Roy Therrien

A recent experience to share:  We just bought a medium Harvest Right freeze dryer, but cancelled the order on the day of pick-up.  Price was great, the unit (per research) is excellent, but upon much further research, it wasn't for us.  We're very glad we did not get it.  Here's why.

First, it's complexity, and we are tyrants when it comes to avoiding complexity.  It never ages well.  We adore our tractor, for example.  It more than pulls its weight around the homestead, but it takes space, maintenance, experience, etc.  The tractor is worth it, though.  The freeze dryer, notsomuch, we think.

And "no" because the niche it fills is too small.  We're only beginning our food preservation journey, but with the combination of (in no particular order) community sharing, fishing, gardening, fermenting, canning, freezing, drying, vacuum sealing,...the space left on the Venn diagram served by the freeze dryer is pretty small, and arguable better satisfied with a few online purchases that require little space and virtually no attention.

I looked at more than a few blogs about this subject, and quickly found that the underlying assumptions for the wonderful, helpful, and knowledgable posters were very often significantly different.  As I am sure you all know, one-size-does-not-fit-all.   I just don't understand folks freeze drying something they can grow, or preserve in a root cellar, can, or ferment.  When we "did the math", the advantages of freeze drying left a small niche, certainly not one justifying the space, $, and complexity.  

That reduced complexity in our lives frees space for further effort in the more classic preservation methods, and that sounds about right to us.

Just a point of view.  I'm sure for many, a freeze dryer is a wonderful tool that works as well as or even better than our tractor.  Good for you!

If anyone knows of a food preservation blog that is not selling something, I would be happy to hear about it.  Diversity is the key in all things, especially food storage.  Any one solution is largely worthless, but many methods embedded to complement e/o, that's what we're looking for.

Christopher, good for you.  There's yoga for everyone, everywhere, any time.  You just have to find yours.

If you have a friend that does yoga, even like a Facebook friend who knows you, I would definitely ask them.  In pretty much every way that matters, I am not qualified.

But here's a list of potential options:
1)  If you have the resources, do a one week yoga retreat.  After that, you'll know what to do next.
2)  Duluth has about a half dozen yoga studios.  If you can get there every weekend for a month, you'll know what to do next.
3)  Enlist a friend to be a yoga buddy, then figure it out together.
4)  Search youtube for beginners yoga.  I'm sure there's tons.

Whatever you do, start small and slow.  Whatever the instructor does, do an easier version that feels right for you.  Never try to keep up with anyone.  Don't try to match someone's pose.  Never push beyond what is comfortable.  Listen to your body and you'll know what to do next.

And to start off, don't worry about equipment or space.  Studios will have mats for you.  If you're doing yoga at home alone, move a few chairs out of the way and use a towel on a carpet.  Your knees will be sore at first from even a soft surface, but they will soon feel much better.

If you have an image in your mind of 30 fit & trim folks in a room in Nike yoga duds all doing the same poses, forget it.  A yoga studio will have every body type, every age, and every skill level of patrons.  By design, it's the most inclusive community on Earth.  Whatever the instructor is doing, there will be folks doing much easier poses, the same pose, or harder poses.  It's all individual.  If you're trying, you're tied for the Best Student Ever.

Steve Zoma, I had a similar experience.  After 30 years in the Army, my body was broken.

In the midst of retirement, I read or heard that yoga is the only activity that if done correctly, you can't get hurt.  Plus, it helps you avoid injury and heal better if you are injured.  Worth a try, right?

So my first month of retirement was a 30-day yoga retreat, and the rest is history...up until the point I (unintentionally) stopped doing yoga for something I thought was even healthier, homesteading.  There just wasn't enough time or energy leftover for yoga.

Whoops!

I will be the first to admit that 3-4 afternoons a week is not necessary for a healthy yoga routine (as several other commenters have sagely observed).  It's probably overkill.  But for now, I'm in recovery mode so I'm going with what I know works.  We'll better harmonize our schedule as we go.

But what we have learned:  SOME yoga is very important for our health-span.

As a follow-up to my post last year in this thread, here's our results (and a remimder, we're on Whidbey Is., not far from the topic creator):

We cleared all the trees from the upper end of our property, removed 1/2 the stumps, subsoiled 24", and topped the ground with 40 yards of 1/2 composted wood chips (over an area of 5000 sqft).  We also added a rain collection (diversion, really) from our small barn, removing 600 sqft of rainfall area.

Rainfall this year has been less than last year, but not to a striking degree.  Still, we've had essentially no drainage issues this year.  Last year we were bogged down into June.  This year, nadda.

So was it the subsoiling?  The wood chips?  The reduction of rainfall?  I don't know.  I do know I am going to continue these tactics.

I was personally very surprised that after removing dozens of large trees, our drainage improved.  I was afraid it might go the other way.  Pleasantly surprised!

And I must respectfully disagree with the comment above about subsoiling being a temporary fix.  Hardpans grow on geological timescales.  If you subsoil through it, it will not return on any timescale that matters.  I personally think it was the most important thing we did, but that is just an opinion.

Bravo, Carla.  There are certainly an infinite number of ways to achieve balance.  

I was just surprised to discover our Permies lifestyle left my joints and muscles so painful, so regularly, and trending in the wrong direction.  For other 50-somethings, perhaps such a transition (yoga-to-homesteading) would improve their physical state.  I dunno, I can only speak to our results.

Perhaps I'm reaching here, but yesterday I experienced what I thought was a good example of the benefits of a yoga body vs. a homesteading body:  Clearing trees regularly, we've been moving lots of heavy firewood rounds.  I noticed yesterday that although my arms are quite a bit stronger now, moving rounds is actually harder than two years ago, when our core strength and connective tissue system were much better.

So here's how we brought yoga back into our homesteading life:

We quickly learned that a major impediment to doing yoga was having a dedicated space for it.  We tried moving tables and chairs for a few months, but that was a speed-bump on the path to yoga, and lord knows we didn't need more of those.  So we converted our master bedroom (the only high ceiling in the house) to a yoga studio (photo).  That commitment of key terrain brought helpful momentum.

And spot-on again, Carla:  Doing yoga alone is vastly more difficult than with a partner.  My wife and I always do it together.  I'm sure my poses are 5x better when I know my wife can see me.  Plus all the running commentary, encouragement, and the reminder it's time for yoga...priceless.

We went straight back to our old YouTube resources.  There's so much out there, I'm certain you'll find better content for your druthers, these are just the ones we found work for us.  These yogis are like family!  We can't say enough good things about them.

Easy yoga days, https://yogawithadriene.com/  
Slightly harder days, https://www.yogawithkassandra.com/
Hard yoga days, https://www.youtube.com/@traviseliotyoga
Challenge days, https://www.youtube.com/@BreatheAndFlow

If you're starting from zero, I recommend a studio membership for 3 months to learn the basics.

Time is really the issue.  We find yoga basically takes a whole afternoon because we can't start when we're already exhausted, and we can't go back to work afterwards in any meaningful way.  We basically call it a day at 2 p.m. 3-4 times per week.  Yes, a massive commitment of resources.  But we liken it to building soil and roots.  Only then do the trees grow tall.

My wife and I have been homesteading for two years.  This is our first home.  Before that, we were traveling/working, and doing quite a lot of yoga.  I am 56.  (My wife is not 56 ; ))

As everyone here well knows, homesteading is an incredibly active lifestyle.  We go all day, drag ourselves in each evening, then get up the next day all excited to do it again.  Our yoga habit, however, declined precipitously.  It used to be daily, now it's rare we have the opportunity.

Viewed as an experiment in healthy living, our crazy-active homesteading life (coupled with the wonderful diet it brings), does not compare to the physical health we enjoyed from our daily yoga life.  Homesteading has kept us thin and maintained muscle mass, but in most other aspects -- core strength, balance, flexibility, joint pain -- it has been a train wreck.  

[Kindly remember, this is in the context of being 50+ yrs old.  If you're 20-40 yrs old, this probably sounds whiney.  But you're going to be this old some day, so this perspective may be helpful.]

We kept at the homesteading-only approach for well over a year, but found the lack of yoga in our daily life was not balanced by our chores/projects-based activity levels.  Surprised us!  We thought digging, hauling timber, weeding, planting, watering, and building would IMPROVE our physical fitness.  Nope!  Not for us, anyway.

To maintain any hope of a long-life health-span, we have had to cut our homesteading activities significantly to bring yoga back in to our lives.  

And we don't mean just sloppy seconds.  Yoga takes some living space; time, focus, energy, and commitment.  We have probably had to back off homesteading activities by 30% to make space again for yoga.  But without it,...well, that wasn't on the menu.  I was crashing.  At 56, with a lifetime of exercise behind me and a solid homesteading life in my present, my health was degrading.  My joints just couldn't take it.

So if this topic gets any traction, we would be happy to share our yoga habits.  We do it at home, use free YouTube resources, and pretty much know what we're doing.  The cost is approximately 1/3 of our homesteading capacity but the benefits are game-changers for our capacity to maintain our Permie life for the long haul.

If you're older and finding that the homestead lifestyle is wearing you down, you're not alone!

I like your idea, Mike.  If I wanted another log cabin, I would try it your way.

But when I put all that effort into getting logs onto our mill bed, I'm definitely going to cut squared lumber.  And once I have that wonderful array of lumber, I'm definitely building post and beam structures, as that best plays to the strengths of large-dimension wood.  Form = function.

But of course if you have a vision for slabbing two sides and building with logs, then I hope you will have at it and let us know how it goes.  Form = function is a nice practical guide, but the fun is in the inspiration and process.  

Follow your instincts and enjoy!

I went through a similar decision 2 years ago.  After purchasing our new home, my first project was fixing our neglected 400' sloped gravel driveway.  I knew nothing about it, so I asked a knowledgable neighbor in the gravel business, and he recommended a box blade.

I bought an Independence series Homestead Implements box blade and have never regretted my decision.  Even with my limited operator experience, my driveway is looking great.  I've never found myself thinking, "Huh, if only I had a better tool..."

Our driveway had very little gravel on it, lots of vegetation, poor drainage, and depressions everywhere that gathered water.  I started by leveling with just the blade.  I hit the middle first for two passes with the blade level, then slightly tilted the blade and did one side of the driveway at a time, in opposite directions to get the shape right.  Not rocket science.

I then added 18 yards of crusher rock (all sizes from 1" to powder), and repeated the grading process, middle first, then each side.  Looked great!  But then a year passed, stuff settled, some water was collecting in spots, weeds poking through, so I repeated an 18-yd application of crusher stone.  Now it's excellent and staying excellent.  

I should note, not being a good tractor operator, I did a fair amount of hand raking to get the final shape right.  I had forgotten that, until I saw the picture below of the almost-finished first application of crusher stone.  FWIW, I think applying a small load of gravel and letting it settle a year, then adding another load, worked really well.  Probably better than just doing two loads of gravel at once.

I never used the teeth of the box blade on my driveway.  I flipped them and just used the box and the blade.  The teeth, however, being adjustable in height and removable, have given the capability to do lots and lots of other things around our large garden and forest.  Our forest road has no gravel on it, and the box blade (with teeth) has been invaluable for shaping it correctly.  I have also used it to shape my forest garden soil after running the subsoiler through.

I use the box blade so much that it is the default rear implement, and have thus discovered (as you noted), it also serves as great ballast.

I only know what I learned in youtube videos about land planes, which isn't much.  But I faced the same decision, went with the box blade, and am very happy I did so.  I detest storing implements that I rarely use.  I get so much use from my forks, the grapple has become mostly yard art.  My box blade + subsoiler combination is so awesome, I've never even unpacked my cultivator.  Livin' and learnin'!

Time for asparagus!  This is just one of the many totally foreseeable spring projects that we totally did not foresee, so we kinda had to make up something quick.  A friend alerted us that the local Country Store had just received a shipment of massive, super-healthy asparagus starts, so the first day of spring instantly morphed into Asparagus Day.

Asparagus, we hear, benefit greatly from the better soil temps of a raised bed.  But our current 3 heavy-timber raised beds are all fully committed to other projects, so we needed another raised bed, quick.  A recently emptied rain harvest IBC caught our eye, and 20 minutes later with a sawzall, voila, two raised beds.  With the top 1/2 of the IBC bolted to a wooden pallet, both are now movable with pallet forks, which is always a nice option.  

Defying the forest garden principle of diversity of planting, this will be one of the very few plants concentrated in one location.  We at first had considered companion planting with our Albion strawberries, but the strawberries' row covers (necessary to prevent the birds eating all of them) would have interfered with the asparagus' large fall growth.

The photos tell it all:  We drilled 50 x 1/2" holes in the bottom of each IBC bed for drainage.  To prevent water accumulating in the now open hollow metal IBC ribs, we plugged the holes of one raised bed with foam cut from an old gardening mat (those are the little pink accents on the top), and the other with 2x4's drilled with 3/4" holes for each IBC rib.  The 2x4's did nicely increase the soil volume of the second raised bed, but in our opinion, was not worth the extra  work.

The bottom 8" is well-rotted crumbled wood from our forest.  The next 8" is garden mix soil from an excellent local nursery (30% sand, 70% composted woody debris, plus an admixture of rich poultry/steer/bat-based compost).  Then the 12 asparagus starts per raised bed, positioned with 12" spacing on small mounds of soil.  Another 6" of soil on top (covering the crowns by about 3"), then watered in.

Feels great to finally have asparagus growing!  We're city folk, never planted asparagus before.  What a fun way to kick off spring!

It's an interesting question, "How many raised beds should we build?"

Well, we all know the answer, it's the same one every time: One more.

This is raised bed number three, and like the first two, it's completely different than anything we've done yet (heh).  Each location is different, our lumber at hand is different, and our ideas are evolving.  This one is a weird shape (a polygon with no equal sides), over two stumps at the confluence of paths (photo 1).  We have an entire pile of 6x6 Red Alder, and while it will decay rather quickly, it is 6x6, so we're hoping the bed will last at least 5 years.

To maximize the amount of alder we could use up (a slew of varying lengths), we went with a Lincoln-Log structure.  The bottom timbers in contact with soil are Doug Fir, which should stand up to the rot slightly better.  Each of the 4 overlapped corners are secured with one 2' piece of 3/8" rebar (photo 2).  We drilled a 1/2" hole in each end of each timber and slid it onto the 2' rebar as we added layers.  This required us to measure and mark very carefully, but it all went surprisingly smoothly.  Each timber slid into place with a satisfying *thump*.  And truth-be-told, much of our lumber (these were our very first cuts with the new mill last year) is crooked, twisted, checked, uneven, and wavy.  The only thing we did carefully was mark the holes for the rebar.

The gaps between the Lincolned Logs are fit with shorter logs, then secured to structure via the 1/2" plywood on the interior (using 4" Timber Loc lag bolts, which conveniently pull and secure the otherwise floating logs into position).  The soil inside pushes the plywood out, the plywood pulls the logs in. (photo 3)  When the plywood rots, we can add braces to the outer surface and extend the life another few years.