Grist for the Mill...

Bale's Mill

 We were recently down in the Napa - Sonoma area of California, and driving from Calistoga to St. Helena spotted this enormous wooden waterwheel through the trees. I've driven this route many time and never seen this before! We just HAD to investigate.

It turned out to be the Old Bale Mill, a grain mill powered by a 36 foot tall overshot water wheel, newly restored and functioning. Amazing and beautiful to a fan of old technology, such as myself.

I don't know, maybe I'm weird, but I find incredible visual beauty in old machinery. Rugged and utilitarian, but always with a great deal of craftsmanship, the peak of the technology of its time.

Here is a short pictorial of that visit.

Built in the 1840's, when these lush valleys were full of wheat fields, the mill is now the centerpiece of a small State Historic Park. Restoration began in the 1980's and was only finished this year. They run the mill on weekends, and you can purchase milled grains at the gift shop after watching how they were ground at the site. You can read the about the history of Bale's Mill here.

Belt driven power

One can appreciate the incredible engineering to develop this machinery. Belt driven grain elevators and wonderful, wonderful gears.

In the day when the mill ran full time, the air would be full of flammable grain dust - so no light other than what came through the windows was permissible, being as electric light did not exist here then, and a lantern flame would prove disastrous. The same would be true of any sparks, therefore metal to metal gears were too dangerous. The solution? The cogs on one set of any two meeting gears had to be made of wood.

Water power - the source for much pre-industrial revolution machinery. The simple energy of moving, or falling, water amplified by gears to do large jobs.

At its peak this mill could turn out 100's of pounds of flour an hour!

Gears, metal to wood

gears turning

This separates dirt from the grain

The little cups on the belt are to carry grain up

within the vat are the mill stones, delicately balanced

How does a grist mill work?
Here is an animation of the technique.

grain hopper

If you want to visit, information & directions can be found here.

Some of the old millstones. The grooves funneled the flour out to the edges

The wheel. The power comes from falling water turning this massive wheel

Farmers brought grain to the mill where it was placed into the boot of an elevator to be mechanically transported upstairs where it was cleaned by various types of equipment. The slow turning of the old grind stones and the dampness of the mill's site gave the meal a special quality for making cornbread, yellowbread, shortening bread and spoon bread.
As old timers put it, "When meal comes to you that way, like the heated underside of a settin' hen, it bakes bread that makes city bread taste like cardboard."

I believe it. If you are ever in the Calistoga area, be sure to check it out. 

Solar Power - it's simple!

You may have seen our previous posts describing how our business and home are powered by on site, self-generated and renewable energy sources (see: Power in the Storm and Earth Day Every Day ).
Wind & water power are pretty obvious: the wind spins a propeller which turns a rotor inside an alternator which creates electricity; water turns a water wheel which does the same thing.

Solar power comes from Photovoltaic panels which work in mysterious ways.
Be mystified no more - here is a simple explanation of how they work:

Living on the River

Van Duzen River

We live on the Van Duzen river. Literally. It runs through the middle of our property.
A small stream in this dry end of summer, it becomes a fast moving torrent during the winter rains. Wild & free, it is but a small tributary into the larger Eel River. Part of the Eel River Watershed.

Van Duzen River

Our fresh water is one of the most important resources. Not only to sustain life, but these rivers are the nursery for several species of ocean-going fish, notably Salmon and Steelhead. For many years these fisheries have been dwindling. This year, after stricter rules and moratoriums on Salmon fishing the numbers have rebounded.

The Eel River by Fortuna, Ca

An amazing local artist, Michael Guerriero, has been working with elementary school children to educate them about these fisheries as well as doing art. He has a project going to Celebrate the 2010 Eel River Salmon Run that needs funding.



It is being funded through Kickstarter and the time to donate runs out on Sept 30. Please join us in supporting this wonderful project!

Making our Soaps...

mixing the oils in the kettle

We've been making a lot of soap lately. It is, after all, our business. And while it keeps us indoors on beautiful sunny days, it is still a labor of love.

We have been making soap since 1979, when we began as a way to provide natural & nontoxic soap for our own special needs. Sensitive to synthetic fragrances and colors, we could not find commercial soap locally that worked for us. And since that time we have never tired of creating the best soap we possibly can.

Saponification

Soap is the result of a chemical reaction called Saponification. Briefly, Saponification is the chemical reaction between fatty acids (oils & fats) & caustic ("lye", caustic soda, sodium hydroxide, etc.) that results in 98% soap and 2% glycerin. Different oils/fats and different caustic solutions can be used for different types of soap. Potassium Hydroxide, for instance, is used for liquid or soft soaps.

We start by mixing organic oils of olive, palm, and coconut together. We choose these oils for their individual benefits. Olive oil is the best for the skin. Palm creates a harder, longer lasting bar. Coconut oil is the source of rich, copious lather, without it bubbles are small and thin. These oils are heated and then we add the sodium hydroxide that starts the chemical reaction. This process requires a lot of stirring. At the point when the mixture has thickened the proper amount we add the various botanical elements that give the individual varieties their characteristics.

Dennis cutting the Orange Spice soap

Our soaps are made in rectangular columns. Once the liquid soap is ready, we pump it into these molds, cover it with an insulating layer and let it sit up to 48 hours before it is ready to cut into bars. Our soap cutter is a machine of our own devising, custom made by us for our soaps. Once cut we place the soaps on trays, then on ventilated shelves, where it cures for at least 3 weeks before we wrap it to sell.
We wrap the soap by hand. Each bar is wrapped in ecologically sustainable Thai mulberry paper, then labeled with a recycled paper band. You've probably noticed we color code our soaps: each variety has its own specific color paper.

Wrapping Lemon Shea Butter soap

Our soap shop has evolved a lot over the years. Starting by making soap in our kitchen, our original shop was built from trees we fell and milled ourselves (5 big buggy Douglas fir that were dying).
We outgrew that in a few years and expanded it into the shop we have today.




Here is a quicky version of the photo tour we have on our website:

Our kettles, lye station & manufacturing area

Where we wrap & label the soaps, etc.

The curing room with our renewable energy power wall

With over 30 years of soap making experience, it is our pleasure to provide you with the finest natural organic soaps. It makes us even happier to be able to do it in the most environmentally conscious way we know how. To learn more about our business and philosophy, please see 'About Us'.

Summer Daze...

The hot days have set in.
One just feels lazy in the middle of the afternoon, the world just too bright to look at. So we go to the river or hide in the shade, relaxing, or do indoor work where it's cooler.

Mornings are when we get the real work done. Today we cleaned the hencoop ( see our Taj Mahal for chickens here: Coopus Optimus ). A simple pleasure, if aromatic & dusty. I love that it is easy with our new coop. And it is always such a feeling of accomplishment to see the clean coop with sweet smelling wood shavings on the floor and a trailer load of manure to compost for the garden.

Garden work gets done early, too. Harvesting, hand watering, tying up tomatoes and such. I know when the shade leaves each part of the garden, and work along that schedule.

On a weekend like this it is our pleasure to take some of the day to read in the shade or hike down to the river. Such a rare luxury most of the year due to weather or our busy agenda. There is usually a breeze to temper the heat.

Tempering the heat in our off-grid home uses some old-style techniques. Air conditioners are energy hogs, and just not something we own. It starts with having a well insulated house. Opening all the (screened) windows and doors overnight cools the house. As soon as the outdoor temperature starts to rise we shut it all down. We close the curtains on the sunny side of the house. The house stays at least 20 degrees cooler than outside most of the day. We supplement this with a ceiling fan or other fan to move the air when it is exceptionally warm out, and an oscillating fan in the room where we are if it is really, really, hot indoors (only a few days a year). Our solar attic fan keeps air moving as well and cools the ceiling. It also draws air up through the vent in our pantry.

Old houses always had small or large vented pantries, and we use this method as well. A vent from under the house lets in cool air and a vent, often chimney-like, exhausts warmer air up out of the insulated room (or cupboard). It will be 10 degrees or so cooler in there than in the rest of the house.
While not as cool as a refrigerator, we are able to store many things besides canned goods, including fruit, dry goods, and eggs! We never refrigerate eggs. If you do not wash them when you bring them in from the hencoop, they will keep just fine. If it gets really, really hot for an extended period of time we will take the eggs down into our root cellar.

Just as they are named, root cellars are traditionally used to store root crops such as potatoes. In the fall we fill the cellar with apples (that haven't been pressed into cider), potatoes & lugs of peppers. Amazingly the peppers last well into the new year, fresh, in the cellar. We only lose a few to mold or drying up. We also keep sealed jars of dried fruit and vegetables, canned goods that won't fit in the pantry, and wine, down in the cellar. It stays around 54 degrees F. all year round.

Well, enough of this. It's Saturday and I promised myself a break with my book and a glass of ice tea. Its 91 outside and rising, but there's a nice breeze and I can hear that hammock calling...

Time out of place...

partly sunny

17th of July, half the United States is baking under the sun and suffering from drought, and we are still waiting for something like real summer weather. Our winter lasted well into June and weather conditions stay off-kilter from what we used to consider the norm.

Not like the TV weather ever mentions the words "climate change" during these months of extreme weather events here and around the globe, but something in the weather has definitely been changing over the past few years. Living close to the land makes that more obvious.

Plants and animals are getting thrown off their timing so we have had stuff blooming early and other things coming on late. Mostly late.  Currently I am noticing that all my alliums (onions, garlic, shallots) are going to flower. The onions & shallots are early, the garlic is late. The garlic should have been ready to harvest last month, but isn't ready yet. Beets and radishes are flowering before making, well, beets and radishes. Lavender usually blooms in June here, and we should have been picking Tayberries then, too, but they are both now just starting to come on. Our Yellow May-blooming waterlilies waited until the end of June, but they may have been delayed by the deeper water level in our pond. The garden sits, suspended, and when the rare warm day comes everything grows like mad only to stop as it cools back down.

Fruit trees that try to bloom at the normal time have not been well pollinated the past few years not, as ordinarily sometimes happened, by late rains, but by freezing snow! At least it appears we will have some fruit this year.

The insect population has been effected - honeybees (who have a lot of environmental burdens these days) are relatively scarce, but so are Yellowjackets, oddly. A nice thing in some ways, but I know there is a corner of the ecological balance that they fill, too. The higher humidity, of course, leads to plenty of mosquitoes. But for mid-July, many other insects seem to be in smaller numbers - and also the birds that feed on them.

I'm curious - what have you noticed?

Honoring Those who Serve...

Like Veteran's Day (See earlier post: War and Peace ), Memorial Day is set aside to recognize and honor those who serve in the Armed Forces but it's origin is much older, beginning just after the Civil War. It specifically commemorates those have given their lives in service to the Nation.

Officially proclaimed by General John Logan, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, Memorial Day was first observed on May 30, 1868, by placing flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states.
After World War I the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war. Starting in 1971 it is celebrated across the country each year on the last Monday in May.

Many answer the call to serve their community and Country in various ways, but few of these jobs demand the sacrifice that can come with enlisting in the military or reserves. While no one wants to go to war and be killed and, while we all wish for a world at peace, for many reasons conflict continues and lives are lost. Those who put themselves in harm's way and pay that price deserve recognition and respect.

Today, and other days as well, take a moment to pause and remember these men and women.

Adult Delinquent

Despite my promise to myself to post at least once monthly I have not managed anything longer than FaceBook addendums the past 2 months as life spirals wildly around me!

Since last post we have had a sprained ankle, more snow, more rain, started the garden (barely), gotten chicks (layers & meat birds both),  had 3 of our Granddaughters move in until the school year ends - in addition to the normal work & homestead life.

Not only that, there have been earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis & nuclear meltdowns. Floods, tornadoes, protests, rebellion, assassinations, and the end of the world (not).

My intentions are good. Stay tuned.

Why Organic?

Our soaps are made with 100% Certified Organic base oils. How could this possibly make a bit of difference in a bar of soap? Good question, and the benefit for your skin over natural soaps made with conventional oils is probably negligible.
But you will have the satisfaction of knowing that no oils from genetically modified crops or pesticide residues can possibly be in them.

On the other hand, the difference for farm workers and the farms and plantations where the oil plants are grown, and inherently the Earth as a whole, is immense.

The habitat that makes human life possible on our humble planet is a community of organisms and non-living components (like rocks and water) that work together to create a fertile and healthy environment. While some of these are viewed negatively as they interfere with our goals (weeds, diseases, gophers!) they are still part of the overall picture, helping to create the delicate balance that makes it all possible.

Many things can throw this system askew, such as drought, or a hurricane, volcanic eruption. But generally, given time, the environment heals itself. Some events can effect the environment over a long period of time, such as excessive amounts of nuclear radiation. This is one reason why people are so alarmed over the possibility of Nuclear Reactor failure. Yet when we take some of the artificial chemicals we have created and use them to control our agricultural environment, they can cause damage to the soil that is irreversible for decades as well. Not to mention having ill effects on the farmers who use them and, potentially, the consumers who come in contact with it over time.

Sometimes I think it's like taking a broad spectrum antibiotic when you are sick. It kills all the bacteria, good and bad, that live in our bodies, usually throwing one system or another off kilter until we replace the good microorganisms, through diet or another pill. What makes the Earth's habitat friendly for humans and the life forms that sustain us is balance, not chemical warfare.

There are many personal reasons, as humans, that we should support organic practices. Many have written about them in length. See the Top 10 Reasons to Support Organic here, and enjoy this video from Stonyfield Farm:



Eat organic food, better for you and your family and the planet. And when you use products made from agricultural ingredients, try to make sure those, too, come from organic sources. Until we refuse to purchase anything else, toxins will continue to be used.

And know that Simmons Special Soaps are made with 100% Certified Organic base oils, with people, the planet, and a healthy and sustainable future in mind.

Waiting to Garden...

Spring is in the air, the Vernal Equinox is in only 2 weeks (March 20, 2011) but the weather is still very winter-y. I have been itching to get out in the garden.


A confirmed Plant-a-holic, I have houseplants to keep me occupied in the winter months, but there is nothing like getting out and digging in the dirt. We have had a large organic vegetable garden for the past 42 years and expect to have one until I die. But I have to admit, gardening our sloping mountain terrain was getting to be more work every year.

So we have been working on making our garden easier to work so we can be happy playing in the dirt as long into our future as is possible. This is a multi year project, of which 2011 is year 3.

Our garden is about 1/8 of an acre. In 2009 we built a retaining wall and leveled out the top 2/3 of our garden area. This had a downhill slope of 6' from top to bottom, not to mention the differences side to side. We built a 4' tall wall and dug down 3' at the top. This required moving a LOT of dirt!

The Skid Steer moving dirt!

Moving this much dirt is more than a shovel job, luckily we were able to get a Skid Steer to use. We carefully pushed all the top garden dirt with years of mulch & amendments to one side as we dug down into the thick clay that makes up most of the land here.

The area where the wall went needed to be level, with a big enough area to put in drainage behind the wall. Then we could begin to assemble the retaining wall block by block. The wall is of landscaping blocks that lock together, and requires no mortar.
Once the wall was built up we backfilled it with the dirt we had set aside and some topsoil we had trucked in from elsewhere. We left a wide sloping  path up one side to run wheelbarrows up to the top of the garden.

Garden steps and beds with mulch

There was still some steep slope beyond what we had planned on with the wall, so we put large rocks and made stairs for access to this part of the garden.

By now we were itching to get our plants in the soil, and the first part of our plan was actually accomplished! I cannot tell you how much easier it is to work level ground than the free form terraces with the endless raking they needed.

Finished wall with garden & dedicated flower row

In 2010 we did phase two of our plan. This required making three broad terraced areas out of the remaining bottom third of the garden and starting to install raised beds. We purchased raised bed kits from Naturalyards, as we wanted to take advantage of those who had a lot of experience. This was far too important a project for us to reinvent the wheel, and we learned a lot. We really wanted to make these beds gopher proof (see our earlier blog on Gophers - not for the faint of heart...), and try to keep out the noxious bindweed that plagues us here, as well.

Attaching hardware cloth to the bottom of the bed.

Our plan was to attach weedcloth, and then 1/2" galvanized hardware cloth, to the bottom of the beds before installing and filling them. This won't last forever, but it will last a long, long, time. We have a hardware cloth lined bed in our greenhouse that we installed in the 1990's and is still intact.

Assembled bed showing the cross braces

One of the important things we learned about raised beds is, if they are longer than 6 feet, you need to have cross bracing to keep them from bowing out when they are filled with dirt. These beds are assembled with aluminum rods (aluminum won't rust) that are driven down through pre-drilled boards. Where there is a joint between two boards of a long bed you insert a metal strap and run the rod through that as well, to hold it in place.

Another thing we discovered is how much better it is to have a top trim on the bed so you have a place to sit or place tools or harvest baskets.

We use drip irrigation (from DripWorks) in the beds and T-tape, another form of  drip irrigation, to the beds in the terrace for ease of irrigation and conservation of water.

These changes have been a complete success. We raised onions, greens, cabbages, beets, broccoli, and the most perfect gopher-free carrots we have ever grown, in these beds last year. Currently we have fall-planted garlic and cabbage, as well as this years onions and beets in the ground. The terrace behind the retaining wall has proved easy to work and had a fabulous harvest of corn, tomatoes, squash, beans and other larger crops. On top of that, it was easier than it has ever been to keep our garden going

If all goes as planned, we hope to build 2 to 4 more beds this year. In every way these changes have met or exceeded our expectations, and I see wonderful fresh vegetables and flowers in our future.

Snow Day - Power in the Storm

Weather report: 2/17/11

While much of the country has been inundated in snow this winter we have managed to avoid it. Until now. It has been snowing for two days and is forecast to continue for a week. Must be our turn.


Big storms of all sorts wreak havoc in our rural mountains just as they do in towns. The roads can be closed, flooded, or dangerously icy. The wind will blow away what's not secured. And wind, snow, trees, auto accidents, wildfires and other incidents can interrupt electric power. That's the case in this storm. I found out via a phone call from someone, otherwise we would have never known. 
This is when the power independence of our self-sufficient lifestyle really stands out.

Hydro-system, Pelton wheel inside barrel

Right now we are running on micro-hydro power. Not as lucky as those with a year round creek, our system relies on rain and other precipitation. 
The rain and runoff that started before it got so cold got our hydro running, and the snow is now building up a reserve on the mountain above us that will last long after the storm is over. Generally our main winter season power source, running steadily 24 hours a day, hydro-power is almost decadent in its abundance.

The wind turbine from up the hill

Every time a storm blows in the power of the wind makes electricity with our small scale wind turbine. 
Located on a point above a river canyon, it gets wind morning and evening most of the year, but it really kicks into gear in stormy weather. 

Looking up at our wind turbine

This is the most fickle source of power in our locale, where wind is neither steady nor reliable every day. Yet it still fills in the gaps to keep the batteries charged that run our home and soap business.

But the real workhorses of our system, despite being the only ones with no moving parts, are our solar Photo Voltaic (PV) panels. 

Patched together over the years (there are 3 slightly different styles in our array), if there is any light, they are producing some power. And, since there is far more sun here than other weather overall, I think I can safely say most of our annual electricity comes from these panels. 
On top of that we have 2 smaller PV panels that pump water from our spring up to a holding tank, another small panel that runs the pump on our solar hot water system as well as an attic fan, and a tiny panel that runs a fan in our garden's greenhouse.

Our solar PV electric array

In fact, it is solar energy that runs all these systems, as it is the sun's influence on our planet that creates the weather and controls the water cycle that makes the other methods work. 
Even on a dark blizzard of a day like this one.


I think I will go have a hot cup of tea and warm up!

9/2014 Update: This spring we added 5 new Solar PV panels to our system, bringing us to a full 4 kilowatts of charging power. We bought them a year ago when we had the money and the price was good. That almost never happens at the same time! And we finally had the opportunity to build a rack for them and add them to our array this year. It's wonderful to have the extra power.

Love Story

Continuing this Valentine theme, I have been in the same relationship for 39 years.
Somehow this is considered a really long time... It also feels like a long time. It is wonderful right now, right here, and I see us remaining deeply in love and with the special, comfortable, and familiar friendship being together over the years can bring.

Like all things in life, it will always have its ups and downs: long term relationships require a lot of cultivation. Patience, compassion, sharing, surrender, frustration, acceptance, independence and a good sense of humor. It is ever a work in progress.

The history of our personal relationship is reflected in music - as are so many things. From our earliest days in the blossom of youth and romance Joni Mitchell gave us: "My Old Man"


And later the trials and tribulations of raising a family and keeping home & hearth together and those frustrations can resonate with "Give A Little" by Nicolette Larson


From the deepest dark times - we turned to one of the classic songs of all time, Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me"


But these were always followed by reunion - not always easy as shown by David Lindley's "Starting All over Again", here done by Hall & Oates (Lindley's version is better, but I can't find a video).


While this doesn't really describe us, the playfulness and silliness of the love that binds us - in spite of everything - is mirrored in this all time favorite done by John Prine & Iris Dement
In Spite of Ourselves

Overall, however, throughout this relationship and particularly at this end of it looking back - I have always felt that the Beatles said it beautifully: "In My Life"


Happy Valentine's Day. May your life be enriched with love.

Love is in the air

It's the spring thing...

As winter wanes birds, bugs and animals start to think in terms of romance - or at least procreation. Humans, unwilling to wait for the sun's warmth, have their romantic holiday mid-winter in February. Perhaps to warm the heart when the world is locked in cold (at least in the Northern hemisphere).

Valentine's Day (formerly Saint Valentine's Day) has mysterious origins. It could have started from any of 3 martyred men of God, each named Valentine.
The most likely story speaks of Valentine, a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II.

Caught marrying Christian couples and aiding any Christians who were being persecuted under Emperor Claudius in Rome his imprisonment ultimately resulted in his demise. In 496 C.E. Pope Gelasius officially marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom.

We hope you will share a little of your Valentine's day spirit with us!

Help the business you love get the help they need.

Vote for Simmons Natural Bodycare of Bridgeville, CA at:
Intuit's Love A Local Business contest

$100,000 in Intuit Hiring Grants will be awarded. Your votes help determine which three local businesses win. Vote by sharing a brief comment about why they love a local business. 

We hope to aid the economy in our community by providing more jobs in our rural area. Help us reach that goal!

Hello New Year!

One week down, 52 to go...

As I get older time seems to speed up. I am not in such a hurry.

It has been a while since I have managed to add a post: busy with life; busy with business; busy with family. Busy with staying warm in this very winter-y winter!
One of my resolutions is to make sure I post to the BLOG at least once each month.

Meanwhile, I have still been writing.
After completing a full year of Haiku poems, a Japanese form with 3 lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables respectively, I have embarked on a new project of writing a Tanka poem every day, thereby upping the difficulty a bit. A Tanka is an older Japanese form with 5 lines, 5, 7, 5, 7, 7, syllables.

Here is some of my favorite Haiku, 1 from each month in  2010:

1/25 - As we walk we flush/ Jays and Flickers, Varied Thrush/ Birds of winter woods

2/5- Earth shakes herself now/ A reminder of power/ Beyond human dreams

3/26 - Snow on peach blossoms/ Can only happen in spring /White kiss on petal

4/11 - As the years pass by/ The treasure of friendship grows/ Ever more precious

5/2 – The plaintive sweet cry/ Coyote on the mountain/ Singing to the sky 

6/11 - Murder in the night/ The wail of some poor creature/ Laughter of the fox.

7/10 - Children of dreamers/ Perceive life abundant/ With possibility

8/14 - Crucible of dreams/ The infinite mystery/ Of night's vast display

9/1 – Earth’s mighty power/ Lies just beneath the surface/ A tempest below

10/4 - Slow to illumine/ These dark days cloud my senses/And prolong my dreams

11/13 - How the chest contains/ A heart swelled with emotion/ Is a mystery 

12/21- Clouds parted briefly/ As Autumn became Winter/ Revealing the moon

 
 And here a couple of my brand new Tanka:

1/2 - Brilliant winter night/ Star fire piercing the darkness/ Yet bringing no warmth/ Down to this ice cold mountain/ From the universe beyond

1/7 - Deep, cold, and silent/ Rain swollen river runs strong/ Carrying the tale/ Hidden in muddy waters/ How raging storms tamed the earth

Let's see if I am up to the challenge!