Water Harvesting Update and the Last of Monsoon 2014

We have been working hard on several projects around here lately.around here lately, as the school year begins and the monsoon season draws to a close. This week we were blessed with another quarter inch of rain. That really isn't much, but in a year where we have registered less than three inches total, we are thankful for every drop!

Recently, I posted the assembly of the first of our true rainwater harvesting barrels. Seeing as how many drought ravaged states are beginning to outlaw water harvesting, I am thankful our still encourages it, and fully intend to encourage others to keep the practice strong.

The day after we got it going, I got this video of our system in action. Clearly, we need to work on down spouts soon!

The blue one with the lid turned out to be very easy to maintain, with just a little apple cider vinegar keeping things clean and clear. Compared with the open buckets my husband has helpfully lined up while I work on the system, this is far superior, and I have been really excited by the ease the system is managed with. I really wish I had started this project earlier in the summer!

We started the weekend with full water barrels, though I was trying to use more of the water from the open barrels where the water doesn't keep as well, so when a little bit of rain came through yesterday (an I mean a LITTLE bit) there was almost no room in the blue barrel. Oh, well, I tried, but each of the barrels did get about 10 gallons, with the open one getting about 15, While that isn't much, it is enough to water for another day, so who would I me to turn that down?

It turned out the video of the barrels and the first watering can I filled was too big for uploading directly into the blog, but here is the link to it. So next, I need to pick up a couple more bulkheads and do the overflow barrels as well as the downspouts and the other corners of the house.

Link to the first watering can filling from the barrel!

Anyhow, that is the water harvesting update for now. What have you tried that has worked or not? It is so helpful to share information to help each other do better by the environment and take better care of our organic gardens. Thanks for sharing!

Water Harvesting Project, prototype one

One of the ongoing sustainability concerns for farming in the desert is water. This is a big issue, actually, with many large scale commercial farming practices using older methods of irrigation which often cannot be viable in the long term with the ever increasing number of people using the limited water supply.

Drought is commonplace, and extreme drought has brought frightening pictures and a concern for the future.  Some states have outlawed water harvesting in the hopes of recharging dwindling supplies in underground aquifers. 

I really feel that we can appropriately harvest water while recharging aquifers and responsibly reducing consumption, though it does require all of  to work together and not waste. 

We have put lots of research into making a water harvesting system for our veggies,  and as we get better, we will also apply this to our sprouting system within the livestock pens, which should also help with flooding concerns in the rainy season. 

This is our first prototype.  We began with a blue barrel. Even though it was considered food safe,  I soaked it three time with water and an ACE (apple cider vinegar) and water dilution before beginning. 

While my husband recommended a larger saw, I have issues with my hands,  and went for the smaller one! I used twine to set my line for cutting around the top. Despite the two holes already there, I know that I will need access to scrub the barrel out between seasons, as well as access for working on the bulkhead attachments.

Then I got to play with power tools. Off came the top of the barrel. That part was easy!

I had several of these blocks laying around- actually like five of them, so not enough for too much, but enough for this spot. I started off with two blocks- a single thickness, then added the additional since the overflow barrel is supposed to be a bit lower, and because I wanted plenty of clearance around the house bib.

Then it was time for MORE CLEANING. High power with the hose, then three more rounds with ACV, alternated with the hose. ACV is also great for keeping the algae down and the bugs away, so I put a little more in before I reassembled the while thing, too.

I just put the ACV straight in a spray bottle lots of uses for that!

Then I needed something to keep the top of the barrel on, so I improvised a little. I had some wooden dowels left over from another project, so I used roofing screws from yet another project to attached them to the outside. Note for future reference on this one- I put one of them right near a seam, and it is a little close to the lid top seam in that spot, so I have to be really careful putting the lid back on.

Here it is with the lid on, at the corner of the house. That is a pomegranate tree right behind, and there are several other plants along that edge of the porch.

I knew I neened a hole saw for the bulkhead that the hose bib would screw into. What I had was designed for wood. Rather than go crazy and buy another, I tried a test hole in the top first. It came out fine, so it was time to put the bulkhead hole in!

Fortunately, that was pretty easy. The sizes I had for hole saw bits were pretty close, and the first one I drilled was not quite big enough for the threads, so I ended up needing a second go round. That's okay, though, it worked.

The bulkheads are easily found at your neighborhood hardware store. Funny thing, these actually thread left handed. That was weird, but it went in easily, with a gasket to provide the seal from leaks on each side.

The outside was just as easy, too.

Then, with plumber's tape around the threads of the hose bib, it went in easily itself.  We chose for it to angle down and away fro the porch to make the hose work easier for me.

Then I needed something in the top to let water in and keep gunk out. That started with a hole around the area where the test hole had gone.

Things were starting to look almost functional by this point!

Here is the close up of the fancy-dancy hose bib and bulkhead work.

Okay, so at that popoint I took a break to actually get dinner on the table, and then came back to work on the screening. I decided to go a little crazy with the caulking. And to keep the mesh down, I went high tech with a plant from the porch.

Pretty fancy, huh?

In the end, that didn't stay very flat, so I may screw it down with washers. We will have to see on that one!

Well, here is the prototype. As I type this, a storm is threatening, so I am REALLY hoping to get to see how it works tonight! On that note, here is to reducing waste and reusing where we can, and farming sustain-ably!

What projects have you tried? We would love for you to share all you have learned so we can all learn together! Have a great night.

New Feeders! Always Trying to Improve!

For those of you who follow the blog, you are likely aware of the stages we have gone through with feeders. The chickens like to dump their food on the ground, and we also have issues with summer monsoons bringing water nearly parallel to the ground, wind gusts and micro-bursts, and also with wild animals. It is the wild animals that bring us the greatest concern, since they not only eat a lot of food, but also can bring disease, so we have been through several versions of feeders to try to come up with the best solution for our animals, who rather enjoy their treats along with their soy-free, corn-free, non-gmo organic feed!

Wyatt recently found these feeders he was hoping to try. So we purchased one and brought it home, hoping to see of it would help with all of the competing needs. The Silkie pen was first for this new feeder. 

Being that there was already a hook in the pen, and they don't have as much rain reaching the area where that would put hte feed, it was a good first choice. I added a scoop of feed, which would usually last 2-3 days with them. I didn't figure that would require filling it all the way, which would also mean that I didn't have to fret so much about losing a lot of feed if this idea was a bust with them!

I raided Bailey's stash of bailing twine, and tied the feeder to hang high enough that the Silkies stand properly as they eat, nothing can jump in it, but that the geriatric White Faced Black Spanish hens that are in retirement in the Silkies' pen can still eat just fine. This was very early last week, and it took them much of the week to go through the scoop I put in there. I regularly saw all of the different chickens that reside in there munching away, so I decided it was worth trying a wider spread application of the new feeder.

We cannot afford to purchase new feeders for all of the poultry at one time, but I did go ahead and buy two more last Saturday, and Wyatt and I stood and decided the next to pens for roll out were the main laying pens, the A pen and the Big pen. These pens usually go through about a scoop per day in this weather. So we started in the Big pen, where this 4x4 is angled near the doorway of their barn, helping re-frame it after a micro-burst several years ago. I ran in a longer, thicker cup hook. It wouldn't angled or hang properly if I left it on the hook, so  we put it high enough that the feeder would swing freely and not have any pests feeding on it from the support beam, but still have it centered in and back far enough from the opening of the barn.

As soon as Wyatt poured the scoop in, we were surrounded by hens who felt the need to push us out of the way so they could be among the first to enjoy their new feeder.

The A pen was a little more challenging. There is a metal support for the roof, which was pretty easy to tie the feeder to, since the corners are favorite roosting spots and we didn't want accidental poop in the feeder or rain from the monsoons. The blue in the edge of the photo is a plastic tabletop that we use for nesting boxes to sit on, and that arrangement may have to be revisited if they fuss over the feeder or knock into when they fuss over next boxes (don't all hens want to use the same box at the same time at your house, too?)

So far, all of the new feeders are working beautifully. Feed economy might be slightly improved, although Wyatt is having a hard time with filling the feeders which are slightly smaller than the feed scoop. I will have to help him find a better solution for that this week. We also found a couple white buckets that still have the handles on them, which we plan to try to rig as temporary hanging feeders in the grow out pen and a couple of the breeding pens, I will try to take photos when we work on those so you can try it too, just as soon as we get the buckets unstuck!

What all have you all tried? Where do you put the fodder feed for your chickens for those of you who also use fodder? Please share your photos and solutions with us, and let me know who to credit so that I can share them with others trying to learn! 

Have a great day!

National Egg Day 2014

Today is National Egg Day! So what does that mean? Oh, I don't know exactly, except that we seem to have a day for everything in the declaration of some group somewhere! But as I thought over the course of the day about what I could post- a photo of a colorful egg basket, some of our different sizes of eggs, or double yolk-ers, etc, I came across the following meme on Facebook:

Honestly, they have a point. 

For some reason, we want the commodities to remain the same, while we are willing to pay more for luxury goods and convenience items, giving less importance to how things are raised or produced.

You often see me say things like "Vote with your dollars." This merely means that by the choices you make in your shopping, you are voting for specific ways of raising animals and growing food.

This applies to gmos, pesticides, hothouse foods, seasonal foods, and the feed used with livestock. It looks at buying local, and noticing how animals are raised and treated, as well as demanding the feed to be in accordance with your values. If you are looking for organic, non gmo veggies, are you looking for non-gmo feed for the livestock? 

Or maybe that doesn't matter, but when you look at the cost of eggs over time, and the inflation against the cost of other commodities across time, and consider how many of those commodities have extra things added now to keep the prices artificially low, we must think hard about whether we like those prices more than the original product, and whether the cost of those prices in terms of long term health care costs are worth it.

Also, when choosing to pay more for an item, like pastured eggs, or organic or cage free, understand the meaning of the term. While there are many folks who provide local fresh eggs to the markets, there are a few different price points, and also some are kept in different environments or fed different feeds. Then decide for yourself what is right for you and your family. Not sure what they are? Check out the meanings in this blog post here:

http://ourpatriotsdream.blogspot.com/2010/05/little-about-our-flock-management.html

And, for your reference, here is a commodity retail price sheet. Have fun, and I welcome your comments and thoughts!

Retail Prices of Selected Foods in U.S. Cities, 1890–2011

Prices below are in dollars or cents.

Year	Flour (5 lbs)	Bread (lb)	Round steak (lb)	Bacon (lb)	Butter (lb)	Eggs (doz.)	Milk (1/2 gal.)	Oranges (doz.)	Potatoes (10 lbs)	Coffee (lb)	Sugar (5 lbs)
2011	$2.75	$1.48	$4.69	$4.82	$3.67	$1.95	$1.86	$6.00	$7.35	$5.65	$3.51
2010	$2.36	$1.41	$4.41	$4.77	$3.63	$1.47	$1.66	$6.00	$5.79	$4.16	$3.11
1970	58.9¢	24.3¢	$1.30	94.9¢	86.6¢	61.4¢	65.9¢	86.4¢	89.7¢	91.1¢	64.8¢
1965	58.1	20.9	$1.08	81.3	75.4	52.7	52.6	77.8	93.7	83.3	59.0
1960	55.4	20.3	$1.05	65.5	74.9	57.3	52.0	74.8	71.8	75.3	58.2
1955	53.8	17.7	90.3	65.9	70.9	60.6	46.2	52.8	56.4	93.0	52.1
1950	49.1	14.3	93.6	63.7	72.9	60.4	41.2	49.3	46.1	79.4	48.7
1945	32.1	8.8	40.6	41.1	50.7	58.1	31.2	48.5	49.3	30.5	33.4
1940	21.5	8.0	36.4	27.3	36.0	33.1	25.6	29.1	23.9	21.2	26.0
1935	25.3	8.3	36.0	41.3	36.0	37.6	23.4	22.0	19.1	25.7	28.2
1930	23.0	8.6	42.6	42.5	46.4	44.5	28.2	57.1	36.0	39.5	30.5
1925	30.5	9.3	36.2	47.1	55.2	55.4	27.8	57.1	36.0	50.4	35.0
1920	40.5	11.5	39.5	52.3	70.1	68.1	33.4	63.2	63.0	47.0	97.0
1915	21.0	7.0	23.0	26.9	35.8	34.1	17.6	n.a.	15.0	30.0	33.0
1910	18.0	n.a.	17.4	25.5	35.9	33.7	16.8	n.a.	17.0	n.a.	30.0
1905	16.0	n.a.	14.0	18.1	29.0	27.2	14.4	n.a.	17.0	n.a.	30.0
1900	12.5	n.a.	13.2	14.3	26.1	20.7	13.6	n.a.	14.0	n.a.	30.5
1895	12.0	n.a.	12.3	13.0	24.9	20.6	13.6	n.a.	14.0	n.a.	26.5
1890	14.5	n.a.	12.3	12.5	25.5	20.8	13.6	n.a.	16.0	n.a.	34.5

NOTE: n.a. = not available.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 2., Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011

Read more: Retail Prices of Selected Foods in U.S. Cities, 1890–2011 | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0873707.html#ixzz33dzDqbxO

A Late Spring Update on the Sprout and Fodder Project

Yesterday, I was out working on chores while Bailey was walking her goat, when I found her chatting with a neighbor. It turns out we all have quite an interest in organics and grass fed livestock. We were talking about this project, and whether there was a way to use something similar, on a larger scale to raise grass fed livestock. That is still beyond either of our leagues, but it reminded me about this update I had begun earlier in the week...

On Thursday, this was the growth in one of the barley sprouting trays.  While the sprouts were tall, they seemed rather sparse in the tray,to my eye.

This was the growth in a tray of sunflower seeds begun the same day, though I didn't remember the day I had begun them. While the sunflower sprouts are shorter, and behind in growth cycle, they seemed thicker to me, sparking a talk with the kids.

Wyatt pulled a sprout or two from each, and laid them on the counter. The sunflower sprout is measurably thicker, and while it looks as long as the barley sprout, it is one of the very few tall sprouts from that tray. Some of them were still barely sprouting.

We talked about the trays starting on the same day, and I hadn't written down when the day was. We also talked about how I hadn't exactly measured how much I had used. I knew it was somewhere between 1.5 and 2 cups, but not if they were exactly the same.

Could that have had an effect? Well, we decided to go about it a little more scientifically, and began prepping the next two trays to start for the next cycle.

I started with two identical canning jars.

I measured two cups of sunflower seeds.

Into the jar they went.

Then two cups of barley.

Into the jar they went.

Then the seeds were rinsed and went in to soak on the counter.

When they were ready, they went into the trays on Friday,  We will weigh and measure the feed we gt from them, and share what we learn! Have you done similar experiments? What have you learned? Any other tricks to share?

Fun, Work, and a Little More Progress...

I have to admit, I am stressing over the doe barn, but I am still working on the plans for the new one, and the does here are staying away with the things Bailey put out to rope them off from the fallen barn.With so many projects going on, we are trying to work on getting the partially complete projects off hte list to make room for the materials and work space for the doe barn while we work on drawing it out and wait for a few calls back. 

That said, we have six two month old chicks on the back porch, and six more in the brooder inside.  It is really rather perfect, the way the spacing is working out, because I definitely prefer the smaller number of chicks in the brooder for the ability to give the little ones space!

I really love the photo of the two above. Yet, I also love seeing them all run around, too!

We began putting the roof on the special project pen. The pens put together will be breeding and grow out space for the chickens the kids are working with.

We got about half of the roof on, and will get more done tomorrow morning.  Anyone want to guess what that tangled mass of metal was which is behind the grow out pen on the other side of the roof we were working on?

Lots more to do, but sure made a dent today, and we got to debate a few options for the new doe barn while we were working.

I didn't realize how blurry this was! The kids were laughing through the work as the sun was giving up on us. Bailey was helping me with the roof, Wyatt was measuring and designing the back door, since this is being designed to be able to be a ten foot pen and a five foot pen or a single fifteen foot pen, depending upon the need. It is about time we planned these to work with us from the outset!

We also got the front door completely on, so we can hopefully work on the priming this weekend, and painting early next week.  This is a big part of the special project design, they cannot wait to see it finished!

This is the total of the roof we got done, about half way.

Part of doing these projects is that Wednesday is our applied math day, where they apply what they are learning to projects. Wyatt got to practice measuring, allowing for hinges, squaring the corners for the door, and the number of screws for each corner to keep it that way. Hopefully tomorrow he will get it all finished and hung in the doorway!

If you recognize the ponytail as not being his, that is because I got holding the wood duty. Just like he won't ride in the car during her driving lessons, she doesn't want her hands holding for Wyatt's power tool learning!

Looks pretty straight so far!

Putting everything away for the night!

Well, I will share more tomorrow! Have a great night, and enjoy your family time.!