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Rich folk could always discard more than the poor. But should they?
Country people used to depend on what they had on hand, using ingenuity more than those living in the city or near a store. Is this still true or do you drop everything to drive to a town an hour or more away to get your missing part for a project or ingredient for a recipe? What is really waste? Try to practice an everyday regard for each object. Think about the labor involved in making it. The materials used in the making of that object. The money it took to purchase the object. When the object has come to the end of its life, will it be reused or will it take up space in a landfill? History: During the excavation of a 1620s Virginia Plantation called Flowerdew Hundred, a fragment of a stoneware bottle neck was unearthed. It matched perfectly with the bottom of a large German jug already in the plantations museum. The two pieces were dug from different sites. The most logical explanation being that the colonists did not have many things. When the jug broke, it is quite possible that the bottom was continued to be used as a bowl and the top turned into a funnel. Seventeenth-century Dutch paintings show broken plates and bowls sitting on shelves along with intact ones. Sewing was women's work. It is proven by diaries and novels and even embroidery samplers signed by five year olds. Women kept their families clothed. Of course not all women felt the same, some thought of it as an art and a chance to show their creativity with what they had on hand. Others found it a detestable chore, but one that had to be done. The plainest cotton shirt used to take a good seamstress half a day to make. A more complicated shirt could take a day or two. Closets were small, only the wealthy had more than a few changes of clothing for each season, many people had one change or none at all. Then came the sewing machine, invented in 1846.  Living out of city limits has some down falls. One, there is no weekly trash pick-up. We could pay to have a dumpster, but that is very expensive. It certainly makes you think about what you throw away when you have to haul it yourself somewhere. So we sort our trash before we take it to different places such as the dump and different recycling centers. Our "Bone Yard" has pile areas. Unfortunately, this last time the metals got thrown all together. The recycling centers have different prices for Sheet Metal (I call it thin metals) and what I call heavy metal, I think they call Prepared but I am not sure. I had used feed bags to keep our metal food cans in and those fell apart in the sun. So the best way I found is using large heavy duty black planters that trees come in. The drain holes are great to allow water to pass through without becoming breeding grounds for mosquitoes. You can see pieces of an old kiln, old washing machine, scrap we found while cleaning our mile of highway that we volunteer for. We also pick up other peoples litter in the desert and toss it into the pile. Oh, and truck parts.  Feed bags and cardboard box fell apart........ made more work for me! I thought I would be making a run to the recyclers sooner and be able to catch them before the sun rotted them.  Heavy duty rubber planters work best for small metal pieces and tin cans.  After removing all the thin and small metal pieces I have a pile of heavy stuff left for another trip. Dan will remove the tires from the rims.  So I did use new feedbags to run the metal in.
Total weight was 360 pounds (adds up fast!) and it paid for the gas into town to run other errands..........$25.33  Desert Mule Deer Large herd of does, many more than what I caught a photo of. There was at least a bakers dozen!   Coues Whitetail Not much further down the road from the mule deer, actually less than 1/4 mile I spotted this doe in the field. As I stopped to take her picture more joined her.
Heading home this sweet girl was in my driveway. I couldn't help but notice all her wrinkles. Poor thing looks dehydrated. It is 104 degrees fahrenheit!  My market find of the day...... A ginormous, humungous KOHLRABI. Have you ever seen one this big? Me neither! When my dad grew them we always picked them when they were about the size of baseballs. I was thinking this one would be woody inside, possibly even hard to cut. It wasn't! I was pleasantly surprised that it was wonderful and yummy. These have a crisp cabbage flavor. Dan never tasted one before and not surprisingly he spit it out. He is not a fan of cabbage and so it is all mine! Actually, we had a friend over and he was devouring it and mentioned how it would probably be good pickled..........guess what I am doing when I get more. ;)
Uh the dreaded errand day............but first, back out to the wood pile. Dan asked if I needed any wood cut for my projects and I said "OH YEAH!". I trimmed some trees and moved some wood as he got the saw ready. Some pine was seeping sap and I watched some of the bees taking it away for making propolis to use in sealing their hives of drafts. So as I pulled nails and screws from the recycled 4x4s, Dan cut them into 2 foot sections for my beehive stand legs. Once this was done it was off to town. I left to make the errand run but forgot I needed to return a swarm call from the night before. On the drive I spoke with the homeowner and it seems this swarm had landed about three days ago and was slowing down on its activity level. She was worried that the bees were ill. I did a palm to forehead smack as I had just removed everything for removals from my truck. Note to self.....leave some emergency equipment in! So I ran to Tractor Supply and bought a veil for $12.99. If you can call it a veil! more like mosquito hat!!! horrible, cheaply made, waste of money, but needed in this emergency so I got it and a roll of duct tape. The homeowners donated a trash can to the cause. I had a screen in the truck so after all the scrambling to get a make shift swarm catch done, the queen and her attendants are now at our place starting on their new home. They were given sugar syrup and the queen was caged. She will get to stay in there a few days until the workers start putting food stores into the comb I gave them and hopefully they will decide it is a nice place to live.    My last note of the day is this awesome yogurt made with 100% pure USA honey..........  Pottery Day. We have a Fremont Culture jar in for restoration, today I did the second sand on it while filling water barrels for Dan to haul. Worked on adding a little information to the page of potter, Mary Cain, of Santa Clara Pueblo  Worked on painting a Salado Culture Pinto Polychrome bowl, but I am not 100% happy with it yet.  Went back out to the wood pile...........still not finished out there but plugging away at it a little at a time. Found a cute Banded Gecko. They are so freaking cool looking.  We keep really small pieces of lumber for projects that might require a small chunk. I like storing them in this old washing machine bin. Keeps them contained and water runs right through should it ever rain. I need to find a few more of these.  Enjoyed the sunset tonight. Never get tired of sunset photos.  Personal Day...........that means I get to take the day to clean and organize. I was supposed to work on the chicken coop but the skunk we killed there the night before had such a bad odor left behind I elected to start a different project. I really needed to sort our wood "bone yard" for pieces to start the next two projects: Nuc Beehive Stands and Raised Bed Gardens. I went as along as my back held out. Found many small pieces of scrap 4x4s - am in need of 30 two foot sections. Also need 20 2x4s cut to 20". This starts the hive stands, will need many, many more. Wasn't planning on starting the raised beds for the garden until later in the winter but I have so much wood that is not good for much else that it would be nice to get it out of the way so that I can pile better wood in its place. I pulled all the screws and nails I could from the recycled wood that has been donated to the farm from friends and got it all organized. Am ready to start cutting but tomorrow is pottery day. Another plus in cleaning the pile is - I found dinner! a rattlesnake was coiled under the pile and all parts will be utilized. Wonder if this is where my two kittens went that I am missing? Seriously though.....to prevent this I should have not had the rattlesnake habit to begin with. Getting the wood off the ground will prevent rats, mice, snakes, and termites. Here are my before and after photos of the "bone yard". Will this inspire you to get out and get organized? Dan has been printing photos that he wants to keep, he is old school, not trusting computers, and has certain ones he wants hard copies of. My computer screen shows nice crisp pics but when sent to my printer they come out much darker. He ends up going through my black ink and asks me to fix the problem. Not being extremely fantastic with this technological stuff, I try a few things, get frustrated, then turn to google. Others seem to have had the same issue. My printer is a Hewlett Packard Color Laser Jet Pro M477 series and most posts about this very same problem say that I need a Firmware update. I do the download, but cannot test to see if the problem is cured as I need to get black toner in town. I work around the house for a few hours doing odds and ends then make a run to a friends house. They are moving and cannot take everything with them. I have been offered all the pavers and decorative block that I want so I have been making a few trips getting them as well as some other things for the farm. Today's trip I pulled a peach tree that was recently planted, they were worried that it would die while the house was being put back on the market, so I dug it up and put it in a large planter for the winter, it will get put in the orchard come spring. The dogs also were gifted an igloo dog house. While I was out I had to buy gas for the generator and truck - there goes $75!   Before we moved I had found bags of batteries at a local thrift store. One of the employees told me they were from Walmart from when packages broke. The batteries where wrapped with packing tape to not allow the contacts to touch metal and drain so I figured could be a good deal. I bought this entire bag for around $6 then put it into storage and forgot about it for two years. I had been buying batteries in the mean time and when I unpacked this box, my eyes glazed over - DUH! What an idiot! Luckily not all the batteries were bad and I could still salvage them though the packing tape is really stuck on now. In the end I still ended up saving money. A total of 10 D's, 9 9V, 10 AA, and 31 AAA Whew!  Did do some work on Native American Pottery restoration. This Fremont pot is in to be worked on and is now a little over 50% done. Another layer of patching material, fine sanding, then painting is still left to be done. For more information on pottery restoration visit: rarepottery.info/protect/ArticleRestorationEnhancement.htm  Made an early dinner, fed the animals, gathered eggs, grabbed a shower and hit the road. Had to go to Office Max to get the black ink before going to the Southern Arizona Beekeeper's Association Meeting. This presentation was on winter projects and equipment.  Everyday I think about exactly how self sustainable we are. As I prepare breakfast and plan the days meals I try to figure out how we can better live off the land and our local surroundings versus running to the big stores. So I have decided to figure alternatives to certain products as well as what we need to add to our farm. This is a list of items we used in one day: Coffee - Ok......don't touch my coffee! A staple that I will always have to buy as long as it is available. I did go without for a period and know I can if I have to......but I don't want to. :) Creamer - I don't have access to milk nearby and we don't use a lot of it so I tend to buy powdered creamer. So I was thinking of trying goat milk but haven't gotten around to it yet. Goats can be very versatile for small farms and may be something to think of adding to our menagerie. Honey - Provided by our farm. See "Beekeeping" Side Pork - This came from a locally raised pig that a friend butchered and I processed the meat off. At this time my hubby says "no pigs" on our farm. Flour - A staple no doubt. The Sonoran Desert provides many plants that can be turned into flour however the taste is not what we are used to. If the need arises I know I can provide some sort of flour. Eggs - Provided by our farm. See "Chickens" Pure Maple Syrup - We are spoiled. This is the only syrup we use on our french toast, waffles, and pancakes. I can make prickly pear cactus and saguaro syrup as an alternative if needed but nothing beats pure maple syrup. Bread - Purchased loaf - Need to bake. Peach Ice Tea - Purchased a box of flavored ice tea bags from a friend at the Arivaca Farmers Market. It was $1.00. I couldn't say no to that. If needed our tea will be made from the different herbs already grown in our garden but I need to buy Mint again as it was attacked and destroyed by our kittens last year then froze and never came back. Mint is one of our favorite ice teas. Elk Steaks - A friend gave us some elk meat and we had grilled it the previous night and used the leftovers today in a salad. Cheese - Again no milking cow, no goat, so no cheese. Wanting to purchase goat milk and experiment with cheese making prior to adding goats to farm. Lettuce - Need to add to garden Carrots - Need to add to garden Purple Cabbage - Need to add to garden Tomatoes - In garden but need to increase amount of plants because the ones we have are not keeping up with our consumption. Ranch Dressing - Need to make from scratch. Need to research making alternatives. Pork Chops - Again, from a pig a friend had. Soda - Can't stop Dan from his soda and I can't say anything unless I stop drinking coffee. ;) Being self sustainable doesn't stop here though. How did the food get prepared? Did we use propane? What fodder was used for the chickens to provide the eggs? Feeding bees supplements and syrups to keep them healthy costs money....... When it comes down to it, can we ever be self sufficient?  Side Pork  A friend gave us some hens that lay gigantic brown eggs!  San Marzano Heirloom Tomatoes in the garden
Hello to al! It has been awhile since I paid any attention to our websites. Doing bee removals at night and working our bees by day had me so exhausted! Many things got pushed to the side during the last few months. Still no help around the farm and my two friends that assisted with bee removals this year have moved. So I will be crossing my fingers that my BFF moves here soon. She and I will be like tornados! We both have the same work ethics. The latest I have heard is that she will be here after Thanksgiving. I can't wait! Until then I will continue plugging away at all the projects that we have going on. In my free time I plan on going through photos and posting past bee removal photos as well as photos from the farm. Stay tuned.
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