Happy Earth Day!!!!

For reals.  Happy EarthDay!
I'm celebrating with a couple dozen new plants to plant from realfoodgardens.blogspot.com!!
Thank you to them for the lovely plants.  The owners threw in an extra berry start AND a jug of soapwort laundry soap (well, everything-soap).  That more than covered the price of admission (meaning gas to get up there an back).

Here's the plant list I went to pick up:
10 hops 

2 black aronia 

1 wallis cherry 

4 Black jewel raspberry 

4 Oak leaf blackberry   

2 Chokecherry  

The berries are nice and thorny and HUGE.  I added a soapwort plant while I was there and while I think it might be tacky to point out the actual price for the lot, it is also about the only way to show how thrifty it is: 80$ and I came home with 25 plant starts.  The 23 listed above plus an extra berry and a soapwort.  Most of the berry/tree starts had to be bent over to get them in the subaru.  These are not tiny plants.  They are nice big plants in pots.

Excellent way to honor Earth Day.  Use a bit of fossil fuel for a permanent food (human, animal, bee, worms, etc) source.

Current Plant Sources

 I said I'd review the two places I've gotten most of my plants.  I like local folks and I like people who really KNOW the plants.  That said, if anyone wants to give me free plants I will love them and be ever grateful no matter where they came from.


Here are the two places I've gotten most of my orchard and ground cover plants for the land
Fiddler's Ridge

Real Food Gardens (at least that's the name of their blog)

We'll start with Fiddler's Ridge.  Potlatch, ID.
They are super close to where I live (like 10 miles which in north Idaho qualifies as next door neighbors).
They don't seem to have a website and the facebook is pretty out of date.  These are my kind of people.  (I know...ironic since I have a blog.)


ANYWAY: They are awesome and during planting season they have an outpost location in Moscow, ID in the parking lot of the old Tidyman's.  If are within range of Moscow, you already know where that is.  If you aren't in driving range, then you don't need to know where that is because you aren't coming.  Shop local.

These folks KNOW the area, the climate, the soils, and of course the plants.  They are extremely helpful with what will most likely grow in your location, if you are from the area.  They've helped me out with proper plants.  I dropped some change their in fall 2015 and they gave me flat after flat of ground cover (various thyme, sedum, catmint, buckwheat, etc), about a dozen fern bush (hadn't ever heard of that), chokecherries, a currant, and a rabbit brush.  ALL that they sold me lived through the winter.  And they gave me one heck of a deal on everything.
The year before, I think or maybe spring 2015, I got gooseberry, currants, hazelnut, currant, blueberry, and a variety of other things.  The summer of 2015 was absolutely BRUTAL and I had no well.  Tried hand carrying water but alas, some of the plants didn't make it.  The currants from that year DID come back!  Not a leaf on them in 2015, but this year 2 or 3 of the 5 (I thought I bought 6 but can't find one.  Sometimes the deer help me with orchard planning) are showing leaves on new shoots from the roots.  WOW.
A blueberry I got from them and stuck in a container for lack of knowing where to put it is doing great.

This year I've gotten a variety of raspberries (10 starts in all), 2 blueberries, different varieties, and a bush cherry start.  All are doing wonderfully.  If I get the well going properly, we'll be in business.

The advice they give is priceless.  And the plants are super healthy.  I've also bought various soil amendments there and because both owners know right where my land is, they know what I'm coping with soil-(or lack there of)-wise.  This year they are also helping me choose things the bees will love.

The one thing Fiddler's Ridge didn't have that I really really really really wanted was fruiting quince.  I like to rock it odd-school (not a typo).  Some day I hope to market things that are just a bit off the norm.  Everyone has jam and apple cider and apple butter and the usual on sale at the farmers markets around here.  So I'm going for niche markets that probably don't exist in my imaginary future food sales business.  I also like odd things.

I searched the usual outlets for fruiting quince, local garden centers, nurseries.  Nothing.  I turned to the internet but most of the fruiting quince starts would be shipped from Florida or southern California.  Yeah.  Like that's going to work.  Quince interests me because it's tough.  I didn't want a version that I'd have to coddle and try to acclimate to the area.  I want to stick it in a hole and leave it. (That didn't sound good).

In desperation I typed "quince" into a craigslist search and 2 ads popped up.  I sent inquiries.  One had grown their own.  One was shipping in starts and potting them up.  Guess which I chose.  Yep.  Growing from seed in the region.

The place is Real Food Gardens.  It is near Hauser Lake, Idaho.  Bit of a drive from here but the prices are crazy low so compensates for the price of gas.  I've made 3 trips and sent multiple others up to them. I know one woman did go and got nice starts.   These folks are lovely and amazing and start their own plants.  We also seem to be on a page about getting out of the rat race and the like.  Alas, I'm still rat racing but planning for the day when I can step off the wheel and just enjoy my place and my plants.

They have an extremely wide variety of options.  I didn't even get to the herbs and other "garden" type plants.  Too busy getting trees and berries in this year.  Many tree/shrub starts are only 5$.  Their website gives the rates and availability as well as excellent descriptions of the varieties.  Their soil is very different from mine, but they are in a chilly location so that's a good thing to have in common.  With the low prices, I can do some test runs.  I plan to report back to them which things seem to thrive in my heavy soils.

This couple also is happy to share their extensive expertise.

Holy Orchard, Batman!

Or I could have called it "The Accidental Orchard"
Or "What Am I Thinking"
Or "Good Lord I Hope the Well Pump Gets Fixed Before All the Trees Die"

Anyway, I was talking to my gramma (I'd say "Hi Gramma" but seriously, a 95 year old woman without a computer is NOT going to read this and could give zero craps about a shout out on the internet), and she asked what I'd been planting and I offered to write up a list.  While doing that, I realized I hadn't made an overall list before so best to get on that and make a copy before I sent it.

Here it is, along with a very very bad sketch map of what is where.  If you click on them for biggification, you can read any portions of the pictures that the internet is hiding from you for reasons I don't understand.

 

 Is it any wonder I have developed a creepy "Madonna" vein in my left arm?  You know, the icky sticky outy steroid-addled-weightlifter type vein also seen on the aging and underweight singer, Madonna

 

For the record, my arms are not that gross and my boobs do not look like creepy welded on orange-halves.   

Anyway, I've been driving a shovel quite a bit lately.  FINALLY those months of archaeology fieldwork have come in handy.  I can quickly dig a very tidy hole in the ground.  I'm getting better at stuffing a tree in it.  Or a raspberry, or etc.

Did a few minutes of online research today about where to put the remaining trees.  The mulberries will probably go west of the cabin site near the aronia berries.  I'd like them a west and a bit north to shade the west side of the future imaginary slightly larger cabin, but we run into hose length issues.

The lindens probably down in a low area with more soil than the hill sides and more moisture.  Will be a pain in the butt for a few years while I have to water (no hose will reach, dipping buckets from the creek or walking buckets down from the max reach of the hose will be the options), but after that, the trees should be happy and self-supporting.  I may have a couple of these trees already.  Need to check out a tree identification key.  I'm assuming the library has that.  These trees have edible leaves that make a spinach or lettuce substitute.  Nice. 

I'll be getting fruit, greens and protein from trees.  The Siberian Pea shrubs are nitrogen fixing and put out a peapod like thing which you can eat like a peapod and if you let them mature, the seeds can be used like lentils.  The leaves are nitrogen rich and can be spread around nitrogen weak areas.  I may want more of these.

The ginkos aren't picky about where to live and grow.  This is actually making it harder to decide what to do.  Do I stick them up the hill for a spectacular attractive display from the road?  And years of carrying water UPHILL until they are established?  Put them in the wooded area by the creek so that as the other trees die off, these will be established and filling in?  Or down in the lower area with the good soil near the lindens (which are also called basswoods...I remember the basswood from our house on 4th avenue...the one that pruned itself on to the suburban)?

With the chestnuts (heh heh...I said "nuts") and a couple of other things I reviewed what the tree/shrub wanted in an environment, because I never have ALL of that in one spot, how big it will want to grow, and that sort of thing, then picked one up and carried it around a bit until I hit a spot that seemed like a good compromise.  I have decided to call this "Tree witching" (like water witching) and that it makes me a tree whisperer.  But I shan't advertise my services until it's clear that I'm successful in finding just the right spot.

The next steps are:  GET MORE HOSE!  Good hose, preferably drinking water quality as I'm sick of pouring icky chemicals on the planet and down my gullet.  Most garden hoses are full of toxins that are released especially when hot, like say while out in the sun and full of water.  Barf.  I probably have hose poisoning from my childhood when we drank out of them all the time.  I bet we had to do that because Sher wouldn't let our filthy butts in the house (Hi Sher!).

I'm at the LIMIT of what I can hope to keep watered and take care of for now.  So, I'm declaring a tree/shrub moratorium until late fall.  By then I should know what seems to be doing well, what needs replaced, and have some idea of what I'd like more of.  I will also know if I can care for any more in year 2.  

Already I'm noticing a few stupid choices.  I THOUGHT I had planned the open route down the hill from the cabin site, and the imaginary future cabin site, and kept it clear of the orchard plants.   But then this morning I walked to and then got in the car, parked at the creek at the bottom of the hill east of the cabin, the hill with many many of these orchard plants.  On the walk I thought "why did I plant the THORNY black berries right in my walking path?"...those may need to move.  We'll see.  Once in the car, I looked back up at the cabin and CRAP!  A plum is right in the path for deliveries of things like wood, dirt, supplies for the future imaginary cabin.  These things may need to move.  We'll try it through the summer and see how it goes.

The location of the spigot turned out to be more important than I had realized.  It's in a pretty good spot so it's workable, but I do need more hose.  I want to leave lengths of hose strung to the far flung areas and just haul the shorter bit connecting to the spigot around to hook them up for watering.  I will need to water for a year or two.  If this summer is as hot as last (Sweet Bee-sus* let's hope not!), I will be watering one area or another or multiples every evening. 

Let me also thank Sweet Bee-sus* for my realization a few years back that I had to get in better shape if I was going to make a go of this off-grid nonsense.  I lost some tonnage, not a huge amount but every pound off the butt is a pound of water (which is about a pint) or whatever that I can now haul around.  Obviously there is a lower limit to this metric and I'm nowhere near it but do not plan on losing any more weight.  

Then a year and a half ago or so, I decided to fix the bum arm and build some muscle.  Been working out since then (which may have contributed to the icky madonna vein, see above).  It's been worth it.  I made at least 10 trips up and down the central hill yesterday, most of them hauling a plant, a hose, and/or water in a bucket, and once my composting toilet bucket, and I was able to get up today without more than the usual amount of groaning.

So, that is where I'm at right now.   The next blog entry will review the places I've been getting most of the plants.  Both are awesome.  (Crap...now I've ruined the ending!)

*Bee-sus is a reference to a text exchange amongst friends and family (not that I'm not friends with my family) about my bees when I got them.  See this entry for an explanation: 

In the Bee-ginning, There Was the Pun, and the Pun Was Bad

No offense is intended, it's just that since getting that hilarious text, I have this cartoon character of "Bee-sus" in my head.  A shout out to the contributor of that pun!  Hi Cupcakes...you know who you are.

New Garden Bed

Well crap!  I typed this in once and it failed.  Let me try it again...

So....There is a gardening class in the town where I work.  If a person attends 2 classes (or says they will) and is willing to talk about how their garden is doing, and is willing to share any knowledge he/she has, then the person gets the bits and supplies to make a 4x8x1foot raised bed!  Very cool.  And very nice.


I've already attended more than 2 classes, talked to people about my garden bed (like that it existed...) and volunteered to teach 2 classes (vermicomposting and fermenting).

Here is the basic bed:

As you can see, I put rotted wood in the bottom.  This is supposed to help it hold moisture and require less watering over dry periods.  It will also slowly decompose and build soil rich in organic matter.  This is a twist on Sepp Holzers big permaculture beds that have whole tree trunks in them.  On top of this I put composted manure (from bags since I don't have a handy animal source).  I want something available to work with the carbon in the wood.  As an afterthought, I threw in some old dry deer bones, mostly ribs, that had been lying around the land for a year or so.  My hope is this will add calcium and minerals over the years.  Who knows.

Here it is with some of the manure and another experimental addition:

The rails will do many things...they stabilize the corners and link the upper and lower 2x6 bed frames.  They are also there to hold plastic, shade stuff, anti-critter-netting, or anything else I want.

And no...the camper is NOT that far off level. 

Finally, here it is with some dirt, and manure and compost (all from bags) and ready to be soaked before planting.  It's best to soak the wood down early and it wasn't supposed to rain for a while.  That meant hauling buckets from the creek.  It's not far.

I added more dirt over the next few days.  continued adding water with buckets. 
Then I got some "clear" (actually whitish) 4ml plastic and put it right on the soil to warm it up.
I didn't take a photo of that for some reason but it looks like plastic lying on garden bed.

Next episode: Organizing and planting the bed.

Living in the RV: An Update and Commentary

How's that for a dull title?   Dull and to the point.

So, I'm living in the camper full time now.  Have been for 12 days, though 2 of those nights I was working and didn't get to be here.  I'm here now.  I think it's the first I've used my computer in the camper.  I was trying to watch a DVD but it turns out I have to be connected to the damn internet to set up the DVD player on the computer.  Cripes.  I've watched other DVDs but I think those videos were burned as computer files and would not have worked in a DVD player.  These are actual commercial movie DVDs.  Anyway, it ain't a-workin' so I'll work on a blog post that I can put on the interwebs while I'm setting up the damn DVD player.  Maybe tomorrow.

As for now in the camper.  It's been fine.  I don't miss not having electricity.  The LED lights, battery, are fine.  I found cheapo and reasonably ecologically responsible, though not rechargeable batteries at an outdoorsy store the other day and replaced the batteries in my 2 main LEDs and WOW what a difference.  It's like daytime in here at night now.  Still, I'm trying to mostly follow the sun for a schedule.  I just use them to read in bed.  I've only needed them as flashlights one night that was quite cloudy.  Otherwise my eyes adjust to the dark and there is enough moonlight and starlight to get to the composting turlet without a flashlight even if I have to make a run in the wee hours. 

I am missing having a nearby water source.  I'm hauling in water by the gallon in jugs which is fine and most of the world would be delighted to have 10 gallons of clean water at one's disposal at all times.   But, hard to wash produce from the CSA and other things without a spigot and running water.   The sun shower is fine.  The inconvenience is that I live in a draw and the sun goes behind the trees on the west side a couple of hours before actual sunset.  At that point, the water in the sunshower starts to cool.  I've got about a 20 minute window before it's cold enough to be uncomfortable.  When I hit it just right, it's lovely.   It does mean that I don't want to do heavy work that would make me sweaty after the shower.  Right now that's at like 6:30pm.  I'm trying to save making dinner and other non-strenuous activities, but I'm missing quite a few productive hours.  A source of warm water and a shower (so I don't have to sleep sweaty and stinky in the trailer and make the whole place reek of armpits and feet) later in the evening would be nice.

The composting toilet...had a bit of a struggle there.  I don't have the "bulking mix" (peat moss and hemp) from the factory (cost, allergic to hemp) so I had been using straight peat moss.  The turlet started to stink.  The point of the turlet is it is not supposed to stink like an outhouse.   Hmmm....   So I called the company.  I told them I could not use the mix they market due to the hemp so was there something I could do.  Yes...wood shavings like you get for your hamster mixed in with the peat.  2 parts shavings to 1 part peat.   I've been adding just shavings (you add a cup of mix for each #2, or a minimum of 1 cup per day per person using the turlet) at a higher than normal rate until I catch up.  It started stinking less right away.   I also added more of the enzyme that is supposed to "activate the composting process."   I was also having trouble with ... um  ... "material" falling into the lower drawer (that's how the unit is emptied when full) when I did the periodic mixing.  (The whole thing is a rotating drum on a horizontal axis.  There is a door that you line up with the toilet seat.  The door falls open and ideally falls closed as you mix.  Turn the drum the other way to empty and the "material" falls out into the drawer to be emptied as fully composted non-stinky product.)  The nice lady at the composting turlet company said that sometimes the hinges on the door get "clogged" with "material" and have to be scrubbed out with a toothbrush and the enzyme spray.  I, AS A JOKE, said, "I guess that shouldn't be the toothbrush I'm currently using."   She, not getting the joke, replied, "A toothbrush you will never use for anything else.  Ever."   I found one for 50cents.  I had to buy one because MY toothbrush is a handle that little fresh brush heads fit into.  I've kept dozens of used plastic toothbrush handles out of the garbage stream (not much but one does what one can) not to mention the packaging.  I wasn't about to even get the handle anywhere near the "material" clogged hinges.   Now I have a turlet toothbrush.  If you visit, do not get in the bucket with rubber gloves and a yellow toothbrush and use that toothbrush.   Just saying.
After a quick, and icky, scrubbing, I did a test mix and VOILA!  It works!   Now I'm just missing the little rake used to clean out the "material" that might escape the cleanout drawer.   I'm sure something will appear at a thrift store that will be just the ticket.

I'm still considering switching to a simple sawdust bucket toilet after reading "The Humanure Handbook" but so far I haven't taken the plunge.  It does sound simpler, though harder to get past the county permit and health inspectors. 

Cooking at the camper has been interesting.  The stovetop works and it has become clear that I brought too many kitchen items.  I brought maybe 10% of what I had in the single-wide.  Still too much.  I've used the skillet, the tea kettle (for hot water for washing dishes mostly, couple of cups of tea), and a small sauce pan.  I did well with the knives though.  I brought 3.  A Rada paring knife (thanks Sher!), a serrated 5 inch "ginsu" type knife, and a 6 inch chef knife (thanks again Sher).  I also have my filet knife.  I've used the first three every time I've cooked.   Very handy.  The spork I got at "The Silver Spork" in DC is my main eating utensil.  Fun.  (ooo...gorgeous sunset tonight!  pink storm clouds).   I've been eating mostly off an antique enamelware pie plate.  I have other plates but I haven't even bothered getting them out.  I've been doing my mixing in (like for french toast) and eating salads out of an oval GI issue stew plate/bowl thing.    Coffee is made either in my wee bialli style espresso maker (though it had an issue this morning and may need a new gasket), or my french press travel mug. 

I brought 3 thermoses (is that the right plural?)  thinking I'd heat up water in the evening and store it in a thermos so I could wash my face in warm water in the morning.  Haven't bothered.  I have an ice-tea-jar with a spigot on it on the back of the sink.  I fill that with water and it makes for a reasonable faucet for tooth brushing and hand and face washing.   I use "Camp Suds" biodegradable soap for everything so far.  It looks like one small bottle will get me through this time no problem.  For showers and handwashing after using the toilet I put a squeeze bottle, like you'd have dishsoap in,  with mostly water and a bit of the Camp Suds mixed in, near the turlet/shower area (under the west side of the spruce tree) and that's been working just fine.  I couldn't tolerate not washing my hands after I use the toilet.  I have the toilet covered with an old sheet (so the sun doesn't wreck the fiberglass it is made of) and I've been using that as a hand towel.  I had hung a hand towel up there but it kept blowing off the hook/twig.  I'll just wash the sheet like I would the towel.   I do admit that after having to scrub the hinges and otherwise deal with the toilet the other day, I didn't find the squeeze bottle wash very satisfying.  So I walked 10 or 15 minutes to the far north edge of the land, crossed over to the rest stop next door, and used the sink there with hot running water and industrial soap.  The irony is that that industrial non-biodegradable soap will end up in the septic drain field for the rest stop...which is on my land.

That little trip brings us to another fun bit of living here (over all it's fabulous!).  On the way to the rest stop I was walking over the septic drainfield vicinity, which I don't often do.  At the very north edge along the east-west fence on the boundary with neighboring properties...GIANT POO!  Either moose with a mild case of diarrhea from too much fruit, or a bear with a bit of constipation from too much grass.  It looks more like the bear poo in my poo field guide.  But I've seen moose poo at the north west end, and this was the north east end.  Exciting.   On the way back from the rest stop I accidentally flushed a large family of quail!  I added them to my notes in the bird book (Thanks again Sher!) of what I've seen.  There were cedar waxwings eating bugs over the pond the other day too.  Very cool. I haven't identified the humming bird who eats at the feeding hanging off the camper.  I'm sure it's not exotic but I just haven't grabbed the book while it was actually there eating.  It has a surprisingly long beak and isn't very colorful.  Must be a female (due to coloring, not beak format).

Gram and a variety of other relatives got me an excellent wildlife camera with external solar panel back up on the battery.  I first set it up on the island (now peninsula because most of the water is gone) in the pond.  I put it on a milk crate as there wasn't a tree or post.  I set it for motion detection and to take photo every 15 minutes.  I went back a couple of days later and grabbed it to see what I had.   Well, it seems after a couple of hours it fell over.  I had many many photos of blurry ground.   A couple photos of me setting up the camera.  Sigh.  I decided to put the camera somewhere handier while I learned the ins and outs of it.  It's quite a hike to the pond and I didn't want to use up my precious pre-shower-post-work window running after it.  Now it's on the front of the camper on the non-active propane tank.  At last check, I had about a hundred really nice photos of an empty hay field.  I'd like to point it west past the toilet but I don't have anywhere to hang it that wouldn't also shoot me as I use the toilet and shower.  No one wants to see that.    Once I get the hang of it, I may try back up at the north end, or if I can find something to hang it on, I'll point it at the culvert crossing the creek on the east side of the property.  There is plenty of poo on that so I know things are crossing it.  I also know these things are deer but photos of deer would be more interesting than photos of an empty field.

It's 8:07pm and quite dark now.  I think I'll bag it for the evening.  I'm sure I'll wake up at 4am per usual, but such is life on the land.  It's not just that the sun is about to come up and things are getting light at 4am, that's also the time the semi's start going up and down the road again and I don't have much sound isolation from the road here in the camper.  I don't mind though.  It doesn't really matter which 8 hours I sleep as long as I sleep.   The lack of security lights shining in the windows is wonderful!  In the single wide I had 3 layers of dark fabric over the south windows and "room darkening shades" over the east windows and STILL I could practically read without turning a light on.  I was having trouble sleeping.  Not here.  It's dark and the wind and frogs and crickets are quite soothing.  The occasional thumping on the camper weirds me out but so far it's come to nothing.

Medicine Wheel Garden

This isn't my garden.  It is at the house of some friends.  It's lovely.

It's built around the compass and each quadrant is based on a color.  I may have the colors wrong and will edit after the gardener corrects me.

White, yellow, red, purple/blue.   A lovely tree is in the center and a ring of rocks defines the edge.  I have to admit that being Princess Practical, when I first saw the design as it's going in I thought "you can't put a garden under a tree!"  That thought was immediately followed by "says who?"    The 2nd thought was the correct one.  You can put a garden wherever you want.


 Here it is with the rocks and a few baby plants.

And here it is this morning.  You can see the added mulch of wood shavings which looks great.  It has a substrate of cardboard and paper.  I'm stealing the idea for the area around my camper I think. 

A bit of the "yellow" quadrant featuring a calendula plant.  I've never gotten calendula to grow at all so I'm impressed.















A bit of the white quadrant

Red quadrant (poorly centered)


















 More lovely plants.  I like the mix.  Mostly herbs and whatnot with decorative grasses.

 Bit of art near the center.

It's really lovely.  I find it fascinating that a mullein, with yellow flowers, planted itself in the yellow quadrant.  

The garden follows most of the principles I just read about in Sepp Holzer's book on permaculture.  Trees, rocks, mulch, microclimates.  This tiny garden has it all going on.