Sawyer Tap Water Filter
If the last two years taught us anything, it’s to be prepared. From massive wildfires on the West Coast to frozen pipes in Texas, from a catastrophic derecho in Iowa to massive Nor’easters and hurricanes, the weather has become increasingly variable, unstable and unpredictable. And, in many cases, infrastructure and the government response to calamity, vulnerable or lacking.
While our completely solar-powered homestead, when combined with woodstove for heat in the winter, might tease us into complacency, we realize it’s impossible to predict the next turn of events in what seems to be Kunstler’s Long Emergency reality. My wife, Lisa Kivirist, and son Liam, and I are no stranger to disaster preparedness. We always have our stash of bottled water, stand-by flashlights and other lights, and even a solar-powered backpack for when we’re on the move. We have several go-to solar ovens that we use nearly every day in the warmer seasons to bake our zucch
.
Having a newborn lamb or goat kid get chilled and hypothermic is pretty common, especially when you live in a colder climate like we do. We generally plan our breedings so that the ewes and does are giving birth in April or later, but even in April and May we get below freezing at night and the newborn babies are at risk of hypothermia.
This year things are a bit different on our farm, and we had a ewe due in the middle of this bitter cold snap. To be sure we didn’t lose the lambs, we were checking on the ewe every 1-2 hours, day and night. She snuck the babies out between one-hour checks, and when we arrived one of the twins was hypothermic. Thankfully, we arrived in time, recognized the symptoms, and treated him right away.
Sweater before changing waistband and before washing. Photos by Jo deVries
This months’ blog post is a follow-up to last November’s Knitting with Natural Fibres. Most autumns, I start planning at least one knitting project. Knitting makes my long winters in Ontario, Canada, pass more pleasurably. It also produces a warm garment that keeps me cozy and happy while knitting it.
I usually start by looking through my inventory, to see if anything catches my interest. My yarn collection was severely depleted three years ago when I went on a knitting spree. I tackled all my unfinished projects that had accumulated, and knit up of bunch of odds and ends for gifts. What a great feeling to complete that task! The result: three sweaters, a headband, two pairs of bed socks, and at least six sets of wrist warmers.
Early May
Early June
Early July
Single cut broccoli (transplant in mid-August)
Because we raise 75% of all the vegetables we eat and we eat a lot of them you can see that my light table is going to stay busy. Some of my decisions about when to start a particular vegetable indoors has to do with that year’s particular garden plan. Some plants have a longer time window than others for when they can go into the ground and still mature in the right weather. This allows me some flexibility based on what I want to grow and when.
Raising quail for meat and eggs in your backyard can easily become a fascinating hobby. Quail are friendly, inexpensive and tender, and their eggs are in many places considered a delicacy. It is also very convenient to have them in small backyards as quails take up very little space, and only a couple of them could provide fresh eggs and meat all year round.
Unlike chickens, which can take as long as six months to begin laying, quails will lay, at the earliest, at six weeks of age. Some farmers can even sell their quail eggs, and prices for quail eggs can bring in between $ 6 to $ 10 per dozen.