Invisible Mending

Mending is one of those historical skills that has made a come-back. While it was primarily utilitarian at one time, it's taken on new life and prestige as an art and craft in it's own right. Because of that, it's worth defining some terms:

• Plain mending - utilitarian patching, darning, and repair
• Visible mending - decorative, such as boro, sashiko, embroidery, fancy patchwork
• Invisible mending - re-weaving or re-knitting cloth to look like the original fabric

Because mending is a desirable self-sufficiency skill, I've blogged about some of my plain mending (such as mending socks) and some of my visible mending (such as my barn jacket). Recently, I decided to try my hand at invisible mending. 

To learn on, I chose my favorite denim work skirt. I discovered the beginnings of a small hole when I hung it out to dry on the clothesline. 

The repair required finding threads that matched the colors of the fabric. Even though the blue threads are a dark blue close up, I chose a medium blue thread because it blended better with the overall impression of color.

I caught it early enough that I only had to re-weave the blue threads. 

I'm not patient enough to do fine, close work, ordinarily. But this was small enough that it didn't take long, although one of those crafter's magnifying lenses would have been helpful. A blunter needle would have been helpful, as well. The sharps needle kept catching the white threads.

I also want to note that I didn't try to replicate the twill weave; I just did the best I could at picking up threads to weave through. The goal is so that the hole isn't noticeable at a couple of feet away. Do you think I succeeded?

A fancier weave or multiple colors would certainly make it more challenging. Assuming one is up to that challenge!

All in all, I think this is a useful technique to learn. The end result of plain mending chore or play clothes probably has low expectations for most of us. But learning how to properly mend career, dress, or town clothes is both a budget and a landfill saver. What's not to like about that?

Invisible Mending © April 2023 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Alternative Feeds for Chickens

Trying to make the food budget balance with rising food prices has become a bit of a challenge these days. It's caused me to analyze and re-evaluate our diet (which isn't a bad thing), because now, I have to ask myself what my price limits are for the things I usually buy.

Vintage USDA Poster

I'm very thankful to have a garden, fruit trees, and smallholding livestock. But there's a concern too, because some of the heftiest price jumps have been for livestock feed. So I'm analyzing their diets too, and asking, what are the alternatives for feeding our animals?

Well, how much food does a chicken need? There are various answers to that question because it depends on the age and type of chicken. Production estimates are usually around 4 to 6 ounces per chicken per day if the chickens are getting all their nutritional needs met by commercial feed. But what about chickens that free range and supplement their own diet? How does that factor in? I don't know a formula to calculate that, but I can tell you that because of our alternative feeding methods, our chickens eat very little pelleted food. In fact, they much prefer the other things we offer them.

So here's what we do to help cut the feed bill. As a heads up, you won't find that it conforms to what a lot of the experts say. But we have healthy, happy chickens and feed them for practically free. So these things definitely work. The links will take you to my blog posts for more information.

Free-ranging. We used to let our chickens out to pasture, where they eat grass, clover, weeds, and seed heads. But they tend to become counterproductive during pasture planting seasons because they will eat all the seed I've just planted. They've also done quite a bit of damage to my forest garden hedgerow and forest garden by scratching around newly planted trees and young plants. Because of that, we've switched to alternatives to full blown free ranging.

Alternatives to free-ranging. 

• chicken tractor
• fencing portions of the pasture with electric netting
• portable chicken runs
• enlarge the chicken yard and rotate where they're allowed access

Grazing beds. We grow fresh grass in these beds, which the chickens trim enthusiastically.

Any grass seed will do; chickens just love fresh greens. Occasionally, we move the bed to a new location, and let the chickens scratch up whatever they can find in the dirt.

Gathered greens and herbs. Sometimes I take my hand sickle and trim tall grass for them. Also, I gather weeds and herbs: chickweed (a favorite), clover, parsley, dandelion, plantain, purslane, bee balm, wood sorrel, basil, borage, marjoram, chervil, chives, cilantro, mint, echinacea, dill, comfrey, lemon balm, marigold flowers, hyssop, lemongrass, oregano, stinging nettles, nasturtium, purple deadnettle, rose, smartweed, sage, yarrow, tarragon, thyme, raspberry leaves, thyme.

Root crops. Hang a turnip, carrot, beet, sweet potato, etc. where the chickens can peck it, and it will amuse them for quite awhile.

Winter squash. These are easy to feed. I cut them in sections and let the chickens peck out the seeds and flesh.

Surplus melons and overgrown cucumbers. These can be fed the same way.

Compost. Moving our compost bins into the chicken yard was one of the best things we ever did. 

It's less work for us and they love scratching through it. What's especially amazing, is that there appears to be some sort of symbiotic relationship between chickens and compost. With only minimal turning on our part, our compost works up much more quickly than chickenless compost piles. It's almost like magic. (In fact, my How To Compost With Chickens is one of my most popular eBooks. See cover below, or follow that link for details.)

Do we do anything special about what goes into the chicken compost pile? No. They eat what they want and ignore what they don't want. So all kitchen and canning scraps go into the compost, including dried, crushed eggshells, moldy cheese, and meat scraps. Shockingly, we don't separate out coffee grounds and onion skins (big no-nos in the chicken expert world) because the chickens don't consider them food and leave them to decompose on their own.

Eggshells, dried and crushed instead of oyster shells for calcium. As mentioned above, these are fed via the compost. I know some people worry this will cause chickens to become egg eaters, but I've never had a chicken yet who was smart enough to look at a jigsaw puzzle of crushed egg shells and mentally figure out the pieces could be reconstructed into eggs.

Cooked eggs (scrambled or hard boiled). Extra eggs can be fed back to omnivorous livestock! We especially seem to end up with an excess of duck eggs, which I hardboil, then chop shell and all into small pieces for the chickens.

Surplus dairy. Apparently, chickens can't digest milk, but they can eat cheese, yogurt, kefir, curds, and whey. Since we have goats, we often have surplus milk, so this is an excellent way for it to not go to waste.

Homegrown grains and sunflower seeds. The thing about grain for chickens, is that it doesn't have to be processed. Wheat for example. Toss some wheat heads into the chicken yard, and they know exactly what to do with it. Growing grain for chickens is much less labor intensive than growing it for humans. Ditto for sunflower seeds, set a head out and they'll take care of the processing. 

Besides grass grains (wheat, oats, barley), small grains such as amaranth or sorghum are easy to grow and easy to feed. I toss whole seed heads into the chicken yard and they do the rest. Corn usually needs to be cracked to make it eating size for chickens.

Sprouted grains and fodder. Both of these can stretch the feed budget a lot. Also, they're very healthy. We feed sprouted grains when the root tails are about half-an-inch.

Sprouted mix of wheat, oats, and black oil sunflower seeds.

We feed fodder when the grass has grown about three inches tall. They eat grass, grain, and roots.

Same mix as above, allowed to grow into grass.

Fermented grain. This has the benefit of live probiotics.

I'm not sure how much it decreases the feed bill, but it definitely boosts nutrition. And the chickens love it.

Grubs. Any time I dig anywhere, I keep a small bucket handy to toss grubs into. The chickens adore these, and I hope it helps keep our insect population down as well.

Earthworms. The chickens find these in the compost, but for anyone practicing vermiculture for castings, this is a great way to manage the earthworm population.

Other insects and insect larvae. Some people raise mealworms or solder fly larvae for chicken feed. I've never tried either. If we ever find a cache of larvae, we scoop it into a bucket and take it to them. They also love crickets, but these aren't easy to catch and transport! 

How do I know they're getting a proper diet? How do I know it's properly balanced? Well, they get protein, carbohydrates, fats, fresh fruits and vegetables, and all from zero to minimally processed sources. They are bright eyed, interested in life, have good weight, shiny feathers and firm egg shells. We still keep free choice commercial feed available, but every single chicken (and the Muscovies) prefer the goodies I've listed above. 

If you're interested in learning how to mix your own feed rations, I have another little eBook that will teach you how to do that, How To Mix Feed Rations With the Pearson Square. It includes a lot of information on self-sufficient livestock feeding for a variety of species.

These are the book mentioned above. Their titles link
them to their individual webpages (and where to find them)
or you can visit Kikobian.com for a complete list of titles.

Prepper's Livestock Handbook is another of my books that emphasizes alternative feeds for self-sufficiency. The link is to its webpage, where you can find more information.

Back to the topic at hand. I've always had a goal of self-sufficient chickens, which means feeding them from the homestead and not buying feed. So, I've collected and experimented with a lot of ideas. As with all things, however, what I do and how I do it are habit. The way prices are right now is helping me change my habits. As they say, there's a silver lining to every dark cloud.

Alternative Feeds for Chickens © April 2022 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Roosterless No More!

We've definitely had our chicken woes this year. Our straight-run Dominique chicks turned out to be 75% roosters. We kept one, and then something killed it, leaving behind a pile of feathers. A month or so later, a stray dog killed one of the hens. This isn't the way to grow a flock! Of the six Speckled Sussex pullets I bought last spring, Dan caught a skunk in the chicken coop, eating one of the chicks. It had killed two, leaving us with four. So this summer, we've had six six hens and no rooster. Can't have a self-sustaining flock that way!

Our Sussex are going on five months old, and we reckoned that this time of year, there should be a possibility of finding a Speckled Sussex rooster. Autumn is when folks want to get rid of spring roosters, and Craigslist is full of them. Dozens of rooster ads, for all types ranging in price from $5 to $20 each. But nobody seemed to have Speckled Sussex. Patience and diligence paid off, however, and last week Dan found a Speckled Sussex rooster - for free!

Our new rooster.

He's young enough so that his roostering instincts haven't kicked in yet. But the girls like him, so that's a start. 

Mr. Rooster in the back, two of the girls in the front.

Amazingly, introductions were made with no squabbling, no stand-offs, and no challenges to the existing pecking order. The girls were just as interested in him as he was in them, and everybody got along from the get-go. That's the smoothest chicken introduction we've ever had. 

None of this worked out the way we expected, but I think it worked out well. The Sussex hens are probably closely related, and he comes from different genetic stock. So, he's a good addition in more ways than one.

Roosterless No More! © September 2021

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

A New Paradigm for Gardening & Seed Saving

Paradigm - A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality.

Paradigm shift - A radical change in thinking from an accepted point of view to a new one.

I've always striven to be a good organic gardener: compost, mulch, and no chemicals. I've incorporated permaculture, natural farming, and regenerative agriculture techniques into my gardening, and tried to expand my understanding of soil chemistry and soil biology. Even so, there's been a subtle common theme throughout my gardening blog posts for the past several years: poor germination. I've wracked my brain trying to figure this out. What have I been doing wrong? Is it the soil? The growing conditions? Our southern heat? My compost? Not enough water? The cats using the garden beds as litter boxes? I haven't been able to figure it out and it's been discouraging.

The other day, I received a review copy of a new book and read this:

"When I plant seeds obtained from the industrialized seed system*, it is common for 75% to 95% of the varieties to fail."

Joseph Lofthouse, Landrace Gardening: Food Security 

through Biodiversity and Promiscuous Pollination

There it was—in stark black and white—the thing that I haven't even wanted to admit to myself, seed failure! What a relief to know I wasn't alone. And now, thanks to Joseph's new book, I'm beginning to understand. 

*First, I'd like to clarify something. By industrialized seed system, he's not just referring to commercially produced hybrid seed. He's referring to seed that has been selectively bred for genetic "purity" through the deliberate, now standard process of isolation and inbreeding. It can be hybrid seeds, but the same process is how heirloom and open-pollinated seeds are produced.

The result of this seed breeding system is the hundreds of beautiful garden seed varieties that we drool over in seed catalogues. But therein lies the problem. All those varieties come at the cost of an extremely narrow gene pool and loss of vigor and adaptability. I deeply appreciate the desire to preserve our heritage species and varieties, but by doing so we are losing life-saving biodiversity in our seed supply. The more gene specific the vegetable variety, the less it is able to adapt to a different growing region.

This is what I've been experiencing in my own garden. When I compare my early gardens to the germination rates of the past couple of years, it's obvious it's become a significant problem in only a few years.

This isn't just a problem for the home gardener. This is a commercial problem as well, and on a global scale. How many times have you heard that modern industrialized agriculture is the only answer for producing enough food to feed the world? That organic farming can't do the job? The reason why this is believed is found in this article from Independent Science News, "Stuffed or Starved? Evolutionary Plant Breeding Might Have the Answer." Here are some of the key points:

"Today, much of “institutional” plant breeding, . . . has as its objective industrial agriculture (the only one that according to some will be able to feed the world), . . . (and) is based on the selection . . . of uniform varieties."

"One of the reasons for the difference in productivity between conventional agriculture and organic farming is that, in the latter, lacking suitable varieties, the same varieties are grown that are selected for conventional agriculture; these varieties find themselves in a completely different situation from the one for which they were selected, and therefore produce less."

Industry's answer is genetic modification and more chemicals. Except that it isn't fixing the problem. The real answer? (from the same article).

"The method consists in creating plant populations by mixing seeds previously obtained by crossing different varieties, and letting them evolve . . . This offers the possibility of adapting the crop both to long-term and short-term climate change, but also to control weeds, diseases and insects without resorting to pesticides."

Joseph Lofthouse calls these landrace seeds. 

"Landrace: A locally-adapted, genetically-diverse, promiscuously-pollinating food crop. Landraces are intimately connected to the land, ecosystem, farmer, and community. Landraces offer food security through their ability to adapt to changing conditions."

Joseph Lofthouse, Landrace Gardening

What Joseph's book is offering, is a new gardening paradigm. In it, he provides a clear explanation and practical plan for the home gardener. My book review is here. If this information is as exciting to you as it is to me, then you'll definitely want this book. You can get it at Amazon.com.

A New Paradigm for Gardening & Seed Saving 

© June 2021 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Appropriate Self-Sufficiency

Those of you who have read my books or blog know that I frequently use the word "self-sufficiency." It's a hold-over term from my back-to-the-land days, when it was a widely used term to describe the goal of the movement. When I started my homestead blog back in 2009, I picked up the familiar term to describe our primary goal. What surprised me at the time, was how people reacted to it. Some people got it, but it was almost startling that so many others scolded me for it, declaring it was impossible or isolationist (in their thinking). Then, I found myself trying to explain how I was using the word and started to say "as self-sufficient as we are able." Eventually, I switched to "self-reliant" which seemed acceptable, even though it meant the same thing to me. 

Recently, I've been reading Carol Deppe's The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times. Here, I was introduced to the term "appropriate self-sufficiency." Brilliant! Except that she never exactly defines it, other than to distinguish personal independence from "honorable interdependence," i.e. developing skills that will be useful to an interconnected community. That's great if one has such a community. Unfortunately, many of us who seek a less consumer dependent lifestyle are often considered oddballs by those around us. Because of that, I want appropriate self-sufficiency to be applicable to me too.

What came to mind is the term "appropriate technology," which Merriam-Webster defines as "technology that is suitable to the social and economic conditions of the geographic area in which it is to be applied, is environmentally sound, and promotes self-sufficiency on the part of those using it." Other definers relegate it to third world scenarios, but those of us who understand that hard times happen everywhere, may rightfully define the geographic area as being our own homestead, even our own backyard. Dan and I certainly do, and is why we make lifestyle choices that we feel are environmentally and economically reasonable (for us), though others think our choices are nuts. A good example would be our decision to give up air conditioning. 

How could we define appropriate self-sufficiency? Perhaps as self-sufficiency that is suitable to my economic conditions and social concerns within the geographic area in which it is to be applied (i.e. my homestead). I think one thing adding "appropriate" does, is allow the term to be customized according to individual goals. What's appropriate for me, may be entirely different for you. 

If appropriate self-sufficiency allows me to define my own parameters, then what would they be? Certainly, that would include anything that allows us to live in relative security and comfort during hard times, whether those hard times are related to weather, health, income, political upheaval, or economic disaster. What areas are realistic for me to consider?

• Food?
• Shelter?
• Water?
• Energy?
• Safety?

So, how do I go about achieving greater self-reliance in all of these areas? Well, that's what I've spent the past 12 years writing about. That's what fills the pages of my books and the posts of my blog. Most of it isn't spectacular, profound, alarmist, or even emotionally motivating. Most of it is a rather slow, mundane plodding in a particular direction that isn't of much interest to the majority of folks. Yet, I do it—Dan and I do it—because learning to be less dependent on a dubious consumer system and fickle government feels like the prudent thing to do. 

On the one hand, it's kind of fun to find a word that fits my world so well. On the other hand, so what? Words are constantly evolving; sometimes arbitrarily, sometimes deliberately. How they are perceived can make communication easy or difficult, but it doesn't really change me. As a writer, of course I always hope to use words in ways that have meaning to others and encourage them. I don't always expect to succeed, but I enjoy trying.

Appropriate Self-Sufficiency © February 2021

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Book Review: Attainable Sustainable

I have in my hands a real treat of a book. It's another book that seems especially appropriate for the uncertain times we are living in. I received a review copy from tlc book tours when I agreed to participate in an online book tour. I'm very pleased to share it with you.

Attainable Sustainable: the lost art of self-reliant living

by Kris Bordessa. 

Kris is a fellow blogger who began blogging with a goal to encourage others toward self-reliant living. Teaching traditional skills one step at a time, she created a popular blog and has now written a book!

The book is gorgeous. Published by National Geographic, it contains 320 full color pages of well-organized information covering all aspects of self-reliant living. It acquaints the reader with a well-rounded selection of self-reliance skills and includes numerous recipes, tips, and DIY how-tos. It's divided into two parts.

Part I: Indoors

Chapter 1: Eat 
This chapter is, of course, about food! Covers all aspects of food preservation with clear, easy-to-follow instructions: canning, dehydrating, pickling, fermentation, making fruit juices, breads (quick, yeast, and sourdough), grains & legumes, infused oils and vinegars, and meat, from sourcing good quality meat to charcuterie, the art of making seasoned meats such as bacon and sausage.

The chapter is sprinkled liberally with recipes, such as chewy dried bananas, pickled ginger, crunchy sourdough baguettes, and strawberry switchel. It also contains DIY projects such as moisture absorbers, and useful tips such as using linen bread bags to increase the shelf life of homemade bread (with instructions for making them in the next chapter).

Chapter 2: Make
This chapter is for the crafter in all of us. It has lots of DIY projects, such as oil lamps that use common vegetable oils, reusable produce bags, waste-free food wraps, felted soap, a coiled rope basket, a leatherbound journal, mosaic trivet, and how to make your own blocks for block printing. My favorite section is on natural dying for a rainbow of color. Each section covers the craft basics and gives detailed instructions and photographs for the many projects.

Chapter 3: Clean
Chapter 3 starts with an excellent discussion on soapmaking and offers two recipes to get you started: pure tallow soap and a moisturizing soap bar. You'll find recipes for items like lotion bars and deodorant cream in skin care. Two of the several projects you'll find in natural hair care are a time-saving dry shampoo and a hydrating avocado hair mask. In herbalism, you'll learn how to make tinctures, infused oils in your slow cooker, and hydrosols. In natural remedies you'll find homemade help for a number of ailments including elderberry syrup to boost immunity and a decongestant chest rub. Lots of goodies in cleaning & laundry including a citrus scrubbing cleaner, DIY diswasher soap, and a stain remover. Air fresheners and pest control round out the chapter nicely.

Part II: Outdoors

Chapter 4: Grow
An excellent gardening primer covering getting started, seed selection, vertical gardening, container gardening, natural weed control, soil improvement, greenhouse growing, edible weeds, edible landscaping, and pest and predator control. Lots of good tips, for example, I didn't know sweet potato vines are edible! Lots of projects. Make a terra-cotta olla, a salad tower, and soil blocks for seed starting,

Chapter 5: Farm
Any backyard can become a farm! Discusses using orchard trees in your landscape, how to attract pollinators, beekeeping, composting, chickens, ducks, turkeys, quail, rabbits, even goats and pigs. Projects include making a mason bee house, rendering beeswax, making a vermicomposter, and DIY udder balm, with recipes for herb-infused honey and fruit mead.

Chapter 6: Trek
This chapter focuses on enjoying the great outdoors through hiking and camping. There are sections on bushcraft knives, cast-iron cookery, and foraging. Learn how to make a tuna can stove, clean a fish, make a natural shelter, make a mini-flower press, and tap trees for syrup. Not just sugar maples, but butternut, walnut, birch, sycamore, and ironwood can all be tapped for making syrup. Lots of good ideas for family activities too: natural weather forecasting, trail signs and tracking, and plant identification.

The appendices include a climate zone map and "tools every homesteader should have." You'll also find an extensive resource list for further reading.

This is an appealing book, the kind you might think of as a useful coffee table reference book. It is encouraging, well-written, and beautifully designed. It would make an excellent gift, especially for those who are feeling helplessly stuck at home because of the current pandemic. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and your local bookstore (you can find one at IndieBound).

To learn more about Kris Bordessa, visit her "Attainable Sustainable" website, and check her out on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Book Review: Attainable Sustainable 
© April 2020 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Solar Pantry Project: Batteries

Continued from "Burying the Solar Cable."

Step by step we're making progress toward getting our freezer (and maybe a chest fridge) on solar. Each step has presented challenges! Choosing batteries, for example. Solar panels only produce electricity in the sun, so batteries are a necessity to keep things running when the sun goes down. However, there are so many choices. Here are the factors we looked at and how they influenced our decision.

Flooded lead acid batteries. Of the various kinds (flooded, sealed, lithium), these are the most economical. Considering this is our first solar set-up and it's possible we'll make some learning mistakes, it makes sense to keep it affordable. Life expectancy for this type of battery is only about five years, and they do require maintenance and need ventilation. But also, we can buy them locally, another plus.

Local availability. The reason for this is simple—shipping costs! Shipping for batteries starts at $250 to $350. Because of our budget, it makes more sense to buy locally. But also, if there's a problem it will be easier to return them to the store rather than ship them back.

Deep Cycle. These are different from car (cranking) batteries. In a vehicle, the battery has to supply a brief high demand to get an engine started, i.e., rotate the crankshaft. A cranking battery is built to bear a high load for a short duration. Deep cycle batteries are built for a low continual draw with repeated discharging and recharging.

6-volt batteries. We took this recommendation from our go-to book, Prepper's Total Grid Failure Handbook (my book review here.) They are similar in size to 12-volt batteries, which means they are more heavy-duty than their 12-volt batteries and should last longer.

Amp-hours (AH). Starting batteries list cranking amps, while deep cycle batteries list amp-hours. This isn't a specific time measurement, because factors like temperature make a difference. Basically, the higher the AH, the longer the battery can last before it needs recharging. Of course, the higher the AH, the higher the price.

Weight. Three popular sizes of batteries for solar battery banks are golf cart (GC), L16, and fork lift (industrial) batteries. The L16s and industrial batteries offer the highest amp-hours, but are heavier (and more expensive). In general, golf cart batteries typically weigh less than 100 pounds, L16s weigh more than 100 pounds, and industrial batteries weigh 800 pounds or more. Handling them is a consideration!

After weighing our choices, we decided that golf cart batteries would best meet our needs and our budget. We ended up with two options, both are the same size (GC2), weight (65 pounds), and AH (235).

• Duracell from the battery chain store. $133 each + $21 core charge = $154 per battery
• Rolls Surrette from a small business. $130 each + $16.67 core charge = $146.67 per battery

Price plus brand reputation determined our choice:

My original estimate was four batteries, but we were able to get six for $880. And that still keeps us within our original budget of $1500!

How much energy will these actually give us? Well, do you remember my explanation of series versus parallel wiring in "Wiring the Solar Panels?" We'll apply that to our battery bank, connecting some in series and some in parallel.

Blue - series connection, neg to pos. Adds voltage. 6v + 6v = 12v
Green - parallel connection, neg to neg & pos to pos. Adds amperage.
235 amp-hours + 235 amp-hours + 235 amp-hours = 705 amp-hours

This set-up will give us a 12-volt, 705 amp-hour battery bank. We need less than 1000 watts, so 12 volts will work well for us. If we wanted much more than 1000 watts, we'd need a 24-volt system, or even 48 volts for higher usage.

Hopefully, 705 amp-hours will give me a two-day back-up if the skies be dark and sunless. That's a definite possibility, especially this time of year. In that case, the options are plugging back into the grid or finding an alternative way to recharge the batteries (like a generator—something on Dan's wish list!) Adding more batteries at a later date is not an option. This is because the batteries in the bank need to age together, with the same number of discharges and charges. Adding new batteries would create an imbalance that would cause more problems.

Next step is building a box for them. While Dan's working on that, I'm figuring out cable sizes and DC circuit breakers. We're getting closer!

Solar Pantry Project: Batteries © December 2019

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Mushrooms

Something I've eyed in seed catalogues over the years are mushroom kits. We love mushrooms, but the price for kit always held me back. Sow True Seed, however, sells both kits and plugs. The price of plugs is reasonable, and since we already have all the things we need to plant them, this was a good way to go. I bought two kinds - shiitake and white oyster.

Shiitake and white oyster mushroom plugs, 100 of each.

The plugs are set into live logs, so we scheduled our planting session for February. This is the month Dan designated for a job on our pasture improvement goals - trim low branches overhanging the edges of the pasture.

We invested in a pole saw for this job. Much safer
than climbing a ladder with a large chain saw!

That raised the canopy along the pasture fence line, plus gave us the logs we needed for the mushrooms! According to the excellent instructions provided with the plugs, white oak is recommended as the best. That's exactly what needed to be trimmed back.

Oak limbs in 4-foot sections.

Holes for the plugs are drilled 1 & 1/4 inch deep with a 5/16-inch drill bit. They are spaced six to eight inches apart in rows three to four inches apart.

The plugs are inch-long pieces of dowel that have been scored and inoculated with mushroom spawn.

They are pounded into the drilled holes.

And then coated with beeswax.

I set up a hotplate in the milking room for waxing the plugs.

I marked the ends of the logs with either an "O" for white oyster or an "S" for Shiitaki. The mushrooms themselves look very different so in some ways it shouldn't matter. But you never know.

The instructions said that logs cut more than seven to ten days previously would need to be soaked for 12 to 24 hours. We skipped that step because ours were still freshcut and green.

I waxed the cut ends of the logs and then stacked them behind the goat barn next to the big rain catchment tank. That spot remains in shade all day and will be easy to water if needed.

Now we wait! I read it can take up to a year for a first harvest.

Have you tried to grow mushrooms? How did it go?

Mushrooms © Feb. 2019 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

New Book Non-review and Giveaway!

I don't know if anyone else has been looking forward to this announcement, but I certainly have been. My Prepper's Livestock Handbook is now available! It's part of Ulysses Press's Prepper series, which includes a lot of truly excellent books. I'm proud to be part of that group.

Why a non-review? Well, because I can't exactly review my own book, and I don't want to give you a sales pitch. I do want to give you an idea of what you can expect to find in it, and to host a giveaway!

Here's the official blurb from my Kikobian.com website.

Livestock care from a preparedness point of view. 

You will learn: which livestock is best suited to preparedness, options for shelter and fencing, how to establish and maintain good pasture, how to grow and store hay, strategies for feeding your farm animals without going to the feed store, options for breeding, birthing, veterinary care, and sustainable dairying. Also pitfalls to avoid and how to keep things manageable. And if the grid ever fails, you will know how to preserve and store eggs, dairy foods, and meat without electricity. The Preppers Livestock Handbook focuses on simple, low-tech, off-grid methods for managing your land and your livestock. It is an excellent addition to any prepper, homestead, or self-reliance library.

Chapters:

• Ch. 1   First Things First
• Ch. 2   Best Breeds fpr Self-Reliance
• Ch. 3   Barns, Shelters, and Fencing
• Ch. 4   Forage and Feed
• Ch. 5   Breeding and Pregnancy
• Ch. 6   Blessed Events: Birthing and Hatching
• Ch. 7   Eggs, Milk, and Meat
• Ch. 8   Keeping Them Healthy
• Ch. 9    Keeping Them Safe
• Ch. 10  Keeping Things Manageable
• Conclusion: If SHTF

Includes at-a-glance charts and lists for:

• Livestock overviews (sizes, ex[ected production, acreage needed, natural and productive lifespans, example breeds)
• Grasses, legumes, and forbs (annuals, perennials, warm and cool season examples)
• Hay Feeding Needs
• Homegrown and foraged feeds
• Natural vitamin and mineral sources
• Gestation times for livestock
• Labor times and number of offspring
• Incubation times for various poultry
• Homemade feeds for hatchlings
• Supply lists (birthing, hatching, milking, routine and emergency care)
• Alternative de-wormers and medications
• How to know when you need a vet
• Normal range of vital signs
• Common livestock predators (includes signs of attack)
• and more

Resources are listed by chapter, so you can know where to find the things I talk about.

It's available in paperback or several eBook formats. The paperback is 192 pages and lists for $15.95. You can find it at the following websites and bookstores:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Local Indie Bookstores near you (Follow the link to find the one nearest you.)

Giveaway is over. Congratulations to the winner!

New Book Non-review and Giveaway! © June 2018

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

May Harvest: Sugar Beets

Last fall I planted two beds of sugar beets. We had a colder-than-normal winter, so they didn't do terribly well, but I did get some, and my harvest was better than my tries in years past. I pulled them all the other day in anticipation of preparing the bed to plant something else.

Sugar beets make excellent livestock feed, which is my primary reason for growing them. Both the greens and the roots are edible, so I chopped some to feed fresh ad dried the rest for my goats' vitamin and mineral mix (the same one that the garlic leaves went in to). The goats got the smallest roots too, but with the larger once I decided to see if I could make beet sugar.

In the U.S. "sugar" is a generic term that applies to both cane and beet sugar. Unless an ingredient list on a product label specifically specifies "cane sugar," then it could be either one or a mix of the two. Taste-wise it doesn't seem to make a difference, but all the commercial sugar beets grown here are genetically modified. So for those of us wishing to not eat GMOs, understanding that is important. Non-GMO sugar beet seed is still available to home gardeners, however, and that's what I planted.

I used the directions in Grandpappy's Recipes for Hard Times by Robert Wayne Atkins. I reviewed this book awhile back (here) and it's still one of my "must have" self-reliance books. Instructions for making beet sugar is one reason, as is how to make pectin for jam and jelly making and how to make yeast from hops. (I'd love to have a copy of Grandpappy's Survival Manual for Hard Times, but yikes it's pricey!)

The directions called for finely chopping, shredding, or slicing the cleaned roots, placing in a pot, and covering with water.

There were simmered until tender, about an hour. Then the cooking water was strained out and put in my crockpot to further cook down. The cooked beets are edible, so at dinnertime I sauteed some in butter to heat them up and we gave them a try. How were they? I thought they were good but Dan said he likes red beetroot better. The cooked beets can also be squeezed to remove more of the juice. Pulp would be welcomed by chickens and pigs!

To make actual beet sugar, the cooking water must be cooked down until it crystallizes. Just like making maple sugar. The alternative is to cook it down to a thick syrup and use it that way. Mine cooked in the slow cooker for the rest of the day and was turned off at night. Early the next morning I fired it up again to continue cooking. By the following afternoon it was dark and still watery. But it was smelling sweet, so I took a tiny taste.

And? Yes it was sweet but it also had a bitterish aftertaste! Yuk! That was all I needed to know and abandoned the experiment.

This is about 3 cups of concentrated juice from 4
pounds of sugar beets. Cooked down more, I
could probably anticipate about a pint of syrup.

Conclusion? Don't bother with making sugar or syrup; just use them raw for animal feed. In a hard times situation they certainly could be eaten by humans, and of course the greens are edible too.

So there you have it. If anyone else has tried this with better success, I'd love to hear about it!

May Harvest: Sugar Beets © May 2018 by

Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

A Very Exciting "Coming Soon!!!"

Yes! My newest book is scheduled to be released next month and is ready to pre-order at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your favorite independently owned local bookstore! It is part of Ulysses Press's prepper series and is my first non-self-published book. I've reviewed a number of books in this excellent series, and was surprised when they asked me to participate with a prepper's book for livestock. I was excited to say yes.

Dan and I have always thought that the best preparedness strategy is to become as self-reliant as possible. We knew that if we wanted fresh milk, eggs, cheese, and meat as part of our preparedness pantry, then we have to figure out self-reliant ways to feed our critters, plus learn ways to preserve and store these items without having to buy supplies or rely on electricity. This book is a compilation of everything I've learned about self-sufficient livestock keeping.

Who is this book for?

Anyone who is interested in:

• Self-reliant, sustainable homesteading
• Feeding your farm animals from your land
• Long-term food preparedness that goes beyond canned foods and dry goods

How is it different from other books on homestead livestock?

It approaches livestock keeping from the goal of self-sufficiency. It is written to help you transition from modern philosophies and techniques to sustainable, alternative, and off-grid ways of: managing livestock, growing your own forage, hay, feeds, and alternative feeds, preserving and keeping eggs, milk, and meat. In other words, it covers everything Dan and I wish we'd known before we got started!

I've included charts to help you compare various breeds of animals (some breeds are better suited for self-reliance than others!), and find important information at a glance such as pasture grasses, legumes, and forbs divided into warm and cool weather annuals and perennials. There are also supply lists for routine and emergency health care, pregnancy, labor, and delivery. It offers traditional and alternative methods for keeping your critters healthy. Also how to keep your livestock safe and how to identify predators from the signs they leave behind. An extensive resource list helps you find more information to meet your specific goals and needs.

The last chapter, "Keeping Things Manageable," is written to help you stay on track and avoid the pitfalls that can lead to homestead burnout. I think this is so important because it doesn't take long for things to become overwhelming. Helping you succeed is important to me.

Would it be corny to say "and more?" I know that sounds kinda salesy, but this book covers so much more than anything I've ever blogged about. I'm really pleased to offer it all as a handy resource.

The book is 192 pages and lists at $15.95. It will be available on June 15 in either paperback or eBook formats, but if you are interested in reserving a copy or two, you can pre-order now at:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Independent local book stores everywhere (Follow the link to find the one nearest you.)

Any of the above links will take you to a blurb about the book, but if you have any questions, please ask!

A Very Exciting "Coming Soon!!!" © May 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Growing More Hay

I showed you a picture of this year's first cutting of hay in my "Hay Loft!" post.

Cut wheat hay drying. The tree is an almond, planted in 2009.

It's one of two small unfenced areas near the road that we've designated for growing hay. When we bought the place these areas were lawn, but we're not lawn people and would rather put our ground to something productive. Now we get several cuttings of sudan grass here in the summer and grow wheat or wheat/oat hay here in winter. What I wanted to show you, though, is what it looks like at the back.

Small crabapple tree on the left. We planted it in 2010.

That leafy green mess of random shrubs and trees didn't used to be there. Originally it contained a few ornamentals, and I tried to grow a hedge of bush cherries there, but somehow the whole area grew out of control. I had overlooked how much until we were raking and hauling the hay. I asked Dan what he thought about trying to reclaim it so we can grow a little more hay. He agreed and we got to work.

The first step was to cut it all down. Much of it was goat-edible.

Next stumps were pulled. This clump is a crepe myrtle stump.

Then we raked out as many bits of roots as possible.

Lastly Dan smoothed it out with the scraper blade.

We gained a good 12 to 13 more feet for planting. In terms of large acreage that's just a wisp on the wind, but with our small acreage every little bit helps.

I added seaweed meal, hardwood ashes, and tiny amounts of borax &
copper sulfate to the soil. The wheat stubble will add organic matter.

We used to wish we had more land. We still wish it sometimes, but we know it would be more work to steward - to nurture and keep productive. We'd have to have larger equipment and more time to manage it. It's relatively easy to hand scythe the area pictured above, but if we had acres-worth of hay, hand scything would be a huge undertaking. Right now our land is mostly in quarter- to half-acre areas, which is manageable for us at our age with the small-scale and low-tech tools that we have. Even so, we only had to buy two rolls of hay this past winter, compared to the four or five we bought the winter before. Our goal is to grow all of our own hay, but if push comes to shove I can downsize our number of goats.

Besides expanding the plot I'm also happy that it looks much tidier. I suppose the moral of the story is to not let it get out of control in the first place, but with so much to do that's easier said than done! Let's just hope I can keep it that way.

Growing More Hay © May 2018 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Good Eating: Smoked 'Possum

Several of you were curious about the egg-stealing opossums Dan bagged for dinner. Over the weekend he hot-smoked the legs on the grill, because that is his favorite way of cooking meat. In fact he no longer buys charcoal, but uses pecan wood to grill our meat. Hickory is excellent for smoking and pecan is in the hickory family, so our burgers and cuts are always tasty.
 
How did we like it?

Homegrown dinner: hot-smoked 'possum, oven
baked sweet potato fries, and deviled eggs.

We liked it! How did it taste? Flavor was mild and not the least bit gamy. But it was pretty chewy, so I cooked the other two legs a little more in my slow cooker with a little bit of bone broth. It still had the smoked flavor but that tenderized the meat. That was all it needed and I can honestly say that we thought it was better than chicken!

Good Eating: Smoked 'Possum © May 2018 by

Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

New Adventures in Cheese Making

The other day I made the last of my mozzarella for the season (need enough in the freezer for pizza while the girls are dry during the last two months of their pregnancies). I also finished up the last of my liquid rennet and was ready to try my new Walcoren powdered. It was time for a new adventure in cheese making! For that, I wanted to start working my way through this book by David Asher. ➘

The Art of Natural Cheesemaking

Why this book? Because I'm a self-sufficiency wannabe. That means I look for ways to make cheese without having to continually buy cheese cultures. My first cheeses were based on a recipe that I called my Little House on the Prairie Cheese. I used whey as my starter culture instead of a meso or thermophilic culture. Those first cheeses were okay, but I wasn't entirely satisfied with them. This book uses kefir, which I make regularly, so it perked my interest.

To start, I wanted a firm, ready-to-eat cheese that I could slice for sandwiches or burgers, or grate to use in eggs or fajitas. For that it made sense to start with the basic rennet curd cheese (chapter 13), because the author says it's the foundational cheese for most other cheeses: fresh, brine-aged (feta), pasta filata (stretched cheeses such as mozzarella), white-rinded, blue, alpine, washed rind, washed curd, or cheddared. That's a lot of variations from one basic process, so it seemed like the place to start.

Here are the notes from my cheese journal:

• 1 gallon *skimmed raw goat milk
• 1/4 cup freshly drained kefir
• 1/32 tsp powdered calf rennet (WalcoRen)
• 1 tsp non-chlorinated water

For 1/32 teaspoon rennet I used my smidgen spoon. 

8:30 a.m. - set milk to warm slowly on stove
9:30 a.m. - milk temp 90°F (32°C), stir in kefir
10:00 a.m. - mix rennet in water, set aside to dissolve
10:30 a.m. - stir rennet solution into milk. Let sit & keep at 90°F (32°C)
11:30 a.m. - clean break, cut curd, stir occasionally (85° reheat to 90°)
12:30 p.m. - let curds settle
12:35 p.m. - pour off whey and drain. Pack curds into molds

Hand packed into two cheese molds. (Recipe calls for three.)

The instructions said the curds would knit together as they sat in the molds. I was a tad dubious how well that would happen without weighting them, but at that point I had an errand to run, so off I went. A couple hours later I was able to remove them from the molds.

Okay, not bad. Not smooth, but firm.

They were firm enough to handle - no crumbling. I was impressed. I rubbed each with canning salt. They were covered with a dish cloth and allowed to air dry for about 24 hours, flipping occasionally.

I was very curious when I sliced the first one and was pleased with the texture.

They were firmer than I expected, especially for the curds only being hand packed. And the cheese had good flavor, even without aging! A keeper!

The other thing that is different with this recipe, is that the curds weren't "cooked." That's usually what's done after the curd is cut in the pot. The temperature of the curds in whey is typically raised to anywhere between 100°F (38°C) and 110°F (43°C) depending on the desired result. This recipe maintained a curd temperature at 90°F (32°C).

The final test was the melting test.

Grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. Yum!

It melted beautifully and made a delicious sandwich, especially with a slice of homegrown tomato! Definitely a keeper. The only thing I will do differently next time is to put all the curds into one mold. I'd like the cheese to be sandwich size and fit on a slice of bread.

I'm really excited about this new direction for my cheesemaking. I have quite a bit of milk right now, so it's a good time to experiment.

*NOTE: Practically all of my homemade cheeses are made from skimmed milk. Not because I especially want it that way, but because I use my own raw goat milk which is not homogenized. Goat cream is slower to rise than cows cream, but by the time I'm ready to make cheese, it is ready to skim.** This has been one of my cheese making challenges, because whole milk cheeses are tastier than skim milk cheeses. David's book explains that once the cream has separated from the milk it can't be reincorporated to make a whole milk cheese. The cream comes out with the whey! I've had that happen and now understand why my old time cheese recipes, such as in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery, often call for adding that morning's milk to the previous day's milking. Their cheeses would have been partially whole milk cheeses.

**NOTE ON THE NOTE: I have to mention that the milk from my Kinders give me more cream than either my Nubians or Nigerian Dwarfs did. On top of that, their skimmed milk is creamer than either of the other two breeds. Skimmed Nubian and ND milk never made good coffee creamer, but my skimmed Kinder milk does! (Just another reason anyone considering goats should consider getting Kinders!)

New Adventures in Cheese Making © Oct 2017

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/