What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

I found this super interesting article about Amaranth in chicken feed....

https://afs.ca.uky.edu/poultry/usin... is high in lysine,the grain prior to feeding.

 

[WthrLady]

Just got my Baker Creek order done. Not much stuff, but every little bit helps. I also "needed" an excuse to broaden my pallet of vegetables. I'm going to make myself eat beets somehow. Or the greens, anyway.

should have purchased sugar beets!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Peel the beets like a potato makes allot less mess ..
Was out went to Costco for a few things. Have many seeds from last year over ordered ..

 

[NewBoots]

If you’re not a prepper, what do think you are? I used the term loosely but the conversation is interesting. We’re certainly more prepared than many, but we don’t have a bug out bunker stocked with ammo and MRE’s lol.

Nor us, I don't think guns or ammo are in our future, (except for a pellet gun for English sparrows) I won't believe they would be required. But yeah, I suppose it's the idea of needing guns rather than just supplies is what distinguishes my family from a genuine prepper family. And I'm not throwing shade on anyone or their decisions on they're family.

That song always makes me think of the movie Independence Day!

This!!!

I also "needed" an excuse to broaden my pallet of vegetables. I'm going to make myself eat beets somehow. Or the greens, anyway.

Small beets can be oven roasted or pickled, and the greens are delicious cooked right. And our rabbits and chickens love any greens they can get. The chickens easily eat the biggest beets that get left to grow too long.

Got an order in to Territorial, I still need to have a look at the Johnny's to see if I'm missing anything.

 

[Weeg]

Just started sorting my seeds! I think I weeded out about half from 2010. So excited to start the planting season, just started peas, pumpkin, and sunflowers in the house, and the rest of plants for this time for this time of year will go in the green house. Excited to get that renovated this week as well!I have so much stuff I want to plant.

 

[Acre4Me]

Just got my Baker Creek order done. Not much stuff, but every little bit helps. I also "needed" an excuse to broaden my pallet of vegetables. I'm going to make myself eat beets somehow. Or the greens, anyway.

Boiled or steamed: easy enough, I prefer them peeled.

Pickled: have not done this myself yet, but have pickled eggs with beets.

Raw: this works. I will julienne some beets, stir in a small amount of creamy dressing and let it marinate for 1-3 days. The acidity softens them a bit, but they are still firm and a bit crunchy. Add in some green onions or other veg you. Might want, and it’s a tasty complement to lunch.

It’s either NZ or Australia: beets are big there. They add shredded beets to burger (ground beef) patties and cook to make burgers. Intrigued, I tried this last year after looking up a recipe. It was good and there were a lot of shredded beets in the recipe! Pretty sure it is cooked/canned beets that were used.

 

[littledog]

Not useless. I use them for trash, covering things I keep in my shed to keep dust out of motors and such. Some use them as grow bags. They can be made into grocery bags or beach bags, used to store rags in the garage, etc

Thanks for that, I just need to be more creative about finding a use for them! Instead of moaning that I can't use them as weed block like I used to. If I buy a wastebasket the right size, I can at least use them as trash bags, since our state no longer allows plastic grocery bags and my saved ones will run out at some point.

I cover the head in inexpensive netting tulle from the fabric store and a piece of cotton twine, otherwise the little birds go to TOWN on your heads.

That's what I needed to do! I hung them to dry in the carport, and the birds got most of them. I don't mind feeding the birds, but I was hoping to feed MY birds, lol.

This is such an interesting conversation. I love to hear how everyone has thought about all of this stuff & how prepared everyone is. I guess it's a thing with gardeners & chicken people - we are already a couple steps closer to being 'prepers' because of those things

I don't think of us as real "preppers" - we're definitely missing the "bunkers with MREs and stockpiling ammo" part of it, although Mr. Dog does shoot and is pretty skilled at it. I've just always had a thing about self-sufficiency, wanting as little as possible of my hard-earned money to support greedy multinationals, especially the factory-farming industry. And wanting to do away with as much waste as possible, since so much $$ charged for products goes to packaging that just gets tossed. As we've seen when covid started, there are definitely problems with the supply chain that don't take much to become severe and cause hardships, so best to depend on that as little as possible.
So we raise what we can, buy directly or barter from locals as much as possible, take advantage of free stuff and repurposing...It's a work in progress and I'm still guilty of ordering from amazon on occasion...but every year we're able to do more to cut waste and create things we need.
Some family members question my attitude, like, "You spent 8 hours building/fixing that, how does that make sense when you could have just spent 2 more hours at work and bought a new one/paid someone else to do it." But, by doing it myself, I'm learning/developing skills useful to myself that can't be taken away, whereas my job/income could possibly be taken away according to someone else's whim, and those skills would mostly only be useful to another employer who could do the same. And the math doesn't hold up when you consider "just buy a new one" means the old one is thrown away and there's a cost (for me, my tax dollars, the environment) to dispose of it. Plus, it's more satisfying to create something, I appreciate having it more, and I'm more motivated to keep it well-maintained than something I bought. Finally, though I do like my job and make a decent living for the most part, I don't really feel like spending more time at it! Off my soapbox now.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day here! Cold, but so sunny that I didn't notice the cold except for areas in the shade that still had snow. My little car needed new tires, so I created four new planters out of the old tires. They are small, so I was able to tuck them into a space that used to be an extra-wide walkway. So now I have room for the free seeds Baker Creek sent me, plus some extra dahlias!
I experimented for the first time with the pallet-buster tool I bought a while ago, and wow, that thing is so great! Took apart a pallet in no time without damaging any of the boards, so I built a soil screener out of the wood, and filled the new tire planters with screened soil and compost.
Then today it was warmer, drizzling but not too bad, so I cleaned out the chicken coop and scraped poop off the roof (some of them prefer to roost there, even though they have perfectly good roosts with room for everybody, go figure) Mama hen helped me - she stayed near, interested in everything I was doing, singing sweetly. She's very musical - perfect 4th, 5th and octave notes, with no squawky notes - I should record her songs, so sweet.
Mr. Dog helped me cover with leaves the beds that needed them, then we spent until dark getting a head start on chopping blackberries.

This coming week I have jury duty - I have to call in the evening before to see if I'm needed, which if I'm lucky could mean I'm not needed and will have time off to do more projects. Or if I'm unlucky, I'll be assigned to some stressful trial. It'll be the sixth time I've done this - been on three trials (one really emotionally hard) not needed once, rejected once, excused once because I knew one of the lawyers. Some friends who are as old as me have never even been called! It seems like there should be a lifetime limit...oh well, I'm a citizen and will do what's required and be as fair as I can. Wish me luck!

 

[chickengr]

Wanted to add that if things go really far off the rails, prepare for tribalism,unless of course there is an invading army... But tribalism means individuals won't be able to survive alone. You will have to make alliances and protect each other from other roving bands of people who want or need resources. There's always power in numbers.

this is a good point. as I have not finished my new house inside I am going to arrange rooms a bit different than planned. 20 people can live there easily. there is a new friend from the new village, her son with a girlfriend and her daughter with family (2 kids). I would bring my good neighbors from the island where I live now: 4 adults (a couple and grandparents) and 3 kids. I will put solar panels and a wind turbine. in case of need we could be bringing water from nearby. there is a channel that brings water from north greece to athens. petrol/gas supply would be of major concern. we don't have grass to keep horses.

 

[chickengr]

If things go THAT far south I'd just off myself. I'm too old & in too much pain to be on the run or to have to fend that much for myself. I could survive here for a while if things got tough & food got hard to find, or the grid went down or something, but if we're talking running for the hills & surviving off the land long term...I'm checking out, lol.

I totally understand. my new place is my last stop I am sick and tired of moving around, different countries as well.

 

[chickengr]

So glad I’m on a septic tank. WTSHTF I’ll still be able to use the potty! Glass half full. Lol!

that was my first thought as well, lol