It’s 9 pm on Thursday night. Bedtime for me. I’m an early riser – I have some early morning commitments – so 9 pm bedtime is pretty routine. Except tonight we have some cows mooing.
We currently have sixteen head of cattle. The usual state of affairs here in the evening is to put Matilda and her calf Amy into the barn at night (this evening I put Amy into a separate pen since I plan to milk Matilda in the morning). We have three animals in the bullpen – Samson, Jet, and Tarter. That leaves eleven mixed cows and calves loose in the feedlot. We don’t close off the feedlot at night, so this means the animals also have access to the corral (where the water tank is located) and the woods.
When cattle holler, it usually means something is agitating them. Just like you know the difference between your dog’s let’s-play bark and someone-is-at-the-door bark, you can sort of tell what’s wrong with cattle by the tenor of their vocalization. Tonight it was I’ve-lost-my-calf.
I took a flashlight and took a quick glance around the feedlot and corral and saw nothing alarming, so I went to bed.
And tossed. And turned. And listened. And tossed some more. And turned some more. The cattle kept bellowing. I lay tense in the bed, trying to track critters from the sounds of their moos. I dozed off once or twice to the serenade of cows yelling and kept having short little vignette dreams of cattle escaping.
Finally at 11:45 pm I’d had enough. I got up, got dressed, and went downstairs where Don was just finishing a shower and getting ready to come to bed. We both took flashlights and started counting heads. The ground was frozen, the sky was clear, and a full moon made the flashlights almost unnecessary.
Everyone was making noise. Everyone was saying "I’ve lost my calf." But here’s the thing: most of the cows had their calves with them. We found three strays on the edge of the woods and we herded them into the feedlot. Then Ruby escaped and went trotting into the corral, bellowing, apparently looking for her calf... despite the fact that her calf was under the awning in the feedlot. Arrgghh. What was WRONG with everyone tonight?
We counted and counted and counted again. Everyone was present and accounted for, so we locked the whole stinkin’ herd into the feedlot (except Matilda and Amy, who were safely in the barn) and went back inside. And everyone is STILL out there, yelling.
It’s 12:35 am as I write this and I’m much too wired to sleep. In fact, I’m completely stinkin’ pissed and ready to turn the whole herd into hamburger. Anyone wanna buy some meat? Cheap?
Country living. Not always what it’s cracked up to be.
Now SHADDUP ALREADY. You're gonna wake the neighbors.
____________________________
UPDATE: Well, it's 5:30 am and I've been up since 4:45 am. But at least the cattle mystery is solved.
You see, it WASN'T Matilda's calf Amy that we had separated last night. It was Ruby's calf Alice. Let's face it, dark calves all look pretty much the same by moonlight and flashlight, and this mix-up explains a number of things (not least the reason why Ruby and Matilda and their respective calves kept bellowing all night long).
Cows are creatures of habit, and when Matilda went into the barn and a calf went with her, I assumed it was her calf. But no, Amy was having an adolescent moment and on a lark decided to stay in the feedlot. Meanwhile Alice was also have an adolescent moment and decided to follow the patient Matilda into the barn to see what the attraction was. But at late dusk, Alice was skittish when I tried to close the barn door and so I had to enlist the help of both Don and Older Daughter to help shoo her in.
When I plan to milk Matilda, usually I'll give Matilda and Amy a couple hours together in the barn before putting Amy into a separate pen (a task done after dark by flashlight). Amy is used to this routine and normally just trots into the pen when I open the gate. But last night, "Amy" ricocheted around the barn in panic when I went in to put her away for the night. "Sheesh, what's gotten into you?" I remember muttering, but didn't give it much thought once I got her into the pen and the gate was shut.
Thus commenced our night of cow bellowing. No wonder Ruby and Matilda were both so agitated and noisy. No wonder we kept hearing calves yelling.
I finally got to sleep around 2 am, but then at 4:45 the dogs -- triggered by an unusually vigorous session of outside noise -- started barking. I gave up trying to sleep and got dressed. The noise from the barn and feedlot hadn't ceased, and I wondered why on earth Matilda (normally a placid, patient gal) was just as agitated as the outside cattle. Unless...
Unless it wasn't her calf in the pen beside her.
Crud. I can only ascribe this night's sleeplessness to "operator error." It wasn't the cows' fault that I got their calves mixed up. So at 4:55 am this morning by the light of the westerly moon, I opened the gate to the feedlot, opened the barn door, released Alice from the pen, and voilà -- the noise miraculously ceased. Haven't heard a peep since.
So I'm posting this on about 2.5 hours of sleep. We have some friends visiting today, and I can only hope Jessica will forgive my mental dullness and the dark circles under my eyes.
No fresh milk today. I'll try again tomorrow and hope I get the right calf in the pen.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Hot soup for a cold day
Reader Holly sent an email mentioning she was making hot bean soup for a cold winter's day. She said her location which has two and a half feet of snow on the ground. The soup sounded so good I asked her to send the recipe, which she did. I don't have photos since I haven't (yet) made this myself, but it looks good enough to share. (Personally I wouldn't change a thing except to leave out celery, which I loathe.)
_________________________
This uses up all the left over handfuls of dried beans that I have at the end of the year. If you don’t have any dried beans, the grocery stores usually have a 10 bean bag for soup, etc.
1 bag of beans, 1 lb.
1 ham bone (ours was from our Christmas dinner)
4 carrots
4 parsnips
1 med onion
3 cloves garlic, crushed
celery
parsley
salt & pepper to taste
Allow to simmer for approx. 2 hrs, then take out bone and remove meat. Cut into little pieces and add back into soup.
This soup freezes well but I prefer to pressure can for 1½ hrs at 10lb pressure.
With a biscuit or slice of bread, it’s a meal.
_________________________
This uses up all the left over handfuls of dried beans that I have at the end of the year. If you don’t have any dried beans, the grocery stores usually have a 10 bean bag for soup, etc.
1 bag of beans, 1 lb.
1 ham bone (ours was from our Christmas dinner)
4 carrots
4 parsnips
1 med onion
3 cloves garlic, crushed
celery
parsley
salt & pepper to taste
Allow to simmer for approx. 2 hrs, then take out bone and remove meat. Cut into little pieces and add back into soup.
This soup freezes well but I prefer to pressure can for 1½ hrs at 10lb pressure.
With a biscuit or slice of bread, it’s a meal.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
In defense of our tire garden
Even though it's the middle of winter and spring seems a long way away, I'm already planning the garden (in my head). I intend to expand it by putting in new tires for planting.
Along these lines, I thought I would show pix from a month ago, Dec 11, in which we had some tractor tires delivered, the last tires of the year. The fellow who delivered them said they were doing end-of-the-year cleanup of their facility. He called first and asked if we wanted the tires, and of course I said yes.
The question was where to put them until spring. We decided to split the load -- put some in the back of the barn, where we already have a bunch of tires stacked up, and put others in the clearing by the house. These tires are all piled up, waiting for appropriate weather when we can finish putting tarps and gravel on the garden, split these babies in half, and fill them with dirt/compost/sand and plant.
So the fellow pulled his rig behind the barn and got ready to unload.
Matilda and Samson watched with great interest.
So did a neighbor's horse.
He unloaded about half the tires behind the barn.
Then he moved his rig and unloaded the rest of the tires by the house.
I asked him how much these tires cost to replace on a tractor. These particular ones, on an average tractor, cost around $14,000 (for all the tires, not just one).
"That's on a million-dollar tractor, right?" I asked.
"No, that's on a $35,000 tractor," he replied. Then he told me something interesting. He said the cost of tractors is going down, but the cost of tractor tires is going up. So often farmers have to make a calculated decision about cost/benefit, and often end up buying a new tractor. For that they get a new set of tires as well. They sell their old tractor to offset the cost, and amortize the difference over the next five years or so. Such is the cycle.
Now I want to address another topic based on a comment I recently got on my first post about tire gardening. Someone wrote as follows:
You have made a terrible mistake, the role of all gardeners is to create a better world - even if its "Back in your own backyard". When the novelty wears off getting rid of these tyres will place an enormous strain on you, and your family. You could have created a floral landscape, a Dutch Masterpiece, an English Rose Garden, a French Formal Garden, and you chose Fords-Ville, Michelin Man, and polluted Mother Earth. Scrap timber is everywhere, so are bricks, tiles, even rockery stones, but tyres no. Are you sure the food grown will be free of carbon rubber tyre oil moisture? A carcinogen?
I would like to address these issues in order.
1. Please review why we're gardening with tires. For nine years -- NINE YEARS -- I fought our heavy clay weed-infested soil and got nowhere. We are striving toward food self-sufficiency on our farm, and clearly a garden is a critical part of that goal. In the end, raised beds were the answer. Tires are nothing more than raised beds. By growing food, we ARE creating a better world since it means we get homegrown organic produce.
2. Tires aren't a novelty. They've been around about a hundred years or so. They're ugly, they're ratty, and they're hard to recycle. What we've done is taken hundreds of tires, kept them out of the landfill, and turned them into something useful -- namely, food-producing units. There's a certain beauty in that.
3. Sure, we could have created a floral landscape, an English rose garden, a French formal garden, or some other useless water-eating bit of nonsense. But here's an inescapable truth: YOU CAN'T EAT ROSES. Besides, if I couldn't grow broccoli or corn in this suboptimal soil we have, I sure as heck wouldn't be able to grow roses.
4. We're not polluting Mother Earth. In fact, it might be argued that we're reducing the pollution on Mother Earth. We did not commission the manufacture of hundreds of old tires. Instead, to repeat, we kept them out of the landfill and turned them into something useful.
5. Scrap timber is everywhere, so are bricks, tiles, even rockery stones. Um, where? We live in a wildly rural area. We're an hour's drive from the nearest city. Would you rather have us driving hours and hours and hours in order to fetch home a few bricks and stones? Which is more ecologically reasonable? To take and use something that would be scrapped? Or to burn gasoline on endless trips to try and find building materials that meet your personal requirements? Tires are free and available everywhere. In fact, as the above photos show, we can even have them delivered right to our doorstep.
6. Food grown in tires will not be contaminated or carcinogenic. Of all the concerns, this is the only one I feel deserves a thoughtful reply.
Tires have a lot of nasty things bonded into them, things that arguably ARE carcinogenic. But it's the term BONDED that must be considered. Intact tires are distressingly inert (that's why they're everywhere rather than quietly decomposing into Mother Earth).
So where did this notion that tires will poison any food plants grown in them? I did a little internet research and came across a website called TireCrafting. This site answered questions so much better than I could that I wrote and asked permission to reprint a portion here.
Aren’t tires toxic? How will that effect my flowers and vegetables?
There are organic puritans still quoting an international environmental magazine, Organic Gardening, Jul-Aug 1997, article headline “TIRES ARE TOXIC" "WARNING: Using old automobile tires around your plants (in any form) is hazardous to the health of those plants!" It then went on to justify the article from two sources, USDA researcher and compost expert Rufus L. Chaney, Ph.D., claiming that zinc released from tires is toxic to plants, and “A recent study in Australia claiming tires are toxic to petunias & impatiens.”
Mr. Farber contacted Dr. Chaney soon after the article appeared. Dr. Chaney told him that this magazine miss-quoted him. He said that he knows of only one toxin in the rubber of a tire in its solid state, and that is zinc. Zinc leached from burned tires, ground-up tires and the tire dust washed and blown from highways is toxic to some plants and many aquatic plants and animals in acidic soil and water (pH 6 or below). He said humans require zinc, and zinc is used in fertilizers to neutralize alkaline soils. He also said that zinc will not escape from a solid tire, but when a tire is left out in the whether for a few decades (30 years or more) it might decay and release its zinc.
Mr. Farber tried but could not locate the "recent study in Australia" but from his test gardens, he has photo proof of petunias and impatiens vigorously overflowing the same ten tire planters and in the same soil (adding only yearly loss) every year for more than thirty years.
Consider this: From the 2007 U.S. Geological Survey, "each year, approximately one million tons of tire rubber dust is washed and blown from our highways." This must integrate with our water, soil and air. No doubt, a substantial amount of tire dust is accumulating in everyone's "organic garden".
Mr. Farber is aware of another scary article. “Toxic Components Leaching from Tire Rubber" is the headline to a six page research study including text, charts and graphs proving their points, published on line, 3 May 2007 by Springer Science + Business Media, University of Goteborg, Sweden. It had nothing to do with gardening in tires. It was about zinc from tire dust killing bugs that fish feed on. Their conclusions were the same as Dr. Chaney's. Solid tires do not leach zinc.
If anyone has documented proof that shows a danger of toxicity from solid tires, Mr. Farber would like to be contacted with that information. Mr. Farber has been using tires for a container for his vegetables for over 30 years. If there is legitimate evidence that this practice is harmful he would want to know for his own health as well as for those who have planted their vegetables in recycled tires at his recommendation. You may contact Mr. Farber at retiring@tirecrafting.com.
Tires are made from petroleum which is toxic, therefore tires are toxic! How can you justify gardening in them?!
Everything in life is a potential hazard. The trick is to research beyond headlines and weigh benefits against risks.
When tires are burned, otherwise harmless chemicals mix and change form to create compounds which are harmful. It is now proven that the release of excessive amounts of hydrocarbons from fossil fuels is contributing to a myriad adverse effects to the environment and public health. Products from crude-oil are at the top of that list. No other country is more at fault than the U.S. with transportation in the forefront. Commerce is moving goods across our nation one semi tractor trailer at a time, each requiring its own hydrocarbon spewing power plant. Private transportation fares no better. Added to this are the hydrocarbons released in the manufacture of fuel, tires, and asphalt highways. There are solutions to these problems and we must fight for them. But that is not the issue here.
Used tires already exist and in their solid state they are as safe or safer than any other construction material. The process and the result of this global discard nightmare being recycled by industry, whether grinding them up for road base, burning them as fuel, or recouping the oil, releases more hydrocarbons while costing the global economy billions of dollars for tire cleanup and commercial recycling. Modifying tires to create green space and home gardening available to everyone would not only absorbs hydrocarbons, it could well be the key to salvation for practically every family on the planet that is otherwise excluded from adequate sustenance. Personal tire recycling potential benefits far outweigh all perceived hazards. A portion of tire taxes for tire disposal, ought to be channeled in this direction.
Based on this information, I have no problem either continuing to garden in tires, or advising people that tire gardening is a safe and viable alternative to fighting stubborn and unresponsive soil. And I thank Mr. Farber of the TireCrafting website for doing the research AND for allowing me to reprint his material.
Along these lines, I thought I would show pix from a month ago, Dec 11, in which we had some tractor tires delivered, the last tires of the year. The fellow who delivered them said they were doing end-of-the-year cleanup of their facility. He called first and asked if we wanted the tires, and of course I said yes.
The question was where to put them until spring. We decided to split the load -- put some in the back of the barn, where we already have a bunch of tires stacked up, and put others in the clearing by the house. These tires are all piled up, waiting for appropriate weather when we can finish putting tarps and gravel on the garden, split these babies in half, and fill them with dirt/compost/sand and plant.
So the fellow pulled his rig behind the barn and got ready to unload.
Matilda and Samson watched with great interest.
So did a neighbor's horse.
He unloaded about half the tires behind the barn.
Then he moved his rig and unloaded the rest of the tires by the house.
I asked him how much these tires cost to replace on a tractor. These particular ones, on an average tractor, cost around $14,000 (for all the tires, not just one).
"That's on a million-dollar tractor, right?" I asked.
"No, that's on a $35,000 tractor," he replied. Then he told me something interesting. He said the cost of tractors is going down, but the cost of tractor tires is going up. So often farmers have to make a calculated decision about cost/benefit, and often end up buying a new tractor. For that they get a new set of tires as well. They sell their old tractor to offset the cost, and amortize the difference over the next five years or so. Such is the cycle.
Now I want to address another topic based on a comment I recently got on my first post about tire gardening. Someone wrote as follows:
You have made a terrible mistake, the role of all gardeners is to create a better world - even if its "Back in your own backyard". When the novelty wears off getting rid of these tyres will place an enormous strain on you, and your family. You could have created a floral landscape, a Dutch Masterpiece, an English Rose Garden, a French Formal Garden, and you chose Fords-Ville, Michelin Man, and polluted Mother Earth. Scrap timber is everywhere, so are bricks, tiles, even rockery stones, but tyres no. Are you sure the food grown will be free of carbon rubber tyre oil moisture? A carcinogen?
I would like to address these issues in order.
1. Please review why we're gardening with tires. For nine years -- NINE YEARS -- I fought our heavy clay weed-infested soil and got nowhere. We are striving toward food self-sufficiency on our farm, and clearly a garden is a critical part of that goal. In the end, raised beds were the answer. Tires are nothing more than raised beds. By growing food, we ARE creating a better world since it means we get homegrown organic produce.
2. Tires aren't a novelty. They've been around about a hundred years or so. They're ugly, they're ratty, and they're hard to recycle. What we've done is taken hundreds of tires, kept them out of the landfill, and turned them into something useful -- namely, food-producing units. There's a certain beauty in that.
3. Sure, we could have created a floral landscape, an English rose garden, a French formal garden, or some other useless water-eating bit of nonsense. But here's an inescapable truth: YOU CAN'T EAT ROSES. Besides, if I couldn't grow broccoli or corn in this suboptimal soil we have, I sure as heck wouldn't be able to grow roses.
4. We're not polluting Mother Earth. In fact, it might be argued that we're reducing the pollution on Mother Earth. We did not commission the manufacture of hundreds of old tires. Instead, to repeat, we kept them out of the landfill and turned them into something useful.
5. Scrap timber is everywhere, so are bricks, tiles, even rockery stones. Um, where? We live in a wildly rural area. We're an hour's drive from the nearest city. Would you rather have us driving hours and hours and hours in order to fetch home a few bricks and stones? Which is more ecologically reasonable? To take and use something that would be scrapped? Or to burn gasoline on endless trips to try and find building materials that meet your personal requirements? Tires are free and available everywhere. In fact, as the above photos show, we can even have them delivered right to our doorstep.
6. Food grown in tires will not be contaminated or carcinogenic. Of all the concerns, this is the only one I feel deserves a thoughtful reply.
Tires have a lot of nasty things bonded into them, things that arguably ARE carcinogenic. But it's the term BONDED that must be considered. Intact tires are distressingly inert (that's why they're everywhere rather than quietly decomposing into Mother Earth).
So where did this notion that tires will poison any food plants grown in them? I did a little internet research and came across a website called TireCrafting. This site answered questions so much better than I could that I wrote and asked permission to reprint a portion here.
___________________________
Aren’t tires toxic? How will that effect my flowers and vegetables?
There are organic puritans still quoting an international environmental magazine, Organic Gardening, Jul-Aug 1997, article headline “TIRES ARE TOXIC" "WARNING: Using old automobile tires around your plants (in any form) is hazardous to the health of those plants!" It then went on to justify the article from two sources, USDA researcher and compost expert Rufus L. Chaney, Ph.D., claiming that zinc released from tires is toxic to plants, and “A recent study in Australia claiming tires are toxic to petunias & impatiens.”
Mr. Farber contacted Dr. Chaney soon after the article appeared. Dr. Chaney told him that this magazine miss-quoted him. He said that he knows of only one toxin in the rubber of a tire in its solid state, and that is zinc. Zinc leached from burned tires, ground-up tires and the tire dust washed and blown from highways is toxic to some plants and many aquatic plants and animals in acidic soil and water (pH 6 or below). He said humans require zinc, and zinc is used in fertilizers to neutralize alkaline soils. He also said that zinc will not escape from a solid tire, but when a tire is left out in the whether for a few decades (30 years or more) it might decay and release its zinc.
Mr. Farber tried but could not locate the "recent study in Australia" but from his test gardens, he has photo proof of petunias and impatiens vigorously overflowing the same ten tire planters and in the same soil (adding only yearly loss) every year for more than thirty years.
Consider this: From the 2007 U.S. Geological Survey, "each year, approximately one million tons of tire rubber dust is washed and blown from our highways." This must integrate with our water, soil and air. No doubt, a substantial amount of tire dust is accumulating in everyone's "organic garden".
Mr. Farber is aware of another scary article. “Toxic Components Leaching from Tire Rubber" is the headline to a six page research study including text, charts and graphs proving their points, published on line, 3 May 2007 by Springer Science + Business Media, University of Goteborg, Sweden. It had nothing to do with gardening in tires. It was about zinc from tire dust killing bugs that fish feed on. Their conclusions were the same as Dr. Chaney's. Solid tires do not leach zinc.
If anyone has documented proof that shows a danger of toxicity from solid tires, Mr. Farber would like to be contacted with that information. Mr. Farber has been using tires for a container for his vegetables for over 30 years. If there is legitimate evidence that this practice is harmful he would want to know for his own health as well as for those who have planted their vegetables in recycled tires at his recommendation. You may contact Mr. Farber at retiring@tirecrafting.com.
Tires are made from petroleum which is toxic, therefore tires are toxic! How can you justify gardening in them?!
Everything in life is a potential hazard. The trick is to research beyond headlines and weigh benefits against risks.
When tires are burned, otherwise harmless chemicals mix and change form to create compounds which are harmful. It is now proven that the release of excessive amounts of hydrocarbons from fossil fuels is contributing to a myriad adverse effects to the environment and public health. Products from crude-oil are at the top of that list. No other country is more at fault than the U.S. with transportation in the forefront. Commerce is moving goods across our nation one semi tractor trailer at a time, each requiring its own hydrocarbon spewing power plant. Private transportation fares no better. Added to this are the hydrocarbons released in the manufacture of fuel, tires, and asphalt highways. There are solutions to these problems and we must fight for them. But that is not the issue here.
Used tires already exist and in their solid state they are as safe or safer than any other construction material. The process and the result of this global discard nightmare being recycled by industry, whether grinding them up for road base, burning them as fuel, or recouping the oil, releases more hydrocarbons while costing the global economy billions of dollars for tire cleanup and commercial recycling. Modifying tires to create green space and home gardening available to everyone would not only absorbs hydrocarbons, it could well be the key to salvation for practically every family on the planet that is otherwise excluded from adequate sustenance. Personal tire recycling potential benefits far outweigh all perceived hazards. A portion of tire taxes for tire disposal, ought to be channeled in this direction.
___________________________
Based on this information, I have no problem either continuing to garden in tires, or advising people that tire gardening is a safe and viable alternative to fighting stubborn and unresponsive soil. And I thank Mr. Farber of the TireCrafting website for doing the research AND for allowing me to reprint his material.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Article pictures
Last week I submitted two articles to Backwoods Home Magazine. Below are photos which might be suitable for illustrating the articles. These are posted so the editor can choose which ones she wants.
These photos are for the article on kerosene lamps. Some are alternate shots of the same scene.
Lamp Photo 1 -- Washing soot from lamp chimneys. It's best to use a plastic tub or other means to keep the glass from bumping into the sink, which can easily break the chimney.
Lamp Photo 2 -- Washing lamp bases. This illustrates some of the variety of kerosene lamps.
Lamp Photo 3 -- Clean chimneys. Let these air-dry completely, because a wet chimney can shatter if placed on a lit lamp.
Lamp Photo 4 -- A wick trimmed to produce a crown-shaped flame. A little bit of charring at the tip is normal and won't affect the quality of the flame.
Lamp Photo 5 -- Two ways to trim a wick to produce a crown-shaped flame.
Lamp Photo 6 -- This lamp has the wick adjusted too high. The result is a huge out-of-control flame that uses too much kerosene and soots up the chimney. In this instance, the chimney becomes significantly coated with soot within ten seconds or so.
Lamp Photo 7 -- A sooty chimney after about ten seconds of a wick adjusted too high.
Lamp Photo 8 -- A properly-adjusted wick should not be visible over the top of the burner. Adjusting the wick too high is one of the most common reasons people are frustrated by kerosene lamps and smokey chimneys.
Lamp Photo 9 -- The proper way to light a lamp is to hold the match horizontally to the wick, not downward.
Lamp Photo 10 -- A bulk order of burner units which fit onto canning jars, allowing an ordinary canning jar to be converted into a kerosene lamp.
Lamp Photo 11 -- Spare chimneys, purchased at thrift stores and stored in liquor boxes, which have dividers.
Lamp Photo 12 -- A package of new 3/4" wicks. These can be found at most hardware stores.
Lamp Photos 13 through 17 -- A lamp gives enough lighting to read a small-print book if placed close by.
Photo 13
Photo 14
Photo 15
Photo 16
Photo 17
Lamp Photos 18 - 20 -- A collection of kerosene lamps, illustrating some of the variety.
Photo 18
Photo 19
Photo 20
Lamp Photo 21 -- A classic kerosene lamp
Lamp Photo 22 -- A canning jar turned into a kerosene lamp. Not as pretty, but just as practical.
These are photos for the Low-Tech article. Not too many, I'm open to suggestions.
Low-Tech Photo 1 -- Wood cookstove. An excellent multi-purpose tool which cooks, heats water, supplies heat to the house, etc.
Low-Tech Photo 2
Low-Tech Photo 3 -- Food staples such as beans, rice, spices, etc. are versatile and inexpensive.
Low-Tech Photo 4 -- Indoor clothes racks (either standing or hanging) are an excellent low-tech alternative to clothes dryers.
Low-Tech Photo 5 -- Scythes. (Lisa, take note: this photo is only available in 1003 kb resolution.)
Low-Tech Photos 6-9: Scything wheat.
Low-Tech Photo 10 -- Maps won't fail.
Low-Tech Photos 11, 12 -- Books are your low-tech friends.
Photo 11
Photo 12
These photos are for the article on kerosene lamps. Some are alternate shots of the same scene.
Lamp Photo 1 -- Washing soot from lamp chimneys. It's best to use a plastic tub or other means to keep the glass from bumping into the sink, which can easily break the chimney.
Lamp Photo 2 -- Washing lamp bases. This illustrates some of the variety of kerosene lamps.
Lamp Photo 3 -- Clean chimneys. Let these air-dry completely, because a wet chimney can shatter if placed on a lit lamp.
Lamp Photo 4 -- A wick trimmed to produce a crown-shaped flame. A little bit of charring at the tip is normal and won't affect the quality of the flame.
Lamp Photo 5 -- Two ways to trim a wick to produce a crown-shaped flame.
Lamp Photo 6 -- This lamp has the wick adjusted too high. The result is a huge out-of-control flame that uses too much kerosene and soots up the chimney. In this instance, the chimney becomes significantly coated with soot within ten seconds or so.
Lamp Photo 7 -- A sooty chimney after about ten seconds of a wick adjusted too high.
Lamp Photo 8 -- A properly-adjusted wick should not be visible over the top of the burner. Adjusting the wick too high is one of the most common reasons people are frustrated by kerosene lamps and smokey chimneys.
Lamp Photo 9 -- The proper way to light a lamp is to hold the match horizontally to the wick, not downward.
Lamp Photo 10 -- A bulk order of burner units which fit onto canning jars, allowing an ordinary canning jar to be converted into a kerosene lamp.
Lamp Photo 11 -- Spare chimneys, purchased at thrift stores and stored in liquor boxes, which have dividers.
Lamp Photo 12 -- A package of new 3/4" wicks. These can be found at most hardware stores.
Lamp Photos 13 through 17 -- A lamp gives enough lighting to read a small-print book if placed close by.
Photo 13
Photo 14
Photo 15
Photo 16
Photo 17
Lamp Photos 18 - 20 -- A collection of kerosene lamps, illustrating some of the variety.
Photo 18
Photo 19
Photo 20
Lamp Photo 21 -- A classic kerosene lamp
Lamp Photo 22 -- A canning jar turned into a kerosene lamp. Not as pretty, but just as practical.
These are photos for the Low-Tech article. Not too many, I'm open to suggestions.
Low-Tech Photo 1 -- Wood cookstove. An excellent multi-purpose tool which cooks, heats water, supplies heat to the house, etc.
Low-Tech Photo 2
Low-Tech Photo 3 -- Food staples such as beans, rice, spices, etc. are versatile and inexpensive.
Low-Tech Photo 4 -- Indoor clothes racks (either standing or hanging) are an excellent low-tech alternative to clothes dryers.
Low-Tech Photo 5 -- Scythes. (Lisa, take note: this photo is only available in 1003 kb resolution.)
Low-Tech Photos 6-9: Scything wheat.
Low-Tech Photo 10 -- Maps won't fail.
Low-Tech Photos 11, 12 -- Books are your low-tech friends.
Photo 11
Photo 12
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Tragic piece of journalism
A friend sent me a link to an article called Parents' Worst Nightmare: Kids Are Jealous of 'Teen Mom' Stars. My friend called it a tragic piece of journalism.
It seems there are reality TV shows depicting teenage mothers and what their lives are like. We don't have television reception so I was unaware of this genre of reality programs.
Apparently the shows were filmed as cautionary tales against teen pregnancy. However a study found -- what a surprise! -- that "young fans of these two series are shockingly envious of the shows' stars." The reason, apparently, is because these teen moms "have an enviable quality of life; high incomes; supportive, loyal romantic partners; and children who are cared for well."
Even though the shows are supposed to be "cautionary," impressionable viewers doubtless get these reality teens mixed up with single celebrity moms who "have the time, money, and hired help to squeeze in red-carpet appearances, European vacations, date nights and parenting duties."
I hate to break it to teens, but motherhood -- especially single motherhood before you're 18 -- bears absolutely no resemblance to Hollywood moms. In other words, reality trumps reality shows.
The article states, "What could possibly be enviable about the lives of single, teenage mothers? Let's see. Janelle Evans, 21, mother of a 16-month-old son has battled a heroin addiction and has multiple arrests under her belt. In 2010, she lost custody of her son, and she is currently pregnant with her second child. Farrah Abraham, a 22-year-old with a 3-year-old daughter, made a sex tape with porn star James Deen and is now starring on VH1's "Couples Therapy." And Amber Portwood, 24, mother of a 4-year-old daughter, was arrested for domestic violence in 2010 after beating her child's father in front of the little girl. She recently admitted to Us Weekly that she was high on drugs for most of the filming."
I wonder if any of this misbehavior was documented on the show?
My friend who sent me this link confirmed these dire statistics. She wrote, "One of the show's 'stars' resided a county over from our hometown. She is constantly in the news for probation violations, arrests, etc. Awful to think she is a role model for young girls. Grrrr."
Up to this point I thought the shallow writers at Yahoo handled the subject quite well. But toward the end of the article I saw this... and my jaw hit the floor:
Let's be clear: There's nothing inherently wrong with choosing to be a single mother if you're mature, responsible, and financially independent.
Okay. There's "nothing wrong" with intentionally depriving your children of a father's love. I see.
Idiots.
It seems there are reality TV shows depicting teenage mothers and what their lives are like. We don't have television reception so I was unaware of this genre of reality programs.
Apparently the shows were filmed as cautionary tales against teen pregnancy. However a study found -- what a surprise! -- that "young fans of these two series are shockingly envious of the shows' stars." The reason, apparently, is because these teen moms "have an enviable quality of life; high incomes; supportive, loyal romantic partners; and children who are cared for well."
Even though the shows are supposed to be "cautionary," impressionable viewers doubtless get these reality teens mixed up with single celebrity moms who "have the time, money, and hired help to squeeze in red-carpet appearances, European vacations, date nights and parenting duties."
I hate to break it to teens, but motherhood -- especially single motherhood before you're 18 -- bears absolutely no resemblance to Hollywood moms. In other words, reality trumps reality shows.
The article states, "What could possibly be enviable about the lives of single, teenage mothers? Let's see. Janelle Evans, 21, mother of a 16-month-old son has battled a heroin addiction and has multiple arrests under her belt. In 2010, she lost custody of her son, and she is currently pregnant with her second child. Farrah Abraham, a 22-year-old with a 3-year-old daughter, made a sex tape with porn star James Deen and is now starring on VH1's "Couples Therapy." And Amber Portwood, 24, mother of a 4-year-old daughter, was arrested for domestic violence in 2010 after beating her child's father in front of the little girl. She recently admitted to Us Weekly that she was high on drugs for most of the filming."
I wonder if any of this misbehavior was documented on the show?
My friend who sent me this link confirmed these dire statistics. She wrote, "One of the show's 'stars' resided a county over from our hometown. She is constantly in the news for probation violations, arrests, etc. Awful to think she is a role model for young girls. Grrrr."
Up to this point I thought the shallow writers at Yahoo handled the subject quite well. But toward the end of the article I saw this... and my jaw hit the floor:
Let's be clear: There's nothing inherently wrong with choosing to be a single mother if you're mature, responsible, and financially independent.
Okay. There's "nothing wrong" with intentionally depriving your children of a father's love. I see.
Idiots.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Cold weather advice for livestock owners
Granny Miller put up an excellent post on caring for livestock during bitterly cold weather. Since I'm too busy at the moment to write anything coherent, I thought I would direct your attention to Granny's timely advice.
Temporary silence
I'm so sorry for the silence -- I've been working on two honkin' big articles for Backwoods Home Magazine (due today) and won't be home all day either (Thursdays are my "city days").
Be back soon!
Be back soon!
Monday, January 6, 2014
The house from hell...
It may come as no surprise to all of you that my childhood fantasies about the Perfect House involved variations on the same theme: something small, rural, cabin-like, cozy, rustic, and simple.
A small farm was usually part of that fantasy.
Thanks to the partnership with my beloved, much of this fantasy has come true. We are quite content on our little farm.
Anyway, this contentment came into focus when I saw an article discussing "smart homes" which boasts, "Your coffee machine, washing machine, heating, and even your garden will all soon be connected to the internet."
Rather than the timeless, patient joys of a cozy house, cherished garden, and farm animals... the article informs us that "The past 12 months have witnessed some remarkable innovations... Yet consumers admit to already being impatient for the next big thing. The honeymoon period for a new gadget is four months, with users confessing that boredom sets in beyond that."
Boredom. After four months.
(Zombie voice): "Need...something...new."
In four months, I can grow an entire garden, and every day there's something new. There's no possible way I want my garden "connected to the internet." Heck, I go to the garden to get AWAY from the internet and other worldly distractions.
But it gets worse. "[A] quarter of consumers claimed they were bored within just four weeks, eager to upgrade as their friends and colleagues got newer phones."
It appears technology is trying to save people from themselves. "[T]here is very much a next big thing coming. That smartphone or tablet is no longer merely a portable window on the web, it’s increasingly the gateway to an internet of things, whereby your coffee machine, washing machine, heating, even your garden, are all connected to the internet... What may sound like a futuristic set-up is approaching faster than anyone anticipated... And your yucca can even inform you, via an app, when it needs watering."
Apparently this worship of technology isn't universal. As one person succinctly commented, "Who, in their right mind, thinks this is a good idea..?"
Technophiles are getting to the point where they're letting technology think for them. You know why encyclopedia sales are in the toilet? Because it's too much work to physically look something up. Instead you punch the request for info into your smart phone and have the world of answers at your fingertips. But has this ability made people wiser? I don't think so.
"Smart" houses are rarely depicted as warm, welcoming environs. They're not places you can cozy up with a friend over a cup of tea. They're always depicted as large, impersonal, cold, sterile spaces with screens everywhere and controls panels on everything, a place where no one dares to put their feet on the coffee table and relax with a book. (Incidentally I don't believe it's an accident that Smart Homes never have cluttered bookshelves in them.) "Smart" people apparently don't read books.
I realize there's a certain amount of irony to rant about technology on a technological marvel called a blog, and I'm certainly not opposed to the judicious use of technology... but the fact remains my childhood fantasies have never died, and an "app" to tell me when my plants need watering seems supremely stoopid. People who need "apps" to water their plants should probably put the stupid smart phones down and check the plants themselves.
I don't want to live in the house from hell. I'd rather have my "un-app'd" life where I do things for myself.
Okay, rant over.
A small farm was usually part of that fantasy.
Thanks to the partnership with my beloved, much of this fantasy has come true. We are quite content on our little farm.
Anyway, this contentment came into focus when I saw an article discussing "smart homes" which boasts, "Your coffee machine, washing machine, heating, and even your garden will all soon be connected to the internet."
Rather than the timeless, patient joys of a cozy house, cherished garden, and farm animals... the article informs us that "The past 12 months have witnessed some remarkable innovations... Yet consumers admit to already being impatient for the next big thing. The honeymoon period for a new gadget is four months, with users confessing that boredom sets in beyond that."
Boredom. After four months.
(Zombie voice): "Need...something...new."
In four months, I can grow an entire garden, and every day there's something new. There's no possible way I want my garden "connected to the internet." Heck, I go to the garden to get AWAY from the internet and other worldly distractions.
But it gets worse. "[A] quarter of consumers claimed they were bored within just four weeks, eager to upgrade as their friends and colleagues got newer phones."
It appears technology is trying to save people from themselves. "[T]here is very much a next big thing coming. That smartphone or tablet is no longer merely a portable window on the web, it’s increasingly the gateway to an internet of things, whereby your coffee machine, washing machine, heating, even your garden, are all connected to the internet... What may sound like a futuristic set-up is approaching faster than anyone anticipated... And your yucca can even inform you, via an app, when it needs watering."
Apparently this worship of technology isn't universal. As one person succinctly commented, "Who, in their right mind, thinks this is a good idea..?"
Technophiles are getting to the point where they're letting technology think for them. You know why encyclopedia sales are in the toilet? Because it's too much work to physically look something up. Instead you punch the request for info into your smart phone and have the world of answers at your fingertips. But has this ability made people wiser? I don't think so.
"Smart" houses are rarely depicted as warm, welcoming environs. They're not places you can cozy up with a friend over a cup of tea. They're always depicted as large, impersonal, cold, sterile spaces with screens everywhere and controls panels on everything, a place where no one dares to put their feet on the coffee table and relax with a book. (Incidentally I don't believe it's an accident that Smart Homes never have cluttered bookshelves in them.) "Smart" people apparently don't read books.
I realize there's a certain amount of irony to rant about technology on a technological marvel called a blog, and I'm certainly not opposed to the judicious use of technology... but the fact remains my childhood fantasies have never died, and an "app" to tell me when my plants need watering seems supremely stoopid. People who need "apps" to water their plants should probably put the stupid smart phones down and check the plants themselves.
I don't want to live in the house from hell. I'd rather have my "un-app'd" life where I do things for myself.
Okay, rant over.
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