing with him on the phone. She and I never arrived anywhere in a conversation in a linear manner (sort of like this post) and such as it was, I never actually got an address as to where I was to pick this stove up.

I called as we were nearing the city and they told me the stove wasn't in yet. Sorry to say, I went into a "deal or no deal - figure this out and make me happy" mode. They said they'd call back but after a few hours,I didn't heard back - nor did they answer the phone. Here they have my credit card number but I didn't have an address, they didn't list an address in the phone book, and after stopping by the public library, their web site really didn't list a physical address either.

Mr. Greenjeans and I began to have one of those moments that couples have when one is thinking the other one just got them ripped off and the one bearing that brunt thinking, "that it's easy to pick when you haven't been doing the research" ... well if you are married, you've been there...um, maybe.

The phone rang.... and our dealers said they'd been at a funeral - and no the stove wasn't in yet. I asked where they were and she instructed men to pick up our own stove pipe from one end of town at a wholesale place and then to come back to them. I asked in my deep and authoritative voice, for the address of their business to which I got a round about answer that the show room was in one place but the warehouse in at... yes I got a physical address.

We found the wholesalers but when we tried to find the business we drove in circles of seedy locations, incurring some looks from people we passed by several times. We went down a side road to a storage locker place - no, they didn't say they were in a storage locker - but they did give a gate code - ans so when I saw a gate and entered the gate code the doors opened (I'm now feeling like I'm living in a computer game). Next we traveled up and down isles until we found a semi-truck unloading stoves. There was our elderly couple with their "home" business out of a storage locker in dress-up funeral clothes. This couple had been in business 50 years - or he had been and she had to take over after he got Alzheimer's . Did I mentioned he had Alzheimer's? She had been running the entire business, except being the folk lifter operator.

Mr Greenjeans took one look at the stove in its crate, measured the crate with a tape and declared that it wasn't going to fit under the shell of the truck -- too tall. Our dealers thought they just needed to load the longer arms on the fork lift. So in the midst of our own marital discussion we find ourselves down in this maze of storage units with Mrs. Owner who ordering her husband, MR. Alsheimers to put on the long forks on the fork lift (yes, he's still the fork lift operator) and I'm lobbying hard to Mr. Greenjeans to not allow them to load the forks that would load our stove through the window of the cab... except that it wouldn't make it through the opening of the gate.

Mr. Greenjeans works a field job and is calmly telling Mrs. Owner to watch her toes as her husband drops the forks and we all watch our heads as Mr. Alzheimer's tools around in his machine with the forks raised. (He doesn't get the drive the car).

Meanwhile we have to figure out how to load stove too heavy to lift sans its crate. Eventually we take the crate apart and strip it down to the last supporting beam and work very closely with our tie-wearing twinkly eyed fork lift operator who gets bored with the operation. But in the end Mr. Alzheimer's picks up the stove and places it light as a feather on the tail gate - though he begins to become confused that the forks wouldn't drop. In the end, Mr. Greenjeans holds the stove in place, instructs us to back off and has the forklift operator back up. The forks clear the tailgate and drop dramatically. We all ask the operator to keep the machine in reverse and breathe a sigh of relief as he goes on his way.

The other people in the area are those who live in the storage units with their remaining material possessions - a car - a basketball hoop, a refrigerator... that brings us around to the broader day's events and our continuing challenge to which I will return to tomorrow but tonight I'm tired.

Days 12, 11, and 10

2008-09-27T07:32:00.004-06:00

On these days I have to be out of town for work and I don't think I'll have internet connection. No, that's not true, on days 12 and 11 I'm working out of town but on day 10 I'm headed for a round trip to the city to pick up our woodstove (Alderlea T-5) and double wall pipes.

Please comment on what you find at yard sales, how your preperations are going and what you would like to see covered in the remaining days.

Think of this as a mid-challenge catch-up but the clock still ticks though we are busy.

Day 13

2008-09-25T19:16:00.006-06:00

Thank you all so much for contributing to the discussions - the contributions are really helpful. Sorry to have skipped a day. Doom will have to wait a day!

I'd like to discuss tools today. I'm covering the kinds of tools that live in the shop, not in the house. Of course tools are expensive and are things that people buy over a life time - not in 15 days and counting. Some are quite specialized and others are just good things that people have for a household. All that said, tools can often be picked up at moving sales and those old junk shops that buy up what folks are selling so if you are out scouring the yard sales of the uninformed, keep an eye out for useful tools.

There will be differing opinions, but I consider guns to be tools. I know how to handle, load, shoot, and clean a wide variety of guns. There is a world of debate about hand guns and assault rifles, and my simple opinion is that those things are for killing people and I'm simply not interested in going there. I think that if need be a person can defend home and property with a hunting rifle or shotgun. Guns as tools put meat on the table, and can put down livestock that is suffering with no vet available, and can be used to defend family and property when all other measures break down. There is a skunk roaming around the back of my chicken coop for the last couple of days and if I wasn't in the city, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot.....from a distance ;-)

As far as other tool go, over the years Mr. Greenjeans has saved us tremendous money, made money in tough times, and helped extended family and friends by having good tools, and the know-how to use them.

Lately I have been buying only hand tools for a power down society(with the exception of a power drill for smaller hands). I know that the tools we have used the most over the last 20 years have been the kind of things in a well stocked tool box: hammers of various sized, various pliers, socket sets, wire cutters, saws as well as a big bag of nails and screws. Other useful tools a long handled ax for splitting logs, shovels (flat and sharp pointed ones), saw horses, a hoe, a 15 lb mallet for breaking up wood, different sizes of ladders, a tamping pole, a crow bar, a clamp, and a fencing tool (to string wire).
One needs specialized tools for livestock, woodworking, gardening, mechanic work... In a power down society, we're going to have to fix things to keep them going. It doesn't mean that everyone has to be an expert in everything, but rather that we ought to be looking to have a backup skill as well as team up with someone who has specialized tools and know-how in an area that isn't our specialty. I can hardly change the tire on my car but I'm quite good at animal husbandry. It is likely that we will all become better at knowing how to fix and maintain things...if you have tools

As a kid I was fascinated with those little hand drills. So fascinated that once while the adults were downstairs having a cocktail party, I was busy drilling holes in the hardwood flooring upstairs of the host's house with one of these hand drills. In spite of the guilt I feel every time I see one of these, I still love this tool. Later my parents said that explained why they'd never heard from that family again...but I digress.

Some of the most beautiful hand tools I've seen lately were in the hardware store in Japan Center of San Francisco. They too were specialized building tools. I do always like the tool options in Leman's catalog

In addition to the hard tools, I'd recommend having on hand lots and lots of tape and glue, paint brushes and scrapers, rope and string of various kinds. I've used Duct tape for as many things as you can imagine, including holding medicated packing into the bottom of a hoof of an extroverted gelding that was as much of a pest as any goat ever thought of being.... and it held. Don't forget a spool of wire, gloves and safety masks. And remember sooner or later everything becomes a hammer.

So, what are your favorite hand tools? What gets a workout and what's on the wish list?

Day 14

2008-09-24T08:36:00.006-06:00

I love Gracie's comments (she has a new blog) in closing yesterday: "I'm sure we've forgotten a whole lot. But we'll get by, we always have." Really, that is the mentality that we must have. Today Gracie has posted about her Grandparents. I think the preparations may be as simple as looking toward how others have done it before us. We don't need the highest tech survival gear (OK, so maybe there is some good stuff out there) but going into a world of lower energy and fewer resources, we perhaps need to consider how our Grands and Great-Grands have done things. Talk to the oldest person you know about the ins and outs of the way things used to be, the frugality, the make do attitude, the ability to repurpose. In the 1970's you couldn't get my Grandparents to take an unnecessary trip in the car. When you went it was with a list and a (mental) map of everything that could be done along the way.

The topic of discussion today is sanitation. In some ways were are overly concerned with cleanliness in our society. Our anti-bacterial handsoaps don't help us out in the long run, and I've never really achieved the kind of focus you seen in ads where you should be able to to eat off the kitchen floor. However there are some things to know if services stop, or if due to hardship you lose your utilities.

Toileting: Mr. Greenjeans used to be a western river guide. In National Parks and permited back country areas one has to pack all human waste. That means making a toilet out of a bucket or an ammo can lined with a black plastic bag with a toilet seat on top. One only uses such a toilet for bowel movements. This must be dumped somewhere such as an RV dump or septic system and is a short term solution that has to be handled. Remember, urine is sterile and is full of plant nitrogen when diluted so that can go around your property. It is bowel movements that cause diseases such as cholera.

Growing up I lived with my Grandparents at a cabin high in the Rocky Mountains (over 10,000 altitude). edit: to clarify we stayed there in the summer but I lived with my parents. We had a wood cook stove like the one that Sharon described so beautifully yesterday. We also had an outhouse. The cabin and outhouse was situatied on top of a hill. The outhouse was a big hole in the ground with two 55 gal drum placed deeply inside and a two seater log outhouse built over the top (I never understood two seaters but that' beside the point). I always checked for spiders sitting down and certainly didn't linger. Grandma fiercly taught me never to walk too closely behind an outhouse incase the earth gave way over the pit. On cool nights they put a bucket with a toilet seat on the porch or even by the wood stove. Periodically they'd put lime or sawdust in the toilet and in theory they had it pumped but I was never there for that.

If one is investing in green technology and long term solutions, there are composting toilets which turns potentially harmful human waste into safe compost. These toilets can be purchased a variety of locations for a pretty good amount of money. However, I was surprised to find a very good article, including DIY composting toilets at Wikipedia. The most indepth discussion of human waste and safely converting it to something inocuous can be found in the book,The Humanure Handbook.

While we are on toilet talk, there is a blog challenge getting underway at Crunchy Chicken's for using cloth TP. The discussion is pretty detailed - I encourage you to go and learn. I switched to the Diva cup for menstration this summer and like it much better than any other product, commercial or otherwise. The girls arn't going there, but I may get a couple for them just incase purchasing power for disposables get severely curtailed. I'll be making cloth TP and setting up smaller buckets as part of my preparations. Really, for those who had had kids in cloth diapers, it's not so much of a stretch. I'm not pushing my family as they are ready to mutany over hitting the 3 month mark on the homemade laundry soap.

I bought the laundry soap suplies and used the recipe from the company, Soaps Gone Buy. I ordered bulk supplies and think I'm good for a year or more. We've made the powdered soap and the problem we are having is that the Fels Naptha was so hard to grate that we ended up using a cheese grater (one bought from a yard sale and dedicated to the purpose). The shreads are too large and don't disolve all the way but Chibi wasn't strong enough for the smaller grate. The family also thinks that things aren't getting clean enough and I've started adding oxyclean to the loads. Next we'll try making the liquid laundry soap and have saved our last bottle from Tide for putting the homemade stuff in. A good discussion on older to ancient soap making can be found here.

As far as garbage is concerned, if you are not buying many things and you are recycling, composting, and reusing things, your garbage is lessened. Paper and gets burned in the wood stove, cardboard composts or can be used in the garden, plastics get eliminated as purchacing goes down. I surely don't throw away my canning jars after opening the food!

I recently stocked up on toothbrushes. I didn't stock up on toothpaste as one can always make toothpowder from baking soda. Yes, toothbrushes can be invented too, but let's allow some time for that.

Remember that Grandparents used to take illness and injury more seriously. They lived in pre-antibiotic days where infection was a serious thing. If you don't want to seek medical care, take care of rashes and simple cuts, wash your hands and take care if you get sick.

It is getting popular to make and use green cleaning products with vinigar and lemon. Look at a few recipees and gather together the ingredients.

Day 15

2008-09-23T07:44:00.009-06:00

Thank you all for your great comments. The ideas are all spot on and very helpful.

Today, is Shelter Day

The first question to ask is how safe are you? Do you live with someone who loses their temper and uses you as a punching bag when stressed? If so, make a plan that includes gathering passport, social security card, birth certificate for you and your dependents and going some place safe - including a shelter. Try and take some personal effects, clothes, blankets... Do not announce your departure, do it quietly. Do not plan on going back to pick up anything precious. Call someone for a ride if you don't have access to a car. This is true anytime.

Next, how safe and secure are your current housing arrangements? If things go bad sooner rather than later, are you going to stay put or go be with others? If you plan on leaving in event of an emergency you might want to be in communication with those to whom you would go. Be prepared to be a good guest. Don't show up empty handed: bring tools, food, bedding, money... Plan on working and being of use. In this case you are not really a house guest, so plan on showering last, smoke outside, clean, help with meals, help with children, and find a project (such as a garden or cold frame) you can work on.

If you are staying put, Sharon Astyk has really covered this with her adapting in place classes. If you haven't already read these posts, click on the link and go read her posts from this summer. Her site has a search button, too. If you have read it great, perhaps look again.....wait, take a pencil and paper with you and take notes about changes you want to make.

In addition to what we have already covered, think about getting: tarps and tie down rope, lots of extra blankets and pillows, extra buckets, warm sweaters, matches, plastic bags, an alternative heating source, alternative toileting, alternative clothes washing, alternative cooking, good walking shoes, and lighting.

One thing is guaranteed, heating prices are going up, and so if you are planning on insulating, pick it up the materials sooner rather than later. If, like us insulation isn't in the budget, plan on ways to be more comfortable and use less energy.

Something that I've read about recently is window quilts - that is curtains made just like quilts for those who can't afford to put up insulated window drapes. Remember old castles hung tapestries on the walls to help with heating, you can similarly hang quilts and tapestries on your walls that have the coldest exposure. It doesn't have to look bad, in fact I have my best quilt hanging as a display. I plan on putting up some antique quilts that I'd rather not use. Unless you have people in every room, plan on closing off part of your house.

In the event that you lose the ability to heat your house and it is very cold, DH and I have talked about shutting off water at the main and opening the faucets to drain into the tubs. This will keep the pipes from breaking, causing water damage later on. Better of course to have alternative heating.

Plan on Alternative Heating according to what's best for your area. I do not recommend grid tied alternatives such as electric space heaters. I have seen a pretty good kerosene heater that sits in the middle of a room - it's kind of smelly but affordable. There are propane heaters for those in low altitudes. Wood stoves are an option for those who can get wood. They of course require installation. Solar is a wonderful option for those who have the money but not something you can put together quickly. Whenever you are heating with an alternative method, be sure you pay attention to fire hazard, burn risk, and especially have adequate ventilation. People die very quickly and quietly from carbon monoxide poisoning.

I have been canning all summer on a camp chef stove. It runs on propane (and I just picked up an extra bottle) and is very sturdy. I use it on the covered porch. We are about half way through building our adobe oven according to these plans from Sunset magazine. Darn, I have misplaced my camara or I'd show a picture of the project.
Our trouble is that we have bought all the firebrick available in our town and the next one down the road. For solar cooking check out Hausfrau's blog as I consider her the queen of sun cooking.

The buckets are for alternative toileting and clothes washing. You may want to pick up a dedicated plunger for washing clothes in a bucket (I'd personally want to know the plunger hadn't last been down the toilet). Tarps are an all around useful thing to have for everything from roof repair to sun shade to covering something you don't want to look at, or have seen, or be rained on. Suffice to say if you need one it's great to have on hand.

There are solar charged lanterns you can buy and Leahman's has a great selection of fuel burning lanterns. A reader recommends www.SundanceSolar.com for solar lanterns, battery chargers... and www.ccrane.com. Great stuff on both sites! Ccrane has an AM FM radio and flashlight that runs on a charge from cranking,solar or USB and will charge a cell phone! They also have a good solar battery charger.

What are your ideas for securing your house? Have you made recent changes for preparedness? Can you think of other ideas? Hit any good yard sales lately?

Countdown: Day 16

2008-09-22T08:26:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I stood in front of my congregation and in the context of a sermon suggested that folks cut back on excess expenditures and that they build home food stores. Yes I said it gently and it didn't hammer it, but I said it in an historic register, main street, main line church. In Utah, people tend to define themselves as not LDS (unless of course they are), and so this suggestion is a button pusher as food storage is seen as a Mormon thing (apologies for any offense to my LDS readers). I say this to emphasize that I'm taking a chance, I am risking censure and putting my neck on the line to encourage people to get their stuff together. I am taking a risk in being called a fool if all is OK and well in the world. But if things get really bad, I want to feel as if I have influenced as many people as I can reach to take care of their families. At the end of the day, everyone has to make their own choices.

The subject today is Food Storage. I think most of the readers here are familiar with food storage either through from Sharon Astyk's Challenge and Book or the Yahoo Groups on Adapting in Place and food storage. She has been encouraging level headed, balanced food storage. This includes buying what you eat and eating what you buy and buying extra each time you shop. For my 21 day challenge I am saying, step. it. up.

If you have not already done so, organize your pantry. I know people organize things differently but I put like things together. It helps me know at a glance what I have and what I have and what I need. Put the heaviest stuff down low and in waterproof containers, and label and DATE things. Around here is stays on the kitchen table until it gets a label. Right now I'm running out of space on the table and we're eating standing around.

I have used the following guides to help me gauge what I need for my family size. I favor this guide because it covers just the basics whereas others get complicated Again only put up what you will eat! I don't cook with soy beans or corn syrup and so I haven't stocked these items other than a bottle of corn syrup that has sat around for years from a pecan pie recipe and some edamine in the freezer. When I went to costco and picked up things to fill in the gaps I used this guide.

Cut and paste: http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm

If you have not been building food stores and need to start with carbs and wholesome grains. I would suggest beans and rice and the means to cook them (I assume you have spices, yes?) From there flour, corn meal, some dried or canned milk, yeast and salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and cooking oil. Add other items you will eat such as cooked cereal and oats. Then add peanut butter, honey, jam, pasta, soup mix, canned fruit and vegies, and canned meat. Pick up powdered drink mix with electrolytes. Then add comfort foods. I have trouble stocking comfort foods as the family gets into them. After my next shopping, I may hide the comfort foods.

Please note: I by far favor a long thought out stocking up of things you will actually use and beginning to adjusting your diet to eating closer to whole foods. We eat beans and home ground grains and fruit from the tree every week, but if you eat a lot of fast food, you have to develop the ability to digest this stuff so start slowly. If you start all at once, you will feel ill. Food storage must be rotated and maintained.

What do plan on cooking in an emergency? OK, make it for dinner this week and see how well you digest it. Don't like it? Don't store it.

Last night Mrs. neighbor asked me if I wanted to go in on a half or whole beef that a friend is slaughtering and selling. I can't afford an entire half (and in the past haven't used a half beef in a year) and I don't have the freezer space so we are going to share a side of beef and they are going elk hunting anyway. They brought over all their year old meat (venison, beef, pork) for us to help them finish before the new comes in.

Fall is when animals are harvested so farmers don't have to winter feed them. This is the best time of year to put up meat.

Also, this is not a big wheat growing area, but someone local is advertising 50 lb. bags of winter, soft or red wheat for about $25, I think. If you have been wanting to buy wheat, look in your classified ads by the livestock and misc or take a drive in the country looking at the signs at the ends of the drives. I make a point to buy directly from the farmer whenever I can - everyone but the middle man does better this way.

Do you have additional suggestions? Did I miss something?
How good to you feel about your food stocks? What are your storing?

I'm off to preserve the harvest!

Day 17 and counting

2008-09-21T05:44:00.007-06:00

Some have mentioned being exhausted by the schedule and wanted a Sunday break. Tough getting ready for a disaster and keeping up the life as it's always been, isn't it? I know I am overwhelmed by the bounty of the harvest. Please take what ever day that you normally rest from your labors and do so. One especially needs to trust in God during the hard times.

If you take Sabbath on Sunday, you might want to look at a couple of videos. The first is about 40 minutes long and is Naomi Wolf, author of "The End of America"
describing her study of the stages of the collapse of societies pay particular attention about 30 minutes into the video and then watch the footage
that I picked up over at the Zahn Zone

Yesterday I picked up another bottle of propane. Since I do my canning outside on the camp chef, the one bottle of propane is always only partially full. I also picked up zip ties in 4", 6", 8", 14", and 36" lengths, dust masks, septic system bio-digester, 100 lbs chicken feed, and a battery charger for AA and AAA and extra D cell batteries. (I looked for a solar charger on line but didn't come up with anything so I covered my bases with batteries.) Chibi and I picked 2 bushels of apples and about 1/3 bushel of pears free from the neighbor's 4 old, large, unsprayed trees.

I was reading in the "Root Cellaring" book about the conditions for storing apples and found that they want a high humidity, low temp. storage. Well, it's not cold enough for that so I've pulled out the nicest apples and put them in the vegetable drawer of the extra fridge. I also put a load of those going in the dehydrator, will juice some, make apple butter, and pie filling to be frozen.

Unfortunately, the 100 lbs of grain is a regular thing with my birds. It is time to start harvesting roosters, but that has to wait until the garden is done. They're OK for now - just eating me out of house and home. I had picked some weeds that had a grain like head and fed them to the chickens to extend the grain. Of course they always get things like downed fruit and vegie peelings, plate scrapings...

Day 18 countdown

2008-09-20T09:13:00.009-06:00

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

OK, so all the markets are on the upswing and we can all go merrily along our way, right? No, I think not. Maybe I'm reading too much doom and gloom on the 'net, but it seems to me that in the last couple of months there have been so many fundamental changes to the market and financial systems in this country that it is no longer the same system. It seems to me that we are seeing ever widening swings of volatility in the markets and the last two days represents an upswing in the wild ride. The huge upswing is not a great thing when it represents ever increasing waves of a storm. However, I am the dead last person to talk financials so I'll leave it at that.

*****Water****** We've already covered the importance of water and I am very pleased that folks are getting water put by. The availability of water is definitely a regional thing. We've always been desert people. I think we have 130gallons put up here, not including rain barrels or hot water heater. Our rain barrels are full but we're not too far from freezing temperatures and then they'll have to get drained. I wouldn't drink the rain barrel water but I wouldn't hesitate to give it to livestock or animals either.

The least expensive, least favorable to the most expensive, best way to clean water:

If you run out of clean water, you can add 14 drops of unscented old fashioned Clorox to a gallon of the cleanest water (qickly moving water across rocks) you can find. This will not do anything for contamination by fertilizers, pesticides, heavy metals... it only kills the organic creatures that will set up havoc in your gut. If you have plenty of fuel or energy, you can boil water for 20 minutes, the higher the altitude, the longer the boil.

I think it is far better to filter your water. Instructions for a least expensive route to a water filtration is found here here. You can buy these filters here. I think it's worth printing the instruction sheet.

Were I to come into money or If there is enough time to prepare, I would like a Berkey Water Filtration system. The one in the picture is plastic but they do come in all stainless as well. These are the systems used by mission and red cross societies around the world and have independent ANSI/BSI laboratory testing. You can also buy them through the Leaman's catalog.

Maybe it is because when we lived in Moab, we would lear of several tourist deaths a year from of lack of water; or maybe it is because as a VERY Young adult, I drank directly from a quickly moving stream (as I had done successfully as a child) and ended up hospitalized and more miserably sick than I've ever been in my life; or maybe it is because 88% of deaths in the developing world are caused by water borne illness that I want to stress the importance of access to clean and available water.

Please, feel good about the steps you are taking to protect your family. None of us will do it all right, but by spending this time investing in thinking and preparing we will be as well prepared as is possible!

Day 19 of the countdown challenge

2008-09-19T18:49:00.008-06:00

Did you identify your Achilles heal? Have you completed your home evaluation in the nine areas?

I made a list of the things that people have mentioned that they needed to help shore up their preparedness - given a short and definite time frame. I hope this will help jog ideas where maybe you too can strengthen your readiness - I know reading your comments has helped me remember things.

Keep in mind, you may need to acquire some of the parts, but you don't have to fix it all now. For instance if you by the stove pipe, or the makings for window covering and are suddenly without work, or all travel is cut short, you can work on the projects... as long as you have bought the necessary parts. If there is no crisis, you can work on projects as time allows this winter.

Water: containers, or pre-packaged water, filter, or filtration system

Food: Meats, vegies, flour, beans, brown rice, corn meal, potatoes, dry soup mix, honey, evaporated milk, comfort foods, salt, oil, honey, spices
Livestock and pet food.

Alternative cooking: fire brick and adobe, solar oven, or camp propane oven

Sanitation: dental floss, tooth brushes, soap, first aid, unscented Clorox, iodine, vinegar, moist towelettes, septic system waste break down stuff.

Fuel or energy: stored gasoline, wood, propane, solar charger, batteries,

Shelter: stove, stove pipe, base for wood stove, window coverings, bubble insulation, blankets, larger clothes for growing children,

Tools: chainsaw and sharpener, ammo, belt for treadle machine, non-electric radio, lantern, flashlight, duct tape, plastic zip ties, dust masks,

Evacuation Evacuation backpacks for everyone in the household.

Cash

Let me say a few words about some of the items. Vinegar is an acid, a cleaner, food preservative and can be used to treat sunburn. It's a good thing to have in a pinch. The same goes for baking soda - there are lots of uses.

Also, while I don't use moist towelettes, but they're on the list because if you are budgeting one gallon of water per day per person, you're not leaving much for sanitation. The towelettes can be put aside as an alternative to washing.

I'm thinking for the next few days I'll go through one topic each day but break sanitation into a couple of categories.

Challenge Day 20

2008-09-17T19:52:00.007-06:00

Yesterday, Russian markets stopped trading for a second day after emergency funding measures by the government failed to halt the biggest stock rout since the country’s debt default and currency devaluation a decade ago. They are opened today but not for stocks.

This image is taken from MSNBC from the US Stock Exchange yesterday.

This day 20 of a 21 day count down to basic disaster preparedness. We are looking at how to prepare for an event lasting at least 6 months with a finite time to prepare. (Figure most disasters don't give 21 days advance notice). I have no particular expertise but together I bet we have a lot of creative ideas.

We're starting with water because it is a non-negotiable. I took my LE biology credits in a course called 'survival biology' where the instructor said that no food for 30 days was an involuntary fast(there are plenty of exceptions) but you don't survive 3 days without water (or even one day exerting yourself in a hot, dry climate). So, fill containers, and in a pinch remember the hot water heater contains potable water as does the tank on the toilet. Right now, you have time to mail order barrels suited for water storage of tap water and rain barrels. We'll come back to water after the household evaluation.

I'm assuming anyone reading has been doing some preparations all along. So now take the time to evaluate your household according to categories. Look at what you have so far. In doing so, put on an analytical mind and check emotions at the door. This is no time to get overwhelmed or depressed. Be an evaluator with a check sheet and a critical (does not mean judgmental) eye. You are looking not so much to inventory (time issue) but to see what you need to do next. Write down where the basics that need covering.

Evaluate your Household:

Water - Do you have stored water, the means to access more water, the means to purify water that has been wild caught. As crucial as water is, water born illness will take you out fast.

Food - I'm assuming that readers here have been working on food storage. Mostly we work on storing what you eat and eating what you store. We aim for balance. But right now, focus not so much on perfection but on six months supply to fill your bellies with energy giving food. Think of things like beans, rice, the means to make bread, cooking oil and salt. Put up what you and livestock can't live without. If you have that, then begin to evaluate your nutritional balance, comfort foods, pet food, protein, fruits and veggies. Begin to fill in the holes. Store water specifically for preparation of dry foods - it takes a lot. Remember dogs evolved with humans because of similar nutritional needs and commercial dog food is an institution of the 20th century. They need more fat and calcium for an optimal diet.

Shelter Again, most who are reading this have a place to live and are in the U.S. Do you have winter blankets, an alternative heat source such as wood stove and wood, electric heat and solar power, kerosene heater and kerosene, room to take in others, extra towels and linens, window covers? Coats and boots and clothes for those who are still growing? What practical tools do you need? What can you share with those nearby?

Fuel This is alternative means of cooking, propane, kerosene,solar (if you can afford it), lighting for the darkest days of the year, extra gas for emergency transportation or for generator.

Sanitation A friend who worked as an ER nurse in the Appalachian region told me one time that most of what they saw could have been prevented by good hygiene. Have enough water that you can wash cuts and take sponge baths. Take care of little cuts, don't let your skin crack, take care of your teeth. Have the means to remove toilet waste, to wash clothes, to brush your teeth, stock up on soap homemade versions. If the worst comes, don't get complacent.

First Aid and Medication Stock the first aid, learn alternative remedies, get your medication filled and squirrel away what you can. Some Drs. are very sympathetic to third world travel (and we're traveling there).

Cash and barter goods Be frugal starting this instant - stash cash in small bills, don't run the bank but begin easing some cash out. However if money were to be too devaluated, turn your money into goods and consider in bad times what others may crave may have high value to them. Figure ways to find money, now.

Diversions and celebratory There is no point in being fed and secure if you lose your mind. All societies celebrate, so don't forget to. Have books, puzzles, games, cards, the means to listen to or to create music (solar ipod charger or crank Victrola), sewing and handiwork. I bought baking supplies because if the holidays are bleak in America, home made treats will be very welcomed.

Evacuation If things are bad all over, generally folks will be safest staying put. However if a disaster is happening where you live, have a bug out bag, the camping supplies in one spot, and know what food to grab.

So, how did it go? Did you look in the closets and the garage and the cupboard? Do you know what you have? Were there any surprises? What have you remedied since yesterday?

We bought gas cans and gas, filled a 50 gal water barrel, bought all the fire bricks in two towns and need 28 more for our adobe oven, and then canned peaches. Canning is time intensive but picking up a case of peaches at the store doesn't take much time at all.

Mr. Greenjeans noted that there were no red gas cans in town. He had to get a kerosene can and write on it.

The 21 Day Challenge Starts Now!

2008-09-17T08:57:00.009-06:00

There were great comments yesterday.
Beginning today I am hosting a 21 day challenge. Frau has dubbed the idea behind it as "the ticking time bomb" scenario.

The idea is this: You have received an insider's tip that there is 21 days until TSHTF and all will be in turmoil for 6 months. Now you do not know the exact nature of the urgency but assume the source of the tip has a history of accurate predictions and isn't a total crackpot. As to the nature of the event to prepare for, assume that it is a combination of financial collapse, weather, and military (or science gone wrong).

If you are in, you want to plan for a convergence of worst case scenarios. Remember, it may be several things coming together and your goal is to be ready to take it as it comes. Plan on a disruption of transportation, communication and infrastructure and the resulting chaos (including large amounts of dead).

Please note: only God knows the future, no human can say what will happen. Therefore you do not be concerned with whether this is real or an exercise in preparadness. If something were to happen you would be better prepared, if the only thing that happens in three weeks is that the leaves change color in VT, then you will be on target for an emergency another time. I assume anyone reading this blog is a preparer anyway. Sorry, no cute little banner - there's no time for that!

Remember, we are all operating in an imperfect world - I planned on taking time off work to preserve the harvest and order my house. But by Monday evening I learned of a large funeral I had to do on Friday, my assistant is in the hospital, and and my cat came home injured and needing a vet this morning. We all have to go to work, add financial constraints and family issues and you have the real world. But that doesn't change the deadline. Tick Tock

If you are still with me, inventory your preparations and begin to prioritize what is the most critical. To get you started, I would say that the most critical element is water - you should have some stored no matter where you live - more if you don't have access to a natural source and a filter. Think it through: If you have a well, does it require electricity and do you have a back-up? You can get 'gerry' cans at any camping supply store and larger tanks at feed stores or industrial supply stores.

Since the comments yesterday, what are your priorities? Are you equally prepared along all fronts or are there gaps in your preparations?

Is this a joke or what?

2008-09-16T07:48:00.005-06:00

There is a joke where various ministers of different denominations get asked what passage they'd preach on if they knew it was the last time they'd preach. The joke predates the Last Lecture.

What is happening in the economy and the world is no joke. I'm no fortune teller, but there are those who have a pretty good knack for looking ahead and they see much worse times to come - this fall. Personally, I'm looking around at my homestead and trying to evaluate what I can do RIGHT NOW to shore things up. My biggest worry is heating as there are no wood stoves for sale and it get seriously cold without relief for months straight.

Yesterday I took Nee back to school. Her ride back flaked on us and so we got up at 4:00 a.m. and tried (unsuccessfully) to make the first bell. I went on to a quilt store (hey, it's nippy out there) and splurged on enough flannel for a quilt top and then went on to costco. I had looked at my pantry the evening before and tried to pick up missing items. I couldn't bring myself to buy their bread flour, so I'll have to run around and find some good white flour at the store. I buy white flour to give the homeground grain a little lightness. I bought only basics, loaded the cart, checked out, loaded the car, and went back for dog and cat fod and TP.

Today or tomorrow I'm buying gas cans and enough gas to get me to the city and get Nee if TSHTF.

So the question is this: if you had only a month (or less) to get your household as secure as possible, what would you do? What's keeping you from doing it? What can you do to get over that hurtle?

Independence Days #16

2008-09-12T13:39:00.001-06:00

Independence Days - the overwhelmed edition.

1. Plant - no

2. Harvest: Corn, Green beans, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, basil, Tomatoes, Chilies.

3. Preserved: I dried however many dozen ears of cut sweet corn to fill a 1/2 gal jar. This was after the canned corn experiment. Froze. 8 quart baggies of fresh blanched corr.
Froze 5 packages of 5 cups each of sliced peaches for pies or other winter treats.
Canned a couple more Qts. of slowly ripening pears.
Froze 3 Qt. baggies with mixed peppers roasted on the grill
Canned 5 Quts. of Tomato sauce
Canned 2 Qts of "Adobe Souse" (grilled tomatoes, grilled peppers, grilled onions with fresh tomatoes, a few apricots) It is muddy colored and made with what seemed right at the time - and boy is it good!

4. Prepped - I don't this so the week is a blur.
5. Managed Reserves - Mr. Greenjeans took apart our industrial and computerized water heater at the parish house only to find some joker had turned off the gas at the main. Grrr.

We're having the year's big fundraising event at the church - the annual Oktoberfest with beer, brats, sauerkraut, life music, and raffles. There is a real nip in the air.

The good news is NEE IS HOME. The bad news: Nee is home by way of the ER (3 in 3 months). She was stung by a very aggressive bee at school, had an allergic reaction (we didn't know she was allergic to bees but this may have been a different kind). I ran into the city - a 3 1/2 hour drive each way - gathered her, filled her RX for prednasone, and drove home in the dark encountering a spot of 4" of snow on the road and cars off the road in the canyons.

This week I've fallnd down on management because we aren't getting these given away, managed quite fast enough and the chickens are eating things people should eat.

6. Cook something new - the dehydrating was new to me. I also combined the left overs of the green beans and ham, with the corn that didn't all fit into a package with the left over tomato sauce, cooked some rice and put it together and it was like magic! Ummmm good.

7. I haven't really worked on local food systems - just the Oktoberfest for tomorrow. And helped with community by being there for the neighbor to watch the toddler in the night as they went to the hospital.

A lawn mower as tselem* for community

2008-09-09T11:04:00.009-06:00

When we went to graduate school, we closed down a small farm and sold most things off and fit our family of four + dogs and cats into a one way self-move. We traveled over a thousand miles to where we would live on a University campus for three years. (Note part of my decision to go to school where I did was that there were no pet restrictions - and I was fortunate to get into such a good school. Now that's what I call a good fit.)

At first we had asked for the smallest 3 bedroom place available but later realized that we had limits on how small a place we could live in very close proxmity to neighbors (under 900 sq ft). So after a few months we got a small cottage on campus where we would have our own yard. The university of course expected us to mow the lawns of the yard - as they did other families.

Very few people had fit a mower in with the self-move to university housing and none of us had money to go and buy one but after a while we learned about the community mower. This mower was housed with one family in one place and returned there when done. There was an informal word of mouth system to accessing it which included Jr. professors and such. As our first year ended, we were asked to house the mower becaue we had a shed with no doors. We found someone to take it when we left. The thing was an old beater and anyone who used it was also expected to work on it, as able.

I had always had an interest in community and I have thought of this mower while reading Sharon's Adapting in Place posts. This mower came to represent for me the way of life that is possible in intentional community. When you have community in this way the gross comsumption of everyone owning one of everything is short circuted.

Forming community is always intentional. If you are doing this with carpooling with co-workers or setting limits on the inlaw on the couch (a Sharon thing) you deliberately are working things out. Do you have things you share with other people? How far are people willing to take this concept?

*tselem is Hebrew for likeness or image where one thing comes to represent another.

"It's Time"

2008-09-06T09:51:00.005-06:00

I got a phone call last night at 12:30 from Mrs. Neighbor who said, "It's time". Me sound asleep said, "time for what?" She: "The baby's coming." THAT got me fully awake. Remind me next time I'm on baby watch to wear cute PJs and not some old T-shirt that I'd have to scoot home in in the daylight.

The drill was this: if it were daytime, I would drive her to the hospital and take toddlergirl with me. At night I was to go and sleep on their couch and be there when toddlergirl woke up. I have toddlergirl at the house right now. We've eaten pancakes and watching some "Incredibles". 45 minutes ago I heard from Mr. Neighbor that they were breaking Mrs's water. I'm thinking she may be delivering right about now.

Welcome to earth Babyneighbor.

Edit - I posted this first at 9:51 and Babyneighbor's birth time was 9:57.

bb, nbt5gv huy;;k,mn m njm ffvrdvrv5v tnyhjhhhvvb (toddlergir'l first blog post)

Independence Days #15

2008-09-05T11:45:00.005-06:00

I think this will be an abreviated Independence Days update because of all the produce that is coming in at the same time. My hands and arms are sore for all the picking, processing and canning and the house is a disaster area due to all free time devoted to produce.

The garden is giving its all in watermellons, squash, tomatoes, peppers, corn, cucumbers,dill, basil, cantelope, brocholli, celary, and the everyready green bean (I swear I can pick a row and when I get to the bottom the top has grown out again).

I havn't planted a fall garden. I'm so overwhelmed with the current garden. Besides,the weeds would have to be taken care of to plant - ugg.

We are harvesting as fast as we can get it preserved.

Preserving this week includes: Canning 6 more Qts of those pears that ripen on their own sweet time. They drive me nuts because out of an entire bussel I can't get enough to fill a canner load at a time.

Mrs. Neighbor and I canned 32 1/2 pints and pints of hot pepper jelly. It is a beautiful translucent green with flecks of red habinero suspended in it. We got going on making jam with a little of this recipe and a little of that and ran out of jars. Mr. Greenjeans made a late night jar run for us but the town was sold out of 1/2 pints (he went to the only 3 stores open) and he came home with 3doz. pints - gotta love that man. Mrs. Neighbor sent me some apricot jam...er syrup made with less sugar.

Mrs. Nieghbor also wanted pickled peppers by the quart. So, we canned 12 Quarts of pickled peppers - I kept two, and sent the others along with the pregnant lady.

Canned 7 pints of creamed corn - what a dissapointing thing that is: take beautiful corn fresh from the garden (that color of yellow is the most beautiful color in the world) shuck, cut, scrape and parboil it. Put it into little jars and pressure can it silly, take it out and it looks and smells like its been sitting in a cafeteria line since morning. Yuck!

We picked the last of Mr & Mrs. Garden's peach tree. They just took a few pieces of fruit to eat fresh. Chibi made 5 peach pies, one for the Mrs. neighbor's family, one for the Garden's, one for us, one for the church pot luck, and one for a family who is out of work due to disabilitiy and illness. I made peach jam with the left over peaches, canned some peaches and took 4 jars to the Garden's with some jars of dilly beans. They sent me home with current jelly...er syrup from bushes they picked "up on the mount'en".

Likely I did something with beans - pressure canned? I've lost track. Edit I made ham hocks and beans into a doz. quart jars in the freezer.

We picked some of everything in the garden to go to that family who is out of work and laid up. Some of everything turned into a giant box of fresh produce (Mr. Greenjeans had to carry it). They insisted we take their first and only squash their garden had produced. I know that it is just as important to recieve what others have to offer and took that precious fruit to my heart.

The only organized clean spot in my house is the pantry. I keep rearranging the shelves shifting things to and fro. Actually swept the floor where I'd spilled rice and where the dog hair didn't need to be stored.

Well, it doesn't sound like much but I'm off to do more of it. I'm also keeping the car filled on fuel as I am the ride of choice to the delivery room when Mr. Neighbor is at work.

Frost Advisory

2008-09-03T07:20:00.002-06:00

The last two nights have been in the low 40's - it's hard to imagine since it came on so fast, directly following such hot days. I hear it's supposed to warm back up again - just a little warning that winter is not far off. Yesterday at lunch I came home and put on a vest for warmth.

I haven't been so sorry to see summer go since I was a child. I get a little weary of the every night canning sessions after a day in the office, but this taste of a winter to come has renewed my resolve to keep canning because one day it will all freeze.

Last winter was my first here - and the coldest winter of my life. It froze the pumpkins to the ground on Halloween and the daily highs stayed below freezing everyday until sometime in April and even then it wasn't exactly balmy. So, in the afternoons I soak in the day's rays, missing them before they are even gone.

Conversations with my Senior

2008-08-30T11:13:00.004-06:00

At church, there is an older woman (heck she's 85) who was born on a farm in Great Britten. She is very bright, well traveled, and has a good sense about her. She was the oldest child of the home when war time came to England. She loves to tell stories about her life. She talks without exaggeration but with a twinkle in her eye and smiles and laughs at her own memories, and I love listening.

She has many stories of old farm life, the cows and chickens, the milk seperating and the egg collecting. Recently she talked about her father being allowed to own one gun because he was a farmer. But when a fox killed all of the laying hens and was trapped in the hen house, he couldn't bring himself to shoot it and the mailman had to do it when he came by.

They lived in the country and when the cities were being bombed in WWII, extended family came to stay. They didn't have running water or electricity in the old farmhouse and they had many, many people to feed and bathe that exceptionally wet and cold winter. I get the feeling that this was a difficult time, though she never has a disparaging word to say, only occasionally pulling a face and saying that she was fortunate to be able to get outside and help with the chores. Everyone else was too old or too young to be of good use and there was no place for the frivolity of playing outside. Getting unnecessarily cold and wet was dangerous and the people were packed inside the house so tightly that there was little room to hang clothes to dry. Washing clothes was an unpleasent all day project and the drying items hung in every available space, draped over the furnerature, and were rotated in front of the fireplace so they'd get dry enough to put away. She didn't go into details about toileting but had a roll of the eyes.

She talked with excitement about when after the war they put in a flush toilet and running water and what a boon to their lives that was. Then she said something unsolicited that has really hung with me. She said that if one ever had to make the choice between running water and electricity, that running water was by far the more important thing. Somehow that seems like a pearl of wisdom from someone who lived during the time prior to the utilities we so take for granted and for whom many may go without this winter.

A couple of months ago I sat with this woman for several dark hours as she was having a heart attack. Her skin was grey and eyes glazed. I remember how sad I was to think of her not being around anymore. When the helicopter crew finally arrived to take her to hospital in the city we loaded her into the flying ambulance and said a prayer for the crew and their patient and they left with great gushing of wind and disappeared into the night sky. There was such silence for many weeks. I am happy that this strong, resilient woman is back to tell stories again. I'm not through learning from her.

Independence Days #14

2008-08-29T13:53:00.002-06:00

I'm glad for this challenge because right now I might forget to blog.

1. Plant Something - Nada
2. Harvest Something - Did I mention the beans have been a success? ...so much so that I've picked twice a day sometimes. I don't know how many beans we need but I may give up processing beans and focus on giving them away.
Add corn, tomatoes, cucumbers (I am so done with cucumbers), watermelon, spaghetti squash, peaches, plumbs, pears, basil, peppers, and dill.

3. Preserve Something - 12 quarts of green beans, likely another 14 pints of dilly beans, 12 1/2 pints of plumb jam, 7 quarts of peaches, and dehydrated apricots.
1 Kitten - Oh not, that's not canned kitten, we preserved the life of a kitten that had taken up residence in the corn and way crying and wailing from hunger. The girls fed and watered it until Mrs. Neighbor caught it and talked her hubby into keeping it. (Hey we took in the last stray and she had one cat die this year).

4. Prep Something - Took Nee to school in the city - bought her books and bus tokens. Wow, this is tough without my chatterbox around - I've always been so busy parenting I've never given much thought to when they start to leave the nest.

While in the city, renewed the Costco membership and came home with TP, canned milk, dog food, butter, and 50 lbs of sugar.

5. Manage reserves: While I was away, the beans got awfully big and so I sorted out those and am cooking them with ham hocks right now (no good ham bone available).

6. Cook something (new) - nothing new but it was fun to be able to make Nee's (and all of our) favorite food - Pesto for her going away meal.

7. Work on local food systems: gave beans to the water master, sent Nee to school with two cases of dilly beans (she loves them) and dried apricots. Accepted food from Mrs. Neighbor last night when Chibi and I dragged home after irrigating (Mr. Greenjeans is working extra these days).

8. Learn something new: I learned to pressure can!! This is a big deal. My mother was afraid of pressure cooking and Mr. Greenjeans has memories of the pressure cooker spewing food all over the ceiling. I read the book and we sat and watched and timed everything. As long as I don't get distracted this will be good.

Independence Days #13

2008-08-22T08:56:00.003-06:00

This last week or so has been marked by the bounty of the harvest time.

1. Plant Something - no, got my hands full.

2. Harvest Something: Now we're talking - 2 bushels of green beans, 1/4 bushel yellow wax beans, peppers, the first tomatoes, cucumbers and more cucumbers, a head of broccoli, dill, celery, plumbs, peaches, pears...tried the watermelon but it wasn't quite done. Lord have mercy when the corn and tomatoes come on.

3. Preserve Something: 35 pints and 28 quarts of Dilly beans (1/2 the quarts go to Mrs. Neighbor), 21 half pints of pepper jelly, 1 gallon bag of dried apricots (I think the kids have eaten half already).

The kids are eating fruit by the fist fulls, I actually bought a 1/2 bushel of peaches for canning and the family has eaten half out of the box. Pears are picked green and ripen on their own - this keeps them from getting stringy and grainy so they are ripening in the kitchen. Yellow wax beans are waiting for preserving.

4. Prep. Something We are getting ready to take Nee to high school in the city. We've found a host family in a high tax neighborhood (read more taxes to support better high school). They have an extra room or two and the willingness to take her in so she can take the math and science that is not taught in rural areas. Now what children are being left behind, Mr. Bush? The best students in the nation, all students who are not in wealthy neighborhoods, that's who. I'm dealing with it but I'm sad and angry to see my high school senior have to live hundreds of miles from home. She's gotten her external hardware out of her broken arm but that leaves essentially a new break to deal with.

Bought some extra canning lids while they were on special price.
School shopping out of town.
bought more good salt on sale

5. Manage Reserves I think at this time of the year that focus is on making sure the bounty is not wasted and is properly stored or given away fresh.
Realized that we have used 4 gallons of vinigar in one week and that I'd better have plenty of vinigar in food stores.
Began food storage inventory sheet - more on that later.

6. Cook Something new: No, just focusing on preserving now - though I did have to experiment with the apricots and find a way to preserve them a little in sugar and lemon rather than strait from the tree to the dehydrator (sans pits).

7. Work on local food systems: What a joy it is to can your buns off with someone else. Mrs Neighbor and I canned beans until 1:00 in the morning and quit because the vinegar ran out. She has picked up cloth bags to use at the grocery (yea), and is leaning to can and has plans for a grain mill. I have encouraged her to use mine - that we don't all have to own everything but oh well one more person buying canners and such means one more person who can take care of self and others.

I'm giving 10% of preserved food to land owners and any fresh that they want. Gave a whole grocery store bag (yes they do creep in) full of fresh green beans to the irrigation master as his wife asked for them.

8. Learn something new: I feel as though I am but can't say what exactly.

Oh I've got beans in my ears

2008-08-21T08:22:00.002-06:00

And there's still a row waiting to be picked.
These all went to Dilly beans with Mrs. Neighbor last night.

Canning my Buns Off

2008-08-19T13:48:00.002-06:00

Hey you all, the garden is producing like mad and so are the local fruit trees - peaches, pears and apples.

I'm getting the kids ready for School (including one boarding out of town).

I've taken on seeing an incarcerated kid 3 times a week.

So, I may post as inspired, but right now I feel I might expire.

Free Use Canning Labels

2008-08-16T20:25:00.003-06:00

You may notice there are canning labels on the side bar here. These were created for me by my oldest starting last year. She does them in layers in adobe - I'm in awe.

She has posted them here in case anyone else would like to use them. You only need to cut and paste to word, how many you fit to a sheet depends on your printer. On mine, she puts my name and the date but you may even hand write that on yours.

I put them on the jars with clear packing tape and they come off easily with no uber sticky glue left on the jar.

I'm crazy about them - but I'm crazy about that kid, too. Besides I used to label with masking tape and a sharpie.

Beans Galore

2008-08-15T19:46:00.006-06:00

While we were away the neighbors picked and ate all the beans they could. Yesterday we picked about a 1/2 Bu.

Nee: Mom, what are we ever going to do with all these beans?
Me: What do you mean, I always can this many beans.
Nee: Every thrid day?
Me: Oh, I see what you mean

Nee: I think your are trying to feed a village beans and corn.

The photo was taken after giving a good amount to the fellow who helps with irrigation. I call the picture, "Berner with Beans"

The beans magically turned into 35 pints (amount corrected)of Dilly Beans - OK I worked through the night canning.

Home!

2008-08-13T09:12:00.003-06:00

We are home again after a charmed vacation. It was everything we could have hoped for and more. I love my quiet home in small town in the middle of nowhere but I do love getting out to the excitement of the city, too. At first the girls were afraid of the city and had to be coaxed out of the room (their first trip to a BIG city) but by the end of the week were right there figuring out the best routes on public transit and moving with the flow on the city streets.

Now it's catch-up time as the busy time of year is here.

Independence Days #12

2008-08-06T08:17:00.013-06:00

I'm posting my Independence Days early this week as we leave in the morning for San Francisco.

BTW, here is an "after" shot of the pretty bread and jam from my previous post (after the family got their hands on warm bread and fresh jam):

1. Plant Something: nope

2. Harvest Something: copious amounts of pickling cucumbers, the first slicing cucumbers, the first tomato, the first green beans, pecks of peppers, and apricots.

3. Preserve Something: Mrs. Neighbor and I canned 11 jars of pickled peppers (the long yellow kind) and roasted chilies over a wood fire for later salsa - all cooked it went into a 1/2 gal bag in the freezer.
Put up 2 half gallon jars of lacto fermenting kosher style pickles.

Next day: two loaves of bread, and bought raspberries on sale at the grocery to make 14 1/2 pints of jam for Mr. Greenjeans.

Next day: 9 1/2 pints of Pepper Jelly. I put what I thought were 2 habeneros in the mountain of peppers but it doesn't seem to have any heat. (Turns out the peppers were poblano or pimento - now I'm afraid all the hot peppers died). I'll let the Santa Fe peppers develop more next time see if we can't get some heat into them.

Next day: Borrowed Mrs. Neighbor's food dehydrator and put in a load of apricots.

4. Prep Something: Have really weeded a lot in the garden (don't worry there's still of weeds plenty left - no manicured garden here). Here's some before and after photos from the green bean makeover. Thre are three rows of different varieties of green beans:
Before:
After
Interestingly, the beans with the holes in the rows are an heirloom yellow wax bean.

Mr. Greenjeans cleaned in the shop and I cleaned in the garage (lots of moving mess left over). Like the weeding, there is more to do there too.

Mr. Greenjeans developed a way to get the fruit out of the top of the apricot tree. He has a 16' extension pole that he taped an small plastic bucket to. When we climb a 12 step ladder and rattle a branch with ripe fruit on it, we catch most of the fruit in the bucket.

5. Manage Reserves: I have to say we had decided that the jam that I made with splenda a few years ago wasn't safe to eat. I don't know if that's true but I didn't want to be the family that made the news as a cautionary tale. I put the contents of two dozen jars of jam into the compost and the jars into the dishwasher. I could use the jars anyway.

Nee made labels for all the preserves for me and put them on. She started doing beautiful labels for me last year using layers in adobe photoshop. We put them on clear packing tape and stick them on the jars. They don't leave a gooey mess on the jar when the label comes off. We've talked about posting the labels on the blog so everyone who wants to use them can.

6. Cook Something New: Everything I preserved this week was new to me. I had actually not made apricot cobbler before.

7. Learn something new: The lactofermenting is completely new concept to me. I'm still trying to understand it and giving it a whirl.

It is Vacation Time!

2008-08-03T16:10:00.012-06:00

Yeah! I am officially on vacation for 10 days!

I have three days at home to can and preserve whatever bounty the garden provides, clean, tie up loose ends and pack for our trip. Not only that but Mr. Greenjeans is on vacation too! (Him to me: don't work me too hard.) I tend to always have more plans than time but it will be good.

Here are some garden shots: Some of the corn
Tomatoes, Peppers, Brussels Sprouts. (Yes, the Tomatoes are caged but they need fences and they were planted a couple of feet apart but have grown together into one big massive tomatoe tangle).

One of the baby Watermelon

Here are some of the projects. The picture was taken before I made pepper jelly and the apricot cobbler. Also not pictured are the fermenting kosher dills.

Raspberry Jam in a Jam Pot my MIL brought to me from England years ago.

A Blog Award!

2008-08-02T10:18:00.004-06:00

Thank you Rob for the award! (I saw your post before I even received official notification!)

1.The winner can put the logo on her/his blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 5 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you’ve nominated
6. Bonus points, list 5 random things about yourself that we might not pick up from your blog.

So, I nominate:

1. Lisa and her new urban homestead chickens for her generous sharing of her herbalist knowledge.
2. Caroline at Goldenacreliveson for her wonderful garden post and practical ho-to's
3. April at My Grandma was Green for a really great spin on the greening, simplicity movement. My Grandparents were so important to me and I feel as thought this honors Grands.
4. Ilex who homesteads in a condo for being one of the blogs I've read the longest, who show what you can do with limited space and her views on the world.
5. Wendy? at Home Is... a cool blog I've recently found and started reading. The pictures have me wanting to move to Maine.

The Bonus 5 things about me (I took the liberty of shortening this list).

1. You may be able to gather bits an pieces about our critter from my blog, but we have 4 dogs: A Bernese Mountain Dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, A Border Collie, and a Golden Retriever. All are rescue dogs from various organizations, the best of which is Bernese Auction Rescue Coalition. We also have 3 cats: a Pixie Bob, and two black and white "tuxedo cats" (two rescues). We have 26 chickens (numbers to be reduced upon crowing) and a bunny.

2. As a child I worked for a week for a circus and when the circus left town my parents came early to pick me up to be sure I didn't leave town with the circus.

3. I've never been off the North American Continent (unless the blogger Cruise counts as out to sea).

4. I quilt in the winter the way I garden and can in the spring and summer (future blog posts, to be sure).

5. I own a Yamaha V Star 650 that I've been too busy to get out of storage from our move.

One More Reason Walmart is Objectionable

2008-08-01T09:49:00.005-06:00

Yea, I occasionally shop Walmart - I've mentioned that good alternatives are over 100 miles away (more in the winter or spring when the pass is closed).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25967103/

However, I again renew my pledge to avoid spending any money there. I will pay higher prices in a strapped economy to not support their exploitative ways.

edit: Is anyone willing to design a Democrats boycott walmart button?

Independence Days #11

2008-08-01T08:45:00.001-06:00

The harvest is just beginning here and I suspect it will be can your buns off through September now.

1. Plant Something: Nope

2. Harvest Something: The neighbors were letting their raspberries die on the bush so I couldn't stand it any longer and picked one and half cups which I made into 1/2 pt. of Mr. Greenjeans favorite jam.

Harvested several pounds pickling cucumbers (and dill and peppers) and made 14 1/2 pts of spicy dill pickles. Took two jars to land owners. This recipe called for sugar which I reluctantly put in thinking it must be required for the preserving but I don't like the flavor (yes, I have that extra jar that didn't go in the water bath that I'm tasting out of). There is another batch of cukes on now so I'll try a different recipe.

Today Mrs. Neighbor is coming over and we are going to pickled peppers. We don't know exactly what we have - not for lack of labeling - but because her two year old went along and "collected" all the tags we'd put in the ground. We'll pickle the long skinny yellow ones, then lay a fire in the Weber and roast and freeze the ones that look hotter. The tomatoes are all green so this will preserve the peppers (with wonderful flavor) until the tomatoes are ready.

Mrs. Neighbor got our first Zucchini - she'd been hungry for that Zucchini. The slicing cucumbers are just about upon us with a vengeance.

The tops of our apricot tree (too tall to reach) are getting ripe and falling to the ground and so am harvesting ground apricots for the chickens (trying to keep ahead of the Spaniel whom I don't want to get them). Harvested grasshoppers from the garden for chicken feed.

3. Preserve Something: Um, see above narrative.

4. Prep/Manage: Went to yard sales and found two matching infant car seats and an umbrella stroller for Mrs. Neighbor (who is 8 mos. pregnant) and gave them to her - I knew that's something she needed. She was thrilled - I guess the car seats were the expensive kind, and they were as clean as new.

Searched and searched for fabric covering for the seats in the trailer but ended up buying the cheapest heavy fabric Walmart offered (canvas). Wow, I noticed price increases there. Yes, I hate going to Walmart but we are in the middle of no where with a walmart and a Lowes.

Accepted an old wall cabinet a neighbor was throwing away. He kind of didn't get it that I wanted to lay it on it's back and plant strawberries in it.

Examined apple trees, peach and plum trees and found a pear tree in the Garden's yard.

Did the chore of taking homemade Beef Stew, Chicken soup, Chicken broth, Frozen party yum yums... out of the garage freezer, thawed them (to get them out of the ball jars) and thew them away. It was a very hard experience but I know that that freezer thawed for an unknown time (repeatedly) and that none of that food could be trusted. Next week I'll clean it.

5. Cook something new: Nope just getting by in the heat.

6. Work on local food systems: The first farmer's market was on with only one small vendor. The produce just isn't ready here, and they were having trouble getting vendors who produced in sellable amounts. The dog park group was there, and people were taking orders for peaches and some folks were playing music... hopefully it will do better through the year.

7. Learn Something new: I really learn a great deal from the food storage group. I have everything to learn about lacto fermentation, but I'm going to try some of those cucumbers lactofermented.

From Sharon's site, I began to think of my garage as cold storage. I had been thinking cellaring, but really, we went a winter without a 'fridge a couple of years ago and just kept our food in the garage.

A couple of good magazine reads

2008-07-31T07:46:00.006-06:00

Just a quick post before I head out to the garden.

I subscribe to two magazines (well one was a gift I love): Cooking Light and Mother Earth News. I keep back issues of both and in the case of Cooking Light, I save a year or so and then go back some time in the winter and cut out the recipes and things I've really liked.

Cooking Light has an article on Pickling and another called "Farm in the City" concerning Chicago's Green City Market.

Mother Earth News always has the most awesome things right when I need it, such as a Beginner's guide to Drying Food, Organic Pest Control, and Solar Energy, and a letter from the editor on the Art of Homesteading. "We define homestead s any home that provides an example of sustainability and beauty." (p. 6)

Many of us are so busy with our gardens to maybe not otherwise notice the magazines, but these are two greats this month. They might just be worth a trip to the library (or an online visit to their websites) if you are not a subscriber.

Do you take monthly magazines? Which ones? How do you use/reuse them?

Word from a harvest Book

2008-07-29T09:12:00.005-06:00

On Drying Food "There is now a strong trend among gardeners to think dry, just as farmers have been doing for thousands of years, and as many gardeners still do in countries where each person is directly responsible for producing at least some of his own food. The reason is that more Americans are thinking about gardening as a way to produce food that will be used all year long. Pressed by rising food prices, international uncertainties, and worries about power shortages, they are looking more to a small plot of land as a means to supply food for the family table all year long."*

This sounds a whole lot like modern sentament but this book is actually the *"Organic Gardening Harvest Book", by the editors of organic gardening and farming, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA 1975. Fourteenth Printing 1984.

There is a lot of talk about total economic collapse these days. These are tough conversations that frankly scare me a bit - and make it so that we are preparing to make do because I think that the climate and economic situation is dire enough that tough times are on their way.

But I also think it is always healthy to have a ballast to this thinking. For me that balance is that every decade (yes even the 1980's) has had this kind of thinking going on. Every generation and envisioned their generation as being the last - whether from religious apocalypse or a man-made one.

I have to take the attitude that I do what I do because it is the right thing to do. I think that the most responsible way to live is to not be utterly dependant on a system of grocery stores, and economic systems. It think stewardship of God's earth (not the human's earth) means we have to reduce our wasteful and trash-producing ways and to try and leave something for generations to come.

So even if TEOTWAWKI doesn't arrive, hopefully other generations will - and that there will be someting left for them.

Independence Days #11

2008-07-28T21:48:00.006-06:00

Independence Days #10

2008-07-25T11:45:00.003-06:00

Back on track and ready to post:

1. Plant Something: Scattered Rob's balls. No, No, his seeds - the flower seed balls from his give-away. (Sheesh, only Rob could make it this difficult to do something so innocent ;-)

2. Harvest Something: Well the first of the garden foods are coming on. We've had a couple of cucumbers enough green beans to feed the rabbit, and the first peppers. I picked a couple of gallons of cherries (froze them). I've harvested wild alfalfa to feed the chickens and rabbit, and gathered grasshoppers in the field by the garden and fed them to the chickens.

3. Preserve Something: Frozen cherries, moved dried mint to bag for tea, hung more mint to dry. Pickled the single cucumber like my Grandmother used to with oil and vinegar and onions - then ate it!

4. Prep Something/ Manage things: The chicks are big enough that they should start going outside. Mr. Greenjeans and the girls are out fixing a chicken wire roof to the run. We have pigeons and hawks here. The Hawks will go for the smaller birds I think but the pigeons will bring disease.

Purchased an outdoor camp type stove but made of case iron so that I can do canning and can cook without electricity (still runs on propane). We have so missed cooking on cast iron that I imagine we'll be doing a bit more cooking out doors in the heat.

Purchased the next door camper trailer for $500 (small 1974 model). Have been fixing it up - painting, sealing, made curtains.... This is where I slipped up and went to IKEA for some fun stuff that looks cute. This is one big bug-out box or an extra space to put someone who comes to us, or is a space to go camping and berry collecting, fishing, hunting (OK we don't hunt but there may be a time). Maybe I'm just justifying a purchase. I'm having fun painting it blue and white and making covers and curtains and pillows for the bed...

Cleaned the chicken coop.

My first cycle using Diva cup. By the end of the day I'm sold - 'nuf said.

5. Cook Something new: My parents brought a fine ham bone from a party they hosted. It still had some slices for sandwiches and my dad said he wanted white bean and ham soup. My mom was mystified because this was not part of their diet in the last 55+ years. I bought white beans, made soup from this and that and by golly if it wasn't the best tasting soup we've ever eaten. Mr. Greenjeans asked if I were storing white beans.

6. Work on Local Food systems: Getting ready for our town's first farmer's market beginning at the end of July. Might take a few years to get up an running. Too bad there aren't more foods coming ripe. Not to many vendors yet.

Our neighborhood garden in growing. It is the opposite of a permaculture garden but it is the way the fellow who owns the ground has always done it.

Forgive me for I have sinned

2008-07-24T09:48:00.005-06:00

I have not been able to post with a clear conscience lately. I have written, but not posted because to post on my convictions and accomplishments while having failed so badly seems so fraudulent.

I keep having a conversation with myself that says that others too must stumble and fall - that all the folks working hard to live sustainable, simple lives must surely make some bad judgments. And I remind myself that I forgive others; and in doing so, I only ask of others that when they fall into sin (sin being a loaded word but here meaning recognizing ones action as against God, people, and deeply held beliefs of what is "right" in the world)that they make amends as best as possible and then turn anew in the direction they should be going and continue on. The word origin of the word "repent" means to turn around. It is therefore in my spiritual and religious tradition to confess and seek forgiveness or otherwise remain stuck in mire. Here, stuck in mire means not blogging because I'm not able to get over my errors.

Forgive me for I have sinned:

I have argued with my husband and been angry with my mother and out of my anger caused my youngest to cry. (What really sucks is that I lost the argument). In attempting to stick to my guns on my ideals I have been brittle. Specifically, family wants a summer vacation to San Francisco - it will cost everything we have saved and about twice that and we are still going. We have a big blow up when my parents were here and they took the other side and I lost the battle. I'm still mad and I'm going on vacation. Go figure.

In my bull headedness I purchased a small 1974 camp trailer (thinking local vacation and a traveling retreat or something to tow for bug-out). I have spent money at IKEA outfitting said trailer rather than finding things at yard sales and thrift stores.

I used Sevin on the squash bugs.

In my attempts at voluntary simplicity and making from scratch I have succumbed to despair, feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. I have sulked.

I have not been faithful in prayer.

I and am heartily sorry for these my misdoings, the remembrance of them is grievous, the burden weighs heavily. I earnestly intend to turn anew, to live a life of simplicity and sustainability, to be frugal to hold to my beliefs to live in grace with my family, to be prayerful and be a right example to those with eyes to see.

And how do you deal with failure in your own lives? What is sin for you? Where do you experience forgiveness?

Freecycle Cherries

2008-07-16T09:23:00.003-06:00

I put out a "wanted" on the freecycle and got a response for pie cherries. We didn't get tons but enough for 3 or 4 pies. Mr. Greenjeans loves cherry pie so we will have one on his birthday and another at Thanksgiving.

My Mom and Dad are here visiting and the picking time was at dinner time and so Mr. Greenjeans was in charge of the grill and I took Chibi and our ladder and went off. I felt slightly guilty leaving the company but we weren't gone long.

In all the activity of the evening, Ms. Bunny was left out in her exercise run after dark, when I thought to check on her, she had escaped. We all searched the bushes for her with flashlights but didn't find her. Mr. Greenjeans filled her feeder and changed her water and left the hutch door open for her to come home, but when I got up this morning, no Ms. Bunny.

I was standing at the sink dealing with cherries and looked up and there she was! She had climbed back into her cage and was drinking out of her waterer. I went out and greeted her and she put herself to bed for a long nap.

She is such a cool rabbit, I'm glad she came home.

Hummingbird Babies

2008-07-14T07:54:00.003-06:00

We left the door open to our shed/ garage while building the chicken coop and a momma hummingbird came in an built her nest. I don't see her very much but the eggs hatched and we've been watching as the babies get big enough to peer over the edge of the nest.

Yesterday morning, I heard a distinct baby bird distress sounds. I went to the garage and the hummers were crying. I got dressed, looked up baby hummingbirds on the Internet and read that they are silent unless starving. I did feed their open mouths some sugar water but also read that they couldn't subsist on that and called a bird rehabilitator.

I watched all day - and especially at night for mama bird but never saw her. While hanging out there, I also caught grasshoppers for the chickens - ohh they loved that.

The bird rehabilitator's opinion was that Mom was around and trying to get the babies to fly by feeding them less. I guess I'm too much of a mama to hear them cry for food.

We'll wait and see. I must admit they don't seems as desperately hungry, and I did give them another snack but they also don't look as if they have any intention of going anywhere. I've tried to get pictures but the flash keeps going off making a blurry white photo.

At the moment Ms Bunny is cruising around the computer hutch making a mess of things so I'd better pay attention to her.

We returned our Daughter

2008-07-12T11:13:00.003-06:00

Actually, we returned her to the ER last night. What is up with us and the ER on a Friday night? The pain had become so bad she had to take another pain pill. When I cleaned her surgical sites, I realized that one of the rods was pulling against her skin and slowly, slowly ripping her skin (and everything underneath to the bone). We called the orthopedic surgeon who met us at the ER (which was full and so we went to a room) and I had to convince him to open the site on one side and stitch the other side where it had torn. Mr. Greenjeans and I assisted, he numberd her arm and made cut a place for the rod to move into.

The Dr. thought her pain was from being tense and under medicated so sent us home with a stronger pain med and a Rx for Valium. Whatever (and saying that in our house will cost you $.25 so I don't say it lightly).

As a result of easing the tension on the rod, she is much, much relieved of her pain this morning and can bend at the elbow without ripping flesh. Yes the site of the break aches but is managed with aspirin and Motrin. Gee, silly us.

You have got to love small towns. We got the Dr. out of the stands of the Rodeo, through the full ER, helped care for our kid and what needed to be done and were home in less than an hour and a half from phone call to home again.

Independence Days #9

2008-07-11T10:01:00.007-06:00

Ms. Bunny supervising the blog posting.

Well, I'm on week nine having missed a week due to company and caring for the sick and injured ect...

1. Plant Something: Nope, just the root ends of the shallots from the grocery store when then grow more long green onions (still amazes me). One thing I need to learn is when to plant the second round for fall harvesting. It seems as if my summer crops will be bumping into the first freeze.

2. Harvest something: a few straggling lettuces.

3. Preserve Something: Oh, dear, No.

4. Prep. Something: After the hospital incidents we were motivated to review our First Aid Supplies. I was able to get Mr. Greenjeans interested in this project as he has taken first responder courses and done first aid kits for his employer, in the past. He put together a fresh basic medical/dental kit. The trick is going to be how to expand that into more than just the basics.

Before getting hurt, Ni Chan was working hard and pushing me to spend every spare minute on her quilt to take to school in the fall. Quilting is winter work and I don't like doing it with so much else going on but she has cut up old clothes, and made her own pattern and so I do want to support her in that. I also want the family she is going to to see that we make our own - to inspire these folks I had though were to green until I stayed with them.

An update on Ni Chan: She is having trouble controlling the pain of the steel rods drilled into her bone. This hurts much worse than the accident. Ironically she and I made the decision to discontinue the narcotic pain meds. The drug haze upset her so badly that she didn't have the mental capacity to manage her pain (decision made as she was laying on the cool tile of the bathroom floor with a sick stomach and mentally upset). She is on aspirin and Motrin and is at least sane. The pain is bad but seems not worse than drug hell. The narcotics are there by her sick bed if she want/needs them but even before bed last night she said 'no'. I feel better that she isn't just flat on her back moaning or sleeping, but engaged in her school work and conversations. Boy I miss her help with the chores.

We've started work on a project that I've wanted for four moves. I love New Mexico countryside and the bread and food that comes out of the ornos, or beehive ovens. Years ago Sunset magazine published a how-to on making one and I've carried those plans with me across the country and back. This last week we started on the project. I'll post as it goes along but here's the pad

- I anticipate it taking about four weeks to build and cure. This is what the finished product looks like in the magazine photo.

Cook Something New: Uh no, cooking is low on the list these hot days. I've got beans soaking and bread rising as I post but that's nothing new.

Manage Reserves: Here I've actually discovered that I've taken a large step backwards. The electricity to the freezer in the garage was interrupted and we lost a lot of home made soups and two turkey pot pies.

Work on Local Food Systems: The garden is tended most mornings and evenings. Sang praises of local, first time farmer's market at Rotary.

The volatility of the markets and the gas prices remind me that I need to pick up on this some more.

A weedy life

2008-07-09T21:56:00.001-06:00

Pardon the silence as I try and compete with the weeds in the garden. I keep thinking that if I get on top of the weeds there will be a little break.....

Gravity and Earth VS Girl and Momentum

2008-07-07T18:21:00.008-06:00

I'm trying to decide what to name this post. Maybe, Horse - Girl =

Our expected out of town company had arrived with hugs and greetings and up the walk behind them were a few of Ni Chan's friends. They had squirt guns and a mask and said they were kidnapping Ni Chan because she didn't get out enough. Off they went and appearently had a squirt gun fight and then went out to see the animals in the pasture.

One of the girls young siblings had an old mare that they crawl all over and so the older girls figure they'll take turns riding in the pasture. Ni Chan went first. Appearently the mare doesn't like big kids as well as little ones because she took off bucking. Ni Chan has had martial arts and so knew how to fall and roll but the momentum was too much and then right out her arm. She was too embarassed to tell her 'captors' and so waited until she got home to announce that her arm was broken.

Mr. Greenjeans took her to the ER as I served the guest's dinner. She came back in a cast with surgury scheduled for Saturday morning. Surgury took longer than expected, the bone at the wrist had rolled up (a young person thing) and there were fragments to be removed. She is pinned and has external bars instead of a cast now. She stayed the night in the hospital where they OD'd her on pain meds and had to do an emergency reversal of said drugs while one nuse counted resparations and another pushed on her belly while her heart rate dropped like a stone.

That evening, I was standing up to leave the hospital, being relieved from parent duty by Mr. Greenjeans when a call came in that the most Sr. lay member (both elected position and age) of the church was being brought in on ambulance. She was having a heart attack. I then spent the next 5 hours holding her hand, and praying with her in the ER until she got a helecopter ride to the city. By nearly midnight I was dragging.

We brought Ni Chan home after church the next day, gave her the first pain pill and she had an allergic reaction. It wasn't bad enought to take her back but it was Sunday and so she has spent until her afternoon orthopod appointment on Monday without any stronger pain meds than asperin. At this appointment I learned that I have to clean surgury incisions 2 times daily. The how-to instructions had both Ni Chan and Mr. Greenjeans faint and queezy.

The kid is a trooper and hasn't complained much except that she is flat out and feeling generally ill from all the trash in her system now. Anyway, that's what I've been up to instead of posting to my blog.

An Award!

2008-07-06T20:18:00.003-06:00

Ohhhhh Girl Screem!!! Thank you Rob for naming me!!! Ta Daaa! This is my first blogger award, though a bit dubious, the Arte Y Pico Award

I want to thank my father, who taught me to read and made me take typing in highschool, and my kids who sometimes give me a turn on the computer, my dogs who are sleeping at my feet and all those whorkers who assembled my computer to make this possible. Here's what's up:

1. Pick five (5) blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

And while I do think this is a bit of a silly award, I do want to name the following blogs with all sincerity and honor as blogs I check regularly and gain from:

1. Songbird at her blog Reflectionary for her very thoughtful and profound blog and her encouragement of other bloggers.

2. Dana's Spotted Arpon for the wonderful photography and really usable,delicious recipes.

3. The Peak Oil Hausfrau for enjoyable and enlightening reading.

4. Becca's Potager Garden for her creative, functional, and beautiful garden ideas.

5. Golden Acre Lives On which is a new blog that has really taken off with really valuable information and a great lay out.

Happy Anniversary, Babe

2008-07-01T07:00:00.004-06:00

Mr. Greenjeans and I have been married 21 years, today. We went to dinner last evening at a nice place up in the mountains beside a lake. It was a tad chilly but a nice break from the valley heat.

We were married in the mountains with a view of the dessert. The year was like this where the wildflowers were lovely. We first met through our dogs and those dogs were in the wedding and sitting beside us in the wedding photos.

I won't say that 21 years has been all ease and bliss - it has not. But we've hung in there and in these latter years have been rewarded with a very good marriage. Of course it can be related to good pre-marriage agreements. Ours went like this:

Me: Do you like animals?
Him: Uh Huh

Me: I want a couple of kids, how about you?
Him: Uh, Maybe. Do you know where TV guide got to?

See, good communication is the key to wedded perfection.

Rather, He has done an enormous amount of adapting ;-).