Documentaries before tire walls...and gardens

Lat night Richard and I watched a film off of Netflix called, No Impact Man: The Documentary, which was about a man and his family who live in New York City. This man, Colin Beavan had set up a year long project in which he and his family reduced their impact upon the planet to almost nothing at the end of twelve months. It is well worth watching, and raises the question of how much we really need. Can we live more simply and thereby reduce our imprint upon the planet? While I'm not ready to give up toilet paper and refrigeration, I am always looking for affordable alternatives that take me one step further from corporate capitalism.

We have not canceled our Netflix subscription yet because we have stumbled upon a world of wonderful documentaries. Food Matters is another good one and I highly recommend it. I gave it to my sister for Christmas in the hope that she discovers that there really are alternatives out there to the traditional cancer treatments. In fact, most of our ailments can be cured by our diet, a simple truth that Corporate Medicine does not want people to know. Eat real food and get rid of the garbage---processed and packaged foods, chemically poisoned fruits and vegetables, genetically modified foodstuffs, hormone and antibody injected meat. Throw in a little exercise, some stress relieving meditation and you should live to a ripe old age, with the health to accomplish almost anything.

We also watched a film Go Further, in which Woody Harrelson  takes a road/bike trip down the west coast talking about environmental responsibility. Also pretty good, and interesting to see a movie star involved in the environmental revolution. Apparently Harrelson is quite the activist for many causes, including the right to grow hemp, which makes him a good guy in my book.

Check out these great films and share. We've got to keep talking and getting the information out if we hope to save the planet.

At home on the farm, we quietly allowed the new year to creep on in as we watched the needle on the thermometer drop to 2 degrees F and listened to the wind howl through the past few nights, threatening to tear the siding off of our manufactured home. We got about 1/2" of snow, maybe, but it sure has been cold. The critters are all safe and sound with heat lamps and heaters in their waters...except for some of the poultry, which we have to bring the frozen waterers in every morning to un-thaw and refill.

Came up with a new plan for our wall of tires: to make a bermed canning garden that will be sort of like a huge sunken bed or basin to collect any moisture we might get and retain it in the garden space. This will be our home garden for tomatoes and anything we can come up with to fill our pantry. Now Richard wants to work on the paths in this garden first, digging them down and refilling with would chips that will slowly decompose and hold moisture for nearby plants...something Rob over at One Straw talks about doing in his gardens.

And now the green house looks all cleaned up...at least on one side. The remaining tires are filled with wood chips to provide some thermal mass and act as insulator to the few plants planted in the greenhouse.

Since Richard discovered how much easier Earthbags seem to build with, as opposed to rammed tire building, he has no interest in even getting started on a tire wall, so I was left with the question of what to do with the tires we have accumulated. It came to me as I woke this morning...build a berm and basin garden out of them.

 So another project has been born. I hope the tires can be filled and covered with dirt from the center of the basin, and then planted with flowers and plants that deter predatory insects, or at least give the little buggers something to eat besides my tomatoes and peppers.

To be environmentally responsible, we must learn to use and reuse the items at hand, and try not to create more trash. I didn't want to throw the tires in the garbage because our ideas have changed. There will always be some use for them, if we get creative, and maybe in the end we will have to pound a few tires, but so what? I only want to move them out of sight of the covenant police, and the tire garden seems like it might be a good use of them...for now. Also, Richard has decided not to buy woven polypropelene bags from the manufacturers, but instead to find recycled ones...old feed bags or misprints, and the last time we went by the feed store, Dale had a half dozen bags his customers had brought back for us. Wonderful! And so it has begun..the Earthbag adventure.

Everyday is an opportunity to learn or to do something that will benefit the planet or the people on it. Do no harm. How can we all reexamine our own lives to see what few things we might give up that will lesson our personal impact on our environment? Could we hang our laundry outside on the clothesline? Could we take our own cups to Starbucks for our morning coffee? Could we stop buying dinners in a box and maybe make our own real food at home, where we can sit down with our family to eat it?

Our little daughter turned four yesterday, and we made the cake, frosting and ice cream from scratch, from our own eggs and our goats milk. It was wonderful knowing we did not have to alter our celebration because we no longer buy cake mixes, prepared frosting, or ice-cream. We are learning how to change our lives to fit our new paradigm of healthy living, environmental responsibility, and the lasting spiritual wisdom that comes as a side effect of simple living.

Fuzzy footed chicks and steaming mulch

Baby Bantam white Silkie

I got six more baby chicks on Friday. Two are interesting and four are run of the mill layers--New Hampshire Reds. One is the tiniest Barred Rock Bantam Cochin and the other is a white Silkie, also a Bantam. The Silkie has got to be the cutest little ball of fluff I have ever seen. I have fallen in love with a chicken! The Cochin is the tiniest chick in my chicken crib (rubbermaid container), but the one with the most attitude, running over to peck at my fingers when I fill the food dish. Could this tiny critter be a rooster? The two bantams are straight run, so we won't know what sex they are until they mature into their teenage bodies.

Tiny Bantam Barred Rock Cochin

The Cochins and the Silkies have feathered feet and are just amusing. I have decided to add chickens that are fun to look at to my flock. I still fantasize about a peacock wandering around our small farm, but haven't been able to find one locally...yet. I'd like to get some Araucanas which lay blue and green eggs, and some heirloom chicken varieties too, which used to be the standard on old family farms before agribusiness started breeding chickens for profit and mass laying capabilities.

Our organic eggs are a big hit with the Canon Co-op (http://www.canonfoodco-op.com/) members. Thank you guys! We are selling a dozen for $3.50 which is a bargain when a dozen sells for $3.66 at City Market in town. How about that? We will have to see if our price is enough to cover the cost of the certified organic feed. I know our chickens are happy chickens and the eggs are big with bright yellow, firm yolks. Backyard chickens are the best. I recommend a flock for everyone.


 Richard had been spreading leaves and mulch like mad. We got our second drop of wood chips from the tree trimmers, and the pile was steaming as it was dumped from the truck. It makes Richard soooo happy.  He has been working on the new flower garden space and will eventually move to the upper garden, which he has laid out on paper...keyhole gardens connected by a central garden path and anchored by our big raised bed which now contains garlic and onions.

I'm thinking perhaps our wall on the road side should become a wooden privacy fence, which we can buy and work on in segments. Originally we wanted to build a wall out of rammed earth tires or earth bags and cover it all with an adobe finish. Very nice, but we are having trouble coming up with the materials to get it all done and we need a fence to keep the deer out of our garden and to keep the neighbors eyes off of the tire windbreak surrounding the greenhouse. The tires don't seem to be a big hit...aesthetically speaking, but they work great to protect the greenhouse.

Tire wall wind protection

Today we are expecting another mulch drop, and hopefully we can move injured Guinea into the greenhouse. I took off his foot splint and his wound is healing nicely--all pink and healthy looking. He's squawking more and more into the evening hours when the little kids are asleep, so he has to move back to the great outdoors. Richard also has plans to either go into town and pickup the leftover grape squeezings (to make compost) from the Abby's wine making or to go to the alpaca ranch for a load of alpaca poop for our sheet mulch project. Maybe we can do both.

Saturday we went to a small farm in Florence that had llama poop for free and met the nicest family. The man may let me adopt a female llama to put in with our goats as a livestock guardian. He says he has too many and wants to find approved homes for some of them. We will wait and see. Wouldn't it be exciting to have more llama wool?

Oh, looks like the big orange truck is here with the wood chips....