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• Gardening: “What happened to my squash?”

  Created: Thursday, 11 August 2011 15:27 Author: Mark Steel

  A lady called: “What the heck is wrong with my squash? They just fell down! “ About now, in this temperate time the crickets are louder, the grasshoppers bigger and in general the insect population is concentrating on your garden plants- sweet hybrid,...

• Bugging Out: Part III on Prepping

  Created: Tuesday, 26 July 2011 00:11 Author: Back2theLand

  At the time of this writing the current news anxiety is the massive heat wave. No matter what you think there is always some serious catastrophe going on, and for many, many people the need to leave that community- bug out, as they say in California- is a...

• The Big Prep! Selection and organization, Part II

  Created: Monday, 18 July 2011 00:55 Author: Mark Steel

  Writing an article for Dear Reader concerning Prepping for previous discussed emergencies becomes a difficult task, as the perceptions of an emergency interruption in your life and resources to meet that emergency are all different. However, we all have t...

• Are you prepping? New motivations. Part 1

  Created: Thursday, 30 June 2011 10:31 Author: Mark Steel

  On June 22nd this year 2011, www.OpEdNews.com published a well documented piece on the Fukishima nuclear catastrophe as well as a new nuclear emerging Class 4 disaster right in our backyard: The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant in Nebraska USA. What makes...

• Making Hay: Small Plots Part II

  Created: Friday, 24 June 2011 00:58 Author: Back2theLand

  There are a few places in the world where hay is taken up for feeding stock in the old fashioned way and although this is very laborious indeed, the sharing of the work task among villagers and large families makes the work efficient, productive and exped...

• Small Plots: Making Hay, Part 1

  Created: Sunday, 05 June 2011 19:47 Author: Mark Steel

  One does not need vast holdings to feed a few goats, rabbits, chickens and such small animals to live on. In fact one person can do a great deal with basic hand tools, and although a tractor may be a dream of labor savings the expense is not always justif...

• Greenhouses: Getting Ready

  Created: Sunday, 22 May 2011 19:27 Author: Mark Steel

  I was reviewing the archives, I had already written about corn.  Not wanting to be redundant I just wanted to say it is too early to plant corn with the cold and wet. Now let us talk about the greenhouse as many Dear Readers have started this last ye...

• Garden Fever-2011

  Created: Wednesday, 27 April 2011 20:10 Author: Mark Steel

  The bug has bitten me! A little late, perhaps due to the cold days of spring, but I am getting started. All of the little signs are there as the wild plants pop up with new surprises on the homestead. Three years ago I had collected Coltsfoot herb seeds f...

• Commentary: Lessons to be relearned.

  Created: Sunday, 03 April 2011 04:36 Author: Mark Steel

  When the toilet backs up- well it is all over, then the clean up starts and all is forgotten. I for one, do not forget, forgive, or believe in Santa Claus. More bad news is on the way because of recent international man-made growing catastrophic events- ...

• Early Warming and Honey Bees

  Created: Saturday, 12 March 2011 02:54 Author: Mark Steel

  In my neck of the hinterland of Floyd, honeybees are crowding out my birds on their feeder.  As I sit for breakfast in the morning the little bees are early to seek pollen-which is not available from the early Quince flowers…yet? Sometimes we get t...

• Chickens: The Bald Chicken

  Created: Thursday, 03 March 2011 01:55 Author: Mark Steel

  The phone rang: “Help! All my chickens are going bald”. This has been a major problem since Noah confined his birds on the Ark. Major chicken headaches, such as our lead in picture illustrates with mites, are manageable. But do you also have birds pul...

• Stocking Up! World Food Shortage Perils USA.

  Created: Wednesday, 09 February 2011 15:21 Author: Mark Steel

  It is no secret that there are a growing number of news clips and hard news about the worldwide food shortages.  Note that currently Mid East countries have been buying up hundreds of tons of wheat and other grains to stave off the hungry hoards that...

• Rabbits: Winter Care

  Created: Saturday, 29 January 2011 02:20 Author: Back2theLand

  Yes I am still raising rabbits. I raise rabbits as I have mentioned in previous articles (see archives) for their wonderful garden fertilizer and food. I am in my last year of this decade experimenting with rabbits and observing their life and have update...

• Living Under a Bridge: Homelessness

  Created: Monday, 24 January 2011 00:14 Author: Mark Steel

  Following the close of World War II after returning from Europe we were homeless. Just about 10 million people were homeless then as there was no construction started in advance for the new wave of “boomers”. Farmers remodeled chicken houses and rente...

• Health: Drippy, Clogged, and Miserable

  Created: Thursday, 30 December 2010 22:33 Author: Mark Steel

  This winter onset is early and the Wooly Worms said it would be a bad one. I had almost finished my pre-planning and set-ups for winter then I got sick. I never get sick; I have not had a cold or sniffles in twenty years. But here I was, flat on my back s...

• Dog Tales and More Tails

  Created: Friday, 17 December 2010 03:59 Author: Mark Steel

  I am an advocate that when I go to Heaven my pets will be there with me. We people of this persuader refer it to "Meeting at the Rainbow Bridge.” Best Friends magazine in their classified section offers 47 comforting stories. Diane and I are pet people...

• Projects: Getting ready for winter

  Created: Monday, 15 November 2010 15:44 Author: Back2theLand

  We started this column with the NRV News in June 2006 following other publishers in the NRV area-principally Floyd County. I hope not to repeat myself, but there are so many new readers that some overlap will happen.  Bear with me.  I maintain m...

• A Commentary: It is worse than you think!

  Created: Thursday, 28 October 2010 06:17 Author: Mark Steel

  The sophistication of political rhetoric has greatly improved since the 1980’s.  Wherein once political-social psychologists used the fear model of job stability, the nuclear devastation or plummets in the stock/financial markets to sway the votes....

• On Death and Dying…

  Created: Sunday, 10 October 2010 19:14 Author: Mark Steel

  Following World War II, twelve million service members returned home, married, and started families. This is the start of the “Baby Boomers” who now are 63 and aging. Although retirement is heralded as the “Golden Years” it often comes with baggag...

• Digging a well: Part II, Above ground thoughts

  Created: Tuesday, 14 September 2010 22:02 Author: Mark Steel

  Now that you have drilled the well and inserted applicable piping, connectors, and pump, etc. all this connects above ground to a well pump station-for lack of better words. This station is usually placed inside a house, a utility room, or a basement, and...