muellerpot

REVIEW: MUELLER ULTRA POT (FOR HIGH ELEVATION)

by with No Comment Cooking

When looking for an electric multicooker, I first purchased the Mueller Ultra Pot. I already had the Mueller Single Serve Coffee Maker, and I liked it, so their Ultra Pot seemed like it would be a good choice. It had great reviews on Amazon, it was less expensive than Costco’s Instant Pot model at the time, AND it included some accessories that the Instant Pot did not include; a steamer basket, a glass lid to use with the non-pressure functions, and an extra sealing ring. It also included a 2-year warranty. This multi-cooker would be a great choice for people at lower elevations, mainly because of the reasons I first chose it. However, after getting it into my home and using it for about a week, I discovered some issues with it that were not optimal for my use at 9,000’ elevation.

PRESSURE COOKING
This just isn’t the right pressure cooker for this elevation. The Mueller has HIGH and LOW pressure settings. I discovered after purchase that the HIGH setting is only 7.25-8.7 psi, and LOW is 4.35-5.8 psi. These values are found in the User Manual, and I have adjusted them to psi from the KPa values listed there. “High Pressure” (50-60KPa) and“Low Pressure” (30-40KPa) Since most recipes and the times listed in them are geared toward using an Instant Pot at sea level, I’d have to make a lot of adjustments to use the Mueller.

The Instant Pots run at roughly 11 psi for their HIGH and 7 psi for LOW pressure settings. The chart below shows that I’d have to add about 27% more time to all Instant Pot recipes to make them work. I’ve rounded off many of these values.

Mueller Ultra (MU) Instant Pot Ultra         (IPU)         Difference % Difference Add to Recipe
HIGH: ~8 psi HIGH: ~11 psi MU is 3 psi lower MU runs at ~73% of IPU 27% more time
LOW: ~5 psi LOW: ~7 psi MU is 2 psi lower MU runs at ~71% of IPU 28% more time

 

In addition to the additional time I already need add for cooking at 9,000 ft altitude this difference in pressure requires more math (and more time) for every recipe. I’m already adjusting recipes for this elevation by adding 35% more time, and with the lower pressure on the MU vs. the IPU, I would need to add about 60% time to the recipe to compensate for the lower pressure used with the Mueller (35% for altitude, 25% for lower pressure). Too much math and planning, every time I’d want to use it.

SLOW COOKING
The SLOW COOK function has only one setting, apparently pretty high. I tried the SLOW COOK function on the Mueller for something and it stayed at a strong, full boil the entire time. I often prefer a low simmer, which most cookers would do on a “low” setting. This is an altitude issue for me, where water boils at about 195.5°F. If I were at a lower altitude, the one setting for SLOW COOK might not be a problem.

SAUTÉ
The SAUTÉ function also has only one temperature; it stays pretty hot. Many things were burning on the edges before they were cooking on the inside, such as onions.

STEAM
The STEAM function was really no different from the manual PRESSURE cook function. I’d rather steam things without pressure. It was pretty easy to steam things by using the SAUTÉ function with water at the bottom of the pot and placing things on the trivet, which was included. I saw no reason for a STEAM function that was no different from any other PRESSURE choice.

USER MANUAL
Some of the instructions in the User Manual for the Mueller Ultra were confusing or absent. Many of the programs include “Modes”, listed as LOW-NORMAL-MORE. These are not explained anywhere in the manual, nor how to adjust for these amounts. Apparently, they correlate to times, such as less time, normal or more time, as shown on a chart in the manual. Correct me if I’m wrong. When you choose a function, such as “Rice”, keep pressing the function button and it will toggle through all three of these modes to allow you to choose.

There was a “condensation cup” included in the box, but no instruction as to how to put it on the pot. I figured it out.

Additionally, there was nothing in the manual about high altitude cooking. At 9,000 feet elevation I am always keen to check this out. Other web resources indicate that you should add 5% cooking time for each 1,000 feet above 2,000. (At 9,000 feet it is suggested that I add 35% more time.) This will still greatly reduce the cooking times for our altitude.

WHO SHOULD BUY THE MUELLER ULTRA POT
All that being said, this is still a very nice and economical cooker, and if I were at a lower altitude I would not have most of these issues. Owners of this unit should keep in mind that they may need to add more time to Instant Pot recipes to compensate for lower pressure. It was a great deal, with several included accessories: clear lid for slow cooking, steamer basket, trivet, extra silicone gasket.

**For more information, please read the post: USING INSTANT POTS AT HIGH ELEVATION .

020720 HOME

CHANGES

by with No Comment Admin

I’ve been playing around with a new look for this website. I’ve also been writing new articles and updating some old ones. Be sure to check out the changes! In addition to the specific pages listed below, please see the menu items on all the “GROWING FOOD” pages pertaining to the garden, and on the “DUCKS” pages pertaining to ducks. 

USDA Hardiness Zones

GROWING ZONES & MOUNTAIN CLIMATES

by with 3 Comments Garden

I DO AS MUCH RESEARCH AS I CAN  before I plant the garden. I want to be successful! To do so I know I need to plant fruits and vegetables that will grow well in my climate. I also want to choose the specific varieties that should do the best.

In my unique environment, this is very difficult! Many of the books we have read about vegetable gardening are based on the author’s personal experience in their own location. They often don’t seem to have a clue about what it’s like where I live. Many websites are written with lots of suggestions, but often don’t even mention where the authors are located. This is incredibly frustrating. Our short seasons, cold summer nights, & warm days, just don’t fit with most gardening plans and charts. The “local” nurseries and garden shops we go to don’t generally understand or carry varieties particularly suited for our location either, since they are all located at least 3,000 feet lower than my location. (They aren’t exactly “local”.)

USDA PLANT HARDINESS ZONES

ZIP CODE MAPS & CHARTS

Let’s start with the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. You can enter your zip code on this page to find your growing zone, right? Wrong! I enter my zip code and it seems to think I am in Zone 5a. Unfortunately, the map is not very precise. There are plenty of maps & charts which attempt to determine your climate by zip code. These MAY be helpful, but should be considered carefully! I am in a rural area, and climate charts that use zip code locations sometimes try to find the nearest city center to determine information.

THIS MAP actually showed that my town, Guffey, is in Hardiness Zones 3b, 4a, 4b, 5a and 5b, in really big print at the top, with a map that really zooms in to home.

 

I’m located in that green square, which shows my microclimate of 4b in the middle of what’s generally 5a. Most other zip code reference maps don’t show such detail within a zip code. 

Whether it’s growing zones or frost dates, many zip code search finders tend to default either to Colorado Springs (6100-6500 ft, about 65 miles away) or to Canon City (5300 ft, about 37 miles away). Colorado Springs is just about the same latitude as us, so that’s a bit helpful regarding day length. The First/Last Frost Dates on almanac.com show me Canon City’s first & last dates, which are nothing like ours. If you’re in a rural area, finding information for suitable plants can be challenging.

Unfortunately, knowing the USDA Zone is not helpful enough. It is my opinion that these “zones” are inadequate & limited at best. Most seed & plant catalogs, web stores and informational materials seem to rely heavily on USDA Zones to provide information for gardeners as to whether a plant will survive or thrive. But the USDA Plant Hardiness system is lacking and does not consider many other factors. Winter temperatures are only one part of the equation. There are a lot of other factors to consider, such as:

  • Are summer daytimes hot or cool? Are the nights warm or cold?
  • How long is the season? First & Last frost dates don’t coincide with the USDA Zones.
  • What is the latitude, and how many hours of sunlight are there in each day?
  • What is the altitude, and what effect does it have on the climate?
  • Do summer UV rays affect the ability to grow plants successfully?

What I would like to see the nurseries or other resources provide for perennials are things like: how warm should summers be for the plant to thrive or survive? how long does the summer season need to be in order for the plant to produce fruit/vegetables? Can’t they provide something similar to seed packets for annuals, which clearly indicate the “days to maturity”?

SOUTHERN VS. NORTHERN CLIMATES & LATITUDE CONSIDERATIONS

I find many resources that refer to colder “northern” climates that are Zone 3 or 4 on the USDA charts. Often, seed & plant descriptions will indicate when a variety is good for northern climates. I used to think that things that would grow there would grow well here as well. After all, it’s cold there, right? Perhaps so in winter, but northern latitudes have longer summer seasons, warmer summer temperatures and more hours of sunlight than we do here. Both daytime and nighttime temperatures are often higher than ours.

I spot-checked a few cities in northern Zone 3 & 4 areas to determine some of their statistics. I wanted to know whether my assumptions above were valid. I wanted to see the differences between one Zone 4 and another, or between Zone 3 and my own location. I selected these locations:

Home: These are my own observations based on collecting data the past 4.5 years.
Guffey: This is our nearest town.
Minot, ND & Bemidji, MN: Just a couple of northern cities I’ve picked with information easy to find.
Wolcott, VT: High Mowing Seeds is located here. I know they grow a lot of vegetables there and it is not far from Ed Smith, who wrote “The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible”. Many seed producers seem to be in VT, NH and ME.
Harborside, ME: This is where Eliot Coleman’s “Four Season Farm” is located. He has written several gardening books with lots of suggestions that work well for him.

  1. Home – Actual Observations. Last & First Frost Dates are the latest and earliest I have experienced so far.
  2. USDA Zone Map: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/InteractiveMap.aspx
  3. Last-First Frost Dates found here: https://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/  Determined from 90% chance of 32° Spring & Fall. Note: The first/last frost dates found at almanac.com may be very wrong!
  4. Daylength Determined from: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/
  5. Temperatures found on Wunderground
  6. UV Index Mean found here: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/uv_index/uv_meanmax.shtml

Note that Bemidji, in Zone 3, has about TWICE the season length and 1 more hour per day of sunshine. So, buying a plant that is hardy to Zone 3 may work well for them, but will it work well for me?

ELEVATION CONSIDERATIONS

I have attempted to locate information for planting in high elevation, and I just can’t find much. I’ve checked out a few books from the library and have viewed whatever websites seem most appropriate for gardening in the Rocky Mountains. Most of these resources have a little bit of information about growing plants at high altitude, how to protect them from late and early frost and cold spells, and a lot of basic gardening information useful for any area. I haven’t found a good, informative resource yet to indicate what will or won’t grow at high elevation. There are a few relatively local people who do consultations, workshops & seminars, but they aren’t free and aren’t really in my neighborhood. There are local county and state extension offices, but their information hasn’t been very helpful either. Many of their articles are geared to farmers, not the home gardener, and many are not written in layman’s terms.

What difference does elevation make? In our experience, the major difference in addition to our short season is that our nights are very cool, while the days can be quite warm or even hot. Of course, “hot” for us means anything over 80°, which I suppose may not be considered hot at all for some people. We have daily temperature fluctuations that can span 50°. In mid-summer some days can be as low as 37° in the morning and 87° that same afternoon. I may like this just fine, but many plants don’t! Additionally, our high elevation contributes to a more intense UV Index. This can scorch the plants if not taken into consideration. All of this causes a lot of stress to the plants.

MATURITY DATES FOR ANNUALS

Seed packets for annuals will indicate how many days it will take for plants to grow and/or bear fruit under ideal or average conditions. It’s up to the gardener to determine how long it will take in their own climate. Here, some things (cool-loving plants) mature fairly close to the dates listed, others may take another 50% or more time. Plants grown in the fall & winter in the greenhouse may be warm enough, but since our greenhouse is not given artificial light, everything takes a lot longer to mature.

WHAT DO I DO?

WHAT is my planting zone, really? I may be in USDA Zone 4 or 5 over the winter, but what is my summer zone? What I need to know is: how long of a season do perennial fruits need in order to grow and bear fruit? How warm does it need to be for the various annuals to grow successfully in the summer? Is it possible that some things will not grow here no matter how well I protect them? I would like to find a resource that indicates whether a blueberry, or raspberry, or strawberry plant will produce fruit in my area, in my length of summer season and # of hours of light per day.

It would really be nice to find a system or chart of some kind that takes all of these factors into account. Come on, USDA! Are you going to produce something useful, or continue to fool novice gardeners into believing your chart may actually be helpful?

And for seed & plant companies, one thing that may be helpful for plant descriptions, particularly for perennial fruits & vegetables, would be some kind of indication as to what length of summer season does it require? what summer temperatures would be best? how many hours of sunlight would it require? Many annual vegetables do answer these questions, I just don’t often find that kind of information for perennial plants and bare roots when purchasing.

For the most part, I’m doing the best I can by trial and error, whether planting annuals or perennials. If I buy a perennial, I look for something hardy to Zone 3, one zone colder than my location. Even then, I know that it may not do well. If something doesn’t do well one year, I try something different the next, and try not to be upset. 

Some of my trials and notes for everything I’ve attempted to grow are found at “What Grows at 9,000 Feet.”

Ducks

THE 2016 SIX-PACK HAS RETIRED

by with No Comment 2019 Five DucksDucksSix-Pack of Ducks
Coco & Whitey – the last two

Our “Six-Pack” of ducks from 2016 is no longer with us. For various reasons, we have culled the flock one by one. Most of them were removed because they had stopped laying eggs, or laid only soft-shell eggs. We began raising our small, 2019 flock of ducklings while we still had two remaining “big ducks” from 2016, but in short time they were culled because they were just too crabby and no fun to have around.

Coco (Chocolate Runner) spent most of her waking hours hunched up with her feathers ruffled, quacking-quacking-quacking. Most of the time she looked like the right photo. It was unbearable.

 

Coco–scrunched & unhappy

Our other adult, Whitey, had been our best layer and generally a calm duck. But, after we’d culled two others, leaving just Coco & Whitey, Whitey began to quack just as much as Coco. Thinking Coco had infected her with crabbiness, we got rid of Coco first and attempted to calm Whitey down. Tim would sit on the ground to feed her out of a bowl located by his lap. At first, she would continue to quack and go hungry, because she was unwilling to come near. We tried holding her in our laps until she calmed down. A couple of days after starting this process, she was much quicker to come and eat quietly. There was some improvement, and we hoped she would return to being her calmer self, but even after a few days it just didn’t help calm her down. Whenever we would walk nearby or past her even at some distance, she would still quack like crazy. It just wasn’t worth the effort to continue working with her, not knowing if our efforts would calm her down.

With the baby ducklings growing, we decided to cut our losses with the old, and bring up the new flock without their influence. We are hoping these new ducks will be happier, quieter, calmer.

 

 

IMG_7964 (2)

2019 FLOCK OF FIVE

by with No Comment 2019 Five DucksDucks
Coco & Whitey, 2 Remaining Ducks

The six ducks we’ve raised since August 2016 had dwindled down to two good layers, so we recently decided to get a flock of new ducklings to start raising while the two were still laying. As we awaited the arrival of the ducklings and began to raise them in the brooder, the two remaining layers became quite crabby and no fun to have around—perhaps they missed their friends or didn’t like being a flock of two. Since we had the new ducklings growing fast in the brooder, we decided to cull the remaining adults and start over. We just didn’t want the kids to learn bad habits from the big ducks (quacking uncontrollably whenever we walk near). Hopefully this new crew will be happier, quieter, and more friendly. We will work on that from the start!

We originally ordered four ducklings online from Metzer Farms. Metzer Farms now accommodates folks like us who only want a small number of ducklings. There is an extra fee for shipping small orders, but since we really don’t want 10 ducklings, we were willing to pay the extra shipping. We were able to get them sexed, and ordered females only.

Sadly, one of our baby ducklings didn’t make it through the first night at home. She was scrawny right out of the box, and not as active as the others. We had doubts she’d make it. Fortunately, Metzer Farms offers either a refund or replacement when ducklings do not survive the trip. They are unable to safely ship just one duckling, so she needed a companion duckling. They offer to send a “mystery” duckling free of charge, or one of our choice that we pay for. We chose a female of another breed we were interested in. They hatched just one week after the first 3, and we received them last week. Now we have 5 baby ducklings, growing fast in our care.

Metzer Farms’ website provides a nice comparison table of the duck breeds they sell, so we made our decision based on these observations. Our criteria for choosing duck breeds are:

  1. We want ducks that will lay the most eggs.
  2. We prefer calmer ducks that don’t quack too much.
  3. We want ducks that will forage and find their own food. We have 40 acres for them to explore, although they don’t go any farther than 1 or 2.
  4. Different colors. We want to be able to tell them apart at a glance. And Laurie likes pretty ducks.

We have chosen these five:

White Layer. One of the ducks we currently have is a white layer from Metzer Farms. She has been our most consistent layer and has a calm demeanor, even though she rates 6.7 on the temperament scale. (10 is high) She forages right along with the rest of the ducks, rated “Good” for foraging, and her all-white feathers make her easy to spot.

 

Golden 300 Hybrid Layer. Also bred at Metzer Farms, this duck promises to lay 200-290 eggs per year. She rates high on the temperament scale at 7.7, but we hope that the other calmer ducks will keep her in check. She should also be a “Good” forager, and will be a brownish color.

 

 

Silver Appleyard. This breed rates 1.2 for the calmest temperament, and “Very Good” at foraging. She won’t lay as many eggs, 120-175 per year, but hopefully her calm demeanor and foraging will encourage the others to follow suit. She will have mixed colors of white and brown.

 

 

 

Black Swedish. This should also be a calm duck, 2.3 on the scale. She should lay 130-180 eggs per year and be a “Good” forager. She will be predominantly black with a white chest. This is the one that didn’t survive, and we will receive a replacement next week.

 

 

Rouen. These ducks are known to be on the calm side, a 4.5 on the temperament scale. She should lay 140-180 eggs per year and should be a good forager. She may lay blue-green eggs, and should be a nice looking, dark brown duck.

 

 

This will be our fourth time to raise ducklings. We hope to pay more attention to their care than we have for the past couple of flocks, and keep better track of things like lighting schedules to promote better egg production. We also intend to pick them up  and hold them more often, particularly right at first, which may keep them a bit more friendly and calm. At this point (two weeks in) we have a happy little brood of ducklings!

 

 

 

kohlrabi2018

WHAT GROWS HERE & WHAT DOES NOT

by with No Comment GardenGreenhouse

This will now be my 3rd year gardening at 9,000 feet. After some trial and error, I’ve chosen only to grow the things that will grow well in the outdoor garden, and use my limited greenhouse space in the summer for a few favorites while saving some room for early fall planting there. Some of the vegetables that grow very well have not been my favorites (kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, rutabagas) but since they do grow well here and are good for us I’m learning to like them more and cook them in new ways.

Our last frost date in spring to the first frost date in the fall is about 92 days. I carefully select only the varieties that boast the shortest maturity period. Nothing grows as fast as promised. If the seed packet indicates 60 days, in most cases it will be 80-100. For example, I planted Masai Hericots Verts bush beans with a maturity range of 58 days. I harvested them about 88 days after planting. Often, seed varieties boast that they are well-suited for northern climates. I’d thought that those would also work well in high altitudes, but no. We do not get as many sunshine hours in the day as do northern areas in the summer. I believe that this, in addition to our cool nights, slows down the growth of many plants. Here is a list of what grows well and what does not.

 

WHAT GROWS WELL OUTDOORS

  • broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, kale, bok choy & all brassicas
  • lettuce, spinach, chard and a variety of other greens to be eaten fresh or sauteed
  • root vegetables such as beets, rutabagas, turnips, radishes and carrots
  • potatoes
  • garlic
  • peas
  • summer squash, zucchini (they need covering early on when it’s cold, and help with pollination)
  • herbs such as parsley, cilantro, thyme, sage, oregano, dill

GROWS SOMEWHAT OUTDOORS, BUT NOT WELL

(I do still grow these outdoors, but they’re not the best)

  • onions (they don’t get big and the season is too short & cool for them to bulb well, but after a successful experiment last year I’m giving them another try)
  • garlic
  • winter squash (So far I’ve had only one variety that actually produced squash, Gold Nugget, and it did not taste good. I’m determined to get some winter squash to grow based on the success of some other local gardeners, so I am trying two new varieties this year.)
  • bush beans (a smaller yield than in warmer climates, but they are suitable)
  • celery (got some thin celery last year, am trying one more time)

 

DOES NOT GROW WELL OUTDOORS

  • tomatoes or peppers (they just began to ripen when the fall frosts began, even though they were faithfully covered each night)
  • corn (tried an Alaskan variety bred for short, cool seasons, but it did not produce)
  • dry beans (it froze before I had a chance to harvest these)
  • cauliflower (grew very spindly, did not make a good head)

GROWN IN THE SUMMER GREENHOUSE

  • tomatoes
  • peppers
  • cucumbers
  • basil
  • winter squash 

 

 

garden 2018

2018 GARDEN RECAP

by with One Comment Garden

This year everything started with a lot of excitement and ended with a crash. Literally. The garden had been going well and kept me busy all summer until my participation came to a halt on August 23 when I fell from my horse. My injuries kept me out of the garden the remainder of the season. With a fractured left hip and right clavicle, I had surgery on the hip which kept me in a wheelchair for 11 ½ weeks before I could walk again. I couldn’t use crutches or a walker because of the injured clavicle, and because of the nature of the fracture, the doctor felt it best that I stay off the leg until the bone was quite healed. Four months after the injury it is still difficult to walk, but I’m slowly improving.

Needless to say, the timing wasn’t helpful for the garden. It was just about time to harvest most of what had been growing all summer. For two weeks after the accident, I was in the hospital & then rehab, and Tim was doing all the necessary house and ranch chores before and after driving nearly 4 hours round trip to visit me each day. During this time there was limited time for Tim to do all the chores, so some things were left behind. At one point we called a few neighbors to stop by and help themselves to whatever looked good in the garden. We just couldn’t deal with it all.

Besides not being able to harvest everything when we should have, I was unable to cook or preserve things as they came in. Some things were easy to pull up and put in storage, like the root vegetables. Then there was lettuce, cabbage, kale, chard and broccoli, which I was able to help with indoors after Tim harvested them. Later there were beans, peas, squash, potatoes, carrots, onions & garlic. Then there was all the fall bed cleanup and preparation for winter to do.

In addition to the outdoor garden, the greenhouse had been planted with tomatoes, peppers, some squash and a few other odds & ends I thought would do better inside than out. Tim was picking tomatoes and bringing them to me at rehab to add to my meals, which was nice. Before the accident I had started some seedlings to grow in the greenhouse in the fall, and Tim was able to get them planted while I was in rehab.

Tim did all of this without my help, which put a lot of his projects on the back-burner. He was great, and did it all! I did a lot of sofa supervision, at times with the help of our iPads. Tim would take his iPad to the garden, walk around and show me things on Facetime, and I’d be able to tell him what to do out there. That came in pretty handy!

It was a crazy time for us. I realized I just had to let go of wanting to reap all the benefits of my garden work. Some of the vegetables weren’t harvested in time, and were inedible. Many things were given to the ducks. At least I had the fun of planning & planting this year, and sometimes I think that’s just as enjoyable as the eating. I know, I’m weird.

2018 GARDEN PLAN


For 2018 I had decided to grow more of what grows well in this climate and nix some of the things that didn’t do so well in 2017. A few things I was determined to try again and I did so, like cauliflower. That was a bust. Some things didn’t do as well this year as they had in 2017, and I’m not entirely sure why. For the most part, things did not mature as quickly as the previous year. On the average, it was a bit warmer this summer, with less rainfall, which meant more watering on our part.


One thing I did differently this year was that I kept the shade cloth over the beds all summer. I didn’t roll it up on the nice days like I had done the previous year. On one occasion, the hail would have ruined everything had the shade cloth not been there. Perhaps less sunlight was responsible for the slower growth of plants this year, so next year I will allow more sunshine in by raising the shade cloth on days I don’t expect hail, and see if that helps things grow more quickly.

Some of the info about various things grown will be on the individual veggie pages.

On a personal note: Sadly, and with a lot of prayer and thought, we decided to sell our horses. We decided we are getting older, our bones are more brittle, and we decided it is not worth the risk to continue riding. We don’t want to keep “pasture ornaments” that won’t be used, so they were sold to some people who will be able to continue riding.

 

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ORGANIZATION, PLANNING & RECORD KEEPING

by with No Comment GardenGreenhouse

I’m kind of a nut when it comes to organization and planning, and it may border on overkill. Sometimes I think I may spend more time with this than I do in the garden. I do most of this organization work during the winter when I have the extra time on my hands. When garden time comes, all I need to do is minor updates & notes. My methods for organizing and planning are not specific to high-altitude gardening, but are extra helpful when planning a garden that only grows in a short season, or for making full use of limited space in the greenhouse year-round.

SEED SELECTION

When I begin the process of seed selection for the year, I begin an Excel spreadsheet. Mine looks something like this. I start this process in January, and get seeds ordered in February, before the varieties I’ve chosen are no longer available (which has happened before).

I begin by deciding what types of plants I plan to grow, and make a list. The first 3 columns show whether I will grow them in the greenhouse, the cold frame or the outside garden. Then I begin looking at various websites and books that I have, to determine what varieties I might like. I add notes about whether they are organic, how many days to harvest, the vendor, price and miscellaneous notes about the varieties. I start with a BIG list, then begin to delete those I decide not to order. Eventually my list looks something like the one above, which I can sort by vendor, then go to that website and use this as my order list. The varieties with blank spaces indicate seeds I already have on hand.

KEEPING NOTES

After this, I have plenty of time to add information about all these seeds to my notebooks, and to look up information regarding when to plant the seeds, whether to start them indoors or in the garden, etc.

For this process, I use Microsoft One Note. I prefer the Microsoft Office desktop version, but it is also available as a free app, available for Windows or Apple operating systems, or online with any browser. I use this extensively for all my garden planning and note-taking.

These are the main sections (Tabs) I use:

  • PLANNING: links to websites I refer to, companion planting information, seed companies, etc.
  • BEDS: information about what treatments have been given to each bed in my garden
  • GREENHOUSE: general planning information for the greenhouse
  • HI-ALTITUDE: various information about high-altitude gardening, my weather and frost date information, best types of vegetables for high-altitude, etc.
  • FUTURE: ideas to explore in the future
  • NATURE: I keep logs of when I view various birds, squirrels, deer, elk, antelope, various wildflowers, etc.
  • PESTS: pests I see, what I do about them, information about pest control
  • SOIL & AMENDMENTS: information about fertilizers, soil amendments, etc.
  • PLANTS: This is a group section with sub-sections including: Alliums, Beans, Beets, Brassicas, Carrots….you get the idea.
    • Each of these sections contain pages of what I’m planting, including all the varieties I’m planting, dates started, transplanted, harvested, days to harvest, notes about how they did, etc. I also include growing information here.

Here’s a look at my “Brassica” section (under the “PLANTS” group) as an example, showing the page of 2017 Greenhouse Brassicas:

This year I’ve made a separate One Note Notebook, I call “Guffey Veggies”. I used to keep all this information in one notebook, but it got too full of stuff and hard to organize. Now I’m using this “Guffey Veggies” notebook to keep notes on all the seeds I choose. Since I order most of my seeds online, it’s easy to copy and paste this information into the notebook for future reference. Those pages look something like this:

PLANNING & PLANTING

One more thing I did this year was to create a spreadsheet to help me know when to start each vegetable for the greenhouse, the cold frame and the outside garden. It looks like this:

Let me explain this!

  • WHERE: Greenhouse, Cold Frame, or Outside
  • SPECIES, VARIETY: vegetable to plant
  • DAYS: Days to maturity
  • HOW: whether I will start this inside in soil blocks, or direct-sow outside
  • START: the day I will start the seeds. This is automatically calculated from the columns that show when I plan to transplant out, and the number of weeks/days the plant will remain inside before planting.
  • WEEKS INSIDE, DAYS TO TRANSPLANT: weeks, days from sowing to transplanting out.
  • TRANSPLANT OR START OUTSIDE: gathered from growing information I’ve collected
  • OUT ETA: The date I plan to transplant or sow outside
  • HARVEST ETA: This is the date transplanted out + the number of days to harvest.
  • 2018 ACTUAL HARVEST: to be filled in as the summer progresses

This spreadsheet can be sorted as desired: by coldframe, greenhouse, outside, by start date, etc. Right now I’m finding it most handy to sort by start date, so I know what I need to be doing in the coming weeks. As you can see, I’m planning to plant outside in the coldframe sometime around May 15. This will depend on the weather—some things may go out sooner or later than the 15th.

Hopefully all of this is helpful to anyone reading. Everyone has their own way of doing things, and others may do just fine without all this time-consuming organization. If you just “wing it” you may be just as successful, but I find it helpful to do all of this and keep track of what I’m doing so I can go back the next year to determine what worked and what didn’t.

For instance, last year I started my fall plantings of beets, cabbages, broccoli and a few other things too late. They just didn’t have time to grow before fall. I also found that starting most things in the ground last year wasn’t successful. I am glad to have all of these dates & information written down from last year. This year I will start almost everything indoors and plan to transplant them out after they’ve sprouted and gained a little growth. (I will still start carrots & peas outside, but that’s about it.) I know that in my cool weather, the harvest dates for almost everything will be later than expected, but I used the published “Date to Harvest” anyway. I will compare this with my actual harvest dates.

IMG_6953 (2)

GREENHOUSE CONSTRUCTION

by with No Comment GardenGreenhouse

In the planning stages of building our house here we had always thought we would eventually build a greenhouse. At our former location in Wellington we had a small, non-heated greenhouse, which provided us with cold-tolerant things like spinach, kale, chard, lettuce and beet greens throughout most of the winter. It also provided a place to finish and harden the seedlings I had started under lights indoors. It was attached to the south side of our house, under our deck, so the north side of the greenhouse was protected by the house. (See photos of this one below.) It was a great addition to the garden there, so we planned to do it again.

We mulled over whether to attach it to the house or build a free-standing greenhouse. Here are some of the pros & cons:

Attached to the house:

  • Water and electricity readily available
  • North side protected by house
  • Easily accessible in winter

Free-Standing:

  • More available space for a larger greenhouse
  • More available light for the plants
  • Would be farther from the house; less accessible
  • Water and electricity would be more of a challenge
  • Would require insulation, particularly on the north wall
December 3, 2017

We chose to attach the greenhouse to the house, under our deck on the south faces. (I say “face-s” because with a 14-sided house, we used two of the sections.) We also decided we would like some sort of heat source, to allow for more growing throughout the winter. While thinking through the options, Tim decided we could have radiant heat in the floor, with a solar collector to provide that heat as well as enough capacity to provide hot water for the house.

November 8, 2017

The greenhouse is now complete! It is full of beautiful, growing vegetables. Tim is now working to complete the solar collector and the system for heating. The solar collector is standing to the left of the greenhouse in the photo above. Inside the crawlspace, at the back of the greenhouse, is the mechanical room, which houses the water collection tank and controls. Tim is in the process of writing a detailed document of how the greenhouse was built, which will be included when complete.

Pond holds 200 gals water for thermal storage

Since the greenhouse is attached to the house, water and electricity are readily available. The glazing is 5-wall polycarbonate, about 5/8″ thick. It includes approximately 100 square feet of raised bed space 28″ deep, radiant in-floor heating, concrete floor to maintain thermal mass, a pond filled with about 200 gallons of water for thermal mass. Eventually we may remove the lid and put fish and/or water plants in the pond, perhaps a waterfall, but that’s a “someday” project. There is also a lighted grow-bench area for starting seedlings. 

Venting is provided by two large ceiling vents equipped with automatic openers, in addition to the door which may remain open as needed. We have installed an oscillating wall fan to help with airflow.

Nighttime insulation, no longer used

For our first winter, Tim devised a way to put down insulation over the glazing at night to keep the cold out and the warmth inside. After the time-consuming efforts of installing them nightly and removing them each morning, we decided it was not worth the effort. We still put up the insulation on the sides (see

photo) and leave them there day and night throughout the winter. It doesn’t restrict the light all that much during the day, and provides some extra warmth, particularly when it is windy.

Tim has created a detailed document describing all the “nuts and bolts” of how the greenhouse was made and why we did what we did. It does need to be updated with a few recent changes but can be viewed HERE.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 2019

Since our first successful winters with the greenhouse, we have since made some improvements to the heating system. The concrete floor, the soil and the pond (which holds about 200 gallons of water) all provide thermal mass storage. When the greenhouse was planned and built, we installed radiant in-floor heating, to be heated with water from our solar collector. Over time, we determined that this was not necessary. The concrete floor and the soil beds stay plenty warm without the in-floor heat, but what needs more warmth overnight and on the coldest days is the air. This past year Tim purchased and installed a used wall heater which uses the hot water from our solar collector as its heat source. This has worked quite well to keep the greenhouse warm overnight most nights, and we have an electric space heater to add additional warmth on the coldest of nights, when it has been too cloudy to heat enough water with the sun. Tim has these all set on with thermostat sensors and computer programs that turn everything on and off as needed. Good to have a geeky guy around! We also no longer put up the insulation over the glazing each night, which was labor-intensive and not all that helpful.

BONUS!

As an additional source of heating, we have a unique situation. The greenhouse is built on the south side of our home, and includes a door to our crawlspace. Most of the crawlspace is backfilled with dirt, and the temperature remains quite even–not too hot, not to cool. Tim has added a duct (see at top of photo above) with a fan to blow the hot air from the greenhouse into the crawlspace during the day which warms up the crawlspace a bit. At night, the door to this crawlspace is left open, so the warm air stored there can circulate back into the greenhouse for added warmth. In the summer, by keeping the door to the crawlspace open the coolness from the crawlspace helps keep the greenhouse cooler. Just an added benefit of attaching the greenhouse to the house!

 

Here are photos of our former greenhouse, which served us well, but our new greenhouse is 10x better!

Wellington, CO – 2011
Wellington, CO – 2011
horses-deer 1100

LIVING OFF THE LAND

by with No Comment GuffeyWildlife

 

Last night we had Venison Tenderloin for dinner, and boy was it good!

One of the perks of living in the high country is being able to harvest food from our own land. In addition to the garden and ducks we keep for eggs, we are able to hunt game on our property. Recently, Tim was able to shoot a deer, which provides us with roughly 65 lbs of healthy venison to eat.

This is all new to me. I do not come from a hunting background. I grew up in a suburb in Northern California—not a country girl there by any means. But, as I migrated over the years to areas that have become more and more rural, my city upbringing has long been left behind. Tim keeps asking me if I ever dreamed I would be doing some of the things that are normal for me now. I actually used to dream of living in a cabin in the woods (ala “Little House In The Big Woods”). I thought I would have a garden and a dog, and live happily ever after. I just didn’t know what all that kind of rural life might entail.

With all the deer in our area, and there are a lot of them, we’ve long thought we would like some venison. This year Tim was able to get a license for a buck, so during his hunting week we were on the lookout. He was able to shoot this buck just after dinner one evening. Peacefully grazing, the buck went down with one clean shot. We did all the cleaning and butchering ourselves; the first time for both of us, thanks to some YouTube videos. After some research, we decided to let the meat age in the refrigerator, vacuum-sealed. We’d heard that the tenderloin would not need as much aging, so after 3 weeks, we had that for dinner last night. My next project will be to trim and package the meat for the freezer. We look forward to many meals of this nice venison over the next few months.

Some would argue that it’s cruel to hunt, or that for some reason it is wrong. Are these people all vegetarians? If not, where do they think their meat comes from? I guess they prefer grocery store meat that comes from animals raised in horrific conditions—small corrals or pens, tumbling over each others’ feces all day long, given unnatural hormones & antibiotics, fed grains they wouldn’t normally eat, driven through chutes to slaughter. I would rather eat meat from animals that lived a natural, happy life, and that died happily grazing. Ya can’t get more natural than this—no food additives, just natural vegetation for food. We do appreciate watching our wildlife, and are always on the lookout, not just for food, but for the enjoyment of seeing the animals on our turf. But there is a balance: with plenty of deer around and our need for food, we are grateful for the opportunities we have here to eat more naturally.

One at a time, I will need to learn to cook each cut of the venison. Some will be roasted, some stewed, and some ground for burgers or sausage. I’m sure all will be a treat, and a great savings on our grocery bills.