Independence Days #8

1. Plant something: nope, though I may try and fill in some holes in the garden where things didn't come up.

Wait, edit, edit - I planted Borage from Green Bean Dreams Giveaway!!! Yea, I'm waiting for them to germinate!!!

2. Harvest Something: No. This is an area where I ought to get better. I pulled the dandelions and wild alfalfa and fed it to the rabbit is about all.

3. Preserve Something: (harvested) and dried mint.

4. Prep Something: While in Lowes for something else noticed they had good long hoses for drinking water (they're blue). Since it had been nagging at me that my water storage containers were sitting around dusty and dry, I bought the hose and filled 80 gallons of water storage.

Chickens arrived (blogged earlier with pictures). They are a straight run (roosters and hens) of which all but one of the roosters will be harvesed. I'll have to wait and see how many hens there are before selling or trading a few hens if I have too many for the space. They are all vigerous and hearty after this first week.

Since every centemeter of the 1/2 acre garden sprouted a weed, I've been hoeing and weeding as my main endevor. We get water once a week so everything revolved around the watering.

Bought a book on cheese making.

5. Cook Something (new) - I havn't cooked creatively this week - just getting meals out, grinding wheat and baking bread.

6. Manage reserves - began sharpening garden tools daily as they are in use several hours a day. My only hoe broke - Mr. Greenjeans will have to fix it and I may buy a new one before inflation means I can't make those purchases. However, for the end of the week, we are committed to not taking money from savings at the end of the pay period (or putting it on credit card) and we're living with the $24.00 in the checking acct. until payday.

We needed to stake our 60 tomatoes and talked about getting uprights and 4" fencing... and then it dawned on me that an old farm always has stuff lying around. Mr. Greenjeans had on the heavy duty shoes and jeans and so was elected to sort through the tall weeds behind the old shed where we garden and....he came up with not only 4" fencing but 57 tomatoe cages. I asked Mrs. neighbor if she had any extra tomatoe cages and she had 3! No trip out - no money spent.

Stuff was piling up in the laundry room from the purchase of the wheat and soap making and so got two more barrels of wheat stored, and sorted out the cupboards in the laundry so all the soap-making extras were able to be put away. Besides that needed to be done - it was one of the only places the last people left things and I'd stuffed things and... it was time.

7. Work on local food systems. My girls and I are working hard on the garden. Mrs. Neighbor is nesting like crazy - no the baby isn't coming - her mother is. Mr. Garden went to the Dr. and wasn't allowed to come home without a new pacemaker. The ditch water master is helpful with the garden on watering days - I think they get paid in produce because they weed and dig while they are there.

I feel badly that I missed a meeting of the local Farmer's Market that begins at the end of July.

8. Learn Something new: The large garden and ways of ditch water in the west is a new experience.

The Greater Depression

Even though I don't have much tied up in the markets, I was still concerned about the drops in the market and the spike in the price of crude oil in the last two days. I've been around looking for wise words but find that perhaps wise people are processing this event and waiting to see what will happen at this time next week.

In looking around I found a new catch phraise for what I think we are looking at. I found phrase "The Greater Depression" from reading guest columnist Doug Casey, guest columnist at the Prudent Bear. He says he should have trademarked the name but he doesn't want to blamed for the event (good thinking, I'd say). The implication is that what the economic future holds is far worse than the recession we have been in so far and on par with some of the world's most profound economic crisis. It will look different than the Great Depression in America because the conditions and times are different.

He only has a few words of advice and they are along the lines of reduce your standard of living NOW (while you still have some control), increase your savings (preferable in the form of gold - yea right), and prepare for a vastly different patterns of employment, consumption, production... for an extended period of time as the trouble is only just beginning. Now this might just be the rumblings of a bear, but its resonating with something in my bones.

I think the specifics of that kind of advice is along the like of what folks in the blogisphere are currently doing. I know that folks in the Independence days challenge are working to shore up all fronts, but what about the rest of you? What changes are you making as this financial storm builds? Do you think a we are in for a depression?

Community

My blog has been mute for a few days because I've been cogitating on the idea of community. It is an idea that periodically grabs at me and insists on my attention. Sometimes this idea is focused on church and building community there, at other times I've thought about what it would be like to live in intentional community or an eco housing group. I've read materials from the neo-monastic movement which includes family units, and read a considerable amount about the Amish and lately I've discovered Transition Towns.

Today I am thinking about community in terms of the informal on-line relationships we have in the form of these blogs. Now, most folks could ride next to each other on public transit and never recognize each other, and when someone stops posting we have no way to reach out, but we share a lot about our passions. Those who care about the earth challenge each other stretch in ways we might not other wise do (I'm feeling a little warm right now in the late afternoon with no AC). The independence days group prepares to be self-sufficiet, shares tips and encouraging each other without the isolationist bunker mentality.

The Merriam Webster On-line dictionary defines community thus:

1: a unified body of individuals: as a: state, commonwealth b: the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself (the problems of a large community) c: an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location d: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society (a community of retired persons) e: a group linked by a common policy f: a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests (the international community) g: a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society (the academic community)

Most(not all)of the posts I read and comment on are those who are at least cognizant of Peak Oil, Global Climate Change, doing what we can to Power Down and provide for ourselves and families and loved ones. This is where we meet the 1b,d,e,f,g of the defination of community.

In reading blogs today, two comments have caught my eye. One was on the food storage group posted by The Matriarch of the Ramping up blog http://rampingup.blogspot.com/ when she said she had read in a local paper about a
retired woman that installed solar panels and a windmill in her
yard to go off-grid. She thought right away, "She is one of US!"

The other I read at Frau's site where she posted 7 reasons for hope #7 was:
Lifeboats
"You, dear readers, are the lifeboats. Anyone developing sustainability libraries, skills and techniques, who have gardens and who use low-energy technologies, are the hope for the future. You will be able to teach your neighbors and families new and lighter ways to live. You may be able to save lives or prevent trees from being cut for wood. You will be able to make a difference."

This community had no borders; memebers move in and out without any expection of committment; and without electricity we would be lost to one another; but I do find great value in what people have spent their time and energy posting and I value it when others stop by to read what I'm spending time and energy on.

Gazing into the future is kind of scary right now and I'm glad to be doing it with thinking bloggers far and wide who are willing to do something about what they see. Besides someone needs to add levity cuz I've gone too mushy and sentemental.

Next, we need our own town where everyone is allotted acreage for whatever floats their boats (animals, gardens, ponds of fish, and forests)so we don't get lost if the electricity shuts off.

Baby Pictures

And who are you?

umm warm hands

Most of the gang

Look! can you see our pretty feathered feet!

I was looking a second ago

Finally, some good grub - that other stuff was for pigs!

At the water cooler

And how do you taste?

Holy Chicken!

Sleepy Chicky

I'm so outta here

Bunny play pen under the apricot tree

Talking with the animals

And the biggest baby of them all!

Monday Menu - a smoking edition

Ilex wanted to know about the smoker we used with the fish. We have a Brinkman Gourmet charcoal Smoker. It came from Lowes last November - cost $44.00. Inside it has a place for coals, marinade or water, and there are two cooking racks.


This was our trial run and we were happy with it. After it was started, it was good for the rest of the day. It did take a 10 lb bag of charcoal and then a bag of soaked apple wood chips - so not really eco friendly but then again, I'm not sure that smokers are. For that amount of charcoal, I did at least 20 lbs of fish. What I hadn't realized is that the coals kept hot for so long that I could have could have easily have done another round of food.

I do want to say that last summer we smoked fish and eggplant (separate occasions) using the Weber charcoal grill and the results were the same. The Weber takes a little more managing and doesn't hold as much food, but otherwise works about the same and serves two purposes.

Let me know if anyone is interested in the brine recipe for trout or salmon.

We have 25 babies - and they came early!!!

Baby Chicks that is. I was expecting baby chicks on Tuesday but very early this Sunday morning I got a call from a very cheerful Post Office lady saying that there were baby chicks peeping for their mama.

We were nearly prepared: I'd ordered the chicks (vaccinated Light Brahmas from Murray McMurray hatchery), build the chicken coop - um - Mr. Green jeans did most of that, bought feeders and waterers, bought chick mineral starterer and was planning on getting chicken feed on Monday.... Uh oh, this is Sunday morning in rural America.

After church we went looking for for chick scratch. Walmart was the only store open -and they only had chicken scratch - which is coarse. So I called up the person with the milk cow to see if she had left over chick feed. She only had hog mash which is itself finely ground. That's it - the babies are adapting in place with hog mash this evening until mroning.

Independence Days #7 (again)

I know I posted week #7 last week, but it was really week #6 so now I am caught up with the proper week.

Currently this morning in our house, Mr. Greenjeans started the smoker going for this week's fish catch (the fish soaked in marinade/brine for 3 days). Ni-Chan is grinding wheat into flour for me to make bread - her headphones are plugged into her computer listening to a podcast of a lecture for on-line college classes, and next to her Chibi is grating Fels-Naphtha soap bars to make laundry soap. I've just come in from hanging clothes on the line and watering the garden.

Plant Something: I've planted some flowers in pots for our back porch. Picked up a few more plants: 2 eggplant so I put some in the garden, strawberries in the yard

Harvest Something: Our big harvest this week was 20 or 30 lbs of mountain caught fish: Kokanee Salmon and Trout - the biggest fish we've ever caught in our lives.

Nothing out of the garden yet - the peas have a few little pea pods going and the corn has sprouted.

Preserve Something: Today we preserved fish by smoking. They will actually go into the freezer smoked otherwise they wouldn't last more than a week or so.

Prep something/ manage reserves I had to spend 2 days in the city at work and went to Costco while there. I have mixed feelings about Costco, a good sale price at the grocery store often nets better prices but there is something handy for food storage about the bulk. To put away: tuna fish, bread yeast, canned peaches and pears, soy sauce, mayonnaise, pecans, coffee, green tea, powdered milk, rechargeable lantern,

Purchased to eat now (including treats to the family) odwalla juice, sandwich bread, artichoke spinach dip, strawberries, dog food, cat food

Cook Something (new) We'd never used the smoker before so that was a new cooking adventure for us.

Work on local food systems Put a lot of time into the 1/2 acre neighborhood garden we started last week.

Learn something new
I learned from Lisa's Zahn Zoneto use the whole wheat flour in the sponge where the yeast is proofed to help break down or soften the whole wheat bran.

I learned that the bread flour we hand grind really needs to go through twice - it just makes for a nicer flour.

Learned to use irrigation water to water a large garden instead of just sprinkling.

Learned from Becca's blog, The Potager Garden that one can plant the ends of the long green onions (the root ends that normally go in the compost bin) from the grocery store and they will grow more long green onions!

Note to self: don't wash whites to go on the line at the same time the fish have just started smoking.

A gift from Mr. Greenjeans

So, Mr. Greenjeans ordered me a gift from Leahman's non-electric. I didn't really know he was getting me anything, but I came across the entry on the bank register. I had to wait about a week to see what it was, and kept trying to guess what it was.

On the day it came, we hadn't been home together in a few days and we both arrived with about a 1/2 hour to turn around for a dinner at some folk's house. I wanted to open it right away, and so Mr. Greenjeans said to bring it to the bedroom...well I didn't know that Leaman's sold that sort of thing in their non-electric catalogue.

Well, they don't - But the gift was a compost pail.

Appearently he was bothered by my compost in the plastic bags and cerial box liners and things on the kitchen counter. After 20 years of marriage, he addressed the problem by buying this alternative.

I actually love the gift. It's the sort of thing I wouldn't have bought for myself and I really like how sturdy it is.

The Garden is in - we're going fishing

Just for the day. Mr. Greenjeans and I had a day off together and an invitation to get aboard a friend's fishing boat. Set out early this morning, and by 4:00p.m. were home with our limit on Kokanee Salmon, the largest rainbow trout of my life and a couple of lake trout.

There was fishing excitement and time just to drift and reflect, to do nothing on the lake. Very Good Day.

We cooked the rainbow and a salmon for the family - with leftovers for a salad tomorrow. The rest will go into the smoker to be served to be make smoked salmon and pate.

Fish Pictures to follow (OK, don't look if you don't want to see dead fish...Fish are FOOD):

Fair warning and a screen down:





The cats help clean up dinner:

Slather me in butter - I'm toast

Burnt toast that is. This morning I was up checking the email, the rest of the family still asleep (so before 7:00a.m.) when the doorbell rang and there was Mrs. Garden saying the irrigation water was coming and the old fellows were out cleaning the gutters to keep the junk out of the irrigation pipes. We moved on to digging trenches and re-furrowing the ground.

It was the hottest day of the year by 20 degrees. I did have a hat and wore long pants but after 7 hours I am burned to a crip on my arms, face, and neck. By the time I was done, I was out of water, and my head was pounding. I found my way back across the street and took one non-eco friendly long cool shower with an asperin. Now, what were my plans for the day?

The pictures are from planting day:

Independence Days #7

How a week changes things! 5 days ago I was introduced to our new garden plot. By the way, I was wrong about the size. Mr. Greenjeans (who works crazy hours) came over and measured it for me: 107' x 107'. That is slightly larger than 1/2 acre but there is a corner missing so I feel OK about rounding it to about 1/2 acre, maybe slightly smaller (by a few feet).

This is absolutely the largest space I've gardened, but I'm not doing it alone. We are 3 families consistinig of 2 teenager girls, Mrs. neighbor, who is pregnant, and her 2 year old, and the land owners who are too elderly to garden at all but provide all the equipment, water, land, fertilizer, some seeds and plants, and instruction. Actually Mr. Garden walks behind the plow using it as a walker. My husband and neighbor husband are great guys who work physical jobs at long hours so they are around on days off to help with what we can't do on our own.

When you read what we've planted, remember that a committee planned and came up with what was planted based on what we all wanted. I think the assumption is that we share in the work as able, and will share in the crop equally. I can see maybe all cannning together at the end of the summer. We'll see how the weather goes. It was down to 38 f one night this week.

1. Planted: From bedding plants: 60 tomatoes of different varieties, 40 chili's of different varieties, 14 watermelons, 6 broccoli (never tried before), 4 Brussels sprouts (never tried), 4 celery, 2 pumpkin, 10 pickling cukes, 10 salad cukes.

From seed: 40 onions, 18 rows @ 107' a row of sweet corn (Mr. garden owner request), 3 rows @ 107' of green bush beans, different varieties.

If I finish planting today, I'll edit my post to reflect the updated amounts for the whole garden. Added today: 1 row (107') of beats, one row of carrots, one of spagetti squash, one row of winter squash, and a 3' section of bird house goards (for Chibi). There is still some space left - even skipping a row to let the squash spread out.

2. Harvested: Rhubarb, salad greens, mint, milk

3. Preserved: Walmart finally got in a giant order of wheat so I picked up another 4 bags (24 lbs ea) of Montana golden wheat ($11/ bag). Now I need more buckets and lids.

4. Prepped/ Managed Something (categories now combined): Tilled and furrowed and planted. Looked for COE fertilizer (from gardening in hard times) to no avail.

Came across a farm store in Colorado that was going out of business as farm land went under to tract homes. Picked up a rabbit hutch, galvanized poultry water and feeders all at half off.

Brought home some antiques I had stored at my parents: a daisy butter churn and an 8.5 qt. milk can.

Found a pair of good shoes at -50% off and a dress shirt for Mr. Greenjeans (OK, that's more like truth telling than prepping). Mr. Greenjeans teased about all the sales there will be when TEOWAWKI comes.

The house is a wreck and my office work is slightly neglected as I took a day of vacation to plant and have been spending every spare moment in the garden.

4. Cook something (new): Hey, I haven't even been cooking for the family this week! If the teenagers will cook it, we eat it (except for home made bread).

I tried to make cream cheese and it was a dismal failure that got poured down the sink (milk @$8.00/gal and hand milked). My rhubarb pie was slightly undercooked - somethign I didn't notice as I came in tired from the garden one night... that is until it *struck* in the middle of the night. I put it back in the oven the next day and cooked it silly and it was OK.

5. Work on Local food systems: Well we've got this neighborhood garden going.

6. Learn something new: worked a big rototiller, a hand plow, well water, planted the largest garden of my life, watched the land owner make the city dig up the new sidewalk they just put in because they messed up the slope of the irrigation water to come, saw family I haven't seen in years... I feel as if I'm learning everyday.

I'm beat, tired, sore, happy

This is what I've been up to:


We tilled yesterday, put in furrows last night and this morning, and began planting this afternoon and evening. I took a vacation day from work and will continue after work all week. I'll have totals on Friday.

It's cold, cold here. When I went out to furrow this morning it was 55 f. There is talk of getting near freezing tonight. We're not that far north!

Made cheese and bread as well today. Took a loaf of bread over to the garden owners. Chibi was dissapointed we didn't need any wheat ground - we used the last of what they had energetically ground earlier.

Another found garden

I came back from my trip and ran out to look at the found garden because the neighbors were going to start clearing the land - it hadn't been touched. I was sort of disappointed, but also concerned if something had gone wrong.

It seems that the elderly couple across the street came over and said we could garden with them. They have all the tools and irrigation. We average 9" of rain here and free water that isn't all chlorinated and stripped is a wonderful thing.

Now, I have to remember that these folks have been gardening for years - raised a family on it and while they are not physically able to get out and do it anymore, it is still their garden, their tools, and their way. It will be far from organic. In my respect for the owners, I'll have to go with that. It is late in the season and we are blessed to have this opportunity.

The garden looks enormous to me - I don't know if it is larger than 1/4 acre or not. There is a strip about a 1/4 of the way in that is in raspberries. Mr. Neighbor and I tilled the whole thing yesterday with the largest tiller I've ever run. (Mrs. Neighbor is pregnant and being careful).

On the other found garden spot, we are going to clear the land with a tractor, and get a cover crop put in. The elderly couple's property is up for sale. It is zoned commercial and on the way to recreation lakes, so we are worried about a gas station going in.

The Drive Home

On our way home today we took the road that went through Rocky Mountain National Park. "These are the Never Summer Mountains"


Here's a rare one of me and the small dog who got to travel with us.




The Visitor's Center was headed down off the peak of the highway. We are used to altitude and were feeling it just drivig and getting out to take pictures. But then again there were people bicycling this.



Still a bit of snow up there. This is out the window of the moving car:



More shots out the window:



Lower down there were elk in velvet:

A newborn Moose:

Independence Days #6

I am posting this early because I'm going to be busy with the funeral and family and travel over the next few days. No more posts likely until Monday.

1. Plant Something Strawberries, sweet onions, tomatoes,

2. Harvest Something Salad greens, dairy products

3. Preserve Something Put up extra Peanut Butter, baking soda, powdered milk, and cooking oil from the store.

4. Prep Something Went to a yard sale and got an extra terra cotta cooker. Mr. Greenjeans and I looked for an old exercise bike to power the grain mill but now luck. Found some odd racks - maybe from a homeschool that can be turned into a solar dehydrator. Got permission to garden the lot in back of us. Ordered seeds - non-hybrid and organic specialized to mountainous and northern climates. Used and gathered rain water.

5. Cook Something (new) The only new thing for me was baking my first loaves of bread from the wheat ground in the gain mill.

6. Manage reserves After the food group talked about preserving grain, I did the dry ice in the grain a second time and put bay leaves all through it. Mr. Greenjeans and I then stored it under the house (black widow spiders ewwww). There isn't as much room under there as I'd first thought.

7. Work on Local food systems Worked with my neighbor on gardening the back lot. They had all sorts of ideas on getting it watered and what they wanted to plant. It's exciting as well as stretching to work with another family on these things. It is a good way to practice all that non-attachment to my way of doing things. So far, so good.

8. Learn something new All the time on the food groups. I would like to point people to the website, Future Scenarios by David Holmgren, co-originator of the permaculture concept. He combines global warming and peak oil concepts into differing ways the future might unfold. Interesting stuff, and he takes a fairly hopeful approach (well as much as one can).

I put together the grain mill and got pretty confident grinding. With the handle extension, it isn't as difficult as I feared it might be.

I'm off now to take care of that other aspect of life: grieving. It is something we are not allowed good time for anymore. I'm going to see family who are not a bit like us - conservative, money and things oriented. But they are family and it is important to renew those bonds every now and then. It is good for them to know they've been taken care of in this time - as much as we're allowed. I already know it's going to be a little strange as it is my inclination to bring food but the reception is being catered. Ah well.

Bunnies

For good grades, Chibi got a couple of bunnies. I didn't post them on Monday because that is the menu edition and these particular bunnies aren't on the menu.

They're living in the chicken coop before the chickens arrive and she and Mr. Greenjeans will work on a hutch. I'm planning on placing a worm bin under the hutch in the warmer months.




Anyway they're cute and fuzzy and produce manure. :-)

Monday Menu - kids cooking, funeral edition

I will be away for a funeral later this week and so the girls are on for cooking. At least Chibi is as she is the more natural cook.

With just the two of us tonight Chibi and I ate baby lettuce green salad with goat cheese and pine nuts.

Tomorrow, I will cook a Chicken and root vegies in a terra cotta roaster. We now have two such cookers because we're crazy about them and I find them at good yard sales. Somehow the clay really brings out the juices and flavor but nothing we cook in (including cast iron)is so flavorful.

With the left overs, Chibi will make Chicken Wraps with lettuce and cheese, and Mr. Greenjeans makes wonderful Chicken Enchiladas. Ni-chan will be away some at Girl's state so the meat dishes will be clumbed while she's away.

Chibi likes to make soba with garlic broccoli and shredded carrots.

I suspect there will be take out one night while I'm away and I'll make yogurt before I go and I may cut the rhubarb for the first time and make a strawberry/rhubarb pie. We aren't seeing any strawberries (not one) in the stores but I suppose that will change as June progresses, but the pie will come from last year's frozen berries.

Not the most inspirational menu, but it's good that sometime the girls get relied on for cooking while I'm away. Two day's driving - one day full family on-sought. There is a newborn second cousin I haven't met yet.

I made a commitment to myself that I'd go to this Uncle's funeral when the time came. He was an amazing man and I could blog about him for a long time. He lacked common sense: his family refused to ride with him driving, but he never had an accident.

As a very young child I remember cross bows for Christmas and practicing in the back yard (very large city neighborhood). But he was a genius - and I don't use the term lightly. He did things like invent a pacemaker for himself and have it installed in his chest because in the 1970's the official technology wasn't what he could build. Obviously he was a well respected Dr. as were his fathers and brothers and Uncles before him. He was a fine study of mushrooms and would send us around the neighborhood in the early dawn of the morning collecting mushrooms out of lawns which he'd cook for breakfast. He used his genius in ways I will never fully appreciate, in advances in medicine.

He had a heart transplant 14 years ago on a night when he would have died from heart attack. His heart was giving out as they did the transplant. At that time he stopped practicing medicine. That new heart never did fail - but the rest of the organs wore out from the transplant meds. The list of his adventures goes on and on and I'm sure the family will have a wonderful time telling stories on him this week.

He was also a man of God. After he stopped practicing medicine, he took up Stephens Ministry, visiting people in his congregation on hard times and praying and studying scripture. He gardened and snuck vegies everywhere there was a chance. He had a hard end - organ failure, but he lived a good life, a full life, a life in service to others.

A Found Garden Spot!

As I was clearing out the chicken run, I realized there is a wide gap between the two fences. The brush had grown up so tall I hadn't realized it was there before. As I cleared the brush to close the gap, I realized there was an empty flat lot behind us - not a gravel parking lot as I'd assumed. In fact there was a rather large interior lot and all the properties neatly were marked off by parking or fences.



Mr. Greenjeans went to the assessor's office and found the owner's name and called him to see if we could grow a garden. To our pleasant surprise, his response was he wished more people would take the initiative in things like this and he'd be happy to have us use the land that way!!! My next door neighbor and I are now plotting out what we are going to grow and how to clear the land off.

It is just now planting season but we are behind in that we haven't planned or cleared the land. I don't suppose it will be terrifically big this year but I'm already thinking of growing chicken feed. She wants to learn to can with me. This is so cool!

It turns this neighbor is into preparedness! She gave everyone in her family detailed 72 hour kits for Christmas one year. I guess we never really talked about it too much before. Yesterday she had me move my potato barrels down the driveway so they'd catch the sprinkler water that overshot her garden.

It's dark now but I'll be taking pictures of the land as we progress. I had been so sleepy, snuggled in with the latest issue of Mother Earth News until the land owner returned my call. Wooo Hoooo