Survivalist Forum banner

Hurrah! Planting Time!

92K views 680 replies 60 participants last post by  dealfinder500 
#1 ·
I have been looking for things to plant for the past 2 weeks. I swear, I feel the need to plant earlier and earlier each year.

So I popped over to WalMart and picked up some ecanchia roots and planted them. They are on the kitchen table. 2 of them are already up and doing good. I will replant them under the apple, cherry and plum trees to continue my permaculture plant guild.

Yesterday, I had 5 yards of top soil/mulch delivered. Normally he charges $40 for delivery, but I live less then a mile from the yard and I purchase mulch from this guy 2 or 3 times a year. (I am doing a lot of garden expansion.) So he charged me $15 dollars.

If you don't ask, you wont get any discount. I did let him know that I was paying in cash not credit/check.

So I have this beautiful pile of dirt and couldn't wait to dig in. I went into town and was lucky to find the co-op had just recieved asperagus roots. So, I picked up a dozen. They come in a bakers dozen (13). I spent the morning planting the asperagus roots and it was a joy to be out in the garden doing SOMETHING!

Well, after all that work, I deserved a treat, so I went into town (pop. 1300) and had a fresh steamed latte'. I, also, stopped by the local nursery to check out the fruit trees they have this year.

They had pear trees for $25 each. It is $8 more then what the box stores were charging, but they were a lot bigger, and I really like this guy. He is so imformative and loves to spend time talking with his customers. So, I will probably pick up a couple of pear trees.

I, also, found some more asperagus roots. I paid $7 at the the co-op, but his were $10 a dozen. But then again, they were larger (3 year stock) Means I can pick more next year. So, I will be going back into town tomorrow morning and picking up another dozen asperagus. I have 3 small lasagna rows I started last year, that will easily accomadate the roots.

I just love the start of a new garden season.

God bless and keep on prepping.
 
See less See more
#164 ·
I had a busy morning today.

I went down the drive way and raked up leaves for the last row of brocoli. I have leaves layered 4" thick all along that row. Monday I will be placing the pvc pipe and plastic over the row to keep the heavy frost/snow from killing those plants off this winter.

Our grandson finished off cutting the ivy that is growing over our cabin. I helped him carry it all to the burn pile. We hope to burn it in the coming week. It is so nice to be able to see the cabin and not the big pile of overgrown geenery.

After the ivy was cut down and taken away. Ha! Ha! I found the old metal frame to a computer desk. We had taken it apart and kept the frame for something????? So I told my grandson I would like to have it turned into an 8' planting table to fit along one side of the little green house. So he looked at the frame and showed me what he would need. It is amazing how much they grow up in the couple of years that they have been away from home. So this is one project that he will have to do this winter. I want it up and ready for next spring to put my garden starts on to harden off before planting.

Then I was showing him where I want to build a larger green house to go over 2 huggle rows for next winters salad garden and some root vegetables. I explained what I thought we should do....Low and behold he explained a better way to stablize the hoops and keep them from falling under the weight of snow or blown over in the strong wind storms that we get several times a year. I am so happy that I took the time to explain what I was going to do.

The women from the church came up to visit with me. They are a joy to talk with. I do not attend their church. But I do like to chat with them. They leave their paperwork and go on their way. I do warn then, every time I see them, to keep track of what the church is preaching. A lot of preachers are preaching to follow our President!!!!!! Not God But the President and obey the new rules that are coming down.

Well I am a law abidding citizen, but when my President starts threatening/ignoring the church and our beliefs. God is my strength and my law. Fortunately these ladys are very devout and attend a church where God comes first and is the only ruler. Sorry, I didn't mean to be so preachy.

Well I sent off for my seeds from Baker Creek this morning. Man! They have so many great seeds! It is really hard not to spent a couple hundred dollars, but I always keep it under $50. I still have seeds left over from the past couple of years. I am going to try to do some more forest gardening. I will be able to get out on the property more since hubby is doing so much better.

I will try interplanting in certain areas in the garden. Just to see if it will help keep the bug damage down. But I do have 4 squash varieties I want to grow. So I will have to have gardens for them that are at least 30' apart. I don't want any cross pollination because I will be saving the seeds.

Last summer on my way home from Portland, I stopped at Territorial Seeds in Cottage Grove, Oregon. They were growing a Black Russian Tomato. It looked a little bigger then a cherry tomato but smaller that an early girl. Has anyone tried growing these or similar tomatoes? Do they tast good or richer? I will be asking around to see if anyone is going to have them for sale

Since my grandson is with us and so eager to help around the property, I think I will be taking down a raised bed that I never use and put in a new bed. The old one is falling apart and it could be a good place to put in a root crop. I love beets, turnips and rutabegars. Hubby loves the pickled beets I make every year.

Grandson and I walked down the back road. We have an old burn pile down there in a large cleared area. We use to throw burn partys down there every fall or spring. We would cook up hamburgers, hotdogs and have chili and our friends would come over and bring their drinks (Ha! Ha!) and we would spend the day burning piles of brush that we had collected through out the year. We have many good memories from those days.

But grandson was saying that I would be the perfect place to put in another garden. So I will be thinking about that. It is a cleared area that gets at least 6 hours of sun every day. There would be chared wood to put in the huggle piles. But it would take a couple of years for me to finish raking up leaves to put over the logs and limbs that go into my huggle piles. But it is projects like this that keeps a body going. The huggle piles have been a God send. They really to retain water thoughout even the hottest parts of the summer. But you have to keep adding mulch, leaves, left over prunings ect. every year to enrich the soil and feed the microbes that break the mulch down.

Well it seems I get to be a Chatty Kathy (remember her?) when I have had a lot of fresh air. So I'll let eveyone go for now.

God bless and keep on prepping.
 
#166 ·
Monday morning took my grandson into town to look for work. We go into town almost every day and hit some places.

Stopped by the lumber yard and picked up the pvc pipe I needed to build my last hoop cover. Grandson and I got busy on it when we got back home. Now I have 4 rows covered. So I should be set for the winter.

I am gathering more gardening information about spacific vegetables I want to grow so that I have better success than in the past. I think my problem, besides bed rock soil, is that I do not give the ground enough furtalizer. Last year I did the fish emulsion every couple of weeks and I had more success with my garden. So this year I will add more furtalizer and fish emulsion to the compost, leaf debree and manure that I put in every year.

Right now I am having a hard time consentrating because of the wonderfull smells coming from the oven. I have chicken breast baking with colliflour, broccoli and sweet potato. Yummmmmmmmmm!

I plan on removing the small hen house in the old chicken pen and toss in A LOT
 
#167 ·
Dang! Hit the wrong button.

As I was saying. I want to toss in A LOT of leaf debree into the old chicken pen. This is where I will have the main garden for string beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. I have the spots picked out in 3 different places for the winter squash I want to grow. I have a place for the sweet potatoes and I need to move the strawberry plants to their new home and start the wild strawberry bed.

I want to try growing ground cherrys. My ex-mother-in-law grows them every year and I would like to try making sauce out of them.

There are a few other items I will be trying intermixed with my regular garden beds.

The day started out cloudy and cold. Had to hed into the big town for hubbys last day of physical therapy. We hung around town and had lunch at his favorit cafe before heading back home. The sun burst through the clouds and smiled on us all the way home before bursting into a rain storm for the rest of the day.

Well I will let you go for now. Gotta get the dinner out of the oven. Ha! Ha!
 
#168 ·
A couple of busy days have passed. Yesterday I bought 4 bags of mixed steer manure and amended half my aspearagus beds and today I bought 4 more bags and amended the other half. So I am ok with the asperagus until spring.

I walked down the back hill again to get Daisys balls. I found a small basketball that I can't remember buying for her and I found 1 of the regular sized balls. Of course Daisy followed me to show me were the basketball was. She got it clear down the hill over the back road an into our meadow. I am surprised she got that ball over all the downed trees and across 2 ditches and one road into the meadow. Ha! Ha! She is persistant down hill for sure.

I called hubby to come and pick me up when I finally found the ball. He was there in a jiffy.

We took our car in for an oil change yesterday. I had noticed some rattling in the engine area, but hubby with his bad hearing couldn't hear a thing. So I tell our mechanic that I hear rattleing. It turns out our water pump was going out. So they kept it over night and got a new pump delivered this morning and changed it for us. Now our car is running like new.

That sure makes me happy. With all the driving we do going back and forth to Portland, we don't want to break down anywhere inbetween.

I have been going through http://www.waldeneffect.org back logs and making notes about the successes she has with her vegetables and fruits. I hope to get through all 5 years worth and compile it into a big notbook so I have information on all the foods that I would grow and what permaculture trials and errors worked or failed. That is a written back up incase the electrical system goes out.

I made some butter nut squash soup for dinner/late lunch. It turned out delicious. I cut the squash in half and cleaned out the seeds. Then I placed them both halves face down on a oiled dish and covered them with aluminum foil. It was baked for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

After taking the squash out of the oven, I let it sit for 15 minutes to cool slightly. Then I scouped the squash out of the shell and into the soup pot. I added 2 cans of chicken broth and set it to simmer.

I diced up onion and cellery and crumbed up 1/4 pound of turkey burger into a frying pan and sauteed them until the burger was cooked through. I scooped it into the soup pot and let it simmer away.

Next I took the last of the Butt Bacon, pork butt turned into meaty bacon, and diced it up and added it to the soup. Then with salt , pepper and mixed seasonings I let it simmer and thicken for about 1 hour.

Then I poured out 2 soup bowls and added a good dollop of sour cream to each bowl and hubby and I sat down and had a hot bowl of delicious soup and watched "The Five". Ha! Ha!

Yesterday afternoon was full of that bright sunshine that hits in fall/winter. Our property looked beautiful. It was fun to work in the garden and cut some lettuce for BLT sandwiches for dinner. I was hoping that today we would get the sunshine again, but it wasn't to be. It has beed cold and gloomy all day. I didn't feel like going outside to do anything. I felt lucky to get those 4 other bags of manure mix onto the aspearagus beds like I did.

I am droping my grandson off at the church to play basketball this evening. I hope it gets him out with other younge people and out of the house for awhile.

Well I will let you guys go for now.

God bless and keep on prepping.
 
#169 ·
We've kept the tv away from the news for the past several days. After those children were killed in CT, my husband broke down and cried. He just couldn't immagine anyone who was in their right mind doing something like that to those poor babies. He is very emotional right now because of his surgery.

So, I have kept the news channels off. I am praying for those children and their families everyday and know that God has taken them home and is taking loving care of them right now. This is my only solice.

My grandson and I were able to put the pictures on my chip onto the computer. But have not been able to figure out how to transfer them over to this site to show all of you what I am doing.

My son might be coming up and he will be able to show me how to move the pictures to different forums.

Yesterday I took hubby into town to combate his depression. We were going to go to several different stores and look at Christmas decorations. Then go out and have a nice meal to end the day.

Well........on the way into the Big Town, hubby says, "Let's go look at vans." So, we went to look at vans. We saw a good deal on the Grand Caravan brand new for less then $20,000. Hubby wanted to take a ride. So he ran it up and down the highway. It ran great!

It is funny. I remember several years ago you were able to take a car for a ride without a salesman going with you, but the past few times we have taken a test drive there as always a salesman with us.

There are so many storage compartments and the back seat lays down flat. We would have to remove the second seat to make room for the feathered mattress. But plenty of room for the mattress and camping equipment. Hubby completely forgot that we were going to rent a van to visit some relatives this coming summer and decided that he wanted to trade our car and put a down payment and get this new van. It is so roomy and comfortable.

Se we went home last night without our car but driving a brand new van. This is our Christmas present to each other for the next several years. We put almost half down and with 48 month payments of $279, we should have it paid off in a couple of 3 years. I am having fantasies about camping on the beach next summer, visiting with friends and family all over the western side of the US. We'll see how well hubbys health improves over the next few months.

Last night we both went to bed early. We were tired after 3 hours in the car dealership. We never did get to go shopping, but we did have a nice meal at Applebes.

We had such a loud wind storm last night It woke me up and I was awake for several hours worrying about a tree falling on us or my garden row tunnels getting blown away over the side of the hill. It ended and I went back to sleep.

Got up this morning to small branches and moss laying all over the front drive. But all my row tunnels were still there and stood up nicely to the wind. I was so happy.

But we are suppose to get snow tonight. There were a few flurrys this afternoon but nothing that stuck.

We had to go back into the Big Town this morning to bring our car title to the dealership and sign our car over to them. Then we went over to the insurance agency and insured our new vehicle. It was cheaper then the car? The car was a 2008 and the van is a 2013. Don't understand.

Then we went shopping and I got some glue and glitter to add pazzaz to the christmas ornaments hubby and I are making. And a new air freshner for our new van. Ha! Ha!

There has been clouds, sunshine, rainbows, rain and snow in the air today. I love the winter like this.

I am making stuffed bell peppers for dinner. We don't need any side dishes. Hubby said we spent to much money yesterday for side dishes. Ha! Ha! So I will incorporate our vegetables and breads into the stuffed bell peppers. Ha! Ha! he thought he would get out of vegies.

Well, I'll let all of you go for now. Enjoy your holiday, drive carefully and be thankfull for all the blessings that you have.
 
#171 ·
#172 ·
Peekosthename: If you have the money PMs are a good investment and easily stransfered to other forms of currancy.

But I did read an article where e-bay was no longer alowing the sale of the "Liberty Dollar" on their forum? Is it because the minter is in prison for counterfit, and the "Liberty Dollar" would be considered a counterfit money? That means the Government is coming after our PMs by making it illegal for us to sell it on a public forum. I wonder what is going to happen next?
 
#173 ·
Woke up this morning to snow on the ground. There were bare patches down the driveway where the trees shade the road.

We decided to go into town for hot coffee and a chat at the local "meet and great". So I headed out to wipe the snow off the truck. I found that the snow. even though it was less then 1" thick, had turned to ice. I really had to work to get it off the truck windows and around the camper on the back. Then I started up the truck and turned the heater on. It took a few minutes to get the remaining ice on the window to soften and slide on down to the bottom.

I looked over toward my garden hoops and found only a slight indention between the pvc piping ribs. So they held up really well. I am really liking these hoop rows. I was able to straighten the sagging hoops out and reposition the buckets to tighten the plastic covering. All the plants look great inside the hoops.

I picked up some chicken manure to amend the soil under the hoops when the snow stops and the weather warms up a bit.

I went on over to a gardening site I like and continued reading their blog history to become more successfull at gardening. I found a bit of advice on winter salad gardening. When you plant a salad garden for winter eating, you want to make sure that the leaves get big and bushy. If you snip at them before winter sets in then you only have small leaves remaining the cold weather of winter prevents any new growth on the plants. If you leave the leaves/plants to grow and bush out, the winter weather will keep the leaves green, crisp and healthy for you to munch on for most of the winter.

So, I am glad that my winter salad garden did get as big as it did befor I put the cover over it. I still have quite a few plants that I have been picking leaves off of.

Now I know why there were 3 to 5 covered rows for their winter salad garden. If we ate salad out of our garden every day all winter long, my salad garden would have been used up by now. So next year I will be setting up a bigger winter hoop garden.

The sun has been coming out a little here and a little there. But it isn't hitting the front of the property because of the tree line that is blocking the sun. I did get some pictures this morning when it was overcast. I hope to put them in my garden-picture file on the computer. Then when my son shows me how to post pictures I will have pictures for many days. Ha! Ha!

I, also, picked up a recipy at my favorite garden site.

HOLLYWOOD SUNDRIED TOMATOES

Cut plum shaped Roma tomatoes in half and lightly salt/pepper each one. Set to dry to the consistancy of a dried apricot.

Place 3 large cloves of garlic in a food processor/blender. Cover with olive oil. Then place 1 cup full of loosely filled basil leaves in the processor and whip away to a smooth pasty goop.

in a container, make a layer of dried tomatoes and place some of the garlic past over the tomatoes. Keep making rows of dried tomatoes and garlic past until the last of the garlic past has been applied.

Now take olive oil and pour over the tomatoes/garlic past until it is completely covered. Place in the refrigerator for a couple of days to marinate. You can place this directly in the freezer and it will marinate as it thaws and be ready for use for the future.

You can eat the tomatoes like chips, put them in sandwiches, casseroles in salads, in potato dishes soups and stews. on crackers w/cheese.

You can use the oils for seasoning in what ever you may be cooking or you can use it like butter over bread that is toasted. Yummmmmmmmm!

I will deffinately be making this stuff next summer.

Well, have a great day and God bless. Keep the prepping going.
 
#174 ·
It looks like you're in for another day of snow! The freeway was closed over the pass for most of the day yesterday. I just checked tripcheck.com and it's open this morning but I imagine it'll be stop and go today too. I haven't seen a storm like this one so early in the season in a long time. I wonder if it's a taste of what's to come! Stay safe! :thumb:
 
#176 ·
Wildrose, you were right! We had a wet snow that was so heavy that many of the trees have fallen and put us and 11,000 others in our valley, in the dark.

I was really worried about hubby. he had that heart transplant last spring and gets chilled very easily. And as most outages go, crappy, at the begining until you get your feet under you. Ha! Ha!

I told hubby all fall that we needed to fill the 5 gallon propane tanks before winter. He assured me that it would get done. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the first night we snuggled under the covers. I made hot water on the out-door-grill and put it in our Thurmos. It kept warm enough to have hot coffee the next morning. The snow was around 6" to 8" deep with a river runing under all of it.

We didn't have any propane except the one hooked up to the grill. I couldn't find any,but one, of the small coleman propane cylinders for the Big Buddy to get the house warmed up.

Hubby was so misserable we decided to get to the big city and get what we needed to keep hubby warm. His body was aching after laying in bed for 15 hours or better.

Point to make. A lot of us think that we can just snuggle in bed and wait for the power to be turned back on. The body starts to hurt after laying down for so long. You have to get up and move around to keep from feeling more misserable.

Our grandson stayed at home as we went into town. We bought some more coleman cylinders, along with everyone else in the store. Surprising Fred Meyers had a better deal then Wal-Mart. Filled the 5 gallon tanks and secured them to the truck bed. It is embarressing being a last minute prepper fighting the crouds to empty out the camping section for what you need. But we had plenty of food, clothing and medical supplys.

Called grandson and the electricity was still out, but everything else was OK. So hubby and I went to the movies and saw Jack Reacher. I am not sure if he is taking an Arnold Schwartszi****** on his characture or not, but it was kind of serious and kind of comical. But look forward to another movie with Jack in it.

Coming down the road, after the movie, a car pulled out in front of us and I had to step on the breaks. All the " of snow on the truck camper came sliding down over the front window and stacked up on the hood. Ha! Ha! Had to peek through the snow to find a parking space to clean the snow off the window. Ha! Ha! Next time I will clean off the top of the cab and the camper before we go into town. Christmas Rush, what can I say?

Hubby and I went for lunch and afterward called grandson and was told that the electricity was still off. Hubby had called the Power Company a few times to be told that there was no telling when the electricity would be back on.

We decided to stay at a motel because of hubbys health. Called grandson again, He was sure tired of us calling. He didn't want us coming back out to pick him up, he was fine and wanted to stay at the house.

So we headed on over to Motel-6. Big mistake. They had a room on the ground floor. Before bedtime hubby had 2 flea bites around his ankles. By morning he had 5. Ha! Ha!

I tell you, some people never have any luck! I informed the office that they needed to bomb the room for fleas. The night clerk tells me that he is always dealing with fleas. They don't bite him they just use him for transportation. I almost asked him if he had been in our room the day before.

We came home and set the Big Buddy up and got the house up to 60 degrees which hubby was happy with. He was comfortable in his whool coat and sweater. I cooked up dinner on the grill. Sure glad hubby made an out-door-kitchen under our big front porch. It sure came in handy.

We hooked the lantern up to a coleman cylinder and had light the rest of the evening. We went to bed and enjoyed the toasty feathered mattress and feathered coverlet until early in the morning when the eletricity came back on. HURRAH!

The house was toasty this morning and our life is back in order. But hubby still has the Big Buddy hooked up and the lantern on the kitchen table. We are expecting 2 more storm fronts in the next few days.

Ran across the Power Company employees at Taylors this morning. I thanked them for getting our power back on. They have been working 16 hours on and 8 hours off for the past several days.

Lessons learned. Hubby needs to listen to wify when she says it is time to fill the 5 gallon propane tanks. Wify needs to keep track of coleman propane cylinders cause hubby just isn't able to right now with his health issues.

I do have a list of items I want to pick up for the future. Hope to get them after the next series of storms go through and the stores restock.

One thing we found out, Hubby went to the local hardware store to pick up some Coleman fluid for our old camp stove (just in case). They wanted $30 for a 1 gallon can. Is this the going rate? Hubby want to pick up a glass for the lantern and they wanted $8 for that, I couldn't believe it. I admit it has been a few years since we had used these 2 items, but this was outragious. When the government tells you that inflation is up slightly, don't believe them.

Well I have to clean out the refrigerater and do some dishes.

God bless and keep on prepping.
 
#177 ·
Ramona, I'm really surprised you don't have a wood stove!! Everything I've read about you living on the property in the summertime without utilities and all. I guess I just assumed that you would have a wood stove because heat is the most important thing in the wintertime. And you live in an area where I'm sure you lose power quite often. That is one of my most important concerns in the winter. We have a round fireplace with glass. It is outlawed in Oregon now but since we bought our house with it already here, we are allowed. It burns fast and isn't that good for an overnight fire, but it sure warms the house up fast! We've had to open the doors a few times. LOL I hope you'll consider getting a wood stove. There may come a time when you can't go to a motel! And if you get a model with a flat top, you can cook a pot of beans.:) I hope I'm not sounding bitchy, don't mean to, just concerned. Stay safe!!
 
#178 ·
Wildrose, we do have a wood stove in the cabin. I would only move that into the trailer if we were going to be without electricity for a looooonnnnnngggggg time. My husband is against having to use the wood stove again.

Both of us are 60 and older. Neither of us would be able to supply the wood required to keep the trailer warm all winter (4 to 6 cords per year). I am working on the garden areas and the preserving. I also spend what money I can on purchasing what I feel we need in the furture if we were hit with a catastrophy.

Hubby is NOT A PREPPER. He will not put $ into anything unless it is his creature comforts or something breaks. That is why I push him into home improvements to make our life more comfortable should something happen.

I am sure I explained that hubby was very upset with me for purchasing a Rugger 10-22, a 12 gauge shotgun and my Walther P-22 hand gun. And I know that he would have a COW if he saw my ammo stock pile. At this time in our life I am not going to push him any farther by asking to have the wood burning stove put into the house. Instead I will ask him to keep filling up the propane tanks to use with the Big Buddy.

If a catastrophy happens, hubby will be the one to say "Damn! Gotta get that stove set up in here now!" And at that time we will get the wood stove placed in the trailer.

A prepper has to work their plan the best way they know how to achieve most of the goals that they have set.

Glad for your interest and info.

I spent part of my afternoon scraping the snow off my row covers. I do see one tear at the end of a row cover. Hubby bought some Gray Tape so that I can repair it. I am already planning a larger green house that I was going to put on the east side of the cabin, But instead, I am going to put it on the west side of the trailer.

After watching the snow slide off the porch and onto the hoop at the end of the porch. I don't want to have to worry about the green house getting torn up by snow falling off the cabin. Also, there is a hill that will help protect the green house from the northern winds.

We had a nice Christmas dinner. I warmed up a smoked chicken and made some sweet potatoes, pickled beets, deviled eggs and a flan.

Any of you with diabetes should replace potatoes with sweet potatoes. Hubby is able to eat sweet potatoes without raising his sugar levels. With the regular potatoes they raise his suggar levels everytime.

NOW: Going to a subject I have never broached before: Predictions!

I go to youtube the end of every year to see what is being predicted for the next year. Last year I ran across a guy named Michael Allen Ellis a psycic out of California. He seemed to have a good handle on what was happening and what could happen.

I went back to his site a couple of days ago michaelallenellis.com and listened to what he had to say.

He is awear of the fear that is running amuck around the world over the economic instability, wars breaking out and the rising rate of crime.

He explained that civilization has been organized and systemized for the past 5,000years. This organization and systemization has been done by the few who want to control the many.

This system is coming to an end. That does not mean that the few will not keep trying to control the many. It means that the many are waking up to the fact that the few want total control over every faucet of our lives. The global government attempts will fail. This made me feel good.

The wacky weather trends that have hit the world over the past few years is going to continue on into the future. Massive power outages will happen so prepare! He says that there will be isolated pockets of emergencys (tornado damage, hurricans, droughts etc.) around the country.

Isreal will go to war, America will stand with them but not go to war? Not sure about this.

With the cost of war and the cost of other emergencys that hit our economic base and with the the increase in unemployement and the decrease in tax revenues the government (local and federal) are going to have to cut back....there is just no getting around it. We will see fewer services and recieve fewer benefits from our government and continuing into the future.

He couldn't see if there was going to be a presidential election in 2016....There may not be one because the changes that America will be going through with in the system that there may not be an election.

He expects riots on the East Coast after the 1st (February) he thinks it will be over the handling of Hurrican Sandy victims.

Crime will escilate as the government is not able to help the poor maintain the lifestyle that they are accustome to.

He sees more people opting out of the governments system of doing things. People will take responsibility for themselves and their communitys. They will have lost confidence in the government (local, federal).

People will take the responsibily to fill pot holes in the road, contecting with their neighbors and working out ways to help eachother out. A lot will forge new cereers that they will build for themselves without government approval or licencing.

People will turn away from the government and start building on their own propertys without permits.....educating their own children and building strong bonds in the community.

He did see pockets of lawlessness but he didn't see a Mad Max type scene because the people would work together because the government was a lost cause.

Well I just thought I would let you know what I had been doing.

God bless and keep on prepping.
 
#180 ·
Thanks Tracey. I use squash in many recipys throughout the year.

Hubby and I both love Daisy, but like any hyper-active dog, she can be a pain in the butt too. Ha! Ha!

The snow has been slowly melting away. The nights have been so cold it turns what is left of the snow to ice, but by the afternoon it is soften some and begins melting again.

This morning I took a 10' bean pole to care fully scrape off some of the snow hanging over the roof of the porch. I want to take a little off at a time. That way a big chunk wont come down and rip up the plastic over the hoop in front of the porch. That is my salad garden and I have a lot of greens that are doing fine in there.

One of the garden sites I go to said that bugs will eat your salad garden up under the hoop. I do see bug damage on the softer green lettuces but not on the kale or rubini. The carrot tops are doing good to. What really surprises me are the 2 dalia plants that are still up and green under the hoop in the middle of winter.

My brain is running a mile a minute over the changes that I want to make in my garden system next year. So I slowed down and am keeping to my original plan. Then next fall I will be starting up some forest huggle mounds to plant next year. There are so many open places that I can plant a garden this year and have easy access to, that I don't want to have to clime the hill to water a forest garden.

I also have a small clearing in the forest that is a short distance down hill. I am going to look at putting in several huggle mounds there and maybe fence in the area with that orange plastic fencing web. That would be started next fall.

I hope to finish off all the huggle rows that I want to put on the flat land around our homestead. I hope to put enough soil, mulch, straw and naure that I wont have to touch them for a couple of years. Then this fall I can put my total consentration on the forest huggle mounds. And maybe even look into fencing in an area for free range chicken pasture.

So much to do and getting so old in the process. Ha! Ha!

I am thinking about putting in another seed order just incase things turn out really bad economically. I wont purchase the seed banks that are sold on the internet because a lot of it wont grow in my area and a lot of it I don't know how to grow and don't want to experiment. I would rather have 10 vegetable seeds that I know how to care for and can depend upon to put out something then experiment when I am in a crisis.

How do some of you feel about these seed banks?

The 2 storms that followed the electrical outages were mild. Just rain, cold and snow that didn't stick.

Hubby and I went out to lunch because it's friday, clam chowder! Hubby loves the stuff. We got to talking to a friend and she was saying that her son and the people that live along their road have taken it upon themselves to put a layer of gravel down every year since the county has stopped graveling the county roads. Then she said "If they would only slow down to keep from kicking the gravel off to the side." That is true on almost every gravled road. Hubby and I only have to gravel our driveway. But hubby does complain when people put ruts on the sides of the road or he sees dibs that have been dug out of our road from people putting the metal to the peddle as they come up to our house.

Well when gas gets too expensive and we have to walk everywhere the road will fare better. Ha! Ha!

Well, hubby is going to cook dinner tonight. He is unsure about it. I told him it is time for him to start doing some of the chores that he had done in the past. This will help him get back to his old life a lot quicker.

He thinks I just want him to cook dinner. I do! But not every night of the week, 1 or 2 nights a week he can cook a meal. This meal is going to be interesting. Ha! Ha! He is acting like he has never cooked a tri-tip before in his life. Ha! Ha! This is the same man who had a hot meal waiting for me when I would return home from work 5 days a week. He did this for over 12 years.

Well I better go check on hubby. He has this confused look on his face.

God bless and keep on prepping.
 
#181 ·
I am thinking about putting in another seed order just incase things turn out really bad economically. I wont purchase the seed banks that are sold on the internet because a lot of it wont grow in my area and a lot of it I don't know how to grow and don't want to experiment. I would rather have 10 vegetable seeds that I know how to care for and can depend upon to put out something then experiment when I am in a crisis.

How do some of you feel about these seed banks?
From the seller's end, it's what's selling now. I've even considered making up some to sell on eBay at one time.

Personally, I think people who buy them are idiots. There's so much more to growing a plant than just putting a seed in the ground. Those who buy a seed bank and store it away with their fancy cans of freeze dried foods will be in for a big surprise when they go to grow it, and nothing grows. Or all the seedlings dampen off. Or slugs eat them. Or...

It takes several years of working the land to get a good crop. 2013 will be my 4th garden on this land. My first year was horrible. My 2nd year was better, but not by much. This year year I got tons and tons of tomatoes, but slugs and/or deer got all my beans and most of the squash. Gardening is a constant learning experience. For that reason alone a seed bank is not a good idea.

Furthermore, how long will the seeds really be good for? Granted, they'd probably be good a bit longer sealed there than in a drawer in the kitchen, but would you really want to put your life on the line for that? There are a number of different variables that can impact how long a seed is good for.

And will you use all the different kinds of seeds? There are many veggies I don't grow. I'm expanding my list of ones I do... but many of them I never would. Plus then is not going to be the time to be trying out new varieties - this is where you want the tried and true.

And look at the seed count (now you've got me going!). Sure they may contain 1000s of seeds, but how many of those are lettuce or carrots? For $4.50 I can buy 1/4lb of carrot seeds from Baker's Creek. That's around 50,000 seeds. Or lettuce - there's over 300,000 seeds in a lb. How many of those seeds are ones like that? I saw one seed bank advertised somewhere that had like 50,000 seeds. The greens made up 95% of them. You got 30 corn seeds, and 30 of two kinds of cucumber seeds, etc.

The ideal way is to be growing your own food NOW, instead of later. Get the experience and the know-how NOW when you life doesn't depend on it.

I started over 500 tomato plants this past spring. I killed the first 200 or so because I didn't know what I was doing.

I know how to save my own seed. I don't save most of them right now as I have plenty (1oz of roma tomato seeds for $7 will grow an awful lot of tomatoes!), and I don't want to worry about the cross pollination. But I do save a few seeds each year so that I learn how... and I even grow a few plants (that's how I make sure I saved them right).

If you just rely on a seed bank, you'll have none of the experience to grow them. And even if you managed to get them to grow, do you know how to preserve your harvest? Canning is not hard, but there is a learning curve. I ruined many jars when I first started.

That's what I think about seed banks.

All right, I'm done :thumb:
 
#182 ·
Dealfinder500: Thank you so much for your well thought out post. Most of your reasons for not purchasing a seed bank are reasons that I share with you.

I know that all gardeners start out with grandiose ideas about their gardens future. I did! My first garden was the best. After that it went down hill because of soil/weather conditions and ignorance on my part.

After several garden experaments I have settled on no till gardening as my best option for success. The success I have with this method has lifted my spirits and along with feeding my body and soul over the past couple years.
 
#183 ·
I know that all gardeners start out with grandiose ideas about their gardens future. I did!
Ha! We wouldn't be gardeners if we didn't! My first garden I did when I still lived with my parents was a small thing about the size of two cars. I had visions of the Italian Tree Tomato (I think it's also called Triple Crop) and picking tomatoes from it from my upstairs bedroom window.... yeah, that never happened!
 
#184 ·
To the OP...

Dang you aint wasting no time are ya? Its still a bit early here but in about 3-4 more weeks I will start "turning and burning" myself. Instead of waiting for the nursery to get in started plants I will be trying to start from seed most of mine this season. I already got the seeds and the planter pots (on clearence sale this winter...) just need to make it happen. Doubling the amount of space I had in raised beds last year and I am going to start growing a lot more of my food this spring season. I will definitely be looking to put in a dozen or so more fruit trees for sure too. I really think we are about a year or so away from enough finacial turmoil that having at least a pretty productive victory type garden will be a neccessary thing.
 
#185 ·
Lets talk about planting pots. Ha! Ha!

What do you use to start your seedlings in?

I use anything I can get my hands on from soup cans with holes in the bottoms to egg cartons. I love the cardboard to-go containers that you get at the different types of restuarants.

Last year I started a zillion onion seedlings in a couple of larg to-go containers. They did fantastic! That is until I had to move up to Portland permanently for 3 months after hubby had his heart transplant. So, this year I will start the onion seeds in the large to-go containers and put them out in the green house to harden off before planting them in the garden.

I save all the planting pots I get. I clean them out well and dry them in the fall. The larger pots I use as the garden for permanent annuals like peppers. I have learned that they do fine in a confined space.

I am going to try raising tomatoes from seed under a garden row. You put your hoop up a couple of weeks before planting to warm up the soil. Then you plant the seeds and wait for them to sprout. You keep them under the row cover until the last frost. I will be planting seeds in April and uncovering them in May/June. I will be able to purchase replacements if that doesn't work. If this fails, I will save $ this summer and purchase a grow light.

I have had terrible luck with purchased zuccini/summer squash starts. I have always had good luck with starting these plants from seed, so this year I will start them from seed.

I want to do an herb garden. I have a small one with cooking herbs like, rosemary, fennel, sage, lemon balm, lemon thyme and chives. But I would like to start a healing tea garden with herbs for keeping a healthy body. We will see how that goes. That will be an early summer project.

I did see a neat way to stake up tomatoes. You dig a deeper hole for your tomato and put in an 10'- 1 1/2" PVC pipe to attach the tomato to as it grows. I might try that because it keeps the tomatoes up and off the ground. It makes it easier to prune because you deal with one pole instead of having to work around a cage.

I am cutting back on planting potatoes this year, it raises the sugar levels in hubbys blood and worries him. I did find that sweet potatoes do not raise his blood sugar. Go figure! So this year I am planting sweet potatoes in a bed I built for potatoes and in large planter as a precaution. I want to get enough to store for the winter.

I am going to do a lot of freezing of vegetables this year. I like very few canned vegetables. Since we have a large freezer that we do not keep full, there is planty of room to store frozen vegies. I will keep my jars for fruits, relishes and pickles. I might try canning hard beans and such. But I would can them dry not wet.

Another plant I am going to try to grow are Italian Peperoncinis. Hubby loves them pickled. We spend quite a bit of $ buying these for him even though he has to eat only a few at a time because of the salt content.

So I decided to grow them and try to pickle them myself. If they grow good I might try to dry some for seasonings. Has anyone ever pickled perperoncinis? Do you have a good recipy for pickeling them?

Well I'll let you go for now.

God bless and keep on prepping.
 
#187 ·
I gather every container I can get my hands on - relatives save me their empty butter, whip cream, sour cream, etc. containers. Those work real well. I find that after one season most are not suitable for another go, so they go out to the recycle then. Plastic milk jugs also work very well. This year I'm saving all my plastic jugs and am going to cut the bottom of of them and use them to cover tomatoes out in the garden, and see how that works. Jackie Clay in her blog talks about Walls of Waters (just plastic containers filled with water that go around the plant) but at about $4-5 each, it's too $$ for me.

I tried egg cartons but they aren't very deep and I ended up spilling them too often. So I leave those for the eggs :)

This past spring I also used a lot of foam cups. at about 1.5¢ a cup, that's not too bad at all! And you can write on them so you know what kind they are and when you planted them. The plastic containers tend to smear or wipe off when you write on them.
 
#188 ·
Tracey I may have mis spelt the word peperoncini. They are a short-fat green pepper the has a little heat and it's pickled. You will get them on your dinner salad at The Olive Garden Restuarants.

dealfinder 500: I have only so much room in my small green house for pots. Hubby is already asking why I have 50+ empty paper coffee cups staked behind our bedroom door. Ha! Ha!

When you grow up so pour that your mom reuses soup cans for drink glasses, butter tubs for cerial bowls and empty bread bags to keep your feet warm and dry during the winter, you grow up either looking for the cheaper way of doing things (me) or you never want to be reminded of the poverty you lived through as a child (hubby).

I feel very fortunate that I was able to convince my husband to move out into the wilds of southern Oregon. We live in a poor but sustainable valley filled with hearty people. It still amazes me that hubby likes it here and loves my garden food and chicken eggs. But there is only so far that he will go down my path. I don't push it.

I really felt my husband came a long way after living here for almost 20 year. He only comes his hair if he leaves the property. Before he would comb his hair on rising and then several times during the day.

He would never be caught dead in a faded/holy pair of jeans in public. Now he wears them till the bottom hem is ratty and if he gets a few holes it doesn't bother him.

This past winter I actually got him to wear a wool sweater that I bought at the thrift store for $5. He never would have worn a hand-me-down before.

So we all make consecions for our loved ones.

Well gotta get dinner on the table.

God bless and keep on prepping.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top