Feel Free

I was raised with a scavenger's ethic. My dad was a second generation antique dealer, which is to say that we made our living by digging through other people's old junk and selling it for money. I was raised to see the value in what others perceived as trash, and -- given that the antique business is not exactly a get-rich-quick scheme -- to be aware of ways to get things for cheaper or for free. My house and barn are to this day a testament to the incredible amount of stuff people give or throw away. My mom and her partner Terry keep the tradition by making art out of rusty old pieces of metal and other assorted "junk" to be found at the local dump. Those who know me will be well aware of my own fondness for dumpster diving, namely when perfectly good food is involved. We are a family of vultures, and I say that with the utmost respect for the usually-maligned creatures. Vultures and other scavenger animals fill a vital role in any ecosystem, and I'm happy as a clam to fill that niche in my own community.

All of this is to introduce two incredible websites that I encountered this week, both of which involve getting fantastic stuff for completely, 100% free. I thought I'd share these findings with you here since they concern two really important things every homesteader needs: food (that is, plants) and shelter.

The first is a government website, but despite this affiliation, I think they're up to something good. Its called the the Germplasm Resources Information Network, operated through the USDA, and it appears that their sole purpose is to collect seeds, scions (budding branches from trees) and other plant matter used for propagation, and give them away for free. 100% free. They even cover the shipping. I read somewhere that they do it mostly for rare plants, but I found all manner of plants on their site. The only catch is that you're supposed to use it for research or educational purposes, which I suppose means if you're a market farm they don't really want you to take advantage of it to make a profit. I figured that I qualified for it, so I went ahead and placed an order. In about a month I can expect to get a nice package full of strawberry plants, asparagus, radishes, shallots, and various varieties of scions for peach, pear, and apple trees. All free of charge courtesy of the great U.S. of A. I should tell you, there website is a little hard to navigate, particularly since they use latin binomial plant names almost exclusively (e.g. peach trees are listed as prunus persica), so if you're interested and need a little help deciphering things, feel free to send me a message.

The second is one I'm really jazzed about, and I'm sure I'll be writing more about it later. Its actually a collection of websites all about how to build yourself a tiny little house for free. I first stumbled upon this youtube channel called Tiny Yellow House, this video in particular -- "Gypsy Junker" -- catching my eye.

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This fellow, Deek Diedricksen based out of Massachusetts, builds a ton of small living structures almost entirely out of salvaged material. I am in love with his portable gypsy wagon built out of trash, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go that route rather than spending a pretty penny on some run-down old camper. My friends Billy and Grace, who were artists-in-residence on the farm in Utah where I WWOOFed, lived in one such gypsy wagon, which you can see here on their website.

Following his work led me to this other blog called Tiny Free House, in which a fellow alternative builder chronicles his work building a shelter for free out of used shipping pallets. He says, "It will cost nothing. Any money I spend on building materials will be recouped by selling discarded things I find and most of the wood will come from old shipping pallets. Why Pallets? It just seems like poetic justice for a house that questions consumerism to be made from the very things that carried so many products to market." Love it. Seeing this reminded me of an intentional community I visited in northern Washington last February called Porcupine Palace, since they had built ALL of their living structures out of scrap wood and discarded palettes from the shipyards in Seattle. He's also building on wheels -- I believe a utility trailer -- the benefits to this, as I see them, being thats its incredibly portable and doesn't necessitate pouring a foundation.

So add one more thing to the list of projects. I don't know how far I'll get into it this year, but I'm going to try and simplify it to the point that it costs me less than $500 (obviously trying to get as close to free as possible) and only takes a few months to build. Based on what I've seen so far, I think thats totally reasonable. And totally fun, since it involves a goodly amount of dump pickin'.

I've got another post coming this week about seed starting, a how-to as well as some talk about the trouble with seed starting mediums and the resource use involved. As a teaser I'll tell you that it involves me doing something quite unsustainable. But until I sort out some picture uploading issues, you'll have to stay in suspense as to what that might be.

In the meantime, folks, feel free.

Through the Grapevine

So although I've tried to keep busy throughout the winter with my vermicompost project, learning how to grow mushrooms, and various ferments bubbling away on the countertop (all of which I promise to show you soon), I felt like this week really inaugurated things here on the 'stead. Glorious March finally brought weather warm enough to work outside without freezing. And that meant I better get my butt out there quick and do some pruning before all those little buds started popping open. So I did. For first ever by-myself pruning project I decided to do the grapevines.

Yeah, thats right. I said grapevines.

Turns out there are some pretty hardy grape varieties that grow well up in these northern parts. Grow really well. Almost too well. On the land here are at least two (I'll probably find more after the snow melts down) really old concord grapevines that have not been pruned in probably over 30 years. The vines are so long and thick that they've started taking down trees in their wake -- huge willow branches, and entire birch and pine trees have surrendered to the brute force of these vines. So I decided this would be a perfect first project -- not only would I be improving the quality of the grapes, but I'd also be lending a hand to these innocent bystanders. And turns out grapes like to be pruned really heavily, so I couldn't really mess up. I could theoretically cut it down to a stump and it would all grow back in one season.

So, to back up a bit, a quick mini-lesson on pruning. Pruning fruit trees and vines is done for four main reasons: to improve air flow between the branches so that pollination can occur and to prevent common diseases, to increase the amount of sunlight that penetrates the plant, allowing flower development and fruit ripening, to create a sturdy framework on which fruit can develop (getting rid of dead, diseased or otherwise weak limbs), and to allow for ease of harvesting (if your grapes are fruiting thirty feet up a willow tree its not exactly easy to go pick a bunch). All of this makes for a healthier tree or vine that will live longer and produce larger, better quality fruit. There's definitely an art to knowing which limbs to take down, and how many, and its different for every plant. I'd never pruned a grapevine before, let alone an extremely overgrown one, so I did a bit of research online and learned -- as I said before -- that I could be pretty brutal.

So on Tuesday I tromped out back to the vine closest to the house, shears, loppers and saws in hand and transformed this:

into this:
Thats me on the bottom trying to demonstrate how most grapevines are usually trellised; that is, how they're supported above ground to make it easier to pick -- there's usually one main trunk with two cordons (branches) tied onto the trellis in a "T" shape and the rest of the growth is continuously cut back. Here's a before/after view from the gully that shows how I tried to get rid of everything except this one main trunk. As you can see, there were at least 8 or 10 trunks growing out of the same root system.

Before:
and after:
I don't know if it comes through in the pictures, but this was a lot of freakin' work. It was so amazing to watch the vine transform and know I was doing it all on my own. I almost gave up a few times, not feeling confident in my ability to do the job right, but I pushed through and was so amazed and gratified at what I was able to do for that part of the land. I was still pretty conservative with what I cut -- I think there's still too many branches and as you can see some of them are crossed. But after all that sawing and lopping and pulling vines out of trees and dragging limbs out of the gully into a pile (in that second picture you can see the massive brush pile to the left), I was beyond exhausted. I'll have to come back to this one, and soon, because I already saw a few buds that has opened up. Pruning, it turns out, mostly needs to happen while the plant is dormant because that is when it has stored energy to expend on wound closure. During the summer its drawing its energy from photosynthesis -- any pruning you do will therefore remove leaves and reduce the amount of energy it has to work with. Also, at that point it needs to focus on growing leaves, flowers and fruit and any other work you ask it to do would lessen the quantity and quality of those things.

So I hope Mama Nature is kind and gives me a little more "dormant" time to work with. Mostly because on my second pruning venture today, I stupidly tried to use a pole saw on a limb that wasn't really right for that sort of tool. The saw slipped, and instead of pruning the tree limb I almost pruned my pointer finger off. I was extremely lucky -- didn't sever any tendons, nerves or arteries -- but it looked freakin' gnarly. Was rushed to the ER and got five stitches -- first stitches of my life -- and a ridiculously large bandage that I have to keep on my finger for the next two days. I feel like I'm wearing one of those "We're #1!" foam hands, because I also can't really bend it with the bandage on. So although I'm ready to go full bore into this thing, I guess this is the universe's way of telling me to slow down and make sure I take care of my body -- its really the most important tool I have.

After I get this little slip-up taken care of, you can look forward to more pictures of tree pruning -- pear, apple, plum, huckleberry and blueberry are all on the list -- as well as pictures of my sweet new scar. :) I can look forward to typing with all 10 fingers and getting my hands dirty again (seed starting next week!). Stay tuned!