Trying my hardest...

OK, I've embraced my fate...

I guess relaxing's not THAT bad. I can do this once and a while!

Truth be told, after Friday's little "procedure" I layed around watching movies all day and really felt like a bum. Saturday morning I woke to fresh coffee the boys had made for me and sat on the porch in the unseasonably cool morning air writing while A~ spent the afternoon outside with our boys doing yard work. Mowing, picking and deep watering the garden. I watched from the porch feeling a little too much like "management". I'm more of the hands on type. It drove me nuts.

You know what I did get out of the whole thing this weekend though? Appreciation. Not just thanks, but appreciation; the kind you get when you get to see how blessed you are. My wife, in between yelling at me for LOOKING like I was gonna bend over for something, worked so hard at taking up my slack in the garden and my boys - little men more like it - worked side by side with her picking our last peas and cleaning up around the house and yard. Let it be known I am a lucky man. I tried my best to reward them all that night with a rotisserie roasted pork shoulder that I slow cooked all afternoon on the grill.

Sunday, after making sure all chores were finished Saturday, was spent enjoying our home. We did go out for a bit that morning to let the boys burn off a little energy at the local skateboard park, but the rest of the afternoon was spent lazing aroung the backyard. With our shade canopy up, we sat in the cool shade on an absolutely beautiful Fourth of July Day. The high for today didn't even quite reach 75 degrees! Our oldest serenaded us with his guitar and I tried my best to play harmonica along with him. The boys played off and on again in the pool we finally got this summer and even Marcello the dog layed around in the sun chewing the bone from the night before. All was good. Sunday night we sat out in the front yard while the boys enjoyed a few fireworks and we talked with each other and the neighbors.

There's still a few things that I'd like to try to get done this weekend if possible, having this afternoon and evening left in the day, but I'll have to wait til A~'s not looking. Maybe then I can sneak off to pull some peas plants that are spent and harvest a few early potatoes. There's second crops of the season to think about now you know!

Hope you all had a great weekend. Happy Fourth to all my fellow Americans and look forward to the coming posting blitz.

P~

Anniversary weekend '09

We had a great weekend here. It was A~ and my anniversary this weekend, actually it's next Sunday but we always celebrate it on this weekend courtesy of the long MLK weekend. As usual, we made out annual trek through the desert to Wendover. We like to have a few drinks, gamble a little and just of be a couple for a couple of days rather than just Mom and Dad. We didn't win at all (we left a little money for seed for the next visit) but it wasn't a total loss. I guess since we've made it a tradition of heading out there for 7 years now, we've made it to the frequent donors list. Because of this, we were able to get a free room, free $10.00 cash and have accrued enough "comp" dollars that we could pay for our food while we were there. Of course any money that we got for "free" from them was actually harvested from previously planted "seed money". So what, we had a great time!

So, wanna see what a free room looks like?Not too shabby huh? Of course it's nothing spectacular either, but it's was in the budget if you know what I mean...

The weekend wasn't just about the free room or the fun we had there necessarily, It was about the trip and the time. A~ and I have always been able to pass time together. Since we first found each other nearly ten years ago, we've just enjoyed each others company. I always enjoy these times when we're just riding along together listening to the radio, singing along or talking about what we dream of doing. I'm really lucky to have found such a perfect companion.

So, besides all the gushing about how much I love my wife...I thought I'd give you all a little picture, a few actually, of the stark yet interesting landscape we were kept company by throughout our drive. It's different, I think, than almost anywhere else.
At any one time you can feel like you're completely alone. No one in front, no one behind, just you, the hum of the road under you and the desert.
Then, at other times, the Salt Lake reaches out to greet you and rides shotgun alongside the road for miles and miles.
We stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats visitor center this time, something that we've never done before. It's really a pretty unique feature to this part of the country. It was created by the same natural method that built the salt ponds where we harvested our local salt last year.
I love this picture... I thought it gave a good idea of the vastness of the salt flats. They just go on and on and on.... And then there's the "Tree of Utah". It's the beacon on our trip, and let's us know that we're almost there. It's not pretty per se, but it grows on you I guess...pun intended.

I Hope you liked joining us on our little trip through the desert. I've got a HUGE week coming up this week, so I'll do my best to keep up with you. A~ and I start our Master Gardener class on Wednesday so I'll let you know how that works out and what I can expect.
All the best to you all!
P~

A wonderful Christmas

Hi everyone...remember me? It was a wonderful Christmas for our family, I hope all of yours was as well.

I was able to get home a little early from work on Thursday the 24th and put a few finishing touches on the boys gifts. Yeah, I said gifts, plural. I was feeling pretty ambitious this year so instead of just the rubber band guns, that came out really well I might add, I also made some glass wine bottle guitar slides for them to play on their guitars with as well as some wall mounts to hold them, and for my little "drummer boy" a practice pad for him to pound on in his room. (The walls and his bed frame need a break please!) As I mentioned previously, I also made A~'s gift this year. I couldn't give it away last week, but I can now. It was a only a picture frame, but a very special one. It's made out of a couple of pieces of wood from a beaver dam that we hiked up to last summer in the Uinta mountains here in UT.I think she was really happy with it! And speaking of our handmade gifts, she managed to surprise me too. That hat that I showed off last week, the cool knitted one with the ear flaps... that was for me and I didn't even know it. The sneaky woman had me try it on to see how it would fit our oldest son and it was really for me. I didn't see it coming.

Another great part of this particular Christmas was that it was one of the few truly "white Christmas's" in a long time. Truly, because it snowed all day and then we got a good old fashion blowing and drifting snowstorm that night. Take a peak why don't ya... I took a pretty good video of it, but blogger seems to not like letting me put up videos for some reason?

I've been managing to spend a whole lot of time doing a whole lot of nothing this weekend, so although my post have been lacking severely, you're really not missing anything. I've started really formulating what my goals are going to be for next year, and am getting ready to really kick into gear for 2009. Have you been thinking about it yourself? got any big ideas? I'd love to hear em.
All the best everyone!
P~

This and That

Ever been so busy that you don't know if you'll have time to finish anything, and yet when you try to talk (read blog) about it, you really don't have much to say. Well that's me lately.

I spent most of this weekend in the garage working on finishing up the gifts for my boys and also managed to get one built for A~. We decided this year that we wouldn't buy anything for each other but instead would go all home made as far as the two of us. I have to say, I did really good and I think she'll be really happy Christmas morning when she opens it and finds the....well, she does read this blog everyday, I'll have to wait until the 26th to tell you about it.

While I was out checking the chickens yesterday I saw this beautifully delicate little frost-lace on a piece of glass and ran in to take a picture of it.
Life is about stopping to enjoy the miracles after all... what better way that a fleeting piece of natural beauty right?

This little guy (sorry for the blurry photo) was perched on our porch on Friday evening when I got home from work. No too sure he was getting the beauty of it all, but he's more than welcome to keep hiding out on our covered porch as long as he'd like.
A~'s been busy too, check this stuff out! The boys have been asking for that kind of hat for a while so she popped into the store, studied the way the hats were put together and came back and replicated them. I'm telling you they are sooo well made! The kids will love em. (I'm hoping for one too...Hint hint:-)I do have one really awesome piece of news though, and it has to do with the letter below.
That's a letter from out local University extension office announcing the starting date for this years Master Gardener Course. We, A~ and I that is, put our name on the list to be notified when the class was being put together and now we've sent our registration. Starting on the 21st of January we'll be taking the course together twice a week.

This is one of those things that we've both talked about wanting to do for the last five or six years but never had things line up just right. We decided that like most things that are important, if you don't MAKE it a priority, it just never happens. This is a step that we're taking in order to help us get to the next level, both in out own garden, but also in our community. It will help me to offer better information when I teach classes locally, and may lend a little more credibility to other projects that I have in mind as well. More on those to come in the future.

That's about all I've got today. With any luck I can catch up with some of my other writing obligations soon as well.
Till later then...
P~

Thanksgiving was great.

Thanksgiving was great at our place, I hope it was for all of you as well. (At least for those of you in the states.) A~ set a beautiful table as always.She never ceases to amaze me with what she can do with so little. No new decorations, and even the ones that we did use came largely from thrift stores or we've had them for years. One really good idea that I've found that she does is to find and keep things that aren't trendy but rather are just simple, classy and timeless.
I did the turkey again this year and, if I may say so, it was delicious! Cooking Turkeys is one of the few dedicated chores that I've been given with regard to the cooking, so as it nearly always is with specialists, I've gotten pretty good at it. I stuff the bird under the skin and although I don't generally like white meat on chickens or turkeys, cooked this way I do. It literally drips juices.

I'm keeping this short and sweet as I have a little bit "deeper" post to put up in a minute. Hope you all are doing great ans enjoyed time with family. I did, and I'm ready to write some more.

Talk to ya tomorrow.

P~

Weekend Update

I had a great weekend.
I didn't really get an enormous amount of stuff done or anything, but I just had a good time. Saturday, A~ and I dropped the boys off in SLC to visit with some family for the weekend and we just kind of hung out together. It's not at all that I like having the boys gone, but I really enjoy the occasions that she and I get to just be a couple... not "Mom and Dad", you know? We stopped by a couple of our favorite places in town, mosied through a couple of shops, and had some of the best pizza in town! We also made a spontaneous stop at the home of a local blogger that I've gotten to know a bit. We got to meet his family, check out what he's got going on in his garden and talk about our plans for next year. It was the first time I've actually met anyone from online before. I was really pleased with it...(I hope he was too?) Anyway, later that night we got together with a couple of friends, had a couple of beers and BS'd for a while. Like I said, just a relaxing day. No matter how many goals we have, we do have to give ourselves a little time off from time to time don't we?

Sunday was a bit more work filled, with the exclusion of my San Diego Chargers game of course. (Nothing good to mention there!! #*%~$!&^) I moved the compost pile, yeah the one that I just set up a couple of months ago (Make a plan before you do big projects like that people...That's the lesson of the day!), and managed to add some 9 bags of leaves to the bin. I airated and added leaves to the one bin that was already in the process, and filled the second side completely with leaves, grass, coffee grounds and compost. I now have approximately 72 sq feet of compost cooking away for next year!! I am hoping that with what I have going now, and what I am adding to the beds this fall, I won't have to add any outside compost next year. At least not in the back yard gardens.

I also did my weekly coop care and cleaning to keep the birds happy and healthy. Next project on the list is to add onto the coop, for the winter, an outer shell of clear poly. I want to effectively make the outside of the coop like a sort of green house. Their water has been starting to ice over at night from time to time, so it's about time to shift gears again for the winter. I've heard about people actually useing the birds to keep a small greenhouse addition warm through the winter, allowing greens to grown all winter. I'm not sure if that's in the cards, but I am definitely entertaining the thought.

And that, folks, is about it for me. As I said it wasn't the most productive weekend, but it really was an enjoyable one. Hope yours was as well.
P~

Another long weekend

Got quite a bit done. Compost bin has been stocked and is cooking nicely. (I'll show you soon.) Also, the whole composting area has been cleaned and straightened so is much more presentable. I harvested another ten pounds or so from the garden, mostly cucumbers and beans, and A~ put up six more jars of beans and we'll (read: she'll) be putting up more pickles tomorrow. I also managed to get a good bit more work done toward out lawn liberation project for next years expansion.
Of course the weekend wasn't all work, family time is a must and we spent a while at our community center pool on Saturday and watching a little football today. All in all, a good weekend. I'll post more details this week, but for right now...I'm tired.
G'nite!
P~

A little progress, and a failure.

Here's what I started with. Yeah, it was that bad. Even worse actually, I had already started to clean up a little before I took this picture. Those old chicken feed bags are actually full of sawdust and chicken poo that needs to be composted. The old pallets, well, their gonna be the compost pile. At least I was able to work in the shade for a while. I couldn't breathe worth a damn, at least I didn't have to cook in the sun too!

And here, is the end of this afternoon. It shouldn't have taken so long mind you, but it did. I had to take some breaks and catch my breath, and kept getting side tracked. But I think it came out pretty good all in all. Should have good air-flow, and is made out of all recycled materials so it only cost about $1.50 in nails. It started raining pretty hard this afternoon so I got pushed inside, but hopefully I can get the compost piled in there tomorrow and get it "cooking" so it can get mostly done before winter.

The other thing that I did get done was my first attempt at homemade sauerkraut. A~ swears I tried it once before at our last house, but I don't recall it. Who knows? (honestly she's probably right!)
I sliced the cabbage and salted it with some of the homemade Salt Lake Local-Salt that I made not long ago and then packed it into a couple of containers. In total, I used 5 lbs of cabbage and followed a recipe that I found in "The Joy of Pickling". We'll see how it works.
So, two things I wanted to do got done, at least mostly. One however, was a failure. The sourdough no knead bread. I don't think it's the starter, I have great confidence in it. It's just hitting a year old this week as a matter of fact. Having been "born" to our family last September.
I mean take a look at that. Those bubbles are from yeast. Not wild, we tried that and weren't happy with the quality of it, but no doubt influenced by it through it's time exposed to the air during "feedings" such as this one. We generally have sourdough pancakes on Saturdays, and this one, I took an extra cup of starter out to use for the dough.
A close-up of the bubbly goodness that is our "pet", the sourdough start.

At any rate, the dough did leaven to a degree, but I think either I didn't use enough start, or the weather was a little to unsettled and the temperatures too low to really get it to mature as a dough. I didn't waste time with baking it, it would have been a brick, but I'll try again. That's just how it goes doesn't it. We try things, tweak them, learn from our failures and progress. What more could I ask for.
Till next time.
P~

And now...I'm sick.

I was actually sick yesterday too, just barely though, a bit of head congestion. Today, however, I'm like a stuffed bear, with a head full of cotton! Why do these things always come around a weekend, just in time to keep me suffering through the chores that need to be done.

I'm hoping to finish some side-yard clean up this weekend that needs to be done. My compost pile that was very nice last year, is sorely lacking this year. I want to build a proper two compartment one where I can put my bags of chicken manure, and get order to my random piles of greens. The other side-yard task that I need to do is to make a place for my barrel composter. (Which has dried out and needs to be dampened and turned as well.)

I also want to try out another no knead bread recipe with Sourdough. I picked up a recipe from a member of the FreedomGardens.org website and I really want to try it out for my second Campfire-baked bread experiment. And finally, I am going to try out making a bit of sauerkraut from some late season cabbage that I pulled just the other day.

If I get a chance, actually I'll probably have to make a chance just to catch my breath, I wanted to do a little reading in a new book I picked up. It's called "Everything I want to do is illegal: War stories from the local food front" by Joel Salatin of Polyface farm. If you've read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" that name should ring a bell, if you haven't, well, what are you waiting for!

Hope you all have a productive, fun and safe Labor Day weekend (if your in the US, of course).

Grown on!

P~

Local produce, Campfire-Baking and Canning info

This weekend was another busy one. I took Friday off, as I had already met my hours required for the week and we ran errands all day; and I do mean all day! One of the tasks we decided to do was to make a stop by our local you-pick-it farm. They are not an organic farm unfortunately, but I think supporting our local small scale agriculture is more important, not to mention the HUGE savings that we're able to get from it. Check out this haul.Clockwise from the bottom left we got Ancho chilis (to be roasted and frozen for salsas later), jalapenos (also to be roasted and turned magically into chipolte peppers), Yellow wax peppers, Black Beauty eggplants (made ratatouille this afternoon), Green Bell Peppers, Yellow Bells, and Big Jim green chili's (to be steamed and canned for later use.) All together we got two full bushels of veggies. Guess how much? Go on, bet you can't get it?? Twenty bucks total! Ten dollars a bushel of whatever we can get in the box.
We had some shopping to do later that afternoon so we checked on the going prices and we estimate the store value to be approx. $128.00. So if you count the time we put in, which was about an hour total from the time we left the house till we got back, we made a little over $50.00/hr. each. I can live with that!
An observation that A~ and I made to each other while we were there was that there was so much diversity of people there. We saw Asians, Eastern European and of course Mexican families there along with us. Sadly, we were one of only two families of what might be called the UT majority, i.e. non-immigrant whites. I think we have a lot we could learn from some of our immigrant neighbors on this front. I won't get into the issues of legality or immigration policy here because that's not what this blog is about, suffice it to say I have strong opinions. My point here is that these are families that are, generally speaking, on the lower end of the income scale. When we see them doing certain things, like sharing rides, harvesting their own foods and cooking fresh meals and not wasting them, you can bet those are pretty good ideas for someone wanting to live a little more frugally. Our standards of living are, in much of the world, in the top 5 to 10 percent overall. I think this has made us a bit lazy. That's all fine and good in a world of plenty, but I think we can all see that to at least some degree those times are creeping into extinction. Enough on that for this post, you get my point I think.

I alluded to having been inspired by our success with our outdoor Campfire-canning (as I like to call it), and as a matter of fact we did another batch of 4 qts and 1 pint of dill pickles this weekend using that method, what I was talking about was wanting to try my hand at baking some NY Times no-knead bread over the fire.I made sure that since this was a food product that was going to be exposed somewhat directly to the smoke from the fire, to use clean wood and not OSB or other treated woods for this. I burnt down a good deal of coals, and placed our large cast iron stove on them to preheat. After prepping the loaf and coating the bottom with cornmeal (to reduce sticking and allow me to slide it off the cutting board) I dropped it into the pot and placed a few coals on top.
And here's the finished product. You can see that the pot was a little too hot by the thick, blackened bottom, and the little too-dark top crust. All in all though I'd say it wasn't an all out loss. The texture and crumb of the bread was very good. Perhaps a slight bit more undercooked than I'd have liked, but the taste was the best I've made yet. It had a very similar taste to the sourdough pancakes that we eat for Saturday breakfasts. Not necessarily a true sourdough but a very bready taste. I attribute it to the longer time I allowed it to sit before the first forming. For the novice bread bakers out there time equals flavor and that's the real strength of this recipe, it's ability to be slowly made. To help you plan your bread making with this recipe check out my NY Times bread planning scheduler.
And last but not least, for Sandy, a quick bit of wisdom on starting to can. First off we, A~ and I both, are still novice canners. I think the best advice I can give is to not be afraid and to research, research, research. And after you research it thoroughly, respect what you find out. If the recipe calls for 'X' amount of sugar or vinegar or to cook it for 'X' amount of time then add the called for sugar or vinegar and cook it for the right amount of time. Canning your harvest is a great way to preserve your hard work for later enjoyment and it's really nothing to be afraid of with care and attention to detail. One book that A~ and I picked up from the library this year and have really been enjoying is the "Ball Complete book of Home Preserving" (seen below).
I've also read very good things about Balls, "Blue Book of Preserving". You learn about these books or find great resources on their web site as well. Another great resource is Causabons book, a blog with very detailed and concise information on not only canning, but dehydrating, freezing and myriad other food storage and peak oil survival information.
And now that we're up to date on my weekend, how was yours? Hope it was as fun and productive as mine.
Till tomorrow.
P~

Back in town and "good neighbor" apricots

Hi again, I'm back!! Actually in the interest of full disclosure I've been back since Thursday but have been trying to get caught up with things and honestly just taking a little bit of "me time". I was getting a bit burned out toward the beginning of last week and just needed to catch up and relax a bit. A~ and I had an opportunity for a free trip out to our favorite local vacation area on Wednesday so we took advantage of it and spent some quality time together. I wanted to let everyone that took the time to comment on my last post. I had noticed a marked increase in people stopping by, and I guess I was just curious about what's bringing folks over here. I appreciate you humoring me.

Now, what's this about "good neighbor" apricots? It's a long story...here goes.
A while back I posted about a missed opportunity to meet a new neighbor. I ignored the chances that I may have had to meet her, but lucky for me I'm able to learn from my mistakes.
This Friday A~ and I were walking around the block again and as we came around the corner to where our neighbor had lived, she's moved now, and found a couple of her next door neighbors out enjoying the "fruits of her labors". The raspberries on the side of the house were ripening and they were gathering them up so I decided to not miss another opportunity and stopped by. We met a woman from next door and another from across the street. I don't know that I would have met either of them if I hadn't stopped by. We talked gardens for a while; one of the ladies desperately wants to claim a few of the raspberry canes for starts for her house but says that her husband has "issues with growing food in their back yard" and that it's "white trash". Too bad for her, hopefully she can pirate some of the canes and maybe claim they threw long shoots over there.
The other neighbor was really nice too. She grew up in farming country north of here and wishes she had a garden in her yard now. Sounds to me like I have my work cut out for me...*smile*.
After the pleasantries were passed, we noticed that the "good neighbor" (yeah Phelan I stole your term. It just seemed too good not too.) had some neglected apricots in her backyard and well, now that she had moved on, I felt duty bound to take care of them for her. So this weekend we harvested 9 lbs of apricots from her back yard. It's not the first time we've taken advantage of free fruit but that's another whole post in and of itself. You should have seen the boys though, they've really been trained well. One word about free fruit and they were into action; one ran home to grab a couple of old plastic bags and the other two just started picking. I think I only had to pick f or ten myself.
So what to do with all of those free apricots? More to come on that soon so stay tuned.

Oh yeah, and I have a really really special announcement for you all around the end of next week. This is just a teaser though, you'll have to wait a little while for more.

P~

An EGG-cellent Saturday

Guess what showed up this morning??? OK, OK, you twisted my arm, I'll give you a clue.
Yep, that's right.. who's your farmer now huh? ~LOL~ I half thought someone was playing a joke on me, but in the end, I guess Laura at (not so)Urban Hennery was right all along. It's just one of those things that happens when it happens. So now, I guess I just keep my eyes open and see if the others start to lay. Anyone know, do chickens lay sporadically at first or pretty regularly? I guess I'll find our when I find out.

This afternoon we spent a great day together as a family. We headed up to Logan UT to the American West Heritage Center and had a blast.

The center has a very cool 1917 era homestead set up that, unlike other similar museums, encourages you to touch and try things out. We were amazed that in the heat of the day with a wood fire place baking cookies, (which were very good by the way.) the home was surprisingly comfortable. Really it was not much different from our own homes average temperature. Later we stepped into a earthen root cellar and a dug-out earth sheltered pioneer home and found the same to be true. I am consistently amazed at how functional some of the old techniques for doing things are and how they really do work. The boys loved holding the chickens, avoiding the gigantic roosters, and petting the goats. I don't know where they get it, but they seem to have an odd rural streak in them? Perhaps one day we'll make the move that'll allow them to have some of these animals of their own. Until then, we'll just be checking our own little coop and looking for breakfast, then checking the garden and figuring out what's for lunch,

Hope you all have a great weekend too. See you on Monday!

P~

Family time Monday

This Monday, Memorial day, it rained all day long. Par for the course this spring I'm afraid, luckily we had no major plans for the day, other than maybe wrapping up a few things in the yard. With those plans promptly scrapped we basically just spent the day in the house. The boys cousin had spent the night on Sunday night, so they played downstairs in playroom. Meanwhile, A~ was putting together a fantastic dining experience for us that night. That afternoon, after the cousin had left, we headed down to the home theater to screen the National Treasure II that we recently picked up, then upstairs for dinner.
And what was the "fantastic dining experience" of which I spoke? Fondue night!! We've talked about having one of these for years. We have the pots, we just never use them.?! A~ put together a some salads to eat, and breads to dunk and we all had a blast. Then for dessert, a must have at any decent family night, we had chocolate fondue with strawberries, shortcake and bananas complimented with roasted marshmallows for s'mores over a Sterno. Was it a local meal? No. Was it something that will bring my family closer together and that we'll remember? Yes, and that's the point. It was a great night, and a very good weekend. I hope yours was as well.
P~

Welcome and Action

Hey all, just wanted to take a second to say welcome to all the visitors that seem to be dropping in from Farm Mom's Blog, and to thank her for her support with my "Walk the Walk" campaign. I've been really starting to feel more and more that I need to get involved with the things that I want to see around me. I'm sure most of us have heard the famous quote from Gandhi that goes:

"Be the change that you want to see in the world."

If not, well you heard it here first. When you really think about it though, it is no less than a call to action, of some sort anyway. It don't think it necessarily means to go out and protest, or to be an activist. In fact to some degree that would almost be the antithesis of what he was saying. "Be the change..." not "affect the change..." was the call wasn't it? Yet then again, if we don't begin to take the actions that we believe should be taken, they may never be taken at all. (The "Someone else will do it" syndrome.) One of the reasons that I decided to try to get others involved in the issue that I have with Walmart is because it is a change that I would like to see happen. That and the fact that I know no matter how many letters I write to them, without many other voices, I will not be loud enough to be heard. I guess I am, to some degree, trying to "Be the catalyst of the change that I want to see..."

I have also begun another project this week that I really can't give to many details on. Not so much because it is confidential as it is not set in stone yet and I really don't know what the finished project will end up looking like. What am I talking about? Teaching. Or more to the point, sharing what I have experienced and learned with others in an effort to educate and hopefully inspire them. As I have grown in my experience with my garden and food production and urban chicken raising, I have hoped to get others in my neighborhood inspired to do the same and have actually made some strides on that front as a matter of fact. I've had a couple of neighbors that have decided to expand or modify their garden or gardening techniques to match the ones that I am doing, I am regularly asked about what I'm planting right now, or when they can start their tomatoes. I've kind of started to become that "garden guy" on the corner. So I decided, since it's something I LOVE to talk about anyway, that I would work with the local city to offer some basic FREE classes about growing small scale food plots or "Freedom Gardens" in our suburban lots.

I think that the time is ripe for people want to learn more about how they can begin to become more self sufficient on their own land. The higher food prices are not going to go down drastically, and more and more people are beginning to be more aware of the things that they feed their families. This is the type of change I hope to see in the world. People being responsible for their own sustenance to the degree that they can. Neighborhoods growing food and friendships and becoming more sustainable and prepared for future changes. If you have stories about the things you've started to do, I want to hear about them. Have suggestions for me? Fire away.

Hope you all have a great Weekend. I'll just be sitting around getting older, but more on that later.

P~

Happy Easter

I just wanted to take a minute to wish all of you reading, a happy Easter. I'll be going to church with my family tomorrow, and then spending time around the house, working in the yard, planting some sprouts and trying to finalize my chicken coop plans. I hope you all enjoy a wonderful day with your families and loved ones and that the spring sun shines on you all day.

Till tomorrow.

P~

This and That

I was thinking about what I wanted to post today, and as things are a bit slow, I thought I would give you a little bit of "This and That".

When I introduced you to our new house hens the other day I was going to show and tell about the setup I'm using for my brooder for those out there who might be wondering or are looking into getting some birds of their own but didn't have time or the room for it. Basically what you have here is your standard re-purposed Dell computer box from the office. I took a piece of scrap PVC and made it into a cross beam to hang a 150 watt heat lamp from. The Chicks need to have an approximately 95°F temperature. I hung the lamp about 18inches above the floor of the brooder and the chicks love it. So much so in fact, that when we turn the light off for more than about ten minutes (Which we were instructed to do by my new book 'Living with Chickens' that my wife got for me and I love!) they gradually start to chirp and squeal louder and louder until they are down right vociferous. So what happens when the light goes back on? Well, then it's lights out for the girls. They suddenly quiet down, take a couple gulps of food and water, and then crash, they're out cold for a nap; obviously exhausted from all the commotion.

In other developments, I can finally see my yard. Well, at least part of it. Somewhere around the end of November or the first week of December '07 I lost my yard. Literally! And I didn't see it again until last week when the current melt off began.

Now I can see at least a third of my garden beds, and a good 3/4 of the back yard. So, Pro's and Con's? First of all, it's great to see a little ground in the back, and Lord knows A~ and I are both tired of shoveling snow! Those are Pro's for sure. But now I'm starting to smell spring in the air. It's not here yet, but it's around the corner. This means I'll get hit with spring fever any time now, and yet not be able to get out and work the ground. That and the fact that we'll soon be in the season here where we could potentially have to shovel our driveway, and mow our lawn in the same week. Definitely a Con!

Also, I've updated my to-do list with some Spring items that I need to take on. This weekend, I hope to finish getting the bookcases into the basement, perhaps not stocked with stuff yet, but down there nonetheless.

Till next time!

P~

Pretty slow

Yeah, it's looking like it's gonna be a pretty slow weekend around here. I have basically finished the molding and finish work that I needed to do to our stairs and most of the de-cluttering work has been done for now.
Tomorrow, I'll spend a while drafting out some plans for the new "Library" that we plan to make out of our last basement room that needs finishing. It's a small area right at the bottom of our stairs that has no windows, so it can never be a bedroom, and has doors to the furnace and the cold storage room coming off of it. As I said we plan to build some shelves and cabinets for storage of our books that have been living in boxes and corners for the last three 1/2 years as well as board games and stationary. I need to design the components out fairly detailed to that I can have the hardware store make the big cuts on the 4x8 sheets for me so that they are straight.
Sunday, my wife and I have planned a trip out to Wendover NV for our annual anniversary weekend away. It's really the closest and funnest place to go that's not too long of a drive from home, and it has become our tradition for the last 6 yrs. Of course it's supposed to snow on both Sunday and Monday this weekend so it ought to be an interesting drive on the way out and back.
We're heading out early this year too so that I can be there in time to cheer for my S.D. Chargers to beat the undefeated N.E. Patriots! (Hey! I wouldn't be a real fan if I didn't hold out hope you know.)
I think we'll head down to our theater this weekend and spend a bunch of time with the boys watching some movies too, since we always end up missing them so much when we're gone.
All in all it should be a real nice weekend. I hope you all have a great one.
P~

Finally got some work done

I got out into the yard again today to get working on the garden area and here it is. I pulled almost all of the plants from the garden during the week to get ready for today so that I could concentrate of getting the work done, or nearly so.

You may remember a list that I posted a little while back with so much to do and so little time; I thought I'd update you to the progress. I know it helps me to see others posting their goals and how they go about accomplishing them, perhaps I can inspire one of you.

• Pull the summer veggies that are now, thanks to an early and hard fall, dieing.
Check. I pulled all the squash, pepper, tomato and other plants that were still left in the garden beds.

• Pull the annuals from the front beds.
Check. Petunias and other annuals pulled, potted plants pulled and soil sifted to remove roots. Next spring I'll add some fresh compost and vermiculite to re-energize it and get it ready for a new planting.

• Dig out, split and replant the Rhubarb so we can have more next year.
Check. Look at this thing! I thought it looked like some kind of strange alien life form, I know, time to lay off the star trek huh? I dug out carefully around the outside of the crown and root ball. For those of you that are not familiar with it, the crown of a plant like rhubarb or strawberries is that area at the top of the root ball that sits generally at the soil level. It is where all the growth of the plant comes from. After I had dug out the whole plant, I used a flat shovel to split the crown into three pieces each of which a bit of rootstock still attached. I gave one to a neighbor that was interested in growing some of her own. The two I kept were added to part of the new area of garden that A~ and I cleared out last weekend, right between where my raspberries and strawberries are growing, I thing I'll call that the pie stretch of garden from now on.

• Decide which large perennials we will leave where they are and which we will move and then actually move them.
Check. A~ and I got this done last weekend, and opened up a good sized area of our back planting area for future gardening. We've decided that the front is largely for show and the back is for food. Works for me.

• Cut up and consolidate all of the pulled greens from the garden for composting.
Check. I also collected the bagged grass from the last lawn mowing (yeah our lawn is done for the season.) I've found that our gas lawn mower works great as a garden waste compost prep device. That's a really technical geeky way of saying that I can chop the heck out of all the greens and browns collected in the garden before adding them to the compost pile. This makes the breakdown of the compost go much faster and the finished product much finer. Speaking of compost, My wife thinks I may have become a little, well, let's just say she says I've gone a little overboard when I referred to this area of the yard as "Compost Central". You can see behind the bags of grass clippings that I've added an area for an actual pile to sit over winter. I haven't added all the clippings and greens yet, I need to get some straw to make sure I get adequate carbon to nitrogen mixture and that I have enough room for air movement. This is what keeps the pile from smelling and gets it hot, helping it to break down quicker.

• Prune, thin and support the raspberries and strawberries.
Yes, check. I finally got around to doing this. This year my strawberries really went crazy. I got a decent amount of berries from the small patch (4' x 5') that I had last year. Then after harvest, they began to drop runners and new growth. Whoa, they spread like fire. I pulled a good bit of the old growth to allow the new plants to come up better and thin the patch. I also made a distinct edge to the spreading patch. final size of the patch is about 4' x 8'. Not quite twice the size, but with the thinning and some care, I hope to get nearly twice the harvest next year. As for the raspberries, I learned this year that raspberries will only fruit on the second year growth but not thereafter; I cut out the two year old growth and strung up and supported the one year old growth, hopefully I can get my two plantings on the same schedule from here on out. Last year one of them gave a lot of fruit, this year the other did; if I can get them both producing together I'll be a happy sorbet eating man!

• Weed some of the bad areas of the yard to get a head start on next year.
This part is an on going project. I am trying to get a handle on weeds overall, the grass looks good, but I still have to weed and till the new garden areas before winter sets in.

I hope your garden chores are coming along. This is that time of the year when it is so easy to neglect the garden, but at the same time is one of the most important times for prepping and putting the earth to sleep before winter. I'm really pleased with my progress so far this year. I spent much of the spring this year going through the beds and getting them ready for planting. I hope to be able to get seed in the ground much earlier next year and enjoy a greater and earlier harvest. Don't throw in the trowel yet, there's work to do. (Yeah I stole that line from Mother Earth News, it was just to perfect I had too. LOL)

Namaste
P~

Spammers, Weather, Flooring, Football

Well, I guess I could take it as a compliment to my literary prowess; confirmation of the high degree of useful and informative topics I have so expertly handled that has drawn the spammers. But really, how could they not come. I really don't want to use the post validation that I know a lot of you fellow bloggers have moved to. Not to say that it bothers me to have to maneuver though them myself, but I just don't like them. So for the time being, if you see any funky comments in any of the sections of my site, please do me the favor of letting me know, or at the least ignore them till I have a chance to delete it. (Unless of course, you are looking for a new sea-side condo in Costa Rica?)


On the weather front - It's another weekend of rain here and snow in the mountains. Fall fell hard this year. It is the 6th of October and we've had snow in the mountains three times already, and once in the valley.

Flooring update - A~ and I spent the entire day sanding the floors today. I mean literally the whole day. We rented the sander at 9:30 am, and stopped for the night at 10:30 pm. It was a long day but I have to say that I am sooo happy with the way that it is coming along. I will post pics of the finished sanded flooring tomorrow. We will be doing the final prep work for the top finish tomorrow, and will be trying to get it finished up on Monday.

Chargers play the Broncos tomorrow. Go Bolts!!
P~

Volunteering.

I went to a meeting tonight at “The Green Building Center” of Salt Lake, I've mentioned this store before when I was talking about different floor finishing options. Next weekend they are hosting a Green Homes Tour throughout the Salt Lake Valley and Park City. The project is the brain child of Ashley Patterson, owner of the GreenBuilding Center, and will highlight a lot of the different possibilities with regard to green home building and sustainable living. The meeting I went to was for volunteers for the tour. A freind of mine and I will be volunteering at one of the locations for 3 hrs that afternoon. Green Building options and alternative energy are a couple of things that I am really very passionate about. As of right now, there is only so many things that I am able to do in my own home, but I want to help share the knowledge that I have with others and learn from them as well. I think that the whole experience will be a real blast, and of course you know there will be a full review and lots of pics when I'm done. Hope you are all doing well. Till later.
P~

You can read more here.

P.S. I saw that I was tapped by Anandadevika to share some random thoughts about myself and to tap others. The thoughts are easy enough, but I need to figure out who too tap. I'll post later with more.