Soil Cube Tool Arrives in the Mail

Today a little box with my soil cube came in the mail.  I ordered the tool from soilcube.com.

Last year, there wasn't much time to plan things out for my garden and we just bought most of our plants from a nursery.  They weren't even open pollinated varieties.

Now that I've learned a small amount about gardening, I want to try to start my own plants inside this winter.

You can start plants in little containers.  But the roots can bang into the sides of the container.  Depending on when you start and the weather outside, you might have to put the little plants into bigger containers to keep them from getting all root bound.

That's where the soil cube has an advantage.  There is no container at all. The plants grow right in little cubes that you make up with the tool.

I still need to make trays, shelves, and a grow light system inside the house.  But now I have the soil cube tool, and I'm looking forward to trying it out.

How to Make a Skills Objective Gauge Gadget

In this post I show you how to make a simple gauge like the one here using Google Docs. I use these gauges for tracking my progress toward the skills objectives associated with the 13Skills site.

This is really a simple gadget to make if you have a Google account. If you don't have a Google account, you can set one up for free here.

A Google Account lets you access a variety of Google products such as Gmail, Google+, YouTube, and Google Docs. You need a Google account to use the free Google Docs. You need Google Docs to make this simple gadget.

If you already have a Google account then here is what you do.

1. Sign in and open your Google docs page by left clicking on "Drive" on the upper menu.
2. Click on the button "create" and a drop down menu will appear. Left click to select spreadsheet. A blank spreadsheet will open. Left click in the upper left side where it says "Untitled spreadsheet" and give it a name, like Writing Progress.
3. Add a short name in cell A1. (Spreadsheet cells are labeled across the top by letters, and down the side by numbers. The intersection of cell column A, and row 1 is cell A1.) The cell A1 name will appear on your gadget later.
4. Write a number in cell B1 indicating the progress toward your objective to date. For example, this is my sixth blog post so I wrote in number 6. Now left click your mouse in cell A1 and drag your mouse across to B1 so that both cells are highlighted. Now you are ready for the fun part.
5. Click on the chart icon. (You should see it across the top of the first row, probably around the letter E. It looks like a little bar graph chart.) A chart editor menu will pop up.
6. You should see a three word menu. Pick the middle one, "Charts" and click on it. Go down to the "more" tab and click on it. You will see four charts, including the gauge chart at the top. Click on the gauge chart. You should see an uncustomized gauge displayed in the editor.
7. Select "customize" in the chart editor top menu. Now set the gauge range. What is your numeric objective? I want to write 130 posts so I set my range 0 to 130. Next, divide the top number by three and round off. For me that is about 43. The bottom range (red) is 0 to 43. The middle range (yellow) is 43 to 86. The top range (green) is 86 to 130. Hit return and your gauge is displayed in the spreadsheet. 

The gauge is interactive.  Whenever you finish an objective, enter the spreadsheet and add to the B1 cell. The gauge will move upwards as you move toward your objective.   If you want to publish the interactive gauge on a blog, website, or forum message, you need to make the spreadsheet public and then copy some code into the page. Here's how.

1. Look for the blue "Share" button at the top right above the spreadsheet.   Left click.  A "sharing settings" menu will pop up. 
2. Under the "who has access" section, left click on change.  Select the button, "Public on the web" and then left click "save."
3. Now go back into the spreadsheet and left click on the chart.  You will see a little arrow at the top right corner of the chart box. 
4. Left click on that arrow and select "publish chart." 
5. Copy the html code shown (I use Ctrl-c) and paste it to your post, page, or message (Ctrl-v). 
6. Make sure you set the Compose/HTML button on your blogger post screen to HTML before you paste the code. (If you don't like the HTML screen, you can switch it back to Compose as soon as you save the post.)

NOTE: You need to be in the HTML editor mode on your email, blog, or forum message when you paste the code.

The interactive chart will now automatically change the gauge on the post, page, or message every time you update your progress cell B of the Google Docs spreadsheet.  Just select publish when you update the spreadsheet, and press the "done" button.  (This interaction is not instantaneous. It may take a moment for the Internet to update).  To access the spreadsheet, just go to your Google Docs Drive, and open the sheet you need to update.
To change the size of the Gauge, you have to edit the code.  Toward the end of all the code gobbleteegook, do you see "width": 600, "height":375}?  Change those numbers to "width":300,"height":187}.  That makes your gauge half the size Google Docs automatically creates it.
You could create an image from your Google Doc gauge.  It would not be interactive, but you could embed it into a forum message using the insert image button on the far left of the bottom row above.  Here's how to do this on the Survival Podcast forums: 
1) Go into the Gauge and click on the little arrow at the top right.  You should see an option "save image" just above "publish chart".  Save the image to your desktop or somewhere you can find it later.   2) Upload it to the Internet on a photograph hosting site or blog.   3) Make the picture public. 4) If you use Chrome, you can copy the url for the photograph by right-clicking it and selecting "copy image url."   5) Come back here and select the picture icon on the botton left row of buttons for a message.   6) Past the image url between the  code marks (Ctrl-V) so it will appear on a posts to the forum:
The message code looks like this:

[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJBS2JqINm532TA-UuGz2x_aaptf50HMs_MzRz8eA2T6ACwhCjzgv9tomKjPMZU4l02ppiL6xsbAiL0dobCum9ftcgXzwmnJf08Xj9fI7sT_4ltQiFh7GR5XVggDAiAKy8kF0BzmcHEI4/h120/chart_2.png[/img]

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.