Check out this video for a complete walkthrough on how to winterize your RV, travel trailer, camper, 5th wheel, or motorhome. When the leaves start to change up here in Michigan, I know I have a few main preparations to make for the coming winter. One of these is to get the travel trailer ready for some cold weather and snow. In this video, I go through that process step by step and offer some pointers and advise for protecting the exterior, water system, and preventing mice from invading!
When we purchased this used trailer, one of the first repairs I had to make was to correct some damage from the previous owner not winterizing the water system properly. The p trap on the bathroom sink had cracked from freezing and it was a pain to repair. With different types of pipe (ABS,CPVC, and PVC used in this trailer it took a few trips to the hardware store to get the random parts that were needed. This was a lot of work that could have been avoided with a proper winterization the year prior. I hope that this video can help someone out and help prevent extra repairs before the camping season begins next year!
Fortunately, I had several plants winter over, including cabbage parsley, beets, sage, strawberries, garlic, chives, and onions.
Unfortunately, my onion, chives, and garlic on one bed became infested with little black aphids. Interestingly enough, the chives and onions in other beds on the other side of the greenhouse (3-4 feet away) were not affected at all.
Chives, garlic, and onions are supposed to protect other plants from aphids. But apparently theres a type of the little bugs that is adapted to love what other aphids despise. Which is entirely unfair, in my opinion.
After trying for a few days to hose the bugs off in place and applying organic sprays, the black bugs were still thick on the plants. So I decided I had to rip the affected plants out of my grow beds and start over. I figured with luck I would be able to salvage to add to a dinner dish, at least.
It turned out that when I had the plants completely out of the grow bed, it was possible to hose them down really well. All the little black things are gone. So while that would have been good enough for me for adding yummy bits to dinner, I thought maybe Id give the plants another change to continue growing in the beds. I particularly wanted to save the chives, which had formed a large patch, and which we love to add to dishes.
During the ripping out and re-installing the plants, I found a lot of worms. Like, whoa, a lot of worms. And there were a lot of little tiny ones as well. From time to time Id also come across these little elongated globules. Unsure what they were, I had flicked a couple of them out into my yard.
Then it hit me. They are worm cocoons! I made sure to leave all the other ones I was finding alone.
Looking it up tonight, I see that worms tend to massively increase population when the weather warms up. So youll get a lot of cocoons and baby worms either in the spring or in the fall if you bring your worm bins inside. Worms continue reproducing throughout the warm season, of course, but since I dont usually go looking for them, Id never seen enough cocoons in real life to realize what I was looking at.
Trying to find out more about composting worm cocoons, I stumbled across the video above that shows itty worms hatching out of their cocoon. Apparently you can have anywhere from one to six little worms per cocoon. Pretty cool!
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:
This is just one of those things that I think more and more people need to get back to doing themselves. I have had bad luck with cheap oil changes and have vowed to never pay someone to change our oil again.
I have learned in the past that it is much more fulfilling, cheaper, and better for your vehicles to change your own oil. The quickie oil change places use horrible oil and I have had some bad experiences with loose drain plugs, leaks, filling the wrong fluids in the engine, and other mishaps at these places. In the long run, I choose to put the saved money into better oil and to ensure that I have done everything correctly. If I screw something up I only have myself to blame. Changing your own oil is just one thing that we should all know how to do and, since it only takes less than an hour, there is no reason to hand your expensive vehicles over to someone else. This is also part of becoming more self-sufficient!
You can use the tool below to find your oil filter, air filter, and even buy oil at the bet prices I have found!
I like to bring the kids along when I can and show them how things work as well, even if they never have to do this on their own, they will understand how it is done and why.
Watch this video for a basic walkthrough of how to change the oil in a 2003-2006 model year Chevy Avalanche. This walkthrough will also be similar for Chevy 1500 trucks, suburban, Cadillac escalade, GMC, Silverado, and other vehicles with the 5.3 liter Vortec engine.
This video goes through the process that I use to get the job done. Many of you may have other suggestions or ways that you do things. Please share your experience! Thanks for stopping by.
Every aquaponics or hydroponics setup needs to start with a good set of grow beds. But, what should you choose? Cement mixing trays, PVC pipe, gutters, pond liner with wood boxes, troughs, feeders, waterers; there are so many options! The best option in my opinion, for an aquaponics system especially, is these 55 gallon plastic barrels. They are cheap, durable, food safe, and generally come with food products in them so they are easy to prep. Below is a method that I have developed to get these cut perfectly in half and ready for your setup.
I have used both the white and the blue 55 gallon drums but I prefer the blue ones. These generally come with food materials in them and are easiest to clean. In my first system I used the white ones and they had some type of cleaner in them. A quick trip to the power washer took care of it but I was always unsure if I had removed it all well enough. I have had the best luck on Craigslist finding these and pay between $10-$20 depending on how far I want to drive to get them.
There are a couple of different types of plastic that you should be aware of when working with anything you are growing food in. Some grades and types of plastic are safe while some are not.
HDPE, Vinyl, LDPE, PP, and PSare some of the labels that you will see, most commonly HDPE, which is High Density Polyethylene. All of these listed here are considered food grade or food safe plastics. I have also seen the label above "PE-HD" with the same recycling symbol (2). I cant say why it is labeled differently but it is also supposed to be High Density Polyethylene and food safe.
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Now down to the fun part, cutting stuff! For a perfect grow bed you need two perfect halves. There are two methods to accomplish this. the first is to just follow the seem with a circular saw and cut the barrel in half. The only problem with that method is that the seam goes right through the bung on each side of the top lid rendering them useless. This is fine if you do not plan to use them and I have actually done this for some of mine. However, the best way is to leave them intact. So how do you cut a cylinder perfectly in half? Well, the easiest way is to first make yourself a larger square. I screwed these two pieces of 2X4 together at a perfect 90 degree angle to use here. You could also use a large carpenters square.
Start by measuring out and marking the center point on the top of the barrel lid. Then use a square to draw a perpendicular line across the top of the barrel. This will give you your references to draw down the sides. Now, use your large square placed on the lid to match up to the line on the top and transfer it down the side of the barrel on each side. You can then transfer the line onto the bottom on each side and connect the two together. You now have a perfectly straight line to follow with your saw. You can cut these anyway that you would like but I have found a circular saw to be the easiest. You could also use a reciprocating saw, saber saw, jig saw, hand saw, router, dremel, angle grinder, etc.
What you end up with is two perfectly neat and equal halves with the threaded bungs intact and centered at the bottom of each barrel. These are very useful for connecting barrels together, external bell siphons, water supply piping and other things I am sure I have not thought of yet. I will talk more about installing these and building a frame for them in a later post and video, until then, thanks for stopping by!
You can use eggs shells to make a cheap calcium supplement for your garden. One thing that we have a lot of in our home is eggs! I have been trying to come with alternate ways of using the shells that we discard to the compost for several reasons and have had very good luck with this fertilizer as an option.
For the past year as our chickens matured and we started really getting full scale egg production I have been just throwing the egg shells in the compost. There is nothing wrong with doing this, however, with the amount of eggs we are now using now the compost is starting to show signs of too many shells. This technically isnt going to hurt anything but I have noticed that it takes quite some time for the shells to fully break down and they also are bringing the pH down quite a bit in the compost. So, with that being the case I needed to come up with a better way.
In our aquaponics system I am currently growing tomato plants which do require some calcium for proper growth especially during the flowering stages. I figured I would start by adding some calcium to the system using the egg shells that we already have. As you know, egg shells are made up of mainly calcium carbonate. The problems is getting rid of that carbonate which I do not need in my system and which is responsible for bring down the pH in the compost and garden soil. The easiest way to separate the carbonate from the calcium is to add an acid to the shells to break them down. The cheapest and safest type of acid that we use around our home is everyday white vinegar. Vinegar is normally only about 5% in a water solution but this does the trick just fine.
So the first step is to break down the shells by grinding them up into small pieces. But if you have ever tried to grind fresh egg shells you quickly realize it is no easy chore. So, to the oven for about 15 minutes first to bake them until brittle. This also cleans off any left over egg residue. Once baked throw them in a glass bowl and grind them using whatever method you choose.
Once you have the egg shells ground up dump the grit into a jar and then add your vinegar. Now sit back and watch the fizzy show! This is fun for the kids too because the acetic acid (vinegar) reacts with the Calcium Carbonate (egg shells) and makes lots of carbon dioxide (CO2) bubbles as it breaks them down. This can be a pretty wild bubbly reaction for about an hour and it is quite entertaining to watch:) The acetic acid and calcium carbonate are reacting to form calcium acetate, water, and carbon dioxide.
Once this reaction has had time to settle out for a couple of days you are left with a calcium rich solution that is not alkaline for your soil. You can then dilute just a bit f this with water and use it on your garden beds, in an aquaponics system, or hydroponics system. This is a much more available nutrient form then calcium carbonate and allows for the plants to instantly have access to the calcium instead of waiting years for the egg shells to break down in nature.
You can test the results of the calcium fertilizer with the API calcium test kit. Just add some of this solution to a bucket of water and test the before and after levels of CA2+ (calcium). You will be surprised at how much it raises the levels of calcium with just a small amount added. I also use this kit to monitor the levels of calcium in my aquaponics system. While this is a micro nutrient and not as important as the big three (NPK) it is still important for certain plants, especially tomatoes.
The US Botanical Gardens Titan Arum on July 21, 2013
The Titan Arum is called the Corpse Flower because of its intensely pungent scent when it blooms, which it does for a single day once after several years. For over a week weve been watching for the Titan Arum at the US Botanical Garden to bloom. Then Sunday happened and in the press of family stuff we forgot to check.
Apparently the Titan Arum did its stinky Corpse Flower thing Sunday night. By Monday morning the stench was gone, leaving only a humongous flower (still pretty danged impressive). Folks at my household hope to view the amazing bloom Tuesday morning, assuming it survives the night.
From the description currently up at the US Botanical Garden website:
The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum), also known as the corpse flower or stinky plant, is blooming at the United States Botanic Garden Conservatory! Once fully open, it may remain in bloom for 24 to 48 hours, and then it will collapse quickly.
The magic of the titan arum comes from its great size - it is reputed to have the largest known unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom. Referred to as the corpse flower or stinky plant, its putrid smell is most potent during peak bloom at night into the early morning. The odor is often compared to the stench of rotting flesh. The inflorescence also generates heat, which allows the stench to travel further. This combination of heat and smell efficiently attracts pollinators, such as dung and carrion beetles, from across long distances.
The titan arum does not have an annual blooming cycle. The time between flowering is unpredictable, which can span from a few years to a few decades. The plant requires very special conditions, including warm day and night temperatures and high humidity, making Botanic Gardens well suited to support this strange plant outside of its natural range.
This plant is native to the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, and was first discovered in 1878. Public viewing of this unique plant has occurred a limited number of times in the United States. The U.S. Botanic Garden last displayed a blooming titan arum in 2007.
Check out this video to see an easy way to setup your cell phone on a tripod. I have used my Samsung Galaxy Note for many YouTube video clips as well as most of our home movies. Modern smart phones can take surprisingly good videos in HD in many cases rendering a separate camcorder unnecessary. The only problem I have run into is cell phones do not have a way to easily attach to a tripod and this can be very useful.
I have been wanting to make something to get my phone setup with a tripod for quite some time and have finally gotten around to it this week. I have a very nice Cannon DSLR camera but it is not really designed as a video recorder, it is best at taking excellent still photos. The problem with the DSLR is that it does not auto focus which means I have to set it and focus on a small area and then make sure to stay within that area for the duration of the shot. In most cases this works ok but I would like to have the ability to throw my phone up on the tripod and use that for some shots. This would allow me to move around more during a certain shot and also allow me to use it as a backup if the battery dies or memory card is full on the DSLR. I cant tell you how many times I have been in the middle of a video and had the battery die or card fill up.
The other issue I run into is not having the ability to use a wireless mic with the DSLR. The model that I have does not allow for the connection of an external mic of any kind, wireless or not. With my phone I am going to try to experiment with using some Bluetooth mics and headsets to see if the audio quality can be improved especially on windy days.
For the construction of the DIY Cell Phone Clamp I am just using some 3/4" plywood that I had lying around along with a baby gate bolt and nut. I cut the wood to size using a scroll saw and drilled out the holes for the connecting bolts. I used a small handheld belt sander in a vice to sand all surfaces smooth and rounded off the corners. Once this was completed I assembled the components with wood glue and super glue for the bolts and fabric. The fabric pieces that I used were just from an old blanket. These are just to provide a bit of extra protection when the wood clamps down on the phones edges. I design the clamp to fit most any sized phone and the clamps jaws will allow for the phone to have a thicker case as well.
So far the clamp system has been working great and I have been able to do a few clips using it. I will be trying the Bluetooth audio soon as well and will post an update when I have some results with the quality there.
BestBuy - Canon DSLR Camera - http://tinyurl.com/oml4r7t Tripod - http://tinyurl.com/ptqhtua
We all want to be environmentally friendly and do the right thing for our planet, dont we? But how do we know which choices will leave the smallest footprint, and which items to throw away and which items to recycle? Finding the right answers are hard and when you do, they may surprise you.
The SSL Family Dad and I love to watch Ted Talks. If you havent heard of Ted, click here. Ted talks are available on all different topics but we seem to migrate to those dealing with sustainability and farming. One talk we watched earlier this year really changed the game for us, and I just love it when that happens. I love it when information just hits you over the head and changes the way you look at life forever.
This talk is so powerful, I think you should watch it right now and then finish reading this article because I will never do this topic the justice it deserves by trying to explain it to you myself. For those of you who are worried about burning up your data for the month like I would be, click HERE for the transcript of this talk.
And for those of you who didnt have time to watch or read it, Ill recap for you but only if you promise to watch or read it later. Its seriously THAT good.
The speaker, Leyla Acaroglu, states that "everything at some point comes from nature,and its how you use the materialthat dictates the environmental impact....what we need to do is we need to learnto do more with less."
Biodegradable materials, such as paper bags, do not decompose in a landfill the same way they would in nature. Landfills are anaerobic (meaning no oxygen) and biodegradable materials emit methane gas when they degrade. Some facilities actually capture the methane gas and use it to generate power, which is a good thing, and gives us an alternative to fossil fuels. Bottom line is, if youre going to pick the paper bag but take it home and throw it in your garbage destined for a landfill that does not generate power with its methane gas, then youre not picking the best choice for the environment. Landfills should be our last resort for items we cannot reuse or recycle.
Reduce, reuse and recycle. Sounds so "elementary", doesnt it?
So the best answer to the great paper or plastic debate is actually neither. The best option is to use reusable bags instead. But if you really need to pick one, pick paper. And reuse that paper bag, and then compost it.
Writing this article has forced me to look at everything were doing now with our waste as a result of this talk we watched, and I have to laugh because it seems that a majority of what we do here at Simple Suburban Living is centered around our trash. That surprised me, a lot. But it also reminded me that we are being good stewards of our planet by being good stewards of our garbage. Here comes Luke 16:10 again, "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much." Its so true, isnt it?
Weve made some serious changes around our little homestead this year with regards to what we do with our trash. So this week, well be sharing how our family reduces the amount of our waste that ends up in a landfill.
Were calling it Garbage 101. (And dont forget to watch that video!)
This post has been shared at: Homestead Barn Hop, The Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Homestead Blog Hop
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