As some may remember I dug a post hole and filled it with compostables to see if it would help my harvest any.

I let it sit for a couple of months before planting, I put two other tomotao plants next it to act as a control. I planted all three plants at the same time. The first in the spot with the aged compost, the next was fresher compostables and the 3rd in plain old dirt.

We had grown tomatoes in the same location and had really good out put so I figured this would really boost the plants growth. The plant in the aged compost grew quickly and was about four times the size of the other two in about two weeks.

The other two grew slowly but eventually caught up in size, well sort of. They never got quite as big but they did get around 3′ foot tall. The plant that grew the best also had the most buds but never produced any edible fruit. The plant in fresh compost put on three decent tomatoes though it too was loaded with buds and the one in regular soil put one one tomato.

All in all it was disappointing at best and I suspect chemical drift may have affected our plants. The smell of 24D was pretty strong a couple of times and the leaves curled up a bit. After talking to several people it seems it was not a great year for tomatoes here, no one else it seems had much luck with thier tomatoes either.

When the snow melts I will dig another hole and try my experiment again just to see what happens. I can’t help but think compost that’s broken down for months should help the plants grow. I mean Native Americans would put a fish with a kernel of corn so a foot or two of compost should make a tomotao happy, right?

If anyone can see the error in my thinking or has tried this, please let me know your thoughts and results. I’ve had a lot of people make a lot of wild claims as to why this is a horrible idea but offer nothing substantive to back thier claims. I lack thier fear of possible bacterial infections from compost.

As I sit here writing this the thought has occurred to me that this time around I will try my experiment in the spot where I had planted in plain dirt last season and see if time has improved the soil where I’d buried the compost last time. I’ll add another plant in plain soil as a control. If nothing else I should have some happy worms.

When I first moved here there were no worms to be found, the soil was a hard compacted adobe, a lot of the ground is still hard but I keep working on it, there is grass growing and the currants keep spreading as do the mulberry. We have some big night crawlers too. The soil continues to improve and so do our yields though there is much left to do.

Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings and I wish you the best of luck in your ambitions both big and small!

I have not posted in some time now. To those who follow my blog, I apologize.

  I would love to be a prolific writer, I really would but to be honest between working full time, raising three young boys and pursuing my many hobbies and life goals writing seems to be more of an after thought than anything. I will try to do better this year, getting and staying organized is a top priority as well! I start out great but seem to slip as time goes by.

There are new plants, places to go, kids to chase, animals to be taken care of etc.. However we never really know how much time we have left, taking care of business takes up a lot of time and fretting over things that won’t matter in five years from now is a waste of time. I’m working on building a life I don’t need a vacation from! As should we all.

Enough rambling, on to what’s going on today. I realized the boys go through an amazing number of socks in a given year. I feel as though I could retire if only I didn’t have to feed thier sock addiction. Once, many years ago I lucked upon a sock knitting machine, not a little hobby type one either. I was disabled at the time and figured if I could learn to make socks I could make some money. As fate would have it was missing a few critical parts and I ended up having to move away. It got left behind, I think it was donated to the same thrift shop I’d bought it from.

Fast forward to today, I’m 3D printing a small hand crank sock knitting machine.

Crank gear and cylinder pictured above. I was going to buy one of the ones available on Ebay and Amazon but was told by countless people that those machines was more for slipper type socks and possibly boot socks but only two of us actually wear boots. I priced circular sock knitting machines and found the ones I was interested in cost considerably more than I was willing to pay for something that may not get used a lot.

As I was looking for an alternative I stumbled across the stls for the machine I’m printing now. When I first got my printer I mostly made silly things but as time progressed I started making more practical things. Glasses holders, phone and tablet stands. Then I started printing 18650 battery holders fot the Tesla style power wall that I am currently working on. And now this, a machine that can make things we need.

I’m thinking if this works well and the boys enjoy using it I will attempt to use this one to make molds to cast a machine in aluminum for each of the boys. They of course may not want one when it’s so much easier to just buy socks premade. But what if is always stuck in my head, I’m learning skills and prepping for an event that could cause major hardships. It may never happen but I feel I need to cover all the bases for a just in case and I am teaching the boys how to do things for themselves just in case. I will post more as I near completion and get this thing figured out.

I plan on making cheese and yogurt from sctarch without buying a starter for my next adventure so if anyone has hints or tips on making socks, cheese or yogurt please feel free to share your experiences! I hope everyone has a prosperous and happy new year!

Those who’ve know, us for long know that solar power has held an interest for quite some time now! It started many years ago when my mom brought home a lightbulb that had a black and white spinner inside. The heat from the suns rays would cause the little spinner to turn. It caught my imagination and made me wonder how far things with solar could go.

I could have never imagined it being where we are now! In the other house where we where living I put up the first solar panel about fifteen years ago, give or take a few years. I had found a panel that had fallen off of someone’s truck or perhaps dropped off by one of the many high winds we have out here.

At first I used it as a battery charger. It was a 50 watt panel and served the purpose rather well. I looked into other panels but was put off by the price and bought into all the pay back period nonsense! By nonsense I mean there are many things such a concept does not take into consideration and so should be taken with a grain of salt! It doesn’t take into consideration that the money your saving on electricity may be invested in stocks or bonds or even drawing interest in a savings account or allowing you to buy something else you were wanting. Personally I find it hard to place a value on the peace of mind you get when you start producing even a small amount of your own electricity!

Now don’t get me wrong, I know for many a pay back period is a serious consideration and if one is paying twenty to fifty grand to have a system installed then it should certainly be considered as well as other things such as will said system allow for expansion? Etc.

Now from where I stand, I couldn’t care less about a pay back period! I’m buying things a little here and there and intalling components as I go. I should perhaps be buying larger panels but find the 100 watt panels I’m getting for under $100 fit my needs and don’t hurt my budget. I’m starting with a clean slate here and so will build my system to fit our needs. I will start with led lights that will be 12 volt and go from there, one room at a time..

I picked up a fairly inexpensive MPPT charge controller that had good reviews. If your considering a DIY solar system I recommend you buy the best you can afford or at least learn the minimum you can live with! I once bought a so called 50amp charge controller from Wish. I finally got around to using it only to learn all the fancy buttons on the left hand side are really just stickers that do nothing! If something is priced to good to be true it more than likely is! I feel this is getting to be a bit long winded so will make other blog posts to cover more as I go! Best of luck to everyone going this route, please feel free to share your experiences with solar!

Some time back I decided I wanted to build an earthship. So I started to save bottles and jars and have enough aluminum cans that I could probably get a decent amount of change if I turned them in but that’s a discussion for another day!

For now my main focus is on storage. Not sure if others see things like I do and expect many do not. That being said I had some dried goods put up in thier original bags. Bad idea for me! They were stored in a place I don’t spend much time anymore and mice got into my stores! Sneaky little critters ate their way up from the bottom and the middle leaving the bags looking full until I decided to do some reorganizing.

The bags collapsed in on themselves and I realized I lost some 30lbs of assorted beans and rice. Since then my jars are used for drinking glasses as the boys break any good glasses I buy and I find the lids are handy in the Summer months the keep bugs out but more importantly for storage. Beans, rice or grains that will be stored for any length of time go into glass jars with lids, haven’t lost any dried goods stored in glass. I’d like to find squared shaped jars to minimize wasted space. On a micro homestead storage space is of special consideration but for now this is cost effective, keeping glass out of the landfill and serving my purpose rather well! If anyone has thoughts or ideas on this I’d like to hear what you have to say! Hope you have a great day!

Brayzen had to have a golden zucchini! And so we planted one together, it gets a good soaking every morning and is still damp at bed time. The grasshoppers are already coming out and it’s easy to see the damage they are causing, however we have Fred guarding our zucchini and it has almost no damage. Meet Fred.

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The boys and I were gifted a food box and in the box was a 1lb bag of apparently raw hazelnuts. I grabbed a handful and have decided to see if they will grow for us. They would be a great addition to our ever growing food forest! Here’s a link for some information on hazelnuts should anyone be interested!

Laura had me dig these up from someone looking to clear out a good chunk of thier yard. Just started to bloom the other day, flowers are just a little smaller than a paper plate.

Crying shame she isn’t here to enjoy them. The fragrance is very pleasant! To my way of thinking not every single thing on a homestead, even one as small as mine has to have a utilitarian purpose! Though it could be argued that since pollinators enjoy flowers that they do serve a purpose. Not too mention you can eat them. Do a little research and you just might find a use for yours!

Not that there’s anything wrong with taking time to kick back and just enjoy thier beauty!

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The pictures below are of two tomato plants planted a day apart. Last year I decided to experiment a little. Nothing real crazy but the thought of burying compostables where I wanted to grow my plants occured to me. I had a one gallon ice cream bucket filled to the top with things destined for the compost pile. So I dug a hole about a foot deep and dumped the contents into the hole and covered it up. I ended up with two more of the gallon buckets full and went ahead and buried one in each of the other two spots this year where I wanted to plant. Though I’m sure the worms are loving the fresher material the plants are not seeming to much care for it. It had been left in the buckets for a couple of months and I figured it wouldn’t hurt anything. I need to do some weeding but you can see a huge difference at two weeks in. I’m hoping the other two plants catch up as Summer progresses but we will see! The youngest boy, Brayzen in his zeal to help plant pulled all the markers out of the pots so I have no clue which variety is which. Lol

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Laura had a good sized planter with Spanish moss in it that sits out by the front door on a small glass table.0 Decided to clean it out from last year so that the new growth would have room to grow. Comes back every year and it’s never ceased to amaze me how the colors change each season! Anyways while the youngest, Brayzen and I are cleaning the pot out I found another Currant, since they grow pretty big I decided to repot it. Now I need to find a good place to plant it.

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Should have taken a picture much sooner, this bush was loaded with buds, you can still see a few. Not everyone likes currants but the boys and I find them tasty. These were started by birds and are spreading a little more every year! Hoping this year we have enough to make a little jam with.