Inventions - Wheel Hoe

I think that farmers should invent tools for farming...don't you? Not engineers. It's only when you actually use something that you get to know all the little things that make it either an ok tool or a great one. Having said that, Steve and I are looking at getting a wheel hoe as you know. Prices vary from $130 to well over $700. And since we're farming on a budget, Steve did some internet research, asked me some questions, went to Canadian Tire for angle iron and now is happily making a prototype in the driveway. He's basically making a platform attached to a wheel and pushed along by 2 handles made of conduit bent in our pipe bender. Now he's making a cultivator blade that will attach to the bottom of the platform. I know it's hard to explain but I will get a couple of pics uploaded once he's finished it tomorrow. It may not be pretty...but it's cheap! Probably by the time all is said and done we'll have a working unit for under $50. I'll let you know. Here's a picture of a wheel hoe, ours won't be so pretty but it's a tool that's going to save us time and labour and will be very well used so I don't really care what it looks like. Steve jokingly said that if it turns out really well he'll make you all a kit that you just have to bolt together and you can buy your very own cultivator for $59 + shipping. Maybe he's on to something, but first we've got to try it out! We'll of course let you know how it goes.

Things in the garden are fine. Not much happening at the moment. The chickens are growing and hopefully we'll have some veggies growing soon. The lettuce and zucchini are taking their time but are putting a bit of growth in this warm weather, the loofah's are ready to go into the ground, and the Tiny Tim tomatoes we've got in pots at home have several flower clusters each which is great. The bees seem happy and that's about it for today. Gave everything a good soaking to tide it through the next few sunny and hot days. I just have to water a patch on the side of the house tomorrow morning and I'm done watering here at the house. I like to water very early in the morning if I can. It gives the roots time to suck up the water before the sun dries everything out, but the leaves don't stay wet for too long and encourage mould. Without the sun up it does mean less water evaporates so it's more efficient to conserving water too. But the biggest conserver has to be the soaker hoses because they only put the water where we want it and they work well on a low pressure system like a well.

Happy Father's Day to you all for tomorrow.

Dirk Becker's Fight and Grass Farms of Nova Scotia

Dirk Becker and Nicole Shaw's fight to keep their "Urban Farm" has attracted media attention the world over and I've posted about it several times before as I've met Dirk and believe in the principle of what he's doing, to fight for the right to keep his livelihood and grow food in an 'urban' (that's debatable) area on his acreage. While I believe in the rule of law in most cases, I truly believe that this is one worth fighting mostly because if the back handed way that Dirk and Nicole have been dealt with by their local gov't. It's not really any wonder that an activist would then turn around and fight back is it? I'm amazed that he and Nicole didn't take up arms sooner. All the City of Lantzville has done is make folk heroes out of Dirk and Nicole and bring more attention to their cause. The City (a lot of Lantzville is actually rural and not paved) and mayor in particular look like a bunch of bullies. Here are a couple of videos I thought you might find interesting.

The reason I'm still writing about this issue even though we're now 7000km away is that this is a problem that affects everyone in Canada and in the developed world in general. Don't think it happens in Nova Scotia? Steve and I are constantly dismayed and shake our heads when we drive around the beautiful Annapolis Valley at the hundreds of 'grass farms'. That's what we call the rural houses that are surrounded by acres of neatly trimmed lawn and nothing else. No fence, hay fields, sheep, or anything resembling a vegetable garden. Just one small house and 3 acres of grass. There's a nice house on the way to Berwick that I swear has 12 acres of grass all beautifully cross mowed and not an animal in sight. People buy the houses and then sit back to enjoy the peace and quiet of the country, riding the mower for a couple of hours a week and that's fine but what about those of us who want to grow food and can't afford rural property that's suitable for agriculture because of the property prices being driven up by people from the city buying it and then not using it wisely.? What happened to understanding that we are stewards of the land? Isn't there some sort of balance? Don't we recognize where we're heading as a society? Sadly, the answers to these questions and others about our consumerism is mostly 'no' , we don't get it. For the majority of people things like 'Peak Oil' and 'Peak Water' are just topics for discussion amongst us cranks and conspiracy theorists. As long as WalMart has shelves filled with stuff and the grocery store is full of cans and veggies they feel secure and smug in their own little world and think that life will always be like this. They simply don't understand that something like 'peak phosphorous' means commercial growers won't have unlimited fertilizer for their crops so yields will decrease and prices will go up. That affects everyone. We all eat. Well, those of us who can afford it.

We're biased of course because we've experienced this personally when living on Vancouver Island and so we're living here in Nova Scotia now where land is still more affordable so we can provide a better life for our kids and grandchildren. And we love the people here too.

Well, that's my mini rant for today. Watch the videos and comment.

The Art of Sponge Bathing or How to Save Water

Did you know that the average North American uses about 100 gallons of purified water (from the tap) per day? That amounts to about 600 gallons for or family if we were typical. Which we're not. Since we have lived with such low producing wells for so many years we're used to conserving water through low flow faucets, turning the water off to brush your teeth, low flush (or no flush) toilets, short showers, front loading he washing machine etc etc. But now that we're in a trailer and motorhome our water usage has dropped dramatically and will be even lower when we're on the road this summer.

Here are some ways we use less water:

Porta Potti's and composting toilets use little or no water. And when I say little I mean less than a cup full (250 ml) just to rinse the bowl clean.

Running water to wash hands and dishes. We are acutely aware of the amount of water used for this because it runs right out on to the ground outside so we try to not leave the tap running more than necessary. It is still very important though to maintain good hygiene and hand washing practices.

Limited shower times. The tiny bathroom is not really conducive to having a long luxurious shower. Anything more than a trickle from that shower gives you a total of 6 minutes max before you get blasted with cold water. And it doesn't sneak up on you gradually like a home shower that gets cooler and cooler, this just changes it's mind like a PMS-ing woman who discovered that her husband ate her chocolate, and it blasts you with icy cold well water usually when you've still got to rinse your hair and there's soap in your eyes. The hot water tank is 6 gallons or about 30 litres. That's not that much water really. We also turn the water off while soaping up to save water and we simply take fewer showers.

Sponge baths. Yes, the bath in a bucket. Or 4 litre ice cream pail in our case. You just fill it up with very warm water, get yourself damp. Lather up. Then using your washcloth and the water you scrub and rinse. We can do everything but wash our hair with less then 4 litres. Including your hair you'd probably use 5-6 litres. This gives you a good scrubbing, better than a shower, and uses a lot less water so you can do it while camping or travelling even if you have to boil a kettle for hot water. The tricks are to start at the top and work down, use a good washcloth, and make sure you rinse off all the soap or you'll get itchy.

And we wear our outer clothes (jeans and shirts) for an extra day if we can to cut down on the amount of laundry that needs to be done.

All in all I would estimate that we're using 30 gallons per day for the whole family not including laundry but including cooking, cleaning, dishes, showers, drinking and toilets. And we could use less.

Why is important to use less water? Every time you waste water through a leaking toilet or dripping tap, or through bad habits, you are wasting the chemicals and the energy it took to make that water clean. You're literally flushing it down the toilet. You can do things like have passive or active solar hot water collectors, rain water barrels to catch rain or rooftop collectors. There are so may ways we can all cut down on our consumption. Here's a pretty graph of our water usage according to the EPA. Have a look and see where you fit and where you think you can save. Even if you're on a well and saying that you have unlimited water you should consider that the more water that goes through the system the more wear and tear on pumps and septic systems, the more you pay to heat all that water, and the more you gradually deplete underground water resources. It's true that a well used over time drops the local water table in it's immediate area by a considerable amount and in the case of pockets or pools of water trapped in rock you deplete it faster than it can infiltrate the rock.

It reminds me of the movie Dune where the most precious thing is water because water supports all life on that desert planet. And the still suits they have are kind of cool too, recovering and purifying your sweat back into drinkable water so you stay hydrated. Back here on Earth wars have been fought over water and wells. Right now bottled water from the gas station costs about $2 per litre making it more expensive than the gas. How'd that happen?

Remember that water is a resource like any other. Abundance of good clean drinking water is a gift we all enjoy in Canada and take for granted. But so many other places value it much more highly. Clean water in Africa would save millions of lives each year. The WHO reports that at any given time half the population in the developing world is suffering from some sort of water borne illness. It's sad that we take this for granted when so many in India and Africa have to struggle for it. The lives of some 4000 children could be saved every day just form adequate clean water and sanitation. Makes you think doesn't it? That we should all pitch in this Christmas and sponsor a well being dug through World Vision.