HugelKultur planting beds.

GARDEN PLANNING

It's February, but it feels like April, or maybe late March at the worst.  The picture below was taken today, as you can see there is no snow, and the soil is pretty much thawed in the first few inches at least.  Below that, it is frozen, but I was still able to hack into it with a pickaxe.

Soon to be hugelkultur mound

If you haven't read any of my past postings, I will briefly describe the benefits of hugelkultur.  It was invented by a very wise and inventive man name Sepp Holtzer, who is Dutch.  It consists of wood mounds covered in dirt, and left to decay.  The decaying wood soaks up and retains lots of moisture from rain fall, and when it's planted, the roots have access to that water, as well as nutrients from the decaying wood.  A hugelkultur bed that's large enough may not need to be watered at all!  This has some very obvious benefits in a dry climate like mine, watering is a pain, and costs me money.  If I build a couple of these beds every year, I will eventually have enough of them that my gardening will be a relative breeze.  These mounds should be plantable immediately, with the addition of chicken manure to the pile.  The only difficulty is getting enough wood to make a decent sized pile!  

I will add more photos when I have placed all the wood, I will need to wait for the soil to thaw a bit more before I really get going, since I will need quite a bit of soil to go on top.

How Capitalism can Save the Free World

I am a Capitalist.  I provide goods that people want and need, and I make it possible for 6 billion people to exist on this planet.

The whole point of capitalism is "Capital", the real durable good that make production possible.  A farmer's tractor, the land he plants, the trees he harvests from, and the animals whose meat he sells.  Capital does not fall from the sky, nor does it grow on trees.  In order to buy the land, the farmer needed to save a down payment.  To buy the tractor, he needed to save more money.  The trees cost money, and take time to grow.  The farmer plants trees with the hope to someday profit from them, in some cases knowing that his children will be the real beneficiaries of that profit.
All of this "Capital" would not exist if the farmer did not save.  He willingly consumes less money now, with the hope that by accumulating these items, he will profit from them more in the future.  It's true that the farmer is thinking of himself, but in doing so, he is benefiting all of mankind.  If the farmer had no land, he could not plant.  If he had land, but no machines, he would have to work with primitive tools, and he could not produce nearly as much food, nor could he transport that food to the people who want to eat it.  Trees produce even more food, and feed the soil through their leaves.  The farmer has to nuture and feed that tree for many years before he can gain the harvest, while there is always a risk of the tree dying before it becomes productive.

Many people believe that capitalism oppresses people.  Walmart underpays it's employees, destroys other business, and is bad for us.  They moan about the loss of "mom and pop" stores, which are more of a fantasy that reality.  Even large stores usually have a single owner, who may be a "mom and pop" team, or a business team of 2 or more unrelated partners.  Smaller stores can, and are very prosperous, judging by the fact that we apparently still have millions of them.  Most of the people who have jobs work for an employer with less than 100 employees, which is the definition of a "small business".  Only about 20% of the workforce are employed by the "big guys".

Many millions of people are like me, the farmer, working for themselves.  Are they contributing less to the world than the Walmarts?  More?  Or, do all of these people benefit the human race through their work?
My contribution may be smaller than Walmart, but it is real, and measurable.  I use the capital that I own to provide something that people want, and they are my bosses.  If no one buys my products, I have failed, and I need to do something differently, or find a different group of bosses.  I don't get to charge whatever I want, and neither does Walmart.  The people who buy the products determine the price, and they also determine what is on the shelf, through their "votes".

If you don't like Walmart, that's a personal choice.  Don't "vote" by shopping there, and your conscience will be clean.  But maybe I like Walmart, and I want to vote for it.  Who will win this battle?  How about both of us?  You win by shopping where you want, and I win by shopping where I want.  We both get what we want, and no one loses.  Too bad politics doesn't work that way!

I hear a lot of noise about "reforming capitalism" or "paying our fair share", and I tune it out.  Just let me concentrate on producing as much of what people want to buy as I can.  Let me keep the profits of my labors, and I will be inspired to produce more.  If I produce enough, I could even start hiring people!  This is how the system works when nobody interferes.

If you care about humanity, stop trying to "help" the poor by taking from the rich.  The rich may have the money, but believe me, they would rather invest it in something useful than shove it in a drawer.  That useful investment could give one of those "poor" people a good job, or provide a better tractor for a farmer, or enable a company to create a better TV, cellphone, gadget, all of which makes the lives of the "non-rich" a little bit better.

More chickens for sale!

Just a quick announcement, we now have around 50 nice, plump older roosters for sale, at the same price as the smaller, more tender chickens.
These roosters are a bit under 5 months old, and weigh about 4 lbs each, some a bit more than that.  They are tougher than the regular birds, especially in the thigh, but the breast is much bigger, and has so much more flavor!
The legs are tender enough to eat, but I just took the whole leg and thigh and simmer it for about 6 hours in a large pot of water.  Then, the meat will be quite tender, and the water will have absorbed an incredible amount of flavor.  The minerals in the bone and marrow will now be in the water, and if you let it cool, it will actually set as hard as jello!
These minerals are very nutritious, supporting your immune system and giving you lots of calcium, magnesium, and trace minerals.  There is a reason that chicken soup is the universal food for colds and flu!

You will not find a better chicken for soup or stew anywhere, with this much flavor.  These chickens have been foraging since their first day, even during the winter, and they have never seen any antibiotics or hormones in their life.  Order now, because if you don't buy them, I just might end up eating them myself : )

PROJECTS

This week I expect to be very busy with some things.  I need to plan the location for my huglkultur bed (google search, or visit www.permies.com) and then try and dig down a bit through the soil so the logs will be partially buried.  I am going to cram old hay, and a bit of chicken manure into the spaces between logs, which will hopefully start them breaking down faster with the extra nitrogen.  I would like to have about a 4 x 16 foot area planted with huglkultur.  Then, I will need to hay mulch all of the saskatoons, blueberries, cherry trees, and asperagus plants I put in the last few years.  I will put about 6 inches around the plants, which will compact a bit.  This will hopefully keep the soil moisture high, and provide some nutrients as it breaks down for the trees.  I may also toss a bit of chicken manure too, I have probably 300 lbs of it in the shed.

GOATS

We have goats!  I purchased two female miniature nubian goats, and they have been roaming free range around the property for the last week or so.  They are very small, but I will breed both of them in March, and perhaps I will be able to sell the kids when they are grown.  I will also be able to milk them, although I won't get a lot of milk unless I milk daily.  I would be content with a cup a day or so, since I would be the only one to drink it.  The goats are easy to keep, and don't eat much.  A bit of barley keeps them happy, and they have been grazing on the exposed grass as well.  Now that the majority of the chickens are gone, I can cut my feed costs down to about $3/day for all the animals.  I could save more by purchasing barley or wheat in bulk directly from a farmer, except that I need to store it somewhere safe and dry.  I still have plans to build a barn, and as soon as the soil is warm enough, I will start mapping a location.

The blogging continues.

Hey-o, the blogging continues!  There were some neccessary changes that had to be made, things were deleted, and life continues.
I was looking at the stats of this blog, and I was astounded to see that I've had 292 visitors from Russia!  I had no idea that this would be so international, but that's awesome, and thanks to all of you Russians, Slovanians, Germans, Philipinos, and Japanese for reading my humble blog.  I hope you are doing well in your corner of the globe!

CHICKENS
Some friends of mine call this the "chicken blog", and I can't blame them, it was my main focus over the last summer.  I am happy now to report that almost all of the chickens are sold, and the consensus among everyone is that the chickens are excellent!  I am selling them at a break-even price right now, $10 per chicken, with free delivery for 6 or more.  I'm guessing I have about 50 more left, out of 240 initially.  I have 50 more than are going for the butcher on the 6th of Feb, and these will be "soup" chickens, since they are older and less tender.
The main project this spring will be to give the chickens a larger area to graze in, start them earlier, and spread them into two groups of around 150 each.  There will also be some turkeys grazing too, and of course, baby calves!  At some point, I would like to run some goats, but I will need some extra-tall fencing for that.

HOMESTEAD
I want a basement!  I'm going to sit here and hold my breath until I get one.  Or maybe I could just build it, might be more productive.  The plan right now, if the code approval guys, the bank, and the county are on-board, is to build a wooden framed basement, and move the mobile home on top of it.  That will essentially double our square footage, give me a proper area to store my tools and other stuff, and possibly another bedroom too.  It will also protect the water pipes from freezing in the -35 C weather that we occasionally get here in Canada, eh?  All of the deep-cycle batteries, the washer/dryer, and everything else we have crammed into the house will be in there.  If, for some reason I can't get approval to do a full basement, I will then try for a large addition with a basement of it's own, maybe a 20 x 25 foot.  Then, the house itself needs to be permanently affixed to the ground, so I can mortgage it like a real house.

That's just a quick update, it's still winter so I can't do much but dream...but at least my dreams are big!

Website still coming soon

I know I said by the end of the week, but I was overestimating my abilities a bit, hehe.  I purchased a template, and I'm making it look good, I only just need about 10 really good photos for the front page.  I can't really use my iPhone photos, they aren't large enough for most of them, and the coloration isn't quite right.  My wife has a good camera that I'm going to abscond with this afternoon, and take some shots.

I've had a long week off, and work starts again today, but I do feel like I've accomplished quite a bit.  My best work was moving the solar panels to a more permanent position, and cleaning them off.  It's a bright sunny day, and each of the 11 working panels is producing about 90% of maximum power, maybe a bit less.  I'm getting 900 watts at peak times, which is the most I've ever had.  I have one panel that was shattered, so it's not putting out much, and one more wasn't working at all, so really there are 10 good panels running.

It would be nice to start some more projects, but I don't have much more time.  I am certainly ahead of where I was last year though, and it will be nice to have a warmer house once I insulate the crawlspace a bit more, and seal up the holes in the fabric.  I am really, really looking forward to the day when my home has more than 4 inches of insulation...hopefully next summer, if all goes well!

Website coming soon!

So, I reported last week that I finally obtained www.sunset-meadows.com as the primary site for our farm.  I did a little work on it last night, made some email address and mucked around with some settings.  I will be creating a welcome page with MS Frontpage, probably tonite, and I will upload it so that there will actually be a placeholder.  I will be adding "Contact" "About" and hopefully soon "Podcast" links on the front page.  You can expect the look of the site to change over time, especially after I hire out some graphic design and PHP programming.  Once upon a time, I knew a little bit of HTML programming, but it would be like hiring a baby to paint your living room.  He's not very good, and he can only reach about three feet up!  Nonetheless, there will be a site by weeks end.  With pictures.

CAMPING!

I've been camping twice this summer, and both times were excellent.  The first time was waaaaay out in the middle of nowhere, a beautiful location in the cold, cold foothills of Alberta.  Yesterday, we got back from another great location, but this time it was HOT!  Despite having to replace the alternator in my wife's SUV (in the parking lot of Canadian Tire), we made it just a few hours later than planned, and enjoyed one of the hottest weekends this summer.  We got back yesterday, sweating in the vehicle which unfortunately has no functioning AC (booooo).  It was busy in town, mostly out of towners going home from camping.  

GARDEN

I'm pretty much calling it quits on the bigger garden, there are some things that will be harvestable, mainly carrots, but I made a fatal error when I failed to add enough manure and mulch.  The soil fertility is too low to produce much, but if I add mulch and manure right now, it will be ready for next year, or the year after if the house building project overtakes my time, which I suspect it will.  I has selected a place for my new-and-improved greenhouse, which will be constructed from the timbers of the old one.  This one will have double wall of plastic, and a plywood back wall, and will be attached to posts that will be buried in cement.  I may be a slow learner, but I eventually get there.

LIVESTOCK

The chickens managed nicely without me here for 24 hours, and they are getting bigger.  I can now tell which are hens, and which are roosters.  It's about 50/50, which means I'll have plenty of hens to pick from when I select some layers too keep over the winter!  There might be 1 rooster, only to try and build a small flock of babies in the springtime.  I've also decided to really expand the flock next year.  I'll need a better feeding and watering system, but that's not too challenging.  I will be building a pole barn soon, and other than a few calf stalls, the main bulk will be devoted to raising chickens and turkeys.  I plan to have a full 2000 birds next year, and I'm going to try and mix my own feed.  That way, I will be able to assure that there are no GMO's or other unwanted things, and hopefully save some money.  Feed is cheap, but I'll need about 18,000 pounds of it, so even a few cents per pound savings will magnify to thousands of dollars.  I will be adding some calves next year, maybe six or seven, and I will be running the birds on the same pasture as the cattle.  I have also toyed with the idea of adding goats, since they will enjoy eating the thistle and foxtail which have regrettably become entrenched in the pasture in some locations.  Instead of portable fencing, I will be using mainly permanent fencing, at least for now.  It will be over 6 feet high, with the bottom being strung with chicken wire, or plastic netting to keep the birds inside when they're smaller.  If I can keep a steady supply of water, and feed available, the birds will pretty much manage themselves!  They will have a vast area to forage in, and I will be able to concentrate on getting a house built.  If I need to separate any animals, putting temporary fencing inside the main fenceline is quite simple.  This is actually what I had planned from the beginning, pretty much.

Whilst camping in the foothills, it hailed.  We had just set up our tents and trailers in a new location.  The kids loved the hail, while the adults weren't quite so enthusiastic.

The chickens running out to pasture after sleeping in the shed overnight.  This is so entertaining, that I will have to make a video and upload to youtube.

Monkey boy on his monkey throne.  My son's first camping trip, and he enjoyed it!  He patiently sat in his seat, or would climb around on the blanket.  Both kids were well behaved and put up with the cool morning admirably, especially my daughter.  I'd like to take her hunting in a few years, when she's ready.  We'll be bringing a trailer, mainly for my comfort.

It can't be almost over!!!

    It's August 18th, and most of the fun summer stuff has come and gone.  My birthday, my 10th Anniversary, my first camping trip, and we just have one more camping trip left.  Here are some updates...

GARDEN

Not much to report, except that the garden took a back seat this year to the chickens.  We got a good bit of peas, and I expect some carrots, but not enough to store for us, never mind sell at market...  I have a pretty good idea why the garden didn't do much.  I tilled up some virgin prairie soil, but I never added much for manure or organic material.  This fall I will be piling up some manure from my neighbor on the rows, and then mulching over that with some old hay that I bought earlier for some reason.  There were some areas that were noticably more productive, and all of these areas had manure on them last year.  I guess I could have added some amendments, but I only had so much time!  Gardening is difficult in this area, even with very fertile soil.
I will be rebuilding my greenhouse, and also making another one, I've just been scouting out a good spot to put them both.  I need to continue building my wind fence, winter is coming, and I don't need a repeat of last years snow drifting and wind beating on the house!

CHICKENS

The chickens have thus far been my most successful project of all time!  Since I last posted, we lost two more birds to a couple of storms, which blew the door shut on the coop.  No other casualties, and we have lost 24 birds to date.  The chickens are over six weeks old at this point, about halfway to maturity.  They are foraging extensively, sometimes going up to 120 feet from the shed that they still sleep in overnight.  I don't see any real reason that they couldn't stay in the shed for the rest of their lives, since we let them out every day anyhow.  It's tremendously amusing to watch the mass exodus of chickens in the morning when we open the door.  They do have continuous access to a smallish patch of grassy pasture, but they much prefer to range wherever they want!  They are eating a large amount of feed, but I am pretty certain that they eat a great deal of live plants as well.  They are constantly picking at anything and everything, wandering through the tall grass and weeds.

FUTURE PLANS

I've already starting making plans for livestock next year.  I will be keeping several hens over the winter, hopefully in a larger barn that I plan to build, and I've been scouting a location for that as well.  We also need to fix our house up so we can sell it, and decide what we're doing for a new home.  I have a plan that I proposed to my wife, building a smaller 1.5 story home with a cement pad floor that we could at some point add to and then convert into a garage.  It could be quite quick to build, and wouldn't cost very much.  The house would have a small main floor, and a loft which could have another bedroom.  I'm negotiating this idea with the co-emperor, my lovely wife.
As for the barn that I mentioned, I can build it in three days with cement posts and a dirt floor, just like my smaller shed.  This one will be somewhat taller, and a lot wider/longer, but use much the same engineering.  Three rows of posts, cemented into the ground, connected at the top, middle and bottom with some dimensional lumber.  A simple set of rafters, made from 2x6 boards, topped with plywood or OSB.  The framing would be cheap, but I would like to put some siding on it, and a tin roof would make it look nice.  I would add stalls for some bottle calves that I'm planning to add next year, and there would be room for many more chickens.  I would like to have up to 1500 birds next year, and maybe an additional 200 turkeys.  I can have up to 2000 chickens and 300 turkeys without having to get "licensed" by our communist overlords.  Add some cattle, berries, fruit trees and whatnot, and you've got the potential for some decent profit, enough to replace my current income!

FAMILY

My son is walking now!  He just started on August 17th, and I was the first one to see it : )  I always knew that he could walk, but the mental barrier was there, and he kept getting back down to crawl.  Now that he's up and walking, he's going to be practicing all the time!
My daughter is waiting for me to come play some Lego with her, so I'll end with that.  As you can probably tell, I have so many things I still want to do this year!