This book is a sort of gateway book into the world of permaculture. With a brief description of the core principles of permaculture, you can get an idea of how to begin thinking the way a permaculturist would in the design of your garden/food forest. Hemenway lays out the basic ideas of permaculture without going into great detail… enough information to be useful, but not so much that you become bogged down in minutiae. Once he lays out the general ideas of the underlying theory, he proceeds to give real-life examples of how the ideas have worked in various locales.
Using permaculture principles in determining garden layout, harvest/storage of water and sunlight, plant biodiversity, a home garden can become less labor intensive and more productive. This book gives many useful ideas for making this happen in your own back yard.
I particularly loved the examples of garden layouts showing non-traditional designs. By using a keyhole gardening bed, you can minimize the space needed for the garden path and maximize growing space (while making the garden more interesting and appealing as well). The herb spiral is another idea that will add beauty and usefulness to the beds right outside the back door.
The theory of zones and how they impact the permaculture design is also discussed, with examples illustrating the ideas. He even shares a zone layout example for a typical 1/4 acre suburban lot that is highly productive.
From design of the space, he moves on to helping with building up the soil. I plan to use his sheet mulching system when setting up our gardens in New Mexico, and will no doubt be referring back to his book often when planning and laying out the garden there.
From plant recommendation, to orchard planning… from attracting helpful insects and birds to chicken tractors, the author puts forward many applications of permaculture principles you can implement at home. The book offers a wonderful appendix with excellent resources including plant suggestions for the various permaculture layers.
This book is a very excellent book to introduce the ideas of permaculture and sustainable food production. I highly recommend it, especially to those who are unfamiliar with permaculture principles. It’s easy to see why this book continues to be a best-seller.
I wrote a previous blog article about making my own fuel lines for the Clark Airborne Tractor restoration project. This is the second part of the article which deals with making the flared endings for the tubes. I am using 37 degree flare tube fittings to seal my fuel lines. The components you are trying to mate together are; the beveled screw, the beveled cap and the flared tube. Each of the mated surfaces is beveled at a 37 degree angle (45 degree for higher pressure lines) so that when the cap is screwed against the flare of the tube and presses it up to the beveled screw end the mating of the 37 degree angled surfaces seals the line. If you create your flares properly and torque the cap and screw down properly, the fuel line will be sealed with no leaks, and no need for sealers or gaskets.
Making the flares is relatively easy as well, but takes some practice. Use some scrap tube and work several until you are comfortable. I am using the single flare. What you do is simply flare the pipe out to a 37 degree angle so that it can seal up between the screw and cap. The process involves the following steps:
1. Cut your pipe end to size.
Prepare the pipe end
2. Use a small file and de-burr the inside of the tube to ensure it does not crack or split when being flared outward. You may also want to use some fine sandpaper to clean the edges up a bit. The smoother the metal is, the less chance there is for splitting.
3. Insert the cap fitting on the tube with the threaded ends toward the end of the tube. This is easy to forget sometime, and if you start the flaring process without the cap you’ll have to bend a new piece of tube, because once both flares are made, the cap will not slide on the end over the flare!
4. Insert the tube to be flared into the proper diameter hole of the vice exposing a very short length of the tube. If you expose too much of the tube, your flare will be too big for the cap. Clamp the vise closed
5. Put a light coating of oil on the end of the pointed flare tool to aid the process of expansion of the flare.
6. Insert the beveled end of the flaring tool using the vice and screw it gently down until the flare is shaped
7. Inspect and clean
Here are some examples of my various previous attempts.
Oops!
The first one shows an off-kilter flare. It will not seat properly and the line will leak. This was caused by not clamping the tube fully down or by having the flare wedge off centered when screwing it down.
The second tube has split. This is usually because too much tube is exposed above the face of the clamping bar. It should be almost level with the top, or slightly above the top surface of the clamping bar.
Success.
The final example is fairly decent. It should hold pressure and provide a good seal.
If you liked this article, you’ll probably be interested in my previous post on the subject that you can find here: Making Your Own Metal Fuel Lines.
One goal for the homestead will be to establish a greenhouse on the property. By establishing a greenhouse, we’ll be able to take advantage of the space we have available and get a head start on gardening each winter. I have tried starting plants from seed inside during the wintertime and have had mixed results. Since we didn’t have a grow light for the plants, they tended to be very ‘leggy’ due to the lack of proper sunlight. Many of the plants did fine once we transplanted them into the garden, but it wasn’t really ideal. Since we intend to have a much larger space available outside for the garden in New Mexico and will need a great many more starts, it makes sense to establish a place to grow them with plenty of light and space.
It is blazing hot in New Mexico in the summertime, so I know we will need to use shade cloth and roll up the sides for ventilation during the hot months to prevent cooking the plants. However, in the southwest, summertime comes so quickly, it will be wonderful to have a sheltered space to start plants before the last frost to help the garden get a headstart during the winter months.
10' x 15' Greenhouse
I found out about a very nice greenhouse kit by seeing a Youtube video made by Jack Spirko about his newly constructed greenhouse and became very intrigued by the kits sold by Steve at Steve’s Greenhouses.
Additionally, since following Steve’s blog over at http://thegreenhouseguy.com , I’ve become inspired to see if it would be worth it to start more plants than we need for trade or sale. I like his commonsense approach to it and the way he shares what has worked well for him. He sells kits for greenhouses at his other site: http://stevesgreenhouses.com/ His kits offer affordability and ease of construction, I think. For about $1000, you can build a 10′ x 20′ greenhouse (using his basic kit costing $685, plus your own materials for the wood end parts, doors, windows and concrete for the support posts). That is a lot of growing space for the price. He offers ideas for heating and ventilation on his blog, too. According to information at his site, the double-layer plastic should last 6-7 years before requiring replacement and seems to be able to withstand snow and wind very well.
I did a bit more looking around online to see what other options are out there. For some other homebuild kits, I found another site — the Greenhouse megastore — that had a fairly good range of sizes and prices. Even the least expensive model was similar in cost at about $945 including free shipping, but offered much less space for growing. It is a very attractive little greenhouse, though and might be a bit more permanent than the design by Steve. This greenhouse would most likely be approved by many strict HOA’s, so would be a good choice for a family living in a neighborhood and without a huge amount of growing space.
For larger and more permanent designs, I found another site — Greenhouses.com — where there were many options including Cedar and Glass designs, etc. Those kits could run into several thousand dollar costs, so are a bit out of the range of our interest. However, there were many very attractive designs, including the Juliana Gardener (36 sq m = 383 sq. ft) for about $8500.
Juliana Gardener 3600
In my internet searching, I even came across a site where the cost per square foot is more than we plan to spend on our home! Check out the fabulous designs at Gothic Arch Greenhouses. While I cannot see one of these designs giving a return on investment anytime soon, they are very impressive. Let’s see… for a 10′ x 20′ greenhouse of this type, we’d be looking at $20,000! But hey… it looks great and would also give a suburban home the possibility of producing food in winter! You could even refer to it as “The Conservatory” and serve afternoon tea amongst the orchids.
Gothic Arch Greenhouses
I also found a great site at Frugal Living Freedom with designs for building your own greenhouse. This is also very intriguing, so we’ll be considering something of this sort as well. I particularly liked the #2 Design that featured using chain-link fencing top rail material for the structure. It is a very attractive design, too.
Gingersnaps and coffee...I’ll admit it… I’m trying to use things up and clean out cupboards. I discovered that I have 2 1/2 bottles of molasses lurking in the kitchen cabinet. The perfect way to use molasses (other than for Cracker Jacks — I’ll share that recipe another time) is for Gingersnaps. The boys are going on a boy scout campout, so these sturdy cookies will be a great take-along snack.
Gingersnaps
3/4 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
Cream well.
2 eggs
1/2 c. molasses
2 tsp. white vinegar
Add to creamed mixture and mix well. Add:
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
3 3/4 c. flour
Roll into balls… coat with granulated sugar. Place on greased baking pan and bake for about 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you don’t have your own greenhouse, wintertime can be a time when you don’t have much of your own home-grown fresh food. Sprouting can be a tasty and nutritious addition to the winter diet. When I first learned about sprouting, I also discovered there is an entire community of people who are really enthusiastic about it. I discovered the site, SproutPeople.org. By reading information and watching videos at their site, I was encouraged to try it out.
Seed Sprouter I purchased one of their Easy Sprout Sprouters and have found it to be very excellent. My favorite sprout (so far) is broccoli. Broccoli sprouts are simply yummy. They are great on salads or sprinkled on sandwiches (whole wheat, ham and swiss…).Broccoli Kit
To sprout broccoli, you first snap the extra filter piece (for small seeds) into the sprouter, then add 2-3 Tablespoons of broccoli seed. Rinse well to remove any dust and then add 1 cup cool water to the sprouter. Let it soak for 8-12 hours, after which you drain all the water out and shake it well to remove as much water as possible. Seeds in sprouter
After two days of rinsing every 12 hours, the sprouts are looking good:
After Two Days... Ready to enjoy.
After 6 days, we have beautiful, delicious fresh broccoli sprouts. I have to admit that we used some early on salads as they were growing this week. They were quite tasty. Now that they have grown long enough, I dehulled them by covering them with water in a bowl, allowing the hulls to float to the top and skimming. Ready to eat!Using my salad spinner, I’ve got them as dry as possible, let sit for about another hour and refrigerated to keep them fresh and delicious.
SproutPeople have a great video demonstrating this process as well:
Have you ever had an exterior door lock mechanism fail? In our last home (a builder’s spec home, as we discovered after buying), we had not only one, but two different exterior door locks fail. After disassembling the locks, we discovered that pieces of the lock mechanism had simply broken and were not repairable. Now I’d never heard of a lock breaking from normal use in only 6 years’ time before this. Our guess was that the locks were very inexpensive locks — perhaps the cheapest the builder could find. They looked nice — had that stylish antique bronze finish that was very popular — but were obviously not robust.
So… we headed down to the local Home Depot (or Lowe’s — I forget which one) to buy replacements. We discovered a wonderful new invention: Kwikset Smartkey sets. Basically this type of door hardware is a middle-of-the-line quality knob set with a unique feature. You can re-key the locks to match your other locks. That allows you to keep the same exterior housekeys from your remaining locks without the expense of paying a locksmith to re-key the new locks.
I had another thought as we were matching the locks to the keys at the old house… if the entire house had Smartkey hardware, we could change the locks on our doors if we ever felt the need all on our own. You could even change them temporarily, say, if you had a housesitter for a particular period of time. This video demonstrates the method:
Since each door hardware set comes with its own key, you already have as many different possibilities as you have keys to begin with.
As we plan the details of our homestead, I am planning to look at Kwikset Smartkey door hardware for the exterior doors. By planning ahead and watching for specials, I should be able to do much better than paying retail locally. If I can find smartkey systems for similar pricing to other similar-quality models, it will be worth the effort. If you are just in the market for a replacement set, this might be just the ticket for you.
I found very reasonable prices on attractive Handlesets at the www.handlesets.com site.
During the rebuild of the Clark Airborne Dozer it was apparent that the rubber fuel lines were not original to the vehicle. The TM (Technical Manual) for the dozer specified metal fuel lines. I am trying as much as possible to restore the vehicle back to how it would have looked when the Airborne Engineers used it in 1944-45. The TM has a few sketchy/grainy diagrams of the routing of the fuel lines from the carburetor to the fuel sediment bowl (also missing). The lines are depicted in the BW photos as a light colored material, so I am assuming they are steel fuel/brake line material common to the era. The fittings are also a light color material and are either brass or some other metal. Restorers like to see original items built for the particular vehicle and were packaged years ago but never opened (called NOS, New Old Stock). Since the company manufactured all of their own parts and most of the fittings in 1943-44, there’s not much NOS laying around.
I’ve decided to use steel fuel line and brass fittings for the rebuild, and I’m going to have to make them myself, since the prospects of finding NOS fuel lines and fittings is extremely low. I suppose if I did find them they would be outrageously expensive. As a comparison, I needed a small metal lever type switch for the lights. It’s essentially an on/off switch specifically made for the Clark Bulldozer. It was $71 on the internet, but more importantly, it was probably the only one listed for sale in the last 6 months!! Keeping costs down is another reason to do it myself.
Tube Bending
Following some basic research I settled on purchasing a hand-operated bending tool and a flaring tool. The bending tool is used to shape the metal line to the configuration needed. The TM shows a few bends and curves in the line, so I want to match those as close as possible. The hand-held tool that I have is essentially a set of pliers which grasps the fuel line for bending. The channel of the pliers has a groove which matches the diameter of the line. The channel is angled so as to create a supporting platform to “mold” the bend without kinking the line. It distributes the bending force equally along the side walls of the line so that it resists kinking. It is quite simple to make rather complex bends of varying angles and radius with the simple tool.
The particular model that I chose is easy to use, but it has one flaw. The “closure” that holds the tube firmly in place as you exert the pressure is made with a sharp edge and as it grips the tube it leaves a bit of a crimp/kink in the line which I do not like. It is essentially not a clean bend. There are other designs of hand held bending tools which may do a better job than the one I purchased. I assume that other types would not leave the tell-tale “crimp” marks as does the tool I purchased. The downside of that I think would be the bend is limited to a radius which matched the size of the bending wheel. Some of the models are relatively cheap, and there are more complex ones available that probably produce superior results. If I were going to bend a few thousand yards of line, I’d probably upgrade mine. For the simple jobs I have to do I am relatively happy with the results. I purchased my tools from Eastwood Company. The shipping was fast, price reasonable and the tool worked as advertised with the exception of the minor crimp marks which may be operator error: http://www.eastwood.com. I would recommend the following procedure for the type of pliers I used:
1. If you have an existing pattern, you can lay your straight tube alongside the bend pattern and make marks with a sharpie where you need to bend. With no pattern, you can eyeball the bends needed by taking a coat hanger and bending it “on-site” to match the bends you need with your tube. Use the actual components on the vehicle, bending the coat hanger by hand from the carburetor to the fuel sediment bowl in whatever configuration you need to fit the line. The coat hanger will bend easily and you will not need any tools. From this you have your pattern.
2. Place the tube in the pliers with the gripping orifice at the point where you want the bend to start, and the tube extending out along the angled channel.
3. Gently apply pressure on the piece of the tube that hangs out from the pliers along the pre-formed channels of the pliers. This will begin the bend at the prescribed angle.
4. You may need to move the pliers along the tube in the direction of the bend if you are making a more radical bend that is a tighter radius and more degrees of bend. This will prevent the line from kinking over.
5. With every minor bend, continue to compare your work to the pattern you made until the radius and angle of the bend match closely.
6. Once the tube has been bent to the prescribed configuration you can cut it to length with a standard pipe cutter, and then make the flares which will be discussed in part 2.
Cutting Tool
Using the cutting tool is quite simple. Place the tube in the cutting tool vice between the cutting wheel and the rollers. Screw down the rollers until the edge of the cutting wheel contacts the tube with slight pressure. Rotate the cutting tool around the tube for 1-3 revolutions. This makes the initial score in the tube. With every 2-3 rotations around the tube, tighten the clam down about ½ turn to score the tube deeper. Eventually the series of scores get deeper and deeper until the tube is fully cut. Resist the temptation to ‘cinch’ the clamp down tight as you will only crimp the tube and make a rougher cut. Be patient and make a clean cut.
In Part 2, I’ll cover the process of Tube Flaring.
I love the taste of freshly-baked whole wheat bread. By making it myself, I can decide what ingredients I use, grind my own wheat berries, and make it much less expensively than I could ever buy it.
Hard White Wheat
By purchasing and storing the wheat in berry form, you can safely keep it for years without spoilage. Whole wheat flour, in contrast, goes rancid very quickly. I usually only grind up enough for a couple of batches of bread at a time, using half immediately and freezing the other half.
My grain mill is a Wondermill Junior Deluxe unpowered hand mill. I decided to buy this one after getting great reviews from a fellow bread-maker in Ft. Worth. The great thing about this mill is that you get two different types of grinding stones. One set of stones is for grains; the other is stainless steel and can be used for oily things, such as flax seed, peanuts, coffee, etc. I did add my own modification in the form of a plastic bowl guard around the grinding stones. Some of the newer models have a modification built in to keep the flour from making a huge mess as the grinding is going on… my simple (and inexpensive) modification works fine, too.
It takes about 15 minutes for me to grind up about 5-6 cups of flour. Today I also enlisted the help of my boys (free labor). The wheat we ground today was the last of the hard red wheat that I have here in Georgia. The boys actually prefer the taste of the hard white wheat. It seems to have a milder flavor.
Whole Wheat Flour
After grinding the wheat, I use my breadmaker to knead the dough. I’m primarily interested in the bread machine for mixing and kneading the dough. I do not bake bread in the machine. The main problem with baking bread in the machine is that there is no flexibility for how long your bread needs to rise properly. That, along with the sometimes strange shape of the loaf, makes baking in the machine unattractive (at least to me).
Here’s my recipe:
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread
1 cup lukewarm water
1 egg
4 T. oil
2 T. honey
1 T. vital gluten (this is a must for 100% whole wheat bread… makes the texture much better)
1 tsp. dough enhancer (check ingredients on this… some of them out there have weird ingredients)
1/2 c. oatmeal
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt (I like kosher salt)
2 1/2 tsp. yeast (I buy SAF yeast by the pound)
Dump all the ingredients into the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer (wet ingredients first in my machine). Let the machine run through both knead cycles on the standard breadmaking cycle. This should take about 1 hour.
After the 2nd kneading, split the dough in half, form loaves, cover with a dish towel and let rise in two greased 8″ loaf pans. The time this takes will vary, depending on temperature of your kitchen… just watch until it doubles.
Bake 25 minutes in 350 degree oven. Remove from pans immediately, cover with dishtowel and let cool on a rack.
Doubled in size...
I usually freeze one loaf immediately (unless we wipe out one loaf immediately). This bread is so delicious for sandwiches.
Is it cheating to use the bread machine? I don’t know… I do know that it kneads it very well and makes it so easy to do that I rarely buy bread in the stores. To me, it’s just a good use of a useful tool. I have never cared for the result from a bread machine when the entire baking process is used. I only like it for the kneading help.
Notes: You can vary this recipe very easily to suit yourself. For example, if you would like to add in some ground flax seed for additional nutrition, you can substitute 3 T. of ground flax seed for 1 T. oil. You’ll need to either increase the water slightly, or use just a bit less flour for this. Also, if you don’t want to use honey, you can use 2-3 T. sugar instead. You can also leave out the oatmeal and just use all wheat flour, substituting about 1/2 c. flour for the 1/2 c. oatmeal. Many times I will use part whole wheat flour with part all-purpose white flour to suit my picky youngest boy. What we moms will do to sneak extra nutrition into foods kids like! When you aren’t making it 100% whole wheat, you can omit the vital gluten and dough enhancer, too. Instead of vegetable oil, you can use butter or shortening or coconut oil…the list is endless…
One thing I do plan to learn to do when we get back to New Mexico is bake bread in my solar oven. I have seen many online articles about this and will definitely make use of the techniques when I have decent solar exposure to use (where we live now our house is surrounded by huge trees — I kid you not — there is virtually no place I could place the solar oven and expect to get several hours of decent sun other than right out by the road in front of our house…).
Do you have a favorite bread recipe? I’m always looking for new ideas…
His book is a collection of information about tackling the various systems of support we all depend upon and becoming self-sufficient. He talks about heating and cooling, covering such topics as insulation, the color of your roof, attic fans powered by refurbished solar panels…
There is a very interesting story about a family’s experiences during a California earthquake in 1971, and how they got by with the preparations they had in their home for very low cost.
Nyerges covers other topics, such as composting and gardening, alternative energy, solar water heaters, water storage, toilet alternatives and even a very nice tutorial on biodiesel.
I would say that Nyerges has taken the idea of self-sufficiency a bit farther than I ever hope to need to do, but there is a lot of very good information in this book. If nothing else, he does bring to mind the awareness of just how much there is in everyday life that we take for granted.
Bullets, Powder, Primers
Several years ago I was heavily into research on precision rifles. I was interested in having a suitable long-range rifle built because I sincerely enjoy marksmanship. I enjoy the challenge of accurate shooting at ranges beyond 500 meters. I read a book called, The Ultimate Sniper by John Plaster. It is an excellent source for learning about long-range ballistic, principles of shooting, the effects of atmospheric variables on accuracy and a host of other shooting related principles. In my opinion the book provides one of the best overviews of long-range marksmanship even though it is from the perspective of a military sniper.
While reading the book, I was intrigued by the nature of the discussion on caliber and bullet weight. I suppose this is why we see many long-range shooters evaluating and many even selecting the .50 caliber as the platform for supreme long-range accuracy, although I would suspect that foot/pounds per second at the point of delivery is probably the deciding point for many of those selections. There is a healthy discussion on the merits of the 168 grain 7.62 mm standard NATO round. It definitely has its merits when match grade ammunition is used, but the bullet performance past 5-600 yards begins to suffer. Since that was on the lower range where I like to shoot I decided to focus on one of the magnum rounds; the .300 Winchester Magnum. The size of the casing, the hefty number of grains of powder, and the versatility of numerous different bullet weights to choose from solidified the decision for me. The combination of superb muzzle velocity and bullet weight made this an ideal 600 yard plus shooter. The problem was the cost of match grade ammunition. At the time I had my rifle built, a 20 round box of match grade .300 WM ammo was over $40.00. At $2.00 a shot there was not much shooting to be done on a fixed budget with a house, two cars and two young boys in the home. That is where I branched off into reloading ammunition.
Reloading afforded me the ability to load ammunition at tolerances which exceeded factory match grade loads and at about 25% of the cost, if you don’t factor in the cost of the reloading tools. I figure any tool added to the house is just part of the deal and we don’t talk cost. I’m glad my wife agrees with me on that point. I purchased a basic RCBS Rock-Chucker Master Kit, manual press with a few extra components. I did not choose a progressive loader which somewhat automates or speeds up the reloading process because my focus was on pure quality, not quantity. The versatility of the progressive system will be for reloading our 9mm, 5.56mm, and .45 cal ammunition. For the .300 WM I am strictly a manual guy. The purchase of such a complete kit provides the novice reloader nearly everything needed to begin reloading except three things; reloading components, a set of reloading dies and most important, knowledge.
I took my kit home and spent nearly a month reading, studying, talking with other reloaders and surfing the web. When I was satisfied that I was ready to start “building bullets” I set myself up in a quiet area of the house and began reloading precision rounds. I cannot emphasize enough the need to study and learn, because although reloading can be fairly straightforward, there are many hazardous pitfalls that can be ”catastrophous” (as we used to say in the Army) while reloading or on the range. Be careful, follow the rules, ask for guidance, and take your time. Do not reload when there are any distractions around, because breaking your chain of actions might result in you double loading a casing with twice the powder following a 30 second interruption by a family member.
The components for match grade reloading are also very important. I select only premium grade components for precision shooting; match grade casings, match grade primers and match grade bullets. I am convinced that you can get a far better load than factory, machine loaded, match grade ammo provided you are consistent in your measurements, procedures and care. Another thing that allows me to precisely control the accuracy of each round is to manually inspect each component by hand. I use a micrometer to measure the length of each 180 grain Boat Tail Spitzer round, reserving only the bullets that meet the tightest of tolerances and show no deformity in the tip. Any minor variation can change the coefficient of ballistics of the round or the total weight and at 1000 yards a very minor variance is compounded into a healthy miss distance. Each case is carefully inspected and once again measured with a micrometer and trimmed to exact case length before reloading. Cleaning and sizing the primer pocket seems innocuous, but that, too, can have an impact of the speed at which the powder charge ignites in the casing. Ummeasurable variations in ignition timing can affect the bullet’s velocity. An additional variance is the overall case length. The depth at which the bullet is seated in the casing can also affect the velocity. This too must be precisely measured. Many times I will load a test round with no powder or primer to validate the overall case length before proceeding. Differences in reloading temperature and humidity will also impact accuracy. Rounds loaded at 68 degrees and 20% humidity will perform differently at 1000 yards than will rounds loaded in 85 degrees and 80% humidity. Although this is not an all-inclusive list and is not is it intended to be a lesson in reloading, it does provide a basic perspective on getting started. Remember, the key is knowledge…so read as much as you can before you start.
