Living Simply
Me and Petunia
Petunia is a year and two months old now. This picture was taken last fall. What an amazing animal and experience it has been to raise her and watch her grow. She still comes around almost once a day for a visit and I enjoy every second of it. There's nothing quite like a deer that lets you love on her and returns the favor. If I stay outside long enough she'll lay down after eating and she always faces the lake, it is as though she is watching the sunset. So beautiful.
Growing and eating local food
It is raining here this morning which is something we really need. As I recall we had about a quarter inch of rain in June and May was fairly dry too. Not only that but daily temps in June averaged 4-5 degrees above normal, above 90 most days in June. Very hot, very dry and not an easy month for gardeners! So far we’ve had just over an inch in the past two days, maybe 1.25 and that’s not enough. We could easily do with another 5-7 inches, preferably spread over a week or so! My rain barrels have filled a bit but have a long way to go and the swale has yet to show any signs of filling. Looks like we’ll get a good bit today and then they say a good chance of rain much of next week with temps at or below 90 so that is welcome news. Lesson learned this summer? Heavy mulch will only do so much to retain moisture. No doubt it is a huge help but things DO eventually dry out!!
So, the garden looks pretty ragged. The potatoes and tomatoes in particular. One bed of tomatoes look okay but the other two have struggled. I planted onions and lettuce in those beds in early spring with the intention of having a nice living mulch and it did not work out so well. Back in late March/ early April not long Ifter I got my lettuce, spinach, carrots and other cool weather crops planted we had a pretty nasty hot spell and weeds started popping up everywhere. The end result was that the beds of annual green veggies I envisioned were heavily mixed with LOTS of weeds and not nearly thick enough to really serve as a mulch for the tomatoes which got planted in later. The tomatoes which I mulched with newspaper and straw is, by far, the best of the tree beds. Next year I’ll go back to the paper/straw mulch and just plant the outer edges with basil and flowers.
I got my squash in a bit late and that was another mistake. With the exception of a couple lost most survived the heat and are growing but they are not thriving. The watermelon volunteer that sprouted up early is doing great and has taught me that next year I REALLY need to get my squash/melons started earlier. In fact, really, I think I need to get EVERYTHING started about a month earlier. All that said, I do have better potatoes than last year and a nice bed of carrots and I had a great harvest of sugar snap peas. The blackberries that I left out in the food forest by the chicken forage have done great this year and I’m really glad I left them when I set up that area. I’ve been harvesting many big handfuls everyday. I probably could have set some aside for preserving but have just been eating them up! Further out from the cabin I know the blackberries are producing gobs of fruit so I really should go out and gather some.
Last would be the food forests and they are doing pretty well considering the drought. Blueberries, currants, gooseberries and pawpaws are doing great. I’ve got gobs of comfrey I need to get put in the ground and am going to give the last few rhubarb plants to Karen. I think I’ve got 12 rhubarb plants in the ground now. Yeah, that’s a crazy amount of rhubarb but it is a beautiful plant and fairly easy to grow. I’ll give or sell what I can’t eat! I’ve planted it with Comfrey around the greenhouse and in the food forest behind my cabin.
One last thing, not about the homestead but about the local farmers market: fantastic! I went last night and came home with a bag of sweet corn gifted by Karen and David (THANKS!!) as well as a loaf of Donna’s yummy home made bread. Also a very nice cucumber and some peaches. Dinner was a cucumber tomato sandwich, two of those actually and 4 cobs of sweet corn. I don’t cook the corn or add anything at all, just peel and eat!! I’m surprised more people don’t eat it that way. It doesn’t need to be cooked and is so sweet and juicy. Yeah, the corn was desert. Oh, oh and a big glass of iced Kombucha too thanks to Juli. It took 10 days but the fermenting tea is now a perfectly fizzy and tasty treat. The perfect meal to eat while enjoying the soft patter of rain on the roof.
Making my claim in the gulf
I've not written about the oil spill here yet. But like many people it has been on my mind much of each day. Anyone that knows me will tell you how I feel about cars, lawn mowers and other machines that require oil to run. I truly detest them. My life here on the permaculture homestead is all about trying to use less energy, less oil. Even so I can't help but feel the deepest regret and guilt when I see the images of oil covered birds struggling to lift their heads or to take a breath or blink their eyes. Eve though I try very hard not to drive without necessity the truth is I still drive a car. I purchase food grown with oil and other fossil fuels. I purchase other synthetic items derived from oil. I am a part of this. One of those oil covered birds is my bird. I claim it. I own it. That is what I see with each picture and the question I ask with each one is that my bird? It is breaking my heart over and over and over.
Swale and Food Forest Update
Last year I put in a swale and food forest on the north and east sides of my cabin. I planted the swale with comfrey, rhubarb, juneberry and yarrow with space between for annual veggies. This spring I seeded it with radish, chard, broccoli, kohlrabi, and cabbage. I'm pretty happy with the results thus far. The comfrey and rhubarb have filled it nicely and the veggies are going great in the swale. Now, if only we'd get some rain. Been a pretty dry spring. In the past 6 weeks we've had maybe one really good rain fall. The five rain barrels have come in very handy though they are nearly empty!
The pawpaws and juneberries are doing great. Well, Petunia has nibbled the juneberries so they're not great but would be were it not for her. She's left the pawpaws alone and they are growing very well. The herbs growing around the pawpaws, a mix of yarrow, self-heal, oregano, lemon balm and coneflowers are also growing pretty well. I've got some strawberries I'm about to put in though I'll have to put some chicken wire over them to protect from deer and chicken. I'd put them in the main garden originally and they were doing fantastic but Petunia got to them and ate ALL of the foliage. Soon after they were taken over by weeds.
One key difference between the food forest and the kitchen garden is that the food forest seems much less prone to weeds. I think the reason is that, while in a sunny pocket, this area has mostly been wooded and the mix of foliage here is much less aggressive. The kitchen garden by contrast is located in an area that has been an open field for the past couple of decades or more. Any bare spot of soil up there quickly sprouts up with "weeds". I'm thinking the strawberries will do much better over here. The key will be keeping them protected with the chicken wire.
One other key to this food forest area is the combination of light and heavy mulch. This pocket of woodland gets full sun most of the day with just a bit of dappled shade. That combined with the heavy wood chip mulch and leaf litter has really helped with the water retention. I've also got lots of big bark chunks from chopping wood that I place around the little trees. It helps discourage the chickens from scratching to close to the trees and holds in the moisture. The fertility of the soil is also being improved greatly I think. At the moment the chickens are back in the fenced forage area but they've been free ranging for the past ten months or so and have stirred and pooped in the food forest mulch that whole time. Next on my to-do list in this area is to add in more low level herbs to begin filling it out.
Lots going on...
In the past couple of weeks we’ve had lots of progress with a variety of projects. The cabin finally, really feels complete. The porch is my favorite place to be which is what I fully expected. I added a new flower bed and have put in rock creek paths to replace the composted mulch which was raked into the flower beds. The garden beds in the area immediately around the cabin (Zone 1 in permaculture terms) are shaping up pretty good. Lots of lettuce, chard, kale, kohlrabi, cabbage and radishes as well as perennials such as rhubarb and comfrey. The flowers too are starting to take hold with blooms. The last touch was moving the little garden pond from it’s somewhat neglected location to a spot just a few feet away from my porch. Frankly this little corner of the world is starting to resemble a moment or scene in a storybook which is what I’d hoped for.
Other projects that have been tidied up or finished include the new fire ring which also got a thick layer of rock creek gravel. The kids cabin is fully painted and trimmed with the last bit of deck finished. In the main garden the crop of onions, garlic, and peas are fantastic. The potatoes are looking great. Two beds of tomatoes planted and looking good with another bed to go in soon. Still to do, transplant or sell my remaining rhubarb, tomato, and comfrey seedlings. I also need to get the basil planted as well as melons and pumpkin.
The chickens have been spending their days in the lush chicken pasture that I prepared this spring and they seem to be pretty happy with it. I miss having them free range and do intend to let them range for a couple evenings a week but they will be spending most of their time in the pasture as long as it is holding up. I won’t let it get run down to the same point as last year. While it was sometimes somewhat problematic I really miss having them in close proximity to the cabin.
It’s gonna be getting hot and humid soon so I’m going to go crank out a few loads of laundry. Have a good day!
Covered Porch Progress!
Deck, cedar poles, and rafters ready for metal roof. Steps and railings have been added in this photo. The Deck is salvaged from an old deck that has been in use on various other structures for at least 20 years. The rafters were salvaged from yet another deck and the cedar logs were from tornado damage as well as a few selectively harvested from a grouping that desperately needed thinning. The metal roofing will be added soon and is the only thing that will be purchased new.
In this image you'll notice that some of the logs have had the bark removed, others have not yet been cleaned up. I actually prefer the way they look with the bark but that usually means that insects will get in and when the bark eventually does come off (which it will after a couple years) it will likely have a bit of damage in the form of small grooves. By taking off the bark now the logs will be a bit nicer in the long run.
I'm very happy to have this up before the heat of summer kicks in because I rarely use the air conditioner. I think last year I used it maybe three days. That is a south facing wall so having the porch should really help keep the cabin cool as it will completely shade the area in front of the door and that south facing wall.
First Salad!!
Harvested my first bit of lettuce and spinach Wednesday night and it was so tasty!! There’s nothing quite like eating salad that was picked 5 minutes before eating. I’ve got an okay crop of greens coming in though it’s not as thick as had hoped it would be. I planted it pretty dense but we had such a warm spell back in late March/April that I think it stunted things a bit and gave a head start to the weeds that were plenty happy to have the warm weather! In any case, nice to have fresh salad!
I’ve also started harvesting strawberries from the plants donated by friend and fellow Fredericktown Revitalization member Juli. I probably won’t get many this year but the plants are healthy and should produce very well next year!
New Natives
Lots of planting the past couple days. Saturday I picked up some ferns, hostas, Russian Sage, and Catnip from my aunt. The ferns come from my great grandmother and have been passed around the family for years. They are beautifully lush and spread quickly. They’re also quite large, some of them reaching a height of 5 feet. I’m not sure what kind they are but I planted a row across the front of the cabin and can’t wait for them to fill it in hiding the base of the structure during the summer and softening the lines. Then I picked up a whole bunch of native wildflowers: Columbine, Jacob’s Ladder, Bee Balm, Purple Coneflower, Orange Coneflower and Black-eyed Susan most of which was planted into the shade garden in front of the cabin, in front of the ferns. Some of them were planted in the new flower border that lines the northern fence of the garden.
I probably planted 150+ plants in the past two days. When they all fill out, probably by the end of next summer the planted areas will be about full. I don’t cut the flower heads in the fall because the gold finches and other birds will eat the seed. The seed they don’t eat will fall and germinate. By the spring of 2012 I’ll have more plants than I can use and will be able to pot them up and sell them. The plants originated at my parents' house which I planted in 2004-2005. The plants there are now multiplying exponentially. Thousands of seedlings now cover the area and serve as a growing nursery. I’ll probably go back for another batch of transplants in early June though I don’t really need to.
The Garden Grows!
It’s been slow going this spring, or at least it seems that way. I am impatient. The onions, peas, potatoes, strawberries and various greens are looking pretty good. I think I should have planted my greens (lettuce, spinach, chard, etc) a week or two earlier than I did. The greenhouse is full of plants that will be ready to plant out pretty soon: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, comfrey and rhubarb. Unfortunately my tomato varieties got all jumbled up so while I know what I planted I have no clue which is which. I’d thought I might sell a few plants at the farmers market but I’m not sure that folks will want to buy if they don’t know what variety they are getting. I’ll just call them all “Denny’s Great Tomatoes”. 
In other green news, the last year’s chicken pasture is really looking good! With the exception of a couple of spots it is now a lush polyculture with a base of red and white clover. Other notable species: comfrey, self-heal, yarrow, violets, daisies, plantain, and honeysuckle. There’s far more but those are the most numerous. Now that the chickens are free ranging I’m not in any kind of hurry to open this back up. I’m going to give it another week or two for the clover to grow a bit more and then I’ll start leaving the gate open for chicken browsing. Th peach tree and apple tree in this area are both looking fantastic.
Speaking of fruit trees, we now have plums, apples and blueberries coming in. Pictured here are some of the plums. I need to learn about proper fruit tree care. Should I have clipped these off to promote more growth this year? These are still pretty small trees. Also, I know they need major pruning. Their rate of growth is taking off but in terms of the shape of the growth, they are a huge MESS. Assuming no major natural disasters the trees, bushes and vines should all be putting out a really good crop in the summer of 2012. The currants, gooseberries and blueberries will probably be producing pretty good as early as next summer. I can’t wait.
The Quiet Moments of the Simple Life
Life is strange. I know that right now in the Gulf a tragedy is unfolding as oil continues to gush out of the sea floor and spread ever further across the waters. I know that huge storms have created hardships in Tennessee and elsewhere. I know that in Iraq, Afghanistan and in many other countries half a world away a good many people are suffering.
But in my little corner of the world, at this particular moment, all seems right. The sun is setting over the lake and an Eastern Phoebe fly catcher sits on the fence outside my window looking for dinner. In the distance I hear the mingled song of Red Wing Blackbirds and frogs as they go about their business. Petunia came in for an evening snack and has wandered away. There is a gentle breeze blowing in through the open window. I know that these moments of bliss come and go, surrounded by the turmoil that nature or we ourselves create. I’ll soak it in while I have it.
The Morning Crew
These are the folks I wake up to. I couldn’t ask for a better start to a day.
P.s. Notice the new deck! Not new actually but salvaged and relatively intact. This thing was heavy as can be because it was made of oak many years ago. It has served as a porch for thee or four different places. We cut it up into two pieces to move it. A big thanks to Greg and Jessie for all the help! I’ve got to power wash it and then stain it with something. It is a bit rough at the moment but after a bit of work it will look pretty good and should last many more years.
Swarms and Other Homestead News
B
ees
Just a few days after my last post my bees swarmed! Luckily Greg was down that weekend and was able to retrieve the cluster from a cedar. We moved them into the honey super that I had on hand and then moved the super of bees several hundred yards from the original hive. All seemed well till the next day when they swarmed again while I was gone. When I came out to inspect the new hive the air was full of bees and they were in the process of flying away. There was nothing I could do but watch. The only thing I could have done differently (that I’m aware of) was to enclose the bottom entrance of the hive more completely as I’ve read many people do when creating a new hive from a swarm. The problem with that was we were so hot last week I was afraid to close it more than 80%.
So, that was a bummer. I still have the original hive which is still a very nice, healthy hive and I’ve got the honey super on. Still waiting on the two I ordered to arrive. My hope is that I’ll still get a good harvest of 2-3 honey supers. I’ll be picking up another couple of deep hive bodies and hope we’ll be able to successfully split the hive next year via a caught swarm or pre-swarm split. 
Garden
The garden is slowly waking up. The onions, sugar snap peas and potatoes are looking good. The lettuce, spinach and a few other cool weather greens are slowly getting there. I think the week of crazy warm/hot weather did not do them well. I watered a good bit this past weekend as we’ve not had rain for over two weeks. The tomato seedlings in the greenhouse are looking pretty good. I’m eager to sow the fence borders of flowers like cosmos, zinias and a few perennial herbs such as feverfew but I was waiting for the past few days as we had some pretty chill night time temps. The rhubarb seedlings came up great and were just transplanted to pots. I’ll likely sell or give a few of those away as I have far more than I need. Strawberries, blueberries, currants and gooseberries are all doing great. Two of the hardy kiwis look fantastic and two died for some reason, no clue why. I’ve lost three fruit trees also not sure why. One was a bit flooded, the other two I don’t know. The comfrey seeds are coming up now. I planted 30 or so and will be transplanting them out around the fruit trees.
I’ve been nurturing the original forage area used by the chickens last summer. It is now full of red and white clover, yarrow, self-heal, and comfrey just to name a few. It is well on the way to being a lush polyculture of nutrient accumulating plants that will provide a food source for the chickens as well as our pollinating insects.
Water Harvesting
I finally finished off my rain barrel system. Five barrels behind the cabin will collect up to 275 gallons of water! There’s another barrel to collect water from the greenhouse roof. I may paint them at some point but plan to try growing ground nut or some other food producing vine first. They’re not real pretty to look at so I want to do something to pretty it up a bit, growing food on them would probably be the best choice. Some folks were wondering if this was for drinking water and the answer is no. I’ll use it mostly for the garden in the area right around the cabin. Also for washing my hands or for the critters to drink. It is fairly clean though and I probably could drink it if need be. I filter it at the inlet with a screen. There’s probably a bit of minute grit from trees and wind making it in. I suppose worst case scenario is a bit of bird or critter droppings from the roof and I do have the wood burning stove so the first few rains of spring probably contain some sort of smoke/soot type contaminates. If I were going to drink it I would run it through some sort of filter and would feel pretty safe with it. The barrels previous use was food grade flavorings with the exception of one that had concentrated hydrogen peroxide. They’ve all been very well cleaned.
One last bit of news, the kids' cabin is finally finished! Greg came down this past weekend and finished off the soffits, trimmed, caulked and painted. They’ll likely repaint the trim with a different color but for now it all has at least two coats and is safe from the weather.
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Happy Bees and other news
I finally did a bee hive inspection yesterday and have good news to report: a very full hive! In fact, I’ve gone ahead and ordered two more honey supers for a total of three. I’m in an ideal pollen situation surrounded by autumn olives, red buds, and dogwoods just to name a few of the flowering trees and bushes. I’ve also got an amazing variety of perennial wildflowers, white and red clover, and grasses. The nectar flow should be fantastic. If I remember correctly a small honey super, when full, contains around 30 lbs of honey so if the girls fill all three that would be 90 lbs!! I’m hoping I don’t have to deal with a hive split/swarm just yet as that would knock down production a bit. It will happen sooner or later though.
The chickens and guineas are all doing great and enjoying the warmer weather and time outside free ranging all day. I’m very happy with the chicken situation. They’ve got lots of space and a fantastic diversity of foliage/insects to browse on. I’ve got more fencing scattered about than I’d like but as long as I want them to free range and also keep my young plants alive it is a necessity. They are relentless in their scratching and so the mulch is always a mess but I’ve accepted it as a good tradeoff for happy healthy chickens. It’s also lots of turned and manured mulch/soil which is a great thing.
The earthworm population in and around the garden seems to have really boomed since year one of the garden. Any time I have occasion to dig I uncover far, far more than I remember seeing in the spring of 2008. Very cool and I have little doubt the result of all of the cardboard/straw/woodchip layer mulching.
Planted in the garden: a huge bed of potatoes, onions, lettuce, radish, kale, chard, spinach and more. Tomato seedlings look great though the peppers never came up so I started more. The fence row of sugar peas are doing starting to really take off. I’m about to start several trays of seeds: feverfew, comfrey, hyysop, and marshmallow. Also about to direct seed calendula, cosmos, zinnias and marigolds. Very soon will be time to put in basil, melons and squash.
The only real negative is Petunia the deer. She’s very skinny which is understandable coming off a winter with no acorn or nut crop. But what really worries me is what I saw yesterday. She seemed to be a moving just a bit strangely so I started having a look at her. Her legs seemed fine but when I looked up under her tail (warning, this gets very gross) a mass of ticks all around her anus. I mean a MASS. My guess is at least 1.5 inches out in every direction from the outer perimeter of her anus. They were completely covering her bum with no skin showing. 60? 100? Maybe more. It must be terribly painful for her to poop and my guess is that the skin underneath that mass is a terrible mess. Is that normal for wild deer? You’d really have to see this to believe it. I had no idea ticks could be so thick. Pardon the language but this was really FUCKING gross. So, I’m a bit worried about her. I don’t think there’s much I can do. I’d pull them off if she’d let me but I tried repeatedly to no avail. They’ll just have to fall off.
Homesteading with critters is mostly a wonderful experience and one I’d not want to give up having had a taste of it. That said, it has its gross and difficult moments.
Hopefully my next update will bring news of my rain barrel system finally plumbed up and ready to collect rain. I’ll be jumping up from one 55 gallon barrel to five for a total of 275 galons. The current barrel will move back to the greenhouse for collection there for a grand total of 330 gallons. I’d like to add more but that should suffice for this summer.
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Simple Life, Community Life
Around 5 pm yesterday my uncle Ron (and neighbor) showed up at my door with a very large fish, a 16 inch Crappie. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Crappie of that size. As he walked up I thought he was carrying a good sized bass. He offered him up and I happily accepted. I’d planned on having a bit of pesto pasta for dinner and now that would be complimented with fried fish. I watched the sunset while I ate and listened to the emerging frog song and the chickens as they wandered off slowly towards their coop. I was just about finished when Petunia (the deer) showed up for an evening snack of corn and a sprinkle of chicken scratch.
I’ve happily lived well below the poverty line for my entire adult life and have always been very content with living small or in shared spaces with others. Of course this is easier with no children but is still entirely possible with them as I’ve confirmed with a bit of research. But it requires a different outlook on life. I’m not the least bit interested in a huge house full of material possessions. That generally requires a life long commitment to wage slavery. Give me a part time job or freelance work and I’ll enjoy the free time gardening or working on a community project. I can’t enjoy the pesto if I don’t grow the basil and sharing it at a potluck almost always makes it taste better!
Strangely enough living the “simple life” allows for the freedom to become a much more complex person through on-going self-reflection and education. This is not to say that those with large houses and full time employment cannot continue to learn, but to say that there is something important about the pace of living. When I lived in Memphis I mostly got around by walking or riding a bike. Yes, it took me longer to get where I was going but along the way I picked figs and literally stopped to smell the roses. I learned the local bird population and met neighbors. I also got the health benefits of the exercise.
Out there in the nation trouble continues to brew. The fundamentals of the economic/financial/energy system have not changed and we’re still headed for collapse. The political system of the country, guided by corporate media, become more divisive and less constructive. It is a system which has served the wealthy elite for far too long but most working people, be they “conservative” or “liberal” don’t seem to get the fact that they are being used. The two party system should be destroyed. Our sense and understanding of what is possible is far too limited. We’re letting ourselves be emotionally manipulated by a cultural process designed to divide and herd us around like livestock.
I think we need to slow down. We need to stop listening to the party lines, stop aligning ourselves with the party lines. We need to remember what it is like to be humans. We need to remember what it is like to grow and harvest food and then to share it in community. We need to remember what it is to feel connected in community. Community is like a complex tapestry with many weavers. We all share the task and add our bits, we weave it together. It is our work, comfort and support and it tells our history as well. It’s long past the time that we get back to this task and that we remember that it is up to us to do it well. It is up to us to do it together.
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Keeping the Peace
With each day spring becomes more evident. The Yarrow, Self Heal, and Lemon Balm that I planted in the food forests are all waking up with great energy. The Autumn Olives are full of buds about to open to leaves. The white and red clover seed I scattered a couple weeks ago has sprouted into carpets of green in the original chicken run and around the fruit trees. Spring is always a busy time on a homestead!
A week ago I had to harvest the Guinea rooster. I’d not planned to do that anytime soon but he suddenly decided it was time to mate with the chicken hens and was quite violent about it. I woke up last Saturday to a hen that was terribly wounded with several large holes pecked into her and a bloody, bruised back. The minute I got out there to let them out to range he was after her. I put her in the greenhouse and began the process of getting her back on her feet. I kept an eye on him the rest of the day and he was on a tear. He wasn’t like this two weeks ago. I’d noticed a bit of increased aggression but in just a few days it was like a switch had been flipped. So, I butchered him Sunday morning and made a big pot of really good guinea curry coconut soup. Thanks Mr. Guinea and I’m truly sorry to see you go.
As crazy loud as those Guineas are, I still adore them. Oh, and they’ve started laying their eggs right in with the chickens so I’m getting 2-3 little guinea eggs a day!! The shells are so much thicker that they don’t break when dropped. I have to SLAM them into the cast iron skillet to break them open.
After a week in the greenhouse the wounded hen has recovered very well and I put her back with the flock Saturday. During her time in the greenhouse she did a great job of tilling up the bed. I’ll get that planted with something this week.
Other news, Petunia the deer has been back quite a few days, often several times a day. The other day she laid down right in front of the front door. Adorable. I’ve got the chicken coop all cleaned out and set with fresh straw. The garden has been planted with a big bed of potatoes, 2 beds of onions and multiple beds of lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, radishes, carrots and, along the fence, sugar snap peas. The broccoli, cabbage and kohlrabi are about ready for transplanting. Tomatoes were a bit slow to sprout but seem to have woken up. No sign of the eggplant yet. Next to start are peppers and various herbs: lemon balm, comfrey, oregano, lovage, borage and a few others, medicinal and culinary.
I’m doing all this planting in the garden extension that I mulched last spring. The soil in that half has far fewer rocks and after a year of worm activity is really looking fantastic. The straw and cardboard mulch is still thick enough that I won’t have any problems over there this summer. The garden fence improvements I did last year seem to be keeping the rabbits at bay so I should have a good harvest this year.
Last but not least, thanks to Juli I’ve got a nice new patch of about 40 strawberry plants. My guess is that with the three rhubarb plants I put in last year we’ll be having quite a bit of rhubarb strawberry pie next summer, if not a bit this summer. Next year I expect to also be harvesting blueberries and the year after that hardy kiwis. Add to that mix the juneberries, currants, gooseberries, apples, peaches and plums and, well, there should be lots of sweet fruit for the picking!
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Geek in the Garden
Please excuse this momentary lapse into a bit of geekitude. A few years back I started using geekinthegarden for email and various account user names because I was, after all a geek who spend a good bit of his time in the garden. These past two years living at the homestead I’ve been much less a geek and more a gardener. In fact, a big part of my push to move to the homestead was to get my hands back into the soil and to finally learn more about permaculture and put it into practice. Beginning in 2005 I’d started to see a pileup of evidence that peak oil and general collapse were finally at the door and felt it was time to get serious about growing my own food.
As I’ve gotten a bit more involved in town via the Fredericktown Revitalization and in working with the city on their website this past winter I found myself at the computer more often and have really enjoyed the work. I’ve built a few new websites as well as a pretty extensive FileMaker database. Something that I’ve really taken note of is the lack of local utilization of technology by the small businesses and non-profits around main street. Most people know the basics but VERY FEW get beyond the web browser. I’ve met lots of folks that could benefit from knowing more about the available tools. Small businesses should not be tracking inventory with a spiral bound notebook in 2010.
It was easy to sit at the computer during the cold days of winter but now that the weather has warmed it is increasingly difficult and the internal conflict has gotten me thinking a bit about the future. What is the role of technology in our lower energy future. Is this kind of work to build the digital literacy of a community a wasted effort given the kind of future we have coming? Just how important will laptops and iPads be in two years? Five years? What about websites, spreadsheets and databases? While I really like the idea of sharing the knowledge I have about these kinds of digital tools spring suddenly reminds me that this is the time to grow food. Should I also be shifting my community time in the same direction?
I’m also thinking about this in the larger context of the FRI and the larger Main Street movement. I strongly support the general idea of building the local economy as well as the preservation of historical main street architecture. Neighborhood and main street revitalization is a good thing but there should be a balance in our efforts to build (or rebuild) the local economy within the context of a limited energy future. Peak oil is here and will only become more obvious. Have I spent too much time thinking about building/stabilizing the local economy and not enough time thinking about the local food and energy system? I realize that it does not have to be either/or, there can be a balance. When I joined up with the FRI I knew it was a Main Street group and had (have) no problem with that but I was more interested in the Transition Towns idea. Main Street is in the right direction but I’m impatient with our lack of progress and what often times seems to be a lack of interest in the local business community.
As an anarchist I’m not all that interested in the profit motive or volunteering my time to help others make a profit. I don’t have a local business, they do. They don’t seem to understand the interconnection between their business and their community. That said, I AM interested in building the self reliance and resilience of the local community and that means working with business owners to some degree. I suppose what this post comes down to is that I’m trying to find a balance in how I spend my time. I’m wondering what folks in this community want and need most, trying to understand how I can have the most meaningful impact.
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Activism, Capitalism, Collapse, Community, Economic Collapse, Economic Depression, Economy, FileMaker Pro, Food, Fredericktown, Gardening, Global Depression, Great Depression, Homesteading, Living Simply, Missouri, Peak Energy, Peak Oil, Permaculture, Recession, Self Reliance, Small Town Life, Sustainable Development, The Long Emergency, Transition, Main Street
Dreaming of Loretta
Two nights in the past few days I’ve dreamed of my sweet Canada Goose buddy, Loretta. I miss her friendly smile and the sound of her puttering around behind me in the garden. I hope she comes back and stays for the summer. I really miss her!
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Homesteading, Living Simply
Fun with Bees
Every so often we have moments of spontaneous comedy here at the homestead. Serious comedy. No, really, you don’t want to have a mouthful of coffee while reading.
This is a two part bee story. Part one. Last week I was out to feed the bees on one of our kinda warm days. I went out with the jar of sugar water but no gloves or head gear. I’d done this before but in the early spring bees tend to be a bit more aggressive. I remove the entrance cleat (a piece of wood that keeps out mice and cold air) and put the feeder in place. A couple bees popped out and I backed up a bit. No problem. Except that one of them continued to buzz me. I backed up more… another 15 feet. Still buzzing so I backed up further. At this point I was a bit puzzled because I could not find him and the buzzing was pretty loud. So I start with my shirt and sweatshirt. Yes, I took them off. Still the buzzing. Then the shoes quickly followed by the sweat pants. Still the buzzing. At this point I’m a little freaked out and jumping around a bit looking for this very angry bee. I’m wearing socks and boxing shorts and jumping around in the woods, hands flailing through the air. Then I realize where my little friend is. The beard. So now I’m pulling at my beard trying to comb him out with my fingers. Still angry buzzing. More frantic pulling at the beard to which turns into a kind of squeezing of the beard and then smacking of the beard. Yes, mostly naked, jumping around and smacking myself in the face.
Just another picturesque morning in the country.
Okay. Ready for part two? Tonight I go out to gather up the empty sugar water jar. Yes, I’m wearing the gloves and head gear. I pull the feeder and slide the entrance cleat over. A few bees come out. All done I turn and walk away. Buzzz. Buzzzzzzz. I keep walking, not too worried as I know my beard is safe. Then I realize a bee had somehow made it into my boot. Okay buzzing getting angrier and I move more quickly towards the cedar bench over by the chicken coop. I plop down quickly to take my boots off and yes, I, along with the bench, tip right over. So now I’m on my back trying to kick my boots off.
After a few minutes I get them off and push myself and the bench up off the ground. For a brief moment I and bench almost fall back over but I make the save. The bee is gone and I retrieve the boots. End scene.
All that said, I do love my fuzzy little buzzing friends and am looking forward to the summer honey harvest!
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Bee Keeping, Bees, Homesteading, Honey Bees, Living Simply, Self Reliance
Thinking of Spring
We’ve now had two days above 55 degrees! Yesterday was fantastic with full sun all day. The bees were out of their hive scouting around. The chickens and guineas were happily taking dust baths and scratching through mulch looking for bugs. We’ve had snow cover over much of the ground for most of January and February. It has finally melted off with only a few spots remaining in the deep shade. I’ve started a tray of broccoli, cabbage and kohlrabi and will be starting another of tomatoes and peppers. Oh, and eggplant as well. Basically, I’ll have seed trays on every flat surface in the cabin and greenhouse. Last night, right on que, the Spring Peepers began singing just after sunset. There is nothing more beautiful than the early spring song of these amazing frogs. Listening to them sing in the cool evening of late winter/early spring is magical.
Warm and Cozy!
We’ve had some pretty cold weather since my last update on the wood stove and thermal mass. I’m happy to report that the thermal mass has continued to make a huge difference in the moderation of indoor temperatures. In the past week we’ve had several days in a row with overnight lows at or below 10 and highs of 20 or less. Inside the cabin I’ve been waking up to 52 or warmer with a daytime average of about 75 inside once the morning fire is going. In these frigid first days of January I’ve burned an average of 7 logs in the morning and 7 in the evening. Last winter without the blocks I would have woken up to 38 degrees or so on mornings this cold even if I kept a hot fire going till 1 in the morning! While 52 is chilly it’s quite a difference from 38 and remember I’m only burning half the wood which means much less work for me and much less carbon in the atmosphere.
Here are some stats from December: Morning average 28 outside, 59 inside. Evening average 34 outside, 66 inside. Noon inside average 72. Overall outside average 31, inside average 65.7. That inside average is a bit misleading as it is based on a morning temp with no fire. I get the morning fire going as soon as I get up so the temp quickly rises so in terms of the time that I’m actually awake and doing things in the cabin the average is more like 75. On average the cabin is staying at least 32 degrees warmer that outside.
One last observation. New Years day I went to a community hike and potluck and observed during the drive over that most of the houses that had chimneys were spewing pretty heavy amounts of smoke. I’m happy to report that even with my old wood stove I’m only getting visible smoke during the start-up of my fires. Within just a few minutes that smoke is replaced by nearly invisible smoke/vapor and heat waves. I doubt it is as clean burning as the newer double burn stoves but even those will burn dirty if not burned properly with well seasoned wood.
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Cabin, Carbon, Climate Change, Conservation, Energy, Energy Conservation, Global Warming, Homesteading, Living Simply, Natural Resources, Permaculture, Self Reliance, Wood, Woodburning Stove