My First Year at the Harn

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DIY, Freedom, sustainability, Time

I’ve just had an anniversary – well, a couple, come to think of it.  On the 13^th, I celebrated my 24^th anniversary of becoming a mom.  Can’t believe our boy is all grown up now…  I’m also celebrating my first anniversary of moving to the Harn.  It’s been a year since I made the transition and I still think moving to the woods in November 2016 was a fantastic idea.  While I initially made the move on my own, it’s been nice for the last seven months to have Dan here with me on this adventure.  [Oh, he got me a lovely foot massage unit for the anniversary and we’re now enjoying relaxing with that after a long day of work outside.  I think he’s wanting to keep his “frontier woman” happy.]

I’ve told people that we’re giving it 3-5 years to see what we think and so far, it’s good.  There were several things I wondered if I could handle in making the transition to the woods but all the things I had concerns about have ended up being either non-issues,  aren’t as bad as I’d expected them to be, or are things I’ve really come to enjoy.  I still say it’s lovely, even in below zero weather, to sit on the porch and have a poo while a woodpecker sits not 5 feet from me, pecking on the suet.  Even if there is no woodpecker, to sit in the middle of the woods is far superior to the sterile porcelain environment that many of us find to be commonplace.

So… what have we learned?

Water

We’ve learned (again) this year that we need to be careful with the water system.  The first flush diverter on the East downspout came apart last week in the frigid cold, in part because we didn’t pull the caps to allow all the water to drain… again, and the result was a huge PVC icicle that fell to the ground. The issue this winter was that we got a first snow and thought it would melt off in a day or two but… it didn’t.  It just kept snowing and staying frigid cold.  So we didn’t get to removing the caps before things got really frozen.  But at least we DID drain the garden cistern and rain barrel system on the south side of the house so they should be OK.  [If you recall, last year our previous garden cistern cracked down the side mid-winter after becoming too full of ice.  Last year it was having such a mild early winter that we kept getting more water accumulation every time we drained the cistern and we should have just emptied it completely every time – like we did this year.]

Gardening and Food

We’ve learned that our forested acreage is REALLY wet.  And that slugs LOVE it.  We built hugle beds (wood and soil piles where the wood acts like 1) a sponge, keeping the garden bed moist, and 2) a compost pile, breaking down over time to provide nutrition to the soil) but found that we really need to build them about three times bigger.  Our beds should be almost like raised beds – 3-4’ high is not too high.  So that will be a project this coming spring.  We have lots of old wood and should be able to build up on the hugle mounds we’ve already got in place.  Though we may have to reconfigure the bee yard a bit for the bigger mounds…

We’ve also worked for friends on their farms and learned a lot about raising veggies and animals.  I will say veggies are easier to wrangle than goats.  We did have a heck of a time with our goat sitting this year but I can now recognize, and cull from the pack, a horny male goat amidst a herd of females.  I also am learning more and more vegetables, though I still struggle with knowing some.  I’ve cooked lots of new dishes as I harvested at the farms and we have an abundance of food in the form of potatoes and squash.

We also did some foraging this year and learned a bit about edible (and non-edible) mushrooms and berries.  We gathered choke cherries and made jelly, and also crabapples (thanks, Diana!) to make preserves and syrup.  The syrup is SO GOOD on pancakes – which we’ve been eating of late with the cold and Dan’s hunting schedule.

Oh, another skill in development!  Dan started hunting on Deer Opener (November 4^th – it’s like a national holiday up here) with a buddy who can carve up a deer leaving almost nothing in the way of meat on the bones.  He’s borrowed a gun and tree stand and is getting a feel for what he thinks.  Last year deer hunting time was unseasonably warm – so warm that hunters worried about their meat spoiling before they could get it into a cooler.  This year, not so much of a problem.  It’s been in the single digits for some of the time he’s spent out there with most days staying under freezing, and often with nasty winds.  No worries about the meat getting too warm, more worries about your fingers and toes staying warm enough to avoid frostbite!  I’m guessing it’s kind of like having a baby though… once you get the deer, all that misery is forgotten.  We’ll see.

I’ve learned a bit more about bees this year too; mostly that they know what they are doing and man should pretty much just leave them alone for best results.  I had one colony die after never really getting started and a second die due to a lost queen that was not replaced in time for winter.  It was a devastating blow to not be able to winter over a colony, but we had quite a harvest of honey. Nonetheless, I still grieve my bees.

And we have a bounty of other stored food in the form of canned green beans, tomatoes, tomato soup, and applesauce.  I’ve got some marinara from Sylvia, some grape jelly from Char, some beet pickles from Jill, and some squash from Connie.  Lots to keep me busy cooking this winter.  I think canning may be one of the best things I’ve learned and I only wish I’d been able to do more.  We have invested in a propane burner and massive pressure canner/cooker for outdoor canning on the porch next year. And we have a few canning jars ready to fill.

Heating: aka Adding Cob to the Rocket Mass Heater

Having the proper mass on your stove is crucial for creating a “mass” heater that radiates to warm the home.  We still have much mass to add to our stove and continue to lose heat through the chimney.  But we added several buckets of cob to the stove this fall  and we’re getting closer to enclosing the final run of exhaust tubing.  Once that is complete, it should allow us to pull more of the heat from the exhaust before it leaves the building.  The goal is to have an exit temperature on our chimney of about 100°F.  This would mean the heat is flowing into our mass where it is stored to radiate out later.  The Rocket Stove is typically burned for just a couple hours a day meaning much of your heating is a result of the mass releasing its heat into your house while you are not burning.

We also realized that having the windows all the way closed and locked down is pretty important too.  Yes, we found the kitchen window was slightly cracked letting in loads of cold air the last few weeks.  Gzeesh!  House is staying much warmer since we remedied that!

With attendance at the Rocket Mass Heater Innovator Jamboree last month (Yes, I’m going to blog about it soon…) I learned much about making cob and earthen plasters from Erica Wisner and Chris “Uncle Mud” McClellan.  I confirmed that cob making is an art, and a pretty forgiving one at that… thus much of what I’ve done to date has been okay.  But I did find that I’m using lots more clay in my mix than needed.  Since clay is the hardest component to secure, the buckets I’ve mixed will be extended with additions of more sand and straw.  I also found that I can add as many rocks as I like to take up space.  We added 4 buckets of cob earlier this fall and, with the new tricks, I’ve added almost as much mass in the last week or two with about one bucket of cob as I did with those four buckets.  That’s a big savings!

Speaking of Savings… Money and Stuff

It’s kind of strange to live without an income – well, I make a bit here and there with Hostel work or writing for the Farmers Independent (the local paper).  This was the aspect I feared most in the whole “retire early, live simply, and be sustainable” plan.  But to not have a steady income and still be able to get groceries, buy gifts for people, eat out occasionally with friends – it’s kind of surreal. The Dogma in this country is all about making money, as much as you can, or you’ll be homeless, destitute, impoverished.  I guess we did a lot of that making as much money as you can for some time but we didn’t buy into the second part of the capitalistic method – spend what you get.  Saving all those years means we have some funds to live on now.

And we make the funds we have go far.  I shop at thrift stores but you wouldn’t believe the deals you can find.  I spent $8 a couple weeks back and got a like-new Hippie top (adorbs), a Columbia fleece jacket (super warm) in great condition, and a new (tag still on them) pair of yoga pants.  My friend Angie got a pair of winter boots (Sorels no less!), two shirts and a pair of pants for her $8.  Can’t beat that.  Plus I have way too many clothes anyway.  I have t-shirts to last me until I die and probably some jeans that need to be donated as they are too big now.

I find up here in the North Woods I pretty much can wear the same clothes all the time.  I mean, there are weeks when I wear the same clothes for days in a row.  Or I’ll wear an outfit and then hang it on my wall rack – that place where clothes go when they aren’t dirty enough for the hamper yet – and wear it again a few days later.  And another key is having lounging clothes and work clothes – that way the work stuff keeps getting dirtier while your indoor stuff stays clean longer.  I do SO MUCH LESS laundry these days – another savings and sustainability factor.  I figure as long as the clothes are not muddy or stinky, they can take another wearing.  [I do change the underwear and socks a bit more frequently than the other clothes…]  Oh, and I’ve discovered the joy of bralessness.  What a freedom.  And I don’t think anyone has even noticed!  [Oh, Danny says he has…]

And we’re finding that you use things to completion as best you can.  As such, I’m tanning the deer hide from the deer shot by our friend Jeff.  I’m also going to tan the smaller hide from the road kill deer we salvaged from the ditch this past weekend for his wife since I find I like the process of de-fleshing so much.  And we’re taking the deer carcasses and using them to feed birds in the yard – have two this year, up from the one last year, and way ahead of last year, getting this one in place a good month before the one I put up last year.  Here’s a video of the process.

Going with the Flow

I think one of the most fun things about being at the Harn is that we own our time much more than when we were in the rat race.  When committed to a job, it’s hard to stay up until midnight finishing a movie you decided to start at 10 PM.  It’s not an option to sleep in when you have to be at work by a certain time.  It’s hard to join a neighbor on an adventure if you have to factor it into a workday.  Take last Sunday, for instance.  I was working on the blog and writing some letters, taking a call from Mom, when a neighbor texted and asked if we could help him move a wood stove to his basement.  Sure.  We headed over and then came back to get ready to go to the Symphony (using a neighbor’s ticket that otherwise would have gone unused) to see another neighbor play violin.   I know, everyone is free on Sunday, right?  Well, what about the Friday before that when I was able to just head out to visit the neighbors on a whim.  I chatted with Connie and Bill, stopped by to see Ada and chat with her (the 89 year old “Queen of Alida” who lives with her cat Molly in our closest “town”), introduced myself again – it’s been years since we first met – to another neighbor Sandy and met her dog Molly, and then headed down to Char’s for some eggs and a quick visit.  It was a fun couple hours just sharing and laughing with friends.

This past week we were able to take a day to hang with our friends at Split Oak Farms tanning my deer hide, watching a deer get processed for pig feed, cooking a couple meals to share, roasting peppers for a Thanksgiving dish, and watching a movie.  The cat didn’t even seem too peeved that we were gone all day.

And when I get going, like I did on a little sewing project the other day, I can work until I finish it or find something else to distract me and then go back to it later.  I love this going with the flow and enjoying the opportunities as they arise.  Of course, it’s not always like this – sometimes we have to pick between sleeping in and going hunting… And sometimes we commit to one thing and then can’t do another.  And sometimes we have to wash the dishes!  But it is nice not having to give a bunch of hours, drive-time, and energy to a J-O-B.  We’re working for us now.  It may be harder work physically than we ever did in the Rat Race but WE are getting the benefits of all our efforts whether it’s harvesting food, making something for a friend, or chopping wood.  Speaking of which, I better get on that!  And that reminds me of a great Dillon Bustin song about cutting more wood…

Realizing our Genius

Sometimes we see the brilliance of our decisions (mostly the result of happenstance or dumb luck).

For example, this spring we pulled the deadwood that had fallen in the area around the Harn.  We cleared small and large trees and branches in the 50’ area surrounding the Harn and piled them in the east end of the clearing south of the Harn, hoping to process them into firewood during the summer/fall.  [We would rob this pile when burning summer bonfires in our outdoor fire pit – benefit #1.]  Well, with everything else we did, we didn’t get that wood processed.  However, it’s been a nice benefit this winter to be able to go to the pile and gather as much kindling as we need to supplement the larger wood we have prepped in the garage.

We’ve also been happy to find that the pile of trees we made back in 2009 is still usable!  It’s worn wood but very seasoned and good for burning hot fires – and very easy to process compared with the more green / larger stuff we have.  And also full of kindling since it’s all sizes of trees.

In the sequence of events that is our life, we’ve been lucky to meet people who could use our services on their farms.  As such, we’ve been able to secure access to good, wholesome food in exchange for our help.  Good and healthy farms always have an abundance of food to what can be used or sold and lucky for us, we get part of the harvest when we’re willing to be part of the labor in making it happen.

And sometimes it’s little things.  When we run water for washing dishes – it takes a minute for the hot water tank water to get across the Harn to our kitchen sink – rather than letting the water go down the drain, we fill a gallon jug with this water.  This also helps lessen the emptying of the bucket under the kitchen sink drain…  We then use that water to fill the Berkey system we use to filter our drinking water.  No Waste!

I guess the good news is that we are learning.  We are discovering new ways to live here at the Harn that hopefully result in less waste and a more sustainable life.  Since we are a long way from true sustainability and zero waste,  we will keep on with the experiment!  At least for a couple more years…

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Busy First Week of Homesteading at the Harn

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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.  🙂

Bees!

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cooperation, living local, local food, simplicity, sustainability

I am Super excited to report this week on my opportunity to learn from a very experienced beekeeper. 🙂 Lewis Struthers, of Parkers Prairie, has been working with bees for over 65 years now and while his brothers are large-scale operators, he does a fair “hobby” business with his 15 yards.  For those of you who don’t know bees, I learned that a really good hive can produce 100# of honey in a good season.  So, with an average of 10 hives per yard, his 15 yards could garner 15,000# of honey!!  Lewis was explaining harvest time and told me he runs quite a few 5# jars (the biggest seller) and then he fills 600# barrels.  It was mind boggling.  But I can now attest that the difference in an empty Super and a partially filled Super is quite obvious.  What’s a Super?  We’ll get that shortly… Here’s Lewis!

When Lewis recently offered to share a beekeeping trip with me, I was thrilled.  As we began our afternoon, it was like he was speaking a different language and my brain struggled with comprehension.  He’s lived a life of bee-speak and talked quickly about drones, frames and excluders while I listened trying to translate all the terminology into sense.  By the end of the day, I was really picking it up but I’m sure I missed much of his explanation as I was lost in translation.  So, here’s a little overview to help you – granted, I may have some of this wrong!  (Feel free to comment below with corrections!)

The Hive box contains the bees and the reproduction areas, as well as some honey storage area.  It’s a wooden box about 15” x 20” with 10 hanging frames that are about 1” thick, 15” across and 9” deep.  There is a little spacer between each frame and a space at the bottom for bee bodies.  Each frame has a centerline divider (wood or plastic) with a raised honeycomb pattern on which the bees will build wax comb to hold honey and new bees.  The Excluder is a wire frame placed between the Hive box and the Supers to keep the brooding (bee baby making) out of the Super, which you hope to be full of just honey.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7NjjbVifUM

The Excluder looks like a cookie cooling sheet or a mini oven rack except that it’s completely flat.  The wire sections are too small for the queen and drones to pass through but allow the worker bees to pass into the upper sections where honey is made.  The Super is similar to the Hive box except it’s only about 6” deep instead of ~9.5” deep.  If you are lucky enough to exclude the queen, you will end up with pure honeycomb filled with honey, no bee babies.  We did find one hive with Supers full of baby production but we could not locate that queen for our lives!

There are also bottom boards and inner covers which are at bottom and top of the box, respectively.  This time of year, the bottom boards are sometimes replaced with a screen frame which gives more ventilation to the bees and allows better moisture removal from the honey.  We put in about a half dozen of these screen bottoms in the two yards we visited.  Each Hive Box is covered with a metal top that keeps water out of the hive.

I thought I was adorably punny when I noted to Lewis that this trip was Super fun! 🙂

Lewis and I visited two of his local bee yards in Alexandria and Carlos.  The two yards are in quite different locations, one in thigh high grass and one in a clearing in the woods.  It was interesting to see the differences and similarities in these locations.  We found mice, spiders and ants in both but only the woods location had me getting mosquito bites.  And yes, I’m sure it’s on your mind…. Did you get stung?  Well, I did.  As did Lewis.  So we both killed a bee.  😦   My sting was an avoidable mishap and I knew it was coming.  Lewis had handed me a frame so I could see the weight of the honey and, at the last moment, I saw the bee at the ear where I was taking hold of the frame.  (Ears are little ledges at the tops of the frames that hold them at the top ridge of the hive box.)  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, but I knew I’d been stung.  Video is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG2kQZ3KAwQ

Yes, I was filming at the time.  I was able to quickly brush the stinger from the tip of my finger and then stick my finger in my mouth to try to suck out the poison deposited there.  I was typing pretty well with this finger the next day but it was still a bit sensitive and the first day had a swollen, warm feeling in the first section of that index finger for several hours.  By day two, there was little remnant of the issue.  Lewis’ sting happened at the second yard as we were dealing with some quite peeved bees.  One got him on his index finger and he brushed the bee away at the moment.  Driving back to my car later, he couldn’t recall which finger had been stung as he’d had no reaction to the sting. He says you acclimate to it.

When we arrived at the first yard, I felt a little in the way, standing and watching Lewis work.  I asked him to let me know if I could help and he said, “You’re here to learn today, not to work.”  Ten minutes later, he’d changed his mind as I jumped in to help find screen bottoms in the various piles hidden in the grass. Once he saw I was ready to assist, he was glad to have the help.  I was able to do only a small portion of the work but it gave me a sense of the tasks and helped me to see that this IS something I could do.  Granted, I’d be looking at one hive, not the hundreds that Lewis manages!  I’m hoping to get out later in the season with him to see more aspects of the operation and, hopefully I’ll be able to assist at harvest and see the ins and outs of honey processing.

One thing that surprised me was the simplicity of his operation.  He uses very few tools and equipment.  We each wore a bee hat (kind of like a safari hard hat) covered with a veil – a square meshed netting that sits atop the hard bee hat and protects your face and neck by creating a rectangle around that area.  Netting hangs down from the veil frame and the strings at the bottom of the netting are pulled tight and tied around the chest to prevent bees from getting under the veil, which would not be a good thing!

With regard to the hives, everything was very simple.  Wooden boxes, simple screen bottoms, wire excluders, and metal/wood cover tops.  Wooden frames, some with chewed holes – darn mice!  A small metal pry-bar Lewis used to open the boxes and pull frames apart for inspection.  [Everything the bees touch becomes waxed together.]  And a smoker, a critical piece of equipment that helps keep the bees calm.  Just a can with wood chips and a little grass, stopped up with a Kleenex between yards to prevent it getting too smoky, squeezed gently and occasionally as we worked through the hives.  At one point we found a frame with a broken ear and Lewis installed a metal replacement ear which he nailed on with 4 small nails making the frame good as new.  Nothing fancy.  It felt very unintimidating compared with some of the high tech bee suits and hive paraphernalia I’ve seen on TV, YouTube, and Google.  In this photo below you see: the Excluder screen leaning on a Super, the Smoker, a Hive Box partially filled with Frames, and a few Frames outside the box.

We first looked at the “nukes”, new 4-frame hives that Lewis was hoping had developed queens (photo below).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NwGwPvEggE&spfreload=10  When we found queens, we were able to transfer these frames into fully-framed hive boxes, typically adding a brood frame from a stronger hive.  Lewis noted that the bees on the brood frames we placed in the new hives would find their way back to their home hives but the brood cells would be left in place and these bees would hatch and become part of the new colony.  Giving these young queens a head start with brood cells gives the hive a fighting chance at making their way to being a strongly producing colony.  I believe these new colonies he lets keep all their honey the first year, hoping for good production in the following year.

In order to find good brood frames, we looked through the stronger, more productive hive boxes and this gave us a chance to check the progress on these colonies.  Often we would add an Excluder and a Super or two as this is the heavy production time of year for his girls.  Lewis made clear several times that it is the GIRLS who do all the work and he has a great respect for them, both in the bee world and the human realm!  Here’s a little video on workers and queens.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSsjcQ8X7mY  And, yep, that’s me holding that frame!!

Lewis showed me the comb with honey which looks like black water as it reflects in the sunlight.  We could also see pollen stored in some cells.  Then there were egg cells, larvae cells and capped brood cells (which look kind of like capped honey cells to this Nube).  The freaky stuff are the drone cells, which are like yellow mushrooms exploding from the comb ~ puffy topped cells, and the queen cells which hang off perpendicular to the comb and are really large, reminding me of morel mushroom tops.  The queens are not too difficult to find, especially once Lewis points them out to you…  After finding my first queen pretty readily, thereafter I mistook drones for queens, even though Lewis was constantly reminding me that “drones are like fat beer belly guys” while queens have an enlarged and elongated abdomen.  The Young Virgin Queens (queens that may have mated but not yet produced brood cells) are especially hard to find as they are smaller than more developed queens.  Some queens have yellow abdomens while others have black abdomens and, while not a rule, if you see black drones, you will likely see a black abdomen queen.  I still never really picked out a second queen on my own but if Lewis told me he saw one, occasionally I could find her too.

Most of the bees we saw were worker bees with some frames having quite a few drones.  We saw some workers with legs full of pollen.  I told him they reminded me of little motorcycles with saddle bags, which I think tickled him.  When colonies were less productive, the frames were less populated with bees.  Full production hives had loads of bees and much activity.

The day was a bit overcast and the bees were quite mellow.  Lewis noted that this was a bit unusual as they were usually happiest when it was sunny and work was in progress.  But I was glad to have happy bees.  There is a difference when they are mad ~ they will have a higher pitched buzz and come at you more aggressively (though still pretty lamely).  At the first yard we had one or two times when the bees seemed a bit more stirred up.  They had a more high-pitched buzzing sound, definitely like they were warning us to leave.  I would occasionally just stop and wait for them to calm.  The big key was moving deliberately and not too quickly.  Slow and steady wins the day.  Each time Lewis would open a new hive box, he would smoke a bit, then pry the top off slowly.  When he would remove the first frame, he would go quite slowly and smoothly.  Once he was prying frames apart, he would move a bit quicker but that first frame was slow and steady every time.

As we left the first yard, Lewis stopped to show me a hive box tied up in a tree.  This is an empty box that he has available in case of swarm.  It won’t really help a swarm at this yard as bees typically go more than 2 miles away to find a new hive when they swarm.  But he did catch a swarm last year in this box so sometimes a colony from elsewhere will come find new digs in these extra boxes.  He has a yard about 3 miles away so, if those bees swarm, there is a chance he’d catch his own colony at the close-but-not-too-close location.

He showed me at the second yard which was located in a clearing in the forest.  This was much darker and cooler, which resulted in mosquito attacks on arrival.  There was even a mouse brave enough to have made a home in the top of one of the hive boxes – he was not home… probably heard us approach.  We destroyed his home and found a few mice in the pile of screens and covers.  They’re quick but a few were not quick enough. 😦

The work here went quicker.  Partly because there were not quite as many productive hives and partly because I was a little more trained.  We took time here for me to pull apart a box to look for developed brood.  Here’s my video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWlKsYOpYos You can see here the little gear we wore (no gloves), the simple tools (pry bar) and equipment (wooden boxes).  I was amazed at my calm in participating in this work.  I found that the bees were not as scary as I thought.  Though we did find one colony which appeared queenless and thus, was not quite as calm and content.  This was the hive where Lewis was stung and he was able to add a queen cell to hopefully bring them a new leader.  Here’s a video of him placing the queen cell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAydYQQlyG8

I had an enjoyable day helping Lewis with his ladies.  It was a great learning experience.  I am hopeful for the possibility that I can keep bees in the future.  And that Lewis will keep showing me the ropes as I learn more and, in turn, provide a bit more help for him on our visits!  You might want to try some of his honey… it’s yummy!  http://www.honey.com/honey-locator/profile/struthers-honey

Tree Relo & Pi Day 2016

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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.

Finding Balance

Tags

Finding Fulfillment, Freedom

This past week was full of fun again!  This “retirement” thing is amazingly busy & full of excitement and entertainment.  My level of “busyness” came up in conversation several times this week and what I am finding is that, since leaving the rat race, I have enthusiastically jumped into so many new things because I’m delighting in finding new friends and learning new things.  I’ve involved myself in a variety of passions and have found myself to be quite useful in some activities and not as aligned in others.  At this point, I am figuring out where to continue to give of my time and energy and how to keep in check my desire to “do it all”.  There is an abundance of fun things to do and interesting people to get to know and as I meet new people or hear about a fun idea, sometimes I just need to remember that I can’t fit it all into every week!

Some of the things I always told myself I wanted to incorporate after I quit full-time work have not yet made their way into my schedule.  I am working to bring in formal yoga practice again, though at present it’s just some stretching at waking, a bit of Mountain Pose at the Post Office, and some Forward Fall in the afternoon or evening.  I long for a more rich meditation practice but so far it’s more a sporadic grabbing of quiet moments and taking time to BE.  And while the new group of crafting ladies that has formed here in Alexandria is wonderful, I’m still not getting quite as much time in creating as I’d hoped.  On the upside, I’m working on implementing new things on a once a month basis which seems to help bring in the new without overwhelming the calendar.  But I see that I will have to let some things go or just not give as much time and energy to them as I have in order to find a happy balance.  And perhaps I need to block out time on the calendar for just sitting!

One of my early commitments to District 206, the local public school system, was to judge the Science Fair and this past week Woodland Elementary hosted their Fair and I judged the work of four young ladies.  All four experiments involved food in one way or another, from orange juice to popcorn, Jolly Rancher candies to cheese. All were interesting.  All but one were well presented with charts and detailed paragraphs of information.  Half were well-prepared to answer my questions though I’m not sure what part nervousness played.  As I toured the fair to see the remaining exhibits, it was typical with some level of low-energy, unoriginal work and some stand-out presentations and ideas that caught my eye.  There were a couple kids who were obviously re-presenting overdone Googled ideas and a few who really wanted to learn something new with their work.  One kid had made his own fishing lures, evaluating the level of dye needed for opaqueness and he did a great job at explaining his work.  I’m hopeful he will take my idea of determining which level of dye catches the most bass to heart this spring as I think that would make an interesting project, and may well take him into a business venture.  It reminded me of an old friend as I thought of Greg who created his own business making bass lures from his garage… and did quite well as I understand.  The young man who welcomed me at the entry table was a real joy and each time the kids raced to their poster as I approached, it just tickled me.  I would be sure to let them know I was on an unofficial visit if that was the case.  But they still worked hard to explain, even when I was just a Visitor and not a Judge.  There was some evidence of parental assistance, but nothing overly done from what I could see.  Next week will be round two and I will feel fulfilled at having been a small part of the lives of our youth and getting a brief chance to recall all the fun times had with my son during his school adventures.

That is just one of the many fun things pending for this week but today is a day off with little planned so I’m making dinner tonight – chicken alfredo lasagna!  Having time for cooking is lovely so I’m going to enjoy this day to the fullest, as I will with every moment I can this week.

Reducing Consumption

Tags

anti-consumerism, de-cluttering, Rat Race, simplicity, sustainability

Today Danny & I celebrated our 13th/14th Anniversary. It is truly a joy to have come this far together and to have such high hopes for our future together, even though we’re in the midst of some uncertainty. Life is a bit “lacey” at present, a bit full of holes but still beautiful. Dan was working temporary contract work and the company for which he worked has not seen the order book they anticipated so his temp services were “no longer required”. While this is a bit of a bump in the road, I am walking in faith that life is unfolding for our best and highest good. I will continue to believe that the Universe is constantly conspiring for our good.

As I mentioned previously, Lace is the traditional 13th anniversary gift and I had some ideas for my gift to Dan, hoping to avoid consumerism as much as possible. And I did have some ideas for incorporating lace into our celebrations. (I’ll leave that to your imaginations.) However, since Books are our kryptonite… It turns out that the perfect thing I found was a book about life that I thought would be perfect for this “lacey” time. (Working part-time in a book store really is heaven to me but I do joke that I don’t bring home a pay check, I just get paid in books. Could be worse though, I could work at Dairy Queen!!) Wait. WHAT!?!?!

OK, I know, someone is jumping up saying, “Working Part-Time? I thought you were RETIRED!?!” Yes, I did Retire. I no longer work 40-80 hours a week, driving loads of miles in a commute and spending time in a job where I no longer have passion. I left the Rat Race.

However, after 8 months of Retirement, the local independent bookstore, Cherry Street Books, noted that they needed help as two of their original employees had moved on to other projects (the store just celebrated 8 years on June 23rd). So, I am working part-time in a place where I am amazed they pay ME (don’t tell Kathleen!). I love every minute of it and I enjoy lots of perks with this job in addition to pay. So, I don’t see it as work at all, really. As I told Danny, it is an inexpensive way for me to play bookstore owner so he never has to endure me being an actual bookstore owner.

But, back to my original message.

1. We are not focused on materialistic consumption.

I think a better way of putting this is that we are focused on NOT buying into the typical American ideal of consumerism. Our entire US economy seems to be based on spending. We often hear about the need for a higher GDP. Even when we were attacked back in 2001, the message from the President was to “Go Shopping”. So we do our parts as loyal consumers. Why?

Most Americans, and we’re exporting this trend as quickly as we can, are programmed to purchase more and more things. We are encouraged to fill up our lives with STUFF. Ads are everywhere and appear to be unavoidable: billboards on the roadways; purchased ads on the radio; and most prolific of all, commercials on the television. I remember my son Tom calling me into the living room when he was just a toddler. “Mom, you have to come here, you NEED this!” A TV commercial was telling him of the latest “must-have” for every family and he was listening. This was the day I explained to him that the TV lies. And that lesson stuck. To this day, he’s a man of his own mind and doesn’t buy into the ideas of fashion and trendiness. His generation in fact may be the ones who break this cycle of programming. They watch shows on Netflix and they avoid the ads in other ways, like never looking up on a trip in the car as they are plugged into their phones thus seeing zero billboards. They shop online where they can compare the best options, cheapest prices. They have much better tools than my generation did.

As I was growing up, the alcohol industry told me how cool I’d be if only I drank X. “Guys will think you’re beautiful.” (I do have to admit, alcohol does something to the senses making everyone look a little more attractive…) Then there are the fashion magazines showing what I must wear to be “in fashion” and which designer is the most important to carry now, all showcased by ultra-thin and air-brushed models, which leads to the diet books I need to buy to be thinner and the makeup and hair care products I need to make me more beautiful. I can’t be awesome cool unless I have the latest gadgets and apps. And if I’m feeling a bit off, there’s a pill to fix that. (Never mind those pesky side effects.)

The alcoholic beverage industry accounted for over $400 billion of our 2010 economy. And the way things are going, I’m guessing that only goes up every year.
The U.S. apparel market accounts for over a quarter of the global market at $331B. (Should it concern any of us that we spend more on beer than t-shirts?)
We spend about $54B on cosmetics and over $80B on hair care.
And even though we spend so much on beautification, we still have cultural standards of ideal body size so there is a $20B weight loss industry.
We spent over $211B on electronics in 2014. And that doesn’t include the monthly cost of your Vonage plan.
Pharmaceutical sales have been over $300B for the last 5 years.
(As long as the internet doesn’t always lie, you can check out stats here: http://www.statista.com/)

Well, I’m not buying their story. I wear clothes that feel comfortable, haven’t worn makeup since high school (except for maybe the office Christmas party or Halloween), quit dying my hair a decade ago and I am happy with the big bod I own. And while my phone has the capability of texting, I can count on one hand the number of texts I have sent. (The last one was the night of the recent Stanley Cup Final when the Blackhawks beat the Lightening to win the Cup while Danny was at work. It was a historical moment, and worth the $0.46 addition to our bill this month.) And if you want a wake-up call on meds, read Overdosed America by John Abramson. Wanna know how they came up with the proper cholesterol number we should be hitting? As I recall, it was figured in a conference room based on needed sales. This is more recent from him on this topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/opinion/dont-give-more-patients-statins.html

Dan and I realized that buying into the latest trends and gadgets only kept us working longer and harder. We still struggle with this and buy more STUFF than we need. But we’re much more cognizant than we used to be. For a long time we have minimized buying clothes and, as needed, we now buy second-hand from places like the Klothes Kloset here in Alexandria. (Love this place so I’m happy to plug them. In fact, I love their dollar item days. A while back I was able to get a box full of clothes to send to some friends in Missouri. This is the helping-make-other-people-happy part of life.) We get our hair cut a few times a year (because Danny doesn’t have much hair) and don’t spend much of anything on beauty products (because I’m already adorable!). In fact, I make my own shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste and cleaning products from simple ingredients. What we realized is that the STUFF just wasn’t making us happy. In fact, it was really making us miserable, having to maintain it, store it, clean it and insure it.

Around 2006, my dad gave me his 1981 Chevy Corvette. I had always loved the car, recalling the late nights when Dad and I would head out in the fall, T-Tops off, heat cranked and the Heavy Metal soundtrack blasting. Those were fun times. It was the first car I drove… in the parking lot of Dad’s work when I was about 13 or 14 years old. It was the coolest. So when he offered it to me, I jumped at the opportunity. But a few years later, I realized I wasn’t driving it very often, it was taking up a lot of space in the garage and insurance and maintenance for a ‘Vette is high dollar. I already had a Harley and that’s high dollar maintenance as well. These toys were rarely enjoyed and were keeping us from full implementation of the 5-Year Plan. So I called Dad and told him I was ready to let it go. I took it back to him and let go of a little cool so I could embrace a more simple and unencumbered life. I sold my Harley too, to my friend Steph. But I have first dibs on it if she ever decides to get rid of it.

When we decided to make the move from Indiana to Minnesota, we downsized considerably, letting go of about half our possessions. We gave away furniture, clothing and housewares to friends, St. Vincent’s, Salvation Army and a handful of other charitable organizations. We moved more than we needed but we definitely reduced our load making the move North cheaper and more manageable. We used a 20’ U-Haul and, because we were willing to drop the truck off in Fargo, ND, we got it for half price.

Here’s our retirement place.  Most of this furniture was moved to the Harn by my Mom – inherited possessions.  You can see the “hoarder” look we have going on here with most of the Indiana STUFF still in boxes.  We went through a bunch of boxes this weekend and found more stuff to give away.  But we’ll still end up keeping way more than we need.  (It takes time to get past all the years of programming.)

The bigger part is not buying NEW STUFF to clutter our lives.  I mean seriously, the place is cluttered enough already, eh?  It’s a process and we are still learning but our expenses are down and we think more about all the ramifications of each purchase. Can we do without it? Is it something we really love? Or is it just an impulse buy? Can we borrow it from someone else?  Can we afford to maintain, insure, store it?  Do we really love it?

This can be a tough resolution to make, avoiding consumerism. We all need some STUFF but most of us can live with a lot less than we buy. It gets easier when you have less income to spend. And deciding to Retire at 45, we realized our earning potential was reduced so our spending better be in alignment. In the end, we’ve found that it actually makes life more enjoyable and simple without a lot of excess clutter.  But we have to go back home to enjoy a less cluttered space…

The Big Question

Tags

American Dream, How to Retire Early, Rat Race

So, what most people want to know is… How on Earth did you Retire at 45???

The simple answer is, my husband went back to work so I could escape the rat race. The longer answer, of course, is more complicated. Everyone needs income, right? And most families these days need two incomes to stay afloat. But money isn’t everything. Really, there are so many factors that come into play that we need to go back a bit…

Dan and I met in 2001 and within a year, we were married, in fact, a year to the day from our first date, so we have a double anniversary. This year will be 13 years married and 14 years dating. And it’s just around the corner… good thing I have some ideas in mind for his gift already. 13th anniversary is Lace but I will put a non-consumer spin on things, as usual. Which brings me to one of the first reasons why I could Retire at 45.

1. We are not focused on materialistic consumption.

Most Americans use STUFF to fill up our lives. Billboards, magazines, high school yearbooks even, and especially TV are all there full of advertisements for things we NEED. Thus, one thing you can do to help yourself is turn off the TV. I mean, why do you think they call it your “Evening Programming”? Because it’s programming you!

Here are a couple good links to a short story that really speaks to my heart.
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/recognizing-happiness/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140501101904-16911014-the-fisherman-the-businessman  ~ both these guys are inspiration to me.

Having been brought up in this programmed, consumer culture, being able to retire early involved some additional steps. I had been buying in for years and had a TON of stuff, including debt… which brings me to my second point.

2. We eliminated debt so we don’t have to keep working for more and more money.

When Dan and I met and found blissful happiness (it was a process, but it is definitely awesome), we decided we didn’t want to live the typical American Dream. We wanted freedom, happiness, serenity and joy. And we were willing to forgo some extras to enjoy this freedom. We had a “5-Year Plan” to get out of the rat race. So, we’re a little behind schedule… More on that later.

We started looking at everything we spent. Danny had been using Microsoft Money for years (we’ve since moved to Quicken as MS Money was discontinued) so he could literally tell me how much he spent on almost everything. We set budgets for how much we could spend for dining out, fuel for the cars, entertainment, clothes, etc. And we watched where our money went. We started making double house payments. We also read Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominquez and Vicki Robin (http://vickirobin.com/books/your-money-or-your-life/). This was a life-changing read and it helped us commit to our plan to escape to a more simple life. It focuses on how much you spend on each purchase in terms of life energy, or hours at work, (literally, your freedom) and evaluating your behaviors to see if the spending is really worth it.

Now, we still spend a lot of money – maybe more than we should. But we spend it on things that matter to us, things that last, on experiences that bring us joy, and on others. We try to live simply in many ways but focus on frugality, not deprivation.

3. We figured out what really mattered to us.

It’s one thing to know that you’re not entirely happy in your current circumstance. It’s another thing altogether to figure out how to BE HAPPY. The night Dan and I first met, and this may be the point at which I fell in love with him, I asked him what he thought the meaning of life was. He said: “To be happy and to try to help others be happy too.” So, how to do that?

We knew that working our lives away was not fulfilling us. We knew that spending time with family and friends was. We knew that reducing our expenses was key to reducing the amount of Life we needed to expend in Work. We knew that we were both willing to work hard… for ourselves and our community. We knew that preserving the planet was of utmost importance (it helps to have a place to live) and that we wanted to keep our impact low and our enjoyment levels high. We decided to find a place to be where we could keep expenses low, build a sustainable future and create community around us that was in line with our goals and beliefs. I’ll share more on how we did this and where we are now in upcoming posts.

4. We made a plan to achieve our dreams.

One of the things I believe in firmly is a Dream Page. I’ve made several in the last decade and most of my dreams have already come true. (Note to Self: It’s probably time for a new Dream Page!) And Dan made his own Dream Page a few years back too. We believe that putting to paper what you desire is a magical way of making it come to fruition. So what did we put to paper?

Pictures of… Simple Homesteads. Open Land. Happy Couples. Families Living in Harmony. Outdoor Showers.
Sayings about… Protecting our Planet. Loving Nature. Clean, Clear Water. Simplicity. Love. Happiness. Togetherness. The Common Good.

In 2007, we finally set our plans in motion and bought some land.

5. We believed. We worked toward our goals. We got me Retired at 45.

We took a huge step forward in early 2014. We prepped the house in Indiana for sale, Dan went to Minnesota to search for work, I started acting as if I could retire later in the year. Dan made two trips to Minnesota and in late June he did a round of 8 interviews, getting multiple offers. He called me mid-week to let me know we were moving 4th of July. Independence Day indeed.

I’m telling you that this is doable. Yes, it takes commitment. Yes, you may have to delay gratification for a short while or eliminate some things in order to have others. But it is worth it. It is possible.

So if you have a desire to get out of the Rat Race, to enjoy your life more than you are now, then start Dreaming, get to Planning and then Believe it can happen.