D. Logan

In 2006 hiking the AT, I got frustrated with a number of bugs and began eating a single clove of raw garlic each day. I can speak from experience that it does drive away a number of bugs, but not all types. The biggest down side is that your sweat will start to smell of the garlic a bit. Also, eating a raw clove of garlic can be pretty rough if you don't have something strong to chase it with.

Offhand, I would say go with a heritage breed, but which one will depend on your other needs. There are going to be a few factors going into which is 'sustainable' for you. How much space do you have? How easily can they forage? Are you hoping for eggs as well, or just the meat and fat? You'll want to pick one that doesn't stay too lean, for obvious reasons. Some of the fattier ducks are going to be commercial breeds, but those will need more active care. Also consider that some ducks do better than others in different climates.

I remember reading a fermenting book a few years ago that noted a default of Kosher salt for the recipes, but included a section on some other salts you might try like a volcanic black salt, a red salt, etc. That section included how the salt mineral contents tended to alter the flavor profiles of the different ferments.

It occurs to me as I think about it, all of the recipes I can recall are similarly focused on Kosher salt. I know that's for a good reason, but has anyone read anything about using different varieties of salt to craft their cheeses? Even better, does anyone have personal experience with this? I think it would be interesting to see how the different salt options influence the finished cheeses.

The pictures I am going to be using are limited here since so many of my 'in progress' photos were lost. I am pulling images from secondary areas that display some of the evidence of the activity and prove before, during, and after. This was a massive undertaking for me at the time we began last year to build a fully prepared garden.

I got a windfall of pallet rails that measured 2.5 by 4.5 feet rectangles. These saved me a lot of time and money when I was short on both after just purchasing the house on the prior October.


The pallet rails

There were 18 total that were laid out so that they formed a square with 3 additional beds in the center. I then dug out the ground so that each bed laid flat despite the hillside, creating steps down with each bed along the way. Once everything was level and even, I screwed it all together to ensure nothing shifted.


You can see the beds laid out in the background

Each bed was lined with dampened cardboard, then filled with a locally sourced blend of river soil and mushroom compost. I have complaints about the quality I received, but that's not relevant to the BB. The bed were wet down to ensure no odd erosion issues would occur before we began building the fence. Stakes were placed at intervals, hammered into the soil and screwed in place. Chicken wire was wrapped around the entire garden and a gateway was built. We didn't put much effort into the gate due to already feeling the crunch of time, but the rest of it was done painstakingly. Once we began planting, we added a few structures such as a climbing rig for the peas to grow up. Up the hill, a semi-temporary greenhouse was constructed until a more permanent one can be built in a few years.

All of this was done on off days over the course of a month and a half as time allowed. I was still way more out of shape that year from the previous 8 years of sedentary work. Had I been in the shape I am now, it probably would have been done in a weekend or two. Still, the garden was productive for us in spite of the late start on getting things in. This year, we're using the greenhouse to get an earlier start on seeds and will be doing a full re-build of the garden with the better funding we have available to do so. The existing beds will probably be moved somewhere else on the property as a set of experimental beds or for things like asparagus to be planted.

Well, digging around both here and in my computer, I have exactly 1 picture of the work in the orchard and 3 images mid-creation of the garden and 1 post-creation of the orchard. Since I intend to put more trees in this year, I can get 'before' pictures that way. If I take a photo of the winter-dead garden right now, I technically would have a before, during and after shot set for that one. Not the ton of pictures I originally planned, but at least proof of having done the work. Still very upsetting since none of the other projects are in there, but at least it is enough to get the largest of the projects posted for review.

For the last year or so I've been largely absent from permies as I have been focusing on getting settled with a day job (they keep changing my shifts around so it's hard to get a set pattern) and doing all sorts of projects for the home and property we bought. I had a few small projects I had documented with the camera as well as a major garden construction through production set.

My intent was to come on, well now, and post pictures and updates of the various activities as well as a few BB elements. Unfortunately my phone suffered a catastrophic failure to the point that very little outside of what was on the sim card was recoverable. I had pictures that predated that phone, but none of the ones I had taken were properly saving to the memory card I had installed. I'm not left with several projects that won't be repeatable that I have zero proof of doing and the major loss of the valuable proof of having done my garden build. I'm combing over images I uploaded for other things to see if they have the proof in the background, but it seems unlikely for me to pull it off. If I can, at least there's that, but all of the action shots are certainly gone.

There's not really much to be done or said about it, but feeling really bummed over the matter. I so rarely was getting to post BBs as it was and having the proof of those smaller projects and such a major one is hitting a bit hard emotionally. I suppose I am just hoping for a few words of encouragement. After all, it isn't as though the BBs are something I have been relying on. Still, it is just an emotional blow to my already small number of spoons per day.

I picked up a hatchet since a lot of small projects need it. It was beyond dull and actually had a blunt edge. It was as effective at cutting as a hammer. After some work, I have been able to cut points on stakes and similar tasks.

I needed to borrow a 10ft ladder from work. It didn't shift at all for the trip. The method I used to secure it was with straps and since my van was long enough, no flag was needed.

Watching a video recently got me revisiting this. I did a whole post before realizing I'd already started down this same path over 8 years ago. Funny how life keeps bringing us back to the same places over and over. anyway, the WAPF dietary guidelines are excellent, but I also feel like they're going to be something that the average person will flatly refuse to deal with. Maybe there's a way to integrate their clear guidelines into a setup that offers more flexibility. I could see different foods getting different scoring maybe. Anyway, my most recent thoughts were as follows:

I don't think servings is a good measurement since what is a reasonable meal to one person is way too much for another. I somewhat like percentages, but think that might throw a lot of people off. How do others feel about ratios? Like 1 part this, 2 parts that, etc?

Another thing that I was thinking about was something where it is all about getting the vital nutrition rather than any specific 'eat this generic group'. So for example:
- Vitamin A Group - Orange vegetables like Pumpkin, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes
- Calcium Group - Dairy Products, Collards, Broccoli
- Potassium Group - Bananas, Spinach, Grapes, Blackberries

I could see having these groups for Proteins, Fiber, Omega-3 Fats, Vitamins, Minerals, Phytochemicals, etc. Something where it offers ways to overlap the parts of the total ratio so things like how some of the Vitamin A group tends to overlap some with carotenoids. Possibly a section where it is an optional 1 part allowance for purely personal things so it isn't painfully strict about processed foods for those who feel a desire for them, but also isn't counting them as valuable.

It might also need some tweeking to note that things like 'Whole grains' need to be at a certain percentage. Right now, anything with 51% whole grain gets counted for purposes of grocery labeling. That means eating those whole grains is giving you almost 50/50 for heavily refined carbohydrates. Anyway, these are my initial thoughts on how such a Permaculture Pyramid/Plate would work. This could tie into the point idea. The value gets higher the more whole grain percentages are present? Anyway, it was worth looking at things again for me at least.