Little Bits From E. B. White

E.B. White and his wife Katherine. From this article about E.B.

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E.B White in his seaside writing cabin at his farm in Maine.

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I blogged here last year about some books I bought at a library sale. The best book of the bunch was Letters of E. B. White. You can read what I had to say about E.B. and the book at this link: Summer Felicity.

As I mention in that essay, White had a hankering for the farm life. He bought an oceanside farm in Maine. Then he quit his job at the New Yorker and went to live at his farm. White’s experiences at the farm and in the rural community where he lived were the inspiration for his most famous book, Charlotte’s Web. Two other children’s books followed. It was the income from these books that enabled White to live his version of “the good life” in Maine. I finished the 687-page book of E.B.White’s letters and found it an absolute delight. Anyone who is interested in the writing life will appreciate White’s life story as seen through his personal letters to others. He really was a rare and gifted writer.

For the next week or so, I will post some “Little Bits” from the book. These bits will, for the most part relate to White’s farming experiences and observations. Each daily bit will be added below the previous day’s bit. And when I add a new bit, I will post a new picture at the top of the page. I hope you enjoy this selection of “Little Bits” from E.B. White’s letters:

E.B. White Bit #1
11 March 2009
Excerpt from a Letter to James Thurber. 18 November 1938

My pullets are laying fools, but they have a strange thing the matter with them which causes them to shake their heads. I have looked this up in my pamphlets, but I can’t find out much. It’s like a dog biting himself viciously in the pocket under his hind leg—you can’t tell much about it, whether it’s worms or fleas or eczema. These birds of mine never stop shaking their heads and it is beginning to get to me. Sometimes I stand there and get to thinking that maybe they are shaking their heads over me. “Poor old White,” they say, shaking their heads. I asked Lennie Candage what it meant when they started shaking their heads. (Lennie was over here building a new foundation wall under the north end of the barn so it wouldn’t be too cold for the pig in the barn cellar: and there is a story in that, too, it’s what always happens to me—I get a pig so we won’t have to buy hams, and then I rebuild my barn around the pig at the expense of perhaps a thousand hams, or more than you and I could eat (with mustard) during the rest of our natural lives, if you can call mine a natural life.) End parenthesis. Anyway, Lennie was here, his old felt hat a mass of spider webs where he’d been walking around in cellars doing foundation work, and when I put it right up to him about my pullets shaking their heads he said, “God, I dunno nuthin’ ‘bout chickens. I just feed ‘em. That’s all I know ‘bout chickens.” Just the same, I wish they’d stop shaking their heads.

E.B. White Bit #2
12 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter to Gustave S. Lobrano. 9 September 1937

Moses, the retriever, bit off the left wing of one of the wild birds yesterday—a clean break except for one cartilage which I took care of with my desk scissors. The other two dogs on the premises seized the opportunity to fly at each other's throats, to settle some small difference, and I had to let go the turkey to attend the dog fight. After things had quieted down some, I returned and found the bird bleeding to death in a thicket—alders, wild apples, and grapevines. Since it was obvious that I wouldn't be able to catch it, I got my .22 and sat down tediously about six feet away, where I took careful aim and dispatched the creature with a shot through the head. In this grotesque situation, with briers tweaking my behind and the memory of the bird as a day-old chick in my mind, I felt that the original Massachusetts settlers would have worried considerably if they could have witnessed this strange degeneracy of man and bird. (As luck would have it, there wasn't an original Massachusetts settler on the place, and I just snuck home and cleaned the gun.)

E.B. White Bit #3
13 march 2009
Excerpt from a letter to his brother, Stanley Hart White. 27 January 1961

I still remember with pleasure the contemptuous look on your face when I explained to you, a year ago in the barn cellar, that cow manure was beneficial to the soil. These things stay with me. We've had sub-zero nights lately, and the manure pile is like a volcano getting ready to erupt—steam rises from the tip, moistening the cobwebs above, which then freeze in beautiful lacework. Enchanting place, loaded with intimations of pneumonia.

E.B. White Bit(s) #4
14 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter to Frank Sullivan. 1936

[W]e have pork chops hanging by strings in the garage, apples in the attic, jams and thermostats in the root cellar, and a spruce tree waiting for me to chop it. I also have an instep waiting for the first merry axblow.

Excerpt from a letter to Harold Ross, Editor of the New Yorker magazine. 1941

Writing anything at all is a hell of a chore for me, closely related to acid indigestion.

Excerpt from a letter to Eugene Saxton & Cass Canfield. 1939

There is some slight advantage to living as a recluse, in that one makes one's own crisis, instead of getting them out of the newspaper.

Excerpt from a letter to Harold Ross at the New Yorker. 1938

A writer is like a beanplant—he has his little day, and then gets stringy.

E.B. White Bit #5
15 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter to Eleanor and Arthur Brittingham, Jr. 4 May 1958

Spring has come at last—the town road crew removed the snow fence last week, officially ending winter. Barn swallows arrived right on schedule, May 1. We had a spit of snow yesterday but it always snows here in May just to prove it can do it. My goose is setting on twelve eggs which I believe to be infertile because of a queer situation in the barnyard. I have one goose and two ganders, and from my observations I would say that the ganders are pansies—they were inseparable all spring, and the goose kept her distance. However, I'll know for sure on the 23rd.

E.B. White Bit #6
16 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter to his brother, Stanley Hart White. March 1944

My old black sheep had twins night before last, but she has been failing for the last couple of years, and I doubt if she gets through the spring. She had lung trouble, and it is beginning to get to her. My prettiest lamb so far came yesterday morning about three o'clock, a very neat parcel, and everything shipshape. Shepherding is nice work if you like it, and I like it. Everything about a sheep smells good, except the infected scrotum of a castrated lamb. (I usually have a couple of such cases each spring, because the fellow that cuts my buck lambs for me is loyal to his grandfather's method and to his grandfather's memory. I usually have to perform a second operation a couple of days later myself, with a safety razor blade, to let the pus out. I also do all the docking of tails myself, with a dull ax.) One farmer near here always saves the nuts of his little pigs, when they are cut. They are about the size of almonds. I have held so many pigs, for castration, that I am now in demand around here as a holder. Not everybody holds a pig just right when it is being cut, but I do. It is a good idea in the country to be able to do one thing well, and that seems to be my thing. Never would have thought it.

E.B. White Bit(s) #7
18 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter to Harold Ross. August 1936

We are having splendid weather and I am building a stone wall. I understand that all literary people, at one time or another, build a stone wall. It's because it is easier than writing.

Excerpt from a letter to James Thurber. Mid-October 1938

I am a dull man, personally. Nobody ever seeks me out, not even people who like me or approve of me; because after you have sought me out, you haven't got anything but a prose writer. I can't imitate birds, or dogs; I can't even remember what happened last night....

Excerpt from a letter to Eugene Saxton. 28 May 1942

Sorry you can't be here for the dipping tomorrow. Am using an English dip (Cooper's) which I like partly because it doesn't stain the fleeces and mostly because the instructions on the package contain the word "whilst."

E.B. White Bit(s) #8
19 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter to James Thurber. November 1938

I am a decentralist, at heart; I think the business of making the earth produce and bear fruit should be participated in by almost everybody—a much more even distribution of the population.

Excerpt from a letter to Frederick Lewis Allen. 2 July 1943

Thanks ever so much for sending me the letters. That crack about [Louis] Bromfield being a real farmer roused my sporting blood and I will gladly take him on any time, he to choose the weapons—anything from dung forks to post-hole diggers or 2-ounce syringes for worming sheep.

(Note: Louis Bromfield was another author who pursued the agrarian lifestyle)

E.B. White Bit #9
20 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter to his wife, Katherine, who was still working in New York City at the New Yorker magazine. Early September 1937.

Monday visited John Allen, the smith of Sargentville, to get my pole ax drawed out. Mr. Allen is around and about again after an appendectomy. Been coming on him for twenty years—then all of a sudden she exploded. He had plenty of chance to just lie there and think about things when he was in the Bluehill Hospital, and although he had formerly been opposed to the Automobile, because it had driven out the horses and spoiled a smith's trade, he remembered that it was an automobile that got him to Dr. Bliss in time to save his life. Has changed his mind about motor cars. I pointed out, however, that automobiles were killing people awful fast, too. "By gorry," he said, "I hadn't thought about that. Now I'll have to think it all out again." He said his strength was slow coming back, and this was the first ax he'd upset in a long time. Moses [a Labrador retriever] had a fine visit, eating hoof parings.

Little Bit #10
21 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter to Charles G. Muller. January 18, 1940.

My poultry operations have expanded considerably since you were here: I have a large laying house with a flock of would-be layers that turned and bit me in mid season. It was the most stinging defeat of my life, for I put a good deal of my energy into the project, raised the birds by hand from infancy, ranged them on green range, groomed them for the battle, designed and built the house, and saw them go into production in early September looking like a million dollars and shelling out in great shape. All of a sudden some little thing went wrong and they began to come apart, the way pullets do when the vitamins don’t add up right, or when a couple of them get going to the bathroom too often. From forty dozen eggs a week I slid off to about fourteen dozen, and cannibalism began taking its ugly toll. Ah welladay! A man learns a lot in a year, if he hangs around animals.

Well, I cannot keep my eyes open any longer, as it is 10:05, five minutes past my bedtime. If I don’t get my sleep here, I am sunk. When a man’s whole year’s work with hens goes wrong, there’s only one thing for it—plenty of sleep.

E.B. White Bit #11
22 March 2009
Excerpts from a letter to Gene Deitch, the famous animator and director regarding the adaptation of White’s book, Charlotte’s Web into an animated movie. January 12 1971

In writing of a spider, I did not make the spider adapt her ways to my scheme. I spent a year studying spiders before I ever started writing the book. In this, I think I found the key to the story. I hope you will, in your own medium, be true to Charlotte and to nature in general. My feeling about animals is just the opposite of Disney’s. He made them dance to his tune and came up with some great creations, like Donald Duck. I preferred to dance to their tune and came up with Charlotte and Wilbur.

I just want to add that there is no symbolism in "Charlotte's Web." And there is no political meaning in the story. It is a straight report from the barn cellar, which I dearly love, having spent so many fine hours there, winter and summer, spring and fall, good times and bad times, with the garrulous geese, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, and the sameness of sheep.

E.B. White Bit #12
23 March 2008
Excerpt from a letter to Mason Towbridge. November 18 1972

Geese are great to have around, because they stir the air. They are sagacious, contentious, storm-loving, and beautiful. They are natural hecklers, delight in arguing a point, and are possessed of a truly remarkable sense of ingratitude. They never fail to greet you on your arrival, and the greeting is tinged with distaste and sarcasm. They take parenthood seriously, are protective of their young but never indulgent. When my young gander is impatient for grain, he seizes the food-box in his mouth and bangs it against the wall, and this racket can be heard all over the place. You've never seen a hen do anything like that. Another fine thing about geese is that they are as easily steered as a modern car—a great convenience. Their bowel activity is, of course, legendary.

E.B. White Bit(s) #13
24 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter to James Thurber. 14 June 1951.

I tore a fine, big gash in my skull just before leaving New York—the sort of skull wound I have often dreamed of. Did it on the hard under-belly of an awning bracket. For several days I couldn't comb my hair, as it was impractical, and acquired a jaunty new hairdo that made me look quite like a belted kingfisher.

Excerpt from a letter to Margaret Joy Tibbets. March 29 1966

I rather like spiders; they are not only useful, they are indispensible, and the world would be a frightening place without them, as they are the principal agent that prevents insects from taking over the earth.

Excerpt from a letter to Susanna Waterman. March 26 1973

The movie of Charlotte is about what I expected it to be. The story is interrupted every few minutes so that somebody can sing a jolly song. I don't care much for jolly songs. The Blue Hill Fair, which I tried to report faithfully in the book, has become a Disney world, with 76 trombones. But that's what you get for getting embroiled with Hollywood.

E.B. White Bit(s) #14
25 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter to Gene Deitch. June 6 1971

At age 71, there's one thing I understand fully: the creative life is hell more than half the time, riddled with trials and terrors, and paved with woe. I know what it is like to try to bring something into being, as you've been doing the last few months. I know what an unhatched egg does to the spirit.

Excerpt from a letter to Philip Booth. 22 November 1970

...when it comes to poetry I take my own sweet time and allow myself no more than one poem a day. A good poem is like an anchovy; it makes you want another right away and pretty soon the tin is empty and you have a bellyache or a small bone in your throat or both.

E.B. White Bit #15
26 March 2009
Excerpt from a letter written in 1968.

My own life with hay has been a mixed dish—I dearly love everything about the cutting and curing of grass and the hauling of the finished product into the delicious upper regions of an old barn. I also have terrible hay fever. I even have an allergy to horse dander. By rights I should have never bought a place in the country and settled down to enjoy the land, because of what it does to my mucous membranes. But I wouldn't trade my barn for the Taj Mahal or Onassis's yacht: and just to go down into my barn cellar at daylight to grain the sheep and pitch some hay down the chutes is compensation enough for all the misery of my silly nose.

E.B. White Bit #16
27 March 2009
Excerpts from a letter to miss R______. September 15, 1973.

At seventeen, the future is apt to seem formidable, even depressing. You should see the pages of my journal circa 1916.

You asked me about writing—how I did it. There is no trick to it. If you like to write and want to write, you write, no matter where you are or what else you are doing or whether anyone pays any heed. I must have written half a million words (mostly in my journal) before I had anything published....

If you want to write about feelings, about the end of summer, about growing up, write about it. A great deal of writing is not "plotted"—most of my essays have no plot structure, they are a ramble in the woods, or a ramble in the basement of my mind. You ask, "Who cares?" Everybody cares. You say, It's been written before." Everything has been written before.

Henry Thoreau, who wrote "Walden," said, "I learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." The sentence, after more than a hundred years, is still alive.

Projects, Projects & More Projects

I try to get some sort of home project done every year. Last year I transformed the mud hole outside our back patio door into a brick patio.

My sons and I excavated the soil down about a foot using shovels and our Whizbang Garden Carts. We put down a soil stabilizing fabric and carted in many loads of small stone and compacted it with a motorized vibrating tamper. Then we put in a layer of sand and compacted it. Over this base Marlene and I laid the paver bricks in place and I compacted them down with the tamper. Around the perimeter I laid up a low wall using flat stones from the creek bed behind our house. The stone retains a small flower bed. In the end, the mud hole was transformed into a pleasant area for summer meals (the back of our house is still sided with tar paper but we have a nice little patio). The following picture shows just a bit of the patio. It's the best I can do for a picture at the moment. Those new potatoes with peas from our garden look real good to me at this time of year.



I also managed to wire-brush the weathered cedar shingle siding on the front of the house last year, and paint on two coats of good-quality solid color stain. So the house is looking more respectable all the time. But there is still a lot to be done.

A few years ago a good friend told me that a local man I don’t really know asked him why I don’t get my house all sided and finished up. It’s been incomplete for almost three decades. The answer is simple... I do all my own work on this place. It takes time to get the work done. Time is short. It also takes money to get things done. Until the last couple of years, with the modest success of Whizbang Books, money has been in real short supply in this family. And I simply will not borrow money for things that are not a necessity.

A guy I work with gets exasperated with me because I’m adamant about not borrowing money for a bigger place. He says I should just get a mortgage like everyone else and buy a nice big farmhouse for my wife. “That poor woman!” he says, shaking his head. To which I laugh.

I loathe debt. Always have. Going into debt for a bigger, nicer house, with more land to work, doesn’t appeal to me one bit. If I could get a loan to buy land without putting my house up for collateral, I’d consider it. But I’ll not mortgage my home. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like a paid off little homestead.

Maybe, someday, the bigger home and more than 1.5 acres of land will happen. I’m continually working towards that goal. I pray for it. But I’m not consumed by it. And if it never happens, I’ll die content on this little homestead. When I was a teenager, I bought a poster that said “Very little is needed for a happy life.” I believe that.

Nevertheless, with spring and summer ahead, I’m thinking of this year’s home projects. This year I hope to get the back of the house sided and stained. That would be a good thing. I imagine it would make that man who is so concerned with the appearance of my house very pleased.

And I have enough of the paver bricks left to put a nice landing in front of the entrance door stoop. Right now, that’s a mud hole. We currently have a row of wood pallets, salvaged from the lumber yard, leading to our house entrance door. Picture that.

Then there is the roof shingles on the original section of house. They are almost worn out. I’d like to get that job done while I’m still nimble enough to do it, and before it starts leaking.

If I get all those things done this year, that’ll be quite an achievement.

Speaking of projects and getting things done, progress is happening with the Planet Whizbang Wheel Hoe project. The parts have been cut and delivered to the machine shop for drilling. I have the nuts and bolts and such for putting the parts together. I am working to get my metal bending equipment and procedures in place. Once I have parts kits ready I will proceed to create a FREE step-by-step photo tutorial on the internet showing how to build the Planet Whizbang. The parts kit from me will not be a necessity, but it will make the whole project easier to make.

In other Whizbang news, I have stopped manufacturing HDPE featherplates for the Whizbang Chicken Plucker. I am now having these parts made by a small, local company with a CNC router. Last year I spent many a weekend cutting and milling round discs and drilling thousands of plucker finger holes with my drill press. At one time, my sons helped with this work. But it is tedious work and they were not so enthusiastic about it after doing so many. It is especially hard to stick with it when the neighbor needs help with his farming or the fish are biting or there are woodchucks to hunt. So now a computerized machine does the work. I still center and mount flanged shafts to the plates. And I personally package and ship all Whizbang orders.

The same computerized router will soon be cranking out HDPE parts for people making their own Whizbang Cidermaking Equipment.

I have a lot of irons in the fire (Oh, did I tell you I’m also trying to learn to play the banjo?). And working a full-time factory job really cuts into the time. To make matters worse, I need to take some time to figure out my income taxes. All of which means I must forgo blogging here once again—but only for a season. I will, however, present a new and different “Little Bits” daily series during my blogging break..... starting tomorrow.

Economic Redundancy, The Decline of Complex Systems & "Remedial Practices"

Redundancy: noun, the state of being redundant

Redundant: adjective, more than enough; overabundant; excessive

The bad economic situation continues to ratchet itself to new heights, or maybe it is to new depths. Whatever the case, I think we’re all growing tired of it.

However, unlike watching a redundant movie or reading a redundant book, we can’t turn off or lay aside a worsening economy. And it would be a mistake to ignore the situation. Withdrawing from reality is evidence of psychosis, don’t ya know?

I’m of the mind that it’s much better to look ahead, try to understand the reality, and proactively deal with it.

The late Larry Burkett's heralded economic earthquake is now occurring (though not exactly as he expected it would). Buildings and infrastructure once seemingly sound and solid are crumbling to the ground. Everyone is in shock and awe, wondering to themselves: “How much worse can it get?” My answer: “Look at the bigger picture. It can get a whole lot worse. And it probably will be before long.”

Every so often I head over to James Howard Kunstler’s web site to see what he has to say. Kunstler gained some acclaim as a Peak Oil prognosticator. When the price of oil skyrocketed last year, Kunstler was something of a celebrity.

But now a barrel of oil is downright cheap. It's selling for less than 50 bucks. One wonders, is the Peak Oil theory now out the window? Probably not. It could be argued that a Peak Oil hiccup was the spark that ignited the current financial crisis. The free flow of cheap oil is as much a part of our industrialized world as the fiat-money banking system and all its progeny. In a March 2 essay titled, What Next? Kunstler writes the following:

The Peak Oil story was never about running out of oil. It was about the collapse of complex systems in a world economy faced by the prospect of no further oil-fueled growth. It was something of a shock to many that the first complex system to fail would be banking, but the process is obvious: no more growth means no more ability to pay interest on credit... end of story, as Tony Soprano used to say.

That last sentence about no more growth meaning no more ability to pay interest brings up a point worth understanding. Years ago, I put some effort into learning how fractional reserve banking, and the federal reserve, and our money supply works. I still don’t fully understand it (almost no one does). But one thing I learned that struck me as strange is that almost all money is loaned into circulation. However, the interest to pay for the debt is not loaned into circulation. Therefore, for the whole economic system to operate smoothly and perpetuate itself, there must be continued economic growth, with more debt-money being continually generated to pay off the interest. It is something of a Ponzi system, or so it appears to me.

Now that we have seen a dramatic collapse in economic growth, coupled with a freeze in credit, we have a disaster, all the more exacerbated by a vast complex of banking and finance schemes. Kunstler further writes, in his own unique way:

The last desperate act of the banking system in the face of Peak Oil's no-more-growth equation was to engineer species of tradable securities that could produce wealth out of thin air rather than productive activity. This was the alphabet soup of algorithm-derived frauds with vague and confounding names such as credit default swaps (CDSs), collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), structured investment vehicles (SIVs), and, of course, the basic filler, mortgage backed securities. The banking system is now choking to death on these delicacies.

The trouble is that the EMT squad brought in to rescue the banking system -- that is, governments -- can't remove these obstructions from the patient's craw. They don't want to drown in a mighty upchuck of the alphabet soup.

Kunstler further asserts that the collapse of banking has led to the collapse of commerce and manufacturing. Then he opines that...

The next systems to go will probably be farming, transportation, and the oil markets themselves (which constitute the system for allocating and distributing world energy resources). As these things seize up, the final system to go will be governance, at least at the highest levels.
If we're really lucky, human affairs will eventually reorganize at a lower scale of activity, governance, civility, and economy. Every week, the failure to recognize the nature of our predicament thrusts us further into the uncharted territory of hardship. The task of government right now is not to prop up doomed systems at their current scales of failure, but to prepare the public to rebuild our systems at smaller scales.

Does anyone out there really think our government is going to “rebuild our systems at smaller scales?” Strong, centralized, corrupted, overbearing, out of control government does not do “smaller scales.” If you want to see real psychosis in action, look at Washington, DC.

But what happens when farming collapses? The prospect for that is closer than most of us might realize. The way we produce our food has been organized at a scale that has ruinous consequences, not least its addiction to capital. Now that banking is in collapse, capital will be extremely scarce.

Every branch of the industrialized order, including BigAg, is kept alive by a steady infusion of oil and credit. Cut off the supply of either and the system suffers. And when the system is so highly refined and intertwined, as it is, it all begins to unravel and break down, as is happening. It may well be that we are still in the beginning stages of the unraveling.

My guess is that the disorder in agriculture will be pretty severe this year, especially since some of the world's most productive places -- California, northern China, Argentina, the Australian grain belt -- are caught in extremes of drought on top of capital shortages. If the US government is going to try to make remedial policy for anything, it better start with agriculture, to promote local, smaller-scaled farming using methods that are much less dependent on oil byproducts and capital injections.

Once again, I’m dubious of government doing any such “remedial policies.” Our government has become a tool of the corporate interests. Such interests do not have any desire to promote small-scale, localized, sustainable agricultural practices. It’s not gonna happen, at least not by government influence to any significant degree. In fact, government will be a hindrance and stumbling block to such proactive and worthwhile change.

But remedial practices are exactly what every person and family in America needs to initiate and undertake on their own. As the complex industrial systems unravel themselves in the days ahead, one thing is certain—you will still need to eat, and the system may not be able to keep you supplied. Bearing that in mind, the most prudent remedial practice you can undertake is to grow and supply as much of your own food as you can. If you can not do that, then it behooves you to develop personal relationships with people in your area who are producing food.

Food...a place to grow it, the knowledge and skills to grow and preserve it, and the tools to do this may be worth far more than inflated and devalued fiat money in the days ahead.

Me & My New Banjo

As I explained in my previous essay, I, a veritable musical ignoramus, have bought myself a banjo. What’s more, I intend to learn to play said banjo.

There was a time when I wanted to play the bagpipes. When I hear bagpipes, something deep within me stirs. When I hear bagpipes, I feel reflective and melancholy, or I just want to march into battle wearing a kilt and brandishing a very large sword.

Then I had it in my head that I wanted a shofar. There is something about the shofar that appeals to me. Maybe it is the simplicity of it. Surely, anyone can play a shofar. I went to YouTube and watched This Clip of hundreds of men (maybe thousands) blowing shofars at some gathering in Tennessee. It shows Ricky Skaggs blowing a shofar on stage. I watched that movie and it was fascinating, but I came to the conclusion I’m just not Pentecostal enough to play the shofar.

But the banjo....now there’s an instrument that really appeals to me. It seems very “down to earth.” And, unlike bagpipes or a shofar, the banjo requires no lung activity; it leaves the player free to talk or sing. Most of all, though, I like the banjo because banjo music just makes me happy.

How I came to actually buy a banjo is kind of interesting. It happened like this....I awoke early one morning in mid December, last. I had it in my mind that I was going to learn to play the banjo. I went directly to my computer and to YouTube where I did a search of “banjo lesson.” The first page of results came up and I was attracted to Frailing Banjo Lesson One.

That was my introduction to Patrick Costello. I liked him and what he was saying and I was intrigued. I thought to myself that he was a good teacher and that I could learn what he was showing.

In another YouTube banjo movie with Patrick Costello, he introduces his father, who he affectionately refers to as “Dear Ol’ Dad.” It turns out that Dear Ol’ Dad’s name is Pat and he and Patrick have a home business selling banjo lesson books and DVD’s. They utilize YouTube pretty well. You can see Patrick and Dear Ol’ Dad together in this “weekly lesson” on YouTube.

But teaching is only part of the father & son business. It so happens they sell banjos too. I looked the banjos over and decided that I could afford an S5 Minuteman.

That’s when I went and told Marlene of my hankering to buy a banjo and learn to play it. This was the first she had heard of my desire to do this and she was surprised. But she gave her approval.

I thought about buying that banjo for a few hours and even went to several internet sites looking at various banjos for sale. Then, that afternoon, I ordered an S5 Minuteman and paid a down payment.

I could have bought a cheaper banjo and I could have bought a more expensive banjo. But the S5 appealed to me because it is handcrafted in America (Virginia) by a fellow named Chris Via. Here’s a link to Chris Via’s web site with pictures of his shop. I’d much rather have an instrument made by a goat-farmin’, family man homesteader from Virginia than I would an unknown Chinaman. And I’d much rather buy a banjo from a father and son business than I would an anonymous internet storefront. That’s the way I look at it.

Well, I had to wait for more than two months for my S5 Minuteman (Oh, and I do like that name) but it was worth the wait. As it happens, the Minuteman banjo is a brand new creation and a collaborative effort between Patrick, Dear Ol’ Dad, Chris Via, and Neil Turner. Dear Ol’ Dad told me on the phone that they have something akin to a banjo-making guild going on down there, and it appears that business is good.

Dear Ol’ Dad also told me that he once managed a pharmaceutical company and then a bubble gum company. Now retired, he is very busy with the home music business. His management and organizational skills are coming in handy.

My Minuteman banjo arrived a couple weeks ago. It is signed by Chris Via and is numbered “003.” I’m a happy customer. The batteries in my digital camera are dead so I can’t show you a picture of me and my new banjo right now. But here is a YouTube video of Patrick Costello telling all about my new banjo and showing how it sounds:



You can learn more about the S5 Minuteman, and the other banjos that the Costellos sell, as well as their teaching materials and blog, and so on at This Link.

A progress report: I can tell you that I have figured out how to tune my banjo (I bought a neat little electronic tuner) and I am practicing about 1/2 hour a day with the very basic beginning lessons. I’m getting a little more comfortable and better every day. I have a LOT to learn but I really am enjoying this whole new adventure. Better yet, my son, James, is interested and practicing a bit too.

My “Midlife Crisis” Birthday Present

First, I must admit that I’m not sure I totally understand what a midlife crisis is. But I have it in my mind that it's something that happens to a man when he begins to realize that his youth has slipped away. In an effort to regain something of the “glory” of his youthful days, he does something radically uncharacteristic for a man of his supposed maturity—like have “an affair” with some younger woman, or buy a totally impractical, expensive, flashy new sports car.

I can tell you that neither of those things appeals to me.... not in the least. I may be experiencing mid-life crisis, but I’m not experiencing selfishness, foolishness, and blatant stupidity. At least, I hope I’m not.

I’ve got it in my mind that I can have a positive midlife crisis—something that may, admittedly, prove painful to my wife and children, but it won’t destroy my family. Fact is, Marlene and our boys all approve. They are a little shocked, but they approve.

I will not belabor you with further ado. I will just tell you plain and simple....

I bought myself a banjo.

Now, some of you may be thinking: “You bought a banjo? That’s supposed to be evidence of a midlife crisis? That’s a pretty lame midlife crisis!”

Well, it’s my midlife crisis and I can define it any way I want. :-)

What you do not realize is that for me to buy myself a banjo is completely out of character. I don’t know nuthin’ about playing any musical instrument. I’m 51 years old and I’m a total musical ignoramus

But, looking back, when I was 41 years old, I was a total chicken butchering ignoramus, and I learned myself that. I ask you, can playing a banjo be harder than butchering chickens?

Actually, I’m sure it is. The way I see it, a man can become very proficient after butchering somewhere around 1,000 chickens. Calculate the average time spent butchering those chickens, spread out over a few years, and you’ll end up with maybe 100 hours total.

But, according to a banjo book I bought, it takes around 2,500 hours of practice before you become really proficient at playing the banjo. So, yes, learning to play banjo is harder than learning to butcher chickens. I’m not taking this on without some realistic understandings about what I’m getting into.

Unlike so many other people out there, I did not grow up in a musically-inclined family. When I think about my parents and grandparents and aunts and cousins, I can think of only one person who played a musical instrument—my aunt Carolyn played piano and accordion.

So, you see, this really is totally out of character for me to do. Besides that, I just don’t have time to learn to play a banjo. But I’m gonna do it. My excuse: It must be a midlife crisis.

In my next essay I’ll tell you all about my new banjo (she’s a beaut), and I’ll tell you about my banjo teacher, and maybe I’ll show you a picture of me and my new banjo. Oh, and I'll tell you why, among all the instruments in the world, I chose the banjo.

Check Out Mia's Blog

Every so often I am so impressed with a blog that I am compelled to recommend it to you. That is exactly what I want to do today. The blog is written by 17-year-old Mia. She describes her blog as follows:

"Greetings! My name is Mia and I'm an aspiring homemaker! My desire is to use this blog as an outlet to share what I'm learning along the way to biblical womanhood--documenting thoughts, intrests, and photos of everyday life!"

Mia describes herself as follows:

I'm an african american homeschooler and a Christian saved by grace! I love to worship the Lord w/ singing & playing guitar :) The oldest of 3, I choose to be a stay-at-home daughter and enjoy spending time with my family. My favorite hobbies include: photography, working in the garden, laughing, anything old fashioned & meeting new people! I am unmarried and work from the home.

My wife, Marlene, told me about Mia's blog and wanted me to see it. I am greatly blessed by everything I saw there. If I had a daughter, I would hope that she would be a young lady much like Mia. If I was a young man looking for a wife, I would be looking for a girl like Mia.

Mia and her family have purchased an old "cottage" on four acres out in the country. They are on a great family adventure to learn to be more self sufficient. It's my pleasure to recommend Mia's blog, Aspiring Homemaker.

Introducing ThePlanet Whizbang Wheel Hoe

Dateline: 2 March 2009

Updated: 24 May 2009

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This is my new Planet Whizbang wheel hoe design. Welcome to simple, efficient, and affordable garden weed control!

It used to be as American as apple pie to grow a big garden. Back before grocery stores were super-sized and packed with convenience foods, people grew much of their own food. Those in the rural areas certainly did this, and even people in small towns and cities had big backyard gardens. We were a gardening nation.

Planting a garden is one thing. Keeping it cultivated and free of weeds is another. The traditional tool for keeping weeds under control is a hand hoe. Every gardener had a hand hoe (or two) and was well acquainted with how to use it.

The secret to keeping weeds under control is to hoe the soil before you see the weeds. If you periodically disrupt the little underground weed seed sprouts when they are tiny white filaments, just looking to make their way in the world, you will have the upper hand. Gardening is, after all, a form of warfare; it is you against the weeds. Attack the enemy when it is weakest, before it has a chance to gain a foothold and fortify its position, and you will be victorious. The old-timers knew this very well.

The only problem with a hand hoe is that is is slow, tedious work. If your garden is big, hoeing can be somewhat of an overwhelming task. This situation led to the invention in the 1800s of the wheel hoe. A wheel hoe consists of a soil disturbing blade attached to a wheel with a couple of convenient handles on one end. You grasp the handles and push the implement ahead of you, through the soil. Weeding with a wheel hoe is fast and easy on your back.

There are wheel hoes with high wheels and there are wheel hoes with low wheels. The low-wheel hoes are far easier and more efficient to use.

Wheel hoes were once almost as common as hand hoes in this country. Everyone with a garden had a wheel hoe. There were several companies that made wheel hoes but the most popular wheel hoe in the world was the Planet Junior, made by the S.M. Allen Company.

In addition to the Planet Jr. Wheel hoes, there were Planet Jr. seeders and Planet Jr. horse drawn farm equipment. When the gasoline engine started replacing horse and mule power, Planet Jr. came out with a line of walk-behind tractors with a variety of attachments.

Sometime after W.W.II, America lost interest in big gardens. To a significant degree, even on a small scale, gardening itself went by the wayside. As a result, Planet Jr. wheel hoes went from being useful tools to being relics of a bygone era. The company that once made Planet Jr. wheel hoes by the truck load, went out of business.

But, in recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in personal gardening and small-farm vegetable production. Those old Planet Jr. wheel hoes (the few that are still around) have been in big demand. To meet this demand, a Planet Jr. knockoff wheel hoe has come onto the market. It is made by a Swiss company. You can see it here. Take note of the price of the wheel hoe at that link. Three hundred and forty five dollars (plus shipping charges) is quite a chunk of change for a hoe—even if it is an amazingly effective wheel hoe.

After procrastinating for a long time (like a couple of years) I bit the bullet and parted with the big bucks. I bought one of those fancy schmancy Swiss wheel hoes. I put it to work in my garden. I liked what it did. You simply can not beat a wheel hoe for fast, easy, systematic weed control in the garden.

Nevertheless I must admit that the almost $400 price tag seemed overly excessive to me. As I used and studied my very expensive imported wheel hoe I could not help but think that I could make a wheel hoe of my own design for considerably less than almost $400. And, so, that is exactly what I did.

Year before last, I bought numerous chunks of metal, which I cut, drilled, and bolted together into a variety of wheel hoe configurations, none of which was entirely satisfactory to me. Then, near the end of the growing season, I felt like I had a worthwhile design; an intelligentWhizbang design.

The next growing season (last year) I really put that homemade wheel hoe prototype to work. I felt it performed as well as that fancy Swiss model. Here is a picture of me with my homemade prototype wheel hoe:

That picture shows the hoe with an 8” hoe blade (the most common and useful implement). The blade oscillates, which is to say, it pivots back and forth, just a bit, as is needed for efficient hoeing action. That’s exactly what the expensive Swiss wheel hoe does.

I tested that prototype all spring and summer in my garden. I also used it to slice through weeds that were encroaching into my gravel driveway. The stone in my driveway is hard-packed crusher run. I forced my hoe blade through the densely-packed stone and it sliced through the weeds about 1/2” down. This kind of work was, essentially, wheel hoe abuse, and I abused that prototype repeatedly all summer long. I can report that the tool took such abuse without complaint or ill effect. I was impressed. No, I was amazed.

My homemade wheel hoe was clearly a Whizbang tool. I felt compelled to tell the world about this awesome gardening tool. It is typical for me to come up with a Whizbang product and write a how-to book about it. But this time, I have decided to do something very different. This time I have posted a step-by-step photo tutorial to the internet telling everyone in the world how to build their own Planet Whizbang Wheel Hoe. This tutorial is free. Here is a picture of a spiffy new homemade Planet Whizbang Wheel Hoe like what I tell (and show) you how to make:

The Planet Whizbang Wheel Hoe. Ain't She A Beauty!

For those who need some help with the project, I supply parts kits that will include all the metal components you’ll need. I am having these components cut to size by a metal fabrication shop. From there, they will go to a machine shop to be drilled precisely. All bolts and washers and nuts and so on will be included in the wheel hoe parts kit.

I have purchased a metal bender. My sons and I will be bending the parts that need bending. The objective is to supply you with an easy-to-bolt-together parts kit. I can pack all these parts in a Flat Rate Priority mail shipping box and send it anywhere in the world at a reasonable price.

Those who purchase my Planet Whizbang Wheel Hoe parts kit will need to buy a $15 tire from Northern Tool (Item #145126). Besides that, you will need to make your own wood handles and spreader bar.

My photo tutorial tells exactly how to make the handles using common pine lumber. The handle shape is patterned after the handle shape on the old Planet Junior. In fact, I found an original Planet Jr. wheel hoe at a flea market, and bought it, and copied the handle shape. For those who don’t want to make their own handles, I hope to establish a database of amateur woodworkers across the country who are willing to make these handles (for a reasonable price) for people in their area.

I’m still working out the price of the metal parts kits. I hope to keep them under $100.

If you are a serious gardener, you need a wheel hoe. It will make your work so much easier, and gardening so much more enjoyable. A weed-free garden is not only beautiful, it is more productive. Instead of spending a small fortune for the tool, you will be able to make your own dependable hoe for a third of the cost of those overpriced imports. And this will be a tool that you can hand down to your children and grandchildren.

Here’s to your success as a gardener!

The Whizbang Cider Book Is Now In Print

It’s official. Anyone Can Build a Whizbang Apple Grinder & Cider Press is now in print, as you can see in the picture above.

Over the past four years, I have written here on this blog about my experiences making cider, and I’ve chronicled the progress as I’ve endeavored to develop simple, practical homestead-scale cidermaking equipment. Then, when I finally had it all figured out, I told you, my readers, that I was going to put together a plan book. I offered pre-publication copies at a good discount. Ninety six of you out there bought a pre-publication copy. You trusted me to get the job done. I thank you for that.

My printer managed to get me enough books by the end of February to fill all my pre-publication orders. The books are in the mail, on their way to you. Everything came together very nicely. Thank you again everyone.

Now it is my hope that those of you who bought the book will absorb the how-to information and be inspired to build your own amazing Whizbang apple grinder and cider press. It is only March, but you know how quickly time passes...apple cider season will be here before you know it. Think Fresh-Squeezed Sweet Cider. Think of how fun and rewarding it will be to turn bushels of apples into gallons of cider. And as you are making that cider with your friends and family, you will also be making sweet cider smiles (as I explain in the Introduction to the book).

For those who would like some help with making their Whizbang Cidermaking equipment, I will be selling some project parts. First, I will be posting information soon at www.Whizbang Cider.com about the HDPE plastic hoop kits I’ll be selling. These kits will include the stainless steel screws that you need to attach the hoops.

By the end of March, I should be posting information about other HDPE plastic components that I will be offering. You don’t need to use HDPE components in your press. Plywood and pine will suffice, if sealed with polyurethane. But HDPE is food safe and easy to clean. It makes a great top surface for the grinder, as well as the bottom pan, pressing discs, and pressure plate (as shown in the photos of my cidermaking equipment, which you can see HERE).

My hope is to have drain rack kits available soon, but there has been a setback in that department. I will eventually get back on track with this item.

Marlene (my wife) has been working to locate a company that can sew cider press filter bags at a reasonable price. As the planbook explains, you can get these bags from Lehmans in Kidron, Ohio. But we hope to offer our own pressing bags at a more reasonable price.

So things are progressing here with the Whizbang Cider project. My objective is to help you help yourself to great homemade apple cider. There are probably millions of bushels of cider-quality apples that go to waste every year in this country. That is a shame. We, the soon-to-be League of Whizbang Cidermakers will do something about that! Waste not, want not.

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Since I’m in a Whizbang business mode, I’ll share with you a few other new developments.....

Just today I managed to get my blog/catalog at www.WhizbangBooks.com modified so that you can click and “add to cart” all the books and project parts I sell. Buying from Whizbang Books on the internet is now very convenient. I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time.

I was able to get the shopping cart set up because I now have fast internet. I’ve labored under the limitations of dial-up for years. Finally, I decided to make the switch. The hold up was the monthly cost. I took care of that by disconnecting the Whizbang Books phone line. The cost of fast internet and my monthly phone bill were about the same. I’m relieved to be rid of the phone. It took messages and I was woefully negligent about returning calls. Besides that, most all my Whizbang business is done over the internet or through the mail. As an added bonus, fast internet now allows me to do more with my blog. You may have noticed a lot more photos and such being posted at this blog since the beginning of the year. That’s what fast internet can do for you.

If you have a hankering to build your own Whizbang Chicken Scalder, this month is a good time to buy the plan book. Scratch & dent copies are on sale this month for $10 off the retail price. Click Here For Complete Details (and a handy “Add to Cart” button).

The Planet Whizbang project is progressing. I’m even more excited about my Planet Whizbang gardening tool than I am the whole Whizbang Cider project (and I’m more than just a little excited about that). I will be explaining exactly what the Planet Whizbang is in the next day or two. I’ll be showing you a picture of this closely-guarded Whizbang secret.

And finally, before the end of this next week, I hope to reveal to you that “midlife crisis” birthday present I bought for myself 2-1/2 months ago (and just got last week).

Stay tuned....

A Christian-Agrarian Disclaimer

I’ve been blogging essays here for almost four years now. I write about “the good life” as my family and I know it. As I’ve stated in the past, I am motivated to deliberately live a more self-reliant lifestyle, close to the land, largely separated from modernism, because I believe this is the Biblical mandate. I define myself as a "Christian agrarian." I am an advocate for this way of life.

Others who read my essays here may come to the conclusion that this way of life is idyllic. Well from my perspective it is.

According to my dictionary an “idyll” is "a short poem or prose work describing a simple, pleasant scene of rural, pastoral, or domestic life; the literary tradition of the term goes back to Theocritus, who described pastoral life in Sicily for sophisticated readers of Alexandria." The word “idyllic” is described as "1. of, or having the nature of, an idyl; hence, 2. pleasing and simple; pastoral or picturesque."

Thus, it would appear that I, like Theocritus, am an idylist ("writer or composer of idyls").

It is easy to describe such idyls because they are not imagined; they are real and true; they are my life; I simply write about what I know and experience here with my family on our little portion of earth.

Now, having said that, I must also point out that this lifestyle I know and love so well is not without difficulties. Idyllic does not necessarily mean easy. I have written before of My Christian Agrarian Reality. There is more to this lifestyle that meets the eye. If you have not read that essay, please do so right now.

Many readers of this blog (or other Christian agrarian blogs) are inclined to think that we who write and present our thoughts to you really “have our act together.” This is not entirely true with me and I’m quite certain it is not the case with any of those other bloggers. Personally, I have a lot to learn and I am no paragon of Christian agrarian virtue.

I need to make that perfectly clear. My wife could tell you of my personal failures and foibles, as I could tell you about hers. Or I could tell you about little problems within our family. But I don’t tell all here. For the most part I choose to write about "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things" (Philippians 4:8).

There are folks who read my writings and decide that they want to pursue a more Christian-agrarian lifestyle. I see this as a wise pursuit. But, as with all things that require significant lifestyle change, it should be prayerfully considered and then pursued step-by-step in a careful, deliberate manner. Keep in mind that your Christian-agrarianism may look a bit different than mine, and that is okay. Like the saying goes, “your results may vary.”

More than just a few people, upon feeling the call to leave Babylonian culture and Babylonian dependencies, decide they must move from suburbia to a more rural area and acquire some land. Again, I see this as a wise thing to do. With that thought in mind, I often get e-mails from those people asking if I know of a Christian agrarian community that I can recommend to them. Let me publicly answer this question very clearly:

There is no Christian agrarian community that I endorse or recommend. I have never endorsed or recommended any Christian-agrarian church or community. Please do not misconstrue anything I have ever written on this blog as endorsement of any such groups. (and that is my disclaimer)

I do not write this to disparage any such groups. I say it because I have no personal experience with any of these groups, and without such experience, there is no way I can recommend them. I can’t say anything with conclusive certainty about them—good or bad—because I’m not involved with them. It’s that simple.

Furthermore, I have no intention whatsoever of moving to and joining any Christian-agrarian community.

I do, however, have it in my mind to move out of New York state someday. If and when that time comes, I will look for a rural community in a place sufficiently away from metropolitan areas. I will look for a place where the climate agrees with me, where external government is minimal, where property taxes are reasonable (or nonexistent, if that ever happens), where there is an abundance of self-reliant, like-minded families, and where there is at least one small, rural church where I see the love of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit manifested in the congregation and lives of the people.

I happen to believe there are many communities like this in Rural America. If it were not for the taxes and overbearing government regulations, I would say that such a community is right here where I now live. I’ve been here for 36 years. I like the land, I like the people, I like the change of seasons, I have roots in this place, I have many friends—people I have known for years.

The other day I was standing in line at the post office in the little rural town that I live about six miles outside of. I knew the person in the line in front of me. I knew the person in back of me. I knew the woman behind the counter. I knew people who walked in the door. I greeted them with a smile and they greeted me in kind. We made small talk. It isn’t always that way at the post office. But it often is. And the same goes for the grocery store, and the gas station, and the lumber yard.

Where I live is not perfect but this place has a lot going for it. Could it be that, just as there is no perfect church, there is also no perfect community. Perhaps where I live is as good as it gets. That might well be the case. Upstate New York is full of little rural towns like the one I live in.

Perhaps I should start recommending that those looking for a rural community in which to put down roots should come to the beautiful Finger Lakes region of New York State, and the quaint rural villages of southern Cayuga County, where I now live.The taxes are way too high, but, compared to some other places in the country, the price of rural land is quite reasonable. You could do a lot worse. And I'd be glad to have you as a neighbor. :-)

Gardening Bits For Hard Times (A Continuing Series)

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As noted in yesterday’s blog post, I am short on time these days. I need to take leave from blogging until the end of February. But I will still be posting a daily “little bit” here. Each little bit will be a short excerpt from the book, Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times, by Steve Solomon.

Each day’s “gardening bit” will be posted below the previous day’s, so the collection will read in logical order from the top down. I will also change the picture at the top of this blog each day when I add a new bit. So if you stop by and see a picture different from the previous day, you know to scroll down and read the new “gardening bit.”

When I return from this gardening bit break on March first I will provide a picture of my mysterious "midlife crisis" birthday present to myself (which I mentioned awhile back). And I also expect to provide a photo with some details about the “Planet Whizbang” gardening tool that I’m currently working to bring to market.

Gardening Bit #1
20 February 2009
I have all kinds of books about gardening. Not one of them is the total and final word on the subject. But every one is a worthwhile source of useful information. Based on my readings and my predilection for down-to-earth simplicity, I am particularly fond of Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times, by Steve Solomon.

I was initially hesitant to send for the book because I thought the subtitle, Growing Food In Hard Times was gimmicky. Besides that, I was starting to think maybe I had enough gardening books. How much more could there be to know about this subject? Well, shame on me for the latter thought, and nothing could be further from the former impression.

It turns out that Steve Solomon has written a commendable book. It is chock full of valuable insights and useful information. The book is also decidedly contrarian in many ways, as you will see. But Solomon's opinions and methods of gardening are informed by many years of personal experience and research. What’s more, Solomon is the fellow who started the Territorial Seeds company in 1979, when he was 37 years old. Seven years later, he sold the business and moved to Tasmania where he continues to garden and grow a large portion of the food he eats.

“Gardening When it Counts” was published in 2005. Solomon foresaw “coming hard times,” and the need for basic, sound gardening information to help people provide for themselves through those hard times. And those hard times have now arrived. Here is an excerpt from the book:

Gardening magazines, garden centers, and seed catalogs all promote the idea that their appealing merchandise is useful and essential—that you need it. Actually, to veggie garden successfully you need only a few hand tools, used properly. I am going to educate you about this as your grandfather should have done. But almost none of us had a grandfather who knew how to grow vegetables, who grew up on a farm, who sharpened shovels and hoes and worked the earth. If you’ll allow it, I am going to be the gardening grandfather you never had.

Gardening Bit #2
21 February 2009

During the 1970s, inflation and unemployment were high. In such lean years, many people grew substantial backyard veggie gardens. I was a young man who did that.

Good times returned in the 1980s and continued into the first half of the first decade of the new millennium—fat years. I was there. In easy times people go to restaurants and take summer vacations; not me, I continued gardening.

During the fat years an unfortunate change happened in veggie gardening. Books and magazine articles promoting traditional homestead and backyard methods—growing well-separated plants in rows far enough apart that you could walk between them—disappeared. Row gardening was universally denounced as a waste of space, inefficient with water, and low-producing, densly packed, deeply dug, super fertile, massively irrigated, raised bed systems became fashionable. As I write this book in 2005, intensive gardening still reigns.

Steve Solomon goes on to explain that he adopted the intensive gardening methods of John Jeavons, and by 1984 he had written three of his own gardening books recommending intensive methods.

But in the 1980s, as he grew seed variety trials for his Territorial Seeds company, Solomon noticed something...

Trials require that you grow plants far enough apart that each can develop its full potential. One thing I noticed from doing this was that my trial plots didn’t need nearly as much irrigation as my intensive veggie garden. Another was that these well-separated plants got much larger; they tasted better than crowded vegetables did when they weren’t harvested properly; and many vegetable species grown that way yielded more in relation to the space occupied, not less as I had read in books by intensivist gurus.

This realization of Solomon’s resonated with me as I read it because I myself adopted the raised bed intensive gardening approach for several years. Then, two years ago, I ripped out all my rotting wood-framed beds with neat walkways between them and went back to traditional row gardening. I’ve looked at gardening from both sides now and I’m persuaded that less intensive, more traditional gardening is better suited to growing a serious amount of good quality food with the least amount of fertilizer, water, and other inputs.

This is, of course, a debatable gardening matter. But the point is, intensive gardening is not a panacea and Solomon’s book goes on to explain the reasons why traditional methods should be reconsidered. That is not the who point of the book. There is much, much more to the gardening wisdom of Steve Solomon, but he is clearly not a proponent of intensive gardening.

Gardening Bit #3
22 February 2009

If your goal is to produce not half, but nearly all the calories and nutrition needed year-round, and if your family can depend on the ordinary potato as their healthful staff of life, then you can add more land in order to produce sacks and sacks of nutritious spuds or sweet potatoes.

The good thing about potatoes is that working plots of this scale can be done entirely with hand tools. To produce the same amount of nutrition by growing cereal grains would require five to ten times as much land per person. The healthful potato is really the thing for getting through hard times.

I could not agree more with this advice. We typically grow several bushels of potatoes, keep them in crates in the basement, and depend on the supply through the winter. If times were hard, I would plant more potatoes. Fact is, I hope to be planting more potatoes this year. The hardest part of growing potatoes is digging them in the fall. You can read an essay I wrote about digging potatoes, and see a Whizbang Garden Cart full of homegrown spuds, AT THIS LINK

Gardening Bit #4
23 February 2009
Chapter Two of “Gardening When it Counts” is titled, “Basics.” Here is where Steve Solomon divides vegetables into the categories of low demand, medium demand, and high demand. These categories refer to the fertility necessary to grow each category. Then he explains the importance of balanced fertility when growing vegetables.

Solomon makes it clear that soils with ideally balanced fertility are very rare. He further states that the addition of organic matter in the form of composted vegetation and animal manures is a good thing but it does not necessarily correct unbalanced fertility. Fact is, organic matter from soil with a fertility imbalance will amplify already existing soil nutrient imbalances.

The point being, you can not balance fertility in an unbalanced soil without the addition of external inputs (i.e., some sort of fertilizer), especially if you are growing medium and high demand vegetables.

With soil nutrient imbalances in mind, Steve Solomon presents a “recipe” he has developed for:

...an organic soil amendment that is correct for almost any food garden. It is a complete, highly potent, and correctly balanced fertilizing mix made entirely of natural substances, a complete organic fertilizer, or COF. I use COF and regular small additions of compost. Together they provide incredible results. I recommend this system to you as I’ve been recommending it in my gardening books for 20 years. No one has ever written back to me about COF saying anything but “Thank you, Steve. My garden has never grown so well; the plants have never been so large and healthy; the food never tasted so good.

Solomon’s COF recipe is not something I feel I should reveal in detail here (I encourage you to get the book), but I will have more to say about it in the next gardening bit.

Gardening Bit #5
24 February 2009
Yesterday I told you about Steve Solomon’s Complete Organic Fertilizer (COF). I didn’t feel it would be ethical of me to reveal the recipe here because the book is protected by copyright. Small sections of the book, for the purposes of review, and with my encouragement to get yourself a copy, seems appropriate, but I don’t want to cross the line.

However, Stepahanie Skelly who has a blog called One Big Adventure, sent me an e-mail to say that Steve Solomon himself has written about his COF recipe at THIS INTERNET LINK. Thanks Stephanie!

The COF ingredients, things like seedmeal (i.e. cottonseed meal), ordinary agricultural lime, dolomite lime, and ground rock phosphate are typically available in bulk quantities for reasonable prices from most rural agricultural farm supply stores. There is such a place about six miles from my home. I think it has been in business for over a hundred years. They cater to farmers but when I need something they are glad to oblige. So that’s the kind of place where you can get these ingredients.

If stored properly, COF ingredients will keep for years. I intend to stock up on a mullit-year supply this spring. As far as I’m concerned, a supply of COF is better than money in the bank.

Tomorrow I will provide a quote from Solomon’s book about how to build soil fertility if you can not afford to buy COF (there is also the possibility that, one day, if things in the world get bad enough, COF ingredients will not be readily available). For now, I’ll leave you with this quote about COF from the book:

The ideal fertilizer would release slowly, so the nutrients didn’t wash out of the topsoil with the first excessive irrigation or heavy rain. It would be a dry, odorless, finely powdered, completely organic material that would not burn leaves if sprinkled on them and would not poison plants or soil life if somewhat overapplied. All this accurately describes COF.

Gardening Bit #6
25 February 2009
For those who may not have the financial resources to purchase the ingredients for Steve Solomon’s COF for their vegetable gardens, he provides some lesser options. Among them is this one:

Soil improvement materials were always scarce for Native American gardeners. Their approach, and a wise on it was: concentrate what fertilizer they could get into hills. Usually several plants were grown on each fertilized hill. The word “hill” in this case does not mean a high mound; it is a low broad bump about 18 inches in diameter that is deeply dug up and into which fertilizer is mixed. For Native Americans the fertilizer was often a buried bony “trash” fish that weighed at least one pound. I expect the Native American garden was also used as the family latrine and as the burial yard for slaughtering waste, dead dogs, and other small animals, with each deposit making a hill.

These days, hills might be fertilized by roadkill or a quart of strong composted chicken manure and a few tablespoonfuls of agricultural line.

That advice brings to mind several things. First, I guess I should be glad that my dog buries so many woodchucks in my garden every year. Second, my Whizbang Squash Planting Secret is something akin to a Native American hill and this year I’ll be adding COF to the mix. Third, I’m now thinking that all the deer bones we’ve been feeding our dog (and that are now scattered around the yard) can be collected up and used for fertilizer (Perhaps they can be ground up in my Whizbang Apple grinder). Waste not, want not, eh? The “Old Timers” would approve. Check out this old farm almanac entry.

Gardening Bit #7
26 February 2009
For those who want to save money or don’t have a lot of money to spend on the grocery bill, Steve Solomon provides a personal recollection from his book, Gardening When it Counts:

From mid-1980 through mid-1983, most of the food my household ate was vegetables, supplemented by some apples rom an old orchard and helped out at breakfast most mornings by blackberries, picked during high summer, stored in a rust-speckled old chest freezer in the woodshed, and blended with frozen bananas, bought as “overripes” at super-bargain prices. Money was so tight that when the germination percentage of the seed company’s bean seeds dropped below what was ethical to sell, I’d bring those seeds up to the house and we’d cook them. The food we purchased during those years was the odd bit of brown rice or millet, sometimes a chunk of ordinary cheese, some real Jersey butter or milk from the man down the road, olive oil and vinegar for salad dressing, and in winter, oranges or grapefruits now and then, but only by the full box and only when really cheap. I bought enough gasoline to go to town twice a month, paid the land taxes, purchased the odd bit of clothing at the Salvation Army, bought a chunk of beef about once a month when I’d crave it.

The point of this story is that you too can eat that frugally...if you need to. I could do it again too, if I needed to. And in terms of health, we’d both be better off if we did.

To this list of simple, inexpensive, wholesome foods, I would have to add oatmeal or oat groats. It is hard from me to imagine life without oatmeal.

Gardening Bit #8
27 February 2009
Steve Solomon founded Territorial Seed Company. As a former seedsman he knows the seed business very well. We who are not seedsmen look through garden seed catalogs and see colorful vegetable pictures and descriptions, but Solomon looks beyond the outward appearance and judges seed businesses by their ethics.

My personal definition of ethical is “doing the right thing even when no one is looking.” When it comes to the seed business, Solomon believes an ethical seed company will test the germination level of all seed lots twice a year and will cull out the weak seeds, even when it means throwing away thousands of dollars of product. I wonder how many actually do that?

Furthermore, Steve Solomon believes that an ethical seed company will conduct seed trials. That is, they will plant and grow out the seed they sell to evaluate the plants and vegetables that are produced. He contends that a minimum size for a meaningful trial ground would be half an acre. A medium-size seed company would need a few acres.

As you might imagine, properly conducted seed trials would take a a fair amount of time and work and money. And, as you might also imagine, many seed sellers do not take this part of the business seriously.

With all of that in mind, Solomon writes the following in his book:

In 1989 I wrote an article for Harrowsmith, then a brave country-lifestyle magazine. I explained the garden seed trade and evaluated and ranked mail-order companies. Why do I say “brave”? Because mail-order seed sellers made up a large portion of Harrowsmith’s advertisers, and my article offended more than a few of them. First I sent out 69 questionnaire’s on Harrowsmith’s stationery, stating that I was the ex-owner of Territorial Seed Company, that I was writing an article evaluating garden seed companies, and that I might telephone for further information after the questionnaire's answers had been received. Some of the questions were: Do you have a trials ground? If so, how large is it? Do you have your own in-house germination laboratory, even if uncertified? If so, how often do you test the seed lots on your shelves? What germination standards do you use to determine if a lot is fit to sell? What percentage (or how many) varieties in your catalog are actually grown by your company”

After eliminating those who elected not to respond (about half, which was not a surprise to me), I then removed from consideration those without trial grounds. Out of 69, only 20 were left. After a probing telephone chat with the management of these companies, I found 11 were worth recommending.

And so it was that Mr. Solomon revealed that some seed sellers operate their businesses to much higher standards than others.

“Gardening When it Counts” proceeds to list American seed companies that Solomon believes are the most ethical—which is to say, that sell seeds of the highest quality for home gardeners. I’ll name names in tomorrow’s Gardening Bit.

Gardening Bit #9
28 February 2009
If you sold vegetable seeds to people and you also sold gardening books in your seed catalog, would you sell a gardening book which evaluated and recommended a list of ethical seed sellers, and your company was not on the list? No, you would not.

And that explains why you will not find Steve Solomon's book, "Gardening When it Counts" amongst the book offerings in most seed company catalogs.

In regards to this matter, must say I admire what appears to be plucky Populism in Steve Solomon. That's the attitude of a Yeoman—someone confident and independent; not beholden to corporations or government; free and unafraid to speak the truth as he sees it. Yes, I like that in a person.

Below is a list of the American seed companies that Solomon recommends in his book. Unfortunately, he does not reveal the list of all companies he evaluated. A short commentary about each of these garden seed sellers is also in the book.

Stokes Seeds
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Harris Seeds
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Park Seed Company
Territorial Seed Company

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This concludes this "Gardening Bits" series.

I’m Going Back To Bits

My plate is full these days. The Whizbang Apple Grinder & Cider Press Book will soon be in print (you can still buy a reduced price copy before the end of this month). I need to finish the book’s web site at www.WhizbangCider.com. I need to put a press release together and send sample copies to numerous magazines and book buyers. I will try marketing this book to several home-brew suppliers too.

Besides that, I’m cramming to bring my next Whizbang product to market before spring and good weather arrives and the garden beckons me. The new Whizbang product will be revealed in all its down-to-earth glory at www.PlanetWhizbang.com.

I am very excited about the cider book and the Planet Whizbang. Both products will enable people to provide more and better food for themselves and their families. This is particularly important as the economy worsens.

Many people are very concerned about the uncertainties of the future. The most practical advice I can offer is what I am doing myself.... Grow as much of your own food as possible. Learn to preserve the harvest. Stock up. Invest in tools that will help you achieve these goals. That productive, responsible, prudent action will benefit you and your family no matter what happens with the economy.

Personally, I foresee the possibility that I may not have a job a year from now. I’m not fretting about it, but I’m also not totally ignoring this possibility. That said, I know from past experience that it takes a long time for new products I come up with to start bringing in some money and pay for the initial investment of time and money. I’m investing a fair amount (from my relatively humble financial perspective) in the Planet Whizbang tool idea. I think a lot of gardeners will see the value of having and using the tool. Stay tuned.

With my time so short lately, and spring coming, and the subject of growing food prominently in my thinking, I’ve decided to post a series of “Little Bits.” I did this last month when I was cramming to finish my cider press book. This time will be a little different. This time I will post a series of “Gardening Bits” gleaned from one of my favorite gardening books. The Gardening Bits series begins tomorrow.