I finally filled my 55-gallon-water barrel. Then I went through my 3 tote bins of food that I keep ready in case we need to bug-out. I had to do that once because of a hurricane. We had to stop and camp along the way to my parents house in another state. I keep thinking about that and the things I would have liked to have had then. So put some bins together for such a scenario. My kids sneak into them and take the good stuff, so I have to keep them re-filled on a regular basis!
Had our very first day of Fall today!! Kicked off the A/C, opened all the windows for the first time in months and both DH and myself headed out to the garden before the sun was completely up soaking up the cool(er) air.
I was only going to plant a few things per the plan I had laid out earlier this Summer and he starts getting after me..."Come on Justa, let's do it. Let's plant. Come on Justa. Just do it. Live on the wild side, Justa. Plant them seeds." I start cracking up and before I know it I've dug all our seeds out and we're planting in our first Autumn morning. The only things not planted are some seedlings I started last week that either haven't germinated yet or are still too small to set and the Cabbage. I put my foot down on the Cabbage. Still too warm. And the Cabbage is an afterthought because when I went to plant our Fall Corn the seeds were infested with bugs. Must have come in with the last batch I ordered because I've never seen them before. So, even though Cabbage wasn't in the plan this year it is now but it's gonna have to wait another month.
On Friday of this week, I'm getting rid of $700 a month of debt that I should have never purchased. My Honda Ridgeline is a great truck, and I love it and will miss it a little, but I won't miss writing that check each month. It's a reminder that I once made better money, but it's also a reminder that had I been smarter 3 yrs ago, I'd probably have an additional $20,000 in the bank at this point.
Been there done that and got the tshirt on that one... $700 wow, I thought my $500 vette payment was a killer. Being out of debt is a prep for sure.
We're replanting our little hog panel greenhouses right now. During the CSA season we had one full of peppers and one full of tomatoes. Now we're replanting them for our family salad needs during winter. Winter garden is going along nicely out front: beets/turnips/carrots/radishes/spring mix, spinach and mustard greens.
Prepped the 10 x 10 spot for winter wheat, should get it in tomorrow. That's more of an experiment in "how much wheat is enough wheat?" Having never grown grains I am not sure how many bushels you get per 10 x 10...so trying to figure that out.
Does the fact I am still hand rearing this piglet in my bathtub count? Sure he's only 3 weeks old Saturday, and I can't eat him for almost 3 years (AGHs slow grow outs)...but the fact I am up every 3 hours all night should count as a prep of some sort. GRUMBLE.
Harvested some rabbits
Hit Cash and Carry and bought staples: flour, rice, coffee et all I try to keep minimum 90 days on hand at all times.
Canning: I have been canning for weeks with no end in sight.
Winterizing...which is normally a husband do...but falls to me right now and I just hope I did it all correctly because if the goats are any indication...its gonna be a hard winter. They all look like poofballs already. For us this means your normal house and well winterizing, but also livestock...got everybody that free ranges back in their winter pens and deep strawed everyone.
Topped off both Dry Goods and (store bought) Canned Goods pantries today.
I have spend most all week working on getting most of the garden ready to plant for the winter. I sub-solied most of 2 of the patches. We have of lot of heavy clay in this area, luckily where I have my garden the ground is pretty good heavy loam. Turned it last night and will work it up and sow 75% of it in Annual Rye grass and clover for the winter. The rest of it will have a 10x100 ft row of wheat planted by the end of next weekend and a decent sized area for early crops, potato's, onion's, cabbage, greens, peas, any cole crops.
BP can you get a hold of RAPE Seed? looks almost like lage poppy seeds, common in domestic bird food, makes an excellent green manure as it grows fast and gets very leafy, not as problematic as clover for a winter cover crop and adds a substantial amount of matter back to the soil when you till it in.
Working on dehydrating a couple bushels of apples. Got 8 apple trees worth, so looks like its going to be a busy week or so dehydrating this damn things.
Dragon rape seed is available. Some larger farms around here have started growing it. I wasn't aware it made a good green manure. I'll give that a try. The clover was mainly to build some nitrogen quickly.
Thanks for the idea.
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