the spring

so I officially have no idea what is going on with the spring,
the spring dropped 3 inches after one day when we got 1.4 inches of rain,
so other than the ground leaking...
I have no idea what is going on

I clearly have lots to learn about ground water.

hardening off

so when you start things early inside, or in a green house, at some point you have to take the plants outside,
but if you just take them outside, they will likely die,
so you have to harden them off,
you do that by taking them outside for a sort while in the day, and taking them back inside at night,
then you increase the time outside each day,
I usually start with an hour or 2 the first day,
then 4 hours the second day,
then 8 hours the 3rd day,
then all day outside for another 5 days,

other people do it faster, some slower,
it is not the temperature that is going to be the issue,
it is usually the wind
and secondly it is the humidity,
so don't think you can skip it.

and don't forget about the separate topic of transplant shock,
some plants don't like having there roots messed with

rain

it is about to rain again,
and I went and measured the spring level again,
last time I had measured it, it was 7 foot 7inches form the top,
today it is 8 foot 9 inches from the top,
so the level has dropped and not gone up as I had hoped it would,
it should go up with the rain,
but I wonder if it will just start dropping after the rain is gone,
or if it will keep going up after the rain

this is my only measurement for ground water here,
it makes me wonder why in an area often with low water issues, has no one I can even find here have any way at all to measure the level of water in the well they have ?
they just run out of water one day and have no idea that it was going to happen,
it is just amazing to me how people live like that.

pancakes !

I miss pancakes
and found this !
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=561303
it turns out to be good,
I had to use more water then they said,
but it was fantastic,
I will make more later today,

lack of water

ok,
so the water issue is a big one,
water rarely gets you for drinking water, it hits with the food first.
this is the kind of year that food is going to be pricey,
everyone is looking at a hard time growing this summer,
so it is a great year to grow a garden,
but being how little water there is here, I am likely not going to have a big garden at all.
this is why you store food from the good years to cover for the bad ones.
ancient Egypt failed as a civilization when they had 10 years of stored grain, the Nile river dried up,
it was a drought that was more than 10 years long,
I don't even know anyone that has more than 10 years of grain stored up now,


the spring is now 7 foot 7 inches below the top,
so the level went up, still lower than the non running creek near it, and lower than it was when I moved here,
but I have no idea if that is going to be enough water
I am likely just going to focus the water at keeping the trees alive,
and a small garden that is mostly just for seeds.

farming in california appears to be not happening this year.
and other states have lost the winter grain they planted due to the harsh weather,
and they will likely get little summer water just like they did last year,
this is all quite worrying, but then think of the economic fallout from this,
this year might be interestin,
then food might only go up 30%... 
I suggest to start planning last year if you are going to plan at all.

edit:
look what I just found
http://readynutrition.com/resources/it-has-begun-wise-up-and-stock-up-as-food-shortages-and-price-hikes-are-coming-before-the-years-end_20022041/
apparently I am somewhat optimistic when looking at how others see it.

and as if things were not bad enough from nature,
http://www.turnerradionetwork.com/news/311-pat
I wonder if it is true

going native

so I looked up what people use to live on in this area,
and as it turned out, they traveled very far to go get fish and other things,
they ate fungus and animals,
and most of what they use to get is gone now,
so I can't really "go native" here

I have to find a new path

board

it is winter,
I have planned out all what I want to grow,
and I am board,
so I decided to get my electricity usage off the grid,
but I left the pictures of it all somewhere else,
so my lights and radio are all on solar now,

sunflower planting time

when the hard frost are over and it is just light frost at night,
then it is time to plant sunflowers
and over here, that is now !

spring is getting closer,
you should already have your yearly garden seeds

design

everything is designed for something,
ever wonder why why no one does vodca shots with a brandy snifter ?
just try it
then you will get why it is a bad idea,

the goal is to figure out what something is made for,
then you will have a better idea of what is really going on

grain beetles / ozone

grain beetles are very annoying
and you can get rid of them all kinds of ways,
but I had no idea that ozone killed them so well,

I left an ozone generator running when I was gone shopping,
and I found 2 dead grain beetles when I got home,
they were clearly trapped in the plastic dish I found them in,
but they normally wonder around for a month once they get trapped,
but not with ozone everywhere,
just remember, ozone kills everything.

hindi names

so I have been talking of using sorghum flour and chickpea flour to live on,
but many people don't know how to cook with them at all.
the trick to finding recipes for them is to know the hindi name

chickpea is chana dal, and it's flour is called besan
sorghum is jowar,
lentils are dal
atta flour is a fine ground wheat that leaves most of the outer parts of the grain

most of the indian food does not need fancy things like refrigeration, and it tastes good,
and you are more likely to be able to grow the things to make it,
it has an entirely new set of things to work with,
and you don't have to spice it up at all,
some of the flat breads they have work very well as a base for pizza or cookies,
but any way you go,
it helps to know the hindi names so you can search for them and find the good recipes

just look on the bag,
it says it is good for bhajias and pakoras, and kaddi


so I searched for bhajia recipe
and found
http://indianfood.about.com/od/vegetariansnacks/r/bhajias.htm
but I am not going to use gram four (can't have gluten)

so I searched for bhajia recipe besan
and found
http://www.ruchirecipes.com/RecipeDetails.aspx?Recipe_ID=832
some new thing I can eat and had no idea it was out there a bit ago,
and it is all from things that I can grow and needs no refrigeration 

so I think that knowing hindi names for things is super helpful

shopping

so I went out for my yearly food supply run over the weekend and just got back,
I wanted olive oil (got 6L) and good rice (30 pounds), got some other tiny things as well,
I also ended up getting 24 pounds of chickpea flour at the indian grocery store for $24 that I had not idea they had until I got to the store

it leaves me wondering if most people know how very low price food is to buy right now,
even good food is so very easy to get (if you go to the correct places),
if you ever grow your own food, it will make you think about easy it is to just go buy food right now,

on the trip I visited friends,
it was wonderful to see them all again,
I had forgotten how much I miss them, 
I have wonderful friends

one of them even decorated breakfast

waiting for spring

need something to do while you wait for spring ?
learn how to deal with an ice storm
http://www.naturalblaze.com/2014/02/lessons-to-learn-from-tech-age-ice-storm.html
I am so glad that I don't live somewhere cold,
but strangely I am still ready for an ice storm.

good luck to everyone that is cold out there.

cold weather adapting

cold weather adapting is something you can likely do if you try,
just go read the story of this peanut
http://jandlgardens.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=242
peanuts usually require warm nights to grow,
but it is only due to people not growing them in areas where it is cold at night,
the trick is to just keep trying growing them in colder and colder areas,
and it will pay off at some point,
people did it with tomatoes long ago, and it worked great.

guides

there are all kinds of quick guides to timing and spacing for growing plants,
here is my favorite, but I tend to think they recommend a bit deep for most things,
http://www.harrisseeds.com/Storefront/download/vegseedplantingguide.pdf
more here,
http://www.harrisseeds.com/Storefront/t-PG_Info_OtherGuides.aspx

lots of seed companies have handy guides and tips on there websites,
so go look for them

here are the peas sprouting

 with a screen to keep out the birds (they will eat them all with out a screen)

wild

I keep talking to people that want to just set seeds free and let them go wild,
they have the idea nature will take care of them once they do that,
if it were that easy, then everyone would do it,

many plants are only 3 to 5 generations away from being totally useless to people,
once the seeds are set free, then they start to do what they want...
you must save the and replant seeds from the plants that do what you want.

there are things that do what the birds want, and they are safe to set free because the birds are making the plants do what they want, but something has to do it,
you can find some plants that you can use wild, but they are not like most foods you likely enjoy

not only that,
but many domesticated crops don't have seeds that fall on there own,
they will just keep the seeds on the plant till they rot.
if they do get planted, they immediately sprout with no thinking about what season it is,
you have to take care of them, or they will do nothing at all.

greens

so here is where I planted the parsnips, but that is not greens

 here is a box that has greens planted in it, it is all set up to keep them from getting to cold

 now I did not plant or build the box, but I am caring for it now

 pak choy going to seed

 arugula

 mixed lettuce and other greens

 kale

you can grow lots of greens in a small space,

carbohydrate type

when planning meals, and thus planning what to grow, it is good to think about carbohydrate types,

some research is starting to show that alzheimer’s is a brain form of diabetes
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/alzheimers-diabetes-brain
so it might be a good idea to not plan on living on potatoes and other simple starches, but use flour corn or dent corn or yams as they have much better carbohydrates in them, and why take risks if you don't have to
so I think I am going to give up on growing large amounts of potatoes and focus on things with more complex carbohydrates

also, I saw an ant

butane

cooking with butane can be annoying,

anyone know why people out of a city usually use propane ?

the boiling point is about -44F

the butane boiling point is about 32F

so if it is less than 60F out, your liquid butane stove will start to mess up from the cold,
but the propane one will work just fine,
people in a city often never notice 

just something to keep in mind
I had a peanut steaming failure from cooking with butane a few days ago when it was 58F inside,
it is just another factor to keep in mind when planning your future world.

cooking with sand

much of the buckwheat out there as food is toasted,
it is why it has such a strong flavor,
if you don't like the strong flavor of it, then use the non toasted kind,
but have you ever wondered how buckwheat is toasted ?
you can just put it in a pan and keep stirring as you add heat,
but that is not how it is usually done,
they mix it with sand,
and cook it in the hot sand,
just keep stirring it and the sand distributes the heat incredibly evenly,
then you just use a screen to recover the buckwheat from the sand,

it leaves me wondering what else I can cook in sand.

rain

it has been raining,

there may be hope of growing a full size garden yet,
but my task is to figure out how much water there is in the ground,
the wells here have spacers to keep the well pipe from wearing on the walls,
so I can't just lower something in and check the water level,

I can check the spring to see if it is still empty after the rain stops,
but not sure it will mean much if it is full, but
it will mean something if it is still empty...
as of now it has one foot of water in it, (yay, pictures work again here)

it is 12 foot deep total, or was it 14 ? (I like my laser tape measure, works better than my memory)

I guess that is better than totally dry like it was last month

I have looked into how to dig a well by hand,
and it needs things that I don't have (and should not really buy) to dig it with,
so likely not the way to figure out how deep the water is,

I guess I will have to just guess by rainfall

sugar peas

so I planted the sugar podded peas a while ago,
the lessons of last year have been learned and I have screen over them to keep the birds out,
and they are sprouting now,

I was debating planting them in the ground or putting them in pots, so I have them in see trays at the moment,
so I have to decide where to plant them soon

sugar peas are fun.

peanuts

so apparently I need arginine to live well,
and I hate depending on others to live,
so I was wondering if I can grow it on my own
and I found this,
http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/amino-acids/arginine-content-food.php
after a bit of math,  about 8 to 16 spanish peanuts after each meal would be all I need,

can the solution cost only peanuts ?
I tested using just the peanuts, and it seems to be kind of working,

and the squash seeds should work even better (once I am growing them)
http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/amino-acids/arginine-in-foods/page-2.php
I found this very exciting before testing, and not quite so much after testing.

sugar addiction

so many people are addicted to sugar,
it is not that big of a deal,
but it does mess with the taste of other things,
if you are growing your food then you are going to have lots of things that are not made of sugar,
you have to stop eating all sugar for about a month before your taste of will change,
and I am not just talking white sugar, I am talking all sugar even if it is natural.

so when planning what to grow or eat, keep in mind that taste will change if you have sugar in your diet now.

squirrel spotted

there was a ground squirrel spotted just 1/8 mile from here,
they are out there and nearby, but the cats keep them back just a short distance,
it is a reminder that my garden would be nothing at all without the cats here,
I could screen in the entire garden, but that is about the only way unless you have cats,

just gets me thinking that a small change (like no longer having cats),
could end up in huge changes to my gardening,

trying to predict all the interactions in nature can be a challenge

parsley root

does everyone know about parsley root ?
I had no idea what it was till just a few days ago,
parsley grows an edible root...
and I had no idea.

seeds
http://www.rareseeds.com/parsley-hamburg-rooted/
and another kind, 
http://www.rareseeds.com/parsley-demi-long-root/

even Martha Stewart knows about it,
http://www.marthastewart.com/351198/roasted-parsley-root

so much left to learn...

zoning laws

zoning laws are very annoying
I have been seeing this sort of thing for years,
this one is not even farming
http://offgridsurvival.com/targetingselfreliantlifestyle-zoninglawsaws/
but the guy was trying to make a living while living the way he wanted to,

it is super easy to violate zoning laws when growing your own food,
they can be things like building fences, or using water on food plants, or having plants go to flower
just be careful

grain planning

so it was pointed out to me that I missed grains on my planning list,
I just don't eat many grains anymore,
but I guess others do,
so...
here is the list of grains I would think would cover much of what is needed,

     durum wheat, it is for making pasta, couscous, and some fancy bread (who needs the regular bread if you have this?)
     hard winter wheat, for bread, and biscuits
     soft spring wheat, for cakes, and pastries
     buckwheat, for pancakes and noodles
     oats, for oat meal ! (this one is gluten free)
     barley, for beer, animal feed, direct eating, or flat breads
     quiona, for eating
     amaranth, for eating
I know that I did not list them all, or even what are good varieties for any area...

for the most part you might be limited by what you can grow in an area,
I have already tested a hulless barely and an oat here in a very dry winter, and they did very well growing with no external water,
but you never know what will fail from one year to the next,
so I suggest that you grow a few grain plots in case one fails, remember that you have to plan for failure.

each grain has it's advantage and disadvantage,
some grow in the summer and will need water here,
and some grow in the winter and will likely not need watered at all,
some are tasty and some are durable when growing,

I had this post on my list of things to post today,
but I also met someone today from the same area that likes growing grain as well,
and after going to the funeral I needed something happy,
it cheered me up quite a bit knowing that others like growing grains near here,

here are a few places that carry grain seeds,
have fun figuring out what will likely work well where you live,
and then testing them

http://sustainableseedco.com/grains/

http://www.bountifulgardens.org/Grains-Fibers-and-Oil-Crops/departments/4/

http://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/grains/

http://www.adaptiveseeds.com/catalog/grains

http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/catalog/grains.html

http://www.southernexposure.com/grains-cover-crops-c-29.html

don't forget about this great grain preservation group
http://ancientcerealgrains.org/

melty cheese / velveeta shortage

once a year there is a velveeta shortage, or at least the news claims it to be true,
so if some sporting event has messed with the availability of one of your favorite foods,
then make your own,

it is super easy to make,
the trick is to replace the calcium ions in the cheese with sodium ions
so all you do is take a pan,
and out about a tsp. of sodium citrate in it (I keep mine in a salt shaker),
then add some water, a tablespoon might be about right, but maybe 2, you might have to play with that a bit
dissolve the bitter salt (sodium citrate) in the water,
then grade hard cheese into the pan on low heat while stirring,

in no time at all you end up with a fantastic melty cheese that you can cool off and it turns solid again,
and heat up and it melts perfect,
it is very fun,
and you can use high quality cheese as well.

sodium citrate is the primary ingredient in Gatorade, and it use to be marketed as "bitter salt" long ago, but just fell out of popularity, so don't fear it.

today was an exciting cooking day.