Jeremy VanGelder

September 22nd is the day of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' birthday. So Lord of the Rings fans across the world celebrate it as Hobbit Day. We are in the middle of harvesting potatoes. So I think we will celebrate with some sort of potato dish. Maybe we will stick 'em in a stew.

How do you celebrate Hobbit Day?

Years ago I went to a friend of a friend's sheep barbecue. I was hungry and my first helping tasted really good. But my second serving was revolting. At first I thought it was the tomatoes that it had been cooked with. (I like tomatoes now, but wasn't a fan then) I kept trying it, but it was still gross.

Several years later I was talking to a different friend about this experience. He had in laws who had raised sheep and goats. He said that if the wool touches the meat during the slaughtering process, the lanolin gets into the meat and instantly makes it all go rancid. So I must have had some rancid meat.

His in laws had a special procedure. When they skinned the animal, first they would cut a small hole in the hide. Then they would take an air nozzle and blow compressed air into the hide. This would separate the hide from the flesh and make it easy to remove the skin without touching wool to meat.

I don't know if lanolin makes mutton taste bad. I don't know if that procedure is helpful. But if mutton often tastes the way that I tasted it, I could understand why it is not popular.

Pictures for reference. Most of the chimney structure is in the dining room.

So I am moving into a new space. There is a big chimney that hosts two fireplaces. The fireplaces are side by side, facing rooms on opposite sides of a shared wall. The living room and dining room. The dining room fireplace hosts a woodstove insert. The living room hosts a pellet stove insert. The pellet stove functions. But I am curious if a shorty core or Walker core might fit instead.

The openings are 3' wide by 2' tall. I can't measure the depth right now. But there is another fireplce in the house that also has a 3'x2' opening. It is 23" deep. There is some more height inside. The hearth extends out almost a foot in front of the fireplace.

So I am thinking about putting some sort of shortened core in the fireplace, with a stove pipe down in the back to serve as the siphon of a bell. And probably a removable metal front to hold the door and serve for quicker heat. Most of the heat would be stored on the ample mass of the chimney. Do you guys think this is viable?

My wife was taking a look at our budget software, which can make reports on our spending for the past ten years. She noticed that there are two months every year when we spend quite a bit less on groceries. February, the shortest month of the year, is consistently the lowest. But August is at least $50 lower than the rest of the year, sometimes $100 less. And that is because of all the stir frys and salads and other food that comes straight out of the garden. Which makes me wonder what we could do if we plant crops that are harvestable through more of the year!

Stephanie Naftal wrote:I can’t buy them but if you have a fun flyer I can place them around the Sustainability Festival I’m throwing in Red Lodge on the 10th and see what happens. There will be farmers there and teachers and stuff so someone might be in.

The books and DVDs in this bundle are also advertised in the big permies flyer!
 

Yes, Steven released weekly updates on the 2025 GAMCOD project last year. They are all on youtube.

Andrew Greaves wrote:I am back in the concrete jungle, fighting to get back out. Im using reddit  to find  some companies  that would hire me. Subreddits like r/remote jobs r/customerservice. Should i get a job in missoula and then commute back and forth from my job to pauls land? The cheapest accomodations at pauls are $300 per month. Scenarios that keep running through my head are, for example, working at the missoula airport wednesday through sunday snd then i could work monday and tuesday on the farm.

I think Paul doesn't want people to commute to worky jobs from his place. I understand that the WiFi at basecamp is good, though.

I just signed up at their website. This evening I was invited to my first plum picking adventure! It looks like a great opportunity.

You cauld call my current flock of chickens a "Victory Flock." I built a coop to have victory over the high egg prices we had recently. It has helped with that. One of our hens went broody this spring. So I asked for fertilized eggs on a local chicken keeper's Facebook group. She hatched a chick three weeks ago! So we might be able to keep the flock going long term.