More notes on meat

In the news this morning there was a story about South Koreans rioting due to the governments decision to allow the import of American beef. Should it not worry us that the populace of a country would take to the streets and riot at the prospect of eating the food we eat everyday? What is it about our beef that leads to violence in the streets? Is it possible we should also be concerned? Am I phrasing all of this as questions to avoid being sued by the cattle industry?
Perhaps we should be looking at eating more pastured, grass fed meats. The good news is that it isn't hard to do. With the internet, today you can find a local farmer and purchase directly sometimes online and have it shipped directly to your home. And best of all is that if you have the ability to store a large quantity in a freezer you can even save money over the grocery store meat you are used to.

That is my opinion anyway.
Rick

New chick's home

I modified the old chicken tractor and Jess helped to set up the fencing and we set up a broody coop for the new chicks. My hope is that by having them inside chickengrad and getting them exposed to the other chickens slowly they will become part of the flock gradually.
I also planted up a half dozen Aurora peppers and a few herbs in a planter on the deck. I also planted three hills of kobucha squash in the garden.

Rick

Chicks !

I had one of my hens go broody on me a few weeks back so I decided to see if she was able to actually hatch them. Well she could and she did. I went out today and found this.

a weeks work done

I spent this week working around the property. I managed to make some repairs to the house that I hope will result in a more efficient home. I repaired some damaged siding on a small section of the house. I had to tear off the old siding. The first thing I found was no sheathing under the cracked siding on that part of the house. I removed the cellulose and old foam insulation. I then upgraded the framing in that area. I then had to caulk the joints and seal off the air leaks with expanding foam. I then installed new fiberglass insulation and plywood sheathing. I finished it all off with extensively modified cedar siding and plenty of paint. I also repaired a basement window and installed some storm windows a friend helped me make up last fall.
On the garden front I got a bit more digging done. I have been impressed by the potatoes growth. I am unsure if they are growing tubers but the plants have really been growing well. Also the scarlet runner beans are starting to flower and are quite attractive.

Rick

Picture post

Good Friday

This was an off Friday for Jess and I. Which was fortunate as I received through a friend of a friend an opportunity to go shoot sporting clays in a charity tournament. The tournament was a benefit for the Starkey Foundation. I had the privilege of filling out a spot on a team sponsored by Popp Communications. I had heard of the Starkey Foundation before but I wasn't aware that Starkey was also a company based in Minnesota. The event was held out at the Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club. They even had dignitaries from the NRA there, but I was most impressed when Lou Farrigno walked into the room. I was a big fan of the Hulk TV show in the 70's. I had a great time shooting and the swag was amazing. All in all a lot better than a day at work.

Rick

More plants

Jess and I stopped to pick up a few new plants on the way home from work today. We picked up 3 kinds of basils, another dill weed and a pair of rosemary plants as well. I plan to keep them in the garage until this weekend as we are due for another round of rain storms.

Stay dry,
Rick

Recent plantings

We have gotten a lot of new crops started this week. We planted a row of sunflowers and they are already coming up. We also planted some amaranth as well. I hope to use that as chicken feed. I finished that bed off with a row of beans too. I also planted some envy edemame this afternoon. I spent an few hours removing more soil to produce more garden beds and also to start getting the wildness that is the garden under control.

Rick

Hail of a night

Some times I wonder who exactly I cheesed off.
I mentioned earlier in the weekend that last year we had a hail storm that seriously mangled the garden. Well it happened again last night. It wasn't as bad as last year as there wasn't as much wind pushing the hail but it still did some damage. I think that we may have lost the basil seedlings and also one of the tomato plants looks a little sickly today. The rest look damaged but I think they will survive.
Today I spent a few hours in the garden. I broke some more sod. I am hopeful that once I have removed most of the grass and weeds from the garden I will spend less time weeding and more time planting and harvesting.
I also started a new bed in the corner of the garden near the potatoes using the sheet composting method. I weed whiped the weeds down tho the dirt. Then I put down a thick layer of newspapers . I then put a 3 inch layer of composted chicken litter. I plan to finish it up with a few bags of dirt. I plan to put squash in that bed. Possible the delicata squash or zucchinis.

Better days,
Rick

Interesting wind turbine idea

I came a crossed this video last night.

The basic idea is that you use an array of inexpensive turbines that are linked by gearing to drive a single generator. It looks like something that is in the testing and refinement stage now, but I am really impressed with the idea. I would guess that the efficiency is not that high but since you could always just install more turbine units to increase your total area that is less of an issue. That is of course if you have the area. It also looks like they are a bit noisy. I think that is probably an alignment issue. I suggest to them they look at a dual opposing herringbone gear arrangement.It should take care of some of the rattling and much of the axial thrust. It is the the same gearing arrangement used in naval steam turbine ship reduction gears. Which is where I learned of it. If you are from MotorWind and want to use this design, please do so. If it works out I would love to help test the new design. Also you may want to consider removing the music from your homepage.

Rick