Independence Days and Other Updates

Sharon September 8th, 2008

Now that my summer classes are over, I have a little room to move, and I’m overdue for an IDC update, and wanted to update y’all on a few other things.

1. The book is officially out, and should be in most bookstores as of today.  The Independents get it first, so if it isn’t at a local chain, try them (better yet, try them first if you’ve got one ;-).  Everyone whose mail order for the book I received by last Wednesday should have their book or get it within a day or two.  If you don’t mind, no more email book orders after today.

2. When the first food storage class ended, we elected to keep the internet group open for further discussion.  Because of privacy issues for the Adaptation-in-Place course, we can’t do that, but what we have done is start a new group so that the course participants and anyone else here who is interested in joining, can keep the conversation going.  I feel like my month-of-adaptation-boot-camp just barely got things started - so there’s a lot more thinking to do.  If you are interested in joining the group send an email to [email protected].  Remember, you can change how you receive the adaptinginplace group content by going to the website at www.yahoogroups.com and going to “edit membership” at the top left of the page.

3. Posting is going to be a little less frequent here.  Right now, the net is taking up a lot of time and energy, and I feel like my family, the farm and more domestic concerns need more of my time than they are getting.  So I’ve decided I will be online only on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.  There will be posts those days (and I may publish posts through the magic of the internet other days), but I won’t be around quite as much - so that I can actually do the stuff that I’m supposed to for independence days, so I can adapt to homeschooling two school-age kids (Simon is now in 2nd grade, Isaiah starts kindergarten and Asher is nearly 3, and so moves from “full-time hindrance” to “part time hindrance, part time preschooler ;-), so we’ll be busy - and meanwhile Eli is headed into 3rd grade at the school he attends) so we can do a lot of fall clean up, wood stacking and getting ready for winter.  I may be back in the winter, or not - but if you are trying to get in touch, don’t be surprised if I’m not around as much, or it takes a while for me to get back to you.

 Ok, on the Independence Day Challenge. I have to say, I’m really happy with how this has worked out for our family - at the same time last year, I had much less food put up, and my management of my garden was worse (I won’t say “much” worse, but worse ;-)). 

Plant something: Spinach, arugula, turnips, radishes.  I also transplanted some rhubarb from seed to larger containers to go in the ground in a couple of weeks.  I’m getting to the point where there probably won’t be much planting - not enough light anymore to really get things to harvest that don’t grow quite quickly.  But I’m still plugging at it - moving some things into the self-watering containers we built, which will winter over on the sunporch.

Harvest something: Oh yeah - tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, garlic, green beans, beets, cucumbers, mushrooms, zucchini, hot peppers, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, turnips,  apples, thyme, sage, rosemary, basil, mint, and more….

Preserve something: Raspberry jam, Greengage plums, dried tomatoes, dried sweet pappers, dried sweet corn, dried peaches,  pickled jalapenos, pickled onions, pickled garlic, made kimchi, made salt-herb mix and added crumbled dried tomatoes for a soup base, canned honey-lemon carrots, rhubarb sauce, applesauce, made cider vinegar (was early cider anyway, and not that good), canned roasted tomato sauce, made goat’s milk yogurt, goats milk yogurt cheese and kefir.

Managed Reserves: Cleaned out freezer for the winter, to make room for soon-to-be-butchered poultry.  Used up last year’s pickled beets and chutneys.  Did a spice and seasoning inventory, and placed a Penzey’s order.  Began to sort out the school materials and consider what might be needed for the next couple of years, so that I can keep an eye out for cheap supplies.  Also began sorting through last year’s herbs and seeing what needs replacing and estimating our usage.  Began trying to figure out where to move the herbs so I have more room for canning jars filled with canned food.  Have not yet figured it out.

Prepped something: Stacked wood.  Cut wood.  Began lengthy process of shifting computer room (and relevant books) up to our bedroom for the winter, so that we can shut the guest rooms up for winter (except, of course, when guests are in them).  Began a large scale de-cluttering with computer room and our bedroom.  The goal, of course, is to go through everything.  This has never happened, and I probably need Chile to come and kick my ass regularly ;-).  Local fruit farm is being turned into condos ;-P, but 30 year old, highly productive blueberry bushes are being dug and sold for the price of digging them.  Put my name down for a bunch.  Began making next year’s garden plan.  Finally ordered garlic and bulbs.

Stored something: Ordered more wheat, more oatmeal, more distilled vinegar (good for cleaning), more fair trade earl grey, more corn, alphabet pasta and wine yeast.  Haven’t received any of it.  Began hosing out buckets that have been emptied to be refilled. 

Reduced waste: Finally gave up on the dump, which no longer accepts many things that could be recycled, and accepted that if we want to recycle most of our stuff, we have to pay for the trash service (which comes up our road anyway).  We don’t usually generate enough waste to justify every-week pickup, but we’re tired of schlepping our recycling in to friends or having it build up in enormous piles, and the dump doesn’t seem inclined to change.

Cooked something new: Greengage plum jam, chili garlic sauce

Worked on local food systems: Not so much - I’ve been head deep in the AIP course.  Time to get to work, though.  How about y’all?

 Sharon

28 Responses to “Independence Days and Other Updates”

  1. Evaon 08 Sep 2023 at 8:15 am

    We just got your book, my husband has already read it 1 1/2 times, but I was sneaky and grabbed it when he put it down :-)

  2. Matriarchyon 08 Sep 2023 at 8:46 am

    I was on the receiving end of the AIP class, and I know how you feel. It was hard work, all that thinking you made us do! I would be typing away like a madwoman, and DH would say “What ARE you up to… oh, it’s Tuesday. The Class.”

    It had great results for us in our planning, and I am working on a blog post about the course.

    As a beginner with food storage, my latest Independence Challenge post has some discussion of how awkward and lumpy it is to change the way we do food:
    http://rampingup.blogspot.com/

  3. bridgeton 08 Sep 2023 at 9:02 am

    Sharon, I often wonder how you get all those things done while at the same time providing us with so many high quality posts. I think you plan for three days a week is great. And I won’t come here four times a day, seven days a week to see if there is a new post. I’ll just come here 3 days a week, 4 times a day.

    This probably isn’t the best time to start an Independence challenge, as I think our first frost is upon us. But it’s really tempting. I started reading along after everyone was several weeks into it, and my garden habits were already established.

  4. Verdeon 08 Sep 2023 at 10:06 am

    My update is on my blog: http://www.justicedesserts.blogspot.com

  5. Survivalist News » Casaubon’s Book: Independence Days and Other Updateson 08 Sep 2023 at 11:07 am

    […] Casaubon’s Book » Blog Archive » Independence Days and Other Updates Now that my summer classes are over, I have a little room to move, and I’m overdue for an IDC update, and wanted to update y’all on a few other things. […]

  6. Chileon 08 Sep 2023 at 11:29 am

    Ha, Sharon! I need to kick my own ass. It’s time for another round of decluttering here…or time to move into a bigger house. If we owned this one, I’d have my sweetie do built-in cabinets and shelves. In the meantime, I’m learning the precarious art of stacking.

    I’m impressed with all the food preservation you’ve done. Is this one week’s update or longer? And, do you ever sleep?

  7. Nettleon 08 Sep 2023 at 11:47 am

    This update covers the past month? two months? since last making one of these. I have learned a lot about what I can and can’t grow in my clay-heavy urban backyard soil. Can’t grow: root vegetables of any kind. All of them failed in the same way - lots of nice healthy-looking greens up top, but no root development at all. Potatoes were the last to fail - they got flooded out by the remains of TS Hanna that came through this weekend, so I dug them up for salvage and found Not. One. Potato. This in spite of plenty of growth up top, green leaves, flowers, etc. Same story for beets and onions - at least the tops were tasty - and radishes.
    Success: Peppers have been a huge success. I’m canning peppers every weekend now - jalapenos, serranos, bananas, and bell. Green beans, too. Basil, fennel, thyme and dill are doing great and I’ve been drying or freezing herbs every weekend. Tomatoes have been just OK - enough for a few jars of salsa and fresh tomatoes every day in season, but not really enough to put up. Eggplant has been great as steady fresh eggplant but again, not enough to put up. I feel like I’ve done fairly well considering the challenges of the space I have. I also think I can do better next year, especially with use of space, since I now know what not to bother planting.

    I created space and new (trash-picked* - reducing waste and being cheap, all at once!) shelves in the basement specifically for food storage and now have a real pantry space which is slowly getting stocked with both bought and home-preserved food (I’ve also been putting up farmer’s market veggies, so it’s not all beans and peppers.)

    A few weeks ago, I trash-picked* a couple of unbroken windows that someone was tossing, so my next task as we head into fall is to build some cold frames and learn to grow stuff all winter.

    *I get a lot of stuff from the trash, but it’s not from dumpster diving or anything (nothing against dumpster-diving), but because I always walk to and from work, and on trash day I always eye up whatever has been put on the sidewalk and either haul it home with me or call my husband to come help carry if it’s something big. I live in a college neighborhood and the students are famous for throwing out useful, barely-used stuff. It’s always worthwhile around here to pay attention on trash day.

  8. Sarahon 08 Sep 2023 at 12:28 pm

    Nettle — yeah, I do the same thing. I have a lovely chair and a set of dishes and two sets of plastic storage things all from the curb.

    Sharon, I appear to have attracted you a reader by mentioning the book club; she bought your book this weekend :-) Maybe I’ll pick up a copy when I go out tonight…

    I harvested one adorable spiny little pickling cucumber! There is another valiently trying to grow. The potatoes should be ready to dig any time now.

    Preserved: (over the past month or so) Dried: 1 gallon regular and cherry tomatoes, two large leeks (diced), 1/2 gallon of summer squash, some trial eggplant. Canned: 2 quarts peaches in ginger-honey syrup, 9 quarts tomatoes, 5 quarts assorted cucumber pickles, about 2 quarts dilly beans, 4 pints corn salsa, 3 pints peach chutney, 1 2-oz jar spiced peach jam (and 2 pints of it that bubbled over when I took them out of the canner and are being turned into baked goods asap). Frozen: a variety of greens and some tiny roasted squash. The pickles were all refrigerator pickles…I’ve been a bit scared off of lactofermentation for now and will try again when the temperature is a bit less conducive to fascinating microbial life. On Wednesday I plan to preserve some of the greens we got in the CSA share in the form of tasty homemade frozen dumplings.

    Managed stores: Obsessively checked the dried tomatoes to make sure they don’t mold. Decided that we’re at an acceptable level for dry staples, but should get more oil and salt.

    Is it possible to preserve herbs in soy sauce like with that salt stock? I’m thinking a sort of tamari-thai basil concentrate for throwing into curries. Maybe with some fish sauce thrown in.

  9. Sharonon 08 Sep 2023 at 12:50 pm

    Sarah, I’ve never heard of doing so, but I doubt it would be really something that could grow organisms easily. Just to be safe, I’d keep it in the fridge, maybe. But it is definitely worth a try - I’ve just never heard of it until now (keep me updated!).

    Chile, this is from the last few weeks - sorry I wasn’t clearer. No, I sleep, trust me ;-).

    Sharon

  10. Hummingbirdon 08 Sep 2023 at 1:38 pm

    It’s been fun, though, having new posts every day. I did wonder how you did it. Fewer is fine-we all have stuff to do. I do continue to look forward to book club days though.

    I’ve been harvesting tomatoes, peppers, okra, beans, limas. Learned the season is not long enough to ripen watermelons.

    Freezing the above, splitting and stacking wood from the oak tree that fell in the yard. Installed two new rain barrels, looking into a metal roof, planning a trip to Goodwill to stock up on stuff saved from waste. Got the first eggs from our chickens. (I don’t seem able to cover all the topics, but I do what I can.)

    Looking into storing whole grain cereal for the winter. (Already have oatmeal.) Thanks for getting me thinking about this an an organized way.

  11. Fernon 08 Sep 2023 at 1:39 pm

    Nettle, you could have too much nitrogen in the soil, possibly from reside of grass fertilizers or using too much urine as fertilizer. I’m doing okay with root crops in clay soil here. Except for beets for some reason, which is fine because I like the leaves more than the roots! But my turnips, potatoes (white and sweet), and carrots are all thriving.

    Harvested: Here I networked on Freecycle to find ‘wild’ apple and pear trees (or folk who didn’t use the fruit from theirs). From them I have a half gallon of apple sauce, and lots of really tasty pears. The persimmon I know about in one of the parks isn’t nearly ripe yet, tho. Also harvested my own cabbage, tomatoes, and carrots

    Put up applesauce and tomatoes.

    Starting: Haven’t started anything lately, but did put down newspapers and grass clippings where I’m going to expand the garden next year.

    New dish: Made several vegetarian stir-fries, that’s new for me.

    Managed reserves: Defrosted the big freezer so I’d have room for dry ice had Hanna been a problem.

    Community: Will mow the neighbor’s lawn on Wednesday, when it’s cooler.

    Stored: I’m starting to volunteer at the Food Coop at the U of MD campus. Carpooling in with my son, who is a student there. This will give me a discount on quinoa, soybeans, etc.

  12. Sarahon 08 Sep 2023 at 1:52 pm

    Oh, and I also harvested enough grapes for about 1 cup of grape juice from feral Concords around the neighborhood. And then about six more tiny sweet red grapes, but couldn’t reach the rest of them even sitting on Ben’s shoulders.

    And skills learned: how to dispatch a chicken, courtesy of a friend south of Boston.

  13. Crunchy Chickenon 08 Sep 2023 at 2:15 pm

    How in the world are you able to do all that and post at all?

    Harvested: Mixed greens, tomatoes, rosemary, dill, sage, figs, strawberries, cukes, sugar snap peas, radishes, red onions, potatoes, zucchini, chile peppers, kale.

    Put up: Not a damn thing unless you can count the endless supply of peanut butter, cereal and Ritz crackers my mom keeps dropping off.

    New dish: I made some fantabulous rosemary lemonade and lavendar potatoes. My meyers lemons are turning yellow and I can barely wait!

    Community: Held a NW Bloggers meetup at a park yesterday for like minded enviro nutjobs. And, hey, 25 people showed up. Well, that and a dude sunbathing in a black Speedo with his stuffed plushy ferret. Oh yeah, and the guy throwing knives at a tree. But, I had nothing to do with that community.

  14. Chileon 08 Sep 2023 at 2:21 pm

    Thanks, Sharon. I realized, too, that I forgot to post what I’ve been doing with the challenge.

    Planted: carrots, tomatoes, sprouted sweet potatoes

    Harvested: Douglas squash (heirloom for this area), tomato, yellow watermelon (little tiny guys), pomegranates

    Preserved: jalapeno & guero escabeche (pickled peppers), sun-cured gueros, froze roasted green chiles, sauteed big purchase of mushrooms in wine & froze them in “ice cubes”, pomegranate jelly & syrup, dehydrated pomegranate seeds (to be ground and used as anardana - a spice in Indian cooking)

    Managed reserves: working through the many open jars of condiments and pickled vegs in the fridge (in hopes of moving). Also working on cleaning out freezer. Using up older foods in pantry.

    Prepped something: picked up more canning jars at thrift stores. Started de-cluttering (AGAIN) in office. Lots of discussions about future home, garden plans, work plans, etc.

    Stored something: bought extra pillows while on sale.

    Reduced waste: compost, compost, compost! Actually, first I try to use up all edible food parts (see post about drying pomegranate seeds.) Re-use packing materials and boxes. Bringing home canning jar boxes from CSA that vendors don’t want back - I use them for thrift store jar storage.

    Cooked something new: preserved recipes above were new. Made a couple new Indian recipes to try out the dried pomegranate seeds and use up the chutney in the fridge.

    Learned new skill: signed up for my first CPR class later this month!

    Community systems: active volunteer with CSA; posted 10% off coupon for solar oven and shared my blog (for the first time) with the entire CSA membership in hopes of getting more local use of our desert solar resources. Continue to can with friend to share produce and help her get comfortable with the process.

  15. Susan in NJon 08 Sep 2023 at 2:29 pm

    Planted — no, cleared the ground but didn’t get anything in
    Harvested — our first pumpkin (the runt of the litter, it seems), one of our two cantelope failures (destined for soup, I think, strangest melon I’ve ever seen), tarragon, rosemary, thymes, sage, basils, early girl and brandywine tomatoes, bergamot, a pitiful few green beans
    Preserved — dried sage, tarragon, bergamot, froze green peppers. Got a lot (50#) of organic tomatoes to put up, discovered my existing pot was too small for canning, did other things with the tomatoes over the course of the month
    Managed Reserves/prepped something — nothing too programatic, but Mom’s coming to visit in a month so decluttering/organizing here I come. This last month we eliminated one commercial storage shed, mostly of office stuff, and moved me to a smaller office, eliminating/reducing twenty years of two attorneys accumulated office clutter.
    Reduced waste — reduced wasted space, time and money resulting in a nonrecurring blig of increased waste disposal
    Stored something — again nothing too programatic, but started experimenting with how long cabbages would keep out of the fridge
    Cooked something new — shelled and cooked fresh lima beans, roasted pears on the grill
    Local food systems — shopped the market, started scoping out sources for bulk root vegies to store

  16. Laurenon 08 Sep 2023 at 3:00 pm

    Bookstore just called!!! I know what I’m doing for the rest for the day.

  17. Shiraon 08 Sep 2023 at 4:00 pm

    So wonderful to hear what everybody is up to!

    I’m been busy, and some of it was even paying work. Deb G and I met up in person at the farmers’ market, how cool is that? It’s late for berry picking, but we’re planning to do … something.

    The harvest from my pocket garden is finally getting there. Fifty plus pounds of potatoes from a strip 20 feet long and 30 inches wide next to the driveway. Thirty pounds of smallish onions, should have been more, but I’m doing something wrong in the vegetative growth stage. Beans are coming on and I’m leaving the rest for shelling beans. The tomatoes are barely beginning to ripen, with a much lower yield than past years. I canned ten quarts of sauce from purchased tomatoes and made pickles. The co-op had a sale on organic canned tomato sauce and I bought a bunch.

    Crunchy, sorry I couldn’t make it to the get together in the park; I had a prior appointment with a friend’s goats. Fair warning to my fellow city girls: this goat stuff is more aerobic than it looks. The goats and I are in the same weight class and we don’t always agree on the desired direction of travel. Due to wayward squirty teats and general inexperience, I came home with my jeans soaked in milk, smelling of motherhood.

    The fresh goat milk made lovely yogurt, cream cheese and gjetost.

    The whole informal economy thing just sort of swishes around: my brother borrowed the chain saw hey can you help me with Mrs. B’s fence, she’s eighty and it’s falling down, your mother came by and said thanks for the chickens and do you want a bunch of plastic plant pots Mike gave me a bag of spuds and we called it even for the jam from last year I dropped off Jill’s onions at Erin’s, we have plenty already, have you seen the blackberry bushes behind the job site at Jeremy’s, oh my gosh, it’s jam time. This is what Bellingham’s economy always looks like, which may be why it’s so hard to find.

    Shira in Belingham

  18. Rosaon 08 Sep 2023 at 4:14 pm

    plant: replanted the kale after a little person weeded it while I wasn’t looking.

    harvested: ONE TOMATO. This is my first ripe tomato in two years - I think the 3 year old is learning, finally. Though the squirrels still are not.

    preserve: tomatos, tomatos, tomatos. Catsup. Froze some corn and brussels sprouts. And dried the first six of the bajillion quarts of dried apples we’ll eat this winter if we have them.

    prep: the 5 gallon buckets we drilled holes in but did not make into SWCs have been washed. They’ll get filled iwth sand and we’ll try to store some beets and carrots that way.

    store: nothing. We have asian meal moths again so I’m trying to eat up all the dry goods until we find the source.

    community: Does it count if I found a bar where you get your first drink free if you biked? Oh, and we joined the neighborhood parents email list, so maybe we’ll make a friend.

    And, hooray! I got ice cream at the farmer’s market on saturday.

  19. Shiraon 08 Sep 2023 at 4:21 pm

    Oh yes, and the seed harvest is just bursting. Anyone who would like seeds (free!), I have bull’s blood beets, china choy, chives, and a lovely happy mix of broccoli, kale, mustard and bok choi. I am particularly proud of the broccoli, as I planted a tight block of four varieties of heirloom broccoli, aiming for good side sprout production and tolerance of backyard gardening.

    For information about where to send a SASE, contact me at plant (underscore) poet at yahoo dot com. While supplies last.

    Shira in Bellingham, WA

  20. New Mamaon 08 Sep 2023 at 8:43 pm

    Okay, probably a very bad time to ask this, but will there be another AIP class in the near (or far) future? Pretty please?

  21. Deb Gon 08 Sep 2023 at 9:50 pm

    I bought tomatoes at the farmer’s market (when I met up with Shira) and then went home and made yummy tomato sauce and canned a few half pints of whole tomatoes. My tomatoes are still green, green, green. I’ve also been canning peaches and pickled green beans. The green beans were new for me. I really liked them. Might do more. Also made and froze more broccoli pesto.

    I’ve started working on a pillow quilt. I’m using scraps for the squares and stuffing with down that I’ve reclaimed from a comforter a friend gave me.

  22. Miaon 08 Sep 2023 at 10:00 pm

    This is my first Independene Day post. Hard to live up to what Sharon and some of you are doing, but , on the other hand seeing what I’ve done over the last couple of weeks written down feels good- it doesn’t look too bad.

    planted: spinach, lettuce, arugula, radishes. transplanted kale to the winter garden- every year I try- but its hard up here the winters are really cold. I meant to plant carrots and beets, but its probably too late…

    harvested: apples, apples, apples and more apples! Elderberries, camomile, potatoes, tomatoes, cukes, zukes, plums, herbs, onions, garlic and more apples. And slaughtered chickens- does that count as harvesting? Yes!

    preserved: froze: chickens, dog food (chicken feet, chicken heads, gizzards and oatmeal cooked for a really long time), blueberries, sliced apples, green beans. canned: blueberry jam, dilly beans root cellared: some potatoes. dried: camomile, mint.

    prepped: stacked wood.

    managed: Moved sheep. Made lots of plans with dh about all the things we are going to do next year.. (reinsulate house, get geese, plant blueberries, etc) Organized baby’s clothes.

    stored: no, I have not yet taken the leap. Partly because we have zero money right now, really living off the garden and no extra money to buy big bags of stuff. Partly because, well, it feels like a real leap, like all the other stuff I do anyway, but buying bulk stuff to store just in case would feel like I was really commiting to something. Also, I really want to buy storage stuff locally- I really want to get my grains and dried beans from someone nearby — not just because local is good, but also so that, if needed, the grains and beans could be used as seeds that would actually grow in this climate. Think I found someone but its probably another few weeks until harvest.

    reduced waste: set up offal composting system! Usually we just throw butchering waste in the woods ( although I’m working on getting better at using so called waste for dog food or broth). Used it for the chicken offal, and will use it for the lamb offal next month.

    learned new skill: hmm??

    community/ local food systems: had a big feast, a great way to build community! Had neighbors over for apple cider pressing. Would like to figure out if I can trade apples for milk or meat.

    cooked something new: apple tart. Fried chicken hearts.

  23. homebrewlibrarianon 09 Sep 2023 at 12:25 am

    It’s been up and down busy but I just wanted to report that I FINALLY used the pressure canner I bought two months ago. I canned five quarts of turkey stock and six pints of very mature snow peas. Everything worked like a charm. One of the snow peas didn’t quite seal properly so I’ll be eating that one. I’m thinking that canning snow peas isn’t something I’m going to do frequently (in this case, I got an end-of-market deal - 4 lbs for $2) since what with blanching and canning, the pods end up with the consistency of butter. Hey, it was an experiment.

    I’m now totally jazzed with my canner! Next up, greens!

    Kerri in AK

  24. robj98168on 09 Sep 2023 at 4:44 am

    Plant something: Garlic, Beets, icicle radishes

    Prep something: currently installing a window on the south wall of my kitchen- it should let in more light and help warm the kitchen

    Harvest something: Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers

    Manage something:not this week

    Cook Something New:Blackberry fritters

    Work on Local Food Systems: Participated in NW Bloggers picnic

    Reuse, reduce, recycle or repair or Compost something: reusing 6 X 4’S for my window project, MAde a “Earthtainer” out of two5gallon buckets to plant garlic in. Reused a tin plant pot in earthtianer instead of the fancy screen thing he uses for wicking the water.

    Learn a skill: nope- Although I can say I have learned many useful skills all summer long that come in handy now that my Union is striking at work they should come in handy

  25. Sharonon 09 Sep 2023 at 7:26 am

    New Mama - There will indeed be another AIP class - Aaron and I are hoping to offer one jointly, using his design skills and knowledge too. We’re guessing February.

    Sharon

  26. jennon 09 Sep 2023 at 3:05 pm

    You know, this particular challenge reminds me of historical records of “household diaries” that women used to keep. My notebook is full of lists with checked off items that serves a similar purpose.

    I didn’t take part in the challenge because this is already my life! Except for planting stuff every week because I have limited space and the landlord already introduced me to his parents last weekend as “the person who ruined my back yard.” :(

    Just wait and see if he gets any tomatoes.

  27. risa stephanie bearon 10 Sep 2023 at 2:02 am

    I have to leave for a week, and Sharon’s book still hasn’t arrived! [whine, whine].

    Plant something: I think the most recent stuff is some kale for winter and also leeks.

    Harvest Something: Come the deluge! Have begun feeding zuke zeppelins and chard to the poultry, who have really run out of grass. They also get anything that bolts, though they don’t care so much for the radishes. Umm, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, apples, blackberries, cucumbers, beans, peas (spring peas still yielding in September! A record!!), red cabbage, lettuce. Beloved has lifted her Walla Walla onions and they are drying in the big Western Window.

    Preserve Something: applesauce, apple butter, blackberries. Not much else happening as we aren’t very available to get it done. I envy Meadowlark’s recent achievements in this category!

    Store Something: I’ve stocked up ahead on some home maintenance supplies such as insulation, pipe wrap, trim paint, screws, bits, and a hammer tacker. Leftovers from the roofing will go into other projects, and I plan to double the R-value in the crawl spaces this winter.

    Cooked Something New: Beloved tried a Raspberry Cheesecake which was a hit at our Library Ladies picnic.

    Worked on Local Food Systems: laid out the rest of the orchard for putting in new fruit trees in the winter, when they’re dormant.

    Reduced Waste: finished converting all the flashlights and the electric lantern to LED, to save on batteries and charging.

    Learned a Skill: Never used a hammer tacker before. Now I feel like a pro. Never too old to add to one’s carpentry tricks, I’m thinking!

  28. New Mamaon 12 Sep 2023 at 9:05 pm

    Glad to hear about an upcoming AIP class. My birthday is in February — it will be a gift to myself!

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