Ewe Remembered

More Garden Pics

2009-04-29T12:14:00.003-04:00

Just a few more pics of the garden. I'm really pleased with how it's coming along.

And alas, the rooster is no longer with us, on the brighter side, the chicks are SOO much easier to care for now...

Ewe

"Bloody Monday"

2009-04-06T08:25:00.005-04:00

I just can't help but wonder...

Yahoo Finance Report for Monday, 6 April 2009:
"President Barack Obama proposed a $533.7 billion base Pentagon budget for the 2010 fiscal year in February, but left out specifics on weapons programs, which have recently made up about a third of the overall military spending.

A Pentagon spokesman said last week that the budget will reflect a "fundamental shift" in direction for the department, which has been criticized for big budget overruns and delays on some expensive weapons contracts.

In advance of the release of Gates' budget plans, Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash. said Friday there "a lot of systems that are going to be terminated. It's going to be a bloody Monday."

Yeah, he's the president of change alright...

Curiously though, the defense budget was actually INCREASED this year...

I'm in this industry, which is why I's curious about the topic. However, I have got to wonder... with the 'fundamental shift' and the termination of 'a lot of systems', where is that going to leave the Veteran or Retiree that, based on his background, expertise, and oftentimes clearance, has been the government contractor on some of these programs? Most likely, out on the street looking for another job, in this economic calamity, now competing with the several hundereds of thousands of other Unemployed Americans. I'm not sure how this is going to help the people, but then again, I wasn't elected by the people to solve these problems...

Heirloom Seeds

2009-04-05T09:50:00.003-04:00

So we've decided to go with Heirloom Vegetables in the garden this year. That simply means that our seeds are not 'genetically' enhanced. If you've ever driven by 'large' farm fields in rural America, and you see these funny little signs about every 20 to 50 feet or so next to the field with a major ag name like Monsanto or DeKalb or such, and a number, they're not just counting rows, they're lableing 'experimental crops', which will no doubt end up on your tables. They're genetically alterning the make up of certain plants for higher-yields, better insect and disease resistance, etc... The efforts might be noble, but I'd rather not... I believe God knew what he was doing when He made the plants and seeds... and that's Heirlooms... centuries old seed stock, that come naturally from the plant itself. Most non-Heirloom plants cannot be 're-seeded' from the seeds they produce. If you want that variety next year, you have to go out and buy those seeds, because genetically, non-heirloom, or 'hybrid' seeds won't germinate/propogate the following growing season. I say most, because there are exceptions to every rule, but, think about it... What insentive does a Monsanto or such type 'chemical' company have in making 1 product that regenerates itself every year? NONE.

Anyhow, for my money, it's heirloom plants and veggies from here on out... Take a look at the link to the left. They provide a plethora 'o seed stock that will ensure/allow you to grow crops forever, and be 'self-sufficient'.

GARDEN PICS

2009-04-03T13:09:00.005-04:00

Above: THE GARDEN AS STARTED ON 23 FEBRUARY 2009

Couple of pictures of the Sustainment Garden, after just being planted, and now, 5 weeks later...

Below: THE GARDEN AS IT LOOKS NOW

And Eggs, boyhowdy, do we have eggs... the 3 Black Star Hens that we got are definitely keeping us well stocked, we've already given away 3 dozen eggs. Oddly enough though, we'd given away so many, that last night, Kelly and Madisyn were going to make brownies, and ... we had no eggs in the fridge, so, Madisyn and I went out to the hen house, and viola, 4 fresh eggs... We're getting 3 or 4 a day, everyday.

I think it's time for this fella to go though. He's just becoming a mean rooster, and I want to be able to let the girls out, and go into the coop from time to time, but he won't have any of it. He's constantly buffing at me, and I just know given the oppurtunity, he'd spur me no doubt. It has come to be that time, when the animal is no longer worth his value on the farm, and his time is up.

And some more garden pics:

Cheesemaking, Dairy Sheep, and Lambs...

2009-04-03T12:38:00.002-04:00

I happened across this video we shot a couple of years ago at our "Ewe Remembered Dairy Sheep farm" in Weirsdale, and it brought back fond memories of not only birthing and caring for, but also just the pure pleasures of watching the lambs grow. We once had a flock of 68 Ewes, and 3 Rams, now, we're down to 1 Ram, named Nehamia, or, fondly referred to as "Fish Lips", due to an accident on the back porch, involving a fishing pole...

As I continue to lament on the risk/reward of dealing with narrow minded bureaucrates about 'a never before tried' endeaver here in Florida, i.e. milking sheep, and converting that milk into Farmstead Cheeses, yogurts, quarks, and creams, I forever more find myself LONGING to reestablish that farm, and persist with my dream; I've a vision of a coop with some of the local Florida Wineries, and possibly even opening up a Wine & Cheese shop in the nearby Spanish Springs district of "The Villages", offering/profering local and regional gourmet farmstead cheeses, fine local wines, imported lagers, and providing tasting parties, pairing courses, and cheesemaking classes.

Yet, I find that the need to pay bills seems to strongly outway my desires...and therefore, I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go...

Enjoy the video. Pictures of the maturing Sustainment Garden are forthcoming...

Asparagus...In Florida???

2009-03-25T23:03:00.004-04:00

So, in my Sustainment Garden, I have tomotoes on the vine, strawberries turning red, 2 year old cucumber seeds that have germinated, and grown to about 7 inches now, Summer Squash is making a bid to take growing space away from my Bell Peppers... and I finally found a use/reason to grow parsley... unbeknowst to me at the time, they're the perfect complimentary plant for my tomatoes, because catapillars prefer parsley to tomatoes, and for my time, they can have all the garnish they want.
BUT, the point of this post... I thought, once upon a time about growing Ginseng (cultivated), but read too many articles online about how Florida is too far south, too humid, too hot, etc, etc, etc to cultivate Ginseng.

Another thing I've always wanted to grow was: ASPARAGUS . I've always like asparagus, but fell in love with it while living in Germany, where they actually have, among many other things, Asparagus Festivals to celebrate the harvest (yet another valid reason to drink HefeWeizen). Anyhow, Kelly saw some 2 year old crowns at Tractor Supply, and knowing it's always been a dream of mine, she picked me up a bag with 10 2 year old crowns. I read the planting instructions, picked out the perfect spot in the garden, dug 2 8 inch deep trenches about 6 foot long, placed the crowned roots in, and covered them with just an inch or 2 of compost... at first, I had nothing, then, one day, as if I was Jack in Jack in the Bean Stalk, I go out to have my morning coffee, confer with the hens, and check to see what types of animals might've tried to assault my garden overnight... Much to my surprise, there was an asparagus sprout, about 7 inches long, I s**t you not, 7 inches overnight. 2 or 3 days later, I had not just 10 sprouts, but 12 sprouts, so today, I finished filling in the 8 inch deep trenches, and re-mulched the area THEN, I decided to do research online about what was next in the asparagus growing protocol. I don't know why I do this, but I'll approach ANYTHING with logical deduction first, then, after I've built, planted, assembled, dismantled, or otherwise proceeded to accomplish something, only THEN will I look at the instructions, directions, or experiences of others... Well, today, I found out that I CANNOT GROW asparagus in Florida, can't be done, won't sprout, conditions, like for the ginseng, are too hot, humid, sandy, shady, etc, etc, etc... I sure hope those now 12 15 inch asparagus plants I have growing out there don't get wind of this...

CHICKEN UPDATE:
So, the rooster has finally gotten cocky. I'd had such hopes the first night we brought him home, and I tried putting him on the perch. He was non-aggressive, almost passive, and I thought, now this is a rooster I can work with, sadly, those times are gone... He's the meanest rooster we've ever had. He'll start strutting, puffing, flapping and crowing as soon as I open the front door, and I've still got 50 feet to go to get in his 'area'. The girls on the otherhand, are doing their laying jobs perfectly. I've left 20 eggs in the coop, and marked those 'original' eggs, hoping that one of the girls would get broody, but no luck yet. HOwever, we are harvesting about 4-6 eggs every morning from these three girls. Beautiful farm fresh brown eggs, and believe it or not, I've got one hen laying small eggs, one laying Medium eggs, and one laying Large eggs.

I purposely grew a couple of squash plants for the chickens to gnaw at, 2 of my plants are growing right up against their coop, and they're helping themselves to the growth as it comes out...

All is well on the homefront here....

Coop Finished, now the "Sustainment Garden"

2009-02-24T10:49:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I got the chicken coop finished, then, on to the next project.

My Sustainment Garden...

Planted 23 Feb 2009:
4 x Various Heirloom Tomatoes (Stripey, Beef, Cherry, Pear)
4 x Green Bell Peppers
4 x Summer Squash
6 X Strawberries
Flat of Verigated Marigolds
1 packet of Cucumbers
Saved Mild Pepper Seeds
Ziplock bag of some sort of seeds

And that, because of this:

Words of Wisdom...

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy
out of freedom.
What one person receives without working for, another person must work
for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything
that the government does not first take from somebody else.
When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work
because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other
half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is
going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end
of any nation.

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

~~~ The late Dr. Adrian Rogers , 1931 to 2005 ~~~

Tilapia, Prawns, Hydroponic Vegetables AND HydroEnergy

2009-02-20T22:25:00.005-05:00

Maybe it's a bridge (or dam) too far, but I have a dream:
CLICK ON EACH IMAGE TO INCREASE THE SIZE
I pulled down a Topo Map of our other farm the other day, and got back into the hydro-power mode, check out my 2nd or 3rd post in 2008. That farm is currently setting vacant. For Florida, I have some pretty good terrain relief (again, for Florida). Anywho, I was reading about "MorningStar Fishermen" here in Florida, which performs Aquaponics, to help educate and feed third world countries using Tilapia and Hydroponic Vegetable gardening. They're only about 30 miles up the road here, and offer courses anywhere from 1 day overviews, to a full-blown 3-months, on-site training academy.

Then, as things tend to do, somehow in my research, I came upon Prawn farming, as a companion to Tilapia farming, and well, below is what has ensued:

So, the thought is to have these cascading 'ponds', with pipes coming out of the bottom of each pond, spilling into the next lower pond, and at the end of each pipe, will be "The Stream Engine" (the little purple boxes at the end of the white pipes) a micro-hydro power plant, needing as little as 3 gallons per minute, to produce electricity.

And that black thingy in the middle of the return, well that's a Solar Powered Water Pump (Large AC/Solar Fountain Pump: 205-GPH output).
So, the hope/thought is, to build this self-sufficient, money-producing, farm, where we raise Sheep, Chickens, Feed Corn (2 growing seasons here), Tilapia, Prawns, and Hydroponic Vegetables.

Thoughts? Comments?

New Pictures, and new chickens....

2009-02-20T21:33:00.005-05:00

BLACK STAR HEN:

We got of first set of Chickens to introduce into the new Chicken Coop...

We got 3 Black Star Hens, and their Alpha Rooster (not sure how long he's going to last though). The girls we got are about 14 months old, and from everything I've been reading, this breed is rather 'pet-like' docile and great layers, upwards of 300 large brown eggs per year, per bird, so, we'll see. Tomorrow, I have to put one more section of caging on the top, finish the shingles, and build the nesting box.

It figures that the evening I bring them home, we're due for another possible freeze. I kept them in their pick-up cages, put sheets over them, in the coop, and stacked some wood-shaving bails around them, they should be good for the evening.
The finer points of the chicken coop yard:

I noticed that the previous pictures of the cabin were a bit dated, so while I had the camera out taking pic's of the new coop, I snapped a couple of the cabin with it's new stain, and one of my comm's tower. Please enjoy!

Couple more up-to-date pictures of the cabin:

My Alternate Communications Array:

And the Pis-du-Resistance, the coop door:

Because I have chldren

2009-02-12T08:56:00.002-05:00

I'd like to direct your attention to the American Preppers Network , to read a post by Bullseye, entitled "Because I have Children". This serves as a wakeup call to many out there who consider preppers 'out there', and legitimizes the responsibility preppers feel about why they are preparing for life's eventual circumstances.

Lowes vs. Home Depot vs. ACE vs. XXXX

2009-02-09T14:57:00.007-05:00

I'm slowly but surely becoming a Lowe's Consumer. Once upon a time, I'd eagerly enter a Home Depot, excited at not only the vast amount of Home Improvement stuff they had, but also about the friendly and helpful salesfloor personel who could help me once I described in layman terms the thing I was looking for...

NOW, even if I can find one of those Home Depot sales guys (or gals)that will talk to me, I'm more likely to know what I'm looking for than they are. As I was wandering around the store on my lunch break, looking for those last few hardware items for the coop, I couldn't find 1 person to help me find the rabbit wire I needed, so I literally went from one end of the store to the other, starting out in the Gardening section (because that's why you buy rabbit wire), in the FAR left hand corner, outside section, of the store, until I finally found what they had in lieu of what I needed, in the polar opposite position of the store, on the far RIGHT hand corner, behind the contractors lumber and such. I thought about getting the hinges I needed for the stable door, and the lid on the nesting box, but became too furious to want to give them my money, which is becoming less and less as this project continues, so, I walked out, only to find that the Polish Sausage guy, whom I was anticipating lunch from, wasn't open. So now, I'm angry AND hungry, and I really feel like crying. But, I didn't, I just sulked over to Burger King, got me some cold fries, and burnt chicken and went back to the office.

It's almost like Lowes and Home Depot have switch places... Lowes use to be an almost contractor-centric hardware store, and Home Depot was for nice, single-moms, yuppie condo owners, and people of age who might need assistance, now, the opposite is true. Lowes gardening section had all of the purty stuff for my coop once I get it done, as well as the chicken/rabbit wire I needed, IN THE GARDEN section, which a Lowes representative walked me back to to show me, and I only had to ask her if she might know where it was. Not to mention, the seed selection was much better at Lowes than Home Depot.

It may just be me, but I can't stand ACE, you know, the one with the helpful hardware man? I know of 2 of them in our area, and they do have helpful staffs (well one of them does). They must make more than I do though at my job, because the prices ACE wants for simple stuff seems aweful high to me, and then to my final point on hardware -- I feel sorry for the small Joe's Hardware shops that are still left out there, and try to patronize them when I'm over in rural America (Ocala area), but more often than not, they don't have what I'm looking for. Sure, they might can order me some of what I needed, in next weeks shipment, but I'm NOT a wait til next week for it to come in kinda fella... I could be, and I would've been, had I not been born when I was, now, I'm on a schedule, places to be, things to do, etc, etc, etc... I so long to get out of this current way of life we've found ourselves in. Which is why I've been trying for the last 2 years, but can't seem to plateau at a good spot to jump off. I'm gonna re-read "A Land Remembered", to take me back to when a trip to the store meant a 2 or 3 day, buck-boarded, horse-teamed trip through the wilds. I presume, to hear people talk, that those were rougher days, but I don't know, sounds pretty nice to me. Back then, you had the time to make or make-do, and now the world is turning so fast. I wanna jump off, but that leap sure is scary.

Please take a moment to complete my survey, won't you? I'm curious about how others feel about Hardware Stores.

DLM or Deep Litter Method

2009-02-09T12:34:00.004-05:00

Not sure who came up with this DLM idea, BUT I LIKE IT!!!

We had 'free range' chickens at 'The Farm'. They roamed freely and would come up to a barn and roost in the rafters every night, so, a weekly cleaning of the coop never figured in to my keeping chickens plan.

Picks of our previous flock:

Thus, the Deep Litter Method (DLM), the internet sight I saw says to put down a layer of wood shavings, with a mixture of Diatomacious Earth (DE) and viola, no need to clean the coop weekly. Thankfully, my coop has an earthen floor in it as well. Other than for varmits and such, I don't understand putting a floor into a coop. Perhaps because we're in Florida, and don't need to worry (much) about freezing weather or something. I've used Diatomacious Earth quite a bit at the old farm, and here in the dog run. Great stuff, like micro razors slicing the ecto-skeleton of fleas, mites, and other itty-bitty annoyances, and their eggs, causing each to dehydrate and die. In addition to keeping the shavings dry, when the chickens dry bathe in the shavings and such, the DE dust will also get into their feathers and help control mites. This DLM method only requires an annual or semi-annual cleaning of the coop; hopefully coinciding with garden fertilization...

The reason for cooping this time, Chicken Hawks, and owls, and foxes, and coyote, all of which we've seen at the cabin. I'm hoping to eventually let the chickens out during the day, wait until they come home to roost in the evening, and lock 'em up inside, then, if we need to leave, I won't have to worry about them trying to outrun/outwit their adversaries, cause they usually loose at that game.

Chicken Coop, Almost Done

2009-02-09T08:53:00.004-05:00

I'm a lucky guy... Here's a picture of my two beautiful helpers on the project, Kelly (MSO) and Madisyn Pearl (daughter). They both put in long hours over the weekend to help get the coop ready so we can git us some Chickens:

You can click on each picture to open it up larger to see more detail.

I'm still looking for some before pictures, but here's a couple of in-progress pictures. This are in reverse order, meaning the top one is more recent than the bottom one.:

There's a bit more work done than in the picture above. I've got the roof on, tar papered, and half way shingled. We're using the left over shingles from the cabin, so that this coop/stall will match the garage and cabin. Also, I've gotten the rabbit wire we're using for the lot almost finished, just need to run two more strips over the top. And, I've put a dutch door up at the front, which isn't apparent here. I ran out of daylight for picture taking.

Here's a good picture of the ladder roost I made inside the coop.

This is the 'front' of the coop, you can see the roof of the cabin in the background. This is the horse stall we're building beside it. In this picture, I'm in the paddock/field where the donkey's, sheep, and horses hang out. The stall is primarily going to be for putting up sick animals. All our animals are kept on pasture, we don't stall any of them, but Kelly wanted an area where if we had to pen up anything for medical treatment or to keep out of the really bad weather, or for lambing or such, we'd have it. The stall will eventually get a roof as well, but I'm trying to get the coop done so that we can start collecting fresh eggs...

Another early on picture. The trailer here has paid for itself many times over. You never really realize how much you use a trailer, until you have it to use. Hauling the tractor, taking stuff to the dump, bring home lumber, etc, etc, etc.

The bike here was used for music, it was my "Welcome Back from Afghanistan in One Piece" present to myself. I just recently put a stereo on the bike, so it provided the tunes while I worked. This picture was before I added the chick lot on the back of the coop, but you can see where we're sizing up the lot.

And a couple pics of the cabin:

Front Porch picture.

Back of cabin, with breezeway to the garage.

Florida Preppers Network -- and alternate means of communication

2009-02-06T09:14:00.004-05:00

CLICK ON THE TITLE LINE TO GO TO FLORIDA PREPPERS NETWORK WEBSITE

What a COLD night it was last night in the middle of the state of FLORIDA!!! Nineteen (19) degrees above zero (0) or, 13 degrees BELOW FREEZING was the reading on my thermometer at 0600 this morning. Thankfully, we'd blanketed all of the horses except the Wild Mustangs, which, we stopped trying to catch about 6 months ago. (Perhaps eventually, they'll look at us one day and think... HHhhmmmm, those guys really ain't that bad, I mean, they bring us quality food when we're hungry, they always make sure to reconnect the water when we pull the automatic waterers off, or break the PVC pipes, they come out and put warm blankets on those other horses, they even bring us sweet little apple and oat treats sometimes, just because...). During out last cold snap, we not only had the pipes freeze up, but MSO thought that perhaps we should put a blanket over the well-pump too, the only flaw in that thinking was that horses find new things in the fields VERY AMUSING, to the point that they decided to reach over the 4 board fencing surrounding the well pump, and play with that new smelly blanket, and then, in addition to having frozen pipes, we also had a nice little frozen POND all around our well-pump, as the horses pulling and tugging on the blanket, blew the top pressure holding tank off the well also. Our neighbor Jerry (whom you may have read about in previous posts) was nice enough to come over and reconnect everything, and this time, he put foam insulation around all of the new/exposed pipes he reconnected, so last night, and the previous night, we didn't have any problems. I just find it sadly odd that we need to foam insulate our pipes in FLORIDA! When I lived in the mountains outside of Morgantown, WV (Saberton) I didn't mind buying and plugging-in an electrical pipe wrap heater, for a pump house, inside of an insulated building, with a light bulb on, because it was SUPPOSE to be cold in the mountains, that far north, in the winter... but in FLORIDA? I think its the new administration trying to break our will by altering the weather, read more here . Just kidding, that link shouldn't take you anywhere... but it is leading me on to another topic for discussion... hysteria, mass panic, conspiracy theories.

But back to my Post Title, at the FPN, Mama Bear has posted the official weather warning that was published for the Hard Freeze warning for North Central Florida. Back when making the break from DISH Network, to the free Digital signals at the cabin, I took the liberty of installing an HF/SW/CB antennae on my 60 foot tower as well, and while I'm still hopeful of finding a quality used SW/HF/AM/UHF/FM Transceiver someday, for right now, I installed a base station CB, for minimal communications capability should, heaven forbid, something ever happen to the cell-phone network, say like 9/11 when no one could talk to anyone else because...(back to the conspiracy thing again). The point here is this: My CB also has a WX weather band on it, that 24/7 posts the current conditions, near-term and long-term weather outlook, warnings, winds, etc, etc, etc... sometimes, I'll just turn that on/up and while cooking or something, just listen to the WX. I may push on over to the FPN and write a post about alternative communications. Based on my Florida National Guard time (they are the state sponsored first responders in Florida for natural disasters) I know that commercial communications, along with/because of their commercial electric grid tie-in, are usually one of the first , and most important things, to become degraded, or go down completely. Panic is inevitable in a 'disaster' situation, because too many people are ill-prepared for an emergency situation. Throw in a feeling of helplessness and isolationism, and now you've the making for hysteria. People need to feel connected and informed, and it is for this reason that I highly advocate an independent means of communication as part of any preppers consideration. The great thing about CB (Citizens Band) radios, other than their relative inexpensiveness and ease of set-up and use, is that most of them are 12 Volt powered. I currently have mine on a converter box in my comms center at the cabin, but can quickly and easily switch it over to 12V battery power, and still communicate with the outside world, should I need to relay current conditions, situations, request evac, medical assistance, etc. OR just passively monitor the situation in the outside world...for my own amusement ~;^)

New Chicken Coop

2009-02-05T10:14:00.003-05:00

I've been working on rebuilding a run-down 'shed' that we had, and remaking it into a premium chicken coop/horse stall/lambing jug. While not as diligent as The Scavenger I'm pretty sure I have some before pictures somewhere, and when I get home tonight, I'll try and take some 'in progress' pictures, and ultimately, after we move the chickens in, I'll post some after pictures. While I'm in the middle of the project, if anyone has any of those "I wish I'd done this... while building my chicken coop" insights, I'd be glad to have them. I started on the project last weekend, and now have had to take a break to do my 'real' job in Orlando, but will be finishing the project up, and hopefully introducing the chickens this weekend. Right now, I'll have an 8' X 12' coop, and an 8' X 12' caged lot just off the coop for them to stretch/scratch in. I'll be putting a 6 slot nesting box off to the side, about 4 foot up the outside wall, with a hinged lid on it for egg retrieval, and possibly 1 or 2 milk crate nesting boxes lower to the ground for hens to set on for hatching. I'm putting in a 6 rung 4' wide perch agains the back wall, where the 4' door will be, to hopefully make retrieving the chicken manure easier. If only I could teach chickens to only poop while perched. Maybe an instructional sign in the coop would work? "Please Poop, only while Perched" or something.

Anywho, that's my latest project. I've got to swing over to Lowes to get some of the final hardware, and perhaps I'll see if they've any heirloom seeds out while I'm there, it never hurts to keep stock of heirloom seeds.

And a final note, I sent Mama Bear an email earlier about what I presume is the 'newly' formed Florida Preppers Network. I'm excited about the oppurtunity to share and learn from others regionally, as preps are different in different parts of the country, The Scavenger, over at http://johnsonfamilyfarm.blogspot.com has had to deal with the Kentucky ice storm, we here in Florida must content with Hurricanes, and our growing season and methods are much different than up north, so I think having regional/state preppers networks is a great idea.

Life Mapping - How Way Leads Onto Way - The Paper Route Years

2009-01-26T08:50:00.008-05:00

This weekend, I sat on the porch of our log cabin, looking out at the horses and sheep, being close to my 40th year here in this world. I sipped my coffee, and yet again, the thought hit me, "Horses Don't Pay Taxes". Well, this one thought got me going on a tangent, as often occurs...

After finishing several cups of coffee, sneering now at those lazy horses munching on the $2.25/lb alfalfa they get to eat, I started retracing the steps of my life. I then sat down with a pad of paper, and with Robert Frost echoing in my head, I decided to map out the paths in life that I've chosen, that have lead me to where I am today, envious of those horses, playing and eating without concern for paying taxes.

As a recap here, and to mentally prepare the reader for my muse and ramblin's, I present Robert Frosts' epic poem THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

Robert Frost

=======================================

While not entirely synonomous with my life, I always get a visual with this peom of a time in my life, an image from high-school, where I'm looking towards the future and trying to decide where to go in life: go to College, stay home and work menial jobs, go off to see the world, join the Army... There I am, a barely 18 year old kid, looking down the various paths that will take me deeper into the wandering woods of my future, and having not guidance or tenure from anyone to help me decide. It would not be until MUCH later in life, that I learn that really, there were/are people in the world who do take pride in helping young adults out, and I strive to be one of those people, though unrefined, and perhaps too judgemental.

In my case, it was Mr. Wimpy (real name), a recruiter in the Armed Forces recruiting office on Logden Parkway, who latched on to a lost kid. I just happened to pass by his recruiting office on my bike one afternoon. NOONE else was offering me anything for a future, not the high-school councellors, not my parents, none of my teachers took a special interest in me, no extended family nearby to emulate or look up too. I felt alone, and the military offered me acceptance and guidance; and the rest, as they say, developed my 'history'. So, here I am, ages and ages hence...

As I drove the 78 miles in to my very well compensating position this morning, I looked back at myself on my pieced together bike, the kind with the purple plastic covered banana seat, the back wheel bigger than the front wheel (cause that was cool at the time), it may have even had a raked front end, meaning, my brother and I would've sawed the front forks off of another bike, and shove them onto the front forks of the handle bar/fork set that came with the frame we'd found in the woods. And this was my mode of transportation for my paper route. From 12 to 15, the paper route, along with my lawn mowing, leaf raking, and snow shovelling for many of my paper customers, provided me the money I needed to buy the things our family was evidently too poor to afford. I remember the very FIRST thing I ever bought with my very first paycheck, courtesy of "The News-Enterprise" in Radcliff, KY.

My first official paycheck ever was for around $36.00, and I went down to 'Peoples', a clothing store in the area, and bought me a brand new pair of Pony Tennis Shoes. They were brilliant white, with a grey suede-ish chevron strip on either side, I didn't know shoe laces were ever actually WHITE and puffy, I thought they only came in dingy grey as all my 'new shoes' up to this point had always had dingy grey laces. Man, my first pair of name brand shoes, and I paid $25.00 for them. When I got home and put on my new shoes, I was scolded for 'wasting' my money on new shoes, because, up until this time (5th Grade), shoes could (and always were)bought at the Thrift Store on Fort Knox for about .25 - .50 cents a pair, with the added benefit of someone else already breaking them in, and the laces being dingy grey already.

By gones...

Anyhow, now I've plenty of money to buy whatever shoes I want, and I do believe that my upbringing has effected me much differently than it did my brother. Somehow, the lesson I got from us never having enough money, was to 'spend it' when you get it, because it may not always be there; conversely, my brother developed a 'save it' when you get it, because it may not always be there philosophy. (For the record, I believe more heartily in my brothers philosophy, but can't seem to stop myself yet from spending every dime I get).

Back to my bike, and newspaper route. The route was, by my guestimation, a little shy of about a million miles, up hill the whole way. Longer and steeper on rainy or snowy days. And everyday, when I got off the bus, there'd be my 3 bundles of papers waiting on me. I'd lug the papers into the garage. I had a customer base of anywhere from 86 - 136 at any given time. I'd inherited the route from my brother, as he moved on to stock-clerk at Murphy's Mart. My customer base would increase after one of our semi-annual paper drives, then dwindling down thoughout the year, as people would refuse to answer their doors when I knocked upon them for payment. With that many papers, I couldn't fit them all into my single bag, so I developed a circuitous route, that would bring me back by the house about mid-way through, to get the rest of the papers, and load them into my canvas paper bag to finish the route. This, I believe, is where I developed one of my character traits, tenacity. It took ALOT of mental stickwithitattude to get off the bike, Starting off, I did as I was taught, and would take the first 30-45 minutes after school, to fold each paper twice, and place a rubber band around it, then place all the rolled papers neatly into my bag; eventually, I got good enough though, that I could ride and steer with either hand, and reach deftly into my bag of unfolded papers, and do the twice folding with the other hand, single handedly. Now, pre-folding was reserved for rainy days. Only if it rained did I fold, band, and place the papers into a plastic sleeve, then into the canvas bag before delivery.

I learned many fundamental principles on that route, and subsequently mowing the lawns, eventually getting a 'contract' at age 14, for the seasonal mainenance at Park Avenue apartments, owned by Mr. Hargrove, for whom I also delivered papers and mowed the grass. For a set $25.00 a month, I'd cut the grass, and rake it afterwards, 2 or 3 times a month in the spring/summer, rake the 3 acres in the fall to remove the leaves, edge the walk and drive leading to the apartments, and shovel the show in the winter. A lot of work for $25.00, but this was 1983/84/85, and I was 14, so, in addition to my paper-route, this provided me pretty good spending money, but other than those shoes, and some yearly 'back-to-school' clothes, I don't remember how the money was spent.

Prepping

2008-08-18T08:44:00.003-04:00

Well, again, I find myself too busy to post very often. I went out last week, and finally got my canned and dry goods stocked in our cupboard. We've plenty of food to last us a few weeks, perhaps months. I bought 4 41quart Sterilite underbed storage containers, and filled each of those with a variety of staples, including canned hams, canned chicken, tuna, corn beef, etc, as well as mixed canned vegetables, fruits, some dried meat, and 20 lbs of rice per container. There's some additional miscellaneous stuff as well, but they're packed in such a way as the initial container has the spices, oils, honey, etc, and the last container is the holdin' out for all hell bulk container. I figure that each container should last 4 people a week, and there are 4 containers. BTW, all the stuff I bought wouldn't fit into the containers, so, the rest went on rotation in the cupboard, and the bulkier items, such as dried milk, boxes of crackers, etc are stacked behind the rest of the items. The hope, as always, is to not have to use these supplies, but living in Florida, with the threat of Fay already looming, it's "Always better to have it, and not need it, than to need it and not have it". Also, I went down last night and topped off all of our gas/diesel things, and filled up the reserves on that, all total, we have about 70 gallons of diesel, and probably 50 gallons of gas. Of course, MSO is like Ed Begleys wife, "That's nice honey, but I told you, I won't eat canned ham, it's gross"... so, should the SHTF, there'll be plenty for me, as I've always eaten because I was hungry, not to indulge a taste. Breakfast is only breakfast if it's before noon and I'm hungry, not a meal I have to plan and prepare for every day.

The High Price of Oil

2008-07-10T12:07:00.001-04:00

Following my epiphinal dream the other night...

Today, as a member of several different airlines, I recieved two separate emails, one from United, and one from American Airlines, stating a stand that the airline industry is taking against the rising price of oil in America. The letters (from both different airlines) were signed by 8 or 10 of the major air carriers. Essentially, it requests member support in notifying congress that we are fed up with the price of oil and the toll it is taking not only on our families, but on our economy as a whole. Below is the eventual link to be able to inundate your Representatives, Congressmen, and other government agencies with our strong desire to put a halt to oil speculation in the stock market, which is adding and additional $30 to $60 per barrel of traded oil:

http://capwiz.com/sosnow/issues/alert/?alertid=11571321

Follow the above link, and type in your zip code to send an email to your local representatives. It's a start, but as I've said in previous postings SOMETHING has to be done.

V/R
Jeff

Byron Kerns Survival

2008-07-07T13:33:00.001-04:00

My former neighbor at the farm, and good friend, Byron Kerns, has finally got his no-nonsense, (from a SERE perspective) survival training academy site up and running. Byron founded and ran the Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School in Virginia for many years, then about 4 years ago, he met our neighbor at Ewe Remembered, the farm, and last year, he and she got married. I remember Byron and I feeling each other out on our initial meeting, and even kicking around the idea of creating a survival school, taught in Florida. Well, it looks like ole Byron has taken the bull by the horns... here's a link to his site: Byron Kerns Survival

I wish him luck in his latest, and presumably southernmost outdoor survival course of instruction endeavor, and hopefully, he'll invite me out on one of his survival on horseback expeditions...

For just an overview of Byrons credentials, simply google, "Byron Kerns".

In other news, musing and ramblings from a former life....

2008-07-07T11:54:00.001-04:00

I heard on the radio this morning, that I man I once breifed, just became the new President of Russia... and he's a pretty strong personality too... In the meeting I held with him ( he was a defense minister at the time), he had LITTLE concern for the material of my briefing, wishing instead to discuss more of a fiscal matter, i.e., how much more money would the US be able to give him NEXT year for 'the cause'. Here, I'd spent the better part of 2 weeks training his guys how to be the best at what they do, and he could care less about that... oh well.

It was a memorable meeting though, as I had to call through the US Embassy to get our most senior US representative in country to attend the meeting, and this guy, this Demetri fella, came to the 'meeting place' in a T-Shirt, blue jeans, Ball cap, and sun-glasses, no body guards, no fan-fare, after-all, as I'd taught his guys, 85% of OPSEC, is just not drawing attention to yourself. If he were to show up in a motorcade, with all the security, it surely would've blow the cover of the nice suburban house we were using for the training. We did the 'protocol and introduction' thing, then, he produced a 9mm Glock from his waistband, set is squarely on the table before him, turned to the SC, and said, "Okay, Let's talk"... Ah, the good ole' days.

Thomas Jefferson and Sheep

2008-07-07T11:17:00.000-04:00

These, as stolen from Possum Living, are the most prolific things I have read today:

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."Thomas Jefferson

"We must make our election between economy and liberty , or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." -- Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816

********************************

I've spent the morning reading other's posts, as, last night, I had an epiphanal dream about the state of the US Economy. It appeared to me in the dream, that a sore demise of our economy was readily visible. While a chart of the economy show an average decline from Jan to May, May began a sharp decline, that as of Sept/Oct was shockingly stark and low, this caused me enough concern on the way to work, to call Kelly, and advise her that we needed to stash some cash, and fill up the pantry, sooner rather than later. I don't think I'm an extremist, but when I reflect, I think about those who realize AFTER the hurricanes, that they really should've stocked up, or boarded up, or saved up, or.... you get the point. And while I always repeat the axiom "It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it", I seldom follow my own advise, until now. I've some work ahead of me in the next few months, fiscal, as well as laborious, to aquire that 'piece of mind'. Of course, reading all of the survivalist bloggers posts makes me skeered. Are they really coming after me? Those revenuers? Will my 22 pistol and 30/06 really be enough? I told my neighbor last night that I think the only responsible thing for us as concerned citizens to do would be to put up a strong gate at the end of our limerock road, and begin a rotational guard roster of the neighborhood for manning the entry. Of course, as he does, he rebutted my suggestion, but then again, he's voting for Obama! But, I'll still keep enough on hand to feed him and his family when that day comes, because other than being politically askewd, he's pretty alright good people, beside, I wouldn't be able to constantly remind him that "I told you so", if he we're to perish from famine.

Something that I've not noticed (stolen from another blogger here...) sheeple (get that, people, acting like sheep, sheeple) talking about insomuch as prepping food stores, is, raising your own food. Here, I can offer enlightenment... Sheep! yep, cuddly, cozy, friendly SHEEP! get a couple of hearty bred sheep to keep on your farm. Our East Friesian and Katahdin sheep were very prolific, to the tune of 2.7% twice a year... i.e., with two ewes and one ram, within 18 months, thanks to the mathmatical theory of exponentiality, we'd produced 18 additional sheep/lambs. Their gestation period is 5 months, and they can be bred at 9months/90 pounds. They provide milk for cheeses and creams, and lamb/mutton meat, not to mention, if you're really adventurous, you can (as many people have) spin their wool into fabric, insulation, pillows, dog beds, mulch, etc ,etc, etc... As a matter of fact, the Romans took sheep with them on their European road tour, as a mobile form of milk and meat to feed all of those hungry fighting men crusading for the cross. And, for the cosmetically concerned, there's natural lanolin in their wool, and their uterus's/placenta can be dried and powdered as a strong antioxidant and natural age regenifier.

Anyhoo, my 2 cents on prepping for the inevitable. While I do make light of some of the extremeties, I do worry seriously about the state of the US, and think that there are enough of us 30/40/50 somethings to eventually determine that the 'younger' generation, in search of a change in the next election, has screwed it up for the rest of us, and it'll only be a short matter of time before we'll have to stand up, as our forefathers did, to a tyrannical government.

By the way, Thomas Jefferson himself raised sheep too, so you see, this whole tri-spherical thing really does exist...

Travelling, Graduation, New Business, Trips, etc...

2008-05-29T15:38:00.000-04:00

I've not been on here in a while, so I thought I'd take a moment and catch up...

At one point over the past 2 weeks, in one day, I had breakfast in Kalamazoo, MI, lunch in Chicago, Ill, dinner in Orlando, FL worked in Salt Springs, FL, and finally laid my head to rest in Ocala, FL that evening.

The week prior to that, I awoke in Ocala, flew out of Orlando, worked in Leavenworth KS, had dinner in St. Joseph, Missouri, and went to bed in Kansas City. Boy, are my arms tired. It is this type of frantic life that I'm hoping to rid myself of in the near future. On my horizons this summer are: a trip or two to Virginia, a Trip back out to Kansas City, Possibly a trip to Korea, then a drive from Florida to Nebraska to South Dakota and back, somewhere in there, my significant other wants to take a trip out to Texas.

I was in Centreville, Michigan from 21 - 24 May, watching my son Chad graduate from High School. He was the class president, and gave a nice pre-scripted speech, presenting some gifts to the Foreign Exchange students they had in their graduating class. Chad went on an audition for a movie after his last visit to Florida, and out of hundereds who auditioned, he was selected for a minor speaking role in a movie being filmed this summer called LexiBaby (http://www.lexibabythemovie.com/ ). Additionally, he was accepted at Michigan State and Western Michigan Universities, and has opted to go to Western (GO BRONCS), he'll spend a couple weeks/months down here in Florida this summer, after filming wraps up, hopefully managing the businesses in the forest, then head back up to Michigan in August to start his Freshman year. I'm really proud of the intelligent and gifted young man he is turning in to. Ah, the potential wasted on youth :)

Other than that, Kelly, my significant other, and I purchased a small country store in the Ocala National Forest back on 26 February 2008, and have been managing that. While I was in Michigan, Kelly closed on a laundrymat we were looking to purchase on 1 June, but the owners didn't want us to miss out on the Memorial Day weekend revenues...so, we've got that now too. I like the picking the money up and not having to pay anyone (yet). It's like FREE MONEY. I'm considering now, putting in a couple of HOT SHOWER Rentals in the laundrymat. It's in the same Forest Plaza as our country store, which out our back door is the 475 lot Elite RV Resort @ Salt Springs, and across the street is the National Forestry Salt Springs Recreational Area, which has another 200 RV lots and 300 primitive camp sites. Instead of having campers coming in and using our sinks to bath in, I'm thinking I'll provide them a humane hot shower for $3 or $4 bucks... I'll keep everyone updated on the progress. I'm meeting with the General Contractor (aka good friend for whom we board his horse) tonight over a couple of beers to discuss the intricacies of the plan.

More later, but here are some more pictures, this one is of Madisyn Pearl and I on the Florida Cracker Trail, a cross the state week long ride:

Explaining my Patriotism/Position...

2008-05-20T12:25:00.001-04:00

On September 11, 2001, I was in the Florida National Guard, 20th Special Forces Group. The first call I got was at around 9:07 AM, I was just pulling into the parking lot at Lockheed Martin in Orlando to continue my work as a C4I Knowledge Acquisition engineer for the WARSIM 2000 project. A 'confidant' called as I was pulling into the parking lot to let me know that a plane had just flown in to one of the World Trade Center buildings in New York. My first thought, a misguided small engine plane, blown by high winds into the building, but as she described the accident to me, she got quiet, eerily quiet, and then, she told me that a second plane, an airliner, just smashed into the second tower...

I'm a former Special Forces Intelligence professional, I speak Arabic, German, and Spanish, and a smattering of polite (and not so polite) phrases in about 5 other languages. I've lived in 7 different countries, and have been to well over 40 other countries in the world for anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks.

In an instance, I knew that my life was changing immediately. I got into the Lockheed Martin plant to see all the computer engineers, administrative assistants, and Program Managers crowded around the monitors in the corridors watching the unfolding mayley. I called to check on my soon to be ex-wife and our daughter, when I heard about the 3rd plane hitting the Pentagon. When that happened, I knew I had more pressing issues than a day of cubicle life in a comfy cozy corporate office. Sure enough, a Warning Order had been sent to my cell phone. Nothing specific, just a 'Be Prepared to Be Prepared" kind of warning, which I subsequently forwarded to my team-mates in the Guard. By September 28th, I found myself pouring over maps and reports of Afghanistan. I'd studied bin Ladin in the mid and late 90's while working at Special Operations Command Europe in German, and new a bit about his history, family, supporters, etc.

When our C-130 Combat Landed in Bagram, we were fully locked and loaded with live ammo, and full battle rattle. The plan, as rehearsed, was that the bird would spiral out of the sky from 3,000 foot flight elevation to touchdown in just over 20 seconds, it would perform a hot landing, with the rear ramp down, we'd splay out the back of the slow moving bird, while it made it's way to the end of the landing strip, as we piled out the back, we'd hunch run to the edge of the runway, and pick up a Defensive Perimeter, while the bird executed a U-turn at the end of the runway, and took off back in the opposite direction with our teams conducting covering fire... What ended up happening instead was: We began our spiral decent as planned, we locked and loaded, as planned, our hearts were racing more than as professionals we thought they would, we waited for small arms fire to begin penetrating the hull of the bird, but it didn't; when the bird touched down, the door didn't come down... the bird slowed as it made it's way to the end of the runway, and when the tail did come down, a SEAL in jeans, a T-shirt and a Bandana jumped on the tail and said, "Grab your shit, and follow me to indoc, stay on the gravel, as the rest of the area is still live with land mines; get your ID cards out to show to the clerk in the tent". Talk about a let down. I spent the next nine months bouncing between Bagram, Kabul, and Kandahar, and sundry other small places with nicknames. This was a justifiable retribution that I could believe in; however, towards the end of my tour in August 2003, we'd spend half the day planning Afghan operations, and half the night, plotting targets, and making intel folders for targets MUCH further to the North West (much further), out of the country further. Once my tour-of-duty was over, most of us returned to the States, and attempted to resume our previous lives as Citizen Soldiers, knowing that within a year, we'd most likely be recalled to active duty for another tour.

I ended up relocating to the Washington DC area after Afghanistan, and worked for an Intel Organizationt there, flying around the world and training other national elite forces the finer points of Counter Terrorism analysis. In March, I was setting in a small steak house/bar in Gainesville, Virginia, about 30 miles west on I-66 from DC, having a beer, and watching CNN, as the green glow on TV confirmed, much like in 1991, that the US had just invaded Iraq... I just hung my head. As the local rednecks in the bar Hooped and Hollered, "Yeah, kick their MotherF***ing asses", "Blow the shit out of them", and sundry other epitaphs, I just hung my head in shame, and sorrow, thinking, "You sorry bastards have NO IDEA what we've just done, do you?" You haven't a clue how many lives are going to be lost here, you don't realize the divide we're going to create in this country. THAT, that scene on TV, is unjustified! We're not warranted, nor cleared by congress to declare war, Bush has made that call himself to make his Daddy proud of him. PERIOD! There is no viable threat there, under the 1991 embargo, there's no forest left there, regardless of what the media would feed you, that is NOT a powerful nation, nor does it pose a threat to US interests. This is purely a bravado act of a President too caught up in the power that wars give him. None the less, I ended up doing 2 tours in Iraqi, as a 'State Department' representative. First, as a Political Advisor from April - August 2004, where I was by Ambassador Bremers side as he turned the Coalition over to the new Iraqi National Government 3 days early, and bid Amb. Negroponte good luck.

My second tour was as a 'military advisor', from April -May 2005. I would help the new regime sift through the old databases, and find the needles in the haystack that the new government should be concerned about. This position was a bit more precarious than the "Political Advisor" position:

The point of all of this is, while I'm not going to pull a John Kerry on everyone, I too have my beliefs, back my service and experience. I"m telling you, this country is in dire straights. My conscience won't let me vote for Obama (bin who). I have lived with and studied those who follow the Koran and muslim theorocracy. I've delt with these people, I know the deep hatred they have in their hearts for 'the infidels". I swore, the last time I was in Jordan, and saw the look of dispise on the Arab's faces in the Airport, that I would NOT return to this part of the world, ever again (but then again, I've learned about the never say never syndrom, so we'll see what happens). But unless I'm Will Smith, and the last person on earth capable of instituting a change, I do not see myself destine for the middle east every again. As a matter of fact, it is all of these episodes that have brought me to precisely this point. "I will fight no more, forever". "Como sey, como sah", "Que sera, sera". I'm now content to find a way to pull myself out of 'this world'. I've no bother with what the rest of the world wants to do, for me and my family, I want to relish in the sun, watch the plants grow, watch the newborns, study philosophy, and learn to be self-sufficient. I know that my daughter and son will grow to be their own people, but I owe it to them to show them the alternatives in life, to let them know, they have choices, and will be faced with decisions, and there really is no "Right" or "Wrong", just the searching, living, experiencing and growing.....

So, when you read my views, perhaps you can understand, this is not a narrow minded, uneducated point of view, I've conversed with Heads of States, Defense Ministers, Ambassadors, Military Leaders, etc. I've been 'inside'. The 'system' is too large, and too out of control, you're not even able to find all of the cats in order to herd them. So, I'm choosing not to try and herd cats, but rather, to keep the ferals off my property, and out of my cupboard...

JEFF

Breaking News.... a new donkey...

2008-05-20T11:59:00.000-04:00

Someday, I'll explain the dynamics of our situation, but for right now...

We now live in a log-cabin on 10 acres, with our horses, and an dogs, and cats... I'm suppose to be out now building a chicken coop, but would rather read all of the interesting blogs here. Anywho, I've been renting out 'the Farm' since last August, and we still keep our sheep there, as well as 1 of our donkeys, Paula (the donkey in the background here)... I just got a call from the renters, that Paula just had a baby. We've learned through experience the importance of imprinting early when it comes to Donkeys. We've had Paula for over 4 years, and she'll still not come up to us, but her babies (this is the 3d) have been imprinted early with human contact, and one is named Snuggles, because he loves to be hugged around the neck...

Either I'll go over there today, or Kelly and I will go over tomorrow AM to begin the imprinting but babies are always exciting. We lambed 34 sheep the spring before last, and that was quite a ride...

Since we've left the farm, I've had a longing to return to it, as I said, the dynamics are important here, but at the cabin, we have people comfort, at the farm, we have creature comforts. As an experience we decided to move to the cabin, and pamper ourselves for a while, but I sure miss the farm, and all of the animals, and experiments, etc...

Supply and Energy Stock piling...

2008-05-20T11:24:00.001-04:00

I've gathered a collection of Solar Panels over the last few years, nothing major, a 10W panel here, a 3 Watt panel there, a 12VDC inverter, a solar electric fence charger, batteries, wires, etc... I've not put any of them together yet, just have them 'around', waiting. Scavenger set a challenge for me last year to start small, first, just convert our existing grid-powered well pump to a solar powered pump. Use one of the deep-cycle batteries, with one of the solar panels, and a small inverter, and switch our existing well-pump to Solar power. And yet, I procrastinate; however, it does get me doing my favorite past-time, thinking... What else could I do? I did a lot of research on Perpetual Motion, NullPunkteEnergie (zero-point energy), and such, and have determined that I don't want to scientifically 'prove' perpetual motion, or self-replenishing energy by the core scientific methodology, I just want to find a way to make self-sustaining renewable energy, whether it conforms to the strict laws of thermodynamics doesn't really concern me. Whether it's a capillary function, or a lunar gravitational pull, or a barometric change is completely irrelevant to my desire to find a way to produce energy that doesn't rely on someone, somewhere converting organic matter to heat, and producing energy that they can then sell to me... I want to produce my own energy, with (as of yet) free energy abounding in the universe. I read a blog on here recently that mentioned that water and air are typically 'free', we pay someone to gather, purify and deliver that water though, much the same way as with energy... it's all free, but we pay someone to harness and deliver it to us. Here's a rudimentary design I had for a Perpetual Hydro System, and I love to have comments on it, why it won't work, how the friction creates a net loss of energy, laws and theories I'm as yet unaware of that will debunk my theory.

We have pond at the farm, and my thought was to provide a cistern at 178 foot elevation. Run a PVC pipe with a standard 12VDC water pump in-line, complete with check-valves from the pond, (at125 foot elevation) up to the cistern, then, at the base of the cistern, run another pipe down the hill, putting in an impeller of some sort, either internal, or creating a water-jet at the base with a nozzel to turn the impeller, that would turn the magneto motor of say, an automotive altenator. The altenator would provide direct 12V power to the pump, and at the same time, trickle power to my battery bank.

I've also had the idea, since I drive 78 miles to work each way, every day, of utilizing much of the unharnessed energy that I'm paying the price for in fuel, and develop a portable wind recycled battery bank trailer. I understand the extra weight, reduced milage, etc, but if I could somehow either hook into the combustion engine, and either via the altenator, or one of the rotating wheels, power a magneto motor, that would charge the batteries on a trailer, or perhaps, put a miniature wind-turbine on the top of the trailer, to charge the batteries while moving forward at 60 miles an hour? and have the ability to pull in at night, plug in the now fully charge mobile battery bank into my power grid, and use that power in the evening to supplement my Solar charge permanent battery bank? Curious on ideas and thoughts.

Jeff

Off the Grid Living

2008-05-19T21:12:00.000-04:00

I was both elated and saddened while reading Wretha's blog today. A great chronicleing of her and her husband Bob's break from society. They don't seem bitter about anything, just happy to be able to break away from the rat race.

I was elated to see and read about a couple who had the courage and tenacity to live their convictions, and saddened at my own lack of conviction that causes me to continue to plod along day after day, grumbling...

Ewe Remembered - 1st Post - 19 May 2008

2008-05-19T17:24:00.000-04:00

My cousin, The Scavenger, started a blog on here at some recent point in history, and directed me to this 'blogsphere'. I set his Blog site as my initial browser page, and was always interested in his latest ramblings. Then, I started branching out and reading other bloggers sites he had posted to his site, after reading Wretha's entire blog today, I decided I too wanted to add some substance to my life, and wanted the ability to chronicle it.

This will be the beginning of my journey, and I will be writing about my plans, aspirations, projects, failures, and whimsies -- there are many of them. My Blog Name comes from my former farm, where I attempted (prior to USDA intervention) to start a Dairy Sheep Farm, aptly named, Ewe Remembered Dairy Farms, in Weirsdale, Florida. Much has happened since I bought the farm in December 2004, many plans fell by the wayside... but change is brewing, I can feel it...

I've a strong desire, like Scavenger and Wretha, to get as far off of the grid as I can. This morning, I was driving in to my job in Orlando, listening to a Public Service Announcement on the radio station, and basically being 'threatened' by the local law enforcement to wear my seatbelt, or suffer the wrath of those pledged to 'serve and protect'. I feel it is an abominal violation of my first amendment rights to be told how to maintain my personal conduct which has no bearing on the rest of humanity. The seatbelt is for MY SAFETY, period. I can understand the fines for children not wearing them, but in the same state where I have the personal choice to wear a helmut on a motorcycle, I'm being told I HAVE to have my seatbelt on, or I will be fined... FOR WHAT? And this wasn't, a 'we really care about you' ad, this was a 'We're Watching You, Day and Night, Click-It or Ticket, we'll not tolerate your rebellion to OUR rules'.

Anyhoo, that has gotten me started down this entire line of... hhhmmm, how far out of the States Control are we allowed to get. With this simple example, suppose I REFUSE to wear a seatbelt, down to a logical conclusion, I know that having a Drivers Licenses is considered (by the state) to be a priviledge, not a right. If I opt not to accept that priviledge, and choose not to get a license, and agree not to use those roads as a non-licensed citizen, then, do I still have to pay taxes to maintain those roads? [This got me started on Civil Disobedience, and the taxes for the Mexican War, but that'll be another blog].

But seriously, suppose I pay off my farm, and decide... "I'm Done, I will forever more be self-sufficient." What happens come December, when I start getting these property tax notices, and refuse to pay my property taxes, for a parcel I have bought and paid for (including sales tax, lien-holder certification, utility surveys, mortgage insurance, etc) from my years of 'Employed Survitude' to society? Let's suppose furthermore, that I've built my own solar and wind power, have my own well, grow my own crops, and raise my own livestock, thereby not placing a burden on the county nor state in which I reside, what then, are my property taxes being used to do? If I choose NOT to participate in the social infrastructure provided by these entities, why then should I be required to pay for them? I'm really open to discussion on this... Is it for the Fire Protection? The Legal Protection? The Clean Air? What am I paying for if I conciously object to being a part of that? I'd beg reader to keep in mind, that I served 15 years in the Army, was in Afghanistan for 2001 and 2002, I'm a Bronze Star recipient, and did two 'Department of State" diplomatic tours in Iraq from 2003 to 2005, so this is NOT about love of country, or lack of patriotism. This is questioning the Government, which as led us to this end, and our current position in a Global Economy, in addition to our fall from grace in the global eyes. The last chronical of that in our history, compelled those gentlemen to state their reasons for separation. Is it that simple? Do I draft a Declaration of my Independence from a currupt governing body, and set forth a new set of principle by which I will guide myself and those I care for, those who might join me?

So this is the start ....