First Animal For Our Homestead!

How do you like our first farm animal?? Heh heh...

I've been holding my breath and it looks like it'll happen (this thing I've been hoping would)...and that's the big news around here! Seriously, want to guess what it is?

We're bringing home our newest and FIRST addition to our homestead tomorrow, if all goes well....and oh MAN am I excited!

Pictures to come, after tomorrow...any guesses??

Woo, I don't think I'll be able to sleep till then!

:)

I Guess You Can Grow It In A Pot

A mini-watermelon, grown from seed bought in a packet at the hardware store. I can't remember what type, but it grew in a bin, waiting being transplanted into the ground...a day which never came. I don't recommend treating plants that way, but hey, it still bore several small fruits! We thought this one was a loss because there was a large hole from something eating or gouging the side, but when I cut into it, it had never penetrated to the interior.

One fruit is just big enough for a single portion. Or if you're really in love with your husband and don't mind sharing, two portions ;-)

The taste test will be tonight after it's finished chilling. I wanted to make sure it was fine on the inside, with no unexpected visitors (after inspecting the hole in the side). Looks great...can't wait to try it!

I like the idea of the mini melons. I think we'll have to keep them on the menu for next year's garden...with less neglect :)

Computer Gremlins

...are eating my computer. Back to the shop for DELLa.

I'll be back, but I'll be stranded for a few days...hope your weekend is great!

:)

Our Career Shift

...or otherwise known as What We Want to be When We Grow Up is my ramble for the day over at NotDabblingInNormal.

I'm probably slow on the uptake, but it was only last week that I realized which "career" is my very best fit. And at the same time, and separately, my husband had his own light bulb moment regarding his own ultimate desires along those lines.

Wow, now that we're clear on those things, does this mean we have to begin actually behaving like grownups? (that may be the only glitch in the equation)

;-)

It's Worth the Effort, No Complaints

I wanted to stop here briefly to thank everyone who has commented recently. It's so nice to be able to be real and have some great dialogue about concerns that affect us all, especially with so many different perspectives on things. I really value your input, and it's great to know what others besides myself are thinking and going through...thank you!

Lest anyone think that the last couple of posts are a pity party or Poor Little Me diatribe on my part, I'd just like to say that they were never intended to be. In fact, I feel immensely blessed, and figure that change is par for the course. Though Jack's and my path are not what we expected they'd be in some respects, in all respects we can say God has brought us through the challenges as better people, and maybe with some resolve and lessons learned that will last us through any more. Instead of thinking of sidelines in our lives as detrimental, we both strongly feel that it's opened more doors for us than have been closed. Necessity is said to be the mother of invention, and for us it's been an unifying factor...we need each other and love to put our minds together to innovate and find a way to make a Best Life that may never have looked quite the same were there never challenges and roadblocks.

I have to say I really like where it has positioned us, because it's narrowed the field of possibilities to the few that mean the most to us. And for that, again, we thank God.

It's almost shabbat again, and I'm so thankful for all the good things that come to us without asking on a daily basis. Looking out at our neglected and overgrown garden and pots, I can see that all that riotous Bermuda is evidence of fertility and vigor, and we have some exceptional plants that seem to be weathering the extremes with good humor and vitality. Indoors we have about a dozen calabazas in different stages of ripeness, awaiting eating or preservation. Slowly, the habits we've been adopting are becoming a part of our everyday lives. Trips to the store now are fewer, and if we have to wait, we have staple goods that are simple and hearty that can be fixed from what's stored in the pantry.

What a wonderful feeling! Even when things seem to take longer to accomplish over the long term (or short) than we'd like, we like having made the changes we have, and I can't say that what was necessitated by our changed circumstances is anything but good...changes we needed to make all along, but didn't even know it.

We're happy :) Thank you for sharing your viewpoints openly and welcoming mine. I'm grateful, every day, for the opportunities we DO have, even though it may sound otherwise when I'm on one of my rants about freedom and the government and some of our past experiences. I'd rather have freedom and take the long road of investing time and elbow grease towards our own self-sufficiency than have a government or anyone else offer me different options at the expense of our taking responsibility ourselves for our lives...no thanks.

I hope your weekend is restful and full of green, growing things and time with your loved ones.

:) Shabbat Shalom

Employment Statistics Inaccurate

If you have 1,000 people, and 500 of them lost their jobs last year and don't have new ones, there is no upswing of employment.

If 250 more of them lost their jobs since, even though that's less, it does not account for the existing 500 who are still unemployed.

It might look like "recovery" since the "numbers" went down from last year's tally of 500 to 250, but in reality it's all based on that 1,000 people.

I'll illustrate how difficult it is to get a true picture of employment stats using our own family as an example.

We both lost our full-time jobs early on in the Slump that started prior to the big slide down. My industry at that time was tied to the construction industry. Jack's was a skilled technical job, and they shut down one of their divisions...the one he was in. Our home business was also construction-related, and that had to be closed down entirely.

Here's how we did and did not fit into any of the unemployment statistics to date:

Jack qualified for unemployment initially when he lost his technical job. After a time of doubling his commute for additional jobs, he saw that wouldn't work for the long-term and that his companies' policies were to hire young unskilled workers and to let go of their older lifetime-career employees who were nearing retirement...like him.

So he chose another industry that paid less, and trained for it, and became employed in it, at half the pay and no guarantee of regular hours, and with no benefits. (Why? because it's in an industry necessary regardless of the economy, and more skilled jobs here became very scarce and fiercely competed-over. Thus, better to have some job, even a lesser one, than no job. And we began seeing self-sufficiency being more of our goal and care less about HOW to get there...having our self-sufficient homestead is more of what we consider our ultimate job...but back to the topic)

This industry is likely to be a bit more depression-proof than some, but it's still affected, and it's one in which his schedule is an on-demand one...there is no full time 40 hours guaranteed or assigned because they work employees one or two hours below what would qualify them as full time. Why? So they don't have to pay unemployment if an employee is let go for any reason, and don't have to pay overtime if an employee has to fill in for someone else if an emergency arises. It's not specific to his company...it's a policy specific to that industry at large. He knew that, but it's what was at hand and available, and nothing else was.

Backing up, I was working fulltime in an industry hinged to Construction. But I could never qualify for unemployment no matter how many hours I worked...why? Because that company had become very cautious in taking on any more employees and hired all the new ones via temp agencies. I applied directly to the company, but before hire had to go register with a temp agency and was paid through them and officially considered their employee. This disqualified me for any regular benefits from the industry I was working in, and disqualified me from unemployment benefits if my job ended. The company responded to the big economic slump by laying off a big percentage of the employees. I survived the first cut. I did not survive the second. It was mandated from Corporate, and my boss fought to keep me on, but unless she would have contracted to pay me from her own pocket, my job got cut...which it did, and ultimately she herself and the other employees are no longer there, with the exception of the receptionist.

So I went from fulltime to nothing, and the unemployment figures would never have reflected my job loss since they are based on people filing for unemployment.

Since then, I worked at a number of jobs, none of which qualified for unemployment since they were not hiring for 40 hours a week. I trained for a 911 job and the training lasted several months and it was fulltime (and then some), but the training period was exempt from being counted since it was a probationary period. After those months, my stress level was pretty incredible and though I'd hoped it was the right job for me, it exacerbated into regular anxiety attacks and made the decision to find another career...again.

So another job loss, my choice, but of course not eligible for unemployment.

So I trained for the same industry my husband is now in, and the same conditions apply to me as apply to him...we work double the commute, share a vehicle, and sometimes he will work 50 hours a week...or 8...depending on how much he is called in, and over which he has no control. We work for different companies and mine has the policy to not schedule for fulltime, so I work more regularly, but just under what would qualify elsewhere as "fulltime" hours.

So if either of us lost our jobs, neither of us would be eligible for unemployment.

And if you think we haven't been looking for other jobs in the meantime, that's not accurate. They simply are not to be had within an hour commuting distance and more any direction from where we're located.

At this point we're VERY fortunate that we're able to accomodate two schedules with one vehicle.

The reason I'm typing all this is to illustrate that a lot of companies have responded to the downturn by cutting back on their employee numbers and hours in order to stay in business and not have to lay off more people, or shut their doors. It's not their fault. But it disqualifies us from filing for unemployment, and that is the statistic that's used today to measure unemployment trends.

That's not to mention our home business, which as I said was tied to the Construction industry. We were small players, a very small business. But the folks we paid were contracted out, and when we closed down, that was business they didn't have any more. And, again, we were unqualified as a statistic if based on people filing for unemployment...but it was a business closing and a lot of other businesses lost business when we did.

We are very unimpressed with monies handed to big corps to help them survive, and pretty much think it's unconstitutional. But that's another whole subject.

If you count the span of months in which we were unemployed while we were training for a new job (on our own dime and time), or were unemployed but not eligible for any unemployment money, I think we're more typical of a lot of Americans.

And so that means that since 2006 and our both having and losing a number of jobs, the statistics would only show that ONLY one job was lost in 2006, if based on unemployment filing stats. NOT accurate for us...not at all.

And the numbers will never reflect the truth of those situations...our own very real situations.

Especially for those who have become jobless, don't qualifty for this and that, and have not been able to find new jobs. Or who have, but those jobs are part-time jobs that will never show up accurately in polls and data.

That's why I'm unimpressed with the way numbers and "facts" are thrown around as a supposedly accurate measurement of employment.

They're really not. Which is fine..it's the nature of the limitations that come with that sort of collecting. But when I hear politicians lecture Thinking Americans as if they're small children, it's insulting to me, and when they back up many of those diatribes with data, that data represents ACTUAL humans with ACTUAL lives...and it's not accurate.

And if you measure new job starts, be sure to also measure businesses that are closing or laying folks off....let's shoot for the more accurate picture.

I hope people will non-violently insist that their voices be heard about the important issues at hand, even if town hall meetings are now discouraged...go and legally get the paperwork for your own meeting, or have a legal Sit In and hold up your signs. Your hand holds the vote for your representatives and it's OUR voices that count. Calmly, lucidly. Refuse to be bullied and to be bullies. No one can close down our right to assemble peacefully to have our voices heard. The day that happens, it's a police state.

A final note......

we don't need our government as our Protector. Our constitution provides that we have the right to protect ourselves. When the government becomes Protector, again, that's just another word for Police State.

No thanks.

False Roselle/Cranberry Hibiscus Update

Back in early June Jack planted Cranberry Hibiscus/False Roselle seeds. Here was the initial post after they had first sprouted...they certainly weathered the heat and extremes well. From those very small seeds emerged what appeared to be red maple seedlings. It is now early August, about three months total, and many of the plants tower over me.

The leaves are very similar to a red maple, or Japanese maple, sometimes appearing purplish with green tints intermingled, and sometimes tipped in vibrant crimson (especially the newer shoots and leaves).

These will benefit from getting cut back, since they are a bit lanky and need to be pruned in order to get a good bushy habit. I think that should also promote more flowers, too, as these will likely be blooming later in the year (let's see...it's our first time around with them).

We got them started in the plastic bins, but it's clear they need to be planted out soon. We're figuring that since they naturalize pretty easily in Florida in general, that they'll stand a better chance with freezes if they're in the ground and their roots can be better established by then. If they die back, they'll likely regrow from the roots. Again, let's see.

At a distance, their color here appears a dark plum color. Up close, the leaves are works of art, in every shade of plum, purple, violet, mauve, and the red spectrum. The veins are burgundy red.

We have tried eating both the tender emerging leaves (the dark red ones you see here at the tips) as well as the medium-sized leaves in teas. I've never tasted sorrell, but some folks describe the flavor as similar. To me, they have a mildly tart lemony flavor. The small tender leaves are very delicious in salads...we really like them! The other larger leaves are my current favorite in hot tea, especially combined with other medicinal tea plants. Right now I make a mix of fresh leaves of the false roselle (cranberry hibiscus), comfrey, moringa, and yerba buena...I feel good drinking it and even though I've been sick on and off this summer with a very stubborn respiratory infection, I do believe the tea helps give me a boost to build my immune system, or at least that's my hunch :)

I was delighted to find this video by Green Deane...fun and informative...check it out if you have time :)

But here's where the False Roselle is in its glory...with the blazing sun backlighting its leaves...this is the view out my dining area window (the only window visible from my kitchen), and when the sun is trying its best to wither and melt down everything in its path, the plucky false roselle's leaves gleam like jewels.

We are definitely keeping these for the longterm...they are so easy to grow from seed, they aren't bothered by extremes of weather, except for freezes, they are perrenial to our area for the most part, and for areas that have cold, they are easily grown from seed after the frosts. Prune them? They flourish and the pruned bits can be stuck into the soil to propagate more plants. They're delicious in salads and in stir fries...and teas.

When they flower, the blooms are a more delicate-looking version of a hibiscus, pink with purple veins, and though the flower has no taste, it is beautiful in salads. I can't wait to try them the way the ECHO global test farm recommends (check out the search bar for more about ECHO...we love them and use their seeds)...to pick them when the buds are closed near dusk and then to blend them with lime and sugar and serve as an iced drink...fresh limeade with a gorgeous pinkish glow...mmm!

When a plant is this versatile, I'm all about trying to think of how to use it in other ways. I wonder if the more tender medium-sized leaves could be used in recipes that would usually incorporate grape leaves, and if they might even be preserved for the longer term in brine the way grape leaves can. I haven't ventured much into the realm of making dolmas, but I've had some Greek food before, and eaten bits wrapped in grape leaves and thought them delicious. I wonder if the taste and texture of the false roselle leaves are close enough to grape leaves to serve as a delicious alternative with lemony undertones? Or if it would taste good flavoring a vinegar? Or included in jars of pickles (my grandma put grape leaves in hers along with the garlic and dill, etc) when canning. Or boiled with sugar and made into a simple syrup?

At any rate, if you have a hunch to try this plant, do! It's a great pollinator attractor and can be grown in clumps in the landscape, edible garden, or flowerbed.

We'll keep you posted as we transplant it and see how the bloom time goes, and how well it weathers our winter and some benign neglect from time to time. And I'll see if we can play with it a bit in the kitchen, too! If you have any ideas along those lines, let me know...I love to experiment :)