When you think philosophy, great wisdom, and deep understanding of life, what do you see yourself doing? I'm sure most of you would picture yourself sitting at the feet of a wizened old monk, soaking in the 1,000 year old nuggets of spiritual wisdom falling from his sun-baked lips? Or maybe you see yourself taking a 3 day trek into the Amazon jungle to converse with the native, ponder life, and maybe lick a few of those toads, (you know, for science).
Well, I bet the last place you would imagine finding the meaning of life is while pouring a concrete garage pad, or cutting plywood pieces to make a mold for someone's retaining wall. Grasshopper, let me enlighten you.
PRELUDE
Over this last year, we have been struggling to pay bills, and of course, the banks were no help. Even though we don't have much debt, it's all very short term, and needs to be rolled into a proper mortgage. Unfortunately, we don't have a "standard" home, and it's tough to get a mortgage on a mobile home. It didn't help that my credit rating has taken a hit, because of some "interesting times" (as the Chinese proverb would call it) earlier this year. The only option I have to improve my credit rating is to pay all of my bills fully, on time, and wait for it to go up. Since we have absolutely no savings, I decided that I needed to work a part-time job. We needed to have a couple thousand dollars just stashed away. I had a minimum wage job for a couple of months, before I decided that my time was worth more than $11/hr. It occurred to me that with the Great Alberta Flood only a few months behind us, there would be a need for laborers to clean up the many thousands of destroyed homes and businesses, and I was correct! Not only that, but the construction trades have been exploding with work, and are desperate for workers. So, I answered an ad on Kijiji, and literally, the next day, I was at work!
As a farmer, I have some limited experience with construction materials, especially wood. I've use concrete and plaster for some projects, so I figured I would do ok. The company I've worked for for 3 days does "form work, and flat work", which is construction-speak for walls, and floors.
LESSON 1 - SHOW UP
When I responded to the ad, the foreman emailed me an address and a time. That's it. So, at 8 am, I arrived at the address, and found a guy in a Bobcat, and immediately he directed me to work raking gravel. We worked for about 12 hours that day, and during the course of the day, I learned that the foreman had asked his co-worker "Did Adam show up? Was he on time? Does he have a car?" When he learned the answers, he was AMAZED, and I was amazed that he was amazed. Why would it be amazing that I showed up?
Anyone who has/does work in the trades already knows the answer, but for the rest of you, allow me to give you enlightenment. Unlike in the office world, construction workers and laborers are notoriously unreliable. Men routinely fail to report for work, and don't bother calling, or giving a reason. Just yesterday, my co-worker told me "We got a new guy starting today", and sure enough, he did NOT show up. We found out later, that he was in some sort of legal trouble, and I found the entire situation to be quite amusing. I just couldn't believe that someone would just...not be there when there was $23/hr waiting for them.
LESSON 2 - BE READY
My experience with concrete before this week consisted of filling some post-holes, and plastering a ferro-cement water tank. When I was 18, I helped build a sidewalk. So, in other words, pretty much nothing. Despite that, when I arrived at the site, I had every hand tool I owned, steel-toed boots, hard hat, and a huge lunch. After 1/2 hr, I was loaning tools to the two experienced guys, who had left some important items at another site. It was immensely satisfying to say "Oh, I've got one of those, let me get it for you!".
Here's the bald truth: I had run out and purchased a bunch of these tools the day before, just in case. I had never worn a hard hat, nor used a chalk-line. My boots were brand new, and my tool-belt fresh off the shelf. Despite that, when I stepped out, I looked ready, and I felt ready. No one had to tell me to wear proper gear, or bring proper tools.
LESSON 3 - DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT'S WRONG
Yes, grasshopper, this is the trickiest step. There is a saying in Swahili, "It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission". When I showed up, I was so green, you could have used me as the background of a new Star Wars movie. I was aware of some basic facts, like, concrete is hard, nails go pointy-end down, don't hammer your thumb, etc, but there are all kinds of things I was completely ignorant of, and more than once I felt like a complete numbskull. None the less, I watched intently every single time the experienced guys did anything at all. When there was any kind of task that looked like it needed to be done, I jumped in. A couple times the foreman had to say "No, it's ok, I'll do that", which is a polite way of saying "You're going to screw it up, dummy." I still jumped in, each time. Eventually, they trusted me with some tasks that were more advanced, like hand-floating the concrete, vibrating, and cutting plywood forms.
The second day, the boss left me on my own, with instructions to strip some wood off the concrete on a house basement. It was very physical work, and I was already tired from the day before. I accidentally chipped a small piece off of a driveway in my efforts to dislodge a stubborn piece of rebar. Rather than hide it, I just said, "Yeah, that was me." The site foreman made an angry face, shook his head, but...that was it. I offered to repair it (right, with my sooper skillz), and apologized, but there wasn't really anything else to be done. I owned my mistake, and offered to make it right. Take that!
SUMMARY
Lesson 1 - I cannot emphasize how important this is. When a promise exits your lips, such as "I will be there at 8 am", your physical body had better be there at 8 am, or better yet, 7:50! Your reputation in this world is more valuable than your skills. Anyone who has ever called a plumber will agree, a man who keeps his word is pretty rare. If you can't make it, CALL! Give an alternate time, and then be early for the next week. You could be the most skilled concrete-man in the world, able to hand float a statue of Michelangelo, or power-trowel a floor using only one hand, but if you are unreliable, then you are useless. Simple as that.
SHOW UP
Lesson 2 - Did you know that Youtube has 18 videos showing you how to replace the brake pads on a late model Toyota Corolla? There are probably 600 videos on basic construction techniques, like "How to hammer a piece of wood to another piece of wood, using a large metal object with a flat spot, commonly called a 'hammer'." If I hadn't been at least partially aware of basic construction techniques and terminology, I probably would have been completely useless, instead of just partially useless. I further "cemented" (see what I did there?) my usefulness by having all kinds of inexpensive, yet very handy tools, like a hammer, belt, and putting them into action when they were needed.
BE READY
Lesson 3 - On day 1, the foreman of our small, ragtag team had a little job on the side. Nothing big, just pouring 2,000 square feet of concrete. Did I mention that we had already worked a full day? Right. Every single task that I was asked to do was completely new to me. The foreman kept a steady stream of commands going, "Lift the rebar, tap the edges, spray the concrete, hammer this peg down, get me a sandwich!" And I was literally tripping over my boots to keep up, at least at first. After the second hour, I was doing all of the above, without being asked. When I saw a task, I tried to do it. The two guys I worked with seemed very impressed, not with my sooper skillz, but with the fact that I DID something, even if it was fairly useless. We all knew that they could have done 95% of the work without me, but that 5% made a difference. Concrete is an unforgiving master, caring not for your schedule. When it hardens, it cannot be "unhardened". I allowed these guys to concentrate on the skilled tasks, while I handled the dummy work. We got the job done, and I earned a crisp plastic $100 bill. Yeah, we have plastic money here in Canada. It has a little window in it too, you can see through it.
DO SOMETHING
Is this a complete list? No. You also need to have an aptitude for learning, a humble attitude, the ability to both lead and follow, and it doesn't hurt to be in good physical shape. This is just a few lessons from my first week working a demanding job
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Alberta Floods: an on-the-ground perspective
Before I begin, let me first say that, although I did lose some things in the flood, my home and family were perfectly safe and dry here in my community (I don't live in Calgary), and we were not personally hurt. I've spoken to hundred of people who lost nearly everything, and most of them will never be able to get enough government help or insurance money to cover the loss. I feel so very bad for all of those people, and I've been praying for you every day! In Alberta, insurance does not cover flooding, obviously it would be useful, but flood insurance is very expensive, and is almost non-existent, at least for homes and cars.
On Friday, June 21st 2013, 10+ Alberta communities experienced flooding on a scale so devastating, that more than 30% of people had to be evacuated for their safety. One town, High River, was literally emptied. No living human was permitted to remain, on threat of arrest! It sounds drastic, but four people have already been confirmed dead, and the entire town was under water. The whole thing. 13,000 people may have lost homes, businesses, cars, and possessions, and a few lost their lives when the surge came through. A huge number of those homes were buried up to the roof in water, and those houses will almost certainly be torn down. I would not be surprised if the entire town was reduced in long-term population by half or more, simply because people cannot afford to rebuild! The idea is staggering, especially considering that High River is one of my favorite places to shop. It has (had) a nice grocery store, farm store, and it was small enough that you can cross the entire thing in minutes. I had friends there, who almost certainly are homeless right this second!
Well, I won't drag the "emotional" part out. You get the picture, and it sucks no matter what angle you see it from. Here is my perspective on flooding:
People are funny creatures. We have access to amazing technology, we can send pictures across the world in milliseconds, speak any language with the miracle of Google Translate, and access the sum total of human knowledge from a device that fits in your pocket, yet most of us use that technology to take pictures of our food, or make duck faces in a mirror. If I were Nikolas Tesla, who invented AC electricity, I would be clawing my way back from the grave to rampage mankind!
So, people have all this knowledge available, and yet we fail to use it. We fail to remember that the Bow River flooded in 1902, 1929, 2005 and minor flooding in many other years besides. We build houses, made from sawdust and glue, with some tarpaper on the outside, right next to a river that has flooded more than 3 times in the last CENTURY, and just flooded again! Not to kick poor High River when she's down, but they JUST had a massive flood that caused major damage, perhaps 4 years ago. They called that one a "100 year flood", as if God had some kind of sand timer, and every 100 years he floods the river, and flips it over. That kind of arrogance means that we place buildings so close to the river, that people can walk out their back door and stand on the bank. Even if these flood occurred exactly 100 years apart, you are practically guaranteeing that your house will be flooded!
Insurance companies understand this much better than the rest of us. The very reason that flood insurance is so expensive, is that flooding is virtually GUARANTEED to happen. The only people who would buy the insurance, are the very same ones who build their house right next to water that has flooded in the past, and is guaranteed to flood again. I wouldn't sell insurance for that!
There are two kinds of flooding. First, it rains, and rains, and rains. The water simply cannot drain off quickly enough, and it starts stacking up, starting with the lowest level, ie, your basement. The watershed has a natural limit to its drainage, and this exceeds that. The flooding occurs in all low lying areas, but everyone gets a little taste of it, either in your basement, blocked storm drains, or leaky roofs. The biggest danger is in cities with lots of collection area, and lots of hills. The storm water starts barrelling through, and ends up blasting out manhole covers, flooding underpasses, or causing mudslides.
Then, you have flooding caused by someone else's rain. In Alberta, it only rained 36 mm in Calgary, but more than 140 mm in the mountains, which are the highest point. The water flows through the watershed in a "surge" and reaches the lowest level, ie, the basement of my office in downtown Calgary (true story). By that time, it has collected so much extra glop, that it resembles a mudslide, and leaves a 4 inch layer of silt when it leaves!
In "primitive" times, people did their farming, and planting on these flood plains. When the rivers flooded, the silt brought all kinds of minerals and nutrients, building fertility. It's no secret that flood plains are the most fertile land in the world. The main difference today, is that we now build houses on those same floodplains. I would like to suggest that this might be foolish, when combined with the following other facts: we have all kinds of technology to prevent flood water from entering our homes, and we aren't using ANY of it! The Netherlands was actually built on reclaimed seabed. Something like 40% of the land is below sea level, and is held back by dikes. Vancouver has built a kind of "seawall" around some of it's more vulnerable areas to protect from flood waters. We are capable of constructing dams that can hold massive amounts of water and last for a century. We can divert rivers, stop them up, or widen them. But, we didn't, and we paid the price! $100,000,000 in damage so far, and almost certainly many, many times that. A permanent flood wall may have cost $10,000,000, and would have been worth every penny.
Even temporary solutions seemed to have been ignored:
Many companies are selling a long rubber tube that can be filled with water, and braced in place to nearly block all flood waters. Other products include lightweight sandbags that absorb 20 times their weight in water, and can be stacked in minutes by one person. Placed around vulnerable doors and windows, $200 worth of these "sandbags" can prevent water from infiltrating into a basement, and could save the homeowner untold thousands.
I should probably quit while I'm ahead...after all, I deliberately left personal belongings inside my office KNOWING that it was at risk of flooding. It was only a couple small items, shoes etc, but I could have easily moved them. I simply didn't believe that the river could possibly get that high.
I have learned my lesson, Creator. I will never be so arrogant again. I hope that none of us will.
POSTSCRIPT
I would like to send some virtual High Fives to some heroes who showed real love to their neighbors, even putting their own lives in danger:
Cochrane Fire Dept - Not sure how you guys can even walk with those balls of steel, but you literally saved people lives, at the huge risk of your own! Wading into deep moving water is usually pretty inadvisable, but with no thought to your own lives, you saved many more.
High River RCMP/Sheriffs - 48 hours of hell, and it's still going. Good work, again, you literally saved lives, and you've watched your own homes disintegrate as well...
Calgary Civilians - Those people who the first thing they asked me, is "Where can I volunteer to help?" Mr Pond, Mr Hallett, your selfless attitudes are commendable.
Regular people with Couches - And, who offered those couches to the people displaced, no matter where they were from, and who they were!
Mayor Nenshi, City of Calgary - I got the distinct impression that you really cared about your city, and you kept everyone informed. That kind of devotion surely cost you something that you didn't have to give, and sets you apart from other politicians.
Calgary Fire/EMS/CPS/Transit - You did your job, and you did it well, even when your own homes were certainly at risk. Like me, I'm sure most of you wish you could have done more, but none of us knew that it would get THAT BAD!!!
I know that so many have done so much, and sorry that I didn't mention you, but you know who you are!
On Friday, June 21st 2013, 10+ Alberta communities experienced flooding on a scale so devastating, that more than 30% of people had to be evacuated for their safety. One town, High River, was literally emptied. No living human was permitted to remain, on threat of arrest! It sounds drastic, but four people have already been confirmed dead, and the entire town was under water. The whole thing. 13,000 people may have lost homes, businesses, cars, and possessions, and a few lost their lives when the surge came through. A huge number of those homes were buried up to the roof in water, and those houses will almost certainly be torn down. I would not be surprised if the entire town was reduced in long-term population by half or more, simply because people cannot afford to rebuild! The idea is staggering, especially considering that High River is one of my favorite places to shop. It has (had) a nice grocery store, farm store, and it was small enough that you can cross the entire thing in minutes. I had friends there, who almost certainly are homeless right this second!
Well, I won't drag the "emotional" part out. You get the picture, and it sucks no matter what angle you see it from. Here is my perspective on flooding:
People are funny creatures. We have access to amazing technology, we can send pictures across the world in milliseconds, speak any language with the miracle of Google Translate, and access the sum total of human knowledge from a device that fits in your pocket, yet most of us use that technology to take pictures of our food, or make duck faces in a mirror. If I were Nikolas Tesla, who invented AC electricity, I would be clawing my way back from the grave to rampage mankind!
So, people have all this knowledge available, and yet we fail to use it. We fail to remember that the Bow River flooded in 1902, 1929, 2005 and minor flooding in many other years besides. We build houses, made from sawdust and glue, with some tarpaper on the outside, right next to a river that has flooded more than 3 times in the last CENTURY, and just flooded again! Not to kick poor High River when she's down, but they JUST had a massive flood that caused major damage, perhaps 4 years ago. They called that one a "100 year flood", as if God had some kind of sand timer, and every 100 years he floods the river, and flips it over. That kind of arrogance means that we place buildings so close to the river, that people can walk out their back door and stand on the bank. Even if these flood occurred exactly 100 years apart, you are practically guaranteeing that your house will be flooded!
Insurance companies understand this much better than the rest of us. The very reason that flood insurance is so expensive, is that flooding is virtually GUARANTEED to happen. The only people who would buy the insurance, are the very same ones who build their house right next to water that has flooded in the past, and is guaranteed to flood again. I wouldn't sell insurance for that!
There are two kinds of flooding. First, it rains, and rains, and rains. The water simply cannot drain off quickly enough, and it starts stacking up, starting with the lowest level, ie, your basement. The watershed has a natural limit to its drainage, and this exceeds that. The flooding occurs in all low lying areas, but everyone gets a little taste of it, either in your basement, blocked storm drains, or leaky roofs. The biggest danger is in cities with lots of collection area, and lots of hills. The storm water starts barrelling through, and ends up blasting out manhole covers, flooding underpasses, or causing mudslides.
Then, you have flooding caused by someone else's rain. In Alberta, it only rained 36 mm in Calgary, but more than 140 mm in the mountains, which are the highest point. The water flows through the watershed in a "surge" and reaches the lowest level, ie, the basement of my office in downtown Calgary (true story). By that time, it has collected so much extra glop, that it resembles a mudslide, and leaves a 4 inch layer of silt when it leaves!
In "primitive" times, people did their farming, and planting on these flood plains. When the rivers flooded, the silt brought all kinds of minerals and nutrients, building fertility. It's no secret that flood plains are the most fertile land in the world. The main difference today, is that we now build houses on those same floodplains. I would like to suggest that this might be foolish, when combined with the following other facts: we have all kinds of technology to prevent flood water from entering our homes, and we aren't using ANY of it! The Netherlands was actually built on reclaimed seabed. Something like 40% of the land is below sea level, and is held back by dikes. Vancouver has built a kind of "seawall" around some of it's more vulnerable areas to protect from flood waters. We are capable of constructing dams that can hold massive amounts of water and last for a century. We can divert rivers, stop them up, or widen them. But, we didn't, and we paid the price! $100,000,000 in damage so far, and almost certainly many, many times that. A permanent flood wall may have cost $10,000,000, and would have been worth every penny.
Even temporary solutions seemed to have been ignored:
Many companies are selling a long rubber tube that can be filled with water, and braced in place to nearly block all flood waters. Other products include lightweight sandbags that absorb 20 times their weight in water, and can be stacked in minutes by one person. Placed around vulnerable doors and windows, $200 worth of these "sandbags" can prevent water from infiltrating into a basement, and could save the homeowner untold thousands.
I should probably quit while I'm ahead...after all, I deliberately left personal belongings inside my office KNOWING that it was at risk of flooding. It was only a couple small items, shoes etc, but I could have easily moved them. I simply didn't believe that the river could possibly get that high.
I have learned my lesson, Creator. I will never be so arrogant again. I hope that none of us will.
POSTSCRIPT
I would like to send some virtual High Fives to some heroes who showed real love to their neighbors, even putting their own lives in danger:
Cochrane Fire Dept - Not sure how you guys can even walk with those balls of steel, but you literally saved people lives, at the huge risk of your own! Wading into deep moving water is usually pretty inadvisable, but with no thought to your own lives, you saved many more.
High River RCMP/Sheriffs - 48 hours of hell, and it's still going. Good work, again, you literally saved lives, and you've watched your own homes disintegrate as well...
Calgary Civilians - Those people who the first thing they asked me, is "Where can I volunteer to help?" Mr Pond, Mr Hallett, your selfless attitudes are commendable.
Regular people with Couches - And, who offered those couches to the people displaced, no matter where they were from, and who they were!
Mayor Nenshi, City of Calgary - I got the distinct impression that you really cared about your city, and you kept everyone informed. That kind of devotion surely cost you something that you didn't have to give, and sets you apart from other politicians.
Calgary Fire/EMS/CPS/Transit - You did your job, and you did it well, even when your own homes were certainly at risk. Like me, I'm sure most of you wish you could have done more, but none of us knew that it would get THAT BAD!!!
I know that so many have done so much, and sorry that I didn't mention you, but you know who you are!
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Easy Soapmaking For Lazy People Who Don't Like to Stir
Easy Soapmaking For Lazy People Who Don't Like to Stir
AKA "Hot Process Oven Process"
Many soap recipes, in fact, most of them, tell you to cook the soap on your stove, which requires some stirring, more stirring, stirring again, and just when you think you're done, keep stirring bud! The whole point of stirring is to speed the chemical reactions, and make sure that it completes evenly. It also ensures that the heat is evenly transferred to all of the mixture, and if you aren't using a double boiler, ensures that you don't burn or scorch your soap!
Some people like the stirring, because it really feels like you're "making" something. I don't. I have things to do, and when I first made soap with olive oil, it took 45 minutes to bring the mixture to "trace", which is the point at which the chemical reaction begins. It splashed everywhere, and I was basically glued to the stove, mixing with a stick blender.
Not any more! Someone clever, and perhaps a little lazy, has discovered that soap can be just as easily cooked in the OVEN, as it can on the stove top! Plus, it requires pretty much zero stirring, only once every half hour or so to get things going. Here's how it works.
Hot Process Oven Process Soap Making
1. Set your oven to 175 F. Most recipes will cook just fine at this temp, and it will (mostly) prevent soap from boiling over. The first time I tried this, I set the stove at 225, but this is too high, and my soap did boil over. Nice mess, and it was not much fun to clean up!
2. Mix your oils, melt any solid oils, and stir in your lye mixture. This will work for liquid (Potassium Hydroxide) or bar soap (Sodium Hydroxide). Give it a minute of initial stir, just to get things going.
3. Put your non-aluminum, oven safe container into the oven with a lid on top, and leave it for 1/2 hr.
4. After the first half hour, a minute of blending with a stick blender will bring an immediate trace, check on the pot every 1/2 after that for about 3 hours. The last hour, I usually let it sit without too much stirring. It will get to a very thick, mostly translucent stage that seems like vaseline. This is pretty much the end, but you can test it by dissolving a bit in water to see if all the fatty acids are reacted away. The water will be pretty clear if the reaction is complete.
5. Moving quickly, spoon the mixture into your mold, and let it cool. Once cooled at bit, it can be unmolded, and cut into bars. It will be easier to unmold than cold process soap, and is ready to use immediately!
At some point in the future, I will be switching to a number of large slow cookers, which will accomplish about the same as an oven, but it will be easier to check on and stir.
AKA "Hot Process Oven Process"
Many soap recipes, in fact, most of them, tell you to cook the soap on your stove, which requires some stirring, more stirring, stirring again, and just when you think you're done, keep stirring bud! The whole point of stirring is to speed the chemical reactions, and make sure that it completes evenly. It also ensures that the heat is evenly transferred to all of the mixture, and if you aren't using a double boiler, ensures that you don't burn or scorch your soap!
Some people like the stirring, because it really feels like you're "making" something. I don't. I have things to do, and when I first made soap with olive oil, it took 45 minutes to bring the mixture to "trace", which is the point at which the chemical reaction begins. It splashed everywhere, and I was basically glued to the stove, mixing with a stick blender.
Not any more! Someone clever, and perhaps a little lazy, has discovered that soap can be just as easily cooked in the OVEN, as it can on the stove top! Plus, it requires pretty much zero stirring, only once every half hour or so to get things going. Here's how it works.
Hot Process Oven Process Soap Making
1. Set your oven to 175 F. Most recipes will cook just fine at this temp, and it will (mostly) prevent soap from boiling over. The first time I tried this, I set the stove at 225, but this is too high, and my soap did boil over. Nice mess, and it was not much fun to clean up!
2. Mix your oils, melt any solid oils, and stir in your lye mixture. This will work for liquid (Potassium Hydroxide) or bar soap (Sodium Hydroxide). Give it a minute of initial stir, just to get things going.
3. Put your non-aluminum, oven safe container into the oven with a lid on top, and leave it for 1/2 hr.
4. After the first half hour, a minute of blending with a stick blender will bring an immediate trace, check on the pot every 1/2 after that for about 3 hours. The last hour, I usually let it sit without too much stirring. It will get to a very thick, mostly translucent stage that seems like vaseline. This is pretty much the end, but you can test it by dissolving a bit in water to see if all the fatty acids are reacted away. The water will be pretty clear if the reaction is complete.
5. Moving quickly, spoon the mixture into your mold, and let it cool. Once cooled at bit, it can be unmolded, and cut into bars. It will be easier to unmold than cold process soap, and is ready to use immediately!
At some point in the future, I will be switching to a number of large slow cookers, which will accomplish about the same as an oven, but it will be easier to check on and stir.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Soap & Garden
I'm right now staring at what I hope is a thunderstorm, creeping up the horizon. I just finished planting a bunch of seeds in the garden, and a little rain would not be unwelcome!
GARDEN
We bought a grapevine! I don't know what the grapes taste like, I don't drink wine (or alcohol period), but it seems like something that would grow pretty well unattended. We also have two rhubarb plants that are gaining size pretty nicely. They have been there for two years now, and I think I might plant more of them in time. I really like rhubarb, and it grows really well, even out here on the prairies.
I tried an experiment with a 4 inch drainpipe, cutting holes in it, filling it with potting soil, and planting some strawberries in it. At first, they seemed to wither and die, but they quickly recovered, and almost all of them are still alive! It will still be important to water the tube regularly, but I don't think it will dry out as quickly as I imagined at first. This might turn out to be a viable way to plant small, shallow rooted plants in a "vertical" manner.
SOAP
Ye Olde Fashioned Liquid Soap...is now for sale on Ebay! By the time you read this, I will have bottled the first of the soap, printed the labels, and posted a nice photo. For the first month, I am selling at a huge discount! Most soap of this type would sell for $7.99 to $9.99 for a small 8-12 oz bottle, but I am going as low as $4.99 for the 250 ml, and $6.99 for the 500 ml bottle. This soap is perfect for handwashing, shampoo, or body wash, and contains only olive oil, coconut oil, and canola oil, which when combined with Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), water, and heat, makes soap! This is the way that soap has been made for 5,000 years, and it makes a superior, healthier soap.
Thanks for reading, and please think about trying my soap, I will ship anywhere in North America, plus I will totally combine shipping!
GARDEN
We bought a grapevine! I don't know what the grapes taste like, I don't drink wine (or alcohol period), but it seems like something that would grow pretty well unattended. We also have two rhubarb plants that are gaining size pretty nicely. They have been there for two years now, and I think I might plant more of them in time. I really like rhubarb, and it grows really well, even out here on the prairies.
I tried an experiment with a 4 inch drainpipe, cutting holes in it, filling it with potting soil, and planting some strawberries in it. At first, they seemed to wither and die, but they quickly recovered, and almost all of them are still alive! It will still be important to water the tube regularly, but I don't think it will dry out as quickly as I imagined at first. This might turn out to be a viable way to plant small, shallow rooted plants in a "vertical" manner.
SOAP
Ye Olde Fashioned Liquid Soap...is now for sale on Ebay! By the time you read this, I will have bottled the first of the soap, printed the labels, and posted a nice photo. For the first month, I am selling at a huge discount! Most soap of this type would sell for $7.99 to $9.99 for a small 8-12 oz bottle, but I am going as low as $4.99 for the 250 ml, and $6.99 for the 500 ml bottle. This soap is perfect for handwashing, shampoo, or body wash, and contains only olive oil, coconut oil, and canola oil, which when combined with Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), water, and heat, makes soap! This is the way that soap has been made for 5,000 years, and it makes a superior, healthier soap.
Thanks for reading, and please think about trying my soap, I will ship anywhere in North America, plus I will totally combine shipping!
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Soapmaking: In the Beginning
Not a very long time ago, in a local galaxy (or maybe a nebula), there lived a young man with his family. He had no Jedi powers, unless you consider an exceptionally dark farmer's tan to be a useful ability. He wanted nothing more than to live free on the land, producing things for his family, and things to sell.
Well, here we are in a new spring year, it's finally nice weather, and Disney is the new owner of the Star Wars franchise. What new things can we expect for the year? Well, I've finally gotten on the ball with gardening, a part time job is in the works, and we're starting a non-farm business.
We're making soap! Well, that's where we're starting, I have designs on making a number of useful household products, other than soap, or things that have soap as a base, like shaving soap and laundry soap. Here's the plan:
1. Experiment! Soapmaking is an excellent "cottage industry", unlike say, steel smelting, and building airplanes. It's basically cooking, but with the added element of danger from the lye used to turn oil into soap! So far, I've tried bar soap, and liquid soap, and they both turned out well. The bar soap is still in the little plastic molds, and needs another couple weeks to cure, but the liquid soap is nearly ready to go. My first few tries at bar soap were hilariously disastrous, and the pot boiled over TWICE in one day, hahaha. Turns out I used the wrong type of olive oil, which reacted waaaaaaaay too quickly. Easy fix, and the next few tries worked very well indeed!
2. Start simple: Let me be honest. I am not the first person to try selling soap from home. It may have been done before, and many people are making a small, but honest living selling soap, makeup, deodorant, lip balm, and fancy looking soaps that look good enough to eat. Most of these are women, and their products are exceptional in quality! All kinds and flavours of soap, scented with everything from lavender to coffee. They seem to sell what they make, or else they wouldn't make it.
I don't want to compete with these ladies of super-soap. I think the market might be pretty crowded for "fancy" soap, although I think there is room for someone to make custom printing on soap bars as a gift item. When is the last time you bought a bar of soap with dried herbs in it? Or a salt scrub? Or a bar scented with lavender? I have never purchased any of these things. I have purchased bars of soap to wash my hands with, and I really didn't care what it smelled like, except that it didn't smell "bad". I also buy a bottle of liquid dish soap about every two weeks, because we wash our dishes by hand. The average Joe (or Jane) may occasionally buy a fancy soap as a gift, but what they NEED is regular soap for every day use. Some of them might be interested in soap that is free from chemicals, and that's where Herbal Haven comes in! (Herbal Haven is the name of our company)
3. Ebay, Internet sales: There is a few sellers of liquid soap on Ebay, but most of them seem to be in the US, and I suspect that they find shipping to Canada to be irritating. I plan to target Canadian buyers with smaller sized bottles of liquid soap. My wife is working on a different line of products, womens makeup, perfumes, lip balm etc.
4. Getting bigger: If you've ever made soap by hand, you can appreciate that it requires a lot of patience, something I was not given an abundance of at birth. Fortunately, there are shortcuts, although it requires some money to buy these time saving devices, it will drastically cut down on the time spent endlessly stirring a batch of soap.
That's about it, I will have some pictures of what we've done so far, and when it comes time to sell, I will link to the Ebay page where you can buy all natural liquid soap!
Well, here we are in a new spring year, it's finally nice weather, and Disney is the new owner of the Star Wars franchise. What new things can we expect for the year? Well, I've finally gotten on the ball with gardening, a part time job is in the works, and we're starting a non-farm business.
We're making soap! Well, that's where we're starting, I have designs on making a number of useful household products, other than soap, or things that have soap as a base, like shaving soap and laundry soap. Here's the plan:
1. Experiment! Soapmaking is an excellent "cottage industry", unlike say, steel smelting, and building airplanes. It's basically cooking, but with the added element of danger from the lye used to turn oil into soap! So far, I've tried bar soap, and liquid soap, and they both turned out well. The bar soap is still in the little plastic molds, and needs another couple weeks to cure, but the liquid soap is nearly ready to go. My first few tries at bar soap were hilariously disastrous, and the pot boiled over TWICE in one day, hahaha. Turns out I used the wrong type of olive oil, which reacted waaaaaaaay too quickly. Easy fix, and the next few tries worked very well indeed!
2. Start simple: Let me be honest. I am not the first person to try selling soap from home. It may have been done before, and many people are making a small, but honest living selling soap, makeup, deodorant, lip balm, and fancy looking soaps that look good enough to eat. Most of these are women, and their products are exceptional in quality! All kinds and flavours of soap, scented with everything from lavender to coffee. They seem to sell what they make, or else they wouldn't make it.
I don't want to compete with these ladies of super-soap. I think the market might be pretty crowded for "fancy" soap, although I think there is room for someone to make custom printing on soap bars as a gift item. When is the last time you bought a bar of soap with dried herbs in it? Or a salt scrub? Or a bar scented with lavender? I have never purchased any of these things. I have purchased bars of soap to wash my hands with, and I really didn't care what it smelled like, except that it didn't smell "bad". I also buy a bottle of liquid dish soap about every two weeks, because we wash our dishes by hand. The average Joe (or Jane) may occasionally buy a fancy soap as a gift, but what they NEED is regular soap for every day use. Some of them might be interested in soap that is free from chemicals, and that's where Herbal Haven comes in! (Herbal Haven is the name of our company)
3. Ebay, Internet sales: There is a few sellers of liquid soap on Ebay, but most of them seem to be in the US, and I suspect that they find shipping to Canada to be irritating. I plan to target Canadian buyers with smaller sized bottles of liquid soap. My wife is working on a different line of products, womens makeup, perfumes, lip balm etc.
4. Getting bigger: If you've ever made soap by hand, you can appreciate that it requires a lot of patience, something I was not given an abundance of at birth. Fortunately, there are shortcuts, although it requires some money to buy these time saving devices, it will drastically cut down on the time spent endlessly stirring a batch of soap.
That's about it, I will have some pictures of what we've done so far, and when it comes time to sell, I will link to the Ebay page where you can buy all natural liquid soap!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Year End Report
MEMO
Fm: Frodo @ Sunset Meadows Farm
To: Everyone
RE: What happened to 2012??? We thought you were dead!
I haven't posted since May, which in Canada is just about the primetime of spring. Alas, the warm weather left us too soon this year, we got our first major snowfall on October 12th, and temperatures dropped like 99 luft balloons to car-not-starting-ly cold.
There was no garden this year. There were no chickens. I focused this year on curing some debt woes, and the fix is just about in! Ever since the "credit-crisis" struck the world in 2008, getting a loan refinanced, even on real-estate, has been quite difficult. We needed all of our debt rolled into the mortgage, but the bank wasn't going for it. Until now, that is. Once we've completed the refinance, we will be shaving $1,400 in interest payments off our monthly budget. That's $1,400 that can be used for savings, car repairs, home renos, and buying things that are on my prepping wish list. Here's my list, just for fun!
1. More solar - I can now buy solar panels for less than $1/watt, but I need to invest in the mounting hardware too! #70mphwinddestroysthings
2. Wind turbine - Nothing from the ChinEsebay collection.
3. Landscaping - I need a bunch of permanent planting beds (wooden, 2.5 feet high), surrounded by gravel, and filled with soil. I never want to fill a planting bed by hand ever again. The wife wants it to look good, which I am on-board with. #IheartBobcat
4. Fencing - To pasture animals efficiently, one must be able to move them from paddock to paddock.
5. Water collection/storage - I need at least 10,000 gal of storage that's connected to the house, and buried underground. That means cinder blocks, and a way to divert the roof water into it. I've got 2,500 gal of storage now, about 1.5 months worth.
6. Trees, trees, bushes, and more trees - And more trees. Big fast growing poplars, mulched, with automatic watering devices of some kind.
7. Watering system - For plants and animals. Either ponds that stay filled year round (difficult), or piping to send water to distant areas underground (expensive)
8. Greenhouse - Nothing less than 1,000 sq feet of almost year round growing space will do. I would prefer more like 3,000 sq feet, but I am will to start small. #motherofallgreenhouses
9. Batteries - A brand new bank that can store 3 days worth of power. Very costly, but necessary!
I haven't abandoned my dreams, but I did get reaaaaally distracted this year! The fallout will last another year, and then we can really start to grow! I am very excited to imagine the future out here, and the great things that can happen, not just on the land, but in my own family's lives as well! Stay tuned, good things are en-route...
Fm: Frodo @ Sunset Meadows Farm
To: Everyone
RE: What happened to 2012??? We thought you were dead!
I haven't posted since May, which in Canada is just about the primetime of spring. Alas, the warm weather left us too soon this year, we got our first major snowfall on October 12th, and temperatures dropped like 99 luft balloons to car-not-starting-ly cold.
There was no garden this year. There were no chickens. I focused this year on curing some debt woes, and the fix is just about in! Ever since the "credit-crisis" struck the world in 2008, getting a loan refinanced, even on real-estate, has been quite difficult. We needed all of our debt rolled into the mortgage, but the bank wasn't going for it. Until now, that is. Once we've completed the refinance, we will be shaving $1,400 in interest payments off our monthly budget. That's $1,400 that can be used for savings, car repairs, home renos, and buying things that are on my prepping wish list. Here's my list, just for fun!
1. More solar - I can now buy solar panels for less than $1/watt, but I need to invest in the mounting hardware too! #70mphwinddestroysthings
2. Wind turbine - Nothing from the ChinEsebay collection.
3. Landscaping - I need a bunch of permanent planting beds (wooden, 2.5 feet high), surrounded by gravel, and filled with soil. I never want to fill a planting bed by hand ever again. The wife wants it to look good, which I am on-board with. #IheartBobcat
4. Fencing - To pasture animals efficiently, one must be able to move them from paddock to paddock.
5. Water collection/storage - I need at least 10,000 gal of storage that's connected to the house, and buried underground. That means cinder blocks, and a way to divert the roof water into it. I've got 2,500 gal of storage now, about 1.5 months worth.
6. Trees, trees, bushes, and more trees - And more trees. Big fast growing poplars, mulched, with automatic watering devices of some kind.
7. Watering system - For plants and animals. Either ponds that stay filled year round (difficult), or piping to send water to distant areas underground (expensive)
8. Greenhouse - Nothing less than 1,000 sq feet of almost year round growing space will do. I would prefer more like 3,000 sq feet, but I am will to start small. #motherofallgreenhouses
9. Batteries - A brand new bank that can store 3 days worth of power. Very costly, but necessary!
I haven't abandoned my dreams, but I did get reaaaaally distracted this year! The fallout will last another year, and then we can really start to grow! I am very excited to imagine the future out here, and the great things that can happen, not just on the land, but in my own family's lives as well! Stay tuned, good things are en-route...
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
A long overdue update
The last two months have been very busy! Some activities are done for the year, like my karate class, but others have taken their place, including soccer, and spring cleanup.
LIVESTOCK
We have goats! There are now two pygmy nanny goats running wild and free on the farm, and they are pretty dang cute! They are only about the size of a medium dog, and have little short horns, but they are very playful, and completely non-aggressive. They like to climb on things, but they typically stay within 100 feet of the house. We don't have them penned up, but they eventually will be put into a fenced area, and I might be getting a few more of them. I am thinking about selling them as milking animals, so that people who would like raw milk, but don't have room for a cow could have one of these, and then they could have some milk!
I am also gearing up for my first batch of chickens in 2012. I will be ordering them next week, and I'm starting with 150. Instead of ordering all of them at once, I will order smaller batches, raise those, and that will allow me to manage my freezer space better. It's also a lot easier to manage 150 chickens on pasture than 400!
This year, I will be raising several different breeds, the main breed being the Cornish Cross. As much as I don't really like that breed, they do grow fast, and they get big. Last year, my dual-purpose birds only got to 3 pounds in 14 weeks! It costs $5 per bird for processing, so literally half of the price of the bird was the processing. My net profit was very low, maybe $1 per bird. I need bigger birds, or lower processing costs, or both. I will still be raising some dual purpose types, but mainly so I can have some hens. Last years flock was all male.
WORK
I mentioned before that I am volunteering with the local fire department, and I am still doing that. I am not officially a member, but I am hoping that will change this week! Apparently they are reviewing the budget to see if they can add more members, so here's hoping... Even so, I have enjoyed the training immensely! There is so much to know that I literally feel retarded, but this summer should hopefully see me learning enough to be a contributing member of the team. I've also been able to meet some more people, which has been a bit of a challenge, since I don't work in town.
NERDY STUFF
A couple of weeks ago, we had a STAR TREK CONVENTION in the big city that I work in! Technically, it was a "comic convention", but the main attraction was the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation coming. I've loved that show since I was a kid, and I determined that I was going to go to this convention! I took the kids to the stadium, and walked up to the front...and was informed that they were not allowing anyone else inside. Apparently the fire department had told them to stop allowing walk-in's because they had too many inside already! I was choked...and we went home. If they ever return again, I will make sure and pre-purchase my tickets. Hopefully at least some of the cast will be back next year!
EPILOGUE
Everything is turning green, the weather is great, and I am excited about summertime! I will also be posting more pictures, and maybe a few Youtubes. By the way, you can visit my website at
www.sunset-meadows.org
and see pictures, order chicken, or shower me with glowing accolades ; )
LIVESTOCK
We have goats! There are now two pygmy nanny goats running wild and free on the farm, and they are pretty dang cute! They are only about the size of a medium dog, and have little short horns, but they are very playful, and completely non-aggressive. They like to climb on things, but they typically stay within 100 feet of the house. We don't have them penned up, but they eventually will be put into a fenced area, and I might be getting a few more of them. I am thinking about selling them as milking animals, so that people who would like raw milk, but don't have room for a cow could have one of these, and then they could have some milk!
I am also gearing up for my first batch of chickens in 2012. I will be ordering them next week, and I'm starting with 150. Instead of ordering all of them at once, I will order smaller batches, raise those, and that will allow me to manage my freezer space better. It's also a lot easier to manage 150 chickens on pasture than 400!
This year, I will be raising several different breeds, the main breed being the Cornish Cross. As much as I don't really like that breed, they do grow fast, and they get big. Last year, my dual-purpose birds only got to 3 pounds in 14 weeks! It costs $5 per bird for processing, so literally half of the price of the bird was the processing. My net profit was very low, maybe $1 per bird. I need bigger birds, or lower processing costs, or both. I will still be raising some dual purpose types, but mainly so I can have some hens. Last years flock was all male.
WORK
I mentioned before that I am volunteering with the local fire department, and I am still doing that. I am not officially a member, but I am hoping that will change this week! Apparently they are reviewing the budget to see if they can add more members, so here's hoping... Even so, I have enjoyed the training immensely! There is so much to know that I literally feel retarded, but this summer should hopefully see me learning enough to be a contributing member of the team. I've also been able to meet some more people, which has been a bit of a challenge, since I don't work in town.
NERDY STUFF
A couple of weeks ago, we had a STAR TREK CONVENTION in the big city that I work in! Technically, it was a "comic convention", but the main attraction was the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation coming. I've loved that show since I was a kid, and I determined that I was going to go to this convention! I took the kids to the stadium, and walked up to the front...and was informed that they were not allowing anyone else inside. Apparently the fire department had told them to stop allowing walk-in's because they had too many inside already! I was choked...and we went home. If they ever return again, I will make sure and pre-purchase my tickets. Hopefully at least some of the cast will be back next year!
EPILOGUE
Everything is turning green, the weather is great, and I am excited about summertime! I will also be posting more pictures, and maybe a few Youtubes. By the way, you can visit my website at
www.sunset-meadows.org
and see pictures, order chicken, or shower me with glowing accolades ; )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
