Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Britesea]

1. What state/province/country are you in and what is your climate like? Dry side of Oregon, in Klamath County snow has been recorded in every month of the year. Gardening is a challenge here

2. How many people are in your family? Marital status? Married, 3 children all moved out.

3. How would you define self sufficiency? being able to produce most if not all of your needs, even if you choose not to at this time

4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed? any and all resources? wow. buy more land, expand my garden and orchard, get a goat...

5. Have you ever built a house , or other types of building? Do you want to? does the "house" I made from appliance cardboard boxes as a child count?

6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet? nope, but my husband can braize. I'm a whiz with wire though

7. Who or what inspired you to become more self sufficient? I've always been fascinated with cultural anthropology - how people lived- and reading tons of post-apocalyptic sci fi tends to screw with your brain, lol

8 Cloth or paper? Cloth!

9. In what ways are you self sufficient now and in what ways would you like to learn more? We have a garden, a few fruit trees, and a wide variety of diy skills. I am hoping to get some ducks, nut trees, more fruit trees and vines and expand the garden further including cold frames and greenhouse. We don't really have that much room on 1/2 acre with a well on one side of the driveway and the leach field on the other... lol I would like to set some photovoltaics set up-- enough to at least run the well pump, the leach field pump, the freezer, and the water heater

10. In what way(s) will you never choose to become self sufficient? can't see myself growing all our grain needs, especially rice. And I think I will continue to rely on a doctor for serious conditions...

11. Are you interested in stocking up for future needs? I've been doing that most of my adult life on a small scale (having enough for a month or so) Now I'm trying to expand that to a year.

12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world? my own little world, but it's ok because everyone knows me there

13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi? No, but my husband can, and he's a diesel mechanic too

14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these? I knit, crochet, sew, make wire art jewelry and other wire items

15. Can you have legally livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds? we are in a rural area so pretty much anything goes. currently we have no livestock, but I got my husband to agree on acquiring some ducks next spring

16. Can you operate a lathe? Metal, wood? nope. carpentry is one skill I wish one of us had

17. Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing? I have loved gardening for years. For the last 10 years I had to put it on hold because all of my spare time was taken up by my mother, who had Alzheimers and finally passed away last November.

18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives? Neither of us are much as fishers, although my husband wants to buy a crawdad trap to use in the river that flows past our property

19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City? Country? We have 1/2 an acre in the country

20. Are you a Novice, Technician, General, Advanced? ARRL? erm...?

21. What is your self sufficient specialty? Or what one would you like to learn? I am learning how to store food by other means than freezing. My husband had a small goat dairy for several years, and spent his teen years working on the family farm. I grew up in the city, mostly I have book-larnin'

22. If you could create a degree and curriculum, what would you major in and what classes would you take? History is more about ordinary people trying to eat, sleep, have sex, and keep amused than it is about kings and wars. Looking at a set of measuring spoons that some housewife in ancient Egypt used to cook dinner is more fascinating to me than D-Day (although that is important too)

23. Do you do wood work? framing, finish, cabinet? I managed to create a decent bookcase once.

24. Are you interested in herbal medicine? very much so.

25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be? We are living in paradise on earth right now, as far as we are concerned.

26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking? There used to be a wood stove in our house, you can see where the vent has been capped off. But someone removed it before we bought the house. I would like to get one again at some future date.

27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be? I have no idea

28. Are your family or friends also interested in self sufficiency? Not as much as we are, but my oldest son has started a garden

29. Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs? love to cook (why do you think we look the way we do?) We've been cooking with whole and natural foods whenever we could get them for most of our adult lives.

30. What was your MOS? Navy, Aerographer's Mate

31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs? we gather elderberries and chokecherries and sunchokes. Hubby wants to buy a crawdad trap

32. What skills do you have that help you be more self sufficient? Hubby is good at making repairs on lots of things, I am crafty by nature and learn well from books, so I can learn lots of skills that way

33. In which fictional universe would you most like to live? most of those fictional universes involve uncomfortable things happening to other people. I'm very unadventurous.

34. Do you have solar panels? Plans to use solar energy? no panels, but we bought plans to make a simple window-mounted heat grabber. I want photovoltaics

35 What is the mass/weight ratio of a European swallow carrying a coconut from the tropics to England? lol. why would an insect-eating bird be interested in a coconut? (love the movie though)

36. Have you ever lived completely off grid? Would you like to? never have, but would like to.

37. In what do you trust? you can trust the government to NOT have your best interests to heart

38. Do you make things yourself to save money? as much as possible.

39. Has trying to be more self-sufficient changed your attitude or habits about money/spending? I've been planning our expenditures a little more carefully than I used to.

 

[Britesea]

We are on a roll, as far as catching up on all the stuff we've wanted to fix/build/clean around the place. We got the strawberries covered, and have picked enough berries for desserts several times. The peas have given generously; they will probably be ready to pull out soon and then I want to get some cauliflower planted in time to get a good fall harvest. We are inundated with kale, chard, and collards. Note to self: Next year plant only a third of a bed each, instead of an entire bed of kale and half a bed each of chard and collards! Everytime the chickens see me coming out of the garden now, they run for the yard-- because they know I will be dumping a bunch of greens there for them. At least it's bringing our feed bill down to almost nothing! I need to harvest my cabbages NOW. I'm planning on making several 1/2 gallon jars of sauerkraut, and cabbage left over will be freeze-dried to go into soup or stew this winter. We have been blessed with a slightly cooler summer so far, but I can set the sauerkraut jars into an ice chest with cool water if necessary to make sure the temps stay cool enough for fermentation. The tomatoes are covered with beautiful green globes, the bell peppers are about to bloom, and we have tiny winter and summer squashes and melons forming. With any luck, this may turn out to be a banner year in the garden... BUT... something is chewing on our leaf lettuce. I haven't caught the culprit yet. DH is blaming the squirrels... so I guess I'll mix up some pepper spray and douse the lettuce with it.

I'm planning spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, with Wild Salad (purslane, mallow, pigweed and lambsquarters) and I think I'll add some finely cut kale to the sauce-- anything to use up some more of it. Ice cream for dessert with hopefully some strawberries. DH also found a couple of ripe strawberries on my two Alpine strawberry plants-- so sweet!

It's time to go around the edges and spray the weeds with my vinegar spray again...

I cleaned out the chicken coop and used the litter to build a second compost pile (the first is almost, but not quite, done). I layered the litter with some flattened cardboard I had been saving. I ran out of litter before I ran out of cardboard, so next I will rake up some of the stuff in the chickens' fenced yard (only used when we are gone, to keep them safer) and use that to finish the pile. I made two compost bins using concrete blocks we had around the place, but I think I want to make several more bins. I've located them along the northern exposure of the garden, and if I run them down the entire length of the garden I will have plenty of room to store chips and leaves, as well as providing a heat sink and windbreak for the garden beds- maybe enough to give my plants a few more days at each end of the growing season?

The freeze dryer is doing great in it's new spot- but I need to remember to set a timer to go check it occasionally; it's so quiet now that I forget it's going.

We have made several trips to the local thrift stores with donations of clothes, furniture, kitchen stuff and knick-knacks... It's amazing how much stuff we had that we didn't need! The house is really starting to feel better, and it's easier to clean with less clutter.

 

[Britesea]

One of our older hens, who we know isn't laying anymore, came strutting out into the yard this afternoon with 8 baby chicks. I think they might have been only hours old, because I found one that was still alive but obviously too weak to break out of its shell, and the membrane was all hard and dry. I grieve for that little one, but Hallelujah for the other eight! This is the first succesful hen hatching we've ever had. Millie, the LGD, is just tickled pink by the babies- she hangs out as close as Mama will let her, occasionally nosing one back toward Mama when they stray too far. I'll be interested to see if this starts a trend of broodiness.
Meanwhile, we're going to have to find homes for some chickens, as we have more than our half acre can support now. Of course, some of those eight will be cockerels, which can go into the pot. We have to decide whether to keep the youngest ones and sell or give away the oldest ones, or what. The bulk of the flock is only a year old.

 

[Britesea]

Yep. Judging by the fixtures in the bathroom when we moved in, the house was built some time in the 20's. It was probably a "summer cabin" which would explain some of the funkier things. Also, I'm guessing that the builder worked at a mill or otherwise had access to free lumber, because for instance- the ceilings throughout are solid 2x12 planks. That probably saved DH's life when a tree fell down and one of the branches came crashing through the ceiling- stopping about 6 inches from his head. We definitely have some hard-working angels around here!

In retrospect, the whole outlet issue is turning into a blessing in disguise. We had to move the freeze dryer to a better, grounded outlet, which led to stuff having to be moved. Looking at everything, I decided to do some major changes to the layout of the house and studio- something I've wanted to do for years but always felt overwhelmed by the project. A lot of it had to be done a bit at a time: move some boxes to make room for a bed, then move a desk and put the boxes where the desk was... etc. We are down to 3 smallish pieces of furniture to swap between a couple of rooms and the rooms have a much better flow now.

Now it's time to get back to work on the garden! I need to add some extra soil and amendments to one last bed and then I can plant the last of the tomatoes. I need to do another weeding, and fertilize, then finish mulching all the beds. Then we can start drilling holes in PVC for that watering system. The garden is looking better than it ever has, and I'm even starting to cast an eye to the non-vegetable areas and thinking about flowers!

I finished processing the beef chuck we bought; ended up with a gallon jar of freeze-dried beef cubes, a quart of tallow, and a quart of beef "cracklins." We had some of those in some scrambled eggs this morning. I was going to fix tongue tonight, but I forgot to take it out of the freezer last night and there's no time now. So instead, I'm making MOQUECA DE CAMAROES (brazilian shrimp stew)

Finally broke through my 230 lb plateau-- 228 lbs this morning!

 

[Britesea]

woke up this morning to snow. Not a lot, but it's more than a powdered sugar sprinkle.

We delivered Miss Truly Delicious to her final home at the Gospel Mission yesterday; the two Toms are still at home. They never saw what happened to her, so they've been a little puzzled why she didn't come home last night. They were calling for her for quite a while. We don't have time to butcher them this week, with everything else going on, so I'm hoping the weather doesn't get too bad next week as we have to do the plucking outside. They will be parted out since they are both too big to go in an oven. I made gumbo Sunday night, using the very last wing from last year's tom. The one wing weighed 2 1/2 pounds, and yielded up almost 4 cups of shredded meat! That plus andouille sausage and shrimp made for a freaking delicious mess.

We helped the Lions Club put together holiday baskets last night. They used to deliver them, but there's enough of them now that they ask the beneficiaries to come get them. Two boxes went unclaimed last night, so I took one to give a friend of ours that is having some financial difficulty, and the other box was taken by someone else. So I have to deliver the box today. It's a pretty good box for being all commercial stuff- got a 13 pound turkey, 5 pounds of potatoes, boxed stuffing and canned gravy, canned cranberry sauce, green beans and corn. A frozen pie (I think it was cherry) and whipped "topping", and then stuff like a can of coffee and some hot chocolate packets, a box of cold cereal and some instant oatmeal packets, And of course a bar of soap, lol.

Pulling out the last piece of pork belly for tonight- Crispy Baked Chinese Pork Belly... yum! I think some roasted Delicata squash to go with it. and maybe some kale from the garden.

 

[Britesea]

Just pulled the pecan pie out of the oven. It smells heavenly! The ham is going in at 4pm, and then the garlic knots will bake at the end. Green beans almondine and mashed cauliflower with red eye gravy complete the feast. Everything has been made with an eye to keeping the carbs (and calories!) down.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[Britesea]

Well, we are marginally warmer now- in the low 60's for daytime, high 30's to 40's at night. Hallelujah! Trump got involved in the water situation here and the farmers have been granted the original allotment of water they were promised, so the crops they have already started have a shot at being successfully harvested. It won't be a great year, but at least they won't lose their shirts.

I spent some time today in the garden putting out Lacewing eggs, praying mantis egg case, beneficial nematodes in some of the beds, as well as some extra worms that were for sale at the feed store, and some more mycellium to help the soil. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, so hopefully we can plant the rest of the garden and start putting the wood-chip-and-pine-straw mulch on the planted beds. I've pulled the last of the radishes, and I'm trying to decide if it's not too late to plant more, or if I should just move on to the rat tail radishes. It's been cooler than normal so far this year, but that could change really quickly.

The Farmer-To-Family Program started this week, as well as the Farmer's Market. Yesterday I drove my friend over to the Salvation Army, where they were giving away boxes of food from local farmers, and they insisted that I could take some too, as they still had stuff leftover at the end of the event. So I got some potatoes, some onions, grapes, oranges and apples, and a watermelon, as well as 8 pints of sour cream! I have the sour cream in the freeze dryer now, and the fruit will likely go in next. Then this morning I went to the Farmer's Market and got some beautiful collards and broccoli, lettuce, carrots and "salad turnips" (pulled when they were the size of marbles-- so delicious!) and some pea shoots and sunflower sprouts as well as about 3 lbs of lovely grass-fed oxtails. I had to spend some time this afternoon figuring out menus to use all this great stuff.

So tonight we are having a stir fry with some of the chicken that didn't make it into the freeze dryer and some of the veggies.

 

[Britesea]

It's been a busy summer. I'm frantically freeze drying my cabbages, trying to stay a jump ahead of them splitting. Not completely successful, but... oh well. I've been getting pounds of beautiful mushrooms from the Produce Connection and dehydrating them; I have over 2 gallons of them now.

Got a call from my neighbor across the road, demanding I "do something about the roosters". Seems they've been keeping her awake at night. She talked to us about this 2 years ago and we put rooster collars on the roosters, then called her to ask if that was good enough. She never returned the calls, so we assumed everything was acceptable. NOW she calls and is nearly rabid about it. She wants all of them gone because "you don't need roosters to get eggs." We currently have 4 roosters, because we got a bunch of chicks this spring and we were waiting to see which ones we want to keep. It's been a tough decision because they are all very good, although the little Lakenvelder is so much smaller and shriller. But he's the most conscientious about making sure all the girls get a fair share of the goodies, and he's the one that rounds everyone up at night to make sure they go inside the coop.
Anyway, DH spent some time yesterday closing up the windows of the coop with insulation and boards in an attempt to both reduce the light getting in and the noise getting out. I can still hear them, but it's a lot less noisy. I'm afraid that this won't be enough though. And if she complains, we'll have to get rid of over half our flock because we're technically zoned "Rural Residence" which means no more than 12 small animals on our half acre. I'll say this, if she forces us to get rid of our animals, she can stick it if SHTF and she wants eggs or meat from us!

 

[Britesea]

A while back I read a story of a visiting pastor who attended a men's breakfast in the middle of a rural farming area of the country.
The group had asked an older farmer, decked out in bib overalls, to say grace for the morning breakfast.
"Lord, I hate buttermilk", the farmer began. The visiting pastor opened one eye to glance at the farmer and wonder where this was going. The farmer loudly proclaimed, "Lord, I hate lard." Now the pastor was growing concerned. Without missing a beat, the farmer continued, "And Lord, you know I don't much care for raw white flour". The pastor once again opened an eye to glance around the room and saw that he wasn't the only one to feel uncomfortable.
Then the farmer added, "But Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love warm fresh biscuits. So Lord, when things come up that we don't like, when life gets hard, when we don't understand what you're saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing. It will probably be even better than biscuits. Amen."
Within that prayer there is great wisdom for all when it comes to
complicated situations like we are experiencing in the world today.
Stay strong, my friends, because our LORD is mixing several things
that we don't really care for, but something even better is going to
come when HE is done with it. AMEN

 

[Mini Horses]

Glad to see you post...it's been a while. We miss you.