Moving towards Self-sufficiency

[dlbww]

The gravity fed watering system is working better than I expected. Every couple of days I put at least a couple hundred gallons of water on the plants, this is done by simply turning a valve on. I try to keep the 1500 Imp. gallon tank filled (from our pond hidden in the woods) to keep the water pressure where I want it.

Early this morning we hauled two truck loads (about one cord) of split wood from the edge of the field into the wood shed, about 6 more loads and we'll have more than our winter supply in place.

Is the pond filled by rainwater?

7 cords a winter?! That's a lot of wood. Use a splitter?

The pond is filled by an artesian spring that flows most of the year. It is about 30 ft. lower than my water tank and about 200+ feet away so I pump the water up to the tank with a 10 GPM 240Vac submersible pump. The garden is between the tank and the pond on a south facing slope. The lower part of the garden starts getting shade by about 3:00 PM so I grow my heat sensitive plants (like lettuce, etc.) near the bottom.

Normally we burn between 2 and 3 cords per winter but this winter I am planning on using our Tarm 102,000 BTU wood gasification boiler for domestic hot water and that will require more wood. We brought in one cord of wood this morning, there was already about a cord in the shed, the woodshed will hold 3 1/2 cords and outside the shop under cover I can fit about 1 1/2 cords. I don't use a splitter because I am sensitive to exhaust (I have multiple chemical sensitivity which is why we live where we do, grow organically, etc.), I can split faster by hand and it is a good workout.

[dlbww]

Well the summer heated up nicely in the Pacific Northwest and my peppers and melons, etc. that I planted through 150' of 4' wide barrier cloth with a drip line beneath are starting to ripen nicely. I planted about 15 different types of peppers and 15 different types of melons and we'll see which ones taste the best. The blackberries are still ripening but towards the end of the season they tend to get small and aren't worth picking; we picked about 80 lbs. this year and froze them.

The Gravenstein Red apples have been ripening and we've picked about 300 lbs., another 50 lbs and they'll be done (then we'll start with the pears, plums, grapes, the later ripening apples, the persimmons, etc.). These are early ripening apples that make excellent pies, fruit leather, dried apples and juice. They don't last more than about a month in storage so we've started making apple maple yogurt leather in our 9 tray Excalibur dehydrator, we'll also turn some into apple sauce, apple maple butter, etc. And I'm going to juice some for kombucha; we've been making this (kombucha) with our frozen grape juice from last year and it is amazingly good.

And our Supai Red corn is looking good, I think a few more weeks and it will be ready; I initially fertilized it with chicken compost and subsequently have been fertilizing it with my backpack sprayer using a foliar spray of organic 3-1-1, liquid kelp and magnesium sulfate - seems to like it. This is a parching corn, one that I've never tried before.

And our strawberry patch (300 ever-bearing Albion plants) is doing well for its first year; the berries are exceptional, better than any other berries I've tried thus far and very sweet.

Contemplating the self sustainability experiment I've been pursuing I should mention that my observations are that it has a small following. The rewards lie in the diversity/variety of food that can be produced, the satisfaction/freedom of growing your own, the security of it all and none of it is taxable.

[dlbww]

This ongoing self-sustainability experiment seems to have morphed into a lifestyle rather than simply an experiment; perhaps that means it's working. We were at the grocery store last night picking up some apple boxes, etc. to fill with some of our (Cortland and Northern Spy) apples for a family member. Looking at some of the prices (did food just go up again?) we feel blessed to grow so many things on our property.

We turned most of the 300 lbs. of Gravenstein Reds into fruit leather, apple maple pear butter and apple sauce. A few left which will probably get made into more fruit leather. So now the Cortland apples are ready (one of our favorites) as are the King apples and the Northern Spys. The Golden Russets, Fujis, etc. will stay on the trees for a few more weeks depending on the weather. This years apple crop will be close to 1000 lbs. (the trees are still young). We will give much of the fruit away to family.

And we harvested the grapes (Leon Millot) which we turned into about 120 liters of juice and froze in 11 1/2 liter pails. This has been the best year so far for our grape crop and the highest sugar content.

Our next harvest will be the sweet potatoes (we grew a 70' row of them this year), everything else in the garden is still growing. Sometime in early Nov. we'll harvest more of the garden and put it in storage before we get a frost.

Back to the workshop ...

[Older/wiser?]

I am amazed and impressed at all you do, thought I was joyous as I harvested 6 early Alberta peaches from one of our girls. Hope I'm not bragging to much, I thanked her and gave a lot of positive reinforcement and chastised the other one for her slack attitude, but I must say I have a very impressive weed garden, I grow Mullein (Indians used it for toilet paper and diapers) so I guess some have green thumbs and the rest of us just appreciate those of you who do. I am amazed at all you do, it must be a full time job.

[dlbww]

Well this years apple harvest turned out larger than planned, closer to 1500 lbs. which was double last year and four times more than two years ago. With my plans for an improved irrigation system for the orchard I think I might have to start selling some apples/apple juice next year.

Most of our squash and pie pumpkin harvest is in as is all our parching corn (which is in a large pile near the wood stove drying). The Supai Red parching corn we grew has been eaten as corn nuts (quite good) and in corn bread (really nice flavor) so far. We grew butternut squash and jarrahdale this year which are indoors hardening off before we'll put them in storage. The jarrahdales have a blue-grey skin, a bright orange flesh and a fine mild flesh (according to what I've read as this is our first year growing them). They are beautiful looking specimens and if they taste good I'll grow them again.

We also have a large surplus of peppers, possibly due to the organic fertilizer and kelp foliar spray we used. We grew about a dozen different varieties, mostly sweet peppers. Due to the surplus I tried making an apple sweet pepper leather with some added hot peppers; turned out to have really nice flavor.

The sweet potatoes have been harvested and still curing in the workshop and most of our regular potatoes (we grew about 200 lbs) are in storage outside under the back deck near the house in a large black poly barrel stored in perlite. Our winters are usually quite mild so we'll see how that works out and whether we grew enough. Other crops like kale, swiss chard, cabbage, carrots, beets, etc. will remain in the garden for as long as possible (which often turns out to be all winter). There are still some late apples on a few trees and our persimmons (3 trees so far) will stay out until the first frost. I don't know too many people in the pacific northwest that grow persimmons but they will definitely grow here and they are one of my favorite dried fruits.

Our plan has always been to lighten our grocery bill and eat healthier by growing more of our own organic food and so each year we try to improve on that by growing a diverse variety of fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables, etc., no animals yet but we are still considering chickens (we are currently buying organic free range eggs from friends).

Yes I do spend a fair bit of time on this project in the season thereof but I still have a regular business (woodworking) that occupies much of my time.

[shadow]

Yes I do spend a fair bit of time on this project in the season thereof but I still have a regular business (woodworking) that occupies much of my time.

I'm still amazed with your detailed woodworking talent. It's been over 20 years since I saw your trucks but I still remember them.

[dlbww]

In an ever increasing world of bureaucracy and red tape improperly lauded as vehicles to make us safer there are still some things we can do to improve our position in life. One of those I emphatically declare is growing your own clean food on fertile soil. We cannot lose contact with the soil; "Many others have followed the counsel to have their own gardens wherever it is possible so that we do not lose contact with the soil and so that we can have the security of being able to provide at least some of our food and necessities." (Spencer W. Kimball, April 1978)

[dlbww]

This morning I took a break from the workshop to prepare some persimmons and peppers for the dehydrator (basically clean up some counter space). As I did so I listened to an interview done last year by Nicole Foss, one of my favorite economists. The interview was on peak oil, financial crisis, resilience and more, etc. Not only is Nicole quite brilliant but she seems to have a good grasp (based on her previous forecasts) on where society is going. Towards the end of the interview (which is quite lengthy at almost 2 hrs; although by the end I was wishing it was longer) she makes this comment, "You can have freedom if you don't have debt. You can live in a way that allows you to sleep at night to not be constantly worried about whether or not your next pay cheque's come and whether you're going to be able to pay the mortgage and all these other things. When you know how to live simply the sense of freedom can be just overwhelming. There's nothing as additive as freedom and there's nothing as attractive either."

The whole video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdNvmIf ... s9&index=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That sense of freedom can be had whether you live in the city or the country, it's more of a state of mind than it is a place. For me I feel a great sense of freedom being out of debt, being self-employed, growing a portion of our own food organically and the ability to expand that initiative, etc.. Under the guidance of my Heavenly Father I am responsible for me and the thought of that is overwhelming. God has not placed any limitations on me or on what I can accomplish using my creative ability.

I could be mistaken but I don't think the economy is going to go suddenly south (I think a slow collapse with a few glitches along the way down is more realistic). That being said I do see a host of problems coming in the not to distant future for those who are not self-reliant who have placed too much trust in governments on every level and their ability to deliver on their promises. I see uniformed bureaucrats panicking/hyperventilating over climate change, peak oil, water shortages, or? (call it UN Agenda 2030) because they don't understand God's time frame, that "For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves." (D&C 104:17) And I think there is a need to prepare if we want to keep any semblance of agency.

The experiment continues ....