The Driftless Folk School

One more bit of serendipitous luck in our finding this corner of Wisconsin to homestead is that we ended up being very close to the new home of the Driftless Folk School. If anyone reading this is interested in taking classes on traditional arts, homesteading skills, and self reliance, check out their offerings.
Driftless Folk School home page  

I took my first class a couple weeks ago on pruning old, overgrown apple trees to get them back in shape. It was well done, hands on, and also a good way to meet other people in the area with similar interests and goals. 

We went on our train journey shortly after the class, so I couldn't start pruning straight away. 

So I finally got to cracking on the old apple trees early last week, and proceeded to build a rather large pile of discards, but I'd say I only have a fair start to the project. Will see how they respond this year, and do some more next year, as buds are just starting to swell, and I want to let that proceed undisturbed.

I have my eye on some other classes as well, and hope to not just learn some essential skills, but to build connections with the like  minded people in the area. ( though some of the participants are from rather away).

Anyone wanting to quickly pick up hands on skills but not knowing someone to learn from, will find folk schools a good place to get those skills. I know there is a very large one out east: 
https://www.folkschool.org
and I've stopped in and looked at this one in Minnesota.
http://www.northhouse.org

There are others.
http://www.bestchoiceschools.com/folk-schools/

Amtrak demystified

We have just returned from a train trip to visit our son in Oakland, CA. Traveling by train is by nearly all accounts a better environmental choice than airplane, and car, unless the car is crammed full of passengers.

 Since we are retired now, we have less schedule pressure, and are no longer carefully counting out precious vacation days in planning our trips to see our diasporatic children. More time means less need to fly, and more ability to be greener.

However, unlike Europe, ( and other areas of the globe) America does not have a robust train network, nor a very coordinated transit system to mesh with the long haul routes. Lot's of politics and short sightedness there. On top of that, the web info available to get logistics planned and make sure the experience is simple are lacking, both on the Amtrak website, and on the various amateur blog entries and youtube videos.

So here are some observations on our experience, filling in some gaps in case anyone thinking of Amtrak stumbles on this quiet corner of the net. Our route was the California Zephyr, from Galesburg IL ( the route actually starts in Chicago) to Emeryville CA ( the San Francisco bay area, with a short bus hop to SF, for those going all the way) , so I'm not sure how they might extrapolate to other routes.

Riding in a sleeper car:
Above is the layout for the sleeper cars. We stayed in a lower level  "roomette" on the way out. The two seats face each other, and they flatten out in to the lower bed. The upper bed is tilted ( mostly) up out of the way during the day. The attendant asks you what time you want the beds set up, and he/she comes to do that. I think the latest they will schedule is 10:30 PM. After you leave your room in the morning, they come back and remake the beds and set up the seats for the day. 

There are two reading lights for the seats, but one of ours would light but could not be aimed, so couldn't use it. The upper bunk used the ceiling light for reading in bed, but there was no light useful for reading in the lower bed. There is a climate control knob, as well as a louver adjustment for the air flow, but we could not detect any change when these were twiddled with. There are privacy blinds on both the door and window, and they are pretty good, with velcro patches to keep them tightly shut and make sure no pervs can glimpse you in your jammies.

Upper bunk can be tricky to get in to. If you are large or less agile, it might not work for you. There is a nylon netting mechanism that supposedly keeps you from falling out if an especially large side sway happens. It also makes it trickier to climb in. A couple of steps are built in to the side of the room for clambering up.
The attendant left bottled water with us each time he made the beds, and always asked if we needed anything, but other than that, didn't see much of him.

You have a tiny "closet", with two hangers and a couple wash cloths and hand towels. Towels for showering are provided in the shower area. 

Meals in the dining car are included with sleeper room fare, and the  menu is limited and the same every day. The food was pretty good most of the time. Liquor is of course extra.

Which side of the car is best for sightseeing is luck of the draw, so not much point in trying to second guess that. We spent a lot of time in the observation car, which is good for watching as well as getting in to some interesting conversations. It's also the hangout spot for night owls, no quiet hours 24/7.

There are also full rooms available, but they are even more expensive, and not many to a train, so if you have a set date of travel, reservations need to be made far in advance.

Riding coach:


We decided to try coach on the way back, to see if the cost savings was worth it. The climate control in the coach cars was of course not in our control ( no individual nozzles like in an airplane), and was much warmer than we prefer at night. I assume the temperature was based on the fact that you can't bring a lot of bedding with you, but we prefer it cool at night, so felt stuffy to us.

They say seating is first come, first served, but in reality, they give you a seat number, and it might be anywhere in the car. We knew from the ride out which side we wanted to sit on going back, and were able to get things switched, but only because we did it quick, and we were the initial stop of the run.

The chairs are comfy enough, with leg and foot rests, kind of like a slimmed down recliner chair. They recline back more than an airline chair, but not as much as a true recliner. We decided that we just can't sleep well sitting up anymore, and would probably spend the money on the sleepers next time.


Food for coach riders is bring your own, or buy from the snack bar on the lower level of the observation car. Virtually no healthy food, but you can get microwaveable sandwiches, so you won't starve. This will save you money compared to the dining car, but you can still take meals there if you want, you just have to pay for them like any restaurant.

Other general observations:
The crew gets switched out every so often to keep fresh eyes in the engine car, and conductors on duty, but the food crew stays the full ride. We noted that they are not all consistent with announcements and enforcing rules.

You can carry on two carry ons, plus a small item or two ( purse, outer wear,....) but the overhead stowage rack is not that large. There was plenty of linear rack, but the opening height would not admit some of the larger "carry on" style luggage. There is also separate luggage shelving down by the exit doors, so some stuff can fit there, but it's not as handy. More and/or larger ( over 50 lbs) can be checked, but costs money. They will go in the baggage car, and will be pulled by the conductors at your stop.

"Facilities, WC, toilet, bathroom, head, etc..."- various sizes, configurations, but mostly small, no larger than airplane restrooms. They even use the vacuum sucking flush system like on an airplane. One weird detail-  the sink water pressure and faucets were way too high pressured, and always sprayed water all over the place, making the room messy much quicker than your typical public restroom. So stupid, and you would think easy to fix.

Some bathrooms get used a lot, and get nasty. This also is affected by how well the train crew keeps up with things, and of course, your luck in what kind of fellow passengers you end up with.

The shower was fine- push a little button and get a minute or two of water. Push again to get more. Nice and hot, reasonable pressure, but one time the shower did not shut off for quite a while. Oh, and showers are only available for travelers in the sleeper cars, so keep that in mind if you  take a multi day trip riding coach.

Amtrak does not control the tracks, so we had to sideline a lot to let freight trains go by. A serious mass transit system would not be run that way, and travel times could be reduced considerably just by adding more track or separating the two.

If I remember more, I'll add them later. Or ask me questions!

Box elder syrup

In Southwest Wisconsin, there is a small maple syrup industry. Nothing like Vermont or Canada, but a lot of small sugar bushes, some even having a label and are sold commercially. But our farm has no maples ( except one maple planted in our yard).

I had read about syruping, and learned that box elders, being a relative of maples, can also be tapped for sap. Well, box elders are not a very desirable tree, so they grow everywhere. Funny how that works. We have our share, and some are fairly large, with trunks as large as 16". ( roughly 400mm). 

So I bought some spiles, cute little galvanized pails, and got out the cordless drill and set up my own mini sugar bush. ( 5 trees!)

I also am half way through reading Helen and Scott Neering's book "The Maple Sugar Book". They give a good accounting of the history of maple sugaring, and details and techniques of production scale syrup making. The only thing remotely relevant to my experiment was their discussion of the mysterious vagaries of sap flow and weather. I found it to be hard to figure out which days (and which trees) would flow each day, but in the end, got a fair little store of syrup for my effort.

We had our first sampling this morning on pancakes, and it was good. Not as "mapley" as maple syrup, but sweet and mild flavored.

Because each day's batch was so small, I couldn't use a hygrometer or candy thermometer to monitor concentration, so went by ( very inexperienced) eye. First day's batch went too far and crystallized, but each of the others seem to be fairly close. since I don't know the actual content, nor did I monitor temperature, these will stay in the refrigerator till used, so we don't get mold or bacteria growth.

Note that the syrup is not clear, but varying degrees of cloudy. This is because I also did not bother to strain out the sugar sand. It is harmless minerals that precipitate out during heating, and is probably actually good for you.

All in all, a fun experiment, and I might expand the "bush" to more of our trees next year.

Pest control- rodent category

The photo pretty much explains this method of mouse control. You can google bucket mouse trap or bucket rat trap and get all sorts of variations on the theme, many with crude execution. I have found that as long as you take in to account the size of the mouse, the geometry and spacing of the components, the thing can be pretty effective. We luckily have no rats, so I can't confirm how deadly it might be for them, as they are known to be pretty cagy.

Since we weren't living here full time till this past July, the buggers thought they owned the place. There is a new sherif in town, so things are clearing up. 

Following this ( my first) mouse, I caught 38 more before winter set in and the water froze. The water is key, because they can actually jump back out if not treading water. Rats would have no problem at all jumping out if no water was there. I also found that this plastic pop bottle was better than a can, as it spun with just the right resistance, giving the mouse sufficient confidence to take that last fatal step.

Now that winter is ending, I'll start this bucket back up.

These guys all go in the compost pile, completing the circle of life.

long beds

Lumber is yet another miracle of the industrial age we don't even notice here in the richest country in the world. Any homeowner can run down to the closest Lowe's, Home Depot, Menards, or whatever chain you are near. Not too many actual old time lumber yards out there, but there are still a few around. And that homeowner can buy materials cut to size and build anything from a birdhouse to a three story mansion if he has the time and money. In my opinion, lumber is shockingly cheap for what it is. Just imagine the effort to cut and hew wood to shape for building a simple cabin as in days of yore. There was a good reason the cabins were simple logs with minimal whittling on the ends to facilitate locking together.

And something else about lumber I hadn't thought about till we finally bought a farm truck this week. Why does lumber have the dimensions it has? I'm sure there is a real, historical and technical reason, but here is my pure speculation without researching it.

I think it is because of how tall humans are. While lumber can be had in any number of lengths, your basic framing stud is eight feet long, the height of the typical wall in a wood framed house. All the sheet goods, plywood and any other amalgam of glue and sawdust you'd care to consider, are four feet by eight feet( the great majority anyway). Once you have some parameters like that settled on, the other dimensions, thickness and width, are a function of how much strength is needed for a member that is eight feet long to handle the loads it will experience.

So, maybe now I'll read and see if there IS any history on the evolution of lumber. 

Where I'm heading with this is our truck shopping experience. I am not a car guy. My brothers read Car and Driver, and other mags focussing on trucks, of which I don't even know the titles. They know a LOT about trucks. I only recognize maybe 10% of the cars on the road, because of their distinctive design, but many guys know all of them, what year they are, what city it was made in, which engine it has, what the major good and bad aspects of that model (and year!) are, and how much it would cost new or used. There: I've admitted it, I've failed my shade tree mechanic father.

One thing I did know, or thought I knew, was that you buy a pickup so you can haul stuff, including and especially lumber. So we soon found out that hardly any truck on the road these days has an eight foot bed to haul lumber in. If there was a standard ( which there isn't, nothing is standard anymore) bed length, it is 6 feet, 6 inches, and a short bed, of which there are many, is 5 feet, 6 inches. The average man couldn't even lay down in the bed of his truck, or dispose of bodies I suppose, without bending the knees a bit. 

And get this- a bed which is eight feet long is now called a long bed. The pickup truck these days is a fashion statement, or a confirmation of rugged manhood, or a result of hypnotized consumers falling for advertising once again. It is not a working truck, that is for sure. Not even sure why they mostly have four wheel drive, but ours will need that.

We finally found one, so I am done cramming eight foot lumber ( only maybe a dozen or so) into the car, and my "new" truck ( used, but in immaculate shape) will soon be getting the dents, scrapes and mud it was meant for.

Winter birds

This has been our first full winter here, and our first winter as retired persons, so there has been a good bit of down time. More time to set up and watch the bird feeder outside the sunroom windows. More time to look them up in the field guide.

More time to start a "birding life list". I'm not going to get serious about this, it's really just being more observant of our new home's fellow inhabitants. What I've noticed so far is that there aren't as many species hanging around our feeder as I would have thought.
As follows:
black capped chickadee
junco
purple finch
blue jay
cardinal
red bellied woodpecker
rose breasted grosbeak
american goldfinch
downy woodpecker
mourning dove

Some of these we only saw once or twice, and maybe were flukes, or just passing through. The far and away greatest numbers have been the first two, black capped chickadees and juncos. I'm sure during migrations, and during summer, we'll see plenty of others.

And what has slowly dawned on me is how amazing these little guys are to stay here through the winter. These little puffs of feathers stay here through blizzards, -20F or lower temps, combined with high winds, and I can't bundle up enough to go get the mail without whining. I don't care if feathers are super insulation, they lose heat, and have to eat enough calories to counteract that, while all that's left to eat are the few seeds still above the snow and maybe not even much of that by late February. 

A little reading about bird thermoregulation tells me that some species huddle. I don't know if these guys do that, but it's still amazing that they can survive the winter. Some species also do a partial, controlled hypothermia.

Prior to watching the birds the last few weeks, I had been admiring the mammals that live here. This admiration came about while sitting in a tree freezing my tuchus off during deer season, and again thinking how the deer ( as well as all the other critters) are out there in the coldest, windiest, most miserable weather ALL THE TIME! I've now decided that birds are even more impressive, as they have the highest surface area to volume ratios, the highest base metabolism rates, and the most exposure to high winds, which increases heat transfer. ( that's the rationale behind wind chill ratings).

While I note that being out and active every day helps me acclimate, and tolerate colder weather than otherwise, I'd be dead without all the clothes and boots, the shelter and other accoutrements of our technology. It is common sense to me that while we humans have colonized nearly every region of the planet, our origins are tropical.

On a related note- this photo is of the cat that has been a regular this winter, coming past the house as part of his hunting routine. He is very wary, and I am not sure if he is a barn cat, or an inside outside cat, but I don't think he is feral. He is a big, healthy appearing guy with a beautifully marked coat, and we have seen him actually catch a mouse in the grass right outside our patio doors. He doesn't care about the cold either.

This photo was taken through the patio door, or I would never have gotten this close. He was poised, ready to leap at my slightest move inside the door as we stared at each other for probably 15 seconds.

Cats- to my mind, not sure we should call them domesticated. 

A new low

I haven't talked much about the composting toilet I have been using for the last three years. I am using the lovable loo setup as described in the excellent book "The Humanure Handbook". The book is an well researched and detailed why and how to book that should allay any fears about germs and the general eww factor. Anyone serious about homesteading sustainably, and trying to minimize water and purchased fertilizer use needs to get over it and switch to this system.

http://humanurehandbook.com/downloads/humanure_sanitation_paper.pdf

We only moved here permanently this past July, but I would use it every time we were up here on weekends before our move. It now fills up considerably faster, but is still out in the unheated garage, pending any break in negotiations with my wife.

So, it was -14 F last night, and still well below zero when I had to answer nature's call this morning. The toilet itself is fine, with a regular toilet seat like anyone might use, but the rest of the amenities are rather Spartan. There is no magazine rack, but be assured I would not have chosen any reading material this morning anyway. A new low for me. Got me to thinking about the millions of people in the past that had no heated bathrooms. Both the more recent past when outhouses were the norm, and further back when indigenous folk had not even that. ( What DID they do before Sears catalogues???) We are such wimps. Here is the "throne".

The key to this system is access to lots of sawdust or other fine cellulosic material to get the carbon nitrogen balance right, and of course to cover each deposit to alleviate odors and risk of flies.  Since there are a lot of small Amish sawmills in the area, this was easy for me. For $5, I got enough hardwood sawdust that it should last me for two or three years, and I could probably have got it for free with a little searching.
This spring will be the third year of the three year rotation described in the book, so I'll be putting the first batch on the garden soon.

Other news: The last of our Butternut squash in the root cellar finally started showing signs a couple weeks ago that we needed to cook it up quick. Here is the last batch coming out of the oven. The potatoes are storing really well, but the garlic is starting to soften up a bit and show a few sprouts.