The glass on the left contains sudsy rainwater and is translucent. The glass on the right holds hard well water, remained cloudy, made no suds and formed a soap scum ring.

Back when every home had a rain barrel stationed below the rainspout, our grandmothers knew rainwater was a must for washing hair. Grandma probably even knew why water falling from the sky felt better than that pumped from the ground. Admittedly, I didn’t know the benefits of cleaning with rainwater until going off-grid with my laundry duties.

I learned in my 1909 copy of “Household Discoveries” a simple test for discerning at home whether water is fit for laundry purposes. Simply dissolve a dab of good white soap in rubbing alcohol. Put a few drops of this mixture into a glass of water. “If the water is pure, the soap solution will be dissolved and the water will continue limpid, but if it is impure the soap will form into white flakes which will tend to float on the surface.”

To test this, I used two glasses of water – one from our drilled well and the other from the stock tank below the rain gutter. The soap disappeared immediately in the rainwater, but never dissolved or made suds in the hard water. After an hour, the well water glass also had a scummy ring on top.

For years, I accused my electric washing machine of doing a second-rate job of cleaning our clothes. Who would have thunk it was merely a water issue? Now that I wash with rainwater, our laundry is no longer crispy-crunchy or besmirched and grey.

Before actually going off-grid, I ran a garden hose from the rain tank outside to our electric washing machine in the basement just to see if the machine would launder better. It did, and I no longer had to add borax, washing soda or vinegar to the rinse cycle. While these additives are natural and relatively inexpensive, it is one more step to perform (and remember before the spin cycle ends).

“Household Discoveries” lists several ways to soften water, but also acknowledges that rainwater is absolutely best for cleaning anything, even without soap. In case of drought when a sufficient supply of rainwater cannot be obtained, however, here are some old-time methods for softening water:

“Bring the water to a boil and expose it to the air, which may be done by pouring it from some height into a tub or other vessel, and afterwards letting it stand overnight.

“Or boil it with the addition of a little baking soda, and afterwards expose it to the air.

“Or place a quantity of clean wood ashes in a tightly closed woolen bag and immerse the bag in a tub of water. The required amount of ashes can be ascertained by experiment.

“Or use chalk, which may be put into the spring or well or used in a tub or bucket, the proper amount depending upon the extent of the impurities, and to be determined in each locality by experiment.

“Or add a small quantity of borax or potash or soda lye, but care must be taken not to use too much, as otherwise the alkali they contain will injure the fabrics.

“Or add 1 to 2 tablespoonfuls of quicklime to each tubful of water. Slake the lime with a little warm water, stirring it to a cream, pour it into a tubful or boilerful of water, and let stand overnight or long enough to settle to the bottom. Pour off the clear water, taking care not to disturb the sediment.”

These water-softening tips make collecting rainwater much more appealing, don’t they?

We do not live in an industrial area or have large tree limbs overhanging our roof, which is metal.  As such, we have only an ordinary mesh screen over the rain tank to keep out bugs and other debris.   If the roof is asphalt or other airborne contaminants are a concern, the first few gallons of rainwater can be diverted away from the cistern (referred to as first flushing).

Where pollution is heavy, the water can also be filtered. A free-standing drip filter such as the Katadyn Drip Gravadyn can be easily installed in a rainwater harvesting system.  And here is information about an old-time rainbarrel filter.

Mother Earth News has many wonderful articles about collecting rainwater. These were useful to us when we set up our “cloud juice” system:

Build a Rainwater Harvesting System

Build a Rainwater Collection System

Harvesting Rainwater: How to Make a Rain Barrel

A Better Rainwater-Harvesting System

A young woman boils laundry in 1918

Having clean laundry was my greatest off-grid obstacle until I discovered two secrets – washing with rainwater and a hand-crank wringer.

During long-term power outages before we transitioned off-grid, I washed clothes by hand.  It was not terribly difficult, but I was never thrilled with the results. I haven’t used an electric or gas-powered dryer for decades, so line-drying laundry wasn’t the issue. In fact, I think hanging clothes out to dry is therapeutic (all that fresh air and exercise) and enjoyable (no dryer racket or static cling).

Many yards of fabric to wash

The problem was getting the clothes clean. I would rub and scrub and twist the water out until I could twist no more. Small articles weren’t too grueling, but sheets, jeans and large towels held so much water that the clothesline sagged nearly to the ground. The fabric took eternities to dry and was stained by excess water marinating along the bottom edges for hours. I tried all sorts of soaps, but still had dingy laundry.

For a while, I thought, “Well, that’s just the way it is.” But then I started some serious washerwoman research. As always to relearn old-time skills, I grabbed my books from the mid-1800s and early 1900s. Incidentally, sites such as OpenLibrary.org have made such investigation just a click away. At the end of this article are links to a few antique homemaking books in the public domain that can be downloaded and saved for future reference.

Washing clothes by hand in the 1800s

Because so many styles of mechanized washing machines have been designed and patented through the years, I thought washing clothes by hand must be absolute drudgery or inventors wouldn’t have bothered.  Many lengthy books, such as “The Laundry Manual; or Washing Made Easy” by a Professed Launderer, 1861, were devoted entirely to washing clothes. Days of the week revolved around a laundry schedule:

“The family linen must be looked over the day before washing, and people in Scotland usually prefer Tuesday to be that very important day – first, because it is best to have the washing early in the week, so that it is all finished and put away before Saturday; second, because it is better to have Monday to look over and mend clothes, soak, remove stains, etc., and of course that cannot be done if we wash on Monday, as Saturday is too far away, and the clothes would lie too long if soaked on Saturday; and Sunday, of course, is out of the question.

“If possible, 1 or 2 hours ought to be added to the day at the beginning of the washing day, to prevent the wheels of the household machinery getting out of the gear before the day is over, and prevent the breadwinners from feeling unnecessary discomfort. First light the boiler fire and fill the boiler; then make and take a cup of tea, which is the best and necessary refreshment before starting hard work at an early hour.”

― “Household Cookery and Laundry Work” by Mrs. Black, 1882

Generally, 150 or so years ago, laundry was mended and sorted on Monday, washed Tuesday and pressed, mangled and starched Thursday and Friday.  Unsurprisingly, doing laundry was an enormous task — considering a woman’s dress could contain 12 yards of cloth, water was heated manually in tubs, and many clothing articles had detachable frills to be cleaned separately.

O.B. Wight Washing Machine 1844

Troy Laundry Machine 1891

American Floating Ball Washing Machine of 1857

Multitude of washing machine inventions

I applaud all those many inventors who strived to make the task easier. The vast array of washing machines I encountered reveals inventors’ determination and abstract thinking. Early machines shook or pounded clothes clean, often smashing buttons and ripping expensive fabric in the process.

The American Floating Ball Washing-Machine, patented by Indiana farmer Mr. Moore in 1857, employed 200 to 300 floating elm wood balls the size of Seville oranges (about 3″) to gently rub clothes as a laundress manipulated the machine’s long handle. It was said to very closely imitate human hands in “pounding, scrubbing and squeezing.” Whew. I bet children enjoyed playing with that gadget.

While the multitude of washing machines evolved into the spinning drum models common today, the wringer went to the wayside – until us modern homesteaders demanded its revival. And, you know what? The wringer has changed little in more than 150 years. It is still simple, effective and easy to use.

Wringers back in style

In the mid-1800s, a wringer was relatively expensive because of one feature – vulcanized rubber on the rollers. Care had to be taken to prevent damaging the rolls, which were costly to replace. During World War 2, the U.S. government even advised housewives to take especially good care of their wringer washers. After the war, rubber eventually became affordable.

Troy model of 1866

By the time I was a child in the 1960s, wringer washers were nearly extinct although my mother used one until I graduated from high school. I can still recall the horror as I carelessly pinched my fingers in the electric-powered wringer, but admit the machine was fun for a youngster to use.

Maytag wringer washers at a farm auction

When I decided I wanted one for our off-grid evolution, I thought my husband could retrofit one of those 1950s machines. They still occasionally turn up at auctions, but go for inexplicably high prices. I am not sure if the novelty drives bids, but recently we watched as a line of the old machines, some not operational, sold for more than $200 each. As it turns out, a modification would be impractical and costly. Besides, I only wanted the wringer and not the tub.

I found the perfect solution online. After setting up the three-compartment restaurant sink we nabbed at a consignment auction, we ordered an American-made stainless steel hand-crank wringer from BestDryingRack.com in Missouri. The wringer is very similar to those from the Civil War era – simple, effective and easy to use – except made of longer-lasting, better materials.

My new stainless steel wringer and used restaurant sink

Laundry setup with a view

The restaurant sink may seem a bit over-the-top for a tiny off-grid home, but it is my entire kitchen/laundry/mop/garden wash station. The wringer easily clamps from one basin to the next and the drip tray can be flipped to divert the water from one sink or another, an improvement during the past hundred years. Wringing laundry with this simple tool eliminates labor spent twisting clothes and it actually gets the water out, very important for bright, clean laundry. Without all that hand-wrenching, too, garments aren’t distorted out of shape.

In this article, I explain why rainwater is best for laundry and how to quickly test your water yourself for hardness. Meanwhile, for more old-fashioned household laundry hints, check out these online books:

Reference books free to download

“Beeton’s Book of Household Management” by Mrs. Isabella Beeton, 1861

“Household Work; or the Duties of Female Servants,” 1850

“The Sunlight Year Book,” 1898

“Household Cookery and Laundry Work” by Mrs. Black, 1882

The British Housekeepers Book, by John Henry Walsh, assisted by a committee of ladies, 1857

“Hand-Book for the Kitchen and Housekeepers’ Guide” by Flora Neely, 1879

“The Ohio Farmers Home Guide Book,” 1888

“The Laundry Manual; or Washing Made Easy,” 1863 (in my opinion, the best of these guides listed here)

That was more than 10 years ago. Today the couple lives as sustainably as possible, raising hardy, heritage breeds of grass-fed Dorper and Katahdin/ cross sheep and purebred Katahdin sheep, Scottish Highland cattle, occasionally Cornish-cross chickens for meat, ducks, geese, Bourbon red turkeys, meat rabbits, a few laying hens and Alpine and Saanen dairy goats on a small Missouri homestead.

Their Black Bell Acres near Alton offers farm-fresh eggs, lamb, beef and occasionally a few kids. The Kosinski’s buck, Kaiser, sired our first kid, Cream.

Kirsten, a native of Germany, did just about everything but farm before she met Al. Among other non-agricultural ventures, Kirsten owned and operated a chimneysweep company and worked a payphone route. Al, also a city dweller, retired after 30 years as a custodian in the school district of Birmingham, Mich.

Both, however, always envisioned themselves one day embracing a self-sufficient country life. Kirsten discovered Al’s aspiration for farming when helping him sort through three generations of accumulation after his parents’ deaths. Among the usual trinkets and treasures, Al had stacks of old Dairy Goat and Countryside magazines.

When Kirsten asked him about it, Al said he had never found anyone who wanted to embark on that journey with him. Their shared ambitions led to a life together and exodus from the city and all that such occupancy entails. The Kosinski’s first rural home was on 19 acres near Battle Creek, Mich., where they fell in love with draft horses.

The couple met a man at a Lansing draft horse show who said he would teach them to drive teams if they’d be willing to donate four weeks of weekends at his uncle’s Christmas tree farm.

“I had a smile you couldn’t wipe away,” Kirsten told me of her and Al’s unforgettable experience driving wagonloads of visitors through the snowy pines.  “People would ride around with us singing Christmas carols. We had a ball. They didn’t know we were green as grass.”

Kirsten laughs now how they would lay in bed in the evenings reciting harness parts, recalling their days as rooky teamsters. Not long after, they bought their first team and spent four days with the Amish, learning to use the horses to pull all types of farm implements. Good friends and neighbors were always available to help when needed.

Moving to Missouri required embracing another environment and community, both of which are vitally important to the Kosinskis. They believe in saving the Earth’s resources and helping their neighbors at the same time. Bartering is now a way of life. When it was time to remodel the kitchen, for example, they traded one of their Highland calves for carpentry work. They also are charter members of the fledgling Oregon County Food Producers and Artisans Cooperative.

They do not vaccinate their animals, dock their tails or feed them grain. A 5-year-old llama protects the sheep from coyotes and leads the flock up to the barn at night. All the animals have a gentle disposition, even the rams, generally notorious for being among the meanest critters on four legs. Al and Kirsten can straddle the rams in the pasture and sit next to their Highland cattle in the shade.

“We raise everything without stress,” Kirsten said as she gave me a tour of their pastures in a cart behind Rowdy and Rambo, their 13-year old, 2,200-pound Percheron horses. The horses also help haul firewood and rocks and spread manure.  “All of our breeding stock is tame. We believe the tamer and calmer they are, the better it is for everybody.”

Kirsten says that because she and Al started farming later in life without an agricultural background, they selected breeds and keep only those they can manage in their golden years. They sell all of their meat animals “on the hoof” and deliver them to the local meat processor for customers. Besides being easy to handle, stress-free animals also are good producers of offspring, eggs, milk and tasty meat.

“We enjoy our life,” Kirsten said, adding that they left the comforts of the city without ever looking back.

For more information about heritage breeds, see “Heritage Cattle and Chicken Breeds” and “Homesteading with Heritage Breeds” in Mother Earth News and the American Highland Cattle Association and The Livestock Conservancy.

My mother at age 5, on left, with four of her five sisters wearing dresses their mother made.

My mother never visited a fabric store until she was in her sixties, yet she sewed clothes for my sister and me, made beautiful quilts and decorated our humble home with delightful curtains, tablecloths and couch covers for years. One of my favorite dresses as a youngster was an outrageously bright jumper she made from an old housecoat.

My mother carefully saved each button, zipper and scrap of eyelet trim for other projects. I’d watch as she ripped apart old clothes to remake into something for us, and I’d think how when I grew up, I’d buy brand new fabric from a real store for sewing.

With five sisters who still like to exchange outgrown clothing with each other, my mother filled the hall closet with hand-me-down “glad rags” from my aunts and cousins. Even in the 1960s, this was an outdated practice. Today, it is almost unheard of while stores overflow with cheap clothing and textiles. Thrift stores receive so much donated clothing that they often give it away, as do churches and schools.

In the 1700s and earlier, clothing was among the most costly items for an American household. After a garment was completely used up, thrifty housewives would save even the tiniest bits of fabric for quilts, meticulously cutting out any stains and mending tears. In the 1800s and early 1900s, peddlers (often called “the rag man”) would trade wares for discarded clothing, pieces of rugs and other fabric scraps. According to the American Agriculturalist of 1880, a worn out pair of pantaloons could fetch 20 cents, not a bad sum more than a century ago.

My mother’s quilts were made of all manner of cloth, including corduroy, wool, flannel and cotton. I didn’t realize it then, but her hodgepodge mix of colors, patterns and textures made the most fascinating quilts.

When I made my first quilt as a young woman, I bought yards of crisp, new coordinated polyester fabric. Every piece was perfectly matched in weight, design and consistency, right down to the threads per inch. I was quite proud of my first and following creations, but came to realize my quilts back then did not have the homey feel and character my mother’s did.

Today, I happily sew with glad rags just as Mom did and believe I have recaptured that comfy-as-an-old-quilt feel in my stitching. Plus, I can just glance at one of my quilts and see my grown children as toddlers again, with smidgens of my daughter’s dresses and boys’ shirts mixed among the squares. My expense is minimal and nothing goes to waste.

These colorful pot holders include scraps of pajamas, pillowcases, men’s shirts, dresses, curtains and tablecloths.

To sew with recycled fabric:

• Make a tiny snip at seams and then tear the fabric instead of cutting it. This will reveal the fabric grain. For small quilt pieces, following the grain is not necessary, so don’t throw out tiny scraps if the grain is going the wrong way.
• Bag up buttons, zippers and other notions to sell, donate or use in craft projects, ornaments or children’s costumes.
• If you use 100-percent cotton and other natural fabrics, not manmade (polyester, rayon, spandex, etc.), the scraps can be composted in your yard or garden. T-shirts and jeans make especially good mulch. Worms love rotting cotton.
• Men’s clothing in particular is usually worn to a frazzle, but can still yield salvageable fabric behind pockets, at the upper back of shirt sleeves and beneath yokes.
• Save loosely woven or threadbare fabric for disposable rags instead of paper towels. I keep a stack of 4” T-shirt squares near the kitchen sink for oiling cast iron pans, for example.
• Often, if a fabric is too faded or stained to be pretty, it can be used wrong-side up. This can even be done just for variety.
• Ask at yard sales and thrift stores for clothing and fabric items they intend to throw out.
• Ball up strips of thick jean seams or elastic from fitted bedsheets to use around the homestead for such things as tying up tomato plants.
• For an especially treasured quilt, include pieces from Dad’s shirt or Grandma’s old housedress.
• Prewashing is no longer necessary (unless a garment smells like mothballs or musty) because fabrics from garments and household linens have already done all the shrinking, stretching and bleeding of colors they’re going to do.
• Don’t be afraid to have fun and mix fabric weights and textures. Large-print patterns, like those in drapes, cut into interesting small squares and triangles.

See us at the Mother Earth News Fair

At the Mother Earth News Fair in West Bend, Wisc., on August 8-9, I will be demonstrating how to use a treadle sewing machine and make use of recycled fabric. I will also have with me several quilts made entirely of discarded clothing. Be sure to stop by Booth 1907 (the year Mother’s Day was conceived) to say hello and learn more about sewing the way great-grandma did it.

We’ll be easy to find.  Just remember Booth 1907 and listen for the sound of a treadle sewing machine and WaterBoy Well Buckets in action!

Also see our Homestead Sewn Preps page for quality treadle-sewn goods for sale.

©2014-2015 Well WaterBoy Products LLC  WaterBuck Pump  Pedal Powered PTO 

Sand point wells (a.k.a. well points or drive point wells) were once widespread, but, like so many other unsophisticated tools, went to the scrap heap once electricity, drilling rigs and volumes of deep water became available. “Mechanics of the Household” of 1918 describes the easy installation and maintenance of sand point wells as if every household should have at least one. Just as many Americans have saddled a horse, used a crosscut saw, canned sauerkraut or sewn with a treadle machine, many do not know about sand points. Yet, we should.

Many professional experts now agree the severity of our extreme weather is increasing, fossil fuels really are irreplaceable, and the cost of energy will only go up. For a few hundred dollars, a hand pump and driven well could be a lifesaver, and not only for rural folks. Installing a sand point may be less complicated than you think.

I have to admit that even though getting water off-grid is our business, I was unfamiliar with sand points until Darren brought one home. Now I wonder why such a handy device was overlooked by so many of us. A sand point makes it possible to drive a well for use with a pitcher pump. Although, the yield is relatively low (about 3 GPM), homeowners can have emergency water for the house, livestock and gardens without the expense of drilling a new well. If ordinances permit, you may even be able to install one in town.

Find your water table

Sand points are used in coarse sand or gravel. In clay, earth augers function best. Where stone or hard formations exist, or water is very deep, wells are drilled. The water table, or upper level of saturated soil, fluctuates seasonally. In wet periods the water table may be above the surface. In drought, the water table may sink below the well bottom, “going dry.”

To learn about your water table, contact your county’s water district or state’s natural resources department. Well drillers and neighbors with sand points can tell you about their well depths and yields. Online, check with Water Systems Council or U. S. Geological Survey. You may also need a permit.

How to install a sand point well

Through the years, Mother Earth News published several good articles about sand points, including “How to Dig a Well” in 1970 and “Water Development for Homesteaders,” in 1971 by Ken Kerns, who says, “If driving conditions are good, a 4-inch diameter casing can be driven to as deep as 50 feet.” Readers Digest “Back to Basics” book of 1981 says depths of 150 feet can be achieved with equipment. Typically, however, driven wells are installed no more than 30 feet deep with a 1 1/4” or 2” pipe with simple tools. Also in Mother Earth, Steve Maxwell writes in 2012 in “Homestead Water Sources and Options” that 50 feet can be reached with perfect hydrogeological conditions.

Basically, a driven well is installed by hammering a sand point and pipe directly into the earth to tap groundwater that may be literally right under your feet. The sand point, a perforated pipe of 24 to 60 inches with a heavy steel point (the water intake), is screened to keep out larger dirt particles. The screen, available in various opening sizes depending on soil, must be strong enough to withstand hammering and abrasion. Two good sources for installation information include Merrill Manufacturing and Wisconsin DNR.

Drive pipe, couplings and cap

The drive (rigid) pipe, or well casing, must also be heavy-duty. Threads of ordinary thin-wall pipe and couplings may strip or shear or the pipe may break at the threads. A drive cap protects the threads. It may be helpful to use a short section of rigid pipe and coupling below the drive cap, which is easier to remove than the cap after repeated blows.

Hammering methods

This pipe is hammered into the ground by repeatedly dropping a heavy weight (a driver) onto the pipe generally in one of four ways:  The driver is guided inside the pipe to strike the pipe cap, the driver is guided outside of pipe (as pictured here) to strike the pipe cap, the driver strikes a clamp outside the pipe, or a long, thin driver strikes the sand point base inside the pipe. The last technique eliminates compressive loading on the pipe and makes heavy drive pipe unnecessary. A maul can be used, but besides being grueling, is difficult to drive squarely.

The weight can be driven by hand using a tool resembling a T-post driver, or the weight can be raised and lowered with a tripod and pulley. Or, if dropping a weight inside the pipe, the weight can be lowered with a rope and no tripod. Just be sure to tie off the rope so it is not accidentally dropped down the well (this is from personal experience).

After the first pipe is driven into the ground, the pipe cap is removed and another section of pipe (with threaded coupling and pipe compound) is added. It is easiest to work with 5-foot pipe sections. If using 10-foot pipe and a T-post driver, first dig a 3-foot deep hole to stand in as the pipe is driven down. This hole must later be filled. Another option is to stand on a ladder or platform as sections are added. Again, this can make hammering awkward.

Hitting water

To determine when you have hit water, lower a weighted string down the pipe. You will hear when it hits water. Drive down about 5 more feet to allow for seasonal water level changes. Do not drive down too far or you may push your sand point past the water-bearing formation. Leave enough pipe extending from the ground to be at a comfortable working height with the pump you intend to use, about 2-3 feet. This also helps protect the well from surface contamination. The system also must be flushed to remove dirt.

Next, attach your pitcher pump or suction pump. (Soak the pump leathers by submerging the pump in water a few hours.) Begin pumping. Within a few strokes, you’ll have water coming out the spout. As with any new well, the muddiness will disappear in time.

Uses for sand point wells

According to “Self-Help Wells” by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, sand point wells have many uses in developing countries. For instance, while the well diameter is normally small and the yield relatively low, a number of driven wells may be coupled and pumped with a single pump. Because driven wells are quickly constructed, they may be used as a temporary water source and pulled up when no longer needed. Driven well points may be used for dewatering excavation sites. A driven well point may be used to finish a hole that was excavated to the water table by another method such as an auger.

Investing now in something as simple as a sand point well, if at all possible, is wise. After all, you can only store so much water.

Complete sand point and pump kit

Besides individual sand points available now, we also offer a do-it-yourself sand point and pitcher pump kit with instructions for driving your own well. You will need to purchase 1 1/4″ galvanized pipe locally, which generally costs about $3 a foot.

©2014-2015 Well WaterBoy Products LLC  WaterBuck Pump  Pedal Powered PTO

UPDATE: This pump in northern California yields an incredible 2 gallons of water per stroke. Also, if needed for an emergency (like a fire), 54 – 56 gallons per minute can be pumped. We fitted the pump with a 6” diameter cylinder and 4” drop pipe, an unheard of application for a deep-well hand water pump.

]]> http://waterbuckpump.com/2015/06/05/great-garden/ Fri, 05 Jun 2015 14:58:55 +0000 http://waterbuckpump.com/?p=5653 An enlightening chat with my local plant supplier taught me yet another discouraging fact about seedlings sold by large commercial nurseries. Many are treated with neonicotinoids to kill insects, hormones to retard plant growth and yet more poisons to prevent disease. Then, the plants are doused in chemical fertilizers to keep them unnaturally green until sold.

Unfortunately, there is usually no way of knowing what toxins may have been used on those plants.

“Most big growers spray their plants to keep them small and compact so they look nice in a pack,” Margie Lennington, owner of Lazy Ox Farm of Alton, Mo., told me when I stopped to learn more about the plants she sells. “Big growers aren’t thinking about your harvest or how that plant will grow for you when you get it home.”

Margie and husband Ron, along with 10-year-old daughter Sarah and 20-year-old college student son Andy, run a completely organic homestead farm with a large greenhouse, gardens and livestock. Their goal is to be totally self-sufficient with food, including for their animals.

In a snap, Margie listed four solid reasons we should all buy local, organic seedlings: The plants are adapted to the environment, the nursery does not use hazardous chemicals, buyers can have a conversation with the people who grew the plants, and we’re supporting small growers.

Especially horrifying in big-ag is the now common practice of treating seedlings or soil with neonicotinoids. The plants take the chemical up systemically through their roots, deterring pests.  Neonicotinoids can’t be washed off – and they kill bees.

“It should be illegal,” Margie said.

Mother Earth News has been warning us for years about the dangers of neonicotinoids. Many European countries have already banned them. To learn more, see “Buy Organic: Reject Neonicotinoid Insecticides” and “The Dangers of Neonicotinoid Pesticides,” just two of the excellent Mother Earth articles on this topic.

A June 2 Facebook post by consumer advocate Erin Brockovich also urges Americans to take action against the use of bee-killing chemicals. “Do not, I repeat, do not buy plants treated with neonicotinoids,” Brockovich writes. “Bees take the pollen back to the hive and feed it to the brood. This is the number one cause of colony collapse!”

Large nurseries, and some small ones, fertilize their plants with a foliar fertilizer to make them big and lush and green, which appeals to gardeners. But, when consumers plant those abnormally verdant, extraordinarily green seedlings in their gardens, the plant must first overcome the chemicals. Meanwhile, they will likely turn yellow, wilt, and be slow to take off, Margie told me.  If the leaves (a plant’s energy source) die, growth will be stunted.

The foliage may be beautiful, but the roots, where it is most vital, are not developed enough to support all that artificial growth.

“Roots are more important than the top at this stage,” Margie said, gently lifting an Ozark Giant pepper plant from its 4-inch pot to show me the roots. The healthy-looking white roots were spread throughout the soil, not wound into a ball or trailing through the pot’s drain holes.

“When a plant is properly fertilized through its roots, its growth will be balanced and the roots will be trained to take up nutrients,” Margie said. “It will take off and grow faster and be hardier .”

Because she doesn’t use chemicals on her land, Margie never has to. Her greenhouse and garden plants resist pests and diseases on their own, after countless generations of developing immunity to sickness. Excessive nitrogen in foliage actually leads to pest and disease problems. Those lush, overfed leaves attract aphids, other harmful insects and diseases. Margie has so few pests and diseases simply with healthy soil and proper, balanced fertilizing. She also never uses non-organic fertilizers or hormones. Her rodent control is a cat and beagle.

I am embarrassed to admit, for the first time in a long, long time, I bought a four-pack of crooked neck squash seedlings from one of those mega-home centers. My lame excuse is I was in a hurry to get home and trying to use up a $50 gift certificate. But now I face a terrible dilemma. And Margie was right – the plants took weeks to come to life.

Now that the plants are green and blossoming, I don’t know what to do with them. I don’t want to eat the squash; I don’t want the plants in my soil or compost pile; and I don’t want to feed them to the goats. This situation is especially distressing to someone like me who truly loves plants. To intentionally kill one is herbicide.

I vow to never make that mistake again.

Consumers also do not know where most of those seeds were grown. Seed catalogs do not contain that information; nor do seed packets or seedling containers.

“An heirloom plant grown from locally produced  seed is adapted to the environment,” Margie told me, “whereas one grown from seed produced in Japan or Washington might not grow well here.”

Consumers also do not know now who owns the seed company that produced the seed. In the last 20 years, there has been a consolidating in the seed industry in the last 20 years with a few mega corporations buying up smaller seed producers. Monsanto is, of course, one of the biggest buyers of smaller seed companies. To learn more, see this 2015 article, “Where to Buy Non-GMO Seeds,” by Mother Earth News editor Cheryl Long.

Margie learned decades ago that properly grown heirloom and organic plants are more disease- and pest-resistant, hardier and better producers than their hybrid cousins laden with chemicals. Plus, the seeds of heirloom plants can be harvested year after year into perpetuity. They are inherently better for the environment.

When Margie, who was then living in Idaho, went land-shopping several years ago in the Midwest, she did so with a baby on her hip and a shovel in her hand. Selecting a home for her family had nothing to do with curb appeal or the size of bedrooms. It had everything to do with dirt.

A gardener all her life, and for the past 18 years earning a living from her garden, Margie needed land with good soil for growing vegetables. Poor soil can be built up, but generally takes years of adding organic amendments and hauling off rocks.

Margie’s scrutiny with a spade paid off when she found her dream property in the Missouri Ozarks, an area notorious for a plethora of rocks and not so much topsoil. Surprisingly, her three gardens are virtually rock-free. A soil test, however, revealed a lack of magnesium, a must for tomatoes.

Margie’s octogenarian neighbor gave her a recipe for terrific tomato yields – an equal mixture of Epsom salt, lime and sugar. Just 2 tablespoons in each tomato hole and another sprinkling at blossom time provides the extra nutrients tomatoes need. This information was unavailable from big nurseries, but free through a friendly conversation, the same kind of one-on-one available from small producers like Lazy Ox Farm.

With a cup of coffee, Margie spends her mornings returning email and phone messages from customers, who often “pick her brain” about new plant varieties, ideal growing conditions and other such horticultural queries.

Because it is so much fun and she wants to find the absolute best heirloom plants to offer, Margie tries dozens of new types each year. She keeps detailed records of their progress. Of the 10 or so different tomato plants she trials annually, she will reject about half.

“Every variety I sell, I grow myself, so I know it grows well,” Margie said. “There are plenty I trial that I wouldn’t sell.”

One of Margie’s favorite tomatoes, “Joe’s Pink,” started with seeds from her mailman, who got them from the postmaster, who got from a man whose parents brought the seed from Italy decades ago. Joe’s Pink is a huge oxheart that is great for pastes and sandwiches.

Besides growing gardens and fruit trees, Margie and her family raise heritage pigs, sheep, a dairy cow, turkeys and chickens on their homestead. They are well on their way to self-sufficiency, already raising and storing a great deal of food and livestock feed they’ve grown themselves.

I learned so much from my greenhouse tour that I was reluctant to leave. When Margie sent me home with a tray of plants that needed to be put into the ground that day, she said, “I’ve created so much work for you.”

It’s not work, I said. Margie smiled knowingly.

We are thankful for small growers like Lazy Ox Farm who work hard to keep heirloom plants in our future. You will never find a hybrid plant on her farm, but you will find rare varieties unattainable anywhere else. Her plants are available online, carefully packaged and shipped to customers’ doors with detailed growing instructions, and in local shops, such as the Oregon County Food Producers and Artisans Cooperative.

It’s an honor to be featured in a publication that for more than 100 years has been giving practical advice for the homestead life. Besides the DIY plans for garden produce bins and chicken coops made of salvaged materials, this issue has some great articles about livestock, gardening and cooking. We already tried out the recipe for tomato and avocado egg salad on Page 14. Yum.

We’re included in a 3-page spread beginning on Page 46 which explains how hand pumps work and why more people are interested in having one on their homesteads. Because there are many types of hand pumps on the market today, and most homesteads haven’t had a functional hand pump since the 1950s, this article explains what people should know before purchasing one.

According to the publication’s site, “Capper’s Farmer is a quarterly magazine distributed throughout the United States and Canada that celebrates the rural lifestyle, with a particular emphasis on the domestic aspects of country living. We cover wholesome, from-scratch cooking; rustic crafting, including sewing and other fabric work, scrapbooking, woodworking, and more; gardening and preserving; nostalgia; and other homestead pursuits popular in rural life. Our constituents are women and men who enjoy doing things the old-fashioned way, whether that’s leatherwork, woodwork or milking the goats and later making farm-fresh butter and cheese.”

That is exactly what Well WaterBoy Products is all about.

Capper’s Farmer is available at retail stores, online and has a terrific Facebook page.

Our products offer a much better quality of life for the self-reliant

© 2014-2015 Well WaterBoy Products LLC WaterBuck Pump (patent pending) Pedal Powered PTO

We’ve been fans of Hobby Farms for several years, after first being introduced to back issues at a Go Green Festival in Thayer, Missouri. To be included in this stylish rural living magazine, however, came as a pleasant surprise.

Besides the WaterBuck, other inventions include the Perfect Bungee that stretches to twice its length while withstanding weather extremes.

The article also includes the reusable Chadd Padd that soaks up fuel and oil spills, the SnoClaws tire traction system, and B’laster Super-Concentrated Silicone Lube.

Two new devices we will be sure to try out here (now that we’ve got livestock on the homestead) are the sturdy ice Breaker and Strainer and a Northern Tool harrow rake that can be pulled behind a tractor, ATV or 4-wheeler.

You can find Hobby Farms in many farm stores.  This month’s cover boasts a unique, year-round permaculture garden.

©2014-2015 Well WaterBoy Products LLC  WaterBuck Pump  Pedal Powered PTO 

]]> http://waterbuckpump.com/2015/01/07/shag-rag-rug/ http://waterbuckpump.com/2015/01/07/shag-rag-rug/#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2015 19:15:23 +0000 http://waterbuckpump.com/?p=4796 After years of looking for the most durable, yet simplest homemade rugs to wash, I have finally hit on a winner – shag throw rugs made of old T-shirts and towels. Besides being easy to make and care for, the rugs are fabricated from goods from the rag bag.

With animals inside and outside our homestead, a steady flow of boot traffic and abundance of rain, we go through a lot of rugs here. Rubber-backed store-bought rugs are OK on the back porch, but impossible to keep clean in the house.

Braided rag rugs, while lovely and comfortable to stand on, turned out to be too difficult to wash. To clean them, I’d wait for warm, breezy days and then scrub them in a tub outside. By the time I’d hoisted the wet, heavy rug onto the clothesline, it was as if I also took an outdoor bath. It also takes me at least two weeks to make a single rug.

Looking for a solution, I decided to try a simpler method of rug making. The result is an easy-to-make, inexpensive, attractive, cushy, sturdy and easy-to-clean rug. I used jersey T-shirts (100-percent cotton) for the shag, but any knit fabric that doesn’t unravel will work, such as from fleece blankets and sweatpants.

My backing material is a piece of terrycloth bath towel that matches some of the shag strips. But again, any durable, non-stretchy fabric will work, so long as it is not too thick to sew on your machine. For your first project, you may want to begin with a small size.

How to make a shag rag rug:

• Cut a base of durable, non-stretchy fabric and turn under and sew the raw edges.
• With a marker, draw lines 1/2” apart, either lengthwise or crosswise on the fabric base with the sewn hem facing up. (The hem will later be hidden by shag strips.)
• Cut 1” x 4” strips (or shorter for less shagginess) of knit fabric. I used the bottom half of 15 T-shirts in various sizes. Discard pieces with seams, embroidery or printed designs. (I save the sleeves and shoulder pieces for household rags or other projects.) For a 20” by 25” rug, I cut 1,800 strips, the most time-consuming part of this project, but easy with a rotary cutter.
• For a random pattern, put the strips into a large box to fluff and separate the pieces after cutting. Or fluff each color separately and keep in piles to form a rug with stripes or other design.
• Place the base in position for machine sewing the first row of strips. Line up about 10” of strips on the first marker line. Working from your body toward the machine, layer the strips like shingles so you can sew without having to stop and guide the strips under the presser foot. Use good thread and a fairly tight stitch. Anchor the beginning and end of each row by backstitching.
• To start sewing the next row, fold the previous row to the left and out of the way. Continue this method of layering and sewing each row until complete.

That’s all there is to it. Although I use a clothesline, these rugs can be machine washed and dried. On slippery floors, use two-sided tape or non-skid rubber mats under your rug. This type of rug is very absorbent and particularly handy next to the bathtub.

Happy sewing.

As always, all of our products are carefully crafted of recycled denim and 100-percent cotton fabric whenever possible. We do our stitching by daylight on an antique treadle sewing machine. This is just one small way we’re doing our bit to help reduce the load on our world’s resources and landfills. Please see our Product’s Page for more info.