Getting Ready for Winter

With frost any day now, we have been striving to get ready for winter.  We have cut and split wood, and cut some more.  

We have ordered our new boots, as the air conditioned ones won't be very comfortable in the cold.  We have harvested as much as we can, and shared with neighbors when we had our fill.  

We have planted pansies and dianthus to give us some cheerful color in the winter months.  Our small fall garden is in place with beets, broccoli, turnips, carrots, garlic and lettuce.  Our pantry and freezers are full to the best of our ability.  The hay is ordered for our cows this winter.

Blackberries

We have also weeded and mulched all of our fruit and nut trees as well as the blackberries and grape vines.

Life is good!

Grape Vine

Winding Down Harvest Season

Bonus Pumpkins from Pig Pasture

Cayenne Peppers Strung for Drying

 Today, on Halloween Day, the season is winding down.  Are we ready?  We are in the throes of the last of the harvests while watching daily for the threat of frost.   We are trying to make sure we have squeezed out all we can and have done our best not to waste anything.  In recent days, I prepared and sliced three more gallons of bell peppers for the freezer.  My husband pickled 8 quarts of jalapenos.  I finished a batch of cheese.  My husband strung cayenne peppers. We still have some peppers to pick, some cilantro to harvest and dry, basil to harvest and dry, black eyed peas that we have given every opportunity to dry on the vine, the last of the figs to pick and dehydrate, and pumpkins that we have picked and stored in the basement until things quiet down.  I have included some bonus pumpkins that were apparently planted by the pigs.  We love to find these sweet bonus treasures.

Pickled Jalapenos

Upcycling

 The world is so full of alternate uses for other products.  I do it with food all the time (like the time I made pancakes out of leftover pear crisp).  I do it with clothing from the thrift store (like the time I made throw pillows from the comfy bathrobe I found for $1).  I do it with other people's throw away appliances, like the front load washer we bought for $10 that became a window and a firepit.

Having a fun gardening shed and a firepit over which we can cook without having to buy outside resources (like charcoal) is amazing!

Life is good!