Saturday BlogRoll call

My fellow blogging homesteaders Part 3

Tales of a Texas Farm Wife is maintained by Marina. I have always enjoyed her stories, she just needs to update a little more often.

The Green Mommy is more of a green apartment living blog rather than a homesteading blog. But Jenny has the idea and is doing as much urban homesteading as she can.

The Unusually Unusual Farm Chick is a very interesting blog. Tammie lives in the suburbs on 1 1/4 acres. But she is doing a lot on that small plot. She also has a dream of one day buying her own farm.

The New Homemaker is more about family than homesteading. But they have the right idea. I suggest you check out Lynn's City Riparian Project. Day Zero Day one Day Two

Who, Me?

I was completely shocked, no wait confused, when I read a recent e-mail. What? my blog?


Turns out Julie over on Flip this Body has deemed my mistakes worthy of being the Bestest Blog of the day for October 20th 2006.

When I first exchanged links with Bobby at Bestest Blog, I never thought that I would get this honor. Who would actually be interested in reading about my day to day life on a homestead in the middle of Kansas?

The Bestest Blog has also allowed me to find some of my {now} favorite blogs.

Here's to Julie and to Bobby for allowing Julie to make her first mistake. We love her all the same.

I moved my family {no. This blame lays solely on my husband} five years ago Halloween. We began a simple garden and started homesteading two years later. I am still in the learning phases of it all. So many things to do and master. It's not easy. We lose sleep, we bleed, I cry and curse. But when the day has come to an end, and I can actually lie down, I am happily exhausted.

I know this seems strange to many people. But this . . . this make us happy.

Before I met my husband, things were not good in my life. I was homeless, I was drinking so I wouldn't grieve over the death of my first son. I had no wants. My husband was a junky. He was a man that had trained to be an orthopedic surgeon, but gave it all up to use. We made a lovely couple. This August marked our 10-year anniversary. I stop drinking within two months of us meeting. He has been clean eight years.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I want you to understand a little of why this makes us happy. We moved away from the suburbs, so that our children could enjoy the freedoms of running around without boundaries. But we struggled. We bought our house shortly after 9/11/2001. And living in an area that the primary jobs are from the aircraft industry, well things became financially difficult. My employer’s checks began to bounce, and my husband was unable to get a promised raise. Our simple hobby garden became a need. I had to learn how to preserve foods to make sure that my children didn't have a childhood like my husband's. Soon though, things got better. I continued to learn to homestead, and my husband has made a decent name for himself in the American motorcycle industry. We are no longer at a point in our lives where homesteading would be a necessity. Now it is a way of life.

I have always been fascinated with old school ways. No, not just the little house on the prairie stuff. Some even older than that. We do not have the same frustrations’ we once did. We have new ones, but those are of our own doing, not from machines and employers. It's "the salt of the earth" mentality that is hard to explain. We are both educated people {though our educations differ from one another} We are not anti- government, and only one of us suffers from Big Brother syndrom. We are trying to live our lives to the fullest in the only way we have found to compliment us. We got lucky.

I never thought I would live to be 28 years old. I figured I would end up dead in a gutter somewhere, or death by my own hands. But now I have found a pride in myself that I never would have thought possible. I have even stepped up and pursued non homesteading goals that I coward from before. Doing things for myself, growing my own food, carving my own story into the earth, that's something that makes me feel as though I can grow old, and in my own time.

It's late here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I promise not to ramble in response.

Dream well ~Phelan

I am bad

I broke down and bought a very cheap juicer last night. I am hoping it will make it through at least a half bushel of apples. I am weak, I know. I will not be getting a press until next year, but I have so many apples to get rid of. My boys love apple juice. what else was I to do?

My sweet potato cuttings have rooted. I will transplant them today. I will write about that tomorrow.

I have lost track of how many pounds of apples I have processed. I am down to 3 bushels though.

The turkey is getting more desperate. I am buying my husband a caponizing kit for Christmas. {a lovely gift, isn't it?} but I don't want to deal with more horny poultry. Plus it helps fatten them up.

Yes, I am thinking about Christmas already. It's a great time to buy things that are wanted, more than needed here on the homestead. We don't need a caponizing kit, but it is a nice want and useful. I also thought about a straight razor kit. I wanted to get one for my husband and one for myself last year. But I couldn't find them. People prefer the disposable ones, I assume. They are everywhere. I would like to have a cast iron kettle {dutch oven}, a very large one with a tripod, that can be hung over a camp fire. Oh what I could do with that. Rustic cooking at its best.

So I was wondering, what are your homesteading Christmas wants this year?

Pumpkin disappointment

We lost power for a couple hours yesterday. We won't know the reason for it until the monthly electric co-op magazine is sent out. But we did see a few fire trucks and tankers drive by. I am assuming there was a rather large fire somewhere. I never did see the smoke.

This weekend we decided to go out to The Pumpkin Patch. It's a few miles down the road from us, and is a new tradition of ours to go every year. The boys get their Jack-O'-Lanterns and I get Luminas for pies. We pay $20 USD to fill a large wheelbarrow with U-pick-it pumpkins.

Saturday we loaded the kids into the truck and headed out. But when we got to the Pumpkin Patch, it was shut up tight. There were no signs nor harvest decorations. No tractor pulling a straw and people laden wagon. No families mulling around, playfully teasing each other, waiting for the tractor to return. Nothing but a locked wrought iron gate. The back seat erupted in moaning and out cries of disappointment. We slowly drove past.

Pouting, I asked was there another patch close by? My husband and I knew of a few down south, but nothing close. But wait! Wasn't there one by my husband's sister's place?
We drove out that way, only to find an abandoned home. The older gentleman that grew pumpkins had died last year. His children were to busy fighting over how much to sell the land for to bother keeping a tradition in that area alive.

Sadly we started home, when suddenly there was a trailer siting on a side road loaded down with pumpkins! And it had a sign declaring that they were for sale. We pulled off the side of the road. All the pumpkins were Jack-O'-Lanterns. We picked out 5 huge ones, and put our money into the little lock box that was glues to the trailer. Rare to find honor system paying on a busy road. Unfortunately it looks like I do not get my lumina pumpkins this year, but the meat of the Jack-O'-Lanterns can make a decent pie.
While looking for something to link Lumina pumpkin with {just in case someone doesn't know what they are.} I found an article on frugal living and pumpkins. It states that you should not buy a lumina pumpkin for cooking. That it is stringy and weak in flavor. May I say BS! This writer must not get a good quality lumina. I find that they make the best pumpkin pies. Better than the traditional pumpkins.

My mother cracks me up!

Here is her response via e-mail {she wasn't able to psot here for some reason} to us going underground.

It is true that you, my daughter, were obsessed with "little House on The Praire". But, I, as your mother, thought it was about cute little dresses, long braids, & simpler times. Mother's have dreams too. But, never did I think that out of all that reading would you become the "Cave Girl".

Now, I think you are doing well & the underground house is a great idea. I just think, maybe, I should have had you reading Dr. Welby books. Then again, you may have decieded to become the gardener that mowes the hospital lawns. There is nothing like an imagination.

Living in the basement while the house is being build is not an everyday occurrence, but, does happen. We had thought about it ourselves. But, it did not stem from my cave fantasy. More my escape fantasy.

"I the conqueror of the world, when I was 8, would have to escape the enemy by hidding in my vast underground fortress"

Laura Engells? Your father & I did feed into that hunger for her books. I just was living under my fantasy of lollipops & cute braids.

I take full responsiblilty for the outcome of my children. But, I had no idea the depths of their thinking. If only I could have gottten into those tiny brains & seen the forcast of their lives. Never mind. With 4 children it would have been like sneaking into the livingroom before Christmas & opening the presents then closing them back up before Christmas. (which I did). It ruins the fun of knowing the future.

Laura Engells? Not what I though was under my Christmas tree. But, I love what has come from the mind of the child I gave all those books to.

Maybe, I should of had her read Nancy Drew. I could use a good dective now & then, oh, that's right she would have been the ubscure woman doing, uh, I don't know.

Parents, you have been warned! ~grin~

oh and mom, I did read Nancy Drew.

Did you miss the apples?

Between the heart attacks and sick child, I did manage to process more apples this weekend. Everyone is doing well now, thank you for your well wishes.

3 deep dish apple pies

chocolate chip, apple and walnut cookie dough

apple strudel

I also wanted to clarify about living underground. Someone mentioned that the idea might terrify her. She described living in a basement or a dirt cave, with no way except one way out. This might be a common thought among my readers, because it is when I tell people face to face. {You guys are so quiet, I forget other's that are not homesteaders read this} Once the house in finished, it will look nothing like a basement. It will look like a normal house. It will not be dark or dank or have worms crawling about. {though that would make my boys very happy} Our plans do include natural lighting. {here is were I wish for a scanner} Those of you that have the $50 and up underground House book, please turn to page 56. The peaked roof house is similar to what we have in mind {though we are going with a more sloping roof} For those of you that do not have the book, let's see if I can describe it.

The front entrance is accessible from ground level, but you do have to walk down earth stairs or a slope to get to it. On either side of the house will be a sunken earth patio. There will be big glass doors that allow us to exit the house on either side. What we don't have is a back entrance.

The house will be done in concrete, because our water table is so low. We have looked into other, more green products. But none of the fit our needs. We are going with cork flooring instead of dirt because of the county codes here {My husband really wanted the dirt, I don't} Once the interior is finished, you will not be able to see the concrete.

I guess you need to check back in the spring when we get started to really understand.

Why are we going underground?

It's been a very long weekend. My Father-in-law and his stepfather had heart attacks this weekend. Father-in-law on Friday, his stepfather on Saturday. My two-year-old is sick, and when he is, he tends to wake up frequently in a panic. Top that with a migraine and you have my weekend.

I was asked about why we are going to build an underground home. I know I have talked about it before, but in short posts. and I am lazy about searching through everything to find it.

One of the first reasons that we decided on going underground is because of childhood fantasies. I, and my obsession with the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, and the house in the hill. My husband spent time between Denver Colorado {living in a car} and Rock, Kansas {a little no where town}. Rock, Kansas is home to a few underground missile silos. A couple bought one and turned it into a home. That started his fascination with the underground home.

Another reason isn't so whimsical. Underground homes tend to stay in the temperature range of 70F {21c} to 75F {23c}, almost eliminating the need for artificial heating or cooling. That worked wonders on selling us to the idea. We do have two wood burning stoves to help lift any winter chill, and have discussed building a home hearth not just for warmth, but because I adore cooking in them. The only out of pocket expense will be for the wood as we have few trees on our land. {The ones we do have are for wind breaks and an orchard, and are still to young for even those duties} But even the price of wood is considerably cheaper than propane {we don't get natural gas out here} or electricity. We do plan on using propane still as a way to heat up our hot water tank and gas range. {Propane is cheaper than electricity, here} Another "heater" we have looked into is a pellet stove, or corn furnace. These things are great. A friend of ours bought one last year. She bought her corn at the local co-op and spent a little over $3.00 US to heat her house last year.

Reason number three, the weather. Even though the valley I live in has not been torn up by a tornado in ten years, there is still that great threat. We do get hail and straight line winds, as well as microbursts. These things do great damage to homes. Going underground will eliminate this type of home damage, as well as keep us safe if a tornado decides to show up in the middle of the night.

Yet another reason would be that we will be the most popular people in the area with the children. They will come for miles just to slide down the only hill in these parts, during the snow.

Living underground will give us more space to work with. The sheep can graze our roof top, and the steps of the sunken patio will allow me to garden closer to the house. The risk of a fire destroying our house will be less, and in turn will reduce our insurance costs. The only down side is that our property tax will go up.

And we are actually mole people.

I do hope that answers your questions about why. If not, or you want me to expand on an explanation, please ask.

Guest Blogger: Thatu

I think this is a great charity, and have asked Ali to tell me more about it.

Thank you Phelan for asking me to contribute this piece to your blog. Today I would like to tell your readers about, and invite them to get involved with, a charity called Thatu.

Thatu is a UK registered charity established in 2004, that fund-raises to support grass roots and self-help projects in areas of South Africa that are challenged by scarce resources and the effects on the community of the HIV / AIDS epidemic.

Thatu at present focuses on the support of community run organic permaculture food gardens.

Why food gardens?
In the areas that Thatu works, where children have been lucky enough to acquire school places, sometimes they do not get regular food and it is very hard to concentrate on learning school work when hungry. Also, where adults suffering from HIV/AIDS are fortunate enough to have access to retro viral medicines, these only work optimally when the patient has good nutrition.

Apart from the obvious nutritional benefits that a food garden can provide, community food gardens linked with schools allow the acquisition of practical permaculture and gardening skills, so that sustainable management of the resources is taken into the community. The gardens are also used for curricular learning about recycling, reuse and more traditional subjects. For example, children might be asked to bring in from home a container of grey water' (recycled washing water). This is then used to water the garden, and the teacher might get the children to estimate mathematically the volume of water needed to supply plants over a certain area.

Produce is shared between the community volunteers that work in the garden, and any excess is sold and the profits shared between the workers and for the benefit of the garden,

Thatu is supporting 5 food gardens in two areas; Pretoria and the notoriously inhospitable Cape Flats. Each site has its own particular problems and challenges. For example, the soil on the Cape Flats is mainly sea sand, and it is blown by strong winds, so the priority there is to use
permaculture methods to help counter some of the challenges; to establish organic wind breaks and enrich the soil. The message that Thatu's projects all send is that gardens can be established in the most unlikely of circumstances.

As well as all the tangible benefits to food gardening, they all have less measurable, but equally important social benefits. They bring the community together, and they bring pride and hope for the future.

Thatu is very concerned that all the money donated gets spent as intended, and has regular monitoring and reports from the projects that can be read at any time by supporters on its website at http://www.thatu.org/ One of our important aims is that the projects are sustainable, and ultimately become independently run and continue to bring benefit to the community into the long term.

How to help Thatu

Of course, one of the most important things is to donate and raise money for the projects, and there are numerous fun and interesting ways you can do this. You can read about the many ways to do this at our website in the 'How you can help' section, but here I will outline just a few ideas.

Penny Pinchers Appeal
Thatu will send you a sticky label which you attach to a recycled container, such as a washed out plastic milk carton or jam jar. You then use this to collect small change for Thatu, and then bank it. To get your label and to participate, and for full details, click here. Penny Pinchers Appeal

Stamp Appeal
Is you save used stamps and mail them to Thatu, they are able to sell them on at a small profit for the charity. All stamps are accepted, as well as coins and first day covers. For full details, click here. Stamp Appeal


Jabula
Jabula in Bantu (an African language) means 'CELEBRATE!' so we use this word as the name for the fund-raising garden parties that our supporters hold to raise money for Thatu. These can be as small as a few friends getting together for coffee, to a full scale fete with games tournaments and musical events! We encourage our supporters to do what they can to use their own gardens to raise money for food gardens in Africa. If you would like to hold a Jabula for Thatu, click here to read more and download a fundraising pack.


Thatu Shop
Thatu has an online shop that sells small gifts - these include children's tools, seeds, envelope re-use labels, and various other nice festive season ideas. Please visit the shop by clicking here.
Shop

Network for Thatu
One of the most important things you can do for Thatu is to talk about it! Thatu can really benefit from the people you know. Corporate and Trust donations are vital to Thatu's survival. If you know anyone who works for a large company who could arrange a donation, and who would benefit from the positive publicity being linked with Thatu could bring, please tell them
about Thatu and introduce them to us.

Donate
Simply make a one off cash donation, by PayPal, by clicking here Donate Now

~Ali

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you Ali. I already have the Penny Pintchers Appeal, so I have started. This is a charity that I feel many gardeners could get behind. ~Phelan