Back to Basic, Part 1

I am about half way through Back to Basics, by Abigial R Gehring,

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I've enjoyed what I've read so far. Like Mini-Farming, this book provides an introduction to a number of skills, but does not cover everything you need to know to practice the skill. Back to Basics provides a whole lot more information on each topic than mini-farming did. It also has a good resources list at the end of most of the skills where you can get the detailed information you'd want to actually practice the skill. I've been surprised every few pages to discover that I am still interested--though I anticipate this will not continue when I get to the section on outdoor recreation (camping...).

For this review, I'll list the topics that are discussed and my reactions to them.

- Buying country property: Gehring points out many characteristics to look for when purchasing land that I hadn't previously thought of. The first that surprised me was the importance of having a wood lot on your land. Other things that I had previously considered including, soil quality and access to water, are also discussed, and techniques are provided for determining these things. For example, there are plants that, if present, indicate the relative location of a source of water. She also discusses surveying the land.

- Living there: The sections encompassed in my description of "living there" include preparing the site, designing a home, converting wood into lumber, and three different home construction techniques--log homes, adobe homes, and stone homes. I was fascinated with the different construction techniques (less so with adobe than the other two). I was surprised by the thought that people would actually convert their own trees into lumber. I discovered that someone I work with actually does this--he has a portable lumber mill that he takes to the trees he cuts down and saws them into boards so he can easily take them to his wood shed to dry. I investigated the mills and found that they start around $7,000 and go up. I also was surprised to learn that you can buy log home kits. Companies will deliver all the logs, precut, for you to assemble a home. These are not just little log cabins, but can be as large as 6,000 sq ft homes. I was concerned about insulating a log home and learned that the thermal mass the logs provide actually works pretty well at keeping good indoor temperatures---though they don't seem to be as good as if you had a passive house. I also enjoyed reading about the different methods used in log home construction. For stone homes, I was surprised to learn that the basic idea of the slipform method is to take a couple of frames, fill them with rocks and then pour concrete over the rocks. Once the concrete has setup within the first frame, but not fully cured, you pull the frame off, move it up higher on the wall (above the second frame) and repeat. By doing this, you can build a solid "rock" wall by leap froging frames every day or say until your wall is as tall as you need it to be.

- Other living stuff: She then goes on to talk about raising a barn (using old techniques), developing a water supply, hot tubs and saunas (I thought this was a little odd), and waste disposal (like toilets and outhouses). These were interesting, but didn't stimulate a whole lot of thought for me. The water supply had a few "drilling" techniques that I had not heard of, and the idea of creating a pond is pretty neat to me.

- Heating your home: I was very interested in fireplace construction and wood burning stoves. The two sections are separate in the book and I've been pretty well convinced that I'd rather use wood burning stoves and a fireplace. I researched them, and it looks you can expect to spend $1000 for a stove and maybe a little more depending on what you'd need to do to get the exhaust pipe through the roof. One of the points they make is that the radiant heat from a stove and fireplace is more pleasant than forced air furnaces. I had never thought of that before, but it seems like I agree with it. I like to stand in front of a fireplace to get warm much more than I like to stand in front of an air vent.

- Fences: I didn't know there was such a variety of fences, and that there is such a variety because they all are used for different types of things.

The whole next section was on Energy from wood, water, wind, and sun.

- She discusses a few techniques for better insulating a home as well as some information in home planning for lower energy usage. She also discusses underground homes.

- Waterpower: I didn't know that you could build single family hydroelectric power "plants". With as small as a few feet of vertical drop across your land, and a small stream, you can produce a lot of the power needs of your home. There are lots of options, but, it appears, the hardest part of the process is dealing with the local government who might prohibit you from using the water--because of how it affects people downstream or the environment. She talks about the different options, the basics of how you would damn up your water, and how a small plant would be layed out.

- Windpower: This section surprised me at how little power it seems you can really get from wind. A chart that she provides shows that with an average wind speed of 8 mph, a 10,000 W generator, using 12 foot blades (24 feet in diameter for the turbine), you would only get 370 kilowatt-hours per month. Not only is the output small, but to get a good windspeed, you need to have a high tower.

- Solarpower: I was reminded that there are a lot of ways to make use of solar power--water heaters, green houses, photovoltaic (electrical production), solar ovens, and passive home heating. She provides a fairly detailed description of the construction of a solar water heating system.

- Other energy sources: Finally, she talks a little about people power--using pedals to power things, methane producing bacteria, and alcohol production (she doesn't go into detail on this, apparently because it's extremely regulated by the federal government and because it takes a lot of effort to do well).

Her next section is on gardening. I don't remember anything really jumping out at me in this section. A lot of what she discusses is stuff I've read elsewhere. She includes a discussion on soil quality and improvement, composting, seed starting, seed sprouting for food, green houses, and a brief description of both common and uncommon vegetables that people in the US grow. She also discusses watering, growing gardens in containers, herb gardens, and fruit and nut trees. She has a few descriptions of non-chemical methods for combating pests including some traps that look interesting. I haven't read much about raising grain, straw and hay, so her sections on that were valuable for me.

Perhaps my favorite portion of this section was the few pages on bee keeping. For some reason, raising bees is very appealing to me. I will add some of the books in her resources list my list of books to read. Did you know a single hive can produce 30-60lbs of honey per year? That's so cool! And, they don't require a lot of care--simply ensure they don't get to hot or too cold and that they have enough food during the winter and enough space all the time. At least, that's what I remember. I'll learn more later.

The funnies thing to me was the idea of raising your own fish--in a tank or pond in the back yard. She went so far as to say that you could raise fish for food in your children's wading pool. Does that seem funny to anyone else? Apparently, fish produce the best protein for the amount of food they consume of any animal. Too bad they are gross.

I also enjoyed the section on raising livestock. She covered chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, pigs, sheep, goats, cows, and horses. I keep wondering how people could really slaughter a 1,000 lb pig. I mean, how do you move it once it's dead? I'm sure you have some sort of system with chains, hooks, and pulleys to get it off the ground. One of my books lists the tools you need for slaughtering, so perhaps it will go into more detail.

And, that's where I stopped. I'll discuss the rest of the book once I've finished it. My overall recommendation is that if this stuff is interesting to you, this is a good book to read. After I'm done the with books I have now, I'll use this book to generate a list of other topics I'd like to research. If you've read this whole post, you might as well read the book...

Jason passed his boards. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! We know that Heavenly Father answered our prayers in helping him pass this test!

Review of 2 books

I recently finished two short books. Here's what I thought of them:

How to grow orchards fruits was less than what I had hoped it would be. I can't remember why I chose it over other books about fruit trees--it had something to do with the pictures, and it might have been because it was less expensive than the other books I looked at. While the book wasn't a complete waste, I wonder if I would have been better off getting one of the others. At only 63 pages, I should have recognized that it wouldn't have had the details that I was looking for. Having said that, I will also say that I learned a few things from the book.

First, I had no idea that you could train fruit trees to be "flat". There are 2 types of training that the authors discuss in most detail: espalier and fan. Espalier is training the branches of the tree to all grow to the left or the right of the trunk--not in front or back. This appears to have the effect of making your tree flat. Fan training is just what it sounds like--think of a folding fan. The tree flat, and the branches fan out. They also mention a training method called cordon, which is training your trees to grow at an angle--often 45 degrees from the vertical--without any real branches to speak of. All three of these seem odd to me, but they make sense as a method for reducing the amount of space a tree takes up. Specifically, all of these training methods can be used to grow a fruit tree against a wall or a fence, substantially reducing the space they take from a yard. The author also point out the benefit of growing a tree against a wall: that the wall retains heat from the day and keeps the tree warmer into the night. This helps the tree to grow more.

I also learned that the later an apple ripens, generally, the longer it can be stored. Apples should be stored in a cool environment wrapped in news paper...I guess they like to read. I had never heard of a damson before--it's like a plum, but I guess they are often more sour and better suited for cooking. I was surprised to find that citrus fruits can be grown anywhere because they are productive even at small sizes. The book has pictures of oranges on a tree no more than 1 1/2 feet tall and growing in a pot. The authors point out that citrus fruits actually like the cool weather, they just don't like to freeze, so as long as you bring them indoors before it freezes, they should be fine. Adrianne and I actually had a lime "tree" for a few years while in Oklahoma. We killed it somehow--I think by just putting it outside all day without gradually introducing it back outdoors. We had thought that it did well there because Oklahoma was fairly warm. We'll have to try some other citrus sometime.

Over all, the book was fine, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who wanted to actually grow their own fruit trees.

The second book I finished was, Let it Rot.

I enjoyed this book, though as I look at the cover, I realize I somehow was sold the 2nd edition even though I bought the 3rd edition...I wonder if I should be upset about it. It looks, from the pages I can see on the preview that the book is mostly the same. And, from what I read, it doesn't seem like there would be a whole lot of new information to share on this subject.

I enjoyed this book. It was entertaining and informative. It didn't feel too long or too short. I think the most valuable point he makes in the book is that stuff is going to rot whether you help it along or not. So, don't think that you can mess up composting. You can certainly slow it down or speed it up by your decisions, though. He talks about the bugs that make composting work and what they need to work quickly. He also discusses a number of methods to use. The one I found most interesting that Adrianne has vetoed is worm composting. You can have a box full of worms that you feed your table/cooking scraps. They eat the stuff and then poop out "castings" that are really good for your garden. You need about twice the weight in worms that you will feed them every day--if you generate 1/2 pound of food waste per day, you need 1 pound of worms. I heard about a family that did this for a while until the wife said no more. Her problem? The worms kept escaping.... I shared this with Adrianne. I think that's why she vetoed it. Oh well. I currently have a compost tumbler--a barrel that I put all my stuff in. It is working well, though it's not getting as hot as I'd like it to get. It needs to get up to 130 -140 F for a few hours to kill off all the seeds and the bad germs. Tonight it was 110 F, so I'm hoping that tomorrow in the sunlight it will get to 140 F. We'll see.

I would recommend this book if you are interested in composting. It's a quick read, entertaining, and informative. However, I don't think he says anything that you couldn't just as easily find on the internet. I just like to have books.

Mike

I am trying to find a background that fits our blog.... if anyone can find one, please fix it. Thanks! I need the background to fit the words and the whole screen. That will make it easier to read, but still nice to look at.

Mini Farming

First, I'm not trying to step on Jessica's post about Jason--if you haven't seen it, you should skip my post and go read the one right below first.

Now that you're back...I just finished reading the book Mini Farming, Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre by Brett L. Markham. I've enjoyed the book. It's an introduction to a lot of the things involved in growing your own food. It's pretty light on the details needed to actually do a lot of the stuff he discusses, but I think he's done a sufficient job of helping me know whether or not I'll pursue certain activities, and he's provided a (limited) bibliography at the end of his book for further reading. I've already read one of the books in his bibliography and I own another (it's next on my list after the one I'm reading right now).

For those of you who haven't heard, I've been living my life for the past few years with two fairly opposed views of the future. The first is the one that most of you know--I'll save and invest for retirement so that I will be wealthy by the time I'm done working. Because of that view, I've maximized my Roth IRA contributions every year since I've had a job until this past year when we stopped to save money for the house. The other view is that I don't really believe the country will survive the next twenty years without some major (and likely painful) changes--probably including some sort of restructuring of our economy and government. I've envisioned things ranging from a minor change to catastrophic upheavals possibly including the entire collapse of the government. Something recently brought these two contradictory views of the future into my mind at the same time and I wondered why I was investing so much of my resources into a system that I have little confidence will exist when I need it.

That question worked on me for a while and I decided that I ought to put a portion of that money into something that would actually be valuable to me if the country fell into anarchy. Just to help you think about what that means, imagine that the population ceased conforming to the law (for whatever reason). There would quickly be no food or fuel and money would be worthless and traveling would be dangerous. So, what would be of value at that point?

As I've thought about it, the first and obvious thing is food. I have been feeling for a couple of years now that my family needs to get at least a year's worth of food storage. We've been working on it an we will continue. But, I'm not convinced that everything will be resolved and back to normal within a year. It seemed like the next most important thing to own would be productive land that would enable me to produce my own food. Unfortunately, with my current employment, this is not a realistic option for me. Sure, I could buy some land, but I couldn't improve it and make it productive because I won't be near it for more than 3 years.

Mom and Dad suggested that I ought to buy tools that I'd need in the situation I'm envisioning. I think that's a great idea, and I have begun a list of tools that I will acquire over the next while. However, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the first thing I need is the skills that would be required to live on our own.

So, with that in mind, I have purchased a number of books (from which I am generating my list of tools), and I will read them and put into practice what I can of what they describe. This book on mini farming was a good introduction. I also have books on composting, trapping, butchering live stock and game, preserving meats, and a couple other generic books on homesteading/traditional skills. I'm currently reading a book on fruit trees to help me out with the one's I showed you previously.

I hope I'm just being crazy and that this will all be a waste of my time (at least I think it's fun and interesting for now), but it certainly seems like something worth doing to prepare. If nothing else, some of these skills will reduce our expenses. The gardening skills will certainly help with the grocery budget.

Once I get done with these books, I'll look into skills and equipment needed for "going off the grid". While I'm preparing to (temporarily) live a life without electricity, I'd like to be able to provide my own and not depend on a power company. Right now my plan is that when we retire from the air force, I will buy some land and have a passive house built on it. A passive house is one that is very well insulated and energy efficient in general. It requires little to no heating or cooling to stay at reasonable temperatures all year round. I'll install some power producing equipment (wind turbine and solar panels), a well, and a septic tank. I'll have a big garden, some fruit and nut trees, and some animals, and I'll hope I've wasted my time and money doing all of this.

Now, as most of you know, I like to get obsessed with things, so it could just be that I'm suddenly obsessed with this idea. What worries me a little is that other people whom I respect have told me they've been feeling the same things for a while. For example, I mentioned this to my former bishop and he said his brother-in-law, a real-estate agent, has been watching for land for them.

Any way, that's what I've been thinking about recently. I'll report on the other books I read and I'll share my list of tools if any of you are interested, once I get it done...or at least further along.

It's okay if you think I'm nuts.

THE TEST

Jason takes his NCLEX-RN (National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurse) (aka his boards) on Thursday morning. It is a computer multiple choice exam. It has a minimum of 75 questions and a maximum of 265. It just shuts off when it has enough information about whether or not you can pass or fail.

Having taken it, it is extremely stressful. I seem to be more stressed than he is though! Which is probably good. We would appreciate any prayers said on his behalf this week.

Thanks! We will let you know how it goes!

Tree Training Pictures for Dad

I've told Dad for the past while that I would take some pictures of my trees. I'm using rope to try to train the branches. In the winter I'll prune the apple trees and then prune the plum and cherry next spring. The goal is to get the apple and cherry trees to look kind of like a christmas tree and the plum to look like a vase. We'll see how they turn out in the end.

This is a stella cherry.

This is a stanely plum.

This is a braeburn.

This one is a golden delicious.