Here are the hens getting used to the new location after a move. They really like lawn clippings for their nesting boxes.

GUEST POST by Shaen Cooper

I guess an occupational hazard of running a mobile storage company like GO BOX Storage, is wanting to make everything “mobile”. Over the last few years, I have moved away from permanent structures to mobile structures for our permaculture activities. There is a real flexibility in going mobile.

There is no right or wrong way to do mobile housing. Nor will everything I do work in all situations but the idea of mobile housing for livestock should be considered. Many of us move regularly and having mobile housing will save money and increase choice. Moving livestock to new location — at least seasonally — will break the pathogen cycle and help maintain healthy livestock. The elements of our Mobile Chicken Housing are:

1. A chicken hutch that can be moved with a forklift.
2. Fencing that can be rolled up and moved to another location. The posts can be removed and used again.
3. We use goboxes for storing livestock feed and farming equipment. The goboxes are moved with a forklift, making moving a breeze.

This mobile chicken house can be moved with a forklift. The tarp catches the chicken manure for later use in the garden or to super-charge the compost pile.

I use cement blocks and wood shims to level the mobile chicken house so any slope is suitable. The white tarp is to catch the chicken manure that falls through the mesh floor of the chicken house. The mesh floor makes a healthy environment for the chickens and avoids to onerous task of mucking out the chicken house.

This is one of two chicken runs for our layers. The goboxes are used to store feed and equipment.

Chickens love to free-range, but they are vigorous scratchers, and can damage plants quickly.

Chickens are not vegetarians. Chickens are omnivores, like us. Their favorite food is bugs and they spend all day scratching to find their preferred food. Chickens that lay eggs need a very high fat and protein diet or they will stop laying.

It doesn’t matter if you keep your hair short or long. Cut your own hair and send the money you would have spent at the hairdresser’s to Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) or Farm to Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) if you love food freedom.

Last week I talked with Megan Turcato from Kamloops Radio NL. She wanted to do an interview about raw milk. She wanted a local person to give a reaction to Micheal Schmidt and Gordon Watson’s recent conviction of Contempt of Court. If you have been reading eatkamloops.org for any time, you know I am very unhappy with the Canadian Government using public resources to drag farmers through the courts under the pretense of “public safety”.

So, what am I feeling about the court case? I found myself full of sorrow at powerful people using their positions to oppress people weaker and less well positioned than themselves. I’m also very angry with the government’s deception that this is about food safety and not about protecting the government’s monopoly on milk quota.

I’m furious that my government can take away my autonomy to choose the types of food I put in my body and with whom I do commerce. I’m terrified that my children, or someone’s children, could be taken away. When are these officials going to start thinking we are bad parents because we feed our children a food they have legislated into a “health hazard”?

This is how I feel about my loss of autonomy.

So what’s a Mother to do? This is not only about the loss of my personal autonomy but the loss of my parental rights to feed my children nourishing, traditional foods. I realize I am suffering from the grief of losing my autonomy and my rights as a parent. I am grieving over government officials using their privileged positions to oppress peaceful people whose “only crime” is working to supply people with raw milk.

I found myself awake late into the night, praying for the people fighting for food freedom. But prayer does not seen enough for secular problems. I don’t have the tools to fight these well-positioned oppressors. There are people who are more knowledgeable about the law, who have a better chance of beating these officials at their own game.

I found myself thinking about women’s long history of cutting our hair during periods of grief and times of loss. In more modern times, hair cutting has been used as fund raisers for charities. I vow to cut my hair myself until raw milk can be legally sold in Canada. I will send the money I would normally spend at the hairdresser’s and give it to the Canadian Constitution Foundation. (If you live in the US the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund also protects farmers from oppressive government regulation.)

I cut my hair every two months and spend $25.00 for my haircut. This means the Canadian Constitution Foundation will get about $150.00 from me each year until raw milk is legalized in Canada. I know if only one person does this, there will not be enough money in the “war chest” to beat the government officials. I’m making an open invitation to other women and men who believe in food freedom to make the same pledge.

So if you see me and I am having a bad-hair-day, you’ll know why. I’m mourning my loss of autonomy!

There are people who are more knowledgeable about the law, who have a better chance of beating these government officials at their own game. I’m putting my money in the hands of people who can fight for food freedom. I ask you to do the same.

If you would like to learn more about the situation regarding raw milk in Canada please read Food Freedom: The Politics of Food.

I once thought that the government officials would be “reasonable”. I now know that was delusional thinking. The only way through is to fight.

New Zealand Spinach grows like a weed in my garden.

At this time of year, New Zealand Spinach grows like a weed in my garden. New Zealand Spinach is a self-seeding annual which comes up like a perennial every year. The plant especially likes to colonize disturbed ground that is heavily manured. You can likely find it growing right now in your garden. If not, come up to the GO BOX Permaculture Project and dig up some plants for your garden. You’ll never lack for spring greens again!

Shaen and I go into the garden and snap off the tender upper growth of the plant leaving the bottom of the plant to continue growing. The stems can be round or square and are tender enough to eat. This plant can be eaten in any dish that uses spinach. New Zealand Spinach does have a mild astringent after-taste. I like it for breakfast with sea salt, garlic and butter. Shaen makes a wonderful homemade mayonnaise or a simple hollandaise sauce that takes this weed to another level.

New Zealand Spinach has a round or square stem that is tender enough to eat.

Shaen’s Simple Hollandaise Sauce
6 pastured eggs, yolks
1/4c organic lemons, freshly squeezed or 1/4c organic cider vinegar
1-2c organic butter, melted and warm
1/2tsp sea salt
1/2tsp organic black pepper, freshly ground (optional)
1/2tsp organic chili pepper, ground (optional)
1tsp organic garlic, minced (optional)

Put into a food processor: egg yolks, lemon juice or cider vinegar, sea salt, and optional spices. Mix very well. While the food processor is mixing, slowly add the warm melted butter to the mixture until smooth. Pour the hollandaise sauce into a sauce pan and very gently heat while stirring. Do not over heat the sauce or it will separate. The separated sauce is still good to eat but it is more lumpy like a “cheese sauce”.

Shaen’s Homemade Mayonnaise
4 pastured eggs, yolks
1-2T organic lemon, juice or 2T organic cider vinegar
1c organic extra virgin olive oil
1/2tsp sea salt
1/2tsp organic black pepper, freshly ground (optional)
1/2tsp organic chili pepper, ground (optional)
1tsp organic garlic, minced (optional)

Put into a food processor: egg yolks, lemon juice or cider vinegar, sea salt, and optional spices. Mix very well. While the food processor is mixing, very slowly add the olive oil. Keep on adding more olive oil until the mayonnaise is the thickness you desire. Mayonnaise sometimes doesn’t work out and separates but it’s still delicious on foods.

I have found myself increasingly distressed by the thought that my children will not be able to afford to own a home. Or if they do decide to buy, they will be mortgage slaves for decades. Contemplating these morbid thoughts led me to research tiny homes. Tiny homes are a solution to our over-consumptive practices, and tiny mobile homes deal with our cultural habit of moving for jobs.

But tiny homes are not enough. I started asking the question: “What about building tiny homes from natural materials from local sources?” This question brought my research to a new level, but I realized my next home will never meet BC Building Code.

My next dream house will be off-the-grid and will cost next to nothing. The house will be a passive solar structure made out of local materials. The house will generate its own power, collect its own water, and process its own waste. Materials will depend on the location, but I like the idea of a post-and-beam house with cob walls. I see bucket toilets and a radical plumbing system as part of my future. I will have to build without permits, thus my house will have to be stealthy. The powers-that-be see my dream home as unsafe, unsavory, and maybe even a health hazard!

But I don’t buy into that view anymore. I wonder why the government even cares if I live in a mud house — but by doing so — I stop buying into 30 year mortgages. I avoid self-imposed mortgage slavery. I get off the treadmill of debt. Who knows what kind of mischief I might get into with all that free time!

GO BOX Storage has donated The Hand Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage by Ianto Evans to the Kamloops Public Library. I hope the book helps you find your own brand of freedom.

What would it be like if we could build our own homes? What would we do with our time if we didn’t have to work for the bank?

Rhubarb grows like a weed in my garden — but I’m not a fan of this sour stem — until now!

This recipe is safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

One of the wonders of eating local foods is looking forward to those seasonal foods that come just once a year. In the last few weeks, I have been enjoying asparagus. I only eat asparagus in the spring when it is in season. I look forward to local asparagus every year and eat my fill. Of course, loaded with butter, sea salt and garlic!

Rhubarb is another story altogether. Rhubarb grows like a weed in my garden. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of this earlier seasonal food. The biggest thing I dislike about rhubarb is the tradition of loading this stem with sugar to make it edible. Since sugar doesn’t even come into my household, that’s not an option. As I contemplated the bounty of rhubarb on my kitchen counter, the answer came to me. My sweetest dried fruit in storage is raisins.

This is the recipe I came up with. My girls liked it so much they asked me to make more the next day. This “dessert” can also be eaten as a healthy “breakfast”. It is good with raw cream or raw whipping cream.

It’s great to be able to eat fresh foods from the garden while using storage foods from my pantry.

Rhubarb Filling
6-8c garden rhubarb stems, sliced on the diagonal
1/4c organic butter
1-2 large pinches sea salt
1c organic raisins

Topping
1c organic walnuts
1c organic sunflower seeds
1/4c organic butter, cut into small cubes
1/2tsp sea salt
1tsp organic cinnamon, ground
1/2tsp organic allspice. ground

Melt the butter and sea salt in a stainless steel pot. Add the sliced rhubarb and cover. Cook at a very low temperature and stir occasionally to avoid sticking. Water will start coming out of the rhubarb. When this happens add the raisins. Soften and cook the rhubarb and raisins for about 15-20 minutes, then remove from heat. The sweetness of the raisins will contrast the sour of the rhubarb nicely.

In a food processor, lightly grind the walnuts and sunflower seeds together. Add the sea salt, spices and butter and lightly grind until the butter is incorporated with the nuts and seeds. The consistency should be crumbly. Do not over grind.

Pour the rhubarb filling into a 12″x12″ glass baking tray and flatten. Add the topping over the filling and lightly flatten. Cook at 300°F for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. This dessert is good warm or cold. Add a big pad of butter, if eaten warm, or for breakfast.

Rhubarb Crumble is good warm or cold. If eaten warm add a big pad of butter. If eaten cold, try some raw cream or raw whipping cream.

Sally Fallon Morell’s new book on baby and child care.

GO BOX Storage has donated three more books to the Kamloops Public Library. Over the years, GO BOX Storage has donated other books. If you would like to see the complete list please see Recommended Reading List.

We are aware that greywater is not presently allowed in the City of Kamloops. We hope Art Ludwig’s books in the local library will foster conversation and increase awareness of the benefits of greywater in dry climates.

The government officials are concerned that greywater could be a “health hazard”. I find it interesting that I can spray pesticide, herbicide and fungicide and that’s legal, but reclaiming water from my laundry machine or bathtub is a health hazard!

Until greywater is legal in Kamloops, we can still collect rainwater off our roofs and use this water on our gardens. Thank goodness that’s still legal in Kamloops.

If you would like to learn more about greywater, Deanna Hurstfield sent me this article called Rainwater Harvesting and Grey Water Reuse. This greywater review of practices was completed by the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Here are some heritage purple potatoes from my sister.

GUEST POST by Shaen Cooper

Last fall before the snow came, I tried deep mulching using a layer of waste paper. I put the waste paper directly over the soil. In some areas, the paper was up to one inch thick. Then I covered the waste paper with a deep layer of mulch. I used tree chips and grass clippings — both waste materials from neighbors. In some areas, I used old, moldy straw and hay. The top mulch was six to twelve inches deep. During the winter, the soil was insulated by the paper and mulch. There appeared to be more bacterial action in the soil.

In the spring, I found the layer of paper well on its way to decomposing. Under the layer of paper, the soil was moist to the touch. Normally, the soil would be very dry after the winter and would require heavy watering.

You can see the layer of paper after the winter is well on the way to decomposing but is still acting as a protective layer to the soil.

When choosing mulch, use waste materials that you have on hand or reuse a waste material of neighbors. Waste hay always has lots of grass seed. Use waste hay to mulch areas you want grass to grow.

When I break through the paper layer the soil is damp and ready for planting.

I made the hole large enough to get my hand in. The paper layer will stop weeds until the potato can get going.

Every spring, I clean up the raspberry brushes and take out the old canes. These canes are good for trellising or marking individual plants. Deep mulching is good for:

• disposal of waste household or office paper
• keeping the soil moist and fertile
• physical barrier to weed growth

I like using canes as a marker for new plants. This helps me know where to hand water while the plant is getting going.

Updated May 21, 2013: Please note that drought and ground water depletion and contamination are becoming the issue of our time. With our government selling rights for fracking, safe ground water may soon be a thing of the past. Many aspects of permaculture will be helpful in drought situations. Here are some steps we can take to help stop drought:

• Keep soil temperature as low as possible by deep mulching.
• Increase organic material so when the rains come the water will stay on the land.
• Fight soil compaction — which repels water — by encouraging soil flora and fauna.
• Use drip irrigation and greywater systems.
• Plant forest gardens to provide habitat for wild animals while producing food for humans.
• Plant drought resistance grasses, forbs and weeds.
• Reduce pressure on land by using intensive grazing rotation plan.
• Build ponds or use mobile ponds.
• Use mobile shade for livestock to encourage manuring in shaded areas.

Here is an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada map of accumulated precipitation.

Dandelion Green Chips are a wonderful spring snack. If this snack caught on it would improve everyone’s health while reducing lawn herbicide!

Are you looking for a non-toxic dandelion control? Eat your weeds and improve your health at the same time!

This winter I discovered Kale Chips. Kale Chips have become my favorite snack food. I couldn’t seem to get enough. As the winter progressed my husband started complaining about the cost of organic kale.

My husband has since planted kale in the garden and will try to overwinter the plants to satisfy my winter comfort food. While in the garden, I was looking at the tiny kale plants and wondering when I could have my first snack. A bright yellow flower caught my eye and said: “Why not Dandelion Green Chips?” It’s times like this that I realize I am walking through my days only half awake.

6-8c garden dandelion greens, remove stem end
1-3T organic extra virgin olive oil
1/2tsp sea salt, ground
pinch of bird’s eye chili or other hot chili, ground

I got a large bowl and started pulling out leaves. I filled the bowl and returned to the kitchen. I removed the stem ends. I tossed the dandelion greens with some extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt and a very small amount of bird’s eye chili. I thought the chili might counter-act the bitterness of the dandelion greens. I cooked the dandelion greens at 300°F for about 10-15 minutes.

About 50% of the people in the household loved the Dandelion Green Chips and the other 50% found the chips too bitter. Of course, I have been eating kale all winter so the dandelion didn’t taste bitter to me. Give the recipe a try and tell me what you think.

Growing your own food is a very liberating experience. Start your own urban homestead and be healed by real food.

In our society, growing food yourself has become the most radical of acts. It is truly the only effective protest, one that can – and will – overturn the corporate powers that be. By the process of directly working in harmony with nature, we do the one thing most essential to change the would – we change ourselves.
Jules Dervaes

This post is an index of all the gardening and farming experiences we have had over the last few years. During our time in Kamloops we have greatly increased our knowledge about permaculture, forest gardens, and pasturing. We have learned how to slaughter and process meat and fowl. We have learned about secondary food processing. I have watched my health, and the health of my family, get better. Good food is a real healer.

We have become aware that food is a political issue. Just talking about food becomes a political discussion very quickly. Unlike Jules Dervaes, I am more concerned with government forces that create the regulations, rather than corporate forces that may be working in the background pulling stings. Governments have the power to create laws which control the courts. Government created laws are backed up by the use of force and imprisonment. Corporations might dream of having this kind of power but it’s only a dream. Corporate powers can lobby but the real power sits with government.

There are political decisions being made right now that are resulting in greater barriers for small scale farmers and ranchers to sell their products to the public. This means you will have greater difficulties finding local food. These problems seem to be intensifying right now, or maybe I am just becoming aware of what has been going on for a very long time.

Producing our own food has been a fascinating journey. I hope that sharing our experiences will encourage others to grow their own urban homestead. Doing so will increase food security for everyone. I hope these stories will also help people who are disconnected from their food supply to appreciate the work that goes into producing quality food.

Local Food
Eating Local Challenges: Part I
Eating Local Challenges: Part II

Winter Storage
U-Pick Strawberries, Cherries and Blueberries for Winter
Winter Storage Part I
Winter Storage Part II
Storing Soft Fruits

Pasturing, Forest Gardens, Permaculture and Gardening
Terracing a Slope and Planning a Pasture
Making Friends with Deadlines
Pastures, Electric Fences and Milking Problems
Predators and Neighbors
Learning About Garden Weeds

Chickens
Chicken Scratch and Fresh Grain for Home Milling
Chicks, Chicks and More Chicks
We Have Organic, Soy-Free Eggs

Dairy
Looking for Pasture for Dexter Cows
Kamloops Herdshare Program
Patty’s Second Birth
Milk, Milk and More Milk
Change of Plan
Looking for Another Cow
Olivia’s New Calf
Olivia and Cinnamon
Olivia’s Illness
Patty’s Third Birth

Slaughtering
Slaughtering Chickens
Whizbang Chicken Plucker
Visit to the Killing Floor at Kam View Lake Meats
Slaughtering Chickens II
Heritage Hogs and Ranfurly Farm
Slaughtering Lambs and Hogs

Food Philosophy, Food Politics and Food Security
Slaughtering in BC: Information You Need to Know
Pastured Poultry Profits
Let’s Talk About Raw Milk Safety
Joel Salatin’s Vision of a Local Food System
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick
Wrong Turn
Are you a producer or a consumer?

Housing
Trick or Treat: Earthships and Zero Energy Homes

In spring, I seem to be particularly sensitive to the effects of garbage. I have been picking garbage around my home in the Ironmask Industrial Park. I know an industrial park is a strange place to raise a family — but providence has brought me here — and I will take care of the land that I am given.

There appears to be a long history of dumping in Kamloops. I have found numerous dumping spots all around Kamloops. Kamloops being such a dry place means garbage lasts a long time. Metal doesn’t rust very quickly, nor does wood decompose with any vigor, while bones and plastics are bleached white in the sun. I would like to take you on a short walk into the Tragedy of the Commons that is taking place in the Crown Forest Lands behind my home.

There is nothing like taking an early morning walk in the tranquility of the countryside. Unfortunately, this walk is not as pleasant as it could be.

“I confess that I am angry at the manufacturers who make these things. There are days when I would be delighted if certain corporation executives could somehow be obliged to eat their products. I know of no good reason why these containers and all other forms of manufactured “waste” — solid, liquid, toxic, or whatever — should not be outlawed.”

This old camper was set on fire and partly destroyed. Only the metal framework remains but it has the look of something that has been around a long time.

These sand bags were dumped last week into the middle of the road. I wonder if the next vehicle to pass by will bottom-out on the bags.

“Much of our waste problem is to be accounted for by the intentional flimsiness and unrepairability of the labor-savers and gadgets that we have become addicted to… We have made a social ideal of minimal involvement in the growing and cooking of food. This is one of the dearest ‘liberations’ of our affluence.”

I wonder if this large screened television was once someone’s pride-and-joy. Now it stands sentry as a burnt out wreck in the forest.

“But our waste problem is not the fault only of producers. It is the fault of an economy that is wasteful from top to bottom — a symbiosis of an unlimited greed at the top and a lazy, passive, and self-indulgent consumptiveness at the bottom — and all of us are involved in it.”

What is the story behind this engine block? Shaen wondered why the person dumped this piece of metal in the forest when scrap metal yards will pay money for steel.

“The mess that surrounds us, then, must be understood not just as a problem in itself but as a symptom of a greater and graver problem: the centralization of our economy, the gathering of the productive property and power into fewer and fewer hands, and the consequent destruction, everywhere, of the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community.”

This poor beast with its broken leg just appeared a few days ago. I have no idea how it found itself dumped in with the garbage. Someone came along and tried to burn it but the job was only partly done. Someone is in the woods trying to clean-up this mess but this person can’t seem to keep ahead of the dumping.

“The ecological damage of centralization and waste is thus inextricably involved with human damage. For we have, as a result, not only a desecrated, ugly, and dangerous country in which to live until we are in some manner poisoned by it, and a constant and now generally accepted problem of unemployed and unemployable workers, but also classrooms full of children who lack the experience and discipline of fundamental human tasks, and various institutions full of still capable old people who are useless and lonely.”

Discarding Christmas trees in the forest makes a lot of good sense because they will decompose over time and make soil. These sad Christmas trees — which I see everywhere — have become a symbol for me of holiday excess and our throw-away culture.

“I think that we must learn to see the trash on our streets and roadsides, in our rivers, and in our woods and fields, not as the side effect of ‘more jobs’ as its manufacturers invariably insist that it is, but as evidence of good work not done by people able to do it.”

I don’t know why there is such a long tradition of dumping in Kamloops. I try to understand why they dump by looking at the garbage and wondering about its story. If someone has a vehicle, why go into the forest to dump when there is the Kamloops Landfill and free recycling in the city?

I want more freedoms for us all. But here in the forest where it’s free, I see sad evidence. Governments point to such behavior and justify taking away everyone’s freedom because a few people act in less than enlightened ways. I don’t have any solutions other than picking up the mistakes of others. I just wanted to share with you what is happening in the forest lands near my home.

If you would like to reduce your waste stream, here is some Solidarity Homework. Here is an essay by Garrett Hardin called The Tragedy of the Commons.

There are some isolated giant Douglas Firs in the forest lands around Kamloops. These isolated trees give us a window into the past. I can almost see the vast grasslands, interspersed by these great trees.

Updated May 4, 2013: Garbage is unsightly, but a more serious Tragedy of the Commons is happening in BC regarding water and fracking.

Last week I was talking with Todd Stone, Kamloops South candidate for the BC Liberals, about his government’s policy to promotion fracking. He says fracking has a forty year history in BC and is totally safe due to government regulations. He told me the problems with fracking can’t happen here in Canada because Canada has the best regulations in the world. I contacted Big Bear Ranch for evidence about fracking damage in Canada.

These two videos are about Jessica Ernst from Rosebud, AB. Jessica Ernst worked for the last thirty year in the Oil and Gas Industry as a Environmental Scientist. The first video is a six minute introduction. The second video is the documentation of the contamination that occurred in Rosebud, AB. Presently, Jessica Ernst is suing EnCana Corporation and the Alberta Government for water contamination. If you want your children to be able to drink clean water please watch both videos.

Updated May 7, 2013: I have just watched a National Film Board documentary called Wiebo’s War. You can watch it online for just a few dollars. Here is more information about the film:
“Wiebo’s War is a feature documentary that tells the story of a man’s epic battle with the oil and gas industry. In the 1990s, natural gas wells were drilled near the home of Reverend Wiebo Ludwig and his clan in Alberta. Soon after, livestock began to die, and the Christian community started experiencing health problems, including a series of miscarriages. After 5 years of being ignored by the oil and gas industry, Ludwig decided to fight for his land and his family’s survival.”

Updated May 9, 2013: I just had to post this pile of shotgun shells. I couldn’t believe the size. It’s piled two feet high, with a diameter of five feet. I could tell that someone was cleaning up the mess.

This morning I met David. He lives up at Lac Le Jeune, BC and comes here every day for a walk and to pick-up garbage. David said that the Thompson Nicola Highway Department will come around and pick-up the pile of garbage. Seeing David’s commitment to the forest makes me want to bring a garbage bag on tomorrow’s walk too.

David is Goose Lake Road’s “forest guardian”. He comes here every day and picks-up garbage.