No longer a subject of King Gillette

"Give them the razor,sell them the blades" Gillette's dictum

The journey to become more self sufficient came from two things.
1 Reading a post apocalyptic book( Dies the fire, S.M. Sterling) that made me realize that most people would have no idea how to survive if society broke down.
2. Being broke. I mean REALLY broke.

One of the things that had to go were the Mach 3 blades I was using to shave. I have really coarse thick facial hair and the Mach 3 blades seemed to work the best. Unfortunately at almost 3 dollars apiece they got vetoed out of the budget.
I started buying disposable razors because of the cost, and tried to always get ones made is the US to help limit the miles they would travel. This helped the budget ,but left me slightly unsettled at the waste of it all.
I started experimenting with different things.
I found some strait razors.
There is a reason people don't use these anymore. The maintenance and skill level were beyond my capabilities.
Then enter the Rolls Razor.
A English made contraption that was kind of a mix of a strait razor and a safety razor. It looked cool but ultimately wasn't us to the challenge of the Brillo bad I like to grow on my face.
Then I read a blog post about the Retro Razor.














The Retro Razor has been raved about by the folks over at Ramshackle solid. I was sceptical but saved my pennies and was finally able to get one.
Almost as easy to use as a disposable razor, the only difference is that there is some maintenance involved. Plus when I am done with the blades I can just recycle them. Not bad, huh?

Crop mob pt.3

so the crop mob is rescheduled for the 17th. I am hesitant to say anything about the weather lest I jinx it. So be here on the 17th at around 1:30ish for good food and good company. ( also backbreaking labor.)

First day of spring!

Sigh........

Crop mob. pt 2

"Come rain ,sleet, rain ,or snow"

Not. So I guess this is a lesson on how not to tempt the weather gods. The forecast for Saturday is for sleet and snow. We are talking accumulation here. SO I am calling off the crop mob for this weekend and will reschedule it at a later time.

Hose Repair

"Buy new, wear it out" "Do with, or do without"

In my impatience to work in the yard this weekend I tried to free a garden hose ( that I had forgotten to put away in the fall) from the layer of ice it was encased in. Little did I know that it was full of ice as well and about as flexible as well.....something not flexible...

This is what ensued.

Instead of throwing the whole hose away I bought a hose repair kit.

Step one. Cut hose flush.

Step two. Slide clamp over hose. Now this can be done once you have the repair piece in but it is a pain. Once the replacement piece is in it will NOT come out.

Step three. Insert replacement piece and tighten clamp.

Voila! The replacement parts are actually tougher then the original so this hose should be good to go for many more years.

Crop Mob

So after a trip to the hardware store we now have the materials to make garden 2.0 a reality. 200 ft of 6' high fence to keep the critters out of the garden. 27 -8ft 2x8 to make 9 4x8 raised beds. 8 10ft 4x4 for the espalier fruit trees. We have the soil for the beds lined up and should be able to order it in a week or so. 13 cubic yards.

Now for those of you that need a visual, imagine a box made of yardsticks.... now imagine 13 of them..... in our front yard.

SO we are having a work day here at the farm. In exchange for help getting the soil from the front yard to the back, and in the raised beds, we will provide BBQ pulled pork, beer and good fellowship.

The self sufficientlymovment is kind of ironic in that to get anything large done you need the help of others. Whole town used to turn out to help raise a barn, haymaking used to take many people instead of the machinery we use today. Many hands make light work. So in that spirit come to the farm on march 20th.

Now it being march in Missouri we can expect either beautiful spring day, 6inches of snow ,or nasty rain. in the case of any precipitation forget the work and come over for BBQ anyway. rsvp so we know how many to expect and how much pig to make.

Getting There.

Lots going on right now. We have had enough egg customers that we ran out of the cartons that our friends and family had saved for us. A quick visit to http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/ and we were in business. (We might have accidentally also ordered 25 more chickens )

And speaking of Business, I give you.....

It might be a little premature, only having one product (eggs), but we got a good deal on them.

We also got the first part of shipment of garden fodder.

Raspberries, Blackberries, horseradish, asparagus, salad greens, and herb seeds.

In the upper right hand corner on the box you will notice a packet without a picture.

Now I know raising chickens ( and a goat come May) , having a huge garden , and wanting bees in the middle of the city seems a little loony.

That little packet might be crossing the line into insane.

We had a volunteer pumpkin come up last year and let it sprawl in the backyard just for fun. we got 2 pumpkins out of the deal and the chickens enjoyed the shade from the leaves. You might notice the possible weight of the pumpkin variety we are growing this year. Enter the spousal patience part of this endeavor.

Now if it will just quit snowing we can get this party started.