Mud, and "There is nothing new under the sun"

Happy April!  I think some of you lucky blighters are starting your gardens...I must confess jealousy, but on the other hand, I do have a lot of non-gardenish work that is also exciting.  My truck is stuck in the mud, again (yearly tradition) but I have an elaborate plan involving large chunks of wood and jacks that should free it tomorrow.

FAMILY

I must begin with the best...my son turns 1 in a few days!  He's become even more adorable, and is still not walking or crawling (not that I'm complaining) but seems to always find some wood chips to eat off the floor that the broom missed.  He already doesn't like brocolli, but he'll eat wood chips and puzzle pieces...

My daughter is continuing her homeschooling, and I have to admit, it's difficult to stay on track and actually get down to it, but once we get the books out, and start working, it's fun, most of the time.  You MUST have the patience of a rock with a child, but still not let them get away with goofing around too much.  I have learned one thing: 

Learning must be enjoyed, and when it stops being enjoyed, it stops being learned!

So, at various points during our lessons, I let my kid just write some silly word, or draw a picture of a fork, because she enjoys it.  Then, I gently bring her back on focus.

ELECTRICITY
This could be a blog post of it's own, and it's the big non-gardenish project that I am undertaking.
*drum roll*
My solar panels are not just in my possession, they are also (mostly) installed, and producing power!!!
I purchased 12 in total, and I have managed to get 7 up and running.  They are freakin enormous, not to put too fine a point on that, but I can manage them myself if I'm careful. 

Not a moment too soon for the solar panels either.  I'm running out of generators to destroy!  We've got our Honda-engined one that sometimes produces power, and sometimes doesn't.  Mostly doesn't.  The dumbarses who run the parts dept at Champion power equipment Canada, sent me two wrong parts, and not enough of the proper parts to fix my almost new generator that has less than 350 hrs on it.  To say I was angry would not fully account for what happened then...

In better news, I pulled out an older generator that I had tried to start, and failed...and got that running!  I need a different plug socket for that one.  I also discovered that the stripped spark plug socket on my propane generator is repairable with a kit that I purchased off Ebay just now.

So, hopefully in a few weeks I will have 4 functioning generators that I don't need, rather than needing one that I don't have!

Oh yes, my wind turbine is still not producing power, I think there is a major shortout somewhere inside the turbine itself, which will require a takedown and overhaul...booooooo.  It was windy today too, and not very sunny.  It always irritates me when energy gets wasted because of some technical problem.

Stay tuned for pics of the solar installation as it comes along!

One last observation about electricity.  I found out that our fridge was on the "auto-defrost" setting since we moved in...whoops.  It was also set too high, so it was turning on what seemed like every 10 minutes.  I think that fridge has literally wasted 1000 kwhrs because of those two things, because the batteries can last quite a bit longer these last few days.  We just need 1 more laptop and we should be in happy-fun-times-awesomeness-town.

GARDEN/BUSINESS

Well, there's mud and lots of it!  A record snowfall is now melting and there is standing water everywhere!  It should dry up a bit this week, and then it's go go go time!  Deploy rototiller!
I have a couple of experiments I'd like to try.  I'm going to try a few different methods and see what works the best.  I will rototill a section of my garden, incorporating a ton of manure and compost, leaves and wood chips, and maybe some cattle bedding from my neighbor.  That will be the first and only rototilling done there.
On a different section, I will flame off the grass, and pile the mulch directly on the dirt, and plant into that.
Then, I'd like to shred a bunch of wood from the dump, and make some hugelkultur beds (wood covered in dirt) along with some hay for a bit of nitrogen, and plant into that.  I will keep the winners and shoot the losers.
I've also been very seriously examining the idea of raising about 200 chickens in a paddock type arrangement with electronet fencing.  I would sell a bunch, and keep the rest to eat.  If this works, I could increase next year to 400 or so, and use whatever profits to buy calves to raise. If I can, I will do more than 200 this year, but that's my minimum.
There's also my idea to grow buckwheat, hull it and feed it to chickens, then use the hulls to make pillows which I could sell online.
Then, there's all of the neat ideas my wife has been coming up with, namely, making soaps, perfumes, and lotions from herbs and flowers.
We just need to make some solid plans, and follow them through!
It's time to crash, I was up at 3 am to work overtime...it never ends.