Tag Archives: frost

April 2012 Newsletter

It’s been months since our last general newsletter update. I’ll try to hit a few of the big older things we may not have talked about in other posts and try to sum up our last month here at Maya Creek.

Volunteers

We’ve got a small family of wwoofers who have been helping us out since mid-March. They’ll be here for most of the summer as our extended-stay volunteers. It’s amazing how quickly things can get done with more hands, but it also means we run into planning, materials, and organizational barriers quickly.  We’re going to start holding weekly meetings to help plan out the coming week, discuss projects, and just generally check in with everyone.

It looks as though we ‘re almost fully booked for the rest of this visitor session ending May 26.  We still have space the last half of June and the last week and a half of our 3rd visitor session from September 4-15.  The 4th visitor session from September 29-November 10 is still wide open.  Find out more about visiting here.

Fundraiser Progress

So far we’ve raised $1,400 of the $8,000 we need to complete this year’s infrastructure projects. We’ll be throwing more of our own money into the pot as we earn it. We’ve also managed to decrease our costs by salvaging the majority of lumber we needed this year and we’ll add that as a donation when we figure out how much it saved us. We also found a cheaper backhoe to rent and operator willing to barter for some of our labor. All in all, we’re probably closer to 40% of the way to our goal. If you’re interested in helping us out check out our fundraising page, it’s got more information as well as a list of gifts we’re offering for funding us.

Frost Setbacks

After such an incredibly warm March and the early forecast for April looked good I took a gamble and transplanted and seeded a number of plants.  Unfortunately, we got 2 nights of hard frost in mid-April and then another light frost a week later.  We managed to save many of the plants by covering them with mulch the first night, but the 2nd night wiped out many of them.

It appears that the garden can get significantly lower(8 degrees) than the forecasted low in Fulton, above and beyond any minor heat island effect Fulton would have over us.  We’re not sure why that is, but if you have an idea let us know.  Topographically the garden is at a high point on the property so it shouldn’t be a frost pocket, although it is surrounded by trees which we thought would help give it protection from the wind but seen from canopy level the garden would be a low spot.  We’ve replanted everything and there is more than enough growing season left for everything to mature just fine.

It appeared we were going to get a large amount of fruit this year, but the frosts seemed to have knocked much of the developing fruits down and bugs have done some damage as well.  The main paw paw patch down along the creek looked like it was set for a massive fruiting year as well, but all of the blossoms were wiped out and much of the leaves burned during the hard frosts.  A couple years ago I girdled some trees in the paw paw patch to let in more light, but by doing so I also gave them less frost protection.  Now the situation seems to be one of feast or famine.  A lot of the gooseberries were likewise developing loads of berries, but 90% or so of them have since fallen off unripe.

Shiitake Cultivation Workshop

We held our very first official workshop on April 21.  Since we’re all new to much of this including teaching workshops it was a little rough around the edges, but everyone seemed to walk away from it satisfied.  I suppose it didn’t hurt that they were all carrying away a freshly made shiitake log of their own  The event was sponsored by Kittie Kong for donating $250 to our fundraiser, and we intend for all of our workshops to be free to the public. If you’re interested in learning about the other workshops we have schedule please visit our workshop page and remember to register for those that you would like to attend. We’ve compiled a video of the workshop below.

 

Earth Day

We had a wonderful time at Earth Day in Columbia last Sunday.  We took in our solar dehydrator and oven loaded with goodies despite the fact that the sun was mostly a no-show.  We met a lot of great people and were told by many of them to keep it up, and we certainly will!  Earth Day is a great time to network and introduce people to a lot of different ways that are available to live a more healthy, connected, and sustainable life.  Each time I heard, “Oh, that’s a cool idea.” was like another tiny step towards moving us all in a better direction.

Project Progress

We’ve gathered a lot of the materials that we’ll need for our projects this year.  We’ve cut and peeled almost 40 cedar posts, salvaged lumber, and gathered scrap granite.  The construction areas are all cleared out, and all of the trees we had to take out have been processed for firewood, mushroom logs, or are awaiting a turn at the chainsaw mill to be turned into beautiful boards.  We now have enough firewood set aside for 3 or 4 full winters here thanks to our efficient rocket stove and super-insulated straw bale housing.  As if that weren’t enough, we also cleverly stacked it

Our main hold up at the moment is getting a backhoe out here and digging the cistern, root cellar, greywater pond, and duplex foundation.  We now know where we’re renting the equipment from and have an operator who can do it starting next week, we just need it to quit raining.  Over the last 48 hours here we’ve gotten 4.25″ of rain, more than 1/10 of our average annual rainfall.  We even got some nice sized hail that luckily didn’t do much damage in the garden or anywhere else.

While we wait for the excavation to begin we’re working on gathering more materials like sand and billboard tarps.  We’re also going to start on the interior straw slip walls in the common house as early as tomorrow and begin plastering again on John’s small straw bale cabin.

Facebook

If you’d like to get updates whenever we post a blog, pictures, videos, or when we just have something small and quick to announce or discuss please join our facebook group.

 

A New Direction

I’ve been doing really well since dissolving the community aspirations for Maya Creek. I don’t feel as rushed, and have enjoyed taking long walks exploring the woods with Kita.

On one of those walks it really struck me how beautiful the land was, and how much it easily rivaled many of the parks I’d been to. That reminded me of my high school guidance councilor, and how I’d told her that if I could have any job in the world it would be to be a park ranger. Everything kind of clicked for me at that point.

Maya Creek Nature Preserve & Sustainable Campground

I basically want to set the land up as a private park and sustainable campground. Once the straw bale house is done, the campground upgraded, and the trails cleared I’ll start on my own home. Eventually I may build a larger building to have a space for retreats, workshops, and classes.

At some point whenever everything is set up at the campground I may start charging something for visitors who just want to camp.  I may also sell food and meals from the garden and start making the place financially sustainable as well.

People seem to think that I still want to start a community, but it’s really not even on my agenda. I want to get my own life in order, share the beauty of this place, the things I’ve learned and am learning.  Beyond that adding more people on a permanent basis gets complicated quickly and I’m liking simple.

Environmental Group Retreats

Sustain Mizzou from MU and ECO from Truman State came out for campout/work party.  Unfortunately the group from Truman could only stay for a tour since they had finals looming, but it was still great to meet them.  About a dozen people camped out, cooked veggies and marshmallows over the fire, and basically had a nice party.

The next day they helped clear out what I’m calling the North Ridge trail.  I didn’t actually get a chance to enjoy what we’d accomplished that day until I walked it a few days ago.  It makes a huge difference in how much you can enjoy when you’re not constantly dodging branches and watching your feet to make sure you don’t trip.  So thanks to everyone who helped out!  You can find more pictures of the event here.

This coming weekend May 13-15, the Missouri Student Environmental Coalition is holding their spring retreat out at MC.  Depending on the size I’ll probably put them to work clearing another trail and helping make some more raised beds in the garden.  I may also put some of them to work digging out a space for a small root cellar.

The Garden

I’ve really gone crazy making expanding the garden.  I’ve probably doubled the size of the garden from last year.  If one of my summer apprentices wants I’d like to continue expanding it until I’ve filled in the entire fenced in area with raised beds.  It’s probably a little over half way to that point now.

On May 4 there was a mild frost and killed back most of my potatoes and a lot of my squash, tomato, and pepper plants.  At the time I didn’t know how I could really protect the hundreds of plants, but in retrospect I should’ve piled straw up around them.  It’s lightweight enough not to damage them and easy to apply.  Next year I’m also going to start 3x as many tomatoes and peppers as I think I’ll need just to be safe.  Live and learn.

The Campground

I’ve gotten my camper positioned and cleaned out.  My plan is to live in the campground during the summers, at least until I get my own home built.  After this year though I’ll hopefully be living in one of the summer cabins we build, but the camper will do for now.  Jessica will probably be staying with me a lot more this year, although she did just get a small apartment in Columbia. I’ll be glad to have her around more.

As far as the new summer cabins go, I’ve got the site for the first summer cabin staked out and it’s a beauty.  It’ll have a really nice view looking into a wild field.  I now think that the cabins will have a simple tamped dirt floor, with a rubble trench curtain drain to keep them dry.  I’ve got some chisels and other wood working tools to make a simple timber-frame to support a metal roof and to wrap the scrap billboard tarp around.  I think I’ll call this new style, neo-rustic.  🙂

Kita

The little bitch is growing like a weed.  She’s already learned sit, lay down, and shake, although her biggest accomplishments are that she now knows that she’s not allowed in the garden and that she’s not supposed to chase the guineas or chicken.

The training shock collar has really worked wonders, but don’t worry, I hardly have to use it and when I do it has a vibrate option that works most of the time.  The noise I make to tell her she’s doing something she’s not supposed to carries a lot more weight now.  I probably won’t need to use the collar at all in the near future.

Watching her play makes any stresses I have seem silly.  She’s dug out a big crater in the middle of my sand pile, and I’m pretty sure she’d dig a den under a tree if given the opportunity. Also, she’s always picking up sticks, but we’re still working on the finer points of “fetch”.  Her favorite parts of our walks are when we take a break down by the creek and she goes bounding up and down it.

Volunteers

It looks like I’ll have a full crop of volunteers this year.  A lot of people have been finding me through a site called Workaway.info, which is set up sort of like WOOFing but for anything really.  There are hosts and volunteers, hosts can be anything from a family looking for a nanny in paris, an organic vineyard in Italy, or a beautiful nature preserve/campground/homestead project in mid-Missouri.  The hosts are expected to provide room and board and the volunteers provide about 25 hours of help a week.

At this point I’m still looking for one more full-summer volunteer.  I’m going to have 4 people staying for the summer, with a spot for a short-term volunteer that’ll keep changing all summer.  At this point the short-term tent space is reserved for 6 different people with only a span of 2 weeks near the end of June available.  It should be kind of nice having a new person to get to know constantly, not to mention all of the other different people coming for weekend work parties and tours.

Winding Down

The weather has shifted and things are getting downright cold around here.  The first frost is just around the bend and our tomatoes don’t look happy about it.  It’s been pretty overcast and the solar shower just isn’t cutting it anymore so we’ve been taking showers at the truck stop.

Visitor Lodge Fall '09The metal roof has been installed on the straw bale visitor lodge and it seems to be working like a charm.  It’s already weathered several intense storms without a sign of leakage.  Standing back and looking at the place I can’t help but be proud of myself.  I know we were aiming to get the entire place done this year, and we certainly could have gotten farther with different weather and more help, but somehow it’s hard to believe we’ve done as much as we’ve done.

We’ve started packing everything up and taking down Tarpopolis for the winter, after all, the tarps would collapse under any kind of snow load.  Liz has cleaned up a large chunk of the garden.  I’ve still got a few more things to do like tarping up the walls of the straw bale place and putting a metal roof over the composting toilet.  The cold makes it hard to get up in the mornings, but it certainly motivates to get as much done as possible.

We had a busy weekend with a photo-journalism student coming out to do a project about us, and a couple from Kansas City came out for a visit as well.  Justin and Melainia came out Sunday too and Justin helped us slaughter and butcher the guineas.  In reality, he did all of the slaughtering by breaking their necks in what appeared to be about as quick and painless a way imaginable.  The bodies still flopped around afterwards in a grotesque nervous system dance.  After watching Justin clean and butcher 2 of the 3 guineas I did the last one to get my hands dirty and really learn how to do it.

I’m not quite comfortable with the neck snapping, killing the animals is by far one of the more difficult and emotionally taxing things to do, at least for most people.  I’m concerned about hesitating and not doing it hard enough to kill them and having them suffer, the opposite is doing it too hard, in which case you pull the head clean off, which Justin did on the first one since guinea necks are weaker than chickens’ and he’d never done a guinea before.  I’m thinking I’d like to try making a chopping block out of a stump with two nails that you bend over the neck to hold it still and cutting the head off that way.  I’m sure that will cause the birds more anxiety, although I’d know I could kill it quickly and surely that way.  Gruesome trade-offs, and I may end up snapping the necks, but either way I know the birds had a good life, and that’s really the most important thing in my opinion.

We would have also slaughtered the last chicken but the night before Justin came out, a fox or some other critter made off with her.  All that remained was a pile of feathers and a bent fence where whatever it was climbed back over the fence.  Surely the way we choose to slaughter our animals is less painful and drawn out than what nature would do otherwise.

We cooked the meat over the fire and served it with some boiled carrots and potatoes from the garden.  The guinea meat was somewhat darker than chicken meat and had a slightly gamy flavor, which was actually very enjoyable.  The leg meat was a little chewier, but again, it was enjoyable.  I say that not just because it was personally satisfying to have raised our own meat, but because I objectively thought it was tasty.

Tao and Liz enjoying the guineasOur goal is to be providing ourselves with all or most of our own meat, which will undoubtedly be much less than the average American consumes.  It will also be healthier meat without all the antibiotics and elevated levels of saturated fats that confined animals end up with.  Not to mention our animals will be living happy lives doing what they instinctively want to do, and in the process providing us with much more than just meat and eggs.  We’ll be using goats like lawn mowers, using manure as fertilizer, guineas and other animals to get rid of pest plants and insects, all the while providing the pleasure of their company.

We recognize that the shear fact that we will be killing most of these animals near the end of their useful lives may seem brutal or inhumane to some people.  However, the more I observe and live closer to nature and read varying perspectives on animal husbandry, I’ve begun to see it as a symbiotic relationship.  These animals have evolved to depend on humans for their care and continuity as a species, in return they provide us with a host of services and ultimately even their bodies.

The alternatives are either to not have animals at all, which seems like a huge loss once you begin to recognize the immensely useful goods and services they provide, or to take care of them long past their useful lifespan until they die of old age, which is simply a fool’s errand.  I certainly will not enjoy killing them, but I will do it with somber respect and gratitude by doing it as quickly and humanely as possible and being as wasteless as possible with what they have provided.

In this last week, my mother will be coming up and we’ll visit the sustainability fair in Columbia, MO as well as just showing her what we’ve done and enjoying each others company.  Liz is heading out on Saturday I believe and I’ll finish up a few things and follow her a couple days later.  It’s sad to be leaving all of what we’ve accomplished but we’ll be back early next year and then we’ll be permanent residents.  I’m definitely looking forward to hot showers whenever we want and not dreading pulling off those covers in the morning.

I’ll continue to post blogs, I may even convince Liz to start posting as well.  We’ll spend the first month or so in Virginia doing some minor improvements to Liz’s house there and then we’ll head off to visit different intentional communities, as well as friends and family on a winter voyage in a small cheap tow-behind camper.  I’ve already got a few questions for each place we go, and I’m excited to see what other golden bits of wisdom they can bestow upon us and thus our blog readers as well.