The (Early) Education of a Homesteader

I have heard several questions along the lines of, "how did you learn how to do that," "where did you learn to do that," "when did you learn to do that," or "did you grow up on a farm," and so on.  The short answers to the "where and how" questions are, between the covers of books, on YouTube, or by trawling the internet, and by asking folks who know more than I do, either in person or in on-line forums.  The answer to the "when" question is, recently, in most instances.  And to the final question, the answer is "no."

In fact, in my inaugural post I stated:  "I also realized that what I do for money, provides directly for precisely none of my or my family's needs, in fact I am quite practiced in doing nothing that can be bartered for anything, except for money.  This last piece of the puzzle is tantamount to having one's "man card" revoked, or at least it was in my opinion.  Until 1995 I had never had a vehicle in a repair shop, I had never had a maintenance man of any sort in a home I owned, I had never paid anyone to mow my lawn, I was a fairly proficient welder with oxygen and acetylene, and could recharge my air conditioner properly with Freon, I had fairly recent memories of successfully hunting and fishing, and if I dug deeply enough, trapping.  Until only recently though, I had done none of that for the better part of 20 years.  And for food that is grown from the earth, I was almost completely blind to its sources; I didn't know that broccoli was a seed head, or that Brussels sprouts were a bud and the plant a cultivar of the cabbage group, and worse."

So in short, my ignorance, and lack of skills, or at least a lack of recently practiced skills, were key to my decision to homestead.

Now, when I reflect a bit more on the subject, I will tell you that I learned quite a bit in my idyllic childhood; on the subjects of cooking, camping, boating, hunting, fishing, canoeing, and trapping to name just a few, with family and friends.  It seems like every few months I dredge up a great old memory of my childhood and share it with my Mom and Dad.  I learned a great deal from my parents, and from my aunts and uncles, who were more than generous with their time, experience and wisdom.  Oh the stories of adventure, and misadventures, they would tell, and do tell.  My eyes moisten just thinking about it.  Later, I became enamored with machines.  Motorcycles at first, then cars of course, and engines in general, all things mechanical; I had a great thirst for knowing how things work, and still do.  Most things electrical are still a mystery to me, even though I remember building more than a few Heath Kits.  It still amazes me, that radio I once built from a kit, on a small circuit board, with no speaker, only an earphone, and it worked without a battery!  Amazing.

And so it is meaningful that I often tell people, that when on the homestead I feel like a kid again, and large parts of that feeling I suppose, have to do with spending all day most days outside, until the dinner bell rings, and to having the opportunity to learn so much so quickly.  Yes, we have a dinner bell!  I just walk around with a smile plastered all over my face the bulk of the time.  I am well and truly blessed.

Boy, have I digressed!  Before I started this post I imagined it to be of four or five lines, simply introducing the "References - Sources - Links" tab at the top of the page.  I will finally get on with it then.  On the "References - Sources - Links" page I have pulled to together some of the resources that Geri and I have referenced in making a start in southwest Michigan.  I hope you will find it informative.

Click on the tab near the top of the page

 We all know much less than we don't know, though I usually have a hard time admitting that.  I almost always reach for a book first when I want to learn something, and so you will find many books on the list.  I have also found that there is such a thing as "YouTube University," and while you might not find it by that name, the breadth and depth  of information available on YouTube is impossible to quantify.  And podcasts are a great source of information on many, many topics, and can turn your commute into class time.  I have linked to Amazon for the books that can be purchased there, for two reasons: 1) I am inherently lazy and it is an easy way to connect you to more information on each book, including alternate forms of the book (paperback, hardcover, Kindle, etc.), and 2) because I get a small cut of the action.  There, I said it!  Of course you do not have to buy through Amazon, that is your choice.

Pull down at the arrow
on mobile devices

My cut is 4 cents on the dollar if you do choose to click through the link I provide, and purchase one or more items.  The price to you is not increased.  If you want to know how to also become an Amazon Associate, let me know.  To access the "References - Sources - Links" page, click on the "tab" near the top of the page on your desktop or laptop computer, or pull down at the arrow on your mobile device, as shown in the graphics.  I will update the page from time-to-time, as additions to the "virtual bookshelf" are made.

Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog.  Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.

 Please "follow" the blog by clicking on "g+ Follow," or by e-mail at  "Follow by Email."   Also, "Like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/swmichiganhomestead.

-- John, 14 July 2014

Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part III, Beekeeping

The initial bee install took place the weekend of 5 April 2014, and I added a box to the hive the weekend of 12 April, as documented in the post, "Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part I," dated 23 May 2014.  I checked on the bees regularly, and there was plenty of activity, with bees coming and going, and the bees were carrying in loads of pollen from their foraging activities.  The hive appeared to be very healthy.  I knew that I should be adding more boxes to the hive, and as the weeks went by I became more and more anxious that the colony might swarm because there was insufficient space in the hive for the growing colony.  Finally, adding the boxes rose to the top of my work list, and coincidentally Nathan was available to help me in the process.

Nathan (L) and I suiting up,

inactive hive box after step 1

just to my right in the back-

ground

Proving again that dogs in their late adolescence (i.e., me) can still learn new tricks, I broke out the bee suits.  Actually, this is not so much about not being stung, it is about being less anxious of being stung, allowing us to be calmer in the midst of the bees, and feeling less hurried as a result.  Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.  Another change made to the process of hive maintenance, was to use a spray bottle of sugar-water, instead of the smoker, for calming the bees.  The smoker did not seem to have the desired effect at the bee install, and worse yet, we spent too much time keeping the smoker smoking rather than making progress in the hive.  The smoker is just one more thing to worry about.  In a sauce pan I mixed up the sugar (regular table sugar) and water in a 1:1 ratio, 1-1/2 C. of sugar and 1-1/2 C. of water.  Over medium heat the mixture was warmed while being stirred periodically, until the sugar was completely dissolved into the water.

  I then poured the sugar-water into a new spray bottle purchased for the purpose, and then put the bottle in the refrigerator to bring its contents back to approximately room temperature.  We also prepared two hive boxes, which involved applying beeswax to 16 top bars, 8 for each box, and placing the top bars in the boxes.  Other equipment we took to the apiary included a hive tool and a bee brush, the former for separating the existing boxes from the floor, and the latter for gently moving the bees about without agitating them.  With our preparations in order, and bee suits on, we made our way down to the hive.

At step 3, calming the bees

with the sugar-water mist

At the hive, Nathan and I followed the step-by-step process below:

1) Remove roof, quilt and top bars from the inactive hive; we will use the hive box as a rest for the active hive boxes while placing the two new hive boxes on the floor of the active hive (unlike the Langstroth hive, new boxes are placed beneath existing boxes in a Warré hive)
2) Remove the roof from the active hive; this is no problem, because the quilt is still between us and the bees.  I simply remove it because it adds unnecessary weight to the lift that will need to be performed, and because it would make the assembly of two boxes (and the bees, comb, brood and honey within them), the quilt, and the roof, top-heavy and more difficult to handle.
3) Lightly spray sugar-water onto the bees at the entrance, emphasis on lightly.  Bees do not like to be wet.  They will be occupied by cleaning themselves of the sugar-water, or at least that's the theory behind the method!
4) Carefully remove the two boxes (plus quilt), as an assembly, from the floor, and set aside on the exposed box of the inactive hive

Step 4, setting aside the active hive boxes and
quilt; based on how far the bees had progressed
in building comb, I would say these boxes were
being added just-in-time

5) One at a time, place the two new boxes on the floor, using the bee brush and the sugar-water spray to calm the bees and move them out of the way as necessary
6) Reinstall the two active hive boxes and quilt on top of the two new hive boxes on the floor, again using the bee brush and the sugar-water spray to calm the bees and move them out of the way as necessary
7) Reinstall the roof on the hive; addition of hive boxes is then complete

The process of adding the boxes went more smoothly than I probably had any right to expect; it was executed without incident.

I had planned to buy another package of bees for the now-inactive hive, but the delivery date of the packages was delayed one week and that caused an unavoidable conflict for Geri and I.  Still, I will investigate to establish that we can still expect success if we install another package this late in the year.

Step 6, reinstalling the two active hive boxes

Thanks to our iPhoneographer, Susan, for making the raw photos that you see incorporated.  She noted pointedly that she was the only one of us without a bee suit!  Fortunately she maintained a safe distance, and was not injured in the making of this post.


Laying down cardboard for

vegetation suppression

Informed by what I have read, it seems best to keep the vegetation down in the apiary.  A reason is that when the bees return to the hive fully loaded with pollen, and if they miss the landing board, it can be difficult or impossible for them to "take off" again if they are in deep vegetation.  So, Nathan and I also took on suppressing the vegetation by laying down cardboard and then covering it with wood chips.  (We are doing the same in the garden, and it is amazing how much cardboard can be "re-purposed" in the fashion.)  This is certainly not a permanent solution; it will require ongoing maintenance.  At some point before winter I will also be installing a fence/windbreak to protect the hives from the cold winter winds.


Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog.  Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.

Please "follow" the blog by clicking on "g+ Follow," or by e-mail at  "Follow by Email."   Also, "Like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/swmichiganhomestead.

-- John, 18 June 2014

Before and after weed suppression by cardboard sheet mulch and wood chips

Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part II

By mid-April, spring was in full swing, and I began to think again of working in the woods.  The cleared area around the house, in the shape of an egg in profile, with the fat end uphill and to the south and the small end to the north reaching to the lake, the yard if you will, totals between 2.5 and 3 acres.  Surrounded by old-growth trees, American Beech, Sugar Maple, and Tuliptree dominate, as well as some more recent introductions, 20 to 25 crab apples, and several willows closer to water's edge.  It seems the forest would overtake the yard in just a few short years were the property to be abandoned.  Occasionally, it adds up over time, trees would fall, or branches would break off and fall into the yard, for a variety of reasons.  Since none of the woods was being put to directly productive use, the idea seemed to be to make the "problem" go away; the result of clean-up of the dead fall being large piles, 3 to 4 feet high, of brush and larger branches and main stems having been dragged just into the forest, and surrounding the clearing more or less completely, anywhere from at the yard's edge to 20 feet into the forest.  I have made it a mission to deal with the piles more effectively.  Specifically, anything that is dry and 1 to 3 inches in diameter is used as stick fuel, green and 3 inches and less in diameter is chipped for use as mulch or on pathways, 3 to 4 inches in diameter and larger is bucked and split for firewood.  Odd-shaped pieces in the larger diameters are set aside for use in the fire pit, wood too rotted for use as fuel is set aside for use in Hügelkultur.  Virtually all of the wood can be reused in one form or another; waste not, want not.

Last year I acquired a Husqvarna Rancher 460 chainsaw (here is where you channel Dr. Tim "Tim the Tool Man" Taylor's grunting), a Gränsfors Bruks Large Splitting Maul (imagine Schwarzenegger as John Matrix walking out of the woods with a log over his left shoulder in "Commando," and cue more grunting), and a DR 16 hp wood chipper (think "Fargo.")  All of these tools are basic necessities in forest management.  I bought the chainsaw new, and it has performed flawlessly, as should be expected.  The splitting maul, well, it's pretty hard for it not to work, so long as you can swing it.  Having said that, Gränsfors Bruks has perfected the splitting maul in design and manufacture; it is truly the standard by which all others are measured.  The DR I bought used, barely used, though it is about 10 years old.  When I bought it the seller had trouble getting it to run for any length of time, and we ended up having to drain and replace the gas and clean the fuel filter before it would run continuously.  I used it last summer and fall without incident.

DR Wood Chipper Model C163 on day of purchase

Fast forward to this spring, and I could not get the machine to run for over a minute without dying, almost as if I had turned it off.  I will not bore you with the details, suffice it to say I was in and out of the carburetor times to numerous to count.  It was indeed a fuel problem, the fuel had "gummed up" over the winter.  I had treated the gasoline with Sta-bil, which should have prevented the formation of gum and varnish, and allowed me to avoid draining the system, but alas, such was not the case.  The bottom of the float bowl was covered with a substance that I can best describe as looking like custard, or better yet custard-colored small curd cottage cheese, and the fuel metering main jet was completely obstructed.  (Break out the carb cleaner, rags, etc.)

I experienced this view all too often during the chipper

repair process.

And, I had to blow air back through the fuel line and into the fuel tank, dislodging more gum from nooks and crannies (those are technical terms for you newbies) inside the fuel tank, and drain and replace the fuel.  I received some good advice from Dennis Goss, which led to the blowing of air into the fuel tank, thereby removing a blockage which proved to be the last piece of the chipper dysfunction puzzle.  I also replaced a broken PVC (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) hose between the crankcase and air cleaner, and the float needle, because its "rubber" sealing surface had rotted off.  That all sounds simple enough, and naturally I wasted the better part of three or four days over the course of two weeks making the repairs.  Lesson #1 learned:  Drain the fuel tank and run the carburetor dry before storing for the winter.  Lesson #2 learned, again: It takes a lot less time to do it right the first time.

Nathan manning the wood

chipper.  "Many hands make

 light work."

Having repaired the chipper,  I was able to process some large downed trees and limbs just south of the house, and together with Nathan Douglas and Meredith Mancuso we put up 3 large piles of wood chips, I would estimate a total of five or six cubic yards in total, a substantial pile of rotting wood suitable for Hügelkultur, and the better part of a cord of fire wood, stacked and split.  Not coincidentally, the forest was looking much more pleasing to the eye after having made this progress.

There is truly no end to this type of work on the homestead.  I am focusing our efforts in an area generally to the south of the house, to create a more park-like setting in the general vicinity, and to allow more sunlight to reach the house and future greenhouse in winter.  Even this relatively small area of 3 to 5 acres, depending on how ambitious I am, would require a huge amount of future effort to maintain.

The products of clearing the forest of dead fall

I also transplanted a clematis from our Chicagoland home to the homestead in mid-April.  You can literally watch this plant grow; on some days I have photographic evidence of it growing over 3 inches in a day.  It now has a prominent place on the east side of our Michigan home.  I had expected some so-called "transplant shock," but there is no evidence that the plant lost any time in putting on spring growth.  It went from being cut back to the ground to having a 1 foot high shoot in two weeks, and then it really took off, putting on about 4 feet of vertical growth in the following two weeks.

Clematis "time lapse" photographs.  That lump in the lower right-hand corner of the left-most image is the clematis root

root ball on "transplant day."

Assembled raised bed frames

Finally, closing out the month of May, Nathan, Dennis and I were able to build five raised garden beds for Geri.  The beds are constructed of 2 in. x 12 in. x 12 ft. pressure treated lumber, are 2 ft. deep, and have outside dimensions of 4 ft. x 8 ft.  We used three, 3 in. stainless steel deck screws, and waterproof wood glue, at each corner.  The structure of the beds should last for 7 to 10 years, or more.

I hired some help with a Caterpillar 299 skid steer (also known as a compact track loader) to clear a garden area approximately 50 ft. x 33 ft., on the east side of the yard and reasonably close to the house.  Meredith put her critical eye on my layout of the garden, and perhaps needless to say that resulted in a complete do-over, thankfully.  Meredith had it right, a good eye, and Geri was pleased with the result.  After placing the beds in the garden, and putting in each a layer of the harvested rotting wood, we filled them one-by-one with 2 cubic yards of topsoil with the help of our Cat 299 operator.  Geri, Meredith and Susan then planted our first southwest Michigan homestead garden.  (Susan also did a great deal of weeding about the house, as is her want, and it looks much the better for her efforts.)  Geri had spent the better part of the prior day traveling the back roads of southwest Michigan in search of best herb and vegetable plants she could find, and with great success.  The next day, I installed a simple, and temporary, 2-zone irrigation system.

Garden installation, from earth-moving to installed, planted and irrigated raised garden beds

I think I can speak for Geri when I say that we have never slept better than we do at the homestead.  Long days of work in the home, garden and forest, days that to me feel more like play, days often punctuated by a jump in the lake, some paddle-boating, paddle-boarding, or fishing, and great meals, and all of that in the company of great friends.  This is what it means to me to be truly blessed.

Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog.  Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.  Please "follow" the blog by clicking on the "g+," or by e-mail at  "Follow by Email."

Also, "Like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/swmichiganhomestead.

-- John, 12 June 2014

Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part I

It has been almost 8 weeks since I made a post, and I offer my humblest apologies; really, there has been little to write home about.  Well okay, perhaps, just maybe, that is a not entirely true statement.  Actually, the homestead has been a veritable hive of activity, in fact our life has been very busy over the past several weeks, and that level of activity seems likely to continue into mid-June.  And, it is wearing on me a bit that I have two blog posts to complete, "Warré Bee Hive Construction - Part II," and "Winter 2013/2014: Lessons in Hardening Homestead Electrical, Potable Water, and Heating Systems."  I will get to those eventually, promise.

Meanwhile, I will start where I left off, at the last post containing

homestead content, which was in late March, 26 March to be precise.  The weekend of 29 March offered the opportunity to evaporate yet more sap to the state of delicious maple syrup.  The yield was 16 cups of syrup.  While we stopped collecting sap on the 6th of April because temperatures were routinely staying above the freezing mark, and because sap had largely ceased flowing as a result, the business of evaporation continued through the weekend of April 12th; at that point there was no more snow to maintain the sap for extended periods of time without refrigeration.  In fact, we still have about 30 gallons of sap in the chest freezer awaiting processing.  We learned a great deal about maple sugaring this season, and I hope to be able to expand the operation significantly next year.  Our first season was great fun, and allowed us to connect with so many people while engaging in such a traditionally American endeavor; we will treasure the memories.

It is safe to say that we have hundreds of sugar maples on the property, though expanding from 13 taps to even 100 would require a much higher capacity and more sustainable evaporation process than that we have currently provided for.  Based on the production of our trees this year, 100 trees would deliver more than 2,000 gallons of sap, resulting in approximately 50 gallons (800 1-cup bottles) of syrup.  If I assume a 5 week season, 400 gallons of sap would need to be processed per week, or about 115 gallons every other day.  To put that in perspective, we collected, in total, approximately 250 to 300 gallons from 13 trees this year, processed in batches of about 25 gallons, each batch requiring a full day (sunrise to well beyond sunset) to be reduced to syrup.

The weekend of 5 April was fun-filled, to say the least.  First off of course, more maple sugaring was on tap (pun intended); I lit the burners early in anticipation of receiving a "come pick up your bees" phone call around midday.  Sure enough, the call came in.  Unfortunately I was on my own at the homestead that weekend, and picking up the bees entailed a four hour drive round-trip to Chicago and back, so I lowered the burn rate to ensure that the fires under the sap would not go out before my return, and so that I did not return to evaporators full of burnt maple sugar.

Greg Fischer installing package bees in
Langstroth hives.  Smoker on the ground
to his left.

I picked up the bees at a warehouse in Chicago operated by BevArt: Brewer & Winemaker Supply, and I also received some instruction from its owner, Greg Fischer, on how best to install the bees. Greg is the beekeeper at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, and Geri and I took a four-session beekeeping course from him last year.  Greg manages about 100 hives in Chicagoland, and runs Wild Blossom Winery & Meadery, the only meadery in Illinois; their "meads are made from locally produced honey and are international gold medal winners."  You will notice in the pictures that Greg installed his bee packages in one "deep" Langstroth hive box.  Since I use Warré hives, which incorporate significantly smaller boxes, I asked how many boxes I should use, and Greg answered that I should also use one box.  The reasoning behind that recommendation is solid, and is basically that "hey, it's cold out, the bees have no comb and no honey stores, and they need to keep all of that space warm, so keep it as small as possible."  Having said that, if I have it to do over again, and I will, I would use two boxes.

Five packages, somewhere between 60,000
and 75,000 bees, in the back of the Jeep for
the 2-hour ride to the homestead.

So what happened?  I picked up the bees in five "packages," a package includes a can of food (sugar water), a queen in a cage, and three pounds of worker bees (approximately 12,000 to 15,000 bees)), and headed back to the homestead.  Aside from a few bees flying around inside the Jeep, I had no issues, and even those bees gave me no trouble.  On arrival, I moved the bees into the house, since they would not have survived the expected overnight low temperature without the shelter of the hive.  Peter Coombs and I had already prepared an area for the hives, which included a 2 ft by 2 ft paver on which to set the hive floor, and placed the hives on the pavers.  The front of the Warré hives face due East; rise and shine ladies.  The next day, Sunday, I enlisted the aid of Dennis and Tristin Goss to install the bees in the hives.  Throwing caution to the wind, as men will, and in the face of almost total ignorance, I decided that we should leave the brand new bee suits in their packages and "just do it!"  Thank you Nike.  Between Dennis, Tristin and I, we collected 9 bee stings for our efforts, and I think, permanently eliminated any bee-phobia we might have been victims of.  At the first hive I accidentally brushed the smoker (smoke used to calm the bees) against the prepared quart zip-lock of sugar water, holing it, and dousing the hive in sugar water.  Since there were not yet bees in the hive, I was able to clean it up fairly well, though I did not actually notice that I had melted a hole in the bag.  I thought the zip-lock had come open, so I closed it and laid the bag on top of the bars.  Forging ahead, I removed a few top bars to facilitate getting the bees into the box, and shook them from the package "into" the box.  Then, I removed the cork from the queen cage, and hung the cage from one of the top bars.  Finally, I put a "pollen patty" on the top bars, also as food for the bees.  It was not long before we knew we had a problem, as Dennis noticed the queen (there was a green dot painted on her back) outside the hive.  Not good.

We thought she made her way back into the hive, and so I put the "quilt" on top of the box, upside down to make room for the food bag and pollen patty, and then put the roof on the hive.  On to the next hive.  Installation into hive number two seemed to go more smoothly, in fact there were so many bees about that we thought perhaps the bees from the first hive had made their way over to the second.  And, crucially perhaps, I did not melt the bag of sugar water.  Finally, on to the third hive, which is of the "honey cow" type, and hand-made by Dennis.  We took the same approach, and again seemed to have trouble keeping the queen inside the hive; one time I picked her up from just outside the hive with the flat side of my Swiss Army knife blade, and put her back in the hive. Still, hive number three seemed to have gone more smoothly than hive one, which is not saying a whole lot necessarily.  At completion, we had some serious concern about hive one, and thought we had probably achieved success with hives two and three.

Upon checking the hives on 12 April, it was perfectly clear that the bees had abandoned hive one and the "honey cow" for whatever reason(s.)  I have to say that was very disappointing, not to mention expensive.  By the end of the day I figured I was batting .333, not bad, at least in baseball.  On the 13th I had planned to add a second box to the only active hive, hive two.  First, I planned to remove the roof because I wanted to remove the food (supposing it had become unnecessary), turn the quilt right-side up, and then planned to add the second box below the existing box.  I found most of the bees, including the queen, up in the quilt, and I found that the bees had built comb all around the queen cage that I had left hanging in the single hive box at the install.  I decided to not attempt removal of the queen cage, and to simply add the second box on top of the first; I assumed the bees would "move in" to the higher, top box.  I did remove the food bag, and left what remained of the patty in the hive as the bees can be expected to completely consume it.

As of this writing, all seems well with hive two.  I thought I had pretty well made a mess of things, though I suppose it is not any worse than the inside of a tree.  I plan to add a third box, under the first two boxes, on 31 May; hopefully the colony will not already have outgrown the space available and swarmed.

Next time, I will do several things differently, using the process below:

1) Use two hive boxes under the roof and quilt, instead of one
2) Put the bottom box on the floor, with the top bars installed
3) Cover the hive entrance
4) Instead of making slits in the zip-lock I would poke holes with a small nail or large needle; the slits I made this first time were too long, and allowed bees to enter the bag and drown
5) Place the food on the top of the bars in the bottom box (bag and patty)
6) Put the second box, with half (four) of the top bars installed, on top of the bottom box, effectively to use it as a funnel
7) Shake/dump a third of the bees or so, into the open-top second box, and onto the waiting pollen patty and food bag on the bottom box
8) Pull the cork on the queen cage and shake the queen into the top box; do not leave the cage in the hive
9) Dump the remainder of the bees into the top box
10) Install the the remaining four bars in the top box
11) Install the quilt, "right-side up" on the top box
12) Install the roof
13) Return next day and uncover the hive entrance

Since this post will grow to longer than I would like, I am going to split it into two parts, and end Part I here.  As always, your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.  Please "follow" the blog.

-- John, 23 May 2014

Shaving, Frugality, and Old Ironsides. Plus a few shameless product plugs.

Just a short post, but felt I had to share this with the guys out there.  Ever want to save a few bucks, or maybe spend of few less dollars on one thing and reallocate those dollars to something else?  If so, this idea might be a small step back in time, and a small step towards your goal.

Recently I decided to try shaving with a so-called "safety razor," as I had become more than a little perturbed at being asked to pay $2.50 or more per replacement cartridge for my practically antique Gillette Sensor.  And the Sensor requires are only 2-bladed cartridges, which is why I have held on to it, not 3, or 4, or even 5-bladed cartridges as some razors call for.  At a cartridge every week or two, this was $125-$250 per year that I would much rather spend in a whole host of other ways.  After doing a little research, and I do mean "a little," I opted for the German "Merkur Long Handled Safety Razor," Japanese "Feather Hi Stainless Platinum Double Edge Razor Blades," and Italian "Proraso Shaving Soap."  I was out about $80 for everything delivered to my door, including 50 Feather blades, that cost $0.28 each, literally an order of magnitude less than the Gillette cartridges. If I include the "investment" in the safety razor and brush, and assume the soap is cost-wise a wash with conventional shaving cream, in the first year I would save $185 at one blade (or cartridge) every week, or about $68 at one blade (or cartridge) per two weeks...In year two the blades would save me just north of $235 per year at one blade (or cartridge) every week, or about $118 per year at one blade (or cartridge) per two weeks. What's not to love?


True, shaving is a bit more of a production, but it is not without some enjoyment.  Geri made a gift to me of a kit from The Art of Shaving in Chicago, including a stand for the brush and safety razor, which is quite nice, pre-shave oil, shaving cream, and aftershave. I am told that there are several shaving-related retail stores in Chicago. Enjoy the shave!

As always, your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.  Please "follow" the blog.

-- John, 02 April 2014

Very Early Spring 2014 - Sugaring! Part II of Tapping the Sugar Maples!

Geri and Nancy being sappy!

After two weeks of collecting more sap than we had anticipated, approximately 100 gallons from thirteen trees (7.7 gallons/tap), we desperately needed to process at least some of the sap to make room for more. The "rule of thumb" is 10 gallons of sap per tap, per season, if the tree is in a forest, so just two weeks into a four to six-week season we are well ahead of pace.  We managed to process approximately 21 gallons on a Saturday, and 27 gallons that Sunday and into Monday.  The weather has been below freezing since we started evaporating, so we have gained some ground on the trees ability to produce.  Our current capacity to store sap stands at 100 gallons more or less, and about half of that depends on having snow on the ground sufficient to maintain containerized sap at low enough temperatures to prevent fermentation and souring of the sap.

According to a 2003 survey of Wisconsin producers, the evaporation process that removes 42 gallons of water from every 43 gallons of sap, leaving 1 gallon of syrup (assuming 2% sugar concentration in the sap, see Figure 1),

Figure 1: Rule of 86

is typically powered by fuel oil (49%), wood (45%), natural gas (4%), or propane (2%). [1]  In terms of cost, wood from our own forest would have been the least expensive choice, in dollars, unfortunately I was not ready to use wood as a fuel.  The use of wood as a fuel requires some sort of wood-fired outdoor cook stove, which I had not put in place.  Geri had a couple of big propane burners of the type used for a seafood boil, or for cooking a turkey in oil, together with two big "stock pots," so we decided to use the propane burners in the evaporation process.  Saturday I set up shop on the west side of the garage, and decided to move shop on Sunday to the south side of the garage, more protected from the wind.  I set up originally on the west side because there is a concrete pad in front of the garage, providing a stable location for the evaporators; my worst nightmare was that having boiled off 42 gallons I would spill the precious one gallon of syrup onto the ground!  The wind on the west side though was problematic, and seemed to make the burners much less efficient.  So, on Sunday I laid down two or three layers of heavy cardboard south of the garage, and moved the burners to the new location.

Calculation of container volumes

On one burner we set a tall pot with a capacity of about 6.3 gallons, if about 2 inches of "freeboard" was left to ensure that we did not boil over. On the other burner we set a 24 in. (L) x 24 in. (W) x 8 in. (Depth) open pan evaporator, equipped with a 3/4 inch drain and ball valve; this container, also allowing for 2 inches of freeboard, has a capacity of approximately 15 gallons.  We poured sap into the tall pot and into the open pan evaporator through cheese cloth.  The plan was to start both burners at the same time, and then to transfer liquid from the tall pot to the open pan evaporator when the level in the tall pot was reduced to 2 or 3 in. from the original 14 in., and finally, when sap in the evaporator was reduced to a depth of about 1 inch (2.5 gallons), to transfer from the evaporator to a 16 qt./4 gal. stock pot, and move to the kitchen to finish the syrup under more controlled and comfortable conditions.

On Saturday, by the time all preparations had been made, the burners were lit at about 11 a.m.  It took about 40 minutes to bring the tall pot to a boil, the open pan evaporator a little longer.  As planned, we transferred liquid from the tall pot to the open pan evaporator, and at about 7 p.m., we transferred the remaining liquid, about 14 quarts, from the evaporator, by way of the ball valve, through a fine filter to a 16 quart stock pot, and then shut down the burners and moved the process into the kitchen.  In the house, we could not help but to occasionally hover over the pot, taking in the ever-intensifying aroma of maple, and of course taste-testing the syrup!  Also, we kept an eagle-eye on the thermometer, as we had targeted a temperature of 219 degrees F as indicating

Figure 2: Rule of 86 solved
for % Sugar in Sap

that the syrup state had been achieved.  Surprisingly, in the kitchen it took another 5 hours before the sap/syrup had reached a boiling point of 218 degrees F.  In an abundance of caution, to avoid somehow ruining the batch, we decided at midnight to filter once more and decant the syrup.  Our yield was 12 cups (3/4, or 0.75 gallon) of syrup from that first 21.3 gallons of sap; which would indicate that the sugar content of the sap was approximately 3.03% (see Figure 2).  This syrup tastes absolutely fantastic, and we thought that on our next batch we would see if we could evaporate a little longer to thicken the syrup.

I put boots on the ground much earlier on Sunday, and had the burner lit under the open pan evaporator at 7:10 am, and the burner lit under the tall pot by 7:25 am.  One change to the process for the second batch, was that after transferring the liquid from the tall pot at the same point in the process as on Saturday, the pot was refilled with another 6 gallons of sap; this additional 6 gallons was then reduced to 2-3 inches in the bottom of the pot and transferred to the open pan evaporator.  So on Sunday (and into Monday), we processed approximately 27 gallons of sap, versus the 21 gallons processed on Saturday.  A second change was that

at about 9 pm on Sunday, with approximately 8 quarts of liquid remaining, we chose to "pause" the process

Geri, Chuck and Nancy decanting the syrup at midnight
on Saturday.  Beautiful color and clarity...wait, am I
discussing a gem?  Indeed I am!

and get some sleep.  We turned off the burner, covered the pot, and put the pot on the front porch where it was cold enough to prevent fermentation.  On Monday Geri resumed the process, and ultimately bottled 13.5 cups of syrup, having halted the evaporation process at 220 deg F., which would indicate that the sugar content of the sap processed was approximately 3.7%.  Again, prior to decanting, she passed the syrup through the filter to remove the "sugar sand." [2]  The taste was, as now expected, intense and superb!

Sunday night, while we were processing the second batch, we tried some of our first batch of maple syrup over Geri's homemade apple pie a la mode.  Wow!  What a flavor combination, and the intensity of our maple syrup's flavor put store-bought substitutes to shame!

The intrepid sugarers, Chuck, Nancy, Geri, John and Dennis

My advice is, that if you have access to maple trees, take on the production of maple syrup!  It is somewhat labor and energy intensive, and it is also more than equally rewarding.  The process can be set up with a very low investment, using milk jugs and tubing from your local hardware store, your camp stove or outdoor range, appropriately sized pots and pans, some cheese cloth and felt for filtering, and a candy thermometer.  Go for it!

As always, your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.  Please "follow" the blog.

-- John, 26 March 2014

West side of the garage on Saturday.  Open pan evaporator on the left, cardboard wind break to the left of the pan and burner; tall pot on burner to right, surrounded again by cardboard wind break, under the watchful eyes of John and Chuck.  Tarp rigged up to prevent leaves, bugs and other detritus from falling into the evaporators.  It took a little more than two full 20 lb. propane canisters for each batch.

[1] "Maple Syrup Production," University of Wisconsin - Madison, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Web, Retrieved 25 March 2014 from http://www.uwex.edu/energy/maple.html

[2] Sugar sand, n.d. In Wikipedia. Retrieved 26 March 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_sand

Thoughts on the “permacultureVOICES Conference March 2014,” aka, PV1

Diego giving his inspirational message, "take on your
impossible," to open the conference

Right at the top, I must tip my hat to Diego Footer, the founder and organizer of the conference; he said that the preparation consumed a year of his life, and I can believe it. Diego has a full-time job, and together with his family, put permacultureVOICES together in his “spare” time; it must have required Herculean effort. I cannot recall a single significant glitch in the event organization, and with over 600 participants and a Who’s Who of permaculture in attendance, the success of the conference represents an amazing accomplishment. In his closing remarks, Geoff Lawton offered that in his 30 years in “this movement,” he has never attended a better conference. That is saying something. Diego has already indicated that there will be a PV2, so if you were not in attendance all is not lost!  http://www.permaculturevoices.com/

Flew into San Diego on Wednesday the 12th for the 13-16 March conference, then obtained a rental car and drove a little over an hour up I-15 to the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, where the conference was held. The conference agenda was four solid days, opening at 8 a.m. each morning, and closing no earlier than 8 p.m. each day. By Sunday night my brain was fully saturated. I am drafting this post after 2:00 a.m. on Monday, because there is too much going on in my mind to sleep.

Joel Salatin.  "The High Priest of the
Pasture." -- NY Times

The opening keynote address Thursday was made by Joel Salatin. The subject of his talk was his book, Fields of Farmers: Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating. He went on in a second presentation entitled “Stacking Fiefdoms,” on the same subject, later in the day Thursday. Though I had heard of Joel, I had not read any of his books, so I listened with an uncluttered mind. He was passionate in his presentation and had me and the entire audience laughing out loud on many occasions. Basically, he argued that in a thriving field, the average age of its practitioners is in the mid-30’s, while today in the United States the average age of a farmer is approaching 60. Ownership of some huge fraction of farms is expected to change hands within the next decade or so. Who will buy or operate these farms? Who are the farmers of the future? How do we get young people back on the farm? And Joel argues, we do need to get young people back on the farm; in his opinion to do so the farm must be able to generate at least two white collar salaries, otherwise it is not a business, and it is not sustainable. I fully subscribe to the proposition that two white collar salaries are necessary to sustaining the family business of farming. A key idea I picked up from Joel, and will likely leverage, is that of partnering with other entrepreneurs in a “community of complimentary enterprises” on the farm, as opposed to employing them, through the use of “memoranda of understanding.” Other key ideas: add value on the farm as opposed to competing in the business of commodities; and to keep investment low and use portable infrastructure, rather building the equity in information, management and customers. At the conference book store I bought his book, Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World, (Fields of Farmers had sold out quickly) and made my way through a third of it reading in the evenings, thoroughly enjoying myself all the while.

Jack Spirko, The Survival Podcast

Jack Spirko and his “Survival Podcast,”  www.thesurvivalpodcast.com, were my entry point into permaculture; I still await each new podcast in eager anticipation. It seemed that there were at least 20 TSP’ers in attendance, and Jack and his wife Dorothy also made themselves available to us in the late evenings, which had to have made for some very long days for them, and which was also greatly appreciated. Jack’s address, “Building a Profitable Permaculture Business,” built seamlessly and well on Joel’s earlier presentation. The subtitle of Jack’s podcast is, “helping you live a better life, if times get tough, or even if they don’t.” From my point of view he delivers on that promise, and I greatly enjoyed finally being able to meet and talk a bit with Jack.  His wife Dorothy was perfectly gracious, infinitely patient with the masses, and a joy to talk to.

Toby Hemenway opened up Friday’s festivities with his keynote titled, “Why Agriculture Can Never Be Sustainable.” You can see a YouTube video similar to the presentation at http://youtu.be/_y_MleU8iNQ. Hemenway wrote perhaps the most popular permaculture book of all time, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition. You can find more information at his website,

Toby Hemenway

www.patternliteracy.com. While I had watched the video before the conference, I have not read Hemenway’s book. Essentially he made an argument that no civilization has survived when having relied on large-scale production of row crops for its bulk calories, and that agriculture has devastated every ecosystem it has been in contact with in the past 10,000 years. He describes foraging (hunting-gathering), horticulture, and agriculture as alternatives, the latter being unsustainable, and arrives at horticulture and permaculture design science as a possible answer to the problem of sustaining the food supply. Along this line of thought, more than one presenter cited Jared Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, which is an excellent read; I might also recommend Fate of Empires, by Sir John Glubb. I have not come to the conclusion that agriculture is the sole cause of the failures of societies, though Diamond is thorough in his analysis of a number of possible causes, and most involve severe environmental degradation in combination with another factor or factors. My simple synopsis of Glubb’s work is that many empires have lasted seven generations more or less, and that the significantly longer life of an empire is unlikely; I will let you do the math as it relates to the United States.

Geoff Lawton (L) and me, John Newell

Geoff Lawton made four presentations: Reading the Landscape, The Permaculture Designers Manual in One Hour, Permaculture Earthworks, and the closing keynote, Permaculture and The Tipping Point & Closing, late Sunday evening.  I am a huge fan of Geoff, and I received my Permaculture Design Certificate at his first on-line PDC course in 2013. His videos are simply superb, and as a teacher he is without par. Of the presentations, I found the “earthworks” and “reading the landscape” presentations to be the most fun and informative. Geoff has his second online PDC open for registration beginning 29 March 2014; check at www.geofflawton.com for the latest free videos and information. After one of Geoff’s presentations I was able to get about 10 minutes of his time to discuss the Southwest Michigan Homestead, and for me that was a real high-light of the conference.

Allan Savory; this man is beyond humble, his mistakes earlier in life apparently having the effect of bringing that about. His talks (the keynote: “The role of lifestock in a new agriculture that can save city-based civilization,” and the keynote: “Why management needs to be holistic to avert tragedy beyond imagination”) were on “desertification” and “holistic management.” You can find him speaking on the subject of desertification at http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change. Allan has a large web footprint (pun intended),

Allan Savory

so if you search on his name and either of the topics I just

listed, you will have more video-graphic, photographic, and written information than you would probably care to manage. As is always the case, he has his detractors; I leave you to your own research on the subjects. Allan’s recommended reading included the books The Watchman's Rattle: A Radical New Theory of Collapse, and Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West.

Mark Shepard is a fellow Midwesterner, with his farm located in southwestern Wisconsin, roughly 30 minutes east and a little north of the Quad-Cities. He holds workshops on his farm, New Forest Farm, and wrote a beautiful book, Restoration Agriculture. Also, PJ Chmiel of Van-Kal Permaculture, http://www.vankalpermaculture.org/, has posted a very informative video of a presentation by Mark at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb_t-sVVzF0. And check out https://www.facebook.com/restorationagriculture‎, and Forest Agriculture Enterprises at http://www.forestag.com/. Mark has been on his farm, and practicing permaculture, for the better part of 30 years; he speaks passionately, and from a deep well of personal experience.

Soils…a deep subject, and Dr. Elaine Ingham has spent her professional life as a microbiologist studying soils, as opposed to “dirt.” Dr. Ingham gave the keynote address, “Soil: It’s All About Life.” You might say that among other things she is a “consultant to the permaculture stars,” stars like Greg Judy, who spoke of her during his presentation. You can find her online at http://elaineingham.com/, and find an “Introduction to Soil Microbiology” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtl09VZiSU. What she said rings true in me. Ever notice while you are on a round of antibiotics, prescribed to arrest whatever might be ailing you, that your guts have ceased to function properly? It stands to reason that proper digestive tract function, which relies heavily on beneficial microscopic critters, would break down when all bacteria in your body have been killed off; antibiotics do not distinguish between the good and bad in your body’s biology; the same goes for the soil as it turns out. It is as learned in an adult course of study I have more recently engaged in, “this is how the world looks when it’s working,” herbicides and pesticides result in dead soil, also known as “dirt;” why would we expect some other result? Dr. Ingham wrote the USDA's Soil Biology Primer, and also wrote books, including The Field Guide II for Compost Tea, and The Compost Tea Brewing Manual.

Other talks attended:
• Pat Foreman, and Oprah Hen-Free on chickens, and I bought two of her books, City Chicks: Keeping Micro-flocks of Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-reyclers, and Local Food Producers, and Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil, Homestead (3rd) Edition; find Pat at http://www.gossamerfoundation.org/, and at http://www.chickensandyou.com/index.html.
• Greg Judy, on mob grazing, http://www.greenpasturesfarm.net/
• David Barmon, on urban lumber; see David’s Ted talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju8mMQXA2d4
• and Paul Grieve, www.primalpastures.com, told the inspiring story of the start-up of Primal Pastures, and I learned from him on the subject of marketing; see Paul’s 13 tips at http://primalpastures.com/pages/guerilla-marketing
Finally, I met Sarah Beth Aubrey, another fellow Midwesterner, during the book-signing event, and had a great discussion on the subject of her book, Find Grant Funding Now!: The Five-Step Prosperity Process for Entrepreneurs and Business (Wiley Nonprofit Authority). I bought the book, which is one of at least three that she has published. She also has a business, Prosperity Consulting, at http://prosperityconsultingsba.com/.

It was a great conference, and that is a significant

Jack Spirko (L), a truly prolific and
tireless podcaster at TSP

understatement. There were presentations I was unfortunately not able to attend, and presenters I was unable to meet, even after 12 hour days for 4 straight very full days. In addition to all of the great presentations, I was able to network with and learn from other permaculturists, including one Michigander, Jesse Tack, of Whole Culture Repair, LLC, (http://wholeculturerepair.wordpress.com/) and “Abundant Michigan,” a Ypsilanti permaculture group, found at http://abundantmichigan.wordpress.com/. I hope to stay in contact and exchange ideas and plans with many that I met, it is truly a fun and vibrant group of people. I do not know that I will be able to attend PV2, but I strongly encourage each of you to consider the possibility.

As always, your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts. Please "follow" the blog.

-- John, 18 March 2014.