Paul shows off his sun oven design

It's summer and that means dusting off those solar ovens.  No need to heat up the house hotter than it is for cooking simple foods.    We built our first sun oven back in the mid 90's and have been harnessing the sun's free energy ever since.

Solar cooking is fun, easy and better yet you can make solar ovens simply and cheaply - with free "cast offs."

Like our friend here (shown in picture) did for a class project (he got an "A" btw!)

"This was an old plastic file cabinet on a stand. It can look straight up or usually best at a 45 degree angle as the Sun's path changes throughout the day. I used Hardibacker concrete board for the thermal mass layer cut to fit on the inside of the plastic box, Sealed as a complete concrete board box prior to pressing it in with gaff/fabric tape.

This is all sprayed black with toxic free black paint. (Flat black is best. It has a low Albedo. High absorption, low reflectivity.) I replaced the original plastic lid (which melted on the first test) with a double paned glass & wood lid, using an old picture frame glass and hardware and an old wood TV table tray top... The new wood lid frame was cut and routed to fit tightly in the oven opening, the glass installed matching the original picture frame template glass size using the original picture frame hardware to mount the glass. Old hinges served for the new lid, but is not necessary.

You want a tight fit to keep the air trapped. This is important and pointing the oven directly at the sun is best. The reflector dish is cardboard covered with aluminum foil. If you look at thes DIY videos you'll find the info. There are some good ones there. "

- Paul

:: Resources ::

DIY Solar Oven

Solar Oven Plants

Solar Cookers World Network

Pre Built Sun Ovens

Solar Oven/Cooking Books

The portion of the post is "sponsored" by the fictitious product "Powdermilk Biscuits" "Made from whole wheat raised in the rich bottomlands of the Lake Wobegon river valley by Norwegian bachelor farmers” --Garrison Keillor

The other day, a regular customer to our Front Porch Farm Stand got to talking about raw milk – how expensive it is for a family with kids.   Of course, the conversation turned to how I grew up on raw goat's milk and how our dietary habits have changed over the years.

She wondered what we drank.  I said that we really don’t drink milk at all. Our family has never been big on drinking milk. But when we use milk, we found a way to stretch it.

Stretch Your Stores

I remember my grandmother mixing  powdered milk into regular whole milk as a way of making the milk go further.  She used the instant dry milk and, back then, that did help to make the price of milk more economical.

We rarely use whole milk, but use (Organic) Non-Instant Powdered Milk in our coffee and when baking.  I like to mix up a enough powered milk in a quart canning jar and store it in the fridge for a week's worth of use.

Powdered milk is a very good source of protein and we use the non instant (and, thus, more expensive) kind for more nutritional value.  We find that having fresh milk around when we don't drink or even use that much tends to be a waste as it will spoil.  Having powdered milk around solves the dilemma for us.

Here are some ideas for using Dry Milk:

1. Add to pancakes.
2. Mix in muffin batter.
3. Add to scrambled eggs before cooking.
4. Mix in biscuits.
5. Mix dry milk ahead and refrigerate for drinking.
6. Cook hot cereal in dry milk.
7. Prepare hot chocolate.
8. Make Rice Pudding.
9. Make easy vanilla pudding.
10. Make cold chocolate milk.
11. Make the night before to pour over breakfast cereal.
12. Whiz a milk shake.
13. Prepare macaroni and cheese.
14. Make cream of potato soup.
15. Mix in bread dough.
16. Mix in casseroles.
17. Mix in cornbread.
18. Use in cake batter.
19. Add extra dry milk powder for added protein and calcium.
20. Add two tablespoons to fortify liquid meals with more protein and calcium.
21. Add to mashed potatoes.
22. Make into buttermilk.
23. Add to hot drinks instead of creamer.
24. Use in cookie recipes.
25. Take on trips to use for breakfast cereal.
26. Take camping.
27. Take backpacking.
28. Add to master mix for baked products.
29. Make a cream sauce for pasta.
30. Reconstitute and add to regular milk to reduce cost.
31. Make potato soup.
32. Make evaporated milk: one cup dry milk mixed with 2/3 cup water is the equivalent of 1 can of evaporated skim milk.

List Courtesy of BePrepared2Day

:: Resources ::

Dry Milk No Longer A Frugal Alternative

Powder Milk Biscuits

Recipes Using Powdered Milk via Recipe Chic

and last but not least!

Setting the table

Lemon slices

Fruit n flowers centerpiece

Hand cranking cream

Tea sandwiches

Tea isn't just for Girls! Guys (with cowboy hats and plaids) are invited too!

Lemon scones

Cake and "Bollywood" movie!

With the cost of gas and food going up, it’s  becoming more economical to throw your own parties at home.

Once again, it was time for "Laura Ingalls to meet Jane Austen" and pull out our grandma’s tea set and china.  (Jordanne’s motto is “What good are pretty things if they collect dust?”)

This time the tea party came with twist.  We topped off the afternoon of English tea with a lighthearted Bollywood movie/musical which everyone enjoyed.

With much of the food coming from the garden and pantry and nothing spent on decorations, we turned our dining room  into a tea parlor.   (It is still a bit cool/dreary for an outside tea party.)   The total cost amounted to what it would cost for one person to go out to a local tea room for tea.  Talk about savings!

Living simply doesn’t mean you have to be austere; actually, you gain imagination, learn a new skill(s) and save money, too! Too often these days, we let even party planning get into the hands of “experts.” There’s a concept in our society that we have to spend more to have more fun. Or that we have to “go out” to find excitement when you can bring all that home.

Tips From Our Tea Party

Thrifty: make do, use what you have or do without - decorations cost us NILL, nothing!
Upcycle: give something a second life , wrap presents in something old like fabric, skirt, pillow cases.
Garden & Citystock: grow your groceries, especially herbs!  Keep a small flock of chickens for eggs.
Kitchen: cook, bake from scratch, take a step further and learn to preserve the harvest.
Crafty & Handy: re-skill, do things yourself.  Invite friends over to help!
Home: bring the revolution home and have fun...at home

On the menu at this Tea Party were  sandwiches, homemade Meyer lemon scones (See Recipe) with home-grown/canned blueberry jam.

Halved apricots

Blushing apples

Hand cranked ice cream maker

In goes the crushed apricots, milk, sugar and cream

Any nibbles for me?

Jordanne gets crankin'

Creamy, fruity ice cream!

Dig in!

Apricots and lavender

Apricot & lavender jam

Apples & apricots

Apricot and apple crumble

It's been a tootie fruity week here on the urban homestead.  We have fruits coming out of ears.  If there's one thing that is worth more than gold, it's fruit.  To be rich in fresh, nourishing fruit is such a blessing.   Sorry veggies I love you just the same but fruit is my one weakness (a nod to Miss Lane)

The homestead kitchen is hopping- trays of desserts, jars of jams and bowls of ice cream are churning out from the nourishing center of our little universe.

We don't eat much ice cream, but thanks to all the fruit and our little non electric ice cream maker Jordanne whipped up not just one but TWO batches of apricot ice cream.  That creamy fruity goodness was yummy.  Better than any ice cream from the store.     The recipe was simple:  2 cups of pureed fruit, 1 cup milk. 1 cup cream and 3/4 cup sugar.  Put the fruit, milk, sugar mixture in the little hand cranked machine and start turning.   In less than 30 minutes - homemade ice cream!

Our apple trees are loaded with blushing pink Anna Apples.  Last week made two batches of apple butter to put up and on Sunday did a bit of "batch baking."  Figured this Apricot N Apple Crumble recipe sounded good so made three trays worth to cover this week's worth of breakfast.

The little patch of English Lavender is blooming and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time!  Mix the intoxicating scent of the blossoms with fruit and you got yourself a delicious treat, or jam for that matter.

Like to break out of the ordinary jam mold?  Check out Tigress in a Jam for loads of new, exciting recipes for the serious jammer.

What's in coming out of your kitchen these days?  What sorts of creative ways are you using to use and preserve the harvest?

Across the street from the urban homestead, sun ovens lined up in the school parking lot for the bake off

Yesterday, we spent a wonderful afternoon across the street from the urban homestead with some very energetic 3rd graders who, for their science & social studies project, had to build a pizza box solar ovens. Not only did they do a great job of making the pizza box ovens, tbut hey also decorated the ovens with recycled materials! Great job, guys and gals.  There were some pretty impressive ovens displayed - loved the one with the CD mixer attached! Guess this kid had visions of baking & being a DJ - mixing up some cool music and good eats.

In the classroom, we talked about the principles of trapping light for cooking and how the sun is a renewable resource.

Here's an OLD video of me demoing how to make your own Pizza Box Sun Oven (note: I said it's rather OLD so I KNOW there's some issues with using the black paint, etc, etc)

Learning about harnessing the sun's energy

Q & A time

Now for the hands on learning, pass out the cookie dough!

First step in cooking with the sun - face the oven towards the sun

The kids look at our oven and wonder are the cookies ready yet?

Kids check on their cookies, see how well they are baking

Then it was outside to see the solar ovens at work! Thankfully, the sun peeked thru the June morning gloom just in time for us to bake some chocolate chip cookies, though I think we and the kids could have eaten the raw cookie dough just fine.

We brought our Sport Sun Oven (also made out of recycled materials) out for the cook off to show the kids another type of sun oven within minutes the cookie tray in our solar oven was too hot to touch! The kids were amazed how much heat was generated in such a short time.

:: Resources ::

What is a solar oven? Solar ovens are ovens that use the sun's power to bake, boil or steam a meal without gas or electricity. They can be used on weekend trips to the mountains, in your own backyard or in rural areas, basically anywhere the sun shines! Solar ovens allow food to be cooked slowly, allowing the nutrients to stay in the meal, and permitting the cook to not worry about burning the food.

Pizza Box Sun Oven Plans

Solar Science Lesson Plan (PDF)

Collection of sun ovens from our online shop

Cooking With Sunshine

Solar Cooking Primer & Cookbook

How to Make & Enjoy Solar Cookers

Using Energy (This a kid's book that our family was featured in that shows us installing our solar panels on our garage roof.  In fact, we donated a copy to the school's library, too!)

Come and listen to my story ’bout a man named Jed a simple pioneer, who kept his family fed

And then one day he was growin’ some food

When up from the ground come a mountin’ of doo…soil, that is. Black gold. Earthy.

Well, the next thing you know, ol’ J’s a ‘farmer extraordinaire

His kinfolks said, ‘Jed, please give us a share!’ They said ‘Californey is the place we oughtta be’, so he and his family stayed near Beverly…Hills, that is.

Swimmin’ pools…movie stars.

- The original ditty courtesy The Beverly Hillbillies

Having a close kinship with Laura Ingalls and the Little House on the Prairie serie, a common joke around our household is that we are akin to another TV counterpart The Beverly Hillbillies :  Justin (Jethro) is big, strong and kind;  Jordanne, like Elly May, is a lover, caretaker of animals, bringing in all sorts of strays and hurt animals; Jules, as the head of the clan, got the notion to start off on this journey; Me, well, I am Granny who’s always brewing or whipping up vittles in the kitchen (not to mention  I got the granny boots and gumption to prove it.).

Heck, we did feel like some dang hillbillies when we first moved to Pasadena from our 10 acre plot in the South. Why? Cuz we took our countrified ways along with us to the city and we sure did get a few stares -- for the longest while.

Well, times are a changing and there're not many stares anymore; heck, there're even tv folks that are interested.  Can you gander that!

A few months back, we got a call out of the blue from the Food Network - they wanted to drop off two chefs on the urban homestead to make a meal from what was growing out in our "back forty (feet)" and prepare the vittles (no possums were harmed) without all the modern new fangled gizmos and gadgets.  Instead harvesting what they needed and using the limited and home canned ingredients we had in the kitchen and preparing and cooking using little or no appliances, hybrid solar oven, bike blender and more.

We didn't have much of part in the filming - just basically a location for a foodie challenge for these here chefs from the big city.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

They wanted us to throw a dinner party and of course we were like "no, problem we will invite our friends over for a homegrown shindig"  Ah, but the producers had different ideas - this was supposed to be a challenge and they asked if we could do better than that.   Ok.  So we had to find foodies that we'd like to impress so we called up and contacted LA area foodies and invited them to dinner.

The chefs were good sports and commented after that is was certainly a challenge but they loved every minute of it and were just so inspired to be transported back in time for the few hours that they were here.

Episode "It Ain't Easy Being Green" airs Friday night (May 7) on the Food Network and features many a local foodie!   Thanks to all who participated at the dinner.

Check out more photos from the FOOD Network filmathon.

Oh and we don't have cable so will have to hear how it went from ya'll who do!

Lights, camera, action! The urban homestead's kitchen gets taken over by cast and crew

The chefs are sent out back to picking their own veggies

Food preparation on the back porch

Chef Brian in action

Blending the tromboncino squash (sold on our online seed store) on the bike blender (sold on our online urban homestead shoppe)

Jordanne & I sit in the living room (which transformed into "Mission Control") and watch all the happenings going on in the kitchen

Lemon muffins bake in the hybrid solar oven- sold on our urban homestead shoppe

In goes the vegetable lasagna into the earthen oven

Dinner ready yet? Local foodies get ready for dinner

Showing off the food (trombonicno squash sold on our online seed store) and digging in

Sampling "home preserves" from the pantry

Tromboncino squash soup

Once again the episode It Ain't Easy Being Green airs Friday night (May 7) on the Food Network airs - check local listings for time.

But, wait - there's more! Check out more photos from the Food Network's filmathon.

FACT: every day the sun shines, an equivalent of 4.25 TRILLION barrels of oil falls on the US alone in the form of solar energy

I have a confession, I been addicted to solar ovens ever since we built our first cardboard, aluminum oven back in the days -- 1990 to be exact.   Yep, we were granolas way back when.  This sort of self reliant and sustainable lifestyle has been a common thread throughout my whole life.  We've gone from hippie to hip in the last few years.

In the last decade, the appropriate technology in solar cooking has left those cardboard, black paint and glue days in the dust or sun rays I should say.

A solar oven is the ultimate in energy-efficient cooking. Solar ovens will cook anything that can be cooked in a conventional oven, in approximately the same amount of time.

Here on the urban homestead we have accumulated a small family of solar ovens.  A homemade solar oven,  two Sport Solar Ovens (one given to us), one Global Sun Oven (given to us also) and now this really awesome hybrid solar model from India joins the collection.

Tulsi Hybrid Solar Oven Heats up to 400degrees Electrical consumption: Approx. 0.15 to 0.4 KW/h. Uses 75% less energy than a conventional oven.

Boy howdy, I am sure going to get spoiled with this beauty.  I won't have worry about cloudy days or AM sun angles, I can just plug it in and tap into our 12 solar panels on the garage roof.  Still tapping into the energy from the sun!

And the best part is we are adding this Tulsi Hybrid Solar Oven to the family of sun ovens offered on the Peddler's Wagon.

Good for the Environment

I really like using the solar ovens - food taste better and is in fact more healthier and best of all you aren't using polluted energy to cook meals.  Something as simple as a solar oven can have a positive impact on lightening your footprint.  I mean, imagine how many meals are cooked in a lifetime - hundreds, thousands?

Stay tuned for some solar cooking fun here on the urban homestead.   With this solar oven, I may never need to use our gas oven again.  Sweet.

Good for Health

Fact is, by cooking foods you can lose as much as 80 percent vitamin C, 50 percent vitamin B and 97 Percent folic acid.

Food cooked by solar heat is lovely in appearance, aroma, flavor, and taste. It is ultimate medicine (Amrita) for manly vigor and glorious skin complexion without doubt. -- 'Yagyavalk Smriti'

Reading the informative manual that came in DVD form with this Tulsi Hybrid Solar Oven, not only does solar energy reduce one's impact but it also has a positive health effect.  Indians believe that most of mankind illness are due to an unhealthy gut. Most of their Their ancient Ayurvedic treatments are for improving your "inner plumbing"  And so it is with solar cooking you are choosing a more healthful way to cook your meals, harnessing the healthful solar rays into your food.

Solar cooking is similar to slow cooking. Slow cooking retains flavor, moisture and nutrients and makes meats tender. Recent studies indicate that foods cooked at moderate temperatures may be healthier.  Solar cooked food is succulent, moist and delicious.

Sunshine is the primary element for life here on planet earth.  Solar cooking dates back as far as a few thousand years in India where solar cooked food was called AMRITA and the cooking appliance was know as AKSHAY PATRA or SUYRA BHAND they believe that solar cooked foods are charged with positive photons or energies.

Modern cooking methods destroy the nutrients and medicinal powers of foods. A healthy diet involves eating raw or lightly cooked foods that can provide our body with all the nourishment that our body needs for growth and energy.

Eating the Wild Electron

From personal tasting experience food does indeed have a truly more flavorful, superior taste when cooked in the solar oven.

I broke in the  Tulsi Hybrid Solar Oven warming up some homegrown vegetable soup (known by some of our longtime readers as the 007 soup) and some organic rice.

What's your solar cooking experience, do you also taste a difference in solar cooked cooks?  Let's hear from all you solar cooks out there.

:: Field Hand Appreciation :: DS $5.00 donation is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

GROW FOR TEN THOUSAND

Our readers know that that we've been hinting for months about a great new project in the works. As we start the new year, the moment has come to reveal our plan, along with a new logo exemplifying the revolutionary spirit of PTF's Homegrown Revolution™: To harvest 10,000 pounds in 2008 from 1/10 acre.

We had wanted this announcement to coincide with the launch of our new website, but it looks like the new website won’t be online for a few months yet. And nature won’t wait for the new site.

Once again, the driving force behind PTF, Jules Dervaes, has led the way with a radical challenge. Can we urban homesteaders deliver? PTF will be trailblazing a new path as we ask: How much food can be grown on such a small scale?

Back in 2003, we at PTF first shocked ourselves and “the world” by growing 6,000 lbs (3 tons) of fruits, vegetables and herbs on our 1/10 acre growing space and proved that we could approach a high level of self sufficiency both directly and indirectly from our city lot.

Learning through years of self-taught, hands-on growing experience, none of us has any agriculture accreditation or has taken permaculture or master gardening courses. From firsthand knowledge, mixed with a passion for the environment and growing things, Jules has dramatically upped the ante on the urban food movement. Living by example, we use our "hands as weapons of mass creation™" to create a better present and a real future.

Can 1/10 of an acre (about 4,300 sq ft) grow a cornucopia of 10,000 pounds without using ANY organic NPK fertilizers? We are talking about a piece of land equivalent to 66'x66'! Such an urban food production feat has not been undertaken and documented with stats to prove its possibility. Are we crazy? Crazy, you say? Yes siree, bob. Whether or not this happens all depends on the weather. God willing, we hope to be blessed with abundant rainfall and good weather to reap a bountiful harvest! Stay tuned to this journal for the out-of-this world developments.

Join us in our mission to be the change by living the solution! The seeds of PTF's Homegrown Revolution™ have been growing for nearly seven years now and are reaching maturity. You can contribute your support through purchases from our online store or making a timely (tax deductible) donation. We need your help to spread the word to friends and family and throughout the cyber world (via message boards, blogs, etc.). It's our mission to Grow the Future™, and you can help support our efforts in launching a new site to document this project along with our ongoing urban homesteading adventures.

We want to extend the challenge to grow for 10,000 pounds to our readers and propose that you pledge to match us penny for pound (or whatever amount you’d like to contribute). By donating one, half or more penny for each pound of produce we harvest ($100 over one year—if we meet our goal), you can help us purchase the necessary technological tools and services needed to document, publish and publicize this sustainability challenge! You can be involved directly in reaching others with this radical solution to save the people and the planet.

Also stay tuned for the final harvest tally for 2007!

Answers From the Urban Homestead - Solar Ovens

Q. I would like to start using a solar oven, but the temps are dropping here in PA. Is there a minimum temperature at which the solar oven will work?Thanks for answering my question. And thanks for your work!Kym Helwig

A. Thank you for your question and positive comments, Kym. Glad to be of help.
For solar cooking as long the sun is shining you can cook food, no matter the outside temperature. The most important factor in using a solar oven is the brightness of the day, NOT the outside air temperature. Often, a 40-degree, clear, low-humidity day will allow food to cook faster than a 100-degree day with high humidity. There are, however, more cooking hours available in the summer than in the winter. In the early summer, it is not unusual to cook from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, whereas during the early winter, effective cooking is limited to 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. And here's feedback from a reader's who's also a solar cooker user:

I just wanted to share my experience with the solar oven. Our low last night was 8 degrees F. We are in the rockies. I use my sun oven all winter long. The out side temp is less important than the amount of sun. If it is crystal clear mine will get to 350F even if it is sitting in the snow. But if it's hazy or cloudy even when its 100F outside it may not get above 250. Another important factor is the angle the cooker is set to. In mid winter the sun is much lower in the sky than the little leg on the back can handle, so I put a brick under the front. I really love my sun oven. If I could afford it I would buy one for every one in my family. And a second one for myself.SS

Thank you for sharing your solar oven cooking experience!

SEASON'S GREENINGS

Give a gift that really keeps on giving. SOLAR OVENS are gifts that shows you care… about the recipient and the environment, and will never go out of style. Cooking will be tasty, fun, unique, and memorable and can occur in the event of a power failure. This is a gift that truly that keeps on giving for years to come to the recipient and the environment.   Order a sun oven today!

Solar ovens

Peddler's Wagon Product Review

Practical products for the urban homesteader Sun Ovens

Back in the early 1990's I remember building our first sun oven using cardboard boxes, aluminum foil and piece of glass.   Although homemade ovens are a great diy project (a few years back we built a sturdier sun oven using scraps of plywood and cooking sheets) solar ovens have come a long way this decade. Now there's no excuse not to use the sun's energy with these commercial models.

Besides our homemade one, we have two other solar ovens models here on the urban homestead: the Sport Sun Oven and Global Sun Oven (both were featured on CBS' New Morning with the American Test Kitchen -watch video & read full article)   Having used them both I like this about one and that about the other.  

Global Sun Oven

Like: Sturdiness

Dislike: Small interior oven space

Sport Sun Oven

Like: Lightweight, made from recycled materials. Larger interior oven space - able to fit cookie trays, 9 x 13 casserole dish, two 3 liter pots.

Dislike: The reflectors are somewhat lightweight, but that doesn't necessarily affect the cooking in the least.

Other advantages of both sun ovens, food tastes better, is healthier, food never burns and, better yet, you are harnessing free, natural energy to cook your food.

Solar cooking is one of the easiest, most enjoyable way to reduce your carbon footprint. The energy you waste when cooking indoors is more than what's burned on your stovetop or in your oven. In the summer, additional energy is often required to cool down the rest of the house, which can get heated up by cooking in the kitchen.

Temperatures in a sun oven rise slowly and evenly, allowing complex carbohydrates time to break down into simple sugars, emanating subtle natural flavors. The even temperature of the sun oven prevents burning, so you do not need to stir your food while it is cooking.

We urban homesteaders like to use our solar ovens to bake and cook a variety of foods. Once you taste a sun baked cookie, you're hooked for life.   Rice, dried beans, potatoes, casseroles really cook up well, and the flavors are intense.     I like the fact that one is outdoors and using natural energy -- sunshine. There's no impersonal knobs or temperature gauges; one feels connected with the natural world.   When folks ask me what they can cook in a solar oven, I simply answer them "anything that you cook in a regular gas or electric oven can be cook in a sun oven."   Yet another practical solution to being the change by actually incorporating steps to live the solution.

:: BUY :: Solar Ovens

Next review Solar Cone Composter

Growing the Future

PTF has been busy -- out and about this month. UCLA, PCC, Universal Studios, Downtown LA and more.  We could travel to and fro as there has definitely been an increase in outreach opportunities and thousands of folks wanting tours, but we are struggling balancing urban homesteading and inspiring others.   Requests just keep pouring in.  It's really great to see PTF so much in demand, talking with the folks on the phone and reading their emails. They want "people who are walking the talk."    Our PTF booth  and project does just that, by plainly laying out the steps we have taken in our sustainable journey, and we truly, truly wish we could accommodate all such requests.

Good news, we've run out of PTF brochures. Bad news, we need to print more.  The seeds of the urban sustainable message have been sown not only to thousands of online worldwide readers but also through our outreach efforts.   Since the first professionally printed brochure a few years ago, we've given away nearly 20,000!  

PTF is not just an urban homestead; it's a local and worldwide growing movement and outreach (this year PTF website topped nearly 2 million unique visitors and nearly 50 million hits). Many of the expenses to run the outreach have been supported out of our very own pockets.   But as our outreach continues to grow, we can no longer support the urban homestead, ourselves and the public work.   So that's why we formed Dervaes Institute, which is a earth based/stewardship "ministry" able to accept tax deductible donations to support the outreach (and only the outreach) aspect of PTF.

One PTF reader asked if we could breakdown expenses and needs. Sorry, it took awhile to finally getting around to it. Not having time to included all the "little stuff" just now, here's a brief overview:

1. PTF banner, sign ($300) for tabling display

2. PTF (revised) Brochure eco printed ($2,000 for 5,000 )

3. PTF Web Upgrades $8,000+ (open source compatibility, templates, software, assistance for coding so we can get the website online --FASTER!)

4. PTF yearly webhosting fee ($1,500+)

5. Video Software ($2,000)6. PTF Video Brochure (cost of copying 1000 dvd's $ 1,000)7. PTF downloadable docs, additional educational handouts and "merchandise" (i.e. calendar, garden journal, etc) ($2,000-$6,000+)

Total $17,000 - $20,000

So far raised this year nearly$4,000  Yes, I know, we sorely underestimated putting the goal at $6,000 but that was before we decided it was high time to finally bite the bullet and invest in improving the PTF site to keep up with the urban homestead's growth and reach. The new site will make it easier to incorporate new projects, future plans and any unforeseeable scenarios that may pop up in the future.   PTF has a lot to offer, and we are finally taking time to build the foundation straight and strong for future growth because right now everything is just held together with strings and band aids.Your support is valued and greatly appreciated. PTF continues to chart a course towards a sustainable future and inspiring others along the way to leave the crowded freeway of life and set out on their own path.

:: Field Hand Appreciation ::

KS $50.00 donation. Thank you for your support!

Thanksgiving

The entire PTF family is off to a nearby friend's house for a community potluck type of Thanksgiving on Thursday.

Although I wish we could camp at our favorite beach like we have done Thanksgiving's past (way past), we have too much work here on the urban homestead. These past couple years Thanksgiving has been a time when we've accomplished some really big projects (solar panels, taking out the concrete patio, helping out folks in New Orleans after Katrina). This year we are going to be moving the bees to a more permanent location here on the urban homestead - should be quite interesting because they'll be moving up in the world, if you get my drift.

I am going to be taking some time off, working all the mundane tasks needed to get the new PTF website up and running (new deadline is Feb/Mar '08 - the new site is slowing taking shape - too bad you all can't see it just yet). Posting will resume on Monday.