My loss, Your Gain... OR one year old one year wiser

So tomorrow is my 30th birthday. For lots of people this is a really big deal/milestone. For me my 26th birthday was the really big deal/milestone (for personal reasons). But everyone keeps asking me if I"m going to do something speical for my "Milestone" birthday. So I have decided to but myself to the test! I want to see if I have aged like fine wine or more like milk. I'm going to under take a hand full of wood working projects. Some will take great skill while others will take some ingenuity. My goal is to finish all the project tomorrow (except for staining them because that takes days to do it right). Than I'm going to judge myself on my work (or call in a 3rd party to do the judging).

Now you may be asking "OK GREAT but why put this on a blog about farming?" To which I would reply "First it is my blog" and next "Good questing!"

The answer is I'm going to be making a cider press as the project that involves my ingenuity skills. But I'm going to document the whole process and (if it works) post the full instruction here. The goals for the press will be that it is effective, quick to build (I have about 1/3 of a day to do it), and cheap to build (as most of my money will be going to the other projects)

So stay toned! Keep your eyes open for "HOW TO BUILD A CIDER PRESS" coming soon.




OR if it is an epic fail keep your eyes open for "how NOT to build a cider press"

Well it finally happen!

As I have said many times before I do all the farming and self-sufficiency stuff because I find it fun and I enjoy the process. I don't believe that I can save money, or that the food is healthier and I have NEVER found that the food taste better. I do believe that the Magic Super Markets foods of this world are just as healthy and tasty as anything I can make. Then throw in the fact that the food from the store is cheaper, all I'm left with is the enjoyment and fun that comes for the process.

Again I"m cool with that idea. Everyone needs a hobby and something to waste money on. BUT today I tried something new that has rocked my world and may have very well changed some of my ways of thinking when it comes to farming and self-sufficiency. What was this life altering activity you may ask? Well....

I tried making homemade NOODLES!

Crazy right! Something so simple and easy!  The noodles had more flavor, they were more filling, and crazy enough they are cheaper to make than to buy from the store. I'm glad I finally tried it. Oh course my diet in now shot. Oh well winter is coming we will call it insulation!

Cider Report!!

So I tried my hand at making cider and hard cider. The Cider turned out great!! I filtered it so it was clear and my kids were then willing to drink it. When I made the hard cider it turned out pretty good. It taste a lot like Hornsby's Hard Cider (http://www.hornsbys.com/) only flat. So I seprated the finished product into two different bottlings. One was just straight hard cider which no surprise to this day still taste like flat Hornsb's. Now the other batch I added priming sugar to the bottles in hopes to carbonate them (getting rid of the flat taste). WELL it turns out that with Cider you need to at least double the normal about of priming sugar. The cider had some carbonation but not enough.

So the plan is to make another batch of hard cider. This time I"m going to photo-document the process and post it here for everyone to enjoy.

OH and the good think about making cider is even a failed attempt is tasty and still has some kick to it! HAPPY DRINKING

Zone 1 defense!

 The first zone is going to be the vegetable zone. In the area I want to set up plots to grow all my perennial crops. The challenge here is that this area is also where my children play and I can't take that away from them. So I'm going to have to get creative.

First: Raised Garden Bed
OK this is a no brainer. The raised bed is going to be 4 feet by 8 feet and fit next to the gate on the right hand side there. This area is south facing as easy access to water and the kid don't really play in this area. Now the cool adaptation I'm going to make to this raised garden bed is in the construction. Which can be found in detail here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/An-Improved-Raised-Bed-Garden/

Then general idea is to use homemade concrete brackets to hold your raised bed gardens together. So when a board starts to rot you just replace it. With traditional all wood raised bed construction you could only replace the boards as long as your corner post were good. But once those rotted your almost had to start all over. Very cool design and I can't wait to use it.

Second: Hanging Garden
Again not a new idea but until this year it is one I almost scrapped. I have tried hanging gardens for the last few years and weak results. But this year I made a Hail Mary Pass attempt and it worked! (I'm not going to get into all the details now but this spring when I start planting I will go more in depth) All I'm going to do for this next spring is to sink 4x4 post at the corners of my raised bed garden and run boards along them to hang my bucket garden from. This will allow me to not take up more yard and time and time again I keep reading about the benefits of cascade gardening or to set up your plants so when you water one the excess water goes to another part of your garden. So when I water my hanging garden any extra will filter down to my raised bed garden.

Third: Play Structure = Grow Structure
Now this is cool and VERY original (at least I haven't found many other people that do this)  What it is going to be is a "fort"/Jungle Gym that my kids can play on but I have worked in grow mediums to the structure. Cool right! Peak your interest RIGHT! Love the idea and want to see more RIGHT! Well you're going to have to wait :-( Sorry the designs aren't done yet and I still have some research that needs to be done to make sure it not only will look nice (last thing I want is the city on my butt), my kids will play one it, and stuff to grew in it too. My plan is to finish the design this winter and start building as soon as most of the snow melts. So keep watching for more details.

Break Down of the work to be done!

Alright the next stage of planning I took the surveyed drawing I made and broke it down into areas that I'm going to improve.

 Here is the breakdown of what is going to happen in each area.

Area 1: After much talking it over with my wife we have come upon an agreement to make a raised bed garden that also has some features to adapt a hanging garden as well. The raised garden will be 4' by 8' in this area I'm also going to have room for a hanging garden and a surprise feature to be revealed later.

Area 2: This is the meat area. I'm going to put in both a chick coop and a rabbit hutch. I have also found an interesting way to work in an urban style chicken run (again more on that later)

Area 3 and 3b: Right now there is honeysuckle bushes (not edible). My plan is over a 2-3 year period I'm going to remove the bushes and put in some time of edible bushes, most likely cherry bushes

Area 4: Currently this is a cemented walkway that leads from the side walk to my house. Not 100% sure what I'm going to do with this are. Part of me wants to take out the concrete to have more yard to work with BUT as paramedic I know this side walk would be the best and easiest route of entry in case of an emergency. SO I'm stuck! Either I"m pulling the walk way out OR I'm improving it.

As of right now this is the break down plan. Keep an eye on the blog the next few post I"m going to further break down each area and I'm going to include more drawings, plans, instructions and resources related to each section.

What I have to work with.

So with my resolution to be more pro-active with planning this year I have pulled out my drafting tools. I than took my kids outside and had them help me survey the "farm" here is a isometric view of area I have to work with.

(Yes I'm finally adding some images to this blog! No more monochromatic text base post only anymore.)

The total square feet I have to work with isn't a lot. I'm looking at about 1513ft^2 or about 0.034 acres. I will definitely become very practiced in the art of micro-farming with a set up like this. From the picture I will soon split it up into the different areas and what I'm going to change and improve. After that I will work out the schedule of when what will get done. Lots of work to get done!

(oh, if anyone out there is wondering the original is at 1/8 scale or 1/8 inch = 1foot)

A summer of planning and waiting

So with the move things have been busy to say the least and down right chaos at times. Despite my willingness to press forward on project Urban Farm 2 I heeded my wives advice and just spent the summer planning and observing. So here is what I have to work with...

Apple Tree: Not as dead as I first thought! This fall it seems like we will have a enough apples for a large batch of cider. But under the tree does need to be addressed. Some type of ground cover is needed. We are thinking about using the rubber mulch to control weeds and help with irrigation. Plus the kids will love playing with it.

Fruit bushes on the the Fence line: Sadly they are NON-Edible berries (honeysuckle). The birds will love them but they are of no use to me. My plan is to replace them with edible berry bushes(cherry most likely) But have I have to convince my wife.

Raspberry bushes: There is hope for them yet but it will be a lot of work. Mostly mulching and pulling out non-desired plants.

Area for gardening: Enter the highest point of contention! Currently I want to have a simple 8'x8' or 4'x8' raised bed garden with hanging plants on one side. But my wife really doesn't want to loss any more yard space. This battle will go on all winter I"m sure.

Chickens and rabbits: Both have been approved (by my wife) and the area has been selected. Mostly all that is left is to prep the area. There are some flowering bushes that need to go. Also I'm going to talk the guy that lives next door. I don't think he will have an issue but better safe than sorry.

Flower Plots: The house lot is filled with small pots of lilies and another flower I don't know what it is. I'm against flowers as I feel they are a waist of space mostly but they are well established and honestly because of the shade I'm not use much else will grow there. SO for now they stay.

Garage: Potential is the name of the game here! I really need to get rid of a vehicle though (anyone in the market for a Camry?) I do believe that the garage needs some reinforcing but nothing major. The project that I'm looking into and saving up for is to turn on of the roofs of the garage into a solar array. The roof is pointed exactly where it is needed to get MAXIMUM solar exposure. It's going to take time but I think it will pay off.

Those are the projects and potential I have seen so far. The plan is to use Google Calendar to set up a schedule to make it all happen!