Tiny Houses are Awesome

I agree with almost everything this guy is saying, except for the millions and billions of years, evolutionary crap. In my truck driving days, I passed this guys place about 8 or more times and always wished I could have stopped to check the place out. He's right on the Interstate 10 frontage road near Luling, Texas. I would seriously consider moving there. He is building a community.

Tater Talk

Like, you know, totally tuber-lar, dude!

Whaddya mean, half-baked idea?!

We like the spuds at the Ben-David farm.  We could have some potatoes prepared some way with at least one meal a day and we've been known to have them twice a day.  I like all kinds of potatoes.  Russet, small whites, Yukon gold, etc.  Twyla needs to stick to the red variety because they have about half the starch in contrast to the white kind.

While it probably seems imperceptible to most people, when you eat anything containing a lot of starch, it starts turning to sugar in your mouth.  This is because of an enzyme in your saliva called alpha amylase.  It begins breaking down the starch into the components maltose and dextrin.  Sorry for digressing like that, but I just love science.

Because ground space is limited, we want to get the most out of what we have.  Twyla found more info on the web about gardening by the foot, and while the straw bales work great for a lot of stuff, it's not the best method for taters.  It was a four hour ordeal the other day preparing the bed for the asparagus and all I did was dig out about 8 to 10 cubic feet of clay and granite.  I had already done about 10 cubic feet in the same area last fall.  It's back-breaking work. Anything I can do to avoid turning soil is a good thing.

The great thing about potatoes is the way they grow that makes them easy to manipulate.  If you just stick them in the ground, even with rich soil and let the leaves and stems grow naturally, you just have to hope they'll produce a lot of taters in the ground.  But you don't have to settle for that.  While some plants don't like to have their stems covered beyond a certain level, potatoes will just strive to grow up through whatever falls on them.  By taking advantage of this fact, and the fact that potatoes don't mind some lightly decomposing plant matter, you can really increase your yield.

I had disassembled the temporary chick run that we used when the chickens were little and was just about to take apart the last section when Twyla showed me the pictures for growing taters in containers.  That's when I realized what I needed to do.  We still have truckloads of decomposing leaves and pine straw in our yard and the neighbors yards.  So I set out this cage near the storage shed  where it should get a decent amount of sunlight.  I found an area under the dogwoods with a couple of wheelbarrow loads of good, rich topsoil.  I laid about a four inch layer of this mix in the cage and set about a dozen red seed potatoes in it.  It looks like this:

That's a four foot long drywall square for perspective.  The cage measures about 30" wide by about seven feet long and it's two feet tall.  That's a Gala apple tree in the foreground.  As the leaves and stems of the plants sprout up, I will just add more leaves and old compost at a rate of about a half inch to a couple of inches at a time.  Based on what Twyla has looked up on the web, we could have that whole cage full of about two hundred pounds of taters by the fall.  The seed spuds that I put in there are spaced about a foot apart, sort of in two rows, if you could call them that.  They are about six inches from the edge of the wire. You'll be able to see them better when the plant tops come up.

One of the reasons this technique works so well is that the plants don't have to work very hard against the weight or compactedness of regular soil to produce the tubers.  Far more nutrients and a high nitrogen content is in a mostly compost medium.  Tubers don't have to compete so much for the nutrients.  At the end of the growing season, all I'll have to do to get to my spuds is unfasten the corner of the fencing and pull it apart to get to the spuds.

I'll have to write myself a reminder to take pictures at the various stages, so at the end of the growing season my readers will be able to see the whole process and how high the yield is by using this method.

My other chores today included fixing a tire, planting some more zucchini seedlings, and butchering four chickens.  The three smallest hens and one rooster.  The hens were laying really small eggs and Twyla and I were very tired of that temporary coop.  It had to go.  The other hens got distributed to the other movable coops.

I'm working on the post about Yeshua's death and resurrection.  Stay tuned.

Asparagus

I really like asparagus.  I'm sure there are many people who don't like it.  Of course, there is no accounting for taste.  I have to say that it is very cool being married to someone who shares almost all the same likes and dislikes for food.  We both like spicy, though I'm sure I can tolerate it hotter than Twyla.  Neither of us like okra very much, but there are some recipes that make it more tolerable.  It doesn't matter that I was raised in the South either.

Since I'm on the subject and in case you ever have to win a contest on trivia about me, I can't stand licorice.  Not even a hint of the stuff.  I don't particularly like pears unless I'm really hungry.

I don't think there is a cruciferous veggie that I don't like.  I really like broccoli.  Same with Brussel sprouts.  Fresh dark cabbage leaves out of the garden are monumentally better than the light colored heads from the supermarket.  I don't mind collard greens, but I prefer mustard and turnip greens.  Fresh spinach out of my own garden is a delight.

Last fall I planted the root crowns for asparagus.  Twyla ordered a bundle from a seed company and I think there were five or six in the package.  I dug deep trenches in a semi-shady spot in the front and planted them.  During the winter when the chickens were free ranging, I had to chase them out of those trenches a couple of times.  I guess the chickens just take advantage of going after loose soil to scratch in.

This spring, Twyla bought a couple of year old asparagus plants in pots and planted them at each end of one of the trenches.  I guess she wanted a head start on some asparagus.  This is my first time trying to grow asparagus and I always wish I had more information and pictures than I can ever get.  So, in case there is someone else who wants to know, this post is for you.

It makes sense that it is least expensive to start asparagus from root crowns.  Sorry that I didn't take any pictures when I got them, but all they really look like are some dead, dried up root tangles.  There's one little knot about the size of your thumb and then a bunch of roots about six to nine inches long.  If you didn't know what it was from the label, you couldn't identify it.  You plant these in a deep trench (12" or more) about a foot apart, about 2" deep.  You want well amended soil with lots of organic matter, and the purpose of the trench is to be able to keep piling on the organic matter as they grow.  I hope to eventually dig out all the clay and rocky soil from around those trenches over the next few years to encourage wide spreading of the crop.

The one year, head-start plants freshly planted look like what you see in the first picture.  The plant is about four inches wide and about six inches tall.

Yeah, if you've never seen it before, you're probably thinking, "That doesn't look anything like the stuff in the store."    That's right.  The plant has to be into the third year before it starts putting up those familiar spears like you see in the produce section or what you get out of a can.  This plant is quite an investment for us.  Have you priced asparagus in the store lately?

Like I said, I really like the stuff.  But we haven't bought any in a long time.  The budget says that it is a luxury.  So I will put a lot of effort into successfully growing this stuff to have an ongoing supply in the future.

What does the plant look like if you are growing it from the little crowns?  The picture below is what sprouted recently from two of the crowns I planted last September.

Next summer, this little guy should look a lot more like the first picture, and hopefully be even bigger, if I heap on the composted organic matter and guard it well.  Then the summer after that I should be dining on some tender and delicious spears with some butter or my own Hollandaise sauce.

I've always had problems with the scientists who do taxonomy.  I don't agree with them on several points, and I even wrote a paper showing evidence that proves they come up with species where none exist, but rather adaptations make a species look like it is new or different. On that note, I don't understand why they once classified asparagus as belonging to the lily family.  Huh?  I think it belongs in its own class.

It produces bell shaped flowers and small red berries (kind of like holly) that are poisonous to humans.  Interesting.  Just like rhubarb leaves are poisonous, but the stalks are delicious.  I planted a bunch of that this year as well.

Twyla makes the most delicious rhubarb pie.  I'm looking forward to it.

Until next post . . .     Shalom.

Jerusalem Artichoke

It really isn't an artichoke at all.  It bears no resemblance to the thistle family of which the regular artichoke belongs.  There are probably thousands of people who eradicate this plant as a mere weed and would never think of it as a source of food.  Just like so many other plants.  Dandelion probably being on the top of the list.

Cleverly disguised as tall weeds

So, what is it? Jerusalem artichoke is also known as the sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambur, is a species of sunflower native to the eastern United States, from Maine west to North Dakota, and south to northern Florida and Texas. It is also cultivated widely across the temperate zone for its tuber, which is used as a root vegetable.  That's according to Wikipedia.


Prior to moving to this part of Georgia, I had only vaguely heard of Jerusalem artichoke, but never had investigated it further. Then in survival preparedness discussions with other people, the item came up again.  One reason being that it is very much like a weed, seeming to grow in just about any conditions, and that if you don't pay attention to it, it can become an invasive nuisance.

I think on our next to last visit to the farmer's market over in Union County, we met a farmer who was selling gallon ziploc bags of the tubers, and Twyla recognized them right away.  They sorta resemble ginger, since they are a tuber, but their skin is thinner and the nodes seem to grow out straighter from the center axis.  Each one of those nodes of the main tuber is a potential new plant.


We bought two bags of them, and I guess each bag weighed a little over six pounds each.  We paid $5 a bag making them .84¢ a pound.  Not the cheapest food, but nowadays, anything under a dollar a pound is good, and we don't intend to ever have to purchase them again, since I plan to plant a fair amount of them in various places.

Jerusalem Artichoke in bloom

I will admit that I like a lot of different food and that I really like bold flavors, but I like this Jerusalem artichoke even though it is about as bland as you can get.  We sampled some raw before we bought it.  It is very crunchy like a firm, fresh apple.  Whatever flavor it might seem to have can only be described as earthy with just a hint of sweetness.  It has so few calories it could probably be compared to celery in that regard, so if you are on a diet and looking for that kind of munchie snack, I highly recommend it.  I think it beats the snot out of those stupid rice cakes.  Now, I know I would rather eat these than rice cakes after reading this excerpt:

Four sets of rats were given special diets. One group received plain whole wheat, water, vitamins and minerals. Anotehr group received Puffed Wheat, water and the same nutrient solution. A third set was given water and white sugar, and a fourth given nothing but water and the chemical nutrients. The rats which received the whole wheat lived for over a year on the diet. The rats who got nothing but water and vitamins lived for about 8 weeks, and the animals on a white sugar and water diet lived for a month. But [the company's] own laboratory study showed that rats given vitamins, water and all the Puffed Wheat they wanted died in two weeks. It wasn't a matter of the rats dying of malnutrition; results like these suggested that there was something actually toxic about the Puffed Wheat itself. Proteins are very similar to certain toxins in molecular structure, and the puffing process of putting the grain under 1500 pounds per square inch of pressure and then releasing it may produce chemical changes which turn a nutritious grain into a poisonous substance . . . I was shocked, so I showed the report to Dr. Clark, who shared my concern. His predecessor, Dr. Graham, had published the report and begged the company not to continue producing Puffed Wheat because of its poisonous effect on animals. Dr. Clark . . . went right to the president . . . "I know people should throw it on brides and grooms at weddings," [the president] cracked, "but if they insist on sticking it in their mouths, can I help it? Besides, we made $9 million on the stuff last year."

Paul Stitt, Fighting the Food Giants

Jerusalem Artichoke flower

Hat tip to this blogger.  One of many sites on healthy eating worth looking at.  If puffing wheat creates such toxicity, why would puffing rice be any different?  Why would I want to risk my body to find out?


It is also a really nice benefit that this plant will fit right in with all the other flowering medicinal and edible plants around the farm.


Could there be any negatives about Jerusalem artichokes? Well, for some people.  Twyla and I are definitely not your average people.  We love to laugh, so one of the side effects of this tuber is the source of constant fun.  I think I'll quote Wikipedia here for the explanation.

"The inulin is not well digested by some people, leading in some cases to flatulence and gastric pain. Gerard's Herbal, printed in 1621, quotes the English planter John Goodyer on Jerusalem artichokes:

"which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men."^[5]

I may post again today if it rains, otherwise, I have a lot to do to get ready to receive our guests for tomorrow's Thanks Giving holiday.  We have so much to be thankful for.  First and foremost for our savior Yeshua (Jesus) for willingly sacrificing Himself for us.  The rest of the list is too long to post here.


Shalom

My Solar/CO2 Heater

Back in the mid 1800s, an experiment was performed. They took a 5 lb. willow tree and planted it in a pot of 150 lbs of oven dried soil.  It received only sunlight and water for about 5 years. No extra fertilizer or food of any kind. At the end of the experiment, they carefully separated out all of the soil from the roots and weighed the tree and the soil separately.  The soil weight was about 149.75 lbs. and the tree was around 60 lbs or so.  What is the significance?  Over 99% of the gained weight of that tree came from the carbon dioxide that was absorbed by that tree.  It's chloroplasts used the energy from the sun to convert the atmospheric carbon dioxide into sugars that the plant used to grow.  That kind of amazing efficiency is just one of the small testaments to intellect of the Creator.

First fire in the new stove

We can use wood for so many wonderful things. We can build beautiful and strong structures, the finest musical instruments.  It is the most easily re-cycleable thing on the planet.  If it dies and falls to the ground, insects, bacteria, and fungi will decompose it rapidly into food for other plants.  If we cut it down or collect it and burn it, most of the "waste" product is carbon dioxide and water vapor, which are also food for more plants.  None of the paper products that come to the Ben-David house go out in the trash.  Any paper that doesn't have wax or plastic coatings or laminates becomes mulch and compost or can now be used as kindling.

This is a good thing.

I finished putting all the pieces in place yesterday, and by 17:00 there was a little fire roaring in the stove and producing a mild warmth that was soothing. It was nice to know that the weather report called for cloudless skies for Monday through Thursday, which means that had I run into any snags, I wouldn't have had to worry about rain, but I'm glad I didn't need the extra time.  I also feel blessed that it is a shallow roof. I think it's stupid to live in the South and have a 45° pitch roof as if you live where snow is an issue.  The gap between the original shingle roof and the new metal roof meant that I need to make a trip to HD for a longer composite blade for the jigsaw, but it was no big deal.  I needed a different type of cap for the stack, and we had forgotten to get a metal bucket for ash collection anyway.

It's a wonderful coincidence that where we wanted the stove is pretty much centered in the house. It would be a bummer to have one end of the house end up extremely cold.  It's also nice that it's on the North side of the house where there are fewer windows.  It's amazing how much solar energy on the south face of the house makes that side warmer.

It lit up fast and easy with some crumpled paper and twigs and the way the stove "breathes" there was only the tiniest amount of smoke.  However, if you've never had a wood burning stove before, there is an initial break-in period where the paint and sealants will smoke off.  The flat black stove paint, as well as the silicone joint sealing compound that I used on the exhaust system all smoked off for about 30 minutes, so we opened a window at one end of the house and used a box fan to exhaust at the other until it was all evacuated.  Now there is only the slightest smell of a wood fire.

Twyla's decorating skills are second to none.  She can take practically nothing and make it beautiful.  We will need to either find another rocking chair or I will have to convert one of the old chairs into one, but the scene in our extended kitchen is now cozy and comfortable.

This is not my first wood burning stove, so I have no illusions about the work involved in cutting, splitting, and storing wood.  No doubt many people think it's crazy to create that much work for yourself.  But those are the same people who think that everything will keep working fine in this country as we keep doing everything as we have for the last 50 years.

Sure it's more work, but I'll look forward to the absolutely necessary exercise program. Funny how that works.  The exercise you get from maintaining your fuel increases your metabolism which means you need less external heat to stay warm, and being in better physical shape increases your tolerance for cold even when you are at rest.

And to cap it all off . . .

The greatest thing about all of this is knowing that if the electrical grid suffered a major failure, and propane was unavailable or prohibitively expensive, we will be fine.  At the end of last winter, we had a final bill for propane of over $1,600.00.  That was with keeping the thermostat at 64° F and supplementing with small electric heaters.  I can't wait to see how well we do this year. If you've been keeping up with this blog, and the more intelligent information sources out there, you know that energy costs are about to rise even more dramatically in the coming months.

 The front porch is now a greenhouse. The temperature out there has gone from 33 at dawn to now 74 at 09:30.  I re-routed the dryer exhaust into the hallway, and Twyla runs the dryer either early in the morning or late evening. We are going to have a much better second winter compared to the first.  Baruch HaShem.

Now I have to work on that big stationary chicken coup.  Shalom.

Pretty Face Counts to Three

Who woulda thunk that a chicken could count.  At least to three.

You have to read the last post to understand the rest of this.  Last night, well after dark, we went out to slip the seven new chicks under Pretty Face.  It seemed like a successful insertion.

Pretty Face and her three chicks: Peep, Bo-Peep, and Blondie

If you've been keeping up with this blog, you know that I originally put three eggs under Pretty Face.  Two of them hatched.

We went down to the broody coop this morning at about 07:00, just as the sky was hinting of dawn over the southeastern  mountain ridge.  We opened the coop to find Pretty Face had huddled the two original chicks and the one blonde chick at her side and the rest of the chicks were huddled by themselves over in the corner.

I raced up to the house with the ceramic dishes in hand to quickly mix up some chick feed and get it back down to them.  When I got back and put the dish down in the coop, Pretty Face and "her" chicks began feeding, but if one of the other chicks tried to approach the dish, she would peck them hard and make a ferocious chicken noise that I can only describe as a low growl.

We knew right then that the other six chicks had been rejected.  She picked one, the "Blondie" who looks like a smaller clone of Bo-Peep.  But she only picked one.  As if to say, "I started with three eggs, and anything else just isn't working for me."

Twyla was wearing this big old winter coat and so we put three chicks in each waist pocket and walked back up to the house, brought the cage back into the warm bathroom and put them all back in.  But that wouldn't work for more than a few hours, so I cleared space on a table in the office/work room and set up the cage in there.

Moxie is really going crazy wishing she could mother them.  We've had them out, holding them and making them feel safe.  They really do act like they need some mothering.  A bottle of hot water in a towel, plenty of food and water is available, but if they hear our voices, they chirp like crazy and only settle down when we talk to them or hold them.

I really have to wonder if I'm ever going to get to eat my own home grown, free-range chicken for Channukah.

Just too cute.

Yep. It's official.  There's no way Twyla's going to let us eat these chickens come Channukah in December.  I have to admit that it makes a lot more sense to keep hatching out more baby chicks before we reach the point where we would need to eat any of them.

They are just too cute and there are only two of them.  She named them Peep and Bo-Peep.  She has this unexplainable hunch that the "blonde" is male.  I actually hope she is right.

After some thought, I realize that this would be a great thing.  A second rooster to fertilize more eggs. If you are a newcomer to this blog, you might not know that there are two arks of chickens but only one rooster.  Please go check the archive to see past postings on this subject.

If "Pretty Face" keeps her broody nature, we could have her sitting on a dozen or more eggs, hatching out both a supply of new laying hens and pullets for the dinner table.  May Adonai help me with my plans to build new shelters for them.

The only thing we need now is a pair of pygmy goats.  I'd love to have some homemade, fresh goat cheese and yogurt.  We are starting from modest beginnings and expand at a slow and careful pace.

I have to admit that I am a sucker for those cute little fuzzy critters.  I suppose I will need some time to get over the "aaawwwwwwwww-some" feelings.  Thank goodness I can look at the beauty and grace of a deer and have no problem sending a carbon fiber shaft with a razor broadhead downrange forthwith to provide some delicious venison to the table. Harvesting deer is something that demands responsibility and respect.  Use everything with gratitude and waste nothing.   I also hope some wild turkeys venture into my area this fall as well.

Over the years it has angered me tremendously that I have seen dozens and dozens of deer lay waste on the side of the highways because there are not enough hunters managing this resource.  There are too many people who have no clue about managing wildlife who think that hunting is bad.  I find it ironic that federal fish and wildlife officers who are out there monitoring the situation complain that we don't have enough hunters and that the deer populations are getting out of control.

Warm Fuzzies

Bo-Peep only 24 hours old.

If you read my post below, you know that I was gone from before sunrise until well after sunset.  My wife called me yesterday sometime after sunrise while I was still about an hour away from my destination to tell me that one of the chicks had hatched.

I'll pretend to be a manly man and say that I'm not going to post on this subject and instead direct your attention over to her blog, so you can read all about it.

As I write this, she has posted to her blog, and already called her parents.  I'm writing this without even knowing what she's said.  Yes. I'm the one who took the photos and transferred them to a jump drive for her computer.  But I'm going to write my own post and then go see what she had to say.

She's already named them.  Somehow I don't think I'm going to be eating some home grown chicken this December.  One of them better be a rooster.  There is still a third egg under Pretty Face, and I'm going to wait until Tuesday before deciding whether or not it needs to be removed.

I have so much more I could say about all this.  Have I mentioned that I feel extremely blessed to be where I am?

Simplicity at Its Best

I told you I was going to do this thing.

Make an incubator/dehydrator/yogurt maker.

The total cost for the basic model is about $18. The only other cost for screen to make the racks was $14.
The aluminum foil coated foam board was $9.25 and the wide roll of aluminum foil duct tape was $8 +.  Total time on creating just the box was about 45 minutes.  I hope to make the inside drying racks today.

I bought the 4' x 8' sheet of foam board at Home Depot. They don't carry it at the ACE in this little town, so it was a 35 mile round trip to Blairsville, GA.  Everything I needed for manufacture is in the photo.  Of course, I already had the drywall square and the retractable utility knife.  I like that model knife for certain projects because it uses the breakoff blades and can be extended much farther out than a conventional utility knife. It's much better for cutting softer materials, such as insulation, or materials where you keep dulling the tip, since you just snap off a little section, and voila, you've got a fresh tip.

Three panels assembled

I like to use the material wisely and not waste very much, so I divided the board according to even divisibility. So the basic panels I cut were 16" x 24".

The board only has aluminum foil on one side and a thin plastic white and printed material on the other.  You want the aluminum on the inside of the finished piece.  I wanted the box to stand up off the floor a little so that if I decide later to pop a bulb in from the bottom, I still can.  I drew a line from the edge at 3.5" and then taped the second panel on, then repeated the process on the other end of the bottom panel  to get what you see in the second photo.  The aluminum tape is very, very sticky, so you have to work carefully if you don't want to be ripping the surface of the foil up.  Peel the backing paper off the tape only as you get it into position.

3.  The bottom of the box

If you are working outdoors in the sunlight, you are going to have to wear sunglasses. I would have done this inside, but I wanted the best pictures.  And I have to admit that the picnic table makes for a great working surface.

4.  Basic finished box

The fourth panel is going to become a side that gets taped in at what looks like the top of the third photo. Taping outside corners is easy.  And you don't put the other side in until you tape the inside three panels, since it's easier to work the tape with the fourth side still off.  Taping both inside and out gives the box maximum strength.  If you wanted to make a really heavy duty version of this, you could build a wooden box to your own specs first and then just cut the panels to line the inside.  But this box is incredibly light and easy to move around, and with proper care will last a good long time.

5. Making one of the lids

You have to trim the 3.5" off the top of the two end panels once the sides are in place, then finish taping the inside corners.  If you really don't care about aesthetics, then it's done.  All you need now is either a glass or clear acrylic sheet to go on top for solar use, or cut another panel or two to make a solid lid for indoor, lamp use.  I have both.  I taped two panels together at the edges with the aluminum facing out on both sides.

I don't like the unfinished look of the white/printed/taped outside of the box so I bought a couple of spray cans of flat black enamel.  Not the $4 a can stuff, but the 97¢ stuff that HD sells.  If you're gonna put lipstick on a pig, you don't use Estee Lauder.

6. Finished box with acrylic cover

Oh, yes, mea culpa, I forgot to mention that a clear acrylic sheet (24" x 18") from Home Depot is going to run you about $10 with tax.  But it will pay for itself because you will save at least that much in electricity in a month for a small bulb to heat the inside with electricity.  On a cloudless day, the temperature in the box got up to 144° F with only a tiny air gap at one end of the clear sheet. I will learn to vary the temperature by how much of a gap I leave at the top.  When it comes to using the box as an incubator or yogurt maker, I will use a small wattage (25 - 40w) incandescent bulb and a slide rheostat (dimmer) switch, which at very low power will let me maintain 105° F very precisely for an indefinite time.  Yes, I made one of these before and I used to make batches of my own yogurt all the time.  Far better than what you can buy in the store.  Leave a comment and remind me to share the recipe if I don't do it before too long.

When I post again about this contraption, I'll provide photos of the lamp and slide dimmer arrangement.

Well, there is way too much to do, and the sun is starting to come up.  Sukkot is on its way.  Got a shipment of rye grain and garbanzo beans yesterday. Ground some up and made fresh bread and, boy, oh boy, is it ever good!

May you have a blessed day.        HaYom Tovah.

Moshe