Compost! DIY dirt

If you are going to do any kind of gardening you are going to need dirt. Compost can make really good dirt and compost tea which the plants feed from.

If compost is done correct it does not smell or attract animals.

And best of all; compost is free dirt - and that's... dirt cheap. *Booo*

The web defines compost as "a mixture of decaying vegetation and manure; used as a fertilizer".

Most compost takes about a year to break down but there are tricks to get good compost in 2--3 months. It's all about bacteria and worms. If you give the microorganisms and worms ideal living conditions they will do all the work for you. Think of it as literally trillions of workers (slaves, mwa ha ha) working non stop.


There are 2 main parts of your compost you need to keep in balance.
Nitrogen(N) aka 'greens' and Carbon(C) aka 'browns'. 25:1 (C:N)
N - Nitrogen, P - Phosphorus, K - Potassium, C - Carbon, CC - Extra Carbon

Greens
Coffee grinds (N, P) - Acidic; great added direct to dirt for cranberries
Cooked food scraps - Low in nutrients and may attract animals
Grass clippings (N, P, K) - fresh = good nitrogen
Hay
Weeds

Browns
Grass clippings (C, P, K) - dried = good carbon
Sawdust (CC)
Wood Ash (P, K) - use small amounts, highly alkaline
Newspaper (CC) - shredded is best
Cardboard (CC)


Other
Egg shells - crushed up source of calcium
Drier lint - great!
Brewing yeast - Full of organisms.
Human urine - liquid gold


BAD
BBq ash/coal - contains sulphur oxides
Dishwater
Fish scraps - attracts animals, best if buried under new plants
Kitty litter - may contain disease organisms
Dog/cat poop - see above

Air, water and heat keep a happy compost. As the compost breaks down into dirt it heats up. That causes it to break down faster. So keep it in the sun. I have mine behind the shed facing south.
Turning the pile is also very important. Take a pitch fork and mix it up! This brings in air to help the bacteria.

A good size for a compost is 3x3 feet. This gives it enough mass to hold in the heat. When you mix it up you might see steam rising; that means it's working. :)

Alright. Good. So you have compost dirt and want to get the most from it. Use it to 'feed' the dirt around your plants. A scoop or two around you plants and watering them and they will produce nice quality food. You can also make a tea...

Compost Tea
This is like a free fertilizer. You need a water proof box or cooler, some cheese cloth and fresh compost. Put the compost in the cheese cloth or nylon socking and tie it shut; like a tea bag. Put the tea bag in the water proof box and fill with water to cover the tea bag (best-worst; rain water, pond water, well water, public water).
After about a week you can dump the tea dirt into the compost (the cheese cloth will compose). Now you have a great home made fertilizer that your plants will love.
As an added bonus you can pee into the tea and provide more nitrogen and minerals! Just make sure you have 10:1 tea:water ratio... AND water around the roots. Don't be dumping your Pee Tea all over the fruit you are planning to eat.
You can do more elaborate tea using fish tank aerator and pumps to circulate and oxygenate the liquid.


Other compost options.
Having an idea what your ground pH levels are is a good idea. You may need to adjust what dirt you use for certain plants. Cranberries are one plant I grow that like a high acidic soil. So I save my used coffee grinds to make compost just for that plant. I usually add it in before I give it to the plant.
Egg shells are high in calcium. Some plants, like tomatoes really benefit from it and will produce nicer fruit. If you crush it up and sprinkle a circle around plant stems it will help deter slugs and cutworms.
When I brew beer I have a think brown sludge of yeast leftovers. I add some warm water to activate the yeast and pour it into my compost. It acts as an activator that speed up the compost. Also spent grains and used hops help feed the system and acts like rocket fuel to your system. :D
Adding a couple scoops of dirt to the top after you've mixed it can be good. Also adding blood meal, bone meal are good.

I've been pretty sick lately but I've still been building a new compost bin out of wood. I'll post about it later.

We've gotten used to saving certain food scraps on the counter for a couple days then dumping them into the outside compost.

In many ways compost is the most important part of producing good gardens. In order to really produce your own foods you need 2:1 compost:garden ratio. So for every 5x5 foot garden you need 2 5x5 garden beds producing compost material and cover crops.

So I hope this has given some ideas and insights to composting.
G'night!

Preparing for the best case scenario

You deserve the best life has to offer. You have great potential, nearly unlimited opportunity and an intelligence that sets you above all other creatures.
I'm starting this off with some motivation.
I'm not trying to B.S. anyone. It's true.

Life isn't fair though. It can build you up and tear you down. Some of the smartest people have made the dumbest mistakes. Look at that 'golden voice guy' - he was a crack head bum; turned into a sensation over night and just like that he ruined it all.


I guess you shouldn't do things expecting to succeed or fail. Do things to make your life better.
I have over 3 months worth of food on hand. Not because I expect the world to end - that's betting on failure. I have it because it makes my life better even if nothing else goes wrong. Coffee goes on sale and I buy 3 months worth - I saved money. That way when I go for groceries and coffee isn't on sale I don't need to buy it. I'm sure it will go on sale again before my supply is out. If I had only bought 1 can and expected coffee to still be on sale when I needed it I would be betting on success.
So I'm betting on both and I'll come out a winner - even if something really successful happens!
I ran out of ketchup today, so instead of having to drive to the store I grabbed another container from the pantry. I still have 3 bottles left; I got them half price.

If you ask most people about having extra food on hand they think it is a dumb idea and they bet on the stores always being open and betting they can afford to buy it. If you went back in time 100 years they would think you were dumb for not having extra food on hand. Not because our great grandparents were worried about the current food crisis, financial crisis, oil crisis, water crisis or hop crisis.

They did it because they didn't want to have to worry about eating. Short of their house burning down they could provide food for their family for many months. They didn't pay money to house insurance companies because they had neighbour insurance - people who would take you in and help you rebuild because they knew you would do the same.

I have extra food on hand in case anything bad happens happens. Or anything good. So far the worst crisis that has hit me and caused me to really need stock from the hamper is lack of ketchup one morning. And most of the time that's all you will need the hamper for.
Building up a food supply to survive the end of the world is really kind of 'out there'. People have been saying it was going to happen for ever - its not a new concept. But there have been a lot of really let down people who bet on the worse and lost. But by preparing for 'no ketchup' events and bulking up on foods you eat regularly when they are on sale you save money. You are still saving up to have a Gramma level of food on hand and it saves you time from having to drive to the store and get it. Or if anything bad were to happen.
Don't buy 10 packs of Spam because it was on sale and lasts long; unless you like to eat Spam.

My wife and I are going to have a larger garden this year so we are going to store the extra away for winter. Especially vegetable mush for the baby. ;)
We aren't gardening in case the food supply disappears; but because the food tastes so much better. We aren't even doing it to save money but that happens also. But if the garden doesn't turn out we can still get food at the store.

I guess the moral is that you shouldn't expect for the worst. Bet on the best and worst case scenario. And to enjoy life.

I'm going to get back to more Do It Yourself stuff; I've been busy working all week and haven't had the energy or time to invest in this much.

My lil' wife is sick right now so I need to go take care of her.

Sand and oil

I'm working again. Back at the city filling sandbags for the upcoming 'flood of the century v2.0'.
So I haven't had time or energy to post as much. I'm having truck troubles right now or I'd be at work. The transmission is leaking. I'd like to get under the hood to try and fix it but we have really wicked wind for the last week -40 ain't no fun.
So I've been sandbagging. Hanging out at the beach.

Meanwhile, in another part of town....
The gas prices are going up and up!
Gotta love it. Whenever there is a disaster or global tension the price of oil goes up; even if it has nothing to do with oil. They jack the price.

But this time is is related to oil.
The Arab nations are getting all shook up.
So today the oil goes up because 2 or 3 American ships are heading to Libya.
My gas goes up.

Ok. I can understand and would expect that if I sent my little boats there that oil would cost more. So why did they decide to send the ships there?

Property of... Star Trek. Please don't sue me.

Lets look at the ships going.
The USS Ponce, built in 1970 - 900 troops.
USS Kearsarge, built in 1992 - 1900 troops.
And maybe...
The USS Enterprise! Built in 2363 1960 - 90 air crafts.
They aren't going there to attack just 'be there'.


Libya has 50,000 troops with  2100-7800 commando's that are very loyal to Gadhafi; due to his paranoia the bulk of his military are poorly trained and under equipped - often with no bullets. The Commando's were trained by the British in 2009.

So what are they going to do and why?
The British have been caught selling Libya military supplies to suppress the public.
Now Obama is asking the Saudis to give weapons to the Libya rebels...
So we are arming both sides. And neither side wants our help.

Whats Gadhafi going to do? If he steps down and lets the rebels take over he will end up in a coma like the Ex-President of Tunisian Zine al-Abidine or Ex-President Mubarak of Egypt; both slipped into unexpected coma's  soon after turning their country over to non-America anti-west supporters. These guys have been allied with the USA long enough to know how the CIA works. Gadhafi knows too. His job is to create as much chaos as possible. If he is a good dog, his masters will reward him.
The UN has already moved in and frozen his bank accounts. Who gives them the right? No one. They took it. I'm not saying the money isn't dirty and bloody.
It's like you have a neighbour that sells stolen merchandise. You decide it's wrong and you take all his money. 2 wrongs don't make a right. But none of this has anything to do with whats 'right'. It's about control. Why should the ruling elite need the middle/lower class? They don't. they want surfs, slaves, peons and peasants. They want to RULE like their ancestors did in the 'good ole days' of kings and peasants.

None of this is being engineered to make life better. Obama doesn't care about the Libyan people any more than he cares about his own people. HE cares about playing golf while the world goes down the tube.
I am happy to know that the President and I a couple things in common. He is brewing his own beer! That's right. Besides ruining the free world he has time to make home brew in the white house. The other thing we have in common is... well... I'm not American either. SNAP.

So good luck! With people like this running the world and people like us letting them I'm surprised we aren't worse off. ;)

This probably wont end well

I've been paying attention to what's going on in the middle east.
More fighting.

But there is more to it. But before I get to that I'm going to start here. At home.
More fighting.

Right now there are union's all across USA and Canada protesting and/or striking. Hawaii is the latest to join the craze that is taking us by storm. My job is also in peril as my co-workers have voted to strike if an agreement isn't made.
You see, the money is drying up. The US and Canadian governments gave out all that money to stimulate the economy (dumb idea) has run out so now there is no money to keep the great machine going; in fact now there is less money because we still have to pay it back with interest. So all these cities are trying to cut costs anyway they can AND trying to point the blame in another direction because they know just how screwed things really are.

So in my case, the city wants to contract out the jobs to companies that will do it for cheaper than the city worker. The actual job doesn't get cheaper - we workers get paid pretty much the same. Its the quality of the work done that is cheapened. Roads that should be 8" thick become 4" thick; instead of lasting 10 years last 1-2 years.
If your city needs $8,000,000 for road repairs but only has $2,000,000 - you're roads are going to start looking like shit.
It doesn't matter to the guys trying to cut costs because they don't want to be re-elected next term anyway. Leave the mess for someone else to clean up.

This is the crap I take OFF my burger.

Has anyone else had the joy of yellow and green tomatoes yet? Absolute garbage. But soon enough there wont even be garbage tomatoes to put on your burgers.

About the violence in the middle east. It seems like the whole area is destabilising. All these people are tired of being cheated. Their leaders have special deals with the west and little to no money ends up in the hands of the people. So the people are rioting and rebelling against it! They are forming new governments that are no friendly to the west. They are fighting and destroying oil production. That's going to push oil way up.

You hear about $100 a barrel, $104 a barrel, $117 a barrel.
A barrel has 42 gallons (159L) of oil.

But this is crude oil. Unrefined oil.
After it is refined each barrel converts to 19.15 gallons(72.5L) of oil.

These are just facts. No real point to them.

George Soros (investment banker and rich dude) says it is likely that oil will reach $200 a barrel and beyond, by summer, unless the fighting stops and pro-western governments form in the middle east.

Alright.
Best case scenario.
The fighting stops.
The leaders of these Arab countries love USA and Canada even more; they share the wealth with the people.
We all get along and oil returns to a nice low double digit number.
OH, and we discover fields of really great tomatoes. :D

Worst case...
The leaders of these troubled countries continue to fight and kill their rebelling population. The UN steps in and starts to arm and defend the people against the governments. Oil stops flowing and goes to $220 a barrel.
Gas stations in your town are either empty and closed down or they are charging 312.8L for regular or over $9 a gallon in parts of USA.
It costs a lot more money to ship food from 10,000 miles away; so your grocery bill that used to cost you $100 is now costing well over $400 and you can't even get some of the products because they are not available to you.
What makes matters worse is that the food transportation industry goes on strike when oil hits $170 a barrel. Then you can't get any food no matter how much you are willing to spend!

I don't like to plan for the worst case scenario. I don't even like to think about it. But ignoring it's potential for destruction because 'it's never happened to you' is nuts. This worst case scenario has a very real chance of happening. And when it does it will be very quick. You will probably get home from work or wake up in the morning and hear dire news warnings. By the time you know what is going on it will be too late. Because when you realise what is going on so will everyone else. Just like the  "Y2K disaster" - the day before everyone rushed out and bought all the foods they could. I was working at a grocery store and watched as people did this. Within a matter of hours after opening the store it was picked nearly bare.

I've talked about this in "12 Meals to Anarchy".
How will people react? They wake up in the morning, there is no food left, the grocery stores are empty. Do they go to work that day? Do they sit at home and watch TV while their children go hungry?
What would you do?

I have a lot of faith our ability to weather this storm. I don't think we will degrade into primitive African nation sitting around waiting for other to help them. Life will get hard for a while but we will pull though and we will do it ourselves! Our forefathers built this country from nothing and we can do it again. We aren't 'too big to fail' but we are too big to let it destroy us completely.
We have such a strong will to survive and endure, especially if we plan to endure.

So love life. Buy some 'food insurance'. Ride a bike to work if you can. Work closer to home if you can. Grow some food if you can. Do it yourself if you can.
And don't give up. Just keep going.