"Green" Ideals

Now recently I was asked what my stance on being 'green' was as I do -want- to have a green homestead.  I thought about what this person had asked me and I gave them a simple answer.  I believe in the ideals of a 'green' lifestyle and keeping the world 'green', however I live in the real world.  The full explanation there is semi involved.

Garbage.. the Big "G" word.  Garbage is an issue no matter where you live, a homestead is no different.  No matter how you live you have to deal with some garbage and trash on a daily basis.  I -unfortunately- have a trash pile, which I do plan of "taking care of" eventually.  I have burned trash, it tends to lower the amount of solid trash you need to do 'something' with down to an easier level.  Modern day gives us so many things that require disposal of some point/kind.  Not every place has recycling either and if there is a place that offers it you have to look at the cost to you in gas/petrol to get to and from the facility.  I firmly believe people should have to personally find ways to deal with their own trash issues as, until you have to for a period of time; you have no idea how much of it you generate.

Building, ... hmmm there are many 'green' building methods out there but let us analyse a couple of them for a minute.  Cordwood is a wonderful building method and is purported as a 'green' building method.  Well, -if- you have softwoods growing on your property and don't mind doing some clear cutting for the most part it can be.  Otherwise you need to figure out the carbon footprint of getting the wood for the construction of that home/shed/whatever.  Then you have what you need yo seal the log ends so they won't rot over time.  Oh yes, then the roofing materials and all those windows you want on your house.  After a while the carbon cost is up there (not to mention the cost in money to you).  Strawbale houses, again a 'green' method, but unless you have acres of straw growing on your property and you are baling it by hand after cutting and drying it; figure the fuel cost there.  You also have to cover the straw bales as well after the fact to keep them from rotting away.  Then if you aren't growing the straw yourself you have to have it trucked in.  So the cost in carbon is still kinda high.  If you want a low carbon cost house build one out of cob, cob you have made totally on your own property.  I am personally going to be building concrete dome houses here as we live in a tornado zone and near the New Madrid fault line, so I need to think about both of those factors in a permanent building.

Free Ranging Chickens..., ok I can see why this is such a 'green' method.  However, for me it has issues big time.  The one time I tried free ranging chickens they ate my garden to the ground and what they did not eat they trampled.  I have less damage from deer grazing through my garden and I don't wish to box my garden in when it's easier for me and my disabled partner to get in and out of the garden without a boxed fence around it ('boxed' as chickens can/do fly).  So I give my chickens a large yard and all the food either in grain ration or cut greens/bugs/table scraps they can eat and  I get eggs from very happy birds.


Now for me 'green' principles are extremely hard to do when you are low income and pretty much have a small amount in that income to purchase they things you need to take care of your day to day life.  We are low income and my partner is disabled ( former military and federal) we get money once a month to cover all bills and what we do need to buy and what we can buy extra for around here.  (btw for the one person who once said I needed to get a 'real' job and stop  playing.  I spend my day caring for my disabled partner and taking care of our homestead doing 90% of the work here)  We have learned a while ago that while we like the "idea" of living green we have to determine which is more necessary.  Sometimes not being 'green' wins out due to the cost in it verses what we need to have for us or the kids here.

Maybe one of these days I will be able to be as 'green' as I'd like to be, but till then I look for the balance I can work with.  We eat as much food we grow ourselves as we can.  I compost or feed to the chickens as much of our 'leftovers'.. or paper too; that we can do.  The rest is tossed onto the pile.  We reduce the amount of lighting we use to a lot of the cheapy solar garden lights except where we need "full light" for a job.  We cut all our own firewood, and eventually we are converting to rocket mass heaters.

So for now that is it, I hope this helps people understand me a bit more.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Long Over Due Update!

I know I have not written anything in some time on here, partly due to money issues and partly due to just being busy. At this time we have 2 interns staying with us, both are here either because they want to learn about how we live or because they want to live like this and wanted an easy way to get a start. One of them is our current mode of transportation as our van is officially dead. We are planning on turning it into storage and using the oh so comfy seats in the house (honestly they are -very- comfortable). The same one who has the vehicle is also working at a town job 4 days a week to help out a bit and to assist in getting them out of the debt issues they have.

As for what is directly going on here, well first our money situation is starting to turn itself around (btw my dear friend whom we got the water tanks from payback is coming to you in a couple weeks fingers crossed). We acquired some more goats, an adult and 4 babies.. 3 of them however did not make it. It's a learning experience as one died due tot he fact that it seemed to have been sick when we picked it up. The other 2 shrugs I am not sure what got them though I suspect bloat got one of them. However we have our started herd of milk/meat goats.

We also got a new -small- flock of just hens, they aren't producing the amount of eggs I wish they were but again, it's building and the point is to make it till spring when we buy a new flock. I have 2 rabbits at the moment for our meat production. (Oh for those of you who whine about “don't hurt the cute bunny!” Let me tell you that -cute- bunny has teeth and claws and can hurt you and have you ever seen a cow that is raised on a farm and has good feed, plenty of land to graze one? They are adorable, so if you think the cute bunny shouldn't be hurt .. don't eat the cute cow). I have contact with someone local who is going to sell me a good breeding stock on bunnies so that for us is a big plus.

Our garden this year has been doing 100X's better than we have had before due to my new garden beds. I even pickled some cucumbers the other day. I am still trying to get enough tomatoes to can so I can do sauces and have chili fixings for all winter. I managed to pull 1 melon so far out of my garden, I think I still need to tinker a bit to get good big melons from my beds.

Our second intern is a young man, who has spent most of his life living in the city playing video games and living the life of the average city kid these days. He's been chopping and hauling wood for about 3 weeks now interspersed with some dirt hauling. He is -just- starting to gain some muscle on his arms. Yes, we are still working on our winter wood. We got a chain saw this spring that after 2 days of work died, and when we took it back we needed the refund for bills so the new chainsaw got put on the back burner till we could afford it. We just got a new one and we are trying to get enough wood put up for this winter. We have 2 buildings to heat this year, so we have 2 wood burners to feed all winter.

The kids head back to school tomorrow morning, so they are excited; as are we as we get quiet then. We'll even get more work done as we won't be chasing them around to get the jobs they need done completed. Oh for those of you who know me on FB, I really don't go in there anymore unless there is something I feel is important enough to get out to -everybody-, I am not even sending links to this blog there anymore. For me FB has become a bit of a joke and I just don't see the point in it anymore.

I cannot guarantee I will keep things major-ly up to date as we have tons of things going on around here and I had a free moment and someone locally asked I update the blog as they feel what we are doing would interest a good deal of people out there. I am honestly not sure how true that is as from the bit of lurking I do have time for online I don't see much activity of this kind out there anymore. It is like homesteading in the woods -was- a fad that is now over with. I might be wrong, but I don't see much in the way of people being interested in it at this point.

Example, we had another person here for about 3 months. Boy, was it a failure; this young man thought that life here would be a breeze. As whenever he was online we tended to be as well to chat with him. What you don't wind up seeing is this young man stays up till 3 am and doesn't wake up till about noon. By noon we have our morning chores done and in the spring we don't work 100% of the day any more than the rest of the year. However there are times we come very close to it. He moved down here supposedly to assist us and as he needed a place to live. He after a couple of times flatly refused to do any work as quote”my back hurts too much for that”. Now anyone who reads this blog knows that my partner Silver is disabled, he has a bad knee and suffers from RA horribly. Some days he can't even get out of bed it can be so bad. So we have a 19 yr old young man who can barely lift a shovel to move some dirt because his back hurts. However when we suggested he see a doctor he refused to do that. So after a while of that and him wasting our food we sent him away.

I had at one time a person who looked at my blog and told me that what we do there had to be a lie because no one could live like that or do that much “stuff” in one day. It bothers me that (this person was under 30 btw) people younger than me think life is just about sitting in their chairs infront of a screen all day and walking to the car to go to work is hard exercise. Where has the work ethic of people gone?

Well that is about ti from here right now, hope everyone is well and healthy.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Snow Days ...Gods When Will it End...?

Firstly.. Sorry to not have written anything in a while. Life in general has been hectic here.

Now about Snow days... the first year we were hear we had sooo much fun with them. Seemed like every other week the school would cancel days on end. Well in the last 2 months aside from the normal time off they have had an additional 2 and a half weeks off. ...and last week it got ridiculous. The last couple days they had off there was no snow on the ground and one of them was a day it rained all day. I jokingly said on Facebook that it wasn't a snow day it was a “rain day”.

It was so bad that back on Monday I joked about the fact they'll call school off on account of heat... as it was in the 50's in January. The intense cold did give us a minor problem. Our pipes froze, just one segment and it was the important one. The outside pipe leading to the house from the well. So instead of waiting for thaw we just went out and bought some PEX pipe and re ran it.

On the pigs we were going to get... Seems they died in the cold we had along with the goats these people owned. Now my only problem with this is that we own 1 goat. She lives in a shelter made of tarps, concrete board and some rolled roofing. Theirs had a post beam structure and 3 goats in total. I'd think the three goats would be able to keep each other warm. While the only help my goat had was hock deep straw and my daughter's blanket. Shrugs

We got our van which was out of commission working again. Spent over $300 on the repairs till we replaced the right thing. Funny thing is everything we replaced needed it, but wasn't the problem till we got to the final one. It was the MAP sensor something that costs $40. Well at least we now have a new...

Fuel pump

Fuel filter

Distributor cap

ECM

Spark Plugs

Spark Plug Cables

..so we know if something else happens they won't be those.

My son gets to go on his first maneuvers with the National Guard next weekend, hope he enjoys it. Right now all we are currently doing is making plans for the building we are going to do. The house is low on the list, have so many other things we need doing first. Well house, outdoor kitchen, layer house/yard, goat house/yard, pig pen (as we are planning on trying for some other pot bellied s).

Well That's it for Now.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Pot Bellied Pig info

Well since Sunday I've been searching online for info on raising pot bellied pigs for meat. Well, oddly... there isn't much info on it. The most of the info online about pot bellied pigs is on the “pet” trade for them. The only places where they even mention it tend to be online forums. So I went around and posted pretty much the same question to all of them.

“I'm getting 5 pot bellied pigs, once I can buy and set up the fencing for it. However I'm not finding much about how to care for them. I'd like to know some basic info about care.”

Well, I've had a few responses. A lot say DON'T it's too fatty that it's only good for lard. Also that you don't get much from them. I expected with a small pig you wouldn't get much, small pig; small meat. Now the ones saying it's only got for lard have from the responses only butchered one pig and it was one they bought at what they considered proper weight.

Now aside from the ones who wanted to know more as well there were a few that raise pot bellied pigs normally who have ALL said... “..if you are getting a large amount of lard then the hog is OVERWEIGHT.” Seems that a pot bellied pig NEEDS to be a bit on the “trim” side. Also every one of these regular raisers of them have said they prefer to butcher them a bit on the old side. As in older than most would butcher a typical hog.

They have all said you will get mostly sausage out of them. Though you will get some small hams. That is fine by me, though I am thinking of trying to get some chops out of them. I am not expecting to get roasts out of them at all.

That's what I have learned at the moment. If/when I learn more I'll pass it on!

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Free is Always Good

Well yesterday was an interesting day for us here. A year ago, I believe we cleared (not completely left some nice oak trees) for a pig enclosure. Then me and Silver were discussing it and decided we didn't want the hassle of a full sized pig, as they can be dangerous and require really good fencing here. As if they get “away” from you you WILL be fined. Wild hog (read a feral) is a problem in this state.

Well yesterday our neighbors from down the road came over and asked us if we might be interested in some Pot bellied pigs. 5 of them for free. Well, pot bellied pigs don't get very big and while they still need sturdy fencing.. and “rooting under” fencing their requirements are about what a goat needs aside from height. While the goat may jump a 3 foot fence the little piggy won't. So we are going to go out and buy some fencing and set up a pig enclosure in about 2 weeks then we will be the proud owner of a small herd of pot bellied pigs. 2 adult sows.. 2 young-uns.. and one boar.

Also these same neighbors were looking at Momma and said, “you know, We have a horny goat at home how about you bring her by and we'll see if we can't get her pregnant.” Yeah on 2 counts! So Momma is over visiting a right handsome fella right now and hopefully we'll get something out of that.

I've been up before the sun this morning making bread and feeding everybody else. I even have some laundry going.. and we'll see what today might bring us.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Good News Tuesday!

We had an interesting morning this morning. Well first with the wonderful ..-balmy- temps(in the 20's). I sent the kids off to school bundled up aside from of course the creature known as the teenage boy. What is it about them that makes them thing it's macho/manly/whatever to go about when a penguin won't in just a sweatshirt and pants? Well, as long as the school doesn't phone me to complain about it I'm happy.

We had some good news this morning. The company who financed our building had sent us a late notice, for our last payment on it. Now we thought we had paid it, guess not. Anywho, Silver calls the company up this morning to tell them sorry we'll get it out on the first with the required late fee included. Company had no problem with this, the call lasted maybe 5 minutes. Not ten minutes after that the company calls us back saying that after they looked up our account and did some math.

They owe us $12.

WOW!

Nice huh? Here we thought we were behind and come to find out we are paid off. Good for us!

Hopefully the rest of the day will continue on this trend.

Hope your day goes so well!

BE Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

We're Back!

Well everyone looks like we have some internet again, though it's not very good and we have a bit of restrictions to it. A good deal has happened here since I last updated the blog. We bought 2 goats, which unfortunately we only have one now as during the time they had been playing together the younger of the two was injured and died from it. The remaining goat we have is named “Momma” she is black except for a small white spot on her head and she's over 5 years old. The only info the seller gave me on her is that she is a “Spanish” goat and that her last kidding she had 4 kids. Now all I need is a buck for her and maybe I can increase my population. I am looking to buy her a friend as well, the one plus to the death of her old friend is that now Momma is a much friendlier goat that she was when we bought her.

In the last few months due to one of our neighbor's moving away we acquired some building materials so we have an addition to the building we live in. So now me and Silver have a fully private bedroom (YEAH!).

Most of our chickens wound up getting eaten by a stray dog, and now we are down to just our rooster and 2 hens. I am hoping to fix that problem this Spring as well as get out rabbits going as well.

I am making some new planting beds based on a few different ideas I have read over the last few years in the clearing behind where the dome house will be built. I have taken the idea of lasagna gardening,Ruth Stout's(correct spelling?) no till method, and a permiculture idea. I have started with a 4 foot wide bed that has at the bottom of it a bunch of brush and twigs. On top of that I have put a layer of composted chicken manure. Next a batch of mixed top soil and bagged manure. I am also sheet composting on it as well as adding wood ash as winter goes by us. Next throughout winter I will be adding the occasional layer of straw to it. Come spring when I clean out Momma's “bedroom” I'm going to add that too it as well as any left over hay once there is good forage for her again. I have high expectations for these beds. I am also going to attempt to plant some bee balm at the ends of the beds in hopes of attracting lots of bees.

Since not having the internet here I've taken up to getting up at 3:30am and starting my day off with the animal feeding chores. I'm usually done in 30 minutes which then I make Silver a pot of coffee me some tea and watch the early edition of the news then I watch AG Day. You want to hear something weird? By watching the program I have noticed that while yes it does fall under the heading of most “national” news broadcasts (AG Day/Farm report), AG Day does contain a lot of good info about what is going on in the food system. Even more interesting is some of the commercials on during the program. Like ones for herbicides...

Did you know...? that now just using glyphosphate is not good enough? Granted I had some idea of this watching local farms who don't grow canola, having canola“weeds” in their corn and soy fields. “Roundup Ready” now includes something called dicampa(spelling?), my guess would be for the “super weeds” and for the unwanted crops(read as weeds) popping up in their fields. So I wonder how long that one will last. I have also seen a commercial for a “weed control system”, this “system” includes 5 different kinds of herbicide. Now I know there are many large scale farmers who farm the way they do to make a living and love what they do. I just wish that we didn't need the large scale farms and could supply the populous with smaller farms who does have time to go out and hand kill their own weed problems.

On another subject the recent decrease in the food stamp amounts federally. Now I know there are a good deal of people out there who do abuse the system, however for those who do need it; this is really going to hurt them. Our local news this morning highlighted a college student who needed to go to a food pantry due to this decrease. Problem locally here is I know in the county I live in if you need to use the food pantry you can only use -ANY- of them once a month. So if you go to one that gives you only one day of food and you still need to cover a full week because you funds won't stretch that far you can't do anything but try to make what ever you have on hand last till you can buy more or go again. With the talk of milk prices possibly going up very high and the talk of all food prices going up if the farm bill doesn't pass soon... I think there will be big problems in this country involving people having enough to eat if they don't make enough money.

Well I guess if you living in Washington state now you might be able to afford your food bills with the increase in the minimum wage there to $15.. however I get the feeling that due to that the number of jobs will drop considerably.

I am hoping to be able to keep the blog up to date, and I hope I give everyone something to think about as well.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...