errantember

This month on the 1st, I mainly only had eggs with a few condiments to eat. I ran out of butter and olive oil I got from Megan, but I just rotated my kombucha so I have something to trade for more. I also have potatoes and tomatoes on the way, but none ripe enough yet to eat this month. I also have assorted greens, radishes, and carrots slowly growing away. Some might be available next month.

I had wondered how I was going to get things I *can't* grow on Home Grown Food Day, the first day of every month. Good examples include olive oil or salt. I decided that it would be ok to trade something I *did* grow or brew at home. It turned out that worldmegan wanted some of my latest batch of kombucha, (which, incidentally, is *awesome*) so we decided to trade! I would give her several bottles of kombucha in exchange for a few items:



I got a few clementines, little tiny jars of salt, pepper, olive oil, butter, a garlic clove, and half a jar of fantastic home-made turkey stock. My day will be *so* much better for having these things, and I am fabulously grateful. Thanks worldmegan!

I actually got what was probably the 4th egg from my three chickens all winter today *despite* the fact that Louie, one day after I fixed a large hole in the front of the coop, not only dug a second hole in the back of the coop, but actually broke the wooden frame in the process. Rather than trying to bail a sinking boat, I've been concentrating on finishing the Puggle Fence, which will prevent both Coop Infiltration and Extraneous Barking at People on the Sidewalk upon completion. I was resigned to be pretty fucking hungry on the 1st, but somehow fate intervened and I was able to get one egg from the coop today before Louie, which means I'll actually get to eat non-nut protein on the 1st of February.

As a reminder, I am only eating food grown at my own home on the 1st of every month in 2011.
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Unlike many other people, 2010 was a good year for me. I'm sleeping late, have great relationships with friends and lovers near and far, am working on Permaculture during the day and iPhone development at night for myself and no one else, and on track to a new career doing what I love on the road.

o I successfully found and worked 6 months of an in-office job for the first time in about five years, and after being unemployed for about a year, and after working for the same company for nine years. I wanted to be reminded of how stupid and awful it was, while saving money to transition to freelance work.

o I successfully quit that same job to go on an extended vacation to Burning Man, Portland, Alchemy (the awesome Georgia Regional Burn), and Hawaii, following the advice in the Four Hour Work Week about mini-retirements. All of these trips except Hawaii were paid for in advance with money from my corporate job, and I arrived home from Hawaii with over 12 months of money in the bank to make my career transition. I met many current and made many new friends and lovers on the trip. This is the first step in becoming someone who can do his job from anywhere there's an Internet connection, allowing me to be on the road and visit people more.

o I've gotten a good start on iPhone and iPad development using Gamesalad, a tool designed to help non-programmers make games. I'm setting a February 10th date for my first submission to the app store, and I will then ship another twice a month for at least three months. If I can get $1000/game, I'll won't have to do any outside work to support myself.

o The Rate of Return on my retirement account, which I manage myself, was about 50% for 2010!

o I've navigated through Significant Drama to keep my little home-rental/co-op project going. As a result, most of my mortgage payment is paid for by my housemates, and my home continues to get nicer and more valuable a lot faster than I could do it alone. This year I'll finish remodeling the master suite and renting it out, while remodeling the garage and moving in there, which will net me another $300/month.

o I did a complete battery replacement on my electric scooter, enabling me to continue doing most local driving at around 1 cent per mile.

o I'm continuing to shrink my lifestyle and my Pile of Stuff to increase my happiness and personal freedom.

Thanks to everyone who made 2010 a great year!

So far I'm really enjoying Food Production Systems for a Backyard or Small Farm. I've gotten through four chapters, the Overview, Water, Garden, and Rabbits. I got this video after it was aired at a Transition Austin event recently. It's only $25, with a massive amount of included literature, and the best part is that the family that created lives in Bastrop. The hardest part of learning to garden (besides being expected to have Patience -- whatEVER!) is finding information about one's own local area. The authors show their implementation of How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine that is localized to this climate, which is worth it's weight in gold.

One buck and five does can produce 90 rabbits per year. They fuck like...well...

Anyway. As a life-long rabbit pet owner, I'm not looking forward to the next chapter, Home Butchering. I know I'm capable of becoming someone who kills rabbits for food, but I'm not really sure I want to be that person. Watching the video won't magically transform me into an axe-wielding bunny psychopath, but I have the feeling I won't quite be the same afterward.

Our potatoes, planted long after they were rotted and had lost about 2/3 of their mass, are finally popping up in our bed up front, which is very exciting! We'll start mounding up the soil around the fastest ones soon.

We've gotten our first order of heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit seed exchange. We have a 200 sq. ft. garden under a very poorly maintained hoop house right out the front door that's been largely overrun with Bermuda grass. Few plants are left from last season, so I've been pulling Bermuda all day in preparation for spring planting of cold season crops. Even though I only got about 1/3 of the wall around this garden built, and therefore only about 1/3 of the soil into it, it's still the best place to start planting. To reclaim more of the lawn for gardening will require hours of back-breaking labor, as the soil is about 1/3 limestone rocks. You can't dig with a shovel, you have to use a pick axe or rock hammer. For now, getting this existing garden prepped is much easier.
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...and discovering there are a *lot* of them...

If I'd had time, I would have made mock-ups like these *before* I committed to paint colors. There are several more I added to the set for your consideration. They integrate some of the suggestions people made as alternatives to the original Shocking Fuchsia.

So in my ongoing project to deck out the walls of my guest wing with natural plaster before my new housemate arrives on the 28th, I've now finished priming both rooms (including the ceilings) and with the help of trippedbreaker have moved on to putting down the first layer of plaster.

Originally I was going to use American Clay products, but at about $75 for a 50# bag and the pigment to color it, I was out almost a grand by the time I had enough to do the entire wing. However, I recently went to a Design, Build, Live presentation by Carole Crews a life-long veteran of earth building and plaster, and purchased her new book Clay Culture (currently only available from the author.) I decided that, despite the tight deadline, it was worth trying to mix the sand, clay, binder, and pigment myself if it were cheaper. And it's *much* cheaper. At *most* 50% as expensive, and likely more like 35-40%! I made a small test batch of each recipe, with and without the pigment, and decided I liked the homemade stuff better, anyway. The pigments are also much cheaper at Armadillo Clay, but I couldn't wait until tomorrow to start plastering, so I decided to put the first coat down without pigment. I actually liked this color the best, anyway. However, tomorrow I will proceed down to Armadillo and check out some of their other pigments. I should be able to find something exactly like I want, instead of having to settle for the meager selection of colors at my American Clay supplier, and afterward I can likely sell the American Clay products at cost and recoup my losses.

I've been looking at a way out of the corporate scene since several years before I even entered it while still in the public "education" system. I lost my job of 10 years last January. Here's how Manifestation Theory works in Real Life:

INPUT: "Gee, I wish I could ditch this cube and become a Permaculture Designer/Firedancer/Musician /Career Coach/Natural Builder/etc/etc/etc, grow my own food, and have a smaller eco footprint..."
"I'd also like to get some chickens."


OUTPUT:

You're entire US Team gets axed. You get severance, unemployment, and health insurance for months.

You buy a Geo Metro from your old roommate and routinely get 40 MPG. You learn how to work on cars.

Recognizing your need to improve your home improvement and carpentry skills, The Universe makes everything break at an increasingly rapid rate, so you have to become a ninja to keep up.

Your married girlfriend's new prospect totally takes your offer to rent an unused wing in your house. He's excited about your plans to re-finish his wing in natural plaster and your chickens.

One of your oldest friends loses his house and needs a room to rent, and you are therefore forced to finally clean all that useless shit out of your life. Storage space evaporates.

Your uncle introduces you a Crazy Money Making Opportunity involving corpses.

Your other girlfriend who's moving gives you her chickens, plus a working coop. Another total stranger gives you two more.

Your already-started gardening efforts Hop the Fence, and you now have 10 edible species lose in your yard, restoring soil, providing food, and pissing off the neighbors.

You finally start fixing things faster than they break. You build new things. You might sell them.

The list TOTALLY goes on and on.

Life is Go(o)d. :)

Be careful what you wish for, but only *slightly* careful.