The power system is now done, at least for now. We will one day add another solar panel and get a freezer, and build a couple more wind generators (even though this site is not great for wind, we have the parts and we love wind power). For the first time, we have free refrigeration - having switched form propane to electric. We run what we want when we want (although we are conservative by nature - force of habit, I guess). We recently put a fence around the solar mount.
The water system will
be addressed in a couple of months, so stay tuned.As for the food, we are really enjoying working on that system. Until we have our big tank, we are taking it slow, not planting the majority of our seeds until the rains come - next year, we will be able to go crazy! For now, we have lettuce, beets, cabbage, collards, tomatoes, onions, carrots, leeks, radish all in the ground in the garden, growing like weeds on compost and worm tea. Inside, in seed blocks, we have turnips, eggplants, arrugala, chard, cherry tomatoes, rhubarb, comfrey, purslene, asparagus. We should be transplanting most of them this week.
Under the trees, we have all kinds of squash, beans, spinach, melons planted and they are getting big. All our trees are doing great and we will even get some fruit this year, which is incredible considering we just planted them.
The trees are on a drip system and they get watered twice a week. Their water comes from a small tank we set up uphill from them. We have a fishtrap in the river and we are trying to stock this tank. So far, we have 4 perch, 1 bass and 1 carp in there. We have a little solar powered pump set up that oxygenates the water. A small system, but Leo loves it. It is his job to feed them worms, which he also loves.
Of course, there's the bees and the chickens, mentioned in previous blogs.
And last, but not least, rabbits. We haven't actually got rabbits yet, but we are starting to work on their house. While I have been making garden paths, Abe has been leveling a 20' x 10' area. We will build a shed for them in this space, and then have pens coming off that. We are going to be keeping the rabbits in a colony setup instead of cages. We'll keep you informed.
Carful with the comfrey. Once that stuff gets established it it will spread and is pretty unstoppable.
ReplyDeleteWhat started as two plants in two feet became 20 big plants in a 5x10 area in 4 years. It was impossible to dig out. I visited the old house 15 years latter and it had taken overt the 10x20 patch and was trying to breakout. The new people at the old house cursed about it. (The old house was in eastern washington state)
thank-you for the warning.
ReplyDeleteWe got a species that is not as intrusive as some can be, plus we live in a more arid climate (average 25" rain per year).
If anything does grow uncontrollably, we treat them like we do weeds - let them grow and keep cutting the plant for biomass on the garden.
The area of eastern washington we were in is desert with less than 10" a year. We were in a valley and that probably improved growing condition some (less evaporation). Basically if you give it a defined area that do not mind it taking over and that you block it growing out of (foot traffic paths at the edge) it is controllable.
ReplyDeleteMy mother lived on the coast of Nyarit for the last 4 or 5 years of the her life so I envy you all some.
Great stuff Abe, I finally figured out how to keep up with Blogs using RSS feeds so I'll be keepin up with Vela Creations more :)
ReplyDelete