Relocating 03/31/2012
 
I've now relocated to Blogger.  While Weebly has been nice it doesn't offer me everything I need.  Blogger is easy to use and full featured.  Definitely try it out yourself.  MuddyGeek will also be renamed "Being Christopher Marts."  I'm open to suggestions.  This is still all about my time gardening, homesteading, and breaking the computer.

MuddyGeek's New Home: Being Christopher Marts

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Chickens 03/14/2012
 
My wife and I have been throwing around the idea of chickens for a long time.  Its something we thought we would enjoy having and taking care of as well as collecting those wonderful eggs.  One Saturday, we researched the whole deal.  We bought books and a magazine, discussed our future chicken coop, and decided this is the year we're going to do it.  


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We were waiting till later in March (March is host to "chick days" at many farm stores) before purchasing our chicks so I could build a coop first.  On a whim though, we bought the chicks, all 18 of them, and made them at home here.  They're occupying a small space near our wood stove where the log rack normally is.  A mild winter and a warm spring made this an easy move for us.  

A mere week later, our chicks are eating us out of house and home like teenagers.  They're beginning to feather out as well as peck and scratch a lot.  We've backed off the brooding light since they seem to be too hot (they're huddling in a corner far away from it).  They'll be outside at this rate but that brings me to another problem: the coop!

Many folks have kindly suggested, never buy chicks till you a coop ready for them.  I should have listened to that adage.  I'm fortunate to have the next several days off that I ordinarily would not.  With some help, I will be constructing a very fine hen house.  If it isn't finished in these few days, I will be in trouble as I won't have as much time to finish working on it.  

My basic plan is for an 8' x 8' elevated coop.  The coop will be elevated approximately 2' including cinder block base.  The outside walls will be 2' with the middle as high as 3.5'.  The roof will be hinged for easy access inside as well as a hinged roof over the attached nesting box for easy egg gathering.  The very top will also include hardware cloth in a vented slat.  The floor inside will be vinyl coated hardware cloth over 2x4s so that the droppings can pass straight through.  Eventually I plan to add trays underneath to catch their manure for composting.  


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Once this is constructed, I'll post all the photos I can.  I hope my design works well as I have not seen a coop quite this large that was not walk in.  I had a couple factors involved: money and heat.  With a smaller design, it will be easy for the chickens to keep warm in this with their own body heat.  It is also cheaper to build it this way since I won't need as much material.  


One last note for now: my chicks!  I bought black sex links and ISA browns.  The ISA browns are cross between Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites.  These girls can lay 300 eggs each in their first year.  The black sex link chicks are a cross between Rhode Island Red roosters and Barred Plymouth Rock hens.  These produce about 200 eggs per year.  Both produce brown large to extra large eggs.  
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I've taken a keen interest in homemade cleaners and especially laundry detergents or soaps.  Everyone seems to have an idea about how it should be made and how diluted it should be.  I've found powdered recipes and liquid recipes.  I've found recipes that take three ingredients or as many as seven.  Until I have a chance to try them all (which according to what their creators' claim could take me years to use them all up), I'll post recipes and links with some hope for feedback.  If you've used them, let me know.

An important note...  I intend on watering plants with the leftover water from laundry.  If you're doing the same, skip the borax.  It will kill your plants.  Also, I would recommend you stick to more decorative plants or at least not root crops.  

Liquid Laundry Soaps
The Duggar Family is well known for their television show 19 And Counting on TLC.  Regardless of how you feel about their lifestyle, we could all take lessons in frugality from them.  Their laundry soap recipe is a great example.  Their recipe on the show actually stirred my interest in this DIY endeavor.  Their recipe uses a whole bar of Fels-Naptha soap, 1 cup washing soda, and 1/2 cup borax.  Once completely diluted, it yields 10 gallons.  They also suggest 1/4 cup for an HE front loader resulting in approximately 640 loads versus 5/8 cup for a top loader for 180 loads.  

The Family Homestead shows step by step photos how to made liquid soap.  This is leaner recipe with 1/3 bar Fels-Naptha soap, 1/2 cup washing soda, and 1/2 borax.  This recipe makes a little over two gallons and translates to around $0.01 per load.  


Powder Laundry Soaps
diyNatural has a basic recipe with the common ingredients: borax, washing soda, and bar soap.  Its a simple 1-1-1 ratio here.  That means one cup grated soap to one cup washing soda to one cup borax.  Mix well and serve.  I like this page for the cost comparison.  They claim their soap is $0.05 per load versus Arm & Hammer liquid or Tide with Bleach powder at $.021 per load.



I could continue posting any number of combinations of homemade laundry soap.  However, Tipnut has a list of 10 recipes worth checking.  My ultimate advice?  Try making some small batches and play with the recipes.  Eventually you'll find one you really prefer.  I can't see much wrong with the 1-1-1 ratio.  If you skip the borax like I will, I would suggest using slightly more laundry soap per load or making a more concentrated batch by including more soap and washing soda.

I'll have photos up soon of my own laundry detergent process as well as my homemade laundry plunger washer and wringer contraption.
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Jericho 12/19/2011
 
I've been watching the cancelled series Jericho on Netflix.  I think it catches my attention because of the similarities between a nuclear attack on this country and a peak oil world.  The infrastructure damage in a nuclear attack would obviously be much worse.  However, much of the current infrastructure  wouldn't even matter in a peak oil world.  

Jericho has so so many flaws.  I realize its a television series so there has to be crisis every episode and the characters are focusing on survival like they should.  

So what's my problem?  Agriculture, heating and cooking, food preservation, sustainability, and on and on.  Let's look at this a little more.

In one episode, corn worms threaten to destroy a corn crop.  The farmer's solution?  Pesticides of course.  I hope they know  that when they use what they have, they'll be finished.  There probably won't be any more pesticides for a long time.

Heating and cooking...  The homes with propane or natural gas might last a little while but those with electric ranges are in trouble.  Likewise for heating.  These people need to start collecting firewood, downsizing their homes, individuals and small families need to move in together to make heating in the winter more efficient.  Ideally, they should retrofit the best homes with whatever wood stoves are available.  

In another episode, the town picks countless acres of corn to save it from ear worms (since they opted not to use pesticide).  That's great if they plan on eating it all at once.  Otherwise, I hope they either dried it all or canned it.  

Finally, what do I mean by sustainability?  Its the sum total of all of these issues.  Most of the town wants to live at the bar instead of preparing for a future without all of our modern luxuries.  

I wish that the series hadn't been cancelled. Despite the fact that it was, there's still a lot of lessons to learn from it.  Jericho was a lesson in what to do when the world falls apart.  
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Hello OpenSUSE! 11/16/2011
 
Or should I say "Goodbye Ubuntu?"  I have been using Ubuntu steadily since 4.10 Warty Warthog.  Ubuntu installed easily and I even got my laptop wireless card to work at a time when it required crazy configuration and extracting Windows drivers.  I still tried other distros during that time even running some for a good while.  I tried out Fedora Core, Freespire, Linspire, Mandriva, Mint, openSUSE, and even TurboLinux (well before Ubuntu though) amongst others.  No matter what I have tried, I have come back to Ubuntu.  

After Gnome 3 and Unity were shown off, I switched off to Kubuntu for the KDE desktop.  KDE works well on Ubuntu but I still wasn't pleased that Canonical continues to focus on Unity.  I also contemplated a switch to Mint but when the Mint Gnome Shell Extension was announced, my heart sank.  MGSE just continued to mask the problems with these new desktops.  There was plenty of discussion about the issues with Gnome 3 (or Gnome Shell) and Unity on the web so I won't get into the poor multitasking.

Deciding to stick with KDE distros, I looked at Fedora and openSUSE.  Fedora still focuses a lot on Gnome though and has a poor history with stability.  Cutting edge is alright so long as it works.  I've never had good luck there though.  openSUSE on the other hand...  Well, I've really liked it in the past.  The last time I tried it, it was around version 11.1 or 11.2 maybe.  I had issues with installing codecs and some software.  The system otherwise worked well.  Since 12.1 was due soon, I waited for openSUSE and read some reviews of 11.4.  It was time to take the plunge.  Word on the webs told me the openSUSE team had worked out the issues plaguing me before.  

It was time to ditch Ubuntu, hopefully for good.  I had 11.4 downloaded and burnt as a back up, then I let 12.1 work its magic.  The installation was super smooth and quick.  It detected my old partitions and imported it all perfectly.  The new system booted fast.  Updates downloaded and installed without problems.  Even more remarkably, I added additional respositiories and installed additional software, including some required codecs, without trouble.  

The ability to add additional repos on openSUSE is a feature I love dearly and wish more distros would incorporate.  It made a lot of the setup easier.  The other helpful tool was the site openSUSE Guide.  The guide isn't complete and its not the most detailed.  But it will give you the basic tools to start your system right.  

Once I've used the system more, I'll drop a few screenshots and maybe a more detailed review.  If you've tried openSUSE 12.1 or if you're ditching Ubuntu, let me know what you think.
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Or should I say a Droid?  My Palm Pre took a final nasty dive last month.  While I did have an upgrade coming to me, my wife really wanted an iPhone.  Being the good husband that I am, she got  a shiny new white iPhone 4 whilst I received a slightly used refurbished white Droid 2 Global.  There's even a story how she came to a refurbished model but that's for a better time than this.

Since I've moved onto Android, I'll start posting some more updates and reviews.  I'll drop in my favorite apps and mention some close seconds.  I'll probably lust over some phones like the Droid Razr.  

Right I'm still playing and customizing it.  The Gingerbread update finally dropped and I've been loving the much needed changers.  The app launcher is better.  Its faster.  The battery last longer.  I can even dismiss individual notifications thanks to MotoBlur.  

If you have any Android suggestions, comments, et cetera, leave them for me please.
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With Ubuntu 10.10 out, I thought it was a time to give Unity another try.  Since it was supposed to be much more polished and refined, I expected great things.  How did it all turn out?  Did I ditch KDE 4?
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I’ll be moving onto Android soon.  My wife is waiting to see what happens with the iPhone 5 (allegedly being announced in September with an October release).  When she upgrades, I’ll inherit her Motorola Droid 2 Global (in white, no less).  Given my Palm/webOS background, I’m kind of lost.

In the webOS world, there was no locked bootloaders or ROMs to install.   There was no hacking of the sort.  Palm built in a back door “Developer Mode” that allowed the installation of Preware.  Preware in turn allowed the easy installation of themes and mods to change the appearance.  That’s not important now though.  My concern is where to begin with Android.

I don’t have to change a thing on the phone but its really in my nature.  I run Linux for stability and security but also so I can modify whatever I want.  I switch from Gnome to KDE to E17 for fun.  So I want to play with the phone and see what it can do.  I’ve thought I should start with different launchers first.  Once I’m comfortable I’ll try a different ROM.  

I want to hear your thoughts.  If you have a D2G or you hack Android, let me know.  


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Many people declared Palm dead when HP rebranded Palm.com with HP logos and slapped HP on the latest webOS devices.  Palm wasn’t dead then.  It was alive in the design of the Veer and Pre3.  With HP’s latest moves (if you haven’t heard, you live under one odd rock), Palm is truly finally dead.  

HP’s announcement today declared that they have given up on webOS devices but has left it open ended that we might expect licensing options or a sell off.  Regardless of what happens, it won’t be Palm designed the phones anymore.  It’ll be HTC or Samsung or Amazon for all we know.  Palm’s last stand has ended.  Palm is dead.

This truly makes me sad.  I’ve held my Pre tight.  I check it religiously for  webOSroundup updates, hoping in vain that today would be the day that HP moves forward and announces its releasing the Pre3 to all US carriers and a new model will be out in three months.  Alas, not.  Instead, I received the jolting news today that HP is cutting loose its PC division (which I was a big fan of their systems, especially the Voodoo/Envy line) and along with it webOS devices.

I’ve read a lot of comments from the blogs tonight.  There’s pleas to save webOS.  Maybe HTC will take it?  And there’s equally strong pleas for webOS to die.  No more chances, just lay back and sleep webOS.  

How do I feel about it all?  Disappointed.  Frustrated.  Let down.

I bought my Palm Pre Plus under the premise that Palm would release updates and newer phones.  They were snatched up by HP and I was thrilled.  I thought they might take a while to get started but when they revealed the new phones, I was excited.  I thought webOS would take at least 10-20% market share within a year or so.  Instead, HP let everyone down.  They released the tiny Veer and only finally did a soft launch on the Pre3 unlocked in Europe.  HP really had the potential to release it and make it something amazing. 

Before I criticize too much, I must confess that I was defecting anyway.  See, my wife wants an iPhone.  I wanted to try her Droid 2 Global.  I was really thinking the spare phone would let me install webOS 2 on my Pre without fear of being phone-less.  The idea of keeping the Droid was growing on me though.  There’s so many apps.  I’m a power user and lately all I’ve done is check the news.  Android would let me organize and sort and do all sorts of things that apps let you do.  I’m still looking forward to my time with the Droid  

I want to also admit that I really didn’t care about going to Android.  I want open source and customizable.  I run Linux, alright?  I don’t want closed controlled iOS.  Android is closed enough with all the trouble it takes to load different ROMs.  webOS never had that problem.  Developer mode was built in and accessible. 

So now I’m looking at the future.  If a manufacturer can take webOS and run with it, I’ll be back.  If not, I’m not sure what I’ll run.  Perhaps a Googlorola Android phone?  Maybe a closed source Windows Phone or Blackberry QNX handset?  Maybe open Meego will come back?  Or I’ll drink the koolaid and get an iPhone?
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Composting 08/31/2011
 
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I collected four of these 17 cubic foot cartloads.  It was mostly grass clippings, a few leaves, and the occasional mulched stick.  Three and a half went into the compost bins.  The rest went to further mulching my tomatoes.
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