ECHO Global Farm Goat House

It's taken me a while to post more of our pics from the ECHO test farm tour. Their test farm is amazing and approximates several different types of climates in order to develop multi-purpose crops using low-tech sustainable methods to be used in developing countries. Many of the planting techniques and actual under-utilized plants Jack and I've been interested knowing more about are featured there...it was exciting seeing so many all in one place!

This was their goat house. There was so much to fit into the tour, and we didn't get unlimited time to poke around and measure and fiddle to our hearts' content, but here's what we were able to gather at the time...

The structure was made as a solution to many third world farmers' dilemma...how to raise goats on small land parcels without sustaining damage to crops. Goats are an important animal in many cultures, useful for milk, meat, skins, bartering, and sometimes fiber.

ECHO's goat house was their working solution: an elevated structure made of found materials or available wood. It is large enough to comfortably accomodate several small to medium-sized goats, and the wooden slats are substantial enough to be strong, and are spaced to allow for air circulation on all sides...but to keep predators out. There was a feeding trough along one side, and the slats were spaced to allow goats to extend their heads to the trough for eating forage, but not enough to allow the goats to escape.

Beneath the troughs, trimmed limbs and forage leaves/plants were piled. As the goats finished what was in the troughs, the trimmings could be easily rotated upward to refill the troughs.

It's hard to tell in these pictures, but the building was positioned raised above a dirt slope. Animal droppings fall through the floor slats to the ground below, and are raked down the underneath slope into the open to be collected and used for fertilizer. Any uneaten twigs and branches from the fodder are put into the compost pile.

We've never had goats, but know enough about them from others to know they're talented escape artists. We weren't able to study the structure to see how they're prevented from getting out, but it's obvious this structure works well and has been used successfully for some time. The goats did not seem crowded, seemed to enjoy being higher up off the ground and in the shade rather than direct sunlight. And there was no way they'd ever be standing on wet ground.

Several forages are used for them...one is moringa, a multi-use tree good for animals and humans. Here is a stand of moringa, harvested 7 times a year (if memory serves) by what seems to be a coppicing method (or is it a pollarding one?) since the tree trunks are cut at regular intervals after harvesting their quick-growing branches. These can be fed to animals such as the goats, for fodder, harvested for human consumption (leaves), or for low-tech water purification (leaves again). Here is a stand of coppiced moringa trees. The trunks are 2 to 3 feet high and the branch growth was about waist high or so.

Here is a mature moringa, a different variety than the above. This one stores water in its trunk and can endure punishing drought.

That's all for now...we enjoyed seeing their solution to the goat dilemma. Goats can easily decimate a garden, yet this goat house situated in close proximity to surrounding gardens kept the cycle beneficial to not only humans, but supplied the goats with fodder that otherwise would have been a plant waste. In eating them, the goats gained nutrition, produced fertilizer and milk, and the garden benefitted again, continuing the circle.

More ECHO fun to come, as I have time to post!

Transgenics: The Economics of Putting Mouse in Pig

Another email digest from the OCA in my In Box, and I just have to share...

Ugh. It gets more and more chilling.

Let me back up a second. Tonight we went out shortly before dark to run some errands. There on the side of the highway was a fairly large wild boar, snacking on seedheads or other finds just at the edge of (what's left of) the woods...a big but not fat black boar with a long narrow snout, rooting around for nature's leavings.

I'm not a huge pig fan because pigs don't figure in largely into my sphere. We don't eat them, don't plan to raise them, and I just smile and wish them well when I see them elsewhere. They're not much on my radar. I'm actually ambivalent to them, pretty much, but even so, I would not take one and mess around with its DNA and decide that Pig is better when mixed with Mouse because of some perceived convenience or monetary benefit I might receive. Is this doing new things by breeding for certain characteristics? that's not new...selective breeding animals has been done for millenia. Have at it...breed for a straight tail rather than a crooked, cross-eyed pigs or pigs with spots or with a bigger carcass or pigs that fit in the palm of your hand or have no bristles or that oink at strangers...whatever. But they're still pigs, with their DNA intact.

Not so with the "progress" of the bio-tecchies. Ugh. Why are our governments playing with this stuff, so so cozy with the huge producers and corporations?

Now they are trying to get around the Big Ag dilemmas rather than solving them, by fiddling with DNA. Case in point, putting mouse DNA into hog DNA in order to (now get this, how to say delicately?) to have more environmentally-friendly poop...to create an "Enviropig." The FDA will be trying to bring it to you really soon. I kid you not. Here's a quote:

These are Enviropigs, developed by researchers at the University of Guelph to poop out more environmentally friendly waste. The trademarked pigs are just one of dozens of genetically engineered animals at research institutions around the world whose genes have been altered for human benefit. (<-----Robbyn's interjection: What the heck???)And, due to a recent move in the U.S., the Enviropig may be the first to arrive on your dinner plate.

And of course there's no consumer labeling, so we don't get to decide whether we especially WANT mouse DNA in pig meat.

For me, this is hardly a dilemma, since I'm Jewish and eat neither pig nor mouse. But it's a moral dilemma because in my faith, the Bible is very specific that in both the plant and the animal worlds, living things are delineated into things "of their own type." That does not forbid hybridization but it does forbid what creation itself cannot achieve without human forcefulness and mad science, the forcible mixing of unlike things. You just won't see a lion mating with a hyena, or a giraffe with a water buffalo in nature.

I believe there's a good reason for that.

And what business do we have fiddling with ANY living thing so that it fulfills the propaganda of being crafted and edited "for human benefit"??? This is not the same thing as deciding between a pony and a draft horse depending on its best use. It's not the same thing as breeding a dog to hunt or to herd or to retrieve. This is putting part of other animal and plant DNA INSIDE existing DNA from another species altogether to freaking "play God" and it's the ultimate insult to the universe.

(That's my decidedly objective opinion...) ;-)

Aside from what I believe on those scores, I believe what drives this bio-tech frankenscience is the not-so-almighty dollar/yen/euro.

Here's a quote from the article where you can find the detailed report:

Despite ethical concerns, Ronald Stotish, the CEO and president of Aqua Bounty Technologies, based in Waltham, Mass., is confident genetically engineered animals will make the leap from the lab to the farm - and soon.
"It's the way of the future," he says. "This technology has the capability of making beneficial changes in production agriculture."

Let's demystify this quote.

It's like a house For Sale in the classifieds listed as a "cozy handyman special..." there are more to those words than you might bargain for.

"Production agriculture" is Big Ag, and Big Ag is no friend of the consumer, nor even of your mainstream farmers. Big Ag does whatever it takes to force more into less for fewer dollars into the shortest amount of time for the biggest projected return. It's controlled by large corporations whose interest in money overrides concerns about truthful labeling, plant and animal health, humaneness, consumer health and protections, and other consumer interests. Now they're playing nastier by changing the living things themselves...not by hybridizing, which is how their propaganda would suggest nature does things anyway, but rather by forcing different TYPES of living things into creations that cannot even be created by mating...rather the DNA has to be forced into the DNA of something else...by man.

What arrogance. What foolishness and shortsightedness!

Please read the article by Megan Ogilvie of the Toronto Star, and you'll see what I mean.

Genetically modified and engineered animals and plants MUST be labeled, as there has been no adequate long-term testing on humans.
It must be labeled, so that consumers have a choice.
It must be truthfully spoken about...the misinformation campaign on the part of the big corporations is staggering. Things done in the name of "health" and "environmentally-friendly" are NOT being truthful with their advertising campaigns...changing animal DNA to FURTHER industrial large-scale production has NOTHING to do with REAL CHANGE needed to heal the disconnect and bring production back to smaller local producers, which is more environmentally-concious AND healthy.
Do NOT believe that the FDA is the Benevolent Big Daddy who will handle "all those confusing concerns" for a trusting public...no way. Choice and responsibility lie FIRST with the CONSUMER (that's us) and WE should decide what we eat...and should have the benefit of labels not intended to deceive us in that decision-making process.

I INSIST this MUST be OUR choice...no one else's.

Here is their contact link if you'd like to add your two cents to others voicing their concerns:

In Canada, please write to Health Canada to voice your strong opposition to the approval of this and other genetically engineered animals. They can be reached at novelfood_alimentnouveau@hc-sc.gc.ca
In the US, let the FDA know how you feel via their contact page http://www.fda.gov/comments.html or by writing toFood and Drug Administration 5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, Maryland 20857

The House at Poo Corner

Wooohooooo! We are no longer Excrementally Challenged, we have a source of manure!!!

If you've followed this blog from a year ago, you'll have been subjected at various points to laments about our hardpan soil, tenacious weed collection, and inaccessability to potential soil amendments...things like leaves, green manures/cover crops, wood chips, and livestock poop. We have no trees on our property, and last year was a drought year, so no real H2O to be percolating through the soil even if we could lure the friendly micro-bugs. But this year we had bountiful rains, and many things grew well. Even so, they need nourishment, more than they had without amendments.

That first year (last year), I used a few pots, a bunch of cardboard boxes and box tops, and a couple of experimental thingies such as milk crates lined with paper grocery bags. The only growing medium was potting soil on sale at the big box store, and the results ranged from good to spotty. The learning commenced.

This year, we made a decision not to grow seasonal produce and focused on experimenting with mostly trees and longer-maturing plants...to go ahead and give them a head start or figure out how hardy they were (or how immune to our bunglings!). Jack has done an admirable job of wooing sprouts from seeds we had no idea about...and he also collected used 5 gallon buckets to keep this little endeavor multiplying, until we topped 100 of them and still kept on going, whee!

Having him on board this year has made a huge difference! We've both learned a lot about what NOT to do with our soil as far as planting, at least in containers, and we're trying to slowly move that now to in-ground endeavors...slowly. It's been good we've both been involved in this now, not just one of us...we each have a lot of ideas, and don't need to be undoing the other's efforts out of overeagerness. We have a lot of conversations as we go, and we learn from each other, and it's worked a lot better this way. We're both convinced that the health of our plants, and ultimately the nutritiousness of our food, is crucially connected to the soil. Instead of seeing insects as pests, we see them as one of many inhabitants necessary to a thriving biodiversity, and we love our little invisible microbes just as much. We actually look forward to adding any veggie trimmings and other kitchen scraps into this mix, and think of it as feeding our unseen friends. (Yeah, ok...pass the tin hats, heehee!)

Over the course of time, Jack located a free source of wood chips, and he's been getting a couple bucketloads every few days as an amendment to our containers. Not so long ago, he chatted with a nearby horse boarder/trainer, and she agreed that whenever he'd like to drop a couple plastic buckets at her gate, she'd fill them whenever she mucked out the stalls. She mentioned they'd not known what to do with the overflow, and had so much that they had begun dumping the excess into their pond (Eeeek!!! oh man)

I sort of "mentioned" (read excitedly begged ) Jack to OFFER to TAKE IT OFF THEIR HANDS anytime they had such an excess, which he did mention, and that's sort of where it was left. We've enjoyed the buckets we get f rom them weekly and they've added a LOT of vigor to the plants and the compost pile.

Today Jack stopped by for the weekly drop-off, and met the other owner of the property, and they chatted. It seems that maybe the idea planted earlier may have come to fruition?? The owner asked if we'd like a TRAILER of the composted manure, and a time was set up for tomorrow for him to come dump it on our vacant lot next door.

OH YAY and DOUBLE YAYYYY!!!!!!!

Not sure how we'll get the trailer ONto the property, as it's a steep incline and ditch, but nevermind...we'll shovel to our little hearts' content wheelbarrowload by wheelbarrowload, if need be. And the COOLEST thing is that this may be the beginning of a LOT of regular deliveries of FREE HORSE POO....yayyyyyyy!!!!!!

So, if you're ever in this area, and you see a big mountain of horse flops, straw, and a couple in filthy clothes shoveling away with huge smiles on their faces, just wave at us. Just goes to show that one horse's poop is another man's organic garden!!

We Can't Afford the Supermarket

And we can't afford to buy organic AT the supermarket. I wanted to buy a normal head of cabbage...at the supermarket.

It rang up at $8.50.

I'm sorry, I'm not paying $8.50 for ANY head of cabbage.

Buying local is not something that's easy here, and with the drive, paying more for long-distance "local" is not in our budget. That's what happened to the pet milk purchases, too...too much gas needed, prices too high.

Now they're too high in the store, too, and we're needing to change from questionable food to REAL food pronto. Learning that anything vegetable or animal out there now could be (and IS) genetically modified, ALL foods with only a few exceptions are permeated with pesticides and herbicides, and anything in a can or package usually has multiple preservatives all up in there ....all those things have tipped the scale for us. No longer do I live where a neighbor can gladly pawn off her excess zucchini or tomatoes (to my glee) on me. I don't have neighbors with dairy goats or cows. I have nothing seasonal growing in my backyard buckets, and have nothing stockpiled, except a modest collection of staples and dry goods.

We even have to buy water...even the water we cook with. For me, the girl from Tennessee, this seems like a budgetary travesty. Buy cooking water???

Simply stated, we can't afford to eat from the store anymore. I can remember when buying chicken thighs, or a whole chicken NOT cut up were the cheapest cuts of meat. Even these I can't afford. Even ground chuck I can't afford.

It literally would be cheaper to raise our own animals...even if not for any other reason than the cost alone. It would actually be cheaper for me to buy a live chicken and slaughter it than it would be to buy the cheapest chicken from the store. The times, they are a-changin'.

We're putting our heads together about what we need to grow to survive, from the bottom up. We will be identifying our own preferences and what our bodies need the most as far as nourishment and disease prevention, and those things will be planned for first.

First will be the staples that would see us through no matter what...what we could survive on even if we had nothing else.

Next will be the nutrition-dense secondary veggies and grains...all the seasonal crops that we could eat fresh and put away for the longer term. The basics to round out the staples.

Alongside these things will be the herbs for flavor, nutrition, and medicinals.

Lastly, the fruits, experimental crops, the veggies and fruits and various plants whose variety that would extend the basics into many different sorts of meals.

Does anyone have lists like this, starting from the Can't-Do-Withouts on up? If so, I'd be really interested in what's worked for you and your family, specifically which crops and plants you most rely on.

The old Victory garden concept has morphed into survival gardens for the long-term far beyond anything that's happening as a result of sending our boys overseas. Now we need because of battles in "progress" -- what's happening in test tubes and bio-tech labs, in China, and in the oil industry. Our "progress" is like the snake that tried to swallow its own tail.

We've just been "progressed" right out of being able to buy a week's worth of groceries at my own grocery store.

It's time to sow for our future, and take it into our own hands. There is now an urgency. Not a panic, but definately an urgency.

Mixed Reviews on Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

I was sent one of those Forwards in my email In box, and it sounded typically exaggerated. It was about the alleged dangers of energy-saving Compact Fluorescent light bulbs and the fact that they all contain mercury. The email supposedly quoted a woman who broke one of her CFL bulbs and was told by her local EPA that it would take a team to remove the contamination, to the tune of $2000.

I didn't pay much attention to the email at first because it seemed sensationalized.

I did want to look into the matter a bit more as time allowed...

First, it made me feel a bit slow that I never knew fluorescent bulbs of any description contain mercury.

Secondly, I became aware that there is a mass-marketing of these CFLs, and they are touted as a real green energy-saver for the average household. We have them ourselves, all throughout our house.

Thirdly, I noted the widespread, but largely unaddressed, concern about disposal of the bulbs once they've burned out. Mercury is a contaminant even in very small amounts, and once it hits groundwater, you're talking the most serious of birth defects or sterility issues, not to mention many other serious ailments.

Fourthly, I noticed the preponderance of "patting down the concerned"...something I'm beginning to become less and less happy about. I see this being done by the mainstream in so many other crucial health areas, I am now suspicious whenever the rhetoric runs to phrases such as "when handled correctly" or "health concerns are exaggerated" and so on. In any normal household, lightbulbs get broken, and many times by children or in areas that would be virtually impossible to guarantee spotless cleanup. It's not like these are stadium lights, up and out of the way of the normal Joe. Any normal boy with an overactive Nerf football could overturn a lamp, break the bulb, and try to hide the evidence...and that's just one such situation.

Fifthly, who are the "experts" who "assure" us that NO mercury can be leached, vaporized, or in any other way become a particle that pollutes our home if these bulbs are used regularly...or as in our household, used exclusively? I trust faceless experts and their statistics less and less these days. (If I didnt, I'd think Monsanto is the answer to world hunger and is staffed with boy scouts...)

If it sounds like I'm a skeptic, I want to be a healthy skeptic rather than a reactionary. But two things bother me about this. First, make a product that doesnt try to solve a problem by creating a solution with newer and graver problems. Mercury contamination is no laughing matter. Dont give me the hooey about one coal plant causes more mercury pollution than X number of CFBs. Don't sell me a problem by stating that it's a better problem than the old problem.

I happen to know those bulbs, likely many of them broken, are in our landfills right now.

And I'm frankly ticked off. I'm thinking of whether or not I've ever handled a broken CF bulb myself. I didn't know better...I wasn't the person buying them at the store and reading the label before installing. In fact, I rather hated them...I don't like fluorescent light at all anyway. The reason we changed was to be frugal and to save money.

I'm becoming more jaded about our "needs" for "improved" things. I'm the one who's perfectly happy with a candle, anyway. Or just a light bulb, and keeping all the other lights turned off. Or, radically...how about just letting it be light when the sun shines and dark when it goes down?

(lol...ok, you knew I was on the edge!) ;-)

Am I just getting old and crotchety?? I'm annoyed with just one more "dire warning" spam letter in my email, and even more annoyed to find that I'm unsettled after looking into it a bit more. The general consensus seems to be "oh, those CFLs are our best option, even though it comes with some conditions and probable exceptions."

I'm tired of one more product being so widely accepted and finding out it has to be disposed of in "a special way"...creating a demand for more mercury to be used in production but no real responsibility in keeping it from junking up our surroundings/environment/groundwater/soil/air with just one more "necessary" toxic contaminant.

It's official. I'm becoming one of those crotchety old kooks that just won't shut up...

Grass, water, sky, soil, babies with the correct number of limbs and digits. Those are the things I'm feeling awfully protective of these days.

I'm considering ditching the CF bulbs completely. After I get fully suited up in my Hazmat suit, that is, and find some federally-approved disposal facility that will take them (she says, tongue-in-cheek....sort of...)

I'm about technologied out. I can tell I'm about at the end of it. That's where my grandparents were right about the time of the invention of VCRs...they'd had enough of Progress. Mine happened right about the Ipod and the MP3. I'm a throwback. I get more and more stubborn the more and more innovations are marketed as necessities.

Hmmmm.....

told ya...

old and crotchety!! :)

Doing Not Thinking Challenge

Better late than never!!

I'm a tardy latecomer, but I'm taking on Kathie's Doing Not Thinking challenge. For some background on what led to this challenge, you'll enjoy this earlier post she wrote. Not just thought-provoking, but action-inspiring!

Whether it's mental list-making, day-dreaming of all the things I know I want to do (which leapfrogs to so many other things I want to do, most of which I've dreamed but never just DONE), or getting sucked into the vortex of busy-ness it takes to maintain this crazy thing called My Life, I need to be more deliberate, more organized, and more focused on actually getting past those stopping-points and actually DOING some of those goals...and some of the neglected things like my housework (cough cough!)

Doing my housework more consistently needs to be a daily habit, so it's not going on the list. I want it to be done before the "extras" because it's important to my whole household. I've done quite a bit of digging out during my hiatus, but have more to go to get it deep-cleaned.

Same thing goes for my relationship with my husband and the time spent with him and with my daughter. In that area, I'm simpy shutting off the computer. Shutting. It. Off.

I'll be blogging less frequently, but deliberately making the most of the time with my family. Writing is important to me, and Jack really wants me to continue posting here, and I agree. But I don't want backwards priorities...I waited so long for him, and when he came into my life I knew I wanted to make each moment count, at least as much as possible (I fall really short quite often). I just don't have the time to do everything, so if you don't see me visiting around my favorite blogs (yours!!) please don't take it personally! There will be times when I'll be able to indulge, when I'm less crazed ;-)

Anyway, I do have room for a challenge! Here are the things I'm challenging myself to accomplish by the December deadline Kathie posted:

Short term goal…save my change from any monetary transaction and put it in a jar…at the deadline, any money I have will be used to do a micro-loan (cycling back and being reinvested in the same thing when paid back) for Kiva.org…to help individuals acquire animals or goods for handmade/homegrown/home-raised products to support themselves.

Longer goal…2 of them
1. Lose 10 lbs by the deadline
2. Keep doing what we can weekly toward finding our homestead…no matter what...the legwork, research, homework, phone-calling, being cheerful despite changes of direction. No wallowing in discouragement allowed! I want to compare the progress then to where we are now...

That's it for me...it's not too late to join the challenge, if you find you'd enjoy pushing past the thinking stage and get right down to the doing part of one or two goals you've had on the burner. To see what some other folks are doing, or to jump in yourself, you can check out the post here.

Come December, it'll be fun comparing notes :)

Need Some Good Sources for Bulk Quantity Apple Cider Vinegar

Calling all animal-care veterans out here...do you have a good source for quality Apple Cider Vinegar in bulk?

I've read so many sources that mention its benefits in animal care across the board, such as in chickens' water, and in cattle feed or water as a fly prevention ( I've heard flies won't bother as much with cows who regularly eat/drink things supplemented with ACV) and mastitis treatment & prevention. It's said to improve the digestive process and stimulate the animal’s appetite by lowering the pH in the gut, and lowers somatic cell counts in dairy cattle. It's said to be good for nearly every sort of homestead animal, such as poultry/sheep/cattle/dogs/goats, as numerous testimonials such as this one attest to. It's also good for people, and our family is beginning to take daily doses of it for our own health.

Does anyone out here have first-hand experience using it, and if so, do you have any good sources where it can be ordered?

Thanks for your help! This could be expensive if we have to buy the smaller quantities...

Photo from http://s3.amazonaws.com/uncooped_uploads_production/photos/781/400px-Apples_medium.jpg

Help! What Do We Do About This??

Termites ...were discovered living in the flowerpots and some of the buckets our plants are growing in...there are termites, yet we don't have termites infesting our house, according to the monthly pest inspectors. And we surely DON'T want to be raising our own homegrown ones!

We're planning on using raised beds extensively, too, when we move...to raise many of our main crops. They'll be amended regularly with compost and lots of organic material, similar to what's in our current garden-'o-buckets.

Has anyone ever had any problems with termites in your pots, compost, or raised beds? Or your garden at all, for that matter?

We're not sure quite what to do at this point, and using pesticides is not an alternative we want to consider at this point...

Help!!! :)

We Have Gynura Procumbens!

(No, we're not contagious...ha!)

We received the Gynura plants we ordered a while back. When researching herbal alternatives and supplements in conjunction with diabetes and high blood pressure, we found this is a plant used as a traditional medicine in different parts of the world.


We are unsure how to use it, though we have read the leaves are used to make a tea. They are also used to make extracts.


In the literature we've managed to find, some studies have been done comparing Gynura Procumben extract's efficacy in comparison with Glibenclamide (brand name Glyburide) in rats with Type 2 diabetes. It would seem from the results of these initial studies that Gynura Procumbens extract demonstrated a similar action to that of Glyburide in helping to lower the blood sugar for rats who had Type 2 Diabetes. In healthy animals it did not lower it and no adverse symptoms were noted in the report.


I don't put this here to suggest to anyone else to seek treatment this way, or by experimentation...in fact I am not sure yet how we will utilize these plants. But I do know we have reached a critical point in our lives where what our bodies need to help correct or even heal some of our physical conditions is something we're having to consider growing ourselves. We can not afford expensive prescriptions for years to come, and don't want to grow reliant on them. We also want to reverse these conditions, and our personal hope is that with the right combination of care, we can see them disappear altogether.


You can't go around randomly nibbling this and making tea out of that, if you have no idea what effects different plant parts will have medicinally on your body. There are such things as sensitivities, allergies, and toxic plants. Natural medicines are often in the form of teas and often require a gentle and steady consumption, without the "instant fix" of pharmaceuticals. Many of these herbals are naturally much easier on the body, too.


A note of caution is to please not try something simply because we are. There, I said it :)


That said, we are excited to find this plant. We had to look very hard to find a grower who could ship us a live plant. Now we have 4!


I am SO happy that we have the basis for some future remedy to support controlling or even remedying adult Type 2 diabetes. If we ultimately find a way we consider safe and effective to utilize the Gynura Procumbens, we'll be delighted! The 4 Gynura are the plants shown in the middle of the photo.



As you can see, the Gynura plants came with two little friends...one's a Russian comfrey, and the other is the spicy and fragrant middle-eastern herb Zaatar (not to be confused with the spice mix also called Za'atar).

Looks like Bucketville is growing...

I'll post more about what we're hoping to accomplish with some of the things we're growing for medicinal purposes. As with the many other areas of our experimentation, some of this is new territory for us, and a bit of it is familiar. I never cease to be amazed at what's before our very eyes along the roadsides, in the backyard, in the woods...the growing things we overlook and have lost our memory of in relation to their benefits to our health and our gardens. SO much traditional wisdom has been discarded in the past few generations! It is such a rewarding search to find places in which their memory has not grown dim, and to embrace their "re-discovery."

Cell Phone Solution

Over a month ago, my then-new cell phone was stolen. I posted about whether or not I truly needed a cell phone, and received a lot of very welcome comments. Jack and I read them over and had some discussions back and forth about this matter, as well as our phone service in general.

We discussed the matter of safety, the issue of what is or is not a necessity (is it a perceived necessity but just really a convenience, or not?), and played around with different scenarios as to how we might re-adjust our budget for the most affordable option to satisfy our present needs.

It's taken a while to figure out, but here's what we determined works best for now:

1. Much of our communication and business dealings are by phone. We're not comfortable in removing this entirely, as it's our substitute for actual in-person visits with family and friends we'd otherwise never be able to afford to visit regularly. Yes, letter-writing and email play a part in staying in contact, but we still are not ready to give up on a phone altogether. That may change someday.

2. My former job assignment ended, and I'm not now on the road 8 hours daily. That'll likely change soon. We decided that if there's an inexpensive option, it would be prudent to have an emergency cell phone, since the commute is an hour each direction and my car is an older used vehicle...and much of the driving area is long stretches of interstate with many miles between exits.

3. I did not want to sign up for a plan, or buy another cell phone through a major provider.

In investigating this, Jack went in person to the office that had sold me my phone. His intention was to pay off any remaining bill, to make sure the number had been disconnected so the person who stole the phone couldn't run up charges under my name, etc. What he found out was very disconcerting...after having stated to the salesperson when I originally bought the phone that what I wanted was the least expensive, no frills one they had, I had been sold a much more expensive one. After having told her up front that I wanted a pay-as-you-go arrangement (which we already had, I was just re-affirming), she had signed me up with a long term plan WITHOUT MY SIGNATURE or KNOWLEDGE. And we owed $200, after having paid some on it already...very upsetting since I had been told the initial cost all told was $99.

I was NOT a happy camper. Despite a call to the higher powers, it was her word against mine. That is the last time I will use that company, and it's one of the best known nationwide ones. Stinky stinky stinky...

Well, anyway, here's what I did, at my husband's urging to do something...

I went to Walgreen's and bought the cheapest phone they had...$15...which was a Motorola and looks like any other basic phone out there, minus all the fancy stuff. It came with minutes already on it, and I bought $20 worth of additional minutes on one of those phone card minutes cards. The deadline date for buying more minutes to keep the phone operational is in December of this year. I'll only use the phone for emergencies...not for calling Jack and finding out what I need to get at the store, etc., but it solves that dilemma for us.

So I've paid $35.00 USD for over 70 minutes of stored call time, and I don't have to fiddle with it at all till December unless I use up the minutes by then...if I do, it's as easy as buying a $10 phone card to put more minutes on it. All told, with no additional minutes, that comes to a grand total of $5.00 a month for my phone. I can live with that!

We still have to figure out Jack's phone. Now that he's seen how affordable my phone is, he's thinking of changing from his cell phone's Big Company, to the cheapy Walgreens phone soon. That is, after paying off the (blippingbeepingfricketyfrackety) remaining $200 from my stolen phone.

We still have the home phone, and we love our home phone service because long distance anywhere nationwide is included in the one monthly charge, any time of day or night, any day of the week.

Whenever we move to our homestead (maythatdaycomequickly) someday, we'll choose the least expensive option and see how we can work that with an internet connection. That's all above my understanding, but by then we'll likely have figured it out.

There's the update...I feel much better having a phone that averages $5.00 a month for security reasons. For chatting, I'll have to stick to the home phone :)

Said While Jumping Up and Down

(Which makes typing an interesting exercise in coordination)


Jumps are in caps...


Guess WHAT

we're going to GET

with the MONEY

we set ASIDE

from the TAXRETURN

after we PAID

a big ol' CHUNK

of the CAR

payment OFF ?????????










I'm not telling.




Noooooo, oh HA

hahahahaHAAAA


ok, SORRY


(you can take a peek here)


So now I can drink and cook with clean water and type strike-throughs with my keyboard and have a blog post stolen by plagiarizers and be closer to being completely out of debt all at the same time! Wheeeeeee!!!

(I'm a little happy...thank you for sharing my happy dance!)

Pictures and experiments will commence as soon as the big Fed Ex truck arrives :) Stay tuned!

When Life Hands You Buckets...

...you take one wonderful husband, and he pries the lids off



...examines the mess he's about to clean up...



...gets his own assembly-line system going for washing them out...

...and does it all again...happily...44 more times, whew! That is one determined farmer-in-training. And definately the nicest and most wonderful guy I know (even without buckets).

Total bucket count now is 64 designated for plants (including the ones we've already potted), 4 for hauling things (and for making compost tea later), and 3 that are full of all the leftover paint (totaling 15 gallons of interior paint that surely will get used for something). Cool!!

Know what this means?? It means that we DO anticipate there being some tomato plants this year, oh happy day!! Paul Robeson, Black Krim, Black Prince...oh, I hardly can contain myself!

I love my husband more than I thought possible, and the sight of messy buckets and his happy smile while working to gain us some pots for more plants makes me happier than if he were all scrubbed up and wearing a nice suit. THIS is happiness to me. I want 100 more years of being able to see J intent on his projects...our projects, and me right there with him doing the same.

Bucketville keeps growing!

This is not all of them. No, a lot of them won't fit into the picture...

But I'm sure the neighbors are impressed by now with our mess yard decor, green with apoplexy jealousy. I know they are preoccupied by the thought of just how they, too, can turn us into the code enforcement officers grow strange and unusual plants in old paint buckets, and are rushing out to a construction site and begging, yay even bribing someone, to for gosh sake stop the insanity for some 5 gallon buckets. It's all the rage!

(And now I return from my happy little land of make-believe...at least long enough to go do those dishes from dinner that are piled up in the sink...)

Water Purification

Does anyone out there have a preference when it comes to water purification? We currently are on well water, and the homes around here rely upon the addition of salt, and a system I don't really understand, to make the sulfur-stinky water more fit for bathing and such.

I still feel kind of creeped out about putting it on my skin, with no real assurance of what's really in it.

We have to purchase water weekly for cooking and drinking, and we do so in 5 gallon bottles that we dispense from a stand that has reservoirs, one each for cooled water and heated water. I've never lived anywhere we had to purchase all our drinking water.

One of our priorities has been to try to find a better (and more economical) solution to our water purity.

My cousin has a Berkey water purifier and seems very happy with it. We are looking into it as a possible solution for our situation, and would like to know if anyone else out there reading this blog might have some leanings one way or the other towards a purification system, and if so, which one? Supposedly, the Berkey operates without any need for electricity, and can purify ANY sort of water, even water straight from a rain barrel or pond, purifying it within an hour to quality drinking water.


That sounds too good to be true, but often, simple solutions are the best. We wonder if it truly is that wonderful and would love to hear any feedback about this or any other system that you may have tried, or are currently using.

If its claims are true, it would save us a great deal of outgoing grocery money weekly, and help me trim my budget by a fair margin. Thanks for any input you have!

What You Do When You're Tired of Waiting To Move To Acreage

You figure and figure and figure, and while others are mailing off their seed orders or their fine live chicklet Murray McMurray hatchery orders, your stuff...the BIG STUFF THAT'S BEEN ON HOLD HOLDING AND HOLDING AND HOLDING...keeps on holding. So you get more daring in your simplicity.

Because you want to Get There.

Fast.

Much faster than it's feeling like right now.

Yes, you know you must plan and work and have patience and plan some more, and that things will unplug eventually, but you still search the craigslists and wonder and begin becoming the radical freakoid you worried you might one day become...at least in your mind. Or maybe it's more worrisome because you start thinking that thinking these things are less and less radically freakoid and actually are MORE SANE (which might be true).

Yes, we actually had a conversation today about how to live in a horse trailer. Oh not the sort of conversation that goes, "oh well, if we can't get there soon because of this or that, we could just park a horse trailer on the property and make coffee over a campfire (chucklechucklechuckle snortsnort!). No, there was an actual lengthy conversation along the lines of "well we could adapt a horse trailer to sleeping and have the bedding be removable so we could use it for animals later, and we could wire it for AC or electric if we had to, and you know my cousin knew somebodyortheother who used theirs in remote locations and threw down Navajo blankets over some built-ins and on the floor and you'd never know it wasn't a little camper" (and so on and so on).

And so went the off-road topic of living in a horse trailer.

Or a converted school bus.


Or a slide-in truck topper. Or a pop-up camper. Or a trailer-ish anything that could fit a bed. A gypsy caravan (we actually said those words, though covered wagon didn't come up).

No tent...too many snakes, panthers, wild tusked hogs and things that could eat you. No yurt, same reason, plus the wet. Something that could be plopped on location at will and lived in...either WHILE or UNTIL we build other things (yes, we have to say that, right, or we're one of THOSE PEOPLE who are just a little too nuts to read further? lol!)

Um, ok, we're taking things a bit too far...LOL


THIS from the girl who hates primitive campgrounds, spiders in the dark concrete block recesses of damp campground showerhouses, and bugs flying down her back or hair in any situation. Yes, I'm a contradiction in terms, my own conundrum, lol!

What I have right now is sort of like spring fever. When things are so close to happening you can almost taste it, and we're poised like a diver hovering over the water just before taking the big plunge. We want the plunge! When all our kindred spirits out there are gathering eggs, shoveling poop, starting seeds under grow lights, ripping old clothes into quilt squares or dustrags or homemade baby wipes, making goat's milk soap, building engines that consume only old Chinese restaurant cooking oil, finishing fantastic structures made of cordwood and wine bottles....our present "NORMAL" feels like being stuck in algebra class while everyone else is out having a snowball fight.

Someday our "NORMAL" will change. I'm having homestead spring fever. We're SOOOOOO CLOSE!

I type blog thingies and then read back over them and find them totally boring or complete rants, and then push the delete button. I tell myself that this stage is part of the whole process, just as important as if I were building the much anticipated chicken coop or buying our first sheep.

Ok, now the whining is winding down, for now :)

We're stalled in paperwork with one property that looks favorable, awaiting the dislodging of the clogged bureaucratic pipeline that seems interminable just now. The other property is subject to the vagaries of human scheduling, negotiation, and... more waiting.

I feel like the race horse stuck in the starting gate after the bell dings and all the other horses are galloping madly.

Or maybe I shouldn't use the horse analogy....it just brings back the possibility of the horse trailer allllllllll over again! LOL ;-)

OK, I'm heading off to read about black-belly sheep


and heritage breed chickens


and pastured poultry and the NAIS and staining concrete floors and Zone 9 fruit trees I'll order if I ever have a place to plant them, and rattlesnake pole beans, and barn cats and grazing cattle in woodlots....


Back later when I'm not a whiner and haven't said the word "horse trailer" for at least 24 hours, ha!

Reminder to Self: I have MUCH to be thankful for and God's timing is always perfect. And I'll be content. But still scribble lists and dog-ear seed catalogues ;-)

Photos from these sources:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://jdstiles.com/redneck/mobilehome.jpg&imgrefurl=http://jdstiles.com/redneck/index.html&h=343&w=490&sz=32&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=_eGPqrxDWVCWWM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dredneck%2Bmobile%2Bhome%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mrtruck.net/featherpic/featherlq.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mrtruck.net/featherlite.htm&h=1046&w=1500&sz=294&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=tVG2rIw9Q_jNOM:&tbnh=105&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhorse%2Btrailer%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.afence.com/WWjpg/horseBB2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.afence.com/EquestrianSupplies.html&h=270&w=450&sz=50&hl=en&start=18&tbnid=cyDuZMooZA8yYM:&tbnh=76&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhorse%2Btrailer%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

http://realenergy.net/files/images/temp/new%20camera%20229.preview.jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.vonslatt.com/images/bus/intfrontcent-sm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.vonslatt.com/&h=240&w=320&sz=32&hl=en&start=15&tbnid=9X6SGBvbBXh4xM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dconverted%2Bschool%2Bbus%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gypsyhorsesource.com/othersaleitems/wagon-7-medium.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.gypsyhorsesource.com/othersaleitems/plans.htm&h=262&w=350&sz=34&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=uc6Sq7kBmy4ISM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgypsy%2Bcaravan%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rcmaenterprises.com/images/DSC_2636.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rcmaenterprises.com/page1.htm&h=255&w=384&sz=61&hl=en&start=38&tbnid=kwFwfb__AHld-M:&tbnh=82&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dblack%2Bbelly%2Bsheep%26start%3D20%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

http://www.jphpk.gov.my/English/PartridgeWyandotte.jpg

Saponins

I've recently become interested in a product I've noticed on some blogs here and there -- a natural fruit/nut from Southeast Asia called the Soapnut. Here's the source I found for purchasing them. Two to four dried berries from the Chinese Soapberry Tree are put into a small cotton sack and tossed into the washing machine instead of using commercial soap. The berries contain Saponin, which forms a natural soaping action when combined with water.

In the reading I've done, it seems there are medicinal uses for these berries as well, and you don't want to ingest them internally, but my focus is on their use for a laundry cleanser. I was drawn to statements by users of Soapnuts testifying to their usefulness as a hypo-allergenic cleanser not only for laundry, but also as a foamless shampoo and body soap. My own skin, over time, has developed a sensitivity to perfumes and chemicals in commercial soaps, and I've simplified my regimen to very basic cleansing products. My laundry soap has to be perfume-free, and I can't tolerate laundry softeners or dryer sheets. The idea of a completely natural, fuss-free berry to toss in with the laundry -- and even to re-use several times -- is really appealing.

In reading about the natural soaping action and its long-standing traditional use by native peoples, it reminded me of something I found out a few years ago when considering a move to Missouri. I was trying to find out about uses of plants used by the native Americans, and I ran across a mention of the use of Yucca roots as a laundry cleanser. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember that Yucca roots could be combined with water to form an effective washwater for clothing, after which the root could be saved for further washings. I wondered why someone hadn't marketed these roots for that reason, since it seemed so straightforward, except that few people these days handwash the bulk of their laundry.

When I found the Soapnut links recently, and saw that a lot of people are using them, I wondered if there are regional Soapberry trees a bit closer to home. If so, I could plant some and have a free source for years to come. I'm in Zone 9, which sometimes is restrictive as far as being able to grow trees found further north in the U.S. I was delighted to find that there are two soapberry trees that not only can be grown here in Florida, but also in the upper 48. The Western Soapberry (Sapindus Saponaria Drummondii) is found as far Northwest as Washington state, its territory arcing across the central and southern US and up through the mid-Atlantic seaboard -- and the Florida Soapberry (Sapindus Saponaria Marginatus) is found in some parts of California, and Florida.

The berries of both species here in the U.S. have been used traditinally by native American and Central American populations as soaps. Upon further investigation, it appears that not only is this tree easy to grow and adaptable to a variety of sites and soils, but it's non-invasive and is attractive as well. I'm definately interested in finding out if I could grow this tree to eliminate our need to purchase commercial soaps, both for laundry and for household cleaning and shampoo/body cleansers. How exciting a possibility, especially since it's supposed to be an excellent hypo-allergenic soap strong enough to get really dirty clothes sparkling clean as well as gently enough to use for babies or sensitive skin!

Now I'm hot on the trail of other native plants with traditional uses similar to the Soapberry. Since Saponin is the "soap agent," a basic Wikipedia search showed a long "laundry" list (haha, pun intended!) of other plants that also contain Saponin. Does this mean some of them can also be used similarly??

Here's the Wikipedia list:

Aloe
Anadenanthera
peregrina (seeds)[1]
Amaranth
Asparagus (as
protodioscin)
Chickweed
Bacopa monnieri
Chlorophytum species
Chlorogalum species, soap
plants
Conkers/horse
chestnuts
Tuberous cucurbit species
Digitalis (as digitonin)
Echinodermata
Eleutherococcus
senticosus
Fenugreek
Goldenrod [1]
Gotu Kola
Grape skin[2]
Gypsophila (Baby's Breath)
Jiaogulan
Liquorice
Mullein
Olives
Panax (as ginsenoside)
Quillaia
saponaria (bois de Panama, member of the Rosaceae family)
Quinoa
phytolacca
americana (poke, pokeweed, pokeberry, poke greens, poke root, inkberry, poke
salit, poke salad)
Rambutan
Soapberry and many other
members of the family Sapindaceae, including buckeyes
Saponaria
(Soapwort, Bouncing Betty)
Shallots
Soybeans
Tribulus terrestris
(as protodioscin)
Wild yam
Yucca

Isn't that list interesting...that all these plants contain a natural saponins...and applications... of some sort?? I don't have time to dive in depth into investigating each one...yet. But seeing such familiar plants on this list fascinates me as to how they, too, might be utilized in ways "lost" to our "modern" world. At any rate, it would appear we DO have plenty of natural laundy options, if only we'll keep looking. Looks like that will be material for a lot of upcoming reading!




Picture link: http://www.grownative.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantDetail&plant_id=170

Question Revisited: Are Organic Pesticides Safe? Mike's Answer to Robbyn

Earlier in the season, my experiment with growing heirloom tomatoes (and other things) in different sorts of containers was fully underway, with varying success. I've written about some of my conclusions garnered afterward, and also raised the question of how to deal with pests, or in our case, a plague of stinkbugs that decimated the later tomatoes.

Was it the stress of the plants that made them susceptible? Was it the under-fertilizing? Was it massing them together so closely? The weather? Many other questions remain. I received valuable feedback about that very question after doing a web search on Organic Pesticides. I enjoyed hearing the varying perspectives from so many of you who have successfully found answers for your own situations.

In all the busy-ness that simultaneously ensued with my outside-of-the-home work training commencing at JUST that very time, my time here at the computer was cut much shorter. In that time period, I missed out on one very valuable and detailed response to my blog post...and amazingly, I discovered it just now, unexpectedly.

Mike from Plan Be of Braamekraal Farm wrote one great response, and I'd love to include the entire thing here. But being that it's now 1:32 A. M. my time and I'm too distractable to wait, I'm not waiting to write for permission to include his reply here in full. And his reply is TOO GOOD to simply quote in part.

So, for one of the very best feedbacks on the question of "Are Organic Pesticides Safe?" please run, jump, and leap to read Mike's Response to Robbyn...it's really that good.

Thank you, Mike, very belatedly!

And thank you to everyone else who responded in the comments section before.

I know it seems that I'm an opinion collector rather than practically DOING many of these things I ask about in the posts. That day will come...it's all part of the journey. First, we have to get our land, etc. But I really am benefitting from not just seeing how everyone's doing THEIR "homesteading" but also beginning to understand many of the underlying reasons for specific choices. I'm finding so many of those reasons to be sound.

Which will give me a sound rooting, I hope, in endeavors yet to be realized.

Because, as they say (they who? the Infamous They!), "as the twig is bent, so grows the tree."



Thank you, Mike, for your thoughtful and thorough response. I'm sorry I only discovered it NOW :)

Are Organic Pesticides Safe?

I don't have much time here, but I do have a question for the organic gardening veterans out there. In trying to Google organic solutions to my tomato plants' stink bug invasion(besides squashing 'em with my hands), I ran across some pesticides touted as organic, which I'm assuming means they're from natural sources.

However, when reading the fine print, I could not deduce whether or not they kill pollinators, such as honey bees, and I also saw a couple of notes stating that they could pollute water sources.

I also saw some discussion about "Bt," which I'm unfamiliar with. I AM familiar with genetically modified seeds...is this the same thing, and therefore to be avoided like the plague?

Pardon my ignorance. The question here is to reap the cumulative wisdom from so many of you whom I appreciate, who are far far ahead of me in practical knowledge of these things from experience.

My hesitation to just go out and buy something labeled "organic" stems from two things:

1. I'm cheap. The purpose in doing the organic tomatoes was in part to raise good food economically, without each fruit becoming the proverbial "$60 tomato."
2. I'm cynical, or well let's just say cautious, about claims made by companies promoting pesticides. Even the "safe for animals and humans" sort I saw on my cursory Googling attempt had ingredients which on other sites were tagged with cautions about exposure.

Is there a time and a way to use such, or are trap crops and diversity plantings for the encouragement of beneficial insects, etc, the best way to go?

I did note on one site specific to stink bugs that they were not usually a widespread problem BEFORE the advent of genetically altered (perhaps this is the Bt that was mentioned??) crops, specifically cotton engineered to be more boll-weevil resistant in the Deep South. According to that article, the reduction of that particular "pest" led to a different balance and opened the door in different ways to the rise of stink bug infestations for a whole spectrum of soft fruits and soy beans, now difficult to counteract.

Any thoughts from the blogosphere on these things? Thanks to Phelan for her comments about this recent development. My garden's infestation is now beyond the squashability threshold...


:)



Thanks in advance for advice!