Self Reliance in Troubled Times

Needing little, we have much.

Steve Spence — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 21:55:00 +0000

A good way to prepare for lean times, is to make sure you do not need much to survive. Our new downsized, efficient, off-grid log faced home should be ready to move into this fall. It's 1000' sq. ft., and heated with local wood, so it won't take any fossil fuels or electric to stay warm in our -40 winters. Our source of water is a seasonal spring feeding a cistern, with rain water harvesting. Indoors, there is a 12vdc pump, pressure tank, and a backup hand pump. Outgoing waste, isn't really waste. The compost toilet takes care of the humanure, and the grey water filter will prepare sink and bath water for irrigation purposes.

The solar panels, and our homebuilt wind turbine will provide the electric for our greatly reduced electrical needs. Where a typical on-grid home needs 30kWh daily, we are currently at 5kWh, and looking to slim to 3kWh daily. With the gardens in place, we are focusing on canning and food dehydration to get us through the winter. Our policy of no debt, no mortgage will get us through times of no employment, or under employment.

The big concern for us is healthcare, something we have not found a satisfactory solution for as of yet.

Another concern for us is community, building a network of likeminded friends and neighbors, where everyone can lend a hand in an emergency, or even share the labor, and the fruits of that labor in everyday tasks. There is a development in this area, which we will share soon.

Eating Sustainably

Steve Spence — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 23:00:00 +0000

We are getting the materials together for our garden, looking forward to the end of cold weather. The last spring frost will be close to the end of May, but we will have our gardening beds prepared before then. We start with cedar 4" x 4" timber, in 4' x 4' squares. We stack and screw these together 3 layers high, giving us a 12" deep bed. We then fill these beds with our special organic growing soil, which is as follows:

1 bag of coarse vermiculite (4 cu. ft.)
10 pails (2.5 gallon each) of sand (3 cu. ft.)
2 pails of wood ashes and charcoal
30 pails of compost (9 cu. ft.)

This 16+ cu. ft. mixture is mixed well, and will fill one bed. We then plant in the Square Foot gardening method per Mel Bartholomew. One bed feeds one person for a full season. Our well aged compost is a mix of kitchen and yard/garden waste, plus bedding from the animal pens, from the previous year. We keep an indoor worm bed in winter to process kitchen compost, and dump that container into the main compost bin after spring warmup. Next year when we have the new rabbit pens installed, the worm bin will go under the rabbit cages.

Additional reading:

Square Foot Gardening
The Humanure Handbook
Worms Eat My Garbage

http://sritt.green-trust.org

Government Program Seeks to Tag Every Livestock Animal in the United States

Steve Spence — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 01:53:00 +0000

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is embarking upon a new program that seeks to have every single livestock animal in the United States identified, tagged and possibly implanted with a radio chip. The highly controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS) would require anyone who owns even one livestock animal – such as a pigeon, rabbit, chicken or horse – to register that animal and its location in a federal database.

Read more at http://www.grit.com/article/2006/09/NAIS.html

Teach a man to fish ....

Steve Spence — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 11:24:00 +0000

Our good friend Jim Juczak at Woodhenge.Org made an interesting observation recently:

The old quote; if you give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, if you teach him to fish he'll feed himself for a lifetime" isn't quite enough. It should be more like "if you give a man a fish he'll feel he's entitled to get one from you every day, if you teach a man to fish he'll be hungry until he gets good at catching fish".

I don't want to tell people how to survive a crisis. That's too short of a timespan. I want to show them that sometimes the simple stuff works the best, but just like advanced technologies have their pitfalls, so do simple technologies. The problems of modern technologies are pollution, resource depletion and depersonalization of peoples. The problems of simple technologies are having to learn them and practice them until you become proficient at them. No instant gratification here! You actually have to ask and talk to people to learn how to do stuff efficiently. Yes, you can learn from a book or how to DVD, and I do this a lot of the time, but I find my efficiency level goes up at least an order of magnitude when I learn directly from 'them that's doin'.

Cuba Gooding Jr. Discusses Military Kids

Steve Spence — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:19:00 +0000

With more than 700,000 children of military families under the age of five separated from their mother or father this holiday season Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, has responded with a program geared to address the challenges military families face with deployment. The half-hour television special, entitled When Parents are Deployed, will be hosted by Academy Award � winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr., premiering Wednesday, December 27 at 9pm ET/PT on PBS (check local listings).

When Parents Are Deployed reveals candid and intimate moments with the parents, caregivers and children impacted by deployment. They express how they are coping with the daily stress and fears associated with having a parent depart for military duty, and how families deal with that member when they return home after serving their country. As the holidays can be a very difficult time for military families, Sesame Workshop saw this special as way to illustrate how this group of Americans is managing during times of extended separation.

More ....

Al Rutan - The Methane Man: Materials available once again!

Steve Spence — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 12:13:00 +0000

We received plans and descriptions of Al's methane digesters and the process of anaerobic digestion from Al's family. Video's are also coming soon. articles will be posted shortly at http://discuss.green-trust.org and the video's and documentation will be available on CD for a nominal fee, the proceeds going to building Al's methane digesters for off-grid communities. Woodhenge will be one of the first recipients of a Al Rutan digester. More info will be posted once the video tapes are converted to cd, and the documents scanned, ocr'd, and regenerated as PDF's.

The following articles will be published to our websites this weekend, time permitting:

The History of Anaerobic Digestion
Guidelines for the Process
Building a Methane Digester
Specifications of a Methane Digester

Additional info can be found in the back issues of ESSN Magazine, Homepower Magazine, and Alternative Sources of Energy Magazine.

More gardening titles

Steve Spence — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 21:24:00 +0000

In addition to the Square Foot Gardening title we are re-reading, we picked up a copy of Ruth Stout's "No-Work Garden Book" from the local library book sale for $1. A fascinating title that claims that you can garden with little effort, we have come to believe and agree, although her ideas on composting in place have not taken hold here, as we enjoy our composting bins and the dark earth that results, and use the end product where it's needed. Much like Gus Portokalos from My big Fat Greek Wedding's use of windex on everthing and anything, Ruth's answer to every gardening ill was mulch, to great success. A wonderful review of this great lady and her ideas can be found at Homestead.Org

Square Foot Gardening - maximizing space & effort

Steve Spence — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 11:55:00 +0000

We are re-reading one of our favorite books, Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening, and are intrigued by a question he raises in his introduction; "Does anyone know the real reason people garden?". For us, the answer is easy. We want a sure supply of affordable healthy food. We want to be sure that our food is chemical free, available when we need it, and won't break our budget keeping us fed. Mel shows how in a single 4' x 4' square, you can grow in two months the following supplies:

32 carrots
12 bunches of leaf lettuce
18 bunches of spinach
16 radishes
16 scallions
16 beets
9 Japanese turnips
5 pounds of peas
1 head of cabbage
4 heads of romaine lettuce
1 head of cauliflower
1 head of broccoli

If you need more, grow another square, and many more vegetable types are explained in his book. His method almost eliminates the hours typically spent maintaining a garden in a healthy weedless state. Well worth the read.

Todd wood-fired cook stove arrived

Steve Spence — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:32:00 +0000

Our new Todd wood-fired cook stove has arrived, and is being assembled. The chimney pipe is back-ordered, but should be here soon. We look forward to cooking Thanksgiving dinner with it, and hope to learn how to use it before that day arrives.

Canning Time

Steve Spence — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:58:00 +0000

This weekend while Jim and I were building the components of the wind tower, Linda was making applesauce for water bath canning, and preparing carrots for pressure canning. She also found time to make a delicious apple pie. Jim put up apple cider in carboys for future consumption.

Down to the Roots - Self Reliance Magazine

Steve Spence — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 12:29:00 +0000

We just recieved back issues of Down to the Roots, a fantastic self sufficiency magazine. What makes this one unique is that it's packed with hands on DIY info, room in the margins for taking notes, and no ads to interrupt the information flow. everything is flowed in an easy to understand "this is how we do it" format. We highly recommend this one!

Sustainable Agriculture in Iowa, and in Politics

Steve Spence — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:39:00 +0000

“My husband Larry Harris and I have been organic farmers for over 30 years, and we have been advocates of sustainable agriculture since we started farming. When my daughter was born we established an informal co-op with local families and farms so we could get fresh, local and healthy food. Practicing sustainable agriculture protects our environment, and increases the revenue of local farms. Encouraging communities all over the state to practice sustainable agriculture would be an important goal in my administration. Sustainable agriculture enriches communities by building stronger ties between producers and consumers.”

Denise O'Brien, O'Brien for Secretary of Ag, Iowa

Des Moines I.A.-- Today Denise O’Brien, Democratic candidate for Secretary of Agriculture reaffirmed her support for local control of placements of animal confinements.

The local control issue has been a divisive issue for many Iowans as well as for elected officials. O’Brien believes that local control continues to be "the biggest difference between me and my opponent. My opponent thing thinks the state government should hold all the power- I think communities should most."

"This issue is about freedom. Counties deserve the freedom to make these decisions in the same way they do for every other industry," said O’Brien.

"People opposed to local control worry that Iowans are unable to make sound, reasonable decisions without being driven by emotions. I trust Iowans, and I think local decisions are better for the people who have to live with them."

O’Brien believes the legislature should set the basic minimum standards, but counties have the right to build upon these standards. O’Brien doesn’t believe the issue needs to be divisive and wants to bring people together to resolve the issue.

The recent rule giving the DNR discretion in the placement of animal confinements has added to the debate over local control. O’Brien views the recent rule change as, “an imperfect, but a necessary stop-gap to be used in the short term while the state transitions to local control.”

O’Brien believes that the resolution of the local control issue is “key to provide the freedom needed for safe and healthy, families, farms and Iowa.”

Rain Water Harvesting

Steve Spence — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 21:17:00 +0000

In many parts of the world, water tables are dropping, and clean sources of drinking water are getting hard to find. The price of bottled water is increasing, and leaves you less self sufficient. One source of water in many climates is rain water harvesting. Catching the rain from roof runoff, and purifying it can be less energy intensive than pumping from hundreds of feet deep in the earth, and cleaner than surface water.

A good source of info on this subject can be found at http://www.rainwaterharvesting.net/

Canning your food for the off-season

Steve Spence — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 23:53:00 +0000

The folks at Ball, the makers of canning jars and other products, made available a ton of good info on putting away food for non-growing season. Although they left that business in '93, it is maintained at http://www.homecanning.com

We still have our Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, and it's a valuable reference.

Growing your own independence

Steve Spence — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 14:32:00 +0000

One of the primary ways to becoming more self reliant, is to grow your own food, both meat and vegetables, in a sustainable healthy manner. One of the best web resources is the Small Farms Library at Journeytoforever.org

There is a whole set of prinicples that embodies the concept of nutrient cycles, and not creating waste. This concept is called Permaculture, for Permanent Agriculture. There are a number of good resources, and I encourage submissions to be linked here, but a good starter site is the Permaculture Association in the UK.

Welcome to Self Reliance

Steve Spence — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:43:00 +0000

As you may surmise, we believe that severe hardship is ahead of us, and is already here in many parts of the world. We don't believe life is going to improve, we work hard to learn to be more self sufficient, and share with others what we have learned. Regardless of whether you believe the Biblical account of the end times or not, wars and rumors of wars, severe weather patterns, water and power shortages, and disease are common occurances worldwide. So please visit with us a bit, and follow along as we post self reliant tips, and articles about world events that we believe have a bearing on what we must do to survive.

Joel Rosenberg on Current Events in the Middle East

Steve Spence — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:36:00 +0000

PHILLIPS: So, Joel, are we living in the last days? I mean, let's talk about the specific signs to watch. You've written about them. What does the Bible say, and are we there?

JOEL ROSENBERG: People are very interested, I agree. Tim and Jerry's books deal with the Rapture, the disappearance of the Church and the events going forward through the Book of Revelation. My series -- The Ezekiel Option, The Copper Scroll -- deal with events that could lead up the Rapture and the return of Christ. Yes, people are interested because the rebirth of Israel, the fact that Jews are living in the Holy Land today, that is a Bible prophecy. When Iran, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Russia begin to form an alliance against Israel those are the prophecies from Ezekiel 38 and 39, and that's what I'm basing my novels on. I've been invited to the White House, Capitol Hill, by Members of Congress, Israelis, Arab leaders -- all want to understand the Middle East through the lens of Biblical prophecies. I'm writing these novels that keep seeming to come true, but we're seeing Bible prophecy bit by bit unfold in the Middle East right now.

http://joelrosenberg.blogspot.com/