A Fall update

Life has been busy here this summer.  We’ve barely kept our house clean or our children for that matter.  Our primary focus was our garden and our animals.  Here’s what we did this summer.

Picked zucchini and then cooked it 101 different ways

Fretted over our failed tomato crops

Listened to my son scream with excitement every time I pulled up a potato plant to expose all those hidden potatoes

Marveled at how fast a cute piglet can turn into a huge hog

Discovered ‘lemon cucumbers’ to be the only worthwhile cucumber to grow

Harvested 15 meat birds and several roosters in our backyard and still have the feathers around to prove it.

Watched our sweet baby girl turn into a toddler

Picked some more zucchini

Truly understood why it’s an insult to say “you eat like a pig”

Finally got our first egg and I no longer have to protect the hens from Robert’s hungry stares

Pleased that our daughter’s first animal sound was a turkey “gobble, gobble, gobble”

Burned through one pair of ‘Lightning McQueen’ rubber boots

Witnessed a fox kill our turkey then watched Robert kill the fox

Saw it rain…once

Helped save a beautiful and endangered breed of American turkeys, the blue slates

Thanks, Courtney.

Understanding Solar Flare Terminology

Back in the 1990′s my father and I were getting into amateur astronomy.  We had a pretty cool telescope (Meade LX200) and would spend evenings finding all sorts of galaxies and nebulae.  It was a ton of fun, and we were nerds about it too, forcing everyone in the house to keep the lights off so our night-vision wasn’t ruined.  Also, if we needed to run inside the house to get something, we’d wear two pairs of sunglasses.

Since that time I’ve been on the email list Spaceweather.com (sign up here) where you are kept abreast of the current happenings in outer space, such as comets, near earth asteroids, meteor showers, and solar flares. Another great email alert system comes from the Australian government (sign up here).

This is a timely article because we are entering another peak in solar activity, which follows a very predictable 11 year cycle.  More frequent alerts are coming and they are sometimes difficult to understand, so I wanted to share some information and resources.

The flares are measured as soon as they occur and are given a strength-based label , C, M or X.  Class C and Class M flares are frequent and don’t really cause much noticeable interference, unless you are a ham radio operator working on the very high frequencies.  X Class flares are much more rare and depending on their size and direction, they could cause a lot of damage.

What does this have to do with homesteading?  Well, let me just tell you by sharing an example of the extreme so that you can make sure you understand this terminology and be prepared.  The largest solar event in recent history was in 1859 and has been termed the Carrington Event.  See this wikipedia article for the full scoop, but for now just know that it was a solar flare that caused telegraph lines to become charged to the point where operators were shocked and some stations even burned down.  The interconnected telegraph lines acted like a giant antenna and focused this inbound energy from the sun.  In our hyper-technological age, the effects of a storm of that magnitude would be devastating to our vastly larger and increasingly interconnected power grid.  The result could be short or long term power outages, depending on the level of severity.

Here are just a handful of recent examples:

2003 – The Halloween Storms – a series of flares send CME’s towards our planet creating heavy disturbances in high frequency radio transmissions.  Also, the Wide Area Augmentation System used by the FAA to provide navigation information to aircraft was put out of commission.  Flares measuring X10, X17 and X28 were recorded.  The X28 was not earth directed, though.  The damage was caused by the X10 and X17.

2000 – The Bastille Day event – X5 class flare launched a CME towards Earth causing a large geomagnetic storm.  No damage reported.

1989 – On March 6 an X15 class flare occurred, resulting in a CME that hit our planet on March 9.  This was strong enough and direct enough that the power grid in Quebec collapsed for 9 hours.

I use the above as a reference when reading the alert emails I receive.  Knowing that we only need be concerned about X class eruptions rules out most of the notifications.

What can we do about it?  Be informed -  Subscribe to the above alert systems.  When a large flare produces an earthbound CME, unplug sensitive electronics.  Reduce grid dependency – heat your home and cook with a wood stove, that kind of stuff.  You never know what may happen in the future, and knowing how to perform basic homesteading tasks could serve you well.  This answers one of the ‘why’ questions on why we try to learn the old ways of doing things.  Its not only fun, but does serve as a backup plan for the unknown, no matter how small the risk.

Thanks, Robert.

Fleas in the homestead

Fleas!  Yup we’ve got ‘em.  We discovered about a week after moving in that one of the rooms in our house had a flea problem.  And it wasn’t from our dogs, they seem fine and they aren’t allowed in the bedrooms.  I gave them each a good bath though, just to be safe.

So what do you do, especially if you ‘re a hippie like us and refuse to use those highly effective but dangerous aerosol flea bombs?  For the record, a friend who spent some time working at the CDC told us the flea bombs are very dangerous and that young children have died from being exposed to the powder that comes from them.

There are a few ways of dealing with this naturally.

Vacuuming – Courtney read that fleas are activated and hatch when they sense heat and vibrations.  Since we moved in, we’ve kept the thermostat higher than it was while the house was vacant, and simply being in those rooms probably causes enough vibration to bring the fleas out of their eggs.  A vacuum cleaner causes plenty of vibration.  Running that baby today will cause a large hatch over the next few days.  So the idea is to vacuum every day for 21 to 30 days or so and you will capture the entire life cycle of the fleas and then be flea free.

That seemed like a lot of work to us.

Then we learned about borax.  Sprinkling borax around the edges of your room(s) will kill the fleas in any stage of life.  Let it sit for a day and then vacuum it up and you should be rid of them.  We did that and let it sit for four days.

Diatomaceous earth is another chemical free option, but it must be combined with vacuuming and be reapplied after each vacuum session.  The diatomaceous earth is a powder with very sharp edges and cuts the fleas as they move past it and then they die.  It would be the equivalent to us humans of taking a bunch of broken glass and spreading it all over the floor and having to walk barefoot.  I also spread diatomaceous earth everywhere along with the borax.

We’ve done the final vacuuming and moved the furniture back into that room.  Neither Courtney nor I have seen any signs of fleas in the past week, so we count this treatment as a success and give it our highest recommendation.

Thanks, Robert.

News Alert: We’ve got our homestead!

Time for a big announcement: we’re northern Colorado landowners!  We’ve been very patient and been praying for our own little place and we’ve found it.  This cute little 1946 home comes with a little over one acre of flat land out in the country in a prime agricultural area.

Our blog won’t be as active for the next week or so as we get settled in, but we’ll be back to share more of our adventure with you.

Thanks, Robert.

Escape to River Cottage… Again

Courtney and I loved the DVD’s we watched last February so much that we wanted to watch them again.  We wrote about it a year ago.  The DVD’s were from Courtney’s uncle and a number of them were scratched so we missed several episodes and parts of episodes.  This week, we’ve discovered the entire collection on on YouTube!  Each evening after things calm down, we sit and watch an episode or two.

You can watch them too if you search for the person’s profile who posted them “zodiacza1″.   Zodiacza1 even put together a sequence for each season where it will automatically load the next episode in line when you finish the previous episode.  They are high quality too.  I know we’ve all seen those YouTube videos where someone obviously used their camcorder and taped their television and the posted it on YouTube.

These videos are inspiring and we encourage everyone to check them out.

Thanks, Robert.

Here’s an update from me, Courtney.  It’s helpful to know the order that the series was aired because each series has a different name.  The first series is Escape to River Cottage and you can find the complete list here on wikipedia.

Deciding on a Grain Mill

We are in the market for a grain mill.  We can’t wait to join the thousands hundreds dozens of other folks who spent countless hours preparing their own flour.  Now you know us, we don’t want just any ol’  electric mill that you can buy at Walmart and that will grind your flour in mere seconds.  We want one that you have to crank yourself.  And we want one that won’t break.  That appears to be a tall order.

So we’ve done some internet searching and consulted our favorite bloggers.  At least those who like to do things the slow way old fashioned way.  I think we have settled on a Country Living Grain Mill.  Everywhere we look, we only find satisfied customers.  We were also considering the Wonder Junior Deluxe mill, but the reviews were mixed.  One reviewer said it took her 1 1/2 hours to grind wheat fine enough to use for bread, which required double grinding.  That seems like a really long time to me.  The cost is about half that of the Country Living mill so we are tempted to try it.

And talk about getting the horse before the wagon, we’ve already purchased a supply of wheat, corn and oatmeal.

Thanks, Courtney.

Ricotta with my Home Ec Club

We made ricotta a few weeks ago.  We, as in my friends from church, and ricotta, as in the cheese.  That’s right folks you heard correct, I made cheese.  Even though I really just watched, I still consider it a personal accomplishment.  I’ve tried 3 times in the past to make mozzarella and 3 times it ended in tears.  (It was all the milk’s fault; it was UHT milk, not at all the right thing)

Now about the Home Ec Club, that’s what we’ve coined it, a group of ladies from church, all with an interest in seeing how cheese was made, got together and did it.  Just like that.  Everyone brought different talents to the party, we had two dairy farmers, one woman who pasteurizes goat milk, one experienced cheese maker, one food scientist who can’t make cheese to save her life (that’s me), one mom who was happy to leave her kids at home with dad, one mom who was just happy to get out of the house and one mom with four kids who love cheese, and cartoons.

We started out our lovely cheese making adventure by enjoying a cup of coffee, or two, or three and chatting.  An hour later we watched a pasterization demo, chatted, watched two far more talented ladies than myself make the cheese, chatted some more and then ate lunch.

It was so much fun.  I encourage you to start asking your friends if they would like to learn how to make cheese too.  You may end up making new friends as well as cheese.

Oh and I was sent home with a wedge of fresh ricotta.  It was delicious.

Thanks,  Courtney

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Dehydrated Fruits and Veggies

While pregnant this summer, I said no thank you to canning.  Not because I don’t love puttin’ up stuff, but because I couldn’t stand to see my ankles get any more swollen.  So we resorted to drying, and by we, I mean Robert.  He dried  everything.   Sometimes fruit and vegetables that I was planning on using for dinner would disappear out of the crisper.  I would march into Robert’s office, sniff the air, see his guilty look and know instantly that in the dehydrator hiding under his desk was my bell pepper and the last of the strawberries.  At the time I thought he was really going overboard.  But I owe him an apology (don’t tell him)  because I use them constantly.

And here’s the top 10 reasons why I love dehydrated fruits and veggies:

10.  They take up less room than the fresh or canned

9.  I get to make cute jar labels (post coming soon)

8.  Zombies probably would prefer fresh fruit so we’re safe in the event of…

7.  Another use for Tattler reusable lids

6.  Every soup I make gets a handful of zucchini = healthy

5.  I don’t have to send Robert to the store for one jalapeno

4.  Technically I am still eating local and in season

3.  Way cheaper to use a dried tomato than to buy one in the dead of winter

2.  Even after being dried and rehydrated organic, CSA-grown tomatoes still taste better than any tomato you can buy at the store, winter or summer

1.  Robert did all the work

Thanks, Courtney

Washing Machine Troubleshooting

Oh, the things I’ll do to save a buck.  Courtney and I bought a washer/dryer combo last April from a used appliance place in the nearby town.  The prices were great, but now it is not working. And it gets better, the guys who sold me the machine won’t return my phone calls.  I’d love to go down there and let them know what  a great job they are doing, but I’m not really the confrontational type.  Instead, I’m fixing this myself and telling the world, so that we can all be independent of those unhelpful, fly-by-night sales guys with their “warranties”.

I’ve had trouble locating resources on how to fix, so I’m writing this to help others.  We have a Whirlpool Ultimate Care II, which I think was a late 1990′s model.  The problem was that we had standing water in our washing machine.  It stopped working mid-way through a cycle.  The timer ran it’s course, though and was in the off position. Pulling out the start button yielded a bunch of clicking and buzzing, so I suspected that I needed a new timer mechanism.

A local appliance parts guy was very nice and helpful and talked me though the troubleshooting.  He wanted to save me a few bucks, because the timer was a $75 part.  That is nearly what I have in to this machine, by the way.  I think we only paid $260 for the washer-dryer pair.

Steps in troubleshooting the timer:

1. Verify that the pump isn’t jammed.  To do this, pull the drain hose out of the wall and lower it into a bucket.  If water flows freely into the bucket, then the pump is likely working and not jammed/frozen.

2. Inspect the wiring harnesses to be sure a mouse didn’t chew through wires, or that something wasn’t exposed to vibrations, wearing through a wire to cause an electrical short.

3. Verify proper operation of the lid latch button.  This is the button that the lid presses on to let the washing machine know that the lid is closed.  It should stop operating while the lid is open.  There is a pretty complex way of removing the outer sheet metal to inspect/replace this button.  I bypassed this step because we found our washer with the timer in the Off position.  That tells me that the timer kept going after the problem occurred.  If the lid latch was sending an open (meaning, stop) signal, the timer should have stopped in mid-cycle too.

In the end, I found a timer on eBay for $39 delivered.  It arrived in three days. I was so proud of myself.  I slapped that new timer in and … nothing!  I was wrong.  The timer did sound better than the old one, but the machine still didn’t work.

Frustrated, I turned the machine upside down again.  It was at this point that I decided to take the hoses off of the water pump and stick my fingers inside.  I wanted to verify that the impeller was spinning freely.  I imagined that water would still flow through the pump if it was frozen, so I could have gotten a false-positive on troubleshooting step one.  Much to my surprise, I felt something different, and pulled it out.  It was a tiny little pink sock to fit our four month old bundle of joy.  I put everything back together and the machine has worked just fine for several laundry loads now.

I should now add something to troubleshooting step one: water should come rushing out, rather than trickling out.  I was filling the bucket at a rate of one gallon per minute, and it should have been more like three gallons in thirty seconds.

Yes, I’m officially an appliance repair guy educated in the school of hard knocks.  Does anyone need washing machine timer P/N 3953553?  I’ll make you a deal!

Thanks, Robert.

The Deliberate Agrarian

Many of you already know that I’m a huge fan of Herrick Kimball, author of the Deliberate Agrarian blog and also many books including Anyone Can Build a Whizbang Chicken Plucker and Anyone Can Build a Whizbang Apple Grinder and Cider Press.  He also has a monthly blogazine called The Deliberate Agrarian. 

This month’s article was about a very inspiring answer to prayer.  He has finally landed the deal of his dreams and will soon close on sixteen acres of farmland.  Oh how Courtney and I would love to do that too.  I congratulate Mr. Kimball.

Later in his post, Mr. Kimball made a reference to an article he wrote in January 2008 titled An Agrarian Style Economic Self Defense Plan.  I really liked that article and it helped me better define the way I felt and set a plan about what to do.  At the time I was concerned (and I still am) about the direction of our country’s economy and wanted know how to better prepare.  This is why we spend our spare time reading and applying what we learn about gardening, animal husbandry, food preservation, etc.

At the bottom of that article, please also read the comments section.  I always read the comments at the Deliberate Agrarian because they are also usually chock full of useful information or advice.  One person linked to an article by Mark Cuban titled, The Stock Market Is for Suckers.  I couldn’t agree more.  Another commenter recommended Survivalblog for more information.  I did get stuck there for more than four hours as warned in the comment and became a daily reader.   Find your way to the precepts page on that blog to find out what it is all about.  There is always practical, useful information posted about self sufficiency.

Thanks, Robert.