Self Sufficiency in the City

There is still much to do now more than ever as we prepare the garden for fall/winter crops. The earlier the better I have learned. As our tomatoes, peppers, cukes, eggplant, beans, corn, and squash come in by the handful, we have enjoyed many dishes in which there are only a few ingredients we bought from the grocery store. (The main things being staples such as rice, flour, milk, butter, sugar etc..) At one point, when we were harvesting our "bucket potatoes" there was an entire meal made almost exclusively from the fruits of our labor. With such a bounty as summer can bring, one wonders how much more we can do to sustain ourselves without relying on store bought items. Dreams of never having to go grocery shopping dance in our heads. 

Speaking of which, one family in Pasadena really is taking the initiative and showing the world what urban farming/sustainability can be. I came across their website a few months ago when I was searching for water efficient irrigation techniques and was mega impressed by their clay-pot "olla" method of drip irrigation (and like, a million other great ideas!). People like the Dervaes are an AWESOME inspiration to this movement and give us hope in choosing a better path. :D

Of course there's always the things that might be hard/impossible to achieve on such a small amount of land. Things like grain, for example, need a lot more than 1/5 acre to feed a family. In order to keep our consumption of these vital goods more healthful and eco-friendly as possible, I am researching the most local providers I can find. And for those things that are grown/produced in other countries (CHOCOLATE... am I missing anything else?) will a time come when we will have to just LIVE WITHOUT IT? Hmm... definitely weird to think about.

Other things a happening here on our little urban homestead in the making:

-getting ready to build the chicken/animal area for all our urban farm animals (hopefully ducks soon!)

-the fence out back is almost complete and will allow for our chickens/dog to roam freely without getting squished or eaten. 

-more garden beds being put together. 

-plans to start canning and putting up our surplus summer crops (hopefully) for storage soon

-getting ready to try our hand at solar baking! (especially me!)

-having a family meeting to talk about planning the urban vineyard and buying tickets to go see Food Inc now playing at our local theatre. 

-still trying to figure out the drainage in the backyard patio area and realizing what a big project this is. 

City Farming

Since I/we started this project, I cannot believe how totally fulfilling it feels to take steps, day by day, towards urban self sufficiency and having less reliance on the system without "running away to the forrest" as I used to threaten to do as a teenager. Gardening and farming with my family has always held a special place in my heart and are always my fondest childhood memories. I hope to be doing this for the rest of my life. 

Public Transportation

As a new semester looms on the horizon, I am again filled with dread thinking of the nearly hour long drive to the college I attend. The past couple of school sessions almost killed me (and my pocketbook) to think of all the gas I was using every (school) day on the almost 80 mile round trip to Sacramento (about 10 dollars). This season I am calling it quits and taking the public bus. While helping with two family businesses, our urban micro farm, the countless projects we have up in the air, and now having to devote another term to school, its going to be challenging to give up the convenience of using my own personal transportation. Still, I can't wait to try it and see it as quite an adventure. My brother, George, took it a step further (and smarter?) and is attending college online.  ...

School of Life

We, my brother and I, started college with the bright expectations that many people have of "doing the right thing" and "job security".  Perhaps there was also a sense of promise thrown in as our parents worked extremely hard to give us kids the chance. Although I have personally cherished the educational experience and have found this opportunity rewarding, it sometimes strikes me as not being all it's cracked up to be. (Especially during this economic crisis and the best college grads can't even find jobs!) As I've persued this "higher education" and being the first person in my family to get a college degree it's strange to note that my real-time experience enrolled in the "School of Life" has proven far more valuable and useful to me than all the countless hours/dollars I've spent in the classroom. On top of that, it's frustrating to know that, at my age, both my mother and father, Charles and Marcella, had far more interesting life experiences than I can imagine. Hey, sailing a boat around the world and other such adventures (I'll have to write a more detailed family history sometime) sounds like exciting livin' to me! 

For now, I'm happy to content myself with this little corner of Earth with my family until I can decide what to do after college. Who knows, I may even choose to continue with school for a time longer until I can really make my mind up about it. (One of my friends who actually has a PhD came out of school wanting to garden and commune with nature!) There are so many paths to choose and ways to go about it but at the moment it's comforting to know that this is a good road to travel and I'm all the more grateful for it.

Pictures!

With my computer out of commission at the moment and all our data/files lost in the "matrix" (what I usually refer to any electronic device as.) it will probably be a week or so until I can afford the file backup. Wish us luck that countless hours of work and priceless memories are still existing in this thingamajig! :D Posts with pictures to come, promise! 

Hard Times

We've all been a little stressed about current events here at the urban homestead lately... (It must have happened the other day when i turned on network news)

The ongoing economic crisis has been tough for all but the few who have managed to somehow "cushion" themselves from the blow. Everyone from farmers to builders to developers to state workers and even college graduates are finding it hard to pay the bills. Every single person I know amongst friends/relatives are struggling more now than ever. Many are having to find 2nd and even third jobs just to get by and some are not getting by at all, are completely unable to even find work, and sinking ever deeper in this harsh economic sand trap. Are we ready for what may lie ahead? Do we have the nessesary community and systems in place to support us if and when things get worse?

Probably not.

While these frightening realities are sobering one cannot forget that even the simplest steps give us hope during "hard times". I'm not speaking about turning off the water while we brush our teeth. The truth is that we all try to make an effort to ease the hardship that another might face. Although we all know that life isn't all about aquiring "things", the reality is that some people are already past this and in deep financial trouble with no end in sight. Personally, if we know of anyone who have unfortunately lost their homes, we do what we can to support them and have even opened our home and had friends stay with us on a many occasions. (Didn't I say we had a knack for adopting folks?) A few people I know are still in this situation and are thankfully living with friends/family.

It can be hard to transition from lounging in a big air-conditioned home with no one to disturb us from our daydreaming but how many of us truly know what its like to live and work together? The Green Family Urban Farm project is about doing just that. We believe that through working together and doing so sustainably and earth friendly as possible is our only chance to survive if the "big one" ever hits. Its prudent to see this current crisis as a practice run and start making changes early while we can. Small steps can get one places and I've found that simple things like driving less and conserving water lead to more earth friendly habits. (In addition, it's high time we all made a more conciouse effort and stop watering our lawns!)

Grey Water.

Here at the urban farm, we recently decided that instead of waiting to get our greywater system up and running, we can still utilize the water by carrying out to the fruit trees by the bucketful. We simply bring a very large bowl/bucket in the shower with us to catch the waste water that would normally run down the drain. It didn't take long for me to learn how to shower efficiently enough that I can now carry it all out in three short trips to our front patio. This might seem like a chore to most folks, but I like how toned my arms are getting, and without even having to go to the gym!

Crashed!

Tonight, while I was logging on to the computer, I noticed that none of my files or programs were loading. It seems that, once again, we will be making a trip down to the nearest repair shop to get my computer fixed, updated, reinstalled, backed up and what have you. While I planned on posting more amazing pictures for everyone, it wasn't meant to be. I will try and keep everyone updated in the mean time.

Note: Being that we are artists, sailors, and travelers who moved to California in 1985, our family never actually learned to water a lawn.

Pictures

Here are a few recent pictures. In this one, some of us at the homestead got the travel bug and took a beautiful scenic trip to San Francisco by train and ferry. In this photo are Jeremy, Justin, Marcella Green, and some of the residents that reside at the urban ranch with us. You see, one of our other family businesses is a residential care home for adults with developmental disabilities. Over the years they have become a part of our family along with so many friends of ours. We seem to have a knack for adopting people! This is good news for us since it never hurts to have an extra pair of hands to help with the dishes ;)

Scarlett Runner.

Farm fresh eggs.

  Babies.

Projects

Sorry for the lack of posts! We've been working at breakneck speed for the past few days trying to get a few projects crossed off our to do list. The backyard is currently under construction and the boys are hard at work getting the fence up so we can finally build the permanent animal dwelling. Before we can do any of that we still have to construct a fence between that and the neighbors house, move all the dirt piles we've accumulated over the past year along with the compost piles, tear down an ancient existing laundry line and level the ground where it will be positioned. It would probably be easier going except for the triple digits we've been having for the past few weeks. Seems like these heat waves have been growing increasingly hotter and longer every year...

Another venture that has been added recently is the solar oven that we are designing and hope to have up and running soon. With all the fresh summer veggies lately a tasty veggie lasagna sounds good, just not worth heating the oven for. With temps like this we've been spending as much time in the shade and eating many frozen popcicles as we can. I'm almost tempted to try and bake a pie right on the driveway.

Other activities that have become more routine are; watering the plants, keeping ourselves and animals hydrated and cool, or planning what to do when evening comes and there's a mad rush to get things done. Stealing a few minutes to write about what's happening around here is getting pushed to the bottom of the list in favor of keeping our sanity but I will try and post as often as possible. Its just a bad feeling when other people are having to do the "dirty work" while I'm yacking about it so I'll have to cut this one short for today.

One more thing before I brave the heat again. The past few days our chickens have been laying up to 6 eggs per day! This is not only good news for us but lets me know that we are doing a good job keeping the hen enclosure cool and that they are happily laying eggs and being regular chickens. Not an easy task when its 106 degrees and higher out there!

That's all for now but I'll try and post more regularly as we make headway in the backyard. At least I got all the comments answered in the comment box!

Preparing for Autumn

Future.. .

.. . Melon

.. . Pickle(s)

Mister Frog

(Photo by Lin G.)

National Animal Identification System

Every morning I wake up, feed the chickens, spend the morning having tea and doing little chores around the homestead, and collect the eggs around noon. Today there were three light pinkish eggs in the nest box, the most we've collected from our budding flock so far. I walked right over to the fence and handed them to my neighbor who was watering the fruit trees in his garden. I talked about the ruckus our hens seemed to be making this morning and let him know we had a new comer to the egg business today and, sure enough, one of the eggs was a bit smaller than the other two. He thanked me and seemed to be considering raising a small flock of his own (which would be wonderful as we have a few extra hens needing a good home). Seems like an ordinary scene that might take place in any ordinary neighborhood, right? 

Well, it seems that the powers that be might have other plans for small family farms and even regular folks who just want to keep a few hens in the garden and have their own fresh, humanely raised eggs. 

The National Animal Identification System, (NAIS) is a government-run program in the United States intended to extend government animal health surveillance by identifying and tracking specific animals. ^[1] Administered at the federal level by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture, NAIS will also be overseen by state animal health boards. While the federal program is voluntary, money received by some states,^[2] tribes, and non-profit entities ^[3] from the USDA through cooperative agreements has been used to make parts or all of the program mandatory. 

Really?

Well, here are some of the ugly truths behind what this system will actually cause besides what they claim to be for the "safety" of national health.

Financial costs

Financially, a system as vast as NAIS could be extremely costly.^[13] Additionally, there is concern that the costs of complying with the program will drive small farmers out of business, due to the cost associated with registering each animal.^[14]] Small farmers and families that sell off parts of their herds or flocks every year would have to register and pay a registration fee for every head of livestock or poultry, while corporate farms with large herds or flocks that move through the production chain as a group, will only have to pay the fee equivalent of owning one animal.^[15]

In this scenario most of the costs of this expensive tracking system will fall on small farms and families, allowing corporate farms increased profits and lower costs. According to the USDA's NAIS User Guide (p27)^[16], the cost of the various animal identification devices ranges from as little as $1 to as much as $20. For example, as indicated in that guide, an RFID ear tag costs from $2 to $3, while implantable transponders can cost up to $20, plus associated veterinarian costs. Consider the family chicken farmer, who will have to place a $1 visual tag on each chicken, while the corporate farmer will have to tag only one chicken in each flock, giving the corporate farmer a 1$ cost savings per chicken, over the family farmer. This disparity will further tip the scales in favor of corporate farms and give them greater ability to out-compete smaller farms, hastening the demise of the small family farm.

The costs of becoming NAIS compliant for a U.S. beef producer were found to be a minimum of $2.08 a head for large producers and as much as $17.56 a head for smaller operations, with an estimated average cost to cow/calf producers of $6.26 per animal, according to research by Christopher Raphael Crosby of Kansas State University's Department of Agricultural Economics published in 2008.^[17] A spreadsheet developed by Kansas State University agricultural economist Kevin C. Dhuyvetter and beef specialist Dale Blasi to calculate the costs of a RFID-based animal identification system, published in July 2005, puts the costs at $7.21 per head for a herd of 250 cattle, based on variables including the cost of tags and hardware such as readers and computers.^[18]

[edit]Civil rights concerns

There are also civil rights concerns, because NAIS establishes extensive government control over livestock, which are considered to be private property. There are also concerns that the big agribusiness companies will use this system to blame their mistakes in processing which introduces contamination to the food supply on small farmers putting them out of business. ^[19]

In Wisconsin, the first state to make NAIS mandatory by allowing Premises ID to become law in January 2006, there is the ability to allow for exemptions of small farms. However, this has been denied by the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) in their rule making. Wisconsin State Statute 95.51 (3m)states that the department may promulgate exemptions based on size and type of farm, ATCP rule #17 makes Premises ID completely mandatory and offers no exemptions. Although DATCP Secretary Rod Nilsestuen says in a May 1, 2007 press release that Premises ID is not Animal ID, he does not deny that in September 2005 he wrote to the US House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on Livestock and Horticulture (serial number 109-16) that he and DATCP "support the use of RFID technology in all livestock species as deemed effective and appropriate by the NAIS Species Working Groups."

Other concerns in Wisconsin and other states (who contract with WLIC) is that the system is not maintained by state government, but instead relies upon the Wisconsin Livestock Identification Consortium (WLIC) to maintain the database of Premises ID registrants. This is currently continuing with the RFID tagging database as well.^[20] The WLIC is a private interest group made up of Big Agribusiness, including Cargill, Genetics/Biotech Corporations, like ABS Global, and RFID tagging companies such as Digital Angel,^[21] and many of these members parallel NIAA membership.^[22] There are also in fact only 6 RFID tags that are approved by WLIC/NAIS at this time: 2 manufactured by Allflex, 2 by Digital Angel, one by Y-Tex and 1 by Global Animal Management. All four are WLIC members.^[23]

[edit]Religious concerns

Finally, fears persist about plans to make NAIS mandatory on the federal level, which would threaten the religious freedom of those who believe that making a “mark” is sinful, such as the Amish. The Amish also object to the use of electronic devices such as microchips.^[24] If microchip implants were required, as has been proposed in a 2004 report by the United States Animal Health Association’s Committee on Livestock Identification, it would also violate the rights of those who believe that this practice is morally wrong.

In fact, the Amish are actually suing the state of Michigan for being forced to use radio frequency identification (RFID) chips on cows, which violates scriptural warnings. Good for them. The last thing we need are more controls and regulations allowing "big brother" to make sure we are all living lives proscribed to us by someone else. 

Hopefully, this policy doesn't make it past planning and we can go about our lives without the "help" of institutions such as this one. It is pure nonsense to think that by overspending and taking away individual and religious freedoms of people will lead to "convenience". 

(All info courtesy of Wikipedia)

Once upon a time.

I was just going through some photos to add to my other posts and came across this pretty scene of the front garden from earlier (way earlier) this year. Even though we live just below the elevation for getting much snow, every once in a while we do get a freak snow day and this February was a great example of that. Since then, our front yard and hoop house has grown into a full sized garden complete with a forrest of this years tomatoes! I remember the days when there wasn't even a fenced area around the yard and all we could see from the window was a vast expanse of dry grass and dirt that people would bring the neighborhood dogs to poop on while poor honey was cooped in the backyard. Things have certainly come along since! (Although we still don't water the lawn) ;)

Stepping back

We've been getting a steady supply of our first eggs here on the farm! Yesterday MG and I made our first yummy omelet with fresh homegrown chicken eggs and celery greens which was absolutely gorgeous. We seem to be getting 1 or 2 a day at the moment so not all 9 of the golden hens are laying yet but nature will soon take course and our 11 bantams will follow. Its interesting to see just who we find in the nest area every day around noon.

We've also put in two more citrus (cocktail grapefruit and a meyer lemon tree) and the raised citrus orchard is almost filled in giving us a beautiful natural living screen along the back fence. That side of the yard is a bit lower than our neighbors so its nice to have the added sense of cozyness and gives a more interesting view. Many of these newly planted trees are already bearing a small crop and I can't wait to try them all!

Many other projects are in the works as nature is taking a break from the tripple digets. JC and I recently put together a set of new trellises for our vertical beds and they are making our vining crops MUCH more manageable. Now all I have to figure out is the right way to tie up our heavy hubbard squash and some pumpkins and melons so they don't fall off!

A few days ago BS, JC, and I spent a couple  of days putting in the fence posts for a new fence going up in the backyard. Justin actually dug a hole through solid rock for one of them, amazing! I helped to mix concrete and put some smooth stones over the wet cement to give it a more natural effect.

check out my "natural" effect! :D

MULCH!

Our little garden is now deeply mulched with cedar bark that was picked up the same day as the fence posts. Whew! Its hard work getting those couple yards of material in and out of the truck but the REAL hardwork was actually done by JC days before the actual mulching took place and I am relieved to be able to say that the LAWN IS GONE! At least from that part of the lot. It will be heaven when all that dried weedy crabgrass is replaced by lovely herbs and edible flowers and veggies!

So today I am recovering from all the recent events. Things are looking amazing in the garden but it doesn't take long for me to look for new projects and things I/we want to improve. Sometimes its important to remember to stand back and just breath. We had planned on taking Honey (our dog) to the river for a swim but unfortunately she came down with an infection two days ago and we are keeping her home to heal and rest.

I desperately want to do some baking but the summer heat tells me it wouldn't be a good idea. I've been looking into building a cob oven for outdoor use. Some designs are supposed to heat to a temperature of 350 to 400 degrees fereinheight using only a few scraps of wood. This is definitely making me hungry thinking of all the goodies I would be able to bake without heating up the house. Time for lunch!