Gardening time!

It's that time of year! It's time for the three months of food production that Canadians enjoy. I suppose we've got more than that, but not much more. The frosts can strike as late as June 1st, and as early as Sept 10th, so the earlier we start, the better.

I'll be honest, I should have set more seedlings out in pots. I set a few in, but I didn't put any broccoli, nor did I prepare my planting areas until just now. I really didn't know what I was going to do. At first, I figured I would rototill the ground, just like everyone else does, but that's expensive, and very, very hard work! Not to mention, the ground becomes very muddy when it rains. So, I did a little research, and here's what I found. No till gardening! You don't cut the sod up, you don't dig the ground, and you don't need a tractor! You simply layer organic material over top of the existing grass (after cutting it), which blocks out the sunlight, and plant on top of that. The plant roots shoot down into the sod, softening and decaying the grass and weeds, and the mulch prevents too many more weeds from appearing.

This is the tiny little garden that my daughter "planted" this year (I helped). She was given some seeds packages by grandma, and she picked the spot herself. I brought her a number of rocks to border her garden spot with. We covered the dirt with mulch, so, hopefully things will grow here.This is one of the garden plots I created. Underneath the top layer of mulch is a layer of newspaper, and beneath that is a layer of dirt, and the grass is under that. I want to add more layers, maybe some manure, some more dirt, and then I'm going to plant seedlings into this plot. I'm starting the seedlings today (should have done that a month ago, but....) in peat planters, when they're ready, you just tear them off and stick 'em in the ground like they are.

I'm really not sure what I might get this year, but I'm going to give it my best shot. Plus, I want to prepare bigger garden spaces for next years garden. Next year, I'm hoping to be in possession of a greenhouse, in which I can start the seeds a month or so early, and get a better harvest!

Here's a few more photos:
This was taken at the dump. The bobcat is dropping a load of FREE mulch in the back of my truck. It was about 7:40 pm at this point, and the landfill closed at 8pm. As soon as this guy finished, he parked his bobcat, got in his truck, and left, locking me in!!!! Thanks man, really awesome. I had to interrupt another crew crushing rock to let me out. Note to self, go earlier!


Another view of some finished plots. I seeded some carrots in the middle one, hopefully they'll actually grow! I got some excellent carrots when we lived in the city, but they are a root crop, and the soil isn't really ready yet...
I want about 7-8 more plots just like this ready by next year, plus 40 more saskatoon bushes, and some apple/cherry/pear/apricot trees.

So lastly, one more victory. When we moved, I didn't get my wife's address updated with the Canada Robbery Agency (Oh, I meant Revenue, oops), and they stopped sending the Child Tax credit, and childcare benefit, which you get when you stay at home. There's five months of backchecks that they now owe, which is about $800! Not bad, now I just have to sell the bike, and I can start building a barn! Giggity.

Trees, trees, trees

Short post today, just had a sweet victory over stupidity, and saved myself a lot of future work.
Not to mention, it's getting closer to garden planting time! I've got a big tray of seedlings all sprouted and ready for transplanting. The garden itself is right now just a big plot of grass, which I still have yet to trim, rake, and till. That's coming up on my next set of days off, and I might even try to take an extra day just to make sure I get it all done! If you live in the US, you're probably saying "Wow, I had my garden in months ago!", but up here, gardening starts in June, and ends in August or mid Sept at the latest, especially for frost sensitive plants like tomatoes. We have a little more than three months to get all the growing done! For us, I plan on having a large row of greenhouse space by next year. 9 months is too long for me to wait, at least with a greenhouse I can start seedlings early, and maybe get some more harvest time!

Now, the small victory. We run our house mainly off of a gas generator, and I've put probably 1700 hours on the one that we've got now. I thought I finally killed it, it just wouldn't start, no matter what I did! Well, turns out that my laziness was to blame, and the fix was retardedly easy. All gas engines have valves that let out exhaust, and bring in the gas mixture. With less complex engines, those valves can become misadjusted, and it affects the engine, making it backfire, hard to start, and stall out. It got so hard to start the engine, that I finally broke the pull start cord! I was going to order another one, but I haven't yet. Turns out, you can start it with any available cord/twine if you just wrap it around the starting shaft. You only get one pull though, and then the cord falls off.
Well, I adjusted the valves, put some baling twine around the starter, and vrooom! One pull! Now I can stop using propane, which is EXPENSIVE, to make our electricity, and is irritating as well. I'm just happy that I fixed the problem, and it didn't cost me any money either!

Sweet!

Ok, I might have overreacted a bit in that last post. It turns out that the gov't cheque arrived that afternoon, but things did not exactly proceed how I had hoped they would.
I still owed some money for various things, I paid the overlimit on my credit card, my taxes ($350!!!) and some money that I owed for an old utility bill, and after all that, setting aside enough money to pay our bills until August, I've got about $1000 left to start projects with, including gardening. Not enough, by a long shot! Just getting a front loader in here to get the digging done will cost more than that. So, it looks like we'll be waiting a while again, until I can sell some items, my motorcycle, and hopefully a payraise is coming sooner than later, and we can consolidate some of this rotten debt.

I did purchase a very, very useful item, something so useful, I can't believe I didn't get it before!!! Our power inverter has a controller device that basically lets you change all of the settings, adjust charging, equalize the batteries, change voltages, etc. It was $300, and it's ESSENTIAL!! If you purchase ANY device, and there's an optional controller, BUY IT! I prefer Outback, it's worked very nicely for me this far, and hopefully for a long time to come yet.

We've started planting trees, and it's as much work as I thought it would be, and more. I really hope most of these seedings survive, it's going to look so nice when we've got trees around the house (not to mention wind-blocking), maybe someday I can stop picking up roof shingles off the ground after every heavy wind. The next major project is the garden. We've already got 10 saskatoon berry seedlings planted, several raspberry canes, a current bush, and three blueberry bushes. I've still got about 40 evergreen trees that need to be planted, but it's kind of hard when I don't really know where I want them!
I've sort of picked a spot for the workshop/barn to go, right next to a huge depression where water apparently gathers. I'm going to dig that area right out, add some leak proofing, and make it into a pond where we will be drawing our house/garden water from. The water from the pond will be filtered through a biofilter, and stored in the large cister that I will be building, which itself will be placed 5 feet into the ground, and surrounded by the building envelope of the workshop, which should prevent it from freezing in the winter! The roof will also collect and deliver rainwater to the cistern. I will build the cistern and shop with the idea that it will be expanded later, with more water storage capacity. I hope to have 30,000+ gallons of water storage by the time I've finished. More than enough for one year's use, in case there's ever a drought here.

I'm going to be doing some light repair work on my bike, then putting her on the market for sale. It's ok, I've got another bike, which nees a new carby, but still will be placed into service once the good one is sold. I need projects more than a bike!
Pictures will be forth-coming, once I've tilled the garden spot, and I haven't forgotten about chickens, but the garden is my priority right now.

Frustrations...

It's May, and spring is here. I have been very patient up till this point, but my patience is starting to crumble, especially concerning the government. They owe me almost $7000, and I've been waiting for the stupid cheque to arrive! I sent in all the documents a month ago, and nothing has arrived yet. We're trying hard to keep things together, but it's pretty hard with no money.

The turbine is running decently enough. I had to take it down and fix the tower, a piece was loose, and the top of it was wobbling around. I'm not sure how that happened, but I can tell you that the next tower will be welded together, and I'm going to make it myself from the same materials, but stronger.

I also purchased a battery charger, that cost me nearly $550. The idea was that I could charge the batteries while still using them normally. Right now, when the generator is charging the batteries, it's also running the house, and the slightest surge pops the breaker on the generator, which means we have to reset it. Even typing this, I've reset the breaker three times! If the generator is just charging, the inverter will provide all the surge power we need, while we restore power to the batteries. Seems like a good idea, but the STUPID CHARGER STOPPED WORKING!! There no lights flashing, no noise coming from it, and no charging. Just, nothing. So, now I get to take it back and find out why the heck it crapped out. I tell you, when I realized that yesterday, I went into a foul mood, and snapped every crayon I have! My poor family....

I hate operating with a deficit, it makes doing anything just so much harder. I've got some substantial pay raises coming soon, and we'll be in the black before long, but it still sucks for the time being. If anyone who reads this feels like they would like to pray for us, don't hesitate.

Here's what I advise for anyone who wants an off grid power system...Buy the best quality components you can find, even if it means you have to delay the purchase of some other desired item. Get yourself at least 2 days of battery capacity, and the best quality BATTERY STARTED generator you can afford! You should be able to fully recharge the batteries in 4 hours or less. You must have a functioning backup plan in case a generator or some other component fails. Get a battery meter that can tell you exactly how many amp hours are left in your battery, and be prepared to adjust your life around peak production times (Do laundry on windy days!) If you could afford it, a permanently mounted back up generator with auto-start would be the cat's pyjamas.

On the brighter side of things, my windbreak trees are being delivered on Saturday, and most of my vine-bearing plants like mellons, squash and cucumbers are now growing in flats inside my house. I really would love a greenhouse!!! That's on my wish list for the summer. If I sell my motorcycle, I could probably afford the materials to build such a wonderful item. I need some more raspberry plants, and I would love about 50 strawberry plants as well. I might get some of both items from our old garden in the city, if the new tenants are ok with my pilfering the garden. I'm sure they don't care, most city people don't like gardens.

For anyone who's curious, I am a regular on Homesteadingtoday.com, and my user name is adamtheha.