I've always prided myself on being self-sufficient, being able to fix anything that comes up, growing my own food, etc. That's the way I was raised and it just seems normal. So when our lawn tractor died, I did what only felt right. Instead of throwing it away or scraping it and getting another one, I took it upon myself to not only fix it, but to improve it.
The trouble with our tractor started the first summer we had it. It has always thrown belts, ALWAYS. Then my wife hit a piece of concrete and ruining the bearings in the middle spindle. Over the course of 5 years, I've kept the bad spindle packed with grease and have kept the tractor mowing at least decently. Then 3 weeks ago, I hit a very large stone which shattered the left spindle.
I found a 2 pack of spindles on Amazon.com for 1/2 the price of one spindle elsewhere. 3 new OEM blades, 2 spindles, 1 belt, and 45 minutes later I was ready to mow. We mowed our grass once without issue. Then the next attempt the tractor stopped running and would only run on choke. So I tore the carburetor off, checked everything, cleaned it up and we were ready to mow again. However this time, it just kept throwing the belt every 50 feet.
The belt on our tractor is 147.75 inches, so I went to get a belt that was 147 inches, taking out any play. Unable to find a belt that size, I decided to get an OEM belt and replace the tension spring on the deck. I bought a heavier spring at Tractor Supply, quite a bit heavier. With everything in place I was finally ready to mow. Finally, the tractor mowed as good, and actually better than when we first got it, no more thrown belts, no more lines where the blades missed pieces, but finally a good looking lawn.
So for a total of $157 we had working tractor that mowed better than when it was new. Thinking about not only saving our tractor, but making it better is quite a satisfying feeling. And for anyone thinking about being a homesteader or living a more self-sufficient life, more important than growing a garden or raising some animals, is being able to look at anything and say, "Yeah, I can fix that." Once you can do that, you are ready to make your move.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Garlic Yield
I had counted on a yield of close to 10x when I started this venture last spring. After harvesting all of our garlic, our average yield for year 1 was 4x. Since we are planning on planting 25 pounds of each variety ourselves, we were left with only 30-40 pounds to sell. So, we wound up making enough to make one tractor payment and replace the fluids in the tractor, but was so far off the mark, that it is really depressing.
After a few days, much thought, and discussing it with the family, I've come to the conclusion that this is just like any other business. There are start-up costs, learning curves, and you can't be successful right out of the gate. So, things are in motion for year 2. We have a bigger plot, with better soil that is growing the second round of buckwheat right now. We have 100 pounds of quality garlic to plant. We have found several avenues to sell our garlic next year. And we are excited to try some new things.
We will definitely be mulching the garlic for weed control. We will attempt to use a potato plow to harvest the garlic much faster. We will try washing the garlic with water before hanging to cut down on the time it takes to clean the garlic for sale. Hopefully we can get our yield up, harvest faster, clean faster, and make a profit next year. I need to figure out a faster way to bunch/hang the garlic, but I have 10 months to figure that out.
Some other things that we will be doing next year is growing a pumpkin patch for friends and family. We want to have a fall gathering, take everyone on a hayride around the country roads, and send all the kids home with pumpkins to carve. We are also in the planning stages of growing a large plot of corn. We haven't decided if we will grow field corn to feed our chickens or sweet corn to feed our families. And we are looking into growing pigs instead of meat chickens in the spring.
Needless to say, there will be plenty of activity next year. Now we start shifting gears and thinking about firewood again.
 |
| 1/2 the garlic hung to dry |
We will definitely be mulching the garlic for weed control. We will attempt to use a potato plow to harvest the garlic much faster. We will try washing the garlic with water before hanging to cut down on the time it takes to clean the garlic for sale. Hopefully we can get our yield up, harvest faster, clean faster, and make a profit next year. I need to figure out a faster way to bunch/hang the garlic, but I have 10 months to figure that out.
Some other things that we will be doing next year is growing a pumpkin patch for friends and family. We want to have a fall gathering, take everyone on a hayride around the country roads, and send all the kids home with pumpkins to carve. We are also in the planning stages of growing a large plot of corn. We haven't decided if we will grow field corn to feed our chickens or sweet corn to feed our families. And we are looking into growing pigs instead of meat chickens in the spring.
Needless to say, there will be plenty of activity next year. Now we start shifting gears and thinking about firewood again.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Best Onions So Far
We picked our onions yesterday and were pleasantly surprised. I usually end up with about 50% being rather small, around 1 - 2 inches, however this year I only had about a dozen or so that small. Besides having a lot of nice onions, we had several that were the size of a baseball or bigger.
If we can continue growing onions of this size year over year, I will have to change the spacing in my square foot garden from 9 onions per sq.ft. to 5 per sq.ft. I'm going to have to give credit to the weather for our harvest this year. We have received steady rain and temperatures have been rather pleasant. We are excited to see how the holland onions turn out.
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| A couple of our large onions |
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Water Bath Canning, Botulism, and Absolutes
This is not a post on how to can, what to can, or how to do it safely. There are literally thousands of pages with information about canning on the internet. This post is about how most of those pages tell you, in absolutes, that you can't can beans, potatoes, meat, or anything else low-acid in a water bath canner.
I am not encouraging anyone to go against the recommendations of the government or state agricultural universities when it comes to canning. But I will say this, YES YOU CAN PROCESS BEANS, POTATOES, MEATS, AND OTHER LOW ACID FOODS IN A WATER BATH CANNER! Ok, I shouted it, but it needed to be shouted.
Beans, potatoes, meats, low-acid foods will be referred to as simply LAF for the rest of this article, mainly because I'm a lazy writer and you really don't want to read all of those words each time I refer to them.
My first issue is with speaking in absolutes. I've read some sites that say "You can't process LAF in a water bath canner" OR "You absolutely can not process LAF in a water bath canner.' OR "You must process LAF in a pressure canner." These absolute statements mean that it is not physically possible to can LAF in a water bath canner. HOWEVER, the old Ball Blue Books have processing times for LAF in them, so at one point in time you COULD do it. Therefore, those absolute statements are simply false. Now a statement like "You SHOULD only process LAF in a pressure canner" is much more acceptable and true. By speaking in absolutes about something that is not absolutely true, you have immediately disqualified yourself from giving advice and I won't listen anymore. But by making a very strong suggestion, you have my attention.
"You must breath in order to live." That is an absolute statement that is true and I don't doubt it. But a statement like, "You can't dunk a basketball" is an absolute statement that is not true. Yes, it is highly improbable that I can not dunk a basketball right now (I'm 5'5", can't palm a ball, and have a short vertical), but it is not impossible. And given some training and practice, the probability increases. Here is an absolute statement: "You can not rob a bank." That statement is totally false. You CAN rob a bank, however you either have to know what you are doing OR deal with the consequences. The same thing goes with canning with a water bath canner.
Now some background; the reason I KNOW you CAN process LAF with a water bath canner is because my mom did for years, and we never got sick. My grandmother did for decades and nobody ever got sick. It has been done over and over again for years, by many, many different people. So anybody that says "you can't" or "you must use a pressure canner", is really just reiterating the government/ag universities statements. So let's look at the statistics.
According to the CDC, from 1990 - 2000 there were 47 events of botulism and 70 incidents (e.g. an incident = 1 person being sick, an event = 1 outbreak of the disease.) The population in the US in 1990 and 2000 was 249 million and 281 million respectively. So during the time frame of 1990-2000, we'll average the numbers and call the population 265 million. That means that out of 265 million people in the United States of America, 70 got sick from home canned foods. 70! SEVENTY! Divided by the 10 year period and that's an average of 7 people per year. Your chances of getting botulism from home canned foods in a year is 1 in 38 million. Compare that to your chances of being struck by lightning in a year, which is 1 in 1 million (see NWS Page), and you are 38 times more likely to be struck by lightning that get botulism from home canned foods. And yes, I am aware that not everyone of the 265 million people cans food, so not everyone is at risk of getting botulism from home canned food. Not everyone goes outside during thunderstorms either, but the lightning strike data is calculated based on the total population, so in order to compare the percentages, the botulism stats also need to be applied to the total population as well.
Lets take a closer look at the CDC numbers CDC Table.
You are over 2x as likely to get botulism from eating at a restaurant.
And again in more detail:
Tomato Juice is a high acid food. Potatoes are a low acid food. If we assume that the tomatoes and potatoes were canned according to the recommendations, then you have an equal chance of getting botulism with either one. Even if the canned potatoes were canned "improperly" using a water bath canner, you are still as likely to get botulism from the tomatoes as the "improperly" canned potatoes. Same with pickles, which have vinegar, pickling salts, etc. added. Now if you look at the non-canned foods, there were 3 times as many events with uncanned potatoes as there were with canned potatoes. Now that could simply be explained because most potatoes prepared in the home are not canned. But then you have apple pie and bread pudding, with the same number of incidents as tomato juice and pickles. However, you don't hear too many people giving you absolutes on preparing an apple pie or even worrying about botulism from apple pie.
I will again state that I am not advocating anyone to go against the recommendations of the government, universities, family members, friends, or your neighbors. I'm simply stating that yes, you can process LAF in a water bath canner. I will not tell you how. If you want to know the times, buy an old Ball Blue Book from Ebay.
Now, after all of that, will I can green beans in a water bath canner? No. Not because I don't believe it isn't safe, but because it takes 3 hours per batch in a water bath canner! And during that 3 hours, you have to keep adding water to keep the level above the jars. Compare that to the 25 minutes in a pressure canner and it becomes a matter of time/economics. I won't tell you that it can't be done, that you must use a pressure canner, or that it is unsafe, though you could process four batches in a pressure canner during the time it takes to do one batch in a water bath canner.
I will give some advice to anyone that is processing LAF with a water bath canner. Don't be stupid! Don't open a jar of meat or beans, and eat straight from the jar without cooking first. All of the venison, beans, and potatoes that my mom canned was cooked thoroughly, THOROUGHLY, sometimes beyond thorough, before we ate it. No matter how you can your food, check it before you eat it. If the seal is popped, throw it out. If it's seeping liquid, throw it out. If it smells funky or looks funky, throw it out. If there is mold growing on it (and somehow it passed the "looks funky" test), throw it out. If in doubt, throw it out. Put dates on your jars and throw it out when it gets old. I wouldn't open a jar of meat that I canned 3 years ago and eat it, that just doesn't make sense to me. Don't cut corners on sanitation or processing. This man used a pressure canner, as is recommended, but shortcut the process: Home Canning Hobby Leads to Near-Fatal Medical Emergency. And finally, don't be afraid. Respect your food, respect the process, respect the bacteria that could be living anywhere, but don't be afraid; be smart instead. After all, your chances of getting botulism from canned tomato juice is just as high as getting it from apple pie.
Be safe, be smart, and enjoy your canned foods, however you process them.
I am not encouraging anyone to go against the recommendations of the government or state agricultural universities when it comes to canning. But I will say this, YES YOU CAN PROCESS BEANS, POTATOES, MEATS, AND OTHER LOW ACID FOODS IN A WATER BATH CANNER! Ok, I shouted it, but it needed to be shouted.
Beans, potatoes, meats, low-acid foods will be referred to as simply LAF for the rest of this article, mainly because I'm a lazy writer and you really don't want to read all of those words each time I refer to them.
My first issue is with speaking in absolutes. I've read some sites that say "You can't process LAF in a water bath canner" OR "You absolutely can not process LAF in a water bath canner.' OR "You must process LAF in a pressure canner." These absolute statements mean that it is not physically possible to can LAF in a water bath canner. HOWEVER, the old Ball Blue Books have processing times for LAF in them, so at one point in time you COULD do it. Therefore, those absolute statements are simply false. Now a statement like "You SHOULD only process LAF in a pressure canner" is much more acceptable and true. By speaking in absolutes about something that is not absolutely true, you have immediately disqualified yourself from giving advice and I won't listen anymore. But by making a very strong suggestion, you have my attention.
"You must breath in order to live." That is an absolute statement that is true and I don't doubt it. But a statement like, "You can't dunk a basketball" is an absolute statement that is not true. Yes, it is highly improbable that I can not dunk a basketball right now (I'm 5'5", can't palm a ball, and have a short vertical), but it is not impossible. And given some training and practice, the probability increases. Here is an absolute statement: "You can not rob a bank." That statement is totally false. You CAN rob a bank, however you either have to know what you are doing OR deal with the consequences. The same thing goes with canning with a water bath canner.
Now some background; the reason I KNOW you CAN process LAF with a water bath canner is because my mom did for years, and we never got sick. My grandmother did for decades and nobody ever got sick. It has been done over and over again for years, by many, many different people. So anybody that says "you can't" or "you must use a pressure canner", is really just reiterating the government/ag universities statements. So let's look at the statistics.
According to the CDC, from 1990 - 2000 there were 47 events of botulism and 70 incidents (e.g. an incident = 1 person being sick, an event = 1 outbreak of the disease.) The population in the US in 1990 and 2000 was 249 million and 281 million respectively. So during the time frame of 1990-2000, we'll average the numbers and call the population 265 million. That means that out of 265 million people in the United States of America, 70 got sick from home canned foods. 70! SEVENTY! Divided by the 10 year period and that's an average of 7 people per year. Your chances of getting botulism from home canned foods in a year is 1 in 38 million. Compare that to your chances of being struck by lightning in a year, which is 1 in 1 million (see NWS Page), and you are 38 times more likely to be struck by lightning that get botulism from home canned foods. And yes, I am aware that not everyone of the 265 million people cans food, so not everyone is at risk of getting botulism from home canned food. Not everyone goes outside during thunderstorms either, but the lightning strike data is calculated based on the total population, so in order to compare the percentages, the botulism stats also need to be applied to the total population as well.
Lets take a closer look at the CDC numbers CDC Table.
| Type of processing/food | No. eventsb | No. cases |
|---|---|---|
| Noncommercial,home canned | ||
| Total | 47 | 70 |
| Restaurant-made | ||
| Total, contiguous states and Hawaii | 102 | 160 |
You are over 2x as likely to get botulism from eating at a restaurant.
And again in more detail:
| Type of processing/food | No. eventsb | No. cases |
|---|---|---|
| Noncommercial,home canned | ||
| Tomato juice | 1 | 1 |
| Potatoes | 1 | 1 |
| Pickles | 1 | 1 |
| Noncommercial, not home canned | ||
| Bread pudding | 1 | 1 |
| Apple pie | 1 | 1 |
| Potatoes | 3 | 3 |
Tomato Juice is a high acid food. Potatoes are a low acid food. If we assume that the tomatoes and potatoes were canned according to the recommendations, then you have an equal chance of getting botulism with either one. Even if the canned potatoes were canned "improperly" using a water bath canner, you are still as likely to get botulism from the tomatoes as the "improperly" canned potatoes. Same with pickles, which have vinegar, pickling salts, etc. added. Now if you look at the non-canned foods, there were 3 times as many events with uncanned potatoes as there were with canned potatoes. Now that could simply be explained because most potatoes prepared in the home are not canned. But then you have apple pie and bread pudding, with the same number of incidents as tomato juice and pickles. However, you don't hear too many people giving you absolutes on preparing an apple pie or even worrying about botulism from apple pie.
I will again state that I am not advocating anyone to go against the recommendations of the government, universities, family members, friends, or your neighbors. I'm simply stating that yes, you can process LAF in a water bath canner. I will not tell you how. If you want to know the times, buy an old Ball Blue Book from Ebay.
Now, after all of that, will I can green beans in a water bath canner? No. Not because I don't believe it isn't safe, but because it takes 3 hours per batch in a water bath canner! And during that 3 hours, you have to keep adding water to keep the level above the jars. Compare that to the 25 minutes in a pressure canner and it becomes a matter of time/economics. I won't tell you that it can't be done, that you must use a pressure canner, or that it is unsafe, though you could process four batches in a pressure canner during the time it takes to do one batch in a water bath canner.
I will give some advice to anyone that is processing LAF with a water bath canner. Don't be stupid! Don't open a jar of meat or beans, and eat straight from the jar without cooking first. All of the venison, beans, and potatoes that my mom canned was cooked thoroughly, THOROUGHLY, sometimes beyond thorough, before we ate it. No matter how you can your food, check it before you eat it. If the seal is popped, throw it out. If it's seeping liquid, throw it out. If it smells funky or looks funky, throw it out. If there is mold growing on it (and somehow it passed the "looks funky" test), throw it out. If in doubt, throw it out. Put dates on your jars and throw it out when it gets old. I wouldn't open a jar of meat that I canned 3 years ago and eat it, that just doesn't make sense to me. Don't cut corners on sanitation or processing. This man used a pressure canner, as is recommended, but shortcut the process: Home Canning Hobby Leads to Near-Fatal Medical Emergency. And finally, don't be afraid. Respect your food, respect the process, respect the bacteria that could be living anywhere, but don't be afraid; be smart instead. After all, your chances of getting botulism from canned tomato juice is just as high as getting it from apple pie.
Be safe, be smart, and enjoy your canned foods, however you process them.
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