I love all those ‘wisdom’ phrases, You know … ‘A failure to plan is a plan to fail’ or ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ or maybe ‘Idleness is sweet, but its consequences are cruel’. No matter the motivation, I seem to always have some pet project to work on during the Spring season. This year I decided to finally fulfill a decades long desire to build some form of old power source device. It began in the eighties with my plans to build a fuel alcohol still. Then, with the realization that it required corn mash or beet pulp, my goal became the build of a steam engine. That goal met its demise due to the dangers of high pressure steam. I try to avoid suicidal activities whenever possible.

So, finally a practical project that met my original goal without the risk of life or limb… a woodgas fueled generator. With all the recent talk of a long term grid down situation resulting from EMP or utility grid hacking it made sense to build something that could keep our farm operating in the twenty first century regardless of these threats.

Then, with our usual requirement that an investment satisfy at least two necessities, we purchased a means of transportation that is not only EMP proof, eliminating that concern, but also is maintainable by any handy homeowner without the need for specialized tools. In addition, it’s a blast to drive around town! My brother in law spotted it on Craig’s list in Arizona and knew what I was looking for so this rust free 1964 Ford F100 moved to New Hampshire to instantly appreciate in value and grace our farm with its eye appealing character!

With the rapidly accelerating increase in the price of food, fertilizer and fuel, we made a last minute decision in December to breed our goats. Hopefully several of them will deliver in mid May such that we’ll have some livestock available for sale… The proceeds from which pays for our annual hay requirement. There’s never a shortage of composted fertilizer here and our vegetable crops reflect that abundance. So here, in the middle of February we sit, planning for our 2022 garden and hope you are too!