My First Honey Harvest

Tags

Bees

I have now experienced the rewards of beekeeping.  This past week was the gathering of the honey.  Big thanks to Emily Lindell (Nerdzilla) and Barb Magnuson for making this job so easy.  It’s great to have fellow beekeepers who can show you the ropes.

Some call it “robbing” and I guess that technically is what I’ve done.  But I like to think that I offered the bees something in return… that there was somewhat of a symbiotic relationship.  I did protect their home from bears and other larger intruders with an electric fence.  I provided them with frames of comb giving them a jump start on their honeymaking operation – other bees must first create their comb and then fill it with honey.  I switched the hives thinking the strong colony would give the weak colony a boost in population.  And while my efforts were futile with the weak hive of the two I purchased, I did provide extra brood frames (from the strong hive) to help increase their bee population.  It was definitely a sad day when I realized that the weak hive was just fading away and there was nothing more I could do to help.  But I still had one good hive!

Harvest day began awful cold and cloudy… I figured I would call my bee guy to ask about gathering any of the honey in the hive bodies.  He wasn’t home so I’d have to figure it out on my own.  I thought I’d call back later with more questions.

I went out about 9:45 and asked the sun to come out.  By 10:30, she was shining!  At 11, I texted Nerd (my beekeeper friend who was helping me gather honey) that we had full sun.  She arrived a short while later and we began our work.

Our first task was setting the fume board which has a stench that pushes the bees downward from the supers.  Barb Magnuson, Nerd’s Beekeeping Mentor, had loaned us the fume boards and they worked like a charm.  We were soon able to pull the top super from the hive and see if it was bee-free.  Pretty good but a dozen or so bees made our decision to pull each frame separately.  We pulled each frame from the super to a nearby empty super box that we had prepped so we could cover it once we pulled the frames.  Once we pulled all the frames, we could then carry the super to the truck where we would again have it covered to prevent the bees from finding it.  The first super was pulled with no “Oh, Shit” moments – in bee world, this means no one was stung.  We got it to the truck and covered it with towels to keep curious bees from finding it.

We pulled the second super and found it to be almost empty.  Hmmm. A month ago, this hive was FULL of necter.  Now the super I added is showing almost no activity.  This was discouraging. 😦

What we soon realized was that the wasps were robbing honey faster than we could and the hive did not appear to have a new queen in place.  We determined this hive was not going to survive the winter.  It was tough for me as I had so hoped to over-winter my bees.  Earlier in the summer, I thought this colony would be strong enough.  I had already let go the other colony which had pretty much collapsed.  But, before this day of harvest, I was still hopeful for this colony.

I had worried a couple months back when it appeared they were losing their queen, I hoped they could recover.  The bees had produced several queen cells ~ so it seemed they knew they needed a new queen.  However, a fellow beekeeper visited about six weeks ago and, thinking a queen cell was a “bad” thing and not being aware that the colony might be in need of a queen, he unfortunately grabbed the about-to-produce-a-queen cell and squeezed it.  Inside was a nearly fully developed queen bee. I was pretty devastated, especially as we continued to look through the hive and soon realized it didn’t appear to have a queen in sight.  Perhaps we should have not acted in haste.  Maybe we should have left the bees their new queen.  They say that one of the worst things for bees are… beekeepers.  Some friends swear by just leaving them to their business and simply adding supers, not “managing” at all.  I’m thinking this is perhaps the best program for beekeeping.  Next year, I will likely do less checking.

So, with hopes dashed, I continued through the harvest trying to keep my chin up.  I was somewhat consoled by both Nerd and Barb commenting that getting a new queen that late in the year likely would not have allowed this hive to survive.  Perhaps there is nothing I could have done to help this colony make it to winter.  And I guess the up side is that I will not have to babysit and feed this colony through the cold months.  And I will have all winter to fix up the equipment and prepare for a new season.

If you want to see a video… click here –> honey harvest.  I hope to have a link there to the extraction process as well soon.  Video editing takes SO LONG!!

Once we had all my harvestable frames, we headed to Nerd’s to pick up her six supers and then to Barb’s for extraction.  What a thrill to see Barb’s operation!  An amazing set-up for extracting honey and preventing bee infiltration. Nerd and Barb entertained Dan and me with stories of the innovations over the years and previous years antics, none of which we had today.

It seems each year there is a new idea like taping the windows over with plastic which this year meant we had ZERO need for the vacuum to suck up infiltrating bees.  Previous improvements include a kick-stand on the bottom uncapping bucket to allow for drainage and the use of gated buckets, which really help with filtering and bottling. And there is a new toy, I mean TOOL, each year as well. This year it was a hook scale so we could weigh our honey buckets.  My favorite tool was the refractometer which measures the moisture in the honey.  More on that later.

We pulled in our supers and hive bodies on trolleys (another innovation from a previous year’s work) and Nerd’s were rolled in first.  She was insisting that we do my honey first, in case Dan and I got bored and wanted to leave before her honey was processed.  But I’m glad we did her honey first.  It was a joy to see her harvest – her best yet it turns out – which was made up of mostly perfectly capped, beautiful honey.  It was a dream to uncap with the hot knife.  It flowed and filled buckets quickly.  And it was about 15.6 on the refractometer.

The refractometer is a tool that measures moisture content.  Barb loaded a bit of honey in the test area and then we all took a look through the eyepiece.  There is a scale inside that shows the reading and anything below 17 is good, meaning the honey will not ferment.  Nerd had a few necter frames which we bucketed separately but even that was beautiful stuff.  It tested about 20.2 which means she will need to use it quickly – or evaporate it down to the proper level.

We celebrated Nerd’s amazing harvest – 194# – her best ever!!  She said her best year to date was 130#.  Well done, especially since she didn’t think she would have any honey at the end of June.  Then we moved on to my hive body frames first.

I was horrified at the difference.  Nerd assured me that the hive bodies are always ugly because of all the bee traffic on them.  They are the “living room” of the hive.  So I mostly scrubbed through the capped honey on the hive body frames as they were not really knifeable.  The comb was old, dark, uneven.  The wax was heavy and thick. There was one frame that was in such bad shape it was literally just nails for the ears.  That frame is now trashed – sitting outside the hive for bees to clean.  I will burn it later.  At least we didn’t have to deal with brood as we left all those frames in the two hive bodies back at the Harn.

Nerd and Barb were really encouraging as I worked my way through the ugly hive comb.  They spun it in double batches – for large frames, you load the frames (Top to the Left) and spin, then flip them and spin again.  This removes the honey from each side separately.  The smaller super frames go in sideways and thus get spun for both sides at the same time.  The bucket indeed was filling and, even though it looked pretty dark, the honey was light coming from the extractor. And it tasted nice.  I was surprised at how much honey we ended up having.  We extracted 31# from the hive body frames!  And it tested at 17 so it should be good to go.

I was able to complete opening of all my super frames before the hive body frames were spun.  These knifed better and some required no uncapping at all.  The wax was newer in these and cleaner as well.  We ended up cleaning the whole system between my hive body frames and the super frames, which I believe was a good idea.  In the end we got another 30#, though this high moisture content nectar (20.2) will have to be evaporated to become honey.

In the end, I am so glad to have had this experience.  The pulling of the honey frames – OK, Robbing! – was much easier than I expected.  Extracting honey was a lot more constant work than I thought – especially since Nerd and I had both Dan and Barb helping.  There was not nearly enough time for snacking! 🙂  But we did get some bites in which Nerd says was good as we’d basically worked through two meals, lunch and dinner.  On the other hand, it was a lot less sticky than I expected. I think this is due in large part to Barb’s well-designed extraction lab.

After all was done, we took Nerd and her stuff home and headed back to the Harn with our bittersweet results.  We still have to filter and evaporate the honey.  And while we will have no bees to winter over to spring, we did get some honey.  Most importantly, we gained a lot of experience.

Here’s a link for the Honey Extraction video: https://youtu.be/ampvs8BuLA8

 

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The Coming of the Bees

Tags

Bees

The time has finally arrived.  I am officially a Beekeeper.

We spent Tuesday preparing the yard for the bees.  We mowed, placed a pallet in the grass and a piece of sheet steel in front of it to prevent grasses growing directly in front of the hive.  This should help the bees have a clear landing strip.  The last thing was to install a bear fence to protect our girls.  Bears love honey as Papaw Ed is quick to remind. And we definitely have bears in the area.  We haven’t seen skunk or raccoon but they also will be good to protect against. Dan and I were able to easily put up the electric fence and install the solar energizer. This fence will keep out bears and also possum, raccoon, skunk, etc.  Since we will have the protection from critters, we decided we should also plant some gardens in the area.  This will be the next adventure as we work around the new arrivals to put in some potato and onion beds.  But first, our Girls!

We secured from Lewis Struthers two colonies of bees in deep Hive Bodies (the box in which the bees live and work), additional Hive Bodies and four Supers (shallower boxes for honey production), and a couple feeders (which we shouldn’t need now that things are blooming).  We picked up the girls about 8AM which is early enough that bees had not yet started out to forage.  We stuffed screen in the entry area and closed up the holes and loaded the hives into the truck.  The hives were warming in the protection of the truck topper as we drove them north. We lost one in Wadena when I went out to check them and opened the truck topper to take a peek.  Decided I would just leave the remaining escapees in the truck cap until we got home.  We lost a few as I saw some bees that seemed to have beaten themselves to death against the windows.  But, for the most part, we got them to the new location at the Harn as intact colonies.

The task of moving the hives was mine as Dan had no veil.  He filmed as I cleaned the boxes to remove excess wax and propolis (a resinous material that bees use to stuff cracks and crevices).  We stored the extra boxes under wood to help keep them intact against invaders.  When the bees seem to be filling the original hive boxes, we will add a second “Deep” (deeper Hive Body) for additional brood (bee babies).  Once they are filling that, we will add Supers where we hope the bees will store lots of honey for us.

There is so much to learn but I feel like I am gaining a good understanding.  I am learning a whole new language and will really begin the adventure when I start opening up the hives to check the health of the bees.  I hope to have a local friend and beekeeper to guide me through the first time.  But I also get that sometimes you just have to forge ahead and figure it out on your own.  So I will be looking forward to lots of new fun with insects.

Video can be seen here:  https://youtu.be/UQX1PHdiNtI

Pipeline Walk & Writer Retreat Dreams

Tags

activism

This past week has been another busy one with a Pipeline Walk, some Public Singing, a Visit to Cass Lake, our first “Writer” at the Harn, a Trip to Alex for U-Group, and more progress at the Harn.

The Pipeline Walk was an event sponsored by Honor the Earth (http://www.honorearth.org/) to give people an exposure to how close the pipelines are in our area.  Cass Lake has multiple pipelines through it and we began the walk at the Rest Stop on U.S. 2.

The day began with Annie Humphrey making a Spirit Plate to begin our lunch.  Anne Dunn offered up the plate and also a song, which she asked me to help her sing for the folks.  This was a transformative experience for me as I am NOT a public singer.  But how could I leave Anne to do it alone?  She had asked me to come up with her as I’d been a part of the group from Mallard Island that developed the song last year.  I didn’t think fast enough to realize that her granddaughter Cedar, also at that retreat, could have joined us as well. So here I was… my first singing engagement.  It worked out fine as no one threw anything. I have to think that maybe the reaction from the group was the same as my reaction when someone sings as a leader.  Namely, “Wow, that is pretty brave of her to get up and sing in front of everyone.” And they must have thought me extra brave as I’m not a good singer!!  Dan says I did OK and it was good that the song was simple so people could jump in right away.  We got through it and then Anne said, “OK, now we know it, let’s sing it for real.”  WHAT?!?!?  And then she also walked away!  So here I am at the front on my own trying to lead this song.  Well it must have been a good experience cause when Sadie asked me to sing the song for her the next evening, I did.  It is a really nice song thanks to Patty Kakac.

Marty Cobenais, long-time and successful pipeline resistor, showed us the pipelines running under Cass Lake (1 & 2) which have been there since 1950.  Spent some time watching Sarah Littleredfeather documenting the event on livestream for Honor the Earth.   Here’s her video on this portion of the day: https://www.facebook.com/WinonaLaDukeHonorTheEarth/?ref=br_rs At about 2 minutes in, Marty talks about the lines running under the lake. We discussed how, if there was a leak on the decades old lines, the lake would be poisoned with the chemicals used to make the sticky stuff flow through the pipelines. Benzene, Toluene, 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene… nothing you’d want in your water.

We then walked across the road to where three lines ran on the opposite side (67, 4 & 3).  12.5 minutes into the above video, Marty talks about Enbridge providing the parking lot for the public and then the shutdown processes in case of a leak. At 15 minutes in, he talks about Enbridge’s recycling program. And then he discusses the thousands of integrity digs awaiting Enbridge attention (like 6000). While at this stop, Dan happened to notice a white truck so he went down to investigate.  Dan wandered down and the driver got out of the truck.  After noting the chevrons on Dan’s jean jacket, he asked if he was in the Marines and they started a brief conversation. He was wearing a private security uniform. He was watching the group of Water Walkers… for Enbridge (more on how we know that later).

The group headed back across the street to the Rest Area, and from there, to an area across the lake where the pipeline was exposed, even though they are supposed to be buried three feet deep (four feet in agricultural land to prevent the farmer from plowing into them). Dan stayed back at the Rest Area with Anne and Cedar and a few others who didn’t want to make the hike.  This hike was about ¾ mile back through the woods and into a swampy area where the lines are above ground and you can walk on them.  I didn’t opt for a photo, instead watching others walk the line well into the wetlands.  Some examined the exposed pipe and found the protective rubber coating to be spalling, exposing the pipe surface to the elements.  https://www.facebook.com/WinonaLaDukeHonorTheEarth/photos/p.1300132750107171/1300132750107171/?type=3&theater Here’s Sarah’s video for segment 2 of the day: https://www.facebook.com/WinonaLaDukeHonorTheEarth/?ref=br_rs – we reached the site about 18 minutes into the video and you can see the deterioration of the pipeline.

It was a long walk and I enjoyed the conversation with other Water Protectors.  We were gone for quite some time and I worried if Dan was keeping occupied.  Well, he was as I found out later.  While we were at the hike, the Enbridge guard, paid time-and-a-half that day to watch the Water Protectors, had gone back to the Rest Area.  Turns out, when we all headed out to the hike, he thought we’d be going to the Superfund site (our last stop of the day) where they planned to intercept the group with law enforcement.  So as we headed East, he headed in the opposite direction.  After realizing he’d lost us, he went back to the Rest Area where Dan was hanging out waiting for my return.  They had a longer conversation this time. Unfortunately Dan could offer no information to him on “where’d they go?”  The amazing part is that he headed out of the Rest Area moments before we arrived back to take a break and then head to our final stop!  From the below video, it looks like there was almost a half hour before law enforcement was called to intercept these dangerous citizens.

This video is from the last stop which is a Superfund site near Norway Beach. https://www.facebook.com/WinonaLaDukeHonorTheEarth/?ref=br_rs At about 7 minutes, Marty gives an explanation of the 2010 spill near Deer River.  At 9.5 minutes, he mentions the spill nearby whose size is still unknown though 200 cubic yards of waste have been removed thus far.  Spill levels are self-reported so there was some speculation on how accurate they are.  I know in previous jobs I’ve had, we worked hard to minimize the negative information getting to our customers.  I’ve heard dozens of stories of people being paid to lie for their companies and I’d imagine Enbridge is no different.  At 12 minutes, Marty discusses the Mayflower, Arkansas line which was de-commissioned and then re-used.  At 17 minutes in, there is a discussion on what we can do.  At 22 minutes, it’s noted that they are standing on a leak – it’s underground and not visible but it’s there. There was a law enforcement interception at this final stop which I missed as we had another appointment in Cass Lake. But my friend Joshua filmed it here: https://www.facebook.com/JoshuaHWatkins?ref=br_rs (best portion is 1:20-3 minutes, and one great ending at 5:25 where Joshua states the obvious to the oblivious officers). At 1:20, Annie tries to address the Sheriff.  At 2:30, the Sheriff addresses the group and tells them, “The Railroad has called and asked that you please leave.”  REALLY???  The Railroad has some kind of camera on their “right-of-way” and monitors it and then calls the Sheriff to ask people to leave the right-of-way??  Has this EVER happened to you?  I call BULLSHIT.  Probably a good thing I wasn’t there.  I might have been arrested for being belligerent.

Meanwhile, Dan and I were visiting Milt and Jamie Lee, a couple that does the radio show Call of the Wild (LINK) for KAXE/KBXE.  They’d interviewed us for the Harn Edition of the show and having learned of their strawbale homestead, we had to go and see it.  What a treat!  They have been developing their place about as long as we have ours and it was fun to compare stories on the development process.  Jamie is also a local writer and I’d had a workshop with her at Farm by the Lake where I received her book.  Well, I finally took time to open it this week and I couldn’t put it down.  I finished it in one sitting and it has become the third book to make my Top Five Favorite books.  It is a lovely, spiritual, story and the way it came about is pretty magical as well.  I highly recommend you to read Washaka the Bear Dreamer: A Lakota Story Based On Leon Hale’s Dream https://www.amazon.com/Washaka-Bear-Dreamer-Lakota-Story/dp/0972900241

Having met up with Sadie at the Pipeline Walk – she’s working on a thesis related to pipelines – we headed home to the Harn with her after a lovely dinner with the Lees.  Milt is an awesome cook!  Sadie ended up staying a couple nights and while we had loads of good conversation, she also was able to complete some writing.  I realized she could be the seed of the Writer’s Retreat I dream of one day opening.  🙂  Had a lovely time with a bonfire at the full moon.

Once we had our guest on her way, we were back to real work.  We had started clearing the deadwood from the woods surrounding the Harn proper and were able to resume this work.  We pulled small trees, large branches, and sticks it into clear areas, and now have a load of wood to process in a place where we can do so without major tick troubles.  So far, things are pretty quiet on the tick front but they’re coming…

We received our plants from Edible Acres (http://www.edibleacres.org/) this week and began planting our orchard with nut tree guilds.  What are guilds?  In Permaculture, a guild is a grouping a plants, trees, animals, insects, and other components that work together to help ensure their health and productivity.  There’s a quick overview here: http://www.neverendingfood.org/b-what-is-permaculture/permaculture-guilds/ We still have to get the grass covered but we have hazelnut trees, bee balm, black current, and onions planted thus far.  Thanks go to Connie for our bee balm and black currents as we spent a morning splitting plants at her place for the upcoming plant sale and headed home with a truck full of beauties: Asters, Purple and Yellow Coneflowers, Bee Balm, Curly Chives, Day Lily, Oxeye Daisy, Sweet William, Rudbeckia, Perennial Onions, and Mullein.  So we have spent several days planting.  We did:

• 5 hazelnut trees (3 in the Orchard clearing and 2 at the Greenhouse clearing)
• 9 walking onions (some with the hazelnuts and others near the house)
• 9 holes with coneflowers (purple & yellow) Along the wetland at drive curve by Big Rock
• 7 day yellow-orange/rust lilies (divided from one large clump) at front entrance by Big Rock
• Couple dozen perennial onions (near hazels and near house)
• 3 black currants (near hazels)
• 6 holes with bee balm (near hazels)
• 7 holes with asters (at turn north in the drive)
• 4 raspberries (in the zone 2 woods)
• 3 black caps (in the orchard clearing)
• 3 sun chokes (on the garden hugelbed)
• Two plots of rhubarb (heirloom no less – one full sun and one on hugelbed in garden)
• A bunch of curly chives (in hugelbed)

I am amazed at the fun we’re having and the progress we’re making.  I can’t believe we got the Hugelbed done and planted in a single afternoon!!  As I wrote to several people in thank you cards and notes this week, it really seems that the Universe is bringing messages, almost faster than we can read them, that this is a true and good path for Dan and me.

Busy First Week of Homesteading at the Harn

Tags

Freedom

Dan and I have made it through our first week of retirement at the Harn and it seems we’re busier than ever.  I have told many people that once you retire, it’s not about taking it easy.  Instead, life seems to be busier than it’s ever been before!

Dan says he not really retired, he just has a new boss. He claims to be the Head Maintenance Technician and Assistant Grounds Keeper at the Harn (working for me!). You need to be sure to read that as the Technician of Head Maintenance.  So far, it’s going good.  Pretty sweet job as he gets to sleep with the boss AND after a grueling day, health care benefits include shoulder rubs… from that same boss!  I’m pretty sure there will be no sexual harassment claims.

Since we’re still seeing cold temps most mornings, I continue to let him sleep late.  This is a real treat for him after the last few years of O-Dark-Thirty workdays.  Dan is NOT a morning person.  Once the weather warms, I foresee us hitting the bricks, actually the dirt, EARLY more often than not. But time will tell on that one.

Though we’ve had some later starts to the real workdays, we’ve gotten much accomplished.  Since Dan’s retirement we have:

• Hung baskets on the ceiling to free up shelf space in the kitchen.
• Cleared the frost heave at Garage Door and Porch Doors, replacing the pallet at one and adding rocks at the other.
• Spread clover at both Porch Doors and in the Driveway.
• Gathered wood in the forest as we went out to check mail.  [This is a becoming a daily routine.  See below.]
• Built a bonfire and stored a box of wood for inside.
• Moved all the furniture in the living room again to put the sofa back where it was… As Dan says, “We move things at the Harn.”
• Built our humanure station and dumped nine buckets from the last six months.
• Interviewed for a local radio show to talk about the Harn (which is airing in a few weeks so keep your eyes peeled for that blog post).
• Pulled dozens of dead trees from the forest for firewood and kindling.  [Can’t prepare for winter too soon here in the hinterlands.  See above.]
• Walked the property line with our neighbors to the south and everyone is pretty happy with how much space we seem to have.

Oh, and I won the Rewrite Your Life essay contest sponsored by Wellness Retreats for Women!!  My submission, should you want to read it, is here: https://womenwellnessretreats.com/news/2017/3/22/contest-entry-jami-gaither-leaving-the-rat-race The objective was to write a letter to your current self from your future self about the book you’d written.  And I won!  Big thanks to the many people who took the time to vote for my submission.  With my prize money I am Super Stoked to be participating in Jess Lourey’s Rewrite Your Life Online Course.  Ever since I heard about Jessie’s new book on writing your life, I KNEW I’d be getting a copy at Cherry Street Books and I really hoped I would be doing a workshop with her on it as well.  And here it is!  My dream coming true.  If you’ve ever wanted to write a novel, or help yourself heal from some life experience, I’m betting this course could help you as well.  Check it out here: http://learnhowtowriteabook.teachable.com/p/rewrite-your-life

I also got a communication from the Editor at Permaculture Design Magazine that there’s potential for me to write some articles about our Homestead experience for them!  Check them out here: https://www.permaculturedesignmagazine.com/  It just may be that my childhood dream to one day be a writer may result in more than just my blog.  Maybe even some income?

Dan’s already helping a friend with electrical work – Char’s new Yarn Basket Shop is in progress and I’m looking forward to its grand opening.  And he has a couple more local people interested in talking with him about their own projects that need done.  Things seem to really be falling in place for us to potentially create some income to help that nest egg last a bit longer.  We’ll see how it all develops.

But I definitely think the Universe is telling us we’re where we’re supposed to be.  🙂

Can Urban & Rural Minnesota Get Together?

Tags

communication, sustainability

Kerri Miller had an excellent program this past month on the election and how the urban/rural divide was possibly a key to understanding the results.  http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/12/29/growing-urban-rural-divide  She wanted to hear from urban and rural voters to get their input and she asked where we think we can find the common ground to get to solutions.  I moved to Minnesota from Indiana 2 years ago hoping for more progressive politics. Indiana seemed to be regressing with regard to education, tolerance of difference, and worker’s rights.  Minnesota was doing well – good employment (my husband had multiple job offers in Alexandria when we planned our move here), gay marriage had been voted in (indicating a place of acceptance of all people), and rural fiber optic internet was being implemented (the Harn would have faster internet than we’d ever had, even in an Indianapolis suburb!).  Alexandria turned out to be way more evangelical and conservative than I imagined.  But I now live up north in truly rural Clearwater county and it’s another interesting change because it’s actually more Democratic than I expected.  I think Kerri’s idea that we need to find the common ground is on target so I was very interested in this discussion.

Did angry, white, rural voters out-vote their more diverse urban voters?  Are political and cultural perceptions between rural and urban all that different?  Where are there similarities that can bring us all together?

Dante Chinni (Head of the American Communities Project at American University and writer for the Politics Counts blog) and Jeff Guo (Economics Reporter for the Washington Post) joined Kerri Miller for the discussion.  Jeff began with a reference to the work by Thomas Frank What’s the Matter with Kansas?, which contended that rural voters vote against their own interests after being convinced to focus solely on cultural issues like abortion and gay marriage, ignoring issues like jobs and government services.  But he then rebutted that concept as off-target with more recent work by Kathy Cramer from the University of WI Madison who says this is an insult to rural people.  She found that the rural thinking on politics is rooted in values but also a suspicion of urban people.  Rural Wisconsin voters think the decisions are made in Madison or Milwaukee without input from the rural viewpoint and then rural areas simply have to live with these decisions, which often don’t mete out to them a fair share of the resources. This has led to a feeling of not being heard and respected.  (An interview done by Guo explains this in more detail  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/08/a-new-theory-for-why-trump-voters-are-so-angry-that-actually-makes-sense/?utm_term=.58996cccf753) This sounds a lot like the rural Minnesota argument.  All the decisions are made in St. Paul and all the money goes to The Cities!

So, where is the difference between urban and rural? 

Is race a factor?  Yes.  When you live in a place where there is little diversity, it’s hard to comprehend people different from you.  Dante referenced the homogeneity of the rural communities which are often also more religious. But the difference is more than this; it’s about world views which are widely divergent between urban and rural voters.

There was some humor in the program’s discussion of REAL America.  I remember that there was a lot of focus in the election post-game about how rural people feel like they are REAL America… that even though the coasts and the cities have LOTS of people, REAL America was represented as rural voters helped elect Donald Trump.  Seriously???  We are all REAL PEOPLE.  Yes.  We are all REAL, People!  And we need to stop discounting the fact that we all have value.  And each of us can have good ideas and real perspectives on our life… our REALITY.

A caller from Fosston noted the following: Small town people are affected by changes more quickly and visibly than people in urban areas.  Rural DFLers are focused on vocational jobs, hard work, and gaining the fruits of their labor without giving it to others.  MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN to these people meant going back to times before these recent “bad” changes affected their lives.  They don’t like the cultural shifts being made as they are against some of their values.

But values of rural people are no more pristine than the values of urban people.  We all have morals and just because we may differ in our values doesn’t mean we’re immoral. I believe it’s partly about perspective. Abortion is wrong from the perspective of ending a life of a child.  But when viewed from the perspective of a woman’s right to own her body and determine its destiny, a right to choose becomes prominent.

And I think it’s also about pace and information flow.  Urban folks move at a faster pace and process a huge amount of social information while rural folks move more at the pace of nature and often don’t even own a computer.  Most urban people have known someone who is gay for decades so gay marriage seems long overdue to them.  But rural folks can be more conservative in their communications, after all, things are more homogeneous and constant so, don’t rock the boat with some big pronouncement! While gay people may live among them, it is often just not addressed… it’s downplayed, denied, or simply ignored. Gay marriage seems at best, unnecessary, and at worst, a damnation.

In the country, things staying the same brings comfort.  Yes, the seasons change but this is gradual and a cycle that occurs every year.  Fast change usually means trouble – big winds blow down trees, big rain means we can’t pull in the harvest, a weasel wiping out the chicken coop means no eggs for breakfast for a while.  But also there is a focus on community that makes these changes bearable.  There is an understanding that we’re out here in the country and we need to stick together to make things work.  So when change happens, we come together to cut the trees into firewood, band together to harvest quickly when the weather turns good again, and gift some eggs to the neighbor because, when our flock takes a hit, they’ll be gifting some to us.

For Urbanites, change is fast, constant and often means good things – a new store so they can access goods more easily, the pothole fixed, new neighbors from Thailand bring a welcome food diversity to the annual block party.  But there is more frequently a tendency to take care on your own for personal stuff.  A/C broken?  Call the repairman as you likely don’t have a friend close by who knows how to fix it.  Need a cup of sugar?  The store is just down the block so you run out for a new bag.

While voter turnout was down, the rural vote percentage increased even while populations dropped. In large part, it seems to be a result of a real disappointment in our economic situations in rural areas.  There was a real belief that we needed to “drain the swamp” as D.C. is NOT WORKING.  Trump convinced voters that he was the Working Class Candidate.  But even people who know he can’t truly fix what is wrong, they like that Trump talks directly to them.  He is an outsider of the non-working system in D.C. and that gives them hope.  Some of these rural people voted Obama! They had hope for change but over the last 8 years, there has been not a lot of change that is helping their lives.  Jobs continue to flounder in rural areas and while health care is available, it’s not affordable.  And people are angry.  And Trump expresses their frustration in a way that is familiar.

An interesting aspect that I didn’t hear much about in the campaigns but see in the work of Kathy Cramer is that the big crash of 2008 was seen very differently from rural and urban perspectives.  Urbanites were hit hard by the crushing job losses and rampant foreclosures while rural people have been dealing with economic hardship for some time.  They’ve been tightening the belt since the mid-70s, so while the crash has taken a hit, the difference to normal life was not so shocking.  And while some seem to think that everyone rural is against “Obamacare”, many rural voters actually LIKE Obamacare.  They see the benefits of kids being on your insurance until 26 and not being able to be rejected for pre-existing conditions.  However, they also see how they cannot afford the coverage with the current system that still gives the power of pricing to insurance companies and not individuals. So as much as they like it, they can’t afford to access it.  Some urban elites CAN afford coverage with higher incomes, though many of them too find it unaffordable as costs continue to increase dramatically each year.  Dan’s company had a 70% increase in health care costs in December.

So where can we find similarities? Where is our common ground for finding solutions?

Dante brought up an interesting point that today we all create our own reality based not only on our day-to-day lives but also on the virtual world where we live much of our lives today.  “Everybody lives in a bubble”, he says.  When everyone is living in a unique reality, how do we govern?

In Permaculture, the Problem is the Solution.  I heard the other day, the problem is that your eyes are so heavy you can’t stay awake.  The solution is going to sleep! The problem is the solution!

America is becoming more diverse.  This has been happening for some time in our cities and is now increasing in rural areas as well.  It means we need to move toward inclusiveness.  And I think, with many viewpoints ~ native, long-term immigrant and new immigrant ~ we can find the best solutions; our differences are what can help us find solutions. Knowing each other and our relevant dilemmas and concerns, refusing to discount our differences but taking all the information into account, this is where we might find a common path forward.

I found this in working in Quality for the Steel Mills – and many in marriages see this occasionally with their spouses – everyone thinks they do the most work and get the least benefit.  Rural people don’t comprehend the difficulties faced in urban areas and vice versa.  And often, the stories of the other place are embellished and changed in ways that prevent us from seeing the reality.  In the steel mill, by sharing with each area the hardships in other areas, both downstream and upstream, we could come to solutions that benefited everyone the most and cost the least in new activity or investment.  Sometimes people simply didn’t realize how little things they did affected the next person down the line and, knowing it, they made changes to improve the process for the next guy.  This was made more effective when they knew the system was being addressed and they too would get help from changes made up and downstream to them.

How can urban and rural work together?  The cities can support lots of people and we need to support things like light rail to reduce the fossil fuel usage and increase efficiency. This helps rural people when they come to the city by having more open roadways and/or transportation systems that they can use once they get to the city.   What’s good for the metro is good for out-state, or so they say.  And in this case, I believe it’s true.  Is the reverse true?  I believe it is.  If we have good programs to support small and organic farms, there is more abundant superior local food which can also support people in the cities.  If we have good education programs in rural areas, we create more vibrant economies which provide more jobs and tax dollars, again supporting the state as a whole.

Rural people comprehend self-sufficiency in a better way so we need to listen to their ideas about working together as well.  And that needs to mean working together as urban and rural, not just for one group above the other.

What I didn’t hear about was what was TRUE about tax spending.  Rural gets a lot of money in roads and bridges.  My suspicion was that, per capita spending was higher in rural counties than urban and that tax income was higher in these counties that actually get less. And so it is. http://www.startribune.com/metro-vs-outstate-which-counties-pay-most-taxes-and-which-get-most-aid/289629981/  We have a lot of infrastructure to support for a smaller number of people in “out-state” ~ another irritant to rural folks in MN is hearing themselves described as “out-state” as if they are not a part of the state but some kind of foreign area.  Perhaps the funding going rural is put more into infrastructure and not as much in social services.  I think our roads are pretty good up here in “Out-State”. From the calls made by rural folks to the program, and what you hear from rural people, what they want is government support, not smaller government.  It seems to me that part of the issue is we have representatives that want to cut taxes (reducing the State’s income) while their constituents want more services, improved educational options, better roads, expanded internet.  You can’t have both.

With jobs being a major concern, we need to not denigrate vocational work or manufacturing jobs.  We need both.  Dante focused on the fact that many of the lost jobs are not being taken by people in other countries but by machines.  Think about the farms of the past where you milked the goat by hand.  Now one farmer can milk 10 or more cows at a time with automated milking stations.  In Detroit, the number of auto workers needed to build a car has been cut in half and, as robotics and mechanization continue, this number will continue to decrease.  This is a new economy and we need to find new ways to make money.  Any manufacturing that does develop in the US will largely be located in the rural South where wages are lower so the North needs to find a new way.  Manufacturing work is attractive and, as Jeff notes, “it sounds good to be able to say you do a job where you actually physically make things” and Dante notes that even the hipsters in Brooklyn are proud to say they make their own candles.  We all need to understand that the future is not bringing more of the jobs we know and love (do we love them?).  Dante noted that we had the Tech bubble, the Real Estate bubble, and then collapse.  We are now seeing that 1-2% growth may be the new norm.

I believe we will need a large cultural shift to find solutions. One caller (Marie) noted the difference between Obama and Trump with regard to energy jobs. Obama focused on clean energy, which is forward thinking and leading edge so maybe hard to imagine, while Trump argues for coal, which is nostalgic (and focused in rural areas) but unsustainable.  I think we can move forward in both urban and rural areas with clean energy.  There are opportunities for jobs as you see with RREAL (http://www.rreal.org/) and CEEM (http://www.cleanenergyeconomymn.org/).  It looks like MN is doing a good job on growing renewable energy: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/03/03/renewable-energy-fuels-21-percent-minnesota-electricity

While the future is unclear, I think we need all our brains working on it.  I am glad to be doing my little part of trying to live more sustainably.  It’s a work in progress and I’m not sure how it will grow and change as I figure it out but I definitely like not spoiling pristine water with my own waste products, using less energy with LEDs, driving and eating less than I used to, and learning more about supporting my local community.  I heard a really good podcast on sustainability from Ethan at the Possibility Alliance that has become a new challenge to me.  I’ll keep you posted as I figure out more.  http://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/2015/episode-1523-ethan-hughes/

In the end…

From the interview with Jeff Guo, Kathy Cramer says this about her work with the rural people of WI:

And then I would go back for a second visit, a third visit, a fourth, fifth and sixth. And we liked each other. Even at the end of my first visit, they would say, “You know, you’re the first professor from Madison I’ve ever met, and you’re actually kind of normal.” And we’d laugh. We got to know each other as human beings.

I think this is the key.  We need to recognize each other as human beings.  We all have some things in common.  We want to love and be loved, we want a better world for our children, and we want to be safe, comfortable and fed.  We need to see the anger and fear as a result of not getting these things and, rather than criticizing it, find the solutions to eradicate the anger and fear.  If we stay in the fear and anger, fighting each other, we won’t get very far.  But if we work together, we can find a good way forward.  Here’s hoping the Minnesota legislators can do this in a way that helps us all.

Photo credit: http://www.difference.site/rural-vs-urban/

Harn Update Fall 2016

Tags

DIY, sustainability

With the 10^th Anniversary of our purchase of the property looming, it’s good to know that at least one of us may get to the Harn before we reach this major milestone.  I am glad to be preparing to move North for the winter… though some think I’m crazy!  Most people around here fly south for the cold season but I believe winter may end up being my favorite time of year at the Harn.

So is the Harn ready?  Well…  We’ve had electricity for some time now.  Not that it means much since space heaters probably won’t cut it as a viable heat source.  But we did get the heat source for our Rocket Mass Heater installed so can generate heat!  However, the “Mass” is still in progress of being added, so much of our heat ends up going out the chimney.  Here’s where we were for most of the long summer:

In the last month, we’ve been able to get much farther along and now I feel I have a fighting chance to store enough heat to not burn through a giant pile of wood this winter.  I am hopeful that we will make faster progress with the Mass additions as we’ve nearly finished the thermal cob additions and the structural cob will be easier to make in abundance due to the fact that it has straw to punch up the content while adding strength.

In the end, the first duct will become a bench seat for the kitchen table while the second duct and the one leading up to the chimney will constitute the back for the bench.  It’s my first cob project I’ve done on my own and so far, I’m thinking it’s going well.  I am sure there will be some tricks to forming it all the way I want but hopeful I will be able to make it all work in a way that looks nice.

The other issue is water.  In the last month, we had professional gutters installed (seamless!) for water catchment.  The equipment we ordered from Rainwater Harvest http://www.rainharvest.com/shop/ was installed on the North Roof as our downspouts.  This equipment included a leaf guard, which pretty much does what it says, keeps leaves from going into your downspout, or in our case, the piping to our cisterns.  The second connection was a diverter system which pulls the first few gallons of water from the roof into a pipe that keeps this water (with a few bird droppings and the like) from going into the cisterns.  Dan and I got the leaf guards in place with the gutter installation guy but did not get all the remaining piping in place to capitalize on the massive rainfall that came a couple hours later…  We still had to prepare all the piping to get from the end of the gutter to the lid of the cistern, which also meant cutting holes into the sides of the steel building and holes into the cistern lids.  This took some time.  What we did manage in the meanwhile was to create a leak into the bedroom window where the concentration of all the water from the NE roof was forced into the top of the window frame!  I was able to quickly push the 10’ PVC pipe up to the leaf guard to divert the water down to the ground instead!  We were able later that day to get this line to the East cistern installed and the next morning were able to finish the West lines.  Both cisterns were ready for rain, which we got in the next week.  We also got more last weekend and, by last Sunday, we had 4” in our cisterns.  We’re on our way to water independence.

We did figure out the gutters are just giant leaf grabbers.  So this weekend we installed gutter guards.

We still have some insulating to do to assure we don’t freeze all that water we’re collecting.  That should be taken care of in the next week or so when we have the Spray Foam guys out.  This weekend we were able to get the attic gable wall in place to have a place to spray foam to create an envelope of warmth.  We hope our friend Wyatt will soon be pouring a little more slab in our garage area so we can add a utility room/closet that will give an access through the bedroom to the cistern area.  This will house our water heater and give us a bit more storage space, since I still have much downsizing to do…  Plus, once I start canning, we will have a place for storing food.

We also need to get a freezer in place as our tiny fridge basically has room for some ice and a half gallon of ice cream but not much more.  Eventually, we’ll add a washing machine too.  But for now I can always head to Lobo’s and do laundry while I watch the Vikings.  😉

We’ve got other projects like making saw bucks so I can get a bunch of wood chopped this winter. http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Sawbuck-for-Cutting-Firewood  And we’ll have to put the garage back together once we get the spray foam completed and the slab poured.  We have taken out our pallet floor and the shelves of materials and such but we’ll get everything back in place soon.

I did get four more buckets of clay dug so I’m ready to add more mass to the stove.  With eight buckets prepped, I should be able to make quite a bit of progress and, perhaps, I will get more clay dug before everything freezes.

And really great news! Thumper, my grouse had disappeared in July,  just after the fox showed up on the scene. I had been missing him so.  But Saturday, as I dug clay, who should appear but a lovely grouse. And he thumped right where his dad (I assume) used to, on the back side of the clay pile.  It made my heart sing each time he thumped his wings.  I’m hoping we have him around for some time to come

I foresee the move involving still quite a lot of work but in the end, I hope to find a lot more reading being done, soups being made, and tea in nice warm mugs being used to warm my fingers.  I’m hopeful both kitties will be able to make the move with me so I have some company.  And, come spring, we’ll get Dan on site as we start our Permaculture Homestead Life!

Things We’ve Learned…

Tags

cisterns, Storms

Here are a few of the things we learned of late:

• Lay out the project BEFORE you dig
• Don’t dig the hole until you need it
• Foam floats
• Water WILL get in the crack
• We get about 8 gallons per inch of rain from each foot of roof catchment; 6 gallons for the non-shed areas
• Drawings look nothing like reality in carpentry
• 15° is more angle than you realize
• 92″ isn’t as long as you’d think

Another busy weekend at the Harn.  Lots of communication breakdowns but it’s all working out… At least Dan and I are communicating well. 🙂  We did quite a lot of organizing and clearing of stuff which is making things look more like a home and less like a construction site.  I was able to gather two buckets of clay for an upcoming Cob Workshop so I’m feeling like that project is moving along.  As with many of the projects, clay gathering was much quicker this time than the first.  I was able to get about a bucket per hour.  I learned that it’s easier to get the quick clay and, when you get to the stuff with little rocks, to just can those handfuls.  I have a giant hill of clay and got a pretty high return with less than 5% “tailings”.  Clay shortage will NOT be a problem with this project.

I was also able to get the final coat of Thoroseal painted in the two cisterns (again, much quicker this round) so they are ready to go.  Dan and I decided that we’d jumped the gun on digging the root cellar as we don’t really need it and should be able to use the cistern shed itself as the root cellar.  Ah, well… expensive lessons.  Going to a good cause – money in the local economy.

Dan did some weed whacking to clear a path up to our SE Hilltop near Scruffy (our large White Pine).  In the process he discovered a great deal of storm damage so he took me out for a tour.

I also got a couple little clothes lines put up until we can find our retractable lines we brought up from Indy.  And we cleared a lot in the Hightop.  We’ll have room for moving out more things from the Harn garage as we prep to pour another extension in our concrete pad.  We did some more lumberjacking to clear some dying trees along the driveway.  It looks real clear now and we’ve got another small woodpile.  We need little dates for these things to keep them all in order!!

We built the legs for our solar shower but decided that we’ll wait until Spring to put it up.  It’s getting too cool overnight for the water to heat during the day and we really don’t have all the plumbing paraphernalia to get it done at present.  And I picked some chives for my sandwich – one of the few things I’m growing here.  It was DELICIOUS!  Dan also opened a bank account locally – one more step in the process of transitioning up here more permanently.

We cleaned the yard up with a mow, which we don’t have to do but about once a month with all the clover we’ve planted.  Dan finished this job just as the belt broke on the mower so we’ll be getting two more of those to replace it and have a spare on hand.  He’s quite the handy guy.  Think I’ll keep him! 🙂  So the Harn is ready for some upcoming weekends with visitors.  I hope they love her as much as I do.

Here are some links to videos from the Harn I finally got a chance to upload.

• First Walk Through of Harn Storm Damage https://youtu.be/rj69XpEZWcg
• Our Lucky Tree Fall near South Wood Pile  https://youtu.be/e5w57UnmxWk
• Storm Damage South of Harn (in which I discover how completely ADHD I am!  Look! Ants!)  https://youtu.be/-kqt7Sh4o1I
• Lucky Tree Fall at Char & Wyatt’s Place  https://youtu.be/lunNIJRroGA
• First Tour of the Cistern Shed Framing  https://youtu.be/RXx2EYLodj0
• Tour of the Inside of the Cistern (Pre-paint)  https://youtu.be/m6hKfgXZlKs
• Unexpected Surprise in Cistern #2 https://youtu.be/ovL3wXFLfyc
• Exiting the Cistern https://youtu.be/xb8Yhj-RGtM

Tree Relo & Pi Day 2016

Tags

communication, cooperation, family, Finding Fulfillment, Freedom, living local, sustainability

What a weekend!!

Every so often at the property, we need to clear trees.   The first big clear was for the pole barn location and that was pretty grand.  The second big clear was when we thought we were going to put a cabin closer to the road, which turned out not to be our plan in the end, but we are going to be using that cleared area for hoop/greenhouse space within the next few years.  This phase was to provide clearing for a house garden and water storage, along with clearing some trees to allow light for the garden area.

We arrived Saturday evening after swinging through F/M (Fargo/Moorhead for those not from these parts) for the Celtic Festival where our friend Mikko Cowdery was playing.  Mikko & Friends is an eclectic mix of folks, constantly changing but always delightful.  As we got there early, we had time to chat with Mikko a bit and see some of the displays.  The Celtic Festival is a small affair but well-done.  Lots of activities for the children and amazing food (the Concordia chef was on hand).  We listened to the pipes and drums which opened the event, then investigated the Viking ship and wandered a bit.  Mikko also told me the tale of the serendipitous way he’d spent the previous night.  He and the group were practicing in the café at the hotel and there were a few kids close by playing games.  As they played, these youngsters became interested and Mikko and Doug asked if they wanted to learn a song.  They did!  So the guys taught them a few ditties with Chuck playing along on his penny flutes.  They quickly realized these kids could sing. It turns out they are from the Robbinsdale-Armstrong Choir! The group of 6 turned into 12, then 20 and then 40.  It was a grand sing-a-long and it was joyous to hear Mikko sharing about it.  Doug too shared with us later at lunch and then, just as we were leaving, Chuck also gave us a run-down.  I think those kids and those old guys had a magical time.

We too were in store for some magic as we sat down for the Mikko & Friends hour of playing.  They started off with a couple fun ones that we knew so we were able to sing along.  Then, just a couple songs in, these kids started wandering up to the stage.  In all there must have been 75 or more kids piling up on the stage in rows behind the quintet (Annie O’Flynn, Michael Cowdery, Doug Tatge, Michelle Wencl & Chuck Wencl).  Then they began to sing and it was phenomenal.  They did Hard Times, Galway Girl, and many others.  They kids were so happy to be singing and the elders were so happy to have accompaniment. I don’t think Mikko & Friends has ever been such a large crowd!  We were blessed to be able to enjoy it.

After the kids left, Mikko & Friends wrapped up with a couple more, including The Unicorn Song, one of my favorites from the days of summer at Camp Shawano.  Then came The Long Nines, the Burckhard family from Aberdeen, SD.  While we grabbed a quick bite, they set up.  Dan & I shared a combo meal which was the perfect amount of food.  Dan ate a banger, the soda bread and bread pudding while I chomped up the other banger, mashed taters, kraut, and roasted veggies.  Yummy!!  We headed back to stage for the Long Nines show and then watched as they wrapped up with Mikko & Friends joining them on stage.  What tremendous performers.  Definitely will be seeing them again when we get the chance.  We will have a chance to see Mikko & Friends Friday March 18^th at the Quad A.  Hope to see you there!

The ride to the Harn was uneventful, full of rolling prairie, an eagle, and some trumpeter swan flocks.  The scenic route from F/M to DL to Alida was quite relaxing.  When we arrived, the Harn was 42°F while it was in the 60’s outside.  We fired up the stove to take off the chill, eventually getting it up to 82°F before bed time.  We warmed blankets on the exhaust tubes and rolled into bed with them, noting the spring ahead on the clock – already losing time!  Since everything in the Harn was still cold, it was in the low 60’s when we awoke.  Not too bad!  We slept in a bit and, since Dan is the early bird all week long, I took time outside while he rested some more.

I have been reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer so wanted to be respectful in our harvest, asking the trees permission.  I sat with the trees explaining what our plans were and asking for their help in getting this done.  I promised them we would value their sacrifice and make sure they all went to good use: some building up dirt, some providing housing for local critters, some for firewood for our home, and some for hugelkulture.  I sat and listened for some time.  Then I walked to each tree asking if it was willing to help by giving its life.  I had asked for them to be clear to me since I was new to this.  They reminded me that I’ve been talking to them for years and I reminded them that I had only been diligently listening for a short time.  But it was clear to me.  I could feel the trees that wanted to stay and the many that were willing to fall.  It was a most humbling experience.

When Dan was up, we talked about our plan.  How to fell the trees and who would do what.  This time he would be our chainsaw operator.  I would be working the loppers.  Drop, lop, drag, and chop.  That was the plan.  We carefully felled each tree, trying to drop them through each other and into clear space without hitting Harn or shed and without getting hurt.  It was amazing work with only a couple trees trying to spin or having too much weight in the wrong place making it hard to control.  But each tree fell where we wanted, within a couple feet.  Only once did we fear damage as we felled one of the larger trees we were dropping between the Harn and shed (a space of about 12-15’), with three trees in between, trying to thread the needle.  The tree fell in a good spot but had a large enough canopy that it shattered with some debris hitting the shed.  No damage done, just a bit nerve-wracking!

We spent some time considering the garden clearing and left more trees than planned so they can act as our garden fencing.  We realized there is no way to have a garden in the middle of the woods without fencing.  In fact, in that area there were easily 5-6 fresh deer scat piles and one more discovered Monday morning, which I think was fresh that day.  Once the garden clearing trees were cut, we lopped the branches, added them to our large brush pile at the south side of the clearing, and pulled each naked trunk to the pallet area across the driveway to cut them down to logs for the fire.  The smaller trees and some branches were piled along the south side of the garden clearing to create a barrier along the path where we will someday have a hugelkulture.  We also made a smaller hugelkulture area inside the garden area with very small pieces.  The plan was to chop trunks into logs and then pile them in the clearing north of the drive.  This will be our 2017-2018 wood pile.  Or maybe we’ll keep it for even later.  We have 2 cords of the wood pulled from the south clearing in 2012 that is ready to burn any time so we may let this age longer.

We headed next to the east side of the clearing to cull trees for allowing sunlight to the garden area and for a space to place the 750 gallon water tank.  We will be pulling water from the south roof of the Harn above the arctic entrance and screened porch. The guttering will allow for catch of this water and we’ll run a channel over to the storage tank from there, so we want it to be pretty close.  This water will be used for the garden and outside plants. We ended up cutting a few more trees than we originally planned in this area.  And we had too much process work to finish this weekend, so we’ll be back up soon to get that work completed.

We did a few last minute tasks and headed for home back at Mom & Tom’s.  I was so lucky to have Thumper join us this morning.  He was in his regular place at the end of the drive, thundering away for me throughout the day.  He thumped just as we were leaving and I thanked him and told him we’ll be back soon.  There is much more to be done but being at the Harn also provides a relaxation that I get nowhere else.  It is a joy to be there.

And what a joy to be home! When I asked Mom if she & Tom wanted to join us for Pizza at the Depot, she said, “Of course!  It’s Pi Day!”  Se we all went out for some good pi(e).

Happy Pi Day to you all!

 

I made goat cheese!!

Tags

cooperation, family, simplicity, sustainability

What a weekend!  Our friends in Bemidji have a farm homestead and they occasionally like to take a family vacation which means we get to Farm-sit.  This was a full weekend of adventure.  We made a lot of mistakes which will be recognizable to experienced farm people right away but, as noobs who do not have goats or dogs, we were taken by surprise.  It was also full of fun and happy surprises that really made it special.

Our first mistake was unavoidable as it is winter and Friday was a work day.  We arrived after dark.  It’s been such a long time since we’ve done this that 1) we’d forgotten there were outside lights we could have turned on to light up the yard and 2) several of the animals had moved or were new.  Once we had opened the door to let the dogs out, we unloaded our gear into the house.  Then we found some wind up flashlights in the drawer in the mud room and we headed out to get the chores done.  [Note: We realized later that Paul’s videos, also made after dark, were actually pretty representative but we’d watched them the previous day so were doing our best to remember as we trundled through the dark.]  The first thing was giving water to the horses, which was uneventful.  We weren’t worried that we didn’t see any horses.  We were just glad to have only to fill about 4 5-gallon buckets to refill their trough and were happy Sara and Paul had left a big hay bale in the feeder so we didn’t have to throw hay.  As we finished this task, we were amazed with the brilliant stars and stopped for a pause to enjoy the night sky.

Next we went to get water for the ducks, who were shut in the greenhouse. The first instance of cuteness was that Gracie, one of the three black labs, had to get a drink from the water spigot as I filled the bucket of water for the ducks and bunny.  She would repeat this over and over and it was adorable.  The ducks had food so we just had to fill the water bowls and gather eggs.  Sara had warned us of the “fake” eggs that they leave in the nests.  And as I went to gather eggs, I just couldn’t tell the difference between the fakes and the real ones.  I didn’t know how many fakes there were so kept second guessing and finally ended up taking all but two into the house.  I figured if I had any fakes inside I could just return them to the ducks later.  Sara texted me later saying the fakes were larger but the duck eggs were pretty huge too.  There were some I collected that seemed just as big as the big ones I left outside.  (These below will not allow this carton to close.)

After the ducks, we took care of the rabbit which was the easiest job, the only hard part being pulling back the chicken wire roll to gain access.  The bunny is adorable and very happy to have fresh, liquid water and a handful of food pellets.  The chickens were good for the day so we headed next to the goat care, which is where the real fun began.  In the dark, we walked straight past the hay bales on our left as we looked to the right at the deck where it was supposed to be.  However, we happened upon some straw which I remembered using with the goats a year before so we grabbed a couple flakes and headed to the boy goat quarters, figuring milking would be the last thing we did.  We stuffed the hay bags with the flakes and saw no evidence of goats.  The previous year, I’d gone in the male goat quarters with the kids (who seemed not excited about entering) and I’d survived.  Seeing no goats, I decided to go in to get their water, now an ice bucket, busted up and re-filled.  The entryway to the area was quite tricky as one side of the door is tied in place and the other side is tied in place at the bottom and has a bungie tie holding the top of the chicken wire.  I unhooked the bungie and stepped up and over, contorting myself through with a definite lack of finesse.  Thank goodness Dan was holding the light so I could see what I was doing.  After getting things with the water in order, I headed back out to take care of milking the two girl goats.

First we headed to the shed for the grain which we knew we would need to distract the ladies as we milked.  [I missed an obvious sign that would later become clear.  Paul had said something about running out of grain for the goats but from what I could see, there was about a third of a 50 gallon barrel and another half barrel of feed.  This first red flag did not deter me from my task of getting these goats milked.]

As we looked over the female goat pen, we tried to come up with a game plan.  I went inside and looked around while Dan waited outside.  I kept getting bitten in the butt by someone – turns out it was mostly Milkshake.  After making an assessment of the area, I figured we had to get one of the two milking goats into the shed, up on the stanchion, with grain dish in place and then wash the udder, work in the bucket and get the milking done.  Having only two hands to hold the grain, the bucket for milking, the water bottle for the rag to wash the udder, the aforementioned rag, and the second bucket of grain (for the second milking goat) was making things tough.  Danny had his own battles trying to give me enough light with the windup flashlight (which, as you may have guessed, meant frequent turning which required both hands) while also fighting the rush of the other 5 goats, the second milker and 4 younger gals, who also were trying to get to the grain I was juggling.  The first milker is meanwhile looking at me like I was crazy asking her to jump up on this stanchion in the shed.  [This was red flag number two.  The goats, Sara told me, were readily jumping up for milking.  This was not going as well as I had envisioned.]

Dan eventually pulled the shed door closed to keep the other 5 goats out while I finagled the rest of the process after eventually getting the first milker in place.  Dan had meanwhile injured his back fighting the goats and was now writhing in pain as he tried to hold closed the door. [At one point he yelled out, “I think we’re gonna have kabobs soon!!”] The goats outside are making his job tougher as they keep biting at his gloved fingers on the hand holding the door closed.  I milked the first goat, re-learning the process which I’d only done a couple times previously and had never done alone.  I managed pretty well, and was able to get a good amount of milk before the grain supply was devoured by Angel.  I let her go back outside and we managed to get Milkshake, and only Milkshake, into the shed for round 2. (Though it sounds easy, it took quite a while as everyone wanted to bum rush the shed for the grain during the transition.) She also looked at me like I was crazy, fought longer to get up on the stanchion but finally surrendered and made her way up.  [Red flag #3 ignored.]  I was now milking better, remembering the squeeze from top to bottom of the teat.  Though Milkshake was much more sensitive and several times tried lifting her leg, I managed to keep her from kicking over the bucket as I milked.  Again, I didn’t feel I’d done a thorough job but at this point, we’d been at chores for over two hours and I finally let her go as well.  We ended up with about 3 pints of milk and I knew I’d at least kept them from being too uncomfortable for the evening.  I’d try again in the morning.  With some light.

We’d managed to lose the udder rag along the way.  First, we’d lost it when I put the water bottle and rag down with the grain and milking bucket outside the pen as Dan and I considered our options.  When he brought the water bottle and bucket over I asked, “Where is the rag?”  “What rag?” he says.  Turns out Hunter, the youngest of the black labs, had decided it was a toy. [This should have been a sign for me to watch Hunter moving forward but I failed to catch on to this.  I know dog owners everywhere are like, “What is she, NEW?!?”  Yes.  I am.]  We see Hunter in the backwash of the light shining from the house, rag dangling from his mouth.  Danny goes to him and secures the rag bringing it to me.  Once inside and finally getting the first goat washed down, I tuck the rag between my knees.  Yes, I have gloves and rag between the knees as I struggle to milk, prevent a loss of the bucket and try to see in the half light of Dan’s wind-up flashlight.  When the goat switch happened, I looked down for the rag to wash the second udder and… it’s nowhere.  I am sure that one of the goats grabbed it and, very likely, are it.  We found it nowhere all weekend long.  I was glad to have managed to not lose either glove.

After finally finishing the chores about 8:30 PM, who knows, maybe later, we headed inside to make some dinner and relax with the cats and dogs.  I strained the milk, washed the milking bucket and duck eggs gathered and prepared to make some fresh scrambled eggs.  Each time I banged an egg against the counter I was sure it would be a fake.  They were large with very hard shells. But each time… voila! A real egg!  We enjoyed a delicious dinner and started to relax.  After being inside a while, we realized we were short by one cat and texted Sara asking about Gatito, the calico.  Apparently she’d left one day last October and never came back.  While this sucks (Gatito was my favorite of the two because she was really lovey and let you pet her forever), I too lost a cat this way once and it was the easiest loss I’d ever had, as far as cats are concerned.  I grieved more easily once I realized he was not coming home and could always wonder with a bit of hope that he was out living a fat cat life.  The one cat remaining was the GIGANTIC orange tabby named Lucky.  Yes, he’s so big that he tripped the DNR cameras once and the DNR guys thought they had a mountain lion until Paul, a DNR officer, told his buddies, “Nope, that’s just my cat.”  The camera was low, so when he came through, Lucky looked even bigger than he is.  He’s not nearly as big as a cougar, but he is big.  And he was more lovey-dovey than ever!  He was immediately in Danny’s lap, rubbing and purring and snuggling.  It was hilarious!  He gave me a bit of love but Danny got the lion’s share.

Finally in bed late, I only had to get up a couple times for the dogs to head outside so got a bit of sleep.  I woke up about eight, knowing Dan was really feeling his back, I figured I’d get as much of the chore work done as I could.  Maybe I could even milk the goats on my own!  Yes, I was awake but was really dreaming on this one…

Heading outside into the light of day, I had multiple realizations and knew, as much as we felt like we’d accomplished the previous night, we had made many mistakes.  We had certainly worked hard, had tried our best, pushing the limits of frustration with the goats to get the job done, but we are not seasoned and had made many rookie mistakes.  And I had more to make today…

The first thing I saw coming around the house were the large bales of hay sitting at the fence, yes, near the deck but not visible if you are walking between them and the deck, looking at the deck.  The farmers were laughing paragraphs ago (or maybe just shaking their heads in disbelief) but I quickly realized: Hay is not Straw and Straw is not Hay.  I realized not only had I NOT given the boy goats any food, but I’d also not thrown fresh hay into the manger for the girls either!  In all the frustration of milking, I’d forgotten this completely.  So first thing, I headed to see the boys who were out of their shed and watching my approach.  Frederick was super lovey, rubbing his head on the fence.  I grabbed the bags of straw, still full, though it was obvious they’d tried it…  Goats will eat almost anything but apparently they have to be real hungry to eat straw!  I threw the straw into the girls bedding area and filled the bags quickly.  I noticed thankfully there was still hay in the manger so felt a bit less guilty.  I had ducked into the chicken coop to see if they were OK (since we hadn’t checked on them at all the night before and grabbed the one egg – they are a bunch of freeloaders – and tucked it into the egg carton I’d brought from the house). Frederick was so happy to see me coming with the hay bags and, I dumped the egg carton into the 5 gallon feed bucket as I tucked inside the pen to break up and re-fill the water.  Frederick and I head butted each other and I gave both boys apologies and love.

I left the pen and looked down realizing the egg carton was gone. What happened?  Well, it was either Hunter or Gracie (Jake wouldn’t do that) who had stolen my egg carton.  I found the carton but no egg.  I yelled at the dogs, then threw the rest of the hay in to the girls and went to reload the wheelbarrow.  I threw a bit more hay and then looking at the pen area in the light of day realized I could close all the other goats into the feed side of the pen and isolate one milker.  I could do this myself!  I pulled Milkshake into the shed side and closed off the gate.  I didn’t know until later but Danny was now up and watching this unfold through the living room window.  What he saw, that I didn’t, as I walked toward the shed, was the goats behind me already sticking their heads through the gate figuring a way to come after the grain.  Sure enough, by the time I got into the shed and turned around to encourage Milkshake to get up on the stanchion, here’s a baby goat staring at me through the door.  Luckily Dan had gotten his boots on and was heading out to help.

I was in fact able to do it the milking myself with Dan holding the gate closed keeping all the herd out of my hair.  Now they were biting his pants!  [We initially tried it the other way with one milker on the manger side of the pen (since all the goats were now ahead of me and would not leave the shed side…), but that was just not going to work and it’s just another long and unsuccessful story.]  So, while I thought chores would be shorter, in fact, they were just as long or longer than the previous evening.  At least I felt like I had gotten more milk from the girls giving them a real milking and relief.

I was near exhaustion after another hard fought battle of chores.  But I was also feeling like a champ when I had almost two whole quarts of milk filtered.  We made GF pancakes and then I made some goat cheese with the fridge full of milk from the previous week.

This was a fun process and new for me but the recipe was simple: Heat the milk to 150° then add some vinegar and let it sit for an hour.  Then, put the whole shebang through the cheese cloth, and you have cheese!!  It was pretty exciting to make my first goat cheese knowing I’d been a part of the whole process of making it.  I made three types: simple chives with salt, garlic, and red & white pepper w/parsley, turmeric and white pepper.  And later that evening we found it to be pretty tasty!

But first we were heading out to meet our friends Megan and Ryan for dinner.  They’d also done goat sitting for Sara and Paul and my first question was going to be, “How do you milk the goats?”  I just knew I was missing something but could not for my life figure out what.  Sara couldn’t possibly spend two hours twice a day taking care of this farm.  In order to save some time with evening chores in the dark, we put the ducks away in the greenhouse getting them all set for food and water, made sure the horses were good, I even through them some fresh hay (though they had some remaining, I figured we’d make that hay last).  [I think I was just so excited about hay that I wanted everyone to have some!]  I also refilled the boy goats’ hay bags (with hay this time!) and set them aside so all we had to do was hang them later in the dark.

At the Becida Bar (best place in town for food! – you will only get this joke if you know how big Becida is – it’s the only place in town), we met with Megan and Ryan and I asked my question.  Ryan says, “Well, you have the grain and the milk bucket and you put the grain in first.”  I stopped him and said, “No, start from the beginning, how do you get the milking goat isolated and keep the other goats from interfering?”  He says, “Well, you let the milking goat out of the pen and she runs right to the milking trailer, but you definitely want to have the grain in there before you let her out.”  I am dumbfounded.  “Milking Trailer?!?” I say, “Are you fucking kidding me?” (Quote marks mean I have to say what I really said.) “Where is that?”  Turns out, that horse trailer in the middle of the animal area?  It’s a milking trailer!!  I text Sara, “So, Megan says you have a milking trailer.”  Now the text she sent Friday night makes perfect sense.  In reply to my asking her, in the midst of figuring out the process, “What is the trick to get Milkshake up for milking?” She replied simply, “Grain”  Yeah, like I wasn’t trying that!  And now it made perfect sense to her how insane I must have been.  Trying to convince the goats to do something that was now foreign to them and actually succeeding in getting the milking done (though wanting to almost kill the goats in the process (especially the one that kept biting my ass)) was a real miracle.  [I did take some pride in being able to get all this done the hard way.  And I was able to inform Ryan of the proper technique for accessing the male goat pen which had to date eluded him.]

As much as I was so ticked at Danny and I having struggled for so long the previous 24 hours, I was greatly relieved for the evening’s chore round.  By doing a lot of pre-work and knowing we could try the milking station, I was sure we’d be well under the average chore time of more than 2 hours.  Indeed we were. We were done with everything in less than 45 minutes.  Since I could handily milk each lady in peace all by myself, Dan was free to handle all the other work.  I milked each girl completely and was so happy to have had an easy time of it.  The next morning I was able to allow Dan to sleep in and did all the chores solo.  I was lucky that it was warm enough that the water just needed refills as ice had not formed.  I can’t recall how long it took but under an hour for sure.  I even refilled the hay wheelbarrow so the folks relieving us for Sunday night would be all set.

So was it all worth it?  Yes!  Sara left a nice gift bag for Dan and me and we got lots of love from the animals.  The best moments were with Lucky,  After I’d thrown hay for the horses Saturday morning, he came running up to me and so I went to pick him up and he jumped up on my shoulder wrapping around my neck and snuggling against my head, purring like crazy.  He rode around on my shoulders all around the house as I walked to the bedroom window to show Danny and around the deck area and up to the back door.  Lucky did this shoulder trick a few more times and every time it was wonderful.  Then, this morning, I found him lying on the bed all stretched out and I laid down by him and put my head to his.  He snuggled with me, putting him paws up on my hands and arms as I pet him and then he licked my face like it was a big ice cream cone!  He also jumped into bed with us in the mornings when he came in from outside and snuggled a bunch.  So, yeah, I learned a TON of stuff, realized how much I don’t know, and had a bunch of fun.  I’ll sign up again in a heartbeat.

Oh, anticipating the question most will ask…  There are 4 horses, 29 ducks, 1 rabbit, 8 goats, 20 chickens, 3 dogs, 2 fish, and 1 cat.

Fired Up!!

Tags

DIY, Rocket Stove

I am so fired up!! This weekend’s Rocket Stove Round 2 was amazing!

It’s still just me and Dan but we’re chugging along. Though we did have a couple guys come by Sunday morning to check out the project and hear more about Rocket Stoves, they didn’t stay long enough to get their hands into any cob with us.  We are planning on having a cobbing workshop on the 17^th so perhaps with a bit of notice, we’ll get some cob workers to come learn about building rocket stoves and donate some of their sweat equity in getting this rocket mass heater closer to finished.  Isn’t it true… if you feed them, they will come!?!

This weekend we were able to make:

• Two more buckets of cob, which we turned into thermal cob with fire-clay/sand additions
• A few buckets of clay slip (of varying thicknesses for multiple uses)
• Fire-clay mortar
• A tarp full of pearlite/clay-slip mix (functions as an expansion joint)

We used all this to build our stove:

• Mortared in the manifold
• Coated “hot” surfaces with pearlite/clay-slip and then thermal cob
• Wrapped the heat riser with k-wool, machine cloth and clay-slip
• Loaded the barrel and sealed it with a gasket, aluminum tape and a barrel band

Twigs here were gathered at the TLUD (Top Load Up Draft) Stove class Dan taught this summer. These little stoves are made from recycled cans.  Check out more on this blog post: https://alexandriacardinals.wordpress.com/2015/06/07/how-to-build-a-rocket-stove/

Then…

We lit it.

https://youtu.be/exMZHvdotcY 

As you can see, it rendered me speechless.  I finally realized I needed to give some narration but was still pretty overwhelmed with simple amazement that this was working.  I am so proud of this accomplishment.  Dan’s core has been transformed into a functional heating unit.  We now have a smokeless Rocket Stove and once we get all the cob work done, we will have a fabulous Rocket Mass Heater.

If you want to learn more, go visit Ernie & Erica Wisner http://www.ernieanderica.info/rocketstoves or their main page http://www.ernieanderica.info/

🙂