This winter

While Léo sleeps, I take a few moments to let you know about a few of the things we have been up to, in this beautiful snowy winter. 

1. First and foremost: enjoying Léo's presence, his personality, good nature, and his growing appetite!

Léo is 8 months! and he has 4 teeths :)

Visiting the Canadian cousins always makes us have a cold, but we are still in good spirits:)

hmmmm... sacred wild blueberries, yum!

Multi-flora rose taking over a tree

2. Removing the invasive plants on the homestead.  Every chance I get more than an hour outside, I spend it bush whacking through the heavy and often impenetrable thickets of multiflora rose, which over the years has taken over, completely cover and toppled over some areas of the native vegetation. To think that the government used to give this non-native plant for free to land owners to protect wildlife and soil erosion! This removal process has proven very meditative, slow, silent and oh-so-satisfying :)

Invasive multiflora rose thicket taking over

Take that you mean thorny plant!

It can take 3 to 6 mechanical removals per year for 2 to 4 years to eradicate the plant. ouf!

 I have been creating piles with the cuttings, placing them in the middle of the fields and soon we will be returning the 'waste' as valuable organic matter to enrich the soil :) through some awesome permaculture garden techniques that I have been slowly discovering while reading many a garden books in front of the fire (where I spend most ALL of my time), like the Edible Forest Landscape and Permaculture Garden.  Our favorite techniques at the moment include the Chicken Moat, German Mound, Tree garden and Grass into vegetables, and we hope to test them out this season and give you our feedback about which ones worked best here.

Our new farming and gardening library, beautiful wood piece found in the barn just last week!

 3. Building the greenhouse: It will have taken a year, but we are really almost done building our second-hand solarium/greenhouse. All of the glass panes are now in place, only a few triangular holes along the top of the wall remain to be sealed.

Adding the very last pane of glass

Just this morning, after the snow storm

Since there is no better time than today, we have set up a smaller temporary greenhouse in the house to accommodate our already germinating onions and such, until the official greenhouse is ready to receive them.

 4. Cleaning our tools.  A little bit of elbow grease, some steel wool and some linseed oil.  For this season, we plan to use the 'sand box' method which we just learned about in the book 'self-sufficient gardener'= a mix of sand and used oil that you dip your tools in every time you return them to the shed, cleans and sharpens them every time!

Cleaned and oiled

Still dirty

On a side note, Alex has also been doing quite a number on the entire barn, emptying it completely, vacuuming, cleaning, repairing, setting up his workshop, and we hope to be able this year to bring back the original barn door.  Just this paragraph wont give it justice, so we'll have to dedicate a post to it.

 

5. We played in the snow ;) With these constant snow storms we are loving the winter weather and enjoying more cross country outings than during last year's non-winter! 

Creating our own cross-country trails on the homestead

The snow just keeps coming :)

Snow shoeing at KLT's Holman Conservation Area

The snow was so deep at times, we were sinking to our waists

Léo taking a nap after a long walk (and me cutting more roses while he sleeps!)

We hope you are taking the time to enjoy the snow, the pure & fresh air, and letting yourself slow down a little bit in this most peaceful season. We cherish this time to reflect, dream and plan the season to come. Because spring is coming... soon enough.

We always love to share ideas and knowledge with like-minded people.  Please feel free to share comments, links or ideas with us about homesteading, gardening and sustainable lifestyles.

Until next time, be well.

Chicken update, overwintering, dry leaves and fiddle heads :)

Léo and I, collecting kindling for us and dry leaves for the chickens

This will be the first winter for most of our chickens, definitely the first winter for them as layers, and we are trying to put all of the eggs in our basket (haha!) and make sure our chickens are content, while still minimizing waste and spending.

While I was watching one of many chicken coop winterizing videos online, I realized that before there were wood shavings at the store, there was another material that was used to keep a chicken coop clean-er: dry leaves.  It's so simple, with the number of trees we have, and the quantity of leaves they shed, it would be silly of us not to use them.

The benefit of using the leaves in the coop, before composting them, is that the added chicken manure enriches your compost with nitrogen, and the chickens break up the leaves, increasing the turn over rate into compost.

So I started saving piles of leaves, before winter arrives, making sure they are dry and storing them in the barn where hopefully they will keep.  I changed all the chicken litter, and they loved their new leaf medium, it feels like being outside!

I have also now turned the 60w red light bulb back on to keep them a little warmer, and hopefully soon I'll have a little radio out there to play them some classical music.

Léo and I, on one of our many outings; Mr. Serious here keeps us all in check :)

I was so excited the other day when Alex and I were preparing the back forty for the potential arrival of our sheep next spring, when I noticed a big patch of ostrich fern!  Last week I found the Oyster mushrooms in the front, and now fiddleheads in the back.  More reasons to already get excited about spring!

Our dried oyster mushrooms

The spore-bearing frond, the dead give-away of the Ostrich Fern

Til next time, be well.
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The greenhouse will be up and fonctional by winter!

Things seem to happen slowly but steadily as the fall season gives way to colder and colder weather.  It snowed for the first time today in our part of Maine.  In the last week we have managed to plant the garlic, onions and radishes already for next spring and covered them with a nice layer of dry leaves (we'll never have to buy mulch or wood shaving for the chicken litter, with the amount of leaves we have on this property), saved enough dry leaves for the chickens and most importantly of all...

before... putting in the ditches

after! Finally starting to take shape :)

We have begun to finish building the greenhouse.  Now that Alex has dug out the drainage system in and around the structure and we have put down enough garvel, we have started putting up the old and beautiful storm windows of the house as the back and side walls of the structure and started adding the finishing cedar planks and insulation to the front wall.  By the end of this week we should hopefully :) be done.

Look at those floor to ceiling storm windows, amazing!

Its going to be amazing!!!  As you can see there are barrels inside already.  Some of them will be used as passive solar heat sinks and other as rain barrels to collect the rain water from our roof. Our plan is also to route the dryer exhaust into the greenhouse so that when and if we use the dryer in the winter and spring, it will help to increase the heat and humidity inside the greenhouse.  One machine's waste heat will be our baby plants treasure I'm sure :)

True story: today, Léo and I took a walk around the property and we found a plethora of wild Oyster mushrooms growing on a dead tree. I have already quickly processed them into a yummy mushroom soup and dried the rest for later. yey wild foraging 2 minutes from our front steps!

Til next time,
Be well (and vote!)


P.S.: Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason 
Should ever be forgot...
           - it was on this day in 1605 that Guy Fawkes
             tried to blow up the british parliament

Our Quest for Energy Efficiency...

As you all know the environment is something that Alex and I care about very much, and it has a large influence on our every day decision making.  From the food we buy to the trinkets we don't, we are always trying to minimize our environmental footprint.  3 months of living in this old house has quickly taught us that our energy consumption needs further scrutiny. Maine happens to have the highest energy costs in all of new england, weighing in at 15.4 cents per KWH! So, our investigations will not only aide nature but also our pocketbooks.

Currently our home, like most in the US, is heated with #2 home heating oil. After much research (Wood Heat by John Vivian - Rodale Press 1978 is a must read), and many fire-side experiences, we have decided to install a wood stove as our primary heating source.  To quote from Vivian, '...we welcome the environmental benefits and freedom from Exxon and its sisters that our willing wood labor brings as much as an earlier generation welcomed the relief from forced labor brought from the kerosene range.' Even if natural gas was available in our neighborhood we believe that wood trumps all carbon based, mined substances. For more info on the availability of fuels and energies in general, we highly recommend reading the Post Carbon Reader.

With many helping hands we have exposed the bones of one of our two chimneys (between the kitchen and dining room - see picture from last post). A vain attempt however was made on top of the roof by Alex and his friend Drew last weekend. After figuring out a safe means of standing eye level with the top of the chimney they began hammering and chipping at the corner brick of the 160 year old chimney. They huffed and they puffed with rock-hammer and chisel but not a single dent could be made. Pretty incredible really. Score: ambitious energetic home-owners: 0, rock solid like-new chimney: 1! So as the old adage goes, and on the path to true permaculturalism, why fix something that isn't broken? Instead we shall put it to use once again. The true fun now begins as we design the hearth and mantle piece :). 

Up on the roof. The picture makes it look like we're working off the dormer, but nope...we're a good 5 feet off the steep pitch ;). Ain't nothing for a pair of rock climbers!

View down the main chimney. Pretty clean for 140 years old.

We expect the new Hearthstone Equinox - yeah the big daddy - to arrive soon, so all you arborists out there, we're willing to start trading eggs and summer shares of our produce for wood. That being said, we're also in the market for a chain-saw to hopefully supply at a minimum our first years fuel from our somewhat untidy land :P.

Not the big daddy. Just a space holder as we wrap our heads around th best orientation.

Solar energy is the most obvious winner in terms of sustainability. We have therefore consulted with some experts to calculate our homes potential for both thermal (hot water) and photovoltaic solar power generation. Hot water was not worth it, but with the government tax credits of 30%, there is an approximate payback period of 6 years to install solar panels. Our roof can accomodate about 8 full size panels, with the capacity to generate about $20 of energy per month. The surprise is that no batteries are needed in these systems anymore. An inverter simply feeds your house with solar energy and if you don't use it, it feeds the grid (and reduces your bill towards negative!). Decentralized green power generation is here...we shall all play a part in the revolution.

After mapping our circuit board to each electrical switch and outlet in the house - really just an adult game of cell phone walkie talkie and flashlight hide and seek - we have purchased a kill-a-watt meter to better understand where and how much electricity we use. The only determination we have made so far is TOO MUCH. We've taken the most important steps however, changing all the light bulbs for efficient CFLs and LED bulbs and purchased a new energystar fridge. Some frightening research on the energy consumption of our old 1970s fridge made the payback calculation quite simple (2.4 years!). We also felt as if we were putting an ailing patient out of it's own misery when the energy conservation NGO EfficiencyMaine came to recycle our old fridge as it would not cease to make agonizingly effort-filled groaning noises. We were even paid $50 dollars for them to recycle it.

EnergyStar gives a handy dandy little calculator if anyone else wants to see how much they spend per year on their refrigeration. We reduced our expense from 400$ to 57$. Our friend Mel also sent us this great article by TreeHugger on other ways than refrigeration to conserve and preserve fresh food, you should check it out.  There were other incentives to make the upgrade as well. You should check your respective local and state programs if you're interested.

We are sorry it took so long to write our second post, but the next one is coming shortly.  To wet your whistle about the upcoming post...what do a 1 horse power tiller, 25 pounds of natural bees wax and a hanging chair have in common? :)...until next time, be well everyone and stay green.

Two Months In...

What a ride this past year has been. We the Vendette-Rosenberg (VenRosen) team want to welcome you to our new blog. Hold on to your seats, or just relax back on your sofa, because over the next few years we're going to be growing some wholesome green goodness on our 3.6 acres of paradise smack dab between Quebec and Boston (that's right, in MAINE)!

We moved into the house two days after our one year anniversary, that intentionally falls on buy nothing day :) or American Thanksgiving (translation = we are thankful that money can't buy love). Since moving in this 1840 farm house with 5 bedrooms, a 2 story barn, a dug well, a maple grove and an overgrown orchard we have been...lets just say, busy. Our dreams of living closer to nature and supporting a local community are coming to fruition.

We have been slowly preparing and starting our transition: opening up and designing an open concept kitchen to let the sun in and surround a wood burning stove - moving away from oil usage all together, sanding and oiling our bedroom floor, getting chickens, redoing the bathroom and cleaning up a very cluttered but filled with treasures barn!   The cold frames we found in the mess of cardboard boxes are already up and getting ready to house our first planting of winter veggies. On the plans for the near future: taking down the chimney, building a chicken tractor to house our now cooped up chickens, constructing a passive solar greenhouse attached to the South face of our home - to heat and grow our food...mmm, build some bee hives in time to catch a swarm or two this spring, plan our garden and till the grounds, and last but not least have our first child in June!

Here are a few pictures to wet your appetite of what is surely to be a life-long journey of figuring out what so many peoples and cultures have already known before...let us hope that our footsteps tread lightly but that our love for this world will leave a permanent mark. Peace out!

The Homestead, shot from an apple tree out front.

Our new feathery friends. 10 weeks old and just about to crow and lay.

Opening up the kitchen/family room. Note the bongos and congas...all work, some play ;)

Our new cook wear this new years eve, with our niece Charlotte.