Archives for February 2018

When most parts of the US are just beginning to thaw out from winter, gardeners are already envisioning plants growing and producing in the warmth of summer. Some gardeners succumb to the lure of temporary warm spell and start their plants early only to have Jack Frost nip them back. Don’t gamble—use this time instead for planning out the next garden. There is a lot to do before spring when you will be busy preparing the ground, setting up the watering systems and sowing seeds. February and March are perfect for reading up about plants, evaluating last year’s garden, and learning how to combat pests and diseases. It is also time to take stock of the seeds you saved from last year and order or buy new ones.

What to Try First

Be careful when perusing seed and plant catalogs; glossy pictures of beautiful mature plants and ripe produce are so tempting you can easily end up buying more seeds than you have space or energy for. From a preparedness perspective, you should start out learning to cultivate plants that are easy to grow and produce high-volumes of food, such as: zucchini, potatoes, beets, carrots, squash, and beans. Most gardeners also want to grow a few garden favorites like tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, peppers and pump

kins. After you have a little gardening experience you should also grow early-to-table crops like peas, lettuce, radishes, chard and kale.

Start a Garden Journal

A good garden plan should be written down each year in a notebook. These garden journals document how the garden was prepared (raised beds, furrows, square plots, etc), where plants grew, and a host of other information. You can document soil pH from tests, watering methods, fertilizers, mulching strategies, pests, diseases and remedies. The more information you keep track of, the easier it will be in a few years to know what went wrong and what worked well. Experience is very important in gardening, but there are so many factors it can be hard to remember where a plant grew well and where it fared poorly. By tracking the plant’s location, the general weather that year and other inputs, you can learn why some plants failed and hopefully how to remedy the problem to get a good crop when it really matters.

Crop Rotation

Crop rotation is an important part of your garden plan. The idea is that since plants use and give back different nutrients to the ground, it best to move them around each year to keep the soil healthy. However, crop rotation is a very inexact science, depending greatly on your gardening style and plants. In the first place, perennials like asparagus, rhubarb, and most herbs regrow in the same place year after year. Some plants that reseed themselves easily like turnips, lettuce and some onions are also best left to thrive in their own spot.

Crop rotation is most important for crops that are grown in large isolated groups—crops like corn and potatoes. Corn uses large amounts of nitrogen so it should follow peas, beans or other legumes that put nitrogen back in the soil. Chicken manure is also high in nitrogen, as is hay or shavings from animal stalls.

Potatoes are said to produce better if planted after corn. This important crop also has to be rotated to a new place each year to reduce the chances of disease building up in the soil. Try to give the soil three or four years between potato plantings to discourage any diseases. Tomatoes are in the same family as potatoes and may attract potato blight so don’t plant them in succession. Some gardeners keep tomatoes in the same spot year after year without problems and others claim they do even better if tomatoes are grown in the asparagus plot.

Farmers group their plants into similar families and keep members of the same family together in the rotation or separated by a few years. Here are the biggest groups: Nightshades: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant; Brassicas: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards and turnips; Legumes: peas, beans, lentils, and clover; Squash: squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, and gourds; Carrots: carrots, turnips, fennel, celeriac. Goosefoot: beets, swiss chard, and spinach. Some plants, like onions and carrots, can be planted anywhere and are generally beneficial.

Here are a few more tips: The cabbage family does well following beans. Squash spreads out and smothers weeds. Beets and carrots pull a lot from the soil and are best following squash. Eliot Coleman, an organic farmer recommends rotating in this order: (1) Tomatoes, (2) peas, (3) cabbage, (4) sweet corn, (5) potatoes, (6) squash, (7) root crops, (8) beans.

The benefits of rotating crops has long been established, but the exact method varies. You may not want a plot of peas as big as your sweet corn was. Or your garden may be so small moving the corn around would shade other plants. You will have to find ways to work around the problems. Perhaps you may have to rotate by growing some crops one year and not another. Shade tolerant crops include beets, spinach, carrots, and summer lettuce. Some gardeners have success without rotating by growing many diverse plants together with companion plants that help revitalize the soil at the same time. You may also be able to revitalize most nutrients with good compost and digested manure or other natural fertilizers, but you have to watch out for diseases and pests.

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to grow crops, but to keep your soil and garden healthy year after year you should make a plan that will work for the next several years. Your garden journal is an important tool in this planning, and can really help you maximize your space to grow more abundantly. A good plan will save you time knowing where (and when) to plant things during the hectic spring. Your plan is also a valuable reference for identifying that new squash or tomato variety in the dense overgrown jungle at the end of the summer. Don’t forget to add notes at the end of the year about which varieties grew well for you, which preserved well, and, above all, which tasted good. [END]

The Farm Homestead

February 9, 2018 by Andrew Skousen

**

My great-grandparents grew up on a farm. They had a large garden plot, a small house and a few rambling structures for animals. As a boy, I didn’t like visiting the farm; I thought it was smelly and run-down. Their house and kitchens didn’t have any nice, new items from the store. Their home and everything in it was simple and well-used. By modern standards they lived a “rough” life without many modern conveniences. They were quite old when I saw them but seemed happy with their slow life and went about their work in a with a sort of gentle firmness. They were doing what had to be done each day and they would get it done. They were friendly and kind, but never lavished me with attention, sweets or presents. I was glad when I could get back in our modern car and drive back to civilization.

Looking back, I now realize how impressive their life really was. Nearly all their food came from the large garden and the animals in the fields and pens. What they didn’t make they could barter for. They hardly ever went to the store. Even in their old age, their health was astounding. They worked hard every day well into their nineties and never went to a doctor, and rarely to a dentist. They never went to a convalescent home. They took care of themselves until right up to the end. They passed in their sleep without enduring cancer or heart disease. In many ways they had achieved a level of health, vitality, longevity, and self-sufficiency that even modern “successful” people have trouble attaining. Although they never traveled the world or fulfilled a “bucket list,” I’m confident they can look back on their life with satisfaction, knowing they lived it fully with little to be ashamed of.

I think many aspects of our modern life would surprise them. They might even laugh at at the many stores and restaurants we frequent so often we “can’t live without them.” If the power went out our lives would get real hard real fast; Their homestead would largely keep right on going, although many aspects would be affected, they could work around it.

Sometimes we think preparedness means a well-stocked food storage room, but that’s really just an extension of our modern store mentality—notice it’s called home “storage.” Like savings, stored supplies go fast if you don’t have an income stream. Fortunately, it’s not hard to put food on the table if you learn to grow a garden now and in prolonged hard times.

Gardening requires much more than a #10 can of stored seeds in your shelter. At a minimum you’ll need fertile ground, reliable water and experience.

How much land do you need? Depending on your climate, 50 feet x 50 feet will be plenty for a vegetable garden. You’ll need a half acre for serious food growing, but even a quarter acre can provide a year’s worth of food for a small family if you have good gardening experience and carefully lay out trees and fruit-bearing bushes. Advanced techniques like greenhouses, container gardens or hydroponic systems (growing plants in water) can produce more food per square foot, but they require extra knowledge and equipment. If you live in a severe climate, or have limited water you might need one of these systems. Get it early and practice using it.

Don’t take your water supply for granted. Most famines come from a lack of water. Hopefully your strategic retreat will have a gravity-fed water source so it isn’t dependent on pumps and electricity. Properties with springs or above-ground streams are good if they flow year-round, otherwise consider a pond or cistern. Wells with windmill or solar-driven pumps can also be reliable. Much less water is needed if you use a drip watering system that just puts it where you want it (and not to the weeds). Soaker hoses, drip irrigation and automatic timers are worth the small investment. Mulching around plants keeps water in and weeds down. A good compost pile can provide mulch and nutrients from yard and garden waste.

Gardening takes experience, especially if you have a limited growing season. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a master gardener to start out. Beans, peas, radishes and zucchini come up easily with basic care. Crops that need to be started indoors (depending on your climate) like tomatoes and peppers are more challenging, but well worth the effort. Some crops we routinely see in the store require other techniques to grow like grapes, strawberries, celery, asparagus, herbs and grains. Expand to grow what you like to eat or learn to like what grows well in your area.

Yes, it’s cheaper and easier to get produce at the store, but you’ll find that even “Organic” can’t compare to the taste, quality and freshness of what you pull in from your backyard. In the meantime enjoy the fresh air and the exercise. Don’t give up if your first try ends up in a weed patch. Cover it with leaves and mulch and try again next year. Someday you’ll laugh that you ever actually paid for zucchini.

**(Not a picture of my grandparents)

Home Defense Firearms

February 9, 2018 by Andrew Skousen

Gun enthusiasts can never agree about the best home defense firearm because every category of weapons has its own pros and cons. Handguns are easy to wield, rifles are more accurate and shotguns are more powerful, so which should you consider? First you must understand the challenges facing you when defending a home at night with loved ones around you and the relative strengths and weaknesses of each weapon type in these situations. Here are the issues relevant to each category of firearm:

The handgun:

For most people their first self defense firearm will be a handgun. Small, portable, and easy to carry concealed, handguns are the most common firearm purchased for self defense. I

n many ways handguns are also ideal for home defense. When “things go bump in the night” and you have to check your house for intruders (called “clearing a house”), the smaller handgun is better for concealing near your bed, wielding when navigating around corners or opening closed doors and operating one-handed if you also have to grab a child.

When choosing a caliber of gun, remember that you probably won’t be wearing ear and eye protection like on the range, because you have to be able to hear the tiniest sounds, and see shadows and movements. Although there is military-grade eye and ear protection for these scenarios, they are expensive and you (and your family) might not have time to don them during an encounter. R

emember too that gunshots are often louder within small spaces of the house. 9mm rounds usually only leave minor ringing compared to larger caliber handguns like a .45 or .357 magnum (revolvers are louder in general). There is a big step up in noise produced by the powerful rounds in the rifle calibers, but a shotgun report is very loud can leave you temporarily deaf (or worse). Find a balance between bigger caliber weapons with “knock-down” power and the ringing it leaves in your unprotected ears after each shot.

If you do choose a large caliber weapon consider subsonic rounds (less than 1000 fps) which are quieter because they don’t make the loud “crack” as the bullet breaks the sound barrier. All gunshots still make quit a pop unless you invest in a silencer. Silencers are legal in 39 states and becoming quite popular among gun enthusiasts despite the $200 “tax stamp” that must be paid to the government each time you buy one.

The rifle:

(image src)

A rifle such as an AR-15 might not seem like your first choice, but it can perform well in home defense too. Plenty of military and police have learned to effectively clear even tight spaces with a longer weapon, and until recently, they also never carried ear protection. The principle advantages of a rifle are increased accuracy, more firepower and 30 round magazines. If your intruder is armed and you get caught in a firefight, your rifle will give you a decided advantage over a handgun.

Military-style rifle rails are often cluttered up with expensive and unnecessary accessories, but a tactical flashlight is a valuable addition. The idea is to clear your house without turning on interior lights, since these light up the room you are in and illuminate yourself as a target. Instead try to surprise the intruder with a sudden flash from a powerful tactical flashlight to blind them as you confront them with a command to stop or freeze. This light is important to identify the intruder from friends or family, but the blinding light won’t let him see (or aim at) you easily. SureFire brand lights are the best out there, but they cost upwards of $200.

The shotgun:

Many people like shotguns for home defense because nothing compares to its “knock-down” power and its effectiveness in close quarters. Clear a house with a long gun can be a little cumbersome, but still possible, especially if done in pairs. If you live in an apartment you won’t have to worry about stray bullets going into the neighbor’s if you use birdshot rounds, but remember they are only really lethal to about 5 yards. Part of the benefit of shotguns is the variety of shells made for them, particularly if you have a 12 guage. The best for home defense if 00 (“double ought”) buckshot (lethal to 30 yards) or slugs (100 yards). Shotguns don’t have to cost much (like the pump-action Maverick 88 at under $250).

The downside to the power of a shotgun is, of course, the noise. Subsonic rounds help considerably but there isn’t much in this category to choose from. Federal’s Top-Gun 900 fps birdshot round is popular with scattergun enthusiasts, but to get larger buckshot in a subsonic shell you may have reload them yourself. Ballistic Products has reloading information for several kinds of subsonic scattershot rounds.

As you can see, every weapon has pros and cons. The best firearm for you will depend on your specific situation and familiarity with your weapons. Ultimately the best weapon is the one you feel comfortable grabbing in the dead of night and wielding accurately even during misfires. Can’t decide? You don’t have to choose just one if you can keep the others accessible. In fact, a popular competition is the three gun shoot that tests people in each of these weapons and highlights each weapon’s strengths. [END]

Uses for White Vinegar

February 5, 2018 by Andrew Skousen

Few cleaning products in the grocery store are as cheap as white vinegar, but this simple acid is remarkably useful throughout your house, in the garage and even in the garden. Can one cheap, relatively mild product really do the job of many powerful and dangerous chemicals under my sink, you ask? Yes, and much, much more. Here are just a few of the remarkable uses for white vinegar.

Reader’s Digest had a good summary of its varied uses.

The word vinegar comes from “sour wine” in French, and is the byproduct of a common bacteria (Acetobacter) that feeds on alcohol when enough oxygen is present. The cheapest form of vinegar is distilled white vinegar made from cheap sources of sugar or starches such as grain and fruit. Distilled white vinegar has all the varied impurities removed resulting in a potent, consistent product of pure grain vinegar that is then diluted with water to 5% acidity. You may also see “cleaning vinegar” in stores which is exactly the same distilled white vinegar but with 6% acidity.

Acetic acid in vinegar makes it an excellent natural disinfectant that is effective against food-borne pathogens like E. Coli and salmonella. The acid is also good for cutting grease and dissolving basic substances like calcium deposits from hard water. There are many health benefits from consuming good quality unfiltered fruit vinegars that I will cover later, but distilled white vinegar is especially valuable for many external uses and around the home. Here are just a few:

Laundry:

Use 1/4 to 1/2 cup white vinegar in the rinse cycle of your washing machine to brighten colors instead of color-safe bleach (Note: be careful never to mix bleach and vinegar in the same load, it emits toxic chlorine gas). A similar amount in the rinse cycle is an excellent fabric softener and it will also stop static cling. A full cup in the wash cycle will disinfect—perfect for a load of cloth diapers or musty rags. A cup of vinegar will also set the colors in new clothes so you don’t have to worry about that red shirt or dark socks bleeding. Soak yellowed whites and sweat or antiperspirant stains in hot water with a little vinegar before washing to produce much w. If your washer smells musty you can clean it by running an empty cycle on the hottest setting with several cups of vinegar. Most people use too much laundry soap which leaves a scum that grows mildew.

Kitchen:

Make your dishes sparkle by adding a splash of vinegar in the rinse water or put 1/4 cup in each load of the dishwasher. Disinfect wooden cutting boards by wiping with straight vinegar. Make a general cleaning spray with a few drops of liquid detergent and 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water. Clean hard water deposits off sinks and faucets with straight vinegar and a dry rag. Wipe the fridge with half water and half white vinegar to disinfect and eliminate odors. Use straight vinegar to wipe off old grease and grimy dust from around the stove and above the fridge. Make a paste with equal parts salt and vinegar to scrub stains from dishes including pots and pans and to polish brass and copper. Polishing silver is easy with the foaming action from white vinegar and baking soda. Minor grease clogs in drains can sometimes be cleared by dumping a ½ cup of baking soda down it (with a funnel) and then pouring 1 cup of vinegar. When the foaming is done, flush with hot water.

Car:

In the winter spray your windshield every few weeks with 3 parts vinegar to 1 part water to keep frost off. Clean windshield wiper blades with straight vinegar to keep them supple so you have less streaks.

Many more uses:

Use vinegar to clean blinds, revitalize carpets, clean pet odors and urine, get rid of smoke smell, rid your pets of fleas, wash your vegetables, clean hands after working with concrete or masonry, wipe kid’s pen scribbles off the wall, and so much more. You can even make scented vinegar cleaners with citrus or natural herbs.

Be Careful of…

Don’t use vinegar on surfaces that will be etched by its acid such as cast iron or aluminum pans, stone floors, granite countertops, and ceramic tile grout. Be careful too about surfaces that are being protected by oil-based products like waxed wood, and the screens on computers or phones.

Some of these vinegar claims aren’t as effective as touted and may take longer or require multiple applications to get the desired result, but vinegar remains one of the most versatile home products—especially for the price (a gallon jug at Walmart is less than $2.50). Vinegar lasts indefinitely on the shelf, so stock up on it instead of other expensive chemicals and cleaners. [END]