Country bumpkin

A new paradigm, energy sources for all

2013-04-27T04:20:00.001-07:00

This is a start at educating yourself on this issue.

BLOG.LEARNYOURTRUTH.COM published a new post entitled "Sirius--Let the Truth Come Out" on 4/18/2013 9:58:12 PM, written byKnowYourTruth.com.

Sirius--Let the Truth Come Out

Finally... It's TIME for the Truth to be known.Premiers April 22 in LA and online worldwide...

Click the link to watch the film:

Yekra Player

Yekra is a revolutionary new distribution network for feature films.

Sirius

“Sirius” is a feature length documentary that follows Dr. Steven Greer – an Emergency room doctor turned UFO researcher – as he struggles to disclose top secret information about classified energy & propulsion techniques. Along the way, Dr. Greer investigates new technology and sheds light on criminal and murderous suppression. He accumulates over 100 Government, Military, and Intelligence Community witnesses who testify on record about their first-hand experience with the cover-up. Though he feels the pressure of an imminent assassination attempt, he comes upon an amazing find: a possible ancient E.T. skeleton, 6 inches long, is discovered in the Atacama desert. Dr. Greer, along with his team, backed by crowd funding supporters, travel to Europe to get a sample of bone fragment in order to have an IVY league university run genetic tests on the skeleton. What they find will completely change the reality of human existence.

While on this odyssey, the audience gains a whole new perspective on technology, human evolution, and clandestine organizations who have manipulated and controlled the public for centuries.

www.yekra.com/sirius/#!/deployment_code=26307566mlbyj8

The following links connect you to more in-depth information about how the ET & Energy Propulsion concepts came about for Dr. Greer; and what are the next steps for humanity to take in this life on this planet-changing moment...

Dr Greer Interview--Sirius

ET Life form

Next Steps

May this extraordinary effort accelerate our process of ushering in an Age of peace for all of humanity.

Permalink: blog.learnyourtruth.com/2013/04/18/spread-independent-truth.aspx

Permaculture and Hoop houses

2013-01-31T16:11:00.000-08:00

Permaculture & Hoop houses

I thought I'd try a 5-section bed with a permaculture variation... clean out bed, lay down 4-6 thick layer of newspaper, add a layer of compost about 3" thick and a layer of wood chips about 3" thick. Then plant the seeds in the traditional way—digging a little trench and place the seeds apart following their preferred seed spacing...

First, I cleaned out the bed getting rid of lots of weeds. One of the reasons I want to try permaculture is it looks like it handles weeds a lot better than exposed soil does...Where I live there is an abundance of Bermuda grass which survives about as well as cockroaches. However, I did learn something recently about weeds. My neighbor in California, a lovely woman, told me a long time ago that every thing has a positive reason for being even if we don't know what it is yet. I learned that weeds are the first line of defense for soil preservation. After soil has been cleared of whatever it was growing, the first thing that appears to keep the soil in place, rather than it blow away, are weeds. Learning that gave me a new appreciation for them. They have a very important job; without them our topsoil would blow away and then we couldn't grow anything!

Second, I spread out the newspaper over the bare soil to not only hold moisture from rain and the drip irrigation system, but also to block weeds from coming through.

Third, I dug compost from my compost bin and laid some on top of the newspapers to not only hold the paper down, but also to see how much of my own compost I had versus how much I needed to go buy. I needed 2 bags of compost. The big box store didn't have mushroom compost, which I've used and liked in the past. I ended up with cotton burr compost. I've read that it is nutrient dense, so I'm giving it a try.

The Fourth step, is to add a layer of mulch. In many of the permaculture videos they recommend getting tree mulch from tree service folks or your city. There is a city park near where I live and they happen to have lots and lots of free mulch. Just provide your own containers and vehicle. I get a couple of containers at a time.

In this freshly prepared 5-section bed I planted: Kale, Elephant Garlic, Onion, Red and Yukon Gold Potatoes, Swiss Chard, and New Zealand Spinach.

Happy with the planting results...I went out to survey my work. I noticed that something had already sprouted! I don't think I've ever seen a sprout this big emerge within 24 hours...

Looking around, though, I still have some beds that need attention and reworking for the fall, plus I still have a few things I want to plant: shallots, ginger, broccoli, and beets.

The first two permaculture beds and growing like crazy. Today we enjoyed some of the greens in a nice sandwich at lunchtime... I especially enjoy the beet greens in the cooler months.

Meanwhile, up in Michigan, Dan has been busy bending hoops and getting them installed to make a 20' x 85' large size hoop house, which are also known as high tunnels. He wants to try his hand at extended season growing in the colder climes. Today, he put up the perlins which connect the hoops together providing strength and sturdiness to the overall structure. Tomorrow it's side boards that can be used to hook wiggle wire onto; the wiggle wire will hold the plastic on the hoop house. He bought professional grade plastic that is made to last at least 4 years. The plastic will contain heat and prevent the cold winds from damaging the plants inside.

That's the job for this week. All the trips going up and down on a ladder are not easy on the legs, knees, and back. The more I plunge into serious gardening/farming, the more I have respect for our fore bearers and for farmers everywhere.

Hey... let's throw in a harvest picture... because based on feedback, I know you love to look at a successful harvest and its inherent deliciousness. Danny and I have been starting to pick food from the fall crop lately. We've had a delicious sandwich using the greens, and a nice side salad for dinner tonight. Danny also picked some herbs to add to the macaroni dish he whipped up. You really can't get healthier food that this: no pesticides, absolutely fresh, organic heirloom seed stock, nutrient dense, and grown with love and care. What could be better?!

Stay tuned and Bon Appetit!

short and sweet-fix and repairs

2013-01-31T16:09:00.005-08:00

Waste Not, Want Not

I know someone who is very good at fixing things... all kinds of things... and am finding out that it takes very little money to fix things rather than replace the items new. I also know people who throw out anything that doesn't work and go buy a replacement for it from a retail store. Or, go buy a second or a third one, if the first one was in some other location, rather than planning ahead and bringing the first one to the other location. Which approach costs a lot of man hours to support? Which appoach allows you to enjoy the simple pleasures of taking care, planning ahead, and being prepared?

I grew up in a household where my parents didn't waste anything—they were Depression Era parents and learned the value of everything at a very young age. I didn't grow up with indulgences; I grew up frugally. I've held those values close to my heart throughout my life.

For example, when a kitchen appliance stops working, it may be as simple as replacing a fuse to get it to fully function again. Cost: $1.95. Replacement cost: $49.99. How many hours do you want to work to be able to do the task that that appliance does for you in your life? It may be important to place a value on your time and your life? Do you want to enjoy your life? Do you want to sell your life to buy stuff? Take it one step further... how do you want to be entertained? Do you want to go to a movie with others, buy the overpriced refreshments that don't contribute to health, and zone out for a couple of hours so you don't actually have to interact with those you are with? Or do you want to select an activity that may include exercise, fresh air, conversation, and no charges to spend time together and interact, which further strengthens your friendship? One option may cost around $50; the other option may cost $0. Which is more enriching to your life and your friendships?

In summary, if you value your life, your time, your friendships, your materials things, you can make choices that don't cost a bunch of money and still live a rich life. If you only value what money can do for you, you may fritter away your life, your friendships, your material indulgences in the pursuit of the big AGI (Adjusted Gross Income). Which way do you want to grow?

Roughing it in place-prepping for lights out

2013-01-31T16:09:00.001-08:00

Roughing It Weekend--How self sufficient are we becoming?

A few years ago I decided that I needed to develop enough skills to be able to take care of myself and my family in case of an emergency. I began this journey in earnest—starting with growing my own food (vegetables and fruits), acquiring the supplies to become off the grid, and now implementing the learnings to put it all together.

In one book, How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It, by James Wesley, Rawles, founder of Survivalblog.com, it suggested that a good way to find out your strengths and weaknesses in terms of emergency preparedness is to pick a weekend where you unplug from the grid: no electricity, no running water, no gas. Go through your weekend and see what you can do, where you've prepared well, and what you still need to learn. That was our task: Holding a Roughing It Weekend where we lived without the grid amenities.

We decided since the Friday before was 12-21-12 (End of the Mayan calendar) and we had festive activities to go to for that evening, we'd start our roughing it weekend Saturday after we had consultation to discuss the ground rules. Luckily for my son and I, my fiance, Dan, came to help me with another project so he is here to help us learn how to use the equipment. In consultation, we decided on the following:

We would turn the heater down (60 degrees Fahrenheit) so the pipes under my house wouldn't freeze and create a problem.
We wouldn't actually turn OFF the electricity; we just wouldn't use it.
We would allow one last errand running effort to gather the last supplies we needed before starting the weekend.
We would conclude the weekend at sunset, Sunday evening, to allow for preparing for Monday's activities.
We would fill our bathtubs with water to provide extra water for chores.

To prepare, I filled 5 gallon buckets with some water for the two bathrooms, adding 2.5 pH water as the disinfectant for washing hands. You can also add bleach to the water to purify it.

In the kitchen, I filled two 3.5 gallon buckets. One with dishwashing soap and 2.5 pH water, and one with only 2.5 pH water.

One was designated as the washing bucket (the one with the dish soap) and the other as the rinsing bucket. Each labeled to avoid confusion.

I also had stowed a dozen gallons of drinking/cooking water; for us, we use Kangen water.

I have a portable loo with a toilet seat on a 5 gallon bucket and a bucket of sawdust to cover anything, as needed. Toilet paper is nearby, and an old container is used to transfer sawdust to cover the contents.

I had purchased paper plates for the weekend to make the kitchen tasks easier. When Danny and I got back from our errands, it was past lunchtime so that was the first thing to get cracking on. I had some croissants defrosted, so we agreed to one cheese sandwich and two canned salmon salad sandwiches with mayonnaise, mustard, and fresh garden greens.

Sandwiches before the cheese and the salmon salad were added. Yum! That wasn't so bad. Glad I had bought the croissants the weekend before and had them stowed for this weekend.

Water

Water becomes very important immediately when learning to live off the grid or fend for yourself. Being able to take dirty water and make it drinkable is a good skill to have. Awhile back I watched a DIY (do it yourself) video on water filtration and had purchased a 5 gallon bucket, a galvanized metal bucket, rocks, sand, filtering charcoal, and mesh cloth. Dan drilled holes in the bottom of the galvanized bucket the day before to prepare. Then he placed 1 layer of mesh cloth in the very bottom, layered 2-3 inches of rock, 2-3 inches of sand, another mesh cloth, all the charcoal (one milk carton-sized container), and a top layer of mesh cloth.

The galvanized filtration bucket was then placed into the 5 gallon bucket. In another 5 gallon bucket Danny gathered dirty water.

Taking that he poured it into the water filtration system in the galvanized bucket.

We let it filter through the system. Remembering when I used to have to prepare my Britta kitchen water filter, I remember having to soak it for 5 minutes and then rinse it 'til all the black charcoal residue washed away. After passing the water through the system a few times, we decided we have to rinse this charcoal through several times as well.

After about 5 passes through the filter, it still looked dirty enough that we didn't want to drink it, so Dan pulled out his PUR water filter.

You can put one plastic tube into the dirty water source and put the output device into/onto a container into which you want the purified water to flow.

The PUR water filter has a output device for not as large as a wide-mouth jar. I found this narrow mouth tomato sauce jar in my jar collection, which worked just fine. You can also use any other sized opening of a container with the other output device that hooks over the lip of it.

The 'hook' unit has two parts: a little part goes into the hook component.

Once you have your preferred distribution method selected, then place the other plastic tube into the water source and pump.

The output is astonishing...

Wow... look at that. It looks clean, but is it really? Who is brave enough to try it?

OK, OK, I did. Then we all did. We agreed that it tasted a bit plastic-y because the PUR unit hadn't been used in a long time. We determined that if it was boiled beforehand that would have cleaned out the plastic taste. Something to keep in mind when you are getting your first fire going, you can always clean the tubes and the output devices by plunking them into some boiling water. Other than the taste though, the water was clean.

Another option, if you are still unsure, is to add 8 drops of bleach to a gallon of water.

Water Summary

Here I've covered three ways to purify water:

Homemade water filtration with a galvanized bucket inside a 5 gallon bucket with rocks, sand, charcoal and mesh fabric pieces to hold the elements in place.
PUR water filtration. This tool can be used in streams, ponds, and any water source. Very good and reliable tool to have on hand.
Beach to decontaminate the water. You could take dirty water, run it through even a bandana to get the grit out, and add only bleach (4 drops for a 1/2 gallon to sanitize the water and let it set for 20 minutes to offgas the chlorine and kill the bacteria) to prepare it for drinking.

DIY Clothes Washer

Thinking through the household tasks, I thought we should have a way to wash our clothes without an electric washing machine. We came up with the following necessary items to make one:

1 wood handled plunger
1 bathtub drain stopper
1 5 gallon bucket with lid
1 drill

With the supplies in hand, Dan talked Daniel through the steps of constructing a handmade clothes washer. Fortunately, Daniel had previously learned how to use a drill when he and Dan put the steel roof on my house, so no drill remediation was needed. (They did this outside, so somehow the use of electricity from the outside didn't come up for discussion. I'd recommend doing this before the electricity goes out.)

Dan had marked the plastic plunger base with dots where Danny was to drill. Somehow, Danny thought he was to drill between the dots, so this is what we came out with... : )

Notice the drain stopper in the background... Dan had previously cut a hole the size of the plunger handle into the drain stopper. He used a utility knife to do this. He also cut a hole in the lid of the 5 gallon bucket the same size. Then Danny took to drilling the plunger.

Assembly is easy: Place the plunger with holes into the 5 gallon bucket. Put the lid with the hole for the plunger handle over the plunger; then put the drain stopper over the lid. Into the bucket you can place the dirty clothes, some soap of your choosing (or 11.5 pH water), and the lid with the stopper. Use the plunger as the agitator to move the cleansing water through the clothes.

You can dump the gray water onto your garden or use for flushing the toilet, then add clean water to rinse. Wring the wet clothes out by hand and hang on a clothes line with clothes pins to dry. You can even set up an indoor clothes line, if you don't want to draw attention to yourself by stringing the clothes line across one side of a room to the other using hooks in the walls. The clothes line can easily be taken down when you want to use the room for other purposes. When the clothes are dry, remove from the clothes line. Fold the clothes, and wear as needed.

Food/Meal Preparation and Cooking

By then the afternoon was ticking away and I thought I best figure out what kind of one-pot meal we'd have for dinner. Not sure how long it would take to cook, I got it ready early. Plus, at this time of year, we learned that it's best to do tasks when there is still sunlight to make it easier.

In my largest pot, I put a bit of olive oil, chopped onion, shallots, garlic, and celery. Then I washed and sliced red potatoes, carrots. I opened a can of pink beans with my hand crank can opener. Sprinkled ground sage and ground jalepeno pepper onto the mix with salt and pepper too. Added some 9.5 pH water, which speeds cooking and enhances flavors. Put the lid on 'til we were ready to start the MSR Dragonfly burner.

The MSR Dragonfly burner was new and since I had never assembled or used it before, I very much appreciated having Dan who is experienced with these things to guide me through the steps. We watched a few videos on YouTube beforehand as well to get ready.

The cookstove had to be opened up and set on the aluminum round protective barrier that it comes with. The fuel tank needed to be filled. We used Coleman propane, which you can buy by the gallon. Then the two parts at the end of the tube need to be inserted into the fuel tank and secured. Once the gas is turned on on the tank and the stove, you can use a long handled fire starter to ignite the fuel. It'll burn high 6-8" flame for a few minutes and then it'll start hissing. When it starts to hiss, it is ready to have the fuel adjusted (up or down) so the blue flame (like a jet) can be used to cook the food. Since I was doing all of this for the first time, I was so engrossed in learning the steps that I didn't take any photos of this part. Maybe I did better when Danny was learning the next day... Anyway, once the flame was going we set the coffee pot on the burner to start making coffee which we'd have to sip on while the stew was cooking. We did all of this outside and temperatures were brisk. Keeping warm became another issue, which I'll cover in a later section on clothing.

I also purchased a Sterno burner (because that's what I remember from when my brothers were Boy Scouts when I was a kid) and it didn't look too complicated. Set up Sterno burner, open Sterno can, light it, and place on the sterno holder rack below the burner rack. Place pot on top.

I discovered that the sterno burner is really good for heating up stuff, but not quite hot enough for cooking real meals. So it became the holding place to keep things warm. Like once the coffee was perked, we moved it to the sterno burner to keep it warm and put the stew on the MSR Dragonfly burner to cook.

The stew turned out great. We ate outside on the picnic table and had wintertime S'mores for dessert. Winter S'mores consist of graham crackers, section of chocolate bar, sliced banana, and a graham cracker on top. I placed them on aluminum foil and warmed them on the sterno burner so the chocolate could melt a bit and become soft. I found out that graham cracker when heated sticks to the aluminum, so next time I'd spray it with some cooking oil first. It was yummy though.

As you can see in the photos that it is dark outside and cold is setting in. We also had a Coleman lantern that had never been used, so we had to prepare the mantles by lighting them and then turn on the fuel and ignight it. We decided to only use it outside because lanterns emit carbon monoxide and we didn't want to risk anything, even with having our house windows open a couple of inches at the bottom for ventilation.

Satisfied we headed indoors. Inside we used candles and not too many of them. The fewer you have lit, the less you have to keep track of in case of emergency. We gathered in the living room for additional reading/conversation time. I had purchased some flashlights that strap on one's head, so we were able to read for awhile. But it didn't take long before we each went to our individual sleeping spots. Early to bed, early to rise comes to mind.

We also noticed how quiet it was in the house when there were no appliances running. Stone quiet.

The next day was very brisk outside. Around 19 degrees Farenheit. The idea of having to get up, get dressed and go out into the cold to start the burner to heat the coffee really wasn't too attractive. Fortunately, Dan is tough and got the coffee made before I knew it.

When I went outside, he had some tinfoil panels, which we had previously used for a solar baking experiment last year, blocking the N-NW wind. There's also the protective shield that goes around the MSR Dragonfly burner to protect the flame from the wind. Interestingly, the coffee left over from the night before was stored at room temperature and when brought outside into the cold started steaming without ever reaching the cook top!

Clothing and Layers

I was still learning about layering when he brought hot coffee into the house. I'm glad and thankful that he doesn't mind doing these tasks. I had bought some long underwear for Danny and me the day before, so we each decided today was the day to break them out. Under my jeans and sweatshirt they went. I had a neck scarf on, headband, and gloves in addition to an outer jacket, but when I went outside I was still cold. Dan told me to get my polypropylene jacket on. Replace the sweatshirt with a 100% wool sweater. Swap out my knit gloves for the survival gloves I have. I also had my thick wool socks on my feet. With those modifications, I was much warmer and could function outside. Daniel made similar discoveries and tweaked his clothing layers as well so he could manage in the cold.

More Cooking

The next day we decided to heat up the leftover stew so we wouldn't have to deal with storage or waste. It was already cooked so it wouldn't take as long and we could just crack some eggs on top once it was boiling for some poached eggs.

The stew with the poached eggs was yummy. We elected to eat indoors since the wind was a bit much to deal with.

Preparing Food became very important. Since I don't have experience doing this stuff and we only had one real burner for cooking, I didn't know how long it would take to make various dishes. Right after breakfast we discussed how we could cobble together an makeshift oven because I had a cake I wanted to bake. Dan suggested we take the largest pot and after washing it, place a layer of stones on the bottom of it. Then mix up the cake and pour it into the smaller sized pan and place that inside the larger one. The stones will act as a buffer and distribute the heat around the smaller pan so it's like an oven. I put the lid on the smaller pan and we had to put tinfoil over the larger one since it's lid didn't fit securely with the smaller pan's lid on.

The kind of cake I made was using a Chocolate Cake Mix, I can cherry pie filling, and 6 oz. gingerale. I mixed them altogether and put it into the smaller pan. The directions on the box said the cake would take 35 minutes. We checked it then, then added 10 more minutes, and then 15 more minutes for a total of 60 minutes (1 hour) before it was done enough. We didn't want the cake to burn or the bottom to become too crusty so we took it out when it was still deliciously moist.

Unveiled... what do you think?

The Chocolate Cherry Camping Cake looked so good to us, we really didn't want to wait to eat it after dinner. Danny quickly got instructed on lighting and using the MSR Dragonfly so he could whip together a quick lunch for us. Then we decided to have some of the lovely looking cake for dessert after lunch.

Dan and I had Bocaburger sandwiches and Danny ate Canadian bacon sandwiches. Then we enjoyed the cake... : )

Since our "oven" idea worked so well with the cake, Dan thought we should try using the same 'oven' and make baked potatoes. I washed 6 potatoes, poked holes in them with a fork on both sides, and wrapped them in tinfoil. We place that into the large pot with the stones on the bottom. That went on the burner at 1:00 and it took about 3 hours for the potatoes to be baked. We decided that wasn't the most efficient use of fuel or time, but since they were baked we'd warm up some beans with BBQ sauce on them and have that for dinner. We ate at 4:30 p.m. so we'd still have light and not have to light candles.

Cutting the baked potatoes in half, adding a pat of butter and a scoop of the BBQ beans made for a very tasty dinner that didn't require too much work.

Summary

We ended up consuming 3 gallons of water for 3 people over the day and a half for cooking, drinking, beverages.
We used about 1/4 of the fuel for all the meals we cooked and determined we could probably make about one week's worth of meals if we cooked judiciously.
We decided that we really liked modern amenities and that it takes a lot of energy to think everything through when learning how to do this for the first time.

Then we waited for sunset so we could turn on our lights and conclude our Roughing It Weekend. : )

It's a Dream of Farming, living, and enjoying a life lived

2013-01-31T16:05:00.000-08:00

A Dream of Farming, Living, and Enjoying a Life Lived

This is a hoophouse we constructed over several weeks. It started in May of 2012 as a 35ft long by 20 foot wide structure. Now the length is 85 or so feet. It has 4ft sidewalls and the top has three purlins. The far end in this shot is a treated wood frame with all the plastic captured between the 5/4 by 6 pieces of wood.

Starting at the far end you can see a sliding 4x3 foot window. It was taken out from behind where this picture was shot and moved to the end. In the winter it remains closed. Come the first of Feb or so this will have to be opened on the more sunny days as the temp inside could easily reach into the 90’s F.

The brush under the window is actually last fall’s tomato plants gone by. They gave good fruit, resisted disease and bugs, and when they finally got hit by the cold (in late Oct) they showed their final strength by exhibiting a massive root ball. I am planning to build an overhead frame of some sort to support the bearing part of the plant in the coming year.

At the middle right is the small child wading pools that I got for half price at the end of the summer. I believe there are five or maybe six. I will use these in an aquaculture based system this year. Along with these pools I have some PVC eave troughs that will be mounted on the sidewall and then the pool water, holding fish, will be pumped up to the top of the eave and allowed to gravity feed back down through some plants and thus be filtered for the fish to use.

The nutrients the fish put into the water will grow some wonderful plants, the return water will be clean enough to support the fish until it gets circulated again.

The clump of plants on the right hand side is a small type of broccoli. It is going to seed yet and theses seeds will be used to start another patch in the spring. They got hit a bit at the end of the season with a small mite sized insect and the last of the lady bugs seemed to get them under control. I would guess this susceptibility to being buggy is from the pH of the soil being too high.

The soil test we got last spring from the state Extension Service showed a level of about 7. This might be alright for humans and such but my veggies like it down around 6 or 6.5. Sulfur added to the soil will lower the 7 down a point or so. Follow the directions as to how much to apply per 1000 sq. ft. and it will be perfect.

This picture is looking from the SSW and shows the woodwall, the small pile of woodchips, the sides for turning the little trailer into a small dump wagon, and the pallets farthest up is a three stall compost pile and on the far end of that my hoopbending table.

By the way-the satellite dish you see was put in when I first started to develop this place. It was about a quarter mile from this point to the road and we couldn’t get phone service for six months. I think at that time a good internet connection was like 56k download. So what I did was to move an old RV that I had onto the property.

Next I installed a satellite service, Hughes or something, and ran everything off my generator. The next order of business was to plants a small garden to test the soil. It was right under where the hh is now. We also bought a few hundred trees and put them in the same area and planted them out when time was available.

Plans were chosen for building the new house and I then built the little barn the same size as the house was to be. This gave one of the bosses in my life an opportunity to better visualize the inside spaces we would be working with in the main house. If I remember the dimensions it was about 32x36 or so. By leaving the ceiling off the inside of the barn, the inside of the house could be imagined as it would have a complete cathedral ceiling.

One day I was going into town and saw a crew chopping down some trees by the ditch up north. It was to run lines and equipment for a new high voltage power line through the county. We have over a hundred of the wind turbines on this side of the county now and we needed more distribution power-in and out. Well the loop is close but not that close and when I noticed they had shredded up a truck full of branches and leaves I stopped to inquire. I wondered where they had to transport their cargo to. They said down the road about 35 miles to their shop. I told them I would very much appreciate it if they could dump it at my house, which was only ¾ of a mile down the road. Well, he said he would check with his boss and let me know.

He drove into the lane a few hours later. The smile on my face was truly ear to ear! He wanted to know where to dump the load and not get tangled in the overhead power lines. We got it as close as we could to the hoophouse. The person next to the pile is my hired hand-or as I like to call her, Mom. She is one of the bosses in my life. The other one is currently finishing a stretch in Kansas, raising the last son of her remarkable family.

The distance and time of development are always difficult. However, many sacrifices are made no matter when you strike out to find your true path in life and we are working both places for our personal growth and development.

Many of the proceeding articles on this blog were written, pictured, and edited by my Kansas boss. She has talents in many areas of living; Mothering, growing, writing, photographing, nurturing and expressing a wonderful, spiritual nature that beams joy and peace.

Here you can see the hoops being erected. The far end is the north end of the hoophouse. It is opposite the windowed/wood framed end you see in the first picture. The hoophouse sets tight to the little barn and I removed the window on the left and put a full 4x8 foot door as passage from one to the other.

The door is plenty big to transfer equipment, amendments, tools and pallets to the hoophouse. I also keep the heat in the hh and the cold out of the barn. Above the new door will be the whole house fan for controlling the temps during spring, summer and fall.

When I plowed in the spring of 2012 I made sure the ground was turned up all around the hh. This area will be planted in the spring with what I am calling outside crops; Cukes, squash, punkins, cabbage, asparagus, and a grand variety of fresh, good tasting fruits and veggies. Many of these are being planted out because of the room they require. I am going to try to plant according to pounds produced per 100 square feet.

We hope to continue this blog during the year. It should provide some guidance, hope, encouragement and laughter to all who care to read it.

Thanks to all my bosses and thanks also to all the readers of this blog.

Be well; peace…dan

Experiments in the Kansas garden

2012-08-08T15:41:00.002-07:00

My Permaculture Experiment...

With the scarcity of rain becoming more and more of an issue across the US and me planning to grow my own food, now and into the future, I figure I better learn how to conserve water when growing said food. When I learned about a guy named Sepp Holzer growing his food without irrigation, I was baffled. Especially when I saw him pull up radishes the size or turnips! How could he do that?! What magic techniques did he use?

I'm brand new to this type of food growing but it uses principles that make sense. So here's my very first baby step down the road of Permaculture... wish me luck!

I've had these raised bed for a few years now and I've also been doing extended season growing by using hoop houses. This has been great fun. Now to become more efficient in my growing—that sounds like a giant leap forward. I decided to try this in manageable chunks. I started with one small section of a raised bed. I dug out the greens that were past along with a layer of dirt and weeds, placing all of that into my wheel barrel. I still have to separate the weeds from the dirt, but I'm saving that job for tomorrow night.

Excited to see some progress and work through the steps, I dug out another layer of soil and placed it on a large sheet of cardboard. I separated the weed roots as I was digging since there weren't nearly as many the second layer down as there were in the wheelbarrow layer. The principle with permaculture is to layer things with wood fibers that contain cellulose at the base of the bed. When it rains or gets irrigated, the cellulose fibers will swell with water and retain it for use later by the plants. The roots will grow toward the water source. Ingenious! For the first layer, put down newspaper...

The next layer place cardboard. I happened to have this very large chunk of cardboard from something that I decided to save rather than take to recycling. I'm recycling in my own yard! How's that?!

On top of the cardboard, you place logs. I happen to have a lot of logs from all that logging I did at my property last winter; so now I can use some of them in these permaculture beds that I'm setting up.

I don't really know if three logs are enough or if I should put in more. If you have experience with using permaculture, I'm open to suggestions. Send them my way...

I placed a layer of black plastic over the dirt I dug out tonight thinking that by heating up the dirt, I have a chance of baking, aka killing, the weed remnants. I'm not sure how long I need to leave the black plastic on, so again, I'm open to learning.

That's as far as I got with this project tonight... I plan to work on it a bit every night that I don't have some other pressing thing to do.

Just to let you know... after the logs you place the soil... then seed it. Sepp uses a mixture of seeds that he just casts onto the ground. No straight rows or little holes or trenches for him. On top of the seed, place a layer of compost or manure, depending on what you're growing. For mushrooms use manure. For vegetables, use compost. I have a bunch of compost that I've been collecting for a few years now in the back by the shed. I think it's getting time that I start using it.

You may be wondering why am I prepping a bed in August... I'm creating this permaculture bed in my hoophouse area so I can grow through an extended season by covering the area with plastic when the weather turns cool to cold. I'm hoping to have potatoes by winter : )

Other projects that I've been busy with...

Dehydrating herbs and packaging them for use in teas and cooking:

Preserving the abundance of tomatoes this year, Hallelujah! I'm dehydrating both the yellow pear and red tomatoes.

Don't they look terrific?! When you bite into a dried tomato the intensity of the flavor is astounding. It hits your taste buds like nothing else. Some people call them candy because they are so tasty. Really... who'da thunk?!

Then I use my seal-a-meal machine to suck all the air out of the bag and make a seal. It's pretty cool. I'm trying some with olive oil and some just dry.

It almost looks like beef jerky or something... but it's really just tomatoes. Yum... : )

There was also the fun I had with growing Yellow Eggplants... aren't they the most adorable things you ever did see?!

Here they are after harvesting... : )

I turned them into a persian stew, called koresh. Eggplant koresh with lentils is one of my favorites. Really I like many of the koreshes, but it's fun to have enough time to make one now and then.

One day we ran across an apple tree (MacIntosh) on sale, so we snatched that up and planted it. With a peach tree and a pear tree already established, I figured adding an apple tree to the mix was a good idea.

One day we decided to harvest the volunteer potato plant that showed up this season... Trying to teach my kids that food comes from the land, I try to involve my kids a bit at a time so they have these memories to draw from as they go out into the world and need to make their way. Who knows what they may need to do in life and if they know that they can grow their own food and what it looks like, they're way ahead of many folks these days.

We cooked those spuds into one tasty treat. It's really fun to eat food that is just that fresh! Every one walks away with smiles on their faces.

Bon appetit!

A sharp chainsaw is like heaven with cookies and milk!

2012-01-29T16:10:00.001-08:00

Chainsaw Sharpening & Painting the Stumps

The new chainsaw needed to be sharpened... already! Because so many trees, large and small, had been felled that the saw wasn't cutting through the wood as easily as it needed to and there are more trees to trim and log. Thus, a lesson in chainsaw sharpening (say that fast five times) availed itself. I'm such an interested student because I don't know this stuff, never even realized that chainsaws might get to a point of needing to be sharpened, and don't know when I might need to do this task myself someday.

In the era when I was growing up, in my family, there was a clear distinction between 'men's' work and 'women's' work and the two shall never meet. I remember going outside to watch my dad change the oil in the family car. When I came back in the house my mom said, "Don't you EVER do that again!" Wow... what had I done that was so criminal and deserved such a reprimand? Apparently it was watching my dad do a man's job... Now that my mom, and dad, are in the Abha Kingdom, I know that my mom understands these issues more fully and acceptingly and won't mind if I bring this topic to light.

Next weekend we have booked as Backhoe Weekend where we'll be removing stumps, roots, and other such pieces of wood from the ground to help prepare the way for the garden beds that will need to be worked up, the pole barn cement foundation that will need to be laid, and the pathways and driveways that need a smooth surface for traversing. To get ready for that busy weekend, I needed to mark all the wood protrusions with an flourescent bright pink spray paint to make it easier to spot the stumps that need to be removed. We agreed that I would mark them with an "X"... or something close to an X.

I walked and walked and walked around the areas where trees have been felled and knocked down with the Bobcat to locate all the protrusions that needed to be marked. Then Dan and I went around and he pointed out the one's that I had missed. Then I went around again and marked all the additional ones that I could identify by knocking them with my boots.

I just took one snapshot of stumps slated for removal, but you can look in pretty much any direction and see a similar sight. We have lots of work cut out for us for next weekend. My son and his girlfriend are planning to help us so they can get some real life stump removal experience in additional to learning how to drive a backhoe. My other son and his girlfriend 'may' join us the next day. Stay tuned...

In the meantime, there were branches to be removed from the huge cedar tree that was felled recently, so we needed to get cracking at sharpening that chainsaw. A week or so ago we had purchased a chainsaw sharpener at the local farm supply store. I didn't know what it was or how it worked or anything... Dan had set up two saw horses and placed some OSB wood (Oreiented Strand Board) across the saw horses to make a table. Then he unwrapped the chainsaw sharpener from the packaging and connected it to the chainsaw... it just gets placed on top of the blade and screwed on... of course the chainsaw is turned OFF! You need to line up the angle of the sharpener with the angle of the tooth on the chainsaw. 10 degrees up and down and 30 degrees right to left for Husqvarna. The angle depends on the type of saw that you have. Every other tooth goes the other direction, so once you get the angle set to align with one tooth, you can sharpen all those that are aligned in that direction. Then you have to readjust the angle to sharpen the teeth that go the other way. It's a much more manual process than I would have imagined... but that's fine.

To align the sharpener with a tooth, slide the chain to bring up a tooth with the angle that you are going to sharpen...

Here's a close up to really see what I mean...

Then hold the sharpener and go back and forth like you would with a saw to sharpen the tooth. You can hear the sound changing from being a course sound and the sharpener is more difficult to move to when it becomes easier to move back and forth and the sound becomes more even and smooth. Then you know it's sharp and you can proceed to the next tooth that is aligned on that angle. The 'chain' part of the saw can be tugged on to move it into position. I didn't realize how easily the chain could slide. I thought it was more attached to the bar, but apparently not.

Then, one at a time, you move the teeth of the saw to the sharpener. Sharpen it and move on to the next. Do this around the whole chain. Then readjust the angle to align with the opposite angled teeth and repeat for each tooth around the chain. Then unscrew the sharpener attachment and you're ready to go.

When you fire up the chainsaw, it'll be able to cut through the wood much more easily than before... just like a knife sharpened to cut through that Thanksgiving turkey you consumed not so many months ago...!

Bon appetit!

More than a traveling road...

2012-01-23T15:44:00.001-08:00

A Road Less Travelled...

When I read Pathfinders by Gail Sheedy back in the mid-1970s and decided to forge my own path in life, I had no idea that it would entail building a road from scratch in years to come. That day came this week...

In order to get access to the farm property, we needed to create an entrance since the land wasn't accessible directly from the existing county road. We started by clearing volunteer trees and brush from what was supposed to be a road and driving over it many times to 'make' a road. However, when it rained, the road became muddy and threatened to get us stuck on more than one occasion. We knew we'd need to build a road to provide easy access to the property.

Hmmm... what type of gravel to order? How many dump truck loads will it take to build the type of road we want? Where to go to get the best service and the best price? All questions we had to figure out beforehand. When we ordered the first load of 'gravel' to create a driveway over the culverts, they delivered road gravel, which was really thick sand... not exactly what we wanted. Lesson: What we mean by gravel and what the company means can be two different things. So then we learned there is AB gravel, road gravel, 1 1/2" gravel, etc., etc.. That didn't necessarily make it easier, but at least we knew we didn't want road gravel, because the sand caused us to get stuck more than once.

The first two loads delivered were AB gravel. Clearly, better than the sand and we can spread it over the sand driveway to give it more substance and into the parking area on the property.

The next two loads were to be the inch and a half size gravel. The driver showed up with a nice heaping load of gravel. It took me back to the days when my father used to work for the Huron County Road Commission. He had all sorts of road work stories to share at the dinner table.

The driver was to back into the entrance, lift the dump mechanism, and slowly drive out to pour a layer of gravel over as much of the drive as was available.

Watching him work... I became a five-year old spectator again...

The driver did a nice job of pouring the gravel evenly along the road...

With the next load of one and half inch gravel, the driver shaped a triangular entrance to provide a wider area in which to come on the road. Then he dumped the excess onto the AB gravel piles so we have some extra to mix into that batch for the driveway entrance.

Assessing the job from the entrance side of the road, it looked like a job well done... We just have to drive over it for the next several months to pat it down. Yesterday when I walked on the new gravel road, I noticed that it was already settling in nicely and becoming very firm to walk on.

Ahhh....becoming a pathfinder has its own rewards... part of it is letting my core being be seen by the world, rather than just playing a part as an actor in someone else's play. The mysteries of the soul are intertwined with the mysteries hidden in the heart. I'm bringing those out into the open now... and it feels right... and good.

: ) Be happy and be at peace.

Mayo and other foods made at home!

2012-01-17T15:57:00.001-08:00

Mayonnaise... from scratch!

Mayonnaise, to me, has always been a weird condiment. What is this strange matter that people spread on sandwiches, use for making a dressing for coleslaw and potato salad, and often put too much on for my liking? I've heard of recipes claiming that you can make homemade mayonnaise, but I had never taken the time to really look at the ingredients of what goes into mayonnaise. I don't know why, but it always seemed like a strange food; sort of like a non-food. And then there's the Mayonnaise vs. Miracle Whip debate, which I won't go into here.

Growing up in my family, my mother used Miracle Whip. I found it to be a bit too sweet for my tastes. Later in life, I decided to eat foods that hadn't been bastardized in some way, so I stuck to eating only mayonnaise and butter rather than any of there offshoots like Miracle Whip and margarine. I figured that the closer to its unprocessed, or natural, state it was, probably the better for humans. Only later did I find out that margarine is only one molecule away from being plastic and that margarine left unattended will not mold, mildew, attract bugs, or disintegrate. Glad I made that decision for myself early on in life.

In this effort of learning to do more and more for myself and be less dependent on outside processing sources, I decided it was time to take a look at a mayonnaise recipe and do this for myself...

Mayonnaise Ingredients:

1 whole egg, at room temperature

1 egg yolk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon Dijon-type mustard

1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 Tablespoon whey, optional

3/4—1 cup extra virgin olive oil or expeller-expressed sunflower oil or a combination

generous pinch of sea salt

I left the eggs out while I was out for the afternoon to get to room temperature. (They really only need about half an hour.) When I returned home I plunked the eggs in the blender first—one whole egg and one egg yolk separated from the white. Do you know how to separate the yolk from the white? I crack the egg shell in half and pour the yolk into one side of the shell letting the white run out of the shell. I pour the yolk back into the other half of the shell and more of the white will slide off the yolk. I do this back and forth a couple of times until the white has slid off the yolk into my container set below it to catch the white. (You can use the white in an omelette or other dish where you may need more whites like meringue, so you don't waste any.)

Then I added the Dijon-type mustard. I happened to have a little Spicy Brown mustard in my fridge so I used that.

For the lemon juice, I used concentrated lemon juice since I didn't have a fresh lemon laying around.

And the extra virgin olive oil. I used what I had on hand, but I forgot to take a snapshot of it. I'm pretty sure you've all seen extra virgin olive oil before though.

Here's my bag of sea salt that I purchased from the bulk food section of the health food store.

I processed the first four ingredients in my blender for about 30 seconds. The whey, which I didn't use, makes the mayonnaise keep longer (like up to 5 months). Without the whey, the mayonnaise will keep for two weeks in the fridge.

Through the cap top that I removed, I poured the 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil into the blender—a bit at a time—while running the processor. It emulsified nicely; which reminds me of a vinegrette that I make using olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and spicy mustard. I added a generous pinch of sea salt, which I just happened to have in my spice section.

and then tasted it... yum! I mean... really yum! It was soooo good. I could use it as a vegetable dip all by itself without having to add anything else to it! Why didn't I know how good homemade mayonnaise tasted before?! Why hadn't any of my friends ever made homemade mayonnaise? Oh yeah, because in this culture, people hardly cook anymore let alone make their condiments from scratch. For example, when I go to a potluck, my American friends typically show up with bottled dressing for their salads; however, my Persian friends still make their dressing from scratch, fresh each time and the taste difference is significant. Personally, I've long ago converted to eating fresh dressing on my salads. Now, I'll consider making fresh mayonnaise when I need it because 1) it's so easy to do, and 2) the taste is phenomenal. So... give it a try. You won't regret it; and who knows, you may never go back!

I put the date on my homemade label so I don't get confused by my busyness and forget that it expires in two weeks if I haven't devoured it in the first week. When I make something new like this, I take the opportunity to allow those around me take a taste and decide if they want to introduce a new food into their life too. It's a beautiful opportunity.

Bon appetit!

Plans for the little farm...

2012-01-03T14:05:00.000-08:00

Following is a bit of stream of conscienceness (or however you spell that damn word!) on starting up a power grid for our little farm.

First is a power source. For us that will be solar panels. We also want to get hooked into the power lines but the last quote was $15,000 and we can buy an awful lot of panels, and batteries with that money. The first setup will be a couple 185 watt panels. Appx 2x4 ft they weigh probably 30 or so pounds.

These two panels will be hooked to several(now two) deep cycle batteries. We purchase these new looking for the most bang for the buck. They were appx 80 dollars apiece and now starts the search for used/reconditioned ones from golf carts or equipment.

I need some type of electrical conditioner, probably in the future.

I have a 400 watt and a 1000 watt inverter. These will give 110ACv from the 12DCv batteries. Not much yet but a start.

We will be using the old RV for the power point for now. Later a shed will handle this duty and eventually it will move inside of the pole barn/construction warehouse.

I don't have a final total or even a good estimate on the cost of the power center but following is a list of costs to come over the next year on the new little farm...

Small sheds to begin with compact living...

2011-12-28T13:36:00.000-08:00

Small sheds for the asking...

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Once you sign up you will receive the entire package instantly in the Members' Area via downloads. There are easy to follow instructions provided in the members area just in case you have never downloaded anything from the internet before. After making the purchase you will get all the shed plans and woodworking blueprints within 5 minutes. This means that you get the product for a lower price as there are no shipping costs. However, if you prefer buying the CD then you can buy that and it will be sent to you via mail.

Woodworking can be time consuming but making the right plans takes even longer. My Shed Plans Elite provide you a wide range of design to choose from and once you have the design you will be able to construct your shed nicely and it will take less amount of time to build it. It keeps all things simple. The aim of My Shed Plans is to make woodworking a fun activity for you. Once you follow Ryan Henderson's instructions making shed will be a less time consuming and more fun thing to do.

Click on this to find thousands of plans for your small buildings
Some of the plans include a Garden bench, How to Build a Fence, Dog Kennel, Making an Easy Arbor,", Swing Pet, Nursery Wagon, Doghouse Plans, Outdoor Fireplaces, Feed Cart, Storage Shed for Pesticide and a lot more.
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The book also teaches you how you can build shed that costs less. You will be able to build a good shed much cheaper than the overpriced ready-made sheds that you see. If you have the resources you can build a decent shed for nothing at all.

My Shed Plans Elite will explain everything in detail and you don't have to worry about running out of ideas anymore. My Shed Plans Elite package comes with 2 bonuses. The first one is about foundation, roofing and the second one is about woodworking secrets and contains tips and tricks that may prove very useful. The Total price of My Shed Plans Elite is 47$ and there is a money back guarantee in case you feel like returning the book. What's more, you keep the bonus books that you get with it.

I hope this information is of us. I have been building these types of buildings for almost 45 years(maybe, more! hahahaha) and find that they can be not only very useful but now can prove to be the basis for a grand little living stucture.
Quick! Click on this to find thousands of plans for your small/tiny buildings!
Be well; peace....dan

2011-12-28T13:00:00.001-08:00

I am wondering if this will show a hop page to find a wonderful offering of shed and small building plans. Thousands and thousands of plans!

http://www.MyShedPlans.com/cb?cb=jadamktng

Machines only a woman can love...

2011-12-21T06:26:00.000-08:00

Outward Bound 101...or how to get a handle on a treed lot

Every day is a new adventure on the land. Buying land with no amenities gives us all an opportunity to learn through each stage of the process. First order of business—surveying the land. If we know where the four corners of the property are, then we can begin to figure out where the various buildings go.

It was a cold, rainy day, but the surveyors came out and figured out the four corners...

Dan rented a brush hog to clear out some of the brush and start making a pathway where we could begin to work.

After that I was introduced to a skid steer made by Bobcat. They make a small job of getting rid of smaller sized trees.

Before I knew it, I was getting skid steer driving lessons: pedals to manage the bucket, handles to push and pull for forward and backward, how to turn it—handles in opposite directions, and when in doubt you can always turn the key off!

So far so good! My son and his girlfriend came over last weekend and were super excited about learning to drive it, so off we went for nighttime skid steer lessons. Erin was a champ and was driving up a tree learning to fell it with the Bobcat. David went next and snagged his very own tree himself too! That was a fun evening. It made us all re-evaluate what we're currently doing for a living!

Dan picked up a couple of culverts to help with drainage at the place where we are making a driveway entrance.

We ordered a load of gravelly sand to lay over the culverts to start to make a driveway and allow for drainage in the little ditch that is under what will be the driveway.

Seems pretty loose and squishy. I think we should get something to pack it down with. I'm thinking it looks too loose and we could easily get stuck... What if we bought some plywood and placed it on top of the sand for a while while we drive on it to pack it down...

Moving the RV there... well, let's just say we're still working on that! Those boards might have been a good idea...

Onto selective felling of trees. We like that there are trees, but to put up the work structures some of the trees will need to be felled to make room for the buildings. Dan knows what he's doing when it comes to cutting down trees, but how about the rest of us?!

When I rented the chain saw with the skid steer, it was $55 a day. It wouldn't take too many days of renting one to cover the cost of buying one. Off to the local farm supply store we go. It's getting to be my new best friend. After doing some comparison shopping at the local big box store, we learned the farm supply store is competitively priced on this item. We ended up with the 455 series chainsaw by Husquavarna. It's supposed to be a better brand than some of the others and we didn't want an 'e-series' one—short for economy (read cheap). We have a lot of trees to be felled and cut; we need a machine that will do the job.

Danny had the task of reading the Getting Started Instructions out loud, while Dan got it started for the first time, putting in fuel and oil and then pumping the bulb a number of times to purge the air out of the engine. He had to pull the starter rope quite a few times before the engine engaged, but we met with success.

Ready for the first lesson... basic chain saw cutting... Don't sway the chainsaw back and forth; let the saw cut through the tree—like cutting soft butter—it can do it easily.

Then log cutting... Make each log only about 12-14" long so it'll fit into a fireplace or fire pit easily.

Now it's my turn to practice cutting logs...

Ok, I've got it... Danny.... your turn to learn how to cut logs...

Looks like he'll be able to cut logs from now on...

Now that we each know how to cut logs, let's have a real lesson in felling trees! I learned that first you figure out which direction the tree grows naturally—that's the direction that it will want to fall. If the top of the tree is reaching to the east, then you'll need to cut a wedge, or a notch, into the east side of the tree. I started with a horizontal cut about a third of the way into the tree.

Then cut straight down to the notch making a notch. The bigger the notch, the easier it is to turn the tree the direction you want for felling. Here's a close up of Danny making his front notch...

Once the front notch is cut, then make a horizontal cut on the back side of the tree at least 1 inch above the bottom cut of the front notch.

Be very aware at this stage of the tree felling process because if you need to retreat quickly go about 45 degrees back from the direction of the fall—not directly back and certainly not in the front of the tree. This mistake could cost you your life. Here's where you truly need to be careful because what you are doing is certainly taking risk!

With the tree down, the next thing is to cut the small branches from the trunk... of course, Dan made it look more like cutting butter again!

Then he started cutting logs...

We're back to full circle now because we already had the logging lesson...

Oh, time to take Danny to his piano lesson. I'll be back afterwards. Be careful Dan...

Here's a snap of the twig pile and the wood pile Danny and I worked on while Dan was cutting and logging in another area of the woods.

When I got back we had some strategic product placement... That Husquvarna gets the job done!

Look at the size of that tree...!

Today, we decided it was a good day to construct a fire pit/cook stove. We gathered 14 blocks and 6 of the little flat ones... They cost about $18.00 at the big box store, but I had 8 from home. Purchasing 6 of each type.

We placed the six flat ones three wide and two deep encasing them with six blocks and then stacking up from there...

Last week at the farm supply store we purchased a little rack ($12) to use on the cookstove. I placed it on top of what we had so far and with a few minor tweaks, we were good to go. For $30 we have a fire pit/cook stove that can work well for a long time to come. Living frugally gets the job done and can be fun!

Next up, let's gather some dead wood and get something easy to start the fire with. The box for the chain saw could be used as starter fuel and then we'll see if we can get the wood to light. I happen to have some lighters in my car... Having lighters was no accident. Stocking up on lighters when you're making fires frequently seems like a pretty logical thing to do.

I retrieved a newspaper from the car too. It helped get the fire started because it's easier than cardboard. Note to self: Keep some newspaper in the car for starting fires.

When getting a fire started, it's one thing to get the kindling to start... but will the big logs catch fire is the real question.

With the big log lit, it's time to bring in some campfire furniture...

In high school, that would have been a fellow football player he was carrying. With a bit of seasoning, he's directed that strength to carry wood blocks...

With a couple of these in place, we sat by the fire and watched the birds... we saw robins, bluebirds, cardinals, a meadowlark, sparrows, and geese. It was comforting to see and hear so many birds flying and flitting and singing their songs. At my house, I don't see so many birds. It concerns me because I wonder how many are left and how many have died off because of the toxins killing off so many species.

At the end of the day, it's good to practice fire safety and put out the fire. We happened to have a jug of water nearby... off when the fire!

We stacked a few more logs on the pile... not bad for a first effort... there's enough wood stacked to get us by for six months...

Meanwhile back at home this morning... inside the hoop house the temperature was 51 degrees and the veggies and greens where growing strong...

I picked three grocery bags full of greens and veggies this morning...

Check out these organic multi-colored carrots... growing away when most days hover around freezing...

Check out the harvest... kale, spinach, cilantro, carrots, onions, lettuce, swiss chard, arugula...

I made a fine lunch of fresh salad with a balsamic vinegrette dressing with pinto bean hummus, deviled eggs, tortilla chips, and sweet and sour pickles from the summer.

Bon appetit! at Chez Kansas... : )

I can can, can't I?

2011-09-04T09:21:00.000-07:00

Can I Learn How to Can?

After last week's abundant harvest, I knew the time had come for me to cross over into new territory... grownup territory... stuff my mom, aunts, and other mature women in my hometown did every summer. What they engaged in was hot. It looked labor intensive. It took a long time. And I didn't want anything to do with it. Canning. Preserving food. Putting up stores... for the winter. I remember participating once—at my sister's—and I didn't have fond memories of it. It was hot. It took a long time. And it just wasn't any fun. Why do this, I thought at the time? And I stayed away for as long as I could...

Then I experienced my harvest of this summer. I've been eating cucumbers like there's no tomorrow. I can't keep up! I give them away. I give them to whomever I think would enjoy them. Unfortunately, I'm really the only dedicated cucumber eater in my house. So I started simply, turning to refrigerator pickles. They are innocent enough. Just soak them in salted water for 24 hours, then follow the pickling steps the next day. Put them in containers (they don't even have to be canning jars) and refrigerate. They'll keep in the fridge for up to 6 months. Hey, that's pretty cool. I can do that. And so I have. I think I'm on my fourth or fifth batch this summer. I eat platefuls of sweet and sour pickles—not the typical three slices on the side of a plate. Heck no! They fill my whole plate and I have cheese slices on the side! I call that lunch! So then I thought, heck, I can't keep up with this. These cucumbers and pickles are coming out of my ears! Maybe I better at least buy the canning jars and bottle them up so they look nice. They'll look better for giving away and maybe won't take up so much refrigerator space.

So I did. I bought the Ball jars. I packed the refrigerator pickles in the jars and put pretty labels on them to keep track of when I packed each batch. I put them in the back of my fridge. OK, not bad, but I could quickly see how this too could get out of hand. I have a small refrigerator. How many weeks of this could I take?

You can see how they are stacking up—columns and rows!

Hmmmm... I guess I'll need to learn how to can—grownup style. Like my mom did. Besides I have some beets in my fridge taking up space and I've been eating them every week too. Wouldn't it be nice to taste some beets in the middle of winter? I went online and ordered a canner. It came. Oh, I didn't buy the right one according to one who knows. I was advised to get a pressure canner because it takes less time and you can use it for pressure cooking too and you always have the option of canning in the traditional bath method without the pressure part engaged. OK, that makes sense. It's like having three pots in one and I don't have that much storage space, so I better just get one canner. I returned the first one—the traditional blue with white/grey specks that we've seen since we were kids and ordered a 10 quart Fagor 9 piece pressure canner. It comes with the pressure canner/cooker, canning cookbook, pressure cooking book, canning rack, stainless funnel, stainless steel ladle, jar lifter, jar wrench, bubble freer, magnetic lid lifter, a DVD on how to do this stuff (very exciting!) and a manual. And... can you believe it, the first one was delivered on Monday, returned on Tuesday, and the Fagor one was delivered on Friday. All in a week's time! I was amazed. Isn't it pretty?!

I watched the DVD... it was encouraging. It looked simple enough and was very explanatory. Maybe I can do this. I boiled the beets from the fridge. It didn't seem like I had too many so I thought I wouldn't have much to can. It seemed like it would be a half of a canning effort. I can start small. If I mess up, it won't be so bad—only one batch of beets.

I washed the canner and all the supplies that came with it. I washed the Ball jars, lids, and the rings. I put the canning rack inside the canner placing the lids and the rings in a container and just two pint-sized Ball jars next to them. I added some water and brought it to a boil. Then I let it set to keep them hot while I made the canning solution for the beets.

I cut the beets in quarters and then sliced them in half inch slices. Wow, they really filled up the bowl more than I thought they would!

The Pickled Beet recipe sounded pretty good. I made the brine with cider vinegar with a 5% acidity, local honey, kosher salt, cinnamon sticks, allspice (I didn't have whole so I used ground, but less in quantity) and black peppercorns. I brought it to a simmer. And voila...

Then I added the sliced beets to the canning solution. I carefully took the jars out of the canner with the boiling hot water using the jar lifter and I removed the lids and the rings too. Then I put the stainless steel funnel on top of one of the jars and ladled the beets into the funnel. The jars filled quickly. I realized I needed two more jars, which I prepared quickly and then filled them. I placed the jars back into the canner. The recipe I was using called for the traditional bath canning, which I did, because I figured I could learn how to do it both ways and then have a point of comparison. Since I haven't canned in over 40 years a refresher in the traditional way didn't seem like a bad way to go. I brought the water (1 inch over the top of the jars) to a boil and let them boil for 30 minutes. This would kill all the bacteria and give them a chance to seal.

I removed them from the canner placing them in an out of the way spot to set for 12 hours. Don't they look amazing! The one on the right in front has a long cinnamon stick inserted front and center. I imagine that they will taste pretty scrumptious...

The next step is to test the lids in one hour. I have to press down on the center of each of the lids; if it can be pushed down, it hasn't sealed, and the jar should be refrigerated immediately. If I can't push the center down, then a seal has been created and it was a success. I'm hoping for that. I have to check them in 23 minutes... wish me luck!

Let me know about your canning adventures and any wise tips that you can pass along. I feel like I'm one step closer to survival living. I might be able to do this enough to actually make it through a winter! Not this year yet, but I'm practicing for the years to come. And Bon appetit!

Lifetime Fitness: On Your Way to A Healthier You

2011-08-02T15:05:00.001-07:00

Lifetime Fitness: On Your Way to A Healthier You

Many people end up abandoning perfectly good fitness programs and weight-loss regimens before they even lace up their sneakers.

Why? Because in a world filled with fast food, instant messaging, and a five-second disease-tracking device, anything without a quick payoff goes against the grain of the typical American instant gratification ethic. While it would be nice to actually drop inches in just a few days like what most miracle ads proclaim, managing weight and losing weight through physical fitness is a slow and steady process that takes time and commitment.

Setting weight management goals for you can be a good motivator. Gradual weight loss, for those people who wish to shed off some extra pounds, is usually the safest.

That is why health and fitness experts had come up with the idea of lifetime fitness in order to teach people set realistic goals. These lifetime fitness programs generate dietary regimens that cut your normal calorie consumption for your weight by 500 to 1,000 per day, so will burning the same amount with exercise. In turn, this will definitely encourage healthier weight loss.

Lifetime fitness teaches you how to maintain a physically fit body at the same time enjoy and live a happy, contented life. It gives you the chance to strike a balance between the two (exercise and diet), and make exercise, be it team sports, cycling, or walking, something you will truly enjoy.

That is why lifetime fitness embodies the concept that making a long-term healthy lifestyle change is essential to keeping the pounds off once they are gone.

To know more of the advantages and benefits that lifetime fitness can bring, here are some facts that you need to know:

1. Lifetime fitness programs offer you the most comprehensive and wide-ranging fitness and health encounter with quality services, in which the customers will feel gratified.

These fitness programs provide you the right method in maintaining health, build up and encourage your competence, and take care of your family's physical fitness as well.

2. Because the goal of lifetime fitness is to provide you with long-term achievements as far as physical fitness is concerned, these programs utilizes numerous fitness equipment that will tone and manage your health and the different parts of your body.

There are fitness equipments that will give your cardiovascular system a lift. You can also opt for some sports facilities that will provide you with an alternative way of being physically fit.

3. Lifetime fitness programs and centers also provide nutritional products such as food supplements that will aid in the formation of good blood cells and tissues thereby making your body at its pink of health.

Lifetime fitness centers and programs also provide you with up-to-date fitness magazines that do not only give substantial information about fitness and health but inspirational stories as well. These articles will give you an insight on how to make your life balance and how to live a life that is healthy and fit.

Indeed, staying fit and healthy can be a long and winding road and there are instances wherein you may find your enthusiasm fading occasionally. Nevertheless, with the comprehensive programs provided by lifetime fitness plans, you can start heading back to the right track of a healthier you.

Devote Yourself to Lifetime Fitness

The healthier you are. The more productive you become.

Once a person is healthy there is a great chance that he would have fewer absences, either in school or in work. Most importantly, he is capable of handling stress as well as develops a more positive attitude.

A healthy person may live a longer life. And, enjoy its whole span with a healthy body and mind.

This healthiness can be achieved through a consistent fitness exercise. For you to secure an unfailing health, you must commit to fitness for your lifetime. This is not an exaggeration.

A lifetime commitment on fitness will make you safe from the miserable feeling of obesity. Dr. David Satcher, formerly a general surgeon, identified that the excess weight of the body is epidemic.

He stated that this type of epidemic caused the deaths of almost 300,000 people yearly. In fact, excessive body weight becomes the secondary cause of death in America.

Most physicians never fail to remind their patients, as well as the whole public that physical fitness is the primary cure to avoid these threatening diseases. But why is it that more and more people have become unhealthy?

The fact that excessive body weight can harm a person's health is not anymore news, for it is a fact that has long been existing. This is neither history, because it is not yet resolved.

Instead, this existing truth is a problem that worsens through time. The health problems mark a dramatic increase. One of its causes is the lack of physical fitness.

The system of the contemporary society requires more of human effort and time. Fast moves, rush paces, almost every adult is always in a hurry. That they don't find some time for conducting a physical exercise.

People tend to ignore the most vital ingredient of a daily routine, exercise. And the problem was worsened by technology.

Nowadays, you can climb staircases with stationary feet, escalators and elevators are everywhere. You never mind to stand up from your chair to take your files from other table for you can just easily move your swivel chair.

So, where else will you place fitness?

Fitness is a thing that needs not to be taken for granted. Everything now is instant, food especially. Certainly, you don't want an instant life too. Then, a lifetime commitment on fitness is your key to lengthen your life.

Engage yourself to fitness exercises, and make it as a part of your life. Always think that it is an important meal that you should not miss in a day.

If you are truly busy, you can opt for a 24 hours fitness center. The service there will always be compatible to your schedule, undoubtedly.

Consider this; you are doing your best to cope up with time. You work to earn for a living, to support your family and enjoy life as well.

But think, will you really be able to use and enjoy your investments when your health has already deteriorated?

So, you must invest in good health too. And that is through a lifetime commitment on physical fitness.

Seven Fitness Tips: Improving the Quality Of Life

Physical fitness refers to the human body's ability to function without too much fatigue. Thus the energy stored is enough to do leisure activities as well as overcome physical stresses with alertness and vigor. General alertness, muscular endurance and strength, and cardio vascular reliability are the obvious signs that you are physically fit.

Normally, physical fitness is measured according to expected functions of the body associated with endurance, strength, coordination, flexibility, and agility. Moreover, stress testing also ascertains the accommodation of the body to a sustained, powerful stimuli used in analyzing fitness.

The physical fitness levels are influenced by systematic, regular exercise. Moderate activities keep the person at a certain level enough to deal with ordinary stress. Improving the levels of fitness needs more intensive exercises which promotes changes and challenge physiological systems.

There are seven fitness tips that can help you improve the quality of your life.

1. Daily exercise. Every day perform some movements that can elevate the rate of your heart. It can simply include walking when buying things in the market nearby. Doing household chores like washing clothes, mowing lawns, and other chores may be done also.

2. Eat more veggies. Vegetables and fruits will keep you energized and healthy. Plants in its natural state contain lots of fibers and nutrients. Organic fruits and vegetables must be preferred if possible since it is free from any chemical contamination.

3. Weight train. Muscles are weakened as you age. Do resistance training to create hypertrophy. This helps you look younger and adds more quality into your life.

4. Circuit train. This is a form of weight training which enables you to continually move from one workout to another. Following this practice can improve your heart rate during the whole workout doubling your cardio session.

5. Train functionally. Incorporate some movements into your daily exercise which benefit or mimic your practiced movements in the actual world. Sports are good for functional training because the body is required to move in an efficient way. Functional training can keep your body balanced making it more resistant to illnesses and injuries.

6. Stretching your body as you warm up. Muscle contraction is achieved through resistance training making it tighter and smaller. Similar to all types of cardio, simple resistance training is also great. Warming up the body through stretching is helpful after exercises.

7. Hydrate. There are about more than 60% of water in the human body. However, more often you became under hydrated because of some common beverages causing dehydration. It includes coffee, soda, alcohol, and tea. As much as possible, drink a lot of water while following the required eight glasses of water a day.

These are simple strategies to keep your body fit. But more people have failed to achieve it because they are telling themselves they cannot do any exercise because of their family and job. Never forget that you can stop from working if you get sick. Likewise, if you are dead, you can never be with your family. So, it is your decision to put exercise first on your priorities. After all, those people dependent on you are more important.

Fat Man, Never Think That Weight Has Something to Do With Fitness

Men are considered voracious eaters, besides acquiring some bad habits such as drinking and smoking. They are not aware of their body's health, until one day, they have realized that fats have already invaded their stamina dramatically diminishing them.

However, there is always a misconception that weight is directly associated with fitness. So, the tendency is to look for different methods on how to burn fats. It is a fact that weight has some effects on your fitness especially if you are overweight.

The only thing that will affect your fitness is related on how you do your exercises. You can start to improve your body and stay in shape if you exercise. In return, you can slim down your body.

If your goal is losing weight and maintain it, then you should be thinking about working on your entire physical fitness than simply reducing some portion of your normal diet. This is the wrong way of losing weight. Your fitness plan must start with doing your exercises.

Following a certain diet without daily exercise can be effective in losing weight. But it will just burn your muscle tissues. Later on, you will lose your bodily strength as well as your fitness. It is useless. If you exercise more, you can build and tone your muscles. Your body is burning fat in the right way, losing weight effectively and getting a fitter body. Doing this simultaneously can change your figure, from a fat man to a fit man.

Whichever cases, regular exercise can improve your fitness compared with someone who never performs any exercise regardless of weights. Take note, combining your diet plan with regular exercise is a very efficient and effective way of attaining a fit and healthy body. Improve your fitness by doing more than one simple exercise. You should explore different types of exercise to burn more calories, like doing cardiovascular exercises and basic strength training.

Cardiovascular exercises can increase the rate of your heart by significant amounts. This will help you build your stamina especially if done on a regular basis. As your exercise progresses, constantly increase both the frequency and time of your exercises.

Strength training exercises are also significant. It does not only increase your actual fitness but also tones your body. Muscular strength can be achieved giving you more confidence. You can feel young and beautiful too.

It does not necessarily mean becoming a weightlifter. You don't need bulging muscles through your exercise. Small amounts of strength training are enough. There are many options besides lifting weights. You can choose from a lot of strength training workouts that suits your needs. Some can even be done at home without any equipment.

As a result, a more fit body is achieved. Weight does not matter, what it takes is your determination. You don't need to stay and be satisfied with your present look. There is always a room for change and it begins from you. Never think of your weight, just do your exercises.

The Importance of Physical Fitness

One of the simplest and most effective ways to bring down blood glucose levels, cut the risk of cardiovascular disease, and improve overall health and well-being is physical fitness and exercise. Yet, in our increasingly sedentary world, where almost every essential task can be performed online, from the driver's seat, or with a phone call, exercising and being physically fit can be tough case to sell.

In reality, everyone should exercise, yet survey shows that only 30% of the United States adult population gets the recommended thirty minutes of daily physical activity, and 25% are not active at all.

Inactivity is thought to be one of the key reasons for the surge of type 2 diabetes in America, because inactivity and obesity promote insulin resistance and other factors that trigger other kinds of diseases.

The good news is that it is never too late to get moving, and exercise is one of the easiest ways to start controlling the onset of any kinds of diseases. For people who are already candidates for some serious diseases like diabetes and heart failure, exercise and physical fitness can improve the condition of some parts of the body like insulin sensitivity, lower the risk of heart disease, and promote weight loss.

In 2003, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism had published an issue regarding the result of their study and found out that lack of exercise and physical fitness were the key factors behind obesity and other serious diseases like diabetes.

Hence, it is extremely important for a person to stay healthy and be physically fit in order to avoid such illnesses.

Getting Started

The first order of business with any exercise plan, especially if you are a 'dyed-in-the-wool" couch potato, is to consult with your health care provider.

If you have cardiac factors, your doctor may want to perform a stress test to establish a safe level of exercise for you.

Certain complications of some diseases will also dictate what type of exercise program you can take on. Activities like weightlifting, jogging, or high-impact aerobics can possibly pose a risk for people with diabetic retinopathy due to the risk for further blood vessel damage and possible "retinal detachment."

Health experts also contend that patients with severe peripheral neuropathy or PN should avoid foot-intensive weight-bearing exercises such as long-distance walking, jogging, or step aerobics and opt instead for low-impact activities like swimming, biking, and rowing.

If you have conditions that make exercise and physical fitness a challenge, your provider may refer you to an exercise physiologist who can design a fitness program for your specific needs.

If you are already active in sports or work out regularly, it will still benefit you to discuss your regular routine with your doctor.

The bottom line is that physical fitness and exercise should not have to be a rigid activity and should not come off strong. Your exercise routine can be as simple as a brisk nightly neighborhood walk, walking the dog, or simply taking the stairs instead of the elevator. The important thing is that you keep on moving. Every little bit really helps a lot.

In the end, you will realize that the many things that good food can bring you are equally the same as what physical fitness can do for you.

Keeping Fit, Be a Hit!

Whether you’re under 30, a yuppie in your mid-20s or a teenager in college, loving your body and engaging in a regular exercise work-out plan is always a fool-proof way to a healthier you. Physical fitness is your body's ability to do tasks and leisure activities. It is your body's capacity to withstand stress, endure and perform certain tasks under certain circumstances.

Physical fitness talks about an over-all focus on the body – the heart, the lungs, the muscles, and the other organs of the body. Your body's fitness is dependent on your physical limitations and capacities as well as your lifestyle – the food you eat and your daily habits.

Here's a backgrounder on the different components of physical fitness. There's endurance, the body's ability to sustain oxygen and nutrients to tissues over a sustained period of time. Strength, on the other hand, is the ability of the muscle to exert force for a period of time. Flexibility is the ability to move joints and use muscles in a wide range of activities and movements. Swimming, running and jogging are some of the activities that can build endurance while pushups and weight lifting are good for building muscle strength.

Your workout should include activities that should develop these components. Remember to have a warm-up before starting your work-out. A warm-up conditions and prepares the muscles for the more rigorous activities of your work-out plan. At the same time, it should end with a cool down, a moment wherein the muscles are given time to relax after a heavy work-out session. Remember not to overdo your exercise. A daily walk may sound good, but a daily session of pushups may do more harm than good to your muscles. Space your physical activities such that the body is used to a variety of physical activities, ranging from the simple to the more complex, from cardiovascular exercises to strength exercises. Two to three work-out sessions for a week is a good way to start. As you progress in your activities, you can now increase the frequency or duration of your exercises.

Take note of your diet. If you’re exercising because you want to lose weight at the same time build up your fitness, then the less calorie intake you have the better. Cycling can burn 240-410 calories while jogging can burn 740-920 calories. In general, avoid salty food and sweets. Avoid alcohol, caffeine and nicotine. Lessen your intake of saturated fat and take lots of water.

Of course, keeping fit and staying fit means listening to your body. Allow your body to adjust with each change in routine and exercises. If you’re experiencing cramps, dizziness or prolonged weakness, stop your work-out and consult a doctor. And most of all never be discouraged. Take note, achieving the body you want is not an overnight miracle.

A physically fit body does not only spell abs to die for and a flab-free stomach. It also means lesser chances of acquiring lifestyle-related diseases like diabetes and heart disease. It also spells a more active and alert mind, improved ability to cope with stress, and more reserved energy for your daily activities. And let's not forget a more confident YOU!

Gardening, cooking and living!

2011-07-09T10:56:00.001-07:00

Solar Cooking Experiment

Today's the day! I'm going to try to bake brownies using a homemade, makeshift solar cooker. There are some easy, schmeezy directions online that show a person how to put together a solar cooker without much money invested. First off, I had to gather the supplies and mix the brownie dough. We bought some dark outdoor cooking pots and pans at a super discount specifically because they are dark and will attract the sunlight to them. I like adding chocolate chips to the batter because when you're eating the brownies it adds just that bit of extra gooeyness to them that makes them so much more yummy.

Then I pulled out the biggest box I had available and lined it with two long sheets of aluminum foil, shiny side up.

Before:

After, with the pot of brownies placed inside:

I decided that I'd also use this white board I have and place it outside so I can keep track of what's going on with it and, perhaps, be a bit informative for the passersby. I'm a teacher by training, so these experiments that I engage in are also good for instructional uses and I think the world is my classroom!

Next, I took some of the insulation that was left over from doing the steel roof (this was Dan's idea) and, since it has a silver, reflective coating on it, use it to make the parabolic dish that one sees in the solar cookers online. I took two attached sheets and bent them on the diagonal, so they'd be able to bend like I needed them too. Additionally, I saw that they used clip clothespins online, so I thought I'd try that.

Facing it toward the sun... bam-O! Let's see how much this baby heats up and how long it takes to bake a batch of brownies. We have lots of sun here, so we might as well use it. With these Kansas winds, however, they tend to blow things around and in the redirecting of the cooker, I learned that the traditional clothes pins don't have the stamina that's needed. I removed those and replaced them with the binder clips you can get at office supply stores.

That's better... those clips really do a much better job in holding the pieces together.

Dan suggested that I take the thermometer out of the oven and put it on the solar cooker to see what temperature it's getting to. Good suggestion. I did that and checked on it a bit later and it was registering 150 degrees Farenheit.

The guess is that at 150 degrees, it'll take about six hours to bake. Maybe by the time I'm back from the Martyrdom of the Bab, the brownies will be ready. We could have them for dessert tonight. Ahhh... anticipation...!

Solar cooking isn't the only thing I was up to today. I brought in a bountiful harvest again—making the fourth one this week!

Zucchinis, cucumbers both English and burpless, jalapenos, green peppers, and tomatoes.

And... while walking around the garden beds, we happened to notice six cantalope developing and being close to picking time.

Doesn't it look luscious! Can't wait til it's ready for picking!

This cooking and gardening stuff is really fun. I hope you enjoy reading about it and looking at the pictures as much as I do in going down this path to simpler living.

Bon appetit!

We have our first eBook published on Amazon!!!

2011-06-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

We have our first eBook published on Amazon!!!

June 19, 2011 by dan rapson (Edit)
Filed under Featured, Green Living Information, Green Living Tips, Living Green Books, projects

Fences, greens, vegetables, and rain...

2011-06-19T07:56:00.001-07:00

Building the Fence

This Saturday, in addition to the harvesting of greens and vegetables that I do every weekend, Dan decided to finish installing a fence in the utility area of the yard. In this community, fences are restricted to chain link fencing only with heights of either 36" or 42". It was a bit of a challenge to find a supplier of 42" chain link fencing, but one new place in town stocked it. The 36" fence was just too short for my preferences. Most of the other places in town stocked 48" fencing, but this place doesn't allow it. Luckily, one place carried what I needed.

After purchasing the supplies a week ago, waiting for the weather to cooperate, and having the underground utilities marked on the grass, Dan dug the holes for the fence posts yesterday, securing them with cement and waited for them to dry. Originally it was thought that the fence would hook onto the back of the shed; however, once we saw where the utility lines were, we decided to move the fence line back a couple of feet and allow for another free flow entry area into the the workspace.

Today he proceeded to dig another for the gate, install the gate, and put up the chain link with the braces. Getting those clamps to hold the chain link can be a bit of a challenge as the fencing has to be taught enough to be straight, yet with just enough give to be able to get a clamp around the edge. This was harder than I thought! Of course, upper body strength has always eluded me. Fortunately, some clamps and man muscles got the job done.

In the utility work area there is the shed for tools and supplies infinitum, a tall ladder hung on the side of the shed, the compost area constructed from used pallets and painted to match the shed and the house, a kitchen table sawed in half and secured to the side of the house with a long board and some screws, the trash bin, and the portable green house. The daughter of the neighbor who gave us the table couldn't believe that a table could be sawed in half and used as such! Children of this generation just haven't seen these practices exhibited by the adults in their lives as was done by the adults of my parent's generation. My parents, having grown up during the Depression learned to use everything they had in their lives and wasted nothing. My generation who grew up with abundance bought stuff and threw it out, gave it away, or sold it at garage sales. I haven't seen people be so clever as to take stuff and repurpose it as was done by the generation before me. Perhaps this Recession/Depression (depending on if you are out of work or not) will help us remember some of the practices of the past and discover bounty that once was overlooked.

One of the neighbors said she'd bring over three more pallets for making another compost bin. By so doing, there can be the initial dumping area of the kitchen scraps (Keep in mind only fruits, vegetables, egg shells, egg cartons, and newspaper go into the compost from inside the house. No meat or meat juices of any kind. This keeps the critters out of the compost.), a second pile in the large bin for the compost that is mid-way in the breakdown process, and the last bin for the compost that is fine, decomposed, and ready to use. We have found that the vegetables that have had the compost added to its soil are strong and excellent producers. Straw, egg cartons (the paper kind), and shredded newspaper can also be added to the compost to add bulk and air and fiber.

One neighbor and another friend have already asked if they can bring their vegetable waste to our compost bin as a way of incorporating recycling into their lives and teaching their children good habits about how to be in the world. It just makes me happy that something as simple as a compost bin can help to bring people together. Great job, Dan... another excellent construction job!

As for the week's harvest... my camera is going kerplunky some of the time and the images end up being pink and smeared. Anyone have experience with this symptom and what could be wrong with my camera? I have a Canon PowerShot A95. I've had for the last 10 years or so; maybe it's time to replace it. I really like this camera because it's not too heavy, takes good pictures, is easy to use and upload onto my computer, and is generally just swell. I hate the thought of parting with it, but maybe there's something better out that coming into my life. Suggestions welcome.

During the week, the harvest included three large heads of cauliflower, five zucchinis, three tomatoes, another bunch of beets that I've already boiled and will be preparing to eat for lunch before long, and three bags of lettuce and greens. The jalepenos will be ready for picking this week. The green beans are sending out their tendrils to cling to the supports provided for them. They look pretty terrific. Coming from heirloom seeds, I'm interested in find out what kind of bean they produce and will be interested in capturing some of their seeds.

I harvested the rest of the arugula seed pods and am beginning the drying process of them.

There is a lot involved in this gardening adventure. Pretty soon we'll be taking a peak at the potatoes at the bottom of the potato tower to see how far along they have come in their development. oooooh! Can't wait!

Bon appetit!

May wellness and peace be upon you.

Chinese horoscope, astrology and RV camping!

2011-06-17T08:51:00.001-07:00

I found one of those Chinese type articles today and discovered I am a Snake. And I go well with the Rooster and the Ox. I also go very well with the Goat; maybe because she is so close to the Rooster year or Ox year.

Things are getting busy and I am in the process of learning not only some software but also how to put together different writings and market them. There is lots of work to do on this front but I am meeting more and more people who want to help and be helped!

Aquarius

Were you born under the sign of Aquarius? What a compassionate and generous person you are. And did you know that there really is an Age of Aquarius. It wasn't just a songwriter's concept in the musical, Hair. Just as there are individual zodiac signs, so are the eras of human history divided into 2000-year segments of what's called the Great Year. We just left the age of Pisces, which began at the beginning of the Christian era until the year 2000. It was a time marked by fluid changes in politics and governments. Pisces, of course, is the sign of the Fish, the symbol of Christianity.

We are now in the Age of Aquarius, but only just in the dawn of it, like the song said. All the wonderful, generous characteristics of the Water Bearer are not yet symbolic of humanity as a whole yet, as evidenced by the current turmoil in the Middle East. But there are signs. Remember the Random Acts of Kindness. Perhaps those were a harbinger of the Age of Aquarius.

If YOU are an Aquarian, then you were born between January 20 and February 18. You are a humanitarian and more intelligent than most and given to thoughts of how to make the world a better place. You can be inventive and original, and you’re freedom-loving. You’re generous with your thoughts, whether people are interested or not! You can be eccentric and idiosyncratic, and need a lot of space, but your heart is nearly always in the right place.

Who's the right partner for the highly intelligent and quirky Aquarian? Someone who can appreciate their generous qualities and share their beliefs. Someone who is willing to explore and grow with them. An Aquarian will be happiest with someone who is open-minded, who is warm and understanding and willing to be a helpmate. While that may be the ideal for just about anyone, it's especially important for an Aquarian to be able to have a partner who will share their passion for creating a better world and their generous nature.

Snake

Being a Snake ourselves, we should be able to recite our Chinese restaurant placement profile by heart, but here it is anyway: Born in the years 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989 and 2001. Wise and intense with a tendency towards physical beauty. Vain and high tempered.

The Snake is an interesting mix of extroversion paired with introversion, intuitive reasoning paired with business savoir-faire. Snakes are considered to be lucky with money and will generally have more than enough to live life to the fullest, regardless of how important it considers money to be; this may be due to the fact that Snakes tend to be rather tight with cash. They're not stingy; they're simply more mentally than physically active. Snakes tend to hang back a bit in order to analyze a situation before jumping into it. Their charming, seductive quality actually belies a rather retiring nature; this Sign is perfectly happy to spend the whole day curled up with a good book and, thus, can be mislabeled as being lazy.

The Snake is somewhat insecure deep down and tend to be a rather jealous, possessive lover, behavior that can end up alienating loved ones. Despite these less-than-stellar tendencies, however, the Snake often proves irresistible and is a generous, loving partner. Slightly dangerous and disarmingly smart, the Snake's philosophical and intuitive mind generally supersedes logic in favor of feelings and instinct. Snakes will rely on their own gut reactions and intuitions before turning to others for suggestions. This makes this Sign a great hand in any business venture, possessing the caution and smarts needed to get ahead.

In general, of course, Snakes are generous and genteel, charming and appealing. Snakes must try to learn humility and to develop a stronger sense of self. Once Snakes realize that confidence comes from within, they will finally be comfortable in their own skin. The most compatible match for a Snake is the Rooster or the Ox.

Goat

If you were born in the year 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991 or 2003 then you are a Goat. You’re elegant and creative, somewhat timid and prefer anonymity. You are most compatible with Pigs and Rabbits, but don't mix it up with the Ox.

Goats tend to have a hard time with romance; anyone who couples up with a Goat must know, this Sign has a sensitive streak a mile wide and can be subject to bouts of anxiety over seemingly inconsequential things. Goats need plenty of love, support and open reassurance from their lovers. If a relationship is marked by conflict, the Goat will often pull away — either physically or simply by retreating into the safe haven of its imagination.

If the romance is going well, however, Goats won't hesitate to tell their partner what they need — and they can be quite insistent about it. This Sign will definitely return the favor, however; the Goat has a luxurious side that delights in indulging a lover's every wish. Appearances are also important to the Goat, which may explain why these folks can spend hours primping and posing.

Goats are generally most comfortable in their own minds (which other, more linear-thinking Signs may have trouble deciphering). This Sign makes a great craftsperson or artisan, or perhaps a teacher of New Age studies — any occupation that allows its mind the full range of freedom. Goats tend not to be very well-organized, precluding many more dry business endeavors. In fact, Goats tend not to be very materialistic in general, finding plenty of riches in their own imagination. However, especially when in love, the Goat can be quite a lavish gift-giver.

And finally-

Rv Camping

Camping with an RV can be particularly enjoyable for any sightseer. Camping by RV has become more widely popular with the start of the baby boomers reaching retirement age. Camping with an RV gives your camping experience a new carefree twist. Just pull into any campsite nationwide, pay your campsite fee and you are almost certain to have a great time. While camping in each area, make sure you discover the exclusive benefits unique to your location.

Most of the places to enjoy camping with your RV are pay sites. Some places are still available with free camping options although these may have little to no amenities. Some of the most common places for camping with an RV are in places with full hookups for electricity and water. It is also common to have a dumpsite for wastes at these camping locations.

You can easily make a camping experience take you from coast to coast with a new location for camping every night if you wish. It is generally much cheaper to get a camping spot than it would be to stay in a hotel and you have all of the necessities inside your movable home. Most RV's have a nice awning on one or both sides of the vehicle so that you can spend a good amount of time in the shade even while enjoying a sunny day. When Camping with an RV there is a very good opportunity to take every possible convenience with you as you travel from one camping location to the next campsite.

Some RV camping locations have WiFi internet so that you can wirelessly connect to the internet while camping. While doing so you can look up RV campsite locations in areas you plan to visit in the near future. Most of the camping websites give information on availability and amenities for your visit. While camping at many of the locations across the USA you can find opportunities to go fishing, hike or bike nature trails and even participate in rock climbing. You will be amazed as you look around at your options, because some camping locations will have stores nearby for shopping and others with have horses for trail-riding excursions. It is possible to find some with walking access to swimming holes, and hot pots or artesian water holes for soaking in.

It would seem that you will never run out of new RV camping options. RV camping locations are becoming more popular all the time and with the baby boomer generation continuing to retire it is sure to become a favorite camping option for many more people every day. In response to this demand, the RV camping suppliers are becoming more visible with their mainstream marketing. Even now it is becoming extremely popular for home builders to make a parking area with an RV gate for potential buyers.

Although RV camping requires a much larger upfront cost in order to either buy or rent your RV, it places you in a position to have an almost unlimited amount of camping possibilities!

Now if any of you would like to send me a note about one of these topics I promise I’ll try to incorporate it into the next book I do that uses one of the main ideas above.

Everyone have a great weekend and get outside and BREATHE!!! Be well; peace…dan

With the wild winds of Kansas and lots and lots of water!

2011-06-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

Who says you can't grow Beets here?!

Ah, Saturday... Since I've undertaken this rather intensive approach to food growing, Saturday mornings are my time to give the garden my full attention. After the workaday week, I relish the thought of connecting with earth, sunlight, warmth, nature, and plants growing in my yard.

After picking most of the green leaf lettuce before it bolted, I looked around at how the other plants were progressing. The lettuce was abundant. In fact all the greens after being picked and washed yielded 6 quart-sized bags of produce. It was a most interesting week of discovery...

To thin out some of the beets allowing the remaining ones more space in which to grow, I discovered that the existing beets were doing just fine—developing beet heads that were maturing robustly. I read an article from our local nursery earlier that said you can't grow beets in Kansas, so I figured I'd just be harvesting the beet greens... it turns out that I can grow beets in Kansas, so I don't know where that untruth came from, but the one's in my yard are growing just fine... thank you very much! Don't they look delicious?

The plants are all growing well. Dan has been watering and fertilizing and applying compost as needed. This past week had been particularly hot registering in the 100s about three days this week. He watered at least four days this week, with soaker hoses, for several hours each time. I've learned that when plant leaves are beginning to yellow it often means that they are not getting enough water. Give them some water and they'll green right up!

This is my first year growing Jalepenos... so it's exciting to me to see them starting to develop fruit...

Check out these babies. There are four jalepeno plants, so I'm looking forward to many flavorful dishes to enjoy them in.

The potato plants in the potato towers were growing and growing and growing away... Dan decided to use straw this week in the layering of the towers, still leaving some of the plant tops exposed to continue the growth process. Additionally, he added another layer of chicken wire around the plants so they can grow to their capacity. The plants seem healthy and strong. I can't wait to see the new potatoes underneath that have developed.

A couple of weeks ago after noticing the caulflower heads that are developing, I was informed that by tieing them up to cover the head helps keep the head white rather than having it turn yellow. This being my first year with cauliflower too, I tied them off by using the existing bountiful leaves of the plant... pretty neat, hun?

I have two or three plants tied off that way and had tied the biggest one off a couple of weeks back. Wanting to check on its growth progress I peaked inside to find the cauliflower was nearly ready to go to flower! Oops! I might have waiting too long. Inside, quickly, for a knife to cut off the head. I'm not exactly sure how this process works with cauliflower. I'll have to do some more research so I can learn when the optimum time is for tieing off and harvesting.

Anyway, here's today's bounty... The head is huge, somewhat yellowed meaning it had too much exposure to sun and see how some of the flowerettes are stretching out as if wanting to go into flower mode? After washing it off, I decided to eat some of it raw dipped in ranch dressing for my lunch. Cruciferous vegetables, such as this one, are very good for preventing cancer and are good for one's intestinal tract. Please share your insights if you have experiences to offer...

Next up, seed harvesting...

Since I had purchased heirloom seeds, I'm eager to learn about seed harvesting and saving and using them in subsequent years. Plus, with the overflow, I should be able to have heirloom seeds available for sale soon. Here are some pics of the arugula plant gone to seed, the spinach plants going to seed, and the lovely red veined swiss chard going to seed...

Arugula plant going to seed. I kept wondering when will the seeds be ready for harvesting. After doing some research I believe when the pods are puffy with seeds it's ok to pick them—even if the seed pods are green because, often, once they turn from yellow to brown they open and the wind disperses the seeds as nature is prone to do—willy nilly and abundantly.

Again, I'm not sure yet when I should pick the spinach seed... when they are green still is it OK? Or do I have to wait until they turn brown or black? More research is in order....

Look at the lovely Swiss Chard plant with its fabulous red inner stalk. I've really been on a steep learning curve regarding gardening this year because I'm trying to learn how to take the plants full cycle to become self-sufficient and not have to rely on outside sources for purchasing the seeds or plants each year to get started.

Lastly, I clipped a heaping bowl full of the arugula seed twigs that were heavily laden with the seed pods. I was going to get the seeds from each of the pods, but soon figured out that that was a momentous taska and that I needed to break it down even further. First, to remove the pods from the stalks was a big enough job, then later I can separate the seeds from the pods. I'll have to get envelopes in which to store the seeds for later use. Additionally, this is one plant that I'm not sure if it's been tampered with. I purchased the seeds initially from our 'good' nursery in town in bulk—but I don't know if the seeds were hybridized or altered in any way. I'll have to do a test planting to see if they germinate and grow consistent produce before doing anything further with this batch of seeds. One thing is for sure, I started with maybe 50 arugula seeds and I only snipped a small sample from the existing plants. I have a heaping bowl of seed pods and in each pod there may be twenty or more seeds... doing the math... doesn't that come out to a 50 : A billion ratio?!

Wow! It's amazing what one learns when going down this path of self-sufficiency and frugal, healthy living! One thing I learned for sure... nature is amazingly abundant. All this scarcity talk that one hears about in the media is a myth... Take a lesson from nature. All life should be so abundant. It shows us about the life of the spirit. Our so-called culture... oh... not so much...

Be well and bon appetit!

A nice steel energy efficient roof

2011-05-31T08:39:00.001-07:00

Efficient Steel Roofing

For those of us who are interested in living frugally and efficiently, when considering a new roof think about the ways that a steel roof can help you meet both goals. For me, I moved into a small, affordable home about a year ago. I knew that it would need a new roof at some point, but the house met my basic needs. These Kansas winds on older roofs really do a number on them. With each windstorm in recent months that has come up, I've had to go out and pick up the newly unattached shingles from the yard afterwards. I knew the day was imminently approaching that I'd have to do something, as in get a new roof, to address the matter.

My best friend suggested that I consider a steel roof for several reasons—one: initial cost, great insulating and reflective capacities, much longer lasting than a shingle roof, and easier to install. Plus, in my case it could go on right over the existing shingled roof making the job less involved. Even the basic steel roof lasts for 40 years. I'm told the more expensive ones can last up to 100 years. I figure at my age, the basic—40 year type—would cover my needs.

There's a new big box store in town. They began their business putting up pole barns in the northern states and have expanded from there. They know steel roofs. Based on the measurements of the roof and its pitch, they calculated all the materials that would be needed for the job. The cost was fairly reasonable as far as roofs go, in my opinion. The sheets of steel, the insulation, and all the other ancillary materials were delivered within a week or so of placing the order.

Steel sheets had to held down with boards to keep it weighted down enough to combat the Kansas winds.

The insulation that gets placed over the existing shingles and under the steel sheeting—it adds a layer of insulation to further protect the house from the heat and the cold.

The J channels and flashings arrived in this wooden box.

The box was put on saw horses and then the pieces of steel could be cut as needed to fit around the vents and the skylight that were already on the roof.

Here's a long view of the steel sheets and the other steel materials...

At first, Dan prepared the south side of edge of the roof. Then he recruited my youngest who's 15 1/2 to come help and learn a bit about roofing.

A week ago the weather was hot and windy...

The prep work was coming along quite well...

Before I knew it, I heard calls of will you come up and sit on the insulation?

Although I had never entertained the thought of going up on my roof, with a good ladder and a helping hand, voila!, I was up there before I knew it! It was quite nice looking out over all the other houses in the areas. Fortunately, the pitch on my house is not that steep because by the end of my time on the roof I could already feel muscles I hadn't become too familiar with in recent years.

Last Saturday I began to appreciate roofers with new insight. I also started looking at roofing solutions differently. Checking out the materials and the pitch of the roof and the complicated designs of either the roof materials and how they had to be laid or the complexities of the different roof designs themselves. I was glad I had a simple roof with only one skylight on it along with its vents.

During the week it rained for a couple of days, so work was stalled for a few days. On Thursday work resumed. Dan really knows his stuff and before long the west side of the roof was completed. On Friday he started to work on the more complicated side with all the vents and the skylight. That required cutting precisely the steel sheets so they'd fit over the vents, yet come up close enough so as not to expose the roof to weather. Measuring twice, cutting once came in handy on that side of the roof. My son was recruited a little bit to help, but mostly Dan did the work on his own. Some wind made the job more challenging, so you couldn't just lay anything down without securing it. It required vigilant attention to supplies and anchoring of supplies, not to mention all the precision that was required in the cutting of the steel to fit at the right places.

By Saturday, one week later, he had a few more sheets to put up to completely cover the old shingles.

Wow! Doesn't that look nice?! He still has to trim the east edge and then secure the steel sheets with some more screws, but the fussy work of fitting the sheeting around the vents is complete. It looks beautiful. What an upgrade over the old shingles.

As far as efficiency goes, I can already tell that the job of heating and cooling the house during the hot and cold months is going to be much easier. I'm looking forward to seeing the drop in my monthly bills and to be able to compare them to my previous years' history to see how much I save each month. I really don't think it'll take too many years before the efficiency savings ends up paying for the roof itself. Plus, this year, there is still a tax credit to take advantage of; it's not as generous as the one last year, but hey, every bit helps. Ask your tax advisor about the tax credit advantages.

Rain, rain makes a great week....

2011-05-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen a baby Cauliflower?

Yesterday, when I was out in the gardening checking out how everything was growing, deciding what work I needed to get done, I noticed this little cauliflower growing. This is the first year in all my 27 years of growing gardens that I every planted cauliflower, so it's like seeing robin eggs in a nest for the first time! So cute growing in the protective shelter of the outside leaves... take a peek.

Anyone have good tips on keeping the bunnies away while the plants grow? I discovered that there are a couple of bunnies who have finally figured out that we have a garden, so I'll have to figure out how to keep them at bay for the rest of the growing season. Suggestions accepted.

On the zucchini plants, I spotted several teeny, tiny little zucchinis starting to develop. Here's a snap for you to zero in on...

The potato towers are growing gung ho. Three towers and I think they each need to have more soil added to be able to keep developing more tubers as they grow up the tower. How much fun is this experiment?!

The sweet potato sprouts are doing well. I need to let them grow to about 6 inches and then I can take slips and plant them in the ground outside to have a sweet potato tower too. I hadn't grown sweet potatoes either until this year, so there lots of learning going on all over...

Here's what they look like from the side, in case you were wondering... (as someone asked in passing). Fortunately, with hoop house gardening available, you can extend the growing season by months regardless of where you live. Even if you got a late start on some items like I'm doing with these sweet potatoes, there's no reason not to plant them outdoors when they're tall enough because there'll still be plenty of time to grow the sweet potatoes and enjoy their harvest.

I have all sorts of different tomatoes this year... some from heirloom seed that I started indoors six weeks ahead of time, that almost were cooked in the portable greenhouse with the plastic cover on, but survived. Planted outdoors to give them a chance, but the prairie winds almost did them in right away, and these little guys still managed to survive. Thinking that might not be the case, I went out and purchased some ready to plunk in the ground heirloom plants, some hybrid that looked good, and direct seeding from the heirloom seeds I had left over. I have some of each of them, in varying sizes and stages of growth. With any luck at all I'll have a long season of harvesting fresh tomatoes.

Group shot!

Then to the victory of the day... the harvest. The green leaf lettuce is very abundant right now; and the beet greens are terrific. I couldn't believe how much they had grown in one week's time due to the two days of wonderful rain that we had last week. The peas are coming along and we're even 'thinning' the onions by bringing every other one in and enjoying their harvest. Also of note is the first picking of the red leaf lettuce.

Side angle to see how tall the harvest is.

Additionally, the broccoli sprouts are growing and developing as are the golden melon plants, the pole beans, the burpless cucumbers, and the English cucumbers.

Bon appetit and tell me how your garden grows...

Saturday morning in the garden

2011-05-19T14:59:00.001-07:00

Saturday Morning Gardening

During the workaday week, I have little time for gardening... so on warm, sunny spring mornings like this one, I was eager to get out and work in the soil, get caught up on maintenance tasks, and finish planting the vegetable seeds. (I still have some more herbs to tuck in...)

The maintenance tasks completed today were: Added two inches of dirt and compost mixed on the potato tower, added compost to the onion beds, added bone meal to the shrubs that we're trying to start from volunteers (this helps them establish roots), composted the strawberries and zucchinis, and everything got a good dose of fertilizer 5-5-5 because it's a good starter fertilizer for young, tender plants. Most of everything got a good hand watering including the irises and the magnolia tree, which was just planted this spring.

I prepared three more beds for seeds: eggplant, golden melons, and pole beans—all organic.

To start it off I assessed where things were at. The lettuce looks fine and needs a good picking. I'll get that done soon...

The potatoes had grown quite a bit in the south bed, so it was time to add another layer of compost dirt around them to enable them to send out another layer of potato buds from which to grow another layer of potatoes. Think we can yield about a bushel of potatoes from one of these chicken wire cages. I'm looking forward to that. If we put a second tier of chicken wire on, we should yield about 100 lbs. of potatoes from one of these!

The microgreens are going to seed. These plants were started from organic seeds, so I'll need to capture some of the seeds to be able to use them for the next planting.

Next is the organic spinach. It too is going to seed, which means more seed capturing...

Notice the difference in the photos. Today, it was bright and sunny and the plants really are reflecting that reality. Made them look gorgeous in the photographs.

The arugula looks like a field of blossoms and seed. The last time I tried to pick the seeds was on a very windy day, making it close to impossible. I'll have to go out later tonight and gather some then. Remember this was the arugula that was planted last fall on September 19th that we ate from the whole winter. Eight months later it's finally going to seed. We ate well...

The peas, carrots, and radishes were planted a few months ago when it was still fairly chilly out. They seem like they are just now starting to take off—giving us a few blooms to look at. We're thinking that we'll have to add a lot more sand to the soil to really make the carrots take off. When I clear out one of the other beds that have gone to seed, I'll try that. I have some organic, multi-color carrots to try this experiment on...

I sprinkled the cauliflower and the red cabbage with baby powder to keep the bunnies that live next door away. I think they'll be tempted to just pull up a chair with a knife, fork, and bib and help themselves. What do you think?

OK, remember when the broccoli seedlings got fried in the portable greenhouse? I had some seeds left in the packet, so I direct seeded them last week or the week before. Right afterwards the winds were very strong. I didn't know if any of the seeds would even still be there, let alone be determined enough to sprout. This morning when I cut back the black cloth, lo and behold, I had new broccoli babies. Some in each of the holes. We're off to a good start!

The jalepeno and green peppers appear to be thriving in this soil and these conditions. I think they like the sun, the heat, the wind, and the water. Go peppers!

Today, when looking at the tomato plants (we have 12), I noticed that one has fruit on it already.

Take a look at that!

A few of the tomato seedlings from the greenhouse burn... actually survived. They hadn't really been hardened off when I felt that I had to get them out of the greenhouse and plant them. Again, the winds were brutal and I couldn't imagine how these very fragile, tender young seedlings could withstand the strong winds and the fluctuating temperatures. Today when I cut back the black weed barrier, I noticed two of the seedlings were hanging in strong. They are still small, but they'll make it. They are also heirloom plants, so I'm particularly interested to learn what quality of tomatoes they produce because I'll be able to keep their seeds for future years.

The raspberry bush looks very healthy. Planted it last fall and it looks like it'll thrive in this environment.

Planted a couple of strawberry plants a month or so ago. Didn't think I'd see any fruits from it until its second season, but alas... introductory fruit. Can't wait til I get to taste them! I put the baby powder around them also to keep those bunnies away...

The row of beets are sprouting quite nicely now. Planted those about six weeks ago now from my recollection. I subsequently read that beets don't grow well in Kansas, but I do recall how the beet greens were very well worth it last fall. If I can't grow the beets themselves, at least I can enjoy their greens.

Bon appetit!

A quickie from the garden

2011-05-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday's Sampling

Hi Everyone!

Just thought I'd check in for a quick little update. I planted some seeds this past Sunday and the Sunday before. I haven't observed any sprouts of the eggplant yet, but the golden melon has sprouted as well as the pole beans. The pole beans looked so strong and vigorous when they were poking their heads through the soil, I was amazed. I bought a couple of tomato trellises to stick in the ground to enable them to crawl up with support. I found after a few days of being sprouted, however, that they were turning yellow. OMG! What to do... What to do?! Dan decided to give them some fertilizer which turned them almost immediately back to a healthy green color... Whew! but then before long some of that rich color began to fade again. A good dose of water revitalized them again, so we're thinking they need more water on which to sprout and grow. I didn't take a snapshot of them tonight, but I will soon. I promise...

I did pick a few sample items though for sharing... and discussion: a strawberry (first season being planted), a carrot, and an onion.

Notice how long the root of the carrot is. This is very good because it means that the carrot plant is able to penetrate this tough clay that passes as soil here in Kansas. It also means that once the carrot starts to fill out that we'll have wonderfully long, healthy carrots to harvest.

As for the onion, did you know that each shoot of green at the top of the onion plant represents a layer of the onion bulb--sort of like rings on a tree. The more shoots on top, the larger the bulb underneath. Makes sense, doesn't it?! I love learning these fun facts to know and tell and Dan just learns this wonderful information and passes it on to me to learn too. How fun is that?! Did you know that in the Middle Ages of Europe onions were so valued that you could pay your rent in onions. Think it'll work today? I'm hoping so because I have lots of onions and they seem to grow well here. I'm really liking that option.

Oh... and the potato towers have had dirt or compost added to them a few times already and the plants just keep growing and growing. They look like they'll need more soil or compost added to them this week as well. I can't wait to see how the potatoes develop in the towers and what kind of layered harvest we'll get from that experiment.

Lastly, for tonight, I learned that the way to know when a plants seed pod is ready to pick is when the plant starts turning brown. Then pick off a seed pod and open it up; the seeds are waiting there in abundance. I bought the heirloom seeds this year, mostly, so I'm looking forward to being able to harvest some seed pods to pass this abundance into the future. And I'm learning along the way. This gardening stuff has never been so much fun as this year.

The joy of gardening... ahhhh...

Bon appetit!

A great way to spend a Saturday morning...

2011-05-10T13:02:00.001-07:00

Saturday Morning Gardening

I prepared three more beds for seeds: eggplant, golden melons, and pole beans—all organic.

To start it off I assessed where things were at. The lettuce looks fine and needs a good picking. I'll get that done soon...

The microgreens are going to seed. These plants were started from organic seeds, so I'll need to capture some of the seeds to be able to use them for the next planting.

Next is the organic spinach. It too is going to seed, which means more seed capturing...

Notice the difference in the photos. Today, it was bright and sunny and the plants really are reflecting that reality. Made them look gorgeous in the photographs.

The jalepeno and green peppers appear to be thriving in this soil and these conditions. I think they like the sun, the heat, the wind, and the water. Go peppers!

Today, when looking at the tomato plants (we have 12), I noticed that one has fruit on it already.

Take a look at that!

The raspberry bush looks very healthy. Planted it last fall and it looks like it'll thrive in this environment.

Bon appetit!

Posted by KnowYourTruth.com at 5/7/2011 4:28 PM | Add Comment

Spring Planting

It's that really busy time of year... spring planting time. Every year when spring rolls around there's winter clean up to do, garden bed prep to tend to, seeds and plants to buy and get in the ground, watering, lawn mowing, and mulching that demands one's time... so I often find myself wondering "What happened to spring when all is said and done?"

This year I've been out in it more, prepping a much larger garden section this year, but I have limited time to devote to planting seeds and plants that I have to pace myself to get it all in at the right times. Now that I'm shooting pictures and blogging about it to I have to plan when to do those steps as well. Needless to say... it's busy around here!

Yesterday, in preparation for more planting, I harvested the greens that had grown during the week. This was the first yield of green leaf lettuce along with the other greens that I've been harvesting all fall and winter. We consumed some of it for dinner, but I still have lots for the week.

It looks so fresh and light; and tasted as good as it looks!

Here's the bed where the green leaf lettuce came from...

With the garden experiments that we're indulging in this year, we're growing three barrels of potatoes in these cages. The first layer of sprouting is coming along quite well. As the plants grow taller, then I'll add more soil and another layer of potatoes will grow from the sides of the sprouted plants. I'm told that you can yield 100 lbs of potatoes from one of these wire cages, so we should have potatoes coming out of our ears before we know it!

Since we're on the topic of potatoes, we can include sweet potatoes into the mix. I had some fruitless sweet potato cuttings given to my by my son's piano teacher. The plant has really taken off and is such a delightful light green. I'm told that to grow the fruited sweet potato plants, just slice the potato and sprout them in water. When the sprouts are big enough cut a slip from it and plant the slip... voila, sweet potatoes. See the next exhibit. Here's hoping for my first time of growing sweet potatoes to come up with some success!

How's that for up close and personal?!

Today I planted broccoli seeds and eight different herbs from seed. I had started sprouting seeds back in the end of February, but one hot day in the portable greenhouse without proper ventilation turned them into cooked sprouts. I was very sad... I think I'm still sad about them because I wanted them to do so well. It's really hard learning to practice detachment when I was rooting for those babies so enthusiastically. It was like a tsunami of heat came and just wiped them out. Nothing in comparison to what the people in Japan are dealing with, but massive deaths, even when it's my little seedlings is still hard to take. I've been told to not put any emotional attachment on it, but it's easier said than done.

Anyway, I have these cute little signs that I can write on with permanent marker to label the herb beds. I planted chives, cilantro, basil, rosemary, greek oregano, english thyme, and sage. I hope they do well. I covered them with some manure too to give them a boost.

I remember when I lived in California that oregano turned out to be a perennial; I'll have to research that for zone 6a to see what it is here. I marvel at the power and potency of these tiny little seeds. They seem so insignificant when one can barely see a zillion of them in your hand... then when they start growing and growing and growing and producing all that they are meant to produce, it's such a marvel. I think it's a good analogy for us humans—full of potential and the ability to produce much bounty on this planet. The seed doesn't doubt its worth or its goodness, it just produces as it is meant to. I think we should take some lessons from nature, don't you?

We planted the peas, carrots, and radishes quite some time ago when it was still cold outside... They seem like they are starting to get going now... I sprinkled some baby powder around the edges to keep the bunny rabbits away. Spotted a big bunny rabbit just this morning. I don't think it has discovered the wonders of the garden yet and I'm sorta hoping to keep it that way.

You can also see in the background how the red cabbage and cauliflower are coming along. Don't they look lovely?

The peppers look pretty nice too... four of them are jalepeno plants, the rest are green peppers. We're going to have green peppers coming out of our ears. I think we'll investigate selling vegetables at the farmer's market here in town...

I have several beds of onions too: vidalia, red onions, and white onions... they're coming along too...

On the tomato side of things, there are several heirloom, a couple of hybrid types, and then some heirloom seeds that I'm hoping will sprout and turn into real plants. There's a couple of the sprouted tomatoes that actually made it through the greenhouse meltdown, so they must be tough!

Lastly, here's the flower bed... it has a raspberry bush tucked in and a blueberry bush too. There are quite a few knockout rose bushes too that bloom all summer long and give a good punch of color to the perimeter of the yard. I figured that would give the neighbors something pretty to look at, but I think they are also enjoying the vegetable foliage that's growing in the background. FYI... I also tied back my daffodils to make room for other plants that could be coming along. I planted some marigold seeds too to keep the bunnies away... first time I've ever thought that marigolds were a good thing.

OK, folks, I think I'll call it a weekend...

Back to work tomorrow... thankfully, I've been enjoying my job...

Bon appetit!


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