Goodbye May

What a tough month May has been. More so in these past couple of weeks.

We have already been threatened with fires twice now. No rain for over a month has made the green pastures turn bone dry and the abundant grass has now turned into a nightmare waiting to happen. One large 600 acre fire has already gotten so close we could started evacuation procedures.
I fear it will only get worse in the coming months.

On the flip side this week has brought relief by way of some rain. The problem with that is the mid ninety degree days stir up sever thunder storms in the late evenings.
Every night this week, forty to seventy mile per hour winds have ran it's course through the Mini Farm creating damage and problems.
The green house was ripped apart by the high winds two nights ago and what is left of gardens are all broke and down from the one last night. There are other things that have been damaged as well but there is no use in listing them.

With the rains also come no work. I am in a business that depends on the weather. Good weather means good paychecks and bad weather means bad ones. It is the nature of the beast I guess.

From one extreme to the other, never on middle ground. One step forward, two back. Yin & Yang, Blah, Blah, Blah.....  

As you can tell there has been nothing good to write about. I have racked my brain to try and entertain you good folks, but yet the words will not come.

This weekend will be all about getting things back in order. I need to re-shingle the chick barn and fix the greenhouse for sure. Then do some fence mending and fix some other little things that were tore up.
I hope to save as much as I can from the gardens, if not the pigs will be eating really good for the next couple of days.

Y'all have a good weekend.        

Three Day Weekend Review.

It got hot in a hurry. No kidding, it almost hit 100 out there today.
The good thing is the mornings are still comfortable. The bad part of that is, no sleeping in if you want to get anything done before it gets hot.

 I got the one key element of the solar laundry room out of the way this weekend which was the hand powered washing machine.
The first two loads went off without a problem so Sunday morning it was time to showcase it in front of the girls and see how they would take to it.

To my surprise six loads in and they were looking for more to wash. I am sure it is because it is new, but just for that little bit of time we were together and working as a team for a greater good, even it was just washing clothes.
I looked at it as more of the washing of the soul.

The above picture is "Wee" on the Wash Board gittin after it. Now she can tell her kids she has done it.

Even the wife likes it and would like to do the wash in it at least once a week. She says it's the workout she is needing. I am grinning from ear to ear over it.



Today we decided to beat the heat and head to the lake. No, not the part where everyone else is at. We know of some real nice places reachable only by a four wheel drive so that keeps most of the riffraff out. The wife and I parked our chairs under the shade tree and took out our favorite reads while the girls played and splashed in the water.
We were all together having fun just like old times, I wished it could last forever.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and took time to remember the ones who gave their lives so we could have that weekend.  

Hand Powered Washing Machine Update

With two loads ran through the new Modern Day Hand Powered Washing Machine I can say with confidence it is a success.

Recap:
I came up with this design for a hand powered washing machine using two thirty gallon plastic drums cut three inches above center and a double plunger system. The wringer in the middle makes for a user friendly back and forth motion from the soap to rinse tubs.

The above picture is of the rinse side and the one below is of the washing side.

 The plungers were made from circles cut from scrap wood and attached by all thread to the swivel hangers on the arm. There are two sizes for each side with the smaller one on the bottom. The bottom edges of the circles are routed to lessen the splash when they displace the water.

All assembled and plumed in ready for her first load.

I did not get a picture of it because my hands were soapy, but I did wash board my jeans to aid in removing some of the stains.
After adding the homemade liquid soap, the load of clothes and letting them soak for a few minutes I finally got after my very first hand washing.  I found out there is kinda a trick to the plunging. You get into this rhythmic motion and the plungers start rocking back and forth to were they plunge the ends and middle making it where you do not have to agitate the cloths by hand very much. Even though, I still stirred the laundry around by hand while I was plunging just to make sure everything got a good pounding.
The dirty water indicated I was doing some good.

I kept up the plunging for about 10 minutes or so and then used the wringer to squeeze out most of the soapy water and on to the rinse cycle.

With a cute little paddle I made, I stirred the clothes around until I felt they were rinsed enough.

Then back through the wringer one more time and onto the clothes line to dry.

All and all I had a good time with it. I did have to take a couple of breaks during the plunging cycles but that's okay. I was using muscles I forgot I had and my left shoulder was about to give out but I manned up and plunged on.

Two loads and I bet I burnt a thousand calories. I now have a new respect for the old timers.

So there you go folks, kicking it Pioneer style here at the Mini Farm.

Have You Ever

I am not in the egg selling business, but I do sell eggs. Does that make any sense?

I do not promote my eggs to sell because I have been down that road too many times and it is a pain in the butt trying to get them to people, all for a couple of dollars.

Saying that I do have people ask me if they can buy them. I always answer yes because you never know what other add on sells you can sell them in the future. A dozen eggs today, hot sauce and jerky tomorrow, you get what I'm saying.

Today at work this lady comes up to me out of the blue and asks if I sold eggs. I told her I could if she wanted me to. She asked how my chickens were raised and if they were free ranged. I get this question a lot and my answer is always yes. She then asked me if my eggs were organic. I cannot say that they are because I refuse to pay the money for some lab nerd to come out and test me and then tell me what I already know so I say to the lady that I do not feed chemicals to my birds or plants.
The next question was a first for me. She asked if I pasteurize my eggs before I sell them. Not catching on to what she was asking right away I said, yes all my birds are pasture raised.
"No, I mean pasteurized like milk so I can eat them raw" she corrected me.
 I told the nice lady no and that was the end of our discussion.

If handled and stored correctly there is a 1 and 20,000 chance a egg has harmful bacteria in it. The process is easy by heating up the egg to 135 degrees and then refrigerating it. This will not cook it if done right but I don't understand why you would need to.

After further reading, I found that the professionals say to use pasteurized eggs when making any food where the egg will be raw.
So for all these years my chocolate pies with three inches of meringue on top could have killed me, hu. Go figure.

Am I wrong or is this just another scare tactic so we will buy six dollar a dozen eggs at the health food store?
Or maybe I am just sheltered and have been risking it all this time.

Have you ever used or made Pasteurized eggs?
       

Hand Powdered Washing Machine

I know I have been talking about it for a while now so I finally got around to starting my Old Fashioned Solar Laundry Room with a Modern Day Redneck Twist.

(By the way, how do you like my shade tree shop)

First off is building the Washing Machine. I picked up two 30 gallon plastic drums from a buddy of mine and cut them in half  3" above center.
Then I built a stand to hold both barrels out of scavenged 2X4's and placed the wringer right in the middle between the two.

The side to the right of the wringer will be the wash tub and the left side is the rinse side.
The wringer has fins so whatever way you crank it the water will run back into that tub.

I did as much as I could with wood before heading over to my dad's metal shop to fabricate the pieces that will hold the lever and the plungers all together. All from scavenged material.    

After it was most of the way assembled it was time to eat so I will finish it another day.
The plungers will hang from the Black Smith made "U" brackets that are attached to the handle. They will hang from All-thread and the plungers will be made from stacks of different diameters of wood about 6" thick, you will just have to see it when it's done. It's pictured in my head and hard to explain.

I still need to install the drains and set it in place. The water source will be from the rainwater storage units which is pumped through the Solar Bath house so I can have hot water on demand.

Speaking of which, I need a shower. Y'all have a great week.

Love Ya Later

A couple of weeks ago I was on the way home from looking at a truck my friend had for sell. I had to stop and get gas and when I did, I saw one of those new, expensive, fancy phones laying in the road. I swerved to avoid hitting it and pulled up to the pump. While the nozzle was running on automatic I walked out to the road and picked up the phone knowing full well it had to be ruined. I hit the button and it came right on. The little thing did not even have a scratch on it.

I am a firm believer in Karma. You can call it anything you will, but I feel strongly about doing what is right and in turn you will sometimes get it handed back to you.

After several minutes of calling everyone in the phone's recent call list I finally got a hold of one of the owners friends. He said he would call the owner of the phone and have him call me back.
A couple of minutes later the phone rang and a woman came on the line saying she had just found my wallet on the highway and wanted to give it back. After explaining to her I had found the guys phone we had a good laugh about both trying to return the lost items and the night this guy must of had.

He finally called his phone and we decided on a place to meet which was about fifteen miles out of my way but I was doing a good thing, right? I also informed him about the kind lady finding his wallet and told him I would call her with the plan.

The lady with the wallet pulled up and we had one more good laugh about the whole situation before a brand new Cadillac rolled into the parking lot. I was expecting a young  irresponsible adult who had a wild night but what stepped out of that car was a older well dressed man that hung his head in shame.
Of course being the nosy person that I am I had to ask him how he lost his stuff all at one time. He said he just bought a thirty thousand dollar cigar boat and took it out on the water for the first time yesterday and forgot to grab his phone and wallet off the back before heading home from the boat ramp.

He than thanked me, reached into his wallet, crumbled up a twenty, threw it through my window, said "Love ya later" then took off.

"Love You Later!" I could not react quick enough and if I had I would have shoved the twenty down his smug, rich throat.  

By the time I realized what just happen, found and grab the money, unbuckled and got out of the truck, he was already driving away.

I hope I find his phone again one day, Karma will just have to take a back seat for a while.         

The New Cool

I guess it all depends on where your from and how you were raised that determines if doing something is an embarrassment or just plain natural.

I was raised with old school pride, simple as that. We had what we had, dealt with what we didn't have and never asked for anything. Dad slaved away his youth to provide for his family while mom kept the home front and us kids in order. We were frugal, simple homesteaders that cared for ourselves and others.

I am fortunate enough to say even though I could have qualified for most of the programs, I have never eaten a free government meal, took free government money or had the government provide for me in any way.
I understand those programs are in place for the people who need them and I do not look down at the ones who get that assistance if needed. I may one day have to as well.

A lot of that old school environment I was raised in rubbed off on me. I know it sounds silly but Goodwill and the Thrift stores were places I would not show my face, I had too much pride. It wasn't that I was any better than the people who shopped at those places, it was that I worked for a living and thought I needed to fend for myself. I was extremely poor just starting out in life as an adult and I felt those places were for the more needy than me.

It wasn't until just a couple of years ago I felt comfortable even being in Dollar General or stepping foot in Goodwill. If you have been a reader for awhile you also know just last year I had big issues on dumpster diving doing it only at night and without anyone watching.
I was still frugal though. I built what I needed, repaired what was broke and scavenged whatever I could find. I kept piles of junk around just in case there was something I might need in the future because yuo just never know.

Where I am going with all this talk is this, the lifestyle I have lived my whole life is now the new cool. I see people who once called me names like white trash, uneducated hillbilly and the armpit of humanity living the same lifestyle. The last time I was at Goodwill looking for deals I noticed several very expensive cars out front. Upon entering the store it was easy to see who owned them. These were the people who dressed in expensive clothes wearing expensive jewelry yelling at the store clerk to give them a better deal like this was Walmart or something.

They have infiltrated all aspects of frugality. You see them at the storage auctions running the price up just hoping they find a buried treasure like they do on the TV show. You see them in the thrift stores haggling with the price so they can brag to their friends on how they bullied the sells guy into a lower price. You see them at the trash dump loading more into their Cadillac Escalades than they brought with them.
This in turn has started driving the price of junk up, but it is not about the money to them. They would spend twice the amount on a older item than buy a new one and call it antique even though it is junk.

A new kind of second hand store just opened up close to where I work and they cater to the new movement of the frugal rich. It sure does not look like any second hand store I ever been in before that is for sure. I could not even afford the broom they sweep the floors with at that place.

So when did this movement start? Maybe you have seen it and maybe you haven't, but I sure have.
When standing in line behind a chick that has more plastic body parts than my truck and she is bragging to the cashier on how she is screwing the man by making the government buy her food, something ain't right. Or this high kept lady at Dollar General haggle over fifty cents then walking out and getting into her new Bentley, something ain't right. Or the guy in his business suit at the restaurant throwing a fit over his 3/4 eaten, slightly undercooked steak and when the manager takes his plate and says not to worry about the bill, he winks at me and says "That's how you get a free steak", something ain't right.

All I can say is they are giving me a bad name. The next time I am asked if I am frugal, I don't know if I want to admit it or not.
You might say these people are not frugal, they are just being jerks. The problem is, they are calling themselves frugal and they think it's cool. Maybe it is as simple as they were once like me and being frugal got them where they are today and by keeping up and expanding their practices into "Jerkhood" they are able to maintain their lifestyle. 

If this is the new cool then I don't want any part of it. I need to come up with a new name, maybe "Cheapo" will do for a few years. But I know deep down I was frugal before frugal was cool.

If you have seen it, what is your take on the new cool movement of the frugal rich?

Unequally Yoked As A Prepper

The apostle Paul wrote to the saints in Corinth, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14, KJV).

I understand Paul was talking about our and our mates individual belief in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. If you were raised in any type of religious environment it is taught that we need to "Yoke" ourselves to the same. Setting color and ethnicity to the side, our partners beliefs need to be close to same in order for the relationship to work without spiritual conflict.

As with all things there are exceptions. I know couples who have been married for years that are of different beliefs. One being Baptist and the other Catholic. I asked one fifty year couple how it all worked for so long and he said they never talk about it. They just do their own thing. I guess if it works, it works but how sad is it not to be able to fellowship with your own beloved spouse.

If we married ourselves it would boring. There has to be some differences to make life interesting. Maybe my wife likes Mexican food a lot more then me or I like Rock climbing more than her. The differences are what makes life more interesting and those small differences we all have with one another should not stand in the way with how we live. I will compromise and eat tacos more than I would like while the wife compromises and stays at the bottom of the rock cliff cheering me on telling me not fall.

But what if our mates do stand in the way. We could be on the same page on just about everything in life except the one we feel so strongly about and it will make for a disaster waiting to happen. We also evolve as we get older and gain knowledge. What did not interest me twenty two years ago when I wed my be my main focus today. If she is not of the same mind set then conflict will happen and the same the other way as well.

I am not comparing Religion to Mexican food or anything of the sorts.
Here's the bottom line, What if a survivalist weds a non-survivalist, a homesteader to a apartment dweller that does not want to move, a prepper to a spender or a farmer to a high kept city gal? He/she will will never get the support or backing unless one or the other changes their mind set to become more like the other.

Doing your own thing will only last for a while, but when you come home with a new survival gadget when the other one wants to buy a new dog sweater, that is where the trouble starts. I may like the shade from my trees, but the wife may want more sun for her new garden. What if I want to buy extra food at the store for my preps but she wants to go out for dinner, conflict is inevitable when we are unequally yoked in that way.

Everyone can compromise to an extent. I can only buy some extra food and then take her to McDonald's. Do we both win, or do we both loose? Neither got what we really wanted.

Aside from food storage, what about just living. As we get older we tend to want to eat better to preserve what little precious life we have left. Eating better means buying more expensive organic foods or growing your own. If I had no help in the gardens or harvesting and preserving the foods and the wife was against the very nature of me doing such dumb things, then I would eventually become bitter while I watched my mate eat the food I labored for.
Don't get me wrong, being unable to help is one thing, but complaining and blatantly sitting on the couch refusing to help while I clearly need it is something entirely different.

I am lucky that I found a woman with the same mind set as I do. I can only remember a hand full of ideas she has turned her nose up at, but then helped out anyway. Being yoked to the same thought process is a wonderful thing. We may differ on how to do it, but the end result is that it gets done. Backing and support are everything when trying to do all this and it is really hard to do it when someone you love is not with you in every step.

No, prepping/homesteading is not as big a deal as my beliefs in the creator, but understanding and support are pieces of the puzzle I call marriage. I should only hope you all are equally yoked to your spouse in all this and for for the ones who are not, I say to hang in there and do what you can, maybe they will turn around.

 

Howdy X2

I want to take a moment to Introduce and Welcome the two newest members of the Modern Day Redneck family.
If you have a moment please check them out and show your support.

Lynda has a real nice homesteading blog over at http://cortinacreek.blogspot.com/

Johnathan just started a great survival blog at http://urbunkers.blogspot.com/ 

Thank y'all for hitting the follow button. Comments are always answered and if you need anything else you can email me.
Thank you again,

Have We Gone Soft Or Just Scared

Not to long ago every time I clicked on my blogger dashboard and scrolled down through the list of blogs I am currently reading, seven out of ten would be talking about prepping, surviving and all the other stuff that goes with it. Have we met our peek?

The other day I saw two out of ten talking about food storage. One was saying on how she makes up her cooking mixes for a later use and the other was talking about canning. Are we at a threshold of our knowledge on this? Surely I say there is more to learn.

The one thing through all our blogs, at least the ones I read, nobody talks about a bunker. Does any of us have one?

 Maybe some of us do, but want to keep it a secret. I don't blame you if you do.
If the Dooms Day Prepper show has taught us anything it is to keep our heads down and our mouths shut, right?

I want to see one of us take on a massive undertaking. To stretch the limits on something we never done before and make us say wow. (Me first right)

Sure we all should now have a bug out bag and should already have tested it out to see if what we have in the bag can actually keep us alive for 72 hours, but some of us still have to search the web using countless man hours trying to find out what some of us already know.
I understand the gardens are in full swing this time of year and and by now some of us in the South should be putting food by, but I do not read anything about it. I want to learn new tricks, new time saving techniques that will come in handy in the future.
The weather is too pretty to be inside writing a blog post anyway right. As for me I have slowed down to a couple times a week on the count of it. 

Within this small blogging community we have there is enough knowledge to do anything. I challenge you to do something you never done before. If you never pressure canned, it is time. If you do not have a rain water collection system, it is time. Try something solar on for size, as far I can tell there are only a hand full of people that have a solar cooker, but I never see them use it.

Maybe we have gotten soft and tired or maybe we are just scared that if we do it wrong we will be chastised and call dumb. Look how many time I screwed up on dehydrating eggs. I posted about everyone of them screw ups to and was told I was screwing it up by doing it that way, but now I can tell you just about everything there is on that subject.

Have you repacked you BOB for summer?
I think we get wrapped up in page views, the number of followers and so on. Maybe for some of us it is just that life is in the way right now, I don't know.

Lets get out and get dirty, then post about it.
              

Howdy X2

I wanted to take a second to introduce and welcome the two newest members of the Modern Day Redneck family.

Lonhornjeff has a nice gun blog over at  http://longhornjeff.blogspot.com/

Dave H has a good blog on camping and adventure at http://www.thediabeticcamper.blogspot.com/

Thank y'all for hitting the button and becoming part of MDR. Comments are always answered and if you need anything else you can email me.

No Plans

This was kind of a funny weekend. I went into it without any plans so to speak and was just flying through by the seat of my paints.
All evening Friday I was being asked what my plans were and I kept answering "I don't know".

It didn't take to long before it all came together.

Saturday morning I found myself in the solar bathhouse putting tin on the walls and ceiling. I had some left over so I figured why not and wrapped the bathtub while I was there.

 I think it turned out looking pretty good.

 It stayed cool most of the day and by evening it was almost chilly.



I started a fire to burn some of my wood scraps and before long had some some friends drop by to enjoy a relaxing evening.

For the Mothers Day meal the wife is wanting Steak and Tatters, what a shame.
I hope all you Mothers out there had a great day.

I Hate To Brag But.......

There was never a time in my life, youth or adult, I can remember not having a garden. Some years were good and some were bad, some plants made and others didn't.
I can remember some years not wanting to hassle with it and only having a few tomatoes and peppers planted in containers out back, then other years I over did it by planting way more than I could care for only to watch it get swallowed up from all the weeds.

I have never considered myself to have a green thumb or a black one as far as that goes. I have been around people who pump their chest and tell me they are master gardeners and I don't even know what that means. So what if you can grow water lilies in the water, but can you grow watermelons in April?

I think a big percentage of it all has to do with luck. Luck with the weather, Luck with the bugs, Luck with the soil, Luck with the seeds. I can buy the freshest seeds, plant them in the best weather, in the best soil, have all my bugs under control and then then chickens get in and destroy my beans or even a freak hail storm comes out of nowhere and breaks all my pepper plants. There are too many variables in the whole process to call yourself a master. House plants maybe I can see it but gardens, not so much.
This is just my two cents on the matter.

Saying all that, I want to brag a little about my gardens. As you all know last year was stupid and the year before that I did not do so well either.
Now this year is crazy.

One bed of Beans and corn.

Kohlrabi are just about ready.

Tomatoes as far as you can see.

Pumpkins, already! 

 Hundreds of squash. Look at the size of just one of the plants.

Cucumbers finding their way up the shade.





There is so much more but I didn't want to get to picture heavy. You should see the sunflowers, stalks as big as my wrist and the sweet potatoes are out of control.

This is nothing but a brag post so I better find some wood to knock on, quick.  


        

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First Fruits

Not really fruits but vegetables, Carrots to be exact.

Yesterday was the first big harvest of the gardens. 
We rolled the dice this year on everything and planted really early. Last year our planting on time left me with nothing but burnt up plants and empty shelves.  Heck, I already have watermelons on the vine this year!

 Yesterday we harvested the carrots and this was the first time I have had carrots this size. Some were three fingers wide and eight inches long. It is amazing how good soil and rain water makes these things grow. No chemicals, no fertilizer, nothing but pure old mother nature.

I didn't want to wait and take a chance on loosing any so right a way I dragged out the pressure canner and got after it.  After finding out mine was missing a part, I had to borrow my mom's canner and being I never used this one before I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. The wife said it was like she was having another baby or something. To my defense, I am just really cautious with these things.

After cleaning, pealing and cleaning again, I cut them in about one inch long pieces to keep the carrots from getting over cooked and mushy while in the canner. I hate mushy carrots.




I packed the already hot jars leaving one inch head room and then added boiling water. Then put them in the canner set to ten pounds and processed  for 30 minutes.

Here is the finished product and they look beautiful.
I chose to use quart jars because one jar is a complete side dish for the family.





Next are the Potatoes and I have some Hamburger meat I need to get canned up as well. As soon as the tomatoes are ready I will doing a couple of cases of Spaghetti Sauce with meat.

So there you go, rocking it Homesteading style here on the Mini Farm
       

Wee's Walk

 My youngest girl "Wee" walking through the garden with the camera.

Never Enough Time

If the weekends were three days long we would want four, if five then six. No matter what, there is never enough time to complete everything that was planed.

Early Saturday me and the youngest girl "Wee" took some roosters over to my Dad's for a good old fashioned chicken killing.
Some would turn their nose up to this and some would say this is cruel but it is a way of life. I think they call it Homesteading and I don't play it, I live it.   
When I talk about this to other people it is funny, everyone has a story about when they were little at their grandparents house. The story always ends with the chicken running around with it's head cut off. Our system is a little more modern than that.
Just to let you know, everyone who does this has their own way of doing it so I am sure if you process chickens then you do it a different way. Here is our process. I may be a little vague, but it is for a reason.

Take the head off the chicken and bleed him out in the kill cone. After he is done, dip him in 140 degree water and swirl him around for about twenty seconds. If you let him sit in the water to long it will set the feathers and it will be harder to pluck him. The same if you do it to quick.

 

When the chicken is good and soaked, throw him in the plucker. My dad built this out of a 55 gallon barrel. The bottom spins throwing the chicken up and spinning him into the rubber fingers that grab all the feathers off. It only takes a few seconds to pluck a chicken this way. This thing is fantastic!

If done right the bird will come out pretty, clean and naked.
Now onto the processing table where he will be gutted and cleaned.
I didn't want to show any of the pictures of the actual process because I am sure some would have threw a fit over it. I call those people the "bleeding hearts", but if you plan to do this yourself and have any questions you can always email me.

After the chicken is processed we give him one more washing and then into the salted ice water to sit overnight. This is kinda like a weak brine then will limber the chicken up.
The next day after another washing you should be able to fold the chicken into a little ball and put him in a freezer bag and into the freezer.

All and all we processed about 20 or so chickens. The more you have helping the better. You can create kinda of an assembly line and work more efficient.

This has nothing to do with chickens, but prom came and went. This is the middle girl "Boppie" in all her glory.
Saturday morning her new dress she bought still didn't fit so it was a scramble for her to get another one. Even if I wasn't killing chickens I probably would have found something else to do than to be around the house while this was going on. Don't let her cute little smile fool ya.   

After the chickens were done I made the trip to the old farm and got all the tin I could get. I will be putting it up in the bathhouse during the week.

A freak storm blew through with 60+ mph winds Friday night creating some damage to the Mini Farm so Sunday was spent on repairs and maintenance with the oldest "BEB" manning the weedeater. 

In the end it was a good weekend, but I still could have used a couple more days to get it all done.