Planning Tools

We like to be ready for unhappy circumstances before they happen. Being prepared for them makes them less traumatic, and makes it easier to get through them. We talked briefly about some of the things we’ve done to be prepared in the post about Livin’ The 9.5, where our water main burst.

One of the tools we use to help in prioritizing our preparations is a simple “What would it take” type exercise. For example, “What would it take…to have enough water if the water went out for…a day, a week, a month.” Answering those questions helps us find things we can do to position ourselves to be less dependent upon outside resources. Here’s a sample of one of our planning worksheets.

Scenario: Water Outage

Duration

One Day

One Week

One Month

Needs

~5 gallons drinking water

Animals should be OK – as long as reservoirs are kept 3/4 full

~35 gallons drinking water

~100 gallons for animals

~50 gallons for bathing

~20 gallons for dishes

~1000+ gallons drinking water

~400+ gallons for cleaning

Filtering system to reuse water for plants, etc.

Preparations

Store 10 gallons drinking water

Store 200 gallons drinking water

Store 100 gallons for bathing, dishes, etc.

Berkey water filter

~1500 gallon water storage tanks

Rain catchment system

Pool

Water well, solar/air/hand pumps

Your numbers may be vastly different from ours. In fact, our numbers may (will) be vastly different as things change on our homestead. The point isn’t to get it perfect. Rather, the point is to take a stab at it. Even if you get it wrong, you’re still better prepared than you were before you even tried. Just make sure that the scenario you’re planning for is realistic. In other words, don’t plan for the Zombie Apocalypse. At least, don’t plan for the Zombie Apocalypse before you plan for a burst water pipe.

From the above table, we can put together a rough plan of action.

Phase I – Stupidly Simple

These are the things that, when you stop and think about it, are so obvious, that you could kick yourself for not doing it earlier.

Next time you’re at the grocery store, pick up 10 gallons of the $.60/gallon drinking water.

Phase II – Relatively Easy

These are the things that aren’t difficult, but may take some planning to do. For example, rather than go out and buy 300 gallons of water, we’re going to buy 10 gallons each time we go to the grocery store. Yes, it will take seven months to build up a stockpile, but in seven months, we can be better off than we are now…or not.

Add 10 gallons of drinking water to the grocery list for the next 30 weeks.

Phase III – A Little Effort

These are the things that are going to take a bit of time or money to do. As such, we’re going to have to plan for those more so than some of the others. For us, the Berkey falls into this category. And to make it easy, we’re going to spread the ~$300 cost into easy-to-do $20 chunks. Yes, it’s going to take three to four months to get there. But in three to four months, we can be better off than we are now…or not.

Save $20/week for 15 weeks to buy a Berkey (~$300).

Phase IV – Longer Term Planning

These are the things that are going to be significant investments of time or money – or both. We may need to finance some of these things. Alternatively, if we’re going to pay cash, it’s going to take a while to save it. For us, the water catchment, water storage, and water well all fall into these categories.

Research water catchment and natural filtration systems.
Research ponds as an alternative or supplement to water storage tanks.
Research pools and function stacking: entertainment, cooling in the summer, water storage in emergencies…
Research water well and pump costs.

Phase V – Git ‘er done

This is the “go do it” part of Phase IV. Don’t get stuck in never-ending analysis. At some point, you need to take action. For us, we’re still working through some of the Phase IV stuff, and here’s what our plan looks like so far.

Pool

We’ve decided that we’re going to put in an above-ground pool this spring. It will help with cooling-off in the summer months, and it will be a reserve water source if anything happens.

Water Filtration

With the outside kitchen build, we’ve decided that we’re going to put in a natural filtration system to reclaim the grey water from the outside sink and dishwasher. We’ll use that grey water for the herb garden area in the back yard. This will also give us some experience with natural filtration systems that we plan to apply later to larger scale projects.

Water Well

While we haven’t totally given up on a well, the $7,000 estimate from a local water well driller means that it has a ~12 year payback period – and that’s if it doesn’t cost anything to run the pumps. So for now, we’re focusing on other avenues for meeting water needs.

Catchment & Storage

We’re looking at three different options under the “catchment and storage” heading. They are, in no particular order

A “natural pool” pond system
Water storage tanks coupled with a rain and runoff catchment system
An aquaponic system

As I mentioned, these are longer-term projects. They each have their own benefits and drawbacks, and we haven’t yet figured out how we want to integrate them into our property. But that’s OK – we’re moving forward, and that’s the important thing.

Other Scenarios

We use the approach described above for assessing many of our “primary” systems. For example, when we first moved onto the property, we had some significant rehabbing to do on the old double-wide before we moved in. Parts were livable, but most of it wasn’t. So we lived in our pop-up camper for a month or so while we worked on the house. Longer term, we’re planning to build two or three B&B cabins around the property. While their primary purpose will be revenue from B&B activities, if anything should happen to our main home, we’ll have backup systems readily available.

Math: Simple Static Addition

What is static addition? Quite simply, it is the addition process that does not require carrying. When starting structured mathematics lessons, barring counting, the first and most basic lesson is static addition. The easiest way to teach addition in a concrete fashion is using counting bears, or Cheerios, or M&M’s, or any other small objects with which small groupings can be combined to demonstrate the addition process. A bead frame, or abacus, is another method for doing this. I had never used an abacus before learning Montessori techniques (a licensed degreed math teacher!), and I regret that I waited so long to learn the benefits of using one. In addition to aiding in the addition process, it also reinforces knowledge of place value. The small Montessori bead frame can be utilized for numbers up to 10,000, but the larger bead frames that we use go up to 1 billion.

The great thing about the bead frames is once you learn how to use them on a small scale, performing operations on a larger scale is just as easy, children can add and subtract numbers with 10 places very quickly and with great ease. Basically, each strand of the bead frame represents each place value, with the top being units, the second strand down representing the tens place, the third down the hundreds place, and so forth. So the number 317 is shown on the bead frame by moving 7 beads on the top row, 1 on the second row, and 3 on the third row. when adding a number, for example, 42, you would simply slide 2 beads over to join the 7 on the units strand, and slide 4 beads over to join the 1 on the tens strand. For a video on presenting the bead frame as a lesson, watch this. Here are the kids in action.

Macy is working with the small bead frame. This was her first lesson, and she picked it up very easily.

Here is a video of Eryk demonstrating static subtraction…

And here’s Iain demonstrating static addition, the only difference is that the beads move the opposite way.

I had the bright idea to put my class set of math practice cards in a gallon ziplock bag to create an erasable marker board for them to work with. These problems are created such that they aren’t going to remember the answers, so they can work the same set of problems (there are 4 pages, 2 each of addition and subtraction) until they have mastered the process. Eryk already has, and has moved on, Iain is still working on his speed and fluidity, and Macy has only just begun the process.

Potato Pancakes

A couple of weeks ago, while sitting in a Mexican restaurant about to eat our breakfast tacos, Iain said, “Mom, I think something’s wrong with this taco. The eggs are kinda pale-ish.”

“My son,” I explained, “that is because in 6 months, you have become accustomed to the vibrant and flavorful egg that is laid by the pasture raised chicken. These ordinary eggs will no longer satisfy your palate or your senses.”

I tell you this story because my potato pancakes are very yellow. More yellow than I have ever seen a potato pancake. Not an unappetizing shade by any means, but you’ll be hard pressed to replicate our yellow patties without farm fresh eggs. And while the eggs are delicious, the secret to a really good potato pancake is in the mashed potatoes, not the eggs; and the secret to great mashed potatoes is cream cheese. Start with good potatoes, you get great pancakes.

Great breakfast side for your eggs and bacon. Start your bacon first, because you want to fry these babies in plenty of bacon grease, a bacon grease deficiency can be detrimental here.

View the recipe on PepperPlate.com

Yield 6 pancakes
Active Time 15 minutes
Categories breakfast

Ingredients
1 cup leftover mashed potatoes
1 egg
1 teaspoon grated parmesan cheese
1 small clove garlic, diced
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon chives, onion greens, or onion powder, optional

Instructions
Combine all ingredients, drop by ice cream scoop onto hot greased griddle or skillet. Flatten into pancake shape. Flip when golden brown, serve hot.

Shallots

Any plant that doesn’t need my help to stay alive is welcome in my garden! These shallots were given to me by a good friend shortly after we moved in last year, we put them in the ground, then had a pretty good drought. I was sure they, along with everything else we had planted, were gone. But lo and behold, after several months of neglect, when I went to revive my fence line bed, there they were!

We love harvesting the greens to add to soups, soft cheeses, butter, or eggs. Shallots are typically planted in the fall, they come to maturity early summer for harvest. They are a member of the onion family, and can be used interchangeably with onions in your recipes, and the greens used where you would use green onion or chives.

I hope to have them growing in perpetuity, as shallots reproduce a lot like garlic, with a mother bulb that divides into multiple bulbs, but the offspring bulbs are not encased in the papery husk that garlic has. I’ll be saving part of the harvest to plant next year.

Livin’ the 9.5

This year – Christmas 2016 – was the first year for us on our farnch (half farm, half ranch, hence “farnch”). Each of the kids has adjusted well to life at Livin’ the 10 – for the most part. They recognize that things are different out in the country, and we’re helping them to understand the value in self-reliance that you need when you’re out here.

farnch

both a farm and a ranch

Speaking of self-reliance, the value in self-reliance was driven home a few days before Christmas…when the water main running to our house sprung a leak out near the road. We (Melissa and the kids, mostly) dug through muck and mud for three days before we found the leak. It’s a lot of hard work being self-reliant. But the good news is that our kids have a newfound appreciation for plumbers. Iain’s even thinking about taking the odd plumbing job…as long as he gets to play in the mud a bit while on the job.

While we were digging, our first order of Livin’ the 10 ZubieWear T-Shirts and sweatshirts arrived. Oscar Zubiate has been a friend for a while, and he and the team at Zubie Wear did an excellent job on the apparel. As we were groaning and moaning through the muck and mire, we laughed to ourselves that while our overall experience on our property has been a 10, today might be a 9.5.

^{The roughly one-foot section that we replaced}

It could have been much worse, though. It wasn’t a massive leak, so we were able to turn the water on for 15 minutes and run everyone through the shower, flush and refill the toilets, etc. Plus, we saw first-hand the benefits of some of our self-sufficiency-minded “preps.” First, we have a commercial ice maker (I love ice) which holds about 25# of ice. Even though it didn’t produce ice during these three days, we still had ice. Second, because we have many gallons of drinking water stored, we were able to cook and brew coffee and tea, etc. Thinking ahead and having a little extra on hand limited the second- and third-order effects, and turned this into an endurable experience.

Setting Up A Classroom

You may be debating the necessity of having a dedicated space for a classroom, and rightly so, with so many learning opportunities available either online, or through alternate locations such as museums, libraries, and COOPs. I see a classroom-less homeschool as a real possibility for us at some point in the future. But as my students are still quite young, learning through doing requires supplies, and supplies need a space. The manipulatives required for concrete learning of abstract concepts have to be available, and easily accessible for the kids, as well as simple for them to put back. We have made one of our bedrooms useful as such a place, with workspaces for the kids as well. And though they do enjoy curling up in the window seat when they read, they usually end up bringing their activities out to the living room floor or the dining room table. Here is how we have the classroom organized:

On the left, unpictured, is our Library shelving, then you can see one of the desks designated for art or writing activities. Behind that are the Montessori manipulatives, each shelf a different category; one for Sensorial learning, one for Mathematics, and several of the shorter ones at the top house the large map puzzles for Geography. The very top shelf holds media based learning, DVD courses and the like. Beneath the window seat reading nook, the lacing, snapping, zipping, and tying frames hang. In the closet on the right, there is a shelf for wooden puzzles (an extension of Math and logic), The large science manipulatives, natural world math manipulatives, puzzles, and the imagination station. There is another desk situated on the left wall, and between it and the closet is the writing shelf, with different types of paper, activity books, writing utensils, and grammar activities, including the grammar boxes, and metal insets. Here’s a better look at that desk

which is predominantly used for their art projects. Their art supplies are organized (well, as much as art supplies CAN be organized) in the green corner cabinet, pictured here. Because of it’s proximity, the desk is quite frequently covered in clay and paint. Next, these are what I used to deem circle time activities.

Calendar building, Pouring and tweezing activities, Nomenclature and three part card activities, and some construction activities. On the other side of the doorway is our Library section.

The kids are welcome to read any day for school, but on science days, they have to read science books, on history days, history books, and so on. So our books are organized by subject. Literature, Languages, Math, Art, Sciences, History, Theology, Easy Reading, and Magazines. On their reading days, they have the freedom to select any subject they choose.

Even as the kids outgrow their need for manipulative based learning, we will always have a library. This room will more than likely one day become a bedroom, but for now, it is a place for them to learn and read, build and explore, and grow.

Partnerships

It may not look appetizing, but our animals absolutely love spent grain.

Several years ago, we met Ricardo and Jennifer Garcia through a mutual interest in trading stocks and options. Over the years, that mutual interest has grown into a friendship. A common thread in our friendship is the desire to become more independent, self-sufficient, self-reliant, etc. So when Ricardo mentioned that he was following his dreams of opening a brewery, Melissa and I knew we wanted to be a part of that.

In addition to brewing the best beer I’ve ever tasted – bar none – our animals absolutely love the spent grains.

One of the win-win deals we were able to negotiate with Ricardo was being an early participant in the brewery in exchange for the spent grains from his brewing activities. In addition to brewing the best beer I’ve ever tasted – bar none – our animals absolutely love the spent grains. The chickens and guineas love to scratch and pick through it. The pigs chomp it down faster than you can get it to them. And to the donkeys, it’s ambrosia. On Ricardo’s side of the deal, he now has a sustainable outlet for what would otherwise be a waste product that he would have to pay to dispose of.

Blackberries!

One of our favorite summer activities, even as cityfolk, was taking a trip to a pick-your-own farm for fresh blackberries, strawberries, peaches, and other colorful and flavorful produce. We tried planting fruit trees in the yard, but the greenbelt in the neighborhood brought out the deer every night, and they’d strip the plants of any leaves and buds. We never got to reap the benefits of our poor besieged plants, and unfortunately, being in the city limits, we couldn’t shoot the deer. Pity, because then I could have had peaches, AND venison ?!

Now that we have some room to stretch our legs, we started planting some fruit trees. Among our first plantings was a bunch of blackberry vines along the fence. Nothing producing yet, as a matter of fact, they are quite dormant, as are most of our early plantings. We should have some great blackberry recipes coming this summer. And just let those deer try to get to them first…

Beef & Noodles

Beef & Noodles has been a Hunt family tradition for generations. As best I can tell, it began as a way to stretch a limited and relatively expensive meat supply across a large family. My grandfather had six sisters, so just imagine for a bit what it took to feed a family of nine. In turn, my grandparents had five boys.

A slight digression

I like cottage cheese – the good stuff, not that low-fat garbage. And my grandparents always had “the good stuff” as part of a relish tray at family gatherings. I remember asking my dad why he didn’t like cottage cheese, since obviously his parents did. He replied that they never had it growing up. So the next time I was with my grandparents, I asked my grandfather why they never had cottage cheese when their kids were growing up. I’ll never forget his reply. “Oh we love cottage cheese. But we had five boys to feed. We couldn’t afford it.” The idea that a certain food was such a luxury item that they never bought it – even though they liked it – has stuck with me ever since. To this day, we keep a quart of “the good stuff” in the fridge, and Macy and I often sit down and share it in memory of my grandparents.

Recipe

Ingredients

Beef Roast
Flour
Eggs
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Potatoes

Egg Noodles

You can do this the day before, or you can do it while the beef is boiling. Grandma used to make loads and loads of egg noodles, dry them, and then freeze them for later use.

Add salt and pepper to a cup of flour. Start with 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper.
If you want a slightly lighter, fluffier egg noodle, add some baking powder (about 1/4 tsp per cup of flour). I prefer them without the baking powder.
Start with one egg for each cup of flour and mix together. Technique doesn’t really matter here – just get a good eggy dough going.
To make the noodles, roll them out with a rolling pin using plenty of flour to get them good and thin. Cut them into strips with a pizza cutter, then cut the strips into 1-2 inch lengths.
Toss the noodles in a little extra flour and let them air dry. If you want to freeze them, dry them in a warm oven and then freeze them.

Beef Broth

Boil the beef roast with plenty of salt, pepper and garlic cloves. We brine ours for a couple of days, but grandma never did. Boil it until the beef falls apart.
Remove the beef roast and fat chunks from the broth let it cool a bit. Taste the broth and add salt and pepper as necessary for a good broth.
Get the broth to a rolling boil and add the egg noodles.
Once the noodles are cooked, reduce to a simmer.
The extra flour on the noodles will help the broth to thicken.

Fried Beef

Add salt and pepper to a cup of flour.
Shred the beef into bite-sized chunks and coat in flour.
Fry the beef in butter in a cast iron skillet until it’s crispy. We use a deep fryer with beef fat. It’s not 100% authentic, but it’s a good trade-off for the time savings.

Potatoes

Peel 3-5 pounds of Idaho (white) potatoes. Dice and boil in salty water until fork tender.
Strain potatoes and place in mixer. Add a stick of butter, 8oz package of cream cheese, and a slosh of whole milk.
Mix on low speed until well blended. Add salt as necessary.
Once thoroughly mixed, increase the speed for a minute to whip the potatoes.

Serving

Place a heaping scoop of potatoes into a shallow bowl. Add a scoop of noodles and broth to the center of the potatoes, pressing out a well in the process. Top with a few pieces of fried beef. Grab a spoon and enjoy!

Leftover Potatoes

We usually make extra potatoes so that there will be leftovers for breakfast the next morning. To make some of the best potato pancakes you’ve ever had, form a pancake and fry in plenty of salty butter until golden brown on both sides.

Our Cabinet Pick Trumps Them All

Continuing on with the outdoor kitchen, we’ve started in on some “custom, built-in” (that’s city-speak for “homemade”) cabinets. Melissa and I laid out a basic design in pencil on the decking soon after we finished that part, so we had a rough idea of the overall size and shape.

Framing

The first thing we did was build the bottom form, notching it around the cedar posts…and making sure things were generally square. We decided to use 2×3’s to do the build because they’re cheaper than 2×4’s, and they’re plenty strong enough for the job. The big decision here was how deep we (we being Melissa) wanted the cabinets to be. We knew we wanted them to be at least general cabinet depth, but we had a few specific pieces we wanted to store. One of those pieces is the rolling ice chest you can see in the picture below. Ultimately, we decided on a 26 inch depth from front to back, which equates to a 21 inch “gap” from front to back, which you can see in the picture below.

Once we had the bottom form in place, we had to decide how tall we wanted the counter top to be. Ultimately, we decided on a 36 inch height. The next step was to build corner pieces consisting of two 33 inch 2×3’s. We eyed them up, clamped them down, then screwed them together. To attach them to the base, we did 45 degree screws, one in each end of the corner.

Next came the top, which was pretty easy, since it was essentially the same as the bottom. We attached the top rails screwing straight down into the corner posts and intermediate supports. When we had everything framed in, we squared it up and screwed it down into the deck.

Tiling

Cutting the particle board for the top was fairly easy – just a few notches for the cut outs where the cedar posts are. And once we had the top screwed into place, we added a small strip of fascia, some mastic, and laid down the front accent tiles.

One of the more time-consuming parts was laying out the tile for the counter top. Some might say I’m slightly OCD when it comes symmetry and balance. So one of our strategies to aid (confuse?) my critical eye with respect to grout lines – which cannot possibly be straight because we’re using handmade tiles – was to stagger the rows of tiles. That way, any imperfection gets masked enough by the offset tile for my eyes to calm down.

We started in the corner to make sure we had a row of full tiles in each direction…

…and that gave us an interesting opportunity in the second row. To deal with the overlapping offset tiles, we simply cut out the overlapping pieces. Then, we were left with a roughly 4×4 inch void in that second row. We decided to use a blue Talavera accent tile left over from the remodel of the kitchen in our last home. A quick trim on the tile saw and it fit right into place. Almost looks like we planned it that way from the beginning, doesn’t it?

We did make one (giant) mistake. You see that hole in the counter top to the left of the dishwasher where the sink is going? Neither do I…. So, we ordered a vessel sink that will sit on top of the counter and only need a small cutout for the drain, plus a couple small cutouts for the faucet. In the end, it worked out fine. Turns out we both like the idea of the vessel sink better anyway.

Toe kick, doors and shelves are on my to-do list. Melissa and the kids are working on “custom, built-in” mosaics for the back. More to come….