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.
​

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 for new nuc in April, I am so excited 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 sytem for my 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 an old nylon rope and left over 2x4s and a 4x4 for a diagonal. I also had big lag bolts to used for assembling the wooden part. (the box is nucs I cut down from a 10 frame box.
Works like a charm.....empty. 

Afterwards I finished up storage for bee supplies in the new summer goose shed. Another experiement! 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.
​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!
​

GOOSE HOUSING-prepare in advance!!

What's a BIOFILTER?

​This year has been busy on the off grid mini farm and studio. While adding more food gardens and flowers this summer I began to run out of water. My low flow well seemed to put out 100-150 gallons a day, but the addition summer watering brought it to a halt in July. 

It seemed to me it was time to start reusing my house water. My tiny washer uses almost 20 gallons a load alone, so what better way to second or even third use that wasted H20??
​
There wasn't a whole lot of guidance online, so I winged it. So far so good, only one major revision....my biofilter wasn't (big) enough to collect the fast moving water for filtration. An additional 'biofilter' pond (and maybe later a holding tank) was necessary. I haven't tested the water yet or hooked it up to continuous watering since the new garden beds arent in as of October. 
​
Being quite alkaline, many web folks say it's good for most plants, but I want it as clean as possible. Though I use biodegradable soaps all around the house, there is a lot of soap, oil and other bits to be filtered out.
​
This story will be continued when new garden beds built below the grey water filter system. 

ANOTHER TUB!?
So it seems I am into these 1800's vintage cowgirl tubs! In previous post I began to journal the procedures we used to restore a friend's tub. We are still working on that one. In the meatime I needed to finish my bathroom to actually have a shower after 13 YEARS! Yes I do not exagerate.

These tubs usually have rusted out spots, especially the drain. I used JB Weld, the one that's heat resistant on the last tub.
​This one had a bigger hole....see below. I solved it by making it uniform with JB weld around a big pipe with blue tape on it to prevent sticking. Then instead of a clawfoot drain piece I put in a sink sized one...See pic on right below....NOTE: when I used the jb weld I had to layer. I wanted the tub to be flat where drain went in and unlike regualr porcelain modern tubs there is no divet where you put plumbers putty. So I applied jb weld and sanded layers to make it flat since tub is a bit concave in general.

ONTO THE LEGS
These old tubs have fabulous legs. They go up the side and bottom to make tin much stronger in its shape. There are two screws holding top of side legs to the wood rim. Also there are four bolts on front and back sets of legs, 'hinging' them together.
Originally after stripping tub and so much other work going on, I got lazy and just painted the tub. But when I was working on drain a screw fell off. I realized the rusted old scres and bolts had to go.
1. Screws holding legs to wood rim: I matched the old slot heads to modern ones but added some length, see top right. 
​2.Bolts hinging three part leg assemblies together: I bought new ones and added lock nuts since old ones kept getting loose with only one nut.See above pic in middle and below where new bolts are in.
3. Self Tap 1/2 screws rim to metal flange; The metal flange was ripley and funky. So I added these little screws every 3-4 inches to make it need under rim. I painted the screws to fade away near the grey green paint. you can see these in second row of pics above where tubs underbelly is exposed.

BATHROOM DONE! TUB LOOKS GREAT!
WOW! Check it out. The tub is so comfortable (just like my friend Kelly said it would be!). It has a very sloped back so you can really lie down in it. It's deep and though narrower than a standard tub (26" instead of 32 inside) it feels cozy. I am nervous to stand up on thin steel bottom but it seems strong. I might add a shim style cedar part under tub to support if it feels like it might dent.

REST OF MY TUB'S BATHROOM SETUP
I installed vintage style tile from Lowes for floor, The 'maple' wood look tile walls look like wainscoating but waterproof. I put in a new pedestal for sink, removing the porcelain one. This pedestal is a handmade hemlock cabinet for more storage in my tiny bathroom. There is popular trim on top of wainscoat tiles to make it more woodsy. And though the woods don't match all the wood looks nice next to the handmade wood compost tiolet (see previous blog entry).

Though I have one small leak hard to get too (clawfoot faucet elbow was cheap and compression washer wont set right) the tub is in. I took a bath! 

NOTE: These tubs are not standard sizes, many companies made them so they are all sizes. My tub is about 66 inches long and 27" wide, but the faucet assembly I bought is a big. I love it, but you should consider the smaller types.
​MOLLY BOLTS: When I put in shower ring I used the molly bolts to left. BIG difference than ones that come from kit. These go in simple and hold like 50lbs a piece. Ring is still wobbly so might add a few more supports. 

This isn't necessarily an off grid story but if you like old Cowgirl/boy tubs check it out!!

I thought it would be fun to record the way my friend Kelly and I repaired an old 1800's tub with wood rim. I had bought it years ago at Aurora Mills in Oregon for $180.00**. These old tubs cost a fortune online and need extensive repair in most cases. Rotted wood rims and rusted spots around drain are the worst culprits. I found nothing online that could help us figure this out. However Kelly already has one of these restored in her house. So we had some luck figuring out how to proceed by examining hers.
I personally liked these tubs because they are pretty, rustic, lightweight and can fit in tight spaces....Mine is only 26 inches wide and fit in my 24 inch door to a tiny bathroom.
Galvanized metal is not toxic according to info on web. But zinc from galvanized metal can be toxic in large amounts. There is no indication that galvanized tubs release a lot of zinc....Anyways they are very comfortable and can be wonderful in a rustic cabin.

​** I found one of these old tubs in a nearby antique shop that was in excellent shape and needed no drain or wood rim repair. I installed it and left the Aurora Mills tub outside until I figured out what to do with it. Luckily I stored the metal legs and old wood parts in a closed bin. This protected them well.

1. Attaching legs:  If you are on this same journey you might find attaching the legs a bit tricky too. Because old bolts were rusted we bought stainless steel bolts to match the old ones - with flat heads. Kelly bought washers nuts and wingnuts as well. The legs seem to be attached with these bolts and once screwed to wood rim hold themselves in place with tension.
​There are many brands of these old tubs and many have totally different legs, cross braces and parts. So they dont always fit if you have to find parts.
​NOTE: you may want to clean and paint your tub or legs....in both kelly and my tubs they are left mostly to look as they came. Just cleaned up a little with new plumbing and such.

2. Refitting wood rim parts-if you have them!!
After attaching legs with new bolts, we clamped old wood to leg tops so we could flip tub over to work on rim.
We positioned the wood parts to see how they fit. I then carefully bent the edges of galvanized metal to lay flat again where wood had fallen off. Only two pieces (sides) were still attached. There were tiny galvanized nails, but beware...dont pull on them. Kelly used a thin rotary cutter to slip between metal and nail to cut. This kept the thin metal rim intact and unbent for most part.

3. Replacing old wood rim: I began to layout some 2x6 Redwood pieces for replacement wood rim parts. Its a bit thicker than the 1" old rims but Kelly liked the idea of trying something new and had these on hand. We plan to cut shapes to fit, biscuit join parts (the dowels are big -as seen above-and one has to be precise to make that way in new wood rim).

4. DRAIN REPAIR: Next we took a break from the wood rim to prepare the area around drain. We sanded the old rust off and then cleaned the area with vinegar. Afterwards we rinsed it and used a torch to dry it, careful not to heat too much (you could just wait for it to dry).

BELOW: two products we bought to try. We used the jb weld epoxy not the fiberglass.
​(though if your tub needed more extensive hole repair, the fiberglass kit might give stability to the backside.
The JB epoxy we used says it can go up to 250 degrees and is water proof. JB has other products too "Extreme heat" for mufflers and such. We could not find this at our local Lowes so chose the one below. So you decide what to use.
​

5. Preparing to epoxy drain hole:  After cleaning the area, we measured out the size we needed to make drain hole. you can see it has pit marks and is larger than drain part. Below is a picture of a brass drain part with shoe similar to our drain part.
**You need a threaded drain extension for these old tubs that have that collar part between legs. This collar raises the distance so a straight run like picture below does not fit over rim.

6. BACK TO RIM: So I am sure there are many ways to figure this out....especially if you don't have the original wood from tub or its very rotted like in this case. First we set up the old wood rim onto tub as best we could. We clamped it to tub and laid it out according to the two pieces still attached.
NOTICE: Standard tubs used full one inch hardwood doweled together. We used 2x redwood and are planning to biscuit join it instead.

There was a total of two straight side pieces, two top curved pieces and 2 back curved pieces.
To determine the new cut pieces of wood make sure to measure everything laid out in old wood setup. ...in this case it was 27 3/4 outside edge to outside. Also measure the old wood lip overhanging inside tub. In this tub it was about 1" all way around but top rim was more like 3/4+. I found these two measurements especially important to laying out new wood. But measure everything you can!!
​I laid out our redwood lumber onto sawhorses to make the new set of rim pieces. 

​​Because the TOP two curved pieces from old wood were cut from a 1x8 to form the sharp curve and all we had was our 6 inch boards....we added some of that length to the side pieces....see below. I cut these first. Then we did something fancy with final top curve piece. We laminated two 2x6 together and cut our shortened single curve piece together.​ I used a jigsaw with new blades on curves and my worm drive on long lengths. Cut top piece not shown yet....

​

See the old warped rotted pieces laid out on new redwood to double check everything. BE SURE TO CUT THE EDGES YOU ARE TO JOIN VERY CAREFULLY. you want a tight fit for joining.
More pics and desciption to come next week.....