Thermal Cooking

Basically you get your food hot in something like a cast iron dutch oven. Then you put it in an insulated box … it continues to cook on its own! No fuss, no muss…

Here are some great blogs:

A video from PocketsOfTheFuture.com where Leslie cooks beans LITERALLY in a laundry basket It is just a FANTASTIC blog to begin with!

http://pocketsofthefuture.com/blog/?cat=23
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http://cookinginabasket.blogspot.com/
people in Kenya cooking in a “basket”
lots of great recipes!

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The Thermal Cooker/ Thermal cooking Weblog
http://thermalcooker.wordpress.com/
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The Mother Earth News
Rediscover the Hay Box Cooker

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1980-01-01/Rediscover- the-Hay-Box-Cooker.aspx
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Stove in a tiny space

This is a good site for ideas on how to heat small spaces with wood.

http://www.small-cabin.com/forum/3_105_0.html

news

Well, I had a lot of real high hopes for things, but I guess that things are not going to go as well as I wanted. Life is like that at times.
My chronic fatigue is back again. It is my own fault, I faltered on my eating for a few weeks. I was so very bad… I ate a few hands full of Goldfish crackers a few nights … maybe 4 or 5 times. Of course there were a few pieces of candy (ONE piece of fancy chocolate at the fancy chocolate store and one horrid time where I ate 9 mini tootsie rolls and a piece of strawberry hard candy).

I’m not jesting at all.

Oh, there was a couple of incidents with a serving or so of ice cream. I’m sure that there are some here and there that are NOTHING to a person who is healthy.

To me they are a huge set back.

Right now I can barely function. It is a struggle to get out of bed, to get dressed, get up the hill (if I can EVEN get up the gumption to go home at all from mom’s) … get my animals taken care of and then try to do another project. I am hoping that things will pick up in a week or more. I can always hope.

Cheers,
Lindy of the Oaks

Incubator

Pretty cool! Though I am a little tongue and cheek about using the styrofoam cooler. Kudos to the kid who wrote it when he was 15.
Pox on The Mother Earth News if what he says is true.

I am going to use this basic plan to make a chamber to ferment my wine and mead.

Build “Matilda” – an Electric Hen for Less Than $10

by Dennis Hawkins

http://www.afn.org/~poultry/matilda.htm

Philip

Mary, here is Philip
He is pretty big … he just does not look that way compared to the steers, who are quite large.

today’s update

Today I was able to get the first tire level and situated pretty well. I continued to stack tires and roll them up the hill *pants*
I realized after starting to stack them that I need to wire them together and I was lacking both my side cutters and the tying wire, so I pushed the rest of the tires up the hill and proceeded to start moving rocks out of a trail that I frequently use. I moved 4 good sized rocks, the last one was the biggest (of course) and had to be dug out the most … and of course rolled up out of the hole. It was a good accomplishment and now I no longer fear falling over and snapping my ankle while walking on this little path. I need to fill in the hole better and top with some gravel.

For the rest of the day I’m farming… fixing fence and moving livestock around.

Raccoon Tracks

I found these at the pond last spring

fire starter

I guess all of a sudden I’m all crazy about blogging!
But I do keep it short!

Last night I needed to build a little fire to take the chill off before bed.
I got to play with a new toy. I was an unusual girl … I have always wanted my own flint and steel to start fires with.
(After my grandparents were gone and we inherited Grandma’s books I found several Scout manuals from the late 1950’s … it had been my dream to own some since I was about 10 and found they existed.)
Well, one day I grew up and decided it was worth the $8 to buy a magnesium block with a piece of flint attached.
I started the fire on top of the wood stove in a paper grocery bag. I cut off a small piece of pitch, shaved off some magnesium from the block, and figured out how to best get a spark with my Leatherman Micro.

I have been told that there is only enough magnesium to start 90-150 fires on one of these things. I figure now that I have played with it and it can be done, I will save the magnesium and just play with the flint and steel for a while. Maybe I will get good at lighting fires with it. Backcountry skills are always a good thing!

Ocho and her three lambs

From last February. You can see three little tails there.
She raised all three of them herself. An amazing feat for a sheep with only two “spigots”
I did some supplemental feeding to help them along, but she took over and did very well.

today’s nature photo

Someone’s nest in the walnut tree by the swampy-pond. Squirrel? Bird? Taken: April 2007