What Are Synchronized Crop Failures?

                          From Vice.com

 

What Are Synchronized Crop Failures?

I thought I'd share this since this video has such a good description and explanation of what synchronized crop failure really is. Great for us non-scientists. I really appreciate this YouTuber, City Prepper, because he does such a good job with data, science and is a-political. Watch the whole thing, might be good information if you want to make some changes. I really like the idea of food pivots. He has tons of great info and a free newsletter with lots of useful info-

 

Here's his website Cityprepping.com  I rarely endorse anyone (no fee paid), but he has very professional work and very informative. Better to get ready now than later... 

 

Smoky Skies, Rural Farmer's Market Haul, Easy/ Cheap Old Monitor To Laptop Fix! Thrifted Galileo Barometer, Chick Update

Smoky Skies-

I've seen the fires in California on the national news and it's just absolutely horrendous. I really feel for all the loss of lives, both human and animal, loss of housing, businesses, wilderness, etc. The smoke has been so bad it's been drifting from California into Nevada and Idaho the last several days. It makes for gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, but is pretty bad otherwise. Early morning yesterday I saw a bright orange red ball in the sky. I wish I could have got a better picture-

It's really exacerbated people who have underlying respiratory issues, like me, with asthma and allergies. But it could be worse at least Idaho isn't on fire the way California is! I hope they get some rain soon.

Rural Farmer's Market Haul-

A few years ago we got some amazing peaches from one of Dave's co-workers. They were from a local farm/orchard and I started thinking about that the other day. They're about a 40-minute drive from here so I called ahead and they had those peaches! They're different because they're a smaller farm so they can really tree-ripen their fruits. We may go back soon for some plums. We drove out today and I bought two crates of peaches. Sorry I don't remember the variety but they're like an Elberta Peach, but much bigger, the size of a SOFTBALL!

Chilling in the bedroom

Beauties!

The peaches I'm going to freeze soon, then over Labor Day weekend (five days off with PTO) I'm going to make some big batches of peach jam. I may also can some peaches. Our poor Peach tree kind of fizzled out this year, so I was happy to buy some local peaches. Sadly none of the fruit I bought today was organic, but what can you do. Hopefully next year will be better. Our pears are ripening so I may have enough to can as well!!!

At the second farm stand we hit on the way back we got several pounds of amazingly fresh pickling cucumbers. Whenever I found them at a grocery store they tend to be mushy and bruised. This time I found some great fresh ones and I'll use these for some fermented pickles. They were muddy when I got them home, so they got a bath and a chill! 

Also got some Gaston's bread, local and amazing! Freezes great and got an apple Danish too, yummy!

We also got several pounds of fresh Gala apples, super crunchy. I've noticed this last year in the winter fall and spring that almost all the apples I had bought in grocery stores were mushy. I tried different stores, I tried different varieties and just didn't have much luck. So when I bought these I bought enough to fill up our crisper probably about five or six pounds. Will keep these for eating apples-

I bought a bag of a dozen ears of sweet corn and some Blackberry pancake syrup. All in all it was a great haul!

Easy/ Cheap Old Monitor To Laptop Fix!

I thought I'd share this in case some of you may be using older computers and need to retro-fit them. My computer I've been using in the kitchen (mostly for blogging) was an older Windows 7. I had a nice size older monitor on it. *** Updated Info*** Here's the basics on the technology redo- there's basically two kinds of monitors, old analog ones with a giant blue plug and pins with screws-

That was what I had. The newer monitors are digital and do not need an adapter. Because my monitor was older and analog there was no way to run it to the laptop without using an adapter. I hope that makes sense? Please post more questions if you need. We bought a Windows 10 laptop this last spring, it was a great deal. We wanted something more secure for banking, etc. I finally decided that I had enough of Windows 7 since it was getting SO SLOW. We thought about what our options were, maybe buying a new digital monitor that would work with the laptop?  We finally realized for $8 we could buy an adapter to use with the analog monitor. A cheap and easy fix!

Basically I backed everything up on our external hard drive first from the old Windows 7 hard drive-

Old hard drive, We're keeping it for now just to make sure I didn't miss anything. 

External hard drive-

Next I went ahead and backed up the external hard drive to the laptop. You could use a thumb drive if you don't have many files or email them to yourself. Then we plugged in the old monitor into the laptop using a HDMI to VGA adapter seen below. The blue analog monitor plug goes into the adapter, and then it plugs into the side of the laptop-

Basically this creates the laptop as your hard drive. You can go into the display/ power settings and set up the laptop so that it "does nothing when you close the screen". This set up gives you lots of flexibility, since we can still use the laptop in other parts of the house. When I work out in the kitchen I can just plug my monitor into the side of the laptop, it's ready to go. Here's the HDMI to VGA adapter-

Plugged in- 

Close the laptop, less distracting for me-

Good tech fix for $8.00!

Thrifted Galileo Barometer-

We stopped at a thrift store the other night and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a Galileo barometer! For five bucks I squealed with delight and practically ran out of there with it. I had one years ago but it got broken and I never replaced it. As soon as I got at home I cleaned all the glass and put it in a safe place and it works! He was invented by Galileo in the 1600 and basically has little balls that are all calibrated to rise or sink depending on me ear temperature. This afternoon said 72° which was about spot-on! Each glass ball has a temperature on it on a metal tag-

More info here Galileo Thermometer

Chick Update-

I'm happy to report all of our "chicks" are doing well and are almost half-size. They're all very healthy and the flock seems to have settled in pretty well with each other. I don't see a whole lot of squabbles anymore. We did have to trim their flight feathers today again because they were flying up on top of our 4-foot fence. If they got over the 4-foot fence into the yard wouldn't really be a huge problem. The problem would be if they got from the 4-foot fence to the 6-foot fence and went over into our neighbor's backyard. They have about four dogs that would kill them. So Dave and I trimmed them again. Later in the day I got some nice photos. I really like having a mixed flock so you can tell all the birds apart. Our older hen Rosie is now molting. Neither of my two older birds have been laying anything for about the last four to six weeks. The good news is with the three younger hens will hopefully start laying around October or November. So here's a look at the girls! You can really see all there individual markings pretty well on these photos. It is hard to get pictures of chickens since they won't stand still!

Luna, the Silver Laced Wyandotte-

Debbie, a Golden Sexlink- 

Sunny, a Brown Leghorn-

New Chicks! Summer Veggie Garden Planted, DIY Recycled Cedar Planter, Fermenting Success

New Chicks! 
It's 96 today and hot! Summer is here finally, but going to drop 20 degrees tomorrow which will be nice. When we lost two of our hens last year I decided to buy some chicks this spring. I've learned the hard way not to buy them too early in the spring or they have to be inside a long time until they feather out and can tolerate outside temperatures. I called the local Hatchery and during the Covid-19 craziness everyone was sold out. Panic buying I think. I like to buy mine directly from a hatchery because they have a good variety, their chicks are healthy, and you know what you're buying. I've had trouble at two different local feed stores getting the wrong breed and one wasn't even a chicken! The good news was the hatchery was able to take an order a month out from me. So basically ordered three chicks mid late April for late May. I took a little vacation time on Wednesday, went out and picked up the chicks. These are pullets which mean they are baby hens. One is a brown leghorn (no name yet), one is a Silver Laced Wyandotte which I have named Luna, the other is a Red Sex Link Debbie. They LOVE the mirror in the basket! All happy and healthy under their red heat lamp-

Luna in the middle named for her silver color to come, brown leghorn on the right. Debbie on the left named for the space-faring chicken in the new Lost In Space-

Lucky Debbie with Don West (actor Ignacio Serricchio), resident hunk!

I'll start getting them outside soon, depending on the weather and then integrate them to the flock slowly. Happy to have more girls to add! More eggs on the horizon, will probably start selling some eventually. My post here shows the photos of adult hens colors,  New Chicks Coming!

Summer Veggie Garden Planted-
After a really bizarre April and May we finally got all of the summer veggies planted that we had on Memorial Day. We didn't have enough tomato cages so I asked Dave to rip some old cedar boards to create tepees for the tomatoes. He did that and it worked out great!

Dave used our thrifted mini table saw, works great! 

I bought some new rabbit fencing to put around the base of the tomatoes and peppers. This works as a cage for the tomatoes and keeps the chickens out. It's easy to manipulate, cut, and stores well. I realized ours was about seven or eight years old and was just a mess. So for two rolls for $25 it was a good solution-

After my fail X 2 with seeds in the cold frame I added purple and green cabbages and Kohlrabi's-

Mr bushytail chilling in the heat! 

I'm thrilled my French Lavender topiary survived the winter, under four layers of row cover. It's now covered with flowers, just starting to open!!!

Speaking of summer, we had our first barbecue in a few years! I kept forgetting to bring it out (in garage), but we had yummy burgers, grilled green onions, chips and lots of veggies!

And speaking of more summer, I put out some sunny yellow decor in the kitchen/dining room-

DIY Recycled Cedar Planter-
Since we still have some cedar lumber left after the veggie stakes were cut, I asked Dave to build another flower box for me. He asked how big and off he went-

I just need to add the basil starts and flowers, weather proof, perfect!

Fermenting Success-
I made two batches of fermented foods, one with my new Masontops kit. The first batch I used their sauerkraut recipe and my existing jar with airlock top. The second batch I made was fermented carrots with fresh thin sliced ginger and garlic. I was really excited to make two batches simultaneously! Mid way the kraut had a little bit of stuff on the top, but not much, so I skimmed it off. I also added a little bit more brine. I think the issue was some of the tiny pieces of cabbage floated up above the weights. Next time I will leave in a large cabbage leaf under the weights. Never had this problem with the Curtido, I think there was more mass. When it was done there was what looked like a Scoby on top, similar to what you see on top of Kombucha. It had no odor so I threw it out. I checked on the sauerkraut which tasted fine! Since I'm really only making it for myself I'm not worried about any kind of problems. I ate some and it was nice and crunchy! The carrots came out well, with a little tiny bit of scum on the top of the brine which I skimmed off. I tasted the carrots and they were crunchy and slightly spicy. The fresh raw ginger and fresh raw garlic definitely gives it some kick! I will definitely do those recipes again.

Carrots going in

top on, worked great venting! 

Close up 

Chilling in the fridge, the brine will get clearer in a few days