Friday, January 28, 2011

Pumping Oil For Cash Money, Get Paid The Big Money, Being Self Sufficient..

The picture I am about to share is a photo of my friends oil well here in eastern PA. As we talked about it, he explained how he put it in, found the oil, and getting paid cash for the end product.
When we began to talk about how much he was making, I thought he was telling me a little white lie... I was floored when he told me he was pumping 30 barrels a week!!! He is getting paid 65.00 a barrel!! That totals $1950.00 cash a week!!! A week!!!
Although his set up is in a remote area, without great tires on my Hummer, I would have gotten stuck. Now just to mention about his primitive set up, it was quite practical and ran well. Using a old lawn mower, a few gears attached and welded to the axle, he was pumping a very green/yellow oil from the ground. The color was almost a chartreuse  fishing lure color, and the odor was awful but nothing less, something to be desired.
He uses a old tanker truck wagon thing he made and his big John Deere tractor to transport the liquid back to his shop to be sold to a wholesaler... It does seem dangerous though, because he fills his bull dozer with the stuff for fuel!!
Now this project is one I wish I could have done/do!! This is in many ways a self sufficient way to gain for your land.
I asked what his original start up cost was, he estimated it was around 4k..... Then he dropped the bomb on me..... He has sold as of that day over 12,000 barrels over the years!!!! I was like... I could be self sufficient on that income for sure!!! That is over a three quarters of a million dollars.... He does pay taxes, and uncle sam knows all about it... Honest fellow...
I am thankful for the many blessings in my life, for sure. But as a person wanting to be self sufficient, this would have been a blessing of a different kind.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Seed Catalogs, 2 a day arriving, uses....... Junk mail??

I have excluded myself from as many junk mail list as I could. Its not just green but self sufficient as well. So with the other stuff I get in the mail I place them on a pile that I will use later on in the garden this year to keep the weeds down. I also make my own homemade paper pots Year after year you will enjoy using these easy to make and use pots.

Junk mail ideas are wanted???

Monday, January 24, 2011

Alternative seed starting ideas, talked thorugh some new ideas with a Pro today. Hydroponics?

I met with the Pat who owns 422 Grow today and we went over some great new ideas for seed starting today. I really held onto everything he was walking me through today, I asked a ton of questions, and found solutions. It was great picking his brain...

One new growing medium I discovered was Coconut Husk material that can be added to your garden pretty cheap. He showed me how this stuff expands, what start out as a 10 pound block, was as large as the huge bags of dog food, and twice as thick. I once received a package of red worms with this stuff as the starting medium for them. Later I learned how adding this material is not only organic, but also allows air to moved through your soil as well as keeps it from compacting together. To bust the clay in my garden I have been using gypsum for several years, this year its time to add bio material...
Now using this stuff or the rock spun material, you need liquid nutrients to mix with the water. The rock spun material just twisted my mind... The whole time he was explaining it to me I was thinking huh....why....huh.... But I learned more about air flow than I ever knew, I also learned more about micro organism than I expected. He might have a PHD in Micro Biology, giving the amount of info he was covering today.
With a small investment, under $24, I might try this approach just as something different and to see which way is better. Last he showed me a book he said would have me producing fruits in veggies in 50-120 days from now. Hydroponic Gardening.
Me? I still think nothing better than organic soil, and lots of love with a green thumb...... I have never been closed minded to try new things, and with just a small investment, if it works better  than traditional methods, why not?

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Get back to it and blogging..... Lets talk, Failing... Coldframes

It has been a while since my last post, and things are getting better, and I miss my way of living.

I have not taken on any self sufficient projects in a long time, other than rebuilding my fire place, which I need to finish. My energy is coming back, and the drive to do things I like to do is coming back.

Over on the forum, I mentioned about how I miss doing neat, cheap ways of learning how to be SS. Sometimes that meant failing. I never minded failing, remember the picture of the loaf of bread? I wrote failed on it.. Failing means your at least doing something. So I am working towards getting back to the life I missed and crave to live. Gardening, fishing, hunting and outdoor/indoor work to improve my life...

In my turmoil of the deaths of my parents, I have missed who I was becoming before all this happened. I miss researching and figuring stuff out. I put myself on the back burner for a long time, its time to get back on track get going.

Swiss Chard Five Color Certified Organic SeedsI picked up some veggie plant seeds the other day at the big box store: Swiss Chard, Spinach, and some red cabbage to plant in my cold frame in the near future.

When I first tried Swiss Chard I was confused about which type to choose. I got the rainbow mix because it looked pretty. I picked up some Giant Swiss Chard to plant in the back of my cold frame Last year when I built my own cold frame which is bigger than this cold frame but it cost more for me to build.

We love fresh spinach around here, and my cabbage did okay in the cold frame last year... I didn't plant a complete garden. I did plant some  potato, oh yeah if you don't want to build tater baskets like mine, try this awesome idea  cheap too!!!



I plan on buying my garden seeds on line this year, its so much cheaper than buying at the box stores. Now this is really cheap and a awesome tool to help you plan your garden out this year and many years in the future. The software can be used on any computer.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Sufficient LivingMy newest addition to my library, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Sufficient Living can be bought for your Kindle as well as paper back and I will be getting my head into it before to long.