Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil world) 2

mystiek

girlscout -could you share the recipe or link with us? I have been starting a notebook with recipes just like that one you described. Just to add a few more thoughts-if our power goes out for lack of fuel, I have and continue to set up to run electrical equipment on alternative sources. IF an EMP attack occurs from my understanding, our electrical equipment will be fried-so I have been trying to think along the lines of not being able to access computers, cell phones, etc.-I have been making a few makeshift Faraday boxes-but I'm not sure how well they will work.

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1521

Picked another 3 qts. of blackberries, to add to what my wife is processing for jam at the moment. This is probably the last picking, since it is getting pretty dry here. Temps in the 90's and no rain for a couple weeks, so the garden is getting dusty where it isn't mulched.

Earlier today, while it was very hot out, I rebuilt the carburetor on one garden tractor, and got it going again. Then traded places with the other one that also needs carburetor work. Oh well, I have the parts, and if we don't get too busy in the shop this week, I'll get that one up and going again too.

I'm kind of marking time until I get my head together for priorities. We've been in such a run for so long that I need to stop and think about it for a while. Got most of our money out of our personal bank account, because it has already been re-christened with a new name, and denials of problems there are vehement. You know what they say, no rumor has much validity until it is officially denied! My guess is, they have already been quietly merged and recapitalized. In any case, I feel better with the money where I know I can get it.

What little we have needs to be parsed out to the most important preps. But, I have so many things started, or in progress, and in various stages of completion that it's time to focus on completing things, and see what needs that will bring to light.

Food preservation is going well this year, although more work on the summer kitchen would help. A very respected friend of mine said we should lead by example, and it's happening with the summer kitchen idea. We built ours, then my daughter got one up, and now everyone who visits her place wants one.... Change the world, one person at a time, right?
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bromius · Heavy Crude Joined: May 26, 2008 Posts: 106

Patience> Good call on the cash. I didn't do it today, but over the last few months I've reduced the amount of money in my savings and checking accounts by about 75%. About 25% of the 75% got converted to Euro as a hedge against anything catastrophic happening to the US dollar.

Added a few more days worth of surplus food to the supply as well. I figure I could comfortably feed myself for about 6 weeks on what I've got stashed now. Its a far cry from what I'd like to have, but I don't have a lot of spare cash. Having six weeks extra is about 5 weeks better than I had a few months ago. This amount will continue to increase slowly over time. A can of beans here. Jar of peanut butter there.

Ludi

Working on the garden some more; cooking in the solar oven (chicken curry).

Keeping my eye on TS Dolly. Shocked

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AnIowan

In the past few days we've:

1) Added to the food supply. I'm guessing we'd be good for about a month if need be. I'll keep adding thing here and there.

2) Found some plans for shelving. I want to some shelves in our cool room for other food we've gathered. Potato bins below and a couple of deep shelves on top of that.

3) Mowed some and caught the clippings to lay on the garden.

4) Weeded the heck out of the garden. Between my own classes and my wife's wisdom teeth, we lost about two weeks of work time, and the weeds took full advantage.

5) Sent in a membership questionaire to a local whole foods organization that markets similar to a CSA. We are planning on expanding some of what we do, and rather then go through the hassle of a farmer's market, if we could sell through them, that would work out great!

6) Finally, just keep reading and seeing what I can learn. I mentioned how I thought we could be really self-sufficent if need be to my wife last night, and she agreed saying "with a few chickens and a little bigger garden" we'd be sitting pretty! I think I'm starting to win her over!

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1521

Today I talked to a contractor about pouring concrete for 2 stoops at the ends of the sunporch, and a base for a solar water heater. Since I opted for the back porch last year, it gets in the way of the water heater location, so the collector has to be elevated. I have steel for the tank support, and we have the area cleared.

My wife put up a couple small jars of jelly from the first fruits of our red currant bush, and helped me get signed up for Social Security online. Also did the deposit for the business, and cooked for the week. My daughter was in the shop today, and is planning their first passive solar window box heater. We are considering UV stabilized Lexan for the glazing, the extruded stuff for greenhouse glazing. If so, we will pool our orders to save freight. If there is a better glazing deal out there, I want to know about it. We want to do some at our house, too.
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girlscout

I will certainly post the soup recipe as soon as I get it from my husband.

mystiek

Thanks!

coyote

Today I spent all day in the gardens. Mostly, I built two raised beds and started three new crops. I also cleaned up around the peach tree and harvested some, as well as some green beans (yum!) and tomatoes.

I knocked off at 6pm sunburned, hungry, tired and happy.

Soon gonna snzzzzzz
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"If a path to the better there be, it begins with a full look at the worst." — Thomas Hardy

mercurygirl · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 1189

Last week I made jam from my neighbor's sour cherry tree and it's the best I ever made. Froze another batch of cherries. Said neighbor has offered to give me plums that we have to pick soon. Another neighbor across the street has given permission to pick apples from a really old tree. He grew up there since the '40s and talked about the huge garden they had when he was a kid.

The neighbors all around us have fruit and nut trees. The trees need major pruning though and we have to contend with the birds, squirrels, and a resident raccon. My neighbor the other night saw the raccoon up in the plum tree, actually shaking them down. Would a BB gun work?

Looking forward to peaches, blueberries, etc. No real garden yet at the new place, but I have some tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and herbs coming along nicely. I actually have been experimenting with urine for fertilizing, with good results.

I really want to make a nice big raised bed area with a line of berry shrubs along the property line. I'm hoping we can do that by spring planting time.

Need to go dig potatoes, garlic soon, and lettuce at our old property. Also on the list, clothesline, rain barrels, shelving in basement for food storage, and fishing poles. Maybe a nice distiller.
Wait, that was the wish list!

kpeavey · Expert Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 1244

the only thing I produced today was entropy
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If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."
-George Orwell, 1984

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Accept the Facts.

girlscout

This is the first year that I've had a "real" garden, and it's still fairly small in scale until I figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. I planted strawberries in a container, and was dismayed to find that some critter has been chomping off the entire ends of the plant with the berries. Next year I think I'm going to try to plant strawberries in a plastic kiddie swimming pool, top it off with a ridge pole and insect netting to keep the birds at bay, and surround it with some deer fencing. Maybe I'll even locate it within our fenced yard, as our dogs would definately keep the critters away.

I've begun picking some of the wild raspberries that have just begun growing this year along my fenceline, though it looks like some won't be ready to pick for a few more weeks. I started reading a bit on raspberries and what I should do to ensure that they will grow in the future. The blueberry patch seems to be doing well. I planted some from Wallyworld a few years ago, and I swear they are the same size as when I bought them. However, there are a few larger Jersey plants I put in this spring that are already doing great and sending up new shoots.

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1521

I'm headed for the newspaper office today to buy all the aluminum printing plates they have in stock for covering solar box heaters.

Our biggest problem with (wild) raspberries in our fencerow is chopping/cutting/burning them back to a tolerable growth level. Same with the wild grapevines. There are benefits to both, however, as the raspberries yield fruit, and the grapevines attract Japanese beetles away from the garden and a couple surviving rose bushes.
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frankthetank

AnIowan-

Did you make it through that Derecho event OK? I read about the wind gusts of 90-110 miles and hour down around the Quad Cities. Scary stuff.

Got my Killiwatt device and have it plugged into the little chest freezer (5 cu ft). I see in 17hrs in a 70F basement it used .50 Kw/hr. When its running it uses about 94 watts... I really want to take it solar.
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"Oil is going up because we use too much oil, and the capacity to replace reserves is dwindling"
-President Bush 11/07/07

mystiek

Ludi, are you far enough inland to be out of harms way? Be careful and goodluck with the hurricane coming that direction, you are in our prayers. Today I received about 4 bushels of tomatoes-we are going to be really busy this week....the purple hull peas will be ready in a couple of weeks-planning on making purple hull pea jelly.