Hugelkultur Garden Beds

One of the garden bed methodologies we've learned about is hugelkultur. Generally, this involves burying (below and/or above ground) tree materials, like stumps, trunks or even branches, under your garden soil. Apparently, as the tree material rots, it also becomes very absorbent, and is supposed to help with holding moisture in the garden bed. There is lots of information and videos about it on the Internet, but here is our first attempt at doing one of these. Since we're observing a land sabbath and aren't growing gardens or crops this year, I definitely wanted to start on these while I had extra time.

I decided to just locate the beds as an extension of our main garden area, and here is the first level dug out. I thought using the dug-out dirt as a berm around the bed would help even make it deeper:




After the first digging, in looking at it, and I think even trying it out by putting a stump in place, it just wasn't deep enough, so I dug out another round:




Then, it was time to gather the wood material. For this first bed, I thought I'd go with larger items, and so I went around trying to collect old stumps and similar things:




And here is the bed full. It was like a puzzle trying to place the pieces to fit as tightly as possible:




The plan was to then cover the bed with mulch. I had originally wanted to fill the entire thing with sifted mulch, but realized that was going to take a lot of effort for probably not much gain, since I could fill the bed up leaving 8-10 inches at the top with the wood-chips mulch we get from the landfill, and then sift from there, which is what I did. This is the mulch in place:




And then the sifting process. I used that long board across the bed for sliding the mulch sifter back and forth:




And here it is complete!



Lord willing, I hope to add another bed in front of this one.


Composting

We had recently discovered that the area all around our goat sheds, where we put the hay and goat "evacuations" cleaned out from the sheds, with rain water collecting there, and over time, was composting nicely into this fine, fluffy dirt. Some time ago, we were given a composting container; and so I figured, since this goat material seemed to compost well, it was time to get that process going; and here is the container set up, and then a look inside. The container has holes on the sides and the top and bottom pieces:





We thank the Lord for granting us the opportunity to continue on the process out here of trying to grow our own food, and for hopefully new and beneficial ideas; and we thank Him for the physical strength and materials to do these things.

-- David

Preserving Butter Without Refrigeration, Canning or Freezing

I continue to be pleasantly surprised to find out just how many things can be preserved without refrigeration, canning or freezing. Recently our local market had a great sale on butter, so I bought several pounds to preserve and keep in our root cellar. But the great thing about this preservation method is that you don't need a canner! And since we don't run a large storage freezer, this is a great alternative way to preserve large amounts of butter!

I love our goats and the milk God provides through them and have made a little butter from their milk. But the amount of cream contained in goat milk is a fraction of that found in cow milk, as well as more difficult to extract from the milk. A cream separator is low on our "to get" list, so I usually end up buying butter from the store at this point in our lives (although we do use lard as well). I keep a keen eye out for a sale on butter at the local market and then "pounce" and buy several pounds if I am able in order to stock up our pantry in a cost effective way.

The process to preserve butter is so easy and quick that if you blink before you read this entire blog post you might miss it! I started to type out my own instructions but found online the butter preserving recipe I had been given and have posted it below along with my own pictures and a few added notes.


1. Use any butter that is on sale. Lesser quality butter requires more shaking (see #8 below), but the results are the same as with the expensive brands:




2. Unwrap all the butter quarters and place them in a pot large enough to easily melt and process your butter:




3. Place pint jars in a cold oven without rings or seals and turn the heat to 250 degrees for at least 20 minutes. Place the jars directly on the rack or you may find a roasting pan works well for holding the pint jars while in the oven. One pound of butter slightly more than fills one pint jar, so if you melt 11 pounds of butter, heat 12 pint jars:




4. While the jars are heating, melt the butter slowly until it comes to a slow boil. Using a large spatula, stir the bottom of the pot often to keep the butter from scorching. Reduce the heat and simmer for a minimum of 5 minutes. A good simmer time will lessen the amount of shaking required (see #8 below):




Here's what it looks like if it gets scorched a little:




5. You will notice a thick foam form at the top. You'll need to continue stirring for several minutes until this foam begins to dissipate. The foam can get pretty thick:




And here it is with the foam dissipating:




6. In the meantime, place the jar lids in a small pot with water and bring to a boil. Then turn the heat to low and leave them simmering in hot water until needed:




7. After most of the foam has dissipated, stirring the melted butter from the bottom to the top with a soup ladle or small pot with a handle, pour the melted butter carefully into heated jars through a canning jar funnel. Leave 3/4" of head space in the jar, which allows room for the shaking process. Carefully wipe off the top of the jars, then get a hot lid from the simmering water, add the lid and ring and tighten securely. Lids will seal as they cool:




8. Once a few lids "ping," shake while the jars are still warm, but cool enough to handle easily, because the butter will separate and become foamy on top and white on the bottom. In a few minutes, shake again, and repeat until the butter retains the same consistency throughout the jar.


9. While cooling and hardening, shake again, and the melted butter will then look like butter and become firm. This final shaking is very important! Check every 5 minutes and give the jars a little shake until they are hardened in the jar:




10. Preserved butter should store for 3 years or longer on a cool, dark shelf. Preserved butter does not "melt" again when opened, so it does not need to be refrigerated upon opening, provided it is used within a reasonable length of time.


DISCLAIMER: There is information found on the internet claiming this is not a safe way to preserve butter because there is no official supporting information. But if the butter is kept in a cool dry place, it should be kept preserved for a long time. We have had no problems with it in our experience.

NOTE: This form of preserved butter may taste a little more salty because of its condensed form. Use unsalted butter and add salt to your taste if this is of concern to you. I have had much success using it as-is in recipes and in our everyday uses for butter.


We have found this to be a great way to preserve butter in a cost-effective way for any lifestyle!

Susan

This Mite Be Trouble

Some time ago it was evident that one of our newer roosters was having some trouble walking -- it would almost goose step. I noticed that its legs had developed a white crust on them, but thought that it was perhaps just a genetic defect or something. I picked off one of the crusties on the leg, and it looked like moist skin, like when a layer of human skin is removed. I wondered what was going on, but at the time, I just let it go. Then, over time, several of our chickens seemed to start getting the same crust on their legs or their scales started to look and feel "odd," and I noticed that some of them were starting to have trouble walking, even some preferring not to do much of it.

Ok, something appeared to be wrong; and at that point, I figured I'd better investigate.

Here is a picture of the rooster's legs:




In searching the Internet, and after finally working out a helpful search term, and after viewing several images, I discovered what I believed to be the culprit: scaly leg. This is apparently caused by a mite that burrows into the legs and causes the scales to protrude or that white crust I was seeing, and can in the end cause lameness. Wow! I was then glad I finally looked into it, although I felt badly for that rooster because I hadn't researched it earlier.

And so, after further investigation, the simplest way I found to remedy this situation is to get some cheap cooking oil (not motor oil, because of the potential toxicity) and dip each leg in it for a couple of seconds (from an off off-gird standpoint, I assume we could probably use lard, but we just bought the oil instead rather than use up any lard now). This was supposed to be done for at least several days, and needed to be done to all infected birds, as the mite apparently spreads from bird to bird.

What I ended up doing was dipping each bird's legs at night for about four days in a row, and then switched to every other day for about another week, and a couple more times at three days apart. Because we had so many to do, when I was dipping them every other day, I started alternating days with part of the flock. I used a pint jar so I didn't have to have a lot of oil used at one time. It took a day or two to get the hang of not allowing the chicken to spill the oil, which I did by also holding the jar with the dipping hand.

Here I am dipping that rooster's legs:





And sure enough, a few weeks later, apparently the mites died, and their legs began to heal. And here is that original rooster:




Nice!

Well, that little therapy appeared to work really well; and since then, it looks like the other chickens have had similar results.

We are thankful to the Lord for allowing us to fairly easily help the chickens, and we are grateful to Him for Him granting the healing that He did.

-- David

Goat Milking Stand - Update I

Last year I built us another goat milking stand, and with it tried to add some extra bracing to the uprights, as we've had trouble with them getting loose with all of the goat activity while on the stand. Well, even with the extra materials and screws, the wood started to split and still come loose and get wobbly. Here is the split one:




Hmm....bummer.

And so, here's what I decided to do to try to help. I thought I'd add 2x4s along the sides of the base and then use plywood corners attached to those 2x4s and the uprights. Here are the cut-out parts:




And the 2x4 blocks in place:




And then the plywood corners attached:




Hopefully now this will hold better. Lord willing in several weeks we'll get to find out, as the results of breeding time are almost here!

-- David

David's Digest: Exodus Marks the Plot

This is short book review for Michael Bunker and Chris Awalt's third volume in their W1CK series, W1CK 3: Exodus. W1CK 3 picks up right where Wick 2: The Charm School left off, and follows the several sets of escapees from W1CK 2 as they make their ways to "wherever" -- some with plans, some not. Their biggest/most dangerous obstacles end up being others trying to do the same thing -- most of them ill-prepared, uneducated (in this type of situation), and desperate. It continues to be an interesting story, with good character development, surprising situations, preparedness information, and thought-provoking ideas, all tied into modern-day, relevant situations.

The book, once again, is well written, well told, picturesque, and exciting; and it really starts to pick up steam in the end. In looking at the entire W1CK series, it reminds me of a funnel, where things start out seemingly slower, and then build and intensify as you get nearer the spout end, finally rushing through it. To me, the end of W1CK 3 is where you just start to get shot into the funnel's spout, where I figure W1CK 4 will be the ride through the spout to the end. The authors excellently bring all the various story-line paths of travel together by the end, and get the reader expectingly ready for what's next. And, being this series is a prequel to The Last Pilgrims, for you TLP fans, things start to take just a little more shape to that end.

It should be fun and interesting to see how everything that's going on at the end of W1CK 3 plays out in the next volume!

You can purchase W1CK 3: Exodus from Amazon.com.

(Thanks to Sue for the title of this blog post! :) )

-- David

Passover 2013

Each year we celebrate the Passover as a group, and this year we met last Monday evening. We do this to remember Christ and His sacrifice, and to teach the children about His great work.

Here is the group before the celebration:




And as the seder began:




Here, Mrs. Bunker lights the candles to start the seder, in memory of Christ, the Light of the world:




This is the seder plate. The lamb represents Christ, the Lamb of God; the bitter herbs (horseradish here) represent the bitterness of bondage; the "matzah" is unleavened, representing how quickly the Israelites had to leave Egypt; the "karpas" (parsley here) symbolizes the new life for the Jewish people and the hyssop used to sprinkle the blood on the door posts; and the "haroset," a mixture of apples, nuts, grape juice and cinnamon, represents the mortar the Israelites used to build the Egyptian cities, and the sweetness of a better world:




Here the karpas is dipped into salt water representing the tears of slavery:




A a part of tradition, a child reads four questions about why this night is different from all other nights:




And here we dip our fingers in one of the cups, setting a drop of wine on the plate 10 times to represent the 10 plagues brought on Egypt:




The seder also involves Psalms singing, and then the meal:





We are grateful to the Lord for this opportunity to remember Christ, His atoning work, and the freedom from the penalty and bondage to sin, Satan, and the world and the freedom to obey Him, all provided for by His great loving and condescending sacrifice. May this remembrance and thankfulness be in our hearts for eternity!

-- David

The Barn - Update I - The Loft

Part of the original plan for our barn was to have a U-shaped loft inside, where the entire back 20 feet would have a loft, and then moving forward in the barn, the loft would extend 10-12 feet from the side walls for another 20 feet or so of depth.

Well, over a year ago, I was able to start on this process, with the idea of building one half of the back section at a time. At the time, I figured I would have that section done by now, but it was not meant to be; however, I thought I'd show the progress in pieces, starting with where it is today.

Here is the first post hole:




And here is part of the first post. I decided to use triple 2x12 inch built-up posts, using deck screws to tie the boards together, for the farther internal one, 2x10 inch boards for the center post between the barn-middle post and the barn wall, and 2x8 inch boards for the posts that would sit on the barn side's concrete footer. I chose to make them this hefty because of potential weight we might have up there one day, like grains, etc., Lord willing:




I didn't calculate the height of the first posts correctly when I bought the wood, and so I needed to elevate the post some. I used a cinder block for that, and string to align the posts:




And here is the post braced:




And then in concrete:




Here is a post next to the barn structure, attached to the metal barn post, using L-brackets and self-tapping screws:




And here is one attached to one of the metal purlins, looking from behind the post:




I cut away the top of the posts all around the center board to allow the cross beams to be attached with bolts and allow for the center boards of the cross beams to have something to sit on:





And here is the first row of posts:




Here is one end of the cross beam. I used 5/8 inch bolts to secure the cross beam to the post:




And the first cross beam in place. I used ratchet straps to vertically level the posts and bar clamps to squeeze together the cross beam boards as I screwed in the deck screws:




Here's how the first two boards looked installed on the post attached to the barn structure, which required some overhang to cross the purlin to fill in the space all the way to the barn wall:




And that same end complete:




Here is how I attached the back cross beam to the back purlin (some of these L-brackets I would have to install on the post before raising it because of lack of space issues for getting tools in there to install them after the fact):




And here is how I attached the posts sitting on the barn's concrete footer, using concrete screws for this:




And here are all the beams in place!




It's been like this for some time, but we are grateful to the Lord for granting that we be able to begin constructing the barn loft. We look forward one day, if the Lord wills, to be able to begin installing the floor, even if it's one sheet at a time.

-- David