Opt Out En Masse

Pausing for production season

Scott James — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:49:42 +0000

I’m going to pause for a bit on our blog while I fit writing time on my book in between the day jobs and the ever-increasing food production chores outside.

Will do a mid-summer check in…see you then!

Cloche experiments

Scott James — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:06:35 +0000

In an effort to both reuse the plastic jugs in which we buy our raw milk, and to protect seedlings from marauding rabbits, we’re trying an experiment with cloches this year.

Some early transplants out of the greenhouse are seen here on their cloches (spiked down for wind), along with the secondary security system against all things rabbit-y, the German Shepherd.

On the anatomy of thrift

Scott James — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:59:27 +0000

From the island just south of ours. Brilliantly done.

Four year old beekeeper installs new queens

Scott James — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:54:53 +0000

Using the no-bump method again this year, my four year old helped me install two new colonies of bees this year.

She was thrilled to hold two queens in her hand (still in their travel boxes of course) and to wear my suit.

No stings, happy bees, and a happy future beekeeper. That’s a good day.

Open source blueprints for civilization

Scott James — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:55:43 +0000

Do you love farm hacks as much as I do? If so, check out this mother-of-all hacks architected by Marcin Jakubowski.

Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, Jakubowski is open-sourcing the 50 most-used farm machines that can be built cheaply from scratch.

TED Talks calls his Global Village Construction Set a “civilization starter kit.” At just $10K that could be shared among several micro-farmers and permaculture enthusiasts, I call it affordable.

The greenhouse is a spring board

Scott James — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 23:38:22 +0000

What a great tool a greenhouse is for rapidly launching healthy seedlings into the garden and food forest.

Our current work flow consists of seeds started under grow lights in our garage, then potted up into the unheated greenhouse, and then on to the raised bed gardens or food forest (although the heat lovers may stay in the greenhouse indefinitely).

Best of all is the space we have to grow seedlings for other folks; I’ve begun paying folks with bartered seedlings as folks in our zone begin thinking about setting out food plants for the spring.

This is the view out our bathroom window into the attached, lean-to style greenhouse. Makes me smile every morning.

Love/hate relationship with birds of prey

Scott James — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:07:16 +0000

Every two months I take three hours to rotate our laying chickens to new pasture. This last time I spent much of that time contemplating the pros and cons of birds of prey.

As soon as I took down the protective ceiling in our day-ranging setup (think of one of those big vertical nets at a golf range mounted horizontally on rebar), eight eagles almost immediately found me. Amazing.

They spent the next hour doing flyovers and deep dives checking out the availability of a take-out lunch. I got to appreciate the huge beauty of a full grown eagle not more than 20′ from me, doing a flyby at less than 10′ off the ground that would do a Navy fighter pilot proud.

And as soon as I got the ceiling back up, the chickens came out from their portable coops and the eagle family disappeared over the treetops.

Fixing the Big Picture inside ourselves

Scott James — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:48:13 +0000

In the sustainability and social entrepreneurship circles I run in, we discuss almost every one of the macro issues that the world is facing today (overpopulation being the taboo subject few people dare to speak about publicly).

But even as we create “benefit businesses” and nonprofit corporations to build resiliency in our systems, we must also look inside ourselves to affect the change required for the long term benefit of the human race and the biosphere in which we live.

I’d encourage you to take 10 minutes right now to put your brain into “full, open” mode and watch Jeremy Rifkin’s Empathic Civilization video.

Imagine the possibilities, and then go take actions to make it reality in your life.

Next salvage project

Scott James — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:38:03 +0000

We use electronet to protect our day ranging chickens from the almost-daily visits from coyotes. Great product, but a bit of a hassle to move by yourself.

Just watched the WA state series of farm hack videos and saw this idea of using salvage lawnmower as a spool for the fence as well as a holder for the fence’s solar suitcase. Going to find a freecycle lawnmower now…brilliant idea!

Occupy our food supply

Scott James — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:01:59 +0000

It’s one of those Big Picture issues that affects your daily life…and you can actually influence the outcome of the fight.

Get involved.