New Years Resolutions

So many people will tell you people are more successful at staying on track of their goals if they share them so that is what I am going to do.  This year I have allot I would like to accomplish and I will be planning on checking back one year from today and letting you know what I have succeeded at and where I have failed.  You can watch me accomplish these goals through the year on YouTube or continue to read my blog.  So here comes my goals!
1 - Change my life style to a healthy living life style.  I want to cut out processed foods from my families diet. Use common sense when it comes to portion control and try not to over indulge.  Being more active picking family activities such as going hiking or biking.  Most of all I would like to loose 20lbs and be more healthy!
2 - Plan more.  I would like to stop flying by the seat of my pants and plan dinners, plan out my gardens, plan projects I will be taking on and so on.  I know planning makes people more efficient and I feel like I will accomplish more and save money if I can put this in place.
3 - Stay organized.  I have spent allot of time cleaning and organizing my basement and garage over the last couple weeks and I have allot more to go but boy do I wish I would have done this years ago.  Once again I believe this save you time and money by being able to find what you need in a timely fashion.
4 - Teach and Share. I have always loved talking and helping people with their projects so this year I will be sharing my work on YouTube and right here on Blogger.  Hopefully through out the year I learn more about doing this and improve my blogs and YouTube videos.
5 - And last of all Love more!  I want more quality family time even if it is digging in the yard or taking a walk I want to make more time for my son, daughter, and especially my wife.
So follow along this year do not be shy about helping me stay on track or improve what I am doing!

Watch me make some hard tack candy below :)

My mind is spinning

So much to do, so much to plan and I can not get my head around it right now!  I have to get this summers gardens planned out so I can order and start seeds on time. I am cleaning my garage and basement work shop and that in its self is a huge project.  I have a kitchen remodel to finish before my wife kills me. And now I have a huge obsession with sharing my skills on YouTube.  I knew I wanted to use blogging and possibly YouTube to share my thoughts, skills, and experiences with the world but I never knew it would be this fun to make movies.  I believe so many skills have been lost over the years and I have been blessed with the skill of working with my hands and I would love to pass this on to my children and others who think it is important to make and fix your own things.  I have been trying to be better planning out the future and being more organized because I have learned that is a way to save money and time.  Hopefully some of you find my movies interesting and put them to good use! Thanks for reading and watching here are the two newest videos of me fixing my sump pump and reviewing evapo-rust.

Self sufficient and self reliant what does this mean?

One of my top goals is to become and teach my family and others to become self sufficient or maybe self reliant.  I always get lost and can not choose if I want to say self sufficient or self reliant.  During a planning session today trying to figure out yields and how many plants I need I found a man who says self reliance is impossible to reach and self sufficient is also an unobtainable goal.  So with this I did some more researching thinking maybe I misunderstood what I was trying to say.

I went to http://www.merriam-webster.com to pull up some definitions.

Self sufficient 1. able to maintain oneself or itself without outside aid :  capable of providing for one's own needs <a self–sufficientfarm> 2. having an extreme confidence in one's own ability or worth:  haughty, overbearing

Self reliant confident in your own abilities and able to do things for yourself : not needing help from other people

So with those definitions I do believe a self reliant or a self sufficient life style is obtainable.  I do not necessarily believe in a dooms day scenario but I do want to learn and teach the skills that are going by the waste side because I do believe Americans need them.  Being able to grow all your own vegetables, preserve and cook food, repair and make things is what has made the world turn for thousands of years and I do not want my children to not learn these things.  And I do believe if you learn how to do these things you will be confident in your own abilities and able to do things for yourself. And if there was ever an emergency you would not need help from other people to survive.  Hmm that's the definition of self reliant and go figure they are self reliant and self sufficient are synonyms!

Who? What? Where? and Why?

So I have been meaning to write this for a while and just finally made myself do it.  Why am I blogging, and why am I sharing my stories, skills, mistakes, and successes with everyone?  Allot of bloggers YouTubers do it for the money that is not what I am in it for so you will not always see perfect grammar or perfect video editing.  I am doing it because I want to be a better person I want to share and I believe this will hold me accountable to reach my goals.

I know most people have a one track mind when they blog or YouTube but I will be honest mine will range from cooking, cleaning, organization, building, repair, gardening, prepping, and I am sure anything else I dream up.

So who am I?  I am a 31 year old husband with two children a son who is 7 and a daughter who is 3.  We live just out side of Pittsburgh in an old railroad town that is just fine for me for right now.  I was chosen in high school to be the next Bill Gates but I have not made any strides towards that but I am happy right where I am.  I always struggled though school and knew college probably was not for me.  I have always found solving problems is what I do best whether it was fixing machines, houses, or even computers.

At 16 a owner of a small company went out on a limb and hired me into their IT department, not a year later I was managing that department and working to be a certified network engineer.  I worked at this job for about 2 years and got board.  Sitting in a cubical was just not for me!  I have to admit I have spent almost my whole life job jumping and there are days I regret it but boy have I learned allot.  Through this I have learned to be a carpenter, electrician, plumber, heavy machine operator, mechanic, Realtor, manager, inspector, and so many more thing I also achieved a Michigan builders licence, Michigan real estate licence, certified pool operator, novel network engineer and many other things I am not remembering right now.

People are probably asking why haven't you stuck to one thing? Well I cant! I am not sure what it is but I need to be moving shaking hustling and creating every minute.  I will say I always tend to come back to building and construction that is where my heart lays.

So my mission now is to clean up my house and yard and show my family how you live with what you got and bring back family values.  I hope to over the next year live a healthier life style, spend more time with family, and spend less money.  Is this all possible I guess we wait and find out.

Hard Tack Candy Making

Here it is Hard tack cany making on youtube!

Excited for spring! Lets get gardening

So if you have read my previous blogs you will know I was trying a seed a day project.  So I have learned many of things over this first full month of cold weather and lack of sun light.  The lack of sun light really has a negative affect on the plant and makes them grow extra slow.  The seedlings inside are just not taking off like they should, I have put those under some florescent under cabinet lights I have (just because it was cheap and easy) and I do believe it has helped them grow a bit faster.  So in the future I may use some grow lights in the winter months to keep the food growing.

The second thing I have learned is the beds that grew very well in the summer time do not grow as well in the winter time.  I have finally figured out and solved all issues with the row covers but I do believe once again lack of sun light is slowing down production of my leafy greens.  These beds are great producers in the summer time and have some shade from my house but the plants do not seem to mind in the summer.  In the winter the sun moves and this area becomes almost 100% shade.  I do not believe these covers will go to waste though,  I believe if after summer crop I immediately plant fall crop and establish beets, radishes, carrots, and leafy greens it will allow the plant to stay fresh and just slow down their rate of growth.  Using this with other beds hopefully will allow my family to have fresh vegetables all winter long once we get this figured out!

That brings me to why I doing this.  Well I have always loved gardening and growing things people can eat that is the main reason.  I have never realized how distant people have got from gardening lots of people have a hobby plant or two but not a vegetable garden.  Most people I talk to love what I am trying to do and wish they could do it as well, but I do not find many people with the knowledge who can share and pass down the tradition of growing your own food.  I would like to teach my kids, friends, family, and any one else who is interested in learning.  I am learning by making mistakes and researching there are allot of great books, blogs and videos out there but it is hard to learn with out the hands on experience.

Hard Tack Candy Family Traditions

Growing up I always remember the hard tack candy in my grandmothers candy dishes at Christmas time.  Although I can not remember how it got to those candy dishes I do have some family members who have told me about the great times they had making it and how it was a great family tradition. So last year with so many other things I started doing I decided it was time to go into the candy making business.  We made batch after batch of hard tack gave it to coworker, friends, and family and boy was it a hit!  One of my nieces asked uncle Denis how did you make this candy?  So with that one little question I decided it was time to get the family tradition going again and teach this next generation how to make some candy.  Tomorrow we will be gathering and hopefully start a tradition that will last for years.  Tonight I did a trial batch to make sure I did not forget anything from last year and it turned out just right.  I thought I would share my recipe and maybe in a few days a video on how we do this.  Get out there and spend quality time with your family make some new traditions.

 
Hard Tack Candy
Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup light corn syrup (I use Bob White Crystal White)
2 cups sugar
1 small jar flavoring (3.7ml)
Food coloring
Powder sugar (for dusting)
Butter (for cooling dish/pan)

Butter cookie sheet and lightly and coat with powder sugar, set aside. Combine water, corn syrup, and sugar in pot over medium heat.  Slowly stir mixture dissolving contents.  Mixture will come to a rapid boil watch candy thermometer closely and to prevent burning.  When mixture reaches 300 degrees or "Hard Crack" remove from heat, add flavoring, and coloring.  Mix well and poor onto prepared cookie sheet.  As this is cooling use scissors to cut into small pieces and toss with more powder sugar if needed.

Procrastination and hording

My thought of the day is do you think procrastination and hording are linked in any way?  I have always procrastinated task.  At times I am better and get on track at times I am way worse.  I also find that there are allot of people out there like my self who like to build, garden, fix things have this same problem. I some time blame my procrastination on wanting to make everything perfect.  I am in the middle of building a kitchen and have dragged my feet for two years because I want every drawer shelve and cabinet in the perfect place.  I also blame my organization on this procrastination.  I guess this is where hording would come in to play.  People like my self see everything with a value and an use.  We collect unused materials and always have a plan for them in the future.  The biggest problem is if you can not find it when you need it or it makes your life harder because it is in your way it is useless to you.  So I have realized this over the last few months and I am taking steps to clean my basement, clean my garage, and finish those projects I have been putting off.  I do believe it is very important to teach our children not to waste and how to repurpose and save those things we need but maybe I can start showing them if I do it in a organized fashion it will be more efficient.

Quick tour of basement/stopping my hoarding

My first video blog I will continue writing but will be adding video blogs into the mix.  This is a quick tour of the basement and the start of my wood shop.  Once again organization will hopefully make this large collection of tools, wood, and other parts useful and save us money.  I do believe it is extremely important to be organized if you are a homesteader or a prepper.

Homemade Wood Whistle

Spending quality time with my wife and children is extremely important to me.  Today my daughter and I spent some time in my work shop making some whistles.  They are very crude and basic but the work well and the kids love them!

Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (Ralph the Elf)

Remember always have fun with your kids that is the most important thing in the world.  You can never get the lost time back!

We are all building a legacy

Why do I want to create and share my skills? Mostly for my children and the society they will have to grow up and live in.  So many skills have been lost over the years.  People no longer make their own things or even have hobbies.  I am hoping that if I spend more time creating, growing, and building my children, neighbors, and family will learn and want to have some of these skill themselves.  What do you want to be remembered for?  Your xbox skills or the fact you grow the best tomatoes, build the coolest Christmas presents, or can fix just about anything.  I know what I want to pass on to this and many generations to come!

The urban farmer is it possible?

So my life long dream was to be a farmer.  I believe what intrigues me about farming is providing for your self and the extreme self reliance.  On any given day as a farmer is a gardener, butcher, framer, excavator, blacksmith, and so many other amazing things.  The farmers of the past were connected with the land utilized all their skills and made something out of nothing.  Today most people rely on money for all their needs.  We develop one skill set to make money to purchase our needs.  What happens when that one skill set fails you?  This is why I am trying to keep my many skills I have acquired through out the years and be a urban type of farmer.  Is this possible?  Is it feasible?  I have no clue but I am willing to try!

I watch videos on YouTube and read blogs of people buying huge chunks of land and moving of to a homestead, but I can not do that.  As fun as that would be many things hold me back.  Property is extremely expensive and with out a huge savings you are going to find your self in the woods broke.  Having two children family and education is extremely important.  The school district I am in now can provide my children with great things and a bright future.  A strong family unit is also important, I believe my wife and I instill strong values in our children and teach them many thing most importantly love.  I also think the extended family is important to aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great grandparents can teach your children so many things! Living in a remote area would isolate my children from these opportunities and I am not willing to do that.

Over the last weeks I have realized your resources and supplies are only useful if they can be found.  I have drove myself nuts for years looking for things for hours so my first task as a urban farmer is to become organized.  If I am going to build and repair things I need a clean shop space where I can find my tools.  I have worked on this over the last week and it is well on its way. It is amazing what a couple hours a day of sorting can do for you.

I will continue working towards my goals to become self reliant so I can hopefully pass on as many skills as possible to my children!