evan's ant village log

Days 309-314 (part 6)

Jocelyn mixed up a batch of creamy berry custard and let Sharla and I try out the hand-cranked ice cream maker. It worked. Mmmm... ice cream...

Thanks Jocelyn!

Nice updates Evan. Must be nice to see things thawing and anticipating spring.

Day 315

A French-themed feast at basecamp! Coq au vin, mixed mashed potatoes, salad, sauteed greens, des oeufs roulé avec fromage, and homemade peach vanilla ice cream for dessert! Thanks Paul and Jocelyn for sharing your home and table with us!

After dinner we played a crazy card game about cross-country car racing called Mille Bornes, and I finished a sketchup of Siesta with a greenhouse built into the south berm.

Looking at the sketchup model again, I think I should have had the entrance to the greenhouse be lower, as part of a cold sink, but maybe it still illustrates the general idea. In the winter it could be used to grow plants in pots. I think it could get really hot in the summer and help to more rapidly charge the mass, and while it would be too hot to grow anything in there, it could be a nice place to bathe. Some earth-tubes like Hans mentioned might help to accelerate the mass-charging too.

Nicole Alderman wrote:I've found that fermenting their food really helps in replacing the nutrients that they normally get free-ranging. It also cuts down the feed costs from by 1/3rd to 1/2. Here's some info on it: http://www.scratchandpeck.com/wp-content/uploads/Fermenting-Feed_7-27-2015.pdf. All you need is water, something to stir the feed with, and two jars (gallon pickle jars work great, and you could probably get away with a half-gallon size mason jar with your current flock size). You could kick-start the culture with some of that sauerkraut juice, too.

Soo... this great PDF you pointed us to, Nicole! It started me on a search about fermenting feed... which led to Korean Natural Farming... which led to a FREE PDF of Dr. Cho's book (he was the founder of this system in South Korea, still teaches it and it's very popular in Hawaii). Very cool! A ton of stuff I've never investigated! How to make piggeries and poultry areas stink-free and productive! (for those who choose piggeries /coops)

Link Here: https://ilcasia.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/chos-global-natural-farming-sarra.pdf

I loved Mille Bornes as a kid!

It was a terrible game. Evan slashed our tires 3 times in a row and then got the Increvable card for himself =(

Sharla Kew wrote:It was a terrible game. Evan slashed our tires 3 times in a row and then got the Increvable card for himself =(

Ah ah! I barely remember the details of the game, but I am horrible at remembering card games...even games I have played hundreds of times.

Thanks, Joy. Looks as though it will be an interesting read.

Day 316

Kai and I put some posts in the ground along the eastern border of Anarcadeah. This 8ft tall fence is gonna look pretty imposing on top of this 10ft tall berm. Let's see the deer and turkeys get over that!

This new fence style seems like it will work out quite nicely. As you can see from the sketchup, it's tighter at the bottom where it needs to be but then is spaced higher up. From initial experiments it seems like it won't be totally fastener-less after all, unfortunately, as the weight of the poles wants to push the posts apart, necessitating at least one screw, (or something,) connecting the two posts at the very top. More labor than putting up a roll of field fence, of course, but still a pretty low-cost fence. And with heavy enough posts or all-wood fasteners maybe, (like pegs,) it could even be free.

Suggestion for free fasteners. If you see, on your trips to town, crews repairing or replacing line, ask if thy have scrap line available. Some telephone line that is being replaced is 2 strands of steel wire with a thin coating of copper then coated with a thick UV resistant coating. It is not recyclable but it very repurposable. It is very strong; capable of spanning 600 feet or more. You could tie the tops of your double posts and also the middles where you start alternating and spacing your poles. It also works well for a 12 volt lighting system. The galvanized lines with glass insulators are pretty much gone now but that wire may still be around in your rural area so look and ask for it. I have coils of both stashed around the farm for various uses. I also have three loops of Tacoma Narrows Bridge wire.