13 Skills for 2013

The 13Skills website is a new Survival Podcast network site designed to help people help themselves by becoming more independent and self sufficient. Please go check my profile to see to see what 13 skills I am working on for 2013.  

You should join too!

13Skills has a list of 154 skills from which to pick.   Listed skills range from alternative transportation to winemaking.  The five most popular now are fitness, computer, canning, gardening, and cooking.

It's a challenge.

"The 13 in 13 Challenge is a call to develop or drastically improve your personal skills in the coming year. These skills can be any hands on practical skill from ancient skills like flint napping to traditional skills like trapping and hunting or even technical skills like graphic arts or computer programming.

Our modern society has become a world of specialists who can do one thing very well but can no longer accomplish simple tasks like growing a garden, changing a tire or fixing a hole in wall."

I hope the United States economy comes roaring back and everyone gets a good job.  But I'm worried about the nation's path, especially as it pertains to our monetary policy.  Common sense says that the Federal Reserve will keep printing trillions of Dollars until we face a dire monetary problem . . . and then who knows what might happen. I want to be as personally prepared as possible to take care of my family in difficult times. I'm not sure we have a whole lot of preparation time left.

With this in mind, one of the skills I picked was the homesteading skill carpentry.  I am a poor carpenter, but need to learn to be a passable one by the end of 2013.  Our fifteen acre homestead in western North Carolina has plenty of forestry material for carpentry work.  My family also has chickens, horses, a cat, and a pregnant goat. All our critters need good shelters and living systems in which to thrive.  One of my 2013 carpentry objectives is to build twelve projects on my homestead.  If I become as proficient at building as my ancestors before me, I will improve our place, save money, and be more independent and better able to help others.

I've just started working on my carpentry skill. Watch me try to move my carpentry project gauge to twelve by the end of 2013. Here, I will publishing widgets like the one below showing progress toward my skill objectives. I also intend to post technical information about the skills I am learning.


Maybe I can help some friends by improving my writing skill. Maybe I am just selfish?

However you slice it, the more people out there who are independent and self sufficient, the smaller the scope of pain associated with the coming difficult time. The more people who are skilled, free, and creative, the stronger will be our local communities when the storm comes.

Although there is a blogging contest going on at 13Skills, that is not really why I am writing this blog post. I wrote it to persuade you to join me on 13Skills. I wrote it to ask you to forward this post to your friends and family so you can get them to join it too. By helping yourself and your friends develop practical skills in 2013, you help the community become stronger, more resilient, and better prepared for a difficult time.

Dairy Goat Heat Cycle

The heat cycle for a doe differs from animal to animal, varying from 17 to 21 days.  The heat sign that is most easily recognizable in most does is tail wagging.  A doe in heat will wag her tail very frequently, much more often than when she is not in heat.  She might also look a bit swollen in the end parts.  She will be more affectionate to humans and other goats, including does.  If you have a billy goat on the premises, a doe in heat may try to visit the billy.

Our doe Edna passed through a heat cycle without sign.  That suggests she may be pregnant.

Flat roof project

This week we finished up the flat roof extension project off our garage. We mostly used milled wood. However, for the posts we used pine trees. These we notched at the top so that a 4x4 could be placed between the posts.

The top edge of the roof was secured to the garage with two 12 foot sill boards.  The sill boards were connected to the garage with 5/8 inch lag bolts.  The bolts were screwed through the siding and into 2x4 studs on the inside wall.  The studs were not uniform.  The bolts went into the wall about every 18 inches.

Rafters were cut with a birds mouth notch on the high end side.  Each rafter notch fit over the sill and were bolted in place to the wall using metal hardware and screws.  The down hill side of the rafters were cut to slide over top the 4x4.  We used 2x4 studs to connect the rafters one to another and stabilize the roof rafters.

On top of the rafters we screwed 1x6 and 1x4 nailing boards.

We finished the structural pieces with metal roofing panels.  Our roofing material came from Eagle Metals.  The folks there set us up with custom cut pieces of 4x12 metal roof panels.

The connection between our roof and the existing roof was made with transition flashing.  The horizontal piece of the transitional flashing slid underneath the last set of existing roof shingles.  Hopefully, that will function to keep our structure nice and dry.  This link has a good summary of the types of flashing needed for roofing construction projects.

Learn from mistakes.  The following were errors made in this project.  First, we did not achieve a sufficient pitch.  It would have been much better to get at least a three inch drop every foot.  We probably have only 2 at best.

Second, it is important to get your roofing set square on the first piece.  Every piece afterward fits into it.  If you are off a small amount, then your roofing ends up slightly off kilter.  Here are some other pictures:

The project is not completed. Still need to add the facia board.

Goal Setting

For 2013, my intention is to develop homesteading skills in a measurable way.  One mechanism for accomplishing that goal is the website tool, 13Skills.  This website, which is assocciated with the Survival Podcast site, is a tool or challenge to improve or build 13 homesteading skills during 2013.

That site has a handy listing of skills to peruse.  However, many skills overlap with one another so when I picked out my 13, I tried to pick out some general skills aimed at what I hope to accomplish.  The skills selected may or may not include several of the other skills listed on the 13Skills site.  For example, I chose gardening and personally consider orchard planting part of the gardening skill.  However, the site lists both gardening and orchard planting as separate skills. For me, the orchard skill falls within the skill concept of garden.  The same issue is true for wood working, carpentry, shed building, and timber framing.  I pick carpentry as my "skill."

The site encourages use of goals related to the skills chosen.  A lot of folks follow that guidance, but they list more general goals.  Only a few have a set out measurable objectives related to those goals. For my purposes, I will try to establish some general overall goals.  And then, create specific numbered objectives aimed at moving toward accomplishment of the overall skill goal.  With that in mind, I am clarifying and refining my listed 13Skills "goals" to include specific and measurable objectives.

An example of this is shown under the "writing" skill. For that, an objective is to make posts about the 13 skills progress and create a link to the posts on this blog.  There is a lot more writing to do on this project before my objectives are met.  The gauges below indicates my progress toward meeting two writing objectives, linking all 13 skills from my blog, and writing 10 posts per skill.

Dairy Goat Milking Project

My dairy goat, Edna, an American Alpine goat, was bred on or about November 13, 2012, to a billy named Ike.  He, like Edna, is an American Alpine.

Goats gestation period is 150 days.  That makes April 12, 2013, the projected date when Edna will freshen.  I have a lot to do before then to get ready for the kids.

Mission Statement

Chestnut Permie Farm

The mission of this blog is to document and explain one family's goal of establishing a sustainable homestead in western North Carolina.

The subject matter is expected to focus on land management, livestock, and gardening methods and efforts.

Our goal includes not using synthetic chemicals, pesticides, fungicides on our farm. We mostly plant open pollinated heritage seeds.  We try to follow a no till policy, and restore and maintain our soil with rotational grazing animals, composting, poly-culture planting, and mulch.  We try to follow the principle of returning the surplus to the earth.

We hope you enjoy reading occasional posts as we progress with our mission.

Dairy Links

Everything Goat Milk

FIASCO Farms Dairy Page

Cultures for Health

Cheese

Basics of Goat Cheese Making