Friday, July 24, 2009

Independence Days, week... uh... somethin'

I'm kind of losing track of my posting schedule for this. I'm also forgetting some things, as usual.

1. Plant something
- One really tough comfrey plant that was forgotten for several months.

2. Harvest something - Two apples! I picked them early because the birds were already pecking them. They were a bit tart and mealy, but pretty good considering. Sadly, we're getting at most one more apple this year. Out of four apple trees. But it's a start...

Other things harvested: Eggs, a few berries, the tiniest carrot you've ever seen, some peas, a few green beans, and one jalapeƱo. I wish I had planted more cool season stuff, since it's been such a cool summer.

3. Preserve something - I don't even want to talk about this one. My two quarts of local raspberries got moldy before I did anything with them (well, besides a little snacking). I forgot how fast they go fuzzy.

4. Waste Not - Bought a washable, reusable furnace filter. Tried to fill the cows' water trough from the rain barrel, but the elevation is apparently wrong. The water stubbornly refuses to defy gravity. I'll try moving to a lower spot at some point. I'm not too worried about making this work, since my rain barrel capacity would only last the cattle about two days, so I still need the other hose too. Took more stuff to the recycling center, and the thrift store. Ate every scrap of leftovers I could, including the remnants on my son's plate after dinner. I don't think we threw out any leftovers this week.

5. Want Not (Preparation and Storage) - Bought the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I guess this was several weeks ago, but I forgot about it.

6. Build Community Food Systems - Sold eggs at work. Bought local nectarines and cherries. WOW. Tried to rig up something to keep the skunks from getting the chicken eggs. Not sure if it's working yet though. I'm pondering the idea of planting a big row of greens to sell at work. I think a few of my Indian co-workers would buy all the spinach I could grow and then some.

7. Eat the Food - Eggs, cherries, nectarines, Free Soup, strawberry jam, cranberry sauce, pasta, and a yummy roasted chicken from a nearby farm. Probably other stuff too.

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1 Comments:

At 7/25/2009 5:41 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Welcome "Circleville, Ohio"! Spent 38 years in Columbus, then moved to Florida, been here 32 years. Loved your strength to "keep on keeping on." Kudos to anyone who has brains enough to realize where we are going or not going in this economic crisis. My grandmother used rain barrels (wooden kegs), my mother used wooden kegs, and I'm using 50 gal.,PVC, recycled fruit/food barrels for collecting my rain water from gutters on my lanai. Be sure to keep in mind the importance (if you've got rain gutters flowing to your barrels) of keeping those rain gutters squeaky clean. The cleaner your gutters, the cleaner your water. You may want to set up more than one barrel (dual set-up for overflow) to assure you have enough water for those 3 week stints when its raining somewhere else. At 70+ years, I've invented a brand new gutter cleaner that you can stand firmly on the ground and vacuum out your gutters. It will save you time, money, and energy to do your "favorite thing" instead of always cleaning gutters. Come and visit me at www.gutterclutterbuster.com and see for yourself if this new gutter cleaning tool would keep you safer, cleaner, and do the job faster & easier than any other method. Again, congratulations in all that you are accomplishing and keep up the good work. Be Safe, Be Well and Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled. God Bless America!

 

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