More future potential stuff... but will I follow through?

Sometimes I feel like I talk a lot about things I could do without ever truly following through, especially in regards to going back to school or doing something in regards to a career.  This is another one of those posts.

Eric and I have been looking into Aquaponics as a way to be more self sufficient. We love the idea of growing our own food, because we like knowing where things come from, and the more we can do in that regard on a small scale, the better.

In regards to aquaponics, we'd be trying to set up a small, closed system at first. Because of Michigan winters we'd likely keep this all indoors to better control temperature and light.  An aquaponics system is a hybrid of a hydroponics system and an aquaculture system. A merger of the two, it uses the wastewater from fish to fertilize plants. The plants in turn filter the water that then return to the fish.

Our system will be a recirculating system, so the water is contained and doesn't go back into the environment. At first we'll just be using goldfish so we can get the hang of growing the plants, and cycling the water appropriately. Once that's stable, we'll replace the goldfish with Tilapia!

And then we'll have fresh fish grown in our own basement. We could potentially sell the extra fish, since Tilapia breed ridiculously quickly and grow to maturity pretty fast as well. And we'll have fresh veggies through the year.

I hope it gets off the ground. I hope we find an interest in the community for purchasing the fish in order to turn this into a business. Firefly Ranch could incorporate as an aquaculture farm!

We're off to visit my parents tomorrow, so this won't be realized until the new year, but it is something that Eric wants to do. I think he was inspired by a small hydroponics aquarium I got from a kickstarter.

Stuff about things

I'm so behind on posting but after the day I've had... oi!

However, it's kind of a lesson learned sort of day. The lesson is this:

If leaving the trailer hooked up to the truck overnight, make sure ALL running lights are turned off and/or the trailer hook up is unplugged.

I went to go get Kaylee ready for school today and my truck was dead. D.E.D dead.  The door locks wouldn't unlock, I had to actually use a key (First world problems) but it does emphasize how dead the battery was. There was no juice left. So much for my planned walk on the Polly Ann with Gwyn.

Kaylee, of course, insisted we still go to school so I hooked the bike trailer up and biked the 1.5 miles to her school in town. Boom! Her teachers were horrified and insisted that they bring Kaylee home. Something something blah pregnancy blah something. Whatever, I'm not a fragile porcelain vase.  I walked 1.5 miles yesterday and 3.5 the day before (more on that... eventually? who knows)  I'm staying active, come hell or high water.

Pregnancy, is in that weird "no more morning sickness not yet pregnant enough to be impacted" so it's easy to forget sometimes that I am pregnant. I'm starting to feel flutters from Babydos, so that's cool, but it's not reliable yet. Yay second trimester. If I wasn't painfully reminded twice a day by a self injection that I can't ride I might forget completely. I'm still wearing my old clothes and I haven't gained weight at all, just like last time.

I made a quilted table runner for halloween. Three of them, two are gifts though only one has been mailed. I also just got a serger for my birthday so I'm looking forward to experimenting a little more confidently with knits. The need for pregnancy clothes is close at hand so I'll be able to make my own. I already have the patterns and fabric, I just wanted a machine to really get a more professional finish on my edges.

Yaaaay Internet!

A hiatus from posting occurred as we transitioned from my mother in law's house to our new place. And then had to wait for internet to arrive, which it did, today. HUZZAH!

So suffice it to say I have a lot to catch up on with writing but I can't WAIT to share everything that's going on. I feel like I'm in a good place right now.


Here's some teaser photos!

Life Lists

To Purchase:

• A few bales of hay for dinner if animals are stalled at night
• Paint for bedroom, kitchen?, bathroom
• M. bed
• Guest Bed
• Bookcases
• painter's tape, brushes, rollers. I think I left these in WA
• Deck furniture
• entertainment center
• dining room table
• fencing for the garden
• Curtains to replace what's there

To do at the New House:

• Paint M. Bedroom
• Set up fence charger
• Weed front garden
• Weed wack/mow fence line
• Fill water tanks for animals
• Organize tack room
• Clean out old hay under pallets
• unpack
• Raise water tanks off ground with wood, maybe from wood pile?
• Control the garden
• Pay back S. Mauzy for 100 gal. tank

To do at MIL's house

• Get our shit OUT
• Clean the house

If you can't tell, life is crazy. We are on the verge of living in the new house. Friday will be the first night! The schedule is getting hectic since Kaylee's birthday is a week from Sunday.  I found out I'll be needing a root canal and that will happen a week from tomorrow, the day my parents come into town to stay with us. 

The kid, a new house, and making babies

I've only been temping lately and I wanted to get back into more tracking so I ordered more LH test strips as well as a nifty new toy that can also be useful!

LH test strips, I hope I don't need all 50 of them...

Apparently, you can also check your saliva to see if it crystallizes. The crystallization changes when you ovulate and that can be detected by drying saliva on a microscope slide and examining it. So I got a pocket microscope.  It's small enough to fit in my purse!! And way cooler than the "marketed for fertility looks like a lipstick case" pockets scopes. That would stick out in my purse.

Glass slides.

Bright LED for examination

Test of saliva. You can see some crystallization but during ovulation/fertile zone there should be tons of 'ferning'. I'll hopefully nab a picture when I see it in the next few days!

In other news, I am the owner of this AMAZING front yard! Horses not included, but that's okay! I have my own ;) 

And Kaylee is already in love with this awesomeness in the backyard.

She practiced climbing a rope ladder at the park.

It was a gorgeous day on Lake St. Clair

So she went swimming in her undies. Lack of swim suit bedamned!

WW: Things I've done since I last posted on this blog

Things I did Today - Notes on property purchase

I am currently making my own fly bonnets. I need to add edging and ears, but finally I can custom size them!! It wasn't even that hard, I had a few rough patches but I puzzled them out!

I'm also thinking of making some with super fun print fabric and mesh fabric for the ears for hot days.

We visited 4 more houses today. The first one was pretty good, there was some work that needed to be done but it was manageable. The barn needed replacing, which was a bit annoying. I'd at the very least need to dig it out because it's all mud from the very friendly cows (they came to greet us!) but the roof was sagging too and there was water damage. But 6 acres with room for an arena!

4 houses visited

The first one was the only good one. Favorite house remains favorite house, by far and away. The barn was even better than I had hoped and the outdoor riding ring is elevated so it drains nicely. In fact, despite there being standing water on other parts of the property, the ring looked dry. There are several pastures plus gravel runs out of each of the three stalls. Everything is fenced with electrobraid and it looks in good condition.

Information Filing

We have been trying to conceive for over a year now. There are about three months where the trying effort likely fell short of an actual attempt at conception but regardless, I anticipate being pregnant within the next 2 years. Since I do like to prepare, and research my options well in advance of actually needing the information (i.e. I am not currently pregnant to my knowledge) I've made a list of midwives who do homebirth here in the Detroit area.

This list is one side of the coin for me. I really don't have it in me to discuss what's going on in my headspace to make me compile such a list. Anyway. Listy list. Here we go.


http://michiganmidwives.org/directory/

http://www.mazzaramidwifery.com/index.php/home

http://www.nineshortmonths.com/index.html

http://www.michiganmidwife.com/

http://birthmidwifery.com/about/

http://www.birthandmorewellness.com/

http://its-your-birth.com/



I need to compile an OBGYN list next, and find a good forum to ask a few questions I have. Otherwise I'm likely to be doctor hopping because doctors and I don't... get along well. And I may need to pursue fertility treatments since it's been over a year with no results, not even a miscarriage.

I really miss my WA midwife, Elias, right now.

He rocked.

Taking baby Kaylee's measurements the day she was born while Eric looks on.

 

Making my Own Maple Syrup

Today I went to a Maple Syrup Festival. If you know me even the littlest bit you'll know that I LOVE maple syrup. I grew up in New England, I settle for nothing less than the real stuff, from a tree. Aunt Jemima doesn't do it for me and I've been known to bring my own maple syrup in to restaurants if I plan to order waffles or pancakes. Eric calls me a syrup snob, but whatever. It's in my blood. My mom grew up in Vermont where she helped with sugaring and tapping the trees on a family friend's farm. So today I got to learn about the whole process of maple sugaring. I learned this as a kid in elementary school. Every March we would traipse out in the mud and sometimes snow to tap the poor lone maple that stood in the front yard. It was a lot of fun and the slightly sweet maple sap was really cool to taste. So imagine my delight when I realized that Michigan makes Maple Syrup too. And that I could make it myself. (Making it myself has become a new hobby, which hadn't really crossed my mind until we moved to WA) So I took notes from the presentations today. It wasn't totally comprehensive, they have separate classes for that, but I think I got enough information to start next year and at least try. Trees that can produce syrup: Sycamore (gives a butterscotch like syrup), Box Alder and Maple trees. Sugar maples have the highest sugar content in their sap at 2%, all others are near 1%. So you need a LOT to make syrup. The ratio is 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of final syrup product You tap the trees when you have warm days and cool nights. Tree Diameter to be ready for tapping 10 inches can support one tap +6 inches for each additional tap, but no more than 3 or 4 If you want to be totally natural, use staghorn sumac trees to make the spiles that allow the sap to flow out of the live wood. Thi wood is ideal for spiles because the core is really soft and can be easily drilled out by a small hand drill while the outer wood is hard and stiff. You file one end down to an angle all around so it fits into a drilled hole in the tree trunk and notch the other end to hang a bucket or sap collection device (clean milk jugs work well) When drilling the maple, drill two finger joints into the tree at a slight upward angle, 6 inches away from other holes that might have been drilled. The south side of the tree will have more sap flow because that is on the sun side but big trees can be tapped all around. You can identify a maple by the grey bark that peels up on one lateral side. Not a J peel in a peel from the bottom. You boil the sap down and test doneness using a maple syrup hydrometer. You want 67% density. If you go too far you've just made maple syrup candy, congratulations. Just don't burn the sugar. Now I have a new feature to check when we buy a house. Does it have maples?!?! And possible sycamores. And Staghorn sumac.