Independence Days #8

1. Plant something: nope, though I may try and fill in some holes in the garden where things didn't come up.

Wait, edit, edit - I planted Borage from Green Bean Dreams Giveaway!!! Yea, I'm waiting for them to germinate!!!

2. Harvest Something: No. This is an area where I ought to get better. I pulled the dandelions and wild alfalfa and fed it to the rabbit is about all.

3. Preserve Something: (harvested) and dried mint.

4. Prep Something: While in Lowes for something else noticed they had good long hoses for drinking water (they're blue). Since it had been nagging at me that my water storage containers were sitting around dusty and dry, I bought the hose and filled 80 gallons of water storage.

Chickens arrived (blogged earlier with pictures). They are a straight run (roosters and hens) of which all but one of the roosters will be harvesed. I'll have to wait and see how many hens there are before selling or trading a few hens if I have too many for the space. They are all vigerous and hearty after this first week.

Since every centemeter of the 1/2 acre garden sprouted a weed, I've been hoeing and weeding as my main endevor. We get water once a week so everything revolved around the watering.

Bought a book on cheese making.

5. Cook Something (new) - I havn't cooked creatively this week - just getting meals out, grinding wheat and baking bread.

6. Manage reserves - began sharpening garden tools daily as they are in use several hours a day. My only hoe broke - Mr. Greenjeans will have to fix it and I may buy a new one before inflation means I can't make those purchases. However, for the end of the week, we are committed to not taking money from savings at the end of the pay period (or putting it on credit card) and we're living with the $24.00 in the checking acct. until payday.

We needed to stake our 60 tomatoes and talked about getting uprights and 4" fencing... and then it dawned on me that an old farm always has stuff lying around. Mr. Greenjeans had on the heavy duty shoes and jeans and so was elected to sort through the tall weeds behind the old shed where we garden and....he came up with not only 4" fencing but 57 tomatoe cages. I asked Mrs. neighbor if she had any extra tomatoe cages and she had 3! No trip out - no money spent.

Stuff was piling up in the laundry room from the purchase of the wheat and soap making and so got two more barrels of wheat stored, and sorted out the cupboards in the laundry so all the soap-making extras were able to be put away. Besides that needed to be done - it was one of the only places the last people left things and I'd stuffed things and... it was time.

7. Work on local food systems. My girls and I are working hard on the garden. Mrs. Neighbor is nesting like crazy - no the baby isn't coming - her mother is. Mr. Garden went to the Dr. and wasn't allowed to come home without a new pacemaker. The ditch water master is helpful with the garden on watering days - I think they get paid in produce because they weed and dig while they are there.

I feel badly that I missed a meeting of the local Farmer's Market that begins at the end of July.

8. Learn Something new: The large garden and ways of ditch water in the west is a new experience.