Like the illusion of Wall Street, with its vast and powerful investment banks, now shuttered, China too is an illusion perpetuated by the Globalists that gave us the 15,000 mile Caesar salad, poisoned cat food and lead based paint on babies' pacifiers. Like the illusion that money would come from thin air to always push housing prices higher, China has spent a generation pursuing its illusion. Pursuing an unattainable dream to be like the West, while 6000 years of its carefully shepherded top soil blows into the sea.
Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 13191 Location: naive idiot fantasy world
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 2:03 pm Post subject:
I've been cooking almost exclusively in the solar cooker. Made brownies again today, and then put on some beans for chili. It will take two days to make chili - cooking the beans today, then putting everything together and cooking it all again tomorrow.
Made another small garden behind the house, and dug up another part of the main garden getting ready for planting for the Fall.
Compared prices for setting up a solar deep well pump versus a surface pump and storage for run-off from the creek. The surface system is cheaper but the amount of water we can store will be limited by the number of tanks we can buy.
Ludi - your post the other day about cooking lasagna in the solar oven inspired me to try a "dinner' type dish (as opposed to cakes like I usually bake), so I tried the oven version of a Betty Crocker skillet dinner that contained beef. That's been my one worry - that with the lower temps, the meats etc might not cook properly. Anyway that was a few days ago and hubby and I seem to be normal (well, what passes for normal in our whacky household!).
My big achievement, though, is that I finally plucked up courage and put my stash of dried beans, pasta, etc. into oxygen-free storage. I put the food in mylar bags, along with the proper amount (I hope) of oxygen absorbers, and ironed the edges of the bags to make them airtight. I had sent away for all the equipment a while back and kept putting it off. I'll know tomorrow morning whether the experiment is a success. (the mylar bags should be all shrunk up and clinging to the food like freeze-dry packaging). Then I'll put the bags into my swanky white food buckets.
Joined: Jul 07, 2005 Posts: 57 Location: Western Washington State
Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 11:45 pm Post subject:
I bought a pump water filter. Says it gets down down to 2 micron (giardia ect.) and will last for about 100 gallons. Just need to see where I can find replacement filters now. I live across from a lake and it rains often here so there's always water somewhere, just need to make sure I can drink it.
Brownies? Lasagna? My solar cooker seems to turn out rice. Then rice and lentils. Then rice. Yesterday was rice and onion and peas (snap & snow). YUM. I didn't cook solar today because . . .
Today I was helping a neighbor build his house. Another neighbor runs an organic farm commercially, and confirmed by observation that garden crops here are struggling -- I don't have a single tomato yet, though I've been eating lettuce for a month and peas for a few weeks. Perennials are doing fine -- blueberries are just ready to ripen.
A couple of days ago I stumbled across this Mother Earth article with an idea-filled layout for a one-acre homestead.
Well, been a while since my last post.
I've taken off two months from working (maybe more if I can't secure a contract for consulting in China) to work full-time on my family's land. I've planted my potatoes using a new (to me) technique involving chicken wire and hay, and they are doing great. Mmm, I love potatoes. I've taken the advice of some of the posts here and planted different kinds from different local and non-local producers to avoid losing them all in the event of disease.
My green beans are doing wonderful. Less than a quarter of an acre worth and we should have enough to last enough until next season (meaning I'll be canning a crap load).
Blackberries and blueberries are coming in okay this year. Seems something's gotten into the balckberries and some of them look sickly. Still leaves enough to make all the jam you can stuff in your mouth for two or three years (they're all wild). Blueberries were only planted three and two years ago, so the bushes are still pretty small and not producing very much, but look healthy.
The herbs are taking over the front of the house, but that wasn't my doing. Mother is a fanatic for thyme, mint, you name it, she's been working on it for years.
The orchard (apples), that's another story. It's been here longer than we have (none of us actually live there, it's just 'the family land' with a nice 4 bedroom house, barn and shed). I move around a lot with work, mom is divorced, brothers are city-slickers forgetting their roots, so the actual land hasn't been worked since the first owners back in the late 1800's. So I've been trimming the apple trees, whacking down weeds with the machete and chopping down other trees growing up around them. And surprisingly, we should have a pretty good crop of apples (it's the first time we've actually been able to get to them due to the lack of care of the land). We have an old jerky dryer for venison, so I'm gonna try and dry some apple cuts this fall.
Rabbits are doing well. Moved them off feed and onto wild herbs, weeds and flowers. Gotta research what to feed them for the winter but I feel pretty good about it. Built the cages and everything myself. Bobcats, dogs and such haven't gotten to them yet (knock on wood).
Looking for some goats for cheap, meat goats, not milkers. I'm on the cheap, so taking my time looking for the best quality and best price. America doesn't have a clue what's coming, so we have some time yet.
Other than that, just weeding and hoeing, cutting wood and doing about a million other things every day. Hope you're all doing as well and get to take little vacations into the city once in a while like I'm doing right now.
Oh yeah, up on the mountain above the house the other day and discovered some 'wild' apple trees and grape vines. Like finding gold at the end of the rainbow.
P.S. Thanks to Pops and Co. I finally got off my ass and started sweating like a freaking mule to get things 'ready'. I appreciate your posts.
World governments have been unable to agree on a unified planetary policy to reduce or delay the impact of climate change, despite the fact that a simple plan that does not involve any significant financial commitment is available. If world leaders got together to support the Canada Challenge, vast CO2 emissions reductions could be achieved, especially in developed countries which can most easily control their emission levels. The challenge is not to industry or government at all, but to the end user of energy, the individual who's everyday decisions affect how much CO2 will be emitted.
To reduce individual emissions dramatically, only a few minor lifestyle changes are needed:
Action CO2 savings
Replace the 20-year-old fridge with an energy-saver model. 3,000 pounds.
Send out one fewer 30-gallon bag of garbage per week. 300 pounds.
Leave the car at home two days per week. 1,590 pounds.
Recycle cans, bottles, plastic, cardboard and newspapers. 850 pounds.
Switch two standard light bulbs to fluorescents. 1,000 pounds
Replace the current shower head with a low-flow model. 300 pounds.
Turn the thermostat down two degrees for one year. 500 pounds
Cut vehicle fuel use by 10 gallons in 2003. 200 pounds
Switch from hot to warm or cold water for laundry. 600 pounds
If these steps were taken by just 20% of U.S., Japanese, Canadian and European inhabitants, world CO2 emission levels would drop to a point that the human factor would be vastly reduced as a source of global warming, and the day when the inevitable climate shift occurs could be delayed for years, perhaps centuries.
Ways to Help _________________ Men argue, nature acts !
Voltaire
"...In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation."
Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 13191 Location: naive idiot fantasy world
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 7:27 am Post subject:
I learned something very important about yams Dioscorea batatas - they don't like full sun in the south (30 degrees North latitude). The 80 yams I planted in full sun in the main garden have languished badly, barely growing , with yellow and browning leaves. Those I planted later in part shade are looking great and putting on new growth very quickly. So now I know I'll have to grow yams in the shade.
Joined: Mar 06, 2005 Posts: 306 Location: Elliot Lake, Ontario
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:10 am Post subject:
Yesterday I had to re-do most of my garden..my tomatoes and zuccini and cucumbers and corn are doing great, but i found that my carrots broccili and cabbage did not do so well, so I replanted...and added more good soil around the seeds..here,s to hoping
We have had a very hot and dry summer here, and I have have been spending alot of time at camp so garden has gone a bit to the wayside..I keep trying to talk b/f into building me a green house at the camp.
But we are not there enough to tend to it, but I have a few idea,s and would have to start looking for the things I would need, If anyone has any idea,s on a green house that will keed the animals out please reply so I can see or write and I can learn ty.
Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5719 Location: Body in OK, Heart in TX
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 4:26 pm Post subject:
Today I canned some apples, peaches and plums. I put an ad in the local paper looking for glass and mirrors (no Craig's list here, sadly). My mom's desk appraised for a good chunk of change Saturday at the Antiques Roadshow taping in Houston, so we're hoping to sell it and put some of the money toward a fence, barn and pond for the homestead.
Joined: Jun 18, 2004 Posts: 1037 Location: 28° N 81° W
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:12 pm Post subject:
I discovered a new use for my car- food dehydrator. I accidentally left some wild grapes in there a while back and parked in the sun. I rediscovered them today, as raisins. _________________ American by birth, Muslim by choice, Southern by the grace of God!
Joined: Dec 08, 2004 Posts: 1636 Location: Nez Perce Nation
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:56 pm Post subject:
Ludi wrote:
I ordered two solar panels.
Ludi! Great!
Tell us how you'll be using them and keep us abreast of your progress.
I want to use a solar powered water pump for filling our pond and cisterns during the rainy season. Also when we build the new barn we want both solar water heating panels and pv panels on its roof. But that's a year off. _________________ "Modern Agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food."
-- Albert Bartlett
"It will be a dark time. But for those who survive, I suspect it will be rather exciting."
-- James Lovelock
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