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Sabtu, 07 Mei 2016

Thoughts From The SSL Family Dad Whats This Place All About

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New subscriber? Been around for awhile? What is this channel all about and why do we do what we do? These are a few of the questions that I hope to answer in this video.


A few years ago my wife and I decided to move into this small subdivision in small town America. Having both come from country roots it was a bit of a compromise for us to be in a community type setting. As we settled in those country roots began to take hold of our small suburban homestead.


We started thinking more about what we ate, how we got our food, how to save money and live a more simple life. We decided to have the SSLFamilyMom at home full time working on raising and caring for our family of five. Many decisions began being made that slowly turned this city lot into a small backyard farm.

During this transition we needed lots of information, repairs, cooking, gardening, aquaponics, chickens, and anything else you can think of. We started reading blogs, researching we articles and how-tos, and watching a whole lot of others on YouTube. We learned so much and used so many ideas of others. It was time for us to start giving back, it was time for us to share our lifestyle and our ideas with others. This was the beginning of the sslfamily blog and YouTube channels.


We are a family of five, often going in many different directions at once. Cooking, knitting, auto repairs, wildlife, hiking, aquaponics, chickens, DIY projects, home improvement, recipes, bible crafts, science experiments, inventions, sustainable projects, computer repair, and the list goes on and on. We decided on three YouTube channels to spotlight the kids, my wife, and my own projects individually and one blog to tie it all together.


We have been blown away over the past year at the response we have gotten, the lives that have been touched and the stories and projects that have been shared back with us. Our family has been truly blessed over the last year and much of it in part to those of you watching or reading this now.


So if you are a new subscriber what can you expect here? Well, just about anything! I try to release at least 1-2 videos per week on relevant topics ranging from home and auto repairs to gardening and sustainable living projects. Product reviews come around from time to time if I have a product that I feel would be good for that kind of thing. I always review honestly and never with a product that I have not used. I focus on aquaponics videos throughout much of the winter and to the outdoor garden in the summer. I also release computer repair and technology tutorials whenever they present themselves around the home as this is my profession. I always provide an honest outcome if I am trying something new and share the experiences I have had and what has worked for me or share what I have learned from others. Oh, and you may see a few bible verses shared on my channel, this is something that is important to us and our faith in Jesus is interwoven into everything we do here on our little homestead.


What not to expect? One thing you will not see here is us asking for money from you. We are not here to profit from you or ask for donations of any kind. It is always a turn off for me when I watch a YouTube channel or subscribe to someones blog to see them asking for money and that is not something I am interested in doing here. We also do not do unboxing videos. I will go ahead and open my own boxes off camera! I have not done anything in the way of Vlogging and do not really plan to do anything under this title (I hate the word myself). I may however, offer an opinion on a video or article if I feel it is relevant or feel the need to share with you.


What is coming up next? This is a long-winded answer so I will get to the point. I have so many things that I want to do that I will never be able to catch up. I may post an interactive list at some point for you all to be able to add things to as well but for now I have the following in the immediate works:


Improve the wood burning pool heater and the garage heater
Chicken coop watering system redesign
Fish "Pondaponics"
Indoor aquaponics redesign
Rain collection system
Automatic garden irrigation
Tire rotation
Cast iron seasoning
Chicken coop scraps feeding door and trough
Wireless network tips and tricks
Shop computer
and the list goes on............


How can you support us? This is a simple answer, do what you are already doing. The best way to support the SSL Family is to follow along with us and share your stories, your pictures and your feedback with us.  We couldnt do this without you!


Thank you for following along, have a good one!

The SSL Family Dad




 
 
 
 
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Senin, 02 Mei 2016

One Good Turn

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Meg in New York with Mormon Helping Hands after Hurricane Sandy


This past Thanksgiving weekend I was planning to prepare my garden for the winter. But Hurricane Sandy had hit New York City hard that fall, so I joined a group of volunteers to help clean up in Queens instead. The damage was amazing, even several weeks after the storm hit. Here were a few more pictures I took during that weekend. The first is a car damaged by the storm, the next one of the houses we helped clear out (this picture is after the dump truck took away most of the contents of this home, newly remodeled only the prior November).





I dont regret the time I spent in New York, but my own yard remained messy throughout the winter. There were remains from various projects, yard debris, and general unkemptness. Heres a couple of shots showing the mess:





Then my local Mormon missionaries stopped by this past month. "Is there anything we could do to help you?" they asked.

"Anything?" I said. "Well, I could use some help with my back yard..."

They were good to their word and showed up last Saturday, ready to make quick work of a mess that had bothered me all winter. Heres a couple of shots after theyd moved the trash out of my yard:





Yeah missionaries! Many hands make light work. Now I can get started on my spring garden without hours of dirty, heavy lifting in my way!
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Rabu, 27 April 2016

An Underground Greenhouse or Walipini

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An Underground Greenhouse in La Paz, Bolivia


I was chatting with my family online this evening and my sister mentioned an underground greenhouse. Intrigued, I followed the link she posted to an article at treehugger.

The Benson Institute developed the plans for the walipini or "place of warmth" as a way for families in La Paz, Bolivia, to garden throughout the year, despite the intensely cold mountain winters. The plans for the 20’ x 74’ greenhouse requires roughly $250-$300 in materials, assuming free labor and no need for heavy equipment. The Walipini manual indicates youll want about 100 square feet of growing area to feed a person year round.

The basic walipini plans could be further enhanced to include subterranean heating and cooling, since there is already significant sub-floor work involved to ensure adequate drainage. The plans also mention the benefit of incorporating water barrels to store heat energy. In my research associated with this article, I learned (or re-learned?) that water holds four times as much heat energy per unit volume as concrete. So using water to store heat energy is more effective than a trombe wall. And if the water you are storing is also irrigating your plants and providing a habitat for fish, all the better!

By the way, my book on Aquaponic Gardening will be available in less than a month. Very exciting! And I just saw the cover for the first time:



Pretty and green!
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Kamis, 14 April 2016

How to Make Soap From Bacon Grease

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What to do with all that leftover bacon grease? With this simple process you can turn that unwanted grease into something useful around the home - soap. This recipe is very simple and the process takes about 90 minutes from start to finish.
 
The first step is to get the grease separated from any bits of burned bacon or other "stuff". The easiest way to do this is to pour it into a cup of warm water and mix it up. Let the mix sit at room temperature for a couple of hours and then put it in the refrigerator overnight. The grease will all float to the top and the bits will sink to the bottom. This also solidifies the grease a bit to make it easy to scoop off the top. I saved up the grease from a few batches over about 2 months and was able to get about 22 ounces. The lard keeps in the fridge for quite some time to you can save it up for as long as you need to.
 
 
 
Once you have enough it is time to weigh it out and determine how many ounces you have. This will be the base for the recipe and all other ingredients will be based from this amount. Once you have the ounces head over to www.soapcalc.net and click on "soap calc lye calculator". This will take you to an 8 step process to determine your recipe.
 
1: Select NAOH - This is the type of Lye I used and is commonly bought as pure lye drain cleaner. You can also use KOH which is derived naturally from wood ashes.
2. Input the weight of your lard - mine was about 22 ounces
3. You can leave this at about 38% as they recommend
4. Super fat can be left at 5%. You can go lower and you will end up with a less oily soap, go higher for a more oily soap. If you go too low you risk having pure lye left over from the saponification process which could be bad for your skin. I recommend 4 or 5%
5.  Select "lard, pig tallow" from the list of oils. Here you can see you can make soap from all kind of different oils.
6. Click "add" and then type 100% in the box. You can mix other oils in with this calculator as well if you so wish.
7. Calculate and then display/print your recipe.
You now have all of the info you need to get started.
 
Get out two stainless or glass pots and set on separate burners, put both on low or one notch up from low heat. Next weigh out the water according to the recipe and add it to one of the pots. Add your lard to the other pot. Weigh out your lye according to the recipe and slowly stir it into the warm water until it is dissolved. Once the lard is liquefied go ahead and add the lye mix to the lard and slowly stir it in.
This is where the fun begins (ok, not really) you need to stir this mix for about an hour. I stirred it for about 5 minutes and then went away and came back after about 10 minutes to stir again. Keep doing this until the lard thickens. Once you are getting a trace behind the spoon when you stir you know it is ready.
 
At this point you can add some food coloring and essentials oils or other fragrance as you wish. You will need to turn the heat down and stir the coloring and fragrance in pretty well (I didnt do this well and that is one reason mine turned out pink and not red.)
 
 
 
Now you can pour the soap into some kind of mold. I used a plywood rectangle mold that I threw together in a few minutes. You can purchase nicer ones below. Once in the mold you need to let it sit for 24-48 hours and then you can cut it out and slice it into bars of any size. It is best at this point to let the soap sit for a week or two to fully harden and let the saponification process complete fully.
 
 
 
At that is it, you have just made soap from back grease or lard. We have been using it for about a month now and we all love it. It is not the best soap you can make but for next to nothing you can make basic soap from grease that you would probably throw away anyway. You can also be creative with the soap calc and add in other types of oils to get different results, have fun with it and see what you can come up with. Please share any recipes that works well for you on our Facebook page or here on the blog or YouTube comments.
 
Pure Lye - http://amzn.to/1KIq0Je
Soap molds - http://amzn.to/1dadmUR
                        http://amzn.to/1AJpUxu
                        http://amzn.to/1KIqaA7
 
 
All of these products and more recommended items from the SSL Family are available at the
Simple Suburban Living General Store
 
Please follow us on....
http://www.pinterest.com/simplesuburban/
http://www.facebook.com/simplesuburbanliving
http://www.twitter.com/simplesuburban5
http://www.instagram.com/simplesuburbanliving
 
Special thanks to The King of Random for the inspiration on this process. http://www.tkor.squarespace.com/
 
 
 

 
 
 
This post has been shared at:  Our Simple Blog Hop, Front Porch Friday
 
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Minggu, 10 April 2016

Q A Keeping fish waste from clogging the sump pump

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From time to time someone tracks me down and asks a great question. I usually end up spending a minor chunk of time answering. Heres a recent question I thought might be of interest:

Hello Meg,

Thanks for 365 Aquaponics. I find it very informative for my future plans in aquaponics. I had some quick questions- How do you keep fish waste from cloggin up the sump pump?

Thank you very much! Regards, R


Heres what I do:

  • I have relatively narrow pipes taking overflow water from my fish tank to my sump. This is not a good thing - if I were doing this over again, Id make sure my drain to the sump was at least 2 inches in diameter. Its a solids lifting overflow, so its supposed to suck the fish tank wastes out, and it does, to a certain extent.

  • I dont have a swirl filter. This is also not a good thing. I really like the swirl filter in the HD Aquaponics youtube videos (episodes 28 and 29 show it, as I recall. I have all the parts to implement a swirl filter constructed out of a 5 gallon water bottle sometime soon.

  • I have goldfish in my sump tank. They love to munch on stuff. So they keep the sump tank pretty clear. I also have a cover over my sump tank.

  • My pump is slightly elevated. I originally put it on a 1 inch thick plastic mesh pad (repurposed the internal pump filter) because I wanted to reduce the noise of the pump. But elevating the pump does three other great things:
  1. The plastic mesh isnt inside my pump. Leaving the plastic mesh filter inside the pump can leave you with a nasty slimy mess that you have to clean frequently. If you still want to have some waste filtration, put an external mesh bag filter over your pump.

  2. The waste that is in the system falls to the bottom of my sump. Since the pump is ever so slightly elevated, chunks of gunk are less likely to get sucked into the pump.

  3. If the water level in my sump tank gets low, the pump stops emptying the tank when theres still an inch or so of water in the tank. My goldfish who live in the sump tank are still able to get around and remain in water, so Im pretty happy about that "accident."

Good luck!

Meg

____________________________________
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Kamis, 07 April 2016

Top Bar Bee Hive From Reclaimed Materials Building the Base 1

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Ever wanted to have your own source of honey? Honey and beeswax have so many uses around the homestead and this is something my wife has wanted for quite some time. So, with our anniversary just around the corner, I thought what better to make than a top-bar bee hive!

We chose to go with a top bar because they are easy to build, maintain, and are great for beginners (or so I have heard). The trick is, we have a budget of next to nothing for this project and the wife and I vowed to get each other something homemade for each other this year. I immediately started thinking of where I could get some free wood for this project. Ah yes! That old kitchen table/picnic table that has been sitting outside in the rain for three years, perfect! I grabbed the table top and benches and made my way to the garage. 



The first step for me was to get all of the wood cleaned up and cut away all of the edges and unusable wood. Once this was done I stacked it all up and started planning out some measurements. I have read that the hive should be able 12" deep, about 10 inches wide at the bottom, 120 degree angle coming up and as long as 48 inches. After some careful planning I thought I could get pretty close to these measurements with the wood that I had. 

I started by cutting the end pieces to size ( ended up with about 8.5" bottom, 120 degrees up on each side. The length that worked for the wood I had was about 42 inches with sides that were about 15" wide. In order to make the sides I needed to glue a few pieces of wood together using a make shift clamping system on my workbench. For some of the longer pieces (bottom) I glued two boards together end to end using dowels to strengthen the glue joints. 

The next step was a lot, I mean a lot, of sanding. I had to grind off years of weathering and stains ( I used the benches as saw horse for awhile so they were pretty beat up). The wood from this table looks like it is birch or maybe poplar and it really is a nice looking wood once it is cleaned up. I also used a glue and sawdust mix to fill in any holes, cracks, or other damaged areas and then sanded them flat. 

While the glue was all drying I started in on the legs. I am using 2X4s for the legs and wanted to be a little different than the other hives I have seen out there. I aligned the legs to match the angle of the end pieces of the hive and marked them where they crossed. I then used a circular saw to mill out the area where they crossed down 3/4" on each leg. I then chiseled out the area smooth so that the legs will fit nicely together and make a crossed leg similar to a baby manger (think Jesus in Bethlehem). I then secured these together with glue and clamps and let them set up. 

That takes care of all of the prep work and all I could fit into one video. Next up will be assembly and finishing touches on the main part of the hive. 




Getting started with beekeeping? Check out these items on Amazon - 

Protective suit - http://amzn.to/1dZ4frl
Smoker - http://amzn.to/1MjT3Qu
Starter tool kit - http://amzn.to/1T8hmpR
Starter feeder - http://amzn.to/1MjTaLY

General Store - http://astore.amazon.com/simpsubulivi-20 

Please follow us on....

http://www.pinterest.com/simplesuburban/
http://www.facebook.com/simplesuburbanliving.com
http://www.twitter.com/simplesuburban5
http://www.instagram.com/simplesuburbanliving

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Selasa, 05 April 2016

Homemade Restaurant Style Salsa Making Canning the Best Salsa From Fresh Ingredients

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Using up all those tomatoes from the garden can be quite a task! Why not make some homemade salsa and can it for long term storage?

Here is one of the best homemade salsa recipes that I have tried. It is easy, requires little equipment, and can be eaten fresh or canned.

Homemade Salsa Recipe -

3 Cups fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup Green bell peppers
1 cup onion
1/4 cup cilantro
2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon kosher or course salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper



1. Process the tomatoes by washing, cutting in half or quarters, and removing as much of the seeds as possible. I just keep a bowl handy and scoop then out with my finger.
2. Cut up the onions, bell peppers, and cilantro and place in food processor with tomatoes.



3. Add salt, lemon or lime juice, cumin, and black pepper.
4. Process in blender or food processor to desired thickness
5. At this point you can eat it fresh or can it for long term storage.



 For a thicker salsa just chop all of the ingredients finer and do not use the food processor the salsa will be awesome either way. As the salsa sits either in fridge or canned the flavor melds together and it becomes even better!





                   


All of these products and more recommended items from the SSL Family are available at the Simple Suburban Living General Store

Please follow us on....

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http://www.facebook.com/simplesuburbanliving
http://www.twitter.com/simplesuburban5
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Minggu, 03 April 2016

How to Recover Data From a Dead Computer

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Most people dont know that there is a way to get your files from a dead laptop or desktop computer. It is a horrible feeling when your computer wont start up and you cant get access your photos, or that important paper, tax document, or business presentation. In this video I show you a simple way to get the data directly from the hard drive and onto a working system.
 
The first step in the process is to pickup the correct adapter to be used with your hard drive. There are a couple options for this that I have listed at the end of this article. Once you have the correct universal data transfer cable or hard drive enclosure you are ready to get started.
 
Step 1 - Remove the side panel of the desktop computer or locate the access panel on the bottom of the laptop. Locate and remove the hard drive from the computer using either this video tutorial or the manufacturers guides. On a desktop computer the hard drive is normally located in a small "rack" or metal bracket close to the front side of the computer. In a laptop the hard drive should be accessible from a small access panel on the bottom. This should be labeled with a hard drive icon or the acronym HHD. Once you have located the hard drive you are ready to get things connected.
 
Step 2- Connect the universal data transfer cable to the hard drive or insert the hard drive into the appropriate hard drive enclosure. there are two main types of hard drive connection options for both laptop and desktop computers. The older of the two will be an IDE type connection with a group of small pins used. The newer of the two will be a SATA type connections. The newer SATA connection is the same for both desktop and laptop computer hard drives. However the older IDE type connection has a desktop version and a laptop version so keep this in mind when selecting a hard drive enclosure (if you chose that option). Once you have the correct cable connected or correct enclosure is used you are ready to get plugged into a working computer to transfer your data.
 
Step 3- Connect the hard drive to a working computer. This should be done in order of connecting the power cable for the drive first and then connecting the cable or enclosure to the working computer. Once the drive is connected you should here a noise representing the connection and then you can move onto the computer to start transferring the data.
 
Step 4 - Open your "computer" or "my computer" window and look for a new hard drive listed. You should see something listed as "local" or "HP, Acer, Dell, etc." This will be the connected hard drive. Click to open the hard drive to view the file structure. You may get a message asking to grant yourself permission to view these files. You will need to click "ok" to allow yourself permission and this process might take awhile. Be patient, go grab a snack and come back to check on it but do not interrupt the permission dialog.
 
Step 5 - look for the "users" folder. If you are using Windows XP look for "documents and settings". Open this folder and then locate your user name. If you had multiple users you will want to copy all of the user accounts over tot he working computer. All of your personal files are located under your user account folder. If you open the folder you can see the categories such as music, documents, pictures, etc. You can copy individual folders or files from here or just drag and drop (or copy and paste) the entire user account folder onto your desktop. This will start the process of copying the data to your working system. If you have a lot of data this process could take some time.
 
Step 6 - Once the data is done copying you can then disconnect the hard drive from the working computer. At this point you have a couple of choices. If you are going to get the broken computer repaired, put the hard drive back into the computer and take it in for repair. If you are not getting the broken computer repaired then you can save the hard drive in a safe place as an extra backup of your data or use a hard drive enclosure to use this hard drive as a backup device for your files.
 
 
 

 
 
Where you can find the following products: 
 
Amazon -
USB Universal Transfer Cable - http://amzn.to/1DlV7pb
Laptop SATA Hard Drive Enclosure - http://amzn.to/1DlVoZr
Laptop IDE Hard Drive Enclosure - http://amzn.to/1v4uUED
Desktop SATA Hard Drive Enclosure - http://amzn.to/1yQ8U1Z
Desktop IDE Hard Drive Enclosure - http://amzn.to/1LU2ibW
 
BestBuy
USB Universal Transfer Cable - http://tinyurl.com/krvrjec
Laptop SATA Hard Drive Enclosure - http://tinyurl.com/nmtawmc
Desktop SATA Hard Drive Enclosure - http://tinyurl.com/l5j6eh4
Laptop IDE Hard Drive Enclosure - http://tinyurl.com/mr4o4mf
Desktop - IDE Hard Drive Enclosure - http://tinyurl.com/pbfwsx7
 
 
Simple Suburban Living General Store
 

Follow us on.....
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Rabu, 30 Maret 2016

Top Bar Bee Hive From Reclaimed Materials 2

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Ever wanted to have your own source of honey? Honey and beeswax have so many uses around the homestead and this is something my wife has wanted for quite some time. So, with our anniversary just around the corner I thought what better to make than a top-bar bee hive!

This is part two of the series on how I am building this hive....

I began by marking the angles on each side piece to match the angle of the end pieces. Using the table saw I matched the angle I had marked and ripped each side board at that specific angle. I was then ready to start assembly. 

I placed the end piece on the level surface of my workbench and propped the side pieces up against it at a right angle. I pre-drilled and countersunk each hole (4 per side) and attached the ends to the sides using 2 inch deck screws and wood glue. While the Glue was drying I started working on the legs. 

I clamped the legs in place on the end of the hive to match the angle of the sides. I then marked the extra that was hanging to be cut off. Once these were cut to length I then did some finish sanding on the legs and the main body of the hive to clean things up. The legs were used as a temporary stand and a coat of spray lacquer was applied to the hive and legs. 

The legs were attached to the hive using 2.5 inch deck screws and pre-drilled holes. I did not use any wood glue here in case I want to take the legs off or make changes to this later. At this point all that is left in this step was to connect the bottom of the hive.

The bottom of the hive will need to open and close so that it can be open in Summer to allow ventilation. I will also install a piece of hardware cloth to keep pest out while the bottom is open. I attached two hinges and a small latch to the bottom panel and then connect it to the hive. 

Once the lacquer had dried I did some light sanding on the surface and then applied a second coat on the entire hive. I am not applying any finish to the inside of the hive as I am not sure if this would be good for he bees. The inside will be kept dry and should not need any sealers anyway. 






Tools used in this video - 
Dewalt chisel set - http://amzn.to/1BbC4zv

All of these products and more recommended items from the SSL Family are available at the Simple Suburban Living 

General Store - http://astore.amazon.com/simpsubulivi-20 

Please check us out at www.simplesuburbanliving.com 

and follow us on....

http://www.pinterest.com/simplesuburban/
http://www.facebook.com/simplesuburba...
http://www.twitter.com/simplesuburban5
http://www.instagram.com/simplesuburb...


Music - "Crazy Glue" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/CrazyGlue



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Minggu, 20 Maret 2016

Volunteer Hours from our Students

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Nica Impact operates two student homes for young adults between the ages of 18 and 25. It is an opportunity for young people form poverty to continue their education with the hopes they will be able to help their families and communities once they complete their schooling and acquire a good job or start their own business.



In the Student Homes the kids commit to volunteer hours each week, with a minimum of four hours per week, many of the kids spend upwards of 12 hours assisting at the old folks home in Jinotepe.

In these photos, taken by our students, they are showing off some of the elders in the assisted living facility called El Asilo.

In the photo to the right, Osmany is in his Medical shirt. He helps by checking the physical status of the folks, taking blood pressure and keeping records. Osmany is studying Nursing at his University.


Isabel presenting one of the ladies.














Mirian and Nelly with one of the gentlemen.















Isabel, Nelly and Mirian.
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Selasa, 15 Maret 2016

How Many Pounds of Potatoes From One Raised Bed

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How many potatoes can you grow in 12 square feet?  Each year we add a little more garden space and are always impressed with how much food you can actually grow in such a small space. This year we decided to grow some potatoes in one of our 3 X 6 raised bed gardens and the harvest was excellent!


We chose to use seed potatoes to start our plants and planted them in early May. Potatoes are a great item to grow in colder environments since you can start them well before the last frost date. Up here in Michigan that is important! Each seed potato can be cut into a few pieces and planted one per square foot. We have had a total of 12 square feet available as this raised bed was also going to have some cucumbers along one side of it.
 
 
After about 2-3 weeks we started to see all of the sprouts coming up and from there they took off! The plants got to a height of about 4 and in Mid July started to die off. This is how you can tell they are almost ready to harvest and you can really start digging them up at this point right away. We decided to let ours die back all the way before harvest just to make sure they got to full maturity.



This has to be one of the most fun veggies to harvest! We got out of gloves and told the kids to get ready for a treasure hunt. Once we cleared away the dead plant stalks we were ready to dig up our bounty. The kids loved this part! As we dug through we were very surprised at how large many of the potatoes were and how many we were getting. All in all we ended up with about 35 pounds of perfect Yukon Gold potatoes.


The next step is to just take them inside, rinse off the dirt, and lay them out on some paper to dry for a few days. Once they are good and dry they can then be stored in burlap or paper bags as long as they have adequate air ventilation and are in a cool, dry, dark place.







General Store

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Music - "Already There" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AlreadyThere



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If I Were Starting from Scratch

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Southern States 250 Gallon Poly Stock Tank

Southern States has apparently created their own line of stock tanks, and it almost makes me wish I could start over from scratch. These bright blue tanks are UV protected and less expensive than Rubbermaid tanks of the same volume. Plus, there are a few unique sizes and shapes, like this 250 gallon tank that could be positioned in a corner.

Now that Ive lived the life of trying to observe my relatively dark fish in a black, covered stock tank, I also like the bright blue color. It wouldnt be everyones preference, but Im always thrilled to see a new, commercially available tank option!

In other news, I found out I have a supplier for expanded shale within a pleasant drive from DC. Matthew Ferrell has started a company called HydroShale, and is selling expanded shale that is the right size for aquaponics (3/4 inch). Its a bit pricey if you need to have it shipped, but if I can pick it up, I can get it in bulk for less than even the expanded clay beads Home Depot sells online (ViaStone from ViaGrow). Nothing will ever be as inexpensive as gravel, but I do like working with these lighter materials.

In the mean time, Im just glad I finally put up my greenhouse this past weekend. The garden and fish have done amazingly well without cover for the first portion of winter, but the temperatures will remain well below freezing for most of this week. But with the protection from the wind and solar heating during the day, I expect my garden and fish will weather this bitter week adequately well. Hooray for bluegill and goldfish!
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