Urban Sustainable Living - June 11

Well into spring; we're getting some fruit and vegies from our spring plantings, vines and trees. A little behind due to some late spring cold nights and new dogs that got into much of our early plantings. Researched how to keep dogs from digging in your garden. The experts said the best way was to build a fence. So we built fences.

These pups are chewers. The pictured mini-green house was originally covered in plastic sheeting. They ate it off. Since it had warmed up we covered it with fabric screen and sprayed with bitter apple dog anti-chew spray. They chewed it anyway. So now it is covered in metal garden mesh. I'll line the inside with plastic next spring. Too late for greenhouse now (96 F outside now), but will double as a mini-tractor for day time feeding for our younger chicks until we mix them in with the older chickens. And yes, those chicks we thought were 4 white bantam Cochins turned out to be 1 Cochin, 2 Frizzles, and a Silkie (the one with the white afro).

Urban Sustainable Living - Sept 10

Wow, Summer has rushed past and our fall crops are starting to come into bloom. These pics are from a couple weeks ago so the beans are putting on fruit and the peas are starting to need cages to climb. Our onions are greening up and the amaranth is blooming a lot. Should have plenty of amaranth seed next year if these go ahead and seed out. Our herb "garden" is in good shape and we should be pulling a lot of it soon for drying before the weather turns. We are also getting some persimmons, but not near as many or as big as last year and these are heavily seeded so we're wondering if it is a cycle thing or was our hot summer the culprit. Our asparagus is coming along, but it'll be a couple more years before it is ready to harvest. Maybe we can keep it going that long. Busy with Church Camp and Church Conference this summer burned off a lot of our garden, but things have been perking up with regular watering and cooler weather.

Harvest Update: Wanted to post that we reviewed our records and as best we could tell, we harvested about 50 lbs of fresh fruit and vegetables from our little back yard garden this spring, mostly in May and June. This was not counting over ripe or bird bitten that was given to the chickens. Who in turn peaked this spring giving us over 100 eggs from March through May. Not enough food to sustain us, but 50 lbs more than we were growing a couple years ago and undoubtedly an improvement on our family's nutrition, education, and independence.

Urban Sustainable Living - May 10 pt2

Late May update showing the changes in the raised beds in just a few weeks. Always amazed how quick things can grow with a little sunshine and water. See below for comparison. We are getting all we can eat lettuce, and daily portions of black berries, zucchini, and green beans. Crook neck squash, tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, and plumbs are fruiting well so we should be picking those soon too!

Urban Sustainable Living - May 10

Little early May update. The beans are really taking off as well as the lettuce, plumbs, black berries, zucchini and squash. And the potatoes are doing better than hoped. We'll have to see how they fair once the summer heat kicks in. The chicks are about 2/3 the size of the adult bantams now, but they'll still need a little more weight before we let them loose with the grown ups. The girls commented on our "green" look with our recycled coffee cans, clay roofing tiles and old tires. Beth knows it's mostly because I'm cheep, but being environmentally conscious is good too. :)

Urban Sustainable Living - Mar 10 (chooks)

Don't forget the chickens! Nine new baby Cochin bantam chicks. Rex the rooster, hens Peg, Nelly, Tater-tot, & Henny Penny. All the hens are laying now. I left the golf ball in for scale. The eggs are small but a welcome gift. We let them roam the back yard much of the winter, but with the sprouts planted soon we'll have to confine them to their mobile chicken hutch.

Urban Sustainable Living - Mar 10

Well, the calendar may say it's not quite spring yet, but around here things are starting to look springy. The plum tree is totally bloomed and lots of little buds on Jennifer's lemon tree. Beth and the girls have been helping get things prepped for our biggest planting yet. We've got three new raised beds and a new three stall composting area. We tried something new this year with 2 liter soda bottle greenhouses. Last spring we tried seeding indoors, but we only heat the rooms we live in so the seeds usually weren't much warmer indoors than out. So with these mini-greenhouses we seem to have gotten a jump on the spring planting and have quite a few healthy looking sprouts soon ready for transplant.

Petit Jean Arkansas - November 09 trip

Another great trip to Petit Jean. We didn't get to go on all of our favorite trails due to missing a turn. However, we got to see the Russellville nuclear cooling tower and had an excellent illustration for later when we talked about using the bible as your road map to your life or just trying to wing it and not paying attention to the signs along the way. See our other Petit Jean entries for more info about the park and our favorite trails.

Urban Sustainable Living - Oct 09

Turns out fall has been busy. Sept and Oct came and went in a blur. We’re now busy composting leaves and processing the fall produce. Interestingly Melissa's Mexican Sour Gherkins are the most prolific producers. She planted a couple heirloom seeds in the spring which we thought failed. They limped along with a spindly vine through the summer. To our surprise when the weather began to cool the vine covered a nice section of the fence, took hold of some alley vines and went over ten feet in the air covering a cut telephone pole and the top of a crape murtle tree before it slacked off. Covered in tiny little yellow flowers it has given us hand full after hand full of black berry sized lemony cucumbers that resemble tiny watermelons. We've talked about canning them, but we eat them as a side for the whole family almost every night. The chickens and even the dog like them so it looks like they will be eaten fresh this year until it plays out. Peppers and beans also did pretty well before most of the garden began to go dormant. We decided we were feeding one roster too many so we introduced the girls to the circle of life and will be having Lil' Red in dumplings tonight. The pecan tree did pretty well this year and we're waiting on the persimmon tree to finish ripening up. It's beginning to look so fruity with hardly any leaves..

Philippines Mission - Jul 09

Back in one piece from a construction and evangelism mission trip to The Philippines. I went with a half dozen others from Food for the Hungry to Montalban, Rizal, Philippines‎. This time Beth came with me and was a real trooper. Again there was some really hard work, but again it was more than worth it to build a relationship with the people there, make some improvement in their physical situation, and share Christ's love and our love for Him and others. The Philippines have some beautiful landscape and we only scratched the surface of what there was to enjoy. We visited a sleeping volcano (Taal) and swam in its crater lake. I am still processing God's message for me and my local congregation about poverty and grace and how I personally can be a part of God's will for his people to minister to the poor.

Urban Homestead Update - Jun 09

We got about 4 dozen eggs last month and several lbs of food. Mostly from the sq. ft. garden. The heirloom tomatoes are growing and we're excited to see how they turn out. Everything grown from Bakercreek seeds except the plums (and chickens). We were having green beans every night until they played out. And now cucumber and squash are producing.