Farm The World Build The Farm

I wake up to the warmth of the electric heater I have running.The solar panels that were installed work perfectly. It is the beginning of September so it is chilly outside but I have fixed this place up sufficiently enough to contain and keep the heat in. I get out of bed and walk to the window by the front door. Look out, the sun is just starting to peak over the horizon even though the sky still contains the dim gray of the night. There is a lot of work to be done but I see the potential of the place. It has plenty of materials for repair and rebuilding. I walk to the kitchen and put on a pot of water for my morning tea then go and turn on my computer to catch up on the news and the morning chatter. While reading articles, blog posts and social-network posts I am also taking notes on ideas and doing rough draw sketches of the images in my mind. It is easier to have them on paper so I can improve them if necessary and set up projects to be worked on. I do some posting of my own as well to let others know of available space and talents I could make use of.
The water is ready and the tea made I set about cooking breakfast. This morning it is scrambled eggs from the chickens outside and sausage gravy and biscuits. The smell wafting through the house wakes the others who come groggily into the kitchen and sit at the table. Jaime gets up to get the silverware to set the table with then sits back down as he passes out the forks and knives. Lou gets up to get the dishes out and help me dish up breakfast before we sit down to eat. The conversation at the breakfast table is about the green house being built to prepare for the winter growing season. Nothing but natural materials will do. Glass securely placed in wood framing.
Breakfast finished the boys go next-door to cleanup leaving me to wash the breakfast dishes. Afterwards I walk to the next block to meet with Stella who's husband Mark works downtown. She teaches their four children, twins, Edward and Emily and the two older ones Angela and Addison. It is pretty much a ghost town I am looking to rebuild as farm-town and Stella has offered to be a teacher. She has some friends in neighboring towns who are interested in opening an art gallery and a cousin in town who has to commute to the veterinary hospital an hour away. We discuss naturally made paint hues and blacksmithing of scrap metal before It is time for the children to move on to the next subject and so I leave to pay a visit to Ken who was just recently laid off.
Ken loves working with wood and has offered to help Lou, Jaime and I build the greenhouse. His sister Michelle works with clay and has offered to make the plant pots. I have been here a month and have made sure to introduce myself to as many of the neighbors as possible letting them know what I am up to. They are interested and want to help.
After talking with Ken I head back home to work on cleaning the tools we have come across. There are a couple boxes worth so it takes a while. After cleaning and sorting the tools I go next door to help the boys clean and sort the stuff into piles to be used as projects come up. I get a call. It is the delivery driver telling me the goats are arriving tomorrow around noon and want to know where they are to be delivered. I give him the address and thus ends the call. I make a note in the notebook I carry around that we need to start composting so we will have better soil by spring.
Lunch has been missed so I go home to start dinner. Taking chicken out of the freezer I place it in a baking dish with my own seasoning concoction and I boil some pasta. My version of chicken pasta primavera. As it is cooking I jump back on the computer and do my second news, social networking catch up. I have had some responses from interested people and I respond back. I am enjoying getting people into wanting to be self sufficient and when all is said and done this town will be looking better then it ever has.
Dinner is ready and somehow the boys instinctively know and appear. Conversation at dinner is about all the scrap metal that has been found and stored in an abandoned where-house. It is decided we need to start getting more people involved as we have set a deadline to be cleaned up and ready by spring to start planting and having animals brought in. Dinner done, Lou and Jaime head off to clean up for the night once again leaving me to do the dishes. After dinner dishes are done it is my turn to cleanup and then we sit around reading and occasionally talking about the day and other ideas to be worked on. It is now nine o' clock and time for bed. We head off to prepare to do it all again the next day.
 Detroit is the city that has been chosen for Farm The World, Build The Farm. Lets bring this once glorious city back from the brink of death.

So Many Things So Little Time

I have not just been working on my own gardening and experimenting what to plant with what. I have been reading and learning lots of things. I have decided to take my Day X project further in buying land. I have always wanted a piece of land to call my own as it was also a dream of my mothers so I have set up a fundraiser here http://www.gofundme.com/3tom0c and a google+ page here https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/112537224088745514108/112537224088745514108/posts. I have decided to call this project Farm The World, Build The Farm. I can not go into detail in this post as I am still working on some of the details. None the less I have already designed the floor plan and the area surrounding the house. I will post the image if anyone is interested. I am working on a surprise post and that will be available soon. I know I have been erratic in my postings and I just wanted to take the chance while I had it to let everyone know what is going on. If I do not have something posted here just follow me on g+, Facebook or even twitter. Well that is it for now I have to go work on that surprise post. Ciao and happy reading.

Birth To Death; Benefits Of Raising Chickens

 When considering whether or not to keep chickens you have a choice of how to begin. You can start with eggs (which take time to incubate and have the possibility to come with male/female mix), chicks (minimum of 25 to keep each-other warm during travel), or you could go for the mature layer (more expensive of the three options).

 As far as feeding goes, chicken feed is available but I would say let them eat what is in your yard along with vegetable scraps (feeding pullets puree), after all having chickens is all about sustainable self sufficiency.

 The benefits of raising chickens are numerous. Free range chickens lay healthier eggs. They keep garden pest populations down. They till the soil and there poop makes for great compost. It is also a way to preserve breeds. Once they  no longer lay eggs they can be used as food if you can handle the slaughter process, you can sell them or just keep them and let them pass into the great beyond naturally.

What's New

 I have hit a snag in my gardening. I wanted to plant all the seeds I had to use them up so what I did is I soaked them all in baby-food jars I had saved. The thing is I had no room in the house for 30+ jars. I had to sit them outside. I also could not cover them with the accompanying lids as it would deny the seeds the necessary air they needed (lesson learned, next time I will use cheese cloth as a cover). Leaving them uncovered drew flies. I had asked my boyfriend for help to the point that he took all the seeds and dumped them in the ground. Well needles to say that method did not work very well as at this point we only have three surviving types of plants; banana peppers, cucumbers and eggplants.
 I would post pictures but both my cameras went kaput. So while I wait for produce and the money to buy more seeds I am going to be looking into the types of farm animals and their  benefits along with other farming skills and plant recognition.
 We have been having alot of rain lately so our vines have covered the yard again. I will be unraveling them and using them in basket weaving. I also have a load of yarn I will be cleaning and using along with making candles. Well that is all for now ciao and happy reading.

Do For Yourself

Are there any metal workers out there? I challenge you to use this video to make a spray bottle nozzle that is pure metal with a glass tube. I am working on something myself but as I do not have the necessary skills it may look pretty rough.
 I believe that we can live off scavenging materials and recreating new stuff from old. Want to know what I know, watch some youtube videos on blacksmithing or sheep shearing. How about how a spinning wheel is made? I want to spin my own yarn. Carrots Love Tomato's is a great place to start for companion planting your food. This is how serious I am about doing it myself. If we all did for ourselves we would not need to be so dependent on this corporately owned government.
 Don't forget the name contest I mentioned in my previous blog. My apologies for the shortness of this post as the one I am currently working on will be up in a day or two. I have to add a few pictures and a teething child and no camera have kept me from finishing it. I am sure there is something I am forgetting but that will save for later, til then ciao and happy reading.

What A Week

This may be my only chance to post today so I am taking advantage of nap-time and wishing my keyboard were quieter. This has been one fragrant week. I have enjoyed being outdoors. I took some pictures of my progress from yesterday and had to take a few snapshots of some of the cool looking plants I have in my yard as well.
 As those of you who have been reading my blog from the start you will notice a difference in the way I have my setup. When I first started I had areas surrounded by plastic. That was mainly to keep the coons out of the food I was growing. They seemed to love the corn but since I have no corn to grow this year among other reasons I no longer have the plastic up. I would love to do away with plastic period as it is not organic.

 I cleaned off the deck and moved my bins onto it. I was tired of moving the compost bins (trash cans) around the yard just to get sun and to cut the grass. Which by the way this area was mowed yesterday.

 This is where I originally had all three sitting. Now for some other pictures although I will try not to bore you with too many but notice the difference.

 

 

 Now for some of the cool plants while I still have a little time left before monkeybear wakes. I so far only have potatoes (FINALLY) and strawberries which are producing for the second time.

 I have to thank my boyfriend for covering them otherwise they might not be growing. He cleaned the right side of the walkway outside the back door so I could pit some plants in there as a type of border in rearranging the plants in my yard. Putting the shade loving plants in the shade and sun loving plants in the sun where they belong.

 I have been told this is a Hibiscus. Is it really because I think this is an ugly plant but will keep them around just because they have flowers.

 I have been told this is Wild Ginger but unless I looked it up wrong it does not look like the Wild Ginger plant images Google has.

 I really have no Idea what these are but they love the sun and grow some interesting flowers. The seed pods if that is what they are, are just as interesting.

 I have more pictures but I am thinking my time is seriously waning so unless I want to save this for another day I need to end here. 

One last thing, I was talking to a friend last night about my long term plans on this project and gave her a bit of a head-start. I am having a contest for the best name of a homestead farm/pioneer skill school. The individual who comes up with the best name (voted on by the readers) Will get a free weeks stay once the permanent property for this has been decided. If you do not want to donate via the we pay system I will go with the most popular crowd funding system. For now, ciao and happy reading.

Finally As Promised...

 I went for a nice long walk yesterday (it was a beautifully fragrant day) and forgot to get batteries for my spare camera but I still have temporary use of my camera phone so as I promised back at the beginning of the month...
 Of the five plants I started on the 18 of last month in a small baby jar filled 1/4 of the way with water I only managed to get a handful of tomatoes (I haven't counted so I do not know exactly how many sprouted) and one carrot.

 The Marigolds, Lavender, and Sunflowers did not take.

 

And The peppers I started about a week ago (I need to put dates on these).

 

One last picture of my small indoor grow area.

 

I am rather excited to see what I get out of all of this. I cannot rush the seed growth but will keep tabs on it and what grows best with what and other how to tips as they come to me. By the way those are maple twigs in a glass cup. I had an intruder in my yard who broke a branch from one of my trees giving me more wood to cut then I currently have for. 

 I am formulating a twig birdhouse project with the branches and twigs I clean. If anyone is interested I will post that as well. For now ciao and happy reading.

 

Be Positive...

 Well I guess this is what I get for bragging. For the last year and a half I have been telling my family that I could live without technology and it seems that belief has been put to the test now more then over the last year. I have been using my phone to get online and do research when my little one prevented me from sitting at my computer. This past week my boyfriend broke his phone so he took mine. Now whenever he is home it is in his hands whether he is using it or not. I have been able to adapt so far. As far as living without technology. I still believe I could do without and be fine but then I would need to have a mailing list of people who were interested in knowing what I am doing to send my newsletter to.
 You may ask how can one live without electricity to heat/cool inside which is answered easily by solar/wind power. The house could also be built with materials in a way that could use the weather to benefit heating and cooling to the point where no heating/cooling unit is needed. Make sure to have a basement that can be sectioned off where part of it can be used as a root cellar/refrigerator so you cut down even more on the use of power hungry electric items. These are the things and more I would love to teach people through this blog.
 But enough of my ramblings for now. I have some gardening projects to tend to that I will hopefully be posting soon. For now, ciao  and happy reading.

Lost Track Of Time And Then Some

I in no way intend to abandoned my dream of growing my own food and did not mean to go so long with out an update but my son started walking which made it kind of hard to keep on top of things and then my lawn mower broke down.
The good news is I got a fairly new mower about two months ago and things seem to be falling in to place. Hopefully things go smoother and I can make time and stay on top of all the work I have planned.
I have seedlings which I will post pictures of as soon as I am able to and I will be posting some other information and updating other things as time allows. Well for now happy reading and ciao.

Day X 3.2

 I tried to do this post two days ago from my phone as my pc went down due to viruses and it didn't work. If it wasn't for bad luck I would have no luck at all. :) I finally got it up and running again. I am still working on Day X and will be posting more pictures tomorrow. But for now a quick update as to what I have been doing while my pc was down.
 I had cut down a blade of bamboo because it grew to long and broke. I took some small pieces from it and decided to see if I could not grow more. I left some sitting in plain old water and I dipped some in root starter and stuck it in the dirt.  While I waited to see what happened I decided to watch some videos from my phone on bamboo propagation. Turns out that bamboo takes a year to get roots unless you take roots from bamboo already growing to grow more. I would like to know what it is that is growing on my cuttings if it is not roots.
I have started shaving another vine covered tree and have plenty of vines to play with making into baskets. I am also working on building a loose compost pile since one of my neighbors called the fire department on me. I have cleaned up a great majority of visible garbage and move all the cinder blocks and bricks to the southeast part of the property. Well till later happy reading and ciao.