GOOD FOOD!
Every cell of our bodies is made from what we eat and drink...and what drugs we put in it.
Doesn't it make sense to know what is really going into our food? And if we grow it we can know it.

In 2024 I made a greater commitment to this ideal. I began growing my garden in earnest. When I researched 'grow your own food in a year' I found out you have to put in 120 carrot plants PER PERSON!? REALLY!??
So I knew I had to be more organized. Successive planting, fertilizing with worm tea and organic bone meal were just the beginning. I had to do my own starts, be more careful about watering, and use more greenhouse sleeves for longer harvest time in the PNW. I had to begin canning and added a tiny fridge for overflow produce. 

This u turn in my life naturally led to the next step. I knew people myself who had started homesteading (becoming self sufficient and 'off grid' in other ways) and started to notice I was doing the same thing. In my web surfing I  stumbled on more information about what is in our commercial food. I have to thank those fellow homesteaders who post their knowledge and wisdom on the subject for everyone to see on the web!
I learned more about what big producers do to make more money making veggies, fruit, meat and dairy- it was shocking.
I already knew about organic food because throughout my life I have taken nutrition classes, worked at food co-ops, and experienced better tasting food that was locally grown or organic. However I personally had not realized the extent food corporations were comprimising safe food for profit. I know, I know, some of you have known this for years!! (and some of you could care less)

Almost all pork has MRNA vaccines in it. No....the 'snopes' and fact checkers links on web are not correct...YES mrna is used in food and in some cases like pork it's been in use since 2018. Why? Well you can look up the reasons yourself. You can do your own research, but one reason is with consumers wanting less antibiotics in food many food makers are turning to gene editing, vaccines (this is now gene editing as well) and more.
You can even go to meat producer sites to see for yourself. Many boldly talk about their vaccine and chemical usage. All this while other producers are being undundated with concerned calls from customers about meat additives and animal vaccinations. So, many small producers are declaring their meat 'unvaccinated' and are claiming they never will.
There are even university studies I found that are concerned with mrna in meat because it doesn't stop there with 'making safer meat'. The gene editing translates right into human cells too.
​I believe our food was safe to begin with. If made like we used to, no gene editing, chemicals, careful processing and NOT JUST FOR PROFIT.

So what better way to know what you are eating than raising it yourself. Like millions of other folks before us, still doing it after thousands of years.
In addition, why not try buying/trading from farmers you know or can visit.

SIDE NOTE: All I know is at 55 I don't get sick, like almost never. I don't need pharmacuticals and I don't have allergies. Is this good genetics from my parents? or is it just good genetics from mental intention and what goes in the bod? I have never gotten covid, never gotten the experimental covid vaccines, never taken pharmacuticals (but Ibuprofen) and use herbs or natural medicine long before I try anything else.

​Link to two of many medical journal docs about the experimental MRNA vaccine for Covid.
1. Long‐lasting, biochemically modified mRNA, and its frameshifted recombinant spike proteins in human tissues and circulation after COVID‐19 vaccination
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11169277/

2. 'Spikeopathy’: COVID-19 Spike Protein Is Pathogenic, from Both Virus and Vaccine mRNAhttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10452662/ 


2025: This year I began to attempt to supply about 20-30% of my food from my own efforts in the garden, orchard and poultry realm. Besides most vegatables (except those out of season) I craft, grow and make eggs, wine, bread, pasta, herbs, teas, preserves. Chicken and goose meat are on their way, I just needed a year to set up the coops, yards and breeds.

In addition I began a mostly Meat barter: building a tiny house for trade from a non-vaccinating non chemical farm. (I don't need vaccines in my body or my food thank you).

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: People say to me, "well I can't afford that kind of food". REALLY? But your car is like $40,000.00, and you pay $100 a month to color your hair?!
What goes into your body is what you are made of! How can you not afford it.....

The above parcel of trade food in the photograph is $212 at this local farm I love. It included: 2 packs of Kune Kune bacon (insanely delicious by the way), cottage bacon, pig cheeks, 2 t bone steaks, 2 pork chops, 4 sausages, wadgu hamburger, 2 qts grape juice (best I ever had), qt peach salsa, qt regular salsa, 1/2 pint apple pear butter, 2 qrts fermented pickles (won't ever eat regular again! LOL) and qrt of pears.
I priced it out on the internet with average organic meat/canned goods of the same quantity and quality- that I could find. Many of these things: Kune Kune pig bacon, cheeks and cottage bacon had to be bought online. And several things were very hard to find commercially.
After all of that I discovered I had saved $30!!!!!! 
Not that I personally cared about the savings. I am not motivated by money, getting 'a discount' off someones hard work,  nor am I one to skimp on good health.

What I am doing is neither new nor rare. You can type in 'homesteaders' and find millions of people here and abroad....who do this in other countries because they have to. In the U.S. it is a rising fad of an intelligent kind.

Makes sense to me that food sovereignty and it's purity can provide another layer of self security and confidence in a bizarre and complicated world.

Though I have gotten great comments from folks interested in off grid or just seeing this blog off the art site, I am moving most of my storytelling off grid/homesteading to my new instagram account Instagram@mysticglenfarm. It will be gradual, but instagram is good for people on the move with less time....pics and short text.....

After digging an existing pond deeper last year, I purchased a RPS aerator to deal with goose muck. In the middle pic, you can see the brown box with tiny solar panel on top. It houses the pump and the controller and a fan to cool the pump on hot days. I primed it brown to be less noticeable.
I placed the system near the electric top line fence so I could use the same grounding rod. The kit comes with solar panels and everything I needed. The entire kit is about 2-3000$ but I got this one on sale for much less. After a bit of research, I found most cheap aerators break shortly after using. This one has a 2 yr guarantee and RPS has excellent support.
As with the my previously installed RPS solar well pump kit, it was an excellent product. It comes with easy instructions, several versions of wattage power, 200w-800w and all the parts you need. In about 30 minutes I had attached all the parts and tested it in the murky pond. I still have to finish ditches for installing solar panels on shed and trenches for burying the aereator hose in the ground (otherwise geese will nibble on everything).
At some point, I will still need to figure out how to retain more water in warm weather without a goose puncturing a pond liner. So far when I dug deeper there was a grey clay that looked just like bentinite in this lower section (see pic for how this part has not dried up yet). When full in winter it is about 10 ft deep. But now in a warm May its about 5 ft.
When I turned on the aerator to test it, I found it was very powerful. I think it will help process the muck generated by all the goose poop. My two geese spend a lot of time in the pond year round. Mating is easier for them in a body of water. And in summer they seem to get very hot. Imagine all the goose down they have hiding under those feathers. It's why they can hang out in winter in the snow for hours.

In order to get crops thru the late spring weather and early winters here in the northwest, greenhouses are a must. And these mini cloches are great for protecting starts and giving you a leg up on harvesting more produce.
In the above pics you can see I used the 24" or 12" or 30" ends of polycarb roofing cut from other jobs to make very useful cloches/mini greenhouses or what I call "solar sleeves".
These scraps had laid around for years as I didnt want to throw away more plastic. What a great way to use them! Mini greenhouses! Solar Sleeves!

The picture with a cyclindercal shape above left....is made of two pieces of scrap poly (though you could buy sheets new too...) curved into a cyclinder by screwing 2-3 short 1" self drilling/washer roofing screws into side. Then I predrilled 2-3 holes 1" to 2" above bottom of sleeve for those u shaped garden staples. These can hold the sleeve down in winds or with geese brushing up against them!
In an experiment last winter I placed one solar sleeve on a helebore plant and left the other uncovered. In the early spring I removed it and lo and behold, my 'solar' enhanced hellebore had 10 times the buds for flowers and was lush and big compared to a the unprotected hellebore which had at least a month longer to grow leaves and buds. 
The solar sleeves and the 'min greenhouse for starts in picture above right....both extend growing time and protect from my chickens or other animals.
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You can see I zip tied plastic netting to the trunk which is not so pretty. I then had to fence off the area. New solutions are in the works: maybe a noxious homemade peppermint spray to make bark taste nasty?

Just to share what I have learned about mini farming: I am a huge advocate for building your mini farm infrastructure FIRST before adding animals. And to plan everything out carefully (especially land layout for coops and fences) and do your research.
​You want it functional but not an eyesore or a smelly 'close to the house' mess.

BEE BUILDING STUFF
While I wait impatiently for new nuc in April, I started fooling around with associated bee projects.
I am very very new at beekeeping, but experimenting is so fun!
Today I built a pulley system for my newly made swarm box. There were scouts the other day so I thought what the heck, if it works then I do not want to climb down a ladder with a heavy box of bees. I purchased a pulley, hook latches and u bolt. I then used left over 2x4s and a 4x4 for a diagonal on the knee brace support. I also had big lag bolts to used for assembling this part. (the box is nucs I cut down from a 10 frame box).
Works like a charm.....empty. 

Afterwards I finished up some storage for bee supplies in the new summer goose shed. Another experiment! Will the bored geese pull stuff down when waiting to be let out in the mornings? So I measured up and put nothing at goose level to chew on. I also added one old door hinge to several of the wood windows to open as it gets quite hot in there. Geese heat up a bit too fast with all their down. Later I stapled metal screen to prevent critters from coming in.
​Will post a swarm pic if it works!!!

GOOSE MAYHEM
The other Project that I am really new at is the Goose Adventure. The idea was to raise geese for eggs and breed them for meat. It has been a bizarre journey with a life of its own! 
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR-in a nutshell...
1. Geese are amazing! Intelligent, attentive, and great mowers of grass..........and people who have them are in love!
2. Chaos reigns if you don't plan well - Set up your infrastructure FIRST.
3. You will make mistakes, all a part of learning, but remember geese live a long time and are endearing. Don't get into it unless you are ready.
4. Sex them after maturity (7 months or older)
5. Learn from goose forums and web pics to find out what a healthy goose looks like before buying from craigslist.
6. Order from a breeder if you don't trust your intuition on a healthy strong goose. Novice goose folks who sell on the web can over breed. I've seen some who take on too many birds to do it well and you can get mites and bad genes in your purchase!!!
GOOSE TIP: if you get a less than perfect goose you can suppliment their feed with dried nettles for nutrient boost, dried oregano for parasites and skin critters and brewers yeast for niacin. After 2 weeks of dosing, My gander, Honey, grew glossier feathers, his legs straightened out more, itchy skin/creepy crawlies disappeared and his poopy butt cleared up.

Along the way of building a newbie flock, I added Pepper the swan goose and Popcorn the Purebred Pomeranian. Unfortunately I suck at sexing geese. But It does seem hard to do with immature geese under 7 months. In the end I had three ganders and a goose. Best laid plans right??

That is when the chaos began:
-Pepper began bonding with the toulousse goose. This is me lecturing him...." No,no,no pepper. She is supposed to make purebred babies with her toulouse gander!!".
....Constant honking from my chinese guy drove me to the brink.....Apparently I did not do my homework. Chinese geese are loud, and though they have a great character, he was a little too attached to me.
-Then to add to the drama, Popcorn decided the male toulouse was his mate. To my surprise the gander to gander mating began in earnest!!!

THE SOLUTION
So I put pepper my favorite pet goose on craigslist for a good home. He now lives in Chimicum with a herd of American blues and turkeys. Hopefully he will get his own mate.
​Popcorn traveled off to Portland to be with a very lonely Pomeranian female.
​Now Honey and Sweetpea the Toulouses...... and the rest of us....can be together in peace and quiet......well almost.
​
​Next month: Adding a ultrasonic dog barking device to coop so I can sleep through the night without honking honking !

OFF GRID: THE THEORETICALS
I would say about 40% of the people I talk to out in the world (about living off grid) say the same thing.....'I want to live off grid someday too'.
They say this with a whimsical faraway look as if they never will, but the fantasy of it is soooo nice.

Living off-grid means a lot of things to different people. But basically to me it is about a simple, sustainable, independent, balanced, and impeccable lifestyle. And don't get me started on 'how honorable to the rest of the world' I think living this way is!

On this journey I discovered what was best of all.... to lead a happier stress-less life!

MORE NITTIS GRITTIS
It is true there are limitations. For me it includes alternative project set backs and learning to budget. But living off grid electrically, away from cities, growing one's own food, processing one's own waste, harvesting one's own water....it is truly fantastic. 
The sense of well being from making your own way and being independent is unbeatable. When my friends down the road lose power....well I don't. When my friends lose their jobs and cannot support their $4000 mortgage....I do not have the same problem.
In addition I will toot my horn and boast a little more. These are a few of the accomplishments : 
- save 10,000 gallons of water a year from sewage treatment
- Eat more vegetables and be more active.
- Work hard to save, found land no one wanted (so it was cheap) and thus could pay off my mortgage fast.
- Lots of Pre-planning: a small house with less tax, virtually free utilities and even less appliances= so less repair bills.
-Debt free- I decided to pay cash for everything added and to live simple ( at times too simple).
-Healthy: I take pleasure and pride in making sure my water and food is really clean of chemicals and non altered.

What else I have learned: When you do not have the money- yet- just don't spend it! WORK HARD, LIVE DEBT FREE....AND YOU DO NOT NEED A $3000 TV.

One can say it's impossible for them, but when a person decides and moves forward and doesn't give up, anything can happen. And when you get there-Hallelujah!! OFF GRID!!!! You have enough food without a supermarket, enough water without a big monthly charge, and enough energy without a skyrocketing bill, it all makes it worthwhile.

MONEY
Since we are a capitalist society lets talk money: I basically live well on $1200 a month. WHAT!!!??? impossible! incredible!. This is one third what the average North American lives on.
Yes I got my bills down to almost nothing. I use gas for my generator only 7 months of the year.... otherwise it's free power. I built small so heating, flooring, appliances, and well.... just about everything was cheaper to buy and cheaper to maintain- ...AND saves TIME.
I also researched the heck out of everything to purchase the best products for the best price. I hoarded materials along the way, and bartered for labor help I could not manage on my own. I am a moderately good farmer so I get about 1/5 of my food intake from my land right now; This saves about 2000-3000 a year.

It took me from age 17 to 40 to get a financial base. But after losing almost everything at about 40, it took 15 more years to change my mind about debt and relying on 'systems', like credit scores. That is when the societal ideals really shifted for me;  it was all about how to get mortgage free, debt free, and almost bill free. You have to be ready to work hard!
Just to be fair,  I didn't do it all alone, I had some help financially, about 60K from a small inheritance. This gave me about a 3 year head start to finish utilities and farm set ups.
This is just one way to do it. But if you want a simple life you can be proud of, it is a great option!
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GOOSE HOUSING-prepare in advance!!