Posted on Mar 02, 2009 under Gardening, Self Sufficiency |
Melinda, over at One Green Generation, has started a new round of The Growing Challenge. The goal of the challenge is simple: grow a new crop from seed, organically of course, and save its produced seeds for a new round of planting next year. Sounds simple, and it is, if you pick the right crop to plant.
I planted a lot of seeds yesterday: kohlrabi, strawberry, tomato, cauliflower, bell pepper and lettuce from seed packs that we already had. I also planted broccoli and basil from seeds that I saved from last years crops. I’ve planted tomatoes and basil from saved seeds before and they grew very nicely. If you’re new to seed saving, tomatoes and basil are probably the easiest to start with.
While waiting for the seeds to sprout, we are getting the greenhouse ready for planting.
Posted on Feb 28, 2009 under Compost, Gardening, Self Sufficiency |
These past few weeks we have had snow and freezing nights, but also a couple of very sunny days that warmed our greenhouse up to 30 degrees. Spring is just around the corner, it’s still 3 weeks before it officially starts on March 20th but we’re close enough to start planning for planting. April and May are the preferred sowing months for most vegetable crops when growing outside, but we can start a lot earlier in the greenhouse.
Last year we had quite some weeds growing in our seed trays. Some where so badly infested that it was impossible to tell the weeds from the planted seeds, so I decided to try to sterilize the compost this time. After a little digging and sifting in our compost heap I got more than enough material to mix some seed starting soil. I mixed in about 30% peat and 5% coarse sand.
To sterilize the mixture it should be baked in the oven, the first try didn’t work out too well though. After sitting in the oven for well over 4 hours the center of my soil mixture was still pretty cold. This shows the great insulating capability of soil, a trade that is much appreciated by people building earth sheltered homes. What I did wrong was compacting the soil in the deep oven tray by pressing it down with my hands. By doing this I could fit al the soil I had mixed into the tray, wrongly assuming that this would be the way to sterilize double the amount of soil in the same time. The compacted soil, however, has a greater mass per volume unit and thus has a far better insulating and heat absorbing capability.
The mixed soil was far more than I needed anyways, so I gave it another try today. This time I made sure the soil in the baking tray was nice and loose. The soil should be a little damp and covered tightly with aluminum foil. A meat or candy thermometer will show you the temperature in the center of the soil. With the oven set to 90C (195F) It took about 4 hours for the soil to completely heat up to about 85C (185F) Maintain this temperature for another 30 minutes and the soil sterilization should be all done.
Be careful not to let the soil heat up beyond 95C (200F) or it will form toxins that will not be appreciated by your plants. Allow the soil to cool down and keep the foil on until you are ready to use it.
Posted on Feb 19, 2009 under Electricity, Solar power |
After having the first meeting with solar investors that are interested in renting our greenhouse roof space, I came up with another idea. What if we don’t rent out our roof, but instead get some financing to buy our own solar panels? The government issues special, low interest, loans for solar power installations. Combined with a 20 year guaranteed pay for the generated power, this could be an interesting alternative.
These special loans are subject to all kinds of rules and regulations. Looking into them I found some contradicting rules and lots of vague descriptions. A talk at the bank should clear things up. As soon as I know exactly which interest rate would apply to us, we can do the math and figure out if buying our own solar panels would be a feasible alternative.
Posted on Jan 31, 2009 under Electricity, Solar power |
I never really looked into getting PV solar panels because of the great investment cost. Although, in the long run, the solar panels will pay for themselves and can even make you a nice profit. Last week I stumbled upon a website with solar power companies that are looking for roof space to install their solar panels. They could, of course, just buy or rent a big patch of land and install their solar panels there, but due to insurance issues, this isn’t a very interesting option for them. So, they are constantly looking for roof space to install their solar panels on.
As we happen to have a lot of roof space on our unused greenhouses, renting out the space to a solar company could proof quite profitable. The three biggest solar power companies in the region are all interested in our south facing roofs, so we’ll just have to wait and see who can offer us the best deal. The first of the three companies is coming over for a chat next week.
Posted on Jan 07, 2009 under Off-Grid, Self Sufficiency, Water |
Looking for ways to lower water usage in our household, I decided not to use the big rainwater tank we have. The tank is just too far away from the house. A considerable investment would have to be made to be able to use the water in the house. Still, we want to use less water, after our little pipe problem, more then ever.
The best place to start saving precious tap water would probably be the toilet. A few gallons of water are washed down every time you flush the toilet, often needlessly. Saving water and money can easily be achieved by reducing the amount of water that it flushed down the toilet.
A standard toilet will empty it’s water reservoir each time you push down on the lever or yank the chain. All we have to do is modify the internals of the reservoir a bit to let the toilet flapper cut off the water flow as soon as you let go of the handle. The exact modification needed depends on the type of flapper installed in your toilet.
Some flush systems have a floater that keeps the toilet flapper open. If the floater is attached to the flapper, you might be able to remove the floatation device altogether. When the floater is integrated into the flapper, drilling a hole into the float will disable it. You could also add some steel washers or other weight to counteract the floatation device.
The flapper in our toilet is the float and it couldn’t be drilled without making the flapper leak, so I had to add some weights to it. The toilet now only lets the water flow as long as you hold down the handle, as soon as you let go the water stops. This saves a lot of water and still leaves you with enough flushing power for the big boys.
Some companies sell special weights or other devices to achieve the same effect, but I think it is ridiculous to buy these if you can simply use some old junk to accomplish the same. The reason you want to use less water to flush your toilet is either because you want to save money, live a little greener or both. Not buying a commercial device for this purpose will save you money and save the environment because you will not have the packaging to dispose of.
Posted on Jan 03, 2009 under Water |
We’re trying to use less drinking water this year, but a small disaster happened which will not make it very easy to get a lower water bill this year. When we came back from celebrating the new year with family, I did my usual inspection round through the greenhouses. Upon entering the greenhouses I was greeted by the sound of splashing water and the floors where flooded.
While we where out the temperatures dropped to about -10 and this caused some of the water supply pipes in the greenhouse to tear wide open. It’s amazing how much force freezing water has. Steel pipes ripped open and water faucets cracked right off. Once the ice had started melting the next day, the pipes sprayed water into the greenhouse like crazy.
The previous owner always kept the greenhouses heated throughout the year, so he never had problems with the above-ground water pipes in the greenhouse.
The total amount of water we have lost to this little disaster is 18,000 liters, about the amount we would normally use in 45 days time. We where actually thinking about staying with the family a day longer, I’m just glad we decided to go home after all.
I’ll probably be busy most of tomorrow, trying to get some running water into the house again.
Posted on Dec 01, 2008 under Cooking, Gardening, Off-Grid, Self Sufficiency, Water |
I’ve been keeping an eye on our utility usage for the last couple of months, to keep track of what we use and see where we can, maybe, save a few bucks. I found our water usage rather disturbing.
Our water usage is a little over 400 liters (or about 110 gallons) a day. Our household supports two adults and two kids. Looking at the average water usage for Germany, which is just under 200 liters a day, per person, we aren’t doing too bad. Comparing our use to the 575 liters per person, per day, for the average US citizen and just under 500 liters for Australians, I’d say we are doing pretty damn good!
Still, 400 liters is a lot of water! This is not just plain water we’re talking about, it’s grade A drinking water that pours out of our tap. And how much of it do we drink? Let’s see, most of our beverages are bottled, so the only water we drink is what we use to make coffee and tea, maybe 2 liters a day, 3 liters tops! Add to that the water used for cooking and brushing our teeth, I’d say about 10 liters a day would be plenty of drinking water for our family of four.
The other 390 liters a day are wasted on showering, washing dishes and clothing and flushing the toilet. Now I would prefer somewhat clean filtered water to wash myself, my clothing and the dishes, but it does not have to be drinking quality. And to flush the toilet, just plain water from any river or creek or untreated rainwater would do just fine.
Since we have a huge rainwater tank (12.000 liters) I’m going to look into using some of that free water. I’m sure we are not paying to water the lawn next summer, but I’m also going to look into the cost and labor involved in using the collected rainwater to flush the toilets. That should save quite a few buckets of drinking water.
If you are interested in average per person water usage in different countries, have a look here
Posted on Nov 24, 2008 under Electricity, Heating, Self Sufficiency |
It’s still dark outside when the alarm clock goes off and it’s dark again before dinner time. We got our first snow for the season yesterday, winter is really starting. This is the time for high energy bills, it’s also the time when you can save a lot of energy. I’ve compiled a list of energy saving tips that can help you lower your energy bills and save you some money. Here they are in random order:
1.Turn down your heater
Do you walk around in t-shirts during winter? A lot of people turn their heating up too much during colder weather. If it’s getting colder, wear a sweater instead of turning the heaters up. Turning down your heater just a single degree can help you save close to 10% of your heating bill.
2.Install energy saving light bulbs
During the short winter days we use a lot of energy to light our homes. Replacing your light bulbs with energy saving light bulbs can save a lot of energy and money. An 11 Watt energy saving light bulb produces about the same amount of light as a 60 Watts incandescent light bulb, while only using about 20% of the energy. Energy saving light bulbs are more expensive to buy, that’s why a lot of people still buy incandescent light bulbs. When factoring in the 80% energy saving and the many times longer lifetime that energy saving light bulbs have, the higher purchase price of the energy saving light bulb is a really good investment and will save you a lot of money in the long run.
3.Keep your fridge and freezer full
Your fridge and freezer are good at cooling objects placed inside of them. Common sense would probably make you believe that less things in your fridge will mean less energy is needed to keep things chilled. The opposite is true however! Once everything in your fridge or freezer has been cooled to the set temperature only very little energy is needed to keep things at that temperature, thanks to good insulation in the appliance. When you open the door, to get something out or put something in, the cold air escapes and is replaced by warm air. The cold items already in the fridge or freezer will help cool the warm air. A lot of cold is stored in the items in your fridge. Cold (or heat) storage needs mass, air in your fridge or freezer has very little mass and makes for a very bad storage medium. If you don’t have a lot of items to store in your fridge or freezer you can fill up the unused space with jugs of water. Water is a very cheap and highly effective cold storage medium.
4.Turn off your appliances when not in use.
A lot of electricity is wasted when you leave appliances in stand-by mode. Likewise, unused wall warts still use electricity when nothing is connected to them. Unplug your laptop charger, phone charger, printer and anything else that comes with one of those over sized plugs that contains a power supply.
5.Don’t use electric gadgets for things you can do manually.
We are way too used to our gadgets. I’m sure you have some electric appliances that you can easily live without. By the time you have plugged in your electric can opener, my can is already half way opened with sheer man-power! An electric can opener is a handy tool if you can’t use your hands because of an injury, but with two healthy hands, I’m opening my cans with a manual can opener that doesn’t need electricity.
These are just a few tips, there are a lot more ways to save energy. What are you doing to save energy in your home?
Posted on Nov 07, 2008 under Compost, Gardening, Self Sufficiency |
Most gardeners know that good compost is an invaluable addition to their garden soil and the avid gardeners I know all have a compost pile to make their own compost. Few, however, continue their composting during the winter months because they think the cold weather will grind all activity in the compost bin to a halt.
Yes, the composting process is a lot slower in winter, but the process doesn’t stop completely. Even if the temperatures drop well below freezing this winter, a little work and planning now will give your composting a head start once spring arrives.
Harvest your compost, so you have plenty of room in your bin for the winter composting. Since you will be mostly adding greens to your bin throughout winter, you’ll need some browns to keep the bin in balance, this is where all the leaves you raked up come in handy.
With a steady supply of fresh kitchen scraps, your compost pile should be able to keep itself fairly warm and do it’s thing. Some insulation around the bin can help to keep the temperatures up and speed up the composting process a little. While the best place for your compost bin in the summer is under some big trees, or any other shaded place to prevent the compost from drying out, in winter you’ll want to place it in a sunny spot, so the sun can warm up your compost pile.
What if you don’t want to move your compost pile or add insulation? Keep on adding your kitchen scraps to the bin and balance with dry leaves. When your compost pile completely freezes this winter, don’t worry, it’s a good thing! The freezing and thawing will damage the fibers in your soon-to-be compost making the breakdown easier once spring arrives.
Do you compost during winter?
Posted on Oct 24, 2008 under Cooking, Gardening, Self Sufficiency |
Do you grow basil on your kitchen sill too? Those little pots of basil that you can buy in most supermarkets are great if you only need a few leaves in a salad or for decoration, but if you let them grow, they can give you a lifetime supply of basil.
Once the basil plants grow big enough, they will start flowering and the flowers will produce seeds. You can see the seeds when the plant drops its flowers. Each flower usually produces four seeds, with a few dozen flowers on each stem, you can easily harvest a hundred seeds from a single stem.
After planting seeds that I harvested from a plant last year, I have also tried to propagate the plants by taking cuttings. The cuttings where a great success and I soon had more basil than we could eat in salads. As the plants where already flowering, I had to use the leaves before drying the seeds. I decided to make some pesto and it was good!
Here’s how I made the pesto:
Ingredients:
- a few hands full of chopped basil leaves.
- A clove of garlic
- A handful of cashew nuts
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- A little lemon juice
- Some pepper and salt
Pound the garlic, cashew nuts and basil in a pestle and mortar or use a food processor. Real pesto is made with pine nuts, but cashew nuts are a lot cheaper alternative often used in the pesto you can buy in a glass jar from the supermarket. Add a little olive oil until you have a consistency you like and add pepper, salt and lemon juice to taste.
The pesto can be kept in the fridge for a few days or you can freeze it. I use this pesto to make sandwiches, just smear a nice thick layer of pesto onto a slice of bread and top with turkey or chicken breast and tomato slices.
If you want to use the pesto with pasta, you can add a few handfuls of grated parmesan cheese, just stir it into the pesto. When storing the pesto in the freezer you should omit the cheese as it doesn’t freeze to well. Just add the cheese after thawing the pesto for use. Enjoy!
