Project Plans for the New Year

Every January 1st Dan and I set goals for the upcoming year. In the beginning, this was because we had so much to do that we had to prioritize and choose. Now, there is still a lot to do, but our longterm project list isn't so long and overwhelming. Much of what we do are routine seasonal activities: planting, harvesting, firewood, etc. Some of it is maintenance and repair. Those kinds of things don't make it to our annual goal list. What does, are major building projects, repairs, upgrades, and other improvements that will help us toward our goal of greater self-reliance. Here's our list for 2019.

1. Carport.

The carport has been a multipurpose building since we bought the place. It's been used for my car, storage, tool shed, and Dan's workshop. Once the barn was finished, it became our firewood storage. Unfortunately, the poor thing has been on the verge of falling down for a while now; the roof is pretty much shot and the girders need fixing. So this is project number one, with the first step being to decide whether it's repairable or needs to be torn down. It's definitely useful for firewood storage, plus it would be nice if we could create a small outdoor kitchen there.

2. Drainage. Rain runoff from our houses' largest roof surface drains into the driveway, runs down the driveway, and creates one huge puddle between the house and the barn.

The carport question is bringing it to the forefront because the water drains into the carport! Dan's previous fixes have only temporarily resolved it, and since we've had an exceptionally rainy winter so far the problem is continually before us. We're working on a more permanent solution to the problem, so expect more on that soon.

While the ducks love the big puddles, it's a nuisance for everyone else.

Those are the projects we'll address first. Two other things we'd like to make a reality are:

Poultry yard. Dan's not been happy with the chicken yard for a while, especially since we've had to keep them off pasture while we are planting and soil building. So we've been discussing options. Besides building more grazing beds, he'd like to build a house with a permanent "pond" for our Muscovies.

Solar project. We've dabbled some with solar projects, all useful, but small. My next project is a bit more ambitious, but one that I think is important. I want a solar back-up for an extra fridge and the freezer. If we lose the grid for even a couple of days in the heat of summer, there is the potential to lose a lot of food. We try to eat mostly fresh and I can a lot, but I usually have a surplus of milk and eggs in summer that I wouldn't want to lose. The freezer is important for quite a bit of our meat, also extra produce for winter freezer canning. Protecting these perishables during a power outage is important. I should have more on this project sometime later this year.

Between these and our seasonal projects, we are looking forward to a busy but productive year. So how about you? Do you have a list of goals for 2019?

Project Plans for the New Year © January 2019

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Closing Out the Year with a Few Garden Shots

I said I was on a blog break. But I was in the garden yesterday with my camera and couldn't help but share a few shots.

Cosmic Purple Carrots (they're orange on the inside).

My lone Red Detroit beet. The seed was old, however, so I didn't expect much.

Volunteer chickweed. A favorite for salads and chickens.

Tatsoi and chickweed

Multiplier onions, collards, and clover.

Mizuna

Shin Kuroda carrots, clover, and multiplier onions.

Puzzling radishes. I thought I planted Purple Plums.

Savoy cabbage.

Chop it all up and put it in a bowl with feta and olives  - salad!

Closing Out the Year with a Few Garden Shots 
© Dec 2018 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Merry Christmas!

"Hey! There's no verse about a goat in that song!"

"We need to write one of our own."

"I," said the goat with eyes so bright

"Under the Star of glorious light;

Watched o'er His cradle all through the night."

"I," said the goat with eyes so bright.

"That's better."

Wishing you all the Happiest of Holy Days! Merry Christmas!

I'm going to take a wee bit of a blogging break, so I'll see you next year!

"Hmph. No verse about kitties either."

Merry Christmas! © December 2018

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Simpler Cooking & Meal Planning

I tend to not do a very good job at planning ahead for meals. I know some folks are really good at it and because of them, I know all about weekly menu planning. I know all about once-a-month cooking. I've thought these are good ideas but have never been able to work them into my reality. In fact, most of the time it's midafternoon before I figure out what to fix for dinner. Dan changed that this past summer.

Every Sunday he grills hamburgers for dinner. He stopped using charcoal briquets a long time ago, favoring cooking with hardwood instead. He has experimented with smoking the burgers and has gotten quite good at it. He uses mostly pecan (in the hickory family), but we also have apple, pear, and peach trees which impart a lovely flavor. This is truly frugal cooking.

Hamburgers cook pretty quickly, however, so he was always commenting on the lovely coal bed left glowing after the burgers were done. "Do you have anything else to throw on the grill?" he would ask. So I started buying or defrosting something else to throw on the grill. He worked his way up from burgers, drumsticks, and leg quarters to whole chickens, ducks, and roasts.

Pecan-smoked meatloaf

With less tender cuts of meat he'll hot smoke them on Sunday and the next day I'll finish it up in the slow cooker to tenderize it. Then, if the cooking broth doesn't become gravy, I freeze it for homemade smoke flavoring to add to soups and stews.

What's really nice is that this extra Sunday cooking gives us three or four days of a delicious, ready-to-eat main course. And that means nightly dinners are easier to plan and prepare. Win, win, win!

Care to share your ideas for simpler cooking and menu planning? I can use all the tips I can get.

 Simpler Cooking & Meal Planning © Dec 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Heritage Wheat Fail

Something I've been wanting to grow is heritage wheat. We've been growing our own wheat for several years now, but it's commercial seed purchased in a 50-pound bag from the feed store. By growing our own we avoid herbicide and pesticide contamination. Also, the glyphosate (round-up) that is used by commercial farmers to kill and dry the crop evenly for processing. Plus we can improve the nutrient content. But it's still modern wheat, which has been so "improved" over the past couple of decades that it's causing a lot of health problems for people. As with all things industrialized, these "improvements" designed to make the crop more profit-friendly not human-friendly. All excellent reasons to switch to a heritage type of wheat.

Several years ago I bought a packet of Egyptian wheat seed.

Egyptian wheat that I grew the summer of 2015. 

It grew well but I didn't realize it is actually a large-seeded sudan grass rather than a true cereal wheat. There's certainly a place for that as critter feed, but I was disappointed because I wanted a true wheat for making bread.

This year I decided to try again. The problem was that I was unable to find bulk seed. I could find small quantities of an ounce or 500 seeds or so, but not enough to plant a quarter-acre like we usually do. Even those small amounts are pricy. The Heritage Grain Conservancy website offers an excellent variety of heritage wheats, but they want $25 for an ounce of seed! That is counter-logical to me. If one wants to conserve something, doesn't it make sense to get it growing by as many people as possible?

Fortunately, Baker Creek Heritage Seeds had several old wheat varieties on offer, so I decided to try Red Fife, a landrace wheat.

Landrace types are old heritage types with a diverse genetic base. That means that they are adaptable to a number of conditions. I figured I'd have the best chance with that.

Red Fife can be planted in spring for a spring wheat crop, or in autumn for winter wheat. Winter wheat has always worked well for us because of our mild winters. It was only sold in ounce packets, so I figured I'd grow one bed as a seed crop. No special soil preparation is necessary, but I added a little compost to the soil because I chose to plant it where I had grown our summer's corn.

I mixed it with ladino clover seed for added nitrogen and planted in mid-September. Three months later the bed looks like this -

Bed in which I planted wheat and clover.

Doesn't exactly look like wheat is growing there, does it? That's because it isn't!

Close-up.

If you look closely you can see some of my clover growing. But except for a blade or two of grass which may or may not be wheat, I'm chalking this experiment up as a fail. I'm going to give the bed a deep blanket of mulch and try heritage wheat in another spot next year.

Thankfully our commercial wheat patches are growing well.

Winter wheat mixed with clover. It looks like lawn at the moment.

We plant about a quarter acre, from which we harvest enough wheat berries to last until the next year's harvest. Hopefully, as we improve our soil we'll improve our yield. My goal is to harvest enough for our year's supply plus enough to save seed for the next crop.

 Heritage Wheat Fail © December 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Our 2018 Homestead Goals: How'd We Do?

2018 will be over in just a little over two weeks! Can you believe it? It's time to take a look back over the year and see how well Dan and I accomplished the goals we set for the year. I blogged about all of these fairly recently so I won't go into detail. You can follow the links if you missed those blog posts. In a nutshell, here are our goals and how well we did.

1. Finish the barn

Done!

2. Pasture Improvement and Fencing

Progress!

3. Continue working on the house 

Check!

How about you? Were you able to accomplish much on your new year goals list?

Our 2018 Homestead Goals: How'd We Do? © Dec 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/