Sometimes I wonder about me. I mean, here I am seemingly pounding my head against a brick wall trying to get the folks around me to realize they really, really, NEED Permaculture and no damn body's paying me one whit of attention. The most feed back I've gotten from a local source is "Why do you have to be so negative all the time.
NEGATIVE? I haven't been any where near negative yet!! I've just been telling it like I see it. Yep, it dose not look rosy my friends. We will all have to make changes and choices. Some of them will be difficult to hard if we make them NOW. A lot of them will be choices you will have no option about in the future.
That future bit there is part of my problem I think as, in all honesty, I can't say "You need to get this done by Nov. 5th 2012 or July 13th 2014 or anything as definite as that. Why not? Cause I don't freaking know! I just can see the train wreck coming folks. The only thing that could save us from this wreck, as far as I know, is if some hardworking scientist or some new whiz kid working in his garage comes up with a really new power source that is cheap, plentiful, doesn't hurt the environment much and can run every thing the way it's been running. Now really. What are the odds of that happening? I'd say slim to nil and I wouldn't bet on it. But then there isn't much I would be willing to bet on other than the trends we can all see happening right before our eyes.
Gasoline, fertilizer, plastics and all things petroleum are increasing in cost. Yeah, yeah, I know. Some of that increase is because of some nation over in the mid east flexing it's muscles and saying "Do what I say you unbeliever heathens! Or I'll stop the oil!!" I also know that a lot of you out there are of the opinion that instead of raising the price of your gasoline, we should just yell back: "Go to Hell you un-Christian heathen! We'll just come in there and get it!!" Sigh. To which I can only ask, "Are you really willing to trade the lives of your children or your children's children if you are grandparents, just so you can drive two blocks to get a six pack of high fructose corn syrup laden soft drinks?"
There is a deeper reason for the rise in the cost of petroleum. A very simple reason I'll try to illustrate. Let's say that a while back, about the time that guy first drilled for oil on purpose and somebody figured out what to do with the smelly black stuff, your family won, earned or somehow acquired an unbelievable amount of money. Now, lets say everyone in the family immediately retired and started spending. Maybe a few invested the money but not with any study or help from experts. Basically everyone just threw that money around and never even bothered putting it in the bank so it would draw interest. They kept it as capital and they spent it as capital and they have been living high on it every since. Only recently one of the odder kids in the family has looked in the vault and said, "Hey, y'all! Most of the money's gone! We need to start investing what's left and not spending so much!" Then everyone else laugh's at the young fool. There's money there. There's always money there in the family vault! So he takes pictures showing that while the money was piled 12 feet high at first it's only 5 and a half feet high now and suggests that maybe they all should learn how to work and live a little less extravagantly. But the Heads of the family just smile and say, "Junior! Haven't you kept up with the times! There's this wonderful new invention called a CREDIT CARD! It's not like we still have to spend OUR MONEY!" And Jr wanders away muttering, "That doesn't sound quite right somehow."
The moral of that little tale above is that oil is the capital we have all been depending on for a long time now. On top of that, it also is NOT sitting nice and easily available in a vault somewhere. It's down in the ground. WAY down in the ground hiding inside rock formations. It has never been in "pools" down there. Yeah, old wells are being reopened now. Wells that the oil companies gave up on several years ago. You know why they gave up on them? Because it cost to much to pull any more oil out. The oil had stopped flowing out of it'd own accord and now they had to suck really hard to get it out. Imagine a malt or shake you have to let set and melt before you can get it to come up the straw. Those tar sands up in Canada? I remember them being mentioned while I was taking Earth Science in College. A fellow student asked why we weren't using them. The Prof. answered "Way to hard to get the oil out. To wasteful too." Dose that tell you anything?
Now you may begin to see why the cost of petroleum is going up. "So we move to coal!" you shrug and say.
"Hah!" I reply. To get Gasoline out of Coal you'd have to processes it all kinds of ways which would not be nice for the environment. "So What?" you ask. My reply, "If you think we have a lot of kids sick with asthma now wait til we start burning more and more coal. Especially the high sulfur content stuff. So we are back to the kids again. Do you want to trade the health and your kids or grand kids ability to breath freely just so you can drive that two blocks for the high fructose corn syrup stuffed fruit juice they want for breakfast? Or even for the electricity to watch that TV or play that computer game?
Then there is this odd little fact. What do you think all those big machines that are used to mine coal run on? Yep. Petroleum products! Is that a big "Gotcha!" or what?
I am not saying this stuff to panic anyone or even frighten them. I do think you should start to worry. Worry enough to at least start moving your house toward passive solar heating and cooling. Go ahead and get the solar panels and small wind turbines for active solar energy if you can afford them, just remember the process that creates them and gets them to you relies heavily on fossil fuels! So get the best and longest lasting you can afford.
Setting up your house to gather it's own water from what falls on it's roof and your yard to survive from what falls on it should be your next worry along with scrapping that expensive and time consuming expanse of fake grass land. Put in gardens. Stuff your front and back yards full of food plants, flowers, berries, nuts and even the odd small animal like chickens, rabbits, ducks, and such. Set up your own little ecosystem that will support you and your family with food, shelter, and dare I suggest it, entertainment. (Go to Google or some other search engine and check out the ideas in Urban Permaculture.)
Of course you can't do this alone. It takes a neighbors to really survive and be happy. The world dose not have to end up like that "Survivor Island" show. I wouldn't want to live in that kind of world where it's all about only one surviving to the end. The ideal is to see how many we can get to not just survive, but flourish!
And that's why I don't believe I'm being the least bit negative. Yeah. the world as we know it right now is rapidly headed for the crapper. I see nothing wrong with that, just as I see nothing wrong with using something called humanure in compost that will eventually be used on fruit and nut trees and other selected crops. What's this humanure? As it happens it's what you get out of a composting toilet, a crapper if you will.
I firmly believe that if we take some simple actions now, learn some possibly hard lessons now, that when the brown smelly stuff finely hits the fan we will be able to gather it up, compost it and turn it into a healthy productive garden we can live on for the rest of our lives. In deed, if we plan properly now we can start living the kind of healthy, earth friendly, emotionally, and mentally active lives I think we humans are meant to live.
Yeah, there will still be friction. But we can learn to use that to learn and grow, to improve and include new ideas.
So no, I'm not being negative! Not at all. Perhaps I'm just not being clear. There are big scary changes coming at some vague point in the future. It could happen ten or more years from now or it could happen next year. Some of it is already happening. But, oh my! What a wonderful adventure it will be!! Especially if we all prepare for what is coming.
Then there is this odd but quite possible alternative. We get prepared for the stuff to hit the fan and - nothing happens! Yet there we still sit. In our healthy, organic, continuously producing gardens, working not nearly as hard as you'd expect leaving us with lots of time for friends, family, reading, thinking or even working at some outside job we actually enjoy doing. Gee, wouldn't that be just a terrible outcome.
For idea's on what to do to prepare you can find a lot of Permaculture sites on line. My favorite is permies.com. Check it out. It's full of all kinds of information.
Showing posts with label permaculture etc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label permaculture etc. Show all posts
Monday, February 13, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Growing food without irrigation! Even during a drought!
Sound like a blurb from one of those "Buy this and Get RICH in just ONE DAY!!!" ads doesn't it. Only difference this is true and you don't have to buy a thing! Really. I'm going to be trying it, that's for sure. I've already got some tiny little mini versions snaking across my front yard. They may grow as more material presents itself.
Out back in the pasture however, I'll need some help. Big muscle type help or weaker muscles that owns some power equipment and won't mind doing something that will likely seem odd to them.
What is this Miracle that could let me grow food, even during a drought, without irrigation? It's got a weird German name that means hill or mound or some such. It's spelled Hugelkulture and you can find out a lot about it at http://richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
That's where I found out about it.
All you need are some old, preferably half rotten logs, tree limbs or firewood so old it's no longer usable and a place on your land where you want a garden. You can dig down a little or just start right there with out even skinning back the sod. If you do skin back the sod save it and plop it grass side down on top of your newly built raised bed when you are done.
Next you build that raised bed by pilling all that old wood, rotted and otherwise, within the outline of where you want your garden.Stuff it in there. Add in fallen leaves, sticks and other woody type things then cover it all up with soil and maybe even a little compost or manure if you want to give it a kick start. Then you plant some fast growing plants that grow tight soil holding roots on top of that to hold the soil in place. (It's a mound by now, preferably a fairly tall one.) There are more details of course. Just go to richsoil.com or permies.com and this fellow Paul Wheaton will tell you just about everything you need to know about Hugelkulture, and iron skillets, and rocket stoves as well as a little bit about Permaculture. Real good stuff.
Man, I can almost taste the tomatoes already! I'd give more details on this but really Paul does it so much better than I and he's even got pictures showing how it's done. So just go to those sites I told you about, now. Go on! Shoo!!
Out back in the pasture however, I'll need some help. Big muscle type help or weaker muscles that owns some power equipment and won't mind doing something that will likely seem odd to them.
What is this Miracle that could let me grow food, even during a drought, without irrigation? It's got a weird German name that means hill or mound or some such. It's spelled Hugelkulture and you can find out a lot about it at http://richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
That's where I found out about it.
All you need are some old, preferably half rotten logs, tree limbs or firewood so old it's no longer usable and a place on your land where you want a garden. You can dig down a little or just start right there with out even skinning back the sod. If you do skin back the sod save it and plop it grass side down on top of your newly built raised bed when you are done.
Next you build that raised bed by pilling all that old wood, rotted and otherwise, within the outline of where you want your garden.Stuff it in there. Add in fallen leaves, sticks and other woody type things then cover it all up with soil and maybe even a little compost or manure if you want to give it a kick start. Then you plant some fast growing plants that grow tight soil holding roots on top of that to hold the soil in place. (It's a mound by now, preferably a fairly tall one.) There are more details of course. Just go to richsoil.com or permies.com and this fellow Paul Wheaton will tell you just about everything you need to know about Hugelkulture, and iron skillets, and rocket stoves as well as a little bit about Permaculture. Real good stuff.
Man, I can almost taste the tomatoes already! I'd give more details on this but really Paul does it so much better than I and he's even got pictures showing how it's done. So just go to those sites I told you about, now. Go on! Shoo!!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Yeah, I'm still here!
Okay. I know. I've been ignoring this blog for some time now. However on looking over it's stat's I see that the most popular blog I've ever had on it seems to be the one about my paltry attempt at worm farming.
Well, I may be posting more about the little wigglers. Don't know how soon, though. I've fallen in with the folks over at a place called Community Seeds. They are a faith based organization, which makes me working with them seem odd I know, as I don't rightly care what any one believes about such matters as faith . . . as long as they don't start telling ME what to believe. Then, Bubba, we will have a problem.
As to my association with the C. Seeds folks and the worm farming thing. They started a community garden. They wanted help with it and as they said they wanted it to be as organic as possible I was there! I am one of those of the opinion that the more gardens, for food, for flowers, for the public, that a town or city has the better. Especially if they are organic and sustainable. If you can get some info in there about Permaculture and get the word out about that, why, then it's all good!
Basically I and another lady who is an ex-master gardener in this area, (Ex as she had to stop going to all the meetings for some reason, I think. Or couldn't afford the dues. Or some such) and I got invited to go up to Michigan to learn about this thing called Growing Power. The stuff I saw and learned there was way cool, especially the way they were growing worms. Those feisty little wigglers were everywhere and in every pot of plants they had!
Needless to say those plants were very healthy and happy looking plants. If you want to find out about Growing Power just run the two words to gather and put a dot and 'org' after it. You'll get there. When you do you'll see as I did that the organization is right along the same lines, generally, as Permaculture.
Hey, they both like worms. Check them out. Check out Community Seeds to. Just do a search. I found their site that way.
Community Seeds is planning to use vermiculture and vermicomposting to expand it's community garden plans into bigger and better things. The hope is to eventually use the gardens, worms, hot houses and hoop houses to supply food for the community food pantry and perhaps even a local farmers market. A side issue, tied in with that will be something called transitional housing that will house homeless, jobless or underemployed folks until they learn a job, or get one or better themselves generally. Way I see it if they can be taught to garden in any kind of space they will be way better off than they were, period.
After all that old saw about giving a person a fish or teaching him to fish is even more true of gardening.
All we have to do is survive this drought and start growing stuff and building things. Money would help and they are working on that.
Well, I may be posting more about the little wigglers. Don't know how soon, though. I've fallen in with the folks over at a place called Community Seeds. They are a faith based organization, which makes me working with them seem odd I know, as I don't rightly care what any one believes about such matters as faith . . . as long as they don't start telling ME what to believe. Then, Bubba, we will have a problem.
As to my association with the C. Seeds folks and the worm farming thing. They started a community garden. They wanted help with it and as they said they wanted it to be as organic as possible I was there! I am one of those of the opinion that the more gardens, for food, for flowers, for the public, that a town or city has the better. Especially if they are organic and sustainable. If you can get some info in there about Permaculture and get the word out about that, why, then it's all good!
Basically I and another lady who is an ex-master gardener in this area, (Ex as she had to stop going to all the meetings for some reason, I think. Or couldn't afford the dues. Or some such) and I got invited to go up to Michigan to learn about this thing called Growing Power. The stuff I saw and learned there was way cool, especially the way they were growing worms. Those feisty little wigglers were everywhere and in every pot of plants they had!
Needless to say those plants were very healthy and happy looking plants. If you want to find out about Growing Power just run the two words to gather and put a dot and 'org' after it. You'll get there. When you do you'll see as I did that the organization is right along the same lines, generally, as Permaculture.
Hey, they both like worms. Check them out. Check out Community Seeds to. Just do a search. I found their site that way.
Community Seeds is planning to use vermiculture and vermicomposting to expand it's community garden plans into bigger and better things. The hope is to eventually use the gardens, worms, hot houses and hoop houses to supply food for the community food pantry and perhaps even a local farmers market. A side issue, tied in with that will be something called transitional housing that will house homeless, jobless or underemployed folks until they learn a job, or get one or better themselves generally. Way I see it if they can be taught to garden in any kind of space they will be way better off than they were, period.
After all that old saw about giving a person a fish or teaching him to fish is even more true of gardening.
All we have to do is survive this drought and start growing stuff and building things. Money would help and they are working on that.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Maunderings 1/1/11
Ok. Here’s what I’m thinking. About my land taxes and finances in general.
This coming Monday, 1/3/11, go to the bank and rip the money out of my IRA and stuff it into my savings account with the funds I’ve saved up to pay land taxes with. That will give me more than enough to draft out the cash I need to pay the land taxes. Especially as I’m only $120 away from having it already. That $120 won’t be taken out until the 15th however.
But with the taxes already paid I can instruct the bank to make the deposits to my savings from checking $140 starting with the one this month. That should give me a little over what I need to pay taxes next year. Even if I spend all of the IRA money (less the amount needed to finish off paying the land taxes, of course) that is left after uncle sugar gets his out of it.
Otherwise, I will have to have the bank pull $150 from my checking into my savings for next years taxes for the months of Feb. through Dec. just so I can have a little more than enough to pay the same amount again. That would give me the leeway of another full month (January) to get any extra on the tax bill into savings. Unless I’ve left almost every cent the government leaves me of that 21 thou in savings and not spent it, just so I can have that cushion against higher land taxes.
Oh, yeah. The bank will be getting a chunk of that IRA as well as I won’t be waiting until the 8th of March when it’s officially time to decide if I want to keep it there or roll it somewhere else.
But with the taxes already paid I can instruct the bank to make the deposits to my savings from checking $140 starting with the one this month. That should give me a little over what I need to pay taxes next year. Even if I spend all of the IRA money (less the amount needed to finish off paying the land taxes, of course) that is left after uncle sugar gets his out of it.
Otherwise, I will have to have the bank pull $150 from my checking into my savings for next years taxes for the months of Feb. through Dec. just so I can have a little more than enough to pay the same amount again. That would give me the leeway of another full month (January) to get any extra on the tax bill into savings. Unless I’ve left almost every cent the government leaves me of that 21 thou in savings and not spent it, just so I can have that cushion against higher land taxes.
Oh, yeah. The bank will be getting a chunk of that IRA as well as I won’t be waiting until the 8th of March when it’s officially time to decide if I want to keep it there or roll it somewhere else.
OR
I’m sure the bank would be much happier if I pulled $120 from my A-line account and used that to get the taxes paid earlier. It would take me about two months to pay that loan off. I could still have the bank up the amount going into savings to $140 this month so I could have the tax money saved up by Dec. I’d be pinched for the next two months but it’d work. Then I could wait until March 8th to rip that cash out of the IRA without having to pay the bank didely. I would only have to pay the IRS.
I’m thinking the last paragraph above is my best bet. Even if I decide to leave my IRA totally alone.
Now another question I need to answer.
Okay. Let’s say that I do rip that money out of my IRA come March 8th , knowing that it will be less because the gov. will get it’s share! What do I do with it. Why am I taking it out instead of adding to it like I am to my savings account?
Well, duh. I’m not adding to it as I am to my savings account because I just don’t have the bucks! Unless I win that PCH money between now and then! (HA!!)
Ummm. Another thought just intruded. What if I stashed the savings account money into the IRA then drew enough out of it to pay the gov. taxes on the IRA funds and the banks fee for early withdrawal of funds. Then told them to stash that $140 in the IRA instead of a savings account? Ummm. No. Probably would not increase my IRA’s earnings enough over the next year to make it worth it. Or would it? Guess I’ll have to ask the bank folks and hope they don’t finagle me.
Okay. Let’s just say I will get that cash out of the IRA. To what end?
I need a more reliable truck. Or some other kind of transport that can haul at least 6 bags of feed and a couple of square bales. I need a way to get out into my pasture, damn it! I haven’t been out there in at least 2 or 3 years!!
So that would be a good used truck or SUV and maybe an electric golf cart or gas guzzling 4 wheeler.
Could I profit from this? I see no particular profit in this idea other than making me feel better.
So that would be a good used truck or SUV and maybe an electric golf cart or gas guzzling 4 wheeler.
Could I profit from this? I see no particular profit in this idea other than making me feel better.
OR
Go back to college, to TAMU-C and get yet another degree. This time in Environmental Science. And go to those Permaculture classes in Ft. Worth. How would I USE that though. I’m sick of never using any of my degrees!! Sick of wasting the time and money used getting them. I’d still need a reliable ride and maybe DSL to take those on line courses I’d likely have to have.
How could I profit from this? I could agitate for a Permaculture course to be taught at TAMU-C or at one of the nearer Jr. Colleges with me as the instructor. If I were officially and legally a Permaculturalist (?) I could teach classes in it here in Hunt County, or actually do design work as a Permaculture designer (or whatever they are called), and be paid for it. I could offer my services to Lone Oak at a reduced rate. I could also maybe apply the Permaculture stuff to my place in a more rational and organized manner (with better knowledge of what to actually do), and thus reduce what I have to pay for power, food and water. Becoming more sustainable and independent myself.
How could I profit from this? I could agitate for a Permaculture course to be taught at TAMU-C or at one of the nearer Jr. Colleges with me as the instructor. If I were officially and legally a Permaculturalist (?) I could teach classes in it here in Hunt County, or actually do design work as a Permaculture designer (or whatever they are called), and be paid for it. I could offer my services to Lone Oak at a reduced rate. I could also maybe apply the Permaculture stuff to my place in a more rational and organized manner (with better knowledge of what to actually do), and thus reduce what I have to pay for power, food and water. Becoming more sustainable and independent myself.
OR
I could just haul off and do what I presently see as what needs to be done to my place to make it sustainable with that money. I could put a metal roof on the house with a rain water collection system added to it. I could top that with some solar panels and a small windmill out between the barns. There would of course be rain water collection systems put in place on every metal roof on my land. Ummm. Might not have quite enough for all of that.
Where would I profit from this? Save money on water/sewer bill. Maybe, if I demonstrate that I have pared down to zero trash I can get out of paying the garbage pick up. I’d Grow a lot of my own food and thus not have to spend money for it. I’d also slash at least some off of my power bill
Where would I profit from this? Save money on water/sewer bill. Maybe, if I demonstrate that I have pared down to zero trash I can get out of paying the garbage pick up. I’d Grow a lot of my own food and thus not have to spend money for it. I’d also slash at least some off of my power bill
OR
I could just chuck it all and go on a cruse or a trip to somewhere I’ve always wanted to go. Maybe buy a Motor home and go to all of the National Parks I’ve always wanted to see. Taking along a lot of empty canvases and full pant bottles with more than enough paint brushes, etc. Who knows. Maybe I could sell what I painted. I’d certainly have to do something with them as I have no freaking place to store them.
OR
I could decide to really go big into the goat biz. Buy electric fencing that I can move easily, along with equally mobile watering/feeding troughs, and shelters (igloo dog houses?), and start advertising to “clear your overgrown, brushy, bramble ridden land and organically fertilize it in one week to one month depending on the size of the land.” Then where ever the land is, I go out, set up the electric fence around it, put in the dog houses, and the water troughs; then add the goats, and let them get to work. I could use the doe’s and kids only, holding the boy back for working on cleaning up my place.
What would I need? Besides the fencing, the dog houses, and the water and feed troughs? Something to keep the kids from sliding under the fences. Perhaps a solar charger for the battery that would run the fence. A reliable vehicle and trailer to move all the equipment and the goats. Some occasional help. (Hell! I’d need a strong and physically active partner!)
I’d also might have to cut a fence line around the area the customer wanted cleared. A clear place to set up the electric fence. Then depending on how long the goats had to stay there I’d have to mow along it to keep it clear, and the fence working. Unless the customer already had a goat proof fence. Might be smart to also have a guard donkey.
Would I need insurance? In case something; like a coyote, feral dog or bob cat got to the goats, or the goats got out, and hit by a car/truck, or ate a car/truck/garden.
What would be my profit? Where could I pull in money from such and operation? From renting out my goats as organic land clearing machines. From having to feed them less. From selling baby goats I didn’t want to keep. (All the male ones. )
He he he. I could get two big castrated male goats to keep the smaller breeding billy company. And then try to train the big ones to pull a small cart. A small cart I could use in parades or around town just to advertise the business.
What would I need? Besides the fencing, the dog houses, and the water and feed troughs? Something to keep the kids from sliding under the fences. Perhaps a solar charger for the battery that would run the fence. A reliable vehicle and trailer to move all the equipment and the goats. Some occasional help. (Hell! I’d need a strong and physically active partner!)
I’d also might have to cut a fence line around the area the customer wanted cleared. A clear place to set up the electric fence. Then depending on how long the goats had to stay there I’d have to mow along it to keep it clear, and the fence working. Unless the customer already had a goat proof fence. Might be smart to also have a guard donkey.
Would I need insurance? In case something; like a coyote, feral dog or bob cat got to the goats, or the goats got out, and hit by a car/truck, or ate a car/truck/garden.
What would be my profit? Where could I pull in money from such and operation? From renting out my goats as organic land clearing machines. From having to feed them less. From selling baby goats I didn’t want to keep. (All the male ones. )
He he he. I could get two big castrated male goats to keep the smaller breeding billy company. And then try to train the big ones to pull a small cart. A small cart I could use in parades or around town just to advertise the business.
OR
I could choose to become a ‘professional’ writer. Use the money to get DSL put in and maybe an extra ‘business’ phone line. The problem there would be the continuing costs associated with that. Then I could get another, top of the line computer loaded with the same kind of programs as those of most publishing houses use. Plus one that will let me switch or translate formats from what one publishing house might want to what another uses. I could dive in and actually research these folks and find the one (or two!) that might be the best fit as well as an agent. I could also use some of the money to go to some of those writers events. Hell, maybe even a comic con or two.
Where would any income come from in this? Book sales. Speaking tours…Uh-oh. I’d have to take a class or two in public speaking for damn sure. And of course that magic word : residuals. Trouble is this would take some time. Maybe more to get started on than the goat idea.
Where would any income come from in this? Book sales. Speaking tours…Uh-oh. I’d have to take a class or two in public speaking for damn sure. And of course that magic word : residuals. Trouble is this would take some time. Maybe more to get started on than the goat idea.
OR
I could just leave that money where it is. Keep the status quo. Keep the truck I’ve got, the computer I’ve got, the situation I’m in.
Problems with that? This house in uninsured because I haven’t got the extra income needed to pay for insurance. I also haven’t got the extra income to make even the minor repairs that already are needed. I can’t afford to pay anyone to mow my front yard and I haven’t the money for the stuff to set up the irrigation system I’d need to turn it into an edible garden, much less for the stuff I’d need to get what can’t be found, made, or southern engineered into what I’d need for such a garden. Not to mention the seeds and / or plants. I doubt that truck of mine will last, besides with gas going up I won’t be able to afford to drive it much longer anyway. It’s also obvious that this health insurance company I’m with is likely going to keep raising it’s premiums on me and that the government will likely never raise what it pays me again. I wouldn’t be surprised if it decided to cut all SS payments. (After they gave themselves another raise, of course, for being so fiscally responsible!) Therefore, I have to get some more money SOMEWHERE! And I’m way to old to sell my ass on the street corners. There fore, despite the risks inherent in all of the idea’s above I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!!!!
Problems with that? This house in uninsured because I haven’t got the extra income needed to pay for insurance. I also haven’t got the extra income to make even the minor repairs that already are needed. I can’t afford to pay anyone to mow my front yard and I haven’t the money for the stuff to set up the irrigation system I’d need to turn it into an edible garden, much less for the stuff I’d need to get what can’t be found, made, or southern engineered into what I’d need for such a garden. Not to mention the seeds and / or plants. I doubt that truck of mine will last, besides with gas going up I won’t be able to afford to drive it much longer anyway. It’s also obvious that this health insurance company I’m with is likely going to keep raising it’s premiums on me and that the government will likely never raise what it pays me again. I wouldn’t be surprised if it decided to cut all SS payments. (After they gave themselves another raise, of course, for being so fiscally responsible!) Therefore, I have to get some more money SOMEWHERE! And I’m way to old to sell my ass on the street corners. There fore, despite the risks inherent in all of the idea’s above I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!!!!
But what!? Pick one? Mix them up and do two at once or try to? The only thing going for me right now is that my little heard of six goats has, in the last week of December, doubled in size with the addition of six cute little kid goats.
Anybody want to buy a baby goat for Easter? For Valentines?
Monday, August 24, 2009
Down on the farm...The worm farm that is.
It occurred to me that some might wonder just what a lazy but dedicated Permaculturest (aka permie) might do to get their selves in line with the stated philosophy.
Some of my methods are simple things dictated by the fact that I can't afford to go out and buy all kinds of neat new toys. Toy's like solar panels, wind turbines, batteries to store the energy those two produce or even solar powered electric fencing to keep the goats in. Or any kind of fencing for that mater.
Permie method #1. My thermostat is set at 80 degrees. Unless the weather folks say it's going to be lower than that and not rain. Then I turn off the ac, open the window's and lock the screen doors I added onto my house. I added those doors just so I could open the main doors and keep the cats in and the bugs out. #2. I try not to buy stuff that is over packaged. I get my top up card for my cell phone at the DG because they put the info on my receipt and I don't have a chunk of plastic to worry about. Shoot, I can't afford to buy to much of anything anyway!. #3. I rinse out the cans I get soup or beans or whatever in and place them in the container with the plastic, glass and metal. #4. I store up the junk mail I get as well as any other scrap paper I generate and the odd newspaper. #5. I either use the paper to make paper mache boxes or some such or I take it, cardboard I've collected, and the sack or box of stuff from #3 to the recycling place there in Greenville. I'm trying to do this once a month. The result is I only add about one trash can of stuff a month to the local land fill. #6. My small left over food scraps, and tea bags feed my worms. The larger, non-meat, scraps...if any, go to the goats. To bad I don't have chickens to feed meat scraps to. To bad I don't have any meat scraps. #7. I have horses on this place too and I refuse to let the folks who clean the stalls try to 'dump' or 'put out for collection' the leavings in the stalls. (yeah, they get odd idea's like that) Instead, I insist on it being piled up where it can compost and eventually be used to either feed the gardens I plan to have or the worms I hope to eventually have working away for me. #8. I don't turn on lights unless I actually need them. #9. As there is no one here but me, I only do one load of washing about once a week. That saves energy and water. #10. I'm watching the way things grow, even weeds and such, on my place. Where they grow and where I and others leave trails or insist on mowing. This will let me know where I can plan to plant gardens and possibly even what kind of stuff I can grow in them. I'm also watching to see where would be a good place to set up a worm farm larger than the one presently setting on the counter beside my sink.
Umm. I'm betting that some out there are saying: "Worms? WORMS!!? Eeeeeyuuuuu! By the sink!!! In your KITCHEN!!!"
Yeah, I know you're also likely thinking: nasty, icky, smelly and gross.
Me. I like worms. I also respect them for the yeoman work they do keeping the biosphere going.
You do know that almost all life on this planet...including our whole civilization is completely dependent on about the 3 to 6 inches or so of arable soil that covers the some of the land masses of this planet. And don't give me that foolishness about hydroponics. Talk about energy and work intensive agriculture!! Besides, they aren't smelly and are only icky and gross if you are a sissy. (So says the gal whose always been a 'tomboy')
Worms keep the soil alive, healthy and able to support crops. They aerate and mix the soil as well as digest and make available all kinds of nutrients needed by the plants we need to live.
Yeah, even us meat loving carnivores need plants. Remember, those critters we like to eat? They need plants to live and the plants also make oxygen for us all to breath.
So if your ever looking for something or someone to thank for your continued existence, thank the worms and, also, the bees! If you are wondering; no bees, no pollination, no fruit, vegetables or such.
Some of my methods are simple things dictated by the fact that I can't afford to go out and buy all kinds of neat new toys. Toy's like solar panels, wind turbines, batteries to store the energy those two produce or even solar powered electric fencing to keep the goats in. Or any kind of fencing for that mater.
Permie method #1. My thermostat is set at 80 degrees. Unless the weather folks say it's going to be lower than that and not rain. Then I turn off the ac, open the window's and lock the screen doors I added onto my house. I added those doors just so I could open the main doors and keep the cats in and the bugs out. #2. I try not to buy stuff that is over packaged. I get my top up card for my cell phone at the DG because they put the info on my receipt and I don't have a chunk of plastic to worry about. Shoot, I can't afford to buy to much of anything anyway!. #3. I rinse out the cans I get soup or beans or whatever in and place them in the container with the plastic, glass and metal. #4. I store up the junk mail I get as well as any other scrap paper I generate and the odd newspaper. #5. I either use the paper to make paper mache boxes or some such or I take it, cardboard I've collected, and the sack or box of stuff from #3 to the recycling place there in Greenville. I'm trying to do this once a month. The result is I only add about one trash can of stuff a month to the local land fill. #6. My small left over food scraps, and tea bags feed my worms. The larger, non-meat, scraps...if any, go to the goats. To bad I don't have chickens to feed meat scraps to. To bad I don't have any meat scraps. #7. I have horses on this place too and I refuse to let the folks who clean the stalls try to 'dump' or 'put out for collection' the leavings in the stalls. (yeah, they get odd idea's like that) Instead, I insist on it being piled up where it can compost and eventually be used to either feed the gardens I plan to have or the worms I hope to eventually have working away for me. #8. I don't turn on lights unless I actually need them. #9. As there is no one here but me, I only do one load of washing about once a week. That saves energy and water. #10. I'm watching the way things grow, even weeds and such, on my place. Where they grow and where I and others leave trails or insist on mowing. This will let me know where I can plan to plant gardens and possibly even what kind of stuff I can grow in them. I'm also watching to see where would be a good place to set up a worm farm larger than the one presently setting on the counter beside my sink.
Umm. I'm betting that some out there are saying: "Worms? WORMS!!? Eeeeeyuuuuu! By the sink!!! In your KITCHEN!!!"
Yeah, I know you're also likely thinking: nasty, icky, smelly and gross.
Me. I like worms. I also respect them for the yeoman work they do keeping the biosphere going.
You do know that almost all life on this planet...including our whole civilization is completely dependent on about the 3 to 6 inches or so of arable soil that covers the some of the land masses of this planet. And don't give me that foolishness about hydroponics. Talk about energy and work intensive agriculture!! Besides, they aren't smelly and are only icky and gross if you are a sissy. (So says the gal whose always been a 'tomboy')
Worms keep the soil alive, healthy and able to support crops. They aerate and mix the soil as well as digest and make available all kinds of nutrients needed by the plants we need to live.
Yeah, even us meat loving carnivores need plants. Remember, those critters we like to eat? They need plants to live and the plants also make oxygen for us all to breath.
So if your ever looking for something or someone to thank for your continued existence, thank the worms and, also, the bees! If you are wondering; no bees, no pollination, no fruit, vegetables or such.
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