Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[Montegriffo]

Many projects completed lately. Bedroom renovation is done, stair carpet installed, garden is tilled.

I have to say, I'm particularly proud of our soil. We went from raw clay 2 years ago, to a rich loam, just using compost, peat moss, and lawn clippings. It's amazing how much can be done with simple changes.

Good man.
I've got soil work to do myself.

How often do you til your soil.

Just once a year. Two passes with the big rear-tine from Home Depot.

I have 5lbs of organic spring wheat seeds in the mail, and am planning to grow winter wheat as well, if it works out. Fresh bread forever, and no chemicals.

How are you planning to harvest and process your wheat Grumps? Going to take a lot of time and effort without some sort of mechanisation. As you know I have some experience of threshing but that was with a lot of machinery. Do you have some sort of millstone for grinding the wheat into flour?

[SuburbanFarmer]

Those don't exist out here

Then why would a bomb shelter be safe from earthquakes? And you can be sure that any nuclear explosion in California would set off The Big One.
Move off of the earthquake shelf.

I don't think the lack of basements is due to earthquake fears, its because of low topsoil levels and hard clay in general

I'm curious now. Because we have a basement and clay soil. A lot of Texas is clay as well, and they have basements and cellars.
None in Florida, because they'd be underwater (ground water is only a foot down).

[SuburbanFarmer]

Good man.
I've got soil work to do myself.

How often do you til your soil.

Just once a year. Two passes with the big rear-tine from Home Depot.

I have 5lbs of organic spring wheat seeds in the mail, and am planning to grow winter wheat as well, if it works out. Fresh bread forever, and no chemicals.

How are you planning to harvest and process your wheat Grumps? Going to take a lot of time and effort without some sort of mechanisation. As you know I have some experience of threshing but that was with a lot of machinery. Do you have some sort of millstone for grinding the wheat into flour?

Well, it's not that big a field, just 1,000 sq ft or so (300 sq meters). The current plan is to cut it with some pruning shears, bang it against the side of a bucket to get the berries, and dump into another bucket on a windy day, or with a box fan to separate the chaff. I'll store it while like that, until it's time to process. This should ("SHOULD") give me a full bushel - 60 lbs for 5lbs of seed.

At that point, I'm thinking a food processor will give me whole wheat flour.

[Montegriffo]

Just once a year. Two passes with the big rear-tine from Home Depot.

I have 5lbs of organic spring wheat seeds in the mail, and am planning to grow winter wheat as well, if it works out. Fresh bread forever, and no chemicals.

How are you planning to harvest and process your wheat Grumps? Going to take a lot of time and effort without some sort of mechanisation. As you know I have some experience of threshing but that was with a lot of machinery. Do you have some sort of millstone for grinding the wheat into flour?

Well, it's not that big a field, just 1,000 sq ft or so (300 sq meters). The current plan is to cut it with some pruning shears, bang it against the side of a bucket to get the berries, and dump into another bucket on a windy day, or with a box fan to separate the chaff. I'll store it while like that, until it's time to process. This should ("SHOULD") give me a full bushel - 60 lbs for 5lbs of seed.

At that point, I'm thinking a food processor will give me whole wheat flour.

I can ask farmer Paul for some advice on separating the wheat from the chaff if you want. He's very knowledgable on old/low tech farming methods.

[Montegriffo]

I'd recommend you buying a scythe for the harvesting and maybe a sieve for the milling.

[SuburbanFarmer]

I'd recommend you buying a scythe for the harvesting and maybe a sieve for the milling.

I thought about the scythe, but there's too much potential for one of the kids to get impaled.

By sieve, you mean a filtering screen? We have that for pasta.

[Montegriffo]

I'd recommend you buying a scythe for the harvesting and maybe a sieve for the milling.

I thought about the scythe, but there's too much potential for one of the kids to get impaled.

By sieve, you mean a filtering screen? We have that for pasta.

Yeah I wouldn't recommend using a scythe when the kids are around but they are a really useful tool with the bonus of being able to dress up as ''Death'' on Halloween.
Yeah a mesh to separate out some of the grit and partly ground wheat so that your bread does not destroy your teeth.

[TheReal_ND]

Dude for real? Just send your kids to Boy Scouts so they learn how to properly use a knife if you don't know how to teach them. Never worry about pointy objects again. Jesus Christ a generation of commie cat faces would have been enough to do whole civilizations in.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Dude for real? Just send your kids to Boy Scouts so they learn how to properly use a knife if you don't know how to teach them. Never worry about pointy objects again. Jesus Christ a generation of commie cat faces would have been enough to do whole civilizations in.

Would you be comfortable swinging a 3-foot blade around your yard with your son at home? Storing it for years? Never a worry in your mind that might lead you to think it's easier to just spend the extra 30 minutes outdoors cutting your homemade wheat?

And tell me how exactly you'd teach a 3-year-old about knife safety.

[TheReal_ND]

And tell me how exactly you'd teach a 3-year-old about knife safety.

Give him a project like whittling a block of soft wood with a folder that doesn't lock. Teach him to always cut away from himself and to not hand the knife off by the handle. That's about all there is too it really, besides the obvious don't run with scissors.

As for storing a scythe, yeah I would try and keep it away from the kiddos in a locked closet obviously.