A Recycling Program That Only Recycles Working Things, or "Cash for Ice Cubes."

I tried to recycle an old chest freezer today. It doesn't work and we wanted to get rid of it. Sadly, leaving things in the back yard to return to the earth has gone out of vogue. She Who Must Be Obeyed came across a website that promised to take old refrigerators and freezers and recycle them for you. They would pick them up and give you $50 to boot! One little thing in the requirements was bothersome to me. The appliance had to be in running condition. I thought that it must be a misprint. No one is so stupid as to trade in a perfectly good appliance for one that is going to cost them more. I called and it wasn't a typo. Only bureaucrats can envision programs like this. Only a person who isn't in the habit of paying much in taxes would come up with a scheme that takes money out of someone's pocket and put it in the pocket of another. The "Cash for Clunkers" program was a stupid piece of legislation if ever there was one.

"On August 26 the DoT reported that the program resulted in 690,114
dealer transactions submitted requesting a total of $2.877 billion in
rebates.^[1][11] At the end of the program Toyota accounted for 19.4 % of sales, followed by General Motors with 17.6 %, Ford with 14.4 %, Honda with 13.0 %, and Nissan with 8.7%.^[1][12]
It led to a gain in market share for Japanese and Korean manufacturers
at the expense of American car makers, with only Ford not taking a
significant hit.^[13] Meanwhile, Japan's own program excluded U.S. cars.^[14] The Department of Transportation also reported that the average fuel efficiency
of trade-ins was 15.8 mpg (miles per gallon), compared to 24.9 mpg for
the new cars purchased to replace them, translating to a 58% fuel
efficiency improvement.^[1]

A study published after the program by researchers at the University of Delaware
concluded that for each vehicle trade, the program had a net cost of
approximately $2,000, with total costs outweighing all benefits by $1.4
billion.^[15][16] Another study by researchers at the University of Michigan
found that the program improved the average fuel economy of all
vehicles purchased by 0.6 mpg in July 2009 and by 0.7 mpg in August
2009.^[17] " - from Wikipedia Car Allowance Rebate System.

Why am I quoting an article about Cash for Clunkers? It's just my joyful little way of pointing out that government programs that benefit Corporations are probably not a good deal for people in general.

I have a feeling that two parties were hurt in this "Cash for Ice-Cubes" scheme. The taxpayer was obviously hurt, and the sap who thought they were getting a great deal spent money they probably hadn't planned on spending, and didn't need to spend. Who benefited? Well, all those legislators and bureaucrats who feel bad about drawing a check for doing nothing got to feel good about doing something - anything, and manufacturers got to sell more crap people didn't really need. Whenever business and government get together on something, put your hand over your wallet right fast!

If we hadn't been moving, that freezer might have been re-purposed as a cold smoker. Now I have to find a place to bring it for disposal/recycling.

It's Amazing What Can Be Ignored In Two Weeks!

It has been over two weeks since I last saw my darling wife. It has been lonely, frustrating and less than productive at times. It's not that I haven't been doing things, it's just that, over all, less is getting done. I feel like I'm doing more, but without her here to help, and, quite honestly, to do, less gets done. In fact, the list of things I haven't gotten done seems to be overwhelming.

Much of this is my fault. I am a late night person and have been since I worked second shift when we lived in Chicago. I seem to not be able to go to bed before midnight except on rare occasions. Essentially, I reach a point of exhaustion and then collapse into a comatose state. It isn't easy to get work done around the house when you are in that comatose state!

The Blame Game set aside, I was able to do a fair job cleaning the downstairs, meals and shopping were done, though Eldest would complain that I wasn't fastidious and quick enough. I cleaned out the refrigerator which desperately needed to be cleaned. The yard was mowed, except for a small spot I forgot about. All of the appointments were kept, and we were on time for them. I think where I really fell down on the job was in keeping the house tidy.

And tonight is the night she comes back. She Who Must Be Obeyed returns tonight, and I am not ready. Rather the house is not ready. I am so ready for her to return, I am sure I will jump for joy when I see her. Not because I want help cleaning the house. I miss her. I love her. I am incomplete without her.

The Brutal Honesty Of Perspective Accepted.

I was running an errand for She Who Must Be Obeyed today, and as I was waiting in reception, I could hear the dulcet tones of Mick Jagger over the speakers in the office. I was tapping out the rhythm on the counter as I waited. It was taking the receptionist a long while to complete our request. As I was grooving to the Rolling Stones, I turned around to face the reception area, and my eyes fell on an older gentleman who also seemed to be grooving on the tune. His feet were tapping to the music. A broad smile crossed my face as I realized that The Rolling Stones were to me what Perry Como or Frank Sinatra was to my mother. Taking that thought a little further I realized that another way of looking at it is that Katy Perry is to my daughter what the Rolling Stones are to me.

Surprisingly, as I thought more about this, the more I realized that the music of these very divergent styles have something in common (Ok. Maybe not Perry Como, but mom really liked him!). If you've ever read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, you might recall the author's discussion of an aspect of Art that he referred to as "Quality." It was the distinguishing thing between art and not art. As I recall, it was a very confusing thing to a 17 year old boy. I prefer to call it "lasting power." If music is revered over a couple of generations, it has lasting power. For me, it is Mel Torme, Tony Bennett and a lot of the Big Bands. It is music that transcends "pop culture," or maybe it just translates well between generations. Will Katy Perry be well known 30 years from now, in 50 years? Who knows! I have the feeling that she just might be one of the few in a generation that is remembered. After all, Firework is a great piece of pop music.

Mail Call For The Organizationally Challenged.

This is the mail from four days of delivery. Monday was Labor Day, hence no delivery just to commemorate how hard public employees work for so little pay and stingy benefits </sarcasm>. Before I spiral out of control down that particular line of thought, I will jerk myself back to the task at hand, which is sorting mail. To the left is the unsorted pile of mail that I have to sort through to determine if it is: 1) worth looking at. 2) worth opening. 3) worth sending to SWMBO in Minnesota, or 4) worth burning. Before my Darling left me, the mail would take care of itself. I don't know how that happened, and she didn't leave any helpful clues to eliminate the Mystery of the Disappearing Mail. I suspect gnomes or elves played a part. Elves aren't near as nice as the story books make them out to be. I tried leaving it out on the counter, hence the four day build up, but it didn't self-sort, nor did the postfairy come and work her magic. Next, I tried the entropy method and threw it all up in the air. I don't think I clearly understand entropy. I tried the Youngest's method of staring at things, trying to bend them to my will - no luck. Eventually I resorted to that time honored yet somewhat less fun method of just getting on with it. As the photo to the right shows, and much to my amazement and dissatisfaction, it worked. Go figure!

I sorted the mail into 5 piles (I love piles!) One was for recycling, catalogs, bills and correspondence, township newspaper, and College propaganda. The propaganda went to Eldest, catalogs and newspaper are currently still on the counter (honesty!), the recycling is where it should be and the good stuff is with the catalogs. Does anyone really expect this lifelong issue to resolve overnight?

It was very therapeutic to get this done, and I felt much better for it. At least I did until the Destructive Duo came home from school and detritus was flung far and wide over the house.

The Unfortunate Gap Between What I Wish And What Is.

When we agreed to provide a car to Eldest, I thought that school year mornings would calm down. After all, there would be no rush to get ready for a bus that waits for no one. All of that stress would melt away into the aether. Why is there such a large gap between what we think will happen and reality? Eldest woke up late and ran about imitating a headless chicken, Youngest was the emotional equivalent of Jack the Ripper this morning, and who suffered for it? It wasn't me. I hide like a coward in my happy place, located somewhere inside me. The solar light, some two feet off of the driveway, certainly paid the price for these two stressed out, emotional wrecks. It is currently flatter than a pancake, and utterly un-saveable, lying in state in the garage. Thankfully, the tufts of decorative grasses managed to leap out of the way, or were just missed by the missile in reverse that Eldest was piloting.

I assume what I am experiencing, without the buffer of my Darling, is the female malady known as, "that time of month." It is the only way to explain the odd behavior coming out of my normally delightful children. I don't like it! Nope! Not one bit. My action plan is as follows: Hide in the basement or the pole barn for the next three or four days. Seriously, I can't do better than that. Reasoning doesn't work when they are in this state of mind (out of mind?) and direct confrontation would put me in the hospital. I'm just going to take a 12-pack of Yuenglings and a family size bag of Doritos out to the pole barn and I'll be fine.

The Homestead Wannabe Moves To Minnesota

Well, in due time we will move. As it stands, we are in the middle of the first week of living apart as a family. "She Who Must Be Obeyed" is living in an apartment in a small town in Minnesota, while the girls and I hold the fort here in New Jersey. As I calculate it, based on a move date of July 5th, 2013, it will have been 305 days since SWMBO left the building. That move date is a sliding figure of course. What this means is that the girls and I have been left without supervision for four full days! The critical things are getting done, as well as important things. School papers are being signed and returned and doctor appointments are being kept. It is the less important things that I always have trouble with.

I forgot to put out the garbage on my first garbage day post-SWMBO. Of course it wasn't just any old garbage. This was a garbage can full of chicken carcass and guts from the chicken dumpling soup I made for the little woman's farewell dinner. Consequently, the garage smells a bit like an over ripe landfill. The girls bravely make their way through the stench both morning and afternoon. I think it may be from convenience rather than bravery. I'm pretty sure they were calculating the number of steps from the garage door as opposed to the front door.

There are now three, soon to be four, days of mail waiting to be sorted. I hate sorting mail. Truth be told, I am a bit of a hoarder, and it just feels wrong to throw out all that crap that someone took so much time to prepare for me. Youngest and I have been very good about getting the newspaper everyday. At least my Darling (SWMBO) doesn't have to fret about piles of newspaper awaiting her bi-weekly return!

I guess no mention of mail is complete without mentioning flat files (things piled aimlessly on any flat spot in the house). Mail is the greatest generator of flat files that I know of, besides books, magazines, papers, electronics and well... stuff. We have been amazingly conservative in our creation of flat files in the absence of our Guide. I have to take my "Atta boys" where I can find them!

The Voles Must Go!

Just a short and depressing update to my last post. The Voles found my Swedish Fingerling potatoes. I harvested less than a pound from my original ten plants. I probably should have gotten at least four pounds per plant. They have also found my beets, and even damaged a pepper plant to the point that it probably won't survive. I am beginning to think that maybe poison is the way to go. I'll just tell the neighbor what I'm planning on doing and they can either ask me not to, or they can keep kitty away from my yard for a couple of weeks. Something has to be done. Once the voles are gone from the garden, then I can work on keeping them from coming back by using hardware cloth and such.

I hate mieces to pieces!

Not Everything Always Goes The Way You Expect It To!

Well, I may have wanted to add some garden space for herbs and curcubits, but that didn't happen for several reasons. First, I was just plain lazy and didn't get to it soon enough. Second, I didn't want to spend the money on the fencing and stuff like that. Last, we found out that we lost our employment, and that we would more than likely be moving to a new part of the country. My wife is the bread winner of the family, and her line of work doesn't lend itself to staying in one area. She is an executive, and there just aren't that many positions in her industry in any one area of the country. Happily, I know she will get a new position within a year (by faith). It could be within an hour and a half of our current home, or it could be 1000 miles away. Either way, we plan on staying here for one year to allow my eldest daughter to graduate from high school. My youngest daughter is not happy about that - at all. But we can't break the family apart for three years. I guess she'll be getting a horse as a bribe!

I took the Master Gardener's Course through the Burlington County Extension and am currently volunteering at a donation garden. I also help out on the Help Line to answer questions gardeners have about various things. It is a good program, but I jokingly refer to myself as being a member of the Soil Test Kit sales staff. A typical call goes something like this:

Client #1: "My cucumbers are looking kind of sick and the blossoms fall off before they set fruit."

Master Gardener: "Have you done a soil test?"

Client #2: "My flowers are all wilty looking!"

Master Gardener: "Have you done a soil test?"

Don't get me wrong. A soil test is very important in understanding what is going on. All kinds of things can cause plants to have issues. You want to eliminate the most obvious first. Soil nutrient depletion causes many of the problems you find in plants as well as soil pH. Soil pH can effect the availability of nutrients in the soil. The composition of the soil is very important as well. There is a great benefit in knowing everything you can about your soil. It just sounds funny to me to always ask that one question. I'm just a goof ball I guess.

The raspberry canes did go in, but I waited far too long to plant them. Five of the six canes I bought managed to spring back to life. One of them began growing and then, for some reason, it just died back. Still, five canes should be plenty to start with. I won't get raspberries this year, but I should next year, if we are still here in the Summer time. If we were staying here long term, I would probably add some blackberries to the garden as well.

I have had quite a harvest of strawberries and blueberries so far, and peas came in very nicely as well. Most things are growing very well in the garden. I think the peppers are having the hardest time. I do hope they grow. For the first time in three years, I think I will have some beets to harvest. The leaves are getting big, and I see signs that the roots are swelling. Before this, the greens were very stunted and the roots were the size of small marbles if they grew at all. The tomatoes are looking fine this year. The Beefsteaks are doing tremendously, and the Belgian Pinks and Rutgers look healthy as well. The Beefsteaks even have fruit on them. I had a good harvest of asparagus this year, and the fronds look very healthy. Next year should be a great harvest! The zucchini's are looking good as are the cucumbers. I planted both Lakota and Butternut squash as Winter varieties. Everything is doing very well. No sign of the dreaded Powdery Mildew! Spinach actually grew for me this year! I've never had a harvest before. It always went from tiny leaves to seed heads almost over night. The radishes grew well. The French Breakfast variety were my favorites. I had a a purple variety from Burpee, but it wasn't much good for much other than making Radish Top Soup, which was very delicious! I've had good harvests of lettuce and the Stringless Green Beans are looking great. I hope the Royal Burgundy beans do as well.

One of the things that is really growing well this year are my two different potato varieties. I am growing Kenebecs again this year and also Swedish Fingerling potatoes. My boxes, that I built last year, probably won't serve another year. The termites hit them pretty hard last year. The two garbage cans seem to be working very well again this year, and the black felt bags I bought from the co-op seem to be working just fine! I am hoping for at least 50 pounds of potatoes this year, but I would be happier with 100 to 150 pounds!

Things that aren't growing so well are my onions, of which quite a few have bolted. The garlic have not sent up scapes yet, so I am not sure what is going on there. I hope I don't have puny little heads like I did for the last two years. The tops look very yellow and sickly. The cabbages all look like green Swiss cheese! I have those dag-nab moths! The broccoli did ok, but the heads were small and the caterpillars were many. The bed that had the cabbages, broccoli and would have had the carrots and Swiss chard was almost a complete loss. When I decide to give up on the cabbages, I will be covering the whole bed with black plastic to bake out the crab grass and other weeds. I'll probably use PREEM on the asparagus bed next spring. I'll have to check and make sure that it's ok for use on asparagus. Another thing that didn't do well, yet again, was the rhubarb. I've never really had trouble growing it before.



It's been a bad year for trees. We didn't get enough cold weather this Winter for the apple trees to set blossoms. The Dutchess of Oldenburg did bear fruit. One apple is growing on that tree! The cherries didn't set fruit at all. They had plenty of flowers, but no fruit. Deer ate all of the fruit off of the peach trees. I had been diligently spraying the trees with Liquid Fence, but let it go one week. The deer feasted. I am unhappy. Last, something is munching on one of my almond trees. It is nearly bare. I need to go get an organic pesticide to take care of it. I don't want the tree to die. the almonds didn't flower again this year. I'm very sad about that too!

Getting Ready For 2012

Seed catalogs are beginning to arrive, though not as many as I thought I would be getting. Maybe it's still too early, or maybe they have heard that I am not a very good gardener. Perhaps I just need to visit more websites and sign up for free catalogs! I've always heard that seed catalogs in the mail are a sure sign that Spring is just around the corner, though I suspect that like saying Christmas is upon us when the decorations in department stores go up in early October. It is time to start planning my next foray into the garden, and I want to make sure I don't wast treasure or effort this year. Well, maybe I want to limit waste. I don't think a mere mortal can actually achieve the goal of eliminating wasted time and treasure.

One of the more confusing aspects, for me, is how to plan the next year's garden. Crop rotation is simple enough, but when you add in consideration for succession, that adds a far greater amount of complexity. I think I will create an "if/then" chart, or more accurately an "if/then not" chart. It should help me figure out which plants should not follow directly after last year's plantings.

First, I want to add some gardens this year. I would like to increase the amount of space I have for herbs and spices. The spiral is a nice looking little thing, but I over planted it last year. Now I am faced with having to transplant the rosemary and the lavender. I will have to move the lemon grass, if that even comes back. I hope it does, but it is far too large a plant for that little herb spiral. I want to add some cumin to the garden, and some fennel and dill weed. I haven't decided yet what to do about the horse radish. I want to grow it, but I don't want it in my raised beds. I may try that in containers. I am also planning a large garden behind the pole barn for corn and sunflowers, but It may not get enough sun back there. It would be smarter for me to do a daylight study there first. I am also planning on adding a garden next to my raised beds for winter squash, sweet potatoes and watermelon. This wouldn't be a raised bed, but rather following the Back To Eden approach. It's a kind of lasagna gardening method.

Second, I need to find room for raspberry canes. I'm not quite sure where to put them in the yard. They will probably end up in the enclosure with the squash and watermelons. I know I have to keep the deer away from them. Those vermin will eat darned near anything that grows. I swear they would happily munch on poison ivy.

The Beginning of the End For 2011.

My first year of gardening is coming to a close and I have learned a great deal. I expected to learn a bit about germination, indoor seed starting, transplanting, growing from seed outdoors, watering schedules, planting schedules and so on. I learned a fair bit about building raised beds and potato containers, and soil makeup and structure as well. What I wasn't really expecting was to learn so much about myself, and how uncomplimentary that could be!

I have a desire to develop a homestead on my property. Not just a garden, but a suburban homestead. I have well over 1/2 an acre of usable land. Certainly, having sand instead of soil is a bit of a set back, but poor soil can be overcome. It is true that the city council makes it more difficult to achieve my goal of self sufficiency, but they can be reasoned with, and in time, I am sure that we will work out some agreement regarding animals on the property. Almost everything that presents a problem is simply a part of the learning curve. I have voles tearing things up in the raised beds. I will learn how to be rid of them. I have more weeds than food in the garden. I will learn to limit their growth while promoting the growth of the plants I want to have in the garden. It is all possible.

The one thing that has me discouraged, puzzled and nearly defeated is my own character. I give up too easily. Maybe it is because I set goals too high to begin with. Goals do need to be achievable and reasonable. It started after we came home from our summer vacation. The garden was a wreck, and I wasn't prepared for what I came home to. Powdery mildew had killed off most of every vining plant in the garden. The weeds were choking out everything that the mildew wasn't killing. The deer had eaten the blueberry plants to bare twigs. And I responded by letting things slide, by being discouraged into inaction. That is a disturbing character flaw.

It is the beginning of October, and there is so much to do in the garden. I am just sitting here looking at it get worse and worse. It gets worse than that. The garden is only a small part of what I hope to achieve. I haven't built the smoke house yet. I haven't started on an outdoor kitchen. I put the rabbits and chickens on the back burner, and I haven't done more than lay out where I want the hoop house to be.

Here's a look at the devastation:

The Circle of Life

I'm Puzzled More Than Educated.

There is so much to learn when gardening. Some times I wonder if I've simply started too big. Maybe nine raised beds and all of those fruit and nut trees were just beyond my ability to learn. Things are going south fast! My paw-paws and cherries are looking pretty bad. The Three Sisters apparently had an argument and decided to duke it out. They are now in a shambles. Peppers are dying in every corner of the garden and I haven't harvested any tomatoes. The Melons have been poor producers so far, as have been the winter squashes. It looks like I have more diseased material in the garden than not. Powdery mildew is making an appearance and is threatening my butternut squash.

On the bright side, I've had a fair harvest of green beans, radishes, lettuce, garlic, peas, and zucchini. I'm looking forward to a fair crop of yellow onions, but the whites and reds will be less than good. I pray that the tomatoes and potatoes will have a decent yield, but I'm not holding my breath. I learned that dry beans need a lot more space to produce enough to hold my family for a year. I'll have to do a tally, but I doubt that I will have more than 5 pounds total of dry beans, and probably much less.

I've made an update video an will place it below:

Another Garden Update July 18,2011

If It Ain't One Thing, It's Another, And if It Ain't That, It's Somethin' Else!

The thing that the beginning gardener/homesteader will learn most quick, is that something is always going Mother Nature way instead of yours. How in the world do you stay ahead of every little crisis that rears up? Are they truly crises? Today, when I went to check on my garden, I noticed that the potato plants in the trash cans looked wilted. It was almost the kind of look a plant gets when they have gone without watering too long. It couldn't have been that because the soil was moist, but not wet. I noticed little critters flying away when I disturbed the foliage. So what did the organic gardener wannabe do? He temporarily saved his taters by using garden dust. Now I need to learn how not to resort to what another gardener referred to as, "the big guns." There are other ways to fight pests and diseases. I do hate thinking of losing a whole crop to an ideology though. I'll find my way. No doubt about that.

One Product That Works!

Shortly after I planted my fruit trees, I noticed that the deer had stripped the leaves clean off of one of my apple trees. I wasn't very happy about that. I started to make cages to put around the trees, but I wasn't too happy about that either. I went to the Garden Co-op, and they sold a product to me called Liquid Fence. It should be called Liquid Stench, but I digress. The point is, it works! I wonder if it is the same as the homemade rotten egg stuff I've read about? I may try that next year. Anyway, I spray it on the foliage once a week unless it rains heavily. The deer have not bothered the trees since. They still come in the yard and I have watched them grazing on the weeds in the backyard, but they have left my trees alone! The tree that they did eat has new growth so all is forgiven.

What Have I Learned So Far?

When you start something that is outside of your main experiences, you are bound to make mistakes. Heck! You're bound to make mistakes dealing with things you are well trained for. I think it is just as true that if you don't think about the mistakes you have made, and plan to not repeat them in the future, you are guaranteed to repeat them. This is a record of the things I've done so far this year that can be improved upon.

I started my seeds indoors on March 9th and 12th for many of the crops I was planning to raise this year, but I didn't get them planted in the garden until May 9th. I don't have a greenhouse nor do I have grow lights to use indoors. All of my seedlings became very leggy. I learned three important things. First, it is critical that seedlings get the proper amount and quality of light or they will not thrive. They do grow, but they become spindly and weak. Second, planting particular crops at the correct time is also critical to good growth. Cold weather crops are just that. I planted between a month and two months too late for many of my crops. Others that were planted at the proper time from seedlings are doing poorly because they were weak and leggy. Last, it is very important to harden off seedlings. My peppers are doing horribly because they got burned by the sun. They are weeks behind where they should be and don't appear to be growing at all. Hopefully they are busy developing roots!

I have also learned that you can't learn to garden organically by reading. You can read until your eyeballs explode, but it won't prepare you for those emergencies that crop up seemingly overnight. Only experience can do that, and in a pinch it is very easy to reach for a chemical. I didn't want to lose a whole crop of dry beans to rust so I went and bought a fungicide. The disease appeared overnight; I was weeding in the garden yesterday and the beans were beautiful. When I came out this morning, they were covered with little brown spots. Now comes the learning part. What are the alternatives to fungicide? Is the disease a crop killer, or does it simply reduce the harvest size? As a home gardener, I could put up with crop reduction if I had to, but I could not abide by a total loss. Perhaps the wisest thing for me to do is to find organic gardeners in my locale and meet with them.

I have grown corn for two years now. Both years saw the wind flatten the entire bed. I've had to stake and string up the corn so it won't fall over. Why am I having to do this? I thought it might be that I wasn't planting the seed deep enough, but I know I followed the packet instructions. I was reading the other day that some Indians planted their corn quite deep at 12 inches. I need to investigate this further. That seems like it couldn't possibly work. In Mel Bartholomew's "All New Square Foot Gardening" he mentions that it is ok to plant seeds much deeper because the soil mix you make is very friable and lose. I should do a test and plant a few seeds at 3 and 5 inches to see if they come up.

My other great experiment resulted from a refusal to pay big bucks to construct a compost bin out of steel bar and cinder blocks or to build an eyesore out of discarded pallets. I remember piles of organic waste at a facility in Germany. It wasn't contained in walls of cement or wood. I am trying to see if I can do the same thing on a small scale. In fact, I should be turning the pile right now and wetting it down a bit. We'll see how it works.

I'm sure I've forgotten a lot. I will sit and reflect on this as I sip a beer and look out over my farm (after I turn the compost pile).

Day 86: A Homestead Tour and Various Thoughts

I've never been very good at journal writing. It takes a great deal of time to write anything, and if it is worth writing, I take the time. I tried earlier to link to a YouTube video I had made, but for what ever reason, the videos didn't appear on the list. It's time to try again.And it looks to be a rousing success! Well, at least it linked. The video itself still stinks on ice no matter how you slice it.

There is much left to accomplish for this season. I am still in the process of making gates for the fence around the garden and also considering the need for a fence around the blueberry bushes and all of the fruit trees. that is a high cost and a lot of work. I need to make a good compost bin, and I am beginning work on the herb spiral.

Homestead Tour: 13 May, 2011

Day 69: Time Flies When You're Procrastinating!

It's been a long while since my last post. The good news is that the raised beds are done the fence has been erected around the garden and weed barrier and mulch has been put down on the paths and around the garden perimeter. There is still a ton to do before I plant. I need to mix the garden soil for the beds. What? Oh, I should explain that. You see, here in Southern Jersey, we do not have soil. We have beach sand. In my yard I have about a meter of sand before you start to hit clay. So I am making what is called "Mel's Mix" in the book, Square Foot Gardening. It is roughly 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 vermiculite. Home made dirt! I've also thought of a good way to lay out a square foot grid over the gardens. Half inch plastic strapping held to the garden rails with thumb tacks should do it. Finally I have to build two gates to allow easy access to the garden. I am going to use PVC pipe and fence wire for this. The design is in my head, and I think I can make it work. It should be a fun project. I'll photo document it as I go along.

I've spent a good amount of time in the sun over the last week getting all of the beds and fencing done. Unfortunately, I am taking Cipro for a skin infection I got from scrubbing my arm with a kitchen scrub pad. I know, I shouldn't have done that. You'd think that a Microbiologist by training would figure that one out all by his lonesome, wouldn't you? Well, I didn't. Cipro makes you more sensitive to the sun and I can, by my crisply burned skin, attest to that!

What have I planted in my yard so far? I have one of the old beds devoted to Mary Washington asparagus, The other old bed has a couple of rhubarb plants in it and about eight horse radish. Half of that bed is still empty. I should probably plant peas in that area. I have also planted 3 apple trees, 2 peach trees, 2 paw-paw trees, 2 almond trees and two cherry trees. I had 2 hazelnut bushes, but I killed them before they got in the ground. I also planted 6 blue berry bushes of the "Duke" variety.

To the left is a photo of one of the cherry trees in blossom. I am very happy that I didn't kill them as well as the hazelnuts! The photos to the right is my garden with 9 raised beds nearly completed. Tomorrow I think I will do a walk around with the video camera and show off what I have done so far.

Day 28: Learning, Doing and Getting It Done.

No, the raised beds aren't done yet. I am in the middle of a two day headache. Who knows how far out it's going to go? I am not having a migraine, thank goodness, but it is keeping me down. I might finish up attaching the stakes to the long sides of the bed frame, and drilling the holes where the ends of the long sides screw into the braces. I don't think I'll get them put together and on the ground today. It  just feels as though my brains are bleeding out through my eye sockets.

Last week I sent a letter off to the Zoning Officer. I haven't heard back from him yet. Sometimes I think it is just easier to beg forgiveness than it is to ask permission. No one would have been any the wiser had I just gone ahead and gotten the chickens and rabbits. Now they're going to be looking at everything I do. Honestly, I detest living in a society that seeks so hard to protect its citizens that it smothers them. I would think my neighbors and I would be able to figure something out together. Perhaps that is just wishful thinking. Maybe we can't count on each other being reasonable anymore, and living in such close proximity to each other requires a person to be either reasonable, or regulated.

I have been reading a rather good book about seed saving and growing heirloom fruits and vegetables. It is called, Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth. It is very complete, almost a text book on the subject. Unlike a text book, it is fairly easy to understand. Much of it I already knew from various biology classes I've taken, but it goes over pollination in greater detail. Also, population size has a great deal to do with successfully saving healthy, genetically diverse seed for future generations. I am not sure that I can overcome that hurdle. If I have to save seeds from 20 - 100 plants to ensure genetic strength, I will be using most of what I grow just to produce seeds, not for eating. Maybe I can make arrangements with other gardeners. I'm not sure another gardener would trust the seeds of a newbie though, and for good reason. It could wipe out everything they've worked hard to achieve.

As far as the raised beds go, I have the short ends completed. I bought 14 pieces of 5/4" x 6" x 12' cedar planks, 7 pieces of 5/4" x 6" x 8' cedar and a bunch of lengths of 2" x 2" cedar to cut 6" braces from. I bought a bunch of treated wooden stakes to help keep the long sides from bowing. I cut the eight foot lengths in half and drilled and screwed them into the 6" brace pieces. It was a fairly easy process, but I did break one bit, and an older bit seemed to be very dull and it eventually became so clogged with wood bits and sap that it no longer functioned. I already said what I have left to do, but with this headache it seems a bit daunting. My youngest daughter is going to help me tomorrow. That should make the task a bit easier and also provide some needed motivation to get it done. There's nothing like an audience to get you putting out an honest day's work! The photos here show the work I've done on the beds so far.

Day 19: I've Done It Now!

Here is where procrastination meets terror. I have all of my plants ordered, including 13 fruit and nut trees. The only things I have not ordered are raspberry canes and blueberry bushes. What I have not done, is terrifying. I have not got the raised beds constructed, nor have I physically gone out into the yard to place where the trees will be planted. And I have not started my seeds yet. This is the ugliness of my adopted nature. I am a terrible procrastinator, or Terribilis cunctatrix in Latin. I absolutely have to finish the beds this week. Even if I don't have everything I need for the fence, the beds must get done. I also have to start the seeds. I hope they all get here today.

I spoke to the local Zoning Officer for my township and found out that I cannot have chickens or rabbits on my one acre. It seems some few years ago, before this draconian ordinance was adopted, it was perfectly legal to have farm animals on your property. Now you must be the proud owner of 6 or more acres of land. What happened to make the council adopt such a drastic piece of law? Apparently a resident decided that they wanted to operate a hog farm on their one acre plot. He had 50 pigs at the time the council put their foot down. The Zoning Officer did tell me that all ordinances are written to have variances considered, bless his heart! So I have to write a letter to him the describes exactly what I want to do, and he will deny my request. That is what then gets the ball rolling on a variance. I am relatively certain that I can argue for a limited number of chickens and rabbits on my land. Then again, you never really know how immovable people are until you try to reason with them.

I have thought about the design for my smoker and have settled on using our old chest freezer as the "house" part of the smoke house. I bought some of the piping and fitting that will be needed. I even bought the cutest little chimney cap for it! I need to find some screen material to keep bugs out of the house, but that is all I need to get it built. Oh! I need something for the fire containment, but I haven't found that yet. I'll try to post photos of the project or maybe a video. It should be fun!

It's supposed to rain for the next few days. I expect that means I'll be paying the price for putting off building the beds for my garden. Terribilis nego Cunctatrix!

Day 15: Thinking Out of the Box For Daily Solutions to Problems.

I hate to admit it, but I am agreeing with liberals on something. We are living an unsustainable lifestyle. I have been groggily pondering this for several years, but I didn't wake up until my iPod Touch died. Rather it suffered from reduced usefulness. The battery is going bad in it and it no longer holds a charge. I had heard that Apple has a program for refurbishing old iPods and then selling them for a reasonable price. Apparently reasonable is a term that takes meaning in the mind of the individual considering its meaning. To me, charging nearly the same price as new was not my definition of the word reasonable. They have purposefully engineered their product to die and be useless after 2 - 3 years. I refuse to do that anymore. And then it struck me that for years I had been joking about planned obsolescence, and now I was clearly seeing it in action. What else do we commonly buy that follows roughly the same pattern? I really don't want to play that game anymore. I don't want to make myself poor in order to make some twit rich, all for the purpose of filling my life with crap that I can easily do without.

The difference between the liberal and conservative method of dealing with the problem is that a conservative will say that it is up to the individual to wake up and stop doing stupid things. The liberal will agree with that but go one step further. They will form a committee which will suggest that a new Government agency be formed that will have the authority to make people stop doing stupid things. Gah!

Now that I am well off of the path I wanted to take for this post, I will try to swing it back on target. What the heck does all that have to do with thinking out of the box? Just this: The other day I was on a forum lamenting the fact that I had just spent close to $400 to buy materials to make the raised beds for our new garden. One person reply to my post and asked, "Why'd you do something so stupid?" That's a paraphrase but his point was that I should have gone to the junk yard and found stuff I could have re-purposed. You know what? He's absolutely right! I could have saved a fortune on lumber, that in 5 years time will need to be replaced. Here's a video link which he sent me. I am looking for free stuff now, on Freecycle.org. I hope I can find flagstone and cinder blocks. I am also re-purposing an old chest freezer. One of my projects is to build a smoke house. This chest freezer will make an outstanding smoke house! And that is what thinking out of the box really is! I could easily have used the old freezer as a root cellar as well. These are simple examples of what we can do. And they can be made to look nice as well, if there is a need to do that.

And now I am off to do some work in the yard!

Day 15: Homesteading Book List

Gardening:

All New Square Foot Gardening

Mel Bartholomew

Cool Springs Press

Companion Planting:

Everything You Need to Know to Make Your Garden Successful

Dale Meyer

Atlantic publishing Group, Inc.

Root Cellaring:

Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables

Mike and Nancy Bubel

Storey Publishing

Seed to Seed:

Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners

Suzanne Ashworth

Chelsea Green Publ. Co.

How to Grow More Vegetables*

(and Fruit, Nuts, Grains, and Other Crops)

*Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine

John Jeavons

10 Speed Press

Animal Husbandry:

Chickens in Your Backyard:

A Beginner's Guide

Rick and Gail Luttmann

Rodale

Keeping Chickens

(Self-Sufficiency Series)

Michael Hatcher

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Barnyard in Your Backyard:

A Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Goats, Sheep and Cattle

Ed. by Gail Damerow

Storey Publishing

The Hive and the Honeybee

Ed. by Dadant & Sons

Dadant Publications

General Self-Sufficiency:

The Backyard Homestead

Ed. by Carleen Madigan

Storey Publishing

Back to Basics:

A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills

Ed. by Abigail R. Gehring

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Self-Sufficiency For the 21^st Century

Dick & James Strawbridge

DK

Food Preservation:

Cheesemaking

(Self-Sufficiency Series)

Rita Ash

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Putting Food By

Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg and Beatrice Vaughan

Plume (Penguin)

Independence Days:

A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage and Preservation

Sharon Astyk

New Society Publishers

Charcuterie:

The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing

Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn

W. W. Norton

Miscellaneous:

Good Meat:

The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat

Deborah Krasner

Stewart, Tabori and Chang