Innholdsfortegnelse for July - August 2015 i Grit

Walk-Behind Snowblower Converted to Wood Hauler If you burn a lot of firewood, you’ll appreciate this wood hauler Kevin Bledsoe of Adrian, Michigan, built from an old Sears Craftsman walk-behind snowblower. He unbolted the blower and auger from the snowblower, and then mounted a small child’s wagon in their place. The wagon rides on a single caster wheel and is supported by a frame made from 1-inch square tubing and flat steel, which bolts onto the snowblower housing. The caster wheel is off of a zero-turn riding mower. “I use it to haul firewood about 100 yards from a woodpile to my house, which is uphill all the way. It works like a motorized wheelbarrow and saves a lot of work,” says Bledsoe. “The snowblower’s big lugged wheels provide great…

Brought Antique School Desk Back to Life I recently restored an old desk from the country grade school I attended from 1949 to 1957. The Litchfield Grade School in Litchfield Township, Pennsylvania, was built in 1926, and I can still recall the smell of the oiled wood floors and the boys’ Brylcreemslicked hair. I can also remember our teacher, Miss Horton, drilling reading, writing and arithmetic into our brains as she patrolled the desk rows. Those old desks had iron legs, a fold-down seat, a seatback, and a desktop mounted behind the seatback. We students used the desktop of the desk in front of us. In a way, they were backward desks. They were manufactured by A.H. Andrews and Co. in Chicago, and were called “NoNoise” desks. However, the seats…

RECENTLY KALE HAS BECOME the vegetable poster child for eating healthy. Without a doubt, it deserves approbation for being a great source of vitamins, minerals and fiber, and for containing anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties. Its beauty, ease of cultivation, hardiness and good taste make it an essential vegetable for the kitchen garden and the table. I don’t remember why I decided to plant my first crop of kale. I direct-sowed the seed in late spring, and most of the seedlings outgrew the assault of flea beetles. After thinning, I left the plants to expand their bouquets of blue-green frilly edged leaves. By late summer, I decided to try a few of the older leaves at the bottom of the stem and steamed them. They were pretty tough and leathery. I…

VEGETABLE GARDENS ARE A THING OF BEAUTY. They please the eye, and they also supply your family with flavorful, healthy vegetables all season long. However, if you’ve been vegetable gardening for awhile or have a large garden, you may wonder if there are other useful plants to add, besides those normal powerhouses like heirloom tomatoes, bush beans, and zucchini so bountiful that come July you’re normally hauling baskets to the doors of any neighbor not as lucky as you. There are, of course, ornamental plants that can be added for decoration, and there are also other plants used for more utilitarian purposes you might not have considered until now. Pollinators As you may know, attracting pollinators to your garden is important if you grow insectpollinated veggies. For most gardeners, honeybees…

Sprouting fodder is a simple, straightforward process, though it might seem a little overwhelming at first. A fair amount of work is involved for the small-scale home producer, but figuring out a system and process that works within your schedule will make it worth your while. I tried four or five different methods until I found one that works best for me. Maybe you can learn from my experience. Many factors exist that will contribute to the success or failure of a batch of fodder, including quality of grain, temperature, humidity, and density of grains in bins. The basic steps to produce sprouted fodder are as follows: 1 Soak clean grain for 8 to 12 hours. Soaking longer may reduce germination rates and increase the risk for mold contamination. 2…

In the Desert Southwest, Lynda took extra measures to construct a safe and beautiful chicken coop. I built my henhouse here in southwest New Mexico out of leftover siding and shingles from my home. It was necessary to enclose it in an aviary, due to the many predators here in the desert like foxes, bobcats, hawks, great horned owls and more. I used a chain-link dog run, dug it a foot into the ground, and covered it in leftover chicken wire from a previous project. Inside the henhouse, the perch is made from a clothes closet pole. We cut windows in front and vents in back then covered them with screening I saved when my home windows were replaced. I also cut a “chicken door” out back using old hinges…

MY GRANDFATHER LOVED GOOSEBERRY PIE. I don’t remember seeing it at many family gatherings, though, and the few times I did, I didn’t try it. My childhood palate was definitely not up for the challenge; one of my regrets is that I wasn’t more adventuresome in my younger years when it came to food. “Pop,” as we called him, came to Kansas from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. My ancestors on that side of the family came from England and Scotland, which explains his love of gooseberries. An English fondness for the fruit seems to be an inherent part of the culture. Pop adored the tartness of a gooseberry pie, which is often created with the green, less-than-ripe version of the fruit. Others enjoy the fully ripened reddish fruit in pies,…

The 1970s and ’80s saw a spike in generic food. Many supermarkets sold food (or “food”) in white containers labeled with only the name of the food. These days, consumers are more aware of where their food comes from, how it is processed, and the varieties available. Recently I learned – mostly as a result of making mead and judging some mead contests – that there is a wide variety of honeys out there, and each may be processed in different ways. To understand why different varieties of honey have different characteristics, and how processing affects these traits, it’s best to start with how bees make honey. Winter in the hive Honeybees are eusocial insects, meaning they have a queen that lays eggs while all the other females in the…

Nature made the most of our four-legged friends with digestive systems that were designed to digest coarse, cellulose-laden plant material. As part of a diversified ecosystem, much of the world’s topography is perfectly suited to the growing of forages such as grasses, forbs and brush. Due to the variability of soils and terrains, not all of our arable land can be used to grow corn and soybeans, or fruits and vegetables that are easily cultivated for human consumption. Most forages, which are indigestible for simple-stomached humans, when consumed by wild or domesticated animals, provide an indirect means by which we attain additional food and fiber from the earth. Whether you own one cow, goat, sheep, horse, donkey, llama or alpaca, or you own several hundred, you know that forages are…

IF YOU’VE EVER LIVED ON A FARM in the eastern or central United States, then you’ve probably spied a shiny black ratsnake slithering through the grass. If so, what was your reaction? Curiosity? Fear? Revulsion? Actually, appreciation might be the most appropriate response. The nonvenomous western ratsnake (Pantherophis obsoletus), or Texas black ratsnake as it is sometimes called, is an asset to farmers. Often confused in the East with the black racer snake (Coluber constrictor), black ratsnakes are capable hunters and highly efficient at catching rodents. The black ratsnake helps to control the population of mice and rats – which eats grain, fouls your toolbox and spreads disease. Pleased to meet you How do you know if you’ve spotted a black ratsnake? As its name implies, this snake is black,…

GROWING YOUR OWN FODDER is a great way to save on feed costs and provide nutritional, additive-free feed for your livestock (for more on growing sprouts, turn to Page 80). I use mine to feed my rabbits, and have sprouted both wheat and barley – as fodder they relish it. I constructed my fodder rack from nearly 100 percent recycled materials. I used pallet wood for the lumber and bulk margarine containers for the tubs. My cost was only time invested, glue and nails. If you can’t source bulk margarine containers locally, you could substitute plastic food or freezer containers close to the same size, and adjust the length and width measurements of the rack accordingly to fit your containers. There’s plenty of room for flexibility within this design plan.…

– You know what you’re standing in? – You bet I do … I am standing in a garden of heirloom preciousness … I’m standing in a field plowed by free men, I am standing in furrows of American agriculture, I am standing in hope and health of crops growing taller than all of us stacked up … I am standing in the belief the grubs here are racing to the surface to meet us. I am standing in a place our ancestors have scratched out a living for centuries. Like a choir now, I am standing in the need of… – Hey, Hey.. HEY… You are standing in Poison Ivy. – …that ain’t good.…

Share your visual perspective with the Grit community. Post your photos at Facebook.com/GritMagazine, Facebook.com/CappersFarmer, or tag us on Instagram (GritMag). We chose several images you see here from those platforms, and you can find more within the blogging community on our websites. Share your best shots, and we just might select one of your photos for a future issue of the magazine. To admire even more readers’ photos, visit Grit.com and CappersFarmer.com.…

FIVE DECADES AGO, people might not have thought the idea of a child with autism, Down syndrome or sight impairment riding horses was a good idea. Today, it’s quite the contrary. Throughout the world, the healing power of horseback riding has impacted children who initially might have had inner feelings of defeat or doubts about self-worth. “The beauty and magic of the partnership between a horse and its rider has been celebrated as a symbol of dynamic unity, and as an emotional connection that helps heal and energize,” says Jennifer MaGee, executive director of Heartland Therapeutic Riding (HTR) in Stilwell, Kansas. Yet, one can only completely understand and comprehend that statement when seeing the magic come to life at the facility. “At Heartland Therapeutic Riding, we know that a vital…

Although the distribution of sugars and acids varies among honeys, the primary difference between honey varieties comes from the flavor and aroma of the nectar. The USDA allows honey producers to label their honey as a variety if more than 50 percent of the honey was made from nectar from that flower. So, different honey varieties smell and taste like the nectar from which they were produced. For many plants, the flower’s nectar has a similar flavor to the fruit. For example, raspberry blossom honey has a flavor and aroma reminiscent of raspberries. Here is a list of popular and prized honey varieties. It is not exhaustive – there are potentially as many varieties of honey as there are varieties of flowers that produce nectar. HONEYDEW HONEY Honeydew is made…

One foot in front of the other – and a lot of feet at that. Plodding along, the caterpillar’s means of locomotion depends upon its several pairs of legs. Equipped with tiny claws designed for superior traction on surfaces ranging from smooth new leaves to rough tree bark and narrow pine needles, these versatile animals really get around. With as many as 4,000 muscles throughout a caterpillar’s body, compared to only 629 in the human body, it’s quite understandable that these small creatures are not only extremely flexible, but capable of gripping firmly onto severely windswept tree boughs, like high-wire performers in a circus act. The immature or larval stage of either a butterfly or moth (these are combined into the scientific order known as Lepidopterans), a caterpillar is a…

Chances are, if you have poultry or other livestock, you’ve considered ways to decrease your feed bill, increase animal nutrition, and become more self-sufficient in the process. A typical fall or winter trip to the feed store is all it takes to get the wheels turning. Numerous droughts in recent years may have further greased the gears. Freshly sprouted fodder might be just what you are looking for, especially if you live in a cold or dry climate and cannot pasture your animals year-round, or if you don’t have extensive pasture space. While sprouted fodder won’t replace 100 percent of your animals’ diet, it can become a valuable source of inexpensive nutrition for your herd or flock. Back to the roots Even though you may have just recently heard about…