Simple Suburban Life: New Job and Failing Health

The Bible tells us that there is a time for everything and our family has been in a season of significant changes over the past several months.  Some are good, and some are not so good.  But we know that we are to count it all joy and trust our heavenly Father with it all.

The good news first.  At the beginning of September, I (the SSL mom) accepted the position of preschool director at our church.  Todd and I have been serving for several years together on the elementary side of the children's ministry and when this position opened up, we knew right away it was something we were being called to do.  We are five months into it and we have been so blessed by the people we have been able to meet, serve alongside and grow closer to.  Our entire family serves the Lord together, side-by-side, and it's amazing to be a part of it all.  But it did take some time getting used to our new roles, readjusting our schedules, and reevaluating our priorities.   And preschoolers are a WHOLE lot different than elementary kids.  Wet noses, wet pants, you name it, they do it.  And if you think just because you had kids of your own that you could do it, think again, they're a force to be reckoned with in high numbers.

More good transitions, we have a high schooler!  While it is bittersweet watching her grow up so fast, we are grateful for the young woman our oldest daughter is becoming.  She loves her sisters, the Lord and sports.  AND she starts driver's ed next week, so look out.  Since we know these next few years are going to fly by, we try to remind ourselves how much we are going to miss her clothes all over the floor and dishes strewn about her room when she moves out on her own.  We are also in the middle of her bedroom renovation, so everything she owns is all over the house, literally.  But thankfully, Todd is mudding her room as I type and we will be onto the plywood flooring very soon.

The difficult news is that my mom was officially diagnosed with ALS in October.  ALS is tricky and there isn't a definitive test for it, but we knew something was terribly wrong with her.  A little over a year ago, my mom started to have difficulty walking, talking and swallowing.  She progressively got weaker and weaker over the last year and we got the heartbreaking news in October.  She now communicates to us with her phone by texting and it will speak for her.  She eats through a tube in her stomach, and is almost exclusively confined to a wheelchair or her bed.  A ventilator breathes for her at night.  Our family is now in a season of caring for her, showering her with as much love as we possibly can, and doing things for her that she can no longer do herself.  This is perhaps the worst disease I have ever heard of.  It takes everything away from you.  She can't eat the foods she loves, we will never hear her voice again, we will never hear her laugh again.  My daughters can't play Just Dance with their grandma on her Nintendo like they used to. She is the best grandma I could ever ask for to my girls. They miss her voice, they hurt to see her so helpless, and they are trying so hard to process it all.  We are bearing down, pushing forward, and putting all of our hope and trust in God. While we don't always fully understand, we are confident He is working good into this situation.  And we know He is a God who heals.

We hope this update helps to explain some of the random projects Todd has been working on over the past few months.  The candy canes for the church's children's play, the bedroom renovations for our oldest (we've been promising her closets for years and realized time is running out!) and the wheelchair ramp and video doorbell for Mom.   We love sharing our way of life with you all and are so blessed when you send us your comments and pictures.  They mean more to us than you could ever know.

Your friend,
Lisa, the SSL Mom


"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."  Genesis 50:20

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Aquaponics - Nitrogen Deficiencies

Why are all of your plants dying? Well, if you are just starting your system or have other fish related issues you might see some of these symptoms - Burnt leaves, slow growth, dark yellow spots, plants dying. Nitrogen is the most important nutrient of all!

If you have been following along with the system we have here you probably already know that I have had my fair share of issues with various things. Most recently I discovered that my fish were slowly dying off, each day one or two. After several months of trying various remedies the fish all eventually died. So, here I am with an aquaponics system with no fish! This leads to quite a few issues but mainly (since I am still growing plants) I am starting to see the signs of major nutrient deficiency system wide.

With an aquaponics system the main nutrient that the fish provide for us through the nitrification process is nitrogen. This is (in most cases) the #1 nutrient for plant growth overall and when it is deficient you will surely start to notice it. The easy signs are burnt edges of the leaves, curling under of leaves, leaves falling off, stunted growth, and plants dying. If you start seeing these things it is time to think nitrogen!

In aquaponics this deficiency is normally not an issue with a few exceptions. When you first start cycling your system you will undoubtedly be short on nitrogen. Small fish, not enough fish, or underfeeding could be another cause. Lastly, if you just have too many or plants planted in the system you might not be able to keep up with supply of nitrogen for your crop.

So, how do we correct it? This is the easiest nutrient to supplement, just add ammonia. Regular old, off the shelf, unscented, cheap ammonia. I would recommend starting very small and testing a few hours after you add some (just a few capfuls at first). See if your system is efficiently converting the ammonia into nitrates in a decent amount of time. Should be less than 3-4 hours after adding ammonia that you can test and it is all gone. Keep increasing the dose until you start to get some left over after about 3-4 hours and then you now know how much you can safely add without hurting fish. Make sure to add to your sump or directly to bell siphons in the grow beds but never in the fish tanks.

Update - I have been running my system for two months now without any fish and all plants are doing great! Fish will come back to the system soon but I have a few redesigns in the works first.



Check out the full video here

Check out the Simple Suburban General Store - http://astore.amazon.com/simpsubulivi-20

Nutrient Deficiency Guide - http://ammanutri.com/images/Symptoms%20of%20Micronutrient%20Deficiency%20in%20Plants.jpg

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Simple Suburban "Farming" - How We Utilize Our Small 1/2 Acre Yard

Live in a small lot in the city or suburbs? Did you know that you can still produce a decent amount of food for yourself? Here in the U.S about 80% of us call the city or the suburbs our home but why can't we produce some of our own food too!

In this video I give a quick tour of some of the ways in which we are utilizing space around our yard to grow food. It is a work in progress but much progress has been made in the last 18 months since we started this venture. The goal for us is to produce as much of our own food as possible for now and eventually produce all of our own vegetables and fruit for the year.

We started with the chickens last year and some small garden spaces. The chickens have been the highest producers and most impactful addition to our small homestead. We feed them our food scraps and they graze in our yard; in return they produce six eggs per day for our family. That is a lot of eggs! Chickens are probably the only real livestock that we will be able to have here on our small lot and they are a perfect fit here.

The first gardening step we took was to watch the amount of sun that we get in various areas of the yard. Unfortunately the best area for gardening at our home is also the septic tile field and cannot be used. We decided to start with raised bed gardens. Closer to the house in a hilly location where traditional gardening would not work well. We current are using 6 3'X6' raised bed garden boxed made for free from pallets. These have been able to produce many pounds of sugar snap peas, over 180 carrots, 72 onions, over 15-20 cucumbers per week, basil, lettuce, dill, spinach, cilantro, and a potato harvest coming soon. You can pack a lot of food into a few square feet with the square foot gardening method.



Along our privacy fence we have about 96' of space that was not being used. This does not get full sun all day but it gets plenty for more than half. A garden bed was cleared along the fence about 36" wide and amended with compost, peat, and some sand. We then layered planting here so that we have some climbing or taller plants in the back along the fence, some tomatoes a along, vining plants along the front bottom edge and some corn plants scattered along the front edge in between the tomatoes. This is proving to be a very dense and efficient way to plant along this area and will produce a huge amount of food for us this year.

In the back of the property we sectioned off a small 20' X 20' area and planted six apple trees. We covered the ground with free mulch from the city park and we now have an orchard in the makings. As these tress grow and produce more and more each year we will eventually be able to make apple cider, apple cider vinegar, pies, canned apples, and dried apple fruit snacks for long terms storage.



We have also landscaped up near our house and instead of flowers and bushes have planted an herb and strawberry garden. This will be a perennial garden and will continue to become more diverse each year. We also utilize space between other landscaped areas for tomatoes, cabbage, peas, beans, sunflowers, and flowers to attract pollinators. Even though these are smaller scattered spaces they have proven to be very productive.

Each year the gardens grows, a few more fruit trees are planted, a few more raised beds are built, and more land is cleared from grassy nothingness to food producing farmland. Although we are not buying a combine yet, the small suburban farm is an ever expanding adventure that we will never be finished with. Thanks for tagging along to see how the SSL Family grows  in the suburbs. 

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Thoughts From The SSL Family Dad - What's This Place All About?

New subscriber? Been around for awhile? What is this channel all about and why do we do what we do? These are a few of the questions that I hope to answer in this video.


A few years ago my wife and I decided to move into this small subdivision in small town America. Having both come from country roots it was a bit of a compromise for us to be in a community type setting. As we settled in those country roots began to take hold of our small suburban homestead.


We started thinking more about what we ate, how we got our food, how to save money and live a more simple life. We decided to have the SSLFamilyMom at home full time working on raising and caring for our family of five. Many decisions began being made that slowly turned this city lot into a small backyard farm.

During this transition we needed lots of information, repairs, cooking, gardening, aquaponics, chickens, and anything else you can think of. We started reading blogs, researching we articles and how-to's, and watching a whole lot of others on YouTube. We learned so much and used so many ideas of others. It was time for us to start giving back, it was time for us to share our lifestyle and our ideas with others. This was the beginning of the sslfamily blog and YouTube channels.


We are a family of five, often going in many different directions at once. Cooking, knitting, auto repairs, wildlife, hiking, aquaponics, chickens, DIY projects, home improvement, recipes, bible crafts, science experiments, inventions, sustainable projects, computer repair, and the list goes on and on. We decided on three YouTube channels to spotlight the kids, my wife, and my own projects individually and one blog to tie it all together.


We have been blown away over the past year at the response we have gotten, the lives that have been touched and the stories and projects that have been shared back with us. Our family has been truly blessed over the last year and much of it in part to those of you watching or reading this now.


So if you are a new subscriber what can you expect here? Well, just about anything! I try to release at least 1-2 videos per week on relevant topics ranging from home and auto repairs to gardening and sustainable living projects. Product reviews come around from time to time if I have a product that I feel would be good for that kind of thing. I always review honestly and never with a product that I have not used. I focus on aquaponics videos throughout much of the winter and to the outdoor garden in the summer. I also release computer repair and technology tutorials whenever they present themselves around the home as this is my profession. I always provide an honest outcome if I am trying something new and share the experiences I have had and what has worked for me or share what I have learned from others. Oh, and you may see a few bible verses shared on my channel, this is something that is important to us and our faith in Jesus is interwoven into everything we do here on our little homestead.


What not to expect? One thing you will not see here is us asking for money from you. We are not here to profit from you or ask for donations of any kind. It is always a turn off for me when I watch a YouTube channel or subscribe to someone's blog to see them asking for money and that is not something I am interested in doing here. We also do not do unboxing videos. I will go ahead and open my own boxes off camera! I have not done anything in the way of Vlogging and do not really plan to do anything under this title (I hate the word myself). I may however, offer an opinion on a video or article if I feel it is relevant or feel the need to share with you.


What is coming up next? This is a long-winded answer so I will get to the point. I have so many things that I want to do that I will never be able to catch up. I may post an interactive list at some point for you all to be able to add things to as well but for now I have the following in the immediate works:


Improve the wood burning pool heater and the garage heater
Chicken coop watering system redesign
Fish "Pondaponics"
Indoor aquaponics redesign
Rain collection system
Automatic garden irrigation
Tire rotation
Cast iron seasoning
Chicken coop scraps feeding door and trough
Wireless network tips and tricks
Shop computer
and the list goes on............


How can you support us? This is a simple answer, do what you are already doing. The best way to support the SSL Family is to follow along with us and share your stories, your pictures and your feedback with us.  We couldn't do this without you!


Thank you for following along, have a good one!

The SSL Family Dad

 

 

 

 

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The Invisible Trellis - An Inexpensive Raised-Bed Trellis System

Check out this video to see how to build a very simple and inexpensive trellis for any size raised bed garden. Using some scrap wood that I already had I was able to keep the cost of each of these below $1. These are great for growing peas, cucumbers, pole beans, or any other vining crop.

In our case we have six 6' X3' raised bed garden boxes that were made from free pallet wood. I choose to run a trellis down the long side of each box so that I could maximize the amount of climbing crops I could grow. Our family loves pickles and peas so that will be the main use for them this year. This is also the best angle for the sun so that as the vining crops get bigger they will not block out the smaller crops in the box below.

I started by cutting 3 2X4's into 6' pieces and 6 2X4's into 45" pieces. This will make the trellis about 48" tall from the height of the dirt but you can make them shorter or taller of course. Next I ripped down the 2X4's into 1 3/4" wide strips (cutting each one in half long ways).  At this point you have made all the cuts that you need for six trellis's.

There are many different ways to connect the frames together but I choose to use a half-lap joint in this case. this will be the strongest joint that will withstand the wind and weight of the fruit hanging in the wind here in Michigan. I used a circular saw to cut each joint down 3/4" by making several close cuts at the ends of each board. I then chiseled out that area until it was fairly flat. These don't have to be perfect and if you mess up a bit you can always sand them flat once they are secured together. Check out the video for more details on this step.

Next I overlapped the half-lap joints and pre-drilled some holes making sure things were square before I drilled. Wood glue is used to secure the joints together along with some 1" wood screws. Once the glue has dried you can get them painted with whatever color you would like. I recommend using a deck stain or other sealer so that they withstand the weather.

At this point you are ready to secure them to the ends of your raised beds. 2 1/2" deck screws were used (2 in each leg) to secure them to the boxes. Next, make a mark every 3" starting at the top and working your way to the bottom on the outside of each leg. Using whatever size drill bit you have around (I always break my small ones) drill a hole at each mark at least big enough to get the fishing line through.

I am using 60 lb. test single filament for this step but you can use whatever size and strength line you would like. You can also use string or any other type of cord here if you would like. I chose fishing line since it is clear it makes them almost invisible during the off season when nothing is growing on them.

Start feeding the line through from the bottom hole and work your way up to the top using one single piece of line for each trellis. If you prefer you can also use one piece for each run back and forth but I chose for less hassle and just weaved the single line back and forth through each hole until I was at the top. Tie it off and the ends or tie a knot so that it cannot slip back through and you are done.

This trellis should be long lasting, stand up to the elements, and look a bit nicer than the standard lattice that you could pick up at the store. Plus, these look much nicer when nothing is growing on them which for us up here in Michigan, is most of the year!

Things you might need for this project:

                

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Music - "Learn To Fly" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/LearnToFly





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Why You Should and Can Start an Orchard Today!

Want to produce some of your own fruit? Landscaping projects coming up? Check out this video to see how we have been able to get the absolute best prices on fruit and other trees for our small homestead.

One of the most satisfying things that we do around our little piece of the world is planting trees, gardens, and just about anything that grows. But, as most of you already know, this can get to be an expensive habit! Trees take time to grow and so do garden vegetables so many times it is tempting to run out and get bigger trees and plants that already have a growing head start. While there is nothing wrong with this approach it can take a bit more of an initial investment which means it take you longer to recoup your money from your home grown food. So what is the answer?

When we first moved into this home we discovered that spring and fall time sales are one of the best places to get discounted trees. Normally at the far end of the growing season and at the very early beginning. Our local big box stores generally start 20% off sales in early April and late October. If you keep checking and time it just right you can get what they have left for 50% or more off. While this leaves less of a selection if you just get a couple each year you can grow your orchards bit by bit over time and end up with all of the varieties that you need.

One of the more recent discoveries we made for cheap trees was our local conservation offices. Here in Michigan each county has a local conservation district office which is responsible for conservation activities in a local area. One of the programs that they have is an outreach to encourage planting trees which also serves as a fund raiser for the program. Each year in January-March you can go online and fill out a form to purchase all kinds of different trees, bushes, flowers, and other types of horticultural surprises. Each district will have different prices and different products so check around your local communities for what you need and the best price. The fruit trees we purchased were about 4'-5' tall and cost $19 each. We also purchased 5 Norway spruce for $5 each. These were about 18" tall and all trees came bare root and ready to plant. Comparable to regular prices at the big box stores this was about 50% off.

Another fun and free way we have tried to get our orchards started was simply by planting seeds. We have saved some apple seed from locally grown apples and planted them indoors during Winter. By the time spring comes around you have a 12" or larger tree ready to plant. While this does take longer to get your orchard started this way it doesn't cost you a thing. Think back 5 years, what if you started the? You would already be harvesting fruit each year and the longer they are in your backyard the better it gets, year over year!

Growing your own food, especially fruiting trees, is one of the most satisfying things we have found. We love to plant and tend to the trees together as a family and love the delicious fruit we get each year. I hope this has given you some ideas or inspiration to get out and start planting some trees! The best time to plant a tree might have been last year but the next best time is right now!

Michigan Conservation offices - http://macd.org/local-districts.html

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Music - "Water in the Creek" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/WaterintheCreek

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