Vela Creations

Rapidobe

2011-12-24T14:31:00.000-08:00

For a couple of months, at weekends, we have been building a new room north of the bedrooms.

Its primary purpose is as a thermal battery. When it gets real warm in the house (through the solar gain of our south windows), we open up the door to the new room. There is a lot of thermal mass in the walls of the room, so it stores the heat well. There is a large bench across the north wall, which serves as a giant thermal mass.

The North Room is also a barrier between the outside and the interior of the rest of the house. It has made a huge difference in the nocturnal temperature drop in the bedrooms, which stay about 60 degrees when it is 30 outside, with no fire.

Its secondary purpose is as a storage room. We built a table and shelf unit to house my sewing machine, fur operation, fabric, etc. Abe will be putting some of his mushroom and fodder stuff in there. Also tools, boxes, spare mattress will be moved in there shortly, now that it is finished.

We used a system Abe developed for the walls. We call it Rapidobe (Rapid-Adobe). We put posts into the ground, every two feet, in two parallel lines (each side of the wall). To these we attached a mesh and tarp, in a U shape, from one set of posts to the other. We then filled the bag with dirt that we dug out of the hill, tamping it as we went - this took a day and a half for thirty feet of four feet tall wall. We then put a gypsum plaster on the interior of the wall, and will put a concrete stucco on the outside when the risk of freezing passes. The plastic mesh acts as reinforcement for these plasters.

The main advantages to Rapidobe are speed and low-cost. The tarp that forms the big bag is a recycled billboard vinyl (cheap or free). We cut many of the posts from our property, and the dirt was right under our feet. It is basically a big bag of compacted earth, which is extremely cost effective for a wall material.

Instead of digging the hill down all the way to the level of the floor, we dug it down to a shelf height, 3 feet wide. Seeing as the room is for storage, the shelf seemed like a good idea, saved some digging time, and has added to the thermal mass of the room. The long, Rapidobe wall sits atop this shelf.

The east wall is styrophone insulation with lathing attached to both sides, stuccoed, like a SIP. It has a metal frame that is welded to the door and to the roof.

The west wall is a temporary plywood and frame wall. We will be adding to that area of the house one day when we do the "west wing", so it just has to block out most of the weather for now. It is tarped on the outside.

The roof is metal. We had wanted to do a living roof, but with such a dry year. the desire to add to our catchment area was pretty strong. Metal was fast and easy. It has styrophone insulation underneath it.

All in all, it turned into a really nice room. It is now painted and ready to move into. Guess what we're doing for Christmas?!

For more photos, click here.

Christmas Wishes

2011-12-24T10:07:00.000-08:00

Wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, and New Year.

The time is passing so fast, I cannot believe we are about to enter 2012.

It's cold outside, so we are all settled in to a warm and cozy home, playing games and waiting for Santa to come. Nico is oblivious to the Christmas thing, but Leo is really excited.

Happy holidays.

For photos of this past month, click here.

Selling pigs

2011-12-24T10:03:00.000-08:00

Well, we have now got rid of all our piglets, and even one of our sows, Wanda.

We put some pallets in the back of the Toyota, and drove the last of the piglets around to sell.

When we got into pigs, there weren't any others around. Now, there are three pig operations in our village alone. We believe in diversity as the key to a good local economy, so we have decided to sell up before the market becomes saturated. We will still raise a couple feeder pigs each year for ham, bacon, chops, etc. but we will no longer be in the breeding business.

It was very sad to see Wanda go, but not as bad as it will be when we sell our boar, Amigo, who sits on command and runs up to be petted whenever anyone goes over to the pen.

Oh well, such is life. At least we'll still have the rabbits, who are the easiest animal in the world to raise.

Fried Grasshoppers

2011-12-24T09:59:00.000-08:00

A long time ago, Abe was reading online all about eating insects. They are plentiful and very high in protein for their weight, and are eaten and enjoyed by many cultures throughout the world. Many call them the food of the future, one to match the world's increasing population and more erratic weather conditions.

When he was first into the subject, I was three months pregnant and the thought literally turned my stomach. Now, I have no excuse. So, seeing that there are still some fat, slow grasshoppers around, we decided to give it a try.

We caught about 8 (or rather Leo did), fried them up and ate them. Contrary to what you might expect, they weren't that good! Nor were they bad, they just weren't very juicy. I think we'll try it again next year, when they are younger and more tender.

One thing that was kind of funny was that one of them bit Leo when he was putting it into the jar. Have you ever heard of a grasshopper biting someone? There was an indentation in his skin and everything. But Leo got his revenge - as he put it: "it bit me, but I ate him back"!

Miracle mushrooms

2011-12-24T09:55:00.000-08:00

Look at these baby mushrooms - don't they look like they would cure cancer?

During the hot part of the year (and this year was hotter/dryer than usual), our mushroom production dwindled. However now that it's chillier we are back in full swing, getting about half a pound of oyster mushrooms every other day or so. And boy, are they good!

We will now be getting some warm weather spores, so we can have mushrooms year round.

Rabbit Fodder

2011-12-24T09:48:00.000-08:00

Abe has started a little fodder system going for the rabbits.

We sprout seeds (oats, wheat) and then put them in a very small amount of worm castings in aluminum trays. Keep them moist. After a few days this beautiful grass has grown and all signs of soil has been swallowed by this super thick mat of roots.

The rabbits LOVE it. It is fresh grass, so much tastier, and it's considerably better for them, as the nutrition increases significantly from seed to grass. Plus it is a lot cheaper than buying a grain or concentrate.

After doing several test trays, Abe is now building a shelf system, so that we can start doing this for almost all the rabbits' food.

Furs now for sale

2011-12-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

We are now selling the exclusive and incredibly soft fur items made from our sustainably raised bunnies. If you, or anyone you know, would like to buy one, please check out this page.

Weaning pigs

2011-12-03T10:06:00.000-08:00

Gloria's second litter are now six weeks old and weaned. It was something else catching them all and putting them into the weaning pen, but we eventually got it done, after a few tries.

Abe made a trap for them in the shelter in which they were born. When they were all in there, Nico and I walked the big pigs down the hill and kept them out in pasture (so the sound of squealing wouldn't make them crazy). Leo had to make sure the little guys didn't jump out of the trap, by scaring them back in. Abe caught them and put them in the weaning pen.

We have also separated Amigo from the others for the time being. Gloria is now in heat and we don't want her bred until February. Poor Amigo can smell her and it's making him crazy. Oh well, he'll get his chance soon enough.

Wanda is due to have her 2nd litter in the next week.

For more photos, click here.

Advent to Christmas

2011-12-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, my sister made me an advent calendar just like this one - gifts in a box of styrophone pieces that you pull up by their number, from 1 to 24. Seeing as Leo is super into Christmas and counting at the moment, we thought we'd make him one, so he can count down to Christmas day.

We put the tree up, and then set the box near it. So far he has opened three days, and knows exactly where the next day's number is. He loves it.

Of course Nico, who is now 7 months old and getting into all kinds of trouble,WANTS the wrappers. He sat with me when I wrapped the gifts, and he was after everything - the gifts, tape, paper, scissors. He is getting far more mobile and dexterous, which makes him a lot harder to control these days. Everything he can do, he's doing better and more: roll both ways, scoot around some, pick things up (even starting to use his finger and thumb), eating (a BUNCH), chatting, laughing, playing. It won't be long before he's more of a little boy than a baby.

Photos of this month will go here.

Attack of the tomato

2011-11-17T16:29:00.000-08:00

We can barely keep up with the cherry tomatoes and herbs that grow in our grey water planters inside the house. We have had to cut them back a couple of times, but they are determined to take over the house. However, their aggressive behavior took on a whole new meaning when we noticed that they have broken through the silicon seal of the window to escape outside. It seems the house is no longer enough for them, they want the whole property.

For more photos, click here.

Milestones

2011-11-17T16:25:00.000-08:00

This week has seen a couple of fairly large milestones for our boys.

Nico has been saying his first word: "Mama" (said a little like a bleating lamb). At first we thought it was just babbling, but he consistently uses it at the right time, ie when he wants me to pick him up. Leo's first word was "wawa" (water), which we found very appropriate for a son of ours. However, I have to say that I like Nico's first one more!!!!

As for Leo, he loves games, like Lotto, so we have started playing cards (Uno - where you have to follow with the same color or number) with him. He is very good at it. He's getting really good with numbers. He recognizes and says them all, plus he can count a number of objects up to ten. Along the same lines, he is also starting to tell the time (digital), although he hasn't really grasped the length of minutes and hours. For example, he'll ask if it's lunchtime. We say, "lunchtime is at 1, so what time is it now?" "12.07". "So, is it lunchtime?" "No." However, he'll then repeat this line of questioning each time the clock changes, which can make the hour until lunch very long.

The other day Leo had a crook in his neck, so was laid up for a day. He starting getting bored with movies, so we played him all the movies we have of when he was a baby. It is uncanny how similar the two of them are, although there are definite differences, both physical and in personalities. Here's a few photos, Leo on the left, Nico on the right.

For more photos of this month, click here.

6 months old

2011-11-07T08:29:00.000-08:00

Well, 6 months old now. I won't do too long of a post, as it feels like I only just wrote the 5 month one.

He weighs in at 8.5kg (19 lbs) and measures 65cms (26").

He has 2 teeth now and continues to drool like crazy. In addition to the drool, he has his first cold at present, so gunk seems to be oozing out of every part of his face. Poor little guy. That time of year, I guess - Leo brought it home from school and then Nico caught it (Abe and I didn't seem to suffer that badly though).

He can now sit on his own, and can play for a pretty good length of time. He reaches for everything, is getting pretty dextrous, chatters away, giggles at all our jokes.

He is starting to eat chunkier food (rather than just puree) and more of it. The other day he had his first cookie type food, which he can pick up and eat on his own.

He loves to stand, and is starting to cruise a little - holding onto something and taking little steps. He stumbles a little with the steps, although he is very steady when standing still.

For photos of this coming month, click here.

Grubage bin

2011-11-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

A while back an online friend sent us some Black Soldier Fly Larvae. We put them in a bucket that Abe rigged up to meet their needs. However, their population has been growing, and so Abe has just finished making them a bigger home, out of a half barrel.

Black Soldier Flies (BSF) are the homesteader's new best friend, as useful as earthworms. The larvae eat all kinds of "putrid" or stinky waste (like rotting meat and manure of any kind) and they eat it FAST, before it even starts to smell. Then, as the grub gets ready to transform into an adult fly, it will walk up a ramp and drop itself conveniently into a collection vessel, which makes a great, high protein treat for pigs or guineas (or other omnivorous livestock).

You want to allow some of the larvae to make it to adult stage, so that your population will continue to increase. However, do not assume that "fly" is synonymous with a household pest. These flies exist only long enough to reproduce. They do not eat, and so are not interested in coming into your house. What's more, they see other flies, like the house fly and fruit flies, as competition and so secrete a chemical that deters them from laying eggs anywhere near them. So, once your BSF population is established, you will see a marked decrease in other competing flies.

We have not yet started to feed our pigs these grubs. We are trying to get our population well established before we harvest them. Once they have settled into their new home, and have converted rabbit, pig and guinea poop into more BSF, we will begin that process. Pigs, of course, eat anything, but it is protein that makes them grow faster and that represents the biggest cost in feed. Fresh BSF larvae have a protein content similar to soy meal (45%). Once the BSF are in full swing, we will empty the contents of the self-harvesting bucket into a solar oven and pasteurize them (to make sure any bad bugs contained in the poop are killed) and give it to the pigs. Apparently, they love them!

For more photos of the Grubage bin, click here. We will shortly post a full how-to on the website too.

Piglets

2011-10-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

Gloria had her 2nd litter of piglets yesterday. We knew they would be arriving, as she had milk that morning, had made a beautiful nest and was panting.

The first one was born at 4.08, the last (which was breech) at 5.45. There were 13 in total. One was stillborn and the runt didn't make it through the night, so we are left with 11 healthy little piglets. And they are beautiful. You forget how small they are, and how cute.

There are 6 females, 5 males; 3 black spotted, 1 red, 7 white.

For more photos, click here.

Wild Honey

2011-10-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

We continue to forage for food for us and the pigs. We have now stopped gathering grass for hay, as it is drying out, and have moved instead to river cane (which the pigs LOVE) and willow branches. We are also starting to collect some of the numerous wild plants that are edible for us, including a big bag of mint.

But, the score of the week has been delicious HONEY. A hive had made itself at home in a meter box type thing for the local water system. We were asked to remove them. Abe opened it up and removed all the brood comb and most of the honey, and placed it inside a bee box we had at the house. He then closed the lid of the manhole and set the box over the hole. He put dirt all around the two, so that the bees would have to go through our box to get out.

We went to check on them after a couple of days, and they seem quite happily moved into their new home. After a while, once they have had chance to clean up, we will move the box away from the manhole.

While Abe was in there though, he took out some of the honey comb for us. We have had such a bad year with water and flowers that we won't be robbing our bees. These guys however have plenty of flowers as they live down at the apple ranch (where we will now be moving all our bees). The honey is dark and wonderful. We removed it from the comb using the sun's heat, so it is still raw, and boy is it good.

for more photos click here.

Three and a half Years.

2011-10-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

Leo's just turned 3 1/2 years old. Crazy. I don't tend to write much on him on his own any more, mostly because the changes are less pronounced than in a baby. And yet he does change. Now, looking at him, there really isn't any baby left. He's suddenly this boy - willful, sharp as an arrow, inquisitive, loving, deaf (selectively), willful. And he seems so independent, wanting to do everything on his own, and generally succeeding, sometimes coming up with an ingenious way to accomplish some task or other unaided.

He's a skinny little kid with the energy of a firecracker. He eats pretty good (though not always without a little "no dessert" bribery), but none of it goes to him growing, as he burns it all off the second we let him down from the table!! He runs around outside, playing with the animals, rocks, plants, bugs, etc. We have to constantly yell at him to put his shoes on, as he's not that fond of shoes and much prefers to run barefoot.

He is curious about everything, and there's just a constant sound of "why" around our house. For the most part, we try and answer his questions, but we usually end up saying "Because we said so" in a somewhat frustrated tone!

He loves his brother very, very much. In fact, he is a very loving child. Cuddles and kisses anyone who asks for it, which everyone does as he is adored in the village, especially by the little girls at his school.

School is a definite success. He loves everything about it - the kids, the teacher, the work they do, even his homework. His Spanish is getting better ever day (both English and Spanish are used). English continues to be his stronger language for now. He still has trouble pronouncing "L", but his grammar is getting really good, differentiating between the tenses.

Unfortunately for him, he can't go to school right now. He has chicken pox! Poor little guy. He actually doesn't seem to have too bad of a case, and it looks like the spots are already fading without ever having gotten too itchy. I really hope I'm not speaking too soon!

Leo definitely exhibits a lot of characteristics that I will really enjoy in him when he gets older, but that right now can be...um...difficult (have I mentioned that he is willful?). He is super tidy, very independent, questions authority - all qualities to be respected, but in a three year old? He spends a fair amount of time getting into trouble with us and us saying things like "why won't you listen?", but I guess it's just his age. The good thing is that we love him so very much that we are unlikely top kill him... yet!

For photos of this month, click here.

Clothesline

2011-10-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

We just a made a new clothesline. Our old one was strung up between a tree and a water tank, and was kind of in the way. This one has more than three times the capacity (over 150 feet of line and room for a lot more) and doesn't take up near the space.

We actually made it a little too large for most people. The boards we bought were 8 feet long, so we just used them as is without cutting them down. Space is not an issue for us, so we figured "why not!". Besides, the design allows us to fold it up should we ever need to.

I especially like that it swivels, so I don't have to move when hanging out the laundry.

Parts and construction are very simple. We'll post a how-to soon.

Click here for more photos.

Five months old

2011-10-17T07:26:00.000-07:00

The months just keep ticking by, with Nico now 5 months old (actually 5 1/2, seeing as it's taken me so long to post). I cuddle him and breathe in his babiness as often as I can, knowing that this stage will soon be over. With Leo, every age and event was new and exciting to us, and so we loved seeing him grow and change. With Nico, being our last child, we want it all to slow down a little and let us savor the moments, but he's not being cooperative and just keeps on growing at an alarming rate. In fact, the time seems to be going even faster than before. Oh well, it does have its upsides, getting to see what kind of boys my babies are turning into is a pleasure in of itself.

I guess the most important change this month is that his first tooth has come through. He has been a drooling mess for two months now, but it's paying off. The bottom right is through and the bottom left will appear over the next day or so. So, one down, nineteen baby teeth to go... sigh! I wish they didn't hurt him so much.

He eats a little real food at most mealtimes - applesauce, bananas, carrots, ceareal. He loves it all and eyes our food with genuine desire. He'll stare at your plate and follow the fork from the food to your mouth, with his mouth hanging open. I keep expecting him to use some Jedi mind trick to move the fork of his own volition, but so far we remain in control. His communication skills are improving because of his desire. He'll stare at his bowl or water cup and VIBRATE. When you ask him "water?" or "eat?" he'll break out in a huge grin and grunt until you give him the food.

We have now officially entered the "nothing is safe" part of babyhood. He grabs at EVERYTHING, and is coordinated enough to get it. Leo especially likes it when Nicky grabs him, his hair, his clothes (although not always so keen when he grabs his toys!). The two of them are really starting to play together, it's adorable, but potentially very annoying. For example, Leo likes to make him laugh, and does so at the table while Nico's eating, which results in food going everywhere. So, we have made a rule - no playing at the table, and Leo gets in trouble when he doesn't obey it. Leo finds it hard enough to resist, but Nico makes it a whole bunch worse by staring at him, waiting for his antics. When Leo is good and doesn't do anything, Nico squeals and flaps his arms up and down, which renders Leo helpless! We see years ahead of us of the two boys conspiring and ganging up against us.

His eyes are starting to change color. No longer the blue of his birth, but something in between that and brown. His hair, what little he has, is now turning blond. Everything just like his big brother. We've been looking at photos of Leo as a baby, and though not identical, you can tell without any doubt that they are brothers. I know lots of people say that Nico is fat, but actually Leo was just the same, surprisingly enough. He looks skinny now, but at Nico's age he was only 0.2kg lighter (and a little shorter). If anything, Leo's cheeks seemed fatter.

We've been leaving Nico without a diaper recently. He does most of his poops in the potty, but not his pees. With his diaper off we can learn his patterns and signs a lot better. We'll see how it goes.

Nico is very quick to laugh, just like Leo was. We notice that our family does a lot of laughing, and we hope that is the same for everyone.

For photos this month, click here.

Chispito

2011-10-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

Our home-made wind generator, Chispito, has been out of action for a little while. Its PVC blades broke last spring and we haven't had time to fix them. The wind we would get in Terlingua was stronger than here, but it was steady. Here we get tremendous gusts, and those sudden bolts of power broke our previous blades a couple of times.

So, this past week, Abe made a few adjustments. Instead of its previous design, which was a horizontal axis machine, he converted it to a vertical axis generator. The conversion was fairly simple and the new blades he designed have a strong metal framework, and then a metal skin and a PVC scoop attached to it.

It probably won't produce as much power in lighter winds, but it is much stronger. Besides, we don't really get much in the way of light winds. It's usually calm here or windy as hell.

Our wind season is fall and spring, and the fall winds have just started. After he'd put it up it didn't stop turning for two days straight. It's great to have Chispito back in action. It seemed sad and incomplete for our property to be without a wind generator.

We'll put more photos here, but for now there's just a little video.

Apple press

2011-10-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

We've been processing a lot of apples, while they're in season, to make them last one way or another all year. Drying, freezing and juicing.

The apple juice is delicious, but won't last long. We've got three gallons in the freezer and the rest we made into cider. The downside however to juice is that it is a time consuming process when you don't have the right equipment, so Abe made us an apple press. The press is useful for all kinds of things, but apple juice was the motivation we needed to make it. It works a treat and allowed us to press the juice out of the ground apples very quickly.

Next piece of equipment we'll need is a grinder. For now, we used our meat grinder after cutting the apples into small pieces, but it was slow. We have plans for a machine that will grind a bushel of whole apples in five minutes, but we couldn't find the parts we needed in time to make it for this year. We aim to make it for next apple season.

For more photos, click here.

Our First Cider

2011-09-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

We have made our first batch of cider, although it isn't ready yet.

We wanted to make a small batch this time, to try it all out and get our "mother" (starter for future batches of cider, containing the right kind of yeast).

We cored the apples, and then ran the chunks, with peels, through our meat grinder. Abe then put together a make-shift press out of stuff we had around the place.

We got a little under a gallon of apple juice. It is by far the best juice I have ever tasted, and I was ready to drink the whole thing right there and then. However, Abe got the rest bottled up, with a fermentation lock on each bottle before I could. We now have three bottles stored in the power house to ferment. In a week we'll taste all three and see which is the best - that will then become our "mother".

We are going to the city tomorrow to buy parts to make a grinder and press to do this faster and more efficiently. We are in love with juice, cider, apples in general, and totally understand how apples have got the reputation for being a cure for all that ails you.

By the way, did I ever mention that we get all our apples for free if we go and pick them ourselves?

For more photos and videos, click here.

New Pig Pasture

2011-09-11T15:57:00.001-07:00

Abe put up a new pig pasture this week. We like to rotate the pigs fairly often, so as not to eat down any one pasture too much. And seeing as this year has been so dry, we decided to move them off their last pasture after a month.

This one is much larger and should keep them happy for a while longer.

They are now pros at the whole pasture thing. When we got our two sows (then gilts), they weren't sure what to make of pasture, having spent their lives in concrete pens. Now, Abe opens that gate and starts walking into the pasture and they snap to his heels, munching all the time we walk them round the new paddock. They are happy as pigs!

For more photos, click here.

Johnson Grass

2011-09-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

On one of our foraging expeditions we decided to get a load of Johnson Grass. Abe had been reading online about it, and it turns out that it is farmed as a hay in Europe, from where it originates. We had always assumed that this was an unwanted (and impossible to get rid of) weed, but if you process it correctly it's pretty good, sitting at 13% protein. The issue with it is that it contains a lot of prussic acid, which can be bad for animals in high dosages. However, if you leave it to dry and make hay out of it, all the prussic acid disappears. What's great about it is that there's a a lot of it, no one else wants it, and you can collect a truckload in no time flat. We will definitely be getting more of it to store for winter, alternating it with loads of orchard grass.

More Gathering

2011-09-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

This week, we have been doing a bunch of gathering, and will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks. We want to stock up on storable feed for the pigs and rabbits. This year has been so dry that we have no idea what the prices and availability of animal feed will be like over winter.

We drop Leo off at Kinder garden and then go to our friend's place (he has a beautiful property near ours, which has over 5000 apple trees and a bunch of water and thus weeds). We load the truck up with either grass and weeds or apples. We dry the weeds to make hay, but the apples are a little more complex.

This past week, we gathered about 500 lbs of apples. We have dried about 30lbs so far in our solar food dehydrator. We made another 30 or 40 lbs into apple sauce and chunks for apple pies, which we have frozen (we also pureed some of the sauce and froze it in ice cube trays for Nico - he loves them and the coldness seems to feel good on his aching gums). We are fermenting a bunch in a 30 gallon tub for the pigs, and they also get fresh apples, while they wait for their preferred vinegary ones.

Over the next day or so we will be making our first cider and then vinegar. Cider is a good way to preserve apples, plus it gives a leftover pulp that we can dry for the animals. We'll let you know how it goes. On the other hand, we don't really drink much (if at all), so the sudden arrival of delicious cider may impair our typing abilities for a while to come. Be patient.

Barn Tank

2011-09-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

We've started on a new 7400 gallon tank that will eventually be filled from the barn roof and will be for the animals, which are our main consumer of water.

It is 16 ft x 16 ft and 4 ft tall. It is located uphill from the barn site, so that the animal waterers will all be gravity fed.

We leveled out the area that the machine cleared and then compacted it. We then added a layer of sifted sand. There are galvanized posts every few feet all the way around, with the corner posts staked out for added strength. To these posts is secured a galvanized welded mesh. And that's how we've left it for now.

We will be attaching a stucco mesh, then a tarp, then a pond liner to the inside of this structure. And then, when the tank is full of water, we will stucco the walls with concrete to make it a little more permanent. The roof will be a tarp at first, which we will later cover with acrylic concrete.

The reason we've left it at this unfinished stage is that it seems unlikely that we will get the rain needed to fill it, even a little, and we are worried that the wind and weather will blow it around before we get more rain (next June). In the meantime, it makes a pretty good cage for a toddler!

So far this year we have had 9 inches of rain, and only September remains of our rain season (with no promise of rain for the next week or two at least). Our normal rainfall is 30 inches or more. We fear that we won't even get the house tank filled this year. I guess we need to build more roofs for catchment in case of a drought - add it to the list of things to do!

For more photos, click here.

4 Months old

2011-09-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

Nico turned four months last week. He now weighs 7.3 kg (16 lbs) and is 62cms (almost 25 inches) long. I guess his weight gain is slowing down a little, although you wouldn't guess it by the way he chugs on his boobies. If I am slow in getting it out for him, he will literally push my shirt out the way, grab the breast and pull it to him.

We have now started giving him little bits of other foods. He gets to suck the juices out of any fruits we eat, and again, he will let you know in no uncertain terms if you're being too slow in giving him his share. Poor Abe usually holds him while we have fruit salad, and Nico is outraged when Abe takes a bite for himself. We have also tried him with rice cereal, although it may be too soon for that. He got the hang of eating pretty quick, but he then got a lot of gas and slept very badly, so we're going to postpone further attempts for a couple of weeks.

So far we haven't had to deal with any illness of any kind, although he continues to be a teething, drooling mess. No sign of any teeth breaking through yet, but there are several protrusions under the gums. He seems to really appreciate ice and water. He now drinks a bunch of water, a fan, just like the rest of the family.

He gets stronger and more capable each day. When he stands, holding onto your hands for support, he will pick up each leg in turn as though he wants to walk already. He certainly watches with keen interest each vigorous movement that his brother makes. He'll sit on his own, but you still have to put something or someone behind him as he cannot stop himself from falling backwards. He's really good at grabbing things as his coordination improves daily.

He is also very vocal. He likes to chatter away to his toys and to us, making all kinds of sounds that just DELIGHT Leo.

He continues to be calm and happy in general, but he has a temper on him. Though he doesn't often get mad, when he does it lasts for a while and there's nothing you can do about it. He doesn't want consolation, he wants to complain.

More and more we see a personality forming within this baby. He has learned his power over people, and will be quite the charmer. It seems like everything he does is funny to Leo, and Nico equally laughs loud at Leo's antics. Their love for each other is clearly growing.

Sleeping is definitely not his forte. He was starting to go longer intervals between feeds at night, and I was feeling rested, but then teething hit and he awoke far more frequently. Now, he has become accustomed to waking more often and I'm making it worse - I am now so tired that I often pick him up and put him at the breast lying down. We'll both fall asleep that way, which means he can wake up every so often and his snack bar is right there. I need to wake up properly and keep him awake to eat both breasts, so that he can sleep longer in between, but I'm too tired. Oh well, I'll work at it and hopefully by his next month's blog I can report an improvement in this field.

For photos and videos of this coming month, click here.

Dentist

2011-08-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

We all had a pretty horrible day yesterday. We went to the dentist, and not for either Abe or I, but for Leo.

Some time ago his front tooth developed a soft spot that kind of fell out. It then formed a cavity on it. We talked to our dentist and she said it had to be taken care of. She said if you lose a baby tooth early, the adult tooth will have to push through the bone that grows over the space instead of pushing through the softer (and considerably less painful) baby tooth. So she referred us to a kiddy dentist and off we went.

The first appointment went great. The new dentist looked at it, used the tools in his mouth so he'd know what they were, chatted with Leo, gave him a balloon and asked if he wanted to come back. Yes he did - they had a great collection of Legos, cars, etc. and he got a cool balloon that twisted into different shapes.

The second appointment was yesterday. She had to numb the area, which meant injecting the gum. That was bad enough. But then it got worse. He started getting agitated at the noise the tools make, the light, his bib - everything. And he then decided he didn't want to do it any more. The dentist and Abe (only one of us was allowed in and it was Abe - I was outside with Nico listening to everything) tried for a LONG time to coax him into just letting her finish, but he wouldn't have it. She had gotten to a point that it really did have to be finished, so she gave us two options - strap him down or take him to the hospital for a general anesthetic. Neither option was appealing, but a general anesthetic is pretty horrific itself and she was so close to finishing that we went for the straight jacket.

Poor little Leo. He's not fond of being restrained anyway, and this was really going against his will. He fought and cried, begging Abe to let him out. Abe gritted his teeth, held his head still, and she finished pretty quick. Then it was over.

It was terrible for me listening to all this from outside, not being able to help. It was horrific for Leo. Even Nico got upset at the sound of his brother crying. But of all of us, it was most traumatic for Abe, being the one who held him down. Leo went straight to sleep and woke up cheerful and pleased that his tooth was fixed; Abe was upset all day.

The worst thing about it all is that it will not be the last time. Leo loves to brush his teeth and does it well; he has a great diet and had never even tasted sugar by the time the soft spot developed. So what caused this cavity and another that he has in a molar? One of two things probably - 1) he has inherited bad teeth and this will be the beginning of a long line of dentist visits OR 2) (hopefully) it was caused by some kind of deficiency either when I was pregnant or in his early months. One thing we've thought of, by way of example, is that being on rain water catchment, we don't have the fluoride that is put in public water. We'll do some research and see what we can do before his adult teeth come through.

In the meantime, we are going to look for another dentist. Although this one was super nice and very good, there has to be someone out there that still uses Nitrous, or has that totally gone now? Seems like happy gas has got to be better than a straight jacket, and if it's dangerous for kids, at least give it to the parents!!!

The plus side of it all is that while Leo was crashed out afterwards, we decided we would go and get him a present, something to make the whole experience a happier one. So now we have 7 beautiful baby Guineas. An online friend of Abe's (who sent us some Black Soldier Flies) suggested we try them instead of chickens - they are far better equipped to handle themselves against predators among other things. Abe has had them before and he kind of got hooked on the idea. Leo, of course, loves all animals, so we got the birds and they are his to look after. He has barely left their side since - he catches grasshoppers for them, goes and raids our worm bins, is constantly talking to them (I even saw him take out some of his letters to tell them what an 'S' and 'T', etc. were). In the evening we bring their cage inside, as they are still small and the rain (or should I say drizzle in our case) would kill them. Once inside, he is allowed to take them out of the cage. It's never been so easy getting him to come inside at night! Once they get a bit bigger we'll transfer them to the garden - they don't scratch and dig up plants like chickens, so will just eat our pests.

If we continue to use this tactic after ever serious or unpleasant injury, we will probably end up with a pretty good size zoo.

Bulldozer

2011-08-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

The bulldozer we've been waiting on for months finally came. It left the other day.

The two operators arrived at dark on Monday night, ate and slept the night with us, then began work at 6am.

They leveled out a spot for the animal tank we're about to build, and for a barn (a future project). They then went down the hill to fix the pond. They did a great job. Fixed the hole, made the dam 6 feet taller, redid the spillway and generally compacted the whole thing, and all in a very short amount of time. We now have a lake - the photo doesn't do it justice, but it is HUGE. Of course, it is unlikely it will fill this year as we are already mostly through the rain season and it is an exceptionally dry one.

So we had some time left over on what we had paid. He leveled out a spot for a few more tanks, as we plan to add a tank each year to our system or a couple of years. He then made another, smaller pond which is located below the spillway of the big one. It's 6 feet deep in the center and about 30 feet diameter - not too shabby for a freebie!

Of course now that he's been, our list of things to do has quadrupled, and it's not like we ever lack for jobs around the place. Oh well, it's worth it.

LET IT RAIN!!!

For more photos of the pond, from the beginning, click here.

School Boy

2011-08-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

I can barely believe it, but Leo is now in school. Not real school, just kindergarden, but still it seems like a big milestone.

There are three years of kindergarden. Even though this year is not obligatory, Leo really wanted to go. He is such a social child and he desperately wanted more interaction with kids. So far he is not disappointed. He loves going, and didn't want to come home yesterday. He colors, paints, plays with Legos and shapes, etc. Pretty much the stuff he does at home, but the presence of other kids makes it all so much more fun.

At the end of each day, he goes around all the children and the teacher and gives everyone a kiss. At first some of the older ones were a little surprised, but I have noticed that they are now starting to do the same!

When he gets home, he has a nap. He then wakes up and immediately says, "I have to do my homework" - I wonder how long that will last?!

There's a meeting next week with all the other mothers to organize the kitchen. Here, each mother is assigned a week (or however many weeks it takes to complete the quota) to cook in the kitchen for the kids. Three mothers work each week and cook for kindergarden and primary school. You can pay someone else to do it for you if you don't have time. It is a system I really like and approve of, but it does signify a very scary prospect... parental involvement in school. Next thing I know is there will be parent teacher meetings, school plays, etc. My babies are growing up.

And speaking of growing up, Leo's latest catchphrase is "All by myself", even with things he's been doing by himself for a while, like eating, he'll still say it. He is doing a lot by himself it seems. He dresses totally on his own, brushes his teeth, puts on his shoes, wipes his butt, goes pee in the night (sometimes needs help with that if he wakes up and needs to go fast), plays, and a million other things that he mentions (like feeding the caterpillars he finds and "befriends").

He is also getting the hang of money. He's started counting really well, so I now give him some coins each day to put in his pockets. If we go to a store (not that often), he can pick out and pay for a candy. He loves that and says "I bought the candy all by myself".

I'll get photos next week.

Trip to Grandparents

2011-08-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

Well once again I have gotten behind on blogs. I mean to keep up with it, really I do, but then somehow the time disappears and... oh well. Needless to say, we have been very busy, although some of our projects I'll keep secret until we are further along with them.

A couple of weeks ago we went to visit Abe's parents. Emily, his sister, is off to Oxford University for a couple of years, so we converged at Jim and Vickie's to steal a quick visit.

The bulldozer was supposed to be arriving at our place around that time, so we didn't stay long. In hindsight, we should have gone for longer as it didn't come when it was supposed to, or even close. The quick turnaround was very hard on the kids (12 hour trip each way) and us.

Nevertheless we had a great time. Leo especially LOVED the extra attention. It's hard being the only one for three years and then having a little brother arrive on the scene to share (or steal) the limelight. He got to feed and ride a calf, ride a horse, ride a trike, ride a wagon, ride his Auntie Em. He really loves it there.

Nico also had a good time. I was a little worried that he might not be happy being passed around, as he has gone through a stage of not really wanting to be held by people other than us. But my concern was needless. He was charmed by them all and charmed them in turn.

We tried to go swimming, but the outing was cut very short by lightening on the horizon - the lifeguard at the swimming pool and river area kicked us out of the water, so we went to the park instead.

Leo was very sad leaving, but it had a little payoff in that we got to visit Uncle Augie on our way home. Again, an overly short visit, but better than nothing.

If you want to see more photos, they are in the folder August '11.

3 and 40 months

2011-08-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

Nico just turned 3 months old and Leo will be 3 years 4 months soon. Both are growing like weeds.

Nico weighs 15 lbs. It seems like he'll overtake his skinny big brother before we know it! He is super strong. He can pull himself up from lying down to standing up using your fingers for support, and does so as often as you'll let him. He can hold his head super steady, can push his head and chest off the ground when on his belly and has even started to roll over. I got the jumper out of the shed the other day, and he seems very interested in it. He hasn't done much jumping yet, but he loves to look at the toys and stand on his own.

He is a very sweet baby. He'll cuddle into you when you hold him, smile when you look at him, laugh when you play with him. He is also very happy playing on his own. He loves to lie on his play mat, grabs at all kinds of things within his reach (and some that are not), is fascinated by all kinds of objects (especially likes to watch Leo's cars go around the track).

At the beginning it was easy - he cried when he was hungry, wanted to be picked up or had a wet diaper, in other words when he needed something. Now things are starting to get more complicated. He cries to tell you he wants something, and it is sometimes difficult to discern what. Yesterday he was crying a little and I tried all the obvious things to no avail. It turned out that he wanted me to put the cereal box in front of him so he could look at it.

He seems very vocal. He makes all kinds of sounds and is not shy about letting you know what he wants. He is also squealing and laughing more and more, though not as much as Leo did at this age.

One crazy thing is that he's teething. Just turned three months and he's teething! White, swollen gums, slight temperature, a drool machine, gnawing at his hands, your fingers and anything else he can grab onto. Poor little guy, it seems so young. I hope they come through quicker than Leo did, as his took forever and he suffered terribly.

Leo continues to adore his little brother, though he is now starting to become a little jealous and will often ask me to put Nico down so I can hold him. He is still going through a difficult stage, and he seems to strive to push our buttons. I know it is normal, but it is also very difficult. It sometimes seems as though we have to tell him off every other second. The upside is that he's starting kindergarden in a couple of weeks and I think that will really help him. He is an incredibly social child and he will thrive on a more regular interaction with other kids, not to mention all the activities.

When he's not being naughty, he is a wonderful child. He loves people, loves to help and to give, loves to play and color and read stories with you. He is very observant and fascinated by the world outside and all its critters. He is very agile, a great thrower, climbs on everything. He runs all over our place barefoot, although we try and discourage this during snake season.

He is also a perfectionist. This is ultimately a good thing, as he is tidy, meticulous and takes great pride in all he does. The downside is learning not to let this perfectionism control him. Things have to go a certain way, and when they don't he gets very upset. He has to do everything himself and doesn't want any kind of help, even when needed (about the only thing he'll let you help him with is when he needs to pee in the night - he can't reach the light to see where the potty is, so he'll call me for help). Little by little he is learning that some things are not worth getting upset over, but "don't sweat the small stuff" is hard for some adults, let alone a three year old.

I am looking forward to Nico being a little older, for Leo's sake. He is now starting to smile and laugh at Leo, which delights the latter. Coming up though are the more interactive months and I think both boys will really love to have the other's company. But I won't start wishing this time away - it passes fast enough as it is.

Click for photos of July or August.

Furry Stuff

2011-08-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

Of any animal we’ve had, rabbits are by far the easiest to raise. They are quiet, cute and very efficient on food.

We keep them for meat, for ours and other families, and nothing goes to waste. The dogs and pigs share everything that gets shed during the butchering process and I get the furs.

I've been tanning the hides since the beginning and am now starting to do stuff with them. I've made some as gifts into handbags, purses, cushions, and even Kindle covers. And I am now getting ready to sell them.

To that end, I just bought myself an awesome sewing machine. It's a 1950s Dressmaker heavy duty machine and I got it for a steal. Everything in it is metal, which makes it heavy, but it beats the new, plastic crap on the market.

No more chickens

2011-08-04T16:25:00.001-07:00

Some sad news. For the first time almost since we’ve been here, we have no chickens on our property.

We had a pen and coop that we closed them into at night, but they free-ranged during the day. And something took advantage of that. The first time three disappeared, then one by one the rest. We’re not too sure what took them (hopefully not the pigs!), but something that evaded the dogs’ scrutiny, which is actually pretty good.

We will be getting more at some point, but we will probably stop free-ranging them. We have lost too many over the years here. In Terlingua we never lost chickens to predators, but here there is a lot of cover for the predators, just looking for a snack. It's really a shame, as free range chickens seem healthier, get a wider diet and help keep flies down. But if we want to keep chickens, we’ll have to find an alternative.

2011-08-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

We have been eating out of the garden for a little while now, both the inside garden (photos) and the wicking beds (photos) outside, which are both very efficient on space and water.

However, now that the rains have started, we have planted the big outside garden. Corn, greens, beans, sunflowers, squash, potatoes and a few other bits and pieces.

We have had some of our young trees produce fruit this year, not a lot but enough to give us a taster of what's to come.

We will also be making hay from our property. We cut the old grass on our top pasture, so that we can collect the new green grass that grows. It is a fruitful time of year.

For more photos, click here.

Pig Update

2011-08-04T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well, we sold all the piglets we wanted to, and now we are left with Wanda and Gloria (the two sows), Macho and Amigo (the two boars), and two piglets that we’ll be fattening up. They’re all growing like weeds, but the three adults are especially huge. Luckily they are all very tame, otherwise they would be scary (as is, we keep the baby away from them until they’ve been fed!).

Sad to say that we will be getting rid of Macho soon. It looks like the girls are definitely bred, so we no longer need to keep him. We will be using Amigo as our main boar and he will be old enough by the next time they need to be bred. In the meantime Macho is just eating food. It’s a shame in a way, as he is such an intelligent and calm pig. Hopefully we’ll find him a good home - good boars are in short supply around here.

Abe and a couple of lads from the village have spent the past couple of days making a new pasture for them all. Abe cut a bunch of limbs off the Juniper trees, so that the pigs can get under their shade without being cut by low branches. The boys then trimmed them up, so that we can use them as posts in some upcoming projects. We now have a BUNCH of beautiful posts (which the rabbits are cleaning off for us, as they like to chew the bark off) and the pasture looks awesome. Now that the rains have come and the grass is growing, the pasture should provide a little more of their food.

For more photos, click here.

Gathering

2011-08-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

We have spent several days over the last month gathering food for the animals. We collected a couple of truckloads of Mesquite, which is high in protein and both the pigs and the rabbits love it (we ferment it for the pigs). We will also be grinding some of it up into flour for our own use.

Plus we cut and dried a truckload of alfalfa. A friend of ours has a patch that we can cut in exchange for some rabbit meat. Abe uses the scythe to cut it, I pile it up and load it into the truck, Leo chases frogs, and Nico sleeps (that little one of ours is very lazy!). At home we lay it out in our old driveway to dry and then make little bales by compressing it in our ice chest and tying it up. We will be going and cutting another load this week. We hope to store enough over the summer to last us through winter and dry season.

We give the rabbits and pigs a bucketload of grass and weeds each day from the garden. Even though the pigs can get it for themselves, they still like us to give them some - I guess it makes them feel special.

Rain Season

2011-08-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

We have now entered rain season for real. This past month we received 6 inches, which is the lowest rainfall for July since we’ve been here, but is still better than the big nothing we had in the nine previous months. Everything is now greening up. I love the transformation we can see at this time of the year. Our view is so beautiful and every day we see it getting greener.

And more important than our view is the fact that our tanks have some water in them. We came close to running out (mainly due to the quantity that the pigs consume, especially when it was so hot), but now we have more than 3000 gallons (about half). We will be increasing our storage capacity this year to accommodate our increasing livestock.

We are still waiting for a bulldozer to come and fix our pond, which blew out last year. It is due next week. Maybe that’s the reason that it has held off on raining hard - it’s waiting for our pond to be fixed!

Two months old

2011-06-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

Nico is now two months old and is changing with each passing day.

He weighs almost 13 lbs (5.75kg) and is 22 1/2 " (56cm) long. Friends and family keep calling him fat and the poor little guy has developed bolemia - he'll eat and then puke it back up. I remember Leo as a baby never let a drop of milk, and later food, go to waste, but Nico is a very messy eater. He'll suck and then open his mouth to smile, letting half the milk dribble down his chin and me. I have learned to feed him with a rag under us, so we don't get too wet.

He is letting us sleep a lot better at night. His colicky stage is now almost totally over, so he doesn't wake to pain. He'll go between 4 and 5 hours between when we put him to bed and when he first wakes up to nurse, and those uninterrupted hours of sleep have done the world of good to the sleepy parents of a newborn. He's also going longer between feeds during the day than he did at first.

We have now entered the wonderful world of smiles and giggles. He is overall a very happy and calm baby. He's content to sit on his own for a long time watching the world go by without ever fussing. He laughs at Leo's constant attention, and doesn't flinch when his big brother runs around screaming and jumping. He coos and chatters, laughs and grins.

He has two types of cries - one signals pain, the other signals that he wants something. The first is generally linked to his stomach and is getting less frequent. Fortunately we have a secret weapon for his pain - we put him in a bath and all crying stops instantly. He LOVES the water, and I mean "he should have been a fish" loves the water (just like his mama). The second type of cry starts as a little on/off complaint, nothing very intrusive. He often gets picked up at this point (to nurse, to change his diaper or to be with the family, depending on the tone of his cry), but if he isn't, the cry gets a little more insistent, the final warning. And then he GETS MAD! He doesn't have the throbbing vein in his neck that Leo, and his uncle Augie, have, but that doesn't lessen the effect.

We haven't done too much diaper free with Nico. With Leo he used about one diaper a day for the first year (we then starting building and someone came up to play with him and Leo stopped asking to go to the toilet). Nico has done several pees in the potty, and even a couple of poops, but he struggles so much to poop that diaper free has been impractical. He'll start signals that he needs to go, but won't get it out for another half hour or more. We'll get more serious about that soon, now that his digestive system is maturing.

He is also getting a lot stronger. He loves to stand and even jump, and pushes up vigorously when he wants you to hold him upright. He locks his legs and can hold his weight for a little while. His head is also getting a lot stronger and he'll hold it upright for the most part. He likes to sit on the sofa like the rest of us and can stay there for a while, but if he starts to fall he can't yet correct himself.

He completely recognizes all three of us and has different associations for each. He grabs onto your T-Shirt and strokes you when you hold him. He seems extremely affectionate, just like his big brother.

All in all, a beautiful baby and the perfect completion to our family.

For photos of this month, click here.

Boars

2011-06-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess we are now officially in the pig business...

It is getting time to wean Wanda's first litter, and thus time to breed her again. So we started looking for a boar. We found a couple of people who will rent their boars out in exchange for a piglet born of each sow bred. However neither of the boars were that great. Seeing as we have two sows that we will be breeding twice a year, we figured we should buy a boar and keep him permanently. We started looking around.

There was very little locally, but we eventually found one for sale. He looks like a Spotted Poland China and Tamworth mix and his name is now Macho. He is not very big - 10 months old and only 80 kilos - but he is beautiful, calm, and very hardy. He has been free-ranging over the mountains here and obviously knows what he is doing, as he is very healthy. We put him in a pen on his own until he and the girls get used to each other, but he already escaped and went to find them in their pasture. Luckily, they all seem to get on well and he is very gentle with the babies. But the girls did not appreciate him trying to mount them, so we separated him again (with a few amendments to his pen). Once the babies are weaned and the girls go into heat, they will all be able to run together, although we haven't decided yet if we will keep him for very long.

In the city, Abe also found a beautiful little boar, but he is only two months old and thus not able to do the job yet. He is a Landrace and Blue Butt mix. He is very intelligent and long in body. He will make the kind of babies that will sell well locally (while our older boar will make better pasture pigs). He is Leo's pig and Leo named him Amigo. He feeds and plays with him each day (several times a day!) and the little guy is getting real tame and tolerant.

[Please note that Macho is the only one of our pigs that looks clean. That is only because he is not yet hooked up to the water system, as we only brought him home yesterday (Abe is hooking him up as I write). As soon as the pigs have water, they make themselves a mud pool and roll around in it!]

We have also been looking into buying a milk cow, to give us and the pigs milk and cheese. We've found a couple of options so far, but haven't settled on anything. Will keep you posted.

Next major project on the property is a proper barn (with its own water catchment and tank of course).

For photos of our boys, click here.

Rain!

2011-06-03T15:15:00.001-07:00

SANY8480 a video by velacreations on Flickr.

Yesterday, for the first time in 246 days, it rained! Only a tenth of an inch, but we are overjoyed. It cooled everything off a good 15 to 20 degrees.

Today, it got hot again, kicking up a bunch of humidity. Now, at 4pm it is raining again.

Thank goodness!

Gloria's first litter

2011-06-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

Gloria, our second sow, farrowed yesterday morning during our first stormy night. She had 8 babies in total, but two were stillborn. Of the 6 remaining, 4 are male, 2 female.

Once again, they are cute as can be.

Wanda's piglets are now much bigger. It rained yesterday and they were frolicking around in the mud - happy as pigs.

Bob and Janet visit

2011-06-01T16:02:00.000-07:00

My mom and step-dad (Janet and Bob) have just left, having been with us for the last 10 days.

The first time they visited us here was after Leo was born, when we lived in a small, one room house with dirt floors. Given the heat at that time and the lack of any kind of amenities, it is surprising they came back, but they have, a couple of times.

This, like that first visit, was the hottest and driest time of the year. We had asked them to bring us some rain (we haven't had any since September 28th), but they failed to do so. Other than that rather huge offense, they were the perfect house guests and we loved having them here!

They got to meet the rabbits and pigs, both new since they were last here, and even had piglets eating out of their hands and sucking on their fingers. But of course the animals were not really the reason they came, they came to meet the new grandson and play with the older one.

Nico is obviously too little to appreciate family visits, but Leo LOVED it. He happily gave up his room and bed for them, although he had originally done so under the assumption that he would be SHARING the bed with them. Janet was his pet - he told her what to do, what to say, where to go - everything was about Janet for the first few days. Bob told him stories and he and Abe took him kite flying, which he really enjoyed.

Leo is a very loving, fun, funny, sensitive child, but boy can he be obstinate and infuriating when he wants to be. He's had a rough month - mama was heavily pregnant, then an invalid with a new baby; papa has been busier than usual, picking up the slack of mama being out of action; both are getting less sleep and are thus less patient and energetic; and Leo has suffered some from all the changes. Then came Bob and Janet, which meant that he has been overexcited. He has missed much needed naps, and replaced them with a meltdown almost every day since we've had visitors. We all felt for him deeply, but at the same time could not let him get his way. Hopefully for all of us, this stage will not last long.

Leo will really miss his grandparents, as will we. It is the one thing that we do not like about our life here, that we are so far from both of our families.

Photos of their visit are in the set May '11, with other photos of the boys and us.

One Month Old

2011-06-01T13:42:00.003-07:00

Nico is now a little over one month old, can you believe it? We took him to the clinic and he's doing great. After one week he weighed pretty much the same as when he was born, but after one month he has gained a whopping three and a half pounds! Not too surprising seeing as the little guy nurses A LOT, still every two hours for the most part, although he is starting to let a little more time lapse in between feeds.

He is overall an extremely calm and alert baby. He has colic (painful gas and poop), and so he cries and wriggles around when he has bouts of that. But when he's not in pain, he is truly the sweetest little thing. He will sit on his own for long periods of time, just looking around, but also loves to be held. He likes to be on his play mat and can already hit the shit out of his dangling toys. He LOVES baths and has never once made any protest at being put in water, even when it gets in his eyes.

Leo by this age was already smiling in response to things you did (kind of rare), and has continued to be extremely social ever since. He also did not like to be put down. Nico by comparison seems more serious, and more laid back. Obviously too soon to start characterizing him, but it is interesting to see the differences already shown. I really love the dynamics of having two sons, and am looking forward to them growing together.

For photos of this past month, click here.

More babies

2011-05-17T10:07:00.001-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, Wanda, one of our sows, gave birth to 7 beautiful little piglets. We had expected her to have more, but this is her first litter and having less might not be such a bad thing as she learns the ropes of motherhood. She is a great mama, being very careful to make sure her babies are out of the way before she sits down and keeping them all within her sight. She is also very calm with us (even with an overexcited little three year old) being around her and her brood.

We all went out after lunch to check on her (we knew her time was fast approaching) and there she was, with one piglet running around and another coming out of her. They really are so cute at this age. Unfortunately, Gloria (the other sow) was right next to Wanda and her nest, so we decided to move her out, as she could accidentally squish a piglet. Abe had to push her unwilling ass into the pasture and shut her out of the pen. She is very annoyed. She's not used to being alone and she feels her place is beside Wanda. Just for a couple of days, Gloria - sorry.

For more photos and videos, click here.

One week old

2011-05-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

We went into the village today to the doctor. I had my stitches out. I'm generally doing really well and am relatively pain free. Nico had his first checkup. He's looking great. His umbilical cord stump has fallen off and healed fine; he seems strong and alert; he hasn't gained a whole bunch of weight, but it is the first week, and his bowel movements are frequent and healthy. All in all, a normal little baby.

Photos for this month will be posted here.

A new arrival

2011-05-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

At 5.55pm on the 28th April (his aunt Shelly's birthday), we welcomed little Nico into our family. He weighed just over 7 lbs (as opposed to the predicted 9 lbs or so of an ultrasound a few weeks ago!?) and was 20" long. Pretty much on a par with his big brother Leo, and he looks uncannily like him at that age too, although a little darker.

He was delivered via C-Section, as he refused to turn out of the breech position, again just like Leo. Even under the best of conditions, Cesarion is not the most romantic image of birth out there, but in this case it was even worse than usual. For some reason, the hospital was packed, with a bunch of emergencies coming in all the time. The result of this craziness (other than no family members allowed into the operation area) is that Nico was left on the infant table in the operation room for almost an hour an a half, crying, as there was no one available to take me to the recuperation room and give me my baby.

When we were eventually moved and united, he was so upset that he had some trouble latching on to the breast and continued to cry. Poor little guy. It took almost the full two hours of recuperation to settle him down, but once he did, he took to nursing like a voracious little vampire and became very calm. We got out of the hospital as soon as we could - 24 hours after the op.

We went to a hotel to stay for a couple of nights before making the ride home (for those of you unfamiliar with our place, we live off a bumpy and long dirt road). Jim and Vickie, Abe's parents, were at the hotel as they had come down to watch Leo. They did the perfect job - bringing him lots of toys, spoiling him rotten and making him feel special during a difficult time. Thank you.

We came home on Sunday and now, one week after Nico was born (I can barely believe it), we have settled into a four person family. Leo loves his little brother and is extremely attentive to him. He is acting up a little with us on the other hand, but I suppose that is to be expected given the circumstances. I am definitely looking forward to when I can pick him up again.

All in all I am recovering very quickly, and although still a little sore, I can walk, turn over in bed, do small chores. What I spend a large part of my time doing is nursing Nico. He has an almost insatiable appetite, partly because he finds comfort at the breast, so likes to nurse when pooping or when he has gas, etc. Luckily my supply can keep up with him.

Right now, he also sleeps a lot, so we have a chance to recover somewhat, although we all continue to be tired. Luckily, he is very calm, although he is a little nocturnal, a habit we hope he breaks soon.

We are all delighted with the new arrival and very much in love. I cannot believe I have two beautiful sons.

For more photos, click here.

Finished wicking beds

2011-04-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

We also managed to finally finish our wicking beds this week and make a bed for currants and berries on the overflow to the gray water system (that feeds the inside flower beds).

There wasn't a whole lot to do, but we have had so much wind this month, that we hadn't been able to get to it beforehand.

We emptied the rest of the compost pile we had made for a winter heater for the bedrooms into the both beds, and then finished off the fence around it (one of our dogs had assumed we'd made the bed just for her). We have soil blocks with little seedlings ready to go out there. We have been taking them out each day so that they can harden up a little, before we transplant. Next week we plan to plant.

One sad piece of related news was that some kind of bug or mouse or something ate all our little raspberry seedlings this morning. Hopefully we can make some more come up without too much grief.

For more photos, click here.

Oyster Mushrooms

2011-04-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

We have been eating off our oyster mushrooms this week and it has been a real treat.

We grew button mushrooms before, but our success was only mild. They are a lot more picky about humidity, and we weren't quite up to the challenge at that point. Now we are trying our luck with oysters, a far more forgiving shroom. They grow incredibly fast - you can almost watch them grow if you are so inclined. They are also incredibly tasty. We grow them in laundry baskets filled with shredded straw.

We have made more liquid culture, grain spawn, taken a spore print and have even cloned a few mushrooms. We mean to continue this wonderful experiment.

For more photos, click here.

Pig Pasture

2011-04-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

This week we made a new pig pasture. We used three strands of electric wire (doesn't need to be very tall as pigs are not good jumpers) and tied off to trees instead of corner posts. It covers a large area, with lots of clumps of shade tress included. Seeing as the pigs root around, we followed the contour of the land, so that they can create swales for us (as they push the earth downhill, it levels off a patch that then collects water better).

Leo enjoyed the work. He walked around with us at times, got us each tools we needed or water, and then went and sat under trees and played with some toys when he got bored. He was good as gold.

It was super hot weather, and we were both pretty exhausted after finishing, but it had its own rewards. When we let the pigs out, they started exploring all over. Our previous, younger pigs were very cautious and it took them a long time to really explore, but these girls had no such inhibitions. Having spent all their lives prior to coming here on a concrete floor, the allure of real dirt and trees was too much. They followed us around all over the pasture. They seem to respect the fence pretty well, having both been shocked a couple of times (the shock is not painful, just uncomfortable enough to make you want to avoid doing it again).

It really is great to see pigs on pasture. Can't wait until the rains come and it all greens up.

For more photos, click here.

Three years old

2011-04-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

On April 11th, Leo celebrated his third birthday. We were going to have a big BBQ party last Saturday, but it was SUPER windy all weekend (and in fact most of the week), so we postponed it to this coming Saturday, weather permitting. So on his actual birthday, we kept it quiet. Leo and I cooked a cake, as that it the thing he most associates with birthdays, and then some friends came up for cake, presents and dinner.

Abe had been smoking ham and bacon for most of the day, and we'd also boiled and roasted some for different flavors. So dinner consisted of all different kinds of pork (with a little rice on the side).

The wonderful thing about this year is that Leo now gets that it's his birthday. I'd bought a candle set a while ago, which he saw every time I went into the pantry. He loved those candles and we kept telling him that he would have them on his birthday. Then his birthday arrived and he got super excited about cooking a cake and putting the candles on it.

We had also bought him a two-piece train a couple of weeks ago (he loves things that pull other things, like trains or trailers) and he had to choose between a red and blue one. He deliberated for some time, but eventually settled on the red one, but Abe snuck the blue one into the cart for his birthday. When he pulled a corner of the paper back and saw what it was, he instantly recognized what it was and BEAMED - "Blue one too!". It was precious.

So what's new with Leo? The changes are more subtle - very few new abilities, but rather fine tuning the ones he already has.

Language is doing great, other than he is going through a "what happened?" stage. Every five seconds it seems like he asks what happened. I guess this is the forerunner to the famous "Why?" phase. His sentences are complex, and he tells you exactly what he wants YOU to say in reply. He also talks in different voices for his toys, and his role-playing is becoming quite entertaining. His Spanish also improves, though not as dramatically as his English.

He has bad dreams every once in a while, where he'll cry out, wake up and call for me. I go in and he says "I have bad dream."
"Oh, that's terrible! What happened?"
"Big monster hungry and tried get Leo."
"Oh, honey, he was just playing. The big monster likes Leo."
"Yes, monster Leo's friend."
And he'll go right back to sleep. Another thing he has called out in a bad dream is "Little boy take Leo's red car".
To balance things though, he also frequently giggles in his sleep, probably thinking about games he plays with his dad. Of course, all of his nighttime discussions are great for me, as I'm often awake at night right now and it gives me something to smile about.

He still loves to help us work, and he's actually starting to become useful. His only downfall, both in work and other areas, is that he wants to do thing by himself, even if the things are beyond him. He then gets very upset if you try to help. We let him figure it out when we can, and he is learning to calm down and ask for help when he realizes that he can't do it on his own.

He can be quite bratty at times, saying "No", very firmly, when we tell him to do something, and then very quick to cry when we start counting to three. I'm not sure if it's attention seeking or just something he has to go through. Either way, it'll be nice to see the back of it.

He is very interested in the arrival or his little brother. Keeps on and on about how he can share things with Nicky when he arrives, and how Nicky will sleep and sit next to Leo, and how they'll talk.

He's actually very good at sharing his toys with other kids, which is good to see. He especially likes to hand out food to people. All in all, seems to be a fairly generous character for a three year old. He is also very affectionate. His hugs and kisses are lovely. He often tells you he loves you, and will call you beautiful and good girl, etc.

All in all, it's been a pretty great three years, watching him grow and develop into the little person he is. The next big milestone for him is becoming a big brother and I have no doubt that he'll be a good one.

Didn't take many photos on his birthday, but will try and get some on Saturday. When I do, I'll put them here.

Rabbit fur handbag

2011-04-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

It's a good friend's (Leo's Godmother, without the baptism!) birthday this week, so I made her a gift out of rabbit fur.

I have been tanning all the furs we've gathered, but this is the first thing I've made with them. There were a few items on the learning curve of sewing leather, but all in all not too bad. I was pleased with how it came out, especially the softness, something you cannot appreciate through a photo.

Here's a couple more photos.

Kitchen Cabinet

2011-04-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

We built a cabinet for the east wall in the kitchen. It was a spot that the cabinets we bought didn't fill and I've had something temporary in there since we first moved into these rooms. Now, it is complete with its new cabinet, laden with cast iron, compost and pig buckets, vegetable drawers, etc. I also made a couple of holders for plastic bags - took about 10 minutes apiece and helps keep those pesky, but useful items out of the way.

I'll eventually put doors on the cabinets and maybe even tile the top, but no rush on either. The kitchen now feels done and ready for the arrival of the newcomers. Little by little.

Didn't get many photos of us building it, but what we have is here.

Two Connally brothers

2011-04-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

My doctor in the village wanted me to check in with the hospital gynecologist in the city, because of the risk factor due to my previous C-section. In order to see the gynecologist, I had to see their GP first who would refer me if necessary. He said everything was fine and normal, come back in three weeks.

Well, to give my local doctor something more specific than that, we went and got an ultrasound. Within a second he told me that Nicky, like his brother, was breech (as he was in the previous ultrasound). The other 2 doctors had mistaken his butt for his head. And, like Leo, being in the breech position (or just the fact that he is his father's son) his head had grown more than the rest of his body. I am a little over 35 weeks - Nicky's head is more than 38 weeks, his spine and legs are at 37 weeks. He is already 7 lbs (Leo was a little over 5 at this stage and was born 7lb 3 oz).

They gave me the number of a doctor who can turn him, but suggested I see a gynecologist first, so we went back to the hospital. After explaining what had happened, I bypassed the GP referral and went straight to the real doctor. He advised against having him turned. He says he's already big, my womb is long and narrow, and there is a risk that the procedure could rupture my Cesarean wound. He says we can wait as long as possible, hoping he'll turn by himself, but the chances are this one will remain head up and have to be another c-section. I have to go back every week and see him, and we'll see how things go.

We're still hoping for a natural birth, but I can't help but feel disappointed. Still, when I think about it, the only thing that matters is that Nicky arrives as safely as possible, and seeing as we live 2 hours from a hospital, contemplating delivering a breech naturally is not a great idea.

Other than that piece of bad news, I am feeling great. Still not too uncomfortable and able to work fine, albeit a bit slower.

Leo gets increasingly excited at the prospect of meeting his new brother. He keeps saying things like "when Nicky comes, he sit by Leo, sleep by Leo, play with Leo, etc.". Not sure how to tell him that newborns are not as exciting as he might think, but he'll figure it all out! Can't wait to have the two of them together.

For more photos, click here. There's one photo of Abe and I together - that was taken shortly before Leo arrived - notice how my belly is already almost that big.

New Sows

2011-04-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

This week we've been doing some work on the gardens, but most of our efforts have gone to the pig pen. We mucked out the toilet area (we would place hay on top of their poop, which keeps the smell away and makes for a better compost), and put it in a pile in a garden bed we won't be using for a while. While Abe and I did that, Leo carried rocks and filled in a hole they'd made under their water nipple (they quickly learned how to push the nipple so that water would pool up into a lovely mudbath, which had grown incredibly deep). We then put a shade up and made a new hoop house, so that each sow would have a nesting area.

Once everything was ready, we went to the city and bought two beautiful sows. They are still young (born in July 2010), but already showing signs of the immense size they will grow to be. Both are pregnant, one due about 18th May, the other beginning of June.

They had a stressful day yesterday with the 2 hour journey to our place, and when I went to take a photo, they were asleep under the shade in some hay and did not even stir. Notice how their front legs are intertwined (we had considered getting just one due to the cost, but decided that the company would go a long way to keeping them both happy and healthy).

We need to fence a new area for them to graze, although there is no rush, as we will keep them penned up until they are used to this as their new home. This is the first time they have lived with dirt and grass under their feet, so we don't think it will take them long to call this home.

We only went a few days without having pigs on our property, but we are glad those days are over. These two are the beginning of our herd, and we hope that they will long be a part of our family.

For more photos, click here.

A freezer full of pork

2011-03-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, we processed the pig we'd saved for ourselves.

A couple of friends came and helped Abe with the nitty gritty. We had prepped pretty well and things went very smoothly. Nonetheless it was a lot of work. They began at 7am and finished at 12pm. All three were pretty tired, but a hearty meal of, yep you guessed it, pork helped out.

I weighed and bagged the meat before putting it in the freezer:
7lbs 14oz ribs, 1lb 5oz back strap, 12lb 4oz steaks, 17lb 12oz roast cuts, 1lb sidepork, 2lb 1oz stewing meat.

On Thursday we rendered the lard, which took a LONG time, but produced 9 liters of lard, and some leaf lard (we're rendering that today, so not sure how much, although considerably less than regular lard). Plus there was a bunch of cracklings, over 7 pounds.

Also on Thursday we ground up all the meat we'd put aside for ground pork and sausage - 7lb 4 oz ground pork and 8lb 11 oz sausage.

Not sure how much the hams and bacon weigh. We will weigh them when we take them out of their cure in 10 days.

The guys that helped us took the head to make tamales, the skin to do crackling and the liver. Plus we'll give them some steaks when we cut them up and some sausage and ham when they're done.

In all, a year's supply of meat for us, and extremely tasty meat too from what we've already sampled.

We'll be posting full instructions on our site soon:
http://www.velacreations.com/pigs.html

For more photos, click here.

Hair cuts

2011-03-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

I just cut my boys' hair, and they both look so cute that I thought I'd post the photo. There's also some more photos and videos of Leo here since my last blog.

Our weekly chores

2011-03-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

We seem to be so busy at the moment, what with running the homestead, earning money, additional projects and anything else we can squeeze in before the baby arrives (we know from experience that we will not be getting much done right after Nico arrives in about a month). So we decided to organize our chores into a weekly schedule, to help us remember to do some of the bits and pieces that need to be done every week. Then we fit all the other stuff around this list.

If interested, here it is:
Monday - Rabbits: breeding, weighing, weaning, separating females that are due, butchering, tanning hides, etc.
Tuesday - Watering trees. Moving chicken pen and tractor.
Wednesday - Garden: making soil blocks, transplanting, planting, collecting seeds, canning, drying, etc.
Thursday - Day off... well, day off chores at least, but that just makes it a better day to tackle big projects!
Friday - Water trees. Check on bees (every other week). Clean house.
Saturday - Laundry (by hand of course). We will now be starting to use the rest of this day to work on our site, as it is in pretty dire need of an update.
Sunday - Mushrooms (every other week).

New Freezer

2011-03-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

Last year, we bought a Sundanzer Fridge. They are expensive, as they are designed for off-grid systems and are extremely efficient, but worth every penny in the long run. The fridge has never made a dent in our batteries and we love it.

Well, we have been saving and have now bought a Sundanzer freezer. We have put it in the (half-buried) powerhouse, where the temperature stays a constant throughout the year. We also bought some extra solar to make sure it didn't tax our system.

Abe installed the solar yesterday (look at our beautiful, but ramshackle set of solar panels) and our batteries have been floating all day, which basically means that they are as full as they can get. So we decided to turn on the freezer. We don't really have anything to put in it yet, so I filled up a bunch of water bottles and ice trays to give it some thermal mass. Oh yes, and it has one rabbit in it. Next week it should be filled with a year's supply of fresh pork, ham, bacon and sausage. Until then, I may have to make it a little more useful by making some ice-cream... doesn't life suck!!

This little piggy went to market

2011-03-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

This week we sold two of our three pigs.

We had set up a ramp into our little Toyota pickup a couple of days beforehand, where we started to feed them. In hindsight, we should have done this sooner, for they were not quite comfortable enough with it when the time came to load them up. We spent about an hour with Abe trying to push them up the ramp, when they wouldn't go voluntarily, and that just stressed everyone involved out. So he then tried something he'd read on a pig forum - he put a bucket over their head and pushed them (without too much force) backwards up the ramp. They were trying to get their head out of the bucket by running backwards. In fuve minutes they were both loaded and calmer, looking for food.

We have a formula to estimate their weight, using their length and girth, but we had obviously been doing it a little wrong, as they ended up being 10kg lighter than we had thought. Oh well, you live and learn.

We have kept one pig, which will be for our family's needs. She was the smallest of the three, so we are going to let her gain a little weight first. I had been worried that she would pine for her siblings, but she actually seems very happy. Being the smallest, she was always the last to the feed and mud pit - now, she's king of the castle and seems to really enjoy it.

It will be very sad to see her go and be without pigs - they truly are a joy and benefit to any homestead - so we have decided to buy two breeding sows. They are already bred and are big and beautiful. We will pick them up over the next couple of weeks, once we've moved their pasture and pen.

For photos click here.

Setting up the bait hives

2011-03-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

We went down to a friend's apple ranch yesterday and put up the three baithives Abe had made. They are each in a quiet spot, amongst trees, close to the river, right next to all the about-to-bloom- apple trees. We have only ever seen swarms of bees later in the year, but we wanted to have them up now in case any hives are ready to swarm soon. Hopefully we'll catch a few extra hives to add to our property.

For more photos, click here.

Gifts for the Grandparents

2011-03-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

As my belly gets bigger and more cumbersome (I now only have 6 weeks to go, give or take whatever Nicky decides), travel will be limited, so we decided to go and visit Abe's folks one last time before our family increases.

We split the trip into two days as we were all kind of sick and tired with Leo's cold. This is definitely the worst cold I have had (and still have, almost two weeks later) in a long, long time. And, in the spirit of family sharing, we left the grandparents with the gift of our germs... very sorry, Mo-mo and Po-po.

On the second day of our journey, Abe had some running around to do, so he left Leo and I at a MacDonalds. Now, this is normally an establishment we do not particularly favor, and have never been to in the 10 years we have been together, BUT it was right next to our motel AND it has a huge play area! It was all I could do to get Leo to eat some food before he ran delightedly to the maze of colored slides. He had a blast, especially when another little boy arrived and joined him. He was sorry to see papa return and say it was time to go, although there was a very large consolation: "We're going to Mo-mo and Po-po's".

Leo loves it at Jim and Vickie's. There are of course the horses, cows, chickens, fish, and the feeding thereof to keep him entertained. More thrilling though are the vehicles. There's the big bike with the basket on back, his little tricycle (which after an hour or two he had learned to ride - you can cycle at our place, but off-road mountain biking would be a fairer description of the activity), a red wagon which he wanted to hook up to every other vehicle, the four-wheeler. He was constantly pulling on either Jim or Vickie's arm to get them to go for a ride with him, and they usually acquiesced! In fact, it was generally a chore, and often ended in tears, to get him to come inside at all.

We had a great few days and are now back home, with what seems like a million things to do.

For more photos, click here.

Sick again

2011-03-07T11:19:00.000-08:00

Leo has only ever been sick a handful of times, but two of those have come this year.

He started off with a high fever one day that went away without any other symptoms. Then a day later the cold came out. He spent a couple of days with stuffed nose and cough - mostly on my lap, in my arms or asleep. He seems a lot better today though and slept well last night, so looks like we might be past the hump (until we get it off course!).

I had to take this photo - even sick and stuffed up, he still manages to keep a good grip of the important things in life!

There's a couple of other photos and videos in 35th month. My favorite is when he becomes the chocolate cake monster (not sure where the monster came from, but I took it as a compliment to the new recipe I was trying out).

In separate Leo news, we went to visit some friends in a neighboring village, who have some small kids, and Leo had his first ever soda. Unfortunately, but very predictably, he loved it. His first reaction was "bla", but then he took another sip, then a gulp, then it was gone! He'll have to wait until we go back there to have his second taste.

Finished pantry

2011-03-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

We finished off the last few details of the pantry this week - moulding and painting. Photos

We've done other bits and pieces, but one newsworthy thing is that we sold our tractor. The guy came and picked it up yesterday. We used it a little, but for the most part our property is too steep for a tractor without tracks. We decided it was best to sell it to someone who would use it more, so it's gone!

Wicking Beds

2011-03-07T10:47:00.000-08:00

This weekend Abe got a couple of lads from the village to come and help him make two wicking beds (I am not much use with a pic and shovel at the moment).

A wicking bed is basically a box-type planter, which is watered from the bottom.

To build it, they:
- Dug into the ground a little, making sure the bottom was level.
- Buried 6 stakes, which mark the corners and middle of the box.
- Attached shade cloth to the inside of the stakes.
- Lined the bottom half of the box with black plastic and a vinyl tarp (to protect the plastic from being torn by rocks.
- Put a 4" drainage pipe (with holes along it) in bottom of box, and then put 4" PVC into it. This is where you water your plants from.
- Filled up bottom half of the box with gravel and sand.
- Filled up rest of box (where there is just shade cloth, no plastic) with compost.

You add water into the PVC pipe, which drains out into the gravel. The soil will then wick the moisture up to the plants. To wick well, it must have high organic content. It is highly efficient with water. We will also be adding a frame above that can hold either shade cloth or greenhouse plastic.

For more photos, click here.

Our gray water interior flower beds work on a very similar principle. As you can see by the photo, it seems to be working pretty well. Here are some more photos of them.

Pantry

2011-02-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

Something kind of exciting for the nesting mother was the pantry we built this week. The entrance-way was designed to have a two-foot deep shelving unit in it, but it was never a priority. Well, we've now done it and I love it. So much space for extra, non-perishable foods. It'll be especially great this year when we do a lot more canning and have honey, etc.

We then made a little shoe rack and put up some hooks for jackets and hats. The entrance-way is now so clear and tidy. Just need to put up the finishing face boards, paint it, and seal its brick floor and it'll be another part of the house that is fully finished.

For more photos, click here.

Worm harvester 2.0

2011-02-27T13:20:00.000-08:00

Back in August we made a worm harvester to make the job of separating our earthworms from the wonderful fertilizer they produce a lot easier. It worked pretty well, but there were some issues, like it was kind of shaky. So we remade it (a couple of times actually) to get a better version.

It now makes very easy work of the chore and is smooth and fast.

We'll be putting the how-to article here on the site within the week - just need to finish editing it. For photos, click here.

New trees

2011-02-27T13:14:00.000-08:00

We just bought and planted 7 new trees - 4 cherries and 3 peaches. The cherries we planted in our orchard area, which has a drip irrigation system. The peaches are now within the garden fence, so that one day they can offer the vegetables some shade.

We are trying to start some new trees each year, especially as our water situation gets increasingly abundant. We already have some well established plum, apricot, cherry and apple trees. The apricot and cherry are now starting to bloom.

For more photos, click here.

Rabbit Cages

2011-02-27T12:55:00.000-08:00

We love the colony style of rabbit keeping, where the rabbits get to hang out together instead of being in separate cages. It just seems like they are happier (due to companionship) and more healthy (because they can exercise). However, we have encountered a fairly large flaw with the system.

They have a large pen outside as well as an inside space, and many of them had started having their litters in burrows they made outside. Not only did this pose a problem with keeping track of whose babies were whose (now that we have a doe getting pregnant every week and babies a week apart look fairly similar), it also put the babies at risk, like when we had that freak cold front, we found five babies dead outside. There were also some casualties with trampling, when older litters would run over burrows of newborns.

So, we have come up with a compromise. We made two cages that we hung in the air inside. A couple of days before a doe is due to give birth, we put her in one of the cages. She then stays in there until her babies open their eyes (about a week to 10 days), by which time they are not nearly so fragile. We can count the babies, know their colors, and monitor them a lot more closely in that first crucial week this way, and yet they still get to be with the others for most of the time. We have tried it out with a couple of does and it worked great.

We now need to make two more, and when we do we'll post a how-to article.

Bait Hives

2011-02-27T11:41:00.000-08:00

Our bees are doing great. They are very active, flying in and out of their hives. A couple of the fruit trees in our area are starting to bloom, so that should make them happy.

Last week, Abe made three bait hives, which we'll be putting in trees near the river, ready to catch a swarm. It's not yet swarming season, but we want to get them in place early so that we don't miss any opportunities.

To see the how-to article on our site, click here. And to look at the photos, click here.

Windy Day

2011-02-27T11:14:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I last blogged, so thought I'd use this super windy day to catch up. Not sure if I can remember half the things we've been doing - it seems like we've been super busy - but I'll try and fill you in on some of our more recent projects over the next few blogs.

I'm now seven months pregnant and getting bigger by the second, so we are trying to make the most of the time while I can still move around and do things (although I definitely get a lot more tired, more quickly, I've noticed, and when I have to bend down for things like cutting wood, I notice a big old bulge in my way). Pregnancy going great though, still not too uncomfortable or suffering any side effects beyond carrying a watermelon around with me, and a very active watermelon at that.

Leo has been great. He is far better at entertaining himself these days, which allows us to work on projects together for limited periods of time or even, occasionally, to rest. Whenever Abe is working online, Leo and I go into the village and play with other kids either in the kinder-garden or at their homes. We have enrolled him in kinder-garden starting in August - won't go every day, but a few times a week - and he LOVES that. He was using a small kid's potty for the bathroom, but he has now started going in the big toilet, so we no longer have to clean the potty. Talking gets better and better - even though it's hard to shut him up at times, it does make the finer points of communication a lot easier. Dressing is almost completely independent, once you lay out the clothes. All of these little changes will help when we have the new little guy around. He's super into climbing, and whenever we go hiking we have to watch that he doesn't run for the nearest rock or cliff - see if you can spot him in this picture. I haven't been taking as many photos recently, but there are some new(ish) ones of him in 34th Month. Any I take this month will go in 35th Month, which I'll create when I have a photo to put in there.

Well, here I go with a blogging catch-up...

Black Soldier Flies

2011-02-03T08:57:00.000-08:00

A pretty exciting new addition to our household is some Black Soldier Flies.

There's a guy on Abe's favorite forum, permies.com, who got chatting to Abe and then sent us some of these incredible little creatures for free - (Thanks a lot ape99!).

They eat anything dead or rotting, and eat it very quickly. There are videos of people putting dead animals in a container of these BSF and in the morning the carcass is gone. Once we increase our population, we plan to use them to compost all manure, animal and human. Their waste can then go to worms. And there is one added bonus: the maggots harvest themselves and can fill all of a chicken's (or even pig's) protein needs. When the maggots are ready to change into adults, they climb up out of their container into whatever you put on the other end. For them to breed, you let some outside. They will turn into adults (a wasp-like fly) for just a day or two and their only job as an adult is to breed. They will lay their eggs in the same container you keep the maggots, which give off a hormone that attracts the female adult.

Wish I could have included a photo of the bucket home Abe made for them, but it's so cold outside I don't want to open them up! We'll keep you posted as our colony increases.

Iphone

2011-02-03T08:33:00.000-08:00

After seeing how involved Leo became with Bart's Ipad (he had a bunch of toddler games on there for his grandson, Logan), Abe downloaded some apps to the iphone. Leo loves them. It is amazing how fast he picks these things up. He knows how to turn on the iphone, maneuver around his games, play the games themselves, turn it off. He also knows that he shouldn't get into any of his papa's apps, but doesn't always act as if he knows. With Bart's Ipad, he'd only really been interested in a bubble making game, but now (just a week later) he has mastered all kinds of different apps. He's especially into spelling games at the moment, and is getting pretty good at putting the letters in their places for several simple words.

He continues to be interested in his little brother and frequently remarks how big he's getting (less than 3 months to go!). We go and play with a little boy Leo's age who also has a baby brother. Leo seems to like the baby almost as much as he likes the boy, and loves it when the baby squeezes his finger and gurgles. I am really starting to look forward to having two boys, and seeing them interact together.

Going through a slightly difficult stage with Leo. He now wants to dress himself completely and doesn't want any help from us. However, he still needs a little help and gets so frustrated. Oh well, he's getting better and better, so maybe this stage won't last long, or maybe he'll learn to accept a little help with dignity (?).

One huge step forward is that he now takes himself off to bed for a nap. He says he wants to go night night, gives us a kiss and goes upstairs. At night, he still needs a little input. At about 8.30 or so (sometimes with a little prodding from us), he undresses and puts on his pajamas. He then gets his purple duck (which has replaced the elephant and cars for bedtime companion), makes sure I have his water cup, and then we go upstairs. I read him two stories and he then goes to sleep.

Here's a few new videos and photos.

Emily's wedding

2011-02-03T08:27:00.000-08:00

On 22nd January, Abe's youngest sister, Emily, got married to Roeland. We drove to Tucson for the wedding.

The journey there went really smoothly, but left us all pretty tired. We'd planned to break the 12 hour drive into two days, but Leo was so good that we just kept on driving. I was pretty sore - I guess I'm not used to sitting down for so long - but arriving at our destination more than made up for any discomfort felt.

It was great to see everyone and we all had a fun weekend. There were a few problems with the hotel that hosted guests and events, but luckily the Connally crowd are not easily deterred from having a good time.

The wedding was beautiful, with a lovely outdoor setting and stunning bride. Abe and his uncle Bart performed the ceremony jointly- how often do you hear the words "I married my sister today, and so did my uncle."?

I wish we had gotten more photos. But somehow we didn't get around to it, what with being tired from the trip, managing Leo and his wayward sibling, and enjoying the festivities.

The highlights for Leo were playing with his cousin, Arlo (especially when Arlo played some tunes on the piano), and borrowing his uncle Bart's Ipad. There were of course other great times, like pretend farting with his grandpa at everyone who went by, but those are more commonplace events.

Congratulations Emily and Roeland, and thank you for putting on a great weekend.

After the wedding, we went to spend a few days relaxing with Jim and Vickie before heading home. Leo was amazed to find out that Santa had come to their house as well and left him something there. This Santa dude is pretty impressive.

For more photos, click here.

Snow!

2011-02-03T08:24:00.000-08:00

We've now been home a week and am only now catching up with a few blogs. The weather is permitting us the perfect chance to do anything we need to on the computer. And then I think we may move to the sofa for some movies!

We thought this storm that has hit the whole US would miss us, but it swung back and bit us in the butt. We woke up this morning to overcast skies, horizontal snow and a temperature of 17 Degrees (it hasn't been even close to that in the three and a half years we've been here). We have a fire going and are really very comfortable inside (had brought a bunch of firewood inside in anticipation of the storm). Abe's been outside a couple of times to check on the animals and everyone looks OK.

Looks like this will be gone in a couple of days. Do feel very sorry for the folks out there who will be cold for longer, some of whom are without electricity, and thus heat in many cases. Snuggle up to anything you can find and look out for the sun, it'll come back.

Here's a couple more photos. Not that spectacular yet, but I'll post photos here if it keeps going or gets worse.

Property Updates

2011-01-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

I haven't written much about the place recently, so I thought I'd do a little update on how things are doing.

Building
We haven't done any building since we finished the bathroom and hot water system. We really have everything we need, so no need to hurry on to the next construction projects, at least until well after the baby is born. We'll probably make the pantry (a big cupboard in the entranceway) and another shelf or two, but that's it for the next couple of months.

Hot Water system
This has really changed our lives and is the greatest luxury on the place. There have been a couple of small issues to work out, but Abe figures them out and fixes them. Unless it's cloudy for several days or unless we use the floor heaters a lot, our tank temperature sits happily at 130 degrees and will almost burn you!

Compost Heater
This did not work out as well as we had hoped. Although it heated Leo's wall a lot at the beginning, it does not do so steadily. We will have to tweak the idea to make it more effective. At least we''ll get a big old pile of compost out of the experiment.

Pigs
The three pigs are growing at an incredible rate. They more than doubled (and one of them almost tripled) their weight in the first month we had them. We made a pasture for them and they love to run around in it, root up the dirt, eat grass and play. When you arrive, they come running up to be petted, scratched and fed scraps. They consider Leo one of them. Photos

Chickens
We replaced most of our chickens a little while ago with some young layers. They have recently started to produce eggs. So far we are getting about two a day, but that will increase with Spring. It's Leo's treasured job to collect them (although he is only allowed to carry one back to the house).

Rabbits
The rabbits are amazing. We have kept a lot of the best females to pad out our breeding stock. We now have twelve females, four of which are still not ready to breed. By March, when they are all of breeding age, we will be getting a litter a week. Right now we have a little over 40 of them, of all different sizes!
They are truly the easiest animals in the world to keep and a joy to watch. Photos

Gardens
We didn't plant anything for winter outside. There was a lot going on at the time and we decided to let it go for this year. The inside dining room planter is on the other hand doing great, with all kinds of herbs, greens, carrots and garlic going crazy. We will shortly be doing soil blocks for the living room one.

Road
For the grand old price of $15, we got our road graded the other day. Most people don't understand what this means, but to sum it up for you, our road is long (2 miles), dirt and was in terrible condition after the rains we got this year. It now feels like a super highway, and my increasing belly is very grateful.

Beds

2011-01-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

To all those that contributed to the Leo/Nicky bed fund, thank you so very much.

We have bought and installed the new bed, and it takes up most of the bedroom (we are currently in what will one day become Nicky's room and it is not designed for a king size!!). It is unbelievably comfortable, and Leo loves it as much as we do. We can all three be in the bed and have to crawl for miles to cuddle, so we often congregate in the center.

Leo also loves his new big bed (our old one). It was especially great while he was sick. I could sleep with him and we both had plenty of room, although his preferred sleeping position is wrapped around my neck stroking my hair (something he has loved to do from the beginning).

Thanks again folks.

Happy New Year

2011-01-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New year to everyone, and hope that 2011 brings you all kinds of happy events and memories.

Ours promises to be as good, if not better than 2010, but it did not start well. We had a bunch of people come and visit us after Christmas, and a couple of days later Leo got sick.

Started off with a high temperature, sleeping a lot and wanting to be held whenever awake. It then progressed to painful stomach cramps and diarrhea for several days. We didn't get anything, so must be something we already have resistance to (like Rotovirus).

Leo drinks so much water that dehydration (the biggest danger in such an illness) was never a worry. However, it was horrible watching him in pain and not being able to do anything. There is a medication you can give for the virus, but most reports say that although it relieves some of the symptoms, it usually makes the illness last longer, and is best to avoid if you can.

One thing that really upset him was that we had to put diapers on him for the worst days. He cried and cried at that, so we took it off, but then soiling his pants upset him even more and he relented.

What helped more than anything was hot water. I brought in my laundry tub and set it up by the fire. He sat and played for a long time in the hot water and hot room, and it seemed to really help him relax.

Thankfully he is now doing a whole lot better. A little weak still when he tries to do too much, but he'll soon be back to normal.

Almost two years nine months

2011-01-06T06:16:00.000-08:00

I read through the last post I did on Leo, when he was two and a half, to see what I had written. He's now about to be two and nine months and not much has really changed.

His speech just keeps getting better and better, becoming more easily understandable to people beyond his parents. He's using some simple verb tenses, prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives. He will often sit down and chat away to himself (or some toy) for very long periods of time. His toys even have long conversations with each other, via their puppeteer.

He's at the stage when he repeats EVERYTHING you say, no matter how long and complicated. The longer your sentence is, the more he'll stammer over it, but he gets it all out eventually (if unclearly). He is also getting better with the written aspect of our language. He repeats the alphabet back to you, saying every letter extremely well except L (for Leo) and N (for Nicky, which he pronounces Micky) - I guess we made pretty poor choices in kids' names! His favorite letter is W, which he thinks is very funny.

Spanish also improves whenever we visit friends and other kids. The strange thing to me is that he will instantly use the language with which someone addresses him, and doesn't seem to confuse the two. Whenever someone comes to the house, he likes to be the one who goes outside, shakes their hand, holds the door open and says "Pase-le" (come in), which of course people find adorable. Unknown visitors, who come to see what we are doing here, are all referred to by him as "Peoples" or "Peoples and kids".

His memory is something that continually amazes me. We'll see, do or say something that triggers something in that little mind of his that happened months ago. At times, we struggle to keep up, and we'll look at each other a little confused. But then we remember what he's talking about, and realize how glorious a young mind and memory is! A couple of weeks ago, I was going through family photos for a calendar I put together and he could remember so many of their names. It doesn't surprise me that he would remember grandparents and some of his aunts and uncles, with whom we skype with and see in person fairly regularly. However, when he saw, for example, his uncle Bruce's photos (whom he has seen a total of two times in his life), he instantly beamed and shouted "Bruce" - I guess Bruce made a big impression!

He sings more and more. He loves any movie with a song and especially ones he can pick out words from. Whenever we go out in the car, he usually starts the journey naming all the things he can see (tree, rock, horse, cow, bird, sun, etc.), then lapses into a song of some unknown origin.

One huge advancement is his independence in the toilet area. He can now pull up and down his own pants, and has, over the last month, learned to "pee like a man" (ie. standing up. Like any other man, he only gets one or two drops of pee on his pants!). So we are no longer needed for his bathroom needs. Great.

He is getting more and more stubborn and defiant. He's into a stage of testing his boundaries, and we find that a lot of our tricks and bribes no longer work. I'll be cooking and hear a very firm "no" in answer to an order from Abe (like put that knife down right now). I'll look over at the two of them and they will be staring each other down (in a way that frankly makes me love each of them even more!). Of course Abe always wins, which is hard for the little guy to accept, but there are times when he just can't be allowed to get away with things. Defiance is one of those things that is very frustrating for a parent to deal with, especially when you are trying to tell them something for their own good. It is however a trait, a spark, that I like to see my son has, he just needs to learn when and how to use it. (Remind me I said that some time in the future when I am screaming and ripping my hair out that Leo deliberately disobeyed me, again, in some matter or other!!).

He is very interested in my growing belly and likes to kiss, pet and talk to it. I've already started preparing things for the baby (a little early for nesting, I realize), and Leo points and things and says "when Nicky comes". It's going to be interesting to see how he'll handle his little brother in the flesh. When his little playmates come up here to our house, Leo is very courteous, sharing all his toys happily and even showing them ones they hadn't noticed. Hopefully that's a sign of good things to come.

Christmas was a blast with him. Abe and I never really celebrated it much when we were on our own, but now we have started again. And it's a lot of fun seeing it through the eyes of a small child. Leo put cookies and milk out for Santa on Christmas Eve and was amazed to see them gone in the morning. He looked at the empty plate and presents with a look of awe rather than excitement. "Santa come. Santa flies." He then got to open his gifts, and spent the WHOLE day engrossed in playing with them. He still talks about Santa, but knows that he's now gone home, to where it's cold. We can't wait til next year!

For more photos, click here.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-22T10:42:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a great 2011.

All our love,
Abe, Josie, Leo and Nico

She has a penis

2010-12-22T10:15:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm in my 20th week of pregnancy, we decided to go and have another ultrasound.

Everything looks great. All normal and healthy. Just one small issue - our little girl has a penis! Yep, that's right, another boy. And before any of you start in with stories of someone you know who thought their baby was a boy, but turned out to be a girl, our little guy was very accommodating in the view he gave us of his junk. Even Leo, who was calling out the body parts he could see, cried "Nicky's wee wee".

Of course at the end of the day, it doesn't much matter either way. But it will take some readjustment. We had always assumed it would be a she, a little sister, etc. Well, Nicola Tess is no more, little Nico took her place!

And he is a very active little guy. I am now feeling him regularly. Thankfully, I have no discomfort or bad side effects of the pregnancy so far, although the BIG months are about to begin! Keep you posted next year.

As for Leo, I realize that I am long overdue for an update. I promise I will do a post on him in January. For the time being, suffice it to say that he's doing great, growing like a weed, in constant trouble, chatting up a storm and excited about Christmas.

Christmas Tree

2010-12-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

We had figured that we would have one more year before Christmas really kicked in at our place. We were wrong. Two and a half is old enough, I guess.

We went to the city and Leo met Santa, shook his hand even, and he has been talking about him ever since. He also loves the lights, especially on trees.

So, given his general excitement about Christmas (even if full comprehension is still lacking), we have entered into the spirit. And I'm really glad we did, as the eagerness of children is completely infectious.

We cut down a small juniper tree from our property, and decorated it. It makes a really nice little tree, and Leo loves it when it gets dark and we can turn the lights on.

We also got him a Christmas stocking, seeing as Santa now knows where he lives.

Articles

2010-12-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

Since finishing the bathroom and sealing the floors, we have been concentrating mainly on other types of work - you know, the kind that earns you money. One of our revenues is writing articles. Here are some links to a few of the most recent that have been published by Make magazine; the ones that are not yet published will be coming soon, but the photos will give you an idea.

Toddler Swing:
How-to article - coming soon
Photos
Leo testing the prototype

Solar Food Dryer:
How-to article - coming soon
Photos

Fabric-formed posts:
How-to article - coming soon
Photos - here and here

Top bar beehive:
How-to article - coming soon
Photos

Soilblocks:
How-to article
Version printed in Make
Photos

CEB Floors:
How-to article
Version printed in Make
Photos - here and here

Tool Bucket:
How-to article
Version printed in Make
Photos

Jar Organiser:
How-to article
Version printed in Make
photos

The Leo/Nicky Bed Fund

2010-11-27T12:28:00.000-08:00

This post is for family and friends that would be buying us something for Christmas or a gift for the new baby when that time comes. We ask that instead of doing either of those things, would you please consider contributing to this project.

We got to thinking about what we needed to get for when the baby arrives, and we realized that we have absolutely everything we need - clothes for boy or girl, crib, blankets, toys, a new house and bathroom, etc. There is however one very large thing that we need - a bigger bed.

When Leo wakes up in the mornings, he likes to come and get in bed with us and either go back to sleep for a while or play. And when the baby joins us, she will be sleeping with us at first. It's already pretty crowded in our double bed with the added bulk of a rowdy two and a half year old, let alone a new (and delicate) little one. So we have decided to get a king size bed to accommodate the whole family.

We priced out what the whole thing will cost, including frame, mattress, sheets, etc. and the price (without shopping around too much) is $700. So, chip in to the bed fund with the widget above, and help us achieve our goal!

This little piggy went home with us

2010-11-27T12:13:00.000-08:00

Pigs have always been on our homesteading agenda. The original plan was to get our feet wet with a couple of feeder pigs in Spring 2011, and then maybe get 2 or 3 breeder sows and a boar the year after. A great plan, and only one hitch so far - it got jump-started.

Abe was talking to a guy in the village who mentioned he had some piglets and was about to take them to the market. Abe naturally asked to see them, and 5 minutes later he had arranged to come and pick three of them up the following day or so. That was Thursday.

We went from his house to a nearby town to get some sacks of feed, a nipple that the pigs drink water from, and a few T-Posts. That afternoon, we began work on building a corral and house for the newcomers.

By 3 O'Clock Friday afternoon, we had finished the remesh pen, the water and feeding system, and the hoop-house, which we filled with hay for bedding. So we went to the village to pick up our pigs.

Joel caught them (not too hard as they lived in a pretty small pen) and lifted them up. Abe held up a feed sack under them and pulled it up over the pig. In the sack, they were fairly calm and couldn't run around. It was funny to see these feed sacks with a pig nose sticking out of them!

We took them home and let them loose in the pen. They were over the moon - they had never seen grass before and were immediately rooting around. We were in the pen with them and Leo just loved it. The hardest thing about the whole thing was getting him to leave.

Abe checked on them a couple of times in the night. The first time, they were bedded down outside the hoop house, so he picked them up and threw them into the hay. The next time he went to check on them, he couldn't find them anywhere. The giveaway was the fact that the straw (where they had buried themselves) was snoring.

Now all we have to do is put up some electric fencing, so that they can pasture. We plan to make the fences follow the contours of the land, so that when the pigs are rooting, they will actually be doing the foundation work for swales.

First thing Leo said this morning was "See pigs?"
"Sure. Let's go. How many pigs are there?"
"Three."
"That's right, one for papa, two for mama, three for Leo."
"One Nicky?" (Nicky is what we're calling the new baby at the moment).
"No baby, Nicky's going to share mama's pig."
"Poor Nicky."

For more photos, click here.

Sealing the Floors

2010-11-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

We finally got around to something I have been waiting for for a very long time - sealing the downstairs floors.

Because the sealant is so stinky, it is not something we could just do, as the house must be left open for a while. We'd wanted to do it at the beginning of the year, but we had visitors, then other stuff came up, then the rains started, etc. This was the last chance we had to get it done before it gets cold.

This was something I did not participate in, as we were worried that it might be something that would affect the baby. Abe and a friend did a great job and it went a lot faster than we had thought.

We have left the house open and alone, while we take a mini vacation, much deserved we feel.

We have now done all the major projects we had wanted to get finished before winter, and when we return home I will be able to sweep and mop the whole house - just in time for the pregnancy nesting phases. Poor Abe.

For more photos, click here.

Compost heater

2010-11-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

Another thing we did this week was build a compost heater.

The brick walls on the north side of the bedroom can get a little cold this time of the year, so we are trying an experiment. To the north of Leo's room, we built a big, insulated box out of hay bales, 14 feet by 4 feet, 3 feet tall. We then lined it with a tarp and put layers of weeds and manure into it. After wetting it down we covered it with a tarp and insulation.

We'll see how it works before we do outside our room. So far, it is doing great. It has definitely heated up. The bricks lower down the wall are considerably warmer than the ones higher up. Time will tell how much it warms up the room and how long it will last. The great thing is that even if the experiment is a failure, we will get a whole bunch of compost out of the deal!

For more photos, click here.

Tank finished

2010-11-21T18:01:00.000-08:00

Well, the hot water system and bathroom are now totally finished.

We put radiant barrier around the tank, then insulation (R40), and then built a box around it all, which we stuccoed, waterproofed and painted.

The water now sits at about 115 to 120 degrees. It is too hot on its own. We can take showers as long as we want. If we leave the floor heaters on all night the temperature drops to 95 degrees, but heats back up to 120 by 10 or 11 in the morning.

We are very happy with it!

All photos, click here.

First shower in the new bathroom

2010-11-14T07:49:00.000-08:00

Well, we didn't hit our desired deadline of 1st November for the bathroom, but we are now within 2 days of totally finishing. Things always seem to take longer than you think they will, what with unexpected occurrences and general delays. Oh well.

So, what have we accomplished?

Abe has got a lot done outside. The panels are finished and are now circulating hot water through the tank, which is in place and hooked up to the system. We have 2 pumps connected - 1 circulates the water through the sub floor heating, the other pumps the water from the tank to panels. When the panels are within 10 degrees F of the tank, the pump turns itself off. There is a control panel inside the house, which shows us what the temperatures of the panels and tank are. All that lacks now is to insulate and stucco the tank, which should take 2 days. As is, the tank's water gets hot in the day, but then loses its heat overnight.

He had one major mishap, one that was totally beyond his control. The hot water for the shower and sinks comes from 100 meters of 1" pipe that we coiled up inside the tank (which was a bitch to do!). It was in place and hooked up and Abe was about to fill the tank with water when the pipe sprung a leak, luckily near the end. I climbed inside and cut the bad piece of pipe off (almost couldn't get out, and give me another month of pregnancy and I won't be able to!) and we thought all was well. He filled the tank and then a day later the pipe sprung another leak. He had to take it all out (after emptying the tank water), buy a new one and recoil it inside. What must have happened was the machine that picked up the roll in the factory must have pierced it, for there were three identical cuts in the roll. We got our money back, but it sucked a lot of time.

I filled the inside planters with soil. We had made a huge pile of compost many months ago and this composed the main substance of the soil. It was black, rich, tarry and filled with worms. I also added a little sand and soil (for trace minerals and bacteria) to the mix, and then put a thick layer of mulch on top. I must have moved more than a ton of earth, and of everything I've done recently it was the most tiring couple of days.

I also finished all the interior concrete and then painted the bathroom. Abe installed the bathtub, shower and sink, and then we hung the curtail rail and shower curtain. Yesterday, the three of us took our first ever showers in our own home. It was truly blissful, and of course Leo loved it as much, if not more than we did. I got the privilege of the first shower, which was a mistake, as Abe and Leo then got in and stayed there until the hot water ran out, which was a very long time. That's the last time I let Abe be chivalrous.

We've been dreaming of having a hot shower in our bathroom for so long now that we can hardly believe it's actually done. We feel like we have truly climbed to the dizzying heights of civilization. I guess all that's left to do now is a solar hot tub!?

For photos, click here.
For photos of the construction of the planters, click here.

Hot water panels

2010-10-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

We worked again on the hot water system this week.

I finished interior stucco, but I still have other concrete work to do.

Abe stripped, cleaned, tested and put up the solar water heating panels. They are each 8 feet by 4 feet metal, insulated boxes, with copper pipes (painted black) snaking back and forth inside. They are then closed with glass.

The panels were on the verge of being thrown away some months ago in New Mexico. They were saved from the dump by Abe's dad, Jim, who is just as loathe as Abe to see anything useful become trash. Though he didn't need them, he immediately told the guy that his son would use them, so the man gave them to Jim for free. One of the panel's glass was broken and they were a little dirty, but otherwise in perfect condition.

They now have a new home, mounted on our roof. You cannot hold your finger inside the copper pipe as it gets way too hot.

This week, we work on the tank and controls. Next week, we should be having hot showers inside our bathroom!

For all of the photos, click here.

Two and a half

2010-10-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Leo has just passed the 2 ½ year marker. Hard to believe at times, but the little baby is now almost completely gone, and in his place is this disarmingly cute little boy.

Physically there's not been too much change in the past 6 months – he still runs, jumps, climbs all over the place. Still loves to swing from stuff and be thrown around and up in the air. Accepts any chance he can get (no matter if he's never seen the person before) to ride a horse with someone. His throw keeps getting stronger and more accurate.

His coordination is certainly heightened. He can get into far more complicated devices and wrappers than before. He can take off shoes and socks (always putting the socks inside each shoe), and is starting to tackle dressing, or should I say undressing.

He's very tidy and organized and will always put his toys back in their exact places. He also has a fair amount of respect for things that aren't his. That's not to say that he doesn't mess with our things, but he USUALLY asks you first.

Verbally is the biggest change for sure. His language skills have taken off. Having spent 10 days with a bunch of Brits, his pronunciation, especially of “t”s, has gotten a lot better. He will repeat a word back instantly (not always clearly, but he's trying). He also forms pretty good sentences now, with noun, verb, adjective and object. Hasn't yet used any prepositions or adverbs, but hey, he's just 2. And something that is super cool is his Spanish. This week Abe and I have been working hard on the bathroom, and Leo has been spending time with Armando and Estela. In just three days, he is now saying over 15 words in Spanish and learning more each time.

He now knows every letter (except X) of the alphabet, and at least two words for each letter. He can repeat back to you the numbers 1 to 10 in both English and Spanish, though only does 1 to 5 in English independently. He knows all his basic colors and uses them correctly.

He is also exceptionally observant. Abe's the same way, he sees things I wouldn't even think to look for, and Leo has inherited this very useful gift. We'll be outside at dusk to see the first stars come out, and I'll point out the bright ones (planets). Leo will then point to something and say “baby star”. When he points it out I see it, but wouldn't have done before. The same goes for horses, cows, birds, etc. that he can see on the surrounding hills or skies.

Personality-wise, he is overall a very sweet and loving boy. He is curious about everything and generally enchanted by life. He does throw little fits of course, but generally not too bad. He lets out a little frustrated scream whenever he's trying to do something and just can't, but I think we can all sympathize with that.

Right now he wants to go play with other kids all the time. He still asks for his little cousin Timmy, and then he remembers that “T-Tim gone home white car.” I have a friend who has 3 boys, the middle of which, Martin, is just 5 days older than Leo. I go and see her whenever I have some spare time, and Leo loves to play there. He is not as advanced as Martin at sharing toys, but I'm hoping that will improve with practice, not to mention a new sibling next year.

His play is getting more entertaining for us. He will entertain himself for longer periods of time now, especially if you are close by. And some of his antics are so funny. His latest thing is teaching his toys how to talk. He'll line up a few of them in front of objects like “Juice” “water” “car”, etc. and repeat each object clearly to his toys. They are not quick learners, but Leo's patience with them seems endless.

I'm sure there are a million other things I'm leaving out, but when you see him every day it's very hard to realize what's new and what's not. Some things we hardly notice as anything special until someone else brings our attention to it.

I haven't taken any photos of Leo since getting back from vacation, but I will try and amend that. I will be putting any photos and videos of this month here.

Bathroom and hot water system

2010-10-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

Since getting back from holiday, our focus has been prepping for winter. First we gathered and cut firewood and did a few other basic bits and pieces, and now we are attacking the bathroom and hot water system. Our goal is to get it finished by around the first of November.

Because it is an integrated system, there is a lot involved.

I've been doing the concrete work – stuccoing the walls and underside of the bathroom ceiling. For those of you who have never done overhead stucco, it is a bitch, leaving you with aching neck and shoulders. However, Abe had saved some acrylic sludge that was in a used barrel we bought and cleaned out, and I added it to my concrete. It made the hardest part of overhead stucco a million times easier. I have another two days to finish the interior of the bathroom and I will then start stuccoing the tank and other bits and pieces outside.

Abe meanwhile has been doing everything else. He's laid the grey, hot, cold and floor heating lines within the house. So far all these lines (except the grey) end just outside the kitchen's east window, which is where the tank will go. This is our 300 gallon heat storage tank. We will have panels on the roof that will heat water and circulate it into the tank. We have not yet set up the tank or the controls – that will be next week's project.

Abe has also been working on the brackets that will hold the panels onto the roof, welding and bolting them together. Next week should also see the panels mounted.

The grey water lines will empty out into the flower beds that are inside the house, in the dining and living rooms. We will be using a wicking bed system for them, whereby the water sits in gravel and rocks, and is then wicked up by the soil to the plants. We'll be adding the soil next week or the week after – that will be almost the last thing we do.

All in all, we had a very productive few days. We're both pretty tired, as it's been a while since we worked like this. But hopefully just another week or two at this pace and we can slow down for the winter months.

On a side note, I have found the cure for morning sickness: since starting working with concrete (which I did all the way through the first two trimesters of Leo) my nausea has disappeared!

For more photos, click here.

Bun in the Oven

2010-10-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

Our biggest news at present is that I'm pregnant again, just entering my 2nd trimester.

Though sex is still unknown, calling the baby "it" feels a little impersonal, so until we know otherwise, it will be "she". There isn't a single girl in Leo's generation on either mine or Abe's side of the family, so we think it's about time to change that.

We had our first ultrasound last week, which is always a wonderful experience. She's an active little booger, dancing around, moving her hands, playing with the umbilical cord. When we had our first view of Leo, he turned towards the camera and we had a perfect shot of his face. With this little one however, just as the doctor was trying to measure her head or spine and be about to click, she would lurch away and he'd have to begin all over again.

As far as the day I ovulated is concerned, she is due on the 10th May. However, based on the size of her head and spine, the doctor is estimating 28th April. We had planned this pregnancy so that the kids wouldn't have birthdays in the same month, but I guess she may not want to cooperate... we'll just have to wait and see.

She's definitely been more trouble so far. With Leo I never felt any morning sickness or anything in the first trimester. With this pregnancy, I have felt sick pretty much all day every day. It is now starting to ease up thankfully, so I'm just getting ready to enjoy these next three months. 2nd trimester is definitely the best – all the fun stuff, before the sheer discomfort sets in!

Shelly's Wedding

2010-10-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

The second part of the trip took place in Arizona. We had a long day traveling from Florida to Tucson. It seems like Leo just got used to the three hour time difference and then we came back. Oh well.

Abe's second eldest sister, Shelly, was getting married, and pretty much the whole Connally clan came to share the day. All the siblings, the parents, uncle and aunt and two cousins.

We had a family party on Saturday night, where the Connallys got to hang out with their new in-laws. It was a lovely evening.

Then, on Sunday, we all went down to the river for the ceremony. It was really sweet and simple, in a scenic, tranquil setting. An obviously happy and well-suited couple, and we're so glad we were able to witness their vows to each other.

Then came the reception. Again, everything looked great. Everything about the wedding was what would be called low budget, in that they did all the catering and decoration themselves. To be honest though, it was the most beautiful and stylish wedding I've been to.

Leo was awesome. He barely cried or whined at all, despite being super tired. He seemed to make friends everywhere he looked, especially on the dance floor. I eventually took him back to Shelly's house early and he crashed.

Everyone had a great time. Just like my family, these are people who really enjoy each other's company and make the most of each time they get together. There were smiles and good times all around. I think it's generally accepted though that Zane is not allowed to mix the shots again!

Congratulations Shelly and Donna.

For more photos and videos, click here.

Florida Trip

2010-10-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

Emily dropped us off at the airport on Wednesday morning, and we arrived that afternoon in Florida. Not a bad journey – two 2 ½ hour flights, with an hour's drive at the end. Leo liked watching the planes, and being in them for a little while, but then he wanted out. Still, it wasn't too bad, especially once he fell asleep.

We stayed at my mom and Bob's house. My grandparents and dad flew in from Europe and stayed in a house nearby, and my sister and her family live an hour away from my mom and came up to visit a couple of times.

It was really great to see everyone. My family is so strewn out that we rarely get to see each other, so when we do, it is very special. With that in mind, we did not do a great deal while we were there, preferring to spend most of the time hanging out with each other.

My sister's youngest boy, Timmy, is 8 months younger than Leo, and I was really looking forward to seeing the two of them together. I was not disappointed. Timmy is pretty much the same size as Leo, and is 3 lbs heavier, so they were evenly matched when disputes did arise. There were definitely moments when they wanted each other's toys, whined, cried, etc. - they are both two year olds. But for the most part, they were very sweet together. They had great fun splashing in the bath, having “blah” shouting competitions, and generally keeping the adults entertained (and run off their feet).

We did go to Disney's Animal Kingdom one day, as my mom and Bob get free tickets. It was a very long day, but fun. The highlight for the babies was when they found water jets coming out of the ground and wall. They played for over an hour in the water, until they were blue and shivering and we had to drag their soaking bodies out.

Thank you everyone for coming and for a wonderful time.

There's a bunch of photos and videos here.

Rain

2010-10-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a long time as we have been away on a trip to visit both sides of the family. We got back home Monday night and have been fairly useless since. Leo repeatedly empties his toy boxes and touches every single one of his things before putting them all back. We're not quite that bad, but it is nice to sleep in our own bed.

The trip was pretty full, so I'll break it down into two more blogs: Florida and Shelly's wedding. But before I even start in on those, our departure from here was an adventure in itself.

We left Monday 27th October and it had been raining solidly for a week. This year has been a strange year for rain. Overall, we got 10 inches more than either 2008 or 2009, but the majority of that fell during one week in July and then the week before we left, with it being fairly dry in between.

At 9 am we were all packed and ready to go, house tidy, fridge empty, baby excited. The ground was so slick and saturated that your footprint would fill with water. We knew it would be a ride up our hill, but we've made it before without issue. In fact, we made it out the afternoon before, without an issue. Today however, our Isuzu decided it would be an appropriate time to give the four-wheel drive a vacation. Abe tried and tried, but the front wheels would not engage. We slipped and slid, but only succeeded in going backwards, and then it started drizzling.

Well, Leo and I went back inside, while Abe tried to come-along (hand winch) the truck out of its hole. He was moving it about a foot and a half an hour. So while he was out there in the cold drizzle, covered in mud, he was figuring out how long it would take to move the truck the rest of the 100 feet. He was getting despondent.

I had tried calling friends, but with the weather people's cellphones weren't getting a signal (there are no landlines around here). I finally got through to someone who turned up a little while later. It wasn't easy, but he managed to pull us up the drive.

We stopped by the river and washed our feet, legs and floor mats, and then continued on our way. We left at 2pm.

Because the wedding was near Tucson, Arizona, we had booked flights from there to Florida. Combining the two trips saved time and money, but it meant an 11 hour drive from us to Tucson. Luckily, we had given ourselves two days to get there, so it all worked out. We drove until 9 pm the first night and slept in a motel. The next day was pretty easy and we arrived at Emily's (Abe's sister) house with plenty of time to relax.

It was a pretty exhausting and stressful start to a vacation, but it did mean that our new rain catchment tank filled up and overflowed. We now have 9000 gallons on the house system.

Rabbit drama

2010-09-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been extremely eventful for us as far as the rabbits are concerned.

First of all, Abe went out to see them one day and the mama of a two week old litter was jumping all around, flopping about and just generally freaking out. Abe looked at her wonderingly and there on the floor was a huge rat snake with a white baby halfway down its throat. Abe killed the snake, but it was too late for the baby. We normally only kill a snake if it is right up near the house and poisonous (rattlesnake), but we also cannot allow a non-venemous snake to take up residence with the rabbits. It was so big (4 feet) and beautiful though that I skinned it and have been tanning the hide. Today is the last day of painting both sides with a glycerin/alcohol mix and it'll be ready to use. When this all happened, we took Leo out to the rabbit shed to show him - we are trying to install in our fearless ranger a sense of fear in some things, you know, like rattlesnakes. Ever since then, he'll periodically say in a tiny, sad voice, "Poor rabbit" and then shout angrily "Bad snake!".

The next major event was the twelve week birthday of our first litter. We kept two females and one male, but the other four met their end. I won't post photos of this process, as some of you I'm sure do not want to see it, but don't forget, this is the reason we are breeding rabbits! We dropped Leo off at a friend's house, then processed the four young ones. We are tanning their furs too. While Abe did the grimmer side of the affair, I helped skin and then cleaned the skins and put them in a water/acid/salt mix. They have now been there for a week and as soon as I finish this post, I will go and peel the flesh off the furs and then they'll go back in the acid for another week. If it all works out well, I plan to make quilts, purses, etc. out of the fur. For the past week, we have been eating rabbit, cooked all kinds of ways, and it is truly delicious.

Two days later, we noticed Obama - our prettiest and biggest female - dragging her hind legs around. We thought that maybe she had just jumped wrong after the stress of the snake, but we seperated her from the others just in case. The next day, one more, Kiwi, had the same symptoms. Abe did some research and figured out what the problem was. They have a parasite called Encephalitozoon cuniculi (EC). Apparently over 80% of all rabbits have it, but only 15% ever show symptoms. We have started medicating them with a drug called Panacur and after three days they have already got some use of their legs back. They will be on the medication for three weeks and we're hoping they will fully recover. We will also be medicating everyone else too, as they probably all have it, and the medication does not harm them even as a preventative measure.

We also made an outside pen for the babies that have been weaned. Right now we have just two females that are breeding, so there aren't that many babies at one time, but we will be putting two more females with a male this month. At the moment, there are only three young rabbits in the pen, but they love going outside, and they have a tree to play under.

Just so that we end on a positive and happy note, Coco had five more babies the other day. They are precious (although they don't start to be pretty until they're a week old). Reina and Coco have now had two litters each since being here (the first of which happened right after they arrived at our place). For a while we were thinking that all the other females might have been bred, as Frisky got into their pen last month. But though his name is fitting, he was either too young or not in there long enough, and noone had any unplanned babies.

For more photos (none of butchering), click here.

Solar Food Dehydrator and food preservation

2010-09-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

This week, Abe made us a solar food dehydrator, an essential component of any self-sufficient homestead. It has a see-through top and front, metal sides, and space for 4 trays, 4 feet by 2 feet each. It has screened air vents at the top and bottom so that hot air rises up through the produce, pulling out the humid air and thus speeding up the drying time. It is great. We got a couple of hundred apples from a neighbor the other day, so it has already paid for itself. We can dry 40 apples at a time in two partially cloudy days. For photos of the dryer being made, click here.

Anyone that has a garden knows that when something is producing well, you have way more than you need or want. For example, the first squash of the season are so exciting and so tasty, but after eating squash every meal, every day, you're almost happy to see the plant dry up.

The key with this imbalance of food is to preserve it in some manner or other, so that you can eat it during winter. There are several ways to do this, each with their own advantages.

Drying is my favorite, as it conserves a lot of the original nutrition and taste, and I consider it safer than canning (which might just be that I'm fairly new to canning and am a little afraid that I won't do it right and will end up poisoning my family!). You can then store the dried produce in cans, bags, containers, whatever. They don't take up much space and will last a long time (provided that you dried them properly). We use the dried fruit as snacks, eaten as is. Vegetables can be rehydrated in soups or eaten like chips. It is truly amazing what you can dry, and how well the flavor is preserved.

We can some things. Canning keeps the moist quality of your produce. For example, we pickled and canned some cucumbers a couple of weeks ago. They are delicious, and everything, including the dill, came from our homestead.

We don't have a freezer yet, so not an option for us, although we would probably only freeze meat, and only for a short amount of time.

Another great way to have fresh food in winter is to grow things that naturally last, like winter squash. I still have one winter squash left over from last year! We have now collected the first of our pumpkins.

We are still slowly building up our homestead, and each year we increase our systems. We look forward to having the pantry ready for next year and being able to fill it in the main growing season.

29th Month

2010-08-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

Leo's now 2 years 4 months. It seems like the months just roll on by, with him growing and changing daily. I can now hardly keep track of all the little stages that he is going through.

He now totally gets the idea of deals – “Eat all your food and you can have chocolate pie” - and we thought we had entered a golden age. Not so. It seems that our two year old is as adept at deal-making as we are.
“Come on, Leo, get your shoes, we have to go into the village.”
“No. No car.”
“Yes. We have to.”
“Car, then swim.”
“We'll see how it goes.”
“Leo swim, Papa swim, Mama swim, Dogs swim.”
“Okay we'll all go swimming when we get back.”
So Leo then gets his shoes and proceeds happily to the car. He falls asleep on the ride into the village and doesn't wake up until we get home. And we figure we are off the hook, but then his eyes flicker open, look around and he says “Swim”.

We have started swimming every day in our pond. We have put our name down for a machine that is in the area. When he gets around to us (the list is fairly long), we will be able to fix the pond, allowing 2 more meters (or 6 more feet) of depth, as well as making it wider. But even in its broken and depleted state, it is still over my head in the center. Leo loves it. He begs to go swimming all day, every day. He's not yet swimming, or even close, but he is making a lot of progress and his confidence grows each time we go down there.

His language skills are also improving rapidly. He learns new words every day, even if he doesn't pronounce them all very well. For example, he loves to play with the numerous amount of frogs that are around our place, but he pronounces them “Cocks”. Always makes me giggle when I hear him shout “Cocks. More cocks for Leo. Where more cocks?” Oh well, I still have time to mature, I guess. We are also in the “watch what you say” phase: one of his favorite sayings right now is “Oh shit!”.

We have a bunch of fridge magnet letters and numbers, which he increasingly likes to play with. He brings us letters and tells what they are (B, bear. C, car. He knows more than half of them now). He also says numbers up to five easily, though he doesn't always use them in the right place. He gets two consistently right, but then we'll add another item and he repeats two. When we say three, he'll repeat it.

He's still very helpful. He tidies his toys away well. Loves to get your slippers, put things in the trash, etc. He especially likes to help mama make chocolate cheesecake, which makes for a great photo if nothing else.

I have started telling him stories whenever he gets a little upset and looks like a meltdown might be coming. They always start “once upon a time there was a little boy named Leo and he had two dogs, Salsa and Gracie. One day...”. It almost always settles him and he starts to tell me what story to tell – that they meet a bird, or cow, or fish, that it gets dark and they see the moon and stars, that a car comes and his grandparents, Momo and Popo are here, etc. It's kind of fun, as he gets so excited when I incorporate what he wants into the story – he will often cuddle me and say “Good girl, mama.”.

I think I probably portray Leo in an overly wonderful light. For the most part, he is a great kid, but he is a two year old and he does have his moments – refusing to do what you want, whining, crying, etc. In this we are sometimes (though not always) able to employ the help of a little friend – Alfie. Alfie is a hand puppet that Abe had when he was a kid (you know, from ALF the TV show), and Leo adores him. Alfie can tell Leo to do anything and he'll do it. Alfie wants an elephant, a circle, a blue cup, etc. Leo will go get it. Alfie wants to put Leo's shoes on (a battle at times, as Leo still prefers to go barefoot), he'll go get them. Leo even puts Alfie on the toilet each day. Alfie is a master tool of manipulation, working for the parental units!

Leo has developed a cute-ish habit. He'll poop in the toilet in the morning, but for his evening poop, he much prefers to strip down naked and go outside. At first we thought this was hilarious and humored him. However, it has started to dawn on us that this is perhaps not socially acceptable behavior for all places – somehow city folk are fine with you pooper-scooping a dog's shit, but the same does not apply to children! Oh well. I'm sure this will not be the only obstacle we face with him entering the real world (he already finds it funny and delightful that there is water in other people's toilet). I sometimes wonder how he will view his upbringing when he grows up and sees a little more of what the world has to offer. I guess we'll find out soon enough at the rate that time is passing.

For more photos, click here.

Worm Harvester

2010-08-24T16:37:00.000-07:00

We made a worm harvester this week, which will make our worm-and-soil-farming a lot easier.

When we have changed the worms' bedding before (to use in the garden of course), we have picked the worms out by hand, a very tedious and time consuming affair. This should make it all a lot easier.

We will post instructions and a video of us using it soon.

For more photos, click here.

Tank amendments

2010-08-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

We had a rain a few days ago that didn't amount to much, but did come down very hard and fast. Abe went out to check on how the new tank was performing and discovered that the gutters were overflowing the pipes.

It seems we underestimated the volume of water that comes off the roof in a hard rain. Abe found a great website that tells you how to calculate what size pipe you need to accommodate what force of rain.

We added an extra line of 2” pipe. We could have changed the whole thing to a 4” pipe (which is more than we would have needed as 4” pipe is way more than two 2” pipes, because the area of a circle is the radius squared), but it was less work and less expensive to add an extra line – one line for each side of the roof.

However, having increased the pipes into the tank, we then had to increase the overflow. If the tank is full and water is coming in two 2” pipes, but can only leave through one 2” pipe, we will have a problem. It will overflow out the top, risking water getting behind the liner and dislodging it. So Abe put an extra overflow, making it a 4” pipe just to be safe.

We have now finished the tank... again!

Know that we make these mistakes for the benefit of our readers. If we didn't make the mistakes, we wouldn't know the problem existed and we couldn't prevent others from making them! No need to thank us, just happy to help.

Click here for photos of the tank.