Homestead Happiness May Week 3

We skipped a couple weeks of our HAP posts, in part because we were busy with non-homesteading-related stuff, and in part because weve been doing a bit of twiddling our thumbs waiting for the dirt to dry out enough to plant the garden.  But theres still plenty to be happy about!First off, the wild greens in the yard are loving all the rain. ...

Dominican Leadership Conference Representative at UN to Speak in Albuquerque about Pope Francis Encyclical on the Environment

"Our goal includes bringing the perspective of the United Nations to our Dominican Family and to support global action for justice and peace nationally." -Dominican Leadership Conference Sister Margaret Mayce, OP, the NGO (non-governmental organization) representative for the Dominican Leadership Conference at the UN, is the featured speaker at the...

Introducing New Closed Loop Aqua Farming Blog

To better define and provide information on aquaculture and aquaponics, I have begun a new blog that will focus on the topic of Closed Loop Aqua Farms. Where land based aquaculture is integrated with aquaponics and other farming methods designed to make maximum use of resources and farming bi-products. The new blog is titled Closed Loop Aqua  Farms....

Eggshell Calcium Carbonate Leavening Part 1

A few weeks ago, we were reading a 5 Acres and a Dream blog post about making homemade leavening from wood ashes (i.e., from potassium carbonate, K2CO3), and a reader in the comments section asked if calcium carbonate (CaCO3) from eggshells, which also reacts with acid to release CO2 gas (reaction below), could be used as a leavening agent.  We...

Dakota Rocket Silo

Weve been looking for a way to move canning operations outside during the heat of the summer.  Not only does it help keep the house cooler, theres just something especially liberating about processing food outside.  Maybe its because theres so much more room than in our tiny kitchen.  Maybe its because we use combustion heat directly,...

3D Aquaponics systems

3D Aquaponics systemsThe internet is full of free resources to use in order to make your life easier. There are many reasons to download models rather than creating one from scratch. To save time, save money or even for testing lighting. As long as you follow the users rules, it is perfectly acceptable to download these models. Below an a...

Peace Lutheran Church in Las Cruces Receives Advocacy Award

Peace Lutheran Church was presented the Haaland Award for Advocacy at the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-NM,... https://t.co/WRdRjIpf3a— PeaceLutheranLC (@plc_lc) February 6, 2016 Picture (left to right): Rev. Ron Brooker (retired pastor, member of Peace Lutheran Church, and member of the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-NM policy committee), the Rev. Jared...

Sen Jerry Ortiz y Pino to Keynote Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Conference on November 7

Sen. Jerry Ortiz y PinoThe  Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-New Mexico invites you to its annual Advocacy Conference on  Saturday, November 7, 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., at St. Timothy Lutheran Church, 211 Jefferson NE (map). The cost is $15 per person, including lunch. State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino, a member of the New Mexico Senate since 2005,...

January Links We Love

The internet is a tremendous place for connecting rabid information consumers with useful information products like German a capella, groundhog videos, and even homesteading information.  We try to do a little of both rabidly consuming and usefully producing, but our brains are becoming full and we need a place to keep track of homesteading info we want to refer back to later on.  Hence, a new monthly collection of links we love. ...

So Many Restaurants Albuquerque Edition

Every Friday, The Albuquerque Journals arts and entertainment section publishes two restaurant reviews: one in Albuquerque and another in Santa Fe. The reviews reflect the wide variety of cuisines available in the Duke City and in the City Different. Many of these restaurants along with a couple of food-service companies (32 in Albuquerque and 29 in...

Food Prescription Program Comes to Albuquerque

 “I would rather see health care in the grocery store than in the pharmacy.”  -David Perry, program director, Zenger Farms, Portland, Oregon  “Food should be considered a treatment option for our patients,” -Lee Hammerling, MD, chief medical officer and chief physician executive,  ProMedica, Toledo, Ohio Food Prescription programs...

Bee Reset Honey Mead and Sterilizing the Hive Bodies

While our capers with shook swarming and wax rendering have been great, one other main benefit in pressing the reset button on our bees is the edible part.  We humans arent going to catch the foulbrood, so if the bees cant eat their honey, we might as well!  We just need to extract it.  Fortunately, this post will be a lot shorter than...

Water Hardness and ph in aquaponics

Most of us aquapons know that the health of all the creatures in our systems (fish, plants, worms, and bacteria) depends on proper pH. We also know that we are targeting pH in the 6.8 to 7.0 range but that we don’t have to worry about adjusting it until it goes down to 6.4 or up to 7.8. We also know that the best way to lower pH is with an acid, and...

Interfaith Candlelight Prayer Vigils This Week Around Pope Francis Visit to the U S

"Let us pray together for wisdom and conversion of hearts and actions to justice and hope on the eve of the first ever Papal Address to the U.S. Congress. People will be praying all over the United States.:We are so pleased to be praying together throughout New Mexico in these communities. Please download the flyer for your area for details:Wed.,...

Advent Reflection God is Present with Our Neighbor

In todays text, (Luke 4: 14-30)  I hear Jesus telling the people whom he is physically with (God with us) that God is also present with our neighbor. I sense an invitation to consider that Gods abundance necessarily means that there is room for someone else, other than us, to also be blessed by God. Our willingness to accept the breadth of Gods...

Vote to End Hunger Campaign Launched

Vote to End Hunger (VTEH), a broad coalition of individuals and organizations all committed to ending hunger in the U.S. and around the world by 2030, officially launched its campaign on Tuesday, October 13. "We believe that it will take the combined public and political will to do this by 2030 and are working together to elevate the issue of hunger...