Month 2 review

Well the second month of this experiment is now behind me and what a ride it has been so far. My seeds are all started and ready for planting as we head into May. My beehives have survived and I'm going up to Newport to work on them for the first time this season. Along in that trip I also plan to hunt for turkeys which their season opens on the 1st. Since you can only hunt turkey until noon my plan is to fish the second half of the day in one of the northern lakes I never get to otherwise.
Fishing has provided very well so far, this weekend we hauled in 3 northern pike, 2 of which measured 24 inches and the third one was a beast at 32 inches and weighed 8.1 lbs. All told the fish we caught provided roughly 14 lbs of food. Most of which we will eat this week. Ideally I would love to come into a great fishing day and be able to freeze some of the catch for this years winter. But I guess that's why it's called fishing and not catching.
Firewood for next year is also a top priority now as it needs time to dry and cure. My plan is to have it all cut and covered with black tarps and tar paper through the summer to speed up the drying process. I'll need roughly 4 cords of wood to get me through the winter.
My wife and I are actively looking to buy our own home, so that is now taking up some of our time. But if we find something with a small amount of land on it, it would provide better for us. Nothing huge, we have our eye on a house with 12 acres.
The farm and fish hatchery idea is burning up in my brain a lot of late. My dream of providing healthy, affordable food to the community is something I want to get off the ground. Unfortunately that is were my expertise ends. While I looked at Kickstarter and other crowd funding sites these have low limits set on donations. Ideally this project would cost roughly 3 million dollars to start. Which in these times is not something that is easy to come by. But if any of you know someone with that kind of money burning a hole in their pocket by all means have them contact me.
Weekly shopping comes in at 50 dollars this week to end the month ahead by over 400 dollars now. That money I'm going to set aside to start the funding on the farm idea. Every tidal wave starts with a single ripple as they say, so while it's not much it's a start.
To everyone out there reading this I want to take a minute and say thank you. The number of hits this blog has been getting has increased over the last 2 months and I hope people are enjoying it. Stay tuned through the summer as this is also my prime invention season and I'll be posting articles pertaining to those projects on here as well.

Week 7 Work work work

So you may have noticed that I was late in posting this week, and for that I apologize. But as I am learning more and more, this whole thing takes work. And not to discourage anyone from doing it because I think it is well worth it, but it is a lot of work. Time management has been key in keeping things moving at a more managable pace. However, today I found myself with to many jobs and not enough time. Planting season is well upon us and I have been working to get seeds started for planting. On top of all that fishing for meat is also a priority and tonight I was out yet again with my buddy Bill trying to catch something. Tonight however we were not so successful.
Sunday did see us catch a couple nice fish, a 21 inch Northern Pike and a 10 inch Yellow perch, they will make a nice meal tomorrow. We also caught three nice size largemouth bass but unfortunately they are not in season yet.
Along with seed starting I am also planning new improvements to the hydroponic and container gardens I started last year. Working to improve those systems and make them more productive, I'll post pictures when they are done and up.
Rice I have decided is truely a life saver, taking what would otherwise be just enough meat for a single meal and turning it into a week long dish for taking to work for lunch. The rice scare had me worried but luckily the large bags of rice I had purchased were from the USA.
Turkey season is coming soon, in just a couple weeks, with any luck I will be able to bag a couple. Then the long haul to fall will start when there is no hunting seasons in and fishing will be the primary source of meat.
Weekly shopping was 40 dollars this week so that continues my trend of saving money.
My thoughts also return to the farm idea from last year. I remain convinced that with the proper funding I could raise enough food to feed the entire city of Burlington, and South Burlington and do it in a manner that would keep the cost affordable to everyone. But big floods start out as a small rain drop as my friend Bill says. So since I don't have the money to go big to start I will keep things small and build it up. To that end my wife and I are actively looking for a house of our own, where we could truely do what we wanted in terms of growing and alternate power options.
Anyway in closing thanks for reading and again I apologize for being a little late on this post, stay tuned as I'm sure things are going to get even more interesting.

Week 6 Fish On!!

Fishing has begun! On April 13th most of Vermont's lakes and rivers opened to fishing. And all though this Friday was a terrible day to go fishing the rest of the opening weekend was perfect. Overcast and a little chilly kept everything interesting to be sure, but I was able to bring in 6 good size Bull Head catfish. While I know that is not enough to feed myself or my family for the week, it is a good start. Currently the fish are cleaning out a bit in a tub of fresh water and on Tuesday my plan is to fillet them up and serve them with rice.
In case anyone is curious about where I caught them I was in the South Slang or Little Otter Creek in Ferrisburgh. Using my fathers old canoe my oldest son and I paddled out into the current and around noon the fish started biting. In all we hauled in 12 but we tossed 6 back on account of their size. Telling each of them as they hit the water to go back and get bigger.
Sunday we headed over to Shelburne pond with no luck, though a buddy of mine did catch a good size bass, they are not in season yet so it went back in the water. Talking to the local fishermen at Shelburne Pond brings me to another topic that I wanted to bring up however. That is water quality.
Here in Vermont we like to think of this place as a pristine rural enviorment. Clean and relatively unspoiled but urban sprawl. This sadly however is not the case as I learned Sunday in talking to folks. Apparently though it appeared quite clear on Sunday due to the colder temperatures Shelburne pond has been under attack by invasive aquatic plants over the past decade. To the point of which the pond has experianced several large die offs of fish. The fish there also according to the locals are typically found with round worms. While the round worms are not a threat to humans as long as the fish is cooked, it's still unsettling to think about eating one. Mercury of course is the true threat from fish and unfortunately I know of no way to test a fish for it before eating. But how sad is it that we can no longer trust eating fish from such a large body of water in Vermont. For years even before this people would say to stay  away from Lamoille river and the lower end of the Winnoski river for the same reasons.
Blue green algae has become an issue in the state recently, and again while concentrations of it are not harmful to humans it is harmful to animals, such as dogs. I can only imagine though I couldn't find any studies on it that the same is true for deer and other wildlife.
So what can be done? Aquatic plants steal oxygen from the water and cause fish to die, worms are unsightly and I can't imagine fun for the fish to be carrying around and have been shown to stunt growth, and algae poses threats to wildlife all though unconfirmed at this time.
We all know that introducing a new species of fish to combat say the plants is not reasonable, what do you do with them when all the invasive plants are gone, what impact would they have on the food chain in the water. Poisoning the plants and algae is not a smart option as I'm sure such things would kill off fish as well. Perhaps increasing the number of fish in the ponds and lakes is a good answer. I'm not sure, overfishing on a scale like in Vermont is a possible threat to the ecosystem as a whole. And while Vermont Fish and Game stock some species every year, I find it hard to believe the stock more than are caught every year in the state. This idea of trash fish, as I have heard it called is another things that leads to decline, sadly this Sunday I found 4 large bull head catfish dead beside the pond just steps away from the water. Someone had discarded them on shore rather than putting them back in the water. Why you might ask would someone do this I have heard the common excuse over and over again, "Well I don't want to have him bite my line again" Let me tell you something, if I poked you with a needle stuck inside a banana, how likely are you to just go chomping into another one immediately after, or even for the next few days, or even years. Without any scientific information to back it up I'm willing to bet the same thing is true of fish who have just been hooked.
Anyway I will stop ranting there, and end with an update as usual on my weekly grocery shopping, this weeks groceries also included some other things we needed and I had not thought of namely trash bags and dish washing soap, so the total for this week was 55 dollars. Still landing me a savings of 100 dollars on average. Putting me now 220 dollars ahead I believe. So once again thanks for reading and stay tuned.

Week 5 Unexpected problems

So I have to admit I may have made a judgement error in picking March to be the month to start all this. Living in Vermont for the last 15 years I should have realized that no matter what the previous year was like the next year will be different. Trends never seem to happen here in Vermont and this year was no exception. Last year we enjoyed an early spring and thaw which opened lake fishing much earlier than usual. This year while the temperature has been mild for the most part, it stayed cold enough to keep most of the lake under ice for a substantial amount of time. This in turn has made getting meat a challenge. As I took stock of what I have left for meat yesterday I came to a realization that at best I will be able to stretch out the supply for at most another 2 weeks. After that it looks like I will be playing vegetarian much to my displeasure.
Fishing does officially open on all lakes, ponds and rivers this coming weekend so who knows things may turn around. As for muskrat well without a thaw to drive them up out of their holes, finding them has been a challenge and thus far unsuccessful. The season on them ends in 11 more days so there is still time, but along with the need to get seeds started and the time better spent on catching fish, I don't think I will allocate any time to this endeavor.
Other than that things have been going well. A group of us went out and did a bit of fishing this weekend with minimal success. But it was good to be out and we did get to witness an osprey catching what looked like a large salmon. Though the excitement of it was quickly met with jeers of ridicule for the bird of prey for being more successful than we were.
My friends and I have decided to start filming our fishing adventures in a sort of spoof on the pro fishing shows you see on TV and the show River Monsters on Animal Planet. So watch for these when we start posting them to YouTube I'll include the link in this blog to the channel. I can guarantee you won't learn anything about fishing by watching it, but it should be good for a laugh.
Weekly grocery shopping again came out to 40 dollars and this marks the 2nd week of actual savings even when taking into account the supply run. Putting me 160 dollars ahead over my average cost before starting this experiment.
I know a number of people are reading this blog now from the stats I'm receiving I would love to hear any suggestions you may have or advise on things concerning fishing or hunting. So feel free to post a response to any of the articles here. Also feel free to ask any questions if you have any and I will try to respond in a timely manner. Thanks again for reading and stay posted.

Month 1 in review

So my first month of subsistence living is over and I have learned a lot about what it takes to make this type of lifestyle work. Put simply it takes WORK. Instead of sitting around and watching tv or playing video games or reading my favorite book. I have to put in the time to ensure that all the needs are met to make it through the next day/week. Forward planning, and as I talked about in a previous post, good time management are essential. Such as thinking about what meals can be made ahead of time or prepped ahead of time to shorten the cooking time, that way I have time for bread making or packing the kids school lunches in advance. Setting up the coffee maker the night before, and even running the same grounds twice, something that was unheard of for me before have all helped make this month possible. Getting the family involved has also been a huge help. From my wife helping with the cooking, so I was freed up to go fishing or hunting, to my sons helping bring in firewood, go hunting with me to act as look outs for rabbits, even my 7 year old helping make the bread, have all been a huge help. Ultimately too, though I won't tell them this, it is getting them up and moving, and learning. The days of them sitting watching cartoons or movies while I cooked dinner or my wife did laundry are gone. And because we make it fun to do they don't even realize they are working to help the family.
They are learning too, though again I won't tell them that. My 7 year old can identify most animal tracks now on sight. He has learned the behavior of different types of animals in terms of habitat. Even my moody 14 year old is learning these things, and along with that learning why it's important to conserve and protect these things. They are learning what it takes to make food, and where it comes from. They understand that there is work involved in cleaning and skinning the animals. These activities I have used to demonstrate even grocery store meat has to go through. Planting and growing vegetables is a topic, as we near spring, that will become a larger part of the day.
Most importantly I think they are starting to learn that work doesn't have to be work. It can be fun, and helpful to not just themselves but to others.
My 14 year old asked the question a few days ago. "What if we actually lived in a place where you couldn't buy the stuff we eat for school lunches?" This was an excellent question and allowed me to explain how real subsistence living can be done. Of course a lot of this is area dependent, but for this answer I told him lets say we are living here in the North East Kingdom.
It takes less then 1 acre to raise a dairy cow. A bred dairy cow will supply 6 gallons of milk per day. Now of course you need to feed the cow. And while I was at my in laws farm I should have asked how much hay and corn it would take to feed 1 cow, I will for a later post. Now since that cow has to be pregnant to produce milk she will have an off spring, which can be used for 1 of 2 things. More milk or meat. In terms of meat you can expect on average about 600 lbs from a single full grown adult.
Since you have all that milk from  your one cow, you can now make your own butter,  and cheese.
Chickens even just 5 as the city I live in allows would supply more eggs than you know what to do with. And they take up less then 40 square feet of space. With a single roster you could allow breeding for meat birds if you wish. Setting aside the off spring for meat and so that less in breeding would occur.
Raising your own oats and berries and honey bees would give you all that you need for a nice cereal for the kids to eat in the morning, or why not just have eggs since you have the chickens.
Of course that takes some space or you can simply buy the oats by the 50 lb bag
Apple trees, pear trees, berry bushes would supply fruits for snacks through the year either as canned or dried.
So I think that covers a lot of ground so far this month. In the coming months more things are going to be piled on, gardening, college courses for myself, fishing, cutting splitting and stacking wood for next winter, beekeeping. All are going to keep piling on, so as I move into spring keep reading because I'm sure it's going to get interesting. And thanks for reading.