Tricky Tuesday

Eating well (and by well I mean: HEALTHY) in this day and age is rough.  The mainstream food supply is poisoned and becoming more completely unreliabe.  The only kind of produce one should trust, as supplied through the chain grocery stores, is Organic.  And even that label is becoming increasingly unreliable.  Did you know that apple and pear orchards are allowed to spray their trees with antibiotics as preventative maintenance?  It's true.  Don't believe me.  Check it out for yourself!  Do your own research!

Did you know that lots of produce, without any indication, is being irradiated?  Some suggest that all leafy greens are irradiated.  So what?  Do you KNOW why that's a problem?  No... well, you should!  I'm not going to spoon-feed you this information right now.  It's for another day... if you express a desire that i should share it here.  Let me know.

The point of sharing all of the above here is to share with you a way for you to provide yourself and your family with nutritious (potentially even more so than those organic items that ARE trustworthy).

You do, of course, know about growing it yourself.  That will save you money if you can collect from your efforts.  However, if you don't have time for weeding, watering, fertilizing... well, then, you may not have much to collect from the efforts you ARE able to put forth.  With a Tower Garden, though, you may be able to collect significantly more with a lot less time invested.  How?  Well, since Tower Gardens are aeroponic, there is no watering and no weeding!  There are some maintenance jobs, but even those amount to far less time invested than watering and weeding by hand.

The thing that finally convinced me was learning about the irradiation of leafy greens, as a general thing.  Also, the fact that, even with the add-ons i decided to include, my monthly payment is less than $65 for a constant supply of food for my family.  A basic Tower with no add-ons can be as little as $43 per month for 11 months (the first month includes shipping, so you pay a total of 12 payments).  I pay the monthly payment out of one week of our food budget.  So, short-term sacrifice for long-term gain!  Yes, there is an output and it's not EASY to manage it for us (and probably not most people), but it's totally worth the results.

We harvested our first family salad last week... and then another a few days later.  I won't be able to harvest for another few days, at least, but we sure did enjoy those two FAMILY salads (that's enough lettuce and kale for 6 people twice within seven days).  My son ate ALL of his salad BOTH times without a single complaint.  Prior to this, as a rule, he would lick the salad dressing off the leaves and not eat the greens.  THAT alone makes the Tower pretty wonderful to me!  My Chef husband commented repeatedly the first time, "Are you sure there's kale in here?"  He couldn't believe it because it was so very mild.

These results are well worth the short-term sacrifice!  I'm so thankful to be feeding my family greens i can trust (from my Tower).

Another awesometing about Towers is that the Tower Tonic (nutrients for the plants) may be even better than organic fertilizers since "organic" legally means that Organic Certified growers must use fertilizers that are from previously living things.  The Tower Tonic contains minerals and more that are gathered directly from the earth.  Isn't that how plants are made to get them?

We are very pleased with our Tower and hope to buy some more eventually.  That way we'd be able to eat from it daily!  How exciting and wonderful that will be.  :)

http://gollihugh.towergarden.com/

Tricky Tuesday #9

If you've been learning about the dangers of our mainstream food supply (as i have), you may feel an urgency to change your food consumption practices.  If you do, you'll quickly find that eating organic via the grocery store is really quite expensive.  It is SO tricky to eat well (truly healthfully).  If you need to save some money (as i know i always need to!), you definitely need to look for an organic foods co-op.  If you live near me, i can connect you to a wonderful co-op (or two) that are REALLY reasonable to get into (do NOT cost an arm and a leg to start) and have GREAT prices!

If you have any yard or space in which to place pots, do a little food growing RIGHT NOW.  Even though it's late to start where i am, it's better to start late than not at all.  i'm only just getting stuff in the ground!  Seriously late, i know, but i TRULY believe better late than never!  Just make sure you buy heirloom seeds!

Tricky Tuesday #8

A suggestion for you today.

If you desire to learn something for which you would love to take a class, but cannot afford to do so... seek out a local club that deals with your subject.  You can probably attend as a guest for at least a few meetings to see if you want to commit... and then, it's likely the membership dues are far more manageable than tuition, fees, and books for almost any given class you could attend.

I've been able to attend two out of the last three Garden Club meetings and they are wonderful.  They are a group of older ladies who are each a wealth of knowledge about plants and gardening.  I've learned so much each time and come away with cuttings and/or actual potted plants.  Most recently I was given two potted plants: a night flowering cereus and a pot with some vick's plants (plectranthus tomentosa) and easter lilies in it!  ^_^

Some reading on the Vick's plant (and toothache plant, which i hope to grow from seed soon).

Tricky Tuesday #6

It's tricky to gather storage for humans, much less livestock.  I still haven't gathered much, but periodically we gather acorns.  Apparently, my goats love acorns.  We're not feeding them very many currently... and they seem to adore them in the way humans adore candy... so it's not something I could store for a primary food source... but the little bit we have put aside is a tiny bit of comfort.  A bit like buying one extra can of something or another each time we go to the grocery store.  It adds up over time.

Pretty recently (and repeatedly) we have been in such a financial position as to make buying even 1 extra can impossible.  And we still are not able to save any money each week.  But I think I'm going to be able to start buy 1 or 2 extra cans each week.  The thing about this effort, small though it may be... and tricky as it is (even currently) to buy one can and NOT use it... is that I'm going to exercise my Faith that Father God will make it possible for us to have enough (and more) with only that which we can forecase we will need.  That way, the one or two cans I plan for storage will remain there for a while (at least beyond the week in which they were purchased).  Along this train (of thought), I'm going to get some quarters as cash from the next purchase and put them in one of our 72 hour kits.  1 or 2 dollars each week will eventually make a difference... and, no, I will not do quarters EVERY time... but it IS a good idea to have a good stash of them.  One day we might have to evacuate and have only those packs with quarters and dollar bills... anything higher and the machines that give change may not be able to help us (you know the ones at the rest stops).  And if it came down to it, I'd much rather honestly get the goods, than otherwise.  :)

It can be super tricky, but let's encourage each other to make baby steps in Faith to building our food storage, that we may fearlessly abide the day!

Tricky Tuesday #5

Finally... some pictures of the chicken coop portion of the goat shed/chicken coop structure in the part of our yard reserved for our pets (that are livestock)!

This is the front view of the goat shed, which is the back view of the chicken coop.

The chicken coop is, of course, on top.  Take note that there are protrusions

on either side of the chicken coop.  Those are nesting boxes.

 

 



Here we peek into the back of the chicken coop (the piece of plywood being lifted)

and see a waterer and a feeder in the middle and nesting boxes to either side.

Under the floor of the chicken coop, you can see a little bit into the goat shed.

 

 

We are looking in through the back door and UP.

Centered in the photo is the Wyendotte rooster

and a hen on each side of him.

You can kind of see into one level

of the nesting boxes off to the left.

 

 

Looking in through the back door again,

you see the nesting boxes on the right side

(looking at it from the back, of course).

And, of course, two hens on a roost.

 

 

 

This is the left side of the structure.

I hope you can see how the nesting boxes jut out just a little.

Oh, and do you see the home-made hinges on the nesting boxes?

Why yes, they are made of leather!

 

 

Nesting boxes on the left.

There are two levels and a divider in each,

for a total of 8 nesting boxes.

 

 

 

Wyendotte hens, one in each nesting box (lid lifted to look in).

 

 

This is looking directly at the right side of the structure.

 

 

Looking into the coop from a nesting box

on the right (when viewed from the back of the coop).

 

 

This is a view of the front of the chicken coop,

which is also the back of the goat shed.

The ladder for the chickens does NOT reach to the door.

Basically, it's just meant to help them

 get high enough to flap up to the door.

 

 

Almost the same perspective as the previous picture,

except that the opening into the coop is visible

because the board blocking it (in the first picture)

has been moved to the right (it juts above the height of the roof).

 

 

Although it's not perfectly discernable, the foundation of the structure was built by joining three pallets.  The pallets and other wood used in construction of this structure was either from pallets or used fencing material (all free).  And the hinges were made from old leather boots Jessie cut down and turned into hinges.  Although we did buy the boots, they were worn as footwear until the soles came off the leather uppers, so I call them free, too... since most folks would've put them in the landfill when they could no longer function as boots!

 

 

 

 

 



Tricky Tuesday #4

The chicken coop has been completely finished!  It looks amazing!!!

The underneath part, which is a goat shed, is also mostly complete.  It still needs a holder for hay and a couple holes covered up.  But the goats use it regularly, which is lovely to see!!!

The chickens, on the other hand... I hope we'll shut them up in it very soon (the Wyendottes, only) so that they learn to stay there and lay their eggs there for me!!

Jessie did a fabulous job executing my vision for the coop above the "shed"!  We don't have the sheckles (money) to buy hinges currently, but that didn't stop Jess from numerously hinging this beauty!!  Seriously!  It's awesome!!!

You want pictures?  Well, they'll come next week.  I've been rather busy and quite tired.  So, everything takes more time when those two combine!

I'll tell you a little, at least, for now:

So, the entry way for the goat shef faces the yard... so that we can see them enter/exit from the house if we look out.

The entrance for the chicken coop faces the opposite direction.

On both sides of the coop there are four nesting boxes that slightly jut out, thus not taking up valuable floor space.  On each side there are two levels of nesting boxes, each level has two boxes in it.  Thus we have 8 nesting boxes.  Since we have 8 hens currently, it seems to work out perfectly.  Of course, it's unlikely that they will lay in different boxes, but we're giving them plenty of room for it AND setting!  I sure hope the Wyendotte return to the broody behavior they exibited before moving here!

Each of the 4 levels of nesting boxes is hinged.  We had no money for hinges, so Jessie made hinges out of a pair of old leather shoes!!!  It looks amazing and works VERY well!!!

On the back of the coop there is a large hinged access door.  This door is so that we can add food and water and clean the floor.  To keep this door closed, Jessie installed a piece of wood with screws for stops on each side.  They flip up when I want to open the door and flip down to hold it closed.  Very nice.  Very resourceful!  Perfect for Tricky Tuesday!!

Oh, and ALL of the wood for this structure was free!  It can be tricky to save money... but it IS possible to make things happen even when resources are limited.

Tricky Tuesday #3

Here are some pictures of the almost complete pallet fence Jess has been building.  One gate is made from a salvaged gate I bought for $5 at a local fence place that sells salvages fence panels.  SUCH a great deal (with hardware, too!).  The other gate is almost complete.  It's missing its chicken wire top.  They'll probably open seperately, which I rather like.  :)

Do you see Kiara, our goat, resting in the old chicken tractor?

This picture shows the gate we already had that Jessie installed so well.

The new chicken coop/goat shed is WAY in the back left of this picture, too!

 

 

She's visible here, too... to the left of the picture.

This picture shows the use of a couple pallets that are both vertical.  Nice, right!?

 

 

I know this might look like a mish mash to some,

but to me it is beautiful!  I'd love to paint it, but we'll probably leave it be.

 

This is the end of the longest part of the fence,

which is parallel to our house.

 

 

This is looking at the shorter section,

which is perpendicular to our house and

almost meets it at the corner.

 

 

Here's the pallet gate Jessie created.

Dang, I shoulda taken a close picture of the hinge.

He used some hinged hasps without the looped part

to make the hinge for this door.  Great, right!!?

 

 

Here is the pallet gate closed.

This is the only unfinished part of the fence.

Above the pallet fence there will be a

hinged frame of chicken wire.

We would rather keep out goats and chickens,

thank you very much.  ;)

 

 

A view of the gate and into the yard.

 

 

You might've noticed that my gardens are a bit... overgrown.  Well, my friends, that's what happens when a hard worker like me is laid low.  The unwellness of my body after the miscarriage took a long time to heal.  Thankfully it's all healed up now.  Just have to straighten things out a bit more IN the house and then I'll be able to spend more time out of the house again.  Unfortunately, I haven't gotten a fall/winter garden in and it's looking less and less likely.  :(  ahwell

 

Jess did finish the half gate, I just haven't made time to take a picture yet... will do.



Tricky Tuesday #2

Pallet Trick #2

Use pallets as the foundational structure for a dual purpose structure.  Goat shed on the bottom and chicken coop on top.  Doors on opposite sides for less confusion and more seperation.

When it is complete, I will share a picture so you can REALLY see what I'm talking about.  It's AWESOME!  My design, Jessie's execution!  ^_^  We're a good team, me thinks.  :)

Tricky Tuesday #1

I've been thinking about starting a new weekly posting about "tricks" or tips for saving money around the house, garden, garage, farm... as the case may be.  I'm calling it "Tricky Tuesday" because it can be so super tricky to save money when building things up... whether it be the garden, decorating (HA... I don't do much of this), structures necessary for farm animals, or whatever.  I don't know that I have enough tips for every week, but I'm going to share what I think is valuable from my own experience... or what I desire to try out.  Mostly, though, I'm going to stick to what I've tried.  :)

For an introduction into this realm:

Jessie has been building a REALLY solid fence to seperate our chicken and goats (and hopefully, eventually, our rabbits) from the rest of the garden area.  He found a place locally that has lots of discard wood that they are super glad for others to break down and haul off.  They only require that you wear eye protection while you work there.  So, Jessie has scored tons of pallets and other wood.  He's using the pallets to build the lower portion of our fence!  He's hanging chicken wire (we purchased, but already had it on hand) across the top to prevent goats leaping the low wooden portion of the fence.  So far Kiara hasn't tried to get through, even though part of the fence is only chicken wire (and from the ground to four feet high).  We have been blessed that she has remained!  Thankfully Jessie is making is difficult for her to choose otherwise.

So, one way to use pallets as a trick to reduce expense.  :)