do you see ‘em?

Do you see what I see?  I see about 12 tiny little sprouts.  Lettuce, chard and spinach.  Basil still hasn’t germinated, but it takes a long time compared to these three go-getters.

I’m conducting an experiment.  I’m trying to grow greens in the house.  Have you seen the price of lettuce lately?  Not that icky iceberg stuff, but real lettuce — it is crazy.  My family goes through a lot of lettuce every week.  So here I am trying to keep the budget on track and trying to keep us healthy at the same time.   If this works, I just may expand my efforts.  It could get really green in that project room.

I planted these in a plastic covered shelf (Lowe’s–$25).  I don’t use grow lights, just whatever warmth builds up in there from the sun coming through the window.  I can fit 12 flats of seeds in there when it is seed starting time (which begins on March 22 this year!!).  This is a major step forward for me.  Normally we have little seedling pots all over the house.  Then, just as I start getting really excited, the cat eats the little shoots.    This year I have hope.

I  hope that the cat won’t figure out that she can rip the plastic. (Note:  load squirt gun, aim, train.)

I hope that the seedlings will grow.

I hope I can transplant them successfully.

I hope they’ll feed my family.

Ever hopeful,

Kim

First Meal

Our first 1oo foot meal actually came from last year’s garden. We had a nice vegetable soup made with homegrown onions, potatoes, carrots (dehydrated), tomatoes (dehydrated), corn (frozen), and green beans (frozen).

I served the soup to HM and I along with homemade muffins.

Kim

Lupine-Russell

I started some Lupine-Russell hybrid seeds this morning. I soaked the seeds, then sowed them in very small peat pots. The pots now need to be refrigerated for 4 weeks before moving into our seed starting greenhouse.

These perennial flowers will get to be 2-4 feet tall. I bought a package of mixed color seeds. Hopefully they’ll all germinate and survive the trip to the great outdoors. I want to plant them along the south-eastern corner of the house. I have a large area there that I would love to see filled with a mass of these.

Kim

local energy usage

 

I was roaming around my local electric coop’s website today. They have different energy calculators, lighting calculators, and tv analyzers. I found a very interesting graph. You plug in about 20 factors and it gives you a nice graph of average electric costs for your type housing in our region.
Sometimes I find it helpful to compare our usage against local averages as well as the US average and the Riot goals. The red bars are heating, blue are cooling, green is water heating, the the itty bitties at the bottom are base charges, appliances, lighting and cooking. They have 6 months of heating and 5 months of cooling, and 1 month of mixed heating and cooling.

If you take out the heating and cooling the average bill in our area would be $87. We average $61 (but that includes our charge for green energy–$10).

Look at some of those heating costs: Dec 06 ($457), Jan 07 ($579), Feb 07 ($746), Mar 07 ($215), Apr 07 ($197), Oct 07 ($33), Nov 07 ($262), and Dec 07 ($432). I might add that I know these costs are average around here. I hear others talking and I know what our costs were before the wood stove went in 2 years ago.

On the other hand, we spent $150 total on heating this year. That is for wood, chainsaw maintenance, gas and oil, bar oil, fire starters, and a new section of stove pipe.

Kim

orchard plans

Change of plans. That is normal around here. Until I start digging, building or otherwise making definite steps in a direction all my planning is a mere suggestion. So here is the new plan for the orchard.

First: We will not be fencing in the front yard for the sheep. I need much more orchard space than I originally thought. Those poor critters will just have to make due in their own field. This may change the coppicing plans too. I’m not sure yet, but they need that pasture area. We may just plant trees along the truck run and a few more on the west side of the woods outside the livestock fence. At last count it was 20 trees that we would need to replace due to their feasting. Thankfully they haven’t attacked any new trees.

Second: The currants, elderberries, strawberries, and blueberries are NOT going in the vegetable garden. It seemed like a good idea, but it takes too much space out of the veggie crop area. I need that space! So now the front yard will be the orchard/berry field.

So now I will be planting (definitely planting because it is ordered and paid for):

• 25 early-season strawberries
• 25 mid-season strawberries
• 6 black currant bushes
• 6 elderberry bushes
• 2 early-season blueberry bushes
• 2 mid-season blueberry bushes
• 2 late-season blueberry bushes
• 2 dwarf plum trees
• 2 dwarf apricot trees
• 2 dwarf cherry trees
• 3 dwarf apple trees
• 1 vining peach (I don’t know, it just sounded interesting)

Along with all that we also are getting:

• golden hops (for CK’s beer making experiment)
• 3 lilac bushes
• peanuts (experimental crop for the garden)
• and a few more plants for the herb garden

Now . . . who wants to come help Kim dig holes? Hmm? Anyone?

blog vacation

Ahh . . . I’ve given myself a nice break from the blog.  It was needed.  I needed to think about where this blog is going, why I continue to blog, and even if I should continue.  When I am on the computer other things are not getting done.

This week I finished a long knitted scarf, 2 mittens, a thorough house cleaning, battled a 4 day migraine, sketched the orchard, sketched the flower bed,  read Affluenza, read The Elusive Pimpernel, and had nice chats with HM in front of a cozy fire.

Kim

coppicing wood

 

We didn’t mean to do it.  I mean, it was on the list of things to research and try.  But not yet and definitely not in this way.  We left the goats and sheep in the woods this winter.   We did last year too, but they left the trees alone.  This year they didn’t have free access to a hay bale and look what they did!   They have girdled about 20 trees by chewing the bark at head level.

So I have been reading up on the subject of wood coppicing.  Here.   I followed some of the links and found others on-line.   John Seymour’s self-sufficiency book talks about it too.   So CK and MA will be going out with the chainsaw to bring down the trees the livestock have girdled.  With any luck at all shoots will come up in the Spring.  We’ll definitely be moving fencing so that the animals aren’t in the woods.

I’m going to post pictures of the process as we go.

Close up of a tree:

gaia’s garden

This is quite a fantastic little book. I won’t change the garden as it now exists, but new areas (like the orchard) will get a little more consideration and thoughtful planning. I really like the idea of planting daffodil bulbs under my fruit trees. It will bring a little more beauty to the area. It was also quite helpful in the gray water system research. I now have a basic idea and plan for creating the wetlands, mini-ponds and the final water holding system.

Kim

tasha tudor’s garden

I got this book and Tasha Tudor’s Heirloom Crafts for Christmas. They are really lovely books. Her gardens are magnificent and I still find myself turning the pages just to see the way the colors play together.

Kim

Alan Alda Salad

  We saw Alan Alda on a PBS show many years ago talking about nutrition.  (I think it was Scientific America, but I really can’t remember.)  He visited a man and they compared the nutritional value of a Alan’s sandwich, chips, and fruit to this other man’s salad.  The meal looked so delicious that we copied down the list and have eaten variations of this for a long time (years and years).

We call it the Alan Alda Salad:

• lettuce, one head torn up
• radishes, one bunch sliced
• carrots, one pound sliced
• celery, one pound sliced
• tomato, diced
• broccoli, one head (cut up, including stalk)
• cauliflower, one head cut up
• bell peppers, two diced
• onion, one diced
• vegetable additions/alternatives (We add whatever is handy in addition to or sometimes in place of one of the vegetables listed above.)
• raisins, craisins, or dates
• chickpeas/garbanzo beans
• walnuts, cut up
• almonds, sliced
• sunflower seeds
• flax seeds
• sesame seeds
• basil, parsley and thyme, minced (cilantro is also good)

We mix up all the veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, and herbs and keep them separate from the lettuce.  When we’re ready to eat we put the lettuce down and just heap on the veggie mix.  It really doesn’t need a dressing.  All the lovely veggie juice combines and tastes delicious.

When you eat this salad you really don’t need much else.  Bread, maybe a little cheese, or some light soup.  It really is a meal all by itself.

rough garden sketch

Well there it is. A month’s worth of brain power and two months of evaluating last year’s garden. It all comes down to a rough sketch (click on the picture and it will get bigger) that will be my garden next year. What you don’t see is succession planting. I plant a new crop in each bed as the old is harvested. I know what I’ll be planting (see the circle with a question mark), but I don’t know where they’ll go until plants begin reaching maturity.

The orchard has been ordered. The first year we will plant 2 plum, 2 apple, 2 apricot, and 3 cherry. Each year (for the next three years) we will add 3 trees of various types.

The front herb bed contains:

• calendula
• lavender
• peppermint
• spearmint
• chocolate mint
• monarda
• rosemary
• purple cone flower
• mullein
• St. John’s wort
• chamomile
• horehound
• vallerian
• marjoram
• wormwood
• boneset
• zinnia
• cosmos
• comfrey
• lemon balm
• catnip

Edited to add this comment in response to Bryan’s question:

Let’s see . . .the asparagus beds are to the south and about 15 feet from the house.  They are the “front” of the garden so the rest of it runs to the north in a straight line.  The area with all the notes is yard that will hold the new chicken coop (with water collection system), the rabbit houses, the compost piles, and could hold even more garden beds.  We still have room for 10 beds behind the beds we are building this year though.  Immediately to the north of the garden is our 2 1/2 acres of woods and to the east and north-east of the “notes” is the field in my blog banner.  In the bottom left corner of that picture you can see the door to the sheep/goat/hay barn.  Maybe today I’ll try to get a drawing of our land.  That might help explain our set-up better.

The herb bed is in front of the house with full southern exposure.  The orchard will go over by the grapes to the east of the house.  I was going to put the orchard in the front yard, but the sheep will need more space come Spring.

I’m not sure there is a picture of the whole garden.  I’ll have to poke around and see.  If there isn’t then I’ll add one this spring while we are working and it doesn’t look so pathetic!

blogger brain

I think I have blogger brain.  I can’t have writer’s block because I’m not a writer.

In other news — I have almost completed my garden planning for 2008.  It consists mostly of rough sketches of the garden, ideas for what to plant where, and a list of what I want to plant that I need to build beds for.

Kim

water bill

The water bill came!  The water bill came!

Yes, I am shouting and repeating myself.  But guess what!  Come on guess!  Well you’ll never guess so I’ll just tell you.

Our water usage dropped by 50%.  That is right — 50%!  That puts us at 15% of the American average for water.

Kim

Cold

I woke up today to an outdoor temperature of 9 degrees.  That is cold for southern Indiana!  Very cold.

Chickens and rabbits seem fine.  Goats are huddled together.  Sheep — they seem oblivious!  Oh, I can’t wait to learn to spin.  What I wouldn’t give for an eight pound wool sweater.

Kim

December Riot Numbers

**Updated because I completely messed up the math.  I doubled a few of the figures when putting them in the riot calculator.  Decimal points definitely make a difference!

Here are our numbers for December. We experienced a few set backs. I wrecked the farm truck, we had to replace the farm truck, we had to replace a washing machine, more food is being purchased at the supermarket, and our electric has crept up a bit.

• Gasoline: 30% including our commuters. The new-to-us vehicle gets 4 mpg better than the old farm truck.

• Electricity: 10% of the monthly American average. Our number has crept up a little bit. We’ve been making bread again, cooking for the holidays, and needing some additional lighting in the evening.

• Heating and Cooking: less than 1%
• Garbage: 5% of monthly American average.

• Water: 30% of monthly American average. This should go down significantly. Our new washer only uses 10-13 gallons per load and each load is twice as large as our old machine. The old used 40 gallons per load. I can’t wait to see the bill!

• Consumer Goods: 10% normal goods for this month, unrepeatable purchases for the year: 3% for used vehicle, 6% for washing machine. So our yearly percentage is 18%.

• Food: 30% local/homegrown, 50% bulk/organic, 20% supermarket. Winter has really hit. We’re consuming more fruit and veggies from the store than normal. We crave hot cocoa after coming in from doing all the animals.

Kim

2007 garden making way for 2008

More blog clean up.  Now I am moving my 2007 garden list to a post so that I can get 2008 up there.

Thanks for being patient.

Kim

2007 Garden

1. Yellow Globe Onions
2. Horseradish
3. Rhubarb
4. Asparagus
5. Kennebec white potatoes
6. Yukon gold potatoes
7. Radishes (Early Scarlet Globe)
8. Carrots (Chantenay Red Cored)
9. Sunflowers (Giant Grey Striped)
10. Broccoli (Atlantic)
11. Spinach (Bloomsdale Long Standing)
12. Watermelon (Mountain Sweet)
13. Corn (Golden Bantam)
14. Celery (Golden Self-Blanching)
15. Swiss Chard (Rainbow)
16. Bush Beans
17. Sweet Basil
18. Tomato (Brandywine Red)
19. Lettuce (Buttercrunch)
20. Lettuce (Green Salad Bowl)
21. Waltham Butternut Squash
22. Pumpkin (Small Sugar)
23. Chili Pepper
24. Jalapeno
25. Cucumber (Delikatesse)
26. Table Queen Squash
27. Eggplant (Black Beauty)
28. Dark Green Zucchini
29. German Chamomile
30. Bee Balm
31. St. John’s Wort
32. Valerian
33. Mullein
34. Dandelion
35. Plantain
36. Rosemary
37. Pimiento Pepper
38. Comfrey
39. Wormwood
40. Peppermint
41. Spearmint
42. Chocolate Mint
43. Calendula (pot marigold)
44. Yarrow
45. Borage
46. Catnip
47. Wild Blackberries !
48. Grapes
49. Persimmon Trees (4)
50. Apple Trees (2)
51. Peach Tree (1)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I’ll be taking down my Reading List 2007 tab and starting the 2008 tab.  So I am copying my reading list to this post.  My reading goal this year is to complete the Bible in a year again.  I just completed it for the 22nd time.

Other resolutions:

1.  Finally finish memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism

2.  Complete the garden beds, plant the orchard, and keep it weeded until August.

3.  Learn to spin wool from my own sheep this Spring.

• OT: Genesis-Malachi
• NT: Matthew-Revelation
• Around the World in Eighty Days
• The Secret Garden
• Random House Treasury of Poetry
• The Westminster Confession of Faith
• Faith of Our Fathers
• The Scarlet Pimpernel
• Doctor Doolittle
• Executive Orders
• 9th grade Biology textbook
• Tom Sawyer
• The Scarlet Letter
• The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler
• Heidi
• The Art of the Commonplace
• The Princess Bride
• Xenocide
• Speaker for the Dead
• The Scarlet Letter
• Ender’s Game
• Have His Carcase
• The Whole Craft of Spinning
• How to Grow More Vegetables
• How It All Vegan (re-read)
• Becoming Vegan (re-read)
• The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
• Clouds of Witness
• The Janson Directive
• Unnatural Death
• The Have-More Plan
• Forgotten Household Crafts
• Whose Body?
• Red Thunder
• The Taming of the Shrew
• The Tempest
• Bicycle Repair Manual
• The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It (re-read)
• Sheep
• North and South (E. Gaskell)
• Persuasion
• MacBeth
• Twelfth Night
• Five Acres and Independence
• Taliessin
• Merlin
• Arthur
• The Wind in the Willows
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• The Unsettling of America
• Cyclops
• Voluntary Simplicity
• Out of the Silent Planet
• Perelandra
• That Hideous Strength
• More Hours in My Day
• The Unpleasanness at the Bellona Club
• Build Your Own Earth Oven
• Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things
• The Weather Almanac
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
• Redwall
• Cesar’s Way
• Better Off
• What Do Our Neighbors Believe?
• You and Your Dog
• Eragon
• Chysalis
• Becoming Vegan
• The Newman’s Own Organics Guide to a Good Life
• The Napoleon of Notting Hill
• One Blood
• Lord Peter: Complete Stories
• The Truth About Dogs
• Diet for a Small Planet
• Cloud of Witnesses
• Sense and Sensibility
• Pride and Prejudice
• Last Days Madness
• Emma
• It’s Easy Being Green
• The Scarlet Pimpernel
• Gaudy Night
• The Five Red Herrings
• Strong Poison
• Students Go Vegan
• The China Study