State of the Homestead
It's been a season of cleaning up and prepping for the winter. Our winters aren't very harsh, but it still gets cold. And I'd rather not be chopping and dragging trees in the cold.
We've dropped maybe ten good sized trees that died due to last year's drought. That was only on one side of the property. We still have three more sides to go. But we concentrated on the side with trees leaning in the wrong direction.
Below is a video of one of our 'little' jobs; cutting off a dead branch from a huge oak.
Garden: You'd think the garden would be done, but no. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are still thriving. We've had a few blasts of Canadian air, but our temps stay in the 80s most of the time. It doesn't really get cold here until January.
I started a few pots for indoor gardening, but I need to start more.
My potatoes (in pots) did well, and they're ready to harvest. Hmm...I wonder if I can grow potatoes indoors too. By the way, I did a post on using vegetable scraps to start new plants on Back to Basics. The potatoes I'm harvesting now were the buds from some potatoes I bought at the grocery store.
As long as you include a little flesh to get it started you can grow your own potatoes. I've heard stories of people during the Depression who planted potato skins (with the buds) and they did indeed get potatoes from these leavings.
Processing the Harvest: Newsflash! I think I found the best way to put up my bountiful tomato harvests. This year I dehydrated a big batch of tomatoes as a test. It was fantastic!
The dried tomatoes were sweet and full of flavor. I toss them into my spaghetti sauce and chili. I am definitely dehydrating more next year. All the fruits and veggies I dehydrated this year are almost gone. That's how good they were.
Processing the Harvest: Newsflash! I think I found the best way to put up my bountiful tomato harvests. This year I dehydrated a big batch of tomatoes as a test. It was fantastic!
The dried tomatoes were sweet and full of flavor. I toss them into my spaghetti sauce and chili. I am definitely dehydrating more next year. All the fruits and veggies I dehydrated this year are almost gone. That's how good they were.
Chickens: We've been dispatching a few chickens every time Greg comes home to visit. We have to make space for the new hens. Some chickens we're keeping, but most of the old ones will go in the pot.
Dogs: I made a grievous error in judgment on Tank. If you follow me on Facebook, you might've seen the story where I found shredded bread wrappers on the floor. I naturally blamed Tank since he is the tallest and can easily snatch something off the counter.
But when it happened the second and third time, I knew it wasn't him. He'd been framed! Iko is not food motivated, but Mama is. She stole a piece of bread off Greg's plate when he wasn't looking. Who knew an old arthritic dog could jump high enough to pull stuff off the counter? Bad Mama!
Hurricanes, city vs rural: My heart goes out to those people devastated by Hurricane Sandy. I've been in your shoes--more than once.
Two things surprised me about the people who weathered Sandy.
1. The media has been harping for DAYS about prepping for the storm, yet so many people seemed unprepared. (At least the people they filmed.)
2. Sandy survivors who had power offered to let people recharge their cell phones on extensions. I thought that was wild! I mean it's great that, 1) some people had power, and 2) the city had working cell towers.
After a big hurricane, our first priority is clearing debris.
Communication was last on the list because cell towers were hit or miss,
and there was no power for regular land lines anyway. We were on our own. Most of us came back
with water, chainsaws, gas, and generators.
I think the differences have a lot to do with the density of the population. There are a lot of apartment dwellers up there. Their needs are definitely different than someone on acreage who just has to worry about getting the trees off her house. With nothing else to do, tempers are probably on edge, waiting for city services to get back online.
Power loss erodes morale. Because of how we live, it's a lot more serious than it sounds. We went without power for 21 days. Believe me, it sucks.
I'm just glad the worst is over and they can concentrate on rebuilding. Sandy survivors, hang in there. It'll get better. Promise.
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Has Hurricane Sandy changed your attitude about how to prepare for disasters? Would you do anything differently now?
Comments
Cauliflower and the other brassicas are always hit and miss for me. They really do prefer cooler temps.
Wish I could trade tomatoes for cauliflower. :)
I'm sure the people recovering from Sandy didn't think to prepare for such a long outage of power.
I love drying my tomatoes every year. I'm allergic to garlic and onion, so I like to dry them and put them in jars with my own herbed olive oil so that I can make sun-dried tomato pasta. I also use potatoes that have sprouted before use. The one thing I haven't had luck growing is broccoli and cauliflower.
Good for you for storing water. And a double bonus for all those fireplaces. I'm jealous! :)
And allergic to garlic and onion? Heavens! I'd be in permanent depression.
I really enjoyed the dried tomatoes this year. I was shocked at how good they tasted.
Ref: the brassicas
I'm in the same boat. It's too hot down here for them unless I plant in the fall. I guess I could try a few and see if they do better in the greenhouse over the winter.
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LG: It's all doable, just not always pleasant. You really miss showering and eating fresh food.
Where I live now we mostly have to worry about tornadoes.
Every year I try to amend the soil in the hopes I can coax them to a harvest.
Our vegetable garden grew wild while we were away, and despite telling the neighbors to help themselves, a lot of things went to seed.
Our tomatoes are just starting to flower and form. It's been a bit cold this spring and everything is slower. The strawberries are starting to ripen.
What do you use to dry the tomatoes and other things?
You can also dry produce in a low oven or sun dry. But the electric is nice. It works while I sleep.
I bow to you surviving 21 days without power. I remember when I was young us losing power in the middle of a blizzard and we were without for about a week. Luckily we had access to the well for water. We usually got snowed in for a week or two each winter at that house so we always had at least a week's worth of food stored. As a kid, I just remember it as a big slumber party/camp out as we all crowded around the fireplace, LOL.
I missed our growing season this year so now I'm just staging for planting in January :)
Ref: 21 days
It's not like we had a choice. LOL. Well, I guess we could've left town until the infrastructure was running again, but we felt we could make it.
The only people who didn't return right away had kids. It was miserable enough for adults. I wouldn't recommend it for families with young kids.
I can tell you're a real gardening whiz, Maria. Everything you grow sounds so good. Our elevation (9200 ft) is too high to really grow anything but pine and aspen trees and the wildlife is hard to keep out. I did a bit of container gardening, though, and that's fun.
My cell phone was my life saver and I was grateful for those establishment that set up charging station.
Lesson I learned is to replace broken radio before next storm.
I recommend a wind-up radio. No batteries necessary and they're very rugged too.
Glad to see you here!