Sonoran Desert Black & White Images

Sonoran Desert Black & White Images, a set on Flickr.

Some photos from my recent pilgrimage to the desert.

Keep on Growing: A Week in the Life ...

Last was busy and productive here at The Funny Farm. The week started on Monday, Martin Luther King Holiday, with a trip to Truly Living Well Wheat St. Organic farm to do some volunteer work. The farm is literally in the shadow of the King Center for Non-Violent Change where there were lots of activities to honor Dr. King that day. After working in the garden my friends and i ate lunch at a nearby restaurant, Noni's, where we had a nice meal featuring locally sourced ingredients. We enjoyed a bloody mary, or 2, garnished with pickled veggies made by our bartender. We returned to the King Center to watch the parade and show our support for Occupy Atlanta which had a large contingent of marchers.

Tuesday i spent the day acquiring the last of the materials i need to finish building the cover over Craven, the cob oven.

Wednesdays are market days for us at the Decatur Farmers Market. We harvested in the morning and headed to the market. In spite of the cold and wind we sold all of our vegetables. When we returned home that evening we were greeted with a surprise package! A box packed full of fruit trees, shrubs and vines from our friends at Johnson Nursery in Ellijay, GA. Woohoo!!!

Thursday i went to Progressive Medical Center for a physical exam, my first in a few years. They practice integrative medicine. They use the latest diagnostic methods to determine the underlying causes of dis-ease and employ the most appropriate methods to restore their clients to optimal health. Their staff includes M.D.'s. naturopaths, dietitians, acupuncturists, massage tharapists and chiropractors. I will be writing more about my journey to restore and heal my body and spirit in future posts.

Thursday afternoon i added to our food forest asian pears, asian persimmons, almond trees, blueberries and muscadines.

Friday morning I spent harvesting for Saturday's market. In the afternoon a young couple came by for a farm tour. Matt had emailed me the week before to ask if he and Melissa could come by on their return journey from Florida to their home in Virginia. We had a nice time discussing the work we do at the Funny Farm and their plans to do something similar in Virginia. I find it very gratifying that people are interested in seeing what we are doing and I love to share our knowledge and experience. Good Luck Matt and Melissa :)

Saturday morning i headed to market where we endured a deluge of rain and some scary lightning. We have some very dedicated customers at our market so we were able to sell a few things before we gave in and called it quits. After i got warm and dry the rain stopped and i went out to the garden to practice with my new camera. I had a great time and produced a few images that made me happy.

Sunday morning i got a lot of seeds planted in flats and into the hoop house. Spring will be here before you know it. In the afternoon i prepared a delicious Bourbon Beef Stew using the grassfed beef i purchased from Tink's Grassfed Beef at the market the day before. Robin and i both agreed it was the best stew we had ever eaten.

Today i am wrapping up a few things before my trip to Arizona. I am so ready to spend some time with my close friends communing with the desert and restoring my mind, body and spirit.

I will holla at y'all next week upon my return.

Oh, and I get to mark a few goals off my list.

Keep on Growing!!!

leekfixer's photostream

leekfixer's photostream on Flickr.

Here are some photographs I made today while learning to use my new camera. Goal #72. Enjoy :)

101 Goals in 1001 Days- Funny Farm Style

I first discovered the meme at the beginning of last year. My friend Lara started her list then and has been steadily completing goals throughout the year and sharing her experiences along the way on her blog Food. Soil. Thread.
She has accomplished some really cool things which has inspired me to start my own list. Making the list was harder than i anticipated. It has taken me 2 weeks to create a meaningful list. I want the goals to be SMART goals for the most part.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timely

For the most part they are. Some will need more work to make them measurable. I believe they are all attainable and they are certainly relevant to me. The meme itself places the time constraint on their completion.

I consider this a living document, subject to refinement, updates, changes and so forth. It has certainly helped me focus on making the best use of my time and energy so far this year. With regular review i know i will make good progress on completing these goals.

Oh, look! I can mark the first one off my list :)
Goals with red type have been completed. Goals with green type are in progress.

1. Use the word "meme" correctly in a sentence.
2. Build a smoke house.
3. Travel to another country 2 times.
4. Visit the desert 3 times.
5. Set up our vegetable processing station in the basement.
6. Establish a regular yoga practice.
7. Stop smoking cigarettes.
8. Write and publish a book.
9. Publish 3 articles in a national magazine.
10. Set up a grey water system to use to water the garden.
11. Increase our rain water harvesting capacity 3 fold.
12. Get a new roof on the house.
13. Get solar panels on our roof.
14. Clean out and organize the barn.
15. Acquire a ceremonial rattle from a rattle maker.
16. Clear out and organize the basement.
17. Go to an Acres USA conference.
18. Write a blog post at least once a month.
19. Learn to bake good bread in the cob oven.
20. Finish the root cellar.
21. Get a new warm coat.
22. Learn to play my recorder.
23. Go hiking in the mountains 12 times.
24. Get the water in our pond tested.
25. Get hearing aids.
26. Have different friends over for dinner every 2 months.
27. Regularly attend Atlanta Herbalist Guild meetings.
28. See live music at least 4 times a year.
29. Learn to make sausage.
30. Learn to make pasta.
31. Secure the chicken house and get new chickens.
32. Build a top bar bee hive and start a colony.
33. Build a duck house and get ducks.
34. Get a freezer.
35. Get a half of a hog.
36. Host a pig roast.
37. Get a half of a goat.
38. Plant 10 more fruit trees.
39. Learn the identity of 5 new birds.
40. Collect wild chanterelle mushrooms.
41. Make miso.
42. Set up a meditation room in the den.
43. Paint my bedroom.
44. Plant a few Camellia sinensis.
45. Ferment tea leaves from said plant.
46. Make yogurt monthly.
47. Make kim chee 4 times.
48. Move our bank account to a credit union.
49. Get a massage.
50. Participate in a sweat lodge ceremony with a native American tribe.
51. Practice drawing weekly.
52. Build a rocket stove.
53. Build another cob oven somewhere.
54. Build 2 cold frames.
55. Make a hugelkultur bed.
56. Build a grape arbor.
57. Use the bricks I collected to pave the gathering space.
58. Sell the trailer we don't use.
59. Get a physical examination.
60. Organize my tools.
61. Make a video about the funny farm.
62. Get Funny Farm tee shirts made.
63. Get the garage doors fixed.
64. Organize the garage.
65. Get rid of all the stuff I don't need.
66. Eat less salt.
67. Take better care of my health.
68. Get a physical exam yearly.
69. Organize my seeds and keep them organized.
70. Get a new laptop.
71. Learn how to use my new camera well.
72. Develop a new business venture so Robin can work at home.
73. Organize my digital photos.
74. Teach a gardening class for kids.
75. Let go of my anger and live a life full of love, compassion and empathy.
76. Participate in a week long trance dance.
77. Increase our fruit and vegetable production by 10% this year.
78. Recycle all our electronic stuff.
79. Re-read Carlos Castenada's books.
80. Read 3 science fiction novels a year.
81. Make a cheesecake topped with fresh fruit from our garden.
82. Build a structure with a green roof.
83. Get the composting toilet working again.
84. Grow and sell $2500 in flowers at market this season.
85. Hang my Tibetan prayer flags.
86. Get new gutters.
87. Give the clothes I don't wear to someone in need.
88. Take a trip on a bus.
89. Grow comfrey.
90. Plant American lotus in the pond.
91. Practice drumming weekly.
92. Take the Annabel to the mountains.
93. Go to the beach.
94. Take a trip on a train.
95. Do some volunteer work.
96. Start a personal seed bank.
97. Try eating acorns.
98. Take an herbal medicine workshop.
99. Teach a canning and preserving workshop.
100. Build a coldframe.
101. Grow olives.

Cob Oven Update #5 - She's Hot!

Yesterday i could not stand it any more so i built a fire in Craven, have i mentioned her name is Craven?, with the intention of baking some pizzas. I must say I was a bit apprehensive about getting her all hot and bothered. For all i knew she could totally collapse in a heap of mud... or explode into a million pieces. I built a fire out of old pallet wood and kept it blazing for 2 hours which i figured would be good enough for cooking a couple of pizzas. The fire door worked great at promoting good air flow while allowing easy feeding and tending of the fire. I used the blow pipe a couple of times to rev up the flames.

As darkness fell it decided it was now or never. I assembled the pizzas and (attempted) to put them in the oven :-p It was at this point that I began to learn a few things about cob oven in general and this oven in particular.

This is What I Learned:

1. I need a proper peel- sometimes DIY is just not worth it. I found a restaurant supply on line from which i can get one for under $10.00. Ordering it next.
2. Use a flat surface on which to assemble the pizzas - a cookie sheet with a lip does not allow one to effectively slide the peel under the pizza without messing it up.
3. Do not put too many toppings on said pizza - they fall off with handling.
4. Calzones are easier to handle that pizzas - and taste just as good.
5. It takes a lot of foreplay to get Craven really hot - 2 hours of firing was not enough to heat her enough to even cook pizzas properly. I am guessing 3 hours minimum and 4 hours + to getter her hot enough to make buns in the oven, i mean, bake loaves of bread. This suggests that the abundant thermal mass in this oven will retain heat for a long time once it finally reaches maximum temperature.
6. I need to start stockpiling lots of firewood - i have enough for probably one good firing. I am going to keep my eye open for construction sites, few and far between in this depressed economy. and start cutting brush around here that we've been planning to do for a while now.

While we did have to finish the pizza and calzone for a few minutes in the oven, they tasted great. Smokey, with a nice bottom crust. I look forward to the next time we get to fire her up!

Cob Oven Update #4 - Tools of the Trade

The oven is essentially finished. After she dries out well i will put the final coat of plaster on her. She is about ready for her maiden voyage into baking though. i built a test fire in her last week and she breathes very well.

I have been making the tools i will need for the firing and cooking while i wait for her to dry out a little more.

These are the tools of the trade:

This the rough form of a peel. It will be used to place loaves of bread and pizzas in the oven and peel them out when they are finished baking.








This is called a scuffle. i made it from a paint roller extension pole, a nail, some copper wire and an old cotton sock. It will be wetted and used to swab out the remaining bits of ash in the oven before the loaves go in. The moisture left in the oven turns to steam and helps to create a nice chewy crust.







This tool is the rooker. It is used to scrape the coals and ashes out of the oven before the baking begins. I connected an ell bracket to a watering wand with a couple of screws to make this fine tool.









This precision tool is an oxygen delivery tube a.k.a. blow pipe. I will be used like a bellows to blow air into the fire to keep it burning evenly. I smashed the end of a 1/2" copper tube with a rubber mallet to flatten it out to provide a wide focused flow of air to the fire.







This is a fire door I fashioned out of a piece of aluminum flashing, a couple of ell brackets and a piece of copper wire. It serves as a temporary chimney improving the draft in the oven especially on windy days. Cool air flows into the oven along the floor and circulates up the the top of the oven and out the top of the door. When the wind blows the flow becomes turbulent and the wood does not burn efficiently. The fire door deflects the wind keeping the fire burning efficiently thus using less fuel to heat the oven.



This is the baking door. It is made out of cob with a piece of bamboo for a handle. Right now the damn thing weighs about 40 lbs. Hopefully when it dries out it will weigh a good bit less because it is very difficult to handle right now. It should keep the heat in well though.

We are very excited to fire her up and bake something soon. With the holidays fast approaching it may be next year before we try her out.