March 1936. Crabtree Recreational Project Photo by Carl Mydans

Recently, we had an "episode" with our eight year old energy/water efficient washing machine.  Although we do wash by hand, we do use our machine especially when things get a little rushed around here.  This show down with technology has gotten us to thinking more seriously about trashing our machine and going "cold turkey," so to speak. It also made us search out the some interesting factoids about hand washing vs machine washing.

Here is some of the info we have collected.

Hand washing/ Machine washing Pros and Cons

Cleanliness: Hand washing gets stains out better because even pretreated stains on clothes  are washed  the exact same way as the other clothes in the washer.  Stain removal by hand washing by using a scrub board or brush is more direct and, thus, effective.

Clothes Preservation: Hand washing preserves the life of your clothes compared to most machines.

Energy efficient : Hand washing is energy efficient as it uses only your human energy. Solar powered machines and the manufacturing of the washer both use energy from outside sources.

Health benefits: Hand washing gives a good workout, especially if you do some creative tinkering and do it by pedal power or treadmill power. Can save you money by canceling your membership to the gym. Better for the planet.  Machines cannot claim this.

Water savings: The new water saving machines do not use enough water to thoroughly cleanse the clothes of all residue.  Would need to actually measure the water used in hand washing to determine its water saving virtues.

Using the right (non toxic) detergents, both hand washed  and machine water can be used as grey water.

Labor intensive: Hand washing is more directly labor intensive (but see labor saving.)

Soaking your clothes overnight can help remove dirt before washing when hand washing.  Wet laundry can be heavy to lift.

Perhaps the kids can foot stomp your dirty clothes clean in their pool and make a game out of it.

Labor saving--depends on your definition

Hand washing involves your personal labor. With machines the labor is "transferred" as you work at your job to get money to keep the machine running. Therefore, both require labor directly or indirectly.

Noise factor: Hand washing is quieter (unless your kids are stomping your clothes in their rubber pool!)

Time saver: Machines rate high in this category if you consider that you are free to do something else while the machine is washing for you.  And only if your income is at the level where you can afford to do the repairs.

Dangers to children:  both are dangerous for children if left unattended as the child can fall into the hand washing water and drown.  With machines, the child can get inside of the tub.

How many of our readers wash clothes by hand, care to share your tips and techniques?

Goat Walk & Talk

Student working on an profiling some local eco heroes for a NPR radio piece comes along on one of our goat walks.  Jordanne shows her some wild edibles that are popping up all over thanks to the wondrous winter rains.

Being interviewed while walking the goats in the lower Arroyo Seco.

Spring Tonic

Nettle goop (read about making your own natural nettle tonic for the garden )

Farmer Justin bucket fertilizes the raised beds with nettle slurry

Chores

First dry week in weeks so time to fluff up the shavings, straw in the animal yard

Shrooms

Farmer Justin latest growing efforts - mushrooms.

Water Reclamation

We have a bonafide grey water system - well, almost!

For decades we always been into recycling grey water - outdoor shower, hand washer on the back porch etc.

I remember hauling 5 gallon buckets out to the house to water the food in the front yard back when we were teenagers in the early 1990's.  But no more bucket hauling or guerrilla grey water set up!  The guys have been hard at work installing a system that will reclaim the laundry wash water and send the used water into the garden - underneath a few of the raised beds and also to a few fruit trees.

We are excited because this is another step forward in our sustainable journey.

Farmer Justin morphs into Plumber Justin for the week

Getting there!

Flower Power

Orchids

Pansies

Strawberry blossoms

Borage

Self Watering Containers

Using ollas we make self watering containers.  Pick a good deep pot and then stick an olla in the middle - that's it!

Then plant your seedlings

Olla and tomato pot

Here's another olla pot surrounded with chard and kale

Spring is Here!

Grow your own, don't forget to stock up on seeds at our little start up seed company Freedom Seeds - featuring organic, non corporate owned seeds.

Greens Galore!

Salad mix for customers.

We expanded our DerVaes Gardens business to be more csa-like.  We are encouraging local residents to come by and support local foods and farms!

If you are interested in receiving a weekly surplus email updates email us at info@dervaesgardens.com

Pea Forest

Justin and the peastalk.

Citrus Delights

Busy Hands

Jordanne knits up some items for friends new baby

Still snoozing?   Geez, Fairlight, did we wear you out with all the happenings!

There are so many draft journal postings it's becoming a cluttered, disorganized mess. So, before the year is out I am going to try to a bit of "cyber cleaning." Anyhow, feeling a bit posting fatigue at the moment so, the less said/written, the better.

Here are a few new posts with some exciting developments (did any of you guess?) and some "old draft" postings thrown into the mix.

Jotul F 100
Stove's In

Unfortunately (or fortunately), it's not cold enough to start a fire.... yet.   In So Cal we really don't see nighttime temps dip in the 30's until late December or January.
The guy doing the installation (which he said was tricky because the pipe and liner barely fit) had to cut out about a dozen bricks from the fireplace and, unfortunately, uncovered some traces of asbestos. We were concerned, but he said it wasn't too serious to worry about.   Old houses--you love them but boy do they give you some unpleasant surprises.

The stove fits perfectly in the small fireplace opening. The size of thefireplace really limited our choices. Anyhow, we didn't need a bigger stove because it's not like we live where it's really, really cold. All we need is to get the chill out of the air and besides, it's all about wearing layers and doing our best to conserve our heating uses and only using the stove when it's really necessary.   

We look forward to using it this winter, but first we have to break it in.

Sun oven

Sun Ovens

The other day we received an email from an Arts Center College of Design student who was looking for a good home for two solar ovens. She had used them in a research project to document which sun oven was best for the Sudanese/Darfur refugees. She was happy to find a good home here and that we could put them to good use. We, of course, were interested in her research and had a question for her: Which sun oven did she find preformed the best?

The report she submitted had the Sport Sun Oven over the Global Sun Oven. There were two others but their performance wasn't up to par (one was cardboard and other was some sort of inflatable one). She then went on to say that the Global Sun Oven is fine for urbanites, but she felt that the Sport Sun Oven was better suited for the rural village life.
Why all the interest in which oven was best for Africa? Because we recently finished the paper work to be sales rep for both the Sport Sun Oven and Global Sun Oven. Our first two orders as sales reps for Spot Sun Oven, we are happy to report, will be going with a local couple who is traveling to Kenya next week - they liked the fact that these ovens were lightweight and could fit two pots (for large family cooking)

And that's not all, there's more to follow! Another couple whom we know adopted a village school in Kenya and they are wanting to bring at least 6 ovens to school the next time they go. Then there's a friend of theirs who wants a few for an orphanage in Rwanda.
That's not all, there's even more news to report!

PTF will be selling the sun ovens online through our expanded store. So if you haven't made or bought a sun oven already, you can support PTF and the Sun Oven project in Africa by purchasing the ovens through our soon-to-launch expanded store -- launch date

TOMORROW!

Stay tuned.

Dervaes Institute - It's "Official"

We promised an acquaintance of ours we'd post this announcement on the internet as soon as it become official because she was thrilled to hear the news of our taking this new step.

Over the years, many of our friends and acquaintances had questioned us : "Why haven't you become a non-profit?" We have agonized over this issue and which path to take. Path to Freedom is documenting our journey and we want it to be an example of a family - not a non-profit organization - making a difference in the world. The point we wanted to make was that you don't have to be an organization to change the world. The reality is that the path to change the world begins at your door! You can simply start changing the world from your own backyard and PTF is proof of it. Path to Freedom is an example of a living, working, self-sufficient, and sustainable lifestyle accomplished by a family working together with its own hands and does NOT depend/survive on 1. tours 2. donations 3. grants 4. memberships 5. money from books or speaking engagements to successfully achieve goals and projects. Many non-profits (and organized religion) have turned into big businesses with jobs with paid employees who do good work because they are paid to do it, not necessarily because they believe in what they are doing. How many would do something if they weren't paid to do it?

With that said, one lady bluntly told us a while ago: "You are no longer a family, you are much bigger than that," and "You have to seriously consider becoming a non profit organization."

With that in mind and the strong desire of keeping the family run Path to Freedom homestead separate, we fortunately found a "separate" path by establishing the Dervaes Institute which is now a registered as a California Corporation Sole and under the jurisdiction of the State of California Corporations Sole Code and has a tax exempt status under IRS Code § 508(c)(1)(A):.. This way it's easier on us and those of you who donate from now on for either film screenings, workshops, or those of you donate to support the site (thank you) - your contribution will now be tax-deductible!

What's Dervaes Institute?

To clear up any confusion.

Path to Freedom is now one of the projects of the tax exempt Dervaes Institute (earth stewardship outreach/"ministry"). With the incorporation of Dervaes Institute this will allow PTF to expand its work and outreach.  So, basically, PTF is still a family urban homestead project; however, to cover the expenses of the outreach, projects and public aspect of PTF projects, Dervaes Institute will allow tax deductible support.

We are excited about this new step, and hope you are too, and we thank you all for your support through the years. We strongly believe that PTF, and now Dervaes Institute, is a simple way of life and is on a mission. We, by living the revolution, are clearing the path so others may follow. We strive to live by example as shown on this site. Now our community outreach is the extension of these beliefs.

Makes sense? I hope so. 

Hanging Out to Dry

For much of our lives we've tried to live simply and not buy so much stuff. One of those choices was not buying a clothes dryer. For nearly thirty years now our family has line dried our clothes. Such a simple, "power down" practice helps us conserve not only electricity but also the amount of outfits we wear each day/week. Why bother throwing this article of clothing in the wash for a little dirty spot? We wash clothes about once a week when they are dirty (saves water too!) We can go a week or more wearing the same outfit on the homestead (especially during spring, fall and winter when we don't perspire as much) Clean is good ("godly" and healthy) but Americans have become over obsessed with cleanliness andtoo many outfits - less clothes, less energy, less water...

You'd be surprise how a simple piece of string can make a dramatic difference.  

Warming the world to dry our socks {Land Institute}

Once, visiting a friend, I helped wash the dinner dishes. I soaped the plates and cups, and she rinsed them and stacked them in a dish rack. When we were finished, I asked where the dish towel was so I could dry. "Oh, don't bother with that," she said. "That's air's job." ....The average American family devotes 5 to 6 percent of its annual electric budget to the motor and heating coils inside its clothes dryer. Undampening your socks ties you into the vast world energy grid, with its legacy of mountaintop-removal coal mining, terrorist-vulnerable natural gas pipelines and all the rest. Which is OK—right?—because we all need dry socks.
read more

Another sweaty, dirty, dusty, filthy day for the guys. This awful humidity makes an already dirty job even worse - the dust just sticks to the skin and becomes muddy.    We are all certainly thankful for the sun shower - we are certainly using it a lot these days. As for me, last week, after "suiting up" with goggles, hair protection, breathing mask, gloves and old clothes, I spent about an hour removing the lead paint - taking care to not contaminate anything. Beforehand, the guys ingeniously stapled plastic under the eaves so that the paint can be caught and never touch the ground.   Wearing a breathing apparatus and long sleeves wasn't very comfortable, but I recently had practice working under such conditions when our family when back to help with the clean up ofNew Orleans after hurricane Katrina in November '05.

Once the roof is complete and gutters put in, Jules plans on buying a solar attic fan and the City of Pasadena offers an incentive of arebate.

BOOKMARKS
Too hot to sleep {LATimes}

The windows are all open, and the ceiling fan in his bedroom is going full blast. But to graphic designer Terry Payne, it doesn't matter. It's just too hot to sleep.So Payne, a 48-year-old Pasadena resident, takes his sheets to the backyard, where he and his dog, a Newfoundland mix, can finally fall asleep."Back in the old days, it got a lot cooler at night. Now, we're not getting relief at night," said William Patzert, a meteorologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge....."The extreme makeover Southern California got is impacting nighttime temperatures," Patzert said. "Everybody wants to know why it's not cooling off at night. This is an urban land use 'heat island' effect." The numbers tell the tale: Between 1901 and 2000, the average daytime temperature in Southern California has gone up by three degrees, Patzert said. But nighttime averages have risen by seven degrees. read more

Natural Cooling

Who would have thought we'd have to think of natural cooling methods? Since living out here (since 1984) we really didn't need any such cooling devices. Our pre-AC house with its walk in cellar, big attic and nice high ceilings--well, we were doing just fine.   Sure there were a few days where it got a bit uncomfortable - but this-- two straight weeks-- is ridiculous!   If this weather pattern is now the norm, well, then, we'll have to look into natural cooling options. There are many folks we know, for instance, my knitting mentor, one who has lived in So Cal practically all her life and has lived w/o AC.   Well, she even had to break down and buy a floor fan to survive the intense humidity. Many years ago (think it was on KCET) a local guy laid in pipes under his lawn to draw the cool air from underground to pipe it into his house. In such humid climates like Florida and Louisiana (where we are from) old houses were built to deal with the humidity. Sleeping a hammock sounds good right about now - sleeping on top of the bed just doesn't cut it.

BOOKMARKS
B.A.C (before AC) this simple solution kept you cool and had a language all of its own. Much more personal than a big (and noisy) AC unit.
BTW: a heavy piece of paper works well also and these days such weight of papers are sought in our home to keep us cool.

You're always cool with a fan {GuardianUK}

The latest development, then, is more than just another facet of the 80s revival, and has taken retro cool back a few centuries further. The folding fan was invented in Japan in the eighth century and taken to China in the ninth. It was 400 years before hand-held fans were reintroduced to Europe, brought back from the Middle East by Crusaders and, in the 15th century, Portuguese traders, who carried them from China and Japan. By the 17th century you can see fans in many portraits of high-society women.
The most heartening aspect of the recent revival, however, is that it may also resuscitate the forgotten art of "fan language" - an array of gestures, popular in Victorian times.
read more

Saving water

Water Wise II

Jules attached a hose to ourhand washer/wringer so now we don't have to lug water from the back deck to the surrounding edible shrubs and trees.   Hey, but we liked the exercise - now we are going to have to find something else that's heavy to care to keep our arms looking nice and lean.   Anyhow, back on the subject, the used wash water (that contains biodegradable soap) now empties out underneath the dwarf avocado and collection of dwarf bananas. Underneath the avocado Jules plans to plant blueberries (which you see - but they are in pots at the moment).  

The hand washer/wringer we've had for, oh, I'd say two years now. It's easy to use if you plan it right. We found that if you soak the clothes (with water heated by our sun oven) and then agitate the load a few times, clothes come out quite clean. Of course you can't use this washer for many heavy items like jeans or blankets - but it works well for t-shirts, light dresses, skirts, khaki's, underwear, socks.

Drying clothes is not a problem. Having lived without an electric dryer all our lives, it's only natural that we hang the clothes outside in the sunshine using a clothes line accordion-style wooden racks.

Hand power

Back to basics

On Sunday we whipped out ourhand cranked blender and made a huge batch of pesto (about 6 cups!) We are Planning on eating that up this week along with heirloom tomatoes.   If we can't finish it then, I'll just freeze the rest.

Besides the fridge, our kitchen has no (zip, nadda) plug in appliances (no microwave, toaster, food processor - nothing)   We like it that way.  Less clutter, less maintenance, less noise, less cost to the environment.   Instead, we rely on good old fashioned arm power - keeps those arms looking good without having to go to the gym and work out.  

In the kitchen there's an old time vegetable "cooler" which was a useful asset in pre-war homes during the "pre-fridge" era. The ingenious cabinet is great for keeping vegetables and fruit fresh. It outwardly appears to be an ordinary kitchen cabinet but the shelves inside are made of wire mesh or evenly spaced wood slates. At the bottom, there is a vent opening into the cellar and at the top, an opening to the attic. This allows a natural cooling air flow which is a very sensible arrangement that has all been forgotten by modern builders. This floor to ceiling sure comes in handy when the harvest comes in.

Simplicity

What's In Your Cabinet?

We've always, since I can remember, have lived very basic and simple lives.   Much of our furniture and "decorations" are either hand-me-downs, inherited, second hand purchases, found alongside the road, or handmade. Our two sofas in the living room are miss-matched (one second hand, the other found on the curb); however, no one know because of the matching slip covers. The curtain accents are made from bed sheets.

Even with such simple values, we still find over time that we collect stuff. But when it comes to purchases, we try to keep things simple. Take for instance our bathroom "cabinet" where we keep most of the beauty and hygiene stuff.     You won't find make up, hair spray, hair dryers or electric shavers.   Instead:, homemade soap, homemade deodorant, homemade "baby powder," homemade toothpaste,  straight razor, hand shears, lotion, toothpowder, mineral deodorant rock, a small bottle of natural blemish cream to hide the occasional bump or rash, royal jelly, and toothbrushes. Recalling our experience in New Orleans 45 days after the flood waters receded, where the bathrooms and kitchens were the most disgusting rooms to clean (having to go through the cabinets [gross]) we wondered if we do really need all these products.   How'd they survive  over 50 years ago without aisles and aisles of hygiene and beauty products. We've learned through our many camping outings (and train trips across country) - pack light, go with the basics and you learn you can survive just fine.   We find that we don't need more of this or different type of that - less is better.

Beneficial visitor

Bees

As our long time readers know we all have a long standing fondness for bees -- and raw honey (Jules started beekeeping in New Zealand in the mid 70's and continued to keep hives for 15 years -- even right here in Pasadena!), so we always take notice of articles like this one:

BOOKMARKS
Buzz Kill: Wild Bees and Flowers Disappearing, Study Says {National Geographic}

Parents may soon be telling their kids about the birds and the ... birds.Bees—and the flowers they pollinate—are disappearing, according to a new study of bee diversity. The results raise concerns about food crops and plant communities that rely on animal pollinators to reproduce.
...They found that bee diversity has declined at nearly 80 percent of the sites.
read more

We received our James Hand Washer with Wringer today! Even though we have a low water and Energy Saving washing machine, collect the wash water to water certain plants and have no dryer, we feel less wasteful with this non electric appliance. One thing less to plug into the little sockets in the wall!  

We already have a Hand Cranked Blender from Lehman's which we use that really gives one a great workout -- giving the term "will work for food" a whole new meaning.   It will be quite nice to hand wash, wring and line dry the clothes, especially during the warm spring and summer months.

Here's an excerpt from my email to one of our reader's question regarding where one can purchase it:

We purchased ours from Global-light-network.com They are doing some changes on their site, so you'll have to call them and talk to David or Nita. Tell them you are interested in TWILIGHT PRILL LAUNDRY APPLIANCE.

I've seen the Prill Laundry Appliances sold on other sites going for as high as $200! So be careful! Talk to David or Nita and ask them if they still have the TWILIGHT, PRILL LAUNDRY APPLIANCE bags for $50. We deal with them because they are very knowledgeable, so let them know that we referred them to you.

Prill beads are truly amazing for cleaning out toxins, I have read really amazing things about the beads. One remarkable story is that they are using them in Lake Mead to clean out the Perchlorate toxins.

In addition, we are using a bag ofPRILL BEADS to clean out our tap water instead of having to purchase costly filters or bottled water. Don't want to start sounding like a commercial ad (*smile*) So, if you like you can read all about the wonders of PRILL BEADS on their site.

Weather Report: Warm and sunny

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order togrow." ~ Anonymous ~

We got some (two) new composters from the city on Friday, they are offering them at reduced prices ($27 compared to $80 in some garden catalog). We are trying to faze out using the large compost pile for kitchen scraps as it seems to be attracting more flies  this year. So, we'll save the pile for yard waste & paper and keep the kitchen waste in these nice, "attractive" compost containers.

This year we hope to stretch our monthly shopping "expeditions" from 4 weeks to 5, then 6 and then to ????? Who knows? We just got some plastic (*cringe* I know, I hate plastic, but sometimes there's simply not much choice) food-grade storage containers for the bulk food items. We're making our own granola, flour tortillas, peanut butter. ketchup, salsa and all desserts and some breads from scratch.

We've been phasing out unnecessary cleaning products and detergents and getting down to the basic, natural, "cheap" cleaners such as lemon juice, baking soda and white vinegar. We are using the ever-lastingTWILIGHT LAUNDRY APPLIANCESfor our wash and if we need sudsing action we'll use7th GENERATION products.

For dishes and bath soap, we like DR. BONNER'S CASTILE SOAP and we use the long-lastingCRYSTAL STONE for deodorant.

For toothpaste,TOM'S of MAINEis a favorite, and we useMICRO-BRIGHT once and a while -- but we can do without and use baking soda. We have to buy organic shampoo (not very particular on the brand -- whatever's on sale at the health food store). We do not purchase conditioners, we get by with using an apple cider vinegar herbal rinse that we make ourselves.

For our splurge urge to indulge ourselves, we buy a natural lotion -- we use it sparingly and a bottle goes quite a long ways. Also, since I have been purchasing bulk oils, butters, and essential oils to make soaps, we can start to make our own.

Shopping wisely has helped us save money so we are able to purchase items that'll help us live more sufficiently.....

Here's some progressive viewpoints from a posting atPORTLAND INDY MEDIA CENTER:

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*Spend Less then You Make

*Don't Store Savings in a Bank

*Put Your Savings Into Investment that Lower Your Initial Cost: Energy

Efficiency, Self-sufficient Gardens, Organizing Your Life and Time.

etc.

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The new "Victory Garden" is much more so a victory of the people to help

themselves.

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Don't trust the man to feed you and keep you healthy.

Do it yourself. for free and for freedom.

Weather Report: Breezy, cool and clear.

In our attempts to try to conserve water this year {See WATER CHART}, the guys are installing a drip system that will allow us to water each of the raised beds in the backyard. This should help us reduce our water bill, not to forget to mention that we are getting a energy and water efficient washing machine. Our old, pre-80's one uses over an estimated 50 wasteful gallons and with the new one it will use only 22 gallons. Thankfully Pasadena has a great rebate program incentive, so it won't cost us very much for the washer -- which certainly helps the pocket book. Now we just have to figure on getting the water from the washing machine to the grey water reed bed, but that's another story.

Weather Report: Same old... dry, warm. Temps in the high 80's. Expected to reach 90's this weekend.

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HERBS

The other day, I had pain from wisdom teeth coming in and since we are growing new herb calledTOOTHACHE PLANT in the yard I gave it a try.  And to, my surprise-- wait a second here, in fact I shouldn't be surprised as I am a believer of the power herbs{herbology} and their wondrous uses -- it worked!!! I chewed on the leaves and it numbed my whole mouth, it was a really weird feeling. Funny how a plant leaf could be so powerful.  It would also work on canker sores and, of course, toothaches.

After reading this, we'll have to get serious in replacing our old washing machine with an Energy Star. We had wanted to for a long time and for incentives, Pasadena Water & Power gives out rebates if we do.

Today we had a delivery from Steve of EXOTICA RARE FRUIT NURSERY. We got some bananas, papayas, tropical cherries, lychee, tree tomatoes, pomegranates and more! We're whittling down our "wish list."  Only a few things left and we'll try to find them at local nurseries.   Though, I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get any red bananas because they had sold out. *sigh*

Weather Report: Nice crisp day.

Weather Report: Overcast in the morning but clearing to be quite pleasant.