Big Ideas Archives - Page 3 of 3

How To Do Most Anything By Yourself: Ant Moves Chicken Coop

February 11, 2021 BrassEgg Big Ideas, Build, Chickens

There is a song I can’t help hearing in my head when I’m planning to do something ridiculous. Laverne & Shirley used to sing, “Just what makes that little ole Ant, think he can Move that Rubber Tree Plant? Anyone knows an Ant Can’t move a Rubber Tree Plant. But he’s got High Hopes….” Silly song. I just couldn’t get it out of my head as I moved the chicken coop from the North West side of the Greenhouse to the South East corner. I’ve been called an ‘ant’ often and I choose to believe it was meant affectionately. Often there are faster, better and I’ll admit safer ways to get something done than the way I do them, but I often discover these other ways as I’m doing it the hard way. I’m a woman of average build who has not fully recovered from a broken leg. That puts me below average on the strength scale. Ants get it done Little-By-Little.

The plan to move this chicken shelter down the edge of the field devouring the prairie grass died the first time I moved it six inches. I had made it far too heavy, just as Joel Salatin warned. So, we left it in place all summer while construction continued on the greenhouse. When I broke my leg I continued planning to build a coop at the greenhouse for winter housing, but my leg and strength recovered much slower than I expected. Even after moving the hens back to my subdivision and begging a friend to house the rooster, I still had to scale back my plans even more. Spring will arrive before I could possibly finish a chicken coop and building in freezing temperatures is no fun and more risky to your health.

This heavy summer shelter will have to house the whole flock for another summer season while I figure out the perfect all-weather coop. That means I now need to move the shelter that I decided was too heavy to move months before I broke my leg. Fun!

The edge of the field proved to be too hot as the summer sun beat down. When the corn hit 5 feet the shade made it better, but the East side of the Greenhouse was more pleasant all summer even before the greenhouse was finished. Now that the winter wind whips down the field from the North that edge of the field is frigid; but that same protected spot East of the Greenhouse enjoys wind breaks on 3 sides and can still capture some of the low-hanging Winter Sun coming in from the South. The distance from where the shelter was to where it needed to be was roughly a football field plus the End Zones. Thinking of it as football was helpful.

I had to use scrap lumber as fulcrums and levers to lift the shelter out of the 6 inches of clay and grass roots that had accumulated over the summer. Once the corners were balanced on rocks and boards moving it the first foot almost caught me in the shins. One random rope and one random chain became my hand-holds after that, but it didn’t get much easier. Moving the left corner 9″ forward turned the structure into a parallelogram and put all the metal under stress. Staples popped out of the wood base, wires popped open…it was probably a little bit dangerous. It became a game of inches… a lot like football.

It took a few hours and all forward motion was just 6″ to 12″ at a time, but finally the coop was past the greenhouse. By this time I was convinced that rolling the coop would be faster!

I can say it happened fast…but lots of new things popped loose in the few minutes I rolled it onto it’s back. Getting it upright was not as easy as tipping it over.

It really is no mystery to me why my engineer husband refuses to be involved in my experiments. Lots of safety protocols get ignored.

It’s not exactly where I want the final coop to be, but it will be much nicer for the flock over the summer. I’ll keep checking the coop over the winter to fine-tune the perfect spot for construction…or maybe an even better solution will present itself. Either way, every time I look at it now I start to hum “High Hopes”.

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A Small Farm Is Better Than Homesteading

February 10, 2021 BrassEgg Big Ideas, Featured Favorites

The Term Homesteading has gained wide popularity in the last decade, but many who attempt it find the lifestyle to be a tough taskmaster. I grew up on a rough patch of land in the Ozarks and saw my father struggle to raise cows where there was no pasture and crops where there was no topsoil. Father had a vision of self-sufficiency that did not accommodate his declining health. After watching the homesteading pattern repeat itself with neighbors and struggling myself for years with this mindset, I’ve come to some conclusions.

#1 – I believe that growing things is really good for the soul, but the homesteading ideal is too stressful for most people. Calculating the calorie needs of an entire family, along with the right levels of protein, carbs, and vitamins in itself can be daunting. Expecting that you will be able to raise all that food for yourself creates an incredible amount of stress on a new gardener/rancher. It’s never enough though…next you will be pressuring yourself to become an amateur electrician so you can wire up wind turbines for your electricity. Then it’s on to chemistry and plumbing as you set up your own water-catchment system complete with stainless steel cisterns. This pattern leads to burn-out and many people bail on the entire idea. You don’t have to do everything. Maybe there are a few people who do everything, but you don’t know what kind of struggles they went through to get there, and they may have started life in a family that already homesteaded, so their learning curve is not as steep. Exploring only one aspect of self-sufficiency AND ENJOYING IT is better than doing nothing self-sufficient at all. I would even propose that being entirely self-sufficient and HATING IT every day is not as good as doing just one little thing that you really enjoy.

#2 – The idea that you must do everything to be ‘self-sufficient’ forces the new homesteader to take on tasks that they really aren’t interested in. Self-sufficiency is an impossible ideal anyway. Even the Amish live in communities where they can buy sugar, wheat and canning jars from each other/family stores. You will find in true self-sufficient communities that some of the members specialize in fruits or grains while other members will focus on livestock or dairy. They may have additional backyard chickens or a garden, but even though many are full-time farmers, they focus on a handful of things they are really good at. Self-sufficiency is an admirable goal, but constantly falling short of the goal can be demoralizing. A hobby farm allows you to set one goal that you can achieve in an area that you truly enjoy. Raise only exotic Frizzle chickens if you want. Hand milk a single miniature Irish Dexter family cow if you wish. Cultivate a garden plot of only Martha Washington Asparagus if you want. There is a ton of joy in raising an animal or crop that tickles your fancy. You will accumulate tools and learn so much along the way that the next project that delights you will naturally build on your past success. Please don’t let some homesteading ‘Purist’ suck all the fun out of growing things.

#3 – Although the situation has greatly improved, there are still many people who will scoff or shame anyone who adopts the title of ‘homesteader’ because they associate the word with ‘prepper’ which really isn’t the same thing. I believe that a level of food independence is really good for the soul, but the approach that some preppers take is fear-based which is very corrosive to your mindset and energy. Initially it seems that cultivating that fear inside will give you the motivation necessary to become self-sufficient but there is a faster and more enjoyable way that doesn’t require you alienating friends and family. While in the prepping mindset; you can assess what the 2-3 most important areas are. Then of those 3, pick the one you most want to do. You may want to pursue an area because it has always fascinated you, it seems fast and easy, it is paramount to survival, you have a friend who could help you with it, or any other reason. The reason doesn’t matter, just frame it in your head that, “I WANT to try this” and forget any fear-based reason that would cause you exhaustion. Please choose to ENJOY your next project instead of letting fear drive you like a task-master.

#4 – Most importantly, enjoy yourself! Enjoying your project goes beyond just choosing the right breed of chicken or strain of sweet corn though. Consider your hobbies: do you buy the cheapest fishing pole, golf clubs or running shoes you can find? When something is for pleasure, we try to maximize our enjoyment as much as financially reasonable. So, buy the cute chicken coop, construct the fanciful bee hives, and build the sunken green house. To some degree you can justify a little splurging because it’s ‘kind of practical’. Besides investing money, invest time in making your project/hobby/farm as enjoyable as possible. Consider for a little bit, what the worst aspect of keeping an animal or a garden would be and start working that out. Keep all your notes for your project in one place. If you need a place to start, I highly recommend this classic that every homestead/farm should own. You also can reach out to me if you need someone to brainstorm with. My contact form is on the homepage, first column, under “Contact For Consultation”. I’d be happy to help.

#5 – Lastly though, the biggest reason I’ve seen folks give up on the homesteader track is that purist homesteading becomes a full-time job that crowds out the most pleasant aspects of conventional employment (the most pleasant aspect of all being a regular paycheck). It is such a far-ranging concept that it can devastate any attempt at time management. You can purchase all the supplies and books you need to start homesteading, but you will find that skill sets and experience are just as necessary and take much longer to accumulate. Depending on how much available time you have, you might have to focus in on only one area to reach proficiency. Much better to do a few things well than do everything poorly. Much cheaper too!

I use the term homesteading often because many people who are looking to return to the land or live in unbreakable abundance are most familiar with the term. I’ve learned all 5 of the above points the hard way though. My basement is full of tools, supplies and books that I haven’t ever opened. Even though I have a wide range of interests, I am discovering more freedom and energy by seeing myself as a hobby farmer instead of a homesteader.

Can You Be Too Thrifty?

January 21, 2021 BrassEgg Big Ideas, DIY

Friday my son said, “Can we please get rid of this rag? I think it’s done.” It was a rhetorical question. He just asked for a laugh because the kids love to poke fun at my really weird sense of economy. I cut up old Henley shirts as “floor rags” but I spent a very “not thrifty” amount setting up our chickens. It looks crazy to the family to spend so much money and time on chickens when you can get a dozen eggs at Dollar General for about a dollar or organically feed ‘free range’ (free range my foot) eggs for about $6. My husband and kids see these things through an economic lens and sense of time scarcity.

I see these decisions through a wastefulness and supply chain lens. A 2003 Fast Company article claimed that the US spends more on buying trash bags than many countries spend in a year. Even though that claim is under scrutiny, I still refuse to buy trash bags. I returned the diaper genie from my first child’s baby shower and stuffed empty tissue boxes with Wal-Mart bags. I felt somehow more virtuous for tying up each full disposable diaper in a plastic shopping bag. Ah, baby-steps. It wasn’t until my last child was having difficulty potty training that I considered escaping disposable diapers. An English friend loaned me her supply of cloth diapers and walked me through the process of how to deal with them. That was when I began considering going past the ‘recycle’ trap, past the ‘reuse’ virtue and into the ‘reduce’ freedom. [By the way, no judgment here if you are using disposable diapers…surviving those years is hard.] Using cloth diapers for my last child in his last months of potty training was too late to make a huge difference in the diaper years, but I can tell you this: It certainly sped-up potty training!

As a side-note, if you are struggling to get your little one to get serious about the potty, having a wet, heavy cloth diaper makes a world of difference. I also can’t recommend enough the top potty chair used in England. It is so hard for a child to kick over, there are no little crevices for stuff to get stuck in and it lacks any interesting elements that would make it fun to play with. In England you can get one for a British Pound, roughly how we think of a dollar. They are harder to find in America, but this one is available and there is also this one.

Full disclosure: I gave birth to my last child in England and suddenly found myself with three children age 3 and under. All this recycling, with real glass glasses for kids, standing in front of the trash area separating out all the elements, while one child is frantic to nurse and another child trying desperately to hold it so you can walk him into the ladies room….oh, that was hard. I thought I would loose my mind trying to survive among all this enlightenment! However, now I can see I was dealing with too many learning curves at once.

Living in England for a few years gave me the opportunity to watch how historic castles and large manors are managed by families who take their legacy seriously. Though you will see recycle bins there, you won’t see them over-flowing. If you dine on the grounds you will be served on stoneware and you will drink from an actual glass. By not creating the trash in the first place, they head the problem off at the pass. You will also see bins that break recycling apart from composting. Many properties will quickly put organics (paper or food scraps for example) into their own compost system so it can be broken down to serve their immense gardens. In other words, instead of paying people to haul all the garbage away and then paying someone else to haul in fresh soils and fertilizers they have their customers separate everything for them and use what they can on-site. I also saw this type of sorting system in a Denver, Colorado chain restaurant in 2016, so it is spreading to the U.S.

So, how does England tie into these pitiful floor rags? I can’t place my hand at the moment on which book it was, but one of the gardening books I read decades ago showed a British man standing atop his 6′ tall compost bin at his Manor home. The caption noted that this Aristocrat made sure to compost everything on his property, even cutting the buttons off his old shirts before throwing them into the pile. I thought, ‘Surely you could find something to do with the Lord of the Manor’s dress shirt before it ends up compost?’ His point was taken though…everything is a resource. You paid for it. Get every bit of good out of it you can.

So, what makes it easier to close the loop? How do the British make it look posh instead of poverty-ridden? After reading several books such as this and this and lots of experimenting I have come to the conclusion that:

#1 – Buy quality clothing that actually fits even after it’s been washed. It’s taken me hitting mid-40 to plunk down the extra money to get ‘Tall’ sizes from a brand I trust instead of only hitting the clearance rack. Not buying cheaply constructed clothing (known as ‘Fast Fashion’) saves time and money in the long run considering how many more times you can/will wear it and that you don’t have to waste time shopping/searching for clothes that fit.

#2 – Try to use each resource for it’s highest and most valuable purpose. It makes more sense to donate clothing that someone would actually want. You can only use so many floor-rags.

There is actually a market for natural fiber cloth scraps that the charity shops sell/donate to. It’s called Textile Recycling. Do the volunteers a favor and bundle that all together and label the bag to save them time.

#3 – Only cotton or blends with very little poly in them actually work as cleaning rags. Every type of old shirt and sweat pants have been experimented with. Even if you have the patience to deal with a non-absorbent rag it’s not worth frustrating your kids and spouse if you want them to do their chores without complaining (I should say…’even more complaining’).

#4 – I will feel smugly virtuous if I can take a shirt from years of wearing through floor rag and into compost bin. It’s a vanity, but these days I will take whatever prideful indulgence I can find.

#5 – It’s not my job to save the world. Thinking that way stresses me out and puts me at the mercy of needing to please other people. I won’t be bullied into someone else’s concept of ‘green’ when my core value is to ‘not be wasteful’. I just want to be like those heirs of the manor who take care of their own backyard. And you have every right to pursue what resonates with your core value; it is likely different than mine.

This last one means I just need a plan for my stuff. The sheer volume of out ‘stuff’ overwhelms me pretty fast, so to give myself some breathing room I have a place to keep things for every stage. Britain has influenced me here by making all those stages behind closed doors or somehow hidden so my thrift doesn’t become an embarrassment. I used to take off all the bands, seams and square up the rags so the kids couldn’t tell it came from a shirt. After 3 washes the rag has no shape anyway. The teens just want the tags removed and no ‘tighty whities’ because that would be too embarrassing. We also struggle with socks because they work great, but it never stops looking like a sock…..too embarrassing for kids!

I’ve got several hiding places and even got the saw out and made a real mess of our old first generation ‘Pull Out’ trash can system that didn’t have a recycle compartment. I’ve just left my recycling under the sink and now I have a composting compartment! I even put hubby’s collected coffee grounds in there so I can put them directly into the garden soil instead of cycling them through the compost bin. This has required a bit of work to set up, but day-to-day it is oddly satisfying to swipe juice off the floor with a soft floor rag from my college pull-over or put a tissue into the composting can. Probably something a little wrong with me.