Cider Press

I just completed my cider press. This was probably the most ambitious of my summer projects. I have very little wood working experience. I think I got a C in shop class in eighth grade. I bought a plan from ebay. The plan included all the hardware for $75. I had to buy the lumber separately, which was another $65. I have to admit that when I first got the plans; I was so overwhelmed that I almost sent everything back. It wasn't so much that I didn't think I could do it, but I just didn't have the equipment I needed. I give credit to my mom for talking me out of it. I thought about renting a table saw, but I looked on Craigslist, and I found one for $50. I figured that was better than renting one, since that would probably cost about the same. I also needed a drill press and a jig saw, and I ended up borrowing those from friends.  After that, I pretty much just followed the instructions. Everything is not as straight and tight as it could be if it were done by a master wood worker, but I'm pretty sure it will serve me well. For now, I will need to put the apples through a food processor before I press them to maximize efficiency. Maybe next year I'll get an apple grinder, so I can skip that step. I'm looking forward to making some nice raw, unpasteurized cider, and some sparkling hard cider.

Blueberries from the Argyle Swamp

Dad and I drove out to the Argyle Swamp. We entered it from Mills RD. just west of Banner RD. We didn't have to walk too far back to find some great picking. Probably less than a half a mile back is where we encountered our first blueberry bush. It was the first of many loaded bushes. We picked for a little over two hours, and we got 13 pounds of wild blueberries. I'd like to go at least one more time in the next week and get another load.

The Brutal Reality of the Simple Life

It's easy to forget about the darker side of living off the land. Most of us have idyllic images of juicy tomatoes, clucking chickens, and attractive red barns when we think of organic gardening, but sometimes things happen that remind us that good intentions are not enough to hide from mother nature's dark side.

Like a lot of rural households, we have a couple of dogs. My dad has a rat terrier named Chip, and my mom has a miniature dachshund named Sally. As you can see by the picture below, she's not a startling image of ferocity.

Despite many years of anthropomorphizing dogs as cuter and cuddlier versions of us; They descend from a long bloodline of killing machines. Otherwise, they never would've made it to where they have today. Sally is an uber affectionate, slightly dimwitted dog that is addicted to belly rubs, but she snuck out of the house the other day, and brutally mauled one of my chickens to death. I was pretty annoyed, but I can't blame her for it. Nature puts us in a position where we have to live off the death of other organisms. Which brings me to my next story.

Raccoons are a consistent menace to rural households. Every night they are trying to kill my chickens. They haven't been successful this year, but they've killed many of them in the past. In addition to harassing the chickens; They will eat every ear of my sweet corn if I let them, so I am forced to respond to nature with a little brutality of my own. My uncle Paul gave me a coon trap when I got the chickens, and told me I had to use it. I was really hesitant, because I'm not comfortable killing animals I'm not going to eat, but they are stealing food from me. I had to make a decision. Am I going to grow my corn to feed the raccoons, or do I want to eat it? I decided I wanted to eat it, so I set the trap with some doughnuts as bate. The first time I set it; There was a raccoon in there the next morning, and I had to shoot him in the head with a .22 at point blank range. I cannot emphasize enough that I took absolutely no pleasure in this chore. It pains me greatly that life is a constant struggle between various organisms trying to survive, but it does me no good to hide from this reality.

The purpose of this blog entry is to remind everyone that organic gardening and small scale agriculture are not as idyllic as we would all like it to be, and I apologize if the subject matter is a little harsh for some of you, but I want this blog to be a legitimate journal of both my successes and my struggles, so I think it's important not to misrepresent my summertime experiment as all pleasure and no pain.