Life is Change

So much has changed since I last wrote here 5 1/2 years ago. Syona and I are no longer together. I have since remarried and settled in New Mexico. I currently own and operate a web hosting and design company specializing in services for small business. Visit Homestead Digital Media Services to learn more about how I can help you build an effective online presence for your small business.

I also write a blog at salebarncafe.com. You can follow the link to see what I'm up to these days.

Find me on Twitter @Ravenlaughing

Thanks for stopping by.

Jeremy

W.U.F. Update 04.04.10

We are working on getting the potatoes planted today.  We also have peas and Chinese greens that need to be planted.  We are taking a break for lunch and I wanted to share that we have a ton of volunteer spinach around the yard.  Our mints are doing well and are about ready for the first harvest.  The bronze fennel is poking up now.  The strawberries are thriving.  We also have volunteer garlic and onions coming up right now.

Sy planted blue pansies around the Circle this  past week.  We have a ton of pansies to get in the ground.  They are self seeding and edible.  The flowers are quite tasty with a salad of spring greens.  I can't describe how they taste as different colors of flowers seem to have different flavors ranging from sweet to slightly nutty.

I will be posting some pics later after we get the potatoes and such planted today.

Spring Is Sprung.

Here are some early spring pictures from W.U.F.  There also pics of the truck we bought with tax return money so that we have an effective and reliable vehicle to haul the things we need for the garden.  Stay tuned as spring continues to unfold, as we will be busier with planting and such, but will be posting more often as well.

Our Indoor Greenhouse for seedlings.

We upgraded the lighting in a mini indoor greenhouse we built about a month ago.  We had one T5 full spectrum.  We added two more today.  This will give our seedlings all of the light they need to be great plants.  Our indoor greenhouse is made of a steel utility shelf, wrapped in mylar bubble wrap.  Sy was at Pet Smart and they had just received a shipment of fish and the mylar wrap was used to protect them during shipping.  Sy asked if she could have some and they gave her the whole box.  We still have enough to wrap another utility shelf.  We used the years of accumulated unused masking and duct tape we had, to hold it together.

We currently have carrots, spinach, lemon bergamot, pansies, and creeping thyme.  The carrots and spinach plants are going to planted in large pots so we can have fresh indoor grown spinach until the spring crop is seeded outside and comes up.  We are going to try growing our carrots in large pots as well.  we will cut the bottom out of the coconut fiber seed cups, and plant the in a large pot.  The lemon bergamot is a useful herb to have in the garden.  The pansies are edible self seeding flowers that we hope to have as a permanent self sustaining crop in our garden.    The creeping thyme is a blooming ground cover that is xeric and tolerant of being walked upon.  Our plan is to replace the grass in the pathways  and in our sacred circle with the creeping thyme.

We both have garden fever right now and are ready to plant.  It won't be long.

W.U.F. Update 01.28.10

Well folks we are almost back to that time of year again when this blog will be updated more frequently.  It has been a busy winter.  We have spent time sorting and deciding what stuff we need to get rid of.  We had boxes that hadn't been opened since Sy and I moved in together ten years ago.  The plan is to have a huge garage sale this spring.

I have also spent some some time on spiritual pursuits.  I continue to study and practice Asatru, but have recently incorporated a healthy dose of Buddhism into my life.  I have taken up meditation and yoga again.  These are things I haven't done in a few years.  I am feeling better than I have in awhile, mentally, spiritually, and physically.

The big news is that Sy has started some of the cool weather seedlings this past week, and we will be starting more soon.  We started some yard cleanup a couple of weeks ago.  We were having 60 degree days in January and couldn't pass up the chance.  Last year we named our compost pile Mt. Stromboli.  The new pile is called Mt. Vesuvius and promises to be just as rich.  We will be using of off Stromboli this year while Vesuvius breaks down over the next year.  The section of yard where we keep the compost is full of giant tree roots. It is nearly impossible to dig to get the grass because of these roots, so this is an ideal area for us to keep the compost piles.  

The prickly pear melomel has been racked a couple of times into fresh carboys, and is now about ready to bottle.  I plan to let it age awhile in the bottle before drinking, but judging by the smell coming out of the air lock it should be a very sweet mead.

I recently changed the look of Decriminalize Common Sense Blog.  It is now called World Freedom Advocate.  While I still post my opinions, it has now become a true portal to activism.  Please visit.

Well that is all for now.

                                                       The Prickly Pear Melomel (Aka Cactus Juice) 01.28.2010

The freeze is on!

It is official, the outdoor growing season is over. We had record low temperatures on Saturday. It was down to 15 F. There were major accidents all over the city. I was side ways at one point on my way to work.

It has taken me many years to convince Sy that we can support much of our lifestyle with our small suburban spread. As I reflect on the past growing season I am proud of our accomplishment. Sy was amazed at the amount of food we had this summer from the garden. We ate plenty. We were fortunate enough to share with family and friends, some feeling the effects of the recession. We have canned, dried, and otherwise preserved enough to last us through the winter.

We will spend this winter reviewing our notes, and getting better prepared. We will review our failures such as the potatoes, and do more research. We had great vines this year, but they never flowered, meaning of course no potatoes. We haven't had much luck with carrots, but there are a few carrot sprouts from a fall planting. Carrots will continue to grow in winter here.

Over all we had great success and next year we set the bar a bit higher. In the near future look forward to a short video of our 2009 garden. Take care and have a great day.

The last day of summer is bringing snow and freezing overnight temps.

I am off work on Sundays and Mondays. I woke up Monday to find out that there was a freeze warning and possible snow coming. We started out for our weekly trip to the farmers market, and it started to rain. We got to the market and there were two vendors sticking it out. We bought some green beans, and peaches from Colorado's western slope. We were also able to get a great price on a case of peaches and cream corn. We have canned this for the winter. We left the market and went to Home Despot to get materials to build a couple of cold frames for the cherry tomatoes, and the bell peppers.

After we got home we worked to get everything we could in. We picked buckets of squash, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. After the harvest was in we had to build the cold frames for the cherry tomatoes and bell peppers. We used some 1 x 2 cedar screwed together into a frame. We then covered these with 3.5 mil plastic. Simple and easy to disassemble, store, and reuse for years to come.

The Prickly Pear Melomel is still fermenting nicely. I expect it is going to do so for awhile. But good things come to those who wait. Anyway I hope everyone checks out the pics and has a great day.

W.U.F. Update

It has been awhile since I have done a proper update on the happenings at W.U.F. It has been busy this summer. The garden has been fairly low maintenance. We have had an awesome harvest this year, and we are not even close to having the entire lawn replaced. So far our most prolific crop has been the cherry tomatoes. We have been harvesting 1-2 pounds per day on average. we let it go a few days awhile back. We ended up with five pounds of ripe tomatoes. We added onion from the yard, and jalapenos, roasted hatch chilies, cilantro, and smoked garlic from Sunflower Farmers Market. I put in too much cilantro but it is still good. I have eaten three jars already.

We have also had a good yellow summer squash crop this summer. We have been unable to keep up with it. Our lettuce did well also. We still have some winter squash ripening on the vine and some pumpkins to carve up for Samhain. We have been sharing with family and friends as well as putting some away. We had some corn and will have a ton of red and yellow bell peppers as soon as they ripen. We are hoping to ripen them on the plant, but may have an early frost this year.

I was on vacation last week, and while I was at my moms Sy and I picked 13 1/2 pounds of prickly pears, the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. The juice of said prickly pears is in a fermenter with honey, purified water, organic apple, juice, and wine yeast. The honey is local wildflower honey and is very rich. It should add a nice flavor texture to the prickly pear. This is of course an experimental melomel. A melomel is a honey mead with fruit added in the fermenting process. It is a honey and fruit wine essentially.

Sy and I have also been working on setting up an online shop at Etsy.com. It is an online market place for selling homemade products. Sy will be soon putting up some of her jewelery for sale, and I hope to sell some photographic prints. We are also toying with selling canned goods such as jelly's, dried herbs, and salsa. Every little bit we add brings us a little closer to the lifestyle we want for ourselves.

Prickly Pear Melomel starting the fermentation process.

W.U.F Update 06.29.09

Its been awhile since I posted an update. Look to the post below for a photo update. I have been spending a lot of my online time following and supporting the Iranian revolution, and have let this go. Well here is an update. We have been enjoying some of the fruits of our hard work. We have harvested significant amounts of spinach and lettuce. We have had several bowls of sugar snap peas, and many radishes.

Our potatoes are growing fast, but have yet to flower. We will soon have more yellow summer squash than we will know what to do with. We will soon have bell peppers and cherry tomatoes. Two of the three giant pumpkins I planted have sprouted. We shall see if I can work some magic and get a super giant. I want to either sit in it or put a speaker in it and spook trick or treaters on Halloween. I can't wait.

We have been experimenting with different culinary creations from the garden. One of my new favorite recipes is spinach stuffed mushrooms. We had company for our Midsummer blot and potluck feast. I made 25 to 30 of these stuffed mushrooms. They were gone in less than two minutes. Here is the recipe roughly. Play with it as you will.

Spinach Mozzarella Stuffed Mushrooms

For 25-30 stuffed mushrooms

Spinach 8oz hand picked from the garden.

Spicy Oregano 1 sprig from garden

Rosemary 1 sprig from garden

Garlic 1 tablespoon chopped (we use Christopher Ranch Brand)

Olive Oil for sauteing

Mozzarella shredded start with a couple of ounces

25 to 30 Large mushrooms cleaned

Remove stems from mushrooms and finely chop. Rinse spinach and dry or spin. Finely chop oregano and rosemary. Turn burner on medium high and add olive oil to a skillet. When pan is hot add garlic. Let it cook until it just starts to caramelize its sugars. Add mushroom stems and place spinach on top. Stir and add oregano and parsley. Spinach will cook down very quickly. Put shredded Mozzarella in a medium size bowl. When spinach mix is done add to cheese and stir until mix is evenly distributed in cheese. You want a nice cheesy spinach mix. Let sit for a couple of minutes to maximize meltiness. Stuff spinach cheese mix into mushroom tops. Put over low heat on grill. The inside will melt together and the outside will turn darken slightly. When hot remove from grill and share.

We have also been experimenting with mint in culinary dishes. We sauteed spinach and pineapple mint and put it on a pizza. It was quite good. We add different mints to salad. yesterday we grilled a cinnamon chipotle rubbed top sirloin steak. we then sliced it to put on a salad. The salad base was lettuce and spinach from the garden. We also had pineapple mint and bronze fennel leaf with some sugar snap peas. Added a little jalapeno ranch dressing and .......Hmmmmmmmm!

We also put various mints, pineapple sage or fennel in our water bottles so we can get the flavor all day as we refill them.

I have found that I rather like rhubarb cobbler for breakfast. We have made several rhubarb cobblers already this year. It is time to harvest again and make some more cobbler. We will soon be freezing some rhubarb for use later in the year.

The corn is hip high and we are not quite yet to the fourth of July. The onions and garlic are doing well. The peas are pretty much falling over but are producing nicely. The radishes have been eaten or gone to seed. It is getting hot and the spinach is trying to bolt so it won't be long we will have to wait until fall for more. Our spinach is a biannual heirloom variety that should keep us eating spinach for years to come. The first cherry tomato fruits are still ripening on the vine. The larger varieties are growing but have not yet flowered, but soon I hope.

I hope all are have a good week. Please keep the People of Iran in your thoughts. They are struggling to be free from tyranny and oppression. Take Care--Jeremy

W.U.F. Update 06.09.09

The garden is doing well. We got quite a bit accomplished with Carols help today. The weeding is nearly caught up. I got the remaining tomato seedlings planted today. We now have 35 tomato plants of two varieties in the ground. I also got the long Island Cheese Squash planted. I also finally got the Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds in the ground. I have wanted to grow a giant pumpkin for years but have never gotten it done. Maybe this is the year. We now also have four or five potato plants poking up out of their mounds of straw.

The corn is about 10 inches high. The onions and garlic are both doing well. The broccoli is producing new heads. The cherry tomatoes have fruit on them. We have harvested approximately five pounds of spinach already with no signs of letting up. I got the pole peas tied up yesterday. Next year I will have the infrastructure in place so I can grow them taller. They laid on the ground for too long and now they have bent stalks. All of the squash are doing well, and we expect to have more squash than we know what to do with soon.

All four of the mints are doing well. We are going to try and make some orange mint vodka and some pineapple mint vodka. We are experimenting with some horehound mint cough syrup with good results so far. The spicy oregano, and the rosemary are doing well. The bronze fennel can be harvested anytime.

We have had blueberries and strawberries. The raspberries are doing well, and we have harvested the rhubarb a couple of times. The rhubarb is ready to harvest again. I can't wait until it is time to get Colorado Western Slope Peaches and make peach rhubarb cobbler.

We also planted marigolds, dianthus, and lobelia between the stones and the mugo pines around the sacred circle. We mulched it with straw. The next step will be to get the grass out of the circle and replace it with creeping thyme.

I will get pics up in the morning. I wanted to do it tonight but ran out of daylight. More to come soon.--Jeremy

W.U.F. Update

Greetings All,

It has been awhile since I wrote. We kind of hit the busy season at work and we have had Seattle like weather for the last couple of weeks. Well OK, not quite Seattle like, but when you live in a sub alpine high desert, and in the rain shadow of Pikes Peak It seems Seattle like.

Anyway due to the rain the veggies are doing well. We had a full salad for four people with some left over completely from the yard. I have about a half a pound of spinach in the fridge. The mints are all doing well. We have been radishes everyday. The peas are doing well as are the tomatoes. The first potato has finally popped leaf through the straw mulch.

I will have more pics this weekend. Take care and have a great day.

W.U.F. 04-19-2009

It looks like today is going to be a beautiful day to work in the garden.  After 36 hours of rain, snow, and wind it will be great to be outside.  The birds have been singing loudly this morning driving the cats nuts.  They went out the door at 5:00 this morning.  What was supposed to be a huge blizzard turned out to be a weird mix of rain, snow, wind, and thunder.  On Friday at work I was pushing water out of the shop blizzard conditions with thunder.  It was quite surreal.

Carol a friend of ours is coming over to work in the garden with us this afternoon.  I have to weed the radishes and stack the bricks from our hidden brick path.  We have some new beds to plant.  We will be getting ready to transplant tomatoes and cabbage before too long.  We also have some pepper plants to transplant as well.  If I have time I am going to clean the rhubarb bed.  We have lived here four and a half years and we have never harvested the rhubarb.  That changes this year.  Next year we may have to separate it.

Thursday before the storm got here, Sy harvested and dried chives.  That is the second chive harvest this year.  Got to get those potatoes growing soon.

Finally A Warm Sunny Day at W.U.F.

I have Sundays and Mondays off from my bill paying job.  Yesterday was the first day I've had off in the last month that wasn't snowing, blowing, raining, or all three.  It is nice during the week while I'm at work, but when I am trying to get some garden work done on weekends it snows.  It snowed Saturday,  so I finally sat down and did the taxes online.  Today we got an old bed cleaned out and ready to plant.  While prepping the area we found some garlic bulbs that needed separating replanting.  We had planted the garlic two years ago and that whole area was covered in weeds and was fallow last year.  We should have a good garlic crop now that it is replanted.  We also planted red,white, and yellow onions today.  We also planted the peaches and cream sweet corn.  We still have a lot of catch up to do.  We need to plant lettuce, spinach, and replant beets, and carrots for successive harvests.

Tonight after I got home from work we cleaned out another old bed and planted the first lettuce crop.  I noticed that the radishes have begun sprouting overnight.  We still have a ways to go, but we are much further than we were at this time last year.

For 2009 so far we have planted:

Peas 2 varieties

Carrots

Beets

Radishes

Corn

Onions

Garlic

Lettuce

Leeks

Scallions

Golden Raspberries

Blackberries

Rosemary

From 2008 or earlier we have life signs from:

Rhubarb

Strawberries

Chives 

Mint

Pineapple Mint

Red raspberries

Horehound

Lavender

Winesap Apple Tree

We still have a way to go, but it is coming along nicely.

Random Thoughts by Syona 3.29.09

 Aloha!  It's only a few days 'til April, and the Vernal Meteorological Schizophrenia is upon us.  We just had a blizzard roll through here not 4 days ago, and the snow's already almost gone.  Windy and almost-warm, with a side of breeze.  

    Our weeds are sooo grateful for the snow.  Gosh.  While I do enjoy seeing my slice of winter-seared heaven turning green, all the greenery seems to be dandelions and tumbleweeds.  We just may try turning our hand at making some dandelion wine again this year.  The poor Chem-Lawn guy had fits driving past our yard a couple years ago, as our lawn was a lush sea of yellow; nothing but dandelions.  He finally knocks on the door, kindly offering his services, since our lawn was truly run over with these weeds.  Giving him my best "big, innocent b

lue eyes" act, he recieved an earnest, "Well, no, we're cultivating them."  When he (understandably) looked confused, I smiled brightly, "You can't make dandelion wine without the dandelions!"  He literally strangled out an incoherent reply, galloped back to his truck, and never returned again.  There's probably a prayer for me stuck to the side of some Chem-Lawn Gods shrine somewhere.  Poor guy.  

    We've got some creeping thyme seed.  This year, our Circle is finally going to be finished.  This project (our Sacred Circle, complete with altar) has been in progress for nearly five years.  The Quarter and Cross-Quarter stones, when installed, were the first real change we made to our yard, our first "footprint," so to speak.  After such a long gestation, to finally see our first project coming near to fruition is thrilling.  We'll of course post pics along the way to keep ya'll up to date.

    Our peas are coming up.  Yay.  The berries are accused of making leaf, but so far we only have one suspect.  Inquiries are being made.  The chives all got their first haircut of the season, a brutal hack job committed by yours truly.  (Well, what did you expect - I never was good at cutting my own hair.)  Their shaggy manes lopped off the morning of the blizza

rd, Jeremy was concerned they'd be thrown into shock.  I however, was totally dismissive of his concerns.  "They're chives," I sniffed.  Well, it's now 4 days later, and these herbs have grown at least 2 inches.  2 of those 4 days, they were buried under 4 inches of snow.  Yeah, I'm real concerned for their tender lives.  They'll probably outlive the cockroaches.  (Jeremy is reading this as I write it, and grumbled.)

    I planted 3 new strawberries not a week before the blizzard, without hardening them off first.  Oops.  The enthusiasm of the rookie - they were in the ground a full day before I even thought about the hardening of our store-bought plants.  They are, fortunately, doing beautifully.  Jeremy is, as I write, reluctantly uncovering my new rosemary in the front yard.  In his words, "it's quite lovely."  Joy.

    My bathroom is the brightest and warmest room of the house.  So now my countertops are covered with seedling trays.  I can't tell you how giddy I am.  My formerly spa

cious and tidy sanctuary is now more organic than some of the yards in my neighborhood.  A

t least I enjoy the scent of moist, fecund earth.  

   Well, as usual, my conversation has nosedived into potty humor.  I'll let you go for now.  Talk at ya some more later.  

Sy;)

What are we doing to be more self-sufficient?

In these uncertain times there is much discussion about becoming self-sufficient.  Not since the Great Depression have we, as a society, had to relearn how to be self-sufficient.  I have heard stories from my family elders about having to eat pickled tumbleweeds because there was nothing else while trying to survive the depression and the Dust Bowl.  We have improved our technology and farming techniques.  The Internet gives us unprecedented access to information and people around the globe.  This will make it easier to become self-sufficient.

I am a member of a number of homesteading groups online.  While most focus on rural living, they contain much good information for us city dwellers who wish to turn our lush lawn into a productive mini-farm.  There are many things other than gardening that are to be learned as well.  Things like soap making, or wine/beer/mead making,  canning and preserving the food that is produced in the garden, and candle making.  There are so many things that can be done to be more self-sufficient.

Here at Wodhof we have taken up many hobbies that are leading us toward a more simple life of self-sufficiency and sustainability.  We have a ways to go, but we have come so far.  It is like that old saying "the more I know, the more I realize how much more there is to learn."  At this point in our lives, I still have to keep my job in the auto glass industry  to pay the bills.  In our spare time we recently have been consumed by getting the garden planted.  This will continue into June, at which point we will switch to maintenance.  Needless to say, the we hope the workload will not be as intense during the heat of summer.  Later this year we will make and bottle beer and mead.  Sy makes jewelery to sell to support our projects.  We have begun making our own bread regularly now instead of only for special occasions.  We have also started growing our own sprouts for our salad habit.  For a few dollars investment you can get sprouting jars and seeds and simply plant on successive days and you can have fresh sprouts all of the time.  We reuse or recycle everything we can.  We have a healthy compost pile going.

There are things we are planning as well, but for various reasons we are not ready to start just yet.  We want to raise rabbits for meat and pelts.  We would like to have a couple of chickens for eggs this year.  Because we live in an unincorporated area of the county we can have rabbits and a couple of chickens, but no roosters.  By next year we hope to have a small greenhouse so that we can grow herbs and such for our use and for sale or barter.  With over 300 days of sunshine a year we can grow year round in a green house.  

A concept worth relearning is thrift.  We are working toward being debt-free and saving where we can.  Thrift does not mean always buying the low price.  Quite often the low price equals low quality.  The goal for us is to find value for a fair price.  Value comes when a company or individual gives you more in quality or service than their competitor.  For instance, in my work, when I install a windshield I also wash all the other windows on the vehicle and vacuum out the vehicle.  My competitors complain that "we are not a detail shop."  My customers know that if they come to me they may pay a little more, but they are getting a job done right and that I am going to go out of my way to create extra value for them.  That is why they keep coming back.  That is why I reward those who give value and quality with my business.

Another way we have worked to become more self sufficient at Wodhof is to take responsibility for our health and consumer habits.  Gone are the cigarettes, the sugar-laden soda, and most of the fast food.  Replaced with organic free-range meat, salads, and natural teas.  Iced tea has taken on a whole new flavor.  I quit smoking in February 2008.  I gave up a two liter a day Mountain Dew habit for Yule 2008.  I have started taking lunch to work instead of going to lunch from work.  Saves on gas and cholesterol.  While I still eat some fast food, I try to find healthier alternatives to McCrap.  It is time for us to take responsibility for our health, because when we consume crap, we cannot help but spew crap.  

I guess it comes down to personal responsibility.  Just as the addict can change by living one day at a time, society can become self-sufficient one person and one family at a time.

March Update

So far March has been a good month at W.U.F.  We have managed to get two varieties of peas planted along with beets, onions, leeks and carrots.  We also planted a new raspberry bush and a blackberry bush to supplement the two raspberry bushes we planted last year.  The spearmint is back with lots of new shoots.  The pineapple mint is pushing up through its mulch.  The strawberries are coming back strong and already showing new growth.  The chives are ready for the first harvest of the year, with one plant going to seed already.  The fennel just popped its head through the mulch yesterday.  

We started digging a new bed last weekend, and it appears their is a brick path under the lawn.  It looks like somebody planted grass right on top of the brick.  Our house was built in the fifties, and we have found a lot of small treasures in the lawn, but a brick sidewalk was completely unexpected. It will be out by the end of this weekend so that we can prep the bed.  We are planning to plant our lettuce and spinach here to fill in the space until we can get squash planted and sprouted.  The lettuce and spinach require a fairly short growing time and will hold the soil until the squash is ready to spread out.  We will plant other beds with lettuce and spinach as well.   

I am trying to get a slide show up with updated pics every week.  I will also begin labeling posts so that folks can find things that fit their specific interests.  I hope everyone has a great week.