299 days

Hey everyone. We have started reading a new book series and written by a guy I met of the TSP forum. Wife, daughter and I are all reading the series. Book one and two are out. I don’t endorse products from one vendor or another and this is not a sales pitch. I am ½ way into the first book and have read a lot of reviews. 299 Days by Glen Tate is a great book, and I haven’t read a fiction book in over 15 years. I would rather read non-fiction and learn, just my choice. The book is about prepping, homesteading, and a potential future we are hearing to as a country. Glen has never written and is not a typical author. The book really spoke to me, so if you get a change check it out. If you have souse that is on the fence about prepping or blind to where the country is heading it might be a good introduction and eye opener. Amazon has it in paperback and e-book. We all got the e-book. There is also a book group that starred on the TSP forum.

Raspberries and seed tips

So here is the latest from our garden. Our first raspberry. These little plants we picked up on clearance at Home Depot later in the season. We didn’t them to live let alone produce the same year they went in.

A few tips. If we have some time to kill or if we happen to go to one of the big box centers we ALWAYS take a look in the nursery area. They will mark down plants that don’t “look good or are on the edge of death. You can usually pick them up relatively cheap like 75-90% off. I think these plants were regularly $9.99 each and we picked them up for $0.99. We bought all they had and spread around yard. Worst case they died and went into compost. We asked the nursery manager if we bought them all would he give them to us at 0.99 rather than the 1.99 they were asking. What is worse they could say, no?

A little aged horse poo, compost, and some mulch on top. We set in the ground and watered daily for a week, then every other day. For about 2 weeks and let nature takes its course. They all took off, and are doing well without any more intervention from us.

Here is another tip. We buy all our seeds at reduced price. Again the big box stores will reduce seeds at the end of the season (Around July). The seeds are dated and they usually do not sell older seeds the following year. We picked up over 300 packets of seeds from $0.01-$0.10 this year. They will store for long periods if kept dry and cool. Some even do better in the freezer/refrigerator. We have even found seed packets in the back of closets and drawers that were from 5-8 years earlier and plant. What is the worst that will happen. Sometimes they grow and sometimes not. Never hurts to try. But always have plan B. I wouldn’t put family food production solely on those seeds we found.

Podcasts

Hi all, just wanted to give a heads up to anyone out there who listen to Podcasts that Jason Akers is back on the web from The Self Sufficient Gardner. Great listening for gardening and basically living off and with the land to meet your needs.



http://theselfsufficientgardener.com/



Check out the forum and read what some of the listeners are doing and contributing.



http://www.theselfsufficientgardener.com/forums/



I mentioned about building your own greenhouse rather than purchasing. Here is link Jason’s Greenhouse project.

If you don’t know what a podcast is Google it, but it is essentially a radio program posted to the web. You download and listen on an MP3 player, iPhone, tablet, or even right on the computer. I got tired of listening to the doom and gloom on the radio, the same 12 songs over and over, and the endless commercials yelling at me. There are so many podcasts that can actually teach you something, educate yourself, or just plain more interesting than “Sunday Sunday, Sunday only at the …..Monster trucks….”. You can get them directly from websites or from ITunes

There are some I listen to plus Jason. I actually listen to about 50 different ones, but these are the top few.

Jack Spirko and The Survival Podcast 900+ podcasts (5 per week)



http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/



Paul Wheaton Homesteading and Permaculture 200+ (1-4 per week whenever he feels like it)



http://www.permies.com/



Dave Ramsey one per day no back downloads



http://www.daveramsey.com/home/



Clark Howard 200+ podcasts (2-4 per day)



http://www.clarkhoward.com/



Into the Rabbit Hole Urban Survival 80+ podcasts (1 per week)



http://www.intherabbithole.com/

Aquaponics as of today

Here are some updates on the aquaponics. Sorry for the dark pictures as I took them before I went into work. It was still dark outside and if I didn’t do it today probably wasn’t getting done. I am still planning on making a video probably tonight.

Hugakulture

For those who don't know hugakulture is a type of composting. You use decaying wood as it breaks down and pile up soil on top. We used wood and plants we pulled up. It adds nutrients to the soil and helps retain water. We have had success with using this in pots.

Medicinal herb garden

Here is the garden as of this week. We went and got some mulch to put on the path. Under the chips we put cardboard to gel keep the weeds down.

Mint garden

Herb garden 2

More pics from the herb garden.

Medicinal herb garden

Some plants from the herb garden.

Indoor update and outdoor update

Here is the update of my indoor aquaponics system. I probably should have STARTED with this indoor system before the greenhouse, but go big or go home I guess. This system is a trial to see if we could grow inside. Lesson 1 learned, stock small and grow up not stock big then go down. This system cost us around $50. Clearance fountain pump $30, wash tubs from Goodwill $1, lava rock free from damned people who landscaped before us at our house, fish $1, seeds clearance 0.10, light fixture clearance $10 Menards, $ 10 grow lights using rebate from other purchases, tank was free with trade from guy at work. We are growing romaine lettuce and spinach. Within 5 days this is what the system looked like. We also have a water hyacinth from out outdoor pond, and feed the goldfish duckweed, again from our outdoor pond. The oldest of the girls caught some crawfish and added to the system. They clean left over food, and interesting to look at.



Outside we harvested cantaloupe and watermelon from the greenhouse. We didn’t think this was possible from all that we read, so we planted more. And honeydew and anything else we could think of. We started more tanks for duckweed to feed the growing goldfish. We will soon be adding minnows to eat the mosquito larvae (cant have goldfish in those tanks, will eat duckweed). Neighbors now wanting to but duckweed and water hyacinth from us. Our water chestnuts are multiplying like crazy and can’t wait to add to our stir-fry once we harvest. To date we have successfully grown in the greenhouse;


· Basil (more than we can ever use) Sweet and Greek
· Romaine lettuce
· Cucumbers
· Cantaloupe
· Watermelon sugar baby
· Chives
· Tomatoes (Cherry and Roma)
· Chamomile
· Chinese Water Chestnuts
· Papyrus
· Duckweed
· Water Lettuce
· Water Lilly
· Broccoli
· Swiss Chard
· Spinach
· Marshmallow Root
· Echinacea
· Grean Beans
· Morning Glory
· Honeydew
· Rosemary
· Marigolds




This was in a 10 x 12 foot space, plus about 50 goldfish, 6 frogs, crawfish and at least 4 of each of the above plants, some we have 15 or more of, all growing at the same time. The benefits of vertical gardening.

We have now met with Purdue extension office and SCORE, along with SBA and hope to take this project larger in the near future. This spring we hope to add new species of fish which we can eat. We will hope to get more pics of the greenhouse as it continues to grow and develop.