A Little Teamwork and Homegrown Redneck Engineering...

One of the many fun things I never expected about adulthood is that there is always a project awaiting my attention. I wish that was an exaggeration, but it isn't. Back in the spring, we got a crack in the wall of the shower in the master bath. I consulted friends, and came up with a plan to help it wait until hunting season. Why, you might ask? First off, in the last year, there have been several family crises in our extended family, and family is more important to us than tearing out an entire shower when we can avoid it.

Why hunting season? Really, out of practicality. Four of us live in this house, and when one or two are off hunting, fewer people are trying to share a shower and bathroom! So when Charlie was away on his archery elk hunt, I needed to make use of my time. 

First, Wyatt had been finishing repairing a hole in his bathroom from where the towel bar, not having lined up on the studs, had left a hole in the wall. It wasn't the first time, but the new repair was actually much better than the first, and he had done all of the work. We agreed that repainting the bathroom was a good idea, since the walls and ceiling are scrubbed regularly, and having to paint the repair meant a good time to do it all. Then we decided to go a shade darker.

The original color was an icy blue on one main wall, with the other walls white. We went just a smidgen more vibrant with a still icy blue, and took the blue back over the shower as well.

I think the color is a little more accurate in the top photo. Now we need to decide on new rug and curtain for the shower. Any thoughts for us?

I wanted to think that after that, and two coats of paint of course, that I was ready to get going on the master shower. But then I realized that something really did look funny. The vanity, to be specific. The drawers had kept rolling out and hitting me in the knee while I had been painting, but it didn't dawn on me right away (I do projects like this late at night, so I am even slower than usual during these times.)

Anyway, something look a little off to you? The front of the vanity had separated from the frame along this side. Ugh. I had no desire to replace it, but needed to get things on track so I could move on to the next project!

Wyatt helped me bring in a floor jack, and I was hoping to use some liquid nails to put it back together. After dragging it all the way up to the porch, and us using a dog towel to preserve the wood floor while lining it up in the bathroom, it didn't fit under the kick plate, so it had to go back out. My friend, Janna, gave us the idea of a soup can and board. Wyatt didn't want any proof of being involved in this redneck engineering...

He was able to help me with a piece of wood flooring and a can of canned pumpkin, but then the board broke- darn...

So then we were back at it with wood and a glass jar we usually use for tea.

The jar was too big, but we went back to the can of pumpkin. Less scary in terms of possible broken glass anyway, right? I thought I had everything on track at about this time, and used lots of glue to secure it in place. Wyatt continued to hold it down until I brought in some little weight plates. I thought for sure we were on track then, but it was not to be.

In the morning, after waking the kids the first time, I released the board, and found that the glue did not hold at all. BIG UGH! But I put the weight plates back in place, and having realized that there was some space between the drawer tracks and the original frame board that I could not screw to because of all the trim on the front, I brought in an extra piece of wood to fit there, and ran screws. It wouldn't be pretty, but when the drawers were closed, the screws would at least be hidden behind the drawer faces,

I went with long screws, since the board would have to support the weight of the drawers as well, and sone of them didn't go in all the way, so I will cut those off. But in the end, it is functional now, and will hold for quite a while so that I can get on to the  next project.  

perfect? No. But functional? Yes.

 

Anyhow, outside of the issue there, the vanity is perfectly functional, and I have really become frustrated with the "throwaway" nature of society these days, so I am going to repair and reuse wherever I can! We might not be fancy, but we are working to practice and live what we preach- organically, environmentally, and in an many aspects of our life as possible.

Well, lots more projects going on to share with you in the coming weeks. We hope you will also share your projects with us to continue to inspire and help others use a little redneck engineering in their homesteading and home projects!  And if you have a better solution tot he projects we have done, please share that, too! 

Have a truly blessed and thankful day!

After the Flooding of Hurricane Norbert, Getting Ready for Hurricane Odile

As usual, the hustle of life here has me busy enough to where I take photos to share, but never quite get to the blogging! So I figure I ought to take a few minutes today and tomorrow and catch things up!

To begin with, this is the garden shed. Or, shall I say random shed? Presently there are assorted garden tools, irrigation items, paint, a table I needed to put somewhere for a project, and the geese like to hang out in there. Yes, that's right, the geese. Despite having free roam of the property, a play house, their own pool and open enclosure, the geese like to nest by the planter boxes and sleep by the garden, but hang out by day in a metal garden shed. Goofy!!!! But then again, they live at our house! Does anyone else have goofy geese like this?

With the monsoon season drawing to a close, we had very little total rainfall, most of it garnered in the two inch storm yield midway through the season, and very little actually stored.  We had been able to complete the prototype water harvesting barrel a few weeks back, but when the rainfall from the hurricanes working their way up from baja California began to fill the prototype barrel and the extra overflow barrel that was out, we knew we needed to prioritize the project!

One of the barrels we had already had this rubber section of hose attached. This needed to go, but fortunately came off pretty easily. There was actually a threaded bulkhead underneath, which had me pretty happy since it would give us two barrels with threaded bulkheads and two with a new kind I picked up at the aquaponics store. 

In another spot on the same barrel was one bulkhead that was capped off. That would have been fine, but it was really filthy Poor Wyatt was sweet enough to volunteer to crawl inside and clean it out all the way!

While that one was soaking in ACV, I cut off the lid of another barrel, just like the prototype version. Then I set it to soak with the ACV as well, while working on setting up the bricks to keep it off the ground and high enough to put watering cans under the spigots.  Additionally, I wanted them high enough that overflow could pour out across the top to the successive cans, making it easier to separate them to clean them out periodically without needing to move them as a unit or re-plumb them!

Last weekend, I had needed to go in to work at the college to deal with new requirements and reporting, and the aquaponics store had been just a few miles down the road from there.  I picked up some new things to try in place of the bulkheads, called Uniseals. While the snap into place through the holes you drill, and tighen up around the pipe when you put it through, they do move some, and can be pulled back out. I used the same hole saw with these, though a bit larger than with the traditional bulkhead. The man at the aquaponics store felt strongly that these have lasted better than the others in his own yard, as plastic breaks down severely in the Tucson heat and sun.

This is the Uniseal. Have you ever tried them?

This is my fancy dancy little hole, made with the hole saw. And some muscle, too.

The seal really did pop right in as advertised.

I took a break to do a walk around at this point, having washed out the tubs and gotten another round of ACV in to soak and make sure any last residues would be gone. Bailey had a minute, so she came up to help me dump this tub. Notice that it looks like a black lagoon in there? This is what happens when you don't have a lid on your barrel- algae! Ugh, that is like an algae bloom in the ocean messing with the life balance where they appear- NOT something I plan to use on our gardens! We carried the tub together and dumped it in a tree well under some ornamental cacti and the like, where it would be okay and still useful.

After rinsing out the gunk, I went back to my project in process. This is the barrel with the Uniseal in it The guy at the aquaponics store loves these, and I admit that on top of the flexible material aspect, the ease of installation could also make for smaller openings and the possibility that we could have less gunk potentially getting inside. Still, that meant no actual threading, which has me rather nervous in terms of  the spigot being knocked around or out or that leading to a leak. They use them more in the way of one tank connecting to another, so they don't seem as likely to get the abuse that comes with being so accessible.

End of Summer Garden Jump Start

With all of the crazy weather and in and out internet service, I went to work to get caught up on Saturday. It was a good thing, because despite the hour and a half on a Saturday afternoon spent away from the many things at home calling my name, I am caught up for the first time since the semester began. THer ewill be plenty more for me on Tuesday when I am in, but I will definitely feel better without the leftover list awaiting me!

On my way ther, I stopped by the local aquaponics store for some items I needed to add more capacity to the water harvesting project. I found a different solution to bulkheads, which will be a second prototype to compare, which I think will be interesting, and I will show that when I get more done with that tomorrow. 

On the way in the door, however, I saw some new organic heirloom plant starts, and couldn't help myself. Many of you will recall the project we have had to get the feeders up off the ground to reduce waste and keep pesky rodents out of the feed and away fro the livestock. The project has been successful and positive, but the mice were then hungry, and with my garden in containers and my plant starts ion the table on the back porch, they went straight for my plant starts and the main garden, devouring everything they could get to. It will be a bit before I can get the greenhouse rebuilt, even though I have been collecting the materials and creating plans. 

Out lavender was diminished some by age and other factors, so I was so excited to see lavender, peppers, lettuce starts and more!  I did my best to exercise restraint, but gave in to two lavender plants, and a few heirloom peppers, lettuce and broccoli. I think this photo shows as much restraint as it does bounty!

Sunday night during evening chores, I started on the additional water capacity, and then when it was too dark to do more, I took the lavender out front for a little foodscaping...

I had planned to get to these planters once the monsoon had brought consistent rain, but it never really did, being mostly family with a few days of overload until the last week or so. So I just never really got to it. This planter was rather overgrown with dead stuff! 

Hard to see in this photo, but there was a little green with a lot of dead stuff here. The green were fun little flowers that actually looked rather good in that planter, and might still get some little blue Marguerite daisies for the cute little goat pot. We will see.

This planter has housed more solar lights than anything else in recent years.

I cleaned out the dead stuff in this one, and added a little soil conditioning/ amendment so that I could decide about those daisies...

This one got fully cleaned out and some lavender. While for years, I enjoyed blue and white everything out front, I really needed a good spot for the lavender and better use of the planters for hte food and medicinal plants!

This one brought the second lavender plant and more soil amendment. 

Well, here is to hoping they flourish and bear seeds for lavender! Now back to finishing off an order, rigging a jack to finish the kids bathroom and having the additional rainwater capacity finished today and the other starts in fortified surroundings before the storm is due in! 

Hope you all have a truly blessed week!

Some Exciting News and a Product Update

Some fun and exciting news. .. 

Today, we will be be delivering some product samples to a local honey company! We are sure hoping that the products do well for them, and that this becomes a lasting partnership. That makes this That makes this a good time to answer some questions that we get a lot, just for your information!

These are stick lip balms. This version is a Chocolate Hazelnut Honey variety. The ones in a stick are a little harder than those in a tub, but generally the same ingredients, We have a host of different kinds that we can make, but usually make them to order. What you see here has honey, beeswax, cocoa butter, hazelnut oil, dutch cocoa, glycerin and vitamin E.  Good stuff. Some of our best sellers are actually tub or glass vial roll-ons. We do a lava lights one in many flavors, and some with chocolate cherry, chocolate mint, mocha, etc. If you are looking for a flavor you love, or specific essential or extract oils, let me know, I may just have a great recipe.

This basket happens to contain two types of soap and some lotion bars.

The soaps, because this is for a group that specializes in honey are two types of our oatmeal, goat's milk and honey recipe. The oatmeal serves to calm and cool sensitive skin. The goat's milk is tremendously nourishing, and goat's milk, as it is close in composition to human breast milk, is better utilized by our skin to nourish and repair it.  The honey is great for those with sensitive skin or acne or rashes. Surprising, but true! There are a variety of oils used, including cocoa butter, and several others. Specific recipes can vary a bit by the requests in a given batch. Don't hesitate to put in a request for a whole small batch just for you! This basket has a plain (unscented with essential oils) version as well as a holiday spice variety, which has clove, cinnamon, orange and nutmeg essential oils mixed in at trace to help get you ready for the holiday season. I even threw in one peppermint soap. True peppermint essential oils are outstanding for opening up the sinuses when you have allergies, and the good stuff won't set off those of us with sensitivities to chemicals. Some folks like the spearmint or eucalyptus for this, but the peppermint is the most popular these days.

What can I say about lotion bars? GOOD STUFF! Typically, lotions take some wonderful oils and do a few things. The first, the frequently use alcohol so that it evaporates and make you feel as though it is soaking in, though it is actually drying your skin. Second, they almost always thin the oils with water, then thicken them with corn starch derivative to keep them thick as well as oodles of preservatives. Since it is the chemicals and preservative that my family cannot handle, and I take issue with genetically modified corn, we take a different approach. We begin with local beeswax, filter it an extra time, and then add pure cocoa butter, and a variety of pure oils and butters, essential oils for aromatherapy and vitamin E for a natural boost to the skin and to help with shelf life. Again, oils can vary greatly. While coconut oil is a fantastic base, some folks who have sought us out because they know we are glad to individually formulate cannot have that, or cannot have another oil. So these recipes vary some, and we try to keep a couple different recipes in stock.

I know, that is a LOT of information!. But feel free to ask ANY questions you may have. That is why you would work with a small local company that specializes in serving the individual needs of the customer in a natural way that supports the health of the customer and sustainable agriculture!

Anybody for Hoecakes for Breakfast?

Many of you know that teaching rather runs in the family around here.  Between my mother, Charlie's Grandma, and my home schooling the kids, our children stand no chance of missing possible lessons! After Charlie's grandma passed away this year, we all inherited her books and curriculum left over from her teaching days. 

Many of the books were from younger ages, though there were some really fun ones, as well as some great reference and culture books. Some, we will use for the fun of a springboard into a lesson. Wyatt and I ended up storing three large boxes worth in plastic totes in the shed. For some reason, this one ended up on the dining table.

Amidst some random conversations last week, I picked it up and began reading. The kids wee sitting there at the table, with Bailey not knowing what I expected and Wyatt looking at me strangely. So then, I couldn't help myself...

I read it, showing pictures to the kids, and going all out with the voices... hey maybe I should be one of those librarians...

We learned about a fictional boy whose first and middle names were George Washington, after our first president, and about how this boy wanted to know everything about our six-foot-two inch first President who showed us what it meant to be a leader, a Commander in Chief, and to peacefully do what was right for a nation.

And we learned that almost none of the books about him talk about what he ate for breakfast.

Apparently, President Washington was rumored to have hands so big and strong that he could bend horseshoes with them. Hmmm...

And apparently he ate hoecakes for breakfast. Three of them.  With the same number of cups of tea.

Hoe cakes apparently have many different recipes and are named for the shovel they would be cooked on in the fire.  That was the first bone of contention. Apparently in the story, there were no hoes inside George Washington's house when the boy went to visit, so they used a griddle because the grandma in the story refused to cook with a hoe. Seeing as how it is monsoon season here, and lots of stuff ends up mucking things out with the flooding, thee was no way I was trying to make a hoe clean enough to cook breakfast on!

So over the weekend, I pulled up a couple of recipes, and learned that originally hoe cakes were simply cornmeal with water, later using things like milk, eggs and sugar as well. So the first round was as simple as they could be...

They didn't hold together very well!

They looked a little like mangled hush puppies, rather than breakfast when I served them. 

Wyatt decided that real maple syrup would have been around there, so he had some hoe cakes with his maple syrup... see how these History lessons can go south?  But he did prove timelines. That child should be a lawyer...

They were really crumbly, but not bad. So then I added some milk, thinking we could enjoy a discussion about tracing the lineage of recipes in history, something we have discussed when talking about processed foods and organics.

These seemed a little better formed to me, more like a pancake.

They also seemed to hold together a bit better.

The kids liked the original version better. They thought it just had more flavor and texture in the first one. Funny how that happens with the original getting watered down sometimes, isn't it?

I had originally promised to let them break into some Boston trading company tea, but then we forgot. Oops.

But I have a feeling that Wyatt will really want it when we make another revolutionary war themed meal he has been looking forward to- fire cakes. Maybe this next weekend we can delve into that one!

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!

Baby Chicks Available at Local Hardware Store

A little over a week ago brought a new adventure for the little chicks of Patriot's Dream. One of the local hardware stores has begun carrying chicks. They ordered in some Ameraucanas from a hatchery, and since things were going well they wanted to add some local chicks as well. Four little ones from our recent hatch went along.

Wyatt packed the little ones in a crate lined with towels and played with them in the back seat on the way to deliver them.

I don't think they were too sure about leaving their friends in the brooder!

Here is Wyatt with the little ones, riding in to town.

Initially, the delivery went really well. But the littlest was just too little for the digs there, so Charlie stopped to pick her up on his way home from work (in the middle of a big rain storm, no less!) That little one came home and nestled right back in here. The Silkies long thought they were her mama, since she was younger than the rest, though in the bottom photo, she is nestled in to the feathers of a slightly larger chick of her own breed who we didn't take along since we believe it will be a boy. You have to look really closely in order to see the little one tucked under and a little behind the wing.

One of the many benefits of working with a local breeder is the support you get, and the service. For us, we are thrilled that the three little ones were sold to local homes, and things went so well, they asked for more chicks! We didn't have any at that moment, as we had cleaned out the incubator, but likely will soon.

Well, pretty exciting to have such positive partnerships with local businesses and good people! More exciting news to come as well!