Su Ba

John, that’s a great strategy.   My own method—— determine what I want before stopping at the dealer. And I always go on my birthday. I tell them up front that I’m buying a new truck that day for my own birthday present to myself and they know that’s true when they look at my drivers license. I tell them that they are my first stop and if I can’t find what I want, I’ll be going to another dealer down the road. To add a bit more credibility, I show them the title of the truck I’m trading in and they see that it was purchased on my birthday a few years ago.        That’s the set up. Now the pressure is on them to make a deal that will entice me to buy a truck from them and not their competitor. And the beauty of the set up is that it’s all true.  The result is that I usually get the truck I intended to buy at a fair deal. I have no objection to them making money on the sale. I just don’t want to be fleeced.

Thekia, yup!!!  I was raised on them.

Funny story…… as a little girl, my father would take me out for trips...—-to the local bar. He’d promise me a kosher pickle, which I would then sit on the furthest barstool and eat it. Those pickles were as huge as a full grown cucumber. It kept me occupied long enough for him to have a drink or two with his friends. I always looked forward to going out with my dad, something that was special.

Living rural and where everybody drives on the roads, I cannot forego a vehicle. I’d rather be able to use a bicycle or horse, but that’s not doable where I live. I’d last less than 5 minutes on our roadways here. Sooooo, I drive a vehicle.

4 wheel drive truck.  Being a homestead farmer, it’s the only way to go.

Truthfully, not a day goes by that this truck isn’t justifying its existence. Every, and I mean EVERY, trip I make, there is something being hauled in the bed. And these are things that I’m not gonna put into a cute, clean, pretty sedan or SUV. ……….
… manure to the gardens
… compost being delivered to the second farm location
… firewood
… produce to the farmers market or local soup kitchen
… dead feral hogs going home to be butchered
… live sheep or piglets or chickens
… equipment having been purchased or being taken for servicing/repairs
… supplies for the homestead such as lumber, roofing, piping, etc
… greenhouse supplies such as potting soil, pots, etc
… our farm dogs
… trash/debris/recycling materials  heading to the dump
… large items being hauled for friends or neighbors
… pig traps
… water (330 gallons at a time) during dry spells
… several trapped feral cats heading to the local spay/neuter clinic

Every 3 months or so we make the 2 hour (one way)  trip into either Kona or Hilo where we take care of chores/services we can only do there, such as doctor or dentist trips or dropping off packages at UPS. So we will stop at Costco and other stores to load up on supplies.  Not just for ourselves, but also for friends who cannot or should not drive that far. The truck bed and back seat gets fully loaded, so as not to have to go shopping again for a few months. While we could stuff a nice car with such items, we can load 3 or 4 times as much into a truck. Small things going into the bed get stuffed into black trash bags to protect them from the rain we almost always encounter on our way home. Makes us look like we are making one humongous trip to the trash transfer station! And before anyone has a spasm over the use of black trash bags, we reuse them over and over until they finally get too many holes in them. Then they get one last use when we deliver compost/mulch/maure to home gardeners.

The one concession I make is that the truck is a small one. Right now it’s a Nissan Frontier. At my age, it’s just too difficult dealing with a big truck. And sorry guys, bigger is not always better!

The Way Home, Tales from a Life Without Technology, by Mark Boyle

Just got done reading this , well actually I listened to it via Audible. (I listen to books or music while I work on the farm.)

It’s well worth the read. The author brings up some good discussion not just about things he has done while avoiding technology, but he thoughts and struggles while attempting to live sans modern day technology.

Folks in my town know that I love dill pickles, so as a result, I get gifted jars of store bought pickles. After consuming the pickles, I’ll soak parboiled veggies in the leftover brine to create new refrigerator pickles. Green beans, carrots, asparagus, bell peppers, chayote, daikon/radishes, etc. It takes a couple of weeks in the frig for the veggies to take on the full flavor. When this batch of veggies are all consumed, then I’ll use the leftover brine to cook diced potatoes in, and make a hot potato salad.  ….  And rather than drinking any leftover juice if there is any , I’ll use it to dip squares of bread and eat them as my evening snack.  Waste not, want not.

I agree with Carla (My usual criteria are:
Will we eat it?
Do we want to try it?
Is it too expensive to buy?
Will it grow in a container?
How difficult is it to grow?
How difficult is it to process for storage?)

But add one more criteria ……can I sell or trade the excess.

I use raised beds—-actually container boxes since they are not up on legs. I make them out of pallets. I find that they last about 3 to 5 years in my environment. Lining them makes them last longest, but I’ve never really recorded how long each individual container lasts. I just replace them as they start to crumble. Eventually the pallet woods rots and the sides start falling apart. Just to give you an idea, each box is 1/2 pallet high, and the width is one pallet long. So each box uses two pallets, and since I line the box, I don’t go to the hassle of filling in the gaps in the pallets.

Although I initially used discarded commercial grade weedblock material to line the sides of the boxes (the box sits upon the dirt, so no need to line the bottom), I switched to metal. I intercept broken clothes washers and dryers heading to the dump. I remove the outer casing/skin and use that. The rest of the machine goes to another person who salvages the drums and whatever else, before the leftovers go to metal recycling.

Using a circular saw with the blade mounted backwards (or I’ll use a metal cutting blade if I have one) I’ll cut the metal to the height I need before removing the skin from the machine. I find it generally easier that way. I’ll also make cuts for the lengths if the metal skin is stable enough to make the cuts. Usually it is. Then I remove the metal skin from the machine. The pieces with bends in the wrong place I will flatten by running over them with the ATV or truck. They don’t flatten perfectly but that doesn’t really matter.

I usually just set the metal liner in place without bothering the nail or screw them in place. The soil holds them in place. Without them being attached to the pallet, I can replace the pallet with little hassle when it eventually rots. Replacing the deteriorated pallet side needs to be done before the soil starts pushing the sides out. I let things go too long once and had to end up shoveling dirt out in order to rebuild the box.

Of course the trick is not to cut oneself on the metal when you’re working in the garden. I solved this in two ways….. 1- by putting the cut edge down. And 2 , if that isn’t an option, by folding a length of cardboard or a doubled stripe of old blue jeans overtop the top edge of the metal. Plus I don’t mount the metal to the very top of the box. The top edge of the metal is an inch lower than the pallet, helping to keep the sharp edge from contacting my hands (because I always find myself leaning on the top edges of the boxes). Suuurrre I could grind down the sharp edges so they don’t pose a danger, but then I’d have to go buy a grinder, a face shield, leather gloves, and take the time to do it. For me, using cardboard and old blue jeans works just fine.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

I’m working with volcano soil.  Farm #1 has soil made from long term degraded vegetable matter and volcanic ash. Farm #2 has soil that is degraded volcanic ash. Each farm has its challenges, but the best results I have seen with both is lightly tilling in compost between each crop (I till the top 3 to 4 inches) while also tilling in last crop’s mulch. I apply a 2 to 3 inch mulch layer to each crop, which by harvest time, is down to 1/2 to 1 inch.   So my answer is shallow light tilling in of fresh homemade compost between each crop and using mulch.

I have some of the garden area developed where it does ok using no-till, but it took perhaps 10 years to get to that point. I maintain a constant mulch on this soil, a mulch that includes compost. And only certain crops will produce well using no-till. After 5 years of no-till, I see that the soil is getting rather dense in spite of the worms, microbes, etc, and the veggie plants are not all that robust anymore. So I believe it is time to introduce the tiller and add a generous amount of compost again.  I plan to till down 6 inches and let the soil re-establish itself again.

By the way, I get a lot of rain on Farm #1. The past two years have been over 80 inches annually, and we get a light rain practically every night. So leaching is a definite issue. But Farm #2  is just opposite, getting little rain and seldom has leaching issues except occasionally (every 3 years) when heavy extended rain occurs. On both farms, nitrogen loss has to be watched. So I use applications of homemade fish emulsion and/or manure tea whenever the plants show signs of needing a nitrogen boost.

By the way, contrary to what I hear people often say, volcanic soil is not all that "rich". If one is growing pasture or non-fruiting trees, you don’t have to do much to it. But if you want to produce all your own food, then one needs to add nutrients to the soil.

By the way #2…. The compost I use is homemade. I put everything into it, and I mean everything as long as it organic compostable material, along with lava sand, heat treated coral and bones that have broken up using a hammer or running over the pile with my pickup truck (hammer vs truck depends upon how big the pile is). So it has a broad range of nutrients. And by using fresh grass clippings, animal manures, and dead animals, it has a goodly amount of nitrogen. No, I don’t  age my compost 6 to 12 months before using. It loses too much nitrogen that way. I coarsely sift it at about 3-4 months, tossing the chunks back into the next compost bin. I love my compost!

My favorite hoe = none at all. I try to keep a nice mulch atop the soil, thus eliminating the need for a hoe.

For spot work, I use a hand held half-moon, though it’s a model with the weld off to one side instead of in the middle of the blade. It slides easily just under the soil surface, cutting the root.  It’s lightweight and easy to keep sharp.

Paul Wheaton, this is your site. You make the rules.  You’ve created an informative site and a safe site for people to come share. Perhaps it’s time to extend the safety umbrella over the staff too. If people misbehave, give them a warning and explanation. Expect an apology. If they continue to misbehave, lock them out.

Since I’m a medical professional, I believe in cutting out the cancer so that the organism can live. I had to remind myself of this when I fired an employee. It turned out to be the right decision. Difficult for me to do , but extremely beneficial to the rest of the staff.