We have accomplished some of the 'to do' on the list from the last post though. We got the hoop house cleaned up from the summer and have planted squash (4 varieties), tomatoes, lettuce (coming up nicely), eggplant, various herbs, peppers and okra. When the sun shines, it does get pretty warm in the hoop house. We hope to have lettuce growing year round....nice to be able to go out and pick fresh lettuce for dinner in the middle of the winter.
The front deck is complete and the back deck is about 1/2 done. Part of the back deck will be covered and enclosed with screen to keep bugs out.
Cris planted winter wheat that is growing though not as high as it should due to lack of rain. It will become dormant and then when Spring comes around, it will start growing again. Same thing with the garlic we planted.
We purchased more trees..... pears, apples, pomegranate, persimmon, pecan and fig as well as more blueberry bushes. We are growing various herbs as well...for cooking and medicinal. We took a herb/foraging class last month and learned alot about what plants in our area are great for medicinal purposes. I learned that the red sumac berries make a fantastic tea or lemonade. (not the poisonous sumac) The guy who gave the course, (The Southern Herbalist) is coming back up for a Spring class and I am really looking forward to it. We learned how to make a liniment and salve for cuts, scrapes, poison ivy and also how to make lye for soap making. I took ALOT of notes and also bought his book on CD so I could keep track of what plants are what in our area.
MUSHROOM HUNTING - has slowed down with the cold weather but we have had some great discoveries. We found a huge amount Mi take Mushrooms (Hen of the Woods) and we harvested them and froze them for future use. Great for cooking and medicinally one of the best 'shrooms to eat. Cris found more oyster mushrooms and one of our logs that we plug over the summer had a couple shitake mushrooms on it so that was a nice find. Hopefully in the Spring the mushroom logs will take off and have shitakes everywhere.
ANOTHER DOG??? yes, our friend who owns the farm where we get sheep manure has 2 puppies left from the litter of Great Pyrenees. She kept the male for herself as he was instantly tuned into the whole livestock guardian dog thing and never leaves the sheep area of her farm. She was going to keep the female pup but decided that since she already has the momma and the male pup, she didn't need the girl. She gave us first dibs on her because she wanted her to go to someone she knew because she fell in love with her. So we picked up Daisy Mae (Cris named her Daisy, and I added the Mae because she was born May 1st) about 2 weeks ago and she is an absolute doll. She will be an outside dog which is fine because Great Pyrenees are used to cold weather. It's actually in the summer when you have to be careful and make sure they have enough shade and water because they can get overheated with their double coats of fur.
Nugget and Teddy have warmed to her nicely and she has already done a great job of being a guardian. Her first night at our house she went straight to the front of yard when it got dark to keep an eye out for predators. She has chased coyotes away with her big girl bark and the other day a stray dog came up and Daisy made it clear that the stray was not welcome. Pyrenees' are not confrontational and will not fight unless absolutely necessary....usually their large size and large bark is enough to keep predators away. She's really great and does not run off. We can leave her out all day long while we are at work and she will not run off. I really love her disposition. The other two dogs freak out and jump and bark when I pull up from work (we keep them in a dog pen because they would run off to try and find us!) but Daisy just sits there and waits for us to come say hello. Teddy likes to stay out with Daisy at night and assist her with guard duty but Nugget (Labradoodle) does not have enough of a coat to stay out all night long in the cold....plus, he barks and anything and drives me nuts.
Daisy is 6 mos. old and weights 56 lbs. She may double that within the next few mos. She will look like a big white polar bear.
Alex is enjoying college life and will most likely rent a room year round from the fraternity he is joining. That way he can get a job in Memphis and not have to drive back and forth from the farm to Memphis during the summer and winter breaks. I would worry about him driving late a night on side roads in the country. Since I work in Memphis during the week, Alex and try to connect at least once during the week for lunch or he will stop by my office to visit.
CANNING - as well as freezing stuff, we have canned more spaghetti sauce, chicken soup and beef soup. Cris makes really good soup and it's so handy to just come home, pop open a jar of homemade soup. Canning is better than freezing (though more time consuming to can) because it won't spoil if we lose electricity.
We are having our monthly sustainable living dinner meeting at the dairy our friend's own this Saturday. We are discussing MRE's or "Meals Ready to Eat".... We are having a taste test of various MRE's that one of our members purchased from a company that sells emergency equipment for homes. Should be interesting. The idea of the MRE's for our group is to have food available to eat in case of a lengthy power outage. There has been a time within the last 10 yrs in Memphis when people were out of power for over 3 weeks because of a ice storm. Our farm, I am sure, would not be on the top of the list to get the power back on should there be a large scale power outage...so it's nice to have options.
I get on kicks of reading certain types of books.... for a while I read ever book I could on mountain climbing..... Mt. Everest etc... I was just engrossed in the stories of survival and death on the mountains. Well, now I am on a 'catrastrophy' type kick..... kind of like the movie Contagion.... I saw the movie Contagion but felt it didn't really show the true actions of what people would do in that type of situation. Some of it yes, but not the extreme that some people would go to keep alive. Since then I have read, "One Second After" which is about a country wide EM Pulse that knocks out electricity, cars, pacemakers, etc.... and how one small town deals with it. It really makes you think. The other book I recently read is "The Jarkata Pandemic" which is about a superflu that hits the world and how one small neighborhood deals with it and each other. What is yours suddenly people assume is now theirs..... again...makes you think. I recommend both books. Am I a doomsday person.... is my cup half-empty???? No.... I just love reading about these types of things because it gives me ideas of ways to prepare in case of a long term power outage or a very contagious flu that may hit us one day. Am I storing tons and tons of items in preparation....NO, but I can see how some people may live their life preparing for the end of the world. I am sure in a couple months I will get off the end of the world kick and start ready about something else...... I really need another Harry Potter book! This what happens when you don't have a TV on the farm. We read every night which I have come to really enjoy. I feel more relaxed at night without the TV blaring and I don't miss any important news because we have the computer and my phone with all it's apps.
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