Late Summer Chores

Depending on where you live late summer could mean hot days or the onset of early fall. For us, it's hot. It's so hot I like to do most of my work indoors.

I have that luxury this year since most of the garden was a dud. All but the okra and peppers survived the prolonged bake-a-rama. And even the survivors gave few fruits.

There's always a silver lining so I decided to use my time (not harvesting) by organizing my house.

I have a very nice work room where I do most of my writing, reading, and overall research. My cabinets are full of stuff--stuff I rarely use or even look at.

I'm sure you have a few cabinets like mine too. So why not make them useful again?

I have a large space under my work table that housed boxes of computer stuff. Most of it is defunct tech. Only occasionally do I go through them looking for a spare charger, cable, or keyboard. Another big shelf area had loads of different sized envelopes from when I used to mail a lot.

It was wasted space spent on things I might look at once a year if that. Time to rehome the lot.

So what's going into these new open spaces?

I've recently bought some dehydrated food that I'd like to keep in a temp-controlled room. I'm also working on storing several months' worth of cat food. 

For some reason cat food is still really hard to find on a regular basis. And when you can find it, it's ridiculously expensive. Since I have a cat who cannot eat solid food, I don't want to be caught without the food he can eat. (I also buy baby food for Jammy since he can eat it without me having to puree it.)

Also, buying in bulk and ahead of time allows me to buy food at the best prices. Fortunately, canned cat food doesn't take up a lot of space.

If push came to shove, the dogs can eat what we eat, but the cat is greatly disadvantaged when it comes to what he can swallow.

Speaking of letting the dogs eat what we eat, our neighbor offered to shoot a loose pig that was eating the corn he left for deer. We think this pig is from a litter of four that must've escaped their owners. They've been wandering our neighborhood for weeks. It won't take long before they turn feral. 

What with Greg still recuperating, we declined to harvest the pig. I don't have room in my freezer anyway.

I would LOVE to raise a mini cow (and calf for the freezer), but Greg has put his hoof down. No more large animals, even if they're minis.

He's right of course, but I've always wanted to raise beef for the freezer.

Interesting side note. While waiting to pay a bill, I was eavesdropping on our local large animal vet who was sharing his plans on buying up a lot of cattle. Because of our prolonged drought, a lot of ranchers are selling their herds. This vet felt that if he could buy them now, he could sell them for a profit a year from now when everyone wanted them again. 

He's got the land, so it makes sense. 

I have only a little land, but I've come up with a plan to help it for the next drought. 

Every year, we vacuum up and mulch the leaves around our property. A lot of it goes into the garden. This year, I'd like to see if the next door neighbors would let us drive around their land and vacuum and mulch any of their leaves. I'd like to lay down the additional mulch around our property as an extra layer of protection during the drier months.

They might not let me do it, but it never hurts to ask.

Every year I hope for wood chips but those guys only trim our trees every third or fourth year, so I've been out of luck lately. Wood chips help me house so many earthworms even during the worst heat wave.

It looks like our heat wave is coming to an end though. Huzzah!! We'll have several days below triple digits. Now all we need is the rain.

Along with the dehydrated food, I'm doing research on mylar bags. Since it's just the two of us, I want to be able to divvy up the #10 cans into more usable portions for us. 

Do not buy the first mylar bags you see at a good price. Check the thickness.  Many companies will tout 5 mil, but that's 5 mil combined from both sides of the bag. You want at least 9.5 or 10 mil. 12 mil is better.

Depending on what you're repackaging, you don't want any sharp edges punching a hole once you vacuum seal it.

Sometimes I think I spend most of my time doing research. For every legitimate vendor there are fifty unscrupulous sellers.

What plans do you have for late summer? Do you ever get on an organizing jag?