Newly Planted

For fun or to win?

2010-04-07T09:22:00.001-03:00

I have never been very good at Scrabble, which is why I've been enjoying a bit of improvement with "Words with Friends" on the iPhone.

Normally when we used to play with friends, the big thing was to get five and six letter words and that was all. When you try this with people who are serious about the game, this is what happens.

Now, if I adopt a different strategy and play mostly defensively and not always go or nice, long words, the scores are a bit better.

But is it as fun? I dunno...there is some fun from not getting beaten badly, but some is taken away when you are actively trying to stop the other person from making points.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Buying the cow

2009-11-27T19:04:00.002-04:00

Well that was quick – the Kiva project I’m sponsoring has reached its goal and the cow will hopefully be soon on its way to the butcher shop :) Repayments start in January so will keep things updated here as well.

Testing the Kiva waters

2009-11-26T21:13:00.002-04:00

I’ve been toying with the idea about micro-lending through Kiva for a couple years now, and with Christmas on the way I decided to finally take the plunge. This is something I can support: a butcher in Uganda who wants a loan to buy a cow :)

Edit: Apparently the link to a given micro-loan applicant is not constant, so I've removed the banner. Again, a few things on the site that need some polish.

I spent a good hour or more looking through the requests and to be honest a lot of them just don’t seem noteworthy. I don’t really want to support someone who is running a store so they can buy more pop to resell. Nor do I necessarily think it’s good for someone to request $1000 for a saw when it seems like the money will go to something else. There is a lack of properly-written scenarios on a whole and not enough clarity on what exactly the money will be used for.

Regardless, I'm planning on following this for a few months and making a loan every paycheque or two provided I can find something that seems worthwhile. I’ll post updates here whenever they happen.

How to make a cream-based soup

2009-11-23T21:41:00.001-04:00

You would think that by now I would have stopped being surprised about the crap that companies will put in our foods. Still, every now and then I enjoy having the chance to complain about things and today seemed like a good time :)

I decided to make a cream of broccoli soup for supper and here were the ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter (or so)
1/4 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons arrowroot flour
600 ml chicken broth
350 ml 18% cream
salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper
1 head broccoli

In case anyone is curious, the instructions are quite simple. Melt the butter and sauté onions until soft. Slowly mix in the flour till it thickens (yes, just a basic roux). Add all the other ingredients. Cover and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Turn heat to low and simmer for at least 15 more minutes.

Let’s take a second to compare this to a can of cream of mushroom soup from the “wonderful” folks over at Campbell’s.

water, fresh mushrooms (ok)
modified corn starch, enriched wheat flour, soybean or canola oil, corn starch (don’t even get me started on how bad all of these are)
milk ingredients (??)
fresh cream (ok)
MSG ??!
salt, whey protein
potassium chloride, sauterne wine (with sulphates)
mushroom flavour (dried onions) .... uhmmm
yeast extract
disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate
spice

It’s time to make food real again.

My new place

2009-10-08T18:24:00.002-03:00

Haddock Pizzaiola

2009-08-19T19:37:00.001-03:00

More simple seafood cooking on a hot summer’s day :)

Check out the recipe over here.

Flour-Free Crab Cakes

2009-08-19T10:47:00.001-03:00

Very tasty stuff :) You can find the recipe over here.

Chicken finale

2009-08-16T15:20:00.001-03:00

I travelled to Abrams Village two days ago to help finish processing the last ten chickens for the summer. It was another hot afternoon of work, and I’m glad that it’s over for the year. I finally took some time this afternoon and go through all the receipts so I could post my conclusions on raising chickens. In short, I’m happy to announce that it most definitely is :)

Chicken Info

Average Dressed Weight: 4.8 lbs
Price/lb at Farmer’s Market: $4
Average Chicken Value: $19.20
Total Chicken Value: $691.20

Non-Capital Costs

This is the list of things you would have to buy every year to raise the chickens. I’ve rounded all the costs to the nearest $5 just to keep things simple.

Chickens: $50
Food: $125
Brooder Lights: $20
Wood Shavings: $25
Total Non-Capital Costs: $220

Non-Capital Profit: $480
Per Chicken: $13.33

My initial hand-wavy calculations were around $10/chicken.. we’ll see how this compares to the next set of numbers

Total Costs

In the case where you only raise chickens for one summer and then sell / give away / lose the equipment, is it still worth it? I believe so

Non-Capital Costs: $220
Pen*: $175
Equipment: $130
Total Costs: $525

Profit: $175
Per Chicken: $4.86

*Almost half of the price of the pen came from the roof. There are definitely ways to reduce costs here by visiting a scrapyard (as long as you have a truck). Also, getting scrap lumber would save another 25-30%.

Conclusions

Even if you only do this for one summer, it is still worth it to raise your own food. With a bit of time and effort, you can scrounge materials and equipment throughout the winter or previous fall and really cut down on the expenses.

In terms of doing this for profit, things get a bit trickier here. Certainly it can provide some added income for the summer on a slightly larger scale: raising 300 chickens could net around $2700 and you can easily fit three batches in one summer.

The tough part comes at the end for slaughtering; it is definitely time-consuming to learn and until you and a few other people become skilled, it will kill your hourly rate. I think it would be an ideal thing for several families to get together each year to help raise and process food for the winter; it would certainly be cheaper than buying a similarly grown product, and the satisfaction of knowing exactly where your food comes from is priceless.

Chicken project complete!

2009-07-22T09:03:00.001-03:00

This is now a chicken-free zone. Except for the freezer :) I was hoping to write a long post today detailing the adventure and how the last couple days went but there is just too much to do right now before heading over to Halifax for the wedding. It was definitely a good (and tasty) experience.

And then there were thirty-four

2009-07-12T19:18:00.001-03:00

I had been wondering about this for a little while, and then recently it became quite obvious – one of these is definitely not like the other.

He was up to 8 lbs, far beyond the 6 lbs I was hoping for and his legs were reaching the limits of what they could support. I think he could take about ten to fifteen steps before needing to rest.

We experimented with heating the water for the “scalder” (stock pot) outside, but after twenty-something minutes there was no noticeable difference so we just used the stove to heat it.

He was not nearly as complacent as the small hen we did a while ago – and the neck was much tougher to cut through. I am really looking forward to receiving the cones; will make life easier.

Turned in at a respectable 4 lbs 14 oz, with the breasts an even 1 lb in the end. I’m wondering why people don’t just raise roosters instead? The meat tastes the same to me….

First chicken slaughtered

2009-07-05T12:49:00.001-03:00

Well, I thought there was hope, but the chicken I’ve been keeping in the shed stopped showing any signs of improvement, and her leg had become completely useless in the last couple days. I have spent a lot of time reading about building scalders/pluckers, and how to eviscerate over the last week. I’m narrowing down the possibilities quite quickly and believe I have a solution for plucking.

In the end, for this one, I went with a sharp knife to the throat, a pot of hot water at around 70° C (160° F), and hand-picking the feathers. I will only put links to the video and some pictures here; if you are squeamish I suggest avoiding them.

Video of bird before, during, and after slaughter.

(Apparently YouTube examines the soundtrack and since I’ve used copyrighted music in it, refuses to play the audio. Boo! Hiss!)

In case anyone is curious, the first two pieces of music are Zero Seven’s Waiting to Die and Un Bel Di from Madame Butterfly. The third is fairly recognizable :) I had debated using Only Happy When It Rains (it was downpouring), Up N Down (just to throw in some dance music) and I Would Die For You. At the end of the day, taking four-ish hours to cut together a video is too long as it is :)

Pictures

Was it difficult? A little bit, although most of my concern came from trying to find the right place on the throat to cut. I definitely should have cut higher and will remember that for next time (plus they will be in a cone then). The rest of it went well; the plucking was quite straightforward, but needs to be done as soon as the dunking is complete – we decided to take it inside to finish off and it had cooled down by then. Eviscerating was a bit tougher (I was following these directions [graphic pictures too]), but like everything else it just takes some practice.

In the end, she only weighed 1.25lbs after picking, and there may have been .5 lbs of meat there. Certainly not worth keeping alive for another two weeks in terms of comfort or food.

Anyway; I’m glad I have some experience now. Looking forward to getting slightly better equipment setup for the remaining thirty-something of them in a couple weeks time. It looks like I may be giving away a few live to people who want to grow them even larger :)

A sneak preview

2009-07-05T11:28:00.001-03:00

Enough said

2009-07-02T06:24:00.001-03:00

The bumbling brewmaster

2009-06-27T08:42:00.002-03:00

I think I just killed off my first batch of beer. The instructions read:

Pour 4l of hot water into the bucket
Add contents of can (malty goodness)
Fill with cold water up to 23L
When temperature is between 22-30C, add yeast and stir for 30 seconds.

However, this was written as a run-on paragraph, rather than the nice bullet points I’ve used. And so I added the yeast to the hot water/malt mixture. Eep!

I tried my best to get the remaining 23L in at to make the entire mixture the proper temperature but I am quite worried I killed the yeast at the start. Will know in a few days.

Again, in terms of economy, this cannot be beat. One mixture will make 66 regular-sized bottles of beer, at a cost of around $.50/bottle.

Update: I talked to the people I bought the kit from and they said it will most likely be fine. I just need to check it tomorrow evening to see if the yeast is working, and if not, just toss another pack in Monday morning :)

Rollercoaster

2009-06-24T19:30:00.002-03:00

I am probably wasting time/food/energy on this one bird, and I can’t help it - still want to have thirty-six slaughtered chickens come the end of July :) I put the “sick” chick back in the shed with her own water and food. Tried feeding her a bit myself and that seemed to perk her up, but I doubt it’s anything more than temporary.

If it’s a leg problem, then I doubt she’s been getting enough to eat. If it’s coccidiosis then this should hopefully quarantine it. I am now continually worried about the birds that don’t move when I bring out new food; will have to keep an eye on all of them.

In the worst case, if she dies, here are some pics of her in her final place. She looks comfy at least, right? :)

Sigh.

Update (June 25): She made it through the night, and it is seeming more like a leg problem. She's able to hobble enough to turn around from time to time, and will still eat and drink a bit.

Possible problems in paradise

2009-06-24T12:06:00.001-03:00

I’m getting concerned about one of the chickens; she’s been refusing to move every day with the pen and I continually have to go around to the back, lift it up, and push her forward. She can walk, but doesn’t appear to want to. I took her out this morning and she wasn’t even interested in eating.

Some comments on the forum point to coccidiosis, which is apparently pretty serious. I don’t think the grass is absorbing what one pen can put down a day, so I’m going to start moving it twice daily.

The next step is to separate her; catching will be difficult given the roof of the pen, but I guess there is no other choice. I don’t want to give them antibiotics either if I can help it.

The Tarantino Mixtape

2009-06-21T18:19:00.002-03:00

The Tarantino Mixtape from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

Wheel problem solved (I think)

2009-06-21T12:36:00.002-03:00

The wheels for the pen have been the hardest part so far; I cannot figure out how to make the dolly mentioned in the book and have been struggling to come up with alternatives. The picture to the left seemed like a good idea; hinged wheels that lock into place, but in reality they just tear away from the pen once you start to move it.

After a lot of searching, I finally came across this page and was able to modify the idea a bit so I can just slip the wheels on each morning, secure them with a nut, and then move the cart. See the bolt peeking out of the grass below :)

Chickens start acting like chickens!

2009-06-21T08:31:00.002-03:00

I'm happy to say that the chickens made it through their first night in the pen safe and sound. I went out around 3am to move them away from the side (they were sleeping right up against the netting), but luckily nothing had happened before then.

This morning I moved the pen (well, dragged..the wheels are definitely not working) to its new location, and they immediately started pecking for food. It was very rewarding to see :)

Chickens in their pastured poultry pen

2009-06-20T14:12:00.001-03:00

Weekend update

2009-06-20T12:59:00.001-03:00

Chickens

The biggest news is with the chickens – they are finally outside in their pen!!!

It has been a real killer trying to get the pen finished. Had to cut the roofing by hand, trim off the edges, and re-staple a bunch of the wire. The problem has been that the bugs are back in full force, and I have been eaten alive every single time I go outside. It makes work very, very difficult.

The other big problem has been with the wheels. I was unable to figure out how to make a proper dolly as outlined in the book, and have been struggling to make wheels that could fold down and then stay in place. In the end, it’s still not working properly. I managed to get the pen over to a starting position (more headaches) and the birds are in. Hopefully I can get some help from the internet and/or friendly neighbours. It has been a chore.

Finally the birds are starting to show leg issues; they can all still walk but I’m getting quite worried that they are growing too quickly. All in all, it’s been a difficult week chicken-wise, and it’s a small victory to finally see them outside. We are looking at four days of rain, so I think my next task is to find someone I can buy hay from. Whew!

(Plenty of complaining, but a lot of it is my own fault. It is definitely worth the effort to know where your food is coming from. I just lack the handy-man skill that is useful at times likes these. Next summer will be much easier, I’m sure.)

Vegetables

The garden has started to grow and the tomatoes are taking to their new home quite nicely. I decided to take the row covers off for a few days to see what happens; we’re supposed to be getting rain and I think it might do them good. If it gets too heavy, I’ll put the covers back on.

Wine

Last, but not least, the wine is mellowing away in the basement. It had to stand for three days and then go on its side (something to do with the cork). So far it looks like all the bottles were sealed properly and now it’s just a matter of time before the tasting.

The garden is finally planted

2009-06-15T07:30:00.001-03:00

I have neglected to post pictures of the tomatoes with all the talk of chickens and wine, so let’s just say that they grew a lot. Mostly up, unfortunately. I know for next year that proper lighting is the key. That said, twenty-four plants made it through the last few months and were finally planted outside yesterday. I had to try to bury some of their stalks underground as they couldn’t have handled much wind standing two feet tall.

I am pleased to report this morning that they made it through the night!

Also got the square-foot beds in yesterday. Planted three 4x4 squares that are all joined together in one 12x4 bed. Added row covers on top as the birds were picking at it almost immediately.

30 bottles of wine on the wall

2009-06-13T13:53:00.001-03:00

It’s been three weeks since we started the first of what I hope will be many successful, tasty batches of wine :) On Thursday we finally bottled them; they are supposed to stand up for three days and then go on their sides until consumed.

Using a manual corker is a surprisingly good workout! Who would have thought that squeezing a cork into a bottle would require so much pressure. The wine still looks like grape juice; hopefully in one or two months it will start to look more like real red wine.

The only question remaining is: what’s next? :)

My harbinger of doom

2009-06-06T22:10:00.003-03:00

It seems only a matter of time before one chicken escapes from the pen in the basement. Luckily there is nowhere to go, nor anything to hurt her, but it seems inevitable.

I’ve made a few adjustments, bought a second feeder/waterer, and elevated the waterers so it’s more difficult for them to track shavings/poo into them. More and more of what I read in Joel’s book is coming true: he has a way of understating how important things are, yet all the info you need is there :)

After talking to a few people at the farmer's market this morning, I'm switching them to a 50-50 mix of chick starter and non-medicated duck starter. To be honest, I'm starting to worry about their legs; they seem to be growing far too quickly for what their limbs can support. I'm supplementing their rations with fresh grass/weeds/bugs and gravel, but I don't know if it's enough. I want them to live their eight weeks of life in the best health possible.

Chicks after ten days

2009-06-04T10:30:00.002-03:00

They are growing like crazy! And definitely eating loads. I’ve continued to give them fresh-cut grass/flowers and gravel; they always love that and gobble it up immediately. No worms yet, but I should try it soon.

I am fortunate to have them all still alive, although it has required several “cleanings”. There is a condition called 'pasting up' where poo gets stuck to the outside of their vent (bum) and then they can’t evacuate any waste at all; it just backs up inside them until their system can’t handle it any more. I’ve had to clean one of them a few times and a couple others once or twice. Hopefully they grow out of that soon.

They definitely do not like being handled and are very easily frightened. At the same time, they will adjust to having you around after only a few seconds if you are still and quiet. Interesting birds for sure :)

I can now steal gas

2009-05-29T16:52:00.001-03:00

The instruction sheet reads: “…. check the specific gravity. It should be 1.010 or less”. The hydrometer bobbing away inside the tub was just at that mark yesterday, so I figured to be on the safe side I would let primary fermentation go one more day. From the first post, we were supposed to wait 5-7 days, so it looks like we are pretty much right on schedule :)

Stage 2 – Secondary Fermentation

Racking (transferring wine from plastic tub to huge glass bottle) involves siphoning - something I have never done before. I had three false starts (where the wine stopped moving after a minute or so), about twenty failed attempts, and then finally figure out that you almost certainly need to get a bit of wine in your mouth before it starts flowing properly. Needless to say, I can now get free gas any time I’m short on cash.

The second stage takes ten days. There are also pictures of the giant straw and one of the false starts.

Time for some real food, too

2009-05-28T20:33:00.002-03:00

Chickens need (mostly) grain/seeds to live, but up to 20% of their nutrients can (and should) come from live food. It’s still too cold to let them venture outside, so I brought in some cut grass and flowers (including bugs) to let them eat. They seem to really enjoy it – as much as they enjoyed the hard-boiled eggshells they got earlier :) Half an hour after putting down the food, they are actually fighting over it; I guess they know what's better for them in the end.

It was starting to smell a bit in the basement so I got them herded into a corner and put down another layer of wood shavings. As Joel writes repeatedly, “…if it smells then you are doing something wrong. The carbon:nitrogen ratio is off and it’s up to you to fix it.”

Tomorrow I’m going to feed them some worms and see how they do with that :)

48 hours, 36 chicks

2009-05-28T06:24:00.004-03:00

Things I have learned in the first two days:

You will immediately learn the difference between happy chirping/tweeting and annoyed/unhappy/etc.
They (seem to) have absolutely no regard for each other! They will happily walk over another chick (usually several, waking them all up) to get where they want to be. I’m hoping this happens less when they get older.
They don’t need that much space! I was originally horrified at the close quarters they had them in, but it appears that (for now) 9 sq ft./.8 sq m is more than enough room including feeding trough and waterer.
They are pretty low-maintenance. As long as they have water and food, you can pretty much leave them alone.
After being settled, they get quite skittish and don’t want to be picked up. Any sort of movement in the area will frighten them and cause a ripple effect.
They are quickly growing up: it’s the third morning and they are already moving further away from the lamp. I will have to raise it tomorrow so they don’t get too hot.
They are quite lazy: eat, drink, sleep. This may be partially because of their age, but the literature I've read said that most of these breeds (White Rock/Cornish Cross/Meat Kings) have been purposefully bred to just consume calories and get fat. It's unfortunate and for next year I will be talking to some people about getting other types.

…and the final lesson I’ve learned: anyone can do this.

You do have to leave the red light on

2009-05-26T11:17:00.001-03:00

The chicks are here!

They fit all of them in *half* the box.

First one in a brave new world :)

Warmth first. Then water, then food.

They can (and do) fall asleep standing up!

This one was being quite loud hehe.

Here’s the entire photostream.

It’s oh so quiet

2009-05-26T07:18:00.002-03:00

It’s, oh so still.

(For now) :)

In about ninety minutes, thirty-six little peeping chickens will arrive and I am quite sure the quietness will go away. Here’s how things look this morning :)

The red light district is open for business.

Plenty of food

And plenty of water (which i am sure will get dirty very quickly)

I was able to find very little information about building a chicken brooder indoors on the internet, so here's what I ended up doing:

Took leftover wood from building the pen (three 6-feet lengths plus two 3-foot lengths joined together with strapping) and screwed them together to form a 6x6 frame.
Bought an 8x10 plastic sheet ($3) and covered it with brown paper (newspaper would work too)
Went to the liquor store a few times and got empty wine boxes
Put frame on top of plastic/paper, cut cardboard open and used a staple gun to pin them to the outside of the frame.
Filled inside with wood shavings

That's it :) Very simple/cheap/easily cleaned. Well, the plastic is easily cleaned - I have zero intention of changing the shavings at all while they're in there; just putting more on top and letting the composting action take care of everything else.

In vino veritas

2009-05-23T18:27:00.002-03:00

As part of becoming more self-sufficient and ensuring that the food (and drink) being consumed comes from a good place, I’ve decided to try making some wine :) A Cabernet Sauvignon, to be exact. It takes four to five weeks before it’s ready to bottle, and then 1-3 months after that before tasting.

One bottle costs $2 in the end. Two! I’m really hoping it’s good; I plan to give away a bottle with each chicken later this summer :)

Stage 1 – Primary Fermentation

This was fairly simple (although it looks like all the stages are simple). Sterilize the equipment, dump in the grape juice, water, oak chips, and some dirt (bentonite).

They are Very Clear that you must make Exactly 23 litres.

Finished around 4:30pm on Thursday. Now we play the waiting game .. for 5-7 days apparently.

One (large) step backwards

2009-05-14T21:16:00.001-03:00

Something has happened to half of my tomato plants. Not sure what, yet, but it doesn’t look good.

Decided to trim off all the sickly looking leaves; there were a lot of them.

Fingers crossed the rest survive.

On a happier note, the chickens arrive in twelve days :)

First catch

2009-05-11T09:37:00.001-03:00

Went fishing yesterday for the first time – caught my one (and only) trout thirty seconds into the trip :) One of the other guys caught one a few minutes later, and then that was it for the day. Good experience; would definitely go again when the weather was nicer.

Here was my appetizer for supper last night :) It kind of fell apart in the pan so there’s no “after” picture, but they were tasty. By the time I got the backbone/bones out there wasn’t a lot of meat; part of undoubtedly due to this being my first time.

My recurring visitors

2009-05-09T09:06:00.001-03:00

One of the things I really appreciate from no longer living in a concrete jungle is how close I am to nature – in most cases, just a few feet away. With the woods cleared out and spring in full swing, there are a couple animals that seem to show up outside day after day. I managed to get a few pictures of my woodland friends :)

Where there’s life, there’s hope

2009-04-24T09:22:00.001-03:00

After the transplant, quite a few of the seedlings looked like they probably wouldn’t make it. With the right conditions, though, they’ve recovered. A good lesson for life as well as plants :)

Before

Now

53 days to go

2009-04-22T22:56:00.004-03:00

Kimmy and I have chosen a date: June 14.

Check back then!

It’s still not real food

2009-04-21T20:32:00.001-03:00

It is easy to take almost any belief in life to an extreme (including The Primal Blueprint). One of the unfortunate commercialistic side-effects of the rise in vegetarianism is the creation of meat-like products: “food” based on soy and a multitude of other ingredients to mimic the taste/feel of meat. Take, for instance, “Chick’n Nuggets” – a tofu-based concoction surrounded by bread and corn.

The famous Chicken McNugget was demonized for being deep-fried, not containing enough chicken/protein, and removing the last trace between animal and food in many children’s minds. All of these facts are true. However, creating a similar monstrosity based on soy is not the answer, and I see no reason why people should feel “good” about eating something with fourty-some ingredients just because it doesn’t contain meat.

Of the ingredients listed, soy appears four different times and corn thrice. There are barely any real seasonings and the added vitamins scream that something has gone awry in the process. How anyone could purchase this and consider it ‘healthy’ is beyond me.

I will be the first to admit that meat coming from inhumanely-raised chickens should be left alone and that deep-frying / trans-fats are indeed the devil. You can still enjoy a ‘chicken nugget’ with a simple, tasty, home-made recipe like the ones available on RecipeZaar.

Only eat food made from ingredients your grandmother (or great-grandmother) would recognize.

- Michael Pollan

Just for reference

2009-04-19T16:10:00.002-03:00

This is closer to what my tomato plants should look like at this point. Got some plants from the gardeners I’m learning from :)

The survivors

2009-04-19T11:48:00.001-03:00

Rule #1 for seeds: Use proper soil.
Rule #2 for seeds: See rule #1.

The wrong kind of soil makes it impossible for water to penetrate to the roots. Add that to peat pots being naturally prone to disintegration and it becomes very hard to keep plants alive. Some of the plants flourished for a while, but it became increasingly difficult to water them.

Rule #3 of starting seeds: Wait until there are at least three or four leaves before transplanting to larger containers. I transplanted the tomatoes way too early (below).

Rule #4: Get proper soil that can hold moisture. (Yes, it’s just rule 1 again). It became apparent that there was no way to keep these plants going in their current state. So far I had tomatoes, celery, lettuce, peppers, kale, and a few others. In the end, though, most of them had to go.

A few days ago I was able to get some good potting soil from John’s Greenhouse in Summerside – amazing stuff for only $2/bag. There was no easy way to uproot the plants so I just tore open the sides of pots and attempted to remove the seedlings as best possible. I replanted what I could and started some more seeds from scratch. Here are the survivors (tomatoes, celery, and lettuce). There is hope, though. And soon it will be time to start some greens directly outside under the cold frame. Looking forward to home-grown veggies by the start of June :)

Garden layout (take one)

2009-04-15T21:27:00.001-03:00

Hmmm, yeah. There’s still so more planning to do :) I want to have:

some square-foot garden blocks (2 or 3)
pumpkin/squash/zucchini patch
row (?) for tomatoes
place for melons (another patch?)
herb garden (not shown)

Made this picture playing around with the free trial at growveg.com.

What happened to spring?

2009-04-13T08:00:00.001-03:00

Drive Free, Retire Rich

2009-04-13T07:07:00.002-03:00

This is plain awesome.

The Scenario

6-year loan at an average rate of over 9%
26,000 car
475/month payment
Loses about 25% value
After four years, lost about 70%, and there are still two years of payments left
After six years, you’ve paid 33,000 for a 26,000 car that’s worth maybe 6,000

But…

Let’s say you have a car now worth 1,500
If you save 475 for ten months you can get a used car for 6250
In another ten months, you save another 4750, and can re-sell the 6250 car and get a car worth 11,000

Over the six years of the original loan

If you put the money into a mutual fund (at 12%*) you’d have 32,000.
Your $11,000 car is finished
There is enough money left to keep buying new 14-18,000 cars every five years for free!

It boils down to a flash presentation on the magic of compound interest, just done in a very nice way :)

* Eight percent is more realistic, I think.

Please stop the madness

2009-04-12T10:52:00.001-03:00

I can’t take it anymore. Stop demonizing fat.
(More on this later)

Just call me George

2009-04-11T09:00:00.004-03:00

You know, salmon’s the opposite of tuna because salmon swim against the current and tuna swim with it.

My name is George. I’m unemployed and live with my parents. (2:12)

Frugal way to boil eggs

2009-04-09T09:40:00.001-03:00

As I made boiled eggs the ‘alternative’ way for the umpteenth time this morning, I realised that if I never read/heard about it until more than ten years of cooking, it’s probably something to broadcast :) I discovered the technique from this post two years ago and have used it successfully every time since.

The secret is this: once the water starts boiling, you don’t need to maintain the fire underneath it. Just cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and let the eggs sit (off the burner if it’s an electric stove) for the normal amount of time you would have boiled them for.

A tiny bit of power-saving, I realise. But just imagine what would happen if everyone in North America made boiled eggs that way :)

The forgotten magic of wet shaving

2009-04-08T23:11:00.005-03:00

I have had a love-hate relationship with shaving ever since the first time I used a BIC (dry, of course) to shave off sideburns back in grade nine or ten (can’t quite remember). I have followed the Gillette company through the Sensor, Sensor Excel, Mach 3, and Fusion, paying dearly for it through each upgrade. Using the Philishave Coolskin helped a tiny bit, but there were refills and after the first model, they seemed to go downhill. I have tried all sorts of combinations of shaving gels, pre-shave oils, aftershaves, and creams to try to prevent razor bumps. And never been able to get satisfaction. Until recently.

The new old thing

A couple of years back, I stumbled across Badger and Blade and then again more recently from this Art of Manliness article through LifeHacker. It wasn’t until about a month ago that I actually decided to take the plunge – partly because it sounded promising, partly because I was finally in a situation to try, and partly because if it worked, there were many savings to come from it.

I’m not sure how the shift happened from double-edged razors post-World War II to safety razors, but the only advantage I can see is a ton of money in Gillette’s pockets. After using shaving soap and a DE razor for a few times, it’s obvious that the combination provides a far superior shave.

Here are some great resources from Badger and Blade for anyone who’s interested:

Beginner’s guide to getting a better shave. (I particularly like the title of step #2 – get a real razor… sissy)
How to make a great lather from soap. (Have been using this technique since day one with great success)
Reviews for brushes, aftershaves, soaps, and anything shaving-related.

And this affects the environment how?

This post is filed under the ‘environmental’ tag because this, the chickens, the garden, and hopefully most of my choices/actions have a small positive effect on nature. For shaving, the list is simple (and could make a dramatic difference if more people adopted it):

Less packaging for blades. Compare a 5-pack of Derby to a 4-pack of Gillette Fusion. The cost ($2 vs. $14 CAD) isn’t even in the same ballpark.
DE blades are easily recyclable as they are only metal. Gillette blades are a combination of metal, plastic, and who-knows-what else.
Shaving soap, when finished, disappears. A can of shaving gel or foam requires disposal (and until recently aerosol cans emitted CFCs). Take shipping and packaging costs into account and again there is no comparison.

Is it for everybody?

I firmly believe so. The only possible downside is a slower shave, but I find the whole ritual quite relaxing. Along with helping the environment and saving money, it’s also forced me to pay closer attention to the direction of hair growth, provided me with a new skill, and, most importantly, consistently given me the best shaves possible at home.

Canadian Stores: Fendrihan.com (where I ordered from), Rasage Poulin
Worldwide: List from Badger and Blade

The story so far (fitness)

2009-04-07T22:25:00.001-03:00

I spent twelve weeks during the summer of 2000 doing the Body for Life program. At the time I had reached 160lb (12-15 more than my normal weight) and was quite distressed to find most pants no longer fitting properly. It turns out that at twenty you can quickly change anything you want with a little bit of effort :)

Many years later, after returning from a year of non-stop overtime in India and then enjoying the nightlife far too often while at Microsoft I found myself bouncing off the bottom end of 170 and really started getting annoyed. I was able to go through one, two, or even three months of training but in the end always fell back into a rut. It took until last year to realise that my environment was having a huge effect on my health and I took the necessary steps to remedy that.

Twenty-one days later

I have read in a few different places that it takes three weeks for your body to completely adjust to a new routine – whether that’s exercising regularly, eating properly, or just waking up at a set time. Since almost a year ago, it has been impossible for me to have a period of more than three or four weeks without some major incident (including travel) occurring. Thankfully that is over.

It’s been just over three weeks since returning from my last trip and I can start to feel the difference. Eating fairly primally and getting to the gym regularly has started to make a difference. Now that the train is in motion, I’m extremely excited about what results are ahead.

Primal? What’s this now…

Simply put, The Primal Blueprint is a way of life that emulates the lifestyle our ancestors had 10,000 years ago before the advent of agriculture. To be honest, my main concert right now is the Primal Eating Plan – similar in many ways to the Paleo Diet but with a few important tweaks. Some might say it’s also similar to Atkin’s and that may well be the topic of another post. Notice the use clever use of the word ‘plan’ instead of ‘diet’. This is meant to be a lifestyle choice (like vegetarianism) rather than something you ‘go on’ and ‘come off of’.

Mark’s explanation is the proper starting point and the many follow-up and detailed posts on his site are a must-read for those interested. I will try to condense it into a few lines here:

Protein is great; keep it in moderation.
Eat plenty of vegetables and fruit.
Fat, for the most part, is good for you.

For anyone that’s read nutrition and diet information at all over the last five years, the last statement (and possibly the first) are pure sacrilege. I encourage you to read and re-read the many articles and studies on Mark’s website before jumping to any conclusions :)

Diet (and again, by ‘diet’ I mean ‘way of eating’) accounts for eighty percent of our fitness and health – the other twenty percent from exercise. (Whether it’s 80-20, or 90-10, it still follows the Pareto principle). ‘Common knowledge’ from the last ten to fifteen years states that plenty of cardio with some weight training is the way to burn fat. This plan can be summed up as:

Lift heavy things (strength training 2-3 times a week for 30-50 minutes)
Run really fast once in a while (intervals/tabatas/etc)

I should point out that neither the style of eating or workouts is unique to The Primal Blueprint. If you read Craig Ballantyne, Brad Pilon, Alwyn Cosgrove, Tom Venuto, Holly Rigsby, or countless others you will see a lot of very similar opinions (currently Craig and Brad are probably closest, even if the way they arrived at their conclusions differ from Mark’s).

What’s the expected outcome?

I’m glad you asked :) After almost four years at Microsoft I’ve got SMART goals / commitments engrained in me. The end goal is to be between 165 and 170 at 10% body fat (or enough to see abs). Unfortunately without some experimentation, there’s no way to make that time-bound. Given my current stats (160 at 20% body fat) there is a lot of room for play :)

For the next month, I’m going to ignore the scale. I will be tracking my food in CalorieKing and following these guidelines:

Carbs: 80 - 175g
Protein: 130 - 161g
Fat: 84 - 165g
Total Calories: 2000 – 2500

Non-workout days should have less total calories and carbs; workout days, the opposite. However, is it the range for the week I’m most interested in. After four weeks I’ll be in a better place to set realistic goals.

I will close with this: if Mark can be in this kind of shape at 53, just imagine what it can do for me at 30 :)

Make your voice heard!

2009-04-06T18:54:00.004-03:00

CalorieKing sent out an article this morning with the following opening paragraph:

"A liter of Coke, a bag of Doritos, a jar of honey-roasted peanuts, a package of Chips Ahoy, half a chocolate cake and a tub of ice cream. No, that’s not Kirstie Alley’s weekend shopping list. It’s the synopsis of someone’s latest binge – maybe yours."

For a site that is supposed to be supportive of people trying to lose weight, this isn’t exactly the best way to go about it. Kimmy wrote about it in more detail here, and also on the website’s message boards. The ‘binge support’ group already has 17 responses – here is a sampling:

Done in very bad taste......Shame on CK.
Couldn't agree more. It was a very mean and unnecessary thing to write about someone.
Definitely shocking and in bad tasted coming from CK

I’m curious to see what their eventual response is (if any) – this is the kind of publicity a site would probably rather not get. Well done, Kimmy :) Keep up the fight!

The story so far (chickens)

2009-04-06T18:44:00.001-03:00

My interest in chickens was renewed as soon as I read the second section of The Omnivore’s Dilemma a few years ago. Circumstances prevented me from doing anything about that until this year, though. I will be chronicling the entire adventure on here from May 26th when they arrive until late July when they make the move to the freezer. If things go well, I’m also considering getting turkeys for the fall, but that’s a while away :)

Growing up, we had chickens for quite a few summers but my memories consist of keeping the chicks in the basement for a week or two, occasionally playing with them outside in the summer, and then eating them in the fall and winter. The care, feeding, etc. has long vanished to be replaced with developer-related information (more recently dealing with the the stupid intricacies of SSIS). Luckily I live in a fairly rural area and have been lucky enough to meet several people who will be able to mentor me throughout the upcoming months.

The approach I’ve chosen is Joel Salatin’s pastured poultry (also originally described in Michael Pollan’s book). Instead of having a run, the chicks are put into a enclosure that is moved (at least) once a day. This gives them access to fresh grass, bugs, etc. and reduces the chances of disease (and smell). They can only get about 20% of their diet from nature so grain is still required – even here there better choices to make than what large-scale productions do. (I will probably write more about large-scale farming and egg production later, but not now.)

The “portable enclosure”

Although Joel writes about the cage in more detail in Pastured Poultry Profits, there are still some questions about how exactly to do certain things. (‘Cage’ is apparently a four-letter word in some circles, so I am searching for an alternative). I am not a carpenter, nor even handy, so getting the first side to stand on its own was a pretty exciting experience :) The second one went a lot more quickly.

The biggest problem so far has been finding galvanized aluminum for the roof. I’ve given up for the sides and purchased flat sheets of aluminum but they strike me as a bit expensive. The cage seems fairly sturdy even without the roof and bottom wire – below you can see the current state with places for the doors in the bottom left quadrant.

The “traditional housing”

The chickens arrive on May 26th and will probably spend a week to ten days in the basement under a heat lamp. Before I can start moving them around in the portable enclosure they will need a week of adjustment to the temperatures – this is where the chicken house + traditional run comes in.

As I wrote earlier, we used to have chickens every summer and they spent some time (and nights) indoors, but during the afternoons we’d let them run around the yard. They tended not to go too far from the shed and we could keep an eye on them if they did. I am aiming to match Joel’s model as closely as possible, so running completely free just won’t work. There are some fairly good arguments against letting chickens be completely “free-range”, but that will have to be discussed another post :)

We decided to clear out the shed and section off about 60% for the chickens. There will be three dozen and I think this will be more than enough space for the time they’re in the shed. Check out the before and after pictures below. I’m particularly proud of the door (and learning what L-braces are for :))

The entire photo set for both chicken housing areas is available here.

How much did it cost?

I have done some rough calculations comparing the cost of materials, chickens, feed vs. buying the meat from even the grocery store (which is far from a fair comparison) and the numbers are extremely encouraging. I will do a much more detailed cost-benefit later, but let me quickly outline what has been purchased so far. These prices do not include taxes.

10 pieces 2x2x8 – $16.90
10 pieces 1x3x8 – $17.92
8 pieces 1x3x10 – $11.20
10 ft 1/16” cable – $2.30
Turnbuckle – $2.09
1/2 lb. 3” screws – $6.39
Wood laths (bundle) – $9.99
1”x21 Gauge chicken wire, 20’ – $7.80
Aluminum coil stock, 20’ - $45.98

A chunk of that wood was for the portable greenhouse, and there were some 2.5” and 1” screws we had to buy as well. All together we’re looking at about $100 to build the pen plus whatever the roof costs. I’m hoping to get some scrap aluminum for that, but we’ll see. This is for an 8’x8’ enclosure; Joel’s classic Polyface model was 10’x12’ and estimated at $150-$200US ten years ago.

What’s next?

Obviously the biggest concern is getting the roof completed. It would be really helpful if I could find a source of aluminum somewhere on the island as the flat stuff is not going to work well with the rain unless I fiddle with the design. You can see from the picture linked at the end of the last paragraph how the grooves would help.

I will probably stick with the basic feed the local CO-OP sells for this summer, although I’ve already been given some advice for mixing in other ingredients to help with cost (and better nourishment). The final part will be figuring out exactly where to do the slaughter – there are a few options and people to talk to but luckily I have until late July to sort that out. Get ready for tons of pictures of chickens come late May!

Slowly making progress

2009-04-03T13:48:00.002-03:00

A solid workout today with increasing weights for all the exercises – still not to the point where I can really feel large gains, but that usually happens in or just after week three :) The assisted 1-leg squats were done against a wall with a stability ball.

Warmup (x2)

Y-Squat (10), Pushup (10), Stick-up (10), Mountain Climbers (5), Lunges (5), Waiter’s Bow (10), Spiderman Climb (5)

Superset A
Db Squat: 25x15, 30x15, 25x15 (starting to feel some power return)
Shoulder Press Pushup: 10, 10, 10

Superset B
Db Inc Press: 25x12, 30x12, 30x8/30x4 (solid)
Db Renegade Row: 12x8, 15x8, 12x8 (improving)

Superset C
Assisted 1-Leg Squat: 8, 8, 8
Db. Rear Deltoid Raise: 12x15, 15x15, 12x15

Tasty no-flour pizza

2009-03-27T19:24:00.001-03:00

I remember a year or two ago there was a big to-do about no-knead bread. Well, today I discovered a recipe for a no-flour pizza that is just amazing. The original post is here, and there is a stuffed-crust version here. Highly recommend trying it if you want a less-heavy pizza that still tastes great.

Crust after baking (After step 4)

Finished pizza with garlic, red onion, mozzarella, and black olives.

(just in case, here's the recipe)

Ingredients

1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower (simply shred in a cheese grater :))
1 egg
1 cup mozzarella cheese
Pizza herbs: 1/2 tsp fennel, 1 tsp oregano, 2 tsp parsley
(The last three ingredients can be changed for your favorite pizza-type herbs)

Steps

Preheat oven to 450ºF/232ºC/Gas Mark 8.
Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray (or grease with some coconut/olive/whatever oil).
In a medium bowl, combine cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Press evenly on the pan. Sprinkle evenly with pizza herbs.
Bake for 12-15 minutes (15-20 minutes if you double the recipe).
Remove the pan from the oven. To the crust, add sauce, then toppings and cheese.
Place under a grill/broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted

Fluorescent fixation

2009-03-23T19:44:00.001-03:00

I’m seriously considering getting one or more fluorescent lights to help my plants grow. At $0.15/kWh, running a 40-watt light (4 ft. long) for eighteen hours a day will only cost about $3/month. The problem is that finding the HydroFarm AgroSun Full Spectrum Fluorescent Tubes in Canada seems a bit difficult. Will have to do more research and see if other options are viable.

Being able to grow lettuce and herbs indoors year-round for $6/month would be great.

Another phrase for … some book, anyway

2009-03-21T22:44:00.001-03:00

I’m nominating the line from Britney’s new song “If you seek Amy” to join “See you next Tuesday” in, well, I’m not sure what :) But they belong together.

Helping the environment should make financial sense

2009-03-19T21:10:00.001-03:00

One of my G-2s ran dry the other day so I stopped at Staples this morning to buy a refill. It turns out that two black or blue refills cost $4.17, but four brand-new G-2 pens (unfortunately including green and red) only cost $6.84.

Put another way, a pen refill costs $2.085 but an entire pen with the same refill is only $1.71. Something is very wrong here. I realise that printer companies have made it cheaper to buy a new printer than ink in some cases, but who would have thought the same applied to pens.

Alternatives?

After a quick search on the net, it looks like Staples is really over-charging us here. The Pilot website sells the refills for $2.35US (~2.93CAD) which would be $1.47 each and $0.24 cheaper than buying a new pen, but the shipping charges from the US quickly remove the advantage.

AvalonOffice.ca has the same two-pack refill for $3.86 but then there are shipping charges as well.

Conclusions

Maybe it’s worth it to pay the extra $0.30 and know that you’re doing the right thing by not encouraging extra packaging in the form of a pen. Plus you can skip having to use red and green ink. But I still say that if we want to reduce consumption, we should be rewarded for it at the cash register.

Progress

2009-01-21T06:37:00.000-04:00

Activity	Amount	Date
Db Squat	45x7	Jan. 14
Db Renegade Row	20x8	Jan. 14
Db Press	45x8	Jan. 12
Db Bulgarian Split Squat	25x8	Jan. 12
Deadlift	80x8	Jan. 9
Squat	100x6	Jan. 8
Barbell Split Squat	40x8	Jan. 8
Db Row	40x6	Jan. 6
Db Fly	20x10	Jan. 6