A New Way to Cook

We have been cooking using our camping stove that runs off of gasoline or coleman fuel. We've been wanting to upgrade for awhile now and add another form of cooking that would create multiple options for us.

We searched on craigslist and found us traditional barbecue grill that was $40. It had some rough spots on it, but was at least a $300 grill when it was new. It has 3 burners and a side burner and is stainless steel.

We brought it home and set it up excited to have another way to cook. Sol was equally excited and happily cooked the hamburger for us (under our careful supervision of course) on the sideburner. We made soup and kale chips.

It is a great improvement over our previous situation. It just made it even better that Sol loved cooking on it and it made a great memory for our family.

Planted Garden 02-17-12

Friday we planted peas, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, kale, blue berry bushes, and strawberries.

We will provide our layout shortly for the row garden and our property.

The row garden has 3 foot sections of a plant then is book ended by onions (except the peas which don't like onions being close to them) and then we switch to a different plant. This is a version of companion gardening with traditional rows. We have made it up as we went with a little research online with what the plants like and don't like.

We also planted our potato patch and an asparagus patch. We put leaves in the bottom of the two patches to help feed the sandy soil.

We will have more updates shortly.

The Bantam Voice
Freed People Free People

Our Dream of Liberty

Most would agree that it is sad and even tragic that our dream (mentioned in a previous post) of living off grid is almost impossible due to the "illegal" and taboo nature surrounding our lifestyle.

I long for the freedom to be able to do whatever it is that I decide I would like to do, but more importantly I long for liberty to return to our nation. Liberty that would bring about the freedom to be able to do what is best for my family. Liberty is freedom in all areas, complete freedom.

I believe that our country needs liberty and needs it now, but most of the country (including people I know) may say they want "freedom and liberty", but really they just want to do what they want to do. When they hear what "freedom and liberty" would bring most would run from it. With liberty (which is true freedom) comes great responsibility. (sounds like a comic book character line)

Liberty and responsibility are not separate and cannot be separate. Without responsibility liberty turns to anarchy and despair. True liberty would look like this

1. I live my dream lifestyle of living off grid having a compost toilet and all the other non-traditional methods of living mentioned previously.

2. The young man up the street sits out in his porch smoking weed. It would be legal along with every other kind of substance including raw milk.

3. No one would get tax breaks for being married. Straight, gay, boyfriend girlfriend, everyone would be treated equally under a fair tax or flat tax system (no more income tax or IRS to get tax breaks from)

4. There would be no government run medicare, medicaid, food stamps, health insurance, social security, FDIC mortgage loans, public education, environmental protection agency, USDA, etc.

5. All those social welfare programs would be run independently by the people of their own free will. Churches and soup kitchens would feed the hungry, neighbors would help those who lost their job, families would live together in a close knit circle to help each other survive. Our children would be home schooled or taught at a school each parent helped pay for the teacher.

6. There would be no Homeland Security, TSA (Transportation Security Administration airplane people), and no "protection" from the Patriot Act.

7. There would be no subsidies or government intervention on corn, oil, cars (GM and Chrysler), sugar, wheat, or any type of food.

8. Business would rise and fall based on their product and customer service, not based on the governments "need" for them. Banks would fail and default if they made bad decisions.

9. Stock Market investors would make millions and lose millions based on their willingness to take risk and assume the responsibility.

10. There would be no suing each other without consequences. You try and sue me for $50,000 and lose, you pay me $50,000 and vice versa.

If one of these things listed didn't make you cringe and want to say "Never mind I don't want liberty" you are either already a liberty loving Libertarian at heart or you didn't read the list right.

Responsibility is scary. There is no blaming anyone else. If you got sick from ecol i then you had chosen to buy your meat from someone who probably didn't let their cow eat any grass. That is your fault. No one to blame, but ourselves.

Yet that is what we need. That is what we must have to succeed in changing not only our culture, but more importantly ourselves. It starts with you and it starts with me. We can't change our culture or our laws instantly, but we can change on how we think about things and change the way we deal with situations. We need to start taking responsibility for our own actions and then through our actions we will start to infect the culture with liberty and responsibility.

One of the most obvious actions we can take (but not always the most productive or important in comparison) is voting for our elected officials. I have until recently been very naive and uninvolved in this area. I have done lots of research and I care very much about my country and who we elect as President all the way down to our local officials.

I wanted to let you know the why prior to telling you who I endorse as president. You may not care who I endorse and I would never want you to vote for someone prior to doing your own research (just know I've done a lot!)

I strongly and emphatically endorse Ron Paul for president. I endorse him even to the point that I will write him in as a third party candidate if the Republicans do not give me a solid option. (and I don't see it happening unless it is Ron Paul) Ron Paul has a message of "liberty and personal responsibility," He wants to cut 1 trillion dollars from the budget the first year. He wants the government smaller and personal responsibility and liberty bigger. Even if he gets elected he won't be able to get us to the point of the list above, but I believe we will start heading in the right direction.

I do not like any other GOP (Republican candidate) and will not vote for any of them even when it comes to going up against President Barack Obama. I know I am to vote for who is the best candidate not who an organization (GOP) tells me to vote for.

Take it for what it is worth to you. If you have any questions feel free to comment or email me, or check out my blog at bantamvoice.blogspot.com but I won't go on any further with politics (unless it directly relates to self sufficiency) because I have a whole blog for that.

I became passionate about politics because I wanted to take responsibility for my own actions and I met resistance everywhere I turned from the government and our culture. My lifestyle dictates that I care about politics and I hope that we can find common ground with Liberty.

The Bantam Voice
"Free People Free People"

ACTION REQUEST-NC Beekeeper facing jail time

Please read the story below and if you could take 3 minutes to call the Louisburg NC town hall and speak to Mrs. Patterson and express

"that you believe they should grant Pat Walker a waiver/variance/special permit because keeping bee's is beneficial to everyone and essential to our environment and that bee's will be there in nature regardless."

Please call
919-496-3406

I just spoke with Mrs. Patterson of Town Hall on the phone and she was very nice and glad I called. Please tweet, facebook, email, call anyone you know and ask them to call. One small thing like this can really impact things as a whole.

Read the full story below (I heard about it on the radio)

http://www.wxii12.com/r/30453354/detail.html


LOUISBURG, N.C. -- A Louisburg woman is facing possible jail time over a local ordinance that she feels is unfair and unconstitutional.

WRAL-TV reported that Pat Walker is scheduled to face a judge Tuesday to determine whether she will go to jail for 20 days and be forced to give up her beehives.

Walker said her family started keeping honeybees last March. After two months, the family received a letter from Louisburg police telling them they were violating a town ordinance saying hives have to be at least 75 feet from a neighbor's property line.

Louisburg Councilman Boyd Sturges said the ordinance doesn't restrict most homeowners from keeping bees, but he couldn't estimate the percentage of homes that would be allowed to keep bees and still abide by the 75-feet rule.

The Bantam Voice
"Freed People Free People"

Our Dream (Imagine if You Will)

I thought I would take a moment to share our dream and what the vision my wife and I have for our life. Looking a few years ahead this is all subject to change, but humor me.

We plan on building several alternate buildings near our camper with our own tree's milled by our own saw mill. By clearing these tree's we are able to plant grass that does well in wet areas (which the back half of our property is) and allows for it to dry enough to turn it into a grazing ground for our animals.

One building will be for an outside kitchen to cook in during the summer. We will also use this building to can and store food. We will use the other builders for storage and eventually a shower house. We have multiple ideas of building types including sand bag houses, shipping containers, underground houses, etc.

We also have talked about building our own log cabin with our own wood. A small 16x16 (or close to it) cabin that is a one large room with a bathroom in the corner and possibly one small bedroom.

Outside our home will be our natural blackberry thicket and native plums. We will have fruit tree's planted all over the property providing privacy, fruit, beauty, and a wonderful fragrance. We would like to use it to make our own wine and for medicinal purposes on top of enjoying it canned, fresh, or dried.

Our chickens will be grazing in one of their five pens for a week at a time eating all the varieties of tree's grasses and bugs. They will move to a new pen every week giving the ground a chance to restore itself and replenish their food naturally. It will be an omnivores paradise. Their nighttime chicken house will provide shelter from predators and a spot for us to collect their eggs.

A little farther away from the house will be our jersey cow milked twice daily to provide up to 6 gallons of milk a day while being fed mainly by grazing on the pasture.

Our great Pyrenees livestock guard dog will be roaming the property making sure everything is as it should be chasing off the foxes, coyotes, and any other unwanted predator from it's animal siblings.

Our house will be the picture perfect example of "off grid." Cooking mainly on a wood stove, campfire, propane, and alcohol. Drying, salt curing, dehydrating, fermenting, canning, and pickling our food to preserve without using refrigeration for most of our food.

We will have no power through any power company and use solar, wood, and propane as our primary power sources with a good dose of moderation mixed in.

We will have water through our well and use a gray water system to re-use the shower and kitchen water. We will use a compost toilet system for our sanitation and even use it (after the compost process) as fertilizing for the animals crops.

Our crops will consist of everything from tomatoes to swiss chard. From red clover as a ground cover crop to bamboo as a building material.

We will travel from farmers market to chicken auctions making money selling the fruits of our labor.

We will invite other people to come and help, learn, and enjoy a historically normal lifestyle away from the insane modern culture. Sharing our lives, morals, views, and values with people of all backgrounds pleading our case for sanity in their lives.

We will have campers set up on our property to house those that want to come and be a part of our life. We will teach them how to slaughter chickens, milk the cow, work a compost toilet,chop wood, prepare REAL food, and start a fire.

Homeschooling our child would be a mix of our lifestyle and history. Teaching Sol how to count by counting the eggs in the chicken house, how to read and write by labeling and picking the right seed jars, biology by working with animals and teaching each part of their body and their make up, and teaching him how to live life the way we all were intended to live, aware of what is important and where food comes from.

Our Doctor would be reserved for true emergencies and we would handle most ailments with our herbs, natural remedies, and common sense. Vaccines would be forgotten because Sol wouldn't be in the school system and would hardly ever visit a place like Wal-Mart and would have a strong immune system.

Our days of shopping would be spent going from local farmer, to the butcher, and stopping by the local hardware store to see what was on sale. We would end the day cooking a feast of homegrown food and play music and tell stories around the fire. We would go to bed early looking forward to the morning rise of 5am to milk the cow and do the chores.

Life would be full of life. Family would be a word that meant something. Food would be nutritious and a joy to eat. Happiness would be what you made of the day and no one could tell you it wasn't how you were suppose to live.

Unfortunately that isn't the world we live in. Most of what I listed here is illegal and could cost you your child. We truly aren't free in a country that is suppose to be a beacon of freedom. We are told that we don't know what is good to eat, we can't take care of our own, that you have to get power through the monopoly power company.

Why do I even bother writing about such a magnificant life if it is impossible? Unobtainable? Is it important that we should be able to live the way you want to live? Is it right? Does it matter?

I'll address why this is all so important and why I am bringing it up in the following two posts.

The Bantam Voice
"Freed People Free People"

Security Off Grid

As we go and start setting up our property one of the main issues we are thinking about is security. We want to make sure we feel safe at our new property and anywhere we travel too.

Dog - We have a dog that we specifically got for being a guard dog. She is a 1/2 newfoundland and 1/2 rotweiller. (She looks like a black lab)

At our property we plan to start with a cattle fence around our camper and expand out as we can afford it. This serves a two fold purpose, one to keep the dog near the camper and second to give an obstacle to anyone wanting to get close to our trailer.

We also have purposefully kept some wild blackberries going at the back of our camper to serve as an additional deterrent to people walking up behind our camper.

Handgun - I now carry a handgun with me anywhere it is legal. This help my wife feel secure and she also plans to get a gun after she receives some training. This is important to keep you safe from people, snakes, and any other wildlife animals.

Knives - I also try and carry a knife (At least one) all the time. This serves as the same purpose as the gun. We also have mace on our key ring and have a shotgun for home.

There are multiple other things you can do to help keep you safe that we plan to do such as, beware signs and others of the like, to taller fencing etc. Be creative and more importantly be safe.

The Bantam Voice
"Freed People, Free People"

First Seed Bought of the Year

We bought the first bulk seed on Wednesday for our new properties garden.

We purchased

15 lbs of white potatoes
15 lbs of red potatoes
1/2 ounce of broccoli
1/2 ounce of beets
1/2 ounce of kale

We previously purchased $4.00 worth of peas as well.

With this purchased and the previous $4.00 worth of seed we have spent $27.00 on seed so far this year. We will see how much we purchase this year versus the yield.

It will be exciting!

The Bantam Voice
"Freed People, Free People"

Dealing With Power Off Grid

Not using conventional power has been a freeing experience to my wife and I. We have been amazed at how little power we actually need and use. We have always read on solar panel websites,

"You'll never get enough panels to support what you will want to run."

We can say that we are using next to nothing and loving it. Every time we add something to help with power, lighting, or any good gadget it is just an amazing bonus, but not a crutch.

With that being said I did want to share how we harness power for the few gadgets and needs we have for power to maybe help you get some ideas.

1. Automobile - We use our car (with an inverter) to power and charge our computers, cell phones, and dvd player. We also use it to charge the cordless drill and for the coffee grinder or other small items like this etc.

2. Handtools - For most things that require power we have replaced with hand power or plan to in the future. Blenders, ice cream makers, and even popcorn makers are all great off grid products that are fairly cheap. We have gotten a popcorn popper and use it over the fire. Our son absolutely loves popcorn and enjoyes it more than anything.

3. Solar Panels - Solar panels are in our future although we have never used them. We own some solar panels, but we haven't gotten them set up. They have huge upsides and downsides mainly that they are expensive and well big.

4. Alternative Power - Things like the power dome ex, batteries, propane, alchohol, and on and on. The power dome ex has the following things built into it.

600 cranking amp auto jump starter
260 PSI high power motor air compressor
400 watt AC power inverter, high intensity LED light
Built-in AM/FM radio with iPod™ input
2 AC Outlets and 1 DC outlets

It is basically an awesome car jumper. I love mine, but have run into problems with charging it, but plan to try charging it with the car while driving.

5. Going Without - The biggest thing in regards to power is learning to go without. Like I said earlier we are shocked with how little power we need and use.

There are other ways of getting power through wind, water, bicycles, etc and we may do some of all of those, but no immediate future plans are in the mix.

We do plan on cooking with a wood stove at the new property frequently, but can't do that in the city. We also have a fire at least 3 nights a week and cook around the fire and enjoy each other around the fire.

We are not only free from the system of a power company, but also from that bill. We can now invest over $100 a month into other things rather than power. We truly feel more free than we ever have.

Not all people need to give up all power, but try some of the things we have or other ideas you find online just to reduce your electric bill or to feel the satisfaction of doing something from your own hands. It really does connect you with something simpler and something special.

The Bantam Voice
"Freed People, Free People"

Variety Gardening

We have just started getting our gardens on our new property ready for growing. We have decided to have several different types of gardens including, square foot gardening, hugulkultur gardening, traditional row gardening, and a Jason Aikers natural garden.

We want to be able to document the different types of gardening and learn from each type of gardening the pro's and the con's and how to possibly come up with a different system. I will give a brief summary of each type of gardening.

Square Foot Garden – This is a raised bed garden with compost, peat moss, and vermiculite. There is a particular mixture that allows the bed to drain, but hold enough water due to the vermiculite.

The bed is at least 2 foot deep of this perfect mixture of soil. You then break the bed (for us 4x4 beds) into 1 square foot squares where you will put your plants. One square may be for mint and then the next tomato and on the other side eggplant. It stresses plant variety to help defend against pest and disease and allows for strength in diversity.

We have had a huge success with this type of gardening, but to get started you need store bought materials and then you need to put compost (hopefully your own) on it twice a year after that to feed the soil. Super easy to get started and I guarantee you will grow and be addicted to gardening.

Hugulkultur Gardening – This is a different type of raised bed. You raise the dirt by burying logs underneath the soil. The benefits of this are amazing and exciting.

The first year as the logs start to decompose it releases lots of nutrients back into the soil acting as a time release fertilizer. The logs also help holds water and keep the raised bed moist.

We have never gardened this way, but are excited about this first year of hugulkultur gardening.

Row Gardening – We have all seen row gardening and may have even done it before. My wife and I started this way, because that is all we had seen. That is how you have to garden... isn't it?

We started with watermelon, pumpkins, cucumbers, and maybe squash. Well we got hammered by squash bugs the first year along with every other kind of critter. We had no idea about plant diversity and that we had given a breeding ground that there would only be one pest and no predators.

We haven't written off this type of gardening, but plan to be smart with this type of gardening. We want to try plant diversity in the rows rather than give squash bugs a buffet. Any pest will have to work around all the smells of herbs, squash, tomatoes, onions, etc. It is more difficult for them to find their desired plant when they aren't bunched together. Even if they do find their plant they on get one plant not the whole row.

Jason Aikers Gardening – Jason Aikers aka, the self sufficient gardener, has a unique way of going about gardening. He favors using cardboard, newspaper, and mulch to kill the majority of grass/weeds in the garden area and then plant seeds without digging up the soil.

He reasons that when you till up the ground you ruin the entire micro organism life that is going on underneath the surface (Which is true) and that you would be better off to allow whatever grows with your garden to grow with your garden. No weeding, no tilling, and no watering. He believes in letting nature do its own thing.

We are giving it a go with all four gardening types and will keep you up on the results.

Bantam Voice
“Freed People, Free People”

Rabbit Tractors

Here is our rabbits in their moveable cages. We made them ourselves (obviously) out of different fencing and other cages we had. We used wood to give them a "spine" and help hold the shape of the two that have curved tops.

The tarps laying over the cage that shelter the rabbits are bags that held feed and compost.

The cost of these to make are about $5.00 if you have scrap wood(but you have to buy the fencing in 100 foot rolls) compared to the $30.00 cage we bought from the store.

We move the rabbits once or twice a day so they can "graze" on the grass, but also supplement their feeding with other greens out of our garden and some store bought feed.

When the doe rabbit has babies we will have to move the momma and babies out of this style of cage due to the possibility of the momma feeling scared. If a mother rabbit feels too scared she will eat her babies.

We have found that our rabbits have flourished and have loved this approach of moving around our back yard ten times more than being stacked near each other without grazing. There was one of our rabbits (prior to grazing them) that was skin and bones and refused to eat anything and was near dead in his cage, but has made a full recovery since he started grazing.

We do plan on eating our rabbits and plan on it being one of our main source of meats. 3 rabbits (2 does and 1 buck) if properly handled and bred will produc 600 lbs of meat in a year at 1/3 the cost of feed compared to a cow. Another distinct advantage of the rabbits over a cow is that you can slaughter only as much meat as you need compared to having to store all the extra beef you have following slaughter of a cow.

We are also getting ready to explore the possibility of guinea pigs as a meat source (We hear they are tasty and even better than rabbits in regards to the meat/feed ratio) but we will let you know what comes of that.

Our son loves the rabbits and will take us back to the cage to feed and water the rabbits. Our dogs stand perplexed every day looking at the rabbits, but have not tried to harm them in any way.

Rabbit Cage (Store) $30.00
Rabbit Tractor/Cage $5.00

Savings of $25.00
Healthy rabbits - Priceless
This does not take into account the savings you will see in feed costs as your rabbits eat the greens. It also does not take into account how much healthier I believe the rabbits are while being closer to their natural state.

The Bantam Voice
"Freed People, Free People"