Matrim Schmidt

Here are five BBs for my first sand badge!

permies.com/p/1558042
permies.com/p/1771504
permies.com/p/1880891
permies.com/p/1912675
permies.com/p/1915929

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must:
- post a picture of a location without snake/lizard habitat
- post a picture of that same spot now with snake/lizard habitat

Garter snake habitat on the north side of the kitchen garden.  Hope they appreciate the heat from the black rock!

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
 - it must facilitate at least three different critters
 - it must be designed to do a halfway decent job of protecting them from rain
 - natural materials and steel/wood fasteners (no glue, plywood, stain, paint)

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must:
 - post a pic under construction
 - post a pic of your finished insect hotel in its final location
 - describe what critters you facilitate and how

See pictures '01_Before' and '02_During' to see insect hotel under construction.  I ended up moving the pallets from the original location to not shade out a plant.
See picture '03_After' to see finished insect hotel in final location
1) There are bundles of garden canes to facilitate solitary bees
2) There are sticks for ladybugs
3) Grass for grass-carrying wasps
4) Pine cones, bark, leaves, for other insects

To protect from rain:  The hotel is under the canopy of a tree.  There is a larger pallet on top for an overhang.  On top of the uppermost pallet are flat rocks and some extra bark to keep it dry below.  The top two pallets are jam packed with leaves, both for habitat and to keep the hotel below it dry.  The pallets are also raised up off the ground sitting on bricks.  There are rocks between the ground and bottom of pallet.

There is now vacancy at the hotel!

For this BB, you need to process 1 bird for meat and provide documentation in the form of pictures or video.
Requirements are:
-1 Live Chicken
-Killed in a humane manner
-Processed and either prepared or properly stored within an hour

To document your completion, provide proof of the following as pics or video (less than two minutes):
-Living bird.
-Bird after slaughter, depicting the method used.
-Organs separated into suitable for human consumption / not suitable for humans consumption, next to plucked bird.  

So far my least favorite homesteading activity.  But something needed to be done.  Sixteen months into my new homestead.  Got seven 'straight run,' 'mama hatched' chicks from church friends.  Five of the seven were males : (  Gave one away, harvested two (one of them in the pictures below, still have two cockerels left in the flock of 10 now.

See below pictures for BB.

01 -Living bird is in the restraining cone.  He was part bantam and rather rambunctious.  The flock is much calmer without him around.
02 - The deed is done, just after his larger brother.
03 - Chicken plucked, human food in white bucket, other innards in red.  Ready for the ice bath.

Any RMH builders in central WI?

Thanks for the feedback Anne and John.  Gave it some thought, and wondering if I might change the garden to something like DirtPatchHeaven's raised bed pallet gardens (image below).  Here is a link to her plans - https://www.etsy.com/listing/958618806/pallet-raised-garden-bed-principles

That would add more soil & insulation, and also more distance between roots and drain pipe.  And I could use shallow rooted annual plants versus the perennials that was my original idea.  Any additional thoughts?

Thanks again!

Day 1 moving into the new homestead, we had a frozen septic pipe and water back up into the basement.  Yay, welcome home!

I wish to try to prevent this from happening again.  I built a raised bed garden over the top of it last fall with the hopes of adding some insulation.  I planned to put in currants, gooseberries, and other shallow rooted plants into the garden.

It is early spring in Wisconsin, and nearly time to plant the currants.  While the initial intent to insulate the pipe is, I think, a good idea...wondering if adding rooted plants of any kind is a bad idea.  Even if the plants are known to be "shallow rooted," could they still find their way down to the pipe and cause more problems?

For context I've added a few photos of the area.  The pipe garden is on the north side of the house.  Thinking the currants should do fine in part shade.  Guessing the pipe is 6ft or so under the ground.

Should the pipe garden stay or go?!  Currants and gooseberries okay?!

The following are links to my first 10 approved BB submissions:

1. Insect Water Station - permies.com/p/1558042
2. Urine to Growies - permies.com/p/1558468
3. Dish Water to Growies - permies.com/p/1559910
4. Dishes by Hand - permies.com/p/1560620
5. Fry Egg - permies.com/p/1560669
6. Reuse Shower Water - permies.com/p/1583472
7. Salt Brine Ferment - permies.com/p/1566149
8. Brush Pile - permies.com/p/1771504
9. Two Bread Loaves - permies.com/p/1801815
10. Cup of tea - permies.com/p/1807262

Slowly, but surely!

Hurray, the nettles are up!  Spring is almost here!

I love this nettle patch, so close to home.  But also don't like it.  Got a tick bite infested with Lyme last year in this same patch.  Need to be more cautious, but won't stop coming back.  Nettle tea in early spring is so invigorating.

To document your completion of the BB, provide the following:
- A picture of one of the plants in the wild
- A picture of the harvested goods with the remaining plant in the background
- A picture of the yummy tea in a cup

Both loaves are the all rye sourdough recipe from Sandor Katz "Wild Fermentation" book.  Quite an empowering book.  Created a 'sponge' with a sourdough starter, and fermented that for roughly 24 hours.  Then mixed the sponge into more flour and salt inside the bread pans for about 2 hours.  Then baked in the oven at 350F for 90 minutes.  Thanks to Michael Pollan's "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation" book, most bread I make has something unique on the top.  Fitting to write out SKIP in these loaves.