La la la la .... not paying attention!

What did you first think when seeing this photo? Has Blackberry been a bad girlie-goat and is in a "time out" or is this her preferred view of the world?

Talk to the hoof 'cuz Blackberry ain't a' listenin'!

Hi Blackberry! What's that you say? You're overwhelmed? Too much killing, hate, economic troubles, famine and war? And maybe if you don't see the world, it doesn't see you? Well, those are my thoughts exactly. Sometimes, it all just gets too TOO MUCH.

Say, Blackberry... can I join you?

(After her breakfast, morning exercise, belly-scratches and general all around lovin',  Blackberry has made it a habit to find a corner to stick her face into where she'll spend the rest of the day contemplating her role in the universe and the meaning of her existence.)

Anyhow, since all that is all done and finished with, let me take you on a mini tour around the blog and point out where some of your favorite features ended up.

Here's a clip of the front page.

The Homepage

Under our friendly welcome goat is the link to the yearly / monthly archive, shown here:

This is where you'll find all posts ever written on our journal under nifty month and year headings.    There's over 2,700 posts since 2001 so there's a lot to look through.    If you've accessed this page before the improvements, the first new thing you may notice is that it's paginated.   The old version of this page displayed all the posts in one page load and this format put a strain on the database so I had to paginate it to help out our server a little.

You can find the link to this archive page on the subpages of this blog as well.  It's on the right hand side, under the heading "Archives" as shown in the screencap below (or to the right of your screen! Go on look ---> )

Now as we return to the homepage, I want to point out the link to that will take you the blog posts in chronological order.    You'll find it under the chicken (do you see a pattern here?)

This link will take you to the book-like format of our posts - or for those who are old in internet years - back to how blogs used display to back in those days; circa mid-90s and before the online magazine-type themes everyone is adopting these days (yes, even us).   Although I find the magazine format better for us to keep track of things layouts and are great for better distribution of content., I'm aware that sometimes readers just want to read the entries in order.

Not to worry, I won't go so far back in internet years to to the flashing, headache-inducing animated GIFs and blue-text-on-black-background  that the early-adopters of websites seemed to inevitably use (And yes... I was guilty of using those fancy-dancy GIFs .  Although I thankfully had more taste than to use retina-searing color schemes...)

If you're on the subpages of the Blog, you can access this link above the category navigation right below the fun cartoon illustration:

In addition, make sure you take a look at the sidebar of all subpages.  Some new features and links have been added so be sure to check them out.  And finally, you'll see one of our new features (in beta stage) at the bottom of the pages.  This new addition feeds our networks in  so you can see all the new how-to and informational posts that some of us write on there (along with some guest posters).  Those sites are still being developed so they will be growing in leaps and bounds as soon as we get things organized here.

So, that's a mini tour of the new site upgrades.  I will be adding in more and doing better organization on the categories.  But at least the links work and I can sleep now...   For maybe an extra hour or two before I need to tackle the next thing on my to-do list notebook.

Oh, and one more thing. If you have noticed the site slowing down and then going offline from time to time, just wait a few minutes and refresh.  The server should reboot and you should be able to surf away.    We're getting a DDOS attack that is an  intentional effort to bring our sites down.  The internet is not a pretty place and it often feels like a 21st century "Wild West."      Our recent first DDOS attack came the night we announced our record setting 7,000 lb 2010 harvest.   The little conspiracy theorist side of my brain whispered "hmmm... could it be the big 'M'" or perhaps some other entity that didn't like our Food Freedom which proves you don't need a lot of land, chemicals or GM seeds to feed people.

The other recent time came during the media frenzy over the infamous Wikileaks site and I humorously commented on my Facebook page that the government, et. al, or whoever, had the wrong IP address.  Of course, during times like that, we find humor where we can.

Anyhow, we receive a lot of emails every day.  Most are people searching for the Urban Homesteading lifestyle and have questions, others are very touching and heart-warming but there's always a gem or two in the bunch.    Like this brilliant beauty sent anonymously of course and through a webform:

It will be cheaper for you to shut down your own website then for a bunch of hackers to do it for you.

Just pull the plug on your current online operations, regroup .... salvage all you can. Shut down your website or we will do it for you.

Listen to me, you know i'm right

As long time readers of our site know, we don't usually share things like this but we just wanted to let our readers know what's going on when they try to access the site and have issues with it loading.

I hope you all enjoy the new changes to the site.  Let me know if it was all worth the stress.    I will continue to optimize things for faster loading and make your browsing / reading experience better (such as a reorganization and simplifying of the categories).   I know some people might think that this site is graphics "heavy" and "too polished" for a site of its nature but I feel I would deny who I really am if I didn't make the things I create as beautiful and as well-done as I can.  It's like cutting off a bit of my own mind. 

If you have any ideas for improvement, let me know.  If you have any issue with anything, let me know as well and I'll see if I can remedy it.  Just be sure to provide as much details as possible and some important information such your browser, browser version, OS software, screen resolution, and whatever else you think might be important.

Thanks for your patience!

Hey everyone!  We're launching a new YouTube channel showcasing clips and videos from the Urban Homestead. You can find it at: http://www.youtube.com/urbanhomestead Be sure to subscribe to catch the newest upload!

This channel (http://www.youtube.com/dervaes) will still remain and videos will continue to be added, but they will be media pieces about our Urban Homestead and the Dervaes Family from television, radio and film sources. The youtube.com/urbanhomestead channel will be all our own footage from life here on the Urban Homestead.

And be sure to "like us" on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/dervaes and our Urban Homestead at: http://www.facebook.com/urbanhomestead

I can't wait to share all the video clips we've taken over the years with you!  In fact,  I have hours and hours and hours of footage so will be going thru that first.   But, perhaps, you can shout out what snippets of life you'd like to see.

I'm excited, hope you are too?

After two years of being screened at many film festivals and community viewings throughout the world, we have published (in its entirety) our award winning short film Homegrown Revolution for free viewing on YouTube.

It has been a crazy ride and exciting to have an award winning film and we sincerely thank those of you who supported this film in many ways.  A big THANK YOU goes out from our hearts to those  who supported us, purchased this video, screened it, shared it or simply let the film's message lead you to a new way of looking at your yard. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! We really appreciate it.

Our unlikely little film was a surprise success story.  For those of you who don't know the history, I'll recap briefly.  For those of you already know it, go ahead and skip to the end of this post to watch Homegrown Revolution.

Homegrown Revolution was made in a whirlwind three days after a last-minute invite for Dad to speak at Peter Sellars' UCLA class in 2007.  Jules Dervaes was to be the lead-in and local authority on sustainable food to Michael Pollan's presentation.

By now, we had given so many presentations, the explaining of our project and "Urban Homesteading" was becoming a tad redundant - there are only so many clever ways we could explain what we have been doing the last 16+ years.  Plus, the fact that this was a night class had many of us expecting a room of yawning and under-caffeinated students blinking sleepily at their laptop screens and surfing Facebook, content to get class credit simply for being a body in the seat.  Short of handing Red Bull out to everyone, we seriously thought NO ONE would wake up for this Urban Homesteading and sustainable food presentation.

Looking back at the time, I realize how far the movement has come to the point it is today.   It wasn't long ago at all, but in 2007  the movement was just blooming and I was finding out that most students didn't care or know about Urban Homesteading -- or even anything environmental or sustainable.   There's always the usual small but core group of students who were into changing the world and activism but we knew we had to reach to the others in the class that might not even have a first thought about the food they ate or about gardening.

At the family meeting / lunch following the invite, Dad turned to me (since I have unofficially become the tech geek / "electronic gadget whisperer" of the family ) and inquired about a video slideshow we had put together for a virtual tour of the Urban Homestead called "One Step at a Time."  This video brochure had been published on our website at the time  since it was first uploaded in 2004 (soon to be uploaded to YouTube for kicks).

As I am not a video editor and had no training at all, my foray into  messing about with video clips had been a sink or swim experience.   After mucking about in Adobe Premier, I had managed to put together some footage that resulted in One Step at a Time and that short film seemed pretty cool when it was made; but I was now slightly embarrassed about it and wanted to give Dad something newer and peppier for the students.

Anais and I got to work in those three days before the presentation.   We had multiple tapes of footage of the garden, animals and various projects throughout the yard but very little of ourselves.  So, I spliced those with some of the news media interviews for a  narrative effect.

I really wanted to do little interviews on our  own footage; but given the short amount of time and our aversion to being filmed by one another, it just wasn't happening. (NOTE: Seriously, I did try.  I approached Justin with a camera as he did his biodiesel brewing and asked him in  my best TV reporter voice to explain what was doing.   I received an  "are you kidding me?" stare for my troubles.  Turns out, it's hard for  us to be enthusiastic about giving each other interviews.  Try explaining to someone who already knows what you are doing, what you are doing.  It isn't easy. )

For fun and to appeal to the college kids who were my own age, Anais and I added in some well known musical favorites to create a edgy  mash-up type music video.

Turns out, as R.E.M's moody guitar in "Drive" snapped up the students' attention at  the first minute to the final frame of the fist-in-the-sky rallying  image and the drumming strains of "Revolution Cry", we had gained this class' full focus and subsequent and  enthusiastic ovation and shouts.   Yes, even the too-cool-for-school jocks of UCLA's NCAA basketball team were into it.

Later that week, we decided to publish Homegrown Revolution on YouTube (cut to 10 minutes since YouTube wouldn't allow videos of  longer lengths at that time) and it kind of went viral for a time and gained over 500,000 views.

We started to use Homegrown Revolution for an intro to Jules Dervaes' workshops and presentations and considered it a type of "video brochure" or "infomercial" to Urban  Homesteading.  Fast forward to late 2008 and we received a phone call from the awesome  folks at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival asking if we wanted to  submit our film for consideration.

I seriously had no idea what they were talking about!   Film?  What film? We don't have a film, I thought.

They soon convinced us that they were really asking for Homegrown Revolution which one of their members had seen on YouTube.  This touched off a flurry of more video editing.  Since the original version contained a lot that was not our footage, we began to re-shoot a lot of scenes and I soon had Homegrown Revolution up to over 25 minutes long.  But because Wild & Scenic had accepted Homegrown  Revolution into their program as it appeared on YouTube, we knew we  had to keep it to 10 minutes.

In the end, the final product came out  at 15 minutes after we all refused to cut out anything more.  There was also concern from some of Film Festival folks about remaking  Homegrown Revolution so much that it would no longer feel like the  original version so we felt a little restricted in our creativity.     I did try to obtain the rights to some of the footage / interviews that appeared in the original version but with so little time to  remake the film, it turned out easier to just re-speak most of it  instead of dealing with all the paperwork.    Again, all this had to  be done in a short amount of time - definitely not enough time to be at one's full creativity.

Unfortunately, although most of our words as they appear in the 2009  version of Homegrown Revolution had been spoken to interviewers  previously, it was hard getting family members to say the same lines  with enthusiasm and with the same passion as they had when speaking to  someone "new" and curious to what we were doing.  Looking at the film today,  I can see all the mistakes and where it could all have been better.

But this was a collaborative project done by all of us -- with each family member taking part in the filming, editing and structure of the film.  Neither of us had any previous film editing / filming experience but we hope the passion and enthusiasm show through any technical flaws and other problems.

It's also important to note that the film was made entirely in-house on computers powered by solar/green sources.  All transportation was done in a biodiesel-fueled car and all camera/mic batteries were rechargeable and charged with solar energy.  Waste was kept to a minimum – paper composted or recycled and all publicizing materials printed  on post consumer paper.

We are humbled by the impressive impact Homegrown Revolution had in  the film festivals both nationally and internationally. It  was never created for a film festival circuit but has a true homegrown, homemade story behind its creation. Today,  whenever I am frustrated by learning something new or seeing where I fail in trying to get something perfect, I just need to look at where our little film that could has taken us.

I am compiling a  tally of the festivals and known public screenings to be published at HomegrownRevolution.com but here are the AWARDS and HONORS Homegrown Revolution has gained so far:

WINNER

Best Environment & Ecology Film North America,
Swansea International Film Festival, UNITED KINGDOM

Prize of the Mayor of the Capitol City of Slovakia
Ekotop Film Festival of Sustainable Development, SLOVAKIA

Best Short Documentary
Southern Appalachian International Film Festival, TENNESSEE

El Capitan Film Award
Yosemite International Film Festival, CALIFORNIA

Best Sustainability Film
Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, CALIFORNIA

Robert T. Nanninga Award for Excellence,
Cottonwood Creek Film Festival, CALIFORNIA

-----------------------------

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Westpac Award Best Short Film Runner Up
Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival, NEW ZEALAND

NOMINATED - Best Film, Climate Change & Sustainable Technology
CMS Vatavaran Environmental & Wildlife Film Fest, INDIA

FINALIST
European Spiritual Film Fest, FRANCE

Footage aired on Oprah's 2009 Earth Day show

You can still purchase the DVD here for community screenings or to just own a copy. We're still sending the film out to festivals who request it, so if you know of any film festivals or other opportunities, continue to send them our way. Thanks!

Pssst...!

Sharp eyed or observant readers might notice we now have a new YouTube address:  http://www.youtube.com/urbanhomestead

We'll still have the http://www.youtube.com/dervaes one but we might FINALLY be getting into sharing how-to videos.  We are launching this new channel for video clips showing snippets of life from the Urban Homestead as well as some how-to videos.

So be sure to subscribe to this new channel to get all the latest videos - thanks!

Spanky and the camera share a special relationship. He loves it and it loves him right back. Someday, I'll make this feline butt-head a webpage with media credits of his own because every film crew or photographer who has ever stepped foot on this property has devoted multiple megapixels and reams of film to this 25lb lump of fur. Spanky laps it up like a bowl of sweet cream. Seriously, the cat turns on the charm like a lightbulb and struts his ginger-striped self around like he's on some sort of catwalk.

[Cue the blowing fan.]

Well hello there... no, not you dumb human-person... I'm talkin' to the funny black box stuck to your face with the lens-y thing in front of it.

Lemme kees it. I wuvs it becuz it wuvs me. I know it does.

My thoughtful, stare-0ff-in-the distance pose with perfectly placed paws. This one should go on the front page of my website. I'm workin' it baby!

Here I am, babes ... Your daily dose of handsome. Be careful not to stare at me too long lest my extreme hotness cause you sunburns.

Puh-leeze. Someone at least get this guy an agent and rack in some endorsement deals (Hello companies of organic cat food and Temptations Kitty Treats?).

He already has a fan club of people. During school days, he sits at the end of the driveway so that the teachers at the school next door can love him up. Once class is in session, he saunters into the house, proudly wafting clouds of perfume from his fur like a badge of honor. "I'm adored..."

And yes, (sadly?), people inquire about him when we're out and about and tabling at events:  "How's Spanky?"     At events here on the Urban Homestead, people request his presence and Spanky obliges willingly, ever so content to keep his fanclub pleased.

So… sleeeeeepies… Being handsome is such HARD work!

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I'm not ashamed to admit, I'm a card carrying member of the I-love-Spanky fanclub and this post was written in between bouts of Spanky-snuggling with lots of snorgling and mooshing my face into his fuzzy wuzzy belly and making goo-goo blowing raspberry noises. He thinks I've finally lost my mind.  I'm not sure I can argue with him.

".. I was wondering if you could just point me in the right direction towards organic duck feed? I am not finding ANY sources that carry organic feed for them--especially not for the baby ducklings."

Ducks and chickens can eat the same feed as long as it is non-medicated (it's usually not the medication itself that will kill the ducks -- they have a tendency to eat more than chickens which can cause a fatal overload of medication in their systems).

So if you can find a chick starter (20% protein) that is organic, you can use that for the first three weeks after they're hatched. When the ducklings get older, feed them chicken-grower that is 16% protein. The one issue with ducks is that they need more Niacin (Vit B-4) than chickens. The lack of Niacin causes leg issues and malnutrition.

Deficiency symptoms for Niacin AND Riboflavin are both along the lines of curled-toe paralysis, drooping wings, and leg weakness, bowed legs, etc (as well as others).

I use Brewer's Yeast (you can find large buckets of it from the feed store for horse use) to feed my ducks. I never really measure... just top dress it over the feed. But if you want a formula: 2.5lbs of brewer’s yeast per 50lbs of feed to start off with and then upping it to 3.5lbs per 50lbs when they start laying.

Generally, I advise you to watch their legs as the babies grow.  If those funny little feet and legs are strong and straight and you don't have any little ducky Charlie Chaplin doppelgangers  ... good - you're doing it right!

Oh and feed them lots and lots of greens... ducks absolutely adore salad greens with all of their little hearts. It's what they are born to eat. You can chop or tear up some leaves and toss into a bowl of water for the ducklings and watch them go into fits of delight. Try it, it will amuse you endlessly.

Make sure you remove the bowl of water after they eat up the greens so a duckling doesn't get too chilled and drown.

If you want an on-hand emergency solution, vitamin b complex will fix a lot of the problems with ducklings. A small bottle of it is handy for just-in-case situations.

And this is always my MUST HAVE: http://www.peddlerswagon.com/p-245-poultry-nutri-drench-4-oz.aspx I don't believe I'm exaggerating when I say it has saved many a chick, duckling, duck and hen (and an injured pigeon or two).

The 100+ year old house next door is being renovated which means that for the last six months or so, we have had lots of activity there. And, the presence of a lot of men. Latino workers, that is.

Generally, this affects us very little. ...

Until, Fairlight gets into her once-every-23-days heat cycle and then those workers become the object of her desperate desire. When she and Blackberry are let out of their pen for their morning and evening walks and time out in the yard, Fairlight saunters directly towards the fence in the most ridiculous little head-tossing strut.

There, she will rub all over against the fence, pressing her pink nose through the bamboo privacy slats and searching with those beautiful long-lashed hazel eyes for ANY subject of her desire.

Her tail flirts in little flippy back-and-forth movements and she nickers her throaty "mmmrhh."

And then she finds him. Some poor unsuspecting young man who has probably never suspected in his whole life that he would be flattered by the full affection of a doe in heat. Fairlight's tail starts flagging ever quicker, and that husky throat-call gains his attention.

At this time, I don't know whether to laugh, hide, or to try to get Fairlight away from the fence as quick as possible. Usually, I end up doing the latter: Trying my darnedest to finagle my love-struck goat away from the attention of the baffled but obviously amused young man while feigning compete and cool sophistication. What? No, nothing bizarre here. Just y'know... something you see everyday. Nope, nothin' unusual here, that's for sure. Nice day, ain't it?

Needless to say, that young man most likely had an interesting conversation subject at the dinner table or the local bar that night...

POSTSCRIPT: I'm happy to report that the goats' heat season is coming to a close. Although Nigerian Dwarfs and Pygmy goats can "cycle" all year round, it becomes strongest during the months of Dec - Feb in So. CA. For the rest of the year, I sometimes notice slight signs such as a little more spunkiness or aggressive head-butting between the two girls on the day they cycle. But usually, to the average person, these small signs are non-existent -- I just know my animals well enough to detect tiny changes in behavior.

Other new features will come in the next week or so... or month...

In the meantime, 100footdiet.org is revving up for a first-day-of-spring launch. I think it's going to be pretty cool, but maybe I am biased. Those who are already partaking of the 100 foot diet / Victory Garden challenge, look for a personal email invite in the next couple of weeks to join in on this blogging community. If you already have a blog, all you'll need to do is create your portal, input your blog feed and posts tagged with "100 foot diet" or "victory garden" will automatically feed into your 100 foot diet blog.

One of the main of goals of this new website is to bring people together in regional groups. By this, we hope that finding your nearest neighbor who is growing his or her own food will generate inspiration and encouragement for you. You both have the same growing zones/weather, etc... and perhaps, the sharing of overly abundant produce will begin to happen.

I hope you will join us on this new community and make it a success!

Peace,

Jordanne

It's Jordanne again, the girl behind the site (actually SITES, as in the plural form). The one whose brain feels a bit too much like a computer these days. Honestly, when I begin to process life as if it exists through the tags of cascading style sheets, it's time to start seriously consider what I am doing.

So, in effort to preserve my sanity... (Not sure if any remnant exists to preserve, but anyhoo...), I am asking for assistance. For those who know me... yes, that's right, I am asking for help. Never thought you'd see the day, eh?

Almost ready projects waiting in the wings :

• 100 Foot Diet Community Site
• Homegrown Revolution (real-time documentation of our 10,000 lb challenge)
• Dervaes Institute Non-profit Website
• Urban Homestead Community Site

PATH TO FREEDOM.com PROJECTS:

• Super-duper Photogallery. (In which we share with our readers the hundreds of photographs that fill several external harddrives)
• Updated Event Calendar. (Hey, if we finish these many web projects, the events may start up again!!!)
• Redesign of Path to Freedom.com (Okay, this will be a huge project that actually scares the bejeebers out of me. But, I'm also excited about the many ideas for it that will take the strain off me in keeping it going)
• Editing and launch of the much promised, but sadly pushed aside: Part II - the Urban Homestead Manual

This journal, although launched, is not finished. There are tweaks, features, plugins and ideas I have for it. But the heck is in the details.

Currently I am working with a programmer for Peddler's Wagon and a skilled WordPress authority (Hi Brianna P!) but as you can see, our projects are many. If I want to finish/launch/share anything in the near future so I can move on to other things like sharing videos, how-tos, booklets with our readers, I need to get out from under this load.

So if you can squash bugs (not the aphid kind), have css skills, know wordpress widgets, like to research and find the best programs or know of a friend or a company in the website sector you have dealt with that you recommend, send me an email: jordanne(at)pathtofreedom.com

I know there are many companies out there, but I am giving the huge readership on journal a shot because I am looking for the personal touch -- someone I can get right into the project(s) with.

If you think you might be the techie person that can help, send me an email with your facts and details as well as your per job rates. And, let me know if you would like to "stick it to the man" and be paid with Peddler's Wagon dollars. Yup, that's right. We don't need no stinkin' money. Let's barter! You could end up with a Solar Oven. And a Soil Block Maker. Or one of these fun little beauties.

And I will thank you. Fairlight and Blackberry will thank you. The hens will thank you. Cassidy will thank... uh... I don't think she'll thank you. People sitting at computers make for comfortable and warm laps to snuggle in!