current sunlight revisited

From April 11, 2008:

In The 11th Hour, Thom Hartmann brought up the idea that until 150 years ago (steam engines, industrial revolution, agricultural revolution) man lived on current sunlight. Then we found “pockets of ancient sunlight stored in the earth.” These pockets are not renewable.

Since we watched the film I have found myself thinking about this comment. A lot. While I should be thinking about something else.

What would it be like to live on current sunlight?

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I still find myself thinking about this, even in February with overcast skies and fluctuations between Winter and Spring.

I haven’t come up with any huge revelations or even minor inspirations.  All I have is a sense that this should sum up my approach to living lightly on this magnificent world the Lord has prepared for us.

We’re not planning much expansion this year.  We’re just going to refine a few things to help take advantage of all that sunlight.

First off, I plan on moving the strawberries into the main garden.  They don’t get quite enough sun where they are.  I’ll just move daughters this year, so we’ll still get plenty to eat this year.  Strawberries are one of my favorite ways of storing current sunlight!

Secondly, I’d like to build a new chicken coop in the back of the garden.   Chickens are also light sensitive.  They begin laying eggs as the days lengthen and continue strong until the short days of winter arrive.  Our current coop (which I LOVE) is to close to the house.  They’ll have plenty of shade on the north side of the garden, but the whole south, east and west will be sunny.  Chickens are also wonderful at keeping bugs at bay.  I need that in the garden.  They won’t have free access during the growing season, but come late fall I can let them out of their yard and into the garden for some free pickings.  I’ll need to cordon off the asparagus and strawberry beds though.

riot year 2; months 6-9

I can’t believe I let four months pass without an update on our Riot activities.

Gasoline: The average American uses 500 gallons per year or about 42 gallons per month.  CK and MA are using 50 gallons per month for their commutes.  HM and I are using 30 gallons per month.  This number has increased since getting the puppy.  He needs to be socialized, trained, and taken to the vet.   He is done with all his basic puppy vet visits so the number will decrease between this month and next.

• Overall we used 80 gallons per month for a family of 4.
• The American average would be 168 gallons per month for a family of 4.
• Our percentage is 47.6%

Electricity: The average American uses 900 kwh per month.  Over the past four months we have averaged 360 kwh/month for 40%.  When you factor in our green energy credit we are right at 10%.  We’ve had very cold weather this year and some real doozies of wind storms.   There were several days we couldn’t use the wood stove because the wind was forcing smoke back down the chimney.  We’ve been baking a lot more bread too.

Natural Gas & Wood Energy: Still at 0.  Our firewood continues to be supplied by storm damaged trees and other already downed wood.  We’ve used a lot of wood this year.  The weather has been awful–everyone says this is the worst winter in ages.  We’ve had snow storms, ice storms, wind storms, 0 degree temps–it has just been yucky!

Garbage: Our number has risen to 8% due to storm clean up.  That should come back down provided we don’t have any more natural disasters for a few months.

Water: Our number has stayed up at 14 gallons/person/day.  Longer showers are still to blame.

Consumer Goods: Lots of stuff for the puppy, books for my training to be a trainer class, a few movies, and three of us finally got nice winter coats.

so what did we really get done

Work for Saturday:

1. laundry
2. scoop poop
3. clean front yard of debris
4. clean back/side yard of debris (to garden/rabbit/sheep fence)
5. move all burnable debris to pile
6. burn pile
7. use flexy poles to mark off new dog training yard we got about 1/3 done
8. clean house
9. air house
10. sort firewood
11. break down old rabbit/chicken portable pens
12. check seeds for any “holes” and prepare an order for the end of the month
13. repair screen on front door
14. check beer making supplies (Beer making is a March activity in our house.)

saturday checklist

Today promises to be a nice February day.  It is currently 42 degrees F and we are taking advantage of the warmth and sunshine to get a few things done.

Homestead work tends to be seasonal.  February is the month of planning.  You start making lists of all the stuff that needs to be done by Spring.

I have seen a few signs of approaching Spring this week.  I saw a few robins, a pair of bluebirds making a nest, and 3 tractors rolling down the road.

Work for Saturday:

1. laundry
2. scoop poop
3. clean front yard of debris
4. clean back/side yard of debris (to garden/rabbit/sheep fence)
5. move all burnable debris to pile
6. burn pile
7. use flexy poles to mark off new dog training yard
8. clean house
9. air house
10. sort firewood
11. break down old rabbit/chicken portable pens
12. check seeds for any “holes” and prepare an order for the end of the month
13. repair screen on front door
14. check beer making supplies (Beer making is a March activity in our house.)

mixed blessings

Here is a post full of tidbits.

• Jake has one ear up all the time and the other ear is really trying
• 2 rabbit kits apparently survived the freeze.
• One week old rabbit kits have hair, eyes are closed, and don’t like to picked up–especially by a squealing with delight HM.
• 13 inches of snow and ice when melted make a tremendous mess over 5 acres of land.
• Add 2 inches of rain and you have swamp conditions.
• Add 70 mph winds and you have uprooted trees.
• When CK leaves something will always happen.   See HM’s 2 posts on this reality
• Sheep and goats do not like it when horses eat their hay and flaunt the fence rule.
• When your neighbor’s horses are out, he’ll be asleep and come to the door without his pants.
• You can always tell when a neighbor gets a new shotgun.
• Country girls aren’t afraid of the sound of a shotgun.
• Country dogs aren’t afraid of gunshots.
• A 3 month old GSD puppy, who still isn’t used to gunshots, can scare the crap out you when he decides to bark at the gunshot.
• A cat startled by the barking of a GSD will fling cat litter over an impressive area.
• 3 month old puppies love to eat cat litter if they find it before you do.
• Cat litter gives puppies a belly ache.
• Belly aches keep people and puppies up at night.

storm warning

They say if you don’t like the weather in Indiana, just wait a week.

Our weather alert radio just went off–again.  For the past 2 weeks it has gone off alerting us to ice, snow, sleet, and wind.  Today is is alerting us to a tornado watch.  There is much to do around the homestead when a storm approaches.

Here is list of a few of the things we need to do:

• cover the hay
• fill all the animal water dishes
• pick up the feed pans from the pasture
• pick up any thing that could become a missile in the wind
• lock all the gates
• make sure the water filter in the house is full
• make sure the oil lamps are full and the matches are handy
• make sure the portable DVD player, the laptop, and the mp3 is charged
• make an extra loaf of bread
• start dinner (as soon as the alarm sounds)
• charge up the extra rechargeable batteries

The neighbors (not all, but some) are:

• running to town after bread, eggs, and milk
• buying batteries
• turning on the tv

how to read a book

How to Read a Book:  The Classic Guide to Intellegent Reading

by Mortimer J Adler and Charles Van Doren

Some of my favorite quotes from the book include:

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.  Francis Bacon

A good liberal arts high school, if it does nothing else, ought to produce graduates who are competent analytical readers.

A good college, if it does nothing else, ought to produce competent syntopical readers.  A college degree ought to represent general competence in reading  such that a graduate could read any kind of material for general readers and be able to undertake independent research on almost any topic.

As we have pointed out several times, the primary aim is to read well, not widely.

Levels of Reading:

• elementary:  rudiments of reading.  “What does this sentence say?”
• inspectional:  get the most out of a book in a given time.  “What is this book about?”
• analytical:  thorough, complete, organized, asking questions.  Active, for the sake of understanding.
• syntopical:  comparative reading of many books and placing them in relation to one another and the subject matter.

Reading and Growth of the Mind:

If you are reading in order to become a better reader, you cannot read just any book or article.

A book that can do no more than amuse or entertain you may be a pleasant diversion for an idle hour, but you must not expect to get anything but amusement from it.

A good book does reward you for trying to read it.  The best books reward you most of all.

Levels of Books:

• 90% or the great majority:  read only for amusement
• 1 out of 1000 or the good books:  convey signifcant insights about subjects of enduring interest to human beings.  Read once and put on the shelf.
• the great books:  Books you feel you didn’t quite “get it all” the first time and you discover upon returning that the book seems to have grown with you.  You see new things in it–whole sets of new things.  You should seek out the books that can have this value for you.

A recommended reading list from Adler and Van Doren is on a page entitled “Adler’s List.”

striving to reach goals

I posted my goals for 2009 a while back.   I thought a post on how I’m doing would be appropriate at the beginning of each month.

Homestead:  We’ve decided which buck and 2 does we’re keeping, but we haven’t gotten rid of the others just yet.  The weather has been awful.   The butcher boy hasn’t been back and he’s taking the extras to his house.

Eddie2 was slaughtered and the meat split between our family and the butcher boy’s.

The chickens are still laying a few eggs a day.  Even with all the cold and yuck, at least 3 are still laying.  The others should kick into gear soon.  As the days lengthen they’ll start.  Nicole (our broody hen) wants to set.  We keep stealing her eggs.  I’ll let her set at the end of this month.

The garden has not been weeded this month.  Of course it has been covered in snow and there aren’t many weeds growing this time of year anyway, but hey . . . I’m claiming it!

The Big Project/Becoming a Certified Dog Trainer:  I’ve finished 50% of my reading list.  I’ve been making training handouts every day and adding them to my folder.  I finished the business plan, the training contract, and the website.  I will be working on the brochure, business cards, completing the training handouts and reading list by the middle of March (I think).

Jake and I are almost done with puppy class.  After that comes a break and then beginner’s class.  At home his training is speeding along.  We’ve had some slow weeks but overall he’s learning at least one new behavior a week.   We’ve added several miles (see Hiking page) to our hiking total.

Personal Goals: I’ve read through Genesis, Exodus, and Matthew.  I also decided to memorize the book of James.  I’ve already memorized 1:1-14.  My goal is 3 verses per week, along with continuing to practice the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

I’ve done at least 2.25 miles on the treadmill six days a week.  Yoga about 3 days a week.  In February I hope to add one more day of yoga, plus another .25 miles of treadmill, plus walking Jake on the street, plus whatever hiking we can get in with the weather. I’ve lost 3 pounds.

I read 14 non dog books.  Admittedly some were very short (CS Lewis) and could be completed in an hour.  But they are old favorites that I try to read each year.  I really need some book suggestions.  I seem to be stuck in a rut.

Accountability:  It really helps to put this all out here for the world to see.  You’ll know if I slack off and I’ll know that you know.

Now, I need to go walk Jake, get ready for church, and spend the rest of the day with the family.

Kim

heartbreak on the homestead

Now that is just about enough cold! Enough already!

We lost 6-8 one day old rabbit kits to the cold today. They had hay in the shelter, but 0 degrees F is just too cold for naked, wet, little babes! It is a terribly sad thing when we lose any of our livestock, but naked little rabbit babies are the worst. They are so cute and so helpless.

Poor HM found them at feeding time this morning. Poor HM.

Life on a homestead isn’t always roses, strawberries, and bouncing lambs. Sometimes it is heartbreak.

ice

Just in case you visit — be careful of the ice!