Good morning!

It’s still fun waking up in the country - so quiet still in spring - no frogs in concert yet. At the bird feeders we have lots of cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches getting some easy meals. With snow on the ground or rainy and muddy it's an ideal time to catch up on old projects.

What’s new? 14 raised flower beds have been put in. Nothing is worse than lots of eager spring seedlings and no place to put them till they are dried out stems in August.

A fellow recently brought over 10 loads of manure to put icing on the growing beds for super flowers in a few months. I know what this natural fertilizer can do so get so excited when another load is brought over.

It’s funny, people may buy expensive artificial fertilizer that kills the earthworms when natural fertilizer is cheaper and does a better job. Also they may use all the manure they can find but if you ask them what they are doing with their own they get quiet and say they just flush it away... where ever “away” is. Then the local community is needing another 12 million dollars for a plant to process it. I make my own composting toilets with a 5 gallon bucket and some peat moss and they work fine. When full I pour it into a new flower bed, rinse it, add a handfull of peat moss and I’m good to go for another week or more. The urine I save into jug to put around the outside of the garden and deer never bother my garden. I don’t have garbage or waste but valuable wish-I-had-more resources. I don’t have future expensive calamities waiting. If it’s winter, your water didn’t work and you couldn’t flush your toilet what is your plan? I keep my life simple and natural. You can too, making little changes every day.
 

This summer there will be hundreds colorful dahlias (with 12" blooms!) and many other flowers in bloom. Knowing this gets me through the winter months. I love the new flowers blooming each week. Each time you go for a walk you see something new. Maybe we will do a summer flower festival with food this summer.

A recent Winter day in WV.
The snow never lasts - in three days it was back to grass.
This is the time for hot soup, homemade bread and
enjoying a good book in front of the fireplace.

The bathtub/shower in the greenhouse is working out wonderfully. It can be 12 degrees outside with snow on the ground and what a delight walking inside to 75 degrees and a hot shower. I collect free rain water from the garage roof, the gutter flows it into a 55 gallon storage tank then underground down a slope 50 feet into another 55 gallon tank prewarming in the greenhouse. A 12v solar pump pumps the water to a small natural gas $200 tank less hot water heater for instant hot water with no wasted energy. It’s on for maybe 10 minutes a day for tiny gas usage. Compare that with a traditional $350 water heater keeping 40 gallons hot 24 hours a day.

In the next month I will be exchanging my 55 gallon tubs for several much bigger 400+ gallon vertical black (by request for no algae buildup) tubs (Snyder tubs 315 834-6738). Smaller tubs just aren’t big enough to do anything with. I want to collect every bit of rainwater I can from all our roof space. If I need to take a shower or water plants when their has been no rain I am good to go. Nobody can complain that I’m watering my garden if it’s free stored rain water. Create your own self sufficiency. This and more will be explained in my new Self Sufficiency Book - coming out soon. I keep coming up with more exciting information and new chapters. 

Speaking of books I just finished updated my popular Travel Bargain Book with lots of updates, more travel secrets (We just came back from 7 days in the Caribbean, food and drinks, all inclusive, with airfare, in the for $799) and fun festivals (2500 booths - free food and samples) and expos all over the USA. It's now an ebook so has lots of color pictures.  CLICK

I had always wanted a great dog and recently got a German Shepherd puppy. (People have been writing in wanting more pictures of the puppy.)

They grow up so fast!

I still have Piewacket, the most loving and gentle cat.

Rocky the dog is growing so fast! He used to be a little ball of fluff and now is a teenage wolf! For a while I think he thought his name was “No kitty!” or “No chickens!” He is really smart and you can see him think about things. He isn’t hyper, insistent hand licker, jump up on people like dogs I have had before.

I was wondering where my planting pots were going...
Rocky the dog knew... He thought they were delicious and really crunchy.

What’s new? I have a new sweetie ,Tina, sharing the farm with me. She was willing to pack it all up from Florida and come up here. We are both funny computer nerds. “Hey honey, did you get the domain DNS ready so we can FTP it to the webhost, then back it up to the flash drive?” She knows her stuff. She also makes sure I get lots of pure ionized alkalized water to drink. I have the only girlfriend that tells me I need to drink more. Tina makes lots of the most nutritious meals with sprouted grains, Kermit avocado sandwiches, green drinks, and more.

People ask if they can spend a month, aseason or year helping and learning here on our farm. Now we have more facilities. We are finishing our ginger breaded apprentice-helper guest cottage. It overlooks the garden and is so cozy inside. If you are wanting a great all-natural learning experience helping on  our farm let us know if you are interested.

We are looking forward to the coming months - planting more flowers, weird trees and and unusual veggies, getting invited to speak at exciting events, and cooking lots of new things.

We'll see you next newsletter.

                      Tina and Justin!

Our new Rife energy machine webpage with pictures from our garden, get feeling better fast. Click