Went out to check on things today. I got the wind data collector back up for the winter winds. At 10 feet high I saw an average wind speed of 4.7 mph from April through the end of September. That might just be enough to support a back up wind generator. I need to push the mast up to 20 feet to see how much difference that will make. I placed a cam up a few weeks ago. I checked it out today to see if i had catch any wild life walking by. Sure enough I did.

But upon reviewing some of the other pictures when I got home I found another. The shy fox. I have seen him/her a couple times before when driving onto the farm. It is not a good picture but I think you can tell it is a fox if you look close. Well I think its a fox.

Maybe I need to get another cam setup in another location to see what else might be wandering around.

Spring Update from the farm.

It has been a wet year. Not that I am complaining but it seems I am always waiting for things to dry out.
The swales are full still from all the snow we had and then all of the spring rain.
I did get 15 apple tree planted and some cover crops in.
So let's take a look of some of the things that happened this spring.

My new work horse showed up. She's a Grillo 107 D 2-Wheel Tractor from Italy. She has an 11hp Honda engine on board. So far I have been impressed in how well she handles. In a couple weeks I am finally going to get to see how well the tiller works in my clay soil.

The 47" cutter bar cuts through weeds and small tree saplings like they were butter.

Below are the tiller and disk harrow. I need to get some pics of the tiller in action.

After doing some earthwork with the disk harrow I planted some Pearl Millet and some
White Clover to get some cover crop covering the bare ground from all the swale work.

One of my disk harrowed patches before seed planted.

 This is the millet starting to sprout up.

I planted some White clover on Swale 1 & 2. I have not been out lately to see how well it is doing.

Here is the swale berm after using the disk harrow.

I will provide an update on the apple trees and the SARE Grant work later.

I was blessed to go out to the farm one afternoon and see that one of the newly
planted apple trees had actually bloomed.
How cool is this!

Stay tuned. There will be more updates in July.

A Day at the Kansas City Zoo

We recently spent the day at the KC Zoo. While many think there are better zoo's around I think the KC Zoo is pretty cool. It is not often you can get pictures of animals like some of the ones posted here.

One of the zoo's latest inhabitants in Nikita and Berlin. Nikita was a bit under the weather but I did get a good shot of Berlin.

We next ran into the fastest animals on the Sahara. They were just chillin.

I think they were quietly looking for their next meal.

Not far from the Cheetah compound we ran into some of the open grassland animals.

It was a lazy day at the zoo but even the King of the Jungle takes a nap with his favorite lady.

Do you know anyone who ever got this close to a sleeping lioness and lived to tell about it?

There was a lot of the zoo we did not see on this trip. We are going back.

I will post more pictures after our next adventure at the KC Zoo.

Solar Cooking Workshop 2013

On Saturday June 22nd I presented a Solar Cooking Workshop through UMKC Communiversity with the help of another solar enthusiast.

We had 7 participants show up for this 4 hour class. We had a large display of solar cookers on hand and we used many of them to cook our lunch with as part of the class.

While participants began arriving we had small talk about some of the cookers plus just getting acquainted with each other.

As class started we talked briefly about the solar cookers and then everyone pitched in preparing the remaining food items that needed to be placed in various solar cookers.

 Once all the food was in we discussed all the solar cookers that were on hand plus some others we knew about but did not have on site. We talked a bit about water pasteurization using the sun and a gadget called a WAPI. Using the sun for solar food dehydration was reviewed using a newly made cardboard prototype.





We discussed how to make homemade solar cookers out of recycled cardboard and aluminum foil. We watched a short movie about the benefits of solar cooking in 3rd World Countries. The participants learning about solar cooking were amazed at how good all the food tasted. Several were going to make there own cookers and give it a try at home. All in all we had a great time. We even spent some time just talking a sustainable living practices. What a great way to celebrate the Summer Solstice.

What are you doing this Saturday, March 23rd? I dare you to join me to help save the planet. This Saturday evening at 8:30 pm local time thousands of people around the world will be powering down for 1 hour. Together we can make a difference.

Be part of this. I dare you.

Life on the farm is full of adventures, so I have been told. I have been told there will be good days and there will be bad. There will be good harvests and there will be poor. There will be sunshine and days and days of rain. What they all forgot to tell me about; was the Swale Suckers. Why I was not told about this is beyond me. But I suppose I had to learn sooner or later.

On Friday I drove out to see how well the rainwater from last week was soaking into the ground. There is a rule of thumb that a full swale should take about a week or so to soak in. While I was slowly driving down the dirt driveway observing the swales my car came to an abrupt stop. No more going forward and no backing out. What in the world had happened. The drive was pretty dry. As I opened the car door there was water and mud. What I failed to see was that although the drive was dry and although the swale where the drive passes through looked dry, it was anything but. So the Swale Suckers took advantage of the situation and latched onto my car. I tried digging her out. I put gravel under the tires. I even tried rocking the car back n forth thanks to her manual transmission, but to no avail. Thanks to my brother-in-law who called a friend who lives in the next town over. Eventually my car was pulled out of the clutches of the Swale Suckers and all was fine. Nothing that a good car wash won't clean up. Plus I meet a new neighbor in the process.




All you Permaculture People out there beware.
You never know where the Swale Suckers may strike next. It could be your place or a friends.

 

 

Oh, and just in case you were wondering how the swales were doing. Here is Swale 1, top. As you can see this one has soaked in rather well.













Here is the middle - Swale 2. It still has a good deal of rain water in it but the level is dropping.


I am doing some calculations on about how much water the 3 swales have the capacity to hold. I will have a couple illustrations to go along with the math in a week or so.

So what does 20" of snow do when it starts to warm up? Yeap, it starts to melt. Now add to that 20" of snow melt one good long soaking rain storm. Now what do you get? Lots of water, right? I designed 3 swales on the farm while taking a Permaculture Design Course in the fall of 2011. I kinda knew where the rain run-off was going already so that helped in designing the swales. My course instructor provided some guidance and advice. I had a pretty good idea that they would work but over the weekend I found out just how well they do work.

Original land terraces. These were designed years ago to run rain water off the land without causing soil erosion.

A local excavating company is doing the earthwork to create the new swales per my design.

Swales with water in them. The one on the right is the first of three and it is up top. The one to the left is actually the middle swale and you can just barely see the third swale on the bottom.

A better view of swale 2 and 3.

The earthwork got started in late fall and is still being worked. This explains all the mud and no established ground cover yet.The swales are designed to be about 24 to 30 inches deep. They look pretty wide when full. I am going to have to measure some of the widest points. I'm guessing about 5 feet. I estimate that I have around 1,600 linear feet combined in all three swales. Eventually there will be lots of fruit and nut trees planted here as we begin to establish a Food Forest. I have apple trees ordered to be planted this spring.

Spring is almost here. It is the time to be planting seed.