SasEz! Simple & Sustainable Living…

Composting: An easy way to dispose of all organic waste We are composting kitchen, yard and garden, as well as toilet waste. I decided to separate the toilet composting from the kitchen and garden compost piles because I want to let the toilet compost age one to two years before we use it. The kitchen compost can be used in three to six months sometimes, and definitely by the time we’ve been here for a year.

Toilet Composting

My toilet compost pile will continue having additions made to it for six to twelve months, then it will sit and mature for a minimum of one year before we start using it.

We’re using the sawdust toilet method outlined in The Humanure Handbook and I have to say it’s working well. We’ve only been doing this for just under four weeks so far but we’ve had …

I got my very first corn sprout Wednesday. I found three actually, one was almost an inch up while two others had just peaked their tips through the soil surface.

I haven’t done a great job tracking my planting dates and details, so this post is an attempt to catch up a bit.

The corn sprouts that popped up were planted roughly seven to eight days ago–I think last Tuesday or Wednesday.

The very first batch of seeds I planted were robbed by something. I’ve seen a big jackrabbit around, lots of lizards, and we’ve heard what sounds like turkeys wandering around in the bushes too. Something dug up the seeds from the first plantings though, so I suspect that’s why they never sprouted. This batch of new sprouts is near the trailer where the dog can scare off anything that might come …

W’s dad brought us our very first tree today! It’s an orange tree–Citrus sinensis ‘Trovita’–about two feet tall and a couple of beginning blossoms are already on it. The flower blooms are small and white, and they have a rich, heady scent that reminds me of gardenias or jasmine. The leaves are really green and glossy right now too, but depending on how much shock it got from transplanting it may look a little sorry for the next week or so. After that I expect it to thrive though.

I chose a low lying depression to plant the tree in so rainwater will naturally collect there when we get it. We dug the hole for it yesterday. W dug two and a half to three feet down so I could make sure the soil was loose enough for the roots to take hold, …

Even though it’s only our second full day on the land, I couldn’t resist going ahead and getting some of my vegetable patches started

This picture may not be the greatest because I took it with my cell phone and it’s not easy to see how things turned out on that but I think it’s good enough for illustrative purposes.

Towards the front/bottom is a small mound with cucumber seeds planted in it. Around that are two curves with bell pepper, onion and lettuce seeds planted.

The lettuce is a Mesclun mix of 7 different kinds: Arugula, endive, red kale, red and green romaine, salad bowl and Lolla Rossa. It’s supposed to germinate in 7-10 days and be ready for harvest in 40-60.

My first set of onions are from seed–Evergreen Bunching is the name of the variety. They’ll sprout in 10-12 days …

So the first step in our sustainable living plan is almost complete. We’re scheduled to sign the contract on the land Saturday! Our first steps started already of course. We had to do the research on the land and offer, and this week we’ve been working on gathering up all of our stuff, washing clothes and stocking up on groceries. I’m hoping to pack it all up Saturday and go out on Sunday.

Our first weeks will be spent setting up camp. We need to clear a path to drive the jeep and trailer onto so we can make camp around the center of the property. We plan to use it like a campsite at first then build from there.

One of the first things we’ll need to do is get a well drilled. That may take a little time since it’s not cheap so we’ll be hauling water for now. …