BIG NEWS!!!

I can now make the announcement I've been waiting months to shout from the rooftops...

WE'RE MOVING !!!

Yes, we're finally moving out to the country. Well, bush, actually. In three short months, our new home will be in the wilds of Northern Ontario where we'll be raising chickens, growing as much food as we can, and helping my folks with anything that needs doing. We expect it will be a lot of work, but we're up for it.
I can't express to you how much I'm looking forward to sharing our adventures with you. I can finally experiment with growing pumpkins and watermelon, I can finally start to think seriously about stream development and water collection, building a chicken tractor and enjoying "home-grown" eggs once again.

I'm excited, but the job of getting four people and a dog packed in 102 days is a bit overwhelming!

So the posts here may get a bit shorter, they may not, but they'll never be boring, I'm sure!

Betcha Didn't Know...

Did you know we now have a poll here in the Urban Trench? That's right, down a little bit on the right hand side of this page.
I'd be grateful if you'd go and vote, wether you've commented here or just lurk. Your input means a lot, and I look forward to seeing comments. Barring that, I'd be very interested in seeing the results of the poll.
I'll be back tomorrow with a better, longer, update.
Have a great day!

A Technology Suggestion

It's a busy day around here, but I came across a blog entry on Prepping To Survive called "Depending On Technology" that I thought was a great post. I wholeheartedly suggest you read it. I know I learned something, and I hope you do too.
I hope to have more for you tonight. Until then, be productive, be safe!

One Last Argument For Food Control

As a part of this series on food, and my arguments for taking control of it back, I'd like to give you something else to think about, something to "chew on" as my Grandfather would have said. The food guides of both the U.S and Canada recommend certain serving sizes of fruits and vegetables, meats, grains and so on for optimum heath, right? Not many of us really try very hard to achieve those culinary goals, but some do. It takes some creativity to eat anywhere close to those food guides, and if you have a picky eater in the family, then you REALLY have your work cut out for you! But some of you may be surprised to find those fruits and vegetables we've been told to eat are NOT as healthy as we've been allowed to believe. Now before you splutter in protest, hear me out. In 1963, the USDA, or United States Department of Agriculture released a collection of nutrients found in all sorts of foods tested. In 2001 they updated their information as certain foods had been tested again. This is pretty much an ongoing process.
(If you're feeling especially brave, you can try and slog through all the government-speak and data yourself Nutritive Value of Foods) But to share just a small part of a near-overwhelming amount of information, our veggies ain't what they used to be.

From 1963 to 2000 the common field tomato has changed.  It is no longer a bastion of vitamin C. In fact, the tomatoes level of vitamin C have fallen by an alarming 41.66%, it's vitamin A has dropped by 29.75%, the calcium so important for our bones has dropped 33.3%, the potassium has fallen 3.5% and magnesium has plummeted 22.91%. Due to information laws, the U.S government isn't trying to hide this information, but I went looking and let me tell you, it's not easy to find either!

I find it a little disturbing that the National Academy of Sciences has issued a statement saying it now takes twice as many vegetables to get our daily requirement of vitamin A as it did before. But how many people know that? Did you see it in the news? I didn't. Neither your government nor mine want us to know about this, because then a good many of us would get upset and start demanding answers. They don't really want to be put on the hot-seat, so they don't make the information easy to find. They don't want you to know that vitamin A and calcium have plummeted by almost 50% in that serving of broccoli they say you should eat. Cauliflower isn't much better. It has nearly 50% less vitamin C, thiamin and riboflavin. That's why our breads are all enriched. The food manufacturers are trying to make us think they're looking out for us, but really, they're only putting back what our other foods are lacking!
 
This isn't news, I've written about this before.  Who Killed My Tomato? This is an issue that has some far reaching consequences. If your daily intake of vegetables is less than you should be eating, and the vegetables themselves are lacking vitamins, then how many nutrients are you really getting? Less than you think. You aren't going to start eating twice what the recommended value is if you weren't eating enough veggies in the first place. So you just go on with your life, wonder about it occasionally and carry on as best you can. There's no shame in this, most of us do this. But I'm calling on you today to do something different. Start asking questions. Go to the library or the internet, or both, and start reading all you can find on nutrients in your food. Find out how the food is grown, harvested, processed and shipped. Ask more questions. No question is too stupid. As hard as it may be, watch the Food Inc. video, or borrow the book. Read it. Try not to throw it against a wall when you become educated and enraged. And you will. As one good friend says, let me set your expectations early. You will not like what you learn. You will be appalled at how your food is raised, grown, prepared and shipped. You will be disgusted when you find out how your roasted chicken lived and died. You may swear, cry and throw up. I know one person who did.

But we all need to take this uncomfortable and painful journey. Going vegetarian is not the answer unless you need to be for health reasons. But if that is your reality, you'll need to know this information all the more. We all need to know what we're eating and how it becomes our food. We need to know the good with the bad. We need to know about the people that make it our food. There are some horrible labor practices that accompany that bag of apples you bought from the grocery store. We need to know about that too, because every time we remain silent, we allow those practices to continue. Practices such as

• Working 12 to 15 hours without overtime or holiday pay
• Denial of necessary breaks
• Use of dangerous chemicals/pesticides with no safety equipment, protection or training
• Unfair paycheque deductions for EI and other services in cases where workers get little or nothing in return

That's just the tip of the iceberg. That's not some foreign, visually oppressed country, either. That happens in Canada and the U.S too.

So, over the past few days, I've offered a lot of reasons why we should take back control over our food. The next step is to DO IT. Do it politically with our votes, letter writing, making sure the food producers understand we want change. send the message with our money, with our voices and with every resource legally at our disposal. Do it with our actions by putting our money where our mouths are. A part of this includes learning how to access food that is raised humanely, sensibly and with care. Part of the solution is more education, at least in WHO to fight and why. Another part of the solution is to learn how to take back control by learning how to grow, raise and process our own food.

It's all going to be a long, bumpy ride, but I promise you, it's worth it. You'll feel empowered, educated, more satisfied and less worried about what we're feeding our families and each other. Are you ready?

An Argument For Food

I've written here before about the declining to almost non-existent nutritional value of our food.  I've gone on at great length about the declining taste in our food, and my theory that this declining taste is the reason so many use so much salt. (Even if you cut back on the salt at home, have you read the sodium levels of "convenience food"? It's enough to make me stop eating at work!!) Yesterday I wrote about the need to go back to growing our own food. Not just for control over our own food, but also to control what we put into our bodies. Sodium is only a part of that. All this really started for me when a co-worker became pregnant and had to start watching how much sodium, caffeine and sugar she ingested. She was near-rabid about it, and the topic of nutrients came up repeatedly at work. Before long, we were all looking at those nutrient labels, and we were all appalled. In one submarine sandwich, there was 115% of the daily recommended allowance of sodium! In one sandwich! In a frozen, throw-it-in-the-microwave-and-zap-it meal there sodium levels ranged anywhere from 25% to 80%, depending on the producer. The conversations turned then to what we can do about this.

I've always said we need to express our wishes with our money, and this is no exception. Don't buy the frozen, high fat, high sodium meals. Bring your own lunch from home. Include in that lunch more fruit, more vegetables, more water, more juice. Last night's leftovers, maybe you made apple muffins or cookies, or your soup you made from scratch. Make your own submarine sandwiches, wraps are so versatile it's hard to get bored, roasted vegetables are always a treat. I know one industrious soul who makes her own bread bowls and somehow manages to fill them with stew and take them to work without making a mess. I'm not that talented, but I eat from home as best I can. Meatloaf, barbeque chicken, homemade biscuits and gravy, soups, stew, wraps, cookies...whatever we have available. Even homemade mac & cheese. Ever look at the nutrition label on a box of KD? I love cheese, even though I shouldn't have much of it. When I get the yearning for smooth, melty macaroni and cheese, 90% of the time, we make it at home. Very little, if none, sodium. There's no mysterious powder to wonder about, and I'm the envy of my co-workers. Even an ordinary sandwich can be livened up with a handful of clover sprouts that you grew. Full of vitamins, minerals and sunshine, those sprouts can take a sandwich from boring to cool in only a few days. The best part is that you don't need a southern exposure to grow them, either.

No matter how we grow our own food, controlling what we put into our bodies will have profound effects. More nutritious food, allowed to ripen in the sun if possible and not picked green, builds better bodies. When we started down this footpath of better health, I didn't notice anything at first. I didn't notice more energy or better skin or anything of that sort. But let me go on record right now as saying we're not perfect. We slipped a few times. It's cheaper to buy crap-food, I'll admit, and we've all done it. After a little while of nipping out for lunch, a few days of not having herbal tea but Coke and Pepsi instead and not paying attention to what I was putting in my body, I was draggin' ass. I was tired all the time, I had no get up and go, no zip, no pep. I wasn't interested in anything, couldn't concentrate... you get the idea. I suspected there might be a link. (Feel free to roll your eyes here) So I went back to drinking more herbal tea, more water and eating fruit and yogurt more often. I found I needed to nap less (I work late into the night, so my sleep schedule is already compromised), it was a little easier to concentrate at work and I wanted to walk more. As a side benefit, I was having fewer asthma attacks. Coincidence? I think not.

So, in conclusion, taking back control of our food, how it's grown and processed and how we eat it is all within our best interests. Better health is something we're all entitled to, no matter what country we live in, our economic situation, or our family dynamic. I firmly believe that decades of nutrient deficient food has made us sicker, weaker and less vital. We can start reclaiming our health one meal at a time, one ingredient at a time, one person at a time. If you can't grow your own tomatoes because you face north and get no sun, like me, look into sprouts. They're the easiest green to grow ever. If you are able, start buying at Farmer's markets. Not only can you actually speak to the person who grows your food, but you'll be supporting local growers and producers. If you want a local food system, help create one. We need to take back control over our food, take back control over our health and in such uncertain times, every little bit of reclaimed control makes us stronger.

Tomorrow, a look at using food stamps in the U.S for seeds and food producing plants! (Thanks to Jacqueline for the heads up!)

An Argument For Tomatoes

There was a prediction made by John Hamaker that by the year 1995, the temperate zone would become a subarctic zone, and the world would have lost it's food supply. The year that "Survival of Civilization" was written, the author stated that "the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is man's most urgent problem".

I disagree.

In my opinion, whatever that is worth, feeding people is man's most urgent problem. Feed the hungry, stop the famine and THEN tackle the air. I'm not just referring to the Sudan or the refugee camps in some far off country, but our own countries first. I think that it was quite noble of George Clooney to get himself arrested, it's admirable that he has been fighting for a long time to draw attention to a horrendous problem. He, and Angelina Jolie and all the other celebrities who use their fame for the right ideals are to be applauded. Now we must follow their example, in this one thing at least. But with so many hungry mouths to feed, how do we even begin to start? We start at the bottom, one family at a time. Obviously a Sudanese village will face different challenges than Terra Haute, Indiana, but the solution lies in each of us. The answer to feeding the hungry is multi-layered and yet simple.

We must learn to feed ourselves.

Nourish our neighbors and re-prioritize how we use our green spaces. Those of us who already know a little something about growing food should be allowed to. Scrap ridiculous neighborhood association rules that forbid anything except manicured, chemical-riddled lawn. It makes no sense to sanitize the soil until it cannot support even an earthworm, while there are children going to school hungry. It makes no sense at all to prosecute someone who wants to quietly grow vegetables among their roses and marigolds. while these would be vegetable growers are held captive by obtuse and inane rules, food banks are overwhelmed with need. Children go to bed hungry because they did not get enough to eat at dinner. Some pregnant women live on one meal a day so that their families can have more and even in Canada we have people that choose not to eat so that they can make their groceries stretch further. This is wrong on so many levels.

We must learn to feed ourselves.

We must grow tomatoes among the marigolds and tuck carrots between the pea plants. We must reach out and find people with fruit trees that do not use all their fruit, and encourage them not to waste but to donate it. We must encourage our politicians to pass legislation that encourages people to grow food. Whether that be on a city level, provincial, state or even at the village level. Much like the American government did during WW 2, we need every citizen that is capable to grow food. Not because we are in a world wide conflict, although that day is not far off, but because we are in a war against hunger in our neighbors.. There is a program called Grow A Row in which gardeners are encouraged to grow a row of vegetables to donate to their local food bank. I love the idea of donating fresh vegetables to people who all too often are the recipients of outdated, empty calorie food. I've been there and done that, and I can't properly express what a bundle of bright green broccoli or a bunch of crisp orange carrots can do for someone's morale.

The financially challenged among us are some of the most vulnerable in our communities. Often malnourished, frequently ill and the most powerless, it is for these people we need to grow food. We must not only learn to feed ourselves, but our neighbors as well. For us, for our neighbors, for our country and for the sake of humanity. But that's only one perspective. Tomorrow, another rationale for why we should grow as much as we can.

Beat The Flood! Take That Power Outage!

Do you still have spring in your neck of the woods? Or maybe it feels more like summer? We're still enjoying mild spring here, and while there is a part of me that is worrying about August, I love being able to be warm in these last few days of March. All winter, I've been doing research into extending my growing season; both being able to start early and finish late, and have the veggies survive this. The other day it occurred to me that if we're this mild now, what about August? Some veggies bolt in heat, so then I began to wonder if I shouldn't be looking at ways to keep my veggies from baking in the ground! We're getting pretty good at thinking outside the box around here, and we certainly can't afford rows and rows of shade cloth, as much as I'd like to. So on a walk one day, I got to wondering what could be acquired inexpensively for a person such as myself, who is trying to provide relief for hot plants.

In every thrift store I see sheer curtains. I myself have gotten rid of a few in my time. But I wonder now if they might be sewn together, even by hand, and then rigged into some fashion of row cover. A frame could be built fairly easily from small saplings, cast off branches or the like and then the homemade row cover applied over top. But how to keep those sheers where you want them, and not off  into the next yard or the swamp? Hose, cut into 4 or 6" lengths, and then split lengthwise, can be used as a poor mans clamp. Again, there are lots of thrift stores out there that may have hose, or even something similar that sparks your imagination. Think outside the box. Think repurposing. Think, 'how can I use this to keep it out of the dump?'
Now I'm not proposing you become a pack-rat, just start thinking of the things you see in a new way. The more we can keep out of our dumps and landfills, the more we can use what's already been manufactured, the more money we'll save.

What kind of spring weather do you have where you are? Is your area susceptible to violent spring thunderstorms? Does your area flood frequently? Are you  at the mercy of road traffic? Do you have frequent power outages? Now might be a good time to go poke through your cupboards. Go ahead, I'll wait.

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Ok, now that you've done that, ask yourself, 'if I was cut off from the grocery store, would I be able to eat for three days?' Think about what you like to eat. Do you eat out more than at home? Do you excel at box meals that require only a microwave? Let's think outside that box for a moment. Even hamburger helper can be broken down. It requires meat, ok, but the price of beef is going up, we don't want to break the bank cooking at home. Do you have access to ground chicken? You can mix ground chicken and ground beef, or use only ground chicken if you'd like. There's very little taste difference anyway, at least with store bought meat. So you have meat, now think about your favorite pasta. Egg noodles? Scoobi pasta? Elbows? Bow ties? Whatever your favorite, that's the one you want to get. Next, you want to get a can or two of your favorite vegetables. Peas, carrots, corn, okra, beans...whatever your favorite veggie is can be dropped into your special dish. Don't forget to get a manual can opener! An electric one won't do much good if your in the grip of a four hour long power failure and you're hungry! So that's one idea for dinner. But what if you live in an apartment, like me, and when the power goes off, your stove won't work? That's a whole new level of creativity. Can you operate a small camping stove out on your balcony or patio? Do you have a barbeque? You'll want to make sure you have an alternate way to cook or reheat your food.

What about water? Let's say you need a gallon a day for drinking. Add a bit more for washing, even just what we call a bird bath. (Wet washcloth, scrub any potentially stinky areas). Do you have pets? Add some water for them too. I still find it outrageous that a lot of folks pay hard earned money for something that falls from the sky. Rarely will you ever see me buying bottled water. Save your milk jugs, pop bottles, juice jugs or whathaveyou. The bigger, the better. Rinse them out well, remove the labels if you can and put a capful of regular home-use bleach into the jug/bottle. Not the lemony kind of bleach, mind you, just regular, run of the mill bleach. Fill the container with warm water, the warmer the better, and give it all a swirl. Put the cap back on, turn the vessel upside down to make sure the upper parts are disinfected too. Dump that out, maybe your toilet can use the added clean, and rinse the vessel very well with repeated fillings and rinses of water. If you don't mind your tap water, you can fill your jug or bottle with that. We use a water jug with a built in filter here (which reminds me, I need to get a replacement filter for it), and I fill our jugs and bottles from the filtered water. I date the bottles with permanent marker and set it side somewhere out of the way. I doubt I have enough to last a month, but I know we'd all have enough water to last a week anyway.

So now, in theory, you've thought about food, water and a way to heat that food. You might want to invest in some candles for light too. There are a gazillion choices out there, from the scented variety to the basic emergency style. No matter which you get, always think about candle safety. Make sure those candles aren't tippable. If flashlights are more your style, there are plenty of sturdy LED flashlights and lanterns out there. Next time you're shopping or mall crawling, wander through a store that has sports equipment or camping equipment. Keep a thought for quality and safety, always. There are so many choices out there, you don't have to compromise safety or cost for quality.

I hope all this has gotten you thinking about how to beat your next power outage, wash out, flood or whatever might put a crimp in your daily life. It never hurts to be ready for anything that might come our way.

SPRING! IT HAS SPRUNG!!!

I love spring. It holds so much promise, so much potential. We can shed winter layers, dig out our running shoes and light weight jackets and finally get out into the warm sun again. Having said all that, I acknowledge, we've not had a "normal" winter round these parts. There's not been the 8 feet of snow I got to play in as a child. No day after day of bone numbing blizzards that hid your hand at the end of your arm. We even got lucky with no major round of flu or colds. (Knock on wood)

Yay for spring! I've been trying to grow little things all winter. Some have grown, some not.  A couple of green things surprised me this week, but more on that in a little bit. Last night I was following agricultural links and I found myself at a new-to-me site, the National Agriculture Library.  Following link after link, I eventually found a large collection of images that the American government used during World Wars 1 and 2 to inspire it's citizenry to grow gardens and preserve their bounty. I also found a collection of seed catalogue covers  dating from the early 1800's to  the Great Depression. I was pretty excited about this, and I'll be showing some of those posters and seed catalogue covers off here  over the next little bit. The one I shared today is from the Farmer Seed Co.  in 1907. Some of these seed companies featured some amazing artwork! Of farming importance in 1907, from The History of Canada Online,
"In the early 1900s, Charles Saunders, a plant breeder apppointed "Dominion Cerealist", worked rigorously to strain crosses of rust resistant Red Fife and Hard Red Calcutta wheat. In 1907 he tested a new frost-resistant strain he called Marquis at Indian Head, Saskatchewan. It matured much faster than Red Fife, and the shorter growing season meant farmers could grow the more valuable grain farther north. By 1910, over 2000 local farmers in were growing wheat where it not had been grown before. Marquis proved to be a sensation, and the Canadian wheat harvest soon tripled. By 1920, 90% of the entire Prairie wheat crop was Marquis. Farmers opened up thousands more hectares of land, and new mechanical tractors and threshers boosted production further."

The Cyclopedia of American Agriculture in 1907 lists pumpkins as stock feed, and advises,
"The best farmer is not the one who knows the most "science," but the one who is best able to organize the facts and the business into a harmonious system or plan.  The principles that underlie such organization are now beginning to be apprehended, and we think we see the possibilities of a sound farm philosophy, with wise generalizations from the mass of rapidly accumulating facts and practices.  Farm management will be a fertile subject for writers in the years to come. The basis of farm organization is the cropping plan or the crop management.  On this project or scheme rests the maintenance of fertility and consequently of productiveness, the subsistence of livestock, the economy of labor, the type of business."

They knew even then that the farm was a collection of systems. Smart.

The Cyclopedia continues on about crop rotation,
"A rotation of crops can be so planned as to maintain the supply of humus in the soil.  This humus, coming from the decay of organic matter, adds to the plant-food content of the soil and, what is usually more important, exerts a great influence in securing a proper physical texture of the land.  The Bureau of Soils recently asserts that the chief value of humus is to cleanse the soil of toxic excreta.  The humus is chiefly supplied by the grass crops and clover crops in rotation.  The practice of "green-manuring" rests chiefly on the need of supplying humus.  Green-manure crops are those that are grown for the special purpose of being turned under, root and top, and are not usually a difinite part of the rotation; but, so far as it goes, the root-and-stubble part of similar crops employed in the rotation answers the same purpose." (Spelling mistakes theirs, not mine)

There's a lot to learn about agriculture from the old manuals.

This week, I germinated sunflower seeds, and they're actually growing! Yipee! Of the six peas I started, I thought I was going to lose them all, but three of them decided not to give up the ghost. On The Apartment Prepper, Bernie talked about re-growing celery, so I'll be trying that in the coming week.
Are you starting anything green in the upcoming week?

Redundancy On The Homestead

Wether we live in the city or out in the country, it's a good idea to look at our homes as a series of systems. Those of you reading this who have a homestead may already know this. Perhaps you don't. I bring this up today because an acquaintance who owns a small homestead, and I, were having a discussion about systems and how they enable us to be successful.
I asked her how she manages to get so much done and she told me that her secret is to manage "systems", instead of "things". For example, she has a water system on her property; a well. Like me, she believes in having backups for everything possible. Her back up water system is a highly developed water catchment system. Every building or enclosure on her property, including her woodshed, has gutters that direct rainfall into water barrels. These barrels are emptied into main water barrels. This water is then boiled and cooled for her chickens. One less drain on her well. She treats and boils this water for most of her cooking also. This is a working backup for her water system.

Using this example, what else can we apply this theory to? Chores, skills and any projects we may have around our own homesteads, no matter how small. I have boys that would rather play X-Box all day than feed chickens, clean their room, or help put groceries away. I suspect most kids are like this. But X-Box and Nintendo won't teach them the value of a job well done, teach them the right way to stack wood or how to get water when the well runs low. So let's say you're going raise chickens next year. You teach yourself everything you can about this monumental task. You find yourself raising happy, healthy chickens one day and you feel pretty darn good about that. Hooray! But think about a backup plan. What if you get sick or have to turn over chicken care to someone else in the family for a few days? Does someone else understand chicken care like you do? Now, while you have the time, is a good time to develop a back up plan for yourself. Teach someone else in the family what needs to be done on a daily basis for your birds. Teach that person what is normal chicken behavior and what isn't. There may come a day when you'll be very glad you did. So what if your livestock is the family dog? Same rule applies. Make sure someone else knows the ins and outs of feeding, walking and favorite treats.

Food can also be scrutinized. Your food system is different than mine, your tastes and dietary needs will be different. But again, do you have backups? Are you able to make a couple of meals ahead and freeze them? We all know how cruddy illness can make us feel, and if you are the sole food producer in your family, or even if you live alone, the day is eventually going to come when you'll need those backup meals made ahead.

These are just a few elements of our "homesteads" that we can develop backup systems for, and why we should. Even a home on a mid-sized suburban lot is a homestead once you develop it. Can you develop a water system if you don't already have one? How will you cook your meal if the power goes out and stays off for a number of hours? How would you heat your home in the winter?
One of my favorite sayings is "Have backups for your backups". This requires careful planning and frequently, trial and error. But it's well worth the time spent today to make your life a little more comfortable down the road.
Do you have backups?

Not Quite Wasted Week

Every time I think I have an awesome post for you, something gets in the way. So, instead of going to bed, I'm going to post!
First off: an Independence Days check in.

Plant Something: I planted two sunflower seeds indoors! I'll take anything that grows green and happy right now! Although it looks like I might lose the peas to damp-off disease yet again, damnit. They grow so well, so vigorously, get lots of light and then BAM! They wilt and die.
Harvest  something: Nope. It's too early here, and I planted no sprouts this week.
Preserve something: Nope.
Waste not: I added some  vegetable peelings to the compost bucket, kicked it around the "yard" a bit and flipped it. Also found a great source of leaf mold right under my feet! Almost. I'll add a couple of shovelfuls of it next week.
Want not: Hmm, upon reflection, we added nothing to the pantry. We'll have to fix that next week! I did pick up a couple of very short LED keychain flashlights tonight. The thinking there was that if we get caught out somewhere in an abrupt power failure, we'll have emergency light.  When we go out, we always have our keys, so we'll always have VERY bright light! Does this count as a "want not" item? We'll never be wanting for light...
Eat the food: Obviously we've been eating. No new recipes though. I didn't bake 4 dozen cookies or dehydrate anything. Nothing new to report here either. Wow.
Skill up; Finally! Something to share! We've been submersing ourselves in almost everything chickens, except the fowlpoo. The day is coming...oops, can't let that cat...err, bird out of the bag just yet...
Okay, maybe I can.

On Thursday, I posted very briefly that we were going to the TSC Store. I had hoped for video. Well, who knew the store would be busy!? I got some video before the iPod ran out of room, but I swear there was a district manager and thirty employees in there, and they all started looking at me a little strangely when I started filming. Anyway, the video isn't worth wasting your day over. Suffice it to say that the store was impressive! They had clothes, horse halters, english style saddles, chicken waterers and feeders, heat lamp bulbs, basic animal care supplies, rabbit feed and pens, fencing, chicken feed, hoof trimmers, overalls, boots, first aid kits for humans, cables, books, garden knick-knacks, hoses, electrified fencing equipment, dog food and supplies, shovels and rakes of every description, truck maintenance supplies, small tractors, model tractors, remote control tractors, and... and...I can't list it all, I didn't even see half the store! We'll have to take another trip to see all that we missed the first time. If you are living out in the sticks, or want to move there, if you own livestock, or want to, or you are lucky enough to have a mini-farm, if you have the opportunity to visit a TSC Store.. do it. You won't be disappointed.

What prompted all this? We've been given the go-ahead to acquire and raise chickens once we move! So now we're full-on into the research and development stage. We're learning all we can from a variety of sources, planning to build a coop and narrowing which varieties of birds will do best for our purposes and winter conditions. So far, we're having a blast! Because the hatchery that we're going to be getting our fuzzballs from does not carry Buff Orpingtons, we're likely to be getting Barred Plymouth Rocks, Red Sex Links, Black Sex Links and Rhode Island Reds. (Maybe next year, Jacqueline!)
Now you know why the brief post on Alektorophobia.
No, no one here has it.

Are you participating in the Independence Days Challenge? If you are, how did you do this week?
For those who are not, what did you learn this week?

Afraid of Chickens??

Just a short bit today. Tired, cranky and I have to work tonight.

Alektorophobia is the fear of chickens.

Hmm.

Who knew?

Coming soon, tomorrow, maybe the day after, a post on our field trip to the TSC Store with (hopefully) video, some thoughts on urban chickens and an apartment garden update!

Until then, plant something!

Field Trip Today!

Today's big excitement is our field trip to the TSC Store!
Why are we going there, you might ask?
Well, we got a big piece of news the other day, which I will share with you very soon, and today's field trip is research.
(Gee, this is like being in school!)
Here's a hint...

Video and notes to follow!

Independence Days Check In

So, for those of you who are following along with the Independence Days challenge, how did you do?
This week, I'm pleased to report that I did the following:
Plant Something: I sprouted alfalfa! Yay! Two new peas poked their greenness above the soil, and I sprouted three more. These last three have yet to come up, but I know they're in their. I sprouted four lettuce seeds, and they've stayed green and upright.

Harvest Something: Not yet.
Preserve Something: Not yet.

Waste Not: I redirected some banana peels and apple cores to the compost barrel, rolled it around the patio a bit, flipped it a few times for good measure and opened the lid to give it a sniff. It doesn't smell funky, or earthy for that matter, but it has two things working against it. The air holes are not big enough and it's been outside all winter.

Want Not: We've added a couple tins of coffee and a big box of tea to our pantry. A couple more cans of coffee are being picked up this morning. Any sale on coffee that allows one to save $10 is a good thing!

Eat The Food: We have a few apples that are in need of being muffins, so I think this afternoon I'll be making banana bread and apple muffins.

Build Community Food Systems: Right now, I just want to have enough for us. Anything else is overwhelming.

Skill Up: Added four new quilting books to our personal library this past week. These are instructional pattern books, not coffee table books. These will come in handy when I have the room to start making quilts.
Edit notes: I forgot, I did add to our community food system! We tried goat's milk this week and it was a hit! I not only enjoyed it, I had no nasty after effects like I have with cow's milk. Could this be a solution to lactose intolerance or merely a reprieve?

A much more productive week than last, I think. How did your week go?

Natural Building Inspiration

As you've probably figured out by now, I love the outdoors, even though I don't enjoy being cold, I am still moved by the beauty of winter. My favorite season? I'm not sure if that would be spring or autumn. Anyway, I've been discovering that when nature is incorporated into buildings, they are more pleasant to look at, and I imagine they are more enjoyable to spend time in. I've been trying to bring "natural building" ideas into a garden shed design I'd like to build someday soon. The following video is for those you looking for a little green in this wet, damp season of not-quite-spring-yet, and those looking for a little inspiration, like me.


   

I'm always inspired by the unique touches others have brought into their homes. This "wallbraid" is sculpted right into the wall of a home. No sharp corners here!  

Finally, a modern piece of "cave art", a buffalo that is built right into the wall. This is apparently done in lime and clay showing some very old skills such as pargeting and sgraffito. Techniques I'll have to look into some more!

Thrift Store Score!!

I love books. I always have. I blame my mother for this. (Gives a wave to Mom)
I was an early reader apparently, and would read anything I could get my hands on. I never lost that as I grew up. I think I can safely say that I've rarely borrowed any less than 10 books at a time from our local library. After having lived here 11 years, I'm exhausting the library's source of homesteading, gardening and self sufficiency books. So, as much as I hate shopping, I do like to hit the thrift stores in search of classics. Classic farm books, classic knitting books that most knitters would fight one another for, and old Mother Earth News issues.
Yesterday I got sucked into all kinds of possibility with a 50% off sale at our local thrift store, and while I can usually find a mason jar or two, or even a piece of cast iron, this trip yielded some other items that are just as valuable.
I came across quite a few quilting books, but the four pictured above were more along what I needed. From left (the big blue book) is "A Second Quilters Companion". Published in 1981, it has patterns for applique, half-pieced, four patch, nine patch, borders and quilting patterns. Once I get moved and have some room to start quilting, I think this may become a go-to book. A quilting friend up north may find this useful too. I paid $3.99 for this book.

The book to it's right is "Let's Make A Patchwork Quilt", published in 1980 by Farm Journal Press. It was a birthday present to someone, judging by the inscription on the inside. (I love little glimpses like this into a book's history. It makes it feel so much more alive). The book covers a basic history of quilts, basic techniques, shows how do pieced work and then offers a practical small scale working model of those techniques; a pillow. Applique is discussed after that, as is the actual quilting. Advanced work is discussed after that in the form of advanced piecing, curves, and paper piecing. with dozens of patterns and color photos, it seems to be both inspirational and instructional. I paid $3.99 for this one as well.

Shown just below that book is "Trip Around The World Quilt", a glossy-covered book that bears an original price tag of $9.98, but I paid just $1.99 for. Inside, all instructions and patterns are printed in red ink, which I found curious. The premise of this pattern is to choose colours and patterns that appeal to you and sew them together in planned strips. The pattern emerges in how the placement of those colors and patterns are placed. While this particular pattern is not my foremost choice, it is one I want to make one day, and even if I decide to pass this book on, it's still a valuable resource, due to it's simplicity in instructions and diagrams.

To the left of that book is "Celtic Animals Charted Designs". I have been looking for this one for years. It was published in 1996, and it is stuffed with exactly what it says, charted designs. I'm sure one could use these charts in knitting, crochet, needlework or even beadwork. It's one of those resources that the crafty Celt should have on their bookshelf. This one was $1.99 as well.

The little gold book on top is "Celtic Design Maze Patterns", first published in 1993. This was pure indulgence on my part. I love ancient Celtic art, and I've been trying to work up the nerve to put a Celtic maze in my knitting one day. The authors briefly discusses the history and classification of the maze, gives examples, in line drawings and where these can be found and then goes on to include patterns that one can draw or reproduce. It's fascinating, to me at least.
I paid $2.99 for this one.

That's the bookish highlights of that trip. We also got a piece of blue and white Corelle-ware, as well as an a lid that fits another piece of Corelle-ware. What made me nearly squeal though, and I don't normally squeal, was a heavy stone fruit bowl; sand colored with red apples glazed on the outside. It is the typical fruit bowl one thinks of on a country table. Did I mention it was heavy? I've been looking for one of these for years. I was thrilled to find one and only pay $2.99 for it. Also in the "cool score" department, knitting needles! I got a bag of knitting needles, four pairs in all. For $4.99, we got sizes 5.5mm, 5 mm, 4.5 mm and 5mm. All sizes we didn't already have. We also picked up a bag of circular needles, 3 in total for $2.99. 4 mm with a 9" cable, 3.5 mm with a 21" cable, and a 6mm with a 10.5" cable. Although we've made trips to that store before, it never occured to me to see if they had any knitting supplies. But this time, I was drawn to that wall. With my freaky-shadow-person of course. Oh, haven't I mentioned her yet?
I had taken my iPod with intent to film the cooler parts of our little expedition, but I was being shadowed by a woman who scooped anything I looked twice at. No kidding. This is why I hate shopping. She was literally scooping whole shelves of books into a cart, scooping armloads of any material I looked at, dishes I stopped in front of were snatched off the shelf...I kid you not. When her cart was full, she grabbed a basket-pullalong that the store supplies, and she filled that! Even when we went to find pajama bottoms for the boys she followed us! I wanted to go all warrior on her, but my gentle, patient partner was of the opinion that we would lose freaky-shadow-person soon enough.  Well, not soon enough for my liking, but eventually she found someone else to stalk.

So, thrift stores can be a great resource if you have the patience, the time and a list of the things you'd like to find. On our list is always cast iron, a bread box, mason jars, homesteading books, knitting supplies...you get the idea. Make your own list of things you'd like to find for your home, raw materials such as piping, cloth, tools, whatever it is you'd like to lay hands on but are not comfortable paying top dollar, add it to your list. Don't forget resources like books too. Toys, games, craft items...the list could be endless.

Planning, Dreaming and Learning From Eliot

A big part of the fun of growing one's own food is the planning. Gardeners love to studying seed catalogues, plan, modify and change their orders numerous times over the winter season. Then all of a sudden we realize it's almost time to start the seeds indoors and we feel the rush of hurry up and wait! I am not above this condition. In fact, last night at work, I realized my seed planning was far from complete. It hit me suddenly...How many pea plants will I need to fill 48 pint jars? How many tomato plants will we need to fill 64 pint jars? How many tomato plants will fit a 4'X4' bed? How about the peppers? I've had more success in the past  with square foot gardening than with rows, and it's proven you can increase your yields using square foot spacing. So, where I can, that's what I'll be using. I have to try and produce as much food as I can for 7 people, remember. Now, I know that every season my yields will increase as I invest more time, work and TLC into the soil. That first season, we'll be moving part way through the growing season, and thereby lose a big part of growing time. There's not much that can be done about that.

But I have an ever-growing list of projects to keep me busy, and there will be vegetables that will grow in under 60 days. Peas, lettuce, radishes, baby carrots, baby spinach, cucumbers, and beets. Thanks to Eliot Coleman, I've been learning a ton about  season extension. That will make a big difference. I will be planning and implementing a green manure rotation plan as well. There will be new beds to locate and develop, the garden shed to fix up and a spring on the property I'd like to develop as well. I'll need to find a water testing lab for that, as well as cast an eye at potential flow. I'm going to be building on the current water catchment system, and I'd like to improve the current composting system. There are a few basics in place, they really just need some attention to flourish.

But for right now, this is the season of research, education and planning. I've been learning about season extension, organic gardening, market gardens, food preservation and nitrogen. Let's not forget the many facets of companion gardening, crop rotation, organic pest control and increasing one's self sufficiency. I'd like to learn more about ram pumps, water storage and solar power on a small scale.

The hard part is taking it slow.

Accomplishments and Goals

This past weekend was a holiday for us here in Ontario (Canada), but there was no resting here! We had a bit of a crisis at the high school that needed to be dealt with right away, and then there's been work. In short, no de-cluttering was done, no advances made on the home-front. I wouldn't say I lazed around, but I'm not happy with what I did not accomplish. On the Independence Days front, there's not a lot to report.
In the "Plant Something" category: Nothing got planted this past week.
"Harvest Something": Nothing here either
"Preserve Something": Sigh. Nothing.
"Waste Not": I did divert another 2L pop bottle from the recycling bin. Washed it out, sanitized it and fill it with water after dating the bottle. For those new to the blog, I do this so that when the power goes out, or the city shuts off our water so they can flush the lines, we'll still have water with which to cook or drink.
"Eat the Food": We've been researching ways to utilize more dried and stored foods, as well as trying out a couple of new-to-us recipes. This isn't always easy with a picky eater in the house. We've found two this week that were a success.
"Skill Up": We've talked this week about what skills the wife and I would like to learn or build on. I added to my list, and re-visited the idea of growing wheat up north.

On a positive note, the pea shoots are still doing great. No sign of the damping off disease that's plagued us before. The plants range from 2" to 4". I'm also thrilled to report that our chives have come back!

Goals this week: For me, I need to get back into the bedrooms and get back to de-cluttering. This should be easier since I'll be on the closing shift at work. Much easier to de-clutter without kids underfoot. I also want to make bread every day this week and freeze what we don't eat right away. I'd love to share the bread with the Food Bank, but I need to take care of us first. I'm thinking about next week's menu with thoughts to making meals ahead and freezing them, but that's still under development. I have some more worn out clothes that need to be cut into cloth, to be added to the rag-rug bin.
Wife says she wants to attack the table again and regain control over the chaos there. To that end, she's hunting Rubbermaid bins to organize and store.

So that's it for us today. What goals have you set for yourselves this week?

The Worst Job On The Honey-Do List

Ever seen the commercial for CLR where the poor guy has to stand with a bowl of the stuff under his shower head? I don't want to do that, but I like my water pressure, and I'm not a huge fan of CLR anyway. If you're like me, read on for a MUCH easier way of cleaning our shower heads!

Pour 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 cup vinegar into a strong, sandwich sized plastic bag and tie it onto and over your shower head. Let the bubbling brew hang there for over an hour. Remove the bag, and turn on the shower to rinse. Hard water build up will be gone and your shower head will sparkle again.

*From "Baking soda: Over 500 fabulous, fun and Frugal Uses You've Probably Never Thought Of" by Vicki Lansky

Independence Days Challenge

Independence is many things to many people.
To me, it is a powerful feeling to be independent. The New Oxford dictionary has a few different definitions. Here's the one that speaks to me the most:


not depending on another for livelihood or subsistence : I wanted to remain independent in old age.
• capable of thinking or acting for oneself : advice for independent travelers.
• (of income or resources) making it unnecessary to earn one's living : a woman of independent means.

I have always said it's more challenging to be independent in a small apartment, as many others know. Sometimes I lose sight of how to get to the end goal, even though I know in my heart that I shouldn't sweat it. Every now and then though, it's good to get a bit of encouragement. This morning, I got that bit of encouragement from a woman who's blog I've always enjoyed, but had slipped my mind. Sharon Astyk is an intelligent writer that has written on a variety of topics like the preservation of home, agriculture, food preservation, climate change, changing weather instability, peak oil, and the rejuvenation of family. Her blog, The Chatelaine's Keys is never boring and always gets me thinking. On February 1 of this year, she brought back a challenge she's done in the past that she called Independence Days

She challenges us to  not lose sight of the goal, not to get overwhelmed by the myriad of things we need to do to be independent. Here is an excerpt of that post:
"The whole idea is to get the positive sense of your accomplishments – it is easy to think we haven’t done anything to move forward, but in fact, we all do, almost every day.  We just think of accomplishment as a big thing – a whole day spent putting up applesauce or a hundred tomato plants.  The Independence Day project makes us count our little accomplishments and see that we are moving forward.  So for each week, tell us what you have done in the following categories:


Plant something: A lot of us were trained to think of planting as done once a year, but if you start seeds, do season extension and succession plant, you’ll get much, much more out of your garden, so I try and plant something every day from February into September.


Harvest something: Everything counts – from the milk and eggs you get from your animals to the first dandelions from your yard to 50 bushels of tomatoes – it all counts.


Preserve something: Again, I find preserving is most productive if I try and do a little every day that there is anything, from the first dried raspberry leaves and jarred rhubarb to the last squashes at the end of the season.


Waste not: Reducing food waste, composting everything or feeding it to animals, reducing your use of disposables and creation of garbage, reusing things that would otherwise go to waste, making sure your preserved and stored foods are kept in good shape – all of these count.


Want Not: Adding to your food storage or stash of goods for emergencies, building up resources that will be useful in the long term.


Eat the Food: Making full and good use of what you have, making sure that you are getting everything you can from your food, trying new recipes and new cooking ideas, eating out of your storage!


Build community food systems: What have you done to help other people have better food access or to make your local food system more resilient?


And a new one: Skill up:  What did you learn this week that will help you in the future – could be as simple as fixing the faucet or as hard as building a shed, as simple as a new way of keeping records or as complicated as making shoes.  Whatever you are learning, you get a merit badge for it – this is important stuff."


Sharon invites her readers to join up, write about their own accomplishments and chime in, and many do. I'm sure that even here, in our small apartment, there is a way I could work towards these goals while working nights and trying to de-clutter our lives. I'm sure we could all do something. Even if you aren't necessarily working toward increasing independence, it's not a bad thing.
I'm not sure I'll have something to report  on the above  "catagories" every week, but I'm going to work toward doing something. I'm going to try to have something to report every Friday.

What about you? Are you interested in increasing your independence? Is there some small way you could waste not, want not? Or is there a way you could plant something, or perhaps harvest something as the season progresses> If we all work together, it won't seem so overwhelming.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's check in!

Since When Do We Need Lunch Inspectors?

I'm appalled, stunned and incensed to learn about a 4 year old who was told her home-packed lunch wasn't good enough on January 30 of this year, because it did not meet one person's idea of an approved lunch. From the North Carolina Journal,
"When the girl came home with her lunch untouched, her mother wanted to know what she ate instead. Three chicken nuggets, the girl answered. Everything else on her cafeteria tray went to waste."
"The girl's turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day."
In a report written by Sara Burrows for the North Carolina Journal, it's made clear that, "The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs - including in-home day care centers - to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home."

So a state-approved random agent inspected the girl's lunchbox and decided her lunch was not healthy enough and decided she needed chicken nuggets instead? Do they not know what those things are made from? I used to make chicken nuggets for a living, folks, I know all too well that there isn't enough real meat in a nugget to be healthy. Very rarely you can buy chicken "cuts" in a nugget size. The difference is that a "cut" has a grain to the meat. This is an actual piece of chicken meat, sometimes from the breast of the bird. But I can tell you that that kind of cut isn't going to be within the budget of a school. They would probably buy the nuggets that are cheaper and faster to cook, and there is very little about those that are healthy.

For my liking, this allows State officials too much power, but I'm Canadian, so maybe I'm not allowed to have an opinion. But read this and consider what it means,
"With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it had cheese on it, that's the dairy," said Jani Kozlowski, the fiscal and statutory policy manager for the division. "It sounds like the lunch itself would've met all of the standard." The lunch has to include a fruit or vegetable, but not both, she said."

So who was the "inspector" who decided that the lunch was not nutritious enough? None of the reports name the person, and the principal of the school clearly has no idea what happens in his school.
"The school principal, Jackie Samuels, said he didn't "know anything about" parents being charged for the meals that day. "I know they eat in the cafeteria. Whether they pay or not, they eat in the cafeteria."

Why would a perfectly healthy lunch be discounted and chicken nuggets offered to the child? Well, we can only assume that more than just chicken nuggets were offered, although no one makes it clear what was on the offered lunch tray. But the girl's mother, who wishes to remain anonymous in order to protect her daughter from retaliation, said she received a note from the school stating that students who did not bring a "healthy lunch" would be offered the missing portions, which could result in a fee from the cafeteria, in her case $1.25.  Wait a minute.... this mother is expecting backlash because she went public with this? What kind of community is she living in? What kind of a school system does this? Jani Kozlowski is quoted as saying, "If a parent sends their child with a Coke and a Twinkie, the child care provider is going to need to provide a balanced lunch for the child," Kozlowski said.

Ultimately, the child care provider can't take the Coke and Twinkie away from the child, but Kozlowski said she "would think the Pre-K provider would talk with the parent about that not being a healthy choice for their child."

So the State Inspector, whoever that was, was wrong to deem the lunch not nutritious. Furthermore, the school sent the bill for $1.25 home for a lunch that was not needed or welcomed! And the principal knows nothing about it? Right, tell me another fable.
Since when do four year olds need their lunch boxes inspected? Really? This is what North Carolina does with their money? Hire people to inspect lunches healthy?

This, if nothing else proves that government has gotten quite cozy in the pockets of it's citizenry. It also proves that the principal of the West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford, North Carolina isn't doing his job. Apparently, the mother of this girl has written to her state representative, Republican G.L. Pridgen of Robeson County, who is looking into the matter. One can only hope the follow up is shared with the citizenry as well.

Now, let me say that we also have a picky eater, which this girl apparently is. It's tough to get your child to eat healthy at the best of times. I send as nutritious a lunch as I can manage with our youngest son, and everything comes home again. My hands are tied somewhat by a no-peanut rule due to an allergic child in the school. Fair enough. Slightly more restrictive, but I understand why. No biggie. But because our youngest really doesn't eat lunch, it forces us to get more creative with breakfast and dinner to make sure he eats right. I know I'm not the only parent out there who faces this. One of my customers asked me a couple of weeks ago what I pack for the boys for their lunches, she's at her wits end trying to find something her children will eat. Our eldest and middle sons both eat fairly well, although I remember the middle son was not a great eater at his younger brother's age. He is still outgrowing it. I can only hope the youngest will as well, that one day he'll decide he likes more than spaghetti, meat loaf, cheese and corn. In the meantime, we're battling with a school system that has taken away hot dog day, tried to abolish pizza day and at one time would only allow water in the school. (Did I mention our youngest hates drinking water?)

So my heart goes out to this embattled mother who worries her daughter will face retaliation if her identity gets out. She clearly has enough to worry about with a picky eater, she shouldn't need to worry about a self-important state lunch inspector deeming her packed lunches unhealthy.
Lunch cops...damn, what's next? Smoking police?
Oh wait, we already have those....

Still trust in government?