Gabi LeBlanc Log

7.16.12

File:Chokecherry jam.jpeg Morning harvest: tomatoes, grapes, chokecherries and elderberries for jam

Burning biochar right now, got 1000' worth of elevations, in 50' increments for the site survey, got Goodcow on some new grass. It's very hot and I am very sooty. Going to Maysville later to check the post and pick up some everclear for making tinctures. Using the biochar flame to finish up the chokecherry jam that I started this morning. The recipe goes something like this: ~2 lbs chokecherries, a couple bunches of elderberries, a couple bunches of grapes, sugar, water.

Physically, I'm scraping by. Just hoping nothing lays me out before I can finish surveying.

7.15.12

Set up a buried drip-line for lettuce in the garden plot, where the chickens have eaten a couple of rows of sorghum. Getting some chicken wire from St. Joseph so I can just wrap it up and not worry about them getting through the cow panels. Just found this gem:

Wild Edibles of Missouri

Starting surveying on Monday, finally! Processing liquids like a madwoman: skimming cream, making butter, brewing kombucha, et cetera. Right now I'm harvesting the last of the blackberries, some oleaster berries, and the beginnings of elderberries, tomatoes, and grapes. They are delicious! Apparently our neighbors have been suffering from strange fungal infestations on their plants, a bunch of people were buying sprays at the store and talking about it. Fortunately ours are vigorous and healthy, without having to use chemicals.

Our basal infrastructure has been in flux lately: water and power specifically. We're doing good work to fix the problems, though, and planning permanent solutions while producing short term band-aids.

Thinking more about our earthworks here. Graham has great ideas about creating rock blocks to stop the erosion down the ruts up the hill, plus creating berms of biomass, rather than digging in: we'd mow down the weeds and push them into rows on contour, they would catch water and more organic matter as they break down into soil. Thinking about the pace of nature. It can not be controlled. That is fact, and is neither good, bad, detrimental, nor advantageous. It is what we make it. Thinking more about the intersection between "replicable" and "scalable," while working in parallel with nature as well as global culture.

Listening to a recording of Foucault; "Courage de la Verite." I quite like his voice, and the French is greasing my rusty lingual gears. Drinking goldenrod tea for my sore throat.

The coming week looks like: planting greens, milking and grazing the cow, and lots of surveying. It will be very hot, and no rain in the forecast. Spun some yarn today, that was a good think to keep me indoors and resting. Feeling a bit run down, as in sick, but I'm planning on waking up bright tomorrow. I don't plan on being sick, and sometimes that makes all the difference.

7.13.12

Parker brought so many goodies! Hoses, seeds, a moisture meter, some nutrient testing supplies, and lots of furniture. Thanks Parker, it's great having you here!

Yesterday I built a rain gauge, wrote a lot: FeF Agriculture Model, had a meeting with George about the site plan, and troubleshot water infrastructure with the group.

Tim came today and we dumped manure all morning. The trees will be happier for it. Gave Tim some milk, it is great to have something to give to our friends and volunteers! Going to bring some milk to Walt soon, he dumped some wood for us that's perfect for turning into biochar. Moved my stuff out of the SolarCube, now all my tools are organized and put away in the greenhouse.

To do with the rest of today:

• test hoses, turn the leakiest ones into drip irrigation
• dig irrigation into the sorghum rows that aren't doing well
• plant lettuce
• cover with shade screen (keeps chickens out too)
• connect hose to white pipe, the water pressure inside the dirty water barrels will feed the drip (I need to dump all 16 barrels in the garden because we've been cleaning new barrels and "editing" the water system so we have clean water at the house)
• milk milk milk milk

7.11.12

Yesterday I trimmed the fenceline, set up the electric fence, realized the solar charger requires multiple days to charge before initial use, added procedural and design plans to the Surveying 101 page, made FeF's first cow-cheese, harvested oleaster berries, and took a photo as an afterthought.

Said farewell to Matt, we'll be missing him.

Took Aidan and Yoonseo to the doctor today. I still have time to put GoodCow in her electric fence later today. I'm writing a model for neosubsistent agriculture at Factor e Farm. It's very possible that I have the same ick that everyone else is ailing from, I've got different symptoms, but I don't feel tip top so I'm going to take the opportunity to plan, brainstorm, and write.

7.9.12

Replaced the water pump filter today (thanks Andy and Brianna for picking up the new filter!). Had to improvise with the fittings, that was fun. Set up the posts for the electric fence, step two is trimming the fence line and putting on the insulators and livewire. It'll be up and running tomorrow. Going to town for some mineral salt for the cow, and tonight Matt, Graham and I will be taking a walk and outlining some future plans for permaculture as well as figuring out where the best spot is for Vann's hexayurt. Got the transplants in the ground, we'll see if they take, considering that it's way outside their season. Digging up some cattail root and making ragweed tea for a couple of sickies.

7.8.12

To Do:

• Install a rain gauge, develop a plan with Matt for a weather station, collaborate with Yoonseo
• Pasture plan for GoodCow, electrical fence
• Write Surveying plan as per Chris' ideas, write initial site plan, Surveying starts when tripod arrives (probably mid-week)
• Get all the transplants in the ground

7.7.12

Here's a video talking about intensive grazing, as I'm sure the forage will change through the seasons.

Working on management and my personal relationship with hierarchy and personnel organization. It's a challenge, but I feel good about the work I'm doing. Coordination with the Greeks is definitely on the up and up, and I'm doing my best to make this a fulfilling experience for all of us.

GoodCow is a balm on my conscience. She is so calm and I can't help but relax and feel right in the world when I spend time with her. We're incredibly lucky to have happened on such a gentle soul. I've met many many cows, but none have had the disposition that she exhibits. I am grateful.

Praying for a spot of moisture tonight or tomorrow, but I'm not counting my chickens before they're hatched. The turnips are coming up! Spent the hottest part of the day working on planning for the future.

Graham, Aidan, and I took a good walk around, noting the plants' growth, the soil, the watershed of this property, and speculated on building roads and what we can do to mitigate erosion.

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So the rain turned out to be more than a spot. Rolling thunder and buckets of rain. Had a long meeting with the Matt, Marshall, Aaron, and Brianna towards the end. It sapped most of my energy for the evening.

7.5.12

Ran the numbers on GoodCow:

• FeF previously bought milk from the local grocery, in half gallon jugs, and paid $4 per half gallon plus a $2 deposit for the jug. Currently we consume all of GoodCow's milk, and if we were still buying this milk it would cost about $25 per day plus the cost of transportation.
  • Earning her keep: $1262 capital investment/$25 worth of milk per day = 50 days until she pays herself back
• She will be officially paying us back, considering ONLY the value of her milk, by late August. She'll still have months left of milk left in her, not to mention the calf coming next spring, and one more year of milk. After that year, we can choose to breed her, and her calf could be our up and coming dairy cow.

Looking forward to meeting Parker, Alex is coming mid-July, and Aaron is headed here with Sara coming a few weeks after that! Community's happening right before my eyes. We're having a meeting tonight, dubbed by Marcin: "Power, Sex, and Violence." Graham uploaded a video of me doing a rundown of consensus meeting, based on what I've learned living in cooperative communities. Please excuse my uncouth vernacular.

Matt pointed me to Joel Salatin's work. I especially like his listed principles. Thinking about how our neighbors seems to graze, with small food crop gardens (albeit they use conventional techniques). I'm thinking about the ratio we should keep of grazeland rotation vs. planted permaculture food forest. Originally I wanted to have less grazeland here, but upon seeing the resources, and what others do with this soil, I'm thinking more about edible fences surrounding lush pastures where we have chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, etc. Plus forage-fed rabbits in hutches. Shade trees should be planted within these pastures, but not as closely as they might be in an orchard scenario. Going to revise my original plans for our subsistence diet to reflect what I've learned in the past two and a half weeks.

Working on an electric fence today, planting 3 magic Moringa trees (horseradish tree) from Will's seeds, further research on solutions to make the chickens work for us a bit more effectively, going to attempt to get wood into small pieces to get a good biochar load tonight. Just collected a few bundles of mint for the kitchen, should keep us supplied for a good long while. Experimenting with drying chicory root in the hothouse, trying to get away from using propane entirely. That means solar cooking, dehydrating, using the biochar kiln to heat large pots of stuff, and eating hand to mouth from the garden.

Possible thunderstorms on Sunday, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It would be great to have some water flowing. Our well's been slowing down, Marcin's been considering lowering the pump deeper into it. Today I checked the flow and got 1/3 of a gallon per minute, Marcin also checked and got about 1/4 of a gallon per minute earlier in the day. Here's a photo of the minute's worth of water in a half-gallon jug:

7.4.12

Planting food for fall. Matt gave me the holy grail - a seeding calendar for this area. Transcribed it here. Borrowed some seeds from Will: broccoli, kohlrabi, turnips, beets, cabbage, and bush beans. Will also had extra dirt, so I told him to toss it in half barrels and I'll plant into those. I'd like to bury some pvc to make beds that water from the bottom for less frequent watering and deeper root systems.

Taking out the trash (we have lots more waste produced now that there's almost double the number of people here) and teaching Matt how to milk GoodCow tonight. Working more on management and long term planning as per Marcin's request. Catching