Homestead mailing list

[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Ah come on, Marie, be a sport...here's a good quote for you...

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing
your temper or your self-confidence. Robert Frost

Actually, IMO, the list has been dead for a long, long time.  In the
winter, people say we are hibernating or planning, in the other three
seasons, everyone is busy...I really wish someone would prove me wrong.
 There would be nothing I would enjoy more than seeing this list come
alive again.

Speaking for myself, I have a zillion irons in the fire, the least of
which is my job.  I just became certified as a Lead Auditor for ISO
14001, that is, Environmental Management Systems.  Woo hoo!  This is a
big deal for me.
Ron has decided that he likes gardening and is currently learning about
Fukuoka and Mollison and Permaculture and such.  He's jumped into the
deep end trying to design an irrigation system.  We have some t-tape and
other supplies for low pressure irrigation, so we are now trying to
design a way to pump rainwater from our collection tanks to a more
elevated platform.  We are looking at pedal power and tread/wheel power
ideas from the Handy Farm Devices book.  I think the system will be a
lot simpler than it sounds.

So far, I have all my cole crops started, broccoli, cauliflower,
cabbage, gailan, pakchoi, etc...they are up and growing, and I just
sowed my tomatoes and peppers, tomatillos, etc.  I have way too many
varieties of peppers to list.  We will be drying them and making paprika
 and chili powder blends.  I've also started some asparagus from seed,
but so far, nothing has germinated.  It's been 6 or 7 days.

I broke down and put a light in the coop for my chickens this winter and
we have been getting 13 or 14 eggs a day from 18 hens.  I just have
stopped the light because I want to give the birds a hormonal break.  I
feel guilty about inducing them to lay with light.  I don't like playing
God, (whatever-no offense intended to anyone), but having eggs in winter
is really nice.
My daughter had to move and we inherited her two cats, so now I have two
dogs and two cats.  Bear and Bingo are Australian shepherds(I just love
them!) and Jade and Beetle are our cats.  Jade, a gray tabby/Maine Coon,
is inside, Beetle, a typical orange tabby tomcat, is outside.  Beetle
became a bit aggressive with my leather sofa, so out he went.  He's a
sweetheart, just not suited for the house.  Jade, on the other hand, is
a fat cat who likes laying around and soaking up the heat of the woodstove.

Personally, I've got a few health issues going on...nothing too serious,
I don't think, but enough to create a distraction in life.  The rest of
the family is well...Ron is still cancer free, Kate is back in college
studying biology again, and TJ is still out driving submarines in
Hawaii.   Life goes on at EarthNSky.

Beverly, who really, really wanted to make a few political jabs, but
refrained... :)


Marie McHarry wrote:
> No. It's just been really, really quiet. I've noticed that usually in
>  the depths of winter when homesteading isn't so busy this list turns
>  to political discussion. Now that that topic has become something 
> that most of us what to ignore, I think everyone is hibernating.
>
> Marie
>
> On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 5:11 PM, Sandra Carrillo 
> <sanricov.2 AT gmail.com> wrote:
> > I was wondering the same thing, Tim! No news in weeks - is 
> > everybody snowed in? Or have we suddenly become socially 
> > unacceptable?

--
Many of our greatest American thinkers, men of the caliber of Thomas
Jefferson, Henry Thoreau, Mark Twain, William James, and John Muir, have
found the forest an effective stimulus to original thought.
Bob Marshall