UNDER CONSTRUCTION
We made progress on the new Three Sisters Garden this weekend!
I discovered the Parts Department at work has large pieces of cardboard they discard so was fortunate to collect some this week. Then I checked into buying bulk garden soil and got two front loader scoops for $52.00. I would estimate that’s equivalent to 15-20 bags of soil which would have been $135.00 – $180.00.
I know my original plan last winter was to tarp it, grow a cover crop on it, and then till it. I was under-whelmed with how effective tarping the area was. The tiller was no longer available and the chickens were not going to till it fast enough for me. So, I went to Plan B. Or was it C? Or D? I guess this is another example that you have to stay flexible and adapt as needed.
The cardboard filled about half to two-thirds of the area so I will bring more home. I think I’ll need another scoop of soil, too. So, this project will continue next week. But it is well on the way!
EVACUATE!
Not everyone will have to deal with the upheaval and chaos the Ukrainians have experienced while evacuating their homes because of the invasion of Russian military forces. However, many of us will have to evacuate our homes for some other disaster.
PREPARE BEFORE THE NEED ARISES:
There are several things you will want to do in advance, to prepare for an evacuation.
⋆ Learn the types of disasters that are possible in your community.
⋆ Prepare a 72-hour kit for your family and your pets.
⋆ Attach the Emergency Evacuation Checklist to your 72-hour kit for immediate access. Know where each item is kept.
⋆ Prepare a Family Emergency Plan and keep it with your 72-hour kit.
⋆ Plan where you will go if you are advised to evacuate either by arranging to stay at someone’s home in another town or to stay in a hotel or community shelter. If you have pets, be sure they are welcome where you are going.
⋆ Work out alternate routes and other means of transportation out of your area and keep that information with your 72-hour kit.
⋆ If you do not have a car, plan how you will leave.
⋆ Choose a family meeting place in case you become separated from other family members.
⋆ Develop a family communication plan to keep extended family members updated. For example, choose one person outside your area as the main contact for you to provide updates and other family members will contact that person for information rather than multiple people contacting you.
⋆ Practice your evacuation plan so that when it counts, you have any kinks worked out.
We don’t like to think of bad things happening to our families; however, we know bad things Do happen. Preparing for these possibilities will bring peace to you now and during an emergency.
TRY, TRY AGAIN
I’ve never had much luck with starting seeds in the past. That manifested itself again with the broccoli and cabbage seeds I started in January – it was a bust.
Since plant starts are expected to be even more expensive this year than last year, I really need to master this skill. So, I’m trying again.
Today, I planted watermelon, habanero pepper, gypsy pepper, spearmint, Sweet William, and tomato seeds.
The tomatoes, peppers and watermelon each got their own 12-cell tray. The spearmint and Sweet William split a tray and have 6-cells each.
They are on the heat mat with their humidity covers until they germinate. Then we will go from there.
I do fine with direct sowing seeds into the garden beds so I’m not starting the corn, green beans, or squash seeds.
The kale has already sprouted in the greenhouse. Even though it was just planted on Saturday, it had sprouted by Wednesday! I do enjoy seeing the fresh growth. I’m still waiting for the peas and newly seeded lettuce to show me some green.
This weekend is supposed to be cold and rainy again, but Spring really is just around the corner!
I HAVE TO TRY THIS!
I saw a post about Zucchini flour and thought, “What!!?”
Naturally, I had to dig deeper. Sure enough, there is such a thing. Not only that, it’s easy to make. Since I plan to have an abundance of zucchini from my Three Sisters Garden (I know, don’t count your zucchini before the harvest … ), this was a real boon to find.
So, when I comment that my garden is overflowing with the dreaded zucchini, remind me to try this.
ZUCCHINI FLOUR
Wash and peel zucchini or yellow squash. Remove the core and seeds.
Use a potato peeler to cut it in thin strips or use a mandolin slicer to make thin slices (with a protective glove, of course!).
Dehydrate the strips/slices at 135 degrees. Based on previous attempts to dehydrate zucchini, I recommend you line the trays so the pieces don’t stick.
When completely dried, put in a blender or food processor and grind it into flour (about 5-8 minutes). Let the dust settle before opening the lid.
Store in an air-tight container with a silica packet.
Five pounds of squash makes 1 cup of flour
TO USE: substitute 1 cup of zucchini flour for regular flour in bread recipes or 1/2 cup in cakes and cookies.
A LITTLE MORE
There are So many things not getting done; and yet, there are a few that Are getting done.
This weekend I sent Oscar out to cut down the azalea bushes in front of the house. He was supposed to do them last weekend but didn’t. They have been looking ratty the past three years or so. Each year though, I didn’t think about them until it was too late, and the birds had established their springtime nests in them. He sawed the bushes out but still needs to deal with the roots. My intention is to put some raised beds in that area this season.
The temperatures started rising this week – no doubt to lull us into a false spring. It meant that I could open the greenhouse “door” and let fresh, cooling air in. Even when it’s cold outside, that greenhouse is toasty warm, so it definitely needs to be open when it gets above 50 degrees outside. The forecast indicates I will be able to leave it open until Friday and Saturday night when the temperatures drop below freezing again.
I planted over 90 pea seeds in the greenhouse in the one large, raised bed. I want more than a handful of peas this year. That should do it. In the empty Greenstock pockets, I planted more lettuce. Finally, in the smaller rectangular container in there, I planted kale. Let’s see if we can get fully grown kale before the chickens find and devour it this time.
The other project slated for this weekend was to uncover the area I tarped last fall for the Three Sister’s Garden, fence it in, and let the chickens start turning it over. Amazingly, that got done, though I was very disappointed that the grass under the tarp wasn’t killed off after so many months. Four of the chickens are currently scratching away and enjoying themselves thoroughly.
Why only four chickens? Well, there’s a story to that.
I saw this on Amazon:
“What a good idea for transferring the chickens from the coop in the back to the garden in the front!” I thought. Much easier than picking one chicken up, carrying it to the fenced area, walking back to get another one, repeat, repeat, repeat. So, I bought a pack of chicken harnesses and leashes.
Well, those chickens were having nothing to do with them. Not one bit. They would either plop themselves down on the ground and not budge or would try to back out of them (sometimes successfully).
We got $10 worth of entertainment out of them but certainly not the ability to walk four chickens from point A to point B. We might have been more successful if we had thought to provide a trail of corn – but we didn’t think of it until long after the laughing fits were over, and the chickens got their way and were carried to the garden space.
FRUSTRATING FEBRUARY
As February comes to a close, I can’t help but think of all the things that I should have done but didn’t. There have been several setbacks and health complications that added up to one big frustrating month. So, I need to recount the few things I did get done just to show myself that the month wasn’t a complete loss.
I’ve had trouble with seed starting. I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve always struggled with it. It’s just that I’m really counting on it this year to have enough plants for my expanded garden. Started plants are going to be too expensive to buy this year. I’ve tried starting the broccoli and cabbage twice now. I’ve continued researching the problem and might try planting one more time but, now that the plants for the spring garden are way behind schedule, I’m waffling about wasting my time and seeds.
The boysenberries and apple trees received their February feeding of fertilizer. One of the boysenberries already has green leaves on it! This year I need to do a better job watching for pests and diseases on the apple trees. There should be more growth on the boysenberry bushes in this second year, so I need to keep ahead of that and attach the vines to the fence for support. I ordered two more boysenberry bushes and they should arrive sometime in March.
I created my list of equipment and projects for this year. That will help me plan for the expense and to let Oscar know what I need him to do and when it needs to be done. This will, hopefully, teach him to plan his own time more efficiently to allow him to have fun away from the homestead on the weekends.
We started cutting out some of the scrub trees and bushes along the driveway. We were supposed to do a little every weekend but that didn’t happen – we only got one session done. It’s easier to park my car now so I’m sure glad we got that first little bit done.
Yesterday, we acquired and picked up a used 330-gallon water tank. After cleaning it out, I will use it to capture rainwater for irrigating my Three Sister’s Garden. This is the kind of tank I got:
I got a good start on Swedish Death Cleaning in my back bedroom. Not only did I identify a lot of items to get rid of, I also actually did get rid of them! Some went to the garbage, some to a charity shop and some to another person. This is one of those on-going projects, so I am by no means finished. Getting started is always the biggest step though, so I have done that.
Also in February, I’ve worked on updating my Important Documents Binder and filling holes in my food supply this month, too. I had participated in the #ThreeRiversChallenge (on Instagram) in January which has you eating out of your pantry for a month (some people did two months). This really helped me see where my food supply needed to be improved.
The chickens are healthy and happy and laying lots of eggs. I even have a paying customer now. A few more of those and the chickens will be earning their keep by covering their own food costs.
One bright spot of the month is that the daffodils along the sides of the roads have started blooming. I love seeing their cheery flowers!
Marching forward into March …
Mini-Hügelkultur
One of my homesteading goals this year is to expand my garden.
The challenge to that goal is the expense. Since I am using tall, raised beds and vertical gardening to adapt to my inability to crawl on the ground anymore, there is extra expense involved. First, getting a good-sized container, costs between $50 and $150 dollars. Then you have to fill those big containers with lots and lots of bags of soil. Now, a bag of soil is not really that expensive, but when you purchase lots and lots of bags, That’s Expensive.
So, I was excited to see a video that showed how, with a cardboard box and some chicken wire, you can make oodles of garden containers. In this age of on-line ordering, I certainly have a regular supply of boxes. I also have quite a stockpile of recycled chicken wire (see, Oscar, it was worth keeping). Practically free containers! Problem #1 solved.
Later in the video, Dan, the You Tube vlogger at Plant Abundance, showed how you can add sticks, etc. in the bottom of the box. This moves hügelkultur to the container garden – a mini-hügelkultur if you will. By using wood, leaves, and other compostable materials in the bottom of the container to fill the space, you don’t have to use as much soil. There are lots of downed branches in the woods around my house to use for this. Problem #2 solved.
I first learned about hügelkultur about ten years ago but, at the time, did not see how to apply it to my situation. Back then I was struggling to garden in a new zone, with a new gardening calendar, different climate issues, different (read that “massively increased”) pest issues, etc. So, I read about hügelkultur, thought “that’s cool”, and went back to my current concerns.
I never thought of it beyond the massive, raised beds it was (originally) intended to create. I love people who can think outside of the (cardboard) box.
It’s exhilarating to learn new ways to apply old concepts from other people. If you want to watch the video I found, click HERE. If you want to learn a little bit about hügelkultur, click HERE and HERE.
PREPAREDNESS BARRIERS
There are some common barriers that might keep us from taking steps toward becoming prepared. Are you stuck on one of these?
KNOWLEDGE:
“I don’t know what I need to do.”
TIME:
“I’m already too busy; I don’t have time to do one more thing!”
MONEY:
“I know I should buy extra supplies in case of an emergency, but I barely pay my bills as it is.”
SPACE:
“My place is too small to store extra supplies.”
DENIAL:
“What’s the fuss? The odds of something happening that would qualify as an emergency are slim to none.”
AVOIDANCE:
“I don’t like thinking of bad things happening.”
HELPLESSNESS:
“If something that bad happens, there’s nothing I can do to stop it anyway.”
OVERWHELMED:
“There’s so much to do, I’ll never be able to accomplish half of it all.”
Every one of these barriers can be overcome. Yes, it will take some time, study, and even imagination. For the most part, it’s ourselves that are the barrier. These are just excuses.
Let’s stop leaning on excuses and just start doing it!
Two Chickens Homestead 
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