Sunday, September 18, 2011

Independance Day Update - 18 Sept. 2011

It's been a quiet weekend, rainy and pleasant. I've caught up on some of my reading as I wait for new books to come in. Fall is sneaking in slowly, and I'm starting to pull out clothes and linens for the cooler weather. Mostly because I want to; 60-70'f isn't really cold except that it's cooling off from 90'f and it's damp. And I really want it to be closer to 50'f. Yes, my favorite seasons are fall and winter.


1. Gardening: Checked the sweet potatoes on the balcony. The ones I've kind of ignored all year. All the originals are still edible, and I pulled a fingerling-sized new one. The rest are still in the pots to give them more time to grow. Still - SUCCESS! I can grow sweet potatoes on our shady balcony! With more attention, I should get a reasonable harvest next year.

2. Waste not (preparations): nada

3. Want not (manage your stores): zip

4. Build community: zilch

5. Eat the food: Shepherd's pie, apple pie, spaghetti. Nice warm favorite foods. Yum.

6. Crafting: Making Sweetie a basic-but-warm wool hat. He needs it in the rain/drizzle we've had the last couple of days.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Independence Day Challenge: 5 Sept. 2011

It now looks like both Katia and Lee will miss us, which works for me! We are still ready, if a bit shorter on cat food. I'll get more end of this week.

1. Gardening:
**Pulled up the tomatoes (all done, except the Sungold. VERY happy with that variety!) & bell peppers (all done). Pulled carrots, which really could have used more time in the ground but they had to be pulled per our schedule. The pink-eye peas are attempting to grow but the deer have other ideas.
**On the balcony, I bought some impatiens and planted them so there is something pretty to look at. They'll last till first frost, then I'll plant pansies and start planning for spring. The sweet potatoes are still growing well and the herbs are thinking about forgiving me after this summer's neglect. They are not happy.

2. Waste not (preparations):
**Scanning family photos and some documents onto the portable hard drive. In case of hurricane evacuation, we can grab the hard drive and the control journal and be able to reconstruct a lot of things. We'll still loose a lot, but at least we won't loose as much.
**We're working on re-assembling the Singer 66 I have - we had to break down the table; now we are working on replacing the destroyed parts and re-assembling it.
**Bikes have been assessed; we need fenders and possibly chain guards for winter (rainy season) riding. Also need to see about ponchos or other ways to keep the legs dry.

3. Want not (manage your stores):Canned 18 pints of venison stew, using our carrots & onions. This gets the venison out of the freezer, where it laid in wait to fall on you as you opened the door. Also it used about half the carrots we harvested.

4. Build community: giving a friend the info for a farmer that offers beef in bulk that's grass-finished.

5. Eat the food: Yes. I've stayed on budget for food except what I spent on fast food; better planning on my end will take care of that. Hurricane season, and that last close call, are giving me incentive to eat out of the freezer. Tomorrow, venison roast in the crock pot =) Leftover will revisit as a potpie. I miss fall & winter's foods; can someone get the weather to cooperate?

6. Crafting: Spinning my Icelandic fleece, and today I'm washing the fleece I bought last month. I'm still working on the Dragon stocking when I get larger chunks of time.