When: the other night
Mouse: 1
Meowy: 0
Meowy Versus The Mouse © May 2019
May 29, 2019
May 25, 2019
What's Growing, What's Not
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| Daylilies have just begun blooming. |
May has been a month of harvesting the last of the winter garden and planting for summer. The fall and winter garden have pretty much wound down.
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| Garlic has been harvested |
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| Multiplier onions are next |
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| Sugar beets and kale are still growing. |
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| The kale is Lacinato, an heirloom variety and new for me. A keeper! |
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| It's mild, tender, and tasty. Here's some sauteed with carrots and onions. |
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| I don't remember what lettuce this is. but I want seed from it because it never got bitter. |
For the summer garden I've been busy getting growing things in the ground.
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| I had about three dozen tomato starts. |
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| They've all been planted and most are doing very well. |
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| I transplanted pepper starts too. |
Do you remember the survivor strawberries Dan found last January and I transplanted in the hoop house?
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| My one little bed has done very well. |
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| We didn't get many, but it was enough for a couple of batches of strawberry pancakes. |
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| Some of my potted potatoes. |
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| Potatoes plants grown from grocery store organic potatoes. |
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| I planted cowpeas in the potato bed. |
My rice is doing well, though I admit I pamper it. I worry that our current hot, dry spell may be unhappy for it.
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| Loto rice, a short variety. |
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| Cho Seun Zo Saeng grows taller. |
Other things that are doing well:
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| Crabapples |
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| Starks Moonglow Pears. They are sweet and spicy. |
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| Hops. I say it's doing well but I lost 2 out of 3 plants. Here's hoping this one is a female! |
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| One of our hay patches with sorghum-sudangrass. |
Some things haven't done very well.
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| Only a couple of cucumber plants came up so I replanted. |
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| I had to replant my corn too. |
Still to plant:
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| Sweet potato slips. They'll go in soon. The potted flower was a mother's day gift from my oldest granddaughter. |
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| This one was from my youngest granddaughter. |
I don't know what they are but it's perfect to grace my barn bench.
What's Growing, What's Not © May 2019
May 21, 2019
Back to Square One
About three weeks ago or so, I told you about the challenges of weaning bucklings ("Growing Up is Hard to Do.") It took awhile, but finally, things were starting to calm down and the little boys were crying less. Sunday I brought the girls up to the paddock adjacent to the little guys. I fervently hoped it wouldn't start another hollering session, and for awhile all seemed well.
When Dan and I went out to do chores I went to get the girls but they were gone! Turns out they had broken into the puckling pasture and everybody was one big happy family again. The problem was the gate between the two paddocks. The bolt latch can be worked open if the gate is bumped often enough, which is why we have a chain on it too. Somehow the goats had rubbed and stood on the gate panel enough to loosen the latch, but the chain wasn't tight enough to keep the gate shut. The girls has worked their way through the opening.
Separating them again was a first class fiasco. All the goats were running around and hollering. Finally I managed to get the girls through the one gate without the bucklings following them.
The girls were glad to go back to the barn because it was feeding time. But the little boys were heart broken, and have been crying ever since. It wouldn't be so bad if it was the typical goat call of "maaa, maaa." Instead they've been screaming! High pitched and shrill like a bunch of little girls who've just just seen a spider. I thought we'd finally gotten over this! I hope they settle down again soon.
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| The Boo Hoo Boys wanting to get out. |
When Dan and I went out to do chores I went to get the girls but they were gone! Turns out they had broken into the puckling pasture and everybody was one big happy family again. The problem was the gate between the two paddocks. The bolt latch can be worked open if the gate is bumped often enough, which is why we have a chain on it too. Somehow the goats had rubbed and stood on the gate panel enough to loosen the latch, but the chain wasn't tight enough to keep the gate shut. The girls has worked their way through the opening.
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| Henry, Eddie, and Jesse James |
Separating them again was a first class fiasco. All the goats were running around and hollering. Finally I managed to get the girls through the one gate without the bucklings following them.
The girls were glad to go back to the barn because it was feeding time. But the little boys were heart broken, and have been crying ever since. It wouldn't be so bad if it was the typical goat call of "maaa, maaa." Instead they've been screaming! High pitched and shrill like a bunch of little girls who've just just seen a spider. I thought we'd finally gotten over this! I hope they settle down again soon.
Back to Square One © May 2019 by
May 17, 2019
Of Rhythm and Routine
"I like to call our beginning years of homesteading “the establishment phase.” We have our land and the goal of becoming self-reliant, but it’s going to take a lot get there: knowledge, equipment, tools, resources, and time. Because it is just the two of us, it is especially going to take time."
"As I sit at my computer and reflect on the five years since I wrote that statement, I find myself asking, "Well, are we established homesteaders now? Have we transitioned from one phase to the next?" As I try to figure out how to answer that, I realize there is no way to pinpoint when our establishment phase ends and the next phase begins."
About a week ago I showed you the results of many of our establishment phase projects (see "Ten Years.") We've accomplished a lot, and as I put that blog post together I couldn't help but reflect on where we are now and where we're going. While we still have goals and plans, somewhere along the way our focus shifted from the next project on the list, to what the season demanded. We shifted from pushing ahead with a linear mindset to the cycle of the seasons. That has given a rhythm to our life that we truly appreciate.
I talked about that some in my "Happy Agrarian New Year!" blog post: spring is busy with planting, summer for growing and food preservation, and autumn to finish the harvest and prepare for winter. Winter is the season of the hearth; a time of rest, reflection, and planning. This is our life framework now. While we still set annual goals every January (this year's listed in "Project Plans for the New Year") our focus has become very much more seasonal.
Our current to-do list looks something like this:
Things which are ongoing, such as mowing, mulching, weeding, cheese making, laundry, etc., aren't added to the to-do list because they'd always be there! Routine daily chores aren't on the list either.
On Sunday afternoons, we have a calendar meeting. This is something we started when the kids were still living at home and we needed to coordinate the week's activities. Now we use it to coordinate projects. I check the week's weather forecast and we discuss seasonal chores that need to get done. Then we look over the to-do list. We cross off things we've completed, choose the week's projects, and jot them down on the calendar. We prioritize with the motto "food first." Anything related to food production, either for us or our critters, comes first.
At breakfast every day (except our day of rest) we check the calendar. If something has come up we make adjustments. Flexibility is a necessity, but by having the week's goals written on the calendar we can easily make sure the week's priorities, at least, are done.
After breakfast we head out for morning chores. After that comes the day's projects. We often have a morning project and an afternoon project. They may be something we work on together, or separate projects. In summer I like to do my garden work in the morning, and then do a house or shade project in the afternoon. In winter that's reversed. Evening chores are done right before dinner. At dusk we do a last check of water and hay feeders, separate the kids from their moms for the night, and close up the chicken coop. That's the routine of most of our days.
At the end of the month we sit down and evaluate the list. We don't expect to accomplish everything on the it, but we do revise it. Completed projects are deleted and new ones added according to the season or because something new has presented itself. Although the list never gets shorter or goes away, by it we are able to keep our goals manageable and our priorities straight. It's a tool that works well for us and sets the pace and tone of our seasonal rhythm and work routine.
How about you? How do you keep your plans and projects manageable?
5 Acres & A Dream The Book
Chapter 5, "The Establishment Phase"
"As I sit at my computer and reflect on the five years since I wrote that statement, I find myself asking, "Well, are we established homesteaders now? Have we transitioned from one phase to the next?" As I try to figure out how to answer that, I realize there is no way to pinpoint when our establishment phase ends and the next phase begins."
5 Acres & A Dream The Sequel
Chapter 5, "Transition" (rough draft)
About a week ago I showed you the results of many of our establishment phase projects (see "Ten Years.") We've accomplished a lot, and as I put that blog post together I couldn't help but reflect on where we are now and where we're going. While we still have goals and plans, somewhere along the way our focus shifted from the next project on the list, to what the season demanded. We shifted from pushing ahead with a linear mindset to the cycle of the seasons. That has given a rhythm to our life that we truly appreciate.
I talked about that some in my "Happy Agrarian New Year!" blog post: spring is busy with planting, summer for growing and food preservation, and autumn to finish the harvest and prepare for winter. Winter is the season of the hearth; a time of rest, reflection, and planning. This is our life framework now. While we still set annual goals every January (this year's listed in "Project Plans for the New Year") our focus has become very much more seasonal.
Our current to-do list looks something like this:
- Garden
- transplant rice, tomatoes, peppers
- finish spring planting
- finish digging swale bed
- clean out and move garden shed
- buck paddocks
- paint trim
- get rain catchment tank
- set up catchment tank
- pallets for firewood
- new clothesline
- drains for tubs
- cut
- mill
- chip branches
- fix fences
- split
- stack
- make more grazing beds
- duck house
- move compost piles
- lawn tractor
- cart
- welding machine
- sickle mower belt
Things which are ongoing, such as mowing, mulching, weeding, cheese making, laundry, etc., aren't added to the to-do list because they'd always be there! Routine daily chores aren't on the list either.
On Sunday afternoons, we have a calendar meeting. This is something we started when the kids were still living at home and we needed to coordinate the week's activities. Now we use it to coordinate projects. I check the week's weather forecast and we discuss seasonal chores that need to get done. Then we look over the to-do list. We cross off things we've completed, choose the week's projects, and jot them down on the calendar. We prioritize with the motto "food first." Anything related to food production, either for us or our critters, comes first.
At breakfast every day (except our day of rest) we check the calendar. If something has come up we make adjustments. Flexibility is a necessity, but by having the week's goals written on the calendar we can easily make sure the week's priorities, at least, are done.
After breakfast we head out for morning chores. After that comes the day's projects. We often have a morning project and an afternoon project. They may be something we work on together, or separate projects. In summer I like to do my garden work in the morning, and then do a house or shade project in the afternoon. In winter that's reversed. Evening chores are done right before dinner. At dusk we do a last check of water and hay feeders, separate the kids from their moms for the night, and close up the chicken coop. That's the routine of most of our days.
At the end of the month we sit down and evaluate the list. We don't expect to accomplish everything on the it, but we do revise it. Completed projects are deleted and new ones added according to the season or because something new has presented itself. Although the list never gets shorter or goes away, by it we are able to keep our goals manageable and our priorities straight. It's a tool that works well for us and sets the pace and tone of our seasonal rhythm and work routine.
How about you? How do you keep your plans and projects manageable?
Of Rhythm and Routine © May 2019
May 13, 2019
Now Available for Kindle: 5 Acres & A Dream The Book
is now available for Kindle! If you're a member of Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime, it's free!I'm sure some of you are wondering, why only for Kindle when there are so many different types of eReaders out there? It's not because I'm particularly a fan of Kindle or of Amazon, so here's the story.
When 5 Acres & A Dream The Book first came out at the tail end of 2013, eReaders and were still pretty basic, as was the process of converting a book file to an eBook format. There were several factors in my decision to only publish in paperback, the primary technical one being that the file size was too large. At that time eBook text files were limited to 50 MB (Smashwords still sets its limits at 15 MB). The file for 5 Acres & A Dream The Book is over 250 MB.
Over the years, print-on-demand companies have developed more sophisticated conversion software and can take larger files. But there were still problems, and these had to do with file preparation. For both formats, the book file must be ready to go. Every page of the book must be edited and have everything in place (paragraphs, pictures, page numbers, etc.) and to specs. For an eBook, the file can be html, epub, .doc, or .docx. For a print book, the file must be PDF/X.
Word processors can export PDF, but not PDF/X, which meant I had to use a desktop publisher to create a print-ready file. Page by page I added the text I'd written on my word processor, added the images created by my photo editor, then captions and page numbers. I also created title and copyright pages, table of contents, appendices, and index. It was a big learning curve, but one that I enjoyed tremendously.
When I started writing The Little Series of Homestead How-Tos, it was primarily to learn how to create eBooks, because the specs and formatting are completely different than print books. With a print book, each page is fixed so that the pages print out uniformly. Because eReaders vary in size, eBook files must be flowable to allow the book to adjust to the readers device. So different rules apply. I can create an eBook file in my word processor and save it as a .doc file to upload to Smashwords and Kindle Direct Publishing. Because my paperback book files were created with my desktop publisher, I would have to start from scratch to create an eBook file. I couldn't see that happening.
Since then, Kindle Direct Publishing has come out with software to create "Print Replica" eBooks. These aren't flowable pages, but exact replicas of the printed pages. Zoom is available for these books if the eReader is capable, which means all of my Master Plans can be viewed. Acceptable file sizes have been increased, so why not?
There was still a challenge! The KDP software is available only for PC or Mac. The problem was that my operating system is Xubuntu Linux. The solution? Virtualization software. Oracle's VirtualBox was just what I needed. With only a minimum of head scratching I was able to install VirtualBox, and into that I installed Windows 10. It worked perfectly and I was easily able to create my print replica Kindle file.
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#1 on Amazon's "Hot New Kindle Releases" in
Sustainable Agriculture one week after being released.
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Retail price is $8.95, but Amazon currently has it on sale for $7.77. That's the same price to which they've discounted the paperback edition. Even so, lending is enabled for the Kindle edition, so if you don't have Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited, find someone who does and ask to borrow it. You don't need a Kindle to do that; you can download a Kindle reading app for free.
You can find the Kindle edition of 5 Acres & A Dream The Book here. If you're not in the U.S., it's also available at Amazon UK, CA, AU, MX, BR, NL, FR, DE, ES, IN, IT, and JP. You will find links to those sites here.
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