tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83905007239698170402024-03-05T02:03:19.323-08:00Jack of All TradesJack of all trades, master of none,
Though often times better than master of oneJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-27567927990403264152014-02-13T14:18:00.003-08:002014-02-13T14:19:22.494-08:00Online MappingI was playing around with ArcGIS Online this morning and wanted to try embedding a map into a blog post.<br />
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<iframe width="500" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/templates/OnePane/basicviewer/embed.html?webmap=859441771de94a23b622aeec3a83cc42&gcsextent=-77.7394,38.5335,-77.14,38.8471&displayslider=true&displaylegend=true"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=859441771de94a23b622aeec3a83cc42&extent=-77.7394,38.5335,-77.14,38.8471" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left" target="_blank">View Larger Map</a></small>Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-73759743762992222892013-10-04T15:48:00.001-07:002013-10-04T15:50:20.859-07:00Deboning a Chicken at CulinAerieMany local businesses are being awesome and supporting those of us who are furloughed and offering free food and activities for those of us who are temporarily out of work. CulinAerie is one of those businesses. A coworker of mine took their knife skills class a while back and loved it. I have wanted to take it since then but havent taken the opportunity because of the cost. However I think that anyone who is about to spend several hundred dollars on kitchen stuff should definitely take a cooking class even if they can make tasty things. You will learn more about the tools and will be able to make more informed decisions about what you really want.<br />
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I realize that the following may not make a lot of sense without photos but it is more for me than anything else. I would suggest youtube if you want to see how to debone a chicken.<br />
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First with the chicken on its back. Cut the wings off at the first two joints. Second cut the extra skin on the front of the legs. Next make an incision close to the torso on the top of the leg. Flip the bird over. Continue to cut the leg off going up and around the medallion as far as possible. Flip the bird back over. Dislocate the leg at the hip and cut the leg off. With the meat side down separate the thigh from the leg. To debone place the thigh meat side down and slice lengthwise down the bone. Cut under the bone and then scrape the meat off downwards while holding the bone vertically. Repeat with the leg with first choping off the ankle with the heel of a chefs knife. Third slice the chest along the sternum and then make repeated shallow cuts to separate the breast from the carcass. Separate the last part of the wing from the breast.<br />
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I learned that I definitely need a fillet knife and steel. And probably a serrated knife and maybe a slicing knife. I definitely want a stainless steel pan or two (and I am still thinking bout cast iron). I have lots of non-stick, but after being taught how to use stainless I can see that it is much better for cooking. It is easy to clean as long as you deglaze, and does such a better job at browning food up.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-89593662029799060002013-09-22T12:19:00.001-07:002013-09-22T12:19:08.641-07:00Rotisserie PigSo yesterday I feel that I finally justified my existence as an omnivore. In our modern society we have a huge disconnect from our food. When I showed this picture to my class of 10 and 11 year olds most of them were grossed out that that my meat came from something that still looked like the original animal. <br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGfYV2t4_gqN0jevoJ9r46cVB8iCZfILKXRYktT_E4kQnL3-KmNROquVWlPaBdfQTABx1s7HZKtCrTA6aNpKahi9Hvewxh-ynUZEQzAB0NsA5xd8o2RL1AxaLlBWIT-M1oLI5Qm5vJK3g/s640/blogger-image--1749588707.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGfYV2t4_gqN0jevoJ9r46cVB8iCZfILKXRYktT_E4kQnL3-KmNROquVWlPaBdfQTABx1s7HZKtCrTA6aNpKahi9Hvewxh-ynUZEQzAB0NsA5xd8o2RL1AxaLlBWIT-M1oLI5Qm5vJK3g/s640/blogger-image--1749588707.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">When did animals become a gross place to get our meat. Styrofoam and plastic is fine, but the pig itself is bad. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">So I got up early, went over to the farm and helped kill, clean, and cook our dinner. I think more people should need to experience the act of preparing their own food from start to end. And if you cannot respect the process of killing an animal for food then you should probably skip the clean and sterile packages at the grocery store. </div>Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-10332345672852820902013-04-17T16:36:00.001-07:002013-04-17T16:36:54.474-07:00CourseraWhen I graduated I was pretty sure that I had no intention of going back to school, especially this soon after graduating. School really taught me to hate learning. Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot and it got me a good job. But the last thing I wanted to do on the weekend was learn more. I then fell back in love with learning with the library. Now I realize that libraries are the gateway drug to learning. I am now seven weeks into a sustainable agriculture class with University of Florida. <br />
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Coursera is an organization that works with universities around the world to provide free online classes in a vast array of topics. A majority of classes are from US universities taught in English, but there are an increasing number are taught in other languages. The classes are either automatically graded like some of the math and science classes. Written assignments are graded by classmates. You grade three papers and three people grade yours and the scores are averaged. It is not a perfect system and I have heard some complaints but it is a work in progress. <br />
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Check it out. Find a course that interests you and learn something new. Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-45499683409487190862013-01-20T10:05:00.001-08:002013-02-03T12:33:21.367-08:00StixyFor a while now I have been looking for a way to organize thoughts other than through a blog. Blogs are great for sharing something specific. Sometime I just want somewhere to write a list and have the ability to update it whenever without having to rewrite the list and put out a new blog post. So I was sort of looking for something like a blog but with a little more flexibility. Or something like Pinterest but with a little more permanence. But completely different from both at the same time.<br />
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This is where Stixy.com comes into play. The best way I would describe it is that it is a mind mapping application. It gives you a digital board where you can post notes, pictures, documents, or to do list. My first board is very drab so far and will probably stay that way for usability's sake, but I have seen a couple really cool examples that mix lists and images together. It also seems like a great place to work together with a group on a project or digital poster.<br />
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Check it out <span style="background-color: white; color: #f58c00; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Bitstream Vera Sans', Sans; font-size: 11px;"><a href="http://www.stixy.com/guest/253250">http://www.stixy.com/guest/253250</a></span>Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-73076750585412915632013-01-12T10:20:00.001-08:002013-01-12T10:20:46.308-08:00Create a Collar StayIt is always annoying when your washing machine eats one or more collar stays and your collars get all floppy or start to curl. Well I found a simple fix to this. Grab a pair of pliers, a file if you have one, and a few paper clips or wire with a similar gauge. Straighten out the paper clip or cut a 3-4" piece of wire. Round the ends so that they do not damage your shirt. Fold in half to have a V-shape with the distance between ends be about .25-.5". Insert into collar stay slot and enjoy. It will often get bent while in the washer but can easily be straightened out.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-73417170515211679992012-10-29T17:27:00.003-07:002012-10-29T17:27:58.419-07:001st year homesteadTami and I want to have a house with enough land for a small homestead (not too small though). I am not sure exactly where or when this will happen but I am starting to figure out a plan on the key things that I want to start with. As long as we plan on being at the same house for at least 5-10 years then one of the first things that I want to do is put in a couple trees. Apple, pecan, definitely a sugar maple, and maybe a couple others. I will definitely have to balance the cost of getting an older tree with the benefit of getting fruit from the trees earlier.<br />
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At the same time I would be looking at what animals to start with. A couple mature egg laying chickens would probably be my first choice. It would be a quick start with immediate results. Goats and bees are pretty high on the list too. Bees would be nice because they are not too high maintenance and I love honey. Goats on the other hand would be nice for milk. However that is a whole other level or work and overhead.<br />
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Decisions, decisions.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-75418571031392000882012-10-28T08:02:00.001-07:002012-10-29T17:12:00.032-07:00Preparing for FrakenstormWith Hurricane Sandy on the way and a massive cold storm front moving in from the west the entire east coast is about to get slammed hard. It is predicted that there could be 1 billion dollars of damage. Millions are expected to loose power for at least a couple of days. Many staples and things like D batteries and flats of water have disappeared from store shelves. <br />
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Fortunately our cupboards are already full and we have several flats of water. <br />
We are currently in the process of freezing ice cubes and blocks of ice in plastic cups. Before bed tonight I plan on filling all free space with water bottles to increase the thermal mass. <br />
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I pulled as much of my garden inside as I could and harvested most of what was left outside. So half of our kitchen is currently filled with plants. Even if the rest doesn't fare well, even though I think it will, it is at least near the end of the season so it is not like I will lose all that much. <br />
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Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-88899785559759590992012-10-21T13:50:00.001-07:002012-10-21T16:28:36.426-07:00Humble enough to learnSo this weekend we went camping with our church. In the morning we took the cub scouts on a short hike. About half way through one of the scouts pointed out that there was something climbing on my jacket. So I decided to show off the spider to the rest of the boys. That is when I was informed that it wasn't a spider. <br />
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One of my scouts knows more facts at 10 then I think that I may ever know. He informed me that it was actually a harvestman or more commonly known as a Daddy Longleg. They are an arachnid but not spiders. <br />
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I am not above learning from anyone who has something to teach. Even if they weren't born when I started high school. Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-59251455039161498252012-10-18T15:26:00.001-07:002012-10-18T15:27:12.683-07:00Fried Chicken Mix.25 cup flower<br />
1 tsp garlic powder<br />
1 tsp black pepper <br />
1 tsp chili powder<br />
1 tsp onion salt<br />
.5 tsp italian seasoning<br />
Enough water to make it like a like a thin pancake batter. <br />
2 chicken breasts cut up into chunks<br />
Enough oil to fry it up<br />
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Enjoy!Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-54505405567483697092012-10-12T03:00:00.000-07:002012-10-12T03:00:09.865-07:00Frozen Hash BrownsI love hash browns. They are wonderful. Unfortunately they seem to take a lot of time to make so they get relegated to being a weekend only dish. I have thought about just buying the preprocessed stuff from the store but at the same time I like making it myself. So I finally found a recipe that lets me cook up hash browns faster and at the same time make it myself.<br />
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Choose your amount of potatoes.<br />
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Bake them in the oven for 1-1.5 hours at 350ยบ F.<br />
<br />Take them out and let them cool completely (do not rush this step, I did)<br />
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Peel and grate them like normal<br />
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Place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and stick in the freezer.<br />
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Cook like you would with any normal frozen hash browns.<br />
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I was a little impatient and tried to grate them too soon and found that they just crumbled into little chunks. When they were actually cool I was able to gently grate the potatoes. I think that if I cooked them a little shorter too that they may be less crumbly. I would like to have it so that I could use the kitchen aid grater attachment so that I could do 5-10 pounds all at once with very little effort. Next time I will see if I can make that work.<br />
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By the way I tried to turn the half that crumbled into mashed potatoes, it sorta worked.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-66088332639321845342012-10-10T03:00:00.000-07:002012-10-10T03:00:06.399-07:00Re-Learning BiologySo I took Biology twice. Once in middle school and then once again in high school. Neither time did I really enjoy it. There was a lot to memorize, there was very little math for me to excel at, and the idea of dissecting stuff really just did not appeal to me at all. No here I am ten years later kicking myself for not trying to learn biology a little bit more. As I am starting to garden and have high hopes for having a variety of animals I figure that it could be important to have at least a little more that a rudimentary understanding of how it all works together.<br />
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Thanks to the wonders of technology and libraries I checked out Biology for Dummies and a Basic Biology textbook and have started to teach myself biology again. I am finding that it is still just as hard as it was ten years ago but at least this time I am a little more motivated to learn this time around. I know that I am not retaining about three fourths of it so far but I am hoping to retain more as I go through the second book (and probably a third or fourth book after that).<br />
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I guess that this all started when I tried reading a botany textbook at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Botany but found that I could not understand every fifth word or so. I at first tried looking each one up but then I did not understand the definitions much better than the original word. So I decided that I had to back to the basics and start with Biology 100. Sometimes that is what is needed to actually understand something.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-80274044694656898732012-10-08T02:00:00.000-07:002012-10-08T02:00:01.848-07:00PW County Farm TourAbout a week ago Tami and I went on a county farm tour. We visited 6 farms and had a wonderful time meeting lots of different people and learning a little more about the local agriculture and what we want in the future. The tour included Evergreen Acres, Yankey Farm, Blue Top Farm, Clover Meadow Farm, LynnVale Farm and Studio, and Oakwood Farm. Each one was unique in its own way but we loved it all.<br />
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Evergreen Acres is primarily a Christmas Tree farm with rows upon rows of White Pine, Norwegian Spruce, and Scotch Pine. They also have pumpkins, corn, tomatoes and squash. It takes around 10-12 years for a Christmas tree to grow to selling size.<br />
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Yankey farm is primarily a pick-your-own pumpkin and corn farm. They also had several local beekeepers there with a display hive and a bunch of equipment for people to show. I spent about 20 minutes talking to a relatively new beekeeper. His first season only produced about 5 quarts of honey from his two hives, but this season produced 50+ quarts. Hobby bees are not a cheap way to get honey but it definitely seems very rewarding.<br />
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Blue Top Farm is a horse stable. Definitely not the route that I want to go in the long term, but I do love to be around horses. They also had a couple goats and a small pen of chickens. That is exactly what I want. I wouldn't mind having a horse, but if I do have a horse it will be a horse for working on the farm.<br />
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Clover Meadow Farm is an Alpaca farm. First of all I had no idea that Alpaca wool was SO SOFT. Alpaca yarn is softer than any baby yarn that I have ever felt. That being said, Alpacas are apparently one of the more expensive farm animals to buy. It is no longer legal to import them so it is necessary to purchase them from the relatively small US herds. Before the market crashed a couple years back, the average breeding female was selling for about $20,000. That is crazy. The prices fortunately have come down quite a bit over the past five years and you can get a small start up heard of 8 for about $10,000 now. I am not sure if I would ever consider getting Alpacas to breed but a couple of the cheaper neutered males for wool production has definitely crossed my mind.<br />
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LynnVale Farm and Studio is a flower farm and art studio. They sell their flowers to a variety of local florists and to people for special occasions. It looked like they had also did a lot of photography and some paintings in their studio.<br />
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Oakwood Farm was the last place that we visited. It is a small experiment farm funded by a grant from the County Water and Soil department. They are trying to experiment with different ways to improve local farming techniques that could help local farmers. Their focus was on horses and the two main things that they were trying to do is reduce animal waste runoff and build up, and also set up a rotational pasture system that reduces the need for feeding the animals purchased hay.<br />
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It was an incredibly educational experience that I would suggest to everyone. I realize that most people cannot come to this farm tour but you would surprised by the number of farmers that are happy to give tours if you just ask. Find a farmer and learn about the world around you.<br />
<br />Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-75482671622595609182012-10-06T05:53:00.001-07:002012-10-06T06:04:02.238-07:00Balcony GardenSo as fall starts to really sets in here in Virginia I am starting to harvest the last things from my garden. Successes this year include swiss chard, oregano, green onions, seranos, and basil. Our tomatoes did so-so, but I think they did not have enough room or light. I may try to move the strawberries into the baskets next year or maybe some herbs. I am love having a garden and cannot wait till I can have a much much larger garden. <br />
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Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-15427933013901193052012-05-03T15:02:00.000-07:002012-05-03T15:02:49.696-07:00Mac and CheeseAbout 8 years ago Kraft decided to make Mac and Cheese even easier to make than it already was. So they included directions on how to make it in the microwave on the classic blue box. Then they realized that this was such a good idea that they started selling it in individual sized portions for about the same cost of the normal boxes and stopped printing the microwave directions on the classic boxes. I am sure that this was intended to force people to buy the more expensive smaller servings if they wanted the convenience of using the microwave. However the joke is on them since I still remember the directions.<br />
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In a large microwavable bowl add the noodles and 1 3/4 cups water. Microwave for 3 minutes and stir. Repeat 2 more times to make total cook time 9 minutes. Then add the usual 4 tablespoons of butter, 1/4 cup milk and cheese powder.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-33126806803055210812012-02-04T18:37:00.000-08:002012-02-04T18:37:47.885-08:00Archery RangeIt has been at least 10 years since I actively practiced my archery skills. I decided that it was time to change that. This is why I set up an archery range at Tami's parent's place. Their place is on about an acre (maybe more) and there is nothing but trees behind the property. So I took a couple boxes from our move and piled them up to give a good target.<br />
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Unlike the traditional techniques that every scout learns at camp I am trying to learn how to shoot like the bowyer Tom Turgeon. I also plan on making my own bow at some point in the future. It does not seem like that it would be too complicated, but I would want to use the correct tools to make it easier. That means I need to wait a little bit until I can get everything. So until then I will practice shooting while I am out here.<br />
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For more info check out http://www.boisebowsandarrows.com/homeJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-60212963527862273182012-01-14T11:54:00.000-08:002012-01-14T11:54:31.897-08:00CraigslistI realize that this is something that most people are rather familiar with even if they have not used it. You should seriously consider using it if you have not used it and ever need to make a purchase of something that is a little more expensive but is either durable, or will only will be rarely used. In the past few weeks I have picked up a craftsmen scroll saw, a Ryobi miter saw, and now a router (its out in the car and I have not seen the brand name yet). A new Ryobi miter saw is 120. A Craftsmen scroll saw is also usually 120. Fixed base routers with router tables start around 140 or so. So to get everything new it would cost me about 400 with tax. Now of course everything I have got is used, the scroll saw is old as is the router. And the miter saw is missing it's saw dust bag. Nonetheless those are rather minor things considering the grand total I have spent so far is $60.<br />
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It takes time to grab great deals like this. I spent about 3 months looking at miter saws until I found one that was cheap enough that I could not say no. So it takes a little bit of patience but it can pay off. Be careful of lemons as you search for the diamonds in the rough. Next on the list may be a Kitchen Aid if I can find something for a good deal.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-46037137045956879132012-01-03T16:48:00.000-08:002012-01-03T16:48:30.771-08:00Community Supported AgricultureCSA's are not a new idea but they have changed over the years. It used to be that a group of people would get together, buy some land, and then hire a farmer to tend the land and provided them with fresh produce. Now it is more often a farmer who owns land already that will sell "Shares" of his or her crop. This way any family can basically pre-purchase all of their vegetables and sometimes fruit, eggs, honey, and on occasion meat.<br />
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There are both pros and cons to a system like this. Some of the major pros include being organic, being local, being fresher, and getting to try new veggies. Some of the major cons include having vegetables that you will not eat, having a bad growing year (you are accepting the risk along with the farmer), and having to learn to eat what is locally in season.<br />
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We are currently looking at a CSA from a farm about 30 miles from here that has a pretty good variety of food including some fruit, but no honey, eggs, or meat. The thing that is drawing us to them the most is that if you are willing to come to the farm at least 12 out of the 22 weeks and help pick then you get everything at half price. Not only that but we will also get the opportunity to learn some of the tricks of the trade. And by we I mean Tami since it is only on Wednesday and Sunday mornings (but hopefully I will be able to go at least once sometime).<br />
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Check it out in your area.<br />
http://www.localharvest.org/<br />
http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/<br />
http://www.eatwild.com/Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-10449658691625117382011-12-28T17:13:00.000-08:002011-12-28T17:13:57.154-08:00Wishful ThinkingI am just looking to put down a few ideas about what I want in the future. I want a piece of land that can be a hobby farm. I do not know if I would be brave enough to jump into a full farm right away, nor do I think that Tami would let me. However even on a small plot of land I could do most of what I want. It would have to be on at least two acres unfortunately, since there is a lot of ordinances restricting "farm animals" out here. Anything less it is illegal, but at two acres we could all of the sudden have 64 chickens 2 cows and 5 goats or pigs. Why I could have half of that on an acre out in the middle of nowhere I don't know.<br />
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Now I do not think that I would start with that many animals all at once. I think I would want to start with a few egg laying chickens, maybe 2 milk goats, enough meat chickens each year for our family, and at least two bee hives. Now I do not think that I would go buy all of this at once. I think it would be a one species at a time deal so that I would have time to figure out the basics before I add something on top of that. Tami would want us to start with the chickens probably and I would be content with that even though I might prefer the bees.<br />
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I would also want to have a garden that was about a quarter of the lot. I would try to grow multiple varieties of everything that we love to eat and maybe a few things that could be experiments. I have learned to love zucchini just in the past year after all. I would also try to plant a small variety of fruit and nut trees. A few sugar maples would be great too. All of this together would keep me happily busy in the afternoons and on saturdays.<br />
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In order to prepare for this as best as I can I plan on filling our balcony with as many plants as possible this spring. We have great light and I hope that the garden will do as well as our last little container garden did this past summer. And hopefully better than our poor Arizona garden. If I can convince someone to let me "rent" a corner of their property I will start an apiary as soon as possible and maybe use honey to pay the "rent". Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-85810308242414784682011-12-24T16:55:00.000-08:002011-12-24T16:55:45.716-08:00Learning by NecessitySo I got my shop smith set up today at my in-laws (since Tami convinced me that my neighbors would not appreciate me using it so close to them). After finding a good branch to turn into a candle stick holder I started it up and started going to town. After about 15 minutes or so I found that it was having a few problems. Then the completely stopped spinning. Not only am I brand new to using a shopsmith I never have done anything with motors or even much anything electronic.<br />
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So over the next couples hours I had to learn how to take it apart, how everything fit together and how to fix it. Once I got the drive belt off the motor I was able to diagnose the problem that the motor itself was the problem. Looking inside I was able to see that it was all clogged up with sawdust. After cleaning it out with a can of compressed air I found that the motor was running just fine again, maybe even a little better than when I bought it.<br />
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Out of all the ways to learn, this is not my favorite. It is stressful not knowing what you have to do to solve a problem and not really knowing where I could learn the proper thing to fix the problem. I much prefer learning something and then doing it, not doing it and then learning.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-61913522065921610512011-12-08T13:29:00.000-08:002011-12-08T13:29:46.517-08:00Equal spacing trickI just learned a quick trick used for spacing things out at an equal distance without having to do any complicated math. For example if you want to space out banister for a porch rail. Take a long piece of elastic from a fabric store and use a permanent marker to mark every 2 inches (or another even distance) on the elastic. Now you can stretch the elastic so that two of the marks reach the ends of your length or banister. If you want the banisters spaced farther out then stretch the elastic a little more and eliminate a banister post.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-4288316014197958082011-12-08T10:21:00.000-08:002011-12-08T10:21:40.551-08:00Moving!!!We are moving this week. And from this move I have learned a lot that I wish I knew before we moved. Some of it we learned in time some of it was a little late. I want to compile everything that I learned so you can be informed before a move. If you have any other ideas or suggestions please comment so that anyone who reads this later can also learn from your experiences.<br />
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First of all we are moving from Arizona to Virginia. I imagine that some of this information will only apply to long trips. Also it really only applies if you have to pay for the move yourself and do not have a job paying for you to move.<br />
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How to move your stuff:<br />
We chose to use ABF freight. They have a self pack option that is very similar to PODS. They drop off large containers that you fill up yourself and then they come and put it on a flatbed and move it for you. We looked at pods but found that ABF is somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 the cost of PODS. Also my in-laws just moved from Nevada to Maryland with PODS and were not quite happy with the service, not to mention the price.<br />
We also looked at U-Haul as another option. Not only would we have to deal with the hassle of driving a large truck with a car on a trailer behind it, it would also cost more. Between the cost of about 300 gallons of gas and the cost of the U-Haul for 5 days plus 2300 miles of driving it works out to be about the same price as ABF. So I will let someone else drive my stuff out and will just happily drive my car out.<br />
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Boxes:<br />
We got most of our boxes for free which was nice. Yesterday though we started to run a little short so I went out and bought a few. I searched online for the best price but found nothing better than what Tami knew about. Apparently Harbor Freight in Tempe (and maybe other locations) sells the used boxes that their merchandise comes in. All of the ones I saw were about the same size of roughly 24" x 18" 10". Now that won't work for everything but it is large enough to hold a lot of stuff but small enough to not be too heavy as long as books do not go in it. Now here is the best part. They sell them for <b>4 for a dollar</b>. There is not a better deal out there when it comes to buying boxes.<br />
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Packing material:<br />
Most of our packing material was newspapers that we got from my grandparents (since they are one of the few people I know that still gets papers. However we had a brilliant idea when phone books got delivered while we were packing. It is amazing that they still get delivered and for a lot of people they go straight to the recycling. But if you cut off the spine of the book you are left with a neat and rather thick pile of packing material.<br />
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I hope that this helps someone sometime and that I do not have to do this too many more times in my life. Please leave comments of your ideas and experiences to help others.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-3897270040739495252011-11-09T09:54:00.001-08:002011-11-09T09:54:58.863-08:00MasksI started carving my last wood project for the semester today. I started by tracing the outline on the face of the wood and the profile not the side of the wood. Then using an angle grinder I started to take material out of the back of the mask. <br />
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In fear of taking too much out I stopped with about half an inch more to be removed from the hollow. Next I used the bandsaw to cut out the profile and then the out line. <br />
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After having the basic shape I returned to the hollow to continue removing the excess material. This time however I started to use Tami's carving set. Once I figured out which chisels I liked the most ( at least for hollowing) I went to town removing material. Unfortunately as a student who works on a computer my hands do not have the calluses that they have had in the past, but I am sure that will change pretty quickly. <br />
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Pictures to follow. Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-66427606788617101122011-11-08T19:10:00.000-08:002011-11-08T19:10:59.865-08:00Earth ScrapperAlong the lines of several other earlier posts I introduce the Earth Scrapper. It is proposed as a 65 story sky scraper built below the surface of Mexico City. It is a gorgeous design that has some awesome potential.<br />
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Check out the video on yahoo, http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/building-down-instead-161537141.htmlJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8390500723969817040.post-10085577278830033212011-11-03T20:52:00.000-07:002011-11-03T20:52:33.651-07:00ShopsmithSo about a month ago I bought a Shopsmith. If you do not know what a Shopsmith is, it is an all-in-one shop system and mine includes a table saw, a drill press, a horizontal borer, a lathe, a disc sander, and a bandsaw. Today is the first day that I have had an excuse to use it. Normally I would use the school shop for most projects since it is available, but today I needed to help Tami with making a frame. So I got to try out the table saw and the band saw.<br />
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It was a little different to have to figure out how to change from one set up to another. It is not the most optimal set up, but it is definitely the best set up for me right now. Since I was able to get the entire set up for about the same cost as any one of the six different tools. This is a great option for small or inexpensive shop start ups.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11891414624073995749noreply@blogger.com1