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