So after almost two years of talking about it I have finally taken the plung and posted a crowdfunding site to try and raise the money for my sustainable farm. As some of you may know already from my previous posts I visited Growing Power in Milwaukee last year and was completely impressed. According to their own estimates they grow enough, food, fish and eggs to feed 10,000 people. All on only 3 acres of land in the middle of a major city. My plan would take this idea to a large scale. By increasing the amount of space and using the same growing plan and organization I feel I could triple or even quadruple the amount of food they produce. And along with a solar panel array to power all the equipment and provide a small income from surplus power I feel I could sell all that I produce at about half the price of the same items in the store. This would open an option for people that could not otherwise afford healthy food.
Of course the amount that I'm requesting is enormous, all of it though would go to keeping this operation open for at least 3 years. In that time I would hope it would catch on and become truely self sufficient.
Because I'll be getting all of my funding from the community and my own meager savings, my goal would be to give back to the community. To that end a qaurter of all the food I produce would be donated to the local food shelves and soup kitchens for the homeless. I feel it is the least I can do for the donations that I hope to receive for this endeavor. Also making a non-profit would see to it that money made on this would go to other charities and outreach programs to help others learn how to produce their own food.
It's a big dream and will take a big miracle to pull off but please take a moment if you can donate and do so at the URL below. Thank you as always for reading.
http://www.gofundme.com/30kpko
Also feel free to check out Growing Powers website and see the basis for this idea at. www.GrowingPower.org
Friday, May 31, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Week 12 Minor setback
Sorry for the delay in posting, with the holiday on Monday I was busy and didn't have a chance to sit down and post. We have encountered a minor setback recently. The freezer that had most of the fish I had frozen in it was unplugged for three days. As a result I lost about 20 lbs of fish that I had caught and the last remaining beef I had from the supply run. This has left us without any meat until I can get out and do more fishing. Which of course as it would happen has been impossible with the weather that we have been having. Between snow storms, thunderstorms and a constant rain over the last week I have not been able to get out and do anything. Monday offered the first respite from the rain and while I was able to get out fishing, I was unsuccessful at landing anything worth keeping.
Fishing on Monday did bring about it's own revelations. While out fishing from shore, something I decided until I can get pontoons on my canoe to avoid anymore unintentional swimming trips, I took notice of all the wildlife I got to see. Things that a person who never ventures out into the forest would ever see. Longnose Gar feeding on insects on the top of the water, water snakes swimming around in the river, a box turtle sunning itself on a log in the middle of the river, and one very annoying beaver swimming around my fishing lines and generally being a nuicence. These are all things that I would have never seen had I been at home playing video games or watching TV. And while you can see these things on the discovery channel or animal planet there is something magical about being out in it and amoung it. Reconnecting to things in a way that I think a lot of people are losing touch with. Not that long ago this is how people did everything, my grandfather for example talks about when he was a child they had an out house and no indoor plumbing. How as a kid if he wanted to go out and play it meant going OUT and playing in the woods around his house. Hunting wasn't about sport or getting the prize buck it was about putting food on the table. His respect for nature and his understanding of how nature stays in balance would make any modern day hippy feel stupid. Organic in his day meant something they grew out of the family garden and free range or grass fed meat was something they shot. The work involved gave them an appreciation of where food comes from. While grocery stores and canned and processed food were starting to become a staple it was not something that was readily available the way it is now. But I digress, while I understand not everyone wants or has the ability to hunt, and in fact if everyone did it, it may put a larger strain on the enviorment than it could handle, I feel people should just take a walk out in the woods and reconnect to nature. Even if your not hunting imagine you are and let your wild side go as you stalk through the forest with a camara if you prefer looking for that next prey animal. Feel that sense of excitement as you stalk up on a deer or game bird and take that fantastic shot with your camara rather than a gun.
Weekly grocery shopping as always came in at 45 dollars, putting me almost 900 dollars in savings over the same time period in the store. Thanks as always for reading and for putting up with my small preachy moment above. Don't worry it won't become a habit. =)
Fishing on Monday did bring about it's own revelations. While out fishing from shore, something I decided until I can get pontoons on my canoe to avoid anymore unintentional swimming trips, I took notice of all the wildlife I got to see. Things that a person who never ventures out into the forest would ever see. Longnose Gar feeding on insects on the top of the water, water snakes swimming around in the river, a box turtle sunning itself on a log in the middle of the river, and one very annoying beaver swimming around my fishing lines and generally being a nuicence. These are all things that I would have never seen had I been at home playing video games or watching TV. And while you can see these things on the discovery channel or animal planet there is something magical about being out in it and amoung it. Reconnecting to things in a way that I think a lot of people are losing touch with. Not that long ago this is how people did everything, my grandfather for example talks about when he was a child they had an out house and no indoor plumbing. How as a kid if he wanted to go out and play it meant going OUT and playing in the woods around his house. Hunting wasn't about sport or getting the prize buck it was about putting food on the table. His respect for nature and his understanding of how nature stays in balance would make any modern day hippy feel stupid. Organic in his day meant something they grew out of the family garden and free range or grass fed meat was something they shot. The work involved gave them an appreciation of where food comes from. While grocery stores and canned and processed food were starting to become a staple it was not something that was readily available the way it is now. But I digress, while I understand not everyone wants or has the ability to hunt, and in fact if everyone did it, it may put a larger strain on the enviorment than it could handle, I feel people should just take a walk out in the woods and reconnect to nature. Even if your not hunting imagine you are and let your wild side go as you stalk through the forest with a camara if you prefer looking for that next prey animal. Feel that sense of excitement as you stalk up on a deer or game bird and take that fantastic shot with your camara rather than a gun.
Weekly grocery shopping as always came in at 45 dollars, putting me almost 900 dollars in savings over the same time period in the store. Thanks as always for reading and for putting up with my small preachy moment above. Don't worry it won't become a habit. =)
Monday, May 20, 2013
Week 11 Man overboard!!
Well it happened, I capsized my canoe on Friday and I'm here to tell you that the water is cold. Very cold. 30 min or so into fishing one of my fishing rods was heading over the side of the boat so out of reflex I reached to grab it and sent my self and all my stuff straight into the water. After the initial how did I end up here moment I calmed myself down and started to attempt to get back into the canoe, which was now swamped with water. Let me tell you that is no easy task, no matter how easy they make it look in the boat safety courses. After 6 or 7 failed attempts I decided it was time to start yelling for help, I had passed another boat when I went out and knew they would be within earshot possibly. But after 10 min in the water I couldn't feel how cold the water was and knew I needed to make some choices. If I stayed in the water much longer I was going to run the risk of becoming hypothermic and that would be no good. As luck would have it though as I was starting to get myself all the way into my life jacket I heard the boat motor coming and started to flail my arms and yell again. A couple minutes later two men on a small bass boat appeared and pulled me from the water. Now in typical Vermont fashion as they pulled up along side me in the water the older of the two men asked "Cold in there dad?" Which even in the moment made me laugh a little. He explained after they got me into the boat that his son, who was probably in his mid 30s had heard something and thought it was either a seagull or me. When he asked the son if he could see me in my canoe and the son replied that he could not they knew I had gone in the water.
You know I have for years watched shows like Deadliest Catch and heard people talk about how fast cold water can kill you. And while the water in Lake Winona where I was is not as cold as that it took a lot more out of me than I was expecting.
So what have I learned from all this, where your life jacket all the time when in the canoe, and practice getting into a swamped canoe and know how best to do it. While I knew the motions and had seen it done over and over in videos there is nothing like good old fashion practice to really prepare you to actually do it.
I have to admit I did cheat on this experiment last week and bought a lunch at work. Things have been hectic at home and I was unable to make a lunch for myself for 4 days and so on the 5th day I broke down and bought one. I'm convinced that the nature gods did not like that and that's why I ended up in the water.
Weekly grocery shopping came in as usual at around 50 dollars and now since the incident I believe I will use the savings to buy myself a real fishing boat. Early spring swimming adventures are for the birds.
Fishing and hunting have been slow going over the last couple weeks, with weather being a major factor in not producing much meat. I'm hoping things will turn around soon since the meat stores I bought are all but gone and red beans and rice have become more of a staple than I was anticipating. Here's to hoping that the worst of the accidents during this experiment are behind me and some good luck is on the way.
You know I have for years watched shows like Deadliest Catch and heard people talk about how fast cold water can kill you. And while the water in Lake Winona where I was is not as cold as that it took a lot more out of me than I was expecting.
So what have I learned from all this, where your life jacket all the time when in the canoe, and practice getting into a swamped canoe and know how best to do it. While I knew the motions and had seen it done over and over in videos there is nothing like good old fashion practice to really prepare you to actually do it.
I have to admit I did cheat on this experiment last week and bought a lunch at work. Things have been hectic at home and I was unable to make a lunch for myself for 4 days and so on the 5th day I broke down and bought one. I'm convinced that the nature gods did not like that and that's why I ended up in the water.
Weekly grocery shopping came in as usual at around 50 dollars and now since the incident I believe I will use the savings to buy myself a real fishing boat. Early spring swimming adventures are for the birds.
Fishing and hunting have been slow going over the last couple weeks, with weather being a major factor in not producing much meat. I'm hoping things will turn around soon since the meat stores I bought are all but gone and red beans and rice have become more of a staple than I was anticipating. Here's to hoping that the worst of the accidents during this experiment are behind me and some good luck is on the way.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Week 10 Fish Farming
So the end of another week and things are staying pretty constant. Fishing this past weekend I ended up with about 9 lbs of white perch. Other than that I did manage to finish getting some growing projects completed. Namely some of the hydroponic systems are now ready for use when the weather finally decides to stay summer like. I also have started work on a fish farm system. I'll include pictures soon on this but basically its a wooden box lined with plastic to hold water. Above the tank is a bed of water crest and pea gravel. The water is moved from the tank to the bed above via a pump and the water after trickling down the bed is dumped back into the tank. The bed filters the water of most of the fish waste and by dropping into the tank from above it aerates it as well. This system is used to great success by a place in Milwaukee called growing power. You can check out their website here; www.growingpower.org .
This week I also spoke with the state aquaculture biologist about the permitting process needed for raising fish for sale and stocking. I was surprised to learn that the process is actually quite simple and affordable. A 50 dollar fee and a 10 dollar renewal fee is all the money it costs. Along with a yearly inspection of the fish for disease which is currently free. So this will be something that I will be doing more of after my wife and I have bought our own home. A large scale operation would just be unreasonable while we remained in a rental.
Thermoelectric modules are something of a new discovery for me and I plan to start building a panel soon based on this technology. In essence these are used by some locations as a way to utilize waste heat generated from another source. My plan is to see how much and how large a system would need to be to generate the same amount of electricity from the sun as a traditional solar panel would. The most interesting thing is some of these modules can produce electricity on the reverse side from cold. This could potentially make them a great source of power during the long Vermont winters. Watch for me to post more on this separately from this weekly update in the future once my modules have arrived.
Weekly grocery shopping came in at 56 dollars this week, still keeping me well below my average pre experiment. The dry months in terms of hunting are coming and as far as fishing it will become more challenging as the fish move to deeper waters later in the summer. Wish me luck.
This week I also spoke with the state aquaculture biologist about the permitting process needed for raising fish for sale and stocking. I was surprised to learn that the process is actually quite simple and affordable. A 50 dollar fee and a 10 dollar renewal fee is all the money it costs. Along with a yearly inspection of the fish for disease which is currently free. So this will be something that I will be doing more of after my wife and I have bought our own home. A large scale operation would just be unreasonable while we remained in a rental.
Thermoelectric modules are something of a new discovery for me and I plan to start building a panel soon based on this technology. In essence these are used by some locations as a way to utilize waste heat generated from another source. My plan is to see how much and how large a system would need to be to generate the same amount of electricity from the sun as a traditional solar panel would. The most interesting thing is some of these modules can produce electricity on the reverse side from cold. This could potentially make them a great source of power during the long Vermont winters. Watch for me to post more on this separately from this weekly update in the future once my modules have arrived.
Weekly grocery shopping came in at 56 dollars this week, still keeping me well below my average pre experiment. The dry months in terms of hunting are coming and as far as fishing it will become more challenging as the fish move to deeper waters later in the summer. Wish me luck.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Week 9 Food for the freezer
So another week has come and gone. Sunday was a big night for us, I was able to catch about 20 lbs of catfish, all of which is now in my freezer. Saturday my wife and I had the good fortune of watching a man bowfishing for Gar. Which suprised me since I didn't even know there were Gar in this state. While we were there he did manage to get a 4.5 foot Gar. He explained to us that they don't seem to go after lures or bait so the only way he knew how to get them was with bow and arrow. He also told us they taste just like chicken. I happen to have a bowfishing rig and I may give this a try soon myself.
Planting wise, all of my squash, tomatos, onions and potatos are in. I'll provide a layout for the urban farm at my house when it is all said and done. My two dwarf apple trees are blooming so thats a good sign I should get some apples this year, and my plan for the weekend is to move some rasberry bushes over to a sunny spot of my yard so they produce fruit this year as well.
No luck so far hunting turkeys but this was only the first weekend. Nothing else will come into season until well into the fall so this will be the only chance I have to go after bigger game. My moose lottery ticket is in and I was thinking if I was lucky enough to get one it would literally supply my family with enough meat to see us through the winter. Though I would have to try and get out of mounting it's head, my youngest son is desperately wanting one in his room.
Weekly grocery shopping has me at 50 dollars this week, and while this is higher then it has been it's still well under what I was spending before. So not to much this week to report but there it is. Again more things will be happening as the summer continues so stay tuned.
Planting wise, all of my squash, tomatos, onions and potatos are in. I'll provide a layout for the urban farm at my house when it is all said and done. My two dwarf apple trees are blooming so thats a good sign I should get some apples this year, and my plan for the weekend is to move some rasberry bushes over to a sunny spot of my yard so they produce fruit this year as well.
No luck so far hunting turkeys but this was only the first weekend. Nothing else will come into season until well into the fall so this will be the only chance I have to go after bigger game. My moose lottery ticket is in and I was thinking if I was lucky enough to get one it would literally supply my family with enough meat to see us through the winter. Though I would have to try and get out of mounting it's head, my youngest son is desperately wanting one in his room.
Weekly grocery shopping has me at 50 dollars this week, and while this is higher then it has been it's still well under what I was spending before. So not to much this week to report but there it is. Again more things will be happening as the summer continues so stay tuned.
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