The Grain Mill, A Rare Insider Look, Part 3 of 3, A Social Media House, Bartering Hub

John and I agreed to meet that day so he could give me a tour of the different working stations of the Mill. I was excited to go further into the Mill than just the place where I get my own feed at. The large engine outside was running, hulls fly through the air in town is always a sure sign that John is working with grain at the Mill. Its very little, but as you drive you can see them in the air. The single engine runs a shaft, and the different parts of the Mill are clutched in to drive that work station.

The following stations can all work together or not run while some others are. Items such as horse feed can be made in a 2 ton mixer.

Bird Seed is also mixed, and John makes different types of bird seed depending on which season it is, or which birds are most common. He admitted he can make 15 different types of bird food, but prefers to make only 5 different types. But if you buy 250 pounds of seed he will mix a batch for you.

Now its time for some pictures of the Mill and all her gears, spinning/humming. Inside are square tubes call elevators which move the grains from one operation to another until the end product is made. Buckwheat makes this trip up and down the three story building six times before its separated and the fine flour has been sifted and dropped in the bagging location.

But if you don't need hundreds of pounds of flour made, and want to make your own, and own a kitchen aid, this one is for you.

This one, if you want to make your own by hand, I have this one too!!

My friend has this one, and he uses it for all sorts, he loves it.

This unit is a bit cheaper, but isn't as well made judging by the looks of it.

The Grain Mill, A Rare Insider Look, Part 2 of 3, A Social Media House, Bartering Hub

Now we have information at our finger tips, but back when I lived on the farm, this wasn't so. Relationships were important to keep, and the Mill was the place where folks would get together and pass on news that was going on. The counter help would have to be some one that was good at keeping inventory, math, feed/food information as well as a good, friendly gossiper. A person who got along with everyone, and did so to help spread the word of the information they had gotten else where.

They had to be a Master Gossiper, one that didn't take sides, or hold judgment against different people. After all, the information they told would be the information that you told them to spread. There were certain things that wouldn't be spoken of, and some matters of family business weren't spread. There was/is a fine line of spreading that information.

I am not sure of the workings of the grain/feed business, as the crops we grew were to sustain our own farm. We sometimes had to buy grain in if we didn't have enough to make feed for our hogs. That's right, we were in the hogging business, or pork producers. Not a huge operation mind you, and I am not convinced that we were that successful at it.

From slaughtering our own hogs, storing them in a freezer until the buyer came by, to making scrapple to sell locally. I still think to this day, if Mom could have gotten that recipe out, we would have been known throughout the eastern seaboard for our scrapple, it was that good.

We were one of those familys that John Cougar Melloncamp would sing about, when he wrote the song Rain on the Scarecrow. A small farm run by country folks trying to make a living in the dirt. But soon technology and factory farming would put us out of business. I will not say that Mom and Bobs business plan was not at fault either. When your a kid, you don't always get the information you want from adults.

Thou we owned the farm, I think about 20 acres, we leased about 140 more from the state for 50.00 a month. The bank really owned the farm, and I remember the day I climbed in the truck and left the farm for the last time. I remember the banker, Randy using a staple gun to staple something on the front door, a foreclosure letter no doubt. Country living at its finest, and everything I ever knew.

Our local Mill, which is long gone, took up a local collection as they had done many times before for other families that suffered from the same out come as we had. They kept our line of credit although we couldn't pay it back, or perhaps later it was paid back.

I was shocked when I moved here to have a Mill in my backyard. But not just any Mill, thou its 26 years later, it remains the center hub and supply store that anchors this community, just like the one when I was a kid.

So now that I have shared what the Mill meant to me/us/to a community as a child, I hope you have learned why it is such a important place.

Please take a little time to watch the first 40 seconds of this video to try to understand what farming was about back in those days. I suspect it is much the same these days. Even though my homestead sits on 5 acres, its mine, and no bank can have it. It might not be much to some, its more than others, and I can, at a small scale, work this land as I learned back on the farm. With a old milk farm at the bottom of the mountain, it isn't hard to get tied up in making my land produce food. I do have a real since of pride during harvest time.

Everything else I do to be self sufficient today, were important things to do back on the farm to make ends meet or put food on the table. As food prices go up, the population increases, food becomes more GMO and less valuable as a food source, I am pleased with all that I do for myself and family.

The Grain Mill, A Rare Insider Look, Part 1 of 3, A Social Media House, Bartering Hub

To cover this topic properly, I decided that one post isn't going to cover the information needed to understand how a Milling Company works. I am not sure if 3 parts will be enough, but I do know 2 won't be enough.

I am no stranger to a feed store, feed supply store or even a milling company. The first thing that needs to be talked about is the difference between those three, and I am going to cut straight to a Milling Company. A Mill is a place that takes in grain and makes feed for animals or food for humans, they often make their own feeds and set different protein levels, and sell name brand feed along with their own. They also mix grains for feed for farmers, the farmer is the chef, they just cook it. Whatever you want, they will do it, and recipes are guarded like top secret documents.

As a child, a social event to look forward to just about this time of year, was the gathering at the local mill to get the low down on the new stuff, and who is doing what, who has the newest equipment, who is trying which seed, who is planting the newest seed as a test market, who has free seed sponsors, and how folks were doing in general since little to no contact had been made since fall.

This would be an all day event, free coffee, folks would park in a corn field and walk over, it would be a time we would spend with other folks since falls harvest. During summer, there were fairs to do, and farming was a cut throat business. My tractor is Red and better than your green one, my hogs being showed by my kid has this blood line, and the little squabbles went on and on. But those were during the times we were working the fields and showing off our hard work.

When fall came, we put all that aside to get the harvest in, helping each other without past issues. However I don't remember locals taking it to far, because we all knew that we depended on each other in the fall. I was young, and listened a while until I was bored and joined my friends to run around.

Bobby, my step father is a different kind of man. He can't read, nor write further than his name, and he doesn't care to. But he brings to the table a whole different set of skills. He knows how to grow food, hunt it, and raise hogs.

Bobby only allowed 1600 pounds of a ton load to be known by the mill, the other 600 pounds were taped in triple wrapped feed sacks and hauled in by us and dumped into the mixer. Than it was moved to be pelleted with water and high pressure. Once it was done, we would stack it on the truck and wait till Dad was ready to go.

The Milling Company was also a bartering house for goods to be exchanged either way. We often Hunted Ginseng for the plants roots, dry them and get cash for the amount of grams it weighed. They also took in grain and offered stock/store goods in exchange. I remember getting those hard candy sticks, the striped ones, 10/1.00, all sorts of flavors.

Kindle Readers, No More D.T.B., Living Off The Grid, Most Popular Topics

So my blog has been available quite sometime now for people to down load and read on their Kindles. I have noticed that the readers for my blog that read it on their kindles pay a small fee of $2 a month to have it at their finger tips. That is a compliment to me, and I just popped in to say thanks to them. I know that I had some period that I stopped writing, but that was because I wasn't doing anything to write about. With some positive changes in my life after my parents deaths, I am back on track ready to go. Many kindle readers are done with dead tree books forever. Kindles are very green in many ways as well.

I can imagine as I sit here in my farmer built rancher, you are sat in a window space in your log cabin reading my blog and about my own self sufficiency. Whether the day light is cloudy or the suns shining Kindles can be easily read in most any light. So with your self made woollies on, warm cup of tea/coffee, your own quilt at hand you sit to read on the latest of tricks up my sleeves.

Perhaps not, perhaps you live in a shanty shack in the woods, and bought a kindle to save money on buying books. Perhaps you got it as a gift, and decided to use your kindle as a means to learn to survive these times. Perhaps your in a remote location without power, and left all the real world behind. Your not worried to much because you have a 3G model or when you cruise through town you pull over to hook up on some ones wi-fi. Perhaps you live in the city, and have a kindle because you enjoy having a library at your finger tips. With well over 800k books ready to down load at places like amazon, google books, and project guttenberg.

Either way, I am glad your with me and I hope along the way I can teach you, or you can teach me something about how to live a better life, the way we like to.

Also, how about a new solar power Kindle charger for less than $20? How great is that?


What may interest my readers is the different topics folks come here and search for, you know what is it that people that don't read my blog when I post, those that come here searching for something? Well, I am about to share with my readers a few popular topics.


One topic, root cellars, seems to be off the charts on my blog. Even the term self made root cellar is up there. The second most popular is making a living while being self sufficient, that is interesting.... Food pantry comes in at a sliding third along with homemade bread and pantry.

I will need to write more articles about these topics in the future.

Maple Syrup Making: How To Video, Another Self Sufficient Skill Accomplished

This year, with the unseasonal warm temperatures, maple syrup making time is cut short. I am not complaining at all, and grateful to see brown/green ground and feel the warmer air around me. Even some of the 600 plus bulbs I planted last fall are coming up, at least the ones the moles haven't eaten. However I am quick to remind myself that flowers bloom at different times and kept the rule in my mind while planting to ensure a beautiful spring.

I had spent a few days over the last couple weeks with Tom Sr. while he was syrup making. He seems to be less stressful when he's not around certain people or has had some rest. Either way, I was so happy to spend some time with an elder learning the self sufficient skills by passing it down. I felt like I was spending time with my own Grandpa learning the skills. It brought me to a different place.

A place that I created in my mind, a place where I am learning the life skills of being self sufficient from the elders of my own family. Its a sad reminder of the loss of people in my life, but life is what it is, and it made me feel good inside to be there doing it with Tom. If I took other peoples lives for granted while they were alive, I am sure I would feel guilty. Karma taught me many years ago to live/love for today, not hoping for tomorrow. The feelings of spending time together brought me some really good, much needed kinship. I suppose we humans, the ones searching to live self sufficient, search/look to elders for knowledge. I can see this idea in many Indian tribes and history that I have read about them.

So gathering sap, boiling it, adding more sap while boiling it, until you run out of sap and end up with a syrup in your pan. Filtering is a small issue to consider when taking this on, but common sense goes a long ways. The more sap you can boil, or larger batch you can do, the less filtering you have to do. I did a quart jar of fines, what is fines? Fines is a term Tom uses to describe the final end product of syrup that contains all the really fine particles that he isn't willing to figure out how to remove, and they are super fine.

So, if you have ten minutes to spend with me and watch my video, it won't be ten minutes wasted. I hope that you learn something about syrup making and enjoy the video.

If you remember it was just a few years ago when I attended a how to class sponsored by the state on making maple syrup. Now I have 7 pints of of syrup to last me till next year.

Everyone, Everything Has A Beginning, My Start On Video, Encouragement

Stashed somewhere in pixel form are some photos of when I bought the place and what it looked like. But those are where ever they are, and if I had time, I'd post them.

I want start out by saying, if your taking the plunge and starting a garden, a self sufficient project, started hunting, fishing, gathering, or decided you just want the best for you and your family. Feel not alone my friend, I have been there. In the beginning, I started with basics, clearing land, removing stumps, boulders, removing brush and a lot of cleaning up.

Soon it became an addiction, reading one thing and how to do it, so many opinions and ways to approach it. It wasn't long before I became confused, and then the frustration started... What I needed to do is take on one perspective, one project, understand what I was doing and needed to do.

So let me assist you a little further than just my blog. This is the first tool you need to understand a whole bunch of stuff. This book was kept with me in a trash bag outside, everywhere in the house, I read it or the information that I needed at the time over and over.

This was my self sufficient bible, and still is as a reference. I have not been hired to promote this book at all, and speak of it only as the best tool/investment I made to help me understand the life style I wanted to live and how to do it.

This book covers from medical herbs, plant identification, sewing, arts and crafts, how to garden, soil prep, root cellar, and the list just keeps going on and on. Though mine has seen better days, its still together and one of my favorite reads.

It also has soap making, and other neat ways to make things to sell and make money. With so many on-line selling sites, or your own website, like mine, you can have financial independence if you want to.

I decided to share with you the second year of my adventure caught on video tape. Keep in mind, you have tons of work ahead of you, but don't let that define you, you take it by the horns and define it yourself. Trust me when I say that, soon a time will come in your life change that you will be so proud of all the hard work your doing. I still remember that day when I looked into the freezer and everything in it was grown, gathered, hunted, and put up by me. It was a milestone I will never forget....

Canned Deer Meat Video Part 2 Completed

I finished editing the second, last video in my two part series on cooking canned deer meat. the recipe shared, is a recipe that has been in my family for a long time, I don't know how long. Its good and it will make you satisfied and happy. Be sure to cook with a little one and friends and pass the recipe on.

Currently, I am working on the maple syrup video, which has proven to be a lot of work. I also will be re-working my cold frame, which has been a on going learning lesson for me.

Canned Deer Meat Video Completed

I hope you enjoy both parts of this video on deer meat.... Just a self sufficient reward!! I really enjoy canning food, and its rewards. I have a sense of pride when I set a meal out that I have grown, gathered, hunted or harvested. I know the food I am setting on the table is good, wholesome, minimally processed, healthy food.

If you think I am kidding about how food is factory processed, please purchase Food Inc. and see how the food your eating is made.

If your a chicken lover, I found a funny sticker that you might like... I purchased it for my truck... and one for my coop door..
My utube channel

Seed Sharing And Trading For Heirloom Seeds, Companion Planting

Do you seed trade? Since I can start my own Non-GMO seeds now, I am interested in growing more and trading. What is interesting enough is that I have wheat seeds to grow my own wheat, which is interesting to have. It has made me think of joining a seed trading sight, or maybe peeps on TEG site have this already.

I also am currently begining to read about companion planting and the benefits of doing so. This will be a new adventure for me this year, or maybe next year as I don't feel I have enough information just yet to give it a try..

The Bloopers On Making Syrup!!! No Liquid In Your Mouth Warning

Well, there is nothing funnier then getting together with friends and have a couple drinks and do a self sufficient video on making maple syrup. I also am going to release, " Sugar Shanty Trash Talking" what a whoot!! 

I am going to set this video up for you... You know how we all say things like " WELL WHEN I WAS A KID, THE BUS DIDN'T PULL IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE, I HAD TO WALK 1.9 MILES IN STORMS JUST TO GET A RIDE TO GET AN EDUCATION"

No really, I did have to walk that far to the bus stop... Ask the wife we measured it..

Anyway we were talking, telling stories about these types of things, and Tommy Jr. after trying Toms Yolk carrying idea.....

So anyway, he thought he would cheer Tom up by saying something about all the years they had done this together. Raw and uncut, I present to you his presentation/skit

 

Maple Syrup, Sap Gathering, How To, Production Of, To The Table

In a small rural town, where I live, we often depend on each other for many things. There are calls for help, friend needs a helping hand, working together to hunt/fish/gather food, and keeping/storing food for long term uses. Sometimes it might be helping with slaughtering animals for food, gather mushrooms in the woods, smoking (my department) and canning.

This time of year, in so many small towns, out in the rural America, there are folks hanging out in their sugar shanty cooking down maple sap to make that REAL yummy syrup, maple syrup. There are many prizes/rewards for such hard work, its a social event between generations, the work in the fall to prepare the wood needed for this event. Its a rumor, or in my case a proven point that this is a mans event. Hundreds of gallons of sap needed to make enough syrup for consumption as well as to sell at the market or to visiting city slickers. If your from the city, that isn't meant as a cut down or insult, its used just like you might call us country folk. Some of the images you will see might even make us look like hillbillies, but were not like that at all.

So here are tom Jr. (t) and Tom Sr.(T)  this is a bucket carrying system that allows him to carry up to 10 gallons of sap to the tractor, being that he has to travel up hill, his shoulders/neck hold the weight.

 

This is a food safe 55 gallon collection container attached to a three point hitch. The hitch isn't used in this application and is used only to hold the barrel as its driven down along the higher road so we can bring the sap up to empty our buckets, and return to the woods to gather more. Wrapped with gray tape, a screen is attached to catch large debris.

This picture shows the color of the sap collected, the sample on the left is getting a rusty color, and the right is clear. Illustrated here is what to use and when to stop tapping the sap from a tree.

Collecting of the sap from the trees can be tough if you don't plan ahead. Tom using his tractor, will drive down the road while sap that is being collected is dumped into the large container. On this day, a collection had taken place, and just a few left for the purpose of this blog. I also wanted to show you different methods of hauling the heavy buckets.

Lets head into the sugar shanty AKA Syrup Shed....    

  As you can see, the fire is going, and it takes about one cord of wood to get 19 quarts of syrup. Depending on what type of hardwood maples you tap into, the amount of sap used to make one gallon of syrup will be different. With sugar maples, the final product will be a light color, and only 35 gallons of sap is needed. With the most common standard hardwood maples, it takes 48-52 gallons of sap. Those numbers aren't defined enough because depending on the sugar content of the sap from the year before will be different, from year to year.

In this photo to the left side, on the shelf is a holding tank, it holds sap that is slowly allowed to drip at a rate that the water is boiled from the square pan. It is filled from the barrel that is mounted on the three point hitch from the tractor. There are also two holding containers inside the shed so while collections are going on, a constant supply of sap is near by to keep the square pan full. A small sock place at the end of the tube that drips into the square pan, is a last stage type filter prior to boiling the sap. The sap will again be filtered from stuff collecting during processing.

Also, sap will continue to be added, and the fire stoked/banked through out the night and day until enough of it is ready to be set for final processing. In this case, this is Toms sugar shanty and oven, and owner of the trees we used to gather the sap from.

During the production of maple syrup, in some kind of manly type relationship or social acceptance, a cherished drink is made and shared amongst the men working together to produce this wonderful product. The drink called, in this neck of the woods, Slurple is a traditional method of acceptance and is shared during the processing.

I do admit that this isn't the only drink shared within the processing shed, its the best and most self sufficient.

tommy, bottle in hand, expresses his joy of being the subject of this shot. tommy is Marks brother-n-law as well as a good friend to Mark. I am a good friend to Mark and met tommy through Mark. tommy is the fungi king of all time I mentioned before. He is a centennial soul, and a great fellow to be around, there has never been a dull moment when he or Mark is around.

As the sap boils, it is sifted to remove bits that collect in it as it boils, Tom is shown here using his screen to remove the waste at the top. A small sample is shown once the gravity level is checked, and brought to about 31-32 its cooled, graded to Grade A Amber Medium, canned and stored for future use. I have canned it and used it 5 years later without any noticeable change to taste.

I had a great time today, spending time with good friends, doing something together, and talking about being self sufficiency and making our own. Though Tom, tommy or Mark don't blog about being self sufficient, I can assure you they are as much as me if not more. 

Tom bragged a lot about being self sufficient and how proud he feels about living the fine life. He even mentioned how he wish he had moved to Alaska, a place where he says his skills could be used. He build his own house from wood he cut, and bragged up his own level of skills.

Bartering Goods, Equipment and Food, Pay Taxes On That Too??

Considering bartering as a method to give what you can, and get what you need? The following link is for your interest in reading what Uncle Sam says you must do. I am not going to even mention your state laws, though I will mention my own, here in the great state of Pennsylvania

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc420.html

I pay my taxes, all of them, and when it comes to bartering, I wonder what nut job came up with that one. As I researched this briefly, tax stuff bores me, I found that a few centuries back, bartering was considered a form of income. I say okay.... But this law needs to be changed and updated, as the shear number of people bartering is not as common as it use to be. I say its a self sufficient skill that shouldn't be taxable as income.

Why fill out senseless tax forms, only to show that you gave the money, and they received it, and has no other purpose. I mean that is pointless and a waste of paper, fuel, and energy....

Am I having a rant on my government about taxes, yup, and from my point of view its a good rant too.

See, we, you and I have a huge problem on our hands that humans created, so those of us trying to fix it should pay more taxes, thats crap.... next thing they will tax is recycling goods we give to trash companies for free... Oh Virginia already taxes people that recycle... How sweet is that?